Three days of lying in a hospital bed had left Santana itching to go back to the apartment that she shared with Kurt, Rachel and Finn. She hated being waited on and treated like a precious vase about to break at the slightest movement.
Eventually, the nursing staff learned to leave her alone unless she called for them specifically, and even then, Dr. Marlowe was usually the one to go in and see the fiery Latina.
Dr. Marlowe had kept Santana in the hospital for an extra two days, because her body was still in recovery mode after giving birth. Isabella was perfect, but her mom was too weak to leave. Santana was not happy.
"You ready to go, Mama?" Kurt asked, grabbing Santana's bag.
"You have no idea," Santana replied, rolling her eyes. "Pretty sure there would've been a pileup of bodies had I been forced to stay a day longer."
"Santana, you need to be at your optimal health for Isabella's sake," Rachel reasoned. "If you're not at your best, you can't give your daughter your best."
Santana froze and looked down at the sleeping bundle in her arms. "Shit," she breathed. "You're right, Rach." Tears pooled in her eyes. "Oh my God. I can't do this!"
Stepping forward, Finn gripped her shoulders. "Santana, no one can do this but you. Underneath all that sarcasm, I know that you have a heart. I saw it when you were with—" He stopped himself and cleared his throat quickly. "I've seen you be a happy, soft person before, and I know that your daughter is going to bring that out in you again. And if things do get a little crazy, your family is right here with you. Every step of the way."
Finn made to step back, but Santana grabbed his forearm with her free hand and looked up at him gratefully. "Thank you." She looked at Kurt and Rachel and smiled. "Thank you, guys. I really don't know what I would've done without you this year. And I know that no matter what, you guys will have my back. And Bella's too." She looked tenderly at her sleeping daughter. Then, her head snapped back up to her three friends. "Of course, if anyone tries to fuck with you guys, I will go all Lima Heights on their asses, Mama status be damned."
Kurt put an arm around Santana and squeezed gently as he chuckled. "I don't think we could ever find someone as sweet as you pretend not to be."
"Pfft," Santana scoffed but secretly grinned.
"Come on!" Rachel said eagerly. "I want to show you how I've done up your room!"
Santana groaned good-naturedly and rolled her eyes, but gladly let her friends pull her out of the hospital room and back into the real world.
Exhausted, Santana collapsed onto her bed. She'd been home a week with Bella, and she'd be lying if she said she got more than three hours of sleep a night. Kurt and Rachel had told her all these fairytale stories about babies sleeping nine hours through the night. That clearly wasn't Bella, though. Oh no. The little Lopez wanted attention every few hours, even if it was just her mom looking at her. Eventually, Santana had created a crib of pillows and towels in her bed so that Bella could always feel her.
Despite all the hard work, Santana loved being a mom. Nothing in the world would ever come close to seeing her baby girl's dark eyes locking onto hers and never letting go. Santana felt like her daughter could see into her soul. She knew that it was too early to tell what color Bella's eyes were going to be, but Santana was certain that her daughter would retain her dark eyes.
She sighed and allowed herself to wonder briefly about Bella's father and whether she'd get some of his genes — not that she remembered anyway.
"Stop it," she scolded herself immediately. Bella's father was non-existent. She was Bella's parent. She would be a mother, father, best friend, psychologist, and everything that her little girl needed.
Santana sighed and rested her head on her pillow, shaking off the fleeting thought. She pushed her body up and rested her face on the pillow that separated her from Bella. She smiled and just stared at the perfect little human being fast asleep next to her. Looking at her like this, Santana immediately forgave her daughter for waking her up every two hours with her piercing wails. As soon as Santana appeared in Bella's vision, though, the wails would stop, and she would just stare up at her mother. As sleep-deprived as Santana was, the love she felt for Bella completely overwhelmed any other emotion.
"Sleep well, baby girl," Santana murmured, softly fingering the dark locks only just appearing on Bella's head. "No matter what happens in this world, I will never let anything happen to you. No one will be able to hurt you. No one will walk out on you."
Santana blinked and was surprised to find two tears running down her cheeks. Her chest suddenly started aching, and she quelled the rising urge to scream in frustration. She couldn't do this. She wouldn't do this. That part of her life was over. She didn't want to see her again or even think of her again.
