"You're sure she doesn't know?" Santana asks the girl on her computer screen.
Brittany immediately nods her head. "She has no idea. I told her you had a final on Christmas Eve Day, so she doesn't think you're coming home until next week."
"Okay, good."
"She was really sad," the blonde notes, remembering the way her sister's lip started to tremble when she told her she had to wait even longer to see Santana. "She almost cried."
Santana knows she should probably feel bad for almost making a little girl cry, but she can't lie and say it doesn't give her an ego boost to know she's missed that much. Not that she didn't already know that. "Remind me to get her ice cream tomorrow night to make up for it then."
"Only if you get me some, too."
"Of course," Santana smiles at her, wishing more than anything she could kiss her girlfriend right now.
Brittany is just about to voice that same thought when she hears the front door open and her sister's voice drift through the house. "Oh, she's back, I should go. But you'll be home before I get out of school, right?"
"Planning on it," Santana answers. "I'm leaving early and traffic shouldn't be too bad. But I'll text you when I get into Lima."
"I can't wait to see you," the blonde gushes, holding a hand over her heart. "I'm totally going to jump you on sight, so I hope your cheerleading practices have made you stronger."
Santana laughs and holds up an arm, flexing for her girlfriend. "I'm ready for you."
Brittany wiggles her eyebrows and is just about to reply with something dirty when she remembers Santana's roommate is in the room, and they've already traumatized her enough with their Skype activities this semester. "I hear footsteps on the stairs, so I gotta go, but I love you and can't wait to get my sweet lady kisses on tomorrow."
"I love you, too, Britt-Britt." She's just able to blow Brittany a kiss when the blonde is disconnected. She stares at her screen with a goofy smile on her face until her roommate interrupts her.
"You're so pathetic," she teases, ripping a page out of her open notebook and crumpling it up to throw at her friend.
Santana manages to avoid getting hit and just smirks at her. "You're just jealous because you don't have a gorgeous, adorable and flexible girlfriend to go home to."
"You know me so well," Taylor replies, rolling her eyes.
"Whatever, you don't have a guy, either."
"That's what you think."
Santana groans, remembering what a crying mess her friend was when she came back from Thanksgiving break after hooking up her ex while she was home. "Do not hook up with him again, okay? Britt's coming back with me, remember? I'm not gonna have time to take care of your heartbroken ass."
"Yeah, yeah, I promise," Taylor says, holding up her hands in surrender. "I've learned my lesson. But speaking of Brittany, we still need to discuss some ground rules for how this is going to work. Judging by how you two are when she comes to visit, you're going to scar me for life within a week."
"You liked it," Santana teases, snickering when she remembers the look on Taylor's face when she walked in on her and Brittany heading to third base. Taylor was mortified, but her and Brittany just laughed it off. After being caught in the act as much as they've been, it loses it's effect. "But Britt might be getting a single, so we might not have that problem. We'll see."
"Let's pray," the other girl hopes, though she thinks she'd probably start to miss her roommate if she was gone so much. They get along pretty well, as far as roommates go. "You know I like Brittany, but you guys were bad enough on weekends. I don't think I can deal with that all semester."
Santana just smirks, already planning on being as obnoxiously in love as possible around her friend now.
~/~
Brittany is sitting beside Marley in the choir room, listening to Blaine whine about his breakup with Kurt when she feels her phone vibrate with a new text.
- In Lima, at the intersection outside of Breadstix. Can't wait to kiss your face.
"Is that Santana?" Marley asks, interrupting Blaine when she sees the blonde smiling at her phone.
Brittany beams up at her friends. "Yeah, she's in Lima."
"Merry Christmas to you," Blaine mumbles, his jealousy obvious.
"I know, right?" Brittany can't help but start bouncing in her seat in excitement. She looks at the clock and for the first time in as long as she can remember, she really wishes she could leave glee early.
- Come pick me up? I want to see you asap.
- Ofc.
Brittany suddenly finds Christmas songs really annoying, because they seem to last forever and they're currently standing in the way of her reunion with her girlfriend. Finally, Joe finishes his boring song that she wasn't really paying attention to and Finn dismisses them for the afternoon. Nobody even bothers trying to say anything to her and she dashes out of the room, running towards the doors she knows Santana will be waiting at.
