Disclaimer: Still don't own anything.
A/N: Thank you to Riptide 2015 for Brittany's sister's (mouthful much?) first name.
Thank you to all who have thus far, put me on story alert, favorited, and reviewed. All are very encouraging.
I've been doing lots of research (yes researched for this… it is possible). And reading fanfiction (also for research). This is how I help develop and make likable the character's I don't like as much/pay attention to…. Like Puck (who I don't like)… and Quinn (I don't know how I feel about her)… and Rachel (annoying)… and…Artie (…I got nothin', I keep forgetting he's a character actually .)… and Shue (Did I mention I skip most parts with him in it?)… and you know what lets just add in the entire Glee character list that's NOT Santana and Brittany… so yeah… "research". And taking 7 classes has NOTHING to do with it.
As always:
{sign language}
Chapter 14 Christmas Eve
As per usual Santana was the first one awake, she was not looking forward to spending the entire day cooking, only to have uninvited company over. Carefully getting up, so as not to disturb the blonde, she quietly got ready for the day, only pausing to brush Brittany's hair out of her face before leaving the room. She knew Brittany wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, the girl had not slept well for the past few nights and Santana had not wanted to pry about the reasons. Upon reaching the kitchen she sighed, meat should be prepared first. This was going to be a long day.
She had just finished dressing the chicken and had the pork marinating in refrigerator, when the front door slammed shut. There was only one person that could be, and was only confirmed when Sue's booming voice shot down the hallway. Briefly looking at the clock before greeting her guests, Santana was mildly astonished that Sue had decided to show up so early, it was only noon. She found Sue at the entryway both her and Jean dressed warmly and wearing cloaks that seemed to be flapping from some unknown breeze that completed their "magnificent" entrance. Sue informed Santana about the fans that had been placed to make this happen, Santana only rolled her eyes at Sue's explanation and hoped that this intrusion had not woken Brittany.
Unknown toSantana, Brittany had woken up a full hour ago and was currently taking refuge in the bed. When she woke up, she had immediately called home. Before the first ring ended it was picked up and her ear was met with a very enthusiastic "Brittany!" Brittany cracked a smile and returned the greeting with just as much enthusiasm, "JoJo! Merry Christmas Eve."
"Merry Christmas Eve! When are you coming back? You're coming back, right?" Ok, who had given JoJo sugar? But it was a relief to Brittany that her sister was acting her age, sometimes, if it wasn't for the height difference, one would think Josie was the older one. She was very articulate unless she was acting her age, while Brittany tended to stumbled over the simple things. "Lord Tubbington misses you, Charity's been missing since you left, and I can't find her."
"Calm down," She said grinning. "Yes I'm coming back. When? Ask father, but I'll be there in time for New Years Eve. And Charity can take care of herself." Somehow it was always easier to talk to her sister. "How does mom seem?"
"The usual," the response was a bit too perky considering the subject. "She's been muttering about how dad was stupid to let you go with a complete stranger for a week." There was that word again. "But I want to know more about your friend. How did you meet? Is she nice? What's she like?" Brittany knowing that it was an uncomfortable subject for them both went with the sudden change of subject and happily told her sister all about the past five weeks with Angel. She was in the middle of Angel being lost in the storm, when the sound of a phone being picked up and the only voice that she wasn't looking forward to hearing on the other end.
"Brittany, you should have come home! Why did you stay? Your father should have never agreed to this. You haven't known this girl long enough, and this was completely stupid of you to do this over Christmas."
"Mom!" Josie trying to come to the rescue again.
"No, she's my daughter and this shouldn't have happened. Remember what happened last time?"
"But mom-"
"No, buts."
"Mom, Brittany's enjoying herself."
There was a frustrated sigh, "This is not about whether Brittany is having fun or not, it's about us being together as a family. Having family time." If the mom heard Josie snort, she choose to ignore it. "Your father, I'm going to have a talk with him."
"Mom, it's Christmas just-just wait until I get home."
"The minute you get here, we're sitting down and having a serious discussion, there are limits to what you can and can't do. Some things just aren't safe for you. No this is not up for discussion."
"Brittany's not at child."
"She's only sixteen."
"I'm-" Brittany started.
"She's-" Josie interrupted.
"Seventeen." They said together.
"Seventeen then, you're still not an adult, and you can't make your own decisions. I'm through discussing. We'll finish this when you get back. You don't go anywhere without my explicit permission, no matter what your father says." The phone hung up and was immediately picked back up. "Merry Christmas." It almost sounded like an afterthought and the phone hung up again.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't on parental alert, she was supposed to be busy wrapping presents." Josie told Brittany in a hushed voice.
"Merry-go-round," was all Brittany said.
"I'll be more careful next time." Her sister promised.
"I'm used to it."
"No one should be."
"You're getting old, too fast, be eleven."
"I am eleven."
"And I'm old, so do as you're told."
"Yes… grandmother." Josie said patronizingly.
