HI! This is a fast update. Luckily I'm on my break and I'm able to write this chapter right away. BUT! It's only a flashback. It's longer than the previous chapters though, so I guess that's a good thing.
I've got a song for this one. You can load it before reading so you can just hit 'play' on the right scene. The song will be towards the end of the chapter, you can hit play, when it's Quinn's turn to sing. (Was that a spoiler? I think not.)
It's this one: /watch?v=K480BTMTpvo (just put youtube . com in front of it)
Maybe it's just me, but I hear hint of Dianna Agron's voice in this but obviously, it's not her.
Hope you enjoy this one! Thanks for the Favorites and Alerts, again! You can also tell me what you think.
CHAPTER 4 – Vital Signs
Santana was answering her exam when Ms. Pillsbury came in and asked if Santana could be excused. Without finishing her exam, she immediately stood up, handed the test to the teacher, and dragged the guidance counselor out of the room.
"What happened? Is she okay? What's going on?" Santana asked in a hushed tone once they were in the hallway.
"Calm down, Santana. I just got a call from your dad saying that Brittany's vitals were improving. They're slowly getting better, but still –it's good news, right?"
Santana let out a breath and jumped to hug Ms. Pillsbury which took them both by surprise because one, she doesn't hug just anybody and this was so out of character; and two, Ms. Pillsbury is… well, Ms. Pillsbury.
"Thanks! I gotta go." Santana let go and started to walk towards the exit doors of the school.
"Santana! You can't just run out of school. It's cutting." Ms. Pillsbury said when she caught up to the cheerleader.
"You have got to be kidding! For days, I've been wondering when there'll be some good news about Brittany and I hear nothing! And then you come here, excuse me from class, just to tell me that my girlfriend is getting better, but you stop me when I want to go check on her? Are you crazy?" Santana immediately stopped when she saw Ms. Pillsbury's eyes widen, and she didn't think that they could get any wider, but it did.
"No, Santana I am not crazy. And I am still a teacher here, I don't think it's appropriate for you to talk to me that way but I'm going to let that one slide," she saw Santana let out a relieved sigh. "but in one condition."
When Santana had calmed down, she looked at the teacher who was in between her and the double doors. "What?"
"Just go and finish the rest of the day. We both know you only have Glee Club after your current class. And it starts in 20 minutes. If you want to leave Glee Club early, you're going to have to talk to Mr. Schue about it. So the condition is for you to finish the day, and then you can go and visit Brittany."
"What if I just go, right now?"
"Well, I'm might just give you detention for disrespecting a teacher, and for cutting class."
"That's black mail."
"Is it? I'm just following school rules, Santana. Think about it, if you just finish this day you can visit Brittany everyday, after school. But if you end up getting detention, you're going to have to stay in school a little while longer. It's up to you, Santana." Emma told her before walking back to her office.
Santana thought about what Ms. Pillsbury said, and she does have a point. Glee Club is the only thing left to do after this class. And she knew she'd have less time to stay in Brittany's room if she ended up having detention so she decided to turn around and make her way to her locker.
After fixing her things, Santana made her way to Ms. Pillsbury's office. She knocked on the door and waited for the counselor to finish stacking up on her pamphlets before entering.
"So, can I stay here for a while? I don't have anything to do in my class since we only had to take the exam."
"Have a seat." Emma said while she double checked the measurements between the objects on her desks. After moving the name plate on the desk an inch, she Emma was finally satisfied with how neat and organized her things were. "So, how are you holding up, Santana?"
"With what?"
"With the whole situation."
"Oh. Okay, I guess."
"Since you're here, would you want to talk about it?"
Santana thought about it, and it wasn't like she couldn't handle everything. She could. She knew she could. Although, nights were definitely difficult to handle knowing that Brittany was sleeping in a hospital bed, and not her own. It was definitely hard not knowing when Brittany will be able to wake up, and knowing that when Brittany would, that she would most probably be in school because she wasn't allowed to skip. But she knew she could handle it. She didn't need to talk to someone about it; she could handle it. Right?
"She's in a coma…" Santana was able to whisper and felt a tear roll down her cheek. She immediately wiped it off and turned her face away. She was about to continue but the bell rang signaling the 5-minute mark before classes ended, and that it was almost time for Glee Club. Santana stood and picked up her backpack.
