Author's Note: Just a thanks to SnixBr, Chuckleshan, lg4az, ruby-may89, AlabamaMiles, Blueskkies, ishlheard2day, mocblue, naynay1963, snixx-tana & Gleeahokic for your reviews. I'm hoping to get two more chapters out before I leave for Jamaica next week, but we shall see! As always, I look forward to hearing what you all think!
In our family, both biological and the one we'd created with the ones who meant the most to us, big events never passed without a ridiculous amount of pomp and circumstance, it was just the way that we all did things. There was one day though that was an exception, one infinitely important day, that wasn't marked with any of the usual fanfare. September 19th, the day that had at one time defined my entire existence, had faded into one of silent remembrance, only commemorated with the simplest utterance of I love you's murmured by those I held dear to me. When I woke up just after dawn on that morning, the morning of another year passed, my body was in it's usual position, legs entwined with my wife's, our bodies almost completely one with each other. It was Brittany's unconscious motions that had given me such an important reminder, as her whole hand covered the softball sized bruise on my lower back and just the smallest tip of her pinky finger rested just above my left breast; we need to hold onto the future so much tighter than we hold onto the past.
Carefully, so as not to wake Brittany, I slipped out of her embrace and down the hall to where our beautiful little girl slept. When I crept into the room, trying not to wake the other blonde in my life, I was immediately greeted by blue eyes that blinked slowly open and a bright, if not sleepy, smile. She was always so acutely aware of our presence, even in her sleep, and I returned her smile with my own soft one. Climbing up into her bed and under the covers with her, I wrapped my arms around Annie and she snuggled close to me. I savored those sleepy moments, the moments just after the sun came up where there were no obligations beyond taking time to think about how important the smallest things in life are.
"Te amo, mi bebé dulce." I whispered into her little blonde head, feeling her warm breath against my neck.
"Te amo también, Mamí." She said softly, her voice still edged with sleep and her fingers tugging at the ends of my hair. "S'it time to get up now?
"We don't have to, it's very early and Mama is still asleep."
"Mmmkay." She murmured, her eyes closing again as she lay against my chest, the same way she used to fall asleep as a tiny baby. "I'm going to sleep again too."
I hadn't realized that I'd fallen back to sleep with Annie, the soft sounds of her breathing lulling me. It wasn't until I felt the dip of the bed, and the touch of long fingers running through my hair that I woke up again. Brittany was lying beside us already dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt, smiling contentedly at the sight of Annie and I curled up together. She leaned over, pressing her lips against mine and I reached up to cup her cheek with the hand that wasn't resting on our daughter's back. When she pulled away, feeling the stir of a no longer soundly sleeping four year old, I looked over to the nightstand when I smelled the cup of coffee she'd placed there for me. Beside it was a paper wrapped bouquet of sterling roses and daisies, Britt's own silent way of reminding me how loved I was.
"Morning, Mama." Annie grinned, not lifting her ear from where it rested against my heart, but reaching out to hold Brittany's hand. "How come everybody wants to lay in my bed today?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. Did you want us to leave you be?"
"Course not." She moved off of my body and wrapped her arms around Britt while I reached for my coffee, humming happily into the first sip. "I like when we get to snuggle."
"So does Mamí." Brittany stage-whispered. "But don't tell anyone."
"S'okay, I don't think she's very good at keeping that secret anyway." Annie bounced up and down in Brittany's arms, both of them smiling in my direction.
"You're right." I laughed, ticking Annie's belly before squeezing Britt's hand. "I'm not. But that's okay, only two people in the whole world are lucky enough to get some of my awesome cuddles."
By the time we finally got up out of Annie's bed (after playing several dozen games of I Spy, reading two chapters of our book and listening to Annie talk endlessly about school-something I would never ask her to stop), it was much later than I would have liked to start our morning. We seemed to be moving slowly and lazily throughout the day, but I couldn't even complain, some days were just made for slow and lazy. The three of us made the long walk over to Whole Foods, Annie standing on the end of the cart and Brittany pushing, with me quickly working through the list when we finally got there. We fought through the ridiculous crowds of people (seriously, it was like everyone in the city felt the need to grocery shop at exactly the same time), and once we were home and the groceries were put away, Annie and Brittany settled themselves on the floor of the playroom with Legos. Tearing myself away, I went into the office, using the slight twinge of anxiety I felt to fuel me towards finally finishing the one remaining page in the manilla folder.
