Santana's heels clicked with each step down the long empty corridor. She glanced at her watch and let out a sigh, shaking her head as her eyes lifted again. She was running late. She was never late. She had prided herself on never being late since starting her job but today she was late. Of course she would be late the one time the partner wanted to meet with her on an important matter. Fucking traffic. She hoped she didn't blow her chance at whatever he wanted to talk about.

She pushed the door to the conference room open and immediately saw her partner looking up at her from the long table where he sat. "I am so sorry" She shook her head and moved to the table, lifting her briefcase to set it on the table before finding a chair nearby and sitting. "Traffic was insane. I got here as quickly as possible."

"It's alright" The older man dressed in a nice suit held up his hand to stop Santana from continuing. "They are running late as well."

"See? I bet it was the traffic" Santana let out a soft laugh and clicked her briefcase open. "So do you want to give me a rundown of what we are looking at here?"

The man reached out and put his hand over Santana's briefcase and shook his head. "You aren't working on this case, Lopez."

Santana perked an eyebrow and looked the man over. She closed her briefcase and folded her arms over it. She eyed the man very carefully, trying to read him, before giving in and shrugging "Then what am I doing here, William?"

"This is a case of tax fraud. Or, well, potentially. We are going to try and figure out whether the fraud was purposely or not" William nodded as his eyes dropped to the papers he had in front of him.

"I don't do tax cases" Santana shook her head slightly. "I don't really know how I can be of any service in this case."

"You aren't" William said bluntly, his eyes lifting from the papers again. He had a very stoic, emotionless look on his face as he eyed Santana. "You're one of the clients, actually."

Santana blinked in confusion and sat up a bit more straight. "I don't understand" She shook her head again and eyed the older man. "Am I like being sued or something? I told you, I don't do tax cases so I don't know what this person is telling you about me."

"You aren't being sued" William assured her softly, still not showing much emotion about any of it. "But you are, it seems, potentially in a lot of trouble with the IRS."

"What?" Santana was growing a little annoyed and a little impatient. She had no idea what was going on and she wished William would just cough it up. "What are you talking about? Just be straight with me here, William. What is going on?"

"Sorry we're late" Another man in a suit, another lawyer by the looks of his suit and his briefcase, walked in ahead of a woman who Santana guessed was his client. "Traffic has been a nightmare." The man walked over to William, who had stood, and reached his hand out to shake it "Peter Gregors." He motioned to the woman following behind him and nodded "My client, Ms. Berry."

Santana shot up to her feet when she heard the name. She had been watching the two men greet each other and not really been paying attention to the other person who had joined them. As soon as she heard the name, though, her eyes landed on the small, familiar frame and she smiled "Rachel? What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in forever. What's going on?"

Rachel tried to smile but couldn't. She was avoiding all eye contact with her old high school frienemy. She shrugged and fiddled with the hem of the jacket she wore. "Santana, I'm so sorry about all of this."

"What's going on?" Santana asked again, this time worry filling her face. She moved around the table to be closer to Rachel and though they hadn't seen each other in at least two years, Santana reached out and slid her hand along Rachel's arm. "Someone please, fill me in here."

Rachel shook her head and finally looked up at Santana. She let out a heavy sigh and a frown came to her lips. "This wasn't my idea, okay? I wanted to call and figure it out just you and me but my agent said this would be easier. It would be kept quiet this way."

"What?" Santana looked around at everyone in the room now and shook her head "What needs to be kept quiet? What the Hell is going on? I haven't even talked to you in two years and all of the sudden you appear and there is apparently some sort of legal action involved?"

"How about we sit down" William moved around and motioned for Santana to take a seat. He wouldn't move when Santana seemed to want to object and when she gave in with a frustrated sigh and sat, he did too. He looked up at the others in the room and motioned for them to go ahead and take a seat as well. "Mr. Gregors I am sure you are informed of all details surrounding this situation?"

