Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"
A/N: Just a one-shot written for the last day of Perzerry Week over on Tumblr. This is very rough and I really haven't proofed it much at all but it's late and I want to get it up. I'll edit tomorrow if I think it needs it
It was 9:15 am on a Monday and Rachel Berry was confused by the sound she was hearing. She was struggling to wake up and there was this persistent, vaguely familiar sound coming from the living room. Finally, after almost five full minutes she figured it out. She had shaken the cobwebs loose enough to determine that it was her landline phone. Who the hell was calling her on her landline? No one ever did. Most days she didn't even really know why she kept the thing except for her burning desire to be prepared in the event of an emergency. She stumbled, wobbly legged into the living room of her apartment and picked up the phone. "Ms Berry," said the voice on the other end, "It's Micah, down at the front desk. I'm sorry to call you so early. I know you got in late last night."
"It's alright, Micah," Rachel lied, she hated being woken before she was ready, "What can I do for you?"
"Well, it's just that you've gotten several deliveries already this morning…"
"Deliveries?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, ma'am," Micah said, "Well, you know today's Valentine's Day and all and I guess some of your fans wanted to send you some, I don't know, tokens of their appreciation or whatever, and I've signed for everything so far but the thing is that they seem to be escalating."
"Escalating?" Rachel echoed. She really wasn't awake yet.
"Yeah, you know, they keep getting bigger and bigger. The first ones were just like a card and a single flower and then there was a little teddy bear and like a thing of chocolates. Now I'm getting these big flower arrangements and I'm running out of space down here. I was hoping you could come down and help me carry some of it upstairs."
"Yes, of course, Micah," Rachel said, "Give me a few minutes to make myself presentable and I'll be down."
"Of course, Ms Berry," he said, "Take your time."
Fifteen minutes later, Rachel and Micah had dragged all the gifts from the desk up the elevator and into Rachel's apartment. Rachel sent Micah on his way with a "Happy Valentine's" kiss on the cheek and a twenty for his trouble. As soon as he was out the door, Rachel grabbed her cell phone and hit the speed dial.
"I told you that I would call you as soon as I found out whether the rumor was legit or not, Rachel. Go back to bed."
"That's not why I'm calling, Santana," Rachel said, "I am awake and calling you at this ungodly hour because there are Valentine's Day gifts in my home. I thought all of that was supposed to be sent to the office."
"It is," Santana replied, "There were like four thousand cards delivered yesterday and Rebecca said there were another crap load already this morning plus flowers and things."
"Well, they're also coming to my home."
"You wanted to be on Broadway, Superstar," Santana said, "I said I'd help you get there. Welcome to the Limelight."
"This isn't a joke, Santana. This could be some crazy person that knows where I live. As my agent, my manager, and my best friend, I demand that you find out who is doing this and make them understand that while it's sweet, it's also inappropriate. And also be sure that they aren't raging psychopathic stalkers-slash-axe murderers."
"Any other kind of murderer will be fine so long as he/she doesn't use an axe?"
"SANTANA LOPEZ!"
"Calm down, Berry! It was a freaking joke," Santana said, "I'm already on this shit, okay? I just sent Tony a text. He'll be on the way over. Tell your doorman to let him deal with anything else that comes there. I'm about to call Sara to see if we've gotten any threats recently. Don't open anything that isn't already opened but look at whatever's there. See if there's anything threatening. Tell Tony if there is when he gets there. He just sent me a text saying he's leaving his house now."
"I got it as well," Rachel said.
"Okay," Santana said, "I'm gonna go get fabulous and head into the office. I'll call you if we figure anything out. Call me if things keep showing up."
"Okay," Rachel said.
"Listen, don't trip too much about this, okay?" Santana said shifting out of her business voice into her friend voice, "Some fan probably just figured out where you live and spread it around on one of the many, many We Love Rachel Berry fansites. I mean it's not exactly a huge secret anyway. The paps have followed you home a lot."
"You're right," Rachel said, "I shall endeavor to maintain a healthy caution rather than full blown paranoia."
"Although I will take this time to reiterate that I think you should move out of that damn building and into one with some actual security like they have at my place."
"Yes, yes, okay, broken record. Didn't you have to go now?" Rachel said.
"Excuse me for trying to keep the psychopathic stalkers-slash-axe murderers away from my best friend and star client."
"Goodbye, Santana."
