Santana's beloved Subaru breaks down right before it hits 200,000 miles and she's devastated. Her best friends Quinn and Puck, and her fiancée Brittany reminisce with her while they wait at the garage. Just for fun!
As far as Santana was concerned, by age 24 she had only ever made two really significant purchases in her life. One of them was the diamond engagement ring on Brittany's left hand. Sure, she'd had to beg for a sizeable loan from her parents…and a slightly smaller loan still from her best friend Quinn…and even had to open a Discover card to cover the balance…but she knew it had come the time she couldn't wait another day without putting a rock on Brittany's finger. The fact that she'd be spending half her life paying for the damn thing didn't seem to matter at all once Brittany said yes.
The other was Santana's other baby, her beloved jet black 2000 Subaru Impreza. She'd had it since she was 16, when she begged her older brother to give it to her instead of trading it in on a new one for himself. Santana loved everything about that car. The color, the rims he had put on it, the six disc CD changer, but most of all, she loved that Brittany loved it. Sure, it was older than the cars most of the kids at school drove, but she didn't care. So after a lot of convincing, and a lot of working in a hot restaurant dish room to front her brother the cash, he sold it to her in beautiful condition.
Yeah, the car was getting old. And after a few mishaps getting it started on cold days or having to replace parts here and there as they wore out, Brittany would try to convince Santana it was time for an upgrade.
"Come on, Sanny. We're engaged now, and I know we still have college debt and stuff…but we should be able to afford one car that we can share," she'd say, but Santana would never budge.
"Brit, I'm not going to have a car payment hanging over my head when we're just starting out. We have rent, we're trying to save for the wedding…" Santana would reply, and Brittany would drop it.
…
"Hey Brit, you ready?" Santana called from the kitchen of their cramped apartment. She munched on a granola bar as she waited for Brittany to finish washing up. They were going into town today to register for wedding gifts at Bed Bath and Beyond. Sure, they hadn't even found a house yet. But Santana was making good money these days working as an editor for a local newspaper and she figured it'd be a good idea to save some and just focus on the wedding until they knew exactly what they wanted.
Things had been pretty hectic since they picked a wedding date. It was a year from now, and while Santana thought that meant they had time to kick back and enjoy their engagement, apparently Brittany went into panic mode.
So a year away from the date, they already had a reception hall booked, a photographer, caterer and a DJ locked in place. At night they'd lay in bed and while Santana would read one of her books she'd be constantly interrupted by wedding questions.
"Chicken or fish? Lillies or roses? Band or DJ? Burgundy or seafoam bridesmaids' dresses? What should our first dance be? Are you even listening?" were just a few. Santana was getting good at this game, and always answered the same way.
"Anything you want, baby. As long as I'm married to you at the end of the night I'm happy," she'd reply with a smile, and it was one hundred percent true. She knew Brittany would plan one hell of a shindig all on her own, and the only things Santana really needed to give her input on involved the phrase 'open bar'.
"Yeah, I'm ready. You're taking me out to lunch right?" Brittany asked, slipping into her jacket.
"You are one high maintenance girlfriend, Brittany Pierce," Santana chuckled.
"Hey! I resent that. I am a high maintenance fiancée," she corrected her. Santana grabbed her own jacket, wrapping one arm around Brittany's waist and leading her out the door. They walked down the stairs of the apartment complex to the parking lot where Santana's car was parked. She stopped for a moment, licking her thumb and rubbing at a spot of dirt on the hood.
"Maybe one day you'll love me like that," Brittany smirked, earning a scoff and eyebrow arch from Santana.
"Don't be jealous baby, I rubbed you last night," she winked, finishing her handy work and walking over to the door to open it for Brittany.
"Besides, Sasha knows you're my number one girl," she continued, getting in on her own side.
"You're such a dork," Brittany chuckled.
"What? My brother named her, I just kept the name," she replied as she started driving.
…
"Santana, what do you think of these plates?" Brittany asked as she browsed through the dinnerware in the store. Santana was far too busy pretending the scanning device in her hand was an actual gun, aiming it at other customers when they weren't looking, acting like she was an undercover cop.
