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 74th cycle. Now cycle 75!

"Here's What You Missed"
In Gen1!World: G1!Rachel, Santana, G2!Jesse, Quinn, Kurt, Mike
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Santana had no idea what Rachel had done or said to Jesse to get him to come about and help them with their Glee Club problem, but when she arrived at Rachel's house at the time they'd agreed to, there he was, properly chastised and ready to work. Rachel hadn't said how she'd managed it, and as much as she wanted to know, Santana guessed she wasn't going to ever bring it up.

The important part was that all six of them were there, Santana and Rachel and Jesse on one end, and Kurt and Mike and Quinn on the other. They would all work together, three teams of two matched from both sides, and hopefully by the time they went their separate ways, everyone would be ready to return to Glee Club with something more in the way of confidence and skill… skill might have been vital. To be mindful of everyone's feelings, and to try and keep things as civilized as possible, Rachel had been forced to give Quinn over to Jesse, but then when she had spoken with him she had made sure to mention the whole 'Quinn thing,' so that he might behave himself. She had paired Mike to Santana, knowing that in Mike's world, even if this wasn't the same Mike, he and Santana had been close friends. This left Rachel to pair up with Kurt. She had a good feeling that they might find a way to work together him and her. All she could hope for was that she hadn't made a bad call.

Quinn was not too keen about working with Jesse at first, but she knew why they were all there, what was at stake, and if they thought that he could help her, then she would at least give it a shot. She had to pretend to be his girlfriend, which so far had not been the easiest thing to do, between his overall attitude and the fact that she didn't really know him.

They had set themselves up to work in the living room. Jesse had gotten a song going on the piano, and he wanted her to sing it. He was being uncharacteristically helpful today, which she knew had to do with whatever Rachel had done to get him here. On one hand it amused her; on the other hand, it reminded her of how much she missed her girlfriend, her real one.

"You need to actually sing," Jesse had spoken after she'd been standing there in silence.

"Right, no, I know," Quinn stood up taller and cleared her throat before motioning for him to start playing again. She had never really done this, singing by herself. She felt confident, to a point, but no matter what she might say, she knew she wasn't the best singer in the world, and in that moment, though she would try not to let it show, she felt so very nervous and unable to think she was any good at all. "Okay, that sucked," she sighed.

"Well it's…" Jesse spoke cautiously, clearly keeping his opinions to himself, so not to incur the wrath of Berry.

"You can say it sucked," Quinn told him.

"Real tornado," Jesse admitted, and it was the first time Quinn thought he wasn't a complete idiot. Maybe they could get somewhere him and her. If they were going to have to pretend to like each other, it would help if they could at least try and be friends. "But I guess I can help with that," Jesse looked back at her. "Here's what you do."

In the basement, Santana was helping Mike with choreography. It was strange to see him like this, when just weeks ago she had seen him being the one to lead these choreographies. She'd always felt insignificant compared to him, and now he was being careful, uncertain. She could see how he was remembering the fact that he had lost his leg, that he had lost his way of dancing, which had not been helped in the least by the fact that he had no Glee Club back in his world.

He'd gotten frustrated again, which meant they had to stop and start over. "Well at least I know you're still a perfectionist, so you've got that working for you," Santana told him as he stood hunched over, hands on his knees and breathing deep. He looked back up at her. "I know it's hard…"

"Do you really?" He stood back up. "I try… I try to be optimistic. I have my leg again, that's great…" he explained, paused. "I have my leg again, only until whatever happened over here or there gets fixed and then I go back and I lose it again. Now you want me to do all of this, and for what? What do I get except more disappointment?" he asked, and she knew if she didn't say the right thing, he would leave and they wouldn't get him back again.

"You get to make memories you never got to. Even if it's only for a little while, you'll get to live your dream and take it back with you. You get to say goodbye to that leg the right way." He stared at her, kept staring. Finally, he motioned for the music, and she smiled.

Rachel was working with Kurt up in her room. He'd looked thrown a bit at first, which she took to mean that whatever impression he'd had of Rachel Berry's bedroom, it had been based on the version of the girl in his world, which was hardly the one standing before him now.

"So what I don't get is, the Kurt that I know, he should be all over this, and you should be, too," Rachel told him, and the boy stared at her, uncertain. "I swear. I know you can do this and be as good as I am. That alone would have made me not want to help you at all, but I've changed, you know?" she told him, sounding surprised herself.

"Right…" Kurt still looked like he would have dashed off.

"Should we get this started then?" she went to put a song on, something he would respond to.

"So you knew me? The other me?" Kurt asked, and she turned back.

"I did when I transferred to McKinley from Carmel," she told him. He hesitated to speak, so she did it for him. "You were kind of a pain, but for the right reason, in the world we try to live in," she went on. "First time I saw you, I went 'uh oh.' That means you're good, better than good, extraordinary. If you ask me, no one should ever want to be anything else," she smiled. "But right now, you," she pointed at him, "The way you're going around in that room, you're not even plain old ordinary." He said nothing. "So come on, Kurt Hummel… Let me help you be extraordinary again." Now the boy smiled.

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!