Okay I know you all probably want to hurt me for taking so long and I don't blame you! I can only offer my sincere apologies. Severe case of writer's block has been keeping me away from the story but I finally got the push and inspiration I needed to do this chapter.

It's a little shorter than normal because there's a lot going on and I had to split it somewhere. No worries I'm well on my way to getting the second part of this done and will hopefully be updated by next week at the latest because I have a busy weekend ahead of me.

So hope you all enjoy.. I'm so happy so many people have stuck with this story! Reviews are always welcome! x

Chapter 7

"Artie, what are you doing here?" Brittany breathes out as her mind races a thousand miles a minute. "How did you know where I even was? How did you even get up here?" She asks completely confused and not sure how to react to the guy she once thought she loved sitting in front of her.

"I came to see you Brittany. You never gave me a chance to explain anything when you left." He says looking up to her.

"How did you even find me?" She asks again.

"We live in a small town Brittany, it wasn't hard to find out. I heard where you were and knew I needed to see you. I needed to get you back."

"What? What are you talking about Artie? YOU did this. You cheated on me pretty much our entire relationship and now you come here and tell me you want me back, are you insane?" Brittany says now fuming and is about to slam the door but moves forward to block her from doing so.

"Please Brittany.." he sighs and pleads "please just let me talk to you. Can I come in?" He asks but doesn't wait for a respond and is about to enter the apartment when he hears another voice approaching.

"Britt..?" he hears from down the hallway inside the apartment.

"I didn't realize you actually managed to make a friend." Artie scuffs.

"Artie you need.. you need to just leave."

"Brittany I'm not going anywhere until we talk about this, talk about us." He says grabbing ahold of her her gently.

Brittany tries to remember everything he's done to her, tries to remember that everything that they had was nothing but a lie. That every touch and every 'I love you' was nothing but a lie but she can't help but still be affected by the simple touch that she's known for so long.

"Brittany everything okay with the shop?" Santana asks as she approaches the two and notices the way they're holding hands right before Brittany pulls away from him. "What's going on?" Santana asks, "who-who's this?" she looks to the guy in the wheelchair trying to figure out if she's ever seen him before and then to Brittany's eyes that refuse to meet hers.

"I'm her boyfriend." Artie says extending his hand to Santana.

"You're-" Brittany begins to say he's no longer her boyfriend but Artie interrupts her.

"Artie." he says holding out his hand for her to shake.

Santana is in complete shock. 'Boyfriend? I thought they broke up..wait, what? He was just holding her hand and she's not even looking at me. She's still with him and she regrets kissing me.' Santana's mind goes from disappointed to confused to a flood of emotions she doesn't know how to explain or express at the moment. She slowly offers her hand to the guy in front of her, even though she really just wants to push the chair and wheel him out of the apartment.

"uh-Santana." She finally says taking his to shake and the anger sets in. "Britt I've gotta go." Santana says releasing the guys hand quickly. "He's obviously come a long way to see you I should-I should leave you alone." She says knowing that Brittany will understand the meaning of her harsh words even though Artie is obviously to oblivious to notice.

"San wait, don't." Brittany says and tries to grab the girls arm like she had just done minutes ago but Santana pulls away from her at the touch before rushing out the door.

Brittany is completely overwhelmed and lost in thought of whether she should go after Santana or not that the feeling of Artie grabbing her hand again makes her jump and quickly pull away without a second thought.

"Well atleast we can talk now." Artie says looking disappointed at Brittany's sudden reaction.

"No Artie you need to leave." Brittany says.

"Brittany I'm not going anywhere until we talk."

"There's noth-"

"How about dinner sometime this week." He says as if it's already a decided event instead of asking. "My hotel is just across town I and I'm not going anywhere until you and I talk about this, about us." He says firmly.

"Ugh Artie there is no us! You destroyed us! I loved you and I trusted you. I trusted you and you literally tore me apart. There's no fixing that!" Brittany says now fuming that he's there. There once again destroying her life just as she thought she was getting it back together again.

"Then just let me treat you to dinner and apologize, that's all I'm asking for." He says with a genuine smile.

"If I agree will you leave afterwards?"

"If you still want me to go then yes I'll go and I'll leave you alone."

"Fine."

"Great!" He says too excitedly, "I'll pick you up at 7 tomorrow?"

"Uh yeah, I don't work so I guess that'll work."

"Perfect, thank you Brittany." He says as he turns to leave.

"Artie?"

"Yeah?" He says turning around with a satisfied look on his face.

"How did you get up here in your chair?" Brittany asks remembering one of the questions that had gone through her mind earlier.

