That night, Santana and Rachel were lying in bed. Neither girl was able to sleep. Santana wasn't able to sleep on her back and she couldn't hold Rachel and have her chin be comfortable enough to fall asleep at the same time. Santana knew that Rachel needed to be held at that moment. Santana planned to hold Rachel as long as the smaller diva wanted her to. Rachel couldn't sleep. All she could think about was how differentl things could have ended. For better... or for worse. For better, they could have won Nationals. Rachel could have announced her relationship with Santana by jumping into her arms and kissing her girlfriend while they were celebrating their win. Finn could have been supportive of their relationship. Or for worse, Finn could have seriously hurt Rachel. FInn could have seriously hurt Santana. Rachel closed her eyes at the thought. Unconciously, she reached around, feeling for Santana's arms around her. Rachel slightly smiled as she felt Santana squeeze her reassuringly. "Why can't you sleep?" Rachel asked. Santana shrugged.
"Why can't you sleep?" Santana asked.
"I asked you first." Rachel said. Santana slightly nodded.
"Okay. I can't hold you and get my chin comfortable enough, so I made a choice." Santana said. Rachel was still for a moment, before she removed herself from Santana's embrace. She got off the bed and walked to the other bed in the room. Santana stared at her in confusion. "Rae, what's wrong?" Santana asked as Rachel got under the covers of the second bed.
"You can't get comfortable while holding me, and I'm not going to keep you awake seeing as we have to go home tomorrow." Rachel explained. Santana frowned.
"Oh that's right. We have to go home tomorrow. Goodbye safehaven." Santana said.
"Safehaven? You mean the place where Finn broke into our room in a fit of jealousy? The place where Finn almost broke your chin after we announced our relationship? Yea, this place is real safe." Rachel said. Santana smiled kindly and she stood up. She walked up to the second bed. Smiling at Rachel, she picked her up and carried her bridal style to the bed they had been using the entire trip and gently put her down in the spot she'd been sleeping in their entire stay in New York. She pulled Rachel back in her arms as she got back in the bed.
"What I meant was the place where we were free to be us. No parents, no rules... same bed. " Santana added teasingly. Rachel laughed softly.
"San, I don't want to keep you up by making you uncomfortable." Rachel said. Santana grinned.
"Baby, there are plenty of ways you could be keeping me up that aren't uncomfortable." Santana said.
"Santana Lopez!" Rachel said, trying to sound mad. The smile on her face gave her away, however, prompting Santana to lean down and kiss her.
"Rae, I'd rather be uncomfortable and have you in my arms than be uncomfortable and have you on the other side of the room. Let's face it. Chances are, I ain't gettin' comfortable tonight." Santana said. Rachel smiled again, but it quickly disappeared. "What's bothering you?" Santana asked.
"My uncle has a no dating rule at the restaraunt. It's company policy. No exceptions." Rachel said. Santana frowned.
"Damn." Santana swore under her breath. She looked at Rachel. "I can't quit. My parents said I have to keep the job for at least six months. And if it had been six months already, I don't want to quit. I like working there and now I have an even better incentive to go to work." Santana said. Rachel nodded.
"And I can't quit. That leads to an awkward weekly Sunday family dinner." Rachel said. Santana brushed some hair out of Rachel's face. "What are we gonna do, San?" Rachel asked.
"Okay. Here's how it's gonna go down. We aren't going to keep us a secret, except at work. We'll show your uncle we can be extremely professional about this and keep our personal relationship out of the restaraunt. And after a while, maybe a couple of weeks, we'll have proven how responsible we are. We can do this. I think we can handle keeping our hands off each other during our shifts." Santana said. Rachel nodded.
"What about my dads? They'll want to tell him." Rachel said.
"Maybe we can convince them to keep it quiet for a couple of weeks?" Santana said. Rachel shrugged.
"Maybe we could keep it queit for a couple of weeks." Rachel said. Santana shook her head.
"No. Not happening. I'm not hiding the best thing in my life." Santana said. Rachel smiled at her words.
"I don't want to hide this either, San. But we can't lose our jobs." Rachel said. Santana smiled.
"Then we're just going to have to be very, very sneaky, aren't we Rae?" Santana whispered. Rachel shivered before nodding.
"Sneaky." she repeated. Santana nodded and leaned kissed Rachel softly.
"Sneaky. I think we can do it. We were sneaky for two weeks here." Santana said. Rachel nodded and and snuggled back into Santana's body. Rachel and Santana were both able to fall asleep. The next morning, Rachel and Santana began packing. Rachel had just placed a shirt in her bag when there was a knock on the door. Santana looked at Rachel with curious eyes before walking over to open the door. Her eyes widened as she saw the person on the other side. "St. James... what are you doing here?" Santana asked her girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.
"I'm here to speak with Rachel." Jesse said. Santana rolled her eyes.
"Look St. James. I've already kicked one of Rachel's ex-boyfriend's ass and I'll probably have to kick Puckerman's after he makes some perverted comment toward my girl. I'm not afraid to be three for three. I'd actually prefer it." Santana said. Jesse stared at her in confusion and Rachel walked up behind the pair.
