About three miles into their run, Santana stopped. Quinn took a second to realize she was running alone, but quickly doubled back. She pulled her earbuds out and looked questioningly at Santana.
"We didn't get to finish making dinner. Wanna grab a churro and walk around the park?" Quinn bit her lip, now was the moment. "No matter what a conversation is happening, the choice I'm offering is whether or not that conversation will happen with sugar."
Quinn smirked, she was hoping by the time they had kids they would both nail the gentle parenting thing, and this was a decent step. "Great choices! A churro sounds good."
They crossed the street and stopped at the street vendor before entering the park. "Will you be very upset if I don't want to come here for a little while?"
"To the park?" S asked, confused.
"No, to New York."
Santana exercised every ounce of self control to not react to that. "Because of Rachel?" Quinn shrugged. "You're really going for broke baby."
"Sorry, the shrugging thing never sticks for some reason." Quinn said. "Maybe 65% Rachel."
"And 35%?" Santana asked, worried she had misread the situation and there was trouble between them. Quinn had said that she understood needing space, maybe she was about to ask for more of it.
Quinn stopped walking, San looking around, pulled them both off to the side of the walking path so they weren't in the way. "I'm…" Quinn tilted her head, struggling to say the words she never in her life thought she would say. "I'm struggling in school."
"Jesus, Quinn of everything you could have said…" Santana took a breath and let her heart rate go back to normal.
"It's bad, San." Quinn told her.
"You are a month into school, how bad can it be?" Santana asked.
"I mean it's recoverable, but I'm really struggling."
"Slow it down, baby, recoverable like D means diploma?" San asked.
Quinn laughed, "Like A minus."
"Quinn…" Santana needed this girl to chill. They talked about this perfectionism in her eating disorder group, but she wished she could just stomp that trait out of her. She was high achieving too, but Quinn always took it from an 8 to a 100.
"Santana, you may not get it fully, but this is important to me." Quinn told her, meeting her gaze.
Santana took a leveling breath. Quinn needed her to be consistent. "You are right. Are you going to all of your classes?"
"Yes ma'am."
"And doing all of your homework?"
"Yes ma'am and going to tutoring, but there is supposed to be this math wizard who only has Saturdays at like 2 open."
Santana nodded. "Well I'm glad that you are on top of it, Q. What do you need from me?"
"Well again being in New Haven on Saturdays is important."
"For now I can just come to you."
"That's not fair for you to do because I'm dumb."
Santana leaned in close to Quinn's ear, "Say it again and see what happens."
"No thank you."
"What else?"
"Start asking about math test scores during maintenance." Quinn felt San stiffen.
"You are trying hard, I don't feel like that's fair."
"Think about it?" Quinn asked.
"I will think about it. What did you think I was going to say?" She brushed Quinn's hair from her eyes.
"That I was in trouble if I didn't turn the ship around."
"It sounds like you are already working hard to do that. You've done so much growing Quinn, this food issue sucked, but it aged us for the better I think. I wish you would have told me sooner is my only objection."
Quinn made a face, "I need to get better at that, but I've never struggled with school before."
Santana pulled her into a hug, "It's an Ivy League Baby."
"I know." Quinn sighed.
"Alright so this semester I will come to you, and we will see what we need next semester, that's 35% solved. Let's work on the 65%." She pulled Quinn onto a nearby bench.
"I don't want to come home because I am so angry. I do not even want to think about what you will do when you hear this."
"I think I've been getting better at holding on to my temper." San said.
"Santana…" Quinn whined.
--GLEE--
Britt closed the front door and leaned against it. "So, wanna tell me what is going to come out at this family meeting?"
Rachel turned the TV off and turned to look at Britt. "Quinn is over reacting in the biggest way."
Britt sat next to her, "Okay, tell me about it."
"Do you think it's normal to only have been with one person?" Rachel asked switching gears.
"You know that I don't really understand normal overall." Britt told her gently. When Rachel was clearly wanting her to say more, she tilted her head to the side. "Just say whatever you need to Rach."
"You guys all got to…explore…"
Britt looked confused for a minute. When Rachel's meaning dawned on her, she tried to hide her hurt. "You want to explore…with other people?"
"I…I'm not sure." Rachel said honestly.
"I uh…I'm not sure what to say to that."
"I meet this girl in my jazz class…Amy, and she said that this is the time to explore." Rachel rushed.
She nodded trying to absorb the info. "You want to date her?"
"No. I don't know." Rachel told her.
"So how does Quinn play into this?" Brittany was not a big crier but she was fighting off tears.
"Amy was at the party, and her and Quinn didn't get along amazingly well." Rachel said.
"So do you want to brea…" Britts voice broke. "Break up?"
"No, but maybe some space to figure some things out?" Rachel asked. Brittany was amazed at how calm and well rehearsed Rachel seemed.
"I uh…I need to go." Britt said, wondering how she missed her world crumble around her. She jumped up, unsure of where to go.
"Britt!" Rachel said, standing with her.
"Rachel I need to think!" Britt said, fiercer than she had said anything. She walked out the door unsure of where to go.
