"Santana! Rachel! It's lovely to see you two." Mr. Shuester wasted no time in hugging both women. After the call with Sue, Santana and Rachel had both finished getting ready to head to town. McKinley's Diner had been their very first stop where they shared a stack of pancakes and a fruit salad. Santana was honestly so stuffed that she questioned whether or not her jacket would zip back up. The weather was definitely turning colder and soon she would have to run her annual maintenance check on her snowmobile and ATV's to ensure that they were ready for this coming winter.
"It's great to see you too Shue. How are things here at the store?" Santana looked around as she asked. You could definitely tell that there had been some major renovations going on. The store looked better than it ever had. The front and back walls were painted a burnt orange color while the opposite walls were painted a very light tan. It sounds funky, but it was pretty cool to look at.
"Amazing. Well as you can see we've been doing pretty well." Mr. Shue gestured around the store, subtly pointing out the renovations.
"It looks great." Rachel smiled at the man that had become a close family friend over the years of her being with Santana.
"Thank you. So what can I help you ladies with? Is it time for some new canning orders yet?" Mr Shue posed his question to Santana.
"Not quite yet. I haven't had a chance to do a full inventory of what I need, but I will definitely be back with a whole list of stuff for you. We were actually wondering if your baby section was open yet?" Santana asked with a hopeful expression.
"It is...sorta. We still have a few things coming in that are on back order right now, but they should be here within the next week or so. We've actually got a lot stuff on back order at the moment, some of the things are stuff that goes to the new St. Lawrence Children's Home. It looks amazing out there. Let me show you what we do have." Mr. Shue began walking towards the back of the store where the baby section had been moved to.
"Oh yeah, we have plans to go out there tomorrow and make one final push to get all the rooms finished. I feel horrible about our slacking lately." Santana was very disappointed in herself, even though the time she had missed decorating had been for the home anyway, she wanted to do more.
"What?!" Mr. Shue turned around appalled with a horrific look on his face. "Has someone said something? Because I know for a fact you two haven't been slacking. You've had the majority of your rooms done for a while now, the only thing left to do really is put the finishing touches on them and you said you were doing that tomorrow."
"I know, I just feel like I have let them down some how." Santana stuffed her hand in her pockets. She really didn't want to get into this right now, but that seemed a bit inevitable.
"Santana, honey. What did you do this past weekend?" Rachel asked as she rubbed her hand up and down Santana's back.
"The art show?" Santana looked at Rachel. Duh, she knew what they had done this past weekend.
"Exactly. You raised millions of dollars that will be divided up between all the homes in New York. You have worked tirelessly when we were at the home getting as much stuff done as possible. There isn't a slacking bone in your body." Rachel gave Santana a small smile.
"I guess you're right. Besides, all the extra's we wanted to put in the rooms just now came in a few days ago. Chloe left a voicemail saying she signed for it. That's why we have plans to go out there tomorrow." Santana couldn't wait to get out there and see all the stuff. There should be boxes of shower caddies and supplies to go in each room, new bath towels and wash cloths, wall stickers for the nursery and dorm rooms, night lights, book lights, just all kinds of stuff.
"See, you weren't slacking. The delivery people were." Rachel laughed as Mr. Shue turned around and began to walk towards the baby section again.
Rachel and Santana were in awe as soon as they stepped through the archway into the new baby section of Shuebury's. It looked as if Mr. Shue had crammed a Baby's R Us into his store. There were isles upon isles of stuff, some things Santana had never seen before in her life. Slowly both women began to walk up and down the isles picking up various things to look at.
"There's a lot to take in, so I will let you ladies explore. Just yell if you need anything." Mr. Shue said with a parting wave before he headed back towards the front of the store.
"Look at these San." Rachel held up two eating utensil sets that would be perfect for the girls.
"I thought we were going to let them choose stuff like that?" Santana responded as she sat down a breast pump that she had been looking at. The thing honestly scared her a bit, it looked like some kind of torturing device.
"Well we can come back and let them pick out more, but we should get some just to have. Do you like these?" Rachel handed over the giraffe and monkey utensil sets. Santana immediately smiled and nodded her head. Of course she loved them and there was no doubt that the girls would love them too.
"We should have gotten a basket, because I know we are about to spend a lot of money..." Santana spoke as she reached forward and grabbed some new sippy cups, pacifiers, and a bottle brush to keep said items clean.
"I'll go get one." Rachel took off like a dart towards the front of the store. Santana knew right then and there that she was definitely in for one major shopping trip. Santana continued on with her browsing picking up several other things that she knew the girls would need for sure and some other items that she wanted just because. By the time Rachel came back, Santana already had her arms full of stuff.
"What is all of this?" Rachel asked as Santana emptied her arms.
