After dropping Santana and Diego off at their apartment and giving Santana her phone number, Brittany drives the short distance to her aunts house and parks the car in the driveway. She jumps out walking to the trunk and takes out her bag, she glances in the backseat seeing the seat there and sighs deciding to leave it there knowing her aunt will know exactly for who it was.
She walks up to the front steps laughing as the door swings open before she reaches the door and raises an eyebrow. ''You sat at the door the whole time?'' She asks in amusement looking at her aunt, Holly rolls her eyes pulling her niece into the house and kisses the top of her head.
''No but Santana texted me that your brought them home and that you were on your way.''
''You and Santana text?'' Brittany asks surprised, Holly rolls her eyes and snickers.
''Oh sweetcheeks, you forgot how I am whenever I meet new people?''
Brittany rolls her eyes and laughs. ''No I did not forget that and she is okay with that?'' She asks knowing how cautious the Latina is, Holly leads her into the living room after she kicked off her shoes and plops down on the couch throwing her a small grin.
''It took her some time to get used to it, but now she knows that she can always come to me whenever she needs advice.'' She smiles as Brittany just nods her head with a soft smile knowing she had the chance to talk to the Latina and her son in peace without any onlookers tonight and sighs deciding to leave that subject for next time knowing there are more important things to talk about. ''Let's talk about that gorgeous Latina later.'' She tells her softly, she reaches out grabbing her hand and raises an eyebrow. ''How are you really doing sweetheart?''
Brittany sighs knowing she promised to be honest and shrugs. ''Hurting, I have to take those pills even though I hate them and it will take another while before my back is healed enough to be touched.''
''Can I see it?'' Holly asks softly.
''Aunt H…''
Holly shakes her head and sighs sadly. ''I know you don't want to because it will hurt me, but you need someone to apply that ointment Sam gave me and I can take it sweetheart I am a big girl.''
''I know you can but that doesn't mean that you have to.'' Brittany tells her softly. ''You already went through hell once with me aunt H, I don't want you to suffer another time.''
Holly sighs sadly pulling her niece in her arms and kisses the top of her head. ''Oh sweetheart I will go through hell with you over and over again if I have to, you are the only person left in my family and hearing what happened to you shocked me so much that it felt like my life just froze until I received your call almost a week later.''
She cups Brittany's cheek pulling her head up and locks eyes with her. ''I love you like you are my own B and I am forever grateful my sister trusted me enough to be your legal guardian, I was there after your hospital stay years ago and I am here now.''
Brittany smiles sadly seeing the depth in her aunts eyes and leans up kissing her cheek, she slowly nods her head pushing herself in a sitting position and slowly grabs the hem of her shirt. ''I might need a bit of help here.'' She mutters softly.
Holly immediately reaches for the hem of her shirt and slowly lifts it, she closes her eyes lifting the shirt up until she feels the coldness of the tags attached around Brittany's neck and slowly opens them gasping as she sees the angry red puckered skin in front of her. ''Sweetheart.'' She breaths out tears clear in her voice.
''They told me I got lucky.'' Brittany whispers softly flinching as she feels cool fingertips run over her back. ''I got the brunt of the burn because I covered Sam's body with my own, he only has one on his biceps but that one healed nice and quick.''
''You are a hero B.'' Holly tells her softly, she reaches for the ointment on the table and sighs. ''Did you shower before you left?''
''Sam and I took a travel break in Colorado because it hurts to sit still for more than an hour in a moving vehicle, we rented a hotel room and I showered there.'' Brittany murmurs softly.
Holly nods her head and warms the ointment up in her hands. ''Don't jump, I will apply the ointment now because it looks dry.''
Brittany hums closing her eyes at the dull pain the second Holly carefully runs her hands up her back and bites her lip as she feels the tightness of the bra on her back loosen the second she unclasps it for her.
''You might have to lay off on these kind of bra's for a while honey.'' Holly tells her softly. ''We will go look for other kinds tomorrow so they don't cause too much irritation on your back.''
Brittany hums softly slowly relaxing under her gentle touch and closes her eyes deciding to pick their conversation back up. ''I am anything but a hero aunt H.''
''Hey no you are and you know it.'' Holly tells her firmly. ''We don't know the whole story but from what I heard you saved your and Sam's lives with your quick reaction.''
Brittany drops her head as she feels her massage her shoulders after carefully rubbing the ointment into her skin and gulps. ''We were out on a mission and were ambushed by a bunch of other planes, three of us against eight or more of them.'' She starts slowly.
''We managed to take a few out but never noticed the jet flying almost diagonally up towards us ready to hit our belly, normal planes are filled with cargo ours are filled with bombs.'' Brittany whispers blinking away the flashback trying to hit her, she feels her shirt being lowered and slowly reclines back in her aunts hold as she feels her arms wrap securely around her waist smiling lovingly at the safety immediately surrounding her.
''What saved us the most was that I kept my eyes on the radar most of the time waiting for counter attacks, as you know jets are much faster as normal planes so the second he appeared on the radar it was only seconds away from hitting us in a suicidal act on their part.''
She leans her head back in her aunts lap kicking her legs up on the couch and exhales shakily as she sees the unshed tears in her eyes, she closes her eyes as she feels her run her fingers through her hair and gulps. ''I had to decide quickly so instead of trying to move out of his way because it would have crashed against our wing, I hit the ejection button for mine and Sam's seats.''
Holly gulps thickly hearing the pain in her niece's voice and leans down kissing her forehead, Brittany slowly opens her eyes and sighs. ''Sam and I were catapulted out of the jet and both jets formed a huge fireball underneath us, we were sitting so near next to each other that I held onto his hand before pushing the button and used all my strength using both arms to hold on to him while yelling for him to trust me and to unbuckle himself.''
