Chapter 2

She pulled into the driveway, and got out of her car, THIS is my car? feeling as lost as she had ever felt. As she moved to help her mother unload her vehicle the girl she recalled was Violet burst out of the doors and dove at her, hugging her around the leg in a vice grip. Panicked she looked to her mother who was chuckling.

"Why'd you leave? Santa left you gifts!"

"Had to go get food," she said stiffly, showing the tray in her hands.

"Don't leave anymore please it's Christmas!"

"Yeah alright," she tried to walk inside, but the girl stayed attached to her leg, "Um, kid I can't walk."

"I can't let go, you might run away again!"

"If I promise I won't will you let go?"

"Mmmm… Okay," she said and stayed put looking up at Santana with her bright blue eyes.

"Well…"

"You have to promise."

Ah, she caught the technicality, the child was clever, maybe the kids were adopted, "I promise I won't run away again."

The girl let go and dashed after Carla firing off greetings and questions about what she had made to eat. Santana followed them inside and put the food down feeling so out of place it was almost dizzying. When she turned around she was face to face with the adult sized Violet.

"You could have told me you went to get your mom," said Brittany.

Santana was going to say something, but the other woman moved close and kissed her deeply, she couldn't pretend she didn't enjoy it, but at the same time she felt panic. Her mother was right there.

She grabbed Brittany's arms and pulled her away, "Whoa, hold it," she whispered, "I don't think we should…uh… do this here…" she said eyeballing her mother who had either not noticed or had pretended not to. She knew the elder Lopez knew about them, but it was a bit too soon for her to kiss someone she had secretly loved for years in front of her mother and two children who's origin she still hadn't narrowed down.

The second of which was standing eerily close giving that scary stare, "Thanks for the gifts mom," she said still staring hard at Santana.

When she said this Brittany tensed up and looked almost pleadingly at Santana, for her part Santana found this whole entire setup out of whack so she just nodded, "You're welcome."

For some reason the girl's glare intensified and she walked away, Brittany let out her breath in a low hiss, "Thanks, San we really should be nice to each other on Christmas."

Santana was a little confused, what was she supposed to say? 'Scram you little shit I only bought them because I had a leftover gift card to Toys-R-Us!'?

"No problem," she said not knowing what else to interject.

She slid away from Brittany to sit next to her mother who took one look at her and said, "Santana go change into something presentable."

She was going to argue that she was always presentable, but then looked at her safety orange and navy blue down coat, flannel pants and old running shoes with no socks.

"I'll be back," she said and returned to the room this nightmare had started in.

She opened the closet door and had to suppress a whimper, it was filled with none on the luxurious items she had come to know and love. She wasn't even sure if there was a single designer label item in the whole damn bunch. She looked through the clothes seeing things that seemed to be distantly in her taste, but none of it really spoke to her. The dresser drawers provided a similar issue so in the end, since she figured it was all crap anyway, she settled on a t-shirt, blue jeans and a decent pair of sneakers.

The thought of heading back out into the living room didn't appeal to her so she moved back over to the closet and opened it. She searched the floor for the one thing that was always in closets of even remotely happy families and found what she was looking for after a little digging. Underneath piles of shoe boxes in the back of the closet was a photo album. She pulled the large tome out of its resting place, at first she just held it a little afraid of what she would find. One mental talk down and a deep breath later she opened the cover.

The first several pages were filled with pictures of her and Brittany at various locations in Ohio, both of them still in their teens. She could only assume that these were dates because the locations were unremarkable. Her own smiling face shone out at her from a time long ago in a past that she didn't remember. There were pictures of her graduation, Brittany hugging her excitedly and there she stood looking aloof in the way she did when she didn't want anyone to know she was overjoyed. There were more pictures of them together after that, but one in particular horrified her. They were clearly at a party, probably in college, and making out like it was nobody's business. There were several people surrounding them looking at the spectacle in amusement and arousal, she felt horrific shame for her past self. Clearly other Santana (she just couldn't face the fact that the person in these pictures was her) hadn't worried about her reputation and look what it got her; a shitty house in Ohio and two garbage cars that wouldn't equal a decent one if you physically combined them. This was precisely why she had played by the rules, rocking the boat got you nowhere. She turned the page to see, to her renewed horror, wedding photos. They had worn formal evening wear instead of trying to tackle two brides dresses or having one of them dress as the groom, thank goodness for small blessings, but this was still out of hand. There were pages and pages dedicated to it, but Santana skipped through them all, she just plain wasn't ready to ingest that. The fact that she would get married at all was almost enough to make her slam the book shut right then. She skipped ahead to the back and saw pictures of Brittany in a hospital bed with a newborn baby in her arms. Underneath the picture was the name Violet. Santana flipped through some more and found another picture of Brittany in a hospital holding another infant, however in this one she was kissing the other Santana and underneath it was the name Ella.

