Two Ghosts

Chapter 1

Judging by the light that streams in through the edges of Santana's curtains, it's way too early for her liking but the incessant buzzing of her phone against the nightstand is too hard to ignore. She's so exhausted from the night before; she hates working doubles, but the money is decent so she sucks it up a few nights a week.

She swats at the screen without looking in hopes of snoozing the alarm she must've accidentally set to AM instead of PM. It takes three attempts before the buzzing stops. Santana sighs in relief and snuggles deeper into her pillows.

"Hello?"

Santana's heart jumps and she picks her head up slightly from the pillows. She recognizes that voice, a familiar blonde she once knew. Then again, maybe she's dreaming.

"Hello?"

She's definitely not dreaming and realizes the voice is coming from her nightstand. She rolls on to her back with a groan, refusing to open her eyes as she brings the phone to her ear.

"This better be good, Fabray." Santana grumbles although she is genuinely curious as to why Quinn of all people is calling her out of the blue. She couldn't remember the last time she spoke to her. Matter of fact, she can't remember the last time she spoke to anyone from the Glee Club days.

"After all these years, you're still not a morning person?"

If Santana's eyes were open, she'd roll them, "Are you calling just to check because if you have to ask then it's way too early."

"It's 11:45," Quinn chuckles down the line.

"So?"

Quinn's voice turns solemn, "I assumed you've heard the news already, but I guess not."

That tone piques Santana's interest, she remembers it well from the day her father told her that her abuelo had cancer and her mother had the same tone when she told Santana she and her father were getting a divorce. Several things rush through her mind all at once and it causes her to sit up.

"What's happened?" Santana finally musters the courage to ask. She tries to fight the images of another blonde she used to know from surfacing and all the tragic possibilities because she shouldn't be the first person she thinks of, no matter how long it's been since they've spoken.

"It's Coach Sylvester." Quinn says and the name is yet another blast from the past, "She passed away yesterday. The funeral is Sunday."

Santana's jaw drops and she's overcome with a mix of emotions; some of relief because Sylvester wasn't the name she was expecting but also grief because despite the amount of shit Sue put her through while on the Cheerios and in Glee Club she had her moments. Sue taught her how to be hardworking and to have drive and be disciplined in the most unconventional ways and she wouldn't have met Quinn or-

Santana stops and swallows thickly; that's the second time she's thought about her today, the most she has in awhile.

She decides later that night, after thinking long and hard whether or not a trip to Lima, Ohio is worth not flying her mother up for Christmas, that she really wouldn't be the person she is today without Sue and the right thing to do is pay her respects.

She wonders if others from her squad will be there too, one Cheerio in particular, and that curiosity might've been what swayed her decision.

But mostly to pay her respects, at least that's what she tells herself as she books her flight.