Okay I know you hate me all for taking ages to update but I have a very good excuse! :p I've been totally swamped with college/family birthdays/college class mates taking me out for drinks and stuff which I just can't refuse when I'm not paying you know :p But anyway here is chapter 9, sorry it's so late but I hope you like it! R&R&E!


Lena's doctor was trying to calm the frantic mother down with little success. "Mrs. Pierce, your girls are going to be just fine, neither are in any life-threatening condition. Right now I'd like you to get some rest."

"Rest? I have a broken nose and a mild concussion, I don't need any rest, I need to see my girls!" Her doctor sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "Brittany is asleep and Katya is still being examined by an Otologist."

"Oto-what?"

"Ear doctor."

"But she hit her head."

"The fracture to her skull may have damaged some nerves which affect hearing." Lena felt like she was going to throw up. "Are you telling me my little girl is going to be deaf because some son of a bitch was speeding on an ice-covered road?" The raging beast that was the protective parent in her was baring its teeth and her doctor could see it; he was quick to reassure her that Katya wouldn't be left completely deaf. "Not entirely, but with the location and severity of the fracture it's possible she'll lose up to 75% of her hearing."

"But you can fix that, can't you? Tell me you can fix that."

"With hearing aids she shouldn't need any special help in school etcetera if that's what you're worried about. However if it's as bad as it looks right now it'd be highly advisable that you get in touch with someone that can teach signing." Lena sat back slowly trying to process all the information she'd just received. She couldn't quite get her head around it. Just a few hours ago it had been a perfectly normal morning outing to the park with Katya and Brittany and Santana and now...

"What about Santana?"

"The other child in the car?"

"No, the guitarist, of course the other girl in the car. What happened to her?"

"As you're not a blood relative or her legal guardian I'm not at liberty to divulge that information."

Lena's voice dropped to a cool whisper which sent chills down the experienced doctor's spine; she beckoned him closer to her, he hesitated for a moment before bending over so he was eye level with his patient. "You look here, see that 'girl'? I may have only known her since she was three-years-old, I may not be her legal guardian, and you're right, I'm not a blood relative; she's not my daughter. But here's the dope pal, I love her just as much as if she was, so how about you go and find out how she's doing for me, eh sweetcheeks?"

As soon as Leon received the call that his daughter had been in a car crash his entire body seemed to go numb. As if on auto-pilot he made his way steadily up the stairs, his second orange juice of the day seeping steadily on to the kitchen floor.

"Maria, wake up." his wife looked up from her pillow groggily, "What is it? Did I oversleep again?"

"Santana's been in an accident." At this Maria sat up straight as though an electric current had been passed through her spine.

"What? What happened? Is she okay? Where is she now?"

"She was in Lena's car with her and her two girls." as he expected Maria's worry was quickly mingled with anger. "What did I tell you? It's that girl!" Then it was Leon's turn to be angry "For fuck's sake Maria our daughter is lying on a hospital bed in God knows what condition and you're still yattering on about Brittany. Get dressed and be in the car in five minutes or I'm leaving without you."

By the time they arrived at the hospital Jack Pierce was already pacing the A&E waiting room like a caged animal. "Jack" Leon called out; Jack's head snapped in the direction of Santana's parents like a coiled spring. "Leon, Maria... I'm so sorry." Fear clutched at Leon's heart as he heard these words. "You don't mean..."

"Oh God no I didn't mean it like that, Santana wasn't seriously injured from what I can gather, I think something is broken though. I couldn't see her obviously as I'm not a relative." His eyes fell to the floor, his face wracked with guilt as Leon exhaled slowly.

"How are your girls?" Leon asked gently. Jack swallowed with apparent difficulty "Well, Lena has a broken nose and a mild concussion; Brittany has a laceration to the side of her head and a severe concussion; Katya... " he trailed off. "Jack?"

"Katya's skull was fractured in two places, there's been some brain damage and she'll probably be left partially deaf." Maria's hand flew to her mouth, unable to hear anymore she stalked outside silently for some fresh air. Just then a nurse appeared in front of the two fathers, "Excuse me are you Mr. Lopez?" she asked Leon. "Yes, yes that's me, can I see my daughter now?" The nurse gave a great sigh as though she was under a lot of stress, "I think that would be best, she's hysterical and if she doesn't calm down we'll have to sedate her so we can put a cast on her arm. Please follow me. Oh Mr. Pierce, you can see Lena now, you know the room?" Jack nodded numbly and Leon gave him a weak smile as he followed the tired-looking nurse down the dim corrider. They eventually reached a room with double doors and when Leon peered in through the glass door pane his legs buckled slightly, Santana was sitting on her hospital bed with scores of cuts, each about two centimetres long covering her face; she seemed to be clutching her arm away from the doctor who was trying to attend to her while shouting angrily in Spanish. When Leon pushed the door open and she spotted him Santana's anger seemed to disapparate and she fell back against her pillow exhausted.

