Santana opened her eyes, and realized she was in her house. She placed her hands on her temples, and told herself that it was just a dream. "I'm not scared," she told herself. "I'll wake up soon enough in Britt's bed." Suddenly, the scene shifted, and she was in Britt's room, laying next to Quinn. Was she awake? It seemed real... the door creaked open, and a dark figure stalked in. He stopped and stood at the foot of the bed, and as Santana's eyes adjusted to the darkness, it was revealed that the figure was her father. She shook Quinn. "Q, wake up," she said urgently. She didn't. She looked around at the others, but they were all sound asleep. Her father advanced, unspeaking, and grabbed her. "QUINN!" She screamed. No response.
He raised his fist, brought it down, and connected it with her face. A screech of pain escaped her lips, and she managed a quick look at Quinn- she was still unresponsive. She didn't wake up.
"QUINN!" Quinn sat up, waking up. Was that Santana? She looked to her right at the Latina, and her heart sunk. She was having a panic attack, or a nightmare, or whatever you would call it. She was screaming Quinn's name, and at this point the others were groggily sitting up. Quinn placed her hands on Santana's shoulders.
"I'm here baby, I'm here," she said softly. Brittany, concerned for her closest friend, crouched down next to her.
"What's happening?" Brittany asked with a shaky voice. "What's wrong with San?" Before Quinn could answer, Britt grabbed Santana's hand out of habit. This seemed to cause Santana to let out a scream, and her body seemed to convulse. Britt jerked her hand away, her eyes wide.
"I think sudden touching or contact scares her," Mercedes observed, standing next to the bed. It was clear she was trying to put on a brave face, but her worried eyes showed her fear. "Quinn, has this happened before?"
Quinn nodded. "Uh, yeah. She did this once in the hospital, and the first night at my apartment. I don't really know how to get her out of it... usually I just try and calm her down and eventually she wakes up." God, she was so unhelpful.
Brittany suddenly sat up straight, like she got an idea. "So we have to get her calm, right?" Quinn nodded. "Sometimes when she would panic or stress out, she would massage the sides of her head and it would calm her down. When it was really bad, I would do it for her and it would still work." Kurt narrowed his eyes.
"You mean her temples?" Kurt questioned. Brittany nodded. He glanced at the others. "Worth a shot," he said. "Quinn, you should probably do it- she seems to be calmest around you." Quinn nodded, and slowly moved her hands towards Santana's head. Making sure to not be too sudden, she gently placed her hands on the Latina's temples and pressed down with her fingers in soothing motions.
"You can relax, angel. You're strong, you can do it. You're Santana freaking Lopez, you can do anything." She knew she was rambling and probably confusing the others, but she didn't know what else to do. She just couldn't bear to see her girlfriend in so much pain.
Santana let out a pained wheeze as her father kicked her in the stomach. Her body was aching all over, and she just wanted the pain to stop. One of the worst parts, however, was the fact that Quinn didn't wake up. A tear trickled down her face, and she was promptly slapped hard. "No crying," said her father, the first words he had said during this whole time.
Despite all the pain, she slowly felt herself relaxing. It was strange- she was both terrified and relaxed at the same time. How was that possible? Santana took a deep breath, and tried her best to collect herself. She had to get out of this- this nightmare. She tried to relax herself, letting her tense muscles loosen up. However, it was kind of hard to be zen when your father was beating the crap out of you. As soon as she started to feel peaceful, she would be hit by a swinging fist or a foot. But she was Santana Lopez- she wasn't going to give up.
Santana managed to stand up, and ran to the other side of the room to buy herself more time. Sitting down on the floor, she began to breathe. In, out, in out. She heard footsteps, and they were getting louder. She felt herself starting to drift off, and the room grew blurry around her. In, out, in, out. Right as the now blurry figure of her father reached her, her vision grew black.
Quinn was still massaging Santana's temples, murmuring soft encouragement, when Santana woke. The Latina shot up into the sitting position, her forehead slamming into Quinn's. Quinn fell back, dizzy, and rubbed her sore head. She quickly forgot about it when she heard Santana's voice. "Sorry about that Q," came a weak voice.
