Chapter 21: Big Wheels Keep on Turning

Mike's words don't necessarily rush Brittany into action, but she at least humors the guy and walks with him through the Pierce building and towards the offices a little faster than she normally would.

"Seriously Mike the last thing I need is…" Brittany's words trail off as she follows her friend into the conference room and is quickly exposed to the sight of a female individual sitting with her left knee crossed over her right, long legs barely covered by a ridiculously short skirt, and stiletto heels that could easily poke someone's eye out.

If Brittany's resentment isn't evident from the emotions that cross her face, her words certainly display her irritation, "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

The woman in the chair raises an impeccably maintained eyebrow.

"Aww sweetcheeks, I don't think that's any way to treat your favorite aunt." She declares, standing from her chair in the most decorous manner. Brittany tries not to roll her eyes as she watches long straight blonde hair cascade perfectly around the woman's shoulders, and a crooked smirk form on her lips. She winks in Brittany's direction before turning to give a more playful wink in Mike's direction.

"Michael Chang, you sure have grown up."

The normally reserved and not at all floundering man is suddenly a mess of blushes and shy eyes as he literally flusters about.

"Hey Holly. It's really good to see-"

"Mike…shush," Brittany cuts in, her eyes steeling in his direction before turning back to give the other blonde woman in the room a pointed glare, "Seriously Holly, what are you doing here."

The woman, Holly, opens her mouth to supply what Brittany suspects will be a very elaborate and charmingly calculated response, when suddenly another voice is interrupting.

"I invited her." Quinn says as she slips into the room.

"Quinn," Brittany's glare turns loathing, "You're fired."

"Hey now butterfly jam, no need for hostility." Holly beseeches, her voice ringing out in an ever calm and laid back tone as her hands make a soothing wave motion in front of her, "Quinn called me a few weeks ago and told me there were some things going down. I thought I would come by and see how I could help."

"I'm a grown woman Holly, I think I am quite capable of handling my own situations."

Holly quirks an intimidating eyebrow of her own, "Really now? Capable enough to almost get yourself killed, what is it three times now? Plus your brother and another member of your crew go suspiciously missing? Sure thing Sunshine Suzy, you've got everything under control."

Brittany's eyes narrow and focus in on Quinn, clearly upset at the fact that Holly already knows so much about what's happening in her life right now. Brittany's at least partially grateful to see Quinn visibly wince at the look that's glared her way.

Everyone is so engrossed in their own little inner fuming that they don't immediately notice the reappearance of Santana as she steps through the conference door with Puck on her tail, her own eyes going wide at seeing Brittany, Quinn, Mike and a pretty blonde woman she's never seen obviously gridlocked in some kind of intense mental argument.

"I'm sorry am I interrupting something?"

Brittany's head whips around to find Santana standing in the doorway, one of her alluringly appealing eyebrows arched to her hairline. Of course, Brittany doesn't get the chance to speak up first (which is really fucking inconvenient considering she's the damn boss.)

"Well hello there you sweet thing you."

"Holly." Brittany warns.

"Where have you been hiding this little darling, Goldylocks? She's gorgeous."

Brittany groans at her inability to stop her very exuberant friend from introducing herself to Santana as she watches said friend step forward with her hand extended and a flirty smile crossing her face.

"Hi, Holly Holliday. I'm Brittany's aunt."

When Santana's eyes go wide and look to Brittany, whose blue eyes are already as wide as saucers, "Holly! You can't just say things like that," Brittany chastises before turning her eyes apologetically to Santana, "She's not really my aunt." She mumbles taking a step closer to the shorter woman who reaches her hand out to grasp Brittany's as it comes to rest by her side.

A thankful look is bestowed upon Santana from Brittany's direction, along with a grateful squeeze of the hand.

"Well, I'm practically family." Holly tries to interject. Brittany sighs.

"Look Holly, I know we were close but we haven't seen you around for two years, and as you are apparently already aware of, there's a lot of shit going on right now. So forgive me if I'm a tad but skeptical about your sudden appearance and weary of letting you back in with open arms."

