Chapter 23

As Santana manoeuvred through the labyrinth like maze that was Ellen's backstage area, her mind wondered to Brittany, as it had been for the past few days. She couldn't believe, even when she looked at their wedding album, that she and Brittany had been married for nearly a year. It hadn't been anything like she'd expected, or truthfully, like she'd hoped. Not that it had been bad, as if being married to Brittany could ever be bad, but it had been….different.

Only a month after returning from their honeymoon, Brittany had joined a national dance troupe, taking her all over America for the next two months. By the time she was done and able to return to her usual job in the San Jose studio, Santana had finished writing her new album and was scheduled for a month long pre album release tour. They'd only managed to spend one month together, thankfully Santana's birthday fell into that sweet spot, but then Santana was off again, touring her new album. They spent their first Christmas as a married couple in separate countries.

When the New Year rolled around, Santana was still touring, and then in February, Brittany's troupe was up and running again, this time called to a dance convention in Amsterdam. That marked the start of Brittany's European dance tour. They managed to fly back and forth to see each other when they had a few free days, but all of this meant that rather than spending her first year married to Brittany having lots and lots of glorious 'I can't believe I'm married to you' sex and making Quinn throw up with their cuteness, Santana had spent most of it working and away from her wife.

Still, the fact that she could say she was taking a few days off to see her wife was infinitely better than going to see her girlfriend.

A man with a mouth piece found her and ushered her to the spot where she was supposed to wait for her name to be called. She could see part of the crowd from where she was standing, and again couldn't help thinking of Brittany. She wasn't nearly as nervous as she had been when she'd been rocketed to fame, but she still liked to have Brittany kissing her sweetly, rubbing her arms or holding her hand. It was a nice tradition. When Brittany couldn't physically be there for the interviews, which over the past year had been quite often, they usually Face Timed so she could at least tell Santana how beautiful she looked. But with the time difference, Santana wasn't even sure if Brittany was awake right now.

"Santana Lopez-Pierce!"

Santana took a deep breath, looked at the man beside her, who nodded, and walked out onto the stage.

"Thank you." Santana waved to the audience, then hugged Ellen. "Hi Ellen"

"Hi Santana, how are you?" Ellen asked when the crowd had settled down.

"I'm great. I'm doing really great thank you! How are you?"

"I'm good. Thanks for joining us"

"Are you kidding? Thanks for having me. My mum lost her shit…ohh sorry" she looked at the audience, her mouth in an 'o' shape.

"Potty mouth" Ellen said laughing.

"Sorry, my wife's actually been trying to get me to stop. It's really bad, I'm like a sailor."

"She doesn't like it when you swear?"

"Well…she didn't used to mind, but she says it's gotten a bit much. Brittany doesn't swear you know?"

"Doesn't she?" Santana shook her head. "At all?"

Santana smirked. "Well…in certain…situations" she laughed, looking at the audience again as they caught on and winking. "No yeah, in the G rated context she doesn't curse"

Ellen was in a fit of laughter. "Is she going to be thrilled that you said that?"

"She'll be fine" Santana said laughing. "Almost every other sentence she says is laced with some kind of innuendo"

"Explains why she married you"

Santana laughed, nodding her head.

"How is Brittany?"

"Good. She's actually doing really good. She's in Germany, at the moment on tour" Santana nodded at and clapped along with the crowd.

"Aww you look really proud of her"

"I am. I'm so proud of her. She's doing some amazing things with the troupe she's with and I just love that she's getting all this recognition."

"Yeah. I actually saw them perform"

"Did you? Where?"

"Uh…a couple of months ago when I was in Montana" Santana nodded, knowing when Ellen was referring to. "You weren't there."

"No I wasn't. I was in Canada that week."

"Is it hard on your relationship with both of you always traveling to separate places?"

"I mean it's not fun, obviously I'd like to be at all her shows, and so would she, but we see each other pretty often, and we always face time when we can. We even started just leaving our laptops open and on Skype so I see her when she gets to the hotel and we just kind of watch each other doing our own things, even if we're not like…talking…you know throughout." Ellen nodded. "Yeah so we've got a pretty good system. It's hard, but not on the relationship"

"That's really excellent, I love that. How long is she in Germany?"

"Uh she's coming back tonight" Santana said grinning.

