Santana was doing a happy dance on the inside but she caught herself. Brittany was admitted to the hospital because her ex-boyfriend assaulted her. Brittany didn't need some random woman hitting on her.

"Saaantanaaaa! I'm starvingggg." Brittany whined.

Santana looked beside Brittany's bed to see a tray full of food. "Well, that's sort of what happens when you don't eat." she asked as she looked down at her watch. "Brittany, it's almost lunch time. You haven't eaten all this time?"

"No."

"Why not? Are you nauseous? That's normal but you still have to eat." Santana asked as she walked over to Brittany's tray of food. Runny, gray, lumpy oatmeal, suspicious-looking apple sauce, and mystery juice. "Why didn't you eat this? It's looks delish." Santana painfully smiled and tried to make it sound appetizing.

Brittany faced her and arched her good eyebrow. "Really? Why don't you eat it then?" she challenged.

"Ugh, okay, fine. Well, your lunch should be here soon. If you don't like what they bring, we'll figure something out, all right?"

"Such as..."

"Such as I'll ask you what you'd like," Brittany's face lit up, "butttt, huge disclaimer: you just had your spleen removed and your ribs set. They weren't shattered but still... You can't be scarfing down a double cheeseburger or anything. Other than that, you'll be fine." The doctor explained to Brittany as she sat down in the seat next her.

"You'll eat with me? You dropped your banana so you didn't get a chance to eat. And, I really don't like eating alone. This last month of eating alone sucked. It was horrible, I've never felt so alone." Brittany's voiced wavered slightly. She took a moment to gather herself. "Buuut now, that I have a sexy doctor at my beck and call, there really isn't any reason that I should have to eat alone."

"Britt, what happened to you?" Santana softly asked ignoring the last thing Brittany said. She was too focused on how hurt Brittany sounded.

Brittany tensed.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Santana quickly said. "Like I said, I'm here to keep you company. You want something done and I'll do it. You know, as long as it won't cause you any physical harm and trust me, a double cheeseburger will do that."

"You're so sweet. It's hard to believe there isn't a Mr. Doctor Lopez." Brittany laughed.

"Well, there is, actually. My dad."

"Oh, ew. That's not what I meant. Like, at all, San." The blonde scrunched her face and giggled.

"I know, I'm just messin'. Well, there wouldn't be a Mister Doctor Lopez." She took a deep breath and hoped for the best. "Actually, there'd be a Missus Doctor Lopez." Santana tentatively corrected.

"Okay, so how come there isn't a Missus Doctor Lopez?" Brittany responded without missing a beat. "Or is there? You didn't mention a wife in your spiel about yourself. If you are married but didn't mention her, that'd kinda make you an asshole, Santana." She shook her head at Santana.

With a light chuckle from Santana, "No, I'm not married. Actually I've never had a girlfriend." Why Santana chose to tell her that was beyond her.

"Why not?" Brittany asked as she furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Never needed one."

"Silly, no one needs a girlfriend. We can live just fine without one. In fact, it'll probably be easier without one. No fights. Never feeling smothered. No one hogging the shower in the mornings. Never PMSing at the same time when your cycles sync up." She took a breath. "No one needs that, no one wants that, it's bound to happen. All that shit happens regardless. But when you find someone you want – not need – it's all worth it. You'd go through that and a thousands more things to be able to fall asleep in her arms and wake up to her drooling on your shoulders. For the validation she'll give you. For the unconditional love and affection. For the company. For the unlimited supply of back rubs and baths and walks in the parks and definitely the super steamy sex. No one ever needs that but it just makes life better. So, I guess my question should change, have you ever wanted one?" Brittany posed her question and looked at Santana expectantly.

She does now.

"Honestly?"

"Of course, I wouldn't want anything else from you." Brittany answered with a smile.

"I didn't want that."

" 'didn't'?" Brittany questioned.

