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 33rd cycle. Now cycle 34!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

"You, Me, Benson & Stabler"
Brittany/Santana

A/N: This story is dedicated to the awesomeness that is Emily :)
Happy Birthday you!

The first set had been sort of an impulse buy. She needed something to keep herself entertained, and she wasn't sure which one of the two stars she found hotter… She had settled in the next night, meant to watch one, maybe two episodes… three at the most… four, really, the absolute most… She'd snoozed her way through all her morning classes, and she'd only made it through the afternoon after Brittany had offered to go off on a coffee run for her, bringing back enough to wire her up all the way through the end of the way, all the better to crash hard when she made it home. She had made it halfway through that set in one sitting, and despite everything, she knew better than to continue on a night when she had school in the morning. So she held off the second half of the set for Friday night.

Brittany had called, wondering where she'd gone off to. Santana told her she was home, 'watching SVU.' After insisting she wasn't sitting, staring at a car, she had suggested she should come over and join her. She'd made a place for the blonde on the couch, and under the warm blanket. She spent the first episode or two having to answer Brittany's questions about who was this guy, and who was that one… Then she spent the rest of the night seeing her grow more and more attached to her arm… Santana did not complain… not even a little.

They'd gone through the rest of that season, and Brittany had refused to go home on her own, so she'd slept over. A couple weeks later, they'd gone in for the second season, blew through it on three Fridays. And now, Santana had decided they were long overdue to continue this tradition, so she made her way to the store and returned with the third set in hand. She called Brittany, and they were good to go for another Friday in company of Detectives Benson and Stabler and all the rest.

They arrived at Santana's house, with two missions in mind: changing out of their Cheerios uniforms, and getting a quick dinner in… maybe a trip behind the closed door of her bedroom, too… It was coming around six when they finally took up shelter under the blanket on the couch. As Santana pressed play and the first episode started, she knew when she'd look to her right, she would see Brittany reciting the introduction in silence, as she did at the beginning of every single episode… It got Santana smiling… every single episode – once she'd explained the word was 'heinous' and not something else.

"Look," Brittany pointed, smirking as she saw the man, even for a split second. Santana frowned, still not quite grasping what was her obsession with Detective Munch. "I don't trust her," Brittany shook her head a few minutes later.

"Who, the therapist?" Santana asked, and the blonde nodded. "Yeah, she does have that kind of…"

"Munch!" Brittany cut her off, and Santana didn't bother finishing her sentence, as she was getting the face Brittany would refer to as her 'nasty parent alert' face, as the story unfolded, even as suspicion seemed to lift from the father, she refused to let go just yet. "Well he didn't do it," Brittany declared, when the man was found dead.

"There's almost twenty minutes left so, yeah, I'd say so…" Santana's face relaxed. When talk came back to the therapist, Santana could feel Brittany patting at her arm even before she started doing it. "They can't get one by you," she smirked. "That's why I don't trust shrinks…" By the time the first episode ended and the second began, Brittany was resting snuggly at Santana's side.

"Stabler's angry," Brittany remarked as the detectives questioned a suspect.

"Yeah, he does that," Santana replied like she might as well have been saying 'it's hot.' "No chance that he'd ever get a little riled up when… Woah…" she interrupted herself, and Brittany had joined her on the surprised sound as they both saw what Benson had discovered. "Someone's got a stalker…"

"No, she should stay with him," Brittany shook her head when Benson walked away from Stabler, squeezing Santana's arm a little tighter. "He's there, it's the stalker," she insisted.

"Relax, you're gonna tear my arm off," Santana begged.

"She's already got a protector," Brittany frowned at the man on the screen.

"Seriously, just make out already," Santana shrugged. Brittany looked up at her. "I meant them," she pointed to the two detectives, though she couldn't pretend like she didn't appreciate the way she thought. Santana felt the vice grip tighten on her arm again when the music tensed up. "It's okay, it's alright," she rested her head on the blonde one at her shoulder. Brittany could be as fearless as they came, but somehow this was exactly the kind of thing to unleash the opposite of it. So she couldn't deny part of the reason she was so hooked on running these marathon nights with her was so they could have this time huddled up together… But then Brittany had it figured out, so some degree, and she wasn't complaining, so why should they change anything?

