Wow! The reviews are seriously amazing and I can't thank you all enough as well as for the new story/author alerts and favorites.
Shout out to all my reviewers from last chapter!

00softball004EVA00, RainBlueWater, Terrischuster, Zanyalf, lebanese11, Pipinator89, AND

R41N-bow:
Haha I'm glad you liked it. Sorry it took so long to respond. I had finals last week so things were really crazy. I do paintball but only recreational with my friends. Never competition style. I do enjoy watching the tournaments though. As far as your question is concerned, you're jumping ahead! ahhh! LOL I don't want to give too much away because that was going to be one of the up-coming chapters. At least a friendly game before the tournament. Stay tuned for it though =) Thank you so much for the review. It's means so much!

Chapter 11

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The sun had gone down on a relatively warm summer night. The moon lit up the lake now and the only sounds that could be heard were light ripples coming from the dock as it floated over the small waves and the slow and steady breathing of Brittany and Santana.

Each was curled up close to the other, wrapped tightly in each others embrace. Brittany had fallen asleep on Santana's shoulder with her arm draped lazily over her lover's stomach. The Latina lay awake, more than content to hold her girlfriend as the events of the night replayed in her mind. The sleepy smile she wore couldn't have been wiped from her face.

After what seemed like a hour or two, the blonde shivered in Santana's arms and nuzzled closer. The air had cooled down significantly and the brunette was worried that Brittany would get sick. As much as she hated the idea of waking her up, she reluctantly pressed a few soft kisses to her temple before whispering to her girlfriend.

"Britt… hey… you're getting cold. Wake up Baby."

"I just wanna lay here with you." She pleaded sleepily, pulling Santana even closer, kissing her neck softly, before snuggling even further into her shoulder.

"I know, me too. I really don't want you to get sick though; you have goosebumps all over." Tan hands ran up and down bare arms trying to warm the girl up a little bit.

"You're like a toaster oven though. How do you stay so warm?"

Santana chuckled softly. "I don't know, I've always been like this."

"Well I could snuggle with you all the time. I love being able to feel you."

"Me too." Santana smiled. "But we should really start heading back. I have no idea how long we have been out here and we need to get you warmed up."

"I think next time we should plan to not be in the middle of a lake." Brittany giggled out.

Santana laughed and nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't have traded tonight for the world though Britt."

"Me either." The blonde said and lifted her head up to kiss her girlfriend.

The couple swam side by side back to shore and dressed quickly. Santana walked over to Brittany as she pulled her t-shirt over her head, still shivering.

"Hey, put this on." She said, handing her hoodie to her girlfriend. Santana opened the underside of the jacket for her and Brittany slide her arms through and pulled the garment down over her head.

"You're really sweet San, thank you." Brittany smiled.

Santana pinched the sides of the hood that was still atop the blondes head and pulled the girl closer, nuzzling their noses together.

"You're welcome." She said as she placed a chaste kiss to her girlfriend's lips.

Brittany pulled out her phone. It was now rounding midnight.

"How long were we out there?" Santana questioned as she took her girlfriends hand and they walked back into the woods.

"About five hours, Rachel is probably going ballistic. She left me 12 text messages and called me about 30 times."

Santana pulled her phone from her BDU pants. Quinn had more or less racked up the same amount of text messages and calls.

"Well I guess it's a good thing they were worried about us… at the same time I really don't want to explain to them why we didn't answer."

"Trust me, Quinn will know when we walk through the door." Santana shook her head at the thought.

"Rachel will be waiting to play 20 questions."

Both girls laughed at Brittany's comment, knowing full well that Rachel would most certainly do exactly that.

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"No seriously Quinn, I think they have been kidnapped, or eaten by an oversized animal! I knew we should have gone with them! They always want to take these stupid walks. Why couldn't they just stay here?" Rachel rambled out in one breath, pacing back and forth in her cabin.

Quinn was seated on Rachel's bunk, dialing Santana's number for what seemed like the 100th time.

"We have to tell someone! They could be dying for all we know!" Rachel finally stopped pacing and went to pull on her sweater.

"Rach, we can't! We don't know if they are even hurt."

"Oh yes we can! They have been gone for almost 6 hours now!" The brunette deadpanned.

Rachel turned on her heal and headed towards the door, Quinn hot on her heals. The brunette threw the door open only to jump back as Brittany and Santana were about to walk into the cabin.

