Santana turned to look at Mike, frowning at his sudden appearance behind her. She hated when he did that, "Pretty busy here Mike," she said as she poured another beer and pushed it to one of the customers. "Aren't you supposed to be watching her and teaching her to cook?"
Mike hesitated for a moment and moved to the fridge to grab a Smirnoff Ice for a customer, it wasn't that busy yet. But Santana liked to talk to the customers and give them her personal attention. "I don't know what else to teach her," he admits after a moment.
"What do you mean you don't know what else to teach her? It's been a week and a half," Santana asks turning to him.
"I know. But she's learned how to cook everything on the menu, and I've even taught her a few dishes that my mom taught me Santana. I mean she adds bacon to everything but she's practically a savant," Mike says as he helps her with the crowd at the bar.
Santana hesitates for a moment before removing her apron and turning to head to the kitchen, pushing the door opens as a dish comes out for someone and spots Charlie near the fryer shaking the excess oil off the wings, and adding a dash of what looked like paprika to it. "I thought you said you've never done this before," Santana says after Charlie moves away from the oil.
Charlie turns to look at Santana and smiles brightly at her, "Cooking is fun Santana, but I don't know why no one likes bacon on everything. Mike said that you can't eat bacon with everything." She frowns at the idea.
Santana raises a brow and turns to look at everyone else at the kitchen for a moment, this was not what she had expected at all. "Well Mike did want to add some new things to the menu, didn't you?" Santana said before frowning at the idea, it was an expensive decision to make just because Charlie had learned a life skill. She wasn't sure if Charlie was ready to work behind the bar or just how safe that would be, there had been an increased presence of Templars in the area.
The last thing she wanted was for Charlie to grow bored with the current situation, she had planned to take her to the library this weekend to let her see actual books, and magazines. She still wasn't quite sure how to break Charlie's warped view of herself, but Brittany had said that she had an idea. "Do you want to work up front with me Charlie and meet some people? All sorts of people?" Santana asks as Charlie moves to flip a burger. "I'll teach you how to mix drinks."
Charlie turns to Santana and thinks about the request for a moment, "Is it fun?"
"Sometimes, but I really could use a hand up front today. And I think you need to get used to being around crowds of people, but if you're not comfortable with it, that's fine Charlie. You have a choice," Santana explains watching Charlie.
Charlie is quiet for yet another moment, as she moves around the kitchen, avoiding the other workers as she plates things. "Okay," she said after a moment as she finishes what she's doing. "I can come back if I don't like it?"
"Of course," Santana said. "But there have been plenty of Templars in the area lately, you're going to need a disguise, so they don't recognize you. So, I'm just going to change the color of your hair for a moment, and I think Mike still has those idiotic fake glasses of his, from his hipster phase." Santana said. She was about to make a superhero joke, but Charlie wouldn't understand it. "Is it okay if I touch your hair?"
Charlie frowned slightly at the idea of being touched but nodded, Santana hadn't hurt her yet. She lets Santana enter her space and touch her hair.
"Do you have a color you want me to change it too? Don't worry it's not going to stay like that forever, we can change it back after work."
"Any color?" Charlie asks, and when Santana nods she bites her lip and thinks back for a moment, "Pink."
"Pink?" Santana asks her lips twitching upward slightly amused.
"Can people have pink hair?"
"People can have any color hair they want and if you want pink hair that's what I'll give you, and I'll make it look good on you." Santana promises focusing on Charlie's face and the hair that was everywhere, she had wanted to take Charlie to get it cut, but she had refused for now. She decides on a dark neon pink, "There we go." She grabs a small steel pot, so Charlie can get an idea of how it looks, "What do you think?"
A grin crosses Charlie's face, "My hair is pink!"
"I'm guessing you like it, so let's get to work." Santana said as she leads Charlie out of the kitchen and behind the bar. She can feel Charlie freeze immediately at the noise and the crowd of people. It wasn't even that busy, but it was still about fifteen more people than Charlie knew. "All they want is their drinks and the food you helped make, Charlie you're safe." When Charlie hesitates once more Santana smiles at her, "Trust me, I'm not going to let anyone hurt you anymore."
Charlie turned to look at Santana carefully for a moment, she seemed to mean it and she nods. "How do I make drinks?"
"Well before we get you there, I'm going to show you how to pour a beer properly," Santana said grabbing a beer glass from the rack and holding it, so Charlie can see it carefully, "This is a pilsner," Santana explained going to one of the ten taps. "The name of each beer is on the taps, as you can see with a picture." Santana points to it. "These four taps right here, are the light beers, they go in the pilsner glasses," Santana says tapping the ones that Charlie should pay attention to. "Do you understand?"
