The next morning, Mari walks into the waiting room to find the three teens asleep on the plastic chairs. She did text Blaine last night around 4AM telling them to go home, but they must have already been asleep.
She has just finished her night shift and wants to go home and see if she can get some rest, get showered and changed before coming back, to see if they'll be able to visit her daughter, as Santana has been placed in ICU.
Maribel kneels down infront of Blaine and lightly shakes his knee, "Mijo."
He stirs slightly but doesn't wake, "Mijo, wake up." she tries again.
Soon his tired eyes flutter open and lock on the exhausted ones of his mother.
"Is she okay?" He rasps out.
"She made it through the night, which is a good first step. Come on, we need to go home and get clean, eat and some rest. She's in ICU so we can't see her anyway yet, we may be able to one by one later when she's conscious." Maribel explains.
"She's still not conscious, she's not woken up yet?" He asks afraid.
Maribel just shakes her head in response.
"Come on, I'm going home, wake up the girls and bring them back, Mercedes can come too, I will speak with Mr and Mrs. Jones."
"Okay Mami, we'll be there soon."
With that, Maribel leaves and Blaine wakes Mercedes, they decide that Quinn is definitely not going to leave the hospital if they wake her, so they're best carrying her to the car and waking her in there.
So Blaine picks up the blonde bridal style, carries her out to the car and gently places her inside.
Mercedes gets into the drivers side and Blaine sits in the back with Quinn so that he can wake her. He shakes her shoulder gently, "Q? Quinn wake up."
Her eyes burst open and he can see instant panic in them, "Where are we going? What about Tana? I haven't seen her yet! Is she okay?" She rambles out.
"Q, calm down. She's still alive, she's in ICU under surveillance. Mami says that we can't see her yet, so we're going home, to rest, shower and eat and we're going back later, to see if they'll let us see her." He coos gently.
"What if she's scared when she gets up this morning and she wants to see someone? No one will be there!" She begins raising her voice and her breathing is becoming uneven.
Blaine has seen his sister deal with this enough times to know what to do, "Deep breaths in Quinn, deep breath out. Look at me," he waits as she seems to be struggling, when she looks up, he carries on, "Come on, breathe with me, in and out."
Her breathing starts to become normal and he decides to put her out of her misery sooner rather than later, "She's not woken up yet Q."
"Well it's still early, maybe she's tired and just needed the sleep." She says optimistically.
"No. She's not come round into consciousness yet, not since last night." He says looking down, not ready to see the fear in hazel eyes staring back at him.
"Bu-but, she's alive, right?" She stutters.
"She's alive, but that's about it right now. I suppose she'll wake on her own, but nobody's too sure when that will be."
Quinn doesn't get time to say anything else as they pull up outside the house.
The blonde jumps from the car and runs inside, seeking out Maribel, "Mama! Mama, where are you?"
Maribel appears from in the kitchen and Quinn throws herself into her arms, "Why hasn't she woken up Mama? Is she going to be okay?"
"Come and sit down baby girl." Maribel coos, shuffling them so that they sit side by side on the couch, as the other two enter the room and also sit.
"She seems to be in a coma at the moment. Usually only severe cases of alcohol poisoning would cause that, but it just seems to be the way that her body is dealing with it. We just need to find out how much she drank that got her into this mess."
"She's- she's in a coma? But sometimes people don't wake up from them? There must be something we can do, I can't lose her." Quinn begins crying again, which when Maribel looks over, Cedes and Blaine are also shedding their own tears.
"She's going to be fine Mija, I just know it, have faith please. Now go and get some rest, all of you." She says, Mercedes says that she'll sleep in Santana's bed and Blaine gets Quinn upstairs and into her room.
She throws herself on the bed, wrapping herself in her favourite hoodie of the Latina's, cuddling the pillow that smells like her, "Come back to me lovebug. I love you so so so much, please don't leave me." She weeps as she falls into an exhausted slumber.
Downstairs, Mercedes takes this as her moment alone to speak with Maribel.
"Mari?" She says softly.
"Are you okay sweetheart?" Maribel asks, turning around, discreetly wiping her eyes.
"I know where Santana got her drink and I know roughly how much."
She then goes on to explain her conversation with Puck the night before and how he doesn't know where all of the injuries come from.
"That's everything that he said." She finishes.
