Santana swallowed, as she kept perfectly still on Charlie's comfortable bed gripping the sheets that she was under. She had cheated. She was a cheater. She had cheated on Francesca, and Charlie was a savant in the bedroom. Her body still tingled in the post-orgasmic glow. She couldn't even remember how they had managed to get to Charlie's bedroom.

The bed shifts and she can feel Charlie getting off the bed. She tilts her head slightly, so she can watch as Charlie bends over to grab a pair of shorts that were just lying on the ground. She smiles as Charlie sniffs it, before deciding it was clean enough to wear. It was like she hadn't grown up at all.

"You don't have to pretend to be asleep." Santana freezes, as Charlie slips on her shorts. "I get it. Pity fuck, we don't need to make this weird. We have this connection, and as much as I want you to stay. You have a girlfriend. And honestly at this point I don't want to know her name. I'm not going to do or say anything to fuck up your life Santana."

There was no point in pretending any longer and she sits up and rubs at her eyes, "It wasn't a pity fuck."

Charlie blinks, "Your girlfriend isn't doing it for you so you're looking me up?"

"Don't be crude Charlie, it's our connection. This is why we can't be in the same room together for long periods of time, we inevitably end up here." It was a cop out, she knew it, and there was a part of her that longed for the days where they would spend the entire day in bed, having sex whenever they felt like it, or just watching television, cuddling and just being close. She closes her eyes for a moment, "Could you promise me that you wouldn't do it again?"

"Do it?" Charlie prompts reaching for a shirt.

"Break the law. If things get difficult, can you swear to me that you wouldn't just break the law?" It was foolish, and she was setting herself up for disappointment again. She had something good with Frannie. Frannie was self-made, she was ambitious, she was a decent lover, sure there were some rough edges, but Frannie was good for her. Charlie would say anything to get her to believe—

"No."

Santana blinked, "No?"

"I can say the words if that's what you're looking for. But you know I can't keep that promise. There will always be something Santana, and I'm not going to lie to you. I have to work harder than most people to be good. And even though I desperately want to be with you again, I won't lie to you, I won't hide what I am."

Santana narrowed her eyes, "You're not a monster."

Charlie flashed Santana a small smile, "Maybe, but that doesn't make me one of those superheroes in the comics that Sam keeps dropping on my desk." Charlie runs a hand through her hair, "I'm never going to be—respectable."

"You can be, I don't know why you're talking like you can't be," It was a plea, she had a girlfriend, who was everything she wanted. She should be happy, but here she was naked in Charlie's bed.

"You wouldn't love me if I was anyone else," Charlie shrugged. They wouldn't have made it if she was anyone else. Charlie shifts uncomfortably for a moment, "Go back to your girlfriend and your perfect life Santana."

"My life isn't perfect Charlie." When Charlie doesn't say anything, she swallows and shakes her head slightly before kicking off the blankets and going to find her clothes. She needed some air, and more importantly she needed to get out of here.

~O~

Miguel Lopez jumped when he heard the door slam and sighed as he got up to check who was in a terrible mood. He finds his daughter staring at an open fridge. He clears his throat and watches as she shoots up, he was about to comment about the fact that she needed to be studying for her midterms, but the confused lost look on her face makes him pause. "How about I make you something to warm to drink," he offers.

Santana nods wordlessly, her mind a mess of emotions. She takes a seat at the island and fidgets, maybe this was guilt, she hadn't felt that in a long time. And sure, she could bitch at Quinn, but Quinn was related to both Charlie and Frannie. It was a mess, and sure she had other people she talked to and was friendly with, but they didn't know her as the girl that came back from being kidnapped. They didn't know the full story and they wouldn't get it. She flicks her eyes to her father who was waiting for the water to boil and smiles, he was trying. "Francesca is Charlie's sister."

Miguel jerked to look at Santana, when she doesn't say anything and just stares at him, he laughs, "What did you say? I'm sure you said—"

"Francesca is Charlie's sister, I found out when I met her family. Imagine my surprise when Quinn and Rachel show up, they thankfully didn't say anything to Frannie, but—I'm dating Charlie's sister. Her last name is July, she changed it because her father's—well you know who her father is." The words come tumbling out it's almost cathartic in a way.

Miguel looks at the half-completed cup of hot cocoa that he had started to prepare, "This calls for something stronger, I'll be back," he said as he headed to the garage to get some hard liquor. It doesn't take him long to come back with two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. "Start from the beginning, mija," he says pouring her a drink.

Santana laughed, almost bitterly. "I can't. I just—" she's quiet for a moment. "You can't tell mami, you have to promise me that you won't tell mami."

Miguel nods he could handle some silly drama. He'd been there a million times before he had met Maribel, "It'll be our secret."

Santana bit her lip, he had been so flippant about it, like this was just a case of her sleeping with a girl who happened to be related to her first love. She looks at the glass and takes it and gulps it down, ignoring the burning sensation. "I wasn't the only person who was kidnapped. That's why you can't tell mami, she'll want to do something about it—and the people who took me are powerful, if they had no problem stealing a bunch of kids and experimenting on them, I doubt assassinations are off the table."

