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!
"The Test Of All"
In Gen2!World: G1!Quinn/Jesse, G1!Mike, G1!Santana, G2!Kurt, G2!New Directions
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)
They had all been so busy preparing for this that for a while they weren't even thinking about the fact that they weren't in their own world, that they were trying to get back. They were having fun seeing it all come together, get better… They really were turning into a proper Glee Club, and not a half bad one either. They were on their way now. They just had to get through this first test: invitationals.
Before they knew it, the morning had come, and this day, like the others, was passing them by before they could even grab on to it. Soon they were all getting changed, putting on the matching clothes they had selected. It had been so long since she'd done this, but in one second it was just like old times.
"Quinn!" a hushed call caught her attention, and she turned to find Jesse waving her over, trying to be discreet. She walked to him, looking as calm and collected as could be. She followed him, and as soon as they were alone, he sped up, and she did the same.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"You tell me, because I had no idea." Before she could ask what he meant, he was opening the door to a darkened classroom and leading her in. She didn't know what was happening, not until she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to find her there, in the same clothes she was wearing.
"Santana? You okay?" Quinn went to her. The girl looked up, just barely; she looked ready to drop right there and pass out. "What…" Quinn looked back to Jesse, eyes wide. "Can't be…"
"Going… back…" Santana mumbled, and Quinn turned to her again.
"Back?" The chuckled that Santana gave was shaky at best.
"Didn't even… know… did you? Weeks… no idea. Wanted you to know… Don't want her… alone when she… when she wakes up."
And she let go. Quinn had to support her so she wouldn't fall to the ground. Jesse helped her, and they laid her down.
"What do we do?" Quinn breathed. "The performance is going to start, and we're one down. We can't be one down!"
"Alright, calm down, worst comes to worst, I can always step in," Jesse shrugged.
"Are you crazy?"
"Please, I've seen you guys rehearse enough times, it'll be a piece of cake. You just need me for tonight, and then there's nothing…" Quinn's phone rang, startling them both.
"Kurt, I can't talk right now, I'll be back in…"
"You need to get over here," he whispered, cutting in. "Mike just went down, I think he's being switched back." Quinn shut her eyes.
"Where are you?" she asked.
"Of all places, boys' bathroom."
"I'm sending Jesse, stay right there." She hung up. "Boys' bathroom, run!" she pointed to the door, and he was gone. This was bad, really bad… Jesse was right, they could have used him to replace one, but two? No, it couldn't just go down like this, not after all the work they'd put in…
Santana hadn't woken up yet by the time Jesse returned, both him and Kurt working together to carry the inert Mike into the room. They put him down next to Santana.
"He was fine one second, then he was tripping up, almost took a nosedive into the curtains. I've got a sore spot on the back of my head that knows what that means. When he dropped, that's when I called… What's she doing here?" he pointed, finally noticing Santana.
"Turns out, she got swapped, too. No idea when, because she didn't tell us," Quinn's voice rose on the end as she stared down at the unconscious girl. "We are going to have some words when I get back there, Santana Lopez."
"Okay, I hate to state the obvious here, but remember the part where we have an auditorium full of people waiting to see us on that stage in under an hour," Kurt looked from Quinn to Jesse and back.
"Got another substitute in that back pocket of yours?" Quinn asked Jesse.
Then Santana woke up, and Mike did, too, three seconds later. Quinn, Jesse and Kurt scrambled to help them get their bearings.
"Why are you two dressed the same?" Santana squinted up at Quinn and Kurt.
"It's a thing we do when we have a performance," Quinn helped her sit up. "Welcome back."
Mike sat up with Jesse's help. After a beat, he reached his hand down to rest on his knee. When he felt the familiar end of the prosthetic, he let out a breath like he'd been waiting on that moment for ages, and now it was here.
"What do we do now?" Kurt asked.
"How long before it starts?" Santana turned to him.
"Not very," Quinn answered.
"I can work with that. Show me what I have to do," Santana nodded. Quinn thought about the girl she'd first met here, the one who'd never been in Glee Club before, and she could have kicked herself. How had she not noticed that the one who came and joined them in that choir room knew exactly what she was doing? This one now, asking to be read in, Quinn could still see 'the old her' somewhere in there, but she'd changed.
"You joined in with them? The other Glee Club?"
"Didn't have much of a choice," Santana shrugged. "Now, come on, show me what I have to do."
"I'll do it," Kurt volunteered. This seemed to agree completely with Santana, so they went to the side and got to work.