As promised, the second Brittany sees her girlfriend, she leaps into her arms to crush her in a bear hug. "You're here!"
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be." Santana buries her face in crook of Brittany's neck, while her arms squeeze Brittany against her as hard as she can. "God, I've missed you so much, B."
"Me too," the blonde whispers, trying to hold Santana tighter, but finding it's impossible. "You have no idea how much."
"I think I have a good idea."
Brittany pulls away just enough to press their lips together for their first kiss in a month, and just like that, they both feel whole again.
~/~
Ashley spots Santana's car before she spots her, but when she finally does, her reaction rivals her sister's. "Santana!"
Santana turns away from her conversation with Mrs. Jones just in time to catch the tiny blonde that throws herself at her. She's gotten taller since she's been gone, but she can still carry her. She doesn't even want to imagine the day when she can't. "Hey, babycakes! Surprised to see me?"
"Britt said you weren't coming until next week!"
"I lied," Brittany informs her with a smile, happy to see the two of them reunited. "I wanted it to be a surprise."
"I'm surprised," the little girl giggles, planting a kiss on Santana's cheek before she's placed back on her feet.
Before she can say anything, she hears Jackson calling her name as he joins the group. She turns to see him walking towards her, holding her forgotten backpack in his hand. "You dropped this."
"Hey, Jacks," Santana greets the boys, holding up her hand to high five him. "You still taking good care of my girl?"
The boy blushes, but nods his head, earning a laugh from his mother, who was originally there to pick the two of them up. "Well, Santana, it was so nice to you. I hope you'll all stop by for dinner sometime over the break. I know Mercy would love to see you. Quinn, too. Her mother is on some cruise so she's staying with us for the holidays. You can invite your parents, we'll make a party of it."
"That sounds great," she responds, her mouth practically watering at the idea of Mrs. Jones' cooking. "I'm sure we'll see you or Mercedes again soon, so we'll make plans later."
"Okay, you three have a good night then." The girls wave goodbye to the Joneses as Santana opens the back door to her car.
"Get in, missy," she instructs, tossing Ashley's bag inside and waving her hand to get the girl to follow. "We've got ice cream to get."
Ashley's eyes light up and she gives Santana another hug. "I'm so glad you're back."
"I'm starting to think she just likes me for the ice cream," she remarks to Brittany as the little girl gets into the back seat.
"Why do you think I'm still dating you?" the blonde teases. She wants to kiss the pout off the brunette's lips, but knows doing it in front of Ashley's school isn't the best idea. People are just starting to get over all the drama from last year. Instead, she playfully pulls at the girl's bottom, and slips passed her to get into the passenger side door.
Santana stands there for a moment, thinking about how good it is to be home.
~/~
Santana doesn't discover the flaw in her plan until Monday, as she sits alone in her room while Brittany and Ashley are both in school. They still have almost another week of classes before they get off for Christmas break, and she's got nothing to do.
She's just about to resort to texting Taylor to make sure she got home safely when she gets a text from Mercedes, asking if she wants to meet her and Quinn for lunch at the Lima Bean. She immediately accepts and rushes out the door.
The streets of Lima are pretty deserted in the middle of a school day, and she gets over there in record time. She spots them at a corner table and joins them. "Hello, ladies."
"Satan," Mercedes addresses her with a warm smile, even standing up to give the girl a hug in greeting. Quinn does the same, and soon the three girls are sitting down and updating each other on school, work and their love lives (Quinn likes a guy in her Psychology class, and Mercedes has been single since breaking up with Sam when he moved back to Kentucky to be with his family), which brings the topic to Brittany, as usual when it comes to Santana.
"Are they doing anything special for her last week?" Quinn asks, taking a sip of her coffee.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, remember our last week?" she comments, looking to Mercedes as well. "We all sang to each other and everyone was all emotional? Brittany was kind of in the middle, if I remember correctly. She was graduating, but wasn't leaving, so she was kind of in limbo, didn't really get to appreciate all the fan fair and hysterics."
Santana's been so focused on the fact that Brittany's about to start college soon, that she hasn't given much thought to the fact that she's also finishing high school. And that because she's doing it in the middle of the year, she's not really going to get to do all the usual nostalgic celebrating with her friends stuff that comes with the end of high school. Manboobs probably isn't even going to do anything special on her last day of glee.