"Yeah, I didn't but now I do." Santana didn't know what else to say, her face and neck heating up distracted her from saying anything else. Brittany was just beat up by her ex, she doesn't need Santana all over her. "Oh, would you look at the time." she mentioned as she tried to find an out. "I'm going to check what's taking them so long with your lunch." She got up and headed for the nurses station before Brittany got a chance to say anything. The nurses have nothing to do with the distribution of meals but she needed a break from her talk with Brittany. She ignored Officer Puckerman's greeting and stood at the most empty spot at the nurses station.

"Hey, how are you? Long time no see, huh?" Elaine appeared out of nowhere.

"Yeah, an entire six hours. What are you doing here? This isn't your floor." The doctor asked.

"Well, gee, Santana. I didn't know you marked this as your territory. I'll keep that in mind." Elaine chuckled.

"Sorry, just curious." She let out as she rested her forehead on the counter.

"Why so down?"

She weighed her options. She wasn't one for dishonesty, she liked to keep shit real. However, she just ended things with Elaine, was she it really appropriate to talk to her about Brittany?

"Honestly?" Santana asked for the second time in the couple minutes.

"Up to you." The other woman replied with a shoulder shrug.

"You won't get mad?"

"Depends." Elaine replied.

"I'm crushing on a straight woman." The doctor rushed out.

"Serves you right."

"Hey!"

"I'm serious. You've been playing girls probably since you came out of the womb. It's karmic justice. The universe is finally biting you in the ass. But, you know, no hard feelings." Elaine said while she patted Santana on the back.

"Good to know."

"So, what are you going to do?"

"There's nothing I can do. She's straight. I'm a lesbian. These things just never work out while sober. And, entirely hypothetically, if she weren't straight, I couldn't pursue her or anything because she's in here. I'd feel like that sultry lioness that stalks the gazelle with the missing leg and waits until it's peacefully drinking water from the lake and then pounces on the poor thing in front of its herd. I couldn't do that to her." She finishes out of breath and with a whine.

"What do you mean 'in here'?"

"Like, in 3487. She was brought in last night. Bad shape."

"Really?" Elaine curiously asked slowly backing away toward room 3478. "How is she? Conscious?"

"Yeah. Obviously. Or else I wouldn't be keeping her company. Why?" She asked lifting her head off the desk. Looking for Elaine, watching her go towards Brittany's room. "Wait, Elaine!" She whispered yelled, trying to catch up to her.

Too late.

Elaine had already gone in.

"Thanks, Puckerman for letting Elaine in." she directed towards the officer.

"Hey, she's a nurse. She showed me her badge. I'm out here looking for a tall, blonde guy." The officer attempted to defend himself. But clearly, Santana ignored him and rushed into the room.

"... a friend of Santana's. She was telling me about you and I-" Elaine was cut off as Santana burst through the door.

"Elaine!" she exclaimed as Brittany and Elaine turned to look at her. "What are you doing?" she asked through a fake smile, trying not to alarm Brittany.

"Nothing, I was just introducing myself to your new friend here."

"Why?" Santana asked. Brittany didn't really know what was going on, so she just kept looking between the two.

"Because you don't have friends and I was curious."

"I have friends. I just made a friend! Her name's Nichole and she's a detective."

"Oh, did you sleep with her too?" Elaine bitterly asked.

Santana briefly looked at Brittany and then looked at the floor.

After seeing Santana's reaction, Elaine tried to fix what she had said. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Brittany," she answered still confused.

"Nice to meet you. I'm sorry that we couldn't have met under better circumstances but still, nice to meet you. Any friend of Santana's must be special." Elaine finished with a smile, hoping that her previous question would be forgotten.

"Yeah, Sanny is special and birds of a feather flock together." Brittany grinned.

" 'Sanny?' I see." Elaine looked at Santana.

"Yeahhh, it's short for Santana."

"Oh, yes, of course. I've just never had the permission to call her anything other than 'Santana'."

"What? Santana," she turned to Santana, "Do you not like it? I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'll stop, if you want."

"No. No. It's fine, don't worry. I like it. No one calls me that." Santana told Brittany as she took her seat next to Brittany.

"Not even Quinn?" The blonde inquired.

