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

Sam stayed in the hospital another week. True to his word, Puck broke in every night and sat with Santana and Brittany at her bedside. ("Puck, you are aware that there are visiting hours, right? Which you don't use?" "Nah, visiting hours are for pussies.")

Quinn was also there as often as she could manage, often bringing with her some of the other Glee kids.

At the end of the week, the entire Lopez family (including Brittany) helped move Sam back into her old bedroom next to Santana's. ("Niñas, I can't believe I didn't notice anyone was living in here. It looks so nice!" "Thanks, Maribel.")

Sam spent the rest of the summer healing and putting herself back together. The day before school started, she was in perfect physical condition. The only visible sign that remained of what had happened was a jagged 6 inch scar down the side of her ribs. Both Puck and Santana had immediately deemed the scar to be appropriately badass.

In the year or so that followed, some nights, Sam would still wake up screaming. When this happened, Santana would rush into her room and hold her, wordlessly, until she fell asleep again. Sometimes Brittany would be over and she would climb into bed on Sam's other side, and they would all lie there till morning came. They never talked about what happened. It was too traumatic for all of them. Gradually, it became a sort of distant pain that they dealt with. By the end of college, the nightmares had stopped, and Sam was sleeping peacefully every night.

Just as Santana had predicted, the start of senior year brought with it a whole new set of drama. Santana managed to get kicked out of Glee club within the first few weeks of school for doing Sylvester's bidding. Sam rolled her eyes when she heard, but said nothing about it at home.

Even though Santana had then joined another glee club (with Brittany, Mercedes, and Sugar) where she got more solos and more attention, Sam could tell she was still pissed about Schue's decision. Sam didn't push it. Santana would come around.

Unfortunately, this decision happened around the same time Brittany got a foreign exchange student from Ireland. Not only was the boy sleeping in the room right next to Brittany's, but he had developed a bit of an obvious crush on her as well.

Santana was not amused.

It just so happened to be that, when Santana was upset, Santana got mean, and this time, her chosen target ended up being Finn. While Sam was normally all for a good Finn-bashing, (for some reason the kid just irritated her) she could tell that the tall boy was going to snap under the worse than usual abuse. Sam warned Santana to lay off. ("Finnept? The worst thing he could do to me would be to sit on me and crush me with his flabby man boobs.")

He managed to prove Santana wrong, however, when he outed her to the whole school in the middle of the hallway one afternoon. The daughter of a local politician heard him, and, unfortunately for Santana, decided to use the information to help her daddy's campaign against his rival, Sue Sylvester. The local TV station almost immediately aired a spot questioning why Sylvester would dare to allow a lesbian on her cheer squad. (Again, Sam thought. Welcome to Ohio.)

Santana was mortified when she found out. She slapped Finn square across the face.

She hadn't even told her parents yet.

Of course, because this was McKinley, and punishments were rarely given fairly, Santana soon faced suspension for assaulting another student. Finn, seeing an opportunity, agreed to say it was an accident if she came back to Glee club for a day so everyone could show her how much she meant to them. ("Like I need the approval of those losers.")

She came back anyway.

While Brittany and Sam were both furious with Finn for outing Santana before she was ready, (Sam didn't think Brittany could even get that mad.) they did approve of his idea to help Santana accept herself. The two girls didn't perform anything for Santana in Glee club, but they were both there when she decided to come out to her parents. ("I kind of fucking have to now, don't I?")

Both Carlos and Maribel just smiled at their daughter when she told them. ("Oh, mija. You've been in love with Brittany since you were seven years old. We just want you to be happy.")

The look of wonder on Santana's face for the rest of the night was something both Brittany and Sam would never forget.

The next day, when she came out to her grandmother, and came home crying, Sam immediately called Brittany to come over. The blonde just held Santana until she fell asleep in her arms. Sam covered them both with a blanket.

None of them ever mentioned that night again.

By Valentine's Day, Santana was out and proud. She had a singing valentine delivered to Brittany at school. When they kissed at the dance Sugar had organized for that night, Sam didn't think she'd ever seen her friend so completely happy.

By March, most of McKinley was struggling to figure out where they wanted to go to college, a dramatic situation in itself.

Rachel and Kurt obviously had their NYADA auditions. Because they were both giant divas, as stressed out and dramatic as they became about the process, the entire Glee club was forced to hear about it every day. (Santana, Brittany, and the other girls who had quit Glee rejoined shortly after Sectionals. Santana threatened Rachel's life on a daily basis during the NYADA audition period.)

