A/N: Thanks for all the alerts and favorites. Also, many thanks to Pezberrylover0612 and AnnaSicat for reviewing; I appreciate it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or it's characters. They belong to RIB
They had been driving for an hour and a half. It was 9:37 am and Brittany and Sugar had fallen asleep after eating all the snacks that Santana had bought. Quinn was wide awake, along with Santana and Rachel, due to the coffee. Rachel had her camera out and she was recording the trip and the sites, not that there was much sites, everything was pretty much grassland.
"It's 9:37 in the morning, and we are a few minutes away from exiting Ohio," Rachel said as she outstretched her arm and recorded herself. She had been entertaining herself with documenting anything she thought was interesting.
"Are you going to document the entire trip, Rachel?" Quinn asked as she leaned forward and rested her elbows on the center console.
"No, just bits of it," she pointed the camera at Quinn.
"I want my dads to be able to see what my vacation is like, so say hi to them," she continued.
"Hey Mr. Berrys, I hope you'll enjoy watching our adventures," Quinn said with a smile on her face and then leaned back her original spot on the seat. Santana had been finding it amusing when Rachel started to rant into the camera about anything she thought was interesting on the road.
"Baby, say hi to my dads," she told Santana while pointing the camera at her.
"Hi," she simply said with no emotion as she quickly turned to face the camera and then turned her attention back to the road. There wasn't any traffic, but they were driving behind an RV, so they were moving pretty slow. There were two lanes on the road but one was closed due to construction, so they couldn't just go around the RV.
"Santana! You have to be more enthusiastic when you're on camera." Rachel whined as she shut it off and put it in the glove compartment.
She turned to give Rachel an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated. This fucking RV is moving way to slow." She honked a couple times which probably pissed of the RV driver because it began to move even more slower than it already was. Quinn started to laugh at Santana's failed attempt to make the driver go faster.
"Way to go San, honk again, maybe it will stop in the middle of the road for you." Quinn managed to say in between laughs.
"Shut up, Fabr-" "San, pull over!" Rachel squealed with excitement interrupting Santana. "What? Why? What happened?" Santana asked quickly steering the wheel so she was now driving on the shoulder, she stopped the car and looked in her rearview mirror to see that Mike and Puck had also pulled over. She saw MIke running getting out of the car and jogging up to Santana's window. She rolled down her window just as Puck stopped running and stood behind Mike.
"Why'd you stop are you ok?" Mike asked looking in through the window at the back seat making sure everyone was okay. Brittany and Sugar had woken up due to Rachel's squeal.
"Did we crash?" Brittany asked still half asleep.
"No Brittany and nothing's wrong," Rachel quickly said getting out of the car after retrieving her camera from the compartment.
"Why did we stop?" Sugar asked while opening her door and getting out after Quinn nudged her with her elbow implying that she wanted to get out too.
"Look! This is why." Rachel excitedly pointed at the sign that read Welcome to Indiana. Santana had already gotten out of the car and was now leaning on the hood of her car staring at Rachel lovingly.
"What's so special about it?" Puck asked while looking at the sign in disgust; he didn't finding that interesting. It was faded and rusty from the rain.
"We are officially out of Ohio and I wanted to take a picture," Rachel raised her camera and then handed to Quinn before walking over to Santana and extending her hand out for her to take.
Santana grabbed her hand and pushed off of the car. She gave Rachel a chaste kiss on the lips just as Quinn snapped a picture of the two of them with the Indiana sign in the background. She took a few more after Rachel insisted on having different poses. By this time everyone was out of the cars and had walked over to see what was happening, Finn and Sam were carrying Artie since they didn't want to bother to take out the wheelchair. They set him down on the hood of car.
"Oh good, now we can get a group shot" Rachel excitedly said as soon as she saw that everyone had gathered around Santana's car.
"Really Rachel, we stopped for you to take a picture?" Mercedes asked annoyed.
