Santana followed Finn inside the casino and just as Brittany had said, everything was super new and it showed. The loud sound of slot machines and laughing people filled her ears. Instead of the usual multicolored, crazy patterned carpeting, the casino floor was covered in deep red carpet. So far so good. The Dalton was surrounded by black and red colors, two of Santana's favorites and the whole theme of the place just screamed, luxury.
As she followed Finn, she scanned her surroundings at the people gambling around her. A group of men in the mid 20s at the black jack tables to her right, an old man with in a wheelchair at the Wheel of Fortune slot machine to her left. Just your normal gamblers. Everywhere she turned there was someone.
Santana took a deep breath. If she thought too much about just how much responsibility would soon be on her shoulders, she'd probably throw up. As she passed the poker tables, she noticed a man who seemed to be sweating just a bit too much for being in an air conditioned building. The scrawny guy with the goatee kept looking behind the dealer instead of his cards. Santana turned and saw a young woman a few feet away who was just standing and sipping her drink. To anyone else, it would look like the guy was just checking the girl out, but to Santana it looked like a classic case of cheating.
They finally reached the reception area where a young woman readily greeted them. "Miss Lopez! Welcome to The Dalton. My name is Mercedes. On behalf of the sta…."
Santana looked back at the pair one last time before turning to Mercedes and interrupting her. "Listen, arrange for my bags to be placed in my room. I need to get to the command center. Now."
Mercedes looked like she was surprised at the sudden interruption. She singled to the bell hop with dreads and he quickly came running over. "Joe. Take these bags to Suite 1525."
"Sure."
Santana saw the guy walk away with her bags and God help him if he stole anything from her bag. She would know. "Take me to the command center."
Finn looked confused. "Umm..don't you want to settle in first? Will said you don't officially start until tomorrow."
"Just take me there," Santana repeated a bit more harshly. She began walking but she managed to hear Mercedes' soft "she's mean" before she got to far way.
Finn took out his key card and opened a large mahogany door right next to the main reception area. The doors led her to white rooms and hallways and it seemed like she had stepped into a completely different building. While outside The Dalton was all about luxury and prestige, inside it was nothing but plain white hallways with workers keeping the hotel running.
Santana followed Finn until they reached a double steal door where his key card and thumb print were needed to enter. "Right this way." When she entered, Santana tried not to gasp. She had seen pictures of The Dalton's main security room but it was nothing compared to seeing it in person. It was beautiful.
One whole wall was covered with monitors with a giant one right in the middle. The control center in front of them was a sea of colorful buttons and levers. As they entered, Santana climbed the two steps to get to the controls and standing right in the center was Will.
"Santana?" He seemed surprised to see her. "I would have thought you'd want to go see your suite."
Santana ignored him and went up to one of the guys manning the controls and tapped his shoulder. "What's your name?"
"Uh..Artie. Artie Abrams," he stuttered.
"Artie, pull up the camera with the poker tables by the reception desk," she instructed, "The one by the Wheel of Fortune slots."
Within seconds, Artie had what she wanted.
"What is it?" Will asked
Santana continued to ignore him and instructed Artie to toggle back between the scrawny guy and the girl with the drink. After a few moments of watching them, she saw a pattern. "You see that? She's giving him signals about the cards."
All three men watched the screen and soon caught on. "Shit!" Will picked up his radio and instructed the floor security to get them off the floor and bring them to the holding room. "How did you see that?"
Santana crossed her arms and smiled proudly. "It's what I do."
"That was so cool," Finn said, "Did you catch them when we walked by?"
Santana nodded. "Always keep your eyes open, Finn."
Will let out a loud breath. "I'm more than happy to hand this job over. Starting now, if you'd like."
"No thanks." Santana turned to the wall of monitors. "I'll officially start tomorrow."
"No problem," Will said, "I'll go see about our cheaters in the holding room. Finn?"
"Oh, uh, I'd love to but, I have to take Miss Lopez to her room."
Santana rolled her eyes and turned to face the two men. "First, stop calling me Miss Lopez. It makes me feel like an elementary school teacher. Second, I remember how to get back to reception, I can find my room myself. 1525, right?"
