Chapter 40

Santana loved watching Brittany giving interviews. For one, it was rare that Brittany was interviewed because of her own accomplishments and not because she was Santana's wife, but also, Brittany always changed when she was in front of a camera. Suddenly she wasn't the energetic and bubbly Brittany that Santana was used to. Instead she was subdued. Where usually she rambles and says random things seemingly unconnected to the conversation at hand, when being interviewed she only answered questions she was asked. Usually this meant she gave one word answers like yes or no. It was such a strange thing for Santana to witness, but she loved it. For some reason this side of Brittany turned her on so much. Right now all she wanted to do was drag Brittany home and throw her on the bed, and the interview had barely started.

"So a little birdie told me you weren't on this project in the beginning" the interviewer said with a smile. Brittany didn't smile, only raised her eyebrows slightly and nodded.

"Yeah"

Santana had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. That was a great question in her opinion. Obviously she wanted Brittany to talk about how she ended up on the movie, yet, Brittany would have no mercy. She would wait for her to ask the specific question. Santana forced back a smile, unsure if she was on camera or not.

"How did they manage to rope you into it?"

Smooth, Santana thought. This reporter wasn't too bad. She was quick, and didn't look too flustered by Brittany's lack of response.

"Oh…they called me about two months into the production because their choreographer at the time…" Brittany looked at Santana who shook her head only enough for her to notice. "He dropped out, and they'd heard I was available so it all kind of worked out."

"You'd just come back from maternity leave right? When you signed on."

"Yeah" Brittany smiled this time, thinking about their two little boys. Santana couldn't help but laugh this time.

"It was just before their first birthday so I think she was glad to be properly back to work again" she said, taking pity on the reporter. She saw the camera turn slightly and knew she was properly in frame now, so she stood up straighter.

"Aw, but I'm sure it was still bitter sweet."

"For me for sure" Santana laughed. "Britt was excited though" she looked at Brittany and was glad to see she the normal Brittany was making a small appearance.

"I was super excited. I'd never really choreographed for a movie before, so it was an awesome opportunity. I missed my little guys a lot though, so yeah, bitter sweet."

"Did you take them to work with you a lot?"

Santana made up her mind. She liked this reporter. She was smart.

Brittany smiled. "No"

"How come?"

"There were a lot of people on set and a lot of noise, and I was usually pretty busy. I didn't want them running around on their own or something. They visited once or twice though."

"What was the experience like? We've talked to a lot of the cast and they said you were a toughie."

Brittany and Santana laughed. "Yeah I guess I was. It was great. Everyone was super friendly and hard-working. We had some members of the cast who couldn't really dance, but they tried really hard and had a good attitude so it was fun."

"I can't see you being tough though, you're so sweet"

Brittany smiled, but Santana noticed it wasn't genuine. "Thank you"

"Britt is probably the nicest person you'll ever meet, but she doesn't take dancing lightly. I went to set a couple of times to watch her, and I can tell you first hand, that the success of every dance scene is thanks to her."

"High praise"

"She's my wife she has to say that" Brittany laughed.

The reporter laughed. "Which of the non-professionals would you say is the best dancer?"

Brittany let out a breath and Santana knew it was because she had been dreading this question. "Zendaya counts as a professional huh?" she joked. Santana and the reporter laughed.

"I'm counting her. Have you seen her move?"

"Yeah….I don't know, they all worked really hard and improved a lot as I worked with them. Tyler had never danced before and by the end he was doing some pretty complex stuff…I don't know...I don't know, I can't answer that question." she laughed nervously.

"Alright." As soon as the reporter started talking Brittany's smile dropped. Santana had to repress another laugh. Why did she do that? She wasn't nervous, she was a friendly, social person. Why did she act like one of those intimidating celebrities who were always too serious? Santana could see it was making the reporter nervous. "You've worked with some pretty big artists and musicians" Brittany and Santana nodded. "Can you tell us who was the biggest person you've worked for is?"

Santana expected Brittany to smile, but she didn't. She knew the answer to this question because Brittany was asked it so frequently by friends and fans. Every time she gave the answer she had the biggest and most contagious smile on her face, and you could really tell that she was reliving the memory. But Brittany didn't smile. Instead she pursed her lips and looked off to the side as if in thought. That confused Santana.

"Don't say me" she said. There was the smile. Santana sighed as Brittany turned to her with a giant smile and shook her head.

