MONTH 5
Santana Lopez rubbed the balls of her hands into her face, hoping that she could survive another boring day at work when all she was thinking about was the large comfy couch in her living room and a couple of late reruns of Vampire Diaries.
"Mrs. Loh-peez," her homely-looking secretary walked into the disorderly room. "Do you want me to bring in the files?"
Santana sighed loudly. "Yes, please."
Janice wasn't all that beautiful, to be honest; but that doesn't mean she can't be efficient. Janice was one of Santana's most trusted employees. If given the situation, Santana would trust her business with the ginger-haired woman. Sometimes though, Janice reminds her so much of her high-school guidance counselor – Miss Pillsbury.
The clock ticked to four, but it seemed to Santana that work wasn't ending yet. She had a lot of paperwork to sign off, and a lot of graphical designs to check out on. The office she worked in also served as her worktable, where she designs greeting cards, postcards, stationary and several other designed papers. Adjacent to her office was a studio, where most of the other designers and graphic artists work with their designs. On the back of the building were the pressers, where they print out the papers and the there were at least ten trucks that could deliver them across many states.
Blub wasn't as big as Hallmark or Blue Mountain, but it had been a strong-founded business. For almost four years, it had been providing Santana increasing income and gross profit so she never had the chance to downsize – no, never. Instead, she planned on taking it slow, step by step until she gets more and more solid buyers.
It's not that Santana had trouble making money. She and her wife also owned a local dance school in Lima, where her wife taught ballet – well, used to. Since Brittany was pregnant, Santana hadn't allowed her wife to teach dancing. But, even if her wife wasn't teaching dance in the school, she knows they can be well-off. But, Brittany really had the biggest share in adding up to the family income.
Family, it's a word Santana had never felt so concrete – not until now. Not until when she would wake up in the morning and she would accidentally touch the growing bump on Brittany's stomach. Sometimes, Santana just can't help but throw out a giggle. She hadn't felt the word family so real not until she would fall asleep with her head just below Brittany's bump, while she sing a lullaby to her unborn child.
Santana yawned as she signed the last piece of the order slips to be delivered in the morning. Work was over for the day, she really needs to go home. She took the rubble-splayed pathway where she had parked her car. It wasn't the latest model of BMW but still, a Chevrolet is still a car and it's still as useful as any other.
She drove through the traffic, until she reached the familiar top of trees that she's near the private lane that turned right from the highway. She swerved right and she could see the porch lights of the house she called home brightly lighted and welcoming her with warmth. She quickly took the steps of the porch and she quietly opened the door. Her wife was sitting on one of the club chairs in the living room, knitting while she was watching an episode of Two Broke Girls.
"Good evening, babe," Santana leaned to kiss her wife on the lips.
"Good evening," Brittany smiled, her eyes twinkling like blue sapphires – or like the blue waters of Lake Lima when it reflects the Ohio sky during a summer day. "How's your day at work?"
"Boring," Santana sat on the floor, just below Brittany's feet and started to rub her wife's baby bump. "But it was okay and good. Hi, baby."
"Did you come up with another batch of greeting card designs?" Brittany asked with keen interest as she looked at her wife who had a wet, lopsided smile on her face, and she knows that Santana wasn't even aware that she was smiling.
"Nope..." Santana shook her head. "I mean, just a dabble or two, not really much, but it was okay," Santana started to softly poke on her wife's baby bump, while she parroted a ghetto-accented talk. "Yo, baby. Whatup?"
"Santana, you're gonna teach your child to be a gangster," Brittany remarked. "You gon' find 'em bakin' cookies at night," Brittany said as she parroted Santana's ghetto talk.
"What'd you want for dinner, baby?" Santana cooed into the baby bump. "I've missed you and Mommy."
"Baby said we'd have some pizza and a coke float," Brittany said jokingly. She knew for a fact that Santana had been watching her diet all the time since she had carried the baby. She hadn't had a tad bit of any caffeine or alcohol in the past five months. It was pretty gruesome, but she doesn't mind. She knew that what Santana was doing was all for her and her baby's health.
Brittany started to stand up and help with the dinner, but Santana stopped her.
"No, you stay and you wait, okay?" Santana yelled from the kitchen. "How about you do another round of walking, just for exercise?"
Brittany nodded softly. "Alright, San. How about a walk baby?" she sighed softly at the baby bump. "Let's give Mama a walk."
Santana gushed at her pregnant wife as she put down the plate of green peas and lettuce in front of her wife's place on the table. She also put a strawberry-flavored yogurt, complete with strawberry slices.
"Thanks," Brittany smiled gratefully at her wife. "You're not that tired?" she asked.
"I just doodled around," Santana smiled lopsidedly as she put some orange juice in a tall glass and handed it to Brittany.
