Author's notes: Hope you enjoy! This one's quite long to make up for the short chapter yesterday :) Just a reminder that I changed the first chapter so you can go back and reread that if you like! Review if you can be bothered? Pretty please? Also I'm probably going to out of internet access for a few days so I'm not sure when the next update will be. Thanks :)

Dani

I wake up at seven today, a bit of a sleep in because we packed up last night. All I have to do is get to the airport and get us both safely on our flights.

When I get out of bed, I tuck the duvet back around Santana's back, where I'd been spooning her last night.

Last night wasn't the big love making affair the night before was. After a bit of casual making out and pleasuring each other, we just went to sleep, her spooned against me, hand squeezing mine until her headache subsided. She'd cuddled up to me, whispering, "Dani, I just need Tylenol and sleep." So, being the good girlfriend I was trying to be, I got her Tylenol and water and rubbed her back while she went to sleep.

I had expected it to take me a while to sleep with her pressed so close, but her soft breathing and hand loosely holding mine simply served to send me to sleep faster.

I actually feel more rested than I have in days, despite playing another show last night. Sometimes things just line up and I have really good shows - ones where the audience just seems to click, and I get totally into the zone. Last night was one of those shows, and my good night's sleep with Santana has only made me feel better.

I look at her curled up form on the bed, holding the covers under her chin. I doubt she'll be waking any time soon, so I write a quick note - Hey hun, if you wake up I've gone for a run. Just order room service if you're hungry. I love you! -Dani

On tour, it's hard for me to find the time and energy for a strict exercise regime, although practising and performing the dance routines is often loads all by itself.

But today I'm keen tie up my hair and sneakers and head out down the street for a run.

As I go down the elevator, I drop Matt a quick text to let him know where I'm going - I already know the route I'm planning to run on, and I'm supposed to let him know in case I need help.

Getting into the smooth rhythm of running is good, feet hitting the ground one-two, one-two. It's a calming practice and it helps me distance myself from my life. Sometimes I need perspective.

I'm listening to a playlist of songs that I'm utterly in love with and that I've worn to the bone - they range from songs like Undone by Haley Reinhart, and Birdy's cover of Skinny Love to utter pop anthems like Change Your Life by Little Mix and Classic by MKTO.

I keep up a steady pace, the blood slowly pumping faster and faster. I pause to take a sip from the small bottle of water I carry - I need hydration and it's really not that much weight after carrying a microphone around performance after performance.

I'm stopped at traffic lights. A bunch of teenage girls who look like cheerleaders in running gear stop too. One of them introduces herself. "I'm Quinn," she says, shaking my hand. "Nice to meet you."

I smile, saying, "I'm Dani."

"We know," choruses the team. I smile at their synchronicity. They sound very close.

"Would you mind taking a team picture?" Quinn asks.

"You mean, with me in it or me taking it?" I check, not wanting to assume that they want me in it, because that's getting remarkably big-headed.

"Why would we want you in it?" Quinn glances at me, then breaks into a smile. "I'm just kidding. With you in it." She asks a man who's also stuck at the lights to help us, and then I pose with the team.

"There you go," he says.

"Thank you." Quinn flashes a brilliant smile at me, then the lights change and the cheerleaders are off again.

I consider following them, then turn back instead of going through the traffic lights as planned. I've run just over a mile and now I can run the same distance back, and that'll be quite enough for today, because Santana's probably awake by now and I really want to see her so we can plan something to do today before we fly out.

I realise, as I run, that my attraction to Santana is starting to run deeper than just attraction. She makes me laugh and she's made me cry and she's looked after me in the best way possible. I'm starting to need to be near her. To see her laugh, to hold her hand, to kiss her gently.

I can just imagine all the cute things I'd do for her if I had the chance - like tomorrow, she said she's due on her period. I'd bring her DVDs and hot water bottles and make her cups of tea and rub her back - wait.

If I can't do all that for her in person...maybe there's something else I can do.

I duck into the closest store and ask for directions to the nearest post office.

"Right up the street. You'll see the big Walmart? Right across from that."

