Santana woke with a start, Quinn's face still floating in front of her eyes. She wiped uselessly at her face and drew in deep, shaky breaths. She looked down at Rachel, relief washing over her at the sight of her face. She looked so peaceful that Santana just wanted to stay there with her forever. She had been terrified when she had walked into the gym earlier, not that Rachel would actually hit her, although she definitely felt she deserved it, but that she would walk away from her again. She had truly believed that she had left it too late, that she had fucked things up beyond repair. But Rachel had just held her close, listened as she told her of the things she had done, the things that had been done to her, offering no judgement, no platitudes, just listened and held her, forgiven her and loved her. She had no idea what she had done to deserve this girl, but she decided not to dwell on it, just count herself lucky and not repeat her mistakes.
She leaned down and kissed her gently before climbing out of the bed and pulling her clothes back on. She knew that no matter how bad she was feeling about Quinn, about how badly she had failed her, it was nothing compared to what Puck must be going through.
The thought of it made her feel sick again. He had loved her. He had hoped he might be able to save her, and then he had been forced to kill her. The same was true of her and Brittany but Britt had not wanted to be saved, she had told Santana as much in the basement. But now they knew that Quinn was being controlled, that she had tried to get out and they had found a way to keep her in position. There was no doubt in Santana's mind that when Puck had shot Quinn she was broken beyond repair, that something was fundamentally changed in her, something there was no coming back from, but she knew that would be little comfort to the man who had pulled the trigger.
With a heavy heart she made her way to his room, knocking gently before pushing the door open. He looked small and tired, sitting in a chair in the corner of the room staring into space.
"Hey." She stated simply, sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked at her impassively, scratching the arm of the chair with his thumbnail. They sat in silence, no words able to convey their thoughts better than that simple look, the air heavy with regret.
"I have to get her back." He whispered eventually. "I have to get her back. For Quinn."
"We will." Santana whispered back. "We'll get her back and we'll end this."
Rachel, Shelby, Santana and Jesse were gathered around the table going over the plan once more. Santana picked the blueprints up and dragged them over to her.
"So all we really know about this is locked door, a mile and a half of dark tunnel, whatever this crap is here, locked door. Right?" She looked around at the others.
"But the doors won't be locked when we get there." Shelby said again, clearly exasperated.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot. Our secret contact." Santana smiled sarcastically, doing air quotes to emphasise how little faith she had in this person. "Who is it again?"
"You know I can't tell you that, Santana."
"Yeah, which makes me feel so comfortable just putting my life in this person's hands." She scoffed, picking up the plans to study them more closely.
"It might not be such a bad idea to check it out first?" Jesse said to Shelby. "Do a little recon?"
Santana and Rachel looked at him in amazement, then at each other. Santana was just about to question his sudden show of support when the door slammed open and Cara stormed in.
"Puck's gone." She said quickly.
"What?" Santana stormed over to her . "How the fuck did you let that happen?"
"I'm not his fucking babysitter, Lopez." Cara replied angrily, flicking her hair out of her face. "Even I need to sleep sometimes."
"And you couldn't have told me first?"
"Santana, it's not her fault." Rachel said calmly, stepping in between them. "Cara, do you know when he left?"
"No, but I was only out for about twenty minutes."
"Okay, so he's not that far ahead of us." Rachel turned back to Santana. "I suggest we get going?"
Santana nodded and headed to the door.
"Hold on a minute." Shelby stopped them. "You can't be serious? You have no idea where he's gone, what he plans to do, what state of mind he's in."
"So what do you suggest, huh Shelby?" Santana wheeled back around. "Just let him go? Leave him to get himself killed?"
"No, I'm suggesting we stick to the plan. It's the best chance we have ever had to get to Sue and we can't just throw it away because Puck can't control himself. We have to do what's right for everyone."
Santana's blood boiled in her veins. She was so sick of this, all of this, so fucking over her and her friends being used as pawns in other people's games. Everything that had happened to her over the last four years was because of one woman and everything in her was crying out for revenge, but she wasn't about to sacrifice another friend's life to do it.
"Fuck you." She said thickly, breaking the uncomfortable silence in the room. Rachel lifted their bag off the table and walked over to take her hand, pulling her out the door. She barely registered being marched down the hallway she was so angry, and it wasn't until Rachel pulled the door open and the cold night air hit her that she realised she was still holding the plans in her other hand.
"He took the truck." Rachel observed.
"We still have the bike."
"But there's three of us."
Cara stepped up beside them and glanced up and down the street. "If I knew where their garage was that wouldn't be an issue."
"Puckerman, you fucking asshole." Santana muttered, grabbing the bag off Rachel and shoving the plans into it as she checked the rest of the contents. "The other bag was in the back of the truck. All we have left is a rifle, three handguns and a bunch of ammunition."
"Should be enough." Cara shrugged and grabbed the rifle, slinging it over her back. "If we need more than that I'd say we're pretty screwed anyway."
"Fine." Santana tucked one of the guns into the back of her pants and climbed on the bike. "I'll start looking. You guys find a car and meet me…"
"If you say one more word that involves you leaving here by yourself, I swear to God…" Rachel's furious speech was cut short by the sound of an engine coming from behind the building. Nervously Santana broke her gaze away from Rachel's flashing eyes to see Jesse driving round the corner and pulling up in front of Cara.
"Get in." He called through the open window.
"What the hell are you doing, St James?" She called back, despite having never been more pleased to see anyone ever before in her life.