All four jumped back in surprise.

"I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GOING TO KILL BOTH OF YOU! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? WE HAVE BEEN WORRIED SICK!" Rachel more or less could have woken up the entire camp. Quinn was standing behind the diva with a shit eating smirk, almost bursting into laughter.

Brittany and Santana turned to look at each other. "Told you." They both said in unison.

"Well? Are you going to tell us? We were about to call search and rescue!" Rachel demanded to the couple. "And what is so goddamn funny?" She spat at Quinn.

Quinn straightened up and tried as best as she could to put on a serious face but it was no use. Rachel looked between Quinn, almost falling over in laughter, and Brittany and Santana who were now blushing.

The diva finally caught on and her mouth opened and closed a few times, not really sure if she had the words to describe what she was thinking.

"Well this is awkward… I think we are gonna go to bed now." Brittany said, pulling Santana with her and over to her bunk.

"Wore yourselves out there did ya?" Quinn questioned before a new set of giggles started up. Santana fake laughed before flipping her off.

"This doesn't excuse the situation Brittany! I'm still pissed that you didn't have the common courtesy to at least tell us you wouldn't be back for a while!" Rachel belted out.

"Now that would have been an even more awkward conversation." Santana jumped in.

Rachel huffed in annoyance. Quinn was still doubled over in laughter while Brittany was stripping out of her semi-wet clothes.

"Santana, I realize that you two had an eventful night but you could have said something so we weren't freaking out and planning a funeral."

"Look, Berry," Santana said a little firmer, now taking the diva's persistence more seriously and getting rather annoyed. "I'm trying really hard to let this go. Forgive me for actually enjoying the night with my girlfriend. I didn't come back here to get a lecture, so would you pipe down and stay out of it?"

"San…" Brittany cut in warningly but Rachel carried on.

"Oh, so it's ok for you to shoot remarks about Quinn and I in a joking manner but when I'm sincerely worried for both of your guy's safety, it makes me the bad guy?" Rachel took a step closer to the slightly taller brunette, not backing down from a challenge.

Quinn had stopped laughing and was now looking back and forth between the two. Brittany was moving closer to her girlfriend and best friend, not fully sure if she should prepare herself for a physical altercation.

"I'm sorry that I didn't think about calling you while we were having sex. I'll remember that for next time." Santana spat sarcastically as she looked away and faked a mental note to herself.

"Please Santana, grow up! We are all young adults here and yes, sex usually comes along with it. I'm not asking you to narrate what you two do, but letting us know that you're alive would be something to take into account, especially since we have been trying to contact you for…" Rachel, now on the verge of tears when she mocked looking at the watch on her wrist, "gee.. 3 HOURS!"

"You know what… we are more than capable of making our own decisions around here. What we do is none of your damn business; you don't need to know everything we do or where we go. Why don't you just-" Santana started angrily before Quinn and Brittany moved in to pull their best friends apart.

"Santana stop!" Quinn shouted while hauling the Latina out of Brittany and Rachel's cabin and the few yards to their own.

Quinn shoved the brunette inside before slamming the door.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" The blonde shouted.

"What's wrong with me? Where you blind for the past few minutes? You're girlfriend wouldn't let it go and got up in my face about it!" Santana said now starting on Quinn.

"Well she does have a point! You two were gone for 6 hours Santana! I don't know about you, but I sure as hell was about ready to get the boys and start looking for you guys. We were worried sick!" Quinn as equally angry now and jumping to challenge her best friend.

"Oh for the love of God! How many times do I have to say this? I'M NOT JUST GONNA STOP WHAT I'M DOING TO CALL YOU AND TELL YOU SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

"I wasn't asking you to! You rounded on Rachel like she did something wrong! She was worried about both of you! You could at least respect the fact that she was about to go tell someone. She didn't know if you were alive or dead! You guys have never been walking that long and it seriously freaked us out!"

"You knew as soon as you saw us! You were more than happy to laugh rather than preach about it!"

"That's because you and I share the same personality when it comes to stuff like that, S! RACHEL DOESN'T!" Quinn deadpanned.

"Did you know that her fathers were killed when she was 10 years old?" The blonde questioned, now more serious than ever.

"What does that even have to do wi-" Santana started but was quickly cut off.

