Maribel was not usually a petty person, but she had known Russell Fabray for years. Despite the massive wealth gap, they travelled in similar social circles. She was the district attorney and Russell and Judy donated to various political causes. They had been acquainted, but they had never really been on speaking terms until Quinn and Santana became best friends. She had tried to warn Santana away from the Fabray family but Santana had always been stubborn. From day one she hadn't liked Russell, he was an arrogant, pompous son of a bitch who enjoyed getting under her skin. There had always been an air of smugness about him but now that they had moved from general acquaintances to having to be civil because their children were friends, and she hated every moment of it. Judy was lovely and she had no problem with the matriarch of the Fabray family, especially since she and Carlos had become close friends, but she held a strong distaste for Russell Fabray.
Which was probably why she was smiling from ear to ear. The way that Russell Fabray had portrayed himself as a successful businessman and family man, was clearly a crock of shit. His youngest daughter was not only a high school dropout but she was an unmated alpha who had impregnated an omega. It was an embarrassment to a man like Russell, he couldn't pretend that his family was perfect.
"I'm sure Judy is torn between being ecstatic, she's always wanted grandchildren and being upset. I'm glad she's focusing on the positive," Carlos commented, turning to look at his mate and giving her a patient look. They had been mates for so long, he could tell when his wife was being petty.
"Russell must be dying on the inside. An unmated alpha having a child? I wonder how he's going to spin this," Maribel responded with a shrug of her shoulders. "I mean what was she thinking?" Maribel shook her head. "An alpha that can't control herself when an omega is in heat—well I see a lot of them pass through my office."
Carlos rolled his eyes as they made their way to the car together. "Maribel we don't know what happened, and it seems from how panicked she was and unsure she was, that this was not expected in the least. It could have simply been a one night stand. That does not make her a bad person. She was protective in the way an alpha would be and I think she'll make a great mother once things balance out."
Maribel shook her head, sure Carlos was an ER doctor but he didn't see the seedy side of society like she did. Alphas that were unable to control themselves around omegas went to prison. Even if Charlie hadn't done anything illegal or hurt another omega, that was not how the world would look at her until she mated. "Well, what's done is done. It's going to be extremely hard for her to find an omega, who wants to be with her. She's a high school dropout, she has a child, and I mean what omega would want to be with a mess of an alpha like that?"
Carlos sighed, Maribel did have a point. "It would be best if she gave the child away for adoption so she can have a normal life. I mean Russell and Judy could adopt the child and raise her," he suggested. It was probably the best thing for the child. Charlie didn't seem stable, and she seemed to be a disaster of a parent from what he could see. Then again she had just been handed a baby from what he could tell, one that she hadn't been expecting and hadn't known what to do.
Maribel shrugged, the Fabrays could do whatever they wanted, it's not like it concerned them. She pauses for a moment and looks around the driveway, but the only other people outside with them was Hiram and Leroy. "Carlos—where is our daughter?"
~ O ~
"You're doing great Charlie, when she's done, you're going to need to burp her. I'm just going to check on your sister and dad, to see how the crib is going. Just keep doing what you're doing and sit right there I'll be back in a few minutes," Judy said as she gave her daughter a quick once over, to make sure that everything was alright. She smiles at her granddaughter for a moment before turning around and heading to go and find her husband and daughter. Despite the fact that Harper smelt like blood, they would still need to do a DNA test to make sure. She would also need to look into the omega that— "Oh, Santana, I didn't realize that you were still around. I thought you had left with your parents."
Santana flushed as she tore her eyes away from her mate, and looked at Judy. It was hard not to be embarrassed, but she had just been caught leering at her mate. "Quinn and Rachel said that they'd give me a ride back once they head out," she explains quickly.
Judy paused and turned to look back at Charlie who was staring at Harper as she drank the formula and looked back at Santana for a moment. "I see," she says in a clipped tone. Feeling slightly defensive of her youngest daughter.
