This is the final chapter. Thanks everybody for reading and reviewing. It's meant a lot :) Hope you enjoy.

"It's weird, right?"

She glances sideways at Quinn and smiles. She's been standing staring up at her house for twenty minutes now and Quinn's the first person who's come up and spoken to her. Everybody else who's come to see her off has kind of just milled around her getting things ready and treated her like she's made of glass.

Quinn huffs as she drops her purse to the ground by her feet and leans against the car beside Santana.

She hasn't got long left now. It's almost time.

"I mean," Quinn goes on softly, puffing her hair from her eyes in the heat. "Did you ever think everything would end like this? I didn't. I mean... look at us."

Santana takes a deep breath and then lets it out slowly before she nods in agreement. She still can't believe any of it but look at them. Look where they are. She keeps catching herself and wondering what the hell happened. How is any of this happening?

Four years ago she would have told herself she was crazy and never believed it if you told her this is where she would be. Three years ago she would have gladly lashed out at anyone who suggested it. Two years ago she would have ran away and a year ago she could do nothing but hope. Nothing's turned out how she thought it would but here she is and there's nothing she can do about it.

"You nervous?" Quinn asks knowingly.

Santana side-eyes her again, smiling coyly. "Are you?"

Quinn smirks and shrugs her shoulders proudly. "Why would I be?"

Santana snorts and raises her eyebrow. "It's Harvard, Quinn."

Quinn's smirk just gets bigger, almost turning into a smile. She's never looked happier. "Exactly," she nods. "It's Harvard. I don't feel anything but excited." Santana remains quiet. "What about you?" she nudges Santana softly. "Aren't you excited?"

Santana turns to her, her shoulders shrugging. "It just feels wrong," she mumbles.

Quinn clicks her tongue and pulls her into a hug. "I know, I know," she whispers once Santana's wrapped around her. "But it won't once you get there. It won't even matter anymore."

Santana thinks it's nice how, slowly, they've both become strong enough to support each other unconditionally. She doesn't know if she'd be able to do this right now if Quinn wasn't here. There are already far too many people missing. It's a feeling she has when she thinks of the future too. She just doesn't know what life will be like without her best friend around the corner.

She sinks into her and holds Quinn tight. "I hope so," she whispers. When she pulls back, she blinks her eyes a little. She's determined not to cry today. "Where's that boy of yours?" she asks playfully.

Quinn swats her arm and, as usual, her eyes go big. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call him that?" she says.

Santana laughs. "However many times it makes you realize that it's true," she says in response and looks at her best friend incredulously. "It's been a year, Quinn. I know you keep saying you want to take things slowly but there's snail's pace and then there's you. You've been not-dating him for a year. You haven't been on your pills for three months. Why haven't you put him out of his misery and let him call you his girlfriend yet?"

"Because," Quinn whispers stubbornly, her cheeks tinging pink.

Santana shoves her a little. "Because what?"

Quinn shrugs. "Because I don't want to jinx it," she whispers quickly, shoulders hunching protectively. "What if it changes things?"

Santana glares at her. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," she says teasingly. "And I've spent many a night this past week listening to a drunk and moping Sam Evans talk about Rachel Berry."

Quinn rolls her eyes. "He's still moping?" she says. "He's the one who broke it off. What's his problem?"

Santana laughs. "He's in love with her," she reminds her fondly and Quinn rolls her eyes and shakes her head. She likes to pretend that Rachel Berry isn't one of her best friends but it's times like this that it's really obvious. Santana chuckles at her and shakes her head. "Just like Artie's in love with you, so why don't you put him out of his misery and tell him you're his girlfriend? Have you seen him struggle as he tries to explain to people why he's already bought a semesters worth of bus tickets from Manhattan to Cambridge to visit his friend? It's excruciating, Quinn. No one wants to see their friends that much."

"Whatever," Quinn says.

Santana grabs her by the arms. "Tell your boyfriend that he's your boyfriend," she demands around a laugh. "Because I do not want to have to deal with you, him, Sam and Rachel all calling me asking me for advice."

Quinn laughs at that. "Right? God. When did you become the put-together one?"

Santana shrugs her shoulders but her smile is proud. "Maybe it was when I paid my first rent check, or when I graduated at the top of my class, or possibly when I became a millionaire. Could be one of those reasons." Quinn laughs at that and Santana wraps an arm around her shoulders They both know the real reason. She sighs and shrugs. "All that love crap is easy once you've got it figured out, I guess," she whispers. "Or not. I don't know. Whatever. What do I know?"

Quinn gives her a pointed look before she hugs her again, tight and flush to her chest until their bodies are squashed together. It feels final and Santana suddenly doesn't feel so good about how abruptly everything's coming to an end. It barely feels like it started.

It was fine when Mike and Mercedes left for LA in Mike's car last week, or when Rachel and Kurt went ahead of Artie to New York. It was fine when they were all sharing one last vacation and fine when they were all graduating (except Finn, who flunked out in such an embarrassing manner that his mom actually threatened to ship him off to the army) and had to hand over the torch to the Juniors. It was all fine until this moment when Santana's car is full to the brim and her best friend is wrapped around her trying to say goodbye.

