A/N: This is a long one, but essential. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy it!

September 2024 – New York, New York

"And then he said I wasn't a 'real New Yorker'," Santana quoted, retelling this story for the hundredth time. "Until I had my first makeover, and I was like, 'what does that even mean?!' Like who says…"

"Can I make an observation?" Dr. Broffman raised her hand, interrupting her client.

"You don't have to ask that every time, doc."

"We haven't talked about your parents," the older woman noted as she lifted her glasses over her hair. "I mean, other than your father's occupation, I don't know anything about them."

"Why do you need to know about my parents?"

"Do I need to know? No," she answered, uncrossing her legs and leaning forward in her leather chair. "But research – and my personal practice experience – suggests that when a client talks about his or her parents, upbringing, or family life more generally speaking, that talk ultimately leads to better outcomes for the client."

"That makes sense," the younger woman nodded. "Um, my dad's a surgeon, like you said."

"What's his name?"

"Doctor David Lopez." She answered, rolling her eyes. "Don't ever leave off the 'doctor.'"

"What about your mother?" Dr. Broffman asked, chuckling.

"Maribel," Santana smiled, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"That's a beautiful name," the doctor said sincerely. "What does she do?"

"She was a nurse."

"I imagine there weren't many sick days at your house growing up."

"Perfect attendance every year," Santana smirked to herself.

"Are they retired?"

"Oh no," she shook her head, looking back up at the doctor. "They had me pretty young. My dad's only 56, so he's still practicing and probably will until he drops dead. It's his life's dream apparently."

"Dedicated," the older woman nodded. "I can see where you get that from. And your mom?

"She, um," Santana drew in a deep breath before continuing. "She passed a few years ago."

"I'm so sorry, Santana."

"Oh no, no, it's okay."

"Is that something you want to talk more about?"

Santana took in another deep breath and looked down at one hand playing with the other in her lap. She shook her head as she exhaled, "No, not yet."

"I understand," the doctor nodded.

The younger woman nodded to herself before looking back up at the doctor. "Ask me another question?"

"Let me see." The doctor pulled her glasses back down to her eyes. She reached forward to open the folder on the coffee table in front of her. She flipped through her notes. "Hmmm, last week, before you ran off to career day, we were talking about you and Brittany deciding you two could see other people if you wanted while you were at your respective schools," she read off.

"Oh, yes, I remember."

"Now," she started, leaning back into her chair, crossing her legs, and lifting her glasses back over her hair. "I assumed that that arrangement worked out, and I recall you saying that it had, but I think you were going to say more about that before you had to go. Is that right?"

"Mmhm," Santana nodded.

Dr. Broffman stared at her client with pursed lips, waiting for her to speak.

"Um, yeah, so she said I could do my thing, and I said she could do hers, and that we'd still have our thing together. And we did. I had my fun, and I'm sure she had hers too. And I think it was always sort of understood that once we finished undergrad, we'd get serious again. Be us again, you know?"

The doctor nodded, "You had an agreement of some kind."

"More of an unspoken understanding," she clarified. "But that was before we went to Disney World."

June 2016 – Orlando, Florida

"If I hear 'It's a Small World After All' one more time, I'm gonna kill myself," the Latina told her friends as they sat on couches and armchairs around a coffee table in the resort lobby.

"It wasn't that bad, Santana," Quinn said without turning her head toward the girl seated on the opposite end of the couch.

"It was the creepiest thing I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life," Santana said with her feet propped up on the table in front of her. "I can't wait to start at Columbia in the fall and figure out how to sue for emotional distress, pain, and suffering. I might be entitled to compensation."

"I don't know I thought the little American Girl-y doll-people were kinda cute," Brittany shrugged from her seat in the armchair next to the coffee table.

"I had actual American Girl dolls when I was little," the other blonde said. "They're much creepier at night than that ride was during the day, Santana's just a bitch baby."

A cell phone ringing cuts through the sound of laughter around the little coffee table.

"It's my mom," Quinn said looking down at her phone as she stood up from the couch. "I should take it upstairs. Mercedes, do you need anything from the room when I come back?"

