The next morning was a bit of a disaster. Brittany woke up first, but way too early to start getting everyone up. When she'd tried for ages to go back to sleep and failed, she went downstairs to start breakfast. It took standing in the kitchen for a solid ten minutes wondering what to cook for her to decide she was too tired to actually cook anything. She took out the cereal boxes, milk and some bowls and set them on the island. Since Sophia didn't drink milk, and strangely didn't like cornflakes, lucky charms or fruity pebbles, Brittany took out the ingredients for a parfait. She got as far as cutting up some raspberries before deciding she just needed to lie down for a bit. Her eyes were stinging she was so tired.

Jesus woke her up a while later.

"Mama, are we going to school today?"

"Of course-" she cut herself off with a yawn and sat up from the couch. "Of course you're going to school."

"We're late then" Jesus sat down next to her, leaning against her arm.

"Why? What time is it?" Brittany yawned again.

"8:10"

Brittany jumped up, causing Jesus to fall onto the couch.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah" Jesus giggled at the panicked look on her face.

"It's not funny Jesus! Go wake up your brother and get dressed please." She ran up the stairs and paused before the hallways to the foyer and the stairs leading to their rooms.

"He's not-"

"Quickly!" she urged when she saw how slowly he was moving. Jesus picked up the pace slightly and walked up the stairs of the living room. Brittany ran up to her room and woke Santana.

"Honey…" she paused when she noticed Kyler lying beside Santana, taking in the cuteness. "Santana" Santana stirred, blinked her eyes open and stretched.

"Morning babe"

"Late"

"Huh?" Santana's eyes fell closed again as she frowned.

"We're late. It's past 8"

Santana sat bolt upright.

"What? How?" she looked at the alarm clock. "What?" Santana jumped out of bed. "Kyler amor" she shook Kyler gently.

Knowing Santana would make sure he got up, Brittany went to tackle the other two. She woke Sophia first, pulling open her curtains so the sun was let in. Sophia groaned.

"Sophia, wake up love." Sophia groaned again, burying herself under her blanket. Brittany pulled the blankets off her and held on to it to keep her from simply pulling them back up.

"Mamaaaa" Sophia whined.

"Wake up honey. We're very, very late."

"Okay."

"Sit up"

"I will!"

"Soph, there's no time for waking up slowly today. You have to get up and get dressed now!"

Groaning once again, Sophia sat up.

"Thank you…." Brittany kissed her head and left.

Mateo was lying on his stomach, very much awake. He had his favourite dinosaur beside him and an ipad in front of him. Brittany crossed her arms as he turned to look at her. He grinned cheekily.

"Hi mama"

Brittany raised an eyebrow, pointing at the ipad.

"Jesus let me borrow it" he said quickly, telling Brittany that was a lie.

"What did we say when you broke yours?" Brittany walked up to the bed and took the ipad.

"That I had to learn my lesson."

"You're not supposed to use one for three months remember?"

Mateo nodded.

"Now I think I should add another month."

He shot up from the bed.

"No mama. Please" he begged. "Please. I'm sorry. I won't watch it again."

"I'll add one more week then. And if I see you with it again before time is up, it'll be a year."

Mateo nodded feverishly.

"Alright. Take off your pyjamas, we're late for school."

Everyone was out of the house before 9, which was amazing. The boys had their cereal in the car and Sophia had her parfait, which Brittany was proud she had managed to finish making.

The guards at the gate gave them knowing looks when they turned in and showed their badges. One of them smiled at them just as the gate opened.

"Happens to the best of us don't worry." He said, before waving them through.

"Hurry up guys." Santana said once she'd parked. She opened the door for Mateo, who had already unclipped himself from the booster seat, while the others poured out from the other side.

It was 9:30.

Santana went with Mateo to his class while Brittany took the three older ones to theirs. Mrs Knowell, Mateo's teacher, smiled kindly at her when she knocked on the door.

"Mrs Lopez-Pierce"

"Hi Mrs Knowell" Santana said guiltily. "I am so sorry we're late."

"That's okay. He's only missed the morning discussion. Not to worry."

Santana smiled gratefully.

"Come in Mateo" Mrs Knowell said in Spanish. "Your friends will be happy to see you. They were asking where you were."

Mateo ran into the room, immediately turned back and ran straight into Santana's legs.

"Bye mami"

"Bye amor, I'll see you later okay?"

"You're picking us?"

"Me and mama together."

"Yaay"

Mateo squeezed her tight and walked into the classroom.

"Have a good day mijo."

He waved at her.

Santana turned back to the teacher.

"Again, I am so sorry. I don't even know what happened."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad he is here. He makes my class more interesting."

The pair laughed.

"He's that kid huh? I'll take it over him being a nuisance."

"He's a good kid. Spirited for sure, but good. He likes to come stand by my desk and talk with me about various things every day, and actually doesn't interrupt my teaching much. I enjoy him."

Santana smiled, peeking in to the class to try and see Mateo.

"Anyway, I-"

"Yes" Santana rushed, remembering she was keeping the teacher from actually teaching. "Sorry. I'll let you go."

Brittany was already back in the car when Santana returned.

"Mrs Akley can be scary" she told Santana.

Santana laughed.

"Why, what did she do?"

"Nothing really. She just told me that in future, we should try to get the kids in on time because missing any part of class can be detrimental to their education."

Santana whistled. "Jeez. It's not like we're late every day."

"We have been late a few times though. Lately."

"Yeah well….it's middle school. Life's not that serious."

