A/N: Hey all a new chapter for you, this one is a bit of a filler chapter, but it's taking you in to all the informative stuff. One or two reveals in this chapter, so hope some of your questions are answered here. Thank you all as always, for the reviews both here and on twitter. Hope you enjoy this chapter :)
Everything was becoming complicated, she'd been sent on a simple mission. Find the child and take her home. But now everything was changing. She was starting to have feelings for both the child and the mother. She knew that her original task was becoming harder and harder to perform the longer she spent with them. So why she had accepted this invitation, Brittany didn't know. But here she was standing at the front door, not knowing if she should knock, or turn around and walk away. She took a deep breath. Clearly nothing was as it seemed with this situation she found herself in, so she needed more information before she could continue this task. She took another deep breath and steadied herself, before she stepped forward and knocked three times, not too loud, but not too soft either. She took in anticipation, waiting for the door to open.
Less than a minute later, the beautiful little girl came sauntering to the door, her sparkling green eyes wide, taking in the image of her teacher at her home. Her mother was standing just behind her.
"Hi Brittany, thanks for coming." Santana said, as she opened the door and took in the blonde standing in front of her.
"Hi Santana, thank you for inviting me." she replied.
"Miss Pierce." Anna said, looking up between the adults, trying to determine why her teacher was at her home.
"Hi Anna." Brittany added then.
"Come on in." Santana said, taking a step back and opening the door wider. "Anna, move over baby and let her in." she added.
"Thanks." Brittany said, as she stepped into the foyer. The house was nothing special, it was larger than most average houses, but it wasn't fancy. It seemed lived in, cosy and homely. She liked the feeling being here was giving her.
"Anna, can you go set the table please?" Santana asked, following Brittany in and taking her coat.
Anna stared blankly at her mother, still not knowing what was going on around her, as her teacher thanked her mom.
"Now, please?" Santana added, prompting Anna to move towards the kitchen.
"She's weired out at me being here." Brittany said with a nervous smile.
"She's okay, I probably should've told her you were coming before you got here though. My bad." Santana conceded.
A moments silence passed between the two with neither one knowing what to say or do next. Santana had come across some information, thanks to one of her contacts at the CIA and had decided to investigate it. She had trusted Brittany with Anna, and she didn't want her instincts to be wrong. She wasn't sure how Brittany would take the invitation to dinner on a saturday, but she was more than happy when the blonde had accepted. The truth was Santana had two reasons for wanting Brittany there, she wanted to follow up on the information she'd received, but she also wanted any excuse to spend more time with Brittany to get to know her better. Especially out of hours Brittany.
"Santana, are you okay?" Brittany asked, when she saw that Santana seemed lost in thought. The minute of silence between them seemed to last an eternity and neither one of them could stand it any longer.
"Yeah, sorry. Daydreaming." Santana said, as she made her way into the house. "You're not a vegetarian are you?"
"No. Are you?" Brittany asked.
Santana laughed, she'd just wanted to make sure that Brittany was okay with the menu, but Brittany seemed to take it as an opportunity to get to know the brunette better.
"No, I'm not. I made chicken for dinner. Is that okay?"
"Sounds great." Brittany answered.
Both women liked being around each other but they both had their own individual reasons for this get together and the small talk was starting to annoy both of them a little.
"Done, mama." Anna said, as she saw her mother and her teacher walk into the kitchen.
"Thank you." Santana said, as she went to the oven to retrieve the chicken. "Please, take a seat Brittany." she added, looking over her shoulder to see what Brittany was doing.
"Come sit by me." Anna said, taking Brittany's hand and leading her to the table.
"Okay." Brittany answered, looking down at the child. She really did like this girl. She was smart and she was pretty and she seemed kinda special. Brittany didn't know what it was about Anna that made her stand out, but she certainly did.
Brittany and Anna sat at the table as Santana set out the food, they made small talk, mostly Brittany asking how Anna was feeling. It had been three days since her trip to the hospital and she was mostly back to normal.
