It's been awhile, I guess it took a bit to get some solid inspiration. I think you'll come to realize in this fic that some old habits emerge again for Santana. And I'll just say, pay attention to small details, because if you do then you'll be able to figure more and more out. Enjoy.

Santana's POV

I waited outside of the dorm room, none of us knew what to do. Quinn had taken Chris in there about an hour ago, and they hadn't come out yet. I heard movement every once in awhile, I guess she was cleaning up the cut on his face or something, but we told her we weren't leaving until we were sure he was alright. To be honest, we were all still a little unsure about what actually happened.

"Should we knock?" Charlie asked. Brittany was half asleep against Kurt's shoulder, and Marley was leaning against me for support. Rachel and Kitty had bailed right at the scene, I could tell that Kitty was pushing them to leave, but I didn't protest or try and hold them back. Sam and Dave were back at the apartment, fixing things to make sure there was enough room for everyone to sleep well tonight. I still felt a little guilty about not letting Sam stay with me, but I didn't want to deal with everything that he knew.

He still had too many questions.

"Hold on give me a second." I knocked quietly and a few moments later Quinn opened the door. She looked around and pulled me inside. Marcus wasn't there and I had no idea where he went or how he got out since we were all standing out there the whole time. "Where'd he go?"

"He went out that other bathroom door, he just didn't want you guys to bombard him with questions. God this is so fucked up." Quinn said as she sat down on her bed. "Tell everyone to get out of here. I don't want to talk to them." I nodded and went back over to the door opening it slightly.

"Hey guys, Quinn doesn't want to make a big show of this, so you all can head back home." Everyone agreed except Charlie who looked upset.

"What? Let me talk to her." I looked back at Quinn who was shaking her head to the request.

"Call her tomorrow, don't make a big thing about it, okay?" I could tell Charlie wanted to just burst in the door, but Brittany was holding her hand and pulling her back towards the elevators.

"Okay." Charlie left without another word, and I knew damage control would be in order tomorrow. But I would take care of that tomorrow, right now I was worried about Quinn.

"Quinn what the hell happened out there?" I asked finally. There was no need to sugarcoat thing, we were alone now. "Did that guy just swing on him? What'd he say?"

"Have I ever told you how much a fucking hate people? Bigots in particular." Quinn said through clenched teeth. "Those guys must have seen us inside, we were holding hands, and they followed us out. I couldn't really hear them not until they pushed Chris. This isn't the 50s you know, and this isn't some small hick town in the South. They called him...well you know, the n word and they hit him."

"What? They called him that? You've got to be shitting me." Honestly what the hell was going on in this world. I felt sick to my stomach at the mere thought. Modern day racism was not a pretty thing, how could people still be so ignorant? "Is he pressing charges?"

"No." Quinn said with a small shrug. "Which is bullshit, because he's too nice of a guy to admit that something is wrong. Maybe I'll press charges myself."

"You should get some rest, I'll call some people maybe try and figure things out. I could maybe get him a lawyer if he wants." I offered.

"I'll ask him, I dunno." Quinn paused and looked at me. "You wanna sleep here tonight?" I checked my watch, it was 5 in the morning, I don't think I'd be sleeping at all.

"I'm gonna head out actually. This whole dorm life thing isn't working for me. I'm think about maybe getting a place of my own. Maybe Sam can stay with me then." Quinn crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me. "What?"

"Don't do that. I know you'd only do it just to be nice, but I can tell that you don't want him here. Tell him to go home, it's not fair to you." She was right, but I still was on the fence. Sam was a nice guy, and it wasn't his fault he'd seen too much. "Plus with you and Rachel still being on the fence-."

"We're not on the fence, we're over the fence, we're over the damn hill for all I know." I took off my shoes and laid on the bed next to Quinn. "She's probably at her dorm fucking Kitty right now."

"Shit, the visual. God please no." Quinn groaned against my shoulder. "Don't say things like that. We all know Rachel can be a prude when it comes to stuff like that. She didn't let you get into her pants for like months."