"They were taking a walk after dinner one night when they were kidnapped, tortured, and then murdered! All because some homophobic assholes couldn't stand the thought of them raising Rachel! They thought that her dads were going to raise her to be 'gay' like they were!" Santana anger flew out the window in an instant and she felt more guilty than ever.

"You have no idea what was running through her head when you didn't answer your phone! Brittany is her best friend and you're her best friend's girlfriend! I realize that to you, it only seems one sided and only directed for Brittany, but she cares about you too Santana!"

"Q… I'm sorry, I didn't know…" Santana said softly.

"Don't apologize to me. Look, I know you and Rachel don't always see eye-to-eye and yes, I realize she gets on your nerves sometimes, but she has reasons to why she acts the way she does. She's more afraid of loosing the people she cares about. I think you of all people would know what that feels like."

Santana winced at her words. Knowing full well what her best friend was referring to. After a few moments, Quinn's voice softened some and she came and sat next to the Latina.

"San… you know now what it's like to be that intimate with someone you care about. Rachel wasn't trying to ruin your's and Britt's night, ok. She just wanted to know you guys were ok. That's all."

Santana nodded in understanding and she stood up.

"I'll be back in a minute." Santana walked out of the door and over to the next cabin. She knocked a few times on the door before hesitantly opening it and peaking inside.

Rachel was leaned into Brittany's side, sniffling every other moment. The blonde looked up to her girlfriend with a slightly worried look.

"Hey… umm… Britt could you give us a minute?" The Latina hesitantly asked her girlfriend.

"San I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Please, it will only take a minute. I promise nothing will happen."

"It's not up to me." Brittany said, now looking down at her best friend who was staring off in front of her.

Santana paused for a moment. She knew that she shouldn't have snapped. After all, she and Brittany were gone for an irregular amount of time. It only made sense that their friends would care enough to practically have a heart attack about them being gone so long.

"Rachel…?" Santana said hesitantly. "Can I please talk to you for a minute?"

The diva stayed quite for a moment which made Santana nervous. Agonizing thoughts flooded through her head. All she could think about was the fact that she seemed to have gone back to her old ways of being a torturous bitch to everyone she came in contact with. Even people she seemingly hated but in reality she liked. Quinn was right, Rachel's moderately 'involved' personality did get on her nerves a bit. The shorter brunette did usually step into their conversations and the way she spoke in a rambling matter with her extensive vocabulary wasn't one thing that made getting along with her easy. But the one thing that Quinn somewhat hinted on was that Santana didn't like Rachel. Which wasn't the case. Although in a normal situation Santana wouldn't get along with someone who couldn't joke about random things, Rachel had grown on her.

Santana only teased the girl in a joking manner and in reality it was only around their rather large group of friends. Rachel ended up being in most of her individualized sessions and not knowing anyone else around them, usually set them off in their own conversations. They felt kind of awkward at first but eventually they set into more in depth conversations ranging from their relationships with Brittany and Quinn or about normal, everyday things. They weren't close but they did get along and were more or less, friends.

At that point Santana was about to accept the fact that Rachel didn't want to have anything to do with her when the diva finally spoke.

"It's ok Brittany, she can talk." Brittany looked up warningly at Santana before looking back to her best friend and nodding.

She moved to get off the bunk and Rachel sat up before re-adjusting herself to rest against the wall. Brittany walked over to her bag to grab her clothes before making her way to the shower, turning on the water, and closing the door.

Santana followed her girlfriends movements until she disappeared behind the door before returning her gaze back to Rachel. She wanted to apologize for being too harsh. In fact she wanted to apologize for even saying anything in the first place. Now that she thinks about the whole ordeal it just seems stupid to have even argued in the first place. Rachel honestly hadn't done anything wrong.

Now that she was actually there, she really didn't have a thought about what she would say to the shorter brunette. Santana usually didn't apologize to people for anything. Only when she was entirely in the wrong and this just happened to be one of those cases. She new she overstepped her bounds and what was worse was she now knew the reasons for Rachel wanting to be involved with her friends and why she seemed to care so much about their whereabouts.

The Latina moved slowly across the cabin to sit on the edge of the bunk. Rachel sat quietly, choosing to let Santana say what she needed to say and let that be the end of it. She played mindlessly with her pajama pants, picking and tracing the little monkey patterns printed on them.

