A/N: Sorry about the delay. Justtoogleeky36, gleek06216, MyOwnWorstCritic, Irish Hopes and BridgetLynn all guessed correctly! If you'd like to PM me your question or one-shot request/prompt, that'd be awesome. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
She can still remember the first day of primary school. She was new to the city and she didn't know anyone, let alone have any friends who were going to be in her class. Her mum had walked her to school and waved goodbye from the gates, and she was one of those kids who was crying on the playground as their mum walked away.
She hadn't been good at making new friends and even now, years later, that's still the same. She doesn't like becoming close to people in case they leave her, and she finds it easier to be mean than nice, which still makes people run for the hills.
She had sat underneath the play equipment for the first ten minutes before class, drying her eyes so that the other kids don't find out that she was crying. None of them seem very friendly and there's only two people she can see herself talking too – the small boy sitting in the sandpit, his hair spiked up as he flicks sand at the girls trying to build sandcastles, and the little blonde girl sitting on the swings, her feet scraping the ground.
The boy's wearing cargo shorts and there's a graze on his knee and a skull and crossbones drawn on his shoulder. It's not hidden at all because he's wearing a shirt with no sleeves and he just screams danger. She really, really wants the skull and crossbones drawn on her arm too, but something beckons her to go over to the girl on the swings.
The blonde's hair is in a messy braid, little pieces of hair falling out and framing her face. She's wearing shorts and a t-shirt that's already covered in paint, even though they haven't gone inside yet. She doesn't know what it is about the blonde but she's magnetic.
The rest is history. The little blonde on the swings was Brittany, who immediately became her best friend, and the small boy in the sandpit was Puck, who sort of fell in step with them, but always a little behind.
(She's always felt bad for choosing Brittany, because when it comes down to it, Brittany's still her first choice and Puck's always just a little behind. She always wonders what would have happened if she had approached the boy in the sandpit all that time ago).
Over the years, things remained the same. It was always her and Brittany against the world, and Puck following just a couple of steps behind and they liked it that way. Or she liked it that way, until the first day of high school when she discovered Brittany's habit.
Brittany collected strays.
During primary school, it was stray dogs and cats, and they'd stay with Brittany for a few days until her parents found out and they were sent back the pound. On the first day of high school, she realizes that Brittany collects stray people too.
Their first lunchtime, Brittany walks up with another blonde in tow. She introduces herself as Quinn, and the determined look on her face kind of impresses her (she sees a bit of herself in Quinn).
She doesn't mind Quinn too much. She starts this flirting thing with Puck pretty quickly, and although she hangs out with her and Brittany, she never tries to steal Brittany, so she's deemed acceptable. Plus, she and Puck spend a lot of time together and that kind of erases the guilt she's had over Puck, so Quinn's a success.
The second stray Brittany collects is Mike Chang, and she hates him on sight. He and Brittany dance together, and according to the way Brittany gushes about him, he's quite amazing. Judging by the way he looks at Brittany, he has a massive crush on her and is just biding his time before he does something about it.
She's not pleased. Brittany has always been hers, no matter whom they had crushes on or what boys asked them out on dates. She even tries telling Mike to back off but he refuses, saying that his friendship with Brittany means something to the both of them and he's not going to throw it away because she's feeling insecure. She hates him even more because he stood up to her, and his only saving grace is the fact that he and Brittany never date.
So when Brittany collects the third stray, Matt Rutherford, she's sick of it. She already has Quinn, who despite never going on one date with Puck, captures all his attention. She already tolerates Mike, who is still doing his best to woo Brittany (to little success), and she doesn't want this Matt guy to be part of their little family.
She and Puck start drinking and going out to bars and sleeping around because it's fun and easy, and this way she won't get hurt anymore (she let Brittany in and all she's got in return is pain as she's pushed further and further into the background).
They keep that life up for as long as they possibly can until Puck finally gets his act together and asks out Quinn, whose been pining after him for forever, and then she stops.