"No thanks, girl, I'm good," Mercedes answered from her seat between her roommate and Santana, trying to stop herself from laughing.

The blonde nodded as she picked up the phone and walked away from her friends. "Hey mom," was all that was heard as she rounded the corner out of the lobby and headed toward the elevators.

"I for one thought the ride was a beautiful tribute to how diverse the world is and how connected we are," Rachel added with her hands over her chest as she leaned forward from her seat in the other armchair. "I mean, it truly is a small world after all."

"I'm with Santana," Tina piped up from where she sat on her boyfriend's lap on the other couch. "Those things were terrifying. Like, apparently, they have to get their hair cut because the humidity makes it grow or something. Super weird."

"Disney's supposed to be the happiest place on Earth! Y'all have done nothing but complain since we've been here!" Mercedes said.

"'This wait is way too long'," Kurt said doing his best Quinn Fabray.

"'This food's way too expensive'," Mike mocked his girlfriend.

"'There are way too many kids here'," Sam lifted his hands, doing his best Santana impression.

"That's cute," the Latina laughed to herself before looking up at the blonde guy sitting across from her. "Can you do me slapping you?"

"Those lines were way too mathematically illogical," Brittany mocked, not looking up from the phone she was typing on.

"Brittany, you're the one who said that," Tina pointed out.

"Well, they were," the blonde shrugged, going back to typing on her phone.

"Well, as fun as reliving our day is," Rachel said, getting up from her seat. "I need my vocal rest and beauty sleep."

"Yes, yes, you do," Santana nodded.

Rachel ignored her and turned to her roommate. "Kurt, will you be coming up soon?"

"I should be up in a little bit," he answered.

"Try to be quiet when you do!" His roommate called out as she rounded the corner from the lobby to the elevators.

"Anyways," Kurt rolled his eyes and slid to the edge of his seat on the couch. "Guess…who…got…a picture with Prince Eric!" He said, holding his phone out to show the girls seated on the other side of the table.

Santana leaned forward in her seat to get a better look at Kurt's phone when she felt her own buzz in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw a text message on the screen.

From Britt: Meet me in our room?

"A wave of tiredness has suddenly come over me," the Latina announced. "Goodnight!" She got up from the couch, side-stepped between Mercedes and the coffee table, and headed toward the elevators.

"Me too," Brittany yawned, stretching out her arms dramatically. She got up from her chair to follow the other girl around the corner.

Mercedes, Kurt, and Sam looked at each other and shook their heads. "Goodnight!"

Brittany rounded the corner to where Santana stood waiting for an elevator to come down to the lobby.

"Hey," the blonde said once she caught up to the Latina.

"Hey," Santana said back, wrapping her arms around the blonde's waist as she leaned in to kiss her.

"Santana!" she pulled back from the kiss. "There could be people on the elevator when it gets here!"

"I don't care who's on the elevator, we're on vacation. And I've been waiting for this all day." She leaned in to recapture the blonde's lips, the other girl smiled into the kiss.

**ding**

"Just can't wait, can you?" Quinn said, shaking her head, smirking to herself as the elevator doors opened. She kept her head down as she stepped over the threshold.

"Hi Quinn, bye Quinn." Santana said, stepping over the threshold into the elevator. She held onto Brittany's hand as she pressed the close-door button over and over again.

"Oh!" Quinn put her arm between the closing doors, causing them to reopen. "Me, Kurt, and Mercedes were thinking about going shopping in the morning, you guys wanna come?"

"What time?" the Latina asked, now pressing the open-door button.

"This one place Kurt wants to go to opens at like 9, but we have to get there an hour early apparently," she rolled her eyes. "But we're going to malls too. So, like 7:30ish?"

"I don't know, I think I wanna sleep in. You should go though," Brittany suggested to Santana. "You're gonna need hot law student clothes."

"True," she nodded. "I'm down. Um…" she pointed to Quinn's arm.

"Sorry." The other blonde realized she was still holding the door open. "Night guys."

