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 67th cycle. Now cycle 68!

"Mama McManus"
Claudia (OC), (Older) Quinn, Santana/Brittany
Trinity series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Claudia had never lied to her husband, not until that night she had been called to treat an injury for the first time for the three of them. She might have kept some things from him, but they were the normal kind, like a surprise birthday party. She knew this was the kind of person she wanted to be, and she didn't like lying unless it was absolutely necessary.

When they had recruited her, they had changed her life forever. There just wasn't any turning back from that. She had become a doctor to help make people better, and these three women had no one else to turn to, not for what she provided. They already done her in service by returning the elephants to her. She knew they were out there to do good, the kind of good no one else seemed willing or able to do, and they were putting themselves at risk. So she would help them, in any way she couldn't.

This was not the kind of bond you could have without becoming inherently connected. They had become friends, practically like sisters. She understood very well that this secret of theirs needed to be kept, and she would keep it, even if it meant lying to her husband.

The lie she would come home with that day might have been the biggest one of all. She would return, having to lie not only to him but to the rest of them, too. She couldn't tell she knew Quinn and Spencer were not dead, that they'd faked their deaths in order to protect their loved ones, of which she knew she and Lucas were part, from what remaining threat existed, after Brittany had been kidnapped. And it was making her heart sit uncomfortably in her chest.

She remembered the day they'd come to tell her that Quinn was dead. She had saved her life, once, when she'd been so distraught that she'd nearly walked into oncoming traffic. She had taken it upon herself to retrieve the lost marble elephants… She had been one of her closest friends, and now she was gone. It had been one of those losses that took longer than most to get over, the kind you knew deep down you could never get past. How many times had she found herself thinking about the both of them, Quinn and Spencer, and had to stop whatever she was doing, overtaken with tears? She thought about all the life they were still meant to have, cut short in that accident.

When she'd seen the woman in the mall, with the red hair, it had been a flash at first, the kind she'd had before. After the accident, it was like everywhere she went, she would see her, see that face she'd known. But then she would get a better look, and it would become clear that it was only her mind playing tricks on her. Not this time. This time, when she'd gotten a better look, she had felt a chill bolt her to the ground. That wasn't her mind at all. That was Quinn. If she had any doubt left, the way the redhead had stared back at her, there was no more room for error. Quinn was alive, and she was standing right there.

After hearing the truth of it, she didn't know how to react. Part of her wanted to be angry at her, for putting her and everyone else through the emotional turmoil they'd been put through. But then more than anger, she had relief. Her friends were still alive. She'd dreamed about it so many times, only to wake up, forced to remember that it would never be anything more than a dream. It wasn't, not anymore.

Then again, like that night with the bullet, she had been sworn to secrecy. She could never tell anyone that she had seen her. Not Lucas, who didn't even know about Trinity to begin with, not anyone, not even Santana or Brittany. This was not a position she wanted to be in and, looking at Quinn, it wasn't a position Quinn wanted to put her in either. This had been an accident. If they hadn't run into each other, she would have carried on her life, believing Quinn and Spencer had been killed in that car crash, and she would never know they were alive somewhere. At least they have each other; what do I have?

She was going to have to hold this secret all on her own, and that was going to be the hardest part. When it had come to the secret about Trinity, as hard as it was to keep it from her husband, at least she had those three to talk about it with. She didn't spend her days interrogating them, but if she wanted to discuss it, they wouldn't turn her away. This was even bigger. This was two people they had all been made to believe were dead, who weren't dead at all. It should have been good news, worrisome news… that they even had to resort to that.

It couldn't be news at all. The secret lived in her thoughts and nowhere else. She couldn't talk to people, couldn't write it down in case anyone found it… The best she could do was sit by herself and think about what she had learned. She didn't know where they really lived out there, so she couldn't go looking to find her again. Even if she did, what was she going to do? It might force them to move somewhere else, start all over again. The thought of that was too hard for her… Abandoning everything you knew… She couldn't do it. They were making a new life for themselves, so she couldn't hurt that. She had to keep their secret.

Coming home, she'd sat at the airport for a while, giving herself a chance to compose herself before seeing Lucas. It had been one of the hardest things in her own life, to have to keep the Trinity secret from him, but she had done it. Keeping this one would be harder still, but it was necessary. Maybe one day, someday, it would all be easier for her to bear. Just not today.

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!