A/N: Sorry for any leftover mistakes! Hope you enjoy the fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any songs in this fanfic.

Big thanks to my beta: Evoli321

Santana POV

Fidgeting in my seat, I turn my head to the empty seat next to me and sigh. Anger, worry and sadness are keeping me on high alert as time passes by. And I've been on high alert since this morning. Since Brittany decided not to show up. Last night I had been so happy that she finally wanted to share what she has with me. But it all got crushed when morning rolled around without any sight of Brittany. I had waited, thinking that she might just had been running late but once it started to get late I went to school, hoping she would be there with a good explanation.

Now, I was expecting her to barge into the classroom, flustered from hurrying and muttering an apology under her heavy breaths. But she never came. Her seat stayed empty for the rest of the day and it angered me as much as it worried me.

The text messages I've sent her never got replied, the calls I made never got answered. No one knew where she was; neither did anyone know where her brother was. It gave me a little hope and I wondered if Spencer had Brent's number so I could reach out to them. Or was I going overboard? I sighed, maybe I should better wait for tomorrow.

I mean, Brittany could just be sick, right? She was probably asleep when I texted or called. Yeah, I shouldn't worry. Brittany would be fine again tomorrow and she would apologize for everything. I smiled and shook my head. Brittany always apologizes for stuff she wasn't responsible for.

When the next day arrived, Brittany still wasn't present and the worry that had settled in my chest the day before only intensified. It angered me that I hadn't heard anything from her, though. How hard could it be to send one simple text to tell me that she's okay? I groaned out in frustration and slammed my locker close, scaring the guy next to me.

"What's with the long face, C?" I turned around to face Riley who was standing beside me with an unreadable expression.

I pushed myself away from my locker and started walking towards the school's parking lot. "I'm fine, what are you doing here?"

"You haven't talked to any of us in 2 days, Cap. And you weren't focused on practice yesterday. It affects the whole team." Riley was quick to fall in line with me, walking along to my car.

Biting down on my bottom lip, I winced, "Oh… I hadn't realized."

"Yeah, so talk to me, C. What's been on your mind?" Riley placed a hand on my shoulder and effectively stopped me in my tracks. I sighed and turned to face her, sucking my bottom lip in my mouth.

"I'm angry. And worried." I actually only trust Riley with voicing such emotions since she won't rat me out like everyone else. Maybe that's why she came to talk to me and not anyone else of the team.

"About Brittany?"

I stared at her with wide eyes and mouth agape. "How did you know?"

Riley let out a breathy laugh and patted me on the bag. "You're kinda obvious with your longing stares in her direction. You can fool everyone else but not me, Santana. I've known you too long to not notice that you love Brittany."

I sputtered, "L-love?"

"Oh boy, please don't tell me you haven't even realized your own feelings towards her." She tilted her head to the side and looked at me in disbelief.

"That's not it. I do have feelings for Britt, I just wouldn't go as far as saying I love her, yet. I only just asked her out on a date." I muttered under my breath and flushed bright red.

"YOU DID? No way!" Riley clapped excitedly and flung her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and nodded, "Yes way."

"Wait, is that why you're so down? Did she decline?" She drew back a bit, still holding onto me and looked me in the eye, pouting sympathetically.

"No, that's not it. She in fact said yes." I beamed and smiled shyly.

Riley raised an eyebrow, "Well, then what is it? What is there to be worried and angry about?" She released me from her hold and took a step back, putting some space between our bodies again.

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. I wasn't sure if I should tell Riley what all happened. It's not that I don't trust her; it's more that I don't want her to start questioning things that even I don't have an answer to. So instead I told her a less detailed version. "We decided to meet up before school yesterday morning but she never showed up. She won't text me back or pick up her phone. And she still isn't at school today."

"I see. So you're worried since you don't know why and you're angry since she stood you up." She looked at me in question, wondering if she's correct.

"Yeah. Something like that."

