A/N: Another update for my favorite Glee story that I am currently writing, since my others are on hiatus, but anyway, I've taken everybody's opinions to heart and I think I have finally made up my mind on the whole Amanda and Beth issue. I'm also glad that you all like Santana and Rachel's weird friendship. I love it too.

Chapter Fifteen: Feelings Come to Light

"She just took off!" Sara exclaimed.

Lucy rolls her eyes at her friend. Sara had been repeating the same thing over and over again. She was going to kill Beth when she got home.

"Yes, she took off. She should be home in a few days. She's already been gone for over a week."

"Who is she with?"

Lucy purses her lips and looks away. She didn't want to assume anything, but she couldn't help but think that Sara's relationship with Beth was over. If Lucy told Sara about who she was with then everything could fall apart.

Sara looked at her friend and her stomach dropped. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer to her question.

"Who is she with Lucy?"

"Amanda," Lucy whispers.

Sara sits down next to her friend and drops her head in her hands.

"She doesn't like me, does she?" Sara whispers back.

"I don't know Sara. Only you can answer that."

Sara looks at her friend sadly.

"She hasn't tried to contact me. What kind of girlfriend does that?"

"Probably the ones that don't want to be girlfriends anymore."

Sara bites the bottom of her lip and hopes she doesn't start to cry.

"Love sucks."

Lucy snaps her head up, startled at what Sara had just said.

"You loved my sister?"

Sara sighs and shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't know, but I know I could've fallen in love with her. God, I HATE Amanda. She takes everything away from everybody."

Lucy officially hated being in the middle. Sara turned to Lucy with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you think they are doing anything, you know, like together?"

Lucy groans and closes her eyes. She really hated being in the middle of things.

*Friend to a Stranger*

"Thanks for meeting me."

The woman looks up from her menu and sighs.

"I didn't want too, but Quinn asked me to."

Noah sighs and places his own menu down on the table.

"Rachel, we used to be friends. What happened to us?"

"You slept with my girlfriend," Rachel bites out harshly, still hurt from what happened so long ago.

"Rachel, that happened in high school. There is nothing I can do about it now. Do you want me to say that I regret it?"

Rachel nods her head.

"That's a start."

"Well you're going to be disappointed because I don't. Beth wouldn't be here if that hadn't have happened."

Rachel lowers her eyes to the table in shame. She hadn't thought about anything like that. She loved Beth. She didn't want to think of a world where she didn't exist.

"We shouldn't have gotten drunk. I can admit that. This doesn't excuse anything, but you and Quinn were broken up. That's why Quinn was drinking like that, that night. I just want to make up for the hurt. If it makes you feel any better you can sleep with my girlfriend," Rachel glares at Noah. "I was just kidding." Rachel then raises an eyebrow. "Or not, but it'd be hot."

Rachel places her menu on the table and crosses her arms.

"You're still a pig."

"I'm sorry Rachel," Noah blurts out. "I screwed up, but I was just a kid. I screwed up and because of that I lost my friend."

Rachel closes her eyes and then opens them again. She was getting a headache.

"I'm sorry too, I've got to let it go, but it still hurts," Rachel shakes her head. "It just hurt. You coming back reminded me of the worst day in my life, the day I found out that the woman that I love was pregnant with a baby and it worse when I realized that the guy was you."

"I'm just trying to right some wrongs. I wronged you and I want to make that right again."

Rachel nods her head in understanding.

"I get that. Lucy filled me in on the conversation you had with her and I want to set some things straight."

Noah took a sip from his glass of soda. He could tell that he was about to receive a famous Rachel Berry turned Fabray rant. He also knew that he should pay attention because he's sure Rachel is about to say something important.

"You are NOT her father. You are Uncle Puck or Uncle Noah, but you aren't her father. It's different if we were talking about Beth, but we are not. This is about Lucy and you are not her father. You helped Quinn and me and I'm thankful for it, but you're wrong. You think she needs this constant male figure in her life, but you're wrong. I grew up without a mother and I've done just fine. It doesn't take a male and female to raise a child. It just doesn't."

"I never meant it like that," Noah states with a frown.

"Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you understand that it was okay to be gone for so long."

"No it's not, but I get it. I'm not Lucy's dad. She doesn't need one, but what about Beth? That's my kid."

"You need to talk to Quinn about that."

*Friend to a Stranger*

Beth and Amanda were sitting on a coach bus traveling to their next destination. Beth knew she needed to get Amanda home in a few days, but they haven't really talked about Amanda's feelings as of yet.

"When are we going to start talking about you?"

"I don't want to talk about me."

"Amanda, please," Beth pleads.

