"Stay."
Santana glanced over at Charlie who laying naked in their bed, and rolls her eyes. "I thought you'd be happy that we have Dani in custody. She's being charged with a litany of charges. I've managed to connect some of the money that Titan Industries gave her to her family and her friend Matt Rutherford. You probably have a good case of slander. They knew she was alive; they knew she was safe and they accused you of her murder it cost you your job—speaking of jobs," Santana trailed off and turned to look at Charlie, who puffed out her cheeks at the conversation. "Your name has been cleared Charlie. Sam has said the board has offered you your position back—"
"Sam is working harder than I ever did, to make this happen, and despite my legal fees I still have plenty of money to live off, plus I still own major stake in my company and I have voting interests. I really didn't like being the CEO I had to be charming and nice to people, and I needed to write reports." Charlie shudders. "That's why Sam wants to give me my job back, because he hates it as much as I did."
"I have plenty of paperwork and you don't hear me complaining," Santana pointed out, smiling when Charlie snorted at the comment.
"I've seen your desk, I'm not sure how you can find anything," Charlie replied as she sat up and watched Santana applying her lipstick. "Besides you enjoy it when I make and bring you lunch, and I've got my hobbies."
"Watching the food network and trying to recreate Guy Fieri dishes isn't a hobby, it's a heart attack waiting to happen," Santana teased as she finished and turned to look at Charlie. "Are we still having dinner with my parents tonight?"
"I don't know, are we? You're the one that keeps cancelling on them. I'd like to tell them you proposed to me, though I still think your mother thinks I'm the worst person on the planet. I mean Dani is finally back in the States as of this morning, and despite wanting to wring her neck, I'm going to let you handle it."
"If I can't do it tonight, then how about tomorrow during lunch?"
"Or this weekend, when you're not working," Charlie pointed out. "The sooner we can tell them, the sooner we can head down to the courthouse and get married. Then we can have a small or big celebration if you want. Then we can go on our honeymoon."
Santana rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help the smile on her face. "Alright, I'll make sure we can have dinner with them tonight, but I really need to go and put the bad guys away. Think about helping Sam out. You owe him."
Charlie makes a face, at this but nods as she tugs her blanket over her, she was going to go back to bed if Santana wasn't interested in joining her for some morning fun. Santana was never interested in joining her for some morning fun. "I'll bring you lunch today; don't worry it'll be healthy."
Santana winced, "Just get me a salad Charlie, everyone gets jealous when you actually cook for me. If I don't bring enough to share and all that—that is not an invitation to actually bring enough to share. If you start feeding them then well, I don't know what I'm going to do."
Charlie flashes Santana an amused grin, "Alright."
"Charlie—"
"I know, I promise I won't. I'll bring you some salad and some soup," Charlie promises.
Santana narrows her eyes, there were days when she trusted Charlie completely, but she'd seen the smile on Charlie's face before to know that she couldn't be trusted. "Remember, we're going to see my parents tonight. So just a simple salad and a cup of soup."
Charlie saluted at Santana who scowled in response. She could do those things just fine.
~ O ~
"So, do they even know we're dating?" Charlie asked as she shifted the expensive wine around in her hand. "I should have brought champagne."
"I'm an adult—" Santana began as she knocked on the door.
"So, your dad knows and you haven't mentioned it to your mom, it's probably good that I didn't bring champagne then." Charlie mused pulling at her shirt, when she gets swatted by Santana. "Should I bring it up?"
"Dani? No. I say we just get it over with, and my mom will probably wait till we leave before calling me to tell me that I'm making a mistake. You've never treated me like you treated Dani, you've never treated any of your other lovers like you treated Dani. My biggest issue with you is that you always want to have sex in the morning when I have to get to work."
"You should quit your job, so we can have sex in the morning," Charlie said as the door swung open. She pauses and flashes a smile at Maribel, who didn't look thrilled at her words. "Hey Mrs. Lopez," Charlie said flashing her a smile and shoving the bottle of wine forward. "I brought wine!"
