Fic: The World is a Stage - Part 15/?
Title: The World is a Stage 15/?
Author: agentb81
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Brittany/Santana, Brittany/OC
Rating: 15 - R
Word Count: 2200
Disclaimer: Glee is copyrighted and belongs to Ryan Murphy and Fox. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Use of other personalities is not a reflection of their real lives and is completely fictional.
Summary: Sort of AU/Future fic, the lives of Santana and Brittany in their early twenties.
Spoilers: References to Season 1.
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13 / Part 14
Two startled yet disgruntled faces watched as the Latina strolled away, her hips swaying in triumph. Rachel whipped out her cell phone quickly and began the inevitable twitter search.
“She’s gonna tell Brit.” Bryan said in a panic.
“It doesn’t matter if she does tell her Bryan, Brittany is going to find out regardless.” Rachel said, turning the display of her phone toward Bryan, the picture of the two of them kissing prevalent across the world wide web. “You need to make a choice, I can’t keep doing this. You either fight for your marriage or you leave Brittany and choose me.” Rachel demanded. Her lover sighed deeply, the lines on his brow evident of his thoughts and tribulations. “Do you? Love her?” The musical star asked, it was a question she had posed several times before but never felt she received a truthful answer.
Bryan remained silent for a short while before speaking, “I love her. I don’t think I’m in love with her anymore.” He answered, Rachel could see this was Bryan stripped back, he had been exposed now, there was no point in hiding for much longer. “See, when I met Brit on tour, we clicked right away. I could see she was hurting from a previous relationship, she said as much, but never really talked about it. So I helped her forget, we had fun and I became besotted with her and I proposed one drunken evening.” He said, smiling at the memory. Rachel was quite content listening to Bryan’s story. “I had planned a long engagement so we could get to know each other better, but her parents coerced us into a quick wedding, I never really understood why. I guess I just figured they were happy her little girl was happy. It was a small, intimate wedding in Lima.” Bryan paused and looked to the petite brunette who nodded in encouragement for him to continue. “We only invited our families, Brittany didn’t want anything too elaborate, she was even unsure of having the wedding in Lima, but again, her parents insisted and Brittany being Brittany, bowed down to them. She does anything for them.” He explained. Rachel knew this to be true, despite how the blonde had behaved or acted at school, she was the picture of innocence and obedience at home.
Bryan bypassed the remains of his spring water and picked up Rachel’s bottle of beer and poured it into his glass, he adjusted his position on the couch and took a sip. He had learnt his lesson from the last time he drank alcohol, yet here he was on a sofa, smooching with Rachel Berry and now he was out of excuses, one drink would not make any difference.
“You can’t keep sleeping with me then going home to Brittany, it’s not fair on either of us. You told me you loved me and now you’re telling me you don’t even love her, so how hard can it be?” Rachel posed the question.
“It’s not easy walking away from a two year marriage Rachel.” He stated, “Especially when it’s Brittany, and when she still loves me.”
“Are you sure about that? Brittany’s not as innocent as she has you to believe.” Rachel said with a snarky smile.
“What do you mean?” Bryan asked with a frown.
“There’s something about Brittany that you clearly don’t know about.” Rachel offered.
“What?” Bryan asked perplexed.
“You know the previous relationship that made her hurt so much?”
“Yeah.”
“It broke her Bryan. It completely tore her apart, she took off and I guess it’s some time after that she met you. I’m not saying she doesn’t love you Bryan, but I’m fairly certain you were an easy distraction for her. I mean that in the nicest possible way.” The brunette offered with a pat on her companion’s knee.
“What happened?” Bryan asked, frustrated that Rachel would not get to the point.
“It all started in High School. Brittany was quite the slut,” Bryan opened his mouth to protest but was quickly silenced by Rachel’s voice, “she was a cheerleader. She and Santana had a reputation to uphold and their sole motive was to rule the school. And Quinn, she was a Cheerio too and look what happened to her!” Rachel giggled unnervingly. “But there was one person who was Brittany’s other half, who Brittany would always go home to, one person who Brittany was so in love with.” Rachel continued as if reading from a story book. “They had been friends for years and it kind of started off as friends with benefits, but it became so much more and they were inseparable. They belonged together, anyone could see that. When it came to choosing College, Brittany decided it was time she needed to become independent, that she had to prove she could live her own life and it broke them both. It didn’t make sense then, and it still doesn’t make sense now because when you look at them, they still belong together.”
“Still? Why does it need to make sense now? ” Bryan asked. “Who was he? Is he around now? Is it Mike Chang?” he fired in quick succession.
“No, not Mike, not he.” Rachel smirked. “She.”
++
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Quinn asked as she shovelled a fork full of salad leaves into her mouth. Santana shrugged she popped a French fry into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
“He’s an asshole. are so fucking behind Brittany’s back, he was all over her, it was disgusting” Santana said pulling a face. She took a sip of her cola before continuing. “I took a photo.” She smirked. “Brit’s going to find out and I’m pretty sure that will be the end of their marriage.” Quinn nodded in understanding.
“That explains why you’re so chirpy. It doesn’t explain why you were so happy earlier though. You’re a lot of things Santana, but psychic is not one of them, you couldn’t have foreseen this. Something else is going on.” She smiled. Santana shrugged once again.
“I have nothing to say.” She took a big bite from the burger in her hands.
“I can’t understand how you can eat all that junk and still look that good.” She said, moving a lettuce leaf on her plate with her fork.
