A/N: Hello everybody! This chapter, much like the last one, is kind of a series of glimpses into their lives over a few months. It's kind of a bit of filler but there's a few things I needed get in here to get from A to B. This is the last chapter that's going to be like this before we make one more time jump to the spring and everything kind of picks back up again.
To give you kind of an idea of what's going on, the next chapter will pick back up around April and is more on the light side but starts to kick off the next series of big events/plotlines. It's pretty much the last big time jump until we get to the epilogue, so what's coming next is kind of the homestretch...but I do have a sequel planned and even partially written.
Anyways, hope you all enjoy, despite the fact that there's not a ton of plot movement going on. I do have the next chapter half written already so I'll be putting it up later this week. Really excited to get to the next part actually, so hopefully I'll be updating more frequently. Enjoy and as always thanks for all your comments/favorites/alerts, I really appreciate it! Sorry for any errors in this one, I could only read over it once and if the Spanish line is off, blame Google Translate :-p
"Congratulations!" Brittany yelled as they hurried up to Finn and tackled him in a hug.
"Yes, congratulations!" Rachel said, giving him a hug and a sweet kiss, before pulling back and playing with his collar. "You look so handsome in this uniform Firefighter Hudson." she winked.
"Congrats Hudson." Santana said. "Now you can finally head out into long days of sitting around a fire house cooking and playing video games."
"Thanks Santana." he said, with a lopsided smile. "I'm just glad those 6 months of hell are finally over."
"Yes," Rachel sighed, "but now I have to be worried about you actually getting killed every day."
"Rach..."
"Right, right, sorry, no talk about the negative today." she said through a tight smile, biting back her fear. "Regardless, I'm really proud of you. I know the academy was extremely challenging and you did a phenomenal job."
"Thanks babe." he smirked, kissing her quickly.
"Barf." Santana said with a sigh. "Come on." she tugged on Brittany's arm before looking back to Rachel and Finn. "Britts and I are going to go get some free coffee." she said and they nodded.
"So, are you excited?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah!" he smirked. "I mean, going all the way uptown into Harlem is kind of a pain in the ass, but hopefully I can transfer eventually. I mean, I'm sure I can." she nodded.
"It's still going to be a hike for you getting all the way up and down there." she frowned.
"Well, I told you I've been saving up to lease a car so that will take a little time off the commute hopefully.
"I guess." she said, unenthusiastically. "You'll be working nights too I'm sure." he sighed.
"Rachel, we talked about this. It may be nights, but thats not so bad. I mean, we'll still make time. If I get 12-8 shifts I'll sleep while you're at school and we can be together till I go to work. I think the band is going to suffer the most for the first while unfortunately. We have to be picky with gigs."
"Maybe they can get someone to fill in sometimes." she said, with a shrug. "I'm sure it will work out."
"Yeah," he said thoughtfully. "I guess you're right. It's the price I have to pay for a while, but I want this so bad." She smiled.
"Well, I'm glad you're finally getting it." she said honestly and he leaned down to kiss her softly. She pulled back and smiled, eyes trailing over him once more. As she spotted her Christmas gift her face lit up. "You're wearing the star!" she said.
"Of course." he grinned. "Are you kidding? That's going to be like my good luck charm Rach. I told you how much that meant to me when you gave it to me." he said seriously. "I'm always going to find somewhere to have it." She smiled proudly.
"I'm glad." she let out a sigh of relief. "I'm kind of glad you're finally starting work too in some way. It's like you're really starting to move on, you know? Build our life. Maybe this isn't the path I envisioned us taking, but this is a huge step of it." He nodded.
"It is. And I'm glad you're going to be with me for every part of it."
"Every step of the way." she said, leaning up to capture his lips once more.
"Okay, okay." Santana complained when they returned a couple minutes later. "Seriously, we gave you you're moment, can you guys give it up now?" They pulled back, smirking at each other and laughed.
"Like you're one to talk Santana. You can barely keep your hands off Brittany."
"Yes, but that's totally different. We've covered this before, many times in fact. I know it takes a lot to get through that thick skull of yours, but by now you should know – Britt and I are hot." she said simply. "Now I was promised free food if I came to this lame ass event, can we get going? I wants to get my eating on." she said firmly and Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Come on," she said, putting her arm through Finn's. "Let's go. We're still meeting up with these guys later to celebrate?" she asked motioning towards his friends and he nodded.
"Yep."
"Okay, well let's go eat." she said.
"Yes, let's." Santana said with fake cheer as she smirked and took off ahead of them, heading towards the car with Brittany in tow. Finn just chuckled and shook his head.
"So glad she could make it."
As a graduation gift, Jeff gave Finn two seats to a Mets game, right behind home plate. Being that he was dying to go to more New York sporting events, he could not have been more thrilled, although he was disappointed to find Rachel had to attend a rehearsal for her latest play and Jeff was equally unavailable to come along. Brittany, on the other hand, jumped at the opportunity to try out another New York activity as she had been determined to check out everything she could.
Although Santana was quite skeptical about them taking off by themselves to the until now unexplored borough of Queens, as usual she was unable to resist Brittany's pleas. Eventually, she reluctantly decided to lend them her car due fear they'd end up god knows where on the subway. With the condition that Brittany had to drive, they took off for Queens and although sitting through much traffic and getting slightly lost once, they finally managed to find the stadium and quite enjoyed the game. Brittany didn't get it completely but the excitement and crowd itself was more than enough to make up for it.