"Trying to stop this from turning into a complete catastrophe." He replied, rolling his eyes. "And as amusing as it would be to see the three of you attempt to stage a rescue using only Santana's bike, I would say this is more practical, don't you agree?"
Santana glanced at Cara who, as usual, only shrugged, albeit with a slight grimace.
"Fine. But I'm still taking my bike."
"And I'm going with her." Rachel said, still glaring at her furiously.
She shrank back a little in the heat of her girlfriend's rage, but still caught Cara's smirk as she climbed into the car.
"I'm sorry." She muttered as Rachel climbed onto the bike.
"Just drive." Rachel muttered back as she wrapped her arms around her waist.
Santana felt a tap on her shoulder and looked quickly in the direction Rachel was pointing. She took the turning quicker than she would have liked, given that she had a passenger she was rather fond of and neither of them were wearing helmets. She would have to remember to thank Puck for that one when they found him.
She followed the dirt track carefully, hoping that the taillights they had seen in the distance were actually Puck's and not a patrol vehicle. They were about a mile and a half away from Sue's compound, coming at it from the east. If she remembered correctly the spot they had been planning to enter from was also on this side, down the bottom of the hill. Had Shelby showed the plans to Puck as well? Is that where he was headed?
After a few minutes she spotted the truck pulled over on the left and steered over towards it. Before she had even had a chance to cut the engine Rachel was off the back and storming over to where Puck was grabbing things out of the back.
"You stupid, selfish fuck!" She yelled at him, slamming her fists into his chest and shoving him back into the truck. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
Santana had to force herself to bite back a laugh at the mix of confusion, anger and fear on Puck's face as the tiny brunette pummelled him. She quickly kicked the stand down and jumped off, and not entirely sure whether to rescue him or join in she ended up just standing there watching the surreal scene with a feeling of amusement which seemed entirely at odds with the situation they found themselves in.
"Hey, Berry, easy!" Puck held his arms up as a barrier, trying desperately to slide down the side of the truck and escape. "Lopez, call off your girlfriend, huh?"
"Not my, call, asshole." She smirked. "Rachel does as Rachel wants, and right now it seems she wants to kick the ass of the dickwad who ran off in the middle of the night to get himself killed."
"Alright!" He finally managed to get a few steps clear and held his hands up in submission. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm an asshole."
"Yes you are!" Rachel yelled at him, hands clenched into fists at her side. "Don't you ever do that to us again, Noah, do you hear me?"
"Sure I hear you." He muttered, rubbing at his chest. "I think the whole fucking town heard you."
Rachel huffed at him and stalked back over towards the bike.
"That was kinda hot." Santana whispered as she approached.
"Don't think for a second I'm not still mad at you too." She replied angrily, stalking past her and over to Jesse and Cara as they pulled up behind them.
"Ouch," Puck said to her. "What did you do this time?"
"Shut it, Puckerman. Next time I'll leave your sorry ass." Santana shot him a glare but gestured at him to follow her over to the car where Jesse was spreading the plans out on the hood.
"Okay," He said to Puck as they arrived. "So the plans show that the entrance we were going to use is just down the hill. Presumably you was aware of this and that is how we have ended up here?"
Puck shrugged and then nodded slightly sheepishly.
"Now our rendezvous is not for another two days but I say that whilst we here we at least take a look and see what surprises lie in store for us. Any objections?"
The group stayed silent, only Rachel looking sceptical.
"We're here already, Rachel. Like Santana said, we really don't know that much about what's waiting for us in there. Might as well check it out."
"Alright then." She agreed after a moment. "Noah, get the rest of the weapons from the truck." Rachel ordered, rolling up the plans and shoving them back into the back. "Let's get this over with."
Santana hurried to catch up with her girlfriend as she marched down the hill and reached out to take her hand.
"Rach, look I…"
"I don't want to hear it, Santana." She said quietly, pulling gently out of her grip. "We just went through this last night and you've already broken your promise. We'll talk about it after, okay?"
Santana stared after her in irritation as she stalked off down the hill. She really didn't understand why Rachel was so upset. It wasn't like she had been planning to go off by herself to do something stupid, she just wanted to find her friend for God's sake. Okay, maybe she should have told Rachel to come with her instead of leaving her with Cara but… Okay, maybe she shouldn't have told Rachel to do anything, but she wasn't thinking straight. She was in a hurry.
Okay, maybe she got it a little bit. Shit. Now she was going to have to apologise. Again. It seemed all she did these days was run for her life and apologise to Rachel.
"Dude, I'm really sorry." Puck said quietly, falling into step beside her. "I kind of flipped out and I just couldn't stay there knowing...I just, I guess I wasn't thinking."
"Preaching to the choir, Puckerman." She sighed. "Just don't do it again, okay? I don't think my relationship can handle it. Or yours, for that matter."
He shot a quick glance over at where Cara was striding down the hill in front of Rachel. "Yeah, she's pretty pissed. She's not really saying much."
"Yeah, well that's kind of her thing."
"I know but…" He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I dunno. Feels different. Feels like I blew it."
Santana chuckled. "Tell me about it."
They caught up to where the others had gathered at the bottom of the hill, Santana noticing with annoyance how close Jesse was standing to Rachel and the stupid smirk he was shooting her way.
"Right, so we just need to work out how to get this door open…"
"Open." Cara said, rising from her crouched position as the lock gave with a click.
"Okay then." Rachel said. "Ready?"