Chapter 6

Santana's POV

I open my eyes to an almost blinding light and shut them right away. I hear a steady beeping and open my eyes again, slowly this time.

As my eyes adjusted I realize that I am in the hospital. Everything that happened comes back to me and I'm suddenly nauseous.

I sit up a little too quickly and feel dizzy. I tried to hold the vomit in as I reached down to press the nurse call button. I was not successful as seconds later I threw up over the side of the bed.

A nurse comes rushing in soon after that.

"Oh sweetie. Are you okay?" She asks softly picking up the cup of water on the table next to me.

I nod taking a sip of water. The nurse checks all the machines and my chart before telling me that the doctor will be in shortly.

"I'll get someone to clean that up and bring you some crackers to settle your stomach dear." She tells me as she walks to the door.

"Thank you." I reply quietly.

I sit there wondering where Quinn is as the janitor sprinkles sand over the mess.

I look towards the door when I hear someone knock. A blonde woman in lab coat walks in. Her glasses perched on her nose as she reads over a file. She looks up at me and smiles.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Fabray. How are you feeling?" She asks.

"I'm fine. I just felt a little dizzy and nauseous when I tried to get up too fast." I respond looking at my hands. She hums in response.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions while I check a few things." I nod and she put her stethoscope on. She places it on back and instructs me to take a few deep breaths. "So what happened before you fainted?" She asks while taking my blood pressure.

"My breathing became shallow and Quinn tried to get me to copy her breathing but it wasn't working. I felt myself falling down but she caught me before I hit the ground."

"Good thing she caught you, I wouldn't have wanted to have to treat a head wound as well." She writes something down. "What caused you to hyperventilate?"

"I umm this guy was bothering me and m-made me nervous."

"Hmm. Has this happened before? Hyperventilating and then fainting?"

I shake my head in response and she asks me a few more questions, some about my cast. Then she asks a question I wasn't expecting at all for some reason.

"Are you pregnant?" She asks and I freeze. She looks at me expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"Yes." I mumble.

"What was that?" she asks not hearing what I said.

"Yes." I said a little louder this time. "I'm about 2 months along."

"I see." She says writing something else down. "That cast seems pretty new. How did that happen?" I look down at my arm.

"I... fell down the stairs about a month ago and that's when I found out I was pregnant." I say. "But nothing is wrong with the baby. They checked and everything is fine." I add hurriedly.

"Have you been taking prenatal vitamins?" I shake my head in shame.

"I-I have... had a prescription but I lost it." I say changing up quickly because I remembered that my real last name was on that prescription and not Cruz like my ID says.

"Well we'd better get you a new one and get it filled right away then." She says with a smile as she walked towards the door. "In the meantime, make yourself comfortable. I'll be back in to check on you in a few hours."

"Wait, I can't leave now? I have to get my children. I need to go now." I say desperately.

"I just want to keep you under observation for a bit longer. I promise it won't be longer than two hours. And there's no need to worry about your kids, Quinn went home to check on them she should be back soon actually."

I sigh loudly as she walks out. I lay back staring at the ceiling. I end up falling asleep for about an hour until I heard the door open. I look to the door and see Quinn.

"Hey." She smiles.

"Hi."

"I'm glad you're okay. My sister told me you can go home in a little while." She says and I look at her confused.

"Your sister?" I ask her.

"Yeah." She laughs. "My big sis Frannie is your doctor."

"Oh."

"Yep. Oh by the way, I went back to the mall and got the car seats for the twins. I just got them the same one I got for Beth. I hope that's alright."

"You didn't have to do that. I could have just walked them to school tomo-"

"There's no way I'd let you walk them to school after you just passed out Santana." She says cutting me off.

"Well let me pay you back at least." I say grabbing my purse off the table.

"San, you don't have to. It's fine." She states placing her hand on mine to stop me from rummaging through my purse. I pause, staring at our hands before clearing my throat and looking away.

"Are the kids alright? Are they still with the babysitter? Did you tell them I was in the hospital?" I fire out question after question.

"They're fine." She says, finally removing her hand. "I sent Marley home and had Beth's dad take them out for ice cream."

"Beth's dad?" I ask.

"Yes. There's no need to worry. He just wants to spend as much time as possible with Beth before he leaves. He's a good guy."

"I wish you would have asked me before sending my babies off with some strange man." I unintentionally snap.

"I-I'm sorry." Quinn says, shocked at my tone.

"No I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I just... I've never been away from them this long and I just want to get out of here."

"I'll uhh, I'll go see if you can go."

"Thank you."

A few minutes later, Dr. Fabray comes in smiling.

