As Santana manoeuvred through the labyrinth like maze that was Ellen's backstage area, her mind wondered to Brittany, as it had been for the past few days. She couldn't believe, even when she looked at their wedding album, that she and Brittany had been married for nearly a year. It hadn't been anything like she'd expected, or truthfully, like she'd hoped. Not that it had been bad, as if being married to Brittany could ever be bad, but it had been….different.
Only a month after returning from their honeymoon, Brittany had joined a national dance troupe, taking her all over America for the next two months. By the time she was done and able to return to her usual job in the San Jose studio, Santana had finished writing her new album and was scheduled for a month long pre album release tour. They'd only managed to spend one month together, thankfully Santana's birthday fell into that sweet spot, but then Santana was off again, touring her new album. They spent their first Christmas as a married couple in separate countries.
When the New Year rolled around, Santana was still touring, and then in February, Brittany's troupe was up and running again, this time called to a dance convention in Amsterdam. That marked the start of Brittany's European dance tour. They managed to fly back and forth to see each other when they had a few free days, but all of this meant that rather than spending her first year married to Brittany having lots and lots of glorious 'I can't believe I'm married to you' sex and making Quinn throw up with their cuteness, Santana had spent most of it working and away from her wife.
Still, the fact that she could say she was taking a few days off to see her wife was infinitely better than going to see her girlfriend.
A man with a mouth piece found her and ushered her to the spot where she was supposed to wait for her name to be called. She could see part of the crowd from where she was standing, and again couldn't help thinking of Brittany. She wasn't nearly as nervous as she had been when she'd been rocketed to fame, but she still liked to have Brittany kissing her sweetly, rubbing her arms or holding her hand. It was a nice tradition. When Brittany couldn't physically be there for the interviews, which over the past year had been quite often, they usually Face Timed so she could at least tell Santana how beautiful she looked. But with the time difference, Santana wasn't even sure if Brittany was awake right now.
"Santana Lopez-Pierce!"
Santana took a deep breath, looked at the man beside her, who nodded, and walked out onto the stage.
"Thank you." Santana waved to the audience, then hugged Ellen. "Hi Ellen"
"Hi Santana, how are you?" Ellen asked when the crowd had settled down.
"I'm great. I'm doing really great thank you! How are you?"
"I'm good. Thanks for joining us"
"Are you kidding? Thanks for having me. My mum lost her shit…ohh sorry" she looked at the audience, her mouth in an 'o' shape.
"Potty mouth" Ellen said laughing.
"Sorry, my wife's actually been trying to get me to stop. It's really bad, I'm like a sailor."
"She doesn't like it when you swear?"
"Well…she didn't used to mind, but she says it's gotten a bit much. Brittany doesn't swear you know?"
"Doesn't she?" Santana shook her head. "At all?"
Santana smirked. "Well…in certain…situations" she laughed, looking at the audience again as they caught on and winking. "No yeah, in the G rated context she doesn't curse"
Ellen was in a fit of laughter. "Is she going to be thrilled that you said that?"
"She'll be fine" Santana said laughing. "Almost every other sentence she says is laced with some kind of innuendo"
"Explains why she married you"
Santana laughed, nodding her head.
"How is Brittany?"
"Good. She's actually doing really good. She's in Germany, at the moment on tour" Santana nodded at and clapped along with the crowd.
"Aww you look really proud of her"
"I am. I'm so proud of her. She's doing some amazing things with the troupe she's with and I just love that she's getting all this recognition."
"Yeah. I actually saw them perform"
"Did you? Where?"
"Uh…a couple of months ago when I was in Montana" Santana nodded, knowing when Ellen was referring to. "You weren't there."
"No I wasn't. I was in Canada that week."
"Is it hard on your relationship with both of you always traveling to separate places?"
"I mean it's not fun, obviously I'd like to be at all her shows, and so would she, but we see each other pretty often, and we always face time when we can. We even started just leaving our laptops open and on Skype so I see her when she gets to the hotel and we just kind of watch each other doing our own things, even if we're not like…talking…you know throughout." Ellen nodded. "Yeah so we've got a pretty good system. It's hard, but not on the relationship"
"That's really excellent, I love that. How long is she in Germany?"
"Uh she's coming back tonight" Santana said grinning.
"Oh!" Ellen said looking shocked. "So you'll get to see each other for a few hours before you leave?"
"No she's coming with me" Santana said excitedly.
"Is she?" Ellen asked surprised.
"Yeah. We actually decided a couple of days ago. She said she really wanted to be there for this, so she decided to fly back immediately after her show, instead of staying the night there."
"And she's going to be there for the whole tour?"
"Yeah" Santana said, looking giddy.
"Wow, you guys really are so cute."
Santana laughed. "Hahaha, Britt is cute. But yeah, it's going to be so much fun I can't wait."
"Right. So for those of you who don't know, if it's possible, Santana is going on her first worldwide tour tomorrow" the audience cheered and Santana beamed. "You're leaving tomorrow and heading to…?"
"Yeah I'm leaving tomorrow, heading to England."
"England yeah. Tea."
Santana laughed.
"Yeah tea. Whatever that is. I'll have to try it."
"So go on tell us about the tour."
"Right! Ok well, the first stop is London, uh tomorrow night like I said. We'll spend about a week there,"
"In London?"
"No, in the UK. We'll be going all over the UK, Ireland, Scotland, you know all that. For the week. Then we'll move on, go to Germany, France, Spain, Italy, all in about two weeks, then…I think then we're coming back this way to South America"
"Wow…that's some break-neck touring if I ever heard of it."
"Yeah, it's going to be some pretty tight schedules, but it'll be fun"
"How long is the whole things?"
"Uhh…If there aren't any delays or postponed shows, it should take 9…" she looked to her left where Eve was, "10weeks."
"Wow and how many countries?"
"16 countries, about 30 cities I think."
"What?! 30?"
"Yeah" Santana looked to Eve again, who nodded. "Yeah 25-30 cities."
"Wow…I mean good luck with that. That sounds crazy"
"Yeah it is wild. But, I'm so lucky to get to go to all these places and meet all these people. I've been meaning to do an international tour for a while, because I have fans all over who keep asking me when I'm going to go, so when I got back from my honeymoon, we started working on it. But then I couldn't decide where to go to first, cause all my fans everywhere are so awesome, so eventually I told my manager I'm just gonna go everywhere."
"How did they take that?"
"She wasn't so thrilled honestly" Santana said laughing. "But, I wouldn't change my mind so…here we are"
"Speaking of your wedding, your anniversary is coming up right?"
