Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 61st cycle. Now cycle 62!
TOP 15 COUNTDOWN - Something I do once in a while, if you will recall, where I take my favorite characters, ships, friendships, series (from my daily stories) and put them in order, the number 1 of which gets a seven-chapter story in the end :)
Coming in at number 14: Berry-St series
This is a shift day. There are two updates today.
"Like No Time At All"
Gen2!Mike, Gen1!Matt (in gen1!world)
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)
He still remembered the moment he had felt it. He had been sleeping fairly well, considering the next morning would be the first day of the new school year. The most he had to worry about was going there and seeing the memorial they would have placed for Matt in the trophy case over the summer.
But then as he woke he felt lightheaded. He also felt what was most certainly not a bed under him, it was hard, and coupling that with how his head felt, he thought for sure he might have accidentally fallen out of bed. Only as his eyes fluttered open and his ears caught on to their first sounds, it wasn't right. Everything was bright, and there were voices all around. He reached to steady himself and felt what could only be… lockers?
"I think he's okay," one of the voices said. Mike opened his eyes just enough to see a gathering of students moving away from him… How had he come to McKinley? Was he that concerned about getting back here that he would have blacked out, forgotten hours, and ended up there on the ground?
He reached for the lockers, pulling so he could try and stand. And that was when he'd felt it.
His foot had wavered, and he'd thought for sure he would fall, but then his foot had planted and stopped him… his other foot. The shock of it had stopped him for a moment, but then he looked down, took a breath… No, this had to be a dream. It wasn't the first time he had dreamed that he had his leg back, and it wouldn't be the last.
But he had reached down and touched, and he almost fell again. He pulled up his pants' leg, and to see his real live leg underneath, he had to reach and touch the skin, feel it flex, to really know… This was no dream. But it had to be, it just had to. Legs didn't grow back.
They didn't grow back, but there were other ways, as he would find out. Rachel had found him, and she had explained what was happening, to him, to Kurt, and Quinn, and this guy Jesse. He didn't have much choice to believe it, he had the proof right where his stump should have been.
He had been left to himself after that, to digest everything he had been told. He wouldn't sit down. He was getting past the uncertainty of his steps, walking through the halls of McKinley. He could have cried, thinking of everything he had been through in the past ten months and now walking on his own two legs, in a place that had never experienced even one bit of this misery and…
"Hey, Mike, wait up!"
Hearing the voice, he stopped, feeling phantom pain for a limb he could now feel again. He turned, and there he was, Matt Rutherford, alive and well, smiling… "Matt…" he could have hugged him right there, and he almost had. He still had to put his hand to his once dead friend's shoulder, to feel that he was really there, and the mix of shock and relief and old grief could not hide from his face.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Mike blinked, remembering himself.
"Nothing, I just…" He looked around, thinking. "I think I need to get some air, I kind of passed out before," he revealed.
"For real? What happened?" Matt asked, concerned. "Come on, let's go outside," he nodded to the door.
"Okay, sure," Mike followed. "I don't know what it was."
"But you're okay now?"
"Yeah, it's passed, I'll be okay," he promised.
Looking at him, he just remembered… the coffin, seeing him there. He had been let out of the hospital just for the occasion. His parents had told him he should stay in bed, but he wasn't going to miss his best friend's funeral, no matter how many legs he had or didn't have. He'd nearly collapsed at the sight of him, but he had paid his respects. Only now there he was, alive, and if he hadn't known that this was reality, he might have thought he had died and gone to some wonderful place where Matt was alive and he had two legs.
"Are you going to be okay for Glee Club?" Matt asked him.
"Glee Club…" he breathed. There was no Glee Club where he had come from. He'd thought of joining, once, secretly, but he had never gotten around to doing it. They had shut it down before then, and he'd had his accident, and…
He hadn't danced in nearly a year. It had been something all his own, something he did in his room, never in public. But from what he'd heard from Rachel, in this place it was a whole other story. They had a Glee Club, he was part of it… Better yet, he was one of their best dancers. He had only just gotten to walk again though, how could he be expected to dance with any kind of confidence or ability? He'd have to start again, try again… all the while knowing it wouldn't last.
Once they figured out all of that was happening, with these… alternate realities, or whatever they were in, then he was going to be sent back there, in the place where his friend was dead, his leg was gone, and he couldn't dance anymore. So what was he supposed to do? Run away? They could still find a way to settle everything, and he would get pulled back no matter what. That would only make him a coward, even if they could have understood, given the chance.
If he stayed, he would have to try and help. But it could be weeks and months, the way Rachel had it. He had never gotten to say goodbye, to his friend, to dancing… This could have been his chance.
"Yeah, I think I'll be fine for Glee Club."
THE END
A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!