Hello! I just wanted to say thank you so so much for everyone who reviewed the last chapter, it really means a lot and it's good to see people are getting into this story:)

Santana laid motionless amongst the heavy black covers splayed out across her bed. Her eyes had taken on a permanent bloodshot look from the endless hours of crying she had done through the night, she only managed to stifle her sobs for the few seconds that it took her father to come in and check on her every couple of hours. It hurt. It hurt so freaking bad. Brittany was gone. She just got up, packed her bags, and left without her…and she couldn't believe it.

Santana tapped the screen of her Iphone once again for it to light up. She had been doing that for the last few hours since she woke up. She held her hands close to her face and watched as the screen lit up with her last message from Brittany…

Santana I'm so sorry but I have to go. I love you more than the world. My heart will always lie with you. I love you xx

She re-read the words over and over again like each time would give her another clue as to why Brittany wasn't lying next to her right now, but each word only reminded her how far away the blonde was, how far out of her reach. She contemplated just getting in her care and driving to LA. But then she remembered the rules.

I'm so sorry

I have to go

I love you

The light of the screen went black again and Santana took this time to close her eyes and let the words sink back into her brain.

I have to go…She's gone.

Just as she was about to open her eyes her phone began ringing in her hand. Santana was so shocked that she dropped it into her covers before quickly scrounging around to find it. It kind of felt nice. She hadn't felt her heart pump so hard in a while. It felt normal.

When she found her phone she lifted it into her sight, and her face fell. What?

Brittany.

A picture of Brittany nuzzled up into her chest wearing her Alice in Wonderland costume appeared on the screen. Brittany was calling her? But she wasn't supposed to contact her – omg pick up the phone she's calling!

'U-Uh hel-lo?' Santana fumbled as she brought the phone to her ear. She couldn't believe this was happening.

'Hello is this Santana Lopez I'm speaking to? This is Constable Ryan from the Lima Police Station.'

Santana stayed still for a few seconds with her mouth slightly agape, wondering what the hell was going on…Why was a cop calling off Brittany's phone?

'Miss?' The man asked again.

'Y-yeah.' She coughed. 'Um yes it is. Why do you have Brittany's phone?'

'Miss Lopez this phone along with other belongings of Miss Pierce were handed into us from the owners of the Heiress Hotel this morning. They stated that Miss Pierce checked into the Hotel but she never checked out, and she left all of her things in the room. You were the most used contact on her phone so we wanted to ask if you know the where abouts of Brittany Pierce?'

What….?

Santana blinked. Her 'Where abouts'? he was making it sound like some sort of missing persons case!

'Look Sir, I don't really know why she was at that hotel, but she's moved. She's living in LA now and as far as I know she had to move up there fairly quickly to lock in a spot at some dance school up there.' Santana sighed. How quickly did Brittany drop everything and leave to forget her phone? Lucky she hadn't been trying to call the blonde. 'I'm her gir – I'm her friend so I can come and pick up her belongings if you'd like?'

'Ok, no that's quite alright, it would be preferable if you got a family member of hers to come down to the station and collect her belongings. I assume her family live in Lima?'

'Yeah I don't live far from their house, I can go over and tell them now.' Santana answered.

'Alright, thankyou for your time Miss Lopez.' Constable Ryan stated before ending the call.

Santana dropped her phone into her sheets and sat up in her bed. . ?

XXXXXXXXXX

It was quiet at the Pierce household. The only noise that filled the walls were the quiet sighs of Mrs. Pierce as she flicked slowly through the pages of the funeral brochure she had picked up on her way home from telling work she was taking a few weeks off.

'James?' She enquired sadly. Mr. Pierce sat at the opposite end of the table drinking his morning coffee.

'Yes dear?'

'How are we supposed to have a funeral for Brittany? I mean we don't even have a body? I wish we had her body…' Sharon sniffled. James was quick to gravitate to her side.

'Sharon she was an organ donor, they would have used as much of her body as they could to save as many lives as they could sweety. You know they have a shortage of organ donations just about everywhere?' James reassured, stroking lightly over his wifes back.

'I know. It just doesn't feel right I guess..' Sharon whispered and flipped through another page.

'Well if it makes you feel any better I'll call Carlos this afternoon and double check everything with him ok?' His wife nodded weakly. 'In the mean time we will just have to have an empty casket.'

'How do we even know shes dead James?'

'What do you mean?' James asked curiously. Sharon slapped the brochure shut against the table.

'I mean we haven't even seen her! How am I supposed to believe that my little baby girl is dead because of a letter?!'

