Chapter 22

Disclaimer:I don't own glee or this story


Santana walked in the bedroom with another huge sheet of paper and set it on the bed for Skylar, who was sitting between Brittany's legs, to color on. "Look what I got for my artists." Santana laughed as Skylar continued to scribble over the paper she was currently coloring on. Brittany rubbing her little thighs while watching her daughter draw her a picture.

"Mami got you more paper." Brittany pointed.

"And coloring books." Santana smiled, setting down three coloring books on the bed with a box of oversized crayons. "Coloring stimulates your mind, I think now's the perfect age to start working with Skylar on coloring, even if she just scribbles across the page, she's seeing lines and shapes."

"Good idea." Brittany nodded, reaching for a coloring book and opening it to the first page. "Look Sky, let's color the fish on the page."

Santana handed Skylar a red crayon and watched her closely to see where on the page she began to color, Skylar went immediately for the middle of the page and began to color wildly, while Brittany grabbed a purple crayon and colored around her.

"I'm going to run to the pharmacy and get Taylor's cream for her skin, do you need anything?" Santana asked, standing up to grab a pair of shoes out of the closet.

Brittany looked up at her and shook her head. "No, we need to grocery shop and go to Target later for diapers and wipes, so don't do any of that shopping there, just get the prescription."

"You need to rest Brittany."

"I can't stay cooped in the house all weekend, Santana. I'm not working, baby, that was the agreement, I can grocery shop later." Brittany replied.

Santana stared at her before grabbing her pump and quickly taking Brittany's blood pressure, temperature, and checking her heart rate. She grabbed her notes from the desk in the corner with Brittany's vitals from the night before, and the other three times she'd taken them and nodded. "Well, everything is still on par, and I know you are going stir crazy."

"Momma?" Skylar looked up at Brittany.

"Yes Sky?"

"More."

"Okay, momma is still coloring." Brittany nodded to her and resumed her coloring before Skylar quickly turned the page, revealing a kitten, and picked up a blue crayon and wildly scribbled over it.

Santana smiled. "No dizziness or anything today?" She asked Brittany.

"I honestly feel 100%." Brittany told her, looking deep in her eyes.

"Okay, I'll be back." Santana stated. "Smiley, do you want to come with me?" She then asked, wiggling her fingers to Skylar.

"No." The baby replied immediately leaning back into Brittany's embrace.

Brittany laughed loudly when Santana's face dropped. "We'll be here waiting for you."

"Fine, keep an eye on momma." Santana winked at Skylar before kissing Brittany quickly. "If you think of anything, call or text me."


1pm

"Peek boo!" Skylar exclaimed as she peeped around the corner of the couch at Brittany, before hiding again.

Brittany looked up from her laptop with a smile when Skylar peeped back out at her. "Peek a boo." She replied.

"Peek boo!" Skylar repeated, poking her head out again. "Peek boo, momma."

"I see you." Brittany laughed. "Come cuddle with me."

Skylar shook her head and turned to run to the kitchen just as Santana walked into the living room, catching her daughter in the process. "Where are you going?" She asked, kissing the baby on the forehead.

"You." Skylar smiled, cupping Santana's face and patting her mother's cheeks.

Brittany laughed and continued typing on her laptop, finishing an email. "We are playing a mashup of peek a boo and hide and go seek I think."

Santana sat on the couch, setting Skylar on the floor, watching her run over to a toy and begin to play with it, babbling to herself the entire time. "Looks like you're doing more work than playing." Santana raised an eyebrow as she glanced at the screen.

She reached behind Brittany and began to rub her lower slowly before sliding her hand under Brittany's shirt, her fingers grazing Brittany's scars.

Brittany looked over at her and cleared her throat. "Just finalizing my travel plans for work, I'm still all yours the rest of the weekend."

"Good." Santana blushed as Brittany closed the laptop and set it on the floor, Skylar turning and watching her with a smile before going back to her toy.

"So I leave Tuesday, and you are bringing the girls next Thursday?" Brittany asked.

Santana nodded. "Yeah, I have flights booked for us for Thursday afternoon, right after I get Tay from school, and then we come home Sunday all together as a family."

"I still need to buy those tickets." Brittany remembered. "Can you do it later, or do you want me to use my card?"

