A/N Sorry I haven't updated in a while. My dad passed away suddenly two months ago and I've been helping my mom get through it. Jake in this story is named after him and modeled after his forever kind and giving heart. He was every bit the great man that is portrayed in this story and hopefully continuing this will keep him alive not only in my heart but yours as readers. I hope you enjoy the chapter and more will be coming. Thanks for your continuing support and love of this story.

Brittany's POV

She just lays there staring at the wall and I have no idea what to do for her. All that she is has just been taken away by some bitch who couldn't fight fair.

Quinn's no help either. It's easy to comfort Santana when she's yelling about the object of her frustration but the silence is deafening.

She won't even eat and I know my girl loves food. Someone should have checked that bitch's gloves. I mean, it was a nationally televised fight, you'd think they'd want everything to be down to regulation.

So all I can do now is stare at San's back again as she turns over in her hospital bed and tries to shut out the world. But I refuse to give up on her, I love her, after all.

I walk over and gently lay besides her being careful of her broken ribs and cheekbone. "Baby…"

Nothing.

"San, please talk to me." I'm begging now. This is pathetic.

"What do you want me to say?" Santana whispers and her voice is hoarse from not using it.

This is the first thing she's said to me in days.

I coax her to roll over towards me and thankfully she does so I can look into her eyes. Well her one eye because the other is so swollen from her broken cheekbone that it's tightly closed.

"I know there's no way to change what happened but I just want you to know that I'm here for you whenever you want to talk about it. I love you Santana and things will get better. You helped me during the darkest part of my life and I'm not gonna give up on you." I say with newfound determination but it seems my words have fallen on deaf ears because she just stares at me blankly.

I run my fingers through her blood stained and matted hair as I try to envision my love in liquid form pouring over all her wounds and making everything better. And it will get better.

xxxx

Santana's POV

I don't know what they want me to say. Inside I'm screaming but when my mouth opens all the words that were on my tongue die and I'm left only with my thoughts.

Fighting is who I am and all I'll ever be. The only thing I know as well are drugs and that's not an option. Even though I'm reminiscing how good they feel as they pump through my veins to quell the pains in my body.

I don't even have energy to be mad at Bernice. I'm mostly mad at myself. I should've seen the bulge in her glove. I should've known. And now, even though I won, I don't feel anything but regret.

xxxx

2 weeks later…

"Come on Santana you need to go to physical therapy or you're never going to get better." Quinn pleads with her sister for the second time in an hour.

Santana looks at her for a second before turning her attention back to surfing the channels on the TV at an alarming rate, jamming her finger into the button as if it would relieve some of her anguish.

Frustrated, Quinn sighs and rips the remote from Santana's unsuspecting hands, "Enough!" She yells and chucks the remote against the wall to her left causing the back to come off and batteries to fly everywhere. "I won't watch you waste away Santana! I won't!"

Any other time this would work and Quinn would have pissed Santana off to the point of getting her shit together in spite of the blonde. But when Santana's bottom lip quivers and she pulls her knees to her chest Quinn realizes this is much different than anything else. Never has she seen Santana so fragile and frail. Never has she been at a loss as to what to do for her sister and as she wraps her arms around her she can't help but feel like she's physically holding the pieces of Santana in place.

xxxx

"Hey baby…" Brittany whispers as she crouches over Santana on the bed while gently pushing aside the hair in the Latina's face.

Santana doesn't open her eyes but she sucks in a deep breath, which turns into a sigh as she exhales.

As Santana sleeps Brittany takes the time to gaze her eyes over the many marks the mar her fiancé's face. The most prominent of these marks being the gashes on her forehead and cheek from Bernice's metal plated gloves.

The surgery to repair Santana's cheekbone went well and the best plastic surgeons worked to minimize the scarring but Brittany can tell they will be prominent for the rest of her lover's life. But somehow as she goes to gently touch the area around the laceration on Santana's cheek, she finds her girl all the more beautiful.

Santana stirs and opens her eyes. For a slight moment as Santana got lost in Brittany's blues, the blonde could swear she saw a ghost of a smile and a light in Santana's eyes. But, just as quickly, they turn hard as if a light switched on and revealed all the scary things that were once cast in darkness.

It's been a month now and Santana hasn't said much other than the obligatory yes or no. So when Santana holds Brittany's gaze and whispers, "I love you," in the most broken and painfully small voice the blonde has ever heard, Brittany can't help but let a tear fall down her cheek. She can't help the silence that follows or how she scoops Santana up regardless of her broken ribs and cradles her close to her heart.

