Notes from Lopez.
Chapter 5:
The Morning After
(Santana's POV)

My arms were still securely wrapped around Quinn's tiny body when I had woken up, the sun had only just passed the hill outside the window signaling to all people watching that the day was about to begin. Quinn continued to remain fast asleep beside me, her head was slightly tilted into my shoulder almost as if my arms were cradling her body, holding her safely from last night's events.

It had only just occurred to me that I had a vivid recollection of the night before, each event was significantly burnt into my mind like a force that, no matter how hard you tried, would not push away. It was quite late at night when I had heard the sounds that gave off the impression that something was happening in Quinn's room. These were sounds that I had heard several times before, although previously I remained decided on keeping out of her business. Last night something had pressed me to do otherwise.

Whether it have been the way her father had looked at her with such desire, or the plead in her eyes that she sent shooting straight back to him when she cleared the room, whatever it was, something had driven me to intervene. As I had felt last night, which I still felt this morning, none of my actions had been extremely heroic and I had not been brave, but I felt as though it was a responsibility for me to step in. Quinn was not able to defend herself against the authority of her dad, must less against the consistent respect she still had for him even after all this time.

It hadn't take much for me to get out of bed and retreat to Quinn's bedroom where her father laid over the top of her vulnerable body, I couldn't scratch the image out of my mind, the innocent girl lying next to me right now had a repulsive horny man towering over her forcing her into something that was only pleasurable for him, just hours ago. Once I had gotten to the room it took only fragments of a second for Mr. Fabray's face to turn from amused to plain terrified, he was quickly on his feet and out of the room without so much of a word just a front of a calm composure that was clearly being faked. Quinn looked more alone than ever the moment he left her bed, and that tore through and through at my heart.

Quinn was certainly not the most welcoming person, but she had her reasons for being standoffish, that I couldn't blame her for, but it was last night that proved my theories correct. She wasn't the person she wished the world to perceive her as, she had qualities beneath the act that had to be worked at for you to be able to receive.

It was this morning that I wondered what would happen, last night had been only the successful feeling of stopping her father. Was the same polite Quinn going to show today? Or was it at my best interest to leave now and save her from having to find her way through the memories of last night. Better yet, was she going to remember that I had spoken to her? Would she comment, or leave it alone? I had never intended on letting Quinn in on my secret, I had managed to uphold it for years and I didn't want to let go of my mask. Somehow it felt like letting go of my dad, and at other times it felt like I'd be disappointing him, and the last thing I wanted was to disgrace his memory. But regardless of that, I had spoken to Quinn, I had let her know that I was not only able to hear, but also that I was unmute. It was obvious that she had her suspicions but now she actually knew, nobody had ever known before leaving me with no reactions that I could possibly hope for.

Quinn's body moved restlessly underneath me which sent me into a mild panic, she would wake up eventually and she was going to want answers seeing as though it was everyday the girl you weren't friendly with had her arms tied around your waist in the same bed. I still had small hope that she would forget everything and act normal, but there chances of that were 1 in a million, which weighted my decision of taking the easy way out. My motions were slow and taken with precaution, I managed to slip out from her grasp easily without waking the blonde up, I placed a pillow in-between her arms where I had once been lying and exited the room.

Surely that was the right choice, perhaps she would even forget all about my assistance and focus only on the fact that her father had fled the room before he managed to do anything of an extreme. I kept at a fast pace as I made my way through the house, passing my bedroom, Mr and Mrs Fabray's bedroom and the living room straight to the kitchen where Quinn's father stood facing the window which was placed above the sink.

"Oh crap." I heard a mutter, presumably at the sound of my entrance. He didn't bother to turn around, instead he resumed cleaning up the mess of the dishes. Looking at him was hardly bearable. I moved on past the counter that he was standing by and collected my stack of notepaper from the table, ripping a piece off from the others. I had two notes to write, one was for Quinn and the other was for Mr. Fabray.

I started on Quinn's first, trying my best to keep my writing neat. 'Quinn, please don't hate me for last night..' the ink of the pen ran out quickly, I sighed and rolled it to the other side of the table, grabbing another. I had to let her know that what she though happened last night, did actually happen. Excusing the part where I had responded to her, that part she could attempt to remember and figure out whether it was correct or not. 'I swear to you that I was only trying to help. If you'd like me to forget about it, let me know and I'd be happy to try. But if you need help, I'm here. – Lopez' I inspected over the note twice before I settled on the quality of it, it was quickly folded up and placed in the pocket of my pajamas.
Mr. Fabray's note was next, and the same level of care was not taken. 'Going for a walk.' This one was slammed onto the counter with a thud as I walked past him back to Quinn's room.