After she hung up Rachel dashed quickly to the kitchen and got into her cleaning supplies under the sink. She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and surgical mask and went to look through the gifts she'd been sent. There was a beautiful arrangement of daisies, a small-ish stuffed bear holding a red heart with white lettering that said, "I Love You Bear-y Much", a single white carnation which Rachel seemed to recall meaning "pure love" and/or "good luck", a fairly large box of chocolates still sealed with a Post-It stuck to is that said, "Don't worry, they're vegan" in a distinctly feminine handwriting, and a card in an envelope… unsealed.
What to do? The chocolates were clearly still sealed so they were off limits but the card… the card was fair game, technically. It was clearly not sealed, in fact, the flap wasn't even tucked in. It was just open. Rachel's curiosity was quickly winning out over her sense of caution. She was properly protected against airborne attack after all. She opted to serve both sides of herself and picked the envelope up between both sets of thumbs and forefingers, carried it at arm's length to the bathroom, and sat on the edge of the tub, that way if it was an anthrax attack she could simply jump into the shower and rinse herself off and then vacate the apartment immediately.
She pulled the card out slowly until it was all the way out. When no sort of white powder fell out with it she quickly inspected the now envelope and found that it was indeed vacant of any other contents. She looked at the card and there seemed to be nothing untoward about it. It was simple, a little plain, pink with a red heart and red lettering that said Happy Valentine's Day. Opening it, Rachel found that it was one of those cards that was blank on the inside, or rather it had been blank when whomever purchased it, now it was full of someone's handwriting. Without going back to consult she couldn't be certain but it looked to be the same as the handwriting on the Post-It on the box of chocolates. She could also swear that it looked familiar, but she couldn't really be sure. Almost nothing was hand written anymore, everything was typed and texted.
The card read: You're probably reading this with rubber gloves on and one of those doctor's masks on. Good guess, Rachel thought. Let me say first of all, this is not an anthrax attack. I'm not going to hurt you. "Sure let me let my guard down just in time for you to pop out of my closet with a chainsaw." Let me explain a couple of things. Firstly, this is all my doing: the carnation, the daisies, the chocolates, the bear, the PJs, the necklace. If any of these things haven't arrived, just wait they will soon. You should be getting something every hour on the hour. "That's… elaborate." The second thing I need to explain is that I love you. Not in the way that a thousand screaming fans tell you every night where they worship you like the goddess that you are, but rather I'm in love with you and have been for some time in ways too numerous to fully explain, but I'll try. All day I'll try, and then tonight I'll hand deliver you something that you've wanted for as long as you can remember. "Hand deliver?" That's not a threat. I'm not going to force my way into the building or anything and if I get stopped at security and sent away that's fine, but my hope is that I'll be greeted with open arms. If not, then at least you'll know that you are loved, which is all I really want for me this Valentine's Day, to know that you know that someone cares. There was an arrow at the bottom of the card so Rachel turned it over to find more writing on the back. Please rest assured that I'm not a crazy stalker. I know you and you know me… very well. The carnation means pure love (because I would never tell a stage actress "good luck" what am I, an idiot?) and it's perfect for you because you have nothing but pure love. You always love with your whole heart, which I've always kind of quietly admired about you.
Tony arrived shortly after Rachel finished the card. He inspected everything in the apartment for any evidence of tampering but found none so Rachel plucked the attached card from the very colorful arrangement of Gerber Daisies. Except it wasn't a card but another note, handwritten on a piece of notebook paper. Rachel unfolded it and sat on the couch to read: If you haven't read the card yet, do that first or this won't make any sense. Gerber daisies represent innocence, purity, and cheerfulness because you are one of the most genuinely good people I know. You always see the best in people even when they don't see it in themselves, even when they don't deserve it. In a world that engenders and reveres deceitfulness, back stabbing, and underhandedness, you remain cheerful and optimistic and forthright. I envy you that. I wish I could see the world the way you do. Vegan chocolates: I love how much you care about every living thing on this planet so much so that you won't even drink milk. There's no special meaning behind the bear. I just thought it was cute and that you'd like it. I tried to find someone who did custom embroidery so that I could get the "a" changed to an "r" and it would say "I Love You Berry Much" but apparently custom embroidery is a big thing around V-Day and I waited too late. Sorry.
