A/N: Sorry for the wait, again. This chapter was incredibly fun to write, it just took a while to come together because of my schedule. I had the Brittany POV chapter planned from Day 1 so I hope that you like it as much as I do.
Some chapter music for you: Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon (even before Heather danced to it on DWTS), What Can I Say - Brandi Carlile, and a Glee classic: I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
Chapter 7 – The Dancer
"Madam First Lady?"
Brittany turned her head from where she had been looking out the window and smiled at her Chief of Staff. "Yes, Marley?"
"You have a meeting with Unique Adams from TIME in an hour. I just wanted to remind you."
"Thank you, Marley. I'll be ready."
The petite brunette held her agenda tight to her chest. "Can I get you anything else, ma'am? Some tea maybe?"
"Can I get a cup of coffee actually, Marley? I didn't sleep very well last night."
Marley looked surprised but she nodded anyway. The First Lady didn't ask for coffee very often; the entire White House staff had gotten used to her 'my body is my temple' lifestyle. "Sure, ma'am, coming right up."
Marley left her office and Brittany resumed looking out the window and out onto the vast White House lawn. She always felt drained, and a little agitated, when Sam was out of the country on business and she was left behind in Washington. The staff treated her with more care and Will Schuester often popped in and out of her office to gauge what she was thinking and feeling, as if she was going to do something extreme just because her husband wasn't in the White House. She understood that it was important for everyone, especially her and the Vice-President, not to do anything to detract from what the President was doing abroad. All roads lead to the President. She got that, and she didn't need to be treated like a child, especially after almost four years in this position.
She enjoyed being the First Lady. She actually liked the job. It was tough and it was demanding, but it was so rewarding.
She wasn't going to do anything to screw that up. Not intentionally at least.
And she didn't consider Santana Lopez to be a screw up. Santana Lopez was inevitable. She had known it from the very first time that she had laid eyes on her. The Latina had stormed in and had told them exactly what was wrong with Sam's campaign. She had been matter-of-fact, she hadn't minced words, and she had breathed life into not only the campaign and the staff, but her as well.
Meeting Santana had felt like a colossal shift on her view and place in the world, like a change in the Earth's axis. How could she return to her old orbit now? That was the question that she had been asking herself for quite some time. How was she supposed to continue on like everything was normal? What even was her normal? From the outside looking in, her normal was being one of the most powerful and influential women in the world. Only she knew that she was depressed and pining. She and Sam rarely spent time alone together, one of them was almost always in bed asleep before the other, but their problems were bigger than that. They were also bigger than Santana. Despite everything that Sam had given her, she couldn't remember the last time that she was truly happy with him.
There was another knock on the door and it was Marley, this time with coffee and Unique Adams trailing behind her.
"Good morning Madam First Lady."
Brittany stood with a bright smile. "Ms. Adams, nice to see you again. How are you?"
"I want to thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview."
Marley handed her the cup of hot coffee and she and Unique sat on Brittany's favourite sofa in the room as they made pleasant small talk. People in the media always told her that she made them feel comfortable and she really didn't mind interviews when she had a say in the questions. She absolutely loathed answering questions about what she was wearing, as if one of her most valuable assets was her wardrobe. But she didn't mind most others topic. She always struggled not to say too much, or at least that's what Will told her. Her candor made him uncomfortable and she knew he lived in constant fear that she would say the wrong thing. He had only agreed to this interview because he got final edit.
That bugged her. It was her story. Not his. And not Sam's. This was just for her.
She was center stage again.
Unique reached for her tape recorder and casually placed it on the coffee table beside them. "Would you like to begin?"
Brittany nodded with a happy smile. "Sure. Where do you want to begin?"
They began with the idea of legacy. The legacy of the Office of the First Lady and her place in that important piece of history. They talked about past first ladies and their causes and influence, and then they talked about her work in the arts and education. She worked to increase public education funding, draw attention to child wellbeing, and she supported the arts. They talked about her fundraisers, and state diners, and television appearances. They talked about everything that she enjoyed talking about until the real questions began.
"Let's talk about your husband. Was it love at first sight? Do you even believe in love at first sight?"