Up until now, it didn't really feel like a goodbye. It sort of just felt like a see-you-later.

"Can I say something?" Quinn whispers.

Santana's response in a choked whimper in the back of her throat. She's so fucking glad she gave up wearing those contacts every day. Today would hurt if she was wearing them.

"As long as it's nothing too sappy and gross," she whispers and tries to sound light-hearted. It doesn't work too well when she chokes on the words.

Quinn laughs. "I can't make any promises," she mumbles and Santana breathes out, holding her tighter. A hand clutches the back of her head. "I just wanted to say that—that I'm really grateful to have you in my life, you know?" Santana breathes out and shrinks a little. Quinn just goes on. "No, no... I am. I'm so grateful and thankful that I'm your friend. I'm thankful for everything you've done for me, okay? Everyone's thankful for everything you do, for how kind you are."

"But I didn't—"

"Shut up," Quinn laughs. "I'm trying to make a speech." Santana rolls her eyes. Nothing ever changes with these people. "I just—I think about where I might be right now if it wasn't for you and I can't bear it, okay? So, thank you, Santana." She laughs then. "And, I don't think I've ever actually said this but, I love you too, okay?"

Santana resolves to just nod and take in the words. It's been a weird year, mostly for the amount of people that have slowly shown that they love and care about her. She's not really had that before. Not from so many people and not so earnestly.

"I'm grateful for you, too," she whispers against Quinn's cheek. Quinn nods and Santana kisses the spot a couple times before pulling away and wiping her eyes. "I fucking hate these things," she says as she wipes her eyes. "It's not like we're never going to see each other again."

Quinn smiles. "Well, it's you. We might not. You're a lazy ass."

"So bring all your Ivy League asshole friends to the Keys," Santana shrugs. Quinn's face softens at the suggestion. Santana smirks. "I might not be there, but I can pay you a visit and give you a deal on the rental. Half off. That's cheap."

"Asshole." Quinn shoves her.

Santana pulls her in for a hug again. "Don't be ridiculous," she says as Quinn starts sniffling. "I'll be there. We'll roast a whole hog."

"But you better come to Boston too," Quinn whispers. "Or New York. It'll be fun."

Santana nods. "Of course," she nods. "We'll make plans." Santana's not ready when Quinn starts to blubber on her shoulder and shushes her gently with a smile on her face. "I love your dumb ass, Fabray," she whispers.

"Same, Lopez," Quinn cries. "Same."

/

"Where the hell have you been?" she shouts when Sam and Artie appear up her street, seconds after the back of her car is closed and she's going through her checklist. "I was about to come find you and go all Lima Heights on your asses."

Sam slows to a melancholy stop while Artie just purses his lips at her. "Girl, if this is Lima Heights then I am not worried."

Santana slaps him upside the head just for that. His glasses fall off but he tugs her into his lap anyway. "Love you, 'Tana," he whispers before she can yell at him. All fight leaves her and she softens immediately. "You know I wouldn't miss waving you off."

She wraps her arms around him, pulling Sam to her until she ends up with her face in his stomach.

"I thought I was gonna miss you guys," she says and they both laugh at her, cuddling her back. "Why do you always have to be late? Jerks."

"I was helping Artie pack," Sam explains.

"He was trying to see how many of my movies he could steal," Artie corrects him before pushing Santana back. "Are you leaving now?"

"I'm supposed to be but Puck isn't here yet," she says tearfully. Artie pouts at whatever sad, pathetic look she has plastered to her face. They boys cuddle her tighter.

She can't help but notice how wrong this feels. A pang of regret and sadness tugs at her chest and she pushes it away before she makes things a million times worse for herself. She's been feeling sorry for herself enough already as it is without doing the last thing she wanted to do and get upset about leaving.

She never thought she'd not want to leave so much. It's horrible and she almost finds herself wanting to stay if it wasn't for the fact that, if she did everyone else would still be leaving anyway. She hates everything for changing.

"Is Quinn here?" Artie asks.

Santana chuckles and nods behind her, back at her house where her parents are going through some stuff, undoubtedly preparing what they're going to say.

"She's fixing her mascara because she got all emotional and ended up looking like a raccoon," she explains as Artie wipes away her tears. "I was smart enough to not put any on."

"So that's why you look like shit," calls a voice and Santana turns to the woman herself, still dabbing at her eyes with a tissue as she steps back to the path. She leans down to kiss Artie the instant she sees him before pulling back.

Artie grins at her because she doesn't do that often. "Hey," he whispers and Santana rolls her eyes as he pushes her off his lap and pulls Quinn into it. Sam grabs her and tucks her into his side. "What was that for?"

Quinn drops into his lap. "You wanna be my boyfriend?" she asks. Artie laughs and nods in shock. Quinn sighs. "Okay. Then you're my boyfriend."

Santana scoffs. "This is supposed to be my moment," she comments.

Artie reaches for her hands. "It's okay," he says amused. "I don't know why she took so long to ask the obvious, though." Quinn frowns before kissing him quickly. "What?" he laughs before kissing her a little slower. "You did."