"Night!" The two girls called out from behind the closing doors.

September 2024

"Sorry to interrupt," Dr. Broffman apologized. "But I just have to say you're 100% correct about that ride."

"Thank you!"

"As you were saying."

"So," the younger woman continued. "I went shopping the next morning and got back to the resort later that afternoon."

June 2016

"Okay mami…yes…okay…I'm just getting back to the room," Brittany heard Santana say as she dipped her key card into the reader and opened the door.

"I've gotta go. I'll make sure I send pictures. Tell dad I said 'hey' when you see him. Mmhm…love you too…Will do." She ended her call and dropped her shopping bags on the floor near the closet as she stepped into their room. "My mom says 'hi.'"

"I love your mom," the blonde said. "Did you find any good stuff?" Brittany motioned to the bags the other girl dropped down.

"Did I? Columbia won't know what hit 'em. Wanna fashion show later? Santana raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Brittany smiled, "Definitely."

"What'd you do today?" Santana asked the other girl as she bent over to lift the clothes out of the bags. She opened the closet to hang the clothes, its door blocking her view into the bedroom.

"I went to hang out by the pool with Mike and Tina and Sam earlier and somehow both my wall charger and my portable charger fell in the pool. Disaster. Especially since my phone was almost dead and I was waiting for a phone call. So, I came back to the room and went looking in your suitcase to see if you had an extra one, and I found this." She looked down at the small item in her hands.

"Found what?" Santana shut the closet door and walked toward the bedroom. She leaned against the door frame and saw the other girl sitting in an armchair in the corner on the other side of the room.

"Santana, what is this?" Brittany held the item up nervously.

The other girl walked further into the room to get a better look at the item. She smiled and shook her head when she saw it.

"Santana."

She walked over to Brittany and sat on the bed across from the armchair.

"I didn't want it to happen like this but," Santana leaned forward and took the box from the other girl's hands. "I love you, Brittany. You know that already." She smiled and took in a deep breath. "But you probably didn't know this. Um," she took in another breath. "For years, I've felt like I've been holding my breath, waiting. I held my breath when I told you I loved you in front of those lockers. I held my breath waiting for you to say you loved me back. I held my breath when you held my hand under that napkin at Breadsticks," she smirked. "I held my breath waiting for my abuela to tell me she accepted me."

Brittany watched the other girl as she drew in another deep breath.

"Telling you how I felt was hard. Coming out was hard. Breaking up was hard, you know that, too. But do you know what the easiest thing in the world was? Falling back into our thing. But somewhere along the way, what was really easy turned into me holding my breath and waiting again. I held my nose and pretended to like hooking up with those college girls, pretended to have fun, just waiting until we could be together again. Really be together."

Brittany kept watching the other girl as she spoke.

"And now? Now, I," she ran her hands up and down the other girl's thighs. "I feel like I can breathe again. We don't have to wait anymore, Britt! I love you, and you love me, and we're done with roommates and dorms, and you can…come to New York, and you can," she started as she got up from her seat on the edge of the bed and got down on the floor in front of the other girl. She opened the small box as she said, "Marry me?"

Brittany's eyes fell to the ring and to the girl kneeling in front of her. She felt the tears stinging in her eyes as she inhaled deeply. "Santana," she exhaled through pursed lips, tears falling as she blinked. "I, I can't go to New York."

"Well, not right away, obviously," she laughed. "I mean, we'd have to find a place to live. I'm gonna see if there's an open apartment in Rachel and Kurt's building. I crashed with Lena Dunham once when I got kicked out for being right about that ass Brody, so I'm sure she can be a reference for something. I mean maybe we could…"

"I can't go to New York because," she interrupted the other girl. "MIT called and offered me a fellowship…and I," she drew in another deep breath and tried to flick away the tears that had fallen from her eyes. "I said yes. I was gonna tell you when you got back." She searched her eyes.

