"All right Lopez. Spill." Quinn said the minute Rachel was out of ear shot. Santana looked at her two best friends and sighed.
"Where should I start?" she asked.
"The nightmare would be a good place." Brittany said. Santana nodded.
"When Rachel was little, one of her dads friends used to beat her. She still gets nightmares about it. Last night's was the worst its been in a really long time. She told me that it hadn't been that bad since they lived in the same town as him. When we went downstairs, she saw him in the lobby. He works at the hotel that we're staying at. She'd never admit it, but I know she's terrified." she said. Quinn and Brittany exchanged a worried look.
"Did you tell your parents?" Quinn asked.
"Rachel refuses to tell them." Santana sighed.
"Why?" Brittany asked.
"Who knows? All I know is she won't let me tell my parents about the fact that he's here." Santana said as they rounded a corner in the lobby. Suddenly she stopped walking.
"San? Are you okay?" Brittany asked.
"That's him." she said. Brittany and Quinn followed her glare.
"Where's Rachel?" Quinn asked, looking around.
"With Alicia and Jamie. They went to look at those gift shops." Brittany answered. Santana continued to glare at the man.
"Keep her safe during my surfing lesson today, okay?" she asked. They nodded. The three of them were going hiking while Santana surfed.
Rachel, Alicia, and Jamie were looking around gift shops when Rachel suddenly ran into someone. "Oh my god. I am so sorry." she said.
"Rachel?" she looked up.
"Oh god." she whispered, backing up. Dean smiled at her.
"Its been a long time."
"Yea well you were in jail." Rachel said. Dean nodded.
"I'm sorry for what I did to you." he said. Rachel shook her head.
"I don't want your apology. I want you to leave me alone." she said. He nodded and walked away.
"Rachel, are you okay? Who was that?" Alicia asked. Rachel shook her head.
"No one. Don't tell anybody about that, okay? Especially Santana. If you do, I'll never trust you again." she said.
"Baby, are you sure you don't want to surf? I'm sure Ronnie would let you join." Santana said as she held Rachel's hand while they walked along the beach. Rachel smiled up at her.
"I'm sure sweetie. You have fun." she said, squeezing her hand.
"And you be careful." Santana said seriously. Rachel nodded.
"I promise, my love." she said. Santana smiled softly.
"I love you, Rachel." she said, kissing the diva as she took Rachel's other hand in her own.
"Hey Santana. You ready?" The two girls broke apart and Santana smiled at the blonde intruder.
"Definitely. I'll see you later, Rach." she said, quickly kissing the smaller girl before releasing her hands. Rachel waved and ran to meet up with Quinn and Brittany so they could go on their hike.
Alicia and Jamie were walking around the shops outside the hotel when Alicia saw the same guy that was talking to Rachel watching said girl. "Isn't that the guy Rachel was talking to earlier?" Jamie asked. Alicia nodded. "He's, like, stalking her or something." she said.
"Yea, I know... Do you think I should tell Santana?" Alicia asked.
"Rachel told you not to." Jamie said.
"Yea I know, but something doesn't feel right." Alicia said, biting her lip.
"Brittany, how the hell did you already manage to get us lost?" Quinn yelled. Rachel was attempting to use a compass while Brittany sat on a rock doing something that neither Rachel nor Quinn could describe.
"Brittany, what are you doing?" Rachel dared to ask.
"Trying to get in touch with the forest gods. Maybe they can send us a GPS." Brittany answered. Quinn rolled her eyes while Rachel just stared.
"Britt, that's ridiculous!"
"Quinn don't yell. You never know what animals are in the forest." Brittany said.
"There could also be people!" Quinn said. Rachel sighed.
"I can't figure this thing out. What way did we come from?" she asked. Quinn shrugged.
"Who knows? We're lost!" Rachel nodded.
"I'm going to go look around." she said.
"San!" Santana turned around and saw her sister running toward her.
"What, Ali? I'm busy."
"What's up with Rachel?" Santana froze.
"What do you mean?"
"We were at the gift shops and some guy was talking to her and she got all freaked out. I wasn't supposed to tell you, but it seemed kind of serious." Alicia said.
"Oh my god." Santana whispered.
"Then I saw him watching her as she, Quinn, and Britt were leaving to go hiking." Jamie added. Santana threw down her surf board and started packing up her stuff.
"Santana? Are you okay? You've still got another half hour." Ronnie said.
"I have to go. I'm so sorry." Santana said, jumping into her basketball shorts and throwing on her tshirt. "Ali, Jamie, go get Mom and Dad and tell them to meet me where Rachel, Quinn, and Britt were going hiking." Santana said, putting on her tennis shoes and taking off running. Alicia grabbed her bag and went running back to the hotel.
"Where are we?" Rachel muttered to herself.
"Are you a little lost?" Rachel turned around.
"What... what do you want?" she asked, backing up. Dean smiled threateningly as he advanced on her. "Please leave me alone." she whispered.
"Rachel... you put me in jail for ten years. I can't just let you get away with that." he said. She bit her lip, praying that Quinn or Brittany would come find her.
"Rachel has been gone a really long time." Brittany said. Quinn nodded, looking around. She was actually pretty worried about the diva. "Should we go looking for her?" the taller of the two asked.
"I don't know. What if she comes back and we aren't here?" Quinn said. Brittany nodded.
"True."
Alicia and Jamie ran to where they'd last seen Nina and Ricky. "Mom! Dad!" Alicia yelled, coming to a stop.
"What's wrong mija?" Ricky asked.
"San... Rach..."
"Are Santana and Rachel okay?" Nina asked.