Ever since Brittany had been inseminated, Santana had grown ballistic on caring about her wife. On mornings, Brittany would wake up to breakfasts on bed, and on lunch, Santana would quickly drive back home, with lunch on her hand, and she wouldn't allow Brittany to do something else other than cross-stitch, knit, or read baby books. Brittany sometimes waters the trillium but Santana would never allow her wife to do hard, tiring jobs.
On dinners, though, Brittany insisted that she will do it, but Santana wouldn't take anything of it. On the earlier trimester of Brittany's pregnancy, Santana always brought dinner with her, making sure that her wife only ate healthy foods. During that time too, Quinn was still staying with them when she hadn't had the job in the municipal fiscal and she hasn't moved out of Santana's house yet, so it was a good thing for Santana. But, two months after Quinn had left to work, Santana had been cooking three meals each day. And Santana never fails to leave nutritious fruit snacks for the morning and the afternoon.
Santana even brought a whole batch of nutritious-food cookbooks, just to make sure her wife would eat right.
"What are you smiling at?" Brittany looked at Santana curiously. Santana hadn't noticed that she had been smiling absently at her food.
"Hum...nothing," Santana smiled shyly. "I just...I just...had a thought."
"Hmm...sure?" Brittany asked impishly and leaned on the table. "Come on, hotshot. Tell me."
Santana leaned back on her chair, tilting it a little, and snorted softly when she saw her wife's disapproving eyes. "I was just thinking about things, Britt. Just thinking."
Brittany smiled, knowing her wife was just trying to mess out with her feels. "Well then, Santana Maria Lopez, tell me what you're thinking about."
"Nothing. Just that I happen to love doing all these things, you know, cooking you things, doing the dishes, doing the laundry...everything. Cleaning the house, swimming underneath the beds doing the vacuum," Santana smiled at Brittany, who was also smiling.
"You love doing all those things? But, San...you're working, and stuff..."
"And you're carrying a total teensy-tiny bit of my world, so you gotta be careful there, lady," Santana stood up on the table, took a big stride towards her wife and kissed the bare skin just below Brittany's earlobe. "I love you, Brittany."
"Man, when you're carrying our second baby, I'll have to make it up to you," Brittany groaned softly. "I don't even know how to do it."
"Then don't. I'm sure Brittany Pierce-Lopez will manage," Santana wiggled her eyebrows. "Go finish your dinner, honeybun."
"Stop calling me names," Brittany chortled happily. "Our baby's gonna hear."
"Humph," Santana huffed. "She's a Lopez, she better be greater than me."
"Santana..." Brittany smiled as she clicked her tongue. "Say another word of it, and you'll be sleeping on the floor."
Santana didn't tease any longer. Instead, she quieted down and quickly finished her dinner. After finishing it, she started to collect the dishes and ran down the lukewarm, soapy water on the sink. She started to wash the dishes, and amidst Brittany's incessant moaning that she would help, Santana finished washing the dishes by herself.
"Nicki or Mariah?" Brittany asked as the both of them sat in front of the TV. Santana was twirling the pencil between her fingers and Brittany had her foot on Santana's lap.
"Nicki. You know I hate Blaine and love Coach Sue," Santana answered shortly. "You always ask me that."
"I was just trying to take your attention away from your pencil," Brittany smiled. "You seem to have a crush on it."
"Hum...nothing, really. I just don't know what to draw," Santana smiled. "Come on, give me something to draw."
"Draw me a unicorn?" Brittany grinned sheepishly. "A pink unicorn."
Santana leaned over a bit to whisper into the baby bump. "Mom wants a pink unicorn, so Mama will draw Mommy a pink unicorn. I'm gonna draw you another unicorn, okay?"
So, Santana drew two pink unicorns and held it to her wife for inspection. Brittany gave her a confused look. "Where are you here?"
"Mhm...so you want me to draw a Mama unicorn?"
"Yeah, put it near the M0mmy unicorn," Brittany said as she sat back up on the couch and they both bent over the center table and Santana started to draw another pink unicorn. She held it to Brittany for the second time and the blonde grinned.
"Beautiful," Brittany gushed. Then the blonde stopped short. "Oh, I know," she took two colored pencils from Santana's stack of pencils and she started to color something over the sheet of paper. She then held it to Santana for the Latina to look at.
"Mhm...that's beautiful, more beautiful than earlier," Santana hummed as she looked at the pink unicorn with blonde hair, one with black hair and the smaller unicorn had no hair yet.
"So, what's her or his hair gonna be?" Santana asked at Brittany with interest. The blonde just shrugged.
"I have no idea. We're yet to see it, right?" Brittany smiled a goofy smile. "I want her to have your hair."
"That's unlikely. She's probably gonna have your hair," Santana said.
