"There is mail in your bin again. This job isn't fucking difficult, all you need to do is sort the mail and deliver it to the secretary on each floor, and if they don't have a fucking secretary like the lower level's do then you need to hand deliver it. This isn't fucking complicated Charlotte."

Charlie gritted her teeth and clenched her fists as she stared at the ground. She hated it here, she hated doing this job, but she was getting paid 40$ an hour for this shit job. She suspected her father had pulled some strings and was paying a huge chunk of her salary, but she didn't really mind. "I made 6 trips—"

"And yet your bin is full while everyone else's is empty," Gunther barked out, a smirk crosses his lips when he sees her jaw twitch. He was aware that there were people slacking off, and that they were giving Charlie their work to do but she was being paid more than some professionals were being paid. "Do you know who gets yelled at when their mail isn't delivered? I mean for all you know those pieces of mail could be from a lawyer, or it could be a big contract that they were waiting for. They call me, they ream me out, and I don't know how many times I have to explain that I have some grossly incompetent alpha, who appears to be a high school dropout and dresses like she's homeless delivering mail."

"I'm not—"

"You're not what? Stupid? Only dumb fucks don't have their high school diploma? What's your excuse, learning difficulties?"

Charlie swallowed and adjusted her stance, and tried to relax. Despite the fact that her mind was going to a dark place. She could hurt him, it wouldn't be that difficult. He was a beta, she fucking hated beta's. They were weak and she was strong, she was an alpha, it wouldn't take much to hurt him. A backhand slap would probably take him out. "No."

"Of course not and years of probably being the family screw up, daddy probably came in to give you this job, even though you're grossly under qualified and you seem incapable of doing such a simple job, and yet you're getting paid more than all of us! You know how much she makes an hour Josh?"

"No sir."

"40 dollars an hour," Gunther snapped looking at Charlie daring her to do something. "She's an alpha too, but it's obvious she's such a fuck up that daddy had to come swooping in and bailing her out, and she still can't do her job right."

Charlie inhaled and tried to calm herself, she could practically feel her rage beginning to bubble over, and instead looks at her bin, it was nearly closing time and she didn't get paid overtime. "I'll go and deliver everything before closing sir."

"And trying to game the system too, we don't do overtime here. So clock out before you go."

Charlie nodded and waited for everyone to leave with Gunther exchanging pleasantries with the rest of the team before looking at the mess of letters and packages in her bin. It was a good thing that her father generally left late. It meant that she generally had to wait around before her mother came with Harper and she could go home. She waits until she's truly alone before her leg lashes out and she kicks a chair, releasing the tension. She sighs after a moment and picks the chair back up and begins to sort the mail as best as she could. She had barely been given any training and no one seemed willing to help her. They all had their routines and they were quite fast at getting their work done but her work seemed neverending.

She hated this job, she hated it here. Being humiliated on a daily basis by a beta. It took all her willpower to not bash his head against a wall. But she couldn't do that because Harper needed her to be better, and it was so hard. She hadn't had a drink, she hadn't taken anything to take the edge off and Harper had not slept soundly last night. She was tired and hungry, she hadn't had time to eat her packed sandwich and she was tired.

There's a knock on the door and she looks up to see her father standing there looking at her with that look of concern mixed with pity on his face. He didn't think she could do this job either. "I didn't see you earlier today, you normally deliver mail but they said nothing was delivered. Are you slacking off again—are you skipping?"

"No, I—"

"I put in a good word for you Charlie. And this job will help you with Harper, and once you get your GED, I can get you a proper position. How's the studying coming along?"

Charlie takes a deep breath, "Okay." Santana was a task master, and was constantly over. She didn't know how to get rid of her, and she wasn't talking to Quinn at the moment to ask her.

"Good when do you think you'll be taking the exam?"

"Two months from now," Charlie replied robotically, it was what he wanted to hear, and she tunes him out when he smiles like he's proud of her. He isn't. She couldn't remember a time when she wasn't the fuck up.