"Darn, that was gonna be my answer." Everyone laughed. "I don't know if she's the biggest, but I really love Halsey, and I got to be in one of her music videos. That was totally awesome. She's awesome. And we all went out after and got some drinks, it was a lot of fun, I'll never forget that."

"That sounds so cool" Brittany nodded, but the smile was gone again. She somehow managed to still look happy though.

"It was"

"So was that the funnest experience you've had with an artist as well?"

"No" Brittany said quickly. "The most fun I've had with an artist was Santana's global tour."

Santana rolled her eyes and the reporter laughed. "Of course"

"No I'm serious. I got to choreograph all the numbers and I was already friends with a lot of the dancers and the band and crew so the weirdness that's sometimes there when you first start a tour wasn't there. We seriously had a blast. Plus I was going round the world and seeing all these new places and meeting new people and learning new cultures. Honestly it was the best experience of my life."

"Also, her wife was there, and that was kind of cool" Santana said, pretending to be offended. Brittany laughed and kissed her temple.

"That part was kinda okay too yeah"

"Do you think you've made any new friends from this movie?"

Brittany looked at Santana as if to say 'what kind of question is that?' then turned back to the reporter.

"Yeah, of course. I like to think I make friends everywhere I go, but yeah. Everyone on this cast and crew was really great."

"Any behind the scenes memories you can share?"

Brittany took a deep breath and let it out as a chuckle, but Santana knew it was a sigh. "Oh man…A lot of things happen in six months, and that's how long we've been filming. Not to mention the two months of dance rehearsals everyone had. I spent a lot of time with a lot of people, and almost every moment is a fun memory for me." The reporter smiled and nodded, but Santana could see she was running out of material. Frankly she was tired of standing here and wanted to go inside, so she wasn't going to help this drag on anymore. She looped her hand with Brittany's and smiled.

"Are you excited to see the final product?"

"I've actually already seen it."

"Really?"

"Yeah"

"When?"

"Uh…Tuesday"

"This Tuesday?"

"Yes"

"How was it?"

"Awful" the reporter and Santana laughed. "No it was good of course it was good. Brian, the director is amazing"

"What can we expect?"

"Lots of dancing" Brittany said, and this time she laughed. Santana smiled.

"One more thing,"

"Sure"

"Can you look into the camera and say your name and title?"

"Like…" Brittany started, confused.

"Like 'hi I'm Brittany Lopez and I'm the lead choreographer of beat the streets.' Santana told her, stepping away so she wasn't in focus.

"You don't have to move away." The camera man told her. Santana shook her head. She always stepped away when focus was being put on Brittany's career. They had noticed…or rather, Emma and Eve had noticed, that people were associating her with Brittany's career, as though they were a package deal. There were comments on videos Brittany was in asking where Santana was, or why she wasn't present or talked about in an interview, and she didn't like that. She wanted people to search Brittany's videos because they were good, not because they hoped to see Santana. So yeah, she had to step away. She had already been more a part of this interview than she wanted. She wouldn't have been in it at all, but Brittany had begged her.

"Oh okay" Brittany said. "Now?" the reporter nodded. "Hi" she smiled, and Santana automatically smiled as well. "I'm Brittany Lopez-Pierce, and I'm the lead choreographer on the hot new movie beat the streets, which you should definitely check out" she smiled another mega-watt smile.

"Awesome, thank you so much ladies, it's been great chatting with you."

Santana wanted to scoff, but just smiled. Again she didn't say anything because this wasn't her interview. She was just Brittany's arm candy for this premier. Brittany nodded politely and smiled gently.

"No problem thanks for talking to us." She re-looped her arm through Santana's and after a small wave, walked away.

"You kill me Brittany" Santana said, as they walked down the carpet and through the doors.

"Why?"

"Why do you do that? Act all serious and answer with such short replies?"

"Cause I'm not gonna do their job for them. I match the energy I get. If I get a super bubbly interviewer who asks fun questions then I'll match that, but if they're serious, like that lady, then I'm serious too. plus, getting all dressed up and posing for thousands of pictures while being yelled at kind of drains my energy. Also, I want some things about me to be a secret. We're in the public eye a lot, and our fans already think they know us. I like to know that there's a me only family and friends know"

Santana nodded. That made a lot of sense actually.