"Hey! This is your wedding too! So stop playing Charlie's Angels and come help me," Brittany ordered, and Santana scampered over to her.
"Okay, which ones do you like? The black and white or the white and green? I like them both, so you can pick," Brittany offered. Santana pointed her scanner at the green and white ones and pulled the trigger.
"Yay! I was hoping you'd pick them, we are so meant to be," Brittany cheered, kissing Santana's cheek. She smirked proudly and followed her fiancée.
"Oh, baby! We totally need this," Santana stopped in front of a snow cone maker.
"Snow cones? Sanny, nobody is going to buy us that. Come on, let's go look at sheets," Brittany replied.
"Somebody might buy it! Puck will buy it for me," Santana argued, scanning the item anyway.
"Probably. As long as he doesn't buy you a stripper for your bachelorette party, I guess you can have snow cones," Brittany agreed, pulling Santana away from the display.
"Yes! Don't worry baby, you'll appreciate it at the reception when I'm making Patron Cones," Santana chuckled.
"How many sets of sheets should we get, goofball?" Brittany asked.
"Knowing us…we'll need a new set every day," Santana replied, waggling her eyebrows. Brittany rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smirk that crawled upon her lips.
"Dork," was all she could say as she scanned three sets of sheets.
…
"Thanks for lunch, babe," Brittany commented as she munched a few fries out of her takeout box as Santana drove them home.
"You're welcome. What do you want to do when get back?" Santana asked.
"I have to check and see if our registry is up online yet! If it is I can finally start getting the invitations ready to go out," she commented.
"Right," she replied as she merged onto the highway. Soon after she got up to a desirable speed, the car started making popping sounds. Smoke poured from the engine. Santana's breath caught and she couldn't help but notice as she looked for some kind of sign on the dashboard that the mileage read 199,998.
"Oh God Sanny! Oh God!" Brittany panicked.
"Relax, it's okay!" Santana shouted back, equally as worried as she managed to edge the car over to the side of the road. She got out and popped the hood, coughing as the clouds of smoke hit her in the face. Once it cleared she looked at the engine closely, honestly having no clue what she was looking at.
"Brit…can you call for a tow truck?" she called to Brittany who was still in the car. She dialed the number on Santana's AAA card, but not before sending a text to their best friend Quinn
I think Sasha just kicked it…:(
….
Luckily, the tow truck driver knew of a Subaru dealership not too far from where they broke down, and Santana insisted that they take the car there. She wanted an expert, not some lube tech from a roadside garage to look at her baby.
So they sat in the waiting room and waited. Santana wished with all her might it'd be a simple fix, something that wouldn't break the bank.
"It'll be okay, baby," Brittany tried to assure her, patting her knee.
"Brit, I love that car. And we can't afford to fix it right now. Everything in my savings is earmarked for the wedding," she told her.
"How much could it possibly cost?" Brittany shrugged.
"She was almost at 200 thousand. Can you believe I've had her that long?" Santana replied.
"It has been a long time, San. There's nothing wrong with getting something new, though," she shrugged.
"I don't want something new. I want Sasha. She's always been so good to me. You know what, let's just be positive. It'll be alright. We'll just be patient," she decided as she got up to pour herself a cup of coffee.
"Brittany! Hey, is she alright?" Santana heard a familiar voice and turned around.
"Quinn? What the hell are you doing here?" Santana wondered.
"Hey. Brit text me. You alright?" she asked.
"Just, you know…car problems. It'll be alright. You came all the way out here cause my car broke down?" Santana asked, sipping her coffee.
"That car means a lot to you. Hell, it means a lot to all of us. You've had that car since we were kids," Quinn replied.
"You guys, it's just a car," Brittany cut in.
"A freakin sweet car, Brit. Don't act like you don't care that Sasha's in there getting gutted. You've had a lot of memories in that car, too," Santana pointed out.
"Yeah, I know…" she said.
"I still remember the first time I drove it…" Santana said dreamily as she stared out the window into the shop…
Read and review please! From here on out, each chapter will be a flashback unless I note otherwise. It's just something meant to be cute and humorous. Let me know what you think!