A/N

Rating and disclaimer from the first chapter apply.

Chapter 21.

Brittany felt really nervous as she opened the door and stepped inside the building. Would her colleagues know about the new change in her life? She wasn't sure if Nathan had said anything to anybody. She didn't think he had but either way, rumors traveled fast and she was certain it would only be a matter of time before the news of her leaving Nathan would reach her colleagues. Stepping into the staff canteen she was greeted by a couple of colleagues who was sitting by a table drinking coffee. Mandy Simmons and Stephanie Lawson, the office's largest gossips, beckoned her to come join them. Pouring herself a cup she took a seat at the same table.

"Hi Brittany, did you have a good vacation?" Mandy asked joyful and sipped on her coffee.

Brittany smiled and took a sip of her own coffee before she answered.

"Yeah, it was good. Too short though."

"It's always too short." Stephanie agreed.

"Did you go anywhere?" she asked.

"Uhm, yeah. We spent a couple of days at dad's fiancee's cottage in Minocqua." Brittany replied not wanting to go further with that topic.

The three women chatted for a while until it was time to start working. Brittany was relieved that no rumors seemed to be floating around the office. Unfortunately it would turn out that that was not the case.

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Brittany left the office at lunchtime to go out and buy some food. Meanwhile in the staff canteen Stephanie Lawson had just returned with her lunch and spotted Mandy sitting with a couple of other colleagues at a round table. She hurried over there and took a seat.

"You guys will not believe what I just heard..."

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Brittany opened the door to the staff canteen carrying her food in one hand and a glass bottle of orange juice in the other. She saw her colleagues sitting by a table further in so she started to walk over there to join them when she heard Stephanie Lawson's voice and the blood froze in her veins.

"... and apparently, and you're never gonna believe this, Brittany left Nathan for another woman! Imagine the shock for poor Nathan... Finding out your fiancee is a lesbian."

The sound of glass crashing against the floor made everybody at the table turn around and standing a few feet from their table was a pale looking Brittany with pieces of glass and a pool of orange juice around her feet, together with the Caesar salad she was planning on having for lunch.

Stephanie swallowed audible when she realized that the blonde had heard her and wondered how she could save the situation.

"Brittany, uhm you.." she started but before she could finish Brittany had turned around and walked away from the canteen.

She felt sick. She ran towards the restroom and stopped by the sink, bracing herself on her arms against the cool granite sink counter she tried to catch her breath. This could not be happening, she did not just hear Stephanie Lawson gossip about her in the staff canteen. She looked up at the mirror and saw her own reflection. She looked terrible. Turning on the water tap she splashed her face with cold water and reached for a paper towel. Drying her face she heard the sound of the door opening she pulled the paper towel from her face and turned to see Jill, one of her colleague who was sitting by the same table where Stephanie Lawson was spilling her gossip about the blonde. Jill closed the door slowly behind her and leaned her back against it.

"You okay?" she asked gently.

Brittany looked at her and crumpled the paper towel in her hand and tossed it in the trash.

"Please tell me I got everything wrong? That I didn't just hear Steph gossiping about me behind my back..." Brittany said hoping against all hope that she had heard wrong.

"I'm sorry Brittany... but you know how she is, she gossips about everything and everyone without even bother to check if it's true or not. Don't worry, no one believes her anyway. It's pretty obvious she's way off track, I mean it's ridiculous. You, a lesbian." Jill said and chuckled.

Brittany looked away, she couldn't look at her. Jill noticed the blonde's crestfallen appearance and stopped chuckle. Could it be true? Was Stephanie's gossip actually the truth? No... it couldn't be, could it? Jill stepped away from the door and took a tentative step closer to the blonde who was still looking down.

"Brittany... is... is Steph's gossip true? Are you... are you a-" Brittany interrupted her before she could say it.

"I don't know what I am..." she said quietly not looking up.

"But you've left Nathan?" Jill asked tentatively.

The blonde nodded slowly.

"For... for another woman?"

Brittany nodded again and closed her eyes tightly.

"Oh…well…I-I don't really know what to say…I wasn't expecting that…" Jill said with a slight shocked tone to her voice.

Brittany didn't look up, she didn't even open her eyes.

"It's okay… I wasn't expecting it either…"

Jill looked at the woman in front of her and she looked completely devastated. She slowly walked over to her colleague and friend and put a tentative hand on the blonde's shoulder. When Brittany felt Jill's hand on her shoulder she couldn't hold it in anymore and she started to cry.

"Hey… it's gonna be okay…come here." Jill said gently and pulled the crying blonde into her arms.

Brittany hesitated a second, she didn't want to look like a crying mess in front of her colleague but when she felt Jill's arms around her she wrapped her own arms around the other woman and accepted her comfort.