Santana's glad that Puck chooses that moment to appear around the corner. His mom looks pissed as she parks up and doesn't say anything to anyone as Puck unloads a couple of bags and his guitar case from the trunk and tosses them on the sidewalk. He leans in to the driver's side window to kiss his mom on the cheek, and then they all watch as she quickly drives away with tears in her eyes.

"She's still kind of pissed," Puck says and wordlessly pops open the back of Santana's car to toss his stuff in.

Quinn narrows her eyes. "That's because you told her you were leaving yesterday."

"I'll come back," he shrugs and closes the back again, leaning against it. "You ready to get this show on the road, Slow-pez?"

Santana shakes her head at him before pulling away from Sam. "I'm not the one who's twenty minutes late," she grumbles. "Mom! Dad! We're leaving!"

"I gotta pee first," Puck says and he wanders past her parents as quickly as he can, head down as they both glare at him, to disappear through her front door.

They step towards her carefully, hand in hand and smiles on their faces. Her mom's got an envelope in her hands and Santana meets them halfway, away from her friends. They look at her proudly and she gives them a timid little shrug, not sure what to say. It took them a while to get to this point but they were glad to have a few months with her after the lease on her apartment with Libby was up. They weren't home much at first but they kept up with their weekly meals and even let Libby stay for a while before she headed back to Florida.

Santana guesses that, if she said that things were good between them all now, it wouldn't be a lie. Her dad offered to drive Libby to the airport while she was at school and there's a picture of them all at Christmas sitting on the mantel in her parents' living room. She thinks that Libby's been calling them to check up on her too.

She's got a lot of hope that, maybe one day, they'll feel like a real family again.

"You got everything?" her dad asks before dragging her forward to tuck her into his side. It's the physical affection that was easiest first. Sometimes, she just needed a hug from her mom or a kiss from her dad, and that was okay. But it's the talking that they're still not quite there with yet.

Santana nods and pats her hand to his chest to soothe him. "Maps, addresses, college stuff, money, my triple A card, my license and registration, clothes, crap..." she reels off. "Everything."

Her mother smiles and bends forward to kiss her on the forehead. "Call us if you need anything," she says. "You have your car charger for your phone?" Santana nods. "And your normal one?"

She rolls her eyes. "I've got everything," she reassures. "Everything I need, anyway. We took everything else before, remember?"

Her mother nods and looks like she's going to cry.

"We've got a gift for you," her dad whispers, sounding just as emotional and worried. "It's kind of pointless, considering," he says. "But we've had the fund since you were a baby and you might as well use it, even if UM did give you a scholarship."

She doesn't even need to open the envelope he hands her to know what it is. "You didn't have to," she grumbles and tries to push it back to him.

Her dad kisses her forehead and shoves it back. "No, we didn't. But we did because we're your parents and it's our job to make sure that you're happy and you're not in a ton of debt." Santana rolls her eyes again. "It's just in case and it's not like we need it." He shrugs. "We've got good jobs and, you know, we never sold our old little house to get a bigger one," he nods his head behind him. "And we don't do much else. We're always at work and that's about it and, you know, you're a student now." He shrugs. "You should have fun or do something else with it... I mean, we trust you."

Santana reaches up to kiss him on the cheek. "It's fine, dad," she says softly. "You don't have to explain. I get it."

She gets it the same way that she gets why her parents doubled her allowance once she moved in with Libby those few months, even though it was already more than enough. She gets it the way she gets why her mom would swing by the apartment every morning on her way to work to bring her breakfast, or the way her dad would take her car and fill it with gas on Sunday mornings. They may have sucked a little bit for a few days there—and those few days really fucked things up—but they didn't want her to forget that they were still her parents. They wanted her to be sure that they still gave a crap even if they were working sixteen hour days most of the time. They wanted to keep reminding her that they wanted to fix everything and that's why they've done everything they could, everything she's wanted them to.

There's only a little bit of doubt left behind now and it's all just residual as they try to get everything back to how it was.

She just wishes people would stop throwing money at her. Enough is enough.

"Are you sure you don't want us to drive down with you?" her father asks for the millionth time. She shakes her head and glances at her mother's knowing eye roll. Her father doesn't notice. He just looks skittishly from her to the car. "Are you sure you don't want to get your tires checked again?"

Santana laughs and pulls them both in for another hug. They both press kisses into the side of her head and she settles into the embrace knowing she won't have it for a while. It feels good that she knows she's going to miss it.

"We're so proud of you, Cookie," her father whispers into her hair.

She snuggles into him. "I know," she smiles.

Her father pulls back a little and cups her cheeks. He smiles at her. "You will never know," he says softly. "Not really. We are so proud of you, baby girl. I don't think we ever really told you that enough."

Her mother grips at her hand and squeezes it tight. "You're more than we ever dreamed for you to be," she whispers.

Santana nods. It feels good to hear that. "Yeah?" she asks.

Her father nods emphatically. "We'll miss you," he says and then she's pulled into another hug again. "Call us every day if you can. Tell us about your homework—"

"We can help!" her mother interjects. The three of them laugh together for a moment.

