To the readers and followers of this story: Thank You.

Comments/feedback are always welcomed and appreciated. (At this point I'm taking the attitude that no news is excellent news on my story.)

I take full responsibility for all wordsmithing errors.

Trigger Warnings only if needed.


Chapter 11 - Doyenne

The breakfast meeting with Dave, Tina, and Trent had been to discuss the upcoming meeting with city engineers on progress with connecting to the city's wastewater treatment facilities. Since Dave was buying, she went for Goat Cheese Veggie Omelet, substituting the home fries for fresh fruit. Brittany avoided her favorites pancakes, French Toast, or waffles for fear of getting syrup on her dress suit. Dave ordered the Double Meat Farmer's Choice Breakfast and a cup of Sausage Gravy which he poured over his plate. He also ordered Cinna-Biscuits that he asked to be bagged to take with him.

When Brittany arrived at the office, she called the Helpdesk to get her laptop looked at again. After a short wait of listening to Kesha's Dinosaur, Sugar came on taking the pertinent information. She told her that both Roderick Adams and Mason McCarthy had floor duty today and one of them would be up as soon as they could, no later than noon. After hanging up with Sugar, Brittany went to the printer room to grab an intra-office envelope returning to her desk. She pulled out a sack from her computer bag. Removing the item from the paper bag, Brittany quickly wrote a note on a yellow post-it sticky and stuck it on the item. Then slipped the item into the intra-office envelope, wrapping the string around the attachment clasp Brittany wrote a name on the front in the To: column, leaving the From: column blank. With the package in hand, she headed to the elevator to the top floor where the executives had their offices. The executive offices were like walking into a different world. A time capsule of 1940-41 had been before the war brought construction to a halt. It had warm wood paneling, plush carpeting, overstuffed leather chairs, live plants positioned strategically around the room and advertising art on the walls. The artwork started from the early years right up to the current magazine ads. Rumor had it, Paul's office had a wet bar, private bathroom and private elevator entrance to a garage located next to the building's shipping dock. Once there she looked around until she saw Emma at her desk, using a ruler to adjust her pencil cup and nameplate.

"Good Morning Emma." Brittany addressed the fidgety woman as best she could without sounding to nervous.

"Good Morning … uh, Brittany is it?" the ginger-haired woman smiled back at her. "What can I help you with?"

Brittany handed the intra-office envelope to Emma "I was wondering if you could give this to …"

Emma eyed the envelope seeing the name she answered, "If you want you could deliver it yourself, she's in Mr. Karofsky's office" pointing to a room off the side.

Brittany glanced over in the direction Emma pointed. Indeed, she was there, and sitting on the table in front of her Brittany could see the Cinna-Biscuits container on top of the bag that Dave had bought earlier. Next to that a travel mug with the KEI logo. She was having a conversation with an animated older blonde woman who wore a bright skintight yellow dress next to her and someone others out of sight. Maybe Paul or Dave or both. "No, she looks busy, if you could though I'd appreciate it."

"Well OK then," Emma said reluctantly taking possession of the well used, and slightly marred envelope as though it had teeth and would bite her if she wasn't careful "I can do that."

"Thank you, have a good day, Emma," Brittany said turning around she left taking another glance at Paul's office, the door now closed.

"Thank You, you too." She heard Emma say.

When she arrived back at her desk, Mason McCarthy was waiting for her. He'd started up her laptop. "Hey" Mason greeted her "This is really bad," pointing to her laptop screen that showed the blue screen of death "They don't usually do this once we re-image them. We'll probably go ahead and replace the drive this time."

"Cool how long will that take?" she asked

"Kinda hard to say," Mason stopped to think before continuing, "I should be able to get to it this afternoon, I'd say you'd have it back after lunch tomorrow at the earliest. It depends if we have a drive available this model hasn't been the most reliable when it comes to the drives."

Disappointed at hearing the young technician's answer, "Oh, that late?" Brittany replied.

"If you want you can load the KEy mobile app to your phone or your tablet if you have one. That way you can keep up with emails. Messenger, word, and excel are also available. They're all pretty basic, nothing fancy." He suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." Brittany, happy that at least she had an alternative to keep up with email.

