A/N: This chapter is more a detailed summary of what would have happened in the remaining twelve chapters of OTWT. I've posted this so anyone who was invested in this story can see how things were meant to play out. A more detailed author's note can be found at the end of this chapter. Thank you for reading.
Chapter Nine:
Just after Worlds, Santana suffers some anxiety and depression surrounding her struggle to enjoy skating. The Chicago rink is disbanded because of serious malpractice by skating director ,Dakota Stanley, and several of the skaters are sent to Boston to train, including Tina Cohen-Chang and Quinn Fabray.
Over the summer, Brittany and Santana skate together a lot but much more casually and without their coaches. There is a real sense of vacation in the early summer of the year after the Olympics. Mike is away for the month of June and a good deal of July, so there isn't a lot of pressure to do more than maintain their ability and work on individual skills. Brittany and Santana mostly practice together to keep each other focused but having fun. It starts off as a fun, relaxing thing, but they end up trying some lifts and throws and so on. Though Brittany is not a practiced "base partner," her strength and both of their familiarity with the sport allow them to realize that they could basically skate competitively at the senior level together, if they had a legal pair, which they do not.
One day after practice, Brittany is changing or talking with Emma or something and Mercedes comes in to wait for her niece. Santana and Mercedes strike up a conversation, and the seeds of friendship are planted.
Santana has all but moved into Brittany's apartment and, in bed one night, she tells Brittany how much she wishes she could skate with Brittany. They talk about it for a while until they become sad that they can't, which feels, in many ways, like an extension of the things they aren't allowed to do as a couple. Santana distracts Brittany with kisses to make them both feel better.
By late July, they've managed to put together neat little moves including a fun lift and a throw triple (mostly just telling themselves that it's keeping them prepared for next season) and Holly catches them and is really impressed with their routine. Something about her disarms them and they admit that they'd like to skate together, but obviously can't, and the coach asks them if they'd like to ask the USFSA to petition the ISU.
Chapter Ten:
They would, but obviously can't do it at this moment. They would need to talk to Mike first, who is coming back the next week, and then their coaches as well. Holly seems optimistic that they could have a shot at success.
When Mike returns, they make him dinner in Brittany's apartment and do the awkward we-need-to-ask-you-something-but-we're-avoiding-it thing. Mike manages to loosen them up with a joke about yes, he would be the donor for their baby, they just had to ask. They explain to him that they've been training together, and have been approached by a coach wanting to help them see if they could make similar pairs legal. Mike is immediately supportive and also mentions that he has another partner that he could switch to who was looking and whose style he admired, if Brittany is alright with that, so she wouldn't have to worry about him being left without anyone. She agrees, and they have a nice dinner.
Mike switches to Tina, because Tina and Blaine have broken up due to differences in their goals for the next season and Blaine's reluctance to join another rink. Shelby stays with Mike.
Will doesn't take it well and more or less scoffs at Santana that it's Santana's loss.
Holly lets them know that before they talk to the USFSA, they need to prove it's a viable venture, because they won't support anything that's going to flop. Holly works with them to create a program with enough points to equal the current top pairs in their field (and they have Santana pass her senior level pairs test with Mike).They scramble to prepare for Skating Club of Boston (SCOB), which is holding a USFSA sanctioned 'for fun' competition open to similar pairs at all levels instead of just the lower levels in the fall. They're really nervous because they know that if they skate poorly, they'll basically ruin their chance to get to skate together at all, and it shows in their practice leading up to the day. Holly finally sends them home and tells them to get it together, because skating is 80% mental and 20% physical, and right now they were only giving her about 26%. Emma, recently returned from maternity leave, asks Holly if she thinks they'll do okay and Holly say she isn't sure.
Chapter Eleven:
Brittany and Santana go for a walk and decide that they needed to let it go. Either they'll do really well and they'll petition for a change or they won't and they'll figure something out, but it's not going to affect their relationship and there's no need to worry.
The next day at the competition, they win with a score comparable to just below placement at the most recent international competition: particularly amazing, considering how little time they have had to work together and work on their routines. They have a few stumbles, but nothing major.
