41. Game

Rachel has a feeling that she was being followed. It was a feeling that she had been having for the past few days, but after she talked to her wife about it she brushed it off as paranoia.

She was sure that she had seen the car behind her before, just this morning in fact when she was pulling out of Starbucks.

She lets her eyes leave the road just for a second as she looks in her rear view mirror to look at the car behind her. It definitely looks similar to the one she saw this morning, but Santana is probably right, it's just paranoia.

The car follows her for another ten minutes until it carries on when she turns left into the underground parking lot of their apartment block.

She parks in her usual space and gets out of the car. She opens the back door and smiles at her five year old son sitting in his car seat.

"Shall we go and see if Mami has finished early today?" Rachel asks as she unfastens her son out of the seat.

"Mommy, wanna go down."

Rachel places her son on the floor and watches as he runs over to the elevator attempting to push the button, but he's just too small to reach.

Rachel laughs as she lifts her son those extra inches so he can reach the button before placing him back down on the floor and taking his hand.

As soon as they enter the apartment Oscar runs towards his sleeping mother on the couch and climbs on top of her. The feeling of something heavy on her chest stirs Santana from her sleep and when she opens her eyes she greeted by the smiling face of her son.

"Hi Mami."

"I'm sorry honey. I would have made him be quiet if I'd have known you were sleeping" Rachel says.

"Don't worry. I love being woken up with cuddles from our son. Did you have a good day at kindergarten Mijo?" Santana asks.

"I drawed a picture of you, mommy and me."

"You drew a picture honey not drawed. It's actually quite impressive" Rachel says before handing her wife said picture.

Santana smiles at the three sloppily drawn stick figures on the piece of paper.

"I think this deserves pride place on the fridge" Santana grins.

She picks up her son from her chest, settles him on the couch and puts one of his favorite shows on the television. She walks into the bedroom to find her wife getting changed.

"You're agent called. She wanted to know about an unscheduled photo shoot you took part in" Santana says.

"I haven't done a photo shoot recently."

"She said she saw some of the photos on a fan blog. She said she'd email you the web address" Santana explains.

"Pass me your laptop."

Santana grabs her laptop from the dressing table and passes her it over to her wife. Rachel quickly logs onto her email account and finds the email from her agent and clicks the link attached.

As soon as the page for the blog appears on the screen Santana can't help but scoff.

"Juicy Berry Information? Really?"

The first picture they come across was of Rachel leaving Starbucks that morning. It was underneath the title 'Spotted!' followed by a small sentence.

'Rachel Berry seen leaving Starbucks with her favorite vanilla soy latte in hand.'

"Well that's normal you've been followed by paparazzi before" Santana says.

Rachel scrolls down the page a bit more because she knows that can't be the photo her agent is talking about.

The next photo she comes across is a close up of her face while she laughing.

"That's actually a nice photo" Santana comments.

Rachel agrees it is a nice photo but since it was a close up she can't find any clues as to when or where the photo might have been taken. The next few photos are the same and as good as they are she doesn't remember them being taken.

"Someone took these without me knowing."

"It will be the paparazzi or a fan or something. It is a blog dedicated to you" Santana says.

"It's just weird that someone might be watching me. You know I saw that car again today, I even saw it outside of Starbucks this morning."

"You see it was probably some pap trying to get an exclusive. If you're still bothered by it in a couple of days we'll look into it, okay?"

"Okay. I'll get started on dinner, Oscar will be hungry soon" Rachel replies.

Rachel had but her paranoia over the photos away for the past two days, but when she leaves the theatre and spots the same car across the street it all comes rushing back.
The driver of the car must notice that she has seen them because a second later the car drives away. She doesn't know what makes her do it, but as soon as she arrives home she logs onto the computer and pulls up the Juicy Berry blog.

There's a new photo entry from just five minutes ago. It's a photo of her coming out of the door of the theatre.

'Spotted!'

'Rachel Berry leaves the Gershwin Theatre after rehearsals for her upcoming show Wicked.'

That confirms it. She now knows that the car that has been following her is the same person that has been blogging about her. She would have to discuss this new discovery with her wife when she gets home.

Rachel decided to wait until she had fed, bathed and put her son to sleep before she informs her wife of the new development. When she walks into their bedroom she finds Santana sat on the bed with her laptop propped up on her lap.

"Pull up the Berry blog, there's something else I want you to see."

"That's pretty sexy. You never told me you did a lingerie shoot" Santana smirks.

"What? I haven't."

Santana turns the computer around so Rachel can see the photo.

"Oh my god! Do you remember last week when your parents took Oscar for the weekend?" Rachel asks.

"Of course I do, when I came home you surprised me with that really sexy…okay I see where you're going."

"I was in this apartment when that photo was taken. Whoever this person is, they're watching me."

"So if you didn't know about these photos then what did you want me to see?" Santana asks.

"I saw that car outside the outside of the theatre when I left and then I come home and find a photo of me leaving the theatre. I now know the person in the car also runs this blog."

"They're probably some over enthusiastic fan" Santana says.

"I don't care who they are, they have taken photographs of me when I'm in the privacy of my own home. That's not okay."

"I'll talk to my lawyer tomorrow and see if we can get the photographs removed and if more photographs appear or you feel like you're still being followed then we'll call the police."

"Thank you. Did you just save those lingerie photos?"

"What? They're evidence" Santana argues.

"Sure they are."

