"Did you sleep well, babydoll?" Santana inquired entering the kitchen, while Brittany was cooking their breakfast and Sophia was patiently waiting for her food.
"I dreamed that a crocodile was eating Grandma Julie's cat! I was scared! The cat was running all around and the crocodile bit its head!"
"Aww baby, it only was a bad dream, it could never happen," she attempted to reassure their daughter as she took her seat around the table.
"How do you know?"
"Grandma doesn't own a cat, Soph'."
"Yes she does!"
"What cat are you talking about?"
"The cat on my room's bed at grandparents' house!"
Both moms laughed. "It's a stuffed cat! It's not a real cat. It could never run Soph'. It's just a toy. See, your nightmare could never happen," Brittany explained as she set a plate full of pancakes in the middle of the table.
Sophia thought for a minute about her Mommy's solid argument and the frown over her eyebrows faded a bit. Her nightmare was all forgotten when Santana put pancakes in the plate on front of her, barely allowing her mom to finish serving them.
"Slow down, they're not gonna run either," Santana kidded.
"So, women of my life..." Brittany chuckled, "What do you want to do today? The weather forecast says we're in for wonderful weather all day, we should go out and do something."
"The zoo! I want to go to the zoo! The zoo Moms, the zoo!" Sophia gasped.
"Alright, I know, you always want to go to the zoo..." Brittany tried to calm her down. "But we can't go there. Mama can't walk all day, you know that."
"Actually, I'm kinda in the mood for the zoo too..." Santana winked at her daughter, much to Brittany's chagrin.
"We're not going to have you on your feet for hours. That's not an option, Santana."
"We can take breaks. We don't have to take it all in at once. What do you think, Soph'? What if you don't run all over the place so we don't have to chase after you and we take some ice-cream breaks so I can rest for a few minutes, huh?" Santana chuckled. She hadn't finished her sentence yet before Brittany was already shrugging, annoyed with her for trading reason for their daughter's delight.
"Seriously, we're not going," Brittany did not compromise when it came to safety.
"We can take it easy, we don't have to rush. Besides I could use some exercise, it's good for me. I'm not talking about running a marathon. It's just the zoo, honey."
"You were tired yesterday, we shouldn't push it... When I said 'something outside', I meant something like going to the pool, or sunbathing at the my parents'. You know, somewhere you can lay down so everybody's fine."
"I was tired last night just like everybody is at the end of the day. I'm fine Britt! For God's sake, stop worrying!" Santana chuckled, between moved and exasperated by her overprotective wife. "And even if I feel like we're pushing it a little too much, we'll just come back and I promise to spend the rest of the day on the couch and everybody will be happy. Is it settled then? Are we going to the zoo?" Santana challenged raising an eyebrow.
Brittany stared back, biting her lip. Santana was sometimes really hormonal, under the impulsion of the moment, and it was her job to protect her from that, even if Santana didn't like it at all sometimes.
"I will get tired anyhow so at least I'd rather do something that gives me a reason to actually feel tired for once," Santana drove the point home smirking.
"Mommy, the zoo! All the animals... and I want to see the monkeys!" Sophia took advantages of Brittany's indecision.
"She loves monkeys," Santana unfairly negotiated with Sophia's support as she bit into a pancake.
"I really like monkeys!" Sophia nodded furiously.
"And I didn't even mention the elephants yet..." Santana smirked.
"OH! The elephants..." Sophia dropped her fork on the table with a great noise, realizing how much she loved those animals and how she furiously needed to see them, as if there was no tomorrow. Santana tried to keep her giggles quiet as she kept eating. "Mama, please!" Sophia grabbed Santana's arm, "We need to go! Why Mommy doesn't get it! We need to go!"
"Okay fine! Fine!" Brittany raised her hands in retreat. "Fine!" she raised her voice to calm her daughter down, her feet drumming on the chair, and to cover Santana's laugh. "But we will stop at least every hour to rest a little and that is not negotiable. And when I mean rest, I mean we all sit for at least ten minutes."
"We're going to the zoo..." Santana cooed, and tickled her daughter to make her laugh even more.