James was quick to encompass his sobbing wife in a tight hug. 'Sharon if she's not dead, then where is she? And how did Santana suddenly get a heart the same night our daughter had planned to give hers?'

Sharon shook her head slowly and tried to choke back her sobs. 'I don't know…'

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

Mr. Pierce stood slowly from his perched position by his wife and looked to the door and then back to his wife. Sharon simply shrugged her shoulders. She didn't know who it was.

James walked over the front door as his wife composed herself. When he opened it he was surprised to see his favourite Latina walk through the door looking rather flustered.

'Santana? So good to see you, what do we owe the pleasure?' James smiled as he leant down and swooped the girl into a big hug. Santana giggled into the embrace and watched as Mrs. Pierce quickly came to join them.

'Hey James.' Santana smiled, feeling slightly less shaken up now she was back into the Pierce home.

'Oh James stop hogging the girl all to yourself.' Sharon huffed as she pushed her husband lightly out of the way and pulled Santana tight. 'How are you my dear?'

'I'm good, I guess. But ah. I needed to talk to you guys about something.' Santana stated.

'Yeah?' Sharon asked, finally letting the girl go.

'Yeah, um, it was weird actually. This cop called me earlier and said that they had some of Brittany's stuff down at the station. They said they found it at The Heiress Hotel? That's weird right?' Santana asked curiously. She tilted her head to the side waiting for a reply. She watched as Mr. and Mrs. Peirce looked back and forth between each other with wide eyes, almost like they were having some sort of secret conversation. Santana was about to prompt them again before Mr. Pierce spoke.

'Um yes, well, uh, I won a nights stay at the hotel in one of my work raffles a while back now. Anyway it had to be used before this week so I gave it to Brittany, seeing as though it was a single bed room. Um…' he trailed off.

'So she just left for LA from there?' Santana asked, a little confused still.

She watched as they both gave her confusing stares. What? Suddenly Sharon's face lit up with recognition.

'Oh yes the dance school, yes well uh, we packed her stuff and picked her up from the hotel on our way to the airport. I guess she forgot her bag, you know how forgetful she gets.' Sharon laughed lightly. It didn't quite reach her eyes Santana noticed. She must be missing Britt already.

'Oh, ok then…well the cop guy wanted one of you guys to go get her stuff. So…yeah.' Santana said quietly. She was a little upset but didn't know why. What did she expect to find out when she came here? Brittany forgot stuff all the time. That was a fact. Ugh she's still gone…

'Alright, thankyou Santana we'll go pick that up today.' James stated with a smile.

'Ok.' she nodded. 'Guess I better get going before my dad starts calling me.'

'Ok sweetheart. Come here.' Sharon said sadly before pulling Santana in to another hug. 'Take care alright?'

'Will do.' Santana smiled and waved to Mr. Pierce before walking back to the door.

Sharon sighed dramatically when the door was finally closed behind her. 'I can't stand lying to that girl James. She's like a daughter to us.'

'I know. But it's what Brittany wanted.'

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Santana was back in her room. The mornings events playing over and over in her head. Waking up and never feeling more alone in her life, getting a call from Brittany, finding out it wasn't Brittany at all but rather some cop with her stuff, thinking maybe something else was going on here, only to talk to the Pierces and find out everything was true…and once again she was left knowing that somewhere out in the world Brittany was living her life without her.

Santana rolled onto her back on her bed. 'Just forget about her please, just forget.' She whispered into the quiet room. She hadn't realised how dark her room was until her mood matched it.

Brittany was in LA living out her dreams without Santana, and she cursed herself that she was mad about this. She shouldn't be mad she should be so unbelievably happy that Brittany had the chance to do this, she can't be mad that she took that chance. Brittany's living her life, and she can't mope around for the rest of hers.

There was something she was thinking about a lot in the hospital when she was waiting for the go ahead to finally go home, and now that she was well enough, she could finally do it…

'Where are you going Santana?' Her father called as she walked down the steps and headed for the front door.

'Hospital.' She threw over her shoulder.

'What?why?!' She turned around quickly on the balls of her feet, shocked at the volume of her fathers voice.

'I wanna find out who's heart I got. You know, thank their family and what not.' She shrugged. What was his problem? He's had tabs on her ever since they got back from the hospital.

Santana watched as he staggered quickly from his chair in the living room, knocking the paper from his lap as he did so, and walked over to her. Santana quirked her brow at the sight, she didn't think she had ever seen him move so fast before.

'Uh Santana there will be plenty of time for that. You should rest for the time being, let your body recover.' Her father said reassuringly as he landed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it slightly.