"Santana—"
She looked at the teacher and all she saw was sadness, and concern in her eyes. "I—I gotta go. Thanks for letting me stay, Ms. Pillsbury." Santana went straight to the choir room which to her luck, was still empty. She took a seat on one of the chairs at the back, leaned her head on the wall behind it and closed her eyes.
'She's in a coma.' Santana thought. It was the first time she had ever said those words. And much to her dismay, it wasn't one of those things that if you say it out loud, it lightens up your mood, or it would feel like a weight has been lifted. It was one of those things that once you've said it, it makes it real and that there's no turning back.
"S…" Santana opened her eyes and saw a blurry Quinn sit next to her and immediately placed her arm around the cheerleader. It was at that moment that Santana noticed that she was silently crying. But with Quinn's arms around her, she felt herself let go. She didn't think that anyone else would be around because she knew Quinn always showed up early while the rest would come, maybe 10 minutes after Glee should actually start.
"She's in a coma, Q." Santana cried.
It wasn't the crying that you could hear and immediately know that someone was crying. It was the soundless cries. The ones, which you just know you couldn't stop the tears from falling; no matter how hard you try. The more you try; the harder they fall. She cried when Quinn's hold got tighter. She cried when she heard Quinn's comforting words. She cried when the lights in the choir room were turned on. She cried when she heard her the other glee members come in. She cried when she heard Mr. Schue ask Quinn if she was alright. She cried when she heard Quinn whisper, "It's okay Mr. Schue, she just has to let it out, just start." She cried until she couldn't anymore.
With one final sniff, Santana slowly sat back up and wiped her tears. She finally looked at Quinn who was looking at her cautiously, like she would end up crying again.
"Thanks Q." Santana whispered. "For everything."
"Anytime, loser." Quinn said, smiling. Santana then raised her hand, interrupting Mr. Schue's discussion about something, and asked if she could say something. After reassuring Mr. Schue that she's okay and that her announcement would just be quick, she made her way to the front of the class.
"Uh. So Ms. Pillsbury called me out a while ago, and she said my dad called to say that Brittany's vitals are improving," She nodded her head while the others whispered amongst themselves about how awesome it was that Brittany was getting better. She felt Mr. Schue's hand on her shoulder saying how great that was, and she thought she heard Mercedes say, "Praise!".
"Uh, unfortunately, Britt hasn't woken up yet. But I guess it's a good thing they said that she's improving. This would mean that," She paused for a while and looked at the hopeful faces of the rest of the glee club, "She could wake up anytime soon." Santana said, biting her lip nervously. "I know I asked you guys not to come by because the injuries were too… um, intense. And I know that Brittany wouldn't have cared if you saw her like that, but it's just… Anyway, I'm really thankful that you kept that in mind. Normally, I wouldn't ask you guys favors but seeing as we finally heard some kind of news, I was wondering if you would all like to come with me after Glee Club to go and visit her?" Santana asked them, nervously.
"Of course, Santana." Rachel said answering on behalf of the club, and made her way next to her. "You should know by now that asking us to go with you to visit Brittany isn't a favor. We would love to go, am I right?" Rachel asked the glee members. And after hearing them say that they would all go after class, Santana thanked them and made her way back to where she was sitting.
"That's such a good news, Santana." Quinn said. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Well, I would have but you know… Tears and all that crap kind of got in the way."
Quinn let out a laugh, "Okay, gotcha!"
"Seriously though, thanks for everything Quinn."
The two friends turned to look at Rachel who was allowed by Mr. Schue to take center stage –like always- and she was talking about song choices that the glee club could sing when they visit Brittany after class. Some of them wanted Santana to sing but she refused. They did, however, decided that if it wouldn't be Santana, it would be Quinn considering she was also Brittany's best friend. One of Brittany's many best friends, of course.
After the class, the group split into three cars and made their way to the hospital. They first made a few stops to buy Brittany some flowers, a few stuffed toys, and wrote on 'Get Well Soon' cards. Santana, however, just bought a long stemmed rose. When she was asked why shouldn't get Brittany other things all she said was "I'm gonna give her everything she wants when she wakes up."
When they got to the reception, Mr. Schue, who came to chaperone the glee kids, went to ask if they could see Brittany. The guy Santana talked to on the phone led them to the room, and before leaving, he told them not to make too much noise because it might disturb the other patients on the same floor. The group made their way inside and left a path for Santana who decided to enter last.
