A/N: quick update cuz I really couldn't wait to give this to you


The very first thing she hears is beeping.

Rhythmic and consistent.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

She groans because she knows that can only mean one thing.

"I'm in the hospital, aren't I?" her words are heavy and thick.

The responding wave of excitement that hits her after her question throws her for a loop a bit.

Carmen is beside her almost as fast as Brittany is, tears in her eyes as she smiles down at her baby girl, finally coming to, "Si, mi hermosa. You're in the hospital."

Brittany doesn't fight the smile that shows up on her face when Santana opens her eyes to look at them. She whispers a tiny, "Hi," when Santana's eyes lock onto hers.

Santana blows her a kiss, "Hi."

Carmen reluctantly sits back down in the chair beside Santana's bed, "They brought you straight to the ER, and they were worried you may have given yourself a concussion. Luckily your thick skull saved your ass. You broke the skin at the back of your head, but you're okay."

Santana snorts gracelessly, "That explains the massive headache."

Carmen pauses to just look at her daughter, shaking her head in absolute awe and wonder at how she could have possibly given birth to this amount of sass.

"You came around earlier, but you were still so high on the morphine I doubt you'll remember that. The doctors came by and checked over you, gave you a pass."

The brunette grins at her mother lovingly as she carefully tries to lift her cast encased arm, "I see I broke my good arm."

Brittany shakes her head at her girlfriend in slight exasperation, "That's all that matters huh? Your left arm? And actually, it's your wrist. I'm guessing you stuck it out to break your fall."

Santana coos as she tugs on Brittany's hand gently, "It isn't all that matters mi hermosa, I'm sorry…I'm just, I'm okay and I was trying to make light of the situation a little bit. I love you babe, that's what matters."

Carmen crosses herself and sends up another prayer, once again thanking God for taking care of her little girl.

A knock on the door draws all their attention.

"Come in." The older Lopez calls out, knowing it could only be Rachel and Quinn. Judy had gone home to pack some clothes for Carmen and to take care of Leo.

Quinn sticks her head through the door first and then she's a complete blur as she hastily makes her way over to the bedridden brunette. Rachel following close behind.

"Don't you dare pull something like that on me again." Quinn says tearfully as Brittany shifts to let her in closer, squeezing her shoulder as she does so, and wrapping an arm around Rachel's shoulders as she sidles up alongside her, the brunette wrapping her own arm around Brittany's waist.

Santana lifts her right hand up and wipes the tears away as best as she can, "Lo siento mi linda. I'll make sure not to do that again."

Quinn gently takes hold of her hand and places kisses on the back and along her wrist, "You've absolutely wrecked all of us. Especially with your off key singing earlier."

Santana chuckles as she squeezes her hand as best as she can, "Again, I'm sorry."

Carmen caresses her cast covered left wrist, "We're all just very glad that you're alright. A few bumps and scrapes but por suerte nada más."

Santana looks up to Quinn for confirmation. Her mother wouldn't lie to her, but she sometimes tries to make light of certain situations so she doesn't worry her or Brittany if she's in the room.

Quinn lightly squeezes her hand as she gives her a tiny nod. Santana accepts that that's what she's going to get for now.

The blonde then shifts so Rachel can get closer, taking her previous position up beside Brittany, intertwining their fingers and leaning against the taller blonde, and receiving a kiss to her forehead.

Rachel doesn't say anything; rather she can't. She leans down and kisses her forehead lightly and gently takes a hold of her right hand, and Santana is the one that whispers out, "I'm okay my pequeña estrella, promise."

The brunette just nods and sniffs back her tears as she gives her a tiny smile, "I know…I'm really glad you are."

Santana smiles contentedly at all the faces surrounding her, taking in all the love they're radiating out towards her, absolutely enlivened because of it.

Santana's father comes by a little later on and walks straight up to her bedside and gives her a large hug and kisses her forehead and nose, "Oh you sure almost gave your old papi a stroke when I saw you being wheeled into the ER."

Santana chuckles as she gives his cheek a kiss, "You're not that old papi…but I'm sorry I worried you."

He chuckles and gently tucks a lock of hair behind her ear lovingly, "You're going to be okay pequeña. Has your doctor come by to talk to you?"

Santana shrugs as best as she can, and Carmen rolls her eyes, "Your daughter wasn't completely in the right frame of mind when he did come by."

Dr. Lopez laughs, "Right, of course she wasn't. Always a lightweight this one."

Santana blushes but says nothing to confirm or deny any of it, as she sees Quinn bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing, and Brittany simply smiling at her.

