There's a lot of Spanish/Dutch in this chapter (as you'll see from the huge block of italics ;) ) and also some speech mixing the languages with English, obviously the words spoken in English are not in italics but if you feel it doesn't work well or that it's confusing please let me know so I can sort something out for future chapters :)

Enjoy!


A little over a week later Santana was in her room reading her Dutch to English dictionary when she heard a car pull up in the drive-way. It was late therefore she knew straight away it would be her Papa returning home from his business trip so she lay her book down on her bedside table and waited for the sound of the front door being carefully opened and closed before walking over to her bedroom door and opening it a crack. It wasn't long before she could hear her parents arguing as they always did when Leon Lopez got home from a business trip.

"I don't understand your problem, you love your job!" she heard her mother shouting.

"I do but I hate being away all the fucking time and never seeing my kids! It's like you don't want me around them!" Santana was shocked, her Papa never swore.

"We need the money Leon."

"No, YOU need the money."

"It's not just about the money, if you were home all the time you'd suffocate Santana, she needs to learn some independence from that Dutch girl. She'll never learn that with you around."

"Have you lost your mind? She is my daughter as well Maria, when exactly did we decide it was a bad thing for Santana to have a close friend like Brittany? They're good for each other."

"Mark my words Leon she'll lead our little girl astray, just you wait."

"She's seven-years-old Maria! How exactly is she going to lead Santana astray?"

"Just wait, just you wait. You'll see." Leon was shaking his head.

"I'm going to bed Maria." Neither of them said another word and Santana hurriedly leapt back on to her bed and under the covers with her tearing eyes squeezed shut.

After a few moments Santana heard her Papa look in on her brothers' room down the hall, then a minute later her own door was slowly opened and she knew her father could tell she was awake.

He walked over and sat on her bed and simply opened his arms wide and in the blink of an eye Santana was hugging him fiercely while the tears poured on to his suit jacket.

"Happy Birthday San, I'm sorry I didn't call, I just had so much to do."

"It's okay Papa.. I know."

"Did you have a good birthday?" Santana paused before answering.

"It was the best one ever, or it would have been if you had been there. I missed you."

"I missed you too sweetheart." He hugged his only daughter tightly before breaking the embrace to look her in the eyes. "How was Mama?" Santana tensed, pausing again before replying.

"She was fine, she was just fine."

Meanwhile several blocks away Brittany and Katya were sitting on Katya's bedroom floor playing with the giant doll house she'd received for her birthday.

"Brittany, can you teach me some more English words please?" Katya adored her big sister and consequently she learned most of her English from Brittany. Brittany loved her little sister just as much and was only too happy to oblige. "Sure! What about... rainbow?"

"Uh Momma told me that one aaaages ago."

"Hmmm okay, how about fireworks?"

"Nah I know that one too." Katya was clearly a keener student than Santana and Brittany had been at her age and it made the older girl smile at the memory of Santana refusing to use the English word for "cat" at kindergarten because she said it was a copy of the Dutch word. Brittany thought hard for a moment before saying, "Aha! What about 'love'?"

Katya shook her head at last, "I don't know that one."

"Love is like liefde or liefhebben."

"So like... 'I love Momma and Daddy and Brittany?'"

"Yeah, like that, the noun and the verb are the same."

"What's a verb?" Brittany chuckled, remembering she should keep things simpler for Katya.

"Never mind, you get the idea. 'I love, you love, he, she, we, it loves. You add an S on the end for she, he and it. But 'They' and 'We' is without the S. Get it?" Katya paused to digest the information.

"I think so... but what about with a name? 'Momma love us' or 'Momma loves us?'

"With a name you also add an S." Katya paused again to think.

"So... Brittany loves Santy? And she loves Brittany? And they love Katya?" Brittany smiled broadly. "Yeah Katya, we love Santana very much, and she loves us too." Sadly their lesson was cut short as Jack called up the stairs it was almost bedtime and they had to brush their teeth.