Chapter Twelve:
Holly uses this score, with a video of the routine and really good speech to convince the USFSA, to bring up their bid to skate together at the next meeting of the ISU. She brings it to the head of SCOB in November, who contacts the USFSA, who says they'll hear it in January.
Brittana have dinner with Mike to update him on this and he seems really fidgety. After a while, Mike finally begs Brittany to introduce him to Quinn, saying that he saw her at practice and he just has to get to know her. Brittany agrees.
They have a Christmas get together with Mike, Quinn, Tina, Mercedes, and her date, Sam, who is a surprise and who Santana is initially a bit prickly to, because she's afraid he'll be upset at her from the way that she treated him when they were paired together. It turns out that Sam has recently taken a job working at the rink on the zambonis and teaching lower level lessons, which is how he met Mercedes. He's not upset with her and they have a really great holiday.
Holly brings the petition to the USFSA who says they'll bring it to the ISU.
Chapter Thirteen:
The issue gets postponed several times, and Santana and Brittany watch the competitions throughout the year but don't compete in them. Finally, it's presented to the ISU. Once they hear that they're going to be discussing the issue that day, Santana and Brittany sit by the phone and wait and wait, basically being really uncomfortable. To break the unbearable tension, Brittany asks Santana if she wants to live together. Before she can answer the phone rings. Holly tells them that they brought it up at the meeting but postponed it. Santana hangs up and tells Brittany the news, then jumps on her and says yes, she wants to move in. They find an apartment within walking distance of the rink.
Mike comes to help them move in and bursts out that Quinn told him she wanted to start dating him for real. Everyone is very happy.
Brittana start working on routines with Holly, even though they aren't sure they'll be able to make it by next season. It's generally a good time though, until the day Santana goes to see Holly in Emma's office to ask a question about their routine and sees Emma being comforted by Holly. She leaves without a word and goes to ask Brittany about it. Brittany says that she heard Will left and they both are bratty and mean about him, while holding hands because it's so sad.
Holly is sort of distant and distracted over the next few days at practice, but Britt and Santana don't really mention anything of it. After one of their practices, Sam and Mercedes come up to show them Mercedes' ring and tell them they're going to get married in October. It's a lovely happy note in a time of stress and waiting.
Holly, Brittany, and Santana are all lounging around the house, waiting for a phone call about the vote because it's supposed to happen that day. They're all really nervous, because the registration deadline for regionals is in a few weeks, so if it's pushed back again, they'll probably have to wait another year before they can compete. Holly's phone finally rings, but it's Emma, and Georgie (Emma's daughter) is sick.
Chapter Fourteen:
Holly bolts off to the hospital. Santana is basically a wreck, but Sue eventually calls and tells them that they've agreed to open it to similar pairs, though the voting is narrow and mostly European, with some votes, in particular, from countries who have been suffering in pairs. This is met with some backlash from skating fans/coaches/etc about it changing the face of figure skating and people will suffer, etc. etc. Brittana are the only ones who are ready, because no one thought it would pass yet, so the world is sort of looking at them before it attempts to form a whole lot of similar pairs.
At the same time, they realize that Sam and Mercedes have planned their wedding for the day of regionals. Luckily it's a small affair and Brittany, Santana, Mike, Quinn, Stevie, Stacy, Sam's parents, Mercedes' parents, Mercedes' brother, and her niece all come to the park early in the morning to see the wedding. It's sweet and simple and gets Brittana in just the right mood for their regional competition. They win easily, which they knew they would, but it feels really good just to get to do that together, and Holly has some ideas about what they need to fix.
They also win sectionals, which is rehashed through a family Thanksgiving dinner where their parents just will not STOP talking about. Santana tries to protest that they're still not hitting this lift or that spin or something but Brittany nudges her and tells her to forget it because they're never going to be able to get their parents to stop. They eventually escape to a kickass game of Candyland or Uno.
Chapter Fifteen:
Brittany and Santana host a Christmas party in their apartment. Guest list includes Mike, Quinn, Mercedes, Sam, Holly, Emma, and Georgie. Ashley maybe comes for a little bit. A lot of adorably fluffy things happen, even with the huge competition right around the corner.
