"Your daughter's here," Maribel grumbled as she placed her pillow over her head, to block out the banging that Santana was making as she tore her room apart, cursing up a storm.

There was a light snore that was interrupted as Carlos woke with a jolt and sat up, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. "What?"

"Your daughter—" Maribel suddenly sits up, wide awake as she looks at her mate, and immediately scrambles out of bed. Her daughter had come home. The heaviness that she had felt in her chest suddenly feels light as she nearly slips as she exits her bedroom and crosses the hall, stopping in front of Santana's door. "Mija?"

"Oh great another alpha," Santana bitches as she tosses more of her old clothes into a pile on the floor in the middle of her old bedroom.

Carlos yawned as he finally made his way to Santana's old bedroom and looked at his daughter, "It's nearly three in the morning Santana. I know we said you could come back whenever, but this is a bit much don't you think? Why are you here?"

"I'm looking for my old cheerleading uniform." Santana stops and smirks and looks at her mother, "It's a sex thing."

Maribel inhaled sharply, her lips curling in disgust. People always said that omega children were just easier, but there was no criminal defense attorney, there was no criminal or person who got under her skin like Santana did. Even Carlos couldn't irritate her as much as she did. "Santana."

Carlos sighed and immediately stepped in front of his mate who immediately pulls back and begins to pace trying to burn off her frustration. "You could have stopped by at an appropriate time."

Santana waved her hand and grunted at her father before going back to tearing through her closet. "My alpha is being stupid, how do you put up with it?"

Carlos snorted, and cleared his throat when Maribel looked at him. "You learn to live with it," Carlos admits as he ignores his mate's indignant scoff. It did get hard sometimes. "Do you want to talk about what stupid thing your alpha did?"

"No," Santana replied sullenly.

Maribel narrowed her eyes for a moment before letting out a huff, "I might as well get some work done. I'll be in my office in the basement," She grumbled as she stormed away, she stopped and glanced back at her family. Years ago, Santana had wanted her advice above all else, and now they were barely speaking. She lets out a frustrated growl before storming down stairs.

Carlos watched his mate go, "She misses you."

"What did she think was going to happen when I found out," Santana shakes her head. She doesn't really want to deal with her feelings about her mother. "Charlie has decided to meet with Harper's incubator without me. Apparently I don't get a say when it comes to Harper."

"You don't," Carlos blinked and looked at his daughter as if she had lost her mind. "You and Charlie are not mated, and more importantly Harper has a mother as loathsome as you may find her."

"I—" Santana pulls away from her father, "You're supposed to be on my side."

"Santana, she has a child, have you truly thought about what that means?"

"Of course I have, and I'm not ready to be a mother. Harper is an angel, and I'm already worried that I'm going to mess up all of Charlie's good work. Can you imagine if she ends up like me?"

Carlos raised a brow, "Wha—"

"I know it doesn't make any sense. You've met Charlie and cute and cuddly is probably not how'd you describe her, and Mack—Mack is just trailer trash. I mean it has to be nurture right? I thought that maybe Judy and Russell played a part in it, but I mean they're track record isn't exactly the best. Which means that it's Charlie. It has to be, she's a really good mother, and I can't do what she does. She's so patient with Harper, she reads to Harper every single day—I mean she's always aware of where Harper is, and I have no idea how she does it." Santana smiled, just thinking about her alpha was enough to put a smile on her face.

"Santana—" Carlos begins again.

Santana glanced at her father and her smile fades, "I do get that I don't get to have a say in this part of Charlie's life. I am not Harper's mother, but I don't know why that means that I can't be upset that I don't get a say. Mack has a say and she fucking abandonned Harper because her alpha told her to, I can't imagine that relationship is healthy even if they are mated. And Charlie's allowing that back into Harper's life, hell no."

