Wow! Thanks for your amazing support everyone and as promised, the next part!
Just in case anyone was a little confused, the scenes in this chapter (as well as the last) are running in overlaps, as in the things occurring in each are occurring simultaneously with each other. So while one thing happens in from Santana's POV something else is happening from say Jesse's POV, that's why the scenes may seem like they are shifting roughly but if you think of it collectively, I think it will become a lot clearer! If not, you're always welcome to ask me about it either by PM or on my Tumblr ask, or leave a review with a question and I'll answer it the best way I can.
Same warnings as previous chapter, still picking up where we left off!
Chapter 30: Get Your Adrenaline Pumping Part 2
Jesse doesn't bother making full eye contact with the man standing before him, instead he simply intends on making sure that he gets the point, "Brody, all you need to do is make sure that those other two don't screw this up."
The other man nods, "Got it boss."
"So you are aware that all you have to do is get into your car and drive alongside of McQueen while he drives the car containing Santana Lopez down the road. Once you are close enough to the concrete wall, you will pick McQueen up as he rigs the car to move on without him and then help him and Tortuga guide the car towards the wall where it is intended to crash?" Jesse inquires, this time his eyes do meet those of Brody's.
He watches in slight exasperation as Brody squints his eyes and wrinkles his forehead as if in deep thought and concentration concerning the words that were just spoken to him.
"I cannot stress how important it is that you properly execute this."
Brody nods, having apparently properly analyzed everything, "Yes sir, Mr. St. James."
"Good, now go and wait for my signal."
The other man turns from his boss and strides off in the direction of his GT40. Jesse turns around and grins at the sight of a black SUV pulling off the street and heading towards him.
When the car comes to a stop and is parked, the driver steps out and dusts his shoulders off before retreating to the backseat and reaching in to pull something out. Jesse begins to walk towards Jake Puckerman just as he secures a figure dressed in all black, complete with a black hooded mask, from the back of the SUV.
The body crumples to the ground at Jake's feet as he drags it out.
"Is that him?" Jesse inquires, his delight barely masked by the need to stay semi in control of the situation.
Jake's eyes meet his in a blank stare, a thin-lipped frown pulled across his face. He nods just once, "Hector Lopez, in the flesh."
The smirk on Jesse's face grows larger, "Excellent. How ever were you able to find him?"
There's no hesitation in Jake's answer, "It wasn't hard. We figured that once he heard about his little sister and the trouble she's gotten caught up in, he would search the ends of the Earth to find her. The first place he looked? The house she was staying in. We've had it staked out for the last two weeks. Guess Hector Lopez wasn't as genius as he thought he was."
Jesse lets out a boisterous laugh along with his hitman as the crumpled body before him sags even further with the weight of Jake's knee pressing between his shoulders.
"We knocked him out shortly before we brought him here, but he'll be ready to talk as soon as the race gets going."
"Wonderful," Jesse replies with a nod before he looks around the area, "and Crawford?"
The man in question steps out from the other side of the SUV, holding his tall lean frame to its full height as he runs a hand through his short blonde hair and nods in the direction of his boss. Jesse nods in return before gazing over his shoulder towards the woman who has been by his side in all of this for the past year and a half.
"Brooke, doll, won't you come and see the man who has been causing us so much trouble this past year?" He calls out and watches as Brooke turns her gaze towards him and nods.
Slowly she begins to make her way across the hard desert ground, her gaze flickers briefly towards the racing cars on the street and her hand twitches towards them in the briefest of movements before she carries on without the slightest hint of reactions towards Jesse and the two men standing near him.
"This is Hector Lopez then?" She asks as she reaches Jesse's side and he wraps an arm around her waist.
"The one and only. As soon as we take care of his little sister, we can take care of him."
Brooke nods surveying the man standing on the ground before her.
"This is the man that almost wrecked our operations in Miami?" she inquires and Jesse nods. "Doesn't seem like much."
Her callous words draw another jovial burst of laughter from Jesse's mouth, his hand reaching out to clap Jake on the shoulder.
"This woman is amazing I tell you!" He exclaims with a smirk before his face shifts into one of serious consideration, "Now, Jake, remove the hood so that I can look Hector Lopez in the eyes as he wakes up. That way he'll know it was me all along."
