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 64th cycle. Now cycle 65!

A/N: I am truly flippin' late (it's 4:30am), but it was a long day ;)

"Swearing Secrecy"
Older (Brittany & Santana,) Quinn, Claudia (OC)
Trinity Series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

They had left the mall, and all Quinn had to go on, to know that Claudia was still following her, was the sound of her shoes clicking along. They had walked out of the mall and over to the car, where she'd opened the back door for Claudia to put her things before inviting her to get in the passenger seat. Quinn climbed in the driver's seat, and as soon as the doors had shut, they were in silence.

Claudia hadn't stopped looking at her. She couldn't believe her eyes. Quinn found it hard to look at her now, even though just being in her presence she remembered how much she had missed her and how happy she could be, knowing that her friend was there. But then this wasn't just her friend. This was her friend she had lied to, the way she'd lied to so many others, the day she had faked her death along with Spencer. For months now, she had believed her dead, but now here they were, together, and she was most certainly not dead.

"I know… you probably have a lot of questions."

"You bet I do," her voice came off immediately with a twinge of anger, and Quinn looked up at her. Claudia was crying, though she was trying not to let it show. "You died, Quinn. I went to your funeral. I think about you so many times, how you helped me and I couldn't help you."

"But you did. You did help me," she promised.

"Not when it counted," Claudia refused. "They saw your body, how…"

"I had some help with that. We faked our deaths, we had to."

"Spencer is alive, too?" Claudia looked around, like she would suddenly find him.

"Yes, but he's not here. We didn't have a choice, alright? If we did have a choice, I would not have chosen leaving everyone I loved behind," she made it clear, and once Claudia had to factor this in, her anger looked to be receding. She reached over, slowly, touching her not-so-dead friend's hand, and she had a small sob at the contact. Quinn grasped her hand, feeling herself tear up as well.

"Are you two alright, I mean…"

"Yes, it's… It hasn't been easy. Spencer's back still needed a lot of looking after, but I did that."

"How's he doing now?" Claudia asked, the doctor voice rising out.

"Better," Quinn smiled. "It still hurts from time to time, but he can manage it. What are you doing out here anyway, are you on vacation?"

"I'm here for a conference," Claudia revealed. "Is this where you live?"

"No, I just… I had errands," she remembered she still had a few things to get, and if she didn't come back with them, she'd have to have a good reason why. She wasn't sure whether or not she should tell Spencer yet about what she was doing at this very moment.

"You look so different."

"It's the hair," Quinn reached for it. "You know I was trying to make sure you wouldn't see me earlier, but now that you did… I've missed you a lot, I have," she told her, and Claudia smiled, reaching forward to hug her. It was crazy how much the scent she got off her filled her with memories of home and New York. If she closed her eyes, she could see Claudia's house, down to the last details.

"Are you ever going to come home?" Claudia asked when they pulled back, and Quinn let out a breath.

"I don't know. Part of me wants to say yes, but I have to be realistic and tell myself there is every possibility that I won't ever get to go. Actually, if Spencer finds out about me seeing you today, we might have to move somewhere else."

"Why, I won't tell anyone, I swear," Claudia shook her head, suddenly feeling like she'd messed things up for the once dead girl.

"It might not matter. If he thinks there's any chance someone might pick up our trail, that's all it'll take, and to be honest even I don't know what I'd do."

"Quinn, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, really. You don't have to apologize," she assured her. There was a pause, and Claudia smiled.

"You want to see a picture? I saw Santana and Brittany before I left, you should see how big Santana's getting now," she started to go for her phone, but Quinn stopped her.

"No, don't," she shook her head.

"Don't you want to see them?" Claudia blinked.

"More than anything," she tried really hard not to cry. "But knowing anything about them, how they're doing, it'll only make it harder. I'm sitting here with you right now and it's killing me because I know once we go our separate ways, that might be the last time I see you again. Those two girls were like my sisters, I can't… I can't think about them without feeling like my heart is in pieces, so just…"

"Alright, I won't say anything, I swear," Claudia retracted her hand. "But… Do you at least want to know what they're having?" she tempted, and Quinn had to take a breath, thinking. It was just a little thing, so little, and yet it could still tear her up for all she knew. But she couldn't resist, so she nodded, and Claudia beamed. "It's a girl." The tears were pooling up now, and Quinn wiped at her eyes.

"That's good, that's… that's really good," she turned away for a few seconds, and when Claudia took her hand again she held on to it for every trace of comfort it could give.

After this they knew they had to go their own ways. If they stayed any longer, this moment would only get harder. Claudia got out of the car, took her bags, and with a final wave to Quinn, she turned and walked off. Quinn watched her go, knowing she wasn't going back into that mall, not today. If Spencer asked why she hadn't gotten everything, she'd come up with an excuse… or she'd tell him the truth, she couldn't say. It was already going to take her some time to pull herself together and get back on the road. For now all she could do was cry for the life she'd left behind.

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!