"Oh! Oh. God, Britt you're such a fucking genius, come here!" She leaned up on her knees to reach up and run her thumb along the blonde's cheek as she pulled her in to capture her lips, still holding the open box in her other hand. "Okay, this is good," she said as they pulled apart. "I like Boston! I'm pretty sure I could leverage my Columbia acceptance to get a spot at a law school somewhere around MIT, or just wait a year and apply somewhere else, or…"

"Santana, you can't come to Boston."

The Latina let out a small laugh and shook her head. "Why not?"

"You love New York."

"I love you."

"You can't move to Boston for me."

"Brittany, I would do anything for you, you know that."

"I know," she nodded. "I know, and I love you so much, Santana. So much." She noticed the tears reforming in her eyes, her voice cracking as she continued, "So much…"

Santana fell back to sit on her heels. "You're saying 'no.'"

"No! No!" Brittany said, shaking her head from side to side. More tears fell from her eyes as she slid from her chair to join the other girl on the floor. "Santana, I'm not saying 'no,' I'm, I'm saying that I love you! I love you! And I would love to marry you…someday…I just…" Santana shook her head and shifted off of her knees to sit beside the other girl on the floor.

Santana sat looking at the ring in her hand. "When did you say yes to MIT?"

"Today."

Santana shook her head, studying the pattern on the carpet. "Before or after you found the ring?"

Brittany looked at her best friend in confusion. "My phone was dying, I went looking for a charger, I found one, and I found the box too, but I didn't' open it. Then they called and I got distracted."

"You're such a fucking genius, Britt," she huffed out a laugh. "An actual genius, with a degree from MIT. You can write your own ticket. You can go anywhere you want."

"You were the first person to ever call me that. You've always been my first and loudest cheerleader. You believed it when no one else did, not even me. And now, the people there believe in me too, and now I get the chance to really, really show them that I can do more, I can show myself that I can do more. We're on the verge of something so huge I can't even tell you what it is!"

"You can do more, Britt." She turned to face the other girl. "And I wanna be right beside you when you do it, in Boston, in New York, wherever you are!"

"I love you so much, San. But," she took in another deep breath before continuing. "I don't want you to hate me for dragging you away from everything you love. And I…I don't wanna wake up 2 months from now or 2 years from now or 2 decades from now and resent you because I decided to give up what I'm working on so we could live in the same city."

Santana shook her head, seeming to find new detail in the carpet pattern. "What about us, Britt?"

"Come here." She turned the other girl's chin toward her, nearly capturing her lips as the other girl turned her head. "Hey, you're pulling away." She leaned in until her lips found the other girl's.

"Britt," Santana said as she pulled away again.

"You're gonna go back to New York and you're gonna love it at Columbia. And you're gonna be the most badass lawyer the city's ever seen. And me? I'm gonna finish what I started, and nothing's gonna change between us because I love you," she said, kissing her again. "And you love me," she said before leaning in again. "And…"

"Britt…" Santana shook her head.

"Can we just," the blonde interrupted with a nervous laugh. "Hop in my time machine and go back to last night when we ditched our friends for sweet lady kisses?"

Santana took in a deep breath as she searched back and forth between the other girl's eyes. She exhaled as she looked down at the ring in her hand, her view clouded by watering eyes. She closed the box. "I…I don't think we can."

September 2024

The doctor took in a deep breath and exhaled through pursed lips.

"Yeah."

"Let me make sure I understand. And forgive me for any oversimplification." She closed the folder in front of her, sat back in her leather chair and crossed her legs as she lifted her glasses up over her hair. She clasped her hands, her index fingers and thumbs framing her chin in contemplation. "You and Brittany met at cheer camp and started exploring your sexualities in high school, which led to your dating. You graduated and enrolled at the University of Louisville. She got held back. You broke up with her, citing the difficulties of long distance. You dropped out and moved to New York at Brittany's convincing. It was discovered that she was mathematically gifted, causing her to gain acceptance to MIT. You reconnected at some point and reconfigured your relationship in a more casual way, again at Brittany's convincing. A casualness you assumed would expire upon graduation. You got into law school in New York, she took a position in Boston. You asked her to marry you, and she…didn't quite say 'no,' right?"

