Author's Note: The second chapter of Endless Wonder. I'm not sure how happy I am with how this one turned out because there is no artifact hunting, but it does get Santana interacting with more Warehouse characters. This chapter and the next will feature a lot of Santana being introduced to the Warehouse and all of its quirks, although the next chapter should be a little more exciting. ... Now it's just a matter of me getting to write it. Stupid job. Anyway, I'd like to give a big thank you to mykindofparty for reading over sections for me and for just being awesome in general. And I'd like to thank lemasquerade for giving me an awesome incentive to get around to posting this faster.
Episode 2: Welcome to Endless Wonder
Maybe leaving Lima should have been harder for Santana. The decision, at least, should have been more difficult. However, there was a thought—a desire if she was honest with herself—in the back of her mind that made the decision easier. There was nothing in Lima for her. Her job as a cashier and appraiser at the antiques shop left much to be desired, although she would miss teasing Finnocence on a daily basis. She hadn't spoken to her family in years. And her two best friends were getting married and moving on with their lives. If she left, they would have an apartment to themselves. As much as she loved the two of them, she did not need to hear how much they loved each other every night. She shuddered at the thought as she pulled three wine glasses out of the cupboard.
Sam hadn't been happy with her decision. After the incident, he thought it was his fault. She had told him to check his ego. The world didn't revolve around him and neither did her choices. Santana needed out of Lima. She needed to do something that didn't involve dusting off antiques and bartering with whiny customers all day. She wanted to have a purpose. The way Mrs. Frederic had explained her agency, Santana thought her purpose might be there. She frowned and filled the glasses with red wine. It may have been a stretch to say that protecting people from dangerous objects was her calling, but it had to be better than wasting her days at The Rhodes Show.
Wine sloshed over the brims of the cups as she carried them out of the kitchen and into the living room. Sam and Mercedes occupied the couch, his arm around her shoulders and a goofy grin on his face as she whispered something in his ear. Santana smiled and carefully set two glasses on the coffee table. It was quite possible that protecting strangers was not Santana's calling, but protecting the people she cared about was something she could do, even if they didn't know that was what she was doing.
"Shouldn't I be the one serving you? You're the shmancy pants with the promotion," Sam asked as he took a glass from the table and handed it to Mercedes. He took the remaining one for himself while Santana situated herself in the recliner next to the couch.
"You can go get the bottle once we've finished these off," Mercedes said, patting Sam's hand. He tried to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she pulled away so she could stand up and suggest a toast. Santana groaned. "Cut it out, Satan. This is a big day for you."
"Alright, alright. But nothing embarrassing or I'm pouring wine down Trouty's pants," she said before getting to her feet once more and joining Mercedes and Sam in front of the couch.
"A toast to my girl Santana, whose talent has finally been recognized," Mercedes said, bumping her hip against Santana's. "I'm not sure what kind of trouble there is in South Dakota, but I know you'll bring your own brand with you and they won't know what hit them."
Santana chuckled. "I'll be sure to give 'em hell just for you."
"That's my girl," Mercedes said before clinking her glass against Santana's. Sam's cup joined theirs and all three of them drained the wine from the glasses. Mercedes laughed when some dribbled down Santana's chin. "Don't you dare spill that on the carpet. I'm not cleaning up after your ass now that you're getting out of here."
"Calm down, mom. I'll clean up my own messes," Santana said before turning to Sam. "Go get us the bottle, Guppy Lips. We're just getting started."
Sam nodded and, after a kiss to Mercedes's cheek, disappeared from the living room, leaving the two women alone. Santana rolled the stem of the glass in her hand, spinning the empty cup while she waited. She could feel Mercedes's gaze on her, studying her, most likely wondering what was going on in her head. She gave her friend a reassuring smile just as Sam returned with the open bottle of wine and several bottles of beer.
"Refreshments for my two favorite ladies," he said, and poured more into Mercedes's glass and then Santana's. After filling his own, he raised it up. "I have some more words for the lovely Ms. Lopez here."
"Guys, stop. I'm allergic to sweetness. If I have to go through more tonight, I'm going to upchuck," Santana whined, but there was a smile on her face when Sam put his arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer. "That threat to pour wine down your pants is still on the table."
