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 59th cycle. Now cycle 60!

This is a shift day. There are two updates today.

"Too Much Already"
(Older) Brittany/Santana etc
Trinity series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Brittany had snuck out to surprise Santana with breakfast from her favorite diner. There was no occasion. On most days she would awaken before her wife, have whispered conversations with their unborn child. Every day it felt like the belly would grow a little more, but then maybe she just saw it that way. On that morning, she'd decided it would be a nice surprise for Santana to wake up to.

The line had been longer than she would have expected, and by the time she walked home with the bag she figured Santana would have woken up and found her missing. Just in case, mindful of the fact she had once been kidnapped, she had left a note, so she didn't worry. When she'd decided to give her a call, she realized she had forgotten her phone at home.

She would beat herself up for this for weeks and months after this, even if it wouldn't have changed a thing.

At the turn of the street corner, she had seen it, further down, in front of a building… their building. The ambulance had gathered a crowd. There were other people who lived in the building, she knew. But no one else in the building was friends Doctor Claudia McManus, and Brittany had spotted her car, too. Of all people to be there, she knew what it could mean, and she felt as though her blood had turned frozen solid in her limbs, weighing her down. She didn't feel herself run, but she did, like her life depended on it. As she neared, she saw Claudia, and Claudia saw her.

"Brittany!" the small woman breathed.

"Where is she?"

"You got here just in time, we need to go, get in," Claudia pointed to the ambulance.

All she saw, all she could see, as soon as she climbed on board, was her wife on a gurney.

She could hear Claudia, even as she felt in hell. Santana had woken up feeling strange. She'd looked for Brittany, but she wasn't there. She'd found her note, tried her phone but it was in the house, not with her. And when it had gotten worse, afraid, she'd called Claudia, hoping she would know if she needed to worry or not. Claudia had rushed over, though not before instructing her to call an ambulance. Now she was unconscious, and they were on their way to the hospital.

The next few hours had been a blur. Rachel and Noah showed up, with little Milo, and then so had Hattie and June, and Claudia's husband Lucas. By so-called luck, Catalina Lopez was in town, visiting Winger, and so they had turned up as well. Brittany would only become aware of this later.

She never left Santana's side, and if anyone even suggested that she wait outside, she was unmovable. She stayed, and eventually was rewarded with at least some good news, if not great news.

Santana would be alright, as would the baby, provided that they did exactly as the doctor dictated. She was put on immediate bed rest, something Brittany knew Santana would have trouble dealing with, but she would personally make sure that she could keep their baby and herself safe. As much as they were tears of relief, she tried to keep Santana from seeing her cry by the time she woke up.

"Britt?" was the first word she spoke, and the blonde already had her hand in both her own.

"I'm here."

"What happened?"

"You're in the hospital, do you remember…" Panic flashed through her eyes.

"The baby…"

"… is fine," Brittany reassured her. "I shouldn't have gone, I forgot my phone…" she closed her eyes.

"You're here," Santana replied, "Forget the rest." Brittany reached out to touch her face, leaned in to press a kiss to the side of her head.

"You're going to have to be on bed rest. You're going to do it, alright? I can't lose you, not after everything we've been through, if I lost you too, then I'd have nothing left and they might as well take me, too."

"Don't say that," Santana tried not to cry and failed just as miserably. She would have told her what she believed in her heart, that if it ever came to it and they had to make a choice, that she wanted them to do everything for the baby first, but she wasn't ready to hear that.

"Before, when you were sleeping, I sat here, and I held your hand, and I talked to Quinn. I told her how much I missed her, how we both missed her, but that you couldn't go with her yet, that I needed you here. I don't care if that makes me sound selfish, it's true. I need you, you and our little boy or girl. We've done too much, waited long enough, it couldn't end, not yet, not like that."

"It's not going to," Santana promised. "I'll do it all, I'll stay in bed as long as I need to, and I'm going to be a pain the whole time, but I'll stay there, and we're going to have that baby," she squeezed her wife's hand. "You and me, like it's always been." They shared a silent thought for their lost sister, for her and Spencer both.

It was as much comfort as they could hope to get, to see friends and family come in to see her, little by little. There was all this love around them, all these people they cared enough for that they would lie to them about what they had been doing with their lives, for their protection. They had lost people, but they were not ever alone.

Both their mothers had driven in from Lima, and by the end of the day it would be decided that Mrs. Lopez would stay back to help them for as long as they needed her. All of them would work together, and they would hold their promise. They would see that baby born.

THE END

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!