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 34th cycle. Now cycle 35!

YEAR TWO ANNIVERSARY CYCLE! - Within days it will have been two years since I've started this Gleekathon, and like last year I'm dedicating the cycle to commemorating my 21 favorite one shots or chapter stories from year two (up to the point where I did the planning ;)) A number of those I was very attached to, but left sad to see may have fallen through the cracks, so it seems fair they should get a second shot ;)

Last year there were three categories, but this year I've added two new ones: Prequel, Sequel, POV Swap, and now Alternate Ending, and Additional Scenes. In no particular order... Today's story is an Alternate Ending to #520 "So we both have jerks for fathers" a Puck/Quinn story originally posted on March 25th 2011.

"Starting Up Again"
Puck/Quinn

"You hungry?" he asked, and she realized she hadn't eaten all day. That thought must have reached her face, because he got up, still holding her hand until she let him pull her to her feet, then he let go. "It's on me." So they'd gone to Breadstix. They'd kept quiet at first. They were both still thinking about it, about their daughter's first birthday, that day, which had brought them together like this. They just stared at the menu, even if they were in those booths enough times to recite the lists by heart. It was just about having something to do, to concentrate on… because if they stayed on the subject of Beth, the day she was born… long enough… then maybe it would turn back to something else that had happened that day.

They had said their part, back then… She'd asked him if he'd loved her, he said yes… Maybe this was going to be her silver lining, maybe something good would still come, and… But then they'd let things… fade away… and then it had faded to the point that they couldn't see what held them together anymore. He'd never turned the question on her, never asked her if she'd loved him… Truth was if he'd asked her back then, she wouldn't have known what to tell him. Even now, she didn't know what to think of it. She knew he could understand her in ways very few people could, and maybe that was because of what they'd gone through, with the pregnancy, but there was more to it, and that was the part she couldn't figure out.

She was distracted when she started hearing something snap, over and over, and she looked up to find Puck was breaking off some of the breadsticks into smaller pieces. "What are you doing?" she ended up asking him. He looked up, like he hadn't realized she was watching him.

"I don't know, it's something we'd do when we came here… me and my father," he started, shrugging. Their talk from before must have stayed with him… He didn't look disturbed by it though… it made him happy. "He would split off the sticks in five parts, two sticks each. We'd line them up, and then when I'd eat one, he'd eat one… If he missed it, then I could snatch it away," he motioned, and she chuckled. He smiled. "I do it with my sister when we come here."

"So is that what we're doing now?" she asked. He looked to the pieces – okay, he decided, lining up the ten pieces in front of her, and the other ten in front of himself. "Cheers," she held up one piece, and he grabbed one too. As they were chewing along, the waitress came and Puck nearly choked. She'd never caught him, but he wasn't sure she didn't have him spotted as a dine-and-dasher. "You alright?" Quinn asked him and he took a few gulps of water, waved that he was fine. They ordered lunch, and so the games began. Quinn was no child, of course, and she fooled him, time and time again, until she'd succeeded in stealing every last bit of his breadsticks, chewing them away along with her own while he watched… He didn't mind – it was making her smile. Every next victory, it made that smile grow, until she would laugh, getting the last piece.

"You cleaned me out," he admitted defeat.

"You let me win," she accused, laughing.

"I really didn't," he swore, smiling back. Her laughter receded, slowly, though it left the smile on her face… and left the conversation channels open. "I'm really glad you came."

"I'm glad you called me in," he returned, and she nodded. "I meant what I said before."

"I know," she replied. There was a moment of silence, as their plates arrived. When the waitress left, they looked back to one another… "What happened?" she began to ask. He looked at her, and still with just two words, she knew he'd understood the rest of that sentence – what happened to them?" He didn't reply, didn't know how… like her… like things had gone down, almost out of their control.

"I guess I thought maybe… even if we were losing her, we'd…" he finally began, looking up at her.

"But we didn't," she replied. There was a pause. "Did you want…"

"I told you what I felt," he reminded her. "That wasn't a lie."

"I know it wasn't," she promised. He was looking at her now; she'd fed into the topic, she'd brought them into it, she was going to have to decide – evade or answer. "Think we would have made it?"

"I don't know."

"Never gave you a chance…" she spoke, filling with something like sadness now.

"It's okay," he shrugged. "Couldn't have been easy on you."

"I know, but…" she hesitated. "I should have…" her voice wavered, and she bowed her head – she'd promised herself she wouldn't break in front of him. She couldn't have stopped it though, too many emotions running around in her head.

"Look, maybe I shouldn't say anything, or do… I mean you've been through a lot today…" he didn't meet her eye.

"Say it…" she begged. He looked back at her – she wanted him to go on.

"Well what if we tried it?" he had just a hint of hope in his voice, something she recognized, because she'd caught on to it, a few times… when she was pregnant. This whole time, maybe she'd thought it was about Beth and that was that, even after what he'd told her, while they were looking at her through the window… one year ago. It wasn't the baby now though – he had hope, for her, for Quinn. She felt a flutter, the same one she'd felt when he told her he'd loved her… She had tried to grasp it once before, but it had slipped away… Not again… Not this time…

"Okay…" she breathed.

She wouldn't let go.

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!