Chapter 6

As Brittany lay in bed that nights, she couldn't help but feel like there was something she had forgotten to do. She kept getting out of bed to check that all the lights were off, that the door was locked and that no taps were left running. She checked her mental list of things to do, but there was nothing. With Elaine's help she had unpacked all the boxes besides the ones for their bedroom, which she and Santana had decided to tackle tomorrow when Santana got back from work. Tomorrow was Thursday, which for some reason meant that Santana only had to work for three hours. She could decide to do three one hour intervals scattered throughout the day, or she could decide to do it as a solid three hour block, starting at any time before 5 PM. Santana had chosen to go in to work at 8 AM and just get it over with, that way she could be back home and in bed before Brittany even woke up.

Brittany turned to her sleeping girl, watching her as she snored lightly. Elaine was really weird, but she had been right about Santana having a beautiful name, and being gorgeous, and about her musical talent too. Brittany could listen to Santana's voice…

Brittany screamed suddenly making Santana jump up and out of bed, pulling Brittany with her. Looking around wildly Santana spoke in a hushed shaky voice

"What is it Britt? What happened? Where are they?"

Brittany took a moment to enjoy the fact that Santana's first instinct had been to pull Brittany with her out of bed, and that even now she stood shielding Brittany from the door to their room. It was when she noticed that the hand clutched onto hers was shaking violently that she was flooded with guilt. She bent down and wrapped her arms around Santana's waist, burying her head in her neck before whispering

"I'm sorry baby nothing. Nothing happened relax."

Santana instantly turned around and slapped Brittany in the shoulder.

"BRITT! You gave me a heart attack over nothing? What the hell did you scream for then?"

"I'm sorry I swear I didn't do it on purpose. I just remembered that I didn't ask you how it went in the studio"

Santana slumped back on the bed and buried her head in the pillow. Brittany felt even worse now. She had woken Santana up only to remind her of a bad day. She was so busy thinking of ways to apologise without it sounding like pity that she almost missed it when Santana said

"They offered me a recording contract"

Another scream, louder than the first, cut through the silent air. This time Santana didn't jump. She just covered her ears with Brittany's pillow, and when it was quiet again, threw that pillow hard at Brittany's head. Brittany caught the pillow in one hand and launched herself on top of Santana.

"BABE WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS??"

Santana lifted her head from the pillow and craned her neck round to look at the woman on top of her. Then she smiled a huge toothy smile and shouted,

"I'M SERIOUS" as she struggled to turn herself around under Brittany's weight. Once she had, she narrowed her eyes at Brittany, who seemed about to explode with excitement, while simultaneously unable to process the information she was being given.

"Santana what are you…are you saying that …I mean what does this…" she trailed off and begun bouncing up and down on Santana, then suddenly jumped up and stood up straight on the bed, fixing Santana with a stern look.

"Santana you better tell me what you mean right this second"

Santana laughed, stood up, and placed her hands on Brittany's shoulder.

"Britt, I mean that I was signed today. They want me to record an alb-" before she could finish, Brittany had picked her up and thrown her over her shoulder as she jumped up and down on the bed screaming "oh my god oh my god" over and over again.

"BRITT PUT ME DOWN WE'RE GONNA FALL" Santana yelled, though she was laughing hard and wasn't putting up much of a fight. After a second though, as if triggered by Santana's words, Brittany's foot caught in their duvet and Brittany lost her balance. She dropped Santana quickly on the bed before toppling to the floor with a loud thud.

Santana scrambled off the bed quickly and bent down beside Brittany who was shaking.

"Britt baby are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She turned Brittany around slowly, only to find she was laughing hysterically.

"Britt seriously, how many times do you want to stop my heart today?"

"Santana seriously! You're going to be a star! I knew you were awesome baby" Brittany pulled Santana onto her and begun placing wet kisses all over her face, sending Santana into a fit of giggles.

When they had both caught their breath and were no longer laughing, Brittany spoke in a hushed voice.

"Santana"

"Yeah?" Santana replied, in the same whisper.

"You got a recording contract."

"Yeah. I got a recording contract"

Brittany leaned forward and kissed Santana, putting all of the emotion she was feeling into it.

"I'm so, so proud of you baby you have no idea. I always knew you were something special, and now everyone in the world is gonna know it too."

Santana smiled as she felt her cheeks burn up. She wasn't sure about the whole world, but the fact that she had Brittany, who believed in her more than anyone ever had in her entire life, made her think that, just maybe, everything would work out.

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Over the next week, Brittany and Santana were so busy, that the only time they saw each other was in the morning for less than ten minutes and in the evening for an hour if they both fought sleep. Brittany was having to wake up at six in the morning so that she could be at work by 7:30 AM to finish her pre-rehearsal warm up routine before everyone else came in. They would then run through choreography for four hours, take lunch for thirty minutes, have a three hour dance class in whatever style they chose, break for another thirty minutes, and then run through another four hours of a second routine. On good days, Brittany would get home at eight. On long days, it would be close to ten.

