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 82nd cycle. Now cycle 83!

"Support & Reveal"
(Nora (AU!Beth)/Grace (OC),) Emily (OC; Nellie V.), Francesca (OC), Older!Tina/Mike, Naomi (OC)
Sunshine Girls 2 series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

It wasn't as though she was hiding the fact that she'd been hanging out with Francesca. Both Nora and Grace were aware of it, but still Emily found that she never flat out told them when they'd be spending time together, or what they did or said. Even once Francesca had started becoming an occasional presence in their group, Emily didn't want to bring it up with her best friends.

One Wednesday afternoon, Emily had invited Francesca over to her aunt and uncle's house. They had a Glee Club assignment to work on together, so they'd gone to Emily's home, heading into the basement so they might start to practice. Francesca had her guitar, and Emily had the piano, and they were pleased with the way it was starting to…

"Emily, can you come up here a minute, please?" her aunt Tina called from up the stairs. Emily frowned, but she got up and took the stairs two at a time.

"What's up?" she asked, holding to the rails and balancing about.

"I told you to stop doing that," her aunt scolded, and she stopped; she'd fallen when she was nine, broke her leg, so she knew her aunt was seeing that in her head.

"Sorry."

"I need to go out for about an hour. I'm taking Charlie with me, but I need you to watch Naomi, alright? You and Fran can order take out if she stays for dinner."

"Deal," Emily perked up, kneeling in the stairs to peer past the door. "Hey Nay-Nay?" she called. The girl was nearly two years old now, and she came teetering into view at the sound of her cousin's voice, a giddy smile on her face. "Come here," Emily stretched her arms toward her and Naomi walked up until she could get hold of her. "Want to play rock stars?" Emily asked, pulling herself back up with the girl balanced in one arm.

Climbing back down the stairs, Emily guessed Francesca had overheard them. She'd put her guitar aside and was looking toward the staircase expectantly. She'd met Charlie and Naomi before, and Charlie was already sold, but Naomi was still in that place where she didn't completely remember people she didn't see as often as her family. Even when Francesca gave her a smile, the small girl clung to her cousin's side, burying her face in her shoulder.

"Hey, it's alright, it's Fran," Emily hushed. "You've met her before. She's got the funny hair, remember?" Francesca was a good sport, tipping her head so Naomi could see the way her hair raised almost like a mohawk. Naomi was still not convinced, but she'd warm up eventually.

For the time being, their assignment was partly forgotten, though Francesca sat and picked up her guitar again, lightly strumming along. Emily had Naomi in her lap, like a cozy couch with arms to hug and gently sway to the music of the guitar. If she kept this up, her cousin would fall asleep before long.

"So I was thinking…" Francesca started, eyes still focused on the guitar. "You remember what you offered to do for me, weeks ago?" she asked, looking up to Emily.

"I… you'll have to be more specific," Emily tried to remember, and it wasn't coming to her, but then the look in her eyes brought it all back. "Oh!" she pulled up suddenly, which disturbed Naomi in her lap and made her cry. "Oh, Nay-Nay, you're okay, I… I'm rhyming, apparently. Sorry I startled you, we're good, we're…" she looked to Francesca, her eyes darting to the guitar, and the other girl caught on, playing a happy little tune. "There you go, see?" she moved about to the music, and eventually Naomi stopped crying, instead staring at Francesca and the guitar. Once she'd calmed down, Emily let out a breath before remembering what they were talking about before she'd jumped. "Can you give me my phone," she pointed with one hand while keeping Naomi secure with the other. Francesca handed it to her, and Emily went into her photos, thumbing through until she had what she needed, then she smiled up to Francesca. "So I wasn't even planning this, I swear, but there's this new girl in Grace's ballet class, and I swear it's like the minute I met her, I knew…"

She held out the phone, and she tried not to smirk, seeing how Francesca was visibly nervous, but then she saw the picture and just looked… stunned, properly whacked upside the head.

"Her name's Sarah Ann," Emily told her. "You say the word and I'll get her your number."

"If you don't mind," Francesca held the phone back with just enough regret to make Emily smile.

"I may or may not have started a quiet campaign of talking you up so she's not entirely unfamiliar with you." Francesca looked up, wondering what that meant. "You know, like I'll talk about Glee Club, and then say something like 'there's one girl, Francesca, she does these crazy guitar solos…'" she went on, and Francesca smiled to herself. "She's been really great, we've hung out with her a few times. She doesn't go to McKinley, but Mr. Schuester told Grace how she's in a Glee Club at another school where one of his old students is the director."

"He told Grace?" Francesca asked, something in the statement sounding odd.

"Yeah, you'd think it would have come up in our own conversations, but we didn't mention it and she didn't either, but then a couple weekends back Grace mentioned Sarah Ann to him and when she told him where she went to school, he put it all together. That's when I started telling her about your solos," Emily smirked. Francesca was still looking at her with confusion. "What?"

"Why is Grace talking to Mr. Schuester during the weekend?" she asked, and Emily finally realized what she'd been saying unbeknownst to her.

"Did I say weekend? I…" she tried to play it off, but Francesca wasn't going to buy it, so she sighed. "She's been… living over there, with him and his family."

"Why?"

"Her mom sort of kicked her out… when she found out about her and Nora," she admitted. Francesca gasped. "Okay but you know I didn't mean to talk about it, so you have to just…" she zipped her lips.

"Yeah, sure, don't worry about it," Francesca promised. There was a moment of silence. But then Naomi had woken again, and she was pointing her little hands at Francesca's guitar. "Hey… you want the music, right? You got it," she sat up, and soon they were rehearsing all over again, while Naomi bopped and hopped about as she listened. Emily looked to Francesca as she played and sang, and she hoped she hadn't made a mistake just then.

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!