She licks her lips and shakes her head. ''Thank god for the years we already worked together because a newbie would have never done it, but Sam listened managed to get rid of his seat and I pulled him into mine right before a huge piece of debris hit us and made us tumble down.''
''The parachute attached to my seat slowed down our crash but debris was flying down all around us and while I did my best to cover Sam the best I could, a huge burning piece crashed right on top of my seat burning through it and also burning my back.''
She opens her eyes again not even noticing she closed them the second she feels her back hurting as she recalls the moment it happened and locks eyes with her aunt the second a tear drop hits her forehead. ''Sam passed out due to the shock of everything happening and I passed out shortly after due to the pain consuming me, I woke up almost six days later.''
''How did they find you?'' Holly asks shakily, Brittany breaths deeply through her nose and smiles sadly.
''Sam regained conscious probably a day later and reached into my pocket hoping my emergency phone was still working, it was and he immediately called the base telling whoever answered to find out our coordinates and send all troops immediately.'' She bites her lips and shrugs. ''He passed out shortly after again but never ended the call, that saved both of our lives.''
''You called us shortly after you woke up?'' Holly asks shocked, Brittany nods her head and sniffles silent tears running down her cheeks.
''Yeah they told me they called our family to tell a toned down version of what happened while still trying to hold on to hope a bit more even though it never helped before but luck really played on our sides that day, I demanded for a phone before they operated me and called all of you because I knew you all were worried sick.''
Holly shakes her head and kisses her head once again. ''I love it that you did that, but you had to let them operate you first sweetheart your health was way more important.''
''To me it wasn't.'' Brittany breaths out. ''It was important to me to let you, Noah and Q know that I am alive, that I am still here and am not planning to go anywhere soon.''
Holly sniffles glancing up and smiles sadly as she looks into two pairs of tear filled eyes. ''You know I am glad you told all of it and I am glad I invited those two over because as much as you would try you will struggle telling it a second time.''
Noah sniffles as Brittany frowns in confusion while turning her head to look in the direction Holly is looking at and walks over to the couch the second they lock eyes. ''Aunt H is right, you are a hero Britt.'' He whispers as he reaches down to hoist her up into his arms, he hugs her tightly making sure not to touch the burns he saw on her back and kisses the side of her head as he feels tears soaking his shirt.
Quinn joins the hug tucking herself into Brittany's side feeling a sob wrack through her body and kisses her shoulder. ''You risked your life to save that of your partner and friend.'' She tells the taller blonde softly. ''You showed everyone how heroic and amazing you are, you Brittany Susan Pierce are so selflessly amazing. We already knew that since high school and knew the shit you went through at a young age, you came out even stronger and you just showed the whole air force just how strong you are.''
Holly smiles lovingly as she stands up and gently hugs her niece from behind making sure to not put any pressure on her back. ''You may have had luck on your side but anything that happened and the reason you and Sam are still here, is purely because you thought fast and correctly sweetheart.''
Brittany sniffles keeping her face buried in Puck's strong shoulder and gulps. ''What are the two of you doing here?'' She asks her voice cracking. ''I thought you wanted to enjoy your wedding day alone.''
''Well yeah but we have enough time to be husband and wife during our honeymoon in two days, tonight we would love to snuggle up with the women who turned into a sister figure for the both of us and be there for her because we know you are struggling.'' Quinn tells her with a loving smile.
Puck hums in agreement and kisses the top of Brittany's head. ''Yeah so we will have a two day slumber party on the couch and we will hold you the second a nightmare wakes you up if you want or not.''
Brittany sniffles fresh tears streaming down her cheeks and gulps. ''You are all amazing.''
''Just as amazing as you are sweetheart.'' Holly tells her softly gently running her fingers through her long blonde locks, Brittany pulls out of their hug and sighs softly.
''I'm getting help though.'' She tells them softly. ''Sam and I will have our first appointment tomorrow morning and in two days we have a job interview.''
''Really?'' Holly asks surprised having thought she had to coax her into doing a therapy, Brittany slowly nods her head and sighs.
''I might have gotten over something small but not over a near death experience, we have separate talks but agreed to drive together because well we both lived through the same horror.'' She runs a hand through her hair and smiles slightly. ''And we both scored a job interview at LA times, if we get it Sam will probably be the smile of the day with his comics and I will take over the sports visiting different plays and write about it.''
''That is awesome news.'' Noah exclaims smiling, he kisses the top of her head and cups her cheek locking eyes with her. ''I am glad you are allowing someone to help you and I am so, so happy you also scored a job interview. You will rock life, you did overseas and you will here too.''
''With three awesome supporters for sure.'' Brittany whispers kissing his cheek, she wraps her arm around Quinn's shoulder and kisses her forehead. ''Thank you for always believing in me.'' She murmurs as she slowly leans back against her aunt tilting her head back to look at her, Holly smiles and kisses her temple.
''You never gave me a reason to not believe in you, you do everything with such passion that your excitement is pulling someone in. Sure I was against you joining the force at first but seeing the passion and fight in your eyes made me sign those papers and even after everything I will never regret signing it, because it makes you the person you are now but I am fucking glad to be able to hug and see you more from now on.''
''We are glad you are home B.'' Quinn murmurs against her cheek, Brittany smiles and closes her eyes allowing their love to chase away the fear clear in her body and mind.
''And I am glad to be back home.''
A bit more inside on what happened to Brittany, she will tell it Santana too but I won't write everything down.