While Sam and Quinn had both applied to colleges early, and had figured out that they were going to Columbia and Yale respectively, Santana had no idea what she was going to do.

And apparently Brittany was failing. She wouldn't graduate. Santana had flipped when she found out. ("Britt, why the hell didn't you tell me? I could've helped, we could've done something…" "You had enough to worry about this year, Santana. It's okay. I promise.")

Sam was also upset at the prospect of leaving the blonde behind. ("We're gonna Skype all the time, okay Britt? You, me, and Tubbs." "Definitely.")

After a little help from Glee, Brittany, and Sam (who refused to stop pestering Santana until she got her shit together), Santana accepted a cheerleading scholarship from the University of Louisville. It wasn't really where she wanted to be, but at least she could visit Brittany on a semi-regular basis.

Graduation was exactly the sad-happy moment Sam thought it would be. The Lopezes threw a party for her and Santana, and although she pretty much thought of Carlos and Maribel as her parents by that point, she couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like to see her own parents' faces smiling back at her from the crowd as she walked across the stage.

Santana still didn't really like to talk about her feelings if she could help it. Instead of talking about how much she was going to miss her friends, she just spent as much time with them as possible before she no longer could. Brittany came over every day that summer.

The first few months of college were the hardest. Santana forgot how much she liked having Sam around, and without Brittany, she was absolutely miserable. Kentucky sucked. It was even more Conservative than Ohio. And she wasn't able to sing. She had no time. She barely had time to talk to Brittany, which was a problem in itself.

Sam ended up moving in with Kurt and Rachel in Bushwick, and while she really liked having them as roommates, there was just way too much diva in one apartment for her to handle sometimes. She missed Santana. And Brittany.

Sam knew how busy Santana was, so instead of talking on the phone or texting, they left each other long, rambling voice mails every day or so. It helped them not miss each other so much.

Brittany and Santana broke up a few months into the first semester. Santana said that everything was just too hard.

She called Sam in tears that afternoon.

When Brittany walked out of Cheerios practice the next day, Sam was waiting for her in the school parking lot, leaning against her car and spinning her keys on her finger. Brittany was ecstatic. Even though people could forget it sometimes, Brittany was just as delicate as Santana was.

Maybe, Sam thought as she took Brittany out for ice cream and a movie, that was why they worked so well. They protected each other.

Sam knew that Santana wouldn't want to be babied post-breakup, so instead she sent her a care package, full of movies and junk food and a note that simply said, "Come visit me in New York, asshole. I can't deal with Rachel and Kurt all by myself." It made Santana smile. And when she had a long weekend, she did.

She felt strangely like that was where she belonged.

Before the year was through, Santana had moved into the apartment with Rachel, Sam, and Kurt, and was wreaking her own special brand of havoc on the city of New York.

Rachel and Kurt didn't know what to do with the prospect of Santana Lopez living with them. When they had vocalized this fear, Sam had simply shrugged and said, "I survived okay."

It was good to have her around again.

Brittany ended up getting a perfect SAT score. Sam wasn't even a little bit shocked. The girl was full of surprises. Santana pretended to be indifferent when Sam told her, but a proud smile made its way to her face anyway. This score got her early admission to MIT, where they told her she was the "most brilliant mathematical mind of the century". Brittany just shrugged. She was brilliant and she knew it.

She would have sessions with MIT professors 4 days a week, and in her spare time, she danced with a studio in Boston. Sam kept inviting her to visit the apartment in Bushwick, and one weekend, she did.

After some scheming, Sam, Rachel, and Kurt ditched the two former cheerleaders for the first few hours of Brittany's trip, forcing the two girls to spend time alone together. ("Are you fucking kidding me, Sam? Why did you invite her here? I'm trying to move on." "So don't move on. Rachel, Kurt and I are going to see a play. You should give her the tour of the apartment. Ciao."), and by the end of the weekend, they were back together. Again, Sam wasn't surprised. They were meant to be.

The next 4 years flew by in a similar fashion. Kurt and Rachel both excelled at NYADA. Rachel landing the role of Fanny Bryce in Funny Girl propelled her to stardom freshman year, but she continued attending school. Her friends kept her grounded. Especially Santana, who refused "to take shit from some singing dwarf who thinks she can tell me what to do just cause she's famous."

