Firehouse 51

MSG Sylvester

Jesus Christ, I'm sorry. That's all I'm going to say. New Years resolution is to start updating all of these and finally finish. I will. I promise you that.

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"Did you find it?" Quinn yelled. "We're going to be late Britt."

Brittany was in her room searching through her closet for her Airborne hoodie. It was something she was incredibly proud of. Jumping out of planes was not something that most people would consider doing. But she loved taking risks, and the adrenaline rush she'd get once she was stepping through the door of the plane was one of the best things she ever experienced.

"Britt!"

"Yes! I got it. Sheesh, calm down mom." Brittany said as slipped on her hoodie coming down the stairs. "I wasn't going to go without this."

"I don't think that Master Sergeant (MSG) Sylvester is going to care that you were Airborne, Britt." She retorted as they both headed outside to Quinn's car.

MSG Sylvester was a mentor of sorts. She was Quinn's platoon sergeant while they were deployed. After Quinn was sent back stateside, she made it a point to visit Brittany as often as she could. She knew that the girls were close, and kept her eye on Brittany up until they were sent to different bases. Santana wanted the girls to have an afternoon together with MSG Sylvester. She'd feel left out, not knowing what they were talking about. So she was taking the opportunity to go home and visit her parents for the day.

"I just want to show her, okay? Damn." Brittany sounded a little offended. "Someone sounds a little mad that she didn't get the chance to get her wings."

They were in the car now, heading for Olive Garden.

"You know I'm not jealous of those wings. Purple heart trumps wings in my opinion." Quinn glances over to Brittany with a smirk on her face. Her friend was rolling her eyes.

"You can't use that for everything you do know that, right?" Brittany says as she starts to laugh.

The rest of the car ride was spent talking about the good times they shared in the Army. The past few weeks have been good on both of their behaves. Dreams occurring less, no more night sweats.

Santana was beyond amazing. She spent a lot of time at Quinn's, to be with Brittany of course. They would talk for hours, about anything and everything. It was nice having someone that genuinely wanted to understand Brittany. She had never experienced something like that before and it made her feel so, loved. Work was going great, the girls proved to be a force to be reckoned with. There was a competition coming up with the rest of the firehouses in Ohio and they were training extra hard for it.

"You think she's already here?"

"She's probably inside halfway through her plate." They started laughing. "She said she's inside though, let's just head in there."

Brittany followed Quinn inside, spotting their favorite NCO from across the restaurant. MSG Sylvester stood up when she saw the girls walk in, a big smile on her face.

"Look at the two of you!" She exclaimed. "Holy shit. As I live and breath."

"MSG Sylvester!" Brittany said as she rushed in first for a hug, followed by Quinn.

"Sit sit. Come on, fill me in. What are you two up to? Ohio? Of all places?"

The girls laughed, and filled MSG Sylvester in on everything.

"You know Pierce- I mean, Brittany." She smiled. "We are all out of the service I think we can use first names."

"That's weird, MSG." Brittany followed.

"I know. But I'll do my best. I know it'll be hard to break you two from the habit. But, after you left to the outskirts base, I did find out about Quinn. I knew where they had sent her I just had no way of letting you know."

Quinn looked over at Brittany, who was looking down at her plate.

"I tried getting in touch with your leadership. But they told me that you had extended to stay in country with another unit."

That was something Quinn didn't know. Brittany never really talked about it, because it was a time in her life that she didn't go back to. She felt like if she stayed in country, she could save people. People who might get the same injuries as Quinn. Maybe she'd have the chance to save someone else's life. Because at that point, let's be real – she thought that Quinn had died.

"It's okay, MSG. I stayed because I felt like I needed redemption."

Quinn placed her hand on Brittany's now. "B, I'm here."

"I know. But I didn't know that then."

"You know, I remember back on that deployment. I'd see you girls in the barracks. I'd look around, and remember what it was like to be in your guys' shoes. The first deployment, the anxiety. The comradery between everyone. A deployment is where you find your real friends. And I'm glad, that this friendship lasted even outside the Army. The world has a funny way of working, doesn't it? What are the chances you two find each other in this hell hole?" MSG Sylvester looks around, speaking a little softer. "Because the three of us know that this place might be even worse than Fort Polk."

The girls broke out in laughter. The month they spent in Louisiana was amongst the worst. The bugs, the weather. The training was great. It was exactly what the battalion needed before they deployed. But it didn't mean that they enjoyed it.

"Nothing compares to that place honestly. Lima really isn't that bad."

"Yeah, Brittany says that because she has Santana now." Quinn said as she leaned towards MSG Sylvester.

"Q!"

"It's okay. I'm just glad that you two are happy. That's what matters to me."

After another hour of talking and catching up, the girls said their goodbyes and headed back home. Santana's car was sitting outside, so they knew that she was inside.

"San?" Quinn said as she opened the door. Silence.

"She's probably sleeping. I'll be back down. We still going out tonight?"

"To the bar? Absolutely."

Brittany made her way upstairs to see a sleeping Santana on her bed cuddling with her airborne blanket.

"Should've just brought your damn blanket with you to the restaurant. We probably would've got up there earlier." Quinn said as she walked by.

Brittany pushed her friend as she walked into her room. Santana stirred, slowly opening her eyes to see Brittany taking her shirt off to lay down next to her.

"Hey, babe." Santana said sleepily. "Had a good lunch with your sergeant?"

"I did. How's your parents?"

"They're good. I helped them with some stuff outside of the house for majority of the day."

Brittany placed a kiss on Santana's lips. "I missed you today."

"I missed you too. Is the plan still on for tonight?"

Brittany replaced the spot her blanket was taking in Santana's arms. "Yes. But I wanna nap before we go."

"Oh absolutely."

The girls got comfortable, and fell asleep.

The night was about to prove to be one of the best they both had in a long time.