AN: Hey everyone.
Just before we start this one, it is going to take a little bit ofa dark turn with some mentions of rape. There is going to be plenty of drama throughout this fic, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for the drama.
So please be aware of the trigger warning.
Let me know what you think, thank you.
The following Thursday was a weird one for Santana. When she arrived at school at 5AM as usual, she was greeted by Brittany, who was acting strange, even for her standards.
Usually, Brittany is quite a physical person but only in the sense of hugging or wanting to link arms. But today something was different. She was stroking Santana's arms and leaving her hands still for longer than deemed acceptable for a friendly touch.
However, she was completely confused when Brittany suggested that at Puck's party, that was happening the next day, that they find somewhere private to 'have fun'.
She's heard of Brittany's reputation around school that she likes sex and anyone is fair game that is willing but she has never thought of Brittany in that way. She also can't think of a time that she may have given Brittany a signal that it's something she may have wanted.
Whilst amidst her confusion, Brittany had wandered off in the direction of the locker rooms to prepare for practise.
Santana shook off the strange situation and continued on her way to training to work out her confusion.
That wasn't the end of the invitations for 'one passionate night of love' though, as one Cheerio she had never seen before, had explained it.
Kitty had stopped her multiple times in the corridors to ask if she had a date for the party and to advise she was always willing to be 'arm candy'.
Bree even went as far as cornering her in the toilets to ask if Santana thought they would be a good match. She was also interested to know if Santana had a date or needed one.
This had her feeling extremely uneasy and was glad when the lunch bell sounded and she could go to her Sanctuary with Quinn.
As she reached the couch, she sat down and Quinn could instantly tell that something was bothering the Latina. She was completely spaced out and looked flustered.
Quinn decided to reach out and gently touch her arm to bring her back to the present, however, Santana flinched and pulled away. She felt offended until she realised the uneasiness on Santana's face when she looked up.
"Tana, are you okay?" She asked softly.
"Have the Cheerios got some kind of bet on me or something?"
Quinn's eyebrows raised in shock and then slowly lowered as she tried to understand why the Latina may be feeling like that.
"Not that I'm aware of. Tana, why would you think that?" What she didn't expect was the response she received.
"I'm not a prize to you, am I Q? You aren't getting to know me and spending time with me to win a bet, are you?" As she finished her chin began to wobble and tears filled her brown orbs.
Shocked as to why the girl would possibly think that, Quinn scooted closer, cupped her cheek with one hand and placed her other hand over Santana's own, resting in her lap and looked into her eyes.
"Tana, of course I'm not. What's going on? Talk to me."
"All day Cheerios have been cornering me, asking me out, offering sex, dates, all sorts. Brittany was first and I was sceptical but throughout the day they're all approaching me asking for similar things from me, I don't understand." She begins to whimper.
Quinn puts an arm around her shoulder and pulls her close. Santana lets the tears fall onto Quinn's shoulder as she tries to soothe her.
"Who's doing it, Tana? Who's asking you?" She whispers softly.
"All of them. Brittany, Bree, Kitty, girls I've never even seen before. What do they want Q?"
"I don't know but don't worry, I'll sort it okay?" She feels a small nod in the crook of her neck and starts trying to work out what the hell is going on.
Luckily for Quinn, Cheerios had extra practise tonight so that they would be ready for the first football game of the season in a few weeks.
She storms into the locker room and the newer girls part like the red sea when they see the HBIC glare coming through.
"Someone better tell me right now why near enough every girl in this room is hitting on Santana!" She growls.
Kitty takes it upon herself to respond, "What's it to you Fabray? She's fair game, isn't she? We aren't doing anything wrong." She raises her eyebrows, trying to gage Quinn's reaction.
"What? So you all decided on the same day you would try and seduce her? How convenient." She laughs darkly.
No one else seems to have anything to say on the matter as they all start to disperse onto the field. Quinn turns around and notices that Marley is still standing there. She approaches Quinn and gestures towards the bench for them to sit.
"Finn offered the same deal to all of the squad. If one of us can get Santana to go to Puck's party with them, he'll give them 100 bucks. If they sleep with her, he'll give them double."
Quinn's whole body is filled with rage as she drops her head into her hands.
She mumbles a 'thank you' to Marley and hears the girl leave the locker room.