She's older now and a little wiser, and she's lost her chance to fight for friendship with Brittany by kicking Mike off the scene because the two of them are going out.
She realizes just how much she's missed while she's been drunk or hung-over or hidden away in someone's bed and she hates herself for missing everything that's been happened. Brittany forgives her but she can't forgive herself, so when she hears Brittany and Mike fighting over her behaviour, she runs.
She's gone for a week. She sleeps in crappy motel rooms and eats junk food from the vending machine and doesn't work out, but she doesn't drink either.
Her phone battery dies quickly, after the forty second text message from Brittany, and she spends the remaining four days coming to terms with the person she's turned into.
She goes to a clinic and gets tested for a bunch of different diseases. She cuts up her fake ID and throws the pieces in a dumpster outside one of the motels. She catches up on all the school work she's missed and posts it to the school, complete with a letter of apology and a promise that this will never happen again. She cuts her hair, throws away all of her revealing clothes and puts on the friendship bracelet Brittany made her all those years ago.
She comes back after seven days away, listens to Brittany's lectures, apologises to Mike for being such a jerk to him, offers her congratulations to Puck and Quinn and asks Matt out on a date.
The rest is history.
So, on that day when she hears Puck and Rachel (Brittany's newest stray) fighting in the tattoo room, she consoles Puck first because he looks a little lost and a little too close to falling apart (a little too similar to the time when Quinn left) and she can't deal with that again. She watches Rachel walk out of the door and she knows that she'll have to fix that later but right now, she has to help Puck.
He refuses to tell her what he and Rachel were arguing about but she doesn't care. She can see that he's sorry and that he didn't mean to hurt Rachel – the weariness in his eyes and the way his hand is still shaking slightly proves that – and she instantly forgives him for upsetting Brittany last week.
She follows him to the motel and helps him pack his bags and it feels so much like old times that she pauses whilst shoving his shirts into a bag. She remembers all those years when it was just her, Brittany and Puck; she remembers the strays Brittany picked up over the years and the way she felt so replaced and she remembers just how far she's come from that lost teenage girl who ran away for a week because she just couldn't deal with it anymore.
And right then and there, she resolves that none of her friends are going to have to deal with that.
She texts Rachel as soon as Puck is settling back into their apartment and orders her to e-mail the photographs of her unpacking her bags. She's not going to let Rachel make the same mistake she did, because although it helped her, it hurt everyone else.
Logging onto Puck's computer, she opens up his e-mail account and waits impatiently for the new message to arrive. Her mobile rings while she's waiting and she chuckles when she sees that it's Rachel.
"I'm still waiting for those photos Berry", she answers.
"Is this really necessary Santana? I assure you that I've unpacked my bags", Rachel retorts.
"Send the photos to Puck's e-mail account. The address is written on Britt's whiteboard", she replies, ignoring Rachel's queries. "Now, would you like to tell me why you and Puck were arguing today?"
"It's not important Santana, but thank you for offering to listen. It's very kind of you to extend that courtesy to me when we've only recently become friends"
"Yeah, yeah whatever", she grumbles, slightly annoyed that Rachel now knows she has a nice side. She's gone years without people finding that out, and she'd have been more than happy if Rachel never knew.
"What I find even nicer is that you have Puck's back no matter what. You didn't even know what happened today and the two of you haven't been speaking properly but you still stayed behind to help him. It's really admirable Santana"
"Look, don't tell anyone I said it, but I kinda feel responsible for Puck these days. I don't know how much he's told you about the Quinn situation, so I won't go too detailed because it's up to him to tell you, but it was kind of my fault. He probably would have broken up with her immediately but I swooped in and convinced him to give her another chance. If I hadn't done that, they would have broken up and rest of that crap wouldn't have happened", she explains quietly as she scrolls through Puck's e-mail program, pausing when he sees one with Rachel's name as the subject line.
Curious, she double clicks and the message fills the screen.
