Santana sat on a cold plastic chair in Rachel's empty hospital room. She and their mother had been escorted to another floor to run some tests before Rachel's procedure. The silence felt loud as her conversation with Brittany replayed in her mind.
"We need to talk. My dad just finished up a meeting with his firm and I sort of eavesdropped at the end," Brittany said.
Ironically, given Rachel's situation, Santana felt her heart skip several beats.
"Why do I feel like you're about to drop a bomb on me?" Santana bit.
Brittany was silent before letting out a sigh.
"Your dad's hearing is going to be tomorrow," Brittany said.
"What?!" Santana bit. "I didn't think it would be for a few more weeks. Don't we have people who are supposed to warn us about that? This Claire bitch or whoever? Are you sure?"
Santana could hear herself talking a mile a minute. She was pacing outside the door of Rachel's room trying to keep her voice down and not be overheard.
"Yes, I'm sure," came Brittany's calm, in control voice. "Your caseworker was on the call. They all found out at the same time."
She could vaguely make out her mother's cell phone ringing in Rachel's room and absent-mindedly wondered if it was Claire calling with the news. Santana could hear Brittany's breath hitch as the girl tried to remain calm for her girlfriend's sake.
"There's more," Santana stated in observation. She knew Brittany and her tells better than anyone. "What else?"
She listened as Brittany cleared her throat and took a breath.
"Again, San, I just overheard some stuff. I could be wrong.. but.. your dad is apparently making claims to try and defend himself. He's… he's apparently going to say Quinn came on to him. My dad doesn't know I know, but.. I had to tell you."
Santana was shocked into silence. After a beat, Brittany slowly continued.
"I mean, there's no way it'll work Santana. It was in the hospital, there were people around and I mean.. Quinn only hit puberty like yesterday. No sane person will believe him."
While Santana knew Brittany was right, her blood was boiling. She didn't even know her dad would be allowed to have a defense. He was caught abusing a minor in a public place. How could he even try to defend that? She thought he'd just rot behind bars for the rest of time. What if the judge believed him?
Then there was the Quinn of it all. Her sister had been catatonic in the immediate aftermath of her trauma. Quinn had been acting out and her emotions were still all over the place, but she was at least communicating now. She knew Quinn had a boat load of progress still to make, but Santana felt they had somewhat of a breakthrough today. She didn't want this to set her sister back even further.
She shifted in the chair as the silence of the room overtook her. There was still no sign of Quinn and her paranoia was starting to take over. She stood up from the chair and aggressively pushed it over, the loud sound refreshing to her ears. She turned to storm out of the room in the hopes of finding Quinn when she literally ran into her sister.
"Geez, what's your problem?" the blonde said with arms outstretched in front of her to stop the collision.
"Where have you been?" Santana snapped.
Quinn's brows furrowed and Santana could almost feel her sister's temper start to flare and rival Santana's own.
"I needed –"
"Air, I know," Santana cut her off. "You needed air. Did you get any?" She managed to say the last part with some semblance of kindness and sympathy.
Quinn eyed Santana suspiciously.
"I mean.. it's never enough but, yeah I guess, for now. What's up with you?"
"Where did you go?"
"Just down the hall. I needed to breathe a little after that test thing and just being in here," Quinn answered with a gesture to the room.
"But where?" Santana pushed. She wasn't even sure why she was pushing. "Did you talk to anyone?"
Quinn brushed passed Santana and picked up the chair her sister had flipped over moments earlier. "What is this, twenty questions?"
"Just tell me!"
"No! I literally went down the hall, Santana!" Quinn said, voice rising.
"You need to be careful!" Santana scolded.
"Why?"
"WHY?!"
"Girls! Santana!" came a new voice.
Their mother stood in the doorway of Rachel's room, eyes wide and looking slightly worse for wear than she had before Rachel went in for tests.
"I could hear you from down the hall, what is going on?" Shelby came in, half closing the door behind her, and took a seat on the chair Quinn had just returned to its upright position. The blonde girl stood beside Rachel's empty bed and Santana in front of the room's bathroom door.
"Your daughter is losing it, that's what's going on," Quinn answered, shooting daggers at Santana.
Santana felt herself going off the rails, but the nervous energy coursing through her body wouldn't let her slow down.
"Oh, I'm losing it? Mom, you saw Quinn run off after the test and she didn't come back until two minutes ago. That's more than enough air, Quinn!"
