"I still can't believe you con... Santana what happened?" Rachel exclaimed as she walked out of the bathroom in their hotel room for Nationals to find her girlfriend of six months examining a huge bruise on her stomach.

"It's nothing, Rachel." Rachel scoffed.

"You have a bruise covering your entire stomach. It's definitely something." she said. Santana pulled her shirt back down. "San, please tell me what happened."

"It's not as bad as it seems." Rachel walked forward and lifted Santana's shirt.

"Baby, this needs to get looked at." she whispered.

"You're looking at it."

"That's not what I mean and you know it." Rachel snapped. Santana bit her lip.

"I'm sorry." she whispered, trying to stop her tears from falling.

"It's okay, I just need to know what happened so I can help you." Rachel said, cupping Santana's face.

"I... had an altercation with some members of Aural Intensity." Santana whispered. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Define altercation."

"Do you really need me to?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.

"Who did that?" she growled. Santana shook her head.

"No way. I'm not telling you that. If I do, you're either going to go down there yourself or you're going to get the guys." she said.

"I'm not going to sit back after this!" Rachel yelled.

"Well I'm not telling you!" Santana said. Rachel slapped her girlfriend and immediately gasped.

"Santana, I am so sorry. I don't know-" Santana backed away from the diva.

"Get out." Rachel took a step forward. "Stay away from me!" Santana said, crying. Rachel stared helplessly at the Latina. "Just leave! Get your stuff and go!"

"I'm sorry." Rachel whispered as she left the room. Suddenly remembering that she had a schedule in her bag, she pulled it out and saw that Aural Intensity was rehearsing right now. Determined, she marched to the elevator, bumping into Puck and Finn on the way.

"Where are you going in flip-flops, pajama pants, and a T-shirt?" Puck asked.

"I need to speak to Aural Intensity. One of them decided to hit my girlfriend." Rachel hissed. Finn raised an eyebrow as they followed her onto the elevator.

"I saw Santana talking to some dude from Aural Intensity at breakfast. It didn't look like anything bad... Rachel, this is all my fault." Rachel turned to him and shook her head.

"It's not your fault, Finn. He probably waited until everyone was gone to do anything to her. You didn't know he was going to do anything bad to Santana." she said, adjusting the sleeves on her zip up Cheerios hoodie she'd borrowed from Santana. Finn didn't look convinced.

"I would have stepped in if I had known." Rachel smiled slightly.

"I know, Finn." she said as they reached the lobby.

"What room are they in?" Puck asked. Rachel checked the schedule.

"Conference room two." she said, leading the way. "Finn, I'll need you to tell me which guy you saw her talking to."

"Wait, Rach, he's obviously not above hitting girls." Finn protested.

"I can always leave you guys and figure it out myself." she said, tightening her ponytail. Finn sighed. "Finn, she's my girlfriend. I'm the one who needs to do this."

"He swings at you once and I'm stepping in." Puck warned. Rachel shrugged as the entered the Aural Intensity rehearsal room.

"This is a closed rehearsal." one of the members said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Do I really look like I care?" she asked, looking up at Finn. "Which one?" she asked. Finn pointed at a muscular boy. "Perfect."

"What's going on?" the boy asked. Rachel walked over to him. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Mitchell..." She gave him a fake smile.

"Well, Mitchell, we were just wondering why you were our teammate hitting earlier." He raised am eyebrow.

"You guys are from New Directions, aren't you?" They nodded. "Look, your girl was talking trash. She needed to be put in her place."

"First of all, 'our girl' is actually my girl and second of all, nothing she could have said should have warranted hitting her!" Rachel said.

"She said our name sounds like a porn movie." Mitchell said. Rachel bit her lip to stop her laughter.

"It sort of does." she admitted. Puck laughed. "But you still shouldn't have hit her. You're considerably bigger than her and-" Rachel was cut off by a punch to the stomach and a kick to her leg before she was roughly pushed into a nearby wall. She screamed in pain as she fell to the floor and she vaguely processed shouting before she was eventually picked up.

"I got you, Rach." Puck said. Rachel opened her eyes to see a man yelling at Mitchell.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"The director of Aural Intensity." Finn explained as he stood beside them. The adult walked over.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I just want to go upstairs and sleep." she said.

"Did you hit your head?"

"No." she said.

