So long for an update, but better late than never I suppose. If you're following me on Tumblr, you will know that I mentioned (after this one) there will be roughly three chapters left or so from this story. It's about that time to put it to a close. We are very near to the end and honestly, I'm excited to put it to a close. Nevertheless, I want to thank each and every one of you for the support I get from these stories; it's quite overwhelming. The level of patience you all have is impeccable. Anyway, I won't delay this any further, but I thought you guys deserved a little something. I didn't intentionally intend to stop where I did; however, I really wanted to get this out. I will continue to write this till the end and hopefully have it all completed and updated throughout the next few weeks, so you guys can get caught up and what not. Till next time enjoy! :)
Chapter Nine.
With everything happening with Santana and the new engagement, I knew that it would be virtually impossible to focus on work, but I had to. Today of all days, I have this huge corporate meeting, so it was imperative I was on my game; this could make or break my career. I love my job; I do, but if it came down to leaving it to be with Santana then I do it in a heartbeat. It'd never come to that though; Santana wouldn't allow it.
So as I stand before a group of big wings from a company who could potentially become one of our biggest contracts to date, it was important that I sold them on our ideas for the future of the marketing of their products.
"So as you can see I have mapped out the timeline for each commercial along with the newest ad that will graze billboards in both the city and across the Los Angeles freeway. We will have word spread of your products going globally," as I begin my pitch with my outlines and visuals predominate to their eyes, the conference room phone begins to go off. I smile briefly at them, then hit the speaker to answer the call.
"Hi I'm sorry to interrupt Ms. Fabray, but it seems your wife is here," I scrunch my eyes in confusion for a split moment, but then clear my throat and respond instantly.
"Thank you Tina. Let her know I'll be out as soon as I'm done," I end the call and quickly apologize and finish my pitch, relaying to them my grand idea to market their products in a visually striking way.
Even with the minor interruption, they seemed rather pleased with what I had come up with, shaking my hand as they left. My boss stays behind as I clean up my presentation and slowly walks over to me.
"You did well today," she compliments and I smile softly.
"Thank you. It means a lot to me that you say that," I stop turning towards her. "It appears they thought the same," I gesture to the direction where our newest clients walked.
She nods slowly. "They did," she agreed. "Though they don't know how much stronger your work is, but I do," she holds her hand up for brief moment. "Look I know you have a lot going on with your personal life and it clearly didn't sway their decisions. I'm not belittling you Quinn, if that's what this sounds like," she states, though I know she's right. My work is much stronger than this, but I can't be truly focused here when my mind drifts over to getting a call from the hospital hearing whether Santana's collapsed or she'll need an urgent surgery because they have a donor match.
"I know and you're completely right. I'm sorry my work isn't up to par," I apologize profusely.
She shakes her head with a smile. "Don't worry Quinn. You are still the best executive I have, so there isn't a need to apologize, but just be aware that I'm here whether you need to talk or even take some time off to be with your fiancee. I know her health is in your mind constantly and I do not blame you for that. I know if my husband was dealing with what she is, I wouldn't be completely focused either, but I thought you should know that if you ever need time, then you say the word, okay?"
I nod instantly. I know I am truly lucky to have a boss as understanding as mine, because I know quite a few wouldn't be as understanding as she is, so when she places her hand on my shoulder encouragingly, then walks out for me to gather my project materials together, I begin to feel at ease. I hold everything as I walk out with it all and as I do so, I see Santana in the waiting area. I nod towards her and she walks up quickly to me to grab the board out of my hand to help me carry everything to my office.
She shuts the door with her back. "You can sit it over there, thank you baby," I breath out, placing my hair behind my ear as I sit the rest of it down on my desk. I turn around to face her and she's smiling with her hands in her jacket pockets. I walk up to her and wrap my arms around her body, pecking her lips a few times.
"So what do I owe this pleasure?" I ask into her lips as she pulls her hands out from the pockets and places them around me on my lower back.
"I was at the apartment thinking for awhile," she begins and I roll my eyes playfully.
"That's never good," I pull away, turning around to walk around to sit in my chair and start my computer back up.
"Ha ha" she mock laughs. "I think we should take a vacation. Get away for a bit," she suggests, causing me to look up at her in confusion.
"What? Like where?" I ask even more curious now.
"I don't know; anywhere. I just know that we need to get away from all the bullshit that this illness has put on us," she says leaning forward on the desk. My computer starts up and I ignore the intro screen.
