AN: I would like to thank my awesome beta Breakdown6. I don't know how I functioned without you!

Chapter 21

The next morning, Santana is cuddled into Brittany, trying to decide how much longer she can relish the feel of her wife's arms around her before she absolutely has to get up and start breakfast. Her question is answered when Ella groggily climbs onto the bed, lifts her Mama's arm off of her Mami (which immediately wakes Brittany), and squeezes herself between them.

"Mami, I'm hungry and cold."

Santana lifts the blanket up over her daughter. Ella snuggles into her mom's arms and coos, "You're soft."

Brittany smiles at her two favorite girls, "Good morning, princess."

"I like your bed better. It's warm."

"I think you like my bed because Mami is in it," teases Brittany.

Ella nods adorably.

A few minutes later, Tony rushes in, airplane in hand, flying it through the air. He lands it on Brittany's stomach. "I'm hungry Mama."

Not wanting to leave the comfort of her bed just yet, Brittany lifts the blanket for her son to climb in, "Do you want to cuddle with us? It's warm in here."

"No Mama, I said I'm hungry," he insists and goes back to flying his plane around the room.

Santana laughs at her wife's pout, "Babe, you stay and rest. I'll get breakfast ready."

Brittany is tempted to stay in bed but chooses to get up. She sends the twins to change and brush their teeth and goes about her own morning routine. A few minutes later, they are all headed downstairs and are met with the delectable aroma of coffee and various breakfast items. In the dining room, they find a feast waiting for them.

The twins run to their places excitedly, "G'morning Aunty!"

Quinn kisses each of them and lifts them onto their boosters, "Good morning sweeties."

Brittany wraps her arms around her friend, "This is such a nice surprise! Thank you."

"Wow, Q, what's the occasion?"

"I just wanted to thank you both for being my best friends."

Santana nods understanding that Quinn is feeling better after opening up to them the night before. She rubs her palms together excitedly and takes her seat, "This looks delicious Q. Thanks. Let's eat!"

The family enjoys the delicious meal and discuss whimsical topics mainly brought up by Brittany like, "Do you think the feet of clowns are really as big as their shoes?" Eventually, their conversation shifts to plans for the day. Brittany has to go to the studio for a few hours and then she'll come home and Santana will head to work. Quinn is a little sad that she doesn't have a job to go to.

The phone rings and Brittany answers it, "Hello."

"Hi honey, your mother said you called for me last night. Everything okay?"

"Yah Dad, everything's fine." Brittany excuses herself and goes into the kitchen to continue her conversation. "Did mom tell you why I was calling?"

"She said you needed some help with a project. I can come today, if you want."

"Really? That's perfect. San is leaving for work around 1:00 and she'll be gone for at least a few hours. Why don't you and mom come and stay for dinner?"

"Sounds good but could we not have vegetables wrapped in bacon this time? That was a little rough on my cholesterol."

Brittany giggles at her best friend's love of bacon, "Don't worry, we'll have a nice healthy dinner."

"Not too healthy," he jokes. "We'll be there there around 1:30."

Brittany bounces up and down excitedly, "Thanks dad. You're the best." She returns to the dining room, "My parents are coming over for dinner." She kisses her wife's head. "That's okay, right?"

Santana says, "Of course. But I have to work. Should I pick up some take out?"

"No, mom and I will cook."

After workbooks, Santana grabs a book to read to the twins. They sit on the couch while Quinn and Kelly play on the floor.

"I Hate Everyone," Santana reads, "by Mij Kelly."

Ella points to Kelly, "The writer name is the same as Kelly."

"Good observation El. The author's last name is the same as Kelly's first name. What's your first name?"

"Ella"

"And, what's your last name?"

"Lopez-Pierce"

"Muy bien!"

Santana turns to Tony, "¿Cómo te llamas?

Tony answers, "Antonio Lopez-Pierce"

"Excellent!" Santana gives both of her children high fives and reads them the story. Quinn giggles when Santana lowers her voice whenever the queen speaks and uses a british accent for the grasshopper butler. When the story is done, Santana asks, "Why did the queen bee hate everyone?"