Amanda moves her head and places it on Beth's shoulder. Beth sat silently trying to figure out another way for Amanda to open up, but was surprised when Amanda started talking.

"Inside I was happy when I opened my front door and saw my mom. She was finally home, but all that I showed on my face was anger. She hurt everybody by leaving. She barely called and when she did. I never answered. I just kept pushing her away."

Beth grabs Amanda's hand and interlocks their fingers together.

"Why did you show anger?"

Amanda sniffles and Beth squeezed Amanda's hand harder.

"I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to punish her for leaving me. She left me Beth. What kind of mother does that?"

"I can't answer that for you, but if you spoke to your mother than maybe she can explain her actions."

"That's the thing Beth. I don't know if I can face her. There's just too much hurt."

Beth runs her thumb against the back of Amanda's hand.

"I think you're scared. That's what I think."

Amanda shakes her head as she sits up straighter.

"I'm not scared," Amanda states as she avoids eye contact with Beth.

"Keep telling yourself that," Beth says with a chuckle.

Amanda turns to the window and sees familiar settings.

"You're taking us back home aren't you?"

Beth locks eyes with her best friend.

"It's time."

*Friend to a Stranger*

"What are we going to do when Amanda comes home?"

Santana looks up from her newspaper and locks eyes with her wife. Even after a week, Santana was still getting used to having Brittany back.

"You and she need to talk. We should tell her that we aren't jumping into anything early and that you are currently in the guest room. We can tell her we can start fresh."

"You can barely look at me. How can we start fresh?"

"I'm looking at you right now," Santana states softly.

"I've been here for a week and we've locked eyes only a few times. We've barely spoken and I feel like I should just find an apartment or something."

Santana places her paper on the table.

"This is hard for me Brittany. I love you and I will always love you, but Amanda isn't here and you are and I haven't been in this situation for a little over a year. It's going to take time."

"I need to build a time machine and then time can go faster."

Santana grins slightly. She missed the innocent side of Brittany.

"Yeah, that'd be cool."

Brittany's eyes widen in excitement.

"We should build one now!"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Brittany, if it doesn't work I don't want you to feel sad."

Brittany nods her head.

"That makes sense," Brittany whispers. "I'd be so cool though."

"Totally," Santana responds with a smile.

Brittany taps the table top with her finger.

"I'm going to go see the ducks."

"Alright, well have fun."

Brittany gets up from the table with a smile.

"I'll be back soon. I love you."

Brittany skips out of the kitchen and Santana instantly reaches for her phone.

"I need to talk to you."

*Friend to a Stranger*

Rachel walks to the cafeteria with her wife. Quinn had a break from her surgeries and Rachel wanted to spend some time with her wife.

"How did lunch with Puck go?"

"He's still a pig. He told me that I could have sex with his girlfriend." Quinn stops walking and turns to face her wife. "That's when I called him a pig. I'm only interested in you, baby." Quinn blushes and continues to walk.

"I would hope so."

"I also reiterated to him that he wasn't Lucy's father and he didn't have any part in raising her and then he brought up Beth."

Quinn grabs a salad with bacon bits and a bottle of water and she and Rachel sit down at an open table.

"I knew that was going to come up soon. I don't know what I am supposed to do. I can't exactly force our daughter to spend time with her father."

Rachel looks at her wife with tears in her eyes. Quinn saw that and got worried.

"Rach, what's wrong?"

"You said our daughter."

Quinn chuckles and nods her head.

"Of course I did. We are her moms and Puck is her dad. It will take time getting used to it, but she lives with us. She may not biologically be yours, but clearly it doesn't matter."

Rachel dabs at her eyes with a napkin.

"That's just the first time you've said that. It was nice to hear, but moving on, if what Beth texted was true then that means she'll be home in a few days. What are we going to do about her little runaway session?"

Quinn stabs her salad with her fork.

"She's grounded, but beyond that I don't know. I understand why she did it, but it hasn't eased my fears that she won't come home."

Rachel scoots closer to her wife and places a hand on her thigh.

"You can't think like that. I have faith that she will come home."

"I hope so," Quinn grumbles before eating her salad. When a phone rings, Quinn looks up at her brown eyes beauty because she knew it was her phone.

"Hello."

"I need to talk to you."

Rachel hangs up the phone and frowns.

"Who was on the phone?"

"Santana needs to talk to me," Rachel leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on her wife's lips. "I've got to go. See you later."

"Bye."

*Friend to a Stranger*

"Starring at the phone isn't going to make her respond."

"I know, but I just have this bad feeling that something is going on with them right now. I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel about this situation anyway."

Lucy picked up the throw pillow on the couch and placed it in her lap.