Brittany resumed eating, seething, as she foresaw a long and stressful day ahead of her. She didn't even look up while finishing her plate. She barely listened to her family planning which animals they'd visit first. She peeked at her wife's empty plate and without looking at her, she went to take it to the sink. Santana grabbed her hand.
"I wouldn't have insisted if I wasn't feeling great, honey. I'm not saying this just to reassure you. I mean it. I really feel good!"
Brittany looked up. "You feel good because we have been super careful since the beginning, that's why. I'd rather keep it that way."
"I am fine and rested, and last time I checked, walking wasn't an extreme sport," she cracked a smile. "We should enjoy these moments before the babies become too heavy and we can't go out as a family anymore. I want to do things with and for my babydoll before it's too late, even if it means getting just a little tired," she said with her softest voice as Brittany stared back, moody. "When we come home, I promise to take a nap and a bath before bed to relax if it reassures you," she tried to persuade her.
"Okay..." Brittany just grabbed the plate and turned around.
She didn't want to pursue this conversation. She would still have to worry about health and safety, and she would still spend the day watching her wife's every reaction to be certain she felt okay. Santana let go of Brittany's bad mood and talked with her daughter about their day, all over again, as Brittany tidied the kitchen counter out of stress.
"Uh!" Santana loudly let out, surprised. Brittany turned around in a hurry to see her wife holding on her bump, eyes wide open and frozen.
"What is it? Are you alright?" She left everything she was tidying as it was and rushed to her wife's side.
"They kicked!" Santana blurted. "They just kicked, right there!" She grabbed Brittany's hand in a hurry and placed it firmly on the right spot. "I swear they kicked right there! Come on darlings, do it again for Mommy... Do it again..." she pleaded, her eyes shining like two black diamonds. Brittany just gazed at her bright face, certain that their first kick was Santana's and hers only, and that it would be really hard to feel them on their first kicks anyway. "Come on sweethearts, I can feel you flutter... Just one more..."
"It's alright San... They'll kick more often from now on!" Brittany tried to reassure her and not to hope for too much too soon. She started to stroke the round stomach, blessed to know that life nicely was on its way inside.
"Come on..." Santana whispered just for the babies. She locked her eyes on the stroking hand as minutes went by in complete silence. "Did you just feel that?!" Santana jolted a bit. It was incredibly special to share this with Brittany, both of them together for the twins' very first moves.
"Oh my god..." Brittany let out barely audible. She crouched to talk right against Santana's bump and applied both hands to cover it. "Hello my little angels..." she cooed in her baby voice, which made Santana softly giggle out of sheer joy, "Good morning..."
The sound of a fork falling into a plate brought them back from their daydreaming. They peeked at Sophia, who, very confused by the scene, lost grip of her fork. "Why is Mommy talking to your belly?" Sophia asked skeptically.
"The babies just kicked sweetheart. Maybe they can hear me," Brittany sweetly answered, dazed. Sophia kept staring with big eyes, more and more confused by the fact that Brittany was using the voice she usually used to talk to her and her only, and that her moms seemed to share a very special moment in which she had no role.
"Come here, babydoll," Santana gestured to her daughter to come over her with a reassuring smile. The little girl obeyed and Santana put her arm around her and kissed her on the top of her head to cheer her up. "Do you want to try to feel them?"
Sophia just kept staring, more and more unsettled. Santana and Brittany understood right away that they had to do something to explain to their baby girl what was really happening. Santana grabbed her daughter by the chin to make her look up and pay attention to what she was about to say.
"You know, babies are growing inside my tummy. So inch by inch, I'll feel them more and more because they are just like us, they need to stretch, they switch positions... Just like you do when you're asleep, babydoll! You see how my stomach is getting rounder and rounder, right?"
Sophia was a little lost and scared, but she nodded. Indeed, even if she had understood why her Mama's belly started to look like a comfy cushion, she had never thought the babies could actually move, kick, and certainly not be like her when she was sleeping.