"Pour away, but first just let me say how proud I am of you. I know it's not the big break you were hoping for, but you're finally getting out of here," he said. He ducked his head for a moment and his shaggy locks obscured his face as he wiped his eyes with the back of his forearm. When he looked up again, his eyes were wet but his smile was back. "We're going to miss you, Santana, so be sure to Skype us from whatever dusty shop they have you working in once in a while."
"I didn't know you could be so sappy, Trouty."
"One of the many reasons I said yes," Mercedes said before giving him a quick peck on the lips. Sam excused himself to go to the bathroom and get something out of his eye, and Santana and Mercedes watched him go. Once he was out of sight, Mercedes turned to Santana and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We are gonna miss you, but we'll visit so much you'll be sick of us."
"Please. You guys are going to be doing it so much once I'm gone that you'll forget about me until the wedding," Santana teased, but she placed her free hand on Mercedes's hand and gently squeezed. Mercedes laughed and rolled her eyes. Sam came back from the bathroom and neither woman commented on how red his eyes were as they all started drinking again.
It was going to be a good night.
It was also a night she highly regretted, she realized, when she woke up the next morning in the bathtub sprawled over Mercedes. The pounding in her head made Santana groan and Mercedes weakly slapped her arm and muttered something that sounded like 'stop.' Santana slowly sat up in the tub, ignoring the spinning sensation the movement caused, and looked over the edge. Sam laid face-down on the floor with his hand resting on the rim of the tub and a box of half-eaten pizza on his back. She didn't remember ordering pizza, but after she stood and carefully stepped out of the tub, she grabbed a slice for breakfast on her way out of the bathroom.
The sun had not yet risen, which was nice for her hangover but an awful reminder of how early it was. Once she was dressed and had her suitcases out in the living room, she returned to the bathroom and nudged Sam awake with her foot while gently shaking Mercedes. The couple groaned in unison, but they forced themselves to their feet and left the bathroom to get dressed.
The ride to the airport was filled with idle small talk while the radio played a talk show in the background. Waiting at the airport was even quieter, but all three of them sat huddled together on a bench near Santana's gate. Her fingers fiddled with the straps of her carry-on bag while Mercedes flipped through an outdated magazine.
Half an hour before the flight was scheduled to depart, Sam offered to find them some food and asked Santana to come with him. She looked at Mercedes, who shrugged and continued to look through the tabloid. Santana sighed, but she followed the blond man through the airport in search of vending machines. They managed to find a machine with Pop-Tarts and called the search a success. On their way back with the spoils of their search, Sam spoke up.
"This isn't some promotion from the antiques shop, is it?"
Santana glanced at him before shaking her head. "What else would it be? You haven't caught me moonlighting on the side, have you, Trouty?"
"Come on, Santana. I may not be the smartest dude in Ohio, but even I know this promotion is a little too coincidental," he said. "That… What happened last month, does this job have something to do with that?"
Santana chewed her lower lip before saying, "I can't really tell you," which was pretty much telling him, but she couldn't lie. It wasn't like she had told him about the warehouse Mrs. Frederic had mentioned. Sam frowned for a moment before nodding.
"Whatever it is you're doing, be careful," he said. "And I'm sorry for what happened that night."
"For the last time, that was not your fault so you need to forget about it," she told him. "Now shut up about the job. I'd rather spend my last morning here not talking about work."
The frown on Sam's face turned into a smile and he nodded again just as Mercedes and the bench came into view. The three friends spent their last few minutes together sharing packages of Pop-Tarts until an announcement blared over the speakers, announcing Santana's flight. They hugged one last time and Mercedes whispered in Santana's ear to check her carry-on bag for a surprise. Santana frowned. Surprises weren't really her thing. As she walked through the jetway, her body started to tremble and she hoped the surprise was something to knock her out during the flight.