Santana was quick to shrug it off. She was sick of him always telling her what to do. 'Relax I feel better than I've felt in years Dad, I'm sure a trip to the hospital won't kill me.' She rolled her eyes before turning back to the door.

'Santana wait!' He yelled. Alright now he's really starting to piss her off.

'Ugh what?' she snapped back.

She turned around and gave him her best scowl. They never used to work on him anyway, but for some reason, right now he looked like he was about to crumble under her glare. A small but triumphant smirk arose onto her cheeks as she watched the panic form behind his eyes.

Just then her mother came bowling through the door with a handful of groceries. 'Oh gosh, you scared me Santana. Uh.' She stopped when she noticed the staring competition that was going on in front of her. 'What's happening?'

Dr. Lopez suddenly broke from his inner turmoil. With a sigh he motioned to Santana and his wife. 'Come sit down I need to speak with you. Maria you should probably hear this too.'

Santana looked at her mom and then back to her dad. What the hell was going on? Since when did her dad ever want to have chats with her? She followed him reluctantly to the dining table where he pulled out a chair for both women. Santana rolled her eyes. Bit late for playing nice.

'What?' she growled once they were all seated at the large table. She sat next to her mother as her father sat across the table.

They all sat in silence just staring at her father until finally he began to speak. 'Santana I don't want you going to the hospital…because I'm afraid of what you might find out.' He said quietly. Santana was kind of taken aback. She had never heard him sound so…small. It was like the big bad wolf that she had known all her life had suddenly been taken over by a soft little quiet spoken grandma.

She tried to recover quickly from her moment of shock. Santana shook her head slightly and replastered her bitch smirk onto her face.

'What might I find out? That everyone there actually hates you?' she scoffed. 'because believe it or not I picked up on that little vibe when I was about nine years old.'

'No.' he answered simply. Santana noticed he was no longer holding eye contact. Seriously what is going on with him? 'I was afraid you would find out who your donor was.'

Santana scrunched up her face in confusion. 'Why? Who was it?'

'Carlos?' Her mother enquired quietly. Santana looked to her to see her mother with the same confused expression. When she looked back to her father he was rubbing the palm of his hand hard against his forehead. He took of his glasses and used his other hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. Santana had only seen him do this once before, when she was thirteen years old and he lost a patient for the first time. He was a mess for a week, then his heart just closed over again.

'Brittany isn't at a dance school in LA. That was never her plan.' He said hesitantly.

Santana screwed up her face even more. What the fuck is he talking about? Of course she is, where else would she be? And what plan? And the how the fuck would he know anything to do with her?!

Santana shook her head, trying to rid herself of some of the rage building up inside her. What was happening?

'I don't understand. What are you talking about?' she said with frustration.

Her father brought both hands from his face and placed them palm down onto the hard wooden table. He sighed deeply before finally looking back into her eyes. Santana took in a little gasp. Was he crying? Surely not…

'Brittany came to me with a different plan for her future.' He said slowly. 'One which involved you.'

'Okayyy. I still don't understand though, what does this have to do with my donor?...' Santana asked. She didn't know what was happening. What was he trying to say? Where the hell was Brittany?!

'Oh Carlos…' Her mother sighed beside her. Santana quickly looked to her mother to see her with tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. She was shaking her head at her husband with wide eyes. Santana looked back to her father. No, wait, what was happening?! What did she miss?

Santana quickly went back through her thoughts. What did Brittany not being here and having a different plan have to do with her finding out who her donor – oh my god…

'No.' She said quietly. It escaped her mouth before she even knew she had thought it. Her palms had suddenly become very sweaty against the table and she quickly brought them to her laps so she could ring her hands. Her eyes were so wide she thought they were about to fall from her head. No, no, no this can't be happening! There must be some sort of mistake!

'I'm sorry Santana.' She heard her father sigh from across the table. She looked up to see tears, actual fucking tears, streaming down his face. No.

'NO!' She screamed and stood abruptly from her seat. She slammed her hands onto the table and stared down at her father. He became blurry after a moment and it was only then she realised she was crying.

'I'm so sorry.' He whispered as he brought his hands back up to his face. His shoulder suddenly began shaking and he buried his face in his hands.

'It's not fucking true!' Santana yelled, shaking her head. Her father didn't speak this time. No one was offering her any type of explanation. She quickly turned to her mom. 'Mama?!' she pleaded before the tears began to choke her words. Her heart was beating so fast against her chest now. Her heart. Brittany's heart. Fuck.