"Good. Actually, it's gonna get even rounder and bigger, until I look really, really fat-" Brittany chuckled. "And it means the babies are growing again and again. They'll start to do things, just like today when they kicked-"
"But it hurts when someone kicks! I had a bruise when Charlie kicked me at school last time!" Sophia remembered the huge bruise she had stuck on her knee for weeks after a mean boy kicked her to get the ball she was playing with. She didn't want the babies to hurt her Mama, she didn't understand why they had to do it. It wasn't nice at all.
"It doesn't hurt me, babydoll!" she said enthusiastically with her most reassuring eyes. She grabbed her daughter's hand, and pushed with her thumb in her palm, "It's just like that. See, it doesn't hurt at all." She pushed again. It seemed to reassure the girl a little. "We're excited because the fact they kick inside me means they're growing up, and that they're happy. It's a good thing!"
Santana and Brittany held their breaths and locked their eyes as the babies were moving again. They stared lovingly at each other deep in the eye with the urge to kiss each other, but they had some serious business to deal with right now: their traumatized daughter.
"Let her feel it," Brittany urged as she took her hands off to make room.
Without Sophia's consent, Santana put the little girl's hand on her stomach topped by her own, giving her a smile meaning it was all okay and she didn't have to worry. Sophia looked back and forth between her moms. She was supposed to feel something but nothing was coming. Santana took a more comfy position on the chair and kept giving her daughter reassuring smiles. Sophia's eyes went wide when she felt a little something fussing under her fingertips.
Santana chuckled, "You feel that? Do you feel how soft it is?"
"It isn't you?" Sophia asked surprised.
"Nope, not at all. It's the babies."
Sophia hurried her other hand on the stomach, "Make them move again!"
Her moms laughed. "I can't do that, babydoll, I can't decide... But they'll move a lot. Don't worry sweetheart, I'll let you feel them next time they decide to move," Santana explained with her sweetest smile.
- o -
Brittany fulminated. In the rearview mirror of her car, she caught sight of a scooter following her. The driver didn't even bother hiding his huge camera. If she was alone, she would have sped up and tried to lose him. But Sophia was in the back seat. Too bad if it was annoying, their safety was way more important. Their dark windows would protect them from curious eyes until they reached their destination. When Brittany parked in front of Sam's office, she unwrapped her scarf to hand to her daughter.
"Baby, put that on your face please," she passed it back over her shoulder.
"Why?"
"Don't question me sweetie, just put that on. Like Princess Jasmine, ya know? Imagine it's a pretty veil," she said with her most playful smile.
Sophia wouldn't miss an opportunity to play dress-up. She grabbed it forcefully and threw it around her face while Brittany exited the car to unlock her. As she did, clinking sounds were ringing far away. Brittany didn't even needed to peek, she knew too well what was going on.
"Huggy, huggy!" Brittany faked when she was about to get Sophia off of the car. She opened her arms, putting Sophia into a hug. "Cuddle close," she instructed.
No need to tell her twice, Sophia threw her arms around her mother's neck and snuggled, all hidden under her scarf. Brittany stroked her daughter's head to make sure she would keep snuggling without showing her face. They sneaked into the building as quickly as possible.
Brittany relaxed only when she reached the office. She shrugged sadly when she put the little girl down. She could feel the pressure grow. Brittany had never been followed, only Santana. She was now the one in the spotlight. She had never envied Santana's struggle with paparazzi. Who would? Protect Sophia. That was all Brittany's mind kept repeating.
"Sam! Look, I'm Princess Jasmine!" Sophia jolted when Sam opened the door of his office.
Brittany hurried to take the scarf off. Her stress was easily readable on her face.
"Brittany, are you alright?" Sam frowned.
"Hm... Soph', why don't you go in Sam's office while I talk to him for a sec?" Sophia nodded and ran. "I got chased by paparazzi on my way here..."
He scratched his head. "Yeah, I figured..."
"What do you mean?" They had never talked about it. Paparazzi chasing them was something new, that started a while ago at Sophia's school. As long as nothing was in the press, it had no importance. It was just stressful.
"You haven't seen the magazines?"
Brittany died a little. "... What magazines?"
Sam coughed, embarrassed. He gestured to wait a second and headed to the front desk. There, his assistant was watching the scene with big eyes. They almost left their sockets when Sam asked her to give the tabloids she was reading during her lunch break. She complied, somehow urged by Sam's kindness. She flushed red because she knew very well what was the magazine about, this tabloid she had bought on her way to work that morning.