Tony says, "She was mad at the peoples because they didn't give her things."

"Mm-hmm," Santana nods, "Why didn't her servants give her what she wanted?"

Ella answers, "Because she was mean and didn't say please."

Santana asks a few more questions then praises her brilliant children, "Muy bien!" applauds Santana. "You can go play now while I do a little cleaning."

The twins run off to their room and Quinn turns to Santana, "I wish my mother read to me when I was young."

Santana gives her friend a sad smile, "Is that why you always wanted our moms to read to us?"

"Yes," Quinn grins sheepishly. "You and B read just like your mothers, you know?"

"Really?"

Quinn nods emphatically, "Your mother used to change her voice for the different characters, too. And, Britt has the twins act out stories just like her mother. Remember the time we were doing Five Little Monkeys?"

"Haha, yah. Mama P let us jump on the bed and Papa P came in and scolded her for getting us riled up right before bedtime."

"Both your moms were so amazing. I asked my mom to read to me a couple times but she just sent me to Sophie."

"She wanted your maid to read to you?"

"Yah, but Sophie didn't. She said she was too busy."

Santana genuinely feels badly for her friend. What kind of mother sends her daughter to the maid for a bedtime story? That's so wrong.

"I love reading with Kelly. Her eyes light up and she kicks her little legs when she sees the books," Quinn beams. "I think she understands that it's a special time for us."

"That's really sweet. I'm so glad you didn't let your mom's weirdness rub off on you."

"Her weirdness?" Quinn snaps. "You mean her lack of maternal instinct? Her inability to give a damn about me?"

Santana winces at Quinn's tone, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Quinn sighs, "I know, I know. It just isn't fair that you both had such neat parents."

"Your family was cool, too. Your uncle taught B how to do a high dive into the pool, remember? And, your dad made you that awesome tree house. I loved that thing. We should totally build one for the kids."

Quinn's eyes drop, "My father didn't build the tree house. He just paid for it."

"Oh sorry. I thought you told us he build it."

"I did," Quinn admits sadly.

"Oh," Santana goes over and holds her friend. "Hey, we aren't our parents. You are an incredible mom. I love watching you with Kelly and you're the only friend I trust with my own children. So, that says a lot."

Quinn laughs, "That would say a lot if I weren't your only friend."

"I have friends."

"Really? Who?"

Santana isn't able to come up with a single name. "Well, it's not like you have friends other than B and I either."

"True," says Quinn. "Anyway, I want to write my first email to Puck today. What do you think I should say?"

"I don't know. But, try not to edit too much. Just let your thoughts flow and share your feelings with him."

"Okay."

Quinn gets her laptop and settles into the couch. Share my feelings. "Dear Puck,..."

Twenty minutes later, that's all she's written. Why is this so hard? Hoping for inspiration, she opens his email and reads it again. This time, it doesn't raise any feelings. No guilt. No anger. No sadness. Nothing. What's wrong with me? Why don't I feel anything? She decides to keep the email simple.

Puck,

I know we need to talk about us. I think part of our problem is that we don't know each other very well. We should maybe talk and learn more about each other. S&B gave me these cards with questions on them. We just ask and answer. What do you think? Would you be interested in trying that?

Q

Quinn is surprised when she receives a text seconds later.

Puck: what abt the Qs i already asked?

TheWife: I don't have answers to those questions, yet.

Puck: why not?

TheWife: I don't know.

Puck: what do u mean we don't know each other? we're married.

TheWife: Do you want to try this or not?

Puck: u always avoid my Qs

Puck: how does this solve anything?

Puck: ?

Puck: nvm

Puck: ask ur Qs

TheWife: I'm not in the mood anymore. I'll email you tonight.

Puck: typical

Quinn stares at her phone. Why is he acting like this? I'm trying! I'm reaching out. "Dammit!"

"Aunty said a bad word!" says Tony.

"Oh no," Quinn brings her hand to her mouth and immediately looks to Santana, "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We obviously slip up too or he wouldn't even know it's a bad word." Santana reassures her friend, then turns to Tony, "Yes, she did but she's sorry. Come help me with lunch little man."

