A/N: Hi! So, just a quick summary, this occurs four years after senior year in college (the last chapter) so everybody is 25-27ish now, I'm too lazy to do real math. This is just a little insight into how Santana's life is going. I think I'll try a chapter from Britt's POV next, but I'm not sure when it'll be out. So there. Enjoy!
p.s. I will admit I got the group email idea from another fic, but I seriously for the life of me can't remember which one or who wrote it, so if you're reading this, credit where credit is due, and remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Chapter 4: Good in Goodbye
Hi everyone! This month, as you all probably know already, I got a callback for an original Broadway production entitled "True Beauty." I'll hear from the director in the next few weeks, hopefully I'll have more exciting news to share next month! Won't be in Lima for the holidays this year, my dads are coming here to visit me here in New York instead! Happy holidays to all of you!
~Rachel Berry
Hey y'all! Missing you New Yorkers a helluva lot (and feeling bad for you in this miserable December weather). Sunny L.A. is gorgeous! Hopefully I'll see y'all soon though, my tour is coming through NYC in February. I'm sending tickets and backstage passes to all of you, Santana, Rachel, Blaine, Kurt, and Quinn. Let me know if you need extras for boyfriends or girlfriends (Santana). Won't have time to head to Lima for Christmas this year, I'll be in Paris! Merry Christmas y'all!
~Mercedes Jones
Hey guys! (Liz says "hi" too) We'll be in Lima by the 21st for Christmas, hopefully we'll get to see some old familiar faces! Not much else to report, except that I got kickass Christmas gifts for all of you, so be prepared to lose at gift-giving (Liz agrees, she helped).
~Santana Lopez and Liz Peterson
Season's greetings! Blaine and I will be spending the Holidays in a Swiss mountain chalet with Burt and Carol this year, so unfortunately we'll be missing the festivities in Lima! Miss you all, and wish Blaine luck on the launch of his special Christmas themed line of bowties, coming soon to a store near you! Merry Christmas!
~Kurt and Blaine Hummel-Anderson
Hi everybody! Me and Amelia can't wait to see some friendly faces home for Christmas this year! She's grown so much, it'll shock you. She would also like me to tell you that she wants a pink pony for Christmas. Not a unicorn, because unicorns should be wild and free but ponies are pets. I agree. But please, don't get her a live pony, I think there's laws against that in Charleston. Yes, Kurt, I'm talking to you, you spoil her rotten. Anyway, I know a lot of you will be busy over Christmas, but hopefully some of you can make time for old friends! Merry Christmas!
XOXO Brittany and Amelia Pierce
Santana closes her laptop on the email, though she's not finished reading it yet. Rachel had started this monthly Glee club group email/newsletter over the summer between their junior and senior years in college; she said they needed to keep up with each others' lives better. Everyone sent Rachel a quick summary of any big news for the month, and she compiled it into one big email blast; Santana had to admit, it was a great idea, even if it had originally been started as a way for Rachel to brag about her achievements.
Because of the emails, she knew that Mercedes was on a world tour, Puck's pool cleaning business had expanded to pool maintenance and installation for the entire L.A. area, and Brittany had a daughter named Amelia, who was now three. She'd never seen or met her in person, but Britt had attached a picture every few months, and she was beautiful. Curly blonde hair that was a few shades lighter than Brittany's, and bright blue eyes that mirrored her mother's; she was going to be a beauty. Her father wasn't in the picture, as far as she knew, Brittany was raising her alone, in Charleston, where she'd gotten an apartment after graduating from MIT (8 months pregnant).
"Earth to Tana?"
She turned toward her girlfriend of almost three years (their anniversary of "making it official" was December 28th) and smiled.
"What? Oh, just thinking."
Liz was great. She was sharp, with a quick, sarcastic wit, clumsy as hell, and sweet when it counted (but not all the time). She was about 5' 3", with green eyes and caramel brown, wavy hair. It wasn't lost on Santana when they started dating that she had absolutely nothing in common with Brittany. They'd moved in together a year into their relationship, and were still going strong. She was someone that Santana could picture herself with, the first one since Britt. Liz knew the minimum about Brittany: that she was blonde with blue eyes, a Cheerio and in Glee club, Santana's high school best friend who she happened to fall in love with, and Santana's first, and previously only, serious girlfriend.
"About what?"
"Not many people coming back to Lima for Christmas this year, you're going to be stuck with me aaaaaaallllll the time."
"I think I'll live. Besides, your mom and I have all those baby pictures to get through. I think I'll be sufficiently entertained." She winked at Santana.
"You wouldn't."
