"Shield? Is that like some new agency no one knows about?"
"It isn't new specifically, no. And some people know about it due to specific circumstances. Do you recall hearing about Iron Man and Thor more recently? And have you maybe read the stories about Captain America?"
"Everyone knows about Captain America. And Stark too for that matter. Thor? Is that to do with all that crazy shit that went down in Arizona?" Santana turned, unclipping her straps and folding her legs under her to focus her attention on Rachel.
"It is, yes. Shield is...is an organization that is determined to protect earth from threats like what happened in Arizona. Among other things that aren't important right now. Your mother is an Agent of Shield, as are both of my fathers."
"And you? What the hell are you? I know you fucking flew to grab me Rachel."
"I...am a different matter all together. Though that comes from my mother. I can fly, yes, among other things. But that isn't important. We'll be landing in a few seconds. Stay close to your mother and I and try to be less hostile than you tend to be when uncomfortable or confused. The agents you'll meet when we get inside will not think twice about calming you down with much less...kind methods than I would use."
"Meaning what? They'll taser me?"
"Essentially, yes. Ah, we're here." Rachel said, standing as Maribel left the cockpit, walking over to stand near the door that once again irised open. Rachel followed, and Santana behind her as they left the aircraft and walked out into what was very clearly a hangar or flight bay of sorts. An agent in fatigues and a shirt with a patch on it's shoulder that Santana seemed to remember seeing before stepped in front of her with one of those glass tablets, putting it up in front of her eyes.
"Blink for me please, and state your name." He asked succinctly. Santana obeyed.
"Santana Diabla Isabella Lopez." She said. He nodded, motioning for her to press her hand against the device. She did, and it read her hand print, a picture of her and her name coming up next to it. He handed her a digital tag and she clipped it to her shirt.
"We'll stop at the infirmary first. Have them detox you both." Maribel said, nodding at people who gave her curt nods of greeting as she passed.
"Sounds like quite a good idea. As little as it affects me, I'm not sure I appreciate the effects of cannabis." Rachel said, following behind Santana's mother as they made their way towards a clear walled room with a few different people in white lab coats walking around.
"I'd hope not, baby girl." A tall black man said, the name Dr. Leroy Berry on his own digital name tag.
"Daddy! Hi! How are you? I didn't know you were here." The man just smiled and pulled her into his arms for a quick hug.
"Didn't want to miss your performance tomorrow. Your dad's in the engineering lab too." The man, who was apparently Rachel's father, or at least one of them, smiled over at Maribel, motioning over towards Santana.
"So this must be your girl, Maribel."
"She is indeed, Leroy. Needs a detox. Yours too." Her mother said, taking her own tablet out of her jacket when it made a pinging sound.
"Hill?" Leroy asked, already pressing some device to Rachel's arm.
"Coulson downstairs. I've got to go. Santanita, Rachel will take you to where you'll sleep for the night and I already talked to Mr. Shuester so don't worry about that. I'll see you in the morning." Her mother said, pressing a kiss to her head and pushing her hair away from her face before smiling at her and walking away, a finger pressed against her ear.
"Lopez Here."
"Let me see your arm, Santana." Leroy asked, rolling her sleeve up and pressing that same device against her arm. She did so and when he pressed a button there was a tap against her arm from the device and then he pulled it away.
"There we go. So we'll have to urinate a bit more often than usual tonight but it'll clean the intoxicants out of our systems." Rachel said, taking Santana's hand to begin to lead her towards the elevator.
"See you tomorrow, Daddy!"
"Goodnight, sweetheart." Rachel led her towards the elevator, swiped her name tag on a reader by the buttons and hit one that said S34. The ride down from where Santana guessed they were on Sub Level 1 was far quicker than it should have been, Rachel motioning her out into what appeared to be a regular hallway. They turned left immediately and walked down until Rachel swiped Santana's tag on door number 16.
"So this is where you'll sleep tonight. I'll come get you in the morning and we'll get a ride with our parents back to the hotel to perform. After that we can sit down and talk about everything, okay?"
"Is there anything I can change into?" Santana asked? A bit too tired to worry about the ridiculous amount of crazy that had been happening to her tonight. Rachel walked in with her, walking to a wall that had built in drawers and pulling one open.
"Oh, yes, sorry, in these drawers there should be everything you need. Through this door here is the bathroom, so you can shower if you want. Need anything else?"
"No, Rachel. That's fine. Thanks." The tiny brunette just smiled at her, stepped closer, and hugged her, rubbing a small hand in circles on her back. Santana breathed deep, wrapping her around Rachel as well.
