Home Is Where the Heart Is (Brittana)

Chapter 20

Santana's POV

Our wedding was one of the best days of my entire life up until that point, second maybe only to meeting Brittany and the day Everly was born. I hadn't thought it would feel that important, since we were just reinforcing what was already there, but it was unforgettable and perfect. It was as though another piece of my life was in place.

After the reception, we left Everly with Brittany's family. Jessie had already left for Columbus again, since they had to work the next day, and my family decided to stay with Brittany's to spend more time with Everly.

Since Brittany had proposed (and done a lot of the "big" relationship things first), I decided I would be the one to plan something special for our wedding night.

I'd booked us a night at a hotel, figuring we didn't want to spend so much of our one-night honeymoon driving back to Columbus, especially leaving Everly in Lima.

I'd forgotten how much I missed being with Brittany without Everly around. While we loved Everly, having her meant not spending a lot of time with just each other, and we could finally have sex without interruptions or feeling like we were ignoring her.

"Santana?" Brittany asked later when we were just laying in the bed. "I was wondering if, now that we're married, you'd like to officially adopt Everly."

I grinned. "I would absolutely love to."

"Good. Also, I think I want to wait a little longer before returning to work. I know we found a daycare for Everly, but I don't feel comfortable sending her there yet."

"Okay, I understand. I love you."

"I love you too."

---

Brittany's POV

"Happy birthday, B!"

I woke up to the wonderful smell of pancakes as Santana came into the bedroom on my birthday.

Smiling, I sat up against a pillow. "Thank you."

Santana was holding both Everly and a plate of pancakes, handing me the plate before sitting down beside me with Everly.

"I figured we could go to the beach today, if that's something you'd like, of course. I just realized we've never taken Everly, and I know how much you used to love the beach."

"You're rambling." I grinned. "Of course I'd like to go to the beach."

After we all ate breakfast and Everly breastfed a little (we were starting to wean her, but she still nursed after breakfast), we packed up to go to the beach, including Everly's swimsuit she'd only worn once when I'd bothered to fill up the kiddie pool at my parents' house earlier that summer.

The drive to the beach from the apartment wasn't very far, and since it was still the morning, it wasn't too hot nor crowded.

Turns out, Everly wasn't a huge fan of the cold water and squishy sand, but we managed to get a few cute photos of her sitting on the dry sand before she got upset. We left the beach earlier than expected because of that, stopping for some lunch on the way home.

While we were driving home, my phone rang. Miranda's number flashed on my screen, so I answered.

"Happy birthday, Brittany." Reid's voice spoke on the other end of the line.

I gasped, immediately hanging up the phone.

"Is everything okay?" Santana asked.

I nodded, not wanting to ruin my birthday, but I still felt completely shaken from hearing Reid call me using Miranda's number. There was no way she'd get to meet Everly now.

---

At home, we face-timed with my parents, but I was not feeling myself., hardly able to smile, despite the fact that I usually loved my birthday.

Santana cooked dinner, and then we put Everly to bed.

"What's wrong?" Santana asked once we were in our bedroom.

"Nothing," I replied. "I'm just really tired, not in the mood to celebrate." I was sure Santana knew it was just an excuse, but I didn't want to tell her that Reid had tried to contact me again.

"Okay, but are you at least in the mood for a present?"

I faked a smile. "Sure."

Santana handed me a little box, which I unwrapped as carefully as always, revealing a beautiful necklace.

"Thanks, Santana," I said.

"Do you like it?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"I do. Thanks again. I'm just really tired. Could we go to bed?"

"Of course. Happy birthday."

I smiled weakly. "Goodnight Santana."

---

As scared as I was that Reid had called, I didn't hear from him again for a long time. Soon, it was August, and I'd almost forgotten about the entire situation.

Despite asking Santana to officially adopt Everly on our wedding night, we had to wait a long time before we could get a court date. When August 4th finally arrived, our whole apartment felt brighter. I could see how much joy was in Santana's eyes as we dressed our daughter in a onesie that read "I love my moms" because, even though we knew Santana was her mother, having it be official would make a few things in our life easier. It would allow Santana to make decisions for our daughter in any situation, and it was very important for us.

We drove to the court house after lunch that day, excited for the event.

The feeling when Santana was officially declared as one of Everly's parents was indescribable. I felt myself start to tear up and looked over at Santana to see that she was fully crying, almost shaking, as she held our daughter.

"Hello, Everly Dawn Lopez-Pierce," I said, grinning, knowing that now Santana's last name was officially a part of our daughter's name.

"Hi, sweetheart," Santana whispered to our daughter. "Can you believe it?"

Despite our daughter not really knowing what was going on, she smiled back at both of us.

After leaving the court house, we made our way over to Jessie's house to celebrate, since our made family was so important to us, and we needed to share our excitement with them. Our parents knew what was happening that day, and we'd promised to call them the next morning, but for the rest of that day, we'd be at Jessie's, talking with them, and watching our daughter play with the cat she'd grown to love, despite being less than a year old.

It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

---

A/N:

Hey! Thank you for reading! Sorry that this chapter is late.

For those interested in the reason why, my bedroom (which is in the basement) flooded almost six weeks ago, and I've been staying at my grandparents house. Since then, I haven't really been able to pre-write any chapters. Now, we can finally start fixing my bedroom and moving my things back in.

So, I will have to take a few weeks off from posting chapters again (hopefully only two weeks) because I'll be very busy. Hope you have a great day!