"Flight of the Days"
7. Wednesdays
When they'd woken up that morning, Brittany had found Santana staring up at the ceiling, which told her there was something bothering her. The blonde turned to her side, propping herself up on her elbow. "What's wrong?" she asked, and Santana looked back at her.
"Do you think I should tell Mrs. Tyler I can't take her offer now? Even if it means that she'll start looking for a new nanny for Jamie, it wouldn't be fair to hold it off and pretend like I might actually tell her yes."
"I think you might have to," Brittany agreed. "It'll be too bad if you have to stop seeing Jaime, but I guess that was going to happen anyway, right?"
"Right," Santana breathed.
"What are you going to do with those mornings if she lets you go?"
"Guess I'll try and find a new family to nanny for. She'll give me a good reference."
"She has to. Jamie loves you," Brittany smiled, tracing her fingers along her girlfriend's arm.
"Gonna miss that kid," Santana watched her, the gentle strokes helping her calm down again.
"What if I brought the triplets to the Tylers' instead of all of us going to the park? If we're going to have to leave him soon, then we should make things special for him, you know?"
"Full of good ideas as always," Santana agreed.
After they'd left, Brittany had made her way to the Russos' and got the girls all set and dressed, strapped into the stroller for their walk to the Tylers'. She was halfway there when her phone rang.
"Hey, are you on your way?" Santana asked.
"Yeah, I'm like a block away."
"Jamie's got a cold," Santana revealed, and Brittany sighed.
"Then I shouldn't take the girls there or they'll get it, too."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I'll see you at the diner, just tell Jamie I'm going to think real hard about him so he gets better soon."
"I'll do that," she could hear the smile in Santana's voice.
After hanging up, Brittany had to stop and decide what to do, whether to go back to the Russo house or to do something else. "All dressed up and nowhere to go," she craned her neck to check on the girls. They were all sleeping. "I have an idea," she still told them.
When Santana had shown up at the diner later that day, Brittany was waiting for her outside. "Hey…"
"How's Jamie?"
"Miserable. I almost wanted to stay with him, but I had to go. I didn't even get to talk to his mom about the whole offer situation yet."
"Well, when you go back on Friday, will you bring this to him from me?" she pulled a bag from behind her back. The logo from the toy store made Santana smirk.
"What'd you do?"
"I took Bella, Dora, and Mina, and we went to do some shopping. You should have seen how many people stopped to look at them, they were very popular. Anyway, open the bag," she prompted. Santana did as told, and she laughed.
"That's a big dog," Santana declared of the great plush toy. "I think it's taller than him."
"Yeah, but it's really soft, and it'll make him feel better. I hope you don't mind, I mean I paid for it, I know we…" Santana stopped her, stepping up to kiss her.
"It's perfect, he'll love it. Of course now we'll have to make sure it doesn't get grabbed from the back, and we'll have to get it home tonight."
"Yeah, I almost left it at home when I went to change, but I wanted to show it to you now," she shrugged.
"Okay, fair enough. I'm going to start calling it Wally."
"Like Waldo?" Brittany laughed, holding the diner door open.
"Yeah. It would fit with the rest of the week, wouldn't it?"
"Wally," Brittany agreed.
"I'm sure Jamie'll find it another name, but he'll always be Wally to us." With Wally the plush dog hidden away in the back of the diner, the girls could get on with their shift. Coming back to the diner always felt different, almost special. This had been their first job here in Boston, both of them. It had been Santana's first job, after she'd officially moved to the city to be with Brittany, and it had been Brittany's once she'd had to leave dance school and also decided to stay. Things had started for them here, their aim to pool up as much money as they'd need to take themselves to New York and not just have a life but a good life. They weren't expecting to live in the lap of luxury, but they weren't going to struggle either.
Eventually they were going to have to think about it, really think about it. Where were they going to live? Where were they going to work? They weren't going to have five jobs a piece the way they did here, they would have one, two at the most. Maybe they would decide to go to college. As much as their education had been derailed by the last year, they weren't pretending like it didn't exist, even if they didn't know exactly what they wanted to do. Santana still hoped for Brittany that she would find her lost dance love again, get what she had been owed. And Brittany knew Santana had plenty of potential of her own. She had given up so much to be with her in Boston, but she wasn't going to let her forget herself. This was a life they were going to have, together, as a couple, and couples were supposed to look after one another, weren't they?
THE END
