Title: Summer nights are my favourite things.
Author: EPCCJL
Spoilers: Everything up to 2x10 A Very Glee Christmas
Summary: A bit AU but not too much. The Girls of Glee Club try and get Brittany and Santana together again.
Warnings: Bit of bad language thrown in here and there.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did Brittana would be cannon and the atrocity that is Bartie would never have occurred.
Mr. Shue loved his job, he loved to inspire his kids and loved seeing them accomplish things they thought they couldn't it was just one of those great aspects of being a teacher. There was however some times when he didn't like his job. He worked in a school that had a Principal who was far too concerned over money and not the students wellbeing, there was an overbearing borderline psychotic cheerleading coach that was out to get him and the hierarchy of the students was untouchable. And because of this most of his students had to face a heck of a lot of crap from those at the top. At least once a week he had to deal with one or more of his students either crying or having some kind of personal issue that they needed help or support. It wasn't like he didn't want to be there for his kids but it was getting to the point where it was a constant thing and it was bring him and his Glee club down. He had already lost one of his kids when Kurt transferred to another school because of the bulling he didn't want to lose anymore. Over the last year and a bit he has had to deal with problems from pretty much every single member of his Glee club and he was prepared to deal with whatever they threw at him, this all changed the day he walked into the empty choir room to find Santana Lopez sitting alone crying as she sat in one of the chairs. Mr. Shue had seen the Cheerio cry before but that was because Sue had told her girl's that they weren't competing in Nationals, and also when they thought Glee club was over but this time seeing the Latina cry, this time was different. She looked so small and lost as the tears fell freely down her checks. Mr. Shue never really knew how to talk to Santana as she kind of intimidated him so he carefully moved over to the girl and took a seat near her.
"Santana are you ok?" He asked softly.
She didn't bother to look at him she just nodded yes, which obviously wasn't the truth so Mr. Shue tried again.
"You know, if there is something wrong you can always talk to me…or Ms. Pillsbury." He offered.
"It doesn't matter." She finally spoke, though it was more of a whisper and even then Mr. Shue struggled to hear it. He was beginning to get a little worried, more than usual; this was not a sight he thought he would ever see.
"Did you want me to go find one of your friends; I could go get Brittany for you." He asked as he began to rise from his seat.
"No." This time it wasn't much of a whisper it was more of a shout, which startled Mr. Shue he just looked at her with concern. Not begin able to take his pity any longer Santana stood up, wiped her eyes and straightened her pony tail.
"I have to go to Cheerio's practice." Was all she said before she left leaving a very worried and stunned William Shuester.
When Glee rolled around that afternoon Mr. Shue was a little surprised to not find Santana there. He thought that if she could go to Cheerios she would go to Glee practice but he was wrong. He asked his group if they knew where she was but no one knew. This surprised the man as he would have at least thought Brittany would have some idea, those two were inseparable. So at the end of the session he was going to get to the bottom of what was happening. He learned his lesson from Kurt. If there was something wrong they needed to deal with it right away and not let any of his kids feel alone. Before he dismissed his class he asked for all the girls to stay behind so he could talk to them.
"Is this about Sectionals Mr. Shue?" Rachel asked as she opened her notebook ready to take down any important points.
"No, girls take a seat there is something I wanted to ask you." The girls all went back to their seats as Mr. Shue grabbed a chair and sat in front of them. All the girls sat there quietly ready to hear what he had to say, Mr. Shue sighed not really knowing how to start this conversation.
"Ok here's the thing…Has anybody noticed a change in Santana lately?" He asked and waited for a response.
"You mean has she become more of a bitch? Then yes I have noticed this." Quinn was the first to speak. Mr. Shue looked disappointedly at her and shook his head.
"No, I mean…look earlier today I came into the choir room and found her sitting alone crying and I was just wondering if any of you knew what is going on." Quinn raised her eyebrow; Tina looked a little shocked as did Mercedes and Rachel. Brittany looked sad.
