Authors note: I normally save these for after the chapter but I wanted to address some things first. All italics are Blaine's POV flashbacks. (Let me know if you like the alternate POVs) Also this chapter is a bit on the short side but I wanted to get something out to you guys. I didn't get that many reviews this past chapter...was the material just to dark or did I not do well with the flashbacks?
I also want to clear up the time line. Last chapter was what happened during Brittany's senior year so what happened at the end of last chapter is well before Blaine brought her to Brittany and Quinns apartment. I hope that clears that up some.
Quinn was trying her hardest to distract herself. Brittany had hardly left her room in the past few days and Quinn was progressively getting more worried. Brittany was supposed to go back to work today and as she checked the clock she realized Britt should be walking out the door in five minutes. Which also meant that Blaine should be here any second.
She finished fixing herself a cup of coffee and setting out another cup for Blaine. He was bound to be here for a while tonight and she wanted him as awake as possible as he worked on Santana. It'd had been days...days and she was growing restless. Santana hadn't stirred once but you could see her eyes dancing behind closed lids. Occasionally she would twitch which would send Brittany into a frantic state, eyes wide and a tight grip on San's hand.
"I'm going to work," Brittany's voice pulled her out of her staring contest with Blaine's empty coffee cup. She turned around and nodded when she noticed Brittany's stressed facial expression. She hadn't seen Britt look like that in a while, like she was torn between two horrible decisions. She thought back, trying to remember the last time she'd seen that expression and realized it was when she'd been dating Artie and Santana had stopped hanging around so much.
"I can't stay and wait for her to open her eyes. Each time she twitches and doesn't wake up," Brittany sighed and folded her arms across her chest, "It feels like my heart is in a vacuum. So I'm going to work and try to get myself distracted."
"It's going to be okay Britt. She'll wake up and things will get better," Quinn promised but she couldn't help but feel like she was lying. It was going to get better right? Santana is alive and with them now. She just felt like she was missing some vital information that was important for her and Brittany. Perhaps she could get the information out of Blaine. She defiantly had a lot of questions.
"Don't get me wrong, Quinn, I'm so relieved and happy that she's alive. But you saw her just like me. I can't sit here and see what's been done to her and let my mind run wild with ideas of what's happened to her. I just can't wait for her eyes to open," Brittany said.
Quinn walked around the kitchen counter and pulled Brittany into her arms. "Go to work and when she wakes up she'll be here waiting for you. Just go distract yourself," Quinn suggested. Brittany nodded into Quinn's shoulder and then pulled away. Quinn watched as Brittany grabbed her jacket and keys and headed out for the door.
As Brittany opened it, Blaine was standing on the other side with a duffel off one shoulder and a hand raised ready to knock. "Hi Brittany,"Blaine greeted. Brittany pulled him into a quick hug and then with a small sad smile she was heading down the hallway. Blaine came in and closed the door behind him and set the duffel down by the door.
"Hey Blaine," Quinn greeted and took a welcome sip of her coffee.
"How are you today?" Blaine asked walking over to give her a hug. Quinn welcomed his hug and offered him the empty cup for him to make himself some coffee. He smiled in thanks and added some cream before pouring himself a cup.
"I'm good today. Just have a lot of questions. Think you have answers?" She asked. She wasn't beating around the bush today and Blaine picked up on that blatant fact.
"What's on your mind, Quinn? If I can answer I will," Blaine leaned against the counter and sipped on his steaming cup of coffee.
"I just want to start from the beginning. How did you get mixed up with Santana? You weren't at McKinley before her death. You didn't know her," Quinn asked.
"After Kurt and I met, he told me all about her. I saw the news and watched the trial. I knew of her and when I first found her I was shocked. It was a few days after our National Championship win. I was on my way to visit my brother and heard someone coughing in the alleyway," Blaine began to explain.
He was walking, or well fighting was a better word for it. New York was a rough sidewalk to take a stroll. He was late as it was to meet his brother for their dinner. After a particularly hard shove from someone trying to pass him he stopped to take a calming breath. It wouldn't do any good for him to get stressed out over rude people. It wasn't like anyone was trying to attack him. People were just rude.
He cocked his head towards the alley way, sure he'd just heard something that was a cat rummaging through a dumpster. He heard it again. Sounded like someone was choking. He hesitated at the entrance to the alleyway. His mother's warning ringing in his ears about being mugged. The chocking turned into to gurgling and wet coughing.
