Chapter 4
The Harvest
Santana leaned against the wall behind the crypt. She'd watched the shadows move all day, waiting for the sun to disappear. She sighed and her stomach rumbled. That's attractive, she thought. She almost fell asleep waiting for the sun to leave, when a familiar pair of white Keds showed up on the grass in front of her.
"Brittany," Santana breathed, leaping to her feet.
"Are you nice now?" asked Brittany, stepping into the shadows in her red and white Cheerios uniform.
A tear swelled up in Santana's eye as she noticed the white cotton bandage on Brittany's neck, and she nodded profusely.
"Brit, I'm so sorry," she sobbed.
"I know, San," said Brittany.
She opened up her arms and Santana fell into them. It felt so good to be in Brittany's arms again, sobbing on her shoulder and breathing in her scent of sugar, lemon body wash and cat fur. Every sense was heightened.
"You smell so good," Santana breathed in and sighed, leaning out of their hug.
Brittany put her fingertips on Santana's face and dried away the tears. "You smell like blood and vodka. Is that what a Bloody Mary is?"
Santana chuckled and wiped the wetness from her face. "So what happened last night?"
"Mom called her old friend Terri and she sent you your soul back. Did you get it?"
"She got my soul back? That explains it."
Brittany eyed the tears on her shoulder. "We should go home."
"I can't go home, Brit."
"Why not? We can make margaritas and watch TV. One Tree Hill's on tonight."
"No, Brittany, my parents can't find out that I'm a vampire now."
"They have to find out sooner or later. Besides, aren't they gone on a hunting trip?"
"Yeah, gone until Sunday. Where do I go then? What will people think happened to me?"
"We'll figure it out."
Santana sighed. Brittany always said that they'll figure it out. She just assumed that everything would fall in it's place. And maybe for her, it did. But Santana wasn't as lucky.
xxx
Buffy loaded the inside of her leather jacket. Stakes? Check. Holy water? Check. Everything she needed to keep her friends protected and get stuff done.
"Are you going out tonight?"
Buffy whirled around, making sure no tips of her stake were poking out of her zipper. Her mom leaned in against the door-frame.
"Uh huh," said Buffy.
Joyce sighed. Here it comes, thought Buffy.
"Buffy, I don't want to see you falling into your old ways."
"I'm not."
"We relocated because you got kicked out of your old school. I had to start up a new business in this town."
"I know."
"The principal called today. He said you've been skipping classes."
"That's not what it looks like. I was running an errand for the-"
"Buffy, I know it's hard to start up in a new place, but you're a good kid. I don't want to see you veering off the tracks."
"But Mom-"
"The guidance counselor says you attacked a classmate."
Buffy closed her eyes and breathed steadily. Was Quinn Fabray trying to ruin her life?
"That was a misunderstanding-"
"Buffy, please. I think this town could be good for us. I don't want to move again."
"Mom-"
"You're grounded."
"Mom!"
"I'm putting my foot down. All the CDs say I should get used to saying no."
"Mom, I have to go out tonight!"
"I know, I know, if you don't go out tonight, it'll be the end of the world. Everything is when you're a teenager. But you're not leaving this house," said Joyce, closing the bedroom door behind her.
xxx
Rachel stopped herself from picking at her fingernails. It was a bad habit when she got nervous. Nervousness was a rarity for Rachel Berry, but still. She had to control the habit. After all, she was pretty much sitting in a booth waiting for the world to end. And now that she thought about it, this was the first time she'd been to Breadstix with anyone but her dads. And now here she was with Kurt, Mercedes, Tina and Artie.
"Do you think any of us will kill a vampire tonight?" asked Artie.
"I won't. I just buffed my nails," said Kurt, looking wide-eyed and serious.
"I'm so s-scared already," stammered Tina.