"Yes it is" Santana said smiling with wide eyes, wondering how Ellen knew that, before realising Eve or Emma must have told the producers. The crowd cheered.
"You've been married a year."
"Yup, one year in about a month. That was one of the main reasons Brittany decided she has to come. Originally she was going to fly over just for that week, but we didn't know where she'd be if she started another tour, if the times would line up and so on."
"Yeah…well that'll be a memorable way to spend your first anniversary. Traveling and performing around the world. Is she going to perform with you?"
Santana shook her head. "No not this time. She did have a lot of say on the choreography for a lot of the dances, so if for some reason we decide to, she could join, but no, I have really awesome dancers who I all love, hand-picked and screened by Brittany herself, that have been working with me this past year, so Brittany's just going to be watching from the crowd." She said, looking into the audience.
"Well that's just great, I wish you all the best with that."
"Thank you so much" Santana said to the Ellen and then to the crowd, putting both hands on her chest
"Well, Santana, we're going to play a game. You like games?"
"I love games Ellen"
"Great. Well, we got your lovely wife and some of your best friends to submit some questions to us,"
"Oh no" Santana pretended to groan.
"What?" Ellen asked laughing.
"Quinn and Noah? Oh gosh…have you screened these questions?"
"No" Ellen said laughing. "But I'll read them and see which ones I can't ask."
"Oh god…"
"What?"
"Just…Ok go…let's start."
"Ok….you ready?"
"As I'll ever be"
"Alright you guys ready?" Ellen asked the crowd. They cheered loudly. "Alright here we go. First question is from…actually, you tell me who it's from."
"Okay"
"I'm improving the game as I go"
"Lord. Ok…ask me the question."
"Ok…which of these lips" some lips appeared on the screen behind them, "belongs to the first person you ever kissed."
Santana covered her face as everyone laughed. "Ok…" she looked at the lips. "Ok well, I bet this question is from Noah" she looked at Ellen. "Wait no no, Quinn" Ellen smiled.
"Yup, this is from Quinn."
"Ok well in that case…wait they've given you the answers they said right?"
"Obviously" Ellen said, laughing and shaking her head.
"Ok…ok then I say the middle ones" the edges of the picture flashed green and Santana laughed shaking her head.
"Whose lips are those?" Ellen asked.
"Mine Ellen, can't you tell?"
"I mean, I know the answer is you because they told me, but how could you have kissed yourself."
"Quinn is an idiot, and likes to think she's so clever. In the eighth grade she saw me kiss my reflection in a mirror" Everyone laughed loudly, some shrieking. Ellen was pink in the face. "It wasn't like, in the gross way. I was looking at myself in a pocket mirror that I'd just st…uh gotten, and I was like, 'man I'm so hot' and kissed it" Santana said, laughing. Ellen looked at her questioningly.
"'Gotten' is not what you were going to say was it?" She asked. Santana smiled cheekily. "Were you going to say stolen?" Santana smiled wider.
"Of course not Ellen" She said in an exaggerated innocent voice.
"Oh god" Ellen said, wiping her eyes. "This game is going to be so good. Ok…next. What is your favourite part of your body, and what is your favourite part of Brittany?"
"Easy" Santana said smirking. "My favourite part of Brittany are her-"
"Wait…there's a note here at the bottom. You can't say eyes"
"Fuck…oh sorry. Sorry. I was gonna say that. Okay then her legs. She's got really awesome legs. But all of Brittany is awesome so…"
"Okay, and of yourself?'
"Uhh…my ass" she said laughing and sticking her tongue between her teeth.
"Your ass? Really?" Ellen said laughing lightly.
"Yeah, it's a great one, have you seen it? Should I show you?"
"If you'd like" Santana stood up and turned around slowly, raising her hands in the air.
"See" she said, sitting back down.
"Well yes, we all did see" Ellen said laughing harder now. "Ok, next. No actually who asked the question?"
"Uh…Brittany?"
"Yes" Ellen said impressed.
"Ok. Last question."
"Okay, obviously from Noah then"
"Well…yeah. Who is your best friend?'
Santana laughed loudly, throwing her head back. "He won't let it go."
"Oh yeah?"
"He brings it up all the time."
"Well now he wants an answer. He's put you on the spot."
"Brittany" Santana said.
"No she doesn't count" Ellen said, trying to hold back a laugh.
"Why not? Brittany is my best friend." The crowd was laughing now.
"No it doesn't count."
"I don't…I can't answer that question. They're both…actually Ellen. You're my best friend."
Ellen laughed. "I accept that answer, but since you technically didn't get it right, I'm going to ask you a question of my own."
"Okay"
"You refer to yourself as Snixx right?" Santana barked out a laugh.
"Uh…not so much anymore…but yes, Snixx is-"
"Hey let me ask the question" everyone laughed. "Who is Snixx?"
"Snixx is like my alter ego. I came up with her I think…uh..." Santana frowned looking up. "I don't know actually, Quinn would know. But it was a long time ago. Just before high school I think."
"Okay"
"She's a real bi…she's really mean. I blamed every wrong thing I ever did on her. When I'd slap someone, insult them, cuss out a teacher, those kinds of things, I'd say 'I'm like the incredible hulk you can't blame me for anything Snixx does'" everyone burst out laughing. "It's true" Santana said, though her voice was a little drowned out.
"Ok" Ellen said, trying to stop her laughter, "And why…"
"Why did I create her? I'm weird like that. I guess I was scared of going to high school with all these big teenagers and stuff, so I needed another personality that was more confident. Like Sasha fierce"
Ellen nodded with pursed lips. "Sure, sure, I see where you're coming from. But you're saying you don't use her anymore?"
"No. Not really. I mean I joke about her sometimes, but I've grown a lot as a person. I used to be really toxic, and always trying to put others down and make them feel as horrible as I did, but I don't anymore. I had to work on myself a lot, and I'm still working on myself, like I say in a lot of my songs, but I don't need Snixx anymore. I put her behind me."
"That's really great, I'm happy for you. So you don't use her anymore?"
"No"
"You're sure?"
Santana narrowed her eyes. "Uh…now I'm not so sure. Why are you asking me like that?"
"I just want to know if you're sure."
"Yes I'm sure" Santana said laughing. Ellen turned to the audience.
"Ok well, it's good to know that you're a LIAR" everyone laughed.
"What do you mean?" Santana said over the noise.
"I have a video here, let's watch it and then hear what you have to say"
"Ok…."
They turned to the screen. It was a Snapchat video of Santana's apartment.
