"Do you want some banana slices on your peanut butter sandwich?" Charlie asked as she smeared a healthy helping of peanut butter on two white slices of bread, she had a banana on the counter, ready to go in case Harper said yes, and even if she didn't she still got a banana.
"Yeah," Harper called out from where she was coloring.
"Okay," Charlie responds, and is about to peel the banana when there is a firm knock on the door. Charlie looks up and glances at Harper before wiping her hands and going to see who was at the door. No one had asked to be buzzed in, she looks through the peephole and she rolls her eyes before opening the door only to get hugged by her mother. "Mom."
"Finally, you really had me worried that you were never going to mate. How is it?"
Charlie shrugs her shoulders a bit, her cheeks flushing. She didn't want to admit that it was hard, that she desperately wanted to see her mate. Santana was on call today, which meant that it was just going to be her and Harper having a lazy Saturday indoors. It wasn't just about the sex, which felt really good, simply being near her mate helped ease her general anxiety. "It's nice," Charlie said after a moment. It was the least offensive thing she could possibly say. "I'm making Harper lunch—"
Judy quickly loses interest in her youngest daughter, "Harper! Come give your grandma a hug!'' Judy called out entering their home. "Do you want me to make you lunch?"
Harper grins and comes running up to her grandmother and throws her arms around her, "Yeah."
"But your sandwich—" Charlie sighs, giving up halfway through her mother would probably make enough for her to eat as well. She looks over at her father, "You're not here to spoil my daughter are you?" She frowns when she notices that he's carrying a briefcase.
"Later," Russell said briskly. "We're spending the weekend in the city, we wanted to see Rachel's new show, and I have some business with you."
"Business? Is this about that insane bet you placed on me?" Charlie asks, sighing as she follows her father into the apartment. "I tell Santana all the time that it's not a good idea to bet on me. Realistically Lauren could have won. She had me several times in that fight and I'm not going to enjoy the rematch—"
"This is about your trust fund," Russell interrupts. "I need you to know that I had every intention of dissolving it, but your mom insisted that you would come back to us one day. And when you came back with Harper in tow, well I delayed dissolving it. Then I found out that Santana was your soulmate, well your mother insisted that we refrain from dissolving your trust fund. Quinn's already been through this, there is quite a bit of paperwork that you need to sign."
Charlie stared at her father, that had been quite a bit of information that he had thrown at her. "What?"
"Congratulations you've fulfilled the conditions to receive your trust," Russell said, simplifying what he had just said.
"What?"
~ O ~
Santana flipped through the paperwork that Charlie had practically shoved into her hands the moment that she had walked through the door. The only time she'd seen her mate so panicked was when she had lost track of Harper at the mall. "That's a lot of zeros," Santana whistles once she sees the total monetary amount that Charlie was getting, there were also various assets. And there was a time that her mami worried that Charlie was only with her because she was a surgeon. Charlie's last name was still Fabray and they had mated, she had actually expected a visit from the patriarch of the Fabray family, but even she hadn't expected the sheer amount. No wonder Charlie was panicked. "What did your dad say?"
"What?"
"Your father isn't just going to hand you this much money and assets and expect you to manage it. You're not Quinn. What did he say?" Santana asks.
"I don't know he said he'd call you after I said to just put the entire thing in Harper's name."
"Well you can certainly make sure that Harper has a head start in life, and afford tuition to one of the higher end schools, if that's what you want," Santana pointed out, as she began to look at the property listings that were Charlie's. Charlie had never once asked her to pay for anything or cover anything, she had to be sneaky in buying her mate things.
"He said they've already set up a trust in Harper's name, and that it would be stupid to put it all in Harper's name when we might have kids. I told him that Harper was enough for us and that we didn't want any more kids," Charlie said, rubbing the back of her neck, not noticing immediately how Santana stiffens. "Then he started talking about money stuff and I just got lost. He was using a lot of words that I didn't understand." Charlie finally looks at Santana and immediately freezes, her mate looks upset, she tries to think about what she had said wrong and can't think of anything and immediately reaches for Santana, who pulls her hand away. "San," Charlie whined.
Santana takes a breath and she can feel how confused Charlie is, maybe she hadn't meant it. "Do you not want us to have children?"
Charlie's brow furrowed, "I thought you didn't want to have any children, that you didn't want to be a parent."
"I'm Harper's mother, and she likes me more than you," Santana responded, not caring how petty the last part was. "You're the one that wanted me to become her mother, remember?"
"And you told me in no uncertain terms that you didn't want to be a mother," Charlie reminded her before inhaling. Santana was a fantastic mother, and she really didn't mind that she was losing the competition of Harper's affections to Santana. She wanted Harper to adore Santana as much as she did. Still, it didn't seem like they were getting anywhere. "Do you want to have more children, San?"
"I—" Santana pauses, she was being unfair she had never brought it up with Charlie and she had made all those cutting comments about how horrible being pregnant was. "Yes—kind of."
"Kind of?" Charlie presses.
Santana makes a face, "Harper hates her half-sibling, and she is aware that she's not biologically my daughter. I'm absolutely terrified that if we have a child together, it will mean that Harper will never think of me as a mother. That she'll hate whatever child that we have. There's also a part of me that is scared that I might treat our children differently, and Harper will pick up on that. I don't want my selfishness to mess up our family."
"I think you're an amazing mom to Harper and if we have a kid, I don't think you're going to stop being an amazing mom to Harper or love her any less. You'll just have one more member of our family who adores you." Charlie says as she scoots a bit closer to her mate and finally takes her hand.
