Rachel Berry had always been a relatively fit person. She had perfected her exercise regime back in highschool, and had managed to carry on with it deep into her pregnancy with Beth. Which was probably why she had erroneously believed that after Beth's birth, she could simply hop back on the elliptical. She couldn't even last up to two minutes before she felt like she was dying.

Walking to the Fabray's guest house was taxing, but she needed to do something to try and get her fitness up and Judy had raved about how going on a jog with Charlie and Harper daily was doing wonders for her health. While she could easily afford to hire a trainer, it seemed like a waste when Charlie seemed to know quite a lot about fitness. It also offered a convenient excuse to befriend Charlie, while she was certain that Charlie liked her and certainly trusted her to watch Harper, she wouldn't exactly say that they were friends. She's about to turn the corner when she hears voices coming from outside the guest house.

"If it's all the same to you, I can just tell Santana that you stopped by and apologized," Charlie said, her tone was relatively flat.

Rachel bit her lip and stole a quick peek, before ducking behind the corner as she saw Santana's parents. She wasn't sure if it was wise to simply step in and attempt to help, she didn't want to make the situation worse. But if Santana started to pull away again or trusted anything her parents said to her after what they had done she'd—

"No, we're here to apologize, it's the very least that my mate can do," Carlos insisted, as he turned to look at his mate.

Maribel gritted her teeth, "I'm—"

"Apologies aren't worth anything if you don't actually mean it. I do understand, you think I'm a threat to your daughter. You probably think that I'm going to fuck up everything that she's worked hard for," Charlie interrupts with an irritated sigh. All she wanted was to be left alone, but her parents had requested her presence for the barbecue that they were hosting. "I can't mate, and even if I could mate, your daughter has made it quite clear that I embarrass her. Which means that this relationship will eventually fade and end once Santana gets tired of me. Santana will find someone without baggage, and I'll continue to raise my daughter. There won't be any hard feelings."

Charlie's small speech stuns both Lopez's into silence for a moment before Maribel clears her throat, "It seems that I've misjudged you and I am sorry. I didn't expect for you to know your limitations and—"

"Enough Mari," Carlos snapped at his mate. She didn't have the right to take the odd olive branch that Charlie had extended. He glanced over at Charlie, there was nothing more dangerous than an alpha who wasn't secure, but he didn't feel as if they were in any sort of danger, Charlie just seemed rather tired. "Are you still doing that underground street fighting?"

Charlie frowned at Carlos for a moment, she wanted to ignore him but he'd been nice to her and he'd taken care of Harper for her, "Yeah I don't see what that has to—" Charlie immediately swatted his hand away, and stumbled away from him ignoring Maribel's loud indignant growl. "Don't touch me."

"Mari. I'm fine," Carlos snaps at his mate, "I should have asked for permission first, I apologize but you looked rather listless. Have you been getting enough sleep?"

Charlie shrugged, between Harper, fighting and being on call for Santana's needs, she couldn't remember the last time she had slept through the night. "I'm fine."

Carlos paused, and glanced over at his mate. Charlie would never be honest with Maribel standing right there, but after that little display he was certain that Maribel wasn't going to leave his side. "You need to take better care of yourself."

"I'm fine," Charlie insisted again, "I have a lot of things to do, so if Santana asks, I'll say that it's all water under the bridge."

"Of course," Carlos replied before Maribel could say anything. "Come on Mari, we should get going before our daughter arrives and causes a scene." He immediately herds his mate towards the car, they had overstayed their welcome and this had been a disaster, he would need to try again on more neutral territory.

Charlie waits until they leave before turning slightly, "Rachel."

Rachel peeks from behind the corner and waves at Charlie, weakly. When Charlie simply turns and heads back inside the house, she immediately follows, closing the door behind her, before following Charlie deeper into the house. "Where's Harper?"

"Sleeping. She didn't do much of it last night. Dad got her excited and she wouldn't go to bed," Charlie replied motioning to the toddler who was currently passed out on the couch cushions which were currently on the floor of the living room. "I thought I had a couple more hours before I have to make an appearance at the barbecue."

