It has been so incredibly long since I updated, but hopefully you'll see that I've updated and it'll be like a surprise present for you all. Thank you for sticking with me and this story. There's still more left to tell.

Rachel's POV

Sitting alone in my room felt weird. Maybe it was because I'd spent the last two days with Santana nonstop. We both needed a break from each other otherwise we'd fall completely head over heels in love again and forget about the world around us. Specifically the world in which we both had responsibilities. I had classes, Santana needed to actually get back into classes. But beyond that she needed to accept that the entire world wasn't out to get her. Her life hadn't been fair but she could survive.

Unless her father really did hurt her mother, then that would make things a lot more complicated. Santana told me she'd talk to her sister, whether that was true or not it was a step she needed to take soon. "Hey." I looked up and Santana was standing there looking at me. I realized as she walked towards me that she'd been there for a while, just staring at me. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"We're supposed to not see each other today." I reminded her. She chuckled a little before sitting down on my bed next to me. "You're supposed to take it seriously, you said you would. Now I won't be able to keep you off my mind-."

"Something tells me you were already thinking about me. The same thing that knows I was thinking about you." She pulled one of my sleeves down slowly and kissing my shoulder. "I was extra careful when I came here, my dad wasn't following me or-."

"I won't let you live through your life paranoid. It's not fair to you, so don't worry about that." I assured her. "I think we should get the police involved."

"I think you're right." I wasn't expecting that at all. To be honest, I'd made a PowerPoint last night just in case Santana had such a strong opinion against doing this. I grabbed her hand and squeezed, she had grown so much since we first met. "How did we even get here?"

"Who knows?" Santana said with a light chuckle. "It's been a really amazing run though, you've given me the best moments of my life, you know? I wasn't even living before I met you."

"You're starting to sound like an old lady about to croak. We've still got a thousand trillion moments left, you know." Santana smiled and wrapped her arms around my waist pulling me down to the bed with her. "We should go somewhere. I think we should take a weekend and just go somewhere."

"I like that idea. Where to?"

"I dunno. Going home would be boring, where's a place you've never been?" I asked her. I'd travelled a lot but something told me Santana really didn't. We'd never really talked about it, we were always too busy focusing on getting out of Lima to think about the past.

"Everywhere. What about…Philly? City of Brotherly Love." Her smile was contagious. And beautiful. "We could go to a concert, get a hotel, indulge in a little room service and…other things."

"Stop flirting and get up."

"Huh? Why do I need to get up?" Santana asked. I climbed up to my feet and pulled on my shoes. "Where are we going?"

"I have a group project I need to work on. As much as I wish NYADA was just dancing and singing there are still real classes I have to take. I need to meet up with my group at the library." Santana nodded and stood up to her feet. "You, of course, can come if you want to."

"Or you can stay here alone." Santana chuckled and followed me out the door. Once we were outside she grabbed my hand and we started walking towards the library. It was nice, actually. I didn't realize how long it had been since we actually held hands. The truth was, back in Ohio we rarely held hands and never in public. Our town was pretty rural by comparison and we didn't want any trouble. Now Santana seemed more confident and I was enjoying it. "It's a library, remember to behave."

"I will." Santana said as we walked in together. I noticed she let go of my hand as we approached the table with four other students. I wasn't upset, I know she only let go because she didn't know if I was out to other students at school. I respected that.

"Hi guys, I hope you don't mind if my friend, Santana, joins us." The four others looked up and smiled at Santana as we sat down. Will and Mark didn't seem to mind. Ashley hardly looked up from her computer, but Sarah seemed more curious than the rest of them.

"Hi Santana, I'm Sarah. Do you go here? I haven't seen you around." I pulled out my laptop and started working, I figured since Sarah always let us do most of the work anyway she could just talk to Santana and keep her distracted.

"I actually go to NYU." Santana told her.

"Seriously? Wow, that's awesome." Sarah said with a smile. "So how do you know Rachel?"

"We uh…went to high school together actually."

"Really? What was she like in high school? I mean obviously she had an amazing voice but that's all we seem to get out of her. She's never around." Santana rested her hand on my knee under the table and nudged my shoulder.

"I can be blamed for that. I love stealing her away." That caught everyone's attention but I pretended not to notice. I knew Santana would be a distraction but I kind of wanted that. I wanted to show her off, she was such a big part of my life, so why not? "A lot of our friends are in the city too, so we're always kind of hanging out with each other."

"Oh I just thought Rachel was kinda of a loner." Sarah said with a shrug.

"Hey!"

"No Rachel's incredible." Everyone looked up at Santana. "You know like…talented-."

"You mean in bed?" Sarah asked with an arched eyebrow. "Are you two fucking?"

