Santana sips her wine, smiling as she listens to her dad recount his favorite parts of her show. They had decided to change the episode order around with the finale becoming the season opener. It was the great thing about doing a scripted reality show like this one. The order didn't really matter, and Max had cheered the loudest when he had seen Mike on the screen.

"I can't believe you managed to get their house looking that nice on that budget. It looks—stylish. You know like it's more expensive than it really is," Sebastian said glancing at Santana. "So how about doing my place next?"

Santana snorted, Sebastian had expensive tastes which was fine. "Expensive doesn't always mean comfortable. I thought it did, you know for all that money I thought that I was spending I assumed that it'd be comfortable. You just need to know what to look for, and to make sure everything sort of goes together." She had learned it the hard way when Charlie had bitched about a couch that she had purchased. It was the first couch they had ever purchased together. She smiles, shaking her head at how ridiculous he had been. Charlie didn't care what it looked like so long as it was comfortable, and she wasn't going to live in a fancy house that looked like it belonged to a bunch of teenagers. It had been their first fight as a married couple, it was silly and ridiculous and a compromise had been made.

Sebastian smirks at her playfully. "I'll have to take your word for it." He shook his head. He had always been accustomed to a certain level of affluence and comfort. "Maybe I'll have to get you to re-design my place."

Santana smiles with an enthusiasm she doesn't feel. He's her boyfriend and has been for what feels like months. So why does she have a weird pit in her stomach at the thought? "That could be fun," she says with as much enthusiasm as she can muster

Carlos leaned back in his chair, "Mike seems to be a good man, I think he's rather perfect for Brittany don't you? Dependable, I think she needs someone like him I'm a bit disappointed that Charles couldn't do it."

Santana sighed and rolled her eyes, "I didn't even call him, and even if I did call him. Charlie's been all over the country as of late. Endorsements, apparently becoming a musician in his spare time. Growing that god-awful beard of his, so he can delve into that hipster chic that he's been trying to pull off. So I asked Mike instead."

"Song? What song?" Sebastian pressed.

"Just a song he did with his girlfriend, it's no big deal." Santana responded quickly. The last thing she needed was for Sebastian to get jealous over Charlie again or her parents to hear the song and make commentary on that part of her life. "I think he's just doing it to embarrass Bela. 'Mom make him stop embarrassing me—my life is over,' you know the usual teenage angst."

"You're one to talk," Maribel mutters under her breath.

"I heard that," Santana retorts. "I never went through any of that."

"Cause you were an absolute darling when you were a teenager, what with breaking all the rules and sneaking out and going to parties where you got drunk," Maribel smiles at Sebastian. "Don't believe what she tells you she was a devil during her teenage years. Breaking all the rules all the time, just to get what she wanted."

"I was the co-head cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in school, I needed to make my mark," Santana insists. "They made an unholy trinity rule at McKinley. We were infamous!"

"Which is merely code for you Brittany and Quinn were the biggest troublemakers the school had ever seen." Maribel shakes her head. "Don't let her innocent act fool you Sebastian you've got your hands full with this one."

Sebastian grinned and kissed her cheek, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

~O~

Charlie stepped out of his car, running a hand through his hair and making sure that it was in its tight ponytail as he stared at the home in front of him. He had never been inside her house, not really. He had never gotten past the front entrance before his ex-wife was pushing him out as if his presence was going to infect the house. He had managed to convince Max to give him the tour via Facetime, but it wasn't the same. He sighs and pulls off his sunglasses, letting them hang on the front of his shirt as he headed to the front door. He shifts the thick folder to his left hand before reaching forward and pushing the doorbell.

The door swings open and Santana watches as her ex-husband immediately stands up to his full height and flashes her an amused smile, "I'm pretty sure the whole point of living in a gated community like this is to keep the undesirables out," she says flatly staring at him. "What do you want?"

"Oh, you mean I'm not allowed to show up at your house uninvited to complain about how your choices have hurt my image?" Charlie responds.

