Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
Author's Note(s): Hey, folks. Thanks to everybody who read and reviewed the last chapter! As always, reviews kind of make my day so yeah, muchas gracias :-)
On to Chapter Eleven!
Put On a Happy Face
Chapter 11
For the most part, Santana was just going through the motions. She was really not in the mood for a perky group of Cheerios, but she had an image to maintain. She was also finding it beyond difficult to keep from staring at Christina, who had yet to look up from the floor. When the Cheerios began their second routine and Christina flinched, so did Santana.
The weather was awful. It had been cloudy for over twenty-four hours and had yet to actually rain. As soon as it did she was going to have to commandeer the gym for practice. There was no way she was going to risk the Cheerios lives, like Sue would, by making them do dangerous manoeuvres on a slippery field, followed by something along the lines of a, 'You think this is hard? Try being held as a political prisoner in Burma. That's hard!'. It was the kind of weather that Santana just knew if it didn't break soon, they were going to have one hell of a storm. The air was humid and stifling.
Santana looked at her watch, noting that there was still half an hour left before the end of practice. The cheerleaders were already beginning to look tired so she decided that maybe after this routine, she'd let them go a bit early. The fact that she wanted desperately to talk to Brittany had absolutely no bearing on her decision, of course. She was professional. Yep.
"Okay," said Santana loudly. She'd forgotten her megaphone, much to her displeasure. This was what came when she allowed herself to become distracted. Her throat was probably going to be sore for days now. "Last pyramid and you can all go home."
She earned a few looks of glee at this and the girls quickly began to assemble themselves. Santana was pretty sure that this was the fastest she'd ever seen them move before. They were precisely pyramid shaped in record time. Then something odd happened. Every single happy smile, fake or otherwise, fell into something undistinguishable. Something far from happy. Santana frowned.
"Okay, I want…" she trailed off because not a single person was looking at her. They were looking at something behind her. "What are you all–" said Santana, turning around. She froze. "Oh."
Rains stood before her, a gun pointed directly at her face. Her breath caught in her throat and her hands dropped to her sides.
"Coach Lopez," he said conversationally. The smell of alcohol radiating from him made Santana feel sick.
"Mr. Rains," she replied, striving to stop her voice from shaking. "Is there something I can help you with?"
He looked at her thoughtfully and then lifted the gun away and used it to scratch behind his ear. Knowing this was her only chance, Santana struck. Her fist shot out, catching him in the jaw. In his surprise, the gun fell to the ground and she dove for it while he screeched curse words and threats at her.
Pure terror fuelled her on as Rains threw himself down on top of her and they wrestled for the weapon. In the back of her mind, Santana was dimly aware that some of the Cheerios seemed to be crying and screaming. She wondered how long they'd be able to keep that pyramid up before it collapsed.
Santana kicked out and hit Rains in the side, forcing him away. She scrambled to her feet and pointed the gun at his head, ignoring the way the Cheerios were all gaping in panic and horror. He seemed surprisingly unconcerned at his predicament.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, panting for breath. His voice set her teeth on edge.
"And why not?" asked Santana, narrowing her eyes at him. He simply smiled at her and gestured in front of him.
Santana turned her head and her heart plummeted.
"No…"
"Yes," said Rains, rising to his feet ungracefully. He held out his hand and Santana only briefly hesitated before blankly handing him the gun. He then gestured to the two men stood in the bleachers and they dragged Brittany and Callie closer to them.
"I didn't see them coming," said Brittany when Santana was in earshot, tears were rolling down her face. Santana could only stare at them.
"Mama," Callie cried, trying to escape from the man who was holding her firmly to his chest. "Help!"
"Stop fighting, Cal," said Brittany fearfully. The man holding her pressed the knife he was wielding further into her neck and Brittany gasped and slammed her mouth shut. Callie continued to cry.
"Let them go," said Santana, her voice barely above a whisper. "Please."
Rains seemed to think about this for a moment. "Why should I?"
"Just leave them alone," said Santana. She wasn't even sure if he could hear her; she was struggling to even hear herself over her pounding heart and Callie's heart-wrenching sobs. "I'll do anything."
"Just what I wanted to hear," said Rains, running the end of the gun down her cheek. She resisted the urge to flinch away.
