The Vow
Santana and Brittany are a happy newly-wed couple whose lives are changed by a car accident that puts Brittany in a coma. Waking up with severe memory loss, Brittany has no memory of Santana, a confusing relationship with her parents, and an ex-fiancé she may still have feelings for. Despite these complications, Santana endeavours to win her heart again and rebuild their marriage.
Chapter One
Santana Lopez walks out of the movie theatre hand in hand with her beautiful wife, Brittany. It's a snowy winter's night and a movie sounded great. She keeps stealing glances at her significant other wondering how she bargained on such beauty. She has a family now and her life is perfect. They stroll towards the car even though the freezing temperature is tormenting their bodies. Santana wipes the snow of the wind screen whilst smiling at her gorgeous blonde wife. She gets into the car feeling the heat bashing against her olive skin. Even though the car is room temperature, Brittany gestures for her partner to blow on her hands to keep them warm, Santana does so. After a while of warming up, the car is started and there journey home begins. The immediately cease at a stop sign and Brittany turns to face the back seat of the car, then to face her wife.
"I heard.. That car sex.. Is, well, better than any sex." She states seductively as she unbuckles her seat belt and leans forwards to kiss Santana.
"Oh, really. You think so."Santana replies whilst kissing her back with passion. Little did they know, a giant truck was having trouble stopping and was speeding it's way towards them.
In a matter of seconds, at that very moment; the truck rams their Saab 900 from behind. Santana still has her seat belt on and bounces back and forwards, slightly hitting her head of the chair landing her into a light concussion. On the other hand, due to unbuckling her seat belt, Brittany's whole body is thrown against the wind shield, hitting it head first crashing the glass into a million pieces.
"Blonde Female. Late 20s. Severe Brain Injury and Coma Vegetative State. Need 3 more doctors as soon as possible, got it?" A woman in a white coat said to a younger man.
"Dark Haired Female. In the accident too, late 20s. Minimal Head Injury but needs CAT scan straight away." Another said.
-'moments of impact.. help in finding who we are'-
Santana is standing in the queue to renew her drivers license. She's deep in thought when blue orbs meet her brown ones. A blonde headed girl is walking past her and smiles. She gives her best smile ever, and looks back meeting those gorgeous blue eyes once again. The blonde haired girl walks away and Santana is called forward in the line.
After Santana has finished doing her things, she realises the girls drivers licence on the work top. She begins to run the way the girl was walking before and feels her stomach flutter when she notices the girl in the parking lot.
"Urgh!" The girl shouts before she gets in her car. She turns around and sees Santana smirking at her.
"Forgot your licence." Santana says with a reassuring voice.
"Yeah.. Well, I just sorta, come here to enjoy the two hour line instead of renewing my licence." She replies jokingly and Santana gives her a soft giggle. Santana notices a School Of Dance Institute Of Ohio on the girls wind shield and asks.
"Do you work there?" She points at the little blue sticker.
"No, I'm actually a student. I'm Brittany." She politely says back sticking her hand out. Santana is too caught up in the beauty in front of her, she gets caught up in the question and begins to chuckle.
"Sorry, I'm Santana."
"Well.. Thank you for this Santana." She holds up her drivers licence and Santana loves the way she states her name. "Bye." She opens her car door to get in but Santana starts to talk.
"You know, I noticed. In a totally none threatening way. We have the same RPP zone."
"Is that right?"
Santana nods and gives a innocent reply, "Yup."
"Hmm. You have impressing powers of observation." Santana keeps nodding and Brittany continues with a smirk on her face. "What's an RPP zone?"
"Residential Permit Parking zone." Brittany gives her a head nod and smiles at the new information she's just gathered.
"That.. Erm, sounds.. Intimate."
"Yeah.." Brittany begins to laugh and Santana has to agree that that's the best laughter she's ever heard. "Okay, what I was thinking is, erm. I think we owe it to ourselves really, maybe get a drink.. I don't know. It's respect for our zone matters ability, you know." She says in a less confident voice. Brittany just looks at her and smiles.