Santana immediately wrapped an arm around Charlie's extended arm. She could already see her mother's judgemental gaze directed at them. "We're getting married. I proposed, she said yes," Santana blurts out. "I love her, I've always loved her and we've dealt with the issue of Dani, and Frannie."
"Speak for yourself," Charlie muttered darkly.
Santana elbowed Charlie forcing her to smile. "Frannie's credibility took a hit, after you were proven innocent—"
"She didn't kill Dani, that doesn't mean that the rest wasn't true." Maribel said looking at Charlie. "I saw the picture of the bruises—"
"Mami," Santana interrupted trying to put her foot down.
"I did it," Charlie shrugged. "Some of it was an accident, other times I wasn't thinking. I did hurt Dani, but nothing in that relationship was healthy. We brought out the worst in each other and I treated her badly, I treated her like than she was less than." Charlie admits meeting Maribel's gaze. "I never loved Dani, not the way I love and cherish your daughter, and I would never raise a hand to her. I could never."
Charlie had always denied it, and she suspected that Charlie would never publicly admit what she had done. "Admitting that doesn't mean that I'm going to trust you with my daughter. I'm not sure you two should be getting married. The two of you have always been extremely attached for periods of time but you always breaking up. I don't see how anything has changed."
"Because the issue has been resolved, the people who kidnapped us are currently facing trial, many of them have plead guilty and will be serving time in federal prison. They're no longer a shadow looming over our relationship." Santana said jumping to Charlie's defense. It was mostly the truth; she wasn't sure that her mother could handle the entire truth not like her father did. "Can we come inside now? I don't want to have this conversation on the doorstep," Santana tugged Charlie in and around her mother who was standing there with her mouth agape. "They caught the people who took me. That's how I met Charlie; we've known each other since those days."
Maribel turned to Charlie who rubbed the back of her neck, "You were kidnapped as well?"
"I got arrested, at least I thought I was being arrested." Charlie admitted. "They took me to the same facility that they took Santana. They ran experiments on us and all the other teens died, we're the only two survivors."
"She kept me alive," Santana throws in for good measure. "She did, she gave me her food, she motivated me to stay alive."
"That's not—" Charlie was elbowed hard. She grimaces and looks at Santana who is on a roll.
"You need to trust me, mami. Charlie is the one, and I know she's not perfect and she's got skeletons in her closet. But some of them are the same as mine and we do make each other better." Santana glanced at Charlie who seemed unsure of when to jump in.
"I've been watching Santana's back since were teens, and that will never change Mrs. Lopez. I've loved her since we escaped. I have always loved her even when we weren't together. She makes me better, she makes me want to be better and now that Titan industries isn't out there hurting people, I've been in a better place. I do have therapists and I've been dealing with any anger issues, but even when we argue with one another, which we did this morning. I'm not as angry as I would have gotten in the past."
Maribel swallows, this was so much to take in. "Does your papi know?" It's the only thing she could think of at this moment, Miguel needed to hear this story. She had suspected that Santana hadn't been completely truthful. They had never found these people that Santana had described as taking her. It had been a cold case, and she had heard some rumors that Santana had just run away. They hadn't seen the scars on Santana's body. They hadn't seen how much weight she had lost or the haunted look in her eyes. They hadn't woken up to their daughter screaming in terror in the middle of the night.
"I do know. She told me everything when she confessed to me about dating Frannie," Miguel said speaking up from where he was listening at the end of the hall. When his wife looks at him a betrayed look on her face. "I couldn't tell you. She asked me not too—"
"I could have—"
"Cops arrested me, and dragged me to that facility. They had no problem killing people, or sending mercenaries after me once they figured out that I had lived. If you had investigated then you probably would have gotten Santana or your husband killed. I didn't know if it was the government or some corporation, that's why no one told you. You're really good at your job, and you always want to seek the truth," Charlie speaks up finally pulling down her collar to reveal the bullet hole.
