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 37th cycle. Now cycle 38!

PRE-CHRISTMAS NON-CHRISTMAS: It's already my third holiday season of Gleekathon, woo! So happy about that :D Anyhoo, just to explain what I'm doing for it this year: How it goes is I always have a set of stories with Christmas-y titles but non-Christmas-y plots, so to give an air of the season but not too much ;) First year was '12 Days of Christmas', last year was 'Reindeer'. This year's theme is "Christmas Movies" :) It'll run from December 8th to 19th, after which I have a slightly bigger undertaking to take us to Christmas Eve... PRE-CHRISTMAS: And now from December 20th to 24th, a five-part story, Christmas indeed! :D CHRISTMAS! I think that about covers it ;)

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"White Christmas"
Sue, Glee Club, Will
[Sylvesters Series - Direct sequel to 'A Christmas Carol']

It wouldn't have seemed likely that the Glee Club would find itself celebrating Christmas… with the enemy. Coach Sylvester had been doing a fine job of making their life difficult and kind of miserable at times, the most recent strike having been her massacre of the choir room, under the cover of night. So at first when she had attempted to recruit them for 'holiday festivities at Schuester's house,' they were… hesitant at best. But then Brittany, and Santana, and Quinn were all on board… Even knowing how they had started off as Sue's spies among their ranks, that was in the past, so if they were trusting her, then maybe it was worth considering.

In the end they had agreed – somewhat reluctantly – and preparations had begun. It was going to be something of a makeshift Christmas, potluck… Some people provided decorations, from their own stocks, others volunteered food both brought and prepared, and every last one of them provided at least one present that was to be donated. Sue provided the tree.

That was the easy part. What had been harder had been the fact that they had to go, that they had to be absent from home and from their families, some of them missing on gatherings they were meant to attend. Some of their parents had been harder to convince, others understood much more easily… this was their Mr. Schue, and for him it was all absolutely worth it. They would promise that they would be home as soon as possible, that in missing a few hours they would still be back in time for part of it.

When they got to Will's apartment – quickly forcing themselves to ignore the fact that Coach Sylvester had a key – they immediately got to work. They started decorating the tree, looking to the food and the presents… It seemed the Coach wasn't actually screwing with them, that she meant what she'd said and that she was there to celebrate with them. What could have allowed for this turnaround, they had no idea, and they weren't about to question it.

"Did she tell you anything?" Rachel still had to ask the Cheerios, whispering behind the tree. There was a discreet run of looks from Santana and Quinn over to Brittany.

"I don't ask myself what makes that woman do what she does," Santana shrugged it off, taking a box of ornaments from her and moving off, nudging Brittany to come along. Quinn watched them go before turning back to Rachel. The girl definitely had the right idea, asking the trio. The other two would know what Brittany told them, as they were the rare exception who knew her family secret, and they would know about the rift, the holiday truce… and Brittany's request to her mother.

"Guess it's the holidays for everyone," she shrugged before moving along as well.

Before long they were all set, and all they needed was for the man of the house to arrive and be surprised. They all hid, waiting for Coach Sylvester's whistled signal to enter. Finally it came, and to enter and see the look on their teacher's face, it proved the choice to leave their families behind as the right one. He was part of their world, their family, just like the rest…

The spirits were high throughout the next few hours. Yes, there were certain things that could have made this time a bit problematic, like Coach Sylvester's presence, Rachel and Finn's recent breakup, Kurt's absence now that he'd transferred to Dalton… but on that night they found it so much easier to just focus on the good… there had been so much of that, too.

Mike was the first to start considering his return home, having been strictly instructed on not taking too long. Tina had decided to go with him, so they could ride together, and so she'd gone to the window to look and see how the street looked. "Guys?" she called out, still looking outside.

"What's wrong?" Will asked.

"Depends on your definition of wrong, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to go out there right now…" Everyone got up and packed in at the windows, and then they saw too…

"Where did it all come from?" Sam blinked as they took in the snow that blanketed every surface in sight and coming down so hard it was a wonder they could see a thing…

"This is not good…" Lauren shook her head.

"So much for making it home early," Mercedes added.

"But I promised my mother…" Finn shook his head. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Yeah, that's the kind of talk you hear in horror and disaster movies before everything just goes to hell," Puck pointed out.

