CHAPTER 2
48 hours earlier...
"Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul and sings the tune
without the words and never stops at all."
– Emily Dickinson
That's the quote that hangs on Brittany's bedroom wall. She stares at it intently, wondering if she should believe that hope still exists within her. She gets up from her sitting position at the foot of the bed and goes towards the wall to take off the frame and toss it in the trash. Then, she walks to her vanity to do some finishing touches on her make-up just as she hears a faint knock on her door before it opens, revealing a little brunette with big brown eyes and chubby cheeks.
"I'm ready, Mommy", the little girl smiles brightly at Brittany, which the blonde gladly returns.
"Alright sweetie, I'll be out in a minute. Don't forget to put the pictures you drew for Mami in your backpack, okay?"
"Si, Mommy." the little girl responds with a wide smile showing her dimples before turning to go downstairs. Brittany chuckles at this while shaking her head and whispers to herself, "Just like her Mami."
Brittany does a once-over in the mirror before grabbing her purse and going downstairs. "C'mon Maddi, put your shoes on so we can go," she says to her little girl while making her way to her Dad who's looking at her with sad eyes.
"Are you gonna be okay?" James Pierce asks his daughter while standing up to give her a hug.
"It doesn't get easier but, yes dad, I'll be fine." Brittany returns the hug and gives her dad a genuine but sad smile when she pulls back. "See you later."
Brittany buckles Maddison in her car seat before closing the door and makes her way to the driver's side. She smiles at her little girl in the rearview mirror once she gets inside and buckles herself.
"Are you ready to go see Mami, Abuelo and Abuela? She asks Maddi as she turns the engine on and backs the car out of the Pierce driveway.
"Yes, mommy! I'm gonna sing Mami a happy birthday and tell her stories about school and show her my drawings," the little brunette squealed in excitement as they drove up north of the town. When they reach their destination, Brittany is once again drowned by her sadness. This has been her and Maddi's yearly tradition for the past 2 years and it doesn't get any easier, especially for her. They stopped in front of the 3 black granite headstones and Brittany placed a bouquet of flowers on each one.
"Maddison, why don't you go ahead and say hi to abuelo and abuela first." she looked down to her daughter with a smile and the little girl nodded before sitting in front of Mr. and Mrs. Lopez's headstone. Once Maddison started talking animatedly, she turned her attention to the headstone in front of her and sat down with her legs crossed.
SANTANA MARIE LOPEZ-PIERCE
July 4, 1988 - May 23, 2013
"The coolest wife and mother. Always and forever."
"Hi, my love. Happy Birthday." she places her right middle and index fingers on her lips before reaching out her arm to place that kiss on her wife's headstone. "You would've been 30 today and I can actually hear you in my head saying 'Britt, I'm old as hell now' and you'll probably pout and go on and on about getting botox on your face or something like that," she chuckles at the thought of her wife saying those exact words to her. "But you know I'll always tell you don't need any of those because you're beautiful."
Brittany feels a light tap on her left shoulder and she quickly wipes the tears flowing down on her face. Maddi places her thumbs and wipes the tear tracks on her mother's face, a habit that she also got from Santana even though the 6-year old doesn't remember much of her other mother.
"C'mon honey, say hi to Mami," the blonde smiles at her daughter and pulls her down to sit on her lap. They spent the rest of the afternoon having a picnic while animatedly telling Santana and her parents' stories about their adventures in New York and how they miss them and wish that they were with them during those adventures. Brittany and Maddi left the cemetery at sunset with Brittany feeling emotionally spent. After dinner, Brittany put Maddi to bed and turned herself in early as well.
The next morning, Brittany is woken up by the loud ringing of her phone. She grabbed a pillow and placed it on top of her face to muffle the sound until it stopped ringing. After a few seconds, her phone started ringing again so she turned to her left side and blindly reached for her phone on her night stand to answer it.
"Hello?" she croaked out to whoever was calling her at this time.
"Brittany!" the person on the other line exclaimed rather loudly. "Turn your TV on and watch Good Morning America. Now!"
"Jesus, Mercedes, what's with all the yelling? What time is it?" Brittany responds as she sits up and reaches for the remote to turn the tv on and turn to ABC.
"Doesn't matter. Just do it. You're not gonna believe this" Mercedes said with an exasperated sigh.
"Okay, okay. Shit. I'm scanning the channels. What's there to see anyw-"
"It's her, Britt. She's alive."
She's cut off and as soon as Mercedes said the last part, the scanning stopped at the right channel and Brittany dropped the remote to use her right hand to cover her mouth. Tears immediately started to run down on her face as she sobbed uncontrollably. There, on the TV, is her favorite brunette, blowing the firework candles on a birthday cake. Her wife. The mother of her child. Her Santana.
Brittany slides hurriedly on the back of a cab after handing her 6 year-old daughter to Mercedes whom she asked to come pick her up at LaGuardia Airport. "I'll give you a huge tip if you can get me to Barnes and Noble on 5th Avenue in the next 15 minutes," she says to the cab driver once she closed the door. It's the day of Olivia Wright's book signing and Brittany is desperate to talk to her.
5 years. Brittany hasn't seen Santana in 5 years. She is sure that this Olivia Wright is her Santana. She has to be. As the cab driver exits out of the airport, Brittany leans her head into the window and closes her eyes, crying in silence as she prays to whoever is listening up there to give her this chance to finally be reunited with her wife.
MAY 23, 2013
Cop cars were parked outside of the Lopez residence in Lima. On the far side of the driveway, police officers are interviewing some of the neighbors and some of the other police officers were trying to make sure that the onlookers didn't get past the barricade. Brittany stops her car abruptly and parks on the sidewalk across the house before running out of the car, leaving the door open. She ducks under the yellow police tape and runs towards the house so she can talk to the officers.
"Puck!" she yells at the man in a black suit who has his back to her, talking to one of the forensic investigators. She looks to her left and right side as she walks briskly to approach the man; her hands shaking, her heart racing and tears starting to stream down her face.
"Okay, let me know if you got something," Detective Puckerman says to the forensic investigator before turning the approaching blonde behind him. He furrowed his eyebrows and held his arms up to stop Brittany from walking any further. "Britt, you can't be-"
"Where is she, Puck? Is she inside? What happened? She asks frantically while trying to get away from Puck's arms.
"She's… she's not there, Britt." Puck answers with his head down.
"What do you mean she's not inside?!" Brittany yells and pushes him off of her "Her car's right there!" she says pointing to the red sedan parked on the street. "Santana! Santana!" the blonde shouts as she successfully breaks away from Puck's arms and charges for the front door of the house.
"Britt, you can't be in there!" he yells and follows the blonde who's practically running towards the house. Once they got to the living room of the house, Brittany froze at the scene before her.
"Oh god…" she covered her mouth with her hand and turned to Puck behind her.
Blood. Lots of blood. That was the last thing Brittany saw before she passed out in Puck's arms.
"Miss…" the cab driver pats Brittany's arm and she jolts from the touch that brought her back to consciousness. "We're here. 12 minutes." he says with a smirk as he points to the front door of the bookstore.
"Oh… thanks." Brittany reaches for a hundred dollar bill and practically throws it in the man's face before getting out of the cab. Her eyes widened when she saw a bunch of people coming out of the exit door and she sprinted for the entrance. She got inside of the bookstore and followed the sign where the book signing was held. She sees the Latina getting up from her chair so Brittany decided to run towards her long lost wife and never let her go.
Ever. Again.