"Don't worry, guys," said Mr. Schuester, leaning his head back from his seat into their booth, "Buffy's gonna show up soon and you won't have to wor-"
But before he could finish his sentence, the gang's, and everyone else in the restaurant's attention snapped to the small stage where a jazz band usually played, because the hostess was thrown across the room onto it. She groaned in pain and everyone's heads swiveled around to see who did it. Rachel's stomach dropped as she saw Sandy, Jacob and a hoard of other vampires swaggering in. No one got up to confront them because everyone was staring at their wrinkly monster faces and their glowing red eyes and their dangerous fangs. The vamps spread out, a group of them around each exit.
"Where's Buffy?" Kurt wondered nervously under his breath.
The restaurant collectively gasped as one of the vamps turned the main lights and the music off.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there's no cause for alarm," said Sandy, climbing up on stage, "Actually, there is cause for alarm, it just won't do any good."
He laughed profusely at himself until his laughter died down and he said gravely, "Bring me the first."
The gang watched uneasily as a vampire shoved the hostess up into Sandy's arms. Tina had to turn her head into Artie's shoulder as Sandy sunk his teeth into the hostess, draining her after a few long minutes and dropping her to the floor, dead.
"Next!" he called.
Late on the heels of her sneakers, Buffy slammed into the front door of Breadstix. It's locked, she thought fearfully, I'm too late. No. Buffy Summers wasn't gonna let a locked door stop her from saving those people from a massacre. She knew right then she had to put Buffy the teenager behind her and be Buffy the vampire slayer.
Rachel bit her bottom lip. Was Buffy ever going to come? She was just about to block her eyes with her hands as Sandy fed from another waitress, but she looked as she saw - is that? - yes, it is - Buffy! She squirmed through a window and ended up behind the salad bar as Sandy dropped his second victim to the floor.
"Next," he called, but no one could throw him another victim before Buffy leaped on stage and kicked him square in the chest, knocking him to the floor.
"Oh, I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something?" asked Buffy.
"You," said Sandy, lifting his head.
Buffy's witty smile fell as she saw the gold broach on Sandy's mustard colored men's blouse. She knew she recognized that symbol somewhere.
"Okay, vessel guy, you want blood? Come and get it," says Buffy, and before Sandy could get back up, she slammed a fist in his face.
While he was still on the ground, Buffy took her bag and threw it across the restaurant, and it landed on Artie's lamp. He looked at it nervously before Rachel took it and peered inside, showing the gang a pile of stakes and holy water.
"She wants us to fight," said Rachel.
The gang looked up at Buffy as she fought Sandy Ryerson, other vampires leaving their exits to rush to the vessel's aid. Without any warning, Kurt leapt from his seat, and ran to the nearest exit, holding it open and shepherding people out of Breadstix.
"Come on!" Kurt called as people rushed out.
As Buffy did a twirling kick, Sandy grabbed her from behind in a crushing bear hug. As the others got up to help people out of Breadstix, Rachel grabbed a stake and decided to help Buffy, until she heard a whimper from the very corner of the room. Jacob Ben Israel with his mutated face and his sharp fangs was cornering Quinn Fabray, pinning her down against a wall. Rachel ran behind him and raised the stake, but she hesitated before pushing it into his back.
"Jacob!" she exclaimed.
Jacob swiveled around, and smiled sinisterly, Quinn Fabray still cowering behind him.
"Rachel Berry," he sneered, "Do you know for how many years I've wanted to get under that tartan skirt. But you never even gave me the time of day."
Rachel gulped and held her stake out, pointed right at his heart. "Don't make me do this, Jacob."
"You wouldn't."
With Buffy still in Sandy's grasp, her feet dangling just above the ground, Sandy bore his fangs and prepared to bite the back of Buffy's neck.
"Taste this, Master," he hissed, before Buffy threw her head back in a headbutt that immediately made Sandy drop her and spring backwards.
"How'd it taste?" she asked, breathless.
Rachel still held the stake up to Jacob's heart, too scared to just push it in.
