Sorry for the delay, I was sick. I just finished writing this and haven't checked for mistakes so those are on me. It's two am so I'm super tired, but I wanted to get this out for you guys.

Enjoy

Chapter 9

To say she's sexually frustrated is an understatement.

Santana slams her door shut, growling and throwing pillows like a mad woman. This is just typical of her, letting Brittany overtake her mind and now her body.

Brittany not once let on that maybe she knew Santana was watching. But she played it up like she was putting on a show for someone.

If Brittany wanted Santana to be jealous then it had worked marvelously.

Seriously, she didn't have to hold hands with Sugar while jumping in the pool. And what was up with helping Quinn dry her back?

The green eyed monster lived and breathed in Santana now.

"What!"

This is really not a good time for her to be disturbed. For gods sake she was in the middle of relieving herself.

"It's Sam,"

Santana sits up more frustrated than ever.

"This better be good," Santana opens the door and crosses her arms.

"Yeah, just that uhh Flanagan got into a car just now and we should probably follow him."

"Do you think I'm dumb?" Santana is stupefied. "Of course we have to follow him!"

Forgetting her previous activities and no longer being bothered, Santana runs to get her guns ready.

"So this is the best crap you could find?"

Sam looks to Kurt who looks to Blaine. They all figured Rory Flanagan was headed to the dunes and that a city car would definitely not do.

"I'm sorry, this was me thinking fast!" Blaine apologizes for their current travel options.

"How do you even ride these things," And by 'these things' Santana meant Camels.

"Kind of like a horse I think." Blaine tests the camel's rump with his stick; it begins walking at a slow pace.

"You think?"

This day was going great until camels.

"If we're ever going to catch up we'd better get going," Sam is the voice of reason. "Like it or not this is our best option right now."

Without another word he gets his camel moving.

"Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb, we're just begging to be shot at." Santana grumbles but whacks her camel anyways.

Apparently she whacked it harder than anybody else. It now raced at an alarming speed.

"All you suckers better hurry up!" She shouts back at the three boys hurrying their camels.

"Have you got his location Sugar?" Quinn asks, her eyes fixed on her grand plan.

"Yep, he's gone into the main tent."

"Good, Tina. Have we got a signal?"

Tina plays with the receiver in the jeep till the noise stops and clear voices can be heard.

"Got it."

"Britt, are you in uniform? And do you have a clear shot?"

Silence.

"Britt?"

"Oh, she's daydreaming again." Sugar notifies with a shrug.

Quinn puts her paper to the side.

"Earth to Brittany," she waves her hand to get Brittany's attention.

"Yeah?"

"yeah, I just asked if you're ready."

"Sure, of course." Brittany picks herself up and begins inspecting her sniper gun.

"Is something the matter?"

Quinn has known Brittany long enough to know that only a few things can make her mind fall into deep occupation. Usually its mind games, or complex puzzles she works out in her head in one go, or Santana.

At this point, it's most likely the last.

"You're thinking about her."

Brittany bites her lip in response.

"She's here." She states simply. "I don't want her to get hurt. I have to make her get away from all this. No matter what happens with us, I still care about her."

"I know Brittany," Quinn sympathizes, "and I know you two weren't married for seven years only to be broken now. You'll find a way."

"Thanks Quinn," Brittany really hopes Quinn is right, that they'll be able to fix what they started destroying years ago with a simple lie.

Well the camel riding was going much better once Kurt showed them animals were like people, you treat them nice and they do what you want.

Santana lead the way till they reached a parting between two hills.

Oil wells and sky reaching drilling machines lay scattered all over a few hundred mile radius.

"This must be the place," Santana wipes the sweat off her brow. Sure camels were cool but they definitely weren't air conditioned.

"I see a tent," Sam loud mouths from his position a ways up one of the hills. "I also see his jeep in front of it, that's probably where he is."

"Alright, prepare the gear."

Kurt and Sam begin to set up the missile launcher.

