So, hey, um. I know it's been a while. But this story will not be abandoned! The new episodes have given me quite a few great ideas... But please enjoy, and leave a review, if you would! :D

"Tina?"

"Yeah, San?"

"Do you have a best friend?"

The Schuester girls were spending their Friday afternoon making friendship bracelets, so Tina figured that was why Santana asked. "Sure. You remember Mercedes, right?"

Santana nodded, still looking down at her crochet bracelet in concentration. "Yeah. But is she really your bestest friend in the world?"

Tina actually had to stop and think about that for a moment. The diva was probably tied with Kurt, but she still replied, "Yes. I do still have a few other good friends, though. Why?"

Santana shrugged, still focusing on the black and purple bracelet being fabricated in her hands. "I don't have a best friend and I was just wonderin'."

Tina frowned, suddenly feeling guilty, even though she really hadn't done anything wrong. She knew Santana was having a hard time making friends at school, and though she had mentioned a few kids that she casually played with at recess, the way she talked about them made it seem she played with them for mere convenience, so she wouldn't feel so lonely. "Hey, it's okay to not have a best friend. Some people have a lot of best friends, and some people don't have a best friend at all."

Santana finally looked up at her sister. "Really?"

Tina gave her a smile and nodded. "Sure! Friends don't always need fancy labels."

Santana nodded. She supposed that made sense. "Can sisters and brothers be best friends?"

"Of course they can," Tina told her, finishing up the rainbow bracelet she made for Kurt. "Puck and Finn are best friends. They were before Puck came to live with us and they still are, more than ever, now that they're brothers." Tina poked Santana's little nose before adding, "Sometimes brothers and sisters can be the best friends you can ask for."

That made perfect sense to Santana. Her brothers and sister were great. Even though they were so much older than she was, they were always there for her and always made her happy.

Well, most of the time, at least.

After Santana finished up her bracelet, she looked back at her sister and held the bracelet up to her. "Can I be your other best friend?"

Tina saw the innocent look on Santana's face, which was always funny to see, considering all the trouble she generally got into, and her heart melted instantly. "Of course you can!" The Asian girl leaned across the table they were seated at in the kitchen to give her sister a kiss on the cheek and let her sloppily tie the bracelet onto her wrist.

And just like that, the sisterly moment was interrupted when the front door was thrown open and the boys of the house were back from their game of touch football. Judging from all the grass and mud stains on their clothing, it seemed like it ended up being more than touch football.

Finn and Puck were laughing and looked as if they had a grand old time, while Kurt just looked horrified. How Finn and Puck convinced him to play football with them, Mike Chang, and some of the guys from Dalton Academy was beyond either of the girls' comprehension. "I can't believe you two talked me into that," Kurt muttered, plopping down on the chair next to Tina. Thankfully there weren't any cushions on their chairs, so it would be easy to clean up the muddy butt print Kurt left. "Look at what all that barbarianism did to my clothes!"

Finn scoffed, taking a seat to Santana's left. "Dude, you're wearing sweats, and you never wear those anyway."

"Yes, but still..." Kurt huffed as Tina pulled a clump of dirt out of his hair.

Puck took a seat at the head of the table, between Santana and Tina. "Besides, you know you liked it when that Anderson guy tackled you. He stayed on you for at least ten seconds." Puck smirked. "I wouldn't be surprised if either one of you had a few hickeys."

Kurt gave him a scolding look, even though Puck was a year older than him. "Noah, don't talk about that in front of Santana!"

Santana finished her latest bracelet and looked up at Kurt. "Why not? I know what hockey is. It's what morons play."

Finn laughed, a sense of pride in knowing that she had gotten the lesson he had been trying to teach his entire family for years washing over him, but said, "No, Santana, a hickey is-"

"Finneas, don't you dare finish that sentence!" Kurt scolded, right after thanking Tina for the bracelet she made for him.

"... Dude, for the thousandth time, my full first name isn't 'Finneas.'"

As he let Tina tie the new bracelet on his wrist, Kurt merely shrugged. "If I had had any say in it, it would have been."

"So... What's this Blaine like?" Tina asked, looking up from the rainbow strings to smirk at her elder brother by a year. "I always figured you'd marry up."

"Ugh, I swear, you're worse than Finn and Puck sometimes." Kurt rolled his eyes. "Blaine is indeed wealthier than us, but he's a very nice boy, and I'll admit that he's very handsome," Kurt told his siblings, mostly his older brothers, who loved to tease him about guys that might like him, even though he was basically the only out kid in Lima. "But I'm pretty sure he's not gay."

