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 39th cycle. Now cycle 40!
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** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 40 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days, starting in cycle 40!
This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: Tender Love & Care: chapter 6.
"Woke the Dragon"
Alternate!Rachel, Jesse, Quinn, Alternate!Brittany
Berry-St #24 (following "Not Home Just Yet" / "Unaccompanied Minors")
There had been a moment, somewhere between when she'd finally surrendered to the urge to sleep, in one world, and then woken with a start, in another. It lasted barely a second, if that, and she didn't remember it right away. She woke up, pissed off and like someone had rammed adrenaline in her heart, and when she saw that, just as she'd feared, she was back in her own world, all she wanted was to get away.
She'd stalked away, out of Brittany's room, and when she saw the open door to the bathroom she had gone in. She locked the door, looked around… She couldn't stand still, couldn't think… She let the faucet run cold water, splashed it to her face, the back of her neck, hoping it would wake her, calm her, do something… She breathed deep, splashed again before looking up in the mirror.
She jumped back, like she'd touched something and gotten static shocked. The memory was brief, but her senses had treated it with caution and fear before she could even begin to process it. It was lost just as fast as it had come, but she still knew it had to do with her displacement… She kept looking at her reflection, trying to call it back, but it was too late.
"Rachel?" There was a knock at the door – it was Quinn. She turned to look at the door, back to the mirror… One instant and the memory was gone. She closed her eyes, pulling her hair together with an elastic off the bathroom counter to keep wet strands from plastering to her face. "Rachel, can we please talk?"
"I've got nothing to say to you."
"Look, it's not like we had any say in this, it just happened. But you're here now so you can help us go back, too."
"You tell them what we've been doing, okay? You tell them we're trying. I know you don't want this, but we can't stop it."
The other Quinn's words resonated in her mind, but she wouldn't have them. "Forget it," she told this Quinn as she opened the door to find her, Jesse, and Brittany standing there. "I'm out," she declared, marching toward the stairs.
"No, wait a second," Quinn hasn't thrown so easily, and Rachel could hear the other two's footfalls following behind as the blonde pursued her. "You can't just leave…"
"I can just," Rachel reached for the front door, but Quinn was quicker, slipping in to slam the door back shut. "Get out of my way," Rachel faced her off.
"Or what?" Quinn didn't budge. "Let me tell you something, if the other version of me has given you the impression that I am not ready to deal with you right now, let's just clear this up, okay?" She gave a smile that covered exactly what she had described.
"Try me," Rachel wasn't backing down, though there was a flicker of hesitation. "Get out of my way," she tried for the knob again and Quinn's hand closed around her wrist.
"Oh no…" Brittany's gasp was barely heard as Rachel both tried to pull her hand free and pushed at Quinn's shoulder at the same time. Quinn wasn't so easy to shake though.
"This isn't just about you!" Quinn glared. "We know it sucks what's going on with your dads, but we also have homes to get back to, and we need all the help we can get!" she struggled for words as Rachel still tried to get away.
"Well good for you but I was fine where I was!" Quinn, who had been pinned at the door, pushed to make Rachel back up. The momentum very nearly knocked her over and in that distraction Quinn's grasp slipped, allowing Rachel to free herself and spring for the door, but by then it was Brittany who'd taken up the door blocking, looking like she wasn't sure why she was doing this.
"Please don't go?" she tried.
"Grow up!" Quinn threw to Rachel, who turned back to look at her, then to Jesse.
"What, no pleas from you?" she panted.
"Why, I don't need you," he shrugged. The two blondes turned to him, one livid and the other confused, while Rachel looked triumphant.
"Finally someone who makes sense."
"Jesse…" Quinn shook her head.
"What, she doesn't want to be here, so what's the point in keeping her here?"
"Yes, good, see?" Rachel nodded along.
"Yeah, so let her go back to her Vocal Adrenaline, her trophies, and her two homes, one for each Dad…" Her smirk slid off of her face, replaced by a look as though she was about to try and hit him. "It's not like she's got people who could possibly help her mend what she lost…" he didn't add the 'except she does.' Didn't have to… at least it seemed to have hit something with her, tentatively. For the first time there Quinn was actually glad for Jesse, though she wouldn't say as much out loud.
"We do need all the help we can get," she spoke to Rachel, calmer now. "You were so smart with not drawing attention to yourself in the beginning, on your own."
"Tell that to Azimio," Brittany chimed in, recalling what Quinn had told her.
"Aside from that. Look, we could really use your help. And that can go both ways. At least give us a chance. Give us two weeks, to make something happen. Probably not a complete fix just yet, but… something."
"One week," Rachel adjusted. Quinn looked to Jesse, who looked back.
"Fine," he answered. Rachel looked to the three, finally putting her hands up to say 'I give.' "Can we go back upstairs?"
"Right now?"
"No," Quinn stepped in. "Tomorrow. Now… go home," she bowed her head. Rachel paused, like she expected to be stopped again. When no one moved, she let out a breath.
"I'll be back tomorrow," she promised.
"Okay," Quinn nodded to her. "Now one more thing."
When Quinn had told her that the other Rachel, when left in her shoes, had moved from Pop's house in Akron to Dad's in Lima, she did understand the necessity, for their attempts to get home. But inside what she thought was how this would have affected her fathers, both the one she'd left and the one she'd gone to. It made her want to be with Pop, but after what she'd just been through she still wasn't too confident about driving. It might take a while until she could drive again at all. So she went to Dad's. It wasn't a good idea to act out of the ordinary at the moment anyway.
When she got to the house, just seeing the front of it, she felt ill. It wasn't her fathers on their own who were the problem, or her fathers with her… It was her fathers with each other, and her fathers in a state of separation. Neither house felt… complete. Even if it had been some time since she'd seen them be in a 'good place' in this world, she did remember how it felt, being in that other world, it had reminded her of that time so much.
But now she was back here, and as helpful as it may have been to them, for this situation, she knew her relocation would have been cause for a lot of friction between her dads.
She got in, thankfully saw Dad wasn't home. She couldn't deal with seeing him yet. She tunneled her way to her room, not wanting to see the house either. But in her room she had to look… She'd almost forgotten how many trophies there were, split between both homes… Now seeing them upset her in a way she hadn't expected.
She laid down on her bed, grabbing and hugging a pillow. As much as she would like to pretend it wouldn't happen, she knew the tears were coming.
Everything she had or didn't have, everything she wanted or didn't want or just thought she did or didn't, between now and the last time she'd stood in this exact room, they had started to change on her, and it scared her. She tried to hide it, but that was never going to work. She could shout all she wanted, but when it came down to it she was just lost.
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!