Things slow again when her father kisses her on the forehead, leaving his mouth against her skin for longer than necessary. Santana's starting to wonder if he's ever going to let her leave.

"Just... call us," he whispers. "Any time of the day, okay?"

"I know, Daddy," she whispers.

He pulls back. "Oh," he whispers. "And can you do me a favor when you get there?" Santana nods. Her father reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. "Can you get some flowers...?" he asks before she can roll her eyes and groan. Instead, she finds her breath catching a little. "Lilies for Abuela and uh... white roses for Abuelo."

She takes the cash with a smile and a nod and squeezes her mom's hand one last time before stepping backwards. The others are stood by the driver's side talking to Puck and she tucks the money into the pocket of her overalls before stepping up to them.

"Driver or passenger?" Puck asks softly.

Santana takes a deep breath. "Driver, I think," she breathes. "Swap in Louisville?"

Puck nods and says goodbye to the others before rounding to the other side of the car. Santana says another quick goodbye to her friends before slipping into the driver's seat.

"I'll see you soon," she says softly, and watches in her rear view as the five people, left behind waving on the driveway, get smaller the further she drives away.

/

"You sure you're going to be okay on your own from here?" Puck says, twelve hours later as he drives through Memphis with a glint in his eye.

Santana smirks at him and nods. "I'll be fine," she mumbles. "I was gonna get a couple more hours of driving in and then stop for a few hours. I have a long way to go."

He nods and looks a little daunted at everything around him.

"You sure about this, Puck?" she asks.

Puck looks at her quickly before turning a corner, offering her his goofy smile. "Can't live in Lima my whole life," he says. "Look at all you guys. Florida, LA, New York, Harvard. Everyone's leaving. What am I going to do? Stick around and clean pools?"

"So you're going to just... turn up in Memphis and play your guitar to success with no real plan, nowhere to stay, no connections, no nothing?"

Puck grins and nods happily. "Work in bars, work dead end jobs, maybe become a stripper..." Santana laughs at that. "Whatever it takes. At least I'll have got out."

"Would you yell at me if I loaned you some money to get somewhere to stay for a while?" she asks quietly, leaning forward to the glove compartment.

Puck looks at her and shakes his head. "After you've already given me a free ride?"

"I was coming this way anyway," she shrugs. "And money is how we show love in my family," she jokes. "Seriously. Can I?"

He actually looks kind of touched at her words. She pinks a little. So what? He's a douche but he's her douche and they've been through a lot. He never once questioned her for the things she did. He's her friend and she's proud of him. She's proud of him for getting out and wanting to do something with his life just like she's proud of all her other friends.

"It's just like... a little something," she says holding up a wad of cash to him. He smirks at her when she reaches over and tucks it into the pocket of his jeans. She slaps his shoulder. "Cut it out," she says. "I'm no good for that anymore."

"I know," he says and she gets confused when he goes against the plan and pulls into an underground parking lot all of a sudden. She's about to ask why but he just parks up and turns to her. "Come get a burger with me," he says.

"Puck..." she tries.

He flicks her in the shoulder. "Come get a burger with me," he says.

She turns to him and reluctantly nods with a smile.

"Fine."

/

He demands that she call him the minute she gets to Key West while she demands that he call her whenever he can so she can make sure he isn't dead.

They hug tightly outside of a local bar before he pushes her away and tells her she's got a future to get to. It makes her grin and the draining sadness she's been feeling for the past few days starts to change into excitement, to happiness.

She gives him a kiss on the cheek, and makes him promise to come visit, then she's on the road again as it slowly gets dark, the warm buzz of excitement and nerves dancing in her belly.

She just wants to get there.

The roads feel like they have no ends and she spends a lot of the journey listening to her iPod and singing as loudly as she can, each song filling her with memories.

She stops at a motel, mostly because everyone she knew threatened to kill her if she didn't, and calls all the people who told her to. They tell her to say safe, except for Quinn who just spends the entire time telling her to come back and save her from the wrath of Judy Fabray. Santana just tells her that it's just a couple more days and she'll be free. She's not sure when she and Quinn started ending conversations by telling each other that they love each other, but it works.

When she gets up, it's to a phone call from Rachel, sobbing on the other end of the phone. Santana's glad to have something over loud-speaker shrieking emotionally to keep her awake until she finds coffee, but changes her mind when finding coffee takes forty minutes and she's said at least three wrong things that make Rachel worse.

Once Rachel hangs up, she leaves Sam (who's probably still sleeping) a voice mail message telling him she hates him forever. After that, the drive is kind of smooth and she stops off a few places when the traffic starts getting thick, in order to take a nap and get something to eat, before calling everyone all over again. It's tedious and exhausting when she has to have the same conversation ten times over but she guesses that's the price to pay for people giving a shit, so it doesn't bother her. Not anymore.

There's a hotel room waiting for her in Miami that night and she checks in and barely makes it to the bed before face-planting and falling asleep.

She wakes up to her phone ringing and answers it sleepily, smiling when she hears the voice on the other end.

After that, she stops off at the reception of the UM residential colleges to do as she's told and make sure everything's ready. It was supposed to calm her down but it just makes her worse.