"Ready to go?" I nod. "Well here's your prescription, you can get everything at the pharmacy in town. Now you need plenty of rest and try not to get too worked up about things okay?"

I nod again and proceed to get up to get dressed.

"Oh and I set up an appointment for you for next week to check up on the little one in there." She smiles pointing at my stomach. She walks out, leaving me to put my clothes on.

Once I'm done, I walk out of the room to see Quinn talking to her sister. She smiles at me and hugs her sister goodbye before coming over to me.

"All set?" I nod. "Well let's get you to your babies. They should be home by now."

The ride back to Quinn's had been relatively quiet aside from her humming along to a few songs playing on the radio.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Quinn suddenly asks me.

"No." I answer abruptly.

"I think you should stay the night with me, just so I can keep an eye on you. You know?"

"No. I'm fine. You could just drop us off at the hotel and I'll see you in the morning." I say with a weak smile.

"Do you really think that's a good idea? You had a panic attack and fainted Santana. What if it happens again when you're with the twins? I don't think it's safe." She says as she pulls up in front of her house.

"It won't happen again. Can you just get the twins and take us back to the motel please?"

She hesitates before nodding and getting out of the car. A few minutes later she comes back out with the twins. They both run up to my door.

"Mami! I missed you!" Callie exclaims as I open my door to hug and kiss them both.

"I missed you too. Both of you. Did you have fun today?" She nods and Costa just hugs me again. "Well how about you both get in your car seats and when we get back to our room you can tell me all about it."

Quinn stops in front of the hotel to let us out.

"You sure you're gonna be okay?"

"Yes I promise. I feel much better. I'll see you in the morning." I smile and give her an awkward hug over the console.

I get the twins out of the car and we head up to our room.

"Alright bath time." I tell them.

"But mami." Callie pouts.

"No buts. You guys have to get to bed early porque tenemos que levantar temprano para la escuela." I say sternly. "Aren't you excited for school?"

She nods eagerly and rushes to the bathroom.

"You're next mister." I tell Costa playfully before following after Callie.

After their baths, I put them in bed and turned the TV on so they could watch one show before bed.

"Mami?" Costa calls to me.

"Yes baby?"

"Is daddy a dinosaur?" I give him a confused look but before I can answer he continues. "'Cause Beth's daddy is a dinosaur. He said his name is Puck because he's a pucko-, a puckasaurus."

I don't even know what to say to that. So many things are running through my head. What kind of name is Puck? Who would name their kid after a hockey disk? How in the world does someone like Quinn end up with a guy named Puck? But then again, how did I end up with someone like Adrian?

"Is daddy a bad dinosaur 'cause he hit you?" My head snaps over to Callie who's already fast asleep thank goodness.

"Mijo it's time to go to sleep." I say turning off the TV.

"Lo siento mami. No llores." I didn't even realize I was crying. "I'm sorry I made you sad."

"It's okay baby. You didn't make me sad. We just, we don't need to talk about daddy anymore okay? Just get some sleep, you and your sister have a big day tomorrow."

Once Costa finally went to sleep I took a shower myself. I had been laying on the pullout couch staring at the ceiling. I really need to find a place to live, I can't have the twins living out of a motel for the rest of their lives. Then I remember that Noah guy from the diner said he knew a place.

I check the time it's only 9:30, hopefully he's still awake. I search through my bag for his number and dial it.

"Hello?"

"H-hi is this Noah?" I say feeling nervous suddenly.

"Yep yep who is this?" Is the response.

"Umm it's Santana…" I start then I remember I never gave him my name. "We met at the diner the last night, you said you knew of an available apartment and I-I was wondering if it was still available."

"Oh yeah it's still available. It's 2 bedroom, 2 baths. Rent is $600 a month plus a $200 deposit and the last month's rent. So you'd pay $1400 initially if you decided to move in."

"Ok would I be able to take a tour before I make a decision?"

"Totally. When would you be able to come? I'll talk to the landlord to set something up and I'll get back to you. Can I reach you at this number?"

"Thank you so much. I can come by any time after I take the kids to school. And yes just call this number back after to talk to the landlord." I thank him again before hanging up.

I wake the twins up at 6:00 to get them ready because Quinn was coming at 7:00 so we could stop at the diner for breakfast.

"Mija calmate." Callie is oozing with excitement, she can barely sit still. "Now what's your name baby?" I wanted to go over what I told them when we first arrived.

"Callista Cruz!"

"Good job." I kiss her forehead. "And yours mijo?"

"Costica Cruz." He says quietly. He's clearly not as excited as Callie is about school.

"But mami, isn't we supposed to have a last name like daddy?" Callie asks innocently. "Cause his is Doomashu." I can't help but smile at her attempt at saying his last name.