Brittany shrugged and put on her seat belt.

"Let's just go home. I need to eat."


"Let's go to Quinn's."

Santana poked her head out of their closet and frowned at Brittany.

"Right now?"

"Yeah. You said she wanted to see me, and she'd been trying to get me free for weeks." Brittany brandished her arms. "I'm free."

"No you're not" Santana laughed. She went back into the closet.

"Why?" Brittany uncrossed her legs and leaned back on her hands, spreading her legs slightly. Santana pocked her head out again. Brittany dropped her voice "Did you have something planned?". She smirked as Santana walked out of the closet to stand in front of the bed.

"Don't tempt me." Santana said, and she sounded genuinely disappointed. Brittany frowned.

"What do we have to do then if it's not sexy times?"

"We're going to Regina's for lunch remember?"

"Oh" Brittany sat up and crossed her legs. "Was that today?"

"Yes honey" Santana sauntered back into the closet. "It's today."

"Do we like….have to go?"

Brittany smiled at Santana's cackle, sounding muffled since she was in the closet.

"If you don't want to go, call her and cancel" Santana yelled back.

"I can't do that." Brittany shook her head despite Santana not being able to see her.

"Huh?"

"I can't do that." She repeated louder. "You can though"

"Oh no, no, no"

Santana walked out, pulling a dress over her head.

"No" she said once she could see. "I'm always the bad guy for you, cancelling plans that you make because you always want to be nice and polite or whatever but then never actually want to go. Not this time amor" she wagged her finger and pursed her lips. "If you don't want to go, call Regina and tell her yourself, otherwise get up and get dressed."

Brittany pouted, dropping onto her back dramatically.

"We could be having sex right now."

"Yes we could."

"This is what lesbian bed death looks like"

Santana cackled again. Stepping up to the bed she gripped both of Brittany's still crossed legs.

"We have sex like 4 times a week Brittany" she said, still laughing. "On average."

"That's not even every day. We used to have sex everyday"

"When?" Santana smacked her left leg. "Stop being a diva Brittany Spears."

Brittany sat up, resting on her elbows and glaring at Santana.

"How dare you."

"Are you still living in her shadow?" Santana teased. She walked away from the bed and back into the closet to look for shoes. "Even after her whole meltdown and shaving her head and stuff?"

"Nothing can take down a legend."

Santana laughed. She came out to find Brittany still leaning back on the bed.

"Baby…are you cancelling?"

Brittany sighed, dropping back onto the bed and shaking her head.

"No."

"Okay then. Please get up. I know you're going to say-"

"I need to shower"

"-You need to shower"

Santana and Brittany grinned at each other.

"Okay" Brittany pushed off the bed. "I'm going."


Forty minutes later they drove onto a street with impressively big houses, each one in a style Brittany hadn't seen before. It reminded her a little of Santana's street back in Lima. Those houses were nowhere near as nice as these, since it was Lima after all, but back then they were the nicest houses Brittany had ever seen.

It was clearly an upper middle class neighbourhood, which if she was honest Britany hadn't been expecting.

"These are really nice" Santana mused out loud, driving slowly to appreciate each house. "Ou I like that one." She pointed out a house on the left. Brittany nodded. It was an elegant two story modern house with lots of glass and wood. The exterior was painted black save for the window sills and the front door, which were a dark brown. It looked like it had just been painted. There was no wear on the house, no chipped paint and no dirt on the outside, leaves on the roof or smudges on the windows. It was beautiful.

"Wow" Brittany breathed, as they passed the house.

"What number is it?"

"Uh…" Brittany snapped out of her staring to look down at her phone, which she had been reading directions off of. "96."

Santana nodded. "That one's 90."

"That one's 91" She pointed to the black one they had just passed.

They continued at a crawl down the street.

"I'm getting some renovating ideas" Santana said, as they passed another modern house, this one with exposed brick with blue paint round the windows.

"We don't need to renovate our house" Brittany said absently, craning her head to keep staring at the house opposite the one Santana was looking at.

"There it is!" Santana sped up as they got to number 96 and parked in the driveway next to a black Volvo they knew was Regina's. She switched off the car and the two looked up at the house.

It looked like someone assembled Legos and then told the architect to build exactly that. That was the only way Santana could describe it. There were protruding 'pieces' all-round the house, which on closer inspection she identified as balconies. It was white and brown, primarily, with grey on certain walls, like the pillars. There wasn't one roof, rather each section had its own roof. It looked to Santana like even the chimney had a roof, which was slanted.

"Do you think they modelled it after the monster house?"

Santana nodded, still trying to understand the design. It did indeed look like it would be able to stand up or turn into a transformer and walk across town.

"Should we go in..." She finally said, tearing her eyes away from it and looking at Brittany.

"What if it eats us?" Brittany smiled. Santana laughed.

"You're losing your touch B." She said as she got out of the car.

"I think I'm getting too old to say some things with a straight face." Brittany said, shutting the door and walking round the car to take Santana's hand.

"You'll never be too old to say silly things."

"Ah" Brittany smacked Santana's hand as Santana laughed.

"Come on let's go in. I'm so curious to see what it looked like on the inside."

"Do you think the bell is one of those that's a whole song and goes on for like a whole minute?" Brittany asked as they walked up to the door. Santana frowned thoughtfully.

"No. I think that's more for mansions, you know so that everyone all over the gigantic house hears the bell ring."

Brittany nodded.

The bell had hardly rung when the door was swinging open.

"Hi!"

