Chapter 25

After her concert that night, which Brittany had shown up to much to her surprise, Santana went back to her hotel feeling drained and exhausted. She had spent hours at a meet and greet with thousands of fans, put on a smaller more intimate VIP concert with about 70 of those fans , and then had the main concert, which was four hours long. All of this she had to do on no sleep and a heavy weight on her heart. Collapsing onto her bed for the first time in 48 hours, she didn't even bother to take off her shoes or change her clothes. She simply closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

When Brittany came up to the room, (Santana had left the concert without her), she found Santana curled up on her side of the bed wrapped around a pillow. She would have thought she looked cute, had it not been for the frown on her face. She pulled a chair from the dresser so that it was beside the bed where Santana was laying and leaned her elbows against the bed, her face a few inches from Santana's.

"Baby" she said quietly, watching to see if Santana would wake up. "I don't know what to do. I'm so sad right now and I shouldn't be. We both shouldn't be, but we are." She paused again, tracing her finger along Santana's creased brow. "I didn't mean what I said. I know you're not heartless. It was a stupid…stupid thing to say. I'm just scared. I can't leave them Santana. I just can't." She stopped talking abruptly, almost holding her breath as Santana stirred. When she stopped moving Brittany resumed caressing her face. "I love you so much, I don't want you to ever forget that. I love you. But I love them now too." She sighed heavily, sitting back in her chair. "I don't know how to take back what I said or how I acted so you can stop avoiding me. I miss you." She stood up from the chair and walked into the bathroom, harshly rubbing away tears and feeling like she had been crying non-stop for days.

Santana woke up a few hours later as a ray of sunshine found its way through the curtain so that it was shining right in her face. She peaked her eyes open, realising that she was under the covers, but still in the clothes she had been wearing the night before, only her shoes had been taken off. She moved to sit up and hit Brittany's arm, freezing at the contact. She had expected Brittany to spend another night at the hospital. Slowly she peeled herself out of bed, nearly toppling over as her foot tangled in sheets and she tried not to make any noise. When she was finally standing beside the bed she felt her heart sink even lower. Brittany was lying curled up on her side the way she usually would be, only this time instead of being wrapped around Santana, she had kept about two inches between them. Santana wanted nothing more than to get back into bed and let Brittany hold her as her body so obviously wanted to, but for the first time she could not bring herself to put Brittany's feelings above her own. Yes, Brittany was sad, and Santana was sure she was very sorry too, but that didn't change how hurt she still felt. Of all the people in her life to call her heartless, Santana had never thought Brittany would be one of them, and hearing those words come out of her mouth, despite all they had been through and how hard Santana had worked at getting better at showing her feelings, had sucked all of the happiness from her entire being. It was different this time though, because now she knew full well that she was not heartless. A few years ago she may have fallen back into her old ways, taking Brittany's words to heart and believing them, but not anymore. Now she just felt extremely disappointed and betrayed.

She watched Brittany for a few minutes, noticing that she did not look like she was having very peaceful sleep, then walked silently into the bathroom to shower. Emerging 20 minutes later, she stood again at the end of the bed.

"Oh Britt" she said quietly, closing her eyes. As she did, she missed Brittany opening her eyes. Brittany watched Santana sleepily for a second before closing her eyes again. Not sure if she had really heard her call her name and honestly so tired she wasn't sure if she was dreaming.

"I'll have forgiven you by the time I come back. I can never really be mad at you." She was quiet for a while. "I don't think I could tell you to your face, because I'd hate to see how my words affect you, but you really hurt me. I know you didn't mean it, and I know you're sorry, even though you haven't told me, I know. But Brittany…" she sighed. "I've never said anything like that to you, not even by mistake, and I never thought you would…" she broke off again, feeling more hurt the more she spoke. "But I love you too much to keep this up. So I'll have forgiven you by the time I come back." She moved to the table and scribbled a short note telling Brittany she'd be back a little after three, and walked to the door.

