o
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
He sees you when your sleeping. He know when your awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.
Rachel stirs the sugar into her tea slowly as she watches the scene before her. She's sitting at a Starbucks in the local mall; across from her is Santa's grotto. She watches intrigued as parents take their children one by one up to visit Santa Claus.
Rachel never really understood the idea of Santa Claus. A large stranger that comes into your home while you're asleep, unaware. How is that magical? It all seems rather sinister to her.
"I really hope that coffee is for me."
Rachel looks towards the voice and sees her girlfriend sitting down in the chair next to her. Santana leans over and places a quick kiss on Rachel's lips.
"Hey baby."
"Good afternoon and yes, that is your coffee. Extra strong, just as you like it."
"Thanks" Santana says as she takes a sip of the steaming liquid.
"So is there any particular reason you wanted to meet in a coffee shop in the mall?" Santana asks.
"Mark Hughes."
"What about him?"
"He's over there" Rachel says nodding her head to the opposite side of the mall.
"Where?"
"Red suit, white beard."
"Santa?"
"Yes."
Rachel had first come across Hughes when Santana placed a case file in front of her.
Hughes had been involved in an accident where his car had collided into another that contained a seventeen year old boy and his younger brother. The crash took the lives of both of the bothers and during the investigation it was revealed that Hughes was drunk behind the wheel.
However that wasn't the only motor accident involving Hughes. The most recent is what brought Hughes to Santana's attention. It was just after three in the afternoon and once again Hughes was under the influence of alcohol. He made the decision to get into his car and once again he caused an accident.
He tried to overtake a slow moving bus filled with middle school children. Five of the twenty three children died and others were left with injuries. He got out of both charges of death by dangerous driving because of 'technicalities'.
He never learned from his mistakes, on several occasions Rachel had tailed him and she witnessed his tendency to drive drunk. Each time she wanted to eliminate him there and then, but she knew that it wasn't the right time. Rachel had rules that she had to follow.
After a few weeks all of her research on Mark Hughes had led her to this mall.
"So the children of New York are telling all of their hopes and dreams to a child killer."
"He needs to be taken care of" Rachel states plainly, her eyes glued on Santa.
"I know. Do you have a plan?"
"Nearly, there are just a few details that need to be fine tuned."
"Okay. Well let me know when."
"I will. Can you stay for lunch?" Rachel asks.
"I can't. Sorry, but we're working on an important case."
"Okay, then I'll see you at home Officer Lopez."
"Keep me updated. Love you."
"I love you too."
Santana kisses Rachel one last time before leaving.
Rachel takes a sip of her tea, still not once taking her eyes off of Santa Clause, aka Mark Hughes.
She sees him remove a hip flask out of his Santa jacket and take a quick sip before the next child cones along. Drinking on the job, it doesn't surprise her, but it angers her.
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is softly playing in the background. Rachel finds the lyrics amusing; it couldn't be further from the truth because in reality it's the complete opposite to the song.
It's Santa Clause that better watch out because he's just been added to Rachel Berry's naughty list.
Rachel has never really understood why people loved Christmas so much. It was just another day to her, just the same as every other day in the three hundred and sixty five day calendar. That includes all the other holidays too because they didn't mean anything to her either.
Nothing had really meant anything to her before she met Santana. She of course felt strongly about her fathers and did tell them that she loved them but they were just words, they had no real feelings behind them.
That's how things started with Santana too. There were no real feelings involved. They met in a club; it wasn't a social gathering for Rachel. She was trailing a woman who had killed her three elderly husbands to support her frivolous lifestyle, but was side tracked by Santana.
She was watching the husband killer from the bar when she was approached by Santana, who tried to engage Rachel into conversation, but she wasn't interested. Rachel was trying to keep her eye on her target.
The second time Rachel did recon at the club she was once again approached by Santana. If Rachel could say one thing about Santana, it was that she's persistent. She forcibly engaged Rachel in conversation and offered to buy her a drink.
Rachel's stake out was completely derailed by Santana for the second time, however, this time she decided to humor the other girl and accepted her offer of a drink. There was something about Santana that intrigued her.
They talked for most of the night which was fine with Rachel as she still had her target in sight. She missed all of the signs of Santana's obvious flirting as she wasn't accustomed to these types of circumstances.
The night ended when Lucy, the husband slayer, was leaving the bar. Rachel made an excuse that she had to leave to Santana, who wouldn't let her leave until she got Rachel's phone number. Usually she wouldn't give out her number, but it was the only way that Santana would let her leave and she had plans involving the husband killer.
It was on her drive home after disposing of Lucy Wilde that Rachel received a simple text from Santana. It said that she had enjoyed talking to Rachel and that she would like to do it again. It was well known that Rachel was a loner. She never had any friends in all of her time in school. It concerned her fathers at the time so Rachel tried to make friends for their sake, but it just never worked out.
Rachel had always know that she wasn't normal, that she had this darkness inside of her, but she knew that to survive she would have to pretend to be normal. She decided that since Santana was interested in her then maybe this was her chance at normality.
That was four years ago now. Rachel and Santana had been through a lot together in those years. Even though Rachel lacks normal human emotions she truly believes that if she could ever feel love for someone, then that person would be Santana.
Rachel's lucky that she's been able to act like a person in love for so long. She's learnt to react in the right way and what to say in certain situations. She often tells Santana that she loves her; she has learnt to adapt to play the part of the perfect girlfriend and how to pretend to have a normal life.
As Rachel quietly enters the bedroom she shares with Santana, the bedside lamp turns on.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's okay; I only got home about an hour ago. Where've you been?" Santana asks sitting up in the bed.