Jake hesitates a moment, his eyes flickering briefly away from Jesse, before he slowly reaches his hand out to remove the black hood. He just barely gets a grip on the material and begins to tug it up when the sound of racing cars firing up and accelerating down the street catch Jesse's attention.
Jesse whips his head towards the source of the sound and witnesses all three cars, including the vehicle that hosts Santana Lopez in it, take off down the street. A rage-fueled cry escapes Jesse's lips.
"Why the hell are they moving! That damn imbecile Brody, I told him explicitly to wait for my signal!" He turns to look at Brooke, "See if you can get him on the phone," he says before pausing in irritation, "wait, that won't be of any use." Jesse runs a hand through his shaggy hair and turns back to Jake.
"Might as well carry our hostage over to where he can have a better view." Jesse tells him before he turns away and begins to walk back over to his previous post in the center of the desert, the place that offers the best view of the street and cars in front of him.
Jake glances in Crawford's direction, and the man nods before he assists Jake in carrying the still limp figure over to Jesse's position, dragging his feet over the hard sanded ground. Jake situates himself to the right of Jesse with the hostage slumped to his knees on the ground before him.
He receives a satisfied nod from Jesse, "Good, at the very least he will be able to witness the tail end of his sister's impending fate."
#################
The man that Jesse has been referring to as McQueen glances to the passenger seat of his car, noticing that his current passenger, Santana Lopez, is still passed out and apparently slumbering calmly. He supposes it's probably for the best. It would be exceptionally painful for her to be awake during the occurrences that are about to transpire.
He glances further to his right towards the car next to him and nods to Brody in confirmation, watching as the slower than average man takes a few moments before he nods back. McQueen glances to his left and observes his partner, Tortuga, nod in his direction. He offers the man a confirming nod in return before he starts his engine.
McQueen glances once more out the back passenger window towards the side of the street, where Jesse St. James and his crew are still standing and waiting. He notices the person he was looking for walking across the sand slowly, and catches the barest of movements from them to signal for his departure. In the next instant, he is slamming his foot down on the gas pedal and accelerating the car forward.
He watches as both Tortuga and Brody, though mildly slower, also accelerate their own cars to speed after him until they are riding side by side down the stretch of street. They hit 25, 30, 40, 50 miles an hour, heading straight for the concrete barrier only three quarters of a mile down the road.
At the half way mark, McQueen gives a barely perceptible nod of his head in Tortuga's direction, not enough to be noticed by Brody who still travels at his right. Like flipping a switch and engaging an electrical reaction, Tortuga's car slows to a speed that allows him to swing his car behind that of McQueen and Brody's car until he maneuvers the car on the right of Brody's, putting the man's car in the middle of the action.
It's not surprising that it takes Brody a little longer than normal to figure out that he is now the rat being chased, the center of a car sandwich that's getting rather dangerous. His eyes slant in McQueen's direction, his window rolling down enough to shout out of it.
"What the hell are you doing!?"
McQueen merely nods his head in Brody's direction so that when Brody looks to his right, all he sees is Tortuga now pointing a gun towards him. His window is also rolled down and all three cars have significantly reduced their speed.
"I think it'd be best if you stopped the car Brody. Things aren't going to turn out well for you if you don't."
For a second, Brody considers putting up a fight until he notices something moves in the backseat of Tortuga's car and watches in disbelief as a curly haired blonde girl pops up from the back to also aim a gun in his direction. With yet another gun aimed at him from McQueen on his left, Brody knows he doesn't have a chance to win a shot out while driving.
He slows his car gradually to stay in pace with the others until all three of them have come to a complete stop and in a last ditch effort, Brody reaches for the gun in his glove box.
He's only a second too late, as Tortuga has his gun trained on Brody before he even has the chance to lift it and point it at anyone.
"Nah uh, not gonna happen." Tortuga says, still aiming the gun at Brody. "Why don't you put the gun down and step out of the car, slowly."
With a total of three guns now trained on him in such close proximity, Brody sighs and slowly lays his own gun back down on the seat, raising his hands above his head as he carefully steps out of the car. Tortuga is quick to twist him around and bind his wrists behind his back before pulling out a needle.
