"I know that I didn't eat great over the road trip, but I promise you that Santana has me on a very strict diet when I'm trying to drop weight." Charlie explained to David, she wasn't quite sure why he had insisted of doing a spot check on her cupboards. She had a child, obviously there was junk food in the house. But her mate had eyes everywhere, and always knew when she was snacking on something she wasn't supposed to.

"You really need to have better impulse control Charlie," David lectured as the elevator door opened.

"I like food, and it's not my fault that Santana's a really good cook and enjoys cooking for me and Harper—but if we're being honest I think she only enjoys it so much because I'm so bad at it, and she wants to make sure that Harper reaches all her growth milestones. Apparently that means no to any and all Kraft dinner."

"You do know that you can make mac and cheese, cheaply with some of the basic ingredients and it will taste better than Kraft dinner right?" David says with a sigh.

"You can also make Kraft dinner, nice, when I had a bit of money, and a bit of cheese—" Charlie explains as she reaches for her apartment key and opens the door. She immediately gets a whiff that there are far more people in her home than she personally wanted. She was not big on ridiculous parties, which was why she had declined when her parents had offered to throw her that ridiculous congratulation dinner party that Quinn and Rachel had. She was pretty sure that she had ruined that night anyway, and she didn't really feel that bad "San, did my parents convince you that having a dinner party was a good idea. I already told them no. Also, if we are having a dinner party bring out another plate, David's here, and he's on my case about my eating habits!"

Santana appeared from the kitchen and flashes a small smile at David, glad that he had gotten her text message and was here to help prevent her mate from doing something stupid. "Charlie—" Seeing her mate smile at her, knowing that it may very well be the last time Charlie smiled at her like that is nearly enough to break her heart. She knew that she had done the right thing, Charlie would have straight up killed Strando if given the chance.

Charlie pauses for a moment, suddenly aware that David's moved behind her and she can see her father, Quinn, Dani and Maribel all in the living room waiting for her. She immediately narrows her eyes, "Where's Harper?"

"With your mom and my dad they took her out for ice cream," Santana says quickly. "We just needed to have a conversation with you, before you see her."

Charlie looks around her apartment for a moment and then turns to look at David, Santana would not have involved David, if she wasn't worried about her losing her shit and going on a rampage. David probably wouldn't be able to stop her, but he could slow her down long enough. There was only one thing that could possibly make her this angry and that was someone hurting her family, if someone had hurt Santana, then Santana wouldn't be the one in front of her right now which could only mean— "What happened to Harper?"

Santana winces, she should have known that Charlie would put it together quickly. "Harper called me yesterday, she was crying and asked me to come pick her up. She asked for me to—"

"San. What happened to Harper," Charlie questioned again, her voice eerily calm despite the rage that she could feel bubbling in her lower stomach. It was like magma and she could already tell that she was going to erupt soon. There was only one person fucking dumb enough to lay hands on her kid.

"From what she told me, when she finally calmed down. She was talking to Mack about you know normal things, and Strando threw a beer can at her, it was half-full because when I saw her she was covered in the stuff, and she had a cut on her forehead that was bleeding, she didn't seem to notice that she was bleeding. He also hit her and knocked her around a few times, and I think Mack pushed her in an attempt to get her out of the room," Santana said, summarizing her injuries. After a day, her injuries looked far worse than they were and it was why she had sent Harper out with her grandma and her abuelo. She needed to control the narrative. "Charlie I checked her out, and so did my papa and several other doctors, she's going to be fine. I also called Sue—"

"How did Harper call you?" Charlie asked, her mind still racing, as she began to pick at the holes in the story that Santana was telling her.

Santana winced, she hadn't truly expected Charlie to start picking at the story. Knowing all the details wouldn't paint her in a good light, but she had mentally prepared herself for Charlie's rage to be directed at her. Charlie's anger had always been destructive at best, and that was also the reason that she had insisted that there be plenty of alpha's in the room. "Harper shared some things with me that were concerning, so I got her a phone and we hid it in her bag, so if she ever felt like she wasn't safe she was to call me."

"And not me?"

"You weren't in the city!" Santana shoots back immediately.

"When did you give her the phone?"

"She's had it for awhile, but this was the first time she used it," Santana answers swallowing. Charlie wasn't yelling, she would personally prefer if Charlie was expressing her anger loudly, it meant that they could fix things. They could fix them but if Charlie was bottling up her emotions then it would be weeks before the inevitable blow up. She could only hope that Charlie didn't try and find a way to break their bond.