It was over an hour before I'd signed my name, proofread everything I'd written and sealed the pages in a large envelope, ready to be sent off first thing Monday morning. There was something symbolic about it for me, finishing the grant application that could possibly make my dream a reality on the same day that I once thought all of my dreams had shriveled up and died. Feeling a slight pounding in my head (day three of withdrawal from anything was the worst- although, considering the other things I'd withdrawn from, caffeine was easy, it wasn't completely void of consequence), I pinched the bridge of my nose and leaned back in the chair with my eyes closed. Without opening them, I felt Brittany's presence in the room as she came over and sat down on my lap, softly pressing her lips between my eyes, using her touch to soothe the ache there.
"Are you okay, San?" She asked, concern thick in her voice.
"Just a little bit of a headache." I told her, still not opening my eyes as she placed soft kisses on each lid. "But I finished the application, I can send it out on Monday."
"That's awesome!" She bounced a little bit in my lap and I opened my eyes with a smile, catching her lips with mine.
"I know. Sorry I spend part of our Saturday shut up in here, I just felt like I needed today to be the day that I finished it, you know?"
"Absolutely. And now that the paperwork is out of the way, you can really work on the things that you want to."
"Yeah, I mean I'll have a ton more paperwork to do eventually, but I can't really do much else without knowing whether or not I'm going to get the money to even officially start. I mean, Finn's school has been great, and I'm so excited about my first session next month, but I'm just ready for it to be bigger. I could really use the help of someone who actually knows what they're doing, you know?"
"You're going to get the money. It's such a great thing that you're trying to do, and there's really nothing else like it out there. Obviously, having objective counseling sessions doesn't work for so many kids, they need someone in the trenches with them, and you can do that."
"Let's just hope they see it like that. I think that the people that run these grant programs like to see things that are tried and true. Maybe something novel isn't what they're looking for." I sighed, my biggest fear about the entire project being that I would never get the money I needed to actually get it going somewhere, never get the accreditation so other schools just gave me a chance.
"I really believe that there are people out there who will take a chance on you. Everyone's had their own struggles, and I think there are a lot of people who have seen that the traditional ways of dealing with things just don't always work. And more than I believe in them, I believe in you, Santana, I know that you can make anything happen." She rested her forehead against mine, repeating the words that she'd said to me twice before. "And you've still got two tricks up your sleeve if you need to use them."
"I guess. I mean, I know that Rachel and Mercedes both told me they'd use their celebrity status to help, but it's just something I really, really want to do on my own."
"I know honey, but it's still you, even if you do ask for their help. But for now, let's just keep believing that those old guys who review the grants are going to send you a big, fat check." She smiled into another kiss, and I felt myself smiling back.
"Thanks, Britt. I needed to hear that. Where's Annie?"
"She fell asleep basically in a pile of Legos while we were building our zoo. I brought her up to bed, figuring I'd let her sleep, since she'll probably be up late with Brice sleeping here. Are you ready to practice having two kids overnight?"
"I am." I laughed. "But I think, if Annie's still sleeping, you and I should get some rest too."
"I love that idea. And maybe your head will feel a little better after you take a nap."
"Yeah, just a few more days and this damn caffeine withdrawal will go away."
"You know I appreciate you giving up your last vice for this, right?" Brittany stood up from my lap and took both of my hands, pulling me up with her.
"Oh no. I still have one last vice." I winked. "And you are one that I'll never give up."
After we were able to nap for over an hour and I took a hot shower to take the final edge off of my headache, Annie was bouncing around the house, so excited about her sleepover with Brice. When I came downstairs, dressed in just sweatpants and one of Brittany's long t-shirts (I loved that I felt no need to get dressed up for Finn and Rachel), I scooped her up in my arms and carried her into the kitchen with me. Just as I'd settled her up on the counter to help me start making dinner, the doorbell rang, and she nearly jumped off, itching to be the first one to get to the door. After setting her back on the floor, she ran to Brittany, who'd just finished her own shower, and hopped up and down, waiting for her Mama to open up the door. I stood in the doorway of the kitchen, smiling as Finn scooped her up in the arm he wasn't holding Brice with.