"Wednesday!" the peppy girl behind the counter tells her with a grin and the peppiness in her voice doesn't even piss Santana off. She just gets more and more excited. She thanks the girl when she hands her the information and reverently puts it in the messenger bag slung over her shoulder before leaving with a wave. She looks around at the buildings curiously, all the way back to her car, and quickly realizes how much bigger everything is here compared to Lima. She only saw the school when she came to visit but it's kind of exciting to see that this is what home will look like for the next year.

She practically skips back to the car and all of her sadness is gone, replacing itself with impatience.

She drives a little quicker.

/

She stops off at the bar first, smiling at the familiar faces of the old guys who drink their beers outside, before wandering inside to the cooler and emptier bar. She grins her best smile when she sees Frank sat in the corner. He's reading the paper with his glasses on the end of his nose and she sneaks up on him after shooting Dena a secretive smile. He pulls her into a hug once she's made him jump four feet in the air and is too happy to see her to yell.

"You made good time!" he says, taking off his glasses.

She nods and climbs onto the stool beside him. "The traffic was really good," she says, stealing the leftover burger in front of him and nodding. He doesn't even blink, just pushes the fries towards her too. "I just drank a lot of coffee and didn't bother to stop. Just grabbed something to eat when I got gas and dozed in traffic. It saved a lot of time."

"Sounds stupid to me," Frank comments.

She pokes her tongue out. "I just wanted to get here," she breathes and gratefully takes the soda Dena hands her across the bar. "Where is she?"

Frank looks back at his paper. "Bathroom," he says but he's drowned out by the sound of someone screaming in joy.

"There she is! My sweet, sweet girl!" Libby wraps her up in a hug. Anyone would think it's been a year instead of a couple of weeks. "You're early!"

Santana just lets her hold onto her around the waist as she takes a look at her. She likes it because it's different from how her abuela used to hold her at arm's length and glare at her but feels just as comforting.

"How was your journey?" she asks once she's done and she keeps an arm around Santana's waist before guiding her back to the bar. Santana nods. "Have you been to see her?" Santana shakes her head but feels her smile tug at her mouth. "I think you need to," Libby smiles knowingly, pushing at her shoulders. "Go on," she says. "Leave, now."

Santana just kisses her on the cheek and does as she's told.

She'd never argue with someone telling her to do that.

/

The journey is now familiar compared to the first time she took it. She drives easily, nowhere near as nervous as she was the first time she came here. Her stereo blasts out music until she gets to the gates and she cuts it off as she pulls into the parking lot beside the old black Cadillac that's come to find a home there.

She jumps out, barely able to contain herself, and heads towards the sound of splashing and laughing ahead of her.

The guy at the counter just smiles at her as she wanders in and Santana barely waves back before she's wandering through into the actual center. There's more people around than she thought there would be but she finds her easily and it's like her heart beats properly for the first time in two weeks.

Fuck, she's missed her.

More than anything, she's missed seeing her like this: this new shiny, completely, utterly happy version of herself. Santana's been privy to this version of her the whole summer, since they found out that Frank's friend was more than happy to give her some work experience, and it's still too much for her sometimes. It was just another thing, on top of all the other awesome things that had happened to them this year, and it was just another less thing to worry about.

It really isn't a bad thing Brittany looks really fucking good in a wet suit.

Especially now, when her suit is half off and tied around her waist. It goes well with her coral-colored bathing suit that's just visible through her soaking wet, white t-shirt that has Lower Keys Marine Education and Rescue Center written on the front.

In fact it's really, really hot.

In the past couple months since Brittany's been volunteering here, Santana's really come to appreciate having a soon-to-be marine biologist for a girlfriend.

There's also nothing cuter than seeing Brittany fawn over a dolphin. Or how cool she looked that time they had to rescue a sea turtle from a fishing net.

That was pretty bad ass.

But mostly, Santana's just really, really proud of her.

She sneaks up to the tank quietly, deliberately moving to the side where Karen, one of the other women who work there, tosses toys to the dolphins they're working with instead of the other side where Brittany's there to retrieve them.

She appears at the woman's side, smiling up at her when Karen sees her and rolls her eyes. It's not exactly the first time she's done this but it's always worth it when Brittany finally manages to notice she's there. That usually happens once something drags her attention away from whatever marine friend she's made today, which usually takes a while.

It doesn't take as long today—it's almost like she can sense Santana's here—and Santana's sees her jaw drop a little before she just smirks and goes a little shy.

It's been two freaking weeks.

It's been two freaking weeks of no Brittany after nearly twelve months of seeing her every single day. She's pretty sure she's woken up beside her for seventy-five percent of those days (even though she tried her hardest for one hundred) and it would be impossible to explain how much she's missed her.

It started as the perfect solution but now it just feels like the most stupid idea they've ever had. Brittany needed to stay here as long as possible to get the most experience ready for college but despite the huge capacity of the back of her Chevy, there still wasn't enough space to bring all their stuff when they drove down here in May. That's when Brittany reluctantly said goodbye to her parents early and officially became a resident of Florida. But Santana decided that she would go back to get the rest of their stuff when the others went home (she wasn't kidding about that First Annual stuff) thinking that it would be fine because Brittany would mostly be working and Santana would just end up being bored, stuck in the house without her.