"I think it's a great idea!" Tina stepped forward and stood next to Rachel ready for a picture. Soon everyone gathered around Rachel. Sam and Finn again carried Artie so that he could be in the picture as well. They didn't have a tripod so Quinn stepped back a few feet and set the camera on the ground tilting it back and holding it steady with a rock so that it the entire group plus the sign could be in the shot. She set the timer and quickly ran to join the group. The camera started beeping, indicating that it was about to take it.
"Say Indiana!" Rachel screamed. Despite the annoyed grunts almost everyone said 'Indiana' and the flash went off. Rachel ran to grab the camera off the floor and looked at the picture.
"It looks great! Thank you Quinn," she said happily.
"Alright, so we all set?" Mike asked from where he was still hugging Tina.
"Yes," was Rachel's response and everyone scattered from the position they had still been in, in case Rachel wanted to take another photo.
They all walked back to the car they had been riding on. Puck honked and then Mike honk to indicate they were ready. Santana turned on her left signal light and got back on the road. Rachel was still admiring the picture.
"It's amazing" she said while shutting it off again and putting it back in the compartment.
"You're amazing," Santana told her lovingly. She found it adorable how thrilled Rachel got just to take a picture on a sign. It was one of the things she loved about her; the way she lit up when she was excited. Rachel grinned and then leaned in over the console with her lips puckered, Santana turned around to give her a quick peck on the lips.
"Can you watch the road please?" Quinn told Santana annoyed. She didn't have a problem with their relationship or even them kissing, just the fact that they could crash if Santana kept looking away from the road.
"Are we going to stop everytime we enter a new state?" Brittany curiously asked Rachel. She had her head resting on the window with her eyes closed trying to fall back asleep. She didn't want to be woken up to the sound of Rachel screaming again.
"Yes, but i'll try to remain calm, I'm sorry for waking you guys," she said apologetically to both Sugar and Brittany. Sugar too had her head resting on the window with her eyes closed.
"It's okay, just maybe a warning next time, please" Sugar told her.
"Duly noted," Rachel told her and then turned back to look at Santana who still had a smile on her face amused at what had just happened. She let our a chuckle before asking both Rachel and Quinn
"You know what the great part about stopping was?" Rachel smiled hugged thinking that maybe it had something to due with her.
"That you got to take a picture with me?" she asked confidently. Quinn just laughed already catching on to what Santana was talking about.
"Well, yeah, that too, but I was talking about not having to drive behind the slow ass RV." They all bursted out laughing. This trip was turning out to be great already.
An hour and fifteen minutes later they were about to pass Indianapolis but Quinn spoke up.
"San, can you take the next exit, I'm starving. Except for the coffee I haven't eaten anything and I need to pee," she said leaning forward and giving Santana a pleading look. Brittany had woken up a little while ago, so she also added an "I need to pee, too." She pouted her lips, which she knew Santana couldn't resist.
"Alright, I'll take the next exit, but call Mike and Puck to tell them so they don't think something's wrong again."
Brittany got her phone out and looked through her contacts, she decided to call Tina, who was most likely seated up front with Mike. When she answered, Brittany told her they were stopping to eat and use the restroom. Tina told her that she was just about to call to say the same thing. Quinn had called Finn and told him the same thing. He said agreed, saying that he had also skipped breakfast and didn't get anything when they had stopped at the gas station.
They didn't want any gas station food so they pulled into a fast-food restaurant. It was pretty empty so they didn't have to wait in a long line to order. While they waited for their orders to be ready they used the time to go into the bathroom. They decided on eating there instead on the drive. They all took up the majority of the restaurants back corner. Everyone was enjoying eating their hamburgers, except for Rachel and Sugar, who had gotten salads.
"So Rachel, are we going to have to stop everytime we're about to enter a new state?" Sam asked in between bites of his burger. Everyone turned to look at Rachel waiting for an answer.
"Yes, I'm documenting the trip for my dads,so I want to get as many pictures as possible," she said with a smile on her face.
