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 46th cycle. Now cycle 47!

This is a shift day. There will be another upload this afternoon: What You Didn't See.

"Troika"
(Older) Quinn, Santana/Brittany
Trinity Series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

1. Lost

Maybe the week had been long and she just wanted to get movie night started, maybe she had other things on her mind, but she'd been standing at the window, phone in hand, for a good twenty minutes. She'd texted Brittany, asking what was taking so long, and she didn't know if it was just her anxious streak, but she couldn't keep herself from checking her screen over and over.

"You push that elevator button fifty times, doesn't get there faster either," Quinn called out to her, carrying more snacks in from the kitchen. Santana turned to glare at her. "Or maybe it will," she held out her hands in surrender. Santana looked to her screen again. "What is with you tonight?"

"She hasn't replied," she defended herself, looking back out the window.

"She's probably stuck trying to decide which flavors to get. Last month, it took her half an hour," Quinn reminded her, moving to the liquor cabinet and frowning to herself as she searched for one bottle in particular.

"Pistachio," Santana breathed. "And peanut butter chocolate." Quinn looked up. "She got the ice cream already, she said so in her last message." She looked to the screen again; now she was getting worried.

"Maybe she went back for something," Quinn offered, though part of her couldn't help but go to the concern place, too.

"She would have written back, or called."

"She can take care of herself, you and I both know that. I'm sure everything's fine," Quinn went up to the window with her. "You won't do yourself any good standing there until she gets here. Her battery could have run out because she forgot to charge it… again."

"Yeah, maybe…" she stared out the window still. She could tell Quinn was looking at her, so she breathed out. "Go ahead and start the movie playing, she won't mind." Quinn hesitated for a beat, but she went. Santana stayed.

X

Quinn didn't tend to remember her dreams, except for bits and pieces. She vaguely remembered something about horses, when Santana's voice invaded her head.

"Quinn, wake up. Now, I mean it, wake up," it continued, growing impatient.

"Just shut my eyes, I'm good, I…" Darkness had given way to daylight, or it was starting to… It was morning. "Is it morning already?"

"She's not here," Santana declared, which got her to pay attention.

"What?" She saw Santana's face, and Quinn doubted she'd slept at all. "Has she… called, or…"

"Nothing," Santana shook her head, trying to sound calm, but there was no telling how long that would last. "I thought about going out there, but then I thought what if she comes back, and I'm not here, and…" As together as they could all be when they had jobs to pull, in that moment, Santana's worry for her wife was overriding all.

"Alright," Quinn got up, for her part switching into Breaker mode, with her one goal being to locate Brittany. As much as she didn't want to say anything to the already fearful Santana, she was starting to fear, too. She went to her computer, calling up the tracker in her phone, but she hit a wall, as it couldn't locate her phone. It didn't have to mean anything, but it wasn't good either. For now Santana wasn't really paying attention to her, which might have been a good thing.

From Claudia she had gotten access to a system which would let her search out whether anyone matching Brittany's description had come into hospitals in the city… or morgues. This had thankfully yielded no results, though this still left her no closer to finding her.

At one point she'd heard the door shut and she scrambled to go see if it was Brittany, but it wasn't. Santana stood there, still distraught, holding the newspaper. "I thought it was her, but it was just…"

"Hey, come here, sit," she led her to the table, got her to sit while she dumped the paper next to her computer. "You haven't slept, that can't be good, you said so yourself, you had a crazy week…"

"What else am I going to do?" she asked, staring up at her friend. "Come on, what did you find?" she asked, and Quinn went back to sit at the laptop.

"Nothing to help us, yet," Quinn made sure to leave hope in her voice. "But I still need to…"

Her eye had caught on to it before she did. She just stared for a while, thinking this couldn't possibly be what she thought it was. "What's wrong?" Santana asked while Quinn reached for the paper, unfolded it and turned it over.

"Not possible…" she breathed.

"What? What is it?" Santana asked, and Quinn turned the paper over for her to see. Right there, in the middle of a prompt for the readers to turn to a certain page to find an article on 'local tattoo artists,' there was an image they recognized: it was Brittany's tattoo, one third of the tattoos they had all gotten together.

"What…" Santana heaved, while Quinn sought out the page, where she not only found an article, but the pictures again, bigger now. "Let me see," Santana asked, her voice flat. Quinn hesitated, but she did as told. Santana looked at it carefully, but then she had to confirm what she had feared.

She hadn't just disappeared: someone had taken her. Quinn took the paper back, looked at the article. Whoever had done this, they had means, skills… They weren't messing around, but then neither was she. There was something in there, and she'd find it.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)