DJ Snowflake and Scrooge

December 21
9:42 am

Santana muscled her way through the town hall door with a stack of three boxes, her notepads, and a large cup of coffee. As much as she didn't want to risk running into Mercedes's coworkers, Santana needed to work. She never wanted to have a guilt-ridden dream again – much less one starring Rachel Berry. If she never thought about Rachel Berry again, it would be too soon. Santana woke up in the middle of the common room at the bed and breakfast determined to stay at the town records until she found something substantial to give to the Hummel's.

She shook the snow off her coat and tried to brush it off her boxes so they wouldn't get wet.

The building was dark. Santana called out. "Hello?"

When no one answered, she figured no one worked on Sundays. Good. She could work in peace for as long as she wanted.

Santana walked past Mercedes's office and straight down to the town records. She placed her boxes down, undid her coat, cleared Doris's desk, and settled in.

Fuck Rachel Berry. She wouldn't leave until she found something.

2:07 pm

Santana sipped on her fourth cup of coffee to no avail. Her eyes were sore from reading and her fingers were dry from handling paper. She bit the top of her pencil and pushed her glasses back from her head.

She found Rachel's birth certificate from 1930. It was strange in a number of ways. First, it didn't list a mother, which on most birth certificates was given. It did have her father's name, Hiram Berry, and a guardian, LeRoy Berry. Santana carefully removed it from the box and closed the lid. She had spent the past two hours sorting through three rows of boxes to find the 1930s. Carefully, she placed the document in a sealed bag and walked back to Doris's desk. Essentially, the piece of paper was useless because Santana still had nothing to make Rachel Berry, without a doubt, significant.

At the moment, she was just collecting more things to add to Kurt's ever growing collection of Rachel Berry memorabilia. She rubbed her eyes to clear away her grogginess and frustration.

6:08 pm

Santana pushed her dollar bill into the vending machine in the kitchen area. It stuck, folded in, and popped out again. "Come on." She kicked the side of the big machine and tried to flatten the bill out again before shoving it back.

She was tired and nowhere with her search. It was more than frustrating, but she refused to leave – not yet.

B-7

The pack of crackers in the second row dropped. Santana grabbed her dinner and walked back down the hall to Mercedes's office. She needed a break from the town records. Without thinking, she automatically turned the dial to the radio on as she passed by Mercedes's filing cabinet. Christmas music gently played, but since Sue was done for the day and Brittany wouldn't come on till later, there was no talk show host or DJ.

Santana plopped into Mercedes's chair and started to review her notes. Her glasses felt heavy and she stifled a yawn, but she kept flipping through her notepad pages.

10:57 pm

"Good evening, Midtown! It's DJ Snowflake, your favorite late night host for holiday music, excitement, the best places to go shopping, and the most delicious cookie recipes around!"

Santana opened her eyes and jerked forward. Her notepad and pencil spilled to the floor. She rubbed her eyes and glanced to the clock on Mercedes's desk.

"Shit."

How could she have fallen asleep? Santana groaned and picked up her pencil and pad. She tried to slide her phone open, but the battery died. Of course she left her charger back at the bed and breakfast. Figures.

"I run these ads every night and you know what's funny? I actually got to spend a night at Hummel's Bed and Breakfast. The service was incredible. I arrived too late to have dinner, but I did get to sample very heavily from their bar. Let me tell you, it was fully stocked. But you know what I enjoyed the most?"

Santana smiled softly in Mercedes's chair. This definitely wasn't the worst way to wake up.

"There was another guest there who was just trying to have a drink too. We talked, drank, and had the best time. It was a really great night. Not to mention, their double stuffed pillows are like sleeping on clouds. Anyway, I hope you guys check them out. They have packages and holiday specials going on. I know there's more than one reason for me to repeat my night out there."