"That was different." I assured her.

"Different how?" She questioned.

"Well for starters Rachel doesn't love Kitty, Rachel loved me."

…...

Charlie's POV

I was just finishing up with the last customer of my work day. Today had been nice and quiet which I didn't mind, busy days could be fun too. Mr. Rose was in the back and I was about to go and tell him that I was heading out when someone walked into the store. "Hi, how can I..." I stopped myself when I realized it was Marley. "Oh hey what's up? You looking for your dad?"

"Um, I was actually wondering where Santana was." I looked at her strangely, why would she come here to look for Santana? "Uh, well I don't know where she is. She's missed the past 6 days of class and...I talked to Quinn and she hasn't seen her either." This was the first I've heard of this. Sure I was busy with my own things, but if Santana was missing then I'm sure I would've known. Someone would've mentioned it.

"Did you call-?"

"Her phone is turned off. Look I know it's not really my business-." I held up my finger telling her to give me a second. I locked the cash register, went to the back of the store and told Mr. Rose I was leaving, I didn't stay for a cup of tea like I normally do. I tugged my jacket on and pulled out my phone. I dialed Santana's number as Marley and I headed out the store. Santana didn't answer.

"Dammit she didn't pick up." I said as I tried to hail a taxi.

"I know, I told you that already. Look, maybe she's just clearing her head." Marley said as a taxi finally stopped in front of us. We got in and I relayed the address from memory.

"Not for six days, she doesn't do that." I assured Marley. i figured she was just doing that thing where she occasionally ignored me. I didn't realize she'd gone completely AWOL. God did Marley have a lot to learn. She didn't know anything about Santana's past. She doesn't know about the abuse, she doesn't know everything that we've been through. I didn't even know why I was taking her with me. "I mean two years ago she left for awhile, no word, no contact...but she promised to never leave like that again."

"Why did she leave?" I checked my phone again, just in case. No calls.

"You should just ask her about that." I told her.

"I don't like secrets. I thought I did, I thought I liked mystery, but she's keeping a lot from me." Marley explained. I thought about smacking her, who the hell did she think she was?

"Don't complain about her secrets, we all have them, even you." I didn't want to sound so annoyed but I could tell that I did. We arrived at the apartments and she paid for the cab, I was thinking too deeply and feeling so tense that I didn't even protest. We walked over to the front of the apartment to buzz ourselves up. Marly grabbed my arm before I could touch the button.

"What does that mean? What do you mean by that?" She questioned.

"I think you know." Could we maybe have this conversation at another time? This wasn't our life chat time. Like I said before, I wasn't a huge fan of Marley, and now that I was aware of the drug thing, that made it even worse.

"What?"

"The fucking drugs Marley. There were like 20 fucking vials in there, pills, other stuff too. So don't bullshit with me. Okay? Let's have this talk later, right now I'm here for Santana, not you." I yanked my arm out of her grips and pressed the button.

"Who is it?" I heard from the other end.

"Charlie." I said.

"Charlie? I don't know any Charlies." I rolled my eyes, jeez I didn't have time for all of this messing around.

"Fine, it's Charlotte." I heard the buzz from the door and Marley and I walked into the apartment building. I headed straight for the elevator and when we made it to the right floor I made a beeline to the door. I knocked loud to make sure she'd hear me. "Hey, Olivia, can we come in?" She opened her mouth to ask who we was, but then she spotted Marley and arched an eyebrow. Before I could even explained why we were there Olivia was glaring at me. "What's your deal?" She smacked me across the face without warning.

"What the hell is your defect Charlie? You and Brittany were perfect together!" I was too busy trying to stop seeing stars to really understand what the hell she was yelling about. "You are such a little fucker, if you broke Brittany's heart then I'm going to shave your head." I finally looked at her and shook my head trying to pull myself out of the daze.

"One, I hate you and two, I did not break up with Brittany. This is Marley she's a friend." I assured her.

"Oh..." Olivia said realizing her mistake. "Well why the hell didn't you say that in the first place?"

