Sorry for the delay in updating but I got it here eventually and it didn't take me anywhere near as long as it has in the past. I loved all of your responses to the last chapter. I really wasn't sure how people were going to respond to the Susan/Judy storyline but it really felt right so I went with it! So anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

Chapter 14

Santana treats herself to another ice-cream as she listens to Brittany explain the history between her and Quinn's moms. With each word Santana realises more and more how difficult it must have been for Susan to make that call to Judy and she knows that she owes her a heartfelt thank you. As she sits across from Brittany, watching the different emotions that flit across her face from remorse all the way to relief, she knows that she could never be mad at her for keeping this from her. She knows that Brittany did what she had to do. Once Brittany finishes, Santana begins to mull over what she is going to say to Quinn.

Santana doesn't want Quinn to think that she is ungrateful for the opportunity but she also wants to let Quinn know that they have an equal partnership and for their contract to work she needs to know that they are going to be honest with each other.

Santana glances at her watch and notices how late she is.

"I better get going, B," she says to which Brittany nods in agreement.

"Well I'm free for the rest of the day so can I walk you?" Brittany asks.

"Of course you can," Santana agrees delightedly. They stand up from the table and Brittany crooks out her elbow for Santana to take and they walk side by side out of the shop. Santana realises that just having Brittany beside her puts her at ease. Her nerves about facing Quinn are dissipating simply because Brittany keeps running her thumb across the back of her hand that she tucked to her side with her elbow.

They walk the few blocks to the studio in silence. Brittany would try to distract Santana from any nervous thoughts she was having but she knows that she is probably going over what she wants to say to Quinn in her head which she doesn't think can hurt.

When they arrive Santana slips out of Brittany's comforting grip and turns to face her.

"Kiss for good luck?" Santana asks trying not to let her nerves bubble back to the surface.

"Of course," Brittany says with a smirk. "Not that you need it."

Brittany smiles as she leans in and kisses Santana firmly but gently on the lips. Brittany feels Santana sigh into the kiss as the tension seeps from her body. Brittany runs her hands down Santana's arms until she reaches her hands and links their fingers together. Santana deepens the kiss and Brittany chuckles slightly, loving how Santana is nearly always the first one to take things that little bit further. She lets Santana's expert tongue slip passed her lips to slide against her own. Brittany loses herself in the kiss and tries to remember why she isn't telling Santana to just skip work for the rest of the day and come home with her.

Santana knows that she is distracting herself with Brittany's lips but she just can't help it. Kissing Brittany seems like a much better use of her time than talking to Quinn right about now. Santana reaches a hand up behind Brittany's neck to hold her closer but it seems to flip a switch in Brittany's brain as she pulls back almost immediately.

"San, you can't use sweet lady kisses to get out of talking to Quinn," Brittany mocks her with her best scolding face.

Santana drops her hand from Brittany's neck and pouts.

"You're right! You're right, you're always right!" Santana exhales with exasperation. "But do not think for one minute that we are not continuing this later."

"I'm on shift tonight, babe," Brittany regrettably informs her.

"Well in that case, you better not come home tired because we are going to have some awesome morning sex before I go to the studio," Santana husks into Brittany's ear.

"Mmm maybe I'll even wear my uniform home?" Brittany suggests.

"That's what I like to hear," Santana says before biting her lip and giving Brittany's ass a cheeky squeeze before spinning away from her and jogging into the building.

Brittany silently hopes that there won't be many calls tonight because Santana is definitely planning on wearing her out in the morning.

…

Santana tries to stifle her nerves as she marches her way down the hall to Quinn's office. She stops outside her door and reaches her fist up to knock but she hesitates.

"Get yourself together, Lopez," she mutters to herself.

Her fist is about to connect with the hard wood door when it is whipped open in front of her and Rachel comes storming out.

Santana jumps back a couple steps to get out of the way. Rachel halts when she spots Santana who notices how flustered she is. Rachel composes herself slightly and smiles brightly at Santana.

"Santana," Rachel starts, "Quinn has just told me that she thinks it would be a good idea for us to collaborate together and I can only agree. Not only would it be a wise move strategically for your upcoming album but I also think that our voices would compliment each other quite nicely."

"That's great," Santana gapes at her.

"Anyway, I have somewhere to be, don't let me keep you from what I'm sure is very important business with Ms. Fabray."

"Shit, are we supposed to call her Ms. Fabray? I've been calling her Quinn this whole time."

"It's not compulsory but I do believe that Ms. Fabray just likes to keep things strictly professional between her and her clients," Rachel says in a slightly irked fashion.