"Okay."
"Okay?" Santana wasn't expecting for her to be that forward and is shocked at the quick reply. Brittany nods; "Oh right, Okay."
She closes her car door and leads the way to the restaurant with Santana behind her. Their in Breadstix and talk comfortable together. Brittany decides to get 'random chocolates' instead of dessert, they mix the chocolates and taste each one; immediately regretting eating those they didn't enjoy and smiling at the ones they loved.
For the whole 2 hours they got to know each other, talking about past life; hobbies; future preferences and tastes..
Brittany was working at the Lima Bean, receiving orders and taking drinks to their customers. It was a rainy day and that put a downer in her mood plus she also had a cold. Even though the people were nice to her, her mind kept drifting to what Santana was doing. She turns around notices a box with a picture of Santana on. She looks outside the window and sees Santana, drenched in rain water with her hands in her pockets giving her a smile. She gestures for her to open the box and Brittany does so.
She finds inside all the remedies she needs to get rid of her cold. "For your nose." She reads out loud whilst holding the box of tissues in her hand. She grabs a hold of the vapour rubs and says "For your head." She lifts up a picture of Santana and smiles. "For your heart." She looks through the rest of the box and sees a thong, "For later.." She laughs and looks up seeing Santana wink at her, then walk away in the rain.
They're in the car on there way home and Brittany has her hands out enjoying the wind. She looks up seeing Santana smirk and they begin to laugh. Laughter that comes from the heart. Santana tries to put on a straight faces due to the laughter.
"Did you just fart?" Brittany questions whilst trying to hold in her giggles.
"No.." She stares ahead with a smirk on her face. "Maybe a little." Brittany looks up at her seductively and rolls up the window. "That is so twisted, but totally romantic. I'm so in love with you, it's insane!"
Santana was in a different world, she's been holding Brittany;s wedding ring to her face; praying that Brittany is fine. She's lying on the hospital bend with scars on her face.
A day later, she's walking with a doctor talking about her wife. "As you know, your wife's CT scan showed intracranial haemorrhaging. We purposely keep patients with traumatic head injuries in a comatose state in order to calm their systems and allow their brain time to heal itself, whilst the swelling subsides. Then we slowly win them off it."
The doctor keeps on talking but Santana can no longer take in the information; she thanks the doctor for the help and walks towards the waiting room looking for her friends. She gives them hugs and runs towards Brittany's room with a unicorn stuffed doll in her hand.
She sits and stares at her wife for what seemed like centuries but only being a few minutes. Examining her features and the scars in her face and the long tube attached to her mouth and into this monitor. She searches in her pocket feeling the metal scrape her hand, she takes the golden ring and puts it in Brittany's finger. Tears spill from her eyes and she kisses the top of her wife's head.
Santana has just finished her breakfast and walks to the back garden where her girlfriend is sat stoking an astray cat. Brittany is stroking it's fur and Santana can't help but smile and her partner's concern towards animals.
"Hey." Santana says.
"Hi." Brittany replies taking her eyes of the cat. She's still in her duck pyjamas and grins at how Santana is all dressed and ready.
"What you doing?"
"Err nothing." She says quickly running inside the house.
"Really?"
"Nope, nothing."
"What's that?" Santana is amused at how her girlfriend is reacting. She knows that every morning Brittany wakes up early just to feed this cat. That's the reason the cat has turned to fat in the past few weeks.
"Nothing."
"Food's ready." They sit down to eat breakfast with Santana's other house mates. " You know if you keep feeding that flea bag, it's gonna keep coming back and I'm allergic."
"Like you claim to be allergic to Rachel Berry?"
"I can't stand Rachel Berry."
"Exactly but you're not allergic. Anyone want strawberries? I bought it from the market." Santana decides to finish that part of the conversation but it still heavily amused.
