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 71st cycle. Now cycle 72!

"Fearing & Choosing"
Nora (AU!Beth), Grace, Emily
Sunshine Girls 2 series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Emily didn't want to get involved, but as usual, she didn't see how she could sit by and do nothing. It wasn't that this situation with Grace and with Nora was her fault, not exactly. She hadn't told either of those girls that they should go and have feelings for each other. She hadn't told Grace to set Nora up with Francesca. But she had sort of told Grace about Nora's feelings for her, which had started another sequence of events that… well…

"Are you alright?" Emily had asked Grace after pulling her into the empty girls' room.

"Yes?" Grace asked, confused.

"Really? Because you've been walking around like your dog just died… twice… overkill."

"I don't have a d…"

"I said 'like,'" Emily cut her off. "So what is it? Is it Nora again?" As soon as she'd spoken the name, Grace had flinched on reflex, and she bowed her head, annoyed at herself for having given that sign. "I know she must have told you I'd try and set you up with someone, and under normal circumstances, I probably would have, but well she doesn't know about…"

"I don't know how much longer I can do this," Grace had spoken, the words refusing to go unspoken again. When she looked up at Emily again, she could feel the tears stinging at her eyes, and she wanted to just bat them away. She didn't want to be that girl, crying all the time, but she couldn't help it when her heart was breaking a little more every day, every time she had to see her and not tell her, see her with Francesca, see them holding hands, laughing together, kissing…

Emily had pulled her into her arms instantly, and Grace didn't resist. She welcomed the hold, mumbling something about getting the shoulder of her shirt dirty. "Don't worry about it, I've got gym later," Emily shrugged it off, which got a broken laugh out of Grace. "I wish I could help, really… I don't know what I'm supposed to do, except this," she admitted.

Grace had always counted herself lucky to have two such great girls as her best friends, and she didn't know that it had dawned on her until this whole thing had gotten to where it was now that, as much as Emily was one of her best friends, she was also one of Nora's, and knowing what she did about Nora's longstanding feelings for her, then it wasn't entirely unlikely that Nora would have been in this exact same position, back in the day.

Nora would have gone through the same thing she was going through now. She would have been aware of these feelings she had, for Grace, but all the while she would also have known that nothing could ever become of those feelings, at least to her knowledge. Now here Grace was, with feelings for Nora, stronger every day, all the while knowing she couldn't express them in any way, because Nora was happy with Francesca, and she would never want to get in the way of that.

She couldn't pretend like she knew exactly what it would have been like in Nora's case, especially in the matter of Francesca. Had she wanted to move on? Grace had sort of been the one to lead her on to spending time with Francesca, and if she hadn't done it, then what would have happened?

"You know, maybe she was right though," she sniffled after a moment.

"Who was?"

"Nora. If you didn't know about any of this, you would have tried to set me up with someone, so… maybe you should." The words were sounding uncertain, each one of them, like someone was guiding her forward and her feet were slipping and sliding, resisting the push.

"You don't have to…"

"That's the thing, I think I do. If it's the only way I'll stop feeling this way, then… Please, Em. You said you wanted to help, then do this for me."

"I…" Emily stared at her for a moment, finally nodding. "Right, sure. Okay, I can do that," she promised, then, "So… Am I fixing you up with a guy, or…"

"Yes, a guy," Grace nodded. She had considered it before, she had, if she would be attracted to other girls, or if it was just Nora. Deep down she knew she could never even consider going out with a girl that wasn't Nora, because then she'd see them together, and she would have to know that it had been a possibility for them to be together, so how would that fare with not interfering with her relationship with Francesca? She was genuinely attracted to boys, too, so it didn't have to be a problem.

"Are you sure about this?" Emily had asked, giving her an out if she needed it. Grace smiled at her, hugging her friend with all the gratitude in her. If she was truthful, she knew what she would have said. No. Not at all. But she needed to forge ahead, and for that, she had to ignore the rest.

"I am," she told her, and Emily smiled. She doubted they would ever end up in some kind of triple date scenario, knowing this would mean putting all the pieces of their complicated relationship situation in the same bag and giving it a good shake, but then who knew? It might all work out better than she could see it working out with the current state she was in. It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel if she kept her eyes closed all the time.

"I'll find you something really good, I promise," Emily told her. "I'm going to put the screws on those guys, no one that's not worthy of your awesomeness will even get considered."

"You're not going to hurt them, are you?" Grace had to appreciate Emily's efforts at getting her to laugh again. She couldn't walk out of this bathroom looking like a weeping mess, and Emily Holt being the full service best friend she was, Grace knew that wasn't going to be the case.

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!