"Oh, so you've met Quinn? Wow, Santana. You sure do move fast." Elaine applauded Brittany's achievements.

"What? No. I haven't met Quinn yet."

"But you will?" Elaine pushed.

"Elaine!" Santana said. "Isn't there some pregnant woman crowning or effacing that needs your help?"

"No. I'm sure they're fine. Women have been giving birth without nurses for thousands of years. I'm sure they'll manage. I'm getting to know Brittany."

"Wait, so you're not bringing my food?" she asked as she looked around for some food Elaine might've brought in.

"No, she's not. She slipped in here without me knowing." Santana answered for Elaine.

"Oh, you don't want me to meet your friends?" The blonde asked as her shoulders dropped.

"No! I mean, Elaine isn't really my friend, per se."

"I'm not? You alluded to our friendship last night, I was just fulfilling my friendly duties."

"Yes! I'd like for us to be friends but isn't this awkward for you? I mean, it's a liiiiittle awkward for me and, I'm, well, me." she explained as she ducked her head a bit. Santana didn't know how to damage control, she wasn't even sure if damage control was needed.

"San, why is this awkward? I don't really get what's going on. So you didn't bring me my lunch? Where's my lunch?" Brittany really didn't know what was going, all she wanted was to eat with Santana, she didn't know why this lady was borderline interrogating her.

"No idea but up until Saturday night, she and I were sleeping together." answered Elaine.

"I thought you never had girlfriends?"

"She doesn't do that. That's exactly why she ended it. Consider yourself lucky, Brittany." Elaine said with a smirk.

"Elaine! Leave! Please, for the love of God. Go check dilated cervixes. I'll buy you all the drinks you want. Hell, I'll buy you a damn bar. Here," Santana rushed over to Elaine and shoved her hand in her pocket to pull out her credit card, "take my credit card and buy whatever you want. Please, just go." she begged in a pleading whisper.

"Thanks. You're buying me dinner." she then smiled at Brittany, "It was nice meeting you. I'm sure we'll see each other soon. Bye." she waved as she made her exit.

"Sooo, when do I get to meet Quinn? I hope she's normal because no offense but Elaine was weird and kind of a bitch. She just put your business out there." Santana couldn't help but laugh. "And, she didn't bring me my food. That was the worst part."

"She's a nurse in Labor and Delivery. Nurses aren't in charge of nutrition. The cafeteria has people for that." the brunette explained.

"Oh, well, since your friend – I think you should get your credit card back before she goes on shopping spree to spite you for stringing her along, by the way – didn't bring me food, you should totally get me some food." Brittany said with a light tone.

"I should? And, don't worry, she left a pair of Manolo Blahnik's at my apartment so, we're pretty much even." Santana sat back down and checked her nails.

"Yeah, you should. Of course. Since you did her wrong but she's taking it out on your card, you should make it up to me." Brittany nodded her head to get her point across.

"Really?"

"Mmhm." Brittany hummed in agreement.

"What else should I do in order to 'make this up to you'?" Santana asked in a rather playful tone.

"You should get me some food. Then you should totally get me a brush or something or at least braid my hair because I saw myself in the mirror when I went to pee earlier and it scared the beejeezus out of me. Theeen you should totally give me a foot rub." she says as pulls up her blanket and wiggles her toes.

"Food? I can do. Allergies? Hair? I can totally trick you out with some corn rows. I can even write your name. Foot rub? I don't know how good I'll be. I've only done it twice. Quinn was pregnant with the twins and she blackmailed me into doing it. I swear it wasn't my fault. It was her kid's fault."

"No allergies. A french braid will suffice. And you know what they say, practice makes perfect. Oh, what'd you do? I bet it'd make a great story."

Santana just shook her head in laughter as she pulled out her phone to text Quinn to bring up Brittany up lunch, reminding her of Brittany's injuries. "No, seriously. Pleasseeeee. With everything that's happened and the fact that I had a super long day at work before, my legs and feet are super sore but the meds make them tingly. Super weird. But, normal sore not sore-sore, so don't worry."