Santana frowns she hadn't truly been expecting a response like that. Charlie had his moments when he was just as snarky as she was when the mood called for it and she could see that gleam in his eye. The one that was at least one part amusement and two parts mischief. She had seen the same look in Max and CJ's eyes before. CJ generally did it when she was changing his diaper and he decided to let loose and giggle like a maniac, and Max when he was about to do something that he knew would get him in trouble. "What are you talking about?"

"You have no clue what you did? Shocking." Charlie drawls slowly, but catches the door when Santana tries to simply close the door in his face. "My point's been made, but the next time you need a celebrity basketball player to show up, then I suggest you don't go for the sixth man, but instead pick up the phone and ask me to do you a favor. I don't like people assuming that I snubbed you, when you didn't even ask and I didn't even know that you had a show in the works. I would have shown up."

Santana scoffed at this, "I'd love to believe that but you didn't show up at Thanksgiving, instead you spent it getting drunk and feeling sorry for yourself."

Charlie rolled his eyes feeling a headache coming on. Why had he thought that this was a good idea? "What are you talking about? You didn't invite me to Thanksgiving. What was I supposed to do? Show up uninvited? Cause a scene in front of you and your boyfriend and my family? I wasn't invited so I went to a homeless shelter and washed dishes and served food, signed some autographs. Better than getting mocked by you about the whole damn affair. I mean I get it I fucked up, but using our kids to mock me about all the fun you guys were having was low." Charlie swallowed his anger. "Look, I'm not here to argue."

Santana blinked, that hadn't been her intention. He was their father and if she thought. "The kids—"

"It doesn't matter, it's done." Charlie interrupted. "We'll figure out what we're going to do about Christmas, I've got a game on Boxing Day, so I can't take the kids that day. But I'll figure out how to get the presents so that they can open it up on Christmas. I can drop them off or have them shipped directly to the house. But, I'm not here to talk about the kids."

Santana frowned, he was setting her up to be the bad guy. Sure she might have gotten ahead of herself and invited Sebastian to spend Christmas dinner with them, but after Charlie's no-show at Thanksgiving she had simply decided to leave it be. If he was going to pretend that the kids hadn't invited him then that was fine and she had no idea where he had gotten it in his head that she was mocking him with the children. "Fine, if you're not here to talk about the kids then why are you here?"

"Endorsements." Charlie explained holding up the folder. "Seeing as you've had a problem with all of my choices, and before I go to the kids—Bela about it. Plus, I'd like to see if any endorsements you have conflict with any of these ones. Or if there's something you know that I don't know about a company. I already separated them into the ones that I want to do and the ones that I don't."

Santana stares at him and opens the door, "Fine, if only because every time you do something I have to deal with the stupid consequences. You know Quinn's still ticked at you about the underwear photo that's outside her apartment."

"She shouldn't be, I helped out with Rachel's fertility treatments." Charlie muttered. He was used to his family hitting him up for cash. Quinn rarely asked him for monetary help but Brittany had absolutely no problem using him as a personal piggy bank sometimes. It was usually when she started a new expensive hobby. He hadn't minded helping Quinn out, the first three treatments had failed and it was something that Quinn wanted more than anything was to have kids of her own with Rachel. All it meant was that he no longer had to buy them Christmas presents ever again. "Must have worked, she didn't hit me up for more cash."

"Rachel's pregnant. They announced it at Thanksgiving." Santana responds flicking her eyes at him.

"Oh. A phone call would have been nice," Charlie shrugs taking a seat at the island as Santana heads to the fridge.

"You don't pick up when Quinn calls."

"Quinn only calls to yell at me or bitch at me. The only reason I knew that she was struggling is because my mother called asking if I could loan her fifteen grand. I of course pressed my mother on the issue because mom has no way of paying me that money back unless she takes a mortgage against the house. She told me about Rachel and I gave Quinn the money. A call would have been nice."

