Hey guess who's back from the living dead. Actually I've been busy; essays and projects galore (I swear college is only fun sometimes) and I had to write a radio drama for my audio production class so all of my creative talent went towards that. But I've been busy today to make up for it, that's right, I've managed to write two whole chapters today. Yay me. I'm sorry if I got a few things wrong detail wise but I refuse to watch this episode again. I can't do it. So, for those of you who have read this little author's note, thank you and enjoy.
Mike awoke sometime in the early hours of the morning and stared blankly at the ceiling. Santana laid sound asleep cuddled into his side. No matter how hard he tried to clear his mind, thoughts of Tina continued to haunt him. What if things had played out differently? What if he had checked facebook earlier and had them take the picture down? What if Tina had never checked her phone? Who checks facebook during a date? Maybe he should've taken her to dinner only instead of trying to go bowling first. What could he have done differently to prove that she was the only girl for him? Why did she have to have such a problem with him being friends with Santana?
Santana shifted closer and sighed contently, "Mmm….Britt…."
Mike blinked; at least someone was having pleasant thoughts. Mike looked to Santana and saw how peaceful she looked; a hint of a smile on her face. It must nice; Mike wishes he was asleep and oblivious to all the pain he's in right now. For now he just stares back at the ceiling and sighs as various 'what ifs' play in his head. Sleep continues to elude him and Mike spends his time slowly watching as the sun rises and lightens up his room. It isn't much longer before Mike feels Santana shift and slowly start to waken.
"Morning."
Santana sits up and looks down at him, "Hey, how long have you been awake?"
"I don't know really, before the sun came up." Mike replied dully.
"Oh, ummm… I'm gonna go to the bathroom okay?" Santana says as she stands up and heads towards the door. Mike doesn't reply, instead he chooses to turn towards the wall and stare blankly at it. He just can't seem to find the energy to do anything or care right now. He hears Santana sigh before walking out of the room. Mike was in the middle of replaying the argument over in his head when he hears Santana return.
"You're mom is downstairs starting breakfast." Santana states quietly and Mike just nods; he's not hungry. There's an awkward silence and Mike feels bad for taking things out on Santana but he's just not really in the mood; he just wants to wake up and see that this has all been a horrible nightmare.
"You know, I always hear Puck and Finn talk about those X-box thingies. Is this one of them?" Santana asks out of the blue and Mike freezes; she did not just call his playstation 3 a X-box thingy. It was an insult and Mike didn't know whether to feel offended or not.
"It's a playstation 3." He quickly corrects her as he turns to face her.
"Never heard of it." Santana replies blankly and pops up out of bed.
"How in the world have you heard of an X-box but never heard of a playstation?" Mike asks incredulously.
Santana shrugs, "I don't play games."
Mike narrowed his eyes; that would never do, he had to fix this. It was an embarrassment; no friend of his would be so completely clueless that they couldn't even correctly identify a game console on sight.
"You have so much to learn, I don't even think there are enough hours in the day…." Mike trailed off as he shook his head.
"Look, are you going to play a game or continue to sit there and stare at me in shock?" Santana huffed as she folded her arms.
"Fine." He may as well just dive right in; nothing better than a crash course in video gaming.
"One question before you start: Do you have anything Disney?" Santana asks randomly.
"….Actually I do." Mike replies before he searches his game library and pulls out Kingdom Hearts.
As soon as the opening begins Mike watches as Santana is immediately captivated. Mike turned back to the TV and watched along; just watching brought back memories of how amazing the game was, still is. The song shooting tingles all throughout his body and maybe it was a bit bittersweet as some lyrics brought back the pain of his recent breakup. Mike cleared his thoughts of that and focused on the game as it began.
It wasn't until later, after countless hordes of heartless, Santana screaming at him to beat that orange haired Jamaican wannabe (he did try to correct her about the accent but she didn't listen), and his mother interrupting them to say breakfast was ready, that Mike realized that Santana had successfully distracted him from thinking of Tina for longer than five minutes; it brought a small smile to his face as he at breakfast and watched Santana animatedly tell his parents about 'this awesome game' he just showed her. It was times like this that made Mike wonder if this is what having a sibling felt like.
