AN: I'd just like to say I'm not a Pezberry shipper, but after being given a prompt and the characters to use, I couldn't really say no to it. Even if I would have loved it as Brittana or Bike lol. Its different, and its probably the only time I'll write pezberry and post it, but here it is! :) One-shot of perfectness! Although my father is a military man and i've been with someone who was in the military I don't know much about ranks and titles, not to mention this was written at 5:00 in the morning, so I'm sorry if I messed anything up. :) It's also up to you to determine the ending. You'll see. Please review!
Admitting to defeat had never been one of Rachel's strong suits. Hell, she just didn't do it. She was Rachel Barbara Berry...well Berry-Lopez now. All her life she'd been told she was never wrong, and that she could do everything and anything that she set her mind to. This though...this she had absolutely no control over. She'd begged Santana, begged and pleaded for her to not to re-enlist. She knew they were taking fate in their hands if she did, and yet Santana had. Four days after their sons second Birthday...Santana was served and given forty-eight hours before she was being deployed to Iraq, the fighting had only gotten worse since the years of Obama and now the young men and women enlisted had to fight again. Fight a war that wasn't theirs to fight. Yet, showed up on their doorstep every morning.
Of course Santana's parents hadn't gotten the visit, Rachel was her wife, her first of kin and the mother to her son. So of course when the guard came they went right to the house the two had built their life in. The gardens were filled with flowers, the front lawn always perfectly mowed. The porch light was always on, and the screen door always unlocked and open to accommodate the hot South Carolina weather. They'd chosen not to live on base, it was to real, and Rachel really didn't want to be one of the army wives that compared themselves to the lifetime TV show canceled years prior. The house was all them, the house they'd planned to grow old together. The house where Ben had taken his first steps, and the house they'd come home to on their wedding night. It was what they'd always wanted, and could never have had in Lima.
She'd been gardening when Ben had pointed out that "Mami's friends are here!' Rachel half expected it to be Britt, but that would be silly, seeing how they hadn't talked in years. Britt had chosen to become a pre-school teacher and stay in Lima, settle down with Mike and have as many kids as they could. Least that's what Quinn had told her in the few phone calls and emails no facebook they'd exchanged. The house of course still had small traces of Ducks though, Santana's request that Rachel could never deny her of.
Rachel had known though, just by the look on the guards faces that it wasn't just their monthly house call. The grim look in their eyes, and the full getup of their uniforms told her that the worst had happened. She knew it before they even came up to her.
"Go inside Benny, go play with the puppies" She didn't want him to have to be there for it, not that she would breakdown in front of her son. Santana would kill her if she ever found out...even if it was from the gave. "Well boys...it's a little early this month to see you. Not here for lunch I'm guessing." She'd gained Santana's personality in the years that they'd been together.
Santana had died the way she'd lived her entire life, fighting. She'd saved a group of kids before a suicide bomber had been able to get to them. She'd saved them, the way she would have saved her own son. The son that she carried a picture of next to her heart everyday right under her uniform because she hadn't been able to carry him under her heart the way Rachel had for nine long months. It was the first thing and the last thing she looked at everyday and what she constantly fought for.
Was she a widow now? Or did some crock in Washington deny that because they were a same sex couple. She didn't want to be a widow, she wanted to be the wife she'd been for almost ten years. How would she explain to their son that Mami wasn't coming home when he had a countdown chart next to his bed counting down how long they had left until Santana went on leave again. How was she going to go the airport and claim her lovers body. How was she going to call everyone they loved back in Lima and around the world, and tell them what had happened. How would she tell Brittany.
Holding onto a picture from their wedding, Rachel contemplated all these things as tears slid down her cheeks. It was the first time since the guards had come that Rachel had let herself come undone. She couldn't break down in front of Benny, not yet. It wasn't right, and it wasn't time. She had to be strong for him. She had to put on a solid front and prove to everyone that she was still the same Rachel Berry that left McKinley high school and never looked back. Not even for a second.
"Oh Santana, why do you have to leave me? Why, why, why?"
Her chest heaved as she held the cold frame closer to it, she wanted her Santana back. She wanted the love of her life back.
"I'm leaving you? This is news to me?"
It was a voice Rachel was sure she'd never hear again, no she knew she'd never hear again. Unless she watched their old home movies which she was certain she'd never be able to do again.
"Rae...Rae baby, what's wrong?" Santana questioned as she rushed to sit down next to her wife, her arms going around her. "Rae, it's Santana. What's going on? Is it Benny?"
"...If this is a dream, I'm not sure if I ever wanna wake up you know"
"Sweetheart, your not dreaming. It's me...Santana, I'm really here" It was a shock to her to, but once the captain had given her orders to report home, she hadn't thought twice about it. She'd just made sure it was a surprise to Rachel. "I...I, well you really didn't think I'd miss our ten year anniversary did you?"
Rachel looked up, for the fight time really looking at the girl in front of her. Placing a shaky hand on the side of her face she swallowed hard. It looked like Santana, smelled like Santana, it was Santana. She wasn't lying dead in a airport hanger somewhere.
"They...you're suppose to be dead"
"Well happy anniversary to you too" Santana laughed "What are you talking about Rae?"
"...George and Paul...they...they got word that you were dead. They came and gave me the letter from the office...they said you'd been killed by a suicide bomber"
"Rae, how in the hell could I die if I had your love keeping me alive over there?"
It may have been the corniest, cheesiest lines one person had ever spoken, but Rachel knew that she wouldn't have heard it from anyone else but Santana. Even the cruelest of ghosts wouldn't have played that trick on Rachel's mind.
"I'm not dreaming then?"
Santana shook her head with a smile before pulling Rachel into her arms, pressing a kiss to the top her head once again.
"No princess, your not dreaming. Your a dream, but you're not dreaming."