Regina was what Santana imagined 70s suburban house wives were like. As modern as their house looked, on both the inside and out, Regina herself gave off an air of tradition. Not that she dressed in out-of-date clothes or had a beehive hairstyle, it was just something in her energy. Brittany mother, who was the only housewife Santana could draw any comparison to, did all of the things a 70s suburban housewife would; cooking, cleaning, baking, sewing torn clothes herself, but she didn't seem like a housewife. Regina did. And Santana wasn't even sure she was a housewife yet.

The smile on Regina's face was comically wide, but seemed genuine, which disturbed Santana slightly. She put on a smile of her own.

"Please come in, come in. You can just take your shoes off over there."

Regina pointed at a mat by the door.

"Thank you."

"I was just finishing up making some refreshments, I won't be a second. You can just head through there, into the living room."

Brittany and Santana followed her instruction and found themselves in a large living room. There was a large painting of a lake on one of the walls, the same size as the 64 inch tv mounted on the wall opposite it. On the last wall was a wooden plaque with the words 'family binds us', under which were picture of all the kids. Santana smiled at them.

"Here we go."

Regina came into the room carrying a tray that held a jug filled with what looked to be lemonade, a bottle of wine and three glasses. She set it down on the coffee table, smiled at them, and then left.

Brittany turned to Santana. "I thought we were having lunch."

Santana went to speak, but Regina re-emerged, cutting her off. She shrugged.

"I thought we could have some snacks, it's still a bit early for lunch. Is that okay?"

Santana looked at the platter of cheese, crackers and what looked like raw bacon.

"Yeah" she smiled. "That's fine."

"Great. Please have a seat."

Regina gestured to the couches. Brittany and Santana sat. Regina unscrewed the wine and held it up.

"Yes please" Santana nodded.

"Brittany?"

"No thank you. I'll have the lemonade."

Nodding, Regina poured the drinks.

"So, I won't pretend I don't know who you are." Regina said as she handed Brittany the lemonade. "I didn't, that day of the game, but then my-" she broke off and sat down, crossing her legs. "Bear told me you were famous. And then the group chat, my goodness" she laughed. "You were the hot topic for the entire week, I'll tell you that." Brittany and Santana laughed along, not really knowing what to say. "You don't look like famous people though…"

"Thank you?"

"That sounded wrong. I just mean…you know I would expect, considering how famous you are, some kind of…I don't know….superiority?"

"Oh" Brittany laughed.

"You mean you'd expect us to be bitches."

"A little bit" Regina giggled nervously.

"So that's a compliment" Santana grinned. She sipped her wine.

"Yes. I mean it as a compliment. You seem so down to earth. Both of you at your kids' game….it's nice."

"Do you know a lot of famous people?" Brittany asked. Regina shook her head.

"Nope. You're the first I've ever met. I went to a few concerts when I was in college, got backstage passes and met the artists, but I don't think that's what you meant."

"No" she laughed.

"We're all a lot more human than you think" Santana said. Regina nodded.

"I'm sorry, can I just say, your house is gorgeous."

"Oh thank you" Regina looked around proudly.

"Did you design it?"

"No. We worked with this young architect from a firm one of Bear's friends works at. We gave him complete creative license and this is what he came up with." She looked around again. "It took us a while to warm up to. My initial thought when I saw his design was okay, never seen that before... It grew on us though, now it's home.

"It's gorgeous" Brittany repeated.

"Thank you. That actually means a lot coming from you. Your house is spectacular."

"Thank you."

To move away from the cycle of compliments, Santana pointed at the pictures of the kids on the wall.

"So those are your other two?"

Regina turned to look.

"Yup. That's Evelyn and Maggie."

"You said one's five right?" Brittany asked.

"Evelyn yeah. She turned five in August. Maggie turned three in January."

"They're adorable."

"Thank you. You have four?"

"Google didn't tell you?" Santana laughed.

"I googled your careers, not personal life. That felt a bit too…well personal."

"Yes we have four. Jesus and Kyler are twins, Sophia's 9 and Mateo's 6."

"I didn't meet Sophia."

"No. She's not very social" Brittany answered. "She likes her own company or a select few friends at school."

"And her brothers" Santana added.

"I get that." Regina nodded. "Your boys were just a blast though. Mateo got on really well with Evelyn, she was asking when she could play with him again."

"Oh yeah" Brittany nodded. "Anytime, just give us a call and we can set it up."

"I'll do that" Regina smiled.

"So your husband told us Wesley's been in football since he was 6."

"My ex" Regina said after a long sip of wine. Brittany cringed.

"Right….sorry I have a crappy memory."

Regina waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. I still have trouble remembering myself. We only signed the papers last month."

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?" Santana asked.

Regina took another long sip of wine.

"I'm not sure really. One moment we were fine, as in love as we've ever been, and the next we could barely be in a room with each other for five minutes without tearing each other's heads off." She shook her head. "Even as it was happening, I wasn't sure why. Kept asking myself why I was snapping at him when all he did was sigh or nagging him about the front lawn. I just couldn't stop. The worse it got the worse it got and eventually we decided to separate. We didn't want the kids to see us at each other's throats all the time like that."

Brittany and Santana both nodded. Regina shrugged.

"We met when I was in college." She said with a smile. "I was in my final year and Bear was an intern at the firm he works at now. We'd both gone for this networking mixer type thing hosted by the university, and spent the whole night just talking to each other. Networking be damned." Regina laughed. "I gave him my number and he called the next day, asking me out on a date. Three dates later we were official."