As bad as her own schedule was though, Brittany preferred it to Santana's. Santana would be up at 5:30 AM to be at the studio by 6:30 AM. She would have an hour and a half vocal training and warm up, then be in the studio for three hours. After that she had chosen to sit in with the people writing her songs. Though Santana could write her own music, the label wanted her to debut with their own writers and then depending on how it did, she could write the songs in subsequent albums. These meetings could take between three and four hours, sometimes longer, so they would often eat lunch while they worked. Once that was done, Santana would have a thirty minute break, which was only because that's how long it took her to get to the dance studio the label used, where she would have dance class for two hours. By 6 PM, Santana would be back at her office at the label, where she would work until Brittany texted that she was headed home. After that she'd be home within the hour.

By the Thursday of their first week with this schedule, Brittany was wearing thin. She missed spending time with her girlfriend, she missed going to watch the water jets thingy, and most of all, she missed not having an aching body. She had thought that she pushed her dancers hard in her old dance studio, but after working with her new choreographer Syth, for four days, she knew she had been wrong. Syth was a tall, muscular man with long brown hair that he always tied in a loose bun. He had a few tattoos along his arms and at the base of his back, and a few piercings in his ears, though he never wore any earrings. When Brittany had first seen him, she had thought that he didn't look anything like a dancer, and when she had found out that he was her new boss, she had decided to never get on his bad side. Syth was a tough man, but not unfair. He never really talked directly to Brittany, though Brittany soon realised this was a good thing, as the only time Syth talked was when he was correcting someone's movements. He never seemed to get tired, and it would always take people constantly making mistakes due to exhaustion for him to realise it was time for lunch. This is what was happening at the moment.

Brittany saw it before Syth did and could not suppress the groan that escaped her as she realised they would be stopping again.

"STOP" Syth roared. Brittany couldn't blame him. She was beginning to think that these people were messing up on purpose, and that irritated her thoroughly.

"What the hell is happening in that third row? Are you guys even listening to the music?"

His tone was laced with venom, and even though Brittany wasn't in that row, she felt a sudden urge to flee.

The man directly in front of Brittany, who had been fine, suddenly began to breathe heavily and clutch at his sides.

"Sorry Syth. We've just been at it for a long time you know? Maybe if we could break just for a bit"

Brittany rolled her eyes. This guy wasn't even a good actor. Any idiot could see what he was doing, and Syth was definitely no idiot. Brittany suddenly realised that everyone besides her and a boy in the left corner were doing some variation of panting and holding their stomachs. What worried her though, was that Syth was looking directly at her. She prayed he wouldn't call her out.

"Oh you're tired" Syth said in mock concern. "Have I worked you too hard? I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"

Brittany wasn't sure what was wrong with the people in this room, but they actually all started to respond. Maybe it was because she had trained under Sue, and watched Santana and Quinn as head cheerleaders, but she couldn't help but thinking that replying to an obviously rhetorical question when the man asking it was clearly extremely annoyed was a death wish. Her thoughts were confirmed almost as soon as the first word left the first person's lips.

"No prob-"

"SHUT UP! Are you all really that daft?? You want to take a break, fine. Get out. In fact go home, the rest of the day is cancelled. I'll tell you when you can return from your 'break'."

Everyone stood completely still. Nobody was panting anymore.

"Are you too tired to listen to me too now? Get. Out."

Brittany decided they had pushed Syth's buttons for long enough today, so she began to move towards her bag when a hand stopped her.

"Not you" Syth said. Then he turned towards the boy in the corner and yelled "kid, not you either. Everyone else better be gone in the next three minutes or they're fired."

There was a scramble to get to the door that would have made Brittany laugh any other day, but she was currently scared for her own career. When the room was empty, Syth walked over to the stereo and hit play. Turning back to the other two in the room he asked,

"Are you guys tired too?"

They both shook their heads.

"Alright well, we'll finish off the hour and then you can have an hour lunch."

When they had finished, Brittany was sweating heavily, but she felt great. She hadn't realised how little they got done with people constantly making mistakes to try and get Syth to call lunch. In the hour after he had kicked everyone out, they had run through the entire morning's choreography till they had it down pat, and had begun on the second one.

"That's what I'm talking about!" the kid exclaimed, before turning quickly to Syth, "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No kid you're right. That was the most productive we've been all week, not to mention that you two are probably the best two dancers I've taught since I joined this damn place."

Brittany was stunned. Syth was like a completely different person. He was smiling, and his entire demeanour seemed less imposing. Maybe this is what happens when he actually sees results.

"How long have you been here?" Brittany asked.

"Almost nine months now" Syth replied. "I've been dealing with these lazy dancers who think that because they went to Juilliard or some other haughty school they should be treated like they're something special. There were a bunch of client's that threatened to stop using the studio because of the dancers' attitudes, so they fired the previous director and asked me to come whip them into shape, but honestly I don't see the point. They're not good enough for the amount of energy it's taking me."