'You're welcome. Goodnight." She watched her disappear before she pulled her clothes off and changed into the sweats that had the shield emblem on the chest and crawled into the comfortable bed in the middle of the furthest wall. This had probably been...definitely had been the craziest night of her life. And now with her mother around and Rachel promising to be the friend she so desperately needed, Santana wasn't sure she wanted to die so desperately anymore. There were things to live for. Like the millions of questions she had. Like who was Rachel, really? And how long had her Mami been working for Shield? What did she actually do? And most importantly, what did all of this have to do with the father she'd never met?
She'd been told that he died doing the same job as her mother. Died saving her mother in fact. So he was a Shield agent too? And how did he die really? She thought about it as she fell asleep, also wondering how much of a coincidence it was that both her mother and Rachel's dads were shield agents. Not to mention the fact that Rachel had obviously known her mother. Had called her Maribel, not Agent Lopez.
By the time she'd woken up that morning, had her shower, and got dressed in fresh regular clothes that weren't the ones she'd been in the night before, Santana had been to the bathroom to pee right around fifteen times. It kept her from sleeping peacefully, but she couldn't blame it completely on that. She'd been so busy thinking about everything that she wasn't getting very much sleep anyway. The upside to all of this being that she had no hangover to speak of. Which was admittedly really fucking amazing. It was six a.m. Or so said the alarm clock to her left. And she was busy reading over the contract that had been left in digital glass-like tablet form on her bedside table.
It was a non disclosure agreement that require her finger print and voice recognition as signature and she signed it, setting the tablet to the side, her fingers sliding along it's back, which caused it to do something she certainly wasn't expecting. It seemed to fold in on itself, becoming what seemed to be a regular phone with her name monogrammed on the back. She picked it up and slid it in her pocket, standing when there was a knock on her door before Rachel opened it, sticking her head in.
"Hey, good morning. Breakfast?"
"Yes, please. I'm starving." Rachel smiled at her, extended her hand out, and nodded her head towards the hallway. Santana walked forward, putting her hand into Rachel's.
"So how did you sleep? Aside from having to wake up and urinate ever half hour I mean."
"Not great. I have way to many questions to sleep on. About my dad, about how it is that Lima manages to have three, formally four Shield agents living there. About how long you've known my mom and how you know her...a million other things."
"Well I can answer two of those questions. There are more than three shield agents living in Lima, and they're there because there's a base near by. Not all of their children know what they do however. My circumstances are special, as you know. As are yours honestly. And I've known your mother since I was eight. I came into my powers one day and I accidentally hurt my dads. I ran away into the forest a few miles behind my house and it was your mother who came to find me, bring me in, and add me to the index."
Santana paused, eyes closing, going over her memory. Hadn't she seen that word before? Grey folder, shield symbol, picture of a little boy, name Nathan Travis. The word INDEX large and in bold font. Ionic Electric...something. That's where the relevant part of the memory seemed to cut off. She remembered hearing her mother's footsteps and abandoning the file.
"Santana? Santana!" There were hands on her cheeks. She opened her eyes, the scene playing in front of her eyes fading away.
"Rachel? Where...what happened?" The tin singer looked into her eyes, staring as deeply as anyone ever had before turning around and pulling her quickly towards the elevator.
"We need to go see your mother right now." Rachel swiped her name tag and pressed the S42 button, her hand wrapped gently but very firmly around Santana's. In her other hand,one of those tablet things in phone size. She tapped her thumb against it a few times, then her ear.
"Yes, Maribel. Meet me in the lab. No. Not me. She's...fine physically. We'll see you in few minutes. Goodbye." Rachel pulled her out of the elevator when they reached their floor, and Santana looked around as they passed two glass walled labs on either side, little robot drones the size of water bottles floating around in one room and a scan of what looked to be a robotic arm on a large screen in the other. A few seconds later Rachel was pulling her into another lab, this one much larger than the rest and it's glass walls blacked out.
"Daddy?" Leroy walked around a wall of steel cabinets, tablet in his hand as he tapped on it's screen. He furrowed his brow when he saw them.
"Rachel why is she here? She doesn't have clearance and you know that."
"I need you to run a scan on her. Right now. Maribel should be here in a minute."
"She's been scanned before, there's nothing-"
"There is. Santana, will you please go stand in that yellow circle for me? I know this is all probably a little frightening, I did kind of drag you down here with no explanation, but you're safe here, okay? Trust me?" Santana just nodded, going to stand in an area where a yellow circle had been marked out.
"Okay."
"Santana, a machine is about to come down around you, but you'll be able to breath just fine. Are you claustrophobic at all?"
