"Did you really need to tell Blaine that I was a prick?"
Santana looked up from where she was sitting beside Charlie's bedside, she hadn't moved even as the machines beeped. "I wasn't sure if he was still blind to your faults because he is so nauseatingly in love with you. I mean he agreed to marry you, of all the gay men in the world." She turns her head so she can look at Sebastian who doesn't look thrilled. "If you had just picked up your phone when I called you, I wouldn't have needed to talk to Blaine, so as far as I see me talking to Blaine is your fault." Santana pointed out sharply, before looking back at Charlie. "Why are you here?"
Sebastian moved to take a closer look at Charlie for a moment, "Three reasons, actually. First reason—" Sebastian hands Santana a tablet, "—is this. We're not sure what to make of it, and we might actually need your help figuring it out. It's the video that Charlie's body-cam caught at the end of the night. Our working theory is that they used these—people as some sort of energy source. Charlie attempted to rescue one, applied CPR but to no avail. They died. Upon closer inspection, underdeveloped organs, including the lungs and heart. The tattoos, look like circuitry, we've never seen anything like it. Charlie destroyed the facility, that's why we assume she's down for the count right now."
Santana took the tablet and flicked through the carefully crafted document before playing the video, wordlessly. She watches the anger and how the others flinch when Charlie gets angry, that had probably been what had caused her body to shut down. The audio quality isn't the greatest but she can hear the one they called Sasha who seems to be trying to get her to leave. She switches off the video, "It's a homunculus. An artificial human being," Santana says after a moment handing back the tablet.
"What—like a clone?"
"No, it was a part of alchemy in the sixteenth century, that's as much as I know. The closest analogy that I have is that it's like a golem, but not the same. Golems require magic to operate, a homunculus is artificial life, a being without a soul, or anything really, all they do is produce magic. It's disgusting, unethical, and morally abhorrent. Charlie did the right thing by destroying the place."
Sebastian frowned, and sent an internal message to start looking up homunculus, "And the circuitry?"
"You're right they're being used as an energy source, judging from the rows of those vat things, I'm going to suggest it required a lot of magic. I wouldn't be able to tell you what they were using it for, ask Quinn. Whatever Charlie did killed nearly eighty Templars, and honestly I really don't give a damn that some Templars died. I saw those children, fuck them."
Sebastian nodded, "We'll do some more digging into it thank you Santana. The second reason I'm here is those kids really liked your food—they're not really talking much. Most of them are illiterate, they're still malnourished, and some are completely non-verbal. Titan was hoping that you could maybe help feed them again. They trust you, they trust the team that picked them up but they still have missions, and with Charlie being down we're incredibly short staffed. She's an integral part of the team, even if they think you're her Canadian girlfriend."
"Her what?"
"Canadian girlfriend, as in you don't exist, but that brings me to my third point but before we get to that—we're strangers to them, and CPS has been over and they're not even sure what to do, because of the fact that they're magic touched. They can't just put them in a regular foster home, and hope for the best, especially with the knowledge that the Templars might try and take them back. And Titan is a corporation, we can't take them in. Despite what the Supreme Court believes, corporations are not people, and they seem to feel a bit more comfortable around magic-touched people."
Santana hesitated, she wasn't sure about kids, but she had seen those children. Charlie had been far more capable, naive, but capable. "Okay," she says with a frown. She wasn't sure what use she would be, but she knew that it would make Charlie happy.
Sebastian nodded before his eyes flick over to Charlie, "She loves you. And I get it, knowing what you know about her past, knowing how trusting she is, I understand not wanting to get into a relationship with her. But she loves you, more than anyone else. The three years she was gone, I've never seen her as happy as when she was with you. And I don't think she gets it, what being in a relationship is, what I do know is that she only sees you. And the thing is it's obvious you care about her in a similar way."
"Really, you're telling me to date her? You—Sebastian 'relationships are for idiots'." Santana scoffed and turned to look at Charlie. "What I feel for Charlie is inconsequential, I can't be her first and last relationship—"
"She's not a child Santana, she understands how relationships work. And she's been on a date before. Ryder ended up in the Hudson River so I mean there are risks in dating her, but I think she's terrified of what you'd do to her if she did that to you." Sebastian smirked at the memory, he had never laughed as hard as he had when Ryder had burst into his office and bitched at him. "Something to think about anyway."
Santana scoffed, "I still stand by my statement to Blaine earlier; you're still a prick."
