A/N: This isn't in canon with the show since Glee hasn't been on since before Christmas here in the UK! Warning; it's a bit sappy, but I read a book and thought of these two characters, so I just had to write this.
You are just bursting with happiness this morning. Emma's ankles touch yours as you are both cleansed with the gushing water overhead. Her delicate fingers massage the shampoo into your curls and all you can do is kiss and lick and touch her skin because finding words to express your feelings just doesn't seem enough. And somehow you love her even more than yesterday.
As always, you drive the longer way to the school in order to postpone your goodbye. You feel the warmth of Emma's hand on your thigh and your heart swells in awe – she is out of this world, you think. You are on a country road when you stop to let a middle–aged man cross the road, when he does, he steps in horse muck. You look to your right and see Emma trying to stifle a laugh, but when the man steps in the horrible mess again to retrieve his stubborn dog, she is reduced to a fit of laughter. Before you know it, several minutes have passed and you are still stationary in the middle of the quiet road and your stomachs are raw with the pain of laughter. You absolutely relish the sound of her laughter and you know that it will be chorusing in your ears all day.
You pull the car over to the side and because you are already late for school anyway, you begin to kiss her. She leans over and wraps her legs tightly around you and then you both realise that you can't let this stop here because you are incredibly in love. Then you are making love to your Emma in broad daylight, before school, in public. And you feel transcendent.
Figgins interrogates your lateness and Emma, in her nervous ramblings elaborates a story where you saved a dying bird. She's not totally lying – you did save a bird, two weeks ago. As she speaks, you think that she would've made a brilliant literature teacher because the words she uses are so eloquent and she is a good story-teller. However, Figgins catches your eye, forcing you to look away from Emma and then you know that he knows exactly what you've been doing.
Emma is with a student at lunch, so it is just you and Shannon. This time last year you were both unhappy and alone and it is amazing to think how much a year can change everything. You interrupt Shannon's rant about the football team and ask her if she is happy.
"You betcha!" she answers. You smile. No, in fact you grin and you hear Emma's laughter from earlier. Shannon knows you are not listening, but she forgives you because she knows how you are feeling and she wouldn't ever take that away from you.
You love glee. You feel like they are your friends and you are theirs, because you all laugh and dance and sing and argue. Not all of them confide their problems with you but that's OK since you know they will talk them through with Emma, and you wholly adore her: You wouldn't have trusted Terri with your kids, but you'd trust Emma with the universe. When you walk into the homely choir room the kids are discussing the best gift they had ever received. It's funny because you just know that Puck's response will be laced with profanities, and that Rachel's will be expensive. And you are right, and so was everyone else, apparently. Times like these you feel incredibly melancholic because the moments you have left with this group of people are so limited and you can't help the sands of time from slipping away, no matter how hard you grasp. Then you remember the one thing that is your constant, the sting eases but now you just want to find her and thank her.
"So what's the best gift you've ever gotten Mr Schue?" Mercedes asks, always the extrovert.
You pretend to contemplate for a few seconds, because that's the performer in you. In reality you knew as soon as the question was posed and as the words pour from your lips they almost sound rehearsed. There's nothing artificial about your answer though – it's just that you have thought about it so many times.
The kids listen intently as you go back to four years ago to when Emma Pillsbury joined McKinley High...
You thought she was unlike anything you had ever seen before. And then you got to know her in the faculty lounge where you spent every lunch hour together because she had no one else and Terri didn't like you having friends. One November afternoon it was curiously dark when you and Emma discussed politics and Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female speaker of the House of Representatives. You still can't fathom what she was saying, but you can remember the soft crinkling of plastic gloves and the sprinkling of freckles she always tried to cover bridging over her nose.
It was the faculty 'Secret Santa' and you so wanted to get Emma a gift. You drew out Sandy Ryerson's name from the box and bought him (or rather Terri bought him) some household decor from 'Sheets and Things'. You received your gift and was so incredibly elated. It was a mixed CD consisting of 13 songs and the front cover had been carefully decorated, with a note inside:
"I know that this isn't the most expensive of gifts – I'll purchase something better when I know more about your wine tastes. For now though, I leave you with this in hopes that through the melodic tones your questions about me are answered. If not, maybe one day I'll just tell you. Merry Christmas – E.F.P."
Everyone seems engrossed in the story, you guess that it's because they don't really know anything about your past. "I played the CD in the car on the way home and half way through the third song I pulled over and sat in silence whilst the other ten songs played." You sit down on the piano stool, a warm wave of nostalgia engulfing your soul. "All of my fears and bad memories melted away and I was left with this ineffable sense that I would know Emma for the rest of my life. And that was the greatest gift".
You don't tell them that you fell so deeply in love with her, since you were still married to Terri at the time.
Later that evening you stand in front of your mother's grave and you hold Emma so tight because this is where your time in this world together will inevitably end and it physically hurts you to think like this, but your mother's death has really shaken you. So you cry into the tender skin of her neck and she cries with you because she's so compassionate and she's thinking the exact same as you.
As the hours pass through the earth, she curls up on your lap as you look through photo albums with your 'best gift ever' gently humming in the background. Twenty-year-old Emma and thirty-year-old Emma appear exactly the same and just when you think you've found the words to describe the intensity of your love for her, they disappear just as fast. You kiss her so hotly, so softly, just everywhere. She is special and you could kiss her forever. In your mind you do – you never stop being a part of her.
Thank you for reading, if you can, please leave a review :)
Also, I know there's not much of a plot in this but I think I could craft one and continue, if you'd like!