5 months later..
Surprisingly this season, the McKinley Titans have been winning. Two weeks ago they played Dalton Academy and beat them so that they're able to proceed through to the semi-finals of the championship.
The play off game is in 5 days and so Coach Beiste has extended training by an hour at night. By the time Santana and Blaine are returning home, they are so tired that they're eating dinner and almost immediately passing out.
Their bodies are being pushed to the maximum recently, they're getting up at 4AM, training for two hours for ROTC, going to their classes for the day and training for two and a half hours at night for football. Luckily, Blaine has also has had his cast removed now and his arm is much stronger.
Quinn and Mari are becoming worried about their health. Both of them are beginning to move sluggishly and they have dark bags beneath their eyes. When approached about it and the idea of taking it at least easier is risen they always have the same response of 'Nothing slows down in the army.'
Thankfully, there's only 3 days left but both of them are showing extreme signs of exhaustion and no one knows how to help.
Quinn is sitting in her health class next to Kurt when he, too, voices his concerns. "Are Santana and Blaine okay? I was in math class with Blaine earlier and he was falling asleep. I've noticed Santana can barely keep her eyes open in class either."
"Coach has extended training hours before the play offs this weekend and they are both so tired, me and Mama L don't see them at night, they get home, eat and go to sleep. We're worried about them but they won't stop."
"The two of them must be the most stubborn and hard headed people I know." Kurt says.
"Trust me, I know. Try living with them both."
The siblings managed to make it to Friday, completing all forms of training to the best of their ability. Quinn is just glad that finally they can both get some rest tonight. She doesn't expect to see either of them until at least Sunday morning.
Quinn runs out onto the field with the remaining Cheerios, who are beginning to hype up the crowd ready for the football teams entrance.
As soon as the team leave the tunnel, the crowd erupts into applause. They're favourites to win this game and hopefully proceed through to the finals.
Quinn picks out her favourite eyes from the huddle and blows her a quick kiss with a wink. Santana smiles, returns the gesture but then begins frowning, looking behind the blonde.
Quinn turns to see Kitty from the stands, (Sue kicked her off the Cheerios after she purposely dropped Quinn), waving and blowing kisses to her girlfriend.
Enough is enough.
The hazel eyed beauty storms from the field and up the stand to where Kitty is sitting. As she sees the cheerleader approaching, she stands and decides to make the first move. "Aw, is Fabray jealous that I'm taking the attention away from her? Are you upset that your girlfriend can't take her eyes off me?"
"You must be out of your mind if you think that she was looking at you with anything other than disgust then. You look at her like that again and we're going to have bigger problems than we already do." She seethes storming off before Kitty could reply and the situation escalates.
The game has just kicked back off after half time and the Titan's are leading by one touchdown.
Coach Beiste has just called a time out and as Quinn looks over to see if she can spot her girlfriend, she sees her with her helmet removed and is wiping her forehead with the bottom of her shirt, revealing her bare torso. Quinn is near enough salivating at the sight of tanned abs contracting covered in sweat.
That might be the sexiest sight in this world, I can't wait to finally be beneath her.
That thought alone shocked Quinn. Since their conversation, Santana had been extremely respectful in the bedroom. They would only ever make out and when they felt it was becoming too much, usually Santana would be the one to pull back, not wanting to pressure Quinn.
Recently though, the blonde had felt more and more comfortable and ready to go further. So maybe, she was much closer than she thought to going all the way.
A blow of the whistle and a lot of commotion brought her back from her thoughts. She heard the words 'Lopez down' and without thinking any further, darted towards the body being surrounded on the field.
As she began to approach the huddle of boys, she feels strong arms wrap around her waist and they aren't familiar. She turns to see Puck holding her back. "Let me go Puck! I need to see her."
"Her?" He says, "Quinn, it's not Santana, it's Blaine. He collapsed. It's really not something you need to see."
"I need to see him, I need to see he's okay, let me go." And with that, he lets her go and she pushes her way through the other players.
She reaches the front and sees Blaine surrounded by medical staff, lying on his back, unmoving. Santana is kneeling by his head, stroking her hands through his hair. The sight alone breaks her heart.
As she steps closer to her girlfriend, she can hear her whispering in her brothers ear, "Wake up little bro. You're okay, I need you to get up now." She walks closer and sits beside her.
Before she can say anything, the paramedics arrive and the on site medical team are relaying the information that he has low blood pressure and his body is shutting down to rest as they believe he may have an irregular heartbeat.
They place Blaine on a stretcher and Quinn tells Santana to go in the ambulance with him and that she'll call Maribel and meet them at the hospital.
When Quinn arrives she finds Santana alone in the waiting room. The brunette stands and embraces her girlfriend as though her life depends on it.
She suggests they sit back down but Santana makes sure they always have some form of physical contact. When they sit in the chairs, Santana leans into Quinn and rests her head on her shoulder and the blonde wraps an arm around her.
"Have you heard anything?" She says softly.
