Well it's early-ish Tuesday so here's another chapter! I want to thank you all again for reading, following, favoriting, reviewing and just generally being here and dealing with my stuff. It's most appreciated.
The only thing I can say about this chapter is that people are going to have mixed feelings about it. I want to make it clear that I never write anything with the intention of offending anyone, so if I happen to I am deeply sorry.
You're welcome to tell me your opinion about any of it, and thank you again.
Let's Fly
Sometimes, parents can really be a pain in the ass.
Brittany's are no exception to little gem of wisdom and from the moment that Brittany heard Brett tell her that their parents wanted her to come back home, she panicked.
Immediately experiencing all of the same reactions she still gets from time to time being around Santana.
Except in this case, the reactions were very very bad.
Rapid shallow breathing, clammy hands, seizing hear, all sure signs of terror and all for one very important reason; there's nothing in the world that makes Brittany okay about the thought of returning to Santa Fe and seeing her parents.
That's not even the worst of it, however, because if she doesn't go and see them as soon as she can, Brittany runs the risk of them coming to visit her new life.
The definite greater disaster.
Brittany suspects her parents wouldn't bat an eye at coming to her, seeing how happy and content she is with herself, and especially with Santana, and then doing everything they can to try and destroy that.
Her parents never realize they're doing anything bad or wrong until it's too late and everyone else is already running for the hills.
Brad and Bonnie Pierce may seem like the loveliest people in the world, but once you really get to know them, or you've spent the majority of your life around them, the awful little things about them start trickling out from every corner.
That is far and large one of the main reasons Brittany wants to avoid the whole Santana meeting her parents for as long as possible; their potential to make things go from bad to worse and in a nutshell, hard to handle. Santana is the most patient and understanding person Brittany has ever known. She's loving and kind, but even Santana has her limits, and that might unfortunately be the Pierce parents.
Brittany would love to have Santana by her side when she visits her parents again for the first real time in the last four years. And even though Santana did offer to come with her, a lot, Brittany knows that this time around she has to go alone. It will be quick and hopefully as painless as possible.
Then she'll be back to wrap up Santana in her arms.
After Brittany spends a day getting all of her post office shifts and routes covered for the four-day period she'll be absent, and books her flights, Santana drives her to the airport almost two hours away, holding her hand as they walk into the terminal headed towards security.
Stopping just shy of the hordes of people shuffling to the security section, in a little bit of a secluded nook in the wall, Santana wraps her arms around Brittany's waist and tilts up to press a kiss to the underside of her jaw.
"Britt, you still don't have to do alone this if you don't want to." She says against Brittany's skin.
Brittany sighs and squeezes Santana tighter. "I want more than anything for you to come with, but I just can't subject you to that. It doesn't feel right."
Santana kisses her and halts her words. "Baby, any of your problems are my problems, even family ones."
"I know." Brittany says with a smile "That's what a partnership is all about. But San, I haven't even seen them in four years and I don't know what to expect. I just don't want things to turn crazy. I need to go talk to them and see what exactly is going on so I can tell them that I'm happy here and I don't want anything from them. I just want you, and us. I don't want them upsetting that in anyway, and I don't want to put you through that either."
Even though she looks at Brittany skeptically, Santana recognizes where she's coming from. Santana would want to keep Brittany away from her parents as long as possible too, if only to save Brittany from the cruel words that they'd undoubtedly have for both of them. Santana gets it, but she still doesn't feel very good about it.
"I know you're only doing what's best." Santana says, squeezing Brittany's hand before tilting in for another, longer kiss. Brittany's palms splay out against the small of Santana's back, shifting under her jacket and across the skin when the garment hicks up a little. Santana gasps and breaks the kiss, her pupils dilated and the browns of her eyes turn two shades darker.
Brittany gulps, she knows what that look means.
Santana clears her throat and averts her eyes for a second, her voice raspy when she finally mumbles a few words. "Okay, I should let you go before I drag you off somewhere dark and have my way with you. You'd be sure to miss your flight then." She smirks back at Brittany when she finishes, noticing the way her girlfriend shakes slightly at her words and bites her lip.
"Okay." Brittany squeaks and pushes off the wall she was leaning on, grabbing her rolling luggage in one hand and Santana's hand in the other and walking towards the security line. A few tender kisses later and Brittany is making her way through security until she's on the other side and blowing a kiss back to Santana who smiles sadly but waves back.