"Perfect," I say, thanking her and buying a bar of chocolate for her trouble.

First I go to the post office and buy a pre-paid postal box. It's a cube, about two foot by two foot, and I pay for it with the credit card that I always tuck inside my sports bra in case I need something on my run.

I check the time - I've only been gone around half an hour, so Santana shouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Then I head over to the Walmart.

I finally tape the box closed and realise that I have no idea what Santana's address is.

I drop Matt a text.

Dani - Hey Matt, I'm at the post office, not too far from the hotel. Can you get me either Santana's address or Kurt's phone number? Whatever you do, DO NOT ask Santana or tell her where I am.

Matt - Shady, huh? LOL. Sure thing, Dani, gimme a minute.

I occupy myself by doodling on the notepad I bought to write the notes on. After an interminable few minutes, Matt texts back with the address.

I copy it out onto the lid of the box.

Dani - Thanks Matt! I'm headed back to the hotel in about five minutes.

I go and post the box, making sure that it's by express mail so that it arrives tomorrow morning, then jog back to the hotel. I smile to myself, imagining Santana's reaction tomorrow morning. I hope she enjoys it.

I swipe the door card to let myself in and the first thing I see is Santana, lying on her back on the floor.

"Santana?" I crouch beside her. "What's up?"

"Not your dick," she says with a bare hint of a smile, eyes staying closed.

I refrain from hitting her and sit back on my heels. "What's wrong?" I rephrase.

"Headache."

"Aww," I say, squeezing her shoulder. "You want some Tylenol?"

"Yes please," she whispers. I have to dig through my already-packed bag to find it, but then I come back and sit down beside her.

"Here. You need some help sitting up?" She declines and sits up by herself.

I wait while she sculls down the water, then take the glass from her. "You just need to lie down and rest for a while, okay? I'm going to take our bags down to the car." I kiss her forehead. I assume that it's just her PMS getting her again. My poor honeybun.

I heft our bags to the door, then look back at Santana. I don't want to leave her feeling this bad again, so I dash to Matt's door - he's staying two rooms down from us. I ask him to take them down instead.

She's back on the bed, curled up. I sit down beside her and start gently rubbing her temples. "Is this okay?" I ask her, wanting to make sure I'm not hurting her any more.

"It's nice," she whispers, brushing a hand against my knee. "Thank you."

I cuddle her until she rolls over and looks up at me. "I love you," she says, kissing me on the lips. "I feel better now, just my PMS kicking me in the head."

Like a badly trained donkey on a timer, I think, but I just give her a hug. "You okay?"

"Yep. What are we doing today?"

"It's only about eight thirty... Our flights are both around ten thirty. We've got about an hour and a half? What do you wanna do?"

She shrugs, blinking tiredly.

"Shopping?" I suggest.

Santana grins, eyes wide open. "Now that, girlfriend, is something I can relate to!"

I snicker. "'Girlfriend'? Has anyone actually used that word like that since the nineties?"

"Yes," she says, hopping up. "Me."

Santana

Dani takes me to a mall. She drives, all the windows down and the roof rolled back, radio blasting. I laugh at her - she looks ridiculous and gorgeous - but when Made In The USA starts playing, I start cracking up in earnest.

Dani grins at me, mouthing the first couple of lines. She is perfectly in time with the lyrics.

She comes in properly on the third line. "You're runnin' round openin' doors like a gentleman, tell me girl everyday, you're my everything-"

I start singing too. I just stick to the melody and a bit of back up when the verse is playing, but when the chorus hits, I start a harmony. Dani stops midway through "Our love was made-" and leaves me carrying on the long note.

She smiles. "You're quite good. I like your harmony."

"Thanks. This would've been cool on the bridge too, I thought," I say.

Dani thinks for a moment. "That is actually pretty genius. You should help me with the melodies on my next song."

"Sure," I say, squeezing her hand.

And then we belt out the final chorus together. I actually see someone take a picture, but in that moment I don't care; Dani is the only one I'm really looking at, and her face as she sings the final line makes my heart skip a beat.

"Ready?"

"Do you know your way around?" I ask.