Brittany grinned, moving on from the disruption that their parent had caused, and adopted a creaky high voice, "Now young whippier snapper, I have a few words of wisdom for you, they are-" She pretended to snore, her sister giggled. "Huh, what? Where was I?"
"Words of wisdom Britt. Words of wisdom."
"Use both your left mind and your right mind equally, otherwise one gets jealous." Josie laughed at that. After she settled down, Brittany whispered, "Merry Christmas, Josie."
"Merry Christmas, Brittany." That was the end of their conversation.
Brittany managed to hold on, until she hear the click of the phone, before she sighed. That hadn't gone as well as she wanted. How long would it take for her mother to stop treating her like a child? Oh why, couldn't she have been born normal? There was moisture on the pillow, she didn't know that she had started crying.
"Why are you crying?" asked a kind voice that was old yet child-like at the same time.
"No, reason," Brittany said wiping her tears.
"Don't be sad. It's Christmas. Come, let's go see Sue. She'll make you feel better." Having met Sue, Brittany sincerely doubted that anything Sue could say would make her feel better. But there was an innocence that could clearly be heard, and a kindness that just radiated off of this person, even if Brittany didn't want to go there was no way she could refuse without hurting this woman's feelings. She couldn't refuse, not after feeling 't want to spread the sadness and allowed the woman to wrap her arms around her in a hug, then awkwardly but warmly took her hand and led her to where the smell of food was coming from.
xxxxx
The kitchen was quite busy, Sue and Santana had somehow managed to work together without verbal communication of what they were doing, but somhow with the two of them they had managed to do the work of five iron chiefs without breaking a sweat. There were light insults and verbal shots flying through the air, but the usual callousness of the words were lost, drowned out by the merriness that only the holidays can bring.
When Brittany and Jean entered the kitchen, the atmosphere made it impossible to feel anything but happiness, it was too merry; there was no room for anything but happiness in this house. Each breath she took in, brought in the joy and each exhale took the distressing problems away.
"Sue, Sue! Look who I found in the bedroom."
"Good work, Jean. Now we can get started on decorating cookies." Sue lowered her voice so that only Santana could hear, "In bed with her already, I'm impressed." Sue was very pleased when she noted that her statement caused the high school student to colour slightly.
"Aren't you going to join us Sue?"
"We're putting the food in the oven then coming over. Go ahead and start without us."
"Ok, Sue," replied Jean although neither she nor Brittany were about to start in the festivities without them.
Jean and Brittany were deep in conversation about Santa and speculating on how his reindeer were doing. But stopped their conversation as soon as the other two joined them, together they made several gingerbread houses, Santa and all of his reindeer, Sue dressed as "the Grinch", Jean as an elf, Brittany as a penguin, and Santana climbing up the chimney. For the first time that Santana could remember in recent years, it seemed that Christmas was not a silent affair in the house. Just as they were putting the last of the decorations on the gingerbread houses, the timer went off signaling that it was at last time to eat.
"The Sue Sylvester timing is perfect as always. Why don't you guys get all cleaned up?" Sue said, eyeing the other three that had frosting on their hands and faces. While Sue had participated in the festivities she had managed to do so without getting a single hair out of place. "I'll handle this. Don't want you getting in my way, after all."
When the group returned, the mess from the gingerbread houses was cleaned up, the table was set beautifully, and when Santana glanced into the kitchen it was almost spotless. How Sue had managed to do all this in such a short time period, no one would ever know. After all it was one of those "Sue Sylvester secrets".
The dinner passed quickly as the conversation was filled with stories and laughter. At the end, Sue announced that it was time to open presents and they were going to do it in the "Sylvester style". Jean explained that this meant that they each got to open one present and then tomorrow, open the rest. "And we start with the youngest, then the oldest, and back again."
"That means you go first," said Sue pointedly looking at Santana.
"What about Brittany?"
"She's older than you."
"How do you, no, never mind I don't want to know."
"This is for you," Jean told Santana handing her a small box "I made it." Inside the box, was a small clay figurine, it wasn't perfect, some of the colours overlapped, some proportions of the human figure were slightly off, but it was so obviously made with time, care, and effort, it was beautiful.
"Thanks Jean," Santana said with gratitude. "Britt, there's a small present behind me could you give it to Jean while I put this somewhere safe?" Brittany nodded. "Thanks."
Jean waited until Santana got back before opening hers. If the smile on Jean's face could get bigger, it did as she read what the CD was. "Thank you!" she said excitedly, "Sue can we listen to this in your car?"
"Of course."
"Brittany's turn!"
"Despite the unexpected company, Sue S. Sylvester is always prepared," Sue proudly said as she handed Brittany an envelope. "Read what they are to her minion."
"This is a gift certificate to…" Santana trailed off. "Sue, where did you get these?"
"You'd be amazed what a few well place phone calls can do."
"What is it?" Brittany asked curious to what could be causing so much conversation.
