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 24th cycle. Now cycle 25!

It's cycle 25! If you'll recall, back in cycle 10 I did my top 15 of favorite things (characters, ships, friends..) in Glee, with a ficlet for each of the numbers, and a chapter fic for number 1 (stories 190 to 210). Now this time around, in order to schedule in a friend's birthday, it's a top SIXTEEN, and the number one's six-chapter fic will be split in three blocks... (5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters) It's less confusing than it seems, I promise ;) Here we go!
Coming in at number two!

"Reach Out Because You Must"
Quinn

By all accounts, she should have hated the very idea of Sue Sylvester. Maybe hate was a strong word, but it wasn't far off, not after all she and others had been through because of her over the previous school year. She had exposed her secret for all to know, she had tormented the Glee Club over and over, had taken no small pleasure in making insults over her pregnancy weight and what had led her to it… She should have nothing to tell the woman except 'stay away from me.'

But now there she was… Back on the Cheerios, and not only that, back going to her for advice. They'd say she was just begging for more trouble, and maybe she was, but the way she saw it… this was the only way.

Compared to how things had become, she could look back on that time 'before' as her having had the easy road in front of her, taking her from one end to the other of this high school marathon without ever really breaking a sweat, toward that big red ribbon… all with a crown there to further prove she had achieved everything she had hoped for… for that time in her life. Of course back then she thought she was working so, so hard… She almost had to laugh now.

Now it was a fight. Now it was brutal, and the blows came out of nowhere, trying to pull her off course all the time.

She had told herself she wouldn't go back. Never, not ever would she play to Sue Sylvester's game ever again. But then the summer wore on, and she was looking to a return to McKinley High… What was waiting for her there except complete and shaming anonymity? They had forgotten her. Now she was just a story… The old captain, the old queen, fallen from grace… She could tell herself all she wanted that it didn't bother her, that she could carry on, no problem, just have Glee Club and be done with it… but every time she did she believed it even less.

And she didn't believe it at all, the first day she walked back into that building after summer was over. She passed the long line of hopefuls standing and waiting for their turn, their chance to sign their name to Coach Sylvester's try-outs list, and she kept her eyes firmly up ahead, even if her periphery was showing her every single one of those girls, making her brain shout that she should put her name in, too.

But, no, she wouldn't do that… If she was really going to do this, then she knew how it had to go. The Coach would play wounded, the whole 'fool me once' routine backed with false 'emotions.' And Quinn, well she'd have to use her words and show her exactly why she had to let her back on the Cheerios. Maybe she'd have to formally 'try-out,' but she had it on good authority she'd probably just tell her to leave… but she'd take her back.

She had the whole sequence of events right. And before she knew it, she was zipping up her uniform again, like a second skin she was slipping back on… The last time she'd put it on, of course, it was tighter, from her defying stomp into the Coach's office, bump and all, but now it was back to a comfortable fit… if she could call it comfortable. The uniform was back on, the sneakers, and then the ponytail to seal the deal. She looked at herself in the mirror and… she didn't look the same, not exactly. It was normal, she supposed; she was getting older. But even then, she worried she might have changed too much. She didn't let that get to her. She just marched out that door and made her first strut down the hall, back to her rightful place… even if not everyone was ready to let her take it.

The weeks started to go by, and she just melted back into the Cheerios unit, and she got something started with Sam… Things were in a good place.

Then the 'Beiste' incident… She had to do something about it, too much of it was running through her mind… What was she going to do, go to Schuester? Maybe it would have been a sounder solution, maybe listening to her emotions wasn't the best thing in that moment, but… neither of those was going to work. The fact of the matter was, in a situation like this, she needed the Sylvester touch, whether she knew that was what she wanted or not. She'd probably regret it later, but it didn't matter.

After it was all said and done, after she'd realized her mistake – once she'd calmed down – it just made her think. For a while, since she'd gone back to Cheerios, she'd told herself Sue Sylvester was just… a means to an end: if she wanted to get back on top, then it had to be through her tying herself back to the Coach. It was just an inevitability; if she wanted one thing, she had to deal with the other. She didn't like it, but there they were.

But was it just that? Was it just a matter of kissing up to the right people or… She thought she'd changed so much, but then the second she had a choice between sanity and revenge, she'd chosen revenge. It wasn't even just that; she had chosen to confide in the one person she had sworn never to trust again, right along with 'Noah Puckerman + alcohol and compliments.' The Coach had always said she saw something of herself in Quinn, so… was that it? Did she plunge and side with her again because just as much as Sue saw herself in Quinn, Quinn saw herself in Sue? That part of her that played like the devil on her shoulder… Maybe she'd never be done with her completely…

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!