Santana's heart seemed to drop to her stomach. "Wh-what?" she stammered as she faced the man named Spencer. "What do you mean she wants me?"
"She wants you to sing," Spencer repeated. "On her show, and a small talk for later after your song."
Santana internally jumped with joy and her hands started to shake uncontrollably. "So, what do I do?"
"We'll give you a call, Mrs. Lopez," Spencer smiled and started to walk away. "We'll be back for you on Thursday morning so you could have a studio interview with Ellen."
Spencer left Santana standing on the front porch, in her pajamas and her bad morning hair on. Santana clambered to the shower as quick as she could and drove straight to the hospital. Making her way through the busy front desk, she ran up to Rory Flanagan and Sugar Motta, who were practically looping their arms in a tight knot.
"Hey. Pixie Boy," Santana nodded.
"Hey. Lady Boss," Rory flashed his white teeth at Santana, snapping back jokingly at Santana's playful name-calling.
"Congratulations, Santana," Sugar smiled at Santana with her flashing grin. Her arms were playfully wounded around Rory's arm. Santana waved them off once she caught sight of Mercedes and Sam Evans walking around the bend to join them. They all headed to Brittany's room.
The room was literally full of people, most of them ogling and all doe-eyed at the small sandy-brown haired, blue-eyed baby girl lying just beside Brittany. Santana immediately scooted beside her wife and laid a protective hand over her wife's.
"Hey, how was last night?" Santana smiled at Brittany lovingly. The blonde just smiled at her wife and gave her a knowing look.
"It was great," Brittany smiled. "Did you sleep well?"
Santana recalled how her morning went off, and it caused a smile to play on her lips. "It was freaking awesome."
And freaking awesome it is. Santana thought. "Tell you what," she leaned over to whisper to her wife's ear. "I gotz a secret to tell ya."
"Yeah?" Brittany smiled. "Why don't you tell it now?"
Santana motioned around the packed room. "Nah, they can't know. Otherwise it won't be so fun."
Brittany just nodded. "Uh-huh, what scheme is this, Santana?"
"Nothing," Santana shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's just gonna freak you out. Like, literally freak you out. I don't want people freaking out around. They have to know about it later."
Brittany just shrugged and her attention was averted to the arriving of her parents and her sister nineteen-year old sister Ashley. The blonde was quickly greeted by hugs and kisses from her family, and so was Santana. Thus then the idea of the secret Santana was about to tell was gone to thin air.
When most of the glee kids had gone home and so were the Pierces, the only ones left was Puck. Santana was sitting beside Brittany's bed, where she originally sat, all through the day and the three friends were chatting about nothing.
"So Puck, I told you the Knicks weren't gonna make it," Santana said grimly. "I thought you could see it."
"The only difference there, San..." Puck said with a dignified tone. "It was the Cavalier's home court. And you know that."
"Damn it, Puck. It's not," Santana said. She was about to say something about the Knicks when the door opened and Santana's eyes widened. Standing by the door was her Papi, and her Mami. Her Papi was holding parcels of whatever was inside it in one hand and a couple of pink roses on the other. Her Mami was holding a box on one and cups of Starbucks coffee on the other.
There was an awkward silence and Puck quickly got the idea that it's not actually him, and it had to be family times. He turned up to leave t he room and Santana smiled gratefully at him. Puck mouthed "later" as he turned to close the door behind him.
"Hey," her Mami said as she sat down the cup and the stuff she was holding on the table.
"Hey," Santana smiled. "It's late. You could have at least rested for today and came here tomorrow. I mean, the flight for here is a lot of stress. You could have at least waited for us in Tampa this Christmas, so as not to bother you."
Santana's parents had moved to Tampa when she got married, reasoning that Alejandro, Santana's father, needed the warm climate for his aching joints. They already live in a small summerhouse just beside the sea in Florida. Santana and Brittany never fails to go for the summer and the holidays out to her parents. Even Ashley had once stayed with the Lopez family some summers back.
"It's alright Santana," her mother smiled. "How was Brittany?" her mother looked at Brittany who was busily helping out Alejandro figure out what made the baby cry.
"Look at your father," Maribel Lopez smiled. "He was just like that when you were born. Doesn't know how to handle babies," she said jokingly. Santana chuckled and returned her mother a smile.
"You bought an extra cup," Santana noted at the coffee cups. Surely, her father should have reminded her mother that Brittany doesn't drink coffee for the moment.
"Did I?" her mother smiled.
"She's here," Alejandro handed Aria, and then he smiled at Maribel and the older Hispanic lady smiled back. Santana had her brows furrowed in confusion.
"She who?" Santana almost growled, the inner bitch of a Lopez sparking up inside her.
Alejandro was already at the door and letting someone in. "Your Abuela, she's here, Santana."
Santana felt her throat run dry. This is the moment she had dreaded so much, to let her grandmother walk in her life and judge her all over again. And it's not only gonna be she and Brittany her grandmother will judge now, it will also include Aria.
Santana quickly moved to sit on the bed with Brittany and laid a protective hand over Brittany, and the other hand she had it over Brittany's arm that was holding Aria. She caught a look of fear on Brittany's eyes, but Santana's eyes went straight to the now old, bent and more wrinkled Alma Lopez.
"Hello," Alma said silently at Santana and hugged her. Santana's entire body froze and she realized she's not hugging her grandmother back. She wanted to, she wanted to feel the closeness she once had shared again with her grandmother, but she can't brign herself to.
But in a few moments, Santana realized her grandmother was crying. Immediately, Santana's arm wrapped around her grandmother's small, fragile frame.