Riley nodded and staying silent for a few minutes. When she looked back at me, she shrugged. "You know what, I'm sure that Brittany has a very good reason why she isn't at school and all. And she'll be here tomorrow but in the meantime we should get you a distraction." She smiled cheery and I groaned inwardly, so much for getting some advice.

"Urgh, I'm not in the mood for drinks, Ry." I seriously did not want to get drunk. What if Brittany decides to call and I'm too drunk to even pick up my phone. Not a good idea.

"I have something way better." She pushed me into my car and skipped over to the passenger side, giving me directions towards 'my distraction'.

/

"Seriously, Ry?" I punched Riley's shoulder and got a death glare in return. Unaffected by the glare I continued, "You bring me here to watch you interact with your girlfriend? I'm not in the mood to witness you being all lovey-dovey with your girlfriend while my-" Shaking my head I corrected myself. "While Brittany is no where to be found."

Riley rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and wrapped an arm around her girlfriend's waist. "We're here to watch the game, C."

"Oh." I nodded as I took in our surroundings. "Right. So who's playing?"

"Seriously, San?" Riley mocked my words, rolling her eyes again before turning towards her girlfriend and nodding her off. Once she was out of side, Riley turned back towards me and scoffed. "Could you at least be a bit more enthusiastic?"

"Sorry. I didn't-"

She cut me off and slung her arm around my shoulder, "It's fine. Let's just go inside, all right? They'll start in a minute."

I nodded and followed Riley inside. Taking a seat on the bleachers, we talked about school, practice and other things until the game finally started. I laughed each time Riley would cheer loudly and her girlfriend would send her an embarrassing smile. It was hilarious to watch and made me wonder if Brittany would do the same for me. A pang of sadness shot through my body causing my shoulders to slump and Riley to look at me questionably. I waved her off with a forced smile and continued watching the game. The sets took forever to finish, both teams were really good and held long rally's going. I was really impressed and soon found myself cheering along with Riley.

During break, I turned to Riley and smiled, "They're actually pretty good."

Riley beamed and nodded. "I know. They get scouts to look at them some time during the semester. It's possible one of them could go to the national team."

"That's amazing." To get into a national team, you'd have be the best of the best. It would be almost unbelievable if you get accepted in such a team. To play against different countries would be an amazing opportunity for any of us.

"It's the dream. At least, my dream."

I turned to Riley with a raised eyebrow and notice she was fidgeting in her seat. After a moment of silence, I nodded and patted her leg, "You should totally go for it, Ry."

Riley let out a sigh and dropped her gaze downwards. "I don't think I'm good enough, though. These girls all practice so much. We hardly do that." She mumbled the last sentence but I still managed to catch it.

"Nonsense, you're just as good as them." I couldn't believe that Riley was putting herself down so much. She's so much better than she gives herself credit for. I couldn't let her do that. "You know what, I'll train you. Every day after school, we'll train together and get you in shape. Trust me, in no time you'll be even better than these girls."

"Cap-"

Shaking my head I silence her with a smile, "We'll make your dream come true."

Riley stays silent for a moment but then smiles shyly and nods. "Thank you."

"Don't start thanking me yet. Do that once you're a famous volleyball star." I laughed and punched her lightly.

"Oh, I will." Chuckling we both went back to watching the game, cheering on the team of Riley's girlfriend.

Brittany POV

I kept my head down and my hands behind my back as I walked through the halls of the school. I quickened my pace when I heard students behind me whispering things to each other. I was scared and worried about how Santana would react to everything and really hoped that she wasn't all to mad at me. I had a good reason why I did what I did but I wasn't sure if she would understand. Sighing, I headed in the direction of Santana's locker, knowing she'd be there to grab her books for first period.

I stopped in my tracks when I noticed that Quinn was talking to Santana so I slowly made my way over towards them. Santana had her back towards me so she wouldn't be able to see me. I caught the last words of Quinn's question towards Santana. "-Riley talked to you yesterday?"