Then, Brittany's gone.
#######################
Santana has been sitting at her desk for the past forty-five minutes, two and a half hours after leaving the airport after dropping Brittany off, and she can't seem to concentrate on anything. She's supposed to be working on reviewing the latest book that's supposedly going to top the lists, a fictional story about robots verses zombies, but there's nothing in the pages catching her interest.
She's distracted, mostly because she already really misses Brittany. Not in that 'she's so dependent on Brittany' kind of way, though she does absolutely love having her around all the time, it's more she's just so worried and nervous for her and how the situation with her parents will go.
Judging by the very little that she knows about the rest of the Pierce's, they are vastly different from her amazing, compassionate, wonderful girlfriend. Those kinds of differences don't often mix well when put in the same space together.
Santana wishes she could be by Brittany's side to calm and reassure her. Be there for Brittany if she needs an encouraging kiss, loving hug, or anything else to ease the tension.
She checks her phone, no calls or texts since the last one she got from Brittany saying she was just getting on her flight. Of course there wouldn't be, it's going to be at least four hours before they talk again.
She sighs as the words on the page in front of her blur together. Santana takes off her glasses and rubs at her eyes. She checks the clock. It ticks at her like a slow countdown to some kind of unforeseen doom.
Finally she pushes her self back in her chair away from the desk and stands up. Maybe discussing things with Quinn will help her feel better about it all, or maybe Santana can ask her to drive her to the airport.
Decision made, she grabs her purse, jacket, and makes sure she has all of her essentials. If she goes, she'll just buy luggage there. Santana doesn't notice the flashing light on her landline message machine, having not used it for several months, and she doesn't hear the buzz from her phone in her purse alerting her of a new, and important, incoming text.
When she gets to the door, however, and wrenches it open all the calls and texts don't make a different because what warning she could have had is now gone, because the person contacting her is now standing directly in front of Santana on her doorstep.
"Are you fucking serious?"
"Such language." The newly arrived female individual says as she lets herself in by pushing past the surprised Santana. The stare that Santana fixes upon the woman is blank and frustrated and she's more than pissed off about what's happening right now. The 'guest' spins back around to face their intended house host and smiles wide.
"This should be fun."
#####################
Brittany jars awake when the plane she's on touches down at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport, the hour and a half flight from Denver to here going by quicker than Brittany anticipated.
Now things are about to get really real.
She called Santana during her layover, and even though her girlfriend was really sweet, Brittany couldn't help but feel like she was also really distracted. Every time she asked Santana about it, however, the other woman brushed it off and claimed it was just that nervous sadness she was feeling not having Brittany with her.
She'd smiled at that and promised Santana she'd text her when she got into Santa Fe a little after ten p.m., not wanting to disturb her girl when it was already past midnight back in Lima. Of course, Santana told her that she'd be up because she wanted to hear her voice before falling asleep.
After the plane taxis to its gate and the seatbelt sign is turned off, the airplane comes alive while passengers stand to grab their carryon luggage and get ready to exit.
Brittany, who thanks in full to Santana's contacts, waits in her first class seat until the person next to her, a quiet red headed woman who did nothing but smile at Brittany do-eyed and constantly sanitize every thing surrounding her or handed to her, stands and gets her things.
As she shuffles behind the other passengers across the jetbridge and up the corridor into the main terminal, Brittany suddenly gets even more nervous about the fact that she's actually here. Back in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the first time in a while.
She's about to come face to face with her parents, the very ones who spend half their time pretend like she's still an incapable teenager and the other half pretending she doesn't actually exist.
Her hand is shaking as she retrieves her phone from her pocket, intent on calling Santana to hear her voice and calm her nerves despite the heavy noise level surrounding her.
It rings twice, Santana picking up on the third and sounding out of breath. "Baby, it's so good to hear your voice."
Brittany smiles, her heart already slowing down and growing warm. "Yours too San, I already miss you so much. I'm so nervous."
"Aww, Britt honey, I can't say for sure it'll all be perfect but if it's not, you don't have to stay. I'll be at the airport to pick you up if you need, I'll be here any time if you need to talk. I love you so much."