Rachel hummed, "You don't have to come if you really don't want to."

"Quinn will be upset." Rachel blinked and looked up at Charlie in shock, "What?"

"Sorry, I just—Quinn is certain that you don't actually care about her," Rachel admits. "She says you used to be closer."

"Quinn was the only person who tried to reach out to me when I got kicked out," Charlie admitted. "I do care about her, but I was gone for eight years. We used to do nearly everything together, but we barely have anything in common now. Hearing about my life makes Quinn upset and protective, hearing about her life, makes me feel bad. I'm working on it."

Rachel opened her mouth to say something and then nodded, and fidgeted for a moment before noticing a rather large book on Charlie's island. "You're training to be a cop?"

Charlie shrugged her shoulders, Santana had made the suggestion about a week ago and had already begun to buy her books to help her study, and was working on a study schedule for her. "Rachel, I'm going to assume that you didn't come over here just to spy on me."

Rachel huffed immediately, "I didn't come here to spy on you, in fact despite the strong objections from both your father and Quinn, I have come seeking your help in increasing my fitness. The sooner I can get back to the stage—"

"Okay."

"—the sooner I can get back to my dreams of being an EGOT—wait did you say okay?" Charlie nods and Rachel grins, that had been far simpler than she had thought it would be. She hadn't even needed to wear Charlie down. "Will you come up with a fitness plan for me?"

"You're staying at the main house for awhile right?" Charlie questions. When Rachel nods and looks ready to say some more, Charlie holds up her hands. "You need to get a good stroller, we'll start tomorrow at 10 in the morning."

This had been far easier than Rachel had envisioned, she's about to offer payment before she pauses and hesitates. "You'd be offended if I offered to pay you for your time? Wouldn't you?"

"Yes. You're family," Charlie responds in a clipped tone. Charlie immediately moves making sure that the island separates her from Rachel. "Don't touch me," she insisted immediately when Rachel takes a step towards her. Rachel was a hugger and right now, with the nightmares she'd been having getting touched by anyone other than her mother and Harper made her skin crawl.

"Of course," Rachel said holding her hands up. Charlie narrows her eyes for a moment, but she keeps her hands where Charlie can see them before she simply grunts and heads into the living room, without another word. Rachel glances around frowning at the textbook, before she quickly follows her mates twin. She wanted to know more but all she sees is Charlie heading to the living room and gently picking up her daughter, who starts to fuss until Charlie nuzzles her and carries her to bed. It's a surprisingly soft scene, and perhaps that was the way that Charlie and Quinn could bond, and while they were doing that she was going to grill Santana on exactly what was going on between them.

~ O ~

Santana hummed, as she struggled to keep the massive smile off her face. She got to spend an entire week with her mate. It would be the longest time that they'd spent together, and to say that she was looking forward to it would be a massive understatement. She didn't even mind that she had to spend a few hours celebrating that Quinn and Rachel had successfully reproduced, because by the end of the week she and Charlie would be mated.

Sure Charlie was still insisting that she couldn't mate, but Charlie had mated with Mack, so it wasn't that she couldn't but it was that she wouldn't. All she needed to do was up her game and Charlie would get over what was holding her back and they would finally be able to be together. They could figure out everything else after the fact, what Charlie was going to do for work, maybe she could go to university. She had her GED, a year or two at a community college and then finishing off her degree at a regular university would open so many doors for her.

Grabbing the ridiculously expensive gift that she had gotten for Beth, Santana immediately heads to the house so she can join the party. She can already smell her mate, taking her time to simply just go around the house so she spots Charlie sitting a bit away from everyone with Harper running around her trying to pop the bubbles that Charlie was blowing.

Harper reacts to Santana first, nearly falling as she suddenly stops and wants to change directions. "SANTA!"