"Yeah," Charlie said.
"Okay, here is how you pour a beer, you don't want it to spill down the sides." Santana says as she shows Charlie how to work the tap and pours a beer perfectly. "Alright now you try," Santana said picking up another pilsner and handing it to Charlie as she takes a sip of the beer.
Charlie takes the tap and tries to copy exactly what Santana did, but she misjudges and some beer spills off the top causing it to spill down the sides and onto her hands. Charlie freezes, and looks at Santana who was still sipping on her beer watching her. "I'm sorry—I—" she begins, half expecting the pain to come. She didn't know how Santana was going to do it but—
The panic that crosses Charlie's face is almost heartbreaking and for a moment Santana wonders what she should do as she puts the beer glass down. She resists the urge to touch Charlie, knowing immediately that would make the situation worse. Mike had probably dealt with this exact situation and she gets another glass out. "Charlie."
"I'm sorry—"
"Charlie," Santana says calmly raising her voice to get Charlie to look at her. Her tone seems to catch Charlie's attention and she immediately switches to a soothing tone. "Please don't drop the glass, put it down and try again. I'm not going to hurt you, I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. I promised, didn't I? Now try again, it's trickier than it looks, and everyone makes mistakes the first few times."
Charlie puts the filled glass down on the bar and takes the glass from Santana studying her for a moment, "I'll do better this time," she promises.
Santana kept the frown off her face, she had made the right choice in bringing her here. Letting the Templars have her was not an option she could live with. "It's okay if you don't get it right now again, it takes practice Charlie. No one is going to hurt you for making a mistake, but you might hurt yourself if you break the glass, so please be careful." Santana watches as Charlie tries again and this time manages to get it right. Mike was right she was decently intelligent and seemed to pick things up quickly. "Good job, you'll get used to it." It would be best to let Charlie get comfortable doing the beers for now before she started to complicate it with the liquors. Though she wanted to see how quickly she figured out and memorized the taps.
Charlie looks the golden liquid it looked like apple juice, but it didn't smell all that good, but Santana was drinking it, and so were other people at the bar. Mike said it was good to taste test things and she takes a small sip, immediately jerking it away at the taste as she looks at Santana, "People like this?"
Santana snorted at Charlie's reaction, "It's an acquired taste Charlie, some people like it others don't. It's probably best if you don't get used to it."
Charlie crinkled her nose at it and put it down moving away from the drink.
"I mean she just flits in and out of my life, and it's infuriating." Rachel vented getting her frustrations out. "You know she called me yesterday expecting me to drop everything because she's in Argentina, and it's cold. She has a fiancé. I feel like an idiot half the time, and I promise myself that will be the last time, but she knows how to catch me off guard and she smiles at me and I get all weird inside and I hate her."
Brittany looked at Rachel as she licked her spoon slowly, making sure to get all the frozen yogurt off it. "You need to make better life choices Rachel," she said finally, a smile flitted across her face as Rachel shoots her an outraged look.
"You sound like Santana," Rachel griped. "You're supposed to be the sympathetic friend."
"You're dating an engaged woman who jets off across the world on a moment's notice," Brittany said. "She hasn't met any of your friends, she's never been to one of your productions, she just sorts of shows up for a day or two you have hot sex, and then she goes back to her fiancé. I'm trying to be sympathetic Rachel, but if one of your friends came to you with the same story, what would you tell them?" Brittany pointed out.
"I'd tell them to dump them but I'm certain that Quinn loves me, I know it's stupid, but she lives in a super religious family and her work—" Rachel hesitated she had never exactly told Brittany what Quinn did. How could she tell one of her closest friends who was magic-touched that she was currently sleeping with a Templar. "All of it is super conservative."
Brittany hummed at this and looked at her empty container for a moment, "Well you need to figure out what to do, but I think that you need to start seeing other people and find someone else."
Rachel sighed, "I'm sorry, I know I've been complaining about her for a few months now, but I really like her Britt. But how are you and Mike?"
"Me and Mike are in a healthy committed adult relationship that doesn't have that much drama. I've met his parents and his other friends, and he's met mine. He doesn't just disappear off the face of the earth for weeks at a time, I'm going back home, and I know he's probably going to be home later." Brittany smiled when Rachel huffed at this. "I'm happy Rachel, if you want I can set you up with someone."
"No thank you. You set me up with Santana. Santana hates me."
