Santana flopped onto the couch and smiled as Harper decided to use her lap as a pillow. It was such a simple little thing, and she personally didn't mind it. Now was probably as good a time as any to have a conversation with Harper about potentially having another kid. Under normal circumstances, she would wait for Charlie to broach this subject with Harper, but it was clear that Charlie seemed to think that Harper would be okay with whatever they did.
She loved Charlie and trusted her mate, but Charlie might have some blind spots when it came to Harper, there were things she simply didn't know and she knew that she really did need to inform Charlie of what was going on, but Harper hadn't exactly been forced to go to Mack's place, and Charlie and Sue were handling making it a permanent thing. "Hey Harper?"
Harper looks up at her, "Yeah?"
"You know me and your ma mated right?" Santana asks, deciding that she needed to start there. "How do you feel about that?" Harper shrugged her shoulders. There were times when all she could see when she looked at Harper was Charlie. "Do you feel happy? Do you feel sad?"
"Happy," Harper decides after thinking about it for a moment.
"You know if you're upset you can tell me or your ma right?" Santana reminds her. "But I really wanted to mate with your ma, because I really wanted to be your mother Harper—" Harper sits up at this and Santana freezes, unsure if she had said something wrong. She probably should have waited for Charlie to have this conversation, she could have pushed this conversation to happen. "I mean if you don't want me to be a mother figure to you that's also okay, I'm not going to—" She's interrupted by Harper hugging her tightly. Immediately she hugs Harper back, okay perhaps Charlie didn't have any blind spots. "I love you so much Harper."
"I love you too, Santa," Harper replies. "You want to be my mommy?"
"I would love to be your mommy," Santana says with a nod.
Harper thinks for a bit, and then smiles. "Mommy Santa!"
Santana immediately pats at her eyes, to keep her face dry, "I love it. I don't mind being Mommy Santa," Santana laughs, feeling relieved. "You can come to me with anything Harper, and I promise that I'll love you forever and always just like your ma."
"Is Mack my mommy?" Harper asked as she thinks about it further.
Santana pauses, Charlie had made it abundantly clear that even if they both thought Mack was awful they were not going to pass their opinions onto Harper, she was going to have to make her own decision about Mack. "Yes, you were in Mack's tummy and I'm sure she loves you too," Santana lies, forcing a smile onto her face. Being a parent was difficult, it was beyond difficult and she suddenly understood why Charlie had been so adamant early in their relationship that she needed to love Harper unconditionally. "Do you want to talk to her? I can call her for you?"
Harper shakes her head, "She's having a baby."
"She is, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about Harper, would you like to expand our family? Your ma and I were thinking about having a baby—"
"No!" Harper said forcibly, recoiling as if she'd just been burnt.
Santana nods immediately, keeping the smile on her face, despite her disappointment. "Alright, we were going to ask you and if you said no we'd wait. But Harper, even if we have another child, I'm still going to be your mommy Santa, and you'll never have to share a room."
"He's mean to me, he always takes my stuff," Harper huffs.
It takes Santana a moment to piece together that Harper was talking about her half-brother, "Well, that's not very nice. But I promise Harper that I'm not going to love the baby more than you, and I'll be fair. I know having a baby is tough, and they require lots of attention but that's where your ma comes in. Your ma was so good with you, and we can continue to have our spa days, and I can continue to read you stories Harper."
"You won't forget about me?"
"No! I would never forget about you even if your mom and I had another kid, you'd still be here with us," Santana promises.
"Promise?"
"Pinky swear, and you know you can't break a pinky swear," Santana says, sticking out her pinky finger.
~ O ~
"I think my kid likes you more than me."
Charlie flicked her eyes at Quinn for a moment before turning her attention back to Harper who was playing with Beth. "Probably."
Quinn's brow arches up and she turns to look at her twin, "You're supposed to say that Beth loves me!"
"I'm not your mate Quinn so I don't have to lie to you, and I've told you that if you want Beth to respect you as an alpha, show her what it means to be an alpha. I mean, Rachel is your omega, I have zero idea why you're letting your kid try and steal your omega right out from under you."
Quinn rolled her eyes, "Beth isn't trying to steal Rachel, that would be weird."
"Omega children bond faster with their alpha parent, and alpha children bond faster with their omega parent. Everyone knows that, dad still complains about how the two of us would cry every single time we had to leave mom's side. Beth, even if she's not aware of what she's doing, is trying to stake claim on Rachel, it's cute. I mean I do understand what you're going through Quinn. Harper likes Santana more."
"Probably because Santana can make pancakes without burning them," Quinn retorts, not caring for a second how petty she sounds.
"Probably," Charlie agrees, smiling as she thinks about her mate. "I still can't believe that we're mates. It feels like a dream you know, but I get to wake up next to her everyday. I nearly fucked it all up but she stayed, and she loves me. Harper, Santana and whatever we decide to name our kid."
The amused smile on Quinn's face immediately fades and her eyes widen, "What?"
"We're figuring things out with Harper, Mack's ruined the idea of having a sibling, and I think Santana's freaking out that Harper will hate her half-sibling. I don't think that's going to happen, Santana loves Harper, so I'm not worried. I trust her, I trust her with Harper. Like I don't even think about it anymore when it comes to Santana. I was thinking that we should complete the bond."
"Santana hates children. Do you know what she said to us when we asked her to be the godmother?"
