Maribel nearly dropped her chopsticks in shock as her daughter barged into her office. The last time that Santana had been in her office was when she was sixteen—it had been a rather short-lived intern experience. She probably should have done what Carlos had done, which was to show Santana the exciting parts of her job. As far as she was concerned Carlos had cheated, "Mija—"

"You know a bunch of police officers right?"

Maribel raised a brow, "I'm the district attorney, of course I know—"

"Good, so it won't be that difficult to call in a favor right? I'm not asking for much," Santana said as she paced in front of her mother, clenching her fists. "Like realistically how difficult would it be to like get them to—"

"Stop," Maribel interrupted, raising her hand, she immediately pointed to the chair in front of her desk. "Sit."

Santana scowled at her mother, but the steely gaze was enough to cause her to immediately sit down in the chair. "I just wanted—"

"Santana." Maribel snapped, relaxing in her seat when Santana's mouth snapped shut. "While I'm glad you've finally come to your senses about Charlie, Russell will not take too kindly to you sending the police after his daughter. She may be the black sheep, but he does love her. He's doing everything in his power to make sure I don't know about her arrest and get involved. The thing he doesn't understand is that I take my job seriously and would never compromise my position to get back at him. I mean at least not through his children."

Santana blinked, "Why would I want a bunch of cops to harass my mate?"

At this Maribel did drop her chopsticks, "Your what?"

Santana rolls her eyes, deciding to just ignore her mother's confusion. "Maybe you can pull a few strings in family court, you have to know some of the judges?"

Maribel slowly put down her food, she could feel a headache coming on and she had assumed that the murder trial that started tomorrow was going to be her biggest problem today. Perhaps she'd been to lax with Santana growing up, but she needed the full story before she formed an opinion. "Rewind. Start from the beginning."

Santana scowled at her mother, "Charlie was never just a silly infatuation, she's my fated mate. I mean it makes sense, Charlie and Quinn are identical, and Quinn has always smelt good, but also slightly off. Her being around always made me feel safe in a weird way, but it's Quinn, and I've never once been attracted to her. I've known since the dinner party."

"How long has your papi known?" Maribel asked, rubbing at her temples.

"Like the day after, I thought that there was something wrong with her. She didn't acknowledge me, she figured it pretty quickly once she was separated from Harper. It's not my fault that he's not as judgmental as you are."

"Dios como puede pasar esto? Porque a mi?" Maribel muttered under her breath as she shook her head. Betrayed by her mate, this was something that he should have shared.

"This isn't about you mami," Santana responded with a roll of her eyes. "This is why you were going to find out at my graduation, you wouldn't be able to make a scene and make it all about you."

"This became about me when you and your father decided to hide this information from me. I almost don't believe that you can be this stupid, I don't care if she's your fated mate. She's a feral alpha, who doesn't even have a high school diploma. Not to mention she has a bastard child, because she managed to impregnate an omega who was in heat, so she clearly has zero control. Honestly, it feels like you are attempting to get back at me in some way."

Santana studied her mother, she had only come to see what could legally be done with Mack. "I never thought that between you and Russell, that you'd be the classist."

"She just got arrested for fighting. She doesn't have a job. This isn't about how educated she is, if she didn't have a high school diploma but worked in a trade, we wouldn't be having this conversation. We also wouldn't be having this conversation if she didn't have a child. She can't support you or that child, and I have serious concerns about the fact that you're going to be taking care of an alpha and a child that isn't even yours," Maribel fires back.

Santana narrowed her eyes, her mother didn't know Charlie, she didn't understand anything. "This was an absolute waste of time. I came here because I needed your legal advice. I'm not a child anymore mami, you can't just tell me what to do and expect me to do it." Before Maribel can respond to that she gets up and simply walks out. She would simply need to trust the internet to help her research some strategies, to help Charlie. So that they could go over it before Charlie's meeting on Monday with Cassandra.

Maribel watched her daughter leave and immediately picked up the phone to talk to her mate. They needed to have a talk about how permissive they were being with their daughter.

~ O ~

"I already made sure to make enough bottles for you, so all you'll have to do is throw it in the bottle warmer. I wrote down the instructions, please use them. Harper is super picky, and it needs to be the right temperature. Check it, I always check it to make sure it's not too hot. Also when you're changing her don't leave her unattended, I'm serious Quinn—don't take your eyes off her for a second."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "I know how to take care of a baby Charlie."

Rachel cleared her throat when she noticed that Charlie was immediately beginning to rethink this arrangement. "What else should I note down?" Rachel asks, holding up her little pad and pen. She had written down every instruction Charlie had said, and it seemed to be the right decision as Charlie actually smiled at her.

"You're in charge. I would prefer if you didn't leave Quinn alone with Harper," Charlie stated, grabbing her beaten up duffel bag.

Quinn scowled, "I've babysit before Charlie, I know how to take care of an infant."