"Thank you Cedes. You're a really amazing friend, my three are more than lucky to have you." Maribel states, pulling the other girl into a tight hug. "Go and get some rest now, take what you want of San's, she won't mind. I'll cook us all some food when we wake."
With that Maribel lets go of their visitor and they both head into their respective rooms to get some rest.
When Quinn woke, her eyes stung from the amount of tears she's shed recently.
Her first thoughts were of the Latina and if she was awake yet, her hand ached and when she unclenched her fist, she found Santana's bracelet captured in there, as if she let it go, she'd be letting her go forever.
"I hope you're okay baby." She whispered to herself, burying her face in her girlfriend's pillow, to inhale her scent.
She slowly pulled herself together and made her way downstairs, there she found Blaine and Mercedes sitting in the living room. "Hey Q, how are you?" The sitting girl asked.
"I'll be better when I know she's awake." Quinn answers sombrely.
"Mami is on the phone to the hospital now. There's some food in the kitchen for you." Blaine reveals.
"I'm not hungry." She mumbles.
Blaine makes his way over to Quinn and leads her to the couch, where she sits beside Mercedes. He disappears into the kitchen and comes back with some pancakes.
"Eat. You need to look after yourself and she'll kill me if she finds out you didn't eat for nearly 24 hours when she gets up." He says with a chuckle, handing the blonde the plate.
"Thank you." She whispers and he smiles in response.
After 5 minutes or so, Maribel enters the living room.
"So she's still in ICU and unconscious but her activity has doubled, they think that she'll be waking soon. They're going to let each of us see her for 10 minutes today. As soon as we're ready, we'll get going." She explains.
Quinn wolfs down the remainder of her food and sprints towards her room, to get ready.
She decides to wear all of Santana's clothing, she needs anything to help them feel close at the moment. After dressing in the Latina's sweatpants, t-shirt, hoodie and even a pair of her boxers, she makes her way towards the car with everyone else.
When they get to the hospital, they receive bands that allows them to enter ICU and they have to wear full PPE for the patients protection.
Maribel goes in first, followed by Mercedes and then Blaine.
Each of them come out looking a little more relieved, maybe just to see her breathing and that she's still here.
Before Quinn enters, Maribel pulls her to the side. "I just need to warn you Mija. She has tubes in the throat, helping her breathe, there's multiple IV's in her arm. They aren't hurting her so don't worry but they don't look great. If it's too overwhelming, you just leave, okay?"
The blonde reluctantly nods and makes her way towards the room, holding the love of her life.
As soon as she enters through the door, her hand flies to cover her mouth, in an attempt to reduce a sob, the sight breaks her heart.
Santana is lying on her back, as Maribel had described, she has a large tube in her throat, and an IV in each arm. Quinn rushes to her side and takes her hand in her own.
The brunettes skin is much paler than usual, she takes in the scratches have now been bandaged around her head and there's a gauze below her eye.
She runs her fingers through matted raven hair, "Oh my god Tana. I'm so sorry baby. Please come back. I'm sorry." She cries and leans forward to place a kiss on the unconscious girls forehead.
She sits for a couple minutes, just holding what is usually a beautifully tanned hand, tracing random patterns with her thumb, when she feels a small movement from within her palm.
"Tana?" Quinn questions and when she looks up, she sees eyelids trying to flutter open and Santana beginning to choke on the tube in her mouth.
"Oh my god, stay calm baby. I'm going to get someone, it's okay." She panics.
Quinn rushes into the hallway and runs until she gets to the nurses station. "Santana, she's waking up, she's choking... please?" She pants.
The nurse shouts to tell the blonde to stay out and rushes towards the room, paging someone else.
The blonde drops to the floor and sobs as she feels arms embrace her. She looks up to see Maribel, Blaine and Mercedes. "Sh-she's waki-waking up."
The three of them pull Quinn to her feet and they all embrace in a big hug, tears streaming from all faces.
Within 10 minutes a doctor approaches them, he clears his throat to gain the attention of the 4 people, still holding to each other.
"Dr. Leigh, hi."
"Hi Dr. Lopez. I'm sorry about Santana." He expresses.
"Thank you, how is she?"
"She's awake and fully alert, actually if she wasn't here and I hadn't seen her over the past 24 hours, I would think nothing was wrong with her." He chuckles to which the others laugh too.
"I came out here because we're going to move her into a private room but she won't go until she's seen Miss. Fabray."