"She didn't say 'yes' either."

"Mmm," the doctor hummed. "What was that moment like for you?"

"It was like," the younger woman paused, searching for the right words. "It was like breathing for the first time." She took in a deep breath to say, "And then getting the wind knocked out of you. And…" She caught a glimpse at the time on her phone as a text message illuminated the screen. "We're out of time, aren't we?"

"Technically," the doctor said as she looked up at the clock above her client's head. "But there was a cancellation, so you're my last client for the day. We can keep talking if you'd like, no extra charge," she smirked.

"You sure?"

The doctor nodded. "What happened next?"

June 2016

"How many?" The red-headed hostess asked the group as they walked through the double doors into the crowded restaurant.

"Uhh nine I think?" Mercedes turned around to count her friends. "Two, four, six, eight, ni…we're missing somebody."

Kurt turned around to recount, starting with himself and Mercedes, "Two, four, six, eight…where's Satan?"

"She…left. Family emergency," Brittany lied.

"Oh my god, I hope everything's okay!" He said.

Brittany reached into her pocket to check her phone. "Yeah, me too."

September 2024

"You left in the middle of the trip?"

Santana nodded.

"Where'd you go?"

"Home."

June 2016 – Lima, Ohio

Santana stepped out of the uber she took from the airport and walked around to the trunk to grab her suitcase. She sighed as she walked up the steps to the front door of her parents' house. She could hear the dog her mom adopted after she graduated barking as she used her keys to unlock the door.

"Mami?" She called out as she rolled her suitcase over the threshold. She left it in the hall as she walked toward the warm yellow light in the kitchen.

"Santana?" Maribel called back, confused.

The dog met Santana, jumping up her leg before she could reach the kitchen. She crouched down to scratch behind her ears. "ChaCha! You're a good girl!" She picked up the chihuahua and walked to the kitchen.

"Mija! What are you doing here?" The older woman said as she put her wine glass down on the counter and got up from her seat at the island to hug her daughter. "You're supposed to be at the happiest place on Earth! Why didn't you call and say you were coming? I would've cooked! Is everything okay?"

"Where's dad?" She put ChaCha down as she took a seat at the island.

"Where do you think?"

The younger Latina nodded, knowing her father was in an O.R. somewhere.

"How was your trip? How is everyone? Do you have pictures?" She walked over to the cupboard, grabbed a glass, pouring wine into it before sitting it on the island in front of her daughter.

"Thanks, ma. Everyone's fine," she lied, lifting up from her seat to pull her cell phone out of her back pocket. "Kurt and Rachel are Kurt and Rachel. I'm pretty sure Mercedes and Sam are hooking up again." She unlocked her phone as she handed it to the older woman so she could swipe through the pictures. "Tina's still Tina. And um, Brittany, she's…going back to MIT."

"Did she not graduate again?"

"She graduated, but she's going back for a fellowship, whatever that is," she let out a deep breath. "She's working on something 'huge', apparently."

"I'm sorry, mija."

Santana shrugged.

"You're working on something huge too! My baby's gonna be an attorney! Isn't that right, ChaCha?"

"Yeah, I am," she nodded, smirking to herself.

"Have you decided what kind of law you want to do?" Maribel asked, taking a sip from her glass.

"No not yet. I kinda need to decide where I'm gonna live first. I can't afford to live on my own, but I really don't wanna go back to that loft."

"Oh, that reminds me," she said, sitting her wine on the counter. "Judy Fabray called me yesterday. She said she called Quinn and found out she's taking a job in the city. I don't remember exactly what she said it was, but maybe you two can look for a place."

Santana shook her head, mid-sip. "Quinn and I can't live together." She put her glass on the counter. "We'd kill each other. How to Get Away with Murder is an awesome show and all, but I'm pretty sure that's not a real class they teach in law school."

"Call her, Santana."

"Trust me, mami, it won't work."

"You'd be surprised how well things can work out when there's no other option."

Santana looked down at the counter and shook her head. "You don't understand."

Maribel slid her daughter's phone across the counter back to her. "Call her."