Santana buries her face into Brittany's shirt and grips it with all her might as the sounds of her sobs bounce off the walls.

"I love you too Santana." Brittany whispers into her hair. "I love you too."

xxxx

6 months later…

"Come on Ky, let's work on your uppercuts." Santana says as she holds up the sparring pads for the girl to hit.

She's taken more of an interest in training Ky and the other kids at the gym. But as she gets hit with another dizzy spell she's reminded of the shit storm that is her life.

Santana stumbles back after Ky hits the sparring pad and the girl jumps to catch her.

"Whoa, whoa." Ky says as she slowly lowers Santana to the mat below.

Santana blinks slowly as she lays stiffly staring at the ceiling of the gym. "I'm ok. Just need to eat something." Santana reasons but they both know her eating habits have nothing to do with it.

Ky gives her a tight smile before opening a bottle of water and handing it to the trainer. Santana gives a nod of thanks and sits up to take a sip of water.

"I'm kinda beat." Ky says nervously running her fingers through her hair. "Let's call it a night."

Santana nods once again at the teen. Ky has never been a good liar so Santana sees right through her tactic to make the training end because of her and not Santana's dizzy spell. The young blonde may not know much when it comes to life yet but her empathy for people and her sense to know what they need is beyond her years.

Ky extends a hand and helps Santana up. They wordlessly walk to the locker room and gather their things before Santana drops her off at the Pierce's.

When she pulls up Jake is outside on the front porch. Ky gets out of the car and greets her father with a kiss on the cheek before happily bouncing her way to the front door.

Wordlessly, Jake goes around to the passenger side of the car and gets in.

Santana turns her head to look at him with an eyebrow raised inquisitively.

The older man reaches into the front pocket of his jeans and proceeds to light a joint.

He takes a couple hits and then passes it to a slightly confused Santana. She's smoked with Jake, yeah, but it's not a regular occurrence. She's definitely curious.

Jake soon starts a quiet chuckle that eventually turns into a laugh. "Life's funny isn't it?"

Santana cocks her head to the side. "How many of these have you smoked?"

"Just this one." He says and then waves his hand at her. "But that's not the point. Life's funny because we spend all this time and energy trying to make it go one way and then when you least expect it, life takes a turn."

Santana takes a hit of the joint and passes it back. "I guess so…"

"Santana you were fighting through life without boxing gloves way before you ever stepped in a ring. It's just a different type of fight."

Santana internally cringes not wanting to talk about this. "Jake, I'm fine, really…"

Jake turns and stares her right in the eye. "You've never lied to me before, don't start now." He says in a stern voice as he grabs the handle to open the car door. Softening his tone a little he says, "Find the fight in you Santana."

Santana drives in silence as thoughts swirl in her head. She just recently entered the gym again to train fighters and it's already getting to be too much. She feels frustrated like when you break a leg and you just want to be able to simply walk to the bathroom but can't.

Jake's words swirl in her head as she applies pressure to the brake at the red light. A different kind of fight?

She presses on the gas and soon arrives at home. The sun is just setting and she spots Brittany, the light hitting her blonde hair perfectly as she drags her feet towards the car in her police issued training sweats and t-shirt.

The blonde started academy training last week. Even though she was highly decorated as a soldier, she needs to graduate the academy to earn a badge.

Brittany's face splits into a smile when she gets within hugging distance of Santana.

Santana stiffly reciprocates the hug before pulling away. "How was training today Britt?"

"Good. I'm still really out of shape though." Brittany huffs.

"How many things did you get top score on?" Santana asks smirking.

"4." Brittany replies smiling sheepishly.

"Out of how many, B?"

Brittany bites her lip. "5."

Santana chuckles. "Come on. I'll make you some dinner."

When they walk inside they are greeted by Quinn and Shay who are on the couch watching TV.

Santana spares a quick glance at Quinn and utters an obligatory, "Hi," before hurrying off to the kitchen.

Things have been kind of awkward between Santana and Quinn with the latter training for the first fight of the season.

Santana puts this to the back of her mind as she grabs chicken breasts from the refrigerator and places them on a cutting board.

Brittany hovers near her while sitting at the kitchen table and waits for the right time to say something. "How'd it go at the gym today?"

Santana pauses her cutting and looks up at the blonde. "F-fine." She stutters out unconvincingly.

Brittany stands up and places her hand over Santana's to pause her slicing. "You don't have to hide from me. Ky told me what happened."