"I can see you shaking," he said, making her shiver even more, "You're not gonna do it. You don't have the gu-"
From behind him, Quinn Fabray honed one small red ball of energy from her bare hands. She thew it at Jacob like it was a softball, knocking him over and pushing him into Rachel's stake. The ball of light disappeared and Jacob burst into dust, Rachel still holding the stake in a state of shock.
As her stake fell out of her hand, Buffy grabbed the cymbal from the jazz band's set up and threw it out of sight, lifting up the cymbal stand and pointing the sharp end at Sandy, javelin style.
"You forget, metal can't hurt me," chuckled Sandy.
"There's something you forgot, too. Sunrise," she said, throwing the cymbal stand at the window, where light poured in. Sandy hissed and blocked his face from the light with his sleeve. Only, it was just a lamp post.
"It's in about nine hours, moron," said Buffy, plunging a stake into his back while he was hunched over.
Sandy stumbled forward before he burst into dust particles. The slaying of the vessel was enough to catch the attention of every vampire in the restaurant, and within a fraction of a second, they all bolted out the door, in fear of the slayer. You better run, thought Buffy. Most people had fled already, though some remain, stunned and silent as Buffy hopped off the stage and met the gang down on the ground.
"I take it it's over," said Mr. Schuester.
"D-D-Did we win?" asked Tina.
"Well, we averted the apocalypse. You gotta give us points for that," said Buffy.
"One thing's for sure," said Rachel, clutching a stake to her chest, "Nothing's ever gonna be the same."
xxx
The very next day, the gang met Rachel's stare of shock and confusion with their own stunned silence.
Everything was exactly the same.
They sat outside on a picnic table as every other student milled around, laughing and talking like they always did, making nerds flinch with the Big Quench slushies in their hands. They even heard Quinn Fabray gossiping with her fellow Cheerios on the next table.
"I heard it was rival gangs or something, but the weird thing was, Buffy knew them. It was a total freak show," she said.
"I wish I'd been there," said Brittany.
Buffy had to laugh at Rachel's look of disbelief.
"What were you expecting?" she asked.
"I don't know. At least an assembly," pouted Rachel.
"People have a habit of rationalizing what they can and forgetting what they can't," said Tina.
"Hey, you didn't stutter," smiled Buffy.
Tina blushed and stared down at her tray of cafeteria food. "I-I-I-I-"
"Well, at least we know so next time we can be prepared," said Rachel.
"Next time? There's not going to be a next time," said Mercedes.
"Of course there is. I'm sure there will always be the forces of darkness to overcome in Lima," said Rachel.
"Yes, but there's also another Macy's sale this weekend. Prioritize, Rachel," said Kurt.
Buffy laughed and lifted her juice box. "Cheers to that," she said, knocking her drink with Kurt's mini carton of milk as Rachel watched slackjawed.
"The earth is doomed."
xxx
A week had passed. Buffy Summers survived a whole week in Lima, Ohio, and no one was more surprised than she was. Not only had she survived but was she… enjoying herself? No. Impossible. But then again, she found smiles creeping onto her face with alarming regularity, especially those morning conversations at her locker with Rachel that had quickly become tradition when the girls had discovered their lockers were side by side. The first conversation the girls had on a Thursday morning had sparked when Buffy asked about the men with Rachel in the photographs stuck to the inside of her locker door.
"My dads," smiled Rachel, proudly, "You see, I was born out of love. My fathers screened potential surrogates based on beauty and intelligence, mixed their sperm together and impregnated her with a turkey baster. To this day, we don't know which one is my real dad. I think that's really special."
Buffy nodded slowly, staring at the picture of Rachel with her fathers.
"What are your parents like?" asked Rachel, her brown eyes wide and innocent.
"Oh, well, my parents are divorced. My dad lives back in LA with his girlfriend, and me and my mom moved here. Obviously," said Buffy, shoving her books into her backpack.
