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 36th cycle. Now cycle 37!

"Our Own Names"
Quinn, Santana, Brittany - Brittana - Claudia (OC)
Trinity Series #6 [following 'The Great Escape' (though there have been others)]

"Breathe in?" Brittany did as told, sitting on her bed while being examined by the short blonde woman. Dr. Claudia McManus was a friend of hers, of Santana's and Quinn's, for several reasons… "Does it hurt?" she tested, and Brittany gave a shrug – yes and no. "Have you been taking it easy?" Brittany didn't reply. "You guys have been out of town a few days," she pointed out, and if possible Brittany got even more quiet. "You took a job, didn't you," she stopped examining the still-healing injury.

"It wasn't a big one, easy, no danger," she tried to justify.

"You know I don't mind the house calls, but you need to pay attention when I tell you that you need to take it easy. You got lucky is what happened. But you need to stop."

"How long?"

"Few more weeks," Claudia nodded. Brittany sighed.

"Fine. Just… don't tell them, okay? I'll take care of it." Claudia nodded, though it was clear – she'd know if she hadn't told them.

Santana had come to refer to Claudia as their den mother, which then led to all three of them calling her 'Mama'… She took it with a smile, though sometimes it would also come with 'we're the same age!' But she was special to them, without a doubt. She was a friend now, an ally with medical emergencies, but she had started off as something else: she'd started off as a client.

It was a couple years before. Up to that point, they had tended to agree that they shouldn't take jobs in New York City. It was entirely possible that it wouldn't happen, that they'd run into former clients, but they preferred not to take any chances. And then they'd met her. She'd been distracted, nearly walked into traffic until Quinn had spotted her and pulled her back. Claudia had insisted she was alright, but Quinn had offered to sit with her 'until your hands stop shaking.'

After some coaxing, she'd explained about a collection of marble elephants that had belonged to her grandfather when he was young. There had once been five, but then four were lost, leaving only one, which Claudia had inherited after his death. It was only then that she'd found out it had been more than just a story he would tell… especially when she found them. She tried to reason with the man, asking for the objects which had belonged to her family. The man had countered this with an offer to buy out her remaining elephant – the complete set was worth so much more. She had refused, and then three weeks later there had been a break in at her house… the elephant was taken. It was like she'd failed her grandfather. And that was when Quinn had found her.

She had presented the story to Santana and Brittany. Like her, they shared some hesitation about taking a case that was so near to home, but they couldn't let it go. A background check on the blonde – once they'd identified her from what they knew – had revealed maybe they could make an exception. Claudia was a doctor, married to a man named Lucas Halstead, a teacher. When they had approached her, she had asked for their help, and they'd given it. The elephants were found, returned, they'd parted ways.

Their next job had been a disaster… it could have been a tragedy. On the exit, a guard had almost gotten the drop on them. Quinn had seen him, seen the gun… seen him train it on Brittany, and then she'd run. At the sound of the shot, Santana had ducked and turned at once, to secure both the blondes. They were on the ground as well: Brittany had been tackled out of the way… and Quinn had taken the bullet, judging by the blood seeping from her arm. They'd gotten out, a shaking Brittany driving while Santana looked after Quinn's arm. The blonde in the back seat was trying to keep it together… she wasn't fooling anyone.

It had been a concern of theirs, what would happen if any of them ever got shot. They knew what would happen if they went into a hospital with a gunshot wound, there would be questions, and it could spell the end of Trinity, possibly land them in jail. It was Brittany who'd suggested they get in touch with Claudia. She was a doctor, worked in the ER… she could help. They were out of state, but they were close. Santana had taken over in the driver's seat, a more efficient driver.

They'd called Claudia, told her only what she needed to know, told her to get in her car and start driving, to meet them somewhere in between after they'd been forced to leave the road and take shelter in a motel. When the small blonde arrived, it was clear Quinn wasn't doing well, even if it wasn't life threatening. Claudia hadn't panicked. She just got to work, directing Santana and Brittany to get her what she needed. Once they were good to hit the road again, she had gotten them to follow her back to New York and to her hospital, so she could finish the job. They knew it was risky for her as well now, if they got caught, but she never complained.

Quinn would make a full recovery, one more 'battle scar' but no worse. Before letting them go, Claudia had told them they could always call her if need be… she would always answer. When Brittany had had her fall, they'd called her, so she could tell them what to do until they were able to get back to town and to her. She'd been seeing to her recovery since then.

There were exactly five people in the world who knew who or what Trinity was. Three of them were Quinn, Santana, and Brittany. Then here was Winger, their tech guy. And the last was Claudia. Over time she had gone and become their friend.

"So?" Santana asked from the couch as Brittany came back out of her room with Claudia in tow.

"She's good," Claudia declared, though she threw a look to Brittany.

"Thanks, Mama," Santana looked back at her while Brittany came to sit at her side.

"No problem. Hey, where's Quinn?"

"Damage control," the two girls on the couch intoned together.

"Do I want to know?" Claudia asked, and got a double head shake. "Right." A few minutes later, Quinn had returned, greeting Claudia before she left. Once she'd gone, Santana looked to Quinn.

"So are we good? Can you relax now?"

"Yes, witness me relaxing," Quinn held her hands up in surrender and sat across from them. It would take a certain amount of time, after they got back from a job and had to reintegrate their regular lives, for them to feel like themselves again. "I should check in with work," she got up after five minutes.

"Alright," Santana waved her off, and once she was gone, she looked back to Brittany, found her staring.

"I thought we were going to tell her."

"We are, we will," Santana nodded, promising. "There's no rush, nothing to tell yet." Brittany smiled, which got her smiling, too. "We'll tell her. We'll say 'hey, Quinn, we're thinking of having a baby, which might mean putting Trinity on hold,'" she recited.

"Sounds good to me," Brittany beamed, leaning her head to Santana's shoulder. "I can't wait." Santana closed her eyes, pressing her forehead to the top of the blonde's head.

"Me neither…"

Quinn had lied… a white lie… She wasn't going to work, but if she'd told them what she wanted to, they would have been all over her. There was no certainty she'd run into him, but she was a girl who knew a thing or two about keeping track of schedules and placements, and if she played her cards right, she just might get to randomly run into… "Spencer, hi," she blinked when they came face to face. His face slipped into a smile and she wasn't entirely sure her cheeks had not just gone pink.

"I was starting to think you'd moved. I was going to be heartbroken," he teased.

"Have I made that much of an impression?" she laughed.

"A guy looks long and hard for that girl to randomly run into… again and again. All the good ones are taken," he shook his head, then paused. "That may have come out wrong," he told her and she laughed.

"Well I'm back," she bowed her head.

"Good," he smiled.

Things had always been like this with them, none further… It wasn't as though they hadn't tried, or he hadn't tried… If he ever tried to take a step forward, she took one back. She never meant to do it, but then he'd ask, she'd hear herself think yes, but she'd say no… yet another reason not to go blabbing that she'd gone to seek him out. Maybe it was the idea of lying to him, about who she was, what she did. Brittany and Santana didn't have that problem, and Quinn couldn't bear living in lies, not in her heart.

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!