CHAPTER 11

Later That Night;

"Thanks for watching Bella again, Marley." I said as I handed the younger girl some money and walked her out.

"Of course, it's always cool to babysit Bella, she's an angel." She replied in a cheery voice as she reached for the door knob and turned to give me a heartfelt look. "I hope you find out what happened with Quinn, it's really strange seeing her all quiet like that." I nodded and gave the girl a last goodbye before closing the door. As soon as I opened the door, Quinn had made a bee line for her bedroom barely even nodding in the direction of Marley when the girl said hi. I apologized to Marley for Quinn's behavior and filled her in about what happened tonight. Like always, Marley was super understanding and just brushed it off. Now that the girl was gone I decided to check on Bella one last time before attempting to talk to Quinn.

I poked my head into Bella's room and saw the little blonde curled up under her blankets surrounded by all her stuffed animals and smiled. After making sure she was sound asleep, I made the long walk to Quinn's room. I hesitated at the closed door then brought up my hand to knock lightly.

"Quinn?" I said in a soft voice. "Quinn, can I come in?" The door didn't open, but I did hear a muffled noise. Not knowing if she said 'yes, I could come in' or 'no, I couldn't' I pushed the door open to get a clearer answer. "Sorry, I couldn't hear you.." I whispered into the darkness of her room. I could barely see, but the light from opening her door shone dimly on the blanket covered figure on the bed. I let out a sigh and walked quietly over to the bed, sitting down on it slowly then reached my hand out to rest on the form. I let my hand smooth over the material and found it was a round shape, not being able to see, I assumed it was her head. "I'm not sure what I'm touching, but I hope it's your head." I whispered, continuing to rub comfortingly.

"My head is up here, Britt.." The blonde' s voice came out in a whimper, from the opposite side of me. I whipped my head around and saw that her head was poking out from under the blankets. "That's my butt.." I felt myself blush as I dropped my hand quickly.

"Whoops." I giggled trying to cover my embarrassment. I heard her snicker but it went quiet again. I turned to face her completely and brought my legs up so that I was sitting in front of her. "Well, now that I've got your attention. Mind telling me what's going on?"

"It's complicated." She sighed and I instantly felt frustrated.

"Why does everyone keep telling me that?" I said angrily but then I felt bad for getting frustrated while Quinn's clearly upset. "Sorry. I'm just tired of hearing that as an explanation." I replied in a low voice. I looked up and saw she was lying on her side with her eyes lowered to the mattress. "Quinn, you know you can tell me anything right?"

"I know." She sighed then turned her head to look up at me. "I just, I don't know how to put it into words." I pressed my lips together and stared down at her.

"Just try." I suggested with a weak smile. I watched her close her eyes tightly then exhale.

"I'm-I'm so ashamed." She muttered with tears running over the bridge of her nose. I watched as her body shook from her sobbing, but I still didn't understand what this was all about. I shuffled closer to her and brought her head to rest in my lap as I brushed through her blonde hair trying to calm her crying. "I-It's about Bella."

"Okay." I said quietly, still combing through her hair with my fingers. "What about Bella?"

"I-I tried to protect her, I moved her here so she wouldn't ever have to see him again." She mumbled through her cries. "She doesn't need a father, Britt, she doesn't. All she needs is us; you, me, Sam, all our friends, we're all the family she needs."

"I know, you've told me this already." I replied still trying to connect the dots. "Her father isn't here, Q, well at least I don't think he i-"

"It's Puck!" She cried. "Puck is her father." She said and buried her face in her hands as another wave of sobs racked her body.

"Puck?" I asked confused. "I-I don't know a Puck.." I went through all the names of all the people I've ever met and none of them came close to a Puck.

"Noah." She breathed. "Noah Puckerman. It was an old nickname." My eyes went wide.

"My boss?" I asked shocked. "No, no that's not possible he's lived here.."

"He said he was coming here for college, but I didn't think we'd be this close." She said softly. "I didn't think he'd be this close to Bella." I was stunned; I had no idea what I could say to cheer my best friend up. I've never had to deal with a blast from a baby daddy past. "I didn't think I'd have to see him ever again." She sighed.

"I don't understand, how did you two even know each other?" I asked dumbfounded. "We were the top two cheerleaders in the whole school, it was our job to know everyone and I don't remember ever hearing a 'Puck'."