Unfortunately for them, leaving the stadium and getting back to their house didn't prove to be quite as easy. As they headed out and attempted to find their way back, between roads that were closed and detours, over and hour after the game ended and they still hadn't been able to escape the neighborhood where the stadium was.
"Brittany, we've been driving around this stadium for like an hour. We need to do something."
"How can every road be closed for construction at once?" she asked with frustration.
"It's like this all over New York." he shook his head hopelessly. "But I'm pretty sure I've seen that dude selling t-shirts like ten times in the past half hour." he frowned.
"Ugh, all this trouble to go to a baseball game." she shook her head. "The game was so much fun and I want to go to more but I feel like we're never going to be able to get home and if we do, we'll definitely never be able to get back." she said with defeat.
"Maybe we should ask somebody for directions again?" he turned in his seat to look out the window. "I think there was a gas station back there." She chewed her lip in consideration.
"Last time we stopped that guy wanted like 30 bucks to tell us where the highway was."
"Well we have to get gas anyway." he said nodding towards the gauge that was now nearing empty. She sighed in defeat once more.
"Okay." she said. "Let me ask this time. Guys like girls more. I'll just like smile at him." Finn frowned.
"Be careful."
"Duh, you're like right here Finn." she said.
She walked out and into the small store in the quiet gas station and smiled at the old man behind the counter.
"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "I need to put 25 dollars of gas in my car." she said, pushing over the bills across the counter. He nodded, punching in numbers into the register. "I was also hoping you might be able to tell me where the highway was. We're trying to get back to Manhattan." The man nodded and rattled off a series of directions through a heavy Spanish accent and Brittany frowned.
"Um, I don't speak Spanish." he laughed and tried to explain again before she held up her hand. "One second." she ran off to the car. "Finn, he's telling me in Spanish, I can't understand anything. Can you try?" Finn looked confused.
"Britt, I don't speak Spanish either..." he frowned but then smiled as he had a thought. "Call Santana!"
"Oh! Totally!" She walked back towards the store, as Finn got out to pump the gas. She pulled out her phone and dialed her girlfriend.
"Brittany, where are you? I've been calling you for like an hour!"
"Sorry, we're just kind of...lost. I've been driving and I didn't want to be on the phone."
"Then, you should have let the giant in the passenger seat take the phone!" she scolded.
"Santana please, I'm sorry and you can yell at me when I get home but right now I'm stuck in Queens – at least I think we're still in Queens – and there's a man willing to help us who doesn't speak English, only Spanish. At least I think, it kind of sounds like when your family talks. So I need your help!" Santana sighed.
"Fine, give me him the phone...but don't let him like walk away, that's a brand new iphone." she scowled.
"Um, hi again, my girlfriend, she speaks Spanish, so I thought maybe you could tell her?" she asked, handing over the phone. He looked at her in confusion but spoke into the phone. After a few minutes of talking to Santana he handed the phone back.
"Thanks!" she said, turning and walking back towards the car. "San?"
"Brittany, he wasn't speaking Span-" she shook her head in frustration. "Ugh, forget it. Just...first of all. My car has GPS!"
"That little British lady in the speakers doesn't know anything Santana. Every single time she tells us to go on a road it's closed for construction or we get to signs that say something about a detour. And she seems to have no idea what a detour is! Do you think we want to be driving around this place at 11 o'clock at night?" Santana huffed.
"Listen, just get back in the car and connect your phone to the sound so you can talk when you drive."
"Santana, it's way too distracting for me to talk to you on the radio when I drive, I've told you this."
"Fine. Give the mentally deficient manchild you're with the phone and I'll give him the directions so we get you back into the city. Okay?"
"Fine." Brittany grumbled. "This was a dumb idea."
"You're not kidding." Santana grumbled back.
Brittany got back into the car and handed the phone over to a hopeful Finn, giving an explanation and they slowly but surely managed to navigate their way back towards the city with Santana's help. After they searched for a spot for over a half hour Brittany caved and decided shelling out the money for a lot until the morning was well worth it. They tiredly climbed the stairs to their apartment and found Rachel and Santana waiting impatiently in the living room.
"You two are banned from having any more adventures that involve you going anywhere that you aren't completely sure of the directions to." Santana said.
"Calm down Santana, we're fine." Brittany said dismissively.
"I was worried sick about you. You're in god knows what neighborhood, driving around in my car, which is pretty nice, at far too late at night." she said, following her into the bedroom as Finn dropped down next to Rachel on the couch. Brittany just smirked.
"It's cute when you're this protective." she said. "But stop being silly, Finn's fine, I'm fine, and your precious car is fine." she said, leaning in to place a peck on her lips. "It was pretty annoying at the time, but ultimately it was like one big adventure. Besides, I'm totally going to take you there one day, I wanna get on that kiss cam!" she said happily before making her way towards the bathroom. Santana just shook her head and fell back onto the bed in defeat.
"Of course you do."
Over the next month or so they fell into their normal routines of school and now work for Finn and life was fairly uneventful. It was Santana's most intensive semester so far because she had been unable to work her schedule to her favor and got some particularly tough classes. Although it was stressful at the time, she figured in the end at least she'd be able to put it behind her.
