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 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!

INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet

** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!

This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: Steps 16-36, Time Is On Your Side, chapter 1.

"Stage to Screen to Stage"
Rachel/Puck
Project No Day But Today (following 'Benefactors & Troublemakers')

It had needed to be done a long time ago, she realized, and she completely took the blame. Now though, it was time to get down to business. They needed their script. Puck had already told her that he trusted her, since she had much more knowledge about this than he did, though he would be more than happy to assist in any way she needed him.

It was going to go one of two ways. Either she'd work through it piece by piece, over days, and it would consume her, or she'd have to sit down and just get it done in one day. She preferred the second option, but if she was going to do it that way, then she was going to need something.

"Okay, you said if I needed you…" she came up to Puck, standing at his locker, and he turned to her, ready to listen.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"I need you to come over this Saturday and stay with me while I take care of our script. If I get discouraged, you cheer me up. If I get distracted, you make me focus," she explained.

"If you get hungry, I get you a snack," he volunteered and she smiled. "If you get achy…" he showed his hands and she grinned, stretching to kiss him.

"Thank you."

"Anything," he promised. "I said I'd be there, didn't I?"

"You did," she nodded. "So, Saturday?"

"I'll be there."

On Saturday, Puck presented himself to find a Rachel ready to work. She had everything set up in her room, including things to keep Puck entertained while she worked. So he sat, and he got to checking out what she'd set aside for him, and she sat at her desk, ready to work. He wasn't sure what it was that she needed to do, but it looked intense. Every once in a while he would hear her muttering to herself… singing to herself what he could vaguely recognize as songs from Rent.

After an hour, he'd gotten up, moving to stand behind her, leaning to look over her shoulder… and then he had a hand pushing his face away, undisturbed. "Okay, okay, I get it," he shook his head, moving back to sit. He picked up his guitar, which he'd brought just in case, and began strumming along what eventually got to sounding like "One Song Glory," and he kept it going, figuring it could only help her at this point. It must have, judging by the fact he was not clobbered by any thrown objects or told to stop.

At the second hour, he was shuffling a deck of cards when he heard a grunt and looked up to see her bow her head. "What's wrong?" he asked, stopping.

"I suck," was her answer. He put the cards down and got up.

"Permission to approach?" he asked, remembering what had happened the last time he'd tried to get near her. She turned in her chair, still looking like a mopey child.

"Yes." He pulled up the chair she had brought in for him – just in case – and placed it by her side before taking a seat.

"You do not suck," he got to the point.

"I should have done this ages ago, what was I thinking?" she looked to him, and before she could put herself further down, he reached up hold her head, careful.

"Stop, okay?" he made himself to sound as stern as he could without it sounding like he was reprimanding her. "This whole thing has been one complicated mess after another, but we're still here. So what if you haven't taken care of this until now?" She went to answer, but he just shook his head. "You're doing it now, and if that's not good enough for them, then no one is forcing them to stay."

"Okay, but we do need them, they're part of the cast…" Rachel managed to get in.

"But you get the point. Now, come on, what's the problem? We can fix it," he promised. After a moment, she smiled and turned back to the desk, laying out her current problem.

In the next hour, fixing the one problem had led to him sticking by her side and her refusing to let him move away. She was going to finish this, no, they were going to finish this, together. What he discovered was that his estimations of his worthlessness to the cause were as far off as they came. Once he understood how she was doing this, he was working right along with her.

He wasn't sure how much time had gone by, but then all of a sudden they had stopped and… it was done. He didn't really realize until she'd turned to him and declared it. "That's it, that's… that's it, it's done, we… it's done!" she spoke excitedly, almost tackling him.

"Told you we would," he braced to receive the embrace.

"Yes, alright," she admitted, pulling back.

"So what do we do now?" he asked.

"Well, it might be best to review it, I mean we could have made tons of mistakes."

"Alright, so let's do that, we… What time is it?" he suddenly wondered, feeling his stomach protest them launching into the next task right away.

"Time to eat," she declared, smirking when she heard his stomach as well.

Looking for a snack had turned into going out for pizza, when they realized they'd skipped dinner. As they stood waiting for their order, he could see her just smiling away, which could only get him smiling, too. "What?" he asked her.

"Nothing, just that you keep surprising me."

"Well, you know, that's kind of what I do, it's my thing," he motioned, and she laughed.

"Yeah, it is," she agreed.

"What do we do after we review the script?" he asked.

"Make changes if we have to, which we probably will. Any production worth their salt can't just go from a first draft, you know?"

"Sure," he shrugged like he knew.

"So we'll make the edits, and then when we feel it's ready, we can print and distribute," she nodded, getting a smile just thinking of it being on paper.

"All that tonight?" he asked, semi-discouraged.

"No, no, I mean we've already done so much… If it wasn't for your help, I could still have been there for hours, provided I hadn't gone and sat in the corner in a ball to cry," she bowed her head. "I think maybe we should call it a day for tonight. We've earned it."

"Agreed," he offered his hand and she shook it. There was a pause. "Basically what you're saying is 'we continue tomorrow.'"

"Well, I wasn't going to…" she sputtered awkwardly, but he just smirked.

"Be there at ten."

THE END

PLEASE READ: This summer, July 17th will be Day 1000 of Gleekathon!
As such, of course, I'll want to do something special for it.
If you have ideas or suggestions or anything, with regards to that,
please send them my way, preferably in a private message,
but if not then whatever way is convenient for you.
I'd really appreciate it, you know I like to involve you guys :D

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!