Prompt: Criminal/Policeman
Title is from the Tegan and Sara song
Dani remembered the moment she first saw Santana Lopez clearly. No, it wasn't in that coffee shop. She was already too far gone by then. The first was just after one of her incidents. Incidents, as Dani liked to call them, were the moments when she fed her monster.
It was night time then. The air was crisp and cold, and Dani watched on from the rooftop of a nearby building with her thick jacket clutched close to her body. She didn't feel the cold, but she didn't want to have to explain that on top of explaining why she was on the rooftop in the first place. The target that day was a boy in his early twenties. Luring him in was child's play. All Dani had to do was bat her eyelashes and she had him following her wherever she went. He was strong, as she expected her would be, but she couldn't deny that that only added to the challenge. The fight that ensued was short, as Dani had already drugged his drink. He was on the ground after a while, and finishing off the business then was easy.
Dani left him in an alley, as she did usually. Then she dropped an anonymous phone call to the police. The police cars arrived within minutes, headed by a slick black car. That worried Dani. She knew cars like that belonged to high ranking officers. She felt her heart rate speed up.
That was it. She was screwed. They would catch her for sure. She should have been more-
All train of thought was stopped as Dani saw the dark haired woman that exited the vehicle. Dani didn't have a clear view on who the woman was, with the darkness and the distance between them, but she felt her hands grow clammy and her heart palpitate.
The woman headed to the crime scene, and observed. She stayed like that for a few moments as the other policemen began to set up a crime scene. She just stared, and no one talked to her. Dani watched the woman watch her artwork.
Then the woman turned. She turned and Dani felt fierce eyes search the darkness. She knew that the woman didn't see her, but, God, she wanted her to.
That was the first time Dani felt something overpower her senses other than the lust for death.
xoxo
"Hey, babe."
Dani shook away from her memories and turned her head from staring blankly at the television to the sight of her girlfriend entering her apartment. They were in Santana's apartment, since Dani wouldn't allow the Latina to enter hers, stating that her roommate was mental.
Dani felt herself grin. She didn't even have to think about it anymore. Smiling when seeing Santana seemed to come naturally.
Said girl walked over to her and leaned in for a kiss, after placing her gun and holster into one of her assigned drawers. Dani happily obliged the kiss, and felt herself melt all over again.
"What are you doing here?" Santana asked when they broke apart.
Dani smiled. Why was she there? Sure, Santana gave her her own set of keys, but that didn't mean she had the right to just drop in unannounced. They had only been dating for five weeks and Santana had no idea about Dani's secret. Oh, that's right. Dani felt so weak in her own apartment. Her work began to feel disgusting and she started feeling hate towards herself. She needed a sanctuary.
"I just felt like it," Dani lied. That was all she did in the relationship. Lie. God, Santana deserved more than this. Santana deserved more than the woman who murdered her best friend.
Santana bought it and plopped down next to Dani. She propped up her legs on the blonde's lap. "I'm glad you did. I missed you."
Dani smiled adorningly and pushed back a stray strand of dark hair. "I missed you too," she replied sappily.
Santana laughed, and then made a face. "It's so weird how sappy I've become. I mean, it's totally ruining my badass image."
The blonde faux-gasped, "You had a badass image?"
"Shut up," Santana muttered as she playfully shoved the girl. Dani laughed and engulfed the Latina in a hug.
The two of them stayed in that position for a while, with some chic-flick playing in the background, until Santana brought up a topic that's been in her mind the entire day.
"Rachel's dads are coming over tomorrow."
Dani frowned. The way Santana's voice still cracked on her best friend's name worried her. But then, she had no right to worry. She felt guilty. She was the reason for this. But she had just been so, so jealous of Rachel. Rachel, who had Santana all to herself 24/7, yet still disobeyed the Latina. Dani mentally shook her head at herself and hoped to hell that Santana wasn't a mind reader.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
Santana shrugged, the best she could while under Dani. "Leroy is still in mourning. I don't really expect him to get over it that easily. I'm still not over it myself." Then she added, in what Dani would describe as Santana's most defeated voice, "I don't think any of us will ever get over it."