Santana stood up from Mercedes's chair and stretched out. Curious, Santana walked over to the window and pushed down the blinds just because she couldn't believe it was already late at night. The sun had been out last time she checked. She flipped her finger through the blinds and expected to see the great tree in the center of town.

White.

Everything was white.

It wasn't just a little white, but it was fully white and still snowing.

Santana's jaw dropped. There was enough snow on the streets and the parking lots that it would require a plow to get out.

Shit. She would need a plow to get out of the town hall building and through the streets of Midtown. Even if she could leave, her little rental car would probably never make it through the back roads with that kind of snow cover. She couldn't leave even if she wanted.

"Come on, Cedes. You've got to have a charger in here somewhere." Maybe she could get Mercedes's boyfriend, Sigmund, to pick her up. A night spent with Mercedes would be a thousand times better than getting snowed in at the Hummel's Bed and Breakfast. She shuddered at the thought of another night underneath Rachel Berry's gaze. Santana ripped open the desk drawer, the cabinet, searched under the desk, and checked all of the outlets. Nothing.

"Shit."

"Hope you are all enjoying a cozy night wrapped up at home. Maybe some of you are enjoying hot chocolate and watching the snow fall. Here's a little something to get you in the mood for a long morning of shoveling."

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've got no place to go
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Santana picked up the office phone, but she didn't know Mercedes's number. There was only one number besides her own that she knew by heart.

11:03 pm

"Brittany…" Holly tried to get her favorite employee's attention. "Brittany, come on."

"What, Holls?" Brittany spun around in her chair to face the glass window that separated them.

"You've got to forgive me sometime. I needed you. You're the one everyone wants to meet and talk to. How was I supposed to know you had a booty call with Scrooge last night?" Holly raised her eyebrows.

"It wasn't a booty call. I was going to bring over that leftover gingerbread stuff since you aren't going to let me do a gingerbread house special with Lord Tubbington." Brittany sighed. "You really didn't need me to seal the deal with Puckerman's Pool Cleaning Service. That guy isn't even cleaning pools right now. He just wanted to come check you out and then check me out."

"Okay…" Holly bounced her head back and forth. "You're not wrong about any of those points, but he did say he would look to add runs in the summer if you were going to do a show. The summer, Britt! He was already thinking six months from now! That's a good thing! Whether he was a little skivvy or not, that means people expect WMHS 97.3 to be on the air for the next six months."

"Yeah, it is pretty exciting." Brittany couldn't stay mad at Holly. In fact, it was impossible when they had been friends forever and this was some of the best news they had in a while. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, Santana/Scrooge was the best thing that could have happened to the radio station this season. Brittany glanced down at her cell phone, but Santana had never responded to her text message. "I think with all these advertisers running ads with my show, I should probably be allowed to host any show I wanted in any time slot I wanted."

"Don't push it, Snowflake, especially after that stunt you pulled with Sue. You're lucky that woman hasn't run you out of town yet."

"She's been pretty close this year." Brittany smirked. The red light on her dash started blinking. She pulled her headphones over her head and waited until the song ended. "Listener! You're on the air with WMHS 97.3! What can I play for you tonight?"

"Well, maybe if you played more than Christmas music all the time, I would have heard a weather report for today's monumental amount of snow."

Brittany dropped her cell phone down and instantly leaned into her control panel. She swallowed hard and tried not to show too much excitement in her voice.

"Clearly, Scrooge, you haven't been listening to my program as much as you claim. I've announced a snow storm coming in for the past two days."

"I've been a little –" A small embarrassed cough echoed through their connection. Brittany wondered if Santana was blushing and what it would take to make Santana blush when Brittany could see it. "-a little distracted."

"Maybe I could play some more music to distract you further?" Brittany playfully suggested.

"Well you see, I'm kinda stuck at that place where I do extra work for my consulting job-" Brittany tilted her head at Santana's choice of words. She remembered their conversation from the bed and breakfast. She worked for the Hummel's, but Santana had mentioned doing some consultant work for the town hall.