Quinn gaped at her. From their earlier conversation Quinn thought Santana understood about needing space and separation from the things that overwhelmed her. Quinn held up her end of the conversation by letting Santana know and truthfully not going very far at all. Now, here her sister was accusing her of something Quinn couldn't figure out.
"Santana, enough." Shelby said.
"Of course," Santana bit with an eye roll toward her mother. "You're just going to pretend everything is fine, aren't you?"
"No Santana, I –"
"Something happened," Quinn stated simply, interrupting Shelby. She looked hard at Santana. "This… you're not acting normal. What happened?"
Quinn's words caused Shelby to turn quickly to Santana, the same questioning look in her eyes.
Santana met her mother's eyes and saw the question in them, but the longer she maintained eye contact, she noticed it was more of a silent understanding. She was right. Claire had been the person calling Shelby while Santana was on with Brittany. Her mother knew their father's trial was now imminent and, if Brittany heard correctly, she also knew what his allegations would be. Recognition soon flashed in her mother's eyes.
"How do you know? Did-was Claire here?" Shelby asked softly.
"Claire?" Quinn asked confused, looking between the two.
Santana ignored Quinn and shook her head at Shelby. "No. I.. I just had a feeling," she lied. She didn't want to throw Brittany under the bus and in turn get the Pierces into trouble. It was a terrible lie, but one she hoped her mother would buy. "What did Claire say?" she asked hopefully, hoping to move the conversation from how Santana might have known, to what was actually important.
Shelby broke Santana's gaze and straightened out her sweater before looking between her two daughters and taking a breath.
"She called me earlier. I wanted to talk to you girls about it separate from Rachel, so I made sure she was set up and in good hands for tests and came back here. Claire had some news."
Santana watched as her mother paused and tried to collect her words. The older woman looked to Quinn.
"Your dad – Leory," she corrected, "It turns out he'll be having his hearing tomorrow morning."
Santana's stomach dropped just like it had when the words fell from Brittany's mouth. She took a glance at Quinn who seemed pale, but her face was, unsurprisingly, unreadable. The blonde's eyes were fixed on her mother's. Santana knew there was more, but she wasn't sure Quinn should hear it, and she could practically hear the wheels turning in her mother's head as she debated whether or not to share that information.
Santana decided that she herself wasn't ready to hear her father's so-called defense again, so she tried to bide some time.
"So.. what does this all mean, Mom?"
Shelby turned toward Santana with a small smile.
"It hopefully means he'll be sentenced a lot earlier than anyone thought he would," she said with a confident nod.
"Do I need to testify?" Quinn asked in a small voice. She wasn't quite sure how court proceedings went down, but she had seen enough episodes of Law and Order: SVU to understand that victims were often put on the stand to recount their experiences.
"No, honey," Shelby said strongly. "It's not a trial, it's a hearing. There's plenty of evidence that will be presented to the judge and he'll simply get his punishment. You don't even need to go," she said grabbing hold of Quinn's hand. Santana watched as the blonde pulled it away.
Quinn nodded excruciatingly slowly as she digested the information.
"Claire wanted to come by and talk to us about it. I told her about Rachel and said we'd be here, but if you girls would rather go home –"
"No," Quinn whispered. "I-I don't want Rachel to be here by herself."
"Well, I'll be here sweetheart if –"
"No," she repeated. "I need to see her through this."
Shelby smiled sadly at her middle daughter.
"Of course," she said. "In that case, I'm sure Claire will be turning up here sooner rather than later. Do.. do you want to talk about anything before that?" the woman asked hopefully. She desperately wanted to be the mother she had bailed on being years ago.
Santana looked to Quinn and decided to take the cue from her. If Quinn wanted to talk, Santana would. If not, she wouldn't. Of course, though her body was here, Quinn seemed to be faraway in the deep, winding valleys of her mind. Santana tried to put herself in Quinn's eye-line, but the younger girl was unseeing.
The room remained silent in response to Shelby's question and Santana listened to her mother's long, exasperated sigh. Santana felt sympathy for her mother, which was rare, but something she had been trying to get used to feeling. She was sure her mother was tired, frustrated, regretful to an extent, and dealing with her own emotions on top of her daughter's. The latter, Santana had the least sympathy for. Their mother had every opportunity to do something about her life and the lives of her children and didn't until it was too late. Still, something was better than nothing and Santana felt sorry for the woman.
The older woman stood and turned to Santana dejected, noticing Quinn was not currently present.
"I'm just going to get some water," she said. "Can I get you anything?"
