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 81st cycle. Now cycle 82!

"Return & Divert"
Nora (AU!Beth)/Grace (OC), Emily (OC; Nellie V.), Will
Sunshine Girls series 2
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Grace's mother had driven her to school the next day, and when she walked through the doors, it wasn't long that she found Nora, waiting for her. She looked nervous, which Grace guessed might have had something to do with the way their conversation had ended the day before.

"Grace…" she started to say as the redhead walked up to her, but before she could go on, Grace had leaned in to kiss her. When she pulled back, she offered a small smile.

"I know what you're going to say, but you don't have to. I'm the one that needs to apologize."

"You don't," Nora insisted.

"I was panicking, and afraid, and I took it out on you, so let me say it, alright? I'm sorry I hung up on you."

"Water under the bridge," Nora assured her. "How's your face today?" she had to ask, and Grace tentatively reached up to it.

"Can you see it?"

"No, you're fine," Nora shook her head.

That neither of them brought up what had happened the day before, the conversation between Nora's stepfather and Grace's mother, that and the aftermath, made it clear that Grace hadn't wanted to talk about it, and Nora had understood and respected it. They had gone on with their day, and it seemed that Grace was faring better than she had done the day before. Being in school helped give her something else to think about, and it did. She got through all her classes, ending her day in the choir room with Nora and Emily and the rest of their group.

They'd had performances that day, half of them presenting their latest homework assignment as the others and Mr. Schuester looked on. For no one having noticed a thing all day, it was Will who saw it.

When the period was over, they'd all started to get up and leave, but Will called for Grace to stay back a minute.

"Do you want us to wait up?" Nora asked her.

"Going to your house?" Grace asked, and Nora nodded. "If I don't catch up then I'll meet you there, okay?" Nora and Emily agreed and they went off, leaving only Grace and their director behind. When everyone had left, Will had gone to shut the doors, which made Grace suddenly apprehensive. "What did you want to…"

"Something wrong with your arm?" Will asked, and she blinked, looking down at herself.

"No, I…" she held up her right arm.

"Other one," Will specified, and Grace lowered the right, flexing the fingers on her left hand. "Every time one of them finished their song, the others clapped, and cheered. I can tell when someone's favoring their arm, and when they clapped, you did everything but. I might believe it was nothing, but it doesn't look that way to me. Can I see…" he pointed to her arm. The request made her nervous, and her right hand went to protect her left arm, and when it did, she gasped from the sudden shot of pain. She'd given herself away, no point in denying it, so she lifted up her sleeve.

Her mother had not taken Nora's stepfather's visit well. To have him come into her home and tell her how to raise her children was unacceptable. She had informed Grace of this, all the while keeping a vice grip on her arm, which had earned her daughter her second bruise, one she could hide by the virtue of sleeves, one no one had to know about, not even Nora or Emily.

But now Will Schuester had seen it, and when he looked back at her face, Grace swore he could see right through the carefully applied makeup that was meant to make her face look normal again.

"Grace, who did this to you?" he asked, the teacher all at once growing paternal.

"No," she pulled her arm away, pulled the sleeve back down. "I'm not doing this again, that's how I ended up with this one," she held up her arm before bringing it back closer to herself. "I'll be alright."

"Will you?" Will asked. "I'd be shocked if it was, but I have to ask. Did Nora…"

"What? No!" she turned back to him, disgusted at the idea alone.

"Alright, I'm sorry," he raised his hands in apology. "Is someone harassing you then?"

"Please, I just want to go…" she turned for the door.

"How are things at home?" he called after her, and she staggered. "Grace, I just…"

"You just want to help, I know. Everyone wants to help. And what kind of help are you supposed to get me exactly? The kind of help I need no one can give me. The best I can hope for is that the last months until I turn eighteen will go by as fast as possible."

"Grace, if you don't feel safe at home, we need to talk about it."

"No, we…"

"Look, you can either talk to me now, or you can wait until someone else finds out and they get the police or social services involved," he cut to the chase, and that stalled her.

All she'd wanted was to know that the problem would go away, but now she didn't know anymore. Now it felt like it could get much, much bigger, and it terrified her.

So she told him the truth, told him how she'd told her mother about her relationship with Nora, which was when she'd hit her, about the night where she'd hidden over at Rachel and Puck's house with Nora and Emily, how Nora's parents had found out and Finn had gone to talk to her mother, which had then resulted in the bruise on her arm. She didn't repeat the words her mother had used, nor did she ever see herself doing it, but the sentiment had no problem coming across clearly, and when she was done, Will stared at her, momentarily speechless but immediately on task.

"Grace, I'm going to ask you again, and I need you to be honest. Do you feel safe at home?" The words seemed so simple, but they still left her feeling uneasy.

"What's going to happen to my brother if I say… She won't hurt him, I swear," she shook her head, pleading. He was still so unaware of anything going on between his mother and his sister.

"We'll make sure he's where he needs to be, even if that's right where he is," Will told her, and in the silence that followed, it felt like the question was being asked for a third time. This time she answered.

"No. I don't."

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!