"What are you doing there?"

"That's the thing. I didn't mean to be here all night and now I'm kinda…stuck…"

Brittany looked up to Holly. "You're stuck? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't think I can leave and I wouldn't have called, but you're the only number in town I know."

Brittany looked up to Holly. Holly grabbed her cell phone and left her office. Within a second, her boss opened the doors to the sound booth and made gestures for Brittany to get off her chair.

"What are you doing, Holls?"

Holly took the headphones from Brittany head and wrapped them around her neck. "Get out of here. Go rescue your girl. I can handle the rest of the show."

"Seriously?"

"You hear that, Scrooge?" Holly said into the live mic. They had been broadcasting their conversation the entire time. "She's on her way." Holly hung up the phone call before Santana could insist she was fine. She turned back to Brittany. "Yes, now get out of here, Snowflake, before she freezes up. I'm sure you two can find some way to weather the storm together."

Holly smirked as she watched Brittany grab her hat, gloves, and coat before running out of the studio with her truck keys. She adjusted her mic and settled into the chair.

"Midtown! What's up? This is DJ Holla-at-your-Hollsters taking over your nighttime Christmas show. We're gonna start off this block of holiday music with Run DMC's Christmas in Hollis and then we're gonna follow that up with my girl Mary J. Blige from her Christmas album. If you've got any-"

Holly noticed the red flashing light on her dash. She hit the button to take the call. "This is WMHS 97.3. What can I play for you?"

"Um. Hi. Did DJ Snowflake just leave to go save Scrooge?"

Holly's smirk could be heard through the radio broadcast. "You better believe it."

The line went dead. Santana stood in Mercedes's office with her mouth half-opened and her brain not functioning. She had wanted Brittany to call Mercedes or a service or maybe tell her where the closest diner was. The last thing Santana expected was for Brittany to drop everything and come to her. That was crazy.

This was crazy.

She hopped over her files on the floor and turned the dial to the radio up.

"Um. Hi. Did DJ Snowflake just leave to go save Scrooge?"

"You better believe it."

Santana took another peek out of the blinds. It was still snowing. Santana wished her phone was working so she could call Brittany's cell phone and tell her not to come. It wasn't a big deal. Too late now.

Santana looked around Mercedes's office. It was a mess. There were papers and files and notes all over the place. Not to mention, she was a mess herself. Santana had heard the entire conversation Brittany had with Holly. Go get your girl. The words came back with full force. Your girl? Santana tried to ignore the words and clean up, but all she could think about was what it meant to be someone's girl. Brittany's girl. What the fuck? She was supposed to be leaving in a few days. She wasn't supposed to be anything.

"Shit."

Santana dropped the stack of papers in her hands and walked away. She left Mercedes's office and made her way down the hall to the bathroom to wash her face and maybe fix her hair. If she had to guess, Santana knew she looked about as messy as the office.

A few minutes later, Santana stood by the doorway of the town hall and stared out into the snow covered town. It was colder here than the rest of the building, but Santana knew she wasn't bouncing up and down to stay warm. How the hell was Brittany even going to get here? It was foolish for her to even come. Granted, Santana didn't look forward to spending the rest of the night at the town hall.

The sound of a vehicle pulled her from her thoughts.

Headlights to an old blue pickup truck flooded Main Street. Attached to the front of the truck was a v-plow. It pushed snow at a massive rate to clear a single lane. Snow sprayed from either side of the truck. Santana shook her head. Even from this distance with the snow still falling, Santana could clearly see the Christmas themed window stickers and the lines of garland hanging inside the cab of Brittany's truck.

Brittany cleared the snow around Santana's rental car before she parked right behind her. A few minutes later, Brittany hopped out of her truck with a bundle of something wrapped in her arms, wearing a heavy coat, boots, a yellow beanie, and her gloves. Santana waited until she was close enough to the door before she opened it.