"Good, now your mom is on her way with my granddaughter. We'll drop you off at your place."

"I have to—" Charlie looked down at the bin, and then back at her father she would much rather be with Harper and studying for her GED than doing this. "Okay."

Russell smiled, "I think we should have a family picture done soon, your mother is already looking at photographers. We want our Christmas cards done early and I think everyone will be jealous of the new baby. Also your mother wants me to ask you about whether you've given any thought into going to those mixers, so you can find your mate?"

Charlie paused as an image of Santana laughing pops up in her mind, "I don't have time while Harper's this young, maybe when she's older." At least until Santana grew tired of her and found herself a proper alpha. It was nice pretending that they were a family when Santana was over, but that wasn't reality. Santana didn't like children and she didn't like Harper, so it was only a silly daydream. One that could never come true. She had no idea how to tell her parents that mating wasn't something that she would ever be able to do. Not after what had happened to her, it had scarred her to her very soul and she couldn't subject another omega to what had happened to her. She was an alpha; it was her job to protect the omegas in her life.

~ O ~

"Is Santana here? I saw her car parked on the curb." Maribel asked her husband as she put her things down on the island. It had been a long day, and she had been eager to spend some time with her mate. It wasn't that she didn't love her daughter, but Santana had moved out ages ago. Her daughter rarely spent any time with them now, and yet over the past month she'd seen her daughter more times than she could possibly remember.

Before Carlos could respond there's a loud thud and a string of very colorful profanity that is uttered by their daughter upstairs. "Yes," he answers after a moment and smiles at his mate, who shoots him an unamused look. He shrugs in response from where he is going over the takeout menu. "I feel like Thai food tonight, what about you?"

"Is she going to be joining us for dinner?" Maribel asked glancing up at the ceiling, it had gone quiet and she knew that was rarely a good sign.

"No, she's tutoring someone."

"She's what?" Maribel questions looking at her mate. "The last time she attempted to make a job out of it, she cursed out her first student for being dumbfucks, and decided that they would probably need all the money that they were going to use to pay her."

"Well it's been a week, since she started and I haven't heard one complaint."

Maribel studied her mate, there was something that he wasn't sharing and it bothered her. "Do you know who she's tutoring?"

"I'm tutoring Charlie," Santana says as she breezes into the kitchen carrying a box of old notebooks.

"Charlie?" Maribel questions.

"Russell's youngest," Carlos supplies, helping her out.

Maribel blinked twice, "Why?" Quinn might be a lovely young woman, but Charlie was clearly the family fuck up, and she certainly didn't want her affecting her daughter in anyway. Santana was about to graduate near the top of her class, and she had interviews in a few weeks.

"I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart," Santana replies as she opens a drawer and finds some tape so she can reinforce the edges of the box so it didn't fall apart.

"Santana, I'm your mother and I know there isn't an altruistic bone in your body," Maribel responds immediately. "She's feral—oh." Maribel wrinkles her nose, and stares at her daughter as it clicks.

"I did tell her to be careful," Carlos sighed.

Maribel pinched the bridge of her nose, "Santana you—"

Santana rolled her eyes, "We haven't had sex, not for a lack of trying on my part. And I've tried, it's almost insulting that she hasn't asked for a—"

"Please mija, you're going to give your mother an aneurysm," Carlos interrupts before Santana causes another argument between the two of them. He sighs, he had thought that it would be easy having an omega daughter, unfortunately Santana took after Maribel, it was something that he was deeply proud of, but it caused Santana and Maribel to butt heads, constantly. He almost pitied Charlie or whichever alpha Santana decided to mate with.

"I'm just saying, Charlie doesn't want to have sex with me. Heck she didn't even want me to tutor her, I just decided to do it on my own, because she really needs to move out of that apartment. It has holes in the wall, and she's got a baby. She gets her GED so she can maybe go to community college, or university or you know just work for Russel to provide for her spawn. I'm being altruistic, while also hoping—" Santana flashes her mother a wolfish grin.