Still with late nights and long classes, she wasn't too surprised to find herself waking up in early November with a very scratchy throat and congestion in her chest. She had been trying to ignore it for days, but it only seemed to be getting worse. Regardless, she was too busy to skip out of school and knew she just had to try and keep how sick she actually felt hidden from Brittany. That is until she couldn't anymore.
"Santana, you look awful." Brittany said, leaning over her, cheek resting on her hand as she examined her with her eyes.
"Wow, thanks Britt, that's just how I like to wake up in the morning." she said scratchily with a scowl, grabbing at her throat on impulse when she realized how much it hurt.
"Santana," she warned, " you know I didn't mean it like that. Do you feel okay? You've been sounding like you're getting sick for a couple days now and today you look worse." she said as she brushed her lips to her forehead. "You're really warm." she frowned.
"Santana Lopez doesn't do sick." she said with a frown. "I'll be fine." she managed before a series of sneezes escaped her and she groaned before leaning forward to get up. Brittany just gently pushed her back down.
"No way, you need to stay home today." she shook her head.
"But Britt, I have a prep for one of my tests I need to go in."
"No way." she shook her head. "The only place you're leaving this apartment to go to is the doctor." Santana's brows scrunched together in anger and she began to mumble. "There's a walk in clinic up the block and..."
"Clinic?" she shook her head emphatically. "Oh no!"
"Santana, you don't have a regular doctor, and you can go in there on short notice."
"No way! Usted debe estar fuera de tu mente! No voy a ninguna clínica!" (You must be out of your mind! I'm not going to any clinic!)
"Stop with the Spanish!" Brittany scolded, losing her patience. "You know I can't understand you when you start ranting in Spanish!"
"Yeah well, we've been together long enough, maybe you should learn." Santana grumbled.
"Just because you're not feeling well doesn't mean you can take it out on me! We're going to that clinic, whether you like it or not. I went there with Rachel when she was sick. It's a regular doctor, they take insurance. The only difference is that you don't need an appointment. Do you really think Rachel would go to a bad doctor when her throat was involved?" Santana considered this but still looked skeptical. "Fine, I'll call your father."
"No!" Santana said. "You will absolutely not call my father."
"Why not?" she shrugged defiantly. "He's a doctor, he can probably look in some super secret doctor book and tell you that it's perfectly fine to go to this doctor." she said, scrolling through her phone until she found Dr. Lopez' number. Santana sighed in frustration falling back into the bed as Brittany started yapping away to her dad.
"Great." She muttered.
Two hours and a long wait later, a grumpy Santana and Brittany returned home from the doctor.
"Come on, I'll set you up on the couch and I'm going to go get you your medicine and some stuff from the store." Santana rolled her eyes and coughed. "So overdramatic. Brittany, okay I'm sick I get it. But seriously. I'm not dying and you can't be missing school. Go to school and I'll just go grab my prescriptions myself, okay?"
"Stop being so stubborn and making this harder than it has to be. You nearly passed out in the doctor's office. You're running a really high fever and you have bronchitis..." she frowned, "I don't really know what that it is but I know it's not good. Now get yourself comfortable in the bed and pick out some movies to watch and just let me take care of you!" Santana sighed and stripped off her coat, changing into some more comfortable clothes and doing as Brittany said as her girlfriend took off towards the kitchen.
"Britt," she said when Brittany appeared back in the doorway with a couple bottles of water and a box of tissues.
"Santana, if you're going to complain anymore and fight me I don't want to hear it." Santana smirked a little as she watched Brittany move around with purpose. She stopped and looked at her after feeling Santana's eyes glued to her. "Why are you smirking?" she frowned, unamused. Santana coughed and groaned at the subsequent pain in her throat and chest but laughed.
"You know how sexy I find it when you're all commanding." Brittany just rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the smile that was creeping up as she sat on the edge of the bed and brushed some stray hair behind Santana's ear. She pouted sadly as she watched Santana fight her heavy eyes.
"You're so warm." she said concerned. "I hate to leave you."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Santana sighed contentedly as Brittany continued to stroke her hair. "I'll be a better patient but I want you to make a promise."
"Okay..." Brittany said slowly and skeptically.
"You can go get me my medicine and some stuff but you have to promise when you come back you go to the rest of your classes. Take the car, you'll get there quicker." she said saw the uncertainty in Brittany's face.
"Santana..."
"Seriously, you can't be missing school and with all the contact we have with each other...you could get sick too, so you need to save up your days." Brittany bit her lip in thought.
"I'll think about it. But right now, I'm going to give you some advil to try and lower your fever and then I'm going to run out really quickly."
"I promise I'll just lay in bed." Santana shrugged. "Honestly, I don't have the energy to do anything else anyway. I'll text someone in my classes and ask them to just let my professors know I'll catch up online over the weekend." Brittany sighed.
"Okay..." she said, still hesitant. "But if anything goes even a little wrong..."
"I'll call you." she reassured with a sleepy smile and Brittany kissed her forehead before getting up and grabbing her some Advil before she took off.
Brittany returned about 45 minutes later to a sleeping Santana and quietly set up all of the vitamins, cold remedies and the anti-biotics she'd gotten for Santana. Santana stirred and her eyes fluttered open as she saw Brittany changing and getting her dance bag together.