The next morning breakfast in the Lopez household was unusually tense and polite. Santana looked down at her waffles mostly and didn't speak. Most of the conversation went on between Leon and Santana's two brothers who were discussing their plans for college next year, Santana didn't join in. The somewhat large age gap between her and her siblings hadn't given them much in common so she wasn't particularly close with either of the twins.

Then the table was quiet for a few minutes, until Maria surprised everyone by announcing she would collect Santana from the dance studio after her class that evening. Panic suddenly filled Santana's stomach like a block of iron. "No Mama!"

"And why not?" Santana tried hard to think of an excuse quickly.

"The other girls will tease me if I don't get the bus with them." Leon was studying his daughter's reaction intensely, it had been his idea in the first place to take dance lessons to spend time with Brittany without Maria knowing but seeing how stressed Santana was now he regretted the decision, wishing he had instead stood up to his wife about Santana and Brittany's friendship.

"Nonsense mija" Maria was now saying "I just want to have a little chat with your teacher." Santana was angry as well as worried now.

"Why? It's not like you cared before!" Santana was up on her seat shouting now.

"San, calm down" Leon placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder and she turned to him with tear-filled eyes "It's not fair Papa she always has to ruin everything"

"You're being ridiculous Santana, I'm taking an interest in your hobby and you think I'm trying to 'ruin' it, how do you think that makes me feel?" Santana sat down, her cheeks burning and eyes itching. She looked sideways at her brothers and saw that Joseph was looking down at his steepled fingers with a look of guilt and embarrassment on his face. Then it clicked and Santana was up on her chair again. "YOU!" she pointed her finger at her brother, fuming "You told Mama Brittany is in my dance class! I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" neither of her brothers said anything, they didn't need to.

Leon also looked angry now, "Boys, up to your room."

"Dad! We're not kids!"

"NOW!" their father rarely shouted so both boys took it he meant business and scarpered with Santana's angry glare following them out the room.

"Maria" his voice was calm again "What exactly are you planning to say to Miss Perez?"

"I'm taking Santana out the class."

"No Mama!" Santana was once again standing on her chair. "San, sit down."

"Yes I am."

"Why are you doing this to us?" Santana's Papa silently signalled for Santana to leave the room. Santana knew her Papa wouldn't let her Mama stop her dance classes so she did as she was told.

Once their daughter was out of earshot Leon continued "This isn't just about Santana, this is about us."

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't."

"We're going to see a marriage counsellor, that's final." With that he walked out the room, picked up Santana who was sitting by the stairs, and left to find the nearest ice-cream parlour.

They always went to the same place to get ice-cream so when Leon started driving in the opposite direction Santana was a little confused "Papa, we're going the wrong way?"

"Oh we have a little detour to make first" It wasn't long before they pulled up outside Brittany's house, Santana was too exhausted after the argument to make the effort for Brittany's parents so she stayed in the car while her Papa went to the door, out the window Santana could see Leon laughing and joking with Lena before Brittany scrambled out the door, stopping only to hastily kiss Lena and Katya on the cheek, Katya looked for Santana in the car and waved frantically from her mother's shoulder. Santana gave a small smile and waved back.

A few moments later Santana's door was flung open and Brittany launched herself over Santana and in to the seat next to her. "Hey San!"

"Hey Brit" Santana's smile was much broader now and Leon, who had been watching the interaction between the two girls in the rear-view mirror smiled for the first time in days.

"Me and Katya drew you a picture last night, well, she did the drawing and I did the words." She thrust a slightly crumpled piece of a paper in to Santana's hands and Santana unfolded it with great excitement, what she saw caused the iron block in her stomach to disappear completely.

Katya had drawn her new doll house but instead of dolls inhabiting the rooms there were three small figures clearly intended to be her, Santana and Brittany. Each room and piece of furniture had been labelled with its name in Dutch, Spanish and English in Brittany's curly handwriting. Underneath the three girls however, scrawled in Katya's spiky writing was written: "We love."

"I guess that was her new word last night?" Santana queried.

"Yeah, she got it right first time though"

"Yeah, very right."