A/N: Sorry this chapter took a while. Had to do a re-write. Let me just say, holy crap you guys are awesome. Your comments are priceless! So glad this story is resonating with you. Big sloppy wet kisses to you all! Mama Lopez loves you!
Maribel walked out of the den holding her laptop open as she entered the kitchen. She set the laptop down near the stove and poured herself a cup of coffee. Santana and Brittany never looked up as they sat at the kitchen island working on their weekly meal planning and grocery list. Dr. Lopez sat quietly watching through the Skype chat. Santana flipped through a flyer and Brittany was concentrating on cutting a coupon.
"Do we have a coupon for this?" Santana pointed to the flyer, looking over at Brittany's growing pile of neatly clipped coupons.
Brittany sifted through them. "Yep!" she said with a smile, and wrote something on the list.
Santana looked over at the list. "Britt, Lucky Charms were on sale last week, we can't get it this week. It has to be on sale or we need a coupon if we're going to keep in the budget," she explained.
Brittany pursed her lips and sighed. "I can try the store brand. That's cheap, right?"
Santana nodded and made a note.
"They grow up so fast," Dr. Lopez whispered through Skype.
Santana's head snapped up from the sales flyer.
"Papi! Mama, why didn't you tell me you were Skype-ing Dad?" Santana said with a big grin, walking over to the laptop.
"Hey sweetie," Dr. Lopez greeted, blowing a kiss to Santana.
"When are you coming home?" Brittany asked.
"Next week," Dr. Lopez smiled. "How's school going Brittany?"
"So far so good," Brittany replied. "I get my first grades back tomorrow."
"Nervous?" Dr. Lopez asked.
"A little," Brittany shrugged with a small smile.
"Well I know you'll do fine. And remember, I'm taking you two to New York when I get back. Got that list of apartments ready?"
"I printed it out yesterday," Santana said. "It's sitting on my desk."
"And the job?" Dr. Lopez asked.
"Haven't heard from April yet," Santana frowned.
"I have to call and set it up with the shelter when we know the dates for sure," Brittany added.
"Don't' you have something at that school too?" Maribel asked.
"Yep," Brittany nodded. "I'll call them too. Just give me the dates Dr. Lopez and I'll be ready."
"I'm checking flights tonight. I'll email you."
"Okay ladies. I have to get going," Dr. Lopez sighed.
"It's Sunday Dr. Lopez. They make you work on a Sunday?"
"A doctor's work is never done Brittany," Dr. Lopez said with a tired smile.
"Don't let him fool you Brittany. He's got a brunch date with his anesthesiologist buddy," Maribel smirked.
"You're ruining the mystique," her husband chided.
"Please, you lost that years ago baby. Now go enjoy your mimosas like a good hard working doctor," Maribel teased.
Santana arrived at the bookstore Monday morning in jeans, a t-shirt and her Doc Marten boots.
"Wow, really embracing your inner butch today," Quinn teased.
Santana gave Quinn a pointed look over her sunglasses and a middle finger for good measure.
"Those gayviators are an especially nice touch," Quinn smirked and handed Santana a cappuccino.
"This better be…"
"…a triple shot, yes it is," Quinn smiled.
"Jill's waiting for you in the back. The guys got started on the bookcases already."
"Guys?" Santana asked as she took a sip from her coffee.
"Yeah, a couple of guys building some more shelves and refurbishing some old ones. It's not much. I think they'll be done in a few days," Quinn explained.
Santana walked back to Jill's office and saw her discussing plans with a man in his late 50s and his college-aged assistant.
"Santana, great! Glad you're here," Jill greeted. "This is Rich, our carpenter for the next few days."
Santana reached out to shake Rich's hand. He hesitated, just for second, and gave her a quick grip with his calloused, saw-dusted hand. He gave her a nod, and turned to introduce the younger man.
"Uh, this is my nephew Pete. He's gonna be helping me." Rich said with a hard slap to Pete's shoulder.
Pete winced and gave a nervous smile to Santana, "Nice to meet you."
Santana could barely get her obligatory, "Yeah you too," when Jill pulled at her arm.
Jill walked Santana around the back of the store pointing out the specific cases that needed to be emptied and which sections went to Quinn for re-categorizing. It was a good review for the discussion they had last week. Jill brought out three v-carts from the storage room.
"If you need anything, give me a shout," Jill said as she left and walked into her office.
