A/N - This is a new multi-chapter future fic I'm starting to work on. I have planned out about eight chapters so far (there will be more than that, but that's as far as I've got!). I'm publishing chapter one to see if there's interest so please review/story alert to let me know if you like it. Updates should be fairly regular (once a week or more). I hope you enjoy :D.

Tuesday's were always Brittany's busiest day. She's an arts reporter for the New Haven Register and even though it's her twenty-first birthday, there is no let up on the amount of work to be done. The articles need to be on Mr. Carson's desk by five sharp. He doesn't believe in e-mail; he wants everything hand delivered in hard copy format so he can approve of it before it's sent to the printing team. It's 4:27pm and she's starting to get stressed. The printer's jammed, the photographer sent her the pictures for the article in the wrong format and she has at least five missed calls from Quinn, all in the last ten minutes.

She's struggling with the printer, trying to remove the jammed paper when Tyler approaches her.

"Let me get that for you, Britt. You'll get those pretty hands all dirty otherwise," he says in an obviously flirtatious manner.

He's one of those sleazy guys that Brittany's just never had time for. He's about six foot tall with short, dark hair that he keeps perfectly styled. His skin is too tanned for the New Haven weather, and his clothes are pretty much all designer. He's been trying to get into Brittany's pants since she started here just over a year ago. She's turned him down time and time again but he doesn't seem to get the hint.

"I'm fine," Brittany retorts, getting impatient already.

"I insist."

He moves closer and places his hand over Brittany's, slowly pushing it away so he can remove the paper and save the day. Brittany folds her arms and stands back to watch him struggle. She fights the smirk that's appearing on her face because he's not making any more progress than she did. If anything he's making it worse.

After watching him painfully for a minute or two, she decides to leave him to struggle. She quickly makes her way over to her desk and puts the articles onto a memory stick and sprints down the stairs until she's three floors below in the administration department. She's pretty close with the team down here so they won't mind her using their printer.

When she gets back into the arts department, Tyler is standing beside the printer with toner covering both his arms up to his elbows, looking defeated. Brittany gives him a passing look, as if to say 'I told you so' as she makes her way back to her desk to put the articles together. She sends the photographer a quick e-mail telling him that the pictures are in the wrong format. He responds with the right ones about five minutes later.

At 4:56pm Brittany is in Mr. Carson's office, placing her articles on his desk for approval and printing. He gives her a look to say that she was cutting it fine, but she's one of his best reporters so he knows whatever she's turned in will be of the highest quality. She takes pride in everything she does and has a writing style that many journalists would kill for. It's what got her the job. Her interview process included a trip to a small family owned art gallery that had been open for years, but rarely had business. The candidates had to write a three hundred word piece to put it back on the map. Brittany won hands down. Not only was she hired for the Register, but the gallery even gave her a gift basket and free admission whenever she wanted as a thank you.

At five o'clock exactly, Brittany grabs her coat and bag and makes her way out to her car. On the way she calls Quinn back to see what was so urgent. Apparently Quinn has arranged for Brittany's parents to fly in and come to dinner with them tonight for her birthday. It was meant to be a surprise but she's gotten held up in lectures and can't pick them up from the airport so she's asking Brittany to. Brittany quickly agrees and drives to the airport with a smile on her face. She hasn't seen her parents since Christmas and it's May now.

On the way home, her parents ask about her job, about Quinn, if she's financially okay. All the questions parents need to ask. Brittany answers each with a smile because her life is nothing short of perfect right now. Well, she'd like to have someone to share it with, but apart from that she can't complain.

They pull up at the apartment and Brittany offers to help carry her mom's bag in for her, but she insists on doing it herself. "I'm not that old yet, Britt! Give me a little bit of credit."

Brittany opens the door and steps through into the hallway before the light flicks on in the living room in front of her and everyone is shouting "surprise!". Brittany puts her hand on her chest to get over the initial shock, and stumbles back a few steps. She spots Quinn in the crowd coming towards her, pleased that her plan to surprise her best friend had the desired effect.

"Happy Birthday, Britt!"

It takes Brittany a second longer to take in everyone who's there in her apartment – some of her friends from work (no sign of Tyler, thankfully), Quinn's classmates who hang out at their apartment at the weekend, even Tina, Sugar, Rachel and Mercedes from school have made it. In their small two bedroom apartment, the place looks packed.

"I can't believe you did this, Q! How'd you keep this a secret? And you," Brittany says, turning to her parents, "were you in on this too?"

Her mother gives her a small smile. "Of course we were. Our flight got in this morning. We needed a distraction to make sure you didn't head straight home. Why'd you think I wouldn't let you carry my bag? I've already unpacked at the hotel!"

"Seriously, you guys should go into some sort of CIA training or something. Your talents are wasted."

Quinn laughs before putting her arm around Brittany's shoulders and guides her to the living room to say hello to everyone.

The party doesn't take long to get into full swing. Quinn has taken charge of alcohol, making sure she is responsible for Brittany's first legal drink. Naturally, it takes five or six before the drinking makes even the slightest impact on her actions – she's been drinking for years, and her tolerance is high.

