They walked through the door of their apartment, "I'm sorry." Quinn said right away.
"Oh, you will be." Santana told her darkly, "Get your ass to our bedroom now."
Quinn didn't need to be told twice and quickly booked it down the hall. She knew that she was in big trouble. She threw herself down on the bed. She needed time to think about what she was going to say to her girl.
Santana paced the kitchen trying to cool her temper. "What's up?" Britt asked from where she was both studying and stretching at the kitchen island.
"I'm going to kill my girlfriend." Santana growled.
"I doubt that," Britt told her, not even looking away from her text book.
Santana turned and glared at the girl. While she still didn't look up, Britt's smirk let her know that she knew that she was glaring. "What did she do anyway?"
"She seems to forget that we aren't in Lima anymore." Santana growled.
"I'm gonna need more information than that." Britt told her, turning a page.
"She was supposed to be with her math tutor. My last class let out early so I went to meet her there and was she there?" Santana asked, her voice raising with each word.
Britt looked up at that. She took Santana's appearance in. The girl was violently shaking. "I'm going to say no judging on how pissed you seem."
"No she wasn't!" Santana shouted, seeming to not even hear Britt.
"Where was she?" Britt had stopped stretching and started making San some tea. She hadn't seen Santana so ready to come unglued in a long time.
"That's the thing, she won't tell me! Since when does she think that it's okay to keep things from me, or to not be where she is supposed to be?" Santana asked.
Britt pushed San gently down on the couch and then handed her a cup, before sitting down herself. "Apparently today."
Santana glared at her again. "Not funny."
Britt held up her fingers, "It's a little funny."
Santana laughed out loud at that, "Maybe a little. But what the hell was she thinking?"
"We don't know, because we don't know where she went." Britt said honestly.
Santana sighed at how simply Britt could see things. "So what I beat it out of her?"
"Or…" Britt said laughing, "And hear me out, why don't I go try and talk to her first?"
"Why would she tell you and not me?" San asked.
"I don't know because I'm not gonna whip her if I don't like the answer." Britt said. Santana leaned her head to the side, considering. "Maybe a good point?"
"Maybe." Santana grudgingly agreed.
"Alright, then I will grab her a tea and go see what I can get out of her." Britt said standing up.
Quinn sighed at the knock on the door. She had expected an angry Santana to come charging in, and was surprised by the knock. "Come in Britt."
Brittany came in, and handed off a cup of tea immediately. "Can I sit?"
"Yeah," Quinn agreed. She scooted over and Britt sat next to her and wrapped her in a hug. "How are you holding up?"
"How mad is S?"
Britt snuggled closer, "Shh…I asked about you."
"I'm a little nervous. She was very angry."
"It's not safe to be running around New York City." Britt countered.
"I wasn't just running around the city." Quinn said, running her finger around the rim of her cup.
"Where were you then?" Britt asked. She took note of the bags under Quinn's eyes and how she still seemed to be losing weight. She wasn't sure if it was the oversized sweatshirt or the way Quinn was hunched, but Quinn seemed to want to take up the least amount of space possible.
Quinn paused for a moment. "I was…out."
Britt laughed out loud at that, "We both know that's not going to fly."
Quinn shrugged, "I really can't say."
"That's just going to make San all the more angry though." Britt tried to reason with the girl.
"Yeah but not as angry as if she knew where I was…" Quinn said.
Britt squeezed her, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm so sure." Quinn told her. Quinn could feel Britt's anxiety heighten next to her. "Ask."
"Is…is everything okay with you two?" Britt asked. "Things have been a little off this week."
"Everything is fine Britt…" Quinn told her.
"A…are you afraid to tell San where you were for more than being afraid of a spanking, Quinn?" Britt knew that she needed an answer, but she wasn't sure that she wanted it.
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, shifting under her discomfort at the question.
"I mean, did something happen, like was S too rough…I know when you guys first started dating…" Britt started and stalled. She didn't want to bring up something painful, but it was important.
"It's nothing like that," Quinn said. It was half true. She didn't think Santana would ever fully lose her temper on her again, but there were totally some signs that were coming up.
Britt sighed, "She's gonna want an answer, Q. Maybe you can tell me, and I can help you tell S?" She pulled gently on Quinn's hair. Quinn leaned her body into Britt and Britt kissed the top of her head, waiting for her to tell her all of the things that seemed to be weighing down on her.
"Isn't it okay to have some things that are just for yourself?" Quinn asked, picking at Britt's sweatshirt.
Britt thought about that for a moment. It felt like it probably should be okay, she just didn't think that Santana would agree. "Why don't you rest here, Q, and I will go talk to San." She stood from the bed. "You're sure everything is okay?"