"Alright, maybe, just text or call before we pull over though," Finn said while stuffing his face with fries and then taking a sip of his drink. They spent the rest of their lunchtime just talking and sharing ideas of what to do once they got to California and how excited they were. Once everyone was finished they got back in their car and back on the road.
"I'm stuffed," Quinn said while holding her stomach. "I probably shouldn't have asked for extra bacon on my burger."
"Food makes me sleepy," Brittany quietly said resting her head on Quinn's shoulder and closing her eyes. Sugar was already resting against the window again, she made it clear when they had first gotten on the road that she got a little car sick so she would be sleeping for most of the trip.
"I think I'm going to take a nap too" Rachel said while reaching to grab Santana's hand off the steering wheel and intertwined their fingers together. Santana gave her a confused look causing Rachel to just simply smile and say "I sleep better knowing you're here with me." Santana grinned and brought their intertwined hands to her lips kissing the back of Rachel's hand before setting it in Rachel's lap. She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes.
Twenty minutes later found Brittany, Sugar, and Rachel all sound asleep. It was just Quinn and Santana listening to the music that was softly playing on the radio. Quinn noticed that Santana seemed to be lost in thought. She was really quiet and had a serious look on her face.
"What are you thinking about?" Quinn finally asked her after noticing that Santana hadn't really blinked in the last couple seconds.
"Nothing," she simply answered breaking out of her thoughts and looking at Quinn through the rearview mirror.
"Something seems to be bugging you," Quinn kept pushing.
Santana seemed to think about it for a moment before finally releasing a heavy sigh. "Nothing is really bothering me, it's just…." she trailed off giving another look at Quinn through the mirror. She saw the worry in her face and so she decided that she might as well just tell her; she was her best friend after all.
"Ok, I'm telling you only because I can't keep it in, and it's for your ears only, got it?" she turned to look at Quinn to point of how serious she was about what she was about to say. Quinn's face turned into one of horror.
"Now I'm scared as to what you have to say, you didn't like kill anyone right?" Quinn asked leaning forward to whisper at Santana even though no one else was awake to hear her.
"What?No, why would you even..what's wrong with you?" Santana looked appalled that her friend would think she would actually kill someone. She shook her head in disbelieve she thought Quinn was being ridiculous.
"Sorry," Quinn quietly said.
"So what is it?" Santana took a deep breath before letting it out. She felt calmer and more relaxed.
"I'm…I'm going to ask Rachel to marry me," she said with a low voice but Quinn was still able to hear it. As soon as she did her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth to hide a squeal, she didn't want to wake the other girls up and ruin the surprise.
"When?In California?Do you have the ring already?Do her parents know?Have you guys ever talked about marriage, I mean you're only eighteen," she kept shooting out question after question without letting Santana answer them.
"Q, calm down. Yes in California. I do have the ring, I'm carrying it in my pocket, i don't want to risk her finding it," she quietly said again looking over at Rachel to make sure she hadn't woken up due to Quinn's rant of questions. She was still sleeping. She was glad she had someone else to talk to about this, she was having second thoughts about it, so right now she was really looking for some sort of great advice from her best friend. She wanted to hear that she wasn't crazy and that this was the right thing. She had been with Rachel for three years now and they have talked about marriage a couple of times. She was broken out of her thoughts by Quinn's voice again.
"What about Hiram and Leroy?" she asked.
"I talked to them about it before we left," she started to get lost in thought again about the conversation she had with them, but Quinn interrupted her thoughts.
"And?" she asked way to eagerly. Santana paused for a while only to piss off her friend knowing Quinn was dying to know what Rachel's dad had thought about the idea. "Santana, answer me?" she kept insisting getting really impatient after Santana remained quiet for a while.
"I got their permission," she answered while grinning widely to show how happy she was.
"Can I see the ring?" Quinn kept asking questions. It didn't irritate Santana she was just hoping her friend would tell her this was a good ideas and that she wasn't making a mistake. She guessed she should have expected all these questions.
