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 57th cycle. Now cycle 58!

This is a shift day. There are two updates today.

"Tongue Untied"
Sue & Brittany, Santana, B/S
Sylvesters series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Sue was no more than five minutes away from going and interrogating the woman at the counter once again as to what was the hold up for her daughter's plane to arrive, but then the screen had changed, and she saw that the flight was coming in. She had gone and waited at the gate, and finally the door had opened and the passengers had started coming through. If she'd ever been glad that her daughter was both tall and excitable, it was now. She spotted her right away, as Brittany was looking for her as well. The moment she could break from the crowd, the blonde had dashed over, dropped her bags and embraced her mother, this time very nearly knocking her off her feet. Sue laughed, all the better not to go and cry for all to see. Inside she did cry, for joy, because her girl was home.

Once they had parted and headed to their cars, it was just her and Brittany again, driving home where Brittany would remain for the next few weeks. Already in the car Sue was quick to discover that her daughter had more than picked up the English accent in her two weeks across the pond. When Sue had mentioned it to her, Brittany had smiled. "I can't seem to stop…" she declared, and Sue couldn't argue with that… If she didn't know just how much she'd missed her daughter, now she was certain.

And if that wasn't bad enough, their time apart had made her wonder what would it be like after she left high school, went on with her life… Her baby girl was growing up, and maybe it was that they'd never spent so much time apart, where she couldn't just drive and go see her, but it had all really started dawning on her. Between that and the knowledge that she wanted them to move on from this secret of theirs… Soon her daughter would be an adult, with her own life, and if she couldn't be her mother in public, then how long would it be before they hardly saw each other anymore? If she went and got married, had children of her own, would she get to be their grandmother?

They'd arrived at the house, and Brittany looked at it like she hadn't seen it in forever. The moment they had walked through the door, she had stopped, feeling something different. "Are we in the right place?"

"I may have done some cleaning while you were away," Sue revealed.

"Cleaning?"

"Maybe a bit of redecorating," she added. "Reorganizing…"

"Where are the trophies?"

"Moved them," Sue nodded.

"All of them?" Brittany walked and looked around.

"Most."

They have carried the suitcases and bags up to her room, where Sue watched Brittany start to unpack. She would put the dirty clothes here, the souvenirs there… She could tell which ones were hers by the way Brittany tried to keep her from seeing them yet. Once she had them, and her camera, she had turned back to her mother with a grin.

"Okay, I'm ready," she announced. If she was tired at all, it wasn't showing, so Sue took a seat with her on the bed. After briefly frowning at it, Brittany had finally handed the camera over. "First day, the arrival," she narrated, and Sue looked at her. She was going to tell the whole thing…

It had taken nearly two hours, with Sue manning the camera, flipping through the images, while Brittany told her about their trip. Under any other circumstance she might have gotten tired after the first ten minutes, but then she hadn't seen her daughter in two weeks. So she sat, and she listened to every word, as Brittany and her new accent rolled through the story of the Pierces' two-week vacation. When she finished, she picked up the two bags sitting at her feet.

"This is for you. Don't open it yet," she begged.

"Alright," Sue agreed.

"Is it okay if I go out for a couple of hours?" Brittany asked, like she wasn't sure if she should go, seeing as she had only just returned.

"Santana?" Sue guessed, and Brittany blinked, nodded. "Go," she smiled, and Brittany kissed her cheek.

"Okay, open them after I go," she instructed before moving to her souvenir loot and picking out a few items. She put them in a bag and then she was on her way. Once she was gone, Sue had opened the first bag, looked inside… and she laughed.

New York and Nationals had been good for her and Santana in the end. She didn't know exactly where they were with each other right now, but one thing was for certain, they had never been this good before. There were two people she had missed like crazy in these two weeks. One had been her mother, and the other was Santana. Now that she was back, she needed to touch base with both, so after telling her mother about her time in England, all she could think about was getting to see Santana.

She had texted to let her know she was on her way, so she wasn't surprised when she rang the bell and it was Santana who answered. "Hi…" she breathed, moving to hold on to her.

"Welcome back," Santana breathed, squeezing back.

"I've missed you so much…"

"Missed you, too," Santana promised. "What's with the accent?" she smirked.

"I can't stop it," Brittany frowned.

"I don't entirely mind it," Santana admitted. "It's giving me ideas."

"What kind of ideas?" Brittany smiled.

"Come on, you just got here," Santana closed the door and led her up to her room. "Had fun with your dad and the rest of them?"

"Loads," Brittany confirmed. "And I got you a few things," she went on, sitting on the ground and pulling her bag open as Santana joined her. "Smelled this, thought of you," she first presented her with a small bottle. Santana sniffed it and smiled. "You said you wanted a little bus, got you one," she handed this to her next, which got her a laugh in return. She'd sort of been joking, but now she was glad to have it. "Couple other things, but you can look later."

"I will," Santana promised. "Thank you," she had looked her in the eye, and this had gotten her a kiss in return. "Missed that, too," she admitted.

Looking at her, all Brittany wanted to do was kiss her again, and she had to wonder… All she'd ever wanted, as soon as she'd gotten off that plane, was to see both of them, her mother and her friend-almost-girlfriend. But now that she sat here, having told her vacation story once and preparing to tell it again, it made her think if this was always how it would be, hiding one person from the other. Santana knew that Sue was her mother, but her mother didn't know Santana was her… almost-girlfriend, and for that reason she was keeping two of the most important parts of her life separate. If it stayed that way forever…

"Okay," she took out her camera, letting out a breath. "First day, the arrival…"

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!