Brittany gets a few presents – Kelly and Emily from work buy her a necklace with matching earrings, her parents get her open ended tickets for a return flight back to Lima because they say they don't see Brittany enough, her friends from glee give her a box set of Journey albums which makes Brittany laugh, and Quinn has made her a collage of them through the years, as well as buying her a new pair of boots.

Brittany sits with Sugar and Mercedes for a while, catching up on what she's missed. Apparently Sugar has opened her own 'Sugar Shack' now, and Brittany smiles remembering how she'd transformed Breadstix all those years before. They really should have known then that Sugar was going to go into hospitality.

Mercedes is engaged, and Brittany is shocked to hear that it's to Sam. She didn't expect their relationship to last much longer than high school so she's taken aback by the news. Mercedes shows Brittany her ring and fills her in on all the wedding plans, saying she can come to the evening part if she wants. They ask Brittany if she's dating anyone at the minute, and she just replies with a very shy 'no'. She can see that they find it hard to believe, saying she was always dating someone in school. Then again, this isn't school – it isn't even college anymore, it's real life now – and some things have changed.

Needing to get away from all the commotion in her usually quiet apartment, Brittany excuses herself and makes her way into her bedroom. She hasn't checked her phone since she got home, so she takes it out of her bag to see if there are any new messages or notifications. The screen tells her she has one new message and two new e-mails.

She checks the message first – happy birthday! Sorry I couldn't make it tonight! Have fun :) – from Holly, one of the other reporters from work. She sends a quick reply – no worries, I'll see you tomorrow xx – before checking her e-mails.

The first is a generic 'happy birthday' e-mail from a website she can't even remember subscribing to. The second makes her heart stop.

There, on the screen in front of her, is an e-mail from Santana. No, not Santana. Santana from three years ago. Had it really been that long?

It's from one of those sites where you can send an e-mail into the future, to a date you choose. Brittany recognises it because sometimes she uses it to send herself e-mails so she doesn't forget things like birthdays and anniversaries. That's how Santana found out about it.

She stares at the screen blankly for another few minutes, absorbing the fact that there is an e-mail here in front of her from her ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend she never, ever stopped loving, even now. The ex-girlfriend who she hadn't seen or spoken to in over two years.

With a shaking hand, Brittany opens the e-mail.

To: brittbritt94 at futureme dot org

From: san4britt at futureme dot org

Britt,

I checked my inbox the other day and found an e-mail you'd sent me from this site a year ago and I thought I'd send you one to just tell you how perfect you are right now, and even just how perfect right now is in general. I'm pretty sure you're still this perfect as you read this even though three years have passed.

I'm lying beside you right now; we just got back from the graduation party at Berry's house. Don't tell her, but I kind of enjoyed it. The part I enjoyed most though was being able to be there with you. Just being with you; nothing more, nothing less. Of course holding your hand and the kisses and the sweet lady kisses are all just bonuses, because I already won.

You're out cold right now. You danced all night and I knew you were exhausted, but babe, I don't think I could wake you up right now if I tried. I'm still pretty buzzed, so I thought I'd stay up and just watch you for a while. Don't shout at me for being creepy, I just think you're beautiful and I can't really get enough of you; that's all.

I've never really been good with words or commitment or all those scary things like the future and family and forever, but I can see me having them with you. I'm far too scared to tell you because I don't want you to think we're too serious too soon, but maybe by the time you get this we'll be closer to family and forever. Have I proposed yet? Oh God, what if I have and you've said no. Please don't have said no, Britt. No-one would ever be able to love you even half as much as I do.

We'll be together almost four years when you get this. That's a long time in the real world, but to be honest it doesn't feel like it would be with you. I hope we're still together. I'm looking at you right now and I can't even imagine not having you there anymore. God, I'm actually getting tears in my eyes even thinking about it. Just… I hope you still love me, because I know I'll still love you.

I hope this is still your e-mail address too.

I love you,

Santana

Brittany reads, and re-reads it until she can't anymore.

She can't even cry. God, she wishes she could cry. Right in front of her she has a list of promises. Promises of forever that Santana said she'd keep but didn't. She can't even get angry. She just wants to make it disappear.

She's in no mood to re-join the party, so instead she just lies back on the bed and puts her phone on her nightstand, trying to distance herself from the past. She looks blankly at the roof, images playing in her head of the night Santana wrote that e-mail. She remembers it like it was yesterday – the way she'd felt so content and happy, how she'd fallen asleep right away. A single tear makes its way down her cheek because it doesn't take long for the images of the day six months later to play out. The one that brought an end to the promises Santana had made.

Brittany swallows the lump in her throat because she knows that it wasn't Santana who put an end to the promises. Santana would have never given up on her, but Brittany asked her to, so she did. Santana couldn't say no to giving Brittany what she wanted.

The thing is though that even now, lying here in New Haven, which feels a world away from Lima, with an amazing job, an equally amazing roommate, and a life that she only ever dreamt about having, Brittany somehow still wishes that she didn't give up on Santana so quickly. She doesn't feel complete without her there. How does Santana still manage to have this effect on her, even after being out of her life for all these years?

Something snaps inside her and suddenly what she has to do is as plain as day.

She has to find Santana.

She just hopes she's not too late.