Santana, dressed in her pajamas, sat up in bed reading. She was having a tough time dealing with the fact that her mother was interested in her personal life. Her feelings. Her Brittany. This was getting all too weird and uncomfortable for Santana. So she tried to lose herself in her book.

Mrs. Lopez turned off the TV in the living room and called her husband. They always had a nightly chat when he was away on business. But tonight, she needed to talk to him about Santana.

"Hi baby," Dr. Lopez happily greeted.

"Hi there," Mrs. Lopez replied. "How's the conference?"

"Oh you know, plenty of boring presentations, but it's nice to catch up with some long distance colleagues though," Dr. Lopez said. "How's things at home? Santana sulking and scowling through her grounding?" Dr. Lopez asked with a chuckle.

Mrs. Lopez sighed, "Actually no. She came home in a great mood today. Got an A on her history test, and she was overall good," Mrs. Lopez explained.

"I hear a 'but' coming," Dr. Lopez replied.

"Yeah, well, I think Santana's going through some…adjustments…to being out," Mrs. Lopez sighed.

"How so? Did something happen at school? Bullying?" Dr. Lopez ask with concern.

"No nothing like that, well, at least, I don't think so. I think it has to do with us. Or herself actually. Santana, as you know, is not exactly one to open up and talk about her feelings, or her personal life,"

"That's putting it mildly," Dr. Lopez interjected.

"Yes, well, I think she's working on getting comfortable with herself, and that means being comfortable with us and her dating Brittany, and us knowing about it, and well…she saw me watching a program on TV tonight about gay teens and bullying and, she tried to hide it, but she looked like a deer caught in headlights. So afraid of me, me knowing about her. I…I dunno. It's just awkward," Mrs. Lopez resigned.

"Oh baby, look. One, she's a teenager, so she's just one big confused hormone bomb to begin with. Two, since she's Santana, she has to put this front up that everything is okay even when it's not. You know that. AND you caught her and Brittany all naked and post-sex in the house. So, you know, awkwardness is piled up on top of awkwardness for her right now," Dr. Lopez reasoned.

"And me. I really want to erase that image out of my head. I really do. She's my little girl," Mrs. Lopez whined.

"Better you than me to discover that scene, because even though I think Brittany is a sweet girl, who's good for Santana, I'd rather my little girl be locked away in a convent than know about her love life," Mr. Lopez sighed. "And look baby, I think you should talk to Santana. Really. You're much better at the emotional stuff. I'm too clinical and my eye-contact is hardly better than our daughter's, so I know you'll be much better, and in the end, much more appreciated than me."

Mrs. Lopez nodded in agreement with her husband, "I know. I just don't know what to say. How to start, you know?"

"Start with the gay teen bullying thing, or start with Brittany or start with her coming out to us and just do a 'check-up' with her," Dr. Lopez advised.

"You mean 'check-in' with her," Mrs. Lopez clarified dryly.

"Yes, of course. You know, I'm in doctor mode," Dr. Lopez laughed. "Anyway, you are her mother. No matter what Santana says, or how uncomfortable she gets, your opinion matters to her. If it didn't, she wouldn't have almost passed out coming out to us last month, and she would have told us a LOT sooner about her and Brittany."

"True," Mrs. Lopez agreed. "Alright baby, I'll let you go. I'm going to face the music and try to start something…anything with her."

"Good luck and I know you'll be great. No matter what," Dr. Lopez encouraged.

"Thanks. Goodnight. I love you," Mrs. Lopez replied.

"Love you too," Dr. Lopez hung up the phone.

/

Santana heard light footsteps come up the stairs and stop at her door. Outside, Mrs. Lopez took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She lightly knocked, and held her breath again, waiting for a reply.

Santana's eyes didn't leave the page she was reading. She felt semi-paralyzed, not knowing what her mother's intentions were on the other side of the door. Sadly, Santana decided, ignoring her wouldn't make her go away.

Mrs. Lopez heard a soft, "Come in" from the other side of the door. She smiled to herself. Step one accomplished.