Well, she was still bored when she went back to Lima. It was still Lima and the only interesting thing that happened was Kurt and Blaine breaking up (which was so amicable and overdue it was boring), Karofsky informing her that he got into NYU to study Sports Management (which was only interesting after hearing about Kurt and Blaine) and Sam breaking up with Rachel so that she didn't have to wait for him a year. But that was just fucking irritating because she was forced to be the one who looked out for him and spent every single minute of his whining wishing that she was with Brittany instead.

But now she's back and Brittany's giving her that shy little smile she does when she doesn't want to look too eager or happy and Santana doesn't care because she's just really missed her girlfriend.

Karen rolls her eyes at them and shoves at Santana's shoulder.

She smiles, biting her tongue and wanders around to the other side of the tank, not touching Brittany when she steps up to lean against the tank beside her. She's on this little platform thing that extends into the water and there's a damn dolphin with its chin against her knee and she's never looked better.

"Who's your friend?" she asks softly, peering up at her because she's about level with Brittany's thigh.

Brittany gives her a smile and runs her hand over the dolphin. It makes a noise and she smiles a bit wider.

"This little lady?" she asks softly. "This is Dolores."

Santana giggles. "Dolores the dolphin? Nice."

"She's the best," Brittany says softly. "Very attentive. I've been thinking about making her my girlfriend."

"Oh really?" Santana says and she grins through the thought of anyone—including a dolphin—being Brittany's girlfriend except her. It makes her want to go all Finn Hudson and throw stuff. "Why's that?"

Brittany turns to her and the movement of the clear blue water reflects back in Brittany's eyes. "Well, my girlfriend was mean and went back to Ohio for two weeks and failed to remember how much I end up missing her when she isn't here," she says matter-of-fact and teasing. She urges Dolores the dolphin away by throwing a ball across the tank to Karen and watches her swim to it before shuffling closer to Santana. "However, I would be willing to forgive this cruelty if said girlfriend made it up to me and gave me something awesome to make up for it."

Santana grins and lets her hand reach out to touch Brittany's wet suit-covered thigh.

"Well," she says softly, teasing her fingers under the tight hems of the suit above Brittany's knee and watching as Brittany's eyes flicker there. "Said girlfriend was awesome enough to get you a whole box of those lemon jelly donuts you liked when you went to Miami in the spring." Santana points over her shoulder. "They're in the car," she whispers playfully.

Brittany lets her eyebrows raise and then she's thrusting forward and sinking down into the water. Santana smiles when she reemerges at the edge of the tank right where Santana leans and reaches out to steady her as she bobs a little bit.

"I was thinking more like sweet lady kisses," Brittany mumbles as Santana pulls her closer, her warm nose brushing Brittany's cold one. "But I'll take the jelly donuts, too."

Santana nods knowingly. "Oh, you will, will you?" she teases but Brittany's nodding and then she's kissing her slowly, savoring the warmth of Santana's mouth, before pulling back.

"You already ate one," she says knowingly against Santana's mouth.

Santana nods and pushes drenched blond locks from Brittany's face before pulling her back into another kiss. She wrestles a tongue into Brittany's mouth until Brittany's moaning and her knuckles are white as they grip at the edge of the tank. She pulls back and flicks some water at Santana.

"I'm working," she hisses.

Santana smirks and pulls her back in a little, just to kiss her nose. Brittany pushes her away.

"Fine," she groans, licking the taste of Brittany on her lips. "When do you get off?"

Brittany snorts and cocks her head to the side. "Later, hopefully."

Santana clears her throat at the thought. It's been two weeks. Brittany laughs at her before swimming back to her little platform.

"Mean," Santana comments. "But seriously? Frank said something about a party."

Brittany nods. "It's a you're-going-to-college party," she says. "It was Libby's idea."

Santana rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Still, should I leave and come back or are you almost done?"

Brittany looks up at the big digital clock on the main building and smiles. "I have twenty minutes."

"I'll meet you in the locker room," Santana waggles her eyebrows.

Brittany flicks water at her again, soaking her all up one side as she leaves.

"Now who's mean?" she calls after her.

Santana just smirks.

/

"Stop it," Brittany hisses, swatting at her quickly. Santana smirks and just tries to kiss her shoulder again. Brittany shudders away from her, trying to flick her with her towel. "I mean it," she says and she looks like she wants to be grumpy except the huge grin pulling at her mouth won't let her. "Someone could walk in here!"

Santana just giggles and pulls her closer, not caring that Brittany's still damp with water. She's only wearing her damn bathing suit and it's been two weeks. Two freaking weeks that suddenly really feel like two decades. She presses Brittany against her locker and attacks kisses to her neck.

She's really glad that Brittany just gives up and continues to towel herself dry around Santana attached to her neck.

"You're incorrigible," she mutters softly, fondly. "Anyone would think you've missed me."

Santana hums in agreement. "Ridiculous... ridiculous suggestion..." Her fingers stroke down the muscles in Brittany's neck as she licks up it. "Shit, you taste good."