"Uh, no, not at all." Leroy nodded, pressing at his tablet before walking over to the desk next to where the Latina was standing, typing in something before said machine came down around her, cutting her off from where the two Berrys were standing. Bright bluish white light shined in her face for a few seconds, so she closed her eyes. It was at least a minute before the machine receded back into the ceiling, freeing her.
"Mierda. When the hell did this happen?" She heard her mother's voice and opened her eyes, turning to see her standing there with a man in a blue suit, hands clasps in front of him. His name tag read Agent Phil Coulson.
"Must have been relatively recently. When was her last scan? Nine months ago?"
"Yes. Strange though. What brought it out? Rachel?"
"I was telling her how I met Agent Lopez and she essentially dissapeared into her own head. Her eyes closed, but they appeared to be moving relatively fast under her eyelids. R.E.M. Fast. When she opened them they appeared to be...different somehow. Brighter perhaps. Not in iris color but her whole eye. I brought her here immediately.
"Very good decision, Rachel."
"Thank you Agent Coulson. May I ask what the scan found, daddy?" Leroy nodded, flipping over a screen that it appeared he'd been writing calculations on to reveal another that held her scan. Areas in her brain that Santana knew shouldn't be so active seemed to be glowing, including and especially behind her eyes.
"Can you tell us what you were thinking about, Santana?" Coulson asked with a sincere smile. She liked him.
"Rachel said something about my Mom bringing her in after her powers were activated, about being put on the index. I was sure I'd seen the word somewhere before so I closed my eyes for some reason and the entire memory played out in front of me. It was the file of Nathan Riley. His powers were ionic and electric manipulation, his home address was 253 Vert Drive Dublin, Ireland. Parents David Riley Lara Riley. Mother suspected genetic-"
"Okay, Santana thank you. And when was this, do you remember?"
"I was nine. August 15, 2003." Everyone in the room locked eyes before they looked back at her. Coulson nodded.
"Lopez, Berry, with me. Rachel, you and Santana go have breakfast."
"Of course, Agent Coulson. Santana, come with me. I remember you said you were starving, right?" Rachel reached her hand back out for her and the Latina placed her own in it, following as Rachel lead them out of the door and back towards the elevator. Once they were inside and Rachel had pressed a button Santana sighed.
"So I'm going on the Index."
"To be honest you were sort of already on it. Or...more correctly you were being watched, they were always prepared to put you on it. Hence the scans. Every time you went to the doctors or went to have a physical they scanned you with a much more mobile version of the machine you were just inside of." Santana definitely didn't understand why that was, or why no one seemed to be so surprised that she'd suddenly gained an over active brain and an eidetic memory.
"Okay, but why?"
"That is a question that needs to be discussed with you mother, Santana. Not me."
"Give me something, here, Rachel. I'm confused as all hell."
"It's because you are your father's daughter. They always suspected that his genetic...abnormalities would be transferred to you. In cases like ours that usually happens during puberty for whatever reason but sometimes it can happen before, as in my case. Sometimes it can happen after, as in yours."
Santana nodded, following Rachel as she lead her to where they grabbed food trays. As they went through the line grabbing food, Santana's eyes went wider and wider. Rachel was packing food onto her tray like she'd never eat again. The Latina could barely understand how it even all fit on there. Either way she said nothing, sitting down and digging into her steak and eggs. Across from her Rachel had a mountain of pancakes, what looked like two whole packages of fake looking bacon, and a salad bowl full of what Santana guess was scrambled vegan egg substitute.
"Rachel what the fuck. No way you're going to eat all of that." Santana said, watching at Rachel finished her first stack of five pancakes and reached for her bacon and eggs, eating huge amounts of both before she grabbed more pancakes.
"Oh, I fully intend to. It may seem strange, but this is the amount of food I need to keep my energy up until lunch. My metabolism requires it." Rachel said, Santana just now finishing her eggs and just now digging in to her steak.
"Yeah, you're right that makes sense if you can do other shit besides flying, which i'm assuming you can. We should finish eating. Shue expected everyone in the meeting room at seven thirty this morning. It's already six forty five now."
"It's no huge rush, Santana. The aircraft we were in last night is quite fast. We could leave at seven twenty eight and be in the room before everyone else."
"Okay. So, hey, that Coulson guy, he like, the boss around here or something?" Santana asked, finally finishing her food at the same time Rachel did. Which made zero sense.
"Here, technically yes. Is he the director of Shield? No." Santana nodded, standing up when Rachel did to toss their trays. They walked back to the elevator, walking in just as another group of agents did, all of them exiting in the hangar bay area that was sub level one.
Rachel lead them towards the same area they'd exited the Osprey from yesterday, all three of their parents along with Agent Coulson standing there.