Santana watched the brass doorknob turn and raised her gaze to meet her mother's peaking through the door. Her mother had a hesitant, but kind look to her face at that moment. Santana smiled back, then realized that was her mother's "Want to talk about it?" face. Shit. Santana's face fell a bit.

"What's up Mama?" Santana asked, trying to sound casual, but the crack in her voice gave her away.

"Hay honey, I was just checking in," Mrs. Lopez said sweetly and softly. She noticed Santana reading a Harry Potter book and sighed. Santana read those when she needed some comfort.

"I told you I was fine Mama. I just fell on my ass," Santana tried to dismiss her.

"I wasn't checking in on your backside. I was checking in on you. You looked…upset about what I was watching on TV," Mrs. Lopez walked closer to the bed. "May I sit?"

Santana looked up from her book at her mother, and nodded for her to sit. Santana's eyes immediately went back to her book, and sucked her bottom lip into her mouth.

"Are you having a tough time at school, with…people knowing?" Mrs. Lopez gently prodded.

Santana didn't look up from her book, but let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "No Mama," Santana replied.

Mrs. Lopez sat in silence, and waited. She knew there was more.

Santana shifted her legs under the sheets. This not talking thing was rivaling talking when it came to her level of discomfort. "Not really Mama," Santana continued. "There was some stuff, when the ad aired, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle," Santana admitted, and squirmed a bit more, still staring at the same page in her book.

"What kind of stuff?" Mrs. Lopez prodded.

Santana sighed, "Typical stupid guy stuff. Offering to 'straighten me out'," Santana admitted. "But Britt and the girls were right there for me and put him in his place," Santana smirked a bit remembering.

"You have good friends, don't you?" Mrs. Lopez commented.

"Yeah," Santana agreed. "They look out for me." Santana looked at her mother, trying to recover from the 'weak' confession. "Not that I need that, because honest Mama, I'm doing fine. Really. I'm good," Santana quickly added.

Mrs. Lopez smiled, "So, from what I'm getting, you're not being bullied, aside from the whole political ad debacle, and you have good friends."

"Yep. That about sums it up," Santana says with finality. Santana hopes this conversation has now satisfied her mother's sudden need to "mother" her.

"Something's still bothering you," Mrs. Lopez pushed. "I can tell."

Santana cocked an eyebrow and looked up at her mother. "Really Mama? You're going there, are you?"

"Yep," Mrs. Lopez stated plainly.

Santana resigned. "I don't like people knowing my personal business. And that's shot now that I was outed. So yeah..."

Mrs. Lopez nodded and played with the comforter threads. "You lost control. You lost control of the one thing you could control. You weren't ready."

Santana nodded. Her eyes stung with tears.

Mrs. Lopez scooted up the bed next to her daughter, set her book aside and enveloped Santana in a warm, firm hug.

Mrs. Lopez whispered in her ear, "I love you Santana. So much. Your father and I both do. And what you can control now, is not how others see you, but how you see yourself."

Santana nodded into her mother's shoulder, sniffling.

Mrs. Lopez pulled back and cradled her daughter's face in her hands, rubbing a tear away with her thumb.

"How's Brittany doing with all of this?" Mrs. Lopez asked.

Santana chuckled, "Britt never cared what other people think, and she never thought it was weird to like girls. She's Britt, you know? So, she's all good with herself and me and people knowing. She's wanted people to know for a long time," Santana admitted.

Mrs. Lopez made a mental note to herself to ask later, "How long is a long time?

"Sounds like Brittany. And it sounds like she can teach you something about worrying about what people think. I'll tell you this much. You can worry about what people think. Just make sure they're the people that really matter."

With that, Mrs. Lopez kissed her daughters forehead and gave her another hug. She got up and walked to the door.

"Mama?" Santana called after her.

Mrs. Lopez turned to face Santana.

"Thanks…for…um…thanks," Santana half-smiled.

Mrs. Lopez's heart swelled.

"Of course, sweetheart. Anytime," Mrs. Lopez smiled and turned back to leave.

"And by anytime, I really mean, we're going to talk like this more. Fair warning," Mrs. Lopez threw Santana a raised eyebrow and a smirk, and shut the door.

Santana dropped her head back against the headboard, defeated. Closed her eyes, and allowed herself a little smile.