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I'll Be Home For Christmas
Dreaming of home at this Christmas time, even more than I usually do.
And although I know it's a long road back, I promise you.
I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe and presents by the tree.
The alarm clock wakes Rachel from her peaceful slumber. She leans over and turns off the offending noise that's being admitted from the small machine. She turns over to face the other side of the bed which is completely empty. It was Christmas Eve so it felt strange to wake up alone in bed.
Santana had left two days ago for Lima, taking their children with her, but Rachel had to stay behind for one last performance of her latest show. They were spending Christmas in Lima this year at the request of both sets of grandparents.
They were going to spend Christmas Eve in the traditional Lopez way, with food, drinking and either cards or dominos and then they were going to spend Christmas day at the Berry household for even more food, more drinking and probably a lot of singing.
Rachel was going to catch a flight at eight o'clock from Newark airport and then Santana would pick her up at the other end.
It was six o'clock now which meant that Rachel had an hour before the taxi was coming to pick her up at seven. It would take them around half an hour to get to Newark which would leave Rachel with enough time to make her feel comfortable.
Rachel slowly gets out of bed and heads into the bathroom for a quick shower. Once she's finished she makes herself some breakfast before calling her wife.
"Good morning" Rachel greets.
"Morning."
"Why aren't you up yet?"
"How do you know I'm not up?" Santana asks.
"We've been married for years, I know your just woke up voice. If you're still in bed, where are the children?"
"They're downstairs with my dad, he always wakes up early too."
"Okay well I'm taking the eight o'clock flight. Are you still okay to pick me up from the airport?"
"Of course. I'll see you in a few hours."
"Don't go back to sleep" Rachel warns.
"I won't. God you're not even here and you're bossing me around" Santana jokes.
"Very funny, I have to go. I love you."
"I love you too."
Rachel hears the call end and she knows that Santana would have gone back to sleep, but as long as she picks her up from the airport, Rachel doesn't mind.
She can't wait to spend Christmas with both the Berry and the Lopez family. It had been years since they had all gotten together to celebrate the holidays.
It is five minutes past seven and the taxi still hasn't shown up and Rachel is getting a bit antsy. She likes to be organised and have everything planned out to the dot so it has her on edge when her plans are
jeopardized by other people.
It's another five minutes before the taxi finally shows up and after a brief lecture from Rachel about tardiness the driver finally sets off for the airport. When they arrive at the airport, there are only ten minutes left for Rachel to check in.
She pays the taxi driver without a second glance, it was his fault she was late anyway and makes her way into the airport. She approaches the departure board and searches for her flight number. When she finds it her eyes move along the board to find the check in desk number, but she is only met with the word; cancelled.
Rachel rushes over to the information desk but she wasn't the only person there, in fact there was a crowd of people all trying to get answers. One of the men behind the desks stands up and looks towards the crowd.
"Excuse me. Can I have your attention please?" the man calls.
"Due to the weather conditions we have had to cancel some flights for safety reasons. We have automatically booked you on the next flight that is available to fly."
"When will that be?" a member of the crowd asks
"We are unsure at the moment. Since we are grounded because of unpredictable weather conditions we are unable to guarantee when another flight will be available."
"It's Christmas Eve some of us need to get home" another traveller yells.
"We are willing to work with you to provide a solution, but we need you to be patient so we can deal with you one at a time."
There is a lot of murmuring coming from the crows as a few people leave and the other start to get into some form of a line. Rachel thinks about it for a while, she could drive back to Ohio, but she would have to get a taxi back home to get her car and then it would be nearly a ten hour drive back to Lima.
The line of people starts to get bigger so Rachel decides that she will figure out her own way back to Lima. She finds a seat, gets out her Ipad and starts searching for other flights.
It turns out there were lots of other flights, to other destination also cancelled. She decides to change tactics and instead searches for train tickets, but once again trains to Ohio had been cancelled.
The only route she could find was to get a train from Newark to Philadelphia and then she would have to change over onto a train to Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh was the furthest she could go via rail so she needed to find another way to get to Lima from there. This led her to calling car rental companies in Pittsburgh. She knew that it would be a pretty impossible task for her to find a company to rent her a car this close to Christmas, but as if by some Christmas miracle she manages to get a car.
She makes her way to the train station and manages to get a seat on the train in first class.
Once she's settled she decides to call Santana and let her know about her change of plans.
"Hey baby, shouldn't you be on the plane?"
"Yes I should, but unfortunately my flight was cancelled" Rachel explains.
"What? Why?"
"Well if you would have gotten out of bed this morning and looked out of the window you would have noticed that whole of Ohio is covered with snow."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm on a train to Philadelphia. I have a layover there that will take me to Pittsburgh and then I have organised a rental car from there so I can drive to Lima. Don't worry, I promise that I'll be home for Christmas."
"I'll have to tell everyone that you're going to be late. The kids will be upset, they keep asking when you'll be here."
"They'll be okay, they'll forget about me once your mother stars cooking. That reminds me tell her that I'm sorry that I won't be there to help" Rachel says.
"She'll understand. How was the show last night?"
"It was great but I'm relieved to have a couple of days off to spend with my family."
"I can't wait to see you."
"We've only been apart for three days."
"So, can't I miss my wife?" Santana asks.
"Who are you and what have you done with the real Santana Lopez?"
"She left along time ago when I became Santana Berry- Lopez and it's the holidays, they make me sentimental."