Brittany walks in right as lunch is being plated. "Yay, you ordered pizza! I'm starving."

Santana plays along, "It's not delivery. It's Digiorno."

Brittany kisses her wife, "It's perfect."

Quinn laughs at her two friends. They've been doing this joke since they were in high school and she never understood it.

/

Brittany and Santana are in the middle of a second round of sex, their naked bodies writhing in pleasure on Santana's bed when Brittany suddenly rolls over.

"San, I'm starving!" Brittany throws off the covers and Santana gets an eyeful of the very naked body that was deliciously pressed up against her a second ago.

"Uh, okay," Santana says reluctantly, "I can make you a sandwich."

"Let's order pizza."

"No one delivers this late."

Brittany pouts, "But, I really want pizza."

Santana sits up, "We can get pizza tomorrow. I'll make you a quick snack so we can...you know...get back to bed."

"Let's go find a place that serves pizza. I'll put clothes on."

"NO!" The last thing Santana wanted was for Brittany to put clothes on.

A minute later, Brittany is dressed, ready to go and pulling Santana out of bed.

"I don't want to go out. It's cold," Santana whines.

Brittany just walks out of the room. "I want pizza. You can come with me or you can stay. It's up to you."

Santana gets out of bed and mutters to herself, "Why can't she be like me? When I'm hungry I just cry. When she's hungry we have to go on a damn mission!"

The following weekend, Santana is faced with the same dilemma.

"I'm starving! Let's order pizza."

Santana looks at the clock and smiles knowing it's too late for delivery. She tells Brittany to wait in the room and since no one is home, she runs downstairs stark naked. She takes a small pizza out of the freezer and throws it into the microwave. Just a couple minutes, then they'll eat and get right back to naked sweet lady kisses. God bless whoever invented frozen pizza! Probably some horny dude who had this same problem with his woman. Or...man? Whatever.

As she waits, her mind drifts to other nights she and Brittany have shared. She pictures Brittany naked on her bed, in the shower, in the kitchen, in the kitchen with just an apron, in the kitchen with an apron cooking dinner. Wait...what?

Santana shakes her head to clear it of weird domestic thoughts but the next thing she imagines is Brittany in a gorgeous wedding dress. Her golden hair in loose curls, a simple string of pearls - shit Lopez. Get a grip! Besides, it's such a cliche. Get married, have kids and live in a house with a white picket fence. Pu-leeze!

But...

It does sound kind of nice. Santana's mind travels back to that night when Brittany let slip all the things she wanted. Santana leans her elbow down on the counter and rests her chin in her palm. She lets herself imagine their future together - waking up to Brittany everyday, bringing her breakfast in bed, taking their children to school, walking their dog. Their children. Their dog. No cats. She would definitely put her foot down on that one.

She is surprised when the normal reaction of anxiety and fear doesn't come. Santana smiles - a genuine, heartfelt, happy smile.

The ding on the microwave snaps her out of her daydream and she shuffles around quickly. She grabs a tray, one plate, one glass of ice, one coke and two cookies. She goes outside and cuts a tulip from her mom's garden. A few minutes later, she's walking into her room carefully balancing the tray. Brittany is wearing a nightshirt, dancing around the room. Santana backs out before Brittany sees her and holds the tray behind the wall. She snakes her head around the door jam, "B, get in bed."

Brittany gives her a questioning look but does as she's told. She splays herself across the bed and fans her arms and legs as though making a snow angel.

"Britt! Come on, sit up nicely against the headboard."

"But San, I'm so hungry."

"I know, B. That's why you gotta sit up. Get under the covers and pull it up." Santana wants this scene to be perfect.

Brittany gets under the covers and pulls it up over her head.

"Brittany Susan Pierce!" says Santana losing her patience, her arms shaking from the weight of the tray.

"Okay, okay sorry." Brittany sits up against the headboard, the covers pulled up to her waist. She tucks the sides under her and folds her hands in her lap.