Nationals is their first big competition as an official pair. They miss a throw because of the way that Brittany throws her (Santana has to two-foot the landing and put a hand down, but doesn't completely mess up) and end up in third after the short. Afterwards, Brittany is totally freaking out, and Santana stops her and tells her that she's not hurt, that they can't skate everything perfectly every time, and that Brittany should let it go. She trusts Brittany to do her best and when things don't work out, they don't work out. Even if they fall on everything, she'll still be proud to be Brittany's partner and her girlfriend. They do amazing on their free skate the next day and win gold.
Chapter Sixteen:
At Four Continents Championships (4CC) they managed to iron out a couple of the mistakes from nationals and are looking at a good shot at gold. However, in the freeskate, Santana snaps a lace on her landing foot during a footwork sequence and they have to stop and re-lace it and then restart that section. They still do well, but it throws them enough that they place fourth overall. Holly tells them it's fine, and it shows that they can still do reasonably well under extreme pressures. After all, they didn't really lose any points for the rest of the routine, their execution points just suffered a little. If that's the worst that happens after a pretty big upset at their first major international competition as a pair, then they're going to be fine.
Still, Santana reads some of the articles and they're still getting a lot of heat and poor predictions about their future success. Everyone seems to be watching them and waiting for them to fail. Brittany tells her to ignore it, because they don't matter. All that matters is the two of them. Santana tells her that she's a genius and cuddles up with her.
Chapter Seventeen:
Worlds are being held in Boston, which means that all of Santana and Brittany's friends and family can see it. They're nervous because this is the most important, biggest competition that they've been in, but they also know they've been working hard and their programs are solid.
The short program is written from Brittany's point of view about how beautiful Santana is, how brave and strong and wonderful, etc. They do very well.
Santana catches Brittany staring after they get their scores and asks her 'What?" and she just sort of smiles and shakes her head. They go last in the freeskate.
Freeskate is written from Santana's point of view about how much she loves Brittany, how safe and secure and happy she feels when they're skating together, or any time really, and how perfect it feels to just be understood all the time. She thinks about how wonderful it felt during their early morning warm up at the rink, to steal kisses, to see Brittany smiling at her, to just feel relaxed, even halfway through such an intense competition. By the time they finish the last element, Santana has come to the conclusion that she wants to propose to Brittany.
Chapter Eighteen:
Santana is obviously freaking out over proposing to Brittany and asks Mercedes to come with her to pick out the ring and Mercedes agrees. When they get to the first store, Mercedes is acting kind of weird and avoid-y and Santana finally tells her to just spit out whatever is, figuring automatically that it's some sort of issue with her getting married, but instead Mercedes tells her that she's pregnant, but she didn't want to say because Sam wanted to tell her. Santana instantly gets super happy and promises she'll act surprised but asks a bunch of questions and begs Mercedes to let her buy the baby something. They end up finding a cute onesie and the perfect ring.
When Santana gets home, Brittany asks her about her day and she spills the beans on Mercedes and Sam, which helps her keep the secret about proposing. She hides the ring for a week or two while she figures things out. Finally, Santana takes Brittany to a fancy restaurant with dancing and then for a walk in the park and proposes. Brittany says yes and they spend the night making love.
Chapter Nineteen:
Santana and Brittany tell their parents who are all overjoyed. Ashley screams with happiness and jumps up and down (even though she tries to play it cool later). They also show Mike and Quinn at the rink. They're supposed to have a meeting with Holly to go over potential new music, but she asks them to postpone because she has an important meeting (she doesn't say what, but implies that it has to do with Emma), which is fine with Brittany and Santana, who let her know they'll see her when they get back.
Two weeks later, they fly to Ohio to see Brittany's grandparents and spend a few days with them. They're finding it harder to leave and, after a fairly successful season, they can afford a short break, especially since they know of a place they can keep sharp. They stop by the rink they used to skate at, because Brittany told her that they should ask to make sure they have some time open for them to skate, but really Brittany had been planning on proposing (and has called ahead for this moment) and Santana gets all weepy. ("I've wanted to marry you and have babies with you since I was five. Do you remember our first ice show? You had on this sparkly white dress and your mom spent thirty minutes getting your hair exactly right because it didn't want to stay in the bun. You held my hand and we skated around the edge and waved at the people in the audience and I knew then that I was going to marry you.")