Liz had met her parents before, but this was the first time she was visiting Lima; life and work had gotten in the way for so long, Santana had finally insisted that she come for the holidays. They'd spent Thanksgiving with Liz's dad in Wisconsin, Santana loved him. He and Liz were hilarious together, the way they jabbed at each other, she with his numerous failed marriages, him with her sexuality (it was all in good fun, she could tell that they loved each other, but it was like they were on a separate wavelength from everyone else in the room when they talked sometimes). She looked just like him, her facial features and mannerisms were identical, especially her eyes.
Santana packed up her laptop as their boarding group was called, hurrying, because the sooner she was on the plane, the sooner she'd be off the plane.
...
Christmas passed in a blur of colored lights, sparkles, snowflakes, and wrapping paper. Santana loved Christmas, the feeling of being surrounded by love, family, warmth, and good food.
Liz was a hit, but Santana knew she would be. She was great with her little cousins, and Santana found herself watching her when nobody was looking, deep in thought.
Now it was the 28th, and Santana had decided to take Liz to Breadstix for their anniversary. When she'd told Santana a few years ago that she'd never heard of Breadstix, Santana had pretended outrage, and insisted that they go when they were in Lima together. As the got out of the car, Santana glanced up to see a huge crowd walking out of the restaurant. Everyone in the crowd was obviously related, tall and blonde, and she realized it was the Pierces.
They parted for a moment, and she saw her. She was still as breathtaking as ever, laughing at something someone had said, with a little girl who could only be her daughter sitting on her shoulders, gripping the ears of a hat made to look like a cat, giggling along.
"You alright sweetheart?"
Santana looked at Liz blankly for a moment, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Let's go inside."
...
She was cold for the rest of the trip, and distant, and she knew it. She wasn't being fair to Liz, she knew that too, but she couldn't help but stay wrapped up in her own thoughts.
Maybe me and Britt weren't meant to be, like we always thought. That little girl was beautiful, and Britt looked so happy, and I'm happy with Liz. I can't imagine Brittany without that little girl, the pictures of the two of them together, it was meant to be. If we'd been together, she wouldn't exist. Could this whole mess have been a good thing all along?
But she couldn't help but imagine herself swinging that little girl around in a circle when she got home from work, kissing Britt on the cheek, making dinner.
She couldn't. She had to move on. She was happy. She could convince herself of that.
...
She still worked at the same jazz club her and Liz had met at three years ago, but part time now. She had a big girl job as the business manager of a studio where Broadway performers trained, which Rachel had written her a glowing reference for. She wasn't above name dropping if it meant a higher salary than somewhere else she could've worked.
She took the stage as she had so many times before, cuing the piano player to launch into on of her more practiced sets. Tonight was not the night to get fancy.
By the end of the evening, about 1 a.m., the bar had mostly cleared out, and Santana asked the piano player to start up one last song for her. One that she had heard on shuffle on her iPod during her flight home to New York. Ironically enough, it was on the same album as the song she'd sung the night she met Liz.
She had thinking to do, and a song to fit how she felt always helped her a bit, so when the piano player nodded and said, yes, he could play that one, she started.
"I heard you laughing,
In a crowd outside a restaurant we used to go to.
I caught a glimpse that stopped me in my tracks;
It took me back.
You looked happy,
With that little girl up on your shoulders,
Happy.
I know where she got those crystal eyes of blue.
Time's been sweet to you.
As bad as it was, as bad as it hurt,
I thank God I didn't get
What I thought that I deserved.
Sometimes life leads you down a different road,
When you're holding on to someone
That you gotta let go.
Someday you'll see the reason why
Sometimes, oh sometimes, there's good in goodbye.
I don't regret it,
The time we had together,
I won't forget it,
But we both ended up where we belonged,
I guess goodbye made us strong.
And I'm happy,
I've found somebody too, who makes me happy,
And I knew one day I'd see you on the street,
And it'd be bittersweet.
But as bad as it was, as bad as it hurt,
I thank God I didn't get
What I thought that I deserved.
Sometimes life leads you down a different road,
When you're holding on to someone
That you gotta let go.
Someday you'll see the reason why
Sometimes, oh sometimes, there's good in goodbye.
As bad as it was, as bad as it hurt,
I thank God I didn't get
What I thought that I deserved.
Sometimes life leads you down a different road,
When you're holding on to someone
That you've got to let go.
Someday you'll see the reason why
Sometimes, oh sometimes, there's good in goodbye."
Yes, she had a lot of thinking to do.
A/N: Song in this one is "Good in Goodbye" by Carrie Underwood