Monday was gloomy and looked as if it would rain that day. Mike didn't mind, it fit his mood perfectly; why should the sun be shining when he was feeling the way he was. It was like he couldn't escape her; Tina was always haunting his thoughts. To make things worse, he kept seeing her all day. Mike was just grateful that he didn't have the same lunch period as her and stared gloomily at his nachos.
"Goodness, I leave you for one day…" Santana sighed as she sat down.
"Sorry for being depressed, I only got my heart broken by the girl that I love." Mike snapped; maybe Santana was starting to rub off on him.
"Don't snap. Tina is going to realize what she lost and seriously regret it. Honestly, only someone crazy would let a guy like you go. I wouldn't be surprised if girls start lining up to have a chance with you." Santana tried to comfort.
"But I don't want a rebound." Mike groaned, "Tina she was special, we shared our first time together. I can't just get over her by dating someone else. I'm just going to sit and listen to break up songs and continue to hope this is some sick nightmare. I mean Taylor Swift has some good songs."
"You've been listening to Taylor Swift? Holy sweet hell this is worse than I thought." Santana replied. Mike looked up to glare at her but saw Mercedes angrily make her way to their table. Mike sighed; he really did not feel like dealing with whatever drama she was going to bring.
"How could you? Mercedes started.
"Back off Wheezy or Imma go all Lima Heights." Santana warned angrily.
"Back off home wrecker because of you two Tina's been crying all weekend, I can't believe you would just break her heart like that!" Mercedes ranted.
"That's rich considering that b-" Santana stopped and glanced towards Mike, "Look, girl Chang broke up with Mike, she broke his heart and I've been doing what I can to keep said heart from shattering all over the place. So I really don't care about her feelings right now."
"Whatever, just stay away. The both of you have done enough damage." Mercedes said before storming off.
Glee was tense; super tense and super awkward. It seems as if everyone has taken Tina's side in this break up. With the exception of Brittany, who glanced back in concern every now and again. The first thing Mike noticed was how secluded he and Santana were from the group; there was literally a very noticeable gap between them and the rest of New Directions. Mr. Shue walked into the room ready to start the meeting.
"Alright guys winter break is coming up in two weeks and to get us into the festive mood I thought we could decorate the choir room. I even managed to get us a Christmas tree." He said and people started to get excited. Mike could see Brittany literally bouncing in her seat.
"But Mr. Shue Rachel and I are Jewish." Puck added.
"Oh right, well I guess we don't have to."Mr. Shue amended.
"Does this mean we don't get to decorate the tree?" Brittany asked as she pouted. Puck and Rachel made the mistake of looking in her direction and it didn't take long for them to give in.
"It's fine, I wouldn't want to take away from everyone else enjoying their holiday." Rachel said while Puck nodded in agreement and smiled once Brittany hopped up and clapped happily.
"Now that that's settled, boys help put up the tree and we're going to need some decorations. I was also thinking that we could help spread Christmas cheer and practice at the same time by caroling around the school." Mr. Shue continued and Brittany was the only one to seem truly excited by the idea.
When Mike gets home later that afternoon he notices the front room covered in boxes. He carefully made his way through the house, careful to not knock over anything, as he went to go set his stuff down. Returning to the front room Mike noticed his mother walking in and carrying a large box.
"Oh Mike you're home. Good, help me with this box." Mrs. Chang says and Mike rushes over to grab the box from her hands.
"What is all this stuff?" Mike asks as he sets the box down next to the others.
"I had some free time so I decided to get started on putting up the Christmas decorations."
"So is this all the decorations?" Mike asked as he looks around.
"Yes, I just need you to get the tree and then we can start." Mrs. Chang replies.
"Ok." Mike says as he makes his way into the basement to get the tree. By the time he manages to get all the pieces upstairs and into the front room, Mike sees that his mother has already opened boxes and started putting decorations up around the room. Right now she was currently putting up a mistletoe; Mike grinned as an idea struck him.
The next day Mike yawned as he waited outside of Santana's house. He tiredly closed his eyes for a brief moment before he heard Santana exit her house and make her way towards the car. Looking up Mike sees her struggling with a box full of decorations and hurries over to help he put the box into the trunk.
"What's with the decorations?" Mike asks as he closes the trunk.
"Mr. Shue said we needed decorations for the tree right? Here they are." Santana said nonchalantly.