Santana ended up being discovered by a fairly prominent record producer after she sang in a bar one night. By senior year, she had an album coming out and was on her way to becoming the next big thing.

Brittany was similarly discovered by a world famous dance troupe that did shows in New York City on a regular basis. This kept her close to Santana and the rest of her friends, which was good. They all went to see her recitals when they had a chance. Santana never missed one.

She graduated from MIT with a degree in thermonuclear physics, which she had decided would be her major sophomore year, after hearing that the chair of the department's name was James Tubbington. Her unique insights made her a core part of the department for the next 3 years, and while she wanted to only pursue dance after graduating, MIT said they would welcome her back at any time.

Sam graduated magna cum laude from Columbia with a degree in psychology. She then went on to get her Master's there. She wanted to work with troubled teens, and teens who had been abused. She joined a jazz quartet her junior year, and they too became locally very well known.

After graduation, Sam got her own place in the Bronx. Santana and Brittany moved into a house several blocks over a few weeks later. Rachel and Kurt remained in Manhattan, where they were eventually joined by Quinn, who, after a rough start at Yale trying to figure out who she was and what she wanted to do, decided to go to Columbia for Law school. She wanted to specialize in custody cases.

As they matured, she and Santana became less hostile towards each other, and their friendship became much stronger.

Sam dated a girl through the last two years of college. Her name was Courtney. While she was nice enough, she didn't get along with Santana at all, which caused problems.

It also caused Santana to want to do a bit of digging into the girl's life, and she soon found out that Courtney had been lying about almost everything she told Sam. A furious Santana confronted her, only to have Courtney sneer in her face and order her to tell Sam that "it was just a stupid fling. Just for fun. I'm not gay."

Brittany had had to actively keep Santana from killing her, while at the same time comforting a heartbroken Sam.

A few weeks after her 22nd birthday, Sam was at a Columbia open house with Quinn. She had gone on a quest to find one of her professors, and, not paying attention to where she was going, ran face first into a gorgeous young Indian woman. Her name was Tala, and she was originally from Delhi, but had been studying at Oxford for the past 3 years. She was studying abroad at Columbia that semester. The two women hit it off almost immediately, and began seeing each other.

The first time Tala met Brittany and Santana, she entered the room just as Brittany was expressing a desire to watch Toy Story. Instead of rolling her eyes like Courtney had at Brittany's eccentricities, Tala piped up that that was in fact her favorite movie. Brittany had immediately hugged the girl, who had smiled and hugged her back good naturedly. Santana caught Sam's eye at this and nodded approvingly.

Brittany and Santana got married the summer before they all turned 25. Santana had been lying in bed with Brittany one night, their bodies intertwined under the covers, when Santana simply turned to Brittany and whispered, "Marry Me?" Brittany had responded quite enthusiastically.

Sam was Santana's best man, Quinn was Brittany's maid of honor. All of the Glee kids showed up. All four parents were beaming with happiness.

Sam and Tala followed a few months later.

After they had been dating for six months, Tala had had to move back to England. They spent six unhappy months apart before Tala decided she wanted to move to New York. From the moment she moved in with Sam, things had gone smoothly, and, 3 years later, Sam popped the question.

Santana was Sam's best man. She approved wholeheartedly of Tala. The two of them got along incredibly well. Brittany, Quinn, Rachel, Kurt, and Puck, (who by this point was also living in the city writing movie scripts), all came to the wedding. As she watched her friend slide the ring onto Tala's finger, Santana reflected just how far Sam had come. How far they all had come, really. She looked over at Brittany sitting in the front row and winked. Brittany winked right back.

The next few years brought kids (Brittany and Santana ended up with 3; Sam and Tala, 4), and careers, and all the dramatic surprises that life presents from time to time.

School trips. Playground spills. Christmas dinners. Winter flus.

Both sets of children were just as inseparable as their parents. The close proximity of the two houses and the frequency with which the adults visited one another led to one large, incredibly tight knit family. (Everyone had two sets of keys, and two houses. Knocking was never an occurrence.)

One afternoon, it was homework time at the Lopez-Pierce house. Sam and Santana typically watched the kids after school until Brittany and Tala, who tended to work late, got home. Santana's oldest son, Carlos, was arguing with Sam's twin boys, Jake and Justin. All three boys were 8 years old, and normally got along very well. They were all in the same class at school.

"He's weird!"

"No he's not!"

"Yes he is!"

"Shut up, Carlos, you're stupid!"

"You're stupid!"

"Don't call him stupid!"