"I didn't think it needed saying." I told her. "Marley this is Santana's older sister Oliver."

"Nice introduction Charlotte." Olivia said sarcastically. "Hi Marley, if you want to call me Oliver that's okay, but you have to promise to call her Charlotte then too." Marley smiled and shook Olivia's hand.

"Okay enough with the pleasantries. That's not what I came here for." I started. "Okay, have you seen Santana?"

"What kind of...where is she?" Olivia asked us.

"We don't know, we haven't seen her in six days." Marley told her. Olivia's eyes went wide and I rushed over to grab her shoulders so she wouldn't start freaking out.

"It's probably nothing, just breathe." Olivia inhaled deeply and the exhaled. "We tried calling her but she hasn't answered. I just...it's not like anything happened the last time we saw her. I just assumed she was staying here." Olivia checked her phone before placing it on her counter.

"Okay well my mom has been sending me letters for a couple of months, no return address it's possible she's sent them to Santana too, maybe they're meeting up or something." That was certainly a possibility. That was something Santana would be secretive about. Among other things.

"Look, I came here because I don't know where Mrs. Lopez is and...well it's not like I could ask your father-."

"No shit." Olivia said.

"Why couldn't you ask their father?" Marley questioned. Olivia and I exchanged looks.

"Is she serious? She can't be serious." Olivia said to me. Olivia sat down at her kitchen counter and sighed. "She doesn't know?"

"No." I said.

"What don't I know?" Marley questioned.

"None of your business." I snapped at her. It was a mistake to bring her here, I didn't have time to explain everything to her. "Olivia you know what I'm asking."

"I'm not going to file a fucking missing persons report okay. She's around, she does shit like this sometimes. She did it when we were younger too-." I cut Olivia off before she could finish.

"That's a little different, she did that because she couldn't show her face-."

"Okay, fuck off jeez, I'm not doing it." Olivia said. "If it was Quinn then yeah we'd file one, but this is my baby sister. I know her, and I know she's safe." I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. "She'll show, she always does."

…...

Quinn's POV

I knocked on Brittany and Charlie's door. Dave pulled it open less than a second later. I looked inside for Charlie, but all I could see where Dave, Sam, and Kurt pulling on light jackets. "Hey guys, heading out?"

"Yeah we're going to a football game. Wanna come?" Dave asked.

"No thanks." I told them.

"Okay, well Britt's inside still if you want to hang with her." Kurt said kissing both my cheeks as the boys left. I walked inside and closed the door behind me. Brittany was sitting on the couch with a journal in front of her, she rarely wore her glasses but she was wearing them now.

"Hey, B...whatcha doin?" I asked. I sat down on the couch and tried to get a peek at the journal but I couldn't see anything.

"Nothin." She said before closing the journal.

"Nothing?" I questioned.

"Yeah, nothing." She replied. "So I talked to Chris today and he told me what they said to him. God it makes me so angry. And apparently those guys go to NYU, how on earth do people so ignorant get into such a nice school?"

"I dunno B, politics or something I guess." I said with a shrug. "Has Charlie called back yet?"

"No, not yet, we decided not to tell the guys about it. They think she's in Ohio visiting an aunt. You know how they'd get, acting all macho and trying to find her by themselves." Brittany explained. "I just don't want them to have to deal with it."

"What about Rachel? Does she even know that we don't know where Santana is?" I asked her.

"She's the last person I'd want to tell." Brittany told me. "Shit, she's doing it again."

"It's not even close to being the same thing." I said.

"You're right, this time I think it's worse. I don't know, with the drinking, and mood stuff, you think it could've gotten out of hand? Do you think she's moved onto something like drugs?" That was a valid question, one I couldn't even begin to answer. Santana seemed fine the last time we talked. I thought things were okay.

"No, no way." I said with fake confidence. "I told myself I wasn't going to worry about it, so check me out, not worried. Let's change the subject."

"Question what do you think of me getting a tattoo?" I was a little more than surprised. I didn't even know Brittany was thinking about getting a tattoo.