"Honestly, little B.P. I'm just here to help."

"Please don't call me that," Brittany groans again. Santana is all too curious and exceptionally interested in this fine display of dysfunctional interaction. "Holly, what exactly is your thought process for this situation, if I even want to hear it, and so help me that you mention anything else ridiculous I won't be afraid to send you on your way."

A soft squeeze from Santana's hand is the only thing keeping Brittany grounded right now. All she wants is an answer from this woman, a straight one (which is probably asking too much considering Holly's track record), but Brittany instead gets someone else speaking up in Holly's place.

"I thought she could help with the plan" Quinn's voice dials in from Brittany's left, and blue eyes glare in Quinn's direction once again, this time there's an obvious anger bubbling up from beneath her skin, and even Santana's touch is having a hard time calming it all down.

"You told her about the plan?"

"Holly?" Another voice interrupts yet again and Brittany's eyes round on the entrance of Joe, Rory and Sugar. It's just a big old happy reunion party going on right now.

Holly's face lights up at the appearance of the other Pierce crewmembers, regardless of the fact that she doesn't know Sugar, and she opens her arms wide in show of going over to hug the shit out of everyone.

"Okay, everybody just stop and cool your ass's!" Brittany suddenly exclaims, simultaneously succeeding in halting everyone while at the same time drawing exceptionally confused looks from the lot. Santana, thankfully though, remains calm and collected at Brittany's side, and ultimately provides the best form of grounding.

Brittany runs a hand through her hair and gives a cursory glance to each member of her crew in the room as well as Puck and now David who has managed to sneak in as well.

"I think we all need to sit down, because I have a couple things to explain to everyone."

Brittany ends up spending the next fifteen minutes laying down the gist of why everything has happened as it has in the last few days and what that means for them as a crew. Santana helps Brittany fill everyone in, explaining her end of things in reference to Jesse and where he stands with things. In the end, the Pierce-Lopez clan (or those of them whom are present) now has a clear understanding of the new plan that they will be attempting to execute as things move forward.

"Okay so just to be clear," David is the first to speak up after the lengthy explanation from Brittany and Santana, "The race between you and, the Evans crew I think you said? That was just a preliminary thing to actually qualify to join forces with Jesse's crew?"

Santana nods at her friend, but allows Brittany to answer, "Yeah, basically we had a little bit of a turf war. And because Santana technically kicked his ass, and he'd be an even bigger idiot to even consider showing his face around us again, we won the war and thus have exclusive rights to whatever it is Jesse proposes."

"Which as of now," Santana interjects, "Has yet to actually be determined, but our inside informant has made it clear that Jesse is interested in setting up some kind of high-end boosting game and looking for a way to make nice with one local crew. If he sets something up to test essentially the Pierce crew, and you do well-"

"Like that's even an issue." Brittany interjects smugly.

Santana rolls her eyes at the woman, "Then that is your solid in on the world that Jesse St. James is creating here in Vegas."

"Which, again to be clear," It's now Quinn that interjects, "Is definitely a drug business, that if we play our cards right, we can get Jesse out of the area and our hair for good and manage to keep ourselves out of trouble."

There is a collective nod that sweeps its way through the group sitting at the table and when Brittany is satisfied with their agreement she stands from her chair.

"So any other questions?"

It's silent for a few seconds until Puck stands from his chair and runs a hand over the monstrosity atop his head, he throws a quick glance towards Santana before his beady little eyes land on Holly and his signature cocky smirk pulls across his lips.

"I just have one question," He voices, his tone bordering on what he probably assumes is seductive and appealing, Brittany tries not to vomit all over the table, "Who's the babe?"

Santana rolls her eyes at her lady chasing crewmate. He may be the closest thing she has to a brother, albeit that's a dysfunctional relationship in itself, but sometimes even his over the top cockiness astounds her. Thankfully, it's Brittany who forms a respectable response, though not any less condescending than Santana would have supplied, to the pseudo badass.