Half an hour later, at 10 o'clock, Tony phoned from the lobby to say that there was another delivery. While he was examining it for any potential threats, Rachel called Santana on her cell but it went to voice mail. She hung up and called the office number and got Rebecca, Santana's assistant who told her that Santana was on a call of the utmost importance and was not to be disturbed by anyone for any reason. Rachel attempted to protest but it was to no avail, so she took the time to talk to Sara, Santana's intern who got to open all of Rachel's fan mail who told Rachel that they hadn't received any threats against Rachel's life which was always good to hear. She left Rebecca with a message to have Santana call her at her earliest possible convenience.
Twenty minutes after 10, Tony had brought the latest gift up to her. It was the PJs that they card had mentioned. They were flannel, pink with Rachel's signature gold stars. They looked incredibly adorable and also incredibly warm on this bitterly cold February morning so with the all clear from Tony she put them on finding a matching pair of fuzzy socks in one pocket and another note in the other. She quickly donned the socks and then attended the note: I love how tiny and how big you are at the same time. Where you fit such a big voice and such a giant personality in such a tiny body I don't know but there's nothing quite like watching a 5'2" 105 pound girl command so many people around them so effortlessly.
At 11 another delivery arrived. This time it only took ten minutes for it to be brought up; it was another bouquet of flowers, Calla Lilies this time. No matter what they meant I would have sent you Calla Lilies today simply because they are your favorite flower and everyone deserves to get their favorite flower on V-Day… however, as it turns out Calla Lilies happen to mean "magnificent beauty" and you are most definitely that, Rachel. I know people have told you differently in the past but they were absolutely wrong.
At noon Rachel got a call from Tony asking if she had ordered lunch which she had not, but apparently there was a delivery man from her favorite Thai restaurant with food for her already paid for. Rachel told Tony to bring it on up. The food had been ordered and paid for through the restaurant's website so back tracking who placed the order would take too long. The food was far too fresh to have been tampered with so Rachel just dug in and greatly enjoyed herself. Shortly before the next gift was to arrive she tried Santana again, but according to Rebecca she was still on the phone.
At one there came yet another call from downstairs and ten minutes later Rachel was holding a jewelry box. Rachel rightly supposed that this was the necklace that the card had mentioned. She popped the box open and there attached to a sterling silver chain and facet was a gold gemstone cut in the shape of a star. The note tucked neatly in the top of the box read: The gem is a golden sapphire, so this gold star necklace is a metaphor for your stardom, which brings me to the next reason that I love you, your supreme confidence in yourself. You never once doubted that you would make it to where you are today. You believed in yourself so much that you made others believe in themselves just by being around you. Quinn Fabray, Brittany Pierce, Mike Chang, and Santana Lopez have all said that they wouldn't be where they are today without having known you and though she'd never admit it publically Mercedes Jones feels the same way. I know you're constantly refining your acceptance speeches for your EGOT and I can't wait to see you give them. I just hope that after today that the next draft will include a little tiny mention of me. Rachel may or may not have had tears in her eyes when she finished reading.
The two o'clock delivery brought more flowers, a dozen red roses. Yes, roses on Valentine's Day are clichéd, but you love things that are clichéd, and I love that you love them and given half a chance I will do my damnedest to make all of your romantic comedy cliché dreams come to life. This time Rachel definitely had tears in her eyes after reading the attached note.
Three o'clock brought a DVD in an unmarked case. The folded note inside had "Play the disc first" written on the outside of it. She popped the disc in the DVD player and soon was confronted with the image of herself on stage in her first leading role. It was a very high quality bootleg and after about ten minutes she heard her leading man step on her cue and then she knew not only was it her first leading role, it was her first night in the role. Rachel had tears before she even opened the note. This was the night I fell in love with you. I sat there in that audience glued to my seat. When intermission came I didn't want to move for fear of breaking whatever magic spell had been woven. I'd seen you before then, seen you act and sing, but there was something about that night. You bore your soul that night and you had never looked so beautiful or so alive as you did that night. If she was crying before the letter, she was absolutely sobbing afterwards. Another attempt to reach Santana now found her out of the office. Rebecca assured Rachel that she had given her both of Rachel's messages. Santana didn't answer her cell any of the first five times she called. After that it started going straight to voicemail.