"Dude, have you seen how he dresses when he's not playing football or he's not in his Dalton uniform?" Puck rolled his eyes. "Either he's gay or he just really likes tight, brightly colored pants."

"Don't be mean to him," Tina said, feeling the need to stand up for her new neighbor. "He seems really nice."

"I'm not saying he isn't. I'm just saying his pants are tight and colorful." Before Puck could say anything else, he finally noticed the pile of friendship bracelets in the middle of the table. "Sheesh, you two aren't picky when it comes to friends."

"We just started out making a few... But then Santana wanted to make more." Tina picked one of the red, black and white ones out of the pile, and Santana took the other one. "Actually, these were one of the first ones we made."

After Tina handed hers to Puck and Santana handed hers to Finn, they were able to see that their team numbers were on the crochet bracelets. And that they didn't look nearly as girly as the other ones, probably because they had been made thicker, so they could wear them without getting slushied for wearing woman's jewelry. Sweet.

Finn smiled at Santana who looked pretty proud of her work. "Thanks, girls. These are awesome." Finn reached his arms out to give his little sister a hug, but she scooted away before he could.

"Nuh-uh. I'm not hugging you until you take a bath." Santana's nose wrinkled and she told them, "You stink."

Finn feigned a hurt expression. "Oh come on, I don't smell that-" Finn had been lifting the neck of his T-shirt up to look and see whether a stain on it was blood or just really red dirt, but

he only managed to get a whiff of the sweat stain around it. The resulting face was pretty hilarious. "Okay, maybe I'll take a shower."

As Finn got up and left the room, the rest of the kids heard the front door open and close. Their adoptive parents came in moments later, after a hard day of work.

"Mommy, Daddy, look at the pretty bracelets me and Tina made!" Santana cried, holding up a handful of the macrame creations.

Emma, after placing hers and her husband's Superman and Wonder Woman lunch boxes in the pantry so they'd be ready for next Monday, walked over to give each of her available children a kiss on the forehead, even sweaty and dirty Puck and Kurt. Her OCD never really affected her quite as badly when it came to her kids. It helped that she took a wet wipe and scrubbed their foreheads before kissing them. "Those look great, girls."

"Looks like you boys had fun," Will commented, giving his sons a small grin. "I'm guessing Finn's in the shower, and I'd suggest you two do the same."

"Why? I can just spray Axe on my pits or something." Puck crossed his arms behind his head, as if wanting to show off his man-stink. It only made the rest of his family cover their noses or even their mouths, as if they'd vomit at any minute.

But then Emma and Will, who were exhausted from the trials and tribulations of being a high school guidance counselor and Spanish teacher, told their smelly son that they weren't going to order pizza just to have the pizza delivery guy die from the fumes of his body odor.

Puck practically shoved Finn out of the bathroom after that.

/ /

After much arguing over the toppings of the pizza, the Schuester clan finally agreed on a large pepperoni from their favorite pizza place. In the mean time, while Will was helping Finn with his Spanish homework, since he didn't want his own son to fail his class, and Emma was cleaning the upstairs bathroom to unwind, the lazier Schuester kids were piled on the leather sectional couch in the living room, watching some mindless cartoon. It was the only thing currently on that would have been appropriate for Santana to watch. Not that that ever stopped her from watching Jersey Shore when either nobody was around or Puck was the only one there and let her get away with it. But with Tina and Kurt there to control them, Snooki and the Situation would have to wait.

As the protagonist of the colorful show jumped onto some kind of stretchy unicorn creature thing, Santana leaned into Kurt's side to make herself more comfortable. Kurt obviously didn't feel the same way, as he let out a pained squawk. The other three turned to look at him, since none of them had been that interested in the show anyway.

Santana scooted away from him and asked, "What the hell was that noise for?"

"Hey, watch your mouth, Santana." Puck almost sounded like a responsible older brother until he turned to Kurt and asked, "What the hell was that noise for?"

What an excellent role model.

Kurt sighed. "I'm sorry. I just... I think I bruised when Blaine tackled me."

"Did he really tackle you that hard?" Tina asked. She knew Kurt bruised like a peach, but still.

"Y-Yes. I suppose he did."