"Right!" Finn walked over and handed Santana her key cards. "The black one opens up all the security doors to the casino. Your own master key. The two white ones are for your room."
"Thanks Finn."
After the two men left, Santana turned to Artie. "Show me how this works." She watched and listened as Artie explained the system and quickly ran through the most populated sections of the casino floor. The Dalton had the most sophisticated cameras Santana had ever seen. She almost felt like she was right next to some of these gamblers. "Looks good. Show me the cameras outside the casino."
"I thought you weren't officially starting until tomorrow?" Artie asked with a chuckle as he pulled up those cameras.
"I couldn't wait for tomorrow to see these babies in action," Santana said almost in awe.
"Can't blame you." Artie pulled up the cameras located outside the casino grounds. "We have eyes on everything surrounding The Dalton. From the parking lots to the taxi stand out front. Eyes everywhere."
Santana shifted a bit in her spot and she crossed her arms. "Pull up the taxi stand."
"Really?" Artie seemed surprised. "It's just a bunch of tourist getting in and out of cabs. Wouldn't you rather see more of the casino floor?"
"I want to see the front," Santana insisted.
Artie pulled up the main entrance of the casino on the big screen. Just has Artie had said, it was nothing more than tourists arriving and departing The Dalton. For some reason her eyes darted over to the right where she could see a few taxi cabs parked to the side and their drivers hanging out and talking. "Is that the taxi cab break area or something?"
"The taxi service here is very well planned. Each cab gets in a line and picks up fares. The taxi in the front picks up someone and exits and another one does the same. It's like a conveyor belt of cabs. The drivers on breaks have that area down there to park their cars and that building right behind them is where our drivers can eat and rest. We call it The Oasis."
"Hmm." Santana asked Artie to switch to a camera closer to the taxi rest area. She felt like she needed to see everything these cameras covered. When the camera switched, Santana saw the woman who had driven her here laughing and goofing off with two other drivers. Brittany. That was her name. As Santana watched the woman double over in laughter, Santana couldn't help but smile. She wasn't sure what was so funny, but she was suddenly feeling the urge to laugh herself.
"Oh cool!" Artie said, "Brittany's here. I wonder if she has my PS3 controller."
"You know her?" she asked before she could stop herself.
"We went to high school together," Artie explained as he took out his phone and dialed a number.
Brittany felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and reached to answer it. She smiled when she saw it was Artie. "Hey buddy."
Santana watched the driver on the big screen and was disappointed Brittany still had her sunglasses on that hid most of her face. She still wasn't entirely sure what the cab driver looked like.
"Hey Britt!" Artie said, "You have my controller right?"
Brittany nodded because she knew he was watching her. He sometimes called her to try to freak her out that he could see her every move when she was on casino grounds.
"Cool," Artie said, "Oh and tell Jesse next to you I want my hat back."
Santana saw as Brittany looked straight at the camera and start waving. She could make out Brittany mouth "Hi everyone" and then blow a kiss into the camera. Santana wasn't sure if she should be concerned Brittany knew exactly where the camera was or just laugh at her silly antics. Brittany stopped waving and suddenly flipped off the camera.
Santana let out a laugh.
"I told you to stop doing that!" Artie shot Santana a quick look then lowered his voice. "The new security director just saw you."
Brittany suddenly put her hand down and gave the camera an embarrassed smile. Great, she had just flipped off the new security director. So much for making a good second impression. She looked straight at the camera and apologized.
Santana was still smiling and when Brittany mouthed something again, it looked a lot like "Sorry Miss Lopez."
Brittany put her phone away and continued her conversation with Jesse.
"She said sorry," Artie told Santana. He hung up and switched cameras making Brittany disappear.
Santana almost asked him to put the image back, but stopped herself. She had no reason to. "I'm going up to my room to get settled. Do me a favor. I had asked Will to send me all employee personnel files to my work iPad for review but I'm almost certain he didn't. Can you take care of that?"
"Uh, sure," Artie said, "But that's over two thousand files."
"I know," Santana said as she walked to the door. "Oh, and Artie."
"Yeah?"
