AN: The interest in this story is dropping, but that's okay, we'll keep going for now! Before reading this, just remember that everyone has their own ways of dealing with things and it's usually a re-occurring pattern!
The next morning Blaine makes his way downstairs and into Santana's room, to find it empty. He pads into the kitchen with no sign of the Latina but sees a note on the counter.
Ran to school, I'll meet you there - S
He rests his arms on the breakfast bar and drops his head into his hands, this is not good. Especially if she's avoiding the blonde.
Just then, said girl wanders into the kitchen, obviously glancing around to find her girlfriend.
"She's not here, she's ran to school. We can take the car, if you're okay to drive?" He says.
The blonde nods in response and the two of them make their way to school.
They arrive at their practices early and head out to the field, where Santana is outside alone, working herself to death.
Blaine and Quinn share a worried look and silently agree that it will be best to leave her for now.
Quinn retreats to the Cheerios locker room and as soon as she is alone, the tears fall.
The whole situation is confusing, she loves Santana with everything she has, she makes the blonde feel loved, comfortable and safe, something she has never felt. But the idea that she won't always be around and that she'll always be in danger, it breaks her heart.
Although she knows, deep down, she would rather do hard with Santana, than easy and convenient with someone else, it doesn't make it any easier.
The door opening relieves her from her thoughts but she doesn't look up.
"Quinn, are you okay?" Comes a familiar voice. The leggy blonde sits next to her and wraps her up in her arms.
"I'm fine Britt." She replies, wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks. "Let's get ready for practise."
And with that she shrugs off her friend and they head out on to the field.
Quinn instinctively looks over to where Santana was previously and is shocked to see her brunette and Blaine head to head. They appear to be screaming but not loudly enough so that she can hear.
Santana has Blaine gripped by his t-shirt and pulled tightly into her face. He doesn't seem to be fighting back but just taking it.
The commander of the ROTC seems to notice this before it's gets too heated, he breaks it up and screams at Santana, to which she storms away in the direction of the locker room, obviously dismissed.
Blaine catches the blondes eye and shakes his head slightly, telling her not to follow. She decides that this time, he may be right, she needs to cool off.
Santana and Quinn don't have any classes together today so it's easy for Santana to avoid her.
It's the period before lunch and Santana has class with Mercedes, she's not really spoken to anyone all day and is regretful about the way she screamed at her brother this morning.
Her and Quinn still religiously have their dinner together in their Sanctuary but she definitely can't face her today.
"Hey Cedes?"
"What's up girl, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, can you take Quinn with you to lunch today please? There's some things I need to do."
Mercedes looks at her inquisitively, she knows something more is wrong but doesn't want to push the other girl.
"Sure, I think she has class with Kurt now so I'll meet them afterwards."
"Thanks." Santana replies with a small smile as the bell rings and she takes off.
Santana decides that she needs to just be alone and really get her thoughts in order before everyone gets home and she has to face the music.
She decides to skip last period and run to her safe place.
The treehouse.
As soon as she settles in, she realises this probably wasn't her best idea. The last time Santana was in this treehouse, she had a gorgeous, hazel-eyed blonde with her. It holds sacred memories of the night that they shared, lying together gazing at the stars.
She begins to cry uncontrollably, more so from anger than sadness. She's just so frustrated with the situation.
When herself and Blaine decided that they were going to join the army, there were no one else's feelings involved, it was okay.
Now, she can't help but feel conflicted. She knows that she loves Quinn, but is love enough when she's going to be leaving her repeatedly to enter the unknown?
She knows that the army is what she wants to do, that's been decided for years and she isn't sure that she can give that up. They're either going have to work this out or unfortunately separate.
The thought is heartbreaking and she expresses her anger the only way she knows how, punching things. Unfortunately, the thing close enough is the exposed tree trunk.
Blaine is distressed when he walks into his final class and his sister is absent from her usual seat. The blonde had text him and asked whether her girlfriend was okay, but he'd decided to ignore that for now as not to worry her until they could do something about it.
At least he has a strong idea about where she will be this time.
The final bell rings and Blaine makes his way to the car to wait for Quinn.
"Where is she?" The blonde questions whilst approaching him.
"I don't know, she wasn't in there."
Quinn's face instantly drops and worry evident in her features.
"Don't panic just yet. I think it's time you two spoke, drop me at home and if she's not there, I think she's at the treehouse, you need to be the one to find her."
She nods and they get in the car to drive home. Blaine gets out of the car when they arrive, checks the house and shakes his head toward Quinn, who is waiting in the car. With that she makes her way to the woods.
Quinn nervously pulls up to the parking lot and slowly makes her way towards the treehouse.
"It's okay, you just need to make sure she's okay." She chants encouragingly to herself.
