First, let me apologise for the epic delay on this chapter. I'm really sorry. I had my first week of work and it was hectic and they gave me homework for a coaching course they put me on and it was insane. I haven't had time to think.
Second, let me apologise for the epic bleh this chapter is. I'm not happy with it but I needed to churn something out for you beautiful people. Usually the chapters just write themselves but I really struggled with this one for some reason. Things will be better eventually. I haven't had a good week.
That said! Hope you guys have had a fab week and I'll update soon. With a better written chapter. Yes okay good.
I own nothing but the plot and the OCs.
I look around at the masses of dead bodies and see Abby spit on one of them. We'd avenged our friends, our family, and a small part of me felt good for that.
The rest of me felt sick to my stomach at the massacre we'd just committed.
I was never as cold or heartless as some of the girls, but a part of me still relished the action, the intensity of a shoot-out. Now, I just felt sorry for those guys, their mothers, the family they'd never go home to.
Then I remember the family of mine that they killed mercilessly and steel myself again. My emotions were all over the place right now. I wanted nothing more than to go home.
But where was home?
"Bastards," Quinn mutters as Rachel's fingers crawl up the sides of her arms, sliding around her back. "We gotta get out of here. Loot what you can."
We nod and murmur our consent before each going to a body and checking what could be taken, what could be left, and what we'd never even seen before. I take some stray money and a handy looking knife from a man who looks no older than 30 and sigh. The world was cruel, but we had to play by its rules.
I stand up to see Abby wielding a tomahawk. She shrugs as I eye her curiously. "Always wanted one. Think they're pretty handy, don't you?" I mimic her shrug and move to the next body, gritting my teeth against the smell of blood mixed with metal. My eyes flick up to see Rachel standing there, not taking a dime.
Quinn notices the same time as me, asking why she isn't moving. Rachel smiles, pointing her thumb behind her. "Got five trunks of cash. Who needs stray pickings?"
I snort, only she would think like that. She wouldn't think of how easily money deteriorates in this world. How easily it could get stolen. How quickly we would be left with nothing again. I let her stand there, though, as I shrug as carry on looting the bodies. "We should go," Quinn's voice echoes around us and we nod, standing up to stretch. "We have to move on quick."
"How about goin' to Hayden?" I venture. "It ain't safe yet to go back to camp, if they had any back up who stayed there. May as well go play a hand or two in the town."
Quinn nods and we mount our horses to ride in that direction.
I just had no idea what mistake I'd just made.
"I told you my friend's name was Quinn, did I not?" I exhale a shaky breath as I begin my confession. "Well, as we got older, she more or less ruled the gang. She had more smarts than I did, and I didn't necessarily like the attention, and she craved it. She must still run the gang, Britt. They have to be still out there."
"Quinn? I ain't never heard that name before. Quinn gang?" She shakes her head, looking confused. "I'm sorry, I'm not followin' San."
We were sitting up in bed, the cover thrown loosely over our legs, my hand clutched tight in hers. It wasn't a conversation I wanted to be having, but I knew it would come sooner or later. Apparently sooner, since Rachel Fucking Berry showed up here.
"No, not the Quinn gang." I chew my lip for a moment, "Her name's Fabray. Quinn Fabray."
I see the wheels turning in her head and wince as I see the light click on in her head. "Fabray?" she whispers, and I nod tiredly, wishing I could take it all back. Take my whole history back.
"Well, well, well," a deep drawl comes over from the cliff surrounding an abandoned house we're just walking past, having dismounted our horses to give them a break after such a long run. "Looky what we got ourselves here, fellas."
"Where the fuck are you?" Quinn calls out, her guns drawn the same time as everyone else's. Her dual pistols aimed at every nook and cranny as she circled on the spot.
"Stop bein' such pussies," I shout, hoping to taunt them out of their hiding place. They could snipe us, one by one, if they stayed hidden. But in the open, we'd win easily.
Lindsey joins in, throwing a smirk at me as her grip on her rifle tightens. "Afraid of a bunch of women?"
We hear a laugh, which starts a few others and I clutch my pistol tighter. It sounded like there was a lot of them. Quinn and I trade glances before we hear someone speak again. "Just give us the girl, and we'll be on our way."