"Oh no wasting time" Santana laughed. Regina shook her head.

"There was no reason to. We were perfect together." She looked down sadly at her glass of wine. "We were perfect."

"How long before you got married?" Brittany asked.

"Three and a half years. Neither of us really felt the need to rush it you know? We had each other either way. We were content to just live in the moment and see where life took us. Bear took me everywhere. On our first anniversary we went on a road trip from here to New Jersey with no plan but to enjoy ourselves."

"Wow" Brittany mused. "That sounds amazing."

"It was." Regina had a fond smile on her face. "It was more fun than I'd had in my entire life."

"I've never gone on a road trip" Santana said.

"You should." Regina said eagerly. "It's a great experience."

"So how long have-had-were you guys married." Brittany stumbled out clumsily.

"14 years." Regina answered, smiling to show she wasn't bothered by the question. "Our 15th anniversary would have been this December."

Santana looked at Brittany, unsure whether to apologise or not.

"If I had to guess, I would say it was Maggie that kick-started the decline of our relationship. We had always planned to just have 2. That was the dream we had, a boy and a girl, and it worked out perfectly. I asked him to get a vasectomy after Evelyn, to be sure, but he said it would be fine." Regina licked her lips and swirled the wine around in her glass. "When I found out I was pregnant….I reacted badly." She sounded ashamed of herself. "I love my Maggie so much, and I can't even imagine not having her, but at the time" she shook her head. "I was so angry. I was angry with god, because we had been trying for years after Wesley and eventually had to go through IVF just to have Eve. So I couldn't understand why he would do this now when we didn't want another one." Santana nodded. She understood. She'd had her fair share of anger towards god.

"I wanted to have an…I uh...I didn't want to keep her" Regina looked up to see if they understood her meaning. Brittany pressed her lips together and offered her a tiny nod. "I was angry with Bear too, because if he'd gotten the vasectomy like I'd asked him to, I wouldn't be in this situation, but also because I knew I couldn't talk to him about my feelings. I would have never gone through with it, I don't think, even if he would have supported me, but I knew that I couldn't even talk to him about it. I couldn't tell him how upset I was that I was pregnant again, and that pissed me off."

"Rightfully" Santana said. Regina smiled gratefully at her.

"Anyway, I think that was the beginning of the end. I had a horrible pregnancy from beginning to end. Sick the whole time, high blood pressure, low blood sugar, back pain like you wouldn't believe and boy did I blow up. I hadn't been that big for the other two, but this one…" she chuckled. "Everything was swollen."

"Yikes" Brittany breathed. She couldn't even imagine putting her body through all that. "That sounds terrible."

"It was" Regina nodded. "And I blamed Bear the entire time. I was always in a terrible mood, always angry or crying. I never wanted to see him and nothing he did made me feel better. Then once Maggie was born I had post-partum depression."

"Oh no" Santana said sympathetically. Regina nodded again.

"That took months to go away, by which time Bear was having issues at work that were stressing him out. It was all just too much of a strain on our marriage, I think. I've had a lot of time to think about it, and I think that from the time I found out I was pregnant to the time Bear's issues at work cleared up, we never had a moment to see each other for the people we'd fallen in love with. It was nearly two years of us being emotionally cut off from each other, and that's hard to bounce back from. I wanted to try go to a councillor, but Bear said it would be better if we separated first to take a moment to breathe. It was supposed to be a month apart and then we come back, go to therapy and fix it but...After that month, Bear came home and told me he'd thought about it and felt it would be better if we got divorced now and saved what we could of our friendship instead of dragging it out. He said it would be better to focus our energy on our kids instead of our marriage, which we weren't even sure could be saved."

"Did you agree with him?" Santana asked.

Regina shrugged. "What would it matter? He'd already decided to let us go, and I knew I couldn't fight for a marriage he didn't want. So I signed the papers and now I am a divorcé"

"I'm really sorry Regina." Brittany said quietly.

"Thanks. It hasn't been that bad. Since we had that talk, he's felt more like my Bear. We've gotten back to a place where I can make him laugh like I used to, and we're co-parenting our kids like champs." She raised her glass and pretended to cheers. "I dare you to name any other divorced couple that still live together by choice."

Santana's eyebrows shot up.

"You still live together?"

"We didn't want to put our kids through two homes and being shuffled around on the weekend and holidays. Wesley especially would have taken the divorce badly if his dad moved out. They're thick as thieves those two."

"Wow" Brittany mused again. "You're amazing."

Regina smiled in thanks, drained her wine glass and set it on the table.

"Enough about me though, what's your story?"

Brittany put down her lemonade and picked a few crackers and cheese.

"Santana and I were best friends in high school."

"Oh" Regina's eyes widened. "High school sweethearts."

"Yeah" Santana laughed. "Started dating in senior year, broke up for a few months after graduation and then got back together."

"Have you ever dated anyone else?"

"Oh yeah" Brittany nodded around a mouth full of crackers.

"Before we started dating we were both in other relationships, and while we were broken up too." Santana explained.

"And a couple times over the years when we needed a break from each other."

They laughed at Regina's shocked face.

"She's kidding."

"Oh" Regina let out a breathy chuckle. "So how long have you been together?"

"11 years this past July."

Regina's mouth dropped open.

"Wait, how long have you known each other?"

"21 years almost to the day" Brittany answered with a wide grin.

