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!

"No Third Chances"
(Rachel/)Quinn, Judy
Runaway Bride series
(no listings yet; sequel to "When I Was Little")

She had tried two times already that day, and she'd chickened out both times.

The first time had been in the morning, when her mother returned from her 'exercise run,' which she'd been going on every morning for the past few months, with a few other women from their street and the next. Judy Fabray was going around, energized and talking about what she had planned for the day, and Quinn tried to interrupt, to turn the subject to this thing she had been meaning to tell her, but she had lost all capacity to speak. So she said nothing.

The next time had been hours later, while the two of them were preparing dinner. She was so distracted, trying to work up the courage, that she'd nearly sliced off her fingers once, before nicking one finger, which her mother had quickly cleaned and bandaged before setting her to 'anything that doesn't involve a knife.' After that, she didn't want to come off unstable, so she had once again put a cork in it.

She had to get past this, had to say it. Right around this time, Rachel would be telling her fathers. She wouldn't need multiple attempts, she would just do it. That was why Quinn had tried to do it earlier, and now, because she knew it might be hard… She wished she hadn't been so right.

There was so much she hadn't told her mother in the past few weeks. Maybe it was that part of her didn't want to cause any further… disruptions in her life. A couple of years ago, Judy Fabray was living the kind of life she must have thought was exactly what she wanted and should want. Except it had been a lie, and she had known it, they all had. They just didn't know how much. All of a sudden she had a pregnant teenage daughter, who would be kicked out of the house by a husband who had secretly been keeping up an affair. Now she was divorced, living with the daughter she had taken back in, and as much as she would put up a brave front, Quinn could still see the cracks she tried to cover up with makeup and smiles.

What would she say when she found out this daughter she had fought for had been keeping this secret. If Russell Fabray still lived in this house and he found out his youngest daughter had been making time with a girl, kissing her, touching her, holding her, and dreaming of doing so, so much more with her, and to spend perhaps the rest of her life with her… She didn't know exactly what he would do, and frankly she tried not to put too much thought into it, but she was almost sure that being kicked out would have been the best case scenario.

She didn't have delusions to think her mother was a complete opposite to this. She knew there were plenty of things on which she didn't merely nod along when her former husband spoke. She shared some of his beliefs, and as much as she'd been tempted to try and test her, to slip in certain topics of conversation just to gauge her reaction, Quinn had no substantial idea how she would respond to her daughter being attracted to girls.

"Quinn?" She had returned to her room straight after dinner, and she looked up in surprise when she heard her mother at the door. "Is everything alright? You've been acting strange all day," Judy told her. Quinn looked at her mother, looked at this woman standing there, who had been doing her very best to make up for the one time she had kept quiet when she shouldn't, and she wasn't afraid anymore. She wasn't going to beat around the bush with this, she was going to be honest. She owed her that much, and she would deal with the consequences.

"Mom, I'm gay." It was there. Three words, no room for misinterpretation. It was sudden, she realized, but she did believe in a bit of the 'ripping off the band aid' method. "I've been seeing someone, a girl, in secret for a little while. I know I didn't tell you, and I'm sorry, but I think you can understand why that would be. But I don't want to do that anymore. I want you to know the truth, and that's it." She had put it all out there in one go, so it would be there, ready for the taking.

Her mother stood in that same spot where she'd stood, quiet and still. Quinn could see in her eyes though, she had definitely heard what she said. She was taking it all in, and Quinn didn't know what she was thinking. All she could do was wait. When Judy blinked, took a step forward, Quinn took a breath, waiting. Her mother came to stand at the foot of her bed, staring at her, and again the silence stretched on. She couldn't make her speak, couldn't force her to say anything before she was ready. She wasn't going to screw this up.

"A-are… are you sure about… about this?" Judy's voice finally returned, slow and articulated.

"Definitely," Quinn spoke with confidence, and Judy bowed her head. "Mom, please…" she felt this sudden urge to cry, and it took her back to that night, sitting in the living room, across from her father, with Finn by her side. Judy looked back up at her, and her mother was crying.

"I knew something was different about you lately," Judy told her. "I knew you'd changed, and I couldn't say what it was, but I knew… I knew you were happy." Quinn blinked. "I thought maybe it was because graduation is coming up, and you've got college coming up, but that's not what it was, was it? There's… there's a girl?" Quinn slowly nodded, and Judy came around to sit with her. "Do you realize what this will mean for you? I read about these things so often in the papers, I see it on the news, what happens to some of…" She let out a breath, clasping her daughter's hands. "I don't want you to ever have to think you can't talk to me, do you hear me?" Judy looked her in the eyes, and Quinn nodded.

"I hear you," she vowed, feeling her mother squeeze her hands.

"I love you so much," Judy told her, and Quinn didn't mind the tears, not now. Her mother was with her, and knowing that, she could feel a giant weight lift away.

"I love you, too… You have no idea."

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!