A/N

Rating and disclaimer from the first chapter apply.

Chapter 24

The next couple of hours there was no change. Santana's vitals remained stable but she hadn't woken up yet. Jack had returned with coffee and sandwiches just a short while after Anita and Brittany had went to Santana's room and the blonde had somewhat reluctantly eaten a sandwich.

Jack had left the hospital a while ago. He was going to book a hotel room and take a shower and get some rest. Anita had decided to stay at the hospital until Santana woke up. She was now sitting in the arm chair and flipping through a magazine while Brittany was lying with her head on the side of Santana's bed and appeared to be sleeping. Anita looked at the blonde every now and then and debated if she should go over there and wake her up. She was sitting in a very awkward position and she was bound to have a sore back when she woke up but she also realized how exhausted she must be so it was probably worth getting a sore back, at least she got to rest.

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Two hours later Brittany was still sleeping and Anita had gone down to the cafeteria to get some coffee and made a quick call to Jack before she headed back to Santana's floor.

Stepping back inside Santana's room with two cups of coffee in her hands she looked at the clock on the wall, it showed 8.37 PM. She was starting to get a little worried, Santana hadn't woke up yet and she was wondering if that meant that something was wrong. The doctors had their round at 9 PM which was soon so she would just wait till then.

She returned to her chair and put the coffee cups down on the small table by Santana's bed. She was about to reach over the bed and try to wake the sleeping blonde when her eyes landed on Santana's right hand and she saw that Santana's fingers were moving. Averting her eyes to Santana's face she noticed that her daughter's eyebrows were slightly moving and her lips twitched slightly.

"Santana? Can you hear me sweetie?"

Brittany started to stir when she heard Anita's voice. She sat up and slowly stretched out her back that was fairly stiff after being in a very uncomfortable position for the past few hours. She looked down to the hand that was holding Santana's when she felt a twitch. She stood up and looked at Santana's face and noticed that the injured woman had a slightly troubled expression on her face and that her mouth was twitching too.

"San-Santana?" she whispered.

Anita turned and looked at Brittany and then back at her daughter. Was she waking up? Maybe she should call someone but there appeared to be no change in the monitors so she decided to wait a little while longer. They would be there soon anyway and as long as no alarm set off she was certain that Santana was doing okay.

"B…" a very faint sound left Santana's lips and Anita and Brittany looked at each other again for a split second as if they were looking for a confirmation that both had heard that faint sound.

"Santana? Can you hear me? We're here sweetie, open your eyes." Anita said softly and stroked her daughter's hair gently.

"B…Bi..t…b..ny.." Santana's mouth was moving again and it became very clear for both women that she was trying to speak and that had to mean she was waking up.

Tears filled Brittany's eyes but this time it was tears of relief and happiness.

"We're here Santana… Please come back to us… wake up…" Brittany said gently and gave Santana's hand a tender squeeze.

"B…t…ny.." Santana was repeating the same syllables and Anita realized that she was trying to call out Brittany's name.

She turned and looked at the blonde.

"She's trying to call for you sweetie." Anita said and smiled.

Brittany met the older woman's gaze.

"Britt…Brittany…" Santana managed to say with a very raspy and weak voice but this time it was no doubt about what she was saying.

"I told you she would ask for you." Anita said and smiled warmly before returning her attention to her daughter.

"I-I'm here… I'm here Santana… open your eyes… can you do that? Open your eyes…" Brittany said with a teary voice and put her hand on Santana's cheek very gently.

She couldn't believe this was actually happening. It felt like she was finally waking up from this horrible nightmare.

Slowly Santana's eyes started to flutter and a bright ray of light hit her which made her close her eyes quickly again. Anita reached for the bed lamp and directed the light away from Santana's face. Slowly she tried to open them again and as her eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness, Santana thought she saw a ray of blonde hair and instantly she tried to force her eyes open so she could see for herself that it was her blonde that was standing in front of her.

It took a while to get her eyes to focus but as soon as they did and she saw Brittany standing there beside her a huge wave of relief washed over her. She was alright… and she was there.

"You… you're…" she had to swallow and it felt as if a thousand knives were shoved down her throat.

"…here… you're… you're… here…" she finally managed to say with a barely audible voice but Brittany heard her loud and clear and a quiet sob escaped her throat but she smiled widely through the tears in her eyes.

"I'm here… I'm here Santana…" she said with a voice that barely carried the words but Santana's weak smile indicated that she'd heard her.

Brittany slowly leaned forward and pressed a soft and very tender kiss to Santana's lips.

"I'm here and I'm not leaving you." The blonde whispered against Santana's lips before she pulled back.