"Don't make personal phone calls while on duty," Santana warned, "Or use the cameras to spy on your friends."
The blood seemed to drain from his face. "Yes, ma'am."
With one last smile, Santana left.
She rode the elevator to the 15th floor and found her room by the end of the hall. Just like the rest of the hotel, even the hallways exuded luxury. She reached her room and pulled out her key card to open the door to her new home. As she stepped in, she actually gasped.
The suite was huge and actually looked like a real apartment. She had a large living room with a black leather couch, large screen TV, bookcases, and tables. Straight ahead were huge windows that took up most of the room, all looking out into Las Vegas Boulevard.
To the left was the door to the bedroom and it was just as impressive as the living room, especially the king sized bed. Santana took of her heels and did a quick sprint to the bed and jumped on.
"Ah!" She was exhausted. She wanted to shower and change but right now, this bed seemed just too comfortable. She should call her parents and tell them she arrived safely but her eyes were getting heavier. This bed was huge for just her and Santana wasn't sure if she should feel happy or sorry for herself for having such a big bed. Happy, she thought.
Not having any attachments had made it easy for her to move across the country and she was fine with that. She had always wanted to run a big time casino and now was her chance. She groaned and forced herself to get up and go back to the living room where she found her suitcases near the couch.
"I need a shower."
Half an hour later, refreshed and in shorts and a tank top, she turned on her work iPad and opened up the files or the hotel employees Artie had sent. Just as she had thought, Will had forgotten.
"Idiot." The very first file she opened was Will's. She found out he was just a high level security manager and did not have the experience for the title of director. Santana shook her head.
Next she checked Finn and Artie's files. Both were clean and seemed qualified for their positions. Artie was head of surveillance and Finn was head floor security manager. Santana closed their files and then remembered the receptionists, Mercedes. Santana checked her out too. Clean record as well.
"Who else…" she said softly. "Oh, Joe the bellhop." Clean record too and nothing out of the ordinary.
Santana tapped the iPad and read through some random files of people she hadn't met yet and soon found herself looking through the "P" folder.
"Hmm.." she look over the names again. The name she was looking for wasn't there. "That's weird."
She turned off the iPad and made a mental note to ask Artie tomorrow. She was tired and hungry. She ordered room service and after dinner and a bit of TV, and unpacking, she went to bed.
###
Brittany yawned.
She was so tired already and realized it was already midnight. The drunk couple in her backseat were giggling and trying to decide if they should hit up another casino or call it a night.
"I wanna get on a roller coster!" the woman said very excited, "The really high one! Whaasit?"
Brittany looked through her rearview mirror and knew this lady was just way too drunk to get on a ride. "Umm, I think you mean the Stratosphere one and I wouldn't recommend it."
"Why?" the pouted.
"Well, it's really high and it's not great to get on when you've been drinking. I've heard lots of vomit stories. Plus I think they close early today."
The woman wrinkled her nose. "Gross." Her boyfriend started laughing. "Shut up Travis! I'm notsss…gonna throw up. I want to go!"
"You heard the lady," the boyfriend said, "To the St…st..'oshpher!"
Brittany sighed. She switched lanes and took them to their destination. When they got there the two were so eager to get out of the cab, the guy gave Brittany $60 for a $15 ride. Brittany smiled. Sometimes she loved driving drunk people.
Instead of staying to pick up another fare at that hotel, she headed to her home base. The Dalton. Artie had hooked her up well when he had gotten her that assignment and although she didn't technically work for the casino directly, Artie had managed to convince Will to request she be one of the drivers from her taxi company to service that hotel. Guests from the newest and hottest luxury hotel on the strip sure did love to tip. And she sure did need the money.
When she got to the hotel she parked in the designated break area and got out of the car. She needed coffee. The Dalton had provided all their drivers a place to rest and eat. The Oasis was just off to the side of the main hotel and had a cafeteria, couches, TVs, a pool table and best of all everything was free. Yeah, she had really lucked out.
At this time of night, the place was pretty packed. Taxi, limo and town car drivers were either beginning the night or in the middle of it, like Brittany. Well, technically her shift should have ended two hours ago but she needed the over-time. Just one more hour to go and she could go home and sleep.