"Sara, I don't have any experience either, but you can't jump to conclusions. You barely know Beth."

Sara sends her friend a glare.

"Neither do you."

Lucy looked at her friend in shock. Normally Sara had never been this harsh to her or to anyone for that matter. Lucy was starting to hate the person Sara was becoming.

"I don't even know who you are anymore. There is no way my sister changed you this much."

Sara lets out a huff and chooses not to respond to Lucy's comment before storming out of the house. Lucy shook her head and pulled out her phone.

Don't do anything stupid-Lucy

*Friend to a Stranger*

Amanda and Beth were currently in their hotel room guzzling down alcohol and watching crappy television with sucky picture.

"How'd you manage to score this anyway?"

Beth threw her empty bottle in the trash and grabbed Amanda's hand.

"Flirtation will lead you anywhere. Plus, I'm hot," Beth responds honestly.

Beth looked at the four bottles in the six pack and sighed. She didn't feel like drinking anymore.

Amanda let go and stood up from the bed. She threw her bottle away and faced Beth. Something had been bugging her and she wanted answers now.

"What are we doing?"

Beth sits up and blinks her eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

Amanda kneels down on the bed in front of Beth.

"I've been trying to ignore this feeling for the last week or so and I can't help, but think that maybe I'm not the only one feeling it. Beth, we have an attraction to each other don't we? You feel it too, right?"

Beth sat there confused. She didn't understand how the conversation turned to this, but the more Amanda kept talking, the more Beth examined the last week and a few times there had been a few instances when Beth wanted nothing more than to kiss Amanda or perhaps a little more, but she was afraid. She had a girlfriend or at least she thinks, but yet not once had she tried to contact her.

"I don't want to talk about this right now."

Beth goes to get up from the bed, but Amanda pushes her back down.

"I want to know before we go home. I need to know if you feel the same way because I will fight like hell for you. You're the first person that I actually like and the first person that I see some sort of future with. I need to know if you feel anything for me at all."

Beth stares into Amanda's eyes and sees the sincerity in them. She manages to get up from the bed and begins pacing.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to get involved with anybody. Things are easier by yourself and you weren't supposed to talk about this. I was fine not knowing how you felt because then I wouldn't have to face the truth."

Amanda looks up from the bed at Beth. When the mention of truth came out Amanda had a feeling that her life was about to get better. Amanda stood up and forced Beth to stop pacing.

"What truth?"

Beth faced Amanda who was standing in front of the bed. Beth's eyes took in all of Amanda's features and landed at her lips. Amanda could see Beth's eyes darken slightly. She stepped closer.

"What truth, Beth?"

Beth had a feeling that she was going to go to hell for what she's about to do, but at the moment she didn't care. Her mind didn't say stop or remind her that she had a girlfriend. All her mind was telling her was to go for it, so she did it.

Beth grasps the front of Amanda's shirt and brought her forward and in an instant, their lips were attached and Amanda's hands wound around her waist. Beth's hands wound up in Amanda's hair once she feels Amanda's tongue touching hers. Amanda moaned at the contact and Beth smirked slightly. All Beth could think about was Amanda and the skills she had in the kissing department because if she stopped thinking her mind would remind her, what an ass she had just become.

*Friend to a Stranger*

Rachel makes her way into Santana's home in a hurry. She knew her friend needed her, but she didn't know why.

"What's going on?" Rachel asks as she sees Santana crying at the table. "Did Brittany leave again?"

"I-I'm a horrible p-person," Santana blubbers loudly.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Rachel asked gently as she handed Santana a tissue. "Why are you crying?"

Santana gains some composure.

"I've barely looked at her since she came back and I didn't know I had been doing that until she pointed it out to me."

"Tana, it's understandable that things aren't going to go back to the way they are right away. I get your hesitance. I'd probably do the same thing. It's going to take time and eventually you both will become Brittana again. I can see it."

Santana sniffles and looks at her friend with a sad smile.

"I'm scared, I think. I'm scared she's going to leave. I'm scared that Amanda will fall back into old patterns. Hell, I'm scared that I will too. I preach about fresh starts, but none of that is going to happen until I trust myself. Right now I can't trust that I won't fall back into old patterns."

"Well now that you narrowed down your fears you can start to fix them. But if you would like my opinion I'd say that you wouldn't fall into the old patterns. You've seen the consequences and Brittany has as well. I truly believe that everything will be just fine. Give it time and see where things go because if you don't, you will just be stuck in this rut that you hate."

Santana looks at her friend and smiles.

"Thanks for this, Rachel. I know we've had this weird history, but I really appreciate you being here for me and for Amanda. It means a lot."

"Anytime, Tana," Rachel says with a grin. "Anytime."