"Yeah, she even took me out to watch a game to 'distract' me." Santana responded while her head bopped up and down.

"Did it-" Quinn started asking but the moment she caught me standing behind them, words seemed to fail her and her mouth stayed agape.

Santana waved her hand in front of Quinn. "Quinn? Did it what?" When Quinn didn't reply, Santana turned to see what she was staring at so intensely. I could see different kind of emotion floating behind her eyes until it settles on a mix between confusion and relief. "Brittany."

I lowered my gaze towards the ground and scuffed my shoes against it. "Hi." I wasn't sure if she heard me since I didn't get any reply so I looked up and saw her staring back at me with a raised eyebrow. "Could we… uhm… talk for a moment? In private?"

I sighed in relief when I got a nod in return and I followed behind her when she started to walk outside towards the bleachers. We sat down out of the sight of anyone and I fidgeted, making sure to keep my arm and hand out of her view.

The silence seemed to irritate Santana since she suddenly spoke up in a harsh tone. "So, are you going to explain to me why you stood me up, where the hell you've been and why you never answered any of my texts or calls?"

I swallowed audibly and nodded. "I'm sorry. Will you let me explain without interrupting?" I knew she would interrupt me if I tell her what had happened.

Santana gave me an incredulous look but nodded, "Sure."

I took a deep breath and relayed everything that happened from the moment that I woke up on Monday morning up until right now.

Flashback; Monday night

I had gone to sleep almost right after texting Santana with a nervous flutter in my stomach. I was finally going to tell her that I have a disorder. I was pretty terrified of what kind of reaction that I would get of her, and if she'd understand. What I hadn't counted on was the muffled yelling that came from downstairs early in the morning. Woken up from my slumber, I groan and roll over on stomach. My alarm that hadn't gone off yet and the dark starry sky indicated that my mom probably just had returned home from work. Which meant I still had a few hours to sleep before I had to wake up to meet with Santana. I had everything that I wanted to say to her printed in my mind. But no matter how well I knew each word, everything came down to how Santana will react to it. I truly hope that she wouldn't react like my dad did and say that I was just making things up.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes to get a few more hours of well-needed sleep. I managed to fall asleep again somehow, but got brutally woken up a few minutes later when someone slammed a door shut downstairs, followed by more yelling. It was still muffled because of the walls but louder than before. These days, my parents had more and more fights. They mostly start because my mom came home late or my dad got to drunk to even step into the house and he'd just lie on our front porch. But sometimes it was because of me; because of my grades or that I didn't listen to my dad again.

Today it was about me again. I couldn't really hear what they were saying but when my name rang through the house, it was clear I had once again did something wrong. Rolling my eyes to the ceiling, I tried to block out the noises so I could fall asleep and deal with the rest in a few hours. I had a hard time trying to ignore everything around me and the more I laid awake in my bed, the more I became irritated by the noises. They just wouldn't stop. There were moments of silence where I let out a breath of relief but those didn't last long as my parents got right back at it a few minutes later.

I reached out for my earplugs and wished that they would help but as I got them in, it didn't do much. If not, it made it worse since now I was able to hear my own unsteady heartbeat. Frustration seeped into my veins as seconds went into minutes. I was starting to get really really angry. I couldn't take it anymore. They had to stop.

Pain seeped through my hand as I watched my knuckles collide with the hard surface. I winced and drew my hand back, holding it to my chest with my other hand. Did I just do that? It all happened so fast. I tried to close my hand into a fist but the searing pain that shot through my hand all the way up to my arm prevented me from closing it completely. Looking down at the angry red flesh, I noticed that one of my knuckles was less visible than the others. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it didn't look good.

End flashback

As I place my hands in my lap, Santana's gaze gets drawn upon them and she gasps. "Oh god, Brittany." She reaches out towards my hand but stops midway, afraid to touch the cast. Unshed tears brim in her eyes as she worries over my hand.