Four o'clock's gift was brought straight up and Rachel was more than a little shocked to see the words Victoria's Secret on the box. Tony was red faced beyond anything Rachel had ever seen. The box had clearly not been opened. Rachel chuckled in relief when she opened the box to find a sleep mask with the word Superstar written across it. I love how dedicated and invested you are in your friends. You love them so much that you want to go out with them after every show despite the late hour and your natural early bird tendencies, so you take a little nap in the mid afternoon. I know you don't have a show tonight but I also know that you are a creature of habit so if you want, you can take one now. The five o'clock gift will keep until you get up. Rachel thought that sounded like a great idea. Still in her jammies and fuzzy socks Rachel lay down on the couch, adorned the mask, pulled the throw off the back of the couch down over herself, and was out like a light in minutes.
She awoke at 5:40 feeling greatly reinvigorated. She checked her phone and had one missed call from the lobby and no missed calls from Santana. She was beyond perturbed at her friend and manager. She called down to the lobby and found that Tony had gone home for the day and left in his place was Andre, Tony's second in command. Andre brought up her five o'clock gift up to her. It was a pair star shaped throw pillows. I know after everything else, this gift might seem a little bland but these pillows are actually where this whole cockamamie plan started. I was at Target about a month ago and I saw them and it made me think of you because everything makes me think of you but these especially because stars are your thing, so I bought them for you and then I got home and thought when am I going to give them to you, you know? It was mid-January and all friendly gift-giving holidays had just passed. Why not for Valentine's Day, I thought, oh right because you and I are just friends. Then the idea struck me to just suck it up and tell you how I feel. Thus, Operation: Win Rachel's Heart on Valentine's Day was born and it all kind of snowballed from there. If things go the way I hope then the pillows can become treasured sentimental items of you… for us. If not, then they're still star shaped pillows.
Rachel had barely dried her eyes from that letter when the call at six o'clock came. Minutes later Andre appeared once more in her doorway carrying a garment bag and a shoe box. He let himself out as Rachel yanked the zipper on the bag down quickly to reveal a stunningly beautiful wine colored dress. It was so amazingly perfect for her that her jaw hit the floor in shock. She shook off her stun after a few minutes and opened the box which contained matching high heeled shoes… and a note, always a note. Apologies if this comes off as presumptuous, but I saw it and I knew that it had to be yours. It looked like it was made for you. I know that you wearing this, you'll look at least as amazing as you ever have if not much more so. When discussing the things I love about you I can't leave out the physical. You have legs and an ass to die for. How someone so short has such long legs, I'll never know, but God am I not complaining. As a woman I know (I hope you worked out over the course of the day that I am a woman and that isn't some huge surprise to you) how much of a pain it is but you should never not be in heels with those legs. Your eyes, if I could manage some way to make a career out of staring into your eyes I could die happy, not that I don't love my job now but you know what I mean. Your grace, your poise, your… just your everything. If the worst should befall my plan and you shoot me down then at least do me this. Go out tonight. Wear this dress and these shoes and just go out. I know you don't have a date but you should go out anyway, because Valentine's Day is about love and you love people and you love New York. Take some of the mountains of flowers I've sent you and go find other lonely people and brighten their V-Day up a tiny bit. If you don't want to be with me then just don't be alone. Not tonight. I've got one more gift to give you and a promise to keep. Hopefully, I'll see you in an hour.
It took her almost twenty minutes to compose herself after that. Rachel was stunned. The depth of the emotion that had been conveyed to her today was bewildering to think about. Rachel stared at the dress for a long while then she re-read the note that had come with it. Then she re-read all the notes that she'd gotten today starting with the simple pink and red card from bright and early this morning. It was funny. That morning she had held it at arm's length through rubber gloves expecting the worst from it. Now she held it reverently in her hands and traced her fingers over the pattern of letters. Something jumped out at Rachel this time through the card. If not, then at least you'll know that you are loved, which is all I really want for me this Valentine's Day, to know that you know that someone cares. God, someone went to all of these lengths to show Rachel how much she cared, spent all this money, poured their heart and soul into these letters and genuinely would be okay getting nothing in return. This is why she couldn't begin to guess who was doing all of this for her. She didn't know anyone that self-sacrificing, or at least she didn't think she did.
Rachel questioned herself. Could she really fall in love with someone she didn't know? But that wasn't really the case, was it? She knew this person because obviously this person knew her very, very well indeed, knew her rampant paranoia, knew her diet, knew favorite dish from her favorite Thai place, and knew her sleeping patterns, for God's sake. There's no way that this was just some crazy stalker. Rachel knew from stalkers, Jacob Ben Israel had become obsessed with her approximately ten seconds after she hit puberty. Even stalkers didn't know this level of detail about their targets.