"Of course" The younger man cleared his throat as he opened his own briefcase and started to pull out the files he had. He took a moment to read them over before nodding and handing over a paper before looking at his own copy of the document. "The IRS has contacted my client, Ms. Berry, in attempt to audit her for tax fraud. Believing she had done nothing wrong as she had been paying a professional to do her taxes from the time she got her first job, she contacted my legal team to see what steps should be taken. It was then, after a little research, that my legal team discovered the reason for the potential audit of my client."

William nodded at all that was being said as he read along the paper the other man had handed him. He used his pen to circle a few things and make a few notes before looking back up "Tax fraud due to incorrect filing status for the past seven years."

"I'm sorry" Santana held up her hand to stop them both from continuing. Her eyes flickered back and forth between the two men and then Rachel "What does this have to do with me?"

"We're getting to that" William said with a nod. He made another note of the paper then nodded at Mr. Gregors to continue.

The man cleared his throat and looked back to the paper "Ms. Berry is accused of filing her taxes incorrectly to collect more tax money in return. The IRS has discovered that each time she has filed as single the past seven years has been incorrect. They discovered Ms. Berry entered into a marriage in the state of Nevada in the year 2012."

That's when Santana realized what was happening. She felt her heart drop to her toes. Her face got hot at the sudden rush of blood that came from the influx of her heart rate in her chest. She suddenly felt faint. Her fingers and toes started to tingle. Her vision started to go black. She was going to pass out. She tried to breathe. She tried to grab the edge of the table to hold herself up. She felt herself swaying in her seat. She closed her eyes and drew in a long breath.

Just when she thought she had controlled the urge to faint, she felt a sudden thump. Her body hit the floor and that was the last thing she remembered.

"Santana!" Rachel's voice screeched and she jumped out of her seat. Though the two of them hadn't been super close at the end of high school, they had remained civil each time the glee group had gotten together for whatever reason over the years. There were a few bickering matches and the constant snarky insults from Santana but they hadn't necessarily hated each other. So seeing Santana suddenly flush white and hit the floor caused her to jump up in concern and rush to her side.

Santana groaned as a hand lifted to run over her cheek. She felt like she had landed right on her face. She winced at the soreness under her touch and slowly started to blink her eyes open. Her brows knitted together and her eyes started to focus. She was surrounded with three faces peering down at her. She pushed her fingers into her eyelids and shook her head slightly "Can I have a little room to breathe, please?"

Rachel couldn't help but crack a smile at that. Even if Santana had calmed down considerably since becoming a lawyer she still had her bit of snark intact. Rachel got back to her feet and brushed her hands off as she looked down at Santana below her.

"Are you alright?" William reached down to offer his hand to her and gave her a soft pull until she sat up.

Santana shook her head and pushed his hand away once she was stable where she sat. Her hand was now rubbing at the side of her head where most of her weight had fallen. She had her eyes closed again and she groaned "I think so. I don't know what happened. I got really light headed all of the sudden and the next thing I knew I was on the ground."

"You fainted" Rachel said softly, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious" Santana grumbled, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Because we're married" Rachel added with a nod.

Santana blinked and it all came rushing back to her. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. So it hadn't been some hallucination? She was really sitting in a board room with Rachel Berry because, apparently, they were still married. She shook her head and looked up at Rachel now slowly "I thought you took care of that."

"I thought I did, too" Rachel frowned and pulled her arms more tightly across her chest. She did not very much like being faulted for this considering it was something they had both taken part in.

William's stoic look now finally faded and a bit of shock took over his features. He looked between Rachel and Santana still sitting on the floor and back again "Lopez? You knew about this? I thought it was just some crazy allegation against you. Some sort of money scam or something of the sort."

Santana shook her head and let out a sigh that kind of sounded like a laugh but held no amusement at all. She blinked and looked up at her boss before reaching her hands up for help getting back to her feet. Once she was standing again, she brushed herself off then turned to William with a frown on her face "It's true. I mean, like I said, I thought it had been taken care of but apparently not."

