Better Forgotten

10. Deceit

The following evening Rachel was sat with Santana in her hotel's restaurant having taken over the shift from Quinn when she went into isolation. Rachel held Santana's phone in her hand and was reading through the email her manager had forwarded her. "So…why am I reading this?"

Santana gave her an impatient look, "I want your opinion—should I go?"

"Well, sure. Why not?" Rachel blinked a few times, looking back down at the message with confusion. Santana sighed in exasperation—not the answer she was looking for. But then, Rachel had no clue about the history between Santana and Quinn.

"They might've just called it to rope me in and hijack my fame."

"Santana!" Rachel whooped a laugh and the restaurant went silent for a minute, eyes turning to them before looking away. "Don't be so shallow—you've been famous for a while now. Why would they only call it now if that were the case?"

"I don't know. People are weird," Santana had proof for that one.

"I think you should go," Rachel ignored her, "It'll be good for you to go back to a place where you didn't have quite such a big ego."

It was Santana's turn to bark a laugh. "Oh, you have no idea. I was way worse back then…"

Santana trailed off and looked up at Rachel. She'd been on the brink on telling her a few times recently. Would it hurt to at least tell her that Quinn went to her high school?

"And," Santana hesitated. "Quinn also went to my high school."

"What?" for a second time the restaurant went silent, the faces that turned their angry now. Rachel whispered, "I mean: what?"

"I knew Quinn in high school," Santana looked down at her food, the colour rising in her cheeks. Damnit, why did she have to go and actually tell her that? Rachel can't keep a secret.

"Oh, my God. That's so cute. You've had a crush on her since then?" Rachel cooed, "That's why you were so up for this role! You knew her, gosh. I can't believe you kept this from me!"

"Sorry," Santana said quietly.

"Well, you have to go now!" Rachel's smile was a mile wide as she grasped hold of Santana's hand, "We know where you two are going on your date."

"To my high school?" Santana wrinkled her nose and downed the rest of her wine for good measure. "That's not very breath-taking or romantic… I was relying on your broadway obsession to give me some dramatic ideas."

"This is romantic and dramatic! Don't tell her that's where you're going, show up, see all the people you used to love and see every day, walk the halls and tell her about how you used to watch her…then maybe take her for a picnic in the park or something," Rachel gushed with a far-away look in her eyes. She was gone.

"Whatever," Santana muttered, not like Rachel heard her through her romance daze anyway.

If she went along with Rachel's idea this date would be a train wreck.

Quinn walked through the door with a twinkling of the bells and spotted Santana quickly, weaving through the tables of the café to get to her and dropping down into the seat opposite. "This better not be the fabulous date you told me we'd be having."

"Don't worry, it's not," Santana said with a small smile.

"Is this your favourite coffee place or something?" Quinn asked, "I'm going to be on first-name terms with the staff soon."

"Quinn," Santana gave her a look to silence her, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"OK, go ahead."

Santana stared at her completely blank expression. Really, what was going on with her? She shook her head to clear her through and pulled her phone out of her pocket, bringing up the forwarded email and showing Quinn the screen, "Have you got this email?"

She watched Quinn's eyes as they moved left and right, taking in the words. As she read on her expression slowly changed from surprised to worried. "Going back to high school?"

"Yes. A reunion," Santana put her phone away, understanding that Quinn had read it all now. "Did you not get it?"

"No," Quinn frowned, "I didn't give Mr Schuester my email address or anything for them to contact me by…did you?"

"Nah, that's forwarded by my manager," Santana shrugged, "Are you going to go?"

"Am I going to go?" Quinn's voice raised ever so slightly, "Of course I'm not! You couldn't drag me back to that place. Are you?"

"I don't know. Rachel thinks we should," Santana bit her lip. She saw a flash in Quinn's eyes for a second…what was that look for?

"Does she now," Quinn muttered under her breath. "I think it would be a very bad idea. We've only just got back on speaking terms. That place can't do anything good for us."

Santana nodded slowly, looking at Quinn, "You know, I think it might."

"What? No, no. Not at all," Quinn said very quickly.

"Think about it, Q," Santana leant forwards, "Being back there now you're happier might help you."

Quinn stared at Santana for a few minutes, her eyes boring into her. Santana fought to keep her gaze steady. She wasn't going to give up on this. After some persuasion from Rachel she could see now…this was what she had to do.

"Or it could bring everything back and make it worse," Quinn said quietly. "You go ahead if you want. I'm not going. Besides, you already got me accepting to go on a date with you. Isn't that enough?"

"I suppose…" a plan started to form in Santana's head, then, "Yeah, you're right. I'll tell you what: we can go out on the Wednesday. Enjoy ourselves rather than hanging around our old school. How's that?"

Quinn smiled and nodded, "That's better. And I'm expecting this to be brilliant. You want to win me over, right?"

"Sure do," Santana forced a smile onto her face but couldn't help thinking about how badly Quinn might react when she realised her plan…

"OK, we've turned onto her road now," Santana's voice quietened instinctively; even though Quinn was all the way down the street in her apartment building, Santana felt like she could hear her.