Carlos stared at his daughter, well this was certainly a development that he hadn't envisioned. Since they had given Santana the talk she had stated plainly that she had never wanted children and while Maribel hadn't accepted that, he had. But spelling it out for her would only cause Santana to freak out. She needed to come to the conclusion on her own. "If Mack is as bad as you think and say she is, she will mess up and that's when you act to protect Harper."

"She abandoned her daughter!"

"It's not like she dropped her off at the hospital, she made certain that Harper got to the one person who would protect her Santana. Harper was—"

"Charlie tried to feed her cow's milk, she wasn't safe. Charlie didn't even know that Mack was pregnant," Santana grumbled.

"Relatively safe with Charlie," Carlos corrected and smiled at the memory. When Santana shoots him an unimpressed look he smiles and leans back a bit on her bed. "Your cheerleading uniform is in the bottom drawer." Carlos points to the drawer in question.

Santana turns to the drawer, "How—"

"I helped you move out," Carlos reminded her, and smiled as he stood up. "Figure things out with your mother."

"When she actually apologizes to Charlie, I'll consider it," Santana promised with a shake of her head.

~ O ~

"Dis one!" Harper returned holding up a picture book.

"Little Miss Bossy," Charlie reads out and looks at her daughter. "Are you trying to tell me something?" She says scooping her up in her arms and placing her daughter on her lap. The library had the most comfortable chairs, and everything was free. "On Monday Little Miss Bossy went for a walk. She met Mr. Nosey. Where are you going? He asked. Mind your own business, she retorted." Charlie says reading the first page. "Now who does that remind you of?"

"Santa!"

Charlie smiled at her daughter and kissed her on the top of her head. "Yeah, it does sort of sound like Santana doesn't it? But how about we keep that to ourselves, in case she gets mad at us—and by that I mean me." Charlie nuzzels her daughter who immediately huffs at her and tries to get her to focus on the story, not aware that Charlie's attention was now on Mack, who was slowly making her way over to them with what appeared to be one of those dollar store dolls. "Hey Harper, look, it's your mom," Charlie said with forced cheer.

"Santa!" Harper said immediately, looking up and frowning when she doesn't see Santana. "Where mommy?"

Charlie glances up to see a flash of hurt cross Mack's face and she bites her lip, "Santana isn't—your mommy," Charlie said with a frown and a sigh, Santana hadn't wanted the role, and Harper had never referred to Santana as anything other than Santa. Thankfully Santana wasn't here to see it, Harper and Santana were getting along rather well and she didn't want Santana pulling back. "Harper this is Mack, you came from her tummy," Charlie said looking at Harper who was staring at Mack suspiciously.

"I—uh—got you a present," Mack mumbled holding out the cheap doll. It was all she could afford and she glanced up at Charlie who was watching her carefully.

Harper looks up at her ma for permission and when Charlie nods, she slides off her lap and slowly approaches the stranger and takes the toy, and immediately turns to head back to the safety of her ma's lap.

"Harper," Charlie stated in a firm but patient tone.

"Thank you!" Harper says turning back to Mack before scampering back to her ma so she could open her present.

Mack swallowed and took a seat across from Charlie, "She's gotten so big."

Charlie is quiet for a moment and looks down at Harper for a moment, "I need you to understand that my parents are rich. I am not. Harper probably does have a trust fund, but even if anything were to happen to me or my parents, you and Strando will never see a penny of it. And I know you think that I'm living large because Santana's a doctor, but her money is just that her money. We aren't mated."

Mack is quiet for a moment, "Strando made it clear that he wouldn't pay a cent for anything to do with Harper, and he wasn't happy that I got a job. I never wanted to give her up, Charlie. I met Strando and it was already too late to take care of the problem, and what was I supposed to do? He's my alpha."

"Omega's can leave an alpha anytime they want. Harper shouldn't have been a negotiation. Harper and I are a package deal, and Santana knows that."

"Says the alpha."

