Santana huffed and gritted her teeth as Dr. Rose continued to stitch her arm up. It felt like they had been here for hours already and Santana was more than eager to get home. Rachel sat next to Santana on her right side lost in her own little world. Everything that had happened tonight kept replaying in her head. Santana saved her life, but in return Rachel had also saved Santana's. When Jasper fired his pistol Santana pushed Rachel behind her, Rachel didn't realize she was holding Santana's hand until Santana was spinning and falling. If Rachel had been a fraction of a second slower the bullet would have went straight through Santana's arm or worse...her chest. Luckily for them either the sights on Jasper's gun was off or Jasper was just a horrible aim.
Rachel peeped around Santana's front to try and see how much Dr. Rose had left to do. She couldn't see much since the graze was right across the top of Santana's bicep. She sighed as she rested her head on Santana's shoulder stifling a yawn.
"Almost done. Then you two can go home. You're lucky I was still here or you would probably be in St. Lawrence at the hospital until dawn." Dr. Rose spoke trying to keep up small talk. She wasn't going to ask questions about what all had happened. The nurse who was closing up with her had gotten a call from her husband telling her that he was on his way home from work at the station and had to turn around and go back because of a shooting at the lodge. The only details he had at the moment was that two people had been injured, the shooter and a civilian. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together when Santana and Rachel pulled into the parking lot and Dr. Rose saw that Santana was holding her arm that was already wrapped in bandages. "Finished." Dr. Rose stepped back and removed her gloves. "You know the drill with stitches, keep them clean and dry but don't forget to them breathe every once in a while. Come back in two weeks and we will check to see if they can be removed. If it starts to look infected come back immediately."
Santana nodded along, she knew all of this. Throughout her life she had had a few sets of stitches. "Do you need my insurance?"
"Is it still the same as you have always had?" Dr. Rose asked as she headed for the door to exit the room. Santana nodded her head as she slid off the exam table. "It's still on your file then. It's been great seeing you, wish the circumstances could have been better though."
As all three women went to exit the exam room an idea popped into Santana's head. "Hey..can I ask you something?"
"You just did." Dr. Rose replied with a smirk. Rachel snorted from where she was standing behind Santana holding her good hand.
"Haha. You're so clever Doc. I'm being serious for once. I just got involved with The St. Lawrence Children's Home and I was wondering if you would be interested in decorating/ donating a room? Maybe do one under the clinics name? They're doing a documentary so there's a chance you will be filmed but we can work that out with them." Santana asked nervously. She wasn't used to asking people for things so doing this was a big challenge.
"I would love to! Oh can I decorate a nursery? I bet Ryder would love to do a little boys room." Dr. Rose swooned.
"Really?" Santana was a little shocked at how quickly Marley had been ready to agree.
"Of course! Just let me know what I need to do." Marley bounced on her toes.
"Well, after I get a list of people who want to decorate there will be a big meeting to work out the details. I will call when I know more. Is that okay?"
"That's perfect. Oh I can't wait to tell Ryder. You two have a nice night." Marley skipped away to get into her car. Santana looked around puzzled, when did they get to the parking lot? She must have been so lost in conversation that she hadn't realized they were walking and talking.
"You ready to go home?" Rachel asked as she lead Santana to the jeep.
"More than ready." Santana answered as she waited for Rachel to unlock the doors so she could climb in.
Rachel mumbled and shifted in the bed when she heard a continuous knocking sound. What in the world? She thought to herself as she flipped over onto her stomach and tried to determine where the noise was coming from. Listening closely Rachel determined that duh, someone was at the door. "We really need to tell Duncan not to let anyone in the gate before ten in the morning." Rachel grumbled as she sat up in bed, resting her bare feet on the hardwood floor of the loft.
"It's probably Sue." Santana replied groggily.
"Why does she always have to show up so early?" Rachel whined while adjusting her tank top so that her boobs weren't popping out.
"I'll be down in a minute." Santana took a deep breath and wiggled around under the covers, she had had no intentions of getting up anytime soon, but she knew that was about to change.
"Don't go back to sleep Santana, if I have to be up so do you. We can take a nap after she leaves." Rachel reached over and slapped at where she thought Santana's ass would be.
"Don't start something you can't finish." Santana smirked before groaning as she sat up in bed. She sat on the edge of the bed for a moment willing her eyes to stay open.
"Oh, I'll finish it alright, just not right now." The knocking started again, but this time it was louder. "She's going to beat the damn door down." Rachel said under her breath as she finally stood up and made her way down the stairs to the front door.
When Rachel swung the door open she was surprised to see not just Sue standing there but also Shelby, Cassie and Leroy. Family get together! "Uh..good morning." Rachel looked at each person confused, what were they all doing here?