"Buying groceries, that's a sign. We all know what that means." Puck states as he attacks his waffles. Santana just smiles to her self whilst spelling the letters out on her girlfriend's pancakes.
"I like her, she's like our mascot." Kurt replies to Puck's statement.
"Thanks.. I think?" She says.
"I would rather have her than that ferret you tried to make us adopt and she makes great coffee. Let's keep her." Brittany can't help but laugh at how they're using third person to talk to her.
"Thank you guys." Santana places the pancakes in front of her and Brittany questions. "Movie?I think you spelt movie wrong."
"No, It's meant to say-" She re-arranges the blueberries again to say 'move in'.
Brittany is out of words and just nods; leaning up to kiss her girlfriend. She hears Puck state a small 'told you' but just smiles at how accepting and wonderful her girlfriend and her friends are.
"I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home." Brittany states looking at her fiancé/ in a couple of hours, wife's eyes.
Quinn is recording the wedding ceremony on her small camera. Rachel and Kurt are stood together holding each other due to the tears that are falling from their eyes. Puck is taking the service whilst smiling shamefully at how much of a grown up Santana has become. Mercedes, Sam, Finn, Tina, Mike, Blaine and Artie are also there. This may not be everyone's perfect wedding since it's in a museum that they sneaked in to and that their family isn't there, but to the girls it was everything they wanted. Surrounded by their closest friends which in fact can be called family
"I vow to fiercely love you in all your forms, now and forever. I promise to never forget that this is a once in a lifetime love. To always know in the deepest part of my soul, that no matter what challenges might carry us apart; we'll always find a way back to each other" Santana says to Brittany in adoration and love.
"Do you take each other as spouses forever?" Puck says.
"I do." Santana says in her most confident voice which makes Brittany giggle.
"I do."
"By the power invested in me and by the state of Law and Order." He turns his head when he spots security. "Security!" They all start to run out the exist. "I NOW PRONOUCE YOU WIFE AND WIFE; AND BESTFRIENDS FOR LIFE! Run!"
Security chases them up the stares of the gallery with Santana and Brittany tailing there friends. The loose the big men and kiss. Finally, Brittany and Santana married after a year of being together.
Brittany is inside her home-made dance studio, she's completely oblivious to the world around her since she's dancing her her soul away. She misses some steps and gets mad at her self for doing so; she takes a deep breath in whilst Santana turns out the loud music.
"I'm supposed to do one choreography. ONE choreography. It's not happening. I – I don't know how, oh my God!" She cries with her hands on her face.
"You're gonna be fine."
"I'm gonna have to call them and tell them that I can't do it!" She rants.
Suddenly an idea plops into Santana's head of a way to make Brittany feel better. "Come to bed with me." She says in a animated voice. Brittany shakes her head but Santana keeps doing the squeaking voice. "Come on, to bed." Santana puts her face on the crook of Brittany's neck as blows; she knows that Brittany is extremely ticklish and the slightest thing can make her laugh.
Santana is on top of her wife tickling her whilst Brittany shouts 'stop' every time she can get a word out of the fit of giggles.
"I think the dance was fine. I know it's not finished." Santana says and Brittany looks at her with a raised eyebrow. "It's got a amazing style to it and the steps were good too. It was abstract, I don't know.. I think it was perfect so far." Brittany is still looking at her with a large smile on her face nodding at the statement Santana offered. "What?"
"You totally love me."
"Yeah I do."
"Yeah. I know because that wasn't my choreography, I was just bored and decided to dance around. I've already finished my piece." She gets closer to Santana noticing a sparkle in her eye. She leans close and kisses her. The pecking leads into a hot make out session. Which leads to very nice sex.
"Don't crowd her. She's gonna be a little raw with her self. Lets just give get some space" A nurse said.
Today was the day Brittany was coming out her comatose state. Her eyes began to flutter open and was hit with confusion at where she was. She looked around noticing she was in a hospital.