“It’s a gift.” Santana laughed. She glanced sideways, the smile fell from her face as a bulky figure came storming toward her. “Oh shit.” She whispered, she picked up the napkin from her lap and placed in on the table and stood tentatively, the figure coming closer and at speed. The Latina put out her hands in attempt to ward off the intruder. She looked fleetingly at Quinn who wore a look of surprise on her face. Before she could look back she felt a sharp pain in the side of her head as a fist connected with her temple, she flew backwards, landing on the floor with a thud, every ounce of her being ached from the impact of connecting with the ground. Her head pounded, she felt dizzy and light headed, and felt a warm thick liquid oozing down the side of her face. The sun and blue sky disappeared from above as a shadow loomed over her. She could see it was Bryan, she knew he was shouting at her, but the words just would not penetrate her brain, her hearing was muffled. The brunette knew there was a huge kafuffle but all she could focus on was the ringing in her ears and sheer pain she was experiencing. The Latina tried to focus, she was beginning to hear voices again, broken parts of conversation.
“Are you . . . police . . .”
“ . . . she . . . Brittany . . . my wife . . .”
“Nothing’s happened . . . married . . . Santana . . . respects . . .”
The broken conversation she could hear was between Quinn and Bryan, she was aware of that much. Santana closed her eyes, wondering why no one had tended to her, she was quite clearly hurt, it was one of those moments Santana felt all the attention should be on her, only this time she was actually concerned for her own health, it was not a vein or self righteous moment that would usually have her begging for attention. She felt a hand on her forehead and flickered her eyelids open, ‘Berry?’ she thought, ‘what the hell?’
“Ohmygod you’re bleeding. I’m so sorry Santana this is all my fault.” She heard, she could only imagine the look on her own face, it must have been a mix of horror and intrigue. The Latina reached her hand up to the wound on her face and winced as her fingers slid over the open cut and bruised area. She pulled her hand away and frowned with concern when she saw the dark red liquid on her fingers. “Do you need an ambulance?” Rachel asked. “I’m going to call an ambulance.” She stated without waiting for an answer. Santana rolled over onto her side, she felt a sudden urge to just sleep.
“Brittany.” She breathed, “I want Brittany.” She scrambled onto her knees and clung to the chair beside her, urging her muscles to work. Her head throbbed, Bryan sure packed a punched, wondering if his hands were bigger than her head, Santana mused. She winced as she got to her feet. Quinn rushed to her side as the Latina began to sway.
“Sit down.” The blonde ordered. Santana glared at her friend and had no choice as her legs began to give way. She slumped into the chair and gathered herself. A few deep breaths later, she found herself on her feet again. The brunette clenched her jaw and squared up to her attacker who was a good six inches taller than her.
“Why?” Santana asked. She stood firm with her hands on her hips. She didn’t wait for an answer, instead carried on, “Why would you do that to the sweetest, most caring girl on the planet? What is the matter with you?” She asked prodding him in the chest with his finger. “I don’t like you Bryan. But you’ve hurt Brittany.”
“Have I?” he asked in return. “Because I know about you, you’re disgusting. You’re a bad influence on Brittany. She’s not like you Santana, she married me and she’s my wife.”
“You’ve cheated on her ass hole. She deserves better than you.”
“What, like you?” Bryan snorted.
“I’ve never hurt her and never will.” Santana said.
“You won’t ever get a chance to, she’s staying with me.” Bryan retorted.
“Excuse me? You just told me you were leaving Brittany.” Rachel interrupted. Santana glared at the other girl before quickly realising what she had said.
“Not now Rachel.” Bryan said through gritted teeth, he leaned in closer to Santana, the girl not wavering despite Bryan’s close proximity. “Brittany is my wife. Period.” Santana sighed and rolled her eyes. “You are nothing Santana. You can’t bear to see Brittany happy. You had your chance, now leave my wife alone.” He as good as yelled. As Santana mentally prepared herself to attack once again, a cell phone rang. All heads shot to the source of the ringing, it was coming from Santana’s pocket, she frowned, tempted to ignore it. She pulled it from her pocket and looked perplexingly at the screen. Looking up to Quinn, she shrugged.
“It’s Mike.” She said. Hitting the answer button she put the phone to her ear. Rachel seized the opportunity and marched toward Bryan, her face set, serious and angry. She thumped him in the chest.
“You’re a bully and a coward Bryan. You can’t stand the thought that Brittany may have a happier life with Santana. You don’t love Brittany, you love me. You told me.” She hissed. She looked up at Bryan, he was barely paying attention to her, his eyes trained on the pacing Latina, one hand holding the phone at her ear, the other on her forehead. Quinn was looking at her nervously, the look on Santana’s face was pained and concentrated. She hit the call end button and dropped her arms to her sides, she looked forlornly at Quinn, a questioning look upon her features. Nervously, Santana looked at Bryan.
“It’s Brittany, she’s collapsed, she’s on her way to Cedars-Sinai.” Santana explained calmly.
“What? How? What happened?” Bryan asked in quick succession.
“I don’t know, Mike said she’d been dancing when she complained of stomach cramps, then she sat down for a bit with some of the dancers and when she got up again she just collapsed. She’s still unconscious.” The Latina replied her voice wavering, she was terribly worried about the woman she loved, coupled with the pounding headache and split brow, she was holding up remarkably well considering. She turned to Quinn who had thrown some cash onto the table, grabbed their belongings and was ready for Santana to say the word. The brunette nodded and they were on their way, not sparing a second thought for Brittany’s husband and his mistress who were left staring confusingly at one another.