"This looks delicious, thank you Santana." Brittany said, as Santana sat down and started to dish out the food.
"You're welcome." Santana replied.
The rest of the dinner went smoothly, each of the girls enjoying their food, and making small talk about anything and everything. When they were done, Santana placed all the dishes in the dishwasher.
"Brittany can you excuse me for a minute? I just need to get this little lady ready for her bed."
"I can go now if you have things to do?" Brittany offered.
"No, there's something I need to talk to you about. I'll be twenty minutes, max." Santana explained. "Make yourself at home." she added.
"Goodnight, Miss Pierce." Anna said, as she hugged her teacher.
"When we're not at school, you can call me Brittany."
"Goodnight, Brittany." Anna said, as she pulled away and made her way towards the stairs.
"Bath, story then bed. I'll be twenty minutes. Seriously, make yourself at home." Santana said, before following Anna upstairs.
Brittany felt a little lost. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Every part of her wanted to look around and try to find out as much as she could about Santana and Anna, like why the child didn't really look like her mother. Sure she had the same long, brunette hair. But that was the only thing they seemed to have in common. Aside from that, they both looked totally different. But Brittany already knew the answer to that question. It was why she was here in the first place. In this house, in this city, in this state.
She heard the water turn on above her and figured Santana was running Anna's bath. Brittany knew she needed answers, and she knew Santana may not give them to her. She really didn't want to snoop, but she needed information. Brittany began to open drawers, looking through mail and paperwork. She opened doors, and rifled through items, until she found a metal tin hidden in the corner of the cupboard she was in. She looked back towards the stairs to make sure Santana wasn't there, before she leaned in and took the tin from the cupboard. She pulled it out and opened the tin, and saw lots of different documents. This was clearly where Santana kept the important stuff.
Brittany looked through the papers, moving things aside, taking in all the differnt things she was looking at, Santana's social security information, drivers license, birth certificate, details on a safety deposit box, all the important information. Then she found another birth certificate, she knew it had to be Anna's. She picked up the document and looked at it. Anna's name, her date of birth, where she was born, the time she was born, and her parents names. Parent's names. Both of them, mother and father. Brittany looked over it. She needed to make a mental note of this guys name, see if she could dig a little once she'd left and try and find out anything she could about the guy. She started to wonder if maybe she'd got this all wrong. Maybe she'd mixed up her target. The child she was looking for had been taken from her parents. This couldn't be the same child. Could it?
"I know I said you should make yourself at home, but that's not quite what I had in mind." Santana said, standing at the bottom of the staircase.
Brittany whirled around to take in the brunette. She was surprised, Santana didn't seem angry or upset, she actually seemed like she'd partly been expecting to find Brittany like this, rifling through her drawers.
"Santana, I..." Brittany started, but Santana stopped her.
"What? You were looking for the bathroom?" Santana quipped.
"No, of course not. I... I uh, I was ..." Brittany stumbled, she hadn't thought through the excuse she would use if Santana found her snooping.
"You were looking for the TV remote?" Santana tried.
Brittany just shook her head. She knew Santana was playing with her. She knew that the brunette knew exactly what she'd been doing. The only thing she didn't know, was if Santana knew why.
"No." Brittany answered simply.
"Looking for a pen and some paper to leave me a note before you left?" Santana asked. Clearly she wasn't done with Brittany yet.
Brittany shook her head.
"Santana, I'm sorry. I was .." Brittany started.
"I know exactly what you were doing Brittany, the only question is, why?" Santana interrupted.
They stood staring at each other in silence. Neither one knowing what to say next. Brittany knew she had a decision to make here, she could be honest and show all her cards and see what Santana had to say, or she could make something up and still try to complete her task.
"Santana, before you went upstairs you said you had something you needed to talk to me about. Well, turns out, I have something to talk to you about too." Brittany answered.
"Well then, let's hear it." Santana said, moving closer to Brittany. "Although, I'd appreciate if you'd put those back first." she added, taking a seat on the sofa.
