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 32nd cycle. Now cycle 33!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

"No One Ever Said"
Sue & Brittany
Sylvesters Series #28 (following 'It's Britney, Dear')

They had all been so relieved to hear Kurt's father had woken up. They'd made it out of that dark space, but still they discovered it would linger with them, in one way or another. For Brittany, it was a nightmare of a realization, gripping her that night.

She had her father in her life now, and it was great, wouldn't trade it for the world, but it was very recent. It wasn't his fault, by any means, but it was still the truth. On the other end, there was her mother, who'd always been there, and somehow she'd let herself believe that wouldn't change… not now, not…

But then this happened… Mr. Hummel got sick, and he was in the hospital… 'We almost lost him,' people kept saying, and she had wondered what kind of hospital they were running that they couldn't keep track of their patients. It took a while, but in the end it got to fall into place, and that's when the nightmare came.

She was in her house, her mother's house, and everything looked… just so much bigger all of a sudden, like she was shorter, younger… She walked out of her bedroom, down hallways that never seemed to end… and the voice that came from her throat was just as small as she felt as she called out for her mother, trying to find her. She called her, and called her, but she couldn't find her. She walked that hall, getting taller, and older, until she got to the most frightening conclusion of all… that her mother was gone, so fast, before she knew… and she just searched, aimless…

It woke her with a start, and touching her forehead her hand came back covered in sweat. She sat up there in her bed, in complete silence, for a few seconds before she made a mad dash out of bed, into the hall and down to her mother's room. In her haste she lost grip on her bedroom's handle, sending the door smacking into the wall and awakening her mother. Sue's hands were quick, finding whistle and flashlight. She blew in the first and lit up the second, startling and blinding the intruder momentarily until she saw it was…

"Brittany?" she reached to turn on her bedside lamp and found her daughter with her back against the wall, breathing deep, both from the fright that had sent her running, and from the one she felt from the whistle and the light. "What are you…"

"I-I'm sorry…" she breathed. "I know you said I'm supposed to knock, I…" she reached blindly and knocked on the door. Sue would have sent her back off to bed, but she saw that fear underneath.

"What happened?" Sue asked. Brittany wasn't talking, but she didn't have to. She looked terrified, yes, but she looked at Sue with so much relief in her eyes that it was like she didn't expect to find her. Sue hesitated in doing what she did next, always advising to go on the side of strength, but with everything that went down lately, she had a feeling this was much more of a focused concern. "Okay, come here," she patted the space in her bed; Brittany didn't have to be told twice. She was getting to be grown up, with each day that passed, but every now and then she was that little girl again, and Sue had zero defences to that.

"I'm going to stay here next week, okay?" she asked. "I'm sure Dad will understand…" she looked back to her mother. Sue was the one without voice now. With plots and schemes she could only do so much to cover up the fact that she missed her daughter on the days she was at her father's house, even if she saw her at school. With them both arriving from and heading back to separate houses they could well have been like any other people at school, but they weren't.

"If… that's what you want," Sue still played along.

"It is," she told her mother.

"Right… You should try and get some sleep, I…" Normally Brittany would make an appearance and then return to her room, but she was giving no sign of moving, so Sue lay back down, turned off the lamp, and that was that.

At first Brittany was still terrified about falling asleep, about what she'd find there. What if it showed her more of her losing her mother? But then she did sleep… no nightmares… And in the morning light, there was her mother, still there, and she felt at ease again.

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!