"You're going?" she asked and Brittany's head snapped around as she hopped over to Santana's side.
"Yes, are you okay? Do you need me to stay?" Santana shook her head miserably. "No. I'll be fine. I feel awful and I just want to sleep." she whined.
"Okay, well, I was worried about leaving you so I asked Rachel to watch out for you after her classes are done."
"What?" Santana's watery eyes shot open.
"Calm down San," she said, gently putting her hand on her shoulder to soothe her. "I just want to make sure you're okay and I have work tonight." she frowned. "But I'm going to try and trade tomorrow for Sunday night or Monday because I'm not leaving you alone again."
"Britt, I told you-"
"I'm doing what you asked today Santana. And I'll go to school, but don't push it." Santana just huffed.
"I can handle this myself I don't need that troll coming around here and driving me crazy."
"Santana, come on, she's just going to help. Plus she's totally afraid of getting sick so I don't think you have to worry." her face remained unchanged. "You get to boss her around." Brittany said, approaching with a different angle and Santana's face broke into a slow grin.
"Deal." she scratched our and Brittany's eyes flashed to the clock.
"Crap, I have to run."
"Go!" Santana urged. "My keys are on the mail stand." she said and Brittany nodded leaning down to kiss her goodbye but she shook her head. "No you'll get sick." Brittany rolled her eyes and pecked her anyway.
"Please, like I wouldn't already get sick after last night. I know you've been hiding this for days." she said and Santana just looked guilty. "I'll see you later when I come cuddle with you after work, but I'm going to call you in a bit ok?" Santana nodded. "You need anything at all, call me."
"UGHGH!" Rachel screamed as she got up after seeing Santana's latest text, placing the surgical mask back over her face. "Santana, this is bordering on abusive!" She walked over to Santana and Brittany's room with her hand on her hip. "What do you need now?" she asked and Santana put on her best fake pout.
"I'm just so thirsty." she said, holding up an empty water bottle. Rachel scowled and looked on in confusion.
"Santana, if I didn't know better I'd think you were dumping that water down the sink or something. I just gave you that bottle 10 minutes ago." Santana simply shrugged and smiled.
"Sorry Rachel," she rasped, "I'm just so thirsty and the doctor said to get plenty of fluids." Rachel just sighed and headed back into the kitchen. Santana chuckled and leaned over to make sure the full water bottles she'd be stashing under the bed were still there.
"Here." Rachel said, muffled through the mask as she returned and placed the bottle on the nightstand.
"Thanks Berry." she said with mock sweetness. Rachel just nodded and turned. "Oh wait, Rachel." Rachel turned to look at her with questioning eyes. "Could you please open it? I just feel so weak." she said dramatically. Rachel swallowed and grabbed the bottle, twisting off the cap.
"All set?" Santana nodded and giggled as Rachel walked to the door. As soon as she moved to shut it she called out to her once more.
"Oh Berry, wait!" she said. Rachel tightened her jaw and took a breath before turning back.
"Yes Santana?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"Sorry, I was just wondering if you could help me with one more thing?" she asked, nodding her over. Rachel walked over, biting her tongue and looking at her expectantly. "Could you just fluff these pillows up once more? They just keep going down and my back is so achey." she said watching with satisfaction as Rachel angrily put on her gloves and did as she asked. She coughed hard and Rachel backed away, grabbing a Lysol to spray the air.
"Christ Berry," she choked. "I told you to stop spraying that shit, it's not helping my already compromised lungs." she said, continuing to cough heavily."
"Is that it? Or do you need me to do something else?" Rachel asked in anger.
"You could fill up a bath for me-"
"You know what Santana? I told Brittany I'd keep an eye on you cause your sick." she said, ripping down her mask but this has been quite enough! You're taking advantage and you know it. I'm done here!" she said, tossing the gloves onto the floor and walking out to leave Santana giggling to herself.
"At least you've provided me entertainment!" she called. A few minutes later she was drifting off to sleep when her phone rang. She saw Brittany's smiling face and picked up, putting the phone to her ear.
"Hey baby." she said softly.
"That was not part of the deal."
"What?"
"Santana, I asked Rachel to look after you tonight but that does not include you torturing her until she quits." Santana huffed.
"Oh please, I was just having a little fun. If I'm stuck in this bed the least I can do is entertain myself. Besides, I'm surprised how long she lasted."
"Well I promised to do her laundry for the next 2 weeks." she paused. "I'm really surprised she agreed since the last time I did that I shrunk 3 of her sweaters."
"Ew, Brittany, that was totally unnecessary. I would have been fine on my own."
"It was a deal." Brittany said. "Look, I got tomorrow off, can you just behave the rest of the night? Please." Santana sighed.
"I was just going to sleep anyway. I'm still really tired." she said. "I can't keep my eyes open, it's the stupid fever."
"Okay, well did you eat?"
"Yeah, Berry reheated the chicken soup you bought just like you asked her too." she snickered. "You should have seen her face when I asked her to go back and pick out the celery."
"Santana." Brittany whined.
"Okay, okay, I'm going to bed."
"Okay, I have the late shift tonight, but I'll see you when I get in. Take care okay. And if you need something-"
"I know, I know call you."