When she read the headlines, Brittany pinched the bridge of her nose. A proud "The Lopez-Pierce enlarge the family?" was written with fluorescent letters on a picture of them around Sophia's school. Thank God the picture was blurry, Sophia's face was just a mess of pixels. She flipped through the tabloid to find the special case of the day. With zooms and close-ups, whole pages were covered by an investigation on whether or not Santana was pregnant, thanks to some "sources" that revealed the scoop.
"Fuck..." she breathed out.
"That's not good news, isn't it?" Sam said with a compassionate smile.
"Nope, not really... I think some jerks have figured it out at Soph's school. I don't know who particularly, but you know... There are looks." Brittany was bitter.
"Like teachers or parents?"
"Oh, parents. We trust the teachers, and besides, we never told them. But Santana has hard time hiding it lately. She only dresses in black and loose stuff but... At some point we'll have to go with it, that's for sure. But the later, the better."
Sam tapped on her shoulder with a reassuring smile.
"I just don't want them to touch Sophia," Brittany admitted with a sad sigh from the bottom of her heart.
"Sam! You need to clean my teeth!" Sophia called standing against the doorframe of his office. She was getting impatient.
Brittany chuckled. At least her daughter was a sweetheart and she understand a bit of what was going on. She was fine. As long as she was fine...
"I think Jasmine is requesting her Teeth Savior Prince..." Sam joked. "Come on, it's gonna be alright, they're just pictures."
"Still..."
"Don't let them ruin your moment, Brittany," he came closer. "You have better things to look forward to, right?"
Brittany sighed. A shy smile appeared on her lips. "The babies, they started kicking a few days ago."
Sam chuckled, "Seriously?"
"Yup... and they kicked hard enough for me to feel them right away. It was just... magic."
"Sam! My teeth are waiting!" Sophia kept complaining.
- o -
A zoo. That was what Sophia's school had turned into. A horde of paparazzi patiently waited for the family to arrive, their cameras turned on and their eyes scrutinizing every car. Thankfully, the school's teachers were jewels. They had called Brittany and Santana to let them know and they had indicated a small entrance they could use to preserve their privacy. It had taken a week. Just a week to create the frenzy. Now Brittany's movie was on the front pages of the magazines, the rumours of pregnancy had just set everything on fire. Every magazine had a word for them, Brittany this, Santana that... And Sophia was stuck in the middle of it all. The moms had found tricks to fool their daughter about the seriousness of the situation. If they'd explain people wanted pictures of her because she was famous, the little girl's colorful temper would have instructed her to go up front, smile wide and shine in front of the cameras. But she had no idea of what it meant.
When they were sure Sophia was safe in the classroom, they started to relax. On the other side of the room's windows, Sophia was already playing with some kids as if nothing was happening.
"Soon you're gonna check my ID to drop off my own kids at school?!" An angry parent complained to a teacher while entering the school.
"Mrs Koller, please stay calm," the teacher tried with her softest voice.
"You want me to stay calm? What is this mess happening outside? Do you think it's normal to have our kids walking through this jungle every morning?"
"No Ma'am, it's not okay. We already called the police but they can't do anything since the street is public domain. They have every right to be there, sadly."
"Oh really, they have every right to harass our children?"
"With all due respect, they don't care about your children. We took precautions, we just have to wait for them to leave, which they will do once they realize they won't get what they want."
"And what do they want?"
The teacher coughed. The Pierce's were just a few feet away from her.
"They want the Pierce's kid, she's the one they want," another mom taking part in the conversation explained, bitter. "Like we care about her," she grumbled with a self-important tone.
"Hey, hey you! What are you saying about my daughter?" Santana jolted, she couldn't stand it anymore. She rushed to the small group standing in the school's entrance with angry steps. "You have something to say? Say it to my face!"
"Santana, please..." Brittany followed hands in front, pleading.
"We have nothing to say, Mrs. Pierce," the first mom stated coldly.
