They get to the restaurant and Lily forces Puck and Santana to help her leap from square to square across the pavement towards the entrance by taking hold of her arms and flinging her. (It's kind of a tradition she and Finn have when it comes to Breadsticks).
It's damn lucky that Lily's one of the few things in life Santana loves more than the 'sticks, because at this point she's so hungry she'd probably have thrown the tot straight from the car to the waitress in one swoop to speed things along if she didn't. She deserves an award for this kind of parental stuff...
They eventually make it through the doors and Puck starts acting strange as he takes command of the situation.
"Uh… code: 4L." He says shiftily, leaning over the counter towards the waitress.
The waitresses eyes widen as she slowly nods and smiles before answering with an "Ah yes, right this way sir."
So that's all kind of weird...
But at least they're nearly eating food.
They're seated straight away to a table already set out for four but as soon as they get comfortable the waitress starts up the weirdness again.
"Your meals will be out shortly."
"We haven't ordered yet." Santana quietly states in bewilderment. But the waitress is already gone.
Puck sits back into the bench, already chomping on a breadstick and casually wavers the situation off.
"It's all taken care of."
Santana grits her teeth. She's back out of control and more specifically out of control of the breadsticks menu.
But Lily takes an uneasy breath that captures her mother's attention away from her menu-dismay. Santana looks down at her side surprised to see her previously hyperactive child now languid and lost in her own quiet world of sadness, the picture of Finn from the second clue laid out across her lap.
Santana affectionately smooths down the back of her toddler's hair, leaning down to speak to her on her level.
"What's wrong baby?"
The child hesitates, pouting a while before giving an answer.
"I wish daddy was here."
"You don't want to play the treasure hunt anymore?"
"Yeah I wanna play. But I wish daddy was here now… On a timeout. We never eat without daddy."
That's true. They've never eaten at breadsticks without him. Having to substitute Puck in her step-leaping tradition must've reminded her of that fact.
"The poem said I got to eat up everything on my plate so we can find him. But what if I can't eat it all! It's a secret but daddy always finishes up my carrots when I don't wanna eat them no more…"
(-That's never actually been the world's best kept secret)
"…What happens if I don't finish and we don't find him? Will he ever come home?"
The prospect of such a notion causes her little bottom lip to start trembling.
Santana instinctively wraps her arms around her emotional toddler's waist, and pulls her on top of her lap, squeezing tightly as she presses their cheeks together.
"Baby he'll always come home. Always."
She lets that sink into her sweet little child's brain just holding her for a while until she can feel the worries and doubts fade away. Then she turns her around on her lap slightly she can look at her daughter's face.
"But that doesn't even matter because we are the greatest treasure hunters in the galaxy and we won't give up until we find him!"
"Here here!" Puck cheers waving his empty wine glass in the air and making Lily laugh a little in the process.
Brittney leans across the table towards her with her hands cupped around her mouth and loudly whispers,
"Plus if you don't finish your carrots Lily, I'll finish them for you!"
Santana smiles at her two best friends and then down at her daughter, whose mood seems to have uplifted dramatically in the last 10 seconds. Lily leans as far across the table as she can to her Godmother and loudly whispers back,
"Okay. But you have to sit on your legs because whenever mommy catches daddy she always kicks him under the table. Sometimes he wears shin-guards. But don't tell mommy because daddy says 'what she doesn't know let's him live longer."
Secret keeping and discretion are also abilities she inherits from her father and therefore lack completely.
"Come on Miss Confidentiality." Santana jokes, maneuvering her child off of her lap and out of their booth. "Let's go get some crayons from the play box."
When their meals are finally brought out Lily's the first to finish and the only thing clearer than her plate are Brittney's legs, which thankfully get to remain bruise-free. Lily immediately starts cross-examining her plate for the promised clue and once she realizes to flip it over, a bright smile appears on her face when she sees a small, folded piece of paper taped on the underside. This is indeed only a small piece of paper and when it's unraveled it just reads 'code: 4C'.
Puck leans forward with feigned excitement.
"Right kiddo, now that you've found the code, you've got a special mission to tell it to that nice waitress over there, who's really a pirate in disguise! And if it's the right code, she'll give you the next clue for the next stop on our treasure hunt!"
Lily instantly begins clambering her way out of the booth, not waiting for her mother's instruction or permission to tell her to 'go with Uncle Puck'.