"Yes."
"Okay, I love you, get some rest."
"Love you too."
Once Brittany was off from school on Friday, she and Santana spent the rest of the day and Saturday cuddled up in bed and watching movies, so Santana could rest up and let her antibiotics take effect. Brittany pounded down vitamins to boost her own immune system at Santana's urging and so far had seemed to avoid catching anything, despite her protests about Santana banning kissing until she was better.
As she felt small, soft kisses peppered across her neck Sunday morning when she woke up she smiled with the realization that her girlfriend was feeling at least a little bit better. Her eyes fluttered open to see a well rested and much less weary looking Santana cuddling into her.
"Hey." She said sleepily.
"Hey you." Santana said nuzzling her with her nose and kissing behind her ear.
"Feeling better this morning?" Santana nodded. "I can tell." she said with a smile."
"Thanks for being my nurse for the past few days. I know I'm a bad patient, but I'd probably be in the hospital without you." she smirked.
"Don't even joke about that." Brittany scolded and kissed her forehead. "I'd never let that happen."
"You have to work a double today because of me." Santana frowned.
"Yeah, I know, but it was worth it." she said, squeezing her.
"I don't want you to go." Santana pouted and whined hanging onto her and Brittany just laughed.
"Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?" Santana giggled.
"I know, I know, I've just gotten used to living in this room with you for the past two days." she laughed. "I feel a lot better but I'm probably just going to chill here and do homework. As silly as it sounds, I"m going to miss you."
"Doesn't sound silly at all." Brittany said, and stole a peck to her lips.
"Britt!"
"Sorry, couldn't help myself." she smiled, squeezing her once more before hopping up. "You should really thank Rachel. You know, for the hell you put her through the other day." Santana groaned as Brittany headed for the shower and eventually made her way towards the kitchen, carrying out some of the trash they'd accumulated over the past couple days.
"Hey! Look whose back up!" Finn smiled. "How's our lead vocalist feeling today?"
"Ah, no wonder you're suddenly interested in my well being. Don't want to have to stick out any more gigs with just the boys. How was the show?" he shrugged.
"You were definitely missed. It's not the same."
"Of course I was. You totally need me." she said simply and he sighed.
"People definitely expect to see you. Your little groupies were very disappointed."
"I bet." Santana rolled her eyes at the thought of the few young girls with far too much makeup that managed to sneak into some places to see them.
"Mostly though we're just built so much around female vocals now." he said.
"I feel way better." she said. "But I don't know if I'm going to be ready for Thursday. My chest is so heavy." he nodded.
"Don't worry."
"I know, it's just our gigs are already limited with your new schedule." she frowned. "It blows."
"Ah, look at the patient, up and around the house." Rachel said as she entered the kitchen, wrapping her arms around Finn. She frowned in concern. "Should I go get the mask?"
"I think it's okay. I'll keep a safe distance." Santana said with a roll of her eyes.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I was telling Finn, much better." she sighed and thought back to what Brittany said. "And um, you know, thanks for helping me out the other day." she said unenthusiastically. "I mean, I know I was a pain in the ass, but I probably really needed some help so I appreciate it or whatever. Not that you have anything better to do with your little troll life but, yeah." she shrugged.
"Well, though it contained a thinly veiled compliment, I'm well aware that your statement was about as eloquent as can be expected when it comes to showing me gratitude so...you're welcome...I think."
"Yeah." Santana said awkwardly. "So...I mean, I don't think you really want Britts to do your laundry...I do ours because the colors and hot/cold thing always seem to lead to some disaster, but if there's anything you want from me...I guess we can arrange it."
"Funny you should ask..."
"Oh god."
"So, since you were unable to sing at the Disturbing Ohio gig last night, I myself was able to hop on stage and sing a few extra tunes and I was thinking..."
"Didn't I tell you that never leads anywhere positive?"
"That it was high time we finally did that duet I once mentioned." Rachel continued ignoring her.
"I think that's a great idea!" Brittany said, emerging from the bedroom in her clothes, wet hair hanging around her face.
"What?"
"I told you before, you guys sound great together. You always did in glee club." she shrugged. "I think it's a great idea."
"But-"
"You owe her one." Brittany said and Santana frowned.
"You guys all suck."
"We'll talk when you feel better." Rachel winked and Brittany kissed her cheek as she just sighed and made her way the the fridge.
"Santana, that's just not the way that line should be sung." Rachel said, as they sat at a band rehearsal the weekend before Thanksgiving.
"Actually I think you sound kind of pitchy." Santana said.
"Pitchy?" Rachel screeched with horror. "Excuse me, did you just call me pitchy?"
"Yep. You heard me."
"Whoa, whoa girls, maybe we need to-"
"Stay out of this!" they both said in unison, turning to Finn before turning back to each other.
"Geez, you weren't kidding. about them" Adam muttered and Finn looked over apologetically.
"Guys, you sound really great together."
"She's not hitting the note the way I would." Rachel commented.
"I hardly think you have much to say on this song. It suits my vocal range much more than yours."
"You have got to be kidding me. Florence and the Machine is much more suited to my vocal range than your lovely, yet raspy style. This isn't Amy Winehouse or Adele we're talking about." Santana scowled.
"Are you calling me limited?"