Santana cut in. "Hey, hey, hey. Cállate. All of you. We don't call each other stupid."

Sam came into the dining room, having heard the noise. "Or weird. Who are you even talking about?"

One of the twins, Jake, looked at his mother with an indignant expression. "There's a kid in our grade, Spencer, and Carlos says he's weird."

Justin cut in. "Yeah. And he's not weird. Carlos just doesn't like him cause he's clumsy and he keeps knocking Carlos' books all over the floor."

"But it's not his fault, Mama." Jake said again. "He's got crutches and he walks funny cause he's sick. He can't help it. And he always lets me and Justin trade him his Oreos for our chips." The young boy glared at Carlos. Carlos just crossed his arms and glared right back.

Sam tried not to smile at how remarkably like Santana Carlos looked at the moment. She looked at her friend. "This is all you, madam." She sat down in a chair, pulling Carlos into her lap.

Santana ran her fingers through her hair and made a face at Sam. "Traitor." She turned to the three boys, who were all looking to her intently for an explanation. She started with her son. "Carlos. I know it's annoying when someone knocks your books on the floor."

She gave Sam a pointed look. Sam just grinned. Santana continued. "But Jake's right. It's not his fault. Some people are just born different, and they can't help it."

"But mama, he's weird. He never talks to anyone and he doesn't answer questions and I think he's stupid."

There was a noise from the doorway, and they all looked up to see Brittany standing there. She had just returned from dance practice. She was looking intently at her son.

"You know something, mijo?" Brittany said. The boy shook his head.

"When I was in high school, people thought I was dumb." Sam arched an eyebrow, but said nothing. Santana looked unhappy.

Carlos tilted his head as he regarded his mother. "But mommy, you're so smart."

She smiled at him. "Thank you, baby, but they didn't know that. Imagine you heard someone was calling me stupid. How would you feel?"

Little Carlos furrowed his brow. "I would kick their butts."

Jake and Justin piped up in unison, "Me too."

Brittany smiled at all three boys. "Thank you, boys." She turned back to Carlos. "So you'd be upset cause you know me and you know I'm not stupid. Or weird. That's what the twins were trying to say. They know Spencer, and they know he's not weird. Just different. And different's okay. Do you understand?"

The boy nodded bashfully. "Sorry mommy."

"It's okay, sweetie. Now, apologize to each other and go play outside." She said, moving to stand behind Santana and wrapping her arms loosely around her wife's waist.

"Sorry Jake, sorry Justin."

"That's okay. Sorry Carlos."

"Yeah, sorry, Carlos."

Carlos turned his head to look at Sam. "Aunt Sam, will you play basketball with us? We need even teams."

Sam tapped a finger against her chin, pretending to think about it. Then she looked down at him and smiled, saying, "Absolutely. C'mon. I call captain!"

She picked up Carlos and swung him over her shoulder, as he giggled in delight. Both her sons jumped up from where they sat on the floor, yelling, "No fair! I wanna be captain!"

"No! Me!"

Sam headed towards the door, Carlos still hanging off her shoulder, as she called out, "First one to the basketball hoop gets to be captain!"

The boys raced after her.

As Santana watched her friend head out the door with her son and the two twins, she leaned back into Brittany's embrace. Brittany kissed her neck lightly. This, she thought, was where she belonged. She was so incredibly lucky to have these people in her life.

She had come such a long way from that angry, scared girl that she had been in high school, who could only lash out at the people around her and never let anyone in. She now had the best friends anyone could ask for, three beautiful little children, (well, seven, really) and a wife whom she loved more than she ever knew it was possible to love someone.

She sighed contentedly. If she never had to move from this exact moment, she would be happy.

Her thoughts were slowly interrupted, however, by the realization that Brittany was still kissing her neck. And her kisses were getting more and more heated.

Brittany's hands slipped from her waist as she hooked her thumbs into Santana's belt loops, pulling her body against her.

"Upstairs. Now." Brittany breathed in her ear.

Santana grabbed Brittany's wrist and practically sprinted for the stairs.

Thinking could wait. She had more important things to do at the moment. She could ponder life later.

A/N: Spanish: Cállate: Be quiet!

And that's a wrap, folks! So, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I appreciate anyone and everyone who took the time to check it out, especially those of you that made it all the way through. I'm already mulling over some new story ideas, so keep an eye out for them.
Feel free to leave me your final thoughts on this story.
Catch you on the flip side!