"You gave my daughter a secret phone to call you, if she was ever in danger and you didn't think to mention any of your concerns about Mack and Strando to me?"

She really would prefer Charlie to be yelling at her, she could handle yelling, Charlie rarely yelled and she could yell back. But instead what she was getting was that eerie calmness, which was probably not a good thing. "You already had the same concerns, and what was I supposed to do? I have no legal rights when it comes to Harper."

"You tell me!" Charlie snaps back at Santana. "You fucking tell me." Charlie's gaze immediately flicks over to Maribel who was getting up and she lets out a very low growl at her, she wasn't in the mood to get into it with Santana's mother and everyone else. "I'm going to need all of you to get out and let me and Santana have a conversation. We're not having this discussion in front of an audience."

"If you think—"

"Mami, she's right, we shouldn't be having this conversation in front of all of you. You were only here to make sure that she didn't go and murder Strando. As long as she promises not to do that, gives you her word then I'm going to need you to leave," Santana says, not taking her eyes off her mate.

"Charlie," Quinn said, forcing her twin to look at her. "We'll leave, but only if you promise you aren't going to kill him."

"I am not going to hunt him down and murder him but he had better never show his face in front of me again or I will. That's the best you're going to get out of me." Charlie snaps at Quinn before pausing, "David was with me, so which one of you went and rescued Harper with her?"

"I went by myself," Santana said, a frown on her face. "This isn't the fifties Charlie, I don't need an alpha escort!"

Charlie's left eye visibly twitched in agitation, "I need to talk to my mate, so if everyone could please leave," she manages to get out. She waits and watches as all the alphas that Santana had insisted be there slowly file out of her apartment. She marches to the door and locks it after her father gives her a look and leaves and she looks at Santana. "I don't even know where to begin."

"I'm not going to break our bond over this," Santana insists immediately, jutting out her chin defiantly.

"Why would you—no, I have every right to be furious. Not only did you hide things from me, you got Harper hiding things from me as well. I can't make informed decisions if I don't have all the bloody information Santana. And why in the world would you go into a dangerous situation like that by yourself. You should have called the cops. You should have called me."

"You were—"

"You are not going to use the fact that I took one weekend to myself, when you were on call, and Harper was supposed to be with Mack. I would never have left the city, if I had actually thought that Strando would have lost his damn mind."

Santana immediately backs down, she hated to admit it but Charlie was right. Charlie insisted that she make time for Marley and Rachel and her friends, and she got her few nights off, where Charlie pampered the shit out of her, but she didn't really have her off days. Between her time at the gym, her late nights studying when she was on call, and spending as much time as she could with Harper, Charlie was right she didn't really get out much. She had needed to force her to spend time with Quinn and Dani, or she was certain Charlie wouldn't pay any attention to those relationships.

"It wasn't about being Harper's favorite parent Charlie. I need you to know that I didn't tell her to lie to you out of some sense to be Harper's favorite parent, I was honestly afraid of what you would do to him if you were the one that had been there that day. I wanted to throw shit and cause a scene when I saw her face this morning, she looked like you did after your last fight Charlie. He's not worth you spending the rest of your life in prison for Charlie."

"I haven't seen my daughter yet, so I have no idea what my reaction would be. I would like to think that I would have seen reason, but there is a very good chance I would have slipped again and he'd be dead, not sure there would be a jury that would convict me. But you going there alone was stupid. Strando is big dumb and dangerous. He only respects other alphas, and to him you're my property. I imagined you used a lot of big words that confused him and he wasn't sure what to do?"

"I mentioned my mom was a district attorney and I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant," Santana responded. "I knew it was stupid that I didn't have backup but I wasn't thinking, I heard Harper's voice—Charlie you would have killed him, I'm not even an alpha and I got murderous. Both of our alpha parents were already to throw down with him and you're her mother. You're already so overprotective of her. I've seen you fight, and you forget how strong you are quite often, you would have started punching him and you would have murdered him in front of Harper. I made an executive decision, and I stand by that decision."

"So we're keeping secrets from one another?" Charlie questions.

"No. I just—"

"Santana. If it got to the point where you purchased Harper a secret phone to call you if she felt unsafe then we entered a new era of danger that I wasn't aware of. You have to know that, you can't just make unilateral decisions about Harper, I come to you with all this information and we decide things together. This could have gone a lot worse than Strando throwing a temper tantrum. I've seen the bruises he leaves on Mack."