Charlie blinked, she couldn't imagine a world where Santana wasn't very vocal about being displeased. Her last text messages from Santana were a testament of Santana's current displeasure at the situation that they were in. She takes a closer look at Mack noting the bruising on her wrist, it could be from sex, or it could be that Strando was being physical. "I can give you money for outings with her once we've gotten to unsupervised visits. I don't have a lot, so we end up doing a lot of free things, but if you want to take her somewhere special I'll figure out a way so that you can afford to."

"Really? I thought you hated me."

Charlie shrugged, she didn't really focus too much on Mack. "I would have hated you if you had managed to take Harper away from me. You failed, and I'm willing to work with you since you are Harper's mom. So can we agree to never talk badly of each other in front of her? I think we can do this co-parenting thing well if we work together."

"I'd like that."

Charlie nodded at that, this was going far better than she had expected it would go. "Mack? If you ever need help with something—" Charlie trails of and glances at her wrist, watching as Mack immediately hid them from her. It was all the confirmation that she needed. "If he ever touches Harper—"

"He won't. He's not that bad," Mack says swallowing, her skin prickled under the pressure that Charlie was exerting and she looks at Harper who seems completely unphased by Charlie's anger as she goes back to looking at her book. It hurt that her daughter wasn't more interested in her, but it really was the first time that they had met. They had time. They could figure this out.

~ O ~

Judy blinked as Santana stormed inside the house and looked up from where she was looking over her recipe book to see her youngest daughter following her, attempting to plead her case as she carried a sleeping Harper into the house.

"Do you really want me to apologize because the visit wasn't a disaster?"

"Yes," Santana snapped at her alpha.

"Santana!"

"How could you be this gullible? You know what she wants!

Judy sighs and gets up and moves to take Harper from Charlie who shoots her a grateful look as she whisks her upstairs to her bedroom.

Charlie rubbed the back of her neck, "She knows she's not getting any money from me or anyone related to me. She still wants to get to know Harper, and if I make this difficult the judge might take Harper away from me," Charlie responded simply.

"Being cordial doesn't mean offering to help Mack pay expenses to take your daughter out. What happens when she has her own trash-babies, and wants to take them out to eat as a family, are you going to pay for all her kids too?"

"No, I just—Strando isn't going to pay for Harper, and if Mack really wants to try and be a good mother, then I need to help her for Harper's sake," Charlie says rubbing at her temples. They'd been having this argument the entire trip back home.

"For fuck's sake Charlie, Mack abandonned her. You don't get to abandon your kid and then walk back into their life and pretend that what you didn't immediately disqualify you as a mother. She chose some dipshit alpha over her kid. What do you think will happen when Strando knocks her up? She'll abandon Harper again because she now has her perfect little family with her dipshit alpha."

"Then what should I have done?"

"You're making it too easy for her, if she wants to see Harper, have her come to you," Santana said, spotting Russell who had come down from his office probably to see what the commotion was all about.

"That's four hours away she can't—oh." Charlie makes a face as she finally picks up on what Santana is telling her. "Then what do I tell Harper when she asks me about her? I made it financially impossible for your mom to ever see you even though she wanted too."

Santana threw her hands up in the air, how could her alpha be this dense? "Charlie, Harper might be upset with you for doing that, but you will counter with the truth. Mack abandoned her, and you did everything that you could think of to keep her safe, because that is the truth."

"Sue already put a financial barrier in front of Mack, she needed to pay back child support and keep current with what she owed me. She got a part time job to do that, the money didn't actually come from Strando. She's basically been giving me her entire paycheck to pay to see her kid, and I doubt her alpha is thrilled about it. If Mack is willing to put in that much work, then I need to give her a chance."

"No. You. Don't." Santana snapped. "Fuck her. You don't owe her anything."

"You're right, but Harper deserves a chance to have a relationship with Mack," Charlie fires back looking at her mate hoping that Santana understood that it wasn't as if she wanted Mack in Harper's life. "I don't want Harper to hate me. Mack is getting a second chance, because the courts said she should get one, so I'm going to give her a second chance. There won't be a third chance, and I made that clear to Mack today."

