Chapter 3

A/N: Just quickly managed to finish off this chapter today! Knew that if I didn't get it out now, it probably wouldn't be finished until the weekend. LOL.

They ended up going to Brittany's house. It wasn't really properly planned out, but there'd been some subconscious decision not to go back to Santana's house and then the next thing she knew, she was knocking on the front door with her arm around her girlfriend protectively, and then they were suddenly sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, a glass of water in front of each of them, Brittany's mother sat across from them with a concerned expression.

Santana hadn't spoken since they'd left the school. They'd spent the whole drive in silence, and she'd only occasionally hummed in agreement to something Brittany has said to her. It just didn't feel like she had any words inside her. She didn't know what she was supposed to say, or what anyone wanted her to say, in response to what had just happened. She didn't have the energy to say anything.

"Mom, is it okay if Santana stays here for the weekend?" Brittany finally said with pleading eyes, breaking the silence. "I don't want her to go home…"

The older woman sighed. "Brittany-"

"Please, mom," she paused, not really sure how to get the news across without going too far deep into things. She glanced across at Santana for a few moments but her attention was more focused on the half-empty cup of water, or at least she was pretending that was the case. "Something happened… to do with Sue's campaign… and it says some things she doesn't want getting out and especially not that way, and I don't want for her to be alone when that campaign ad airs on TV-"

The older woman's face softened and, with a frown, she leaned over to rub her daughter's shoulder. Once again, she shifted in her seat to turn to Santana and placed her hand over the girl's own, shaking it gently to get her attention.

"Of course you can stay here, honey," the blonde woman uttered softly. "Yeah. Just let me know if we can do anything to help you, okay? Do you have any clothes or anything with you? I can go round yours and pick some stuff up if you need."

Santana shook her head, looking up with glazed over eyes.

"It's okay, thank you. I can borrow some of Britt's. I think I have some stuff around here anyway."

Mrs Pierce had fought, insisting that it wouldn't be any hassle for her to go around to Santana's house and picked something up, but Santana had stood her ground and with Brittany doing the same as well, in the end the older woman realised that the dark haired girl wasn't going to be changing her mind any time soon. With that, the two girls made their way upstairs to Brittany's bedroom, and Santana had excused herself to shower and get dressed pretty much straight away. She came out dressed in one of Brittany's sweatshirts and a pair of black leggings which were a bit baggy on her from the size difference, but they were good enough.

It was barely 7pm by the time both of them were in bed and the lights were out. Outside, it was still that time of year where it wasn't quite dark, so she could still see the other girl's silhouette in the room even if she couldn't make out much else.

They laid in silence for a while, Santana pulled as close to Brittany as she could and the blonde could feel her breath on her chest. Part of her felt relieved that her breathing was back to normal after earlier, but when she reached up to stroke her neck she could feel her pulse and frowned.

"Your heart is beating really fast."

The latina shifted next to her. "Yeah, it must be from earlier."

Neither quite knew what else to say for a while, so they laid there in silence for a bit longer. The thump-thump-thump of Santana's heart was still fast, so the blonde knew that she wasn't asleep or at least anywhere near.

"Do you parents know you're here?"

She felt her girlfriend nod against her. "Yeah. I text them."

"Did they respond?"

"Mm, yeah." She took a shaky breath, and Brittany thought it sounded like the other girl was crying, or at least on the verge of it.

"I'm so scared, Brittany. I can't tell them. I just can't. They'll hate me."

The blonde wrapped an arm tighter around her waist, holding her closer to her. She sighed, shushing the other girl's quiet cries. "They're gonna find out at some point, honey. I know it's scary but maybe if we try and figure out what to do soon then it will be better."

"It's not gonna get better, Brittany."

The other girl's sobs became louder, as much as she tried to stifle them. Brittany didn't really know how to respond. She knew the other girl's relationship with her parents was rocky at best, but she'd never really known the full extent to which. She just knew that they were the type who went to church twice a week, and that they prioritised their jobs over their daughter. All those factors in mind didn't sound promising, but nonetheless, she tried to push it back down and tried to focus on stroking and braiding her girlfriend's hair subconsciously until she eventually cried herself to sleep.

It took her Brittany a while to do the same, She spent a while staring at the girl in bed next to her, her shattered form, and trying to figure out how to put the pieces back together. She couldn't think of anything to improve it all, really, either.

Four hours later, with no inspiration on the matter coming anywhere near her, the blonde also finally shut her eyes, but not without a tender kiss on the other girl's forehead. One of many to come, or at least that's what she hoped, but with how things had decided to play out, not even she - Brittany S Pierce, who always seemed to be able to think of a new way to deal with something, a new way to make someone feel happier - knew at this point.

A/N: Yay to keeping the Glee fandom alive.