"Quite the contrary, you're unique voice actually brings a new depth to many songs, but it's clear that you have songs that are most suited for you as well."
"Listen, I'm the one letting you sing this song with me, so I suggest you back off and take the lines I give to you."
Finn shook his head and typed out a text on his phone.
TO Britt (7:41): I can't take these two alone. Send help.
Britt (7:42): Yikes, that bad?
TO Britt (7:42): You have NO idea.
He sighed and looked back up, listening to the argument once more.
"I'm just trying to make sure that we sound as perfect as possible. You just can't accept that might include me having another line."
"God, you've become even more of a diva since moving to this town." she shook her head.
"Who, guys!" Jeff said, shaking his head. "You both have excellent voices and you both sound terrific on 'Shake it Out'. It works with both of your voices and it sounds great the way Santana split it up to be a duet. Seriously." he said, looking between them. "Please, can we just try to get through the entire song once?" Santana frowned and sighed.
"Whatever, excuse me for having some integrity in the performance." Santana rolled her eyes.
After finally running through the song a few times they finally felt they had it down and decided to debut it at the Thanksgiving Eve gig they managed to score with a little help from Brittany at the Village Station. To no one's surprise it went down extremely well and the crowd was more than pleased.
"That duet sounded awesome. You guys should do it all the time." Brittany yelled as she slung a beer across to Finn and collected his old one.
"Yeah right, tell that to your girlfriend. She doesn't want to share any more stage with Rachel than she has to." Brittany smirked and rolled her eyes.
"It's just one song." she said.
"Even still."
"Well, just have Rachel only do one song alone instead of two."
"Yeah, good luck with that too."
"We'll get them over it." she winked and Finn nodded, smiling as he headed back to take his place behind the drums.
"That went over really well." Finn said to Santana as Jeff sang his acoustic song up front.
"It wasn't miserable." she said stiffly.
"I think you guys should do it whenever she's around." Santana frowned.
"I'm the lead singer in this band. She's already getting her two songs a night." He shrugged.
"Maybe we can get it down to one." he said hopefully.
"We'll see."
They spent their second Thanksgiving all together in New York, with Finn having to work and not having much time off yet, they decided to save it for Christmas so they all made dinner and ate together in their apartment, even having Jeff and his girlfriend over. It was actually a fun night and despite having to make a whole set of vegan dishes, Santana didn't even complain.
As they wound into December the holidays began to ramp up again and Santana was relieved to find that her mother was much more workable when it came to discussions of this year's holiday schedule. They found ways to happily split both days and she was more accepting of the fact that Brittany would be a fixture at the dinner table, which made both of them feel much more at ease going into the season and preparing for Christmas.
On the second Wednesday in December Brittany came bouncing home from school with two bags from the party store. Santana, Rachel, and Finn watched from the couch as she entered, smile plastered onto her face.
"You guys will never believe what I got!" she said with enthusiasm.
"Please, you can't possibly have bought any more decorations." Rachel said, looking around the house, which had seemingly double the amount of decorations it had the previous Christmas if possible.
"Nope! But that's a good idea!" she smiled and dug into the bag pulling out a plastic wrapped package. "Santa costumes!"
"Santa like Santa Claus?" Santana asked.
"Who else?" Brittany said obviously.
"But..I mean...why?" Finn asked.
"Santa Con!" Santana furrowed her brows.
"Excuse me what?" she said.
"It's just like this giant party where everyone dresses up like Santa or something related to Christmas and you go bar hopping. All the bars have specials! I worked during it last year. I told you guys all about it."
"Yes, yes I remember that, but you said it was like a nightmare...yet you want to go?"
"Who wouldn't want to dress up like Santa and drink?" she asked simply.
"I kinda walked through that last year Britt and it was like...chaos." Finn said slowly.
"While the idea of dressing up in costumes to play a part is always appealing, I have to agree with Finn and Santana on this one, it sounds like a nightmare." Brittany pouted.
"But guys..." she whined, tossing the package in her hands to Finn. "I bought us all awesome outfits."
"Babe, I don't want to get dressed up like a guy." Santana sighed.
"That's why I got you this." she smirked, reaching into the bag and tossing another package across to Santana who caught it and read the label with squinted eyes that soon turned wide.
"Sexy Santa..." she looked up at Brittany and smirked.
"What are you wearing?" she asked curiously and Brittany grinned wider.
"Well, I figured I could be your sexy elf." she shrugged, tossing Santana over another package of a short, tight elf's costume. Santana bit her lip and smiled as she looked between the picture on the package and her girlfriend trying to envision her in the outfit. She laughed a little to herself and Rachel just scowled.
"What about me?" she asked cautiously.
"Don't worry, I got you one too." Brittany said, tossing another to her. "Sexy Mrs. Claus to match Finn!" Rachel's jaw dropped at the extremely short version of the Mrs. Claus costume that sat in her hands. Finn peered over with interest and smirked.
"I guess it could be kinda fun..." he trailed and Rachel looked over at him, narrowing her eyes.
"You just want to see me in this ridiculous costume."
"Oh come on Rachel, I mean..." he shrugged with grin, "can't blame me." She swatted his shoulder.
"I cannot be out in this."
"Oh come on Berry, live a little." Santana said. "You'll have gigantor over there to protect you." she sighed and then frowned in thought. "Although I'm not as thrilled at the thought of the guys that will be no doubt all over you." she said looking at Brittany.