"You're parents don't mind?" Mike asks.
"I doubt they'll even notice that these are missing." Santana replies as they get into the car and make their way to school.
"Well, at least Brittany will be happy."
"Exactly." Santana smiled.
Mike and Santana walked into school and started to head toward the choir room to place the decorations before class. Mike was caught completely off guard when Santana quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the lockers. Mike looked over into the direction they were heading and saw that they were heading towards Brittany and Mike immediately understood what was happening; Santana was doing anything she could to get Brittany's attention.
"Hey Britt Britt." Santana greeted happily.
Brittany turns to Santana and smiles, "Hey, Santana." She then notices him, "Oh, hi Mike, what's in the box?"
"Decorations for the tree." Santana replies, drawing Brittany's attention back to her. Brittany's face lights up.
"We get to decorate the tree today?" Brittany asks and when Santana nods, she squeals and jumps up and down excitedly before giving Santana a crushing hug. Santana smiles and holds Brittany as close to her a physically possible while Brittany chatters excitedly about how much fun glee will be today. Mike can't help but smile at how happy Brittany is but it's dampened as he notices how starved they are for physical contact with one another.
"I'm going to go put these into the choir room." Mike says but is largely ignored by the two as they're wrapped up in their own little world, "Hey, do you two want to hang out at my house after glee today? I've got something I want to show you."
This seems to catch their attention as they separate and Brittany nods in his direction, "Sure, I can't wait."
Mike smiles before leaving them to put the decorations up and headed to class. While sitting in class, Mike wondered how he would be able to get through the holiday season full of happy people when he himself was so down about not spending time with Tina. He was so excited to have a special someone to call on Christmas morning and wish them a happy holidays. Sure, he put up a good front and spending time with his friends distracted him but it was the time when he was alone that was the worse; he couldn't seem to get his mind to stay away from depressing thoughts.
Glee today wasn't nearly as bad as Mike thought it would be; it started out awkwardly but Brittany quickly managed to get everyone into decorating the tree and soon they were happily singing and dancing around the room. They even managed to get over the disaster that was their caroling idea; what kind of teacher throws a shoe at students. Mike chuckled as he moved around the room because Brittany even managed to get Santana to be civil to Artie.
"Hey this looks amazing." Mr. Shue said as he walked into the room. Everyone smiled and various people murmured in agreement. Mike continued to look though the direcorations before he was waved over by Artie. Once everyone but Brittany was gathered over Artie opened his mouth to speak.
"Hey, where's Santana?" Mike asked before he could get a word out.
"Who cares." Tina grumbled angrily from across from the group; Mike just stared at her.
"Guys, this is important Brittany still believes in Santa Claus." Artie says quietly and it catches everyone's attention.
"You can't be serious." Lauren says from her spot next to Puck.
"It's true. I was thinking that we could go to see a mall Santa. I think it would really brighten her day, a sort of club bonding experience." Artie continued and managed to get everyone to agree to meet up. Mike silently shook his head as he watch Artie wheel over to the tree where Brittany was and tell her of their plan.
Santana slowly walks over to where Mike is sitting, "What did I miss?"
"We're going to the mall after school, to see a mall Santa." Mike replies and Santana looks at him in confusion.
"Why?" She asks.
"Apparently Brittany still believes in Santa. Artie thinks that it would a good club bonding experience to take her to see Santa, make her day." Mike explains and Santana sighs.
"I get a bad feeling about this." Santana says.
"Brittany doesn't really believe in Santa right?" Mike asks.
"Brittany believes in the spirit of Christmas, one who takes the physical form of Santa Claus, you know like in the movies. Not that I would ever tell Britt what she should and shouldn't believe in, but even if I tried, how does one prove that a spirit doesn't exist? That all those miracles aren't really miracles, they're just luck and coincidence? So, all I do is make my yearly Christmas list and politely ask her about what she asked for and keep it at that." Santana explains and Mike nods; it actually made sense to some degree.
"Well, if you guys are still up for it we could still hang out at mine afterwards." Mike says.
"Yeah, of course."
Mike can't believe that they're actually going through with this; they're the only teenagers without children in line to see a mall Santa. At least Brittany looks excited but Mike wonders how life could be so cruel as to put him next to Tina; it made the entire trip very awkward.
"How are you?" Mike tentatively asked.
