Sorry about the long wait for this chapter, exams are now upon me and I'm busier than Sue Sylvester during cheerleading try-outs! But I managed to find some time between revision to update, I think I owe it to all of you amazing readers who have been following this fic, even though my updates are getting slower :( Anyway, enough of this sappy nonsense. On with the ficery!
Santana rolled over slowly, stifling a yawn as she blinked dazedly, her eyelids heavy. She stretched gently, hearing her back make a satisfying clicking noise, before she began to register where she was. She was in Brittany's house. In her bed. She was lying next to Brittany. It took a moment for the sleep-induced haze to retract from her brain as this sunk in, but when it did, she couldn't help but to smile happily. She glanced over at the sleeping blonde, who was splayed out on her back, one arm stretched out beside her. This was the arm that had been wrapped around Santana as she had fallen asleep, feeling more content than she had in a long time.
Santana spent a minute or two just gazing at Brittany's sleeping form, memorising every aspect of her, drinking her in with her eyes. Her soft, pink lips, which were curled up into the faintest hint of a smile. Her kind, deep blue eyes, which Santana could imagine just by closing her eyes. Her toned, mouth-watering stomach, which Santana had been ogling over all night.
She began to smirk at memories of last night; it was a jumbled, heated blur, with a few moments standing out; Brittany making love to Santana for the first time; Santana caressing all of Brittany's body, Brittany moaning at her touch; gasps and sighs of ecstasy, mingled with breathy moans and sweet nothings murmured into awaiting ears. Yep, last night had been good.
But then, Santana remembered why she had set her wristwatch communicator to vibrate and wake her up early. She remembered why she had come to Brittany's in the first place. She remembered the reason that she even knew Brittany at all. Those fucking diamonds. She was sick of them and what they represented. The old Santana. The mean, heartless cruel Santana. The Santana who stole from innocent people, which, now that she thought about, was completely pointless and stupid.
"No. I'm never going to be that person again." she muttered vehemently.
She promised herself that after this last mission, that was it. She was going to turn in her gun, tell Blaine she was leaving, and never look back. She wanted to be with Brittany. That was all she wanted now.
But first. The diamonds.
Santana glanced over at Brittany again, checking she hadn't woken her, but the blonde was still fast asleep, breathing heavily, her face serene and content. Santana smiled gently, tracing her fingers ever so lightly across Brittany's cheek, like butterfly wings fluttering across the softest grass. She then sat up, running her fingers through her hair and taking a deep breath.
'You can do this.' She thought to herself firmly. 'All you need to do is reach into her bag, get those annoying shiny rocks, put them in your bag, then get back into bed.'
She grinned as she began thinking of inventive, unconventional ways of waking Brittany up, as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. There was a slight chill in the air, as it was still pretty early in the morning, and she was shivering due to the fact that she was only wearing her underwear, so she grabbed Brittany's oversized yellow duck cardigan off the doorknob and put it on, wrapping it securely around her lithe frame. Then, she made her way silently over to Brittany's bag, thanking her training for teaching her how to move around without making virtually any noise whatsoever. She began rooting through the bag, removing a purse, a notebook, a small sketchpad, and there, at the bottom of the bag, was a brown paper sack. She did a little victory dance in her head, grabbing the bag and spinning around excitedly, searching the room with her eyes, trying to locate her own bag.
She saw it, still in the corner from where she had plunked it last night. She made her way forward, planning on shoving the diamonds in quickly, and then climbing back into bed and getting her cuddle on with Brittany. But, what she hadn't anticipated was the arrival of Lord Tubbington at that very moment. The fat cat had obviously slunk in and fallen asleep under Brittany's bed at some point, and Santana must have roused him from his sleep unknowingly. Santana didn't have any idea that the cat was in the room, so when he bolted out from under the bed, crashing into her legs and then blindly galloping into the hallway, she couldn't help the startled shriek that escaped from her mouth. She also didn't mean to fling her arms up in the air as the cat barrelled into her, but she did, and when she did, the bag she had been holding so carefully was thrown into the air, where it then landed on the floor with a loud clatter, diamonds spilling everywhere.
"Shit!" Santana cursed under her breath, scrambling to pick up the diamonds before Brittany woke up and wanted to know what all the noise was. But it was too late.
"San?" came a timid little voice, floating out from the bed.
"Uhh, yeah baby?" Santana answered, her voice shaking, her eyes wide with panic.
She almost had all of the diamonds, she just had to reach and get the few that were scattered on the faded rug under the window, just those few…
"What are you doing?"
Santana looked up, frozen with fear.
Brittany was sitting up in bed, her brow creased in confusion. Her eyes surveyed the scene in front of her; her bag, moved from its position in the corner of the room; Santana, pawing at the floor desperately; little shiny jewels scattered across her rug, glinting in the early morning sunlight that shimmered through the net curtains.
"Umm, what… what are those?" Brittany pointed to the diamonds, her expression a mixture of worry and suspicion. "And why did you move my bag? And what was all that noise earlier?"
Santana could see Brittany getting more and more worked up in her confusion, so she stood up and crossed the room quickly, sitting on the bed beside Brittany and taking her hand.
She took a deep breath and locked gazes with Brittany, hoping to convey how sincere she was, and how much she regretted all of this.
"Okay. So, I haven't been completely honest with you."
Brittany raised one eyebrow, motioning for Santana to continue. The brunette then stood up and began pacing back and forth, wringing her hands nervously.
"You know how I told you that I'm, uh, between jobs at the moment? Well, that wasn't true. I do have a job. A job that pays quite well, actually. But… it's not a… regular job. Not like working in a store or a cinema or something. Um…"
"Oh, come on San!" Brittany sighed in exasperation, as she too stood up, facing Santana with her arms crossed over her chest. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's not THAT bad. So just tell me."
