Santana, Blaine, Quinn and Brittany all arrive at school the next day and Santana walks Quinn to her locker. She receives some dirty looks from the Cheerios in the corridor but Quinn stares at them with her best HBIC face and they soon look away.
"Ignore them, it's not worth it." The Latina mumbles into her ear.
"No. You didn't do anything wrong, they don't get to treat you like that." Quinn replies sharply.
Santana decides that her girlfriend is in one of them moods where she needs to let everyone know who's in charge, since she was made head Cheerio in her senior year.
They arrive at the blonde's locker and she pulls Santana into her by her t-shirt and kisses her gently, when they pull away, she speaks up, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to sound so harsh. I just don't like them looking at you like that." She says, brushing her hands down the front of Santana's shirt.
"Don't worry about it, it really doesn't bother me.." she begins but before she can finish, there's an announcement over the intercom, "Could Santana Lopez please report to the guidance councillors office?"
The Latina just rolls her eyes and Quinn looks at her concerned. "What's that all about? I thought you'd had your senior meeting with her?"
"I have so I don't know but I'd better go. Do you have math, I'll walk you?"
The blonde just nods and interlaces their fingers. As soon as they arrive, they share a quick kiss and Quinn asks for Santana to let her know what's going on, she just nods and makes her way to the office.
She arrives and knocks on the door and Miss. Pillsbury opens it, inviting her in.
She sits in the chair infront of the desk and clasps her hands in her lap. "So, is everything okay?"
"There's a couple of things I need to talk to you about Santana."
"Okay.."
"Firstly, I'm not sure what happened in the hallway with Miss. Wilde yesterday, so could you explain? As I needed to see you anyway, I was voted to speak to you about this."
"It's nothing really, she just keeps trapping me. She's obsessed with coming between me and Quinn and offering sex."
Santana instantly sees that this makes Miss. Pillsbury uncomfortable.
"Okay, well that's definitely something that we need to escalate. I'm assuming that there's witnesses to this?"
"I'm sure you could find plenty around here." Santana says, rolling her eyes.
"Okay, you leave that with me. The second thing I need to talk to you about is you're eighteen soon, right?"
"I am, in a few days, why?"
"Well I know that you'll be enlisting as soon as school is finished, we had a look at your records and you have enough credits to graduate early, if you would like to consider doing that so that you can graduate as soon as you're eighteen, therefore you can enlist full time immediately."
Santana sits in a small state of shock, not sure how to feel. She will be enlisting, that's for sure but she was going to wait for Blaine, however this is something to consider.
"Okay, I'll have to talk to my Mami and stuff so, can I get back to you on that?"
"Yes, of course. You take your time. I just wanted you to know that it was a possibility for you. I'll be here if you want to talk about it."
"Yeah. Okay. Thanks Miss Pillsbury." She says getting up, just as the bell rings so she makes her way towards her next class.
The only though running through her mind is 'Quinn's not going to like this'.
When she meets Quinn in the Sanctuary at lunch time, she tries to deflect talking about what happened in the guidance counsellors office as much as possible, not wanting to upset her whilst at school.
She tells her all about the Kitty part, but not the graduating early. Luckily, Quinn seems to accept that for now and talks about what's happened in her day.
Soon lunch is over and they return to their final classes before heading off to their respective practices.
Santana and Blaine are again getting to that point where they are exhausted from ROTC training in the morning and then long football practices at night, Quinn and Maribel have noticed it but are hoping the two of them know how to manage themselves better after what happened to Blaine.
When they're all finished for the day, Brittany and Blaine ride back with them to the house.
Quinn is sitting in the living room with Brittany and Blaine and Santana goes off in search of her mother. She finds her in the kitchen, "Mami, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Mija, if you're about to tell me Quinn's pregnant then I swe-" She starts but doesn't get to finish.
"No Mami, nothing like that. Will you come sit outside with me please?"
"This must be serious, lead the way."
They both make their way out of the back door and down towards the hammock. They both get comfortable as Santana tries to find the right words.
"Just say it Mija, it'll be okay."