"Fine, fine. I won't ask if you need another dosage. Okay. Let me wash my hands." Santana wasn't complaining. She'd take any excuse to touch Brittany. She asked for it. It's not like Santana was taking advantage of her. Totally not a sultry lioness. She went to the bathroom and washed her hands. She dried off her hands she sat of the corner of the bed and began to rub at Brittany's feet. "What do you? For a living, I mean."

"Oh, gosh, that feels soooo good. I'm glad Elaine is bitter." Brittany let out a pleased moan.

Music to Santana's ears.

"What? Why?" She asked as she tilted her head in confusion. Bitter ex hook-ups are bad news. She's had her car keyed enough times to prove that.

"If she weren't bitter, I wouldn't have been able to talk you into rubbing my feet." Brittany slyly responds.

"You'd be surprised." Santana mumbled under her breath.

"What?"

"Never mind. Anyway, answer my question." she said to get the conversation back on track.

"Oh, right! I'm a dancer. Well, now I teach it. I have my own dance studio and I teach some classes. I brought the company over here from Chicago."

"Dancer, huh?" The possibilities of what Brittany's body was capable of were endless in her mind.

"Yup, I've been dancing since I can remember. It's all I've wanted to do, you know, except be mom and having a billion kids."

Santana coughed at that last part. Of course Brittany would want a troupe of kids. It would be her luck. But, thinking about it, it doesn't sound that bad. Who was she kidding? Brittany would get married to that perfect, all-American guy and have those kids with him. Then she'll ask Santana to be their godmother and since Santana is a newly developed masochist, she'd accept.

"... and that's why MIT didn't work out." Brittany finished.

"Oh, sorry." Santana lamented, without truly knowing why.

"No, it's fine. They were morons, didn't know integrals from their anti-derivatives or when to use the correct Right-Hand rule. It was nice to go back home to Chicago. For a while, at least."

"Yeah, nice accent, by the way."

"Hardee Har Har."

"I'm kidding. You can hardly hear it. What else can you tell me about yourself?" Santana asked as she kept rubbing at Brittany's feet.

"You have a dog, well I have a cat. His name's Lord Tubbington. Wait, what happened to all of my stuff? Like my purse? And my pants? Also," Brittany leans forward and begins to whisper "when I went to pee, I found out I'm not wearing any panties."

Santana swears her heart stopped. She's doctor, she knows the symptoms of cardiac arrest.

She cleared her throat before she answered, "Um, yeah, all that stuff gets taken off for surgery. But your purse, I don't know."

"Do you think you can call Detective Grayson to ask her or is she also pissed because you slept with her?" Brittany says with a smirk.

"How did you-"

"Wow, you're not even denying it. Elaine said it, remember?" Brittany smugly interrupted, with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Oh, right. She did. She wasn't that mouthy when we were doing it." The brunette muttered under her breath but loud enough for Brittany to hear.

"I don't know. She might've been but you might've been to occupied to notice." Brittany continued to tease.

"Hey, keep this up and I'll stop." Santana threatened and let go of Brittany's foot.

"No, no, no, I'll stop teasing you about sleeping with Elaine and my cop." She compromised as she wiggled her toes again.

"That's what I thought, Miss Pierce."

"When did you and Detective Grayson meet? She can't be that mad at you if you guys seemed all right when she was asking me questions." Brittany genuinely asked.

"Um, we met today."

"And you already had sex!?" She was surprised. Nichole was literally in the room for ten minutes. Santana sure does work fast.

"Um, yes?" Santana responded as if she were afraid of saying the wrong answer.

"Wow, I didn't know you had it like that." Brittany should have known though. The tiny detective was eyeballing Santana the entire time. What a slut.

"Like what?"

"I didn't know you were so, so, I guess, slutty." Brittany let out.

"Hey!" Santana exclaimed. She didn't know why because the shoe certainly fit.

"No offense. I'm not judging. But since you have an in with her, get my stuff." Brittany demanded as she playfully narrowed her eyes at Santana.

"I'll talk to the cop outside to see if he has her number."

"You had sex with her but didn't get her number? Daaamnn, San-tan-aaa."