"Hey." Santana said as gentle as possible. Brittany looked so tired and was having trouble keeping her eyes open. "It's so great to see you"
"Wha-whar" Brittany was having trouble with her words, her mind was in a mess.
"Brittany. It's ok. You're in the hospital. You were in a car accident. You hit you're head but you're ok. We just kept you asleep for a little while." The nurse exclaimed.
"How do you feel?" Santana asked.
"My head hurts." Brittany replied looking at Santana. Santana looked at the nurse who said.
"Yeah, that's perfectly normal. I'll get you something for that."
"Was anyone else hurt doctor?" Brittany said to Santana. The nurse and Santana looked at each other for a moment, Brittany was completely oblivious to the looks.
"You, you do know who I am right?" She asked questionably.
"Yeah. You're my doctor." She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No, I'm.. I'm your wife." She took a breath in and went to sit next to Brittany's bed. She went to reach for Brittany's hand but Brittany moved away. "Brittany."
Brittany lifted her left hand up, looking at the golden ring on her finger. She then looked back at Santana with wide eyes not knowing what to do.
"Mrs Lopez-Pierce!" The nurse shouted after her as she walked out of Brittany's room.
"You said things were very good."
"Brain injury isn't like a broken bone or a sprain. Brains are much less predictable. Sometimes due to the way the swelling tissue presses against the skull, it can cause some impairment."
"SOME IMPAIRMENT? She doesn't remember me!" She choked up.
"Even though she's awake, the swelling can cause confusion or memory loss, eradicate mood swings." Santana walks away pulling on her jumper. "That's normal Mrs Lopez-Pierce."
Santana walks away, wanting to punch the wall or anything; but knowing she has to be there for her wife. She's circling next to vending machine with tears racing down her cheek. She leans back on the machine and slowly sits down, looking at her wedding ring crying to herself.
Santana is sleeping at the waiting rooms couch, her eyebrows are furrowed together and her lips are frowned. Brittany walks towards her and pokes her shoulders, she mumbles in her sleep and opens her eyes. When she sees blue eyes staring at her, she immediately jolts up and looks at Brittany.
"Hi."
"What you up to?" Brittany asks a little too fast, regretting how lame she sounds.
"Sleeping." Santana says with a beaming smile on her face. "I bought you some clothes." She holds up a blue duffel bag and hands it over to the blonde.
"Thank you." Brittany sits on the top of the couch and eyes the Latina. "I'm kinda hungry."
"Ok, lets go." She gives her a reassuring smile, takes the duffel bag and her own bag and leads Brittany towards the hospitals cafeteria.
Moments later, they're picking what food the want in the line and a little tension is between them. Brittany decided to break it by asking Santana a question.
"So, I just wanted to verify a few things with you, about me. About.. us." Santana nods, so Brittany takes it as a sign to continue. "So, we're married."
"Yes."
"And I have weird hair." She says whilst walking to a 2 sitter table.
"I think that's taken in your view. You said it takes you too long to straighten; so you might as well leave it since you're always in the studio."
"My studio?" Brittany asks in eagerness and curiosity. "Why – Why do I have a studio?"
"Erm. You're a dancer. A really good one at fact." She says, Brittany just looks at her with wide eyes. "Right now you're working on a choreography which is huge, everyone in town is excited to see it since your other choreography was submitted in Broadway."
"What. What about my Law degree?" She stuttered back. Santana was finding it hard to explain and Brittany suddenly got the answer. "I don't have a Law degree?"
"Erm, No. No you don't."
"Last time I wanted to be a dancer was in high school." She said while walking away to sit down. Santana just took a breath in and followed her wife to the seats.
Santana is sitting with her and Brittany's friends waiting for visiting hours in the waiting room. They've been catching up and talking about the situation trying to calm Santana.
"I think it's a win-win thing." Puck said. "If she doesn't remember who you are, then she doesn't remember all the stupid shit you've done. You can start over, wipe your shit clean."