"I love you too." Brittany whispers, her eyes closing at the sudden rush of emotions that overcome here. First and foremost being the thought of how lucky she is to have Santana in her life. "I'll call you in the morning as soon as I wake up?"
"Anytime Britt. Sleep well, dream of me?"
Her smile stretches wider, "Always."
Santana's husky chuckle comes down the line. "And I'll dream of you, maybe we can make those dreams a reality as soon as you get home."
Just then Brittany reaches the exit point of the flight section of the terminal and spots Brett standing there waiting for her. She turns her attention back to Santana on the phone, knowing she's going to have to say goodbye.
"I'd like that. Night San."
######################
Santana's still smiling as she whispers her "Night Britt" into the phone and waits until her girlfriend hangs up.
Unfortunately, she doesn't get much time to appreciate that fluttery feeling spreading throughout her torso, nor the fleeting moment of silence.
"Is that your girlllllllfriend?"
A glare, as dark as ashes in a fiery pit, forms in Santana's eyes as she spins around to find her most recent unexpected guest to see the woman standing with her arms crossed, and one ankle crossed over the other, shoulder against the frame smirking in Santana's direction.
"That's none of your damn business and I what the hell do you think you're still doing here?"
The woman smiles and raises her eyebrows. "Ohh, anger, cussing, and yelling. You must really be in love with her. I've never seen you so protective, and I would know."
"Dammit, Re this isn't a good time." Santana says, attempting to brush off the irritation that's creeping up her spine and quickly giving her a headache.
"Don't call me that, you know I hate that."
Santana glares towards the girl again. "I don't care if you hate it, that's not my problem. You shouldn't even be here!"
"Are you saying that you didn't miss me? Once upon a time I know that icy heart of yours held some love for me, still does I would guess."
"You don't get to say anything to me about icy hearts and holding love for someone. I would think that it's not something that you can just turn on and off, but I've spent the last six years trying to get over loosing that unconditional love I thought I once had." Santana spits back, positively on the verge of throwing her fists around wildly in a fit of rage.
She hasn't felt like this in years, and she never would have thought she'd feel like it any time soon. But then again, she wasn't expecting to have to deal with her past so abruptly. Not like this at least, and certainly not without Brittany, the main thing in Santana's life anchoring her to that brighter, full of love future.
"Maybe that's why I'm here. Talk things out, make them better." The other woman says, her voice softer and more emotional.
Brown eyes are still ripe with anger. "It's against your nature to think of somebody else first." She says before she storms past the woman and out into the hall.
"I'll be sharing the bed with you then?" The woman shouts after her. Santana doesn't even look back when she yells back over her shoulder.
"One night, and you're sleeping on the sofa!"
######################
Brittany could not be any more grateful for the fact that Brett is the one that picks her up from the airport. Despite the fact that she has strong reason to believe that he's the main reason her parents 'requested' she come back in the first place, she's not sure if she could handle her mom or dad this late at night.
She's physically and emotionally exhausted. Her head is spinning with so many different scenarios for how the whole seeing everyone is going to go. She's quiet as Brett pulls onto the highway from the airport road and heads north towards a suburban residential area just outside downtown.
When Brett pulls onto the familiar road that will take them to the Pierce house, Brittany straightens up and swallows thickly, she can feel her hands shaking at her side, her heart beat increasing more and more dramatically the closer they get to the house from her childhood.
"They went to bed a little before I took off, so you won't see them until morning." Brett informs his sister as he pulls up the driveway and parks the car. Brittany nods but remains silent, fear still gripping every part of her. "They did up the guest room for you."
Brittany's head whips towards her brother, eyes wide and confused as she grabs for her luggage.
"The guest room?"
Brett nods apologetically. "They turned my old room into the guest room and your old room into mom's office."
A frown covers Brittany's face. "Where are you staying then?"
"For tonight? The couch in the basement." Brett says with a shrug, helping Brittany get her bag and then closing up the car doors.
With a sigh, Brittany follows Brett into the house and quietly makes her way up to the 'guest room' after a goodnight from her brother. The instant she falls face first on the bed she just wants to cry herself to sleep.
#####################
Her morning wakeup comes much later for Santana than she's used to, but the reason being a call from her girlfriend makes it all worth it. With a smile, Santana sits up in bed and grabs her phone off the nightstand, answering it before the third ring.
"Good morning my love." She answers, frowning when her voice comes out a lot less sultry than she intended. She hears Brittany chuckle down the line.