Quinn just looks at Maribel, who lightly nods her head.
"Of course she won't." The older Latina laughs.
Dr. Leigh laughs and leads Quinn back to the room, "I'll be right out here if you need anything. You have about 5 minutes because we really need to get her out of there." He explains and Quinn gives her 'thanks'.
She slowly opens the door and sitting with her legs hanging over the side of the bed, is Santana. She looks pale and weak but the blonde has never been more relieved of anything in her life.
She instantly starts to cry, which grabs the Latina's attention and she just opens her arms.
Quinn runs over and nearly knocks Santana backwards with the force that hits her.
Due to the height difference now Santana is seated, Quinn stands between her legs and pulls Santana's head to read on her chest, pulling her tightly in by her shoulders, whilst Santana squeezes her tightly around the waist.
When Santana pulls back to look up, Quinn doesn't let go of her and cups her left cheek, stroking across the gauze with her thumb.
"You scared me so much lovebug. I thought you were gone." She chokes out.
Santana shuffles slightly to lift a whiteboard up, that reads, 'I'm so sorry'.
Quinn looks at her inquisitively, to which the brunette flips the board around and it again reads, 'I can't speak, my throat is going to be sore for a while.'
The blonde just nods and pulls her back in, "I love you so much Tana and I know you broke up with me but-"
She doesn't get to finish as Santana pulls back and places a soft finger to her lips. She rapidly grabs the whiteboard and scribbles as fast as she can, 'I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Be mine again, please forgive me?'
Quinn nods rapidly and Santana squeezes her tighter, they're interrupted by Dr. Leigh, "Sorry girls but Santana, we need to get you moving. Quinn, you can meet us up there, everyone else has already made their way."
She nods and kisses the top of a brunette head, "I love you." She whispers and Santana just raises her hand and places it over Quinn's heart, telling her she loves her too.
Quinn then moves out of the room and goes to find the next one, feeling a weight lifted from her shoulders.
Santana is alive and they're together.
As Santana is wheeled into the room, Maribel and Blaine instantly jump to give her a hug and kiss and just overall feel that she's alive.
She, too, hugs them like her life depends on it and when they pull back, she beckons Mercedes over, "I'm so glad you're okay girl, you scared us for a minute." She whispers softly and Santana just smiles back.
Dr. Leigh explains about her having a sore throat and not being able to speak for a while, which gained some jokes from Mari and Blaine about having peace and quiet.
Quinn sat very subdued in the corner, very much like the last time Santana woke up in hospital, she shuffles over to the right side of the bed and beckons over Quinn, who just shakes her head in response. She continues to wave her over until the blonde gives in.
The Latina pats the bed and again receives a head shake from Quinn, so she lightly grabs a pale wrist and pulls it towards her so that the other girl has no choice but to sit down.
Quinn sits unsurely on the edge of the bed and just runs her fingers through brunette hair, looking at her, scared that if she looks away, she'll slip away.
Santana opens her arms as an invitation for Quinn to lie down and gives her her best puppy dog eyes, something the blonde just can't say no to.
She lies down and places her head on her chest. Quinn instantly knows why Santana has chosen the right side of the bed and it's so that Quinn can hear her heartbeat when she lies down.
Something that the blonde is instantly grateful for.
"The three of us are going to get some coffee, would you like anything?" Maribel speaks.
"No, thank you." Quinn replies and Santana shakes her head.
The three of them leave the room and Quinn holds onto Santana tighter, to which she flinches.
Quinn sits up and looks at her girlfriend with concern, Santana raises the side of her shirt to reveal a large purple bruise on her ribs.
A pale hand gently runs over it and she looks back up into mesmerising brown eyes.
Santana knows what she's asking and just shrugs her shoulders, she doesn't know where it's from.
She pulls her shirt back down and again Quinn strokes her cheek, "What happened to you, lovebug?" She whispers, tears again filling her eyes.
Santana wipes them away before they fall and then grabs her whiteboard, she quickly writes, 'You're too pretty to cry this much my darling', and shows it to Quinn, who just blushes and shakes her head.
She leans in for a kiss, a kiss that means more than any they have ever shared. This is a kiss that states, 'I thought you'd left me and I don't ever want to feel that again, I love you with everything I am'.
They lie back down when the kiss ends naturally, Quinn extremely cautious of Santana's ribs, and they both fall asleep, wrapped up in each other's arms.