The two women left at the table just gaze after them, the brunette smiling at the show Puck's putting on for her daughter and the blonde staring the waitress up and down suspiciously after stiffening instantly from Puck's mention of the word 'pirate'. The waitress takes them off towards the kitchen and when the duo return the shorter one's carrying a giant cupcake, speared by a giant toothpick that has the next photo-clue attached to it. This one's a little random. It's a picture of the glee club from senior year with a red ring circled around Mr Schuester Lily hands it over to Puck and scrambles onto her mothers lap as soon as they get back to the table. Once she's comfortable Puck begins reading out the clue and this one knocks Santana for six, so much so that she doesn't even notice her daughter chewing her hair the whole way through.
"The gas tank is full but the GPS needs setting,
So where are you going? I bet mommy's sweating,
Lily my darling give mom a kiss and a grin,
And convince her to take you to the land of Sam and Quinn,
You're so very close and if you get there in time,
I guaranty no regrets because treasure you will find."
So... this one makes her stomach jump in more of a, 'jumping really high to angrily drop kick somebody in the head' kind of way.
She's quietly fuming to say the least...
Since lunch was in fact pre-paid by Finn they're able to swiftly exit the diner and as they get back to the car Santana hands her daughter over so she can pull Puck aside.
"Lily honey go with Aunt Britt for a second okay."
Once they're reasonably out of ear-shot she lets her frustrations out… on Puck's arm.
"Fucking Indianapolis are you kidding me?"
"Um ow."
"What the hell is he playing at!"
"C'mon it's only a two hour drive."
She can't help but raise her voice a little.
"Have you ever driven two hours with a three year old? Oh and a three year old who's super hyped up because her ignoramus of a father is a giant… ignoramus!"
"Ignor-anus!" Lily shouts out from behind them.
(Okay so her plan of substituting big words for rude words didn't really work out there.)
She begins pacing a little under the stress of the situation and it bugs Puck out enough to make him take a hold of her shoulders.
"San, calm down. He's got it all covered. I'm driving and I know exactly where we're going, so you and Britt can take turns entertaining the sprout in the back. You got the bag from the store right? Well that's got the ultimate CD collection of Disney songs in it for the ride and Finn stocked the trunk full of food and drink last night and took all your overnight stuff with him so it's all good."
"Wha- overnight? Where are we going overnight?"
"You'll see."
She shrugs him off and starts pacing again.
"No I'm not going-"
-"Is Finn a good dad?"
She's slightly taken a back by his random question and it stops her movement.
"What?"
"Is Finn a good dad?"
"Yes, he's a great dad but-"
"Is he a good boyfriend?"
"Puck, yes but-"
"Then trust him. He's thought it all through and you and Lily are going to love it. So hush your gums and get in the car. This is not negotiable."
Puck looks as stubborn as ever and she's fast run out of arguments.
She does trusts Finn and Lily looks like she's having fun again, which is really the whole point of this... She takes a deep breath looking at her daughter who's smiling and laughing away with Brittney. Calming herself down she decides she can put away her own stubborn need to be in control and play out the rest of Finn's game. They've come this far already and to be honest part of her doesn't even know why she's being such an uptight, emotional bitch about the whole thing.
(Well she does… but anyway….)
"Fine." She says harshly with one of her best iconic smirk/pout combinations.
"But if she has to pee when we're on the highway she's using your lap!"
Puck rolls his eyes as the two of them head back towards the car.
"Lily mija, come on, we're going on a road trip." she tells her, scooping her up in her arms.
"To find daddy?"
"Yeah we're gonna go find daddy!"
"Yay!"
She wraps her little arms around her mom's neck and delivers two big, typical Lily Hudson kisses to her cheek in quick succession.
"That was from daddy because he told me to do it in the letter and that one's from me."
"Aw thank you honey." She expresses her gratitude by affectionately rubbing noses with the three year old.
(What, her kid's damn adorable and she's allowed to be cute with her!)
Although just to be safe on behalf of her reputation she asks Lily loudly so everyone can hear,
"Do you want some juice before we go?"
Her daughter nods and Sanana gives Puck a smirk, which he returns with a half terrified half angry glare...
So the trip to Indianapolis is pretty much as painful as expected.
They go through the entire Disney collection three times and neither Lily nor Britt let up on belting the tunes out at the top of their lungs.
Lily then proceeded to throw up everywhere after their third successive rendition of 'Hakuna Matata', putting a puked stained Santana in a mood that was far from any kind of 'matata'.
The 'clean up' added an extra 40 minutes to their trip so by the time they get to the district it's fairly late and both 'disney princesses' have fallen asleep in the back...
They enjoy the blissful silence for a while until Puck hands Santana his phone and tells her to hit send on the pending outgoing message which she sees is a message to Finn saying 'code: 30M'.