"Oh. You know, there are plenty of children of divorce at McKinley. And the first thing you should know; it's not your fault."
"…Thanks."
After the first awkward conversation on a Thursday, their conversation on a Friday had been much less forced and much more enjoyable. Rachel talked about how she wanted to be a Broadway star, and Buffy listened. Not ideal for Buffy, but much better than having to talk about her parents. Then on Monday, they discussed what was possibly Buffy's favorite subject. Boys.
"Well, of course I need someone who can keep up with me vocally, but also someone who can dream as big as me, who won't hold me back, y'know? I can't put a relationship above my career."
Buffy nodded, idly dropping books into her backpack for next period. "Yeah, you don't want someone who smothers you or won't let you be independent."
"Exactly! I need someone who challenges me."
"Challenge is good. I don't really know what I look for. I don't think I have a type. They have to be sensitive, but not too sensitive, y'know? I dated this guy back in LA who cried every time he saw a sunset."
Rachel giggled, and paused absentmindedly as her attention was drawn somewhere else. Buffy turned her head to see Quinn Fabray resting against a set of lockers, kicking out one long, thin milky leg, talking and laughing enthusiastically, to Finn Hudson, who was standing at his open locker, his red and white McKinley Titans jersey draped over his broad shoulders.
Buffy whirled her head back to Rachel who was still staring dreamily at the couple.
"Somebody has a crush!" Buffy exclaimed.
Rachel's attention snapped back to Buffy as her mouth fell in a frown and she blushed, color coming brightly and quickly to her cheeks. "No, I don't!"
Buffy laughed at her friend's, embarrassed. "It's okay! Finn's a cutie. I get it."
Rachel smiled, the color in her cheeks dying down a little. "It doesn't matter, anyways. Finn would never notice me."
"Sure he would! He's in glee club!"
"But he doesn't want to be. Mr. Schuester probably had to blackmail him to get him to join."
"But what about Don't Stop Believin'?" asked Buffy.
Last Friday, Finn had put together a performance of Journey's Don't Stop Believin'. It was the first song New Directions had performed that actually sounded good.
"He's talented, he just doesn't see how much that's worth," said Rachel, "Quinn is blinding him. There must be a way to break them up."
Rachel stared longingly as Finn and Quinn walked away hand in hand.
"I'm not gonna say I condone breaking up a happy couple, but I do know that Finn would be way happier with you. Why don't you try out something that he's interested in? To give you two something more to talk about."
Rachel nodded absentmindedly, the cogs in her brain at work.
xxx
Santana leaned against the frame of the archway in her kitchen that led into her spacious living room, wrinkling her blue rose-patterned top and holding a steaming coffee mug full of butcher's blood warming her icy hands. Even if the scene wasn't her complete idea of perfection, she wished she could stay here. In her home with her parents gone and the curtains drawn and Brittany lying on her couch in her cute crocheted sweater watching a Sabrina the Teenage Witch re-run.
Brittany had skipped school to keep Santana company, but she had more selfish reasons for cutting class. The truth was, school had become unbearable without Santana. No one helped her in class or defended her to people who called her stupid. Quinn recruited a girl named Morgan Ru to be their third Cheerio in their unstoppable trio, in place of Santana. And Brittany didn't like her. She wasn't as pretty or as good at dancing as Santana, and she wasn't very nice. She'd called Brittany stupid. Santana never called Brittany stupid. The worst part is, Quinn didn't even defend Brittany. She didn't care.
"I wish Quinn was more like Sabrina," said Brittany, resting her head of cornsilk hair in her hands "She'd be nicer and she'd have a talking cat."
"What did Quinn do this time?" asked Santana, sipping from her mug.
"She replaced you," pouted Brittany.
Santana chuckled. "Good luck with that," she said, "One, no one can replace me. Two, our trio is called the Unholy Trinity for a reason, and not because collectively we've made out with every boy and girl at school. It's because we all have a bond that no one else has."