"I don't think you're suppose to fly in your condition and I'm pretty sure we shouldn't be out of range in case Rachel calls about a donor," I suggest because I don't think I could handle the chance of losing a donor heart because we couldn't answer our phones.
"So we drive somewhere," she pesters walking over to me and leaning down before me, turning my desk chair to her. She grabs my hands and places kisses on the tops of them. "I just want to be alone with you in a place we've never been; no worries, getting stuck in a euphoria of our own," I smile softly, leaning back in my chair with a deep sigh. That does sound wonderful and my boss did just tell me that if I needed some time off that I could take it, especially because I just landed us a big contract.
"I've never been to Niagara Falls," I comment and she smiles wide, showing off that single dimple.
She nods. "Okay; Niagara Falls it is. I can get my car out of the garage and we can head up there over the weekend and stay for a few days," I nod at the plan and she leans up and kisses me deeply, before pulling away and standing up, pulling me up with her. She wraps her arms around me tightly as if she's worried that I'll let go of her.
I don't think I could even if I wanted to. Trust me I tried once.
x.
I get back to the apartment that I now officially share with Santana since we got engaged and I barely stayed at Brittany's anymore, it kind of just made sense. I was drained after the long day, but definitely was looking forward to being away with the love of my life for a few days. I told my boss of our plans and she instead gave me a week off as a oppose to three days like I suggested; she said "I earned it" then winked at me. I don't know what the gesture was for, but I certainly wasn't against the week off, that's for sure.
"San!" I yell as I put my keys down and head to the room to see her sleeping with some of her medicine bottles sitting on her nightstand. Rachel mentioned her medication was going to make her drowsy, so I sighed comfortably and just let her rest, then went to the bathroom to shower.
I came out of the bathroom and she was just waking up, yawning softly. "Hey there sleepyhead," I say softly running a towel through my wet hair as I keep another one wrapped around my body.
She looks up tiredly and sighs. "How long have I been asleep?" She groans, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes. I sit down next to her on the bed, running my hand through her hair.
"I don't know, but you were asleep when I got home so I just let you rest," I say, leaning forward to kiss her softly which she gladly accepts.
"You want me to make us some dinner?" She asks groggily and I smile, shaking my head.
"No you sleep some more if you're still sleepy. Let me just get dressed and I'll cook for us," I say as I get back up, ready to change.
"Or you could cook naked," she suggests and I turn around to face her with narrowed eyes, noticing her small smile plastered across her lips. I quickly flash her and close my towel giggling.
"Yeah you wish," I reply and her eyes widen at my last action.
"I do and I'm so awake now," she sits up and turns her body off the bed, standing up to walk over to me and I shake my head as she gets closer, pulling me by the towel closer to her to kiss me deeply. I don't think I could ever get enough of her kissing me like this.
Before I knew what was happening, my towel was on the ground and her hands were laying on my bare backside, grabbing it firmly. I moan softly as she continues to kiss me deeper, nipping at my bottom lip. I pull away and push her back on the bed and straddle her waist, finding my lips to hers again.
Just as we were getting heated, there's a knock on the front door and I pull away. I sigh deeply and pull away entirely, sliding off her lap. "You go get the door and I'll change into some clothes," I tell her, pecking her lips again.
"Baby I'm sure it's nothing," she begs and as much as I want to have sex, I know we can't just ignore whoever is at the door, so I just kiss her again and walk into the bathroom to leave her to answer the door as I get into some clothes.
I hear her sigh deeply then the bed shift, signaling she got up and I finish dressing into some pajama pants and a tank top. When I step out and walk into the living room, I see my parents there. My eyes widen and I'm in awe that they came from Ohio to New York, who's watching the farm?
"Quinny!" My mom says, pulling me to her and I immediately blush at what Santana and I were about to do in our bedroom just before they came to the door. My parents may know I have sex, but again these are my parents, I want to seem like I have at least some type of decency.
"Hey Mom...Dad, what are you two doing here?" I ask still in complete shock. They go and sit down on the couch as Santana and I take the chair. Santana wraps her arm around my waist, running her thumb against my hip. It was actually quite calming in my time of need.
"Well Brittany told us what happened to you and Caroline, though when she told us you got together with Santana we were pretty thrilled to hear that you two finally came to your senses, just didn't realize it'd be so soon," my mom says and my dad just nods; that's my father; he's a man of very few words.
"I thought you liked Caroline?" I asked and my dad shook his head.
"We did, but we knew you weren't as happy as you made yourself out to be," my dad says and too think I was being convincing, but evidently I wasn't.
