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 70th cycle. Now cycle 71!


"Tommy's Day"
(Older) Quinn/Spencer (OC), Sophia (OC; Nellie V.)
Trinity series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

It started with an envelope coming in the mail one morning. Inside, Quinn had found a coupon from the diner, worth one free serving of pancakes for Tommy's birthday. Even having lived under their new identities for several months already, there would be those times when she forgot that to the people of this town, her name was Allie, and Tommy was the name they knew Spencer as.

Then she had remembered, maybe three months back, how Sophia had asked them when their birthdays were. It had been drilled into them, to remember those dates, and they had given them freely, as they should have. They hadn't thought about it since then, but now here was this coupon, which had to be set up by their friend and neighbor, as she worked there part time. Tommy's birthday WAS coming up, in a week's time, and if not for this coupon, she might have forgotten.

The dates may have been fake, inserted into their new profiles, inserted on cards and documents, but it belonged to them as much as anything else, and if they didn't celebrate it in some way, then they might as well have stayed in New York and continued to be Quinn and Spencer. But they couldn't.

She placed the coupon on the refrigerator door with a magnet and headed off in search of Sophia. At this time and day, she would be due for a shift at her father's pharmacy/book store. She crossed Tyler from the bar on the way in and guessed Sophia had just finished serving him as she returned to her stool, picked up her book, and started to read again.

"Hey," Quinn stepped up to the counter, and Sophia flipped the book over once more as she looked up.

"Hey!" she smiled. "Do you need anything?"

"I need you, actually, or more precisely I need your help. Tommy's birthday's next week…"

"I was wondering when that would come up," Sophia nodded. "I almost have my mind made up on a gift."

"Good," Quinn laughed. "It's our first year in town, I wonder if you might be able to point me in the right direction on a couple of things."

"Way ahead of you," Sophia grabbed a blank sheet and pen.

"Are you drawing a map again?" Quinn teased.

"Yep," Sophia kept on tracing and writing without looking up. "Do not let the signage fool you around here. Some places make it sound like they invented birthdays and parties they're so good, and all they have is crap. But then you have the ones that fly under the radar, and you can find stuff that is ten times better and a lot cheaper, too. Are you doing a theme?" she looked up now, finding a stunned 'Allie.' "Okay, no theme it is," she returned to her plan. "Cake here, decorations here, here, and there. Not here, never there," she crossed out a couple of spots. "If you go here for the food, you're good. If you go here, you'll then need to go there," she made an arrow, and Quinn leaned in.

"That's the hospital."

"Exactly." Sophia handed the map over with a smile. "I know I said I had a couple ideas for a present, but if you've got suggestions, too, I'm all ears. Oh, wait," she grabbed the paper back, marked another place. "Invitations. If you're thinking of going that route." Quinn was returned the map, which she took with caution.

"Ever think of being a party planner?"

After leaving the pharmacy/book store, Quinn felt her head slowly stop to spin at last. She'd have to start working on this. The guest list alone was going to require some thought.

It had been months, and still they were working on finding their place among the town's people. It was all about letting go, about accepting that they had a new life now, but they knew too well that letting go was the hardest part.

It felt wrong to be planning his birthday like this. Spencer's birthday was still two months away. She had plans for that day, whether she'd have admitted it to herself at the time or not. Their relationship had been in a different place back then. She couldn't believe how much had happened since the first time she'd thought about his birthday.

What were they going to do when the day came? Her own real birthday was only three weeks away, even though neither of them had brought it up. Were they supposed to ignore them, pretend like those birthdays belonged to a couple of dead people back in New York?

No, they weren't going to forget. They were going to keep those days. Even if it was just for themselves, even if no one else knew, they were going to have those birthdays, as Quinn and as Spencer. They were going be days to let themselves be themselves. They were going to put aside the pretending, just the two of them.

The guest list had been drawn. Quinn was surprised at how many people she could think of to include. If they were going to do this, then they were going to do it right, so she followed Sophia's map and went to buy invitations, which she filled out and, having only some of the addresses to follow, instead delivered them in person, where she knew she would find the people in question.

A menu had been drawn up, decorations looked into. Those were easy. She wondered if venturing another trip out to the mall would mean another impromptu run in with someone who thought she was dead, but she'd just have to risk it.

She'd put the coupon on the refrigerator so he could see it, so he would come to the same realization she had. She didn't think it fair for him to be blindsided with his fake birthday. Still, when she returned home and found him there, he had an amused look on his face.

"So my birthday's coming, is it?" he asked, and she laughed.

"That's what I heard."

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!