I know it's been such a long time since I last updated, but I am back. I really hope you enjoy reading this and I'd really like to thank everyone who has read and is continuing to read this story. You guys are amazing.
Santana's POV
I was in a lot of pain. That was okay, it wasn't the worst thing that I've ever felt and it helped that Quinn was sleeping right next to me. I wish I was home but Quinn was right here, she was the only home I needed. I've been fading in and out for awhile, but right now I could actually feel myself being present. The last thing I remember was the crash. And yelling in the hallway. That was stupid of me, maybe irrational too. "You're up." Quinn was looking up at me. Since she wasn't smiling I knew I looked like hell that or she was just worried.
"Is Buddy okay?" I asked. I didn't try and lift myself up, I just held her closer to my body. "Tell me he's okay."
"He's fine. He's just resting." Quinn assured me. She kissed my cheek and slid off the bed. She was wearing the same clothes she was wearing when she showed up here. She was quiet. Normally she'd be talking a mile a minute. She'd be asking for every single detail, every moment leading up to the crash and every moment after. Right now she was just...quiet. She was going through her purse for god knows what with her back to me.
"Quinn?" She turned and faced me. I could see that she was crying and I hated it. I know the crash wasn't my fault, I know she was happy that I was alive, but she was still crying. I didn't want to see her like this. "Don't cry, please."
"I'm sorry...I'm just…" She wiped her eyes, moving back towards the bed. She grabbed my hands and held them tightly. "You're not supposed to scare me like this. I mean maybe something crazy would happen with a criminal but a car crash? That's an everyday event. I guess I just realized that I can't protect you from everything...or anything for that matter."
"You're not supposed to protect me." I told her. "And I can't protect you either." We both paused, there's nothing like the silence that encased us in this moment. I realized now that I all I could offer Quinn was an honest version of myself, she'd always offered that to me, so it was only fair to give that back. "But I love you. And I'm gonna marry you. Buddy was distracted when we crashed."
"What do you mean?" Quinn questioned. She sat on the edge of the bed.
"He was distracted because I told him that I'm getting promoted. We're not partners anymore, I made Sergeant." She didn't say anything. This time the silence clued me in to her excitement. A smile spread across her face and I smiled too. "Now I get to be in charge of him. He's gonna hate me."
"He loves you. I love you." Quinn climbed back on the bed and laid down next to me. "Now I get to boss around a bunch of bitter assholes and my best bud...I'm happy you suggested it. I mean...in hindsight, I wish I had waited to bring it up when we weren't in a vehicle." She nudged me and I swallowed the pain because I didn't want her to see me cringe.
"That was pretty dumb." I held onto her hand even though she was jokingly insulting me. "And your dumb leg is broken. Looks like you'll be hanging out at home with me for awhile."
"On what universe would that be a bad thing?" She shrugged and I was about to say something witty about how I'll still be great in bed even with a broken leg when the door to my room opened. We both looked up to see a few nurses and oddly enough, Rachel, pushing Buddy's bed into my room. He was sitting up, eating some shitty hospital jello and chatting like the crazy, but lovable, moron that he was.
"Hey Quinn sorry for almost killing your soon to be wifey." I rolled my eyes but Quinn and Rachel laughed. The nurses were quick to clear the room maybe they thought we all wanted our alone time, we kind of did. "I'll tell you what, I'll babysit Beth whenever you want."
"No way is she leaving you alone with her kid. You almost killed her fiance, for Christ's sake." Rachel said.
"Okay true, but I don't need you pointing out all my faults. It hurts my heart, even if you are cute." Quinn and I exchanged glances. Rachel grabbed a chair and took a seat between our beds, trying to focus on Quinn and I rather than the jello loving dork behind her.
"I have four broken ribs, a broken leg and a concussion. What'd you get? A sprained pinky?" Buddy cracked a smile and set his jello down.
"Okay for starters, this sling isn't just for fun. I broke my arm. Also internal bleeding, so that's a thing. I was in a coma for a few hours, asshole. Maybe I wouldn't have even woken up if it weren't for the pep talk of a lifetime." What the hell was he going on about?
"What the fuck are you talking about? I think he's still delusional." I was a few seconds away from calling the nurses back in. Just because he wasn't my partner anymore that didn't mean I wanted him to lose all higher brain functions.
"I don't know, someone was in my room. I mean I could here them...her."