William just shook his head in disbelief. He had seen a lot of crazy things in his years as a lawyer but this was definitely a new one. He motioned to the chair that Santana had just fallen out of and shrugged "I am going to get you ladies some water bottles. When I return I expect to hear a very detail recollection of how you two ladies got yourself into this mess."

Santana nodded and looked down at her hands. She felt like she was disappointing her boss. She really hoped this wouldn't reflect badly on her and any future prospects she might have at the law firm.

"I will be right back" William said in a gruff voice before moving out of the room, still shaking his head as he went.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Santana swigged some water from the bottle William had returned with then licked her lips. She motioned to Rachel and gave a little nod of her head as if waiting for her to go ahead and tell the story.

Rachel arched an eyebrow but didn't question it. She had never known Santana to take attention off herself but maybe she just couldn't remember. So Rachel cleared her throat and looked at the two lawyers sitting there waiting for her to speak. She gave them a smile then nodded "It was Spring Break our Senior year. We, the glee club, decided to have one last day of fun before hunkering down to focus on Nationals. So, thanks to my fathers' mass amount of frequent flyer miles they had collected, we were able to go to the one place anyone could have fun. Las Vegas."

Santana groaned at the reminder. It was a long lost memory to her. She had pushed it so deep down into her brain that she was sure it was a made up memory or something she had seen once in a movie and that's why it was there. She shook her head in defeat now as Rachel brought truth to her denial.

"It was fun. Half of the kids had fake I.D.s so we had no problem getting alcohol. Our friend Puck even convinced some strippers to come to our room. Do you remember that?" Rachel looked at Santana and laughed softly "I think the girls had more fun than the guys did with the strippers."

"Only because we got to try on their clothes and let them give us makeovers" Santana chuckled softly at the memory. It had been a crazy time, that was for sure.

"I'm sure it was a good time but I don't need to know. I need to know about the marriage." William, his stoic face returning, mumbled with a nod as he took notes on his legal pad.

Rachel bit her lip and looked down at her hands on the table. She felt like she had just been scolded like a child. She cleared her throat, though, and pulled herself together to continue "Someone got the bright idea to play truth or dare while we were all drunk. Puck loved to annoy Santana so when she picked dare he took his chance. He dared her to go down to the chapel and marry me. He knew Santana hated being bested and that she thought I was the most annoying person on planet Earth so he figured he would get the best of her either way."

Santana rolled her eyes. God Rachel really was super annoying. Why couldn't she just finish the story already so they could start talking about how to fix it. She took another drink from her water bottle before clearing her throat and interrupting before Rachel could continue. "We were trashed, we thought it would be funny, and neither of us thought it would actually stick. We went down, paid the $50, signed a paper, and that was that. Everyone laughed and we left. No big deal."

"Except that it was a big deal" William said with a nod. He was still looking at his notepad as he wrote but spoke directly at Santana. "Apparently it wasn't a joke to the government and they are coming after your friend here. Frankly I am surprised it took them this long. If we don't get this straightened out, your friend could go to jail and they could come after you next."

Santana frowned and looked over at Rachel who was still looking down at her hands. She let out a sigh and shook her head "I thought you started the process to get it annulled, Rachel. What happened?"

"I don't know" Rachel shrugged and looked up at Santana with a frown on her lips. "Look, I didn't lie to you when I told you I started the process. I would really appreciate if you would stop blaming me for this. You were there too and you obviously didn't do anything to ensure the process had been completed."

"I didn't think I had to. When I didn't hear from you again I figured it had all worked out" Santana shrugged and looked at her hands now. She bit her lip and looked up at her boss before shrugging "And I now realize how stupid that sounds coming from me. I was in law school, I should have realized something was wrong."

"Yes you should have" William said with a nod as he took another note. His eyes lifted and he looked now to Rachel's lawyer with a nod "I assume since learning of this you have done your research about how best to proceed from here?"

"Of course" Mr. Gregors nodded as he dug in his file for something. He found what he needed and pulled it out, sliding it toward William with a slight glance toward Rachel.