"Who the hell are you guys?" Brody asks before he feels a pinch in his upper arm and his mind starts to get fuzzy.
"Who are we?" McQueen's voice rings out clearly first from Brody's left, but it is Tortuga who answers from his right, short and concise.
"We're the fucking cavalry."
#################
The smug smirk that has been covering Jesse's face since he began watching the three cars race down the stretch of street slowly starts to falter and evaporate.
"Why are they stopping? What the hell is going on?" His voice continues to rise as does his aggravation at the sight that he is witnessing unfolds before him.
Just down the street, where Brody and the car carrying Santana Lopez traveled only minutes ago, Jesse squints to see the cars making unplanned maneuvers and completing unauthorized actions.
"I knew he was an imbecile," Jesse disparages through grit teeth, the vein in his temple becoming more visible the longer he huffs in anger and the fury continues to bubble and build beneath the surface.
"Brooke, binoculars." He demands and someone passes him the item requested, but it's not Brooke. Jesse is too involved in his current observation to notice.
"Now get me a car and a gun and get me the hell out there."
No one seems to move around Jesse. He lowers the binoculars and glances to his right, surprised to find Crawford standing next to him.
"Crawford, where the hell is Brooke? And what are you doing?"
The man remains stoic and silent.
"Don't just stand there and ignore me, answer my questions or get me a damn gun!" Jesse demands, raising the binoculars back to his eyes just as he sees the figure of Tortuga bind Brody's hands behind his back. He rips the device away from his eyes in anger and turns back to Crawford again, now even more eagerly awaiting an answer.
Crawford slowly shakes his head in the negative, not a single muscle budging.
The binoculars are brought back to Jesse's eyes, "Somebody get me a damn gu-" the last word falls short from his lips as he witnesses McQueen remove his head gear and reveal his face just as he steps back to the passenger side of the car he was transporting Santana Lopez in, and opens it. Something in his gut turns and the binoculars fall from his grip to crash towards the ground.
Jesse turns to face Jake Puckerman, his face ashen white and his eyes wide as saucers as he glances at the body knelt before the hitman. He takes a step towards the blank faced Jake, trying to ignore the way his knees are shaking and his heart has picked up a rapid beat within his chest, pounding against his ribcage in a threatening manner.
"Jake," Jesse says stepping ever closer. He doesn't notice the fact that there are only two people surrounding him, Crawford and Edgar, and cars approaching from the street behind him. Jesse's eyes have turned completely cold and dark, all of his rage burning clearly within them in a dark cloud.
"Remove the mask off our hostage, I want to look Hector Lopez in the eyes."
Jake shifts slightly; his left hand landing on top of the hood that covers the hostage slumped to his knees in front of him, his other hand rotating around to the middle of his back.
Slowly he starts to raise the hood off of the hostage's head.
#################
Santana feels something soft brush across her cheek.
"Hey, pretty girl. Wake up."
The familiarity of the voice makes her slowly start to force her eyes open. Even though her whole face feels as though she's been exposed to thousands of tiny pins and needles, the voice is a soft siren calling to her through a haze of fog. She not only knows she should open her eyes, but she wants to.
As Santana is blinking them open, that fuzzy outlining layer slowly dissipating the more she blinks and things start to come into focus, she catches a flash of blue. Her heart starts racing as her brain works to catch up with her emotions. Finally she can see fully and clearly, and the most beautiful sight in the world is standing there before her.
"Brittany." Her voice is still hoarse, barely above a mumble but to her, there's no denying the name that just slipped off her tongue.
Before her, pink lips pull into an extra large grin and a soft hand cups her cheek. Santana's hand quickly lifts up directly to the hand resting against her cheek, cupping it and not ever wanting to let the feeling that she's home go.
"I thought you…" She chokes out, but Brittany hushes her with a coo of 'It's okay' before she's leaning in and pressing their foreheads together.
"I was worried about you for a second there." Brittany whispers as the phantom of a breath lingers lightly across a tan cheek. Santana sighs and pitches forward, falling into Brittany's warm and strong embrace. She tucks her head underneath Brittany's chin and basks in that warmth, letting it spread through the cold in her veins that had manifested itself with a dreadful clutch the moment Santana thought that she'd lost the love of her life.
