Even When You're Gone

One

AN: For those of you that have read Day After Day this story starts a few weeks after the football game. This started off as a season 7 AU that basically just was like a continuation of my season 6 AU, but then I liked the idea of keeping Jacquie around and it spiraled into a complete rewrite, I kept the major plotlines but the how and why are getting shuffled around and I'm hopefully keeping characters more in character than canon did for season 7.

It's been a few months since Regionals. Noah left at the official end of the season a few weeks later, but now Michelle is leaving too.

"Hey Em?" Richelle knocks on the open office door. "Oh, sorry, have you seen Emily?" She asks Nick, the new studio owner. Even though Michelle is only just now leaving she told Emily after Regionals that she didn't want to buy the studio with her. But she was still working at TNS until she found a job in a professional show.

"No, but do you need help with something?" Richelle debates whether or not she wants to ask him, not that he'd be all that helpful anyway. They're trying to keep Michelle's party a secret and even though he's only been at TNS a few months he doesn't seem very capable of keeping his mouth shut.

"It's okay, I'll just ask her later." She's currently trying to track down songs to dances that were meaningful to Michelle. Riley's been teaching Richelle and Piper Michelle's Addicted 2 U choreography and they've been teaching it to the rest of the team, including Noah since he's coming back for the party. They had wanted to get more of the old A-Troupers to come as well, but they're all so spread out. Piper really wanted Riley and James to come but they're in the middle of planning a move to New York and barely have found the time to help with the dances. Piper and Finn have been learning Michelle and Eldon's duet from her first Regionals with TNS.

All the girls have been learning Michelle's "Miss National Soloist" dance and Richelle and Noah have been teaching everyone the flash mob dance (with some help from Riley and James). She's pretty sure that between her, Noah, Riley, and James that they got all Michelle's dances covered, but she still wanted to check with Emily to see if they missed any. (When she finally finds Emily later all she gets as an answer is "Why are you asking?" And Richelle figures it's safer to stick with what they have.)

By the time Michelle's last day comes around they have all her old costumes on display, every song TNS has danced to at a competition since Michelle joined is playing over the speakers, and there's a snack table off to the side.

They invited Emily but she's currently sulking in Studio 1. Emily's always had trouble telling people how she feels (Richelle thinks that's part of why they got along so well when they first met) but Richelle knows her well enough at this point to know that her sister is upset about losing her best friend. Even if she's going to outwardly be angry about it first.

And Emily gets really angry. She migrated to the office at some point to do some paperwork for the start of the new season but Richelle sees her standing near the doorway when they start doing their dance tribute for Michelle.

Michelle confronts Emily about not being upset that she's leaving and Richelle knows right away that it's a bad idea but she's not expecting Emily to destroy most of the costumes they've displayed. Richelle kind of wants to stay behind, but Nick ushers them all into Studio 1 to give the women some time alone to talk through everything.

The atmosphere of the party changed drastically with the move to Studio 1. The celebratory feeling was certainly dampened and it almost felt like they were just waiting around until the official end of the party.

"Hey guys," Emily says as she and Michelle enter Studio 1 almost an hour later. "Sorry about my outburst earlier. If I haven't completely ruined it for everyone we'd like to invite you all back into Studio A to continue Michelle's good-bye party."

Nobody says anything for a tense second before Summer, in all her cheerful optimism, agrees, apparently on the behalf of the whole team, to return to Studio A. Most of the team is quick to head back to Studio A, but Richelle hangs back to talk to her sister. Jacquie and Noah look like they want to stay too, but she sends them off.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm okay." Richelle gives her a look because she's known Emily long enough to know when she's lying. "I am. Now. I yelled and said things I didn't mean. I destroyed some stuff I shouldn't have. I cried and I apologized. I finally talked to Michelle about how I've been feeling. Now go enjoy the party, I'll be over in a few minutes."

She almost doesn't leave the room, about to reassure Emily that she doesn't mind staying before she realizes that her sister was trying to be nice about asking her to leave. This is one of those moments Richelle really wishes people would just say what they mean. So, instead of heading back to the party though Richelle goes out the other door, into the locker room. She's never really been a fan of large group gatherings and she's starting to reach her limit. She sends a quick text to Noah and Jacquie letting them know where she is so they don't worry.

Right now she's really glad she accidentally left her book in her locker a few days ago. She has an ebook on her phone that she's slowly getting through, but she much prefers having a physical copy to hold. She curls up with her book and one of the stim toys that she always keeps in her locker and starts to regain some charge in her social battery.

Richelle lets out an undignified squeak when an hour or so later, a jacket lands on her head obscuring her view of her book. She hears Noah laughing before she's removed the jacket from her line of sign.

"Was that really necessary?" She asks as she chucks the jacket back.

"Yes. As adorable as you are when you're focused on something it's almost impossible to get your attention. But more importantly, the party's pretty much over and Michelle's about to leave and I figured you'd want to say good-bye."

"Thanks." She puts her stuff back in her locker and she pulls Noah into what's supposed to be a quick hug. But she instantly feels a lot better when his arms wrap around her and she leans further into him.

Eventually though he pulls away and she playfully pouts at him. "There's plenty of time for that later at your place. But right now we need to go say bye to Michelle."

"Just because you're right doesn't mean I have to like it," she jokes and she hears Noah laugh as he gently pushes her toward the door.

She hangs back near the cubbies, not wanting to get involved in the group surrounding Michelle and waits for most of the team to say their good-byes and clear out before making her way over. She stops a few steps short and looks down at Michelle's shoes as she says, "Thanks for being a great teammate and studio head. We're never gonna be able to replace you. And I'm sorry again you got dragged into my drama during the qualifier."

"I know that you've always been closer with Emily than you are with me, but I loved getting to be your teammate and studio head. And I can't wait to see where you'll go from here."

AN: I was going to include more stuff from other characters' POV and then realized that I pretty much have no idea how to write them.