Authors Note: Somewhat of a filler, graduation is approaching which means that the story is just about to end. I feel like this will all come full circle, and will end insanely wholesome-ly. Reviews and favorites are the best!
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The night deemed to be a long one, with the girls not sleeping until around 4:30 am. It was always a problem with them, they never could stop. And to them, it wasn't a bad thing. But the next morning around 7:00 they were woken up by the rest of the team starting their trucks.
Jen brought two four wheelers with her on a trailer while Angel had two dirt bikes in the bed of her truck. The engines were loud, especially since they were cold started. Brittany woke up first, with Santana pulling the blanket over her head.
"Babe, we gotta go outside." Brittany told her as she put her shirt back on.
"No." She replied, completely under the blanket. "10 more minutes please."
Brittany crawled under the blanket to look Santana in the eyes. "Baby. They gonna come get us regardless."
Santana sighed, knowing that her girlfriend was right. The girls were relentless when they camped, and were always up early to get the day started especially since they were together.
Brittany stretched when she stepped out of their tent and looked over at the girls who were doing their last checks on their bikes. It was a cold and crisp morning, something that Brittany thoroughly enjoys. Santana stepped out a little bit after, shooting her girlfriend a smile. Rachel walked up to them and handed each of them a helmet, and the keys to her four wheeler.
"Jen said you owe her for bringing it up, by the way."
"Yeah yeah, I'll buy her mcdonalds when we go back down into Waimea. She knows I got her." Santana said as she sat on the four wheeler to check everything out. "You ready to get going babe?"
Brittany's stomach growled, she looked over at her girlfriend with puppy dog eyes. "Baaabe.." She whined. "I'm hungry."
"I know but the food isn't ready. Try look at them." They looked over at the tent and saw that the girls were still cracking eggs and turning the grill on. "Come on. Let me take you somewhere real fast."
Santana held out her hand, helmet on but you could still see the smile shining through even though you could only see her eyes.
Brittany took her hand and climbed on.
The team was going separate ways at this point. Santana took off up the dirt road. Brittany held on.
As they drove, Brittany reflected on all her time in Hawai'i. All the moments that she had with Quinn, the team. Especially with the beautiful girl she was riding a four wheeler with. And now it was about to come full circle with the girls all headed to UH Manoa.
The four wheeler was slowing down, and Brittany looked around. There was pasture as far as the eye could see. Cows, horses. Even some goats. Santana pulled up under a tree, and she put the four wheeler in park. She slipped her helmet off and put it in front of her.
Brittany followed suit, placing the helmet behind her instead.
"Oh damn I don't have my phone. Man, I wanted to take a picture."
Santana turned to her girlfriend. "It's okay babe. I wanted a moment with you, just us two. Graduation is coming up and things are about to get really hectic." She held out her hand and Brittany took it in hers as they had done countless of times before. "I love you babe. I'm so glad that I get to continue this life with you."
Brittany smiled, knowing that Santana liked the small moments like these together. She was a fairly simple person. You could consider it low maintenance, in a way. She never liked big, over the top extravagant types of things. Santana would pick a night in over a night on the town. And that was something that Brittany loved about her. A simple movie night at home with a bowl of popcorn could make Santana happy, and whatever made her girlfriend happy? Made her happy as well.
"I'm excited for everything that's yet to come babe. Imagine the four of us playing softball together? This team is gonna be fire."
Santana pulled Brittany in for a kiss. "It's gonna be the greatest ever. I already know."
The girls hung out for about thirty more minutes before heading back to the camping area.
"What the fuck happened to you?" Santana said as she walked over to Rachel who was covered in dirt.
"I put my bike down on accident." She replied as she attempted to dust off the dirt that was sticking to her dirt bike pants. "I'm fine, the bike is fine. But my ego is a little shattered."
"You're lucky we don't have to play anymore, dumbass. That could've been a really bad accident. Can you be careful? I don't want to have to report to Q that you were a dumbass laid your bike down and got hurt."
The tone was a little rough, and that was when she realized what she had said. She looked over to Brittany, who had begun to walk away.
"Fuck." Santana said, facepalming.
"Go San. Uncharted territory, be careful."
Santana walked over to Brittany who was now sitting on the four wheeler.
"Babe, I didn't mean it how I said it. Honest. I'm sorry.." Santana said timidly.
"I know you didn't. It just, struck a chord. That's all."
"You're not a dumbass, I'm sorry I said it that way."
Brittany tapped on the seat, and Santana sat next to her. "I know you didn't. But what you said, wasn't wrong you know? I was dumb to go off and speed the way I did. Something way worse could've happened and I'm lucky that all that happened to me was what happened. I guess that was just a, moment of realization is all."
