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 31st cycle. Now cycle 32!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

"Strangers in a Strange Town"
AU!Jesse, Rachel, Quinn, AU!Jesse/Quinn
#18 (Sequel to "Welcome to the New Order")

Rachel had to keep reminding herself why she was doing this. Of course, she knew… She didn't want to be sent back to a place where her family was broken up, even if it meant having to make up the ground she'd lost by going from Vocal Adrenaline star down to New Directions loser… She'd done it before; she could do it again.

Her one issue now though was having to play third wheel. The other two, the love birds, had been reunited. None of them had any idea how it had happened – if they did then they wouldn't even be having this problem – but then they were together again, so… She imagined it had to have been awkward for them, having to be around people who looked just like them but weren't actually them… Not that she'd tell them that; this wasn't share time around the campfire.

Except maybe being around her dads – both of them together – was making her soft. She had long held the belief that once you were at the top of something then you had to dig your claws in and be… unremoveable. That was her, with her talent, her success with Vocal Adrenaline… She made no apologies for it, and why should she, really?

But then having her fathers break up, that had played into it, too. It changed her, and even she could recognize that. She hated having to live in two places, hated most of all how neither place felt like home… The only thing that still felt real to her, as it always had, was singing, dancing, performing… and as such she had given it the most of herself, pulling further away from her fathers. It wasn't until she came here and she had them together again that she realized how much she missed them.

But there were three of them in this now, and the other two didn't share her fondness for this universe. They wanted to get back to the place where they belonged, together… In here it would have raised so many flags to put their relationship on display. Never mind the fact that their social connection was very slim, there was that whole business of what this other Jesse had done to their version of Rachel. He had to explain all of this to their Quinn after her arrival, though she already knew some of it from having spent time with that other, 'rougher' Jesse. There was a thought about transferring to McKinley, but apparently he'd already done that before… or the other him had… Trying to keep track of everything was bordering on migraine-sized confusion.

They understood the bit about having to play the part though, about not showing they were together… Didn't mean they had to like it. Between their respective schools and Glee Clubs, it didn't leave a lot of time, even less if they factored in the time trying to figure out how to get home. So what they did have they spent well, with the promise they'd be home soon enough.

At the very least, Quinn's distrust of Rachel – which had not taken long to emerge – apparently came off as genuine enough to pass for whatever state this world's Rachel and Quinn's relationship was in. Maybe the balance was a bit off but either no one noticed of they didn't care. Quinn couldn't let her go though; she was a part of this, for better or for worse, and Quinn knew things would fall apart without her. She was more resourceful than they could anticipate, and they'd need that.

With the two Quinns switched, they now found themselves guideless… They knew some things by now, of course, but not nearly enough. One bad move, one question answered wrong, and they would be exposed. They didn't know what would happen, but they didn't think any good would come of it. So now they had to be careful, but they couldn't draw attention to themselves… easier said than done when everything had to appear normal. No matter what they did, one side would end up exposed somehow. Being under the radar all in the open seemed more trouble than it was worth, which only made – some of – them want to get home faster.

Jesse wasn't doing much better of a job of it, back at Carmel, and he was strongly considering doing something, anything, so he'd get suspended or expelled… Well, maybe not expelled; he wouldn't do that to the other Jesse. But at least a nice little suspension would take him out of that place. It would minimize the damage he did to the guy's life and give him more time to try and find a way home, so really how was it not a great idea? But then what could he do, as their golden boy, that would be bad enough to suspend but not so much that they'd go so far as expulsion?

The three of them gathered that afternoon at Quinn's place, where Rachel dropped the news on them. "I'll help you go, but I'm staying."

"What?" Quinn blinked. "Wait, hold on, you can't do that…"

"Why not?" Rachel dared.

"Well what about her? The other Rachel… It's her world, not yours, and what if she can't come back…"

"Okay, hold on," Jesse cut in, and the girls stared at him. He hesitated for a moment, having their attention. "We do need to go back…" he started, getting a nod from Quinn and a frown from Rachel. "But… we're not leaving you hanging either. So if we can all get back, then maybe we can fix things between your dads, maybe… maybe the other Rachel will fix it for you, I don't know… But maybe you're here to see how things could be…" She didn't speak. "So what do you say? In or out?"

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!