Dani gulped. "Do you- Do you hate the killer?"
Santana's eyes grew cold, but she didn't react. Dani felt a shiver run down her spine and her blood grow cold. She knew that emotion on the Latina. Pure, unadulterated anger. She was genuinely angry, and she wasn't exploding like she usually did. She was absolutely livid.
"I will find him, Dani," Santana said firmly while squeezing the blonde's hand in hers. "I won't let him hurt anyone I love anymore." The Latina said this with a small, sad smile and a kiss to Dani's cheek.
Dani would have smiled at the fact that Santana told her she loved her if she didn't feel dread twist around her stomach.
xoxo
Santana groaned in frustration. They kept drawing blanks. They couldn't track this killer down.
What were they missing?
What was she missing?
She didn't understand it. Dammit! She couldn't calm down when there was a killer on the lose on the city where she and her new girlfriend lived in. She already lost Rachel. She wouldn't be losing Dani too.
A knock on her office door interrupted her thoughts.
"Come in."
Puck peered inside. Santana knew him from high school. He went to the same school as Rachel and her, and was the resident bad boy. Now he works as the city detective.
"How are you faring, Lopez?" he asked as he stepped inside the room.
Santana didn't bother looking up from the scattered files on her desk. She just gestured wildly as an answer.
Puck nodded sympathetically. "Still nothing, huh?" Santana nodded. "Maybe we're overlooking a big piece of information here."
Santana looked up then with fire in her eyes. "What else? We've been tracking this guy for months. What else, Puck? He's good. He's got his ass covered and he has us chasing our own tails."
"That," Puck stated. "How sure are you that he is a he?"
Santana looked at him questioningly. "The killer is a he. Have you seen some of his victims? There was this one guy that reminded me of a UFC fighter."
"Should I remind you that those guys had drugs in their systems?"
Santana shrugged. "So he was doped? What?"
Puck answered by spreading out the files on Santana's table and pointing at the drug test results on each of the victims.
"Oh my God," Santana gasped. She slapped her forehead once she realized her stupidity.
"Right under our fucking noses," Puck said. "I didn't notice it before as well."
Santana nodded to herself. Yes. They had a lead, but was it enough? "He… No, she-"
"She will go down, bro," Puck assured.
xoxo
Santana stared at the bloody corpse in front of her.
This Monday's unlucky chap was a young girl that was barely legal. Her face was- Santana couldn't even begin to describe it. If the killer found any satisfaction in this, Santana was sure he or she was mental.
She couldn't stomach the sight of it.
Nor could she handle the images that popped up in her mind of Dani.
Dani in an alley. Dani covered with blood.
No… Just, no.
xoxo
Dani watched as Santana ran from the crime scene pale-faced. It had become a sort of habit for her - to watch the love of her life examine her latest creation. But this reaction was new.
Usually it was anger and hate. Dani could handle that. Thatbwas the kind of reaction she was hoping for in the first place.
But disgust? Fear? Never. Dani felt that knife twist at her stomach again.
She felt her phone vibrate from her back pocket as she watched Santana lean on her car and put her phone close to her ear. Dani thanked whoever was listening that she put her phone on silent. Her ringtone was a horribly loud electro pop song, and she was sure Santana would hear and recognize it in the silent night.
Dani shook her head at herself and pulled out her phone.
"Hey," her voice was level, and soft enough that Santana didn't know it came from somewhere nearer than she thought.
"Hi." Santana's voice was shaky. "Where are you?"
"I'm over at Tim's." The lies kept on coming easier each time. "What's wrong?"
There was a long pause, and Dani could see Santana running her fingers through her hair. "Nothing," the Latina finally said. "I'm fine. Just be- Just make sure you're safe, okay?"
"You promise me too, okay?"