Tina sighed, "I don't want to get into this. I'm just here for Brittany."
"All I asked was a simple question." Mike replied.
"I'm heartbroken and it doesn't help that you sit there and flaunt your relationship with Santana in front of my face. I heard you making plans for her to come over tonight. You guys didn't even wait before getting together." Tina ranted quietly.
"Santana and I are not together; this relationship between the two of us is all in your head. If I still had a girlfriend I would be making plans to be with her but seeing as I don't I've made plans with my friends." Mike snapped back and Tina glared at him.
"Friends or just Santana?"
"Santana and Brittany but I don't see why that's any business of yours. You broke up with me so you don't get to get upset at who I invite over my house." Mike said. Tina's reply is cut off when it's time for Mike to tell 'Santa' what he wants for Christmas.
"I want Channing Tatum to stop being in stuff." Mike says before he quickly get off of Santa's lap; it was really awkward sitting on a grown man's lap. Mike gets up and quickly moves to stand over by Santana; who looked noticeably upset.
"What's wrong?" Mike asked.
"That creepy ass Santa got an erection when I sat on his lap. I'm trying to not throw up right now." Santana says and Mike notices that she's actually pretty pale.
"Should we be looking for a bathroom or…?" Mike trails off.
"No, I think I'm good. I might have nightmares but I'll deal." Santana replied as she swallowed heavily.
Brittany flounced over and smiled brightly at them, "Isn't this awesome, everyone is hanging out together. I bet this is the work of the Christmas spirit."Mike just smiled and nodded in return; he really didn't have the heart to ruin her day.
Mike watches as Brittany finally takes her turn on Santa's lap; he feels Santana tense next to him and looks worriedly at Brittany. After her experience just a few minutes ago, he really doesn't blame her.
"For Christmas, all I want is for my boyfriend to walk." Brittany says and everyone freezes; their fate is sealed when the guys tells Brittany that he'll get right on it.
"Now we're screwed." Artie says sadly and Mike hears Santana quietly mutter "Serves you right, idiot."
Mike, Santana, and Brittany are sitting in the front room as he shows Brittany all of the various decorations the he and his mother managed to put up yesterday. Mike carefully maneuvered them around the dining room before he walked through the doorway and abruptly stopped.
"Why'd you stop? I thought we were going back into the front room?" Brittany asked and Mike smirked at them before pointing up. Brittany looked up before gasping which caused Santana to look up.
"Got ya." Mike said simply.
"You planned this?" Santana asked.
"Merry Christmas." Mike shrugged and he watched as Santana desperately tried to hide her smile.
"But what about Artie?" Brittany asked and Santana started to frown.
"It's cool, you're under mistletoe and it's like the rules that you have to kiss the person you're caught under it with. Artie really can't say anything in this case." Mike said.
Brittany smiled, "Thanks for giving me an out Mike."
Brittany turned to Santana and cupped her face before she moved in and caught her lips with her own. Mike could hear Santana whimper and reach behind and grab Brittany's neck as she deepened the kiss. At this point it became a bit awkward for Mike to keep watching and he turned to give them a bit of privacy. He froze and his eyes widened in shock when he noticed his parents watching the scene in front of them in surprise; he didn't know how to react and apparently his parent didn't either. Quickly glancing behind him Mike sees that Santana and Brittany's kiss has really heated up and they're now basically dry humping each other. Mike turns back around but his parents have disappeared and Mike makes the quick decision to put a stop to things before they end up having sex in his front room.
"Hey, I don't think the mistletoe covers dry humping." Mike coughs out and they quickly separate; embarrassment evident on their face.
"Oh it looks like we have company. Hello girls." Mrs. Chang says as if she didn't just see Santana and Brittany making out in her house. If she wasn't going to say anything then he wouldn't either; Mike can't even think of how Santana would react if she knew.
"Hey mom, this is my friend Brittany." Mike introduces and Brittany waves from next to him.
"It's nice to meet you Brittany. If you girls don't mind staying for a while I was planning on making Christmas sugar cookies, I wouldn't mind help." Mrs. Chang says with a smile and Brittany looks excited.
"I'll just check with my parents and see if it's alright." Brittany says before she runs off to her bag and Santana does the same. Once they were out of ear shot Mike turned to his mom.