Santana allows herself to continue basking in the presence of Brittany, hearing the slow steady thump of her heart and returning memories to her of times when that very same heart beat was thumping out in a disjointed and untamed beat that matched the way that their bodies moved together, until it steadied out into a soft and tranquil beat that matched the one that echoed from Santana's own heart.
She thinks the feeling is something akin to paradise. Though every second with Brittany is close to that.
She pulls Brittany closer still and closes her eyes, only then realizing that she is sitting down. Slowly, her eyes blink open again as she takes a moment to gaze at her surroundings. Everything to her left appears in a blur, almost like a mirage in the distance. She can't make out anything distinctly. Everything to her right appears tan in color, with different shades of brown streaking the world like paint on a canvas.
In fact, the only thing that Santana can distinctly make out is Brittany, who is kneeling between her legs; the hand not cupping a tan cheek rests on Santana's jean clad thigh. Brittany's lips move.
"Everything's going to be okay now San." Comes out in a soft murmur, almost as though Brittany's voice is traveling through string cup phones that her and Hector used to 'talk' through when they were younger. She can hear Brittany, but she can't really hear her.
"Where are we?"
Brittany's hand falls to her neck, cupping the side of it and as those blue eyes continue to gaze unblinkingly into her own. A gentle smile remains spread across Brittany's mouth.
"You're safe." Brittany says.
Santana breathing picks up at her girlfriend's words. She is safe? Why not they are safe? Safe from what? What's going on?
"Britt, what's going on?"
A crinkle appears on Brittany's forehead, her eyebrows furrow. The hand resting on Santana's thigh comes up and hovers in her line of sight. Brittany snaps her fingers.
"San, you're okay now."
Suddenly Brittany's face begins to turn hazy, blurring at the edges like the rest of the world around Santana.
"No!" Santana gasps, reaching out for Brittany. She finds her hands being clasped by pale ones, stronger than she remembers. They're held in one fist as another pale hand reaches out towards Santana's shoulder.
She fidgets and snaps her eyes closed, "No! Brittany!"
There's a light pressure on her shoulder. The longer she struggles the firmer it becomes until another voice is permeating her senses.
"Santana I need you to open your eyes. Open your eyes Santana."
The pressure starts to feel like nudging. Santana shakes her head again.
"Please Santana, I promise everything will be okay."
The voice, with its harmonious center and bright delicacy, triggers something inside of Santana. A memory of the person who she remembers belonging to that voice.
Santana snaps her eyes open again and gasps as the world around her suddenly sharpens until her focus lands squarely on the person standing in front of her.
"Kurt?"
Her childhood best friend, Kurt Hummel, softly spoken and demure is in the flesh and smiling back at her.
"Hey Ant. You had us going there for a second."
She sits up and glances around, able to differentiate her surroundings a lot better and notices that she is sitting in the same car that she vaguely remembers being carried towards after she was injected with something that made her pass out however many minutes ago.
"What happened?"
A light chuckle, very feminine like, pops out of Kurt's mouth at Santana's question.
"Let's just say, a lot. Everything will be explained to you soon enough, but right now, there are more important things to worry about."
Brown eyes widen at Kurt's words, the reality of the situation that she's in coming back to Santana in a rush.
"Brittany! Jesse he…the warehouse blew up and he showed me a picture of one of her bloody shirts. I need to know, she can't be dead. She can't be!" Santana exclaims in a panic, lurching forward only find herself unsteady on her own feet as she almost falls to the ground. Kurt steadies her and keeps her upright.
"I don't know what's going on with the warehouse situation Santana, but we can find out right now if you want. We should probably be heading back anyway."
Santana straightens up and looks Kurt in the eye, her brow scrunching in confusion at his words. Right now she's somewhere between adrenaline fueled and heart racing so fast she can't focus on anything, and about ready to crumble to the ground, curl up and just sob for hours at the consideration that what Jesse told her, what he showed her, is true.