"It's a gift certificate to the best spa in the state, complete with all the extras, which you have to schedule at least 2 years in advance to get in. This has an anytime stamp."
"I can't-"
"It's non-refundable," Sue interrupted. "I can't use it, if you don't want it, not my problem."
"She's right, it says right here." Santana took Brittany's finger and had it point at the bottom edge of the paper. "It says, cannot under any circumstances be used by one that calls herself "Sue Sylvester", it even has a picture."
"You can have it," said Brittany trying to hand Santana the piece of paper.
"Oh no, I already got my present. She gave it to you."
"Brittany your being rude," Jean added.
That stopped Brittany from protesting, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," said Sue triumphantly. "Good job Jean," she whispered into her sister's ear, which caused a smile to appear on Jean's face.
"I believe this is yours," Santana motioned to the rather large box next to the couch were Sue and Jean were currently on.
"I don't need a present."
"Come on, Sue."
"I don't need one."
Santana didn't bother to try to convince Sue to open it, if Jean was the one insisting, her younger sister would crumble eventually, she tried to prevent a smile from appearing on her face when Sue gave in. She only half succeeded.
Sue picked up the present and put it on her lap, "Jesus, what did you put in this?" Santana just grinned and waited for Sue to open it. Who was more astounded by what happened in the next few moments, would be debated by the two for the next few years. Sue looking in at the present gave the most un-Sue-like look that Santana had ever and would ever live to hear. Except for the presents Sue got from her sister, no one had managed to get her something she could truly enjoy, although she still did enjoy taking presents from other people. "This didn't turn out so badly after all" she would tell herself later while congratulating herself on the idea annexing Santana's home.
"What is it Sue?"
Sue having gotten over whatever small bit of emotion had overwhelmed her seconds earlier, took out a game that had Madonna and Sue plastered on the cover, it was labeled "Sue, Madonna, and Me", setting it on the table next to the couch, she proceeded to pull out two cordless microphones, an instruction book, and some kind of strange contraption.
"What is this?" Sue asked holding up the odd object.
"That's the PSAD," Santana said. She received a blank look from the rest of the group. "It's what you put the CD in. Give it here, I'll show you how it works." Santana plugged in the system into a wall outlet and the TV, she took the microphones and plugged those into the system, finally she took the CD and placed it into the slot.
It took seconds before a menu appeared on the screen, which flashed the question "Number of Players?" Santana pushed the number "4" and "enter" on the keypad that was set up on top of the gaming system. "Choose Player 1's Difficulty" appeared afterwards, there were three options. "Jean" "Madonna" and "Sue". Picking "Jean" for Jean, "Madonna" for both her and Brittany, and before Sue could tell her "Sue", she had picked that out and pressed enter. "Enable Duets" before Santana could tell it "no", Sue came up and pushed "yes".
"If you already knew how to use it, why didn't you do it before," Santana grumbled.
"Because it was more fun to watch you do it. We have enough time to do two songs. Don't. Argue." Sue told Santana even as the girl had opened her mouth to protest. "My present and I say Jean goes first. What song do you want to sing?"
"Sue, you know I can't sing."
"Nonsense, mother never knew what she was talking about anyway. I'll sing this one with you. " Jean nervously took the microphone from Sue. "I've got the perfect song."
To say that it was the worst rendition of the song "You Raise Me Up" would be too harsh, Jean couldn't carry the tune, and Sue spent most of her time helping her. But at the end, they were both praised by, non other than, a cyber version of Sue Sylvester. Afterwards Sue got that look on her face. "I should get these mass produced," she mused out loud. "I already have your duet picked out." She informed the two teenagers starting the song as she threw the two mics at them. "Hope you know it," She said as "Me Against the Music" started to play. Afterwards, they each had to do a solo song, and by the end everyone but Sue breathed a small sigh of relief. Jean let out a whoop because it was time to watch the movies. As Sue repacked her present, Santana got the movies out and prepared the first one "A Charlie Brown's Christmas", while Jean and Brittany got comfortable. After the first movie finished it was time to watch "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", the one that Jean had been looking forward to all day. By the end of the movie, Jean was leaning on Sue's shoulder almost falling on the other had was asleep her head had somehow found its way to Santana's lap who was absently stroking the blonde's hair. When Sue and Jean would leave to go home thirty minutes later, they would do so quietly because at some point between Santana too had fallen asleep. As Sue closed the front door quietly, Jean remarked in a hushed voice of how cute the two looked together.
Clarification, about the game: while the main attraction of it is the Madonna songs, TG knew about Jean (she does this thing that we call research!) and added in about a dozen or so songs that she thought Jean might like or know. The rest of them are geared toward Sue with all the duets that Madonna's done included too. There is an unlockable trio song, in which Madonna sings "Like a Virgin" along with the two players.
Again sorry it took so long, INTERLUDE is next, followed by the next chapter. And yes I know the ending seems a bit rushed... sorry.