"Mom, I can explain." Mike started.
"What's there to explain? Santana and Brittany clearly have more than platonic feelings for each other." Mrs. Chang says simply.
"You and dad okay with that?" Mike asks nervously.
"While I'll admit coming home to that was a shock, I don't have an issue with gay people." She replies and Mike sighs in relief.
"Good, I don't think Santana would handle rejection very well right now."
"Don't worry, your father and I will pretend we didn't see anything. We'll wait until she's ready to tell us." Mrs. Chang says before Brittany and Santana walk back into the room.
"We can stay." Brittany announces happily and they get to work on the cookies.
The next day Mike sits at the table in the cafeteria and stares as the food on his plate; he's still somewhat debating on whether or not he should tell Santana that his parents know about her and Brittany.
"Hey." Santana said as she sat down at the table. Mike looks up at her and is momentarily taken aback; Santana looked pale and exhausted.
"I know, I look like shit. Everyone's taken time out of their day to tell me so." Santana said before having a coughing fit.
"Are you feeling well enough to be in school?" Mike asked full of concern.
Santana scoffed, "I've been through worse."
"Still…" Mike trailed off.
Santana coughed again and took out an envelope, "Look, I got my test results back."
"So, what did it say?" Mike asked.
"I- I didn't have the courage to look." Santana said shyly. Mike picks up the envelope and looks towards Santana for permission. When she nods her head he opens the envelope.
"It's positive." Mike says quietly and Santana's shoulder's slump. There's a gasp behind them and they both look up to see Jacob Ben Israel and his cameraman staring them in the face.
"Care to comment on what exactly is positive?" He asks as he pushes his microphone towards them.
Santana growls and glares as the boy, "Get your pimple infested ass face away from me before I slowly remove you balls one at a time with a fucking spork."
Mike stares at her in shock at her malice and Jacob slowly moves away from her before he runs away from her as quickly as possible.
"Was that really necessary?" Mike asks and before Santana could reply she quickly jumps up before running to the garbage can and losing what food she had on her stomach. Mike jumps up and holds her hair back as she continues to be sick. He can feel everyone staring at them and hears the whispers as Santana finally stops retching.
"I'm okay." Santana says as she spits one last time before standing up and walking out of the cafeteria; embarrassment clearly written on her face. Mike runs back to the table to grab their things and throw their food away.
"Mike, is she okay?" Brittany asked.
Mike turns to her, "I don't know, I think she might have the flu or something. I'll try to convince her to go home."
Brittany nods, "Don't take her home, her mom doesn't really do anything and Santana won't properly take care of herself if she's really sick." Mike nods and goes to find Santana. He finds her leaning against the lockers, panting, and swallowing heavily.
"Santana you're too sick to be in school. Let me take you home." Mike says.
"I'm not going home, I don't want to be stuck at home alone with that bitch. I can make it through the rest of the day." Santana says.
"You know, I've never seen someone get mean when sick." Mike comments. Santana only grabs her stomach and blinks back tears. She slowly slides down the lockers as a sob escapes her; Mike notices a few people walking in the hall that are pointing and staring. That's when he realizes that Santana is putting up a front for everyone else.
"Go away and mind your own business." Mike snaps and they quickly walk away. Before he can turn around, Santana is back up and sprinting for the nearest bathroom with her hand covering her mouth. Mike sighs and trails after her, a few girls run out of the bathroom gagging and Mike can hear Santana retching in the bathroom. Mike stands outside of the bathroom and debates whether it would be alright if he went in to help her.
"Mike." Santana cried out pitifully before throwing up again and that was all it took for him to burst into the bathroom. He found Santana on the floor of the nearest stall gripping the toilet tightly as she continued to vomit the contents of her stomach; he held her hair back and rubbed her back. When she was done, Mike helped her sit back up and Santana promptly burst into tears as she held her stomach.
"It's okay, I'll take you back to my house." Mike felt her forehead and gasped; she was burning up. Mike stood up and tried to get Santana to stand and quickly caught her as she lost her balance.
"I don't feel good." Santana whimpered through her tears.
"I know." Mike replied. He had only managed to get Santana to the sinks before she was running back to the toilet and began vomiting again. This was bad, he's never seen someone throw up this much in such a short amount of time; he was starting to become really concerned. Mike quickly pulled out his cell phone as he once again held Santana's hair back.
