The Beat Goes On

Rachel shuffled downstairs in a sleepy haze. She'd gotten in late (or technically, early) and felt like she needed another three hours or so before she was fully functional. She smiled, entering the kitchen and spotting her wife at the stove. "Morning, San."

"Hey there, sleepyhead," Santana said, flipping a pancake onto one of the plates. "I was going to bring this up to you."

"You don't have to do that."

"It's your birthday. I'm spoiling you. Deal." Santana handed her a plate and gave her a kiss good morning.

"Okay then," Rachel said, laughing. "No complaints from me."

"That's what I thought. Now, eat up. We have a big day ahead of us."

"What are we doing?" Rachel asked, digging into her pancakes and fruit.

"After this we've got an…appointment of sorts. It's a surprise."

"Santana!" Rachel whined. "I'm awful with surprises—you know that!"

"I know. But you don't have long to wait," she said, smirking.

"FAO Schwarz?"

"Mmmhmmm," Santana said, steering her inside. "Closed down for two hours for us to go crazy. You said the other day that you wanted to relive your childhood—I figured this was better than a trip to Chuck E. Cheese."

"This is adorable!" Rachel squeaked, eyes lighting up.

"Yep! And you're getting the behind the scenes tour—all the cool stuff. Let's get to it!"

"Mrs. and Mrs. Lopez!" the manager said jovially. "Ready to get started?"

"Absolutely!" Rachel said.

"Here are your wish lists," he said, handing them both sheet of paper numbered one through ten.

"Wish lists?"

"Yeah," Santana explained casually. "Whenever celebs shut the place down, they get to pick what they think's the coolest stuff, then the company donates those things to sick kids."

"That's brilliant," Rachel said, beaming.

For the next hour and a half, the pair of them wandered around with Eric the Manager telling them the ins and outs of the toy store. He kept them in hysterics for a good portion of the tour—he was goofier than Quinn on Vicodin.

"All right ladies," he said, coming to a halt in front of the teddy bears. "That's it for the tour. You still have thirty minutes to wander around and finish up your lists. I'll be at the register when you're done."

"Thank you so much, Eric," Rachel gushed, shaking his hand. "This was so much fun!"

"Glad to hear it!"

"So," Santana said, once Eric had wandered off. "Got your list nearly finished?"

"Yeah. Oooh! Look at this guy!" She ran over to a stuffed lion that was damn near the same size as her. "I'll put 'giant lion' on the list, but we're taking this one home with us."

Santana laughed. Her wife was a big baby at heart. She'd go along with it. It fit into the next surprise perfectly…. "Sure thing, birthday girl. What have you named it? I know you named it as soon as you saw it."

"Oswald Jeffrey Lannister the Fourth," Rachel said, hoisting it onto her shoulders.

"You and Britt are officially banned from watching TV together."

Lion and candy from the FAO Schweetz shop in tow, they made it home just after noon. Rachel deposited the lion on the couch and hugged Santana.

"That was awesome. Just proves you know me better than anyone…most people would've taken me to a Broadway show and called it a day," she said with a wink.

"I aim to please. But hey, I've got one last present. I wanted to wait until after lunch, but I can't."

"What is it?" Rachel asked, curling up on the couch with her.

Santana passed her an envelope. "From the adoption agency."

Rachel's eyes lit up. She looked from the envelope, to Santana, and back again. Suddenly, things clicked into place. Santana spending a lot more time in the five-seven year olds' section. Her asking for details on the different art classes that were offered for kids on the weekend. How she "forgot" to turn in her wish list at the counter. "No…when?"

"The letter just came today, but they called two days ago," Santana said, grinning. "I debated telling you, but I wanted to wait until the letter came to make it officially official."

Near hyperventilating, Rachel tore open the envelope. All her eyes took in was the word "approved". She wrapped herself around Santana. "Oh my god!"

"Happy birthday, Rachel."