Santana shifted uncomfortably in her seat, she had broken up the fight between her dad and boyfriend but all the quarrel did was make it harder for her to confide in them. Noticing a split on Finn's lip she jumped out of her chair to go get him another ice pack.
"Sit your ass down Santana Rose!"
"YOU HURT FINN!"
"Your stalling!"
Santana scoffed and sat down, crossing her legs and arms, glaring at her father. Now she wasn't going to budge, in her eyes Chibs' had just earned a stare down. Sensing her mood Finn got up and went to the kitchen to get his own ice pack. Sitting back down he got Santana's attention, "There! Now I have an ice pack on my lip and my eye..." he turned his attention to Chibs as well, giving him a dirty look, then turned his focus back to Santana, "Now...when your ready...please tell us what happened. We're not gonna judge you we are here to support you."
This time it was Chibs turn to glare at Finn, "Seriously...you aren't talking to a child!"
"I know but she is clearly upset and us fighting isn't instilling much confidence in her!"
"What the fuck does that have to do with anything!?"
"She's not gonna tell us what happened if it's gonna cause us to fight more!"
Chibs' turned to his daughter and noticed the tears running down her face. "I'm sorry San. I don't like it when someone hurts my baby and it's not something I can let slide very easily..."
"If you don't leave Finn alone I'm not gonna say anything! It's not his fault! He didn't break up with me I broke up with him! I went to Newport looking for him and I'm the one who gave up and screwed everything up!"
"If that's how you see it..."
"DAD! THAT IS HOW IT HAPPENED!"
"...I'm not going to argue with you. I'm your father, in my eyes you do no wrong..."
"But I do daddy...and this was all my fault...I should have supported him in the first place because that's what love is! When you love someone it's no longer about yourself...but I made it about myself because I didn't want him to leave...I thought that if I made him choose he wouldn't go, but he had to it wasn't his choice anymore."
"He had the choice! He made the decision to sign up behind your back. You said it yourself when you love someone it's not all about yourself any more."
"I know and if I had let him in, if I had been supportive of him he wouldn't have felt like he had to do that behind my back."
"A relationship is about give and take...but just so you both know...when it comes to you, or your sisters I'll always blame Finn, Beau and Joe first..."
"I know daddy..."
Santana crossed the room and sat on her dads lap, giving him a tight hug, not realizing how much she had missed him.
"Can you tell me what happened now..."
Santana shook her head and sat between the two men taking their hands in hers. Quietly, in almost a whispers she started telling her story.
"I felt guilty the minute the truck pulled out of the compound, I tried to let it go but I couldn't everyday it got harder and harder to get out of bed and get on with my life...I need you..." Santana said looking at Finn, "so I packed my shit and headed for my mom's beach house in Cape Cod...it's about an hour from Newport...I spent every day hanging around the base. I would visit all the local Navy hangouts, I snuck onto base a few times trying to find you. After about a month I started to get desperate. I ended up applying for a job as a secretary, but then my mom showed up. She refused to let me go back to Newport, I ended up spending the rest of my time at the country club there at the Cape...well until I lost it...I would spend everyday at the pier for about a month. One day my mom and Ricardo came home from the country club and made me get dressed and go to dinner with one of his doctor friends. Before I knew it we were 'dating' and a couple of weeks later they ran the announcement in the paper that we were getting married at the end of the summer. I should have know...I put on a front because that's what they expected from me but I was too numb to realize what was going on. Everything after that was a blur and before I knew it I was in a horse carriage being paraded down Downtown Fall River on my way to St. Mary's Cathedral...it was beautiful...I remember that. I was so miserable though...but I couldn't embarrass my mother...I had to keep my poker face on and get through this." Santana shook her head, clearly deep in thought.
"Once the ceremony was over I remember changing dresses and walking into a big hall...full of people I didn't know. I wanted to scream but I just kept a smile on my face and walked around thanking people for coming...at one point I ran away. I was about three blocks away from the church at this little convenient store I bought a pack of cigarettes and asked to use the phone to call Kerri when someone grabbed me and took me back to the church. That's when it started...He hit me. I was in such shock that I didn't fight back...I was like 'who is this person? What did I get myself into'. Still in shock I let him lead me back to the reception, when we got back everyone went outside and we did that lantern thing...it still didn't seem real like we were at my wedding...Then I remember lighting a cigarette and he pulled it out of my mouth and threw it on the ground. I asked him what his problem was and he said he was a doctor like that was suppose to mean something to me...then he said it. I asked him why I should care and he said 'because I'm a doctor...my wife can't be smoking!' That's when it hit me. I was fucking married! To someone I didn't even know. We went back to the Cape after that and I had to spend the night at his house." Santana started sob at this point, "I was so scared...I had no idea who this person was and I was married to him and alone in a strange house, I didn't even know where I was."