Puck was about to question that, since he had seen them weakly tumble over and Blaine wasn't exactly the most aggresive guy, but the doorbell rang and interrupted him completely.

"I'll get it!" Santana attempted to crawl over Puck's lap to get out of the corner seat of the sectional, but Puck grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder as he stood up. "Put me down, Puck!"

Ignoring the tiny fists pounding on his back, Puck smirked and carried her off. "You're not the one who has the money to pay for the pizza, squirt. I do... Unless the pizza guy will accept little girls instead of money..." That earned him a furious squeal and even harder slaps to the back. They were still barely painful.

Puck put her down in the foyer, chuckled at the livid face she was giving him, then threw the door open. It took him a moment to recognize the blonde Bieber-haired guy who had on khakis and a blue polo with matching visor. "Sam?"

As his name tag suggested, it was indeed Sam Evans, who looked up from the receipt in his free hands with a slightly confused face. Once he saw the two familiar people, his confusion disappeared. "Oh. Hey, long time, no see," he said jokingly, considering they had just met each other the day before. "Puck, right?"

He nodded as he dug around in his pocket for the money his parents had given him for the pizzas. "So, you work at Giardi's, huh? We love that place."

"Yeah, it's got a pretty good pay, too. The owner's wife is kind of a freak, though. And her kids..." He shuddered slightly just imagining the three ginger terrors that always seemed to invade Giardi's pizzeria, but a light tugging from the bottom of his polo snapped him out of his momentary flashback to the time all three of them tried to get a piggy back ride from him at once.

"Sammy, I think that pizza is dying."

After inspecting the bottom of one of the pizza boxes that the little girl pointed at, Sam told her, "That's just grease, Britt."

"Oh."

Santana, who had been yanking on her brother's arm because she wanted him to stop shooting the breeze and get the dang pizzas, noticed her new friend as she stepped out from behind Sam's legs. "Brittany!"

Brittany shot her a glance, but quickly smiled. "Santana!" As Sam handed the two boxes to Puck, Brittany shot past both boys and gave Santana a big hug. "You smell like sunshine and water."

"Uh, thanks."

As Puck tried to figure out how much of a tip he was supposed to give him, Sam noticed that Brittany had gone into the Schuester home when he wasn't looking. "Brittany, you're not supposed to go into the houses."

Brittany guiltily frowned at him. "But I wanted to see Santana..."

Before Sam could tell her to come back, a sweet, gentle voice called out, "Noah, dear, did the pizzas arrive yet?" The click clacking of heels indicated that Emma was walking into the foyer, but she paused once she saw the unfamiliar blonde girl clutching her daughter. "Why, hello there," Emma greeted her with a small, confused smile. "I don't remember ever meeting you."

"That's okay," Brittany said, looking up at the woman and never letting go of Santana. "I don't remember a lot of things."

"Mommy, this is my friend Brittany," Santana told her mother, finally wriggling out of Britt's death grip. "She's in Mini Cheerios too."

Emma crouched down and smiled at her. "Well, it's very nice to meet you. What brings you here?"

"I'm working with Sammy," Brittany explained, pointing to the blonde boy, who was trying to grab onto her hand without stepping into the house and breaking the Pizza Boy Code of Conduct. Or something. "He brings pizzas to people who don't have pizza elves at their house."

"I see." Emma stood back up and smiled at Sam, holding out her hand to him. "I'm Mrs. Schuester. You must be Brittany's brother." She ran her free hand across Santana's raven locks and told him, "Santana's told us almost as much about you as she has about Brittany."

He shook her hand as Puck handed him an appropriate tip, and he returned the smile. A friendly adult face was nice, for a change. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am, but Brittany and I should really get going."

"I wanna stay here with Santana," Brittany quietly said, holding Santana's hand. "Your car smells like sausage."

Sam let out a deep sigh and crouched down, still outside the door. "Britt, we still have more pizzas to deliver and you need to stay with me."

Oh, his parents must have been busy, Emma thought to herself, looking down at the little girls as they exchanged a sad glance. "We have plenty of pizza," Emma mused quietly, but loudly enough for Sam to hear. "Brittany's welcome to stay here until your shift is over, if that would be okay with your parents."

Heh. That would imply their parents cared.

Sam was normally hesitant to leave Brittany places, but he had heard many good stories about the Schuester family. Most of them from his parents, actually, who were never exactly beacons of honesty, but from what he had seen, the mom at least seemed as nice as his mother had mentioned. "I don't want to impose."