As she gets closer she can hear rapid movements and a grunting and crying noise coming from above.
She climbs the ladder as quick as she can to see Santana battering her fists against the exposed tree trunk.
The blonde hastily wraps her arms as tight as she can around the Latina and pulls her backwards. They struggle for a second until Santana realises who has hold of her.
She tries to struggle her way out of the strong grip she's in but her girlfriend on holds on tighter. "It's okay baby, it's okay." She whispers into raven hair.
When she feels Santana relax, she releases her hold to which the brunette sits up and moves to the other side of the small room.
It's when Quinn finally gets a good look at Santana for the first time, that she realises the dark bags beneath under her eyes, the tear stained cheeks but the main issue.. the blood pouring from her knuckles.
"Baby.. your hands." She says quietly, leaning forward to take them into her own but Santana quickly pulls them away.
"Don't Quinn, leave them." She replies rather harshly.
"Tana don't shut me out, please?" The blonde whimpers in reply.
"I don't know how to deal with this Quinn. You aren't happy, I'm not going to make you happy. I was selfish not to have considered your feelings about this before! I should have never let it get this far." She sighs.
Quinn knows what her girlfriend is trying to do and needs to stop it now, she moves forward quickly and straddles her legs, cupping tanned, tear marked cheeks. "Don't finish that, we are not breaking up. Please lovebug, please?" She cries. "You do make me happy, we can work this out, we can, don't leave me." The blonde tightens her hands around the brunettes face and leans their foreheads together.
"It's what's best for you Quinn. It's not fair, I can't let you be stressed for the next two years, for me then to be deployed and you to be left here worrying. I can't do that to you." Brown eyes staring down, avoiding hazel but this statement makes Quinn pull back.
"You don't get to make that decision for me Santana! I knew what I was getting into but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it! I will forever be supportive of this but I'm never going to jump for joy when you're leaving! We are not breaking up. I won't let you, I want my life with you and I know you want yours with me. I'll do hard with you over easy with anyone else, I choose you every time! You don't get to break this, I love you too much to let you walk away." She states firmly.
They're both crying and Quinn wraps her arms and legs around the Latina, to which surprisingly, Santana pulls the blonde into her further, both clinging on as if it's the last time they'll see each other.
When they eventually begin to release their death grips on each other, Quinn pulls Santana in for a soft kiss but needs just a little more, she swipes her tongue against a plump lip which allows access, they tangle delicately and lovingly against each other.
The kiss comes to a natural end and Santana speaks first, "We need to go home, I have to apologise to Blaine, I bet he's worried. I definitely shouldn't have screamed at him the way I did this morning."
"I don't know what you said but he didn't seem to phased by it, he's not been upset or anything today. We just both started to worry when you didn't turn up for lunch or last period."
"I just needed to think."
"Lovebug, if this is going to work we need to communicate better, no shutting each other out anymore," she takes a large pause, placing her finger and thumb on her girlfriends chin, "Are you listening?" Santana nods lightly. "It's you and me, we're in this together, as long as that's something you want?"
"Don't think that I don't want to be with you baby love. I just know that breaking up would be better in the long run for you. It was the hardest thing in the world for me to do that, you know that, don't you? I love you so much, I was willing to let you go."
"It definitely wouldn't be better for me, I need you, I don't function properly without you Tana. I love you too, words don't do justice for what I feel for you." She says brushing their lips together briefly. "Come on, I need to get you home to sort your hands." She says gently taking the bleeding hands into her own, "You can't go around punching things, my love. I hate seeing you hurt." She pleads, moving them towards the exit of the treehouse.
With this they both leave the treehouse and head back to the car to go home.
As they walk through the door, they see Maribel and Blaine sitting in the living room.
Maribel jumps up upon seeing the two girls, "Mija, what the hell happened to you?"
"Don't Mami, can you just help clean this up please?"
"Not until you tell you tell what you've done." She says sternly.
"I punched a tree okay, don't ask me why, I don't want to talk about it. Now can you please help me, otherwise I'll leave it, I'm really not that bothered?"
Quinn decides to squeeze the hand that is grasped in her own lightly as not to cause more pain, "Tana, it's not your Mami's fault, don't speak to her like that."
The Latina huffs before replying, "You're right, I'm sorry Mami. I lost my temper, but I'm okay now." She sighs.
"I hope she sticks around," Maribel says looking over at Quinn winking, which makes the blonde giggle, "Come on." She finishes dragging her daughter off to the kitchen, whilst Quinn makes her way to sit with Blaine.
He opens her arms for her to fall into and they hug tightly.
Quinn explains to him what happened and what they had discussed.
"You do know she loves you and she genuinely thought she was doing right by you, right?" He says once she had finished.