Brittany didn't know what to say to this. She agreed whole heartedly that the dancers had horrible attitudes. Just yesterday a group of the girls had tried to get under Brittany's skin by talking about her loudly enough for her to hear, while the boys tried to demean her by whistling and winking at her whenever they could. The whole situation had made Brittany so thankful for her high school experience because she was so used to mean girls and disgusting boys that their antics didn't even phase her at all. They did however create a tense atmosphere in the studio where no one really trusted anyone, and dancers were constantly trying to get each other to fail or look bad. It had been four days and Brittany was seriously beginning to fear for her safety. So instead of saying anything, Brittany just nodded.

"What's your name?" Syth asked her.

"Brittany S. Pierce"

"And yours?" Syth turned to the kid.

"Chad"

"Well, nice to meet you Brittany and Chad. I'm going to need your help."

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"No way!" Santana asked as she rolled onto her side, her whole body shaking with the force of her laughter.

"Way" Brittany said, with a huge smile on her face.

"He made them all audition for you and a kid?!" Santana asked, thoroughly amused.

"Yeah. And he wasn't even there. He said it was entirely up to us who stayed and who was fired, that he'd just come back tomorrow morning and teach whoever he found."

"Oh my god that's hilarious. So how did you choose?"

"I got them to do the dance we were trying to learn yesterday when they all pissed him off. So anyone who couldn't do it from beginning to end without a mistake was immediately cut, then we asked them to do it again and the ones who were too out of breath or tired to do it were cut too."

"Damn B. You're an undercover Sue."

Brittany gasped, placing her hand over her chest in mock offense. "Take that back Santana Marie. Take that back right now!"

"Won't change the facts hon"

"I'm not a Sue, I just need to be able to trust that my dancers have the stamina to handle whatever a client throws at us. If you're out of shape and wheezing through the routine, what good is it if you can do a perfect pirouette?"

"True. You're so sexy when you're being hard core baby" Santana said, as she sat back up off Brittany's lap and kissed her. "So how many were you left with after your tyranny?"

"Five"

"What?" Santana burst out laughing again. "B you're telling me that out of almost forty dancers, only five were up to your standards?"

"Yeah" Brittany replied sheepishly. "I was fare though. It's a routine they should have known like the back of their hands honestly, and it's not even that hard, even you could do it without getting too tired"

"Yeah well, I've been having to keep up with you since we met, so that may not mean much really"

Brittany laughed at this.

"So now your studio only has seven dancers sans the director? Isn't that really few?"

"Not really. That's about the number that get signed to each client. Usually it's better to have more in case a dancer gets hurt, or if there are multiple jobs at a time. So the seven of us are just going to have to work a lot until they hire new people."

Santana leaned away from Brittany then, and was quiet for a while. After a very pregnant silence that was pressing in on Brittany's ears, Santana asked, "You're going to have to work more?"

Realisation hit her hard, and Brittany felt that she could have kicked herself in that moment. Today was the first day in five days that the two of them had been able to sit and enjoy each other's company. They weren't exhausted or in a bad mood because of a long day, and Brittany had just blurted out that they were going to see each other even less. As if it was nothing.

"Santana look at me" she begged, as Santana stared straight ahead at the TV. When she had complied Brittany looked between her eyes for a few seconds before speaking.

"It's only going to be for a few weeks while the studio hires some new dancers. I hate our crazy schedules so much baby but we'll find a way to make time for each other. We always do right?"

Santana sighed and looked down.

"Yeah, but I just wish that it wasn't so hard for us to see each other you know? We saw each other all the time in New York Britt."

"Yeah." Brittany didn't have anything else to say but that. It was true. They had lunch together every day, they drove to and from work together, and they were always both home by at least 8, giving them a couple of hours to hang out. Now though, they went to work and returned home at different times and they didn't eat lunch at set times, so they couldn't even set that aside as 'them' time. It was a sad fact that it was impossibly hard for them to find time to be just 'Brittany and Santana'.

They sat in silence for a while after that, just taking each other in. Brittany listened to Santana's steady breathing while combing her fingers through her hair. Santana, who had laid back down on Brittany's lap, enjoyed the warmth Brittany was radiating and the gentle scratching of the nails on her scalp.

"What if I wake up with you and we go to the coffee shop for breakfast together every day? Then I'll drop you at work and take the car with me."

"The breakfast sounds great B but I need the car to get to the dance studio"

"I know. That means I'll have to come drop it back and I can see you for a few minutes before we both go back to work."

Santana was quiet again, and Brittany was beginning to think that she hated the idea, but then she sat up and kissed Brittany softly and smiled.

"I love you so much, you know that? You're a genius BSP"

Brittany blushed slightly. "I love you too Santana"

Santana kissed her again, this time with more passion. As Brittany opened her mouth to allow Santana's tongue entrance, and she felt Santana's hands raise her shirt she knew one thing. Whatever happened, they would be okay.