"You had a wet dream while you were dying? That's not surprising at all." I didn't want to say it aloud. Actually I never wanted to say it. But losing another partner, another brother, it's one of the most terrifying things I can think of. Buddy could never replace Sky, but Buddy was a huge part of my life now. I needed him.
"It actually wasn't a wet dream. It was me." All eyes went to Quinn, including mine. Why didn't she say anything? "After you went nuts I went to go talk to Buddy. I was worried about him."
"You have the voice of an angel." Buddy exclaimed. "No, seriously. I think she might have saved my life."
"Maybe she did." I kissed Quinn's forehead and she snuggled up closer to me. "She does have that effect on people."
"When can you guys go home?" Rachel asked Buddy and I.
"In a few days." I replied.
"Buddy do you um...have anyone who can take you home?" Rachel asked. I tried not to laugh, was she flirting or just being kind? All I knew was Buddy's smile was true and Quinn was squeezing my hand tighter than before.
"Should we leave you two alone?" I blurted.
"No." Rachel quipped.
"Maybe." Buddy followed with a smirk.
"So...Beth? I know I was sort of in and out yesterday, but today I feel better. And as much as I love Sugar reading my palms and everything, I'd really like to see Beth."
"She's on her way right now. Brittany's bringing her. Are you sure you're ready to see her?" Quinn asked me. Of course I wasn't sure. But she was my family now. Even if this was going to be hard, I had to go through with it.
"I just want her to know that I'm okay." Quinn nodded and pulled out her phone. She held it up to her ear.
"Hey Britt. Yep we're in her room. You can come right in." Quinn hung up the phone and kissed my forehead before climbing out of the bed. Brittany walked in with Beth at her side a moment later. Beth's eyes went wide, for once she didn't run up to me. She didn't squeal or call me Santa she just looked between Buddy and I with childlike worry written all over her face. "Hey Beth, how's my girl?" Quinn walked over and picked up her daughter, Beth just kept her eyes on me.
"What's wrong with Santa?" Beth whispered though I could hear her clearly.
"Nothing's wrong, just a few cuts." I assured her. Rachel stood, she said something to Buddy before she and Brittany exited.
"Beth, I'm gonna leave you here with Santana...I mean Santa for a bit. Now you have to promise not to jump on her." Quinn walked Beth over towards my bed and sat down at my side. "Promise?"
"I promise." Beth said before Quinn let her go. Beth climbed into the bed next to me and sat right at my side. "Is mommy lying?"
"What are you talking about Beth? What do you think she isn't being honest about?" I asked her.
"You." Beth eyed the cut just below my hairline. "You're hurt."
"No, no honey she's not hurt." Buddy interjected. "She's fine, we'll be out of this place in no time. We're on our own little cop vacation. We even have matching beds!" Buddy exclaimed. Beth tried to smile but I could tell she was still a little upset.
"Hey baby girl, remember when you were riding your bike and you fell down?" She nodded slowly. "What did you do?"
"I got back up." She said quietly.
"Exactly. And guess what I'm gonna do in a few days?"
"Get back up." Her smile returned and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I didn't have to nerve to tell her that she was crushing my broken ribs. All I knew right now was that I was lucky to be alive. I was lucky to have family and a partner as great as Buddy at my side.
"I love you Beth." I kissed her forehead just as Quinn and Brittany came back into the room with food in their hands.
"I love you too mama." Quinn smiled and set the food down in front of Buddy and I.
"Hey Beth, let's go to the gift store and get Santa a gift for a change. How does that sound?" Beth nodded and climbed down from the bed. Quinn grabbed her hand and blew me a kiss. "We'll be back." Brittany took a seat and Quinn and Beth moved towards the door. "Oh and Buddy, Rachel's making arrangements to get you home." I held back a laugh and Buddy tossed a fry at my face.
"Thanks for telling me, Quinn." He said with a smile. "Thanks for everything actually." Quinn nodded and left the room again. "So...I'm sorry Santana."
"Oh shut the hell up." I joked.
"I'm serious. You could've died and I could've too...you would've lost another person in your life. I know I'm not Sky, but I'm sorry you almost had to feel that pain again. You're my best friend. You know that right?"
Flashback:
"Sky he doesn't know shit about anything. Don't listen to him." He was actually upset. That was something rare, terrifying actually. More terrifying than this wasteland around us. It was getting dark, why we were sitting out here, I will never know. Everyone else was sitting about ten feet down in the trench, some inside the shelter, Chase was cooking, and a few of the other guys were on watch.
