AN: Thank you all for reviewing and adding the story to our alerts! I really appreciate the love :)

Sorry this update took me longer - work hasn't allowed me much free time to write. Hopefully, the updates will start coming faster. Without further ado, here's Tina! She's one of my personal favorites, so I hope I did her justice. Please keep reviewin'!

Tina hung up the gold dress from Regionals in the back of her closet, sighing. She was making a half-hearted attempt to clean her room (and the rest of her house) before her parents' return from whatever far-flung locale their consulting business had taken them to this time.

Artie had just left after 5 hours of doing nothing but watching Firefly. They'd watched episode after episode in silence, her head in his lap while he stroked her hair. Neither had really felt like talking. Tina had put off acknowledging that Glee club was over for a week now, but tomorrow they'd be singing for Mr. Schue, and she knew she needed to accept that they'd be singing together for the last time and that Glee would really and truly be done.

Tina wandered over to the other side of her room to her desk. She picked up her copy of the CD that Rachel had burned for everyone and popped it into her CD player – which was part of her very expensive, very elaborate sound system she'd gotten as a present from her parents for the straight-As she'd gotten on her report card last year. It was about the only time her parents ever really paid any attention to her – report card time – well, that and giving her a lengthy list of dos and don'ts. And if she got As in her academic life, they'd assume she must be doing A-OK everywhere else.

Tina sang along, belting out the words "If you wanted the moon, I would try and get a start, but I would rather you let me give my heart…to sir, with love…" at the top of her lungs, her eyes brimming with tears.

Tomorrow, they'd sing one last time, and then that would be that. The day after tomorrow, life would go back to the way it was before Glee. Santana would go back to pretending Tina didn't exist, Puck would go back to looking at her as though she was from a different universe altogether, Quinn might even go back to being a Cheerio. However tenuous their bond, they still had one because of Glee, and the day after tomorrow that would all vanish, and Tina would go back to being part of the wallpaper at McKinley. Hell, they might even un-friend her on Facebook and then not even the Internet could attest that they ever had anything in common.

Tina balled the black dress she was holding in her hand and hurled it across the room at her hamper in frustration. It was hardly fair. She'd worked so hard this year. Not just at improving her voice – she had to give Rachel credit, the singing exercises that she'd taught them all was really making Tina a stronger singer – but at making herself heard, period.

Before Glee, Tina never talked much. And when she did, her stutter usually stopped any conversation right in its tracks. Which was exactly what she wanted. What she used to want. Being an only child, and growing up without much in the way of a social life – her mom wasn't a fan of playdates when she was younger – Tina had always been withdrawn and quiet. Any of the fantasies Tina had about having friends, being part of a group, or being in love – all of that was drawn from the music she listened to, and the books she read.

But that changed with Glee. She spoke, on the first day of rehearsal, and no one looked at her funny, or called her names, or stopped speaking to her. Rachel was too busy setting up ground rules and angling for solos to even care what came out of Tina's mouth – so long as Tina could sing backup, that was good enough for Rachel Berry. Mercedes and Kurt linked arms with her on the way out of rehearsal chattering with her a mile a minute and never noticed that she couldn't quite keep up. And Artie – Artie just looked her right in the eyes, smiling, and asked her how long she'd been singing. And though she searched his face for signs of disdain, it didn't even register with him that it took her double the amount of time it would take anyone else to answer.

When Puck, and Quinn and the others joined, Tina braced herself for ridicule. But even though Santana would roll her eyes and gesture for her to hurry up when she tried to speak, and even though Puck would ask her sarcastically if she'd ever been taught in kindergarten to string together a full sentence, when they were singing together, none of that mattered. Tina's stutter would go away, Puck's hard façade would melt away and they were…a group.

Slowly, over time, Tina forgot to stutter. She'd raise her hand and throw out song ideas with the rest of them, pronouncing every syllable clearly. Tina was shocked that no one called her out on it, frankly. And that made her hope…that made her hope that they all saw her as more than her stutter. The stutter that had stopped everyone else from saying more than a few words to her and getting to know her – it hadn't stopped these people. And if they were determined to have her be a part of their group, stutter or no, she didn't want to lie to them anymore.

Coming clean to Artie wasn't easy – the fallout from that confession was probably the most hellish week of her life. It almost sent her back to her stutter – her security blanket. But they eventually kissed and made up, and everyone else gradually found out, too. No one even cared. Kurt and Mercedes still chatted a mile a minute in her ear, Rachel still angled for solos, and the only comment Puck made was "Congratulations. You can talk like a human being."

Life went on – there were songs to sing, dances to choreograph, and rehearsals to slack off in. But what now – now that Glee was over?

The buzzing of her cellphone interrupted Tina's train of thought. She picked up her phone and saw that Mercedes had texted her.

T – sleepover Friday after last day of school? Kurt and Quinn are coming. Bring your nail polish!

Tina grinned, and typed a quick affirmative response. She had plans to hang out with Artie on Saturday, and plans for a sleepover the night before…and she'd promised Rachel that she'd help her film her audition tape for Juilliard, even though they had 2 more years before college applications – but that was Rachel for you.

So, maybe life wouldn't be so different after all. Maybe she'd still have all of her friends. Hell, maybe she'd even still go to dance class with Mike. And maybe Brittany would still go halfsies on a cafeteria cookie with her. Maybe she'd even go so far as to wave at Puck in the hall.

Either way, she'd probably still keep on singing too.

I had a stutter.