"Wait, wait, don't get the wrong idea. I'm not like that. I mean, I am, well, I was. Not anymore." Santana tried to do some slight damage control. If she didn't need it before, she needed it now.

" 'was'? You were? She was just here a couple hours ago, you mean to tell me that some time during these past couple hours you had a change of heart?"

"Well. Yes." Santana frankly stated.

"Really?"

"Yes. You wanted honesty so I'm giving you honesty."

"Uh-huh, and what caused this change of heart?" Brittany asked as she tried to sit up straighter.

"Hello, hello, hello! Doctor Fabray here and she comes bearing gifts." Quinn came in holding a bag of food.

Santana has never loved Quinn more than she does now. She didn't want to lie to Brittany but she didn't want to put her in an awkward situation by admitting she was the reason for Santana's change of heart.

"Quinn!" she yelled as she rushed over to Quinn, giving her a bear hug. "Oh, my gosh. I love you so much, I love you, I love you, I love you." she whispered in Quinn's ear.

"Get off me, Santana." she pushed Santana back. "I'm flattered but I'm married." she says as she shows her wedding ring. "I'm sure you remember, you were there for the wedding. Not only did Rachel make you wear that horrible orange jersey dress, you got bitch-slapped in the middle of the dance floor for sleeping with her cousin's girlfriend a couple years before. Hilarious." She stopped talking to Santana and turned her attention to Brittany. "Well, hello, Brittany. I'm Quinn and Santana has not been able to shut up about you. I just had to come up and see for myself. But, don't worry, I brought you food." Quinn introduced herself as she sat down in Santana's usual seat, handing Brittany the bags.

"Score! Nice to meet you Quinn." she said as she held out her hand for Quinn.

"Quinn?" Santana tried to get her attention.

"What, Santana? I'm trying to get to know Brittany." Quinn responded with irritation.

"Don't embarrass me. Elaine was already here and she talked about the cop so don't make it worse." She warned before going to wash her hands.

"Don't exaggerate, Sanny. It wasn't that bad. We've all went through our slut phases, it's no one's fault that you're still going through yours." Brittany chuckled and shook her head while looking through the bags Quinn gave her.

"No! I'm not going through it still. I'm done. I told you, change of heart. No more." Santana firmly said. She was serious about this. She wanted Brittany to know that.

"Yeah, you never did get to tell me what caused that change of heart." She asked as she looked up from the bags.

"You did." Quinn answered before Santana had the opportunity to.

"Quinn!" Santana exclaimed.

"I did?" Brittany asked confused.

"What?" Quinn directed to Santana and then back to Brittany "You did. She's known you for less than a day and she decided to stop fucking around. I've known her since we were 14 and I haven't been able to get her to stop. Kudos, Brittany." Quinn honestly congratulated Brittany.

"Quuuiiinnn, stop talking. None of you talk. I have to wash my hands."

Santana couldn't believe what was going on. Quinn had told Brittany she was the reason. She really didn't want to be dishonest with Brittany, she deserves more than lies. She just didn't want to make her uncomfortable. She quickly washed her hands and went to sit down in the chair next to Brittany but Quinn had already occupied it. She settled with the tiny couch against the wall.

"I'm back. You may now speak, I can monitor the conversation. Continue." Santana dismissively waved her hand.

"Well, I'm glad we have your blessing now, you majesty." Quinn sarcastically answered.

"So, did you sleep with Santana too?" Brittany casually asked as she slowly tried to uncover her chicken breast and mashed potatoes with baby carrots.

Santana choked on air.

"Are you okay, San?" Brittany sweetly asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Santana croaked out while Quinn was desperately trying to hold back her laughter; she's never seen Santana get this flustered. She noticed that Brittany was struggling opening the container with only one hand, so she walked over to help. "Okay, so honestly?"

"Always."

"Oh, my gosh. Yes, we had a horrible, drunken night junior year." Quinn spoke. Again, before Santana could.