"San, that won't be necessary. Jesse, come in." Rachel said, glaring at Santana. Jesse nodded and walked into the room.
"So Rachel, I wanted to talk to you about your big announcement from last night, concerning Santana and you." Jesse said. Rachel and Santana shared a look. "I think that..."
"You think what?" Santana asked. Rachel grabbed Santana's hand.
"I think that you shouldn't have hid this from me." Jesse said.
"What?" Rachel and Santana said.
"I mean, I could have had talked you out of it." Jesse said. Santana got in Jesse's face. "What do you want Santana?" Jesse asked.
"Shut the hell up." Santana said, threateningly. Jesse smirked.
"You don't want to mess with me." Jesse said.
"No, see, actually, I... I sorta do. See, I'm from a place called Lima Heights Adjacent. You know where that is, Schuester wannabe? It's on the wrong side of the tracks." Santana said, slapping both sides of Jesse's face. Swiftly, she brought her knee up. Santana jumped back as he fell down in pain. Santan turned around to see Rachel covering her mouth. Upon closer inspection, Santana saw that Rachel was holding back a laugh. Smiling, Santana turned back around and picked Jesse up by the arm. She pulled him out of the room. and closed the door. Turning around, she saw Rachel staring at her. "Hi." she whispered sheepishly. Slowly, Rachel walked toward Santana.
"That was really..." Rachel trailed off as she reached Santana. The Latina closed her eyes, bracing herself for a lecture on the evils of violence. Rachel placed a soft kiss on Santana before leaning up to whisper in her ear. "...hot." she whispered. Santana opened her eyes and grinned. She gently pushed the girl back toward the bed.
"We have an hour before we have to be downstairs..." Santana said. Rachel laughed and kissed her before pulling away.
"No." Rachel said, getting off the bed.
"Why?" Santana asked.
"I'm not ready to go that far with you yet.." Rachel said. Santana rolled her eyes.
"How did you get with Puckerman or Finn?" Santana asked.
"How far did you?" Rachel countered.
"Ooh good one." Santana said sarcastically. Rachel rolled her eyes. "This is insane. What are we doing?" Santana yelled.
"What are you talking about?" Rachel asked. She began getting worried.
"This. What are we doing?" Santana answered.
"Are... are you breaking up with me?" Rachel asked. Santana's eyes widened.
"What? No, of course not." Santana said. Rachel nodded and Santana rushed over to Rachel, pulling her into a hug. "Baby, of course not." Santana whispered.
"What did you mean then?" Rachel asked.
"Why are we fighting? I don't even get it. I shouldn't be pushing you to do anything you don't want to do, and I definitely shouldn't be bringing Finn and Puckerman into this conversation." Santana said. Rachel nodded. "I'm sorry, baby."
"It's okay. Let's just finish packing. Honey, I'm ready to go back to Lima." Rachel said. Santana smiled.
"Let's go home, sweetie." Santana said. Rachel nodded and the two resumed their packing. That afternoon, they got on the plane and went back to Lima. Santana hugged Rachel as they saw their respective parents "I'll call you tonight, baby." Santana whispered in her ear as they hugged.
"Santana?" Santana heard the voice of her father say behind her. Santana pulled away.
"Papi!" Santana said. Her father pulled her into a hug.
"Who's this?" her mother asked, giving Rachel a kind smile. Rachel waved shyly at the adults.
"I'm Rachel Berry." she said.
"Martin and Toby Berry's daughter?" Santana's father asked. Rachel nodded. "I golf with them. They're great guys. I've heard a lot of good things about you, Rachel." her father said.
"Rachel is... my... my..." Santana took a deep breath. "Rachel is my girlfriend, Mami, Papi." Santana said. Both girls held their breath as they carefully watched Santana's parents. Santana's father took a deep breath.
"Well, this certainly how we imagined you coming out to us." he said.
"Look, you don't to like that fact that I'm gay, but you do have to... Wait, you knew?" Santana asked. Her parents laughed.
"Sweetie, you're our daughter. Of course we knew." her mother said. Santana smiled. "Rachel, we'd love it if you'd come to dinner with us tonight." her mother requested.
"I'd love that too, but I'm sure her dads want to take her to dinner." Santana said.
"Ricky! Nina!" a voice from behind them said. They turned to see Rachel's fathers walking toward them.
"Dad! Daddy!" Rachel said, hugging her fathers.
"Hey sweetie." one of her fathers said. He looked up. "Who's this?" he asked, smiling at Santana. Rachel and Santana looked at each other.
"Santana... my girlfriend." Rachel said. She bit her lip, waiting for her fathers' reactions.
"Rae, are you sure about this? You know that you don't have to be gay just because we are." her other father said gently.
"I know, Daddy. I want to be with her." Rachel said.
"Then you have our undefying support." the black Mr. Berry said. He turned to Santana. "You can call me Mr. B., Santana." he said. Santana smiled and nodded.
"Martin, we were planning on taking Santana to dinner and we'd love it if you, Toby, and Rachel would join us." Ricky said.
"We'd love too." Toby replied. Rachel smiled at Santana, who immediately smiled back.
"This is going to be great." Santana whispered. Rachel eagerly nodded as Santana pulled her into another hug.