"I love you so much…" she whispered and gently stroked Santana's hair.

Santana looked into Brittany's eyes and all the pain she was feeling kind of floated away as she lost herself completely in her beautiful blue eyes.

The feeling of another person present made Santana turn her head to the right and there she found her mother's teary eyes looking back at her.

"Mom…"

"I've been so worried about you… but you're going to be fine sweetie. Everything is going to be okay now…I love you…"Anita said and kissed her daughter's forehead gently.

"What…"Santana had to swallow again which was extremely painful. Her throat was so dry and she desperately wanted some water.

Anita noticed that her daughter struggled when she tried to speak so she grabbed the glass of water that was standing on the table and carefully brought the straw to Santana's lips.

"Here… take a small sip of this. The doctor will be in here any minute." Anita said and Santana took a very small sip and it hurt to swallow but it felt a little bit better as the cool liquid ran down her sore throat.

"Wh-what… ha..ppend?"

"You don't remember?" Anita asked and Santana shook her head.

"You were shoot sweetheart…" Anita said gently and Brittany squeezed Santana's hand which made the brunette turn and look at her.

Brittany wiped away a tear that fell from her eye and Santana squeezed her hand back.

"But the doctors fixed you and you're going to be alright." Anita quickly added.

Santana had to take a moment to think back and try to remember what had happened.

"The… the r…raid…th… they knew… we… were coming…" Santana remembered.

Anita nodded and Santana opened her mouth to speak again but Anita stopped her.

"Don't talk sweetie. The doctor will be here soon, let him take a look at you first." Anita pleaded.

Santana turned and looked at Brittany who nodded affirmative and Santana nodded back. She would wait for the doctor.

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The doctor was pleased to see Santana awake and was astounded by her remarkably quick recovery from the surgery. She had a long way to go yet of course but her vitals were much better than they ever could have expected at this point and the fact that she was breathing on her own was nothing less than a miracle really. The woman was in excellent physical shape which strongly had a positive effect on her quick recovery.

Santana had been given some more pain medicine and the nurse had brought in a bowl of ice cubes that she could suck on to soothe the pain in her throat. Anita had talked to Jack again and given him the good news and she decided to go over to the hotel to wash up and get some rest too. Brittany instantly made it perfectly clear that she wouldn't be going anywhere and though Anita really thought Brittany should get some proper rest and get something to eat she wasn't going to argue with her about it. After making sure that the blonde promised to at least get something to eat Anita left the two women and headed to the hotel with a promise of returning first thing in the morning.

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Brittany had very reluctantly gone down to the hospital cafeteria to get something to eat. She didn't want to leave Santana alone for even a second but Santana insisted that she would get something to eat so she went.

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When she returned Santana was sleeping and after kissing her cheek gently she took a seat in the armchair again and reached for Santana's hand and just studied the sleeping woman.

Santana didn't sleep long. She was instantly back in that bad dream where she was surrounded by darkness so she was very relieved to be waking up to a pair of bright blue eyes looking at her.

"Hey…" she mumbled, her throat felt a little bit better.

"Hey..." Brittany said and smiled tenderly.

"Are you okay? Are you in pain?" she asked.

"No, I'm okay… just a bad dream…" Santana replied.

"Do you want some water?" Brittany asked and Santana nodded so the blonde helped her take a sip of water.

Brittany put the glass away and just looked at the woman in front of her for a moment.

"I've never been so scared in my whole life…" Brittany whispered.

Santana looked into her eyes and reached for her hand.

"I'm sorry…" Santana said and squeezed the blonde's hand.

Brittany just looked into dark brown eyes, full of life and her heart just filled with so much love for this woman that she thought it might burst.

"You… you turned my world upside down Santana… completely upside down but I want you to know… I don't ever want to go back. I wanna stay in this 'upside down world' with you forever…"

Santana smiled and she could feel tears welling up in her eyes when she heard Brittany say those words.

"The same day… the same day you got shot I… I found out that two of my colleagues were gossiping about me behind my back and I kinda panicked… I was so afraid of what they would say and think about me when they found out I left Nathan for another woman… I couldn't face any of them so I went back home and then later… later Anita called…" Brittany started. Santana just listened.

"When I came here you were in surgery and… and it didn't look good…" her voice broke at that last line.

"The thought about… the thought about losing you Santana… it scared me more than anything else… So what if my colleagues gossip about me? So what if I'll be the talk of the town? So what if everybody treats me differently because of this… So what? The only thing that matters to me is you… I don't care about anything else. I don't care about my job, it's just a stupid job and if my friends will hate me for this then they were never my friends in the first place. You are what matters to me and I know people will say that we don't really know each other because we just met but I know you… I know you Santana and I know that my heart belongs to you. It was yours from the moment I met you and it will be yours till the day I die."

