"It's the Story of a Girl"

11. That They All Knew

The room was quiet. The only sounds came from outside, with machines, and intercom, footsteps… The most they could hope for in this room was the soft brushing of fabric against their seats, and Brittany's resting breath. She was sleeping now, stable but being kept for observation. The tension in the room had nothing to do with her.

Next to the bed on one side, her mother sat, eyes locked on the girl sitting on the other side, who was too busy looking at the sleeping blonde to notice. She'd always thought herself to have an eye for subterfuge, but this one… this one had completely slipped by her.

"So how long have you known?" she spoke, in all her authority as the girl's coach but, at the same time, simply as a mother. Santana looked back upon being spoken to, and she hesitated. "I let you come, didn't I?" Sue gave an extra push, and the girl let out a breath.

"A while."

"How long's a while?"

"Couple of years," Santana estimated, and Sue nodded to herself. "I never told anyone, I swear."

"How'd you find out?"

"She told me," she thought back to that day in the park; she'd thought it was a joke in the beginning. They were silent for a time, letting it all sink in. "Coach Sylvester, I was just wondering…"

"Why I let you come?" Sue guessed. Santana didn't reply, but she was waiting for her to say it. "You know, back in the auditorium, you were right there with her. Even when you had to move back for the paramedics, you stayed as close as reasonably allowed, but you moved because I was there. I think that's when I knew that you knew. But that wasn't it, because if it was then Quinn would be here, too." Santana hadn't known that Sue was aware for Quinn, but she still kept quiet. "Tell me, just how many times did you climb out my daughter's window?" She could practically feel the girl tense up, eyes turning away. "It's weird, when one piece falls into place, suddenly the others get easier to fit. And you know what I thought about when I saw you crouching in the auditorium, holding her hand? I saw her face, when I would get home and she would come up with that sort of dazed and nervous look in her eyes… like she was afraid I'd figure out you'd been there a minute ago."

"Coach… please…" Santana looked her in the eye again.

"I didn't let you come here so I could corner you, Santana. I don't appreciate the running around, and the lying, but then I'm the one who made her so good at it, right? So I let you come because I knew she'd want you here when she woke up, and I knew you'd need to be there, too. Am I wrong about that?"

"No. No, you're not wrong," she admitted, and Sue nodded slowly.

"And now that we have all our cards on the table, the next time you want to come to our house, for whatever reason… we have a door. Maybe you should give it a shot instead of the window."

"Right, I'll do that," Santana vowed. Sue could see tears in the corners of her eyes.

X

The rest of the club, along with Mr. Schuester, had made its way to the hospital behind the ambulance and now occupied part of the waiting room. As much as they all worried for Brittany, it was no surprise to anyone that the subject of conversation wasn't so much the accident as it was the discovery they had made. Some would go on claiming that they had known all along, that they'd had an inkling. Others would still side with disbelief, and others tried to think back, to clues they could have missed.

Kurt had gone to the vending machines, and Finn followed. After all this runaround over their so-called mystery, they had their answer, and they didn't know what to do about it.

"It was staring us right in the face," Kurt shook his head, feeding coins into the machine.

"But I thought we'd met her mother already," Finn frowned.

"I guess that's her stepmom," Kurt decided. "Still doesn't explain… She never said anything."

"Well would you want people knowing if that was your mom? Especially with how she's been to us?"

"But she's her mother," Kurt insisted. They'd wondered why this supposed daughter wasn't at Jean Sylvester's funeral, but she had been there after all. They'd asked themselves if she went to another school, but she was at McKinley, in Glee Club with them. "The more I think about it, they do sort of look alike."

"Please, would you two just let it go already?" They turned at the sound of Quinn's voice. "I had to come and make sure you weren't prowling near her room. I wasn't that far off, was I?"

"You lied to us," Kurt knew.

"Don't take it personally, I would have lied to anyone, at least about this," she shrugged.

"So it was a secret," Finn deduced.

"Yes," Quinn confirmed. "And right now only the Glee Club knows, so until we get to see what they want to do, would it be too much to ask that you keep it that way?" The boys had been properly silenced, but they both gave understanding nods.

"Hey." The three looked up. Santana came up to them, and the hint of redness in her eyes sent them in a panic. "Relax, she's going to be fine," she promised them, checking her eyes to see if there were any tears trying to make a break for it.

"Can we see her?" Kurt asked.

"Give them some time first," Santana shook her head. "Her father's on the way, the whole Pierce clan." Quinn came up to hug her, which Santana welcomed.

"You alright?"

"Better now," Santana told her. She wasn't going to go into what she and the Coach had talked about; she almost couldn't believe it herself.

"We should probably go talk to the others, tell them what you said about keeping it quiet," Kurt suggested, grabbing his purchases from the machine and looking to Finn.

"No, don't bother," Santana informed them. "Coach said to let it get out. No more hiding."

TO BE CONCLUDED (WEDNESDAY)