"Hi Bricey!" She shrieked, kissing his cheeks in the same way that Brittany and I did. "Hi Uncle Finn! Hi Auntia Rachel!"
"Hey there Annie. Someone's excited tonight!" Finn chuckled.
"I missed you so much!" She hugged Finn tightly as Brittany took Brice from his arms.
"Oh sweet boy, look how big you're getting." Britt carried Brice over to me and I wrapped my arms around both of them.
"Brinny, S'tana, I gets to sleepover today!"
"We're very excited to have you sleep over Brice. I hope you're ready for all kinds of crazy Lopez-Pierce fun." I blew a raspberry on his chubby hand and he laughed hysterically.
"C'mon!" Annie called, hopping down from Finn's arms and dragging him toward us. "Let's go play!"
Once Finn brought the kids into the playroom, looking like a giant sitting in one of Annie's small chairs, Brittany, Rachel and I went back into the kitchen. Before I could stop her, Rachel engulfed me in a hug, not saying anything, and I hugged her back, just as hard as she was hugging me. She knew better than to make a big deal, but I wasn't going to stop her from expressing her emotions toward me. After she finally pulled away, I awkwardly shuffled over to the refrigerator to take out the raw chicken, while Brittany pulled the breadcrumbs out of the cabinet. Rachel sat down at the counter across from us, and Britt and I worked in sync, breading the chicken for dinner.
"Thank you both so much for taking Brice for the night, it's been awhile since Finn and I have had any alone time."
"We are always glad to take him." Brittany said earnestly, but my meddling mind was trying to figure out what exactly Rachel meant when she said alone time.
"Time out, what exactly do you mean by alone time?" I asked, cutting off the rambling she began about still being grossed out by raw meat, even though she'd given up her vegan status when she was pregnant with the carnivore baby and craved hamburgers all day, every day.
"You know..." She trailed off, her face reddening.
"Okay, you're not sixteen anymore, you're married with a kid, we're all aware you have S-E-X." I spelled out, teasing her. "No need for euphemisms."
"How long is a long time?" Brittany asked, before I had a chance to.
"Well, you know, Brice keeps me really busy." She sighed.
"Answer the question, Berry. Are we talking less than once a week here?" My eyes widened at the thought and Rachel covered her face with her hands.
"Oh my God, San." Brittany gasped. "She is."
"I don't really want to discuss the specifics of my intimacy with my husband with two people who I'm almost positive are all over each other much more than what is considered normal."
"Hey, we've had dry spells before." I argued, and Brittany elbowed me in the ribs with a smirk. Okay, true, four days was probably not considered a dry spell.
"What, three hours?" Rachel laughed and I rolled my eyes at her.
"No, seriously. We want to help, how long has it been?" Brittany asked again, giving her that magic Brittany look that made anyone do what she asked of them.
"It'sbeenfiveweeks." Rachel mumbled, dropping her head to the counter.
"You haven't had sex in five weeks?" Brittany shrieked, and Rachel looked like she wanted to disappear. "Man, your water bill has to be crazy high with all the time Finn must spend in the shower!"
"Rachel Barbra Berry-Hudson, take your husband and get out of our house right now!" I yelled, not even able to control my laugher, as hard as I tried.
"You can't kick me out of your house!" She protested.
"Oh yes I can." I quickly ran my chicken coated hands under the sink and moved over to the cabinet, throwing a box of Luna Bars in her direction. "You've been uninvited to dinner. Eat these in the car on the way home. I'm not going to let you sit here and eat chicken cutlets with us, when you have much more important things you should be doing."
"I can't help that I'm tired all the time, Santana. And I'm afraid Brice is going to wake up at night and need me."
"Rachel." Brittany said softly, catching my eyes and telling me that she probably didn't need us to make her feel bad about something she was clearly embarrassed about. "We're tired a lot too, and we're not saying you need to have sex every day, but there are some things in your marriage that are really important. For Brice's sake, and your own, you can't just let things get in the way of that. A happy marriage takes work, and I'm not saying you're not happy now, but sex is a big part of that. Sometimes it's hard for us too, to make time, but it's important that you do. There are some things that you can only share with Finn, and it's not fair to either of you to let that fall to the side."
"It's just hard, and it's not like I don't want to." There were tears in her eyes, and I actually felt bad about teasing her. "I'm just not great about balancing everything."
