"I don't know what to do about Harper, papi. I know that I should tell Charlie what I found out, but I'm terrified of what Charlie's going to do when she finds out. I mean we promised no more secrets, and with Charlie keeping anything related to Harper's health and well-being from her—she'd never trust me again."
"That's because you haven't mated," Carlos pointed out immediately. There were plenty of things that Santana could do that Charlie would automatically forgive her for if they were mated. He couldn't think of one thing that Maribel hadn't immediately forgiven him for, and they were still currently at odds, because he supported Santana's choice in mate. "Santana I understand that kids these days do things differently and you and Charlie—"
"We're going to mate," Santana interrupts before she can hear her father launch into a long tirade about how she and Charlie needed to mate. She agreed with him, but not for any of the reasons he listed.
"It's been over two years Santana, don't you think—"
Santana sighed, it was really the only thing her father had against Charlie, and she didn't need her mate feeling guilty for getting herself straightened out. Everyone knew about what had happened to Charlie except for her parents and maybe just telling them would help put things into context. "The night of Harper's conception, Charlie and Mack briefly mated. Mack broke the bond when she started to experience what Charlie went through as a teenager, she was sexually assaulted by a coach. Charlie has admitted that she didn't handle the rejection well and that was with her not even wanting to be mated to Mack. She's been working on it with her therapist, and I need to support that and support her. It's difficult for her to seek help, and now that she has, things between us have been so good. Charlie's in a relatively healthy place papi, and there's a part of me that doesn't want to rock that boat, but we need to be mated."
Carlos froze as he began to put together everything that Santana had just said to him. He tilts his head, now that he had all the information he was actually embarrassed for missing it to begin with. "This changes things—"
"If you're thinking that this changes things between Charlie and mami, you're delusional," Santana corrected. "I have Harper now, and I know that when it eventually comes time for Harper to start dating, I'm going to need to remind Charlie to be polite to whatever alpha Harper brings home. But Charlie would never do what mami did to me, she will probably just make her distaste known and need to have her ego stroked." Santana smiled at the thought, she would probably have to make sure Charlie didn't challenge the poor alpha to a fight.
"Santana, she couldn't have known—"
"She deals with victims of abuse all the time, if anyone should have seen it before I did it was her. And even if she did see it and was worried about it, then she should have said something she should have been supportive. Look I do understand that alpha's get weird when their omega offspring find another alpha and bring them into their territory, I get it. It's primal, it makes sense, but trying to buy Charlie off was disgusting and then lying to me, her only kid who was struggling to get past Charlie's walls—to begin with." Santana lets out a tired sigh and looks at her papi.
"I know, I'm still upset on your behalf and she knows it, but you know how proud she is, and I know how proud you are—"
"I'm not asking for her spleen papi, I want her to apologize to Charlie. I really don't care if she doesn't like Charlie, but I'm asking for civility. Harper is my daughter and I will not have that negativity in her life, it's bad enough that she has to deal with it at Mack's place."
"Your daughter?" he repeats slowly, he had known that Santana was attached to Harper but this was the first time he had heard Santana infer that Harper belonged to her. "Santana—"
"Harper thinks of herself as my daughter, Charlie thinks of me as Harper's responsible parent, which is accurate. If Charlie had her way Harper would be living off mac and cheese, bacon and breakfast food, which includes burnt pancakes. Harper is my child, whether you accept her or not."
Carlos stares at his daughter for a moment, "Does she have an interest in medicine?"
Santana blinked at her father, "Is this—"
"Yes. Your mami will be angry, but at this point it's her own fault," Carlos said dismissively. "Well we don't have to worry about her following in Charlie's footsteps, but what about Russell's?"
"I don't think Harper understands what Russell does, I'm not quite sure Charlie understands it either. So if we play our cards right—"
"Another doctor will be in the family."
"Charlie did say she wanted Harper to take after me," Santana informed her father. "She loves listening to what I do at work, and she enjoys watching me give Charlie stitches and patch her up when she needs it. I explain everything to her and she asks a bunch of questions."
Carlos grinned, once Maribel finally got over herself she'd be kicking herself for not trying to be the favorite grandparent. "Are you and Charlie discussing having more children?"
Santana hesitated for a moment, "Charlie—Charlie is super attractive when she's taking care of Harper, and Harper still has that new kid smell which will probably last until she starts taking after me and starts to talk back. I mean I know Charlie would take care of the kids no matter what I decide. I wouldn't have to worry about Charlie not pulling her fair share, if anything I might have to fight her to help her take care of another child."
"Before you even think about having children with Charlie, you need to mate with her."
Santana let out a laugh, her papi was right. "Before I even think about having a child, I need to make sure that Harper understands that all because she's not blood, I'm still her mom."
~ O ~
"So you don't trust your omega."
It was a simple statement that had Charlie narrowing her eyes at Roz, "Of course I trust Santana—"
"You literally just said that you're worried that once she sees how much you hate yourself she'll leave you. Nothing in that statement indicates that you have a strong trust for your omega," Roz pointed out looking up at Charlie who looked slightly stunned that she'd been called out. They'd been circling this point for years now, and truthfully it didn't seem like Charlie was going to have a breakthrough with a bit of a shove.
"I—" Charlie frowns as she thinks about what Roz had just said, "I do trust Santana, but she isn't perfect. I don't think Santana's going to sever the bond intentionally just to fuck with me, that's not what I'm afraid of."
"What are you afraid of?"
Even though she knew the question was coming it still hits her hard and she's not sure how to answer it. It was so difficult to put into words, it was never just one thing. "Santana and Harper are the only people in my life that feel right. I'm terrified that she'll see me and she'll get scared. I'm terrified that I'm not good enough for her. I'm terrified that I'll fuck things up again." Charlie lets out a tired laugh, "I'm scared. I'm a fucking coward and everytime I realize it I fucking wonder how anyone could love me. I'm so fucking weak."