"Not yet, Mami is in there with him." She pauses and Quinn barely hears her next words, in fact if there was anyone else in the room making any sort of noise, she would have missed them. "It's all my fault."
"Tana, baby, this is not your fault! You've both worked so hard this week, you couldn't have stopped it."
"I shouldn't have let him work so hard, I could see that he was exhausted and I still let him." She cries.
"This could have happened to either of you! You've been tired too! You have both pushed yourselves way past the limit!"
"But I'm not the one in the hospital bed Q!" She screams. "I'm not the one that dropped to the floor and who's body was shaking! It wasn't me! It was the one person who's been consistent throughout my life!" She shouts as she begins to sob so hard she's hyperventilating.
Quinn catches her before she drops to the floor and seats her back in the chair. The blonde kneels before her and tries her best to calm down the weeping girl. "Breathe Tana. Look at me, breathe with me. Deep breath in and out." She repeats until Santana seems to get her breathing under control.
Quinn sits back beside her and they slide into their previous position. Within a few minutes, the blonde feels Santana's breathing even out and realises that she's fallen asleep.
Around half an hour later, Mari appears and agrees with Quinn that they should let her rest while she can.
She informs Quinn that Blaine was just dehydrated and exhausted. His body was struggling to keep up and so it needed to shut down and reset but he's fine and will be home tomorrow, he's currently sleeping and there is no heart problems as first suspected.
Quinn feels instant relief flood her and her and Mari both decide that Santana needs also to go home and rest.
They wake her and she reluctantly agrees to go home. She falls asleep again whilst Quinn is driving, (she got her license a couple of months ago) and barely wakes up as Quinn drags her inside the house.
Quinn removes her girlfriend's dirty uniform and pulls her a clean t-shirt out to sleep in and leaves her boxers on. She manages to get her into bed and tucks her in, she gives her a kiss on the head and goes to leave but feels a small pressure on her wrist.
Santana has gently clasped it and is asking "Stay with me?" And Quinn can't refuse, she wants to make sure that her girlfriend is okay through the night.
She grabs a pair of Santana's shorts and one of her t-shirts and changes in the dark, (changing being something else they haven't done infront of each other) and slips into the single bed behind the brunette. She wraps her arms tightly around her as Santana subconsciously moves herself backwards and sighs contently.
"Goodnight baby" Quinn whispers into the dark and they both fall into a deep slumber.
Quinn is surprised when she wakes the next morning to find Santana still asleep in her arms. Usually, the brunette wakes first as her body struggles to sleep in, however, after yesterday, Quinn has no intentions of waking her up.
She lies for a while, just looking at her favourite face.
They must of moved in the night, as they are now lying with Quinn on her back and Santana is almost lying fully on top of Quinn, her head is on her chest, arm around her waist and their legs are tangled.
Santana soon begins to shift and Quinn's runs her fingers through the head of brunette hair, "Shh, it's okay lovebug, go back to sleep." The girl seems as though she's settling again and sighs softly but around five minutes later, her eyes begins to flutter open and Quinn is mesmerised by the sight of the beautiful chocolate orbs.
Santana blinks a few times to adjust her eyes and smiles tenderly when she sees she woken up in the arms of her love. "Good morning mi princesa." She leans up to peck Quinn's lips.
Quinn blushes at her words, she loves when her girlfriend speaks Spanish, but that's also the first time she's said that.
"Good morning." She replies when Santana has lay back down.
"Have you heard from Mami?"
"I haven't but she told me last night Blaine is fine to come home today. His body was just really tired and dehydrated. He'll need to rest for a couple days but he'll be back to normal in no time. You both need to make sure you're looking after yourselves, you scared us."
"He scared me when he dropped to the floor and his body was shaking. I'm hoping we won't need to play football next year, we only have 2 years left of ROTC so we really need to focus."
Quinn demeanour shifts and Santana notices but doesn't raise the issue. Instead, Quinn breaks the silence a few minutes later, "You both need to look after yourselves better the next two weeks. Kurt text and said that the Titans actually won and so you have a championship final to play.
McKinley haven't been in a final in around 20 years so you need to be your best and I need to know you're going be to okay and your body can handle it. I don't want what happened to Blaine happening to you, or him again for that matter." She says, still stroking Santana's hair.
"I'll be fine baby, my body can handle it, now come on, let's get up so I can go get my brother."
Blaine returned home and within a few days, everything was back to normal. They were both training hard and seemed to be sleeping and resting more, as promised.
For Mari and Quinn, the only saving grace was that this would be the last game of the season, they were both skeptical about whether their bodies could handle the pressure.
Nothing remotely interesting happened within the time period between the two games. The school was hyped and multiple motivational speeches were given to the football team and the Cheerios.
More girls than ever hit on Santana, which to put it lightly, did not sit well with Quinn. Santana would let them down gently and Quinn started to make it known, the 'reduce PDA' in the hallway rules were gone but Santana didn't mind as long as it made her girlfriend feel better, if she had to mark her territory, then she could deal with it. Besides, Santana knew that the fascination with her would die down when the season was over, it's only because the attention was on them at the moment.