Santana rolls her eyes at the angelic smile Brittany is giving her and is about to walk in but changes her mind. She puts the tray down and runs into her bathroom. When she comes out, she's wearing a white terry cloth robe. She goes out and picks up the tray, takes a deep breath and walks into the room.

Brittany smiles from ear to ear. Santana is serving her in bed? She's never done this before. Brittany glows with adoration and appreciation for all the effort Santana has gone through for a late night snack - even though she really wanted to order pizza. Her eyes light up when she actually sees what's on the tray and she claps excitedly, "Yay!"

"It's not delivery. It's Digiorno."

"It's perfect!"

/

Quinn asks her friends, "How come you guys always say that whenever there's pizza?"

Santana looks up at her wife and Brittany leans down for another kiss. They both look at Quinn, giggle and shrug. Quinn smiles. I guess there are some things that aren't meant to be shared.

An hour and a half later, Quinn is pushing the wagon in the grocery store and Mrs. Pierce is carrying Kelly. The others went to Home Depot. Mrs. Pierce decides on pork chops and vegetables and they go about looking for their ingredients.

Quinn hears her name being called, "Quinn?"

Quinn turns to see Mercedes and drops the broccoli to hug her, "Oh my gosh! How are you?"

Mercedes explains that she works as a dental assistant in her father's practice and sings at a small club on the weekends.

Mrs. Pierce puts some bananas in the wagon and greets Mercedes, "Hello dear, how are you?"

"Hi Mrs. Pierce." Mercedes' eyes go wide and she snaps her head to Quinn, "Are you with Brittany now?"

"What?" Quinn is confused then realizes why Mercedes thought that, "No, I'm not with Brittany. Britt and Santana are letting me stay with them while Puck is away. The Pierces are joining us for dinner."

"Oh duh," Mercedes gives Mrs. Pierce and apologetic smile, "So, you're still with Puck?"

"Yes, well it's a long story," Quinn cringes. "I really want to catch up now but B is gonna pick us up soon. Can we get together?"

"Yah, sure. Why don't you all come down to the club this weekend."

"I would love to but we'd need to find sitters."

"Santittany has kids?"

"Yes, three year old twins."

"I'll watch the kids," says Mrs. Pierce. "You girls deserve a night out."

Quinn and Mercedes exchange numbers and say their goodbyes. Outside waiting for Brittany to pick them up, Mrs. Pierce asks "Why did Mercedes refer to the girls as Santittany? I thought you called them Brittana."

"I do. But, in high school, the boys used Santittany as their portmanteau because it had the word 'tit' in it and that's what caught on. I hated it. I've always preferred Brittana."

Later that evening, Santana bursts through the front door, drops her keys noisily on the hall table, kicks off her heels, and divests herself of her bag and coat. She heads into the living room and the twins run over, "Mami!"

Santana hugs them quickly then turns to the adults, "Guess what happened today?" Everyone looks at her expectantly so she announces, "I got offered an actual story!"

Brittany jumps up and runs to congratulate her wife.

Mrs. Pierce asks, "What kind of story?"

"You know the homeless that are camping out by the Lima Public Library? There have been protests and the chronicle wants me to cover it. I know it's small but my name will be in the byline!" Santana brings both hands flat against her chest, "MY NAME!"

The family cheers but Santana waves her arms to interrupt them, "Wait, there's more. The article has to include pictures and our staff photographer is out on medical leave." She turns her gaze to Quinn and everyone's eyes follow, "What do you say, Q? Wanna be my photographer?"

"Are you serious?" Quinn asks, not believing her ears.

Santana's head bobs up and down, "It won't pay much but at least it'll get your work seen."

Quinn jumps up and screams, "YES!" She runs over and almost tackles her friend. The three girls dance around in a circle and soon everyone else joins the celebration as they form a conga line across the living room.

After bathing and putting their precious grandchildren to bed, the Pierce's say goodnight and agree to be back on Friday to watch all the kids.

The girls are in the living room discussing ideas for the article and sharing their excitement about hanging out with Mercedes. They reminisce about Glee club and Cheerios.