Emma kindly smiled and placed a hand on Brittany's tiny shoulder. "It's no trouble at all. We'd love to have her."

Brittany's eyes lit up as she looked up at her brother. "Can I, Sammy? Huh, can I? Pretty please with a peanut allergy on top?"

Brittany always came up with the weirdest toppings for her pretty pleases.

"Uh... Yeah, if you really don't mind, Mrs. Schuester."

"There's always room in this family," Emma told him, smacking Puck on the shoulder when he muttered some sarcastic response to that.

Sam slowly smiled and gave her a grateful nod. "Thanks, Mrs. Schuester. That's... That's really nice."

Emma's response was drowned out by Brittany and Santana's squeals of joy and before Santana could drag her friend off to show her her toys, Brittany walked over to Sam and wrapped her arms around his leg. "Thank you, Sammy. I love you bunches."

Sam grinned down at his sister and bent down so he could push her bangs out of her face and kiss her forehead. "You too, Britt. Have fun and be good."

Brittany nodded and detached herself from Sam before running off with Santana to wherever.

Sam thanked Mrs. Schuester both for her pizza purchase and her kindness before he began walking back to the car he had been provided with by the Giardi's. He was still hesitant to leave his baby sister with those people. They seemed as nice as they could be, but that would only make it worse if Britt told them a little too much.

He pushed that thought aside. They had discussed things they shouldn't talk about with other people in length and besides, Brittany deserved a little fun. Lord knows the past few weeks hadn't been easy on them.

But he didn't have time to think about the past. The other pizzas were going to get cold.

/ /

"Wow." Brittany stroked the long blonde locks of one of the many Barbies Santana had and looked up at her. "You have lots of toys."

"Some of them used to be Tina's." Santana took note of how Brittany held the doll, how she looked at it as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world. "Do you have any Barbies?"

Brittany's smile faltered, but didn't completely disappear. "I used to."

Santana's eyebrows scrunched in confusion, but she didn't ask what happened to them. Brittany looked sad and she didn't want to make her any sadder. She didn't like it when Brittany was sad. "We can play with mine."

Brittany smiled and nodded. "Okay! They can be cheerleaders, like us."

As Santana dug around in her Barbie crate for another doll, there was a knock on Santana's open door. Both girls looked up to see Will standing in the doorway, a plate with a pizza slice and a napkin in each hand. "Hey there. Can you girls take a pizza break?"

"But Mommy says no eating in my room," Santana reminded him as he sat down on her bed. Not that she didn't break that rule all the time, but still.

"Mommy and I are making an exception for tonight." Will smiled at his adoptive daughter and her new friend as he handed them their plates. Santana didn't have kids her age over often. And when she did, they usually ended up hating each other by the time the other kid left. This Brittany girl seemed different. "Just be careful."

He got up to leave and after he was out the door, Brittany gingerly sat the doll on the floor along with her plate. "My mommy says if she had been more careful, I wouldn't be here."

Santana didn't understand what that meant. She would have asked Brittany, but she figured she didn't know either and it was just one of those things she blurted out that didn't mean anything. Maybe she'd ask someone else later.

Both girls began eating their pizza and planning out what their cheerleader Barbies were going to do and what shoes they were going to wear, which were most likely going to be mismatched since Santana had lost most of them. By the time their pizza slices were gone, Brittany had successfully wiped her hands clean, but there was sauce all over her mouth. Santana leaned over and used her napkin to clean her off. Her mother rubbed off on her in certain aspects.

"I like your daddy," Brittany said out of nowhere after they had picked their dolls up and resumed playing. "And your mommy."

Santana made her Barbie do splits that would split a real person in half and said, "I like them too. They're nice to me."

"Why don't you look like them?"

Santana got this question a lot. It didn't really bother her to answer anymore. "Kids only look like their mommy and daddy when they grow in their mommy's tummy. I look different 'cause my mommy and daddy bought me at the little kid store."

Well, that's what Puck had told her it was called. Her daddy told him not to call it that, but she didn't know the real name for where they had gotten her.

Brittany's face scrunched in confusion. "Why would a baby be in a mommy's tummy? Mommies aren't supposed to eat their babies."

Oh. Brittany must not know about where babies really come from. Her mommy kind of did tell her not to go around talking about it. Oh well.

