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 58th cycle. Now cycle 59!

"While You're Gone"
Sam/Rachel, 3yo Nell (OC)
Sam & Nell/Samchel series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

It wasn't the first night she did this. He would put Nell in her bed, get her to sleep, and all would seem fine. Eventually he would go to bed as well. It would vary how long it took, from minutes to hours, but then he would be awakened to find the three-year-old stood next to his bed, patting at his arm, his back, his face, whatever she could reach. Eventually he would wake up, and she'd stare at him, waiting.

"What's wrong?" he'd ask, reaching to hold the hold that had been prodding him, like he didn't know what she would say.

"Mommy," she pleaded.

"Mommy can't be here right now," he reminded her. "But we're going to talk to tomorrow, remember?" he asked, and then she would nod. "Want to stay here with me a while?"

That was always the trade-off. She could stay a little while, but then she would have to go back to her own bed. If he just kept her, she'd never leave.

Some nights he didn't follow his own rules, letting her stay through the night. He could understand Nell missing her; he did, too. Rachel had been in New York for two months now. He had no real idea what that would be like, not having her there. He'd known it would be hard, but never like this. She'd always been within reach here, but now she was one long ride away, one he couldn't just make whenever he wanted.

He knew it was different for Nell though. To her, this was her mother, and now her mother wasn't around. She knew that Mommy was in New York, in a big special school, and that at the end of the year they would be going to join her, moving there, where Daddy would go to school, too, and the three of them could be together again. She knew all this, and she would say as much to people she met, when they would talk to her. She was proud, no doubt about it.

At heart she was a little girl who missed her mom, the only one she'd ever known. She knew she hadn't grown in her belly, that she'd had another mother called Summer, but Rachel was her Mommy, the one who held her snug in her arms, ran around with her, sang her songs… She wanted her back, and they knew this.

They practically counted down the days, not for their reunion, although they waited on this, too, but for the day when Nell could have her mom and dad, all under one roof, every day and night.

That night he had ended up keeping Nell with him. He'd had every intention of taking her back, but he was too exhausted from his day, and he decided she could stay, just as he was drifting off to sleep. School had been long, as had Glee Club.

It was so different now. They'd lost a good portion of their members with graduation last year. Now they had new blood, new members. They knew about Nell by now. He didn't hide that she existed, although he hadn't gone and introduced himself with "Hi I'm Sam, I have a three-year-old." The reactions had been mixed, from snarky to understanding. The new girl Marley had taken up as a babysitter a couple of times when he needed it. Nell had also met Ryder, one day at the mall, and he had made her laugh, guaranteeing she would become a fan.

Sitting in that choir room without Rachel wasn't the same. He still loved being there and would continue to throughout his Senior year, but he would find himself turning, looking for her, like suddenly she'd be there.

They had a good system as far as their calls to one another. They knew how hectic things could get, especially on Rachel's side of things. So they set call times. That way they knew, no matter what, there was this time that was all set aside for them, all three of them. They would have unscheduled calls when it was just the two of them, usually after Nell was asleep, or in the morning before she woke up. The small girl had a way of monopolizing the set time calls, which they would never take from her.

In the morning he woke with his daughter still curled up to him. He got up, carefully taking her up with him. He turned on the computer, walking about with the sleeping child plastered against him. They had ten minutes to spare, so he went and grabbed some breakfast for himself. Nell woke up in his arms, barely dazed and quickly hungry. He shared little bites of his plate with her.

"Mommy!" Nell reacted when they heard the chime back in his room.

"Yeah," he smirked, taking her back there, shutting the door so not to wake his mother. He clicked on the green button, and before long Rachel's face appeared on the screen.

"Mommy!" Nell proclaimed once more. Rachel was just as excited to see her.

"Hey, princess," she beamed, waving at her. "Did you just wake up?" she asked and Nell nodded, blonde hair flying everywhere. "Yeah, I can see that," Rachel laughed. Sam could practically see her ache to just reach through her screen and pull the tiny girl into her arms.

They'd had two visits so far, and each time they'd come to part, seeing the realization come to Nell, there was heartbreak all over her face. One of these days it might become so hard on her she'd consider giving up and coming home to 'her favorite girl.' She'd known this might happen, and she'd made it very clear to Sam that, if it did, then he had to make her see she needed to stay the course in New York, no matter how hard she begged for Lima, for Nell, and for him. He knew what it meant for her, and for himself as well. He loved her, and he wanted her to be happy. New York meant her happiness, and she would have given herself to it wholeheartedly if it hadn't been for him. He wanted her happiness, so if they had to be that much stronger until the end of the year, then that was what they'd do.

"You like your school, Mommy?" Nell would ask Rachel on the screen.

"I do, yes. You would love it, too. There's singing everywhere, and dancing," she painted the picture with her hands, and Nell was hooked. Sam knew from how she'd told him that it wasn't exactly as magical as she'd make it sound for Nell's sake, but she was staying on, determined to succeed.

She still viewed her duties to the two of them being just as important, sometimes even more. They had changed her over the last two years, she would say, and this was for the better, in her opinion. He would have kept her without the concerns of parenthood, but she had welcomed them.

As the call had neared its end, Rachel made sure to tell Nell how long it would be until their next 'face call' like this, so she would know that it would come if she was patient. They said their goodbyes, and Nell blew twenty-three kisses at the screen; Rachel had counted them out for her.

They couldn't have this year end fast enough. They were all barely hanging on, and he had no idea what the next few months would mean for all of them. He wanted to believe it would be hard but surmountable, even as he also worried it might prove to be a test they were not ready for at all.

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!