Rachel was lying on her stomach across her bed, headphones in her ears, her head resting on her crossed arms. She was trying not to think about where Santana was. She hadn't seen her since lunch and when she wasn't in glee she assumed that the other girl had come home. But she came home to an empty house. Santana's car wasn't in the driveway and she had tried calling her several times but her phone went to voicemail every time.
Every insecurity she'd ever had came rushing back to her. Had Santana only been using her? Was she ignoring her? Had they even been friends or had she imagined the whole thing?
Relief flooded her when she saw Santana peek her head around the corner into her room, and she grinned, pulling her headphones from her ears.
"Hi."
Santana's smile was weary as she entered the room slowly. She closed the door and leaned back against it. "Hey."
"I was worried about you," Rachel told her softly.
"I should have called you." Santana let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry."
Rachel studied her carefully, scooting over and patting the bed next to her. "Come here."
Santana hesitated. She gazed down at the girl watching her so closely and it felt like her chest was exploding with a feeling that really couldn't be described as anything but adoration. After the afternoon she'd just had, to be in Rachel's presence was such a relief. She moved towards the bed and sat down, only to be gently tugged down next to the other girl. She turned on her side, curling up a little.
Rachel was silent as she waited for some sort of explanation for her absence and she reached out her hand, placing it gently over Santana's forearm, her thumb tracing imaginary patterns on her skin.
"Shue called Holly."
"Holiday?" Rachel wondered. That was certainly the last thing she had been expecting.
Santana nodded. Her eyes fell to Rachel's hand on her arm and she took a moment to shift their hands so their fingers were linked together. "He told her something was going on with me so she took me out for coffee and we talked."
Rachel propped herself up on her elbow to watch Santana more carefully. "Did you tell her?"
"No." Santana shook her head, her hand reaching out to twirl a long, dark curl around her fingers. "But she figured it out."
"What does that mean?" Rachel wondered. Her mind was racing with the thought that maybe now that an adult knew what was going on, maybe Santana could finally start to heal.
"I asked her to keep it quiet, but she told me the only way she would was if she took me to a doctor," Santana told her quietly, her voice tapering off into a whisper towards the end. Rachel felt the relief swell inside her and it must have been evident on her face because Santana smiled tiredly. "I'm fine, Rachel." She shrugged a shoulder. "Physically at least."
"You're sure?" Rachel asked, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind Santana's ear.
Santana nodded. "The doctor said it looked like there was some tearing that could have needed stitches, but it healed on its own. Other than that, I'm totally healthy."
Rachel's eyes mapped her face, taking in every detail, before they watched those dark eyes closely for a moment. "What aren't you saying?"
Santana shook her head, averting her eyes as a shiver passed through her. "The exam was kind of horrible."
"Oh my God." Rachel understood immediately and she reached out to pull Santana into her body. "Are you okay?"
Santana felt her body slacken instantly in Rachel's arms and she was sure to keep absolutely still once she was there, hoping the diva would hold on. Rachel seemed to sense this and held her even tighter. "Holly was there to hold my hand." She stole a glance up at Rachel and found those intense mocha eyes watching her. Rachel did have beautiful eyes. "I wished it was you."
"You should have called me," Rachel told her, pressing her lips to the taller girl's forehead. She threaded the fingers of her left hand with Santana's right hand. "What happened?"
Santana was still and quiet for a long time. She was simply trying to find a little solace after the afternoon she'd just had, and as usual she found it in Rachel's arms. Finally she sighed. "It was hella uncomfortable, for one." She swallowed hard, a shiver passing through her frame. "And the first doctor was a guy."
Rachel was silent for a minute, processing this and she shook her head, pressing another kiss to Santana's head. "I'm sorry."
Santana shook her head quietly as she tried to hold herself together. "I totally freaked." A deep sigh fell from her lips. "Of course, it wasn't a whole lot better with the female doctor. I just wonder how long it'll be before I don't lose my mind when someone touches me."
"It's only been a few weeks," Rachel murmured against her temple. "You'll get through this. I promise."
That was all it took for Santana to completely fall apart. Her body shook with each sob and all Rachel could do was hold her tightly. It broke her heart that her now close friend was struggling so much with all this pain and all she could do was be there for her.
So she was.
XX
"We need to talk."
Puck looked up to find Quinn standing next to his locker looking determined. He actually hated when she looked like that, because it usually meant she was getting ready to do something that she felt was for someone else's own good.
And it usually didn't end well.
"Okay," he replied warily. He exchanged a glance with a worried looking Brittany, who was standing just behind the other girl and he nodded. "Where to?"
Quinn turned without another word and led them both outside to the bleachers. They were abandoned and the trio took seats, Brittany and Quinn on one step and Puck a step below them, facing them.
