AN: Well, this is it. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. The song featured at the end is an abbreviated version of the song 'Storm Comin' by The Wailin' Jennys. It's an awesome song and although it's not her usual genre I think Santana would sound wonderful singing it. It's on youtube, look it up. =) And I want to thank my beta again for all her help and suggestions, which were always spot on in keeping the characters in character.

Epilogue

Things didn't change too much over the next few days, which was a relief for Santana because she wasn't sure how much more change she could handle right now. Brittany was a rock and continued to sleep over at Santana's house while Artie moped around school. Santana tried to make herself feel sorry for him, but it didn't take. She was glad she finally had Brittany all to herself. Selfish, yes, but no one had ever accused Santana of being good at sharing when it came to Brittany's attention.

The rumor mill at McKinley was oddly silent about the recent drama and Santana found herself grateful that her friends hadn't betrayed her trust. She knew how much they all loved to gossip, but they seemed to have no problem finding other things to focus on, like how Coach Sylvester had tried to have all her Cheerios sterilized after another girl on the squad had turned up pregnant. Which, she of course blamed on Quinn for having set a bad example, and when Figgins denied her compulsory sterilization clause from being added to the Cheerios contract, she took her anger out on the glee club again with a vengeance. Santana thought it was nice have a drama to focus on that wasn't her own.

A few days after she'd rejoined New Directions Santana heard a rumor that Brendan and Steve had landed in the hospital, but none of the glee boys would share the details. They all gave her the same satisfied grin when she asked them if it was true and assured her that Brendan and Steve wouldn't be bothering her again. In fact, they'd managed to 'convince' the two boys that it was in their best bodily interest to finish the rest of their senior year at a different school. She tried to act offended that the boys thought she needed them to fight her battles for her, but secretly she was relieved not to have to worry about seeing them anymore.

Things were more or less back to normal between her and Puck, even though since their talk he'd developed this annoying habit of shooting death-glares at anyone who looked at her a little too long. Santana tried telling him it was useless, that she was the hottest thing at McKinley and they were always going to admire her smokin' hot body, as they should, but it didn't seem to help.

Dr. Janssen had called to deliver the news that both girls were disease-free, which led to a private celebration that involved a spectacular amount of lip action.

Santana's parents eventually did come home from where they'd been vacationing in Brazil, but with Brittany now sharing her bed almost every night, Santana had barely noticed they were still AWOL. It never even crossed her mind to tell them what had happened.

She and Brittany did end up telling them about the change in their relationship status after even they started to notice that Brittany was coming out of Santana's bedroom most mornings. To say they were comfortable with it would have been an outright lie, but by unspoken agreement all parties involved seemed to realize that as long her parents weren't subjected to too many displays of public affection they could pretend the girls were still just best friends and let it go. Considering how little time Santana and her parents spent together it was pretty much a non-issue.

Brittany's parents threw them a party.

Life got back to normal faster than anyone would have expected over the next few months. In the beginning Santana had a lot of days when she woke up feeling raw and angry and had more than a few nights where she found herself crying in Brittany's arms until she fell asleep, but this was happening less and less. She'd eased herself back into attending parties every weekend, but it was rare now that she drank herself stupid, and she always had someone there with her to watch her back. To return the favor Santana found herself keeping an eye out for any girl who looked like she might be too drunk for her own good, helping many a stranger back home so they didn't find themselves passed out in a strange house. If these random acts of kindness also involved Santana using the opportunity to give the girl a brutally honest dose of reality about how stupid it was to let themselves get that drunk at a party full of similarly wasted, horny guys, well… she just considered it 'tough love' and hoped they'd remember at least a bit of it when they woke up the next morning.

She and Brittany took their relationship slow, letting themselves get used to being together without the denial or secrecy and making sure Santana felt comfortable with everything before doing more than getting their sweet lady kisses on. It wasn't the smoothest thing, as having a serious relationship with anyone, even and especially with someone she loved, caused Santana more than a few moments of panic, but luckily, Brittany was patient and well-versed in how to calm a panicked Santana Lopez and neither girl was willing to give up on the other.

No one in glee was really surprised when they officially announced they were dating and while a few slushies and homophobic slurs were tossed their way Santana found it didn't bother her as much as she'd thought it would. After all, Santana was still a bitch with a bite and three years of striking fear into the student body wasn't easily forgotten. Those who did seem to need reminding, thinking girl-love somehow made Santana less frightening, were quickly put back in their place with a few choice words and a physical threat or two.

So here they were. Two and a half months after Santana had found herself pinned down on a strange bed while drunken strangers shouted below, two months after she'd put her trust in her friends and admitted to being raped, three weeks after she'd kissed her girlfriend in front of her locker, and two weeks since she'd had her last nightmare, Santana took to the stage with Brittany and Mercedes and poured her heart out in song.

When that storm comes don't run for cover
When that storm comes don't run for cover
When that storm comes don't run for cover
Don't run from the coming storm
No, their ain't no use in runnin'

When that rain falls, let it wash away…

Let it wash away that fallin' rain, the tears and the trouble…

When that love comes, open up the door…

You gotta stand on up and let it in, you gotta let love through the door, oh…

When that storm comes, don't run for cover
Don't run from the coming storm 'cause you can't keep the storm from coming

No, don't run from the coming storm 'cause you can't keep the storm from coming
No, no, You can't keep the storm from coming
You can't keep the storm from coming

And when she stood on that stage, holding her girlfriend's hand, listening to the rest of the glee club cheering them on, Santana knew she was well on her way to happy.

So, I hope the ending didn't disappoint too much. I was trying to avoid a snap-your-fingers-and-everything's-okay ending, but at the same time didn't want to drag it out to 50+ chapters detailing every up and down. Let me know what you thought and what you liked or didn't like, what worked or didn't work. I won't take criticisms personally and that way, since I've fallen in love with writing these characters, when I write another story I can make it even better. =)