"There is more." My shoulders slump at the memory of what happened afterwards.

Santana looked up at me and send me an apologetic look, "Sorry for interrupting. Please continue."

Flashback

I flopped down on my back on my bed, holding my throbbing hand on my chest. I sighed and blinked away any tears that started to form. This was the first time I let my anger take control over my body and mind. I couldn't believe that I did that. It scared me a lot, like what if that wall was an actual person and I hit them? I could never live with myself if I ever did that.

Too lost in my mind, I didn't notice that Brent had knocked on my door and entered my bedroom. "Britt?" His voice startled me and I shot straight up, hissing when I clutched my shirt with my injured hand in the process. I pouted down at my hand and slumped my shoulders. "Oh B, what did you do?" I brought my eyes back to Brent and noticed that he was staring at my hand as well.

I silently watched him sitting down next to me before I let out a quiet, "I lost it."

"Lost what, sweetie?" He asked gently while running a soothing hand through my hair and placing one of the softest kisses on my forehead.

"Control." I sighed and could hear Brent's underlining question. "Of my mind. I couldn't stop it, everything just went black." A sob escaped my lips and a tear rolled down my cheek.

"It's okay." Burying my head in the crook of his neck, he let my cry until my sobs subsided. He leaned back to be able to face me, brushing away my tear tracks and smiling softly. "Let's go find mom, okay?"

I nodded and sniffed, standing up with him to go downstairs. I noticed that the house was suddenly very silent, like the yelling before never happened. Silently following my brother down the stairs, I keep my hand close to my body so that I don't bump it against anything. We found mom sitting on the couch in the living room, her eyes closed, elbows on her knees and hands placed under her chin, holding her head up.

"Mom?" Brent called out gently, stepping into view. I followed with my head lowered and bottom lip sucked into my mouth.

My mom looked up in surprise. "Hey guys. I'm so sorry, did we wake you up?"

"It's fine. We uhm… kind of have a situation."

"What kind?" Mom looked from me to Brent, her eyebrow raised in confusion and curiosity.

"Britt." He turned around to face me, giving me a smile and a nod. I took a step forward but kept my gaze lowered to the ground. Letting out a shaky breath, I held out my injured hand towards my mom.

She gasped and whispered, "Oh baby." Which made my lip tremble. "What happened, tell me."

Before I could even bring out a word, my emotions got the best of me and I broke down again. I fell into my mom's arms and couldn't bring out any words anymore. I was so glad that Brent was there and that he explained everything to her in a short version, since I wouldn't be able to do it.

"What's going on here?" My dad asked when he walked out of the kitchen and saw us hugging in the middle of the living room. The frown that was plastered on his face morphed into one of recognition. "Oh, did she tell you one of her imaginative disorders again? You don't have a disorder, Brittany. You're just plain stupid."

My mom furrowed her eyebrows at him, "Did you just call your own daughter stupid?" She tightened her grip on my waist and pushed me slightly behind her.

"What? Don't tell me you actually believe her made-up stories." My dad scoffed.

Brent stepped in front of us and faced dad with his head held high, defending me the best he could. "They're not made-up. Everything she told you is true. You're just to ignorant to understand."

"What did you just call me?"

My dad stood right in front of Brent but he held his ground, "You heard me!"

"ENOUGH!" Mom pulled my brother back and glared at my dad. "I want you out of the house, now."My dad crossed his arms and shook his head, laughing. "I said… LEAVE! I've had enough of your complaining and tearing down my daughter! I've been defending her against you for weeks now and I've had enough! Get out and don't you dare to comeback or I will call the police."

For a moment a glimpse of fear crossed behind his eyes but it went away as fast as it showed. Throwing up his hands, he turned around and grabbed his jacket and keys. "Whatever. I'm better off without you anyway." With that, he left the house and us.