"Oh please, like I'll be more than 5 feet away from you." she said, plopping down across her lap as Santana tossed the costumes aside. "We can mostly stay at the Station if it makes you feel more comfortable. But I think this is so much fun!" she said excitedly and Santana smiled, leaning forward to kiss her sweetly.
"Okay, fine. But if it gets to rowdy, we're coming home. Unless you want me in another bar fight." she said simply. "I can't be held responsible for what happens when other people slobber all over my girl." Brittany laughed.
"Promise, but we'll mostly stay at the Village Station like I said. We'll take over a corner." she winked.
"I'm down, as long as you promise to wear this outfit on a somewhat normal basis." she said with a raised brow.
"Done." Brittany said, sealing the deal with a quick kiss.
"Gross." Rachel said. "Please, spare us the details of your twisted sexual escapades, we see enough around this house."
"What about you guys?" Brittany asked hopefully. "You're going to come right?"
"Stop being such a prude and step outside the box for once." Santana said. "Do you have one spontaneous bone in your tiny undersized body?" Rachel huffed.
"I am plenty spontaneous."
"Well, I'm up for it if Rachel is." They all looked at her expectantly and she finally sighed with defeat.
"Fine. I'll try it." she crossed her arms. "But I know I won't like it."
"Wohoooo! Best! Idea! Ever!" Rachel yelled, waving her beer in the air as she dancing with abandon in the middle of the bar. Santana just laughed and shook her head in disbelief. Well into the day, as expected they sat in the loud and crowded Village Station.
"I'm telling you, you give Berry a few shots and she's like a different person." she bit her lip in thought. "You should totally keep her on tequila, Finn. She's definitely the most tolerable on tequila." She chuckled to herself and smirked. "I should start slipping it into her coffee in the mornings."
"Santana!" Finn scolded and Brittany doubled over in laughter on her lap.
"That would be so entertaining." she giggled.
"Britt!" Finn said, scolding her as well. Just then Rachel came rushing over, nearly tackling him as she threw her arms around him. "Whoa!"
"Oh my god I have like the best idea ever! We should make like a Christmas dance album!" Rachel slurred, hanging off of Finn's shoulder. "Because right now, all I want to do is have a dance party." she said, pulling Finn up with her.
"Oh god." he said. "I'm not coordinated enough for this right now." he stumbled across the floor, nearly tripping on his feet.
"Come on Finn, don't be so lame. Go dance!" Brittany said from where she still sat across Santana's lap. She tightened her arms around her neck and leaned her head against her shoulder and giggled as Finn awkwardly tried to move across the tiny dance area with a very animated Rachel.
"3 years of glee and he still can't dance." Santana slurred seriously, squinting as she tried to focus on the blurry image of them dancing. Brittany just continued to giggle and hiccup.
"He'll never be able to dance." she said, holding her breath as she tried to rid herself of the annoying hiccups that had been plaguing her for the past 10 minutes. Finally they seemed to dissipate.
"We should dress like this, like every day." Santana said as she looked over what Brittany wore, running her fingers along the jagged, short hem of her dress. "It would be like the most fun thing ever."
"It would." Brittany laughed. "And we could put like little Christmas costumes on the cats too!" she said with excitement and Santana laughed in delight.
"Oh my god, that would be awesome." she said with a giggle and sighed contentedly. "Except, I think I'd never get anything done if you wore this all the time."
"Mmmm," Brittany nodded in agreement. "True." she said turning to place a kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "I want to dance too." she mumbled against her lips, kissing her again. "But I don't think you'll want me to do that here..." she whispered as she moved to kiss behind her ear. Santana's eyes widened and she stood, sliding her Brittany off her lap.
"Berry! Hudson! We're leaving!" Santana said as the two continued to dance.
"I'm not leaving! This is the best party EVER!" Rachel yelled.
"Come on." She said, turning to Brittany and handing her jacket to her. "Home. Now." she said with dark eyes and Brittany giggled, waving to her roommates as she pushed Santana through the crowd and out the door.
The next week, before they all headed to Lima they decided to exchange gifts again. Forgoing the Secret Santa, they instead just decided to exchange gifts between the couples.
"Okay, so since we just decided to get each other gifts normall this year, I got you guys something really, really special. I think you're going to like this too Rachel but, it's mostly something for Finn." she said.
"Okay..." Rachel said slowly, thinking back to the bows and arrows Finn received from Brittany last year. She looked to Santana who just shrugged.
"This one is all Britt. I couldn't talk her out of it." Finn looked concerned.
"Of course you couldn't." Brittany scowled at Santana before turning back to the other couple. "Now, I know that I don't know a ton about being a firefighter, but I do know that you absolutely need to have one of these if you expect to be successful." she said seriously and Finn opened his mouth before closing it again, not sure what to say. "And I'm pretty sure Rachel will like it too." she smiled, before disappearing into their room.
"Santana, should we be frightened?" Rachel asked and Santana bit her lip.
"Well, it wasn't my favorite idea...but I think you may be receptive." she said with some uncertainty.
A moment later Brittany came back, face hidden by a huge box with a bow, which she placed on the table in front of them. She popped back up and smiled, clapping.
