AU, Brittana. Suffering from writer's block, novelist Brittany S. Pierce retreats to her family's waterside cottage, living in seclusion, searching for a muse. Upon meeting her temporary neighbors, however, she gets that and so much more.

I do not own any rights to Glee.


The first night alone was odd, Brittany thought. But not necessarily bad. Trying to get the wood stove lit in the morning, to boil water, however, was. After the better part of an hour she finally succeeded, kettle finally simmering slowly. She moved about the cabin, opening the few windows to let out the heat she figured would slowly spread, before putting pop tarts into the toaster-oven. After her breakfast, she sat down on the futon with her computer, open to a blank document. She stared at the blinking cursor for what had to be a half hour before giving up.

There's always later, she thought, putting the computer onto the linen chest and wandering outside. It was hotter than the previous day, sun beating down with hardly a breeze. She wandered over to the hammock, clambering in to lounge on it, comfortably warm in the shade. She stared into the leaves overhead, listening to the birds and other wildlife for a while before drifting off into a nap.


It was three days of lounging, occasional exercise, and one and a half seasons of Xena before she decided that she needed actual food - which is to say the pop tarts ran out. Putting on a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, she slipped into a pair of flip flops before opening the shed to get the truck. Sliding the door shut once more, she turned the dial on the radio, finding a country station, before heading into town.

Franklin was the type of place where everyone knew everyone else and their business - almost like an entire extended family. As she pulled into the parking lot of the lone grocers, she killed the engine, climbing out. Walking through the automatic doors, she pulled one cart away from the bunch before wandering the surprisingly large store.

There wasn't much that she actually knew how to cook from scratch, which made it easy to skip some of the isles. This eventually found her in the cereal isle, clutching a box of Fruit Loops as she looked over the other various colorful boxes.

"Oh my gosh. Brittany? Brittany Pierce?"

The blonde blinked at the question, turning towards the voice. Blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a very familiar smirk.

"Quinn?" she asked. Recognizing her old friend she grinned, rushing around the cart to hug the shorter woman. "Oh my gosh, Quinn! How have you been? It's been so long."

"You're telling me," the other blonde said with a grin, returning the embrace. "You don't text, you don't call, you don't visit. All I have are your books to remind me of you."

Brittany pulled away with a rueful smile.

"You've read them? I'm sorry."

The smirk returned.

"Why? You know, when you put the things in your mind on paper it makes a lot more sense than when you try to speak about them."

Brittany considered the statement. She had initially struggled with English when she was very young in school. Words had confused her, and not to mention the grammar rules. As she got older, through high school, and later college, she had worked hard to overcome the issue, finding it easier to write her thoughts with clarity than saying them. After all, with an imagination like her's, it was almost a crime to not share it with people.

"Really?"

"Would I lie to you?"

Brittany thought it over for a moment.

"Honestly?"

"No, we both know that answer," Quinn dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I still can't believe you're back. How long you here for? You up at the cabin or in town?"

"The cabin. My publicist thought that because of my lack of new material I was too distracted in the city, so I'll be around until I find something to write about. Probably a few months."

"Are you going to your grandparents for the Fourth of July?"

Brittany blinked.

"They still do that?" she asked, surprised. She remembered when she was younger, and each summer they spent up at the cabin. On Independence day, her grandparents always hosted a huge pot-luck gathering out at their house on the lake, where most of the town would show up to socialize, play, eat, and watch the fireworks. She had just figured that when her parents, Kelly, and she had stopped coming down a few years ago it would have stopped. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Absolutely. It wouldn't be the holiday if they didn't have their annual cookout."

The taller blonde grinned.

"Oh, I'm there," she promised, before finally putting the cereal box into her cart. The pair slowly started heading down the isle, Brittany's attention now on her friend instead of cereal.

"Hey, do you know when that cottage across the river from me was built?" she asked, recalling her earlier curiosity. It had never been there before.

"Oh that was built last year. A family bought the land. Well off, a couple and their kid. They're...different."

Brittany grimaced at her tone.

"Different bad or different good?"

Quinn just shrugged.

"Well you know how it is here, outsiders take a while to be accepted."

Brittany hummed, nodding in understanding. She was lucky, even though she had spent only a few months of the year here while growing up, her grandparent's residency more than made up for it. Kelly and her had been considered more or less locals - all the acceptance with minimal of the small town drama. The pair chatted easily as they continued to circle the store, eventually making their way to the single active register. Quinn nodded for Brittany to go first.

"Well if it isn't the little Peirce kid. You're all grown up now," the bagging clerk, and old man with white hair and a bent back, said as he bagged the first of her groceries.

"Mr. Henderson!" Brittany recalled the man who had always given her and her sister pieces of candy when they had come in with their parents. "And Gracie. You're both still working here? It's so good to see you."

Gracie, the cashier, had short, greying hair. It had once been a light auburn, Brittany recalled.

"It's been too long Brittany," she said with her own warm smile as she continued to ring up the purchases. "Your grandmother said you would be in soon. How long you staying for?"

"Oh you know, a few months. Trying to get some new ideas for a book going."

"She's our little writer, that one is," Mr. Henderson said to Gracie, pointing at Brittany. The girl smiled at the fondness in his voice.

"So I've heard. Susan and David are very proud of you, you know."

Hearing that about her grandparents, Brittany wasn't surprised. As their only grandchildren, she and Kelly had always been their pride and joy.

"It's nice to be back," Brittany finally said. "I just got so caught up with college and my writing that I guess I sort of put this place out of my mind."

She had finished her the final book in her series the previous year, and had since been lagging. She just didn't have the aspiration to create another world full of fascinating characters and even more fascinating creatures. She mentally sighed.

Twenty-four was pretty young to give up on a career.

"I imagine three best sellers over the span of five years can do that to a person," Quinn dismissed.

"On top of a degree in Literature with a minor in creative writing," Gracie added, having heard all about the youngest Pierce through her weekly Sunday brunch with Susan.

To be honest, it didn't surprise Brittany that random people knew this much about her. That was just the way Franklin was.

"Will you be at your grandparent's next week?" Gracie asked the same question Quinn had earlier.

Brittany nodded.

"I wouldn't miss it for anything. Not again, at least," she replied with a grin, seeing her total on the screen. She handed her credit card to Gracie, who swiped it on the register before handing it back. After promising to meet them again the following week, Brittany followed Mr. Henderson, who stubbornly insisted on pushing the cart out to the truck, politely grinning as he went on about that one summer sometime ago that the girl honestly didn't remember.

He was too nice to turn away though. Thanking him after they had loaded the groceries into the truck, she waited until the older man was back into the store before heading back to the cabin.

Her most exciting day thus far.


To answer a question - while I will be whittling away at this story little by little, unfortunately I don't know how often I'll be able to update it. I'm still trying to throw around ideas in my head (do I want to take it more angst or in a different direction?). To be honest, this entire idea kind of blind sided me - I was in class, in the middle of a test and all of the sudden I couldn't get this idea of a cabin in the woods from my head. Unfortunately for me, though perhaps not for you, it was persistent, and I didn't do too well on my exam, I don't think.