Santana winced at Judy's tone, but she couldn't just blurt out that Charlie was her soulmate, "I'm just here to help," she decides on finally, "Quinn's my best friend, and she needs me right now," Santana adds. It was true, she imagined that Quinn did need her but she was more concerned with why Charlie hadn't come to look for her. She had been with Quinn when she had first met Rachel. They had just been heading to grab lunch together, when Quinn had stopped walking as they passed a building and had dragged her inside. She had been promptly ignored when they first saw each other. But she had seen it, she could feel it deep within her bones, Charlie was her alpha. The person that was fated to her, she just couldn't understand why Charlie hadn't reacted like Quinn.
Judy sighed, apart from the incident where Santana had convinced Quinn to dye her hair that god awful pink, Santana had been a good friend to Quinn. It had been difficult, Charlie and Quinn had been together for most of their lives, and when Charlie had been kicked out—she knew how lonely Quinn had been. It had always been difficult for Quinn to make friends, she had been happy that Santana had entered her life, even if Russell complained about Maribel. "I'm sorry," Judy says quietly, turning to look at Charlie. "She's my youngest daughter, and when I see her—when I see her, all I see is that sweet innocent girl that she used to be. I don't know where I went wrong, it's like one day a switch was flipped and she became—" Judy takes a deep shaky breath, and smiles at Santana. "I hope you can be her friend as well Santana."
Before Santana can respond the sound of a baby fussing causes both women to turn back to look at Charlie who is trying to rock Harper as best as she can.
Judy shakes her head and is about to go and help Charlie burp Harper when she spots Rachel making her way to introduce herself to Charlie, her eyes widen as Charlie's body stiffens and she lets out a deep warning growl, "Rachel," Judy said moving before Quinn heard and it started a fight. She quickly steps between them when Rachel takes a reflexive step back. "Charlie, Rachel is Quinn's mate." Judy scolded immediately, shooting a look at her daughter who immediately drops her shoulders. She lets out a sigh and turns to Rachel, "I know you may not know this, but alpha's are generally overprotective and territorial over their first child. Russell had to meet all the doctors and nurses beforehand, and he needed to trust them. A nurse he had never seen came into my room after the twins were born and well he nearly got kicked out," Judy says attempting to excuse Charlie's behavior.
Rachel flashed Judy an understanding smile, things were tense. "I just wanted to come and introduce myself, and let you know that if you ever need babysitting, I am certified. While I was a struggling student I babysat a lot. I want you to know that Quinn and I are willing to help. Though I will admit that putting together a crib with your father seems to be a bit above their pay grade."
Charlie allows her mother to take Harper from her and watches as she gently burps her, "I can do it," she mumbled she could certainly put together a crib for her daughter.
"They were thinking of hiring someone to do it," Rachel explains. "They're trying to find someone who can come out tonight."
"I can—" Charlie pauses when her stomach growls loudly, and she flushes when her mom looks at her. "It smells really good in here and I guess I'm hungrier than I thought. I'll order a pizza—"
"Don't be ridiculous Charlie, there's plenty of food in the fridge," Judy said firmly, finally looking at her daughter. In the eight years that Charlie had been away she'd lost a lot of weight. She probably didn't have much money for food. "I'll make you a grilled cheese sandwich and some soup, you've got a child now Charlie, you need to keep your strength up."
Charlie hesitates and looks at Harper as her mother places Harper's pacifier in her mouth and hands her over. "Okay I can—"
Judy frowned and flicked her daughter's ear, "Charlie." Judy gave her daughter a look and watched as Charlie deflated a bit. She sighs and gently runs her hand through her hair. "It's been nearly eight years Charlie. Give your father a chance to be your dad again, it hurts him when you don't refer to him as dad. He loves you, I know it may not seem that way but he loves you. He's worried about you every single day, so please, it's okay to need our help. So let us help you."