"Well things got pretty complicated with us Mr. and Mrs. Fabray," Santana interjects into the conversation with a small smile.
"You know you can call us Judy and Russel, Santana?" My father states and she nods, rolling her eyes playfully.
"Of course, force of habit," she smirks and they smile back. "So how long are you two in town?" She asks them curiously for us both since we are suppose to be going on our trip in the next few days.
"We will be here for two weeks. The farm isn't really functional at the moment since we got a huge snow storm, but we do have some help to feed the animals while were away," my mom says and I sigh, turning to Santana, biting my bottom lip in uncertainty if our trip is going to even be possible since my parents' surprise visit.
"Well that's great," Santana smiled looking over at them. "So where are you guys staying? We have room," she suggest and they shake their heads. I've known them all my life, they are the last people to impose on anyone, even if it's their own daughter.
"Oh no, we're staying at that hotel a few blocks away. We just wanted to stop by and say hello. It's getting late though, so we'll see you two later," they stand up and I hug both of them as they each give me a kiss on top of my head.
"I'll walk you guys out," Santana says and I watch her grab her jacket as they follow in suit. I find it odd that they both just up and surprised us with a visit. They never did that the entire time I've lived in New York, so this is completely out of character for them.
I sigh deeply and run my fingers through my hair, walking over to the window pane to see Santana talking to my parents. My mother gives Santana a hug and my father shakes her hand, before pulling her in a hug as well. I smile softly at how much they truly adore Santana. It brings me joy to know that they love her.
I watch them walk away and Santana retreat back inside the building, knowing it's not before long that she'll make her way back inside the apartment, so I decide to start making some dinner.
I start pulling something out of the fridge as Santana comes back inside. "It's getting chilly out there," she comments as she places her jacket back up, coming into the kitchen to wrap her arms around me, sending chills down my spine. "Keep me warm baby," she comments in a tiny voice.
I giggle. "You got it baby,"
x.
As we slide into bed and get comfortable, I finally bring up my parents. "Don't you find it odd that they just showed up out of the blue?" I ask curiously. Santana really didn't say much during their arrival and hasn't mentioned anything about it since they left.
"They're your parents Q, do you find it odd?" Santana says as she lays her head down on her pillow, ready to fall asleep, but she continues to stare at me as I sit up against the headboard.
"Well yeah kind of," I admit, turning my head to her. "I mean the entire time I've lived here, nothing, but suddenly when I..."
"Leave your ex-fiancee because you're head over heels in love with your friend and then end up with said friend and the two of you become newly engaged after about two months, they suddenly want to show up?" Santana finishes and I glare at her because I wasn't intending on going into that grave detail, but yes that's exactly what I was trying to say.
"You just made me sound like a slut and I don't appreciate that," I say, though I know she doesn't really think that of me.
"Babe, they wanted to come see us, so just let them enjoy their time away from Ohio and make them feel wanted," Santana says softly, rubbing her fingers against my arm.
"Of course they're wanted," I say softly, finally fixing my pillow to lay my head down at her level.
"Then just be happy they came at all, okay?" She whispers, leaving a kiss on the tip of my nose. I nod finally, letting it go. Honestly with everything that occurred throughout my life thus far, I'm lucky to have the parents I have. They could have easily kicked me out for the things I've done, but they stood by me and supported me through every mistake I've made and I love them hopelessly for that.
"Wait does this mean our trip is cancelled?" I ask her as she closes her eyes. She opens one of them and stares at me. I was actually looking forward to the trip. She turns behind her and clicks the lamp off next to her and sighs.
"Our trip is still definitely on. Don't worry," she says tiredly and kiss me deeply on the lips. "Get some sleep baby. I love you,"
"I love you too, sweet dreams," I say into the darkness as I fall asleep to her breathing.
x.
We packed everything in Santana's sedan for our trip. I let my parents be aware that we were taking a trip to Niagara Falls and that we'd be back in a week. They seemed strangely okay with the trip, but I'm assuming it had to do with the fact that they sprung a surprise on us, so they didn't feel like it was necessary for us to spend every waking moment with them, which I was thankful for.
Santana made sure to call her family and tell them not to bother us while we were away and that we'd let them know of any changes on her health. Santana mentioned her heart condition to her family a few weeks ago and honestly, it was the hardest things to watch her confess to them. She has a huge family, so when they discovered she was slowly dying from a disease that requires her to do nothing but wait for some type of miracle, it was devastating, especially when I watch Maribel break down.
