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 38th cycle. Now cycle 39!

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"The Ex Factor"
Sam/Rachel, Nell (OC)
Sam & Nell series, following "while you were sleeping"

Rachel sat on the couch, Nell perched up in her lap, amused on two sides. The first was the way in which the little blonde's eyes veered left and right, searching, knowing… She knew there was a 'bear' on the prowl, and that was the second source of her amusement. The 'bear' crawled along the ground, out of sight and growling. And then, all of a sudden, he appeared!

"Oh my goodness, no!" Rachel spoke dramatically, though Nell was already bursting with giddiness, not fooled for a second by the fact this was her father and not a vicious animal. "Smart girl you've got here," Rachel looked to Sam, who grasped on to the girl's feet.

"Well she doesn't get that from me," he shrugged.

"What? Yes she does," Rachel tried to meet his eye. He smiled up at her, nodded in thanks.

It wasn't even a question anymore, whether or not Rachel wanted to take part in the occasional 'play time' with Sam and Nell. "She kind of loves you," he looked to Nell, then up to Rachel, who was looking down at the baby with the hint of tears in her eyes.

"Well, I love her, too," she nodded. At the sound of Rachel's voice, Nell looked up, smiling, and Rachel smiled back at her. "Hey, hey…" she hummed.

Nell loved the sound of ringing phones. Just one chirp and she was anxious, clapping her hands together. Sam reached for the phone in his pocket, looked at the screen and frowned. "Can you…" he indicated Nell and she nodded, picking her up and turning her around so they could be face to face, while Sam stepped aside to answer the call.

"Think your dad would like to watch a movie?" Rachel asked Nell, whose head bobbed up. "Movie? Yeah?" she nodded, and Nell was nodding back. "You are smart… Just like him, don't let him think otherwise, okay?" She shook her head and Nell mimicked her. "Thanks, sweetie," she kissed her little cheeks. As Sam walked back over, Rachel looked back to him. "Everything okay?" she asked as he sat back on the ground with them, and a thought occurred to her. "Was it… Summer?" she whispered. He shook his head.

"Quinn," he revealed, and she blinked.

"O-oh?" she looked back down to Nell, the better to reorganize her emotions before she'd have to look into his eyes. "What… what did she want?"

"To talk. She wouldn't say about what, but she did promise it had nothing to do with us," he indicated the phone, "Or… us…" he indicated her.

"What does that leave?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know, just that she wants me to meet her?" he explained.

"Now?" she hadn't realized.

"Yeah," he was just as curious to know what was so pressing, and what it had to do with him. "Listen, can you watch her while I go?"

"Sure, of course, but…" she hesitated, not wanting to come off jealous or untrusting.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, okay?" he tried to reassure her. She let out a breath and nodded. "I won't be long… I think," he leaned in to kiss her and Nell goodbye before heading out. Rachel watched him go.

"Guess it's just you and me for that movie," she looked back to Nell, who just stared down at her necklace, trying to grasp it. "Okay, let's see what we've got."

It was almost too hard to imagine the early days again, when she'd just been introduced to Nell and just holding her was some impossible task. Now she walked around with the girl in her arms like there was no thought required to the task.

They'd gotten comfortable in this, the three of them, her and Sam and Nell… It had just sort of happened, no intentions, no questions… But now there she was, with the little girl who in all likelihood saw her as a mother… and if she was honest, she didn't mind it.

But then, that call… Quinn… That was the trouble with comfort: you forgot. Rachel had forgotten, forgot the part where Sam had been with Quinn before her… and now she was concerned. She didn't want to be, wanted to trust that all would be alright, but then she also remembered her track record in situations like this.

She didn't get the guy. Not her, no… Once though, just once, just this time she'd thought maybe she'd beat the odds. What if she'd had it right the first time and it had just taken longer than she would have thought, just long enough that she had gotten comfortable?

That couldn't happen, right? Sam was a good guy, a… great guy, and he really liked her, she honestly believed, better, she trusted it. So she trusted him, too.

And still she couldn't help but worry. Maybe it was out of concern for her attachment to Nell, or the other was around, that anything even remotely threatening to their reality only came off as bigger than life and needing to be concerned about.

The two of them, outside of home and music, had become her life. She hadn't really sorted it out before, but then she didn't really have to. Now though… now though all she could think about was going back to a life without them and it was like someone had choked all the air out of her lungs…

Nell batted her arms excitedly, and it was like she'd opened her airways again, allowing her to laugh. The fact that Nell now recognized Barbra Streisand on sight was something of a point of pride to her. She was already debating who to introduce her to next.

"Trying to cheer me up?" she asked Nell, and those blue eyes turned to her. "I think it's working… You might have to keep trying though, okay?" she brushed at the fine blonde hair on her head. "Let's just watch the movie for now though, alright?" Nell's head turned back to the screen, and once again she reacted to Barbra's appearance. "She is pretty striking, isn't she?" she smiled.

"I can see why you connect with her." Rachel looked up. Sam had returned, now standing just outside the living room. "You two have that in common." She smirked, while Nell reacted to having seen him. "Hey you," he came and picked her up before sitting at Rachel's side and looking to her. "Hey you."

"Hey," she smiled. There was a beat of silence, filled by the sounds of the movie on the screen and by Nell's babbling along.

"You're probably wondering what happened with Quinn," he finally nodded, looking over to her.

"Little bit, yes," she nodded back.

"It's like she'd said. She needed to talk, didn't have to do with you and me, or me and her…"

"What was it then?"

"Well, it did have to do with me and her, just not in that way, not as a couple." Rachel frowned, not sure she followed him. He looked back to Nell, sitting in his lap, gave a pointed glance. It took a moment more before she connected the dots, to the thing that tied Sam to Quinn other than as former boyfriend and girlfriend: they were both teen parents.

"Oh…"

"Think it took her a while to work up the courage to talk about it, since she found out about Nell…" Rachel didn't know what to say. It hadn't even crossed her mind, and now she felt silly. "Hey…" he drew back her attention, gave a smile that comforted her instantly: they were okay.

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!