Santana grins at Harper, "Hear that I'm Santa! Which actually makes a lot of sense, I'm carrying this oversized present and I look fantastic in red. Charlie your kid might be a genius or she might not be able to say—" Santana shifts her gaze from Harper to Charlie and the smile on her face freezes. Charlie looked pale, and there was a certain listlessness about her. The cherry on top of this situation was that Charlie couldn't seem to meet her eye. How long had it been since she'd seen her mate? A week? A week and a half? She had dropped off that police training manual for Charlie, so she could have a look at it. She'd been on night shifts, which meant that she had to sleep during the day, so spending time with her mate had been out the question, they'd been having a lot of sex, and she needed to sleep. "Are you—"

"Your parents stopped by to apologize this morning," Charlie interrupts, still not meeting Santana's gaze.

"Oh." Santana said, before what Charlie had just said registered and she made a face. "Oh." She knew her mother, and even if her papi had forced her to come, the apology would be meaningless. "Did she try anything?"

"No. You should talk to them. They miss you, she wouldn't have come if she didn't miss you."

"I don't miss her," Santana insisted, and she's met with a small grunt and a shoulder shrug from Charlie, it almost felt like a dismissal of sorts, but she was certain that Charlie simply didn't want to talk about it right now, she'd wait and then grill her about what happened. She wasn't going to rush to conclusions this time, at least not without talking to Charlie. "Let me dump this gift with the rest of them and say hello to Rachel and Quinn."

"Santa! Santa!" Harper cheered loudly as she finally reached Santana and raised her hands wanting to be lifted by her.

Before Santana can try and figure out how to balance Harper and the gift, Charlie's voice causes her to look up at her mate. "Harper, let's go get some cupcakes." Harper turns around and lands on her bum, before pushing herself up and grinning at her ma. "Maup!"

Santana's brow furrowed slightly and narrowed her eyes at her mate for a moment. There was something to unpack there, but she really did need to go and say hello to the lizard and the hobbit and she wanted to check if Beth had scales or hair on her feet. She makes a face and shoots one last glance at her mate, she would have to wait until after the party to talk to her. This was Rachel and Quinn's day and she didn't want to ruin it or wake up their demon-baby. With a sigh she makes her way to the gift table and drops her gift off and flashes a smile at Judy who is talking to one of Rachel's parents, while Russell is off in front of the grill laughing happily with a few friends.

"San!" Quinn said grinning at her best friend as she held her daughter in her arms. "You haven't seen your goddaughter yet."

"My what? When did I agree to this?" Santana asked Quinn, immediately holding her hands up to prevent Quinn from handing her the baby. She was secretly sure, judging from how tired Quinn sounded, that if she took Beth from her, Quinn and Rachel would disappear leaving her with a loud baby.

"Rachel and I thought it over and we—"

"No." Santana crossed her arms over her chest. "You know how I feel about children."

"But you're so good with Harper," Rachel pointed out. Harper loved Santana."

"Because I have to be. You know I didn't have a choice in that matter," Santana hisses, keeping her voice low.

Rachel immediately intervened, Quinn had been feeling extra protective lately and it was extending to every part of her life, which included her twin. She exhales slowly when she feels Quinn finally settle, "I think I understand now why she isn't exactly eager to mate with you."

"Excuse you?"

"Instead of focusing on me, shouldn't you be far more concerned about your alpha?" Rachel commented nodding towards Charlie. "She doesn't look so good."

Santana immediately glanced back at her mate and froze, Rachel was right, Charlie looked pale and clammy, she had looked off before but judging from the grimace on her face and the slight stumble, there was something that was definitely wrong.

~ O ~

"I know you're awake," Quinn stated simply, without looking up at her twin who was currently sitting in a hospital bed. When Charlie doesn't respond, she sighs and looks at her sister, "Santana's outside probably talking to mom, she promised to keep her updated. "

"I was hoping you'd go away and I could sneak out," Charlie responds, her eyes still closed. When Quinn snorted at her comment Charlie slowly opens her eyes and tilts her head to look at Quinn. "I ruined another one of your parties."

"If you want to make it up to me, then you can help me put together all of the presents that we received, you know how I am with building things," Quinn says with a small chuckle, before truly studying her twin. "Harper's with mom and Rachel. Do you remember what happened?"