"Oh!" Ellen said looking shocked. "So you'll get to see each other for a few hours before you leave?"

"No she's coming with me" Santana said excitedly.

"Is she?" Ellen asked surprised.

"Yeah. We actually decided a couple of days ago. She said she really wanted to be there for this, so she decided to fly back immediately after her show, instead of staying the night there."

"And she's going to be there for the whole tour?"

"Yeah" Santana said, looking giddy.

"Wow, you guys really are so cute."

Santana laughed. "Hahaha, Britt is cute. But yeah, it's going to be so much fun I can't wait."

"Right. So for those of you who don't know, if it's possible, Santana is going on her first worldwide tour tomorrow" the audience cheered and Santana beamed. "You're leaving tomorrow and heading to…?"

"Yeah I'm leaving tomorrow, heading to England."

"England yeah. Tea."

Santana laughed.

"Yeah tea. Whatever that is. I'll have to try it."

"So go on tell us about the tour."

"Right! Ok well, the first stop is London, uh tomorrow night like I said. We'll spend about a week there,"

"In London?"

"No, in the UK. We'll be going all over the UK, Ireland, Scotland, you know all that. For the week. Then we'll move on, go to Germany, France, Spain, Italy, all in about two weeks, then…I think then we're coming back this way to South America"

"Wow…that's some break-neck touring if I ever heard of it."

"Yeah, it's going to be some pretty tight schedules, but it'll be fun"

"How long is the whole things?"

"Uhh…If there aren't any delays or postponed shows, it should take 9…" she looked to her left where Eve was, "10weeks."

"Wow and how many countries?"

"16 countries, about 30 cities I think."

"What?! 30?"

"Yeah" Santana looked to Eve again, who nodded. "Yeah 25-30 cities."

"Wow…I mean good luck with that. That sounds crazy"

"Yeah it is wild. But, I'm so lucky to get to go to all these places and meet all these people. I've been meaning to do an international tour for a while, because I have fans all over who keep asking me when I'm going to go, so when I got back from my honeymoon, we started working on it. But then I couldn't decide where to go to first, cause all my fans everywhere are so awesome, so eventually I told my manager I'm just gonna go everywhere."

"How did they take that?"

"She wasn't so thrilled honestly" Santana said laughing. "But, I wouldn't change my mind so…here we are"

"Speaking of your wedding, your anniversary is coming up right?"

"Yes it is" Santana said smiling with wide eyes, wondering how Ellen knew that, before realising Eve or Emma must have told the producers. The crowd cheered.

"You've been married a year."

"Yup, one year in about a month. That was one of the main reasons Brittany decided she has to come. Originally she was going to fly over just for that week, but we didn't know where she'd be if she started another tour, if the times would line up and so on."

"Yeah…well that'll be a memorable way to spend your first anniversary. Traveling and performing around the world. Is she going to perform with you?"

Santana shook her head. "No not this time. She did have a lot of say on the choreography for a lot of the dances, so if for some reason we decide to, she could join, but no, I have really awesome dancers who I all love, hand-picked and screened by Brittany herself, that have been working with me this past year, so Brittany's just going to be watching from the crowd." She said, looking into the audience.

"Well that's just great, I wish you all the best with that."

"Thank you so much" Santana said to the Ellen and then to the crowd, putting both hands on her chest

"Well, Santana, we're going to play a game. You like games?"

"I love games Ellen"

"Great. Well, we got your lovely wife and some of your best friends to submit some questions to us,"

"Oh no" Santana pretended to groan.

"What?" Ellen asked laughing.

"Quinn and Noah? Oh gosh…have you screened these questions?"

"No" Ellen said laughing. "But I'll read them and see which ones I can't ask."

"Oh god…"

"What?"

"Just…Ok go…let's start."

"Ok….you ready?"

"As I'll ever be"

"Alright you guys ready?" Ellen asked the crowd. They cheered loudly. "Alright here we go. First question is from…actually, you tell me who it's from."

"Okay"

"I'm improving the game as I go"

"Lord. Ok…ask me the question."

"Ok…which of these lips" some lips appeared on the screen behind them, "belongs to the first person you ever kissed."

Santana covered her face as everyone laughed. "Ok…" she looked at the lips. "Ok well, I bet this question is from Noah" she looked at Ellen. "Wait no no, Quinn" Ellen smiled.