Sorry about the delay in the reply. I am indeed able to help you on your quest for information. I remember Rachel Berry well, and I'm sorry to hear that she's still struggling. I've been searching our school files for anything that we can disclose to you, and I've enclosed as much as possible. I also searched the newspaper archives for all references of Rachel Berry, and I managed to include a copy of the police report. Please take caution whilst reading the police report. I read it myself, and the level of detail included is horrifying.
Good luck to you. I hope you can help Rachel recover. She was an unforgettable girl and I hope you will help her find happiness again.
"Santana, did you hear me?" Rachel's voice interrupts and Santana quickly minimizes the screen. "I said that it wasn't your fault and that you can't blame yourself for what happened. You did what you thought was best and at the end of the day, Puck made the final decision so realistically, the blame doesn't lie upon your shoulders"
"Yeah... thanks Rachel", she says softly. "I'll talk to you later. I gotta go. Puck needs help putting all his stuff away"
Without waiting for Rachel to answer, she ends the call and puts her phone on the counter. With shaking hands, she opens the e-mail and starts opening the attachments, one by one. She smiles at the images of a young Rachel Berry, and she's just reading about Rachel and a boy named Finn Hudson's win at Nationals when Puck walks in.
"Satan, what the hell are you doing?" he hisses when he sees the attachment open on the screen. "That's private information"
"Well, why are you researching Rachel anyway? Haven't you heard of a thing called privacy?"
"Look, Rachel told me that her boyfriend Finn had died and I did some research because I wanted to know what happened without Rachel having to relive it all"
"Wait... what? Finn dies?" she shouts, her eyes widening. If the situation was less severe, Puck would have probably found it comical.
"You've read the articles Santana. Don't act all surprised now"
"Correction – I've read some of the articles. I was just reading about the win at Nationals, dumbass! Spoilers much?"
"Santana, this isn't a TV show. This is Rachel's life. Stop being such an insensitive bitch!"
"It was a joke, Puckerman. And pot calling the kettle black much? You call me an insensitive bitch when you went behind her back and researched her?"
"That was different! Just read the articles Satan. You might as well get the rest of the story"
"I already know. You just told me that her boyfriend died... now I know why she's been so upset... she's still grieving over the loss of her high school sweetheart"
"Santana, it's worse than that", he says softly, guiding her back into her chair and opening the next attachment. "Keep reading"
He settles on the couch and waits as she reads the articles. He hears the small gasps she makes and the sound of sniffles (which really freaks him out because Santana never cries) until he hears the familiar sound of his computer shutting down.
"You can't mention what you know to anyone - not Matt, Mike, Quinn, Brittany or Rachel", he calls without turning around, giving her a couple of minutes to compose herself. "Especially not Brittany or Rachel"
In the dorm rooms at NYU, Rachel slides her phone back into her pocket, and sighs at Santana's sudden change of mood. Just when she thinks she's getting to know the Latina, her mood changes and she's like an entirely different grabs her bag and walks towards the small wardrobe, struggling to hoist it onto the top. Pulling a chair towards the wardrobe to help her in her struggle, she stretches her arm and makes sure there's nothing on the top of the wardrobe that could possibly send the bag tumbling back down.
Her hand comes in contact with a piece of plastic and she pulls it off of the wardrobe and flings it onto her bed before hoisting her bag back on to the roof of the the chair back into place, she sinks into her bed and looks at the object she's just pulled off the top of the wardrobe. It's a DVD in case, with the words I love you scrawled across the front, and her eyebrows furrow as she tries to figure it out.
The sound of the door opening forces her to shove the DVD under her pillow. It's hidden just as Brittany walks into the room, a large smile on her face from her date with Mike, and although they make small talk until they go to bed, Rachel's heart isn't in it.
She can't stop thinking about what might be on that DVD.
A/N: A new type of game for this chapter! Answer the question right and you win a prize (same prizes as always): What is on that DVD? Happy guessing!