"Wooow"


Lunch was as good as anything they could have eaten at Quinn's restaurant - Elise, at least according to Brittany. They continued talking as they ate, about how Wesley got into youth football thanks to his dad's obsession, about movies, actors and then music. Regina loved hearing all the stories they both had about different celebrities and Santana and Brittany ate up all the gossip about the football parents they were soon to become well acquainted with.

Eventually though, they had to leave. Regina said Bear would be home with Maggie any minute and they had a strict routine for her that she didn't want to disrupt. So Brittany and Santana said their goodbyes and got in the car.

"That wasn't that bad."

"Thank god, since you've now volunteered Mateo for playdates."

Brittany groaned, clasping her seat belt and dropping her head against the chair head rest.

"I did, didn't I?"

"Mmmmh" Santana started the car.

"I need to stop doing that."

"Yes, yes you do" Santana laughed. "But it's okay, I still love you."

"Oh do you?" Brittany turned to look at her.

"You have a pretty face."

Brittany laughed. "That never gets old."


Jesus pulled back as his friend tried to pull him towards their usual lunch table.

"Wait." He said without looking at the confused boy. His gaze was fixed to a table towards the left. "I'm coming."

He weaved his way through the mass of kids and chairs, stopping before the table he'd been staring at.

"Can I talk to you?"

Kyler looked up at him, his eyes as angry as they had been since yesterday. For a second Jesus was afraid he'd say no, but then he nodded and stood up from the bench.

Jesus led the way to the back of the cafeteria before turning to face his brother.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"Yeah" Kyler said shortly, crossing his arms over his chest. Jesus sighed.

"I'm sorry okay? I didn't know…"

Kyler let his arms drop. "I know…but you were really mean about it."

"Yeah, but you would have been too if you thought I was hurting mama or mami."

Kyler nodded.

"I overreacted." Jesus admitted. "You're my twin, and I think it was just really scary not knowing what you were thinking for once."

Kyler nodded again.

"I know. It was scary for me too."

"You should have told me you were sad yesterday. I would have helped you."

"You were mad at me."

"Still."

"I was a little mad at you."

They both giggled.

"So are you still mad at me?" Jesus asked nervously. Kyler shook his head.

"It's too much work to be mad at you anyway."

Jesus grinned. "Nice."

He dipped his head, Kyler did the same and they knocked their heads together.

"See you then."

Kyler turned and headed back to his table while Jesus manoeuvred back through the crowd to find his friends.


"Why do they do that?"

Sophia looked away from the girl she was talking to, to the girl on her other side.

"Who?"

"Your brothers"

"What do they do?"

"The whole head-butting thing."

"Is it a twin thing?" Another girl asked.

Sophia shrugged.

"You don't know?"

"I don't care."

"But it's a little weird don't you think?"

"I think it's weird that we're talking about them."

"I heard Kyler was crying yesterday" the girl Sophia had originally been talking to piped up. "That's why he went home early."

"Is that true?"

"He wasn't feeling well" Sophia said, looking anxiously at Kyler's table. She knew he would be embarrassed if his friends found out that he'd spent the whole of the previous day crying. "Anyway can we stop talking about my brothers?"

The girls all nodded.

"My mum said I can go on the museum trip."

"Yes!" The girl beside her squealed. "It's gonna be so much fun."

"I don't know" the girl opposite Sophia said, looking doubtful. "That's what we thought about the trip to the greenhouse last year, and that was super boring."

"That's cause nobody can make plants interesting" Sophia said, picking up her fork and stabbing some lettuce and chicken. "This is the museum."

"What's so interesting about the museum?" The same girl asked. Sophia frowned at her, chewing her food.

"There's all kinds of sections in it. Like a bones section with real life bones from dinosaurs and monkeys and old age animals." One girl answered.

"Groooss" two of the girls mewled, though they looked excited.

"And there's a space section" Sophia said. "It's like a room you go in and they turn off all the lights and you get to see what it looks like in space. I went there with my aunt when she came to visit from college one time."

"Okay" the girl opposite her grinned. "That's cool."

"My mum said she doesn't know if I can go yet. But like….why wouldn't she know? She just has to say yes or no right?"

"Maybe she's waiting to see if you'll behave yourself this week first." Another girl said. "My mum does that sometimes before letting me have something I want."

"If you don't come you'll be super lame Kris" Sophia said seriously, stabbing some more of her salad. "Plus you'll miss out on everything fun that happens and then you won't know what we're talking about in school when we come back."

The girl opposite Sophia nodded sagely. "So you better find a way to make sure you come."

"You could sneak out" one of the other girls suggested.

"Tell them you're going for a sleepover at one of our houses."

Kris nodded with wide eyes. "She hasn't said no yet, but I'll definitely be there."

"Good" Sophia said with a nod of finality. "Now we can talk about what we're going to wear."


"What are you doing?"

Sophia looked up to see Mateo standing over.

"What do you want?"

"Will you play with me?"

"No, go away."

"Why not?"

Sophia rolled her eyes and looked back down at what she was working on. Mateo squatted to look closer.

"What are you doing?"

"None of your business."

"What are you doing?"

"Stop it" Sophia pushed his chest. Mateo toppled over onto his butt.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm making a bracelet okay? Shut up."

Mateo shifted onto his knees and reached out for some of the string in her box. Sophia caught his hand.

"No."

"I wanna make one too."

"No."

"Why not?" he whined.

"Because they're mine and I don't want you to."

Mateo huffed angrily.

"Fine. Come and play with me."

"No. Go find Jesus."

"I tried. I looked everywhere but I can't find him."

