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 50th cycle. Now cycle 51!

"Decelerator"
(Older) Quinn, (Brittany/Santana), Spencer (OC), Spencer/Quinn
Trinity Series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

A/N: Today's story is dedicated to Lyndseybug for reasons for sudden and amazing awesomeness
that will become apparent... well, later ;)

In the beginning it was just easier to remain separate from other people, to regroup on their own. But then they both knew they'd eventually need to change… something. They'd need to integrate life in their town so they didn't come off as suspicious shut-ins.

Spencer could tell she was nervous about this, and if he was honest part of him was, too. But it had to be done. They'd already made one acquaintance in the form of Sophia, the cashier at Song's Pharmacy & Bookstore, who they learned more about from their second acquaintance, their landlord Mr. Benjamin.

They learned that her name was in fact Sophia Dahl Song, making the store the family business. The pharmacy had been her grandfather's, and then her father's. Then James Song had met Lydia Dahl. He had fallen for her instantly, and she for him. They had married, had Sophia… Then she'd gotten ill. She had wasted away for nearly two years before she'd died, eleven years ago. Sophia was seven at the time, and to help the girl keep something of her mother, who devoured books, James had begun the conversion. His family's pharmacy had shrunk in half to welcome a bookstore. He would watch over the years, as he worked in the pharmacy, his little girl growing up, constantly with her nose in a new book, in her mother's world. Little did he know he was feeding an already clever mind.

Sophia had graduated from high school three years ago, at age fifteen. Where she could have had so many college doors opened to her though, she refused. She didn't want to go to college just because she was smart, didn't want to be the big academic. They had seen this as fair for a fifteen-year-old, but then here she was, eighteen, and that mentality hadn't changed. She had no intention to go to college still. She had her job at the pharmacy/bookstore, and apparently she was a regular at the coffee shop's open mic, same at the bar, once she'd been allowed in, where she would sing. According to their knowledgeable landlord, she had a voice 'like you wouldn't believe.'

As they had settled in to the apartment the 'girl with the voice' had helped them find and just so happened to be across the street from where she lived, they could see her come and go. It would be easy to latch on to this beginning of a relationship they had with her, but at the same time they still had this instinct to keep a distance from everything. Spencer had come up to find Quinn staring out the window. She looked like she was a grounded kid who wanted to go out and play, as much as she could come off like she never wanted to leave.

"I don't know…" she'd started to say, and he came up closer. "I don't know how to do this…" she had admitted. "Going out there, as Allie…"

"We worked out the stories, we know them."

"It's not that easy," she snapped, then sighed, and he put his arms around her.

"I never said it was, or that it would be. But eventually, I swear we will get there… You won't even realize it, but it'll have happened. Only way to get there is if we start. We did, just a little, with Sophia, and Mr. Benjamin…" He paused. "We have to move ahead, can't keep looking back," he spoke quietly, and he knew without looking that she'd be crying. So he continued to hold her. "We'll get there…" he whispered.

When he had woken up the next morning, Quinn wasn't at his side and, as he walked around the apartment, he saw she wasn't in at all. He wasn't sure why he felt a short panic at this, but when he heard the sound of a key at the door, he'd gotten on edge instantly… only to have the door swing open and reveal Quinn, arms loaded with shopping bags. She paused, seeing him there.

"Hey… I know you had trouble getting to sleep so I didn't want to wake you. Are you okay? Is it your back?" she asked, putting her bags down and coming up to him.

"No, my back's fine," he promised, his hands instinctively moving up to touch her, to convince himself she was alright and he could stop freaking out. "What's… all this?" he looked to the bags. She turned to him with a shy but winning smile.

"I… went out and got some things from around town," she explained, which all really shaped up to say 'I got through it and I went out.'

"What'd you get?" he asked, smiling back, and she pulled it all on the table.

"Personal touches. The place is already furnished, but I wanted it to feel more like it belonged to us… to Allie and Tommy."

"And what does that look like exactly?" he asked, observing.

"A lot of green," she announced with a bow of the head.

"I like me some green," he approved.

"I know you do," she smiled. He watched her as she set up her new purchases, and they did liven up the place like new people might be living here. Eventually a thought had to occur to him.

"How much money did you spend?"

"I know I've dipped into our savings, but to counterbalance that, I… got a job," she revealed.

"Wow, you didn't mess around," he smirked, and she looked back to him.

"I never do," she told him, smiling back.

"So what's the job?" he asked. She looked hesitant to say.

"Well, I didn't wander too far away from my old job in New York… I got a job at one of the local papers. I'd seen an ad… Guess I was really convincing," she shrugged. "You think that's okay?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" he asked.

"I'm just never sure… what the limits are supposed to be… I wouldn't want us to have done all this for nothing."

"Hey…" he came up and kissed her, and she breathed. "You did great, and you don't need me to tell you that."

"Good… I know, I'm just not out of all this mess yet," she gestured to her head. "But I'm getting there."

"You are," he smiled. "And I'll start looking for work, too. Right now with my back it's harder, but I'll find something." Now it was her kissing him.

Looking at each other, as silent as they were, their eyes just said it all: they could do this. They had each other, and that was really all they needed, the rest would fill itself in, bit by bit. Friends, and co-workers, and just people they knew from around town. As blank as their lives as Allie and Tommy presently were, they knew it wouldn't be long before those people started to fill them. Still somewhere in there, they knew, there would always be a part of them that stayed with New York, and Lima, and Scotland, whether they shared them or not.

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!