"I'd say I forbid it but the last time I said that, you decided to keep that relationship far longer than you should have just to spite me," Maribel grumbled. She would need to simply go and talk to Russell and force him to make the demand.

Santana smirked, "Yep, who knows if you forbid it, I might just decide to mate with her."

Maribel shuddered in horror while Carlos sighed, she was antagonizing her mother again. It was an endless cycle with the two of them. One day when Santana had children he hoped that they brought her a fraction of what they felt when it came to raising her especially in her teenage years. "If you don't leave now you're going to be late."

Santana snorted and grabbed her box of notebooks and headed out. "Also I totally feel like Thai."

Carlos rolled his eyes, "I'll send something to your place later."

"You're the best papi!"

"Stay out of trouble!" Maribel called out and sighed when Santana closed the door. "Seriously?"

"We need to let this play out, if we interfere, she might just mate with her to spite you," Carlos reminds her.

"Me? What happened to us being a team?"

"We are a team, but Santana's not five anymore, and even though she occasionally regresses into a teenager when it comes to her dating life, I prefer a more hands off approach. It's why she trusts and comes to me with these things while you try and meddle, and she gets annoyed and even if you're right she ends up doing the wrong thing just to spite you." Carlos held up the menu, "So, Thai?"

"Yes," Maribel answered sullenly.

~ O ~

"Alright, next question," Santana said with a pleased smile on her face. That was Charlie's tenth correct answer in a row. "A painter rented a wallpaper steamer at 9 a.m. and returned it at 4 p.m. He paid a total of $28.84. What was the rental cost per hour?" She watches as Charlie begins to write, creating some dashes along the page and stopping when she gets to seven. She double checks once before starting to divide, pausing every now and again as she works through the problem.

Before she can finish the question, there is a loud cry from Harper and Charlie immediately drops her pencil and her notebook, and moves to check on her daughter who had been in her carrier beside them. She'd been distracted by the mobile that she had gotten for her, at least she had been. Charlie immediately picks her up and begins to rock her, trying to get her back to sleep but Harper won't settle. She glances over at Santana who has a slight frown on her face and she flushes, "I'm sorry," Charlie mumbles as she takes a deep whiff of her daughter. It didn't smell like she had soiled herself, "She's probably hungry again. It shouldn't take long to get her a bottle ready."

"You should give her to your parents," Santana blurts out. Or Rachel and Quinn to babysit while they studied, she really couldn't seduce Charlie with a baby nearby. It was creepy. Harper was creepy. Babies were creepy, they just ate, shit, and cried. Harper also stared at her, like she had no idea why anyone would want to spend their time looking after a baby. Maybe she'd get along better with Harper when she could talk and express herself, because she honestly felt like the little monster was judging her.

Charlie's body goes rigid, "What?"

Santana immediately shifts her attention away from Harper, and shivered. She had something to offend her alpha, it was almost a primal feeling, like she was in trouble and she quickly thinks back. She quickly realizes her error and immediately tries "To babysit, while we studied. I don't think they'd mind helping out so you can get your GED, you're doing really well. I honestly don't know why you think you're unintelligent, you've gotten most of the math right, sure we need to work on the science a bit, but like I honestly think that we don't need two months. We can probably get you ready by the end of the month, if we had some uninterrupted time to study."

Charlie stares at Santana for a moment, studying her but she can't hear the lie in her words. "I'm never going to give Harper up, I'm not going to abandon her like Mack did."