The cold wind and snow rushed in, but Santana didn't care. She quickly pulled Brittany into the building and shut the door behind her.

Brittany shook off the snow from her outfit and pushed back the hood of her coat so she could see Santana. Her cheeks were red from the cold and snow clung to strands of her hair, but all she saw was Santana. "Hi."

"Hey." Santana said without thinking before she remembered all the reasons Brittany shouldn't have comes. "What are you doing here? I didn't need to be rescued. I was lonely and trapped or whatever. I would have been fine. You could have given me the number to the township municipalities for snow. They could have gotten me out of here. My cell phone died so you were the only number I knew off the top of my head."

Brittany continued smiling even as Santana rattled off all the reasons she shouldn't have come. "I know you didn't need to be rescued."

"Oh." Santana pulled back unsure what to say next. "Then why are you here?"

"Because all I've been thinking about is doing this again." Brittany stepped forward without any hesitation.

The cotton from Brittany's gloves brushed against Santana's warm cheek. The fuzzy material rubbed against Santana's face and sent a tingling sensation throughout her entire body. She completely forgot why she had been mad or why she couldn't get too involved with Brittany. Brittany dropped the bundle in her hand and took a step directly into Santana's body. She tilted Santana's head up and met her lips.

Santana shivered hard in Brittany's arms. Brittany's lips were so cold, but Santana didn't care. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth. She sucked on Brittany's bottom lip and refused to let go until Brittany's breath was as hot as Santana felt. Brittany's other hand wrapped around Santana's waist and half lifted her up, half pushed her back.

Her back pressed into the hard surface of the wall. Brittany's heavy coat filled the space between them. Frustrated, Santana pulled hard on the zipper and tugged it all the way down the blonde's chest. Brittany chest hitched as Santana's hands ran straight down her body, but more so when she got to the bottom of the teeth. The zipper caught in the bottom. Brittany pulled back from Santana's lips for a half second. Her eyes were glazed with anticipation and desire as she glanced down in the small space between them. She watched as both of Santana's hands pressed into the coat and consequently into Brittany's lower abdomen to undo the zipper. Brittany clenched her stomach and swallowed hard.

The zipper released. Santana ran her hands down the inside of Brittany's coat and pushed it over her shoulders.

"Wow…" Brittany breathed heavily before she placed another soft kiss to Santana's lips.

The kiss was so intimate, so genuine, and so real; it took Santana a moment longer to recover from the small peck than from the passionate one before. She hadn't been prepared for that.

"I've been thinking about you too." Santana pulled back and confessed. She reached up and gently pulled the beanie from Brittany's head. Half-melted snowflakes and water dripped onto the floor. Santana squeezed the hat to make sure it was as dry as possible. "So do you wanna come in and dry off?"

"If you want me to come in or –" Brittany turned back to look out on the street again. "-I could probably drive you back to Hummel's for the night."

Santana shook her head at the thought of another night in the Rachel Berry room. "I wouldn't want to risk it. At least wait until it stops snowing – like you should have done before you drove over here."

"Yeah, but…" Brittany smiled to herself. "It was totally worth it."

Brittany bent over and picked her coat off. She undid her boots and put them off to the side so she wouldn't make wet puddles everywhere she walked in the town hall.

"So are you gonna show me where you work?" Brittany asked with a smile.

"You know I don't actually work here, right?" Santana lead Brittany down the hall. She carried Brittany's bundle in one hand and shoved the beanie into her jeans pocket. Brittany trailed behind, but much slower. Her socks made muffled steps on the floor. Her eyes darted everywhere. Even with the minimal lighting, Brittany could still see the plaques and portraits of the various town government members currently serving and retired.

"Well yeah, but you could work here if you wanted."

"I guess…" Santana hadn't ever thought about it. Local government was Mercedes's thing. Santana had done quite well at the New York State Archives.

"Is this Mercedes's office?" Brittany questioned as they reached the end of the hall.