"What? No. Just friends." Santana moved her hand up higher, grazing the inside of my thigh slowly. Tenderly. It took everything I had no to squirm in my seat. "Though whoever is getting a piece of Rachel Berry is one lucky mother fu-"

"Santana, wanna go buy us some coffee? We'll be here for a while. Maybe you could stop by and say hi to Charlie too." I cut her off. She knew I wouldn't take no for an answer so she got up and headed towards the exit. A smirk playing on her face the whole time.

"She's a cutie." Sarah said with a knowing smile. "Keep her around."

Charlie's POV

Work today was boring. Mr. Rose wasn't even here to bullshit with. Brittany was busy so I wasn't expecting visitors until Santana came walking in with a bag of donuts and two coffee cups. "Hey Blue, what's up?" She set the bag down on the table in front of me and climbed up on the counter like she owned the place.

"Don't call me that." I told her as I grabbed a donut out of the bag and took a big bite. "What brings you here?"

"I was with Rachel at the library but apparently I was flirting too much so she kicked me out. She's doing some lame group project." She explained. "Where's B? I thought she always snuck up here around this time."

"So you only came here to see Brittany?" I asked.

"I get enough of your face every day. Plus Britt said she'd model for me." I arched a brow. What was Santana talking about? "You totally should too, your blue hair would look dope as hell."

"What are you talking about?" I asked her.

"Modelling. Photography. I'm doing a little side project of my own. I want to photograph all of my friends, if it's good enough it could be featured in a show." Santana explained. "And everyone who gets naked will have my undying love forever." Santana took a sip of coffee and grinned.

"Perv."

"It's art, I promise. Plus if I just wanted to see you naked I would've done that when you were fawning over me way back when." I nodded she did have a point. "So if you're in I could put you down for Saturday."

"I'm in." I assured her. "So tell me what's been going on."

"A lot of intense…stuff. Rachel and I might take a trip, but I really need to talk to my sister first. Something I just need to get off my chest."

"Do you need me to go with you? I mean I know you and Olivia love each other but sometimes you kind of lose it." I could hear Kurt's voice in the back of my head telling me to just stay out of it but I couldn't help myself. "And she does too."

"It'll be fine. Plus I wouldn't want to distract you and Britt from your sex marathon or whatever you've been doing." I laughed and so did Santana.

"My parents are coming up next weekend." I told her.

"That's gonna be a hot ass mess." Santana replied. She was most certainly right about that. "Oh I could film it though. Call it Republicans in New York, maybe it could premiere at the film festival in the spring."

"I just want to know how they'll react when they see one of their daughters with blue hair and a girlfriend and the other with a black guy. A W.A.S.P.'s greatest nightmare." I finished the donut and waved as a regular costumer walked in and immediately headed to the crime novels.

"So what's with that? They do know that you and Brittany are dating right?"

"Of course they do but they have selective memory, you know that. They like to think of us as good friends. My mom doesn't care but my dad's still uncomfortable. They're trying, they'll get there." Truth be told I kind of like to let them think things through on their own. I was an adult and they didn't have to agree with what I was doing but I know they'll still love me. My mom's been the most supportive of the two but she's been working on changing her life for a while now which means she's been working on accepting me too.

"Is Mama F still going to meetings?" Santana asked.

"She loves AA, you should see her reading the books they give you. It's awesome." I was really proud of her, she's an incredible woman. I'm happy to call her mom. "Speaking of recovery, you should really talk to Marley."

"Why me?"

"Because she trusts you." I told Santana. "Come on, she's a girl in trouble. You can help her out."

"You're right. Okay, okay." Santana slid off the counter. "I'll talk to her, cause I'm a good person."

"So it's gonna be a busy few weeks. Rachel's show next week, Quinn's game Friday, Brittany's rally, and…well nothing for us, but still a lot of important stuff. Kinda stressful, you up for it all?"

"Of course. No booze, no drugs, I promise."

"Alright, well maybe you should get back to your girl."

Quinn's POV

"I now have a playlist of exclusively white noise. One of the video's lasts ten hours. It's the only way I can fall asleep." I explained to Brittany who was currently ordering a megaphone online. "We could just call up Sue and ask her to send us one of hers. Though I could think of about thirteen ways that could go wrong."

"It's okay, I can pay for it. I don't mind." Brittany assured me. "I just hope that enough people will come out for this."

"You put up posters and organized everything. It's gonna be great." Brittany smiled. I loved seeing her when she was confident in herself. I mean sure, when she was on stage it was like she was walking on water, but she never really found her groove outside of dance. Now she really had something that she could foster. Her passion and love for people. That was pretty incredible. "How did my idiot sister get so lucky with you? I mean you're smart, talented, and hot."

"Do you wanna date me? Cause you sound like you wanna date me."

"Oh please, Chris is more than enough for me. But just for the record you do think I'm as hot as Charlie right? I mean our faces are literally the same." Brittany shrugged and continued scrolling through the results.

"Charlie's just so…Charlie." She said with a grin. "Stop comparing yourself, you're totally different people. Starting with the fact that you like people with penises." I cracked a smile. I looked over her shoulder at the screen.