When Santana got to Brittany's bed, she was glad to see that some of the physical injuries have significantly gotten better. She obviously has seen the improvement considering she was visiting everyday ever since Brittany was admitted. The only other glee club member that she had allowed to come visit was Quinn, but she wasn't as frequent as Santana because Quinn had to maintain her grades even if she had already gotten into Yale. But Santana was able to visit even if she had her Cheerios training; she stayed even if it was way past visiting hours. She asked her dad to pull some strings and let her stay for a bit longer. Most nights, she would find herself being woken up either by her dad, or her mom saying that they should go home and she could always come back the next day.
"Hey B." Santana said, sitting on the edge of the bed as she took Brittany's hand. "I've got a surprise for you. You want to open your eyes and see the surprise?" Santana paused, still hoping that Brittany would open her eyes. With a sad sigh, she continued, "I brought the glee club with me today, Mr. Schue even came with us." She turned to look at the people surrounding the bed and gave them all a smile.
"Hey Brittany." The glee club said in unison. Then Mercedes said, "You gotta wake up, girl! Nobody's helping me out with my dance moves anymore." The rest of the club were chuckling at that. "Yeah, you owe me a battle, Brittany." She heard Mike say.
"We brought you some stuff, baby girl." Quinn said placing blue duck she just bought beside the Brittany's pillow. "I got you a duck. Stuffed one, of course. I couldn't get you the real one because Santana said we already had Rachel yapping in glee club, we don't need a duck in there too." Quinn said chuckling when she heard Rachel gasp.
"I was kidding, Berry." Santana reassured her. The rest of the glee club was still giggling at what Quinn just said.
After the glee kids each told Brittany what they got her, Rachel nodded towards Santana signaling that it's time for them to sing to Brittany.
"B, the rest of the glee kids got you one other thing. Maybe you can open your eyes now so you can watch them…" When she didn't get any response from Brittany, she stood up and sat on the chair next to the bed, not letting go of her girlfriend's hand. Santana leaned in towards Brittany's ear and whispered, "They're gonna sing you something, babe. I hope you can hear them." Santana kissed Brittany's temple, and leaned back as Puck started to play his guitar.
After two songs, sung by the rest of the club, there was one more left. It was the one song that they deicided to let Quinn sing. Puck started to pluck the notes from his guitar and Quinn started to sway in her place from the front of Brittany's bed. Santana has obviously heard them rehearse this song but couldn't stop her eyes from watering. She didn't cry when they were practicing this song, but this time, it felt different. She turned to look at Brittany still hoping to see some change in her face, but nothing was changing. But there was just something different with seeing Quinn sing this song infront of Brittany.
During Puck's solo, Santana thought that she heard the heart monitor beep a bit louder, so she turned to look at it. And it showed a different rate, the zig-zag line on the monitor got bigger, and she saw that the pulse was stronger. Santana stared at the monitor not really sure if she was just seeing things, but there it was again. Santana looked at Mr. Schue and he made his way next to Santana.
"What is it?" He whispered.
"There was a change in the monitor. Please call the nurse." Santana whispered. She turned to her friends, "Quinn, Puck, just keep singing the song. Don't stop." She saw the others look worried, "Please, just keep singing." So they all joined in with Quinn and Puck.
'Please don't take our sunshine away' they sang repeatedly.
"Come on, babe. I saw that change. You can hear us. Squeeze my hand if you can hear us." No response.
When the guitar stopped playing, she turned back to them and softly pleaded for them to not stop singing, so started singing the last lines again but this time, without the guitar. She saw Quinn walk towards the other side of the bed and hold Brittany's other hand.
"Come on, B. Squeeze my hand, I know you can. Just wake up." Santana's voice was cracking; all of her hope was in this. She heard the glee club sing it softer, knowing that they were hoping for the same thing. After the glee club stopped singing, she buried her face on Brittany's hand and whispered, "Please don't take my sunshine away…"
The monitor beeps returned to normal, but there was only silence. And then she felt it. She felt Brittany's hand squeeze hers weakly. She lifted her head to look at the hand because she swore she just imagined it. She heard a few soft gasps but paid no attention to them, she just stared at the hand she was holding hoping that it would squeeze hers again.
"Why'd you stop singing?" Her head snapped up to see Brittany smiling weakly at her.