"Quinn hates being indebted to you." Santana reminds him trying to defend Quinn.

"No, Quinn hates being indebted to our father. I'm just an avatar for her annoyance towards him." Charlie shrugged. It was just money, at least they were having a kid. "So endorsements?"

Santana caught the folder that was slid towards her as she put a glass of water down in front of Charlie who eyed the drink suspiciously. "I'm being a gracious host. It's not poison."

"Right," Charlie said studying the glass and then Santana for a moment. She hated him, she had made that abundantly clear.

"For fucks sake—"Santana took the glass of water and took a sip of it before placing the glass back in front of Charlie. "There you go and no that's not some indirect kiss."

"I didn't think it was," Charlie muttered under his breath. He still didn't touch the glass that Santana had given him, instead choosing to watch as Santana tied her own hair back and opened the folder, she paused for a moment and reached into her purse which was nearby and pulled out some reading glasses before putting them on. "When did you get those?"

"After CJ was born, I only need them for reading." Santana replied without looking up.

"Oh." Charlie was quiet for a moment. "They—uh—look nice." He clears his throat and goes back to resting his head in his hand.

Santana's cheeks flush with mild embarrassment. Her glasses made her old and definitely not as sexy as she had once felt. "You don't have to lie. They're awful." She mutters still not meeting his eye.

"They don't," Charlie promises moving his hand across the island so his finger is touching one of hers. "You have never once worn anything that was awful."

Santana flicked her eyes at him for a moment before looking back down at the documents in front of her. "That's a lie, remember when your mother went through her knitting phase and knitted me a sweater?"

"Okay, so apart from the few occasions that my mother has tried to knit you something to wear, you have never worn anything awful." Charlie corrects himself.

Santana smirks and rolls her eyes. There are definitely some outfits from high school that make her cringe when Bela decided to root around in her old photos. But if Charlie wasn't going to mention it than neither would she. "So your new agent got you all of these endorsements?"

"Yeah." Charlie's quiet for a moment. "She says she's trying to get me on cover of People's sexiest man alive."

"Not with that beard and haircut," Santana responds flipping through some more documents and taking something and immediately moving it to the next.

"I know it's hard to believe but women find me attractive like this."

"Yes, I'm sure your legion of fans find the hipster hobo look to be attractive, but I am getting tired of forcing your son to get a haircut. It's bad enough that he strips down to his underwear the moment he gets home. I'm not going to have him going around with long hair." Charlie scowled at the remark and she stopped putting the documents down. "If you're only doing this to—"

"I'm doing this because you were very good at this before. I'm doing this because quite frankly I'm tired of you barging into my apartment uninvited and yelling at me. I admit that I should have given you the heads up about the song. I didn't though and I'm sorry, consider this my peace offering."

Santana feels her defensive fury deflate a little. She doesn't want it to be like this, where she has an issue with every little thing he says. "Oh. Fine." She settles on, ignoring the awkwardness and turning back to the documents on the table. "Your new agent is earning his keep."

"Once again, Sue is a woman. A crazy bat-shit woman, but a woman who is earning her keep, even if whenever we talk I have to buy her an expensive meal," Charlie mutters. Santana raises a brow at him and he shrugs. "I think, she thinks that it's my job to convince her to keep me on as a client. She's really good."

Santana nodded, she could see that. Charlie would be one of the highest paid sports stars depending on how many endorsement he took. "You know, I'd say that you were rather shrewd in waiting till we were divorced before getting paid."

Charlie frowned, "I—"

"Yes, I'm aware you fired your father. So you know, he's trying to rejoin the gravy train by trying to seduce your mother."

"The money that I give my mom isn't nearly enough to support my father's lifestyle and even if it was, mom doesn't have access to that money, it's set up in a trust of sorts." Charlie responded. His mother was an alcoholic, both his parents were even if Russell had his drinking under far more control then Judy did. She was good when Russell wasn't in her life but when they were together it was a bad combination.