"Where did you get that?"
"Shh let's watch the video"
What did you say? They heard Brittany's voice. Obviously she was the one taking the video.
"If you don't stop you're gonna get a visit from auntie Snixx" Santana's voice said, sounding far away.
Stop what babe?
"Breaking my decorations"
What decorations? Brittany said, sounding like she was trying not to laugh.
"What decorations, Brittany are you serious?" Santana came into view, walking out of the kitchen with a dust pan in her hand. She was wearing short sleeping shorts, and a black AC/DC shirt she'd had since high school. Her hair was up in a messy bun. She looked less than casual, and Santana tried not to cringe. "Are you trying to piss me off?"
Santana it was an accident, and it's just a white bottle, we could buy one from the dollar store.
Santana closed her eyes looking exasperated.
"Brittany Pierce, you did not just say that to me"
Lopez-Pierce. Brittany corrected. And I'm not scared of Snixx.
"You should be. I love you, but you know I can't be blamed for her actions. This was my favourite vase!"
Brittany laughed. Suddenly Santana threw a pillow at her, causing her to drop the phone.
"It's not funny woman" she said, actually sounding annoyed. Brittany was still laughing when her face came into view for a second. Then the video ended.
Santana was laughing hard.
"Well, there it is. What do you have to say now?" Ellen asked.
"I can't believe she was taking a video. I was really mad."
"We all saw. You threatened Snixx. And you said you never did that anymore. How do you explain that?"
"She broke my favourite vase. And then she was laughing. AND" Santana said loudly as Ellen and the audience laughed. "It was like the fourth one she'd broken in like two months"
"How does she keep breaking them?"
"I don't know. For a dancer she's really not all that…nimble. She'll jump over the couch and kick it, she'll be dancing around the room and knock it over. I don't know Ellen. But...I was only kidding. I said I joke about Snixx sometimes."
"You threw a pillow. That's an act of violence in my book" the crowd laughed.
"Ok well…alright…I guess once in a blue moon…if you break all my decorations, Snixx comes out."
Ellen laughed. "Well it's time to go on a break, we'll be back with Santana, 'Snixx' Lopez-Pierce after the break."
After nearly a month of touring Europe, Santana could say with absolute certainty that she hates flying. She was so tired of airports, airport food, and most importantly, time changes. When they got off the plane, she barely spoke a word to anyone as security took them through the airport. She smiled for people's cameras, agreeing to take a few pictures despite feeling like a sweaty swamp monster and signed more autographs than she honestly had energy for. It was nearly forty minutes before her body's screams of protest finally forced her to give in. She apologised, genuinely, to all the fans who she hadn't been able to get to, and allowed herself to be led to the car waiting for her. Brittany was already in it, laying across the back seat with her eyes closed. Rather than disturb her, Santana got into the passenger seat.
She managed to sleep for the twenty minute ride from the airport to their hotel, but that was scarcely enough. Her eyes stung with sleep and her body felt sluggish. Usually she attempted to carry some of her luggage to the room, but today she let the concierge do it, tipping him handsomely.
She and Brittany collapsed on the bed, neither of them bothering to take off their shoes or dresses. They lay in silence for close to fifteen minutes before Brittany had the energy to roll over onto her back.
"Noo…don't move" Santana whined.
"I couldn't breathe"
"I can't breathe either. You don't see me moving."
"You're lazier than I am"
"If you start moving you're going to get your energy back and then you're going to want to shower and change, and you're going to force me to do it too."
Brittany didn't say anything, willing away the ache in her bones. Santana turned her head to face her.
"Britt"
"Santana we have to shower, we've been traveling for a whole day. We're sweaty and smell like airplane."
"I don't care. Let's just sleep like this, and then we'll shower tomorrow. We have the day off."
"Really?"
"Yeah. We can go see the sites of Rio de janeiro." She said dramatically.
"Ok"
Santana sighed and kicked off her shoes, climbing higher up the bed. Five minutes later, Brittany rolled off the bed, catching herself on her hands and knees and slowly standing up.
"No…what happened to my plan? My brilliant plan."
"Santana we smell horrible." Brittany said, pulling Santana off the bed by her feet. "We can't sleep like this, it's gross."
"I don't care. I don't care"
"I care" Brittany said, as Santana allowed herself to fall to the floor.
"Get up"
"Nooo"
"Stop being a baby and get up" Santana shook her head, closing her eyes. "I'll leave you there, and then you'll have to get up to get on the bed anyway."
"I'll sleep here. I don't c-" Brittany hoisted Santana up by her arm with one powerful tug, so that Santana was forced to lift her legs to support her weight and hold on to Brittany to keep from falling. "Briiiit" she squealed.
"Great! You're up. Let's go take a quick shower."
The next day, Brittany woke up before Santana, the excitement of being in Rio finally catching up to her. She watched Santana sleeping for a few minutes before giving in to her urges and waking her up. She placed her hand against Santana's cheek and leaned in so she was only an inch from her mouth.
"Santana" she whispered, rubbing her cheek softly with her thumb. "Babe wake up"
Santana groaned, but leaned closer to Brittany, brushing their lips together. She inhaled deeply, and let out a contented sigh, smiling.
"Why are you smiling?" Brittany asked her, amused.
"I love the way you smell in the mornings"
"Bet your happy we showered now?" Santana opened her eyes to playfully glare at Brittany.
"I'm still deciding if I forgive you for that." She said, closing her eyes again. Brittany laughed.
"Ok. Well can you decide while we walk the streets of Rio?"
"Why do we have to go so early in the morning?"
"First of all, how do you know it's early in the morning?" Santana scoffed.
"I can always tell when it's early in the morning. My body rejects it" Brittany shook her head and kissed Santana gently, feeling that her wife's cuteness may kill her one day.
"Sure baby. Second of all, you can't sleep away your day off. You don't get very many and this week is hectic. If we don't take advantage of today we might leave Rio without being able to see it."
Santana sighed and opened her eyes to see how serious Brittany was. "Okaaaay" she conceded, wondering if the day would ever come when she'd say no to Brittany.
Brittany squealed. "Ok, when we go down I'm going to ask reception where the best places to go visit are. And I don't mean just the boring tourist places, I mean the places that are really rich in Rio culture you know?" Santana nodded, watching as Brittany got off the bed and walked over to her suitcase, rummaging for something to wear. "We'll probably have to go with a body guard but honestly who cares. They might not even know us that well in the kinds of places I want to go, but then again they could. Better safe than sorry I guess. Oh! I wonder what kinds of awesome food they're gonna have for breakfast around here. I don't want to eat even a single meal in this hotel. One of the dancers, Kate, she was telling me about her stay in Brazil a few years ago and….."