"Hey! It wasn't horrible." She turned to Brittany as she finished opening it, "It wasn't horrible, I don't do horrible." she vehemently said. She couldn't have Brittany thinking she was horrible.

"Do you have any friends that you haven't slept with? So far you have," Brittany said as she held up hand, "Elaine, Nichole, Quinn" as she counted off as she held up fingers. "Elaine said you didn't have many friends. Maybe you don't have friends because you sleep with them all. You should stop and maybe you'll have some more." Brittany told her as she took a bite of her chicken.

"Of course I have friends I haven't slept with!"

"Yeah, because they're gay or married." Quinn put her two cents in.

"Well, Mercedes is straight and we kinda' hated each other in high school. We only got close after we went away to college. Tina, or Doctor Cohen Chang, is married to Boy Chang. Kurt is a huge homo, like a strong breed of homo. And, Rachel? I don't have an elf fetish."

"Santana!"

"Okay, fine. Rachel isn't all that bad when she isn't talking or pregnant. Or married to you." Santana glared at Quinn.

"Interesting." Brittany stated as she rubbed her chin between her index finger and thumb before taking another bite.

"How is that interesting?" Santana asked.

"No reason. I was just wondering. I'm not married or straight or an elf, as far as I know, so I was just wondering when it was my turn to take a ride on Santana." she teased.

Santana stopped breathing. Brittany riding Santana, was the only thing Santana could think of.

"Okay, okay, okay, calm down, S." Quinn said as she rolled her eyes. "She's just busting your chops." She turned to Brittany, "You are just busting her chops, right? Because she's bad enough as it is without having the feelings mutual."

Santana still couldn't breath; she had begun to envision Brittany's dancing body riding all sorts of things.

"I wouldn't mind." she answered as she took another bite of the mashed potatoes. "These mashed potatoes could use more salt. And butter. Butter is good."

"No, low sodium is good for you right now. Wait, what do you mean 'you wouldn't mind'?" Quinn asked Brittany.

"Yeah, no salt." Santana came back to reality.

Brittany whined in disappointment. "Just because you guys have me on percocet, doesn't mean I'm blind. Have you seen Santana? Not only is she hot, she's sweet and adorable."

"Santana?" Quinn asks in disbelief as she points to Santana. "No."

"What's that supposed to mean? I can be nice. I'm super endearing, asshole." Santana shot back.

"Yup, that Santana Lopez." Brittany finished her bite, "It's only been a little since we've really met but she's been so incredibly nice to me and has really gone out of her way for me. And, Jesus Christ, have you seen her ass?" She turned to Santana, "you have a nice ass. Just the right amount of round and perky. Can't wait to see it out of scrubs." she added a wink. "The fact that she's into me is just a plus. So, like I said, I wouldn't mind. Are you sure I can't have some salt on this? And where's the rest of it? I feel like this came from the kids' menu. I don't know if you read this in that chart, but I'm 30 and a half years old."

"It's not off the kids' menu. It's off the 'just had an organ removed and a lung punctured menu'. If I could, I would bu-"

"Wait!" Santana abruptly interrupted. "What makes you think I'm into you?" Santana then nonchalantly asked.

"Why wouldn't you be into me? Is there something wrong with me?" Brittany dead-panned.

"No, no, there's nothing wrong with you." Santana was quickly to say.

Quinn couldn't take it anymore. "Oh, gosh. Okay, here it is: she's into you but you're straight, or so we thought, and were recently admitted into this hospital so she didn't want to say anything and add more drama to your plate. Since she's barely tolerated and/or knew the girls she's been with before, so she's been having an internal panic attack because she doesn't know what feelings are."

"Well, you weren't really all that discrete were you?" Brittany teased.

"I don't know you are talking about, Miss Pierce." she said as she stole one of Brittany's baby carrots.

"I'm going to go find someone to help. You two are ridiculous. You belong together. Have fun. See you around." Quinn got up to leave but turned around before she went anywhere. "Wait. Brittany, by default you know more about dating and relationships than she does, so don't hold anything against her."