Charlie nodded and looked at Rachel who seemed delighted that she was picking on Quinn, "Call mom if you need any help Rachel. I don't know how often I'll be checking my phone tonight. I'll try and check in when I can."

"Of course," Rachel nodded, flashing a pleased smile at Quinn.

"You know we're doing you a favor right?" Quinn reminds her twin.

Charlie ignores Quinn and bends over so she's eye level with Harper and smiles at her daughter, "Be good for Rachel, I'll be back in the morning." Hopefully with enough money to cover bills for the next few months. It would give her some time to figure out what came next. She was a last minute entrant but the prize money for the tournament was fifteen grand. All she would need to do is survive to win this ridiculous mma tournament. If that meant fighting six times tonight then she'd do it. She stands up and looks at Quinn, for a moment, "Thanks."

Quinn sighed and smiled at her twin, she'd been surprised to be called out of the blue, and even more surprised that Charlie had asked her and Rachel to take care of Harper for the night. Charlie hadn't explained why she needed someone so last minute, and she knew better than to ask. "So I was thinking—"

"Dangerous," Charlie muttered under her breath as she double checked everything in her duffel bag and motions for Quinn to follow her out.

"—that we could go shopping for something for you to wear to Santana's graduation."

"Santana's graduation?"

"She's graduating from med school in a couple of weeks, didn't she tell you that? She's already gotten matched into a general surgical residency, which is like super impressive. Maybe we could pick up a gift for her."

Charlie's shoulder slump for a moment, Santana hadn't invited her to a graduation. In fact after Santana had left yesterday, she hadn't really expected to hear from her again. Things had been awkward after Santana had found out, and she understood that Santana was probably processing the information that had been thrown at her, but she had a feeling that she probably wouldn't be hearing from Santana again. She doesn't know what else to do but nod. "Sure."

Quinn beamed and patted Charlie on the shoulder. "Awesome. Don't worry about Harper I got this."

Charlie nodded absentmindedly, "I'm not worried, you know what I'd do to you if anything happened to her," Charlie admits before waving goodbye to Harper and heading out. She didn't need to look at her twin to know that Quinn had been offended and hurt by what she just said. She would apologize in the morning, but right now she couldn't think about Quinn's feelings. She needed to think about winning money so she could support Harper for the next few months. It was pointless to think about how winning this tournament would also prove to Santana she wasn't a gamma.

~ O ~

Santana's eyes flick toward her apartment door from where she's sitting at her kitchen island, scouring the internet for legal information. She immediately loses interest when her father opens the door, and goes back to studying the website she had been reading. "That key was for emergencies."

"Your mother is very upset with me," Carlos responded, as he entered his daughter's apartment. "That should qualify as an emergency."

"I don't have time for this attempted intervention."

"Because you're trying to fix all of Charlie's problem's I warned you that this would happen."

Santana bristled at his words and closed her laptop, "Did you seriously just come here to take her side?"

"I'm not taking your mother's side Santana, I'm not concerned about your mate. I'm worried that you're taking on too much right now. As an omega, I do understand that you want to take care of her and you want her to be happy, but attempting to solve all her problems at the expense of your own problems isn't exactly productive. And while I don't know Charlie all that well, from the little I've witnessed, it does seem that she's a proud alpha."

"So what if she is?" Santana demands.

"Then your attempts at fixing her will not be met with gratitude. She doesn't need to be fixed Santana, and I doubt she's asking you to do everything you're doing for her."

"She needs my support."

"Perhaps, but support isn't the same thing as pretending that you know better than her, and fixing all her problems for her. It's one thing if she asked you to help her, but she hasn't done that has she?" Carlos questions.

Santana made a face as her phone began to buzz as someone texts her. She glances at the name on the screen and promptly flips her phone over, Rachel's idea of an emergency was never an actual emergency. "She doesn't ask me for anything, because she has it in her head that she's not good enough for me. As if I can't make that decision on my own." She sighed, it wasn't fair to be annoyed with Charlie about that especially after what she had gone through. "If I don't do this how will she know that I'm in her corner? And that at the first sign of trouble I'm not simply going to leave." Her phone begins to ring and she flips it over and rolls her eyes at Rachel's face before flipping it back over. She really didn't have time to deal with Rachel's shit.

"Santana, have you even asked Charlie how she feels about this?" Carlos prodded, "She has had a lot on her plate, mija, and from what you've told me she's been working extra hard to please everyone."

"No, I don't know how to even begin to talk to her about all this. Harper's egg donor is trying to get custody of Harper so she can have access to the Fabray fortune. All that on top of the criminal complaint against her—I wouldn't even know where—" Her phone begins to buzz again and she groaned loudly and flips it over. "Charlie?"

Immediately Santana answers the call, Charlie rarely ever called her first and usually when she did it was to ask for a small favor, or for medical advice.