"Okay, then I think it's okay for you to sleep. Let me know if there's anything I can do." the man said.

"He hit my girlfriend." Rachel mumbled. He raised an eyebrow. "She has a huge bruise."

"I'll be in touch with your director." he promised. Puck nodded and carried Rachel out of the room and to the elevator.

"I'm proud of the way you stood up for Lopez. She hasn't really had a lot of people in her life that would do that." he said. Finn looked at Rachel.

"Dude she's asleep." he said. Puck chuckled.

"Get her room key out of her jacket." he said. Finn got the card and her phone as the elevator reached their floor and they walked to Rachel's room. He opened the door, entered, and held the door so Puck could carry the sleeping diva in before closing the door.

"What happened?" Santana asked as she sat up.

"Rach went downstairs and confronted the guy from Aural Intensity about messing with 'her girl' and he hit her. She should have bruises on her stomach, back, and leg. He did all of that before I was able to get to her." Puck said quietly.

"Is she unconscious?"

"No, sleeping. Don't worry, she didn't hit her head." Finn whispered, setting the key and phone down as Puck gently put Rachel on the bed next to Santana.

"I should have been there." Santana whispered. Puck shook his head. "We got into a fight over it. I didn't want her going down there and she slapped me. I kicked her out."

"She didn't mean it." Puck said.

"I know. She just wanted to protect me." Santana whispered, stroking Rachel's cheek. "You guys can go. I'll take care of her."

"Are you okay though?" Finn asked. Santana nodded with a small smile and they walked out of the room.

"I love you so much, Rachel Berry." she whispered, turning on the TV, turning the volume down, and watching as she waited for her girlfriend to wake up.

Rachel opened her eyes and realized she was back in her and Santana's hotel room. "It's about time." Hearing her girlfriend's voice, she started to roll over. "Don't turn over."

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"I don't think you want the pain."

"Pain?" Rachel questioned. She felt the bed dip, telling that Santana had gotten off the bed, and heard the unmistakable sound of pills rattling before Santana appeared at her side.

"You're gonna be sore. I don't know what we're gonna do about Nationals."

"You can have my parts." Rachel said as she accepted the ibuprofen. Santana smiled as she handed Rachel a glass of water.

"That's sweet, but I'm pretty sore too. Besides, I could never replace the Rachel Berry." she said. Rachel chuckled, wincing as she did so. "Thank you, Ray. You shouldn't have gone down there, but thanks nonetheless."

"I wanted to defend your honor." Rachel whispered. Santana blushed as she sat down on the floor, next to the bed.

"You're sweet and if I wasn't sore, I'd be doing the same thing." she said. Rachel smiled.

"I'm sorry for slapping you."

"It's water under the bridge." Santana promised. Rachel nodded.

"I'm not going to let them have this satisfaction. I'm going to perform."

"Rachel, you got thrown into a wall." Rachel shrugged. "I love you for defending me, but you're in no condition to be performing."

"I need this, San." Rachel whispered. Santana took a deep breath. "I need applause to live."

"That is true... If you feel up to it, I can't stop you. But if Finnocence tries to kiss you during Pretending or something, we won't be winning, because I'll be killing him."

"He helped me defend you. I think he's come to terms with our relationship." Rachel said.

"He helped you?"

"He told me that he'd seen you talking to that guy from Aural Intensity at breakfast and if he'd known that he was going to hit you, he would have intervened. He also pointed him out for me and I think he might have gotten a few punches in. I heard something along the lines of 'don't touch rachel or santana' but there was so much going on." Santana nodded slowly. "So can I perform?" The cheerleader laughed.

"You're silly." she said, kissing her girlfriend. Rachel grinned.

Finn and Rachel sang Pretending (Santana didn't have to kill him) and then the group sang Light Up The World. The moment their names were called as the National champions, Rachel instantly forgot how sore she was and hugged her girlfriend tightly.

"Baby, you're hurting me." Santana whispered. Rachel bit her lip.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I'm so proud of you." Santana said.

"Likewise, Santana." Rachel said as they exited the stage. They had to pass a disqualified Aural Intensity, including Mitchell.

"Have fun in jail or juvie or whatever." Santana said with a wave as they passed. Rachel laughed.

"You're mean."

"You know it." Satnana said, kissing Rachel softly.