"How am I supposed to sedate him? The walls aren't see-through." Brittany states the obvious.

"That's what we have special gear for, here." Tina comes up behind Brittany and places heavy, black goggles on the bridge of her nose.

"Better?"

Brittany squints a little getting used to the blurry vision. She definitely sees people in the tent now. They are dark red shadows against the hazy golden sand. She quickly spots Rory; it's easy to tell which shadow he is by the way he walks.

"Yeah, I see him. There are three other people in the tent, two male and one female."

"Whenever you're ready Britt," Quinn says, holding her breath. From now on for the next fifteen minutes she prays none of her team gets injured.

Brittany nods, she waits for the right time. It presents itself when Rory seems to lift something to his lips.

She pulls the trigger.

A second after Brittany can see the shadow make a clumsy fall forward but he seems to have caught himself on the table. The two men rush to his side.

"I'm going in," Brittany announces hastily, she along with Tina run quickly from their post down the hill towards the tent.

Panic seems to have taken over. Everyone is shouting, and more people have come.

"Paramedic!" Brittany screamed as she and Tina burst through the tent doors. No one stopped them, they seemed relieved that someone had thought to call for professional help although they had no idea how they came so fast.

Brittany and Tina made quick work of settling Rory Flanagan onto their stretcher. Their fake costumes slipped the eyes of those in the room.

With little effort, the two girls hauled stretcher and all into the awaiting jeep.

"Call this number in an hour for updates, we're taking him to the American Hospital because he is a U.S. citizen." Brittany says with a panicked voice suitable for the circumstances.

"Forget it you two!" Santana shouts.

She's seen everything that's happened and if her eyes aren't deceiving her, that's Brittany down there in a doctors costume, talking to the fucking enemy of the United States. She should have known Brittany was going to be doing the job, Brittany is hella convincing and Santana knows it first-hand.

Brittany was the one who insisted they plant a garden. She told Santana that she'd like it even when Santana scoffed in her face. Well needless to say, her garden became her sanctuary after a tiring day and yeah so what if Brittany knew that gardening would be one of her favorite hobbies. The point is that Brittany can make anyone do anything.

And she effectively just stole their number one target, no sweat.

"What! I have a clear shot!" Sam 'big mouth' shouts back at her. His finger is still on the trigger and the gun is till pointing in Brittany's ….whoop's …Rory's general direction.

"We just got it set up Santana, now's are chance," Kurt puffs. He's more used to the paper work and making fancy stationary when they need to send fake letters to people.

"So what? Clearly Flanagan is taken care of. That could be his corpse! We can't just kill innocent people!" Well, those people aren't so innocent. They're probably supporting Iraq or something and Brittany is a damn good liar.

"So we aren't going to shoot?"

Sam can hardly believe what he's saying.

Santana shakes her head. "Obviously you guys are two dim witted to do anything on time and now someone's done the job for us. Rory is dead as a horse. We're packing up."

"Wait, but how can we be sure?" Blaine asks. Oh, Santana nearly forget that curly hair was there with them.

"We'll see where they take the body." Santana thinks quickly, "and if it so happens that he's not dead then we riddle him with bullets and hope y'all have your guns loaded when the time comes."

The others groan their yes's, Santana looks at the moving jeep a final time and thinks how she's so pathetic. She could have just closed her eyes and let somebody else blow Brittany to pieces, but even now after all the lies and separation she won't let anybody touch a hair.

Santana Lopez is miserable and pathetic.

"What the fuck was that?" Brittany ducks her head as a bullet whizzes past, sitting snug in the windshield.

"I don't know but you should pray they don't…"

The sound of something exploding and then a hiss reaches their ears. "Great," Tina throws her hands up.

"ABORT MISSION, ABORT MISSION" Quinn screams through the mic.

That's their cue to abandon vehicle and run for their lives.

"God damn, what the hell?" Santana ducks for cover. They hadn't made it two feet from where they unpacked before hundreds of bullets came flying their way.