"What? Since when do you want one? Wait...is Charlie pressuring you?" I asked.

"No, she's too scared to get one herself. But I was thinking about getting an infinity sign on the back of my neck and I need someone to go with me." She said.

"Why can't Charlie go?" I asked.

"Because she's too overprotective, and I wouldn't be surprised if she punched the tattoo artist because she thought they were hurting me." Brittany said. "It's just a thought, let me know when you've thought it through."

…...

Rachel's POV

I opened the door and looked inside. It was spacious, very artsy looking, it even had a break column in the middle of the room. I loved it, it was perfect. Santana walked in behind me, carrying a large mat and covers. "How do you like it? Doesn't it have such a good vibe?" She asked before tossing the mat and covers down.

She'd brought up most of the stuff herself, with some help from one of her new neighbors who was an aspiring model. Santana and I had already placed bets on whether or not he'd make it. Her refrigerator was fully stocked, she had a TV and a record player, but her bed hadn't come yet and she said she didn't mind sleeping on this massive bed mat she'd found for awhile. "I love it." I told her.

"The only problem with having you over is I always have to order this vegan crap to eat." Santana said as she pulled the takeout out of her refrigerator. I rolled my eyes, she always made a big deal about it, when I know she really liked eating vegetarian and vegan food all the time. She went to grab forks while I laid out the covers over the mat and sat down. I was in the middle of pulling off my shoes when she walked over.

"Oh make yourself at home, why don't you." She joked as she handed me my styrofoam box of food and a fork.

"You're in a playful mood." I told her and she smiled.

"I dunno, I have my own place in New York, it feels nice." She said before digging in to her food.

"So when I was at XX last night this girl was asking about you. She said that you were a heartthrob." Santana grinned.

"I kinda am aren't I?" I don't know what I liked more, Santana when she was humble or Santana when she was cocky. Right now I was just happy that she looked carefree. "Good this is fucking delicious." She said finishing up her food. I was always a slow eater so I was only halfway finished with my food. "Check me out." Santana said as she hopped onto her bike and rode in circles around me. "I feel like I'm flying." She said with a laugh.

"Get off that thing, you're going to hurt yourself." I warned her. I stood up and dodged her, jogging over and putting my food back in her fridge. I'd finish it later.

"Okay, fine, buzzkill." She put her bike back and fell onto her makeshift bed. I followed suit and laid down next to her. She looked over at me and smiled.

"What?" I asked her.

"Nothin." She said with a grin. We looked at one another again but this time I noticed something different. Her pupils were dilated. I couldn't believe that I'd missed it before.

"Santana are you on something?" The last I remember she said she wasn't seeing the shrink anymore, but things could've changed. Maybe she'd gotten pills from him.

"What? No." She said.

"Your eyes Santana, I'm not stupid, your pupils are dilated." I said.

"It's nothing-."

"What are you on?" I asked her sitting up and moving away from her.

"It's just some X, come on it's not a big deal." I looked at her like she was crazy. Well who knows, maybe she was crazy. "I wanted to feel good."

"No this isn't you Santana, and I hate it." I stood up and started pulling on my shoes. She grabbed onto my wrist. "What? Let me go." She didn't let go.

"Look sometimes I want to feel okay, if I'd known you were going to come here then I wouldn't have done it, but I did. Without this stuff I feel like shit, alright." She kissed the back of my hand. "Just stay here." Which of course I did, because I wanted to protect her, because I realized that I was the only thing holding her together.

When we finally relaxed, and we were both under the covers with the lights off Santana spoke again. "I'm sorry." She said quietly, I couldn't see her but I felt her lips press against mine. This was the second time she'd kissed me without warning, without asking, but right now I didn't push her away or pull back.

She wrapped me into a hug and we stayed there in each other's arms. "Did I scare you?"

"A little."

"Did you think I was going to hurt you?" She asked.

"No." I said before shushing her and waiting for her to fall asleep in my arms.

Review you lovely readers. And trust me I know, it feels like Santana's taking one step forward and two steps back, but that's my full intention.