"Yes," Charlie responded. She had been while she had been forcibly dragged to the hospital, where Santana had proceeded to make a scene. "Do I still have a hole in my chest?"

"Yes, they still have the drain in your chest. How long have you had that broken rib?" Quinn asked, hoping that Charlie would for once just answer the questions that she had without hiding anything. She's met with a shrug from her twin. "Charlie—"

"The last time I fought it was a week and a half ago, I've been in pain since then. I though tit would just heal on its own, if I just rested a bit at least that's what it said on the internet."

Quinn inhaled deeply, trying to stop herself from yelling at her twin for her stupidity. "Your mate is a doctor, like she graduated near the top of her class, you could have just asked her," Quinn pointed out. "Heck I know a few other doctors if you didn't want to go to Santana, you didn't need to just do this on your own."

"I was on my own for years."

"But you're not anymore," Quinn challenges immediately. "It's been nearly two years, you aren't alone anymore. Even if you're still unsure about your place in the family, you're not alone. You have Harper, and now that I'm a parent I can finally lecture you on what I've figured out."

"I've been a parent longer—"

"Charlie you're all Harper's got. If anything were to happen to you, Mac will get custody, before our parents do, and even if they got custody, Charlie mom and dad are old—"

"If anything were to happen to me, I thought you'd do whatever you could to protect my daughter. I would do the same, if anything were to happen to you and Rachel."

Quinn's stunned into silence as she feels the familiar prickly sensation of her tears building as she gets emotional. There were days when she honestly thought that Charlie hated her. That Charlie had blamed her for how their lives had turned out, but it was clear there were things that obviously went without saying. "You wanna tell me what's going on between you and Santana?"

"No."

"You haven't mated."

"I can't mate."

"We both know that's not true, you mated with Mack. I mean I'm personally glad that you and Mac aren't a thing right now, but it's not like you're broken Charlie, you are capable of mating, and it's what Santana wants."

"Mac rejected the bond because there is something wrong with me," Charlie reminded Quinn, who gives her a patient look. "Santana—" Charlie frowned looking for the right words as she adjusted herself on the bed, grimacing slightly at the movement in her chest. It hurt, everything hurt and she felt weak again, she felt powerless. "I hurt her," Charlie finally says after a few moments, she can't meet her twin's gaze anymore and she just feels so tired. "It was after we went to court about Harper. She came over and I didn't want to see her, I had begged her to come, I had asked and pleaded that even if she didn't want to be with me, I just needed her help so I could keep Harper."

"How did you hurt her?"

"She told me about how she had been with other people, and I just—I got angry. I got so angry, she's the one that insisted on entering my life after I told her that she'd be better off finding someone else, and she was getting past my walls and she just disappeared. She disappeared, she abandoned me to fuck other people. I just—I got angry and then I don't really remember what happened, but she's crying and my pants are unzipped. I snapped out of it before anything happened, but I tried. I fucking tried."

"Christ Charlie," Quinn whispers and closes her eyes. Rachel hadn't understood why she hadn't been thrilled about this union in the beginning, and this was why. Santana enjoyed being difficult, whether it was purposely showing up late to events, or making cutting comments about her life and child. Santana had not handled this well, but then her twin hadn't handled it any better. But Charlie was finally opening up to her, and she wasn't going to pass judgement on her twin just yet, "I don't understand though, it looked like you two were on the same page for awhile, Santana gave me rather graphic details of your sex life, on multiple occassions. Even if it did happen, Santana seems to have forgiven you."

"She's still afraid of me. When I get upset she gets scared, she tries to hide it but I can see her flinch away, or she reminds me of what I did, when I get upset," Charlie explained. "I know I fucked up, and I understand what I did was the worst thing I could do to my omega, and I should be grateful that she's willing to give me another chance—"

"But?" Quinn prompted.