Brittany quickly put all the documents back in the tin and replaced it back where it had been inside the cupboard. She took a deep breath and made her way over to Santana and sat down facing her.
"Where do I start?" Brittany said outloud, but she was asking herself more than Santana.
"The beginning is usually a good place." Santana answered.
"My name is Brittany Pierce and I'm twenty eight years old." Brittany started.
"Maybe not that much near the beginning." Santana quipped.
"Please, let me do this my way, or I won't be able to do it at all." Brittany explained.
Santana nodded, she wanted to hear this so she was prepared to listen to Brittany however far back she went into her story.
"Eight years ago, my thirteen year old sister went missing from her high school. For so long we waited for a kidnap ransom, but one never came. Then we waited for the police to tell us that they'd found her body. When that didn't happen my family were left in a state of limbo, not knowing what really happened to her. For so long, losing her felt like I'd lost a part of myself and I never wanted anyone to ever feel that way. So, I became a private investigator."
Santana hadn't been expecting that. She sat in awe, just listening taking in everything Brittany was saying. She wanted to know as much about the blonde as she was willing to tell.
"A few months ago, a couple came to me. They said that their daughter had been kidnapped at birth and that they would pay anything and do anything to get her back. I took some details from them, and they led me here. I've held my teaching degree for years but never used it. I figured now was the best time to use it, what better way to find a child than at a school, right?" Brittany said, looking up at Santana.
Santana nodded. The pieces were starting to fit now. Everything was starting to make sense to her.
"So you got a job teaching kindergarten to find the missing kid." Santana said.
Brittany nodded.
"I wasn't totally sure but I had an idea that the child was in my class. I didn't know about the lunch though. You have to believe me on that. I would NEVER harm a child!" Brittany said.
"They knew their daughter had an allergy?" Santana asked, looking at Brittany as more and more pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.
"Yeah, so they put PB&J sandwiches in all the home lunches. They couldn't get to the school lunches, so the home lunches were the best place for them to start. I don't know who THEY are, Santana. I promise you that."
"So when Anna was the only child to react, you assumed she was the child you were looking for." Santana was starting to piece it all together. "But what about the children who had the school lunches? What if any of them have an allergy that 'they' don't know about because the child hasn't been exposed yet?"
"When Anna reacted, they felt they found who they were looking for. So for now, they've stopped their search. They believe Anna is their daughter. And that's why I'm here." Brittany said.
"So, what now? You're supposed to tell them they were right and someone is going to come and try take my daughter away from me?" Santana asked.
"Yeah, that's whats's supposed to happen next. But I'm starting to doubt it. I mean Anna's your daughter. You have a birth certificate, her fathers name is on it. Maybe the child they're looking for is actually one of the other children in my class. Santana, I want it to be one of the other children, I like you, a LOT, and Anna is such a special child. I don't want to screw this up." Brittany said, looking into Santana's eyes for the first time since their conversation had started.
Santana took a deep breath, she knew she had to protect Anna, but she also knew that even if she could side track 'them' by having them test their peanut allergy on the other children in Anna's class, that it wouldn't hold them off forever. She also knew that if they'd gone to Brittany, they would probably have others out looking too. There was also something about Brittany and her story about her sister that made Santana want to tell her the truth.
"Anna is the child you're looking for, but she must never know."
Brittany looked at Santana in shock. She'd suspected this all along, but having it confirmed was something different. She had really wanted this not to be true. She was developing feelings for Santana and she had become really fond of Anna.
"The story you've been told, about her being kidnapped, is bullshit! They abandoned Anna, and I saved her. Everything you've been told is a lie, Brittany. If you want to know the truth, I'll tell you. But you must understand, everything will change and you will probably be in danger. My instincts are to trust you with this, just like I trusted you with my daughter in that hospital, please don't prove my instincts wrong."
A/N2: The good stuff is coming in the next chapter, hit the reviews and let me know what you think :) Thanks.