Title: Got an Apirin?
Author: K-promises-fall
Rating: T
Spoilers: None
-S&B
There was a light at the end of this tunnel. A light with white teeth and blue eyes.
Santana didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that she had been swimming in a dark tunnel that seemed to be made of Coach Sylvester's best jeers and insults that she had heard over the past year, and that suddenly Brittany was hovering over her.
"All I want is just one day a year when I'm not visually assaulted by uglies and fatties. Seriously, Ohio, these retinas need a day off."
"You may be two of the stupidest teens I've ever encountered."
"You think this is hard? Try being water boarded, that's hard!"
"Somewhere in the English countryside, in a stately manor home, Madonna is weeping!"
Weeping? Shit, were those tears in her eyes?
"Santana? San are you okay?"
Brittany?
"Santana?"
"Britt?"
"Oh thank God."
"Quinn?"
Oh, she get's it now. She hadn't been dying. Brittany's hair just reflected sunlight in a way that just made it look like she was on her way to heaven. Shit.
Suddenly it's Quinn hovering over her and Santana moves to push her away, because while she and Brittany might have the being blonde thing in common, the day she thinks Fabray's face means she's going to heaven is the day heaven and hell have switched places. But before she can do more than weakly shove at Fabray's shoulder her head begins to pound and she's pressing her hand to her head instead.
"Fuck... my head..."
Quinn looks behind her at shadows Santana can only barely recognize as being other cheerios and states rather unhelpfully (as far as Santana's apparent migraine is concerned), "She might have a concussion."
Santana opens her mouth to say that the only thing she 'might have' is Fabray's blood on her hands if the girl didn't shut up soon, but all that comes out is more cursing.
When Coach Sylvester pushes her way through the crowd of cheerleaders all she does is take one look at Santana before ordering Brittany and some other girl to bring her to the nurse's station.
When they get her to sit up her head throbs hard enough for her to almost fall down again. They're halfway across the field before Coach is yelling at the remaining cheerios through her megaphone, and Santana grits her teeth and rests her pounding head on what she hopes is Brittany's shoulder. Coach Sylvester's actual words are nothing but waves of pressure against some torturous drum in her head, and Santana wishes she would just pass out.
All the nurse does is shine a light in her eyes and force her to hold an ice pack to her head before she finally does something meaningful and gives Santana a cup of water and some aspirin. Her headache is nothing but a dull fuzz now, and yet she has still managed to get out of classes for the entire day. It would be awesome if she were spending it at home. But her dad is stuck at work and so Santana has to lie down in the nurse's office bored out of her skull for the entire day until Brittany's mom comes and allows her to crash at their house. If she's lucky, Brittany's mom will bake some of her special "get well" cookies for Santana and Brittany to share. She hasn't had those cookies since summer when Brittany sprained her ankle, a period of time that is much too long in Santana's opinion. Those cookies were made of awesome. It sucked that she only got to eat them when someone in the Pierce household got hurt.
She's dying for school to end when Brittany walks into the nurse's station and complains that a leprechaun in the canteen poisoned her food and caused her to be sick. It's obviously a lie, but the nurse checks Brittany's temperature and sends her to lie down on the bed next to Santana's anyway.
The rest of time waiting for school to end is spent talking and laughing in the nurse's station. And when Brittany pulls out her ipod they start to sing along off key and shimmy on the beds like idiots. Santana decides that being diagnosed with having a mild concussion isn't that bad.
Brittany's mom does, in fact, make them "get well" cookies. And Santana is torn in half between stuffing her face as fast as she can and savouring them. She ends up shovelling them fast and hard as she and Brittany rush to finish them before Brittany's little brother can make off with more than the five he's already stolen. Santana has half a mind to kick him in the gut to get him to spit them out, but relents because it's Jonathon and he falls down and scrapes his knees so often that these cookies are like a treat they get every weekend (except for these past few months where his mom bought him some kneepads that he refuses to take off on account of them being "so cool!" ... maybe she should shove him lightly and have him scrape his elbow or something sometime soon. She fucking misses these cookies.)
After she and Brittany have licked the plate clean (literally – Santana scraped off crumbs with her finger and Brittany actually applied tongue to plate in long strokes), they lie down on her bed. Brittany occasionally lets out a low groan and pats her not as flat tummy. And when Brittany's mom calls that dinner is ready they both protest in defence of their cookie-filled stomachs, Santana linking her pinky with Brittany's and turning on her side.
"Mom, no."
"If I eat anymore I'll explode."
The responding laughter floats up the stairs and Santana grins into her best friends shoulder, because there is something about this moment that is simply perfect.
The next morning she awakens to Brittany kissing the small bump left on her forehead. Light is filtering through the window and Santana does not want to go to school. But there is a cheerios uniform that looks suspiciously like hers hanging on Brittany's closet door, with a note that has handwriting suspiciously like her father's. Santana doesn't even have time to complain when Brittany pulls her out of bed and into the shower.
The only thing that moves her to follow Brittany's lead and get ready is the knowledge that her best friend will be by her side throughout the day.