He clears his throat to direct her attention back onto him and away from her girls on the couch, "Okay, I suppose I can give you the run down myself. So, I'm fairly certain you've noticed your wrist in a cast."

She rolls her eyes good naturedly and nods, "Yes pops."

It's his turn to roll his eyes at that but grins, "Okay, you also managed to sprain your right ankle," she groans at that, "and bruised a couple of your ribs. You banged your head a bit and broke skin, but don't worry, it was easy enough to patch up, but we're gonna keep the neck brace on for the time being to ensure you don't give yourself another injury. Only 'til we can get you back home."

She sighs and nods, "Right. But all in all, just bumps and bruises?"

He gives her his winning smile, winks and nods his head, "Absolutely. Pequeña, el Diablo himself wouldn't dare try to do anything else to hurt you."

Santana laughs as she watches her mother roll her eyes and cross herself and ask for forgiveness for both her husband and Santana.

Quinn gets up and pulls over a chair for Santana's father and he takes it gratefully, "Thank you Quinn…I think I actually owe you quite a few more thank yous."

The blonde shakes her head, as Santana sits up a little bit further, her curiosity piqued.

"No sir, you…you really don't owe me any thank yous, I didn't do anything."

Rachel and Brittany share a look as they watch, wondering if they'll finally know exactly what happened in that school.

Dr. Miguel Lopez has always, always, considered Quinn one of his own, and he loves that Quinn considers his family to be hers as well. So knowing that she took care of his little girl, it's not something he takes lightly, and he tells her as such.

He offers her his hand, and ushers her closer to him as he gently says, "Mi princesa, you and I both know you did a lot."

Her green eyes water as she gets bombarded with images of Santana lying on the floor, unmoving, and she chokes back a sob and barely whispers out, "But I was so scared."

He pulls her into a hug, and Santana's heart aches for the blonde.

"Shh, I know. But that's what bravery is, and you were very brave Quinn."

The blonde hugs him back tightly and shrugs her shoulders as she pulls back and gives him a tiny smile, "I don't know about that Papi, I just did what I knew San would've done."

The brunette clears her throat at that and gives her a smile as she asks, "And what would I have done?"

Dr. Lopez pushes his chair back to make room for the blonde to get closer to Santana if she wants to; which she does. She sidles up to her and her eyes find hers as she speaks loud enough for everyone to hear clearly.

"The girls and I, we were out still at the bench, waiting for you to come back, and when you hadn't, even after the bell sounded, I just figured I'd shoulder both of our bags and bring them with me to our next class. There were a couple of teachers running across the quad and into the school though, and…I just I had a feeling something was very wrong with you, ya know?"

Santana nods her head barely, and Quinn swallows as she continues, "So…I dropped our bags and told Rach to stay with Britt out on the quad while I go inside. I didn't know for sure what was happening, and I didn't want either one of them to see anything, in case it was as bad as my feelings were. I ran after the teachers and uhm I got to the bottom of the staircase in the hall and you were just laying there, and…and none of the teachers were doing anything, and the nurse hadn't gotten there yet so I…well I got down and all I could think was DRABC. Danger, Response. Airway. Breathing and circulation."

She tilts her head at the memory and then shakes herself, "I got down on my knees and was calling your name, trying to see if you'd respond to it at all…I didn't want to move or shake you because I didn't have a clue if I'd hurt you more. Your arm looked really messed up and I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

Santana reaches for her hand and Quinn takes it willingly, squeezing it gently and receiving a smile in return, "You didn't come to San and I was getting really worried. But-But I checked and I could feel you breathing, it was slow but it was there and…and I stayed there and held your head in place while the nurse finally came and checked you over; I swear I don't know how long we sat there together but then the EMTs were there and taking over, they got you a neck brace and then transferred you onto the gurney and off you went."

Rachel nods and takes over from her place in Brittany's arms, "She came running out right after the EMTs were loading you into the ambulance, blazing towards us and loaded us all into the car and we came right here."

Santana squeezes Quinn's hand and motions as if to kiss her, blowing it towards her instead and saying, "I'm so glad you at least had more sense than those teachers just standing around lookin' at my banged up bangin' bod."

Quinn laughs and groans at the same time, "You can think of nothing else, can you?"

The brunette blows her another kiss before chuckling, "On a serious note," she makes sure Quinn's eyes are locked onto hers, "Thank you so very much mi linda. I know that must have been really scary."

Dr, Lopez nods his head and places his hand onto Quinn's shoulder and squeezes gently, showing his appreciation, Carmen simply sits there silently crying, not believing how blessed she is, not only having one daughter, but four.