"He went to a different school." She answered. "But that's not important, what is is that he knows I kept Bella and that we're here." Her hands dropped from her face as she looked at me in fear. "What am I supposed to do, Brittany? What if he wants custody? I'm scared."

"What are you afraid of Quinn?" I asked. "From what I've seen, Noah is a very nice guy. I don't think he'd ever want to take Bella away from you." I replied with a shoulder shrug. "There's no use in hiding anymore. He knows you are here and you know he's here so why don't you guys just talk it out?" I watched as the fear left her eyes a little. "I have no idea what happened between you two or-"

"I refused to let him see Bella." She said. "He wanted to be there for her, but I refused." She sighed. "I pushed him away, Britt, and all he wanted to do was help." I sucked in my bottom lip and furrowed my brows. This was getting extremely deep and I was starting to get a headache now.

"You're going to have to talk to him, Quinn." I replied. "There are too many unresolved issues to just ignore until they disappear." She looked up at me with soft eyes. "You're not going to run away this time, Q." I said and watched her nod. "Alright, come here." I said with open arms. She sat up and fell into me, allowing me to wrap my arms around her. "I'm going to bed now, I think my brain is gunna explode from all this excitement and drama from tonight." She gave me a weak smile and I left to go to my own room. I closed the door behind me and quickly changed into some cotton shorts and a t-shirt before sinking into my bed.

"What the hell." I sighed to myself as I stared up at the ceiling. I've never felt so happy yet so overwhelmed at the same time, an also a little sore. I let my tongue run along my bottom lip feeling the tender area I knew was starting to bruise. "This is why I don't like violence." I thought and turned on my side letting smile creep on my lips. "It was worth it though." I thought back to having the Latina's lips on my skin, reminiscing in all of the wonderful feelings the kiss brought. "It was definitely worth it." Finally, it was my time to shine and with the way Santana ended things with Brooke, I doubt there's any hope for reconciliation. I'm totally fine with that, of course. I rolled on my back and stared up at the ceiling again. After lying there for another 20 minutes, swarmed with thoughts, I realized that I wasn't tired. I mean, I was sleepy but my mind was working a million miles a minute making it hard for me to relax. I checked the time; it's only been an hour and a half since we left Showtimes. I tightly shut my eyes again trying to fall asleep, but my eyelids just sprang open again. I huffed and rolled to my side staring at the clock on my night stand. Suddenly I saw my phone light up. I reached over and grabbed it, my heart stopping at who the message was from.

Santana: Made it home safe. Sorry I took so long, tried finding out what was going on with Noah. Goodnight, Britt ( :

Now I realized why I was having such a hard time falling asleep. I was still waiting for Santana's text, and now that I knew she was home safe I could finally rest. Not before sending her one last text could I shut my eyes though.

Brittany: That's good to hear. Had a talk with Quinn too, crazy stuff. G'nite, San [ :

I smiled to myself when I typed out her nickname, feeling all fuzzy that we were that far in our friendship that we've come to shortened names. I set my phone back on the nightstand and rolled on to my back, closing my eyes and falling into a deep sleep effortlessly.

The Next Day;

I stared down at the screen of my phone with my thumb hovering over the call button. I felt so nervous and excited at the same time. Okay, just do it. I pressed the button and brought the phone to my ear. Each ring caused my heart to race faster and faster until a certain raspy voice echoed through the ear piece.

"Hello?" Santana said. I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out. "Brittany?" I tried to speak again, but nothing. "Bri-" I hung up and brought my clenched fist to my forehead. Come on Brittany, get it together woman! I exhaled deeply and redialed the Latina. It rang twice before I heard the girl's voice again. "Hello?"

"Hey, sorry.." I managed to say. "I forgot how to take my phone off mute." I heard her giggle on the other end of the line and it instantly made me feel less embarrassed. "How are you doing?"

"Uhm, I'm ok." She said softly, sadness evident in her voice. "I mean, I'll get there in time."

"Oh, okay." I said. Now's the time, Pierce. I fiddled with the hem of my shirt as I took in a deep breath. "So, are you busy today?" I asked lightly hoping that I wouldn't start stuttering or pass out from anxiousness.

"Not at all."

"Good." I answered with a wide grin on my face. "I wanna take you somewhere."

"Oh? Like where?" She asked and I could hear the happiness in her voice.