"Baby I told you we don't talk about that okay? Your last name is Cruz. Now are you ready for your first day?" I ask trying to distract her. It works thankfully.

"Yep! I got my backpack on!" She exclaims.

"Okay, now we have to wait for Quinn and Beth so we can have breakfast before your big day."

Breakfast was fine. Beth and Callie chatted away about what they planned on doing. Costa was quiet and kept leaning on me. I asked if he was okay periodically but he said he was fine.

Quinn pulls up in front of the school in the pickup zone and puts the car in park. We helped the kids out of the car and walked them to their classes.

Callie's teacher was Ms. Pillsbury. She seems very nice and is probably an excellent teacher but I'm sure I'm going to receive calls home about Callie. Beth and Costa will be in Ms. Holliday's class. She's very... I don't know. She'd probably be able to connect with the kids more.

"Mami yo no quiero quedarme." I hear Costa whisper.

"You have to stay mijo. Only for a few hours and then I will come and pick you up." I tell him kneeling down to meet his eyes. "I promise cariño."

I hug him and kiss him and try to walk away but he grabs onto my leg, hugging it tight.

"I have to go baby." He shakes his head. Quinn looks at me sympathetically and shrugs.

I kneel down again. "Please can you stay here and be a good boy for mami?" He's crying now and drawing attention to us. I pick him up as best as I can with my good arm and walk to the first bathroom I could find. "Shh, don't cry. Why don't you want to stay?"

"I wanna stay with you." He says finally calming down a little.

"But you have to go to school. You know that."

"But what if daddy comes to hit you again?!" He cries. My eyes water as I pull him into a tight hug, running my hand through his thick hair.

"Shh. He's not going to come back okay? Never. Don't worry about daddy. Everything is fine and he's never gonna hurt mami again." I'm not sure if I'm trying to convince him or myself more.

After a few minutes we both compose ourselves and he finally agrees to go to his class. I meet Quinn at the car.

Quinn's POV

"All good?" I ask as Santana buckles her seat belt.

She gives me a small nod and a weak smile in response. I can tell she's been crying too right along with Costa. "He was just nervous about his first day. H-he's a bit shy." I nod.

"It's okay to be worried Santana. From what you told me, today is as big a day for you as it is for them."

"I've literally never been away from them like this. Except for yesterday and look how that turned out. I ended up in the hospital." She scoffs.

"You'll be okay." I say grabbing her hand over the console and giving it a squeeze. My hand lingers on hers a bit before I clear my throat and starting the car. "Umm do you wanna go with me to the airport to pick up my friend?"

"N-no I can't. I have to go meet someone about an apartment at 9 and then I'm gonna go job hunting." I nod and drive off.

I drove silently, tapping my fingers along with the beat of whatever song is playing on the radio. Santana is leaning with her forehead against the window. When we get to the motel she doesn't even notice so I have to tap her a few times.

"Hey, we're here." She looks up and gives me a small thank you before making her way out of the car. I grab her and pull her into a hug before she gets out. I feel her tense up immediately before slightly relaxing. "Good luck with the apartment and the job hunt."

Santana's POV

After resting a little at the motel, I go to meet Noah at the apartment. It's only a 20 minute walk so I'm a few minutes early. I call him and let him know I'm downstairs.

He comes out and introduces me to the landlord. The landlord, a nice looking old man, and Noah show me where to get the mail and where the dumpsters, and even a small playground are in the complex before we go to the third floor of building C.

We arrive at apartment 3076 and Noah leads me in with his hand on my lower back. I stiffen at the contact but don't say anything. I feel like ever since he saved from that guy at the diner and offered me a place to stay I can somewhat trust him.

"So this is it. Both rooms have queen sized beds but you can always buy a bunk bed for the kids if you'd like." He says.

"No that bed is fine for now."

"Cool. Well here are the bathrooms. Umm that's pretty much it..." He says looking around. "Oh wait! Laundry is right here." He points to a door in the middle of the hallway. It has a washing machine and dryer in it. "The kitchen and dining area is in here." He leads me through a swinging door and shows me where everything is.

"Well that's the tour. What do ya think?" He asks.

"It's nice. I like it."

After signing the leasing agreement with the landlord and getting all the keys from him, Noah walks me out.

When we get outside a tall blonde starts waving frantically at Noah.

"Hey Britt." He says

"Hey Puck!" She says cheerily. "Hi not Puck!" She says referring to me I assume.

Wait. "Puck?" I ask.

"Oh my last name is Puckerman, so people call me Puck."

"You're Beth's dad." I state rather than ask.