Santana stood with her hands on her hips, taking in all the books she had to move.
"That's a lot of fuckin' books," she said under her breath.
Santana got to work and spent the morning stacking books and taking them to Quinn or other parts of the store for temporary storage. Pete and Rich were in and out most of the morning. They had a mobile workstation set up in the alley behind the store and Rich or Pete would be in to check measurements and assemble pieces of the shelves and check in with Jill.
As she pulled books off the shelves and stacked them onto the carts, she could feel Rich staring at her from behind. She caught him looking at her twice with an expression she couldn't quite place. She had half a mind to yell at him about it. Thankfully the other half of her mind thought it was best if she didn't get fired before lunch on her first day.
Santana rolled another stack of books up to Quinn near the register.
"How's it going?" Quinn asked.
"Not bad. I'm about half way done with the second section. So I think I'm doing okay," Santana replied as she stretched her arm and shoulder.
"Getting a workout?"
"It's a lot of fuckin' books Q. And they're heavy," Santana complained.
"Well, it's about time for lunch, so you get to rest up. You going out for lunch?"
"Nah, I brought it," Santana said, reaching for her backpack behind the counter.
Quinn raised an eyebrow and chuckled as Santana pulled out a brown paper sack from her bag.
"What?" Santana frowned.
"In the four years I've known you, I don't think I've ever seen you with a bag lunch."
"Mom left it for me this morning," Santana shrugged. "I think she's taking tips from Judy and trying to cram in every little bit of mothering she can before I move."
"Good, now you can feel some of my pain," Quinn smiled. "Come on, let's sit outside. It's too nice to be stuck inside all day."
"Mama's getting a little clingy. She hasn't lost her damn mind like Judy," Santana said, poking Quinn in the arm with her elbow as they walked to the back of the store.
Pete was sitting on his lunch cooler eating a sandwich when Quinn and Santana came outside. Pete stood up cleared the lumber off two milk crates and offered them as seats.
"Thanks Pete," Santana smiled.
He just smiled and nodded back.
Pete reminded Santana of Sam. Except Pete had red hair and glasses and he didn't have a trouty mouth. He had an athletic build like Sam, but Santana guessed that came from carpentry rather than sports. He was more obviously nerdy than Sam. He had a quiet, awkward sweet way about him that Santana liked.
"Pete!" Rich yelled from behind his pick up truck. "Pete!"
Pete swallowed his bite of sandwich, "Yeah Uncle Rich?"
"I have to run some errands," Rich called, walking from behind the truck toward them. "Oh hi Quinn," Rich greeted.
"Richard," Quinn said in a voice too sweet to be genuine. Santana took notice.
"Will we be seeing you at the church picnic next weekend?"
"My mom will be there, but I have plans with Santana," Quinn feigned disappointment.
"Oh, okay. I…uh…didn't know you two were friends," Rich lifted the cap off his head and scratched his scalp.
"Oh yeah, we're really close," Quinn said with a smile. "Best friends."
Rich frowned, and shoved his hand in his pocket and fished out his keys. "Ok then, well, I'll be back in a couple hours. Gotta get some supplies. Pete can handle this while I'm gone, right Pete?"
"Got it covered," Pete assured him.
When Rich drove out of sight, Santana turned to Quinn.
"What was that all about? And when did we make plans?"
"I'm not a fan of Rich. No offense Pete," Quinn quickly amended.
"None taken," Pete smiled and shook his head.
"So why aren't you a fan?" Santana prodded.
Quinn paused and studied her sandwich. "He helped out on Salazar's campaign."
Santana nodded, then shrugged. "I'm sure a lot of people in Lima did. What makes him so special?"
"He volunteered after the ad aired. Tried to get me and my mom and a bunch of other people at our church to help too."
Santana pursed her lips, and let out a calming breath.
"Did he get people to volunteer?"
Quinn smirked with satisfaction, "Nope."
She nodded and gave a quick glance over at Pete.
"I voted for Burt," Pete said with a proud smile.
Santana chuckled with a sense of thanks and relief and finally opened her lunch bag.
"What did your mom give you?"
Santana pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, string cheese and a bag of Sour Patch Kid candies.
"Brittany…" Santana practically melted.
"It's disgusting how cute you two are, you know that?" Quinn shook her head.
"Someone packed your lunch for you?" Pete teased.
"Watch it Weasley. You're already on thin ice for being related to Rich," Santana warned with smirk and a playful glare.