William took the paper and started to read it over. His eyes narrowed as he ran over the words with his eyes, taking them all in one by one. He nodded a few times, grunted a few times, and took a few notes. He was fairly quiet for a few minutes as he worked over the information he had been given before finally setting the paper down and looking up at Santana with a shrug "Well the good news is that it can be undone."

Santana let out a sigh of relief. "Good."

Rachel nodded in agreement and gave a soft smile "What do you need to do?"

"All I can do is get the process started. It's not what I have to do, though, it is what the two of you have to do." He glanced over at Rachel's lawyer then to both of the girls staring at him in anticipation. He looked at the paper again then back to the girls with his emotionless face "The statute of limitations does not exist in Nevada so that means there is no deadline on getting an annulment which worked out for you girls."

"That's good" Santana nodded again. She liked the sound of everything she had heard so far. It seemed like something that they could get taken care of pretty easily.

"There is some bad news" William said with a slight nod of his head. He looked back down at the paper he had gotten from Rachel's attorney and cleared his throat "In accordance with Nevada state law, annulments can only be granted to persons who have been residences for at least six weeks." He looked up from the paper now, his eyes staring down Santana seriously "Which means in order to get this taken care of you two ladies have to move to Nevada."

"What?" Santana's jaw dropped and her head shook slightly. She looked over at Rachel and back to her William before letting out a huff "There has to be some way around that. I can't afford to move right now. I have clients and cases to take care of. This is ridiculous."

"Santana" Rachel whispered softly and reached across the table to put a hand on Santana's arm. "Just calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down" Santana ripped her arm away from Rachel and stood up from the table now and looked at the three people still sitting there. She shook her head quickly and pointed at Rachel "Why wouldn't you have known about this? Wouldn't you have run into this when filing the initial paperwork?"

Rachel shook her head, her eyes pleading with Santana as she spoke "I swear, I didn't know. I started the paperwork with my lawyer. He said he was going to take care of it. When I didn't hear back I just assumed everything was alright."

Santana just rolled her eyes at that. She was so frustrated by all of this. She had no idea something stupid like a dare in high school could be coming back to haunt her now. She lifted a hand and pinched at the bridge of her nose. She took a few breaths in to try and calm herself down. Being irrationally mad right now wouldn't get her anywhere. She let out a slow sigh and finally looked back up. Her eyes focused on Rachel's lawyer and shrugged "So what happened to the paperwork Rachel started?"

Mr. Gregors shook his head and motioned to Rachel "I was not her lawyer back then. I have been recently assigned to her through her agency. They wanted to keep it quiet and out of the media. She's about to launch a new show and the last thing they want is a scandal."

"So what happened to your last lawyer?" Santana's head turned to look at Rachel now.

Rachel just shrugged. "I never heard from him again. When I called to find out what had happened once I found out about this the law firm was no longer there."

Santana let out another sigh and threw up her hands in frustration. "Of course it wasn't there. They probably took your money and ran for the boarder." She started to pace now, her head shaking as she mumbled to herself.

"Santana, please" Rachel said softly, her eyes watching the girl pace back and forth. "Look I'm not happy about this either. I'm about to open a show. Now my team has to either move to Vegas to continue rehearsals or they have to push the release back until this is taken care of."

Santana let out another sigh and turned around to face the others in the room again. She looked at William and shrugged "Alright, fine, so we have to live in Nevada for six weeks. Can't we fake it? Set up an address, have some mail be sent there, make it look legitimate?"

"You and I both know it doesn't work that way" William said, unamused at Santana's suggestion. "There has to be a legitimate residence. There has to be witnesses to your residency."

Santana threw up her arms and finally plopped back down into her chair. She rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Fine." She shrugged and unfolded her arms "Fine. Let's just get this taken care of, please."

~.~.~.~.~.~.