"Wow I guess it is true…girl does have feelings." Mercedes spoke as Quinn and Tina giggled at her remark. Mr. Shue was not impressed and frankly was a little mad.
"Hey, she is your teammate and friend-"
"Please, she isn't our friend, she barely talks to any of us outside this room and when she does it's only to insult us." Quinn spoke again.
"Quinn has a point Mr. Shue, Santana has never been nice to any of us…well except for Brittany." Rachel chimed in. Everyone looked over to the tall blonde who hadn't said a word yet, she just looked sad and confused.
"Do you know what's wrong Britt?" Tina asked.
Brittany sighed and finally spoke up "I think it's because I'm not her rock anymore."
This just confused everyone.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Shue asked.
"She's a lizard and she needs a rock to help her digest her food." She informed them as if it was the simplest explanation of course no one knew what the hell she going on about.
"So she's upset because she's a lizard and you're a rock?" Tina asked, while looking at everyone else in case she was the only one who didn't get it, Mercedes just shrugged.
"No…I'm not her rock anymore remember?" Brittany sighed. "We had a fight." She whispered as she looked down. The others just looked at her in shock. Never had they ever heard of the two girls fighting. They were inseparable, always constantly joined at the hip, they did everything together and to find that they were fighting was pretty much like hearing that Sue Sylvester was going to join Glee club and perform a Disney song about love and friendship.
"What was the fight about?" Quinn asked.
"She's mad at me because I'm dating Artie." She told them. Once again they all looked confused, well everyone except for Quinn who was quick enough to put two and two together. Though she did have the upper hand and was privy to knowledge that the others didn't have.
"Why would she be mad at you for that?" Asked Mercedes.
Brittany shrugged "She wouldn't tell me why."
"Look, why don't you all have a chat about this and maybe come up with a way to help each other out ok?" Mr. Shue asked as he got up from his chair and grabbed his bag. "I'll see you all tomorrow."
Once Mr. Shue left Brittany got a message on her phone, it was from Artie asking her how much longer she was going to be because they had plans to hang out after school. Brittany looked up to her friends.
"I have to go."
"Wait Britt, aren't you going to stay so we can discuss what to do about Santana?" Rachel asked.
Brittany sighed "I have to go." Was all she said before she turned a walked out of the room.
"Well now what?" Tina asked.
"Well clearly Santana is upset about Brittany and Artie we just need to figure out why. I mean maybe she's just jealous that Brittany is spending more time with Artie and not her, or maybe Santana likes Artie?" Rachel suggested. Quinn just sighed and shook her head.
"You honestly think Santana is into Artie?" She asked.
"It could happen." Tina replied.
"Yeah who knows what goes though that girl's head she's probably just doing this for attention." Mercedes added.
"If she was doing it for attention then why was she crying alone in a room away from everyone? None of us would have known if Mr. Shue hadn't of found her." Quinn replied.
"Why are you now suddenly defending her?" Mercedes asked looking a little annoyed.
"Look I've known Santana a long time, believe it or not we were friends and I know how she reacts to stuff. If she wanted attention she would make a show of it and even then it would be over something petty. But if she didn't want people to know then she has a very good way of hiding it. I mean come on don't you all think it was a little weird she got a boob job but told no one about it? Don't you think that, that would be something she would be proud to boast about? But instead she got pissed when I told everyone, which ok now I feel a little bad about but that's not the point the point is something is wrong and she doesn't want anyone to know about it."
"Why did she get a boob job anyway?" Tina asked.
"Like I said who knows what goes on in that head of hers." Mercedes replied.
"OK we're getting nowhere here. Maybe one of us should just ask Santana." Rachel suggested but then realised what she had said. "Or maybe not, I mean I highly doubt she would confide in any of us. We just need to figure out the real reason why she is upset and then try to fix it…hopefully without having any contact with her what so ever."
"Well how do we do that?" Asked Tina
"Yeah that ain't gonna be easy." Mercedes chimed in.
"I don't know, but let's think about ok. We have deducted that it has something to do with Brittany and Artie and something to do with lizards and rocks." Rachel concluded.