"Okay, that's enough of that. I think we've all had our fun today so everyone can get back to their damn jobs now and we can forget about the crew crashing blonde woman for a while."

When no one makes a move to listen, Brittany slams her hands down on the table for added effect before she shouts out a very convincing "NOW!" that instantly snaps everyone into action and causes them to shuffle out the door.

"I mean everyone but you Holly, obviously." Brittany calls to the other woman just as she's inching out the door. Holly stops and turns to face the girl, or woman rather, that she formerly cared for as if she were Brittany's aunt. Her eyes flicker briefly to the Latina sitting to Brittany's right, her brain registering the fact that this woman has now decidedly taken over much of Brittany's life.

Brittany takes a seat and waits for Holly to join her and Santana at the table again, speaking up only when the other woman has finally sat down again, "So now that you know how my crew and I plan to go about things, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Holly blinks a few times before she seems able to formulate some kind of reply,"I figured…I could reach out to some of my contacts-"

"You mean my mom's old contacts, the woman who abandoned her own daughter? You thought that after you basically pulled the same stunt you could just waltz right back in here spouting off things that you think will help when they clearly will not and everything would be just fucking peachy?"

Holly doesn't seem to have any response. Brittany releases a heavy sigh and shakes her head at no one in particular.

"Look," She then begins to say, her piercing blue eyes focused directly on Holly, "The only thing you need to know for now is that despite the fact that I really don't want to see you right now, I'm not going to kick you out. But I want to make it clear that you will stay out of our way unless I ask for you assistance, and even then you will sparingly apply yourself. Maybe you can work your way back into my good graces, but until then I kind of just need you to stray on the outskirts."

"Okay Brittany," Holly says, shocking the younger woman with the actual proper use of her name, "I understand that. If that's what you need from me I will respect your wishes."

"Good." Is all Brittany provides in reply and she waits with a stoic, pokerfaced look spread across her features until Holly walks from the room, at which point Brittany's demeanor deflates and her head falls to rest in her hands.

Not long after Holly's departure, Brittany feels the gentle caress of Santana's palm on her back and it draws her out of her solemn frame of mind. She glances in the other woman's direction, a half smile tugging at her lips and Santana smiles back just as shyly. A tan hand comes up and cups Brittany's cheek, soft fingertips stroking against the skin in such a calm manner, Brittany's almost sure she could be put to sleep by the affectionate touch.

"You know, it's really sexy when you're all boss woman you know?"

Santana's words are a little unexpected, and they force Brittany's eyes to snap open, until she registers exactly what the other woman uttered and a chuckle falls from her lips.

"You think so?"

Full, extremely kissable lips poise in her direction as Santana nods and slowly leans in to Brittany's face, where she meets Santana half way. Their lips brush softly and then press firmer as a pale hand snakes its way around the back of Santana's neck and draws the other woman closer. Santana melts into the sure and commanding touch of Brittany who relishes the taste of Santana's lips.

When they pull apart several minutes later, Brittany's eyes remain closed in that dopey too happy to care way as Santana's fingertips continue to dance across the surface of her cheek. Only when those lips, that Brittany has quickly become addicted to, press against the underside of her jaw does she open her eyes while releasing the most content of sighs.

Santana is full on smiling at Brittany like she knows what she does to the other woman, and Brittany couldn't really be bothered to care.

"Do you want to go work on the Boss a little and get your mind of things maybe?" Santana asks, her voice just barely above a whisper to not shatter the euphoric bliss that they both linger in. Brittany grins broadly at Santana's question and leans in to peck the other woman's lips again.

With a nod she stands and holds her hand out to Santana, "Darling, I think you read my mind."

##################

"Wait, wait San. Ow." Brittany expresses her concerns as her back solidly collides with the car door of the Boss where it's parked in the part of her shop that she and Santana decided to extend their make-out session to. The front of Santana's body efficiently molds itself to her own as Brittany continues her complaint, "There's something poking me in the back."

"Wanky."

"Yeah…wait, what?"