'Santana!'

Santana scowled, "Seriously Rachel? You couldn't get the hint that I was too busy to deal with one of your bullshit emergencies?"

'This isn't one—we're at Charlie's and she needs medical attention.'

Santana's heart immediately stopped. "Harper—"

'Harper's fine, Charlie's the one that needs help. There's a lot of blood, Quinn's trying to apply pressure but I think she may be concussed—'

"I'll be right there." Santana interrupts as she immediately looks for her jacket and her purse, ending the call. Her eyes rest on her father, "You're going to need to drive me there," she informs him bluntly. "You still have your first-aid kit in the car?" When her father nods in confusion Santana immediately grabs her purse and finds her keys before motioning to her dad. "My mate is hurt, I'm not technically licensed and I don't know if I'll be of any help at all. She's my mate."

Carlos can only nod wordlessly as he gets dragged along by his daughter, feeling lost. He hadn't expected that someone was going to need medical attention this early in the morning.

~ O ~

"I'm fiiiine," Charlie slurred, wincing in pain as she tried to get up to see Harper, only for Quinn to forcibly push her back into her seat. "My face just—hurts, but I'm fiiiine." Charlie insisted.

"Charlie, I swear to god if you die, I will resuscitate you to kill you again," Quinn hissed weakly, trying to keep Charlie awake like Santana told her to. Rachel's hushed panicked whispers were still rushed on the phone, desperately trying to keep Santana calm while she was on her way to them.

Charlie manages to push herself away from her twin, landing on the floor with a thump. She grimaces slightly before she slowly stands to her feet, and takes a deep breath. "Smells nice in here," she said, her body swaying. She shifts a bit and immediately smiles and heads to her apartment door. Her feet shuffling across the floor in an attempt to keep her balance. She stumbles into the door, but steadies herself before opening the door. "Santana," Charlie grins, falling against her, and wrapping her arms around her body. "I won."

"You won," Santana swallowed and lifted her neck slightly to let Charlie nuzzle and nip at her neck.

"I won," Charlie repeated.

Santana takes a step back, extricating herself from Charlie and looking at her alpha who looked pleased with herself. She narrows her eyes slightly watching as Charlie winces. "Sit." For a moment Charlie gets a look on her face like she's about to protest but she finally nods and turns around and shuffles back to the couch. She immediately takes a deep breath and shivers before exhaling. "What happened? And don't say I won, like an idiot."

"Thank god you're here," Quinn said looking at Santana, "She went to some stupid underground fighting tournament. She fought like 4 people last night, and won a bunch of money but also came home this morning looking like—that."

"We think she has a concussion," Rachel adds as she rocks Harper.

"She's probably not concussed," Santana responded. Frowning as she checked Charlie's pupils, which were dilated, it had been the first thing she'd noticed. "Did you take something for the pain?" Santana asks Charlie who flashes her a bright smile. "Charlie did you take anything?"

"Found some painkillers in my bag, took some before walking home, I'm really dizzy Santana. And you smell really good. Really really good."

Santana immediately swatted Charlie's hand away from making a move towards her ass. "My dad's here to give you a check up Charlie, make sure you're okay I don't think he's going to enjoy your weak attempts at humping me."

"Not weak, I can show you," Charlie growls lowly reaching for her pants, only for Santana to grab her wrists. "Santana, Quinn and Rachel are watching!"

Santana glances over at Quinn and Rachel, "They're perverts, and they might learn something if they watch us." She can't help but smile when Charlie grins at her and nods. "But that will have to wait until after my dad takes a look at you to make sure that you're okay. Alright?"

"Alright," Charlie mutters under her breath.

"Do you want to tell me how you got hurt? I know that you won but what did you do last night." Santana asked as her father began to do a checkup.

"I don't know if it was the third or fourth fight, but he wouldn't go down so I kept hitting him and now my hand hurts. But I got a lot of money and I got a two thousand bonus for knockout of the night," Charlie informed Santana proudly.

"How much is a lot of money?" Santana asks, glancing over at Quinn who begins to go through the bag.

"Santana's she's going to need to go to the hospital," Carlos whispers to his daughter. "Her hand's broken, and I'd like to get an x-ray of her ribs. There is a lot of bruising, I want to make sure that nothing is broken."

"Seventeen thousand dollars! How the hell did you make this much money in a night?"

"Fighting!"

Santana began cursing under her breath in spanish. She then turned to Charlie, "You're going to the hospital. Quinn and Rachel are going to watch Harper until you are healed." Her voice left no room for arguments.

"Then me and you can—" Charlie grinned at Santana, she really did smell really nice.

"I'll think about it." Santana interrupts, helping Charlie to her feet. "I think it's best if you two called Judy to help out. I don't know how long we'll be, and Judy actually knows what she's doing."

"Santana—"

"Cȃllate. Hospital. Now."