Miguel froze, Santana had never once brought up the kidnapping even with her multiple therapists, she had bounced back rather quickly but her words were almost paranoid. "Okay," he said quietly. He would make the call later whether to rope his wife into it. "Okay, what happened—"

Santana pours another drink before her father could stop her. "That's where I met Charlie, it wasn't the first day—it was days after the fact. She was there too, after some of the teenagers died they started to herd us into cells together and she got put in mine. I thought they had gotten Quinn at first, I didn't know that she had a twin. We weren't friends back then." Santana swallowed. "It wasn't until we were the only two left that it sort of happened where we just came to rely on each other, Charlie was really good at picking pockets, and really good at taking pain. Russell used her as a punching bag, she just disassociates, I guess. Either way she was better than I was at it, so it didn't affect her as much as they gave her spinal taps, or they stuck her with needles. She gave me her food, I don't think she trusted it, and she kept telling me we're going to live. I believed her sometimes, I mean I was gone for a good long time. I had to believe her, and then one night she had managed to finally swipe a card from one of the scientists that were torturing us." Santana licks her lips. "We were supposed to leave that night, but it was hard and we both fell asleep and we were woken up by this guy who dragged us into a new room and that's when I saw it."

"Saw it?" Miguel prompted, unsure if he should reach out and touch her. She sounded distant like she was reliving it.

"Charlie calls it the void. The scientists called it a singularity, all I know it is that it's a dimensional hole, that was unstable. They threw me in." Santana paused and looked at her father. There was disbelief on his features. "I know it sounds unbelievable, trust me I've thought I was batshit, I thought my mind had played tricks on me but a few months after I came back I made a—" Santana frowns. It would be better to show not tell him. He needed to know how dangerous it was for him to breathe a word of it to anyone. "Think of an object any object, can be food, anything."

"I don't know a basketball," Miguel managed to get out, still baffled as to where this was going.

Santana held out her hand and concentrated for a moment before a basketball was put together right in front of her father's eyes. She watches as her father jumps back and she pushes the basketball away watching as it bounces towards him. "I can create anything. I don't know why or how it happened, but I can do so many things papi. Probably more if I worked on my abilities like Charlie does actively."

"Charlie can do this too?"

"No. I don't know why her abilities are different, but Charlie—it's not my place to tell you what Charlie's abilities are. But she was fighting them off and after she saw me get thrown in, she went in after me. I don't know what happened but needless to say, the prison that we were in was destroyed in the process and we got out. Charlie had his keys and I we drove from Indiana back into Chicago. She picked pockets and stole what we needed to drive back. And we have a connection. The two of us, Quinn thinks it's because of what we went through both the emotional and physical, but I know when Charlie is close by. It's like a tingle. Charlie can tell when I'm nearby."

Miguel looked at the basketball for a moment before reaching for his own drink and gulping it down. It was too much for him, "What does this have to do with you dating Francesca?"

"I slept with Charlie, earlier. I think it's the bond, but I mean whenever I'm near her it reopens old wounds, it makes me want her, and I know she wants me too. But Frannie is normal, she's good for me and I do like her."

"But you're in love with Charlie." Miguel said calmly, before taking a seat beside his daughter. "Did she break up with you?"

"No. Every time it was my choice. Because of something she did. Charlie doesn't think the rules apply to her. She—she is a criminal. Or well she breaks the law, when she feels like it's necessary. Every time we've broken up is because she's broken the law."

"People break the law all the time Santana—when I was—"

"Murder isn't just breaking the law. She killed someone. One of the scientists that experimented on us—who does that?"

"Oh." Miguel blinked. "Has she ever—"

"No. Charlie has never laid a hand on me. She's never been cold or cruel towards me, she's never really attempted to control my actions except for the whole let's not blurt out to the world that we have super powers, and to not tell you everything. At the time we were teenagers and honestly it is a massive corporation and while I trusted you. Charlie got picked up by the police."

"Shit."

Santana laughed and poured herself another drink. "Tell me about it."

"We should tell your mother."

"We can't." Santana said firmly. "I am not going to be locked in a room again while people experiment on me."

Miguel paused and looked at the basketball. "I'm not going to let that happen, and I know your mother won't once she understands Santana."

"Can you promise me that she won't?"

Miguel hesitated, his wife was a cut-throat prosecutor, who tended to go over the top especially when she felt her family was threatened. "We'll figure out how to talk to your mother about this some other day." He says finally before looking at his daughter. "Did this connection have anything to do with how sick you got?"

Santana shrugged, "I don't know. Charlie doesn't lie to me, and she said it wasn't her. I believe her. It didn't feel like Charlie fucking around with her abilities, honestly, it's been so long since she has I'm not even sure she can. It really might have just been a viral illness."

Miguel flicked his eyes over his daughter, he doubted it. She had been close to death's door and had miraculously recovered the next day. He had no idea what they had pumped her full off and he couldn't run any tests on her without possibly triggering some sort of mental break in his daughter. Instead he pulls her into a hug. "I can't tell you what to do about your Francesca and Charlie situation, but I can say that I'm happy that you finally told me."

Santana let out a sigh, he hadn't exactly helped her figure out what to do but she still had time to figure it out.