Brittany glanced down at her skirt and picked at a non-existent thread. "Love at first sight," she repeated quietly. "I don't know if it was love but it was definitely magnetic right from the beginning."
The Campaign Trail, On the way to Denver – 4 Years Ago
"Hey," Brittany whispered as she slid into the empty seat next to the brunette. She kept her voice low not to be discreet, but because everyone else on the bus was asleep. All of the campaign workers were asleep, except for Santana, as usual. "What are you working on?"
"Tomorrow night's speech," Santana murmured back, "because it's gotta be good."
Brittany chuckled under her breath at her intensity, her eyes never once left the paper in her hands. It gave Brittany the time to look at her features without feeling like she was uncomfortably staring. She had a terrible urge to trace her finger down the slope of Santana's nose and across her cheekbones, and down to her lovely lips. Lips that she had already kissed. Simply because she had wanted to. How incredibly stupid and reckless was that?
She had a husband that was running for President of the United States. She had a job to do and a goal to focus on. She wasn't supposed to go around kissing people, especially not gorgeous female campaign managers.
"You're left-handed," she finally spoke to break the silence.
The brunette raised her head and faced her with a furrowed brow. "Yeah?"
Brittany just smiled, completely enamoured by this woman that she barely knew. "I've never noticed."
A smirk pulled at the corner of Santana's mouth and she waved her left hand, still holding a pen. "Well I am."
"Left-handed people are weird," she joked.
Santana rolled her eyes but played along. "You right-handed people are so normal."
Brittany laughed and pressed her cheek against the headrest. Her entire body was angled towards the other woman, a sure sign that she was enthralled. "You make me feel young again," she confessed. "My feet ache but I think I could dance for hours." Her hand slowly inched forward on the armrest until her pinky bumped Santana's. "Do you know what I mean? I'm not much of a speechwriter."
She watched Santana gulp before she responded. "Yeah, unfortunately I think I do."
"I haven't wanted to dance like that in a very long time."
Brittany's foot tapped against the plush carpet like only someone who had made a living out of moving could, and she realized that she had gotten distracted. "Sorry," she apologized with a charming, slightly embarrassed smile. "Sometimes I just…" She stopped talking and finished her sentence by waving her hand in a flying away gesture. "It is not a reflection of your questions. I just sometimes have the attention span of a…of a…"
"A dancer?" Unique supplied with a grin.
The blonde laughed with a tilt of her head. "Yeah, something like that."
"Do you still dance? Do you still find the time in your schedule to dance?"
Brittany nodded slowly. "I do. Not as much as I wish I could, obviously, but sometimes I work it into my gym schedule, or use it as a way to relax."
Dance was such an important part of her that she had to include it in her life any way that she could. Dance was her natural gift, something she had never struggled through unlike several aspects of her early education. Dance had been her passion, her career, and her livelihood, and losing it as a term that so easily defined her had been difficult. She had liked the box that "dancer" put her in and now that she didn't fit in it so easily she tried to make it a part of her daily routine. It was a part of her national initiative as First Lady and it was something that she intended to pass on.
But sometimes dancing made her feel isolated and lonely.
"But sometimes I miss having a partner," she added after a beat. "I was always better with a partner."
Unique tilted her head in a way that was reporter speak for "would you care to elaborate?"
"Sam and I used to dance together a lot, if you can believe that," she laughed. "He's actually pretty good. He used to take me out dancing a lot when we first started dating. Dancing is always more fun when it's with someone you love."
Evans Campaign Headquarters, Nashville – 4 Years Ago
"Come on. Come on. Come on," Sebastian muttered under his breath.
Brittany knew that Santana and her staff were doing their best to remain positive and optimistic, but anxiety was rolling off of Sebastian Smythe in waves and she knew exactly why. CNN was getting ready to predict election results in Ohio, and no Republican had ever won the White House without winning Ohio.
They had campaigned heavily in Ohio. They had targeted Ohio. They needed Ohio.
"Calm down," Quinn Fabray chastised. "We have our numbers and our projections. This should be ours."
Quinn outwardly projected confidence but her eyes lacked the fierceness that Brittany had become accustomed to.
She could tell that Santana was on edge as well. The Latina was standing on the other side of the room, quietly chatting with newly hired statistical analyst and overall tech guy, Artie Abrams.