"I decided to follow Hughes after he finished his shift at the mall and before you ask, yes I was careful."
"That's all I ask. So did you find out any more information?"
"He's using again" Rachel says as she starts to change into her nightwear.
"How do you know?"
"I saw him; he did it in his car in the underground car park. He probably thought no one was watching. I then had to watch him drive away under the influence for the second time; he's going to kill someone else if we don't do something soon. I have my plan; I just need to set it in motion."
"Well I'm ready whenever you give me the go ahead" Santana says.
"Tomorrow night."
"That's Christmas Eve. You want us to kill a guy on Christmas Eve? We're supposed to be giving gifts not taking lives."
"You said that you wanted to remove Mark Hughes from society as much as I do."
"You know I do but it's Christmas Eve, can't this wait until after the holidays?" Santana asks.
"Okay we wait, but how many other people will die in that time. Do you want those deaths on your conscious?"
"I'm sorry you're right. I just thought that after the past couple of months we can finally do something normal and have a nice Christmas together."
"I know that being with me isn't normal."
"I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry, let's just forget what I said. If you want to do this, then I'm in."
"You don't have to be. I'll take care of Hughes myself and you can stay here. You don't need to be involved with this."
"I'm helping you" Santana insist.
"What if someone finds out? You could lose your job."
"I have passed you classified information to help you kill people; I think I'm gambling with more than just my job here."
"Then you should get out while you can."
"We've had this conversation too many times and I've told you each of those times that I'm not leaving you. I love you and we're in this together."
Usually Rachel wouldn't agree to something like this. Santana would normally just pass her the information and Rachel would take care of it. However, Santana has been accepting of her secret and has helped her with it. She's also very stubborn so it would just be easier for Rachel accept her offer of help.
"I know and I'm so grateful that you accepted who I am. You can follow me, but when we get to his house and he's unconscious then you can leave. What happens after that is a part of me that I want to keep private. I don't want you to witness it" Rachel explains.
"Thank you and I promise I'll stay a safe distance away. It's just I'll feel better knowing you have back up if things go wrong. Now can we please get some sleep? I'm exhausted and I have to up bright and early again tomorrow."
"Of course" Rachel says as she slips into bed.
Santana turns off the bedside lamp and gets settled in the bed, her arms wrapping around Rachel; another thing that Rachel had to slowly get used to.
"Good night Santana."
Santana can't help but feel nervous; she has every right to be. She was sat in the shadows in her car watching Rachel as she interacted with Mark Hughes. The cold metal of her gun is gripped tightly in her hand, just in case. She hopes she doesn't need it, she hopes it goes as smoothly as possible.
They're taking a risk interacting with Hughes in a public place, but at least Rachel has her disguise. Rachel also has her plan and Santana trust her, but she still can't help but have her reservations.
She's an officer for the New York Police Department, she knows how criminals work. Rachel has successfully disposed of many criminals in the past, but it could always be that one time that things go wrong. Santana isn't going to take any chance so she keeps her eyes firmly on Hughes and her hand firmly on the gun.
Santana watches as Mark flags down a cab with Rachel on his arm. This was it, Rachel was getting Mark alone. All Santana needs now is to follow the cab back to Hughes' house where Rachel had left him a little surprise. As Mark and Rachel enter the cab, Santana starts the car engine.
She waits until the cab sets off on its journey and then follows it a short distance away so not to cause suspicion. Hughes was probably too drunk to notice someone tailing them anyway.
The cab turns down a street that's filled with houses decorated with multi-colored lights and Christmas characters. It stops outside a modest sized house so Santana pulls her car over at the end of the street. She has a good vantage point of the front of the house from here. It only takes a few minutes before Rachel exits the cab with Hughes following behind her.
Santana's gun is still close at hand and still she hopes that she isn't going to need it. When she left the house with Rachel this evening, Rachel seemed calm about the whole thing whereas Santana felt apprehensive.
Santana doesn't fully understand how the killing doesn't affect Rachel. She had tried to explain it to her once; she told her that it was just a need inside of her. A primal instinct she had called it, but no matter how she described it, it didn't really make sense to Santana.
She had accepted it though. It may not be exactly moral, but Rachel only harms bad people, people who deserve to be punished. That's the thought that Santana clings onto in these moments when she's at outside a murders house whilst her girlfriend does who knows what to him.
The wait is antagonizing, it's the not knowing what was going on that was the hardest. She just wishes that she had some sign from Rachel that she was okay in there. Hughes was a big guy and Rachel was only small, he could easily overpower her.
Santana turns on the car radio to try and help pass the time otherwise she would burst into Hughes' house all gun blazing and she knows that Rachel wouldn't be happy if she did that.
Santana isn't sure how much time passes when she see's the front door of Hughes' house open. She turns down the radio and opens her window as her girlfriend quickly crosses the road to speak to her.
"You can put that away now" Rachel says, referring to Santana's gun.
"I was just being cautious. Is it over?"
"Nearly. I just have to dispose of him. You can leave now and I'll see you at home."
"How will you get home?"
"I'll use Hughes' car to dispose of him and then I'll leave it somewhere and get a cab home."
"Call me once you've finished and I'll pick you up."
"You don't have to do that."
"It's early in the morning on Christmas day; if people are walking around the streets at this time then they are up to no good. I'll pick you up to make sure your safe."
"Okay. I'll call you."
"Good luck" Santana says.
Rachel nods her head before heading back towards Hughes' house to finish what she started.
A/N This is a continuation of chapters , 8. Secret and 31. Partners from my 50 Words collection.
Song: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (covered by various artists.)