Santana glanced at him, she had been telling Charlie for years that they could do better than Russell. That he was just the albatross around Charlie's neck dragging him down, but for nearly a decade Charlie hadn't listened to her. He wasn't very good at his job, he didn't know how to market his son effectively and from what she heard he was a dick to work with. Yet here he was. "So what did dear old daddy do to get himself cut off?"

Charlie shrugged, "He sold the video to TMZ," his words are enough to finally get Santana to tear her eyes away from the papers in front of her. "I found out it was him, after he lied to me and said it wasn't after he promised me that we'd find the asshole who did it. After I fired everyone who had access to the tape including my lawyers. I found out that he sold the video of me to TMZ for enough money to buy himself some fancy sports car. So I fired him. He was angry. Called me a fag, you know typical Russell behavior. You were right," Charlie shrugs. "About him, about everything."

Santana frowns. Of course she was right, she was always right. But it was no small thing for Charlie to admit that, especially about Russell.

"Go ahead and say it."

"Say what?"

"I told you so." Charlie rolls his eyes. He definitely deserved it. He hated himself for being such an idiot. His father wasn't ever going to change and choosing him over Santana was the worst choice he had ever made. "Come on, it's not like you to pull punches."

Santana sighed, tapping her finger on the granite countertops. Max, worshipped his father in a way that made Charlie a bit uncomfortable, and was probably unhealthy. As far as her son was concerned Charlie was the best thing ever and could do no wrong. If Charlie had loved his father even a fraction of how much Max loved him—then the crushing disappointment that he felt was probably going to make him more cynical than he needed to be. "Am I glad that you finally realized you can do better than him? Absolutely. But I'm sorry that your father isn't the man you want him to be."

"I'm sorry I wasn't the man you wanted me to be." Charlie retorts honestly. He's spent the last who knows how long saying he was sorry, but it's the first time he admits to more than just fucking up. He let Santana down even if it was something that happened years ago. She had always been on his side and he was the only one ultimately responsible.

Santana reaches out and touches his hand running her finger along his. She doesn't say anything as she continues to flip through the documents. There's a little voice in her head, that is reminding her that she was a giant hypocrite. She wasn't the person that Charlie thought he had married either, the whole basis of their marriage had been a lie. She pauses for a moment when she feels Charlie hold her hand, his hand engulfing hers, and a lump forms in her throat. He was such a giant dork, and she needed to move on, but she missed him. "Charlie—"

The door to the house slams open with a loud bang and immediately they separate, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Why is dad's car in the—" Max stopped when he entered the kitchen a huge grin crossing his face as his dad waved at him. "Dad!"

Charlie forced a smile onto his face, he was glad to see his son, even as Max practically knocked him off the stool in a hug tackle. "Hey there piranha."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Hello to you too Max, what have I said about slamming the door open? Do you have any idea how much that door costs?"

"Uh—"

"A lot," Charlie whispers to him.

"A lot," Max repeats pleased grinning at his father before letting go and moving to go give his mom a hug.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Where's your brother and sister?"

"Mommy!" CJ yelled stumbling into the kitchen as he tore away from Tina. He stops nearly falling over when he sees Charlie sitting there. "No!"

Charlie turns to his son eagerly, "Is that your version of daddy?"

"No!" CJ repeats laughing before continuing to head to Santana holding his hands up for her to pick him up. "Up!"

"Just like your mother." Charlie mutters but his eyes are dancing with mirth.

Santana groans as she picks him up, wondering why she was the one doing it and not Charlie, CJ was getting heavy. She flicks her eyes to Tina who looks surprised that Charlie is here. "Hey Tina, how were they?" Santana asked closing the folder.

"Good, but—"

"Dad?" Bela asked her eyes widening as she rounded the corner. "What are you doing here?" She hisses the last part.

Santana glares at Tina when she notices the twelve year old sociopath following her daughter. "Bree."

