Brittany's parents never showed up the next morning or at all the next day. They called to make sure she was stable and to find out how long she would be in the hospital, but that was about it. Their apologies for not showing up were taken with a grain of salt by Brittany and if truth be told she wasn't sure what she would have done if Santana wasn't there.
The doctors and nurses came in periodically through out the day to keep both Brittany and Santana informed on her progress and to let Brittany know that she would be having a follow up X-ray in the morning.
"Santana, my pillow is fine." Brittany said through a giggle as Santana was trying to fluff her pillow…with Brittany's head still resting on it.
"Are you sure? I could get you another one."
"No, that's okay. Can you just sit with me? You're making me nervous with all the pacing."
Santana forced a weak smile and sat down in her chair. She couldn't help it, not only was she angry with Britt's parents for not showing up but Sam was on his way to the hospital. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do when he got there. Was she supposed to leave and go outside like Brittany asked of her the first time or was she supposed to wait in the room while they made googly eyes at each other?
"What are you thinking about?" Brittany asked after a moment of watching Santana battle within herself.
"Nothing." Santana answered, not willing to divulge her insecurities about Brittany's boyfriend when she was the one that encouraged it in the first place by telling her to date other people.
"You know I hate it when you lie to me. You've got that look in your eye like something's wrong."
"I'm just…I don't know what to do when Sam gets here. Do you want me to leave?" Santana finally asked, internally hoping against hope that Brittany would tell her no.
"Do you want to leave when Sam gets here?"
Santana had to think about it for a minute. No, she didn't want to leave Brittany's side, no matter what. She was sure about that. She would probably suffer through an apocalypse, or worse an entire one-woman show of Rachel Berry's boring life, than leave Brittany when she was already so upset about her parents.
"No. I don't."
"Okay, then don't." Brittany said, reaching for Santana's hand. "I only asked you to leave last time so that I could tell Sam to go home and that you would stay with me. I didn't want you to give him your cocky face like you won something when it's not like that."
Santana studied the hand in hers. The one that she'd already mapped out every crease and every freckle years ago. The only thing that was new now were a few scrapes that were already starting to heal.
"Then what is it like?" Santana dared to ask.
"It's like… like I just feel more comfortable with you here with me. It's not his responsibility to take care of me when I get hurt."
"But, it's mine?"
"No. It's no one's...It just doesn't feel like a responsibility when you do it. You're so sure about everything and he looked as lost as I did."
She had a point. What made Brittany and Santana work was that they balanced each other out in almost every respect. Brittany had a way of calming Santana down like no one else and Santana always knew exactly how to explain things to Brittany in a way that she would understand. Sam and Brittany were too much alike, but that was what Santana was so jealous of. What if there was someone out there that understood Brittany on a different and better level than she ever could?
"I will always take care of you Britt, no matter what. You know that right?" Santana asked while staring a hole into Brittany's skull when the blonde pretended to mull it over.
"Yeah, San. I know that." She smiled and gave Santana's hand a quick squeeze before she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye.
"Knock, Knock." Sam said with a full smile and a hand behind his back. "The door was open." He clarified when he noticed Santana's glare.
"Hey Sam!" Brittany welcomed him with an equally toothy grin.
He walked in and brought his hand from behind his back revealing a bouquet of white roses.
Santana scoffed. Brittany's favorites were daffodils.
"Thanks! They're beautiful." Brittany gushed.
Sam looked around the room before his eyes fell back to Brittany's.
"Um. Where should I put them?" He asked.
"I'll take them." Santana said as she stood up and reached for the bouquet of Brittany's not favorite flowers.
She put them in the sink that was on the other side of the room. When she turned around she noticed that Sam was at Brittany's side, but hadn't taken her seat. It was annoying how gentlemanly he could be, Santana thought.
"You can sit down if you want." Santana told him as if it didn't matter to her either way.
"No I'm good." Sam answered never taking his eyes off of Brittany's leg. "I brought something else too."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a permanent marker.
"I thought we could sign the cast. You know, everybody from glee club. They're on their way here too."
Santana watched as Sam took the cap off of the marker and bent down to sign first.
"Don't." Brittany said before the marker met her cast. "I don't think I want anything on it yet. It's so clean and pretty. Let's wait til it gets dirty and then we can cover up the dirt with pretty pictures."