"We all like lady kisses?"
"No. We have the dark side. Vampires, witches, demons. Together, we know the capability of a world the other losers in this town wouldn't be able to comprehend."
"Even Buffy?"
"Buffy?"
"She fought that gang leader at Breadstix last Wednesday, remember? Except I'm starting to think maybe it wasn't a gang."
"Oh, yeah. Buffy," Santana sipped from her mug and thought.
Buffy was a strange one all right. Her mysteriousness bugged Santana. She liked to think she had people figured out. But not Buffy. Was this girl looking for trouble?
"Maybe her parents hunt vampires, too," said Brittany.
"Doubtful. I saw her mom at Pic n Save the day they moved here. Total marshmallow. Not vampire hunting material," said Santana, thinking of her own parents' cold appearances.
"When are your parents coming back?" asked Brittany, turning around, her puppy eyes peering at Santana from behind the couch.
"Tomorrow," said Santana, her stomach turning.
"What are you going to tell them?"
"Brittany, they can't find out. They wouldn't be able to handle it."
"They're going to find out sooner or later," Brittany said as she rolled over.
"They'll disown me."
"They'll get used to it. It's not like you're the only one. There's me, and there's Ellen. My mom loves Ellen."
"Brittany, what are you talking about?"
"We… we're talking about how you're Lebanese, right?" asked Brittany.
"Brit, no! We're talking about how I'm a vampire!"
"Oh, well. I still think they should know about that, too."
Santana stared into the depths of the thick pigs' blood in her mug. She knew Brittany was right. But there was no way her parents would ever understand. As the night fell and Brittany left to go back home, Santana sat in her bedroom wondering if she left now and never came back, saving herself and her parents from the ordeal of dealing with… this, would they even miss her? Would she miss them? She tried to imagine, vanishing in the night and never seeing her parents again. Never talking to them, never hugging them. Now that she thought about it, she and her parents didn't hug much, nor did they talk much. Her parents had a job to do – they didn't have a lot of time for Santana unless it was to train. Carmen and Marcelo Lopez had a reputation to uphold.
Santana's head snapped in the direction of her bedroom window as she heard her parents Escalade pulling up into the garage. She watched the car roll in from her bedroom window. Her heart would be pounding in her chest if it could beat anymore. She tip toed halfway down the staircase, and watched as her father open the door for her mother in the foyer. His chivalry always prevailed.
"Santana," said her mother, as her father took her brown Coach coat and hung it up on the coat holder beside the front door. She wasn't cold, she wasn't warm. Indifferent, as always. "I didn't expect you to be home," she said, as her dad strode down the hall into the kitchen in his Italian leather dress shoes, not even regarding Santana.
"Where else would I be?" she asked.
Her mother shrugged and followed Mr. Lopez into the kitchen. Santana sat down on a step of the staircase. She'd never realized how much her parents didn't notice her until she wanted them to. Didn't they see that she was different? Was it the dim lighting? She followed them into the kitchen where her father was pouring a scotch on the rocks and her mother took a seat at the island counter, slipping off her Gucci heels and rubbing her feet, looking exhausted.
"You're back early. How was the trip?" asked Santana.
If only for just a second, Santana could sense a hint of irritation in her mother's face.
"Fine," said her mother, looking down, her thick and graying shoulder-length hair falling in front of her eyes.
Santana turned to her father. She looked most like him. He was tall and dashing for his age. A Latin Don Draper.
"Don't you notice anything different about me?" she asked.
Mr. Lopez just stared into his scotch.
"Santana, we're very tired. Can you please leave us for tonight?" asked her mother, shaking back her hair and sitting up straight.
Santana felt like bursting. A short few hours ago she never wanted her parents to find out what happened to her, and now she wished they could just tell. Didn't they notice anything? Her pale skin? The red in her eyes that made her irises look maroon?