"Hello?"
"Mom, Santana's sick." Mike said urgently.
"Is that her I hear?" Mrs. Chang asked full of concern; Mike could hear her going into full mother mode.
"She's throwing up a lot, I'm worried mom. Are you at home?" Mike asked.
"I'm not at home but I'm close by, why? Can't you just take her to her house?" Mrs. Chang asked.
"She doesn't want to go home." Mike replies and Santana finishes and flushes the toilet.
"Okay, bring her here and I'll be home by the time you make it." Mrs. Chang says and Mike feels relief fill him; his mom will take care of everything. Mike hangs up and tries his best to quickly get Santana to the car; she only threw up once during the entire trip to the car.
Driving home was quite the adventure; Santana hadn't managed to make it not ten minutes before he had to pull over so she could be sick on the side of the road. He was grateful that she managed to not get any sick on the car and he only felt slightly guilty when he hoped that whatever she had wasn't too contagious.
By the time he pulled into the driveway, his mom was standing in the doorway worry evident on her face. Mike got out of the car and carried Santana into the house and placed her on the couch. Mike watched as him mom reached over and placed her hand on Santana's head.
"Oh my." She gasped out, "Mike go upstairs and get the thermometer."
Mike nodded and ran up to get what was requested of him. By the time he came back downstairs, his mom had removed Santana's shoes and wrapped her in a cover. Mike hurried over and handed his mom the thermometer.
"101.5. Santana you officially have a fever." Mrs. Chang announced. Santana only groaned before she hopped up and ran into the bathroom.
Mike sighed, "She's been doing that for almost an hour."
Mrs. Chang frowned, "She's losing too much fluid. I'm going to see if she can at least keep down some water."
Mike watches as his mother gets up and moves towards the kitchen. It's then that Mike notices that he hasn't heard any vomiting noises from Santana since she entered the bathroom. He frowns in confusion and decided to get up and see what's going on; when he nears the bathroom he hears Santana start to vomit. Mike knocks on the door and hears the toilet flush before Santana washes her hands and slowly walks out of the bathroom.
"It's getting worse." Santana says as Mike helps her back onto the couch.
"What's worse than vomiting every ten minutes?" Mike asks.
"Diarrhea along with vomiting every ten minutes." Santana says before she hides her face in the pillow. Mike doesn't know how to respond except for rub her back in sympathy.
Mike sighs as he makes his way into school; it's only Thursday and he's exhausted and ready for the week to be over. He still feels bad that Santana's stuck as home sick but the thing that makes him angry was how easily Mrs. Lopez allowed someone else to take care of her sick daughter. Mike still doesn't understand how he managed to stay civil with the woman on the phone; she didn't even sound too worried.
"Oh there you are." Rachel says as she makes her way towards him through the crowd.
"What's going on?" Mike asks.
"There's an emergency glee meeting right now. I'm assuming you'll let Santana know so that she will be able to attend." Rachel says.
"Santana isn't going to be at school today." Mike informs.
"Oh, well that's one less person to track down. If you'll make your way to the choir room we can get this meeting started." Rachel replied before turning around and making her way to the choir room. Mike stared after her; she didn't even ask why Santana wouldn't be in school today. Even if she didn't care it would've at least been polite to pretend to care; they're supposed to be a 'family' after all. Mike walks into the choir room to see everyone gathered except for Brittany.
"Okay, I've called this meeting so we can figure out what to do about Brittany." Artie starts off.
"Tell her the truth." Mike says from his spot at the edge of the group.
"Her parents want her to continue to believe in Santa." Artie replies with a shrug and Mike rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, we could just tell her that elves have done really good stem cell research but that it'll take years." Sam suggests.
"I was thinking that we could have Coach Beiste dress up as Santa and break the news to her." Artie says and most of the group nods.
"You know, none of this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't went out of your way to keep up this charade. Seriously, a mall Santa? We did not have to take it that far and now, instead of telling her the truth about your condition, we're having Coach dress up as Santa to trick her? Do you really think that she'll fall for that?"
"What is your problem? Santana not here so you decide to channel her bitchiness?" Artie snaps.