"Before you girls go, Santana, I need activate your tag." He said, pulling a device that resembled a very small flashlight and running it over the area just beneath the crook of the Latina's elbow. It made a pinging sound and he retracted it, sliding it into his pocket. He held out his hand and she tilted her head, looking into his eyes before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her old phone. She placed it in his hand and he grinned, nodding.
"Did you read that from me or was it obvious?"
"It was obvious after about a second. And although I didn't know I could read anyone like that, I just realized I could. But I looked at you and realized I shouldn't. Rachel says you're essentially in charge of this base. Which means you're a high leveled 'government' official. Everything about that tells me I neither want to nor should read your mind, Agent Coulson."
"You're very intelligent, Santana Lopez." He said, smiling easily. As much as she'd always had the idea in her head that you could never trust men like him, Santana liked him for some reason, so she smiled back.
"Thank you?" He shrugged and walked away waving his hand. It gave Santana a chance to take a look at Rachel's other father. A far shorter man than his husband with kind hazel eyes and a clean shaven face.
"Let's go then. As Santana pointed out, the two of us do have a meeting to attend to in twenty minutes." Rachel said, climbing onto the osprey. Though she would have called it something else entirely. She remembered very clearly reading about or seeing ospreys on TV. The plane/copter, not the bird. And this thing was far far more advanced. It was more a futuristic vtol jet with two rotating props than anything else. She took a seat next to Rachel and strapped herself in, watching as Rachel's father's did the same on the other side. Her mother dissapeared up into the cockpit just like last time before reappearing into the cabin. They took off seconds later.
"This thing is pretty freaking awesome Mr. Berry. You really designed this?" Hiram nodded, looking around the inside of the cabin with a smile.
"Yes. The traditional Osprey craft were amazing for their time, and in certain, traditional military deployment roles till are. But we needed something more varied in it's approach. Not to mention the obvious need for the cloaking tech. So yes, I designed it and built the prototype. I'm an engineer, if Rachel hasn't already told you."
"That has got to be the coolest job, right? Not only seeing but being on the cutting edge of modern technology in so many fields. I mean obviously in different ways the cloaking tech not only fits this application but others. Suits for field agents, potential for cloaked orbital defense satellites, observation stations invisible to the enemies eye..." She went on. Not completely cognizant of the fact that she was letting her inner tech geek out to play. It was why Iron Man was so fucking cool in her book. That and other things. His attitude being one of them. She could always appreciate attitude.
"I think perhaps Agent Coulson was very right. You are very very intelligent. How long have you been interested in technology and engineering?" Hiram asked as they all felt the Osprey 2.0 (what Santana was calling it in her head) set down on what she was sure was the same roof she'd been about to throw herself off of the night before.
"Forever really. I used to find old books on world war II tech on this bookshelf right outside my mom's office. Then when I got taller I could reach higher and there was stuff on modern jet engines, on VTOL stuff, on modern robotics tech and so on. Then I just started reading and buying books online." Her mother raised an eyebrow at her, a small smile on her lips as she rolled her eyes.
"Just like your Papi, I swear." Maribel said as they all stepped out of the aircraft, heading towards the door and then down the stairs.
"Really? I never...I mean you haven't ever really talked about him a lot. Though now I guess I understand why."
"You really are quite a lot like him. You look quite a lot like him as well. Victor was always excited to talk about old technology and new technology alike. I very much admired that about him. And I swear those books were the only type he read. When we were in the academy together the entire side of his room would be covered in books waist high." Hiram said, walking past his husband as they reached the main floor and the taller man held open the door for all of them. Rachel seemed to know where the meeting room was so everyone followed her.
When they got there only Ms. Pillsbury was there, two boxes of donuts on the table in front of her and one bag with the name of the bakery on it. Santana guess it was hers. She'd never be able to handle a communal box of donuts in which everyone inevitably got horrible germs all over them.
"Oh, hello, good morning. Rachel, these donuts here are for you, they're vegan." The smile on the tiny brunette's face made one curve Santana's lips as well.
"Thank you Ms. Pillsbury! Oh, I'm sorry. These are my fathers Drs Leroy and Hiram Berry." Both men nodded. They'd obviously been warned to not try and touch her. She nodded thankfully. Rachel reached for her box of donuts opening it as her smile widened. Santana opened the other box, trying to decide what she wanted. Then she looked into Rachel's, reaching for one, only to get her hand slapped away.
"Yeah, this is my mom Maribel Lopez. Ugh, share, Rach!" She huffed, grinning when Rachel rolled her eyes and handed over the donut that'd been iced in something bright pink. She took a huge bite, moaning and closing her eyes.
