Santana looked at her watch, pushing her foot to the accelerator as she saw she was running late for the group meeting, well, what was formally the group meeting, the only members of the group who now attended was Tina and Brittany, she knew that Brittany wasn't coming, it left a pang of anxiety in her stomach that Tina was in imminent danger.
Tina sat in the empty room, surrounded by empty chairs absorbed in the quietness, it was only the slight creek of a door that drawn her attention. She focused her stare on to the woman who stood at the bottom of the corridor, an air of clouded familiarity surrounding the atmosphere, and then he appeared behind her. The two of them stood at the bottom of the corridor staring at her through the glass door, their eyes so familiar yet so unrecognizable.
Her breath faltered as she tried to process what was in front of her, unable to comprehend the situation. She tried to move but her legs struggled to support the weight beneath them, she scuttled to other exit of the room, hoping and praying that they weren't in pursuit but the patter of hurried footsteps behind her echoed around her head as she ran faster and faster.
She ran up the flight of stairs that would carry her too the main reception, her instincts telling her that nothing could happen to her if people were around. She opened the door and felt the crash of another body into her, screaming as she fell to the floor out of fear.
"Tina its okay it's me Santana, what's wrong? Where are the others? Tina?" Santana closed the proximity between them as she edged closer to the small Asian woman who sat hyperventilating, placing her hands on the woman's cheeks as she tried to coax a coherent response from her.
Tina's gaze moved from Santana, to directly behind her, causing the Latina too turn around and see what the other woman was so afraid of, she shot too her feet pulling the small Asian woman up as she saw the two people staring at them a matter of feet away.
They ran through the emergency exit corridor, seemingly in slow motion as the two people in pursuit closed in the distance, "Santana! It's okay I scared them off"
Santana slowed her running and turned around, "Brittany what are you doing here! Christ!"
Tina and Santana walked towards Brittany, their senses still on high alert, making their way too Santana's car.
They piled in as Santana turned the ignition, racing out of the parking lot.
"Santana the engine on the plane blew up, It wasn't human error, I remember everything now. It was right outside my window" Brittany gasped in air as her heart rate slowed from the fast jog they'd took to the car.
Santana moved her view from the road in front of her too Brittany, "oh my god Britt" she stroked the side of her head as she tried to comfort the lithe blonde.
Tina sat in the back of the car, unusually quiet as tears fell freely onto her cheeks.
"Tina I'm driving you back to my home okay? Do not answer your phone, tomorrow we are going to get too the bottom of this"
…
Brittany paced up and down in the kitchen, her eyes still fixated on the locked door adjacent in the living room that Santana couldn't open as Tina lay in Santana's bedroom, Santana crept to the small Asian woman's side, not wanting to disturb her. "Hey Tina, how are you feeling, where's your family? Is there someone I can contact tomorrow?"
"my parent's died when I was seven, I was taken in by an aunt, that's how I came to America but we've never been close " she sniffled slightly as Santana took pity on her, knowing the feeling of being distant with the family whom are supposed to cherish you the most.
"What happened to them?" Santana shuffled slightly closer, crossing her arms as she paused for a response.
"They died in a fall, my dad was trying to rescue her and they both fell." Santana chewed the side of her mouth as she tried to offer some words of comfort, "they were probably crushed to be separated from you."
Tina interjected the Latina, her face suddenly stoic "they left me all alone, I was seven Santana."
"They did do that, I don't know how they could, I don't think I could cope leaving my childr-" something about the sentence caused Santana's heart to ache, like she could hear the words in her mind but couldn't let them leave her mouth. Like the sentence didn't belong into reality.
"What would you tell your parents that they don't know Tina?"
"…that I know that it was an accident, and I don't blame them" Tina's eyes began to water again as she pondered the rest of her sentence "…and that I forgive them."
…
Brittany and Santana curled up on the sofa, Brittany's head in Santana's lap as they lay in a light slumber. Brittany began to shake, her head jerking from side to side as she encountered an all too familiar nightmare, waking up with a sudden jerk as she took in her surroundings, catching her breath.
A familiar meow growing louder and louder, causing her to cry in anguish as Santana awoke.
"Baby I'm right here, what's wrong? Tell me what's wrong Britt" Santana placed both her hands on the blonde woman's cheeks trying to placate her as she grew hysteric.
"Can you hear that San, listen to that noise?" Brittany walked closer to the front door, the meowing now becoming apparent too Santana too.
"Britt please, it's just a neighbour's cat, come back to sleep?" Santana's voice had a note of desperation in it that wasn't apparent before, Brittany raised her hand to stop the Latina as she edged closer to the front door "no you don't understand San, it's been following me, the meow all day and all night since the accident."
