Omg thank you guys so much for all the reviews and favs and stuff! lol i opened my inbox this morning and had like 30 emails. I totally forgot to tell everyone this in the last chapter, but this takes place around Original Song. Brittany is still dating Artie. I've got Santana dating Sam because I'm not really sure what episode she breaks up with him, but i know it's before Born this Way, you know, because of Karofsky. I don't think they ever showed when they broke up...anyway, well, hope you enjoy!

Ugh. Why the hell_is it so damn_bright in here? [A/N: ok, the reason theres a dash between the swears and the word next to it is because my computer's stupid and automatically bleeps out curse words. This is my loophole. Sorry.] Santana thought groggily. Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was greeted by a blinding amount of sunlight shining in through her bedroom window and a dull ache in her stomach. What the hell_happened last night? Obviously, she was in her room, but she honestly had no idea what had happened the night before or why her stomach was hurting.

Her eyes squinted as she slowly started to sit up from her bed, only to be stopped as a wave of pain shot through her abdomen. It was then that she remembered the events of the previous night. How she had come down the stairs, only to be greeted by her extremely strong, drunk father. How he had called her a worthless piece of shit_and said it was her fault that her mother had left. How he had beaten the living shit_out of her and then just left her there, at the bottom of the stairs.

To be honest, Santana wasn't sure what hurt her more; the punches to her stomach or the words said directly before. Her father had always been so kind and loving; how had that changed so much in the course of two weeks? The only thing that Santana had seen in her father's eyes the night before were hatred and anger. Of course, she understood that he would be angry that his wife just left him for no apparent reason, but that did not give him an excuse to beat his own daughter.

Santana was just as angry and upset that her mother had abandoned them. She needed her mother, especially after what she had been going through over the past two weeks; she had realized that she loved Brittany and had told her, only to be promptly turned down because of Wheels. The main thing that Santana needed at the moment was someone to hold her and tell her everything would be okay. She knew that her mom would do just that without pressuring her for answers. Santana loved her mom, but apparently that wasn't good enough.

Without realizing it, she felt the tears start to slide down her face and onto her lap as she sat on the edge of her bed. Looking down, she saw her phone lying next to her pillow. She reached over and turned it on.

12 New Messages: Britt (5), Sam (4), Quinn (2), Puck (1)

7 Missed Calls: Britt (4), Sam (3)

3 New Voicemails: Britt (2), Sam (1)

Damn_it. I never called any of them last night. I told them that I would be there. Unlocking her phone, she scrolled down to Brittany's name on her contacts' list. Her finger hovered over the name for a moment, trying to figure out what to tell Brittany. She couldn't tell her what happened. Brittany would freak out and then try to come over. No, there was no way Brittany was coming to Santana's house with her father around. There was no way Santana was going to risk Brittany getting hurt by her father.

-sorry B. i fell asleep while watchin tv last night. guess i didnt hear my phone ring. i was pretty tired. –S.

Santana nodded her head in approval of the rather convincing lie. She just hoped that Brittany would buy it. Knowing Brittany, she would. But Santana couldn't help but feel guilty for lying to her best friend. That is, until she thought about what would happen if she did tell Brittany what had happened. A shudder ran through her body as she thought of Brittany being hurt. No, she couldn't let that happen.

Slowly, she stood up off of her bed. The pain in her stomach was less than it had been the night before, but it still hurt quite a bit. At least now she was able to stand without needing to hold onto something for support. Gingerly, Santana reached down and pulled her shirt up slightly, just enough to see her lower stomach. She muttered a curse as she saw that the exposed skin was littered with dark purple bruises. Letting her shirt fall, she made her way to the bathroom.

As Santana looked at the reflection in the mirror, she wasn't entirely shocked to see that she looked terrible. She looked better than she felt, anyway. There was a faint blue bruise on her left cheek. Her hair was a complete mess and the make-up on her face was ruined. The dark tank top she was wearing revealed a large, handprint shaped bruise on her upper left arm.

Santana gazed at her reflection, momentarily thinking, What the hell_am I going to do now?

Brittany was extremely worried now. She had already sent Santana five texts, called her four times and left two voicemails, but she still hadn't gotten any sort of reply. Santana rarely went long periods of time without at least texting Brittany unless something was wrong. Also, she had said that she was going to be at Puck's party last night, but had never showed up or let anyone know otherwise.

The blonde had waited for Santana to show up until everyone had either left or passed out. By that time, it was already almost two o'clock in the morning. She had thought about going over to Santana's house to see if she was there, but decided against it when Rachel almost puked on her and she offered to give her a ride (she was the designated driver.) But now that it was the morning and she had no drunken divas to attend to, she considered going to check on Santana.

Checking her phone one last time to see if there were any messages from Santana (there weren't), Brittany climbed out of bed and started to get dressed. Twenty minutes later and several tries later, she finally was able to put her shoes on the right feet. She smiled in triumph and went to grab her purse from beside her bed. Her smile disappeared when she heard the familiar buzz of her phone receiving a text. Turning around, she dropped her purse and picked up the phone from her bed.

Santana (8:34 AM)

- sorry B. i fell asleep while watchin tv last night. guess i didnt hear my phone ring. i was pretty tired. –S.

Brittany didn't think she had ever felt more relieved in her life. Santana was fine; she had just fallen asleep early. Quickly, Brittany typed out her reply.

-o ok :) i was worried but ur ok, so im not anymore. can i come over? –B.

She sat back down on her bed, waiting for Santana to text her back. I don't know if she told any of the others. They're probably worried too. Quinn was a little worried last night, I think, Brittany thought to herself. Just in case, she typed out a quick text to Quinn, Puck and Sam, all of whom had noticed Santana's absence from the party last night. She doubted any of them would be awake to see it, considering Puck had passed out half way through spin the bottle last night, Sam never got out of bed before eleven on the weekends, and Quinn was either still asleep or just now starting to nurse the horrible hangover that was about to come her way. Sam barely drank anything at the party the previous night, also worried about Santana, so he would be spared from the vicious hangover that was about to loom over the rest of the glee members' heads.

Brittany was pulled from her thoughts by the faint buzz of her cell phone. She flicked it open and read the message.

Santana (8:48 AM)

-no, my dad's still asleep-S.

The blonde frowned. Santana's father being asleep had never stopped Brittany from coming over before. What was it different now?

-um, ok…do u wanna meet up at lima bean?-B.

There was no way Santana could turn down coffee from Lima Bean. She practically lived and breathed that stuff.

Santana (8:51 AM)

-no ive got a lot of homework to do. c u 2morrow.-S.

What? Santana never did her homework, at least not on the weekends. She would get it done at school, during class or her free periods and finish it when she got home from school on Friday afternoons so that she didn't have to deal with it for the rest of the weekend. Brittany knew this because she was always with Santana, or at least she had been up until the past two weeks. Santana had been keeping her distance from Brittany ever since they had talked at Brittany's locker after they sang Landslide with Ms. Holiday. Brittany knew why, but that didn't make it any easier. She missed her best friend.

-o. ok. c u 2morrow-B.

What did you guys think? Any suggestions or comments or corrections? Anything? Well, R&R please! I'll try to update every day, but no promises though. Sorry about the swear-slash thing. My computer is insanely stupid and annoying. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Review, and you get more Brittana ;) BRITTANA FTW! lol