"Santana my feet hurt."

"I'm not carrying you downstairs."

"But, Santana, my feet hurt…"

"How can they possibly hurt? You've been singing on your bed for the past hour and a half." Santana chuckled at the brunette from the window seat.

Rachel grinned playfully, "Well, that may be true, Lopez, but for some reason they just ache in a way I can't explain. So, I thought, hey? Why not ask my beautiful girlfriend who loves me dearly, if she could assist me in getting a bite to eat?"

Santana jumped down from her perch and folded her arms across her chest. "I see. And that's the story you're sticking with?"

"Yes, ma'am." Rachel nodded.

The Latina inched closer and closer to the bed, smirking as she did so. "You see, because I have another theory. I think you're just lazy off your ass and trying to pass it off as being cute." Santana had reached the side of the bed where Rachel had been sitting.

Rachel beamed up at Santana, "Is it working?"

"Definitely," Santana muttered as she leaned in and sealed the gaps between their lips.

Santana smiled into the kiss. Kissing Rachel gave her a warmth inside her stomach that fed a need inside her that she wished she could describe. She wanted to encapsulated that warmth and keep it in a bottle for the dark days, however few those were lately.

Santana couldn't remember a time when she was this overwhelmingly happy. It had been a couple of weeks since Santana made her love confession and Rachel returned the sentiment. And shit, Rachel was…everything. She was quickly becoming Santana's world and she was more than okay with that. It was different with Sugar. Standing in that very moment, looking down at Rachel with her big brown eyes and innocent smile, Santana knew that she had not loved Sugar in this way, not even close. Life with Sugar was fast-paced puppy love than never really went deeper than surface level. Life with Sugar was a one-sided emotional rollercoaster that left Santana scorned enough to harden.

And here was Rachel.

A woman who had lost everything she's known – her parents, her home, life, memories, herself to some extent – and yet lives every day as if there is a new adventure to be found within the walls of a five-story mental institution. She doesn't sit in misery over an accident that she cannot change. She had dreams, the biggest ones Santana's ever seen and a heart even bigger than those. Rachel's voice could cure any bad mood and Santana knows that if she can help Rachel get better, her voice could take her anywhere she wanted to go. Rachel made Santana feel less cynical, less angry. More loved. That was something Sugar could never do.

If only Puck could hear her. He'd have changed her ringtone to the sound of a whip faster than Santana could even say Rachel's name.

The Latina leaned a knee onto the bed, leaning down again to Rachel's level. She pressed her forehead gently against the other brunette's, cupping both her cheeks.

"I can't believe that you love me…" Santana whispered, eyes shut.

Rachel made up the remaining distance for a peck. "You better, because I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to kiss my aid. Getting you in trouble doesn't sound very loving."

Santana laughed, standing up straight again. "I, for one, get off on the risk. Quite thrilling if you ask me." Santana raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Rachel elbowed her girlfriend's knee playfully, "Stop trying to make be blush, Lopez, I'm still hungry here!"

"Okay, okay, fine. Hope on. Just call me Santana, Rachel Berry's own donkey." Rachel clapped her hands, pleased, jumping onto Santana's back from the bed, piggy-back style.

"Did you just call yourself Rachel Berry's own ass?" Rachel giggled to herself as the duo entered the hallway.

Santana just rolled her eyes in fondness. "You wish."

The two had just reached the stairs when Rachel speaks up again.

"Do you think we will see Quinn and um…uh – "

"Brittany?"

"Yes, right. Brittany…do you think we'll see them in the commissary? Their group therapy should be out of session by now, right? Or is that tomorrow…"

Of course things couldn't all be hunky-dory for them. For the past week, Rachel's memory had not been functioning incredibly well. To be frank, she'd been getting worse ever since their first kiss. Rachel's doctor's, therapists, and nurses had all noticed. Quinn and Brittany, too. Their faces showed worry. For as long as Rachel has been at the Institute, she should be getting better, not worse. Shouldn't her doctors have some idea as to help her? How much brain damage did Rachel actually have? Santana didn't like to read Rachel's medical files after they became romantically involved. It felt like an invasion of privacy or an overstep of boundaries because of her technical position of power over Rachel. Was there something in those files to indicate that Rachel was worse than Santana realized?

The nightmares seemed to be getting more frequent, too. The scarier part being that Rachel only remembered having them only half the time in the mornings.

Santana shook the thoughts away. Stop dwelling on this, it is only going to stress you out, which is going to stress Rachel out. She's going to be fine…

"Maybe," Santana finally answered, "They should have gotten out an hour ago."

They reached the last step of stairs and turned into the commissary.

"Okay, Rach, this is where you descend."

The songstress gleefully jumped down from her girlfriend's back, trading for her hand instead.

"Oh! San, I see them. Let's go sit with them. Aw, Brittany looks so pretty with her hair braided like that."

Santana watched as Rachel bounced over to their blonde friends, sore feet forgotten. The lump in her throat grew bigger the longer she stared.

