Jasper paced around the conference room where he was waiting for Puck and the other guys to come in. They were having their weekly "let's see where everyone is at and what else can we work on," meeting. There was no doubt in his mind that he was about to be called out for not being focused the past two days. He was making mistakes on things that he knew how to do before he even got this internship. If he was kicked off of this internship, he would never hear the end of it.
He jumped when the door finally opened and Puck walked in followed by Joe, Brock, Sam and...Quinn. When did Quinn get back? If she was back did that mean that Rachel and Santana were back as well? This was great! He could now get back to keeping tabs on the women and his uncle wouldn't kill him. Jasper sat down in his chair with a new found giddiness.
"Alright boys and lady." Puck winked at Quinn. "Let's get started shall we?" Puck clasped his hands together and looked at everyone sitting around the table waiting for them to acknowledge they were listening to him. "I know Rachel isn't here today, which technically she doesn't have to be. But I know she likes to keep up with where you guys are at, so Quinn is sitting in for her." Jasper jerked in his chair. Dammit, Dammit, Dammit! Where in the hell was Rachel?! Puck looked at him warily, "You okay there Jasper?"
Jasper nodded and rubbed his knee under the table. "Yeah, I just leaned back to far. Hit my knee. I'm fine. Uh, you said Quinn was sitting in for Rachel? Where is she?"
Quinn raised her eyebrow at Jasper. This guy could really turn on the weird vibes when he wanted to. "Rachel doesn't have to report where she is to you."
Jasper began to stutter. "I know that. It's just she doesn't miss work on purpose and we uh, we've become sort of friends while working together..so I was just worried."
Puck began to chuckle while leaning back in his seat. "I think someone has a bit of a crush on Rachel." Jasper didn't respond, he just turned his head trying to hide his blush. Yes, he was here to keep tabs on Rachel but you couldn't deny that she was a beautiful woman.
"Don't let Santana hear that, she will verbally...maybe even physically beat you down." Quinn's eyes danced with amusement. "Anyway, they're still in the city. Santana is sick and in no physical condition to make the trip back yet."
Puck grimaced. "She must really be down and out for her to willingly stay in the city."
"Pffftt, Santana stay willingly? Yeah, right. She's tried to fight Rachel about staying, but when you can barely move without vomiting, well you don't get much say." Quinn and Rachel had both threatened to tie Santana down if she didn't stop trying to move around the room packing their bags insisting that they go home. After almost vomiting inside their duffle bag and the threat of going to the hospital, Santana finally agreed that she and Rachel would stay in the city until she was well enough to make the trip home.
"We've got business to take care of here, while Rachel takes care of personal business. So that's that. Now we need to discuss where we are on everything from writing, composition, production all of that stuff." Puck waited for everyone to open their notes so that they could get started.
"Santana honey please stay in bed. I know you're sick and tired of being...well sick and tired but you need rest and you need to try and drink something. You're going to get dehydrated and then I will have no choice but to take you to the hospital and I will have to call an ambulance and do you really want that plastered all over the magazines? They will say everything in under the sun is wrong with you." Rachel was wore out, for the past half an hour Santana had been trying to get out of bed which would be okay if she had to use the bathroom, but Rachel knew she didn't and if she had to vomit she had a bucket just for that. Rachel had even taken the position of leaning over Santana with her right arm braced against the bed so Santana would feel less inclined to move about.
"I just want to go home and sleep in our bed with our babies. Rachel please." Santana whined. Her forehead was sticky with sweat from where her fever had broken only a few minutes ago. Rachel was going to have to run a bath for her soon, but she needed to get some fluids back into Santana first, between the vomiting and sweating she had to be dehydrated.
It pained Rachel to see Santana like this, she has never ever been this sick before. Her normally lovely tan skin was pale and her natural glow was severely dull. At first Rachel had just thought that Santana was getting a summer cold, something minor that would pass fairly quickly. But when Rachel had returned from visiting an after party or two with Quinn, she had came into the suite to find Santana sound asleep on the bed still in her dress clothes. As soon as Rachel tried to move her she had jolted from the bed and ran into the bathroom where she began to vomit. Figuring it was the migraine that caused the vomiting, Rachel got Santana to take some aspirin and change clothes where she then laid back down with a cool wash cloth.
That night was pretty uneventful, until morning came around and Santana had proceeded to vomit in spells all day. Now it was Friday morning and Santana was still extremely sick. She hadn't vomited in a few hours now which was great but she was weak and dehydrated and the next stop would not be home, but to the hospital.
"I will make you a deal. If you can keep this Pedialyte and some crackers down then we can discuss going home in the morning." Rachel knew this was a rough bargain to try and deal but she had to do something.
"That stuff is for babies." Santana mumbled with her eyes closed.
"Yes well it's generally marketed for children, but no where does it say adults can't drink it. It will hydrate you and hopefully settle your stomach. So here, sip on it." Rachel held out a glass filled with cold Pedialyte. Hopefully this would work, she had read on the internet that some adults had even taken to using the stuff for hangovers.
"Okay. Then we can go home?" Santana sat up slightly and Rachel moved back to allow her some room.