"They know our position," Kurt shrieks and caught in the moment grabs Blaine's hand, as if that's going to keep him from getting shot.

"No shit Sherlock!"

Santana gets to her camel and unties it from the well. "When I find out who gave away our position I'm going to send their ass packing to the Himalayan Mountains. And if my instincts aren't right, that would be you Trouty. I knew your big mouth would cause trouble."

They're all at different stages of mounting now. Santana gives a quick whipping to her camel making it speed off.

She can hear, 'Sorry' coming from behind her. If the bad guys weren't on their trail already, Sam sure helped figure out where they were. Oh, she cursed the sand dunes for their bad omens in giving her subordinates like Trouty loud mouth, good for nothing gay boy and blazer bad hair Blaine.

"Why were they shooting at us?"

No one has an answer.

"They couldn't have known!"

"They didn't" Quinn reassures Brittany. She saw the whole thing from the great escape to the moles on the hill to the heavy artillery and the unintentional crossfire.

"Some people were on the hill opposite of us, that's who they were firing at."

"Some people huh?"

Brittany smirks. Some people who are always getting up in her business. It's time to pay a visit to Santana.

So, the ride back took longer than it did to get there. At least she found out something about her team – they were fucking useless. Seriously, no one had a compass on them. It took Santana forever to navigate them all out of the god forsaken desert in one piece.

She really needs a bath. Sand is itchy like … she needs to stop swearing.

Santana spent a whole afternoon in the shower. If she really counted, it was only two hours.

Too much was on her mind and she felt so directionless. She had lost Rory, she had lost Brittany, she had lost her whole life and the only thing she knows for sure is that she's in this bath tub soaking to wrinkles.

She finally gets out and doesn't even bother to dry her hair. Maybe she should try to get some sleep. Maybe a new place would help her not miss Brittany sleeping beside her.

Oh, who is she kidding? New places are harder to sleep in and Brittany is somewhere in this very hotel. How is he supposed to get any sleep?

Santana plops head first, completely naked onto her king sized bed. Blaine was good for one thing – getting them awesome rooms.

Her eyes don't stay shut for long though. Santana feels something stiff and unclothe-like under her head.

Grabbing it, she opens her eyes to see what it is.

We need to talk. You, cramping my style, is not cool. Find me tonight at the ball.

It's not signed but Santana sure as hell knows who wrote it. She would recognize that handwriting anywhere.

She thinks of trying to sleep again but no. Now her mind is working double speed and it's telling her she needs something to wear tonight. Santana doesn't know about Brittany, but she's going to dress to impress.

"Oh my god, I did not see what I just thought I saw."

Santana covers her eyes and turns around as fast as possible. "Are you decent yet?"

After two seconds Blaine clears his throat.

"Yeah, it's safe to look. I mean, there wasn't anything going on…"

"Nothing going on my ass," Santana marches into the boys room and perches on the desk. "I should have known you were gay too. Your hand….I don't even want to say it or imagine it, which will happen if I vocalized the horror that I just saw."

"What's going on out there?" Sam's voice booms from the bathroom. It sounds like he's eating something. Who eats and goes at the same time? Ugh, Sam probably can't do anything without occupying his mouth. "What am I missing?"

"You're lucky you aren't scared for life," Santana shouts over Sam's voice and quickly gets back to the problem at hand. Wait, which one? Damn, her life is complicated.

"Okay, so I never want to see that again ever." Santana says pointedly at Blaine and Kurt. "I do not need to see you groping his junk while exchanging saliva, you hear me? Good."

When Santana is on a roll, she is unstoppable and you do not interrupt her.

That is the first rule on the unspoken 'Scary Santana' list circulated widely in their company. How this list hasn't reached Santana is a miracle.

"…Now that we've got that cleared up. Kurt will be doing me a favor."

"What is it?"

Kurt shakes in his Armani slacks.