"Rachel I… I'm sorry for what I said to you earlier. I didn't mean to put you down. You were worried about us and I shouldn't have snapped. You didn't deserve that or anything that I said to you. It's just that I was so happy about my night with Britt and it just seemed like you pushed it aside and wanted to start a fight and-"

"I didn't want that though Santana." She cut the Latina off. "I just wanted to know that you guys were alright and when you didn't come back after a few hours it… it-" A new set of tears escaped and Rachel and she tried desperately to breathe through her sobs.

Santana moved to sit up against the wall with Rachel before wrapping an arm around the shorter girl and pulling her into a hug. Santana sat quietly with her, just letting her get it all out. In a way, Rachel was like Santana in the way she regarded her feelings, especially around people she didn't trust. And right now Rachel had every right not to trust her, which is why Santana thought long and hard before she spoke, not wanting what she said to upset the diva anymore. After a while longer, Rachel's sobs quieted down and her breath evened out slightly.

"I know Rach. It brought back all the memories of your dads." She closed her eyes at the thought. She couldn't imagine loosing both parents, especially the way that Rachel had. The Latina felt Rachel tense when she mentioned it. She tried to shake it off and continue her apology.

"I know you didn't mean anything by it earlier. I have a tendency to jump to conclusions and be a bitch about that sort of thing."

"I really am happy for you and Brittney, Santana. like I said, I just wanted to know that you guys were alright and-"

"I know." She said it a little more harshly than intended and she internally cursed herself for it. She just wanted to be able to communicate to the girl without another interruption.

The Latina sighed heavily after a moment and continued, this time in a softer tone than before. "I know that now. And I wanted to tell you that you didn't do anything wrong. Again, you didn't deserve what I said to you and now that I know about your… umm… your dads," Santana said hesitantly, not sure that it was something that Rachel wanted her knowing or for that matter, bringing it up, "I know now why you reacted the way you did. I was just so focused on you jumping on me and Britt when we got back that I failed to see that you were just worried about us. And I'm sorry."

Rachel looked at Santana, almost trying to judge if she was being sincere in her apology before she gave a small grin.

"Thank you." The diva said after a moment. "I appreciate your sincerity and I accept your apology." Santana smiled.

"I'm going to hug you now." Rachel said after a moment and Santana let out a slight laugh at the warning. The Latina nodded and leaned in to hug her back.

"So you guys kissed and made up I see?" Brittany's voice came from the hallway diagonally from the bunk they were sitting on.

Both Rachel and Santana looked up at the freshly showered blonde, neither noticing that she had even turned off the water or opened the door. Brittany had her arms folded across her chest lazily and was leaning up against the wall with a smile on her face.

"Well without the kissing part, but yes. I'll leave that for the two of you love birds." Rachel teased.

"How long were you standing there?" Santana asked, slightly worried. Santana secretly knew that Brittany was an exception to seeing her soft side but she didn't really want her knowing that she considered Rachel her friend.

"Long enough." Was Brittany's reply with a half smile tugging at her lips. She totally knew.

Rachel laughed as she saw Santana's expression drop slightly. "I'm going to see Quinn. You guys be good." She pointed between the couple as she got up to cross the room. She gave Brittany a hug before exiting the cabin, leaving the couple to stare at one another. The blonde started to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Santana asked.

"You're just really cute when you let people know that you care."

Santana just gave a rather horrified look. "What! Who said I was showing anyone anything?"

"So I just imagined that whole conversation between you and Rachel?"

The Latina's face drained of color and her mouth dropped open. "You heard the whole thing?"

Brittany laughed and nodded with a funny looking smirk. The dancer didn't think Santana knew that Rachel was crying in her arms for a good 10 minutes, by which time Brittany had already finished her shower and could hear them talking outside the door.

"Whatever you heard it wasn't anything more than an apology for acting like a bitch."

"Uh huh, whatever you say." She could totally call Santana's bullshit. The Latina huffed.

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Ok I was gonna post this last night but the internet on campus was down so I apologize for that. Also for the delay for last week and not updating. Finals week kicked my ass. I have a lot of extra time for break now though so it should be back to a pretty regular schedule. I hope you guys liked the Pezberry friendship. To be honest I actually love them together. That love/hate relationship reminds me of Tom & Jerry cartoons for some reason. The performance of We Are Young in last weeks episode made my feelings go crazy! Then last nights episode just made me want to slap someone.

MAJOR NOTE: If you feel like you are missing things in this chapter, good, because you are. The reference Quinn made when she said "you of all people should understand that" will be revealed in the next few chapters.