"What girl?" We exchanged another look as Quinn sighs, clearly pissed off. "Listen fellas, whoever you are and whatever you want, come take it from us if you got the balls."
They sound like hyenas when they laugh, that's the only way I can describe it. The high pitched laughter of someone who's got a screw or six loose. Goosebumps rise up over the rigid muscles of my outstretched arm. "We know you have her."
"I don't know who you're-"
"He means me," we hear a quiet voice, and it's something I haven't heard from the woman yet. "Of course he means me."
Quinn's arms waver slightly as she frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Who's got the biggest history here for screwin' people over?" Rachel sighs. "I guess someone found me and actually had the brains or cunnin' to bring more than a few men."
"Then they can try and take you," Quinn says seriously. "But you ain't walkin' over to them."
"And get the rest of you killed?" Rachel laughs, but there's no humour in it. I'd never seen her like this. "Quinn, no. You are the most important person in this world, and the next. I ain't lettin' you take a bullet for my own stupidity."
"Like they could hit me," Quinn smirks, but I can see it waver. She heard how many they were, and even she isn't that stupid to not know when she'd be beaten, hands down. "Have you seen how quick I am?"
"So many times," Rachel smiles, planting a kiss on her cheek. "But for now, let me do this."
"We were raised together, Britt," I whisper and she nods understandingly. She's taking it a lot better than I thought. "We were good friends for a long time."
"Where is she now?"
"I have no idea. Last time I saw her she shot me and left me for dead, Britt." I scratch the back of my head. "She's my shooter. You found me after she nearly killed me there."
Her arm comes up to snake around my bare shoulders, pulling me closer into her. "Why did you never tell me any of this before?"
"I thought maybe… Maybe I'd left it all behind. My past isn't pretty, Britt. I thought when I woke up here, I'd start a new life. And I have, it's been perfect," my hand finds hers and I lace our fingers together. "You've been nothin' but perfect, Brittany." I sigh, placing my other hand on top of ours. "But my past is definitely hauntin' my future."
"What's this gotta do with Rachel?" She frowns lightly, trying to take all of this in. It's a lot of information in such a short space of time.
"Rachel used to run with us," I whisper.
"No," Quinn whirls, to where she must've seen a shadow and open fires. I dive behind the nearest rock, pulling Lindsey with me as I duck under cover. "You're one of us now, Rach," I hear Quinn call as she drags Rachel with her to a rock next to ours. "And I'm protectin' you."
I catch a smirk on Rachel's face but before I can make anything of it a bullet ricochets of the top of the rock, barely missing my hat. "Shit," I duck further, shooting blindly in the direction the bullets were flying at us. There was too many. We had to fall back.
"You stay right there," Quinn stares at me, like she knew what I was thinking. "We're killin' these bastards or they're killin' us."
"Is she worth that much?" Lindsey mutters to me. I shrug, looking over at Rachel, noticing she's barely shooting. When she was, it was careless and not even aimed properly. I grit my teeth.
"Somethin' doesn't seem right."
"Maybe she just gave up," Lindsey shrugs, too focused on avoiding imminent death to pay much attention to her. "Must be a shit life runnin' from people who wanna kill you."
"Isn't that what we do?" I hear a man groan loudly as I shoot him in the leg, watching him fall to the floor. "Isn't that what we do every fuckin' day?"
"What's eatin' you?" Lindsey smirks. "Obviously no one or you wouldn't be this pissed off."
"Fuck off." I keep shooting until I hear a cry off from my right. "Abby!" I shout, but she waves me off before I can run over to her.
"Just a graze," she smiles painfully, wiping the blood away from her arm. "Just skimmed me," I nod, nothing we hadn't handled before. She keeps shooting and I nod again, glad she's okay.
When I turn back, Quinn and Rachel are in a full scale argument. "You're not goin' over there! Either we die together or we shoot all of these bastards."
"Stop bein' so fuckin' blind, Quinn!" Rachel slides her gun back into the holster on her hip, grabbing Quinn by the shoulders. "We'll die together, and I'm not havin' you waste your life for me. I need you to see how much you mean to me," she raises her arms in the air above the rock, showing her surrender. "I need you to see what I'd do for you."
