Disclaimer: Glee and its characters and all associated material are not mine. I'm just having fun.

The night after the girls sang Landslide, Sam wandered into Santana's room to find the Latina laying on her bed staring at the ceiling. Sam flopped into a chair. "Anything interesting up there?" She asked. Santana rolled onto her side, propping her head up with one hand.

"Did you talk to Brittany about talking to an adult?" She asked.

Sam nodded. "Yes. She was worried about you and you were going nowhere so I told her to talk to someone. I'm sorry if that bothered you."

Santana seemed to accept this answer. "Nah. It's fine." She fell back into silence.

"So…" Sam started. "Are you going to talk to her?"

"Who?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "The Queen of England, Santana. Who do you think?"

Santana said nothing for awhile and then asked quietly, "What am I supposed to talk to her about?"

"Santana, look. It took a lot of balls to get up there today and sing that song. You've already proven that you're strong enough to do this. Just go up to her tomorrow, tell her you love her, and see what happens. You've already got the advantage over most people…you know she loves you back."

Santana was quiet again. "I think I need to think about it." Sam nodded her head.

She stood up and walked to the door, but before she left, turned around and said, "You're one of the strongest people I know, S. You can do this." With this, she left Santana's room, closing the door behind her and leaving Santana to her thoughts.

The next day found Santana looking for Brittany. Sam was right. She could do this. All she had to do was tell her. That's it. And there she was. Standing at her locker, looking as breathtakingly beautiful as ever. She took a deep breath and walked up to Brittany. "Can we talk?" she asked.

Surprised, Brittany responded, "But we never do that."

"I know." Santana said softly. "But I wanted to thank you for singing that song with me in Glee Club."

"Yeah…"

"Cause it made me do a lot of thinking. What I realized…" She took another deep breath. "What I realized is why I'm such a bitch all the time. I'm a bitch because I'm angry. Because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you, that I'm afraid of dealing with, because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences." Her voice dropped in volume as a football player walked by. "And Brittany…I can't go to an Indigo Girls concert, I just can't."

"I understand that."

Santana looked searchingly at her. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

Brittany shook her head apologetically. "Not really."

Santana gathered her nerve again. "I want to be with you. But I'm afraid of the talks…and the looks. I mean, you know what happened to Kurt at this school."

Brittany looked surprised. "But honey, if anybody were to ever make fun of you, you would either kick their ass or slash them with your vicious, vicious words."

At this Santana started crying. "I know…but I'm so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back. Still. I have to accept that I love you. I love you. And I don't want to be with Sam, or Finn, or any of those other guys. I just want you. Please say you love me back. Please."

"Of course I love you." Brittany responded immediately. "And I would totally be with you if it weren't for Artie."

Santana froze. "Artie?"

"I love him too. I don't want to hurt him. It's not right. I can't break up with him."

Santana took a step back, her fury at the wheelchair-bound boy slowly building. "Of course you can. He's just a stupid boy."

"But it wouldn't be right." Brittany looked just as upset as Santana now, she hated hurting the people she loved. "Santana, you have to know if Artie and I were to ever break up and I'm lucky enough that you're still single…" she reached out to touch Santana's arm, but Santana jerked it away, saying, "Don't."

Brittany continued, "I am so yours. Proudly so."

"Yeah, wow." Santana hissed, lashing out now to keep herself from breaking. "Whoever would have thought that being 'fluid' would have meant you could be so stuck."

"I'm sorry..." Brittany said.

She reached for Santana, but she pushed her away again, saying, "Don't. Get off me." And with this, she turned away, walking quickly down the hallway, trying not to totally lose it before she found a bathroom that she could scare the freshmen away from.

When Santana got home that night, Sam knew that it hadn't gone well with Brittany. Santana wasn't speaking to anyone, and used every opportunity she had to insult Sam, and everyone around her. She was worse than Sam had ever seen her. She texted Brittany.

To: Brittany Pierce
Um…Britt…what happened?

From: Brittany Pierce
:( i told her i couldn't leave artie…

To: Brittany Pierce
Ouch.

From: Brittany Pierce
I can't! it wouldn't b fair 2 him….

To: Brittany Pierce
I know Britt. But Santana's in kind of a delicate spot right now…

From: Brittany Pierce
:( Take care of her 4 me?

