Notes: GOD I reread this entire verse so I knew what was going on and the first chapters are So Old lmao. I'm probably going to finish this verse up soon because there's a Large difference between my writing now and the writing from the beginning of this verse lol
Anonymous asked: 34. "You broke what?!" / "Don't worry, I'm okay."
With the official reopening of the flower shop and their one year anniversary behind them, Brittany officially goes back to full duty after weeks of physiotherapy. Aside from a small ache in her shoulder if she raises it above her head for too long and a small scar along her temple, there's no evidence left of her attack. Mike is grateful to have her back as a fully functioning partner instead of having to be partnered to Jake Puckerman in the field; there's nothing wrong with him, in fact he's a pretty good detective despite the fact that he's still pretty green, but Brittany and Mike have been partners since the academy and it's more than a little weird to be partnered with someone else.
Of course it's just their luck that they end up on a foot-chase during after knocking on their suspect's door, and Brittany kind of wishes she had spent the last week going to the gym and working on her stamina there instead of spending the last week working on her stamina with Santana; but it's only the briefest of thoughts because her lungs are burning and her legs are aching, she wouldn't trade spending time with Santana for anything in the world.
It all kind of happens in a blur, but one minute she's rounding the corner of an alleyway after Mike, shouting at their suspect to stop fleeing, and the next she's tripping over her partner sprawled on the ground. She lands heavily on her hands and knees and skids along the cement until her head collides with the edge of a dumpster, stumbling up as Mike urges her to keep chasing the suspect from where he's groaning on the ground. The alley is thankfully a dead end, and despite how her head spins she manages to corner the suspect and slap a pair of cuffs on him. She drags him towards the mouth of the alley to check on Mike, her stomach churning when she realizes his left arm is pointing in decidedly the wrong direction. She quickly calls dispatch for an ambulance and a squad car, both of whom arrive at almost the same time, making sure the uniforms that arrive take care of their suspect before she convinces the paramedics to let her ride to the hospital with them.
After almost an hour, Brittany finally ends up in a room just down the hallway from Mike. Her phone is still in the car her and Mike took, but she's hoping that someone will lend her theirs so she can call Santana; her shift isn't technically over so Santana's not missing her yet, but she needs to let her girlfriend know what happened. She sighs as she waits for a nurse or doctor to show up, holding an ice pack to her head and prodding at the scrapes on her knees. She's so lost in inspecting her torn skin that she doesn't even hear the curtain open until the nurse is speaking.
"Detective Pierce," she greets fondly, "It's been a while since I've had to stitch you up."
Brittany brightens and smiles at Pauline; she's been stitching Brittany up since she was in the academy, and she's always reminded Brittany a little bit of her mother, with her wild blonde hair and impish smile.
"I heard about your shoulder," Pauline tuts as she reviews Brittany's chart. "And I see that despite the fact that you just got back to work today, you're already at it again."
Brittany just grins widely and shrugs innocently.
Pauline shakes her head with a small smile and sets the chart down on the counter before reaching for Brittany's injured arm and hand. It's covered in cuts and gravel that will need a couple stitches, the knees of her pants are ripped and torn and reveal road rash, and she's definitely got a minor concussion from sliding headfirst into that dumpster, but other than that Brittany is actually in pretty good shape.
"I heard you went and got all shacked up," Pauline says conversationally, trying to distract Brittany from the pain exploding in her arm as Pauline gently prods at the long cut there.
Brittany grunts a little, breathing deeply through her teeth. "Yeah," she manages, and as much as she would love to gush about how amazing her girlfriend is and how much she's hopelessly-head-over-heels in love—especially to the woman who's been teasing her about her lack of love life for years—she can't really form any coherent thoughts beyond ow right now.
"We'll have to stitch your hand up, but other than that it's nothing that some water and bandages won't fix," Pauline decides as she straightens up. "The doctor should be in after he's done setting Mike's arm and we'll get you some pain meds before I pull out my sewing kit."
Brittany winces and turns her usually effective pout on Pauline. "Do I really need drugs?"
"If you don't want to feel the needle, yeah, a little," Pauline retorts dryly, heading for the door. "Besides, Detective Loopy is my favourite kind of Pierce."
Brittany rolls her eyes and sits patiently on the bed. Pauline only takes a couple minutes before she's returning with the doctor, stuff to clean Brittany's cuts, the pain meds, and a phone. Brittany quickly calls her and Mike's sergeant to update him while the doctor scribbles something in her chart, promising that both of them will call him tomorrow after getting some rest. Brittany waits until the doctor has officially prescribed her the drugs and checked her over before she calls her girlfriend, hissing as Pauline starts cleaning away the blood and dirt and rocks embedded in her knees.
"Hey, babe," Santana greets and Brittany can hear the smile in her voice. "Are you on your way home now?"
It's probably a combination of the pain meds and the ice on her forehead that causes a goofy smile to spread across her face at that thought; they've lived together for a couple months by now but that thought, that idea, that concept, never fails to fill her with fizzling, bubbling joy, like she took a long drink of soda. Usually she can contain her giddiness revolving all things Santana—at least when she's attempting to be a professional because she's technically still on shift—but judging from the knowing smirk on Pauline's face as she continues to clean up Brittany's knees she doesn't hide it very well. "Um," she mumbles quietly, "Not quite. Mike and I were chasing a suspect today and I kinda tripped over him and now there's an arm that isn't exactly straight anymore and I—"
"You broke what?" Santana squawks, and through the haze of drugs that's slowly descending upon Brittany's consciousness, there's a deep throbbing ache in her chest at the fear coating Santana's voice.