"I'm just worried that if she doesn't remember you. How she going to remember she fell in love with you?" Rachel interrupts. They all give her a glare but she just shrugs her shoulders and goes on with her little conversation to Kurt about Broadway.
"I was frankly a little stunned she went for you the first time." Puck adds in with a smirk on his face.
"If anything, you're becoming less attractive." Quinn states whilst giving Puck a high five.
"You guys are a great support system." Santana chuckles. "Seriously though, what if she doesn't remember me?" That was Santana's worst nightmare, for the woman she loves not to ever see how as she used to. The nightmares crept in her dreams at night making it harder for her to sleep. "Then what?"
Quinn walks up to Santana and gives her a comforting hug. "She's gonna remember you. She's gonna remember all of us. We're a family." She nods and gives Quinn a reassuring smile even though there is doubt in the back of her head.
Santana walks in to her wife's door and when she gets there, not a single body is found. She sees a nurse walking by and calls for her.
"Excuse me.. Do you know where, Brittany. Brittany Pierce-Lopez is? She was right here and now she's gone and I don't know where she is. I'm her wife. Santana, Santana Pierce-Lopez." She knows she's rambling but when she's afraid she starts to have verbal diarrhoea.
"It looks like she's been moves into the VIP floor ma'am."
"That sounds expensive." Santana replies.
"Someone's paid. Take the elevator to the second floor and walk to the door on the right" As soon as she got the information, she ran into the room and saw Brittany with an older couple, a doctor and a nurse. The nurse was explaining what was happening until she caught Santana.
"Santana. So glad you're here." The nurse said with a smile on her face. The older man turns around eyeing Santana up and down.
"This is bizarre." She mumbles. "I'm Santana. Brittany's wife." When Brittany heard that, her face turned into a questioning look. How can Santana not know who her father was.
"Do you know how mad it makes me feel. Second hand that my daughter had been in a car accident, a comatose and has been hospital bound for weeks and we haven't been told!" He yells to Santana's face whilst she shows no emotion at all. Brittany winces at her father's harsh tone.
"You should of called us!" The older lady adds in.
"I'm sorry." Is all Santana has to say.
"You've never met my parents?" Brittany's dad drops his face while her mom fidgets with her dress. "I don't understand, why haven't you met her?"Brittany adds but with no anger in her voice.
The doctor walks back into the room, file at hand and smiles at the people. He turns his head to Brittany. "Well, everything is fine Brittany. To regain the memory you lost, you'll need to go back to your daily routine. The memory you lost was from 5 years ago till now; so going by your routine from then should help when regaining memory. I'm going to recommend a neuron physiologist" The doctor stated. Brittany looked relieved but Santana had questions running through her mind.
"What ever she needs; therapy, specialist. I'll make sure she gets the best." The dad says in a cocky tone making Santana wince.
"Right, Britty! We'll make your old room how it used to be." The mother interjects.
"And I can take some time of wor-" The father was interrupted by Santana.
"I don't mean to be disrespectful, and I really appreciate that. But you just heard that Brittany's doctor said she needs to go back to her normal routine. Her life with me is her normal routine."
"Yeah, buts that a life she doesn't remember." The mother adds.
"She will, that's what the doctor just said."
"No, she said that maybe Brittany will remember. Why don't you let her come home and be with people she knows and loves. We're only trying to do the best for Brittany."
"That's interesting because you haven't even asked her once." Santana was angry. Angry at the fact Brittany's parents can barge in and take Brittany away from her. They begin to argue and Brittany can't take more of it.
"All I need is for everyone to stop bickering!" Brittany shouts.
"None of this needs to be decided now; I think its best for everyone to head on home, get some rest. I'm sure everyone can use it." The nurse states.
Brittany is sitting at a table with Santana eating her fruit salad. A question has been running through her mind and she decides it's time to ask it. "How is that you're my wife but you've never met my family?"
