Santana grimaced as she brought a tissue to her lips as she coughed, hard. Pulling the tissue away, she didn't even need to look at the tissue to know that it was dotted with blood. She could taste the bitter iron taste in her mouth, and she could feel her insides twisting and tearing. It felt like someone was taking a cheese grater to her intestines. She'd already been out sick for a week, but the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. Everything was normal. She didn't have TB, or pneumonia, all of her blood tests, the MRI's, CT scans every single test, including the blood tests had been negative.

Everyday was worse than the last one and she felt like she was dying. Which was the only reason she was here. Three years, she'd managed to keep away. She'd graduated from Columbia and had headed to the University of Chicago, where she was doing rather well. All without seeing Charlie. As far as she knew this was all on Charlie, and she needed Charlie to stop whatever she was doing.

The elevator dings and almost immediately she feels some relief, it's brief before the pain in her insides comes back with a vengeance and she places her hand on a wall to steady herself. Before holding her head up and looking at Charlie's main offices. Charlie clearly hadn't grown up and it looked like one of those tech firms you would see on television, with a basketball net and a foosball table and everything.

"Excuse me do you need anything?"

Santana looks up at the secretary who had approached her, a suspicious look on her face. She glances at the name tag. "I'm here to see Charlie."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"Look. Marley, I'm going to be extremely helpful to you because you're new—"

"I've been here for two years."

"So, new. I have a standing appointment with Charlie. The last person who stopped me from seeing her when I wanted too was fired. Now you can call security and then I'll be forced to make a scene and I'm sure Charlie will exit her office to see what's going on she'll see me being harassed by some rent-a-cop and then I assume she'll get annoyed and fire you, and those cops."

"What I know, is that if I let anyone off the street to see the CEO of a fortune company just because they threatened me. I'd be out of a job as well." Marley snaps back. She takes a breath, "I'll call and ask her, may I have a name?"

Santana forced a smile onto her face, "Santana Lopez." Marley nodded and headed back to her desk to call ahead. The elevator's ding and she turns around to look at it, she'd recognize the shitty haircut and trouty lips anywhere. "Sam."

Sam blinks, "Santana?" He rubs his eyes, it had been radio silence on her end for years. It would also quite possibly send Charlie on a tailspin. "You can't be—are you okay?"

"No. I need to see her, as soon as possible."

Sam hesitated, before nodding. Charlie would murder him if he didn't give Santana the VIP treatment. "Okay, I'll walk you to her." He offers his arm to help her, because Santana looked like she was about to keel over any moment. "How are things going up in New York?"

"I've been in Chicago for the past two, going to law school. If you want to know about Quinn, which I'm guessing you do. She's still dating Rachel and it's still weird as fuck."

"I'm over Quinn, I have a girlfriend now."

"Is she a Quinn clone?"

"Opposite."

"A hairy black man?"

"What? No. I'm not gay!"

"Those lips say otherwise."

Sam glared at her, "This is why we don't talk."

Santana smirked at him, "Right. This is why we don't talk," she shakes her head and looks at Charlie's office, each step towards her made her feel markedly better. She untangles herself from Sam's arm the moment she gets to Charlie's door and without bothering to knock enters it. Closing the door behind her, making sure that it was in Sam's face.

Charlie looks up from where she's eating her Chicago style pizza and studies Santana for a moment before going back to eating her pizza.

Santana blinks. The reaction hadn't been what she'd expected every single time she'd been back Charlie had always been more than happy to see her. It's baffling and seeing her ex-girlfriend is confusing enough without Charlie being her usual self.

"We're both aware I knew you were coming the moment you were two blocks away." Charlie said before taking another bite. She chews rapidly. "I can't read your mind Santana, why are you here?"

Santana scowls, "You know why I'm here."

"I really don't, I've been busy. Sam keeps me busy. If you're here to accuse me of a crime, I haven't done that in years." Charlie says as she takes a sip of her drink. Santana had made it clear that she didn't want her and even though it hurt, she had gone out of her way to respect her. To respect that. "Also, can you not threaten my secretaries?"