"What am I always telling you? You're a genius Brittany Lopez"

Brittany laughed. "You forgot the Pierce again" Santana smirked.

"Did I?

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

Santana stared down at the blue card in her hand, reading the name for what felt like the thousandth time. Dr. Samantha Westman, MD. She scoffed. The chair on the card was a bit much, a bit on the nose, but she appreciated the effort. The words she couldn't get over happened to be the largest on the card. In bold no less. Psychiatrist. Like okay, no need to rub in people's faces.

A knock on the door startled her so much she dropped the card.

"Come in" she called, tucking the card under her keyboard.

Eve's head popped into the room.

"Busy?"

"Not really. What's up?"

Eve stepped fully into the room and shut the door.

"You said I should stop by when I have a chance so we could talk about the birthday."

"Oh yes!" Santana adjusted herself in her seat, pulling it closer to the desk. "Yes. So Brittany and I have a few ideas. Yes, they are elaborate…maybe…" she grinned as Eve raised her eyebrows. "But you can't blame us. Our babies are turning 1."

Santana couldn't remember ever being so excited about anything in her life. Maybe her wedding. She knew Jesús and Kyler wouldn't remember any of it. They wouldn't even know what was going on. But she and Brittany had decided to go all out anyway. They could get some nice pictures to show the boys when they were older.

"Let me get my notebook." Eve rushed out of the room. As soon as she was out of sight, Santana pulled out the card, shaking her head.

"Sorry Samantha." She sighed, dropping the card into the bin under her desk.

"Okay" Eve returned. She sat down and clicked her pen. "What are you thinking?"

*****

Brittany tucked her phone into the pockets of her sweat pants.

"Rose, I'm heading out for a bit. Shouldn't be an hour, but if anyone needs me you can call. I have my phone."

"Okay Brittany" the receptionist smiled. Brittany smiled back.

Rose was a sweet girl they'd only recently hired. Brittany didn't know her well, she wasn't sure anyone did, but they all agreed that she was sweet. She was young, either just graduated high school, or dropped out of her first year of college, Brittany guessed. In any case she was a much better receptionist than Helen, who'd had the job before her and always seemed either tired or annoyed.

She left the studio and drove to Elise, the restaurant and bar Quinn was working at. Sometimes she couldn't believe that Quinn, head Cheerleader and probably the elitist person Brittany had ever met, had just dropped out of Yale to work at a bar. Every day she expected Quinn to quit. Have a breakdown about what a huge mistake leaving Yale was and curse them all for not stopping her. But Quinn seemed happy. Genuinely happy. She wasn't even looking for a boyfriend, that's how content she seemed in herself.

Brittany was proud of her. It was things like that, like a once social climber getting a job where she got paid more the more she flirted, that made Brittany realise how much things had changed from high school. How much they'd all grown up.

"BOO"

Brittany jumped, spinning around and clutching her heart to see Puck howling behind her.

She shook her head. Well not all of them had grown up.

"Really?"

"I was gonna get Quinn, but you came by first." Puck laughed.

Sometimes Brittany couldn't believe that Puck was still in her life. She'd spent most of high school jealous of or disgusted by Puck. He'd never been her friend. Not even in the weird way he'd been friends with Santana and Quinn where they didn't really like each other but were still kind of there for each other. Nope. Brittany had never wanted anything to do with Noah Puckerman. And yet…

"How long have you been hiding there?"

"Twenty minutes."

She couldn't help but smile.

"Come on I don't have long. I need to get back to learn some choreography."

They walked into Elise and went straight to the bar.

"Heeey it's our famous customer!" The bartender called.

"Hey Rob" Brittany giggled, taking a seat on one of the high chairs.

"Want anything?"

"No, still heading back to work.'

Rob nodded.

"Beer Puck?"

"You know it."

A beer was placed in front of Puck, which he immediately sipped.

"Will you tell Quinn we're here?" Brittany asked, taking a pretzel from the bowl in front of her and popping it into her mouth.

"You got it gorgeous." Rob winked at her, slung his towel over his shoulder and walked through a back door to the kitchens.

"That guy so wants to bang you."

"Urgh" Brittany rolled her eyes. "Noah…"

"It's true." Puck turned sideways in is seat to face Brittany and sipped his beer. "He's always checking you out."

"So are you."

"Hey, woah, woah…" Puck pointed his beer at her. "Don't go saying that shit in front of Santana."