Santana took in a huge gulp of air, fighting to stop her hands from shaking with terror, then blurted out, "I am a criminal who steals large amounts of money for multinational corporations and my latest mission was to obtain these diamonds, but they fell into your bag that day we met and so I've been trying to get them back."
Santana hung her head in shame, too embarrassed and guilty to look Brittany in the eye now that she had confessed the truth. When she did finally glance up, she was taken aback by the intensity of the expression on Brittany's face. She looked livid. Her eyes were blazing, her mouth set in a hard line.
"Oh Britt, don't be angry!" Santana pleaded, reaching out to touch Brittany's cheek.
But Brittany swatted her hand away as if it was nothing but a pesky fly, causing a pang of pain to ripple through Santana's heart.
"You mean to tell me… you've just been pretending to like me all this time, just so you could get your stupid bag of expensive rocks back?"
Brittany's voice was cold, steady, but Santana detected an undertone of hurt under the surface.
"No! I mean, yes, at first I was, but not anymore!"
"Oh!" Brittany exclaimed, "Well then! I guess that makes everything okay!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Come on Britt, don't be like that! I admit, at the beginning, I was just trying to get the diamonds back. But that was before I got to know you, before I started… falling for you."
Brittany snorted incredulously, before replying,
"How can I trust anything you say now? How do I know you're not just telling more lies?"
"Because I'm not! Brittany, you have to understand, these past few days with you, they've been the happiest days I remember for a long time. When I'm with you, I feel so peaceful, so content, and I just, I want to be around you all the time. I couldn't fake this, believe me, you mean so much to m-"
"JUST STOP IT! Stop lying to me!" Brittany yelled, tears pooling in her eyes. "Hearing you say this stuff now, all it does it make me hurt more. Because I don't know if any of what has happened between us was real, or if you were just putting it on! And you're a CRIMINAL? I mean, what the fuck is up with that?"
"But Brittany, you don't understand, I HAD to get these diamonds back, or Blaine would have ki-"
"I DON'T CARE! I don't care if you would have lost your job, or money, or whatever. I just don't care." Brittany said, her tone defeated and crushed. "Just leave, Santana."
"Brittany, wait-"
"Leave! Just, please. I don't want to talk about this anymore."
Santana reached out, as if to console Brittany, but the blonde recoiled aggressively, as if the mere thought of Santana touching her made her sick. Santana slowly dropped her hand, crestfallen, and turned, pulling on her sweatpants, picking up her bag and walking quietly out of the room. She tried to hold back her tears, which were threatening to spring free from her eyes at any moment, and managed to get halfway up the road before collapsing on a grassy bank to her left, bringing her knees up and cradling them, sobbing brokenly, her heart aching desperately.
After a while, she stood up, trying to compose herself as best as she could in her current state. She made her way to the main road and hailed a cab, staring out of the window dejectedly for the duration of the journey. When she got back to her apartment, she threw her bag onto the couch and headed straight for the bedroom. She crawled under the covers and curled into a ball, still wrapped up in Brittany's soft yellow cardigan. She whimpered for a while, weeping, her heart shattered into pieces. She eventually managed to drift off, grateful to be escaping into the less painful world of imaginings and conceptions. But, what she forgot to realise, was that the unconscious realm is not always the land of pleasant dreams; sometimes, it is the place that creates your worst nightmares.
Santana's head whipped round. She heard it again. That piercing scream, so full of pain, so full of heartbreak. She followed the sound frantically, trying to find whatever, whoever, was making it, to help them, somehow. She neared an old rock quarry, and the screams became noticeably clearer. She raced forward, stopping on a ledge that overlooked the deep hole ahead of her. She dropped to her knees, gripping the edge of the ledge, peering over it hesitantly.
She looked down, and saw Brittany, who was perched on a ledge further down along the wall of the quarry. She attempted to shout, to get Brittany to notice her, but she seemed incapable of making any sounds. She then noticed Brittany's face; she looked distraught, traumatised, as her eyes fixated on a point opposite her, across the quarry. Santana trained her eyes on Brittany's, trying to follow the blonde's panicked gaze. She saw a figure, suspended above the quarry, her body bound with ropes. Upon closer inspection, Santana observed the figure, and gasped when she realised who it was. She was staring at… herself?
And then she saw the rope that was holding her own body up being lowered deeper into the quarry. She heard the rumble of rocks scraping on each other, and looked up, spotting a truck carrying a vast amount of boulders. The truck was reversing, and then the back door suddenly swung open, releasing the rocks. They crashed down, the sounds echoing around the hollow rock vault. Brittany let out another piercing scream, as she began wailing hysterically, chanting Santana's name, to no avail.
Santana tried to move from her position up on the ledge, tried to do something, but as she turned to find a way to Brittany, she was met with the cruel gaze of the truck driver. It was Blaine. He began cackling manically, head thrown back in ecstasy, as he watched Santana scrabbling around, trying to get to her love, to tell her she was okay.
Blaine suddenly grabbed her, yanking her up by her hair, to whisper menacingly in her ear.
"You'll never get her back. You've lost her forever."
Santana sat up abruptly, her face covered in a light sheen of sweat, a strangled, tormented cry bursting out from within her. She was shaking violently, still trying to convince herself that it was just a dream.
She knew what she had to do. The next day, she had to go and tell Brittany that she was genuinely sorry for everything that had happened, and that nothing would make her happier than spending the rest of her life with her. And then, she was going to give Blaine his diamonds, and tell him that she wanted nothing more to do with him.
She nodded resolutely as she took a deep breath, and began formulating a plan in her head to somehow get Brittany to talk to her again, so she could straighten out this whole mess once and for all.
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