"If you want to put more pictures in we have to use the new one remember? That one is full," said Brittany's voice from behind her.

She would have jumped straight up and out of her skin if Brittany hadn't immediately wrapped her arms around her waist and nestled her chin in the crook of Santana's neck.

"NoIwasjustlooking," She mumbled nervously.

Brittany laughed a tittering laugh that made her spine tingle, "What's with you today? You're acting like my dad after a good bar fight."

Santana gave some thought into figuring out how the two could possibly be alike and decided to let it go, "I was just trying to straighten things out in my head," she said quietly.

Brittany stood, removed the photo album from her hands and sat in her lap, "Maybe I can help," she said pushing Santana into a kiss that made her realize the one greeting had been quite restrained.

Given where she was, given all that had happened so far she couldn't think of a reason not to allow it. Her hand reached the back of Brittany's neck, pulling the blonde closer, deepening their kiss. The feelings that had been buried for years were now totally exposed, her body relaxed as the tension from trying to keep those thoughts away flew out the window. The feel of her hair, the taste of her mouth, all of it brought back the feelings of an almost scary obsession for the other woman. For ages she had done her best not to think about these things and now her defenses were down.

One of her hands cautiously drifted up the loose button down shirt Brittany was wearing and towards the soft mounds on her chest when she felt something. Someone was staring at her, she knew this as surely as being tapped on the shoulder. She broke the kiss and looked over at door; Ella was standing there giving her a Children of the Corn stare.

"Whoa!"

Brittany laughed and turned Santana's head away from the door, "You really are weird today."

"But didn't you see-" she pointed to the door only to find it empty.

"See what?" she asked seriously looking at the indicated spot.

"Should have named her Wednesday Adams," Santana grumbled, maneuvered Brittany off her lap and stood, "Brit you know what? I'm starving. Let's just get ready to eat."

"Not yet! We have to wait for-"

Just then there was an obnoxiously loud knock on the door in the rhythm of the Duck Tales theme. Brittany squealed in excitement and ran to open the door, Santana followed still a little shaken by what had just happened and looking around warily for Ella.

The door opened and in rushed, go figure, more children, three boys about the same ages as Violet. Santana hoped beyond hope that these weren't also her problem somehow because the minute they stepped in the door the place exploded in sound. The boys, Violet and Ella, who had morphed in from somewhere in the house, began to talk animatedly about the things they had gotten for Christmas and showing off whatever was on hand. Santana was so busy watching the children she missed the entrance of the rest of the new arrivals however a familiar voice snapped her out of her trance.

"Yo Santana quit being all hardcore and say hi to your main man!"

Her heart leapt with joy as she turned to see Puck and… Quinn standing at the door. The happiness was replaced with the unease she continually felt when things were wildly out of place. Quinn was standing there with a smile on her face holding a little girl that couldn't have been more than four. The last she had heard of Quinn Fabray, the ex-cheerleader was a lawyer in New York, they had met briefly the year before. She had been her normal uppity self and Santana had flaunted all of her unearned wealth with a sort of euphoric pride. They had a brief quasi polite conversation before they had gone their separate ways glad to be rid of each other. She had never said anything about children, but then maybe she had been embarrassed about it. No, none of this fit, the woman she was looking at now wasn't that Quinn, this woman apparently had four kids and was damn pleased about it. She looked at Santana with a warm greeting smile and none of the malice they had always had towards each other.