Santana and Sam both looked confused with Brittany's objection. Santana for a totally different reason than Sam, because she remembered when Brittany twisted her ankle in dance class and couldn't wait for everyone to sign her cast then. Or when Santana broke her Pinky finger, Brittany brought markers with them to the doctor just so they could draw pictures on Santana's cast right away.
"Oh. I thought it looked boring, but I guess you're right." Sam said dejectedly, like a kicked puppy.
"Can I see the marker?" Brittany asked Sam.
He handed it to her and before he had a chance to pull away she grabbed his hand and drew a smiley face on it. This seemed to cheer him up a little bit and the tension in the room relaxed enough for Santana to walk back over to her seat.
Most of the glee club came in a few minutes later and they all talked about how Brittany was going to have to stay home for a week or two before she could come back to school and how she wanted to be put on skype during all the glee club meetings. Sam and Joe told her they would make sure to put Artie's laptop in the front row so everyone could sing songs to her to make her feel better. This apparently was the song topic of the week, Finn informed them.
After an hour or so, the glee kids slowly started filing out of the room with last wishes of quick healing and sweet goodbyes.
Sam was the last left, aside from Santana, of course. His face showed his struggle of whether or not he should leave. He was eyeing the door and watching as the nurses who walked by were actively avoiding threatening stares from Santana. Brittany started complaining about her leg hurting again and Santana jumped down the first nurse's throat to start her drip a few minutes early…they did. Sam felt a little out done, because he was telling Brittany she would feel fine in a few minutes, when it was time for her medicine.
"Well, I think I should probably go now." Sam said and waited for a response, maybe Brittany asking him to stay a bit longer.
Brittany was watching Santana put his flowers into a vase next to the balloons and a giant singing card that the rest of the glee club brought. She had a dreamy smile on her face as she watched every move that Santana made. Santana must have felt the eyes on her because she turned to look at Brittany before quickly looking down with a blush.
They were having a secret conversation and Sam wasn't in on it.
He cleared his throat and repeated himself. This time Brittany shook out of her daze and motioned for him to come to her. He walked over to her, still a little hurt after seeing the way she was looking at Santana, a way she never looked at him. She crooked her finger, telling him to bend down to her.
He leant in for a kiss, but Brittany was quick to move her face and give a quick smooch on the cheek before pulling him in for a hug. Neither Santana nor Sam missed the fact that Brittany was acting different towards Sam than she was yesterday. Santana kept her smile to herself as she told Sam goodbye and walked back to her seat.
"So…" Santana began. "Sleepy?"
"Not really. I felt like I've been sleeping for weeks." Brittany admitted. She eyed the marker that Sam had left by the sink and Santana followed her gaze.
When Brittany met Santana's eyes again she was giving her a quizzical look.
"What?" Brittany asked, squirming a bit under the scrutiny. She knew what Santana was about to say.
"What was up with you not wanting Sam signing your cast? That's always been your silver lining with broken bones and you know it."
"I don't even like the color silver, San." Brittany said, trying to dodge the question.
Santana cocked her head and raised her eyebrow expectantly, causing Brittany to sigh in defeat.
"You're always the first one to sign my cast…." Brittany waited for Santana's reaction. She wasn't expecting her laugh at her because Santana never laughed at her when she was being serious, but she was expecting something, a look maybe. Instead, Santana just grinned at her. "It's probably silly, but it's always sorta been our thing."
"It's not silly." Santana laughed. "I was actually getting a little upset too when I thought he was going to sign it."
They both shared a laugh before Santana got up and grabbed the Sharpie off of the counter.
"May I?" She asked with a glint in her eye.
"Please! This cast is boring me to death." Brittany dropped her head back for dramatic effect.
Santana bent down and signed her name after a sloppy heart. She pulled back to see her handy work before angling herself to draw something further down… on Brittany's foot.
When she pulled back again to show Brittany what she wrote, Brittany couldn't help but smile so big she thought her face was going to crack in half.
Santana had drawn the words, 'I love you' on her foot using an eyeball, a heart, and the word 'you' (mimicking a drawing that Brittany had done on Santana's cast years ago). Yeah, Santana told her when they were not breaking up that she would always love her the most, but it was a nice reminder. Especially after she didn't say it back last night when Brittany had said it to her… even if it wasn't a declaration and more of a fact.
"You remembered?" Brittany asked, if only to see Santana blush.