Once she was thankfully seated in the aisle, Santana opened her carry-on and laughed to herself. Sam and Mercedes had snuck in some last minute parting gifts: An assortment of new comic books and an iPod with her favorite artists, including Miss Jones herself. It may not have been something to knock her out until South Dakota, but it was more than enough to distract her from the occasional bouts of turbulence the plane went through. By the time she touched down in South Dakota, Santana had read through each of the comics twice. When the plane started unloading, she carefully placed them back in her carry-on and joined the mass of people rushing to get out.
Santana wasn't quite sure what she expected when she walked off the plane, but the redheaded woman holding up a sign with her name scribbled on the front was not it. She clutched the straps of her bag tighter and walked towards the stranger waiting for her. Each step closer made her stomach flip. She was taking her first steps toward something new and she could already feel the regret and fear coiling in her stomach. She refused to let it get to her. Santana Lopez didn't back down once her mind was set on something. Yet as she approached the young woman with short auburn locks, she wished she was the kind of person who wasn't afraid to turn back and run away.
Then Agent Pierce emerged from the mass of people holding two Styrofoam cups, and Santana's nerves dissipated.
The familiar sight of the blonde agent in the dark suit and loose ponytail was enough to ease the anxiety piling up in her gut. When she reached the two women, the familiar agent smiled at her.
"It's nice to see you again, Santana."
"I'm certainly not complaining, Agent Pierce," Santana replied before her gaze shifted to the unfamiliar woman. She was nearly as tall as the other agent, but instead of a suit, she wore a dark leather vest over a purple shirt and jeans. At least she didn't make Santana feel under-dressed. "Who's she supposed to be?"
The stranger's jaw dropped and she made an indignant noise. "I'm only the coolest special agent you'll ever meet, Short-stack, so watch the tone."
"This is Claudia," Agent Pierce said as she handed the stranger one of the Styrofoam cups.
"Dude, we talked about this. It's Agent Donovan around newbies," the redhead said as she took the offered cup. Brittany shrugged and handed Santana the remaining cup. It was warm to the touch and the smell of coffee drifted up from the hole in the lid. "Whatever. Intimidation factor officially ruined," she said before tucking the sign under her armpit so she could stick out her hand. "I guess you can call me Claudia, Newbie."
Santana stared at the offered hand for a moment before shaking her head. "Hands are full. Sorry," she said. "And that 'Newbie' thing? It's going to stop right now."
"Yikes. Somebody's a little prickly," Claudia said as she rocked backwards on her heels. "Something tells me you'll get along with Artie just fine, new girl."
It wasn't Newbie so Santana didn't complain. Instead, she gritted her teeth and pushed past Agent Pierce and Claudia and headed for the luggage carousel, where she waited through several loops of the conveyor belt until her two suitcases finally passed by her. She slid the straps of her carry-on up to her shoulder and reached for the luggage with the now free hand, but somebody else grabbed them before she could. Beside her stood Agent Pierce, suitcases in hand and a small smile on her face.
"Sorry about Claudia. She gets weird around new people," Agent Pierce said as they started walking through the terminal. Santana hadn't noticed in Lima—she had been a little too busy worrying about Sam—but the agent walked with such authority that the crowd seemed to part around the tall woman.
"I may have gotten back on the plane if she was the only one here for me."
"I asked Artie if I could come along to pick you up. Faces I like usually make me less anxious so I thought being here to greet you might be helpful. And Claudia can be a little much for some people."
"Agent Pierce, are you insinuating I like your face? That's a pretty bold claim," Santana said with a smirk as they walked through the automatic doors into the late July air.
The agent shrugged. "I've been told I have a very likeable face," she said before pulling out her phone. Santana assumed she was talking to the missing agent. Soon after she hung up, a black SUV pulled up to the sidewalk. Claudia sat in the driver's seat, her head bobbing along to the song pumping through the speakers.
Agent Pierce knocked on the back window of the large vehicle and Claudia popped the door to the trunk, where the blonde agent carefully placed Santana's luggage. She offered to add the bag to the suitcases, but Santana shook her head and let herself into the backseat while the agent shut the trunk. She pulled the iPod out of her bag and quickly immersed herself in the gift from her friends, trying to distract herself from the butterflies that began fluttering around in her stomach once the SUV lurched forward. Outside the window, the clustered buildings and busy streets of Rapid City transformed into rolling green hills followed by plains of brown and yellow grass.