"I never thought of that," Mercedes remarks, her thoughts running along the same lines as Santana's. "That kind of sucks. I'm sure Britt loves that kinda stuff."
"She does," she replies, the wheels in her head already turning. "Okay, well, this is unacceptable, so we're gonna have to do something about it."
"We are, are we?"
Santana raises a challenging eyebrow at her friends. "Don't you think Brittany deserves to feel special on her last day of high school? Don't you think she should get to celebrate it with her friends like we did? Is that not something my girlfriend deserves?"
"You're not as scary as you think you are," Quinn informs her, rolling her eyes. She glances at Mercedes and sees her biting her lip. "But it seems your guilt trip worked on this one, so I guess we're in. What's the plan?"
Santana sends the blonde a smug smile. "Not sure yet, but I'll be sure to inform you of it when it comes to me."
"We'll be waiting by the phone."
They don't have to wait long, because the perfect idea comes to Santana the next night, when everyone forces her and Mercedes to perform their version of River Deep, Mountain High at the Jones' dinner party. She watches Brittany's eyes follow her, the way she cheers them on from the couch, chanting just a little bit louder than everyone else, just like always. As soon as the song is done, she drags Quinn and Mercedes out of the room and into the hallway to tell them what's gonna go down and what she needs them to do.
~/~
The next day she goes to the choir room during classes to see Finn about her plan.
"Imma need you to give me about ten minutes of glee time tomorrow," she informs him, strolling right into his office like she owns the place.
"Santana?" he questions, as if not believing his eyes. She doesn't know why though, she's been back home to visit more often than their other friends, so it's not really much of a surprise that she'd be around. But Finn's a moron, so she's not surprised. "What are you doing here?"
He stands up and when he looks like he's about to try to hug her, she quickly holds up her hands to stop him. "No, thank you, Finnocence. I'm here to talk business. It's Brittany's last day of high school tomorrow, and it's been brought to my attention that it will likely pass without much fan fair and that's not happening on my watch. So like I said, give me ten minutes."
"Okay," he answers, not quite sure he totally follows what's going on. "At the beginning or the end?"
Santana thinks about it. "End. And you're going to assign everyone to sing a song dedicated to Britt."
"Santana, I've already given this week's assignment," he informs her, straightening out his shirt to seem more mature. She raises a challenging eyebrow at him. "It's Christmas songs, and everyone has already been working on them."
"You've been doing those since last week." She knows because Brittany gave her a sneak preview of her performance of Britney Spears' My Only Wish This Year (it was awesome, if she does say so herself). "It's only the middle of the day. Send out a mass text, call an emergency meeting, I don't care. Just get it done and don't let Brittany find out. Think you can handle that, Gassy Green Giant?"
"Uh," he drawls out, eyes darting to the side as he thinks it over. When he looks back at her, she's giving him that scary look she's so good at, so he quickly agrees. "Yeah, sure, I got it."
"Sure you do." With a scoff, she spins on her heel and storms out of the room, muttering curses in Spanish about how Finn's incompetence is making Mr. Schuester look like he actually deserved that Teacher of the Year award. Knowing he can't be trusted to handle this, she pulls out her phone and dials the first appropriate name she scrolls by. "Wheels, I need you to do something for me. Well, for Brittany."
~/~
Brittany walks into the choir room the next day expecting to spend her last meeting listening to Christmas songs. What she doesn't expect is to find all the seats filled, a mix of current and past members of New Directions, all smiling at her. She spots Mercedes and Quinn sitting in the front beside Artie, Mike and Puck sitting with Blaine in the back, and Kurt and Rachel on the opposite end. Even Mr. Schue is standing next to Finn at the front of the room.
She's scanning the crowd for Santana when her girlfriend sneaks up behind to give her a hug. "Surprise," she whispers to her, giving her waist a squeeze.
"What's going on?" the blonde asks, craning her neck to look at Santana and is met with a beaming smile.
"It's your last day," Santana reminds her, untangling her arms from around her waist and taking a hold of her hand. She gently leads her over to one of the two empty seats in the first row beside Mercedes, and guides her into it before walking over to stand in front of the group. "Okay, listen up. As you all know by now, today is Brittany's last day as a member of New Directions, before she comes to join me in Louisville and that's a big damn deal!" Everyone claps and cheers for her, causing her cheeks to flush. "So, Britts, I called some old friends and luckily everyone was home for Christmas break, so I was able to get the gang together so we can all give you the send off you deserve."