"Why is she mad at Stabler?" Brittany asked, sounding sad, as the second episode ended.

"She'll be fine; she just needs time."

Once they got into a third episode, the next few began to fly by. In the third, Santana shook her head in disdain at the fact that a mother would walk away from her baby and be shocked when she was taken. In the fourth, as in any episode, they cracked up every time Detective Tutuola was called 'Fin' after Brittany had brought up their own 'Finn.' In the fifth, Santana called a suspect's roommate a 'know-it-all' and a word that made Brittany snort and choke at once. In the sixth, Brittany resumed her grip on Santana's arm whenever Stabler would get angry. In the seventh, they laughed themselves out of breath over the idea of having a 'house boy.' In the eighth, they sympathized for Benson and how she related to the case. In the ninth, Brittany once again honed in on the killer from the moment she saw her.

It was as Santana got up and went to switch the discs that they actually saw the clock and realized it was a quarter to one in the morning. It wasn't so much a problem as it was a time to decide: More often than not, they preferred to finish a disc when they started it, and this meant, with the five episodes on the next one, that they would be up until the wee hours of the morning. "I already told my parents I'd be sleeping here," was Brittany's answer, coupled with a shrug. Santana smirked and, with that out of the way, they were able to carry on, and Brittany held out the blanket so she could get back at her side. "No, now it's your turn to hold on," she announced, mighty, and Santana stared at her.

"And what if you suddenly feel the need to cut off my circulation?"

"You can cut mine, it's okay," she shrugged, and Santana couldn't really say no to that.

So the marathon continued and, as Brittany had predicted, whenever anything should happen that would spook the blonde, Santana could just tell, and she would give her arm a squeeze, reminding her that she was there, that the screen wasn't real, but she was.

One episode, then the next… Little by little Santana came to notice how slowly but surely Brittany wasn't quite so rigid until she was once again the one resting against Santana and not the other way around – she was dozing off. Santana didn't wake her, gathered up the blanket good and snug to keep her warm and then continued watching the show. She was getting tired, too, but she soldiered on.

When the end of the fourteenth episode marked the end of the disc, Santana sighed and turned the television off. She had two discs and about nine episodes left – better to keep those for next Friday. The remote made a soft clatter as she put it down, and she felt the blonde stir against her. Santana sucked in her breath, hoping not to have woken her, but then she heard the voice, small and full of sleep. "San? Is it over?" Brittany asked.

"For tonight, yeah," she confirmed. 'Tonight'… It was a quarter to four.

"Are Benson and Stabler together yet?"

"No, they're not," Santana shook her head.

"Why not? They belong together."

"Well try and tell them that," Santana brushed her fingers up and down Brittany's back, trying to lull her back to sleep. "It's the oldest story, you know? Everyone's got their problems, and he's married… And it's a tv show, so they're just going to drag it out…"

"That's okay," Brittany's words were barely audible. "It's just the stuff in between… They'll make it, just like…" Santana paused, wondering if she just hadn't caught the end of it.

"Just like what?" she asked, waited. She craned her neck and… "Right, of course," she breathed out. Brittany was asleep again. Santana hesitated, looking around. If she tried to get her up to her bedroom, or even just to extract herself, she'd wake her again, and she didn't want to do that to her… Her neck would probably kill her in the morning, but she really didn't mind. She had Brittany in her arms, and after what they'd been watching all night, she could probably use someone's protecting arms around her, warding off shadows and nightmares.

THE END

A/N: To non-signed in reviewers Ali and Dana, since I can't reply to you there, I'll say it here, and it goes to anyone who would be disrespectful like this:
This story is a present to a friend who is a fan of both shows ON HER BIRTHDAY. So kindly keep your nastiness to yourself, alright? Thank you and STEP OFF.

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!