"She took it to save Santana," Miguel said slowly. "It's why despite her past, which I agree is troubling, I know Santana will be safe with her."
Santana turned to look at Charlie for a moment, who looked very uncomfortable, she had taken a bullet for her. "You're right we've fought, we've argued—we've broken up, but that's why I proposed. I know it might seem silly to you, but—a lot of our breakups was because we'd given up without much of a fight for the other person. We don't agree with the other and running away was simpler, but that didn't stop the bond we share. So, I asked her to marry me, and she said yes."
"I'm pretty sure I said that you needed to get me a ring first and get down on one—" Charlie cleared her throat at a sharp look from Santana, but she smiled. "She said no to eloping, but I do want to marry your daughter."
"You should have brought champagne then," Miguel said before Maribel could say anything. "This is a celebration."
"It's good that she said no the eloping, I would never have approved of this relationship, if she hadn't. There would have been a do-over," Maribel sniffed, before sighing. "There is still more that you need to tell me, about what happened to you—to the both of you. The truth."
Charlie exchanged a look with Santana, and reached for her hand squeezing it. She wasn't about to tell another person about her powers. She hadn't used them since she'd tortured Sue. She'd been doing good. When Santana squeezes her hand, she knows that they're on the same page about this.
~ O ~
"We should probably tell Quinn," Santana muses watching as Charlie pauses from where she is trying to get naked and glares at her.
"Seriously?" Charlie said looking up at Santana.
"I'd like for you to have some family on your side when we get married. You love Quinn, don't you? You practically forced me to be her best friend."
"You were bullying her."
"I was not bullying her. I was ignoring her existence as everyone else bullied her. I want to let you know that she was weird even back then," Santana points out. "None of which changes my point that you love her and you'd like for her to be there. You do have family who loves you Charlie."
"You love me, and you'll be there at our wedding, right?" Charlie smiles.
Santana's eyes narrow slightly, she hadn't expected this to be an issue. "What did Quinn do?"
"Nothing. When all of this went down Rachel may have believed Frannie, Quinn knew I didn't do it, but I didn't really want to come between her and Rachel. I know she feels guilty about it, but I really don't want to go back to the time where Quinn was dating women with wrinkly asses. I'm still not okay with Rachel, and inviting them to the wedding might make things awkward on what is supposed to be the happiest day of my life."
"Like you showing up to their wedding with Dani on your arm?" Santana teases, which brings a sheepish smile to Charlie's face. "I'll yell at Rachel for you if you want. Every news station in the country ran with it. There are images on the internet of Dani in handcuffs. How have you still not gotten a call back from Rachel?"
"I imagine she's embarrassed, that she believed Frannie of all people. We had a secret thing going on. I mean it was right in front of Quinn's face, but still—" Charlie dodged a pillow that Santana launched at her head, and grins. "I'll send an email tomorrow."
Santana nods and pats the bed beside her. "Call her, be the adult. She's your sister and you love her enough to bully me into befriending her."
Charlie flops on the bed beside her and wraps an arm around Santana's waist, pulling her in for a quick kiss on the cheek. "And aren't you glad you did befriend her?"
"I saw a lot of wrinkly asses Charlie. I lived with her," Santana reminds Charlie who laughs at her plight. "But I mean apart from her questionable taste in women, I mean she married a hobbit of all things," When Charlie kisses her again she sighs. "We're not teenagers anymore," she reminds Charlie even as she turns her face to kiss back.
"I know," Charlie murmurs against her lips moving to her neck.
"We can't keep having sex every night," Santana says again shivering slightly.
"Debatable. We're getting married and I still think you're the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."
"Kiss-ass," Santana says as she feels Charlie's hands on her body.
"We can do that tonight if you want," Charlie informed her and she's rewarded with a quick pinch. She smirks and rolls over so she's on top of Santana and leans in to kiss her.