"Don't be rude, Mija. You can say please. Hi yes, I'm this one's mother. I apologize."
"Hey! I'm not that bad. Thank you for the donut, Rachel."
"You really are, Santana. Sit down, we should go over the set list between us before everyone arrives.
"It's very nice to meet the three of you. I'm glad you came to see the club's performances. Will should be down with the rest of them in a few moments. We just got back from getting donuts. This city is far more dirty than I thought it would be. And people are so rude. They just bump right into you!" She said, sitting down with the other three adults in the room.
"So what's up? Problem with our set list?" Santana asked, watching as Rachel finished off her second donut.
"No. Not exactly the entire set list. Just the duet..." Santana caught her eyes again, watching as Rachel lips twisted into a frown.
"You don't want to sing with Finn. Look, I get that. Like Jesus Christ, believe me I do. But we have literally no time to come up with a new number with a new duet partner for you. So as much as I hate to say it you're going to have to suck it up and push through he awkward."
"I suppose so. It's just really uncomfortable not to mention frustrating. How immature is he to finally decide he wants me back after I've been trying to tell him we belong together nearly all year?"
"If by immature you mean textbook Finn Hudson then very very immature. Oh look, speak of the devil. It's mister pastry cream nips himself." Santana said, laughing at her own joke as she motioned with her eyes for Britt to sit next to Rachel so that Finn wouldn't. Britt nodded and did so, Artie moving the other chair to roll up next to her. Quinn sat next to Santana, short hair flopping with the motion. It looked great but Santana could tell without invading her friend's mind that it hadn't helped as much as she thought it would. She nudged her with her shoulder and stood to grab the maple bar she'd seen in the donut box, handing it to Quinn.
"Thanks, San."
"No prob Q. You know I wouldn't let anyone steal your maple bar. I've got your back. How are you? I mean like...I know the hair thing isn't some magical emotional fix but are you mostly okay?" The blonde nodded, wrapping her arm behind Santana in the space behind her back and the chair and laying her head on the brunette's shoulder.
"I'm okay. You? I couldn't find you last night and then Puck said something about getting you beer and bud and I got kind of worried." Santana slipped her left hand into the choppy blonde locks, massaging Quinn's scalp the way she knew her Captain loved.
"I'm peachy, honestly. Rachel found me and talked me down." Okay, so, shit. She hadn't meant to say that at all. The comfortable weight on her shoulder dissapeared and Quinn gently grabbed her cheeks, looking into her eyes, wetness clearly welling up in her eyes.
"Talked you down? From a ledge, Santana?" The Latina bit her lip and nodded, feeling a little bit better when Rachel slipped her her hand into Santana's free one.
"Yeah. Sorry Q. I would have come to get you but I knew you were feeling all beat up inside and I didn't want to make it any worse for you than I knew it would be when you found out I'd thrown myself off the fucking roof." She whispered. The last thing she wanted was for Brittany to hear this conversation. But that seemed to be covered, Rachel was talking to her and Artie.
"Don't you ever ever think about doing that without talking to me again, S. Ever! Do you understand? I swear to god, you idiot." Santana nodded, wrapping her free arm around her best friend before wiping the few tears that'd fallen from hazel eyes and pulling back to see the whole group finally quieting down. She wiped her own tears then squeezed Rachel's hand before she let go.
"Alright, everyone. I'm glad you liked the donuts but let's get down to business. In case you'd forgotten we have right around three and a half hours before we need to be at the convention center to do final check in. We perform fifth and then we're done for the day until they post results. If we make in the top ten we get to perform again the day after tomorrow. If we get into the top three for that then we have the final performance two days later. I need you all to be on point with your singing and with your choreography. I know how much we all want to win this and I believe in all of you. We can do this. Even if we don't win I'm so so proud of you. We're in New York at Nationals! We've come so far from last year. Alright. So you have two hours or so before we board the bus to go the convention center. If there's somewhere you'd like to go outside the hotel or within the two or three block are we're in let me or Ms. Pillsbury know and we'll see about it, okay? Alright, has everybody already eaten breakfast?" Everyone but Rachel and Santana shook their heads.
"Alright then, the hotel has a really good breakfast for guest set up in the lobby, go ahead an eat. Meet us in the lobby at ten." Shue said, stopping to talk to Hiram while everyone else made to leave the room.
"Rach, seriously where are you going?"
"Breakfast?" Santana just shook her head, shrugging and following behind her and Quinn who had apparently smelled the bacon that was on the menu.
"You're ridiculous. Don't you ever get full?" The Latina asked, figuring she could do with a glass of orange juice.
"Not really I've never tried. Usually I just feel not so ravenously hungry anymore and that's when I stop eating."
