A/N: Sorry if the spacing is messed up on here. My computer crashed so we are trying to fix it in an email and it keeps messing it up. Bear with us. Enjoy!
A/N 2: Thank you all for the reviews/follows/and favorites! You make us want to keep writing.
Dani walked into her favorite diner, ready for dinner and to go home and relax after a long day of working on her music and performing said music. She was humming the tune to one of her latest songs (one of the last ones she sang) as she walked up to the counter and placed her order. She didn't even see Santana and Rachel until she turned around and leaned up against the counter. She smiled at her girlfriend and questioned,
"Santana?" she hadn't expected her to be here, of all places. Broadway family diners weren't really her thing.
Santana froze mid laugh with Rachel, her blood running cold, upon hearing her technical "girlfriend" say her name in surprise. What the hell was Dani doing here?! She couldn't be here! This was her first date with Rachel! Holy sweet hell…Didn't she have anywhere else to be? Santana was planning on breaking up with Dani afterwards…after asking out Rachel so suddenly she hadn't gotten the chance to earlier.
She cast a worried glance at Rachel and slowly let go of the girl's hands, hoping she wouldn't react badly to all of this. Santana sighed inwardly, knowing that if Rachel didn't hate her for this, Shelby would.
Rachel pursed her lips at the scene and sat back in the booth, crossing her arms over her chest insecurely. She was aware that Santana hadn't yet broken up with Dani, and she wasn't quite sure how this was about to go down.
Dani, not yet seeing anything wrong with the scene (Rachel and Santana lived together, they had dinner together like every night anyways, right?) walked up to their table and asked,
"Hey, what are you doing here, baby?"
Santana's heart thumped wildly and she smiled nervously, looking Dani up and down. She felt so bad for what she was about to do—it wasn't Dani's fault she got caught up in all of this, and she really was innocent. She was one of the best relationships that Santana had ever had. It's just that…now she had Rachel. Rachel!
"Rachel and I were having dinner," she responded truthfully. Sure, it didn't give away why they were having dinner…she knew she had to get to the details eventually but she was stalling for time, still caught completely off guard and unsure what to say.
The brunette across from Santana stayed silent, interested in how all of this was going to turn out and fairly nervous for Santana. Even Santana seemed more nervous than she did at the beginning of the night, and Rachel was pretty sure she wasn't ever going to see that again. She supposed miracles did happen.
Still oblivious to what was going on, Dani smiled sweetly at Rachel. "Hello, Rachel," she always enjoyed spending time with Santana's friends. Even if Rachel could be a little over the top, she was still a pretty cool person.
Rachel gulped, slowly. "Hi, Dani…what are you doing here?"
Santana rolled her eyes at everyone asking what everyone was doing there. It was a fucking diner—what else would they all be doing there?! She shook her head at herself. She was tense and nervous and her palms were all sweaty. She was terrified and she knew she needed to just calm down.
"Just stopping in for dinner after a late gig." Dani shrugged, putting her hands in her pockets.
Rachel, recognizing that Santana needed time to think about how she was going to do this, continued to distract Dani with small talk.
"Oh, cool! Was it a good show?"
The expression Dani gave Rachel told her that it wasn't. "Eh, it was okay…I've had better." Without missing a beat she turned to Santana. "So are we still on for our date Thursday?"
With a sigh, Santana knew she couldn't just put this off anymore. "I think we need to talk about that…"
Finally, realization struck Dani—like a fucking brick smacking her in the forehead. So that was what this is—it wasn't just some friendly dinner between roommates. She figured she should have thought of that right away, because Santana and Rachel could hardly stand each other 90% of the time, why would they just start going to dinner now? But she should have paid more attention to the way Santana looked at Rachel before, because all of a sudden every single tiny little thing that Santana had said or done about Rachel started to make since. She had never truly loved Dani, had she?
"Oh, okay, so now I get it."
Standing hesitantly, Santana put her hands up in a "please calm down" sort of gesture. "Dani, we REALLY need to talk about this, please don't just jump to conclusions—"
Dani threw her hands up in an "I'm done" sort of gesture. "Fine then! Talk!"
"Please just calm down. I…I don't really know how to say it. This isn't your fault. Really, it had nothing to do with you…you just happened to be thrown into the mix of it and I'm sorry. Really…"
Dani sat down to take everything in—it was a lot to take in at once. A minute ago she thought she had a girlfriend, but now she wasn't so sure what Santana was anymore. "So what? We're over?"