"I've been using it as my office."

Brittany snuck into the office door. Santana quickly reached out to stop her. "Wait!" But it was too late. Santana followed her and cringed. Files, papers, and Santana's notes were still all over the office. "I didn't have a chance to clean up."

"If DJ Snowflake and Scrooge are together somewhere, do you think at least part of my tree lighting ceremony fic is coming true?"

Santana had forgotten to turn off the radio on the filing cabinet. Brittany glanced to the radio and back at Santana with a ridiculous smile. She practically beamed to hear WMHS 97.3.

Holly's voice played over the broadcast. "Sugar, I gotta tell you, I read the hard copy of your fic that you sent the station and dayum, girl, that was hot but I gotta ask you about the part where they use the actual Christmas tree as part of their romping. I mean that was dirty." Holly paused. "But I totally read it five or six times."

"In the spirit of rocking around, or with the Christmas tree, this next song goes out to our very own DJ Snowflake and Scrooge."

Rocking around the Christmas tree
At the Christmas party hop

Santana felt heat rush to her cheeks and fumbled for the dial to the radio. Brittany laughed. "So this is where you listen to me all the time?"

"Here and downstairs."

"What's downstairs?"

"The town records."

"Aren't you going to show me?" Brittany asked.

Santana nodded weakly. "Sure. I mean there isn't really anything down there. I don't know why you'd want to go down there."

"Just show me." Brittany's eyes sparkled. "It's not like we've got anywhere to be."

"I just can't believe you're going through all of these boxes just for the Hummels's." Brittany stood between two metal shelves. She played with the lids and waved away dust from untouched boxes. "This is so neat."

"It's not that exciting…" Santana remarked. She leaned back on Doris's desk and watched Brittany touch boxes with care and fascination. Santana's eyes lingered longer than they should have on Brittany's fingers now that they were ungloved. She swallowed hard as she remembered both of their kisses – even her dream last night before it had been interrupted. She wanted her ask herself what she was doing, but every time Brittany looked up at her or smiled in her direction, Santana forgot all of her misgivings.

"It's really amazing that Kurt and his dad want to do something with Rachel Berry. She's part of a long tradition of change in this town. You know after Rachel's album hit it big, the town stopped calling it a Christmas Tree Lighting and started calling it a Tree Lighting Ceremony? She's also the reason we play Hanukkah songs at the station; this town was founded on acceptance." Brittany smirked. "Despite all the times Sue has tried to run someone out. It's neat you're doing something with it."

Santana broke eye contact for a second. "I haven't really done much with it yet."

Brittany set down the document she had been reading and walked toward Santana. Santana must not have heard Brittany's footsteps because she genuinely started at the feel of Brittany's lips caressing the side of her neck. Santana closed her eyes and leaned back on the desk. "Britt…"

The other woman's hands answered. Brittany interlocked their fingers and pulled Santana away from the desk. Santana didn't resist. Brittany grabbed her bundle from the chair and unrolled the top blanket and spread it on the floor. Santana cocked her head and looked at Brittany with curiosity.

"What are you doing?"

"Well we're not leaving till after the storm blows over. We might as well be comfortable." Brittany tugged on Santana's hand until they were both kneeling on the makeshift bed. She set down a bag of crackers and random food she had brought and a thermos. "I brought you something to eat if you want."

But when Brittany looked up, it was clear Santana wasn't interested in the food or the hot chocolate Brittany had brought. This close, Brittany couldn't resist. She reached up and cupped Santana's face again. Santana eagerly pushed forward to meet Brittany's kiss. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to be pulled down to the ground. Brittany's leg bumped against hers. Her free hand found the corner of the other blanket and dragged it over their bodies. Santana ran her hand through Brittany's long blonde hair until she found the back of her neck. She closed her eyes and couldn't believe she was making out in the middle of the town records, but at that moment, she couldn't imagine wanting to be anywhere else.