"But Doctor Burns said it's possible she's going to have hair like yours, too!" Brittany exclaimed. "She said Rodolfo's genes may be dominating enough," Brittany smiled.
"Britt, it may or may not happen, okay?" Santana said patiently. "But whatever happens, he or she will be a beautiful kid."
"Unicorn," Brittany said drowsily. "Unicorns, baby."
"Alright, unicorns then. Let's go to our bed?" Santana smiled as she nuzzled the golden-haired beauty.
"Alright, let's go to sleep," Brittany mumbled. "You're tired."
"Yeah, I am, but I love you and I love serving you," Santana whispered as the both of them walked towards the bedroom. Santana laid her wife carefully on her favorite side of the bed – the right side of the bed and tucked her underneath the comfortable covers.
"I love you, San," Brittany mumbled. "I love you."
Santana smiled and kissed her wife's forehead, and inhaling everything that's Brittany. "I love you, baby."
Santana crouched down low, and then kissed her wife's baby bump. "I love you, baby. Sleep tight."
With that, Santana moved to her side of the bed, and laid down. She snuggled closer to her wife and wrapped her arms around her wife, stroking the baby bump softly. A smile crept across her face and her heavily-lidded eyes closed peacefully.
The sun wasn't up yet when Santana opened her eyes that were so accustomed of waking up so early. Without making a noise, Santana pried off her arms that was under Brittany's head. She quietly padded her way to the bathroom where she gargled her mouth with minted mouthwash. After washing her mouth, Santana proceeded to take a quick shower and made herself at least presentable and clean. After tucking her hair under a bundle of towel, Santana made her way to the kitchen, clad only in her bathrobe and started to brew some Puerto Rican coffee.
While her coffee heated up, Santana started to cut up some apple slices and cut up grapes into halves. She garnished them over a bowl of aerated oats and put it nicely over a wicker-woven tray and she put a glass of maternal milk to go with it. For Brittany's dessert, she put a chilled melon-banana boat topped with low-fat cream to taste.
She carried the food back to the bedroom and she stopped to put it on the bedside table. "Good morning honey," she whispered as she bent low over Brittany's ear. The blonde stirred and a smile crept into her face.
"Morning, Sanny," Brittany grinned.
"Good morning," Santana replied. "How was sleep?"
"Beautiful," Brittany smiled. "Beautiful. Becau-"
Santana clambered hurriedly. "Wait...wait, don't stop smiling." The Latina clambered for the adjacent studio where she had kept all her easel things and stuff and she came back with a large DSLR camera and she aimed it right through the blonde and she captured a photograph of smiling Brittany drowned in the covers.
"Beautiful," Santana murmured.
"San, quit being so cute..." Brittany wailed, but she had a bright smile plastered on her face. "You know I love you when you do that. Your cuteness kills me."
"I love you, baby," Santana smiled as she sat beside the bed. "What are you gonna do today?"
Brittany thought for a moment. "I'll have my morning walk by the lake. Then I'll be tending the trillium blooms on the back porch, and I'll sit on the bedroom veranda so I can take a look at the lake."
"Mhm...do you want to have your comfy chair moved out or you're going to sit on the swinging one?" Santana said, pointing out the rocking chair just across their bedroom which opens into a veranda with a small swing-like couch with some pillows. It had a great view over the better part of Lake Lima...or Santana makes sure it is the better part of Lake Lima by bringing in Noah Puckerman's cleaning and landscaping crew twice a month to landscape, prune and cut, clean up and take away the rubbish.
"I'll sit on the swing one," Brittany smiled.
"Mhm...okay. You wanna do your stretching and walking now or after you eat?" Santana asked, careful to bring up her wife's preferences.
"Now..." Brittany grinned.
"Come on, let's walk a little up to the water. I'll put back your melon boats to the fridge to freeze," Santana said and she carried the food back to the kitchen and put it in the food keeper and the melon went back into the fridge.
After a couple of minutes of preparing, Santana and Brittany went out into the sunny morning over Lima. Brittany sighed at the fresh air that rushed through her lungs and Santana inhaled it greedily, knowing that when she reaches work later on the day, all she would smell are the ink-printed paper and the city dust.
"I'll save up for a boat or something for us to ride on..." Brittany said thoughtfully. "When our baby's growing up so he or she could row a boat and pretend to be an Indian."
"Mhm...we're gonna be at Doctor Burn's office this Saturday afternoon," Santana smiled at the lapping waters of Lake Lima.
"I know why you're excited," Brittany smiled as she held her wife's hand in hers. "She's going to tell us if our baby's gonna be a Chip or an Isabella."
"Yeah," Santana smiled at her wife. "I don't know if which is better."
"There's no better, San..." Brittany whispered. "Because there's only be the best."
Santana smiled at her wife, and took Brittany's hands to her lips, then kissed the blonde's fingertips lightly. "I love you."