"I know she loves me but I don't know if her suggesting that we break up was for me solely. I think it was probably for her as well."
"Honestly Quinn, I know my sister. She's exposed herself to you in a way that nobody outside of our house has seen. I've also never seen her care for another person the way she does you. I know that if it had to be you or her, right now, life or death, it wouldn't even be a thought. She loves you wholly and she's worried that you'll leave her first. Her love scares her, she thinks when we leave, you'll move on."
"She really thinks that?" She manages to stumble out.
"I think so." And he squeezes her shoulder as Santana returns with a bandage covering both of the tanned hands.
"You might be my brother but I will kick your ass if you're trying to make a move on my girl, find your own blonde." She states making the two of them laugh.
Quinn stands up and kisses Santana's cheek, "I'm going to help Mama L with dinner."
Santana sits down on the opposite end of the sofa to Blaine.
"Listen bro, I'm really sorry for the way I spoke to you earlier. I shouldn't have done that, I know you were trying to help." She starts.
"I know you're sorry. I didn't take it to heart, don't worry," he chuckles, "you really need to communicate with her better though. I sat with her until she cried herself to sleep last night, she's been through enough without feeling she's not going to be welcome here."
"I know, I was out of line. Hopefully I can make it up to her." She says optimistically.
"She said you tried to break up with her? Is that something you want? And be honest with me." He asks warily.
"No Blaine. You know I don't want that, but how do I deal with this situation? How do we have a good and healthy relationship and me being able to maintain my career without her so worried about it? You know what happened before and this so much deeper than that."
"San, you of all people know that she will never stop worrying about you. We both know her well enough now though that we can anticipate when she's upset, you need to make sure that everything is being aired. Don't let it build up like this again and don't run away from her, it's kills her when you do and I'm not always going to be around to pick up the pieces."
They pause for a while before Santana mutters a 'thank you' and a 'I won't' before they stand to embrace each other.
"I love you bro."
"I love you too sis."
They break apart to make their way into the kitchen to see how they can help with dinner.
Everyone is settling down for the night and Santana is making her way to Quinn's room to say goodnight.
She knocks timidly on the door before hearing permission to enter, "Hey, I just wanted to say goodnight."
"Why did you knock?" Quinn asks giggling slightly.
"I didn't want to just walk in, you could be doing something private or you just might not want to see anyone, I don't know." She asks stumbling over herself.
Quinn just giggles more, "Come here." She says beckoning over the brunette.
When she reaches the bed, Quinn pats the other side of her, to which Santana sits down.
The blonde lies on her side facing the Latina and pulls her so that they're mirroring each other. She places her hand on the back of Santana's neck and plays with the wisps of hair there.
"We're okay now, right?" She asks fearfully.
"I hope so, I'm sorry for how I've acted, I just- I have a bad experience in the whole 'being in a relationship and going into the army' thing. I'm not ready to talk about it yet, but I promise that we will. I haven't quite mastered how to be a good girlfriend."
"You are a wonderful girlfriend Tana. We had a lack of communication but hopefully we can fix that, we'll get better. This is new for me too, I don't really know how long you were in a relationship before so I'm not sure if it's brand new to you or not, but I've never been in a relationship with feelings like this. I know that if we work at it, we'll be okay."
"I definitely want you Q, I'm all in." She states reassuringly.
"Good because it's what I want to." She finishes leaning in for a kiss.
Santana pulls away after a minute or so and sits up, "I'm going to go to bed now anyway, I'm extremely tired and I'm sure the commander is going to have a punishment ready for me in the morning." She sulks.
"You're not staying with me?" Quinn asks sadly.
"No my darling. I haven't been sleeping too well so I don't want to keep you up too."
Quinn sits up too at hearing this, she was unaware that Santana wasn't sleeping properly, "Are you okay? I didn't feel you moving around the night after the concert." She asks worriedly.
"I'm fine, don't worry about it. And I moved quite a lot actually, you barely flinched but we were both wore out and tired so it doesn't surprise me that you didn't wake. How do you think we changed positions?" Santana winks.
"Babe, I'm serious, you need to make sure you're resting."
"I am, it'll pass soon. I'm fine, honestly."
"You promise? You'll tell me if you think somethings wrong, right?"
"I promise. And yes, I'll tell you if somethings wrong. Now get some sleep pretty girl." She says, shifting Quinn so that she's lying back down and giving her a few quick pecks to her lips.
"Goodnight mi amor." Santana whispers.
Quinn melts at the term of endearment, she just loves it when Santana speaks Spanish. "Goodnight lovebug."
Santana leaves the room and makes her way downstairs. She flops on the bed and decides to try and get some rest herself, but her thoughts keep her awake.