Charlie hobbled forward on crutches, she had never been good at these damn things. This was already a nightmare, she couldn't believe that Santana had stuck her in a dress and done her hair and makeup so she could look 'somewhat' presentable to her parents. "Santana? Why am I even here? I'm on strict bed rest," she reminds Santana as she tries to balance on one crutch as she slams the other one against the handicap button so the doors open.
Santana rolled her eyes, she had been just about to open the door for Charlie. "You're doing this Charlie, because my parents won't leave until they meet you. They've already been here for two weeks, my mom has taken over my kitchen and that means lecturing about my many life choices, most of which revolve around you. Besides the doctor says you're fine to walk short distances. It was a through and through, and it missed anything major. You can basically hobble around now without crutches, you're just lazy. Look, I just need to show them that I'm taking good care of you, so let me take care of you and do all that chivalry shit in front of them."
"I can pull my own god damn chair out," Charlie mutters under her breath but Santana hears her and gives her a look. "You're making me use the crutches so you can pretend that you haven't just been coming to my place to watch Netflix and make fun of me or poke my wound. They think you're taking care of me, my ass," Charlie grumbles. All Santana did was come over, sit down and eat her food make her watch Netflix on the new smart TV she had gotten her so they didn't have to use her laptop screen. Then had come the getting her nice things like high thread count sheet. Santana insisted that if she was spending time with her than Charlie's small little apartment be comfortable for her. And yeah maybe the sheets felt nice and she didn't have to squint to watch Netflix anymore. But she wasn't going to let Santana know that.
"Please you know you'd have died of boredom if I didn't come grace you with my presence daily, and you'd be eating stale donuts or whatever. I mean, here I am taking time out of my busy schedule to make sure you get to your physical therapy and you can't do this one thing for me without complaining." Santana says crossing her arms as she moves to open the door for Charlie.
Charlie smiled at Santana, "We both know that my little apartment has become your new hideout, so you can hide from your parents. All the stuff you bought me was really for you so you had something to do while they were breathing down your neck. I'm doing this as a favor to you. Do you know how painful physiotherapy is after taking a bullet? Hard as hell. So, you owe me," Charlie says.
"Like hell I do," Santana hisses as they approach the table where her parents are waiting. Charlie makes a move to turn around and she groans. "Fine I owe you."
"Good, because I know what I want. When my leg gets better, I totally want to drive our car." Charlie said with a smirk.
"Hell. No." Santana said immediately. Charlie gave her a look but she wasn't going to budge. The fuck did Charlie think she was. She was about to rip into her when her mother cleared her throat and Santana turned to look at the woman who gave her life. "For the love of everything that is holy in the world, if you do this, I swear that I will buy you those expensive ass donuts you like for the entire month."
"And you owe me," Charlie whispered back and slapped a smile on her face as she hobbled over to Santana's parents and placed the crutch down so she could shake Santana's father's hand. "Dr. Lopez, Mrs. Lopez. It's a pleasure to meet you both."
Miguel Lopez squeezed Charlie's hand tightly shaking it enthusiastically. "Miguel please, I was beginning to think you were a figment of Santana's overactive imagination. So, you're her mate," he says with a big smile.
"Yes, sir," Charlie said laying it on pretty thick, ignoring the pointed look Santana was giving him. "I'm terribly sorry that we couldn't meet earlier, but I got shot in the line of duty and was on mandatory bed rest. I believe it would have been terribly awkward for our first meeting to be with me with no pants on," Charlie said as Miguel laughed.
"A good honest job. Good looking—you've got yourself a keeper Santana. Thank god, I was getting worried that she was going to die alone," Miguel admits.
"Dad." Santana hisses at him flushing in embarrassment as she helps Charlie take a seat before taking a seat beside her and taking her hand publicly for her parents to see. Charlie smiled at her and squeezed it.
Maribel studied Santana for a moment and squinted at her, wondering if this was all just an act. She knew her daughter perfectly and she turns to Santana. "Did you bring her pain meds?" Maribel asked watching as Santana grimaced.