"I love you" she said, opening the door and walking out. Brittany lay, half-awake half-asleep, but fully guilt stricken.

Santana walked into the hospital and wasted no time heading to the nursery. She had only been away from the babies for 36 hours, but despite her words of caution to Brittany, she could not help feeling drawn to the twins. It was crazy to her that they had been alive for such a short amount of time, yet she missed them as badly as if they had been in her life as long as Brittany. Even as she thought about leaving Rio, her heart ached. It was why she had decided to spend the remaining hours she had holding each of them, getting to know them as well as she could and committing as much of them to memory as possible.

Four hours later Santana sat staring at the face of the now two day old infant that she had first held. The nurse had not told her it was him, but she recognised a small beauty spot on his arm that she had rubbed as she fed him, that his brother did not have. When she first realised that she had found the first different thing about the boys she had swelled with a happiness she had never experienced, and immediately pulled out her phone to call Brittany, but then the reality of her departure, and their seemingly hopeless situation had hit her and she had dropped the phone back into her bag.

"What am I gonna do bebe?" she said quietly to the boy staring up at her blankly. "What on earth am I going to do?"

Just then, her phone rang. Eve was calling.

"He's waiting for you both at the hotel lobby" she said the second Santana picked up.

"Fuck" she looked down at the baby, "Oh sorry honey" she paused and kissed him on the head, then stood up and put him in his little crib. "I'll see you again. I hope" she whispered against his fist, which she had pressed against her lips.

"Santana?" she heard Eve call from over the phone.

"Yes. I'm coming right now. Tell him…and Britt I guess…that I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

*********************************************************************************

"Sorry" Brittany said in a feeble voice, turning to face Santana with tears in her eyes. "You're a…a lawyer?"

"Yes I'm a lawyer. I was filled in on your situation by your assistant, your bodyguards and some staff at the hospital" the man said.

"Sorry" Brittany said again. Her brain working hard to understand what she was being told. "I don't understand. Who..." she looked at Santana again.

"I called him" Santana said, taking Brittany's hand in hers. Brittany gripped her hand tight, gazing into Santana's eyes. She could not believe the amount of love coursing through her veins for Santana at that moment.

"Santana I-"Brittany was cut off by Santana shaking her head. She nodded and faced the lawyer again. "Sorry" she said for the third time.

"Please stop apologizing Mrs Lopez-Pierce. From what I've been told, this is a highly emotional situation. I completely understand. This I think will be a factor in our favour."

"Why's that?" Santana said quickly.

"Well, I'm sure that you're aware that international adoptions are very difficult, and your celebrity status does not help, but three things do. The first is that you're on tour, and a very gruelling tour from what I've seen of your schedule" Santana and Brittany nodded.

"How does that help?" Brittany asked.

"Well it will serve as evidence that you didn't come here looking for a child to adopt. It is hard proof that you actually had other business in Brazil, so no one can say anything about 'buying children' or anything like that." Brittany grimaced and Santana nodded.

"The second thing is that you are the ones who found the mother and brought her to the hospital. It establishes an emotional connection between you and the children. You went through this traumatic experience with them, saved them in fact, and are therefore invested in their well-being. It only makes sense then that when you heard that they have no family, you wanted to take them in."

The lawyer went silent for a while, allowing both women to take in everything he said. Brittany was staring down at her and Santana's hands, her brow furrowed, and Santana was staring out of the window they were sitting next to. She turned slowly to look at him again, remembering something.

"Uh….you said there were three things." She said, having to clear her throat.

"Oh yes" he said, clearly having forgotten. "Well, Mrs Lopez-Pierce" he indicated Santana, "your ethnicity will be the third advantage."

Both Brittany and Santana frowned. Without waiting for their responses, the lawyer went on.

"Well, people are always quick to criticize white people, especially white Americans, for adopting children of colour from other countries. It's seen as charity or something of the sort, I couldn't tell you, but because you are Hispanic, and so are the boys, that will not present a problem."

