AN: a few months is better than a year right? HaHa I plan on having chapter 4 up tomorrow or the next day as well. Very excited to get this story going more now that I've come back to it. Here's another chapter. Hopefully once I have it even more fleshed out and have a definite direction the chapters will come easier. I've been planning it out but an ending to the story hasn't made an appearance in my brain yet. Anyway, Enjoy!

P.S. The titles of the chapters are all going to be names of medical conditions that fit with an event in the chapter as a metaphor of sorts… we'll see how that goes. I see a lot of research in my future.

Chapter 3: Peripheral Neuropathy

Santana Lopez had had some pretty bad days. She had watched her brother Marco die at far too young an age from leukemia; she had been outed on national television thanks to a behind the scenes recording at one of their glee club competitions and she had subsequently been kicked out on her ass by her parents. So yeah, Santana has experience with shitty days, but nothing comes close to the day that Brittany had looked at her across their kitchen holding back tears saying that something wasn't working. She wasn't happy so would Santana please go stay at Quinn and Rachel's because she needed time to think. So that's what Santana had done. Santana had gone to Quinn and Rachel's and had been there for a week now. She usually had night shifts so now she was lying on her friends' couch during mid-morning drowning in thoughts of the worst day of her life.

She also remembered a day the summer before sophomore year when Brittany and her were lying on her bed late at night as some Lifetime movie played quietly on the TV. Brittany had asked her to sing for her. She hadn't wanted to at first but then she looked into the baby blue of Brittany's eyes and she was a sucker like always. "What should I sing?" she whispered. "Anything." Brittany had replied. So Santana started humming something her abuela had sung to her when she was younger. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please, don't take my sunshine away."

Santana spent the next years partially covered by a cloud of shame, and partially reveling in the sunlight that was Brittany. She took to singing the song whenever things got hard; whenever one of them was having a bad day. She didn't want her sunshine taken away, and as long as Brittany was there, it stayed.

Brittany had taken to singing it too when she picked up on the deeper meaning Santana had given it. It was their thing. So, on the day they broke up, when Santana had begged Brittany to change her mind but then ultimately headed towards the door with tears in her eyes whispering 'you'll never know, dear, how much I love you' before turning and walking out, it had taken everything for Brittany not to call her name and say she was being stupid and they could talk it out. Maybe she was being stupid, but something in her told her this is what they needed. Her mom always taught her to listen to her gut.

Santana was interrupted by her thoughts when Quinn walked in the door appearing every bit the pissed off Queen Bee she had been at one point during their high school Cheerleading days. Their was the telltale slamming down of the briefcase, kicking off of the shoes, and slamming of cabinet doors from the kitchen as Quinn got herself a glass of water. Seconds later she reemerged and stomped her way into the living room and plopped herself down in the recliner adjacent to the couch Santana was currently occupying.

"Hi," Santana dragged out almost sarcastically, testing the waters. Quinn turned and glared.

"Shouldn't you be at work? Or somewhere other than my couch?"

"I work night shifts. You know that." Quinn returned her gaze to her glass of water and Santana kept watching her because something was obviously and most definitely up. Quinn sensed the staring and snapped her head back to Santana again.

"WHAT?"

"That's a good question. I was about to ask you the same thing."

"What?"

"Exactly. What is up with you this morning? Something is bothering you."

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Clearly."

"Drop it. Okay."

"Fine."

Santana laid her head back down on the couch. She knew that her even asking would bother Quinn enough to not let it drop. She was right.

"I could ask you the same thing except I know what's bothering you."

"Oh, yeah? What's bothering me then, Q?"

"That you're here and Brittany's there."

"We never did candy coat anything with each other did we?"

"Nope," Quinn lamented.

"Is it your work?" Santana guessed.

"I said drop it, and we were talking about you". Quinn's eyebrows rose in their signature way as she spoke.

"No. We were talking about you and YOU changed the subject," Santana shot back.

"And I told YOU that I don't want to talk about!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Quinn stormed off to her home office leaving a slightly even more confused Santana on the couch. Santana decided to sit on the couch and read instead of just sitting on the couch. She had only gotten through a chapter when Rachel returned after dropping off the kids at school.

"What are you reading?" Rachel asked in greeting. Santana shrugged.

"Some trashy romance novel. I picked it up the other day in the hospital gift shop because I needed to stay awake. Now I'm just reading it like I watch those bad movies on SyFy."

Rachel hummed in acknowledgment while she looked through her purse that was resting on the small table they had in their entryway.

"Did the munchkins get off to school okay?" Santana asked.

"Yes. Grace was wearing two different socks but I managed to talk her out of the tutu so it went better than expected."