"Right…"

"I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon, Santana. Good day."

Santana shakes her head as Rachel walks away, she does not need to be concerning herself with the crazy antics of Rachel Berry.

Santana continues on inside to Quinn's office, forgetting to knock.

Quinn looks up hopefully at the sound of her footsteps.

"Oh, Santana, I thought you were…it doesn't matter," she trails off. "What can I do for you?"

Santana isn't sure of how much she can reveal to Quinn. Brittany had told her that she doesn't know what Quinn knows of Judy and Susan's past.

"I know that you only signed me as a favour to your mom and, by extension, Brittany's mom," Santana says cutting right to the chase. She wants to tell as much of the truth as is possible. "Brittany just wanted to keep our relationship honest, so she told me."

"I admire that," Quinn says with a grimace that Santana doesn't quite understand.

"I also need you to know that it's not my place to tell you why your mother would be so indebted to Brittany's," Santana says hesitantly, expecting Quinn to demand the truth at any second.

"If my mother was ever planning on telling me the truth then she would have done it by now. I have long since given up on trying to get her to reveal her hang ups to me," Quinn tells her matter of factly. "But since I am the only party being left in the dark, I would appreciate it if you were to tell me."

Santana nods with acquiescence and takes a seat across from Quinn. She takes her time in telling Quinn everything just as Brittany had told her. Not once does Santana spot anger or surprise on Quinn's face as she retells the story. When Santana finishes she looks at her expectantly. She is intrigued as to how Quinn was able to take all this in stride. Quinn sees the curiosity in Santana's eyes and sighs.

"Honestly," Quinn begins, "I'm just glad that she experienced true happiness at one point in her life."

"Quinn, I know it's not my place but I'm sure your mother was happy with the life she had in raising you and your sister."

"I'm not referring to me," Quinn elaborates. "My father was an alcoholic and a drill sergeant who expected nothing less than perfection as a response to the havoc he wreaked around him. He sapped every ounce of life out of my mother and yet she still tried to make us the happiest children in the world. I don't regret not being there when his liver finally failed him and he died an angry and bitter man. What I do regret is that she wasted her life on that man, not that I could have done much about it."

"I'm sorry, Brittany didn't tell me any of that."

"Don't be sorry, I'd say she had no idea about any of it," Quinn assures her. "I don't want to seem ungrateful either, I know that I got where I am today because of the financial support that he provided but that doesn't make up for what a lousy husband and father he was."

Santana can only nod in understanding.

"It's funny," Quinn says as she laughs genuinely. "It all makes sense now."

"What does?"

"She was so happy when I told her I was gay which definitely wasn't the response I had been expecting."

"I didn't realise you were gay," Santana comments.

"I do usually keep it to myself but considering the circumstances I don't see the harm in telling you. I've actually started to consider you as a friend over the past few weeks, Santana," Quinn says solemnly. "I don't have many of those."

"As long as being just friends is all you want, I think I can handle that, Fabray," Santana jokes.

"Pffft, you wish Lopez," Quinn says with a roll of her eyes.

"Wait, so does this mean that there might be somebody special in Miss Quinn's life?" Santana asks coyly.

Quinn gapes uselessly with no words coming out and Santana notices the blush spread across her cheeks.

"There is!" Santana teases. "Spill it."

"Ok so there may be someone," Quinn says raising her hands in defeat. "But nothing is going to happen between us."

"Eh, why not? Is she straight? Is that it? Because I thought I was straight and boy was I wrong about that!"

"She's not straight."

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's kind of a similar situation as you and Brittany," Quinn tells her reluctantly.

Santana's brow creases in confusion. She really doesn't understand what Quinn means by that. Things hadn't been plain sailing for them but once the news had broken to the media she knew there was no going back. Then it dawns on her.

"You like Berry?"

Quinn's eyes widen and she shakes her head in denial.

"Of course not, that wouldn't be professional," Quinn says flustered.

The word 'professional' rings in Santana's ears as she thinks back to what Rachel had literally just said to her before she came in to talk to Quinn.

"It is Berry! I know it is. So, why aren't you going for it?"

"This label doesn't need anymore unwanted attention right now and Rachel coming out and me coming out would just cause a lot of extra work with the media who have already been all over us ever since you signed."

"Quinn, can I give you some advice?" Santana waits for Quinn to nod before she continues. "Don't make this about business. It's about yours and Rachel's happiness. Don't use the media as an excuse to hide your own fears. Rachel will respect you more if you admit that you're scared. She will see that you aren't treating your feelings for each other as something that has to be dealt with just because of the media."