Santana giggles lightly as she pulls back from Brittany's body, not far enough to cause a riot from the other girl, but enough so they can look each other in the eyes with out going cross eyed. Brittany scoots her body away from the object that had been jabbing her in the lower back.

"Damn, that handle's a bitch."

She feels quite a bit better when Santana's hand creeps around and slips under the hem of her shirt, a soft palm rubbing soothingly against the irritated skin.

"Those damn Boss doors will get you every time." Santana murmurs with a cheeky smile as her brown eyes glance up into blue. Brittany's heart does some kind of spontaneous choreographed routine inside her ribcage for a few seconds and then thuds a beat against the walls of her chest, as she's helpless to do anything else but stare back.

"As much as I'd like to just leave you two to it, there are probably some things that need to be dealt with before we can put our plan into motion. Right boss?" Quinn's less than jovial voice is the last thing that Brittany wants to hear at the moment, but things kind of just happen like that sometimes right? Brittany turns her eyes to glance at Quinn as she walks into the shop area and takes a seat on one of the stools at the worktable.

She's about to throw some less than kind words in Quinn's direction, when Santana lips press to her pulse point and stop her heart altogether. Brittany's eyes are quick to focus on the embodiment of perfection that still leans into her body and is wrapped up in her arms.

"There are actually some things that I have to tell you about Jesse and what happened when I met up with his crew earlier." Santana whispers, glancing briefly into Brittany's eyes before returning her lips to the column of a milky white smooth neck. Brittany bites back the moan lodged in her throat at Santana's nibbles and takes a deep breath.

"I suppose it's a good thing Quinn showed up then huh?"

Santana fills Quinn and Brittany in on the situation that occurred at Jesse's warehouse when she briefly returned there this morning and it mostly includes two key pieces of information; one, that Paul Evans and his big ass mouth did not go running to St. James about Santana's involvement with Brittany and the Pierce crew, and two, that their person on the inside (Santana still keeps Brooke's name from dropping as she and Brittany planned) has successfully led Jesse into a detailed strategy to reach out to the other crews in Vegas, or at least the Pierce crew because their the only ones left standing at this point.

"Okay so that's some pretty intense information. Why the hell didn't you tell us this the second you got here?" Are, not so ironically, the first words to fall out of Quinn's mouth.

"Quinn!" Brittany chides, her voice taking on that in charge quality as her eyes slant in her friend's direction.

"I'm just saying Britt, she should have told us earlier."

"And I'm just saying that you need to back the fuck off."

Santana appreciates Brittany standing up for her but at the same time she feels Quinn's tizzy fit is completely uncalled for, "Look whatever. I told you now." She says directing the statement towards Quinn before turning her eyes to Brittany, "It's okay Brittany. While you two discuss whatever it is you need to discuss, I'm going to research some things on the computer to prepare us better if Jesse calls you all out for a boost or something."

Brittany frowns but knows what Santana is offering is probably for the best at the time being. She gives her a nod and leans in to place a soft kiss on her lips. Santana smiles as she turns and heads over to the table, it's far enough away that she won't be able to eavesdrop, but not too far that if Brittany needs her she can quickly come back over.

When Santana sits down at the table and is sufficiently distracted by the laptop in front of her, Brittany's eyes slant back in Quinn's direction, "Quinn, I appreciate you always trying to look out for me. But I've got to say, you dragging Holly into this and taking ridiculous jabs at Santana because you still might not agree with her and I is going a little far. You've gotta get over it."

"Really Brittany? You want me to just get over the fact that this girl has such a hold on you that you're letting things slide that you wouldn't normally let slide if it were anyone else? It's not like you to just forget everything you've ever known because of a girl. Before, I thought it was just a little fling, but Brittany you do realize that she's got deeper than anyone else has before?"

"Actually I do, and believe me it scares the shit out of me. But can you really deny that she's good for this team, and that she and I work well together. I've never been more in tune with someone, and that's what I like best about it. I don't have to try hard with her Quinn, she gets me and I get her and we just work. Yes, there was a point between us where things looked shitty but we're over it, and you should be too, especially after she got on a damn bike for me and raced after a lunatic. It was both equal parts sexy and incredibly brave."

