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 71st cycle. Now cycle 72!
"A New Light of Day"
(Older) Quinn, Rachel (Quinn/Finn, Rachel/Puck) - Nora, Hailey, Hannah
Sunshine Girls 1 series (FINAL INSTALLMENT)
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)
"And you did ask Aunt Rachel to marry you," Hailey beamed at her uncle.
"I did," Puck nodded. "And we had our own wedding, and then you came along," he turned to Hannah. "And you two," he turned to the twins.
"And Noah!" the boys pointed to their younger brother.
"Yes, and now we'll have your new cousin, your new sibling," he looked first to his children and then to Hailey. "And in Nora's case, both," he smirked, making the other children laugh.
"So… that's it?" Hannah realized. "The story is over?" She looked disappointed; so did Hailey.
"Of course it isn't," her father reassured her.
"It's not?" Hannah sat up.
"It's never over. It's just starting. Think about it, now you'll have whole new adventures, and you can share it with that little girl that's being born." Hailey looked to Hannah, as Hannah herself had been turning to her. They'd had the same idea: She would be a new Sunshine Girl, like them.
It would be a few more hours before Finn arrived to announce the birth of Christina Rose Hudson.
As soon as they'd found out she had arrived, Hannah had grabbed hold of Hailey's hand and pulled her up so they could go to their older sister and ask what they had been meaning to ask her. Having received their request, Nora had passed it on to her stepfather, who had told her it might be a little while longer before they could do it, but that it could most definitely be arranged.
And an hour later, after being made to wait in the room where Quinn was now napping, Hailey and Hannah watched as Nora returned to them, with the bundled up newborn in her arms.
"Can I hold her?" they had both asked at once, and Nora slowly shushed them, nodding to her mother. "Can I hold her?" they had once again spoken at once, this time in a whisper, and Nora smirked.
"You'll each get your turn, for now let me just sit in between you, okay?" The girls split, sliding further up the couch, so that Nora could sit in the middle. Finally, they could see the baby in her arms.
"She's so cute," Hailey beamed.
"She's got blond hair like you," Hannah saw, looking to each of Quinn's three daughters. Nora, Hailey, and Christina were all sisters, while she only had Nora. Even then, they looked like each other, and she didn't.
"Hey," Nora gave her a look, knowing full well what must have been going through her head. "She won't know the difference. She won't care. She's going to love you like crazy," she smiled, and it got one out of Hannah in return. "Hailey, do you mind if Hannah goes first?" she turned to her other sister, hoping she would understand.
"Okay," Hailey simply nodded. Nora didn't have to worry about instructing either of them on how to hold babies, and Hannah was good and positioned in a heartbeat once she knew she would get to hold baby Christina. Nora had taken a quick picture or two, knowing her parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles would all want to witness this moment.
"You know, later we should get your mother in here, then there'll be six of us Sunshine Girls, past, present, and future, all together," she told them both. Hailey had come to stand, the better to see her little sister in Hannah's arms.
"I can get her," she suggested.
"It can wait," Nora promised, tugging her sister closer.
"Do you think she knows about it yet?" Hannah asked.
"Who, your mother?"
"No, Christina. She was in Aunt Quinn's belly the whole time we heard the story. Dad said they can hear when they're that big."
"She probably did hear it, yes," Nora consented. "Although I don't think she'll remember any of it. You two don't remember being newborns, do you?" she pointed out. "You can tell her when she's older."
"It won't happen with us like it did with them, right?" Hailey asked. "They stopped being friends…"
"That is not going to happen," Nora promised her.
"Never," Hannah agreed, then, "You can hold her now," she smiled. Hailey had gone to sit again, and now Nora took Christina back from Hannah before passing her on to the six-year-old blonde.
"Now, listen, you're going to hear things about being the middle child, don't let it get to you," Nora chuckled.
"Hear what?" Hailey asked.
"Never mind," Nora told her. She had taken pictures of Hailey with Christina, too, then another of the two of them with Hannah. They were going to dote on that girl like a pair of aunts, she could see.
The Sunshine Girls had been something between their mothers, long ago. It had very nearly ceased to exist, before being brought back to life again by a picture. It had made it possible for her to have the life that she had, Nora was sure of it. And then it had been passed to her, just as it was then passed to her little sisters. It had bonded them together in an even greater way than they already would have been. They, too, had been spurred on by a photo. And now they had Christina, another piece of their sunshiny world, and Nora knew that girl would never feel lonely, or unloved. She would feel the warmth of them, wherever she went.
Later, Rachel had joined them, as Nora had promised the others, and one more picture had been taken. On it, they would find Quinn, sat up on her hospital bed, with baby Christina in her arms. To her right would sit Rachel, the two of them original Sunshine Girls, Beams and Rays. To her left there sat Nora, the very first junior Sunshine Girl. And sitting in front of them, left and right, would be Hailey and Hannah, the reigning Sunshine Girls.
One day, little Christina would look at this picture, which would have hung in her bedroom from the day she was born, and she would go and find her mother, tug her by the hand all the way into her room, and she would point her finger up at that picture. And she would be told, by her mother, by her sisters, her cousin who was as good as a sister, and her aunt, who was almost a mother, too. She would find out the long history of the All-Mighty Sunshine Girls.
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!