"Bullshit." Santana snaps at Charlie, maybe she wasn't dumping toxic waste in the void, but she needed to stop. "You're doing something, you have to be. You know I can feel it when you're sucking things up, so whatever, you're up to you need to stop. I'm getting sick. Like actual sick not, Charlie decided to make a car disappear so now I can't eat for a few hours."

Charlie frowns, concern flitting across her face. "Santana, I haven't used my abilities in years. They put me in a—bad place if I use them. For now, I'm clean."

"Don't lie to me." If this wasn't Charlie's doing, then there was something that was wrong with her. Maybe it was what they had done to her finally coming back to bite her in the ass. They had used radiation, maybe it was cancer."

"I have never lied to you Santana." Charlie frowns finally pushing her pizza away and going to Santana.

"Then why do I feel better around—" Santana grabs her tissue paper and coughs into it. The bitter metallic taste coming back as her insides quake and she leans forward to grab Charlie's desk to keep from falling over. Charlie was by her side in second and had her arms around her. The closeness and the warmth that radiated off her made her feel better, only for a few seconds before she pushed Charlie away. "I have a girlfriend."

"Okay? When did this start?" Charlie asked, reaching to touch Santana's forehead. She was rewarded with Santana smacking her hand away weakly. She wasn't feverish by any means.

"Off and on for the past year Charlie, it just got really bad two weeks ago. They've done tests, hundreds of them and no one can tell what's wrong with me. That's why I'm here, if you're doing anything—"

"I'm not." Charlie swears. "I'm not. The company is doing well. Like really well, like Amazon might buy me out and I'll be set for life well. I don't have a reason to be going off in the middle of the night doing anything illegal. Sam keeps me busy working out, going to counselling for my 'addiction'. I haven't done anything that you'd disprove of."

There had been reports in the paper lately about Amazon sniffing around Charlie's company. It had been accompanied by some comments from her parents about how she wouldn't have had to work a day in her life, if she and Charlie got back together again. She knew her parents didn't mean, and she knew they still liked Charlie for her, but none of that mattered. She was dying, and Charlie quite possibly wasn't responsible. "Then I'm actually dying?"

"I'll fix it," Charlie said.

"I don't think you can fix it. There's no fixing it," She was going to die. "I need to go home."

"I'll take you—"

"I don't think my girlfriend would approve. She doesn't even know I'm here," Santana admits. Neither did her parents.

Charlie was quiet for a moment, "Sam will call a car for you, it'll take you anywhere. If you need anything—"

"I need to get better." Santana snaps. "I just want to get better. They've already taken so much from me, if I have to deal with cancer on top of everything else? Fuck. They did the same thing to you and you're fine." Santana shakes her head. This had been a mistake coming to Charlie had been a mistake and even though she felt better than she had in weeks, Charlie still wasn't going to be able to cure her.

Charlie frowns and watches as Santana pulls herself up and walks out, narrowing her eyes slightly. She wouldn't have let Santana out of her sight, but she moves to open the door for her and looks at Sam. "Make sure she gets home."

Sam studies her for a moment before giving her a quick nod and Charlie closes and locks her door. She immediately goes back to her pizza and takes a sip of her drink before leaning back. Just a quick peak, it would probably set her back a few weeks. But she'd just been near Santana, she'd be fine. She had too. She waves her hand slightly creating a small opening, immediately feeling her emotions starting to shift but she takes a breath and takes a quick look. She's used to the eternal darkness of the singularity. She'd learned to navigate it back when she was still using her abilities, her eyes had grown used to it, but this time. It was different. This time there wasn't eternal darkness, if she squinted she was sure she saw light. The last time she'd seen lightin the void was— Charlie's body goes rigid and she immediately yanks herself back to reality. The smart thing to do would be to tell Santana of what she'd found, but Santana had made it clear she wasn't welcome back in her life. Charlie inhales slowly, no wonder Santana was sick. But she was going to deal with, the only way she knew, and she was finally going to get some answers.