"Stop it!" one of the Cheerios suddenly shouted. It was Christina. "What are you doing?"
"This doesn't concern you," Rains snarled at her. Christina dropped her head and Santana could taste bile. "In fact," Rains shouted, waving his gun around haphazardly, "If I see any of you moving, I'm going to kill the kid."
Callie's weeping became more hysterical and Santana couldn't breathe. She literally didn't think she'd ever been so scared in her entire life. She wanted to move or say something. Anything. But her body refused to obey her. She looked at Brittany, but her wife was looking up at the sky trying to suppress her own tears. It looked like she was praying.
This really was happening. There was no stopping it.
"Why are you doing this?" Santana asked, her voice surprisingly emotionless.
"Nobody publicly humiliates me and gets away with it," Rains snapped, poking her hard in the chest with the gun. There was a wild glint in his eye that scared Santana far more than the weapon. He seemed to be the dangerous kind of the drunk; sober enough to be fully functional but drunk enough to have lost his inhibitions. There was no way this was going to end well for her.
"Close your eyes, Callie," Santana ordered suddenly. The girl let out a loud sob and struggled weakly against her captor. "No! Keep still. And close your eyes."
"Mama–"
"It's okay, sweetie," she lied. "Everything's going to be okay." Rains smiled coldly at her. "Just do what I say."
Callie continued to cry but squeezed her eyes firmly shut and Santana let out a low breath. Her relief was short lived, however.
She felt a sharp, burning pain and staggered sideways as Rains slapped her hard across the face. A few of the Cheerios screamed and she gasped in surprise. Before she could react, he had grabbed a fist full of her hair and was pulling her back towards him. She really wasn't sure what hurt more; the actual physical pain or the knowledge that she couldn't fight back. Somewhere in the distance she could hear Brittany shouting her name, but as a second punch connected with her cheek all thoughts of background noise were driven from her mind. She fell onto her hands and knees and fought back a wave of nausea as the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
Rains' mocking laughter filled the air and he kicked her sharply in the ribs, causing her to topple sideways and onto her back. As he kicked her again, Santana became very aware of how difficult it was becoming for her to breathe. She struggled for air as he once again grabbed her ponytail and dragged her painfully to her feet.
"Don't look so angry," said Rains calmly. "We both know you deserve this."
In response, Santana spat blood in his face. Fury flashed in eyes and he shoved her back onto the floor. She muffled a cry of pain into the cold, unforgiving ground and then desperately forced herself to roll over so she could stand back up. Before she could, a heavy boot came crashing down on her chest, forcing her back down. She let out a strangled yelp and struggled feebly to push his foot away. He moved fairly quickly and Santana gasped as oxygen burned through her lungs.
Brittany was shouting again, but Santana couldn't hear what she was saying. All she knew was that she needed to stay conscious and she needed to protect her family. This was all her fault and she needed to fix it somehow.
After her brief respite, the Rains smiled grimly at her and then bent down to straddle her. She suppressed a whimper at the increasing pressure on her already damaged ribs. Rather than punch her again though, which was what she'd been expecting, he grabbed hold of her left wrist and pulled it towards him.
"Go to hell," Santana wheezed as a lecherous smile crossed his face.
He took hold of her hand and slowly uncurled her clenched fingers.
"What are you–"
Then he grasped her wedding ring and pulled, taking the engagement ring with it. Santana felt her heart leap to her throat and she began to choke on her words.
"Wait! No…Give them back," she said with as much strength as she could muster.
The man clucked his tongue and shook his head as though he were deeply disappointed.
"Oh, Santana," he said, her name dripping from his tongue like acid. "You know what this is?"
"Please–"
"It's an abomination," he said with disgust.
"I–"
"You make me sick," he said, revulsion colouring his voice. Then he stood up and threw the rings as far away as he could.
"No!" Santana cried, scrambling into a crawling position and trying to chase after them. He kicked her roughly in the side and she fell back down, whining pathetically. Her vision swam as her head pounded unmercifully.
Suddenly, it was no longer Rains bearing down on her. Another face invaded her consciousness and her panic rocketed to new heights. Her struggling became stronger while adrenaline blocked out all feeling of pain. The man looked confused for a moment and then grinned wickedly at her.