"Right. Of course. But how do you know they'll have anything you can eat?" By the time the two of them caught up to the group everyone was just sitting down. Santana saw they had cranberry juice and had a glass of that instead.
"Most hotel's have soy or almond milk these days. I'll just have a few bowls of cereal." Santana waiting until Rachel filled her bowl with cereal, motioning for her to sit next to Quinn while she sat on the star's other side. She had totally noticed Finn sitting at a table away from the group making stupid hopeful eyes at Rachel but if the brunette wanted nothing to do with him right now she had no problem helping.
"Hey, Q. Wanna go find something to do for a while with Rachel and Me before we have to go? We can probably find one of those little vintage boutique shops you really like. And we won't have to bring Shue or Pillsbury. My mom won't mind us going alone."
"It's Rachel and I, Santana. I know you have better grammatical knowledge than that. I wouldn't be averse to doing that. I really like vintage dresses and such. Would you be okay with me tagging along Quinn?" Santana rolled her eyes at being corrected and stole a piece of Quinn's bacon, giggling when the blonde slapped her hand away when she tried for a second piece.
"Mine. And really, Rachel, it would be me tagging along. I'd love to go. Maybe we should ask Tina. She loves those dresses too."
"Sounds good to me. Yo, Tina. Wanna go check out some vintage shops with us?" Santana asked, watching as Rachel pulled out her phone to find a few shops.
"I'd love to yes. Thanks for inviting me."
"Oh! Me too San? They have to coolest hats ever!" Quinn rolled her eyes. Santana locking eyes with her. Brittany spoke loud enough that this would be a glee girl's outing in a few seconds.
"We might as well make it a group outing. Are you coming, Kurt?" Rachel asked, finally finishing her third bowl of cereal.
"Of course I want to come. I can't let you pick your own clothes, can I?" Kurt said with an uppity tone.
"Hey! Lay off of my girl, asshole. Rachel's clothes are fine. Want to be a dick about it then don't come. None of us need your bullshit attitude.
"The fuck?" Was all Mercedes said, obviously just as confused as Kurt looked at her defending Rachel at all, let alone her wardrobe. And yeah, it was hypocritical as all hell but Santana didn't give a shit.
"Since when do you care what anyone says to or about Rachel, especially concerning her hideous clothes?"
"Since last night, Hummel. Fuck off." Quinn's hand was on her wrist, eyes asking her to sit down. Rachel stood next to her, taking her hand in her own smaller one.
"It's okay, Santana. Calm down. His opinion doesn't matter."
"I'm having a hard time imagining what kind of train wreck situation could have happened last night to make you oh so suddenly decide you wanted to jump to Miss Berry's defense. I mean the two of you are sharing a room. I can only guess."
"My boy's right. This is sudden as all hell. What happened last night?"
"Look, Kurt's being a dick right now, I think we all agree on that, but I think we're all curious as fuck as to what happened too. Spill it." Santana wanted to ring all of their necks, wanted to walk away. Wanted to disappear. She shot her eyes over to Artie's.
"Hey, Britt, I think they sell skittles at the concession shop. Want to get a couple bags for later? I know you have to have your rainbow before a competition." The boy asked extending his hand to his girlfriend. The blonde looked upset at everyone attacked her best friend but seemed to understand that for some reason Santana didn't want her around to hear whatever negativity was about to come out of her mouth. She nodded and sat down in Artie's lap, letting him roll them off down a hallway.
Once she was gone Quinn turned murderous eyes on Kurt, Mercedes, and Puck.
"If either one of us has to tell you pieces of useless shit to fuck off one more time I'm going to start making a list of whose balls need crushing under my boots. Don't think I've left you out Mercedes. You should know that all it'll take for me to get tater tots removed from the lunch menu for next year is to turn in a favor with Coach. How much more nosy do you want to be?" Mercedes crossed her arms, rolled her eyes, and promptly got up and walked away.
"I'm not afraid of you Quinn Fabray. You're nothing but a washed up has been of an HBIC." Santana was literally seconds from flying over the large table to break that stupid nose of Kurt's when Rachel reached out and held her back.
"Kurt if I was you I wouldn't make the mistake of speaking to Quinn that way again." Rachel said, her tone tight and lips in a thin line.
"We're leaving. Come on, Q. Just gotta find me and Rachel's parents to tell them where we're going. You found some shops right, Rach?" Santana asked, just turning and walking away, ignoring the voices of most of the club calling for them to come back.
"I did yes, they're within six blocks. Although I do think we wasted quite a bit of time dealing with them. I think our parents are talking to Mr. Shue in the meeting room." The three girl's headed back that way, finding the five adults conversing over coffee.