To: Brittany Pierce
Always.

Sam gave Santana the space she needed over the next few days, but followed her around a lot doing damage control. She had a towel in her backpack to hand to the kids she slushied, tissues for the freshmen she made cry, and made sure that Quinn knew to keep an eye out for her during Cheerios. She didn't step in until a week later, when it was clear that Santana had jumped right back into denial.

Schuester had approved Rachel's idea for the club to write original songs for Regionals after Quinn had (bizarrely) stood up for the idea. After Sam finished watching Santana perform "Trouty Mouth" to the whole club, (which, she had to admit, was brilliantly hilarious) she decided to step in.

After school that day, she waited in the parking lot until Cheerios practice was over, having pickpocketed Santana's keys earlier that day. As Santana came out of the school doors, Sam wiggled the keys in front of her and said, "Get in loser. We're going shopping." Santana looked pissed off at the theft, but impressed with the other girl's pickpocketing skills, and got in the passenger seat without another word. They arrived at the Lima Mall a short time later and quickly went to work. The afternoon passed not unenjoyably as Sam took Santana's mind off recent events by looking for a prom dress. Santana looked to be in much better spirits by the time they reached the food court, having found a gorgeous dress that she loved. They were sitting at their table, sharing a pizza, when Sam jumped in with both feet.

"Look, Santana. You are a wonderful person and you need to stop being mega bitch. It's time."

Santana looked surprised at this statement before her cheerleader persona kicked in. "What the hell are you talking about, loser? I'm always mega bitch. It's just who I am. You gots to deal." Sam sighed.

"I am referring," she started, slowly reaching under the table to pull Santana's dress towards her, "to the fact that ever since Brittany turned you down, you've been on the warpath towards the entire school and you need to stop." Santana glared at her, her lips pursing.

"Look, I'm so over that. I don't even know what I was thinking. I'm totally straight. I sang Sam a song today, remember?"

"Santana. One, you are so far in the closet you can see Narnia. Two, the fact that you sang a song about the most feminine part of your boyfriend is extremely telling, don't you think?"

A look of concern passed over the Latina's features, but she still refused to budge. "Not everyone's a dyke, dyke." She spat. Sam's face remained unchanged.

"True. But you…" As she spoke she pulled Santana's new dress from her lap and reached for the blue raspberry ICEE she was drinking and held it over the dress, tipping it slightly, "are about to be a dyke with a purple dress if you don't get your head out of your ass and listen to me."

Santana sat up straight. "You have so got to be kidding me."

"Not even a little bit."

"Pearson."

"Lopez."

They sat there, locked in a stalemate, until Santana sighed and sat back. "Fine, fine. Just don't ruin the dress, okay? I look hot in it, and it took me like 3 hours to find."

"Fair enough." Sam put the cup back on the table. "I'm just asking you to listen, okay?" Santana nodded. "Okay. One. I know that you got your heart broken last week and that sucks no matter who you are. I'm not asking you to just be perfectly okay. Two. Don't be mad at Brittany, because you know that's who she is. She can't hurt people."

"I'm not."

"Good. Three. You need to take the bitch factor down like seven notches. This school can only handle so much Santana. Okay?" Santana smirked, but nodded again. "Four." Sam took a deep breath. "Four. Hypothetically speaking. If you were gay. I, of all people get the fact that it's not easy. It sucks, actually. But we live in Lima, Ohio, and 70 percent of the rest of the world is not like this. And, if anyone could deal with being gay, it would be you. Kurt got his ass kicked because he's a gay guy. You, however, are the toughest bitch I've ever met, and it would be no problem at all for you to be the toughest gay bitch I've ever met. Yes, people would talk, but you can talk right back. You're good at that. And people surprise you. You know the whole Glee club would be fine with it, so that's a start. I'm just saying. Hypothetically."

Santana sat still for a while, deep in thought. Finally, she met Sam's gaze. "I can't." She said quietly. "I can't yet."

Sam nodded once. "I get that. Just... don't jump back in the closet, okay? At least not with me?"

Santana looked at the girl sitting across from her. "How are you still single? You get all this shit way better than I do." Sam chuckled.

"Maybe I didn't emphasize the words Lima and Ohio enough." Santana smiled as they stood up to go. Maybe she could do this after all.