"I'm not on any more pain medications, Santana didn't want me getting addicted to them. I did some work for vice you wouldn't believe how easy it is to slip into that addiction so after the second week we stopped, it a bit on the painful side but Santana's been helping me through it. Now it's just physical therapy, which she takes me to. I never knew how much effort it takes to regain the muscle mass after an injury like this and just doing menial tasks is a challenge. But your daughter—well we couldn't have bonded at a better time." Charlie said flashing Santana a smile.
Santana kept a smile on her face even though she wanted to throttle Charlie. Her parents weren't stupid they weren't going to believe a word of the bullshit Charlie was spewing. "Charlie I—"
"Finding your mate is so rare in this world, but I can just tell you two are just perfect for each other. You aren't letting her get her way all the time, are you?" Miguel interrupts with a smile.
"I wish," Santana muttered under her breath. She smiles when her mother gives her a look. "Keeps me on my toes." Her dad laughs and pats her back hard causing her to sigh and wince and look over at Charlie who is drinking her water.
"So, Charlie what do your parents do?" Maribel asks now turning her scrutinizing look on Charlie.
"My mother sits on the board of a few charities," Charlie said calmly and winced after a moment she didn't talk about her father. "My father is the US senator for Ohio."
Santana blinked and turned to Charlie who took another sip of her water, there was a note of irritation in her voice and she quickly masked the surprise. She hadn't known that either.
"Russell Fabray? The senate majority leader?" Maribel asked and frowned ever so slightly. "I hear that he's already started talking to donors about a potential presidential run and he might succeed in becoming the GOP nominee."
There was a snowball's chance in hell that her father would ever move into the white house as the president but he was popular enough to maybe become the VP if the Republicans won. Something she truly didn't want happening. "My mother would very much like to meet you all, perhaps when my father flies into New York," Charlie said. "Perhaps a family barbeque," Charlie offers.
"That sounds perfect, maybe in the summer? But enough about what your parents do. Why don't I tell you about Santana's most adorable childhood stories?" Miguel suggests watching as Charlie smiles. He had noticed the tension and it was clear that she didn't want to talk about it."
"No. How about we don't go over my greatest embarrassing moments," Santana said putting her foot down. This wasn't fair she had nothing on Charlie. "I don't know any of hers." Her parents promptly ignored her and turned to Charlie who looked eager to hear any dirt they had on her, and Santana watched in horror as her mom pulled out her purse where she had several baby pictures and elementary photos. "Mom."
"I don't know what it is with children and not wanting to put on clothes. You know Santana enjoyed streaking around when she was a child. All the time. Like couldn't take your eyes off her for a moment cause if you did, she'd be running around butt naked and dancing around," her father said and shaking his head. "You know to this day we're not even quite sure who set the carpet on fire. If it was her or Brittany, they always covered for each other. I don't even know how they set the carpet on fire."
"I will never say, but if it were one of us, we used the matches in the drawer and wanted to see if we could recreate the egg experiment and used an empty bottle of canola oil that still had some oil left in it." Santana said with a sniff.
"So, keep the matches away from you," Charlie says and pats Santana's hand as her parents laugh.
Santana groaned, she wasn't quite sure if she liked this and she huffed petulantly. This was worse than she expected. Her parents were supposed to feel the way that she did. That Charlie was some dumbass detective. Charlie was supposed to be a nervous mess and not charming and funny, she wasn't supposed to get her parents on her side. It was going to be a long night and she squeezed Charlie's hand.
"When I was a child my oldest sister informed me that I had to be quarantined and that I'd be locked in my room until my bout of cooties had ended. This was at Christmas, so she and Quinn spent the entire day eating my Christmas candy while I sat in the tub. This happened several times during my childhood where they would trick me into believing some story. I was the youngest and most impressionable."
Santana snorted, "You spent sat in the tub all day and no one noticed?"
"Well Quinn and Frannie weren't going to tell me that they had tricked me until all my candy was gone," Charlie said. "By that time my parents started to look for me and I ended up crying all over my mother that I was going to die a horrible death from cooties."
Santana began to laugh, "Well it's good to know you were quarantined," Santana said.
"You should also note that I don't have cooties," Charlie adds flashing a smile at Santana who smiles back.
Maribel smiles at this, "Well now that it's established that you don't have cooties. When is the wedding?"
Santana choked on her water and Charlie patted her back firmly, "Mom!"