--Glee--
Santana was about to press Quinn again when Quinn's phone rang. She watched the girl make a face then forward the call. "You've stalled enough." Quinns phone started ringing again. "Is it Rachel?"
"Yes." Quinn said forwarding it.
"If she calls again, answer it." Santana ordered, worried about the back to back calls.
Quinn was stressed and when she was stressed, she pushed. The next time her screen lit up she didn't even look down. She kept her eyes locked on Santana as she forwarded the call.
Santana raised one eyebrow and pulled out her own phone. After a second Rachel answered. "What's wrong?"
"Britt just left, she was upset, and she turned off her phone…" Rachel cried.
"What?!" Santana asked, jumping up and pulling Quinn with her. "What happened?"
"We were talking and she got upset and just left…" Rachel sobbed.
"Where are you?"
"I'm down the street looking for her."
"No, it's getting dark and you are alone. Go home, we will find Britt."
"What?!" Quinn asked.
Santana turned back and glared at her. "We will find her."
"I can't just…"
"Rachel," She hissed into the phone, "If you don't go home right now, I will spank you myself, am I understood?"
"What?" Rachel asked.
"You heard me, now you say, Yes ma'am."
"Santana…"
"Yes ma'am, Rachel."
"Yes ma'am." Rachel whispered.
"I will call you when we find her, call me if she comes home."
Santana got off of her phone. "Britt's missing?"
Santana stopped short and pulled on Quinn's arm. "Don't you ever disobey me again!"
Quinn took a small step back. "I shouldn't have done that." She agreed. "Whatever is going on isn't my fault though."
Santana paused, she was still furious. "I can't with this right now Quinn. Are you going to go home or look with me?"
"Look with you." Quinn told her. They walked towards the apartment and actually spotted her quickly not too far from home.
"Britt!" Santana said, relief flooding her as she pulled the crying girl into her arms. "Shhhh…let's go home."
"No." Britt said firmly.
Suddenly Quinn knew that Rachel had told her. She pulled her phone out. "Are you calling Rachel?"
"No, I'm booking us a hotel for the night."
"What?" Santana was so confused and it was getting to her.
Quinn ignored her, "does that sound okay?"
"I don't have any money." Britt sniffed.
"I'm putting it on the credit card. My dad will just think San and I are celebrating my birthday. He won't care."
"Yes please."
"What's going on?" Santana asked.
"Call us an uber, Santana." Quinn ordered.
"Excuse me!"
"S. Please." Britt asked.
Quinn told her the hotel and Santana tried not to balk at the price she knew it was going to be. They got there is silence.
After they checked in they headed up to the room. "Quinn call Rachel and let her know everyone is safe."
"No." Quinn said, reaching up to take her shirt off.
"What the hell are you doing?!" San asked.
"I booked this room for this spa tub." She took her shorts off so that she was standing in just her sports bra and underwear. Britt laughed as she stripped down and joined Quinn at the side of the tub while it filled. Quinn turned and saw the frustration on Santana's face. She gently kissed Britt's shoulder, "Give us a second."
Britt turned and locked eyes with San. "After your talk, we are all getting in the hot tub."
"Yes." Quinn agreed. She walked over to Santana and lead her into the bathroom.
"What in the hell is going on?" Santana roared.
"I need you to promise me that you are going to stay in this room, no matter what I say." Quinn pulled herself up to sit on the bathroom counter.
Snyxx wanted to come out so badly. But she took a deep breath. "I promise."
"I also want your phone." Quinn said, holding out her hand.
"Who is in charge here?" S growled.
"Maybe college has made me realize I'm a switch…" Quinn teased.
"I'm not so don't try it."
"I wont tell you if you don't hand it over Santana." Quinn said firmly.
Santana pulled her phone out and handed it to her girlfriend. "You are getting the whipping of a lifetime!"
"I know, and tomorrow I will submit to you, just like you are submitting to me now." Quinn teased.
"Of a lifetime."
"When I went to the party with Rachel she was meeting up with this girl, Amy. She works at the gym."
"The gym that she signed up for on your birthday?" S hissed.
"Yeah, this girl is messing with her head though. I'm not saying that Rachel is in any way right here, but this girl…idk San, she seems like she ruins lives because it's a Tuesday, ya know?"
Santana was shaking. Everything in her wanting to rip Rachel to shreds. She had hurt the two most important people to her.
"Britt needs us right now." Quinn told her.
San nodded. "Call Rachel, and tell her we are staying the night here."
"No." Quinn said firmly.
Santana walked slowly up to her girl and rested her hands on the girls legs, she tilted her head to rest her forehead on Quinn's. "If it were you who stormed out, whatever the reason, I would be worried. No one deserves that." San closed her eyes. "I am so angry, but if it were you…"
"Okay." Quinn agreed, she could feel both Santana and Britt's hearts breaking and she would do whatever she could to soothe it. "I will call. I love you, go be with Britt." Santana lingered. "It's not me, S. I am here. I am safe, Britt is safe, even Rach is safe." Santana kissed her nose gently. "Go."
She watched San slowly walk out of the bathroom. She saw her girls shoulders stiffen and then relax before stripping down to join Britt in the water before using Sans phone to text Rachel.