"Order up!" Santana grabbed the plates and walked over to one of her favorite regulars.

"Here's your breakfast Mickey." she said, smiling as she set the plates down.

"Thanks San. Can I get some more coffee?" Out of the corner of her eye, Santana saw someone sit down in her section.

"Yeah, just give me a minute to take her order." Mickey nodded and Santana moved to the booth next to his. "Hi. Can I get you some coffee?" The woman looked up and smiled. "Berry."

"Hi Santana. It's been a long time." Santana shrugged. "Coffee would be great, thank you."

"You don't want anything to eat?" Rachel bit her lip, eyeing the menu. "I'll get you a cinnamon roll. It's on me." Santana said, knowing the girl's guilty pleasure. Rachel smiled softly as Santana stepped away from the table.

"San, can I get some more bacon?"

"You don't need it, Mickey." Santana said, walking past the booth to get a mug and a pot of coffee. After stopping to refill Mickey's cup, she walked back to Rachel's table and filled the empty mug before sitting down across from the brunette. "How'd you find me?"

"That's actually a very interesting story. After going through multiple people including all of our mutual friends as well as your parents, I figured out that the last person to have contact with you that I know personally was Matt Rutherford. I tracked him down and talked to him." Santana raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?" Rachel nodded. "What exactly did he tell you?"

"That as far as he knew, you work here. I didn't want to bother you at work, but he didn't know your address." Santana nodded. "He also said he hadn't seen you or the twins you share in over a year."

"Did he happen to mention that that was his choice?" Santana snapped. Rachel bit her lip. "I might not be able to stand him, but I wouldn't keep my babies away their father. He left us. I guess he's no a complete ass, because he sends child support every month. I guess it's the least he can do seeing as he makes at least five times what I do." Rachel nodded but before she could respond, a bell went off.

"Order up!"

"That'll be your cinnamon roll. One sec." Santana slid out of the booth and walked over to the counter, picking up the plate and walking back to the table. "There you go. I have to check on my other tables."

"Oh, of course. Take your time." Santana nodded and was about to turn away when she heard her name.

"Yeah Mickey?" The friendly man smiled as he slid out of his booth. Pulling out his wallet, he set an extra bill on the table in addition to what he owed for his meal. "Mickey..."

"It's my contribution. Tell the twins I said hi." Santana smiled slightly, wiping a tear discreetly as he pulled her into a hug. "You're a good mom." he whispered.

"God, why couldn't you be their dad?" Santana joked, letting out a soft laugh.

"Because then they'd be ugly. I'll see you tomorrow." Santana smiled as he walked out of the diner. Turning around, she saw Rachel smiling.

"The twins want to go to a Yankees game for their birthday. I'm trying to save up for the tickets and to buy them each a souvenir." she explained. Rachel immediately reached for her purse. "Rachel, don't. Please. Keep your money, okay? I didn't tell you that to make you feel like you needed to help pay for the tickets." Rachel sighed. "Enjoy your pastry. I'll come check on you in a few minutes."

"Okay." Rachel whispered as she began eating.

When Santana returned to the brunette's booth, she saw a note under the coffee mug as well as way too much money.

San,

I know you said that this was on you, but I wanted to pay. It was so great to see you, I'm sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye. I'll come by again tomorrow, same time. I hope you're working. Hopefully, if it's not too busy, we can have a chance to properly catch up.

See you soon,

Rachel

P.S. Hopefully this can help you toward your goal of taking your children to a Yankees game.

Santana sighed as she picked up the two twenty dollar bills. Biting her lip, she slipped the tip and the note into her pocket before gathering up the payment and taking it to the cash register. Looking back at the booth, she decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if Rachel came back to the diner the next day.

For the remainder of the day, Rachel's main focus was on the fact that she'd finally tracked down Santana. She'd been trying to find the Latina for almost three months and she'd almost given up. When Kurt figured out what she was doing, he'd immediately began helping, but she'd convinced him to stay home while she went to the diner alone. She didn't want to overwhelm Santana. Before she could even begin thinking about their conversation, her phone buzzed.

Did you talk to her? - Kurt

Yes, I did. I'll call you when I get home tonight, okay? - Rachel

Sounds good. - Kurt

Rachel sighed and put her phone back in her purse. It was going to be a long afternoon.

Santana sighed as she closed the door to the bedroom in the apartment she shared with her kids. After picking the twins up from her neighbor, she'd had Miguel and Lilly help her with dinner. Now she'd finally gotten the kids asleep and was about to collapse on their small couch until she saw how messy her living room was.

"The joys of having twin four year olds." she whispered, leaning down to pick up some toys.

Tomorrow, she'd get to do it all over again.

She loved her kids. She would never give them up for anything, even though they were technically the product of a drunken hookup and she'd probably picked the worst guy to get pregnant by. Sometimes, though, she found herself wondering what would have happened if she'd stayed in the loft with Kurt and Rachel.

Each time she thought about it, the ending was different.

"She was... I don't know. I didn't really get a chance to talk to her, Kurt." Rachel said as she walked into her apartment later that night.

"Santana Lopez with kids... I can't believe Matt's the father."

"From what I gathered, he's not much of one. He hasn't seen his kids in a year." Rachel explained.

"Why not?"

"I didn't ask, but Santana told me that he's the one who left. She didn't elaborate and I didn't ask her to. It's none of our business." Rachel said.

"Can I come with you tomorrow?"

"Kurt, no. We can't ambush her. She's probably already freaked out by the fact that I tracked her down in the first place." Kurt sighed. "I don't even know if she's working tomorrow anyway."

"Okay. I just... I miss her. We were best friends for our entire lives and then all of a sudden she wasn't there. One day she was and then she was gone. Nobody knew where she went."

"Turns out she was in the city this whole time." Rachel whispered, looking at a picture of the three of them from the loft.

"Do you still think about it? About what happened right before she left?"

"All the time. Part of me thinks it's my fault. Maybe if I hadn't... She wouldn't have left." Rachel said, looking down.

"I don't think it's your fault, Rach. I think she was scared."

"That... That doesn't help, Kurt." Rachel said, sighing.

"I know. Do you still..." Rachel bit her lip.

"I think I do." she whispered, staring at Santana's picture.

A/N: This story is AU with a little bit of canon mixed into it. In this story, Santana never came out in high school, but Rachel did. Really, the only canon thing in this will be that Kurt, Rachel, and Santana did move to New York after high school and they did live in the loft together. Other than that, this story is completely AU.