This chapter takes place from both of the girl's POV. Santana's is in italics and Brittany's in regular font. Hope you guys enjoys!

Nine. Leave Out All The Rest
"All the hurt inside you've learned to hide so well,
pretending, someone else can come and save me from myself."
- Leave Out All The Rest, Linkin Park

"Who the hell are you and why the hell are you at my house?" I can hear Brittany's uncharacteristically raised voice echoing through the house.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" A voice that I really wish would go away answered.

"No, I do not. Now, tell me who you are and why my wife ran away from you before I kick your ass to the curb." Without being in the same room I could feel Brittany's anger grow by the second.

"Well that's no way to treat your sister in-law, is it? Reyna Lopez, reporting for duty." I didn't need to be physically standing in the room to see the slightly smug grin that was probably plastered across my sister's face.

I take in what the stranger in front of me has just said. I focus on her features; her eyes chocolate brown and her hair raven black. That smug grin on her face is so familiar. "S-San doesn't have a, you're, you're." I can't even compose a complete sentence.

"Yes, I am." Her tone is almost cold. Her presence has confused me.

"W-Why are you here? I-I don't understand," Before she is able to give me an answer I can hear Lily begin to cry upstairs. "Y-you need to leave." I leave Reyna behind as I climb the stairs to Lily's room, hoping that when I returned downstairs to see if Santana was alright Reyna would be gone.

"What are you doing here, considering my wife just asked you to leave, Reyna?" Santana stern voice catches my attention as I exit Lily's room, shutting the door behind me. As I make my way into the living room I notice that Reyna is sitting on the couch whilst my wife is staring down at her with a paramount look of rage on her face; this side of her didn't come out as often as it used to, I'd now consider it a rarity. It scared me to see it come about due to her sister's presence.

"You know why I'm here. I came to see my sister and her happy ending. It took you guys long enough to have that beautiful niece of mine. I would have thought you'd have had a dozen by now." A smile crawls across Reyna's face.

y stomach churns a little at the woman's last statement. Santana and I had planned on having children earlier but life kept getting in the way as it always does. First it was med school, then it was internship. After her second year of residency Santana and I decided to wait until her last year of residency so that she would have a better handle on balancing work and home in order to make the best of becoming parents. She had had enough of saying no to me every time I asked, I had been dying to have children with Santana since I was seventeen years old and it broke my heart every time that one little word left her mouth; yet I kept on asking. I was always afraid we'd run out of time, our scare with Lily's birth had only reaffirmed my fears with our desire to have more children. I remember the look on Quinn's face whilst I was in recovery; she looked almost heartbroken when she told us that conception for me was going to be difficult if we decided I were to carry our other children. I hold onto the fact the fact that she hadn't used the word 'impossible' because 'difficult' was something I could handle, something Santana and I could handle together.

"Get out of my house, Reyna. I'm not going through this again." I can see the tears starting to form in Santana's eyes as her voice cracks at the end of her words.

"Fine. But I'll be back again tomorrow morning. You know I will." She gets up off the couch and wraps her arms around Santana who's as stiff as a board; standing straight up trying not to cry. "I love you, Tana." She gives her a quick kiss on the cheek causing my wife to flinch before quietly leaving the house.

I can't help but feel slightly betrayed; I'd known Santana since I was six years old, for over twenty years and not once had she ever mentioned having a sister. She looks at me and I can see not only sadness in her but guilt. This renders me speechless; I have nothing I can say to make her feel better, to make whatever is bothering her go away.

I simply take her into my arms. As soon as my hold on her is strong enough to keep her from falling Santana completely lets go. Her once stiff body has now become limb. The tears that were forming in her eyes roll down her cheeks. "I'm tired." Her voice is so quiet it is almost raspy

"I know, honey, I know." I say before kissing the top of her head to try and comfort her.

"I want to sleep." Her voice is a slightly louder now but it's still minuscule.

"Let's go to bed." I slowly unwrap my arms but I take hold of her hand. I try and lead her to our bedroom but she doesn't budge. "Santana." She looks me in the eye and I know what I have to do. I turn around and lean over slightly, she slowly lifts herself onto my back; we haven't done this in years. I can feel her arms wrap my neck while her legs follow suit around my waist. "It's okay, honey, everything's going to be okay."

I roll over wrapping my arms around empty air, discovering Santana's side of the bed empty. I look at the clock. 3:54 am. I listen closely; I can hear the slight creak of the rocking chair in Lily's room faintly on the baby monitor next to the bed. I slowly get out of bed and head straight for Lily's room.