Brittany smiled and brought up her hands to cup the Latina's cheeks. "I love you too, baby..." she leaned a little and kissed her wife's lips chastely, then she pulled apart. They silently watched the lake together, and Santana's eyes traveled beyond the waters to the misty blue hills on the other side of the lake.
They walked in silence towards their house together, their hands joined comfortably. After a while, the both of them sat on the small veranda overlooking the lake and Santana brought out the food for her wife.
"Have you thought of a middle name?" Brittany smiled. They have been talking about names for too long, and they decided that Chip, if a boy and Isabella if a girl would sound better.
"No Rachel, or Quinn allowed," Santana smiled. "I'll have Carson if he's a boy."
"Chip Carson is an android character," Brittany grinned. "I knew you loved that android story!"
"Nope, I don't," Santana smiled – but yes, she did love that story, Not Quite Human.
"I'll take Maria...your second name," Brittany looked at Santana with glazed eyes. "She would be pretty with it."
For a moment, Santana could really feel that she was about to have a daughter. In her heart, she knew that she would be having a baby girl in less than four months. And her trip to Brittany's obstetrician-gynecologist in the weekend would let her confirm about her child's sex.
"Make that an Aria – Aria Isabella. How do you like the sound of that? There are too many Maria's running around," Santana protested softly.
"Aria Isabella," Brittany said, as if she was tasting a piece of candy on her tongue. "Aria Isabella...Aria Isabella..."
Santana grinned. She knew Brittany's gonna say Aria Isabella was a good name. "Yes! Aria Isabella would be great. We'll be having a baby girl."
Santana cleared her throat. "I think we have to wait for Doctor Burns to say something about that, honey."
"Doesn't matter," Brittany smiled. "Call it a mother's intuition, San. By the way, what time is it?"
"Blimey, it's late," Santana growled as she looked at her wristwatch. Her office hour would start at around ten in the morning, and it was still eight-thirty, but still...she had to make sure Brittany is tucked and cool and everything her wife needs is at a hand's reach.
She clambered to gather the dishes and washed them down. While Santana was washing the dishes, Brittany took a shower. At nine-thirty in the morning, Santana left the house, satisfied that she had done everything her wife could need and she had made sure her wife is safe.
The office was buzzing with activity as she went inside. Santana made a round to check on her employees. It was a tradition she had been starting since her business had kicked off years ago. Who would expect that the high-school bitch would be so caring about her employees.
"Yo, Armand, what's this?" Santana looked at the pile of crumpled papers in front of a desk.
"Sorry, Mrs. Lopez," a young man with thick-rimmed glasses turned to Santana. "I can't really make a straight line today."
"Well, then don't try to make one, Armand. Make a wavy line," Santana smiled as she made a waving motion with her hands at the guy who reminded her so much of Artie.
"I will, Mrs. Lopez," Armand called after her as she moved away.
"Hey, Florence," Santana smiled at the old janitor who was mopping the floor as she made her way through the building lobby to her office. "May I pass?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Lopez," Florence apologized for getting in the way. "I didn't see ya comin' through."
Santana smiled at the cleaning guy. "No, it's okay. Keep it up."
"Good morning, Mrs. Loh-peez," Janice said in an airy tune, almost a few notes higher than usual. "There's phone call for you."
"Morning, Janice. Why so early?" Santana grinned and she took the cordless phone that Janice had handed to her. "Hello? Blub Paper and Printers Incorporated how we may serve you?"
"San! You sound like a total businesswoman!" Brittany's voice filled the other line and another loving smile crept across Santana's face. Janice only smiled at her. It's not uncommon for the secretarial desk phone to receive a ton of phone calls from Santana's pregnant wife each day.
"Britt...quit messing with the phone. I'll be home soon," Santana said.
"But San...I miss you already. Can you come home now?"
"You do know that I am hanging around the office for less than five minutes, right?" Santana smiled. "I'll call Quinn to be with you today."
Santana turned and whispered to Janice. "Can you look up Quinn Fabray on my directory and call her? Tell her to drop at the house to check on Britt."
Janice smiled smartly and dialed Quinn's office. She then parroted Santana's request and there was a silence on Janice's part. Then Janice grinned and looked at Santana. "Yup. She's pretty whipped. Maybe one of these days, Mrs. Lopez would buy a carnival parade straight to her house."
Santana finished the phone call with Brittany and she heard her phone vibrate in her shoulder bag. It was a text from Quinn Fabray.
Fabgay: Glad to know you're whipped, bitch. Have a nice day. OMW to Britt.
Santana tapped out a reply to her old best friend.
Satan: Shut it, Fabgay. You're not the one having a pregnant wife.
Quinn Fabray just laughed at Santana's text message as she made a careful right turn towards the Pierce-Lopez residence.