"The Benevolent Doctor"
4. Memories of When
March 2012 – Lima, Ohio
A week had passed since Artie and the others had learned of Santana and Brittany and their adventures with their third known incarnation of the Doctor, and all had been fairly calm in the halls of McKinley, until one morning they saw that Ginny Harrison had returned as their substitute, if only for a short three-day stint. Her arrival had done for the ever widening group what it always did: it put them on alert.
"Look, you guys do whatever you want, but I'm going to go and ask her what she's doing here," Santana would declare as she stood at her locker with Brittany, Artie, Puck, and Sugar.
"No, you can't!" Sugar was the first to speak out, with a surprisingly determined tone, and Artie had been so surprised and grateful he'd nearly turned to her and thanked her, but he held his tongue.
"Why not?"
"Because… Because we don't know… why she's here," Sugar struggled to come up with her answer, but then nodded, satisfied, once it was out.
"Yeah, and how do you think we're going to find out, by staring at her?" Santana countered.
"We could distract her and look through her stuff," Brittany offered, and Santana looked to her in agreement; Puck was starting to look interested, too.
"No!" Sugar and Artie had both countered at once. They looked to each other, and Sugar nodded to him: you take it.
"Look, I know it's annoying to stand back, believe me, I've been in this a lot longer than you."
"She's not going to be here long, then what are you going to do when she leaves?" Santana asked.
"Wait until she gets back," Artie shrugged.
"What is that going to accomplish?" Santana sounded even more annoyed.
"Probably not a lot, but right now, I am begging you…"
"Look, you do your thing, I'll do mine. She's been going around here for all this time, there has to be a reason, and we need to know what it is."
With that, she'd shut her locker door and stomped off down the hall. Brittany gave them an apologetic look before trotting off behind the other girl.
"I better get to class," Puck sighed, moving off, leaving Sugar and Artie alone.
"What do we do now?" Sugar asked. Artie looked up at her, blinking.
"I don't know, I'll keep trying, don't worry about it." Sugar gave a small nod and turned to leave. "Hey, are you okay?" Sugar turned back.
"Why?"
"I don't know, you just… Never mind," he finally smiled and shook his head.
"See you, Artie," she bowed her head before leaving.
He wasn't wrong if he thought there was something on her mind, but she couldn't tell him what it was. If she did, she would have to tell him a lot more, and she knew she wasn't supposed to.
The thing was, while Santana and Brittany had been telling their story the week before, something happened. She remembered something. It would have been so small of a memory, except that it opened up the way for something… unexpected. All at once, she had remembered being six years old, being Padra, hidden away at Marella's Inn on the Great Jade Moon. She remembered the woman who'd sat with her a while, the one who'd disappeared…
"My name is Gemma. It's very nice to meet you. Your name is Padra, is that right?"
"Yes."
"That's a beautiful name, do you know where it comes from?"
"My mother says it's a kind of sugar, the sweetest. Toh, he calls me 'sweet child.'"
"Well, I'll see you around, sugar."
She could see her face now, it was Miss Harrison, and her name really had been Gemma, everything Artie and Puck had said was true. She'd believed everything else, about the Doctor, of course, but until then she wasn't completely sold on the Miss Harrison… the Gemma part. The woman in the inn, that was how she'd even thought about it, her new name. It was because of her she called herself Sugar now. She didn't know why she was there, but what if it meant she was in trouble?
X
Artie had waited until they'd split up. He knew he wasn't going to convince Santana, which meant someone else was going to have to, and he didn't know of anyone else better to get Santana to do something other than Brittany. He knew they didn't have the same class next, so he just had to wait until Santana went to hers and he could approach the blonde. It might mean he'd be late to his own class, but he was willing to risk it.
"Brittany!" he called to her, not so loud in case Santana was still close enough to hear.
"Hey…" she replied.
"I need your help. You have to talk to Santana and convince her not to go after Gemma." She looked uneasy and he could all but hear her go 'I don't know, Artie, Santana said…' "I tried to explain it, but Santana won't listen. Look, I know who she is, and you all do, too, but she's not actually coming to us about it, is she?" Well, she told me, but that's beside the point.
"Well, no…"
"Then there has to be a reason, right?"
"Maybe…"
"If you guys go after her and try to make her tell you, it could ruin everything. It's been months already, if we wreck it now, it might be catastrophic." The word had done its job in getting Brittany to see what he was getting at.
"We can't let that happen," she shook her head. It only made it easier that he was almost completely telling her the truth.
"Santana won't listen to me, you know that. But she'll listen if you tell her. Can you do that, please?" The blonde stood there for a moment, thinking to herself, but then she finally nodded.
"Okay, I'll talk to her."
"Thanks, Britt."
TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)