The time flashed by and before they knew it, they were back on field.
The Titans fell behind the whole first half and were trailing for the beginning of the second too. It wasn't until Blaine suggested the switch tactics, which definitely confused their rivals, Carmel High, as they thought they had McKinley all worked out.
All of a sudden, touchdowns were being scored left, right and centre and they were unstoppable.
The scores were tied and there was 10 seconds left on the clock. The team huddled around whilst the final play was decided.
They broke and the crowd was going wild. Quinn stood nervously on the sidelines, biting her bottom lip.
The snap was made and Finn was holding the ball, looking for his best option. Usually, Puck would be his 'go to guy' in this situation, but he was being blocked so well, he would never make the catch. His only option was Santana, who was charging freely towards the end zone.
The two of them hadn't really worked out their differences since Quinn had slapped him in the hallway. They didn't make eye contact, they didn't speak, they avoided each other at all costs.
But if he wanted to win this game, she was his only hope. He launches the ball towards her and watches as it perfectly arches through the air.
She leaps and catches it, landing straight in the end zone as the buzzer sounds.
The crowd goes wild and the rest of their team make their way to the girl still lying in the end zone. Puck and Blaine lift her onto their shoulders and the crowd are chanting 'Lopez, Lopez, Lopez' repeatedly.
They eventually put her down and she seeks out her favourite blonde. Quinn runs towards her and Santana catches her as she throws herself into her girlfriends body. They share a long kiss before Santana gently lowers Quinn back to the floor. They stay in each others hold as Quinn speaks, "I guess I have to share you because you're everybody's hero now?"
"You will never have to share me, these people, they'll find a new hero in a week or so, you? You can have me for the rest of your life if you want." She replies cheekily.
"I'm always going to want you." She replies as they kiss again.
Their moment is broke as suddenly they hear a large cackling over a speaker, "VICTORY PARTY BACK AT THE PUCKERMAN'S!"
"You want to go to a party?" Santana asks to which Quinn nods in reply.
They grab Blaine and agree that Kurt and Mercedes will meet them at their house so they can all get ready and make their way to the party together.
The five of them make their way into the party and Santana and Blaine are instantly whisked away to play drinking games with the other players.
The other three make their way to the kitchen to get themselves a drink. Upon entering, they see Brittany drinking water.
Her bright blue eyes instantly meet Quinn's and she approaches her slowly.
"I was hoping you were coming, I want to talk to you before there's any sort of alcohol involved, if you'll let me?"
Quinn nods and they both make their way out to the patio in the back garden and perch on the steps.
"I want to apologise to you. You and Santana actually, so I'll find her afterwards. What I did really wasn't cool and I'm definitely embarrassed by it. I've missed you Quinn and I really want to make this right." She says with her pleading puppy dog eyes, a look the previous Quinn could never say no too.
"Why did you do it Britt?"
"I don't know. I mean, I like her, I didn't want to just sleep with her, like I do everyone else, you know? I actually wanted something with her but I knew she didn't want me. She's always wanted you, that's why she gave you the necklace all them years ago." She says with a bitter chuckle.
"Do you still like her?" Quinn questions, slightly fearing the answer.
"I do," she pauses as Quinn flinches, "but I aren't going to do anything about it. I know you're together now, I also know you're living together and my mom said she hasn't seen your parents in a while."
"Yeah, a lot has happened since we last spoke."
"Well if you'll let me, I want to make this right. I want to be your friend again Quinn and I won't get in between you're relationship. I don't want that. I want you to be happy and I just hope she treats you right."
"She does. She treats me better than anyone ever has." Quinn coos.
"Okay. Well I'm going to hug you now, is that alright?" Brittany says as Quinn chuckles and nods.
They embrace in a quick hug and Brittany speaks again, "I'm going to go apologise to Santana now. Then I'm going to get my drink on and find someone to get under, that's the way to get over someone, right?" She winks which makes Quinn laugh and cringe at the same time.
How deep do her feelings go that she needs to get over Santana, since she's definitely never been under her?
With that, the taller blonde waltz's back inside and Quinn follows shortly after. She grabs a drink and walks downstairs to the game room where she sees her girlfriend pulling away from a hug with the girl from her previous conversation.
Santana catches her eye, smiles and waves her over. The brunette wraps her arms around Quinn's waist and gives her a quick kiss.
"Are you okay? Britt says you talked?" She whispers softly into Quinn's ear.
"I'm good, hopefully we can salvage some kind of friendship."
"I hope you can too." Santana smiles as the boys call her to bring her back to the game of beer pong she's currently engaged in.
"Lopez, it's your shot." Puck calls.
"You wanna throw it?" She says turning to Quinn who laughs. She eventually agrees and magically manages to sink the ball into the oppositions cup.
Santana kisses her on the cheek as a reward and she thinks that maybe everything is starting to turn around for her and she's right where she's meant to be.