Quinn grimaces but nods her head in agreement.

"You're right but I need time so please don't meddle?"

"Of course not," Santana assures her as she gets up out of her chair and starts to leave. "I'll catch you later, boss."

….

Brittany rubs her eyes tiredly as she sits in the back of the engine on the way back from a call. It had been a long evening and Blaine had been acting surly for some reason which really wasn't helping things.

He is sitting across from her and he huffs in discontent for what must be the umpteenth time since getting back in the engine. Brittany mentally rolls her eyes, she really isn't in the mood for dealing with him right now but he is still her friend.

"What's up, Blaine," Brittany asks trying to muster up as much interest as possible.

"You know Sebastian?" he asks grumpily.

"The guy that we have been training in for the last month or however long it's been? Yeah, I know him."

"Well I found out that he isn't gay."

"What did you do? Go right up and ask him?" Brittany asks with mild shock.

"No, of course not! We got talking and he told me that he has his eye on some woman," he says as if there is dirt in his mouth.

"Is it anyone we know?"

"It doesn't matter who it is! What matters is that it's not me!"

"Honestly, I feel sorry for whoever she is. He seems like the kind of guy who is like a dog with a bone when he wants to get a certain girl."

"That's true," Blaine agrees, still rather dismayed.

Just as they are about to pull back into the station, they hear another call come in over the radio. Brittany notices that all units have been called in which means that it must be pretty serious. The sirens go on and they speed through the evening traffic. They pull up a few hundred meters away from a restaurant that seems to have experienced an explosion from inside.

The fire-fighters hop down from the engine and head over to Chief Beiste who begins hollering out orders. She sends Blaine to shut off the mains and she orders Brittany to start evacuating the civilians. Brittany pulls down her mask and charges into the smoke. The number of civilians blindly trying to find safety informs Brittany that the restaurant must have been full to capacity during the evening rush. Those that appear uninjured are struggling to find their way through the smoke. Others lie on the ground unconscious and it is unclear whether or not they are alive or dead.

Brittany starts directing those that can walk in the direction of the ambulances. They need to be evacuated first before they cause problems when they are trying to evacuate the seriously injured. Once the mobile civilians have been moved, Brittany starts carrying victims to the triage area that has been set up.

On her fourth go back into the smoke that has yet to let up, she sees a man leaning over an unconscious civilian. As she gets closer she sees that he is treating them, right there on the pavement. Brittany runs up and leans down beside him.

"Sir! You can't work on a patient here, it's too dangerous!" she yells in order to be heard through her mask.

Brittany tries to get him to stand up but he shrugs her off. Brittany grabs him by the shoulders; she will have to remove him by force if she has to. Suddenly, the man turns and shoves Brittany away from him, knocking her back.

Brittany watches on in bewilderment as the man turns back and performs CPR on the patient. After a minute the man starts to cough and staggers back from the patient. He wearily gives Brittany a thumbs up, letting her know she can move the patient. The man coughs uncontrollably as Brittany hoists the patient over her shoulder. She is lucky that he is a skinny enough guy and that she can both securely hold onto him while also helping the unnamed man to his feet.

She guides them out of the smoke and over to an ambulance.

"That was dangerous and reckless!" she yells at the man after the civilian had been taken away from her and put into an ambulance.

The man squints up at her as he breathes deeply from the oxygen tank that a paramedic gave him.

"That man wasn't going to make it, I had to help him," he argues before coughing violently.

Brittany throws her hands up in the air in exasperation.

"It is my job to get people away from the danger, because I had to wait for you, I may have missed someone else."

"Would you take your mask off? I can't understand a single word you're saying."

Brittany tears her mask off and looks at him angrily. Normally she doesn't get riled up at civilians but that's because they usually apologise and admit when they're wrong but this guy was just something else entirely.

"Why can't you just admit that you endangered other people's lives?"

The man ignores her question and looks at her curiously.

"I know you," he says in awe.

"I can assure you, you don't. I'm sure I would remember meeting someone as bull-headed as you," Brittany scoffs.

"We haven't met, I've seen you on tv."

Brittany quirks an eyebrow at him.

"Didn't peg you as someone who keeps up with the latest celebrity scandal."

"I don't," he says glowering at her furiously. "But you can't really help it when the source of the scandal is your daughter!"

"You're…" Brittany gapes.

"Yes," he confirms. "I'm Dr. Manuel Lopez, Santana's father."