"Dad, Daddy, Quinn, Santana, and I are going to a few vintage clothing shops. We'll be back in time to make the bus. I sent you the addresses and all three of us have our phones.
"Alright, sweetheart go ahead."
"Mija what happened?" Maribel asked seeing her daughter trying to calm down but her fists still clenched hard enough to be paling and wetness filling her eyes.
"Nothing, Mami. I'm fine. We'll be back soon enough." The older woman nodded and Santana turned around to leave the room with the other two girl's behind her. They left the hotel within a minute or so and were out on the street where she felt she could breath easier.
"Thank god for AC. It shouldn't be that hot outside. Seriously I didn't think the east coast got this hot. It's not even summer yet. Best idea ever to stop and get Italian ice on the way back, Rachel." Quinn said, lifting her shirt to fan air under it as the woman behind the counter scooped two scoops into her paper cup. She moaned quietly when she handed it to her with a spoon, immediately digging in.
"It's not even that hot, Q. You're always hot, it's weird."
"Why thank you for the compliment, Santana." The blonde said, too busy scooping icy goodness into her mouth to do anything else. Rachel smiled kindly and handed over exact change when the attended gave her her three scoops of raspberry.
"We should head back. We need to be on the bus in half an hour." The smaller brunette said holding open the door for first Santana and then Quinn.
"And you do realize the hotel is literally right across the street right?" Rachel nodded, shrugging.
"Maybe I'll move to Alaska. Like it's probably cold there all the time. And they have fresh Salmon and Crab and stuff right? It'll be perfect."
"Q what school would you even go to in Alaska. I don't even think there's anything but bears and glaciers there.
"I like bears and glaciers." Rachel rolled her eyes at the two of them going back and fourth but it felt good to just hang out with two people who she'd always desperately wanted as friends.
"Of course Q Bear likes bears." Santana said, poking the blonde in the side. Quinn just hummed her agreement. Minutes later they were walking into the hotel, finding an area in the lobby that held a couch they could relax on.
"We should consider going to get pizza afterwards. I know of a place with a wood fire oven that does both vegan and traditional if the two of you are interested. Regardless I think I'll ask Brittany. She loves pizza."
"That's definitely true. And I'm interested."
"As if you ever turn down pizza. It'd be the apocalypse if you did. Santana said, furrowing her brows over her eyes when a shadow descended over Rachel. She looked up to see Finn with that stupid awkward grin on his face.
"Um, hey Rach. I was looking for you earlier, I couldn't find you. Everyone else said something about you leaving the hotel?" Rachel looked frustrated already and Santana nudge Quinn who was looking at the idiot like she wished he'd spontaneously combust.
"You were sat less than five feet away when Kurt, Mercedes, and Noah made an activity of attacking Santana and I's friendship. I'm sure you heard us when we said we were going to go shopping, Finn."
"Well...I mean, yeah. But I just meant I wanted to hang out with you. The hotel pool has a hot tub and stuff." Neither Santana nor Quinn could keep in the laugh that escaped out of them. Both of them thinking of the last time Finn had been in a hot tub with a girl.
"Finn. I thought I made it clear. I don't want to hang out with you, or go on some kind of hot tub date with you. Not right now, and perhaps not at all. I'm not some...some toy you can pick up when you get bored with the only other one you have." He looked confused and that just had Santana rolling her eyes.
"I don't think you're a toy. I don't have toys anymore. I haven't had an action figure since I was like eight. I play video games now." Rachel scoffed and put her hand over her eyes, shaking her head.
"Finn..."
"What she means is that she doesn't want to be your girlfriend. Because you only seem to want her when she doesn't want you or when you don't want me."
"Among other reasons, that is correct, yes."
"But I thought...I mean like all year you were all over me. Singing to me and stuff."
"And don't you think it's telling that you only want me now that I've stopped doing that, Finn?"
"No, not really. I was dating Quinn."
"You were also dating her when you started pursuing me the last time. I'm not interested Finn. End of story." The tall boy's face scrunched up and he frowned before turning around and stomping off.
"For fuck's sake. God damned idiot." Santana said, finishing the last of her Italian ice and setting the cup down on the coffee table in front of her.
"Don't say that. Just because he isn't the most intelligent person doesn't mean it's okay to call him an idiot. You wouldn't be okay with someone talking about Brittany that way." Santana rolled her eyes, nodding her acquiescence.