The interstate stretched into the horizon, much farther than she had ever seen it stretch back in Ohio. Just when she thought they would be driving down the road until they ran out of concrete, the SUV veered off the cement and turned onto a dirt road that Santana's tired eyes had missed. Agent Pierce turned around and smiled. She didn't speak until Santana pulled the headphones off her head.
"Have your nerves worn off yet?"
"I think they got bored and left after that last farm we passed," Santana said, eliciting a laugh from both agents.
Claudia's eyes flashed up to the rearview mirror and met Santana's as she said, "Trust me. You won't be bored much longer. ETA in twenty."
Santana sighed and pulled her headphones back over her ears. Before she could hit play, however, Agent Pierce had unbuckled herself and climbed over the center console into the backseat despite Claudia's protests. Once the other woman maneuvered her long frame into the back, Santana pulled her headphones off again and looked over at her. She waited for an explanation but all she got was that damn smile.
"Can I help you?"
"Can I sit here?" she asked as she patted the middle seat.
Santana thought it over for a moment before nodding and turning her head back towards the window. It wouldn't hurt to let Agent Pierce sit a little closer. In fact, she actually liked the agent's company a bit. Their brief time together before had had an edge to it because of the situation with Sam, but it hadn't been uncomfortable at all. The rest of the ride to wherever the hell it was they were going wasn't exactly uncomfortable either. Neither of them spoke, but Santana would occasionally glance at the agent and catch her watching her and pale cheeks would turn pink, but Agent Pierce wouldn't look away. Instead, she would smile and Santana would end up looking out the window again, a smile of her own on her face. It was a strange game they played until the SUV slowed to a halt.
When the hum of the engine cut off, Santana switched her gaze from the back window to the front. A large, rusty warehouse spanned across the dirt. The building was massive in height as well as width, stretching up towards the sky in all its rusted glory. Santana slowly got out of the vehicle, her eyes fixated on the large structure. She didn't notice Claudia and Agent Pierce had come to her side until Claudia spoke.
"Just wait until you get inside. Then your jaw can really drop," she said. Claudia's eyes met Agent Pierce's, but when Santana looked at the blonde woman next to her, she was staring down at the strange tin box Santana had gotten a glimpse of the first time they met. She leaned over to get a better look. A circular screen dominated the face of the box and on the screen was the black and white image of an older man Santana had never seen before. Small glasses framed his eyes and his chin and upper lip were covered in a small beard.
"You must be Miss Lopez." The man's voice was slightly distorted. Santana wasn't sure if it was because of the strange device or not, but his voice sounded a little tinny to her ears.
"And you must be the creepy old man I've heard absolutely nothing about," she said, her eyes flickering up to Agent Pierce. Claudia laughed next to her and the man on screen gritted his teeth.
"Artie Nielsen. Your new boss," he said in a low growl. "And I would appreciate it if certain people here would start acting like I was their boss," he added, looking pointedly at Claudia. She cleared her throat and tucked her hands into her pocket, avoiding his gaze.
"I do, Artie," Agent Pierce said with a bright smile. "I even made you cookies that said 'World's Greatest Boss' on them."
"Yes Brittany, and they were certainly… something," the man said before shaking his head. He pulled his glasses off and wiped them with a cloth. Once he had the glasses perched on his nose once more, he told Agent Pierce and Claudia to bring Santana inside. "And don't touch anything," he warned before the screen went black.
"Guess that's our cue to give you the grand tour," Claudia said.
Agent Pierce gave Santana a reassuring smile and gently nudged her towards the massive structure, which only grew larger with each step she took. By the time they reached the metal double-doors that reached the roof, she had to lean back to see the tops of them. However, it wasn't the double-doors that Claudia opened. Instead, she led Santana and Agent Pierce to a smaller door and ushered the two of them inside.
Once inside, Santana blinked her eyes several times to adjust to the light of the bright white hallway they had entered. Santana shuffled behind Claudia and Agent Pierce, trying to stop her gaze from lingering on the blonde agent's backside by distracting herself with her sparse surroundings. Thin white pillars wrapped in yellow caution tape were placed all along the corridor, a metallic block encased by glass in the middle of each one. It seemed that when Artie said not to touch anything, he really meant it.