"I love when you sound like that San, it's so sexy." Santana smiles wider feeling her cheeks heat under the compliment, she hears Brittany sigh. "I really wish I could come back already."
"Aww, is it that bad Britt?"
She hears Brittany huff.
"It's horrible. I woke up this morning and my parents asked me if I'd been doing drugs because apparently I look a lot tanner to them than normal. I don't know how drugs can make that happen, unless that lotion you let me use is laced with something I don't know about, but then my mom started going on and on about how I should really protect my skin and I should be happy that I have such beautiful skin and then my dad asked me if I'd done something with my eyes, and I was thinking 'How could I do something with my eyes' but the-"
"Whoa babe, breathe!" Santana interrupts Brittany's ramble. She smiles again when she hears Brittany take a deep calming breath. "I'd kiss you right now to interrupt if I could."
"I know San and I would be so happy to receive it." Brittany sighs again, this time slightly more positive.
Santana slides out of her bed and goes to her dresser and she and Brittany talk a little more about their mornings so far, Brittany's mostly, while Santana gets out a few clothes to wear for the day.
Once she's got everything she needs she turns and walks out of her bedroom the short distance to the bathroom, stopping at the closed door. As Santana reaches out and twists the doorknob, she suddenly has one of those tingly feelings. The ones that tell you that something not so awesome is going to happen, really soon.
It does.
The moment Santana realizes that not only has her shower just been turned off as steam fills up the bathroom, the person getting out of the shower notices Santana standing in the doorway.
"Oh my God!" Santana shouts, quickly averting her eyes.
"San, what is it?" Brittany asks concerned from her side of in the dark about things.
Santana turns away from the person in the bathroom as she slams the door shut behind her, shielding her eyes with her hand as extra protection even though she can't exactly un-see what she's just seen.
"Nothing baby. I just saw a…spider in the bathroom. I'll call you back." She barely lets Brittany say, "Okay" before she's hanging up and spinning back around to the closed bathroom door.
"Don't you know how to lock a door!?" she shouts and almost immediately gets a snarky reply.
"Don't you know how to knock?!"
"This is my house, I shouldn't have to knock on my own bathroom door!"
Said door flies open revealing the, thank God, towel wrapped around her body version of Santana's unexpected guest.
"Please, you should be used to seeing that kind of stuff. You have boobs too." The woman says before she storms past Santana and towards the living room.
"I definitely don't want to be seeing yours! I knew this was a bad idea." Santana calls back, quickly storming after the woman. She gets to the living room and is about to do more reprimanding when she's suddenly shielding her eyes again because her 'guest' has shed her towel and is standing naked as the day she was born in the center of Santana's living room.
Santana groans and dashes to the curtains, tugging them shut, and as double shut as possible, while still covering her eyes.
"I have neighbors! You can't just stand in the middle of my living room naked!"
"They do know you're gay though, don't they?"
Brown eyes scrunch in confusion.
"That's not even a…that doesn't…ugh, they don't know who you are and that's just gross anyway." The other woman's face scrunches in repulsion and she goes to open her mouth but Santana holds her hand up at her. "Gross. Ugh!" she exclaims before turning away and stomping back to her bathroom to get herself showered and dressed and away from the menace occupying her house.
By the time she calls Brittany back the conversation has to be cut short because Brittany's parents are requiring her to be engaged in the family discussions, and then she gets a text later in the evening telling her that the Pierce's are taking Brittany, just her, to dinner for the night.
Santana tries her best to hold things together throughout the day, but her guest doesn't make it easy, and not being able to talk to Brittany makes things worse.
She ends up spending most of her time in her bedroom working on her book reviews, so she doesn't have to deal or talk or deal with anyone.
Not that it really makes things any better.
####################
If Brittany thought she was nervous and really didn't want to be back in Santa Fe with her parents before, well then, she definitely doesn't want to be here now.
After a very long and awkward 'family conversation' day, what most people in a normal family would call 'bonding' but with the Pierce's doesn't involve any sort of love or compassion or feelings of family, Brittany finds herself having to attend dinner with her parents. Alone.
Alone because apparently Brett had some huge news that didn't go over well with her parents and they couldn't look at him for the evening.
That doesn't make things sit well with Brittany. She already knows that they aren't the biggest fans of Tina and Brett dating.
