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 54th cycle. Now cycle 55!
Favorites cycle - It's that time again, where I gather a list of my fifteen favorite characters, relationships, friendships, etc of the moment! It's constantly evolving, and if I did it over today, as the list was selected weeks ago, it would already be different. But oh well, there'll be later opportunities ;) So then, here we go!
At number 7 - Trinity series
This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: The Fair Collaboration, chapter 5.
"Morning to Night"
(Older) Quinn/Spencer (Brittany/Santana), Sophia (OC; Nellie V.)
Trinity series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)
Quinn's Day
She would wake up in the morning, and as much as she tried not to, she still did it. She kept her eyes shut, just a few minutes more, and with her eyes shut she could imagine… home. She saw her friends. She saw Santana and Brittany, and Rachel and Puck, Hattie and June, Claudia… In that moment none of this had happened. She hadn't been forced to fake her death, run away… She was home, and everything was as it had always been.
But then eventually she'd have to open her eyes, and when she did she saw her new home, the one she shared with Spencer… or at least the one 'Allie' shared with 'Tommy.' They'd chosen the names themselves but in no way did that make getting used to them any easier. At the very least, looking to her right and seeing Spencer asleep at her side made things a little easier. It meant she wasn't alone, and she had someone she loved and who loved her back. After having had to leave every other person she loved behind, still having him meant the world to her.
He didn't have to get up as early as she did, as he still didn't have a job, and she didn't want to wake him, knowing the more sleep he got the better it was for his back. So she got up, got ready for work, and she came to kiss him before she had to go. He would stir and smile, and she was good to go.
Having her job had helped to get her into this new life. She would walk from the house to the newspaper office every morning and then in the evening when she was done, fifteen minutes each time. Once she got on to main street, and she saw the shops, she would get to stop in at the diner, grab a quick breakfast – she didn't want to do it at home and end up waking Spencer – and then get to work.
Her job wasn't a complicated one, a lot of repetition and clerical work, but she actually liked it for those reasons. She could spend hours focusing on the work, letting it draw her in while her mind wandered, though never so far as to make her feel upset in any way. It was all kind of soothing.
On this particular day, shortly before lunch time, she'd had a visitor, according to her boss. She came in from the back to find Sophia sitting at her desk, reading a book. "Hey," she was surprised, and the girl looked up, brandishing a paper bag.
"From the diner, thought you might be hungry soon, and also I wanted to ask you something."
"Okay?" Quinn asked, motioning for her to get up so she could sit at her desk and clear some papers away. "What is it?"
"I've got this thing Friday night, it's open mic at the bar, and I don't exactly have a lot of people I'd want to be there to come hear me, so I was thinking maybe you and Tommy could come."
"Yeah, sure, sounds great," Quinn smiled.
Her work would resume after lunch, and as a whole her work day might have felt like an eternity to most, but it was gone in a flash for her. She would leave, take her walk back to the house, and there she would find Spencer waiting for her, dinner on the table… As a whole their life together here was quiet and simple, but after everything they'd been through, simple and quiet was all they could ever want.
X
Spencer's Day
He couldn't say he'd yet to sleep through an entire night from start to end. He would wake before the sun rose, feeling the exhaustion still in him, but all the same he had trouble finding sleep again. But he would look over at her, at Quinn, stare at her like the beholder of all his dreams, and slowly he would take her with him into slumber, to dream of her.
When he would wake again, she would be gone, off to work. His back was getting better every day, and he knew this was a good thing because it would mean he would be able to start looking for work. He wasn't entirely sure what he would be doing in this job, but whatever it was, it couldn't lead to strain that would injure his back and require for him to see a doctor. Back in New York he could see Claudia, who knew all their secrets already, but here the scars on his back would draw questions. He could excuse it as an old accident except his scars were still much too fresh, and this coupled with their being new to town… No, he couldn't risk it.
He wasn't confined to their home by any means. After he had gotten up, had breakfast, he would go out walking, not so long that he would tire himself out but enough that he felt his lungs breathed a little easier, thanks to the open air. Most days he would return home after his walk, and then his day consisted of whatever he could keep himself occupied with. He would read, watch television… This was most week days, all of them but one.
Once a week his walk would take him to the library, to their computers. His searches were discreet enough, and even then he knew how to cover his tracks. He would search for the information he needed and that alone. He would look to clues, one way or the other, that might indicate the definitive demise of those who had been the reason him and Quinn had left New York, just as he looked for anything that might have to do with them, with him and Quinn themselves. Not long ago he had seen the birth announcement for the son of Quinn's friends, Rachel and Noah. Quinn didn't know about his searches, and as much as he wanted to share with her, he knew he couldn't. Leaving them had been hard enough with having constant reminders.
Most importantly he looked for any definitive sign, one way or the other, that he and Quinn might ever be able to return home. With the way they'd had to make their exit, he knew a re-entry would be messy.
He knew they couldn't go back, not yet and probably not for a long time, but he still had to try, for her sake. When he was done, he would walk back home, and carry on as he did. He would prepare dinner for both of them, and when she came home, everything was as it should be.
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!