The blonde shrugs her shoulders a little and says honestly, "It wasn't what was happening that was scary San…it was the fact that it was happening to you. I wouldn't have been half as scared if it was some colleague, you feel me? It's the fact that it was you."

Santana nods and a moment passes as they all reflect before she grins and says, "So you really do love me, huh?"

Quinn lets out an exasperated breath as she lets go of Santana's hand and goes over to give Carmen a big hug, wiping away her tears as she kisses the woman she sees as another mother, "The Lord must have bestowed upon you a really extra large dollop of patience when he gave you this one."

Carmen laughs, really laughs, for what feels like the first time since she's gotten news of this incident. She gives Quinn another large hug and nods her head as she says, "Oh you have no idea."

Dr. Lopez leaves after about half an hour when his pager goes off, "Duty calls my loves."

It's a little while after that that Judy comes by with Leo by her side and a teddy bear with a balloon.

Judy smiles as Leo walks straight up to his sister and plops down on the seat beside her and says, "You're just lucky Ms. Judy told me it wouldn't be in good form to get you a Barbie doll with a full body cast. So you're stuck with this super cool bear and balloon."

Santana erupts in laughter and reaches a hand out to tousles his hair affectionately before looking up at Judy, "Thank you so very much for stopping that."

The older blonde smiles and stops closer towards her and brushes down her hair and pecks her cheek, "I'm so very glad you're okay sweetheart."

The brunette grins as she thanks her and says, "All thanks to your wondrously brave daughter Mama J. That's some hella crazy good genes you passed onto her."

Judy grins at her and gives her a wink, "Don't you know it."

The visit with Leo went by great, but the fun was interrupted when an officer knocks on the door to her room, "Miss Lopez? I'm very sorry to bother you."

He plays with his police issued peaked hat as he takes in all the people in the room, "I-I was sent here before Office Moore to prepare you for his arrival? I guess he had a feeling there would be a full house." The young officer grins as he says so, and he watches as the individuals in the room grow somber.

Santana clears her throat, "Okay, yeah. I-thank you."

He nods his head and places the hat back on his head before turning and leaving the room.

The brunette is met with all eyes on her when she turns back to facing the occupants. She sheepishly shrugs as she says, "There's a very good reason that Officer Moore is coming. I'm just wondering which of you figured it out and decided to call him before I got the chance to do so."

She looks to Quinn but the blonde looks baffled as she shrugs her shoulders, "Sweetheart, no one here has a clue as to why Officer Moore would be coming at all, other than if he's on his way to perhaps see if you're okay. But seeing what you just said? I doubt that that's why."

Judy and Carmen share a look and the blonde stands up, "Don't worry about Leo Carmen, you stay here, him and I have things to do ourselves, don't we little man?"

The boy grins up at her and nods his head before going over to hug and kiss his mother goodbye, and then going over to do the same with Santana, whispering, "I wanna know bout this officer story later, okay?"

To which she snorts and tells him not on his life.

Carmen stands up and makes her way over to the pair and walks them out of the hospital, thanking Judy for everything and getting an eye-roll from the blonde and a big hug, "Family takes care of each other Carm. And one of our little hatchlings is in need of one of us, and that one of us is you. Give my love to everyone, and I'm always here whenever you need to talk."

The brunette nods her head and gives her a smile as she says, "You have no idea how grateful I am to have you wonderful blondes in my life."

Judy laughs lightly, "Trust me when I say, both Quinnie and I thank God for our good fortune in finding you."

Rachel is the first to ask, and Brittany seconds her question as Quinn simply stands at the foot of her bed, eyebrow raised and arms crossed with a thoughtful look on her face as she studies the brunette in bed.

Santana manages to shift up in bed, with the help of both Brittany and Rachel. She looks at each of them before furrowing her brows and saying in an almost shocked whisper, "Finn shoved me down the stairs."

Rachel gasps as she plops down onto the chair right beside Santana's bed. Brittany doesn't fare much better. She looks from Santana to a livid looking Quinn and plops down onto the other chair and closes her eyes as she gathers up all of her good thoughts and keeps them with herself before sending a prayer thanking God for Santana's safety especially knowing that Finn could have really hurt her a lot more.

The brunette stares at Quinn, her eyes searching Quinn's in a desperate need to ensure that the blonde believes her. That she isn't imagining this. That she really did in fact see Finn before she got hurt and 'bumped her head'.

Quinn is beyond gone now; she's enraged, with good reason.

Carmen walks back into the room and she can almost taste the tension, "Santana? What's going on?"

Quinn is the one that turns to her and calmly walks up to her and leads her to take a seat on the couch, which is by far much more comfortable than the chairs, and says, "Santana just told us what she remembers…before her fall I mean."