Brittany laughs and wraps her arms around her shoulders with a sigh. "Did you go see the residency people?"

Santana nods. "Wednesday."

Brittany does a little shuffle. "I'm excited," she whispers into Santana's hair. "Even though I'm sad that I'll have to leave here."

"You can come back," Santana whispers, giving up on her kisses and just cuddling Brittany instead. She softens into the warm-cold feel of Brittany's skin as the warmth of her core works with Santana's body heat to warm her up. Santana sighs into it. "Promise me we won't ever have to do that again," she whispers. "I didn't like being so far away from you."

Brittany presses a kiss to her forehead. "So, you did miss me," she states teasingly. Santana just squeezes her tighter. "I missed you, too," she whispers. "And I promise we won't have to do that again."

Santana groans. "Do we have to go to this party?" she mumbles into Brittany's shoulder.

Brittany laughs. "Yes," she nods. "But think about it: come Wednesday, the only thing we'll have to leave our bed for is to eat and go to class."

Santana hums around a laugh. "Awesome."

Brittany nods and shifts back a little to look at her. "Right?" she says with an excited smile. "So let me get dressed so we can go to this party then we'll be one step closer to being there."

She spins away and Santana just laughs, watching her move.

/

There's a huge banner across the stage with their names on it and, really, it's like any other night at the bar, except Frank and Libby are popping open a bottle of sparkling cider and demanding that a toast be made.

"We're not leaving until Tuesday," Santana says, even as Libby is clearing her throat to speak. Brittany chuckles at the look on Frank's face as he tastes how bad the cider is.

"It doesn't matter," Libby says, sternly. "This is a celebration and therefore there needs to be a speech."

Santana rolls her eyes. "Fine."

"I've got it, I've got it," Libby says and she takes the glass of cider Frank hands to her. "May your intake of knowledge be large and your debt small, your weight gain be minimal and your happiness last forever. I'm very, very proud of the pair of you and wish you all the best in everything you do."

"Here, here!" Frank shouts and Santana scrunches her nose up at Brittany as she kisses her sloppily on the cheek.

"Good luck, Brittany and Santana!" Libby shouts before the entire room repeats the sentiment back to them.

Santana blushes. Brittany kisses her.

/

"You got the flowers?" she asks as she straightens out her clothing.

Brittany closes the passenger side door and nods, her arms full of flowers and her pretty dress flowing in the breeze.

"You okay?" she asks softly, reaching for her hand. Santana takes it and nods softly before leading them into the cemetery.

The sun is warm as it gets lower in the sky and Santana takes in a deep breath as they wander through the grounds to get to the plot. It's not like she's never been here before but it's been over a year since she's been gone and when Santana realized that she couldn't believe it. Also, the new headstone was put in last week and she really wants to see it before she leaves.

She smiles when she catches sight of it. It's perfect.

"Hey, guys," she whispers when she gets there. She leans forward to run her fingers over it. She's glad that she has something permanent to come back to now instead of just a cross in the earth with a name-plate on it. At least now she doesn't have to worry that much when it storms. "We just thought we'd come say hi before we head back to Miami." She settles down on the floor in front of them without preamble and stares at their headstones. "We're moving to college tomorrow afternoon, so we won't be able to come see you that often. Sorry about that."

Santana watches as Brittany reaches forward and picks up the old dead flowers from their last visit and tosses them aside before unwrapping the two new bunches from the pink paper the florist put them in.

"Daddy wanted me to bring you guys some flowers too," she whispers as Brittany places them into the holders in front of the stones and arranges them. "Make you look pretty again."

Brittany turns back to her to check if the flowers look okay and smiles when Santana nods and reaches out for her. She breathes a little easier once Brittany's sat beside her. She feels safer when Brittany's cuddled into her side with her chin resting on Santana's shoulder. It reminds her that she's not alone.

"I can't believe it's been a whole year," Santana whispers softly. "It's crazy. It feels like yesterday that I was at home in Lima feeling like I was completely clueless about everything. I didn't know what I was going to do and where I was going to go..." She laughs. "I remember thinking that coming here would make me figure everything out, that I'd know everything and... I guess I did for a while but..." She nudges Brittany's cheek with her nose. "I guess none of us really know anything, do we? I don't have a clue what things are going to be like next month or next year or in ten years... anything."

Brittany smiles at her and Santana sees it and wants to take that back straight away. There is one thing she knows for sure and that's that she's always going to love this damn smile, and the girl that owns it, and she'll do that until the day she dies. It's just everything else that's a mystery.

She kisses Brittany quickly and it takes away all her fear.

Long arms wrap around her and it's then that Santana remembers that she's also had a year of everyone knowing that Brittany belongs to her, too. A whole year. It makes her smile and she kisses Brittany's nose.

"Oh well," she whispers softly. "I don't mind. I'm not so worried about that anymore..."

Brittany smile widens and she shakes her head to agree that she isn't either. Santana returns it and presses their noses together, eyes finding it impossible to look away from the future in front of her. .

"In fact," she breathes against Brittany's lips. Brittany shivers. "I think it's kind of exciting."

