Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Glee characters.
AN: I got the idea from a tag on a picture from tumblr. It begins with death, but as the chapter title hints it's not over.
Chapter One: Reincarnation
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There a single sound in the room. It's barely noticeable, the clutter and soft fabrics of the bedding muffle most of it, but it's there. A shallow labored breathing, escaping passed chapped lips of an old man sleeping on the large bed in the center of the room. A bed made for two people, too lonely for just one.
"Pop… "
The man had been watching over his father for the better part of an hour, waiting to speak to him, but not wanting to wake him. "Dad?" The near balding man jumps to his feet to stand over the body laying limply in the bed.
"Camden." The old man stirs from his sleep, running a hand through his thin white beard. For the past few weeks he couldn't be bothered to shave. He couldn't find the energy much less a reason to pick up a razor and smooth over skin that was meant for her.
"I thought you left us." Relief rushes over the man's face as he settles to the edge of the chair sitting next to the old man's bed.
The old man's grey almost white eyes peel open and skip around the room. In his youth they were steel blue staring down the sights of a rifle, trained and steady. Now he's useless without his glasses.
"He's trying to sleep." The soft chiding voice comes from a tired looking woman stepping into the cluttered bedroom, followed closely by another younger woman.
"Well sorry for freaking out! It's not like mom didn't just die or anything!" Camden stands from the chair, allowing the young blonde woman to sit down.
"Please, both of you. Gwen bring me a glass of water." The older sister nods and leaves the room without a word.
"Are you feeling okay Papa?" The young girl wraps her fingers around the man's hand. Worry etched in her face. She hasn't had the time to visit her father as much as she would have liked. "The doctor said you might have what mom had."
"The only thing I have is a lonely heart baby girl." The young woman smiles sadly and clutches to her father's wrinkled hand. There was never a doubt in anyone's mind, especially the children exposed most to it, that their parents were madly in love. And seems even death could not stop the force.
Gwen returns with a mug of water, the handle made it easier for the man to hold, and a small white pill. "Here, Doctor Wertz said that you need to take this pill."
"I'm not taking any of that, who knows what's in there." The old man grumbled into his water, "probably the Devil himself."
"You need to take care of yourself Dad and if this new medicin-"
"I'm doing just fine!" A sickening cough erupts from the tired man's chest. It takes longer than anyone in the room would like for him to quiet the hacking. After a long moment staring down into his empty mug the man clears his throat. "I need to tell you all something, fetch Junior."
The youngest woman runs off from the bedroom to find her brother. Soon the entire family, his children and their husbands and wives, stand about the room waiting for their dear father to speak to them.
"Your mother, my sweet Anna," the man pauses to wipe at the tears collecting in his eyes. Strong on the battle field the man was, but when it came to his love he was hopeless.
"She wasn't able to tell you how proud and how much she loved all of you. I could tell, just by the smile she was still wearing in the morning, how much she loved us."
A sniffle rings out strong and true in the stuffy room. Though he couldn't decided which of the children it came from, it could have even been him.
"But I can. I will tell you how happy and proud you all have made me. I could never ask for a better family. I want all of you to know this. Love each other and keep close. When I'm gone don't be sad, I'm meeting your mother in Heaven. And we'll be there waiting for you."
"Papa… Don't speak like this, you're not going anywhere." The young girl drops to the man's bed twisting her hands into the fabric.
"Jennifer I have to. You'll understand when you're my age. When Michael passes on," the old man smirks to the blonde's husband standing at her side. "You'll understand that there is no choice. He will call for you and you will come."
Jennifer's husband collects her from the bed and crushes the woman to his chest whispering something the old man can't hear.
"We love you. Just know that."
"We do Pop. We love you too." The old man nods to his eldest son, most of his energy was lost in the speech. He was never used to talking for the both of them. His wife always had plenty to say, leaving him to give the children hugs or a strong hand to the back of their skull.
The nod seemed to be an indicator to his children that he was tired again, and they slowly left the room after saying their declarations of love.
Gwen comes around past the balding son to fix her father's bed sheets mussed by her brothers and sister. "Do think you could eat something Papa?"
"I don't need to. I just need to sleep." The woman was the oldest child of the couple. She was the apple of her father's eye, the moon and stars to her mother. She was their first manifestation of their love, more would follow of course, but Gwen was their first.
It came with a price, being the oldest meant she had strong understanding of her parents. She knew what they expected of her and she did her best to give them just that.
The old man collected his strength and pulled his daughter's hand from the sheets up to his cracked lips. "You'll have to keep them all together."
"I always have." A tear rolls down her cheeks as she leans down to kiss her father's forehead. "You just find mom up there."
"I don't think the Devil himself could stop me." The man gives a weak laugh and settles back into the bed he's shared with his wife for over fifty years.
"Don't let anything stop you."
Those are the last words he hears from his precious daughter, the fruit of his love.
His eyes feel heavy, like someone else is pulling them closed. With them closed he can see her, in his mind he can see her. Young and beautiful, her white gown flipping in the breeze; her voice full of honey and spice, calling to him.