"Yup, this is from Quinn."

"Ok well in that case…wait they've given you the answers they said right?"

"Obviously" Ellen said, laughing and shaking her head.

"Ok…ok then I say the middle ones" the edges of the picture flashed green and Santana laughed shaking her head.

"Whose lips are those?" Ellen asked.

"Mine Ellen, can't you tell?"

"I mean, I know the answer is you because they told me, but how could you have kissed yourself."

"Quinn is an idiot, and likes to think she's so clever. In the eighth grade she saw me kiss my reflection in a mirror" Everyone laughed loudly, some shrieking. Ellen was pink in the face. "It wasn't like, in the gross way. I was looking at myself in a pocket mirror that I'd just st…uh gotten, and I was like, 'man I'm so hot' and kissed it" Santana said, laughing. Ellen looked at her questioningly.

"'Gotten' is not what you were going to say was it?" She asked. Santana smiled cheekily. "Were you going to say stolen?" Santana smiled wider.

"Of course not Ellen" She said in an exaggerated innocent voice.

"Oh god" Ellen said, wiping her eyes. "This game is going to be so good. Ok…next. What is your favourite part of your body, and what is your favourite part of Brittany?"

"Easy" Santana said smirking. "My favourite part of Brittany are her-"

"Wait…there's a note here at the bottom. You can't say eyes"

"Fuck…oh sorry. Sorry. I was gonna say that. Okay then her legs. She's got really awesome legs. But all of Brittany is awesome so…"

"Okay, and of yourself?'

"Uhh…my ass" she said laughing and sticking her tongue between her teeth.

"Your ass? Really?" Ellen said laughing lightly.

"Yeah, it's a great one, have you seen it? Should I show you?"

"If you'd like" Santana stood up and turned around slowly, raising her hands in the air.

"See" she said, sitting back down.

"Well yes, we all did see" Ellen said laughing harder now. "Ok, next. No actually who asked the question?"

"Uh…Brittany?"

"Yes" Ellen said impressed.

"Ok. Last question."

"Okay, obviously from Noah then"

"Well…yeah. Who is your best friend?'

Santana laughed loudly, throwing her head back. "He won't let it go."

"Oh yeah?"

"He brings it up all the time."

"Well now he wants an answer. He's put you on the spot."

"Brittany" Santana said.

"No she doesn't count" Ellen said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Why not? Brittany is my best friend." The crowd was laughing now.

"No it doesn't count."

"I don't…I can't answer that question. They're both…actually Ellen. You're my best friend."

Ellen laughed. "I accept that answer, but since you technically didn't get it right, I'm going to ask you a question of my own."

"Okay"

"You refer to yourself as Snixx right?" Santana barked out a laugh.

"Uh…not so much anymore…but yes, Snixx is-"

"Hey let me ask the question" everyone laughed. "Who is Snixx?"

"Snixx is like my alter ego. I came up with her I think…uh..." Santana frowned looking up. "I don't know actually, Quinn would know. But it was a long time ago. Just before high school I think."

"Okay"

"She's a real bi…she's really mean. I blamed every wrong thing I ever did on her. When I'd slap someone, insult them, cuss out a teacher, those kinds of things, I'd say 'I'm like the incredible hulk you can't blame me for anything Snixx does'" everyone burst out laughing. "It's true" Santana said, though her voice was a little drowned out.

"Ok" Ellen said, trying to stop her laughter, "And why…"

"Why did I create her? I'm weird like that. I guess I was scared of going to high school with all these big teenagers and stuff, so I needed another personality that was more confident. Like Sasha fierce"

Ellen nodded with pursed lips. "Sure, sure, I see where you're coming from. But you're saying you don't use her anymore?"

"No. Not really. I mean I joke about her sometimes, but I've grown a lot as a person. I used to be really toxic, and always trying to put others down and make them feel as horrible as I did, but I don't anymore. I had to work on myself a lot, and I'm still working on myself, like I say in a lot of my songs, but I don't need Snixx anymore. I put her behind me."

"That's really great, I'm happy for you. So you don't use her anymore?"

"No"

"You're sure?"

Santana narrowed her eyes. "Uh…now I'm not so sure. Why are you asking me like that?"

"I just want to know if you're sure."

"Yes I'm sure" Santana said laughing. Ellen turned to the audience.