It took another hour before they'd found a laptop she could log into, make the request, find Anthony to approve the KEy access and load it onto her iPad before Mason took her laptop away for repair. Once that task had been completed, she had two back to back meetings.

By lunchtime, Brittany was back at her cube, engrossed on trying to figure out how to load a spreadsheet from the cloud to view on her iPad. Silently swearing to herself as she entered in her 16-character paraphrase to login to the cloud URL each time it came back time with 'invalid username or password' when she heard "Lasso of Truth?" turning around Santana smiled down at her. She melted.

"Yeah, I … uh … I heard you were a fan of Wonder Woman." She smiled back.

"Q?" Santana rolled her eyes, blushing as she smiled. It was enough to make Brittany feel like a warm puddle.

"I cannot reveal my sources" she replied with a grin.

Still smiling Santana shrugged her shoulders. "Well than Thank You, though I had some explaining to do with the envelope to Paul."

"You could have just told him it was sheet music from Mercedes," she said as she checked out the Latina's latest fashion choice. A pencil skirt and a blazer. Brittany wondering if there was anything that Santana didn't look good in. The thought of Santana in black leather on the back of a Harley Low Rider, driven of course by one Brittany S Pierce crossed her mind.

"Not far from the truth. So, what are you doing?"

As Brittany went on to explain her laptop issues, she noticed Santana's face going from a radiant smile to pissed off after the mention of Artie.

"Come with me we're going to talk with Wheels," she said, more like an order than as an invitation.

Brittany followed Santana to the elevators, noticing when employees said 'Hi' they addressed her as either 'Ms. Lopez or Ms. Karofsky'. Two employees seemed frightened by her, ducking into the nearest aisle to avoid her altogether. At the elevator, once a car going down arrived, they allowed her on first. In the basement, she used her badge to gain access to the restricted area where the IT team made their offices.

"Where does Artie hide these days, Sugar?" Santana directed her question at a woman wearing a headset, behind a substantial pink bow wrapped around her head, whose nameplate read Sugar Motta.

Sugar smiled warmly apparently happy to be in or near Santana's bubble "I believe he's in his office today, Santana." Sugar, it seemed she was the only employee so far not ruffled at seeing Santana in the building as she pointed to a closed door.

After a brief walk, Santana, not bothering to knock, opened the door "Wheels! What's this about an employee having to wait for a replacement laptop?" she demanded.

Pivoting in his wheelchair, Artie turned around to face the women "Mrs. Karofsky so good to see you again. You know, of course, it's polite to knock when an office door is shut. I could have been in here talking to one of my employees about a personal issue or reviewing personal sensitive information files."

"Right Wheels, more likely catch you in here jerking off to one of your classic Playboys or Maxim's you have stashed in your drawer." Santana spat at the differently abled man.

"Uh … You, obviously, have me confused with the janitor Mr. Kidney." He replied his face turned a light shade of red. "So, what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Surely, you have more important things to do like shop for outfits that advertise everything? Drink Sangria at the country club? Watch telenovelas, in your crassly over-the-top, ostentatious home?" Artie, clearly not happy to see Santana in his office asked.

Ignoring Artie's snide remarks, Santana changed her tone from caustic to inviting replied "Brittany needs a replacement laptop. You have a signature authority to do that." Shrugging her shoulders "So do it."

"Yes well … If I'm not mistaken, Mason has the laptop now. He'll work on it, as time allows, throughout the day. Returning it by the end of business tomorrow." He answered, adding "Provided he isn't called away to address more pressing companywide issues affecting the network or infrastructure."

"I didn't say return. I said replacement, Artie." Santana sternly replied.

"Yes, you did. However, Brittany if I may." finally glancing over to acknowledge the other woman in his office "isn't scheduled for a laptop replacement for another two years as it states in corporate policy." Artie remained defiant. Not wanting to give into a woman who seemed to get whatever she wanted, when she wanted without fear of repercussions. He found her annoying at best — spoiled and haughty most of the time. And a bitch pretty much all the time.

"As a major shareowner, I represent corporate and want to override that policy." She said she annoyed at the IT manager.

"Actually Santana, regardless of your company ownership, or marital connection to our CEO you aren't even an employee. You have a badge granted to you as a courtesy by your father-in-law that allows you access to all areas of the building and plant. Security assumed you'd only use it to gain access from the garage to the executive offices. However, you chose instead to …"

"Artie! She needs a pc. Get her one!" Frustration was now evident in Santana's voice.

