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 44th cycle. Now cycle 45!
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 45 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: A Dish Best Served Cold, chapter 3.
"Something I Said?"
Brittany & Sue
Sylvesters Series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)
When she was little, her mother would always tell her, if she sensed danger, if something didn't feel right, that she should find her, or if she was on her own then she should hide. As she'd grown, she still held to this rule, although her response as a child and today as a teenager was not necessarily the same. But then came the afternoon of the busted door.
She had returned home from school and as she had come in nothing looked out of the ordinary until… Passing her mother's bedroom, she saw the door had been forced in. She startled, feeling her heart grow restless in her chest. Immediately her first instinct – as her mother wasn't there – was to run outside again. She stood there on the lawn for a beat, considering the situation and her options. Nothing had looked out of place, just the door, right? So maybe… maybe she should have taken a closer look before getting out.
After taking a few deep breaths, she had walked back through the walls, hugging the walls like she was sneaking in, minding the trophies as she went as well. As she neared the door, she went even slower, inching forward, arm outstretched, careful, careful… When she reached the door, she gave a rapid push and it swung open while she snapped back to the wall. She waited… nothing. She nodded to herself, and then approached again, looking inside… Nothing gone, no dead bodies, so far, so…
"What are you doing?"
She jumped, screamed, spun around… then felt relief wash over her as she saw it was her mother, alive and well at that. Immediately she threw her arms around her, holding her close. "You're not dead…" she hushed, eyes shut tight.
"What are you tal…" Sue was taken aback by her daughter's shaky welcome, closing one arm around her when finally she saw the door and remembered the crashing rescue from her 'concerned' co-workers that morning. She'd been meaning to warn Brittany about that, but then she had sort of… forgotten. "Terribly sorry about that," she closed the hug over her. "I should have warned you."
"What happened?" Brittany asked, still not ready to let go.
Sue didn't know what to tell her. When they had made their mend, Sue had told her that she couldn't promise not to end up messing with the Glee Club again. She wasn't going to tell her that she wouldn't do it again, when she knew it was more than likely that she would fall back into those habits. And with how she had not only lost her competition but also her biggest stars, through him, what did they think was going to happen? Now here she was, and yes, the door had happened because of something she was working on with them, so what was she supposed to do. How was she supposed to look into her daughter's eyes, when she could still feel her trembling in her arms, and just feed her more and more lies?
"I'm just going through a rough patch," she finally said, and she wasn't sure where the line came up between truth and lies on that one, but at this point it was about as good as it would get. "I'll get the door fixed soon."
Brittany had gone up to her room after this, and from what little reason her mother had given her, it was hard not to frown in confusion. What could have been the cause of this? They had been doing so much better now, so shouldn't she have been happy? Unless…
She paused, thinking, wondering if… A couple of days ago she had asked her for something. It hadn't seemed like a big deal with her, and she hadn't done it in any way to spite her of anything, just… She was already so happy for getting to spend time both with her mother and with her father and stepmother and sisters, but… The way they had things set up now, she kind of wanted to be able to spend more time with Cat and Izzy and she wasn't getting that. So she had asked her mother for more days, with them. What she was realizing now, and feeling suddenly crappy for, was that more days with her sisters meant less days with her mother. What if the reason her mother was feeling so sad right now was because she thought Brittany still resented her for everything they had just been through? It wasn't that, it so wasn't. In a perfect world she would get to spend every day with all of her family, from both sides. She had always imagined two houses, side by side, with a bridge in between… or a secret tunnel, or a slide… Either way, it was always going to cause some friction on one side or the other.
But now if it was getting to her mother like this, then what was she supposed to do? She still believed she should spend more time with Cat and Izzy and the others. In some ways they were all still getting to know each other, after not knowing about each other for so long. But just because her mother had her for all this time to herself didn't mean that it would be easier to let go, in fact it would probably be harder.
She had gone back down, and there found her mother working in her home office. "Mom?" she asked carefully. Sue looked up, guessed she wanted to talk and indicated the chair facing her. Brittany came to sit, for a moment feeling like she was in her mother's school office, which in her head made her want to shut the door, because that was how they were supposed to do it, when they would talk freely while they were at school. But they weren't, so she ignored the impulse. "About what I said before, about more days with Dad…"
"Yes?" Sue asked slowly.
"I-I don't have to do it, I mean… maybe it doesn't have to be now. I can wait, it's just I wanted to do it… for Cat and Izzy," she explained. Sue had not expected this to be the thing she'd ask about now. The whole thing had kind of slipped her mind in these past few days, but she hadn't forgotten about it either.
"I've already spoken with your father," she revealed now.
"You did?" Brittany was surprised.
"You can have your extra days, I'm sure your… your sisters will appreciate it," she nodded slowly. She still had trouble with thinking of this whole other family she now had, even if it had been over a year by this time, but she made the effort for her.
"I can?" she sounded just as surprised, but a bit more excited now. She thanked her mother, heading back to her room to call Cat and Izzy and tell them the good news. She paused. If it wasn't about the extra days, then what was it that had her mother so upset?
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!