=Santana=

I didn't sleep that night. Instead I got up and walked to the next room since it was only 8:30; I called my parents. "Mami?" I said hoping my voice holds up.

"What is it Mija?" She knew there was something bothering me. She's my mother I could never hide my feelings as well with her or Brittany.

"Is there any way you can keep the kids longer. There's something wrong with Brittany, and I need to fix it. I don't want them to see her like this." My parents had been in Puerto Rico with my sick grandmother for the last few months taking care of her. We sent the kids down there a week ago to visit.

"What's wrong baby?" my mom was concerned and I'm sure my panicky voice didn't help. "Has she been taking her medication?"

"It's not that...I uh..." how can I tell her the signs I seen. Signs I know from myself; it was like looking in a mirror. It scared me the signs that I saw. Signs that pointed to rape or something just as serious.

"Don't worry about the babies then, take care of your love. What do you want to tell the kids?" I didn't think of that, Lucas and Sadie are too smart not to know something was up. Especially since they know about our past and issues. "Just tell them that she's having a bad episode; don't tell Charlie anything to scare her." I get off the phone and fall on the couch. I was falling apart when I shouldn't. She needed me to make this right. Had this been going on for more then a month, less than? I had an idea who it was which made me feel more guilty. If I hadn't dropped the charges, he might be in prison. I curse myself for my past cowardice.

I make it back to our bedroom after locking the doors and getting a cup of water. She was curled into a tight ball. I sit next to her. "Baby, here take you meds." I say sitting her up just enough to take a drink and swallow the pill. She lays back down asleep again. I lay right next to her taking the big spoon and holding her as close as I possibly could. She pulls away at first before sinking back into me only adding more to my fears. Someone, Kenneth, had hurt her and I didn't know what I could do about it.

I breath in her scent, and tried to focus on her instead of whatever has been happening. My mind was all over the place though from considering a rash revenge involving duct tape and a box cutter to locking her in a tower and not ever letting her out again and everything in between. I stare at the discolored skin on the back of her neck trying to find other reasons for that and the other injuries other than the first thing on my mind. Maybe she slipped and hit her neck on a balance bar. The ones on her hips was from a nervous student holding on to tightly, the ones on her knees were from another fall. The line of cuts however I couldn't think of a reason for other than her doing them to escape from whatever hell she was going through mentally, physically..sexually. I hold back a sob as that thought crossed my mind.

I take another breath of her. She smelt different not like our normal body wash and shampoo, not like the lovemaking we had earlier nor the alcohol. It was soap but the soap we used when we went to Germany last summer, the soap we took from our hotel. She had showered somewhere else. It didn't add to my anxiety and by itself it I probably would have shook it off but it just added more evidence to her being hurt. So many times after one of my nightmares I would feel the urge to shower to get rid of the dirty feeling. Brittany noticed how upset I usually was and joined me.

The weight loss I at first just wrote off. We both had fits of sudden weight problems. My last one was after the garage attack. Her last one was a few years ago when she and the studio were so overworked. She lost a scary amount of weight, so much that my mother swore she developed an eating disorder. Mike began to look like he had a drug problem. Sasha looked like shit too, and according to Pat, developed a drinking problem. He hired a new secretary, Jenny, that year to do all the paperwork and filing and some of the costumes and choreography. She bounced back quickly; I doubted she would this time around.

I must have dosed off at some point because I had one of my Brittany nightmares. It was the kind of dream you almost forget when you wake up, and very minor compared to my others. All I remembered before it became nonsense about Lucas basketball team, was her being scared and him towering over her. I resisted clinging to her when I wake up. Her snoring was comforting enough. I wish the bruises were only dreams. I wake up again to morning light, alarm clock, and shuffling of a hung-over Brittany putting on her gym pants. I was quickly working on a plan to get her to stay home so we could soberly talk about this.

"Brittany, sweetie, you're hung over. Play hookie Sasha owes you anyway." I say hugging her.

"I can't San, not today. I'm already late."

I look at the clock and it was barely six. "Baby you're first class isn't till nine."

"I really can't talk about this right now, San. I gotta go." She was getting tense like she has been for the last few weeks when I pressed.

"Baby, don't go, I need you." I try one more time.

"I love you too but I'll be back by the time you get off. I gotta go now." She said in an almost condescending tone that she hated. Sasha would talk to her like that whenever he was menstruating, hell I don't know what makes him think that isn't really offensive. Before I can't think of another plan that might work and won't make me a super jerk, she was gone.

AN: I know this was short and I have another chapter planed kinda, not typed or even written down really. But I don't know which way to go it's between two, so here's a hint to either. Review and tell me which direction you'll prefer and I'll start writing it. Thanks for reading :)

Santina: This one will be darker and longer

Bike: Still dark but not near as much as the other.