Quinn was in the exact same position as I had left her only now her leg had moved up to support the pillow. I entered her room and lightly sat down on the side making sure not to creak or rock the bed in case she woke. My finger's edged her hair back behind her ear, away from her face and eyes, her delicate features were able to be seen clearly now. My hand hovered over her cheek, she was cool compared to my skin and I urged to get back into the bed and provide her with warmth, instead I pressed my lips against her cheek and popped the note underneath her hand that rested against the pillow. The blanket was settled down underneath her ribs revealing most of her skin, I pulled the sheets up and tucked the edges around her shoulders, Quinn winced and the blanket dragged up a little further so she looked completely comfortable now. A smile came across my lips as I sat and stared at the girl, she was quite attractive I had to admit, even more so while she was asleep. The peacefulness gave you a sense of tranquility, as if nothing else mattered in the world other because this girl was here. My hand touched Quinn one last time before I stood up and continued on to my bedroom to get changed.

I wasn't completely sure what my day was going to entail and I wasn't honestly sure about leaving Quinn alone with her father either, although her mum was home she still wouldn't be up for another hour and the only thing that let me leave the house was the hope that Quinn would pursue her for help if things became intense. I knew that I needed to get away from the house, I had been there for a little over 3 weeks and I hadn't taken the time to venture outside unless of course you counted school, but even that wasn't so great you're still stuck, there's no freedom there. This seemed like an appropriate time to take a break, even though being around the house with Quinn's dad there was something I could hardly do I felt she may need her space, if someone had come across my secret by accident I would hope they'd give me the same thing and until Quinn came to me or needed something from me, I was going to provide her that space that I deemed necessary.

Lima seemed like a nice town from the outside, it was small but there was everything here that you needed. There was a place for everyone, teenagers had the mall, BreadstiX and the Lima Bean, the older women had the café's that were run by locals where they were sure to run into many of their friends, older men had the pub and so on so forth. So on transcript it would appear as a lovely place to live, that was until a closer look was taken. The mall was filled with cliques, there were certain areas that were off limits for the 'nerdier' population of the teens, BreadstiX was used as the venue for the final date before girls gave into the pressuring given by guys and the Lima Bean was where the girls got their coffee fix after the guy had ditched the girl shortly after they'd given themselves up. The café's were occupied with women gossiping about their friends, a more matured version of teenage girl bitching, and the pub had two types of men. One was the common sleazy type, and two being the men that ran from their problems. However, Lima still surfaced as a exquisite place to live.

I dodged the main areas where I had a chance of coming in contact with conflict, or even witnessing drama. Today I just wasn't in the mood, especially not with Quinn on my mind. I pushed my hands in my pockets and kept moving onwards, setting my eyes on a park bench that was shaded by a couple of surrounding trees.

"Santana." I heard my name being called from behind, it was a voice I didn't recognize but I remained facing forward pretending not to hear the person.
Eventually they caught up and I felt a hand on my shoulder before Brittany's face came into vision. Her face lit up as she breathed a sigh of exhaustion.

'Hi! Took me ages to catch up.' Her lips moved while her hands race to get the correct gestures for each word.

'Hey! Sorry if I had have known you were trying to catch me I would've slowed down my pace.' I left with a wink.

'No, it's totally fine. So why're you out here by yourself? Quinn should be looking after you!'

'Just seeing what Lima has to offer. I wouldn't want to put her out, I'd rather just keep to myself anyway.'

'I don't think you'd be putting her out, it's not that bad all you have to do is walk around I can show you the way if you like?' Her eyebrows rose, I could tell already by the expression on her face that she was hoping for a yes, so I just nodded in return. Having someone around couldn't hurt.

'Great!' Brittany's body turned to face me every time she went to sign something. 'We should go to BreadstiX, have you had breakfast? Oh well, we can have an early lunch.'
I started to follow her, as she seemed to know where she was going which was helpful, as opposed to my lack of knowledge on the area, which would be likely to get us lost.

'You seem really awesome, Santana.' As she signed, my phone vibrated in the back pocket of my jeans. I reached around and grabbed it out only for a moment to switch the notifications off, not bothering to check who the message was from.

'Thanks,' I grinned willingly. 'You too.' My hands moved back at her, maybe I'd finally found a friend in this place.

A/N: So this chapter was made possible due to the fact that my girlfriend was at work (so she wasn't able to tell me to study for my exams next week..) and majority (not all) of my homework is complete. Glad the last chapter intrigued some people, hopefully this chapter does the same thing! Hope you like the little Brittana friendship that's starting to come in. Oh and to those who want me to update more often, I want the same thing you do ;)