Please, God, don't take her away from me.

Santana had just dropped Rachel off at her therapy appointment when she got a call from Gracie to meet with her in her office.

Santana tensed, immediately paranoid. Did her supervisors find out about her and Rachel's relationship? No one had explicitly said that relationships with patients were against any rules, but Santana figured as much. She had made sure to keep things on the down-low just incase. The only people who knew were Quinn and Brittany. Quinn wouldn't possibly rat them out now that they had become friends. And besides, Santana knew a fair few of Quinn's secrets that she wouldn't want to risk getting in trouble for. And Brittany still didn't talk at all so…

Santana's anxiety levels continued to rise.

When she made it into Gracie's office, she panicked even more. Sitting in a chair in the corner was Sue Sylvester, her parole officer.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. How did they find out about Rachel? Are they going to take me to jail for failing my community service? For breaking a protocol that I didn't know of? Shit, fuck, goddamn…Will they let me say goodbye to Rachel?

"Santana! Thank you for stopping by," Gracie greeted warmly, "Go on and take a seat."

Ms. Sylvester nods her head with her normal smirk on her face, "Afternoon, Lopez. Nice to see you again."

Santana slowly sits in one of Gracie's chairs. "Hi…am I in trouble for something? Why is Ms. Sylvester here? Have I not been doing things right?"

"Oh, no! On the contrary, you've been a great help. Definitely the best volunteer we've had to come from a court order. You're great with Rachel, we can tell she adores you." Gracie smiled warmly.

Santana snorted internally. That's a bit of an understatement.

Gracie continues, "Anyway, I've called you in because we wanted to start the paperwork details for your community service order, seeing as Friday is your last day and – "

"Wait, what?" Santana interrupted, "Last day?"

"It's been six weeks, kiddo," Sylvester quipped, "your sentence is up. Then you get to go home."

Home?

In all the excitement and drama that surrounded Rachel, Santana had completely forgotten that her time here was only temporary. Had it really been six weeks already? Since meeting Rachel, Santana's life had been a whirlwind of discovery and love and just pure happiness that time seemed like the last thing to acknowledge. Had she really fallen in love with Rachel that fast?

She had.

Shit, Rachel…

Santana couldn't possibly leave. Not now. Not when she and Rachel had just gotten together. She hasn't had nearly enough time with her. There was no way Santana could walk away from this, from her. Fuck Columbus, this is where she belonged now, with Rachel.

"No, I don't want to go home…"

Sylvester raised a curious eyebrow, "What do you mean? You were dreading coming to this freak show circus, no offense of course, Grace."

Santana wasn't sure what to say. She very well couldn't say that she was in love with her patient. That would definitely go well…But she had to say something. There had to be a way to be able to stay.

"I mean, I think I've grown a lot here. You have an amazing institution, Gracie. The work that goes on here for these people is so amazing. No one is cruel like in typical insane asylum-type places. I've found this whole experience very inspiring…is there any way that I could stay? Even for a little while longer?"

She wasn't completely pulling that out of her ass. She did find this place weirdly inspiring, comfortable even. Even if most of that came from her ties to Rachel.

"And I've grown really fond of Rachel. I want to see that she continues to get better."

More like I have to see that she gets better.

Gracie gave Santana a questioning look. Not a suspicious one, but a look as if to say she didn't know exactly what to do.

"Are you sure about wanting to stay? You have no obligation to. We have plenty of staff. We can have one of our nurses take over as Rachel's aid."

"No!" Santana shouted a little too forcibly. "I mean…I really like it here, okay? I like helping out, it gives me…a sense of purpose. Like I'm capable doing something important and like I'm helping people instead just being a criminal. Can I please stay? You don't have to pay me." Santana turned to Sylvester this time. "It'll keep me off the streets. Give me something to do other than shop lifting and breaking and entering."

Sue Sylvester gives Santana a look, but nods regardless. "I'm not sure what your true intentions are here, Lopez, but as long as I keep you from getting arrested, I get paid. I don't really give a shit where you do that."

Santana looked to find Gracie smiling at her. "If that's what you really want, then we'd love to keep you around Santana. Like I said, you've been great with Rachel, as well as some of the other patients. Stay as long as you'd like."

Santana jumped from her seat to pull Gracie into a short embrace. "Thank you, so much. Really, I'm not sure what I'd do if I had to go back to Columbus right now."

"Of course, dear. Now, head on up back to Rachel. I'm sure she's missing you by now."

Santana waved a second thank you and rushed to the elevator.

Time.

She was given a chance at more time with Rachel. And boy, was she going to be glad she had gotten it.

Hey! Super short, I realize, but I'm afraid this was all I had in me at the moment when writing this. I really wanted to get something good out there for those of you who are still out there and get the ball rolling to finish up this story. I still have quite a few chapters left in me to get to the end (which has all been planned out since the beginning). I hope you like this chapter and aren't too mad about the two year wait.

See you soon. Katie x.