Everyone cheers again and Santana takes her seat beside Brittany, who can't resist giving her a huge kiss in gratitude. They smile at each other like huge dorks for a moment, until Mr. Schue claps his hands a couple times to get everyone's attention. It isn't until then that Brittany notices her name is written on the white board behind him. "Well, Brittany, like Santana said, today is going to be all about you. And I believe everyone has prepared a song to sing just for you."
"Since it was such short notice," Finn continues, confused by the glare Santana is sending him. "It's gonna be kind of a best of New Directions thing, and everyone is gonna sing something they've performed before. So I hope that's okay."
"That sounds totally cool!" She kind of likes that better actually, because it makes her think of all the good times she's had with them over the years. She threads her fingers through Santana's and rests her head on her shoulder, ready for the show.
Artie and Mike start off with PYT (which, given the original use of the song, they cleared with Santana first, who gave them the go ahead as long as Artie behaved himself), and the rest followed with repeat performances of their own. Even Mr. Schue gave an encore of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Brittany's favorite, of course, was Rachel's completed version of My Headhand.
That is, until Santana gets up from her seat beside her and returns to her spot in the middle of the room for the final performance. Brittany notices her clutched hands in front of her, a sure sign that Santana's nervous. That confuses Brittany, since Santana is never nervous for regular choir room performances.
"Um, so, I asked if I could go last because I have two songs I want to perform." Santana takes a deep breath and looks directly at Brittany, trying to ignore all the other eyes on her. "A couple years ago, when I was still just a mean, scared, closeted little girl, I brought you into this room to sing you a song. A song that I spent the entire previous night listening to and crying, because it summed up my feelings for you perfectly." She can feel the surprise from some people, but she ignores it and forges on, continuing to only focus on Brittany's eyes, which are already shining with unshed tears. "When I was done, you asked why I couldn't sing it in front of everyone and I said that I wasn't ready for that kind of public announcement. But, today, in front of our old friends and your new ones, I am ready. I'm ready to do something I should've done a long time ago."
Brittany sits up straighter in chair, and gives Santana a watery smile, hoping it will give her a little bit of extra courage. Soon, Brad begins to play, and the opening chords of Songbird fill the room. Santana takes another deep breath and Brittany is transported back to Junior year. As she listens to Santana sing and pour all of her feelings out for the whole room to hear, she feels everything she felt back then, tenfold.
And the songbirds keep singing
Like they know the score.
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before.
The second the last note leaves Santana's lips, Brittany is out of her chair and crushing Santana in a hug. She can hear everyone clapping extra loudly behind her, but all of her attention is on her girlfriend. After a moment, she pulls back and cups Santana's blushing cheeks. "I love you so much. More than anything."
"I love you, too," Santana replies quietly, bringing their lips together in a soft kiss. They wipe each other's tears with a laugh before turning back towards the crowd. Brittany starts to move back to her seat, remembering Santana said she had two songs to sing, but is stopped with a hand squeeze. "Wait. I actually need you for this one."
"What?"
"Well, that same year, when I was meaner, more scared and even further in the closet, you asked me to sing a duet with you." She lets out a humorless laugh, recalling the vicious words she threw at Brittany that afternoon. "Of course, I flipped out, said some horrible things to you, and ran to Mercedes to ask her to be my partner instead." Brittany's eyes widen in realization, that afternoon playing in her head as well. "And even though that duet was epic, I should've sang with you. I know we've sung together since, but I know how much that day hurt you." She recalls the day during their Spanish assignment, when Ashley came to get her and Brittany shared her feelings of neglect with her. "And I want to make it up to you. I want the last song we ever sing in glee club to be a song we should've sang years ago. I miss this place so much and I know you will, too. It's where we fell in love, and I can't think of a more fitting way to end our time here than to come full circle, in a way."
Brittany's lip quivers as she tries to fight against the lump forming in her throat. "San…"
"What do you say? You remember the song?"
"Of course I do."
"And you'll sing with me?"
"What do you think?"