Jill held her till her crying subsided and she felt that the blonde started to relax a little in her arms. She pulled back slowly and rubbed her hands up and down Brittany's upper arms in a soothing manner. Brittany looked down, she couldn't bring herself to look at the other woman, she felt embarrassed for well, the whole situation really.

"I'm sorry…" she said, still looking down.

"You don't have to apologize, you have nothing to apologize for. If anyone should apologize it's Steph. She really should learn to keep her mouth shut and just mind her own fucking business." Jill replied.

"Yeah…well… the damage is already done so…" Brittany said softly.

She had no idea what to do. Jill's first reaction was that she didn't believe Steph's gossip and everybody in the office knew that whatever Stephanie Lawson and Mandy Simmons said should be taken with a grain of salt. She could deny it and the rest of her colleagues would most likely believe her over the gossip but she also knew that as soon as they find out that she in fact has left Nathan it would only be a matter of time before those other rumors would start again. Lying about it would not really help anything but just thinking about telling her colleagues and friends cause yes, she did consider most of them as her friends, made her chest tighten. She wasn't ready for this, how could she be? Her life had been turned completely upside down in such a short period of time and everything she thought she knew about herself was obviously wrong.

Finding out your fiancée is a lesbian… Stephanie Lawson's word echoed in her head. Was she a lesbian? She was in love with a woman and that made her a lesbian right? God she just wanted to disappear. Jill's voice brought her back from her thoughts.

"What are you gonna do?" Jill asked tentatively and took a small step back but left one hand on the blonde's arm.

"I have no idea… I just wanna disappear, I don't want to go back out there… I can't face them… but I really want to beat the crap out of Steph."

That last sentence made Jill laugh and Brittany chuckled too.

"I thought about denying it…" Brittany continued more serious.

"But it's true… I-I mean I don't know what I am but what she said is true and lying about it now will only make everything worse later… But I'm freaking out Jill… I can't even believe I'm talking to you about it." Brittany confessed.

"That's understandable. I'm kinda shocked to be honest, I just wasn't expecting it to be true but know that I don't think of you any differently because of this. You're still the same person you've always been, who you fall in love with doesn't change that, okay? So no matter what you decide to do I'm on your side." Jill said and smiled when the blonde finally looked up and met her eyes.

"Thank you…" Brittany whispered and her lips turned upwards into a small smile.

She was still freaking out but hearing that made the situation a little bit lighter.

Brittany decided to take a sick leave for the rest of the day. She couldn't face the rest of her co-workers that had been in the canteen when Steph spilled all that gossip about her. She just couldn't do it, she just wanted to get out of there. Jill told her that she could talk to the others if she wanted her to and the blonde had just nodded, feeling like there was no way she would be able to talk about this in front of her colleagues right now. She needed some time to process everything and to find some courage to deal with it. How that would happen she had no idea…

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She returned home to an empty house which she was really grateful for. Dealing with Nathan after what had happened at work was the last thing she wanted to do. Her head hurt and she just wanted to close her eyes for a moment and forget this day ever happened.

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The sound of a frantic knocking on the guestroom door woke her up. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep but as she glanced at the clock on the bedside table it showed 5.47 PM. She'd slept for quite a while.

"Brittany are you in here?"

The sound of Nathan's voice made her sit up straight.

"Yeah, I must have fallen asleep." She said sleepily and rubbed her eyes.

Nathan opened the door and peeked inside.

"Sorry but I got home like 5 minutes ago and your phone has been buzzing like crazy on the kitchen table. I just thought you'd wanna check it out." Nathan said and stepped inside and handed her the phone then left and closed the door behind him.

As she looked at the display she saw she had 10 missed calls and 4 voice messages, all from Anita's phone. She felt icy shivers down her spine, this could not be good. She cursed herself for leaving her phone in the kitchen with the sound off. Getting up from the bed she ignored the voice messages and hit the re-dial button and put the phone to her ear. Her heart was pounding really fast. Why had Anita called her so many times? Something must have happened to her dad, she knew he sometimes got vascular spasms but they were always very light and he had never had to go to the hospital to get it checked. It always got better after he rested.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up…" she whispered.

It felt like she'd waited for hours when Anita finally answered.

"Brittany." Anita's voice sounded through the speakers in Brittany's phone which she held tight to her ear.

"Anita. My phone was on silent so I didn't hear it. Has something happened to dad? Is he alright, has-"

"Brittany…" Anita interrupted her.

Brittany could hear the sound of the older woman's voice and it was cracking. Her heart started to beat faster and she felt an ache to her heart as well. Something was wrong.

"Your dad is alright… It's… it's Santana…" Anita's voice broke when she said Santana's name and Brittany felt her whole body freeze.

She wanted to ask what had happened to Santana but nothing came out.

"Her... her t-team... something w-went wrong and..she's… she's been shot a-and… a-and it doesn't look good…" Anita choked out.

Brittany dropped the phone and then everything went black.