"You're going to buy everyone clothes for tonight's ball. All you guys will be concealed as guards or waiters, whatever clothes you can find and get something spectacular for me. I need to stand out because I need someone to notice me."

Blaine and Kurt raise their eyebrows but don't say anything.

"Can I…" Blaine begins but Santana cuts him off with a wave of her hand.

"Go, whatever. Just don't get caught doing that in the market place and be back six at the latest. Ball is at 7."

Brittany is so going to regret ever lying to her once she sees how stunning Santana looks. The thought makes the next few hours bearable. Well, that and her talented fingers.

In – action Britt is a turn on.

"I look hot,"

Sugar plays with her skirt in the mirror.

That afternoon the girls had splurged on some designer gowns to wear at the ball. What? The agency was paying and they never made a deal of how much their operations cost if it got done, might as well take advantage of the free stuff.

"Rory is going to fall head over heels."

Sugar smacks her cherry pink lipstick.

"…and lets not forget what happens after that." Quinn says, continuing to apply make-up to Brittany's face.

Brittany had told Quinn about her plan to talk to Santana. And although it was risky, Quinn knew it was what Brittany needed. Also, if it could get Santana's team off their backs then she was all for negotiation.

Tina sits on the ledge of the balcony, engrossed in need for speed. She wasn't one for long desk time in front of a mirror. Eyeliner was her thing, and she had practiced putting it on her eyelids in one smooth ninja move she probably learned from 'fruit slice.'

With the intensity of her game though, Brittany was concerned Tina would plummet to her death doing a 360 degree drift.

"Done," Quinn announces after putting the final touch. All the girls turn their attention to Brittany who eyes herself in the mirror.

"Well, whoever you're going to meet is lucky you're getting this pretty for them."

"I just want to know when we're leaving." Tina says.

"Okay, everyone has their bags and weapons ready?"

Brittany, Sugar and Tina nod. Hidden underneath their dresses are many types of strangling devices, courtesy of Tina.

"Ready," Brittany huffs, she really hopes she is. She needs to be if she's going to face Santana.

"Newsflash,"

Santana nearly rips her ear piece off. Boy seriously needs to control his pitch.

"You can whisper tuna lips."

"Rory is here."

Santana really doesn't need to deal with two things tonight but what choice does she have?

"Okay, Sam, you and Blaine are on Flanagan. I don't care how you kill him, just make sure we're not caught in the aftermath"

"Copy. Over and out."

Sam is so lame.

Santana doesn't have long to dwell on all the flaws of her team though, she has a girl to find.

Brittany stands on the second floor overlooking the mingling guests. She takes out her mini-binoculars to scan everything that is going down.

Sugar is on Rory's arm, being paraded around to sample all the delightful drinks. Brittany hopes Sugar is discreetly not drinking them or their whole plan could be in danger.

She knows Quinn is opposite of her, scanning the scenario as well. Tina is getting in with the Asian crowd and doing pretty well from Brittany's point of view. Who knew that behind that geek was a charmer? Either that or Asians create rapport easily, maybe Tina used her 'same village' trick that Brittany uses all the time with every European person she gets acquainted with.

Then there are the three guys who clearly aren't natives, pretending to be guards. That blond hair, dainty lady face and gelled grape bowl trio stand out like sore thumbs.

Another person that stands out in her long flowing silk red dress is Santana. She's never looked more beautiful. Anyone could easily mistake her for a Middle Eastern princess.

Brittany puts her optics away and fixes her dress a final time.

Santana's been mingling and on the look-out for Brittany, but she's not been successful in either.

She quickly made up a story when she found out she'd be needing one about how she was a diplomat's daughter who was educated in the States and had just come back specifically to attend this function with her father.

All the men bought it easily, mostly because they were paying more attention to her cleavage then to her story.

And then in the corner of her eye she spotted her, that glittering blue dress, that curvaceous body, that smooth white skin, on the arm of some old, hairless, bushy brow, turban wearing, fat bellied….Santana can go on. The conclusion though? He is someone that does not deserve to have Brittany, glorious woman, her wife, well, ex-wife on his arm.