"Yeah… and I thought this way you could always see it, since your foot is sorta stuck in that position." She explained with a crinkled nose.
"Thank you San. I love you too."
Santana's heart fluttered. She almost felt guilty for being somewhat thankful about this accident. It was like she needed it, they needed it… just to remember how to BE again. Santana never wanted to be anything with out Brittany again.
Eventually Santana finished her second paper that night in between Brittany sleeping, watching movies on the little TV that was mounted on the opposite side of the wall, and painting Brittany's toes with some nail polish she found in her purse. It was red, and Santana was quick to paint in the hearts that she drew on the cast.
They fell asleep again, snuggled on Brittany's borrowed bed, until a new nurse came in and woke Santana up, telling her to move back to the couch in the room.
In the middle of the night Santana was awoken again by Brittany calling her name in her sleep. It was more of a fragile cry, like her body felt the warmth evaporate soon after Santana left her side. The latina got up right away and shushed her.
"It's okay, baby. I'm right here." She was thankful that Brittany was asleep and didn't catch her slip up of the endearing term.
Santana rubbed Brittany's arm and whispered softly in her ear that everything was okay until she finally settled back into a blissful sleep. She made sure to pull the blanket all the way up the blonde's body before shuffling back to her couch. She looked down at the green plastic sofa, trying to figure out the best way to maneuver it across the room. After struggling with the hefty piece of furniture for 10 minutes she was finally able to push it flush against the bed.
She grabbed for Brittany's hand and fell asleep.
The next morning they both woke up to knocking at the door. Before either of them got the chance to answer it a doctor was coming in with a clipboard in his hands.
"Miss Pierce. It looks like it's about time to do a follow up X-ray to make sure everything is healing properly." He kept walking in the room, not at all deterred by their groans and mangled yawns.
"Hey man, it's like early as fuck. Does she have to do all this now? She's barely even awake." Santana grumbled at the doctor.
Brittany was rubbing at her eyes next to her and nodding in agreement.
"I'm sorry, but it's almost 9 am and this has to get done."
Santana threw the blanket from her body dramatically and put her shoes on. "Okay where to doc?"
"I'll have a couple of the RNs in here soon to help Miss Pierce to the X-ray room. But, you will have to stay here."
Both girls looked at each other with a pout.
After the X-rays came back and showed that everything was healing like it was supposed to, Brittany was told that she would only have to stay in the hospital a few more days for another final X-ray and exam.
Brittany and Santana were in the middle of a pretty serious thumb war when a nurse walked in.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's time for Brittany's sponge bath." An older nurse explained while she held a large bowl of water.
"A what?" The two young girls both asked at the same time.
"A sponge bath. Miss Brittany has been here for almost three days and she'll be here for another few. We can't exactly have her using the shower with her leg the way it is, so we just have to do some basic clean up… So she doesn't get all smelly."
It was obvious the nurse was used to seeing similar reactions and was trying her best to make light of the situation. She knew better than most that no one really feels comfortable with a stranger cleaning their body.
When the nurse noticed that Santana had no intention of leaving she gave her a pointed look and suggested she give them some privacy.
"Oh. Well okay. I guess I'll leave you to it then." Santana said awkwardly, Brittany's smirk not helping.
Before she left the room she turned back and asked, "That's like a new sponge right? You didn't just use it on some old man with a skin disease, did you?"
"We never reuse sponges, Miss Lopez." The nurse assured them both even though Brittany was rolling her eyes at the Latina's concerns.
"Okay, just…making sure." Santana said with a quirk of her eyebrow, trying to get a better look at the bowl even as she was exiting the room.
Santana wasn't in the waiting room for more than a few minutes when the nurse that supposed to be giving Brittany her sponge bath emerged from around the corner. Santana stood up quickly and threw the magazine (that she didn't even get a chance to open) down on the table.
"Was the water too hot? Did you burn her?" Santana blurted out a few of her irrational fears.
"What? No." The nurse said, looking utterly confused. "Um. Miss Pierce said that she would, um…" The nurse looked around the room at the other people waiting and lowed her voice. "…apparently she would rather have you clean her up."
Santana's eyes shot open and if she would have been drinking she was sure it would have been sputtered all over the nurse who was now waiting for her response.
"O-Okay." She stammered instead.
The nurse just handed her the sponge and told her that the water was in the room still and walked away, leaving Santana in a daze.
So, sponge bath next chapter? ;)