Santana moved evasively close to her mother, looking her straight in her chocolate brown eyes. Eyes that Santana used to have.
"Don't you see anything different?" she asked, clasping her mother's hands.
Carmen Lopez shook from the cold of her daughter's hands. "What is wrong with you? Have you been making Dirty Martini's at your father's bar, because your breath smells like salt and you're acting like a fool," she scowled.
Santana dropped her mother's hands like they were on fire and backed away in her Doc Martens. To her parents surprised, she started to laugh. Just a dry, whispered chuckle.
"You call yourselves the great vampire hunters. You can't even recognize one in front of you," said Santana.
Her parents faces fell, and they looked at her, her father's head turning like he only just realized she was here. Now they're paying attention, she thought.
"No, your theory was always right. Don't bother giving me a curfew. I'm not gonna stick to it anyways. And what's the worst that can happen out there at night? Vampires? I wouldn't be concerned," she laughed humorlessly, hysterical with anger.
"What are you talking about?" her father raised his voice, slamming his scotch glass down on the kitchen's marble counter.
"Pay attention, dad!" she yelled, "You seriously don't see it? How about this!"
And with the first time since the night she became a vampire, Santana bore her fangs and wrinkled her face to reveal the monster inside. Her parents gasped, her mother raising her hand to the necklace that rested on her chest. Santana made her face transform back just a few seconds after she'd morphed it into the monster's.
"Get out," her father uttered.
Santana's shoulder slumped, her face softened. Her heart hurt, if it were even possible.
"I know, you're shocked. It's hard to take in, but, it's not as bad as it seems. I'm still your daughter-"
"You're not my daughter!" he shouted, looking livid, "My daughter's dead and you're the monster who took her body."
Santana's hands begun to shake. "You don't understand-"
"Leave!" cried her mother, on the verge of tears.
"You… Santana's gone. You're not gonna make me drive a stake through her body," said her father.
"Dad-"
"Go before I change my mind!" he shouted.
Santana's face crumpled. Don't cry, Lopez, she thought to herself, They don't deserve it. Santana bit back tears and balled her fists.
"Fine. I'm gone," she said, backing away before they could see traitors slipping down her face.
She stamped down the hall, shaking with rage. She threw open the front door, and turned once more to look back into her hallway. She wanted to laugh and tell them how much they'd miss her and how little she'd think about them, but she settled for sticking her head back into the hall and yelling, "By the way, I'm a lesbian!"
xxx
Buffy hopped over a gravestone, the heels of her sneakers getting grass stains. C'mon, Hulk, she thought as a broad-shouldered, seven foot vamp chased after her, his long messy hair blowing past him in the night air and his chunky shoes making inch deep marks in the dirt below them. She weaved through headstones, planning to wear the big guy out before he got to bash into her with his hulking body.
She could tell that one blow from the giant beast would send her flying, so she relied on her spry flexibility to get the upper hand, tire him out and stake him from behind his thick back. Buffy looked back to see if the panting vamp was catching up. As her honey blond ponytail bounced behind her, she noted gladly that the vampire was a few meters back, gasping for breath, when she turned back and bang! She slammed right into another vamp, his heavyset body right in front of her like an impenetrable wall as he leered down at her from his wrinkled brow.
Today is just not my day, she thought as a third vamp closed in on her, all of them as big and brawny as the first. Landing a flying kick on one of their chests, she twirled behind him and ran. She knew she couldn't face them on her own, but the three were starting to close in on her. She stopped abruptly and forced as many kicks and punches to their chests as she could, throwing all of her strength into it, but it didn't seem possible to defeat them all. They grabbed hold onto her willowy arms and legs. Buffy tried to kick free, but they had her held tight, their thick porcelain fangs so close to her face she could see their plaque build-up, when one let go of her, sending her torso falling to ground.