"You haven't spoken to them in years." The Latina announces in a soft tone.
"What. Why, why would I stop speaking to my family?"
"It all went down before we met."
"And, and we never talked about it." Brittany stutters back.
"No, we did. We did."
"So.." The blonde says and Santana takes it as a sign to carry on.
"For starters, you moved into Ohio and started a dance institute," Brittany puts her hands to her face. "and your father insisted that you stay in Law school. He has pretty strict views on what your doing. Things just spiralled from there." The blonde had tears on the verge of coming out.
"What I remember is I go to Law School and I'm engaged to Oaniel." Santana drops her spoon and looks up choking a sob. "Look, I'm" Brittany doesn't finish but walks away.
"Brittany!" Santana shouts after her making her stop from walking up the stairs. Her blue eyes look into Santana's brown ones only to see stress, fear and love. "The best thing to do. At this point, is to go back to your life. With me. You heard what the doctor said, it's the best thing for your recovery."
"Yeah, but I don't know you. And I'm just supposed to get in your car, go and live at your place. Without any proof of us even being in love?"
"Other than our marriage?" Santana breaks.
"People get married for all kinds of different reasons!" She answers.
"Like, for what?"
"Like for a green card."
"I'm from Detroit." Santana chuckles back. Brittany bites her nails thinking of a way to know that what her and Santana had was real.
"Did I keep a journal?" Brittany offers.
"No, no not that I know of." Brittany gives her a sad smile and begins to walk away.
"I'm sorry." She whispers and leaves Santana by her self, tearing at the fact her wife doesn't know who she is.
Brittany is getting ready to leave with her parents. She's got all of her stuff, the doctors had given her the good to go and was just packing the last of her stuff. They're having a quiet conversation when the nurse interrupts by knocking the door.
"Brittany. I understand you're finally leaving us."
"Yeah, that's what they tell me." She smiles to the nurse. That nurse has been extraordinary with helping her. She couldn't thank her enough.
Santana was running to the VIP floor, she knew Brittany was leaving today and wanted to catch her before she left. She wanted Brittany to come home with her and her friend had given her an idea since Brittany didn't keep a journal.
"Right, no driving but other than that. Have a safe recovery and I'll see you in 46 weeks." The thanked the doctor was again before she left.
When the parents started walking towards the door, Santana barged in.
"I've got a voice mail. It's before the accident, you said you wanted evidence."
"Erm.. Okay.. Yeah, lets have a listen."
'Hey baby. I'm currently at the studio working on some choreography and I miss you. What are you doing later, I need some San time, if you know what I mean.' The parents begin to feel uncomfortable at the way youngest daughter is speaking but Brittany looked out of words.'Yeah, anyway.. call me back, I love you.'
"I guess listening back doesn't, actually prove anything." Santana states.
"It's cute. I sound... Happy." The blonde chuckles.
Santana walks towards Brittany getting rid of the space that was between them. She looks into those blue eyes and says what comes from her heart. "Think about it, you quit Law school. You broke of your engagement. You moved into the city. Those were all choices that you made before you even met me. I think that you owe it to yourself to honour those decisions, at least for right now."
"This is a mistake Brittany." Brittany mom adds.
"I promise I will look after her. Come home with me."
Brittany stares at Santana and back at the phone. She looks likes she's thinking and then finally puffs some air out.
She gives Santana a reassuring smile. "I guess I could try it out, to see it will help my memory. I could always come home if I change my mind. I married him, it must have been for some reason." The parents look like they're about to commit homicide at any given moment.
The quiet car ride to their home is interrupted by Brittany.
"Who's the president?"
Santana smiles internally and replies to her wife. "Of the country?"
"Yeah."
"Obama."
"The Senator?" She asks wide eyed.
"Yeah. You voted for him actually."
Brittany smiles at Santana even though to her, this car ride is with a complete stranger going some where she's never been before.