Twinkling yellow lights and the dark mass of trees behind a wall of quickly becoming white cars were what met Santana's eyes the second she jumped out of Puck's truck. Barely remembering to grab her coat before it fell to the icy ground, she looked left and right as she scanned the tree farm. Rachel had said she was near the back of the lot, but with the way the lot was set up, that meant… The right.

"Are you here?"

Santana nodded gravely, striding quickly past the greeter and around small groups of families and the trees they were judging, "Just got here." The snow had let up some, but it was still constant, and Santana, if she was honest, was incredibly grateful she had forced Puck to stay in his truck to keep it running. "Tell me again," she tried to lighten her voice, coming upon the back, her heart rate picking up as she started scanning for Rachel's form, "Why you stayed in the back?"

Rachel's response was muffled, and Santana caught it both from her phone and the edge of awareness of her hearing, "I thought it would be best."

Santana smiled sadly, turning her phone off. Going to stash it in her jacket, she realized she wasn't wearing it yet, so she just kept a firm grip of it in her fist. "Rache?" she called softly, "I'm here."

A small dark figure with bright hat stepped from behind a tree, and the stray thought it was like a snow fairy melting into existence crossed Santana's mind before a sudden wave of uncertainty washed it away. "Rache," she repeated, barely able to meet the girl's eyes as she slowly started forward.

When Rachel didn't answer, Santana finally felt her composure cracking. Pressure grew behind her eyes, and she stopped, the leather of her jacket creaking in her tightening grip; she should really be putting it on, but she just… Couldn't.

God… Knowing how deeply the smaller girl felt things, Santana hoped the overwhelming fear pressing in on her wasn't warranted.

Rachel raised her head. Pulling the scarf she had wrapped around her mouth down, her eyes were big and red and shimmery. She swallowed. "You came."

Santana nodded.

Dragging in a deep breath, Rachel slumped. "San," she took a couple of staggering steps, and Santana caught her. Freezing, holding Rachel's sides, her phone and jacket caught in between, Rachel's hands splayed out on her biceps, they stared at each other.

When Rachel made to step back, Santana suddenly found herself pulling her in. Sliding around so one arm was around Rachel's shoulders, tucking her under it, she whispered, "C'mon, let's get you into Puck's truck. It's warm there."

Assuming Rachel nodded, Santana sighed and turned them back in the way she had come. She was getting cold, but she knew if she let Rachel go to put her jacket on, reality would set in.

Snow crunched under their feet. Santana chewed on the inside of her cheek. She slanted her eyes in Rachel's direction. "What happened?"

Rachel didn't answer, and all Santana could see was the dark of her hair sticking wetly to her face. The uncomfortable feeling in her stomach pulsed and moved up her chest. "Rache," she whispered, taking a chance to stop even if it was getting colder and colder; squeezing Rachel's shoulder, she glanced down at her hand holding her jacket, and flicked it over her shoulder. Barely waiting to see if it would stay, she slid her now free hand around Rachel's side and pulled her around, slipping up to gently nudge her chin in her direction. "Rache, sweetie," she pushed out before she could recognize what she was saying, fighting not to close her eye against the wind and snow she'd turned herself towards, "What happened?"

Rachel did not look pretty. Her eyes were red, her nose and cheeks red as well with the cold and wind chill. Tears and snow had combined on her cheeks to look like it was a step away from freezing.

Averting her gaze, Rachel's lips twisted. "…Can we leave?" she whispered, hollow and almost pleading. When she looked back at Santana, the tears started flowing again.

Staring at her, a giant shiver broke through Santana's tensed muscles, and she took a breath. "Only if you tell me. Tonight. You don't have to tell Puck, but," she stressed, firming her voice, "You will tell me. No question."

Finally, Rachel nodded.

Shivering again, and stroking her thumb along Rachel's chin before dropping her hand and pulling her jacket back into it, Santana almost crushed Rachel back into her side and plowed back towards the front of the farm. Even though she normally loved the smell of pine trees and enjoyed bright Christmas lights and Styrofoam crunch of the snow underfoot, she just wanted to get out of there. Her heart still beat hard from fear for Rachel, from fear of what had happened, from fear of the total suspension of disbelief she had to be under to be able to ignore reality and justify acting this way… From fear of how long that justification would last.

But first, she pulled open the door to Puck's truck and almost lifted Rachel into it, pushing her into the back seat and clambering after, directing Puck to get fucking going already, she had to get Rachel to stop crying again.