"I would show it to you, but my hands are occupied," she answered pointing with her chin at her right hand that was still intertwined with Rachel and then to her hand on the wheel. Before she knew what was happening she felt Quinn's hand in her right pocket. It startled her and she flinched accidentally swerving the car into the next lane where there had been a car in her blind spot. The car honked at her and she quickly turned the wheel to get back into her lane before she could hit the other car. Unfortunately the action and the honking woke up the girls who were sleeping.
"Dammit, Q!" Santana screamed at her friend, luckily the ring was in her left pocket otherwise Rachel would have been woken up to see Quinn holding the ring.
"What happened?" Sugar and Rachel asked at the same time. Santana's phone went off she looked at it quickly to see that it was Puck.
"Baby, can you get that, put it on speaker. I don't want to cause another almost accident." she said with her teeth clenched while looking at Quinn with a glare through the mirror. Rachel quickly grabbed her phone, answered it, and clicked the speaker button.
"What are you drunk, Lopez, what the hell was that?" he asked while laughing but then his voice turned serious again. "Are you guys alright?" Brittany was also on the phone with Tina who had called her to ask what happened and if they were okay.
"Yeah, we're fine. I was momentarily distracted," she told Puck with an angry tone shooting another glare at Quinn through the rearview mirror. Quinn looked apologetic.
"Noah, you shouldn't be on the phone while driving," Rachel spoke up.
"Relax, my jewish princess, I'm a much better driver than S, and I have you guys on speaker phone," he said with confidence. "Okay, but be careful," she told him.
Puck started laughing before he answered, "maybe you should tell that to Santana." They could hear Sam, Finn, and Blaine laughing in the background.
"Bye, Puckerman," Santana again said angrily, she snatched the phone from Rachel, ended the call, and threw it back into the center console. Rachel looked hurt by Santana's actions specifically the way she snatched the phone from her hand. She felt Santana shouldn't be taken her anger out on her, she wasn't even awake when the whole situation occurred. Quinn was just sitting back looking worried that Santana might lash out at her at any moment now.
"San, there's no reason to take your anger out on me, I didn't do anything," Rachel told her in a sad tone. Santana just kept glaring at Quinn, who kept shrinking back in her seat. Santana just remained quiet out of fear that if she spoke, she might say something hurtful to Rachel and make the situation worse. They fell into a very uncomfortable silence. Tension was building and everyone could feel it. Not even Brittany who usually lighten up the mood felt like saying anything she just kept looking at Sugar who had the same confused look on her face.
After 15 minutes of silence Quinn finally had the courage to speak up.
"I'm sorry, S." It was whispered but everyone heard it. Brittany and Sugar both turned to look at her waiting to see what else she would say. "I just got overly excited, I just really wanted to see what it looked liked," she thought she was making it better but she was only making it worse, now they others were going to want to know what they were talking about.
"Excited about what?" Brittany asked innocently. And there it was.
"Q, just shut up will you, a fucking warning would have been nice," Santana snapped. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel already feeling her anger rise again.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking," usually if Santana would scream at her she would yell back, but she knew this was her fault. She felt really guilty.
"Clearly," Santana told her annoyed and with a roll of her eyes. And just like that the car fell back into more uncomfortable silence. Santana was more scared of the incident than she was mad about it. They were on an interstate, where the speed of the cars was fast. When she swerved out of the lane, if the car would have hit her, it would have been done with much force to make the car spin and then Mike probably would have not had time to stop and also hit her. It all could have ended badly and that's what she was scared of, the 'what if.' Well this road trip took a bad turn somewhere and was not so amazing now.
Half an hour later, signs were beginning to appear on the road that they were exiting Indiana.
"Rachel, the Illinois sign is up ahead," Sugar spoke up, pointing at it.