Sitting up straighter in his chair Artie crossed his arms as if to stand his ground "As I said in addition to citing the aforementioned corporate policy, IT services have strict policies and procedures to follow which allows us to maintain a high level of success in resolving hardware issues directly related to workers productivity..."

Growing tired of his policy recitations Santana cut off the IT manager "Bull crap, Artie!" looking at the man in the chair Santana continued, "You're daring me to go over your head?"

"If you wish to try, but I don't think the CEO and President of Karofsky Enterprises will override corporate policy on the whimsical concupiscence of his daughter-in-law's." Artie's face went white, his posture from defiance to regret, realizing he'd just made a grievous error in word choice in front of the two women.

Santana paused, the anger in her face turned into a smile. "Come on Britt." Santana motioned to the taller blonde to follow her. "We need to take a detour through HR while we're on the way. What do you say? Concupiscence? Sounds like a case for sexual harassment."

"Uh yeah … I guess … I mean it's from the Latin word concupiscentia meaning a longing for carnal or worldly things. A more modern definition would be to covet or sexual desire."

"Exactly!" Santana replied as she and Brittany left the IT managers office.

Santana stopped at Sugar's desk to have her unlock Brittany's cloud paraphrase. The bubbly Helpdesk representative took Brittany's employee ID, after a few quick strokes on her keyboard she looked up at Santana, handing her the wireless keyboard "Your employee ID, please." Santana complied. After a few more keystrokes Sugar looked up to Santana saying "Done. And with Dave's approval, I upped her retries from the standard employee's 3 to the executive 5, her reset the timeout to unlock from 2 hours to 30 minutes. Anything else I can help you with today, Santana?"

Santana gave Sugar a knowing smirk, replying "No thank you Sugar. You've been very helpful today."

Back at the elevator, Santana used her hand to hold the doors open while she unhooked her badge with her free hand using a key on the ring, she inserted it into the lock of the elevator panel turning it as she pushed the number 4 then moving her hand allowing the doors to close. Holding the keys at an angle in the lock position the elevator car went directly to the 4th floor.

In the administrative office area Santana asked Emma if Paul was in the office, she replied no at lunch, he'd be back shortly she could wait in the office. Brittany followed her into the President's office. The office was enormous; the desk looked more prominent than the one she'd seen in pictures of in the Oval Office. Santana excused herself going into a small hallway closing the door behind her. Brittany scanned the room on the walls hung framed aerial views of the plant and corporate offices over the years. Walking over to the credenza were photos, an old family photo of Paul, his wife, a young Dave, and two other boys. A black and white photo of Paul, a young boy, and an older man. Another of Dave, Santana, and Zee probably taken over a year ago. Tucked into the frame of that picture a small photo of Dave holding a swaddled newborn in a pink cap. A photo of the blonde woman from earlier in front of the Eiffel Tower. Finally, one of Paul next to a fish as tall as him from a deep-sea fishing expedition.

"Happy family" Santana came up behind Brittany placing her hand on the blonde's lower back.

Brittany took a few seconds to savor the feel of the placement of Santana's hand. Remembering how it felt to have her rub lotion on her back at the pool a month ago, to inhale the Chanel that she wore today. Brittany pointed to the family photo with the three boys "Who are the boys? She asked.

"Dave's brothers PJ, and Jeff, both were killed on an ATV that was hit by a drunk driver. Dave was 15 I think." Santana answered, "The woman is Dave's mom Karen. She and Paul separated shortly after that. Karen went south and found religion. I prefer to say she joined a hate-group. Dave chose to stay with Paul to finish high school."

"You know Santana I don't want to make any trouble for you over something as minor as a pc," Brittany said, worried that she could cause discord between Santana and her father-in-law.

"Don't worry. You're not." rubbing Brittany's back to comfort her "Artie can set Mason's priorities. He doesn't like taking requests from a woman." Santana reassured her.

"Sounded a lot like an order to me," Brittany said. The touch of Santana's hand no longer on her back.

Ignoring Brittany's observation. "You're working on the water treatment project, aren't you?" Santana asked

"Yes" Brittany curious why Santana needed that information. Before she could ask, Paul walked into the office.