"Santana doesn't like other people's children, she likes her own. And I imagine she said something incredibly cutting and hurtful. It's why she's the one who writes my comebacks on my twitter account, I have to have one to hype up fights and since I'm not good at making comebacks Santana does it for me."
Quinn rolled her eyes, "I'm her best friend, she should like Beth."
"Why? You don't even like Beth half the time," Charlie held up her hands before Quinn could snap at her. "It'll get better Quinn, but you really need to put in the effort right now, do something heroic so she can want to be you or something."
Quinn sighed, "When did you become the baby whisperer?"
"When I knocked up Mack and she abandoned our daughter with me? I've come a long way from trying to give Harper cow's milk. I read all the parenting books Rachel and mom gave me, and whatever I could get my hands on at the library. There's a lot of conflicting information, but all I know is that I want Harper to know that she's loved and that no matter what happens I'll protect her."
"Are you ever going to forgive dad?" Quinn asks.
"Forgive him?"
"He thinks you hate him. Or at the very least he thinks how your life turned out is his fault."
Charlie smiled, "Funny, he was always talking about personal responsibility while we were growing up. What happened to me, happened in a place he didn't control and by the time I came back from soccer camp, I was so ashamed that hiding it was the only thing that I could think to do. He's wrong I don't hate him, I just—it's hard being around him knowing he thinks of me as a disappointment."
"He doesn't—"
"He does, and he blames himself and I just honestly don't want to deal with it. I love him, he's my dad but I have my own family to worry about and I can't spend time worrying about his feelings."
Quinn sighs, "That makes sense, but I do think that maybe you talk to him, at some point Charlie. I'm sure it'll help the both of you."
"Maybe—you know Beth is starting to strip down."
Quinn immediately turns to her daughter, "Beth. No! You've got to keep your clothes on!"
~ O ~
"You know, as the district attorney, you should know that stalking is a crime," Santana said, crossing her arms over her chest as she spotted her mother sitting on a bench outside the hospital. Sebastian had made a huge deal about the fact that Maribel was waiting for her outside.
"I'm waiting for your papi," Maribel responded. She looks up at her daughter and immediately freezes, for the first time since she'd given birth to her daughter she didn't immediately recognize her scent which could only mean one thing. "You're mated."
"Yes, it's been a couple of weeks, we've been going at it non-stop. It's not like I needed to tell anyone," Santana said dismissively, pulling out her phone and heading to her banking app. "I know you think that Charlie can't take care of me, and you have this crazy idea that I'd be the one financing everything if we were together. This is my bank account now," Santana said, holding it up for her mother to see. It was a new joint account, where Charlie had taken a small percentage of what was in her trust and put it in the account for them to use for groceries and whatever they needed.
"Santana—"
"She's taking care of me, you know I get home to a clean house, and since Charlie is a menace in the kitchen I take care of feeding my family, which is fine because I love to cook for my girls. Harper calls me Mommy Santa now. Charlie makes sure to rub my feet while we watch a movie with Harper or read to her. She loves me, and wants to be a good alpha, she's still learning how to be a good alpha, but between you and I, Charlie's a quick learner."
Maribel sighed, "I was wrong about her, is that what you want me to say?"
"What I want is for you to apologize to Charlie. What I want is for you and papi to meet your first grandkid, and be civil to Charlie. And if you and papi can't treat Harper the same as you treat the child that Charlie and I will soon start trying for, then you won't get to meet your grandchild. I'm not having Harper think that she's second best. That girl deserves the world and she wants to be a surgeon just like me when she grows up." Santana brags to her mother. She didn't have to worry about Harper becoming a fighter like Charlie, there wasn't exactly a market for omega's fighting in purely non-sexual competition.
"And you think your alpha will accept that?"
"Charlie loves me, and she has extended the olive branch a few times to you. You're the one that never took her up on that offer." Santana takes a seat beside her mami, "Once you apologize to Charlie and start being civil with her, I'll forgive you completely if you help me with Harper."
"Help you with Harper?"
"Someone is trying to take my child away from me," Santana informed her mother. "Don't say that Harper isn't mine, because you know I've been there far longer than her incubator. I also have no intention of throwing her away when Charlie gets me pregnant."
Maribel studied her daughter for a moment, "You've matured."
"Charlie's influence I'm sure," Santana responds. "Honestly I don't think I'd be here if I didn't realize that I love Harper, like we're reading Harry Potter right now, and I'm trying to figure out a time that we can take Harper down to get sorted and all that. I'm her favorite parent right now," Santana boasts to her mother.
Maribel was quiet for a moment, she turns ever so slightly and spots her mate standing near the entrance of the hospital. "Join us for dinner?"
"Can't. If I leave Charlie alone to cook dinner, they'll both eat mac and cheese. Not even the good kind, the bright yellow kind, that doesn't look like anyone should be ingesting it." Santana, tilts her head when her mother sighed. "Don't spring things out on me, but let me check with Charlie about what we're doing this weekend, and maybe we can do dinner on Saturday or Sunday, depending on what our plans are. That way you can meet your grandkid."
Maribel brightens, "Before then send me all the information you have on the case, and I'll see what I can do to help. I'm sure the Fabray's hired the best family law lawyer in the state. But I may be able to help, but I would need the facts of the case."
"I'll talk to Charlie tonight and get that sent over to you by tomorrow," Santana promises.