Santana nodded, she wasn't quite sure what to do in this instance, she had definitely hit a nerve and while she didn't think she was in any danger, it was still best if she proceeded cautiously. She wasn't blind, she could see how Charlie lit up when Harper cooed at her, she had seen Charlie humming to her daughter softly and even though it probably sounded like gibberish to her Charlie, did read some of the books that her parents had given her. She even attempted to do funny voices, which were horrible. She hadn't known her mate for long but it was becoming clear to her that Quinn, her mother and the rest of the Fabrays were wrong. Charlie wasn't exactly feral. Primal, a bit quicker to rely on her primal instincts, but she wasn't some beast without reason. Even when she lashed out in anger physically, it was never aimed at anyone, she seemed cognizant of the fact that she could hurt someone. "I'd never ask you too," Santana says after a moment. "You look tired, and I saw you've been reading the notes and doing the exercises that I gave to you. Have you been sleeping?"

Charlie shrugs her shoulder, she dozed off every now and again. "I watch Harper, through the night, I doze off when I can. I read the parenting books to make sure that I'm doing a good job, and I do the exercises when the parenting books make my head hurt."

Santana tilted her head as she watched Charlie begin to feed Harper from her bottle, no wonder she looked exhausted. She immediately closes the textbook, Charlie was so focused on taking care of Harper she was barely taking care of herself. Even if she did manage to seduce Charlie, she doubted that her mate would be able to perform if she was tired. "You need to rest, not only so you don't get sick, but so your stress levels don't rise. Like as infants go, Harper isn't that bad, but she might have a night where she won't stop crying. Babies cry and even if you don't intend to, you will get frustrated and because your mind will be foggy you might shake her, and that will hurt her, if it doesn't kill her outright. So I know you want to be a good role model for Harper, but that means asking for help when things get tough. It means letting people help you. I think it's admirable that you want to be there for your daughter, but you're being a moron. You have a support base, you have parents who want to help and Quinn who wants to be there for you. Use them as free babysitting."

"Mom takes care of her during the day, while I work. I can't just ask her to do more, she's already helping out as much as she can." Charlie admits as she looks down at Harper. "She's the only person I trust to watch Harper," Charlie admits.

Santana frowned, there was something telling about the fact that Charlie only trusted her mother with Harper, and she wants to press but she can tell that Charlie's starting to erect walls. While she certainly didn't mind tearing them down her instincts at this moment were telling her that she needed to back off for a moment. "I can watch her for a few hours while you sleep," she offers, causing Charlie to tear her eyes off Harper and give her a look. "Yes, I know, but I am like two months away from graduating as a doctor. I am CPR certified and even though I think babies are creepy, I am capable of watching one for a few hours. And I won't be alone, you'll be here, if it gets too much for me I'll wake you up."

Before Charlie can answer Harper begins to fuss, spitting out the bottle. Charlie grimaces and immediately pulls Harper up to burp her, forgetting the towel, she kept nearby. She turns her attention back to Santana for a moment. Santana was her mate, the person she was supposed to be with, and all her instincts told her that she could be trusted with Harper. She hadn't wanted to hope that if Santana and Harper bonded, then even if she couldn't be Santana's mate they could be their own little family. "I—"

Harper takes that moment to burp up a ton of milk onto Charlie's shirt soiling it.

Charlie looks at her daughter and then at her ruined shirt and puts Harper back in her carrier before stripping out of her shirt immediately to go and get a new one, completely forgetting about Santana's presence. When Santana lets out a low whistle she flushes and turns to look at her mate, who was leering at her, causing her to reflexively flex before remembering that even if she wanted her mate to praise her, nothing could come of it. "Can you—I need to get another shirt."

"I mean you don't need another shirt, I certainly don't mind the view, but if you must I can watch the little bean, we were just discussing that earlier."

Charlie nodded and looked at Harper for a moment before heading to her old bedroom so she can raid the closet for a clean shirt. She was running out and she didn't really have the money to burn on new clothes.

Santana glanced over at Harper who was shoving her fist into her mouth, "Good job there champ." Maybe as babies went, Harper wasn't the worst baby in the world, especially if she was going to act like an unofficial wing man to help her get Charlie naked for her.