i'm sorry, i can't stop... somebody sedate me! haha sorry greys anatomy reference. anyway...
read and review:)
It's a hectic morning to say the least because today Brittany starts back on her regular schedule. After a lot of discussion and some 'compromising' the couple has decided that in order to get back to the life they had pre-baby they are going to leave Bella in day care. Santana has wanted Brittany to go back to work during the day because those are her favorite classes. She has taught some during the day but it became problematic when her mother or Quinn couldn't watch the baby.
So after a lot of looking around, checking a lot of difference places and talking to a lot of day care centers as well as clients Santana had stalked out they have decided on a place perfectly situated between both of their jobs. So now, after feeding Bella her breakfast and changing her and packing several bags for her they are on their way.
Brittany leads the way in her car with Bella strapped in the back with Santana following close behind in her car. Santana sighs when she pulls into the parking lot and into a spot feeling a knot in her stomach. With a pout she forces herself out and opens the back door to Brittany's car to get Bella out of her car seat.
"Here." Brittany says to her wife, holding out the strap to the diaper bag and hanging onto the Latina's shoulder. "And these." She adds shoving two stuffed animals into her wife's hands. "And…"
"Brittany." Santana looks to the blonde pointedly and nods her head towards their daughter in her arms. "You think you can carry in the suitcase you packed for her." She mocks with a chuckle.
"Whatever Santana, I just want to make sure she has everything she may need." Brittany huffs out tossing a backpack filled with other baby Bella essentials.
"And you say I'm crazy." Santana mutters to herself, her lips brushing against her daughter's hair as she speaks.
"You are crazy." The blonde says loudly with a grin and she closes the door to the car. "But that's why I love you." She scrunches her nose and leans forward to press her lips to Santana's. "Now come on." She leads the way into the day care center with a not too happy Santana behind her.
The place is clean, which was one of the many plusses of this place. The people who work here are clean too, another plus and they are super friendly. Lauren, the 'teacher' in Bella's class is right at the desk to welcome the family.
"Hey Bella." The woman smiles and holds her arms out to take the baby from Santana's arms but the Latina does not give her daughter up so easily. "We are going to have so much fun today." She lowers her arms when she picks up on Santana's hesitance but keeps her smile.
"We have her diaper bag, food in here in a lunch pack and some extra clothes just in case." Brittany explains pointing to all of the goods the Pierce-Lopez family has packed. "Oh and these are the stuffed animals she loves. If she gets cranky just plop these guys next to her and she will be fine." She adds reaching out to run her fingers through her daughter's short dark hair.
"Okay, I'll take those from you then." Lauren takes the backpack from Brittany as well as the diaper bag that the blonde slides down her wife's arm.
"Bye baby." Brittany whispers soothingly into her daughter's hair and kisses her several times. "I love you and I will be back in two and a half hours to come and get you." She stands up straighter and looks at her wife. "Santana?" The Latina looks back to the blonde and rolls her eyes before turning her attention back to the little girl in her arms.
"I'll see you later munchkin." She says looking straight into her daughter's eyes. "I love you." Santana presses her lips to the little girl's nose and grudgingly hands her over to Lauren.
They stand there and watch Lauren disappear down the hall with Bella on her hip and talking animatedly to the child. Brittany twists her lips, twirls the keys on the ring and kicks one shoe against the other. Santana smoothes out the front of her Donna Karan power suit and clears her throat and before she visibly sheds a tear she lowers her sun glasses thankful that the big lenses cover everything.
"Come on sweetie." She says softly and reaches her hand down to grab Brittany's and tugs her along and out the door of the day care center.
"I feel so bad." Brittany pouts, her eyes on the ground as her wife leads her to their cars.
"I know babe but," She shrugs. "She'll be fine, I'm sure of it." They stop in between their cars and turn to one another grinning. "Now you go dance your ass off… well, not off." The smirk covering her lips tells Brittany she most likely winked underneath the dark lenses of her sunglasses.
"And you go… do something laywer-ish." Brittany giggles at her made up word and Santana nods leaning in for a 'see ya later' kiss. "Go yell at people." She mumbles on her wife's lips causing Santana to chuckle.
"It's the best part of my job." The Latina breathes out pressing one last kiss to Brittany's lips. "I'll see you at home baby." Brittany nods and they both head off to their respective offices.
If she is being honest, she was not at all able to enjoy getting back to her usual schedule. Sure she had a great time seeing her students and dancing is always a blast but all she could think about was the fact that her daughter was somewhere foreign and that she wasn't there to make sure everything was okay. The best part of her day is right now, she's literally walking up to the doors of the day care exactly two and a half hours after she and Santana had dropped Bella off.
The young woman behind the desk smiles at her, greets her and when Brittany tells her who she is there to pick up the woman gives her a confused stare after looking down at her desk. Brittany quirks an eyebrow when the woman gets on the phone and calls Lauren to the front desk. Lauren seemingly comes out of nowhere and eyes Brittany up in the same exact fashion as the girl behind the desk.
"Mrs. Pierce-Lopez…" It comes out in kind of question form but it really ends before it can get there. "What are you doing here?" She places her hands on the desk staring at the blonde woman completely bewildered. Brittany's eyebrows scrunch together and she tilts her head, maybe she got the time wrong. But, no she didn't.
"Umm," An uncomfortable and nervous laugh escapes her lips. "I'm here to pick up Bella." Lauren's head jerks back and her eyes slightly widen.
"Well, Bella's not here." Lauren says slowly as though Brittany should know this and she should. "Your wife came and got her a while ago." She explains, glancing down at a piece of paper and nodding, presumably a time sheet for pick up or something like that. She hands it over to Brittany and right there as clear as day is Santana's hand writing, signature and Bella's name. "I'm sorry you came all this way." Brittany feels her cheeks turning red and she has no idea why she is embarrassed but she shakes her head and tells them it's fine and that she must have forgotten that Santana told her.