Quinn decides that she won't get through to any of the girls, this needs to be cut off directly at the source.
That's how she finds herself in this situation.
Storming with intent across the field towards the football team. She easily picks Finn out of the crowd and charges towards him. Luckily, he's taken his helmet off at this point to take a drink of water and as soon as she can reach, she slaps him across the face as hard as she possibly can.
"What the fuck Quinn?!" He shouts.
He steps forward into her personal space but she is soon being pushed back by a familiar body infront of her.
"Let her go Lopez, she wants to come out here and attack me, let me at least find out why."
Blaine looks into Quinn's eyes and sees the fury there. Now that's Quinn is standing infront of him, he's even more confused. Santana had text to say that she wouldn't be at training because she was with Quinn and there's no way she'd have let her come storming out here alone?
So, where the hell was she?
"You're such an asshole Finn! Getting the Cheerios to gang up on her like that? What are you gaining from it? Are you hoping that we'll get back together and I'll stop hanging out with her? Are you hoping that she'll somehow break my heart and I'll come crawling back to you? I wouldn't get back together with you if you were the last man on earth. What don't you get about stay the fuck away? LEAVE HER ALONE!"
Blaine takes the situation into his own hands and begins to move Quinn back in the direction of the school.
When he eventually gets Quinn back inside and calmed down, he can now begin to worry about the location of his sister.
"Where's Santana?" He asks.
"What do you mean 'where is she?'? She's on that field we just left."
"Quinn, do you really think if Santana was on that field she would have let that happen and I'd be the one in here with you?"
It suddenly dawns on Quinn what Blaine is saying and that he really doesn't know where she is.
"She texted me earlier to let me know she wouldn't be at practise because she was with you!" He says frantically as he locates his phone and tries to call his sister, but it goes straight to voicemail.
"I haven't seen her since lunch time. She was upset because she Cheerios have been hitting on her all day, Finn was offering to pay them, if one of them got Santana to sleep with them." Quinn rattled off, trying to fill Blaine in as he still frantically calls Santana.
"Her fucking phone is off!"
Seeing Blaine this upset about not knowing where his sister is, is making Quinn uneasy.
"I'm sure she's okay, maybe her battery just died."
"Quinn, I think that if she hasn't told you why this whole bet thing is really sensitive for her and you're confused about my panic, then you really do still have some topics to cover. I need to get going, I'll have to go and look for her."
"Wait, I'll come with you. I can help." She offers.
"If you really want to help, I think it's best you wait at the house to see if she comes home. Mami is on the night shift tonight so she won't be there." Quinn eagerly nods, just happy to be of some help. Before she knows it, Blaine has called Mercedes, who has offered to pick them up, drop Quinn off at the Lopez residence and drive Blaine around until they find her.
And that's exactly what happens.
It's been a couple hours and Blaine is running out of ideas. Then he remembers that Santana had mentioned she had found a tree house, just a little into Lima Woods.
He gets Mercedes to drop him off and tells her that she can go home if she needs and that he can walk from here.
She says that it's okay, she can wait for them and would rather see they get home safely.
Blaine wanders for a couple of minutes around the edge of the dark woods, until he sees a small flickering of lights up in a tree about 10ft from him.
He slowly climbs the ladder attached to the tree and relief washes over him as he find his sister sleeping under a blanket.
He fires a quick text to Mercedes and Quinn to let them know he's found her, before attempting to wake her.
Blaine puts his hand gently on her shoulder and shakes her ever so slightly, as not to startle her. The Latina's eyes begin to flutter open and she rubs them to make sure she isn't hallucinating.
"Blaine? How did you find me?" She mumbles.
"I listen to you when you talk you know," he laughs gently, "come on, we need to get home. You had us worried sick. I also think you've got some explaining to do to Quinn."
"What do you mean? And what time is it?" She questions.
"I mean she was confused as hell when I was panicking about you disappearing into thin air and your phone being off! And it's like 6:45 now."
Suddenly, Santana realises what she's just put her brother through and pulls him in tight to her.
"Oh my god Blaine, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I just needed some time and I was planning on being home before you so that you wouldn't worry, I must have been so tired I fell asleep. Please don't tell me you called Mami?" She panics.