"Yeah, Britt, I promise." Quinn assured her. She closed her eyes and started to drift off. Truthfully, she hadn't been sleeping well and was ready to get back to Yale. If Britt was going to go keep San busy then she was going to rest.
Britt walked back out into the living room, "Any luck?"
"Well…" Britt said, sitting down next to San on the couch. "She wants this to be a private thing, and honestly, she should be allowed to have some things that are private, don't you think?"
"Secret." San said, irritation was heavy in her voice.
"No, S. Private." Britt told her. "Did something happen between you and Q?"
Santana stiffened. "I got a little upset a couple nights ago, and grabbed her wrist a little rough. Did she say something?"
"A little rough how?" Britt asked, her stomach dropping at that news.
San started to stand up, "I need to go talk to Q."
"No, she is resting, tell me what happened." Britt said, she pushed gently and San fell back on to the couch. The two didn't top each other often, but Britt was ready to fight this fight if she needed to.
"I got a little jealous, and rolled on top of her. When I leaned down, I was holding on to her wrist and they got a little bruised." San told her, there was no point lying to Britt, she always knew.
"SANTANA!" Brittany scolded. "What have you done to work through that?"
"Nothing, Quinn said that everything is fine." Santana said defensively.
"You know that's not true," Brittany said. She pulled San's leg on top of her own and picked at the seam on the other girls jeans. "Have you processed what happened? I'm sure that brought up a lot of old memories."
Tears brimmed in Santana's eyes, but she shook her head, "We are fine. I'm fine."
Britt looked over at her friend and tried to think of what to do in this situation. "How do you feel?"
Santana bit her lip, "Bad." She said with a shaky voice.
"I think the priority here is to talk to Quinn about this." Britt said.
San sighed, "I know…I just can't."
Britt bit her lip and tried to think of all of the possibilities. Ironically, her and Rach had just decided to chill on the discipline side of their relationship, but now she was thinking of spanking her best friend. "S?" Brittany waited for her to look over at her. "Do you need help?"
Santana fought a war against herself right now. "I don't know." Her eyes flicked over to the clock.
"Rach won't be back for an hour, and Quinn is probably already asleep." Britt told her, wondering if that would make it easier.
"Do you think I deserve it?" Santana asked.
"You know that isn't how my mind works. The question for me is: Is this what you need to move on so that you can move on to the next step?" Britt picked at the seam again, "Retribution isn't important to me."
Santana nodded at that. "Okay, yeah, I think that could maybe help."
Britt nodded. "Come here."
"Should I grab something?" San asked.
Britt considered this, S and Q both had pretty decent pain tolerances. "Sure, go grab a spoon."
Santana winced at her mother's weapon of choice but went to grab one before coming back and handing it to Britt. Brittany pat her back after San laid over her knees, "Good job, S." She rubbed her back. "Are you ready?"
"Yes ma'am." San replied stiffly.
"Shhh….none of that here. We're just friends here." Britt shushed, still rubbing her back. She started spanking Santana slowly, and could feel the other girl getting restlessly under her. "Relax, S." Santana stilled, but didn't relax. "Santana, you need to be able to think about why this happened in order to deal with it."
"Understood." San ground out, starting to feel the swats. Britt rolled her eyes, but kept going with the slow, firm spanks.
"Can you remember what you were feeling?" Britt pressed.
"No." Santana said curtly.
Britt nodded and stopped. "Lift." Santana lifted her hips, and Britt pulled her jeans and panties down in one swoop. She picked up the wooden spoon and started back up in the slow methodical swats. "Try again."
"I was feeling a little jealous from our lunch with Amy." Santana said honestly.
Britt upped the ante with the spoon, "Do you think that hurting Quinn was a good way to express that emotion?"
"I didn't mean to...!" San called.
"I know, S." Britt said easing off. She put the spoon down and started to rub Santana's bottom. "What are you going to do?"
Santana had just started softly crying when Britt put the spoon down. "I'm going to talk to Quinn, and apologize."
"Okay, good deal." Britt told her. Britt moved her rubbing up her friends still stiff back. "That was the easy part. I need you to forgive yourself now." Britt picked up the spoon again and started spanking hard and fast. It didn't take long for Santana to start crying, and soon after she was all out sobbing. Britt switched to her thighs and sit spots and spanked forever it felt like. Britt had never spanked anyone this hard before, she had to go until Santana's shoulders finally broke from the tension. Britt instantly stopped and started rubbing her back. After a minute, she pulled S up into her arms and Santana poured out all of her insecurities about Quinn's eating, and her being so far away, fears about how college wasn't what she thought and maybe getting an advanced degree was too much. Britt for her part listened and rubbed Santana's back until she fell asleep.