Santana could only offer a shake of her head in response. She didn't want Quinn to take ten steps back, she didn't want to have to explain to Rachel what was going on, listen to Claire about what tomorrow meant, and really just wanted to curl up in Brittany's arms and forget about the mess that was her entire life.
"Quinn?" she tried.
Nothing.
Santana let out her own sigh and had the urge to flip over her mother's vacated chair again just to do something with the emotions running through her veins. In a rare occurrence, her self-control remained intact.
It had been a few minutes since their mother had left for water and a word hadn't been exchanged between the two sisters. Santana heard the click-clack of executive sounding heels against the tile floor of the hospital and in a moment's time, Claire Rosenthal stood in the doorway.
"Here I thought you two were the ones I'd have to keep my eyes on and then Rachel goes and makes things exciting," she said. Her tone was positive enough, but still serious. "How are you guys?"
Santana shrugged with widened eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"How does it look like we're doing?" she answered with a gesture in Quinn's direction. The blonde remained standing at the side of Rachel's bed. It looked like she was thinking very hard about something.
Claire put a gentle hand on Quinn's shoulder.
"Hi, Quinn. Are you okay?"
Quinn didn't jolt like Santana expected her to, but instead blinked several times and looked around the room as if she had never seen anything like it.
"What? Hi.. W-what are you doing here?"
Quinn looked over at Santana for an answer as to why their case worker was standing in the room.
"Mom said she was coming, Q. Where'd you go just now?" Santana asked concerned. Claire also turned her attention to Quinn for her response.
"Oh, sorry.. I just zoned out. Um, you didn't need to come here," Quinn told Claire.
Claire nodded and took a seat on the edge of Rachel's hospital bed.
"Well, I would no longer have a job if I didn't," she smiled, "and frankly, I wanted to see you guys and your mom. I'm sorry Rachel isn't feeling well and is holed up in here."
Santana looked Claire over. She was always so put together in dress pants and a blazer or some black business dress. Currently she was in a yellow sweater dress that reminded her of something Quinn might wear as a working professional one day. She had on heeled boots. Santana thought her legs must be freezing outside in the New York winter air. She wondered what she must think being such a put-together person dealing with an absolutely not put-together family full of dysfunction.
"She'll be fine," Santana offered. "It's apparently not that serious and I think Rachel is secretly loving all the attention so," she said.
Claire chuckled. "That doesn't surprise me. Is your mom around?"
"She went to get water a little bit ago," Santana replied. Her gaze shifted to Quinn who was still standing, eyes more present than they had been earlier. She was with them.
"So, um, we know what's going down tomorrow," Santana started.
"Yeah," Quinn rushed. "So, you really don't need to be here just to tell us again. It's okay."
Santana let Claire deal with Quinn.
"It's alright, Quinn. I'm just here to check in and see if you have any questions. Tomorrow should be fairly easy."
"Fairly?" came Quinn's small, breathy voice.
Santana met the caseworker's eyes daring her to continue with the dreaded details of her father's defense. Quinn did not currently know and did not need to know what their father was going to claim.
"Yes," Claire said with weary eyes on Santana. In this moment, Quinn wasn't ready to hear more. "There is so much evidence proving what he did that it will be a very cut and dry hearing."
"No matter what?" Santana asked. It was a loaded question.
Claire kept her eyes trained on Santana with a nod.
"No matter what," she confirmed.
"And he'll.. go to jail?" Quinn asked innocently. Santana was reminded of a Quinn from many years ago. "Forever?"
Claire pursed her lips.
"Unfortunately, probably not forever. It's up to the judge to determine what he'll serve. Some judges are stricter than others, giving years in prison while others offer community service."
"Community service?!" Santana shouted. The mere suggestion had flipped a switch inside her.
"Really, Santana? Again?" came Shelby's voice carrying one open bottle of water and three closed ones, presumably for her daughters. "We're in a hospital, keep your voice down."
Santana ignored her mother and geared her rage toward Claire.
"You're telling me there's a chance he could get off with community freaking service? Is that what you're telling me?!"
Claire held one hand up in an attempt to slow Santana down.
"Santana, listen to me," she said seriously. "There is an incredible team representing Quinn," Santana scoffed, but let Claire continue. "There are over a dozen witnesses that can be called if necessary including you, your mom, and Rachel, security camera footage, Quinn's medical records from the treatment immediately after everything happened, that all speak clearly to what your father did that day. No judge that is any good in New York is going to let him walk away with a slap on the wrist like community service."
