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 34th cycle. Now cycle 35!


YEAR TWO ANNIVERSARY CYCLE! - Within days it will have been two years since I've started this Gleekathon, and like last year I'm dedicating the cycle to commemorating my 21 favorite one shots or chapter stories from year two (up to the point where I did the planning ;)) A number of those I was very attached to, but left sad to see may have fallen through the cracks, so it seems fair they should get a second shot ;)

Last year there were three categories, but this year I've added two new ones: Prequel, Sequel, POV Swap, and now Alternate Ending, and Additional Scenes. In no particular order... Today's story is a Prequel to #616 "Trinity" a Trinity Series story originally posted on June 29th 2011.


"Something About Little Old Ladies"
Older Quinn, Santana, Brittany; Brittana
Trinity series extra

They were supposed to be on sabbatical. At least that was how they had spun it – a well-deserved vacation, where they could relax, reload… The truth was after Brittany – or Sneak – had taken a fall during their last job, they had put her on strict bed rest, the better to recover as quickly as possible. It wasn't as though they would go lacking in anything if they took some time off; they had plenty to keep them comfortable. It would do them some good to take a step back, but then this wasn't necessarily a completely even kind of arrangement.

Santana had of course taken up the task of nursing her fiancée back to health, keeping her entertained by procuring any and all magazines and books and whatnot that she would request in preparation for their wedding. They hadn't set a date yet, especially with this injury – Brittany insisted they had to dance, and it wasn't going to happen at this time, not until she was good and healed, which Santana claimed she would be the judge of. As for Quinn, while she was all on board as to giving Brittany this time to heal, it didn't mean she didn't keep her ear to the ground, didn't go through their various supplies to make sure they didn't need to get a hold of anything…

On that day she had gone out to visit their connection for anything tech related, who was supposed to check their audio equipment after Santana had claimed it had led directly to Brittany's injury. She returned to the house with the case slung over her shoulder to find her two team mates sitting back on the couch, Brittany's feet on Santana's lap, watching a movie. "Winger says everything was fine, nothing wrong with the equipment," she declared, putting the case down.

"What does he know?" Santana scowled. Quinn turned back to her, wondering whether she really needed to use words to respond to that. "Whatever, I'll deal with him later," she waved it off, which gave Brittany the chance to jump in, a hint of mischief on her face.

"Did you see your boyfriend?" she asked, which wiped the scowl off Santana's face and replaced it with that same bit of curiosity. Quinn frowned, moving toward the kitchen.

"He's not my boyfriend!" she called back.

"She's evading, get her," Brittany ordered, pointing to the kitchen, and Santana did as told, carefully extracting herself from the couch to dash after the other blonde.

She'd met him a few weeks back, before their previous job, as a matter of fact on another run to visit Winger. They had insisted it was some kind of 'meet cute,' though all she'd seen it as was a conversation with a guy, waiting in line at a coffee shop. Then Brittany had asked what she knew about him, and Quinn had gone on to say that his name was Spencer and that judging from his accent he was Scottish, but possibly had lived here a while. This had then led to Santana pointing out that the fact she'd put this kind of thought into it, and the fact that she was even telling them about this, all added up to it being more than 'a conversation with a guy.' Since then, it had become a common point of playful mockery for the two of them to suggest Quinn reunite with 'her boyfriend.'

"Would you let it go, please?" Quinn protested as Santana brought her back. "I didn't run into him!"

"Your boyfriend," Brittany added, biting back a smirk, and Quinn groaned.

"But there's something, I can tell, so go on, spill," Santana insisted, planting Quinn in the spot she'd vacated on the couch. There was a beat, and the shift on Quinn's face was so very subtle, just enough for them to catch on – this was Trinity business.

"I didn't want to bring it up, because…" she hesitated, looking to Brittany.

"You found a job," Santana deduced.

"Possibly…" They weren't going to let it go. "We might not be able to take it though. There's a bit of a time issue. The pieces in question will be moved overseas in a matter of weeks." As one of their rules, for the unlikely but still eventual possibility that they would get caught, they tended not to take their business outside the country.

"How many weeks?" Brittany asked right away, which got Santana's alarms to go off.

"No, no, hang on, you know what we said, you're still injured," she pointed out to her fiancée.

"What's the job?" Brittany still asked and, when she insisted, Quinn relented and explained about the woman, poor old Mrs. Bailey, and the story of the items she wished to regain. The more she went into it, the more Brittany got the face, the one she would get when she'd hear the stories, the sort of sad puppy dog face that would trickle right down to Santana who, tried as she might not to show, couldn't resist either. "I can do it," Brittany spoke.

"You have to recover," Santana insisted.

"I will, I swear. I'm going to be really careful, do everything you tell me, and then get back to training when I can, and then we'll be ready. We'll wait as long as we can, right?" she looked to Quinn, who looked back to Santana. "Do it for Mrs. Bailey…" she begged. There was some more hesitation, more looks, but then they had agreed.

"If you're not ready though, will you sit it out?" Santana asked.

"I can't send you in there without me, what if something goes wrong?" Brittany asked, worried. "I'm telling you, I can do this, I'll be ready."

"Alright, then it's settled," Quinn declared.

She hadn't planned to tell them about Mrs. Bailey. Much like Santana, she was worried that Brittany wasn't going to be able to pull this one off, wouldn't be recovered in time. But then she had revealed this encounter, the better to not reveal another. She had in fact run into Spencer, outside the same coffee shop. He remembered her, she remembered him… Whether she would say it or not, she had been glad to see him again. She had no idea what to make of it though, so she wasn't going to speak of it… It was going to be her little secret…

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!