"Oh she's a lovely girl, it's just she has brown eyes." Her mother had said.
"What's wrong with brown eyes mom? That's a common eye color, and I think it's pretty."
Her dad had laughed and patted her on the back.
"Oh Britt-bot, brown eyes are nice. They just don't…run in our family. You know?"
So Brittany's nervous about the potential bomb drop of Brett's news, she has an idea of what it could be especially if it made her parents turn their noses up, and then as she feared, there's the potential of her explanation of whom she's dating.
There's nothing about Santana that Brittany is even remotely ashamed of.
Nothing.
But she knows how her parents may potentially react to things, and that is why she wanted to avoid this whole trip in the first place. It's why she didn't want to subject Santana to her parent's ignorance. It's why she wishes that she was back home with Santana right now.
Home. Brittany smiles. She likes the sound of that.
Brittany pulls out her phone intent on texting Santana when her father's booming voice alerts her that she's out of time. They have arrived at the restaurant.
"Look Brittany sweetie," her mother exclaims from the front passenger seat, Brittany cringes at the term of endearment that her mother has always used but never really meant. "Your favorite restaurant."
When she looks through the front window, Brittany sees the sprawling steakhouse restaurant, appropriately dubbed Santa Fe Steakhouse, standing before her eyes. She frowns.
"Mom, this is my least favorite restaurant. Remember when I had such a bad reaction to sesame seeds here that you had to take me to the hospital, and how I'm allergic to half the things they serve because they like to put the sesame oil on everything?"
Bonnie Pierce laughs from the front of the fancy Escalade her parents drive as she turns to slide out of the SUV.
"Oh Brittany, sweetie, that's been so long ago. You probably don't even have any problems anymore."
"That was only five years ago mother! And I don't think that allergies just go away over a couple of years!" Brittany shouts back, stepping out of the car.
"Shh, you're making a scene." Her father scolds from the other side of the car, his blue eyes, a similar shade to Brittany's, darting around the vicinity where, Brittany notes, there is hardly another person around.
She hears her mother slam the car door and Brittany turns to see another set of blue eyes glaring her direction, her mother's blonde hair, swept up in a constricting professional bun, shaking as she raises a finger at Brittany.
"We won't have any of that attitude while we're here now, you hear. We're here as a family, so let's act like one." Brittany's eyes dart over to her father, his face masked in a little bit of remorse as he runs a hand through his own short graying blonde hair. She stands up straight and faces her mother.
"I think we got off the 'acting like a family' train a long time ago, and I'm twenty-three years old, so I can come here or leave whenever I well please, but because I have more compassion than both of you combined, I'll sit down for dinner with you. But if you do one thing out of line mother, I swear, I'll leave and I won't come back again."
Bonnie's eyes widen just barely; if Brittany hadn't been watching her she might have missed it just before she straightens herself up.
The three of them proceed into the restaurant, Brittany gripping the scrunchy hair tie that rests in the purse that dangles from her white dress covered shoulder, the same one that Santana wears constantly around her wrist when it's not being used to sweep her hair up into a messy bun while she's working.
Right now, it's the only thing that's keeping Brittany sane.
##################
Santana hears a knock on her door and sets her current book project down on the bed in front of her before running her fingers through her hair.
"What?" she calls to the door and waits a few seconds before she watches the woman that has literally been making her life hell today, walk through her door and lean her butt casually against Santana's dresser as she folds her arms across her chest.
"Why do you think it never worked out?"
A sigh leaves Santana's mouth. She's so over cryptic bullshit.
"Why do I think what didn't work out?"
The woman shrugs, "I don't know. Everything?"
Santana taps her fingers on the surface of her laptop, her mind is just so tired of all this. She shrugs.
"I don't know. I figured you might know a little bit more about that. Considering it was you who essentially left me."
"I didn't mean to."
"You didn't mean to? Wow, that's rich. Spoken like a person who is truly torn up about it all." Santana retorts.
"It's not like I really could have done anything about it. You know that. Besides, you seem happy here. You seem happy with…?" the woman trails off, unsure of a name.
"Brittany, and I am happy here. So happy. But that doesn't mean that I'm not still mad about how things went down. You say you didn't have a choice? But you always have a choice." Santana responds.