Brittany continued to talk, mostly to herself Santana realised because she didn't pause to hear any reply, as they got dressed. Brittany was in a short white sun-dress, with sleeves that barely covered her shoulders. As she intended to really immerse herself, she had decided not to wear sandals, and was instead wearing white converse so she'd be comfortable. Santana was wearing army green paperbag shorts with a black crop top, tying a dark red jacket round her waist, knowing Brittany would get cold as soon as the sun set. By nine thirty they were both walking out of the hotel doors with directions from the receptionist to a place he swore Brittany would love.
Santana was pleased to find out that coffee was a huge part of breakfast in Brazil, something that the manager of the restaurant they had been sent to told them. Santana suspected that her and Brittany's arrival had been called in ahead of time, because they were being served by the manager who had been waiting for them outside, and nobody had been allowed in after them. She quickly forgot her annoyance at this however, as he brought them a tray with different kinds of Brazilian coffee, each tasting better than the last. Brittany was engrossed in the fruit offered, looking over all the different smoothies and having each translated to her.
"I think I'm going to have this, uh, açaí na tigela." Brittany said, pointing to an item on the menu. "He says this Açaí…fruit, is a berry, I think it's the one that gives the smoothie its colour. And then it has Banana and granola, which I love."
Santana was looking skeptical, but smiled and nodded anyway, not wanting to keep Brittany from experiencing anything. "Sounds good babe."
They spent an hour in the restaurant before deciding to continue their day's exploring. They walked all around the town, looking into shops and buying interestingly designed clothes or hand-made bracelets and hats. The coffee soon started to take its effects, and Santana was suddenly very eager to go even deeper into Rio, away from the beaches where she knew everything had been set up for maximum tourist attraction. Like Brittany, she wanted to experience the real Rio. Ignoring their two bodyguards who were trying to get them to stay on the side of town they were currently in, Brittany and Santana forged on, so that by four in the afternoon, they found themselves in front of a Favela. Santana frowned.
"Is this like…a slum area?" she asked one of the guards.
He nodded curtly, looking disgusted. Santana's frown deepened. She didn't know this man well, and truthfully found him too serious and 'professional' for her liking, but as he spoke Portuguese they had been forced to take him with them. She looked at the other guard, James, who she had been with since the tour began. He shrugged.
"Maybe we should leave Mrs Lopez-Pierce." He suggested, looking uneasily around.
"Why?" Brittany asked, walking ahead and clearly wanting to go further.
"It isn't safe" the other guard said, walking towards her.
"Why, because they're poor?" Santana said irritated. The guard clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything.
"There are better places you can see. I heard you can go hang-gliding and see the whole of Rio or something." James said.
"We can do that later" Brittany said, moving further.
James and the other guard looked at each other.
"You should not go in there" he said, his voice deep as though he was trying to intimidate them. Santana, who had been undecided on what to do, smirked at him. She walked up to Brittany and took her hand.
"Let's go B" she said. "If anything seems dangerous we'll leave" she said to James, not even looking at the other guard.
They walked slowly through the narrow roads between the hundreds of houses, stopping ever so often when Brittany noticed artwork on a wall, or Santana wanted to watch some kids playing, or families just sitting together. An hour and a half later, Brittany and Santana were finally ready to leave, having decided that they wanted to get more involved in programs that try and help places like these in Brazil. As they turned down an alley to start heading back, Brittany froze.
"Britt-"
"Did you hear that?" she asked, gripping Santana's hand and pulling her further down the alley, ignoring James and the other guard's yells.
"I can't-"
"Someone is crying"
Santana relaxed, smiling at Brittany. "Britt, I'm sure they're fine. Let's go before James and this other guy carry us out of here by force."
"No…S someone is like…sobbing…" Brittany was walking off the side where there was another very narrow walk-way.
"Brittany stop. If they are crying we should just leave them alone."
Brittany stopped for a moment and looked back at Santana, then turned the corner. The second she disappeared, she let out a shrill scream that chilled Santana's blood. She didn't know how but the second the scream left Brittany's mouth she was by her side, followed closely by both their guards. None of them had to ask what had made Brittany scream. On the floor in front of them lay a girl who looked no older than seventeen, bleeding profusely from a very pregnant stomach.
"Oh my god! Oh my God!" Brittany kept saying, apparently unable to move, or even take her eyes off the girl.
"We must get you out of here" the one guard said. Santana looked at him, not understanding. "The people who did this may come back to finish" Santana blinked at him, trying to make sense of what he had said. After a second she gave up and turned to James.
"Dame tu chaqueta" she said quickly, taking off the jacket around her own waist and giving it to Brittany.
"What?" James said, looking pale.
"Dame tu chaqueta!" she said again urgently, bending down over the body and covering what looked like multiple stab wounds with the jacket that Brittany had been unable to take.. James turned to Brittany imploringly, and Brittany, seemingly shaken from her trance at the sight of Santana's hands covered in blood, turned round and pulled on his jacket.
"Your jacket, she wants your jacket. Quickly!" James hastily removed his coat and gave it to her, getting the other guard to do so as well, though he was reluctant.
"It's not safe" he said, looking around.
"No shit" Santana said. "Call an ambulance"
"They won't come here. I would not even be able to tell them where we are."
Santana was quiet for a while, trying to think, but the way Brittany was looking at her with tear filled eyes, her whole body trembling, was making it hard.
"We'll have to take her ourselves then" she said. She could not think of any other option. They would not leave her here to die, and if help was not coming to her, they would take her to help.
"What?" James and the other guard, Ernest, Santana remembered his name was, said at the same time.
"We can't leave her here, you said an ambulance wouldn't come so…"
They were both shaking their heads.
"Fine," Brittany said standing up. "Santana and I will carry her"
"No" Ernest said sharply. He looked at James, pleading, but James sighed, and they both turned back to Brittany and Santana with grim expressions. "We will do it."
When they got to the hospital, Santana had to tell the doctors three times that they didn't know the girl at all, the third time being translated by Ernest, before they took her in. She had lost consciousness halfway through the journey, and Santana's stress, or fear, or whatever it was, was causing her to slip into Spanish more frequently, so that even if the doctors could understand English, she was not doing a good job of helping them. Finally though, they took her in for an emergency surgery.
"He says that they will do what they can, but first they must remove the baby, and then try save her after." Ernest told them, looking less annoyed than before.