"Santana thought you'd be gone by now." He said, in the relaxed tone used when speaking to family, as he walked behind his desk.

"Not yet. Paul, I'd like you to meet Brittany S. Pierce. She's a Biosystems Engineer working on the waste-water treatment project, and she doesn't have a pc."

Looking directly at Brittany Paul asked, "Where's your pc Brittany?" changing this tone to that of a busy executive. Direct. Cool. Precise.

"Uh … It's with IT Services for repair. Blue screen of death keeps popping up. Artie thought he'd fixed it once this week. Guess he didn't."

Paul looked between his daughter-in-law and the engineer standing before him. Wondering what his daughter-in-law's objective would be. Keep the company's water project on track? Help Dave? The engineer? Help herself in some way? He wasn't sure. What he was sure about, Santana rarely asked him for anything. If it weren't for nepotism, he'd be happy to bring her into an upper management role. With proper mentoring, guidance, the time he could retire a legacy executive from his father's era. Maybe even himself. He reached over to his desk phone, punching a button, Emma's cheerful voice coming over the speaker "Emma get the manager of IT Services on the phone. I'd like to have a word with him." A few minutes passed, Brittany too nervous to say a word, while Santana leaned casually on Paul's small conference table, before Emma came back saying she was transferring the call to Paul's phone, line one. Artie's voice came through the speaker: "Artie, what's this about Ms. Pierces' laptop?" Paul asked.

"As I told Mrs. Karofsky, Ms. Pierces' laptop is in the queue for repair. We hope to get it back to her before the end of the day tomorrow. Then she can load the necessary applications at her leisure." He explained to Paul

"That's not acceptable Artie, get her a replacement out of inventory. Use my IT code for any work-related tasks. Get it to her within the hour, understand?" Paul commanded in a friendly, non-threating voice.

"Yes, sir I'll have Mason take care of it immediately." Not questioning the decision, Artie bitterly accepted Santana had won.

"Thank you, Artie, I appreciate your assistance in taking care of this for me. Thank Mason for me too." Adding at the end "By the way Artie, on a personal note it's either Ms. Lopez or Ms. Karofsky, not Mrs. Karofsky." Paul ended the call with a tap of a button.

"Thank you, Paul," Santana said grinning more at Artie getting his comeuppance than Paul's reminder.

"Thank you, Mr. Karofsky," Brittany said following Santana's lead.

"Please, you can call me Paul, no need to be so formal. Anyway, I hate to be rude ladies, but I have a call here in a few minutes."

"Yeah I need to get back home, and Britt needs to get back to work," Santana said as she went around the desk, to give Paul a quick hug. Grabbing her bag, she left the office with Brittany.

As they walked out of the executive area, Santana asked, "Have you had lunch?"

Brittany really wasn't hungry, except carpe diem came to mind, seize the day and do everything you can to make the future better, "No, I haven't."

"Cafeteria is about all I can offer. My treat."

"Works for me," Brittany replied as they headed to the elevator to go to the first floor.

Brittany grabbed a yogurt, orange, and an ice tea, Santana a salad and water. When Santana got to the register instead of paying, she showed her badge, to Millie, the cashier, who wrote down her badge ID on a slip of paper and stapled it to the receipt than slipped it in under the till drawer of the register ending the exchange with a smile and "Thank you Santana".

As they walked to the dining area, Santana mentioned that Millie was Marley's mother. They found an out of the way table where they sat down. Brittany said, "You didn't pay for anything."

Santana smiled "I just said it was my treat not that I'd pay. But you can thank Dave later if you want, it came out of his paycheck."

"You're a powerful woman, for not being an employee Ms. Lopez. Or is it Ms. Karofsky?" Brittany asked she hoped her flirting wasn't too noticeable.

"Lopez, I kept my name."

"So, why the threat to Artie to stop at HR?" Brittany asked, curious to know why the animosity between the IT manager and Santana.

"Aside from he's a misogynist? Whose gotten into trouble with HR over his flirting? Passed on chlamydia to a couple of his female co-workers?" Brittany watched as the dimples came out with Santana's smirk. The dimples had to be the cutest part about the Latina. "He gave me an opening to push his buttons. I took it."

"And the radio silence?" Brittany wondered if she was now too forward.