With another small sigh, Santana said, "I really am sorry, Dani. But…" she bit her bottom lip and looked over at the small brunette that she could amazingly now call hers. "It's always been Rachel…"
Now it was Dani's turn to sigh. "Honestly? I've known all along. The way you look at her and talk about her…I just didn't want to admit it to you or to myself. It's fine, Santana. I wish you both the best. I was upset earlier because I thought that's what I needed to feel, but it wasn't."
"Really?" Santana was more relieved than she thought she'd ever felt in her life, but worried that Dani hadn't taken it worse than she did. Did that mean something? Girls were so complicated! Santana had expected some sort of fight. She cast a glance at Rachel, who looked just as surprised—apparently she had also been expecting some sort of show down. "You have every right to be mad at me," San added to Dani, almost hoping she would be, so she didn't get attacked when she least expected it.
An amused expression crossed Dani's face and a knot formed in Santana's stomach.
"Oh, don't worry, I am mad. But there's nothing I can do about it. You love who you love, Santana. Who am I to stand in the way of that?"
This made Santana feel even worse. She was completely exhausted tonight—all of these emotions were giving her whiplash. "Dani…I did care about you. I do care about you. It's just…" she looked over at Rachel again, who looked slightly uncomfortable but better than she could've looked. Santana considered herself extremely lucky that the girl hadn't gotten up and just left yet. "She's Rachel. I've liked her since High School. We have this whole history…things are different with her."
"I get it, Santana." Her eyes sparkled and Santana hoped to god that the poor girl wasn't going to cry because she just wasn't sure that any of them would be able to handle it. People who had started to stare when Dani had originally reacted had continued to watch their mini soap opera and she did not want to draw anymore attention. Any other night she would have told them something snarky to make them go away but she couldn't force herself to care about what others thought—not tonight.
"Really, I do get it…and I did love you," Dani continued. "Hell, I still love you. But I understand."
Santana took a deep breath, thankful that things were going so well. "So…are we okay? Because you're my friend, Dani, and I'd really hate it if we never spoke again because of this." She knew she was sort of asking a lot after all she had put her through, but she was hoping that if there was a god above…
Dani took a moment to respond, scaring the hell out of Santana and making her second guess every life decision she had ever made before Dani finally responded, "Yes, Santana." She smiled. "We are fine."
Smiling back from ear to ear, because it seemed like for once in Santana's life things were finally going her way, San hugged Dani back and whispered in her ear, "Thank you. SO much."
From across the table, Rachel smiled as well, happy and thankful that Dani hadn't started at riot and that she and Santana were able to still be friends. Rach knew with some sadness that Dani was one of Santana's only friends in New York, and she would have felt horrible if she was lost for her.
Dani hugged Santana back and said, "All right, ladies. I've got to go! Have a good night, okay?" she paid for her food, winked at the girls, and walked away, humming the same tune she was humming when she walked in the door. Her heart hurt slightly, but she was happy that things had ended now, instead of gotten serious later on and then having Rachel come into the picture.
After Dani had left, Rachel let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, feeling and looking utterly surprised. "Well that was…easy."
"Right?!" Santana said in complete disbelief. The people who were staring lost interest after Dani had left, and she was super thankful that she and Rachel could finish their date in peace.
"But I'm glad she took it so well. So much less drama,"
Santana took Rachel's hand again, missing the feeling. "Yeah, me too."
Rachel grinned from ear to ear, feeling that course of electricity at Santana's touch. It was a feeling she was not yet used to, and she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to it either.
After finishing their dinner and paying, Santana and Rachel's hands never apart, Santana whispered, "So how about that walk now?"
Rach pulled closer to her new girlfriend. It wasn't even awkward to think of her as a girlfriend so early into their relationship. It was a long time coming, really. Girlfriend was almost too weak a word.
They walked down the city sidewalks, the New York streets still busy enough to be loud, but not too busy to not have a private, intimate moment-a walk between two new lovers. They stayed close as a breeze swept across them. It would have chilled anybody else, but they kept each other warm.
"Rachel, I am so sorry I hadn't broken up with Dani before this," Santana admitted guiltily. She still felt horrible for it. She knew it wasn't right.