Brittany finally got out of her seat, she hated waiting, and approached Santana cautiously. She gently placed a hand on her shoulder and the brunette tensed, an imperceptible shift to anyone else around her but the blonde recognized it for what it was. Santana still had a nervous energy around her. Their one night together in Denver hadn't solved anything. It was meant to be cathartic, a quick release, a one off, and it was clearly anything but.
"Can we put some music on or something? Your staff is bringing down the mood."
Santana turned her head and furrowed her brow. Brittany understood the expression, the request seemed so ridiculous and out of place on election night coming from a woman that could potentially be the First Lady of the United States in several hours. But music was comforting and familiar to her.
Before Santana could answer her, their attention all turned to Sebastian as he leapt out of his chair and whooped.
"Ohio is ours!" He declared ecstatically.
Brittany quickly looked towards the large television in the room and sure enough, there on the screen was the shape of the state of Ohio coloured in red.
She felt, more than heard, Santana breathe a sigh of relief beside her. "We got Ohio," she exhaled.
"We got Ohio," Brittany repeated. She looked down at Artie with a bright smile. "Now I think that calls for some music."
Artie smiled back at her and an upbeat song quickly filled the room.
"Dance with me," she requested as she reached for Santana's hand.
Santana hesitated and Sebastian quickly stepped in. He grabbed Brittany's outstretched hand and twirled her around.
"The First Lady of the United States just asked you to dance with her," he grinned. "I don't think that's an offer you can turn down."
Santana finally smiled and joined them on their makeshift dance floor.
Brittany managed to stay focused for the rest of the interview. She fidgeted a tad – maybe that coffee had been a bad idea. But she told some of her best never before used interview stories about Sam and their family, and she talked about what she hoped the legacy of his first term would be ("bipartisan cooperation" because that was a politically friendly answer). She painted the picture of an intelligent, bubbly, compassionate woman in love, which she was just not with her husband anymore, and she painted it well.
And yet she was taken aback by the final question.
"What separates you from your husband?"
"Excuse me?" She questioned in confusion.
"Well no one underplays your effect on the election," Unique explained, "the upward swings after interviews and appearances and news cycles speak for themselves. So what do you think sets you apart as a political entity?"
Brittany considered that question thoughtfully. "Well we're not truly apart are we? We're intertwined. We're married and we're a team. We're a package deal, and people are always going to think of us that way, aren't they? Once you're the President you're always the President, right?" She joked. "I will always be attached to that moniker."
The First Lady pursed her lips and watched Unique Adams reach for her tape recorder before she spoke again. "I'm not sure if I'm content with that answer," she confessed.
The reporter raised her head and smiled, pleasantly surprised by the level of honesty. "Would you like to add something?"
"I'm not happy with how dependent that sounded. I would rather say something like 'although I am an independent woman with ideas and feelings, and political ideals, my husband and I are on the same path. We can't be thought of as separate right now.' That's better, I think," she said more to herself. She looked at Unique with a smile before she added, "My husband and I are separate in many ways, of course we are, but we can't be thought of as separate. That's important to the American people."
She still wasn't completely satisfied with that answer but it was better than her first attempt. She had been thinking of the idea of her and Sam as separate for a long time and she still didn't have an answer. A separated President? A divorced President? That was crazy, even by Democrat standards, but for a Republican? Unheard of. How did she deal with being separate when she still cared for him, and believed in him, and wanted him to succeed? She had been trying to come up with an answer to that question for a very long time. She had searched even more desperately for an answer since meeting Santana Lopez.
The White House, Washington, D.C. – 4 Years Ago
"Hey," she purred as she crept up on Santana from behind.
"Did you know Sam was going to offer me this job?" The brunette asked as she stood in the doorway to the Communications Director's office.
Brittany could hear the edge in Santana's voice so she gently pushed her inside the room and closed the door behind them. "No," she answered honestly, "and if you think I manipulated him into keeping you around you're wrong."
She sighed and ran a hand through her dark hair. "Sorry," she muttered in embarrassment. "I just didn't see this continuing after the election and I'm not sure what it means."
"This meaning working for Sam or this as in us?" Brittany asked curiously.
Santana shrugged and replied honestly, "Both, I suppose. I've never really done either before."