Charlie hesitated for a moment before nodding her head, she would make sure to pay them back but there was no point in arguing with her mother about it right at this moment. "Okay."
Judy smiled even though she doubted that Charlie would just let this go. She'd always been stubborn, but this was a start. "We have a lot to catch up on Charlie, but go and help your father build Harper's crib. And take her with you, now that Maribel is gone, he probably wants to fawn all over her."
Charlie nods and moves to place Harper in the baby carrier that had just arrived, it had been the first thing that had been set up. And even though she's being gentle, as gentle as humanly possible the moment she sets Harper down, she begins to wail. Almost immediately Charlie panics thinking she had somehow hurt her.
It's a moment but even from where she was standing Santana can feel the distress coming off her mate, and before Judy or Rachel could intervene she quickly passes them, and drops down beside Charlie and the child, she glances at the screaming newborn and strokes the babies hand, causing Harper to stop crying and stare up at her. Santana blinked. She wasn't the biggest fan of babies, and she wasn't quite sure how she felt about this little one, but she was a part of her soulmate. "I think she just wants to be held," Santana explains and looks up at Charlie who still looked rather distressed as she looked at Harper.
"So, I should continue to hold her?" Charlie asks.
"Maybe just give her your finger for now, at least until she falls asleep," Santana suggests, and smiles when Charlie does just that, letting Harper grasp her fingers.
Judy tilted her head, Charlie had been defensive all night. She had gotten overprotective over Carlos fussing over her, and when Leroy and Hiram had wanted to take a look at the baby she had growled at them too. Charlie had even growled at Rachel. Santana hadn't been growled at, in fact Charlie just seemed to accept Santana's presence.
"She must like you," Charlie says, finally turning to look at the person who had helped, she blinked immediately. She was by far the prettiest woman she had ever seen, and she smelt—it was intoxicating. There was no way a person like this wasn't mated already. "I'm Charlie," she mumbles, introducing herself.
"Santana Lopez," Santana responded, flashing Charlie a pleased smile, when she noticed how Charlie's ears turned red, it was a weird juxtaposition to her bright neon blue hair. It was clear that it hadn't been done in a salon, but it didn't matter. Just like it didn't matter that Quinn and Charlie were identical, Charlie was clearly the better looking twin.
Charlie nods and glances at her mother who is giving her an odd look, "Thanks for helping Santana, I should go and fix Harper's crib."
Santana pauses, "I don't mind helping," she offers.
Rachel's jaw dropped, "You want to build a crib? What about all the times you've complained that your hands were a gift from god and you wouldn't do anything to put them in jeopardy."
Santana turned on Rachel and shot her a dark glare, it's gone in a second as she turns back to Charlie who looks rather confused. "I can supervise, someone needs to read out instructions," she flashes Charlie another flirtatious smile. "I want to be a surgeon, and well my hands are important," she explains to Charlie.
"You want to be a surgeon?" Charlie questions tilting her head.
"All because I'm an omega—" Santana begins immediately, she'd heard this before. Most omegas were nurses, there weren't that many omegas.
Charlie looks at Santana's hands, "That's amazing. You should protect your hands at all cost then," Charlie finishes the thought.
"That's what I've been saying for years, but Quinn never listens to me," Santana pauses, most people made comments. Hell, she'd received a few comments from a few professors, and it pissed her off. She was just as good as any alpha or beta surgeon. She should have had a bit more faith in her mate. She pushes the thoughts aside as Charlie begins to move, and she shoots Rachel another glance before following her.
Judy raises a brow as Santana and Charlie head upstairs with Harper, before looking at Rachel. "Do you know what that's about?"
Rachel blinks and looks at Judy, having an internal monologue. Santana was far scarier than Judy was, and if Santana found out that she had blabbed she was certain that even Quinn couldn't stop her. "No, but I do intend to find out," she lies.