"Don't be afraid. We can't be afraid."
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Bodies will fade and decay. Souls are something constant.
After a soul's body is returned to the Earth a soul searches for a new one, something to call home.
Souls can be imprinted by another, they have memories, though few bodies are able to understand all the wisdom a soul possesses. Many ideas of previous lives escape the new body, but there is one that the body can understand. It's simple and driving.
Love.
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"Mommy I don't wanta go. I just wanta stay home! I'll be good I promise!" A tiny blonde girl with freshly braided pig tails jumps up and down on her bed, refusing her mother's pleas.
"Brittany sweetie, you have to go to school." Her mother sighs and runs a hand through her messy blonde hair.
"I went yesterday and it was terrible!" The girl crosses her arms mid air and drops down onto her butt.
"Well maybe you should try and make a friend today instead of coloring all by yourself." The girl's mother was informed of her daughter's previous day from the teacher. Brittany had yet to make any friends, but it was only the second day of school.
"But-"
"Brittany Susan Pierce," her mother stood like a giant. The image silenced the little girl, but didn't deter her from pouting at her mother's shoes. "That's better."
Her mother held out the yellow book bag they picked out a few days ago. Yesterday Brittany was happy to strap the bag to her back, but today it felt heavier. She didn't make any friends yesterday, she was too afraid of new faces.
The two blondes walked outside and down the street to the bus stop. "You'll make a friend today, I'm sure of it."
Brittany didn't say anything; she didn't want her mom to be mad again. If mommy was mad, that just made dad more mad when he got home.
"Juila, good morning!" Brittany studied the other children hanging around the bus stop with their parents.
"Good morning Susan."
"I didn't see you here yesterday morning."
"Oh well Mikey didn't want to ride the bus on his first day. But today he is." The woman pulled the dark haired boy from behind her. "Manners Mike." The boy mumbles out a good morning and Brittany remembers the boy now. They went to the same pre-school over the summer.
"Hi Mike!" Brittany pulls her hand from her mother's hold to wave at the boy. Mike smiles back and shyly offers her a bite of his apple.
"Well it looks like we have bus buddies here." Brittany ignores her mother and takes a bite of the apple. With the piece of sweet fruit in her mouth, suddenly school doesn't seem so bad to Brittany.
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Brittany remembers why she didn't notice Mike yesterday. It was because they didn't share the same classroom. Meaning she couldn't share crayons with him, or milk boxes, or pushes on the swings.
It was lunch time now, so that meant it was closer to leaving. The sooner the better.
The boy sitting next to Brittany pokes her in the side, and before she can complain the teacher calls out her name. Ms. Jacobs, Brittany would think that she's pretty if she didn't hate her, was standing at the door.
"Brittany your milk partner is already outside waiting for your help." She huffs as she kicks back her chair. Apparently the teacher was too lazy to bring everybody their milk, so she picked two students to go out in the hall to the cooler and collect the twenty three cartons of milk.
Another teacher, Brittany doesn't know his name, was standing in the hall holding a crate for her. She remembers seeing a few of the crates in her older cousin's room, but they were for a table not for milk. She doesn't really know what else to say other than thank you. "Count out twelve cartons of chocolate milk."
She nods and walks down the hall with him to the cooler where another girl from her class is already pulling out cartons.
The brown haired girl caused trouble yesterday, Brittany remembers that. The girl threw beads at another girl for singing too loud. Which yeah, the girl was singing really loud, but Brittany thought that an entire bowl of beads was what her dad called an over-reaction.
The memory makes her hesitate getting any closer to the rowdy girl. "Are you gonna help or not? I can take them all if you just want to stand there and stare." The girl turned around, her brown hair swooshing over her shoulder, and stuffed something into the pocket of her dungarees.
Not wanting to make the other girl angry, Brittany jumps next to her at the cooler and counts out the cartons into her crate. She can feel the girl watching her, and though she usually feels nervous under someone's gaze, she doesn't mind it. Not that it isn't weird, because the girl is literally standing stock still and staring at her. Finally she picks up the full crate and starts to walk down the hall.
"That's not enough. You're supposed to get twelve." The man nods at her, motioning to get another from the cooler. But before she can the girl pulls out a chocolate milk and drops it into Brittany's crate.
"There, you missed one." The girl picks up her crate and walks along side of Brittany back to the classroom. "If it's too heavy I could carry some. You have more than me."
"Thanks, but I got it." Brittany smiles, maybe this girls isn't so bad.
Ms. Jacobs takes the crates from them once they get back into the classroom. Brittany sits back at her desk group. The three other kids, the singing girl and two boys, greet her when she pulls out her chair. She almost forgets to say something back because she's busy watching the brown eyed girl bully a boy at her desk group. Brittany frowns at the girl, and the girl in question makes eye contact and settles down into her chair after releasing the boy's bowtie.
Their teacher tells them to go get their lunches from their cubbies and it's a bit like a mad house. Brittany thinks it's a good thing that her cubbie is close to her desk so she doesn't have to push through everyone else to get to her lunchbox.