"I promise I'll be safe." There was a longer pause between them, and Dani could hear Santana breathing in and out deeply. "I love you."
Dani felt her breath catch. That was the second time Santana told her she loved her.
"I love you too."
xoxo
Dani wasn't sure what made her stop herself from finishing that week's prey. She was stood over him, her hands gripping at his garish outfit, when she stopped.
She just stopped.
He was unconscious and drugged, but she knew that if she left him alive, he would remember her.
She didn't know what made her do it, but she ran.
xoxo
It was a hectic night for Santana. And it was a Monday.
She was waiting for another phone call.
It didn't come.
What she did get was Puck rushing in her office with a hopeful smile on his face.
"We got her."
xoxo
Sam, who looked to be slipping between consciousness and unconsciousness, looked roughed up. He was covered with cuts and bruises, and a huge gash on his bicep that the medic gave first aid to. His muscle was ripped and he had to be brought to the hospital, but Santana and Puck insisted her be interrogated first.
"What do you remember, Sam?" Santana asked for the umpteenth time. She was losing patience. This guy could be their only way to catch the murderer.
"I- Uhh- I saw- No, I- Umm-"
"We're not going to get anything from him today,"Puck sighed. "We'll just interrogate him further tomorrow."
Santana hated it, but Pucknwas right. She nodded to Penny, their medic, and prepared to stand up when Sam tugged her arm.
"Birds… They were flying… Flying from her arms." was what he said before he passed out.
xoxo
Santana wanted to call Dani that night and tell her about the good news. They had another lead. But she couldn't contact Dani.
Worry flooded through her and she drove around like a maniac, asking their friends if they saw the blonde. They didn't know, and it fueled Santana's worry.
Her mind began to think up possibilities and they weren't exactly nice.
What if- What if the killer got to her?
God no no no no no no.
Santana couldn't - wouldn't - live if that were to happen.
"Dani! Baby, come here!"
Santana stepped on the brakes harshly. She didn't just imagine that, did she? She did hear those junkies say that.
She was in the shadier part of their city. She had stopped in front of a place with a sign that said it was a tattoo parlor. There were a couple of guys smoking spliff just outside of it. In front of them, a hooded figure, feminine as Santana could see, stopped in front of them just as Santana braked.
The light of the streetlamp let Santana see blue hair from underneath the hood.
"Fuck off, Willy."
Santana sucked in a breath. She knew that breathy voice.
Willy grinned at her, "Oy. No need to be pissy, babe."
"Don't call me that."
Willy's friend stared at Santana's car hard and pointed, "Hey. Lookie that."
The hooded figure turned, and even underneath the hood, Santana saw that it really was Dani.
Dani was wide eyed at the sight of the car. She knew who was driving it even if the tint was so dark that she couldn't see inside.
Rage filled Santana as she stormed out of her car. "Dani? What the fuck are you doing here? What the hell happened to your phone? What the hell happened to your hair?"
Dani took an involuntary step back. "I- I don't know."
"You don't know? God, Dani! Do you have any idea how worried I was?" Santana growled out.
Willy stood up at this. "Hey! Who do you-" he began to say but Dani's raised hand stopped him.
"It's fine, Willy," Dani said. Then she turned to Santana, "What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you."
"I'm sorry. I forgot my phone at home."
Santana breathed a small sigh of relief. "What are you even doing at a place like this? This place is dangerous."
Dani cringed. "This was where I grew up, Santana."
"Oh," Santana was dumbfounded. Dani grew up in a dump like this. She decided that the safer bet was to change the subject. "What happened to your hair?"
Dani took off her hood then. "Like it?" she asked bashfully as she let her now blue hair flutter around.
"It's new," Santana breathed out. "But I like it. Why did you dye it?"
Dani averted her eyes. "I wanted to change."
"Why? I love you just the way you are."