"Ok well, it's good to know that you're a LIAR" everyone laughed.

"What do you mean?" Santana said over the noise.

"I have a video here, let's watch it and then hear what you have to say"

"Ok…."

They turned to the screen. It was a Snapchat video of Santana's apartment.

"Where did you get that?"

"Shh let's watch the video"

What did you say? They heard Brittany's voice. Obviously she was the one taking the video.

"If you don't stop you're gonna get a visit from auntie Snixx" Santana's voice said, sounding far away.

Stop what babe?

"Breaking my decorations"

What decorations? Brittany said, sounding like she was trying not to laugh.

"What decorations, Brittany are you serious?" Santana came into view, walking out of the kitchen with a dust pan in her hand. She was wearing short sleeping shorts, and a black AC/DC shirt she'd had since high school. Her hair was up in a messy bun. She looked less than casual, and Santana tried not to cringe. "Are you trying to piss me off?"

Santana it was an accident, and it's just a white bottle, we could buy one from the dollar store.

Santana closed her eyes looking exasperated.

"Brittany Pierce, you did not just say that to me"

Lopez-Pierce. Brittany corrected. And I'm not scared of Snixx.

"You should be. I love you, but you know I can't be blamed for her actions. This was my favourite vase!"

Brittany laughed. Suddenly Santana threw a pillow at her, causing her to drop the phone.

"It's not funny woman" she said, actually sounding annoyed. Brittany was still laughing when her face came into view for a second. Then the video ended.

Santana was laughing hard.

"Well, there it is. What do you have to say now?" Ellen asked.

"I can't believe she was taking a video. I was really mad."

"We all saw. You threatened Snixx. And you said you never did that anymore. How do you explain that?"

"She broke my favourite vase. And then she was laughing. AND" Santana said loudly as Ellen and the audience laughed. "It was like the fourth one she'd broken in like two months"

"How does she keep breaking them?"

"I don't know. For a dancer she's really not all that…nimble. She'll jump over the couch and kick it, she'll be dancing around the room and knock it over. I don't know Ellen. But...I was only kidding. I said I joke about Snixx sometimes."

"You threw a pillow. That's an act of violence in my book" the crowd laughed.

"Ok well…alright…I guess once in a blue moon…if you break all my decorations, Snixx comes out."

Ellen laughed. "Well it's time to go on a break, we'll be back with Santana, 'Snixx' Lopez-Pierce after the break."

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After nearly a month of touring Europe, Santana could say with absolute certainty that she hates flying. She was so tired of airports, airport food, and most importantly, time changes. When they got off the plane, she barely spoke a word to anyone as security took them through the airport. She smiled for people's cameras, agreeing to take a few pictures despite feeling like a sweaty swamp monster and signed more autographs than she honestly had energy for. It was nearly forty minutes before her body's screams of protest finally forced her to give in. She apologised, genuinely, to all the fans who she hadn't been able to get to, and allowed herself to be led to the car waiting for her. Brittany was already in it, laying across the back seat with her eyes closed. Rather than disturb her, Santana got into the passenger seat.

She managed to sleep for the twenty minute ride from the airport to their hotel, but that was scarcely enough. Her eyes stung with sleep and her body felt sluggish. Usually she attempted to carry some of her luggage to the room, but today she let the concierge do it, tipping him handsomely.

She and Brittany collapsed on the bed, neither of them bothering to take off their shoes or dresses. They lay in silence for close to fifteen minutes before Brittany had the energy to roll over onto her back.

"Noo…don't move" Santana whined.

"I couldn't breathe"

"I can't breathe either. You don't see me moving."

"You're lazier than I am"

"If you start moving you're going to get your energy back and then you're going to want to shower and change, and you're going to force me to do it too."

Brittany didn't say anything, willing away the ache in her bones. Santana turned her head to face her.

"Britt"

"Santana we have to shower, we've been traveling for a whole day. We're sweaty and smell like airplane."

"I don't care. Let's just sleep like this, and then we'll shower tomorrow. We have the day off."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We can go see the sites of Rio de janeiro." She said dramatically.

"Ok"

Santana sighed and kicked off her shoes, climbing higher up the bed. Five minutes later, Brittany rolled off the bed, catching herself on her hands and knees and slowly standing up.

"No…what happened to my plan? My brilliant plan."