"Well you're really good at your job, that's a given, and now you have an office in the White House. Isn't that exciting?"
Santana walked backwards until she was leaning against the edge of the pristine, empty desk. "Yes, of course it is. When you work in D.C. the White House is like all that you think about. I'll have more resources than I'll even know what to do with."
Brittany could hear the uncertainty dangling at the end of that sentence so she supplied it. "But?"
"But how am I supposed to stay away from you?" Santana asked as she closed her eyes.
Brittany took the opportunity to move closer until the front of their bodies were touching. "Well there's an easy solution to that problem," she whispered, "you don't."
Santana opened her eyes and scoffed, "So I'm going to work for the President and bang his wife on the side?"
Brittany frowned. "Well why do you have to say it like that?"
"Because that's what we're doing!"
"Well, if we're just fucking then it should be easy to stop," Brittany challenged. "You could do that with anyone and keep it a secret."
She took a deliberate step backwards and Santana reflexively grabbed her hips. "No, don't," she pleaded.
"Then stop treating me like this doesn't mean anything to you."
Santana looked at her, really looked at her, and Brittany knew that it wasn't her intention to be dismissive and callous. She did care about her; she just didn't know how to express it. Years of being completely career driven and deeply buried in the closet had obviously taken their toll.
"You know it's not like that," she finally spoke. "It's just that this isn't easy for me."
"It's not easy for me either," Brittany shot back. "I don't enjoy cheating on my husband. Taking vows did mean something to me. Things between us are just so different now. We're not the same, either of us."
"But you can't abandon him," Santana stated matter-of-factly.
"And neither can you," Brittany answered with a sad smile.
The rest of her day was relatively mundane after an interview with TIME. She looked at some paperwork and read some reports, and Marley spoke to her about some wardrobe updates, and that was pretty much her day.
She was tidying away a few things on her desk when a knock sounded on her door. "Come in!" She called without looking up.
She heard the door open and close, and when it wasn't accompanied by a cheery greeting she furrowed her brow in confusion. Marley was quiet but she wasn't impolite. So Brittany raised her head and was mildly surprised to see Will Schuester. She was surprised only in the sense that she was caught off guard by the time, she was not surprised that he was checking in on her. "Short lease," she muttered to herself.
"How was the interview?" He asked as he slipped his hands into his pockets and edged towards her desk.
"It was fine." Her answer was clipped and she didn't care.
"Just fine?" He probed.
She simply nodded and finished toying with the things on her desk. She raised her head and offered a tight lipped smile. "Yup, fine. I don't see any reason why you'll be unhappy with it."
"That wasn't what I was asking," he sighed.
"Yes, it was," she corrected quickly. She walked around her desk and grabbed her blazer off the back of the couch from where she had discarded it at some point in the day. "Anyway, I'm done for the day. Are you done for the day?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.
He ignored her question and posed one of his own. "Any plans for this evening?"
She shook her head. "Nothing worthwhile I'm sure."
He waited a moment before he said, "I know what you're doing. Again."
The First Lady's shoulders instinctually hunched and her eyes narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?" She questioned as she pulled on her blazer.
"Come on, Brittany," he chuckled. "You know playing dumb doesn't work on me. I know what you've been doing," he repeated. "And it's not doing the campaign a favour."
"Stop following me," she demanded angrily. "Following the First Lady is not part of your job description and it's certainly above your pay grade."
"My job is to protect the President," he snapped back.
She huffed indignantly. "When it suits you," she emphasized. She turned on her heel to leave her office but he grabbed her by the wrist. She reacted quickly and pulled herself out of his grasp. "Don't touch me, Will!"
He held up his hands defensively and offered her an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry, but you're being unreasonable."
"Unreasonable," she repeated slowly. "Is that the best word?"
"I'm sure I could come up with a few more," he quipped maliciously.
She rolled her eyes and didn't allow his petty comment to get to her. "I think this conversation is over," she stated with as much authority as she could muster.
Will took a deep breath before he spoke again. "I think that if you intend on being stubborn then this conversation is just beginning."
"Goodnight Will," she declared before she breezed out of the room.
A/N: Brittany and Will hate each other and I love it haha. Please review! :)