Santana rips her hand out from under Brittany's and hastily washes her hands in the sink before shakily drying them on a dish towel.

Brittany saunters up behind her and wraps her arms around a fuming and lost Santana. "Talk to me… please?" She basically begs.

"I have to finish dinner." Santana replies while attempting to get out of Brittany's hold.

Instead of letting her go Brittany spins her around and holds her at arms length by the shoulders. "Fuck dinner. We're having this conversation."

Santana huffs but listens anyway and sits down at the kitchen table.

"I'll start." Brittany says slightly irritated. "You've been giving Q the cold shoulder for the better part of a month. I think that's a good place to begin." Santana goes to object but Brittany cuts her off. "And don't even try to say you haven't."

Santana rolls her eyes and strums her fingers against the table. Brittany chose this exact subject because she knew it would bring up deep shit without having to ask outright.

"I'm just…" Santana huffs frustrated at not being able to find words to express herself. "It's just…"

"Ugh!" She grunts frustrated. "I feel like a balloon just floating through this existence without any control to dictate which direction I go and I feel like I just keep floating farther away from solid ground." Santana finds the courage to lift her eyes to meet Brittany's and for the first time in months the blonde sees Santana's eyes become a little less heavy.

"You gotta pop the balloon San." Brittany says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Santana sits there so dumbfounded that she actually shakes her head from side to side to try and sort her thoughts. "What?"

"Once the balloon pops it will fall to the ground. Then someone will pick it up and it will get recycled into who knows what. The possibilities are endless even after the balloon pops." Brittany smiles widely. "It's simple really."

Santana can't help but laugh heartily at Brittany's always amazing way of thinking. "Well, when you say it like that…"

Brittany puts all joking aside and grabs both of Santana's hands in her own. "I'll be here with you every step of the way."

xxxx

Quinn hits the sparring pads with little fervor as Mo holds them giving her the side eye.

She huffs and grabs the bottle of water behind her.

When she turns around her heart almost drops out of her chest.

Now donning the sparring pads is none other than Santana with an apologetic look on her face.

A smile reaches Quinn's face but nothing is said.

The blonde walks over to Santana and uppercuts the pads in a sort of silent acceptance of Santana's silent apology.

No words need to be spoken as the two sisters reconnect in the only way Santana knew how. In Santana's own way she's telling Quinn she will support her fighting even though she can't get in the ring anymore. In her own way she's finally letting her in and Quinn couldn't be happier.

After ten minutes Santana yells, "Jabs," and Quinn changes her punch.

They go on training for over 4 hours that day and when Santana pulls the chair out from under Quinn's ass at dinner that night, everyone knows it's a start.

xxxx

Brittany opens the refrigerator and quickly grabs a beer. She twists it open while leaning against the counter and chugs it swiftly.

It's been a long day. Her first day on patrol to be exact and she ended up having to chase down a drug dealer.

8 hours earlier…

Brittany walks into the precinct nervously fiddling with her uniform. She doesn't know why she's internally freaking out she's been in Iraq for crying out loud but it's not a scared freak out it's something different. Change always affects a person.

She nods to her fellow officers and makes her way to the chief's office.

Grasping at all the courage inside her she knocks on the door.

A loud "Come in," helps to wake up her brain and Brittany opens the door to reveal Chief Carter sitting at his desk with files spread everywhere.

The chief is a large dark skinned man with the most booming and deep voice she has ever heard and if Brittany saw him in street clothes she'd think he was a body builder.

Anyone else would be overcome by fear at the sight of the man but Brittany being Brittany foregoes judgments and makes up her own opinion of him.

"Pierce, please sit down." He says in his deep voice waving her in stoically.

Brittany sits down with her back straight and her hands in her lap, a habit from the army.

Finally he looks up from the files again and smiles widely. "Congrats, you're going on patrol today." He reaches into a drawer on his desk and pulls out a holstered gun and a police badge before sliding it towards Brittany. "You're partner is waiting for you in squad car 8. Good luck." He smiles again and proceeds to look back down at the files.

Brittany takes that as her cue to leave and utters a thank you to the man before making her way to the parking lot out back.

When she finds the right squad car it's empty. But as she walks around to the driver's side she trips over something and tumbles to the ground.

"Ouch. What the fuck?" Someone says and Brittany looks up to find a stocky black woman in a police uniform holding her head with one hand and a tire iron in the other.

"S-sorry." Brittany stutters out. She's usually much more confident.

"It's cool blondie. Judging by your uniform I'd say that you're my new partner."