"Santana!" Quinn cried happily. The two girls moved forward for a hug, but at the last minute the both went for a kiss instead. After a few moments, they pulled away to see the others looking at them with slight smiles on their faces. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about what happened?"
Santana hesitated, but nodded. "I was in this room, with all of you, and he came." She didn't have to specify who "he" was. "I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't. None of you woke up. He starting hitting me, and you still didn't wake up." Her voice cracked with emotion. "You didn't wake up."
They were all silent, not knowing what to say. Quinn her hand. "There's not much I can say right now," she said honestly. "But I'm proud of you for managing to wake up." She stifled a yawn. "Now, how about we go back to sleep?"
Santana shifted uncomfortably. "I, uh, don't really want to have another nightmare," she admitted. Quinn nodded in understanding.
"What if I held you?" She asked with a smile. Santana blushed, but a little smirk crossed her face.
"I guess we can go back to sleep," she agreed.
----------------------
"Rise and shine girls!" Kurt's cheerful voice brought Quinn out of a deep slumber. She rolled over with a groan, and sat up. "We have to leave for school in 30 minutes." Quinn glared at him.
"30 whole minutes?" She complained. "Why so early?" Kurt shrugged. "Ugh, whatever, I'm up." She nudged a groggy Santana awake, and went to change and get ready. Santana soon joined her- she looked more tired than she was. When they got back from the bathroom, Blaine, Mercedes, Kurt, and Brittany were gathered on the bed around a laptop with shocked and dismayed expressions on their faces. "What is it?" Quinn asked nervously.
Blaine cleared his throat. "Oh, um, I'm not sure you want to know-" Santana cut him off.
"Just tell us. We've been through so much crap in the past week, we can deal with it." Blaine sighed.
"Fine, but prepare yourselves mentally." He took a deep breath. "So those videos of you and Santana when, you know, they..."
Santana interrupted again. "Publicly humiliated us? Yeah, we remember, please continue."
Blaine shot her a look, but went on. "Those videos... they got out. And photos too- and people are talking." Quinn paled, and Santana clenched her fists. Quinn grabbed the laptop, and saw that it was open to the WMHS gossip website. She and Santana read the headline, which captioned an image of Quinn, drenched in rainbow paint.
Former HBIC Quinn Fabray Revealed as a Lesbian, Dating Fellow Cheerio Santana Lopez.
Quinn grew dizzy, and she felt Santana grab her by the waist to prevent her from falling over. "Quinn..." Santana said slowly. Quinn buried her head in her hands. No, this wasn't happening. The harassment and name-calling was one thing, but this... was just too much. She heard someone crying- wait, that was her. Santana was rubbing her back comfortingly.
"I'm so sorry," Santana murmured. "I know it sucks- I've been through it. Being outed, I mean. You have it worse though," she added. "Wait- that doesn't really help. Sorry." Santana sighed inwardly- this is why she didn't comfort people.
Quinn laughed bitterly. "No, it's fine. Honestly, I don't know why I'm upset. Everyone basically already knew that I was gay, so this shouldn't be a big deal. I just... I don't know. I guess it being posted online makes it more real, if that makes sense." Santana nodded, understanding. "Ugh, I'm not looking forward to school."
Blaine's expression shifted to one of confidence. "We're going to be there by your side the whole time," he told her. Mercedes nodded in agreement.
"Hell yeah, no one's going to mess with you when this girl's around," she stated, pointing at herself. This prompted laughter from the others, and Brittany piped up.
"If anyone tries to be mean to you, I'll make them go away with my special telepathic powers," she said. Quinn wrinkled her brows in confusion at the girl's usual nonsensical talking patterns, but Santana smiled and squeezed her friend's hand.
"Thanks Britt, that's much appreciated," Santana said with a grin. Quinn saw that Kurt was raising his hand.
"Uh, I can't promise that I'll be much help, but I'll be there for you too," he told them. Quinn smiled gratefully- Kurt was still putting up with bullying himself, and he obviously didn't want to make things worse for them.
"Thanks guys," Quinn said. "Well, we should probably get going," she advised. They all agreed, and the group of friends grabbed their bags and set off to school.
AN: Cliffhanger! (kinda) How's Quinn going to deal with being outed? What other pictures and videos got leaked? Those questions will be answered in the next chapter, along with some of Artie being a jerk.