"Listen, Rach. What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this kitchen, okay?" I looked at her expectantly and she nodded. "I had a really hard time at first, with the idea of locking our bedroom door, of not being completely at Annie's beck and call, especially when she was really small and sick, but you know Britt has always been able to get me to open up and talk about things. The first time the baby made noise over the monitor while we were having sex, I couldn't have jumped out of bed any faster, right in the middle of going-"
"Um, can you please skip that part?" Rachel asked and Brittany giggled.
"Okay, fine. Anyway, I left Brittany totally high and dry all because the baby had the hiccups in her sleep. She never even woke up, I was just that neurotic. We ended up having a really long talk about it, and Britt had already done all kinds of research because she knew how crazy I get about things. The point is, if Brice really needs you, that's totally fine, but he'll be three in January, you can't think he needs you with every single whimper, and you can't put aside your own needs and the ones you share with Finn. And I'm not kidding about you being uninvited to dinner. Your son is out of the house for the night, it's a good opportunity for the two of you to talk about this, and an even better opportunity for you to do more than talk."
"Well what am I supposed to do, go in there and drag Finn home so we can have sex?" She furrowed her brows and I raised my eyebrow in her direction.
"Why not?" Brittany grinned. "If Santana did that, I'd think it was totally hot."
"Santana has done that." Rachel laughed, the red finally fading from her cheeks. "Neither of you are ever very sneaky."
"My point, exactly." Brittany nodded sagely. "No shame necessary around here."
It took another five minutes of coaxing before Rachel worked up the courage to go tell Finn that they were leaving, and another ten of her ridiculously long (as if I had any right to say that, considering) goodbye to Brice. Once they were finally out the door and the kids were situated back in the playroom, Brittany and I went back to the kitchen to finish cooking dinner. Before I could turn on the skillet to cook the chicken, Britt pushed me up against the sink, pressing her body against mine and kissing me deeply. I stood up on my tiptoes, winding my fingers through her hair and pulling her impossibly closer to me. When we finally broke apart, she burst out laughing and I followed suit.
"Seriously." I could hardly get the words out, I was laughing so hard. "The next time Kurt makes some comment about lesbian bed death, I'm telling him that the name has been changed to heterosexual I had a baby almost three years ago bed death. Seriously, there's no worry of that around here."
"San." Brittany tried to scold, but she was nearly doubled over, hiccups escaping her throat. "How did we, who formerly had the biggest mess of a relationship, become everyone's advice givers?"
"I don't know, but after all we've taught Finn and Rachel, there should be a whole album's worth of songs dedicated to us at their fiftieth wedding anniversary."
"Be careful what you wish for, babe. Our's comes first, and unless you want the whole night to be the Rachel Show, you might want to keep those thoughts to yourself."
After feeding the kids dinner, neither of us could get them to calm down. Rather than continue to try, we sat back and watched the two of them whooping through the house, playing (the completely politically incorrect) Cowboys and Indians. I was pretty sure that Brice had no idea what was going on, besides trying to keep away from Annie, who was pretending to ride a horse in her efforts to capture him. But still, he absolutely adored playing with her, and when she finally caught him (seriously, I'd never seen a baby run as fast as he could) the two of them collapsed on the floor in hysterics, Annie tickling him and his laughter spurring her on. It was one of those things I loved to see, needed to see, my daughter interacting with her best friend in such an uninhibited manner. I knew that she was still struggling at school with making friends, and I'd been keeping Callie's suggestion in the back of my head. As they crawled around (having switched to playing Cats and Dogs), I was one hundred percent sure that Finn and Rachel's son was the ticket to helping her feel comfortable. Even if I wasn't supposed to be projecting my own life onto her, I thought it was relevant that I'd had Brittany to do the same thing for me. If it hadn't been for my wife, I never would have even spoken to any of the people who were now my closest friends, never would have come out of my own bitch masked form of shyness.
"Mamí!" Annie cried out, breaking me from my thought process. I looked down and saw Brittany crawling on the floor with the two kids. "Come play with us! Mama's a cat with Bricey and you can be a dog with me."
"Meow!" Brice cried out, and I dropped to my knees on the floor beside Annie.
"Okay, mija, how does the game work?"
