i am just the singer (but you are the song)

chapter two

It has been said by many a musician that the only thing worse than touring is not touring.

There were many things about that Rachel had quickly grown to love about the experience - the travel, the sightseeing, the learning about different places and people all over the country – but there were other things about it that she had just as quickly grown to dislike. She found that she needed to be much more careful about taking care of her voice on the road than she did even when she was doing eight shows a week on Broadway. She had to talk less, drink more hot tea, and get more sleep (the last of which was sometimes not very easy to do on long overnight bus rides along interstate highways, even though the tour bus that Shelby had been able to acquire was the very best vehicle available on the market).

And the thing that Rachel disliked the most about touring, of course, was being away from home, and Santana. Of course, Santana had been true to her word: they had indeed communicated with each other every day since Rachel had left, whether by phone, Skype or Facebook, and Rachel had honestly never felt more loved or secure – which only made her miss Santana more. While all the conversation was nice, and certainly reassuring, there was no way for them to replace the non-verbal communication that had become even more common between them than talking: the sensual language of touch, and sound, and scent. Rachel found herself longing for the smell of Santana's perfume, and during one particularly difficult off-day in some town whose name she couldn't remember, went to store after store searching for a bottle of it, just so she could spray it in the air on her pillow. She slept in one of Santana's old Fleetwood Mac T-shirts every night simply because it smelled like her.

She missed hearing Santana's laughter tickling her ear even as her lips nibbled at the delicate skin of her neck, and the light touch of Santana's fingers running through her hair. She missed hearing her sing in the shower. She even missed her soft snoring as she lay curled up on the couch in front of the TV after a long, grueling day in the recording studio. And she especially missed being kissed awake in the morning, and hugged at random moments 'just because.'

And there were...other things Rachel missed, too – things that made her blush deeply whenever she thought of them, prompting knowing looks and gentle, sympathetic laughter from Tina and Mercedes whenever they would catch her with that dreamy, far-away look in her eyes, which was often. The frequent late-night hotel room Skype 'dates' were poor substitutes for the real thing, and sometimes she would cry afterwards, filled with an aching desire to be touched by Santana's hands and not her own.

Sometimes she felt overwhelmed with loneliness, and it was only the constant love and support she received from Kurt, Tina, Mercedes and all her other friends, plus her band and crew and even Shelby, that enabled her to maintain any kind of emotional equilibrium. That was the silver lining in the dark clouds of melancholy that threatened to rain on her parade on those days.

For her part, Santana wasn't doing much better, but she wasn't about to let Rachel know that. Blaine and Kitty and Sam and all their other friends made a tremendous effort to keep her spirits up, constantly calling and coming over to make sure she was kept busy, but she missed Rachel terribly. As the tour went on and time and distance became more difficult to bear, there were days when she found it difficult to do much more than stay in bed, watch videos of her little diva's performances on her laptop and cry.

It was after one such day that Santana decided that she just couldn't take being apart from Rachel anymore. That was the day she started to plan.

Due to extraordinary popular demand, as Rachel's album sales soared and rave reviews for her performances poured in, the tour expanded to include shows in cities that had not initially been booked. This delighted Shelby, but even though Rachel and Santana were happy about the tour's massive success, they became more and more agitated over the ever-increasing workload and complex scheduling the expansion required.

Santana decided that a simple surprise visit backstage wasn't going to cut it – no, she wanted to make one of those grand gestures of which Rachel was so fond. So she called Shelby to discuss her plan.

"Hey, Santana," Shelby answered the phone brightly, genuinely happy to hear from her. They had a very good relationship, both personally and professionally, although it was Shelby's friend and business partner Holly Holiday that was officially Santana's manager.

"Hola," Santana said. "What's the latest news on the business front?" She didn't really keep up with too much industry stuff, figuring that was what managers were for.

"Well, Rachel's album has officially gone gold and is on its way to platinum, and your last album's sales have gone up too, since Rachel's been mentioning it every night. You know that the DVD shoot at the Hollywood Bowl show is coming up next week, right? She's a little nervous about it, although of course she'll never admit to it. The TV special was one thing, but this is a whole different animal."

Santana frowned. She knew that Rachel's perfectionistic tendencies could cause her to overthink everything and spur her to try and get involved in almost every aspect of the project, even though Shelby had hired the very best director and production company in the business to handle it. Rachel would have control over her performance, of course, choosing the set list and working with her band and crew to ensure it was the best show of her career, but the director would have a great deal of input as well, and she did not need to get involved in any struggle over control.

"Which is why I'm going to fly out there before the show to surprise her. It will be a great way to keep her focused on her performance and lower her stress level."

Shelby chuckled. "That's a fantastic idea, Santana, but what about your stress level? I know you're not exactly a big fan of air travel."

It was true. Flying was not Santana's favorite thing in the world, but she knew it would mean the world to Rachel for her to push through her fears just so she could be there for what promised to be the crowing achievement of her career to date.

"I told Rachel a long time ago that I would do anything for her, and I meant it," she replied, shrugging. "I want this to be the most special event ever. I'm pulling out all the stops."

"That's wonderful, Santana. I know that this tour hasn't been the easiest thing for you two to deal with, but I have to say you've handled it really well for the most part. I'm proud of both of you. Don't worry about a thing – Holly and I will take care of all the arrangements."

Santana smiled as the Tiffany Jewelers web site came up on her laptop's browser. She sipped at her coffee and set down the mug next to the computer, clicking through pages, making mental notes as the images loaded. Then she opened another tab and typed in her favorite florist's web address.

"All except one," she said, and her smile widened.