"It's a secret." I said, patting myself on the back for being so smooth. "Can you come by my house in like an hour?" I asked. "I'd offer to go to yours but I'm not very good at following directions." I heard her laugh and it made me smile. "I think I've gotten lost every time I've tried going to a new place by myself."

"That's fine, Britt." She laughed. "I'll be there. How should I dress?"

"Uhh, in whatever you want. I wouldn't wear heels though, you might sink." I answered. "I've totally done that before, it wasn't fun." She laughed again.

"Alright, no heels. Got it!" She said through a breathy giggle. "See you soon."

An Hour and a Half Later;

"So you gunna tell me what's in the bag?" Santana asked with a smirk as she tried to sneak a peek inside the bag I had over my shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at her and grabbed for my bag trying to hide it from her sight.

"Nope, you'll see." I said still clutching the bag until she pouted and went back to looking ahead of her. "Don't worry, we're almost there." She looked over at me and smiled. When we neared the end of the sidewalk and had to cross of to walking in the grass I saw Santana giggle. "What?" I asked confused.

"I see why you didn't want me to wear heels now." She replied and looked down at the grass. "We're about to walk into Narnia!" She laughed as she kept her eyes on her feet.

"Told you, you would've sunk." I answered as we got closer to this one bench that over looked a small lake. "Alright, we made it." I said and dropped my bag onto the bench and took out a half a loaf of bread.

"Are we making sandwiches or something?" She asked with her eyebrow quirked and her face all scrunched up in the most adorable way.

"Hmm, sounds like something I'd say." I laughed and handed her a few pieces of bread. "But no, we're feeding the ducks!" I said cheerfully and pulled her to the water's edge toting the rest of the bread in my other hand. "It always calms my nerves and I like coming here to think when I've got a lot on my mind." I watched as she looked at the bread, flipping it over and over in her hands. I tore off a piece of my own bread and tossed it into the water where a couple ducks were huddled. I looked back over at the girl fumbling with the bread. "Just to be clear, that bread is for the ducks. I mean, if you're hungry I can make you a sandwich but I don't have anything else in my bag but gummy worms." She rolled her head back laughing at my serious tone then gave me a warm smile.

"You're funny." She smiled then tore up her bread and threw it in the water. More ducks came and soon the couple of ducks there were accompanied by 4 or 5 more. We alternated tossing pieces in the water, watching as the little duckies waddled to and fro chasing after the bread. I snuck glances at the Latina noticing how the creases formed near her eyes when she smiled too hard and how she sucked her lips in when she was concentrating on tearing her bread. "This is fun." She said with her eyes focused on the ducks. "Brooke's never taken me to do stuff like this." I heard the pain in her voice and looked up to see her biting her lip.

"Well that's good because feeding the ducks is my thing." I said with a smile and bumped her lightly with my elbow. She turned and smirked at me with warm eyes before looking down at the ducks again.

"Is it weird that I'm not totally devastated?" She asked with her eyes still lowered. I looked down at her hoping that she'd look up at me. She did, but with stormy eyes. "I mean, when I got home last night I cried." She shrugged shaking her head. "I cried a lot actually.." We were both out of bread and now were just standing there looking down at the water.

"You want to sit down?" I asked quietly and she nodded. We made the short walk back to the bench and sat down with a medium sized gap between us.

"I just, I just can't believe I stayed with her for so long." She sighed looking down at her hands clenched together. " I guess that's why I'm not totally devastated. The relationship had run its course and was verging on unhealthy, but I just-I couldn't let her go." She huffed with a defeated sounding voice.

"Well, I'm glad you did though." I said quietly. She turned to me and nodded with a weak smile. "It must've been really hard for you to tell what you said last night." I added. "Kurt told me how you guys always go on breaks and stuff.."

"Of course, Kurt would open his prancy smurf mouth.." She laughed with an eye roll then her tone went back to serious. "But he's right. I never could build up enough courage to leave her for good. She's been the only one who could put up with my..my personality." She shrugged. "It's embarrassing, but I hate the thought of growing old and being alone..like some old cat lady, and I don't even like cats that much!" She stared out over the lake looking like she was in deep thought. I looked down at her hands and how tight she was wringing them out.

"I can assure you, you won't be alone." I said with a smile.

"Oh, how could you be so sure?" She laughed, breaking her trance out on the lake and looking over at me. "You haven't seen me at my best." She said sarcastically with a frown. I furrowed my brows and looked at her confused.