With her feet held up in the air by one of the vamps, Buffy hung upside down to see Santana Lopez fighting one of the vampires. She wasn't winning, but she was holding them off enough for Buffy to kick the face of the one holding her legs captive. With a jump and a twirl, she karate kicked a vamp and punched it multiple times in the abs. She slid the stake out of her sleeve out and into the meaty vamp's heart, dusting it. Whipping her head around, Buffy watched Santana punch at the two remaining mega-vamps until they ran off.
"Damn! I didn't know they came that big! Can vampires take steroids?" asked Santana, her hands clutching the sides of her torso, Buffy spying a dribble of blood sliding down out of the sleeve of her top.
"You're bleeding," said Buffy, moving closer to check out the wound, but Santana flinched away. "I won't bite. Unlike a lot of things out here."
Santana put her hand up her short sleeve and brought it back out, staring at the blood stained on her fingertips, unfazed.
"I can bandage you. At my house?" asked Buffy, "Santana?"
Santana blinked and wiped the blood on her pants. "Yeah. Okay."
Back at Buffy's house, Buffy twisted her key into the front door, locking it, and warily looked left and right through the diamond shaped window to make sure no vamps were lurking around in wait. Not that they could get in.
"Where's your first aid kit?" asked Santana, her eyes shifting around her in the hall.
She had stared nervously at the frame of Buffy's front door until she'd asked her to come in, and now she was uneasily glancing at every picture on Buffy's walls of her and her mother on vacation or with family at the holidays, leaning towards the kitchen and avoiding the reflection of the windows. That's girl's a mystery, thought Buffy.
"In the kitchen," said Buffy, leading Santana in to her mother's small kitchen and sitting her down at the island counter.
She rifled through the bottom cabinet until she found the small white box with the red cross in the middle under some frying pans.
"Show me where you got hurt" asked Buffy, taking a stool and setting out the tape, bandages and antiseptic she needed to dress Santana's wound.
To her surprise, Santana whipped off her shirt, standing in her kitchen in just her teal lace bra and Guess jeans. Buffy blushed and tried not to linger long on Santana's toned body, turning her attention to the bloody gash on her arm.
"I take it you're not squeamish?" Santana teased, noticing Buffy fixed stare on her wound.
"I've seen worse," Buffy said quietly, spraying Santana's arm and covering it with a bandage.
Santana watched Buffy's nimble fingers at work as she taped the cotton to her arm.
"So, why are you fighting vampires in the middle of the night?" asked Santana, making Buffy fumble slightly under her unflinching stare.
"I could ask you the same."
"Well, I don't do it regularly. You just looked like you needed help."
"I don't normally need help," Buffy mumbled.
"It's okay to need help every once in a while," said Santana, her voice surprisingly soft, making Buffy shiver.
"All done," she said, quickly shoving things back into their first aid box and putting it back into its cabinet.
She turned around to find Santana pulling her shirt back down over her flat stomach.
"I should go," said Santana, staring gravely at the ground.
"No," said Buffy, too quickly, "You should stay. I mean, if you want to. You're hurt."
Santana's mouth crept up in a sly half smile. "Someone likes playing nurse."
"Well, I-I-" Buffy started stuttering aimlessly until the two were interrupted.
The kitchen light flipped on by Buffy's mom who was leaning in the doorway, her hand on her hip looking exhausted and irritated.
"Buffy?" said Joyce, unimpressed.
"Mom! This is my... friend! Santana!" she said, raising her hands to gesture to Santana, who looked surprisingly and unusually pale under the kitchen light.
"Isn't it a little late for visitors?" asked Joyce.
"Yeah! We were just studying. But, uh, it's late. Can Santana crash here for the night?"
Buffy's mother pursed her lips, and nodded tightly. "Okay, but go to bed now, and be up for school tomorrow morning."
"Totally," Buffy smiled awkwardly as her mother sauntered back upstairs to her room.
"You didn't have to do that," said Santana.
"Do you have anywhere else to stay tonight?" asked Buffy.
Santana only shook her head solemnly.
