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 61st cycle. Now cycle 62!

TOP 15 COUNTDOWN - Something I do once in a while, if you will recall, where I take my favorite characters, ships, friendships, series (from my daily stories) and put them in order, the number 1 of which gets a seven-chapter story in the end :)
Coming in at number 5: Brittana

This is a shift day. There are two updates today.

"Near or Far, Never Apart"
Santana/Brittany

She had felt something, she'd swear she had. It hadn't been anything she could really describe, just a feeling, a sudden knot. Whatever it was, it had made Santana text her ex-girlfriend. 'Hey, just checking in. Are you in Glee Club?' The response had not taken long, but it wasn't so much a response as, maybe, a slip send.

'I WS as' was what Brittany's message said. Santana had waited, figuring she would recompose and send in a few seconds. A minute went by, then five. After ten minutes she frowned and wrote her back.

'Hey, where'd you go?' It couldn't have been a pocket text. As talented as she was, Santana doubted she could have pulled that one off.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked, and she looked back to him, sitting nearby. He would have thought she was worrying for nothing.

"Waiting on a text," she shrugged, getting up. "I'm going to go take a walk."

It was probably nothing, too, she realized, but she couldn't let it go, no matter how hard she tried, and because it was Brittany she had to know for sure. On a whim, she had tried to text someone else. Sometimes Brittany didn't charge her phone, so it could be that her phone had died and she couldn't write back.

She had text Marley. Nothing. Blaine. Nothing. Artie. Nothing. Kitty. Nothing. Tina. Her phone rang a minute later.

The panic was overpowering in the girl's voice. But Santana still managed to make out what she had to say: there had been shots fired in the school. Most of the students had been evacuated, but some were still inside. Tina was the only one from Glee Club outside.

Brittany is inside was all she could hear. What if my texting got her caught? No… Please…

She'd sat down on the nearest seat she could find, her legs feeling like match sticks trying to support a boulder. She was far away, so far away. She had never felt it so vividly as she did now. She could go there, hop on a train and be there in a few hours. It would cost her money she shouldn't have been spending, but it was the last thing on her mind. The actual problem was how long it would really take her to get there, and the risk that she would be unreachable if…

The logical thing to do, and she hated to admit it, was to stay in New York and wait, for however long she had to.

Sitting on a bench on her own, breaking into tears every little while, she didn't exactly go unnoticed. Several people had stopped here and there, asking if she was alright. She didn't want to have to tell them everything, so she would say that she was, and she would usually lie and say she'd just lost her job or had a break up, anything to get rid of them. It worked with most of them. There had been two who were not so easy to shake. One old woman had taken a seat by her side and asked what was really happening. It reminded her so much of this old neighbor of hers, back when she was a kid in Lima, and same as with her neighbor, she could not bring herself to lie. She had told her the truth, about the events unfolding in her old high school, how she was without news from her friends, one of them in particular, the best friend she'd ever had. The woman had stayed a while, talking about how she could not understand why this happened so often now. When she had left, she said that she would pray for Santana's friends.

The second had been a boy who must have been older than her but had a baby face that could have rivalled the best. The way he was dressed, she would have guessed he was coming from or heading to a dance audition. If he was on his way, he must have cared enough or known that he wouldn't be late. Telling him the truth had found her even more stressed than before. Time had passed and nothing had happened, which could not have been a good sign. The boy, whose name she learned was George, had shared with her some snacks he had packed away before heading out to rehearsals. He insisted that she eat, and so she did.

When the messages had started rolling in, George was still with her, and he was just as relieved with each new message tone as she was. Marley wrote back, and Blaine, and Artie, and Kitty, and Tina as well. And Brittany wrote.

'I'm ok. Will call when I'm home.'

Upon her return home, Kurt had come to her, having apparently found out as well. They'd hugged quietly, both of them relieved for the ones they loved. She would sit and wait for Brittany's call, wishing her heart would listen to her and accept that she was safe, that no one had or would touch her. She didn't think she would be completely at ease until she'd heard her voice.

It was an hour before her phone rang and she saw Brittany's face appear. "Britt?" she answered.

"I'm sorry I couldn't write you back before," were the first words Santana heard out of her, and she closed her eyes, breathing deep.

"It's alright, I understand," she had to pause, not wanting to let her hear her cry. "I just wish I could have been there, with you…"

"No," Brittany cut in, and Santana wasn't sure what she meant until she went on. "The last thing I would have wanted would be to think you could have been hurt. It was better I knew you were safe, okay?"

"Okay," Santana smiled, wiping at her tears.

"And don't cry," Brittany told her.

"I'm not," she lied.

"You are."

"I know." She took a deep breath, hoping not to start again. "I'll come and see you soon, I promise," she announced. "Is that alright?"

"Always," Brittany confirmed. I love you so much. I don't ever want to think that you could be in danger like this, it hurt so bad already the one time. She wanted to say it, but she didn't. As far as she saw, she'd lost that privilege. She never wished she could get it back, more than she did that day.

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!