"Oh don't play that on me!" Brittany went to catch Santana by the waist, protective. Santana couldn't care less. No one touched Sophia, ever. She threw a death stare to the grumbling mom. "And you, you don't want to repeat out loud what you just said?"
"Mrs. Pierce, please, let's stay calm," the teacher raised her voice, unsuccessfully.
Barry's dad pushed open the door of the school, bumping into the scene. But lost in the situation, nobody paid attention. He let his son leave for the classroom on his own and listened in on the fight.
"They're bitching about my daughter, how can I stay calm!" Santana spat to the teacher, angry to the bone. "You think I'm happy about those assholes chasing us? You think I like it?" she pointed angrily to the bitter mothers.
"Wow, wow, what is going on in here?" Eddie helped the teacher by standing in between.
"We don't care about your business. Please, keep our children out of your mess!" the first mom threatened.
"Rita," Eddie stopped her right away. "We're in a private school and we pay a lot so our kids are safe and well-educated. The Pierce's deserve the same peace of mind that we're all paying for."
"But obviously there are double standards in this school," Santana hurled to the mothers.
"Santana, please," Brittany tried to catch her wife's arms. All she could think about was how bad getting angry could be to the babies. "Don't get too upset, please..."
Eddie puffed out his chest. The truth was that Eddie and his husband felt sad for their friends. They had witnessed the circus happening outside like everyone else. They had seen the Pierce's car drive in the private courtyard of the school whereas the institution's law had made very clear that this entrance was for emergencies only. This argument was just unfair. He had to defend them.
"Santana, let me sort this out," he tried to reassure the angry moms. He turned his head in the other moms' direction. It was obvious that he wanted to provide a thoughtful solution to this problem. "Rita, this is counterproductive to fight. We all need to stick together. We don't tell them anything, we act as if nothing was happening and that'll make them leave sooner."
"Thank you," Brittany breathed out. Finally someone was showing some wisdom.
The other mom, silent until then, puffed. "You're fooling yourself. They won't leave until she pops," she said with a smug yet calm tone. She didn't seem as surprised or disturbed by the mess around them as the other moms did. Just slightly annoyed perhaps.
Eddie stared. He knew the woman, she had been at Barry's birthday party. He also remembered that she had been the one trying to record Santana without her consent. She was supposed to be his friend.
"And even if they do, it doesn't change the fact that we gotta stick together for them," he very clearly said.
Now that the woman was taking part in the conversation, she was on his radar. He kept staring, watching her closely. For a woman supposedly going through a divorce, her new earrings seemed to be well beyond her price range. He knew she had hard time paying for the school because of the divorce's lawyers' bills. He frowned.
"Nice earrings you have there, Shelley," he said suspiciously.
Taken aback, the mom held her breath as if Eddie had shot her right in the head. "Family jewels," she explained, suddenly uneasy.
"Um, no they're not. They're Dior's new autumn/winter collection. They just came out last week," he came closer. He had a gift. He couldn't be fooled on such details.
The woman stepped back a little. She avoided looking at the Pierce's at all costs.
"You... You, I remember you..." Brittany let out, putting all the pieces together. She softly pushed Santana away to get closer to the suspicious woman. "You tried to record Santana at the party!"
The woman coughed. Her eyes couldn't stop darting. She scratched her arms. "I'm sorry? I don't know what you're talking about..."
Eddie was a smart guy. He had never been divorced but one didn't need to be clairvoyant to guess that the proceedings rendered her broke. She already had two jobs to pay for the school and she was willing to do anything to maintain her lifestyle as if nothing had changed. She could probably do anything, like trade juicy scoops for a decent amount of money that could solve all of her problems. Santana's bump, even if she was trying everything to hide it, was showing more and more, only to strengthen the school's gossips even more. The media could use such earfuls.
"Shelley, don't tell me you did it..." He came even closer, slowly walking toward her with his eyes dripping in disappointment.
Brittany and Santana gasped. "You gave us away!" Brittany accused.
"Leave that poor woman alone," Rita yelled in the defendant's defence. She was just so angry about the mess happening outside that nobody standing against it would deserve her favor.
"That poor woman?! She has made our life a living hell!" Santana jolted.
