It had been three days since Santana had walked into the field headquarters and sat down to a meeting with Ryan Jacobs. Three days since she had chosen to leave Anna in Brittany's care and follow the lead she had been given. It pained Santana more than she ever thought was possible to leave the child behind, but she knew where she was going was no place for a child. Especially this child. She'd agreed to leave Anna in Brittany's care on one condition, that the two of them didn't go anywhere near the school while she was away. She provided them with a safe place to stay and an on demand movie service that Anna would no doubt make a big dent in before she got back. She needed to make sure that the two people she cared most about, were safe while she was gone. She couldn't protect them from a distance so she had to do the best she could before she left and that meant moving them away from their normal routines.
Now, sitting in a car, borrowed from the CIA, Santana couldn't help but think of her little girl and the woman who was slowly stealing her heart. She had spent the last ten hours doing surveillance of this building. She was in the middle of nowhere, with no back up, but she wasn't worried. She could handle herself. Santana knew that if it came down to it, she was more than capable of protecting herself.
Right now, after ten hours of being stuck in this car, in the middle of nowhere, Santana craved coffee and some decent food. A shower would've been nice too.
From beside her, on the passenger seat Santana's cell phone rang, pulling her attention from the building across the street. It was almost three a.m so she had a good idea of who it was.
"Lopez." she answered into the phone, repositioning herself.
"Any progress?" the female voice asked on the other end of the line.
"Some, ma'am." Santana answered honestly. "Some movement, I believe I have a strong lead." she added.
"We're ready to make a move. There are a couple of dozen members of The Family in a building here in New York and we want to move in and take them down. But we don't want to spook the boss. We're waiting on you now."
"I have a lead to follow, give me an hour, if you don't hear from me, move in." Santana replied.
"Copy that. You sure you can handle this?"
"Yes, ma'am. I can do this. You have nothing to worry about."
"Glad to hear it. You've been missed in this organisation, Lopez. It's good to have you back on board. Now let's clean up this mess so we can all move on."
"Yes, ma'am. I couldn't agree more." Santana answered.
"You have one hour."
When the line went dead, Santana threw the phone back down on to the passenger seat. She really could do with some coffee right now. She needed to be as awake and alert as possible. Not sleeping for the past three days hadn't helped, but she was determined to get this over and done with so that she could get back home.
Santana took a deep breath, she had one hour to make this work, one hour to put the past to bed. She wanted this over and done with. She wanted to be back at home with her girls.
Brittany had promised she would look after Anna and do everything in her power to protect the girl. She had given Santana her word. But now everything was going to hell.
Anna had spent most of the time watching Disney movies and wasn't even phased about the fact she'd been stuck in a hotel somewhere with her teacher for three days. She'd been upset at the thought of her mother leaving, but Santana had promised it would only be for a few days and that when she was back, they could go on a trip together, anywhere Anna wanted. Of course Anna had said she wanted to go to Disney World and meet all her favourite characters and Santana had agreed.
So far there had been no problems, Anna had been watching all her favourite shows, and Brittany had been secretly climbing the walls. She felt like she had such a huge responsibility right now. Looking after Anna was on her. She had to protect the child. On her own. With no help from Santana.
She'd managed to do it though. She'd gotten over the cabin fever and survived the three days enclosed in a room, never leaving or going out. Opening windows for fresh air or ordering room service for something to eat. They'd gotten through it. Until now. Three days of doing everything right had suddenly all been wiped out by doing one thing wrong. Brittany couldn't believe this was happening. She had been tricked and now she was left with the daunting task of calling Santana and letting her now that Anna had been taken.
Santana looked at her watch. She had twenty minutes before the CIA terrorist team went in and took out the members of The Family they had under surveillance. She had been expecting someone, anyone to leave the building at some point and allow her the way in she had been looking for. But of the five people who had gone in the night before, none had come back out again. Something felt wrong, Santana couldn't place her finger on it, but she felt like something was out of place.
To settle her nerves, Santana reached into the back of the car and pulled a black tote bag into the front. She unzipped the bag, and started to remove items. She had enough firepower in this bag to take out a small army, and she would. If she needed to. Keeping her eye on the building across the street, she began to strip down her weapons and check them over. She needed to make sure nothing unexpected happened. She couldn't have one of her weapons misfiring or not firing at all due to her lack of use or maintainance of them. It had been a long time since Santana had used any of these weapons, but she knew how to look after them and she certainly knew how to use them. As she finished with the glock in her hand and placed it back into the bag beside her, she looked up at the building. Not a lot was going on. In fact, it was dead outside. Very quiet.
A ringing cell phone pulled Santana's attention from the building. She checked the caller I.D The number was unknown but she answered it anyway. She knew there weren't many people who could be calling her at this time of the morning.
"Hello?" Santana answered.
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Santana was about to hang up when she heard what sounded like someone crying. Her heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong. She had sensed it earlier, but she knew it now.
"Who's there?" Santana asked.