"What's up?" he asked.
"I'm worried about Santana," she told them both.
"Me too," Brittany mumbled as she scooted over enough that she could drop her head to Quinn's shoulder.
Puck shrugged. "We all are. But she won't say squat to anyone but Rachel."
Quinn tried to ignore the way that statement bit into her with jealousy. "I think someone hurt her." She didn't want to say the word out loud.
"Someone did," Brittany confirmed. Suddenly the shoulder she was leaning into disappeared and she looked up to find Quinn turned to her fully. Hers and Puck's eyes were suddenly burning bright with anger.
"What did she say?" Quinn asked.
Brittany shook her head, confused by her friends' change in behavior. "She had some bruises on her legs. I asked her what happened, but she just said that she was making out with someone and things got rough."
"Who was it?"
Brittany shrugged, her eyes dropping to her hands in her lap and her chin quivering thinking back to that night. She sniffled and blinked back tears. "I don't know. We were making out and she freaked out and ran off before I could find out."
Quinn pulled the other girl into a hug. She hated seeing Brittany so heartbroken. "What else did she say?"
"She tried to tell me it was a good kind of rough," Brittany remembered, wiping at her eyes. "But she was really scared, you guys. She was shaking and she didn't want me to touch her."
"You were at the party, right, Britt?" Puck asked. He was pissed and felt sick knowing someone had hurt Santana.
Brittany nodded.
"Who was she with?" Quinn asked, her voice taking on that special low tone it only did when she wanted to kill someone. It scared Brittany.
"I didn't see her with anyone because we had to split up to make our rounds."
Quinn's insides still clinched at hearing that. She certainly didn't miss trying to stay popular by making the rounds. Making out with random jocks was not her idea of a good time anymore.
"Who were you with?" Quinn asked.
"Kevin," Brittany told them. "But he got bored and left because I was really drunk and then I fell asleep."
"I remember," Quinn told her.
A light bulb suddenly went off in Brittany's head. "I told her I didn't want to make out with him and she said 'it's better than Karofsky'."
Quinn and Puck exchanged a long look, both seemingly coming to a conclusion at the same time. They jumped up at the same time and took off leaving a rather confused Brittany behind them.
Puck was glad that Quinn had been a cheerleader as long as she had, because when he took off at a dead sprint, he knew she'd be able to keep up. They'd covered half the school when they finally caught sight of Karofsky at his locker alone.
Both teens slowed to a walk, wanting to catch their breath in case they needed to kill someone on the spot. It wouldn't be very handy to go into a fight winded and they both knew this.
Dave caught sight of them before they reached him and he rolled his eyes. "What do you two losers want?"
"We need to talk to you," Quinn replied, her voice low and threatening and Puck would have smiled because it even sent a shiver down his spine.
Dave was either immune to that voice, or had gotten really good at hiding the fear of it, because he seemed unaffected to Puck. But Quinn smiled her favorite evil-bitch smirk when she saw his jaw clench involuntarily at it.
"I'm late," he told them and he turned away from them to walk away. He was tugged back by the back of his jacket by Puck, who shoved him back into his locker.
They could see the fear suddenly. Dave searched the empty hall for someone, anyone who could help him, but came up empty. He shoved at Puck's arm, still holding him back against the locker. "Get the hell off me, man."
Quinn suddenly got in his face, pointing a finger at him, her eyes shining and terrifying. "I told you we needed to talk to you."
"Well talk then!" Dave exclaimed, losing his cool quickly. He knew how much power Quinn still held at school, even if she wasn't Head Bitch anymore. Two words from her and everyone would think he was a leper. He'd be on the losing end of the slushies. He'd be getting his ass kicked.
"Santana Lopez." Quinn said the two words evenly, her voice still low and menacing, and then she simply watched.
His entire body stiffened for one split second, his pupils dilated for an instant before returning to normal and then his lips turned into a lazy grin. "That's what this is all about? The school whore?" He flinched when a fist connected with the locker directly beside his head. "Whatever. What about her?"
Quinn took a calculated step towards him. She was close enough that he could smell her perfume and see the little flecks of gold in her eyes. He looked away. Her eyes scared the hell out of him. "You were with her at Azimio's party."
"No I wasn't," he denied quickly. Too quickly. He knew it was too quick. His jaw clenched and he couldn't meet their eyes.
"Ten people saw you two go into the woods together," Quinn told him, making it up on the spot. Now it was time to see if he would call her bluff.
He didn't.
"So what?" he asked, trying desperately to pull off cocky and arrogant. "We hooked up."
"Funny how ten people saw her stumble out of the woods after you hooked up looking like she'd been mugged," Puck told him, going with Quinn's lie easily.
Dave barely flinched, but she saw it. "She was drunk. We had sex and then I left. Who knows what happened after that."
