The next four days went about the same way. Brittany, Rachel, and Santana had play rehearsals. Then they would all go home. Quinn would watch Santana leave at around eight and stumble back home a few minutes past one. Rachel and Puck would take Brittany out to dinner every night in hopes to get the old Brittany back and ward off the fake smiles and forced bubbly attitude.
Finally the morning came to take Brittany to the airport in Chicago. Puck had a gig so he said goodbye at the apartment. Rachel and Quinn drove Brittany to La Guardia and stood with her in front of the security gate.
"We'll miss you," Quinn told her, hugging the taller dancer.
Brittany smiled brightly, "I'll be back soon."
"You better," Rachel smiled taking her turn for a hug.
"Actually," Brittany had a mischievous smile on her lips, "Can you two look out for some apartments?"
"For you?" Rachel beamed.
The blonde nodded, "If I find the right place I might move back. I'm still thinking about it. Just promise not to tell anyone."
"Promise," Rachel hugged Brittany again, "I'm so happy. If you do, Noah will be so relieved that I won't be on the phone all the time."
They heard Brittany's flight being called over the loud speaker. She grinned at her friends, her first real smile in days, "I'll see you next week."
One the way home, Rachel tapped her fingers on the steering wheel to the tune of "One" from the musical A Chorus Line. Quinn however was deep in thought. She finally turned to Rachel, "This is bad."
"What is?" Rachel asked, turning the music down.
"Santana," Quinn stated firmly.
Rachel furrowed her eyebrows, "What about her?"
"For the past week she's been going out and getting drunk," the blonde explained, "And it's because she saw Brittany again. What happens if Brittany really moves back?"
"They get back together," Rachel stated like it was blatantly obvious.
Quinn frowned, "What if they don't? Brittany is going to be miserable because she wants to be with Santana, but won't make any kind of move and Santana is going to drink herself into oblivion because she thinks there's no way she can fix what she did."
Rachel was quiet until the song ended and then turned the music off all together, "So we get them to get together."
"That may have worked in high school, but I don't think it'll work now," Quinn leaned on the armrest, "Santana won't fall for any of your tricks and you'll end up telling Brittany because you tell her everything."
"Damn, you're right," Rachel bit the inside of her lip, "Well, we're figure out something."
Santana looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like she never slept, which was true and that she had a hangover, which was also true. She was fine until she saw Brittany again. Then she was back at square one. She was back to trying to ignore the problem all together. Then she knew the next step was beating herself up about making the dumbest decision of her life. The last part was ending up going about her day, hollow and dying inside.
She sighed, turned on the shower. She needed to get ready if she was going to go out again tonight.
Later that night, Quinn had called to tell Rachel that Santana was going out again. Puck sat in the kitchen listening to what his girlfriend said until she hung up.
"I need to tell Santana," he sipped his beer.
Rachel shook her head, "I can't. I told Brittany I wouldn't."
"I didn't," Puck pushed himself away from the counter, "If Santana drinks like that until Brittany comes back something bad is gonna happen."
"We don't even know if she's coming back."
"We both know she is," he walked into the bedroom and called back, "She sent you and Quinn apartment hunting for her."
Rachel followed him into the bedroom to find him laying in the bed sans a shirt. She crawled in next to him, "I know your allegiance lies with Santana, but mine lies with Brittany. She's my best friend."
"I know," he put his arm around her, "But I'm worried about Santana."
"I know," she sighed, "I'm worried about Brittany too."
"So what do we do?"
Rachel bit the inside of her cheek, "Do you think Quinn could tell her?"
"Yeah, I guess," Puck shrugged.
Rachel sat up and grabbed her phone that was charging on the nightstand.
"Rach," Puck put his hand over Rachel's that was holding the phone, "It's almost 2am. I'm sure she's asleep."
"Maybe not," Rachel added in a sad voice, knowing he was probably right.
"No one has your insane amount of energy. I have to drink a pot of coffee each day you have time off to keep up with you," he kissed her forehead.
The actress smiled, "Daddy used to tell me I got it from Dad." She paused, "Oh that reminds me, Daddy told me to tell you to ask your mom up for Hanukah."
"Where are we having it?" he asked, pulling a blanket over them both.
"Here."
"I guess since it's only two weeks away I should get the decorations out of storage and plan the menu," he thought out loud with his eyes closed.
"Actually," Rachel turned off the light and snuggled into him, "It's being catered. Opening night is two days after Hanukah. I can't have that kind of chaos in the kitchen when I'm having a meltdown. Anyway we should invite Brittany, Santana, and Quinn."
"You're asking for a Hanukah disaster," Puck tightened his arm around Rachel.
"Where have you been?" Rachel smirked into the dark, "Hanukah is always a disaster. It's a tradition."
Quinn got up and opened the door when there was a knock. She knew it was Santana. It was about the time the bars started to kick people out. However when she opened the door, she was surprised. Santana looked lucid and stone cold sober.
"Hey," Quinn offered instead of what she wanted to ask.
Santana sighed, "Hey."
"Did you have fun?" Quinn figured that that was a safe question to ask.
The brunette shrugged and took off her jacket, "I guess so. I went out with some of the girls from the show. We had fun, but…I guess I'm not feeling it."
The blonde brought her hand up to Santana's shoulder, "I understand."
"I'm going to go to bed," Santana added, slowly dragging her feet to her bedroom.
Quinn looked up at the ceiling wondering what to do to make Santana feel better. She could show Santana the list of apartments she had collected for Brittany or she could outright tell her. But she didn't know what kind of emotion that would evoke from Santana, so she sat back on the couch and pulled her laptop back onto her lap, finishing her daily hunt, hoping to find the apartment that caused Brittany to move back.