"You knew he was abusing Mack?"

Charlie gave Santana a dry look. "Of course I did. I knew what type of person Strando was, but I had no idea that he was escalating. This could have been far worse Santana, and I feel shitty enough leaving her with Mack and Strando, she got hurt because you didn't trust me."

"Charlie—"

"You got David, and my family and your family to come and what? Coral me? You don't trust me, and you put yourself and apparently both our children in danger."

All her righteousness indignation at Charlie evaporates, this wasn't what she had expected from her mate at all. "I'm sorry, but I just heard her voice and I needed to do something. I didn't think it through and I should have."

"I know I seem ungrateful, but I don't know what I would have done if something were to happen to both you and Harper. And I'm furious at myself, because I honestly should have seen this coming. And I'm worried that Harper will think that I can't protect her anymore. I know what it's like to lose faith in the alpha that you think is supposed to protect you and I can't have Harper thinking that I won't always have her back, that I wouldn't take a bullet for her if it came to that."

It takes Santana a moment to realize that Charlie's talking about her relationship with Russell and her heart breaks. "Harper doesn't think that you can't protect her. She wanted to call you," Santana says gently, reaching for her mate. Charlie pulled her hand away almost immediately, a simple sorry wasn't going to cut it, she had known that Charlie was overprotective, but she hadn't paid any attention to Charlie's relationship with Russell. It had seemed that they were on better terms, but there was damage there that would either take time to heal or it was something that would never heal and their relationship would never be the same again. "Charlie, Harper is very aware that you could kill Strando. Like you better never lose in the octagon because Harper thinks you can beat anyone. She's also smart enough to know that you're not allowed to punch just anyone, you're the one that explained it to her, that you're only allowed to fight in the octagon and if you fight outside of it you'll be in big trouble.""

"Harper is like four and a half she shouldn't be thinking about me getting in trouble, this is very much a figure it out later situation. Let me punch him and we figure it out later."

Santana rolls her eyes and this time takes her mate's hand and gently rubs Charlie's knuckles with her thumb, watching her alpha deflate in front of her eyes. "It's my job as an omega to keep you out of trouble Charlie, and it seems that Harper is taking on that responsibility and I'm sorry we'll talk to her together."

"What if she treats me differently?"

Santana rolled her eyes, Charlie really had no idea how much Harper adored her. "Then we'll figure it out together right?"

Charlie lets out a deep sigh, "Are you actually pregnant?"

Santana shrugged, "I think so, who knows actually I mean I would need to take a test to make sure, it's the only way to be sure before I start smelling of pregnancy hormones—" Santana blinked when Charlie touched her stomach.

"Do you really think—I need to go to the library and get some books about this," She'd never been forced to deal with Mack's pregnancy, so this was a new chapter in her life that she was looking forward to.

"I'm sure Rachel has a bunch of books that Quinn never read," Santana offers, enjoying the contact between them. She had been so worried about how angry Charlie would be she hadn't thought about how worried Charlie was going to be when she found out. "No more secrets."

Charlie looks up at her mate and nods, "No more secrets."

~ O ~

"Will ma be mad?" Harper asked her grandma as she hugged her new stuffed animals. They had gone to the mall, and she had gotten ice cream and lots of good food, before they'd gone to Build-a-Bear and she had made her own little doctor bear and her own little fighter bear, she couldn't find the gloves that her ma wore in fights but it had little shorts on. Her abuelo had promised that he would see if he could get permission so that she could watch Santana perform surgery, her grandma hadn't been happy and the two of them had argued about it, but she wanted to watch her mom perform a surgery.

"Your ma is worried about you and that might seem like she's angry, but really she's just scared that you're hurt," Judy promises. She was going to talk to her daughter about putting Harper in therapy. She had missed the boat with Charlie, and she'd be damned if another member of her family got lost.

"Do you think your ma is going to be upset with you?" Carlos asked and he's surprised when Harper shakes her head.

"She'll be mad at mom," Harper frowned. She didn't want her ma to yell at her mom. She didn't want things to be like at Mack's place.

"She's just worried," Judy said immediately. "Sometimes when people get really angry it's not because they're upset they're just worried, but the next time that you're scared you have to call your ma, so she can come rescue you. You know she would have come if you called her right?"

Harper nodded, "She would have hurt him, and got in trouble."