Skylar and I were positioned in plain sight, we had our weapons but if someone opened fire and were a good shot. We'd be goners. Sky did this on purpose, he thought I wouldn't follow him, but I did. "It's private, you know? Like I write that stuff for me and you. We've been through everything together, you take the pictures I write down the memories, it's a fucking system."
"He was just messing around. Pete didn't fucking go to high school, what the fuck does he know about writing? While we were reading Hemingway he was working at McDonald's." Sky nodded but he sure as hell wasn't smile. I gripped my weapon tighter, we were about to move out in a few hours. Scope out a small town nearby. The last place I wanted to be was right here. "Listen, can we get the fuck down from here?"
"You scared?" There was his laugh. I smiled and grabbed his arm, pulling him down towards the trench. We both jumped at the same time and landed smoothly.
"Kinda." I whispered as we started walking towards the shelter. I was hoping he didn't hear me, because I didn't want to say it out loud.
"Get the fuck outta here." He turned around. Now we were eye to eye, there was no way he couldn't see my fear. "San-."
"There you two are!" Joey said as he playfully wrapped his arm around Skylar's shoulder. "You'll never guess what Chase got."
"What?"
"A cow!" Joey was laughing his ass off. I wasn't exactly in the mood.
"How the fuck did he get a cow?" Joey looked at Skylar before answering.
"Calm down Lopez-."
"No, you calm down. Unless Chase somehow took a nice cozy jet back to Nebraska and went on his parents farm to steal his own mother fucking cow then took it on a fucking boat back into this shithole of a war, there is no way in fuck that he has a cow." I could feel my heart rate increasing. This was not good.
"Santana's right, the villager's are gonna think we stole their fucking livelihood man. We don't need to make more enemies." Sklyar ran his fingers through his hair. "We're heading out in three hours and now we're gonna have to deal with a bunch of pissed off farmers. Chase better hope this doesn't bite us in the ass. Or worse, get one of us killed."
"How about we put a few dots on you Lopez and send you as a replacement?" Joey joked.
"How about we send your mom instead. She won't even have to dress up." Joey pushed my shoulder playfully, Skylar jumped in the middle of us and pretended like he was holding us back.
"Violence is never the answer." He paused and looked down at his gun. "Oh shit, I forgot where I was for a second." He stepped back and waved his hand. "Proceed with the ass-kicking."
"Wait, before I kick Lopez's ass...you gonna write about this moment?" Joey asked Sky.
"Does everyone know?" Sky asked us both.
"Dude, when you describe me make sure you say I'm 6'2. Oh and exaggerate on the muscle tone. Make up some rugged story about my youth too, cause if I die tonight I want everyone to believe I was this amazing soldier. Especially the ladies." Joey puffed out his chest and grinned.
"You are amazing." I told him.
"I said ladies Lopez, you don't count." I pulled my arm back ready to punch Joey when a haze of bullets hit a few sandbags right behind us. We all hit the ground and readied our weapons. "Shit!"
"Skylar! You okay?" I asked him. He rolled over and grabbed his helmet, putting it on lopsided. He peaked up at me and grinned.
"I'm fine baby sis. Is this what you were scared of? Me getting shot or something?" He asked with a nudge. Joey let off a few rounds towards the general direction of our so called enemies. I was never really sure how we were supposed to feel about any of this stuff anyway.
"I promised your sister that you would make it home." I confessed.
"And I will." He said confidently. "We both will. And when we get back we're gonna move to New York together and maybe like open a pizza joint or something. You'll marry some artsy ass bombshell and I'll get me a lunatic for a wife. And there's our happily ever after, right?"
"Right." I said nodding my head.
"What about me?" Joey questioned.
"Well you'll have to be at my wedding man, I mean when I said lunatic wife, I meant your mom." Joey and I couldn't help but laugh. Even as we sat in the dirt, getting shot at from some far away woods, somehow I knew that everything would be alright. Sky was right, we'd make it out of this place. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, when I opened them I saw a cow walking about thirty feet behind our base.
"What the fuck?" Sky yelled.
"The cow isn't dead yet?"
"No, Chase was gonna dress it up first." Joey said like it was the most normal thing in the world. I closed my eyes again, holding my gun tight.
"I fucking hate this war." I mumbled under my breath.
End Flashback
"Of course I know that." I assured Buddy. "You'll always be my partner."
What'd ya think?