"I'll pull over," Santana had calmed down a while ago. But no one had said anything up until now, not knowing if Santana was still angry or not. She turned on her right signal light to let Mike know she was pulling over. Mike's signal light went turned on, too, which let Puck know too. They all pulled over and everyone got out of the car. They stretched before walking to stand under the sign. Quinn again angled the camera on the ground. Santana put her arms around Rachel, who quickly go out of the embrace and walked over to stand next to Sam and Finn, who were again carrying Artie. Santana just stood there shocked as to why Rachel would walk away from her. Quinn had already ran back and the picture flash went off when everyone screamed 'Illinois.' Santana was broken out of her thoughts by everyone walking back to their cars. She quickly grabbed Rachel's arm before she could get into the passenger seat and guided her a few feet away so that they could have some privacy.
"What was that about?" Santana asked her once they were out of ear shot.
"I'm mad at you," was Rachel's simple reply before she yanked her arm out of Santana's hold and began to walk back to the car. She didn't get far before Santana grabbed her again and turned her around to face her. She locked her arms around Rachel's waist to keep her front breaking free. Rachel's just had her arms crossed over her chest.
"Even if I do this.." Santana asked her while leaning forward to capture Rachel's lips with her. Rachel hesitated for a moment, feeling Santana's lips on hers and then she quickly moved her head to break the kiss.
"Yes," she said seriously, "you were unnecessarily rude to me." Santana just tightened her hold on Rachel and nuzzled her neck.
"I'm sorry" she mumbled against her neck causing Rachel to giggle.
"I was just pissed off at Q, and I took it out on you, I'm sorry," she said into Rachel's neck. Rachel just smiled, all she wanted since Santana snatched the phone away was an apology and she finally got one.
"Look at me," she told Santana. Rachel cupped her face in her palms and kissed her. "You're forgiven," she said brushing her lips against Santana's before kissing her again. They broke out of the kiss due to the honking coming from Puck's car and some cat whistles coming from Sam, who had his head stuck out of the back window.
"You're so whipped, Lopez!" Puck shouted to her as he to had his head out the window of his driver seat.
"Watch it, Puckerman, before I go over there and go all Lima Heights on you!" she shouted back while walking back to her car and opening the passenger door to let Rachel in.
"I don't think that's possible, since you've gotten all soft!" Puck just continued to instigate. Santana made to walk over there with a glare which only cause Puck to look frightened, "sorry," he quickly shouted before sticking his head back in the car. Santana just laughed and walked around to the driver's side and got in. She pulled back into the road.
Quinn had been negotiating whether to apologize to Santana again or not.
"San, are you still mad?" Brittany asked her. Quinn was thankful that Brittany understood people, she probably sensed that Quinn wanted to say something.
"No B, I wasn't mad I just…I freaked out. Q, I'm sorry okay?" She said giving her an honest look through the mirror.
"Why did we almost crash? What did Quinn wan't to see?" Rachel asked curious looking at Santana and then a turning back to look at Quinn. They both had panic written on their face.
"It was nothing," Santana quickly said before Quinn could say anything that was going to make it worst.
"Santana, we didn't almost crash because of nothing, what was it?" Rachel asked she had that determined look on her face, she wanted answers, but Santana couldn't tell her now.
"Can we just drop the subject, please?" she asked not wanting to make up an excuse for what it was and not wanting to get Rachel mad again.
"Fine, I'll stop asking, but I'm not forgetting about it," she said crossing her arms over her chest and looking forward. Santana just chuckled at how cute Rachel got when she was pretending to be mad at her. This was one interesting trip already and they've only been on the road for a little less than five hours.
A/N: Hope you liked it, reviews will be greatly appreciated. I'm writing this story as i go, so I'm open to suggestions. Let me know what you guys want to see. It's a Pezberry story so I'm keeping the story from the view of the girls car, but if you guys want i can write about what's happening in Puck's or Mike's car. Let me know. Also, Quinn and Santana will finish up their conversation in the next chapter.