Smiling at each other, they link their hands and face their friends, who are all giving them encouraging grins, waiting. When they start singing Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window, they can't help but laugh along with the others at the cheesiness.
Turns out Brittany's favorite day of glee club ends up being her last one.
~/~
In Christmas Eve tradition, Santana spends the night surrounded by her girls. She's got Brittany leaning into one side, and Ashley on the other. Even Lord Tubbington is curled up and sleeping on her lap.
"He missed you," Ashley comments, raising a hand and running it down the cat's back. He did. Almost anytime Santana was on Skype, he'd find his way towards the laptop and try to pop onto the screen.
Santana looks down at the fur ball on her lap and smiles. "Yeah, I might have missed him too. Maybe."
"I don't know what he's gonna do when we're both gone," Brittany coos, scratching behind his ear like he likes.
"Probably wander around the house, meowing hopelessly, looking for his mommy and Auntie Tana," Santana muses, jokingly. "There'll be nobody to sneak extra food in his bowl or play with him in the backyard. He'll have to find someone else's bed to sleep on at night. He's gonna be lost without us." Suddenly, they hear a sniffle and then see a blur run past them. "Ash, what…"
"I think she's Lord Tubbington."
Santana furrows her brow and looks down at her girlfriend. "Huh?"
"What you were saying," Brittany explains, shifting away from Santana's side to get a better look at her. "About Tubbs missing us and being lost without us… Ashley probably feels the same way."
"Oh." Santana runs over what she just said in her head and cringes. "Oh. Right, of course, that was kind of shitty of me, huh?"
"You didn't mean to," the blonde tries to assure her. "It's just, she's really missed you. I know you know that, but you haven't seen just how much. And with me leaving now, too…"
"Yeah," she sighs, running a hand over her face. "Yeah, you're right." She looks at her girlfriend and sighs again. She gently shifts Lord Tubbington to Brittany's lap and stands up. "I should go talk to her."
Brittany nods and accepts the kiss on the cheek, playfully slapping Santana on the ass as she passes. "Good luck."
Santana climbs the stairs and finds Ashley's bedroom door closed. Taking a deep breath, she knocks on the door, hoping for a reply. When she gets nothing, she deflates. "Ash, come on, can I please come in?"
"I don't wanna talk," comes her muffled reply through the door.
"Ash, please," she tries again. She leans her forehead against the door and waits. "Come on, you don't wanna start Christmas mad at me, do you?"
She hears feet shuffling on the other side of the door, and then Ashley's tear stained face comes into view. The sight breaks her heart. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just sad." She sounds so much like her sister Santana doesn't know what to do with herself.
"Can I come in? And we can talk about it?" Ashley nods, and moves aside, letting the older girl into her room. Santana sits down on the bed, waiting for the blonde to join her. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"
"I'm just sad because you're both gonna leave soon," she explains, roughly wiping at her eyes. "I was trying to ignore it so I could enjoy Christmas, but…"
"I had to open my big mouth?"
Ashley giggles a little, but it comes out as more of a hiccup. "Yeah."
"I'm sorry, kiddo," Santana apologizes, running a hand through her hair to soothe her. "I wasn't really thinking. I know it's gonna be really hard on you when we're both gone. We're kinda like a team, and now you won't have us. I know how much it sucks to be the one by yourself. I missed you guys so much when I was at school."
"You only missed Brittany," Ashley grumbles with a pout. "And now that she's gonna be with you, you'll never come visit me."
"Is that what this is about?" Ashley shrugs. Santana shakes her head and moves further onto the bed, pulling a reluctant Ashley up with her so that's she's seated on her lap. "Okay, yes, maybe I missed Britts the most, but she wasn't the only thing I missed. I missed my parents, I missed your parents. I missed Tubbs, and even glee club. I missed you. You have no idea how much I missed you, Ash."
Ashley's not convinced. "No you didn't."
"I did too," she repeats, pulling the little girl tighter against her. "You know when I missed you the most? Every weekend when I'd wake up from my alarm clock, and not from some brat jumping on me. Or every time a Taylor Swift song came on and nobody was around to sing along obnoxiously." She can see the ghost of a smile making its way onto Ashley's lips for a moment. "I didn't have anyone to tuck in, or give piggyback rides to, or crawl into my lap when I was watching TV. Nobody distracted me when I was trying to study, or stole food off my plate, or begged me for ice cream."