Quinn regards Brittany in a most pensive and contemplative manner. The wheels in her brain turning and cranking out an elaborate thought process that only one Quinn Fabray could ever construct. Her eyes narrow in thought until she seems to find the answer she's been looking for and her qualms about Santana's nature disappear for a moment in favor of discovering something new about her friend.

"Oh my God." She says and slaps her palm against her forehead, "Of course, it all makes sense now. Why didn't I realize that before?" Quinn speaking to herself is not a new occurrence, but it naturally causes Brittany's eyes glance up at her in curiosity and slight apprehension.

After all, sometimes the things that come out of Quinn's mouth are completely insane.

For example,

"You're in love with her."

Five simple words and Brittany's sputtering and tripping over her own feet. And she's not even moving.

To say she was expecting anything of that nature to be spoken by her friend would be a very big lie. And now, if Brittany's little display of flusteredness doesn't absolutely and irrevocably confirm things for Quinn, then she's shit out of luck on the 'deducing things about friends that they don't know' front.

Of course, Brittany's inherent reaction is to deny, deny, deny.

"You really are crazier than I had originally thought Q." Brittany replies, her tone is much cooler and calmer than she had expected it to be. But the damage has already been done, and the blush that's spread across Brittany's face and neck is a dead ringer giveaway, and Quinn fucking knows it.

She watches for a moment as Brittany keeps her back turned to her. Concentrating blue eyes stare off into the corner of the shop where Santana sits perched on the shop stool, laptop still set up in front of her on the worktable. Adorable black-rimmed glasses frame her face. Something flutters in the pit of Brittany's stomach when Santana scrunches up her nose at an image on the screen, and her heart trips over itself in a race for something more composed than its rapid staccato beat.

Brittany sighs heavily as she turns back to face Quinn, the truth painting across her face and something akin to acceptance settling in her bones. She's hard pressed to deny Quinn's words now.

"Holy shit, you are in love with her." Quinn says, more statement of fact than anything else. Brittany sighs again, glad at the very least that her friend isn't shouting the information across the universe before she turns glances up at Quinn, her tropical blue eyes layered with that underlining acceptance.

"She said she's falling for me."

Quinn rolls her eyes, "You think? And now you've just confirmed that you feel the same for her. As if it wasn't already obvious."

Brittany shrugs, "You've always been able to read me best Quinn."

"You should tell her."

Brittany's lip turns up and her eyebrows furrow into a weird mix between scrunched up and confused, "What are you playing at? Are you her biggest advocate all of a sudden because you know that I…that I like her a lot?"

"That you love her," Quinn corrects with a pointed look of satisfaction, before she huffs exaggeratedly at Brittany's inability to just admit it out loud, "And I'm still not her biggest fan, I mean I can hold a grudge against her but still want you to be happy. Besides, I promised you I'd apologize, like you begged me to…"

"I don't beg."

"Whatever, the fact is that if you feel that way about her I'm kind of shit out of luck with my own reservations, though I still hold them. You're my best friend Brittany, and I'll probably always be skeptical about her good nature towards things but you are right about one thing. You two work well together, and I sure haven't seen you this sappy happy in a really long time."

"Jesus Q I didn't ask you to go full blown Romeo, and while you have a point I just-"

"Hey, whatcha doing?" Santana's interruption comes at a most unexpected moment, and her voice though very soothing to Brittany, quite literally scares the bejesus out of her.

"Fuck!" Brittany exclaims jumping a little before her face flushes even more red and she faces Santana who raises an eye skeptically. All Brittany's hoping right now is that Santana hasn't heard the last minute of her and Quinn's conversation, that's not something you just 'hear'.

"Oh hey San," Brittany says, recovering slowly but surely, "Surprised me a little there."

Quinn refrains from laughing really hard out loud. She can disagree with certain things about Santana, but she can't ever deny herself a good laugh at Brittany's expense.

"Sorry about that, I was just making sure things were good."