But she didn't forget because Santana never said such a thing. As she walks to her car she grabs her phone and presses 1, speed dialing her wife's cell phone. It rings twice until there's a click and then…
"Bradley and Bradley, Santana Pierce-Lopez's office." It's Evelyn, Santana's secretary which means that Santana has forwarded her calls from her cell to her office phone because she's either out to lunch or in a meeting.
"Hey Ev, it's Brittany." She forces a smile, stopping in front of her car and her arm falls to her side. "Meeting or lunch?"
"Meeting, do you want me to patch you through to the conference room?" Evelyn asks, she's such a sweetheart and Brittany grins shaking her head.
"Oh no, not necessary. But thank you." The blonde declines, she has a better solution to her current problem. "Do me a favor and don't tell her I called okay?"
"Sure thing Brittany." Evelyn, what a peach Brittany thinks as she hangs up and hops into her car.
It takes her about fifteen minutes to pull up to the parking garage at Bradley and Bradley, five minutes to find a parking spot and then another five minutes for her to find a working elevator. Reaching the tenth floor she walks down the hallways of Bradley and Bradley being greeted by all of Santana subordinates, co-workers and the few people ahead of her.
The door leading to Santana's office is open and she sees Evelyn sitting at her desk eating lunch. The older woman smiles widely at the blonde and waves her in excitedly. Brittany apologizes for interrupting her lunch but of course Evelyn waves her off and asks how she has been doing to which the blonde replies 'great'.
"So which conference room is she in today?" Brittany inquires and thanks Evelyn when she tells her.
Again she is in the hallway looking for the Cleveland conference room. For some reason the bosses started calling it because it's so far away, she shrugs to herself as she thinks about this because it really doesn't make sense to her but whatever. The one thing she does know about this particular conference room is that it is straight up glass so there is no uncomfortable feeling of knocking on a door and peaking a head in to see if her wife is inside. This way she can simply walk by and look in to find Santana.
And that she does. Her wife is standing there, all she can see from the hallway is Santana's back and she is speaking adamantly to the group in the room with her. They are all writing notes and listening intently as she speaks, it's like every other time Brittany has seen her wife at work. But there's something that catches the blonde's eye and she squints to make sure she is not seeing things.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." She says under her breath in complete disbelief.
From the back she notices two black straps coming over her wife's shoulders and down her back, a big difference from her white button down shirt. From a simple process of deduction Brittany knows exactly what those straps belong to and she is only proven right when Santana turns to the side to point to something that the blonde sees it.
Santana is in serious mode, hands moving, arms going up and down, her eyebrows knit together and her mouth moving a mile a minute… with Bella strapped to her front. Brittany covers her mouth to keep her laughter down. After she is done pointing to something Santana lowers her hand to Bella's letting the little girl play with her wedding ring on her finger.
"This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen." Brittany says to herself shaking her head from side to side. Before she knows it some guy in the room points behind Santana, motioning to the blonde in the hallway which causes Santana to turn around.
The Latina smiles from ear to ear and waves at Brittany holding up one finger to signal 'one minute'. And Brittany waits for her wife to finish up her meeting and soon enough everyone is walking out into the hallway saying 'hi' to the blonde. Brittany bites her lower lip as she enters the conference room after everyone else is gone and her wife is packing things up.
"This is a nice surprise baby." Santana tells the blonde in a soft voice. Brittany doesn't reply, simply staring at her wife going about her work day with their daughter attached to her body.
"Santana." Brittany steps closer to her and rubs her hand up and down the Latina's arm. When Santana looks back at her the blonde motions to the child against her chest and Santana looks away guiltily.
"Britt, you don't understand. I couldn't leave her there." She stomps her foot and her arms instinctively wrap around Bella. "She needs us." She pouts causing Brittany to laugh. "It's not funny, I read that separation too early can lead to a dysfunctional relationship when the child gets older." Brittany shakes her head and rolls her eyes.
"You read too much and watch way too much Dr. Phil." The blonde comments, moving her hand from her wife and to her daughter's head smoothing out her hair.
"Do you really feel comfortable leaving her with complete strangers?" Santana asks incredulously, eyes widening as she speaks.
"That's stupid of course it bothers me Santana." The blonde slaps her wife's arm, not hard, but enough to smack some sense in to her. "I went there to get her like a half hour ago, like I was supposed to." She says making a face at the Latina. "It was only two and a half hours."
"That's too long." Santana sways side to side pressing small pecks to back of Bella's head.
"When did you go back to get her?" Brittany asks, narrowing her eyes with the question.
"Umm…"
"Did you even leave the parking lot." The blonde sighs.
"Hey! This isn't my fault. Bad shit happens in day cares." She tries to defend herself.
"Santana, you are over reacting!" Brittany finally yells out with amusement. "She is going to be fine going to day care for two and a half hours, five days a week." She explains getting a look of distaste out of Santana.
"But…"
"No but's baby, trust me okay. She is going to be fine." She says in a calmer voice, rubbing small circles on Santana's back.
"Fine." Santana sighs in defeat.
It may have taken three weeks exactly for Santana to finally stop pulling Bella out of day care before she even started. And Santana may have gotten a little defensive when Quinn suggested that it was her that was having separation anxiety. Maybe she did over react about Little Tot Town day care being a good enough for her little girl and wanted a full report background check on 'Miss Lauren'. But the thing that Brittany will never forget or be able to erase from her mind was that first day when she saw her wife kicking ass and taking names in the Cleveland conference room with baby Bella strapped to her. Priceless.