"I'm tired of you treating Brittany like she's a fucking five year old." Mike snaps back and everyone pauses shocked; it's not every day that he curses, let alone curse in public. Mike shook his head in annoyance before he walked out of the room.
Mike tiredly walks into the house and sets his things down before making his way to the front room. He walks over to the couch and sits next to Santana who's watching Christmas movies on TV.
"So, how was school?" Santana asks as she sips he vitamin water.
Mike sighs, "I snapped at Artie today."
"That's always a good thing. What did the little cretin do this time?" Santana asked as she muted the TV.
"He's planning on having Coach Beiste dress up as Santa so she can explain why Brittany won't be getting her Christmas wish this year." Mike explains bitterly.
"What the ever loving fuck?" Santana said quietly, looking around to see if his mother was in ear shot.
"Amazingly he didn't see how this was insulting to Brittany's intelligence." Mike said.
"You know what? As soon as I get better I'll deal with him, he's on my list." Santana said as she took a sip of water.
"Don't do anything illegal."
Santana rolls her eyes, "So I talked to my dad today and he told me about the thing called a 'Rewalk'. It's like some weird robot leg thing that he won in a raffle." Santana said.
"They put something like that as a raffle prize?" Mike asked incredulously.
"I think it was some charity event thing, you don't get it but get to decided where it goes. My dad was planning on sending it to some underprivileged child in South America but I've convinced him to give it to Artie. Let it never be said I didn't do anything selfless. I even gave up my Christmas presents so that kid could still get something for Christmas." Santana further explained.
Mike stared at her, "You seriously did that?"
"Yeah, it'll make Brittany happy so it's worth it. It's going to take a few days before it arrives so, it's not like he'll get it right away. At least this way he'll sweat a bit on what to do with Brittany." Santana said smugly. Mike smiles and decides to buy something for Santana for Christmas.
That Saturday Mike walks around the crowded mall as he searches for a present for Santana. His mother had already headed to a different store to find something; once she heard about what Santana did for Artie she was determined to get Santana presents. It also helped that Brittany and his dad were more than happy to keep Santana company while they were out. Mike checked his wallet and saw that he only had enough money for something simple and he wanted to make it count. Mike stopped as he walked passed a build-a-bear workshop and decided to get her something from there; remembering Santana's love for stuffed animals. As luck would have it Tina and Mercedes were at the same store looking through the toys. Mike sighed but continued on in his mission; if he was lucky they wouldn't see him.
Mike decided to get her a rabbit; he was going to dress her up as a cheerleader because even if she doesn't say anything, he knows she's upset about quitting. Mike's in the process of picking out an outfit when he's interrupted.
"Never thought I'd see you here." Tina says from behind him; Mike wonders why she keeps seeking him out if she's the one who broke up with him.
"I'm picking out a Christmas present." Mike says not bothering to face her.
"For Santana?" Tina asks coldly.
"Yes I am." Mike replies as he starts to dress the toy.
"Why, is it because she's getting coal for Christmas?" Tina asked and Mercedes laughed.
Mike turned to them angrily, "No, it's because she decided that underprivileged kids needed presents more than she did. She gave up her presents so they could have some and so I've decided to get her something so she won't be completely present less on Christmas."
They stared at him at a loss for what to say as Mike finished putting the outfit on the rabbit before heading towards checkout. Serves them right for making assumptions about someone they know nothing about.
Monday morning Mike was happy to see Santana was feeling well enough to return to school. Mike and Santana make their way their way over to their lockers and notice and upset Brittany.
"Britt?" Santana questions.
Brittany looks up and smiles. She gives Santana a hug, "You're back, I'm really happy that you're feeling better."
"Thanks, why are you so upset?" Santana asked.
"I was told that they won't be able to make Artie walk again. I mean I knew it was a long shot but I thought there was at least some hope. Even more upsetting is they thought that I wouldn't recognize Coach Beiste in a Santa costume." Brittany sighed.
"I told him it was a stupid idea and that he should just tell you the truth." Mike said.
"Did he really think I couldn't notice a Santa imposter?" Brittany asked and Mike just shrugged.
"He's just being an idiot Britt. Don't worry about it." Santana says. Their conversation is interrupted by Sam running towards them.
"Someone trashed the choir room."
"What?" Mike said shocked before they run to the choir room. What met them was a mess; it looked as if a tornado came through and only hit the choir room. Decorations were broken and thrown all over the room and the tree was completely destroyed.