"She's bad news, Britt."
"I've talked to her," she admits quietly. "While you were away, when you weren't around, she'd come talk to me, more than usual."
"And tell you what?" I frown at all the things Rachel could have possibly said about me. Every little thing she could say that would put Brittany off.
"That my father had a good business deal goin' for him. That we'd be rich, live in happiness. That I couldn't be happy, my fathercouldn't be happy if everyone knew his daughter was a skirt chaser."
I snort. "Even though she's one herself."
"Yeah… I kind of found that out."
My head snaps up and I look at her curiously. "What?"
"She may have tried to kiss me."
"I'm goin' to kill her," I deadpan. "Did you let her?"
"Hell fuckin' no," I laugh, hearing Brittany swear was always a bit of a surprise. She seemed so sweet and innocent. "I'm yours," she pokes me gently on the end of my nose. "Forever, you hear?"
"Yes, Ma'am." I lean forward and kiss her. "But what the fuck, Britt?"
"Guess she wanted to hurt you," I shrugged. "That's why I got mad. She was feedin' me all these things about my father and everyone else hatin' me and then I got even more confused when she tried it with me that I just… snapped. I got mad at everyone, includin' you, for gettin' us in such a mess."
"I'm sorry," I whisper, but she shakes her head.
"I see that I was wrong," she whispers. "It'll never happen again, San. I'll never doubt us again. I panicked."
"It's okay, baby," I kiss her again gently and hear her sigh into the kiss. "She has a habit of tryin' to fuck with people."
"I'd gathered," she smiles a little sarcastically.
"Your father made a big mistake bringing her here," I whisper. "She destroys things, Brittany. She always has and she'll never change. She won't be satisfied until this ranch is burnt down or your father is driven out so she can take it as her own."
"You think she'd go that far?"
"I'm pretty confident about it. And Lindsey's gonna help us."
"She used to run with you, too." It wasn't a question, she knew the answer anyway. She just wanted me to confirm it.
"That easy to tell?" She nods and I laugh. "Yeah, Lindsey was my best friend. There's still that connection, Britt. She's like a sister."
"And you two…"
"No, God, no." I laugh again at the thought. "Not even once. That'd be like canoodlin' with family."
"So why is Rachel here now?"
"If I knew, I'd tell you." I sigh, not having any real reason other than to fuck up someone else's life. But what if she knew I was here?
"Nice of you to hand her over quietly," a man, tall and filthy, appears from behind a tree and grins at us as Rachel nears him. His hand closes over her wrist as he forcefully pulls her into him, making her fall into his chest. "Now, you ladies go on home, our business here is done."
"I'll kill you," Quinn growls at him. "I'm gonna find you, and kill you."
"Looky here, kitty's got claws," he chuckles. "You won't have the chance. I could kill you right here on the spot." He cocks his pistol, aiming at Quinn. "But I'd rather not waste time with you when I have this whore to teach a lesson."
He guides Rachel forward, walking away from us as two other men train their guns on us. "He's just walkin' away," Quinn barely whispers. "Like he's gonna get away with it."
"Wanna go after him?" I mutter, trying to not let the other men hear us.
"That even a question?" She smirks at me. "Lindsey, Abby?" We look over at them and they nod from behind their rocks. "Let's do this."
"I'm sorry you had to find out like this," I say quietly. "If there was any other way, I would've tried."
"But there wasn't," she presses her lips to my forehead and I sigh at the comforting touch. "And we're okay, San. It doesn't make me love you any less."
"I love you, Brittany. I don't know what I'd do without you. I don't know how I'd cope."
"I love you, Santana," she kisses the tip of her nose. "Regardless of your past. It's not that I'm interested in. It's our future together that I'm focused on."
"A future without Rachel Fucking Berry," she nods her agreement and I smile into the kiss she offers me. "A future with just us." I let myself get lost into the kiss before my nose begins twitching as a different sense snaps into action. The smell hits me. "Britt." I pull back, worry taking over. "Do you smell burning?"