"Puck seriously. What is all this?"
"You'll see."
"Yeah well what I see, is my daughter passed out, exhausted in the backseat of a car that's leading me god knows where…"
"You've really turned into an uptight parent haven't you."
She resents that accusation. But it's very obviously true.
"Of course I have. She has a father who randomly springs out-of-state treasure hunts for her, she needs one parent to be responsible."
(Plus, well… her moods are all over the place.)
Puck purses his lips in understanding before quietly stating,
"You got to admit, this is kind of cool though. I mean, look how much fun she's had today. Our dads never did anything like this for us."
That's true. They didn't. And Finn's dad never had the chance.
They spend the rest of the journey in silence. Puck's eyes ahead on the road, and Santana's down at her phone as she flickers through old pictures of their little family. She just really wants to see Finn at this point...
"Here we are." Puck says breaking the silence and waking Brittney up in the back seat.
She looks up from her phone for the first time in like 20 minutes and realizes there's a valet boy staring at her through the car window.
"A hotel. Is this the prize? What has he arranged some kind of weekend vacation?"
"Maybe…" Puck teases coyly while unbuckling his seatbelt. "Lily's prize is in there. You got 10 minutes to check into the room and freshen up or whatever and then Britt and I are going to keep Lily busy while you carry on."
"..Carry on?"
"Carry on your treasure hunt. Your next destination's wired into the GPS so just follow it and then when you get there text 'code: 0S' to Finn and he'll give you the final clue to find him."
He steps out of the car to talk to the valet and Santana decides to ignore this worrying new piece of information as Lily begins stirring in the backseat.
They check in and Santana's as confused as ever as they head up to their two rooms. As soon as Santana and Lily enter theirs it's clear Finn's already been there and the three year old's eyes widen in wonder. There are all kinds of banners and balloons literally everywhere, and perched on the center coffee table is a giant princess treasure chest.
"It's the treasure chest mamma! We found it!"
"Careful Mija!" Santana warns as her little elephant child disappears into the sea of balloons, making more noise than ever.
The chest's filled with enough toys to satisfy a child at Christmas and the table's scattered with pamphlets for the local attractions under a note that says 'Lily's choice'.
Lily's clearly overjoyed with her treasure, and the issue of being spoilt aside, Santana's happy to see her daughter so happy.
Puck and Brittney soon saunter into the room and while Britt doesn't hesitate to join in with the reaping of the rewards, Puck gives an exaggerated tap on his watch and starts showing Santana to the door.
"Well, the clock's ticking. Time for you to get a move on Lopez. We got this one covered."
"Puck-"
"Nu uh. Go on. Get out of here!"
Lily soon realizes what's going on and steps away from her presents with a moment of panic.
"Where's mamma going?"
"She's going to go find your dad."
"I wanna go find daddy!"
"Actually L-Hud, your mom's gotta do this one by herself…"
The toddler looks up at her mom completely dejected and to be honest it breaks Santana's heart a little.
Yeah she knows Lily's had super fun all day and is completely pleased with her presents but they all know the main thing she's been most excited about finding was Finn...
Santana almost breaks and is about to say 'screw the rules Lily's coming with me' when Brittney scoops the kid into her arms instead.
"But we're going to stay here and play with your new treasure, and order lots of fries and ice cream and have a Disney princess dance party while mommy goes and finds her own 'treasure'. And the quicker she finds it, the quicker you're daddy will be here and we can turn him into a Disney princess with us and Uncle Puck! Does that sound good?"
A small smile breaks out on her face that seems to convince Puck and Brittney she's okay, but mothers always know differently and Santana can tell her daughter's putting on a brave face.
"Yeah I guess..." the toddler pouts. "Go find the treasure quick mamma!"
"Yeah go on woman. Shake a leg!" Puck yells flapping towards the door.
"Yeah shake a leg woman!" Britt repeats.
Lily laughs and attempts to join in.
"Shake your leg you woman!"
Santana just frowns at all three of them.
"Remember, code: 0S." Puck repeats sternly.
She sighs..
"Fine. But easy on the fries and ice cream!" she daggers towards the two grown-ups, as she makes her way over to hug Lily.
"Come here sweetie. Be a good girl for your silly godparents because they need looking after more than you do okay. And I'll be back before you know it. Love you baby."
"Love you too mamma. Good luck!"
And with that Santana grabs the car keys and her purse and storms out the building.
Britt's right. The quicker she finds Finn, the quicker she can bring him home to his daughter...