After a very detailed rundown of how the rest of the case was going to progress they then decided on a date to leave New York and head to Nevada for six weeks. Santana enlisted the help of one of her real estate friends to find them a place to stay in Vegas. They decided to stay together since it would be more financially responsible. Santana was in her first year out of law school so she wasn't making a lot of money yet. Rachel had more money, having found success in a few small shows on Broadway, but she couldn't afford to pay rent in New York and Vegas at the same time.

They had a week to prepare for the move. Santana had spent most of that time figuring out a way to work with her current clients across the country. She had been set up with one of the associate firms out there and things were looking good. Even if this was a complete inconvenience, she was making it work.

After packing her entire box of important legal documents she had filed in her tiny apartment, she threw together two bags of clothes, an entire bag of shoes, and another bag of her toiletries and beauty products. She had tried to pack light but had failed. Though in comparison to what she would usually pack she had done a pretty good job.

She had paid a pretty hefty shipping cost for all of her bags and her box of important documents and was pretty grumpy when she had gotten to the airport because of it. She huffed as she plopped down on one of the chairs inside the terminals and checked her phone to see how long she had to wait to board.

"Santana" Rachel huffed as she marched up to her and folded her arms. "We were supposed to meet up before the airport."

"I forgot" Santana mumbled, not even bothering to look up from her phone.

"I doubt it. I called you four times and texted you at least fifteen times" Rachel rolled her eyes and sat down next to Santana, turning to face the woman next to her. "You are literally looking at your phone right now. Are you trying to tell me you didn't get any of my messages?"

"Not a single one" Santana said with a shrug, her fingers fast at work typing out a business email.

Rachel rolled her eyes and gave her head a shake. "You are infuriating" She turned to push her back into the back of the chair and moved her carry on over her legs. She dug through it and found her magazine, pulling it out to read while they waited to board.

Silence fell between them, much to Santana's delight, and neither of them spoke again until boarding. When it was announced their flight was boarding, Santana sighed and picked up her purse. She slung the small bag over her shoulder then pulled out her boarding pass before heading to get into line.

"Wait" Rachel caught up to her, eyeing her carefully before shrugging her shoulders "Where are your carry on bags? Where is any of your luggage?"

"I had it shipped" Santana shrugged, glancing over her shoulder to find Rachel struggling with two carry on bags. She rolled her eyes and reached out to grab one of the bags with a shake of her head "I figured you of all people would have your stuff shipped. Don't you have people for that?"

"Sure" Rachel said with a shrug, smiling a little bit at the gesture from Santana to help her out with her bag. "But, contrary to popular belief, I am not actually a diva."

"What's changed from high school?" Santana asked with a laugh, smirking back at the girl. "Because the Rachel Berry I remember would have eaten all that sort of attention up."

Rachel rolled her eyes at that. "Well it's been seven years since we've graduated. You don't think I would have changed even a little bit? I mean, you've changed. You're all..." She motioned over Santana with her hand and shrugged "...put together and accomplished. You've only insulted me once, barely, with that diva remark and we've been back in contact for an entire week."

Santana just rolled her eyes. Thankfully it was her turn to board because she had nothing to combat what Rachel was saying. She was more mature and although she did enjoy insulting people she usually kept it to herself nowadays. She hadn't gotten soft, per say, but she had toned herself down to be more professional. Yeah, sure, that sounded good.

She gave the woman who took her boarding pass a smile then headed down the jetway. She didn't even wait for Rachel. She just walked straight down and onto the plane. She was tucking Rachel's extra carry on bag above their seats when Rachel finally caught up to her. She gave her a roll of her eyes then sat in her seat "I want the window."

"That's fine with me" Rachel said with a soft smile. She waited until Santana settled in before she sat beside her and tucked her smaller carry on under her seat. She looked at Santana with a little smirk on her lips before unfolding her magazine and starting to read where she had left off.

"What are you smirking about?" Santana perked an eyebrow, glancing out of the corner of her eyes at Rachel.

"Nothing" Rachel said with a little shrug, still smirking slightly. She didn't want to tell Santana she liked the new and improved her. That would ruin the fun.