"They can't. He's a terrible person. Do you.. do you need stories? I can give you more stories about him. They're fucking endless," she felt herself spiraling, but again couldn't stop herself. Control was fleeting. "I think I even have photos of bruises on me.. some of Quinn.. umm," she scoured her brain for more evidence, hating herself for destroying all of it in the past for fear of anyone ever finding out. "I know there's more. I know stories are only heresay, but I know I can find proof.."
"Santana," a voice said. She couldn't make out who it was over the sound of the blood rushing in her ears.
"He can't get community service for what he did. It's not an option..."
"Santana," the voice said again.
"Rachel.. he.. he never did anything, but he might have tried once.. and I.. she.. I don't want her to have to go on the record, but I think she would if it meant- I could talk to her—"
"SANTANA!"
The voice finally yelled, and Shelby didn't reprimand them for the noise. Santana focused her attention on the voice that she now realized had belonged to Quinn. The younger girl's eyes were wide with fear and concern, alarmingly present in the moment. Quinn reached up to wipe the tears from Santana's eyes that the older girl wasn't even aware she was shedding.
"It's okay," Quinn said.
"No it isn't Quinn," Santana sniffled. "It isn't. You don't understand. He can't just walk after what he did. After.. after everything he's ever done. He deserves to rot."
Quinn put both hands on Santana's shoulders and touched their foreheads together.
"I know," she said lowly. "But it's not about everything. It's just about…that."
Santana shook her head. She hated this. She hated that her fourteen-year-old sister could grasp the situation better than she could.
"Why aren't you mad?" Santana asked her. Her own arms holding Quinn's in place.
"Cause you need me to be calm," Quinn reasoned.
This made Santana more upset. She attempted to pull away from Quinn, but Quinn kept her pulled in tight and Santana didn't resist.
"You're the one who should be feeling everything, and you feel nothing," Santana cried.
"That's not true."
"Yes, it is!"
She finally pulled away from her sister and completely forgot her mother and Claire were in the room taking in the sister's conversation from front row seats.
"You can go," she barked at Claire. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Claire had attempted to tell Santana she didn't think it was best that any of the children attend the hearing, but Santana didn't stick around long enough to hear her.
Before she knew it, she was out of the hospital, in an Uber, and on her way to the Starbucks by Brittany's home. She was grateful it was still winter break from school and she didn't need to wonder about what day or time it was.
She downed a hot chocolate and had just ordered a vanilla chai latte by the time Brittany came through the door and made a beeline toward Santana's table.
"I'm gonna need them to put some goddamn alcohol in this drink," she told Brittany loudly, wanting the baristas to overhear.
"Okay, not a good idea, but I get it. Talk to me," Brittany said sitting down.
"You're perfect," Santana said matter-of-factly.
Brittany laughed. "What? Where'd that come from?"
"You just are," Santana said taking a sip of her drink. "My family is a fucking circus or zoo or mental institution and you like, still care about me. You still like me. You're hot and blonde and athletic and sweet and smart and your family is normal and your parents love you and have actual adult jobs and I'm going to end up homeless on the freaking corner because my mom will spend all our money on alcohol and I won't be able to pay for any college without a scholarship and any money I do have will be spent on therapy for Quinn and Rachel to make sure they turn out like 25% normal. You're gonna be in some huge, beautiful apartment overlooking the park and have a house in the suburbs and be a hot yoga-mom saving the world. And you're still here with me right now. You're perfect."
Brittany's eyebrows rose higher and higher until they nearly hit her hairline as Santana spoke.
"Are you sure you're not already drunk?" she asked. "Did.. does your family know about tomorrow yet?"
"Yup," Santana said, popping the 'p'.
"And?"
"And I had the worst reaction out of any of them. It's like I'm the only one that cares."
Brittany shook her head hard.
"I know for a fact that's not true. So do you. What'd Quinn say?"
Santana sighed.
"I don't know. She like literally disappeared from planet Earth for like 15 minutes. She was there, but she wasn't. And then she was the one trying to comfort me. She said something like she couldn't be angry because I was, so she needed to be the calm one or some bullshit like that," Santana regaled with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head.
Brittany unzipped her jacket, figuring this conversation could go on all night. She placed it on the back of her chair and turned back to her girlfriend.
"I'm sure she's angry too. Put yourself in her shoes, San. Imagine learning that your father is going to accuse you of something so.. unimaginably heinous?"
"She doesn't know that part," Santana gulped.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I didn't tell her, Britt," she said simply, taking another sip of her latte. It was starting to lose it's taste and she considered opting for a second hot chocolate. "And I made sure Miss Legal Pants Claire didn't mention it either."