As she walked over, Quinn handed Puck the child she was carrying and Santana made a connection. They were together! Puck and Quinn were together these were their kids, a quick hand scan showed them both to be wearing wedding rings. Yes! That meant that Puck could right now be in the middle of the same nightmare she was living! They could work out how to get the fuck back home and living like superstars, but as she approached she saw none of the uncertainty or fear that she knew would have been there if Puckasaurus had woken up next to Quinn with four kids. So she hugged him and exchanged pleasantries with his wife. They prepared the food and sat down to eat at, what Santana thought was, an abysmally small table, and talked. The kids were allowed to eat in front of the television as they inhaled their food, she would have liked to have joined them to avoid the trials of adult conversation, if Ella wasn't so damn creepy. Puck and Quinn occasionally fired a question about her life at her that she had no idea how to answer, luckily Brittany was so excited she answered them all for her, all she had to do was nod and go 'Uh-huh'. She learned that she had taken a few weeks off work before the Christmas break due to some sort of injury, she had no idea what it was she did for a living and decided it would be better to ask someone privately later. Brittany had apparently cared for her that whole time and said she was going to miss having her home so much. So whatever her job was it was slightly dangerous and had her gone most of the day. Great. However she also discovered that she loved her job so she supposed that was something to look forward to, though this was information obtained through Brittany... By way of careful listening she gathered that the boys names were Joseph, Caleb and Aaron, and the girl was Abby. Hearing this Santana couldn't help, but wonder why Brittany's (still too early to call them hers) kids names were so vastly different. Ella she supposed she could understand, but Violet was sort of out of left field. More small talk and she found that Puck owned his own bar that, as best she could tell, was left to him from a dead relative, but he had managed to make it profitable. Quinn was an editor for a local paper which Santana thought was a bit hilarious, she sort of wished other Quinn could see this.

After lunch her mother took the time to bestow the grandmotherly gifts of clothes and cash to all the children which every one of them was elated over, though it was mainly the cash that sparked this reaction. Puck unloaded some gifts from his car for Ella and Violet, and the better part of an hour was spent listening to Violet thank him and Quinn for her new doll. Ella gave an appropriate and quiet thanks for the leather case to hold her new compass that was apparently a gift from Brittany. Santana thought that a ridiculous gift for a child, but then again what did she know about her? Maybe it was perfect, when she was little all she had wanted one year was a Little Mermaid lunchbox.

Once that was over, the adults exchanged their gifts, luckily Brittany knew where they were and who they were to, then they all got ready to go to Brittany's family's house. Everyone piled into their cars and took the snow covered road carefully to the Pierce residence.

When they arrived it was the same madness all over again with greetings from people she hadn't seen in a decade. She exchanged pleasantries of which she meant none, mingling with people who ALL seemed to have shared an inside joke with her none of which she remembered. Brittany's dad, Richard, talked about how glad he was to see her up and about again and asked if she had used his rehabilitation tips. She said yes, she had no idea what those would have been. Brittany's mom, Faith asked her confidentially about her relationship with Ella, she almost slipped and said 'Who Satan?' but caught herself at the last second and assured her that they were getting along fine. Even as she said this the child in question was watching her around a corner with dark eyes. Her sister Hailey was eager to know if they were going to have any more children soon and Santana shook her head vigorously, she didn't care what other Santana and Brittany had agreed on, this was already two too many. More of the Pierce's guests arrived and all unfortunately knew Santana so more conversations were flopped through. Almost an hour into this debacle she saw Puck through the ever thickening crowd and he gave her a quick head nod that she knew to mean 'follow me'.

She gladly ended her conversation with a couple who seemed very intent on talking to her about cheerleading, as if she were into that anymore, and followed him out of the living room and into a door off the hall. They walked down a long flight of stairs in the dark until Puck flipped a switch. It was beautiful, it was a private fully furnished room in the basement with several lazy boys circling a 60 inch flat screen television. Santana wanted to hug him; privacy and distraction, he always knew what she needed.

"You were looking a little stressed. Surprised you didn't pop down here sooner," he said opening the mini-fridge next to the television, pulling out a six pack of beer and handing her one.

She took it and took a long swig, "I would have if I had known it was here!" she said sitting in one of the stupidly plush recliners.

Puck stared at her for a moment, "Of course you know it's here…we renovated this room remember?"

Santana felt that uncomfortable squirm again, he seemed to have already written it off as he sat down and turned on the TV to find something on.

"Awesome! Rudolf, a true rags to bitches story."