Santana didn't really know what to say, she sat and put her army around Brittany.
"And telling Rach that wasn't wrong either. I don't think Quinn could take another accident involving a bike." She chuckled a little bit. "Now cmon. Let's get back with the girls and enjoy the weekend. Kama mentioned something about taking Snix in that puddle? I wanna see what that's all about."
As they walked over to their friends, they were each handed a beer and joined in on the conversations that were going on. About an hour later, Santana climbed into Snix with Brittany following suit.
"Sobered up, ready to go." Santana said as she turned the truck on. "You ready for this babe?"
"Absolutely."
They made their way closer to the puddle and that's when Santana began to build speed. Brittany watched as they just about hit the mud and then they windshield was covered.
"Holy shit!" Brittany exclaimed. She grabbed onto the handle with her right hand.
Snix roared in the mud, with it being nearly up to the door in depth. "We aren't gonna get stuck are we?"
"We're fine babe don't worry." Santana told her without looking over. She was concentrating on making it across the puddle. "Ah, there we go see?"
They climbed the up the bank of the puddle and went around to go through again.
The girls went through a couple more times, a few times right threw the middle and others around the bank. When they were done, Snix was covered in mud and Brittany was exhilarated.
"That was amazing babe. How did you learn how to drive thru the puddles?"
"My dad. He would bring me and my mom up here with some of my cousins. He taught me on his truck." She said as she looked out at the group of puddles. Out in the distance a bunch of the girls were going through puddles that were much more shallow with the four wheelers. "I miss him, babe."
"I know you do, I know. Have you talked to him lately?" Brittany asked.
"Yeah, I have. He's doing good."
The truth was, Santana hadn't. She didn't even have the chance to tell him about her scholarship offer. This deployment was a little different. He was a Staff Sergeant now and had much more responsibilities than the last time he went. Which meant, he was much busier. She tried her best to be okay with it but not being able to talk to him was tough on her. Graduation was approaching, and the only thing she wanted was for her dad to be there.
Santana secretly kept up with what was going on by looking at news articles and stuff. And some of the things were scary. But she knew that her dad was a tough guy and that he could handle anything.
"I'm glad that he's doing good."
"Hey babe, is it okay if I go for a solo ride?" Santana said as she stood up from her chair.
"Yeah, babe. Go ahead." And with a kiss, she was off.
Brittany made her way over to Rachel and sat in the chair next to her. "Hey Rach."
"Hey. You okay? I know San said that wild shit earlier and I don't know how you felt about that."
"Nah, I'm fine with that. We were just talking about how her dad taught her how to drive thru the puddles and she had a moment, and asked to take a solo ride. She'll be okay yeah?"
Rachel looked over to her. "Yeah. She'll be fine. I know she's been having a tough time because of how close graduation is."
Brittany had been wanting to talk to Santana about that particular subject. But she didn't really know how to approach it.
"I'll try talk to her about it when we get back down into Waimea. I don't want to bring up such a heavy subject while we're here."
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Santana had gone a ways away to have some time alone. She pulled her phone out, and clicked on her dads name.
"Hey baby, what's going on?"
"Hi dad, sorry, I know that it's late there. I just.. missed you."
Her dad rubbed his eyes and sat up in his bed. "I miss you too San. What are you up to?"
"Nothing much, me and the girls are up at mana road. Got me thinking about the last time we were up here that's all."
Keola knew that the closer it got to graduation, his daughter would start to have a hard time. They always talked about graduation, and the graduation party of the century. But the deployment had changed things and it was out of both of their controls.
"Take a breath baby. I know." He knew his daughter well. "Don't cry, San."
She was leaning on her helmet, tears falling down her face.
"San, I love you." Keola told her. "Don't let this deployment thing ruin your time okay? I'm always here. Just a call away."
Santana wiped her face and took a deep breath. "I love you too dad. I'll let you get some sleep. And I promise, I'll call more often."
"I'd like that. Call me tomorrow okay?"
"I will. Love you dad."
"Love you too baby. Bye."
Santana sat for a few more minutes, allowing herself to calm down before driving back down to the rest of the girls.
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Brittany heard the four-wheeler approaching and walked over to where Santana had parked.
Before she could say anything, Brittany helped take her helmet off and kissed her.
"It's like you know, every single time."
"I know you babe," Brittany said. "And we can talk. Whenever you're ready okay?"
"Thank you, Britt. For everything."
The girls grabbed some beer and rejoined the girls under the tent where the food was. The weekend was filled with laughs and good times, exactly what Santana needed. She knew that she could rely on every person that surrounded her and maybe graduation without her dad wasn't going to be so bad.