"Don't worry, I'm okay," Brittany soothes quickly, "We're at the hospital right now and I didn't break anything but I'm pretty sure Mike's getting a cast right now and since he's my ride home today—"
"I'll be there in ten," Santana interrupts, and the jangling of keys fills Brittany's ears for a moment. "I'll drive Mike home too."
"Okay," Brittany mumbles, quickly growing more hazy. "I dunno know where he is but he's prob'ly somewhere." Brittany doesn't notice the way Pauline fondly rolls her eyes at Brittany; she's always reacted poorly to pain meds, ever since the very first time Pauline was stitching her up when she was only just a recruit. "Wait," Brittany says slowly, "Who are you driving home?"
"Mike—" Santana starts, but then stops, remembering the last time she saw Brittany on pain meds after she took her to the doctor to get her shoulder checked out all those weeks ago, "Never mind. I'll see you soon okay?" Santana waits for Brittany's acknowledgement, and then Brittany can hear the no-nonsense tone to her voice fade away and soft concern floods her ears as Santana murmurs her farewells.
It feels like Brittany blinks and then Santana is standing in the doorway. Miraculously, her hand is already neatly stitched up and Pauline is wrapping a soft bandage around it, her knees already bandaged too.
"Hey," Brittany whispers excitedly to Pauline, her eyes hazy from the drugs and dreamy from Santana's presence, "That's my girlfriend over there. Isn't she beautiful?"
Pauline glances up to greet Brittany's girlfriend with a small smile, hoping to soothe said girlfriend's worries before they start even if she knows it's too late for that. "She is very beautiful," Pauline agrees, and Brittany immediately bristles under the nurse's hands.
"You aren't going to try and date her, are you?" Brittany asks, and the threatening suspicion in her voice makes Pauline bark out a loud laugh, a surprised chuckle drifting through the room from the doorway.
"No, Brittany," Pauline says fondly, "I'm not going to try and date your girlfriend."
"Good," Brittany says, her eyes cutting back to Santana as a hopelessly smitten smile spreads wide across her face again. She turns to Pauline and whispers a confession that couldn't even generously be called a whisper. "Because I'm planning on marrying her one day and I don't want to have to fight you for her hand."
Santana's eyes widen and her jaw slackens a little at Brittany's words, but her eyes soften barely a split second later and Pauline doesn't need to know anything beyond the look on Santana's face to know that she won't have to tease Brittany about her lack of love life ever again.
"You must be the infamous Ms. Lopez," Pauline greets as she secures the bandage around Brittany's hand.
Santana manages to pull her gaze away from Brittany for long enough to offer Pauline a tight, worried smile. "You must be the infamous Nurse Pauline who's always fixing my girlfriend up," she says.
"Girlfriend?" Brittany says excitedly, her eyes a little unfocused as she looks across the room, "You're my girlfriend?"
Santana's smile is so adoring and loving that Pauline feels a little bit like an intruder. "For like a year, Britt-Britt," she promises as she crosses the room.
"Really?" Brittany gasps, smiling even wider as Santana takes Brittany's uninjured hand and gently brushes tangled blonde hair off of her face, dark eyes quickly taking inventory of all of Brittany's injuries, "Score!"
Brittany is content to just stare starry-eyed at Santana while Pauline explains the care Brittany will need and recommends some OTC pain meds before she collects her stuff and heads for the door.
"You're sure she's really okay?" Santana says skeptically, eyeing the nurse with suspicion and her girlfriend with fond concern, "Because I swear I'll—"
"Absolutely," Pauline says with a small smile. "Some people respond to certain pain meds a little," she glances at Brittany, who's dreamily and clumsily stroking at Santana's hip, swinging her legs back and forth without a care in the world, "Well let's just say Brittany's always been a little loopier than most whenever we give her the good stuff."
Santana seems satisfied with the answer, even if her worries won't be completely assuaged until Brittany's all healed, and thanks Pauline, who promises to check and see if Mike's ready to be discharged as well.
Brittany's humming lightly to herself, and now that the nurse is gone, Santana wraps her arms tightly around Brittany and buries herself into her girlfriend's embrace, needing the comfort of Brittany breathing against her for reassurance. She can feel Brittany's smile against her stomach as slightly clumsy arms wrap around Santana's waist, coherent enough to just quietly let Santana cling to her for a moment.
"What am I going to do with you?" Santana mumbles fondly, pulling back and framing Brittany's cheeks with her hands. Brittany smiles a little lopsidedly up at Santana, her blue eyes cloudy but still loving as she meets her girlfriend's eyes. Santana knew going into their relationship that Brittany's job came with a much higher risk than most, but she absolutely adores how passionate Brittany is about being a detective and would never wish her to be anything else.
It doesn't mean that she'll ever stop worrying about her though.
"We match!" Brittany says happily, breaking Santana from her thoughts. Santana hums in acknowledgement, more than a little confused, until Brittany takes Santana's right hand in hers, trailing sluggish fingers along the jagged scar marring her palm. She smiles widely up at Santana again and holds up her left hand, pressing her bandaged palm to Santana's scarred palm and it's only then that Santana realizes that the stitches Brittany got are now pressed against her own scar. "We match!" Brittany repeats with a wide smile.
Santana shakes her head a little, unable to fight the smile curling her lips, and carefully laces their fingers together, using her other hand on Brittany's jaw to draw her chin up so she can press their lips together. "You're a goof," Santana mumbles against Brittany's lips.
"Your goof," Brittany says cheekily.
Santana sighs and a warm tingle races up her spine as her mind replays Brittany's earlier confession to Pauline about one day. "Yeah," she agrees simply, Brittany's familiar smile making their lips slip against each other, "My goof."