Mom breathed out in relief and returned her focus back on me, gently holding my arm. "Come on, baby. We need to get you to the hospital."

End flashback

In the middle of my explanation, Santana had found the courage to gently grab my injured hand. She was so careful and delicate as not to hurt me any more, it felt nice that she cared so much. I had one last thing that I wanted to explain to her.

"The reason why I didn't call or replied any of your texts was because I had spend almost the entire Monday at the hospital or asleep. And I completely forgot to check it yesterday. I know that's not really an excuse but I hope you can forgive me." I nibbled on my bottom lip and looked hopeful at her through my eyelashes.

"Seriously, I already forgave you the moment you walked up to me earlier." Santana giggled and gently brushed her fingertips over the cast. "What happened with your dad?"

I shook my head and shrugged, "Mom and Dad never got married so mom just packed all his stuff and left everything on the porch. It was all gone this morning so I guess my dad took everything with him. But I have no idea where he is now." And I didn't really want to know where he was.

Santana nodded and gave me a sad smile. I wasn't sure if it was because of my dad or everything else that happened. Before I could ask her, the sound of the bell ringing, indicated that the next class would start in a few minutes. I stood up and reached my good hand out which Santana accepted immediately. With a smile and a laugh, I pulled her up and with me towards our class.

Santana POV

I was completely lost in my thoughts, progressing everything that Brittany told me earlier. When she walked up towards me this morning, I wasn't sure how to feel about her being back. I was happy but at the same time frustrated that she had ignored me for the past two days. Everything made sense after she told her story, though.

Too deep in my mind, I didn't notice that Brittany's shoulders slumped when she rummaged through her bag. It was only when the teacher walked in and told everyone to be quiet that I refocused on the current moment again. Looking at my side, I saw Brittany pouting. I furrowed my eyebrows and was about to ask her what was wrong when the teacher told everyone to open their books as he started the class.

In the middle of the lesson, I slumped down in my chair bored out of my mind. The teacher had put on an historical movie but as I looked around the class, no one was watching it. They were asleep, talking or scribbling nonsense in their books. Out of everyone, the only person paying actual attention towards the movie was Rachel who was furiously writing everything down that happened on screen. Shaking my head, I looked to my side and watched Brittany struggling to hold her pen in her casted hand. I smiled bright and watched on in adoration.

Brittany seemed to sense that I was watching her and she turned to face me, pouting her lips and with a slight look of devastation in her eyes. I smiled and leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "Maybe you should try to write with your left hand."

When I leaned back, I could see the gears in her mind turning at full speed. She nodded her head slowly and a smile morphed on her face. "That's a great idea. Then we'll be the same." She chuckled and blushed slightly.

"Well then you better practice." Nodding again, she grabbed the pen in her left hand and tried to position it in the right way so she could start writing. Her tongue poked through her lips in concentration as she slowly wrote the letters that she wanted to write. I laughed quietly when she shook her head and lined through what she wrote to start over again at another spot on the paper.

The smile I got when she finished made butterflies erupt in my stomach, flying all over the place. "What do you think? Did I pass?" She handed me the paper and pointed to the right text that she wrote.

"Let's see how you did." I gave her a smile and looked over the words. They were a little bit off but still curly like Brittany always writes. The words 'you're so beautiful when you smile.' made my heart stop and my cheeks to flush a bright red.

Brittany leaned in closer and the warm air of her breath in my neck sends shivers down my spine. "And?"

I gulped and tried to form some words to reply with but all I could do was open and close my mouth. I probably looked like a fish right now. "Uh…"

"Did I just rendered the great Santana 'Captain' Lopez speechless?" Brittany giggled and I didn't thought it would be possible but I blushed even more, steering my glance away from her piercing ocean blue eyes.

I mumbled out a, "No." But didn't have anything else to add to that.

When I looked back up at Brittany, she was smiling fondly at me and I couldn't help but smile back at her. "I was telling the truth, though. You're beautiful when you smile that big smile where your cheeks bunch up and your dimples show. It's the cutest thing ever."