"Santana said that they guy that used to beat Rachel works at the hotel. He was talking to Rachel earlier today and we think he followed her on her hike. Santana went after him." Alicia said. Ricky jumped out of his chair.
"Nina, call the police." he said, running toward the exit.
Santana only had one thing on her mind as she ran: Find Rachel. All she could think about was protecting her diva. As she ran through the trail she kept searching for any sign of Rachel. She heard voices and immediately went in that direction. She saw her two best friends.
"Santana?" Quinn asked, standing up from the rock she'd been standing on.
"Where's Rachel?" Santana asked.
"We don't know. She was trying to figure out where we were. How did you manage to find us?" Quinn asked.
"Wait. What's wrong?" Brittany asked.
"Ali told me that she saw the guy watching Rachel as you guys came here. I have to find her." Santana said, taking a sip of Brittany's water. They heard yelling and all turned in that direction.
Alicia, Jamie, and Nina were instructed to wait outside the trail as the police ran in to search for the group. As they waited, Nina leaned up against one of the police cars and began crying.
"Mom, its goint to be okay. They're all going to be okay." Alicia said, hugging her mother.
Ricky ran as fast as he could through the forest in search of his daughter, her girlfriend, and/or her friends. Just as he was about to call out their names, he heard yelling and pushed himself to run even faster.
"Please just leave me alone!" Rachel yelled. Dean shook his head and slapped her across the face. "Please!" she cried.
"Just shut up!" he hissed. She attempted to stop her crying, praying that Quinn and Brittany heard her. She desperately wanted Santana. She hated to think that while this was happening to her, Santana was down at the beach with Ronnie.
"Get the fuck off of her!" Rachel opened her eyes at the familiar voice.
As soon as Santana processed that the voice she heard was Rachel's, she shot off like a rocket. The first thing she saw was Dean slapping her girlfriend.
"Get the fuck off of her!" Dean turned to her.
"What did you just say to me?"
"I said leave my girlfriend alone!" Santana hissed, running over. She managed to slip in between Rachel and the large man, reaching a hand behind her to somewhat hug Rachel protectively. Rachel cried behind her and Santana's anger increased even more.
"What are you goint to do?" Dean asked.
"Kick your ass if you touch her again. You're done hurting her." Santana said. Dean laughed and punched Santana, sending the girl back and causing the two girls to fall.
Ricky saw the man hit his daughter and blew up. "You son of a bitch!" he yelled, tackling him to the ground. Quinn and Brittany ran up and processed the scene, immediately running to the two brunettes as the police showed up. They managed to get Ricky off of Dean before dealing with him.
"Rae, are you okay?" Santana asked as she got off of her girlfriend. The diva nodded, in terms of having Santana falling on her, but immediately went into the taller girl's arms as she started crying. "Baby, I am so sorry." Santana whispered as she held her girlfriend close.
"San, I was so scared. All I could think of was how you had no idea what was happening. I just wanted you." Rachel cried softly.
"I'm here, pretty girl. I'm so sorry I wasn't here sooner. I couldn't find you." Santana said.
"San." The Latina looked up and saw Brittany pointing at a gun and a knife that had fallen out of Dean's pockets when Ricky tackled him.
"Oh my god." Quinn whispered. Rachel clung to the Latina even tighter.
As she saw the group exit the forest, Nina breathed after what felt like forever. She immediately ran to Rachel, before hugging Santana and Ricky at the same time. After that she went to the blondes. Alicia hung back with a guilty expression. "Ali, what's wrong?" Santana asked. Rachel looked over.
"I'm sorry, Rachel."
"For what?" Rachel asked, leaning into Santana for support.
"You told me not to tell anyone, and I told Santana and my parents and the police." Alicia said. Rachel bit her lip and hugged the younger girl.
"Thank you, Alicia. If you hadn't told Santana, she wouldn't have known to come look for me and he'd still be trying to hurt me in there. You did the right thing. I shouldn't have asked that of you." Rachel said.
After dealing with all of the police work, Santana, Brittany, Rachel, Quinn, Alicia, Jamie, Ricky, and Nina were heading back to the hotel. "Rachel, you should have told us about this last night. We could have helped you." Ricky said. Rachel nodded.
"I know. I'm so sorry. I just didn't want to ruin your vacation." she said. Santana squeezed her hand.
"Sweetie, your safety is far more important. Please don't ever feel like you can't tell us something because you want to make sure we enjoy ourselves. We want you to be able to tell us if you don't feel safe." Nina said. Ricky nodded his agreement.
"As our daughter's girlfriend, you are like a surrogate daughter to us. We'd help you or protect you as if you were Santana or Alicia. That goes for all of you. Quinn, Brittany, and Jamie, if you ever feel unsafe you need to tell us." he said. The girls nodded. "And I especially want you two to tell us." he said, looking at Alicia and Santana.
"Yes Papi." they said in unison.
Santana, Rachel, Quinn, and Brittany were watching TV in their hotel room. Santana and Rachel were lying on their bed, with Rachel in Santana's arms. The Latina was stroking the diva's hair and occasionally kissing her temple. "Pretty girl, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that." she whispered. Rachel leaned into her and Santana pulled her even closer. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there sooner."
"You got there. That's what matters to me. If you'd shown up any later who knows what may have happened. We don't know what he-"
"I really don't want to think about it." Santana whispered. Rachel nodded.
"Neither do I." she said. Santana kissed her softly.
"I'm so glad you're okay."
"I'm glad you're okay. I was so scared when he hit you." Rachel said. Santana nodded.
"I love you so much, Rachel."
"I love you too, San. So much." Rachel replied.