Dani ignored the awws of her childhood friends and said, "I love-"
"Wait. You love Dani even if she's the mur-"
Willy clasped his hand over his brother's mouth. "You have to excuse him. He's shitfaced right now."
"What was he going to say though?" Santana asked curiously.
"Ignore him," Dani said, whilst shooting her two friends deadly glares. "Let's go to your apartment, okay?"
Santana hesitated, still looking at the two stoners and thinking about what one of them almost said. 'You love Dani even if she's the murderer?' Santana shook her head at herself. "Okay," she said ti Dani, and pushed the absurd thought to the back of her head.
xoxo
Santana was still awake at three in the morning. She laid on her back and stared at her clear white ceiling, with Dani asleep next to her covered in only a blanket.
She couldn't shake the thought of it from her head.
Dani.
Murderer.
No. That couldn't be true. Not Dani. Dani would never do something like that.
Moon light peered in through the blinds in Santana's bedroom and illuminated the sleeping blonde-now-bluenette next to her, and the Latina found herself holding her breath.
Her eyes traced the pattern tattooed on her girlfriend's arm.
Birds flying. Flying from her arm.
Santana stood up quickly, and ran to her bathroom. She emptied her stomach in the toilet bowl, and stared at her frayed reflection on the mirror.
Dani was… No. Santana couldn't believe it.
Rachel. Dani couldn't have been-
Santana splashed cold water on her face and collected herself. She walked out the bathroom to a fully clothed Dani sitting at the edge of her bed with a forlorn expression on her face.
"I'm sorry," Dani said with a sad smile. "I'm so sorry, Santana."
Santana audibly gulped and tore her eyes away from the girl. She could already feel the tears forming in her eyes. She ignored the urge to vomit again. "Why?" was all she asked.
Dani bit back the tears. "I don't know. The hunger- It just takes over me."
"Hunger," Santana scoffed. "What about R-Rachel?"
"I- She was…" Dani stopped herself and she swallowed. "I was jealous."
This time, Santana turned to look at her. "Jealous?" Dani could see the anger and hurt in her eyes.
"Yes," Dani sighed. "I loved you before you even met me, okay? I watched you for a long time, and I guess I got jealous of how you and Rachel were so close."
"So you fucking kill her?" Santana all but shouted. "You… God. You killed Rachel."
Dani couldn't stop her tears. Santana was crying too. "I'm so sorry."
Santana shook her head. "I don't even know who you are."
"I'm still me. I'm still Dani."
Santana shook her head and backed away. "No. You're a murderer."
"I'm not-" Dani's eyes widened as the hunger took over her again. Santana saw this and she reached out to her gun. Dani got to her faster. The bluenette pinned the Latina down with effort. When Santana tried to scream, Dani clasped her hand over the girl's mouth.
"Shhh," Dani whispered as she locked eyes with Santana's wide ones.
Santana shook her head.
Dani could see fear in the eyes she loved so much. She felt the hunger overpowering her as she leaned in to press a kiss on the Latina's forehead. "I love you, San."
Santana struggled again, but Dani held her firmly in place.
"I can't stop it. You have to understand, Santana," Dani tried to explain. "I don't want to hurt people. I don't want to hurt you."
Dani saw Santana's reply in her eyes. 'But you will. You will hurt me. You already have.'
Dani bit her lip and shook her head. "I won't. I'll let you go. I'll let you go, and I'll leave, and you will never see me again." Dani loosened her hold on Santana. "Just tell me to go and I will."
Dani stood up then, leaving Santana on the ground staring back at her.
"Go."
Dani's lip quivered, and she felt a few tears fall, but she did as she was told. She left and never looked back.
It was her fault anyway.
She didn't even try to contain her hunger.
She hurt the only person in her heart.
It was all her fault.
Now she had to suffer through the worst punishment.
The sight of the hate and hurt in chocolate eyes would always stay with her.
For now, all she had to do was run away.
Run away from all the things she loved.
xoxo
Take me by the hand and tell me
You would take me anywhere.