"They have a project." Tina explains apologetically. She's already been subjected to driving around Bela's bitchy friend and if she could have prevented this, she would have.

Bree ignores Santana and grins widely at Charlie and waves. "Hi Mr. Fabray, I'm Bela's best friend Bree."

Charlie can practically feel Santana's irritation radiating off her in thick waves. "Nice to meet you." He sticks out his hand politely for her to shake.

Bela groans and covers her face in embarrassment. Was he trying to be some freaky weird version of himself? Because it was working.

Bree ignores the outstretched hand and squeals before wrapping her arms around Charlie's waist and hugs him tightly. "Can I take a picture with you?"

Charlie tenses up immediately and looks at his ex-wife for help but Santana seems to be content in leaving him on his own with this one. "Uh, sure—"

"Come on Bela, why don't you get in the picture?" Santana encourages, smirking as Bree clenches her jaw ever so subtly. She's not about to cater to this pea-brained schemer, but she's also not going to let Bree take too much advantage of Bela in order to bolster her own popularity.

Bela grumbles and moves towards her father, she hadn't taken a picture with him in forever and he immediately moves to pull her into a hug. "Don't be weird dad."

Santana snorts as Charlie pouts at this for a moment and instead puts his arm around Bela's shoulder as Bree leans into him taking the stupid selfie. "Well now that we've gotten that over with—"

"Are you staying for dinner Mr. Fabray? Bela and I could really use your help with our project."

Santana gritted her teeth and was about to answer when Max perked up at the idea of Charlie staying longer than he needed to. "Yeah dad, can you stay for dinner?" Max asked, not noticing Bree smirk.

"I don't know—" Charlie glances at Santana and offers her a side wink that she's sure none of the kids saw.

"I'm sure Santana will make whatever you want. If she remembers, that is." Bree advises.

"Yeah mom, please?"

"If you really want me to stay then I guess your mom will have to make kale salads with half an ounce of chicken for each of us instead of the enchiladas that she was getting ready for dinner. Maybe we can even have a wheatgrass smoothie for dessert."

The smile on Max's face freezes and then slowly turns into a frown. He liked his mom's enchiladas. He also really liked his dad and that food sounded gross. "Is it good?"

"Nope. I have to eat healthy for work and something about anti-oxidants and all sorts of big words that I don't understand. But you and me bud we're a team so if I have to suffer then you—"

"Never mind." Max huffs. "But we can eat whatever this weekend, right? Because it's your cheat day?"

"Yes, it's my cheat day on Saturday," Charlie agrees before pausing. "Are you kicking me out?"

Max kicks his feet guiltily for a moment before nodding, "Yes. But you still love me right?"

"Of course I do, and don't worry about it Max, I would have done the same thing in your shoes." Charlie said patting Max on the head. He was truly his son, and he loved him for it all the more. Food was important and eating good food that you enjoyed was even more important, but he no longer had that luxury. He turns to Santana and smiles at her. "Anyway, I'll call you later?"

Santana nods, he had handled that deftly judging from the scowl on Bree's face. Bree was creepy and Bela really did need new friends. "Yeah, I'll call you when we have a minute and then we can discuss this."

Charlie gets up from the stool and holds out a fist for Max who bumps it the smile back on his face. "See you this weekend Max. You too CJ," Charlie said reaching for his youngest son who simply buried his face in Santana's shoulder. Charlie rolls his eyes and pats his back gently before looking at Bella, who really does look mortified by his presence. He extends a fist towards her and she bumps it, looking embarrassed. "It was nice meeting you Bree, good luck on that project of yours. See you later Tina," Charlie adds giving her a salute before heading out.

Santana shakes her head and places CJ on the ground, "Max can you put on Little Einstein for him? I need to continue getting dinner ready." She didn't know if her relationship with her ex was finally reaching that point where they could be friends. She wasn't truly sure if she even wanted to be friends with Charlie.