Epilogue

Rachel stared out across the water. She pulled her coat tighter around her and inhaled the sea air. She was still getting used to the calm here, of having nothing more to worry about than the crash of the waves on the sandy shore. She was finally free. Almost. If she could only forget.

They had been back about three months. After she had shot Russell Fabray Blaine, Cara and, although Rachel could still not believe it, Sue Sylvester had taken care of the remaining guards in the room before joining the rest of the group to fight back the guards who had swarmed the hallway. She had stayed on the stage cradling Santana, trying anything and everything she could think of to keep her talking, keep her conscious, keep her alive until Cara could get help.

Finally the girl returned with the base's doctor and they rushed her away to try and save her. Rachel fought to be allowed to stay with her but she was taken to a seperate room to have her own wounds tended to and given a sedative when she fought to get free. She was out for about two hours and awoke with a heavy sense of dread wrapped around her heart, her mind filled with horrific images of broken bodies, leering faces, stomach churning sounds. She leapt out of the bed and ripped the door open, screaming in the corridor for Santana, charging into every room she could find and ripping open the stitches she didn't know she had. Eventually Cara found her and managed to make her calm down long enough to be told that Santana was still in surgery, that it was complicated and would take time.

Her friends found her then, mercifully they had all made it although Mike had been shot in the arm. He joked about how at least it wasn't his leg so fingers crossed for his dance career back in Mexico. They all sat together and waited for news, Ryder keeping Jake company slightly apart from the rest as he tried to bury his grief in a bottle of bourbon that Cara had produced from somewhere. Into their midst walked Sue Sylvester, the same superior look on her face that Rachel remembered so well from high school. She wanted nothing more than to leap up from her chair and slap it off of her, but by her side walked five year old, blonde haired, blue eyed Beth Corcoran. Silently Sue handed her over to Rachel and walked from the room, sadness in her eyes and a slight hunch to her shoulders.

Rachel sighed softly and bent down to pick up a small stone from the beach, a ridge running up it's middle, then a few paces further stopped to collect another, this one shaped like an egg. She sat down, hugged her knees to her chest and allowed the ocean to wash some of her grief away.

She and Mercedes had taken Beth back to Shelby, wished her well and said their goodbyes. A few days later they had driven back to Lima and parked up alongside the football field. Blaine, Sam, Jake and Ryder had carried Puck's body over to the fallen goalposts and laid him to rest beside Finn and Kurt.

The tears welled up in her eyes as she thought back. Six years ago she had looked at that field for the first time, full of hopes and dreams for the future, about to meet the group who would become her best friends, the boy she would obsess over and get engaged to, and the girl who would take his place as the love of her life. She should have been on Broadway now, working her way to a Tony, living in some cute loft somewhere with Santana, maybe Kurt, calling her fathers on the weekends to tell them about her week, hear about theirs. Instead her fathers were dead, murdered by Russell Fabray when they dared to try and oppose his move to take over the hospital board and throw its support behind the Sylvester campaign. Her best friend was dead, murdered by Quinn Fabray as he tried to protect her. Her first love was dead, also shot by Quinn Fabray as she finally slipped over the edge. And Santana…

Arms wrapped around her from behind and legs slid either side of her. She sighed as Santana pressed a kiss into her neck and rested her chin on her shoulder.

"You okay, baby?" Santana asked softly.

Rachel nodded and turned her face to kiss her. She ran her hand over Santana's jaw, her thumb gently tracing the scar by her eyebrow. She deepened the kiss and rested her head against Santana's when it ended.

"I love you." She whispered.

"I know." Rachel smiled.

Santana closed her eyes and nodded, their heads still pressed together. They sat like that for a while, watching the sea, wrapped in their memories.

The drive back to Mexico had been long and worrying, thanks to Santana's delicate state, but she had wanted to get back to her father as soon as possible. When they had loaded their belongings up Cara had helped, and loaded her own along with them. Rachel noticed but said nothing and Santana was too dosed up on painkillers to notice much of anything. If the two former friends had talked about what had happened at all in the months since they had not shared it with her, but an uneasy truce seemed to have been reached and Rachel just hoped that time would help to make it right.

Santana's father greeted them with so much relief that Rachel truly believed he lost ten years worth of age from his face, and once he had made sure his daughter had been patched up correctly he told them excitedly of the developments back home. Sue Sylvester had renounced her position with immediate effect and was giving evidence at a hearing to determine the extent of Russell Fabray's empire. She was looking at spending the rest of her life in prison and was putting up no fight in her defence, although Rachel was sure she would pull something out at the last minute. Changes were happening all over the country, small ones certainly, but definitely a move in the right direction. Just too late for their friends.

Rachel rubbed Santana's hand then opened it and placed the ridged stone into her palm before standing up and extending her other hand to pull her girlfriend up gently. She frowned as Santana winced and held a hand gently to her stomach, but she held her tongue. She knew Santana hated it when she fussed so she just took her hand and led her to the shore. She kissed her egg shaped pebble gently and threw it out to sea, then turned to Santana and pressed a kiss to her ridged one. Santana smiled down at her sadly and kissed her hand before stepping away, bringing the rock up to her lips and flinging it out into the deep.

After a few moments Rachel stepped up behind her and wrapped her arms carefully around her waist. She kissed her shoulder and rested her chin on it, letting the sea breeze push the hair of their faces.

"So what do you want to do?"

Santana smirked. "You."

Rachel smiled and pressed a kiss into her cheek. "I don't think you're quite up to that yet."

"That sounds like a challenge to me."

Rachel laughed gently and kissed her again.

"It's really over, isn't it?" Santana asked quietly.

"Yes, baby." She smiled. "It's really over."

Santana let out a sigh and relaxed into Rachel's body. She smiled and closed her eyes, Rachel's fingers tracing soft patterns against her skin.