"Mostly, yeah. Hold on-" she grabs a pair of glasses and a headscarf from the glove compartment and puts them on. "Now I'm a little more incognito." She locks the convertible and we head for the elevator.

I let myself be led around the shops. Dani knows all the best ones. In every shop, she demands that I choose two things for her and she chooses two things for me.

In the first shop, I take out my credit card and she looks at me incredulously. "Santana, I have an expenses card with like, a million dollars on it or something. I'm paying."

I give a token protest but she laughs at me and pays.

In some shops we're serious - I choose a gorgeous full-length beach dress, and she chooses a red bikini. In another store, she chooses frilly socks and a bandana with "PUNK" stamped on it. I choose cat ears and a belt with fluro dangly bits like look like mini penises.

Laughing, we reject everything except the cat ears and buy a pair each.

I tuck Dani's over her head, proclaiming, "I anoint you Queen of the Pussy!"

"Don't you need something wet to be anointing things?" Dani giggles and looks down my body seductively.

"Don't worry, I've got it," I say, putting her hand on my hip.

"Really…?" she says, pulling me closer.

I pull a water bottle out of my bag, shaking it. "Yup!"

Dani hits me. "Egg pancake."

"What?" I smile innocently.

"You!" She pulls me into another shop - ah, a shoe shop. I look around, checking out all the shoes. Dani pushes me onto a seat and slides a pair of red Converse onto my feet. "So, what are you going to call your bear?"

I blink. I'd almost forgotten about the giant bear she'd gotten me. It had been sitting on a chair in the hotel room like a fixture. I'm going to look like such a weirdo taking that on the plane.

"I don't know…" I think as I tie up the Converse.

"Nice," Dani approves the footwear. "So?"

"Demi," I say. "It means 'half', cos she's like, half the size of a person."

"Demi." Dani rolls the word around. "Good. The question is, Lopez, whose last name?"

I laugh, jumping up and down in the shoes. "Demi Lopez. Demi Lovato. How about Demi Lovato-Lopez?"

"Take the shoes off, I'm getting them." Then she hits me. "That poor kid! You can't hyphenate two 'L' names, that's just mean."

I pull them off. "You should get a pair too. And Demi Lopez sounds like she's about to go nuts with an axe… I don't know. Demi Lovato."

"Demi Lovato… Hmm." Dani smiles and takes another pair of Converses in size seven for her.

"I can't believe we just named a bear like a child."

"At least it'll make it easier later," Dani laughs, putting the shoe boxes on the counter. She pays and thanks the assistant brightly, adding yet another bag to the stack on her arm.

"Totally," I say.

Dani checks her watch. "It's almost nine forty-five. You wanna grab something to eat?"

"Sure," I say. "You want me to take some bags?"

"I'm good," she says. "I'm gonna go sit down. Can you get us something to eat? I'll have a smoothie and whatever you're eating."

I nod. "Which place?"

"I don't care," she laughs. "Here's my card."

"Okay, hun." I kiss her forehead and go wait in line, ordering two apple and mango smoothies and, glancing at the menu, French toast. I wave the card at the EFTPOS terminal and take an order number.

"French toast alright?" I ask as I sit down.

"Yeah," she says. "Thanks."

"So, when am I going to see you next?" I've been too awkward to broach the subject, but now that we're headed to the airports for our separate flights, I need to know.

Dani blinks, looking suddenly vulnerable. "I don't know...you can come out whenever you want, but you have commitments, right?"

"Well, yeah. I'm sorry. I have dance classes, and a teaching class, and I have to work too." I sigh.

"And you can only come out when I'm not travelling," Dani adds.

"So I'm not gonna see you for a while?" I ask.

"Actually, next Monday. I've got a week's break then. I was thinking you could come and stay in L.A. with me?"

As tempting as it is - I've never been to Los Angeles - I have to shake my head. "I can't. I can't miss a whole week of work and classes and everything. But…" I pause for a moment. "You could come stay in the loft with me."

Dani thinks about it. "And meet Rachel-who-dated-a-prostitute and Lady Hummel?"