Standing in the doorway I find San sitting in the rocking chair, as I expected. Her face is almost completely apathetic. Her eyes are focused on a picture of her family, next to a picture of my own on the wall across from Lily's crib. "Santana." I'm hoping my voice will break her gaze but it doesn't.

I enter Lily's room and kneel down in front of her, trying to get her attention. "Santana, I know that you probably don't want to talk about this but I need you to talk to me, okay." I place my hand on her knee and only then does she look at me. "I need you to talk to me."

"I-I" she swallows hard. I can now see tears in her eyes. "I'll talk just don't interrupt me, please?" I can see the pleading in her eyes. "Because if you stop me I don't think I'd be able to start again."

I pull over the matching rocking stool, carefully not to wake Lily and sit in front of her. "I won't, its okay, San." I take her hands in my hoping that my reassurance is enough to help her through this."

"Rey, you need to do this." My voice is stern as a ten year old's can be. I hated speaking like this to her. It reminded me of my abuela who was always strict with me, but right now it was necessary. "You know what's going to happen if you don't."

"No, Tana. I'm not having it! I don't want it!" Reyna yells back at me with enough force to make her face redden slightly.

"I don't want to lose you. You're my big sister. Don't do this to me, Rey. Don't do this." I begging her, my voice has changed. My stern voice is gone, replaced by concern.

"I'm going to die anyways, Tana. It's going to happen. Even with dialysis. It may not be tomorrow, or the next day but it'll surely come and I need you to understand that. I know you're young and you don't understand but this is my choice kiddo. I need you to understand." Her frustration with me is clear. But I wasn't about to let my big sister die due to her natural stubbornness.

"We're all going to die, Rey. I may be a kid but I understand that. But if you do this you'll live longer. Doesn't that matter to you? Don't you wanna see me grow up?" I need her to understand that her life isn't over yet. I may be a kid but I'm a lot smarter than I look.

"I don't care, Tana. My life is over. I need you to face that." Tears are beginning to for in her eyes.

"I need you to fight, fight for me. I never asked anything of you Rey even though you're my sister. I know you're a lot older but I'm still your sister." My own eyes are now being filled with tears.

She turns around and begins to walk away from me. I grab her hand. "Rey. Please!" The tears are flowing down my face. And for once in this conversation I feel like a child.

My sister turns around, but only for a moment. She gives me the saddest possible smile. Before pulling her hand out of my grasp and leaving me behind in pieces.

Santana's eyes are glassed over with tears; she is living in a memory before speaking to me again. "My parents had Reyna when they were in high school. She's eight years older than me. My sister, she's a type one diabetic. When I was eight years old she diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, they caught it at stage two. She had the signs and symptoms but she thought nothing of them. You don't know enough about Rey to know that she doesn't take care of herself the way she should, you wouldn't say it by looking at her but it's the truth." She chokes on a chuckle, shaking her head. "I always told her she needed to take better care of herself. I always tried to look after her when I went to my Abuela's even with the age difference. She has been on dialysis ever since I was ten. She refused it for a long time until I forced her into it. By the time we were sophomores it had progressed so much that she needed a transplant. She was a perfect candidate and I was more than willing to give up one of my own. But, but." Santana doesn't finish her sentence.

Her eyes that were once fixed with mine are now staring at our intertwined hands. I give her a moment, knowing all too well this was something she needed to do at her own pace. She lets out a long sigh and takes a deep breath before continuing. "But she refused. She didn't want me to give up my kidney to give to her. She didn't want surgery. She didn't want any of it." Her voice is quieter now. "My sister, my big sister was determined that she'd die rather than getting a kidney transplant and living almost her entire expected lifetime. She'd rather make me watch her die in front of my eyes than having surgery." I can see the tear flowing freely down her cheeks. She's letting everything out, letting it all go. "I told her that I wasn't about to watch her died and I begged her, I begged her to do this for me, if not for her, for me." She let go of my hands and wipes her tears out of her eyes. "I've seen her once since then, before now. She left me behind, never even showed her face at graduation."

I pull Santana into my lap. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that." I whisper in her ear as I wrap my arms around her.