"Does he think she'll make it?" Brittany asked. Tears had been falling from her eyes for over twenty minutes. Santana caught Ernest's eyes and shook her head slightly. He looked back at Brittany.
"I don't know Mrs."
Brittany leaned heavily against Santana, crying with renewed vigour.
"We should go back to the hotel. I'll call for a car." James said.
"No" Santana said. "We have to see if she makes it at least. She doesn't have anyone."
On the way to the hospital, Santana had gotten Ernest to talk to the girl to try and get her to stay awake. They had found out that her parents were dead, and the boy who had gotten her pregnant had been killed a few months earlier by some thugs in the area. She had no other relatives, and her friends' parents had refused to take her in, saying unmarried pregnant women only brought trouble. When Brittany had asked, through Ernest, why she had been stabbed, she said that it was because some men in their town had found out that she was to have twins, and they believed this to be some kind of bad omen. This was when Brittany had started crying.
"You cannot stay here. It is late and you have early morning tomorrow Mrs Lopez-Pierce. Please come with us"
"No" Brittany said again. "And it's about time you stop giving us orders. There's a reason we found that girl, and we can't just leave now, not knowing if she'll live or die."
Santana pulled Brittany into her and walked to a nurse, asking if there was somewhere they could sit and wait. She nodded, and they followed her out of the emergency room without even a glance at their body guards.
"How are we supposed to guard women who won't listen to us?" Ernest asked. James shook his head, sighing heavily, then followed them.
It was several hours before a doctor came out to meet them with news.
"She isn't doing well." Ernest translated. "She is bleeding a lot, and has a lot of…" he paused, looking for the word, said some things to the doctor then nodded in understanding. "Her insides are badly injured."
"Will she be okay?" Brittany asked. As Ernest spoke, the look on the doctor's face needed no translation. It was clear he was not optimistic. Without waiting for an answer she knew would upset Brittany further, Santana spoke.
"What about the babies?"
The doctor looked happily at her once he understood her question. He spoke quickly and brandished his hand as though to show them something.
"He says they are very good. Small, because they are twins and born early, but they are healthy. He wants to show them to you."
Brittany and Santana hesitated for a moment, looking at each other.
"He is asking what the problem is"
"We…we're not family" Brittany said, clinging to Santana for strength.
"We just wanted to know if they'd be ok before we left." Santana said quietly.
The doctor listened to Ernest's translation, his expression softening as he understood, then he walked up to them and put a hand on Santana's shoulder.
"You save them" he said in English. Brittany started crying again, and Santana found it hard not to follow suit. He spoke again, in Portuguese this time and gently pulled Santana forward.
"You're all they have" Ernest said softly. Even he looked emotionally gutted by the situation. James was looking away.
When they got to the nursery, the doctor went in and placed his hand on two cribs in the centre. As Santana looked at two beautiful boys with small curly tufts of bright brown hair, and a complexion close to a very light bronze, she finally allowed the dam inside to break. She felt a tug in her heart, in her entire body, pulling her towards the two boys, and suddenly she felt she could not leave them alone in the hospital. It was more than pity or a sense of obligation, it was something deeper. She looked at their beautiful pink faces, gripping Brittany who had sobered slightly, closer to her, and she knew that she would not be able to focus on another thing again, until she had found these boys some family to live with.
They stood outside that glass window for close to two hours before the doctor came back and announced that the mother had just died. They had been expecting that news, Santana had been preparing Brittany, but when the words came out of his mouth, Brittany felt like she had been punched in the heart. She didn't have any more tears to cry, but her sadness was evident. She slumped heavily, her legs unable to hold her anymore, and Santana was forced to lower her slowly to the floor, where she sat beside her. Neither of them spoke, Santana watching Brittany for any signs of some kind of breakdown, and Brittany staring up at the lights in the nursery, her eyes not blinking.
A nurse who had been watching them for the past hour came over to them, looking at them intently, then she walked back into the room and emerged with one of the babies, holding him in front of Brittany. Brittany stared at the baby, then looked up at the woman in confusion.
"Pegue-o" she said quietly. Pushing him closer to Brittany, who now sat up straight and lowered her legs from her chest. She continued to stare at the woman. The nurse smiled. "Take" she said again in English. Brittany's eyes widened and she looked at Santana in alarm. "Você está muito triste e ele vai te ajudar"
Santana blinked a few times, trying to decipher what the woman had said, then she smiled.
"Britt, I think she thinks it'll help you to hold him. Cause you're really sad."
Brittany nodded numbly and stretched out her arms for the baby. When he had been settled in her arms, he stretched, trying to free his arms from the blanket he was wrapped in, and opened his eyes. Brittany stared into mocha brown, the same mocha brown as Santana's, and felt her whole body swell with warmth. She freed his hand for him before he got upset, and he immediately gripped her finger. Brittany let out a laugh that sounded like a gasp, feeling like he had just reached out and grabbed her entire heart, and looked at Santana, a different kind of tears in her eyes. Santana was staring at the baby in complete amazement, as though she had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. When she looked back at Brittany her eyes were wide and glistening.
"Britt" she whispered, taking the baby's other hand in hers and rubbing his tiny fist with her thumb. Brittany nodded slowly, looking back at the baby who was staring at the ceiling.
"I know" she said.
After twenty minutes, Brittany's breathing went back to normal, the colour returning to her cheeks, the nurse allowed both of them into the nursery to sit down, handing Santana the other boy. At some point, a few hours later, they were given bottles to feed the babies with, and as they did, Santana found herself crying again.
"Why are you crying S?" Brittany asked softly.
"They're so beautiful Britt" Santana said, rubbing the wisps of hair on his head so gently she was barely touching him.
"Yeah" Brittany agreed.
"And they have no one. Both of their parents were killed by horrible people and now they're alone in the world."
"We don't know that baby. The dad's family could still be around and want them. Or maybe her parents had siblings or something like that." Santana shook her head slowly, tracing her finger along the outline of the baby's face, but didn't say anything. They sat in silence for a few more minutes, watching the babies finish drinking.
"They're completely identical" Brittany said, having stood up and walked behind Santana to look at the one she was holding. Santana nodded.
"But I think all babies look alike at first. Maybe things will start popping up the older they get, like a dimple or mole or hair colour or something." She said.
Brittany looked down at the boy in her arms, realising for the first time that she wouldn't ever be able to see any of those differences, if they did pop up, and despite herself she couldn't help feeling heartbroken at the idea of not watching them grow up.
"Brittany" Santana said quietly, not looking up at her. Her voice sounded so unsure that Brittany walked back around and sat in the chair in front of her so she could see her face.