Brittany's brows furrowed. "Santana, the reason I told you was so that you could give Quinn a heads up."
"Oh, so it wasn't a heads up for me?" she accused.
"What? Of course it was that too! I just mean I knew you wouldn't want Quinn to be blindsided by that legal woman or hear it from your mom or hear it for the first time tomorrow."
Santana knew that last bit couldn't happen.
"They said she doesn't need to be there. If she doesn't go, she'll never know. Problem solved."
Brittany raised a very Quinn-like eyebrow at her.
"Oh, really?"
Santana shrugged both shoulders.
"What'd your mom say?"
Santana rolled her eyes again.
"I don't know. She found out while I was on the phone with you. We didn't talk about what he's gonna say because Quinn was there the whole time and I couldn't go there. She came back to tell us Claire called while Rachel was getting tests… fuck."
"What?" Brittany asked, concerned at the sudden change of thought.
"I totally bailed on Rachel," Santana said, heavy with guilt. She put her head in her heads.
Brittany grabbed one hand across the table and Santana picked her head up.
"Quinn and your mom are there, right? She'll be fine. You're her favorite person in the world, you can't disappoint her. Go back to your mom. How is she doing?"
She sighed and did her best to believe Brittany. The girl was, after all, always right.
"I don't know. Part of me feels bad for her, and she's trying and I'm grateful but.. the other part of me just resents her so much. This didn't have to be our lives."
"No, but.. it is," Brittany said gently. "We can't change the past no matter how badly we want to, and I know you guys want to more than anyone. But you can start fresh each day and try to do better. I think your mom really is trying, San."
Santana was so in love. She would take Brittany right there on the Starbucks table if there weren't people around and it wasn't completely illegal.
"Earth to Santana," Brittany was waving her hands in front of Santana's face. "Do I have food on my face or something? I didn't even eat anything"
Santana smiled at her. "No. I was just thinking about how much I love you."
Brittany blushed.
"Well, I love you too," she said leaning over for a chaste kiss on Santana's lips. "And I love your zoo family, and I promise to let you live in my apartment overlooking the park and be my hot-yoga wife, no matter what."
"Hmmm," Santana feigned not being sold. "What about the therapy for the problem children? That shouldn't appeal to you."
"Therapist for everyone, including you, lives in the guest house on the property in the suburbs."
"Touché! Well, then I guess I'm sold."
"Good," Brittany laughed.
Santana took one last chug of her drink and crumpled the paper cup in her hand.
"Hey Britt?"
"Yeah?"
Santana bit her lip. "Would you go with me tomorrow? To the hearing?"
Now it was Brittany's turn to hesitate.
"I-I don't know Santana. My dad wouldn't want me there and.. Are you sure you really want to be?"
"I need to be," she urged. "I just don't think I'll make it through without you there."
The blonde mulled it over in her mind for a few seconds before she looked back into Santana's face and saw her answer written there clear as day.
"What time do we need to be there?"
Santana had ended up back at the Pierces and was currently cuddled with her girlfriend on top of the bed watching some mindless chick-flick movie on the blonde's laptop. Brittany knew Santana was emotionally all over the place and that her mind was preoccupied. Watching a plot-less movie was exactly what she needed.
"I don't know why all these dweebs are fawning over this chick," Santana remarked at the movie. "She doesn't even have any boobs."
Brittany chuckled, and nudged Santana for being silly.
"It's cute! Just enjoy it," she laughed.
"I'm just saying," Santana said.
Her phone buzzed alerting her of a text message from Quinn.
Where are you?
Britt's.
Part of her felt bad for being short with her sister, but she was still feeling every type of way and Quinn seemed checked out, but fine.
Can I come over?
Santana sighed and the movie no longer had her attention. Quinn rarely asked to hang out with them outside of Glee or Cheerios and hated to impose on someone else's family. Brittany paused the movie and leaned closer to the brunette,
"What's up?"
"Just Quinn being a buzzkill on my time with you. She's asking to come here. Do you think your parents would mind?"
"That's not like her," Brittany acknowledged. "Of course she can come. Honestly, my parents would probably be really happy to see her. Let me just go give them a heads up."
With that, the tall blonde rolled off her bed, pulled her shirt down that Santana may or may not have pushed up at the start of their movie, and left the room.
Santana gave Quinn the okay to come over and then lay flat on her back on the bed looking up at Brittany's ceiling. She longed for just a day where she could be a normal teenager making out with her girlfriend all night whose biggest concern was what she was going to wear the next day.
