You Changed My Life (Bob Dylan)

We'd been back in Lima for a week, the newly renovated place we were staying was only steps away from my childhood home but Papi seemed to be too preoccupied with work and my sisters that first week to be nosey.

He and Mami differed there, she would have been all up in my world from the moment I stepped foot in that house and never left.

I kept bursting into tears when I thought of what I was missing with my mother.

Then there was my lack of anything to do at all.

I was so fucking bored, which meant that I had nothing else to do but to follow my sisters around.

Snore.

It took me six days before I was leaving the house to go track down my father.

He was in his office at the hospital watching television and eating a chalupa.

"Word, Papi. You left me at the house with all those pendejas while you sit here eating Taco Bell?"

"You want?" He shoved a wrapped taco at me and I didn't even pretend to reject it. I sat down across from him and began to scarf down the chalupa.

"Slow down, mi'ja."

I glared at him and then I groaned.

He sat up and looked me over.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I have this pain in my side that won't quit no matter what I do."

"Finish eating. I'll track down your new OB."

"Thanks, Papi."

"Did you tell your wife?"

I shook my head as I finished my chalupa.

"She looked so peaceful, so I didn't bug her."

"Call her, just in case this is something more."

"Fine." I rolled my eyes.

"I can't believe you've been in labor for hours and you didn't notice." Quinn said to me as I laid in my hospital bed munching on ice chips.

"High pain tolerance, not my fault."

"You were dilated 4 centimeters, Santana!"

"If you're going to harass me, you can leave, Lucy. I'm really not in the mood." I said and then I reached for her as my contraction came, pain shot across me and I had the sudden urge to push.

"You're doing great baby."

"I need d-doctor." I whimpered.

She hit the pager and someone came in moments later while I was curled up crying.

"How are you doing, Santana? Is it time to check your status?"

"You tell me! What am I paying you for!" I snapped.

She chuckled and then got down there, took like one look and then snapped off her gloves.

"I'm going to grab the doctor." She said.

"What the hell?!" I screamed after her.

"Baby, you need to breathe."

"Why?"

"I think it's time."

"Wait...I'm not ready, Q. Don't make me do this!"

Now she was smiling with that patronizing look, fuck her.

Ugh, I wish.

The doctor strolled in with her bright smile with my father just behind her, a grin on his face.

"I hear you are ready to push, Santana."

"Fuck!" I yelled as another contraction hit me. "Get them out! Fu..." I was breathless suddenly and feeling lightheaded.

A mask was put on my face and then Papi and Quinn were on either side of me, talking me through the most painful thing I could have ever imagined.

Seeing their little faces looking up at me was the best thing I could have ever imagined.

I held them in my arms while Papi took pictures and then Quinn was next to me, taking our son and looking down at him like he was the best thing on Earth.

And he was.

Papi was in tears as I handed him little Maribel.

"You are going to be just as amazing as your Abuela little Mari."

He kissed her and prayed over her. She wrapped her little hand around his pinky and he cried even more.

"Papi you're going to get your tears all over her...your crying face is going to scare her."

He stuck his tongue out at me.

I rolled my eyes and then looked at my wife, she was near tears too.

"You okay, baby?" I asked and she nodded.

"Yeah. What name are we going with for him?"

"Remember what you wanted to call Beth if she was a boy?"

"Yeah, Lucas."

"Well...meet Lucas."

She came closer and kissed me...her lips like two delicious pillows.

"I love you, Santana...I love our babies even more."

"You better. I'm gonna sleep now. Okay?"

"Okay, baby. We will make sure they are taken care of, rest."

I nodded and then puckered my lips again until she was kissing me.

Then she brought Lucas closer so I could smell him, kiss him, and whisper to him.

Papi did the same. Little Mari had that freaking mole that I had been born with beneath my lip...she was adorable with it.

"She's your twin, mi'ja."

"Look out world, there's two of us." I whispered to her and then kissed her sweet cheeks.

God. I was like a real mom now.

And I knew I'd do anything to protect them.

I just hoped that I was as a good a mom to them as Mami was to me.

Tears came and then Papi was hugging me lightly, my daughter between us.

"She saw them before they got here, mi'ja. You'll be just as amazing as her. I won't let you mess it up."

"Thanks, Papi." He kissed my cheek.

"Rest."

Thank God for Q...she stepped up and let me sleep as much as possible while we were in the hospital.

And when we returned to the house, she was like a fucking body guard when it came to letting me have time alone with the babies and to myself.

There's no way I could have done this without her.

After a week of baracadding ourselves in the house, my bodyguard was bum rushed by the only person that could slip past her...Brittany.

I was curled up in bed, after feeding the two hellions until my boobs were empty, my body exhausted from the effort when a body collided with mine.

My first instinct was to yelp but I knew that any loud noise would wake up the kids and I just could not make more milk happen in that second.

"You're a mom!" She whispered excitedly.

"I am."

"Everyone said you did so good."

"Yeah? Where is everyone, Q was supposed to be letting me sleep."

"Oh, I bribed her with bacon. She's in the kitchen of the main house with your whole family, they are all here to see you."

"Noooo." I whimpered.

"Don't worry, Quinn is only letting a few people at a time come down here. I shoved a bunch of bacon at her and then ran."

Sure enough, the room door opened and there was my wife, breathless with greasy lips.

"Seriously, B." She scowled.

One of the babies let out a whimper and I shushed her.

"Be still."

We all froze and waited for the cry but it didn't come.

Thank God.

"Are you mad that I asked her to stay for a while?" Q asked as she holds me that night and I just snuggled against her neck.

"No. There was a time that I thought she'd be the mother of my kids. Seeing her with them just feels right, even if reality looks different." I said and before Quinn could overthink it, I brushed my thumb over her wrinkled brow. "They're yours, baby."

"I know what you meant. I'm secure in us, S. Nothing she does can change that."

"Really? Not even random makeouts?"

"How are we still talking about that?"

"You and her making out is at the top of my spank bank. It was a wet dream of mine all through high school. Starting together, coming together."

"I thought it was ending together?" Q raised a brow.

"Coming, ending...semantics, Q."

"On another note, I love you, I'm so proud of you...you're beautiful." She said, changing the subject.

"I know all that, why are you trying to blow my head up?"

"Because every time I walk in a room and see you or I hear you singing in the shower or the kitchen, my heart just aches. I can't believe that the love of my life was just right in my face this whole time."

"You're getting sappy, Cap." I teased.

"You make me this way. You've changed my life...all three of you."

"The feeling is mutual, baby love."

"I know I can't do stuff to you yet, but we can make out right?"

"God, yes."

She kissed me then, taking my breath away and I just leaned into it.

Even now, she was all that I wanted and needed.

She'd saved my life. There's no doubt in my mind that if she hadn't agreed to be with me, that I wouldn't be here...alive.

Things got pretty dark but with Q as my wife and the mother of my children, I felt like Mami and fate had laid a hand.

We kissed until sleep took me under and my dreams were filled with laughter...love...and that smile.

God, her smile.