Chapter Twenty:
Brittana spend the summer working on their new routines and skills, perfecting their 3A (which they only had shaky last year). Holly uses the fact that they're like crazy in love to pick out great music and design routines that really focus on their connection with each other. Mercedes comes and watches them pretty frequently in the middle of summer because it's hot and she's rather pregnant.
They're practicing one day and struggling with the emotions of a certain part, when they get the call that Mercedes has had her baby. They go to the hospital to meet him and coo over him and have a moment where they look at each other because they totally have their inspiration for the part they were messing up. Throughout December, they drill a lot and they're getting really good and solid. Holly asks them to do a run through and then disappears; when they look to find her she's kissing Emma. Brittany hip bumps Santana and they leave for the day.
Chapter Twenty-One:
Nationals is being held in Cleveland. They do really well with their short, which includes the part that the joy and peace of seeing Mercedes and her brand new baby helped them nail. They totally miss one big element in their free skate, but recover exceptionally well (which is important, because Santana is a career choker, but apparently not anymore, especially after the issues they had at 4CC the year before where Santana's lace cost them a medal) and still go on to win. Santana has stopped reading the press at this point because it was just disappointing getting all of the bad reviews for good performances.
They do get an adorable unicorn thrown on the ice and later find that it has a note wrapped around its neck about how their relationship helped this girl come out to her family and now she was in a great relationship with another girl and is really happy and had a drawing of them with gold medals (which they totally frame). Santana and Brittany are overwhelmed at the thought that they have even one fan out there that they helped and this is the first hint to them that their prominence, their controversy, and their fight might mean something a lot more than just what it means to them.
Chapter Twenty-Two:
4CC - Vancouver
Santana and Brittany talk a lot about that one girl over the time between Nationals and 4CC, wondering if she's doing alright and so on. They decide to give her a shout out in the kiss and cry. When they step out onto the ice, they're taken aback at a reasonably sized group of fans with rainbow and American flags and signs who cheer and wave. They sort of wave back and are feeling so good that it's really easy to skate well. The fans grow bigger for their freeskate and they sign a bunch of autographs and so on, easily snatching the gold.
Mike, Mercedes, and Brittany's dad all send them articles before Worlds showing that a lot of people are considering them the favorites to win (Americans have only won pairs gold at Worlds in 1979 and 1950 (and never at the Olympics)). At first, Brittany and Santana are flabbergasted at this. Who would have thought that they, who a year ago didn't have any fans who didn't know them personally, who had countless articles published about why they should be permanently banned from the sport, could be anyone's favorites, let alone reputable figure skating critics'?
Worlds- Prague
However, it ends up going to their head and they think they're going to win, which leads to them getting over confident and they nearly blow their short. They fall on one of their side by side jumps and make a couple of other errors and end up in fourth.
Holly yells at them (with kindness and love), telling them that this is just another kind of pressure, and pressure that they have to overcome if they want to win; that it's fundamentally no different than blocking out the fact that people thought they were going to lose, or a mistake in the program. All they need to do is focus on each other and the skating. They go out and do so and win gold.
Chapter Twenty-Three:
In May of 2017 they get married. Santana gets ready with her mom and Mercedes. Brittany gets ready with Ashley, Quinn, and her mom. Santana is flipping back and forth between being ecstatically excited and terrifyingly nervous that she's going to mess something up. Brittany is kind of quiet, focusing on what's coming up and being excited about it.
Ashley, Mike, Quinn, and Mercedes stand up with them, Mercedes and Quinn in red, Ashley and Mike in blue. Jokes around it being at a rink. They really have it in a field, under a tree. It's casual and intimate and lovely. They both cry a little bit and there's a small party afterwards, where Britt and Santana spend about eight minutes total not staring into each other's eyes like love sick little puppies. (Guests: Maribel and Antonio, Susan and Richard, Brittany's family, Ashley, Holly, Mike, Quinn, Mercedes, Sam, Charlie, Emma, Georgie, Artie, Marley, etc.)
