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 69th cycle. Now cycle 70!
GLEEKATHON FOURTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE - It's October again, which means another year of Gleekathon is about to wrap up! At the end of the month it will have been four years since I've started doing my daily stories! As always, I will be celebrating this with a special cycle of stories to touch on my favorite stories I've done throughout the year. There will be two installments each on Thursdays, Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. The remaining days will feature, as they have in the last several months, new chapters of the latest story in my Doctor Who/Glee crossover series. As far as the anniversary stories go, it will be as I've done before, taking those past stories and either doing a prequel, sequel, POV swap, genre swap, alternate ending, or additional scenes.
This story is a PREQUEL to "Fear Not, Little Sun" a Sunshine Girls 1 series story originally posted on January 12 2013.
(This is a shift day, which means there will be two stories posted today!)
"Light & Shadow"
Hailey & Hannah, Nora (AU!Beth), Puck/Rachel, Finn/Quinn
Sunshine Girls 1 series extra
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)
Ever since she'd heard about it, she couldn't get it out of her head. It was Katie Russo's fault, she decided. Alright, fault might have been too strong. It wasn't Katie's fault her parents got divorced. But then she had gone and told Hannah and the other girls in their class all about how they had separated and gotten back together a few times before they'd finally called it quits for good. Now with finding out about how her parents had once broken up, it had been enough for the six-year-old Puckerman to wonder if such a thing could happen to her parents, too.
When they had taken a break from the story, Hannah had gone down into the basement storage room. There was an old couch there – which was to say the couch was still perfectly good, but they'd replaced it and still wouldn't part with it – and both she and Hailey would go to play there at times. They called it their secret Sunshine base. So, of course, it wasn't long that Hailey found her there.
"Is there a mission?" she asked, coming to climb on the couch, too. Hannah shook her head. "What's wrong?"
"My parents broke up," Hannah tried not to sound like she might want to cry.
"What?" Hailey startled. "They did?"
"Not now, before, when they were young. They told us."
"Oh, that," Hailey understood. "But they're not broke up now."
"What about Katie?" Hannah wasn't so easily put at ease.
"Who's Katie?" She'd forgotten the girl went to her school in New York, which meant Hailey had no idea at all who she was.
"She goes to my school," she explained. "Her parents, they broke up, too, a bunch of times. And they divorced after that." Hailey blinked.
"Oh…"
"I don't want Mom and Dad to break up again, what if they don't get back together and they get a divorce, too?" Hailey pondered on this before realizing…
"My parents broke up, too, I think, before Nora was here." Now the fear was spreading on to the little blonde. It might have been easier for them to see through this concern, had they been older. But in their six-year-old minds, the proof was all there, danger could be on the rise. It didn't matter that these break ups had occurred seventeen or so years ago, that they'd been strong ever since.
"What if they broke up again but they didn't tell?" Hannah asked worriedly. Hailey looked at her, then she made up her mind.
"Let's ask Nora."
"Wait!" Hannah stopped her. "We'll ask about if they broke up again, not the other things," she suggested. Again, Hailey thought.
"Okay," she agreed, and they dashed back up the stairs to seek their older half-sister. The way they saw it, Nora was like the link between them. She had the same mother as Hailey and the same father as Hannah, so she often ended up in between them to explain whatever was on their minds.
The girls spotted their sister as she was walking around the living room with the smallest Puckerman boy in her arms. They tried to wave and get her attention without the twins or their parents or grandparents seeing them.
"Nora," Hiram spoke low and the girl turned to him. "I think you're wanted elsewhere," he motioned discreetly and she turned, seeing her little sisters signalling to her. They got more into it when they saw she'd seen them. She turned back with a smile and handed her baby brother to his grandfather, who was more than happy to get him. Nora, more than familiar with her sisters' antics, made like she was extracting herself from the living room scene very innocently. Once they saw she was following them, Hannah and Hailey made a run back for the basement stairs; Nora would know where to find them.
"Hello, hello?" she peered through the storage room door. The girls were back on the couch, one to each side with the middle kept free. After shutting the door, Nora went and sat as requested. "So, what's on your minds, sunnies?" That usually got a laugh out of them, so now she frowned. "Okay, this is big, uh?"
"My mom and dad broke up before you were here, right?" Hailey asked, and Nora hesitated, looking back to her blonde sister.
"Well that's… why do you ask?" Nora wondered.
"Mom and Aunt Quinn told us about my mom and dad breaking up."
"Oh, right," the older girl sighed before looking to her other sister again. "Well, it's true, they did break up, for a little while, but not that long," she assured her. It was just, well… complicated," she told them, and she knew already she had put her foot in it before the girls asked in unison…
"Complicated how?" How was she supposed to explain to them that before Hannah's mother and father were together, Hailey's parents were, and Hailey's mother had cheated on her father by sleeping with Hannah's father, which had resulted in Nora being conceived, and that it had been kept a secret so that Hailey's father believed he was Nora's father as well. Technically speaking, it wasn't too much of a break up. The truth had been told, and all in all, they hadn't been apart for too long.
"The point is, they got back together, and they've been happy ever since. They had you, Hailey, and now they're about to have your baby sister," she gave her a smile, trying to reassure her.
"Did they break up again?" Hailey asked instead, and Nora sighed.
"No, never."
"And mine?" Hannah asked, and Nora turned to her.
"Yours didn't break up again either, alright? Where's all this coming from?" Nora reached for both her little sisters' hands. She had Hailey's, but Hannah had gotten up before she could reach hers.
"I have to find Dad," she ran back for the stairs and Nora looked to Hailey.
"Hey…" she smiled at her, pulling her in for a hug. "You listen here, little sister. Everything is just fine, trust me." Hailey nodded; she believed her. Now they only had to convince Hannah.
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!