The woman picks at something on the dresser, her eyes averted from those soul searching brown ones that she knows can make her do pretty much anything. They always have, well at least until they didn't. But that wasn't her fault.
It wasn't really Santana's fault either.
"I'm sorry. I never meant to do that to you, if I could I'd take it back. Make sure that it never happened."
Santana slowly shakes her head. "I don't think I'd want you to, I'm sorry. As cruel as that sounds, if it hadn't happened, then I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have Brittany." She smiles, her eyes glancing in the direction of her phone where she knows her screen saver boasts a picture of her and Brittany in a tender lip lock.
"I get it, I guess. But I'm still sorry, and hopefully we can work on getting back to some mutual point. I don't expect to be back like I was; I can tell you have Brittany for you like that now. I just want to be able to be in your life Santana." The woman says stepping towards where Santana sits on her bed and holding her arms out for a hug, even if she knows she probably doesn't really deserve one.
The smallest of smiles crosses Santana's face and she reaches out to hug the woman. "We can work on something Reya." She says through the hug before sliding off the bed. "Now come on, let's go cook dinner. I want to be available for when Britt calls me later, and I don't need you bugging me then."
"Like I'd want to hear that? Eww, no worries." Reya says before they both laugh lightly and proceed to the kitchen.
###################
Dinner is still really tense and very awkward. Brittany wonders if it would disrupt the mood too much if she just got up and walked out. Or if her parents would even notice.
Probably not.
"Oh my God, Brittany Pierce? Is that you?" Brittany's head snaps up so fast that it flies back and knocks on the top of the booth seat she's sitting in.
She flinches immediately and her hand comes up to rub at a sore spot as her eyes glance to the right and come across a set of scantily covered legs, very familiar looking legs.
Her eyes widen and then slam shut before she collects herself enough to open them slowly and look up into the blue eyes that once upon a long time ago she used to wish would just look back at her once.
"Megan Carmichael?"
The woman nods and smiles that same bright white smile that Brittany remembers from her high school years. Back in the day when she used to bumble her way through school, hoping no one would bother her but at the same time wishing that she'd just get noticed.
Particularly, noticed by someone like Megan Carmichael.
"I thought that was you! Wow, you look really great Brittany!" Megan exclaims, taking a much more than friendly glance up and down Brittany, who is still seated. Brittany feels her cheeks warm, not because she has any sense of attraction to this woman anymore, but because she had no idea that Megan was remotely attracted to girls.
"Oh thank you, you too." She responds politely before Megan turns to greet Brittany's parents.
The fact that Megan may have been checking Brittany out is such a mind blowing bit of information. One of those things you never thought you'd find out. Brittany always assumed Megan would follow the stereotype and marry her high school sweetheart. Maybe she's looking too far into it?
After all, Megan was the girl in high school who dated the quarterback and was always a part of the popular clique. She was one of those All-American homecoming type girls. Like Carrie Underwood any given day of the week on a billboard sign along a highway in Oklahoma.
Megan had been the cheerleader that Brittany had always wanted to be, and then eventually realized she also kind of wanted to date. But Brittany was on the spirit dance team and Megan was on a whole different level. At least she was back then.
If she thinks about it now, Brittany realizes that what she got in Santana, what she has with her, is so much better than this hometown high school crush she once held. That alone makes her smile at how good of a choice she made leaving Santa Fe, and reinforces for her how she wouldn't mind staying away.
Not to mention the fact that she missed most if not all of Megan's conversation to the Pierce's, but she doesn't even find anything moderately appealing about Megan. She's nice, she's pretty, but she's not Santana. Brittany smiles politely and waves when Megan says it was good seeing her and then turns away. For a second, Brittany thinks things are not too bad.
But then her mom speaks up.
"Last I heard she was single you know."
Brittany glances towards her mother with raised eyebrows, noticing the way her eyes are trained on Megan's retreat.
"I'm not interested mother."
Bonnie Pierce's attention turns back to that of her daughter.
"And why not? She's smart, she's beautiful, and you know her. She comes from a very good family, and her skin is absolutely flawless."
Brittany's eyes roll.
"I'm not interested, she's not really…umm, my type."
"Oh, are you not attracted to women anymore then? Well I heard that Brennan Wright was single again."
"Eww, Brennan Wright? Mom that kid used to eat his own boogers. Gross." Brittany shudders a little.
