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 75th cycle. Now cycle 76!

"And We Breathe"
In Gen2!World: G1!Quinn/Jesse
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Quinn could hardly believe that she had managed to speak fast enough to get all she meant to say out in the open before the striding figure of Coach Sylvester came into the principal's office – unannounced no less – and got to arguing against something she hardly had any knowledge of. Maybe she'd managed to take just the correct approach with Figgins, because everything the cheerleading coach had barked, he had brushed away as though it was nothing. Quinn's proposition had worked for him, and he was consenting, not only to grant them their performance, during an upcoming school assembly, but far beyond any hope she'd had, to give them access to rehearsal space all their own: the choir room. This was only going to happen if they could get a hold of a faculty advisor, which Quinn assured him they would be in the process of acquiring. The coach had given a withering look, but Quinn just smiled, thanked the principal, and went on her way.

On the inside she had been properly trembling, doing her best to impersonate the other Quinn she'd had to pretend to be for a while but all the while wanting nothing more than to get out of there. When she did get out, after making sure that Sue was still busy yelling at Figgins, she'd gotten a hold of Jesse's arm and pulled him out of view, quickly giving him a hug. It was as thanks for warning her of Sylvester's approach and also in celebration of what she'd accomplished.

When the day was done for the both of them, they'd headed to her house, where she could tell him exactly what had happened.

"How are we going to get Mr. Schue?" Quinn frowned.

"Well he'll see your performance, and after that… we might get him to break out of the mood he's in right now, and then…" he made a wordless gesture she took to mean 'and everything will fall into place.'

"Right, yeah," she looked down, and he let out a breath, reaching out a hand to cradle the back of her head and get her to look at him. When she did, he smiled.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm just worried, same as usual," she shrugged. "It's like the closer we get to something, anything, I start to think… well what if it doesn't work? What if we never get out of here?"

"We got out last time," he pointed out.

"Yeah, and we ended up here. What if it happens again? We might find a way and get everyone back where they belong, and then get thrown into another world like this that needs fixing. And then another one, and another one, and we'll never go home."

"Then we'll keep jumping," he shrugged, unperturbed. "You and me, fixing the world, one universe of McKinley High at a time." He was trying to cheer her up; all he managed to do was to reassert her fears.

"But what if we get separated?"

"We won't," Jesse insisted.

"We might… We did," she reminded him.

"That didn't count, I got thrown first, and then you came," he tried to counter.

"It did count. We were in different worlds, and I had to see this other guy with your face who wasn't you," she pushed on, wishing he would stop trying to toss aside her concerns. "Didn't you feel it, too, when you had that other Quinn with you?"

"I did…" he sighed, finally letting go of his optimistic point of view a little. "Of course I did. Look, I don't know what's going to happen, and neither I nor you can control it, you know that. But if it ever happens, and you and I get stuck in different universes, then… then we'll just have to do everything we can to get back to each other again. I won't give up, I swear I won't," he vowed, and a moment later she was kissing him.

One moment of desperate clinging, knowing how hard they would fight to be with one another, had turned into one second of coming eye to eye before she reached to pull his shirt over his head, and he bypassed unbuttoning the whole of her shirt by doing enough so he could pull it off, too. All at once she was grappling at his pants, and he was undoing her skirt. They barely made it to the bed that they were tugging their own underwear away, and falling over one another, they went on kissing, as he let one hand go to her breast, and then a moment later, she gasped as she felt him enter.

The frenzy that had urged them on did not waver for a second, not until it was over, and they were lying side by side, out of breath.

"That was…" Jesse breathed.

"Yeah…" Quinn hummed.

"Are you… okay?"

"Definitely," she chuckled, looking at him with a smile, which he returned. She pulled herself closer to him, and he put his arm under her head and around her shoulders, leaning to press a kiss to her forehead. "Did not expect that," she looked up at him.

"Yeah, no, me neither," he agreed.

"Wouldn't mind… you know… going again," she smirked.

"Wouldn't mind either. Quinn…" he looked at her. "I meant what I said before. No matter what happens, no matter where we go, we'll always find each other."

"I know we will," she pulled herself over him, placing small kisses across his chest.

Already she could feel he was about ready to go, and if she could feel that about him, then he must have been feeling the same from her, because she definitely was. This time though she wanted them to go slower. It had been good before, great even, much better than she would have expected, but they'd been so driven. This time, they would try something else.

"Together forever?" she asked, loving the look on his face when her hand found him.

"Any world," he vowed, and she pulled him to her.

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!