The actress had been at her wits end as to how to handle the situation. She loved them both, and while she - like nearly everyone on set - knew that they loved each other dearly, the need to keep anything hidden if it DID happen was written into their contracts. She remembered what Ashley had said when she was given the contract. "So let me get this straight, as long as my character is dating Puck, I can sleep with Mark, but once they break up, we'd have to hide out?" A ridiculous rule if any of them had heard one, but once Ryan got sick of trying to enforce the no sex in the trailers rule, he'd just switched it out for that. So Naya and Heather had decided that they'd deal with their feelings once Brittany and Santana finally found each other.
As the weeks had gotten closer, Heather had pulled away more and more from Naya, which had led to last week's breakdown. Dianna knew that the reason for the pulling away was to gain perspective, and hopefully to make the right decision, but it had hurt Naya beyond words. She'd held her friend and responded in the only way she knew how, "Just remember your own words, Nay. 'Fate has laid a hand.' Have faith in her." Then she'd proceeded to get the Latina very, very drunk.
Today, Heather had come up to the smaller blonde and whispered furiously to her as they were getting ready to shoot the Songbird scene. "I have to tell you because I need someone to make sure Naya doesn't freak out okay? I broke up with Taylor. I did it a week ago, but I wanted to wait until now. Can you get everyone else out when we get done?" She'd only been able to nod her assent before the taller girl had dashed off.
The scene had to be shot from several angles, enough so that by the time they'd had Santana end the song with Brittany wrapped up in her arms correctly and the director called 'Cut! Print!', it was late in the day and everyone was on their last nerve. Rather than pulling away, Heather's arms tightened around Naya as she whispered something to her. Dianna watched as the dark head lifted from where it had turned down to, and saw tears welling up in dark eyes. Taking that as her cue, she started pulling on people and putting a finger to her lips as she pushed at them to get out of the room. Not that she didn't intend to watch on the monitor in the next room as she conveniently turned the right camera on. She knew her friends had forgotten that they were still micced.
"Really? You mean it?" Naya said softly through her tears.
"Yes, last week. I told Taylor that I couldn't do it anymore. He's been getting sick of pretending he wasn't dating his teammate's sister anyway. I'm free. You know what will happen when this episode comes out anyway. We won't have to hide much longer. We can be together, Naynay. So I just thought, why not go big?" Heather wiped her own tears away as she pulled her hand from her pocket.
(In the next room, Dianna gave a small shriek, garnering attention from the rest of the cast, who had been chatting by the craft services table. "You guys, she's doing it!" They all rushed over to see what she was talking about.)
"I don't need another two years to know you're the right one for me Naya," Heather said, keeping her hand cupped and hidden from all but the camera to her left. "I love you. And the moment we're allowed to, I want to shout it to the world. So even though we can't tell them for a few more weeks, Naya, will you do me the great honor of being my wife?" Her hand came up, revealing an open box from Tiffany & Co.
Naya stared in obvious shock at the ring that seemed to shine brighter and brighter the longer she looked at it. After a few moments of silence, Heather nudged her. "Um, do you have an answer?" A shake of the head nearly tore the heart out of every watcher until a small voice emerged to go with it.
"I don't know what to say," the brunette said. As she reached for the box and Heather's hand, they both heard a very loud answer from the next room.
"SAY YES DAMMIT!" That broke the tension, and she was able to nod and laugh as she put the ring on.
Then they were kissing and everything was all right. She whispered the words to her now favorite song into her fiancee's ear. "And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before."