A/N: Okay this is the last one for catching up ;)

"Ex Memoria"

16. Emma & Gemma

May 2012 – Lima, Ohio

The lunch break couldn't have arrived soon enough. Looking at all the students in those last minutes before they'd stopped was like witnessing the elements lining up for a prison riot. But now that they had stopped and sat to eat, all was once again right with the world. The Glee Club, half of it anyway, seemed to be having an engaging conversation.

Emma had not been meant to act as one of the chaperones that day, and she'd been called in only late the night before to replace one of the teachers who'd called in sick. She didn't mind. Compared to most of the others here today, she actually looked like she was enjoying herself.

She'd gone to sit with Will for lunch, but then her eye had been drawn to the substitute, Ginny Harrison. Maybe she had trouble clocking out from work, but she saw the perturbed look on the brunette's face, and she couldn't help but going up to her.

"Mind if I sit with you?" she asked as the sub looked up, slightly startled.

"Oh, sure, I…" she started gathering up her things so to make space on the table.

"Thanks," Emma sat with her packed lunch.

At first they ate and talked about the field trip and how it had gone so far. As much as Ginny promised that she was enjoying herself, Emma could see right through her, and they had a good laugh over it. Eventually though, Emma needed to get to the point.

"I can't shake this feeling like you're having a bad day. Not about the trip, just in general," Emma explained. Ginny looked at her, quiet. "I just mean… You look like you've got something on your mind and, well, I am known to be a good listener," Emma encouraged with a smile. Ginny gave a small smile back.

"Yeah, that's what I've heard, too." Emma kept looking at her, waiting. "It's nothing, really."

"Doesn't look like nothing," Emma countered.

"I guess not," Ginny admitted, then, after a pause and a relenting sigh. "I just got some… some news, this morning," she revealed, once she'd found a word for it. It still didn't feel quite right.

"Good news or bad?" Emma asked.

"Surprising," Ginny replied, once she'd considered it properly.

"Surprising?" Emma repeated, while Ginny frowned to herself. Try as she might, it was hard not to become curious. "In what way?" Ginny paused, and by her face, Emma would say she was bordering on delving too deep for the substitute's comfort. "Does it have anything to do with the school?" Emma asked, letting Ginny volunteer or hold whatever information she wished to.

"It's… family business," Ginny explained, and now Emma's eyes rounded, taking a quick look around the room before leaning in.

"You're not pregnant, are you?" she asked in hushed tones… Ginny laughed.

"Oh, no, it's not…" she shook her head, then with a pause, "That'd just be the last thing I needed, wouldn't it?" she muttered to herself before looking back to Emma. "Listen, I really appreciate what you're trying to do here, I do. But it's not really something I can talk about right now, and…"

"No, it's alright, I get it, and I shouldn't have pried."

"But I get you were trying to help, so, really, thank you," Ginny smiled.

"If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me," Emma insisted, and again Ginny smiled.

They carried on and finished their lunch together before they were all set for the last stretch before it was time to board the bus and head home.

As much as she'd had to keep boxed in, to not reveal to the guidance counselor, Gemma had truly appreciated the intention. She wished she could have told her more, but even if she had, there was nothing to be done, nothing that had to be done. The Doctor had merely let her know something, and it had managed to put a new and unexpected twist on her current situation.

Maybe someday she would find a way to tell her the truth. It would almost be worth it, just to see how she'd react.

She hadn't realized she had spent long enough with the woman for this, but now that she was coming nearer and nearer to the end of her time in Lima, she was finding so many things she knew she would grow to miss. The faculty at McKinley High had become a part of her world, just like the students, and it would be strange to not come in anymore, and teach her classes. For how much she'd struggled at first, now she wanted to go on… 'Maybe someday," she would think at times.

Then there was the Glee Club.

Getting to spend time with all of them, she couldn't even put into words what it had meant to her. She'd never be able to tell them, not really, and that might have been her one regret. If they only knew how much they'd all come to mean to her…

She was just as glad for those precious times where she'd been invited into the choir room. It wasn't that she'd lost her love for music, but she hadn't really utilized it all this way since she'd finished school. She'd never wanted it to become background to her life, and then it just had.

She was going to change that, she'd decided. When she'd go back to the Doctor, she would keep travelling with her for a while, she hoped, but she knew now more than ever that it would all end eventually, and after that, her life had to go on.

She could be a music teacher… Wouldn't that bring it all together? And maybe… somehow… she would still have Walter. They could make their life together, love each other, have children… Maybe it was her talk with Emma, but her future had never looked so clear…

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)