"We gotta catch the cats!" She shouted, and then dropped her voice to a whisper. "'Cept we're not gonna eat them, we just wanna be their friends. They don't know that yet though."
"Do we have a strategy?" I asked, knowing Annie's games were usually pretty well planned out.
"Nope, not this time. We just gotta figure it out as we go along." I felt the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth, not sure if I was taking Annie's words for more than what they meant or not. "Kay?" She asked, and I nodded. "Ready! Set! Go!"
Brittany and Brice took off, and Annie and I followed them, with my daughter always looking back every time she got ahead to make sure that I was still following. We took turns with which of the other two we caught, before Brittany (who cried out that cat's are much sneakier than dogs) turned the tables and decided to pursue us instead. After nearly forty-five minutes of the game, the four of us had collapsed in a pile on the throw rug in the middle on the living room. Britt's head was on my shoulder and she had a very sleepy looking Annie tucked under her arm. On my chest, Brice was still wriggling, a never ending ball of energy, and I rubbed his back softly before he hopped up and was off and running again.
"Bath time!" Brittany called out, standing up and shifting our barely awake daughter onto her hip.
"C'mon Brice! You heard Aunt Britt, let's go get you in Annie's big bathtub!" He stopped for a moment, looked at me and shook his head.
"No bath, play!"
"Nope, chiquito, it's getting late." I moved slowly toward him, knowing if I ran, he would too. "We'll go play in the tub, and then it's bedtime."
"Why?" He whined, and I shook my head to let him know he wasn't going to fool me with that game before quickly capturing him in my arms. He probably had about ten pounds on Annie, even if he was still a good two inches shorter than her, and I struggled against his wriggling body.
"Annie's coming in with you, buddy." Brittany soothed, seeing how difficult it was for me to hold him.
"MyAnnie comes too?" He pursed his lips, trying to decide if that was a fair trade off. "Hmmm. Okay,"
We managed to get the two of them in the tub, Brice splashing everywhere and Annie getting riled up again by his excitement. When we finally pulled them out (both of them wrapped snugly in Annie's bright gold towels, Brice in Brittany's arms, Annie in mine) we had them dressed in their pajamas and settled down into bed. Immediately, Annie wrapped her arms around her friend, and he snuggled into her. Taking our usual spots on either side of the bed, Britt smiled over at me, both of us enamored by just how sweet they looked tucked in together. After reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (which Annie had chosen because it was Brice's favorite), they both had fallen asleep and we both kissed them good night. Quietly, we retreated to our bedroom, but we weren't in there two minutes before Brice's little voice came over the monitor.
"You wake?" He asked in a two year old's best version of a whisper. "MyAnnie, you wake?"
"Shhh, Bricey, it's sleeping time. No poking." She answered him, her sleepy mumbles barely coherent.
"Not tired. We play?"
"Tomorrow. S'bedtime now."
"Should we go in there?" Britt asked and I nodded, both of us smiling at how sweet they sounded.
"Kid might look like Finn, but he's all Rachel, completely relentless."
Making our way back down the hall, we opened the door to see Brice still poking at Annie, who had covered her face with Milky Way and was desperately trying to sleep. When he saw the two of us walk in the room, his face lit up and he scooted over to the edge of the bed, bouncing slightly.
"G'morning!" He cried out, and I couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm. "Lights on!"
"Still nighttime." I told him. "You haven't gone to sleep yet."
"Mommy's here?"
"No, Mommy's home, just me and Aunt Britt."
"Oh." His face fell and I realized he was nervous about being separated from Rachel. As tears sprung to his eyes, Brittany moved over to the bed and picked him up, cradling him close to her.
"It's okay, buddy. You have all of us here with you. We'll see Mommy and Daddy in the morning." She whispered to him.
"Sing a song?" He asked, and I looked over to Annie who'd drifted back to sleep.
"Let's bring him downstairs, Britt. I'll sing him a few songs and then he'll be out."
Carefully tucking Annie back under the covers and giving her another soft kiss on her forehead, I followed Brittany out of the room and down the stairs. As it turned out, a few songs did not put Brice to sleep. His tired eyes stayed wide open except when he occasionally cried into Brittany's chest for Rachel (a far cry from the boy who wanted to move in with us just a month earlier), as Britt sat beside me on the piano bench holding him closely. When I was just about to pull my hair out, and possibly get in the car to take Brice home so he wouldn't be so upset (although I really didn't want to walk in to whatever was going on out in Brooklyn), an idea struck me. He was Rachel's son, and when all else failed to calm her hysterics down, there was always the final solution. As soon as my fingers began to play the first few notes, I saw the smile play on Brittany's face as Brice visibly relaxed.