"It's you that brought this on my family," Brittany kept accusing coming closer. She was walking slowly, her anger was building itself little by little. She took her time to realize who the person standing in front of her was. A betrayer in the supposedly safe ground of the school.
"I can't believe it..." Eddie was shocked.
"You did this to my family..." Brittany's voice was torn by rage.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Shelley defended herself, hands in front. However, the traces of her guilt were written all over her face.
"You gave my daughter up to those tigers. What good do you think you did? Why? Why!" Brittany's anger exploded.
Shelley just didn't know where to go. The closed entrance door behind her was tempting, but running away would just close her case. She kept stepping back.
"You did it to pay for your divorce, didn't you?!" Eddie threatened.
Brittany gasped. The horror just had no limit at all. She lost it. "You fucking did this to save your ass? Selfish bitch!"
"Mrs. Pierce, please..." The teacher, frozen in shock up until then, tried to contain the fight. But how could she possibly keep a hurt mother from protecting her child...
"Do you realize what you fucking did!"
"I need money, okay? I have a kid to feed and bills to pay!" Shelley admitted from the bottom of her heart. "I'm sorry it's no fun to you, but I had to save the situation for my son!"
"Oh listen to that Brittany! Her life is so difficult that it's okay for her to ruin other people's lives!" Santana spat cynically. "She has problems, it's alright because she has fucking financial problems!"
"They're chasing us! They're waiting for us in front of our building! They're chasing our daughter! Don't you have any sense of humanity in your heart? This is not a life for a child!"
"Oh come on, you're celebrities. You have to deal with what it implies. It's got nothing to do with us," the other mother interjected.
"Just because we are celebrities, it doesn't mean our daughter should endure it," Brittany spat.
"You knew the consequences, don't complain about it."
"Are you saying that famous people shouldn't want a peaceful life for their children?" Eddie helped.
"That's not what I meant. I'm saying that if they can't manage it, we shouldn't be the ones to pay for it."
Brittany and Santana fulminated. They were so filled with rage that they were stuck, frozen in the anger. They breathed heavily, shaken by the desire to start taking swings.
"I've had enough. We are talking about children, human beings. All children deserve respect and privacy, even sons of bitches like you," Santana raged on her way out.
Brittany grabbed her angrily closed fist as she passed. She threw her a glance meaning for her to wait a second. She faced the guilty defendant.
"You'll get a visit from our lawyer. I hope you made a really good deal with the press, 'cause we're not leaving you with a single penny," she flung and headed out, pulling Santana with her.
Brittany walked Santana out, in the opposite direction from all the parents. Their car was in the private courtyard of the school unlike the rest. She put her arms around Santana's shoulders, protective. Nobody harmed her family. Nobody had the right to get Santana angry, to take pictures of Sophia. The school's staff reverently opened each door on their way. They had all heard the ruffle. They made room for the raging couple to pass fast. When they were finally safely locked in their car, they relaxed. The anger vanished, replaced by sadness.
"I knew this would happen, yet I hoped it never would," Santana admitted from the bottom of her heart.
Brittany stroked her thigh. She sighed. "I bet..."
"Should we take care of this right now?"
"Do you think you'll be able to calm down if we do it later?"
"I don't think so..." Santana shrugged.
Brittany took a second to calm down her rushing heartbeat. She pulled herself together in this silent car. She started the engine, lowered her tinted window to show a teacher they were ready to leave so he could open the gate. She closed it back as soon as she could, and drove in the opposite direction of where she was supposed to, back home.
"Are you going to Quinn's?" Santana whispered, torn by melancholy.
"Yup..." Brittany said all eyes on the road.
Once in a while, she peeked in the rearview mirror to see if paparazzi were following them or not. The crowd of scooters slowly reduced as they drove further and further. Santana watched in the outside mirror and got sadder with each minute. By the time they reached Quinn's office, they were finally rid of all their hunters. They sneaked into the building as fast as they could.
Quinn's receptionist gasped when she saw coming the famous couple.
"Is Miss Fabray available?" Brittany went straight to the point.
"She's...hm, she's in a-.. a meeting. Hm... She'll be done in ah... 20 minutes I think," she stammered.
