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 32nd cycle. Now cycle 33!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

"Sneak"
Brittany, Santana, Quinn
Trinity #4 (following 'Optic')

She was no pushover. Compared to Optic and Breaker, Sneak may have had the gentler hand, but she loved her job. All she'd ever wanted was to know that she could and would belong somewhere, and she'd done that… She wouldn't let anyone down, least of all herself. But then it was hard to keep that in mind, after the accident.

That was what it had been, really. It had been an unplanned turn of events at exactly the wrong time. After she'd taken her fall, the pain had been monumental, but the situation remained. She had few precious seconds to move and hide or she would be caught… and so would the others; no one had to tell her. She had no recollection of how she'd done it, but she'd picked herself up and moved out of view until the others could reach her and help make their exit. It had been weeks now, and the length of her recovery continued to worry her. She didn't want the others to know, didn't want to come off as not pulling her weight, even if they wouldn't hold it against her at all. Breaker worried, sure, but never as much as Optic.

She'd been right by her side the whole way, especially when she had to remain in bed at the beginning. It might have seemed like the perfect time to start planning this wedding of theirs, but she didn't want that. She didn't want the memory associated to this time in her life when she was injured. Instead it had been a time for them to reconnect with their personal identities. It was so easy to lose yourself in these cover identities, and once in a while it just felt good to be who they really were.

But as the weeks went on, she knew it was only a matter of time before a new job came on their radar, and if she wasn't able to be there for them then they'd be stuck, and she'd feel it was her fault. She wasn't letting them down. So she focused on recovery, on being ready. And just as she'd imagined, that new job came along. She felt better, but she knew she still wasn't near perfect shape. This gave her a little while longer to keep preparing.

The night before, as always, she was the first one in bed. She spent about forty minutes just lying there, considering what would happen the next day on this job. She'd told the others she was ready, and she did feel that way… But she still felt pain, whether she'd say it or not, and she still couldn't shake the idea everything might go wrong.

But then she felt the mattress bend next to her, and she turned on her back to face the other way and look at Optic and found her smiling, which got her smiling too. "Feel ready?" she asked.

"Yes," Sneak promised, obliging.

"Am I doing it again?" Optic asked, propping her head in the palm of her hand. "Do I have worried face?"

"It's okay," Sneak promised. "I'd be scared if you weren't like this… But 'this'… it just means you love me."

"That I do," she confirmed, reaching to her cheek. They fell quiet. "After we're done here, and we go home… we should start… planning…"

"Do we have another job?"

"Not that kind of planning," she laughed. "The wedding…" she explained.

The conversation stayed on her mind the next day. Usually she'd try and block out those thoughts, stay concentrated on the job, but this one… remembering the fact that she and Optic would get married after this, it only made her stronger, like she could forget the pain.

She was going to get what she had come for, they would get out of there, and then… Well, maybe she shouldn't think about that part just yet… That was just the kind of distraction to stay away from…

She needed that focus, when she felt that shooting pain as she climbed into position. She had to pause, hope it would pass… So she closed her eyes and thought about… white dresses, flowers, rings… the future, with her… and she took a breath and moved along.

Finally she reached the item she'd come for. She'd drilled herself again and again on the procedure, on how to remove it without tripping any alarms. It wasn't that hard… It was like a dance, and that was easy. She took a breath, waited for a beat… Once she reached, she couldn't be stopped by her injury or things could go very wrong. But she was fine, so she went for it… and she got it. She waited to smile until the item was packed in the case.

She began to climb down, same way she'd gone up, and once she reached the ground, she had to wait to inform the others, as Optic was telling Breaker something about an elevator, and Breaker replied about stairs… She had no idea what that was about.

"Item is secure. I'm ready."

"Ready," Breaker followed. Optic gave the call.

"Alright, girls, we're packing up and heading out."

TO BE CONTINUED (NEXT CYCLE)

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!