"Santana we smell horrible." Brittany said, pulling Santana off the bed by her feet. "We can't sleep like this, it's gross."

"I don't care. I don't care"

"I care" Brittany said, as Santana allowed herself to fall to the floor.

"Get up"

"Nooo"

"Stop being a baby and get up" Santana shook her head, closing her eyes. "I'll leave you there, and then you'll have to get up to get on the bed anyway."

"I'll sleep here. I don't c-" Brittany hoisted Santana up by her arm with one powerful tug, so that Santana was forced to lift her legs to support her weight and hold on to Brittany to keep from falling. "Briit" she squealed.

"Great! You're up. Let's go take a quick shower."

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

The next day, Brittany woke up before Santana, the excitement of being in Rio finally catching up to her. She watched Santana sleeping for a few minutes before giving in to her urges and waking her up. She placed her hand against Santana's cheek and leaned in so she was only an inch from her mouth.

"Santana" she whispered, rubbing her cheek softly with her thumb. "Babe wake up"

Santana groaned, but leaned closer to Brittany, brushing their lips together. She inhaled deeply, and let out a contented sigh, smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" Brittany asked her, amused.

"I love the way you smell in the mornings"

"Bet your happy we showered now?" Santana opened her eyes to playfully glare at Brittany.

"I'm still deciding if I forgive you for that." She said, closing her eyes again. Brittany laughed.

"Ok. Well can you decide while we walk the streets of Rio?"

"Why do we have to go so early in the morning?"

"First of all, how do you know it's early in the morning?" Santana scoffed.

"I can always tell when it's early in the morning. My body rejects it" Brittany shook her head and kissed Santana gently, feeling that her wife's cuteness may kill her one day.

"Sure baby. Second of all, you can't sleep away your day off. You don't get very many and this week is hectic. If we don't take advantage of today we might leave Rio without being able to see it."

Santana sighed and opened her eyes to see how serious Brittany was. "Okaaaay" she conceded, wondering if the day would ever come when she'd say no to Brittany.

Brittany squealed. "Ok, when we go down I'm going to ask reception where the best places to go visit are. And I don't mean just the boring tourist places, I mean the places that are really rich in Rio culture you know?" Santana nodded, watching as Brittany got off the bed and walked over to her suitcase, rummaging for something to wear. "We'll probably have to go with a body guard but honestly who cares. They might not even know us that well in the kinds of places I want to go, but then again they could. Better safe than sorry I guess. Oh! I wonder what kinds of awesome food they're gonna have for breakfast around here. I don't want to eat even a single meal in this hotel. One of the dancers, Kate, she was telling me about her stay in Brazil a few years ago and….."

Brittany continued to talk, mostly to herself Santana realised because she didn't pause to hear any reply, as they got dressed. Brittany was in a short white sun-dress, with sleeves that barely covered her shoulders. As she intended to really immerse herself, she had decided not to wear sandals, and was instead wearing white converse so she'd be comfortable. Santana was wearing army green paperbag shorts with a black crop top, tying a dark red jacket round her waist, knowing Brittany would get cold as soon as the sun set. By nine thirty they were both walking out of the hotel doors with directions from the receptionist to a place he swore Brittany would love.

Santana was pleased to find out that coffee was a huge part of breakfast in Brazil, something that the manager of the restaurant they had been sent to told them. Santana suspected that her and Brittany's arrival had been called in ahead of time, because they were being served by the manager who had been waiting for them outside, and nobody had been allowed in after them. She quickly forgot her annoyance at this however, as he brought them a tray with different kinds of Brazilian coffee, each tasting better than the last. Brittany was engrossed in the fruit offered, looking over all the different smoothies and having each translated to her.

"I think I'm going to have this, uh, açaí na tigela." Brittany said, pointing to an item on the menu. "He says this Açaí…fruit, is a berry, I think it's the one that gives the smoothie its colour. And then it has Banana and granola, which I love."

Santana was looking skeptical, but smiled and nodded anyway, not wanting to keep Brittany from experiencing anything. "Sounds good babe."