"I'll use the joint account and buy them later, I didn't know what time you wanted to fly back, so I didn't book return flights yet." Santana explained.

Brittany nodded. "Well, Taylor still has school Monday morning, so we need to get back early in the evening I think, so let's look for a landing time around 6? That way we can get the girls settled down and ready for Monday morning."

"Cool, I'll look tonight. Ready to go to the store?" Santana asked, standing up and grabbing Skylar's coat off the hook. "Come here Smiley." Skylar looked up, holding her stuffed banana from Quinn tightly and walked over to Santana's open arms.

Brittany slowly stood up and stretched out her back, noticing Santana staring at her. "Just stretching out my back, baby."

Santana watched her face carefully. "Any pain?"

"No pain, but honestly I do have a little stiffness, would you mind giving me a massage later?" Brittany asked.

"How does a nice hot bubble bath with champagne, followed by a full body massage?" Santana smiled as she struggled to put Skylar's boots on, since the baby kept squirming around. "Sit still, please." She told Skylar in Spanish, Skylar looked up at her and sat still, allowing her mother to get her dressed to go outside.

"Sounds like you got yourself a date." Brittany nodded.

"Oh la la." Santana smiled. "Can't wait."

"Let me go get my shoes from upstairs." Brittany told her as she ran up the stairs.

"Mami." Skylar leaned on Santana's thigh and looked up at her with her big brown eyes.

Santana rubbed her back, noticing how tired Skylar was. "You are going to fall asleep as soon as we leave the driveway." She lifted her on the couch and laughed when Skylar leaned back into the couch, stuffing her hand in her mouth.

Brittany came back down the stairs, with both her and Santana's Ugg boots and set them on the floor. "Do you have the list?" She asked Santana, who slipped on her boots quickly.

"Yeah, I typed it up and put it on my iPad." Santana nodded. "We'll probably have to go pick up Taylor right from running errands, luckily the city is a damn ice box so the groceries will stay cold." She groaned as Brittany pulled Skylar's hand out of her mouth and slipped her mittens on, Skylar staring at her hands the entire time. "Someone is ready for a nap." She smiled, picking her daughter up as Santana grabbed her keys from the bowl near the door.


Brittany and Santana first picked up a number of Brittany's business suits and skirts from the dry cleaner, dropping more off, they then picked up a few packages from the post office from Santana's parents, before heading to Target to get more diapers for Skylar, who fell asleep in Brittany's arms, not wanting to be put down in the store. They finally reached the grocery store and set Skylar in the seat, placing a blanket down as a little pillow for her when she leaned forward and fell back asleep on the handle. Santana took her coat off of her and set it in the bottom of the cart so she wouldn't get too hot as they made their way through the store.

"Taylor doesn't like those, San." Brittany stated as she placed a bag of rice in the cart.

"What?" Santana frowned, rubbing Skylar's back, and pulling her hat off of her, tossing it in her purse. "Since when doesn't she want Doritos in her lunch?"

"She wants Doritos but not the cool ranch anymore." Brittany laughed. "She decided the other day, she just wants nacho cheese now."

"Oh, well I still want these." Santana shrugged. "I'll get her the ones she wants."

Brittany continued to put items in the cart as Santana shifted Skylar in the cart, laughing softly when her little eyes opened and she glared at her. "Go back to sleep." She ran her fingers through her hair until Skylar went back to sleep.

"Why is she tired again?" Brittany asked. "This is kind of late for a nap for her."

Santana went over the list on her iPad, deleting the items they had already picked up, she checked Skylar for a fever, before pushing the cart again, following Brittany down the aisle. "She's not warm, maybe she's just tired today, she got up super early."

"Hmmm." Brittany glanced at her as they made their way to the meat department. "Oh, before I passed out the other day Quinn was asking if she could keep the girls for a night, she wanted to spend some time with them and give us some time to do Christmas shopping. I told her I needed to talk to you about it."

Santana set two packages of chicken and a package of ground rounds in the cart and looked up at Brittany. "I'm okay with it if you are." She mumbled before looking over some steaks.

"Are you sure?" Brittany asked, nodding in agreement at the steaks Santana picked out and held up to for her opinion. "I know you and Quinn don't see eye to eye."

Santana sighed and leaned against the meat case. "Yeah, Quinn really stepped up for us the other day, the girls both love her and we could use the night to shop."