Brittany was still frowning, but Santana had resumed looking out of the window.

"That being said," the lawyer continued after a moment of silence, "this process will still not be easy. The court will not want to seem like they are just giving you the children because of your status, so they will make it as thorough as possible. I understand that you are leaving the country tomorrow?"

"Yeah" Santana said, avoiding Brittany's eyes.

"We are" Brittany said, more to Santana than to the lawyer. Santana turned sharply to look at her. Brittany nodded and kissed their still joined hands. The lawyer cleared his throat.

"Well… I advise that you come back as often as possible. One of my arguments is going to be that you are already devoted to the boys in the two days that you've known them. I will be handing in the hospital's sign in records to show how much time you spent with them on the two days you were here, I hear it's a lot" he said smiling at them. "The adoption lawyer is going to want to talk to you, and the social worker too. I don't think they're going to send anyone to the States to look at your life there, but they may ask you for a few character references. They might also want to talk to any support system you have at home, friends, family, so on, people who will be in frequent contact with the boys."

Brittany and Santana were nodding along with him as he spoke.

"We can ask Quinn and Puck for the references. They've known us forever."

"Do they work for you, or depend on you for anything? Money, housing?"

Brittany shook her head. "No, they both haven't lived with us for more than a year."

"Excellent. Then have them send me the references as soon as possible." Santana and Brittany nodded. "Do you have any questions or concerns?"

"This won't get out…? Into the media I mean. Will it?" Santana asked. The lawyer raised an eyebrow at her. "It's just that a lot of my life tends to be publicized, and I don't want this to be one of them. I don't want my career to interfere with this process at all."

"No" the lawyer said reassuringly. "I understand where you're coming from, and I can keep this quiet. Not many people are involved as it is, most of the people who are, work for the government or hospital, so they can't say anything confidential, and the other people who know are your staff, who I assume…" he trailed off and Santana nodded.

"They won't say anything"

"Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about. The fewer people who know though, the better"

"OK" both Brittany and Santana said.

"Any other questions?" he asked kindly.

"Um…" Brittany started, looking at Santana hesitantly. Santana rubbed her hand with her thumb and nodded encouragingly. "How long…do you think it'll take? If they…you know if you're successful?"

The lawyer smiled at her and put his pen on the table.

"I'll be honest with you, because I find it accomplishes nothing to sugar coat these kinds of things." He said gently. "I expect that it may take a minimum of six months. If everything goes right."

Brittany gaped at him. "We're going to have to keep flying back to Brazil for six months?"

"No you misunderstand me" the lawyer said quickly. "The entire adoption process is going to take between six to nine months, but I'm optimistic, especially if we are unable to find any family members, that the state will allow you to take them to America in three to four months. That will be my intention. I am appealing for emergency placement."

Brittany and Santana both released a heavy breath.

"I'm going to start the paperwork tonight, and it should be filed within the week. After that, we'll just have to wait for court dates and meeting with the adoption lawyer and the social worker."

"Thank you so much" Brittany breathed. She turned to look at Santana. "Thank you so much" she said again. Santana smiled.

"Don't thank me until you have those babies with you in your home permanently."

"But you didn't have to come all the way out here Mr Smith"

"Call me Eric please." He said smiling. "And I was all too happy to take this case, so don't thank me." He stood up slowly and shook their hands. "We'll get the job done ladies. You worry about seeing your babies, and I'll worry about making it official." With that, he gave them a short nod, and then walked out of the restaurant.

Brittany and Santana watched him go, then turned to face each other, neither sure what to say.

"Our babies Britt" Santana finally said, a huge smile forming on her face. Brittany leaned forward and kissed her tenderly, unloading everything she was feeling into the kiss; how sorry she was for their fight, how much she loved Santana, how happy she was in this very moment, and every hope and dream she could feel just within their grasp.

"Let's go see our babies S" she said, finally breaking the kiss.