Home Is Where the Heart Is (Brittana)

Chapter 25

Brittany's POV

Santana and I received a call a few days after my birthday from Finn, saying that Rachel had had their baby boy. We were invited to come visit them in New York the next week, which was where they actually lived, despite spending so much time in Lima. We'd never seen their place in New York, nor had we been to New York together since getting back together, so we decided to take our daughter on a bit of a vacation.

Packing for vacation with a toddler was even harder than I'd expected, but we were packed and ready to leave on time. Santana was racing through the house, obviously anxious, making sure we hadn't forgotten anything until the minute before we got in the car.

"Are you ready to go to New York?" I asked our daughter, dressing her in comfortable pyjamas so that she could nap in the car if she wanted to.

"New York!" she exclaimed, although she didn't really know what she was talking about, she loved to repeat the things that Santana and I said.

"That's right! We're going to New York. You'll get to spend time with Rachel and Finn and Grace again. And we get to meet their new baby."

"Baby!" she squealed, grabbing her baby doll from its little wooden cradle.

I smiled. I couldn't wait until the day she would become a big sister, but I knew we wanted to spend more time with just Everly first. Plus, having a baby as two women was more expensive than we could afford at that time, especially having moved into a house so recently.

I picked Ever up, still holding her doll, and carried her out to the car where she helped with the buckles on her rear-facing car seat (we were planning on making the switch to a forward-facing seat soon). Helping Santana double-check (more like quadruple check) that we had all our bags packed, we locked the front door of our house, got in the car, and started driving to New York.

Considering that the drive to New York from Columbus was nine hours, we had thought about going on an airplane, but, in the end, we decided to turn it in to a road trip.

Santana was the one driving like (almost) always, as we made our way to our hotel for the night. We didn't want to drive the entire nine hours in one day (especially since Everly had a lot of energy), so we planned to drive for four hours then stop at a hotel.

Not long into the drive, I plugged my phone in and started playing the playlist of songs on my phone that reminded me of high school, mostly Santana, and the glee club. Almost every song made Santana groan, but I could tell she was exaggerating; she did like a lot of those songs.

"Mama! Mami!" Everly squealed from her car seat, awake from her nap.

"Hi, Ever!" I replied, looking at her using the mirror we had above her car seat, since it was rear facing. "Do you need a diaper change?"

Knowing she probably would, I climbed over the center console into the back seat while we were driving, which was a bit of a struggle, but I'd had to do it a number of times before then.

I changed her diaper on the changing pad in the back seat after Santana completely pulled over, quickly buckling her back in, despite her squirming so we could start driving again. I decided to stay in the back seat for a while, since Everly usually wanted to spend time with people after her naps.

"Mama, hungry," Everly said once her doll and stuffed dolphin were back in her arms.

"Okay," I replied, "I have some snacks in here."

I took a container of cut up fruit out of the snack bag, opened it, and held it out for Everly to take from, since she would surely spill it if I just gave her the container.

When we made it to our hotel in the afternoon, Everly just about jumped out of her car seat, running back and forth between Santana and me as we got our bags out of the trunk. Once we got our things into our hotel room, Everly wouldn't stop running around, so we put on her colorful swimsuit, quickly changed into our own swimsuits, and made our way to the pool.

We watched Everly splash in the kiddie pool from a set of chairs for almost an hour before deciding to get some food for dinner. Thankfully, she fell asleep quickly after her evening bath, so Santana and I could relax for the rest of the evening.

---

The next morning, after eating breakfast, we were back on the road. We drove for the remaining five hours, only stopping for lunch and one extra bathroom break.

When we made it to the Hudson's house, we were immediately welcomed inside by Finn and Grace. Grace grabbed Everly's hand, and the two girls ran off to play dolls.

Santana and I followed Finn into the living room where Rachel was holding their baby boy, who was definitely bigger than most newborn babies I'd ever seen.

"Meet Oliver," Finn said.

Rachel smiled and asked, "Which one of you would like to hold him first?"

---

The rest of our time with Finn and Rachel in New York was mostly spent in their house with Oliver. Even Everly came and showed interest in him ("a real life baby doll!"). But soon, she went back to playing with Grace.

After a few days of vacation, we drove back to Ohio to resume normal life. Seeing Oliver made me want another baby more than I had before, but I knew we were waiting until Everly was a little older.

---

For Santana's birthday, Everly and I made her breakfast in bed, and the four of us went on a short hike, since we didn't have much time left before the weather would start to get colder with the start of fall.

Back at home, Everly fell asleep quickly.

"I think I want to start the process of having another baby soon," Santana said once we were in our bedroom, surprising me.

"Really? I thought we wanted to wait until Everly was older," I replied.

"Yeah, but starting the process can take a long time, and then we don't know how long it will take for me to actually get pregnant. Anyway, I was thinking we could figure out where we want to go, and then start the process next year. Everly will be two years old, so, unless you think we should wait longer..."

"No," I said. "Honestly, I was thinking the same thing. We can start in the new year."

"Okay. Thanks for a great 27th birthday."

"We didn't do anything special."

"I got to spend it with you and Everly, so it was a perfect birthday."

"I love you." I grinned at Santana.

"I love you, too."

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A/N:

Hey! My first week of college went well, and hopefully I'll be able to keep updating even with my classes and work.

Thanks for reading!