"Or to just relax..." Brittany winked at her. "Spend some time alone."

Santana smiled. "Do you think Quinn is available to watch the girls tomorrow night?"

"I'll text her and see." Brittany smiled.

Santana licked her lips at her wife and winked at her, causing Brittany to blush as Skylar suddenly screamed loudly in the store in her sleep, startling Santana, who dropped the package of breakfast sausage in her hand. She quickly picked her up and rubbed her back while kissing all over her face to wake her up. "Wake up Sky Sky."

Brittany quickly grabbed a wipe out of the diaper bag and pressed it on the back of Skylar's neck as she screamed into Santana's chest, a number of people walking by stopping and glancing at the couple, who paid them no mind at all and focused on Skylar.

Santana bounced Skylar, pressing her lips to her daughter's forehead repeatedly to wake her up. "Wake up Sky." Brittany cooed in her ear, kissing her daughter's hands until her brown eyes popped open and focused on Brittany. "Hey beautiful." She smiled at her daughter, who exhaled sharply, clutching to Santana's coat.

Skylar looked around quickly as Brittany ducked down so she could see her eyes, which relaxed the baby, who let out a deep sigh and rested her head back on Santana's chest. Santana turned and leaned against the cooler, so she could stand Skylar on her thighs and look in her eyes. "Hey Skylar, what's wrong?"

"I don't like that she keeps waking up screaming." Brittany shook her head. "Do we need to get her checked out?"

Santana glanced at Brittany and shook her head slightly. "She's just having bad dreams I think."

Skylar frowned and leaned forward to hug Santana again, who kissed her on the forehead and rubbed her back to calm her down even more. Brittany stared at her and sighed. "Do you want to just hold her for a little bit? I'll push the cart."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Santana shifted Skylar and unzipped her coat so Skylar could hug her better, which the baby did immediately. Brittany handed Skylar a pacifier, which she accepted slowly, staring at Brittany and held it tightly.

"She's really shaken up, she doesn't even want a pacifier." Brittany frowned.

"Good." Santana smiled. "She doesn't need it, Brittany."

Skylar rested back on Santana's chest and exhaled deeply as they continued to make their way through the store, Santana held her tightly, rubbing her back and bouncing her slightly as Brittany worked through the list, grabbing everything they needed and a few extra things that weren't on the list.

"Can you see her face?" Santana asked Brittany as they headed towards the checkout. "Is she asleep?"

Brittany looked up from her phone, where she was checking an email. "Yeah she is." She nodded. "Okay, I'm asking Dr. Lopez right now, do you think we need to get her checked out, she's been sleeping a lot the past couple days and this is the second day in a row she screamed in her sleep."

Santana kissed Skylar as she shifted her in her arms, so she could help Brittany unload the cart. "Mrs. Lopez-Pierce, no." She shook her head, playing into Brittany's game. "Honestly, Brit, night terrors, and these baby nightmares are pretty common, something is scaring her in her dreams but since she can't talk that well, she can't tell us what it is so we can assure her that everything is okay."

"So what do we do?" Brittany asked, grabbing a pack of gum from the rack behind her for Taylor.

"Get some Starburst for Tay too." Santana told her as she continued to unload the cart, Skylar holding her tightly in her sleep.

"I got the gum for her." Brittany frowned. "You want her to have candy too?"

"Yeah, I'll keep it and just give her some over the weekend." Santana nodded.

"Unless you wanna quickly run and grab a big bag of them from the candy aisle."

Brittany stared at the candy rack. "Are you okay to unload with Sky?" Santana nodded. "I got her, go ahead."

Brittany stared at Skylar, smiling softly at how cute she looked, clutching to Santana's sweater, before quickly making her way to the candy aisle. She grabbed two bags of Starbucks, and a bag of Twizzlers, before making her way back to the line Santana was in, just in time to grab Skylar out of her arms when she started to wake up.

Skylar frowned initially, not wanting to leave Santana's arms but hugged Brittany tightly once Santana handed her over. "Are you okay, Sky Sky?" She whispered to her daughter, kissing her on the forehead. Skylar looked up at her before resting on her chest.

"She's okay." Santana smiled, pinching Skylar's cheek. "She's just probably a little shaken up still." She kissed Skylar on the cheek. "Tell momma you're tough like your mami, so you're okay." She added with a smile.

