There is a reason Brittany chooses Sam. She knew that a lot of people didn't understand it, not after the great love affair she'd shared with Santana. She also knew that they didn't have to understand it because her heart got it. Her heart understood him, and that's why she chose Sam.

Choosing Sam didn't diminish what she had with Santana. That was a friendship, a love, of a lifetime. Brittany didn't know a lot but she knew that. She had known how special it was the entire time she had Santana as hers, and then it had ended and her heart had been broken. It wouldn't hurt like that if it hadn't meant so much and that's how she knows for sure she'll never forget. It's also how she knows that she doesn't want to go back there again.

A lot of people take that last little part as her being scared to get hurt again but it's not about that. She knows that Sam is just as capable to hurt her as Santana was, and she didn't care for him any less. Brittany just knew that he was different, that they were different together. It was easy and he accepted her. Sometimes love didn't need to be so dramatic, and with Sam, it just wasn't.

She is sitting alone at the Lima Bean on a Wednesday morning after a troubling fight with Lord Tubbington, drowning her sorrows in a triple mocha hot chocolate. Justin Bieber is blaring in her headphones, and she thinks about how much Santana hated him. She said he was disposable, but Brittany liked him. He was fun and that was sometimes more important than being deep. Sam had made a really awesome Justin Bieber.

"Hey, beautiful," a voice said out of nowhere and then there he was right in front of her. She smiled happily as he grinned down at her goofily and she felt this warm twist of something sparkling in her stomach. "I called your house and your mom said you were here already. You know I would have picked you up."

"Lord Tubbington ate all my cheese and I wasn't able to film my show earlier," she explained, and Sam doesn't even question the insanity of the comment. Instead, he slides into the chair next to her and wraps his arm around her shoulders in genuine concern. He has no idea how nice it is that he just accepts her as if this is totally normal. "I'm really glad you're here."

Sam shrugs and grins in that way that reminds her of a little kid. "What do you want to do today? We could go down to the park and feed the ducks or go to the store over by the elementary school. I took my sister to the puppet show last week, it was pretty sick," he suggested. She tilted her head in consideration before shaking her head. "Or we could just sit here and talk and order every dessert on the menu. That could be pretty fun."

"The funnest," she agreed with an excited little clap. She starts to hum along to the James Taylor song playing on the speaker in the coffee shop and he smiles as he starts to sing along. They both fell in love with him after he did the song for the Toy Story movie, one of their favorite movies to watch together. "Why don't you go order for us and I will get us set up over in the corner?"

He heads to the counter while she gathers their stuff and heads for the overstuffed couch in the corner. Sam comes back with a plate of cookies and brownies. She snatched a cranberry oatmeal one off the stack before throwing her feet over his lap. Sam smiles at her from his end of the sofa before launching into a story about his little brother's soccer game. She comes back with one of her own about an incident from her math class that morning. He tells her about this movie he wanted to see that weekend and she gets excited as she explains these really intricate ideas she has for choreographing their next glee song. After the plate of cookies has disappeared and she is starting to drift off while he talks about basketball practice, Sam decides that they should head home.

"You should come over and take a nap with me," she tells him as he leads her down the street toward her car. He smiles at her and nods. She thinks about tell him how she appreciates that he lets her be the big spoon since Santana never did but decides that it doesn't matter when he starts talking about watching Christmas Vacation when they get home. She likes the sound of that, it feels like something that can be just theirs. "It'll be like our tradition."

"One of a million," he promises as he presses a kiss to the shell of her ear. He's wearing a different grin this time when he pulls back, much more mature than that boyish smile he'd had in the Lima Bean. It makes Brittany feel a little more grown-up, like she understands something that she didn't before, when he looks at her like this. "I'll follow you to your house, okay?"

"Sounds perfect," she says as she slips into her car and he shuts the door behind her. He leans through the window to kiss her again. "You're perfect. For me, you know that, right? I don't think I say it enough, but you do make me really happy, Sam."

"You make me really happy too, Britt," he assured her. "In fact, I've been thinking that...I love you."

Brittany felt her heart stop. It had been a long past few months and it would be so easy to go backward. She knew where things like this could lead, how they could end. It could be a disaster but it could be amazing and she's not really sure what to do until he covers her hand with his and squeezes her fingers.

"I love you, too, Sam."

That was the moment her heart began again.

Author's note: The title and inspiration of this story comes from Taylor Swift's "Begin Again."