"Please keep hands and all other pertinent body parts to yourself," Claudia said as they passed through the door at the end of the corridor.
They entered what Santana would best describe as a clusterfuck of an office. She wasn't even sure she could call it that. Helmets from types of armor Santana didn't recognize lined a shelf against one wall, cabinets were pushed against the other. A board covered in sticky notes and photographs, each one with half-finished sentences scrawled across them, took up the middle of the room. The old man from the video screen stood next to the board, tapping a permanent marker against his chin. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to realize the cap was off.
"Trying to color your hair again, Artie?" Claudia asked as she took a seat at the computer desk next to the board. The man hummed, acknowledging that he had heard her even if he wasn't exactly listening. Santana chuckled at the black streak bleeding into his grey and brown beard. The sound caught his attention and he finally looked away from the board to get a good look at the newcomer.
"Santana Lopez. It's nice to meet you in person," he said. He tucked the marker into the front pocket of his brown jacket, still unaware of the missing cap. He offered his hand and she debated for a moment whether or not she should take it. He was her new boss though, so it was probably wise to start on the right foot. His hand was rough and calloused and she was more than a little relieved when he released hers. "Now then, if you'll follow me." He headed for yet another door at the other side of the messy office. When Santana didn't follow, he waved his hand. "I'm not getting any younger, you know."
Santana looked at Agent Pierce, who smiled and started walking towards Artie first. She followed in the other woman's footsteps and was glad for the agent's presence when they walked into a room larger than any Santana had ever seen. Aisles and aisles of shelved object stretched out beneath the balcony they stood upon. From what Santana could see, there were obvious weapons such as swords and spears, and other mundane objects: carpets, lamps, goggles. And that was only on the one shelf she could see from the balcony. She wondered which aisle she would find the Ajax's sandal in. Wherever it was, she planned to stay as far as she could from it. She didn't need any reminders of how close she had come to losing Sam.
"The hell is this place?"
"Endless wonder," Agent Pierce whispered in her ear. "Also known as Warehouse Thirteen, home to America's coolest junkyard."
Artie pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Attic, Brittany. America's attic," he said before he turned back to Santana. "You'll be getting acquainted with the ins and outs of the warehouse before you do any field work," he explained. "Claudia will show you around in a moment but first—"
"Hold up. I thought Agent Pierce would be doing that."
"She's going to be busy when Roz gets here in about," Artie checked his watch, "seven minutes. You've got paperwork to file on that ping in Jersey."
Santana's brow furrowed. "Ping?"
"Totally technical term for hijinks of the artifacty sort," Claudia chimed in as she stepped onto the balcony. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jeans and leaned against the railing. "Why don't I give you the grand tour now while Artie here gets Brittany started on the boring junk?"
"But her paperwork!"
"Will still be here when we get back," she said, rolling her eyes as she pushed off from the railing. She stepped up next to Santana and briefly rested her arm on Santana's shoulder before Santana pulled away. Claudia didn't let it faze her. "You two crazy kids go take care of business and my new best friend and I will go do some exploring."
Artie pinched the bridge of his nose yet again before waving his hand at the young woman. He ushered Agent Pierce through the doorway, leaving Santana alone with Claudia.
"Come on, Newbie. I've got some 'splainin' to do."
"Call me Newbie one more time and I'll push you over the railing," Santana threatened as she followed Claudia down the steps of the balcony.
Their footsteps echoed off the metal stairs and bounced around the warehouse as they descended to the ground floor. The aisles of shelves towered over them. They had appeared tall from the balcony, but now that she was on the floor staring up at them, their height was almost overwhelming. Rows and rows of shelves lined with objects waiting to destroy the life of some unsuspecting civilian. Civilian? Santana shook her head. She was already starting to think like these people and she had only been in the warehouse for ten minutes.
"So, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot."
"And what would give you that impression, I wonder," Santana said. She smirked when Claudia looked back at her.
"A+ sarcasm and a half-decent sense of style. I approve."