Brittany laughed and glanced at her phone. "We need to get a move on, so we can get to Taylor's school. I want to stop and get a chai from Starbucks."


8pm

Santana and Brittany were on the couch in the living room, Santana in the corner of the sectional, her legs outstretched over Brittany's lap, as the blonde ran her hands up and down Santana's bare legs under the fleece blanket covering them, since the Latina was wearing a pair of pajama shorts. Santana was in and out of sleep, her head laying on the side of the couch while Brittany watched HGTV, completely engrossed in the episode and making mental notes of what she wanted to change around their living room. Santana began to snore softly, causing Brittany to glance at her and smile at how cute she looked. She leaned over and kissed Santana softly on the lips before turning back to the TV.

Taylor peeped in the room and watched her mothers for a few minutes, Skylar holding her hand and mimicking her older sister, peeping at her mother. "Okay, come on Sky." Taylor picked her sister up and ran upstairs to her bedroom, setting Skylar in the middle of the bed. Skylar watched as Taylor quickly changed into a navy skirt, white blouse, and pink cardigan sweater.

"Tay." Skylar smiled while clapping.

"I look super professional, right?" Taylor asked Skylar, turning in a circle to model for her sister, Skylar smiled brightly at her and nodded.

Taylor ran to her vanity and brushed her hair before putting on some of her lip gloss, checking her teeth after, the same way she'd seen Santana do in the past. She then kneeled down in front of Skylar, who was now engrossed with the pattern on Taylor's bedspread, running her finger over it. "Okay, Sky, we have to practice. Remember how to wink?"

Skylar stared at Taylor and smiled, showing all of her teeth. She would blink dramatically with both eyes as Taylor winked at her. "Good job!" Taylor gave her a high five and kissed her on the cheek. She lifted her off the bed and set her on the floor, she handed Skylar a piece of cardboard. "Can you hold this?"

"Okay." Skylar smiled, staring at her.

Taylor grabbed her art easel and folded it up before grabbing the huge pad of paper sitting on it and walking out of the room. "Come on Skylar."

Skylar walked slowly behind her, holding tightly to the cardboard, Taylor held her hand as they walked down the stairs and into the living room. Brittany glanced over at Taylor, raising an eyebrow at her outfit, watching Taylor set up her art easel. She patted Santana's legs to wake her up discreetly. Santana opened her eyes and stretched as she woke and focused on Brittany, who nodded towards Taylor.

"Good evening Dr. and Mrs. Lopez-Pierce." Taylor smiled. "My name is Taylor Lopez-Pierce, and this is my assistant, Skylar Lopez-Pierce." Skylar stood next to Taylor, still holding her cardboard.

"Good evening." Santana smiled, swinging her legs off of Brittany and sitting up, rubbing her eyes to wake herself up a little more. "What's going on?" She whispered to Brittany, who shrugged with a smile.

Taylor stepped forward and handed them each a small booklet with the words Why We Need A Dog in big black letters on the cover. "I've prepared a presentation to sell my points."

Brittany smiled proudly as she thumbed through the booklet. "This is good." She whispered to Santana. "We definitely have an ad exec on our hands."

"Mmmmmm." Santana nodded, equally impressed in Taylor's presentation, she then focused her attention on Taylor, who moved quickly through her presentation, which was complete with diagrams that highlighted the cost of food monthly, that she was willing to pay for out of her allowance, and included a very detailed chart on walking and feeding the dog.

Skylar stood by her side, looking up at her sister happily in between waving to her moms, dropping her cardboard sign periodically, and laughing when she bent down to pick it up. Brittany played into Taylor's presentation, grabbing a notepad and a pen to take notes, and jot down questions to ask at the end.

After Taylor answered a few tough questions from both moms, who took her presentation seriously and both noted she made a lot of good points and thought every aspect of owning a pet out carefully. She then leaned down and whispered in Skylar's ear. The baby giggled and nodded as she turned her sign around and ran over to her mothers to hand it to her, the words I want a puppy, too in red letters, Skylar's doodling all around from when she helped Taylor made the sign earlier that night.

Santana smiled and had to resist the urge to kiss all over Skylar's face when Taylor whispered for her to wink at her mother's and Skylar began to blink rapidly at them with a big smile. Santana melted as her heart swelled and Skylar ran back over to her big sister.