What was that other baby making method she had seen on TV? Um... Oh yeah! "I mean... Sometimes storks bring babies to the wrong house, so the babies have to go to the little kid store so their real mommies and daddies can buy them back. That's what happened with me and my brothers and sister. Our stork wasn't very good at his job."

"Oh. Okay." Brittany's head bobbed up and down in a nod and she went back to picking out mismatched shoes for her Barbie.

It was at that moment that Santana decided to ask, "Do you like your mommy and daddy?" She was kind of shocked when Brittany shook her head no. Who doesn't like their mommy and daddy? "Why not?"

"My daddy isn't home much. And when he is, he and Mommy yell and say mean words." Brittany put a high heel on one plastic foot and a sneaker on the other.

Santana frowned at that. She couldn't imagine her parents doing that. They had fights, but they never really yelled during them and they certainly didn't say mean words. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Brittany meekly shrugged. "Sammy says we don't have to worry about them anymore."

Huh. Sam seemed to know what he was talking about, so okay...

"Let's get more dolls so we can make a pyramid."

"But I don't like Chinese food."

"..."

/ /

"Oh, wow, that's certainly an... interesting outfit you picked for that Barbie, Brittany," Kurt murmured as his sister's friend held up the doll to him. He almost regretted coming in to introduce himself.

Brittany still smiled despite Kurt's wary tone and took the doll back from him. "I want to dress like her when I grow up."

Kurt resisted the urge to tell her to just have a zebra made of pink and purple glitter throw up on her and nodded with a somewhat convincing smile. "I'm sure you'll be just as pretty as she is when you're bigger. You're already a cutie."

Brittany giggled and looked down at her lap sheepishly. Santana was about to tell Kurt to get out so they could keep playing, but before she could, Brittany looked back up at the gay teen and said, "I like your voice. It's pretty."

Huh. Most kids just asked him why he sounded like a girl. That was a refreshing change. A genuine smile spread across his face and he leaned over to poke her nose. "You're sweet."

"My grandma used to say she could eat me up. I think I'm made out of cotton candy." Brittany nodded with a completely serious expression on her face. "I try to eat myself sometimes, but my brother keeps stopping me."

Cute, sweet and a little weird. Perfect combination for a child, in Kurt's opinion.

He got up off the floor to leave, but before he was out the door, he looked down at Santana. "Oh, San, your bracelets are on the kitchen table. Mom wants you to pick them up."

Santana rolled her eyes, but nodded. Those bracelets weren't hurting anyone sitting there. Why'd she have to pick them up? She was playing with her new friend.

... Wait.

"Britt?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a best friend?"

"... No." Brittany shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Do you wanna be mine?"

Brittany's head tilted slightly as she tried to think that over. "What does a best friend do?"

Santana honestly didn't have any experience, but she had seen enough best friends on TV to know the basic elements. "Best friends are always there for each other. They help them with problems and make them happy. And they give each other cookies and help you fight crime."

Brittany nodded as she took that all in. "That sounds like fun." She smiled and said. "I'll be your best friend. But you have to be mine too."

Santana smiled. "Deal." She held out her pinky, which Brittany just stared at. Before she could attempt to bite it, Santana noted her confusion and said, "We need to make a pinky promise. Puck says pinky promises are legit."

Brittany nodded, but still didn't know what to do with Santana's outstretched pinky.

"Hold out your right pinky, like me." Santana decided Brittany needed some guidance for this, and it apparently helped because Brittany did as she said. But with the wrong hand. "No, your other right." Brittany quickly switched hands. "Now put your pinky next to mine and bend it." Brittany bent said pinky and Santana did the same with hers, linking them together. "You pinky promise to be the bestest friends ever?"

Brittany nodded. "I pinky promise."

Santana beamed as she stood up, her pinky still linked with Brittany's. "We need to do one more thing. Come on!"

Brittany stood up with her and followed her down the hall and the steps, finding it difficult to keep their pinkies linked, but doing everything in her power to keep them that way. She kind of liked it.

Once they made it to the kitchen, Santana crawled up onto a chair by the table, having to finally take her right hand back. Darn it.

She came back down with a handful of handmade bracelets and asked, "These are friendship bracelets. We need ones that match."

Brittany looked down at the bracelets, trying to determine which ones matched because she kind of had a hard time telling the difference between blue and green, when she noticed there were two thin bracelets that were red and white. "Those will match our Mini Cheerio uniforms when we get them."