"You know," he said conversationally, easily pulling her into a sitting position and straddling her lap, "I've always found fear a huge turn on."
No no no no no.
His fingers gripped the bottom of her shirt and he dragged it roughly over her head. There were tears dripping down her face now but she wasn't sure how they got there. She wasn't even sure where she was anymore. Or why her peripheral vision was rapidly darkening.
Santana flailed uselessly and he laughed in her face. His breath smelt like smoke and vodka and she gagged as he crushed his lips to hers and bit down hard on her bottom lip. As she fought back futilely, her hand came to rest on something cold and metal and she felt a thrill of hope. She pulled the gun from his waistband.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing," he growled, catching her wrist easily. She yelped in pain as he squeezed and she dropped the gun to the ground. He picked it up and looked at it thoughtfully. "Think I should use this on the little blonde girl?" he said, nodding his head in the direction of Callie.
"Please don't," Santana managed to whisper, her voice thick and painful.
Rains laughed cruelly and swung the gun at her head.
Everything went black.
Brittany launched herself forwards as Santana slumped to the ground but was held firmly in place. She tried to choke out Santana's name but all that came out was a series of muffled cries and whimpers.
Rains looked even more furious that he had done before. He stood up and kicked out angrily, catching Santana in the side. She didn't react and Rains let out a cry of frustration.
"Get up, you stupid bitch!" he yelled. Santana didn't move and Brittany wasn't sure if she was relieved or horrified. Rains huffed and turned his eyes to Brittany. She flinched and unsuccessfully tried to back away.
For about a minute, all that could be heard was Callie's sobs. Brittany's head felt like it was about to explode. She couldn't even bring herself to look down at her wife's prone form.
"What are we doing, boss?" said the man who was holding Callie. "Can't stay here forever. Someone's gonna catch us."
There was another pause. "We're taking the girl."
"No!" Brittany wept.
"Shut up!" snapped Rains, pointing the gun at her face. Brittany bit her tongue and sniffed. "Put her in the car," he then said to Callie's captor.
"Mommy," wailed Callie, as she started to be dragged away. She still hadn't opened her eyes.
"Stop!" Brittany begged, struggling forward and ignoring the way the knife bit into her neck, causing a small trickle of blood to roll down onto her shirt. "Take me instead. Please."
Rains laughed and Brittany felt like there was ice running through her veins. Callie's cries were drifting further away.
"Let her go," said Rains to the man holding Brittany. He released her and she fell to her knees and dry heaved. As soon as the nausea passed, she jumped to her feet and made to run after her daughter.
"Stay where you are," Rains demanded, pointing the gun at her once more. Brittany froze and fought back the hysteria that was ever increasing.
"Please," Brittany pleaded. "Don't do this."
Rains smirked. "Follow us and the girl dies. Understand?"
Brittany closed her eyes and nodded, a fresh torrent of tears running down her face. Then Rains began to walk away to his car. She couldn't even hear Callie anymore.
As soon as he was out of sight, Brittany took off in the direction of the car park. She arrived just in time to see the car pull away and speed down the street, taking away what felt like a large piece of Brittany's soul with it. Her eyes were too full of tears for her to even make out the license plate. The car drove out of sight, leaving Brittany feeling cold and gasping for air. She wasn't sure how long she stood there.
"Mrs. Lopez!" a voice shouted from behind her. Brittany snapped back to attention and ran at full speed to the Cheerios. She dropped painfully to her knees in front of Santana.
"San," she whispered desperately. "Please wake up." Santana didn't stir. She lifted her wife's head up gently and then pulled back when she felt something slick and wet. Her hand was covered in blood.
She looked up at the terrified Cheerios, who had somehow disassembled their pyramid without Brittany even noticing. "Call nine-one-one!" she screamed.
Author's Note(s): Okay, so it's a good job I was about five chapters ahead before I started posting this, because, despite being the shortest I've written, this chapter took a full eleven days to write, as opposed to two it usually takes. This was like…really hard to write. Mainly because it was bringing me down and I kept stopping. Bad times. This is totally not where I was originally going with this fic, but the mood took me though and I just couldn't ignore it.
Hope you um…enjoyed this chapter.
Thanks for reading!