"I don't get it?" I huffed. She looked me with sympathetic eyes.

"Sorry." She sighed. "I'm kind of known for being a sort of bitch with a bad attitude." The way she said it was like she had rehearsed it, like that's how she introduced herself. But I've never seen this side of her, not directed towards me anyway.

"But you're not." I said sternly. "I already told you, you're super sweet and really caring." She smiled at the ground and shook her head. "What?"

"You're probably the only person to ever say that about me." She shrugged. "I'm not used to hearing such good things being said about myself, unless people were joking or lying."

"Well, that's another good thing about me," I said nudging her with my shoulder and smiling brightly at her. "I'm not a very good liar." We shared another long conversation through our eyes before I broke away fearing that I might just kiss her, and I didn't want to do that so soon. "You wanna get some lunch?" I asked with hopeful eyes and a playful smirk. "I saw the way you were looking at those ducks, you should be ashamed!" Her shoulders bounced with each giggle as she rolled her eyes at me.

"Are you always this silly?" She asked as we walked back up to the sidewalk. I smiled over at her.

"Always."

Later That Night;

"I can't believe I spent pretty much the whole day with you!" Santana smiled as we left the pool hall Sam took Quinn to. "Time really flies when you're getting your ass beat." I laughed hard, we played 3 games and each time I came out victorious.

"It's all in the technique." I said confidently. "Maybe if you're worthy I'll teach you it." It was her turn to laugh.

"Yeah, maybe." She said as we both pushed the doors open and found ourselves on the city streets. "I really hate it getting dark so early, makes me wanna go to sleep."

"Do you want me to walk you home?" I asked but she nodded. I narrowed my eyes at her seeing that she was holding herself as if she was cold. "You know, you should really wear a jacket. I mean, it is winter you know." She rolled her eyes playfully then dropped her arms to her sides. "And don't tell me you don't have any jackets, because I know for a fact you possess a certain pink zip up hoodie.."

"Oh! I've been trying to return that to you, but I keep forgetting!" She huffed in frustration.

"That's okay, you can keep it." I replied with a laugh. "It's too small for me anyway." She cocked her head to the side and smiled up at me.

"Good, because it smells too good to give back." She replied crossing her arms over her chest with a smirk.

"Huh, it does?" I asked with my forehead wrinkled. "Must be the laundry soap Quinn uses." I shrugged but she just looked down at the ground smiling. "What? It's not?"

"Well, if Quinn uses vanilla smelling laundry soap then maybe it is." She shrugged. I felt my cheeks heat up; the lotion I wear is vanilla scented. I swallowed hard and bit my lip as the thoughts of Santana possible sleeping in my hoodie at night flooded my brain. I willed myself to focus before I started smiling like some crazy person.

"How about I at least walk you half way?" I asked with a pout, she huffed then nodded. Thankfully her apartment was in the direction of my apartment so I wouldn't have to walk back and forth. I mean, I could take a cab but I liked walking, relieves the stress.

"Don't think I don't know what you were up to." She said with a smirk. I froze not knowing what she could be talking about.

"Uhm, what?"

"You kept me busy today." She shrugged and I instantly felt myself relax. "I usually take me and Brooke's break ups really bad, which are probably why we end up getting back together now that I think of it, but not with you here to keep me busy." Not lying, that was somewhat my intention but I focused more on keeping her happy.

"I just didn't want you to be sulking in your room all day; I know how break ups can affect people." I replied. "But it's easy to stay busy during the day, it's night time when you're about to go to sleep when things really get difficult."

"Sounds like you're talking from experience." She said softly. I smiled over at her.

"You know, if you want to, you could always sleep over." Her eyes popped open as her lips parted probably to inhale quickly. "Wait, no, not like that. I mean, I know how hard it is that first few nights after a break up, being alone." I said and watched as her body relaxed. "If you don't want to be alone, you could always come over. Quinn and Bella wouldn't mind."

"That's really sweet of you, Britt, but I should probably get readjusted to being alone." She replied. "At least for tonight." I nodded as she stopped walking and turned to face me. "This would be the halfway mark." She said. I looked around not even noticing that she had ended up walking me right to the stoop of my apartment building.

"Hey, I don't think this is half way." I said looking up at my building. "Looks like you cheated."