"You enjoy fighting Charlie, you like getting into a ring or octagon and fight. I've caught your last few fights, they've never left the first round. You are a very good fighter. I've seen you beat alphas who quite frankly should outclass you. But you've never shown any anxiety in facing more dangerous opponents," Roz pointed out watching as Charlie blinks as if trying to figure out what her point was. "Everyone gets afraid Charlie, it's one of the primal emotions. We as alpha's are more prone to fits of aggression, if we didn't have the emotion of fear there would be far fewer alpha's."
"I just—"
"Santana and Mack aren't the same, unlike Santana, Mack wasn't aware of what had happened to you she wasn't able to menally prepare herself. Santana is, if she takes the right steps then your mating should go off without a hitch," Roz interrupts.
"What steps can Santana take?" Charlie asks, "What steps can I take so she doesn't have to experience it?"
Roz smiled, Charlie had moved from her fixed mindset to a growth mindset, they wouldn't fix all her issues today they still had time, but she imagined that once Charlie mated, Santana would be able to share some of her burdens.
~ O ~
Santana sighed as she glanced up at Harper from where she was packing Harper's bag. Harper hiccuped pathetically, her face still red from the tantrum that she had just thrown and her cheeks were stained with tears. It had broken her heart to hear Harper scream and cry like that, it wasn't something that she had ever witnessed before but Charlie had and had stopped her from trying to comfort her. She had wanted to argue with Charlie about this, Harper wasn't upset for a silly childish reason. She simply didn't want to go to Mack's place for the weekend, for a very good reason.
Mack was pregnant again. She wasn't even sure it had been a year since Harper's half-brother had been born. Personally she didn't even understand what Mack was thinking, they barely had any space for Harper as it was, and unless they moved. She had to wonder if they could take this to Sue and use it to keep Harper with them, "Harper, come here," Santana said gently.
"No!" Harper shouted sullenly.
"Harper," Santana said patiently, "Please. I know you don't want to go and see Mack but you have to, your ma and I are working hard to make sure that you don't have to go there if you don't want to, but until we can figure it out you have to go," Santana explains. She could only hope that Harper didn't resent them for this in the future. "So please come here so I can give you a hug, and we can talk about this," Santana pleaded.
Harper shook her head, her messy brown locks falling into her face, and she takes a seat in the corner away from Santana.
Santana sighed and looked up when Charlie returned back into the room, "Well?"
Charlie sighed, she glanced over at Harper for a moment before looking at Santana. "I ended up talking to Strando, he made it very clear that if we don't bring her over today, we're headed back to court and they're going to accuse me of parental alienation."
Santana made a face, "Charlie we can't keep—"
"I know, I know," Charlie repeats and looks at her daughter. "The reason I haven't asked my father to get involved is because I'm not a hundred percent sure I want to be responsible for Strando not being able to feed his family, and I don't know how he'll take it. I suspect that he's physical with Mack and I don't want him turning his attention onto Harper, if given the chance."
"Charlie, my mother is the district attorney, and I know that once she gets to know Harper she'll adore her like I do. She just needs to get over her strong dislike for you, and things will be fine, but if he lays a single hand on Harper, my mother will bring down the entire police department and social services on his head. The reason that Strando is talking big is because he's a fucking moron—"
"You said a bad word!" Harper interrupts.
"Sorry Harper," Santana says looking at her. "But he is, he's not afraid of you because of what happened to you. You need to put the fear of god into him, Charlie. Call your father and have him do whatever he needs to, and I'll try and make peace with my mami so we have this covered on both fronts, and then we go to Sue."
Charlie makes a face at this, it felt like she was putting Harper in danger. Harper didn't want to go, and she felt bad for forcing the issue with her daughter. "I'll call my dad. He probably has a file on Strando." Charlie sighed and looked over at Harper, and sat on the grounds so she's at eye level with her daughter. "Harper, I know you don't want to go and see Mack, but you have to do it today."
Harper immediately begins to tear up again, and clears the small distance between her and her man and hugs her tightly as she begins to cry once again. Charlie rubs Harper's back immediately and looks over at Santana.
Santana looks away, she knew that Charlie and Harper had a special connection and yes Charlie was Harper's alpha until a time came when she found an alpha of her own and left to go start a family, but Harper never came to her when she was in distress. She knew that she had a connection with Harper, but it was times like this that she wished that she really was Harper's parent. Charlie was far closer with her mother than she was with her father. Before she can say anything Charlie's phone starts to buzz for the umpteenth time that day and she looks at her mate. "Do you have a secret girlfriend that I don't know about?"
Charlie's eyes widen and she immediately looks at Santana, "What? No! It's just Dave, he wants me to take a fight in like two weeks, someone dropped out. It's two weeks to get into fighting shape and fight someone in the top five. I said I'd get back to him after I thought about it—"
"Can you win?" Santana interrupts. 70 thousand dollars was nearly how much she made in a year. Charlie obviously wouldn't be taking all of that home, she'd be taking home just over 40 thousand dollars, after taxes but it was still a decent lump sum, and if Charlie won, then her base salary would increase to match that number, if she didn't earn more. "If you think you can win, take the fight."
Charlie exhales slowly, "I'm still thinking about it, I need to watch my opponents last few matches," Charlie said but shrugs. That wasn't important now. Right now she needed to figure out how to get Harper to Mack's house. "How about we go and see Mack and I'll talk to her Harper." Mack had been relatively reasonable all things considered, and she knew that Mack was exhausted. It wouldn't be that difficult to convince her into letting Harper stay with her for the time being. During her last pregnancy, Mack had cancelled for nearly a year, which was probably why Harper really wasn't attached to Mack.