She looked up, squinting against the sun.

"That's weird." She finally said. Mateo nodded. "Where did you look?"

"Everywhere?"

"Like where?" Sophia asked irritably.

"The swimming pool, the playground, his classroom and the big boys' bathroom."

"Hmm" Sophia tied a knot in her bracelet, placed it in her box and stood up. "Come on, I'll help you look."

It took them twenty minutes to find Jesus. He was in a tree with a boy Sophia knew was a year older than them.

"Jesus!" she yelled up to him.

"Yeah"

"Niki's bored."

"So?"

"So come play with him."

"No, I'm busy. You play with him."

"He wants to play with you, right Niki?"

"Niki who do you want to play with?" Jesus asked before Mateo responded.

"Uuuuh" Niki pointed at Sophia.

"See!" Jesus said happily.

"No, this isn't fair, you should play with him."

"Why? He's already with you."

"I always have to stay with him after school. It's your turn today."

She turned and walked away.

"Hey where are you going?"

"I'm leaving him here with you."

Ignoring Jesus' protests, Sophia broke into a run.


"We're dead"

Jesus moaned, pacing up and down.

"Will you calm down" Kyler said, pulling Jesus hand to get him to stop moving.

"You weren't there." Jesus said gravely. He turned back to a hysterically crying Mateo. "Mami said we had to watch him. She said he was our responsibility and if anything happened to him it was our fault."

"Why weren't you watching him?" Sophia cried. She was cradling Mateo to her chest, holding his limp hand just below the wrist where he said it hurt.

"You're the one who left him alone."

"I didn't leave him alone, I left him with you."

"I was in a tree!"

"You could have come down!"

"Stop it" Kyler placed himself between them to cut off their fighting. "You're making him cry more."

Mateo was red in the face from how hard he was crying.

"Stop crying Niki" Jesus tried. "It doesn't hurt that bad right?" He stepped forward and poked his wrist. Niki screamed, making Jesus and Kyler jump back.

They all heard a car pulling into the school parking. Jesus' eyes dropped closed.

"We are so dead"


"Someone needs to tell me what happened right now"

They had driven straight from the school to the hospital, waited fifteen minutes to be seen and finally gotten a doctor to examine Niki. He said it looked like a fracture. Santana had gone with Niki to get an x-ray for his hand. None of the kids had spoken the entire time, besides Niki, who kept saying how much his hand hurt.

"I wasn't there, I was swimming." Kyler said quickly. He took a tiny step away from his siblings. Brittany turned her furious gaze to Jesus and Sophia.

"Well?" she asked angrily.

"I wasn't there either" Sophia said.

"Where were you?"

"I was in the stairwell inside."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want Jesus and Mateo to find me."

Brittany frowned. She turned to Jesus.

"So what happened Jesus?"

Jesus fidgeted, looking down at his shoes then around at the ER. Anywhere but at Brittany.

"I'm not going to ask again."

Brittany was rapidly losing her patience.

"I….I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

She noticed Kyler take another small step away.

"I…Sophia left him-"

"With you! I left him with you so you can play with him."

"He said he wanted to play with you not me."

"I didn't want to-"

"Guys. Explain to me how he was alone."

Sophia spoke first.

"I left him with Jesus. I don't know how he got alone."

"He went to look for you. Why were you hiding from him?"

"Why did you let him run off on his own?"

"I told you I was busy."

"Enough!" Brittany pinched the bridge of her nose and sat down in a seat. "Enough guys"

Sophia crossed her arms, staring stone faced at the floor. Jesus and Kyler stood so close to each other their arms were pressed together, glancing warily at each other occasionally.

Brittany didn't look up for a solid five minutes. When she did it was with a long sigh.

"I get that you guys are big kids now, and hanging out with or looking after your little brother isn't so fun, but sometimes we have to do things that aren't fun. It's called responsibility, we've talked about this before."

Jesus and Kyler nodded. Sophia continued to stare at the floor.

"He may seem like he's old enough to look after himself, because he isn't actually a baby anymore, but he is still very young. Somebody has to be watching him, even if it's from far away. You have to have your eye on him, we've talked about this before as well. I know mami even talked to you two about it yesterday."

Again, Jesus nodded, his eyes slightly wide.

"Sophia…"

"Yes"

"Right, so what happened today? Why was Mateo alone for so long, and why was it that he had to go to the soccer coach because he couldn't find anyone?"

"I was swimming" Kyler said quickly. "Coach pulled me out of the pool to tell me you were coming early."

"I was-"

"I-"

Jesus and Sophia glared at each other.

"Soph, go first."

"I was with Niki, but then he got bored and wanted to play. I didn't feel like playing so I took him to go find Jesus."

"And did you?"

"Yeah. He was in a tree with his friend."

"And then she left him!"

"Wi-"

"I haven't asked you to talk yet." Brittany held up a finger, silencing a frustrated Jesus.

Sophia turned back to Brittany.

"So you found Jesus then what happened?"

"I told him it was his turn to play with Niki cause I had already been with him, but he said he was busy and didn't want to."

"Niki said he wan-"

"Jesus!"

Jesus stomped his foot and clamped his mouth shut.

"Then I told him it didn't matter if he didn't want to cause it was his turn, so I left Niki with him and went into the school."

"Did you go under the stairs to hide from him?"

Sophia nodded, her face losing some of its anger for shame.

Brittany nodded.

"Alright, so she left him with you."

"No" Jesus cried. "I was in a tree. She just walked up to the tree with him. He said he wanted to play with her, not me. Then she ran away and he ran after her. I thought he would find her."

