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 81st cycle. Now cycle 82!

"Waking World"
In Gen1!World: G1!Kurt, Santana, Rachel, Mike... Quinn/Jesse
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Ever since Kurt had been returned, and Santana had been taken, there had been this feeling among them like at any moment those of them who were still swapped might get swapped back. Suddenly they were very much aware of situations where a sudden urge to fall asleep would not be so timely. Driving was the worst one. Whenever they could help it, they wouldn't get behind the wheel themselves. Kurt had been elected as their driver, most times. He'd already been returned so as far as they were concerned he was 'safe.'

And then there had been an accident. All in all it had not been serious, but driver Kurt and passenger Santana had still been brought to the hospital. When Burt arrived, he looked both beside himself and aggravated.

"I told those doctors, I knew there was something wrong with you, but they just had to let you go. Now that's twice you've ended up in here in a matter of weeks, and they're going to tell me it's nothing? What happened, did you pass out? Did you have a seizure?"

"No, Dad," Kurt cut him off. "I swerved not to hit a cat, it's fine. I need to see Santana."

He hadn't swerved for a cat. Santana had called for him to come and drive her to the mall, since she wouldn't do it, and all of a sudden she'd started falling asleep. When Kurt had realized what was happening, he had, in his haste, briefly lost control of the wheel, briefly enough that they'd had that small collision.

His father would have had him stay in bed, but there was nothing to stop him. "Can you call Rachel and tell her what happened?"

"What is it about that girl, why do you keep having her come over every time you're in the hospital?"

"Dad, just do it!" Kurt frowned. "Oh, and Mike, and… Forget it, I'll do it."

"He'd called them all, Rachel, Mike, Quinn, Jesse… To the last three he gave warnings to stop and sit for a while, that they might be going back soon. To Rachel, he suggested to come and join him. The other Santana would have gone by now, but then that meant that their Santana was on her way back. He was only vaguely aware of whatever was going on between them, but he knew Rachel would want to be there.

When Santana woke up, once her head cleared, the first thing she asked to know was where was Rachel. He promised that she was on her way. It was only minutes more before she appeared at the door, and he wondered if she might have run all the way here.

"Is she al…" she started to ask, before she realized the girl was awake, and staring at her. "Santana…" she breathed. "Are you…" she started to ask, but she didn't have to hear the answer in order to know who that was. The only thing she did worry for was how she would react. It had been weeks since, but the last time they'd talked they'd been having an argument. They'd never gotten the chance to make it right.

"I'll leave you two alone, just…" Kurt walked past them, shutting the blinds in the door before he left them.

Rachel stepped up to the bedside, never so nervous in her life.

"Santana, please forgive me, I shouldn't have…" she started to say, shaking her head.

"Stop," Santana cut her off, and Rachel's breath caught for a moment. "Come here," Santana went on, reaching out her hand. The breath released, and Rachel maneuvered her way into position to embrace her. She didn't know when she'd become the weepy girl, but here she was, crying as she held on to Santana Lopez. "Ow…" she gasped, and Rachel pulled back. They'd both forgotten the part about the accident.

X

Mike only barely remembered being in the bathroom with Kurt as both of them got ready for the performance. And then he was waking up, lying on his still made bed, fully clothed, almost like he'd been waiting to fall asleep… maybe he had. He stayed as he was for a minute or two before sitting up and turning to put his feet on the ground.

He knew what he'd find even before he pulled up his pants' leg, but he had to see for himself. So he looked, and he found two legs, two feet, ten toes… He must have remained as he was, staring at his feet, wiggling his toes, for a solid ten minutes.

"Michael?" He jumped, finding his mother at the door. "Is something wrong with your feet?" she asked, puzzled. He got up, nearly lost his footing, then regained his balance, breathing out.

"I'm alright."

X

As much as she didn't want to leave Santana's side, they'd left it to Rachel to go and check up on Quinn and Jesse. She hadn't heard back from them yet, none of them had, and she was getting worried. She already knew that Jesse had been at the Fabray house, as he'd been doing the past couple of months, being the 'dutiful boyfriend' and visiting his girlfriend, which was code for mooching a free meal off Mrs. Fabray. At this point, that could only help them, so Rachel let it go.

She rang the bell, waited… then heard a shout from inside.

In the spirit of being able to help each other out, Quinn had told her about the hidden key to the house. Rachel was quick to find it and let herself in.

"Quinn? Jesse? Hello?"

Quinn came dashing in from the next room, saw Rachel and made for her, as though she was going to hug her, but instead she slid behind her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Rachel blinked. "Did you get…"

"Someone's broken in!" Quinn whispered rapidly. Rachel looked back where she'd come from when Quinn shrieked again, and now if she hadn't known something was wrong…

"Hey… Jesse," she tipped her head.

"You know him?" Quinn asked.

"Alright, which one of you girls kidnapped me?" Jesse was as flighty as Quinn was. Rachel groaned.

"Oh, excellent, more puppies…"

X

Quinn opened her eyes out of shock, as the first thing she sensed was water, and she still had the occasional nightmare about her very first swap.

But it wasn't rain, or a pool. She was sitting crumpled in the shower.

Reaching to turn off the water, she pulled herself back up, climbed out and grabbed a towel. She supposed she'd had worse before. For now, she had to get dressed and find Jesse, since he clearly wasn't here with her and…

Something wasn't right. This wasn't her house, not hers or anyone else's that she knew, so why was she showering here? Then she heard it… A baby was crying in the other room. Quinn approached, slowly. The girl – it looked like a girl – was attempting to pull herself up along the bars of her crib, her face lined with fresh tears.

"Hey… it's alright…" Quinn instinctively took on a soothing voice, moving to pick up the girl in her arms and hold her near.

The moment she held her, it felt like she knew… she was hers.

"Oh…" she gasped. "Now I'm the one who's crying," she told the baby… her daughter.

She must have paced the small apartment for ten minutes with the baby still in her arms. She'd quickly stopped crying once Quinn had a hold of her, and now her little hand was grasping at the edge of her towel. What was she supposed to do? This wasn't her world, clearly, this wasn't… She still wasn't home.

"Jesse…" she thought aloud, and she looked around the room for a phone. When she found it, she dialled his number, hoping against all hope that he would pick up.

"Quinn?" his response came and relief flooded her. "Where are you?" he asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Hold on," she spied a few envelopes on a table. She picked one up and found it was her name right there, in front of an address that wasn't hers. It was still familiar though, so she went and looked out the window to confirm. She gave the address to Jesse, and he promised to be on his way. In the ten minutes it took before he arrived, she'd had the presence of mind to get dressed, after which she'd picked up the baby again; she found it hard not to. When there was a knock at the door, she hurried and went to answer. He was about to speak, and then he saw…

"Whose baby is that?"

"Take a wild guess," she breathed, so he came in and she shut the door. "So we're doing this again, aren't we?" she looked at him. He bowed his head.

"But we're together, aren't we?" he reminded her, and despite everything it did reassure her some.

"Right. So where do we start?"

THE END

A/N: Final installment of the series!