They spent an hour in the restaurant before deciding to continue their day's exploring. They walked all around the town, looking into shops and buying interestingly designed clothes or hand-made bracelets and hats. The coffee soon started to take its effects, and Santana was suddenly very eager to go even deeper into Rio, away from the beaches where she knew everything had been set up for maximum tourist attraction. Like Brittany, she wanted to experience the real Rio. Ignoring their two bodyguards who were trying to get them to stay on the side of town they were currently in, Brittany and Santana forged on, so that by four in the afternoon, they found themselves in front of a Favela. Santana frowned.

"Is this like…a slum area?" she asked one of the guards.

He nodded curtly, looking disgusted. Santana's frown deepened. She didn't know this man well, and truthfully found him too serious and 'professional' for her liking, but as he spoke Portuguese they had been forced to take him with them. She looked at the other guard, James, who she had been with since the tour began. He shrugged.

"Maybe we should leave Mrs Lopez-Pierce." He suggested, looking uneasily around.

"Why?" Brittany asked, walking ahead and clearly wanting to go further.

"It isn't safe" the other guard said, walking towards her.

"Why, because they're poor?" Santana said irritated. The guard clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything.

"There are better places you can see. I heard you can go hang-gliding and see the whole of Rio or something." James said.

"We can do that later" Brittany said, moving further.

James and the other guard looked at each other.

"You should not go in there" he said, his voice deep as though he was trying to intimidate them. Santana, who had been undecided on what to do, smirked at him. She walked up to Brittany and took her hand.

"Let's go B" she said. "If anything seems dangerous we'll leave" she said to James, not even looking at the other guard.

They walked slowly through the narrow roads between the hundreds of houses, stopping ever so often when Brittany noticed artwork on a wall, or Santana wanted to watch some kids playing, or families just sitting together. An hour and a half later, Brittany and Santana were finally ready to leave, having decided that they wanted to get more involved in programs that try and help places like these in Brazil. As they turned down an alley to start heading back, Brittany froze.

"Britt-"

"Did you hear that?" she asked, gripping Santana's hand and pulling her further down the alley, ignoring James and the other guard's yells.

"I can't-"

"Someone is crying"

Santana relaxed, smiling at Brittany. "Britt, I'm sure they're fine. Let's go before James and this other guy carry us out of here by force."

"No…S someone is like…sobbing…" Brittany was walking off the side where there was another very narrow walk-way.

"Brittany stop. If they are crying we should just leave them alone."

Brittany stopped for a moment and looked back at Santana, then turned the corner. The second she disappeared, she let out a shrill scream that chilled Santana's blood. She didn't know how but the second the scream left Brittany's mouth she was by her side, followed closely by both their guards. None of them had to ask what had made Brittany scream. On the floor in front of them lay a girl who looked no older than seventeen, bleeding profusely from a very pregnant stomach.

"Oh my god! Oh my God!" Brittany kept saying, apparently unable to move, or even take her eyes off the girl.

"We must get you out of here" the one guard said. Santana looked at him, not understanding. "The people who did this may come back to finish" Santana blinked at him, trying to make sense of what he had said. After a second she gave up and turned to James.

"Dame tu chaqueta" she said quickly, taking off the jacket around her own waist and giving it to Brittany.

"What?" James said, looking pale.

"Dame tu chaqueta!" she said again urgently, bending down over the body and covering what looked like multiple stab wounds with the jacket that Brittany had been unable to take.. James turned to Brittany imploringly, and Brittany, seemingly shaken from her trance at the sight of Santana's hands covered in blood, turned round and pulled on his jacket.

"Your jacket, she wants your jacket. Quickly!" James hastily removed his coat and gave it to her, getting the other guard to do so as well, though he was reluctant.

"It's not safe" he said, looking around.

"No shit" Santana said. "Call an ambulance"

"They won't come here. I would not even be able to tell them where we are."

Santana was quiet for a while, trying to think, but the way Brittany was looking at her with tear filled eyes, her whole body trembling, was making it hard.

"We'll have to take her ourselves then" she said. She could not think of any other option. They would not leave her here to die, and if help was not coming to her, they would take her to help.

"What?" James and the other guard, Ernest, Santana remembered his name was, said at the same time.

"We can't leave her here, you said an ambulance wouldn't come so…"

They were both shaking their heads.

"Fine," Brittany said standing up. "Santana and I will carry her"

"No" Ernest said sharply. He looked at James, pleading, but James sighed, and they both turned back to Brittany and Santana with grim expressions. "We will do it."