"San, it's ... it's me.. Brittany." came the voice at the other end of the line.
"Brit, what is it? What's going on? Are you okay?" Santana launched the questions, her mind working at a mile a minute.
"No. I mean, yeah. I'm fine .. it's just. It's Anna. Santana I'm so sorry!" Brittany cried, trying to reign in her emotions so she could tell Santana what she needed to know.
"Anna. What about her? What's wrong? Is she ok? Put her on the phone." Santana demanded, feeling her emotions change from sadness to anger and confusion.
"I can't put her on the phone. San ... Anna's gone. I'm sorry. I ... She ... dammit!" Brittany said.
"What?! What do you mean she's gone?! Where the hell is my daughter Brittany?!" Santana demanded, feeling her anger spike right off the scale.
"There was a knock at the door, Anna wanted ice cream so I ordered room service. She was watching Bambi and I went to answer the door, when I got there, there was a guy in a waiters outfit, he said they didn't have the ice cream flavour that Anna had chosen, so he'd brought a selection for her to choose from. I didn't wanna let him in the room, so I just grabbed a couple different ones and I closed the door. When I got back into the room, the window was open and Anna was gone. I dropped the ice cream and I ran to the window. Santana they took her. The people that hired me to find her, they took her. I'm sorry. I made a mistake and now she's gone. Santana, what can I do?" Brittany asked, tears flowing freely. She was truly heartbroken by what had happened.
Santana stiffened. She'd trusted Brittany. What happened wasn't her fault, but she should have known better. She took a breath and steadied herself before answering the blonde.
"There's nothing you can do now, Brittany. But there's something I can do. Something I HAVE to do now. I'm sorry I have to go." Santana answered, preparing to hang up.
Before she could put the phone down though, Brittany stopped her.
"Wait! Santana tell me what I can do. Something, anything. Please, I care about that little girl. I wanna help you get her back to where she belongs. Let me do something to help. Please, San?" Brittany pleaded.
Santana paused. She needed to use her head. As much as her heart wanted to take over, she couldn't let her.
"There's nothing you can do. I have to go." Santana said, putting the phone down. She knew Brittany would be feeling responsible now, and that she needed some reassurances. Some comfort. But Santana couldn't give her that, not right now.
Santana dialled the number she had received the call from an hour ago and waited for her boss to answer. After four rings, the call was picked up.
"What is it Lopez?"
"Move in. I have what I need here." Santana said, fully prepared to enter the building across from her and take down anyone that got in her way. She had more of an incentive now than she ever had before.
"Are you sure?" the female voice came on the other end of the line.
"Yes, ma'am. I have this under control." Santana replied.
"Lopez, one more thing. There's been a change of plan."
"Ma'am?" Santana asked.
"We want you to take them alive. We have questions. We need answers and information that only they can give. Do you copy?"
"Ma'am, I was asked to take them out." Santana replied. She was gunning for blood. She wanted vengeance. She had been mentally preparing herself for this for days and now her directive was being changed.
"We want them alive. Simple. Do you copy Lopez? They must come to no harm. NONE."
Santana couldn't believe everything was changing. These people had taken her daughter, they wanted to destroy the country they all were trying to save. Why had the directive changed? Why was she being told to stand down?
"Ma'am. If I can, I will bring them in alive. If not, then I'll do whatever I can." Santana replied. She was trying to gain some breathing room. She had to have some time alone with these people. If she handed them over to the CIA, she would probably never see them again and Anna would end up god knows where. Santana couldn't allow that to happen. This was about so much more now. Her daughters life was in the balance.
"Not if, WHEN you bring them in Lopez. They will be alive, they will be unharmed. If anything happens to them, on your watch, there will be consequences. Do you understand?"
"Ma'am are you threatening me?" Santana asked, incredulous.
"Do. You. Understand?"
Santana swallowed hard. So she had to play by their rules now. She would do as they asked, but not before she got her daughter back first.
"Yes ma'am, I understand." Santana replied.
"Good. Bring them to the blacksite. Call control and they'll provide you with the details."
And with that the line went dead.
Santana knew she needed to use her head. If she stormed that building, all guns blazing, people would die, more would be injured. She needed to do this, but she needed to do it in the right way.
Brittany's words played over in Santana's mind. She wanted to help, she wanted to do anything she could to help her get Anna back. Santana picked up the phone and dialled Brittany's number.
The phone rang out and went to voicemail. Santana was surprised. She'd been expecting Brittany to be there. She hit the redial button and waited. A few seconds later, the call was answered.
"Santana, what is it? Do you have news?" Brittany asked.
"Can you contact the people who hired you?" Santana replied.
"I have a number, they gave it to me to call them if I found any information." Brittany answered.
"Good. I found a way you can help me. Call them. Tell them they messed with the wrong people. Tell them, if they wanna survive the day, they should bring Anna back. Because if they don't, I will find them, all of them. And I will kill them all! My family, or their family. It's their choice."