"You're so lucky, I was about 5 minutes from calling her. I'm not even sure how I remembered this place was here, you only mentioned it in passing once! Come on, Mercedes is waiting to take us home and Quinn is at the house."
With that, they both climbed out of the tree and made their way to the car to go home.
As soon as Santana walks through the front door, a mop of blonde hair is in her face and arms are carelessly swung around her neck, holding her tight.
"Where have you been? I was so worried about you." Quinn exclaims.
Blaine walks past them and says that he is going to take a shower.
Santana takes one of Quinn's hands and leads them towards the couch. They both sit down and Quinn sits as close as possible as she needs to contact for reassurance at the moment.
"Blaine told me that there's some stuff we still need to talk about. I just want to let you know that there's no rush and I'm here when you're ready." The blonde rambles out.
Santana decides that if she's going to tell Quinn all of this, it's now or never.
"If I don't tell you now, I don't think I ever will. So I'm just going to talk, okay? If you have any questions, just ask me when I'm done and I'll answer whatever."
Quinn can only manage to nod now, scared of what's to come.
"So, Blaine was so scared today because a couple years ago, when my parents were going through their separation and divorce, I found it really hard to cope. I wasn't sure what to do, if I was to take sides or something. So instead, I would just retreat into myself. I didn't really get any sleep, I really didn't eat that much and sometimes, I would disappear for hours on end, just walking, you know?" She takes a deep breath.
"One day, I was on a long walk when a man began following me. He followed me for like 10 minutes and I picked up the pace walking in the direction of home but unfortunately for me, he could walk much quicker. I started to run but I wasn't quick enough and he managed to grab a hold of me. He wrestled me to the ground and as he straddled me, got a few punches in trying to get me to stop fighting and luckily before he could do any real damage, a car was driving past. They stopped and a man got out of the passenger seat and dragged him away from me. He beat him on the ground and once he was satisfied, him and his wife took me home. My parents hadn't realised I was missing but Blaine was distraught. Mami cleaned me up and I was alright in a few days but it really shook him up so he panics a lot when he can't get a hold of me now."
Santana looks up to find Quinn with tears pouring from her eyes. She reaches up and wipes them away, only for them to be replaced moments later.
"It's okay, you don't need to worry about it. I'm fine." Are the only words she manages to get out.
"I-I can't beli-believe th-that happened t-to you Tana." Quinn stutters out.
Santana pulls her close and kisses the top of her head. "I told you, it's okay. I'm okay, there's nothing for you worry about. But it does lead me on to the second thing I want to talk about. I need you to stop crying though before I do. I'm really not sure how you're going to react, you may not even want to see me again once I've told you."
This gains Quinn's attention and she pulls back from Santana's hold. She's calmed down considerably at this point.
"Tana, there is nothing that you could tell me that would make me not want to see you anymore, okay?" She sniffles.
"We'll see. Okay so, as you've probably gathered, if that man was given the chance, he probably would have raped me," Quinn's eyes begin to fill again and Santana instantly wipes them away, "but if he'd have gotten to that point, he would have been really confused and probably had second thoughts.
You see, I was born a little different. I am a girl, but I was born with a penis."
Santana looks up into Quinn's eyes and just sees pure confusion swirling in them.
"At the gender scan, they thought I was a boy, however once I was born and all the tests were ran, they discovered that I was a girl, only I was born with a penis. Mami and Papi decided that I wasn't going to have it removed or give me hormones to make me a boy and just left me how I was born. So I'm what they call 'intersex'. Nobody outside of my Mami, Papi and Blaine know about it though."
She looks up at Quinn, who still is yet to speak, and decides that this is probably not a good sign.
"I understand if you don't want to see me anymore or you think I'm some kind of freak. I wouldn't blame you, the look of disgust on peoples faces when they hear about things like this are totally understandable real-"
Again, she is cut off by Quinn's finger to her lips. Finally, she hears that heavenly voice, "Tana, that doesn't change a thing, okay? It was just a lot to take in in a short amount of time. This doesn't change anything between us. Your secret is safe with me."
Santana feels a huge weight lift as the blonde makes herself comfortable and curls up into her side.
Little does she know, her brother is at the top of the stairs. He only heard the end of the conversation and the blondes reply but he can't help but be ecstatic for his sister. He knows she's found a good one.