Santana looked at the ones Brittany pointed at and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Wait here." Santana ran off to put the other bracelets away so she wouldn't get in trouble with her mom.

Brittany just obediently stood there, waving to Tina, who she had met a while ago, when she walked into the kitchen. "Hey, Brittany. Where's Santana?"

Before Brittany could respond with something that most likely made no sense, Santana scurried back into the kitchen, the two bracelets Brittany had picked out in her hands. "Tina! Tina!" Santana tugged on her sister's sleeve. "Brittany's my best friend! We're gonna have bracelets and everything!"

Well, looks like that lovely moment they had before meant nothing.

Ha, just kidding. Tina couldn't have been happier for her sister. And like she said before, you can have more than one best friend.

Santana had four before, and now she has five.

"You want me to help you tie them on?" Santana and Brittany nodded, so Tina got on her knees, carefully tied a bracelet on each girl's right wrist ("No, Britt, your other right," Santana had to remind her) and smiled when she saw how their faces lit up when they glanced at one another, as if having the bracelets on transformed them or something.

Tina had a feeling that this friendship was going to be something special.

/ /

"Sammy, look! Santana gave me a bracelet and we linked pinkies! That means we're best friends!"

"Yeah, I see that," Sam said with a smile, crouched down at the entrance of the house so he could talk to Brittany more personally. "That's great, Britt. So I'm guessing you had fun?"

"From how much they ran around the house and all the noise they made, I'd say that's a safe bet," Finn, who had answered the door, said, faintly smirking when Santana stuck her tongue out at him.

"I hope she wasn't any trouble," Sam said, looking up at the tall teen from his spot down by Brittany.

"You're too polite for your own good sometimes, Evans," Finn told him with a smile. "We're used to noise in this house. Little girl squeals were a refreshing change from my little brother screaming at Puck and I for making him play football."

Sam cracked a small smile at that as he stood up. "You play football? Heh, I used to play football at my old school."

"You any good?" Sam nodded. "You should play with us sometime. We usually play with some Dalton guys. You might know them."

Sam had almost forgotten he told them he went there. "Yeah, I might... Maybe if I get some time off work."

Finn nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Brittany slowly realized that she was leaving Santana behind, so she frowned and held out her arms, silently asking for a hug. Santana was more than happy to oblige. "Bye, best friend."

"I'll see you at Mini Cheerios." Santana waved as Brittany walked out the door and took Sam's hand. She didn't really need to hold it since the car was parked right in front of the house, but she still liked to hold his hand. It made her feel safe.

The Schuesters were the first people in a while besides Sam that made her feel safe.

/ /

"Can I have a Barbie, Sam?"

Sam momentarily glanced at his sister in the rearview mirror. He hadn't been able to afford a booster seat for her, so she was just sitting on the hump instead. He knew that wasn't completely safe for someone so small, but he'd have to save up if he wanted to get her a decent one. And they still had to budget for food and clothes... How was he supposed to get her a Barbie on top of all that?

He almost told her that he wasn't sure he could manage that, but how could he say that? He hadn't had any room in their bags to put any of her toys in and she kind of did deserve a little treat. He could always get one of those knockoffs from the dollar store or something. She'd never notice the difference. "I'll see what I can do."

As they pulled into an empty parking spot, Brittany smiled at him. Sammy was always so good to her. Like how Santana's parents seemed to her.

Thinking about parents made Brittany think of her own parents. As Sam opened one of the rusty back doors of the junky car that Giardi's gave him for his job and began unbuckling his sister, she looked up at him. "Why didn't Mommy and Daddy like us?"

Honestly, Sam didn't really know. Their parents didn't necessarily not like them. They just cared more about themselves, he supposed. But how could he word that to a five year old?

Sam tried to smile at her, but it wasn't all that good. Even Brittany wasn't convinced. "Hey. You don't have to worry about them anymore, okay? I got us out of there. Once I figure things out, it'll only go up from there."

Brittany tried to understand everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen. She really did. But it was complicated. Hell, it was even more complicated for Sam than it was for her. And that's saying something.

All she did was nod to that and held her arms out to be carried. Sam complied, lifting her up into his arms and letting her rest her head on his shoulders as he carried her away and awkwardly shifted her so he could dig his keys out of his pocket. After locking the car, he carried her over to the run down building, unlocked the door labeled 105 and threw the door to their shabby motel room open.

Hey, it beat a cardboard box under a bridge.