"What do you mean we?" she asks, her eyes shifting back and forth between Kurt's ice blue ones as she watches for every little reaction that could spread across his face. Strangely, a smile is what forms first. One that's wide enough to cause crinkles at the corners of his eyes to form. He looks turns his head to over his shoulder and Santana follows his line of sight.
She's surprised at the first person she sees stepping towards her.
"Peyton?"
The blonde haired, hazel eyed ex-girlfriend of Brittany gives Santana a small wave, "Hey, someone said that you and Brittany might be in a little bit of trouble. I figured I owed it to you both to help out however I could." She says with a smile, her hands shoved in her back pocket.
Santana blinks unbelieving but then nods, "Thanks."
When Peyton steps out of her line of sight, Santana then notices Brody, bound and gagged and kneeling on the hard sand earth. Actually when she looks close enough it appears that the man is knocked out, his head hung loosely to the side and his eyes drooped closed. But she doesn't focus on his figure for very long because someone else comes into view just behind him.
Santana watches as the driver from the third car, the one that Jesse called Tortuga, steps past the kneeling Brody and takes a step in her direction. He's still covered in head to toe black, but his sunglasses are missing. Even from here she can see the familiar shade of brown, the soft gentleness of the tan skin surrounding them. She can see his dark eyebrows that match the color of his raven black hair, the same color of hair that Santana sports.
He reaches up to slowly remove his mask, throwing it back towards the seat of his car before he runs his fingers through his short cropped hair. When he gazes back at Santana he's wearing a beaming smile large enough to cause his dimples to pop.
Santana almost falls over again at the sight of him. Instead, Kurt guides her towards the man standing just feet away from her. Tightness clutches in her chest as she takes a few steps towards him, before she's suddenly taking the last few steps in large strides until she's in his arms.
They feel exactly the same around her as they always have, strong, comforting, and affectionate.
"Hector." She whispers into his chest as her face squishes into him with the force of their embrace. He still smells the same, warm and cedar like with a hint of something like rubber.
There's a small rumble of laughter that escapes full lips similar to Santana's before strong hands rub her back and a deep, smooth and ever charming voice rings out and reaches her ears.
"Hey baby sister. How've you been?"
#################
Jesse's eyes are as wide as they can possibly go, his mouth gapping open in disbelief of the sight before him as Jake fully removes the black hood from the hostage's head.
"That's…impossible." He manages to breathe out while stumbling backwards slightly in shock.
Before him, knelt on the ground in front of Jake where the face of Hector Lopez should be seen unconscious is, instead, the beaten and bloodied face of Sebastian Smythe.
"How did….who…what?" The disbelief in Jesse's tone grows more and more urgent as he starts to back away from where Jake still stands behind the unconscious Sebastian. His eyes start to dart to his surrounds, and that's when he realizes that the majority of his crew, his men, his team, are no anywhere to be seen.
His eyes fall to Brooke and he takes a step towards her, but she steps back and shakes her head. Jesse's pursuit of her turns more aggressive as he raises his hands towards her as if to choke or grab her, but seconds before he gets within inches of her, Crawford is stepping before her with a gun raised in Jesse's direction.
More anger flares across his face, "What the hell is this?" he shouts, spinning back around to face Jake, "Who the hell are you? What's going on?"
As his steps become more determined in Jake's direction he suddenly has another gun being drawn and aimed at him as Jake, one hand still behind his back, removes a Glock Model 22 from the holster that is situated at his jeans waistband. While Jake holds the gun at Jesse, he also moves to pull out another little wallet thing from his pocket and flashes it in the direction of Jesse.
"Special Agent Jacob Archer," Jake says as he displays his credentials followed by his field badge.
Jesse stands there in horror, before the sound of a siren whistles once behind him and a black unmarked SUV, with flashing red lights on the dash, pulls up to him followed by several other standard issue F.B.I. and D.E.A. vehicles take their place surrounding the perimeter.
"D.E.A?" Jesse questions and Brooke steps forward from to the left of him, holding up her own credentials.
"Brooke Davis, D.E.A. and you're going down for a lot Jesse St. James."
There's a sound of a door opening and Jesse's eyes turn towards a figure stepping out of the nearest SUV. The woman is short and appears rather young, but she too sports a Glock handgun and a serious look upon her face. Jesse's mouth parts further in recognition of the woman as she steps closer to him and then nods in the direction of Jake.