"Oh good. I was worried for a second there."
Claudia rolled her eyes. "Okay, I know I said I approved but tone it down for a second. I'm trying to apologize for being an ass earlier," she said just before she came to a stop and turned to face Santana. "Let's start over. I'm Claudia." She offered her hand, and Santana stared at it for a moment before pushing past her.
"And I'm not interested. Anyway, aren't you supposed to be showing me around this tin can?"
"Okay," Claudia drawled, lowering her hand back to her side. "I mean, hey, I was just trying to—"
"Actually, can I get the silent tour?"
Claudia huffed and Santana plastered a fake smile on her face which remained there throughout the quiet trip through the warehouse. It was too large to explore on foot in one day, so the other agent only showed her the more important parts and, after a reminder from Santana to keep the talking brief, she gave descriptions of each area.
The Dark Vault, where they kept powerful artifacts that had chaotic effects. Claudia didn't actually allow her to go inside due to the dangerous nature of the artifacts, but she did promise a tour once she got permission from Artie. The hair on Santana's neck stood on end when Claudia showed her the Bronze Section. At first, she thought they were surrounded by bronze statues of people she had never heard about. She was half right. They were people she had never heard of encased in bronze. Claudia may have mentioned how long they were supposed to be stuck in there, but Santana had been too busy trying to escape the gazes of the people trapped in the room to hear what she said. After Claudia caught up to her, she showed Santana the door to the Escher Vault and warned her about the dangers of entering without special permission.
"Some dude went in there by himself once and still hasn't come out," she said with a shudder before ushering Santana in the direction of the warehouse entrance.
"But what's in it?" Santana asked, looking over her shoulder at the heavy metal door.
"Nothing for you, that's for sure," Claudia replied. "Just make sure to stay out of there," she added before dropping the conversation completely. She rambled about one thing or another on the way back to the entrance, but Santana was still preoccupied with her thoughts about the Escher Vault. When they reached the stairs to the balcony, she spoke up.
"You don't know, do you?"
"Know what now?"
"What's in there. In the vault," Santana clarified. "That's why you won't tell me. You're just as clueless as I am but you don't want me to know."
"Hey, I know what's in there. It's just uh… it's a need-to-know kind of thing and you don't really need to know."
"Apparently, neither do you," she said before pushing past the agent again and heading up the staircase. Claudia called after her so she quickened her pace until she was up the steps and through the door into the office, where she ran face-first into someone's chest.
A very female someone judging by how their chest felt. She stepped back and the harsh words on the tip of her tongue faded away when she saw a familiar face smiling down at her.
"B-Brittany," she said. "I mean Agent Pierce."
"Brittany is fine," the agent assured her. "I was starting to think I hadn't given you my first name, but I guess I did."
Santana found herself mirroring the smile on the agent's face. "I guess you did," she said. "I just thought Agent Pierce sounded kind of badass."
"You mean Brittany isn't a badass name?" Brittany asked, pouting.
"I hate to break it to you, but…"
"I guess that's why the FBI never let me do interrogations," she said and shrugged her shoulders. "Hey, the B&B is serving dinner soon. Would you maybe want to eat with me?"
Santana didn't know what the B&B was, but she did know her stomach would appreciate anything that wasn't candy or airline food. "Who else would I eat with?" she asked. Brittany answered by looking over Santana's shoulder. Santana turned around and saw Claudia leaning against the railing again, waving at her. She shook her head and looked back at Brittany. "Yeah, no. I think I'll stick with you."
"I like the sound of that," Brittany said. A buzzing sound made her break eye contact with Santana as she pulled the rectangular phone-like device out of her pocket and flipped it open. Artie's voice echoed off the walls of the warehouse and Brittany cringed.
"How did you sneak crayons past me? I explicitly said no crayons!" He held up a form with several words written in bright, blocky letters. "This… This is not professional."
"No, but it's pretty," she said with a grin.
Artie took a deep breath and then another before shaking his head. "Just get back to the B&B so you can fill them out correctly," he said before the screen cut to black. Brittany smiled as she slid the device back into her pocket.