"Can we wait in her office?"
"Su-sure..." she stood up to show them the way.
"Don't bother, we know the building," Santana said around a small smile, the first of that day.
Hand in hand, they wound through the maze of hallways. They took a seat in Quinn's office armchairs, the ones they had sit in so many times. Their hold swinging in the void in between them, they innerly brooded the fight over and over again. Santana was staring at her feet, trying to create a strategy to protect Sophia, to ruin this bitchy chatterbox who had destroyed their peace of mind. A squeaking sound brought her back from her thoughts. Brittany was moving her chair to face her wife.
"Well, it didn't happen the way we wanted, but we wouldn't have been able to hide it for much longer," Brittany said.
She bent, fondled her bump. A single stroke was revealing the lovely mountain in progress. Her shirt creased, followed the round shape. Her fingers travelled up, she pulled Santana's necklace hidden under the clothes. She made the silver ball roll, just like Alma had explained how to.
"That doesn't make it okay though," Santana sighed.
"No, it doesn't. Yet in the end it's the same. People will know. It just rushed things."
Santana frowned. "What are we gonna do for Soph'?"
"I think we should explain it to her. She's smart enough to understand," Brittany cracked a smile.
"Brittany, I don't have patient baby words to explain this. I just hate it so much..." she emptied her heart staring at the stroking hand. "How am I supposed to give a reassuring image of this when I despise it so hard?"
Brittany pulled her chair closer. She slid her hand under Santana's shirt. The longer she'd stroke, the calmer Santana would get. It was a simple equation, yet it never failed to work.
"Let's make a deal. I talk to her, you find a strategy to hide her better. I take the clap-trap, you take the battle on the field. How does that sound?" she said with a wink, trying to ease their both minds.
"Sounds like I'm gonna kick some ass," Santana reciprocated the smile.
"You're gonna teach them to be fierce from the inside," Brittany chuckled as she steadied her hand, hoping to feel something.
"Get with the program, kids!" Santana giggled, tapping playfully on her sides.
Quinn stormed in her own office. She was carrying huge files about to fall on the ground. She was startled when she realized she had company. She put the files away on the closest piece of furniture.
"Who did I kill to get a visit from the royal couple?" Quinn kidded on her way to them.
"Shut it Fabray, we're here for serious business," Santana stood up and hugged her mate.
"Who did you guys kill?" she hugged Brittany.
"Thirty minutes ago, we were about to pull the trigger on that bitch at Sophia's school who gave us up to the papps," Brittany barely joked.
"Woohoo! Restriction orders and indemnifications, I can hear you calling..." Quinn sang taking her seat. She peeked at the clock on the wall. "Okay, no kidding. You guys have less than 20 minutes to give me a rundown, I have a trial at the court later."
"That's pretty much it, another parent sold us out to pay for her divorce apparently."
"Did you press charges already?" she said out of habit without looking at them. She took a new file in her desk, wrote the future number of Brittany and Santana's case on the front page.
"No, we just ran here."
"More to talk to our friend before the lawyer, I guess," Santana admitted.
"Oh," Quinn put her pen down. "You need a friend? Here's the friend. How's the milk production going? Is it flowing well already?" she faked seriousness. She wanted to chat, really, but time was flowing and she couldn't afford an impromptu meeting.
The moms giggled, Brittany gazed at her wife with cuddly eyes. Santana made a sufficient face out of childish pouting.
"Care to talk about your future stretch marks then?" Quinn teased.
Santana bent on the desk, taking a serious posture. "So, you were talking about restraining orders?"
"I was indeed," Quinn winked. She couldn't waste more time on joking. "I can come with you to the police station to press charges. Until she gets judged on court, we could at least get a restraining order to protect you and your bug-"
"But if she can't be around us, how is she going to drop her kid to school?" Brittany worried. She despised the woman, yet there was an innocent child in between that deserved an education.
"Oh, I guarantee she'll have to put her kid in another school."
"No! We don't want her son to pay for his mother's foolishness," Santana frowned.