Pondering her response, Rachel bit her lower lip in thought. Originally she had been a bit upset that Santana hadn't broken up with Dani before. But now she understood why Santana had done it and what was the point of being angry at her for it now? Santana had chosen HER.
"It's okay. I know you weren't expecting to ask me out so suddenly tonight, and I did sort of just throw all of this at you. Admittedly, the song was Shelby's idea. Well, not that particular song, but singing it to you in general..." Rachel realized she was starting to get a little rambly and was thankful that Santana took over the conversation.
"I loved the song, Rachel, even if it was a little sudden. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I'm so thankful we're together."
Rachel smiled up at Santana, her heart pounding. "I am, too. More than glad."
With an overwhelming feeling of deep emotion, Santana said, in complete honesty, "I love you, Rachel Barbra Berry."
Rachel's heart pounded so hard she was afraid it might fall out of her chest. She came to the realization that what she felt for Santana was so much more than just the crush that she thought it was. She knew in that moment that she was in love with Santana, too. She would die for the girl, she couldn't imagine life without her and all she had ever wanted was to be able to have a relationship with her and now that she did she was finally allowed to say,
"I love you too, Santana Marie Lopez."
With a deep blush forming on her cheeks, Santana pulled Rachel closer, as if it were possible. She had never been so happy in her life, and she thought with great joy that finally, after years and years of disappointment, things had started to go her way.
...
Shelby stomped her foot in protest and followed her girlfriend around the kitchen. Cassandra had started deliberately throwing away any health food she saw that she considered "over the top", which consisted of Shelby's rice cakes. Shelby felt that it was now the last straw.
"Cassie!" she complained, trying desperately to grab a bag from out of Cassandra's hands. Cass carefully shoved Shelby's arms away and threw the bag away anyways. "Stop throwing away all of my healthy food! I agreed to buy junk, but I did not agree to you throwing all of my rice cakes out!"
"Rice cakes. RICE CAKES. Do you HEAR yourself?" Cassandra said, tilting her head back with a laugh as Shelby jumped up onto Cassandra's back and tried to pry the bag of rice cakes from the blonde's grasp. Cass pulled Shelby's legs off of her and Shelby dropped to the floor with a low growl. "I agree that it's good to eat healthy, honey. I'm a DANCE teacher, for god's sake. All i'm saying, C, is that if you keep killing yourself over the small stuff, you're just ADDING more stress to your life. Stress that you definitely don't need."
She wasn't going to bring it up, but at this point she felt it was necessary. So Cass took Shelby lightly by the hands and said softly, "You only eat like this because it's how you were raised."
Cassandra was well aware that now that she said that, Shelby was going to get so defensive she wouldn't be able to talk any sense into her anymore. There was a reason that neither woman's childhood was ever brought up between the two of them-both women hated every part about their past. But Shelby needed to understand what she was doing to herself. She was hard on herself like her parents used to be on her. Cass sighed and watched as Shelby immediately spit back,
"So what if that's how I was raised? We aren't talking about my childhood. I happen to like rice cakes."
So was how things were going to be. If their relationship was going to be different this time around-if it was going to last-they needed to be able to bring this stuff up to each other.
"I know we're not talking about your childhood. We never talk about either of our childhoods and that's how we function." now it was Cassandra's turn to cross her arms over her chest. "The rice cakes are not the point." after saying this she got a new trash bag out and threw another package of rice cakes into it.
"Then what is?" Shelby wondered, pulling the package out of the bag.
Cass knew that this was a better time than ever to say what was on her mind. This "super hard ass self" act that Shelby was putting on needed to stop. For her own good. Maybe no one else saw the pain in Shelby's eyes ever day, but it didn't escape Cassandra's attention every day.
"You don't have to be so hard on yourself or make your life so miserable just because your parents expected excellence and perfection out of everything you did..." She noticed that Shelby had stiffened at the mention of her parents and started occupying herself with putting her rice cakes back in the cupboard, however her voice softened and she continued, carefully. "They're dead, Shelbs...they've been gone for a long time, babe, it's time to let go."
Shelby dropped the bag she was holding and spun around to face Cassandra, her eyes narrowing into a glare. "Low blow." was all she could bring herself to say.
"I'm sorry," Cassandra said truthfully, walking towards Shelby and wrapping her arms around the woman's waist. "I know you don't want to talk about it, Shelby, but you're hurting yourself over things you can't control again and I think this over-healthy eating thing is part of it." her sincere hazel eyes bore into Shelby's green ones, warmly. She just wanted her baby to be okay again.