Santana composed herself the best she could and continued with her story, "We spent the rest of the week with my parents at the country club, then flew home...I was so relieved we came back to Charming. I was so afraid I was going to have to move out of state, somewhere completely new where I had no one...not that it mattered. I was completely isolated here. I was given strict rules not to speak with anyone outside of his 'social group', I had to spend every day at the country club with his coworker's wives and my fucking mother. The minute we got back I was automatically expected to cook and clean and host parties for his friends. I had no idea what I was doing! It made him so mad! That's when the beatings really started...it became a daily thing. He would come home and the dishes weren't done, or dinner wasn't made properly so he would hit me. Never in my face or where it would be seen...after a couple weeks of this I came here. I couldn't be in the house anymore, but that wasn't an option. I had to go back 'home', and it just got worse...last night was the last straw. He had never threw me around the house before, it was just a punch here or a kick there. Last night though...last night he threw me into the china cabinet and into the refrigerator...he wouldn't stop hitting me and I just couldn't take it anymore. I was so afraid that I was going to die that I grabbed the knife...that was the last thing I remember up until Finn kicked the door down..."
Santana looked up from her lap to see both men looking away in tears. "But! It's over now...we need to move on..."
"How can you just move on..." Finn asked, "most people spend a lifetime getting over shit like this!"
"Yea well I'm not most people, and most people don't have the love of their life there to support them...I do."
"Some of them do, it's not about replacing one shitty situation with another!" Chibs argued.
"Dad! I'm not replacing anything!"
"Yea! I love her and she loves me!" Finn sneered. "But he is right...this isn't like some high school relationship where it just didn't work out...it's traumatic."
"I guess what I see is...I made a mistake...and I can pull myself out of it. I don't need to sit around moping and feeling sorry for myself. I have Finn, I have my family, and face it I've been through worse! I just want things to go back to normal...I want my life back."
"We can do that. We'll re enroll you in school so you can get your diploma, you'll stay with your dad and when you graduate you can move to San Diego with me."
"No way! I'm not staying here without you!"
"Your not moving to San Diego!" Chibs yelled.
"When I said I wanted my life back I meant I want my Finn back!"
"It's just not possible now San..."
"We'd have to be married for you to live on base with me, I can't afford to pay for two apartments, and I don't want you living alone."
"We'll figure it out...right now I don't want to worry about this mess!"
The men agreed to drop it , she'd been through enough in the las 24 hours alone they didn't want to make things worse. Before anyone could say another word there was a knock on the door.
"Mrs. Stanford, this is Detective Roosevelt I need to speak with you."
Everyone's hearts dropped, the farthest they had gotten with their plan was getting Santana out of the house and blowing it up. They hadn't discussed a plan, what they were going to tell the cops or how they were going to explain Finn's untimely visit.
"You two in the bedroom!" she ordered. Neither argued just followed suit, if there was anything Santana was good at it was lying and being quick on her feet. Finn held his breath and pressed his ear against the door, trying to hear what was going on.
"One moment!" Santana yelled running to the bathroom, she quickly washed the makeup off her face, pulled the hair out of the towel crunching it a bit to make it look disheveled, and then ran to the closet to change her outfit. She threw on a pair of black, extremely short spanx, and an oversized t-shirt. While changing she pulled a Rachel Berry and forced faux tears for the detective. Practicing her limp, she made her way to the door and put her best poker face on.
"Can you hear what's going on!?" Chibs whispered as pushed Finn against the door trying to get closer.
"Nothing yet...either this door is really thick and we wont be able to hear anything or she hasn't let him in yet..." Chibs was practically on top of Finn as they heard the door open, breathing a sigh of relief they stilled themselves and waited for the conversation to begin.
Santana opened the door and the three men waiting on the other side jaws dropped when they saw the battered woman greeting them, taking that as her cue she quickly lowered her head and stepped away from the door signalling for them to come in. It took a moment for them to compose themselves, but they quickly came in and shut the door behind them.