Brittany.
Closing her eyes, Santana buried her face in her pillow, letting the tears finally flow after nine long months.
Santana hummed a random tune as she put the final touches on the mac and cheese she was making. It was Brittany's favorite, and her girlfriend had been training so hard lately because of a competition coming up. Santana wanted to give Brittany a nice, relaxing evening.
She heard the front door open and a familiar bounding come closer as Brittany arrived in the kitchen with a big smile on her face.
"Hi, baby!" she said enthusiastically, grabbing Santana in a fiercely tight embrace.
"Hey," Santana chuckled, hugging her back. "You have a good session tonight, babe?"
Brittany nodded and smiled, leaning in for a kiss. Santana reciprocated happily, letting her tongue lightly run over Brittany's bottom lip before pulling away to put the mac and cheese in the oven.
"Mean," Brittany muttered behind her.
Santana laughed and turned to wink at her girlfriend. "Feeling energetic, baby?" she asked, stepping back into Brittany's arms and nuzzling her neck.
"Very," Brittany said seriously. "How long will dinner be?"
"Hmmm," Santana mused as she placed feather-light kisses along Brittany's neck. "About 40 minutes? I have it on low."
"So come and keep me company while I shower?" Brittany asked innocently. Santana looked up and saw nothing innocent in her gaze.
She smirked. "Need some help getting clean, baby?"
Brittany leaned in to capture Santana's lips softly. "I always get properly cleaned when you're with me," she murmured in a low voice.
"Oooh," Santana mumbled, feeling a rush of heat run down her body and settle between her legs. "That was so sexy."
Giggling, Brittany pulled Santana to the bathroom. They slowly undressed each other, stealing kisses every now and then. Brittany reached into the shower and turned the water on. Santana took the opportunity and pressed her body up against her girlfriend's tightly, leaving no room between them. The blonde gasped at the contact and moaned as Santana traced her tongue from her ear to her clavicle.
"Ready to get clean?" Santana murmured.
"Mmhmmm," Brittany mumbled, running her hands up and down Santana's back, sending her into a frenzy of goosebumps.
There wasn't a feeling quite like Brittany and Santana pressed up against each other, skin on skin from head to toe. Both girls would swear that nothing could compare to the intimacy they experienced being so close together.
Brittany pulled away slightly and climbed into the shower, holding onto Santana's hand and pulling her gently in after her. The steam of the rapidly heating water quickly stuck to their bodies as their lips met over and over again, massaging, nipping, tracing.
Santana gasped as Brittany turned her and pressed her against the shower wall, rubbing their bodies together. The steam had made their skin slippery, and the feeling of Brittany's body moving up and down hers almost made her come.
"God, Britt," Santana moaned loudly as Brittany's hands started massaging her breasts. She tweaked her nipples into stiff peaks, and Santana moaned again. They'd been having sex for over four years, yet her body still reacted to Brittany's touch like it was the first time.
Resting her arms on Brittany's shoulders, Santana kissed the dancer furiously. Brittany's flexible tongue explored her mouth like she'd never tasted her before, and the intensity elicited another moan from the Latina. Thank goodness they lived alone.
"I want you so bad," Brittany husked against Santana's lips.
"Take me, B," Santana replied with a smile. "I'm all yours."
Brittany smiled her big sunshine smile and kissed Santana again, trailing her lips to her girlfriend's neck and down to her breasts. She lovingly caressed each peak with her tongue before Santana's moans became desperate and she was being pushed further down. Brittany knelt down and smiled as she trailed her tongue over Santana's stomach.
"Baby," Santana whined, her fingers tangling in Brittany's now wet hair.
"God, I can smell you, San," Brittany murmured, licking moisture off Santana's stomach, causing the Latina to shiver uncontrollably. "You smell so good."
Brittany gripped one of Santana's firm thighs and placed it over her shoulder, the full force of Santana's arousal hitting her. Her mouth watered, and she couldn't hold back any longer. She licked up Santana's slit slowly, taking a generous amount of wetness onto her tongue and swallowing, savoring the taste of her girlfriend.
"So good," she murmured, licking up again.
"Fuck," Santana moaned, loosening one hand in Brittany's hair to steady herself against the shower wall. "Baby, that feels so good."