Smiling bashfully, I wonder from where she suddenly got all this confidence. Brittany used to be shy but right now she's turning me into the shy one. I had to do something before she turned me into a complete mushy mess. "Same goes for you, though. Your smile just lights up the whole room. It's impossible to not smile when you're smiling."

Now it was her turn to blush as she replied with a grateful, "Thank you."

The lights off the classroom, which got turned back on, pulled us out of our happy bubble and back to the teacher. Everyone groaned when he told us to write down a summary of what we had seen in the movie. Rolling my eyes, I quickly wrote down the title of the movie so that I could watch it at home.

Tonight was going to be one boring movie night. I wondered if maybe I could ask Brittany if she wanted to watch it together. That way we could be bored together but still have each other's company.

That would make my night slightly better. Or you know, a lot.

/

Several minutes into the last class of today, I heard Brittany mutter something underneath her breath. Thinking that she was just talking to herself about the exercises we needed to make, I went back to work. When I noticed her fidgeting in her seat and mumbling again, I started to get worried. Was it happening again? And what was it exactly? Earlier it completely slipped my mind to ask her to finally tell me what she had but now I couldn't just ignore it anymore; I had to know what was wrong.

Listening in closely, I tried to catch whatever it was that Brittany was saying. I frowned when I heard her whisper an 'Shut up.' and 'Stop.' What was going on inside her head? I looked around the class but there was no one making that much noise or being annoying to be told to shut up.

Brittany's eyes were moving from one student to another so fast it would make anyone dizzy. She send glare after glare to anyone who sat close next to us. If glares could kill, everyone would be dead by now.

I reached out and gently, as not to startle her, placed my hand on her arm. Successfully drawing the attention towards me, I gave her a soft but worried smile. "Are you okay?"

With a ragged breath, Brittany shook her head and closed her eyes tightly. I couldn't bear watching her struggling once again and quickly grabbed her hand. "Open your eyes, Britt. Look at me." I squeezed her hand gently and she opened her eyes, when hers met mine, she visibly relaxed. "Tell me what's wrong. What can I do?"

She took a shaky breath and grinned her teeth, "They need to shut up. Just stop." The hand that I was holding started to shake in anger.

"Okay, alright. Calm down." I tried to dissipate her anger but it seemed that it was already too late. Thinking quickly, I wondered what I could do before she would break the knuckles on her other hand as well. I rose up from my chair, pulling her up with me and faced the teacher who was looking at us in confusion. "Can I take Brittany to the infirmary? She isn't feeling so well." I explained but didn't wait for his reply as we stepped out of the class without further notice. Pulling Brittany along behind me, we made it to the infirmary. After a quick talk with the nurse, Brittany was now sitting on the infirmary bed in a closed off room. I ran a hand through my hair and spoke softly, "Is this better?" She nodded and I sighed in relief, glad that this at least made her feel a bit better. I still wanted to know what was going on, though. I cared too much about her to see her struggling so much without knowledge of what to do. So I gently approached her and sunk down on my knees in front of her, placing my hands on her knees. "Please tell me. What's going on with you?"

Brittany sucked in a deep breath and fiddled with the cast on her hand. "I don't…"

"Please, Brittany. Why did everyone need to shut up? With what did they needed to stop?" I cupped her chin and ran my thumb softly over her cheek. "You can tell me. I want to help, Britt. In any way possible."

There was a long silence and even though I was dying to know her answer, I wasn't going to force her into replying quickly. If she still didn't wanted to share it with me now then I would be devastated but I'd back off and let her tell me on her own record.

Brittany's soft voice made me look at her in expectation. "I have..."

A/N: Dundunduhhhh... Didn't expect that?

So I said that I was excited about this chapter, right? Guess what! I'm even more excited about the next one! :D

'Till next time!

R&R