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 47th cycle. Now cycle 48!

Cycle 48/Day 1000 special: So, yes, in this cycle, a milestone I had to do something special for.
In this cycle I'm passing my 1000th consecutive day of gleekathon! So for this, the cycle will feature:
* 21-day/chapter story for the Sunshine Girls series (This Little Light of Mine)
* 14-day/chapter story special for day 1000 (Let Me Tell You A Story)
* One-shot installments from 12 series + 2 non-series
* And for this cycle and this cycle alone (I swear), 7 'triple shift' days, with 3 chapters/stories going up in the day!

This is a triple shift day. There will be two more uploads today: This Little Light of Mine, chapter 5 and Let Me Tell You A Story, chapter 5.

"Need This More"
Shelby & Beth, Emmett & Joanie, Shelby/Emmett
Shelby & Beth series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

(A/N: Please read the info above the line! Thanks!)

Joanie had even gotten Alex helping her in her search for information on her duties now that she had been appointed as maid of honor in her parents' wedding. She wanted to get things going as soon as possible, sensing that it might be time consuming. Her list grew every day.

But as it grew, she couldn't help but look at it and start to think of something. The thought had come to her and once it was there she only grew more convinced on it the further she went. Soon she knew she had to say something to Shelby, it had to be done.

She went and found her mother with Beth, rocking her back to sleep. Her little sister had caught a cold at daycare and was now a miserable mess. Joanie came into the room quietly, asking with her eyes if she could enter. Shelby nodded, rubbing Beth's back. She was rubbing Beth's back. She was plastered on her mother's shoulder, eyes lazily half open but quickly shutting as sleep found her.

"Need to talk," Joanie whispered. Shelby held up a finger – wait a minute. She went and pulled the sheets neatly in Beth's crib before Shelby could bring her over and lay her down. They left the room and moved down into the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Shelby asked, and Joanie hesitated, putting her hand on to one of the chairs. "Joanie, what's the matter?" Shelby asked, growing concerned. Joanie looked up to her.

"I… I don't think I should be your maid of honor," she finally came out with it.

"What?" Shelby was taken by surprise. "Of course you should, you've been doing a great job. Why wouldn't you want to anymore?"

"No, I know, and I do want to, but I don't think I should."

"Is it because I said they're older most times?"

"No," Joanie shook her head. "I was just thinking it should be someone else."

"Who? Not Beth, I hope," she smirked. "Now she might be a little too young."

"I think you should ask Rachel," Joanie revealed.

"Rachel?" Shelby paused, and Joanie nodded.

"I know you want to keep making things better with her, include her into the family. I think if you made her your maid of honor, it would be a way for you guys to spend time together, get closer. And I think she could be really good at it," Joanie explained. Shelby looked at her, her precious girl she was prouder every day to call a daughter.

"Are you sure about this?" Joanie gave a nod. "You know you could always be co-maids of honor," Shelby pointed out.

"I know, I thought about that, but… it should be hers, all hers," Joanie insisted. Shelby gave her one more look, one more chance to change her mind. "Do it, call her," she wouldn't.

"Do I tell her that you had the job first?"

"I think so. If she finds out later she might take it the wrong way," Shelby came to her, taking her face in her hands.

"You're just going for kid of the year, aren't you?" she teased.

"Well look who I have to compete with?" Joanie joked back, nodding upstairs, and Shelby laughed.

A lot of things had changed over the last few months. Beyond the engagement and the move, she had opened up the way for Quinn and Puck to see Beth, but above all else she had been getting to see more of Rachel. It was the most complicated of the things going on in her life and she was still trying to find a good rhythm with the girl she had given up all those years ago. She had come over a number of times on her own, others with Nell, others with both Nell and Sam… Things were never going to be typical between them. Once they had accepted this, it had made everything at least a little easier to deal with, but they still had far to go and they both knew.

To be honest, when she had decided to make Joanie her maid of honor, she had thought of Rachel, too, but then she had gone against it, for reasons she wasn't entirely sure of herself. Maybe she didn't want it to come like she was trying to make things happen faster than they were, or like she was forcing her into a certain slot. There was still a bit of that fear now, but with Joanie's blessing she knew she had to suck it up and give her a call.

When she had called her and asked her to come over, she could hear in Rachel's voice that she was still slightly surprised every time she invited her. But she said she'd be there in a little while. Shelby had set up the table in the yard after a quick shower. She was aware she could end up passing Beth's cold on to Rachel who would then take it to Sam's daughter, and she didn't want that if they could help it at all.

When she had arrived, Shelby had led her to the yard and they'd sat down. "How's Beth?"

"She's good. Well, not now, she's got a cold, that's why we're out here, but other than that…" she smiled, then paused. "You're probably wondering why I've asked you to come."

"It has crossed my mind," Rachel admitted.

"Well, you know Emmett and I are engaged," she started. "I wanted to ask you, first of all, if you might want to come," she started slow.

"Of course, I'd be happy to," Rachel smiled. Just having that, she looked touched, and Shelby took a breath. That was one thing. Now there was the bigger one.

Good, that's good," Shelby nodded. "How would you like to be my maid of honor?" Looking back to her, she saw the surprise spread over the girl's face.

"M-maid of… me?" she asked.

"She told me to tell you the whole story of it, so here goes. When I first thought about it, I wanted to ask you, but I was worried it might be going too fast for you. So I asked Joanie. But she told me it should be you and if you would do it I would be nothing but honored. If you don't I would absolutely understand, I…"

"No, I… I'd be happy to," Rachel interrupted her, giving a nod to make sure she was clear. Shelby smiled, breathed.

"Good, that's…. thank you," she touched a hand to her heart. "Thank you so much." Rachel just smiled like she would cry any moment. They may not have been the definition of mother and daughter, but on that day their friendship had gone beyond everything it had already started to become since the day Rachel had returned on her own after her visit with the others.

"I'm going to need to start looking into it," Rachel thought, falling automatically and despite herself into planning mode.

"You might want to have a chat with Joanie. I know she said she'd be happy to hand over the reins completely, but she did start looking into everything, it'd be a shame to let it all go to waste."

"I'll do that," Rachel understood. As she saw her out, Shelby asked after Nell and Sam. Rachel told her they were well, that they'd been going to pool a lot these days, and that she was actually due to meet them both at the mall. She'd checked her phone briefly and was disappointed to find he hadn't texted about it yet. "He usually does," she'd said.

But they said their goodbyes, promising they'd get together again once Beth's cold was gone. Rachel said she'd be in touch with Joanie and that she would do her proud. Shelby knew she would; she already had.

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!