She poured herself a large coffee and went over to sit on one of the couches by the TV. She took a sip of her coffee and closed her eyes for a bit. She must have dozed off for a second because Artie was suddenly tapping her leg and sitting next to her. "Where did you come from?"
"I figured you'd be here," Artie said, "Didn't your shift end like two hours ago?"
She took a long sip of her coffee. "Overtime."
"Again?" Artie let out a breath. "You've worked 12 hour days all week. That can't be good for you."
"If you can tell me how I can get money without working, tell me." Brittany yawned again. "This coffee must be defective. I'm still sleepy."
"Because you work too much!"
Brittany took another sip. Artie was right, she did work too much but she didn't have any other option. She had to pay bills, rent, food and Jenny's tuition. Luckily her little sister only had one more semester before she graduated high school. Just one more semester and Jenny would go off to some fancy college, on a scholarship, and make something of herself and not end up like her older sister. A simple cab driver. Brittany shook her head. She was already tired, she didn't need to add feeling sorry for herself to this night.
"Just one more hour, Artie," she told him, "I had to pay Jenny's final tuition payment last month and they raised it an extra $2,500. I have to work over-time this month so I can have enough for rent and bills and maybe even have some money over to buy my bag back."
After a moment, Artie spoke. "I wish you'd let me get your stuff back for you."
"I told you, I don't need any help," Brittany said, a bit too harshly. She loved Artie for trying to help but she didn't want his charity. She was never the smartest person in school and people constantly called her stupid and no one ever believed she could do anything. She discovered there were two things she was good at, and one of them was taking care of her sister. "I can do this."
"I know you can," Artie said and squeezed her hand.
Brittany pressed her lips together and nodded. "So, umm…why were you looking for me?"
"Oh, right!" Artie shook his head as if remembering. "You said you had my controller? I've got that game competition tomorrow."
Brittany sat up straighter. "It's in my cab. You playing with Sam and Finn?"
"Yeah, and I'm going to kick their asses!" Artie said proudly, "You know, I almost got in trouble because of you."
"Me? What did I do?"
"You flipped off the camera." Artie tried to seem mad, but the smile on his face betrayed him.
Brittany's own smile grew. "Did the new security director yell at you?"
"Well, no. She actually laughed at what you did."
Brittany felt her cheeks flush. She thought back to earlier in the day when she had seen Miss Lopez looking pissed off and melting in the Vegas heat at the airport. The poor woman had looked so miserable and Brittany had felt the need to make her smile. "She's really nice."
"She's mean," Artie said, "She told me I can't make calls on shift anymore."
"Well she has a point." Brittany sipped her coffee. "You should be watching the monitors for cheaters and stuff."
Artie rolled his eyes. "I guess."
"What's her first name? I only heard Finn call her Miss Lopez and everyone else just called her the mean security lady before she got here."
"Santana."
"Santana," Brittany repeated softly, "That's pretty."
"She's good," Artie said, "She hasn't officially started and she already caught a pair trying to cheat at poker. It was pretty awesome."
Brittany wasn't sure why she felt proud of the new security director for already making her mark. "She's going to do a great job."
"I hope so," Artie said as he got up, "Will wasn't really cutting it. Anyway, it's late and I need to rest up for my game, can we go get the controller?"
Brittany finished her coffee and got up. She threw it in the trashcan nearby and lead Artie to her cab. After giving Artie his controller, Brittany went back to work and picked up three more fares and then called it a night. When she got home, she quickly checked on Jenny and found her sound asleep in her room. Their small two bedroom apartment wasn't much, but it was their home. She headed across the living room to her own room and quickly changed into shorts and a thin shirt and went to bed. She knew she'd be asleep within minutes because she was so tired. She closed her eyes and covered herself in a thin sheet and drifted off to sleep.
-tbc-
A/N: OK, you crazy kids. I'm going to keep on. This might not be as long as the others though but we'll see. You all are fantastic. Thanks for all the kind words. I really appreciate you taking the time to review. I may not reply, but I'm reading them. If you have a question or comments, feel free to PM me or hit me up on tumblr (parispal23) and I'll get back to you.