Brittany opened the front door and the chubby tanned cat ran inside, hopping on the counter as it ran its head against Brittany's arm.
"Santana that's my cat" Brittany's words came out slow and confused.
"Britt, Lord Tubbington II is a Persian, that cat has got to be a neighbour's cat, please come to bed you're scaring me."
"San, you don't understand, that is Lord Tubbington …he's buried in my mom's backyard he died when I was seventeen… I didn't survive the crash."
"Brittany, Brittany look at me, this is reality, this your home, I'm your home, you survived the crash, it's just a neighbour's cat."
"Santana I didn't make it, I'm not alive anymore. There's no way I survived the plane crash"
"Brittany look, the cats gone? See he's a neighbour's cat, you're fine, and you're here with me."
Brittany walked out of the open door, running down the apartment steps as she reached the door to the building, Santana running close behind her.
"Santana, I need to go, don't follow me, you'll know where to find me when the time is right, I'll come back for you, I promise, but there are some things you need find out for yourself, there are some things that a person cannot be told. When you're ready to know the answers you'll come to me, I love you Santana, I always have, I always will. You'll understand soon, please forgive me."
"Brittany, I have a duty of care, I cannot let you do this, I am yo-"
Brittany edged closer, hoping that the words she knew to be truth would tumble out of the Latina's mouth, hoping that everything would come flooding back to the Latina like it did for her.
"I am your doctor and right now you're a risk too yourself."
Brittany cocked a half smile as tears filled in her eyes, pressing a longing kiss against the Latina's own lips and running her thumb down the side of her face.
"I was never your patient remember."
Brittany ran off into the night, leaving Santana stood at the door calling her name into the darkness.
Santana walked back into the apartment, a shift in the atmosphere telling her that no one was there, not even Tina.
She ran to the bedroom, Tina's bag and coat still slung over the chair, but no Tina.
Her shouts of Tina's name drawing her neighbour's attention as Emma knocked on the ajar door.
"Santana what's wrong Hunny, I could hear you shouting from upstairs?"
"Emma, have you seen a young woman? Late twenties? Asian? My friend Tina she was here and now she's gone?"
Emma cocked her head slightly as her lip curled open. "Yeah she just left, with a man and a woman?"
Santana ran her fingers through her hair as she tried to process the events of the last twenty four hours, all of the survivors were now missing.
"…Oh Santana you should get some rest, your patients will be fine, Brittany will be fine."
Santana's face contorted into rage as she stared into the woman before her, another piece of the jigsaw fitting together as she grabbed her coat.
"You're in on it too Emma, I never told you her name."
…
Santana stormed into Will's office ignoring the cup of coffee he offered her, "Will all of the passengers are missing, not just missing sessions, they are missing, one of the passengers wasn't even accounted for, how does that happen?"
"I don't know Santana how do you think it happens?" Will gestured with his hand for Santana to respond.
"I think the airlines targeting the passengers, picking them off one by one too keep their corporate secrets quiet, we got to stop this Will"
Will walked over to his cabinet, taking out a bottle of whiskey and pouring to glasses before gesturing Santana to sit. "You're looking for the truth? When we lie, we make up our lies with pieces of the truth, remember when you told me when I gave you this job, that you work your way into children's fairytales and find your way back to the truth? What if this is your fairytale? What if your just confusing the truth with the fairytale?"
"Oh my god Will, you're in on this too, Hummel got too you too, what do you mean confuse the truth with the fairytale? Let me guess the airline are going to accuse me of coming up with this 'fairytale' aka that the crash was the result of an explosion, and that the truth is it was just 'human error?"
Santana stormed out of the office as Will stood with his head down "Santana you misunderstand me" taking a sip of the glass he poured as Emma stepped into the light from the corner, "Emma, she should have worked it out by now? She keeps missing everything." Emma walked towards the man placing her arms over his shoulders "she'll realise the truth in her own time, it's never been our job to rush her we made that mistake when she was in high school"
Santana raced too her grandmother's home, something pulling her there telling her it was the only safe place left for her in the world, she wrapped her knuckles so hard on the wooden door she thought her hand would fall off, and yet still no answer.
"They got to abuela too." Santana sat in the chair swing on her grandmother's porch as she tried to think of what to do, the feeling of the world collapsing in on her apparent.
The familiar gruff voice of the man she'd came to despise close by as he sat in front of her, "I'm going to let you ask me some questions, and I'm going to try and be as truthful as I can Santana."
"Why do you keep following me Burt?" tears forming in her own eyes as she sensed how cornered she was.
"I've not been following you, I've been trying to protect you, all of you."
"Bullshit Burt! You've been trying to protect your precious airline!"
