Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
A/N: This just came over me while watching Scream drunk for what has to be the about dozendesed time.
Past The Pain
It is not that she had not seen it coming ...
... she had known deep down, that one day it would happen.
There had been some tell-tale signs, like Santana never fully shutting up about Brittany.
But nothing, not even that had been able to keep Dani from hoping, hoping that one day Tana would love her ... more than anything in this world.
She hadn't.
And now, like before, Dani is left on her own.
It is not like she is not prepared for it. Ever since leaving her old home, her parents in it, behind, she has been prepared for pretty much anything.
People leave you. Everyone does, at some point. Dani has no delusions about that.
What makes her sick and vulnerable is that 'I can't hold on to myself.' Because in between all the pain and desperation it is too often too hard to hold on, to keep holding on ... to yourself. To anything.
It is on Elliott's doorstep as the door swings open that her grip slips. That her hold ceases to be.
"Dani."
She hears his voice but an answer is out of reach.
The two weeks on his couch pass in drifting and pain and a hollow headache that is not giving up on her.
Sometimes all that keeps you together is pain.
"Dani?" Elliott asks, voice tender.
"Yeah?" she answers in a whispered question.
"Want some breakfast?"
"Like I could ever say no to that you fool," she croaks out, pain holding up the words left to say, the thoughts left to think. 'I am still here. So what is next?'
There is always something left past the pain.
The real question is 'What do I do with it?'