She still felt guilty for bringing their problems to the Pierces doorstep – literally – but was so grateful the family that had been there for them for several years continued to be, and didn't turn a blind eye. In fact, from what Brittany had been telling her over the course of the last few weeks, Mr. Pierce was working late nights and calling in favors all over the place to make sure Leroy couldn't lay a hand on his children again. She was eternally grateful and had absolutely no idea how she'd ever make it up to them.
She had managed to avoid the awkward conversation around tomorrow's hearings when she and Brittany arrived back at the Pierce residence, but as Mr. Pierce himself knocked on the door to the room, she knew she wasn't lucky enough of a person to evade it forever.
"I hear I'm adding another blonde to this house, huh?" he said in that friendly Pierce manner.
Santana smiled at him. "I'm starting to think I should dye my hair to blend in."
The man laughed and took a seat on the accent chair in the corner of Brittany's room.
"Nah, you make it exciting!"
She offered him as genuine of a smile and laugh as she could muster, which wasn't much but she wanted to be polite. She knew he came in here for a reason and it was why Brittany still hadn't returned.
"Santana, just before your sister gets here I wanted to just let you know it's okay to be nervous about tomorrow. I know Claire filled you in." He stood up to close the door over just enough to keep outside ears out.
"I'm not nervous," she said all too quickly, avoiding eye contact. She had to remind herself to play it cool and not let on that Brittany had given her details no one else would. Staring hard at the carpet she wondered if Brittany's rug always had purple in it. Get a grip, Lopez.
"I know you're not," he said in that fatherly tone that only existed on corny television shows. A tone Santana had only known was even a real thing because of the kindness he'd shown her over the years. "But just in case you get nervous," he continued knowingly, "just know that we've worked to make sure that guy gets what's coming to him, okay?"
Santana swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. She nodded her head, not wanting to speak.
"I need you to trust me, Santana. Can you do that?"
She kept staring at the purple specks in Brittany's carpet but nodded her head in agreement.
"I know you're going to want to go to this thing tomorrow and I need you to trust me enough to stay away. Can you do that?"
Finally, she met his blue eyes. She had never seen them so determined before. Normally his face was lighthearted and jovial.
"Why?" she asked in a polite challenge. Santana knew she had to be there and nothing anyone could say would stop her. What didn't anyone understand?
Jim Pierce sighed. A ran a hand over his face before looking the eighteen-year-old before him straight in the eye again.
"Because there's a good chance stupid people are going to say stupid things and you don't need to be there for that when those stupid things ultimately won't matter in the end."
"Won't matter?" Santana said exasperatedly. She sat up fully on Brittany's bed. She respected Mr. Pierce a great deal, but no one could tell her what mattered and didn't to her. "Mr. Pierce, you know what happened. You know what he's going to say. How does that not matter?"
The man's eyes grew wide as he realized Santana knew details he thought she did not.
"You know what he's going to pull as his defense, don't you?"
"That Quinn went to him for sex? Asked him for it? Wanted it? Enjoyed it? Yeah, I freaking know!" She was somehow standing in the corner of Brittany's room passionately yelling at the girl's father when her name fell from Brittany's lips in the doorway.
Both Mr. Pierce and Santana looked to the now open door to see Brittany shielding a tired looking Quinn, who had just heard everything Santana had said.
"H-He what?"
Thank you so much, as always, for reading! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are absolute inspiration and aid in motivation for subsequent chapters. I so appreciate your feedback and hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
ForeverCourage- Things can never stay positive for too long can they?! Something must be wrong with me, haha. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy this update!
Spawn- As always, thank you for your review! The girls are all over the place, but communication is improving! Hopefully you got some answers this chapter.
- Thank you so much for the kind words! I hope you continue reading!
Lily- Here's your update! Thanks so much for reviewing. More of the Puck and Quinn friendship is planned for the next chapter. Stay tuned
KStoryteller – "We need to talk" is never good, but Brittana is! Thanks for reviewing, let me know what you think!
Bproofmgmt- Here's more! Hope you enjoy!
Guest – Thanks for reviewing! Hope you enjoy this update.
DARecruit – Thank you so much for your review! It really meant a lot to me. I hope you have caught up to enjoy this chapter. Lots of ups and downs throughout this story, but the light will always come. I do my best to keep the emotions raw and real, even if it sometimes has the potential to sound repetitive or slow down the story, I think it's necessary. Thanks again!