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 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!
INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet
** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!
This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: The Cautionary Tale of Lucy Collins, chapter 2.
"Births & Rebirths"
(Older) Quinn & Brittany/Santana
Trinity series (following Idle-Handed Breaker (and Lonesome Dove))
Quinn waited for them at the gates. As good as it had been to have some time to herself, in the end she couldn't wait to get the two of them back. They were a unit, even if at their core they were a couple and she was… well, the third wheel. They were the Trinity for a reason, not just that they were three, it went deeper than that. Those two were as good as sisters to her, even more than her own sister at times. And now after the honeymoon, they were coming back.
She heard them before she saw them, or at least she heard Brittany as she called her name. She turned and there they were, relaxed to the max after the vacation in Italy. Brittany looked like a kid, needing to get out of the throng of people moving down the line so she could get to her friend. Santana followed behind, smirking at her wife's giddiness.
"You guys look great, hi!" Quinn beamed as the taller blonde dove into her arms.
"So do you! You look relaxed, too," Brittany commented. "What did you do?"
"Or who?" Santana stepped up, smirking.
"Ha ha," Quinn glared sarcastically before moving to hug her as well. "Come on, let's go home."
The ride home had been filled with stories from the trip back, at the airport, on the plane, the layover, and then the second plane… Santana had plenty to complain about, though the others took it in with a smirk. Listening to them, it was hard to imagine any time had passed from the days where they walked the halls of McKinley High, just regular girls out of Lima, Ohio. But then that wouldn't last… they all had important things to discuss, things regarding their second lives, their true business.
"You know, I wouldn't have thought it but it's good to be home," Santana breathed as they came down the hall toward the door.
"Okay but you know you're not getting through that door if you didn't bring me back a souvenir," Quinn teased.
"Oh, damn, I knew we forgot something!" Santana intoned. "Well, we do have a couple things we could always part with, I mean… there's these shoes, I think they're your size…"
"Mine, done, taken," Quinn tugged her arm with a laugh.
It would have been easy to just sit and do nothing now that they were finally home, but then they decided they might as well take care of the luggage. They were standing about, sorting through the suitcases and bags, when Brittany looked to Santana, silently asking if they could bring up what they had to tell Quinn, the news that they had received while they were on their honeymoon. Santana looked back to their roommate, then turned to her wife and nodded with a smile. Brittany pointed to herself and then to Santana: I say it or you say it?
"What are you two up to?" Quinn interrupted this. Brittany hesitated, looking to Santana, who just nodded to her: you go for it. Brittany smiled.
"Well, we have… news."
"News?" Quinn repeated, curious. By the smile on their faces it was hard to imagine this could be anything but good news.
"Thing is it could… would affect what the three of us do, you know? It's just… no matter what, it's not something we would change our mind about." Quinn sat on the edge of the bed, the two of them facing her as they sat on the other end.
"Okay, what is it?" she asked, now more confused than anything.
"Well… we're going to have a baby," Brittany announced, and Quinn froze, surprised.
"Sweetie, rewind, we're not there yet," Santana reminded. "Can I?" Brittany nodded, so Santana turned to Quinn. "We started talking about it a while back, not sure how long, only that we knew it was what we wanted," she smiled back to Brittany. "We wanted to have a family. When we met up with you, it wasn't something we were ready for, but it was an eventuality. Then all this with us and Trinity started, so we put it off. Then we got engaged and the talk came back. Then the wedding happened, and Javi…"
"What about him?" Quinn asked.
"We asked him if he would be our donor, basically… his sperm, Britt's egg…" Santana explained, and Brittany clinched it.
"Half Lopez, half Pierce," she smiled, matched by Santana. Quinn, hearing it all for the first time, looked to be fighting back a relapse of the weepiness that had blindsided her at the wedding.
"I like the sound of that," she told them, hoping to keep her voice steady, which only amused the other two. "Okay, but how would it work, with…" Santana had seen the question coming, and she half raised her hand. "Wow…" Quinn smirked, then at Santana's look, "Just imagining you pregnant right now, don't mind me."
"Well we're not there yet, but… Javi said yes," she revealed, and just as when she'd told Brittany, getting to say those words made her smile so hard.
"So obviously, it'll affect the three of us, once we are 'there,'" Brittany followed.
"Don't worry about it," Quinn shook her head, more than overjoyed for them.
"But what is it going to mean, in the long run… Is this it? Are we done?" Brittany asked, sadly, and the others considered her question in silence.
"I might still be able to do it, at first… I mean, let's face it, once we get somewhere, I just get in my little corner with my equipment, I wouldn't…" Santana tried to reason.
"No way," Brittany refused immediately.
"You could still get caught, still get hurt, I mean remember this?" Quinn tapped to her arm, where she'd been shot. Santana's shudder of memory could be seen. "And it won't be just you anymore."
"Then we'll get a van, and I won't go in. It's good enough for spies and feds, it's good enough for us," she declared. They paused. "What about after though? When there's the baby, and we have to leave him or her behind when we go in there… What if we don't come out, get caught or…" The silence hung heavier. They could all remember, with the time Quinn had ended up getting shot, the way they'd felt the true potential for danger that existed in this job.
"Then we shouldn't both go in at once," Brittany looked to Santana, breathed deep.
Hearing them talk, Quinn couldn't help but remember the conversation she'd had with Rachel. She had been right about all of it, of course she was. Quinn knew this, and yet there was nothing to hold her back. But then here were her two best friends, discussing the very things that rightfully could stand in their way about carrying on this secret life. And as for her, she supposed if things with her and Spencer were ever to continue to progress, even more than they already had in the last few weeks…
"Something you should know," she decided now was as good of a time as any to bring it up. Santana and Brittany looked to her. "Rachel knows… about us, about Trinity."
"What?" Santana blinked. "Since when? How?"
"The wedding. She tripped the door in the closet, found your stash…" Quinn revealed. "There was no burying it, so… I told her."
"And?" Brittany asked.
"She won't tell," Quinn promised, and the answer she didn't give was as telling as the one she did.
"So she didn't take it well," Santana declared.
"Not really, no," Quinn confirmed.
"Doesn't matter what happens," Brittany spoke up after a beat, and the others looked to her. "We'll always be Trinity," she announced, like a countermeasure to the talks of endings, of danger, to instead remind them of the existence of hope. It soothed them all, and so they decided to put these talks to silence for now. There was no immediate need to change a thing.
THE END
PLEASE READ: This summer, July 17th will be Day 1000 of Gleekathon!
As such, of course, I'll want to do something special for it.
If you have ideas or suggestions or anything, with regards to that,
please send them my way, preferably in a private message,
but if not then whatever way is convenient for you.
I'd really appreciate it, you know I like to involve you guys :D
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!