Santana shook her head so fast she could feel the liquid swishing around in her brain. 'She wouldn't do that!'

'She wanted to help you so badly.' Her father sobbed.

How the fuck does he know all this? Brittany wouldn't do this! She didn't even know that you couldn't buy new hearts, she wouldn't be able to pull something so technical off without -

'You were in on this weren't you?!' Santana gasped. 'No puede follar creer esto! You killed my best friend didn't you?!' Santana had to grip her hands onto the back of her chair to stop them from lunging over to her fathers throat.

'I didn't kill her.' He stated strongly.

'What so you just left her to die all by herself?' Santana scoffed. Her eyes went even wider when her words caught up with her. She suddenly remembered the phone call she got this morning, the cop finding Brittany's stuff in some hotel room. 'Omg…you left her to die in some dirty hotel by herself?!'

'I'm so sorry, I was desperate to save you and –'

'So you killed the only person in this world that I've ever loved?!' Santana screamed. Her throat was closing over on itself now. She could barely speak but she had to get this out. He had to know what he had done. 'That ever made me feel anything?!'

Her father shook his head through his tears and reached over the table for her hands. 'Don't you dare fucking touch me!' she yelled in disgust and threw her hands back and out of reach. How could her own father be so evil?

'You're dead to me!' she screamed one final time as her throat closed over fully and her body was wracked with violent sobs. She pushed through the chairs in her way so she could run. She had to get away from him.

'Santana?!' he cried after her. Santana took no notice. He didn't exist to her anymore. She ran up the stairs to her room and slammed the door loudly behind her, shutting out the rest of the world.

'Maria?' Dr. Lopez begged quietly once his daughter had left. Maria simply stood from her chair without looking into the eyes of her husband, and walked away.

XXXXXXXXX

Santana didn't say anything when a small knock sounded on her bedroom door. It was too soft to be her father, so she didn't really care. Her mind was strangely clear. It seemed all it was concentrating on was the rise and fall of her chest and the insistent heavy beating of her heart. The tears never stopped flowing down her face, it was like an endless stream with no destination, they just pooled into her pillow and spread out making room for the next lot of tears.

A moment later she heard a slight squeak as her bedroom door opened. She had her back to the door but it didn't stop her from hearing the footsteps approach her bed, and then the dip of her mattress. She shuddered as two familiar arms wrapped securely around her body. Usually she would be surprised at her mothers touch, it was rare enough, but now it just seemed like nothing. The arms wrapped around her, sure they felt warm and comforting, they even made her feel safe, but they didn't take away the feeling in her gut that was telling her if she moved she was going to throw up everywhere.

Santana was thankful that her mother hadn't tried to talk to her yet. She wasn't sure if she could even speak. It was enough to let her mind drift from the moment, and return to thoughts of Brittany. Brittany…

How could she not form any thoughts? It was like her body was awake but her mind was not there, or it refused to open its doors. She wanted to think of all the moments she had missed signs, all the times she could have stopped this, and what the hell she was supposed to do now, but she couldn't. Her mind was blank. The only thing reminding her she was still alive was the tickle of tears running over cheeks and the squeeze of her mother's arms every few minutes. Minutes? Or was it hours? How much time had passed since she found out?

'How bout we take another week off school sweety?' Her mother spoke softly into her ear, and the broken silence just reminded her that this whole thing was real. This was happening.

'I'm not going back to school.' She stated sternly through a choked sob. How could she even imagine going back to school without Brittany attached to her pinky, without her there to laugh at berry with, or to sit next to in every class, or to sneak kisses when nobody was watching…how was she supposed to get through any day…?

'Santana?' Her mother pleaded.

'Please mom, I can't go back there without her.' She whispered. She hoped her mother would just drop it. She wasn't in the mood to fight about this, or anything for that matter. She was so tired. So drained.

'Ok, well I can sort something out.' Her mother soothed. 'Just ssshhh sleep baby girl.'

Yeah. Like that was going to happen.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dr. Lopez sat hunched over his desk in the downstairs study. His tears had dried up but the silence echoing through the house was enough to haunt his mind for the rest of his life.

It was moments later when his phone began ringing, disrupting the thoughts running through his head. He blindly lifted his phone to his ear and pressed accept.

'Dr. Lopez.' He answered tiredly.

'Carlos, it's James Pierce.'

Well that was extremely hard to write for some reason. I'm not completely happy with it but I really wanted to give you guys an update so I hope it didn't disappoint:/

Next chapter someone's going to find out what's happened to Brittany…

Love you xx