"Eek," Rachel's voice squeaked back to her, "Get off the phone with me, then! Let me know how everything goes."

"I just wish she'd believe the rumours and accept that we're dating," Santana laughed drily as her driver pulled up to the curb.

The door of the building was thrown open and a blonde head bobbed her way, eyes squinting in the sunlight. The nervous butterflies stopped skittering around Santana's stomach for a moment while she watched Quinn approach. In her ear Rachel was wittering away about something but suddenly it was so easy to ignore her.

"Crap," she muttered when Quinn was opening the door, coming back to her senses, "She's here—bye!"

"Who's here?" Quinn asked with a smirk as she slid into the car and pulled the door shut behind her.

"No one," Santana replied with a quick wink and slipped her phone into her bag when the car started moving again. "Excited?"

"Worried would be a better word," Quinn looked her up and down with a curious eye and Santana tried to hold the heat from her cheeks under her gaze. At least Quinn seemed to be in a better mood than she had recently. "Where are you taking me?"

"The element of surprise, Quinn," Santana shook her head but glanced out of the window, "We're nearly there, though."

Quinn nodded in satisfaction and leant against the window, her eyes on the streets outside. "I love these blacked out windows. No one knows you're looking at them."

"Sneaky Quinn," Santana said distractedly, seeing their first stop coming up ahead. She looked away and let Quinn keep ogling out of the window.

A minute later the driver put on the indicator and Quinn sat up, eyes on Santana. "Why are we coming in here, isn't this for workers?"

"Nope…"

"Oh, my God," Quinn was back at the window now, "We're getting a private plane? Where are we going?"

Santana smiled fondly—the Quinn she'd grown used to was back. She tried to bite back the guilt that was trying to pierce the happy moment. "That's a surprise."

"I forgot how boring flying was," Quinn groaned, shuffling around in her seat again. She'd tried to plump it up over five times now.

"I can't imagine you travelling normal class if you think this is bad," Santana shook her head as one of the private planes flight attendants came towards them with a small trolley laden with food and a bottle of wine. The two girls sat in silence as the meal was dished out to them and their wine glasses were filled and placed beside the plates.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" the man asked, stepping back. Santana gave him a smile and a quick shake of the head and he disappeared quickly.

"Tuck in," Santana urged Quinn who was sat shocked in her seat.

"This is like being royalty…" she muttered.

"I told you," Santana said seriously, "I'm going to give you the life you deserve. I'm going to make up for everything I did to you."

"We're landing now, so please remain seated until we've stopped moving," the pilot's voice came over the intercom. Quinn let out a small giggle but fastened her seatbelt all the same, her eyes locked on Santana's.

"This is my favourite part," Quinn said quietly.

"Landing? Isn't that the worst bit?" Santana raised an eyebrow, glancing out of the window. If Quinn looked out now she'd surely recognise where they were going…but she was going to see sooner or later, anyway. Sweat crept out of the creases of her palms, a strange feeling clenching her chest now that they were nearly home.

Quinn shook her head, "The best. Closely followed by taking off…it makes me feel like I'm flying."

"I could probably arrange for you to go paragliding or something if you want to fly."

Quinn shot her a look that Santana couldn't read. Was there something wrong with that suggestion?

Suddenly the plane dipped and the sound of the runway roared beneath them. Now, all she could see out of the window was meters of grass rushing past in a green blur. The smile slowly slipped from Quinn's face as they decreased in speed and then, finally, the pilot parked the plane.

Santana gathered her things and lead the way for the two of them to get off the plane. The door opened and revealed a tall set of metal stairs. Santana hesitated, looking over her shoulder at Quinn, "Got everything?"

Quinn nodded impatiently and tried to peer out of the door. Santana sighed and stepped forwards. She couldn't put it off any longer. She had to go through with it now, even though Quinn could realise at any second what she'd done.

A short distance away from the plane was a limo, its door open in anticipation of the two girls descending the steps in the sunshine. Santana glanced at Quinn again but it seemed she was still in the dark about where they were.

She helped Quinn into the limo and got in after, closing the door herself so the driver didn't have to get out. She met Quinn's gaze for a second but looked away when the car started to pull out of the airport.

Any time now.

"Hey, Santana…," Quinn said slowly. Santana shot her a quick look and found her staring out of the window as more familiar sights slowly started to zoom into view. "Are we…?"

Santana looked away from her, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat.

"Oh, my God," Quinn said, something apparently sealing the deal. She knew where the were. "I can't believe you'd do this!"

Sorry for the two week gap again. I didn't think I'd be quite so busy haha. Thank you for the new follows/favourites and reviews!

ErosEternaGlee: hm I hadn't really thought about parents since they're both adults lol. San came close to telling rachel but you'll something to do with that soon ;D I love seeing your thoughts and suggestions, I'll see what I can do to include some. thanks for the review!

Rainezeik: icy queen hahah, thanks for the review and making me laugh lol