"Let's see, I got a couple packs of socks, different sizes to do them a while, under onesies, little blankets with stuffed animal heads, hats and mittens, oh and over here I got a play pen and two high chairs off the shelf. Finn or one of them will have to come get us a cart." Santana stood proudly as she looked over all the stuff that she had already picked out.
"What about car seats and strollers? Did you find those or are they on back order?" Rachel was thankful that Santana had already picked out some of the major items they would need. She was way to indecisive and would take forever to pick some of this stuff out.
"Those are on back orders. The spaces are set up but the only thing there is catalogs to see what will be available soon." Santana walked over to the farthest wall of the section and pull one of the catalogs off the shelf. "Do you want to look at it and see if there is something specific that you want to get?"
"Yeah, we can look and have them set aside for when they come in." Rachel began to flip through the pages of the catalog as Santana resumed walking back up and down the isles looking for anything else she felt they would need in the very near future. Santana was lost in her own little world looking at diaper bins when she felt a presence behind her shoulder.
"Get that one. It sprays an odor eater after every diaper is dropped in." The voice spoke. Santana gasped, a little startled when a slightly tan hand came into view and pointed down at the bottom shelf.
"Puck! What are you doing here?" Santana exclaimed with a smile when she looked up to see who was pointing.
Puck waved his arm up and down that was holding a sack of diapers. "Diaper duty and my candy order came in. So I am here to pick it up."
"Candy order? So you are doing the trunk or treat this year?" Santana was a little surprised that Puck had even time to think about Halloween still.
"Of course, no party though. I just didn't have time to plan it. I don't want the kids to miss out on trunk or treating though. For some of them, the studio is the only place they come to get candy every year." Puck loved holding a trunk or treat, it was a great way for kids to get a lot of candy that was guaranteed safe to eat as soon as you got it.
"Rachel and I had been wondering if you were still doing anything this year. I kept meaning to ask, but it slipped my mind. We want our regular spot in the parking lot." Santana rested her hands back inside the pockets of her jacket.
"I will make sure to put you down when I get home. Where is Rachel?" Puck asked, looking around Santana's shoulder.
"I'm right here. I was looking at strollers, which I think I have found the perfect two seater for the twins. I want you to look at it too though San." Rachel announced her presence as she came around the corner to were she could hear Puck and Santana talking.
"Okay, we can do that in minute. We just got our regular trunk or treating spot for Halloween. So we need to go get candy to give out while we are here." Santana stopped to think a minute. "I know we will most likely dress up...but she would get costumes for the twins? Do you think we could call and ask Chloe and Agetha about bringing them to the trunk or treat? Not just the twins, but all the kids."
"It doesn't hurt to ask, but we can wait on the costumes and see what they say first." Rachel shrugged her shoulders, she didn't want to get her hopes up. It was possible that the home had something going on already for Halloween.
"Puck! Hey man, your cart is ready to go up front. I can get some goons to help us load it into your truck when you get ready to head out." Finn called as he jogged towards the group of three.
"Thanks man." Puck shook Finn's hand before turning back around to Rachel and Santana.
"Hey Finn, we need a cart. We've got a play pen and two high chairs sat out back here." Rachel called to Finn's retreating form. Finn turned around and gave Rachel his best dopiest grin before nodding his head and scampering off to do what Rachel asked. Santana couldn't help but to snarl a little. Finn wasn't just being a helpful employee with Rachel. Finn always tried to turn on his charm whenever Rachel was around, however Rachel always shut him down real quick. Puck snickered at the look on Santana's face, it was just too funny. Santana immediately shot him a glare, daring him to actually laugh out loud.
"It's been lovely ladies but, I have to get going. Davis was down to his last couple of diapers when I left and I had a few errands to run before I came here. I may go home to find a mess." Puck laughed. He knew he better run away while he still had the chance.
"Yeah, you better get home then. I'm surprised Quinn isn't blowing up your phone." It was Santana's turn to snicker, she loved when Puck got in trouble. He always looked like a chastised puppy.
"My phone is in the truck. So yeah, she probably is blowing it up and I am going to catch hell for not answering. It's okay though, I ordered her favorite food for lunch, she will forgive me." Santana just shook her head in response. "Oh and don't forget, trunk or treating starts at six but set up starts at five."
"We'll be there." Rachel smiled as Puck turned around and started to walk off.
"Sounds good. I really better get going." Puck began to jog towards the front of the store so he could get his stuff and leave before Quinn sent out a search party.
Santana sighed as she turned around to look at her wife. Yeah, her wife. She was having one of those moments again where it just randomly hit her that she was a married woman now. A married woman with two twins on the way, so to speak. Life was glorious. "Now, let's go look at this stroller you picked out and then we can go look at costumes for us and get some candy. Finn will see our stuff and load it up for us." Rachel grinned and shifted the basket she was carrying to her other arm so that she could grab Santana's hand. They still had tons of shopping to do.