Family Is Everything ch. 2
I know that Quinn was rather hesitant about Santana at first all those years ago but now their relationship is incredibly strong as the two are more like in ways that sometimes that it borderlines on creepy. They're both are pretty useless in the morning but that much could be said for the Fabray-Berry women with me and Beth being the exception to that rule as my wife would said that we get up at the ass-crack of dawn but we like getting an early start on the morning although I do like my beauty sleep. When Beth found out about Santana that morning she broke into our kitchen, she taken on the role of being the younger girl's big sister/role model as she took the Latina under her wing without question or being prompted to.
It seems that the fourteen year old like having a someone to look up to her and having someone to show off her cheerleading moves to as it seems that Santana has a knack for the sport, mimicking everything that the older girl showed her. The cheerleader-in-training was a bit slow to open up to us but in the four months that she stayed with us, she managed to come around especially around one young Brittany who I still baby-sit on a occasion and the two are inseparable, always having their pinkies linked. I have yet to figure out why she would get so scared around bath time every night and begged with tears coming down her face not to give her a bath. Every time I would ask her about it, Santana would clam up and sink further into herself, spring another bout of tears and there were the nightmares would come ever other night as she would scream while tossing and turning, muttering for someone to stop hurting her and her Mami.
Either myself or Quinn would stay with her until she was able to go back to sleep but would never say anything about the dream or was hurting her and I asked her about her family and her life before coming to us, she would get really quiet and fidgety then tears would come forth. I don't know what to do about any of this but I think that taking her to a child psychologist would be the best course of action and the writer back me up on this because the nightmares are increasing in frequency but what we didn't know was that it wouldn't be long before we would find out the cause behind all of this.
It came after we enrolled Santana in school and her teacher came to us saying that she was approached a strange man as it seems that she knew him but the security guard escorted him off of the property although the damage had already been done. It took Quinn and I hours to calm down a very distressed eight year old and almost two days for us to find out that the man was her father. Being a snoop as my friends often me but in case, I'm being a very concerned parent who wants to her daughter safe, finding out that the name of the man is Carlos Lopez before taking this information to Finn and Noah who are policemen.
It turns out that he's not good man all means as he has a rap sheet consisting in domestic violence, possession of legal firearms, possession and selling of narcotics, credit card frauds and the list goes on as it's beyond me how this man isn't behind bar yet again. I'm afraid of what Carlos might do to Santana if he ever figures out where she is and more often than not, it leaves me wide awake at night hoping and praying that nothing comes of this until one night comes into our room a little after midnight, crawling into our bed. For some time she doesn't say anything but I know that she has something on her mind but can't verbally express herself, just like her mother she's like an onion and you have to peel her back one layer at a time before snuggling into my chest.
"Mama?"
"Yes baby" I said running my hand through her hair.
"I know that it's wrong to a break a promise but what if the promise that I'm keeping is hurting that person and I'm just… I don't know what to do"
"Baby if this promise is hurting someone than you need to tell us and we can help" Quinn said rubbing Beth's back.
"I… I know why San's so afraid of water but I promised that I wouldn't tell you. Her Dad used to put fill the tub up with water before putting in it, forcing her head under it until she would almost pass out, yelling at her for being bad and that it was her fault that for every little thing" Beth said as the tears roll down her cheeks.
Beth told us everything that Carlos has done to Santana as he would force her to help him steal from people's houses and has been a few times when he had traded her to drug dealers for narcotics but somehow he manages to steal her back from said men. There's no way in hell that I will ever allow my daughter be in the clutches of that evil man ever again if I could help it. Now more than ever I want to be there for her, making sure that she's well taken care of and loved. I know that Quinn feels the same and we knew what our step was going to be but there's one small detail that we need to take care of first which we should have done awhile ago and this Saturday seem like a perfect opportunity to put our plan into action.
The whole day spent it as a family having picnic in Central Park before going on a treasure hunt around the city as Beth and Santana worked together to figure out the clue that the writer and I put together before going to the planetarium. The look of awe on my youngest daughter's face was worth it and it was great call on the writer's part as she's enamored in what the tour guide was saying, hanging on every word until we came into another part of the museum where all of the constellations are display of the roof of the room. It was hard to pull her from that room before coming home and ordering take out when the both of us decided that it was time to bring up a certain subject that we've put off for too long.
"Santana" I said getting her attention.
She looks up at me as she puts a pot-sticker in mouth chewing slowly, looking between Quinn and myself with a curious look on her and she takes my hand in hers then I take in a deep breath.
"You have been staying with us for awhile now and we love having you here. We have been thinking about making some changes around here" I said smiling.
"D-Do you want me to leave?" Santana asked fearful.
"What? No! Sweetie, what I mean is that we want to some changed around here so you'll feel more comfortable" I said reassuringly.
"What Rachel's trying to say is that we want to ask how would you feel about being a part of our family" Quinn stepping in.
"I thought that I was already a part of this family" Santana said raising an eyebrow.
"You are but we want to make a more permanent thing" I said giggling.
"Is this something that you would want?" Quinn asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, there's no where that I would rather be than here" Santana said grinning.
We made it official but Carlos did everything in his power to keep his own on Santana but the judge saw fit that she was better off with us and information that he received about the abuse that our daughter undergone was enough to put him away for a long time. Five years after that, I've never been more thankful for joy that our younger daughter brought to our lives and it wasn't easy because now she's going through her teen years, becoming moodier and thinking that everything that Quinn and I do is so lame but she's coming into her own. Santana's on the cheerleading team with Brittany who are still inseparable from each other and I know that it's only a matter of time before they finally admit their feelings for each other but my wife stops me every time I want to help them more their relationship along, 'saying' it's something that they have to figure out for themselves. We're currently lying on our bed, watching tv and cuddling when our youngest walks, proceeding to put herself between the both of us without a word as my mother's intuition tells me that there's something that she wants to talk to us about.
"Ma, Mom"
"Yes baby girl, what's on your mind?" Quinn asked pushing a lock of hair behind Santana's ear.
"I love you guys" Santana said smiling softly.
"We love you too" I said kissing her on the forehead.
"So… can I get a little sister?" Santana asked out of nowhere.
~Nicole The Dragon Rider signing off
The End