Santana had tears running down her face. She had never heard anything so beautiful in her life and she had never loved anyone more than she loved this woman.

"I love you Santana" Brittany whispered before she slowly closed the distance between them and pressed her lips against Santana's.

Santana brought one hand up and entangled her fingers in Brittany's soft hair and pulled the blonde even closer. Their lips moved slowly together and Brittany savored every single second of it.

"I love you too…" Santana whispered against Brittany's lips as they slowly parted and rested their foreheads against each other.

Brittany kissed her again and then nuzzled her face into the crook of Santana's neck and Santana wrapped one of her arms around the blonde. It was the closest thing to a hug they could manage right now. Brittany was still terrified she might hurt her so she moved very carefully.

"You should try to get some rest." Brittany said as she pulled back and took a seat in the armchair again and took Santana's hand.

"I'm not going anywhere I promise. I will be here holding your hand so just get some sleep okay?"

Santana nodded. She was tired but she was afraid of falling asleep.

"I'm not leaving you ever again Santana…" Brittany whispered and Santana met her eyes sensing that there was more meaning behind those words.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly.

"I mean that I'm staying. I'm staying with you… I'm gonna quit my job and I have some money saved so I should be fine for a while and hopefully I can find some kind of job here and-" Santana interrupted her.

"You're staying? You're staying with me? As…as in m-my place?..." Santana asked tentatively but with a hopeful tone in her voice.

"If you'll have me… I know it's way too soon but screw it, I don't care. I'm not leaving you ever again. I love you and I wanna be with you. I don't want to be four hours away from you, I want to be where you are so yes, I'm staying…" Brittany said and gave the brunette a small smile.

Santana tugged at her hand and Brittany got up from the chair and moved closer till she felt Santana's hand grab the front of her sweater and pulled her closer till her lips met the brunette's. Santana's lips captured the blonde's bottom lip and Brittany parted her lips slightly and started to move her lips gently against Santana's.

"But you have to promise me to never scare me like this ever again…" Brittany mumbled against Santana's lips.

"I promise…" Santana mumbled back and captured the blonde's lips again.

They kissed tenderly for a while, no one wanted the kiss to end but Brittany finally pulled back.

"I could kiss you forever…" she whispered as she hovered above Santana's lips. Her eyes darted from the brunette's eyes to her lips and back to her eyes.

She pressed one final lingering kiss to Santana's lips before she pulled back completely and took a seat again.

"You need to rest and let your body heal." Brittany said as she noticed Santana's somewhat pouty mouth.

"But your kisses are the best cure for my condition." Santana joked and Brittany chuckled.

Hearing Santana joke really made her believe that the woman she loved would be completely okay again and it made her heart soar with joy.

"Well there'll be more of that 'cure' after you've rested." Brittany said and winked.

Santana looked into Brittany's eyes and her facial expression became serious.

"I heard you… I heard you before… when you asked me to fight and I want you to know that no matter what happens… I will always fight for you, for us… always…"

Brittany brought Santana's hand up to her lips and kissed it tenderly.

"I know you were scared and I'm sorry for putting you in that position but I'm gonna be fine. The doctor said I will make a complete recovery and I promise I will do everything I can to make sure nothing like this ever happens again." Santana said with a raspy voice. All the talking had started to make her voice a bit weak and she knew she needed to rest, she just had to say this stuff first.

"I will be okay Brittany… In fact… I'm taking you skateboarding in the park next weekend." Santana said jokingly and winked at the blonde.

Brittany just rolled her eyes and stood up to press a quick kiss to the brunette's lips.

"In your dreams Lopez. Now shut up and get some rest." She said with a chuckle.

Santana smiled and closed her eyes.

"Are you doubting my boarding skills Pierce?" Santana said after a moment of silence, her eyes were still closed but a wicked smiled graced her lips.

"Just sleep already!" Brittany said back and slapped her arm playfully.

"I'm telling you I can skate…" Santana mumbled.

"Santana, be quiet and go to sleep." Brittany tried to sound firm but she had such a huge smile on her face that she doubted it sounded even remotely firm.

"You just… wait miss Pierce…I'm gonna… show… you…" Santana mumbled somewhat incoherent now, she was about to doze off.

Brittany just smiled and kissed Santana's hand again as she watched the other woman fall asleep. She was so in love with this woman and she couldn't wait to start a new life with her.