"Hey baby girl."

"Papa, it hurts." she was now crying whilst cradling her arm between her stomach and her legs. "I know sweety, so why don't you let the doctor make it better for you?"

"They won't tell me where she is." the doctor gave an exasperated sigh as he heard this but Leon knew exactly what she meant. The doctor didn't seem to notice however and interrupted them anyway, "She refuses to have her arm put in a cast until she sees her mother, she wants to know if she's 'okay', I keep telling her her mother wasn't in the car but she's delirious and insists she was." Leon almost laughed, he shook his head slightly as Santana gripped his hand with her unhurt arm, "Did she at any point use the word 'Mama', 'moeder' or 'madre?'" "Well... no. But she kept insisting she had to see 'her' because 'she is my family' as Santana put it, who else- " Leon put up his hand "She meant the other girl her age that was in the car, Brittany Pierce." The nurse supressed a giggle as the doctor blushed madly. "Oh I see, well eh, can we see to her arm now?" Leon looked down at Santana, "San, Brittany is going to be fine, but you need to have your arm put in a cast before you can see her, okay?" "Okay."

Luckily for Brittany her nurse was a little less conventional and much more willing to inform Brittany of the state of everyone else, including Santana. Brittany's head still hurt a lot but she'd taken quite a shine to Nurse Emily so she was content for the moment despite having some of her hair cut out so they could stitch the wound on her head. "She's super duper pretty, did you notice?" Emily chuckled to herself, "Yes Brit I did notice, she's very, very pretty though she looked pretty pissed off when I saw her" Brittany looked surprised "Really? How come?" Emily let out another chuckle before replying "Well last I saw of her she had just bitten both the paramedics trying to sedate her so they could fix her arm." Brittany laughed though looked a little shocked "Oh wow she must be really mad, she hasn't bitten anyone since a boy from school called Noah tried to steal my coloured pens. But what does sedate mean?"

"It means they put her to sleep on purpose"

"Oh she definitely wouldn't like that, she never ever goes to sleep when she's told except when I ask her nicely." Brittany looked very pleased with herself as she said this.

"You two sound like you're very close." Emily said as she cleaned the congealed blood from Brittany's hair.

"Yeah she's like my bestest friend in the whole wide world" she paused for a moment "well, she's kind of my only friend apart from Katya, and Katya's my sister so she doesn't really count. But I've known Santana longer than Katya." Emily looked a little confused, "Your only friend? You seem like the kind of girl to have lots of friends at school."

"They don't like Santana at school because she couldn't speak English very well for ages, they thought she was stupid. But she's actually way smart, she knows more Dutch words than I do I think and she already knows her times-tables up to eight! We go to dance class as well but they don't like us much there either because we're kind of the teacher's favourites."

"I see, so they're jealous?"

"Well if I was them I'd be jealous of me, Santana's the coolest person to hang out with ever." Emily smiled. "Tell me all about her, she sounds very special."

"Oh she is, she taught me how to skip stones across lakes; how to build a sandcastle without it falling down; how to do joined-up writing and when we have sleepovers she makes the most amazing pillow-forts and we sleep in them and tell scary stories!" Brittany had all but forgotten about the wound in her head as she was so enthusiastic when it came to talking about Santana. "Don't you tell secrets in your fort too?" this made Brittany laugh "Me and Santana don't have any secrets, I've known her almost as long as I can remember." Emily's grin was starting to hurt her face but she couldn't help but smile.

As Brittany stopped for breath they heard a quiet knock on the door, "Come in!" called Emily, the door opened slowly and Leon stepped in with a sleepy looking Santana with a bright pink cast on her arm and surgical tape over the cuts on her face. "Brittany!" she squealed with delight when she saw her friend sitting up in bed looking perfectly happy and more or less okay, she struggled to be put down but Leon held on tightly "Papa, I'm a big girl now, let me down!"

"Yes you are but you need to get used to your cast, it'll be pretty heavy I should think." Despite his words he lowered her slowly to the ground and she took a few wobbly steps over to Brittany's bed, she looked at Emily and stuck her good hand out "Hi! I'm Santana, have you been looking after Brittany?" Emily shook the girl's hand gently before answering, "Yes I have, she's been delightful to talk to" Santana withdrew her hand and turned to pat Brittany on the shoulder "Thanks, I would have done it myself but my stupid doctor wouldn't let me leave my room for ages" she rolled her eyes as she said this, causing both Emily and Leon to turn away and stuff their fists in to their mouths to avoid bursting out laughing.

"Hey San?" Brittany said. "Yeah Brit?"

"You can totally rock the broken arm look."

"Thanks, I thought so too"

"Don't go biting any more doctors though, or they might leave you outside next time you get hurt" Both girls laughed before Santana, who had been looking thoughtful asked, "Brittany, where's Katya?"