/

"Where did you pack the bed sheets?" Brittany asks. They're surrounded by boxes and they're pretty sure they're the first people on their floor but whatever. The girl told them that getting there earlier was better and she was right. There was no fighting for the elevator and they found everything without a hitch. "I can't find 'em."

Brittany stands up from where she's arranging the boxes so that they can actually get in and out of the room and settles her hands on her hips.

Santana smiles for the millionth time because Brittany's wearing her Fleetwood Mac shirt, and her overalls, and it never stops being the best thing ever seeing Brittany wearing her clothes. Also, she can't stop thinking about and smiling at Brittany's comment that she wanted to look like a moving guy.

"I think they're in the box with the towels," Brittany says and Santana watches her as her head slowly tilts back to peer through the glasses on her nose.

It's just another thing that makes her smile, a reminder of how lucky she is, how lucky they've been together.

They've had a year of changes and achievements. There's been the stuff with Libby, the stuff with Santana's parents, but there's been other stuff too. There's been things that probably won't end up mattering in the long run, like Brittany elected Senior Class President (which was originally to better her college application), and the pair of them joining forces with Kurt to open up a section of PFLAG at McKinley (Santana guesses that'll matter more to a lot of other kids more than to them), and Brittany being editor of the Muckracker while turning Fondue for Two into a legit webseries (which she won a Young Journalist award for). But there's been other stuff like Santana being Class Valedictorian and—after Santana's dad looked at her curiously one day and asked her if she'd ever had a dyslexia test—Brittany doing better academically than any of her teachers had ever hoped for.

Brittany says it's because of the glasses because, once everyone realized why the eye chart confused her so much, it was a lot easier to finally give Brittany an eye exam and glasses make everyone smarter.

Santana thinks it's because people finally started to pay proper attention. It probably didn't help that Brittany could barely see the page in front of her or remember the whole alphabet without a little help, but Santana knows that none of that would have mattered if people just paid attention.

But it's okay because here they are and their biggest achievement has been getting into UM together.

"Got em," Santana says before looking up and quietly reaching over to push Brittany's glasses back up her nose.

Brittany smiles gratefully before hefting the box marked "Clothes" atop the one marked "Books for school" into the corner of the room. When she stands up, panting for breath, she finds Santana staring at her. She frowns questioningly and Santana shrugs like it's nothing.

"Happy?" she asks, unable to really contain her own excitement.

Brittany nods quickly and then leans forward to press a kiss on her nose. "The happiest," she says and suddenly Santana doesn't want to unpack anymore.

She just wants to hold Brittany in her arms and soak up their achievements.

/

They're outside the building where the room for Biology 150—their first ever college class that they're lucky enough to have together—when Brittany suddenly stops and makes Santana stumble a little.

She's worried until she sees Brittany's excited yet terrified little face and moves back to her, a hand reaching to rest on her cheek.

"What's wrong?" she asks softly, aware of the hundreds of people milling around them ready for their first day of classes. Brittany's brow raises a little bit and she breathes out unsteadily, a cloud of energy leaving her.

"Nothing," she says with a slowly growing smile. "That's the thing."

Santana narrows her eyes. "What d'you mean?"

Brittany shrugs and clutches the recommended reading to her chest, even though she's already read it twice since she learned she got in. She breathes out another large gulp of air.

"We did it," she whispers softly, disbelief coating her words. "We're here."

Santana feels herself grinning so much that she has to bite her lip to fight it away. "We did," she nods. "We are."

Brittany shakes her head and Santana takes the book from her before wrapping an arm around her waist. She kisses Brittany on the nose and feels as she vibrates with excitement.

"But I didn't think we would," she breathes and looks around at all the people around them. Santana just looks at her.

She tilts her head. "Are you worried?"

"No, no," she gasps and shakes her head. "It's just... it's weird. All of my dreams have come true and it's such a strange feeling."

Santana tucks the book under her arm and leans in to kiss Brittany slowly and surely. No one really pays any attention to them, too busy trying to get to class on time. She pulls away and sighs straight away, glad that there's a room back in those dorms waiting for them when they're done. She quickly wonders what would happen if they skipped their first ever college class but stops that immediately, knowing how much Brittany's been looking forward to it. Still, she needs to hurry this if they don't want to be late.

"All of my dreams have come true, too," she whispers against blushed pink lips, staring into ever-beautiful bright blue eyes. "But do you want to know something?" Brittany nods. "It's just made me realize lots of new dreams and do you know what the best thing is?" Brittany shakes her head after a pause. Santana pecks another kiss to her lips. "Every single one of them still revolves around me and you."

She grins and loves it when Brittany grins back, loves it even more when Brittany pulls her forward and kisses her in a way that's probably way too indecent for this courtyard.

"I love you," she whispers when she pulls back and Santana nudges their noses together at the words. There's no fear, no terror, no worry when she hears them anymore.

There's only happiness.

"I love you, too," she whispers and takes another kiss before untangling their bodies and reaching for Brittany's hand. "You ready?" she asks.

Brittany bites her lip and nods.

Santana laughs.

"Then let's go."