"Fine, you're right. Come on, we should put these bags in the room before we have to go." All three girl's headed to the elevator, Santana sighing as they finally got off on their floor and cross the hallway to open their door gasping as she saw it. Everything was tossed around, luggage bags thrown open and their contents across the floors. A cart that held soaps and such along with cleaning supplies sat in the middle of the room but they couldn't hear anything. Santana quietly walked backwards out of the room, motioning for both girls to do the same. She closed her eyes for a second then opened them and looked at Rachel.
"Bathroom." She whispered, watching as the other girl took out her phone and tapped at it. She didn't close her eyes this time but reached out again for the woman she knew was standing still in the bathroom, silenced pistol in her hand and hidden knife in her boot. She heard Rachel talking.
"Yes, Maribel. No we haven't seen them. Santana says bathroom. Armed?" Her eyes shot back over to the Latina's dark ones and the taller brunette nodded.
"Suppressed sub compact pistol, small fairborn sykes knife in left boot." Quinn looked ridiculously confused but stayed where she was when she heard the word pistol leave Santana's mouth. Back to focusing on the assailant in the bathroom, Santana reached into her mind, still hearing Rachel speak.
"Yes armed. Suppressed pistol in hand and a boot knife. I don't know what else. Santana's reading right now." The Latina sifted through memories, a huge base, watching the woman training, saw a strange symbol on the walls, something like an octopus with a human skull for a head. She saw a man, tall, blonde haired, accent perhaps slightly German. Saw further back, Columbia University, Bronton Heights High School. A smiling boy, further back, stone tombstone, further back drunken mother passed out on couch. Further back, father beating the mother...further back? Hands on her face brought her out of it, Hazel eyes she swore resembled ones she'd seen in the memory of that woman staring deep into hers.
"Come on, Santana. Wake up, talk to me!" Quinn yelled. Startling the woman in the bathroom to come running out, gun pointed at Quinn who was essentially standing in the door frame, finger depressed on the trigger. Santana pushed the blonde away then grabbed control as best she could, forcing the woman to away the gun. Forcing her to pull out then throw away the knife before she walked closer, grabbing the red head's face, staring deep into her eyes, further until she was back inside of her mind, swimming through the memories, wiping them away, wiping all of it away. She tried to create something new. Something better but she only got as far as middle school before she had to stop. She dropped the woman, not realizing she'd lifted her from the ground. Watched her look up, blank eyed for a few seconds before they settled back on muddy green. Behind her she could hear her mother and the Berry Men. Could hear Quinn asking what the fuck had happened. Could hear Rachel calling her. Grabbing her face gently, rubbing her cheeks.
She knew the other brunette was right in front of her but she seemed far away. She closed her eyes, created a vault in her mind to bury the other woman's memories, then opened them again and wrapped her arms around Rachel. She was crying, or they both were. She wasn't sure how long it'd been before her mother was wrapping her arms around her.
"I'm okay."
"Are you sure? What you did...what the hell did you do? I didn't even have time to grab her before you had her under control."
"I wiped it all away. Locked it away. She won't know what happened. She's twelve." Santana managed to get out, feeling tired all of a sudden. But she couldn't help but worry. There was no way the show choir committee would hold off the competition just because of this. What would they do?"
"As far as the convention center can tell there's been a bomb threat. There may as well have been. Plenty other rooms in the hotel have been ransacked. Including those from other schools, more importantly including those that belong to kids who aren't on our list or the index. We have a serious problem here." It was Coulson. She turned around to see him standing there, looking around the room.
"Agreed." Maribel said, rubbing a hand through her daughter's hair before reaching down to clear and lock the pistol from the ground. She dropped into an evidence bag being held by one of the agents who'd apparently been searching and cataloging the room, putting the knife into another.
"Santana can you tell me what you saw?" The Latina nodded, finally freeing herself from Rachel's arms.
"There's a base in Vermont. Near a small town called Stowe. Watched her training. Saw eyes...Hazel. Almost like Quinn's. A big painted symbol on the wall. Like and octopus with-"
"A skull for a head?" The thing that surprised and scared the shit out of Santana was that it was Quinn that said this, looking shocked, horrified, and disgusted all at once. All the eyes in the room turned towards the blonde.
"Exactly that, Miss Fabray. Would you like to tell us how you know about that?" Coulson asked, waving down the agents around the room who all had their hands on their pistols.
"My...Father. If you could call him that. He has a tattoo on his chest with that symbol. I saw it on papers and such in his office sometimes too. But I haven't seen or heard from him for a year and a half. I doubt there's anything left in the house but you're more than welcome to search it." She said, shrugging.
"You father is-" Rachel asked, looking both surprised and somehow not. Like as evil as Quinn was to her it made sense. Or at least that's how Santana saw it.
"Hydra." Santana said. Finally putting together all the clues the memories she was now privy to gave her.