"It's true isn't it?" Brittany ate another pretzel. "Or am I just imagining your eyes on my boobs?"

Puck grinned at her.

"I'm a warm blooded man. That's not my fault."

Brittany rolled her eyes again. "Okay" she chuckled. "At least you've stopped hitting on me."

"I draw the line at married women."

Brittany frowned at him.

"Yeah okay" he laughed. "Not true. But married friends…no. I don't need that drama."

"Good to know" Brittany laughed.

Rob came back with Quinn trailing behind him.

"Hey guys. Do you mind giving me a minute?"

Puck shook his head and raised his bottle. "Gotta finish this anyway."

"As long as a minute is actually a minute." Brittany said. "I need to go back to work."

"Okay." Quinn darted back into the kitchen.

****

Puck had nearly finished his second beer by the time Quinn was ready to go, and Brittany was getting anxious. She'd promised Santana they would pick the cakes by today, but with how much time they'd already wasted she only had thirty minutes before she absolutely had to be back at the studio.

They drove quickly to the first bakery and jumped out. The baker she'd already met before when they first came to ask for a cake tasting met them at the door.

"Hi Brittany." They shook hands.

"Hello. These are my friends, Quinn and Noah. Santana couldn't be here so I brought backup."

The baker laughed. "No problem. So I already have the flavours laid out…" she led them into the bakery to a booth in the corner where seven different cake slices were arranged on the table.

"Wow these look good" Quinn said.

"Thank you. They're the flavours we discussed Brittany."

Brittany sat down and picked up a fork. Quinn and Puck sat opposite her.

She had to taste each cake three times before she was able to narrow it down to two choices.

"I like this um…chocolate rasb-what is it?" She pointed at the cake.

"White chocolate Rasberry."

"Yes. I like that and, and….the chocolate cake. What frosting is this?"

"It's cream cheese."

"Yeah those are my favourite. Quinn?"

"I like the white chocolate raspberry as well. But my favourite is this Apple cake with Salted Caramel frosting. I wish I had this for my birthday."

The baker laughed.

"Thank you."

"I don't know…Will they like it? It seems a bit rich to me." Brittany said, tasting the apple cake again.

"If we're going on what the boys will like then we have to get chocolate." Puck said. "You know that's all they'll care about."

"Mmhh" Brittany nodded. "I'd wanted to get them something different though…not just boring chocolate."

"B they're one" Quinn laughed. "They're not gonna care."

"Yeah I know!" Brittany said sharply.

"We could do small cakes for the two of them, that they can eat, and then a cake for the guests…" the baker suggested.

"That's not a bad idea." Brittany said. "Let's do that. Definitely the chocolate with cream cheese for one. The other…I don't know if Jesús will want a fully chocolate cake. Can you do a chocolate and vanilla."

"Yes" the baker pulled out a notepad and pen from her apron and began to write.

"And then with…" Brittany scooped up some frosting from one of the cakes and licked it. "Is this…oreo?"

"Yes crushed oreo butter cream."

"Can you make it with this?"

"Yes" the baker nodded.

"Alright then let's do that."

"And the larger cake?"

Brittany pointed at the one plate that had the least remaining cake.

"Vanilla cake, Raspberry filling and White chocolate butter cream" the baker said, writing it down. "How big should the cakes be?"

"They won't be able to eat much. So maybe…like a cupcake?"

"Oh yeah…okay. You can make half a dozen of each, we'll hand them out at the party."

"Okay."

"The big cake, I don't know. Three kilograms…."

"Will that be big enough?"

"Santana and I don't really eat cake, so I don't want a lot left over."

"I'll be happy to take it off your hands." Puck said, pulling a plate closer to him and digging into it.

"Okay" Brittany laughed. "Then five kilograms."

"Got it."

When the baker stopped writing, Brittany stood up and shook her hand.

"Thank you so much, the cakes tasted great."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you liked them."

"Email over the quote, and then we'll talk about designs and stuff."

"Got it."

"Quinn" Brittany called, since Quinn had now joined Puck in finishing the cake. She looked up at Brittany with her fork in her mouth. "You guys will find your way back? I need to go back to work."

Quinn nodded.

"See you later" she mumbled over a full mouth. Brittany giggled, shaking her head. She waved at Puck, shook the baker's hand again and rushed back to the car.