Brittany says, "I like that we're reconnecting with people from high school. We haven't seen anyone since graduation and now all of a sudden we run into Kurt, Sam and Mercedes in one week."

Quinn asks, "If you wanted to stay connected with them, why didn't you Britt?"

"I didn't necessarily want to," Brittany answers honestly. "I was so over all the drama and egos. Once we graduated, I really wanted to just focus on Santana and our future."

Santana adds, "Yah, and by the time we were ready to get married, both our families were finally supportive and on board so we just wanted it to be a family affair."

Brittany reminisces, "It was so perfect. Especially with you as our Maid of Honor." Brittany turns to Santana, "Could we have another wedding and renew our vows on our 50th anniversary?"

"Sure B, whatever you want," Santana smiles adoringly at her wife. "What about you, Q? Why didn't you keep in touch with anyone?"

"I don't really have an explanation other than I didn't care one way or the other," she shrugs. "I had you guys. That was enough for me."

"We are kind of perfect together," says Brittany. "The Three Mouseketeers."

"I'm not falling for that again!" laughs Quinn. Then she asks, "If you could go back in time, what would you do differently in high school?"

To Quinn's surprise, Santana replies confidently, "I wouldn't change anything."

"Seriously?" Quinn asks, "What about coming out sooner?"

Santana explains, "I used to have tons of regrets and I apologized to Brittany all the time. But she always stopped me and said things to help me see that it was all worth it."

Brittany reminisces, "I built a time machine but threw away the key."

Santana smiles and adds, "Love trees grow taller with tears."

Quinn laughs remembering the odd things Brittany said and waits for Santana to give her the translation.

"She meant that we had to go through everything we went through in order to be who we are today. Our obstacles taught us how to communicate and trust each other. And, it wasn't enough that we were soul-mates. We had to fight for it. Everything we went through made us stronger."

Brittany nods and Quinn muses, "It always amazed me how deep Brittany's insights were and how well you could decipher them."

"Weird, huh?" Santana looks at her wife, "We're such opposites but we work so well together."

"Yah, we do." Brittany smiles.

Quinn decides to call it a night. She thanks Santana again for the job opportunity and they share an excited hug. When Quinn hugs Brittany, she whispers in her ear, "Have fun and don't get too pruny." Brittany leans back smiling and winks at her.

Brittany pulls her wife up and suggests they take a bath. Santana sees a mischievous glint in her wife's eyes and asks, "Bath or shower?"

Brittany just pushes Santana up the stairs. The latina laughs at her wife's eagerness. When they walk into the bedroom, the blonde wastes no time and lifts Santana's dress over her head. Her hands reach back and unhook the black lace bra then reach down to slide off the matching underwear.

Santana is very excited by Brittany's 'take charge' behavior and braces herself to be thrown to the bed or pushed up against a wall. She's surprised when instead, Brittany peels off her own clothes and pulls her into the bathroom.

"What's going on Britt? Do I stink?" asks Santana, confused by her wife's insistence on bathing.

Brittany walks over to the tub and pulls back the curtain, "Ta da."

Santana's eyes sparkle with excitement but then dim in confusion. Before her is an empty tub - no bubbles or floating roses or candles. She almost asks Brittany what she's supposed to be looking at but then she sees it. There's a shiny new faucet fixture attached to the wall above the center of the tub. She turns to the right to see the old spigot has been removed and the hole sealed up. "Oh my gosh, B! You took out the old fixtures so that I can lean back?"

Brittany nods, "I know you really want a double bathtub but until we can afford one, I hope you'll be comfortable with us soaking together in this."

Santana's eyes sparkle with grateful tears, "I love it. It's perfect." She laughs out, "Is that why your dad came over?"

Brittany nods.

Santana wraps her arms tight around her beautiful wife and kisses her, "You are incredibly thoughtful."

Brittany turns the water on and fills the tub, adding lavender bath salts. Santana lights a few candles. They get into the tub and Santana leans back comfortably. "This is so awesome, honey. Thank you."

AN: Please review :)