"I used the service elevator Brittany.." He says shaking his head "the one right down the hall." he says pointing to the small turn towards the end of the hallway

"Oh right, yeah okay." She says quickly feeling a bit dumb for not realizing something so obvious before going back inside her apartment, closing the door and rushing to her phone.

"Yeah man she totally bought it... No worries I'll have her back in no time... Yeah seriously she's so dumb but I don't know I just need her in my life, even if she is just an easy lay. -Ha! Dud-" He's talking on the phone as he makes his way down the street outside the coffee shop when someone steps in his path and he freezes. "Oh shit just what I need...I'll call you later on." Artie hangs up the phone and looks up to the familiar face in front of him.

"It's Santana right?" He says as casual as possible since he doesn't know what she could've heard of his conversation so he decides to play it off.

"Yeah that's me." She says calmly.

"So you're Brittany's friend huh? Glad she's managed to make a friend here, I'm sure you've been good for her since she's been here."

"Mhmm." she nods in response, just staring him down.

"Is there something I can help you with?" He asks not sure why she's standing there but not saying anything.

"Yeah actually there is now that you mention it. How about you go back home and leave Brittany alone?" She says still calm but not breaking eye contact with him.

"Excuse me?" Artie says a little surprised by her forwardness.

"You heard me wheels. She's got a good thing going here and you're just gonna mess her up again. So I think it'd be a good idea for you to go back home and forget about her."

"Well I guess I can understand you being protective of her since she's your friend, that's what you two are right? Because if you think I didn't notice that look on your face when you saw me touching her, you were sadly mistaken. I saw the way you looked at her. I'm here for my girlfriend and believe when I tell you you're not gonna stand in the way of that." He says with a smirk and backing up his chair to go around the now pissed off brunette blocking his path.

He's stopped when Santana leans down and grips both the armrests of the wheelchair tightly looking Artie straight in the eye.

"She's not just some 'easy lay'," she says harshly, "So if you think I'm gonna let you touch her you've got another thing coming." She says pushing his chair back slightly and she walks past him down the street.

"We'll see sweetheart." Artie says to the retreating Latina as she storms off down the street. "You just made this all the more fun." he says to himself and he continues on his way.

Brittany was frantically pacing her apartment. As soon as Artie left she rushed to her phone and tried to call Santana but she kept sending her to voicemail. After being sent to her voicemail a couple times she sent her a text, 'Why did you rush out like that? Can we talk?' she sent to her. She waited a few minutes before calling Quinn when she realized Santana wasn't going to be responding.

Once she explained the situation to Quinn, Quinn told her to just think things over before going to dinner.

"Brittany. You can't mess with Santana's feelings. She obvious has strong feelings for you and I think this just confused her after that kiss. Which by the way I can't believe happened!" She let out a small squeal of excitement before continuing, "Anyway I think you should go to dinner and let Artie saw whatever bullshit he's going to say but you really need to speak with Santana before hand. She likes you and the fact that you had literally just told her you'd give her a chance and now you're going out with your ex who just shows up out of nowhere... I mean it must be just as confusing for her. I can understand why she walked out like she did, especially knowing her temper I'm surprised she didn't do worse damage to him."

"Yeah but you didn't see the look on her face Q. I just told her I liked her and then he comes here and just ruins everything. I was just so shocked to see him and everything was just so overwhelming. Ugh I should've gone after her!" Brittany says as she burns a whole in her floor as she continues to pace the living room.

"Well that much is in the past Brittany and you can't do anything about that now. You need to talk to her about this though before going to dinner with him, she deserves to know what's going on." Quinn says on the other line.

"Yeah you're right. I need to see her and let her know what's going on. Thanks Q, I'll let you know how things go, okay?" Brittany asks now determined to find Santana and explain things to her.

"Sounds good Britt but you know I've got your back no matter what so call me if you need me." Quinn says before they say their goodbyes.

Brittany turns on some music and is about to let herself get lost in the rhythm when she hears another knock at her door.

"Well let's hope this isn't another random ex showing up." she says to herself as she head towards the front door. She opens it and is surprised to see Santana looking back at her.

"You came ba-" she starts begins to say but isn't able to finish her sentence because Santana's lips are on hers.

She doesn't even have time to think. 30 seconds ago she was worried she had pushed Santana away completely but now here she was. Santana's eager push made Brittany stumble back a few steps before her mind caught up to her and realized what was going on and began kissing her back. Her hands found Santana's hips and held on to keep her balance as she kicked the apartment door closed and pushed the brunette back against it without breaking the kiss. Santana let out a moan as her back hit the door and she tilted her head to deepen the kiss. She swept her tongue along Brittany's bottom lip. Brittany willingly allowed her access and they both moaned at the contact. Santana's one hand went to the back of Brittany's neck to pull her in closer as her other hand brushed through her long, beautiful blonde hair.