Brittany nods, swallowing the lump in her throat before her voice releases in a croak, "Yep, all good over here."

Still looking skeptical, Santana narrows her eyes at Brittany before smiling widely and leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek, lips lingering a bit longer, "Okay well I just got word from Jesse and he's calling me back again now so I should probably head out."

With that, Quinn rolls her eyes and excuses herself from their presence.

A noticeable mixture between calm and worried washes over Brittany and she straightens up, reaching out blindly and finding Santana's hand instantly to pull her close.

"Oh, okay yeah. I'll walk you to your car then."

Santana beams, "Such a gentlewoman." She says before leaning in and fusing their lips together in a sensual kiss. Santana pulls back several seconds later, her eyes significantly darker, and a coy smirk stretching the length of her full lips.

A light chuckle falls from Brittany's lips as she shrugs. She's sure as hell not going to deny being a gentlewoman. Not if it gets her kisses as sweet as that.

They head out the shop and reach Santana's Nissan with a forlorn silence hanging between them as Brittany swings their clasped hands back and forth. Finally her eyes glance up from where they had been focused on the asphalt.

"So," She says and Santana chuckles lightly. Brittany thinks that she could hear only that sound for the rest of her life and she'd be doing just fine. But alas, the present must continue as it is destined. "You think you'll be out all night?"

Santana's heart skips a little at the amount of vulnerability and care that is packed into Brittany's question. She never thought she'd see the day when the badass commanding car thief and master racer seemed so…adorable. She'll take it though. Tilting up on the balls of her feet, Santana presses her lips to Brittany's jaw line before her lips brush up to the corner of the taller woman's mouth. She places the most indiscriminate of kisses there before pulling back and smirking coyly.

After the entire body shiver works its way through Brittany, her eyelids slide back open and reveal darkened blue.

"If I'm not, I think you know where I'll be." Santana finally husks out in the space between their lips and Brittany's mind fills with possibilities. She nods slowly for a few seconds, no real intention for doing so other than to buy herself some time to properly formulate a word that's not "uhh".

"Okay." Is what she finally settles on and something tells her it was the right choice as she watches one of Santana's eyebrows quirk in its signature inquisitive nature. Brittany merely smiles back in triumphant, as if she's one a great battle, because really if she thinks about it she has. Two can play that game and all.

But also apparent, is Santana's ability to not be bothered by it as evidenced by her blasé attitude following Brittany's one-worded response.

"Okay," She says, her seductive tone having disappeared, "Maybe see you later I suppose, if I'm not too busy and all." And with that she bops Brittany on the nose and turns to walk away.

What the hell just happened?

Brittany finds herself launching her body forward and shouting out a "Wait!" before Santana even gets more than two feet away from her. She rushes over to the woman and immediately spins her around, not even bothering to allow her time to smugly say anything before she crashes their mouths together and swallows any form of boasting Santana might have been intending on delivering.

When Brittany pulls back she can already tell the tables have turned as Santana stands there, eyes still closed and mouth still dropped in an 'O', and it's Brittany's turn to smile smugly.

"I think you know you'll see me later because you won't be busy with anything else."

Santana's eyelids slowly drop open and she has enough thought capacity to nod in agreement to Brittany, watching as the taller woman shoots her a wink and then turns and struts away. She has to laugh a little at how well Brittany can keep up with her in her own game.

Laugh and maybe cry a little.

#################

Brittany walks back towards the shop with the same smug smirk plastered on her face. She worries about Santana like all else, but at the same time knowing that the woman's going to do her best to stay safe and come back to her, well that kind of makes everything, including the waiting, worth it. She finds herself back in her shop before long and ceaselessly wanders over to her toolbox, finding that she has every tool imaginable sitting before her but no real desire to use any of them at the moment.

There are far too many other things tumbling around in her head to care about.

It's like all of her life has been one giant restoration project, but all of a sudden there's something more beautiful, more compelling, more amazing that's standing right in front of her and Brittany can't think of anything better than to take that something and just be happy with life.