"Yeah?" she asked, when Santana had been quiet for a long time.
"I…" she trailed off, looking up at Brittany for a split second, then back to the baby in her arms as he stirred.
"You what baby?" Brittany asked, leaning forward and placing a hand on Santana's knee.
Santana looked at the baby Brittany was holding, then finally met Brittany's eyes, seeing the remnants of sadness but also a new kind of happiness that she had never seen before. She sighed. They were both delusional, and she could not be a part of any of the heartbreak Brittany was soon going to experience.
"I think we should hire a private investigator or something" she finally said.
Brittany frowned and retracted her hand, having expected Santana to say something completely different. "What? Why?"
"To find the boys' family, if they have any. Like you said, we don't know, they could be out there."
"But-"Brittany looked down at the baby.
"We're leaving Rio in two days," Santana said, pausing to let this information sink in for Brittany as it just had for her. "I think if they do have any family, we'll be able to find them by then."
Brittany sat back fully in her chair, her gaze never moving from the baby she was holding, and Santana swore she was holding him tighter than she had been before.
She sighed. "Britt-"
"I get it Santana." Brittany said coldly. Santana's eyes widened at her tone, she too sat back in her chair, but she chose not to say anything. Leaving was not an idea she was too fond of herself.
An hour later, Santana realised that it was three in the morning, and though the nurse on call seemed more than happy to have them stay as long as they wanted with the twins, she knew she needed to go. She had to be up at 7 AM, and even if she didn't, she had been ignoring calls from Eve and Emma all night. She supposed that now was as good a time as any for them to return to reality.
"You should probably go Santana" Brittany said in the same cold voice she had used earlier.
Santana frowned. "What?"
"You should go. You have to be up soon and you have a long day." Santana's frown deepened. "Plus, Eve won't stop calling me and it's getting irritating."
"Brittany why are you mad at me?"
"I'm not mad at you"
"You are." Brittany didn't say anything. "Are you saying you're not going to come with me tomorrow?"
Brittany licked her lips, but otherwise didn't make any indication that she had heard Santana.
Santana put the baby she was holding in his crib and stood up. "Put him down, I don't feel like waking up the whole nursery"
Brittany looked up at her frowning, but stood up and put the baby down anyway. Santana turned and walked out of the room, holding the door open for Brittany. As it closed they stood facing each other, arms folded.
"What Santana? You're the one who wanted to come out here."
"If you're not mad at me, why are you talking to me like that?" Santana said, fighting to keep her anger from rising.
"I'm tired"
"Oh yes…you always get like this when you're tired…How could I forget? You only get tired…oh EVERYDAY"
"Stop"
"Oh so you can talk to me however you like but I can't return the favour?"
"You're being sarcastic and it won't get us anywhere."
"I see….and where do we need to get. Please enlighten me. Because as far as you've told me, you're not mad, just tired."
Brittany was quiet for a while, staring at Santana.
"Why do you always have to be so heartless?" she asked harshly. Santana frowned and took a step back, like she'd been slapped.
"Brittany?"
"I thought we were feeling the same thing in there. I thought…"
"I know what you thought" Santana said, letting her voice get colder than it ever had with Brittany. "And that's why I said what I said. You want me to stop being so heartless?" Brittany flinched slightly, already regretting saying that, "then you need to stop living in rainbow land and join me in reality." Santana finished, clenching her jaw, and this time it was Brittany who took a step back.
"I…don't…" Brittany closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I am in reality Santana!" she said, her voice raising.
"Not the same reality I'm in then, because what were you thinking Brittany?"
"I was thinking that there are two beautiful boys in there that have your eyes and skin and curly hair, and that I love them more than I probably should, but I can't do anything about it. I was thinking that you loved them too, and that maybe-"
"Maybe what?" Santana said, her voice raising to match Brittany's. "We'd adopt them? Brittany…Jesus" Santana ran a hand through her hair. "We're in a foreign country, we're celebrities, and we're on tour."
"You're on tour" Brittany countered. Santana took another step back.
"Who even are you right now?" she asked quietly, looking into Brittany's eyes, genuinely searching for an answer.
Brittany softened for a moment, seeing the pain in Santana's face, then she remembered what they were arguing about and stood up straighter, hardening her features.
"Fine," Santana said, seeing Brittany's decision to continue fighting. "Yes, I'm on tour. But you're on tour a lot of the time too Brittany, so don't make it seem like it's my job that is the problem here. And even if you left the tour to take them back to the US, it doesn't change the fact that we're in a foreign country, and celebrities to boot. Do you know how hard it is to adopt a child from a different country?" Brittany reluctantly shook her head. "And it only gets harder when you're famous. They think you're doing it for publicity or something."
"But we're not" Brittany said defiantly.
"Obviously but-"
"Why are you fighting me on this? Don't you love them?"
"Brittany-"
"Don't you see how beautiful they are? Can't you see that they're ours?" she pleaded, taking several steps closer to Santana.
Santana stepped back until her back hit the wall, then closed her eyes, shaking her head.
"Brittany, don't you think I see everything you do? Do you really think I'm heartless?" Brittany went to take another step forward but Santana put a hand up to stop her. "I can't believe you think that I don't feel anything for those boys. Brittany I just spent 4 hours holding them, what do you think I was doing all that time?"
Brittany's body slumped, tears filling her eyes again, but Santana wasn't done.
"I'm only trying to keep us from going through heartbreak worse than we ever have before. If we let ourselves believe that we can have them, and then it ends up not being possible, do you think you would survive it? Cause I don't think I could. Think about everything that has to happen…seriously think about it. They have to do extensive searches for their family, then they're going to have to look into our lives, probably send someone to look at our house in San Jose, then there's the legal stuff that I'm sure I don't know about, cross border things I don't know, and like I said before, I'm on tour. As willing as I would be to cancel the tour even with all those uncertainties, I can't. I'd probably be sued into oblivion for all the contracts I'd be breaking, not to mention all the fans I'd be disappointing. There are other things at play here Brittany, not just how we feel."
Brittany, now understanding where Santana was coming from, felt more guilt than she ever had in her life. She tried to catch Santana's eyes to show her how badly she felt, but Santana wouldn't look her in the eye.
"Santana" she said quietly. "I just…I can't. We can't leave them."
Santana nodded, still not looking at her, then turned around to watch the now sleeping babies through the glass. Brittany took this as an opportunity to walk up to her, and placed her hand on the small of her back. Santana shrugged her hand off and stepped aside.