"Why would you miss all that stuff?" Ashley wonders, making a face at the list Santana just made.
"Because I missed you," Santana insists, bringing her hand up to the blonde's face to wipe away the few remaining tears on her cheeks. "I miss everything about you, kiddo. And that's not going to change now that Brittany's with me. Brittany doesn't do those things. Well, maybe some of them, but you know what I mean. There are just some things only a little sister does, and you're the only little sister I've got."
Ashley studies Santana's face for a moment, before a smile slowly grows into a grin. "Really?"
"Duh."
"So you'll still visit?"
"Of course," she promises, giving the girl's cheek a pinch. "We'll be here every other weekend, just like we promised. And we'll still Skype and talk on the phone. That's not gonna change. I wasn't just calling to talk to Britt."
Ashley nods and buries her head in the crook of Santana's neck. "I know. You wanted to talk to Tubby, too."
"That's right," Santana laughs, pressing a kiss to the little girl's forehead. "And hey, look at it this way; when we come back, I'll have more time to catch up with you, since I won't be making up for lost time with Britt. You'll see me so much you'll be sick of me."
"Never," Ashley promises, wrapping her arms around Santana's neck and giving her a big hug. "I'm sorry I was being a cry baby. I just missed you a lot, and now I'm gonna miss Brittany, too, and I'm gonna be really lonely."
Santana nods in sympathy. "I know, sweetie, but it'll be okay. We'll talk lots, and soccer will be starting soon, right? And you've got Jacks! And Tubbs! And I hear the PTA at your school is getting less uptight? I bet your bratty friends from school will be allowed to come over now that Britts and I will be gone. You won't be lonely at all. And when you are, just call. I'm sure one of us will be able to talk. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay," Santana echoes with a laugh. She tickles the girl's sides before throwing her over her shoulder to carry her towards the door. "Let's get back to our movie marathon before Britt falls asleep down there and scares Santa."
~/~
The next morning when Ashley opens her gift from Santana and finds multiple tickets to the Louisville Zoo and some place called Bluegrass, she's confused. She looks over to where Santana is cuddled up on the couch with her sister watching her, and gives her a questioning look.
"Bluegrass is this indoor go-carting place, you'll love it," Santana explains with an excited smile. "And I figured animals is a safe bet with any Pierce." Brittany and her parents voice their agreement with that statement. Ashley still looks confused and Santana's smile grows. "For when you come visit us on weekends, Ash."
Ashley's eyes widen and she immediately looks towards her parents for confirmation, and the two of them nod. "We've all discussed it, and since Brittany is getting that single room after all, we think it will be okay for you to go visit once a month." Santana had called the Pierces to ask about the possibility before leaving for break, promising that she and Brittany would take great care of her while she was visiting. After she assured them that the dorms were all very safe and clean, and the particular building Brittany would be living in doesn't have many parties, they agreed. "Santana will come pick you up on Fridays, since she has the day off, and one of us will come pick you up on Sundays."
"Oh my God!" Ashley gives her parents a hug before she launches herself at the couple on the couch in excitement.
Santana laughs and ruffles the girl's hair. "Told you you'd be sick of me soon."
~/~
Christmas dinner is spent at the Pierces, with Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Lopez splitting the cooking duties. Since Santana wasn't invited to dinner at her abuela's house, her parents decided to join Santana at the Pierces and have a meal as a big family. It went off without a hitch, and Santana couldn't help but imagine the many holidays like it to come.
The week between Christmas and New Years is spent either lounging around the house, hanging out with old friends, or packing up Brittany's stuff to get her ready for school. There's also a lot of talks with parents about responsibility and grades and expectations.
They decide to have a quiet New Years Eve in since half of their friends have already gone back to their new homes, and any party in town is full of drunken high school kids. Ashley falls asleep between them before midnight, and when the ball drops, they kiss both her cheeks at the same time before sharing a kiss of their own.
When the girls leave to head back to school, Ashley is a trooper and only cries a little bit. She gives them each a big hug, and tells them she loves them and that she'll miss them. As she stands with her parents waving goodbye to the car that starts disappearing down the road, she knows she'll be okay, because Brittany and Santana would never really leave her behind.