"In fact, you get to live with them. For a whole week. Which might be the downfall of this deal, because-"

"I'm in," Dani says, mimicking me on our first date.

"Good," I say, relieved when our smoothies come so I have something to do with my hands.

"Monday the twenty first of July," Dani says. "I'll be there."

I grin. "I can't wait!"

"Me neither. How are you going to survive without me?"

"Skype," I say immediately. "You know what you should do?"

"Mmm?" Dani sips her smoothie.

"Live-stream your shows. Make people pay to watch them. Then I can watch you."

Dani looks up at me. "Santana, you are actually a genius. How haven't you gotten into the music industry yet?"

I sip from my drink. "Top of the list would be, I'm not a gold digger," I say sarcastically.

"That's true," she says.

"Good for you, right?" I add.

"Even if you were a gold digger, how could you help falling in love with me?" Dani asks dramatically, flipping her hair for effect.

"That's true," I say, and by the time the waiter brings our French toast, we're kissing.

"Sorry," Dani apologises to him. "Thank you."

We eat in mostly silence, only commenting on the food.

"Dani!" Some blonde girl hurries over to our table. "Hi!" She has a perky way of speaking that is faintly irritating.

"Quinn! I remember you. Did your coach like the photo?"

I'm at a total loss as to what is going on. Quinn smiles. "We didn't show her."

Dani blinks. "Oh. Quinn, this is Santana, my girlfriend. Santana, this is Quinn. I met her the other day on my run."

"Hi," I say cheerfully.

"Hi." Quinn looks back at Dani. "Well, I just wanted to say hi. See ya!"

She bounces away.

"That's funny," I say. "There used to be a girl called Quinn on my cheerleading team in high school."

"Weird," Dani shrugs.

Dani

"So...I guess this is goodbye," I say. Santana's got her backpack slung over her shoulder, she's holding her boarding pass and she looks absolutely miserable.

"Bye," she says, wrapping her arms around me tightly.

I hug her back, feeling every curve of her body press into mine, inhaling her scent, listening to her whispering how much she loves me.

"I love you," I reply, kissing her. She sighs into the kiss and I break it off. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. I'll just miss you, is all." She blinks, dashing a hand under her eyes. "Thank you, for everything."

"You're welcome, gorgeous." I squeeze her hands and kiss her one last time and then I have to walk away because they're calling my flight.

"Bye," I hear her whisper.

It's hard to walk away from her, knowing that she's probably feeling awful, knowing I can't stay to make her feel better.

I force myself to the boarding line anyway because I have to go. Matt stands beside me.

A couple of ten year olds ask for my autograph and I oblige, signing their little notepads. I try to talk to them, but only my automatic Hi-how-are-you-what-are-your-names-what's-your-favourite-song speech comes out. I'm too drained to do anything else.

I'm on a low mood swing, I can tell. Even though I was feeling great this morning, I've started to come back down, needing time and space to recover. I go through the motions of boarding on autopilot and when I can finally sit down, I immediately close my eyes, trying to meditate.

The person sitting next to me is a forty-something woman who seems to have no interest in me, engrossed in a fitness magazine of some kind, thank god.

After take-off, I put in headphones and listen to my playlist of calming music, trying to convince myself that I'm not crying, and fall asleep.

Santana

I can't believe how much it rips my heart out to say goodbye to Dani. Just a few hours ago, we were laughing in a mall together and now I have to hide my face in her shoulder just so she doesn't see my tears.

I wouldn't usually be this emotional - I mean, I'm seeing her in less than a week, so it's not that bad.

I am starting to see how the strain of Dani's nomadic life is going to affect us though.

My PMS is hitting me hard, and I just want to stay with her, and my headache is coming back with a vengeance, and it all just combines so that when she walks away, blowing me kisses and telling me that she loves me, I'm left feeling like crap, rubbing my forehead and wiping away tears.

My flight hasn't been called yet, so I sit down. I just feel like I need to go home and be comforted. I hear them calling that Dani's flight has closed for boarding, and I close my eyes and take deep breaths.

I just want to go home.