Somewhere Only We Know (1/14).
Rachel Berry was beginning to get frustrated with her girlfriend. She and Santana had been discussing plans for their two month anniversary and they were just getting to the good part when Santana had stopped replying. Rachel typed out her text with a smirk, “Did I kill you with the thought of letting you get to second base?”
Rachel was perfectly content just maintaining their relationship as it was - some kissing and the occasional over-the clothes groping. After all, they had just started dating after years of being best friends, and they were still freshmen in high school. While Santana was sexually curious and wanted to start doing more, the brunette diva was still afraid. After all, they hadn’t even come out at school yet, they went on dates in quiet, out of the way places. Which, since Rachel was a newly converted vegan, wasn’t all that difficult, since the vegan restaurants in town weren’t all that well-frequented.
After waiting a whole five minutes for Santana’s reply, Rachel sighed and furrowed her brows together. “Santana Ines Lopez, if you do not reply to my text message this instant I promise you that even kissing will be off the table. You do not ignore someone when they are asking you whether you would prefer white candles because they match better with the sheets or red candles because they match better with the rose petals!”
When ten minutes passed and she still had no reply, Rachel sighed and set down her phone, hopping in the shower quickly. She smelled of pool chlorine still from their dip in her pool earlier on in the day, before Santana’s older sister came to pick her up and take her back home. Chlorine was the most awful smell and if she didn’t wash it off, it was going to start seeping onto her bed sheets and how was she supposed to sleep if her sheets smelled of chlorine? She went through the motions, singing her usual songs (Don’t Rain on my Parade for her hair and either Taking Chances or What a Girl Wants while she was soaping herself up and shaving. It was just how she rolled.)
Humming a random tune as she came back into her room about twenty minutes later, Rachel picked up her hairbrush and combed through her hair, wincing as she encountered a knot. Letting her eyes fall to a picture of herself and Santana taken the week before, Rachel smiled to herself. She hadn’t said the words out loud yet, but she was pretty sure that she loved Santana Lopez. She had always loved Santana. Ever since the first grade, the Latina had been the most important person in her life. Rachel was eating some animal crackers, and Dave Karofsky had stolen them and stepped on them, just to be mean. Santana had apparently seen and went up to Karofsky and punched him in the face. Since that day, the girls had been inseparable, and their friendship had now reached a new level. No one would ever compare to Santana Lopez in her eyes.
Though she might have only been fourteen years old, she was still certain of the fact that she would never love someone the way that she loved the other girl. She knew Santana better than she knew herself, and they had their lives worked out, right down to the apartment they would have together in New York. A quaint studio in the Soho district. Santana was going to do the decorating, and she had decided that she wanted an open-plan apartment where they could put one of those beds that had no box spring and have it be next to their simple white couch that contrasted their dark mahogany cabinets perfectly. In the mornings, they would sit in bed drinking their coffee and talking about the paper, wrapped up in nothing but each other. They had their lives all planned out and in her heart, Rachel knew that it would happen. It was somewhat of a fantasy of hers to be standing in a long white button-down shirt, looking out at the New York cityscape with a mug of coffee in the early morning and have Santana wrap her arm around her waist, push her hair aside with her free hand and kiss her neck. She was sure that when that happened, that would be the kind of things that dreams were made of.
It was strange, how even the simplest of pictures of them could evoke all those thoughts in her. When she looked into Santana’s gorgeous and mysterious eyes, she saw all the things she was sure a person was supposed to see when they looked into the eyes of the person that they were going to spend forever with; companionship, kindness, compassion, love, and most importantly, safety. When Rachel was around Santana, she felt safe. She felt protected. Yes, she definitely loved Santana Lopez, and she was going to tell her during their two month anniversary celebrations. Sighing happily, Rachel tied up her hair into a neat bun, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She would have all of that soon. Not soon enough, but soon.
It was then that the noise of a familiar ringtone flooded her room. Smiling to herself, Rachel got up from her vanity and picked up her phone on her nightstand. Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know wasn’t a song that Rachel would usually listen to, but Santana insisted that it was her favorite song, and so Rachel had paid the two dollars to get the animated ringtone so Santana’s favorite song would be her ringtone. “Called to apologize, have we?” Rachel giggled, crossing her legs as she sat down her bed. “I forgive you, however, in the future, ignoring me in such a hein-“
“Rachel?” the voice on the phone was sniffly and it definitely didn’t belong to Santana, but Rachel still knew whose voice it was.
“Mrs. Lopez?” the brunette inquired. Had Santana gotten in trouble and gotten her phone confiscated? Oh Lord, what if she had read the text messages?
“Rachel, you need to come to the hospital.”
“W-what?” Rachel asked, her eyes widening as she felt her heart stop.
“It’s Santana. She got into an accident on the way home. She’s in bad shape. I thought you would like to know,” Mrs. Lopez replied, her voice cracking.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Is she - is she dying?” Rachel asked, her voice quivering as her eyes welled up with tears.
“I don’t know, Rachel,” came the shaky reply on the phone.
“I’m coming. You tell her she can’t die yet. You tell her that if she’s going to go, she doesn’t get to go until I say goodbye,” Rachel yelled, before tossing her phone aside in a frenzy, bolting down the stairs.
“Dad! Daddy! Get in the car,” Rachel wailed, making a break for the door as her father came out of his study.
“Rachel, honey, what’s going on? Why are you going out the door in your bathrobe? Why are you crying?” he inquired, confused.
“It’s Santana. She - she was in an accident. They don’t know if she’s going to make it,” Rachel sobbed.
“I’m getting my keys,” her father replied, hurrying back into his study and emerging a second later with his briefcase and his keys. “Let’s go,” he nodded, leading the way out to the car.
The drive was a blur for Rachel. Santana couldn’t die. She didn’t understand. She had just been talking to her. She had just seen her. She’d just been swimming in her pool, laughing with her. Now she might be dying. Now she might be dead. Every second that passed seemed like a lifetime, even if they lived only ten minutes from the hospital. Luckily, her father didn’t seem to understand the concept of speed limits, so they made it their quickly.
Her father barely had a chance to stop the car at the entrance to the emergency room before she was opening her door and dashing into the hospital like a madwoman. “Santana!” she yelled, not caring that she was making a scene. She just needed to find Santana and make sure that she wasn’t too late.
“Rachel!” Mrs. Lopez’s voice rang out from behind her. Rachel ran to the woman, who wrapped her arms tightly around her. “She’s gone into surgery. She has some internal bleeding that the doctors are trying to stop.”
“But they can stop it, right? She’s gonna be okay?” Rachel inquired, looking up at Mrs. Lopez, desperate for some good news.
“We don’t know, Rachel. We don’t know,” Mrs. Lopez sobbed, pulling her against her chest. Her father arrived a few seconds later from parking the car and he joined in. They were all intertwined. They were all family. When something happened to one of them, it happened to all of them. They were all in this together, no matter what. They all just really needed Santana to wake up. That was all that mattered - that she would eventually wake up.