Shelby shrugged her off and said, "I am not hurting, Cassandra. I just want to be healthy. Hell."
"You can't be perfect all the time, babe. Nobody can. The fact that you aren't isn't going to change anything-certainly not their opinions. They loved you the way that you are, Shelby. As do I. But, babe, they're gone. There is nothing you can do to make them love you more." she continued and tried to keep Shelby's attention but the brunette tried to force herself away. "And you are healthy. MORE than healthy. That's why I'm doing this..."
Shelby refused to listen to Cassandra's point. "I bought junk food for Christ's sake! So I wanted to keep some health options here, sue me." she started to walk away.
"Hey, hey, hey," Cass rushed back towards her and grabbed her by the hands, spinning her around. Shelby's long, gorgeous chocolate locks fell into her eyes as she angrily muttered,
"What? What more could you possibly say?"
"Hey," Cass said again, softly, pressing her face close to Shelby's. Reluctantly, Shelby allowed her to do so. "I'm sorry, Shelby. I know you don't want to talk about it with me and that's fine. I get it. You just needed to hear it, whether you wanted to acknowledge the fact or not. Go ahead and be healthy, okay? Just don't over kill it and don't do it tonight."
Cass placed a soft kiss on Shelby's lips, which Shelby hesitantly reciprocated before Shelby said, "Fine." and she walked to the freezer, getting out the container of Rocky Road ice cream and a spoon and plopping down on the couch.
Sitting down next to Shelby, Cass wrapped an arm around her and opened her mouth, expecting to get a bite. Shelby shook her head as she put the spoon in her mouth. "Go get your own!"
With a protesting glance, Cassandra unwrapped her arm from Shelby's waist and stood, heading towards the kitchen with devilish thoughts. "Love you too, Corcoran..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Shelby rolled her eyes at Cassie's dramatics and took another bite.
Cass swayed her hips as she walked, knowing it would bother Shelby just enough to get her to pay attention. As the blonde's hips moved, so did Shelby's eyes and she watched carefully, aware of Cassandra's displeasure.
With a sigh, Shelby groaned and tilted her head back against the back of the couch. "Come sit back down, Cass," she was already cold from lack of body heat and missed Cassie's touch.
Ignoring her, Cass opened up the fridge and pulled out the cheesecake box. If her hips couldn't get Shelby's attention enough, Cass thought grudgingly, the damn cheesecake definitely would.
"I win a minute," she finally acknowledged Shelby's request.
It was too late though-Shelby had seen her pull out the box. The brunette got up onto her knees on the couch, turning around and craning her neck to see.
"What are you doing?"
Cas shrugged innocently, raising a seductive and teasing eyebrow. "I'm getting my own junk food, like you told me," her voice dared Shelby to stop her. And dare Shelby would.
"Not my cheesecake!" she yelled, figuring out the blonde's evil plans, jumping up and running towards the kitchen. "NO NO NO NO NO!"
Teasingly, and thankful she had Shelby exactly where she wanted her, Cass grabbed a fork, opened the box, and took a bite, waving the fork around and walking backwards with a laugh. "Nuh uh! Go get your ownnnn..."
"But! This is mineee!" Cass took another bite and Shelby's heart broke. "CASSIEEEE!" it wasn't fair! That was the one thing she had actually asked for!
Sighing in amusement, Cassandra put another bite onto the fork and held it out in front of Shelby, who had her mouth open, pleadingly. Cass smirked when Shelby took the bite and practically moaned. She was proud of herself for getting Shelby to drop her professional act around her, even if only for a minute. Shelby then promptly took the fork from Cassandra's hands and took another bite, a small smirk forming on her lips.
"There," Cass said. "Are you happy now? Now that you can have your cheesecake? Do I get some ice cream now?"
Shelby took another bite. "Mmmhmmm…" she handed Cass the ice cream tub.
Knowing she got her way for a small moment in time, Cassandra smirked and kissed the top of Shelby's head before walking back towards the living room. She was starting to figure out how to break down Shelby's wall, like she promised she would. She knew she just had to be creative about it—that it was still very possible.
. . .