"Okay so now I miss you even more."
"Oh so it's okay for you to miss me?" Santana asks.
"Yes because I'm the emotional one."
"Oh and what am I?"
"You're the feisty one."
"I'm not so sure. You can be pretty feisty when you want to be" Santana laughs.
"Well that's good because you can be emotional too, Mrs Berry- Lopez" Rachel teases.
"I get so emotional baby, every time I think of you."
"Did you really just sing to me over the phone?" Rachel asks.
"It seemed appropriate."
"I never thought that I would ever say this, but I can't wait to get to Lima."
"I'll be right here waiting for you."
"Bryan Adams, really?"
"No that was genuinely Santana Lopez who really is waiting for her wife to come home."
"It might take a while, but I will be there."
"Hold on a sec Rach…. Si Mami…... I have to go baby, my mom needs help, but call me when you get to Philadelphia. I want to make sure you got there safely" Santana says.
"Of course I will. I love you."
"I love you too baby. I'll talk to you later."
"Goodbye."
Rachel puts her cell phone away and gets out her iPad so she can pass the time by reading the new book she had started a few days ago.
She was so lost in the story that she didn't realize how much time had passed and was surprised when they pulled up at her station. She doesn't bother to rush off the train since she has an hour to wait until her layover.
She calls Santana when she reaches the platform, but she doesn't answer so she decides to find somewhere she can have something to eat since it's nearly lunch time and she's going to miss dinner with her family.
After she's eaten she makes her way to the platform and not long after, for the second time that day, Rachel finds herself slipping into a train seat. Once she gets comfortable she gets out her cell phone and calls her wife again.
"Hey you didn't answer when I called before" Rachel says when Santana answers the phone.
"I'm really sorry baby, it's crazy here. I've been trying to help my mom in the kitchen, but she said she wishes you were here instead."
"She didn't say that."
"Yes she did. She said and I quote 'I wish you were stuck in New York and Rachel was here to help me instead.' So I just left her to it. I think your dads are helping her now" Santana explains.
"Okay well I was just calling to tell you that I'm on the train to Pittsburgh."
"Are you okay?" Santana asks.
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm a little tired so I might try and sleep to pass the time."
"I'll let you go then. I love you baby."
"I love you too" Rachel replies.
Rachel slips her cell phone back into her pocket and tries to get as comfy as she can in a train seat. At least she was in first class and her seat was comfier than a standard seat.
Rachel wakes up six hours into the journey. She didn't realize that she was that tired, but she did have the show and only a few hours of sleep last night. She had just over an hour left until she reached Pittsburgh and she was glad she slept since she would be driving the rest of the way to Lima.
It was nearing seven in the evening, her family would be sitting down to dinner soon. She wondered who will be there. She knows that both Santana parents and her dads would be there, but more often than not when the Lopez family got together anyone could turn up.
She could just picture the scene in her head. After they had finished a feast prepared by Maribel they would congregate in the living room and drink their body weight in alcohol.
They'd get out the dominos or the cards which always ends up becoming competitive.
Rachel is disappointed that she would miss the Lopez's Christmas Eve party, but at least she could spend tomorrow with Santana's parents too. She had always gotten along with Maribel and Luis ever since the first time they met.
They had come to visit Santana in New York to see how their daughter was getting on in the big city. They were just friends at the time, but Maribel had invited Rachel to join them for dinner since Kurt was back in Lima visiting his father.
They all had a great time and Maribel had joked that she wished that Santana would find a nice girl like Rachel to date. She wasn't surprised when Santana called her three weeks later to tell her that Rachel was now her girlfriend.
Rachel just couldn't wait to arrive in Lima and be with her family again. When the train finally arrives at the station in Pittsburgh, Rachel is the first person out of her seat and heading to the door.
She's glad to be out of the small space of the train carriage and back into fresh air. She makes her way out of the station and into a taxi. She gets the address for the car rental place and tells it to the driver.
It doesn't take long before they arrive at their destination and Rachel pays the taxi driver before heading into Rent-A-Car. Ten minutes later and Rachel is sat in the driver seat of her newly rented car. In about four hours she'll be finally back in Lima.
It takes a little longer than four hours to get back to Lima. It seems like everything was against Rachel today from road works to red lights. She was grateful that she had a GPS on her phone otherwise it might have taken her all night to make her way to Ohio.
When Rachel pulls up in the Lopez's driveway she parks right next to Santana's car. She hops out of the car and makes her way to the front door. Luckily she has a key since Maribel gave her one in case of any emergencies.
She lets herself into the house and hangs up her coat on the coat rack. She quietly makes her way up the stairs and into Santana's childhood bedroom.
Rachel smiles at her sleeping wife, she always looks so peaceful while she slept. She looks at the clock, it's eleven fifty nine. She made it just before Christmas.
She strips of her sweater and her jeans leaving her just in her t-shirt and underwear and slips under the covers next to her sleeping wife.
"Baby?"
"I tried not to wake you, go back to sleep" Rachel whispers.
Santana turns over in the bed so that she can face her wife.
"I'm so glad that you here."
"So am I."
They share a sweet kiss before Rachel gets comfortable on her side with Santana spooning her from behind. Rachel easily relaxes into the warmth embrace of her wife's arms.
"I promised that I'd be home for Christmas."
A/N Apologies for being a little late. A big thank you to Beebeeborez for taking the time to help me through these Christmas one-shots.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Live_Young.