…

Brittany paces back and forth outside of Dr. Lopez' hospital room. Despite his protests that he was fine, he had to be brought to the local hospital to be checked out. Normally a check like his for smoke inhalation wouldn't require a private room but once the staff realised who he was, they insisted that he get his own room.

Brittany decided that she couldn't leave things as they were with Dr. Lopez, so she had followed the ambulance to the hospital after she had cleared it with Beiste that she was no longer needed.

Brittany had texted Santana a while ago to meet her there. Although not much had been said between her and Dr. Lopez about Santana, she got a bad feeling about the impression he had of her. So she figured calling Santana down would be a smart move, so they could all talk together.

The door to Dr. Lopez' room opens and the nurse comes out. Brittany walks in cautiously and stands a couple feet away from the end of his bed.

"Look, Dr. Lopez…I think we should talk."

He appraises Brittany slowly before jerking his head in a stiff nod. Brittany is about to launch into an apology when she hears her name being called from down the corridor. Brittany turns her head to the left and looks out of the open door into the hallway.

"Brittany?! Brittany!" Santana calls when she finally spots her standing healthy and upright in a hospital room.

She runs down the hall, into the room and leaps into Brittany's arms. She then connects her lips to Brittany's in a searing kiss. Brittany gets caught up in the moment and kisses her back fiercely before remembering who their audience is.

She abruptly jerks Santana away from her and sets her down on the ground. Santana then immediately gives her the biggest shove her small body can muster sending Brittany stumbling backwards.

"What was that for?" Brittany asks confused.

"What the hell kind of a text was that, Brittany?" Santana shouts. "In hospital, get here asap!" she reads back to her angrily.

"Again, what?!"

"Don't you think a text like that might, I don't know, scare the crap outta me?!"

Realisation dawns on Brittany and she reaches out to Santana who hugs her tight.

"I was so worried about you," Santana mumbles into her chest.

"It's ok, I'm perfectly fine," Brittany assures her.

"Then what was the text for?" Santana asks looking up at Brittany.

"Emm…" Brittany pauses before pointing over at the bed.

Santana furrows her brow before looking in the direction that Brittany is pointing. Her face pales and then quickly turns flushed.

"Papi?"

"Hola, Santanita," Dr. Lopez greets with his arms crossed guardedly over his chest.

Brittany doesn't really know what to expect. Santana had never really spoken about her parents and Brittany didn't want to push. She knew that they would have spoken about them when the time was right.

"It has been a long time," Dr. Lopez states to which Santana stands up straight, back rigid.

"And whose fault might that be?"

"Santana, you know I only wanted what was best for you," Dr. Lopez sighs.

"Trying to force me into being a miniature version of you is not what was best for me."

"I can see that now," he concedes.

"Well it's a bit late don't you think? There is no need for you to worry about me anymore."

"Santana, you know I will always worry about you, now more than ever."

"What could you possibly have to worry about? I am a successful music artist who hasn't needed your support in years!"

"I'm not worried about you financially!" he yells at her.

"Then what the hell are you talking about?!"

"I'm talking about this sinful life that you have let this salacious woman lead you down!"

A thick silence falls over the room. Brittany looks at Santana who is clearly seething with rage.

Brittany leans closer to whisper into Santana's ear.

"Babe, I know this might not be a great time but I don't actually know what salacious means."

Brittany grins when she sees a smile pull at the corner of Santana's mouth. She then looks over at Brittany and she can't help but let herself smile brilliantly no matter how annoyed she is at her father.

"Do you see this?" she asks her father while pointing at her face. "You might not recognise it on me because you've never seen it on me but this is called happiness!"

"Santana, you know that…" Dr. Lopez starts.

"Stop telling me what I know!" Santana cuts across him. "Because you don't know what I know. You don't know that from the moment this woman stepped into my life I have been happy. You don't know that every second I spend with her heals the damage you did to me a little bit more. You don't know that I plan to treat our children better than you ever treated yours!"

"Santana…"

"No. I am done seeking your approval and I don't want to hear anything else you have to say right now. Brittany and I are going to leave now and I am going to give you one more chance. You can take as much time as you need but if the next time you or mom ever speak to me is to give me anything other than unconditional love and acceptance, then that will be the last time you ever speak to me."

Santana doesn't even wait for a response before storming out of the room.

Brittany stands awkwardly at the end of the bed in as much shock as she is sure Dr. Lopez is.

"Brittany!" Santana calls her from halfway down the corridor.

"Oh, right," Brittany murmurs as she hastily takes off after Santana.

…

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think if you feel like it, I love getting your opinions :)

Aisling.