"Mem'ries, light the corners of my mind. Misty water colored memories of the way we were." I sang, and tried not to laugh at the song I was singing to get Rachel's son to sleep, tried not to laugh that it was actually probably the most depressing song of all time. Everyone always thought Don't Rain on My Parade was her favorite song, but after knowing her as long as I had, I'd learned that The Way We Were was her actual favorite, and it didn't surprise me in the least that she'd probably been singing it to Brice since he was in utero."Mem'ries, may be beautiful and yet what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget. So it's the laughter we'll remember, whenever we remember the way we were."
By the time I'd finished the song, he'd finally fallen asleep, his deep breathing indicating that he was out for the night. While Brittany carried him up the stairs again, I made a quick pitstop in the kitchen for a bottle of water and a godawful vial from the refrigerator. Finally making it into our bedroom, I set the vial on the dresser and quickly swallowed a pill before collapsing on the bed, completely exhausted in spite of the mid afternoon nap I'd taken. When Brittany came into the room, I hardly lifted my head up from the pillow.
"Shit, Brittany, Rachel isn't kidding when she says Brice is exhausting! I love that kid, but I don't know what they're putting in his Cheerios in the morning."
"I know. It's almost ten o'clock and we just got him to bed. How tired are you?" She asked and I lifted my head, noticing that she was standing at the foot wearing just her tank top.
"Not too tired to notice that you aren't wearing any pants. And definitely not too tired to do something about that."
"Good." She gave me a playful smile. "That's what I was hoping. But you know what we have to do first. You can consider this your reward if you behave."
"Ugh, I'll try. But maybe you should take your shirt off too, you know, for some extra incentive."
Grinning, Brittany pulled her shirt up over her head and grabbed the syringe from the dresser, sitting completely naked on my thighs. Quickly, she swabbed the spot on my lower abdomen (I hated that we had to do it in a different spot on my midsection each time, by the end of the three weeks, I was going to look worse than I had after I thought I could take on Lauren Zizes) and held my hand over my eyes with her own while quickly jabbing the needle into the skin. As was expected, I let out a small yelp, but I didn't complain too much once she covered up the spot and made quick work of tossing my pants on top of her shirt on the floor. Without bothering to remove mine, she covered my body with hers, and before I knew it, she was pressing featherlight kisses against my throat. It had been a long time since she felt the need to pay special attention to that spot, but on the night it was, she just needed to take her own moment of silent remembrance.
There was no teasing, no long buildup, just the two of us physically pouring our love into each other's bodies. At some point, my shirt came off, and with Brittany on top of me, I could feel the trembling heat of her skin everywhere. Our eyes locked and our lips fused together as we picked up a rhythm, our bodies knowing each other's so intimately that we no longer had to even try to come at the same time. As soon as Brittany was close, my own body responded to that without my control, and I crashed over the edge with her, each of us swallowing each other's desperate cries. Falling on top of me, pinning my body beneath hers, I felt so completely covered and safe, our panting breaths mingling together as we worked to find words again. I wasn't sure how long had passed, but my arms had locked tight around Brittany's lower back and she pressed a sweet kiss to my forehead, her hair forming a curtain around us.
"I know that we don't make a big deal out of today." She whispered, cutting through the darkness of the room. "But I just want to make sure that you're okay."
"I am, I'm more than okay, actually. Eight years ago, I was in the deepest, darkest hole I could imagine, but I've been out of that hole for so long now and I feel like I'm climbing some kind of beautiful mountain, this one where you can just keep getting higher and higher forever- you know, if the idea of climbing a mountain didn't make me want to put on sweatpants and lay on the couch." I let out a small laugh and she shook her head against me, her smile lighting up her face. "Seriously though, all this day has become is a reminder that once you make it through the worst, everything else feels so, so much better."
"Good. I'm still so proud of you Santana."
"Thanks, Britt. I love you, so much. And I wouldn't want anyone else to be beside me on this climb to the top."
"And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." She promised, and our lips met again. "I love you."