The beer was like an anchor in her hand, something solid and unmoving keeping her from running out of this place screaming. Every time she felt like she might have a grasp on things something slipped, she had helped renovate the Pierce's basement? When and how? She knew jack shit about renovation… Wait was that her job? Oh no… she thought desperately. Finally she decided to risk talking to someone, this was Puck after all, no matter what crazy parallel universe she entered he was still her best friend.

"Noah?" she said, using his first name like she did when she wanted to indicate that what she had to say was serious.

"Yeah?" he answered looking concerned.

"I… I don't even know how to say this…"

Seeing the look in her eyes he turned off the television and gave her his full attention, "What is it?"

"You have to swear to not tell anyone especially Quinn or Brittany, not until I've worked this all out," he nodded vigorously, "I don't remember anything," she finished simply.

"What? What don't you remember?"

"Anything any of this!" she shouted hysterically, then suddenly looked up at the door fearing she had been overheard.

He shook his head, "That door was built by Puck no sounds in or out," a suggestive smile crept over his face.

How could he not have changed even slightly living with Quinn? At least he is taking this news well.

"Look the last thing I remember is high school… I think. Like everything between then and now is gone, before this morning I have no memories since the last time I saw Brittany and that was at prom."

"Really?" he said his face serious, "Don't you think you should tell a doctor or something?"

"No because I think this is a dream… or my other life was… something is wrong…" she said trying not to hyperventilate while telling her tale, "The last thing I remember, at senior prom I…" her heart writhed with the memory. It was one of her deepest darkest secret moments and she was endlessly ashamed of it. Even now, here, where all of that had been erased it was still a wound that had never healed. "I… Brittany had just broken up with Artie over…something and she found me and we danced. She told me about them and how she wanted to be with me and I…" she ran her hands roughly through her hair trying to will herself to finish the sentence, "I told her I never really loved her ever and I didn't want to be associated with an outright lesbian like her."

Puck gave a low long whistle, "Well that's not how it went down, if it had…man that would have broken her, especially since she broke up with Artie for you."

His words made it all that much more painful, "But I did and I lived my life after that, I never looked back. I just left here and moved to California for a while and moved from man to man for money. A few years later I moved to Massachusetts with my lover Miles Rowan and I lived in a penthouse overlooking the city and drove a Ferrari and bought everything I ever wanted and I loved it. I still do."

Puck was now wearing a slight smirk, "I think I figured it out, it must have been when you hurt your leg at work, maybe you jarred your brain on the landing because this isn't a dream. I can tell you that out of all the days that have been since high school we have spent most of 'em hanging out, and it was definitely you. Plus Miles Rowan is like that billionaire guy who is buying up property and businesses and selling them at a profit. I only know him because he had a mild interest in my place for a minute and you would know him from that too. Dude he travels like constantly, you would be one lonely woman living in one place waiting for him. I think you just jumbled things up a bit from the accident, it is weird that it would only be affecting you now... You should probably go see a head doctor pretty soon though for reals."

She nodded that could be possible, but she hadn't just forgotten she had replaced every major event in her life with a whole different one, "I suppose. Though there is something that doesn't make any sense. I see how different my life is with Brittany, but why are you so displaced?"

"How do you mean?"

"You, the Noah Puckerman I know, is an international movie star-"

"What? Rock on Lopez! Way to cast the part!"

"But you aren't married to Quinn, you aren't married to anyone. You just sort of fly around sleeping with the casts of various films, television shows and occasional super models. I don't think you've even seen Quinn since I last saw Brittany."

"Seriously I want to visit this dream world of yours. But honestly that makes sense. At prom, in the real version of events, you accepted Brittany's offer. I mean it wasn't like you guys made out on the dance floor or anything dramatic like that, would have been nice… anyway I knew she was going to ask you and I sort of pushed her to do it cause you need her, ya know? When I saw someone that was as stubborn as you could ease up for love it sort of…" he hid his face in his beer, "encouraged me to talk to Quinn."

"Okay then answer me this why in the hell do we have kids?"

"Oh!" he laughed, "Cause you're pussy whipped."

Santana frowned, "What?"

"Well you told me back when we were in college-"

She held up a hand, "Hold it. We were in college together? I thought you were done after high school why were you there?"