Quinn knew this little chat was over and she patted him on the shoulder, smirking when he flinched. "Just be careful, Dave." Threatening eyes met his dead-on. "She's my best friend and when I find out who hurt her, I'll make sure he's buried."
Dave stared into those eyes for a long moment, his Adams apple bobbing in his throat. He rolled his eyes again, pulling away from them both. "Whatever, Fabray."
They watched him leave, both silent for a few minutes.
"Are we cool, Quinn?" Puck finally asked. Quinn turned her head to look at him. He met her gaze with one eyebrow cocked in question. "With Beth and everything else. Are we cool?"
She nodded finally. "Yeah."
He seemed to sigh in relief. "Good. Because you scare the hell out of me, Q."
Quinn actually laughed at that, rolling her eyes at him and slapping his shoulder gently. "Shut up."
XX
Quinn watched from her locker as Santana and Rachel spoke quietly at Santana's locker one morning. She watched the way Rachel said something that made the taller girl laugh and while it made her smile to see Santana laugh like she used to, something about the way the two girls were interacting made Quinn frown.
She could grudgingly admit that she was jealous of the relationship the two of them had suddenly formed. She knew that she had been rather self-involved lately and maybe Santana didn't feel like she was worthy of being confided in anymore.
Or maybe she was just jealous that someone else important in her life had chosen Rachel Berry over her.
Again.
It hurt her to admit it, but she knew it was true and she knew that she had two options: one was to be horrible to Rachel in hopes that the diva would leave them alone. She knew that choice was risky because she could push Santana further away since the two of them were apparently close. Or she could grow up and accept that Santana had other close friends besides her and Brittany, and maybe getting closer to Rachel would get her closer to Santana as well.
She didn't care that she was staring at the two of them down the hall or who was watching her stare, and a moment later she was glad that she hadn't taken her eyes off them because she saw something then that got her instantly curious.
Santana reached out and fisted the front of Rachel's shirt and pulled the shorter girl in closer to her. She leaned her head in closer to Rachel and said something that had both girls laughing.
There was something interesting about the way neither girl seemed to mind the closeness, the way they touched each other and the way that Santana had never been so comfortable around another person. Ever.
Well, other than Brittany.
That thought hit Quinn out of nowhere and she almost felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach and the air had been forced from her body. Suddenly she had to know what was going on between them.
She was given her chance a moment later when Rachel departed Santana's locker with a long meaningful look and Quinn moved quickly to take her place.
"I'm worried about you," Quinn stated simply as she leaned against the locker next to Santana's.
"Ditto," Santana replied, giving Quinn a once-over. "What even are you wearing?"
"Screw you," Quinn replied with a half-hearted glare that both girls knew she didn't mean in the least. She glanced around them and leaned in closer to Santana. "I think this thing with Rachel is getting a little…intense."
"What thing with Rachel?" Santana asked tightly, turning narrowed eyes on her friend.
Quinn held up both hands in a peaceful gesture. "Calm down. I just mean it seems like you're getting kind of…attached to her."
"So what if I am?" Santana wondered, her narrowed eyes shifting into a bit of a glare. "We're friends."
"Are you sleeping with her?" Quinn blurted out suddenly.
Santana's eyes went wide and she glanced around them to be sure they were relatively alone in the rapidly filling hallway. "What? No."
"You just seem to be really…close all of a sudden," Quinn noted softly.
Santana rolled her eyes and leaned back to take one more look in the mirror hanging in her locker. "Friends, Quinn."
Quinn considered those words for a moment, seemingly contemplating something before she opened her mouth again. "What about Brittany?"
"What about her?" Santana asked, turning back to her locker and her make up.
"She told me you ran out on her the other night," Quinn replied. "She said you were fooling around and you freaked."
"That's none of your damn business," Santana said with a glare.
"It is when one of my best friends seems kind of heartbroken about it and my other friend is totally freaked out," Quinn told her.
"I'm not freaked out," Santana replied half-heartedly.
"It's okay if you are," Quinn told her gently. "Something big obviously went down a few weeks ago and if you're not okay you should tell her. She thinks you're mad at her."
Santana sighed, deflating at that. "I'm not…I can't. I'll talk to her."
Quinn nodded, watching every move her friend made. "She loves you. We all do."
"Please spare me the sappy shit, Q," Santana warned with a vaguely disgusted face even though her insides were warmed by her friend's words.
"I know, I know," Quinn replied with a grin. "Wouldn't want to give away the fact that you do have a heart in there somewhere."
"Exactly," Santana agreed with a smile. "Come on."
XX
A.N. I know…this story is certainly on slow burn. I appreciate you guys sticking with me on this one and I hope you enjoyed. I hope to have the next chapter up this week so keep an eye out for it!