"At least we still…" Rachel started, and then stopped when she saw the look Santana gave her. "Right, forget I said anything," she quieted down.

"We usually do," Santana nodded.

"Right, let's settle down for a second," Will called them to attention.

"Yeah, can't believe I'm saying this, but he's right," Sue added, and they turned to look at her, like they'd almost forgotten she was there. True, for the most part that evening all she'd done was sit by quietly, but still it took them by surprise to hear her voice for a moment.

"Yes… Thank you…" Will looked to her before turning to the kids. "I know you all want to get home, but I'm sure your parents wouldn't want you all risking your lives to do it. So we'll see how it looks first. Just stay here, I'll be right back." He grabbed his coat and boots and then he was out the door. There was silence at first, and then Quinn had the thought to check on television. Though Santana had interrupted Rachel from actually saying it, there was a shared concern that they would lose power and be stuck in the cold and in the dark like this…

When Will returned, he found twelve gloomy faces… and Sue. Whatever he was going to tell them, they already knew and then some… They were stuck, couldn't leave.

"This isn't going to turn into some kind of survival, cannibal kind of thing, is it?" Rachel panicked. Across the room, Lauren turned her head and found Santana staring at her.

"Walk away, walk away," she pointed her finger at her and Santana smirked, moving closer to Brittany, who in turn moved closer to Artie.

"See this is why I have the bullhorn," Sue looked to Will. "But since I haven't brought it…" she brought her whistle to her lips and let it ring, quieting the kids again. "Everyone sit down, now," she ordered, and they did as told with very little fuss. "Alright. This could take hours, so let's not become that kind of people. We'll sit here, and we'll wait. It's Christmas, right?" Brittany silently nodded, looking at her with a smile. The others were not as relaxed by the words. They looked back to the cheerleading coach like she'd sprouted a new head that was all smiles.

There wasn't much else to do though, so they did what they could. They got back to sitting together, talking. As any decent Glee Club would, there were a few instances of them breaking into song to pass the time. They thought for sure they'd get interrupted by Sue a few times, but she never did, and they could swear sometimes she'd even joined in. It wasn't so bad in the end, once they didn't worry so much about the getting home part, and focused instead on what had brought them there in the first place, which was to spend time together, with Mr. Schuester. One thing was for sure: they'd gotten their wish.

Of course after a while even that wasn't enough to hold them. The talk then turned to Christmas, with their families, about best memories, and it got people talking. It started with Finn. "When I was little, I'd try and stay up, so I could catch Santa when he'd come. Then my mom would come and stay up with me. Eventually I'd fall asleep though, and when I'd wake up, he'd already gone by, or s…" he stopped, remembering Brittany sitting nearby, so he didn't clarify that of course 'Santa' was his mother.

"I used to be scared of him," Tina chimed in. "One year my mother took me to the mall to go talk to him, and the whole way she says I just went on and on about what I'd tell him, and then when we got there, after we'd waited in line for a while, I saw him and I just froze, begged to go home."

"I love Christmas morning," Brittany spoke, and Sue's eyes tried not to go to her, knowing immediately what she was going to talk about. "I have breakfast with my mother, before we open presents… It's kind of the best part," she was grinning, noting the coach was very intently scratching her nose, the rest of her hand obscuring her face.

"I used to go carolling…" Quinn spoke up. "With my parents and my sister… I kind of used to hate it… Now part of me misses it…" she looked down, and Sam at her side took her hand. It brought the conversation to a grinding halt, so after a moment of extended silence, Sue decided she might as well pitch in, even if she'd rather not.

"Christmas starts on December 1st in my house," she declared, getting all eyes on her, which allowed Brittany across the room to just smile on. "Sometimes it doesn't seem like I do, but… I guess I really do kind of… love this time of the year," she admitted, her face giving a sense of 'if this doesn't stay between us I'll come after everything you love.' But at least it got them all talking again.

It would be into the wee hours of the morning before they could tempt heading home. They were dropped off in two cars, Will's and Sue's, rather than being sent on their own. Brittany was the last left in Sue's car. After they'd driven off, after a bit of silence, Sue could sense her eyes on her. "Merry Christmas, Mom," the words followed, and Sue looked over at her.

"Merry Christmas."

THE END

COUNTDOWN TO 801: 6 DAYS!

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!