"Open it!" she enthused. Finn looked over to Rachel who nodded and proceeded to untie the bow before lifting the lid off the box. He peered in and his eyes went wide at what he saw.
"Whoa, Britt I-"
"Oh my goodness!" screamed Rachel, pushing him a side to reach in and grab the small Dalmation puppy. "He's so precious!" she looked to Brittany excitedly. "Is it a he?" Brittany smiled and nodded.
"I don't know if this is a good idea..." Finn said skeptically.
"Finn, every firefighter has to have a dalmation. It's like a law. I'm surprised you've been able to get by this long without one." she said seriously.
"I, um-"
"Ohh, I love him." Rachel said, nuzzling him into her neck and Finn just sighed.
"I guess we're keeping him."
"Of course you're keeping him." Brittany said, slightly offended. "Did you not listen to everything that I said about how much you need him?"
"No, I mean yes, I mean...um, thanks Britt." Finn smiled.
"And Santana." she added.
"And Santana, of course." he nodded.
"I'm just concerned with the way he's going to interact with the cats." Santana said.
"They're going to be like best friends." Brittany said. "I already told Ariel and Sebastian all about him." Santana bit her lip.
"Well he better not be allowed in our room. If he eats my shoes I'll kick his ass, dog or not." she said, eying the enthusiastic puppy wearily as he licked Finn's face.
"See, he loves you!" Brittany said proudly. Santana eyed Ariel, who slowly approached low to the ground and furrowed her brow.
"Well, I think we're about to see how the cats do with...whatever his name is."
"Hubbell! I think we should name him Hubbell!"
"Hubbell?" Finn asked.
"Yes of course, from the classic Streisand movie They Way We Were." she frowned with disappointment. "Finn, we watch it all the time!"
"Sorry..." he said. "but I guess that works."
"I think it's cute." Brittany nodded. Ariel jumped to the table in front of them and stared wide eyed at the dog whose head snapped over to see what was in front of him.
"If that dog hurts my cat, there will be hell to pay." Santana said.
"San, don't worry, I told you." Brittany reassured.
Just then Hubbell scrambled on Finn's lap and moved forward to sniff at the cat that was staring at him with interest. As he neared her also sniffing nose her hair stood and she hissed, quickly whacking him on the nose 3 times before taking off across the house at full speed. Sebastian looked on in alarm and took off after her. Brittany frowned and Santana sighed.
"Well this should be a blast."
"I'm so disappointed in her."
"Looks like Hubbell isn't the one we have to worry about." Finn grumbled, pulling back the shaking puppy and handing him to Rachel.
"You say that now, but if he tries any rough stuff on Sebastian or Ariel, I am fully backing them in beating down that little spotted freak." Brittany giggled and rested her chin on Santana's shoulder.
"San, be nice he's just a little puppy. He's so sweet, he won't hurt them." she squeezed her arm. "But it's so cute how protective you are of our little kitty babies." Santana shrugged.
"Whatever, you know I love the cats." she said trying to downplay it.
"Of course you do." Brittany said, pecking her cheek.
"You better train that thing." Santana said, nodding towards the dog and Finn frowned.
"Ooh!" Brittany hopped up. "I got you a whole book on that!" she said running off to the other room where she come back with several accessories for the puppy that currently slept peacefully in Rachel's lap.
Christmas came and went what seemed much more quickly for everyone this year, particularly Brittany and Santana.
Finn and Rachel had a similar situation to the previous year, although they had now assumed the responsibility of bringing an untrained puppy back with them. Regardless of the challenges the Hubbell brought they still found it thankfully easy to bring their families together for the holidays. Rachel's dads got along quite well with Burt and Carol and they found that they'd been hanging out an increasing amount throughout the year.
The most challenging part was Finn's job as he had a hard time getting the holidays themselves off and could only fly out to be in Lima for about 36 hours over Christmas Day. It was disappointing but they made the most of it and Rachel herself only flew in a day earlier and stayed just two after, choosing instead to drive with Brittany and Santana since it was the easiest way to transport the puppy. Santana was extremely resistant to the idea of having him in her car, but she was re-assured he could be in his crate and would not be able to destroy anything and so she reluctantly agreed. How she made it from New York to Lima and back without killing Rachel, the dog, or both she would never know.
For their part, Brittany and Santana had a much more pleasant holiday experience. They stayed in Lima for 5 days once more, but as she'd promised, Santana's mom had made their life much easier this year. They spent time with both sets of parents and with Quinn and had a generally good time.
Things were pleasant as always with the Pierce family and the experience with the Lopez family was surprisingly smooth on both days. Santana couldn't help but get a little emotional over how far her mother had actually come over the past 9 months. She still sensed that she was a little uneasy with the girls being too affectionate or cuddly so they tried to keep that to a minimum for now, but she was beyond thrilled by the fact that she was back to acknowledging Brittany like she used to and even referenced their relationship for what it was, even in front of the family. Her mom had been talking to a counselor at her dad's urging and for that she was grateful.
Before they knew it they were packing up and heading back home and although the holidays were much more enjoyable this year, everyone was still happy to return back to what really was their true home in the city. Settling easily back into the house and happily greeting Finn and the left behind cats, all the girls were happy to get on with their break from school and prepare for a new year, one that all of them felt for some reason would be a big one.