"Santana-"
"Stay then. The nurse said she doesn't mind so…I'm going back to the hotel, you stay here." She was already walking slowly down the hallway, keeping her eyes on the babies rather than Brittany. Brittany turned to watch her leave, feeling like her heart was ripping in half but not really knowing what to do.
When Santana got to the end of the corridor she finally looked up at Brittany, the sadness in her eyes further breaking Brittany's heart. "Let me know if you're dropping off the tour or not, I'll have to tell Eve." She said. And before Brittany could reply, she turned the corner and was out of sight.
When she got to the hotel, Santana didn't go back to sleep. Instead she turned on her laptop and began research on international adoption, laws and lawyers, and finding a private investigator. If she was going to be leaving in two days, she was going to make the most of her time. By 7:30, she and Eve, who had come over as soon as she heard about Santana's night, had found a lawyer in the US, who Eve was going to call as soon as his office opened at 8 and a private investigator in Brazil who they had already called and was going to meet with them at 2 PM when Santana had a short break. Santana would have liked to keep going, but Emma had started calling her, which meant she had only a few minutes to leave before she came and dragged her out of the room.
After her concert that night, which Brittany had shown up to much to her surprise, Santana went back to her hotel feeling drained and exhausted. She had spent hours at a meet and greet with thousands of fans, put on a smaller more intimate VIP concert with about 70 of those fans , and then had the main concert, which was four hours long. All of this she had to do on no sleep and a heavy weight on her heart. Collapsing onto her bed for the first time in 48 hours, she didn't even bother to take off her shoes or change her clothes. She simply closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
When Brittany came up to the room, (Santana had left the concert without her), she found Santana curled up on her side of the bed wrapped around a pillow. She would have thought she looked cute, had it not been for the frown on her face. She pulled a chair from the dresser so that it was beside the bed where Santana was laying and leaned her elbows against the bed, her face a few inches from Santana's.
"Baby" she said quietly, watching to see if Santana would wake up. "I don't know what to do. I'm so sad right now and I shouldn't be. We both shouldn't be, but we are." She paused again, tracing her finger along Santana's creased brow. "I didn't mean what I said. I know you're not heartless. It was a stupid…stupid thing to say. I'm just scared. I can't leave them Santana. I just can't." She stopped talking abruptly, almost holding her breath as Santana stirred. When she stopped moving Brittany resumed caressing her face. "I love you so much, I don't want you to ever forget that. I love you. But I love them now too." She sighed heavily, sitting back in her chair. "I don't know how to take back what I said or how I acted so you can stop avoiding me. I miss you." She stood up from the chair and walked into the bathroom, harshly rubbing away tears and feeling like she had been crying non-stop for days.
Santana woke up a few hours later as a ray of sunshine found its way through the curtain so that it was shining right in her face. She peaked her eyes open, realising that she was under the covers, but still in the clothes she had been wearing the night before, only her shoes had been taken off. She moved to sit up and hit Brittany's arm, freezing at the contact. She had expected Brittany to spend another night at the hospital. Slowly she peeled herself out of bed, nearly toppling over as her foot tangled in sheets and she tried not to make any noise. When she was finally standing beside the bed she felt her heart sink even lower. Brittany was lying curled up on her side the way she usually would be, only this time instead of being wrapped around Santana, she had kept about two inches between them. Santana wanted nothing more than to get back into bed and let Brittany hold her as her body so obviously wanted to, but for the first time she could not bring herself to put Brittany's feelings above her own. Yes, Brittany was sad, and Santana was sure she was very sorry too, but that didn't change how hurt she still felt. Of all the people in her life to call her heartless, Santana had never thought Brittany would be one of them, and hearing those words come out of her mouth, despite all they had been through and how hard Santana had worked at getting better at showing her feelings, had sucked all of the happiness from her entire being. It was different this time though, because now she knew full well that she was not heartless. A few years ago she may have fallen back into her old ways, taking Brittany's words to heart and believing them, but not anymore. Now she just felt extremely disappointed and betrayed.
She watched Brittany for a few minutes, noticing that she did not look like she was having very peaceful sleep, then walked silently into the bathroom to shower. Emerging 20 minutes later, she stood again at the end of the bed.
"Oh Britt" she said quietly, closing her eyes. As she did, she missed Brittany opening her eyes. Brittany watched Santana sleepily for a second before closing her eyes again. Not sure if she had really heard her call her name and honestly so tired she wasn't sure if she was dreaming.
"I'll have forgiven you by the time I come back. I can never really be mad at you." She was quiet for a while. "I don't think I could tell you to your face, because I'd hate to see how my words affect you, but you really hurt me. I know you didn't mean it, and I know you're sorry, even though you haven't told me, I know. But Brittany…" she sighed. "I've never said anything like that to you, not even by mistake, and I never thought you would…" she broke off again, feeling more hurt the more she spoke. "But I love you too much to keep this up. So I'll have forgiven you by the time I come back." She moved to the table and scribbled a short note telling Brittany she'd be back a little after three, and walked to the door.
"I love you" she said, opening the door and walking out. Brittany lay, half-awake half-asleep, but fully guilt stricken.
Santana walked into the hospital and wasted no time heading to the nursery. She had only been away from the babies for 36 hours, but despite her words of caution to Brittany, she could not help feeling drawn to the twins. It was crazy to her that they had been alive for such a short amount of time, yet she missed them as badly as if they had been in her life as long as Brittany. Even as she thought about leaving Rio, her heart ached. It was why she had decided to spend the remaining hours she had holding each of them, getting to know them as well as she could and committing as much of them to memory as possible.
Four hours later Santana sat staring at the face of the now two day old infant that she had first held. The nurse had not told her it was him, but she recognised a small beauty spot on his arm that she had rubbed as she fed him, that his brother did not have. When she first realised that she had found the first different thing about the boys she had swelled with a happiness she had never experienced, and immediately pulled out her phone to call Brittany, but then the reality of her departure, and their seemingly hopeless situation had hit her and she had dropped the phone back into her bag.
"What am I gonna do bebe?" she said quietly to the boy staring up at her blankly. "What on earth am I going to do?"
Just then, her phone rang. Eve was calling.
"He's waiting for you both at the hotel lobby" she said the second Santana picked up.
"Fuck" she looked down at the baby, "Oh sorry honey" she paused and kissed him on the head, then stood up and put him in his little crib. "I'll see you again. I hope" she whispered against his fist, which she had pressed against her lips.
"Santana?" she heard Eve call from over the phone.