"Thank you for your time. I'll leave my larger scale presentation here, so you can take a look if you would like. I hope to hear from you soon." Taylor walked over and shook their hands, she then grabbed Skylar's hand and left the room, she picked her sister up and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. "I think they went okay." She smiled happily at Skylar, who stared at her. "Momma asked a lot of questions, and mami didn't frown at anything. We're going to get a puppy."

"Puppy." Skylar smiled.

"Yep, thanks for all your help." She hugged Skylar before changing back into her pajamas and turning on the TV to watch cartoons with the baby.

Santana looked over the booklet again and set it down. "I'm so impressed."

Brittany nodded. "I'm proud of her, this is a very well thought out presentation, look at these graphs and charts." She beamed. "Seriously, Santana, this is amazing, she's 9, and has put together a better presentation than some of my colleagues and interns!" She walked over to the larger scale presentation on the art easel, looking at each page again.

"This is definitely impressive, she researched dog food prices and measured out how much the dog would eat per month, multiplied that by twelve months to get the total cost for a year." Santana nodded. "She definitely did her research, but..."

Brittany stared at her. "Are we buying her a dog?"

Santana shook her head. "We are just too busy, Brit, we both leave for work early, I'm out the door by 6am at latest with Skylar, and you are gone right after us around 7. We aren't home until after 5pm, that's so long for a puppy to be alone all day, it's almost not even fair."

"We just can't have a dog right now, we don't even really have a big backyard for a dog to play in." Brittany agreed.

Santana sat down on the couch. "This is one of the tougher moments of being a parent." She sighed. "Maybe we can figure something else out, something else she wants?"

Brittany shrugged and continued to look over the presentation. "Maybe I can offer her a job as my assistant." She laughed.


Saturday 6pm

"Thanks again, Quinn." Brittany smiled as Taylor ran in the house and began to take Skylar's winter clothes off of her. Santana walked up to the door a few minutes later with overnight bags for Taylor and Skylar, who were going to stay the night with the blonde.

"Pajamas, two sets of clothes, Skylar's favorite blanket, and her teddy bear." Santana nodded as she walked in the house. "We are trying to get her completely off of the bottle, so I have her sippy cups in here, if she truly can't fall asleep you can give her the smallest bottle with some warm milk in there. We didn't know if you had whole milk, I think you drink 1% if I remember correctly, so that's the only reason we packed some for her." Santana then rattled off. "Ummmm, and if she cries only use the pacifier as a last resort."

"Got it." Quinn nodded. "I don't drink whole milk, but when I knew they were coming over I bought a quart for Skylar, but thank you. I'll use it to cook or bake something instead."

"Our cells are on as always." Brittany noted. "I'm sure the girls will have a great time with you."

"Taylor, we are leaving." Santana called out to her daughter, who was sitting on the couch watching TV, Skylar next to her holding her box of Goldfish crackers.

The pair walked over to their daughters, hugging and kissing them goodbye before once again thanking Quinn before they left.

"Bye bye." Skylar waved as they walked out of the door.

"Okay girls." Quinn smiled. "We are having a pajama party tonight, so everyone has to get in pjs."

"Cool!" Taylor exclaimed, exciting Skylar, who smiled brightly at Quinn.

Quinn reached for Skylar, who hugged her around the neck immediately. "Can Aunt Quinn put your jammies on?" Skylar nodded and patted Quinn on the cheek with a smile, causing Quinn to blush; she knew that Skylar was very particular on who she liked and it always warmed her heart but Skylar took to her right away.

"You have 10 minutes Taylor!" QUinn winked at her as Taylor grabbed her bag and ran up the stairs to the guest room quickly. Quinn grabbed Skylar's bag and made her way upstairs as well, kissing Skylar on the cheek.


"It's nice to have a night out, just us two." Brittany smiled, holding Santana's hand as they walked through the mall. "Even if it is just shopping for our babies." She laughed.

"This is really nice, we had an amazing dinner, and now we are spending thousands on the girls." Santana nodded.

"The life of a mother." She teased.

Brittany laughed as well. "Well, I can't wait to share a bottle of wine with you in front of the fireplace tonight when we get home."

Santana lifted Brittany's hand and kissed over her knuckles. "Me too, but first let's do some shopping."


Thoughts?