Brittany nods and extends her hand while still on the ground. "Brittany Pierce."

The woman shakes her hand. "Mercedes Jones. I just gotta finish changing this tire and we can go."

Brittany nods and stands up as Mercedes tightens the rest of the bolts on the tire.

The blonde studies her new partner noticing her heavy build and doesn't once think of the things her weight limits her to do. Instead she thinks about how it's a plus for them. She bets Mercedes could kick some ass in the field.

They pull out onto the road and Brittany attempts to change the radio but ends up getting her hand slapped away.

"Uh uh, blondie. Nobody touches my radio." Mercedes scolds playfully.

Brittany chuckles. "Maybe you should let someone touch your radio, you seem a little tense." Brittany jokes in her way that completely crosses boarders but breaks the ice all the same.

Mercedes lets out a hearty laugh, "I like you Pierce."

The police radio then crackles to life, "We've got a call for suspected drug dealing in Lima Heights…"

"Mercedes turns her head towards the shoulder radio on her uniform and hits the button. "Copy that this is squad car 8 we're about a mile away."

Mercedes then flicks on the lights and sirens and speeds down the road. As she weaves in and out of traffic Brittany feels like she's in a stunt car. She's in awe of Mercedes' driving skills.

When the come to the block of the crime Mercedes flips off the lights and cruises slowly down the block. "He's wearing a white Brown's hoodie and black Dickies."

Brittany goes into soldier mode and scans the street with piercing eyes. "There!" she yells when she spots the man obviously selling something to a person in a white car.

Mercedes comes to a screeching halt in front of the car and the dealer dashes into the alley.

Immediately Brittany jets after him while Mercedes calls backup to deal with the people in the car.

Her legs burn but she refuses to give up. The dealer eventually gets cornered by a ten-foot fence he fails to climb and that's when he starts to act like a caged animal.

He charges towards Brittany slamming her against a brick wall but she acts fast and twists his arm behind his back and slams him to the ground.

After she cuffs the man she grabs his arm to help him stand.

When the hood falls of his face Brittany's blood runs cold.

He smirks at her before spitting on the ground. "Long time no see, Brittany."

"Not long enough, Puck."

xxxx

"I can't believe you arrested Puck on your first day, that's hilarious." Quinn chuckles wishing it were her.

"Yeah, and good thing medical marijuana is legal now or I'd have to arrest all three of us." Brittany laughs as she passes the blunt to Santana.

"You can arrest me all night baby." Santana whispers loudly enough for both blondes to hear.

Quinn chokes on the beer she was sipping and struggles to breathe. Brittany pats her on the back laughing.

They're all gathered in the living room while Dom's at racing camp. He's gotten really good and they couldn't be more proud.

Quinn then gets up to change into pajamas. But as she's descending the stairs all the beers she drank come back to bite her in the ass.

She wobbles slightly at the top and recovers but when she's 5 stairs away from victory her foot slips and she lands with a thud on the ground.

Brittany and Santana come running towards the source of the noise and can't help but laugh at what they find.

Quinn's laying on the ground with her sock hanging off and wearing the most ridiculous pajamas Santana has ever seen. They have all different types of baby farm animals on them and the t-shirt she's wearing is pink with a giant sun in the middle.

So, naturally, Santana takes a picture.

"Ugh, you bitch." Quinn mumbles before getting up with the help of Brittany.

"But really what are those pj's you're wearing?"

"I have to do laundry it was the last thing I had in my drawer, bitch."

Brittany cuts in on the banter. "You should've just slept in your jeans."

Quinn rolls her eyes and they all make their way back to the living room.

They sit down and silently watch the Grammy's until Santana speaks up again when Quinn goes to retrieve another beer.

"Oh my god! Is that a curly piglet tail on the ass of those pajamas!" She points and laughs as Quinn quickly turns to try and look at the ass of her pants. Her eyes go wide when she realizes Santana is right.

She hears the digital shutter make a sound on Santana's camera phone and tackles the Latina.

"You better delete that San!" She yells but as they're wrestling Brittany grabs the phone and posts it on Facebook.

"Hmm… Already has ten comments." Brittany laughs to herself.

Quinn stops abruptly. "What! Give that to me!"

"Not gonna happen Q, it's out there for all the world to see and make comments on." Brittany says holding the phone just out of reach.

"This is going to be funnier than Pharrell's hat." Santana reply smugly.

"Ugh you two are such pigs." Quinn groans out.

"Nope that would be your ass Quinn." Santana says as she and Brittany both squeal with laughter.