Sighing once again Quinn decided that she should just tell them what she thinks is probably the reason for Santana's issues. "She's in love with Brittany."
The three other girls turned to look at the blonde girl in shock.
"What?"
"Huh?"
"Well that does seem plausible"
"Look this can't go any further then this room but Santana is gay." Quinn informed them all.
No one really knew what to say to that.
"But…but she's slept with like nearly every guy in this school." Tina said.
"She's only done that to preserve her reputation. She's terrified of people finding out the truth." Quinn told her.
"How do you know this?" Mercedes asked.
"A while ago we were at some party and there was alcohol and she and I started talking and she just sort of blurted it out to me. She was drunk but I wasn't, I don't even think she remembers telling me."
"Are you sure she was telling the truth? I mean she could have just said it for a laugh." Tina asked.
Quinn shook her head. "No, Santana never lies when she's drunk."
"Why haven't you…you know used that piece of information against her I mean you could have after everything she has done to you." Mercedes asked.
"Because after she told me and realised that she had…I'd never seen her look so terrified in all my life. I tell you it is pretty unnerving to see fear in her eyes. So I made a promise to her and myself that I would never use that against her. Besides I doubt anyone would believe me she made sure of that by sleeping with as many guys as she could."
"Wow that's…that's so sad." Tina said, while Rachel nodded in agreement.
"She must feel so alone and so unhappy." Rachel replied.
Just then the door of the choir room flung open and a sad looking Latina walked through the doorway, her eyes were red and puffy and it was clear to anyone that she had been crying. She came to a halt when she realised that the room wasn't empty. The four girls all turned to look at her. They couldn't help but look at her differently now that they knew the truth about her. Santana tried her best to glare at them all but it just wasn't working for her at that moment.
"Santana, we missed you in glee rehearsal today." Rachel finally spoke trying to break the tension.
The brunette Cheerio just shrugged her shoulders.
"I just came for my bag not to get a lecture from a munchkin from the lollipop guild so can it Berry I'm not in the mood." Santana stomped over to the chairs and grabbed her bag that she had left earlier that day.
"San…we need to talk." Quinn began making the Latina stop in her tracks; it had been a long time since Quinn had called her that.
"There isn't anything to talk about." She replied as she flung her bag onto her shoulder.
"Yes there is…look we're worried about you." Rachel said hesitantly, causing Santana to laugh.
"You're not that good of an actress Berry, maybe you should try that once more with feeling."
"Come on San, we can tell there is something going on and we know it has to do with Brittany and Artie being together." Quinn tried again.
Santana clenched her jaw and glared at the blonde this time it was more effective than before.
"I don't care about Brittany and Artie." She said before she brushed past Quinn and the others but before she could get anywhere Quinn grabbed her arm and spun her around Santana yanked her arm free and pushed Quinn away from her.
"Don't touch me preggers!" She spat at the blonde.
Ignoring her comment Quinn moved in closer to the Latina "You can't keep pretending and trying to fool everyone anymore San we know." The way she said it made Santana know exactly what it was she was referring too and for the second time for Quinn and for the others it was their first, they saw fear in the other girl's eyes. It was only for a split second but it was there and then it was gone and replaced with anger. She glared at Quinn and the others before she turned and pretty much ran out of the choir room.
"Well that went well." Mercedes said after a few minutes of silence had passed.
"Does Brittany feel the same way about Santana?" Tina asked.
The girls all looked over at Quinn for the answer, she only shrugged.
"I don't know." She finally said.
"Well what do we do now?" Rachel asked her teammates but no one said anything as they had no clue where to go from here.
The girls spent another hour in the choir room trying to come up with a way to help Santana but they just couldn't come up with anything. It was obvious the girl was in deep denial and was completely terrified about who she was and what she was feeling. They also weren't sure if Brittany even felt the same for the brunette they knew that the two girls slept together occasionally but that didn't mean that Brittany was in love with Santana. So the girls decided to head home and talk about it some more tomorrow.