Jesse spins back around to gaze in the other man's as well.
"Mr. St. James, I'd like you to meet my partner, Special Agent Sugar Pierez."
Jesse's eyes continue to gaze back and forth in disbelief between the two special F.B.I. agents before him.
"If you are both agents then that means…" he trails off as the cars down the street, that once were immobile, appear to be driving closer and closer to his position, only instead of three, there are now only two. "Who are they?"
His question goes unanswered for the time being and he rounds on Sugar again, "If you're not dead than that means that…" again he trails off as someone taps him on the shoulder from behind.
Jesse turns around slowly to meet the face of his enemy, wearing a joyful smile across their face.
"Hey, did you miss me?"
#################
What seems like only a minute after Hector is revealing himself to Santana, they are both in the GT40 and driving back towards where Jesse last was. Kurt is following behind in one of the other cars with Peyton as they maintain Brody as their captive.
"Hector, I need to know what's going on. We don't have time to waist driving around with Brody and everything, we have to head towards the warehouse!" Santana explains frantically, shifting in the passenger seat. Her brother reaches over and places his hand on top of hers to calm her.
"Don't worry hermana, I'll answer all of your questions and everything will be figured out just as soon as we get back to where we came from."
"That doesn't make any sense Hec, back where?"
Instead of answering her, Hector merely turns his eyes forward and inclines his head in the direction they are heading. Santana finally gazes in the same direction and her eyes go wide at the sight unfolding shortly in the distance before her.
Parked exactly where she had just stood talking to Jesse only some twenty or so minutes before hand, are a swarm of black vehicles and what appear to be numerous federal agents, judging by the black or blue wind breakers they wear with yellow lettered designations adoring their backs.
"F.B.I? What?" Santana whispers in disbelief.
Moments later, Hector is bringing the car to a stop and getting out as two sets of agents run by him to the car that Kurt brings to a stop shortly behind him. He turns to Santana as she steps from the car.
"Everything's going to be okay now Ant." He calls to her before he steps in her direction. Delicately he guides her away from the car and through the swarm of agents forming some type of perimeter around something, or someone.
"Hec, what…?"
Hector smiles at his little sister and squeezes her hand before they cut through the rest of the swarm of agents and arrive at the center of their perimeter. Santana is confused for only a few brief moments until the sight of Jesse St. James comes into her focus ten yards away. From her perception, Jesse's profile is facing her, which affords Santana the perfect opportunity to see the person walking up behind him and reaching out to tap Jesse on the shoulder.
The individual is someone who Santana couldn't be more happy in her life to see right now, standing tall and looking incredibly well despite the slightly bloodied and dirty bandage wrapped around their right bicep. Santana glances at Hector with a questioning gawk and he nods with a smile. Brown eyes shift back to the individual that makes Santana's heart flutter at a exceeding pace, almost to the point that she's scared it might thump right out of her chest.
She takes another step forward, no one reaches out to stop her, until she's just a little bit closer and she can hear a voice. It's a voice that she's been missing, a voice that she's been surviving every moment she can in hopes of hearing it again, speak aloud to Jesse St. James.
"Hey, did you miss me?"
Tears form in Santana's eyes at the reality that the person standing before her is actually there. She chokes out a little sob before she finally finds her voice.
"Brittany."
#################
When Jesse spins around to face Brittany, she couldn't be more delighted at the look of shock that covers his face and when she asks is he missed her, she watches in satisfaction as the rest of the color drains from his features.
That's also when Brittany hears the sweetest voice in the world carry out over the distance and permeate her ears. Brittany's heart flips in her chest when she glances to her left and gazes into the face of her beautiful girlfriend, alive and well. Brittany's blue eyes turn back to Jesse, the hatred for him now burning even more obvious.
Without any sense of warning, mostly because Jesse wouldn't deserve it anyway, Brittany pulls back her uninjured left arm and swings her fist into Jesse's stomach.
"That's for my crew, you asshole."