His eyebrows furrowed "You know Beth?"

"Yeah I met her and her mom when I was at the park with the kids."

"You have baby goats?!" The blonde girl, Britt, asks.

"What?" I'm so confused now.

"No Brittany. She has children."

"Oooooh, aww. I wanted to see baby goats." She pouts.

"You actually took them out for ice cream with Beth the other day."

"Oh wow, you're right. I thought those two looked familiar. And sorry about her. Anyway that's Brittany. B, this is Santana, she's moving into the apartment across the hall from us."

"Hi!" She smiles. "Can I sign your cast? Please? I got a new marker I want to use!" Then she runs off.

"Just go with it, trust me." Puck leans over and whispers in my ear. "So do you need any help moving in?"

"I just have a few bags. We didn't bring much." I tell him. "D-do you think you could give me a ride to get them? I also need sheets and comforters for the beds."

"Yeah sure no problem. But we should probably wait so Brit can sign your cast. She'll pout all day if you leave without letting her." He chuckles.

After Brittany drew on my cast with a very bright lime green marker, Noah took me to the store to get things for the apartment and then the motel to pick up our stuff.

"Do either of you know of anywhere that's hiring?" I ask.

"The community center I teach dance classes at always has a job opening for something, so you could check there." Brittany informs me from the couch as she stares at the directions for the lamp I bought.

I suggest we take a break and ask Noah if he could drop me off there and he does. Turns out they're looking for tutors for the new school year. They had me take a test to see if I was actually capable of tutoring math and science. I passed so they gave me the job on the spot. My starting pay is $15 an hour but if I take the courses and become a certified tutor, it'll be raised to $30 an hour.

Since I'll be working after school, I look up classes to sign the twins up for so I don't have to hire a babysitter. I'm not sure what they would be interested in so I just grab a bunch of pamphlets to discuss it with them tonight.

I still have about two more hours before I have to get the twins so I walk around, familiarizing myself with the town.

As I'm walking, I see Quinn sitting outside of a small café with a brunette woman, Rachel I assume. They're talking and laughing when suddenly Rachel leans over the table and kisses her. And it was not a friendly kiss. It was like when Sarah kissed me.

I get this weird feeling in my stomach and look away immediately. Why didn't Quinn say that Rachel was her girlfriend?

I continue walking, that scene replaying itself over and over again in my head.

I pick the twins up at 2:30 and we walk back to the apartment. It's not a very long walk so they don't complain too much.

When we get to the apartment, I show the kids their room and where everything is, then we go to the kitchen to make them a snack. I hear someone knocking so I go answer the door. It's Noah.

"Hey I heard you come back so I thought I'd come by and help finish decorating or whatever." He says sheepishly.

"Oh umm thanks you really don't have to."

"I don't mind." He shrugs.

"Well ok then come on in." I open the door further and let him in.

"Puckasaurus!" Costa yells and then runs up to Noah.

"Hey little guy." He says picking him up.

"Mami, look its Beth's daddy!" Callie exclaims.

"I know mija, he lives across the hall and what did I say about yelling inside?"

"Lo siento mami." She replies. "Does this mean Beth can sleep over all the time now?"

"I don't know sweetie you'll have to ask her mommy and daddy ok. I'm gonna finish your snacks. If you two have any homework, take it out so I can see it. Did you want anything Noah?"

"Sure I could eat. I'll just have whatever you're making them." He smiles at me.

I walk out of the kitchen with three peanut butter and banana sandwiches and a peanut butter, onion and pickle sandwich for me. I see Noah playing with the twins and they are enjoying every second of it. He has one of Callie's dolls and he's doing a funny accent while making her do flips away from one of Costa's robots. I haven't seen them smile this much in a long time, especially Costa. I feel tears start to form in my eyes. I will them away before they can see me but I sniffled a bit too loud and Noah turns to look at me.

"You ok?" He mouths. I nod and set the sandwiches down on the table then wipe my eyes.

"Alright snack time guys." Costa and Callie grab their sandwiches and start munching away. I sit on the couch with mine and Noah sits next me with his.

"You sure you're ok?" He asks, his voice full of concern.

"Yea I was just cutting onions and you know how that is." I reply. "So my kids think you're a dinosaur?"

"Well that's because I am." He winks at me. Then he frowns. "Wait you put onions on your peanut butter sandwich?"

"Mmhmm." I respond as I take a bite.

"And pickles?" He adds after inspecting my sandwich some more. He scrunches up his nose and pretends to gag. "That sounds disgusting."

I laugh. "Don't judge me. It's actually really good. You should try it some time."

"Yeah I'm gonna have to pass." He laughs.