"You make it sound so easy. As much as I don't want Harper to spend any time at Mack's place—she doesn't have a problem just abandoning her kid until she's ready to attempt to be a mom again. Harper's way too smart Charlie, she's probably figured out the pattern, if we tell her that I'm pregnant she might think we're going to just abandon her!" Santana looked at Charlie, frowning when she didn't see the panic in Charlie's face. "Why aren't you worried? You always worry about Harper. This is a real problem."
"No it's not. Harper won't ever think that you don't love her because you can't hide this, you're willing to put aside what you want for her sake. That's what a true parent does I think, that's what I try to do. Harper's really smart Santana, I think she'll get that she's not going to be replaced." Charlie lets out a small laugh, she never would have imagined that Santana would worry about Harper nearly as much as she did.
Santana grunts and sighs, it wasn't like she was pregnant now, this was a situation that they could figure out in the future. "So what are we going to do about the fact that you have a lot of money now. You know this means you no longer have to fight Charlie."
Charlie stares at the documents and looks at Santana, "I like fighting," she reminds Santana, watching her face fall. "I've got a championship opportunity next Santana, and if I win that I'll only be fighting two or three times a year, and I'll have a bit more power over my fights."
Santana sighed, she had hoped that Charlie would consider quitting but it was clear that her mate had no intention to do that. "Well how about we go and join your parents for breakfast tomorrow and we can figure out how you're going to manage your money."
"Our money," Charlie corrects, frowning at Santana. "It's our money. This is our family fund."
"Charlie, until you feel comfortable with me paying for things for you, then it's—"
"I don't mind you paying for things Santana, I just never wanted you to think that I was leeching off you. It was important to me that you didn't that I was just using you because you had more money. I didn't want you to think that you had to pay for me. I wanted to show you that you didn't have to worry because I'd try and bring something to the table even if it wasn't much."
Santana frowned, it sounded like her mother had gotten into Charlie's head, she had never actually argued with Charlie over money. It seemed pointless, it wasn't as if she was making the high six-figure salary her father was making and every year she did get a substantial raise. "I don't know why you think that an alpha has to be the one to take care of everything. I'm your omega, I take care of you and you take care of me, that's how it's supposed to be."
"You already work really hard Santana, and I didn't want you to feel like you had to work harder for this family, that I could help that I could handle things. It's stupid but I had Harper, and when you'd show up to the apartment with food, it made me feel like I was useless, that you didn't need me to take care of you."
"Well I don't need you to take care of me, I'm never going to be your mother Charlie. I love Judy but the thought of staying at home and attempting to raise two alpha children sounds awful. It sounds like literal hell. My papi bucked traditions and became a doctor, he was the first omega on that side of the family to go to college. I don't want to ever be financially dependent on you. Not only is that a terrible message to send to Harper, it's just a terrible idea in general," Santana huffed at Charlie crossing her arms over her chest. She always knew that Charlie had rather old-fashioned thinking, she blamed Russell and terrible movies.
"San—"
"I mean have you really thought about what that means—"
"That's not what I meant," Charlie says, interrupting her mate leaning in to steal a kiss. "I know that I don't need to take care of you financially, I was feeling bad because I didn't think that I was carrying my fair share of the load."
"Oh," Santana shakes her head, she had jumped to conclusions again and she really needed to learn to stop doing that. "I love you," Santana admits, pulling Charlie closer to her. They could figure everything out later right now she really just wanted her mate.
~ O ~
"I did say that you needed to be careful Charlie, but this is a poorly veiled attempt by Strando to try and switch things around so that you have to pay them child support," Sue pointed out. "I mean he does technically have a point, if he's not allowed to take care of Harper, then Santana—"
"Is her mother," Charlie interrupts, trying desperately to keep a handle on her anger, but she was failing miserably. Someone was attacking her family and she couldn't help but get angry. "Santana's been in Harper's life since Mack handed her to me, and more importantly she's my mate. Santana loves Harper and for Strando who constantly has to remind everyone that he doesn't want to raise a kid that isn't his to compare himself to Santana, is offensive."
"I agree, but—"
"Harper was at my parent's place, and Santana was there, and Santana didn't take Harper home, Quinn and Rachel did so really Strando can go fuck himself with a rusty chainsaw."
Sue inhaled, "That imagery aside, it's likely that the judge will see through this and Harper is old enough to communicate and if what you've said is true, and she really dislikes living with Mack and Strando, then he may just give you full custody. You've got plenty of money now, Harper is thriving with you and you're no longer unmated. Can you please bring Santana with you this time if we need to go to court again?"
"Santana will be there," Charlie promises, Santana had said as much even though she couldn't come to today's meeting because she was doing a surgery. "She wants to officially adopt Harper—"
"That's not going to happen until either Mack's parental rights get terminated or she willingly signs away her rights, and that's probably not going to happen," Sue interrupts. "Charlie, anyone can see that you and Santana are probably the more stable parents, financially and emotionally, and I'm glad that you've noted everything down. It will only help our case."
Charlie nodded even though she was still stewing in her anger. She had tried to make things work with Mack, but for as long as Strando thought that he had some power, or that he was entitled to the money that she earned fighting, then she didn't mind taking the gloves off. She had avoided this because she didn't want to have her actions affect Mack's other children, but if Strando was going to insult her mate, then she was going to crush him under her heel, even if that meant going to her father and asking for a favor.