~ O ~
Deciding to help Charlie, had to be one of her crowning achievements. Her mate was basically putting on a free show for her. She had never once considered that someone fixing things was sexy, but Charlie had opened her eyes to a brand new world. It had started with Charlie taking off her hoodie, and sure her mate was a bit too skinny for her tastes, but that could be easily rectified with food.
"Next." Charlie questioned looking up at Santana.
Santana looks at the instruction manual in her hand, flushing a bit. She wasn't quite sure why Charlie hadn't said or done anything. "You're going to need to attach the railings to the two boards you just set up," Santana explains showing Charlie a picture of the screws she was supposed to use.
Charlie nods and quickly checks on Harper who is currently dozing off in her carrier, and gets back to work. The sooner that she could fix this the sooner she could make sure that Harper was okay. She hadn't really been able to process everything she was feeling.
Santana watches for a few moments as Charlie begins to fasten the railings onto the boards, and glances at the sleeping baby. "Harper's a nice name, did you choose it?"
"No." Charlie said bluntly before stopping and looking at Santana who looked slightly hurt at her curt response. "I didn't know that Mack was pregnant." With that Charlie turns her attention back to the crib. "The only reason I know about her is because Mack met her mate. He didn't want to raise Harper, so Mack showed up after getting released from the hospital and just showed up and handed her to me."
Santana blinked, the whole thing sounded ridiculous to her. "Hold on, she just—showed up at your house today and just dumped a baby on you?"
Charlie nods, "She stayed just long enough to teach me how to hold her, and let me know that the bag had diapers and wipes and pacifiers and stuff. I didn't know that I could have hurt her by giving her cows milk, I don't know what her cries mean," Charlie admits. Her mother had gone to go and get her parenting books. Sure they were about twins, but she imagined that they had some useful information that she could use. She didn't know how to be a parent.
Santana scowled, the bare minimum this Mack person could have done was give Charlie a heads up. "My parents said that they just made it up as they went along and I think I turned out fuc—I turned out rather well," Santana said glancing at the baby, she wasn't going to swear like a sailor in front of a newborn. "I'm going to be a surgeon, just like my dad. Who knows maybe she'll take after you!"
Charlie dropped the screwdriver in her hands, startling Harper who immediately began to fuss. She immediately goes over to try and settle her rubbing her little hands. It takes a few seconds of soothing but she manages to get Harper back to sleep before she can start to wail. "I don't want her to take after me." She had dropped out of highschool and knocked up an omega who had rejected her mate bond. She and Mack were never meant to be, but the rejection was the only thing that she could remember from that night. It had been like a cold shower, which had dredged up memories that she had attempted to bury. She was damaged goods, and Harper deserved better than her. She deserved better than Mack. "Anyone but me or Mack."
Santana pauses, she had said something wrong. But she wasn't going to apologize, for it "Wanting your kid to be better than you to have a better life, that's also good parenting, everything needs a balance," she smiled pleased with herself for managing to come up with that on the fly. Still it was probably safer to change the subject, "So what do you do Charlie?"
Charlie was about to answer when Quinn cleared her throat causing both of them to turn to her. Immediately she ignores the look of annoyance Santana flashes at her, and wiggles the tray of food. Their mother had always been an accomplished cook, and quite frankly she was jealous that Judy had whipped up her bacon grilled cheese sandwiches, with some tomato soup. She could smell the thousand island dressing from here. "Mom asked me to bring this to you. Dad also told me to inform you that until things settle down and you feel a bit more confident with Harper you can stay here for awhile." She hands the tray to Charlie and looks at the crib, Charlie had already gotten farther than they had and her dad probably didn't need to go and buy the hardware store.
"Thanks Quinn," Charlie mumbled as she bit into the sandwich and looked at Harper who was sleeping quietly. She gently rocks the carrier, unaware that Quinn and Santana are having a very intense glaring competition.