"He likes that I'm a prick, just like Charlie is aware of what you like. You know the only reason she even wanted to meet Rachel was because she heard you dated her. She's not my biggest fan because we dated—"
"We fucked, we never dated," Santana corrected.
"Thank you for making my point," Sebastian said with a shake of his head. "She talks to you, unlike how she talks to everyone else. She tells you things that we don't have to force out of her. She doesn't need you to feel sorry for her and you already hate the Templar's anyway so I don't see what the big deal is. Whatever, think about it. I'm needed in another public relations meeting. They just announced that there will be congressional hearings and we're trying to avoid Charlie having to testify in front of congress."
Santana brow furrowed, "Why do they want to hear from Charlie?"
"We're not sure, but either way Charlie is in no condition to actually be grilled by congress," Sebastian sighed. "My work is never done."
~ O ~
Santana glanced down at the child who had tugged on her jacket, he was holding up his tiny bowl and looking up at her with wide eyes. She wasn't sure what his name was, but he didn't look any older than five years old. He was one of the non-verbal children that they had picked up. They weren't sure why some of the children didn't talk, and she wasn't going to do magic on any of them to see if it was a physical problem rather than a mental one. But she had seen some of the scars on some of the children and her blood boiled.
Charlie had some scars but nothing like this, and if Charlie had 'accidentally' killed the person who had left the marks on the child she personally wouldn't feel bad. "You want more?" Santana said as she poured some more soup into the bowl carefully and giving the boy another roll of bread. She had made the right decision in choosing something light for these children, there was no way their bodies could handle something heavy like a burger. She extends her hand slowly and waits as the boy flinches as if expecting to be hit, but she gently touches his head and strokes it gently. "You're safe now," she says gently. She was tempted to simply get Brittany involved, but she didn't want to break Brittany's sunny disposition and faith in humanity.
She couldn't imagine the horrors that they had put these kids through. Some of them had been operated on and she didn't want to know what sick experiments they had performed on the children. She gently leads the boy back to his little table where he is eating with a few of the other children who are his age.
Maybe they could open a sort of halfway-house, until they could find these kids good homes. Though she wasn't sure there were many in the magic-touched community who would want broken children to take care off, and if there was some sort of class action lawsuit, it would bring out the worst of the worst.
She feels Charlie's presence before she feels surprisingly strong arms wrapping around her shoulders, and she's surprised that most of the children turn to look at Charlie. They could sense magic, which begged the question what had they done to Charlie to make her so immune to even big changes in magical energies. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?"
"That's what Blaine said, but I escaped when his back was turned," Charlie murmured into Santana's neck. "He said you were here, and I wanted to see you. I can be sneaky when I want to be."
"You've been asleep for a week Charlie, without checking I know you're not even close to fifty percent," Santana said as she tried to untangle herself from Charlie's grasp, before grabbing onto her before she falls. "Do you want some soup?" Santana asked before pausing when the child who had asked for more soup approaches Charlie slowly. It takes Charlie a moment to notice but when she does, she practically falls into a seated position, so she's more in level with the child.
Charlie slowly raises both hands for the kid who gently gives her a hive-five before deciding that she would make a good seat and taking a seat in her lap. Charlie raises her hand and a bag of fun-sized chocolates appear causing the boy to immediately smile brightly and try and get one. It's not long until most of the children are around Charlie trying to get some candy, which she hands out one at a time.
"So is that a no to the soup?" Santana said when Charlie finishes handing out candy.
"I want soup too, and like three rolls," Charlie said with a smile, as she pet the kid. "What is going to happen to all of them? Sebastian didn't say."
"They don't know," Santana admits. "I mean we need to be really careful in placing them with good families." She watches as Charlie with a wave of her fingers, brings out more treats for the children.
"Azimio said he'll talk to his wife about adopting one, and I think some of the others feel the same. Bayley wants to do it, you'd like her she's like Brittany," Charlie mused as she gently hugged the boy on her lap even as he ate chocolate.
"And you?" Santana prompted slowly.
Charlie flashes Santana a smile as she takes the bowl of soup and tears into a roll before dipping it in the tomato soup, "I don't think anyone is going to give me a child Santana."
"Yeah well then, they're an idiot. You'd make a fantastic parent, and I know your kid will want for nothing," Santana said as she helped the kid open his chocolate. "After this you need to stop using magic, and rest, and let the doctors run their tests."