"Ah yes, the tutu. That's a good thing. It might have clashed. By the way, your wife is in her office. She's in a mood. Do you know, by any chance, who pissed in her Wheaties this morning?"

Rachel looked up from her purse slowly and now Santana and Rachel met each other's gaze.

"How bad is she?"

"Let's just say I felt like we were back in high school for a minute." They both cringed at the thought.

"Did she say why she came home early?" Rachel asked, as she walked to the couch with Santana and sat down.

"No. She wouldn't talk about anything."

"I think I know why she's so upset. It's Beth's birthday today."

"Oh, shit." Santana whispered sitting staring straight ahead so her Rachel were sitting the same way. There was never anything they could do for Quinn when that day came around.

"Yeah." Rachel sighed. Quinn wanted to be alone right now. So against her better judgment, that's what Rachel did whenever this day came around.

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Quinn sat in her office and tried to relax by laying on the small fold out couch. She had been quite short with Santana and it wasn't Santana's fault. It was usually never the other person's fault when she got into arguments. It's who she was mostly. She let anger and frustration get the best of her. Of course, that's not to say that others didn't do things that deserved anger and frustration, but it seemed like Quinn overreacted a lot of times. She thought figuring out she's gay and her relationship with Rachel had helped her learn how to deal with things but apparently not as much as she thought.

It hadn't helped that her boss was even more of a jerk today than usual. Today of all days. Kenneth Johnson was an imposing presence even with his short stature. His Napoleon complex made him barely bearable on his best days and the subject of creative murder plans on his worst. Quinn was on her way to making partner and today he had pawned all his busy work off on her yet again because he had 'an important meeting to get to'. Quinn wondered if his wife knew his 'business meetings' took place at a gross motel in long island.

When she started law school she was brimming with eager anticipation for helping single mothers, defending innocent people, or protecting the planet from companies that were destroying it. This isn't how she had envisioned her career and it was draining her every day. Her law firm supplied her with cases that involved frivolous civil lawsuits, defendants with no defense, and domestic disputes gone much too far. Today especially it took too much out of her when she had already started with very little. She was supposed to go back to the office after her early appearance in court but no new cases came in and she called it a day.

Quinn lifted her head when she heard the door. She knew that Rachel had just gotten back from dropping Lydia and Grace off at school. She heard her wife and Santana start a conversation and knew they were probably discussing her. She dropped her head back down on the couch and thought about Beth. She knew nothing about her. The couple that adopted her, the Rosenbergs, had sent her a picture from Beth's first birthday but she hadn't received anything since. Quinn had signed her parental rights away and she had agreed to a closed adoption. She wished her 16 year old self had put more thought into that decision but if she had been capable of that she probably wouldn't have slept with Puck and therefore gotten pregnant either. It was Beth's twelfth birthday. Twelve years and Quinn still thought about her nearly every day.

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Santana might hate her mother, and might hate having to live at her friend's place, but her mother taught her how to cook and to be a polite houseguest so she did little things to thank them for letting her stay like cooking dinner. She did so that evening so when dinner was finished she went to play in the living room with the girls while Quinn and Rachel washed the dishes. Santana and Lydia were in a heated race on Rainbow road when Santana got a message from Tina making her lose concentration and the race.

"Aii, stupid game."

"It's funny watching you lose, Aunt San."

Santana stuck her tongue out at the girl then checked her phone to see an urgent message from Tina.

I know you have a shift in a few hours but you need to get here quick! There's a patient here and I don't know what to do!

She wrinkled her eyebrows and typed out her reply.

you did go to nursing school right? shouldn't you know what to do?

HA HA I'm serious! just get here and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Santana sighed and gave in. She said goodbye to the Berry – Fabrays and headed to the hospital. When she arrived Tina met her at the Lobby and Santana followed her to wherever they were going.

"Slow down, Chang! I know it's the Emergency room but, damn."

"I'm rushing because I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out because I'm 99% certain Quinn's daughter just turned up in our ER." Tina stopped and spun on her heels to face Santana.

"What are you talking about? I was just with them."

"No, not Grace or Lydia."

"You mean…?" In response Tina handed Santana the chart. The name read Beth Rosenberg.

"What bed is she in?" Santana asked as she took off running.

"B 20" Tina yelled and she followed Santana to the room. Tina almost ran into Santana when she stopped abruptly and stared into the room. Santana was frozen and her mouth was hanging open just a tad.

"Holy shit."

The curtains were only partially closed and she could see through the glass panel. On the bed was a young girl with mousy blonde hair, glasses, and bright green eyes.