"That's not even the worst part, Britt. She died, she died in my arms. It was the day after her birthday six years ago. I had decided to go visit my parents and I didn't know she'd be there, I should have known. You remember that weekend don't you?" I could remember it as if it was yesterday. Santana had come home distant but was acting as if nothing had happened, putting on a smile for everyone to see. "You saw right through that mask, the mask I wore hiding everything because I lied to myself and thought that someone else was going to be able to save her even when I couldn't." She sniffles. "She died right in my arms and she still continued to act as if nothing was wrong. I found out from my parents that she had sold her apartment and decided to hitch hike around Europe, and would be arranging dialysis appointments along the way."

"Baby I'm so sorry." I say placing a kiss to her cheek.

"All those years she acted like I didn't exist because I wanted something better for her, because I wanted her to live an entire lifetime. And now here she is on our doorstep the day we move in. She didn't even come to our wedding."

"But she's here now, isn't that what matters?" I ask tentatively.

It was amazing what time could do when it was spent doing what you loved with the people you loved. Over the years Santana's fiery tempermant had cooled off incredibly. Not feeling the need to hide parts of herself and finding something she loved like her job really changed her. Her interactions with her patients would put anyone who we hadn't kept in touch with after high school in a headspin of confusion trying to figure out how 'Satan' had grown a heart where her bag of insults and glares once resided. But she still had her moments; such as earlier. I was afraid that my questions would set her off.

"No, it's not. She's missed the most important moments of my life, Britt. Now, she's back here to make me watch her die. She's going to want to meet Lily and I can't do that to her. I can't put her through that, she doesn't deserve it. She's just so damn perfect." Her voice is slightly raised now, but thankfully it's not loud enough to rouse Lily who is asleep less than six feet away.

"Shh, love. I know she missed your graduations, our wedding and the day that Lily was born but maybe she's changed." My voice is tentative again due to Santana's last reaction. "I hate to ask but why did you keep her a secret from me all these years? I would have at least tried to comfort you as best as I could."

"She's the reason I was always afraid. She's why I used my word and sometime my fist to keep everyone at arms length. I didn't want anyone to see how hard it was for me. I didn't want people to see how weak I was. She moved in at my Abuela's house when I was still a toddler because my mother refused to watch my sister die. And I couldn't bear the thought of my mother sending me away because she couldn't understand that I loved you."

"But she didn't." I hold Santana as she slowly begins to cry. "You mom loves you, and I'm sure she loves Reyna too. She was hurting, baby. I can't imagine what was going through her mind when she let your abuela raise her because I can't bring myself to. I would be terrified if that happened to Lily, I don't think I could bear to sit there and watch her die. You get that don't you?"

"H-How?" Santana tries to speak but has to take a moment to compose herself in order to be able to speak coherently. "How could she do that? How could she abandon her like that, she's her daughter?"

"Didn't you guys go to your Abuela's every Sunday for dinner and stay there for hours? Remember how I used to ask if the food would get cold because it would take you so long to eat it?" She chuckles slightly and I know I'm making some progress, even if that is all I earn. "You used to tell me that it wasn't the eating that took so long. You used to tell me that you guys used to have family time together after dinner doing various things and some how your abuela would always end up yelling at someone or something."

"B-but," She tries to cut me off but I don't allow her, cause if I don't finish this I know she won't understand without it being explained in full.

"Your mom never abandoned her, sweetie. She spent time with her every week just like you did. I think the reason why she sent Reyna to live with your abuela was because she knew it was what was best for her. She knew that your abuela is a strong woman and would be able to deal with having a sick child in her care even though she couldn't. She knew your abuela would take care of her and love her just as much as she loved your mom as a child. Just as much as your mom loves you and Reyna. Just as much as you love Lily. She did that because she loves your sister Santana, she didn't abandoned her, she gave her the best life she could given the cards she was dealt."

"She might be my sister by blood, and I'll always love her but she never was much of a sister to me. We were raised in different households, her at Abuela's and me pretty much at yours and at home. That's why I never spoke about her. It was also part of the reason why I loved helping you babysit Ash. Because I felt like I was helping you be the big sister I always wanted Reyna to be."

"I know this is going to be hard on you but you need to work it out with Reyna. I'll be there the entire time if that's what you want." I place a kiss on her forehead.

"You promise?" Her voice turns to a whisper. She looks me at me and I can see the fear in her breathtaking blue eyes.

"I promise." I reassure her before giving her a kiss on the forehead to comfort her. "We'll figure it out, I promise." Santana buries her head into crook of my neck, wrapping her arms me. I can't help but tight my hold on her. I can feel her tears beginning to wet the collar of my t-shirt. I know I can't stop the tears. I know that now all I can do is hope that when morning comes we'll know what to do next.