"Yes, if you can keep it down and your fever doesn't come back, we can try and go home in the morning."
"Thank you. I love you." Santana took a long sip of the Pedialyte and slightly grimaced. Yeah, that didn't taste as good as kids liked to let on.
Rachel watched her warily, ready to grab the bucket when she saw Santana grimace. "Is it going to come back up already?"
"No, it just doesn't taste as good as people think." Santana scrunched her nose as she settled back down into her mountain of pillows before releasing a jaw cracking yawn. "Don't worry, you will know if it comes back up."
"Yeah, I am well aware." Rachel scooted back on the bed away from Santana a bit. She didn't want to be in the line of projectile should the drink make it's presence known.
"One last thing before we all part for lunch." Sam made himself known before everyone could gather their things and head out. "You know I work with each of you individually and really you're all doing great. But I just want to make sure that all three of you are still as focused today as you were when you got this internship." Sam looked at each intern pointedly as to not single anyone out. "I know it's easy to get set into a routine and you start slacking or cutting corners, but in order to produce great sounding music there is no cutting corners here. You're going to make mistakes and that's okay, you're here to learn but don't go into my studio and make mistakes on things I know you know. There's no room for errors that tiny. Just everyone get refocused because we do have work to do." Puck sat there grinning at Sam, for once it wasn't him that was telling off an intern.
Quinn was a little taken aback, she knew that Sam had a back bone and was willing to tell someone when they were screwing up but she had never seen him that heated before. By looking at the faces of all three interns, it was kind of obvious as to who Sam was talking about, but Quinn was sure she was the only who really noticed.
Jasper McNeal, the quiet awkward intern with a creepy smile. Yes, even she had noticed it before Santana and Rachel mentioned it to her on the trip to the city. She knew all of his basic information, his background check had came back clean but she still felt like he was hiding something or just harboring major crush feelings for Rachel. If Quinn done any more personal digging she would probably be crossing into illegal stuff and she didn't want to be put in that position or risk the company like that. She would just have to continue to keep an eye on Jasper and make sure he was focused on his work and not entirely on Rachel.
"Rachel...look at her. Isn't she beautiful?" Santana mumbled in her sleep. Rachel was caught off guard in the quiet of the hotel suite. What was Santana mumbling about? "She looks just like you." Santana sighed happily in her sleep.
"Who looks like me?" Rachel spoke to herself as she made her way across the living room area and into the partially open door of the bedroom. Santana was definitely still asleep, but what in the hell was she dreaming about?
"She has your eyes. You have your mama's eyes Alexandra." Santana mumbled again barely audible. She was snuggling one of those mini-pillows made for added neck support and gently moving her thumb back and forth across it.
Rachel awed quietly not wanting to wake Santana. She was dreaming about babies, one particular little girl baby in fact. Unable to contain herself, Rachel crawled onto the bed beside Santana, keeping as much distance as possible in between them. Where was a germs mask when you needed one? Hmm, Rachel had idea, she wondered if she could get Santana to respond to her in her sleep. "She does have my eyes, doesn't she."
"I just told you that. Where's my sandwich?"
"What sandwich?" Rachel tried to contain her giggles.
"I ordered a sandwich for fishing. It's going to be great." Okay, well Rachel had no idea what had happened in that dream but she wanted to get back to the baby.
"Where's Alexandra's sandwich?"
Nothing. It was like someone has pressed paused on Santana's dream or she was waking up. Rachel watched as Santana did indeed begin to stir awake and blink dazed at her. "What are you doing on the bed? You're going to get sick. Who is Alexandra?"
Rachel shrugged her shoulders and laughed. "You were talking about a baby girl named Alexandra and then you needed your sandwich to take fishing."
Santana rubbed at her eyes as she rolled over onto her back. "I have no idea about the sandwich, but I think I would like to eat one. I remember a bit of the baby though, she looked just like you. I could never forget your eyes."
"You're really into this baby thing if you are having dreams about them." Rachel reached out to brush some hair out of Santana's face.
"I want to marry you first and then have a baby." Rachel nodded but didn't say anything, she still had Santana's ring that she was yet to figure out how to give to the woman.
"Have you thought about when you wanted to get married?" Rachel had actually thought about it a lot. She would start recording her album at the end of summer so it would either be before or after that.
"How about a winter wonderland wedding since that's kind of our season?" Santana suggested lightly. "We could do it on your Christmas break." Christmas break at PF Productions was exactly what it sounded like. Quinn and Puck both were super into the holiday and all of their employees got a huge Christmas bonus with paid leave for their Christmas break. No matter how busy they got during the year, around Christmas, PF Productions closed for two weeks.
Rachel bit her lip as she thought it over, she could definitely see them having a winter wonderland wedding. It was actually perfect. "We need to pick a day when Puck let's us know when the break starts."
"We can worry about that later. Right now, I really would like something to eat that's more filling than broth and crackers. I am so ready to go home in the morning." Santana sat up in the bed and reached for the room service menu. She was definitely moving better and less sluggish. Maybe the idea of going home kicked her immune system into over drive.