"Excuse me?" Santana interrupted the Arab blob's conversation and Brittany's fake laugh. "I realize I know you from somewhere, would you mind having a chat?"

Santana turns on her charm to maximum.

Brittany whispers into the Arab's ear and he lets her go with a kiss on the cheek.

Santana almost barfs at the sight.

They begin walking towards the exit, Santana hoping to talk to Brittany in private but Brittany has other plans.

Grabbing hold of Santana's elbow Brittany cocks an eyebrow, "Shall we dance?"

Santana's not comfortable dancing with Brittany in front of all these people, Brittany can see it the way Santana's eyes shift to the crowds in fear.

Instead, Brittany leads her to a corner where not many people are.

They fall into position easily having done this a thousand times. All those late night swing dances, all the grinding in the clubs, all the rock and roll nights they attended; Santana remembers them all. But she remembers the waltz best. Santana was not going to look like a clutz at her wedding dance so she took classes with Brittany who was already a master at it but did it with her anyways.

That Brittany had cared about her, this one was someone new. Santana had to remember that.

"You're looking gorgeous tonight, trying to impress somebody?" Brittany leads. Her fingers squeezing Santana's waist gently.

"I was afraid you might have got sand in your eyes and wouldn't be able to see me." Santana smirks but quickly breaks eye-contact not trusting herself to lock gazes.

"That was fast, you churn them fibs out good. Had me fooled."

Santana stiffens at Brittany's remark. Did she just call her out?

"I see you are every bit as talented. Take that as a compliment." She replies.

Brittany leads them to slide across the floor, twirling till they come to a stop.

"Well how about you give me a straight answer. What are you doing here?" Brittany whispers in Santana's ear before loosening her grip. They step back into the waltz.

"I could ask you the same thing."

A twirl, a step, forwards, backwards.

"I know what you're doing here; I'm just wondering why you haven't done it yet or what you're waiting for."

"Don't fool yourself, not everything circulates around you Britt."

"So you're here for Flanagan."

Santana nods, stepping closer into Brittany's personal space. "I'll make you a deal, you let me finish my work and I don't kill you."

"That's weak," Brittany chuckles, "If you were going to kill me you would have done so a long time ago. Or are you waiting for an invite to my room tonight?"

If this were any other scenario, Santana would have jumped at the opportunity. "Why did you lie to me?"

"It's not like you were telling the truth either." Brittany shrugs. The song ends and a new one begins, rawer, more intense.

"It takes two to tango huh?" Santana thinks it's appropriate for their dance and kind of a clever comeback.

"It takes two to do a lot of things Santana, and that includes a relationship." Brittany's leg brushes against Santana and their faces are millimeters apart when they look left and right.

"Like you ever wanted one,"

"Why would I marry you then?"

Santana thinks long and hard. This could all have been an elaborate plan leading up to this moment here. It didn't feel like it then and it doesn't feel like it now but that's the only explanation she can accept.

"So you could lead me on, do anything you wanted with me and get rid of me when you needed to." Santana says through clenched teeth.

"Then I guess you never knew me at all. After seven years, I'm hurt," Brittany marches them clear across the floor and dips Santana, bending down to whisper in her ear. "You have one option Santana; leave before I'm forced to hurt you."

"Never," Santana replies, "Everything I wanted was for us. I kept the truth so that you would be safe. The whole reason I'm after Flanagan is so that we can have the life that I've always wanted for us."

"Well, you know that isn't going to happen anymore so go home." Brittany lifts Santana to a standing position.

"Tell me," Santana's words get stuck in her throat, "tell me we are over and I will stop at nothing to destroy you."

"I…I have to go."

Faster than a blink of an eye Brittany's gone, leaving Santana thinking only one thing – Brittany had not said those final words. This wasn't over. They weren't over.

cliffhanger, sort of?

I would love to hear what you think of the story so far.