Santana hesitated, not knowing which or if any co-workers Dani had confided in and if it had made it into the company's gossip line. Placing her hands on her lap to hide her nervousness she looked away from Brittany and replied "I uh … I uh … was busy"

"That's ok" Brittany didn't feel that was the entire truth as she watched Santana put her hands under the table, much like that time at Breadstix. "I thought maybe I'd said something that put you off me, at the Lake. Or maybe I've read more into this than I should have." After an uncomfortable minute had passed without Santana saying anything, Brittany broke the silence "I am."

Santana looked up titling her head slightly "I am, what Britt?"

"I am interested Santana if you'll give me a chance."

The sincerity in the blonde's voice matched the honesty Santana saw in her face. Did she really understand what being involved with her meant? Santana wondered. She would guess that she didn't. But, inside she could feel her heart beat a little faster. Her blood rushed a little quicker. Warmth engulfed her as she blushed. With all that, her mind told her differently. Dani had just dumped her having grown tired of her rules. As much as she didn't want to, she had to remind Brittany of the truth in her life. "Brittany, I told you I come with baggage."

"Don't we all?"

"I'm not talking about personality flaws or my children, or some recovery program. I can't give you 100% of me. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't" Brittany replied knowing that's not what she was asking of Santana. What she knew of the woman across from her came from limited interactions, opinions of her friends, and an overwhelming feeling that they belonged together. That it wasn't there first time together and it wouldn't be their last. Very little of the true Santana came from her.

"Britt sometimes all I need is something warm beneath me. I'm like a lizard."

Brittany thought about Santana's analogy. Reptiles were ectotherms, animals with little internal heat sources to regulate their body temperatures, requiring the sun to warm them and shade to cool them. Butterflies and honey bees also fell into that category. Reptiles were thin-skinned, not having a leathery protective underlayer like mammals. They shed their skin especially as they grow. They still had hearts, lungs, respiratory, and circulatory systems, and brains albeit smaller ones. But within the species of reptiles some exhibited complex social structures, engaged in play, monogamy, promiscuity. Some could navigate mazes better than rats. Was that what Santana meant in her comparison? The woman that sat across from her was not only warm-blooded, but gave off a warmth she found glowing, affectionate, and caring. She wasn't a reptile either Santana was more a butterfly. Maybe the analogy of starting as a caterpillar in her youth to becoming a beautiful, sensitive butterfly as an adult was correct. Brittany had only seen her interact within the inner circle, but she knew Santana mingled with social circles from KEI, and the Lima civic leaders and probably had social groups in New York and Florida. Santana maintained a hetero monogamous marriage with Dave but fell into promiscuity with women. She didn't have definitive proof, but she knew Santana participated in a game of water volleyball during her pool party. Neither did she have much evidence of Santana's intelligence other than her MBA from an Ivy League School and conversations at either party when the discussions fell into politics or current events.

Like numbers often tickled at her brain, now words did 'Satan,' 'Badass' 'Lizard' 'Cold' 'Icy' 'Death Stare' 'Protection' 'Dark' 'Unsettled Soul' 'Passionate' 'Fiery' 'Fear' 'Complex' 'Vicious' 'Bitch' 'Queen' 'Woman of Color' A sudden awareness overcame Brittany the real Santana hadn't allowed herself to emerge from the cocoon. What people saw was what they wanted to see of Santana or more specifically what she wanted them to see, a reptile. A barrier to the beautifully delicate, sensitive butterfly that was within her heart. If she did emerge from that protective cocoon, then the butterfly effect from chaos theory, where action by one has an impact on another or one act of kindness passed on … well, she'd have to do the math calculation on the double pendulum later this wasn't the time. The point was Santana needed to be the butterfly. "How about this, go out with me?" Brittany blurted out.

"A date?" Santana froze, eyes wide, not sure if she comprehended what Brittany was asking or if she did herself.

"That's the usual starting point. You've dated before. Let's get to know one another better." Brittany sensed worry, fear, confusion, in Santana's face as she waited for her answer when she hadn't "Look I need to get back to work, but at least think about it. It's your choice."


Notes: Chose the chapter title, not for the actual definitions of Doyenne which always included senior, older or aged. More for the fact that they're successful women in their fields something that is to be celebrated, regardless of age or job title. MHO