He ran into the alleyway trying to find the source. Behind one of the dumpsters was a small figure doubled over and gripping at their side. He knelt beside them, "I'm here to help. Try not to move," He said looking to see what was wrong. She looked up at him and he was taken back. She looked so familiar behind the bruising and dried blood.
He pulled her hands aside and lifted her ripped shirt to see what was wrong. Her back was caked in dried blood and her front and side was covered in a deep purple bruising. But what struck him the most was the raised scar that rested on her ribcage.
"Santana Lopez?" He asked. Her eyes shot up to him, wide and full of fear. "My name's Blaine. I'm Kurt Hummel's boyfriend. You're going to be okay. I'll call for help," He said. Her hand shot to his and she shook her head no. "You're seriously injured. You need help."
"I can't," She was barely able to spit the words out before falling into a coughing fit again.
"Are you in danger?" He asked.
"I have to be dead," She said, and then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her hand dropped from his.
He shook her, trying to get her to open her eyes again. Then he checked for her pulse. He rolled her onto her back and began pumping her chest, trying to get her heart to start again. He pumped and breathed for her till his arms burned and he kept pumping, doing his best not to break any of her bones.
"Come on Santana," He chanted. Finally she responded. He leaned back on his knees and took a deep breath. He got her heart to start again but new found panic set in. What does he do now? She didn't want to go to the hospital and even though she didn't answer him, he knew she was in danger. What the hell was he supposed to do?
"So you found her in the alleyway and then her heart stopped?" Quinn recapped. She was trying to process that San, her best friend,has died twice before reaching twenty years old. Hell, twice before she would have technically graduated high school. Blaine nodded in answer, twisting his empty coffee cup on the counter.
"But you didn't take her to the hospital? Why?" Quinn asked.
"I didn't know what to do. She didn't want help but she needed it. I called my brother but he told me to just leave her there. I couldn't. I called off lunch and took her to my brother's place. He freaked and said that as long as she was there he wasn't going to get tangled up in that drama," Blaine let out a sarcastic laugh. "He didn't come back and I stayed to take care of her. She never gave me answers as to what happened to her but once I started med school and looked back, I figured it out."
"So that's why you didn't come back from New York?" Quinn asked. That had always been a question for everyone. Kurt questioned it but never really questioned it. He was just happy that his boyfriend would be in New York with him.
"I called my parents, told them Cooper needed me here and we got in touch with the school. I mailed in my homework, tests, and finals and graduated. I had already applied to college here so I could be with Kurt. My parents never really questioned it. I think they were glad to be rid of me, the son who didn't want to go into fame," Blaine scratched at his eyebrow.
"But you came back to walk for graduation?" Quinn asked.
"Santana made me. Told me it wasn't fair for us both to miss graduation. I really wish I had stayed though," Blaine admitted.
"What does that mean?" Quinn asked.
"When I came back, Santana was back to fighting for Steve again. She wanted me out of the way so I wouldn't stop her. Now here we are,"Blaine answered.
"Why would she go back? They thought she was dead. She was free from them," Quinn was confused. Blaine simply shrugged.
"I asked the same questions. Apparently she had a friend, his name was Nolan. Steve," Blaine paused thinking over his words, "He killed him and I think San went back to get revenge. She only got herself in deeper. When she came back that night she was covered in new bruises and cuts. I asked her about it and she told me to leave her alone. I told her I couldn't do that," Blaine continued with his answers.
"What happened after that?" Quinn stood from the bar stool and poured herself another cup of coffee.
"She wrote me a check and then tossed me some keys. Told me she had a plan and if I wanted to help I was welcome to stick around," Blaine answered.
"Well, obviously you stuck around. I can't believe you kept this from us?" Quinn set her coffee cup down with a huff and shook her head. "I mean, you were around to see Brittany dealing with it. Granted you didn't know how affected she was because you didn't know her before. But they were best friends. Friends who were in love with each other and are soul mates. You helped keep them apart," Quinn turned towards Blaine, arms folded across her chest.
"Santana needed someone in her corner. She needed to do whatever it was to feel like she could come back to Brittany. I don't know what she was thinking at the time but she hates herself for her life. She hates what she's become. I've been there for her, stitched her back up and was there to listen, not that she ever talked. I tried to convince her to leave or at least let Brittany know she was still alive," Blaine explained, defended.