Santana takes a deep breath before starting, "The guidance counsellor called me into her office today. She wanted to let me know that I have enough credits to graduate early if I want, so that I can enlist as soon as I'm eighteen, instead of waiting." She finishes quietly.
"Well.. I'm proud of you for achieving that, but I know it's not my approval you're searching for right now. You don't know how to bring this up with Quinn, do you?"
Santana just shakes her head in response. "It's going to break her heart if I do that."
"Mija, you're going to break her heart anyway." Maribel says, taking her daughters hand into her own as a comforting gesture.
"I guess the army is so much scarier now that she's involved, you know? When I made the decision, I only had you, Papi and Blaine to worry about. The difference being I didn't feel solely responsible for any of you." She sighs sadly.
"Santana, she is not a child anymore, she can definitely look after herself, she just loves you. Have you discussed what she wants to do after school, what colleges has she applied to?"
"We have, we've talked about it a lot. She wants to be a teacher, maybe middle school. She's applied to a lot of schools but I think she's set on going to NYU to get her degree. Hopefully, Brittany and Kurt are moving out there too so they could all share a flat, that makes me feel a lot better, you know? To know she's not alone for a while. Especially the first times that we're deployed."
"I think that's great and it'll help her a lot. I'd feel much better if she was with others too, especially if I'm here. I assume that you'll permanently move there then, when you eventually come home?"
"I haven't thought that far into it Mami, I mean if Q spends 3 or 4 years there at school and she loves the city, then I'll happily move there for her. Maybe you could get a job at the hospital there? Then you won't be here alone, I mean it's not like we have anything tying us down here?"
"You're right Mija, maybe I'll think about it. But back to the problem at hand, you need to talk to her. I know she'll be upset but please don't lose your temper, she's struggling with this more than you'll ever know, be patient, think about if this situation was reversed."
Santana sits in thought for a moment before nodding and hugging her mother.
"If you hear shouting and then all of a sudden nothing for a while, just make sure she hasn't killed me?" Santana says laughing.
"Come on." Maribel says chuckling at her daughter, leading her back into the house.
When Santana heads back into the living room, she sits down next to Quinn on the loveseat and puts her arm over her shoulders, kissing her temple. Quinn places her hand on Santana's thigh and turns to look at her, "Is everything okay? I was looking for you but you looked in deep conversation with Mama."
Santana just nods and decides that now is better than leaving it any longer, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
Quinn just nods, wide-eyed and looking extremely worried, Santana excuses them and drags her girlfriend upstairs to their room.
She leads the blonde in first and closes the door behind them, gesturing towards the bed for them to sit. Santana sits against the headboard and Quinn remains standing where she was.
"Tana, what's going on? You're scaring me."
"Nothing, just come and sit, please?" Santana pleads.
Quinn cautiously climbs onto the bed and sits beside the brunette. Santana links their fingers and settles them in the blonde's lap.
"What are your plans for after school, do you have a set one?" Santana asks.
"I thought we'd been over this? I can't be sure because I don't know if I'm going to get in?"
"I didn't explain myself very well, sorry. Say tomorrow, all of your applications come back and you got into every school you applied for, what's the dream plan from there? Take out any obstacles you have." Santana explains a little better.
"Okay. So I'm basically set on being a teacher, so I applied to a few different teaching courses at a few different colleges, but I think I'd want to study at NYU."
"Why NYU?"
"It's a good school and it's central, you know?" Quinn replies, looking down at her lap, playing with the tanned fingers that lie there.
"So, you wouldn't even consider schools like Columbia, Stanford and Yale if you're accepted?"
"Maybe Columbia, I think Yale and Stanford are out of the question. I think that my heart is set on being in New York." She replies, still looking down.
"Hey, look at me.." Santana says, lifting the other girls chin gently, "Is that because it's where everyone else is gonna be or because it's where you want to be?"
She knows that that is a risky question, but she also knows that's why Quinn wants to attend there. There is no doubt that NYU is a good school but Quinn is more than capable of getting into any Ivy League school she wants.
"You're not gonna be anywhere near so I need someone." She replies quietly, a tear escaping the side of her eye.