His beer went back up to his face suspiciously, "Cause I'm pussy whipped too… anyway Britt was bugging you about it so you promised her you would agree to having children if she could wait until after you graduated. You said she would have forgotten all about it cause it was still like two years till that was going to happen, but she didn't forget. You really tried to talk her out of it, but she was hell bent on it."

"We didn't have more kids at some point that she left somewhere did we?" she asked gravely.

"No, as it turned out she's a super momma. She is one hundred percent lucid when it comes to her kids, everything else may float over her head, but she would never let anything happen to them. I guess it's instinct or something."

"Who are their fathers?"

He shrugged, "Sperm bank hell if I know."

"Really? Because Ella… well she looks like me doesn't she… or is that just me?"

At the mention of the child he sat up looking serious, "Ah, that. Okay so you guys have one kid and Brittany is like slam dunking the stay at home mom thing right? So she wants to have another baby, but this time she wants your egg fertilized and put in her."

Santana's face fell a little, "What..." she said in a flat tone.

"Yeah you said the same thing when she brought it up."

"How would she even know that was an option?"

"Well you know Brittany gets most of her information from television? She watched Baby Momma… anyway you were against it and you really didn't want to have kids in the first place, but she sort of guilt tripped you into it and it all went fine as you know and Ella's a bright healthy girl…"

"But?"

"But at some point you find that you don't like her much."

No duh she is a creepy fuck, "Why?"

"You never really told me but my guess is because she is so friggin much like you. I mean she is like a mini Santana for real. Violet looks like Brittany and is carefree, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. You and Ella are creepily alike maybe that bothered you. I mean like you are never mean to her or anything but… I dunno you can get pretty perturbed by her quickly for things you let Violet get away with."

She nodded trying to imagine herself going through all of this, then another question surfaced, "Do you know why we picked Violet for the name of our first born? I mean it doesn't really sound like something either of us would go for."

"Oh it was a compromise, Brittany wanted to name her Purple and you didn't want your child to be bullied to death in middle school."

There it is, and the name puzzle is solved.

"Where do I work?"

"At McKinley as the cheerleading coach."

Santana had honestly thought there was nothing that could shock her more than waking up with kids and a wife miles from home. This would be the very thing that topped it.

"Please tell me that was a bad joke."

He gave her a sideways look, "What? You freaking love it! Plus you are well on your way to beating Sue's consecutive nationals winning record."

"Who CARES! You mean to tell me that not only did I fail to escape this town I failed to escape HIGH SCHOOL?" she downed the rest of the beer in one go.

"Hey, chill out. You need to see a head doctor bad if you can't even remember how much pride you take in your work-"

"Pride?" she yanked on her off white shirt, "Look at how I'm dressed Puck! This isn't okay! My house and car are not okay! This is not something to be proud of! I am the replacement for the world's most evil coach of all time and making minimum wage in the process!"

"You aren't her replacement, you're her rival because she quit to harass Mr. Schue at his new job in Texas so she coaches there now, furthermore you make plenty thanks to private donations to your squad. Every year for the past five years you have stolen the trophy from Sue, I wouldn't be surprised if she put a bomb in your house she's so mad. You love it, I love it, Quinn loves it, your squad loves it and Brittany thinks you're a rock star. Whatever happened to your head you need to get it fixed because you have forgotten what you're about."

Her mouth was hanging open, "Pissing off Sue Sylvester? That's the highlight of my year? That's what I'm all about?"

"No," he said quietly, "You're about being the best at everything you do. Even before you're head got messed up I think you started to forget that."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The room was suddenly filled with noise as the door above them opened and Quinn shouted down, "Noah stop hiding down there! Come and talk to your mother before I kill her!" she snapped and slammed the door.

He sighed, gulped his beer and stood up, "Look Santana if you really have forgotten everything for good then maybe you can start fresh you know? There are a few things you need to reboot. You can start with Ella and finish with…" he stopped himself from saying something and started towards the stairs.

"With what?"

He looked a little sad when he looked at her, "Let's just say you really need to remember how much you love your wife and focus on that."

He left her alone in the basement to try and piece everything together, she was at the cusp of accepting that this was her life.

TBC...


A/N: This one is pretty long...wait is it longer than the first chapter?...I dunno too lazy to check. Anyway gonna upload the rest soon as I'm done proofreading, not that is matters I miss stuff anyway... BTW this fic is rated M on purpose so... be aware.