"Santana doesn't hate you," Brittany said immediately. "And you two dated for two months, I mean that's longer than most of Santana's relationships."
"The last time I saw her she called me a hobbit! I'm not being dramatic, Santana hates me."
Brittany rolled her eyes, but smiled, "You're being dramatic Rachel, if she really didn't like you she would have kicked you out of her bar."
Rachel scoffed, she knew when she wasn't wanted. "How is she anyway?"
"She, like you, needs to make better life choices," Brittany said with a hum. "She took in a stray."
"Santana? Santana Lopez took in a stray?" Rachel blinked and then looked at Brittany, "You take in nearly every stray you find Brittany why is that a bad thing?"
Brittany frowned, "I don't know why I'm bothered by this, I trust Santana completely. I trust her judgement on these things and there are times when she's a better judge of character than I am, but—" Brittany tilted her head slightly. "I just sense danger, and I can't explain why."
Rachel frowned, "I mean I only dated her for two months, but I know that Santana can take care of herself."
"Most of the time," Brittany said with a smile. "I know she'll be fine, but I need to make sure that this isn't a blind spot for her, it's her first stray after all." She would need to look into it discreetly, they didn't have enough information on her. Even if Mike said that she seemed harmless she had touched Charlie and had managed to get a read on her. It was the first time that she hadn't managed to understand what she had read off a person and that was what made her worry about what Santana had gotten them into this time.
Santana yawned, making absolutely no effort to cover her mouth as she slumped down in the pew. All this standing and singing, was exhausting. This was not how she had wanted to spend her Sunday morning, especially after working until nearly four am in the morning. Brittany and Mike were supposed to have shown up to at least keep her company, but they had totally flaked on her, some friends they were.
Santana turns to look at Charlie who was taking it all in, paying rapt attention to everything that was going on. When they had sung the hymns, Charlie had hummed along taking everything in and looking rather happy to be here. She'd even got her hands on a bible to give to Charlie who was following along with the sermon. She'd chosen this particular church, as small and as empty as it was for the sole reason that crowds made Charlie uncomfortable and the message was one that she could get behind, and it would force Charlie to rethink her beliefs. At least she hoped that it would.
"In Jesus' day the Pharisees were committed to upholding the law with heartless precision, while the Sadducees were dedicated to throwing out anything that was difficult to believe. Sound familiar?" The pastor chuckles at this. "The conservative and the liberal. You know who the conservatives are, the ones that insist that they are morally superior, yet they dodge the difficult responsibility of actually loving their neighbours."
Santana turned to watch Charlie's face, she needed to know how Charlie was taking it. Brittany hadn't picked out the most liberal church to take Charlie too, but this was a good start. And judging from Charlie's head tilt she was thinking.
"The theological liberals have adopted a belief of convenience, in their dedication of reaching everything but they refuse to faithfully represent a God who is as pure and holy as he loving. So, what does that mean? Which path is best? Jesus managed to deftly avoid the two."
The sermon drones on for another half an hour, before it ends with a prayer and Santana turns to look at Charlie who doesn't move from where she's sitting. "You okay Charlie?"
"It didn't sound like any of the sermons that I've listened to," Charlie says with a frown rubbing at her legs.
Santana nodded, "Well you've only listened to what the Templars had to say about the bible—I mean from where I'm sitting—"
"He never said that I wasn't evil Santana, and Jesus fought against demons and evil he didn't just let them go. That's what he meant by liberals I think." Charlie said with a shrug.
Santana frowned at the statement, that hadn't worked the way she way she wanted, and Charlie didn't seem any closer to understanding what she already knew. "Do you really believe that all Templars are good people? Even what they did to you?"
"They kept me from hurting innocent people Santana."
"You've lived with me for a week and a half without any Templars and you haven't hurt anyone." Santana points out. "You're not exactly going around looking for a fight either. There are people who like doing that, whether they have magic or not. They prey on the weak and defenseless. That's not something that only magic-touched do, it's part of the human condition." Santana yawned again. "Magic can be used for good, it's not just a tool for evil. I use my gifts to heal people, is that evil?" Santana waved the question off, she would rather Charlie think about it. For now, at least she understood Charlie's views a bit better now. "Whatever I'm exhausted, let me sleep for a bit longer and then we can do other things like go to the library, I think it closes at five today." With that she got up and rubbed the back of her neck as she yawned again.
Charlie turns to look at the pastor once more, noticing that he was talking to the few congregants with a smile on his face. She watches him for a moment before she hears Santana calling for her and turns to follow her. They could do this again next Sunday.