Santana laughed excitedly as she pulled Rachel into the apartment. "Your humble abode, milady…"
Rachel laughed back, her grip still tight on Santana's hand. "Well at least walking me home was convenient."
Kurt, who had been waiting in the living room of the apartment reading a book and anxiously anticipating their arrival home, looked up from what he was reading and smiled softly at the exchange.
"I had a great night, Rach," Santana promised her.
"I did too, San. I'm really happy. The happiest I've been in a very long time."
Upon hearing this, Kurt pressed his lips together excitedly and put his book down, expecting an immediate Rachel re-telling. He needed a play by play from his best friend and he needed it now. Especially since the date was with their long time friend AND roommate.
Santana smiled at Rachel's declaration of happiness. It felt good to make her happy instead of upset all the time. She was excited that she didn't have to hide her feelings anymore, and had been contemplating why she felt the need to even hide them to begin with. This was more than she could have ever asked for.
"Well then…I'm glad I could be of assistance." She glanced over at Kurt and couldn't help but enjoy the look on his face, but out of habit, played it off like she couldn't care less about his reaction. "It appears Lady Hummel wants to talk to you, so I am going to call it a night." She placed a soft, lingering kiss on Rachel's cheek. "Good night, Rach."
In that moment, Rachel Berry lost her ability to react to life, even if the kiss was only on the cheek. After a small fluttering in her stomach, Rachel managed to mutter a, "Goodnight, Santana."
With a small smirk of happiness, Santana walked into her "room" of the apartment. After pulling the curtain shut and pulling her privacy partition into place in front of her bed, she changed into shorts and a tank top to sleep in, switched on her laptop, logged in, and got into Skype, IMing Shelby:
Corcoran, I HAVE to talk to you, get your ass on here, please.
When Shelby's laptop went off, she and Cass were lying in bed watching a movie. It seemed like a pretty nonproductive and lazy weekend for the two of them, which they were both completely okay with. Cass didn't enjoy the fact that she had to move from her position of laying on Shelby just so Shelby could reach for her laptop, but she eventually did get up, reluctantly. After unlocking her desktop, Shelby read Santana's message and shook her head with a small laugh.
"Cass…Santana needs me. I'm going to call her on Skype. Okay?"
Cassandra clicked the remote to pause the movie—They were watching You've Got Mail—and shifted, hesitantly, into a more comfortable position.
"Um, okay, but…doesn't she hate me?"
"…But she needs me, Cassie. I'm one of her only friends in the world."
Cassandra noticed in an unsettling fashion that Shelby hadn't answered her question, but she agreed all the same, because she knew Shelby was right, "Okayy…"
Shelby clicked the call button and Santana answered it almost immediately, thinking that Shelby had taken way too long to respond to her IM, even though it had only been like thirty seconds.
San spoke as soon as she could see Shelby and Cassandra's faces. She chose to ignore Cassandra and just directed her words towards Shelby when she practically swooned, "Oh my god, your daughter…"
Shelby, finding this a whole new thing for Santana—showing emotion, talking about feelings, (particularly in the presence of Cassandra, a woman she couldn't stand)—very amusing, rolled her eyes and smiled, "What did she do?"
Cass raised an eyebrow and got up to stretch, moving away from the bed and cracking her knuckles and neck before touching her toes. She didn't want this whole thing to be completely awkward, and listening to her student's roommate talk about said student in a lovey fashion did not seem like the type of thing she really wanted to be a part of. Besides that, she had been lying and sitting for way too long, and if she didn't stretch out, she knew she'd have a hard time dancing on Monday. She spun to one side and cracked her back and switched sides before she heard Santana sigh and say,
"Everything right."
Laughing lightly at Santana's lack of detail, Shelby figured she'd have to just bluntly ask a question in able to get any information out of her. She seemed a little too blessed out to even function and with a slight touch of worry she hoped to god that it had just been dinner—that Santana wasn't so blessed out about anything else. She didn't think that San or Rach would too hurriedly rush into this, but as a mother she was still concerned.
"So tell me about the date," she remained calm, trying to shove those kinds of thoughts aside. "How did it go?"
Santana bit her lip and picked up her laptop, taking it over to her bed, before sitting criss cross and talking quietly enough so that only Shelby and Cassandra could hear, but still loud enough so that it was possible to understand what she was saying.