"Berry." Sue greeted as she stepped around Rachel and made her ways towards the kitchen. Well just come on in! Shelby was the next to react as she surged forward and wrapped her arms around Rachel. Cassie and Leroy were a little more reserved in their greeting as they waited patiently for Rachel to actually welcome them in.
"Come in Dad, you too Cassie. Uh Shelby, I can't breathe." Rachel had no idea what to think about such a forceful hug from her mother.
"Sorry. Sorry." Shelby finally released her hold on Rachel and took a half step back while wiping her eyes. "I just, I heard about everything that happened last night. I wanted to see you then, but I had no idea where you lived so I called Leroy this morning and he came and picked up Cassie and I."
Rachel looked over at her father. "You drove all the way to St. Lawrence to pick them up?"
"It was no biggy. Bayani had to go to the lodge first thing this morning and I knew I was coming up here with Sue so I asked if they would like to join me instead of me just rattling off directions. We actually had a lovely breakfast before we met up with Sue at the station. Is all of us being here okay?" Leroy finished in a whisper so that Rachel was the only one to hear him, he was nervous, it hadn't really hit him that he may have crossed a line until it was too late.
"I'm...surprised you're all here. But it's okay. Let's go into the kitchen and have some coffee that I assume Chief Sylvester is already making." Rachel smiled and motioned towards the entry way of the kitchen.
"You got that right short stuff. Becky's coffee at the station is practically sludge and Santana always has the good stuff." Sue was standing at the stove waiting on the water to boil so that she could add it to the coffee press. It always amused Rachel that Sue knew her way around their kitchen so well. Apparently Santana never changed where she stored things over the years.
The smell of coffee wafting up the steps brought Santana out of her nap that she had decided to take while sitting on the side of the bed. She wasn't breaking the 'don't go back to sleep rule' if she wasn't laying down, but that coffee smelt amazing.
Stumbling and mumbling her way down the stairs, Santana was a little shocked to see five people sitting in her and Rachel's kitchen. Everyone was looking at her with amused smiles on their faces. What? Santana looked down at herself, she wasn't naked or anything. So why were they smiling? "What's up with the faces?" Santana side eyed everyone as she made her way over the cupboard to grab a coffee mug.
"Nothing babe, just looking at how cute you are." Rachel gave Santana her megawatt smile.
"Okay." Santana said warily as she poured some creamer into her mug before adding her coffee. "I'm not trying to be rude, but..."
"That means she's about to be rude." Sue cut in.
"I am not." Santana rolled her eyes before lifting her coffee mug to her lips to take a sip. "Ahh, yeah that's good stuff. Back to what I was saying, is there a specific reason you are all here or did you just happen to decide to all stop in for a visit?" Santana arched her eyebrow as she looked at every one over the rim of her cup.
"I am here on business, everyone else came for a visit." Sue answered for everyone as she took a seat next to Cassie at the kitchen island.
"Fair enough." Santana shrugged her shoulders mentally hissing in pain. At least no one could see her bandage under her t-shirt sleeve. Closing her eyes and leaning her head back, Santana tried to overcome the sudden throbbing in her arm.
"How are you feeling this morning Lopez?" Cassie asked with concern. She was sitting next to Shelby at the island, it felt slightly awkward being here after how Shelby and Rachel last left things, but maybe this would be a good day to start mending fences again.
Santana didn't say anything, she couldn't. She was too busy gritting her teeth waiting on the initial shock of pain to fade. Rachel could see that Santana's knuckles were starting to turn white from where she was gripping her coffee mug so hard. Worried, Rachel stepped away from the island and over to Santana and gently pried the mug out of her hands. "Baby, can you look at me?" Santana slowly lowered her head, she could feel her eyes watering up. "Do you need some pain meds?" Rachel waited for Santana to nod her head before she went to the bathroom to retrieve some ibuprofen. Santana took the ibuprofen with a thankful sigh. The wound itself was still very tender as it would be since it had only been roughly ten hours or so since she had gotten shot and anytime you have a wound the area around said wound is going to be sore also.
"I'm okay now." Santana smiled and wrapped her arm around Rachel's waist pulling the woman into her side. "Chief, you mentioned you were here on business? What do we know? Has anything changed with Charles? Did Jasper...did Jasper make it?" Santana let the question hang in the air.
"It was touch and go there for a while but he made it through surgery. Nothing has changed with Charles, I don't know if he is aware of anything that happened last night yet, but we are hoping that we will find some evidence in Jasper's apartment that links Charles to all of this. Detective Beiste has been working on getting the warrants this morning. We're on the path to finally solving this whole thing so that you two can get back to your life." Sue was happy that things were getting closer to an end. Sometimes these cases sucked the life out of you and it was even worse when it involved people who were considered family. Everyone deserved to be able to get back to as normal of a life as possible.