Santana just rolled her eyes and pulled out her headphones so she could listen to the music on her phone. This was going to be a long flight if Rachel was going to sit there smirking the entire time. She let out a sigh at the thought. How did she get herself into this?

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

A car was waiting at the airport to take the girls to their new place. Santana couldn't wait to get settled and start working again. It was amazing to Rachel just how focused Santana was on work. The girl she had known in high school didn't really take anything seriously. It was definitely a nice change.

Santana unlocked the door and pushed it open, smiling as soon as she stepped inside. She had managed to get them a great deal on a penthouse suite for the duration of their stay. The windows went from floor to ceiling and with it barely being past noon the entire suite was filled with warm sunlight. "Now this is what I'm talking about."

"Santana, this is amazing" Rachel mumbled as she walked in behind her, eyes wide, taking everything in. She walked right over to one of the windows and looked down, smiling slightly "This view is incredible." She slowly turned her head to look at Santana and gave a shrug "There is no way this is cheaper than renting something just outside of town, though."

Santana just gave a wave with one of her hands and shrugged it away "Don't worry about how much it costs. The guy owed me a favor."

"I don't like the sound of that" Rachel turned now to look at Santana, arms folded across her chest. "I'm already in trouble because of this stupid joke marriage I can't be involved in anything else illegal."

Santana rolled her eyes and turned to move into the kitchen now. The entire living room and kitchen area was one huge open floor plan with only a small breakfast bar separating the two rooms. The two rooms alone were bigger than most New York apartments and that didn't even include the actual bedrooms and bathroom that was included. "It's not illegal. I helped him get a huge settlement when I was interning at the firm and he promised if I ever wanted to come to Vegas to stay he would get me a great deal."

"Are you sure?" Rachel frowned, her eyes carefully scanning Santana as she moved, trying to read her body language to see if she was being honest.

"It's fine, Berry" Santana nodded as she pulled a water bottle out of the fridge. She had called ahead and gotten a personal shopper to fill the kitchen with food so she wouldn't have to be distracted by doing it herself. "Now" Santana spoke after sipping from her water. She leaned her elbows onto the breakfast bar and looked out over the living room to where Rachel was still standing "We need to lay down the ground work of residency today. The real estate agent is coming by later for us to sign the lease. It's just a formality, we aren't actually signing anything past six weeks so no worries about getting stuck paying to break the lease or anything like that."

Rachel nodded quickly and moved now to sit at one of the bar stools on the other side of the bar where Santana was leaning so they could talk without having to half shout across the open space. "What else do we need to do?"

"You're going to need a job" Santana nodded as her fingers picked at the paper label around her water bottle. "It has to look like we are actually living here and not just staying here in order to get the annulment. There will be an investigation. So, a steady job will help our case."

"What about you?" Rachel said with a shrug.

"I have a job" Santana rolled her eyes and laughed. "I've already been put on as an associate at one of the firms down here. The law world is pretty small and chances are where ever you work someone knows someone in whatever city you need them to know someone in."

Rachel blinked then gave her head a shake. "What?" She thought it over for a moment then just decided it didn't matter. She used a hand to wave the thoughts away then shrugged "Nevermind. So what should I do then?"

"I don't really care" Santana said with a shrug, pushing away from the bar now and walking around it into the living room area again. She sat on one of the plush couches and smiled at how soft it was. She could definitely get used to this lifestyle. Maybe if things went well she would stay in Vegas when it was all said and done.

"You aren't being very helpful" Rachel huffed and pushed off the bar stool. She moved to the living room as well and sat on one of the chairs across from Santana. "I mean, my company is coming every weekend to continue rehearsals for the show while I'm here. Doesn't that count as work?"

"You are technically being paid by New York State and not Nevada" Santana shook her head and set her bottle down. She turned slightly on the couch to face where Rachel sat a little better and shrugged her shoulders "There are theaters here, Berry. Why not start there? I'm sure they have like a Celine Dion tribute show or Cher on Ice or some shit you can get involved with. You have Broadway experience, use that to your advantage."