"Oh no, I never cheat." She smiled. "How would you know where halfway is? You don't even know where I live." She had me there so I just squinted at her and smiled. "Well, thank you for keeping me occupied today. You're a very good distraction." I smiled down bashfully and took a step closer to her so that our toes were almost touching.

"I'm very good at a lot of things." I replied low and husky sounding. I watched as her eyes turned dark and her cheeks grow red. "One of those things being hugs." I said in a cheery, more innocent sounding voice, and wrapped my arms around her waist. This time I knew what I was doing, my body didn't move on its own, I initiated this hug. Being so close to her yet so far all day was really wearing down on me and I needed some type of physical interaction to keep me going. She didn't need to know that though. Her arms found their way around my neck as she pulled herself closer to me, deepening the hug then pulled away.

"You are definitely right about that." She mumbled with a smile as she turned to walk home. "I'll see you around, Brittany." I watched until she was just a small figure amongst the crowd and headed upstairs.

"Britty!" Bella yelled when I opened the door. "Come here!" She said pulling on my fingers as she pulled me to her room. I passed Quinn standing in the kitchen and threw her wave and looked down at the little girl pulling me with a confused look.

"Just go with it, Britt." She laughed and turned back to the stove.

"Okay, look!" She said excitedly as she pulled out a stuffed Pink Panther and hugged it tight. "Look what mommy got me today!" I kneeled down and admired the girl's new toy.

"Woah Peanut, I'm so jelly right now." I said poking at her tummy. "You are one lucky kiddo." She hopped around with her Pink Panther swinging in her arms. "Guess what I did tonight." I said with a big smile as the girl stopped swinging and inched closer to me with big eyes.

"What?"

"You have to guess, silly." I answered with another poke at her belly. "That wasn't a guess." She giggled then went into deep thought.

"Did you go ice skating?" She asked with a serious tone. I shook my head. "Oh good, don't go without me. Kay?" I nodded. She thought long and hard again, but gave up. "I don't know Britty, that's hard."

"I hugged your best friend." I said with a bright smile.

"You hugged the real Pink Panther?!" She yelled with excitement and tackled me almost knocking me over.

"No, no not that best friend..the other one." I laughed. "You told her all my weaknesses.."

"Ohhhh!" Bella giggled and sat up in my lap. "Yay! You can be girlfriends now!" She cheered and it made me smile how easy she thinks things could be.

"Not quite yet, Peanut, but I'm getting there." She nodded and went to hug on her new toy again. "Come on, let's go see what mommy's cooking.

After sitting with Quinn and Bella eating fresh baked cookies and watching Finding Nemo for the tenth time this week, I was finally curled up in bed. Santana had texted me a few times throughout the night but they stopped around midnight so I thought she must've fallen asleep. Knowing that she was home, safe, and probably asleep, I let myself doze off as well. I wasn't really in that deep of a sleep yet, but I had been out for about 30 minutes before I felt my phone vibrating under my pillow. With sleepy eyes I looked at who could be calling so late at night, Santana.

"Hello?" I answered groggily. "Everything okay?" I heard sniffling in the background so I knew she had to be either sick or crying. I'm going with crying because there was no way she could've gotten sick in the last 5 hours since I saw her last.

"You're right, Britt, it sucks being alone." She muttered. "Too much time to think about the bad.." Her voice was raspier than usual, a sign that she must've been crying for awhile now. "I'm sorry for calling so late, you sound like you were sleeping."

"I was, but I wasn't really out out yet." I answered reassuringly. "Besides, I told you you could call me whenever. I don't mind." There was a long pause and I could tell that her sniffling had stopped. "You still there?" I asked with my eyes closed still, my sleepiness starting to creep back up on me.

"Yeah, I was just thinking." She sighed. "Hey Britt?"

"Mhm?"

"Do you think you could maybe stay on the phone with me?" She asked shyly. "Until I fall asleep?" She added. "Talking to you really calms me down.." Even half asleep and on the verge of sleep talking, I couldn't control how happy I was to hear her ask that of me. My voice comforts her, that has to mean something! And maybe, just maybe, she's lying in her own bed wrapped in my pink zip up hoodie with her nose buried in its material inhaling my scent. Hey, it could happen! This, this had to be some sort of sign!

"Anything for you."


A/N Just want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed, PM'd me, or told a friend about this story! You my dears, are the best. Keep spreading that love & keep me updated with what yall are thinking! ( :