"Seems like patience is finally becoming a virtue Artie believes in," Claudia said as she approached Brittany and Santana. "I take it you already have the paperwork filled out?"
Brittany nodded. "In my room."
"You're gonna push the wrong button one day and that man is going to implode, just you wait," Claudia said. "But in the meantime, playing tour-guide has left me kinda hungry so I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat. I'll see you two soon enough, I'm sure."
Santana wasn't sure, but she thought she saw Claudia wink before she left.
"Please tell me I don't have to work with her," she said once the redhead was out of sight.
"I won't," Brittany said with a shrug before she started walking in the same direction Claudia had moments before. Santana swore under her breath and hurried after the agent.
"So what's this B&B place anyway?"
The B&B, as it turned out, was actually called Leena's Bed and Breakfast by the locals. It was owned and run by a young woman who, unsurprisingly, was named Leena. What was surprising, however, was the way Leena studied Santana while she ate alongside Brittany. When Santana asked what her problem was, she gave her a soft smile and said, "It's just nice to see balance every now and then," and returned to her own meal.
The smile left her unsettled. Then again, the whole warehouse was unsettling. It had seemed so unreal even as she was walking down the aisles alongside Claudia, but here she was eating with people who worked there. People who hunted down seemingly random objects out of the history books—and a couple mythology books—and then sat down to dinner together like it was no big deal. It was a place where people were trapped in a bronze tomb and never heard of again. Unsettling was a nice way to describe what she had learned about the place so far.
Santana looked down at her plate and sighed at the sight of the barely touched food. What she had eaten had tasted great, but her appetite had disappeared once the reality of the warehouse sank in. What had she gotten herself into? A light pressure against her shoulder snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked over to find Brittany's hand on her shoulder and the woman herself watching her, concern reflecting in her eyes. Brittany herself was unsettling as well, but for reasons that had less to do with the warehouse and more to do with the way she made Santana's gut twist into knots.
"I think I need to get some sleep," she whispered and Brittany nodded in understanding. They pushed their chairs away from the table and stood with their plates in hand.
When Claudia saw them heading for the kitchen, her conversation with Artie and Leena came to a halt. "Hey, where are you going? You haven't even met the rest of the gang yet!"
"I'm sure I'll survive somehow," Santana said. She gave them a half-hearted wave with her free hand and followed Brittany to the kitchen, where they cleaned off their plates in a comfortable silence, and then up the stairs to a hall lined with doors. She studied each one for several seconds before she turned to Brittany and asked, "So which one is yours?"
"I don't know. They all look the same from the outside," Brittany said. Santana wasn't sure if she was being serious or not. The agent was a hard read, especially after she had seen how she played Artie with the paperwork earlier. "I think it's the second one on the right though, if you ever want to have a sleep over."
And now Santana wasn't sure if the agent was hitting on her or inviting her over for an actual sleep over. Either way, she felt like she needed a change in subject.
"So do I just pick any free room or have I been assigned to one or what?"
"Any which one you like, it's yours. They're all pretty bland until your personal stuff gets delivered anyway. And it's not like you can't change rooms if you don't like the one you pick at first," Brittany said. "You might want to pick one soon if you're actually super tired. You have a long couple of days starting tomorrow."
"Lots of paperwork to fill out?"
"If that's what they're calling the warehouse training now, then sure. Lots of paperwork. Piles of it," Brittany said with a grin. Santana groaned and Brittany chuckled before leaning in towards Santana's face.
At first, she thought the agent was going to kiss her on the cheek like she had done the first night they met, but then Brittany whispered a quick goodnight into her ear and pulled back. Heat flooded her face and she rushed out an even quicker goodnight than Brittany's before escaping into the room behind her. Judging by the lack of décor, the room she had fled to was vacant. It would have to do for the night. If what Brittany said was true, Santana had a long week ahead of her. She leaned her back against the door and rested the back of her head against the wood. What was she getting herself into? She was sure it wouldn't be the last time she asked herself that question while she was working there.
Author's Note (2): If you watch Warehouse 13, this story is going to take place in an alternate timeline that kind of assumes that the stuff in season 4 has not happened. Just a heads up.