All Santana could do was hold her in her arms and let her cry against her. They were all praying for a donor to be found for her and hoped that when did, she'll have a speedy recovery, which knowing her will probably be true.
We managed to get on the road fairly early, in order to beat the New York traffic. Upon doing so, I was a little nervous to be away. I've never taken a vacation like this before; a romantic getaway if you will. With Caroline and I, real life got in the way of things and she was a DA, so she was practically always on call. We were known as a power couple and that was something I really didn't mind at the time, but at the same time I wanted to be known as more than that.
With Santana, life has always been a carefree light of adventure. We never took anything too seriously till recently, but even now we still try to shed light on a terrible situation; nevertheless, we just worked. I like having my career and I like that she has hers; they're both severely different, but we were good at them, plus we actually enjoyed them. Since Santana's been back from her retreat though, she hasn't been working at the university, but she's been working from home. She does the online classes for the university and I actually find myself happier with her doing that; as does she. She actually says it gives her a valid excuse to walk around with no pants on.
As we continue upstate, with music softly playing in the background, I graze my thumb against the skin of her hand on the center console. "I'm so happy we're doing this," I comment softly and Santana smiles.
"Yeah me too," she replies. "I actually did something right," she adds and I look over at her intently.
"You do a lot of things right," I compliment and she chuckles softly, looking over briefly in my direction.
"You're a good liar babe," she's being modest. She doesn't give herself enough credit because there is a lot of things she's done right to me. She has definitely done more than I have that could be considered right, but that's just my opinion.
"I just can't wait to get there," I gush as I stare out at the open road, enjoying even just the simple ride itself.
"You'll love the hotel that I booked too," she comments and I look over, smiling because I'm just unable to contain my excitement.
We continue the drive further and after about six and a half hours, we finally arrive. I didn't think it was that long, but apparently according to the GPS it was pretty far and I couldn't believe it, but regardless of that; we're here and I couldn't be more excited.
When we got to the hotel, the valet took the car and Santana grabbed the bags, placing them on the trolley while taking my hand in hers. We had surprisingly quite a bit of bags, which I wasn't entirely sure why; in fact I didn't even pack any of it. Santana insisted on packing everything because I was out physically working whereas her job was from home, stating she had more time than me. I, of course I said I could pack my own bag, but she just was too stubborn.
When we made it to our room, I took it all in. We had a single king size bed and when I walked to the balcony it looked over the falls and I swear I fell in love with this place almost instantly. "Wow," I whisper as I pop it open to step outside. There were people by the bridge, taking front row seats to the beauty, but I definitely enjoyed my view from where I stood.
Santana came out beside me and wrapped her arms around me from behind. She placed a kiss upon my neck. "You did good beautiful," I complimented and grabbed her arms, rubbing them gently.
"Thanks, it wasn't too hard, mostly because wedding season is over," she stated and I crooked my mouth in thought. It would be pretty beautiful to get married with this as a backdrop.
"I envy the people who marry here," I whisper and Santana sighs softly.
"So why don't we?" She says and I turn around in her arms to look at her to see if she was joking, but she most definitely wasn't. "They have a venue downstairs with huge wall windows, which overlook the falls perfectly. Your parents are already in the state," she adds; oh my God, she really is serious.
I didn't know what to say though, so she just kept pleading her case. "Baby I love you so much and I've waited two years to make you my wife. I don't want to waste another minute not being married to you," she says, keeping eye contact with me and I swear my heart swelled at this.
"What about my sister? And dresses?" I ask because we can't just up and marry each other when we have so many things to plan.
"We can get your sister here by the morning and there is a bridal store in town," she turns guilty as she continues to speak. "I also may have booked the venue and the caterer awhile ago because I thought maybe you'd say yes and we could get married at this beautiful location," she adds and I widen my eyes and push her softly.
"Santana! I thought we were going to plan it together," I argue, but she sighs, pulling me closer.
"Look I just wanted to give you a special day and I honestly don't know if a donor is going to come through before it's too late. I just don't want to leave this earth knowing I didn't marry you," when she put it that way, it hurt that she felt like she didn't think she'll survive in time for a donor, but sometimes I worry the same thing. I don't want to waste another minute not being her wife either, so why the hell not? We're here in beautiful Niagara Falls and my family as well as hers is within distance, so why fuck shouldn't we just go for it?
"You're right baby," I say finally. "Let's do it," I smile, kissing her deeply on the lips as she returns it.
"I can't wait for you to become Mrs. Santana Lopez," she gushes and to be honest, I have wanted to become that since I met her on the train station two years ago.