"Shit." Charlie grumbled as she put down her sandwich and grabbed a napkin and tried to dab the mayo off her shirt. She really had zero idea why she couldn't eat a sandwich without getting some condiment on her clothes. It wasn't professional and she was glad that Quinn had suggested that she start taking spare outfits to the office for just this reason. She groans and gets up and begins to unbutton the top few buttons as she gets up to look for a clean shirt.

There's a knock and Charlie sighs and buttons up her shirt, "Come in," she calls out as she takes a seat at her desk and opens up her calendar to see who her next patient was. She had been certain that her schedule was clear for an hour so she could eat lunch and get some paperwork done.

Santana looked at Charlie from the door as she chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to get her computer to show her schedule, and smiled. How had she never noticed how cute Charlie was when she concentrated, or how she crinkled her nose when she grew frustrated. "Can I have five minutes?"

Charlie froze, and slowly looked up to see Santana standing there. She swallowed, it had been weeks since their last blowout and she had expected Santana to go back to Doctors without Borders, and attempt again in another ten years. "Look, I'm at work and I really dislike mixing my personal business with work—" Charlie tilted her head when Santana held up a folder. "I know you don't need my help to figure out a case," Charlie points out but motions for Santana to come in.

Santana takes a step into the office and closes the door behind her, "You know you have a bit of mayo on your—"

"Three minutes," Charlie interrupts immediately, her cheeks turning red in embarrassment. This was ridiculous. She didn't even like Santana, yet it seemed to be extremely easy for her to get under her skin. "Why are you here Santana?"

Santana is quiet for a moment, "Do you trust me?"

"No?" Charlie blinked. "You left and quite frankly I thought you had run away again."

"I meant as a surgeon, do you trust my skills as a surgeon?" Santana asked.

Charlie rolled her eyes, "Did you just come here for a compliment Santana? You know how I feel about your surgical skills. I may not like you but I certainly respect your skills." Charlie sighed as Santana opened the folder and pushed a few pages towards her. She skimmed them quickly. "This guy is going to need a bypass, maybe a triple, quite possibly a quadruple. I'm not sure why you're showing me this, this isn't second opinion worthy."

"The name," Santana offers, deciding to let Charlie figure it out on her own. She had thought about going through the surgery but after she had stopped to think about it, anything could happen in a surgery and if Charlie's father died on her table, and Charlie found out that this was some plot to get together with her—it would spend the end of any idea of a relationship. She had to be honest, part of Charlie's problem with her was that she wasn't trustworthy and hiding things from her and plotting with her mother was not the best way to prove herself to her soulmate.

Charlie flicked to the name and her body goes rigid, "Why do you have—"

"Your mother and your identical twin stopped by the apartment. Your mother is lovely by the way, a bit pushy but she asked if I could get involved, and she wanted me to use the fact that I gave your father a new lease on life, as a way to convince you to at least give me a shot. I thought about it, the surgery is planned for next week but if anything were to happen—"

Charlie holds up her hand and hands Santana back the documents, "My father eats terribly, he's never seen the inside of a gym and he's obese, possibly morbidly so. I mean honestly the fact that he needs a bypass isn't surprising. Nor is it surprising that my mother and Rachel have decided to meddle."

"What is surprising?" Santana asks looking at Charlie as she packs up her fathers file.

Charlie was quiet for a moment, "That you're coming to me of all people to give you confidence, I already know what you think of my skills Santana, I know you don't respect them so I can only imagine—"

"What are you talking about?" Santana interrupts looking at Charlie as if she had grown another head. "Who told you that?"

"You only wrote me a reference because you realized I was your soulmate before I did, and you wanted to hedge your bets. I always thought I was at least better than Sam, but you gave him a reference no problem. And I had to be the one to stop Sam from leaving a sponge in a patient."

"What?" Santana asked.

"You really were a terrible mentor, you should probably never be in charge of any resident again," Charlie said flatly. "This happened a few times, I thought you knew. I mean all the nurses knew to do a count before and after to make sure that Sam never left anything inside a patient. A few of the other surgeons knew as well. You gave him a recommendation letter and you didn't give me one. So even if you didn't directly say it, that action made it clear what you thought of my skills."

Santana exhaled, she had definitely used up her time but Charlie hadn't kicked her out. "You're right, I really was a shitty mentor. I honestly had no idea that you were covering for Sam, and I wrote him—well no I just gave him the template that I use and signed it. Your anxiety was my problem with you, I knew that other surgeons said that you were good but I never saw it. I have always had the resident that I felt was a fuck up and I was always ruthless with them. You were late on the first day, I thought you were going to be the fuck up. I don't know why I focused on you, but I probably made it worse and for that I'm sorry I was a shitty mentor. I'm glad that you became an excellent surgeon in spite of me." When Charlie doesn't say anything Santana flashes her a smile, and arranges the folder. "My three minutes are up."

"Does my mother know that you came here?" Charlie asks, when Santana shakes her head she nods. "Good. Keep it that way, I shouldn't encourage her meddling but I don't call nearly enough and she has no idea what is going on in my life. And this makes her happy, so make sure that my dad comes back to her. She loves him, despite his many many flaws, and I love my mother and want to make sure she's happy."

Santana nods again, "I get that. I'll do the surgery and let you know how it goes."

Charlie waits until Santana is at her door, "Once my mother starts to sing your praises. I'll call you, and invite you out for a drink. This is your one and only chance Dr. Lopez. If it doesn't go well then you really do need to leave me alone."

Santana froze and looked at Charlie, it was a chance, she studies Charlie's face but she can't see any hint that Charlie was simply fucking with her. "I'm looking forward to it Dr. Fabray," she replies finally with a pleased smile on her face. She had a chance, and she most certainly wasn't going to blow it.