Roosevelt cleared his throat and extended his hand, "I'm Detective Roosevelt and these are my officers, Trace Evans and Oliver Hale." Santana was glad her face was down because her eyes about popped out of her head. She knew Rachel and Sam's brothers were on the force but she didn't expect them to show up and she didn't recognize them at the door.
"How can I help you gentlemen..." she answered in her shakiest voice, making sure not to make eye contact.
"Ummm..." Trace lost his train of thought at the sight and demeanor Santana was displaying, he'd never seen her look so fragile, "we...umm...there was an explosion at your residents this morning around ten o'clock and we were wondering if you could shed some light on what happened..."
Santana stayed quiet, looking around at everything but the men in front of her, "I-I have no idea..."
"Santana..." Ollie pried, "what happened?"
"I-I can't say...ask Edwin...he'll know..."
"We can't Mrs. Stanford...we deeply regret to inform you that he was caught in the explosion and didn't make it."
"No...no, no, no! He should have been at the hospital...that's it he's at the hospital!"
The men watched as she processed the news, from the fear in her eyes, and quivering lip to the full-scale panic attack. Trace jumped to catch her before she hit the ground and she started to scream.
"He's at the hospital! He has to be at the hospital! God noooooo..."
Jumping up she ran for her purse and pulled out her phone, the officers watched as she dialed his number and waited for it to go to voicemail, hanging up quickly she redialed the number and waited again, "Maybe he's in a meeting...yes! He had a consult this morning. That's why you haven't been able to reach him. I'll call his secretary and she can set up a meeting for you-"
"Mrs. Stanford, we went to the hospital he never showed up to work this morning. I'm sorry but he's dead. Can you please tell us what happened to you."
"It's not important," she continued to sob, "what happened?!"
"We are unsure at the time but we have a forensics unit at the scene now they will inform us when they have something. Now, we need to know what happened to you, and why you were staying here?"
"I've been staying her off and on...I've been having trouble adjusting to married life..."
"Was he hitting you?" Trace asked obviously pissed.
"No...not always...just, he just got mad last night. It's really nothing."
"What was he mad about?"
"I went into the basement last night to look for a box of clothes that we had brought over from my parents house. I wasn't allowed in the basement, I don't know why...well I didn't..."
"What did you find in the basement?"
"N-nothing...he just didn't like me going through his stuff..."
"Santana! Quit trying to protect him! There's no point now, we need answers..."
"There...there was a meth lab set up downstairs...that's why got so mad!" Santana hit her knees again, she let the tears flow and started shaking, " he caught me downstairs and was furious. He shoved me into the wall and started yelling...then he started hitting me...I fell to the ground and he started kicking me. Then he grabbed me by the hair and drug me upstairs and told me...he told me that if I said anything he would kill me. I promised I wouldn't so he let me go to bed...so I waited for him to drink himself to sleep then I grabbed some clothes and I left. I came here. I didn't know what to do! I was sooo scared!"
Trace held her as she continued with her dramatics, when she was done the detective told her he would keep in touch and they left. Santana watched from the window as they pulled out of the parking lot, then let her dad and Finn out of the bedroom.
"That was intense.." Finn said dumbfounded, as he lit a cigarette.
"Yea...that was good...too good." Chibs agreed.
"Told you she was a good liar."
Chibs hit Finn upside the head, "Now what are we going to do?"
"I'm pretty sure that's going to be an open and shut case. The lab work will come back confirming the meth lab in the basement, I'll 'find comfort' in my exboyfriend while trying to avoid the publicity and in a few weeks this will all be over. Finn, in an hour or so you will need to call your mom and tell her of the incident and to have her come check on me while you 'drive up' you can come back around eight...also tell your dad. Jax is probably all over Sebastian's ass as we speak so dad you'll need to go tell him whats going on..."
Again the men were in complete shock, it almost seemed like she had the thing planned out before either of them got involved. Both men did as they were told and headed out the door, Finn went to hide out at Chibs house until eight like he was told and Chibs went to the clubhouse. Once they were gone everything finally started to sink in with Santana and she finally broke. She poured herself a glass of wine and curled up on the couch crying real tears. Sure Edwin was an ass but if she had just supported Finn in the first place none of this would have happened and he would have still been alive.