"We walked to this diner that she LOVES and I bought her dinner there…"
"Oh, the one right down from your loft?" Shelby inquired, tilting her head to the side. She didn't think that Santana had even been aware of that diner's existence. She had probably asked Kurt.
"Yeah," Santana nodded, pulling her hair over to one side and fidgeting with it. Shelby could tell she was having post anxiety about the whole thing. It was normal and an interesting emotion to see Santana experiencing. She was tempted to mark the day on the calendar, unsure it would ever happen again.
"Oh, it's a great place," Shelby said.
"It really was. I was surprised by it." Santana smiled a huge smile and Cassandra scoffed. She could practically HEAR the grin on the girl's lips. She spread down into a splits and Shelby gave her a reproachful look, biting her lip, before turning her attention back to Santana. Sometimes Cass could be such a little show off—she got jealous when she wasn't the center of Shelby's world, and Shelby completely understood why, given her past, but Santana needed a girl talk.
"Yeah," Shelby said back to Santana.
After a pause, San admitted, "She took my hand and admitted she was terrified and that she had talked to you,"
Cassandra let out a laugh and Shelby smiled,
"Oh, she did, did she?"
"Yes, and I told her I was nervous to but that she was gorgeous and adorable and things were going to be okay," Santana started braiding her hair at this point, needing something to occupy her hands with. Then she smirked, looking Shelby dead in her eyes, "She also told me that she walked in on you with July. It's called a lock."
Cassandra started laughing so hard she fell out of her warrior position and had to leave the room, doubled over. Shelby was either laughing so hard her face was red or blushing so much that it appeared that way as she stuttered out a, "Well isn't she just a little open book?"
Santana scoffed. "Well it is Rachel, remember?" she laughed back. "Be thankful that was ALL she caught you two doing…." She stared down at her laptop keys for a minute before looking up and saying softly, "Then Dani showed up."
At this, Shelby dropped her jaw. Cassandra made her way back into the room, crawling into bed with Shelby and setting her head in the crook of the brunette's neck with a shiver. She pulled the comforter up over the both of them and Shelby said,
"Santana Marie, PLEASE tell me you had broken up with her BEFORE taking my daughter out."
"Oh shit," Cass commented. Shelby gave her a sideways glance and Cass moved the laptop so that only Shelby was in view of the camera, placing a kiss on Shelby's not-visible-to-Santana shoulder. Shelby didn't stop her, but seeing Santana's lips pressed together so tightly was distracting and not very convincing. She had thought that Santana had had a bit more sense than that. It was not a good start to their relationship, was it?
San took a drink from the glass of water on the desk next to her and avoided the question. Shelby was not about to let her get away so easily. She gave her a few seconds, letting her stall. Finally, she repeated herself.
"Santana?"
"I didn't really have time to—Rach sang "No Day but Today" and my heart melted and I asked her out before I could stop myself…" Santana admitted guiltily.
Shelby took a deep breath. So Rachel had decided on that song? How beautiful.
She supposed that Santana's excuse wasn't a bad one and she decided to just keep the conversation flowing. Cassandra decided she was bored with the conversation and continued to place soft kisses down Shelby's arm—not that Shelby minded.
"So how did that go?" Shelby asked.
"Dani was…mad?" Santana shook her head, just as confused as everybody else. "Well she was at first and then she said she understood, and then she hugged me and then she just left. She said she knew it had always been Rach." After a moments' pause she questioned, "I wasn't SO obvious though, right?"
Shelby shook her head at the young girl's mistake. "You are so lucky it went the way it did, Santana," she said in a warning tone, acknowledging Cassandra's kisses by caressing the blonde's head softly with her free hand. Cass took this as a good enough acknowledgement and stopped, simply leaning into Shelby and letting her talk. "And yes," she answered Santana's last question. "It was pretty obvious."
"I know, I know, it could have been SO much worse and the last thing I wanted to do was start a fight in front of Rachel…if it was so obvious then why didn't she notice any sooner?" she unbraided her hair for the third time and just let it be.
"She didn't want to believe it," Shelby shook her head slowly. "Just like you didn't."
Cass sat up in protest at Santana's statement. "What the hell do you mean you didn't want to fight in front of Rachel?! Who was the one who called me out for "sleeping" with her?!" she used her fingers to show the quotations.
Quietly, Santana said almost shyly, rolling her eyes, "That was different."
"Cassie, not now," Shelby scolded softly.