"I'm not trying to attack you, Blaine. I'm just so mad about this. Brittany was so carefree in this world, it was a rare thing that Santana and I wanted to protect. Nobody would mess with her because her two best friends were the school's biggest bitches. But Santana was the one who ripped that away from her. How can I not be mad about this?" Quinn asked.
"I know you are. You have every right to be," Blaine said.
Quinn shook her head and returned to the bar stool. She could feel the tears of frustration pooling around her eyes and she folded her arms across her chest, "I just don't know what to think about this."
"I didn't at first either. You don't have to have all the answers. Just remember that," Blaine said.
"I don't think I'll ever have all the answers, but I know Santana will and I can't wait to ask her all the questions," Quinn rubbed under her eyes and then ran her hands through her hair in an attempt to regain her calm.
Blaine was quiet for a moment and it quirked Quinn, then Blaine took a deep breath and she knew she wasn't about to like what he was going to say. "I know you want to confront her but the more you push her the more she'll pull back into herself. We may never get the answers, maybe she doesn't know herself. But the facts are that Santana is here now and Steve believes she's dead."
Quinn was quiet for a moment and then the final question for Blaine struck her, "Would Santana ever tell you to bring her here?"
Blaine tensed, not expecting that question. It was all the answer she needed. "She wasn't...She's going to be very pissed with me," Blaine admitted.
"Was she ever going to come here? Come back to us?" Quinn asked with renewed tears. This just felt like such a betrayal. Why couldn't Santana just have dealt with her problems without getting herself into this kind of mess? Where would their lives be now?
"She was trying to. After your coffee date she came up with a plan to fool Steve into believing she was dead again. Her wounds don't match her plan. Steve is...very much in control of his environment, if that makes sense. He knows everything that goes on in the underground. But how he knew what Santana was going to do? I have no clue. It was only ever mentioned between us but I know her wounds are his work. They mirror how I first found her," Blaine tries to answer and speak out his thoughts.
The front door opened and Brittany came in and pulled off her jacket, removed her shoes, and dropped her keys off on the table by the door,all before she turned around and froze where she was standing. Quinn's brow furrowed as she realized Brittany was staring down the hallway. She turned to look at what had Brittany frozen.
Santana leaned against the hall, one hand wrapped tightly against her ribs and she was tucked in on herself. She looked in pain as she pushed from the wall, "Brittany," was just a ghost of a whisper that left her lips.
"Santana," Brittany gasped.
Quinn stood quickly from the bar and Blaine grabbed her arm to keep her still. Quinn didn't really know what she was planning to do once she stood up. Go to Brittany's side for comfort and support or slap the hell out of Santana for putting them in this position.
Brittany took three long strides before she had Santana wrapped firmly in her arms. Santana wrapped her arms around Brittany the best she could before her knees buckled and Brittany was holding her up and then leading her back into Quinn's bedroom. Blaine and Quinn followed and eavesdropped from the hallway.
"Santana, we can't keep doing this. Either we're going to get caught for having all this equipment and drugs or you're going to get yourself killed. Let's just go, get away from here. They don't know we're friends and I can transfer schools. Kurt and I will be okay but you need to stop doing this to yourself," Blaine wasn't above begging.
"I'm not leaving New York. I'll pay Steve back and...we'll be free," Santana wouldn't even look at him. Why didn't she want to run away from this mess? He had a feeling it was involved with the one address she had written down, stuffed away under her mattress.
"Then if we're staying, you should go see her," Blaine said. Santana's shoulders tensed and she shot back a glare at him. Suddenly he understood what Kurt had meant in his past retelling of the Satan cheerleader that stalked the school hallways.
"This conversation is over. If you want out then leave,"Santana turned away and left Blaine standing alone in the middle of a mini hospital in an ex-Chinese restaurant storage warehouse. He couldn't leave her. Her pain wasn't just physical, it tore down into her soul and left her in shredded pieces that no one could put back together.
No, Santana needed someone. He probably wasn't the ideal choice for her but he was by the alleyway by fates design. He'd trained in a handful of fighting techniques because he needed to know how to protect himself, and he inspired to be a doctor. Those traits seemed hand tailored for Santana's needs. He was meant to be in her life, to help her. He wasn't about to give up on her.
AN: Drop me a review or visit my Tumblr (which I recently revamped) Is there anything you all want to see or just feedback in general? I look forward to hearing all your thoughts.