"Just because we're related, doesn't mean we're family," Pete said.
The front door chimed and Quinn looked up from the computer to give a quick smile hello.
"Brittany! Hey, how did you do on the tests?"
Brittany shrugged, and swung her backpack off her shoulder and opened it up. She dug her hand deep into the bag and pulled out two crumpled papers, and handed them over to Quinn. Quinn bit the corner of her bottom lip and slowly unfolded the papers, fearing the worst.
Santana saw Brittany handing papers to Quinn as she approached the front counter with what felt like the 100th v-cart of books. She searched Brittany and Quinn's faces for clues. Santana looked between both of them with an expectant look. Neither Quinn nor Brittany reacted.
"Well!? How did you do?" Santana asked.
Brittany heard the nervousness in her voice and the worry on her face. Santana's expression fluctuated between her "Brave-Supportive Face" and "Oh God Prepare for Impending Doom Face". Quinn handed over the papers and Santana snatched them to quickly scan for the grades: 85 on her Chemistry test and an 87 on her Literature test. She let out a breath of relief and gave Brittany a bear hug.
"I knew you could do it," Santana whispered in her ear, as she squeezed Brittany tighter. "I'm so proud of you."
Brittany closed her eyes and let out a little hum. She broke away from Santana's hug.
"Well, thanks to you guys, it looks like I can be a "B" student. Who knew?" Brittany grinned with pride.
"You put in the work Britt, we just helped," Quinn replied.
"Yeah, well looks like I helped better, because, hello," Santana gloated, waving the Literature test in Quinn's direction.
"Tutoring isn't a competition Santana," Quinn admonished.
"Say's who?" Santana quipped with devious self-satisfaction.
Santana entered her house and was greeted with smell of her favorite dish. She dropped her bag at the door and found her mother in the kitchen, stirring the ropa vieja.
"Mmmm, smells good Mama," Santana said, as she gave Maribel a hug from behind. "But I thought it was my turn to cook dinner tonight?"
"I thought I'd give you a break, since it was your first day at work," Maribel replied, turning to greet Santana with a kiss on the forehead. Maribel pursed her lips, "You worked hard. You've been sweating."
"It's a lot of books Mama. A lot of books," Santana said as she wiped a stray wisp of hair from her face. "I'm going to take a quick shower."
"Good idea," Maribel agreed. "You smell like an honest day's work, and I'm not sure if I want that at the dinner table," Maribel teased.
Santana rolled her eyes and waved off her mother as she left the kitchen.
Brittany was dishing out plates of ropa vieja when Santana returned from her shower.
"Hey, how was Quinn's?" Santana asked, kissing Brittany on the cheek.
"Good," Brittany smiled. "We reviewed my test and worked on stuff for this week."
"It's the last week for MacBeth right?" Maribel asked.
Brittany nodded.
"I already started on Lord of the Flies," Santana said. "That'll be a lot easier Britt. You should breeze through that."
Later that evening, Santana closed her copy of Lord of the Flies and looked over at Brittany reading MacBeth.
"Hey," Santana softly greeted.
Brittany looked up and smiled, "Hey yourself"
"I'm really proud of you Britt, you know that right?"
Brittany nodded. "Thanks to you and Quinn…"
"No," Santana shook her head. "You did the work. You're doing the work. You're working so hard, and it's just…I'm just really happy, that's all."
"New York is looking a little closer to you now."
Santana nodded, "But I still haven't heard from April and looking for apartments…" Santana sighed.
"Hey, don't be like that," Brittany said, scooting up the bed to snuggle with Santana. "It'll happen. If you believed in yourself half as much as you believe in me…"
Santana smiled weakly. "I'm trying."
"Try harder," Brittany encouraged, and gave her a soft kiss. "It'll happen," Brittany whispered more to herself than Santana. "It'll happen."
Maribel turned off the local 10pm news and went upstairs to get ready for bed. She walked by Brittany's open door and peeked in. Brittany was sitting up in bed reading MacBeth, as Santana slept, curled up to Brittany's side, her head nestled between the crook of Brittany's arm and her chest. Brittany smiled up at Maribel, then gave her a worried look, glancing between sleeping Santana and her mother. Maribel raised her hand and shook her head to dismiss any fear Brittany had about breaking the rules. There was no need to wake her. Maribel just smiled, mouthed "Goodnight" and closed the door.