Just as she's pulling out her crunchy peanut and strawberry jelly sandwich, the milk slash bead throwing girl stops at her desk.
"Uh, hi." Brittany nervously stammers out while she tries to figure out why the girl is shuffling on her feet. And why it bothers her so much that the girl is nervous around her.
"Here." A carton of apple juice is thrust into her face. "I saw you eating an apple at the bus stop and I thought maybe you would want it, so yeah. You can drink it if you want."
Before she can muster up a polite thank you the girl is gone, disappeared to the other side of the room. She can't help but smile as she opens the carton of apple juice. Juice is probably the best thing ever.
"Why do you get juice?" The loud girl beside her complains, and it catches the teacher's attention. "I want a juice too. My dads say that juice helps you dance. I do a lot of dancing, so I need a juice."
"Rachel calm down. Brittany did you steal that from the cooler?"
"No I someone gave it to me."
"Brittany stealing is bad. Lying to cover up stealing is worse. You'll finish your lunch with me at my desk, and you'll sleep by yourself at nap time." Ms. Jacobs takes the half empty juice box and walks away. No room for argument or truth.
Brittany glares at the brown eyed girl who watched the whole scene unfold. The girl just sat there and watched Brittany get in trouble for something she didn't do. Well Brittany did drink the juice, but that's because the girl gave it to her. She didn't steal it, the other girl did.
After eating her lunch in silence at Ms. Jacobs desk, she was instructed to roll out her mat in the corner. Laying her head down facing the wall, she felt more alone than she would have in the middle of her fellow students. Maybe she didn't know anyone in class other than the loud girl and the mean brown haired girl, but at least she would have been next to people.
She glances over to Ms. Jacobs desk, where the lady was playing games on the computer instead of taking a nap. For a second she thinks she'd be able to sneak over to everyone else, but she decides against it. She doesn't want to get in more trouble.
A noise at her back causes her to twist around and bang her head on the ground. "What are you doing?" Brittany is sure to keep her voice down, there's a no talking rule during nap time.
"I didn't want you to be by yourself because of me."
"Well you shouldn't of gave me that juice."
"I thought you woulda liked it…" The sound of the girl's voice and the way she stares down at her blue plastic mat dissolves Brittany's anger towards the girl. Brittany realizes that she was just trying to be nice. She didn't know that it would get Brittany in trouble.
"I did." Brittany relaxes against her mat. Her mom did tell her to make friends, and this girl was trying to be nice to her so Brittany should try too.
"I'm sorry."
"It's ok." Brittany puts a smile on her face, if only to make the other girl smile.
"No it's not. I promise that will never happen again."
Brittany doesn't understand what the girl meant. She's never going to give her another juice? Brittany's internal debate must of shown on her face because the girl elaborated.
"I promise that I'll never make you sad again." Brittany looked into the girls eyes; the color of her dad's morning coffee, and it was like she's been here before.
"Pinky promise?" She lifted her hand between herself and the girl to offer her pinky.
The girl stared at her for a second and then smiled as she curled her small finger around Brittany's. "Pinky promise."
The girl guided their hands down into the space between them on the floor. She stared down at their pinkies. The other girl's skin was much darker than hers; it was kinda neat seeing the two colors together. Then Brittany realized that they'd been like this for a while. Brittany wasn't sure how long you were supposed to keep your fingers locked to seal a promise. But this seemed like a big important one, so it would probably take a while.
The other girl seemed to have the same thought since she wasn't pulling away, but when Brittany looked up to the girl's face she was already sleep. Having the girl next to her, watching the little puffs of air toss around her brown hair, pulled Brittany into her own dreamland. It was nice having someone to sleep next to.
Once Brittany got off the bus she barreled towards her mother. Her pig tails bounced around her head as she raced over. She almost forgot to wave goodbye to Mike and her new friend. She stopped for a second to search for the brown haired girl in the small crowd, but she already disappeared around the corner.
"Hey sweetie, how was your day?" At her mother's voice her thoughts shifted to everything that happened.
"You'll never guess what happened today!" Brittany grabbed her mom's hand and pulled her down the sidewalk.
"Did you make a new friend?"
"Yes! She gave me a juice box, but then I got in trouble because we're not supposed to have juice at lunch. I was mad for a little bit, but then she's really nice and we pushed each other on the swings. And she said that we're best friends now."
Her mother chose to look past the juice box incident that somehow got her daughter in trouble. Instead she asked for the name of girl Brittany couldn't stop talking about.
"It's… uh I forgot to ask her." Her mom just laughs, there was a period in Brittany's life where she couldn't remember whether to tie her shoes before or after she put them on.
"Well be sure to ask her tomorrow. How else are we supposed to invite her over to play?"
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TBC
AN: I'm going to highlight a few events in Brittany's life. Hopefully this won't take too long. And I'm sorry for how sappy the soulmate stuff was. That's what I was trying to get across without saying it. You know, how Brittana's end game and stuff.