Quinn decides to ignore Santana and peers at Harper, "She's beautiful, I can't believe I'm an aunt." She reaches to touch Harper's little hand and grins at how soft it felt. "She's still got that new baby smell, who knows Rachel might change her mind on having kids right away so Harper might have a playmate soon."
"Joy a lizard-hobbit hybrid baby, what could possibly go wrong," Santana muttered under her breath.
Charlie doesn't immediately say anything, as she chews. "That would be nice. I don't know anyone else with kids."
Quinn smirks at Santana who scowled at her, "When are we going to meet her birth mother?"
Charlie shrugged her shoulders, "Mack made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with me or Harper earlier today." Charlie frowned after she finished, Harper had already been abandoned once. She was a high school dropout, who occasionally did questionable things for money. She got into fights, she had sex, she drank, she did drugs a lot of drugs. She couldn't keep doing that anymore, Harper deserved better. She deserved the world.
"Well there is paperwork—" Quinn begins.
"Quinn," Santana interrupts immediately.
"Satan," Quinn retorts and gives her a look. Charlie and more importantly Harper needed to be protected. Her father already had plans to meet with an attorney so that Harper could be protected. Charlie was an unmated alpha, and even if Santana was her soulmate, they weren't mated. If Mack chose to go for custody it was likely she would be awarded it, and then Charlie would probably be on the hook for child support.
At this Charlie finally looked up at them, "Shush," she snapped at them quietly causing them both to look at her. She may have been talking to both Quinn and Santana, but her gaze was focused on Quinn. "Every time she cries it breaks my heart."
Santana immediately turns to look at Charlie sharply, feeling a flare of jealousy deep in the pit of her stomach. She takes a breath, she wasn't going to be jealous of a baby, she couldn't be jealous of a baby.
Quinn studied Charlie for a second, wondering if there had been a threat somewhere in her simple statement, but it felt more like a warning that if she didn't stop needling Santana she would react. She closes her eyes, Santana was her best friend, it had been that way since they'd met in university and Santana had said that she smelt better than anyone else in the room. She tilts her head, now that she thought about it Santana being mates with Charlie made the most sense. "I'm not sure I approve," she says finally.
"Approve?" Charlie echoes, but Quinn turns and walks out of the room leaving her with Santana. "What is she talking about?"
Santana narrowed her eyes slightly at where Quinn had been, before turning to look at Charlie. She still couldn't understand why Charlie didn't feel what was between them. She didn't think she was expecting much, her parents had described how they had met, and it had seemed romantic to her. "Your sister is weird," Santana says with a shrug. "Probably jealous that I already like you better than her. Actually you know what? You're my new best friend."
"I'm your new best friend?"
Santana nodded, "You really don't have much of a choice. Quinn has Rachel now, and soon they'll have kids and she won't have any time for me. She already doesn't have time for me, and it sucks. Plus you being my best friend will piss her off. So it's a win for everyone."
"Does being your friend come with free medical advice?" Charlie asks.
Santana smirked, Charlie was also smarter than Quinn, instead of running she immediately asked what she was going to get out of this friendship. "Obviously."
Charlie nods and looks at Harper, "I don't know anything about babies. Or what I should look out for, or things like shots and the like. I don't know when I should take her in, and what if there's something wrong with her? Mack said she was fine and healthy, and she looks fine and healthy."
Santana's face drops. She had hoped that Charlie would mention something about anatomy, and once again she feels that flare of jealousy, deep within the pit of her stomach and she narrows her eyes for a second, "I can help you with Harper, but so you know that I'm not free babysitting."
"Don't worry, Rachel already promised that she and Quinn would help out however I needed, and I'm sure my mom will babysit if I ask," Charlie looked up at Santana who snorted.
"You're going to trust Rachel and Quinn to look after your kid? Actually that's a good idea, whenever you need a break just show up with Harper and then we can hang out." Santana grins this was actually perfect and once Charlie was away from Harper, she would wake up and figure out that they were mates. And they could mate and everythingwould be perfect.
