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 37th cycle. Now cycle 38!

PRE-CHRISTMAS NON-CHRISTMAS: It's already my third holiday season of Gleekathon, woo! So happy about that :D Anyhoo, just to explain what I'm doing for it this year: How it goes is I always have a set of stories with Christmas-y titles but non-Christmas-y plots, so to give an air of the season but not too much ;) First year was '12 Days of Christmas', last year was 'Reindeer'. This year's theme is "Christmas Movies" :) It'll run from December 8th to 19th, after which I have a slightly bigger undertaking to take us to Christmas Eve (stay tuned and find out, ha! ;)). So here we go!

"Jack Frost"
Sue & Brittany
Sylvesters series #31 (following 'Tricks & No Treat')

Her daughter was as one with her smile. More often than not, you could always count on her to brighten things up. From the day she was born and came into her life, Sue knew she could walk through the door and have that smile waiting for her. She knew no matter what happened, there was a little girl who loved her. That couldn't change, and certainty was a more powerful thing than you could imagine.

Even with their mother-daughter/coach-cheerleader double life, coming home was a return to norm, to reality. She wasn't the most common of mothers, but then Brittany wasn't the most common of daughters, so it worked very well in that respect.

Then there was that snap, at Halloween. That look in her daughter's blue eyes was burned in her mind, wouldn't go away. And since then she'd noticed a shift.

At school, she was the same old Brittany, smile and everything; that got unsettling after a while. Because at home she was playing keep-away with that smile. Sue tried everything, and that was saying a lot. But Brittany was resisting her every step of the way. She wasn't going to smile at her.

And she was keeping secrets. Most were probably harmless, but how was she supposed to know? For all she knew, what she wasn't telling him were the latest exploits of Lord Tubbington, or how she'd forgotten her lunch in her locker over weekend… again. But what if it was something serious?

She'd always taught her that she could trust her, if she ever needed to talk about something, that she shouldn't be scared and that Sue would never be mad at her.

How many times had she gotten home, called her name and gotten a vague response? And when she'd get to her room she'd find her daughter standing there, kind of out of place, flushed even though the window was opened… For a while she'd even thought it was drugs, but she had tested her, searched her room, but all she found was an inordinate amount of unused Slushie straws. It was the great mystery of the Sylvester household, and she was hell bent on solving it.

But mystery would have to wait. She had bigger fish to fry, and a moodier daughter to… recalibrate. Somewhere between getting Beiste sacked and restoring her glitter cannons, she was going to win Brittany back… at least try. Sure, it was her fault, trying to push her away, but it was only supposed to be a little, for her own good. She didn't want this. But she'd started it, and Sue Sylvester was all about fixing things so she could get it all… Get her back, and get her off the Cheerios.

So she did the unthinkable. She invited the Pierces. The whole lot, Joseph, Joe, Charlotte, Cat, Izzy… She got the first blip off the smile ban. Brittany tried and resisted it, but she'd have to get up pretty early to get one of those by her unnoticed. Now Sue was realizing though… She'd invited the Pierces… She was being invaded by 'the Others.'

The next morning, Brittany was having the strangest dream about Santana rescuing her from a cage made out of breadsticks but having to wait while she ate her way through it. Then just when she'd broken through the 'bar,' Brittany was back in her room, with her mother's face swimming into focus overhead. She startled, throwing her arms across her face. "No!"

"Hey, it's just me," Sue frowned. Brittany pulled her arms back down… slowly.

"What's going on?" she blinked.

"Get up, we have to clean the house."

"I… what?"

"I'm not about to let those people into my house and give them a single thing to say," Sue shook her head. "Now come on, you can start with your room."

Brittany would start her cleaning with one hand firmly occupied, holding PB&J toast, though she did pick things up with the other hand, deposited them where they needed to go. Once she'd eaten she was at least a bit more awake, so she went on helping around the house. She didn't know what had gotten into her mother, but she knew better than to question it.

In mid-afternoon, after she'd changed, she found the kitchen had become a culinary battle ground… She'd never seen – or smelled – that much food in this place. Her mother was in constant motion, one of which was to leave a small bowl of celery cut in little bits – like Brittany loved as a kid… well, still today. It was like her feet had no power to resist.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, munching on the celery.

"Because if I don't, then all we'll have for dessert is an empty pie crust," Sue went on cutting the fruit.

"You're making pie?" Brittany's head popped up, but she shook her head. "I mean, dinner, for them. I know you don't like them." Sue wasn't looking at her, silently chopping.

"Can't always get what you want," she'd eventually say.

"I think we sang about that in Glee Club," Brittany nodded

"I'm doing it for you, something mothers do sometimes… even me." Sue heard her chuckle, but by the time she looked up Brittany had already pushed it back inside, her face blank again though there were traces of the laughter still there. "Can't be mad at me forever."

"Who said I was mad?"

"Have you seen the face you've been walking around with lately?" Sue frowned.

"Mad's for when someone does something you can't believe, a surprise," Brittany shook her head. "What you're doing, I know you'd do it, kind of expected it… Didn't want to, but I did." Sue didn't respond – that was fair. "Can't you just find someone else to go after? Like… home ec?"

"As much as I'd have plenty of quality material to go after that woman, I think I'll pass."

"Suit yourself," Brittany took her celery bowl and left the room to go wait for their guests. Sue sighed, getting back to her fruit chopping. She had to keep from giving in to her emotions or she'd risk chopping a finger or two as well.

This all just seemed like part two of the Halloween blow up now… more things she needed to hear, more of the same, but… Brittany wasn't surprised by her actions; she expected them… and that was her disappointment in her mother. Sue couldn't blame her.

The dinner was good and awkward, but really it could have been worse. Everyone came out in one piece, and no one came as close to losing it as Sue did. But the whole time she could feel her daughter's eyes on her, like she was waiting to see what she would do, so she squeezed her hands under the table, so tight her hands had to be sheet white, and she held it in. She supposed overall they weren't that bad, it was just… well, what they represented.

When they were gone, she had to look over and see if she'd broken through to Brittany. She wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't, but she had to aim for hope.

What she got was a kiss on the cheek and a thank you. She'd take it.

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!