The next morning, they fly out to someplace tropical and spend a whole week alternating between laying out on the beach together and enjoying sweet lady kisses. On the last day they're on (the same) deck chair, watching the sunset and Brittany asks if Santana wants to stay any longer and Santana says that she's loved it, but she misses the ice and besides, they have the Olympics to train for. Brittany agrees.
Chapter Twenty-Four:
When they get back, their connection has grown even stronger and Holly and Brittana develop some amazing routines and everyone is in super good spirits, until about five months before the Pyeongchang Olympics, which they will obviously qualify for. The officials announce that they will not be allowing similar pairs at the Olympics because it is 'too new' and they don't feel ready for it. Santana and Brittany are both obviously upset. They cancel practice with Holly because they just want to be together alone and not think about their dreams being ruined.
After a day or so of being upset, Brittany is like, well, if we can't advance our professional life then we should advance our personal life, and she tells Santana they should have a baby. Santana gives every reason why they shouldn't. Brittany answers all of her fears with a rebuttal, but always tells Santana that she won't force her. It's fairly immediately clear to Brittany (though probably not Santana) that she's using the questions to have her fears answered and, at the end of the day, she really wants to have Brittany's baby, too. They work everything out and call a clinic. They have some money from the advertising deals that they've been a part of and it doesn't take long for them to get someone to agree to do the procedure (a technological advancement that allows two women to have a biological child together) as soon as possible. They have Santana and Brittany come in and take a small amount of Brittany's bone marrow and send Santana and Brittany home with a course of injections. Because she is young and healthy, they go for the shorter course of drugs and she only has to take four days of injections before going back for them to retrieve eggs. Then there is a five day wait. They discuss telling their parents and what room they might like to make the baby's and how they're not going to be disappointed if the first implantation doesn't work and so on until it's finally time to go in. Santana holds Brittany's hand and they implant the embryos.
Chapter Twenty-Five:
Less than a week after the implantation, the ISU tells the Olympic committee that they will make the Olympics no longer an approved event if they do not follow all ISU rules and the committee backs down immediately. Suddenly, it would be very bad for Santana to be pregnant and the days leading up to her test become even more stressful. Santana can't tell if the symptoms she's having are stress or pregnancy and everything is kind of a mess. The first day that she can, she takes a test with Brittany there.
When the test comes back positive, she cries. On one hand, she can't not compete in the Olympics because it would basically ruin everything that they've been working for, but she can't get rid of the little girl already growing inside her. Brittany and Santana discuss this back and forth, Brittany saying that she'll support whatever Santana wants to do, but there really isn't a decision they can make. Abortion is just out of the question for them. But if they don't go to the Olympics, there's a good chance that a. they'll never get to and b. similar pairs will fall by the wayside, since they are still the only ones competing at the senior level. It seems like there's no answer until, finally, they come to the conclusion that they're going to the Olympics pregnant.
Chapter Twenty-Six:
Holly is the first person that they tell. She is cautious, but supportive and immediately hires an OB to stay on retainer and monitor Santana, because if they're going to do this, they're going to do it at as safely as possible. They also have to tell Sue. The OB tells them that they can't follow the full training schedule and that they need to reduce by at least 30-40%, which puts even more pressure on them because they can't just show up; they need to do well, maybe even place, especially after a season of all gold medals. They have a lot riding on this Olympics and they can't train at full force and they're risking miscarriage every time Santana falls or her heart rate gets very high. They don't want to tell anyone because it's such a real possibility.
They have several tense months where Santana is pretty sick and they can't talk to anyone but each other and even that is hard sometimes, and they have to refit Santana's costume and the OB hurries over every time she falls and it's frustrating and extremely tense and then Santana has a day where she just breaks and can't stop crying and when Santana breaks, Brittany does.
So they decide they need to leave the stress at the rink as much at they can. It's not easy but they go on dates and hang out with their friends more again and everything. They're a little afraid of buying anything for the baby, they but eventually get something skating related, like a cute onesie.