"Yes. I'm coming right now. Tell him…and Britt I guess…that I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
"Sorry" Brittany said in a feeble voice, turning to face Santana with tears in her eyes. "You're a…a lawyer?"
"Yes I'm a lawyer. I was filled in on your situation by your assistant, your bodyguards and some staff at the hospital" the man said.
"Sorry" Brittany said again. Her brain working hard to understand what she was being told. "I don't understand. Who..." she looked at Santana again.
"I called him" Santana said, taking Brittany's hand in hers. Brittany gripped her hand tight, gazing into Santana's eyes. She could not believe the amount of love coursing through her veins for Santana at that moment.
"Santana I-"Brittany was cut off by Santana shaking her head. She nodded and faced the lawyer again. "Sorry" she said for the third time.
"Please stop apologizing Mrs Lopez-Pierce. From what I've been told, this is a highly emotional situation. I completely understand. This I think will be a factor in our favour."
"Why's that?" Santana said quickly.
"Well, I'm sure that you're aware that international adoptions are very difficult, and your celebrity status does not help, but three things do. The first is that you're on tour, and a very gruelling tour from what I've seen of your schedule" Santana and Brittany nodded.
"How does that help?" Brittany asked.
"Well it will serve as evidence that you didn't come here looking for a child to adopt. It is hard proof that you actually had other business in Brazil, so no one can say anything about 'buying children' or anything like that." Brittany grimaced and Santana nodded.
"The second thing is that you are the ones who found the mother and brought her to the hospital. It establishes an emotional connection between you and the children. You went through this traumatic experience with them, saved them in fact, and are therefore invested in their well-being. It only makes sense then that when you heard that they have no family, you wanted to take them in."
The lawyer went silent for a while, allowing both women to take in everything he said. Brittany was staring down at her and Santana's hands, her brow furrowed, and Santana was staring out of the window they were sitting next to. She turned slowly to look at him again, remembering something.
"Uh….you said there were three things." She said, having to clear her throat.
"Oh yes" he said, clearly having forgotten. "Well, Mrs Lopez-Pierce" he indicated Santana, "your ethnicity will be the third advantage."
Both Brittany and Santana frowned. Without waiting for their responses, the lawyer went on.
"Well, people are always quick to criticize white people, especially white Americans, for adopting children of colour from other countries. It's seen as charity or something of the sort, I couldn't tell you, but because you are Hispanic, and so are the boys, that will not present a problem."
Brittany was still frowning, but Santana had resumed looking out of the window.
"That being said," the lawyer continued after a moment of silence, "this process will still not be easy. The court will not want to seem like they are just giving you the children because of your status, so they will make it as thorough as possible. I understand that you are leaving the country tomorrow?"
"Yeah" Santana said, avoiding Brittany's eyes.
"We are" Brittany said, more to Santana than to the lawyer. Santana turned sharply to look at her. Brittany nodded and kissed their still joined hands. The lawyer cleared his throat.
"Well… I advise that you come back as often as possible. One of my arguments is going to be that you are already devoted to the boys in the two days that you've known them. I will be handing in the hospital's sign in records to show how much time you spent with them on the two days you were here, I hear it's a lot" he said smiling at them. "The adoption lawyer is going to want to talk to you, and the social worker too. I don't think they're going to send anyone to the States to look at your life there, but they may ask you for a few character references. They might also want to talk to any support system you have at home, friends, family, so on, people who will be in frequent contact with the boys."
Brittany and Santana were nodding along with him as he spoke.
"We can ask Quinn and Puck for the references. They've known us forever."
"Do they work for you, or depend on you for anything? Money, housing?"
Brittany shook her head. "No, they both haven't lived with us for more than a year."
"Excellent. Then have them send me the references as soon as possible." Santana and Brittany nodded. "Do you have any questions or concerns?"
"This won't get out…? Into the media I mean. Will it?" Santana asked. The lawyer raised an eyebrow at her. "It's just that a lot of my life tends to be publicized, and I don't want this to be one of them. I don't want my career to interfere with this process at all."
"No" the lawyer said reassuringly. "I understand where you're coming from, and I can keep this quiet. Not many people are involved as it is, most of the people who are, work for the government or hospital, so they can't say anything confidential, and the other people who know are your staff, who I assume…" he trailed off and Santana nodded.
"They won't say anything"
"Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. The fewer people who know though, the better"
"OK" both Brittany and Santana said.
"Any other questions?" he asked kindly.
"Um…" Brittany started, looking at Santana hesitantly. Santana rubbed her hand with her thumb and nodded encouragingly. "How long…do you think it'll take? If they…you know if you're successful?"
The lawyer smiled at her and put his pen on the table.
"I'll be honest with you, because I find it accomplishes nothing to sugar coat these kinds of things." He said gently. "I expect that it may take a minimum of six months. If everything goes right, but you should prepare yourselves for more than that."
Brittany gaped at him. "We're going to have to keep flying back to Brazil for six months?"
"No you misunderstand me" the lawyer said quickly. "The entire adoption process is going to take between six months to a year, but I'm optimistic, especially if we are unable to find any family members, that the state will allow you to take them to America in three to four months. That will be my intention. I am appealing for emergency placement."
Brittany and Santana both released a heavy breath.
"I'm going to start the paperwork tonight, and it should be filed within the week. After that, we'll just have to wait for court dates and meeting with the adoption lawyer and the social worker."
"Thank you so much" Brittany breathed. She turned to look at Santana. "Thank you so much" she said again. Santana smiled.
"Don't thank me until you have those babies with you in your home permanently."
"But you didn't have to come all the way out here Mr Smith"
"Call me Eric please." He said smiling. "And I was all too happy to take this case, so don't thank me." He stood up slowly and shook their hands. "We'll get the job done ladies. You worry about seeing your babies, and I'll worry about making it official." With that, he gave them a short nod, and then walked out of the restaurant.
Brittany and Santana watched him go, then turned to face each other, neither sure what to say.
"Our babies Britt" Santana finally said, a huge smile forming on her face. Brittany leaned forward and kissed her tenderly, unloading everything she was feeling into the kiss; how sorry she was for their fight, how much she loved Santana, how happy she was in this very moment, and every hope and dream she could feel just within their grasp.
"Let's go see our babies S" she said, finally breaking the kiss.
Thanks so much to everyone who's told me they love this story. I really love hearing it. I'm trying to keep the story as authentic as possible (to the characters but also to the real world), which sometimes means I take a little longer to think of realistic situations to put our lovebirds through. But I promise there's a lot yet to come. Hope you like this chapter :)