Brittany smiled to herself and alternated between long, slow licks and little flicks over Santana's pulsing clit. Her girlfriend's moans were getting louder, and Brittany knew that she was building her up, nice and slow. She took a deep breath, then dove inside her girlfriend with her tongue.
"Holy fuck," Santana cried out, her thighs clenching around Brittany's face. "Right there, baby."
Brittany obliged and pushed in and out until she felt Santana's walls close in around her tongue. She glanced up at her girlfriend. Her eyes were closed and her jaw was set hard as her body arched off the shower wall and started to shudder. There wasn't anything quite like watching Santana come undone at the mercy of Brittany's tongue. She transformed. Of course, she was completely beautiful all the time, but in these moments, she became almost angelic. A look of complete bliss would cross her face as she came down from her orgasm, and Santana didn't even have to look at Brittany for the dancer to see the love radiating from her.
"Oh. My. God," Santana breathed, removing her hand from the wall and running it through her wet hair. "B, that was unbelievable."
Brittany placed a soft kiss against Santana's clit, causing a reactive moan from her girlfriend, and slowly trailed her tongue back up Santana's body until their lips met again. Santana loved tasting herself on Brittany, and the blonde gladly gave her tongue to her. The brunette wrapped her arms around Brittany's neck and pulled her close, sucking hard on her tongue, causing the dancer to chuckle and pull her girlfriend close.
They broke apart slightly and rested their foreheads together.
"Your turn, baby," Santana murmured, trailing her hand down Brittany's stomach.
"I want you inside me hard and fast," Brittany told her. "I'm so wet for you right now, it almost hurts."
"Anything for you, my love," Santana replied, smirking at how turned on Brittany got by fucking her.
She ran two fingers over Brittany's slit, coating them in her girlfriend's wetness — which there was a lot of — and immediately entered her, starting a slow rhythm to build her up.
"Fuck," Brittany moaned, her nails running down Santana's back. Santana knew she'd have some sexy red marks the next day. She loved it when Brittany marked her. "Harder," she commanded.
Santana shifted the angle of her hand and pumped in deeper and longer. Then, she added another finger, and Brittany's teeth sank into her shoulder.
"Yes, yes," she panted. "Fuck, baby!"
"You like me inside you, don't you?" Santana murmured against Brittany's ear breathily.
"Only you," Brittany moaned. "No one else. Only you." She cried out as Santana curled her fingers inside her, and her legs started trembling, a sure sign that she was close.
Santana tightened her grip around Brittany's waist; her girlfriend almost always became like dead weight immediately after her orgasm. She sped her fingers up, then slowed them down, repeating the process until Brittany was whimpering in her ear. She flicked her thumb over Brittany's clit once, twice, and on the third flick, she cried out Santana's name and arched against her girlfriend, her body shaking as the orgasm flowed through her. Santana brought her down slowly, holding onto her tightly before removing her fingers and licking them clean. Closing her eyes, she savored the taste. Brittany was by far her favorite taste in the world.
"Best," Brittany sighed, leaning into Santana and kissing her lazily.
"Even better than when we snuck into Coach Sylvester's office after graduation?" Santana teased, smiling as she remembered the best orgasm of her life — or rather, the best multiple orgasm of her life. Three times in two minutes. Brittany had yet to break her own record, though not for lack of trying. Santana had to admit that she appreciated the blonde's efforts. Oh man, did she appreciate them.
"Hmm, maybe second best," Brittany murmured, slowly regaining feeling in her legs. "I love you, San."
"And I love you, B," Santana replied, kissing her girlfriend gently. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up."
Brittany giggled. "And you. I got you good."
"That you did, baby," Santana agreed, turning the blonde into the warm stream of water. "That you did."
They washed each other gently and lovingly, stealing kisses until the water got cold. Santana opened the shower door and grabbed a towel for Brittany to step into. She rubbed the towel against her girlfriend, causing the blonde to chuckle.
"Gotta keep you warm," Santana said seriously, pulling a second towel around herself.
"But I've got you for that, silly," Brittany giggled.
"Hmmm, good point." Santana grinned.
There was silence for a moment until Brittany spoke. "San? I need to tell you something."