For a split second, the older Lopez woman wants to be excited at the fact that her daughter remembers something, but then she realizes that had it been something good, the girls would not have had such a bad reaction.

Brittany opens her eyes and makes her way to sit beside Santana's mother and crawls into her arms when the older woman offers her comfort. She hugs her and whispers, "Mami…you know that Finn boy we were talking about?"

Carmen wracks her brain for a second before she nods her head slowly, "Yes, the one mi Santana was telling me was causing trouble for everyone."

Santana nods her head when her mother's eyes find hers as she takes over from her girlfriend, "Mami…Finn, he. Well he pushed me."

Carmen looks up into the face of Quinn, who is standing beside her like a sentinel, tall and stoic, with her face as fierce as an oncoming storm.

She doesn't question whether it's true or not. She doesn't need to, because she just knows, in her gut, that that is the truth.

She can feel it in her bones. Can tell from the tremors that shake the girl in her arms. She can tell from the rigid way that Quinn holds herself up, to the way Rachel is grasping onto Santana's hand and whispering what she can only imagine are apologies into her palm.

Carmen doesn't know what would ever possess anyone to ever do a thing like that. And then she thinks about it and realizes that sadly that isn't true at all. There are many reasons why someone would decide to assault someone.

She looks at her daughter and sees the determination shining through her eyes and says, "Then you're going to stick it to him mi feroz leona. We are going to make sure he does not get away with this. This is much more than what he's done before. He's gone much too far this time."

Brittany pops her head up and smiles softly, "I love when you call San a fierce lioness, cuz like, that's so true."

Carmen smiles at her and hugs her tight before looking up at Quinn once again, "Your pride of lions is going to be okay Quinn, I will not rest until we get some justice."

The blonde bites her lip, finally returning to them, as she turns to look at the older woman, "This…Mama, we need evidence. Santana bumped her head; every lawyer that that scumbag gets is going to argue that she can't be remembering correctly because of her fall."

Santana huffs loudly from her place in the bed and says, "Yeah, they probably will."

Quinn looks dejectedly back at the older Lopez and quietly says, "It's not right, nor is it okay in any shape or form, but a part of me is worried that he's going to weasel his way out of this as well."

Rachel groans as she shakes her head, "How is it possible that he's getting away with these atrocities?"

"Oh don't you worry your little head about that Miss Berry. He won't be getting away with this."

Officer Moore had knocked on the door, but had gone unnoticed and had heard the question as he went to open the door.

Carmen and Brittany stand up to greet him properly, "Hello officer."

"Ma'am." He nods his head at Carmen respectfully, "Miss Brittany." She smiles at him as she shakes his hand, "Did you mean that?"

He nods his head very seriously as he looks into her bright blue eyes, "I promise you, he is going to pay for this."

Rachel and Quinn look at each other, both hopeful yet guarded until they know just how certain he is.

Santana is on the same page as them because she speaks up, "Officer Moore? Please don't promise Britt-Britt anything unless you're 160% sure you can deliver on dem goods."

He takes a step closer and nods his head, "I will eat my own badge if I can't deliver on dem goods Miss Lopez, don't you worry."

He then looks around the room and says, "Now, normally I'd be talking to the Lopez women alone, and asking you three to step outside."

He looks at the three in particular and then sighs, "Except I have no doubt that you'd be listening just outside and then you'd be told word for word, verbatim, what we discussed. So, I'm not going to do that. We're going to talk this through, and I'm going to get statements from all of you, and we're going to nail this-" he stops himself, remembering that he's in the company of women, as he grins sheepishly before clearing his throat, "I will not allow this punk to get away with another thing."

Rachel and Quinn walk over to Brittany and they each wrap an arm around her waist as they settle down on the couch together, watching as Officer Moore pulls up one of the chairs and takes a seat as Carmen does the same opposite him on the other side of Santana's bed.

He pulls out a tape recorder and a pen and notepad, "The tape recorder is so I can go over my notes later, and not have to bother you again. Also, serves as a none biased party…I have no control over what I may write in my notes on certain individuals. Is this okay with you?"

Santana chuckles and nods her head, "Sure thing, but I'd so love to see those notes you mentioned."

He chuckles and presses record and then clears his throat, "Please state your name."

She raises an eyebrow but acquiesces, "Santana Lopez."

He smiles and stops the recording only to press play to check that it is in fact working. The sound comes through crystal clear and he smiles and presses record again as he says, "Technology these days."

Which earns him a chuckle from Santana who is incredibly amused at the moment.

"Okay, Miss Lopez, please tell me, in your own words, what happened."