Santana is by far and large so much more mysteriously intriguing and exponentially rewarding (just knowing her) than any restoration project Brittany's ever thought of undertaking. And to top things all off, Santana seems to want to stick around and deal with the crazy shit that happens in Brittany's life. It's ridiculously difficult to think there's anything wrong with that picture.

"Head up in the clouds again, Tinkerbell?"

Holly's choice of nickname affords her an unimpressed glare from Brittany. It's no secret that Brittany isn't fond of moniker's that would deem her small or temperamental, even if by all standards she probably is a little more of the latter. She remains silent and unresponsive in Holly's direction, knowing that no matter what she does, if Holly wants to talk to her, she will.

"I remember when you were a little girl, probably seven or eight years old and then even older sometimes," Sure enough Holly begins to speak, "And all you ever wanted to do was play make believe and go out on adventures. You had a peculiar preference for acting very much like the boy who never grows up, you were your own version-the girl who never wanted to grow up." Holly chuckles a little as she shakes her head at the memory of Brittany dressing up and acting, to the best of her ability, like Peter Pan.

Brittany's head turns subtly in Holly's direction, not actually acknowledging that she's listening and interested, but not realty being able to turn away.

"You dove deeper and deeper into that mentality the more your mom stayed away, and I should have seen it then. If I had been a better role model I would have seen it sooner." Holly contends remorsefully, she sighs, "But I'll never forget when your wise beyond your years observance and understanding surfaced one day after you'd watched that movie you loved so much for probably the billionth time."

The knowledge of that movie, and the thought of Brittany as a by then fourteen year-old version of herself being so invested in it, brings a small smile to her lips.

"Do you remember?" Holly inquires, and bright blue eyes finally rise to meet Holly's and she nods just enough to give confirmation that she does remember, Holly smiles and nods in return, "You said that you didn't understand why Peter could so easily give up on something like the connection he and Wendy had. You said that-"

"If I ever found someone who would put up with me and still love me like Wendy did Peter, than that would be something worth holding onto. It would be something worth growing up for." Brittany finishes Holly's thought, something tugging at her heart as she speaks the words aloud. She'd forgotten for a while that she ever said those words, having uttered them in a fit of unforgiving anger at her mother's quick departure from her life. Even more so, she never figured there would actually be a time when her very own words could be applied to her situation.

Holly lets Brittany's words hang in the air for a while and really soak into the younger woman's consciousness before she speaks up.

"And do you think you've finally found your Wendy Darling?"

Before Brittany gets the chance to answer Mike and Puck rush into the shop, excitement reflected almost painfully over both of their faces. They seem to be struggling and pushing at each other like little boys, hoping to get the first and most important word out as they both talk in a simultaneous jumbled mess.

"Bossthere'ssomethinghappeningrightnow-"

"PierceIthinkyoushouldconsiderthisone-"

"Okay both of you pause, rewind, and talk slowly and articulately like I know you're both capable of. Mike, you first."

Mike smiles triumphantly, flashing a cocky grin in Puck's direction before straightening up, "We just got word from Jake that-" is all he manages to get out before Puck is cutting in.

"St. James has called a challenge for the crews. First one to boost a car on the list wins the opportunity-"

"To get in his good graces and run with his crew in the future." Mike successfully recaptures his dominance in the conversation.

A flicker shines behind Brittany's eyes as she considers what she's just heard. This is good news. This is the news they've been waiting for and it all comes down to besting everyone else in the one thing she could do with her eyes closed; boosting a car.

As a wicked smile crosses her face, Brittany regards the three people standing in her shop before she turns to her toolbox and retrieves her boosting tool set and her favorite leather jacket from its perch slung over the side. Spinning back around to face her crew, Brittany's eyebrows arch.

"Well, what the hell are you guys waiting for? Let's go do what we do best and boost a damn car."

I want to thank everyone for reviewing, favoriting, following, reading and even lurking on this story! It means the world to me to see that, and I love hearing all of your thoughts, opinions, and predictions. A big shout out to my dedicated guest reviewers as well because even though I can't personally reply to you I still very much appreciate your input!