Rachel nodded a little and looked down. She kind of felt like Santana was talking down to her. Still, after all these years, Santana could go from acting like she actually cared to being cold and callous so quickly. She never understood what Santana had against her. She took a breath and looked up at her new roommate and frowned slightly "Can I ask you something?"

Santana looked up from where she was reading a work email on her phone and perked an eyebrow at Rachel "We're stuck together for the next six weeks, Berry. If you have something to say you better get it out now. It will make this whole thing a lot easier."

Rachel nodded her head at that. She was right. They needed to work out any problems now or the next six weeks would be awful. "Why don't you like me?"

Santana let out a huff of a laugh and shook her head as her eyes dropped back to look at her phone "I like you just fine, Berry. In fact, if I recall, we even decided to be friends."

"Seven years ago" Rachel said with a shrug. "But ever since graduation we've barely talked. We only see each other whenever the glee club gets back together for a wedding or a baby being born or that time we all went to Mercedes' concert in Cleveland. Outside of those times we have never talked. Even when we were in the same place you pretty much ignored me or insulted me in front of everyone like always. In fact, we've both lived in New York for three years and we don't even meet up for lunch."

"Why would we do that?" Santana perked an eyebrow and looked up from her phone again. Seeing the look on Rachel's face, she knew she wasn't going to get any work done until this was discussed, so she sighed and set her phone on the glass table between them.

"Because we decided to be friends?" Rachel said with an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders. "Because we both worked really hard together on the same goal for three years in high school? Because when all was said and done I thought maybe it didn't matter that you were hot and popular and I was a loser because at the end of the day we both loved the same thing and had managed to excel at that thing together?"

Santana let out a soft sigh and slid now to the end of the couch. She folded her hands together and laid them in her lap as she leaned a little closer to Rachel even if they were separated by the table. "Look, Berry, you and I are very different people. We were different people in high school that, yes, had a common passion for show choir. We did a pretty bad ass job of getting a National title out of it because we both loved it so much. But we didn't have much else in common. I cheered, I'm Latina, I'm gay. You love Broadway and boys and, I don't know, you're Jewish. Our common ground starts and stops with glee."

Rachel frowned a little and shook her head slightly "We got along well in glee even if all we had in common was glee." She shrugged again "I thought after high school we could find something else we both loved, too."

Santana frowned a little and reached out her hand now to place it against Rachel's knee. "Berry, don't feel bad. I don't really talk to anyone else from school either. I mean, Brittany of course. She's been my best friend since I was eight but it's not like I see her very often. I talk to Quinn, too. But that is because we both had cheerleading and being hot and popular in common. After glee we all just went our separate ways and started our real lives. It's nothing personal against you. We just live in two totally different worlds."

Rachel nodded a bit and looked down to Santana's hand on her knee. The old Santana would have definitely already made fun of her and walked off by now. This was definitely a nice change. She smiled slightly and looked up at her with a nod "Well do you think we could try and find some common ground now? I mean, it's been seven years. Maybe we have more in common now that we've both been out in the real world than we did in high school. I'd really like to try and be your friend, a real friend, and not just be acquaintances who deal with each other to be polite because we once shared a bond over something like glee."

Santana let out a soft laugh and nodded before she stood up from the couch "Sure, Berry, we can try. It might actually make these next six weeks bearable." She moved now back toward the kitchen but paused and turned to look at Rachel. She motioned over her shoulder and smiled "Now come on. We haven't even checked out our rooms."

Rachel smiled and got to her feet quickly. She rushed over to join Santana and the two of them disappeared down the hallway to where the bedrooms and bathroom were. She was glad she had talked to Santana. She was afraid this was going to be a string of bad insults and rude comments but instead it held to potential to actually be fun. Maybe after all was said and done Santana Lopez would not only be her ex-wife but her new friend.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

The two of them had picked out their bedrooms, Santana insisting on the biggest one, then took some time unpacking their things. Since all Santana had on her was her purse it didn't take her long and she was soon on the phone with clients. Her clothes, shoes, files, and other things would be there later in the day. She wasn't too worried about it. She planned to live out of boxes for six weeks. She was not going to get settled in only to have to pack it all up again.