"You didn't get down to make sure?"

"He ran after her immediately she left." Jesus said in a high pitched whiny voice that told Brittany he was about to cry.

"Sophia could have told him to go look for you himself, but she stopped whatever she was doing to make sure he got to you safely. You should have done the same thing Jesus." Sophia nodded smugly. "Don't do that" Brittany snapped at her. Her irritation with the situation, being that it was one they had been in before, mixed with her worry about Mateo was making her angry. She nearly rolled her eyes as Sophia looked at her with wide eyes and open hands, as though she didn't know what she'd done. "You shouldn't have been hiding from him."

"Excuse me Mrs Lopez-Pi-"

"Yes" Brittany spun around to see the doctor she'd been waiting for standing behind her. "Are they done?"

"Your wife and son are in one of the consulting rooms, I can take you to them now."

"Thank you."

Brittany picked her bag from the chair beside the one she'd been sitting on and followed the doctor.

"-No it's not. You shouldn't have just left him like that."

"You shouldn't have let him run away."

"You shouldn't have run away" Brittany heard Kyler mutter, though not with any real conviction.

"He's always with me. It's annoying. He likes playing with you more anyway."

"Nah uh, only cause you never play with him. You always send him to me."

"That's cause I don't LIKE playing and you do!"

"Not all the time."

"Yes all the time!"

"Kinda all the time" Kyler muttered again.

She listened to them bickering the entire elevator ride. Just before the doors opened she finally had enough.

"Listen to me" She pulled Jesus and Sophia apart, one on either side of her. "I've had it with listening to the two of you blaming each other for this, from arguing endlessly in the car to interrupting each other when I'm asking questions, now this. Even the doctor has had it, haven't you doctor?"

"Oh…uh…." Looking uncomfortable, the doctor nodded.

Brittany turned back to the two kids she was still gripping by their upper arms.

"So I don't want to hear another sound out of either of you. Your brother just had an x-ray done and I would really like to know what it said, so we're going to go into the doctor's office and you" she looked at Kyler, "all of you, all of you are going to sit quietly and not say a single thing. Okay?"

They all nodded.

She let them go.

Santana had Mateo in her lap when they walked in, sitting on the examination bed and humming. Brittany turned to the trailing kids behind her and pointed to the two chairs at the back of the room. Mateo lifted his head, reaching out for her when he saw her.

"My baby" she cooed. "How's your hand?"

Careful not to jostle his hand too much, Brittany lifted him off Santana's lap into her arms. She rested him on her hip and cradled his head to her shoulder, rocking from side to side.

"Hey!" Brittany turned sharply to the three kids in the back, who were arguing over who got to sit in the two chairs. "What did I say?"

"None of you sit in them since you can't decide." Santana said.

"How's your wrist baby?"

"It doesn't hurt so much anymore but still hurts a little bit."

Santana stood and stretched her back. She sat back down.

"Mrs Lopez Pierce" The doctor nodded at both of them. "Shall we begin?"

"Yes, please" Santana said.

"So the x-ray shows a fracture in the wrist."

One of the kids, Brittany wasn't sure which, sucked air in through their teeth. Brittany herself cringed, tightening her grip on Mateo.

"Is it bad?"

"Not seriously" the doctor shook his head. He stood up and took the x-ray from a folder on his desk, holding it up for them to see as best they could. "Here, can you see it?" Brittany and Santana nodded.

"That looks bad" Santana said.

"It's not." The doctor chuckled. "Though I guess, that it's fractured at all is bad. What I mean is, in the greater scheme of broken bones, this isn't bad."

"Okay" Brittany kissed Mateo's head.

"I will need to put on a cast."

"How long will he wear it for?"

"7…8 weeks." The doctor estimated.

Brittany tightened her hold again, wishing she could turn back time and stop this from happening.

"God" Santana sighed. "Okay. Will you do that now?"

"Yes."

This time Brittany sat with Mateo on her lap as the doctor went about putting on the cast. He cried a lot, more from the experience than pain Brittany was sure, and once he was done all but passed out in Brittany's arms.

"I'll need to see him again in a month. At that appointment we'll set up another one at the nurses' station and then the final one after that okay?"

"Okay. Thank you so much" Santana said. She took the prescription he was handing her for pain medicine for Mateo.

"Not a problem at all. Do you have any questions for me?"

"No"

He had already gone over the dos and don'ts of a child in a cast, the logistics of bath time and stressed that Mateo should not bang the cast on anything, as entertaining or itchy as it may be, so they really didn't have any questions.

"If you think of any later on, please call me. I'll be happy to help you out."

"Thank you" Santana said again. She stood up and beckoned Jesus, Sophia and Kyler, who had been silent since the chairs incident, towards her. They all dragged their feet, but came to her.

"We'll see you in a month" Brittany said.

"See you in a month." The doctor smiled.

"Let's go guys" Santana steered Jesus and Kyler, whose shoulders she was gripping, through the door. "Do you remember where the car is?" she asked them once they were back at the reception.

"Yeah" Jesus said quietly.

"Good. You guys go to the car, help mama with Mateo. I'm going to pay for parking."

They all nodded, sombrely leading Brittany and a sleeping Mateo back to the car.


Brittany almost wanted to climb into Mateo's bed with him, but managed to restrain herself. He hadn't wanted to sleep in their bed, and she had tried really hard to convince him to do so, so he definitely wouldn't want her in his. She watched him sleep for so long that Santana came looking for her.