He wheezes out a breath, as the wind is knocked out of him but Brittany doesn't stop there. Instead she grabs a chuck of his hair and directs his face directly into the upward cutting motion of her knee, hearing a satisfying crunch as she no doubt breaks his nose when she connects.
"That was for putting my life in danger."
Jesse clutches his nose but still manages to gaze up at Brittany, just in time to see her swinging another nasty left hook directly at him. She connects with his face again with another telling crack and Jesse is thrown back from the blow, landing sprawled out on the ground completely unconscious.
"And that's for putting my girlfriend in danger." Brittany exclaims before she turns away from Jesse, agents swarming his body, to face said girlfriend staring at her in awe from ten yards away.
Brittany doesn't notice Jake and Sugar hold back their agents, shaking their head as they make an attempt to step towards Brittany to detain her. She doesn't see the way the rest of the federal agents continue loading up the surrounding evidence to pack it away in their car and take it back to headquarters. She doesn't see a still unconscious Brody being lifted into the backseat of one of the several agent vehicles.
All she sees is Santana, with tear streaks running down her cheeks, the whisper of her name still lingering on those full lips that Brittany loves so much. In an instant, both of them are quickly moving towards each other until they're suddenly and fully embracing. Brittany winces just barely as the area on her arm that a bullet grazed pulls uncomfortably, she pushes through the pain.
Using the majority of the strength in her left arm, Brittany holds Santana by the waist and lifts her up off the ground to spin her around for a few circles as large grins adorn both of their faces.
When she sets her girl down, Santana's arms still wrapped firmly around Brittany's neck, blue eyes gaze deeply into brown.
"God I missed you."
Instead of a verbal reply, Santana responds by crashing their lips together in a heated kiss. Brittany welcomes the taste and touch of Santana's lips against her own as tan hands cup her cheeks and draw her closer still and Brittany clutches at Santana's hips for support. The kiss is frenzied and passionate and desperate, and only when Santana bites her bottom lip and Brittany feels the remnants of tears against her own cheeks does she slowly pull her lips back while keeping their foreheads pressed together.
"Tears? Aww baby. No tears. Every is okay San." She coos, pressing her lips against the spots on Santana's cheeks where tear tracks still rest. Santana chokes out a sob and clutches Brittany closer still as her hands fall to the nape of her neck, their foreheads still pressed together.
She shakes her head slightly, "I was so scared. They…I thought you were…" she trails off unable to finish her sentence, closing her eyes as more tears escape. Brittany feels tears well up in her own eyes but she cups Santana's chin in one hand and strokes her thumb under her eye with the other until those brown eyes are open and looking at her.
Santana's eyes dart to the bandaging on Brittany's right arm, she frowns, "But you're hurt."
Brittany shrugs and smiles, "It's just a scratch. Doesn't hurt a bit now that you're in my arms."
"I didn't know if I'd ever see you again."
"I promised you that you would, and I'm not about to break a promise to you," Brittany whispers, dipping her lips down to press them softly against Santana's as she strokes a lock of hair behind her girl's ear. Santana nods weakly and Brittany places another soft kiss to her cheek before she wraps her arms around the smaller woman's frame and pulls her as close into her body as possible so that Santana's cheek rests against her own and Brittany's lips are brushing against her ear.
"I love you Santana, and that alone would keep me alive and bring me back to you."
The End.
Until I post the next chapter that is, because there are still a few questions left unanswered!
Thank you as always for your support and if you want to tell me your thoughts on the epic chapter of revelations, I would certainly love to hear them. If not, thanks so much for reading!
The next chapter will most likely be the penultimate chapter. I have no solid idea when I might have that out because I'm also trying to work on a TNOELM update and finish my NaNo project, but I am going to shoot for Friday (to stick with tradition.) If you really want to stay in the loop, I keep tabs on things on my Tumblr, or as many of you know, I respond to every review before (or shortly after) I post a new chapter!
Also, if you're interested, J and I have posted the next chapter to our collaboration story The Way That I Need You. It's Brittana canon up until Season 5!
Finally reading recommendations:
Anything by the following authors: ishIheard2day, crammit, jellymankelly, BetTheDuckisInTheHat, killer cereal, and Swinging Cloud. They all offer a wide range of dedicated Brittana stories.