The real estate agent had come by and the two of them had gone over the paperwork for the short lease. With both of them signing it they made their residency legitimate. Now all Rachel needed to do was find a job to make their case seem stronger. So while Santana was left at the suite chatting on her phone, Rachel went out and about to find work. At this point she would work as a janitor if she needed to. Anything to get Santana to shut up about her needing a job.

By the time Rachel had gotten home that evening Santana's boxes had arrived. Rachel set her things down on the table near the door and slowly made her way into the suite, smiling at Santana when she saw her on the couch "I see your clothes are finally here."

Santana nodded, her eyes on the tv. She had a glass of wine in her hands and was kicked back on the couch enjoying some mindless entertainment. "Did you find a job?"

"Yes, dear" Rachel rolled her eyes with a mocking tone in her voice. She took off her shoes and placed them near the chair next to the couch before she sat down as well.

"Where?" Santana glanced over at Rachel now, eyed her curiously for a moment, then looked back to the tv.

"It's called..." Rachel shifted around as she patted at her pockets. When she found the business card, she smiled and handed it over to Santana "The Strip."

Santana perked an eyebrow as she eyed the card. She had only been half paying attention to what was on the card but when her eyes caught sight of the outline of a sexy woman behind the business letters, she sat up and looked up at Rachel in shock "Is this a strip club? Did you get a job as a stripper?"

"Don't be silly" Rachel said with a laugh as she kicked up her feet to rest them on the coffee table between them. "I am going to be a cocktail waitress there. I was against it at first but then I learned they have theme nights and sometimes they do karaoke and I figured it would be a great place to keep my singing and acting skills fresh!"

"You work at a strip club?" Santana let out a laugh of disbelief and shook her head. "How the Hell did you even wind up there? Did you legitimately look at the building and decide you might as well just see if they had any openings?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and let out a laugh "No. I didn't know it was a strip club when I went in. I was just trying to find a bathroom and ask for directions to a place I had found in the paper. While I was washing my hands I got to talking to one of the girls there and, I don't know, one thing led to another and the next thing I knew I was being offered a job."

Santana's face held a smirk of amusement at Rachel. This was the last thing she would have ever expected from her. Times really had changed. "And you didn't think that maybe there was something a little more..." She motioned at Rachel and shrugged slightly "YOU out there?"

"Of course" Rachel said with a shrug. "But this is also a once in a lifetime chance to experience something I never will again, I'm sure. It can only help but expand my experiences and help in future roles. What if they do a revival of Showgirls? I could try out with complete confidence after working at The Strip!"

"If you are ever in a revival of Showgirls I might actually die" Santana mumbled through a laugh. She settled back on the couch and lifted the remote toward the tv again. "Well as long as you have a job. Now when we go to court it will all look legitimate."

"No worries" Rachel stood up and moved toward the kitchen "I will play by the rules to make sure everything goes smoothly. I'm the one at risk of going to jail, remember?"

Santana just lifted a hand to wave Rachel away, her attention now fully on the tv. She had forgotten how much Rachel Berry talks.

Rachel just rolled her eyes at Santana. She stepped into the kitchen and started to pull out a few things. She glanced back over at Santana on the couch and smiled before calling out to her "I'm making dinner, are you hungry?"

Santana perked an eyebrow at the mention of food. Maybe having Rachel around wouldn't be too horrible after all. "I could eat" She called back without looking away from the tv.

"Good" Rachel said mostly to herself as she focused on the task at hand. She had become a great cook since her early days in New York by herself. She could whip up a wide range of delicious meals. The only question now was whether or not Santana would like her cooking. Not that she really cared. It wasn't like they were really married after all. But it would be easier if Santana didn't complain every time she cooked.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.