A/N: So, I'm trying to get back into writing Fanfiction again. Posting and stuff more regularly. I actually wrote this awhile ago. Clearly, right after Sectionals in the first season. I never got around to typing it up and posting it. Well, I am posting this now. It's a little drabble-y ficlet about Terri Schuester and a short conversation she has with Emma. Obviously, it is AU and disregards everything that happened after the Sectionals episode in Season 1. Enjoy! R&R! Thanks! –Mac

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

Know When To Stop Looking

Terri Schuester makes one last desperate attempt to take back her husband. She arrives at McKinley High dead set on talking sense into Will. He can't give up on their years of marriage, she won't let him. But she can't find him. She looks everywhere. He's not in his office, his classroom, the teacher's lounge, the auditorium, or the music room. She is standing at the door of the music room, eyes caught on the stark emptiness of it, when a voice pipes up beside her.

"Will took the Glee kids out to celebrate. They won Sectionals, you know. He's very proud."

Terri stares down at the red headed Guidance Counselor. A flame of resentment rises in her throat. It's easy for her to blame the woman for Will's absence, because she can still remember vividly the way he looks at Emma. He used to look at her that way, but that was before…everything.

The two women stand there, staring at each other in silence. Terri thinks that if she can stare down Will's replacement for her that it will be the first step toward winning him back. But in the end, it's her that looks away and a part of her knows it's her concession. Emma continues to stare at her, doe-eyes blinking.

"I suppose this is where you tell me what I did was wrong and that I'm a terrible person," Terri states coolly.

"No, no," Emma shakes her head. "I don't think you're a terrible person. As I told Will, your methods were wrong, but I understand your intentions."

Terri frowns, "You said that to him?"

"Undoubtedly, he didn't exactly see it that way himself," Emma says, "And in the end…"

"He chose you," Terri finishes when Emma trails off. She gives the girl credit for only faltering a moment before composing herself.

"I wasn't going to—"

"I know," Terri cuts her off. She takes a deep breath and resigns herself to what she is about to say. "Yet it's the truth. It took me a long time to accept that. In fact, I'm not sure I have yet."

"It was never my intention—" Emma begins again but is cut off a second time.

"—to steal my husband?" Terri raises an eyebrow. "No, I would think not. I suppose I shouldn't be looking for a thief. I lost Will all on my own. I thought by coming here I would find him again, but I was wrong."

"I wish there was something I could say," Emma replies, her eyes cast downward. "I don't know what to say."

"Maybe it's better left unsaid then," Terri breathes. "I should go. I'm not going to find what I'm looking for here."

As Terri walks away, she can still feel Emma's eyes following her retreat. She breathes in and forces herself to keep walking. She is no longer sure of what she was looking for by coming to the high school in search of Will. An absolution of her sins perhaps. If that is the case, she is searching for an impossible amount of forgiveness. By coming here, she finds that she must learn to accept that she no longer has a claim on Will. She knows that whatever she truly was looking for no longer exists. As she leaves the school empty-handed, there is only one thing she can do. She has to stop searching, no matter how much it hurts to do it. When it comes down to it, a person has to know when to stop looking. Terri knows that time has come and so she reluctantly surrenders to it.