"Well there's always-" her mother starts in again but Brittany holds her hand up.
"No mom, I'm not interested. I don't need you to find anyone for me."
Mrs. Pierce hrmphs and turns her gaze away from Brittany.
"Britt-bot, we're just worried that you might fall onto the same path as your brother." Brittany glances towards her father as the words come out of his mouth.
"As far as I can tell, Brett is on a better path than either of you are."
Her mother's attention returns to Brittany. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Brittany doesn't get the chance to explain before the older Pierce woman continues. "No bother. What your father means is that we think Tina is a nice girl. She's pretty and all, though we had hoped your brother would marry someone with a little more, well blue in their eyes. And she's a little shorter than we were thinking she would be."
Brittany is boarding extremely irritated listening to the words come out of her mother's mouth with such crass and nonchalance. As if what she's saying couldn't be viewed as offensive at all.
"I think what matters mom is that Brett's in love."
Bonnie lets a small laugh pop from her mouth and something seems to catch her attention within the restaurant. She points and Brittany follows the direction of her finger. She sees another of her old high school classmates, Jessica Miller, bussing a table near them.
"Such a shame." Mrs. Pierce says with a disgruntled sigh. Brittany's eyebrows rise in question.
"What's wrong with Jessica Miller?"
"Jessica Alvero now." Her mother explains, her harsh stare gazing back towards Brittany. "She met some young man that came up from Mexico a few years ago, married him."
"I don't see how that's a shame? She looks really happy, much happier than she did in high school."
"Well yes Brittany, there is love and happiness but it's not always the right thing. I just can't help but wonder how hard life is going to be for those children, what with a Hispanic father."
Brittany's heart stops and she blinks. Her mother actually said it, the one thing that Brittany was most dreading when she came back here, and the main thing that she wanted to shelter Santana from.
Suddenly Brittany is sliding out of the booth and standing to her feet, her body practically shaking with anger because she can't take this anymore. She can't stand hearing her own mother spew out such hateful words.
"You want to know what's a shame, mother?" Brittany says, pointing a finger in the woman's direction. She's not talking super loud but she knows that she's probably drawing a little bit of a scene. "What's wrong is that my own mother doesn't even realize how ignorant she is. How sad and uneducated she sounds sometimes. And people used to call me the stupid one? You're too blind to realize that the things that you say are the real stupid things."
"Brittany Pierce." Her mother tries to reprimand her, speaking in a hiss just under her breath, but Brittany isn't having it.
"No you need to know this. It's stupid, as much as I hate that word, because you don't even know the way you're hurting your own daughter just by saying those words."
"What do you mean Brittany? You're not making any sense."
Brittany straightens up and takes a deep breath, the fire burning bright in her eyes.
"I'm in love with the most beautiful, amazing, wonderful Puerto-Rican woman I've ever met and I want to marry her someday and have little tan skinned, beautiful brown eyed, adorable full lipped little babies with her. And if you two aren't okay with that because it doesn't 'fit into your plan' or whatever, then you aren't going to be a part of my family." She says before snatching up her purse out of the booth and turning to storm out of the restaurant.
She doesn't slow down when she leaves the steakhouse, intent on being as far away from her mother, and her father who did nothing to back Brittany up, as possible in the next twenty minutes. In a grumble she pulls out her phone and scrolls to her brother's name, but before she makes the call a car honks and pulls up alongside of her.
Brittany is more than a little shocked to see Megan Carmichael smiling at her from the driver's seat.
"Need a ride stranger?" she asks and Brittany is quick to hop in with a thank you.
By the time Megan gets Brittany back to the Pierce's, Brittany has decided what she's going to do. She refrains from calling Santana, noting that it's close to one am but sends her a text telling her she misses and loves her. She figures it'll be a nice surprise showing back up a few days earlier than planned.
She gets a ride to the airport from Megan.
When they pull up, Brittany turns to Megan and gives her a smile and holds out some money for gas.
"Here you go, for your troubles. I can't thank you enough, it means a lot to get away from them." Brittany starts to say and goes to unbuckle her seatbelt and turn to open the door, she turns back around briefly to say goodbye and suddenly feels hands on her neck and sees desperate lips moving towards hers.
Instantly she jerks up and falls out of the car, crashing to the pavement. Megan shouts something and quickly gets out of the car, running around to help Brittany up and check on her.