Miss Casanova, as Rachel had taken to calling her, had called it "Operation: Win Rachel's Heart on Valentine's Day" and Rachel wasn't sure that she hadn't succeeded in that endeavor.
Then a funny thing happened. Seven o'clock came… and went. Then 7:15 passed likewise, no call from the lobby, no last present, no hand delivery by the woman that had spent the day sweeping her off of her feet. When 7:30 passed without word, Rachel called down to poor Micah who was working an 18 hour shift on Valentine's Day of all days. He told her that nothing had come. The poor boy sounded almost as disappointed as Rachel.
At 7:45 her cell phone rang and it only rang for half a second before Rachel punched the answer button, "Hello?"
"Rachel," Andre's voice came, "Ms Lopez in on her way up."
Rachel deflated entirely. She had surely hoped that this was the call that Cassie (the new nickname she came up with in the last twenty minutes) was here. Instead it was her wayward friend-slash-soon-to-be-ex-manager. Who ditches out on their best friend and star client in an emergency after all? "Send her up," Rachel replied dejectedly.
"Oh she didn't wait on me," Andre said, "She'll probably knock on your door…" He was cut off by the sound of said knocking.
Rachel hung up without a word and stomped over to the door. She flung it open and said, "Where the hell have you been all day? Do you even know…?"
"Presents every hour on the hour," Santana cut her off, "all delivered either by florists or private couriers… or Thai delivery places. Almost all of them bought on-line with a credit card that it will take a day or two to track down. Meanwhile no suspicious activity in the vicinity, you never called down with a problem or to tell them to refuse any of the gifts, none of the packages appeared to have been tampered with, and at last word you were champing at the bit for one last package. I've been keeping track of the situation all day, I promise. I turned my phone off because I was in a very important meeting and you wouldn't stop calling… a meeting about you, by the way, so can we do business first and then if you still feel like yelling at me, you can?"
Rachel stared at her unflinching, arms crossed for two whole minutes before saying, "Fine, tell me about business."
"Okay," Santana said setting her briefcase down on the kitchen table, "The rumors are legit. Funny Girl is coming back to Broadway this fall." It took Rachel a moment to comprehend the words coming out of Santana's mouth, somehow in all the excitement of the day she'd forgotten about the thing that had been on her mind for weeks now. Santana got into her briefcase, pulled out a contract, held it up, and said, "And reviving the role of Fanny Brice is going to be none other than The New Face of Broadway, Ms Rachel Berry." She flopped the contract down on the table in front of Rachel and held out a pen for her to take. "Still want to yell at me?"
Rachel laughed and took the pen quickly and leaned over to sign in all the marked places. Before she did however, she looked back at Santana and said, "This… this is a lot of money."
"You've got a hell of an agent," Santana smirked, "Now sign the damn thing already."
Rachel did just that as fast as her hand would move. As she went all the implications of the role started taking root in her mind. She was following in the footsteps of her idol. This would get her Tony nominations and God only knows what else. She finished signing, stood back up, and quickly flung her arms around Santana, "Thank you, Santana… so much. This is a role that I've wanted for as long as I can remember." Those words instantly echoed in her head, and Rachel pushed back out of the hug. "You?"
"Finally figured it out?" Santana asked with a sly, hopeful smile.
"You did all this?" Rachel asked, "You're Miss Casanova?"
"If you're asking if I staged Operation: Win Rachel's Heart on Valentine's Day," she said pausing for an unbearably long time, "then, yes."
"And-and-and you… you meant it?"
"Every word, babe," Santana said with a smile at Rachel's excitement, "I love you."
"Ohmigod!" Rachel squeaked, "Iloveyoutoo!" Rachel practically slammed their mouths together and God did kissing Santana feel amazing, like literally better than anything she'd ever felt before. There was more pleasure, more warmth, and more love in those thirty seconds than she'd felt in whole other relationships. Eventually, they separated and Rachel said again, "Oh my God, Santana, you're so amazing this is… this is beyond comprehension or expression. I love you, so much."
"I love you, too, Rachel," Santana said, "but now go, go get showered and put on that amazing dress. We have dinner reservations at 9 and it's a madhouse out there."
Rachel's smile somehow managed to get even bigger, "God, how did I never see how perfect you are for me?"
"Because I was too big of a pussy to show you," Santana replied, "Now, go, get ready. I want to show off my beautiful, amazing, talented new girlfriend." Rachel just beamed as she walked back down the hallway.
"Happy Valentine's Day!"