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 73rd cycle. Now cycle 74!

"The Very Small Glee"
In Gen2!World: G1 Quinn/Jesse, G1 Kurt, G1 Mike, G2 Brittany, G2 Puck, G2 Mercedes
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

They had not had very high expectations as to how their first rehearsal would go, so to say that as a whole it had been less than they had hoped for was painting a picture full of holes and mismatched colors.

Though they had Jesse on their side, as he had already graduated and currently toiled in the halls of McKinley as their janitor, he could not be a part of their rehearsal without making everyone wonder how this had come to be. So he stayed home, waiting for Quinn to come by and tell him how it had gone.

There were six of them for the time being. Of those six, Quinn was the only one who had seen all three worlds and who had a vague idea of what she had to do. Then she had Mike and Kurt, who were both from the same world she was trying to get back to. They were still dealing with having been brought here and with what they had found. But they knew the deal, so that was something.

After that, they had the three they had so far managed to pull into the fold. They didn't know about other worlds, about places where their lives were so different, where they had a Glee Club, and a good one at that. They were those same people on the outside, but the inside was where they kept their different hearts. Puck's heart beat with the grief and the guilt of the accident that had claimed one of his friends and robbed another of his leg. Brittany's had lost some of its sweetness but none of its innocence, which might have been worse. And Mercedes' had taught itself to accept what she had and not regret what she lacked and wanted so dearly.

They were six and they'd need six more someday. They'd need the five they had yet to rope in, and they would need one more, someone who wasn't even on their radar yet. Matt was gone, they couldn't get him back. Jesse had taken up that charge. He may not have been able to sit in on the choir room just yet, but he was still the valiant janitor, who had eyes on the school and could try to sniff out some hidden talent, somewhere.

When Quinn went to find him, the afternoon after the first rehearsal, she looked so utterly spent he didn't dare to ask if it had gone well.

They had all been at it for a year, back in her world, they'd had time to hone in their skills, to turn from twelve individuals into a unit that worked, that was in tune. They were not the most polished and precise choir out there, that much they had seen, but they had talent all their own that worked in ways some would never have expected.

She had forgotten how much they'd struggled in the beginning.

None of them knew how to work together. Mike and Kurt should have been better, having come from her world, where they had the New Directions. Without a doubt, Kurt was faring better out of the two, but Quinn could see he was uncertain, and being thrown in the middle of the struggling heap had brought out his own flaws, too. And then there was Mike. She could understand how he would have problems. He was not their best singer, as far as she'd heard him: his biggest contribution to the club was his dancing, and he'd lost it. He could be given all the time in the world to get used to his counterpart's prosthetic and he would never be the dancer he had been before. The more he tried, the harder it got, and the harder it got, the more frustrated he became.

After they'd tried to organize themselves into one short, not too complicated number – which had failed miserably – all hell had broken loose. People had started to argue, threatened to leave. Brittany sat in a corner, covering her ears and shutting her eyes. Mercedes and Kurt, who should have been united, were arguing so loud that Quinn had gone to shut the doors, in hopes that no one would hear and come to see what was happening. Puck had threatened to leave at least half a dozen times, and come real close a few times, but every time Mike had stopped him, muttering something Quinn couldn't make out. They had been spending a lot of time together lately, and she wondered sometimes if Mike might have told Puck the truth about who he was and where he was from.

They hadn't tried for a second attempt, not after how the first had gone. Everyone needed a chance to cool off, gather their wits again, and then they would pull things back, try again from somewhere smaller.

"You can do it," Jesse had promised Quinn with a smile, reaching to squeeze her hand.

"I'm glad one of us thinks so," she sighed.

"Hey," he shook her hand and she looked up. "It'll take time, I know, but you did it once, so…"

"That was different. I wasn't in charge. If we had Mr. Schue, then maybe…"

"You'll get him at some point, once he sees that the club can be real."

"And if Sylvester doesn't get in the way…" Quinn sighed. They were silent for a while, and then Jesse put his phone on the table in between them.

"I want you to listen to something," he gave the phone a few taps, and although the sound was not too clear, she could still make out the unmistakable sound of someone singing.

"Where did you…"

"The boys' locker room," he revealed. She looked scandalized. "Relax, it's not like I filmed him getting out of the shower," he signalled for her to be quiet and listen. Once she did, she looked at him again, more hopeful than anything else.

"Who is he?"

"New guy, Sam Evans?" he revealed, and Quinn thought, an image of a blond boy appearing in her head.

"He's in a few of my classes," she nodded. "You think we could get him?"

"I think if we took it slow, we might have a shot. He won't just be the twelfth, you know? If we can get him in there, he just might be the new blood we need to rally the rest of them." She beamed, and then leaned over the table to kiss him.

"Thank you, Janitor Man," she teased, and he laughed.

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!