"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you that bad I just didn't want to miss my chance. I've liked you for a while Brittany, and I guess I finally had the courage to admit that."
Brittany stares at the woman wide eyed, her heart racing and her mouth unable to properly form words. This is so not how she ever expected anything to go.
"Look, Megan." She starts, her hand gripping awkward at the handle of her luggage. "When we were in high school I would have done anything for this opportunity. You're a nice girl and I like you but not like that."
She watches Megan nod.
"I've already found the love of my life you see, and anything else would just be like…like a trailer to a movie. It's exciting and I'd enjoy it, but it's not the real thing and nothing will ever compare to that."
With a smile, Megan nods again and steps towards Brittany with her hand outstretched, Brittany takes her hand and shakes it gently.
"She's a lucky girl then." And with that she bids Brittany a safe trip and climbs back in her car. As Brittany watches the car drive away she's smiling to herself as she's thinking.
"Actually, I'm the lucky one."
####################
Her red eye flight was thankfully a one stop and she manages to get back into Lima, with the very generous help of a coffee hopped up Kurt and his less than lively boyfriend Richard. She thankfully doesn't have to say much more than she'll tell them about it some other time, and they happily drop it.
She gets a brief call from Brett telling her that he's really proud of her and he loves her. Brittany returns the sentiment, and wishes him and Tina well and that they should visit soon. She gets several irate voicemails and texts from her mother, and a few pleading ones from her father, telling her to 'get back here this instant young lady' which she simply snorts at and deletes.
Brittany feels marginally bad that her dad's in the middle, but until he breaks away from her mom's thoughts, to Brittany he's just as bad.
At a little past eight in the morning, Richard pulls his car up alongside the curb outside Santana's house. Brittany's never been so happy to see that beautiful little house with the 1101 numbers attached to the side. She thanks Kurt who helps her gather her luggage and then waves goodbye before walking up the path and into the house.
It seems relatively quite but Brittany hears a noise coming from the kitchen, she smiles as she sets her things down and sneaks into the area, intent on surprising her girl.
She smiles wide when she enters the kitchen and finds Santana dancing in front of the stove, with her back towards Brittany, with her hair up in a bun and her body covered in nothing but a long t-shirt hiding her panties underneath. She's moving her body back in forth to the beat playing softly from the radio at the end of the counter.
Continuing her sneaking, Brittany gets close enough to reach out and wrap her arms around Santana's waist, leaning her chin on her shoulder.
"Smells good in here, and you look…" Brittany pauses when she feels Santana tense in her arms, and then she realizes really rapidly that it is not Santana. At all.
Brittany jumps back in a panic and points at the brown haired, tan skinned, same height as Santana woman while noticing the vibrant violet eyes that stare back at her in terror.
"Who are you!?" Brittany shouts.
"Who the hell are you?" the other woman retorts. Before turning to her left and shouting, "Santana!"
A few seconds go by and Santana comes running into the kitchen, wearing one of Brittany's hoodies and a pair of short shorts, her hair in that messy just woke up style, her eyes wide as she stares at the violet-eyed woman.
"Reya, what the hell?"
"Santana."
"Britt?"
"Wait, Britt as in Brittany?"
Brittany looks at the girl that Santana addressed as Reya, and suddenly sees the other familiarities she missed.
"Wait, Reya?"
Santana walks up to Brittany's side and wraps her arms around her before pressing a kiss to her cheek. When she takes a step back she waves her hand out in the direction of the other woman occupying the kitchen.
"Babe, I'd like you to meet someone," she starts. "This is Reya Lopez, my kid sister."
Even as Brittany's eyes widen further, Reya simply holds up the spatula in her hand and gives it a small wave, despite looking so very beyond bored.
"Hey-a."
/
I know a lot of you wanted Santana to go with Brittany, but I think for this time it was good she didn't. There will be future interactions!
Okay now, announcement: Generous readers and kind reviewers, it saddens me to tell you that I will not be able to update this next Tuesday. I'll be in a car driving many miles. But if all goes well I should have an update out by (next) Friday, and possibly a supplementary one-shot, and then the regular Tuesday/Thursday schedule should continue. If not, I'll let you know (tumblr)!
Thank you all so much again! I'd love to hear what you think of Britt's parents and Santana's sister.