She explains to him how she had been enjoying lunch with the girls, Brittany, Rachel and Quinn, out on the quad but had remembered that she had to talk to the A/V club about helping out during Glee. She continues by saying she had left with the notion that she would be able to make it back to them in barely no time at all. She tells the officer how she had indeed gotten to the club and how they had agreed to help, and that afterwards she had left them to return to the quad for the rest of the lunch hour.

She pauses for a second as she takes a deep breath, "I mean, seriously, he literally came out of nowhere. I was just about to take my first step onto the stairs and then I hear him ask me if I had come back from messin' with someone else's life…After that, before I even could open my mouth to reply to him, to tell him to back off, before I could do anything…he had shoved me with so much force, I legit thought I was flying. I saw him watching me, I saw him stand there up until, at the very least, the first hit. I remember screwing my eyes shut then and bracing my arms for impact, but after that I don't know what happened, until I came to at the hospital."

Office Moore nods as he finishes up his notes really quick before looking at her and asking, "And you haven't approached Finn at all?"

Santana shakes her head as best as she can, "Hell no. I wasn't about to start shi-" she rolls her eyes, having just saved herself from cursing, "I wasn't going to go and start something. Rachel wouldn't have liked that one bit, and honestly neither would my girlfriend, and I'm pretty sure Quinn would have probably kicked my sorry butt after all of them finished with me as well."

He smirks but says nothing as he nods, "So it's a surprise to you that he decided to do this to you?"

Santana shrugs her shoulder, "I'm surprised he did anything today sure. But a part of me isn't all that surprised he would. He's been really mad at me for a while because I keep stopping him from hurting either Rachel or Quinn. And I don't think he likes that very much."

Officer Moore raises an eyebrow and asks, "But you hadn't instigated anything towards him, have you?"

"No, no I haven't. If anything, I've been going out of my way to stay as far away from him as possible. I was making it a point to avoid him at all cost, simply because I didn't want to have to deal with him."

"Thank you Miss Lopez."

She gives him a grin, "De nada Officer Moore."

He stops the recording and turns to the girls on the couch, "Alright, now I'm gonna ask Quinn please, for your account of the events, okay?"

The blonde nods and sits forward as the officer gets up and pushes the chair over towards the couch to better hear her.

"Alright," he presses record, "state your name."

"Quinn Fabray."

He repeats the process from earlier and then starts again, "Miss Fabray, could you please recount the events of earlier today as you remember them, in your own words."

The blonde takes him through the day, right up until lunch. At this point she pauses and looks right at the brunette as she once again explains what she did and saw and what happened. She makes sure she doesn't leave a single detail out; not wanting a detail to come out later, and having someone on the defense question whether or not it actually happened.

Once she's finished her account Officer Moore once again asks her some questions and then stops the recording and blows out a steady breath, "I don't know if I would have been able to be brave enough to come through for my friends like that when I was your age Miss Fabray."

She shrugs her shoulders, the rising blush on her cheeks and at the top of her ears shows that these comments are really getting to her. She doesn't think she did anything braver than what Santana would do. What they both did for Rachel. She'd go headfirst into anything for these girls. She says as much.

Smiling at her Officer Moore nods his head in respect and then turns to Rachel and then finally Brittany, getting their accounts of what happened.

After he's done with the interviews, he drags his chair back to its original position and then clears his throat as he addresses all of the occupants in the room.

"Your stories coincide with that of two eyewitnesses who have seen the attacker as well as the attack in progress. They have both identified him and have given their statements, formally. They are both willing to testify if need be. The accused is not going to be allowed anywhere near school grounds. I also recommend taking out a restraining order against him…" he looks at the girls and repeats, "A restraining order against him. He's suspended from school for the time being while this matter is getting handled. Until then, like I stated previously, he is not to be on or around school grounds. You girls are going to be safe at school, and in your own homes, or my name isn't Moore."

He bids his goodbyes to the girls and Mrs. Lopez before taking his leave.

He tucks his pen and notepad away, and tightens his grip on the recorder.

He radios in so that the station is aware of his location, and then he and his partner make their way to the Hudson residence.

Finn had left the school in the midst of the chaos left behind by his actions. Officer Moore isn't about to pass up the opportunity to place him under arrest, regardless of his whereabouts. If he has to sit in the kitchen with his mother waiting for him to return home, he will.

He sighs as he thinks of Carol Hudson. No way is this going to be easy at all on this woman.


A/N: Thank you for the responses for the last two chapters, I'm really sorry I left the last chapter where I did, but I mean that's why you guys got this update so soon. I couldn't just leave you all hanging like that x Read and review please? it really does make all the difference for us mere fanfiction writers xo much love x