"Of course not. Thank you for everything, Doctor Quinn." Brittany said as she smiled at Quinn. "You should eat the rest of my carrots. They were soggy but I didn't want to hurt Quinn's feelings." she pushed her plastic plate of food toward Santana. "Also, I'm still waiting for my hair to be braided. So, chop chop." she playfully demanded.

"All right, give me a sec to scarf down whatever she got me." Santana looked in the bag to find quesadillas. "Quesadillas? That bitch, she knows I don't like quesadillas. But whatever." She went back to sit in her rightful seat next to Brittany. She wanted to talk about what Brittany had said but she didn't want to push her now that they were alone. She didn't want Brittany to tense up again like she did when she asked about what happened to her.

"Okay, it's not like I'm going anywhere." Brittany said as she leaned back and closed her eyes.

"You better not." she playfully threatened.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, Sanny."

"I would hope not. I'm already attached. I'm super curious and even more excited." Santana giddily responded before taking another bite.

"Excited for what?"

"To, I don't know, date you." She didn't know what came next but since Brittany implied that she found Santana attractive, she figured it would be the next step.

"Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren't you, Doctor? Just because I wanna ride that, doesn't necessarily mean I want to date you." Brittany sat up again to look at Santana.

Santana's shoulders slumped in defeat. She should've known better. She got up to throw everything away. "Okay. Give me a second to wash my hands and I'll braid your hair." After she finished washing her hands, she quietly walked next to Brittany. She ran her fingers through Brittany's hair before she began to braid it.

After a while of quiet, "I met my ex boyfriend in high school. We only got close right as we were about to graduate but I went away to MIT and he stayed back. We kept in touch and when I went back to Chicago, we were the best of friends until we were more than just friends. But that was years after I went back. We were together for about a half a year until he started acting funny." Neither Santana nor Brittany spoke. "Look, to cut my sob story short, he became abusive and I ended it, it took me a while but I did end it. He didn't accept that and he started stalking me and badgering everyone I worked with and my friends. I put up for it for a couple of months before I couldn't take it anymore. I took the first flight over here and brought my company with me. It was fine until last night, apart from the loneliness. And, from there, you know the rest." Brittany finished with tears in her eyes.

"You didn't have to tell me that, Britt." she softly said as she ran her fingers through the blonde's hair.

"I owed you that much. You offered to let me stay with you, I had to tell you. There's a cop out there for a reason. I don't know how he found me here. I didn't tell anyone where I was moving but he found me. He hurt me and if he hurt you, I couldn't live with myself. That's why I can't give you what you want. I just can't. Can you imagine what he'd do to you if he found out? You've done more for me in this one day than my other friends ever did. Do you think they did anything to stop Sam? Did anything to help me? No. That's why I didn't tell them anything. I'm afraid of him but I'm more afraid of what he could do to you. I shouldn't even be staying with you. I was just being selfish. I can't stay with you. Thanks but I should just get an at-home nurse until the cops find Sam." Brittany began to shake from crying. Her ribs hurt and her lungs burned but she couldn't stop crying.

"I can take care of myself, Brittany." Santana gently told her. "If you let me, I'll take care of you too. No questions asked. I expect nothing in return. I don't care about Sam or anyone else. You're staying with me, especially after what you just told." Santana had to stop because she could feel herself getting angry and Brittany didn't need anger. "I'm unlisted. There's a security guard at the front desk and I have an alarm to my own apartment." She bent down to look at Brittany's face. "You're safe. I won't let anyone hurt you. I'll be here. I promised you that. If you don't want to potentially date me because you honestly don't want to, that's fine. I'll back off but I won't stop caring. Just don't say no because you're afraid I'll get hurt. Can't we just cross that bridge when we get there? I want to get to know you. That wasn't a pick-up line or anything. It's the truth. I want to get to know you, Brittany."

Brittany turned to try to bury her face into Santana's neck. Santana didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around her. She could feel tears on her neck and Brittany shaking in her arms. There was nothing she could do but just hold her.

"Please don't leave me. I don't have anyone else. Don't leave me alone." Brittany pleaded through her sobs.

"I won't, Britt. I promise."