"Is that a pink megaphone? You have to get it." Brittany clicked on it and pulled out her credit card. "So, did Santana talk to you?"

"About…" She finished ordering the megaphone and spun around in her chair to face me.

"The photo thing. Are you doing it?"

"Of course I am. I love being naked. You're not nervous, are you?" Brittany asked sympathetically. I didn't really respond so I guess that was answer enough. "Why don't you get Chris to do it too?"

"He would never…I mean…should I?" Since when did Brittany become my go to for advice? Back in high school I always just assumed she would just tell me to swim with ducks or something, I didn't know she could actually be this helpful. Another thing that Charlie could see clearly that I was completely blind to. "Wait but that would mean that Santana would see his…"

"I really don't think she'll try and steal your man."

"True." I nodded. "Thanks B."

"For what?" She asked curiously.

"I dunno. Being my friend. Being awesome. All of the above." Brittany grinned and so did I. I always knew that we would be best friends for life. It's inevitable. "Let's go out to dinner tonight."

"Like a double date?" She asked.

"No, just us. We'll gossip and eat without trying not to look like slobs. Deal?"

"Deal."

Santana's POV

Here I was sitting on my sister's couch and I could honestly say that I've never felt more out of place. She was pacing back and forth, with a cookie in her hand, and wearing leggings and an oversized sweater. She was talking about work or bills or something. I could hardly even listen I was so scared. "San?" She plopped down next to me and nudged my shoulder with her own. "What's your deal?"

"Nothing." I lied.

"No, seriously. Did you mess up with Rachel again or something?"

"Promise me that you'll love me no matter what." I commanded. I never asked Olivia for much, right now I was asking her for everything. "Promise me that you won't get angry."

"Which is it?" She asked quietly. "You want me to love you or you want me to act like a little kid? Cause you sure as shit ain't getting both." I clenched my jaw and rubbed my hands together. "Fucking talk to me, Jesus you're freaking me out."

"Don't yell at me!" It was less of a command and more of me being too weak to tell her the truth. "Please."

"Okay."

"You know that letter that you got from mom?" I asked her. She nodded. God I couldn't do this, I didn't even have half of the facts straight. "She didn't send it."

"What are you talking about? It was in her handwriting." Olivia assured me.

"Remember how we used to copy mom and dad's signatures in grade school? Well…"

"Fucking hell. What are you saying? You were playing a joke?" Did I have to say it? Or couldn't she just figure it out by herself? "Where's mom?"

"I don't know." Olivia stood up. She paced in front of me, I knew how angry she was. I could feel it, but that was the thing about us. No matter how much we wanted to punch the hell out of each other, we never could.

"San, baby sis…you have to tell me what happened." I knew she was right. I stuck my face in my hands, trying to hold it together. For once.

"Dad came to my place back in Ohio."

"He what?!" She grabbed my wrists and forced me to look up at her. "And you didn't tell me this?"

"You were in New York at the time-."

"So the fuck what! You're supposed to tell me any time he ever makes contact with you."

"Olivia, you couldn't protect me from 500 miles away. I thought if I told you, you would…it might make things worse." Olivia took a deep breath and let go of me. She ran her fingers through her hair.

"Oh god, oh god." She muttered under her breath.

"Olivia it's not your fault-."

"You always say that shit. That it's not my fault. But at some point it has to be my fault. I promised you that I would protect you, ever since you got emancipated. And here I was sitting on my ass while he was….shit. Did he hit you?" I just looked at her, she knew right away.

"Listen, he said some stuff…threats or whatever, but…I don't know where mom is. I don't know if…"

"No. No way." Olivia sat back down next to me. "She got away. We all did, right?"

"I don't know. It was all so muddled, I was so fucked up from seeing him again that I couldn't…I couldn't see past what he said. What are we supposed to do?" I asked her.

"We? You're staying here, I'm gonna go back to Ohio. Find mom…or dad whichever comes first-."

"No. I won't let you."

"My biggest regret is walking away when I had the chance. I've told you a million times and I'll tell you a million times more. So what if I see dad, he doesn't scare me anymore." Olivia promised me. "You know what. I'm leaving in a week, after I finish my column, you can pep talk me if you want but I'm going."

"I'm going too then."

"That's a bad idea."

"I know." I replied. "But we spent a long time fighting him alone. You're my family…my only family now maybe. You need me just as much as I need you." Olivia wrapped her arm around my shoulder and kissed my forehead. "Olive?"

"Yeah?"

"I thought mom was dead for five months and for some reason I don't feel as sad as I should. What's wrong with me?" I questioned.

"She did what she could, which wasn't even close to enough. We've always said it, we love her but we shouldn't…or can't trust her." Olivia and I sat there in silence for a while. "I don't care that you lied, I would've done the same thing."

"It was my fucked up idea of protecting you." I told her.

"Us Lopez sisters, we're no good at that."