"How's he doing?"

"He's okay. Hasn't moved since I put him down, which is weird."

"I bet his body's just exhausted. He'll be under the bed in the morning."

Brittany laughed, finally turning away from Mateo. She let out a deep sigh. Santana nodded.

"Ready for bed?"

"Yeah. I just need to go tell the others goodnight."

"See you in the room then." Santana nodded. She walked into Mateo's room while Brittany went to Sophia's.

"All tucked in?"

Sophia was lying on her back like she was every night, her hands over the covers that were pulled up to her chest. She nodded.

"Good. Today's been a long day huh?" Brittany sat down on the edge of Sophia's bed and rubbed her leg over the duvet. Sophia nodded again.

Both too tired and still slightly upset to deal with Sophia's silent treatment, Brittany stood up again.

"Alright. We should both get some sleep. She bent over and kissed Sophia's head once. "I love you baby girl" She kissed her again. "Sweet dreams."

She was halfway out of the room when she heard a tiny,

"Mama?"

"Yeah?" She turned around.

"I'm really sorry I hid from Niki, and I'm really sorry he got hurt."

Brittany screwed up her mouth, walking back to and sitting on the bed.

"I know honey."

"Do you think he's angry with me?"

"Niki?" Brittany asked with raised eyebrows. "No baby." She brushed her palm over Sophia's cheek. "No. He's not angry with you."

"Okay" Sophia said in a whisper.

Brittany's heart squeezed.

"Come here" she opened her arms. Sophia frowned. "Come here and give me a hug."

Sophia pulled down the covers, climbed out from under them and, now kneeling, fell into Brittany's arms.

"Your brother getting hurt isn't your fault. He could have been hurt even if you were there. It was an accident and accidents happen okay?"

"But you said-"

"The important thing is that someone is there. Someone to see how he got hurt. To call for help and make sure he doesn't hurt himself more and to explain it to an adult later on. We don't know if he broke his hand falling or if he made it worse by using it when it was already badly hurt and finally it broke. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Sophia nodded.

"We just want to make sure he's taken care of, just like we did for you guys when you were little."

Sophia nodded again.

"Okay" Brittany kissed her head. "Back in bed."

When Sophia was tucked back into bed, Brittany cupped both her cheeks and kissed her.

"Get some sleep my love. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight mama. I love you."

Smiling, Brittany cut off the lights and headed to the twins' room.

Jesus was facing the wall, curled up in a ball. Kyler was sitting up reading a comic book.

"Time for bed bud."

Without complaint, which Brittany wasn't surprised by, Kyler threw his comic book onto his desk, which was at the foot of his bed, and got in. Brittany waited for him to be settled before kissing his head just like she had Sophia's.

"I love you mama" he replied, before he too curled into a ball and faced the wall.

Brittany turned to Jesus. He hadn't turned to face her once, which meant he wasn't pouting or being a diva, he was genuinely upset.

Brittany sat on his bed and rubbed up and down his back.

"We can talk about it more tomorrow if you want okay love?" Not waiting for or expecting him to reply, Brittany kissed his temple and wished him goodnight and sweet dreams, just like Sophia and Kyler.

"I love you"

Brittany smiled, her heart warming at the fact that even when he was upset with her he would still say it back.

"Goodnight my babies" She called, before shutting off the lights and closing the door.

Sighing, Brittany decided the kind of day she'd had warranted a nice big glass of wine. Halfway down the stairs she remembered she was married and therefore didn't need to drink alone. So she went to find Santana.

"Ayo ma, where you at?"

Santana giggling from the bathroom told Brittany where she was. She walked over.

"I wanna go drown my worries in wine, wanna join?"

"Hells yeah" Santana recapped the toothpaste, which she thankfully hadn't squirted onto her brush yet. "Let's go."

They grabbed the wine and took it outside. Brittany had the idea to grab one of the blankets from the living room and they curled up on the couch on the outside patio.

"Today didn't go at all like I thought it would." Santana said after a few minutes of cuddled silence.

"Yeah" Brittany chuckled. "Same here. Hanging out with Regina was actually cool. Like I was kind of expecting it to be boring."

"Cool but depressing, a little bit right?"

"You mean when she was talking about her and Bear?"

Santana nodded her head.

"Yeah. I felt really bad for her."

"I always hate hearing stories like that though." Santana said quietly. "Because…I don't know I guess I like to think that people who get divorced weren't right for each other you know? Like they shouldn't have gotten married in the first place and so it was always doomed. But then there's people like Bear and Regina, and it just doesn't make sense."

"I know. I think it just shows that nothing is promised. Like, just because two people work together and fit together, doesn't mean they always will."

"What about us?"

Brittany had been expecting the question from the moment Santana brought up the topic. Even after eleven years of marriage Santana was still Santana, and her insecurities, though Brittany wasn't so sure where they came from were still there. So she'd been anticipating it since they left Regina's house actually, and had been thinking all day of an answer.

"We know more than anyone that nothing's promised. We almost lost each other because we were so convinced we were inevitable that we kept letting each other go. We're not like that anymore, and we're not like Bear and Regina who let things sit and simmer in their marriage until it's too late to fix." Santana bent down and pressed her lips to Brittany's head. "You and I" Brittany continued, "we work hard at our marriage. Every day."

"Yeah" Santana agreed. "You're right."

"We're gonna be okay love. To infinity remember?"

Santana smiled, looking down at her ring and running her thumb over it. "Yeah. To infinity."