"Oh, but that's not up to me, it's the policy at Evergreen Prep!" Quinn let out. She stood up, opened a closet behind her. She looked for the school's privacy contract. This children's defense lawyer was used to dealing with schools, she knew exactly what kind of school Sophia was in and its every single rule that could protect the children' privacy. She put the said contract on the table and turned it in the mothers' direction. "Look, I'm not joking. Confidentiality clause: Evergreen Preparatory School pledges to respect a sheer confidentiality towards the families information, their business and/or private life. The contracting party pledged to respect the same confidentiality toward the school and the other families involved in the school's life. In the event that this crucial clause is not scrupulously respected, the definitive expulsion of the student will not be discussable and will come into effect immediately depending on the seriousness of the actions. The school values the importance of keeping the personal business and/or conditions of the parents out of the school's process in order to create the perfect environment to allow the children to blah-blah..." She said with her most professional tone until she got bored. "I'm not making this up, you signed this, she sighed this. Sucks for her!"
"Poor kid..." Brittany breathed out.
"There are some very good public schools, you know. I heard the government subsidized a lot lately. They can afford desks for the kids now," Quinn joked with a smirk.
"How reassuring," Brittany laughed.
"Seriously, don't think about the kid. He must have a father too, maybe his father will be able to provide some support to get him back in school. Anyway, do we have a name, something I can hold onto to get things started?"
"Hm.. Yeah, Shelley something..." Brittany wondered.
"Shit, I can't remember it either..." Santana nervously tapped on the armrests of her chair.
"It's fine, whatever. The police will contact the school that will give the information. It's just that this way, the police would have been able to contact her today actually instead of tomorrow. We could have the restraining order sooner, that's all."
"But Eddie probably knows!" Brittany startled.
"Right! I'm gonna text him," Santana flipped in her bag to find her phone and text their gay superhero.
"Cool! And you said she's getting a divorce? That's a bad move for her procedure..." Quinn couldn't get rid of her lawyer's reflexes.
"Why?" Brittany inquired.
"No judge will order the father to give a decent pension to a filthy whore like this one seems to be, even if she's in charge of the kid."
"Shelley Caraggio!" Santana let out when her phone finally rang.
"Hold on... the Shelley Caraggio, wife of Mark Caraggio?" Quinn froze for a second.
Brittany and Santana shrugged. "We don't really know her."
"She's like, short, brunette, quite aged as if she had her kid in her late thirties?"
"Yeah, kinda," Santana looked at Brittany for confirmation. The latter nodded with another shrug.
"Holy smokes," Quinn jolted. She rushed to grab her phone, tapped the number of one of her colleagues. "You just helped my office win a major case!"
"What?" Brittany frowned.
Quinn gestured to wait for a second. She smiled when her colleague picked up. "Hey, guess what! I have clients in my office right now who are about to press charges against Shelley Caraggio!... Hello? Tom?" she called frowning but the line went dead.
Less than a second later, her office door flung open. The lawyer in a chic suit looked like a child on Christmas morning. "Hi, what's going on?!" He held a gasp when he realized who the clients were.
"We got into a fight with her this morning. She told the press that I'm pregnant and now a horde of paparazzi crowds together in front of our house and at our daughter's school," Santana calmly explained.
"She admitted she did it to pay for her divorce bills," Brittany commented.
"Were there witnesses?" His eyes shone like diamonds.
"Hm... something like the whole school," Brittany said raising a mocking eyebrow.
"You're not joking, right? You're serious?" the lawyer wanted to be sure. This news was sheer gold. "'Cause the hearing at court is planned for tomorrow. Oh, I'm her husband's attorney by the way. We're trying to get full custody for my client."
"Believe me, I'd wish it were a joke..." Santana sighed.
He came closer. "The harm is done but I can assure you that it's gonna be a good lesson learned that will keep others from bothering your family," he said with a kind smile. "I gotta go, but send me your files when you've got them done," he instructed Quinn in his way out.
Quinn beamed. "See? She's dead and you're richer! Which charity do I give the compensation to, this time?" They had fought in court so many times in the past, Quinn knew exactly what her friends/clients would ask for. One thing was sure, Quinn could count on another winning case for her office.
I hope you like how this story is going! Let me know! :)
Last chapter before the storm...