Firehouse 51

Interlude

Santana and Quinn got over to the hospital as quickly as they could. But before they got inside, Santana broke down.

"Hey. San. It's gonna be okay." Her breathing got shorter and Quinn ran up and grabbed her. "It's gonna be okay. Britt is gonna be okay."

"You don't know that!" Santana's voice rose as she stepped back out of Quinn's grip. "You don't know that, Q. You saw how much blood she lost. What if I go in there and she's already gone?!"

It was a cold Lima night, the stars were out. Everything seemed calm around her. Cars driving by the hospital. The sound of crickets in the trees. Santana looked down at her hands and saw the blood that covered them. Nothing about her world was calm. Nothing about it was okay. Santana sat down in the grass and slumped over. Quinn walked over and sat next to her, placing her arm over her shoulders.

"You're right." She was defeated. "But we won't know how she's doing until we go inside."

They took a few minutes, enjoying each others presence. The feeling of not knowing if Brittany was okay was scary. They both have had their share of close calls while on the job but nothing like this. Yeah, maybe a sprained ankle from running the stairs too fast. But Brittany's injuries were far more extensive than anything they had ever seen.

"We just, have to be optimistic. We have to go in there and hope for the best. Because hoping for the worse will be horrible." Quinn told her. "Let's go."

They walked into the hospital together. Santana's paramedic shirt was stained red.

"Santana? Quinn?" It was Kurt. He was one of the trauma doctors in the ER, and also Blaine's husband. "What's going on? Is Blaine okay?"

"Yeah, he's good." Quinn paused. "It's Brittany."

"What? What happened?"

"A lot happened, please.. Can you find out if she's okay?" Santana asked as tears started to well up in her eyes again. "Please, Kurt. I can't lose her."

He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "I'll go and see if there's anything I can do. I'll send an intern out with any updates. Don't worry, she's in good hands."

With that he turned and started walking towards elevator.

Santana reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny box.

"San.."

"I was planning on proposing tonight. At the end of shift, I was gonna go outside and propose to her in the spot we met. I had this whole speech planned. I was gonna tell her how she was the love of my life. That I was planning on giving her everything she had ever wanted. That even though I wasn't going to be her partner on the rig anymore, I wanted her to be my forever." She closed the box, now faintly stained red- and placed it back in her pocket. "I love her, Q. I love her and I don't think I can do this life without her. Now that I know what it's like with her in it."

"Let's wait until Kurt comes back out. I'm sure him being gone this long means that he scrubbed in."

"Probably because she was in worse shape than we all thought." Santana said.

"San don't think like that. Come on. Let's go get washed up a bit."

After getting cleaned up as best they could, the girls returned to the waiting room. It was excruciating. Every time the doors open Santana looked over hoping it was Kurt but it never was.

She was getting tired. Santana placed her elbows on her knees and put her face in her palms. She took a deep breath in. Quinn stood up but Santana didn't bother to look where she was going.

"San." She turned to see Quinn standing with Kurt.

She got up and began to walk over, knowing this news had a 50/50 chance of breaking her for good.