Santana quickly wipes it away and pulls her girlfriend close into a hug, feeling Quinn cling to her.
"Baby, if you want to go to New York because that's where the others are going then that's up to you but don't cut the other schools out just yet because being alone is going to be scary. Moving anywhere is going to be overwhelming but I will support you whatever you decide."
"I just don't want to be too far away from everyone and on my own, you know? Not having you here is going to be bad enough without me having no one else around. I really don't think I'd enjoy myself at Yale or Stanford because when I'd be alone, I'll just be missing you. I miss you already and you're right here." She says as more frequent tears begin to fall.
"I know mi amor. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Santana sighs.
"You have nothing to apologise for." Quinn whimpers.
"I do. At the moment I just feel like as much as you'll say I'm not, that I'm ruining your life." She grunts, throwing her head backwards onto the headboard.
Quinn sits up at these words and takes the tilted face into her hands so that they're making eye contact, "Tana.." she pauses, shaking her head, "I don't want to hear you saying that. You are not and you will never be ruining my life. All you've done is made it better, I'll admit that this is shit but you're not ruining anything."
"Q, if I hadn't have come back, you'd have been applying to colleges god knows where and I think you'd be more than glad to move wherever you wanted, alone or not."
"That's probably true, but that would have been because I was trying to get as far away from my father, if he hadn't already beaten me to death."
Santana cringes at the words and squeezes her eyes shut as tight as possible.
"But it wouldn't have made me happy, not like you do." The blonde carries on but Santana still doesn't open her eyes, she just shakes her head.
Quinn leans in and kisses each shut eye lid, "Look at me please?" She says, running her thumbs over defined cheek bones. Santana's eyes slowly flutter open and are bloodshot.
"Going to New York, living with Kurt and Britt, that will be much better than me being alone, driving myself crazy while you're away. I'll have distractions and people to talk to, instead of locking myself away and crying. I might not be happy, but I'll be happier there lovebug, I promise. Plus I'll have people to look out for me."
Santana knows this is the best option and it's exactly what she wants, she just wanted to make sure Quinn had assessed all her opportunities, so she just nods.
"I have something else I need to talk about then.." She starts.
Quinn shuffles around so that they're sitting Indian style across from each other.
She takes a deep breath, like with her mother, and starts, "Miss Pillsbury wanted to talk to me about something other than Kitty today."
Quinn stays quiet but raises an inquisitive eyebrow, urging Santana to carry on.
"She wanted to advise me that I have enough credits to graduate early, if I want to enlist as soon as my birthday comes around.."
"Tana, you're birthday is in four days.."
"I know."
"You want to enlist and go to war in the next four days? You're not even going to finish high school and graduate with us?" Quinn's voice starts to raise.
"I've not made a decision." Santana says calmly, just like Maribel told her.
"So, what? Are you asking for my blessing or something here? What do you want me to say? Yeah, okay, no worries, see you whenever?" Quinn starts to become agitated.
"Q, no. Will you just list-" but she doesn't get to finish as Quinn starts to cry.
"Not now, please? Please just, go. Can you sleep downstairs or something?" She cries.
Santana just nods and leaves, making her way to the bed that is still in the renovated office room.
She walks past the living room that still holds Blaine and Brittany and immediately crawls into bed. She knows not to be mad with Quinn, she just needs to assess the information and then they'll talk about it.
So she turns the lights out and closes her eyes, drifting off.
A couple of hours later, Santana hears the door open and close and feels the bed dip, as it's only a single bed, there isn't much space but she shuffles backwards against the wall.
The new body grabs her arm and pulls it around themselves, getting as close as possible.
"I'm sorry Tana, I love you so much." She whispers, not knowing her girlfriend is awake now.
"I know, I love you too Lucy Q. Get some sleep pretty girl, we'll talk tomorrow." She places a kiss to the back of a blonde head and they both go to sleep.
AN: Hey guys!
Thank you to everyone who regularly reads and reviews this story, it really helps with the encouragement!
You must all know that I love the drama, but this won't last too long so don't worry! There are some major things coming up though!
Thank you again for the support.