With a growl, Cass crossed her arms and leaned back against the bed frame. Why did Shelby always take Santana's side? Santana wasn't her girlfriend!
Seeing that she had upset Cassandra and realizing it was the last thing she wanted to do, Shelby rubbed Cassie's arm. "Can we just agree to drop this whole fighting not fighting thing?"
Sighing, Cassandra answered, "For you, I suppose."
"Thank you, baby." She turned back to Santana, "So San, what's next? Have you guys talked since you've been home?" she was anxious to know how Rachel felt the date went, but odds are she was already talking to Kurt about it and Shelby wouldn't get to talk to Rach again unless she sought the girl out.
Santana took another drink of water, her stomach still in knots. "Um, yeah we talked a bit…Don't go rushing into things just because I'm with your daughter, Shelby. I don't know the future."
Taken aback, Shelby said, "I know this, San. I know."
Santana was always one to rush into things, Shelby thought. Maybe Rachel really was different.
"But apart from the Dani thing, I had a nice time, and Rachel seems to have had a good time, too."
Cass pulled the computer her way so that the camera had view of both she and Shelby before getting in on the conversation. She didn't care if Santana didn't like her—neither did Schwimmer, but that never stopped her before.
"Did you kiss her?"
Stuttering, Santana couldn't respond. The thought of kissing Rachel still seemed years away, no matter how long she had thought or dreamed about it.
"Cass!" Shelby laughed, nudging her girlfriend. She realized that she was probably going to start treating Santana the same way she treated Rachel, but that meant that she was warming up to her. Cassandra really did like Rachel, after all—she was just hard on her because that's how Cassandra July worked. Shelby stared at Santana, waiting for an answer.
Finally, San managed a, "I..No, I didn't kiss her. So you can get your panties out of a bunch, Shelbs."
"Calm down, San," Shelby didn't want her getting defensive.
"I am calm!"
"Okay…" she wasn't going to argue.
"I should probably go…let you two love birds alone and what-not…get some sleep."
Cass snorted. "Huh. "Sleep". Right."
Santana blushed at Cassandra's accusation. "I'm serious about going to sleep!" she didn't like the way Cassandra unnerved her—almost like the way that Shelby did, only Shelby was more motherly about it, and Cassandra was more authoritative.
Cassandra shrugged. "Whatever you say," she raised a taunting eyebrow and Santana figured out why Rachel got so irritated with Cass so quickly. It wasn't hard.
"Goodnight, San," Shelby ignored Cassandra's teasing. "I love you, and I am happy for you. Just be good to my daughter."
Growling at Cass, San answered, "Good night, Shelby, and thanks. I'm happy too, and have I ever not been—" she stopped herself, because she couldn't say that—she HAD been horrible to Rachel. "I'll be good to Rachel." With a final glare at the blonde sitting next to Shelby—it was not going to be easy getting used to seeing her all the time. She shut her laptop and set it off to the side, wrapping herself in her blanket and staring at the wall in front of her, thinking about a little bit of everything.
. . .
Kurt wrapped his arms around Rachel in an excited hug and pulled her over to the couch. They could hear Santana talking to Shelby in her "room", but they couldn't make out what she was actually saying. That was probably for the best.
"So tell me everything, Diva!" he bounced up and down on the couch like an excited seven year old.
Rachel laughed at his excitement. "Haha, calm down, calm down. There isn't much to tell…not really. Dani showed up and Santana broke up with her. We had dinner, we walked around the city together, and we came home. She…she told me she loves me." She looked down at her hands and smiled like a fool.
His mind was running a million miles a water trying to catch up to Rachel. Finally he managed to stop her and say, "WHAT?! Hold on. Dani showed up?! Santana said she loves you?!"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "Yes, pay attention," she giggled.
"Holy mother of Streisand!"
"I know!" Rachel beamed. "I know. It's amazing, isn't it?"
Nodding, Kurt said, crossing his legs underneath him, "So did you tell her you loved her back?!"
Rachel nodded slowly, looking up at Kurt as she grinned.
"Well…damn. I am happy for you, Rach." Kurt was so happy he felt like he was about to burst with excitement. It was about time these two got together. He hadn't known that Rachel liked Santana, but San liking Rachel was way too obvious.
"Thank you, Kurt. I'm so happy. I can't even…it's just too incredible. It's too amazing to be true."
And it seemed that way. It really did.