"I missed you so much, mija," she heard her grandmother say. "I haven't seen you for so long."
"I missed you too, Abuela," Santana cried. She bit her lip and cursed inwardly to herself because of crying. However, Santana still clung hard to her grandmother. "I missed you so much."
"I am so sorry, Santana. I'm sorry mija," she heard Alma Lopez say. "I came here, to apologize...to make up for all the lost time," Santana's grandmother pulled away from the hug as she looked at her granddaughter. "Santana Maria, will you forgive me?"
Santana looked at her parents. She didn't really know what to make of it, she didn't know what to do. She couldn't forgive her grandmother for all the hurt she had caused, for all the spiteful words she spoke, but still...she was her grandmother. And Alma Lopez is still her grandmother.
She looked warily at her parents, and they both wore anxious, worried looks. Santana looked at her wife.
Brittany was wearing a contented smile on her lips and she softly nodded.
Santana smiled thankfully at Brittany, and then she faced her grandmother and childishly grinned. "Give me a hug, Abuela!"
With a chuckle, her Abuela threw herself to Santana, and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. There were tears in Santana's eyes, and for the first time in years, those tears weren't tears of shame or sadness when it was caused by her grandmother. They were happy tears.
The next few hours were filled with catching up, on Santana and her family and more of the attention to the newborn child. Once the visiting hours were over, the elder Lopez family turned up to leave, but not without a promise of coming back on the morrow. Santana went to walk them out and drive them home.
"Hey," Santana whispered as Brittany turned on the bed.
"Hey," a sleepy, half-lidded eye Brittany greeted Santana with a yawn. "How's you?"
"I'm fine," Santana smiled lovingly and tucked the stray locks of gold along her wife's face. "I had a well, a visitor earlier this morning."
"Is this about the thing you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Yeah, Britt. Ummm..." Santana started to fidget at the blanket. "Ellen wants me on her show."
"Ellen who? From the Cardinals?"
"Britt, it was Elaine...and I meant, Ellen...like, Ellen DeGeneres," Santana sighed. "She saw, a video of me singing. A video I didn't tell about...I hadn't told you. I'm sorry. I hope you're not pissed..."
Brittany took hold of Santana's hand. "Hey, San, calm down, okay? It's just a video."
"It's just that, I didn't get to tell you about it," Santana sulked.
"It's fine. When are they giving you the go signal?'' Brittany asked.
"On Thursday," Santana said. "I hope you're gonna get discharged earlier than that, so you and Bella could go watchie-watchie..."
"San, you know Doctor Burns won't allow you to do that," Brittany smirked. "Though, I would definitely tune up the TV so I wouldn't miss it."
"Yeah? Y0u wouldn't wanna miss it?" Santana smiled.
"Yep. I wouldn't miss it for life," Brittany said proudly. "It's like...well, you know. It's important for me."
Santana smiled. "You know what? Let's just sleep for now, I wanna getz my cuddle."
Brittany smiled, and let her wife cuddle into her, deep into the night.
6 months later
Santana smiled silently as she cradled her babbling baby in her arms. Another blow of a raspberry from her baby and Santana's face was covered in banana-smelling saliva. She wiped it with her baby's bib on her right hand.
"Bella, shhh...don't be a bi-...fussy baby," Santana prayed. "Mama's almost home..."
"Blhh ugh..." Bella bawled. "Ugh ngah ngah..."
"Be a good kid..." Santana growled. Bella furrowed her down-like brows and initiated a baby-growl at Santana.
"Did you just growl on me, Aria Isabella Lopez?" Santana said, shocked. Another raspberry blew across her face, wetting it more than ever.
"Come on, you little missy," Santana carried the baby back into her nursery, and started to coo at her as she started to change her daughter's shirt. "You know, you'll be like Mama in the future, so smart and so amazing because you are you..."
She twirled around and danced across the room, laughing along with her daughter. Bella seemed to love the idea of being twirled around and Santana just kept on twirling her daughter until she felt a little dizzy.
She sat on the couch and heaved, trying to get her bearings. "Man, you're a handful," Santana stared at the smiling Bella. "You sure are a handful. Your godmother Ellen wasn't wrong."
Bella started to crawl across the floor, so Santana squatted just next to her daughter to guide her. In a few moments, Santana was tackling and tickling her daughter on the floor. Being out of breath, Santana sat up after a few moments of tickling Bella. Once Santana's tickles stopped, Bella started to suck on her thumbs.
"Aww," Santana cooed. "You're hungry? Come here."
Throughout the evening Santana nursed Bella, while waiting for Brittany to come home. Her daughter had fallen asleep. Santana sat on the couch, yawned and stretched herself. She had propped her torso on the arm of the couch and she carried her daughter, snuggling her safely in her arms.
Brittany's footsteps made the wood flooring of the porch. The house wasn't lighted, save for the outside lights that were automatically set to turn on. She was partly curious, but half of her, maybe Santana was out to see Rachel, or Kurt...or maybe the Schuesters, who lived opposite the town.
"San?" she called out and checked at the child's nursery. Santana was there, fast asleep, her chest raising and falling softly in rhythm to Bella's chest.
"Hey San," Brittany whispered. "Hey, wake up..."
Santana's eyes fluttered open, disoriented and a little hazy. "Hi, I was dreaming of pandas."
Brittany smirked. "Yeah?"
"Yeah?"
"Pandas...seriously, Santana?"
"Yeah. I love you."
"I love you back, so much more. I love you so much, Brittany."
"It's not possible."
"Is so."
"Nope." Brittany smiled, leaned forward, and kissed her wife. Hard.