"Alright," Russell stated, deciding that they had gotten most of what needed to be said out, "You'll wake up Harper with all this fighting. Santana, Mack will screw up and that's when we'll act. We just have to be patient. Did Harper warm up to her?"

"No, Mack got her a doll she said thank you and just avoided her for the rest of the meeting. They talked a little bit, but Mack's pretty awkward with her," Charlie responded.

"Keep a note of everything," Judy said as she returned. "You must be prepared to go to war with Mack at a moment's notice and that means having evidence." As of right now they didn't have that many options, Charlie and Santana needed to mate, it would make severing Mack's claim easier, but until that happened they needed to keep on top of this. "Charlie you can't trust Mack with Harper, you can be polite and kind, but you can't trust her, especially with Strando in the picture. While I don't think that she's in any physical danger, do you really want to have to spend time making sure she unlearns whatever they teach her. Their values are not your values, and that's what you want to impart on Harper."

Charlie nodded, Mack believed in alpha supremacy, and she certainly didn't want Harper thinking that her only goal in life was to be an incubator for her alpha. It was why she wanted Santana's influence on Harper. Santana was smart, and she knew there was nothing that would hold her back.

~ O ~

"How much are you drinking these days?" Roz asked frowning slightly, she was certain that Charlie had said that she didn't have a drinking problem or a drug problem but from the story she had heard about Harper's conception, it was clear that it was a problem.

"I'll have a beer every now and again, maybe I'll take a few sips of wine if I'm going somewhere nice with Santana. But I don't drink anymore, I certainly don't do drugs anymore. The moment that I got Harper, I just knew that I couldn't slowly kill myself anymore, I had to be there for her. So I just stopped cold. It was hard, and there are still times where I really just want to get super drunk or super high, and sometimes that's a bit of a struggle."

"It sounds that you used alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism, you're still human Charlie. You are going to get stressed, and I know Harper's lovely now but what happens when she's a teenager? What happens when you and Santana have another child?"

"I do have a coping mechanism, it's probably not the healthiest thing but it makes me feel good. I punch people in the face for a living. I try and avoid getting punched in the face, but it does happen but at the end of the day I feel good afterwards. I feel normal. If I start getting stressed I go for a run or I start working out or something, then I feel better."

Roz makes a note of what Charlie had just said, she'd come back to it later, her pressing concern was how Charlie was handling visitation. "Well I'm glad that to hear that you've got your drinking and recreational drug use under control, but I am worried that might change. How did the visitation go?"

Charlie shrugged. "Everyone thinks I'm insane for letting it happen. But I don't really have a choice, kidnapping Harper and living on the run isn't an option. I don't actually want Mack to have any influence on Harper, she believes in this nonsense alpha supremacy nonsense. Santana is a far better role model to Harper than Mack could ever hope to be. Harper also thinks that Santa is her mom." Charlie smiles and laughs at this. "Santana would be horrified, but she is really good with Harper—it's a shame that she doesn't want to be a mother."

"Your omega doesn't want to be a mother?" Roz asked, wrinkling her nose at that.

"Santana's got dreams and I think she's worried about her career, which is important to her. I don't mind doing all the hard stuff, the diaper changes, the walks, I'm never going to have a proper office job, so Santana would never have to be the one to sacrifice anything, when it comes to work. I don't think Santana wants to be pregnant—she'd be really hot pregnant though," Charlie mumbled the last part and cleared her throat.

Roz rolled her eyes, Charlie did seem to get distracted whenever she did talk about Santana so this was to be expected. "Have you tried mating yet?"

"No, I don't want Santana in my head. I did something awful to her and I don't want her to experience what I went through. I don't want her to feel how I feel about myself either, she'll get upset and try and fix me."

"I don't think you're giving your omega enough credit. She forgave you didn't she?"

"Yeah but—"

"You need to forgive yourself, and you need to talk to your omega about this. At the very least let her know that you're working on it."

Charlie sighs, "The next time it comes up in conversation I'll talk to her about it."