"It's ruined. Christmas is ruined." Brittany sniffled quietly beside him before she ran out of the room. Santana looked as if she wanted to run after her but instead let Artie take the role; she didn't look very happy about it.
"Let's get to cleaning up." Mr. Shue says sadly.
The rest of the week was spent trying to cheer up a depressed Brittany and caroling around the school. They didn't get anymore shoes thrown at them and even a few people were inspired to donate for the homeless children. Friday Santana happily skipped through the halls to the choir room. They just had a successful caroling session in the teacher's lounge and everyone was happy. Walking into the choir room they were met with Brittany and Artie, who was wearing some weird thing on his legs. Mike had a feeling that was the Rewalk that Santana was talking about.
"Look what Santa brought." Brittany says excitedly and Mike doesn't think he's ever seen her look as happy as she does now.
"I thought that Brittany's dad had brought it for me but he doesn't know anything about it." Artie added as he stood up and took a few steps around the room. It really was amazing.
Mike is driving to his house with Santana in tow as she talks excited at how happy Brittany looked today when she saw Artie walk for the first time. He couldn't wait until they got to his house, his parents were already home and Mike only hoped that Santana would like her surprise.
"Hey, where are we going?" Santana asked as they passed the turn to her house.
"Well, I didn't tell you but my parents wanted to see you before you left for the holidays." Mike said.
Santana frowned, "I'm not in trouble am I? I swear I apologized for throwing up in the shower."
"It's not about that. You were sick so all is forgiven." Mike chuckled but he did find it a bit sad that every time his parents wanted to see her Santana assumed she was in trouble for something.
They pulled into the driveway and Mike had to all but drag a frightened Santana to the house, "Seriously, my parents love you. You're not in trouble."
"Fine. If you say so." Santana says as she walks through the door.
"Hello Santana, Mike." Mrs. Chang greets as she gives them both a hug.
"I was told that you wanted to see me?" Santana asked.
Mrs. Chang smiled, "Yes we did. A little birdie told me what you did for that boy in your glee club."
Mike smiled at Santana's confused expression. His mother grabbed her hand and led her further into the front room. He saw Santana look towards the Christmas tree, which now had presents under it.
"What's going on?" Santana asked as she sat on the couch.
"Well, we thought we would have a mini pre-Christmas day. Santa already bought your presents." Mr. Chang said. Santana's eyes widen in realization and she turns back to the tree. Mike quietly moves and grabs the camcorder and starts to record the moment.
"That's really for me?" Santana asks as her eyes start to shine with tears. Mike's parents nod and the encourage Santana to go an open the presents. Santana moves to sit next to the tree and grabs the first present. It just so happened to be his and Mike couldn't wait for her to see what he got her. Santana unwraps the box and once she recognizes the box quickly opens it and pulls out her new cheerleader rabbit.
Santana stares at the rabbit before she holds it close and cries.
"Oh honey, you don't have to cry." Mrs. Chang says as she sits next to Santana; her own eyes tearing up.
"I-I'm just… Thank you." Santana says.
"Come on open the others." Mike encourages and his dad hands her the next box. Santana opens it to reveal a bundle of books that he knew that she had wanted for a while.
"You're welcome." Mike's dad says and Santana jumps up and gives him a hug. Santana returns to her seat and takes the next box that was handed to her by his mother. Santana opens the small box to reveal a few charms.
"I thought you might want more charms for that charm bracelet that you always wear." Mrs. Chang says.
"I love it, thank you." Santana says as she gives his mom a hug.
"Alright." Mrs. Chang says as she wipes a few of her tears, "Time for a Christmas movie."
Mike happily agrees and turns off the camcorder as they begin to vote over what to watch. They finally settled on watching 'Elf'. Mike sat on the couch with Santana and her new rabbit cuddled up on his side and Mike decided it was shaping up to be a very nice evening.
Awwww...how sweet was that ending? A little Brittana for those who doubted my intentions when I broke Tike up and also, the Chang's know! Now I have my own plans for this story and the direction I want to take it so season 3 will have no bearing on this story. Sorry if this chapter seemed a bit empty in terms of plot but the episode didn't really have a plot either and there's only so much I can fix. Until next time.