They stayed like this for what seemed like hours before Brittany finally pulled back to catch her breath. Their eyes met as they both were breathing heavy, both trying to remember how it felt to breath. Brittany rested her head against Santana's breaking their eye contact and looked down to her hands that were still resting on the other girls hips softly brushing the small bit of exposed skin. She realized how easily she had let herself get caught up in the moment and how long it had been since she had last allowed herself to do so. Santana was breaking down her walls and that terrified and excited her at the same time. When Santana's lips met hers it was like the rest of the world just melted away.

Santana removed her hand from Brittany's now slightly tangled hair and softly ran her fingers over the blonde's cheek as she spoke. "I'm sorry I ran off like that." she says softly.

"No, I'm sorry. You had every right to do that, especially after he tried saying we were still together." Brittany says looking back up to the girl and leaning into Santana's hand that it now cupping her face.

"Which you're not, right?"

"No. No, of course not!" Brittany says as she pulls back a little to look into Santana's worried brown eyes.

"Good."

"I don't even understand why he's here." Brittany says defeated. The thought alone of her past being her and all of her emotions she's been trying so hard to change have come and found her once again.

"It's probably because he realized what he lost." Santana said searching the worried girl's eyes. "I'd be the same way if I lost someone as amazing as you."

"Oh yeah? Someone as amazing as me?" Brittany says playfully.

"Actually no I take it back."

"Oh.." Brittany responds looking down in disappointment.

"I would be upset about it but then I realized that I couldn't lose someone as amazing as you because I've never met anyone who is anywhere near as incredible as you are." Santana breathes out gently stroking Brittany's cheek with her thumb.

"Such a sweet talker," she smiles at her. "Get a lot of girls with that line?" she asks arching her eyebrow.

"With the truth?" Santana says sincerely, "I don't know.. you tell me." she says leaning her forehead against Brittany's once again and nudges her nose with her own.

"I think it's a start." Brittany whispers before closing the distance between them once again in a soft kiss.

"I'm so glad you got him to leave." Santana says contently as they break apart once more and Brittany leads her into the living room to sit on the couch, pinkies linked. She doesn't miss the girl's finger slightly tense at her statement and stops just before they get to the sofa. "Britt you did get him to leave, right?"

"Sort of." Brittany says worriedly.

"B, what do you mean sort of?" Santana says releasing her pinky from Brittany's causing the blonde to turn back to her at the loss of contact.

"I kind of agreed to go to dinner with him tomorrow." She says looking down to the floor, avoiding Santana's gaze.

"You.. you're going to dinner?—with him?" Santana says as all her emotions from earlier come rushing back.

"He said he would only leave if I went with him. He said he wants to apologize, that's all." She says before cautiously looking up to Santana and her heart drops when she sees how upset the girl is.

"That's not all Brittany.. he wants you back. You agreed to go on a date with him because he came her for you. He came here to get you back..and- and you agreed to it." Santana says as her fists clench at her sides. 'How could I be so stupid. That fucker had her wrapped around his finger for years. I shouldn't be surprised he can still get her to do whatever he asks. She's going back to him...she's going back and there's nothing you can do.'

"No it's not. It's not a date he said he just wants to apologize and if I still want him to leave afterwards then he will." She says paraphrasing her earlier conversation trying to get Santan a to understand.

"Can't you see he's just trying to manipulate you Brittany? He comes barging in here and pulls all your emotions back out! In a matter of minutes he got you to let him stay and go out with him on a date so he can just manipulate you more and get bring you back home and do the same bullshit to you all over again." Santana states like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I can't deal with this Brittany, you deserve someone so much better than that." Santana breathes out before lowering her head in defeat.

"Santana just because I'm going to dinner with him doesn't mean I'm getting back together with him. You don't understand.. yes he put me through a lot but I need to hear it from him of why he did everything he did. Why he cheated at all and for so long. We're talking about someone I thought I loved for a very long time Santana and I just can't let that go."

"Fine Brittany, you go to dinner and fall back in love with that scumbag who will just let history repeat itself. Once a cheating, lying, asshole, always a cheating, lying, asshole. You go ahead and have fun with that torture when you could've had someone who could offer you so much more than that." Santana states confidently before heading back towards the door. "He can never give you what I can Brittany." is the last thing she says before walking back out of the apartment leaving the blonde in a mess of tears as she walks down the stairs and out of the cafe trying to hold back her own.