"I can't be who Santana wants. I keep trying, and failing. I see the disappointment in her eyes, when I don't get excited about being a cop. Or when I talk about Harper, it's this little grimace, so I avoid talking about her and then I feel worse, because Harper deserves better. I don't want to go to her stupid work events anymore because I'll have to grin and bear it, because her job is important to her, and I can't embarrass her. So that means, ignoring the smug smiles of the people she's been with, as they whisper behind my back about how I can't please her. She has to lie about what I do, and how Harper's my niece."

Quinn inhaled sharply, the very thought of Rachel denying Beth as her child, was enough to make her furious on Charlie's behalf. "Rachel's made out with a few people while we were mated." Noting how Charlie's attention was focused on her. "She's an actress, so it's something that I have to deal with and it's fucking hard." Quinn admits. "But I don't want to be the jackass alpha that screws over their mate because they can't keep it together. I could never make my mate collateral damage."

"It's not the same."

"No it's not," Quinn agrees. Rachel was an actress, and she was being a bit more selective with her roles so she wouldn't have to kiss anyone. The moment that Santana had acknowledged that Charlie was her mate, there shouldn't have been anyone else. If there was anyone who could get past Charlie's walls it had been Santana, she could be relentless when she wanted to be, but with that power came a responsibility and Santana hadn't seemed to realize that. Still she needed to get Santana and Charlie back on the same page, things looked bad now, but "But when you and Santana mate, you'll finally understand each other completely—"

"Quinn. I can't mate. I know you, dad and Santana think that eventually it'll just happen but you're not listening. I can't mate."

"Look, I know Santana can be a bit—much, but she's not Mack. Mac was never supposed to be your mate to begin with and now that Santana is aware of what happened—"

"Neither you, dad, mom or Santana, know what it's like to have your bond rejected. I felt everything that Mac felt that night, and I'm telling you it's not possible for me to mate. Things between Santana and I aren't going to get better because we mate. She isn't going to stop resenting Harper's existence. And given her position, she'll eventually find an alpha who has a high paying job and doesn't have nearly the baggage I do. She can explain to her co-workers that they went to some super exclusive school. I have Harper, and I think that she's enough for me."

Quinn nodded and shifted just a bit before looking at the door that had been closed. Charlie probably couldn't smell anything through the tubes that were in her nose, but Santana had probably heard everything that Charlie had said. "Everyone deserves happiness Charlie, even you. You shouldn't settle for just being content with your life. And if you want to be the best possible parent, the best possible alpha for Harper you're going to need to start facing your demons. It's easy now, because Harper's cute and two but what happens when she finally starts talking back. Or being independent?"

"Alpha's—"

"I'm in therapy," Quinn says quietly for only Charlie to hear. "It helps me work through some of my problems, I know you think my life is perfect but sometimes I need a bit of help to have healthy responses to things. It's not something I advertise Charlie, and it's not something you have to advertise too, but if you really want to be a better person then do the work. It's going to be hard, god knows it's never easy, but you're not alone. It goes without saying that I have your back. It's time for you to stop just surviving and focus on thriving and building a life for yourself, whatever that life may be." Quinn pulls back and smiles at her twin, "Your mate's outside."

Charlie tilted her head to the door as Santana pokes her head in and looks at her, "You shouldn't have to spend your week taking care of me, if you want—"

"I was going to spend my week taking care of you before this, at the very least teaching you important life skills like how to cook something other than mac and cheese," Santana insists, gesturing for Quinn to get out of her seat. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Charlie replies simply, hoping that she could sink into the rather crappy hospital bed.

"You have a hole in your chest," Santana pointed out flatly, taking a seat in the chair and looking at her mate, it had taken her a minute to compose herself, but there was a reason that Quinn was her best friend.

"It's all relative."

"Of course it is," Santana said with a sigh. "You're being released in a few hours, they're not going to keep you since we got it early. I've already scheduled a follow-up appointment to make sure you're healing properly. Don't worry about how much it costs, I have really good health insurance, and I added you to it. So you don't have any excuse not to go see the doctor anymore."

Charlie nods and looks up at the ceiling. "Okay."