"They're dead Santana! They are all dead! There were no survivors except for the two minors on flight BA192 and it's the pilots fault! Nobody else's but the pilots!"
Santana closed her fists in rage, "so how does the passenger Mr. Anderson go unaccounted for! They're not dead! I saw all of them with my own eyes, I spoke to all of them, what kind of idiot do you take me for Burt?! Tell me you didn't try to get to those innocent children too"
"Blaine Anderson wasn't a passenger, he was an air steward, he wasn't supposed to be on the flight, they asked him to cover a colleague who had called in sick, he only took the shift because his friends were on the flight as well as the pilot and co-pilot who he was all too familiar with. That's why he wasn't on the flight plan, that's why he wasn't in your passenger survival group; he was never supposed to be on the flight! Santana those children weren't unaccompanied minors…"
"What do you mean he wasn't supposed to be here Burt?! Are you trying to brainwash me into thinking I'm dead too like you did the rest of the survivors? That's clever Burt, let me guess they all tested your little theory? And when everything goes too court they'll be no witnesses because they all attempted suicide because you lead them to believe they were dead in the first place!" Santana stood and paced the porch as Burt sat calmly with the suitcase at his side.
"The pilot was overworked, overtired, it was the anniversary of his first wife's death…"
Santana began to grow angrier "stop Burt! Stop blaming your woes on a dead man!"
"He wasn't even in the cockpit when the plane hit the turbulence that caused that turbine to blow, did you know that!? The plane was cruising at too high an altitude! If he'd of been in the cockpit he could of lowered the cabin pressure and landed the plane, did you know that?"
Santana suddenly stopped, slowly turning to face the man in front of her, "no I didn't know that Burt"
"He left it in the hands of the co-pilot, he should of never have done that."
A moment of realisation hit Santana as she looked into Burt's eyes, her lip starting to tremble as well as her hands, "what was the name of the pilot and the co-pilot Burt? Tell me?"
Burt lowered his head, clenching his jaw as he reflected on the painful memory, "they were the only father and son aviation teams in the airline, one of the only ones in the country, their names were Burt and Kurt Hummel, Kurt wanted to stay and help everyone move on, but he couldn't, I couldn't let him, it was my fault, it had to be me who watched over everyone, I had to pay my penance."
Santana began to shake, trying to ignore the implications of what the man in front of her was saying, "It was no one's fault Burt, the passengers seen the explosion, that pilot was a hero, he gave his life trying to save those people on board!" Santana grew hysterical as the man moved closer towards her.
"there's still one question left to ask Santana, the question in the back of your mind that you won't let yourself ask for fear of the answer, but it's time for all of this to end Santana, ask me the question."
Santana shook as she wiped away her tears, "if Blaine wasn't the unaccounted passenger, who was?"
Burt knelt by Santana's side as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "you made this fairytale out of little pieces of the truth, the survivors group, taking control and being the leader in all of this, it was all you. This was your fairytale and it's time to find your way back to the truth Santana, I'm so sorry, it was all my fault, I'm so sorry for what I've done to you and your family Santana"
Santana's eyes began to fill again as she shook hysterically, "Burt what are you saying? What about my family?"
Burt walked off of the porch and into the night, leaving his briefcase at Santana's sight, her fingers trembled as she opened the clasps and rifled through the contents before finding the documents she was looking for, the list of passengers on flight BA192, her tears poured freely as she anticipated what she was about to find, flicking too the third page of the passengers onboard, the list being ordered by seat location.
Steve Tremane
Lucy Tremane
Dave Goldberg
Mercedes Jones
Sam Evans
Tina Cohen-Chang
Mike Chan
Quinn Berry-Fabray
Rachel Berry-Fabray
Brittany Lopez
Santana Lopez
Ethan Lopez
Jessica Lopez
And then everything came flooding back, she wondered how she could forget an entire life, how she could forget her wife and children, she read the documents attached to her family's name, it was only when she read that her Abuelo's Alma and Manny Lopez had come forward to identify and collect Santana and Brittany's bodies that she broke down.
The passengers and crew of flight BA192 died on the 21st of September 2021, Sam Evans was the only passenger to be pulled out of the wreckage alive, his life support was turned off at 8am on the 24th September 2021 at Med-co hospital after it was deemed his organs would not be able to recover from the shock of his burns.
There were no survivor's except for two minors, Jessica and Ethan Lopez.
AN: I know this was a long chapter but this was the meat of the story so it had to be good, I hope this has explained and tied together a lot of the stuff mentioned in previous chapters, don't worry this isn't the end, the next chapter I'm going to explain a lot more about why she forgot and what actually happened and all that malark and then the obvious Brittany and Santana reunion. Please, Please, Please PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW. Expect a new chapter up maybe tomorrow