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Santana ends up puking her guts out in front of Mercedes, and Mercedes, who has a baby at this point, can guess pretty quickly what's going on. Mike finds out a little later when Brittany accidentally lets something slip. It's nice having someone who knows and they're good about not talking about it too much because they both understand that it's hard knowing how precarious everything is at the moment.
They get a medical bye (claiming indistinct hip injuries to Santana) to get them through nationals, so that they don't have to risk competition, where they would have to put a lot of effort in and risk the pregnancy. With their history, most recent season, and a display of their skills, they easily show the judges that they have a good handle on things and are advanced to the Olympics.
Finally, it's time for the Olympics. Brittany and Santana share a room and it's amazing. They push together the beds, even though they basically fit in one. They have practices right away because their event is coming fairly quickly. The time change gives Santana really bad morning sickness, so her coach basically has to hold a puke bag in the rink and Brittany learns to instantly tell if Santana is about to throw up, so they can rush over and not have her puke on the ice. She's been wearing loose clothing to hide her tiny hint of a bump, still not wanting people to know because it's still dangerous.
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
During the Opening Ceremonies they actually can forget about it for the first time in a long time and just enjoy the festivities with Quinn, Mike, and Tina. When she goes to put her costume on, it's a little tight across the stomach and it already had to be let out in the bust. Santana gets worried and quiet and teary and Brittany holds her and they talk and Santana say she's just feeling so horrible because all of the things that are supposed to be loved and cherished about having their first baby have been things that they have to worry and dread and so on. They decide together that they don't care if Santana gets comments about her weight and have a short practice that night and a date on the town. Holly is supportive, knowing her skaters are basically physically prepared and need the chance to prepare mentally.
The practice the next day is okay. They're working together more but they're still singling or only doubling almost everything because they're afraid. The night before they have a talk about how they're just going to have to let go and trust each other during their routines.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
The short program goes well - an itty, bitty stumble when Brittany freaks out about not throwing Santana correctly (or something) and a downgrade on a lift for the same reason. They're still missing the triplepart of their 3A. They're giving it a lot, but not their all. They end up in sixth, which is the lowest position they've been in after the short in a long time, but is a manageable place to be.
Santana tells Brittany that she just needs to let go and truly, for real this time. No coddling, no freaking out. Trust in themselves and trust in their have a nearly flawless freeskate. When they finish, Brittany drops to her knees (or is already there) and just presses kisses to Santana's stomach, so glad to be done, to have done so well. It doesn't even matter how they did in the standings, that was the best skate they could give. Brittany kisses Santana and scoops her up and skates off with her. They get huge scores and win gold by a full 5 points, at least.
Chapter Thirty:
They spend the other days having fun, buying baby things and trading American swag for stuff, fielding phone calls and apologizing to their parents. People seem to know them (mostly to do with the great human interest story that is a four month pregnant woman, half of the first similar pair in the Olympics, who won gold) and are happy and they have an easygoing exhibition number and kiss under the fireworks of the closing ceremony. And maybe that could be the end.
A/N:
It feels a bit strange to be ending a story like this. The truth was, until the Pyeongchang Olympics started, I had always intended to come back and finish this story, even as weeks and months gave way to years since my last update. However, when I sat down to watch the first night of skating, I was met with the realization that it was simply too late. I had changed too much as a person in the two and a half years since my last chapter to be able to do much of anything with this story.
At the same time, I didn't really like that I had left everyone in the dark. I had the whole story planned out before I even started the first chapter, I knew exactly where Santana and Brittany ended up. But you guys were the ones who were so kind to me in the time in between, and I thought you should know soon.
Some of the plot points I look back on with a bit of a wince. I've learned since about the ways that organizations operate that oppose the things I've written here. All the same, the story is and always was meant to be exactly this. There are some things mentioned very briefly that are much more fleshed out in my mind, even after however much time of it streaming right back out again (I believe the first details of this story were conceived more than five years ago!). Feel free to direct any questions about those details or the lives of any of the characters after the story to my tumblr. I'll do my best to answer whatever questions I get.
I'm sorry that I couldn't do more, but I hope you enjoyed learning the end (and most of the middle, too, honestly) of this story.
I want to thank each and every one of you for appreciating the little world that I created.
This chapter is dedicated to you.
3 Sadie