The next day when Rachel arrives home all she wants to do is relax. It had been an intense rehearsal today and the stress of yesterday was still affecting her.
Oscar runs straight into his room and starts pulling out all of his toys. Since Rachel knows that her son will be occupied for a while she decides to have a quick nap. Rehearsals had been picking up since it was getting closer to her opening night.

When she walks into the bedroom she instantly notices the closet door being slightly open. It was one thing that really annoyed her, why couldn't Santana just shut the door properly. Shaking her head Rachel shuts the door before lying on the bed.

She wakes up an hour later when she feels an arm wrap around her waist and a kiss on her cheek.

"Hey."

"Hey baby" Santana replies.

"Where's Oscar?" Rachel asks.

"He is in his room colouring."

Rachel is about to turn around to face her wife until she notices something.

"Have you moved the photo from the dressing table?" she asks.

"I haven't moved anything."

"Are you sure? It's the one of me, you and Oscar your mom took at Christmas."

"I haven't touched it" Santana replies.

"It's missing" Rachel says getting off the bed.

She walks over to the dressing table. She knows that Oscar couldn't have taken the photo since he couldn't reach so there was no other way to explain it. Or was there?

She grabs the laptop and sits on the bed with it.

"What are you doing?" Santana asks.

"I have a hunch."

She pulls up the Juicy Berry website and there staring her in the face was the photo.

"They've been in our house" Rachel says.

"You don't know that."

Rachel scrolls a little further down and finds a picture of some underwear.

'I've finally got a pair of real Rachel Berry panties.'

"They might not be yours they could be anyone's" Santana tries to reassure her wife.

"What about this?" Rachel asks as she points at the photo on the screen.

"That's the dress I wore for the Tony awards last year. When I came home this afternoon the closet door was slightly open. I just thought it was you, but I bet if I look in the closet my dress will be gone."

Rachel walks over to the closet and starts searching through her clothes.

"It isn't here" Rachel says as she flicks through the last of the remaining dresses.

"That means that someone has been in our house Santana."

"It's weird that they posted the photos on their blog though. It's like they wanted you to see it."

"Whoever they are, they're toying with me. It's like it some kind of game to them. I'm scared San."

"Come here" Santana says opening her arms so she can hug her wife.

"I'll call the police. I won't let anything happened to you baby, you know that."
Rachel lies awake that night with Oscar sleeping in the middle of her and Santana. She didn't want to be separated from him when someone had managed to find a way into their home.

The police had done nothing to reassure her. They just told her that they would look into it however they did inform them that there was no evidence of forced entry into the apartment. That scared Rachel the most, the fact that this person could possibly enter her home anytime they wanted so as soon as the police left, she immediately called a locksmith.

The next morning Rachel calls her director and explains that she won't be at the theatre today. She really didn't want to leave the house and she has enough confidence in herself that missing one day of rehearsal wouldn't do any harm.

Santana had offered to stay at home with Rachel but Rachel knew her wife had to go to work. So once Santana had left to take Oscar to kindergarten, Rachel was alone in the house.
She starts to think that maybe she should have gone to the theatre just to be around other people. When her cell phone rings she assumes it's her wife so she answers it without looking.

"You weren't at the theatre today" the voice says.

"May I ask who is calling?"

"I waited for you and you didn't show. That's not very nice Rachel."

"I don't know who you are but I'm going to find out. I have the police here and they are going to find you" Rachel states.

"There's no need to lie to me Rachel. I know you're alone."

"How can you be sure I'm lying?"

"It's sweet that you still wear your wife's sweatshirt."

Rachel looks down towards her NYU sweatshirt the realization causing her to feel sick to the stomach.

"You're watching me."

Rachel runs over to the large window in the living room and closes the drapes.

"That won't help Rachel. You can change your locks and close your drapes but I'll still be watching you."

"Who are you?"

"Someone you shouldn't have ignored" the voice replies before the line goes dead.

Rachel's rushes to her bedroom and grabs the large duffel bag she keeps in the closet. She packs some of the things she needs before doing the same with some of Santana and Oscar's things. She can't stay in this apartment, not when she knows that someone is constantly watching her.

She goes to the only other place she feels safe and that's Kurt's apartment.

The past few days haven't been easy living at Kurt's. He only had a two bedroom apartment which meant that Rachel, Santana and Oscar had to share one room and one bed. Oscar didn't mind though he was enjoying his adventure at Uncle Kurt's, but he was only five and didn't understand what was really going on.

They had updated the police of the latest developments and they had sent a couple of police officers to search their apartment but they didn't find anything and until they did Rachel didn't feel safe in her own home.

When Rachel exits the theatre that day she is relieved when she doesn't spot the car that has been following her. She thanks Tommy, the theatre's security guard who had escorted her to her car before getting in and driving to Oscar's kindergarten.

When she arrives she easily spots Oscars teacher Mrs. Brown since she was an elderly lady with bright red hair.

"Hello Mrs. Lopez, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick up Oscar."

"Oh his Uncle picked him up about an hour ago" Mrs. Brown says.

"Oscar doesn't have an Uncle. Maybe it was my friend Kurt. He likes to refer to himself as Oscar's Uncle."

Rachel gets her cell phone out of her purse and select's Kurt's number. It takes nearly a minute before he finally answers.

"Hey Rachel."

"Good afternoon Kurt. I really wished you would have called me before you decided to pick up Oscar from kindergarten."

"I've been busy all day, I didn't pick him up" Kurt replies.

"Kurt if it wasn't you, then who's taken my son?"