"What about you?" Quinn looked at Mike. He was nervous. "You don't have to do it, you know? Jesse can go in your place if you need him to." Mike looked at them, and they could see him trying to convince himself, trying to say he'd be alright. But in the end, he let out a sigh and he nodded.
"I had my leg again," he spoke flatly. He'd been dancing on that leg, all these weeks. Now he was back on the fake one; he wasn't ready.
"We know," Quinn nodded, "Don't worry about it." Mike looked to Jesse.
"You're gonna need my clothes, right?"
Jesse and Mike exchanged clothes, and before long the young janitor looked like he was back in Glee Club. Quinn saw him there, and she smiled.
"Looking good," she told him, while they were still on their own. She took a breath. "This is it, right? Everyone else has gone back… we're next."
"We need to get through this first," he nodded. "Why do you think they got sent back now?"
"I don't know, maybe… she needs to do this for herself," Quinn indicated Santana, who was still practicing with Kurt; they could already see she was learning fast.
"And him?" Jesse looked to Mike. She looked at him, too.
"Jesse…" she sighed, with 'bad news' in her voice.
"He said he couldn't do it, he doesn't have time to learn…"
"Hold on, be right back, just… try and convince him, tell him he doesn't have to do it all…" She hurried back to the choir room, knowing very well that there should be a couple spare outfits there, in the event that any of them had misfortunes. Once she had it, she brought it back and found that Jesse, along with Kurt and Santana had talked Mike into joining them after all. They believed he could do it: they would make it work. So he changed once more, this time into the spare clothes, even though they looked exactly like the clothes he'd woken up wearing, which Jesse now wore.
On that day, when the New Directions performed their invitationals, there were thirteen of them on stage. Jesse was by Mike's side the whole time, safeguarding him in the event that he should fall. No one saw this as strange, and when they'd finished their first number, the audience cheered. Quinn looked around at the rest of the club, at Will standing in the wings… This was everything they could have wanted. They'd really done it.
The rest of the performance went without a hitch. When they were done, Mrs. Chang was standing at Will's side. She'd been in the audience, and clearly something about her son's performance had tipped her off. She knew that he was back, her 'real' son. She held him, and he held her; the way she held him, he felt that much prouder that he'd pulled this off, that he'd joined them after all.
Quinn started feeling herself grow heavy even as the audience was applauding them, and she turned to find Jesse in the back; he was teetering on his feet, too.
"I… I'll be right back," she told Rachel as she walked by her, making sure she sounded normal. Soon, she would have her real girlfriend back, and maybe someday that Quinn would tell her the truth; she would never get to find out for herself.
They walked back to the classroom where Santana and Mike had woken up, shutting the door before they could carefully lower themselves to the ground, sitting side by side.
"Jesse?" she looked at him, feeling her heart ramp up. "If… If we get separated…"
"Not going to happen," he vowed, taking her hand and squeezing her fingers. "Okay?"
"Yes," she smiled. For a moment they said nothing, but then he reached over and held her face, kissing the top of her head protectively, then her lips. "Love you…"
"Love you, too," he promised.
Five minutes went by, after they'd finally lost consciousness, five minutes before the bodies were reunited with their original inhabitants. Quinn and Jesse, who'd had to pretend to be a couple, no longer had that to worry about. Still, they got up, looked at each other.
"I should get out of here, I… Why am I dressed like you?"
"How should I know?" she shrugged. She only had one thought in mind at that moment, but she couldn't just toss him aside. "Look, you don't have to leave, I just… there's something I have to do."
"Go get her," Jesse bowed his head, and she turned back to him, smiling. He'd never admit it, but he'd changed, too, these last couple of months.
She wasn't sure what he'd do, but for now, all she wanted was to find her girlfriend. Would she know? Would they have told her?
"Hey, are you alright?" She stopped, feeling her heart leap before she turned. "You were acting kind of funny back there, I wanted to see if…" Before Rachel could finish, Quinn had taken the few steps to reach her arms around her and pull her near. She'd only meant to hug her first, but the next thing she knew, she was kissing her like she was trying to make up for all those kisses they hadn't been having. "H… Hi…" Rachel chuckled breathlessly. "You know, there is something to say for post-performance highs," she went on. Quinn felt tears rumbling up from within.
"I've missed you so much…" her voice broke.
"Quinn, you saw me half a minute ago," Rachel pointed out.
"Right, no, I know, but… I think that was too much already," she covered. Rachel squinted, unsure, but she hugged the blonde, who held on tight.
"Something did happen, didn't it?"
"I'll explain later, I will."
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!