"You don't have to worry about him ever again, he's never going to hurt you again," Judy promised. Maribel and Russell were actually working together for once, she would feel bad for Strando but he had put his hands on her granddaughter. As far as she was concerned Maribel and Russell punishing him wasn't going to be enough.

They arrive in front of the apartment door and just before they can knock, the door swings open and Charlie stares at them before looking at her daughter and visibly recoiling. The bruising the stitches that she had received were extensive. There had been plenty of looks and the like, and there had been a few uncomfortable conversations with a few security guards. Carlos had handled it deftly and personally Judy was glad that the two of them had gone along together. She watches as Charlie immediately drops to the ground in front of Harper and opens her arms.

Harper doesn't even hesitate as she wraps her arms around her ma's neck and is immediately swept off her feet, as her ma picks her up and holds her tightly.

"Does it hurt?" Charlie asks gently tilting up Harper's face, she feels her heart about to break as Harper shakes her head. "Do you want me to hurt him?" Charlie asks, ignoring the looks from her mother and Carlos. If Harper wanted vengeance she would get vengeance.

"No!" Harper insists immediately. "That's bad."

"I don't mind being a bad guy if that means that no one ever hurts you again," Charlie replies gently, kissing Harper's temple. She would be a straight up monster if it was to protect her family.

"You're not supposed to be bad," Harper lectures her, giving her a serious face. But with her face bruised up it didn't have the same impact that it normally would.

Charlie smiles, Harper hadn't changed she had been scared but she seemed fine mentally, her daughter was far stronger than she was. "Alright, but if you ever see him again you need to tell me, you can tell Santana as well but you need to tell me. I will protect you," Charlie informs her daughter.

"Are you mad at mom?"

"At Mack? Yes. A mother protects her children, and Mack has failed at the most important aspect of being a parent," Charlie said, for once not mincing her words when it came to Mack. She was beyond done with Mack's shit, and quite frankly she would have some words for Mack if she saw her again which she would.

Harper's brow furrowed, "Don't be mad at mom."

"She's talking about Santana," Carlos offers to Charlie who looks confused as to why Harper seemed to be defending Mack.

Charlie smiled, that was a new development that she was sure that had made a shitty day for Santana infinitely better. "Oh, you meant Santana, I am upset that she didn't call me, but I am happy that she went to go rescue you. But Harper, we've got to protect Santana."

"Why?" Harper asks. "Is she hurt?"

"No, but she might be pregnant and you might have a sibling soon," Charlie admits to Harper, ignoring her parents.

"Really?"

"Yeah! She's your mom Harper, she loves you so much." Charlie said nuzzling her.

"Santana's—" Carlos blinks back tears.

"We're not a hundred percent sure, she'll take a test tomorrow at work," Charlie explains to him, finally looking up at her mother and Carlos and blinks when they seemed all weepy. "We've got to be quiet because I think Santana's sleeping for the first time since yesterday," Charlie explains to them.

"I wanted her to show her my doctor bear!" Harper pouted, but quickly showed her ma the fighter bear that she had made. "We match!"

"We match?" Charlie said and Harper suddenly touches her eyebrow where there is a scar from her last fight when she'd been busted open. It takes a moment for a moment for her to realize that Harper was talking about her own small stitches on her forehead which was near the same area that she had her scar. Charlie narrowed her eyes, it was one thing if she wanted to fight and got hurt, but for Harper to be proud that they matched. If she ever saw Strando again she was going to need to murder him and get rid of the body. "Which means you're a badass now," Charlie says and Harper puffs out her cheeks and chest as if she was proud that she was just like her. "But no more fighting Harper, but I will make sure that I teach you how to throw a killer punch so if I'm not there you can always protect yourself."

"Really?"

"Yeah we can go to the gym, I'm sure the guys will want to show you how to defend yourself, but don't listen to any of them. I'm your ma, I'll teach you how to throw a punch, and a kick, and once we're done—how about I teach you how to play soccer. I used to be really good at it."

Judy's eyes widened, Charlie had gotten rid of all her soccer gear, the posters, the trophies. She had been so good that she'd started being scouted, she had quit.

"I've been thinking that since you and Santana have so many things that you want to do together, that you and I could have this together. And maybe if your sibling wants to learn later we'll teach them and I'll coach or something," there was no way that her kids were ever going to a fucking over-night camp with a bunch of strangers. She was also going to volunteer for any and all overnight trips. "Also mom, I'm going to need you to teach me to cook. Santana shouldn't be on her feet for very long, I need to be able to feed her and feed her healthy stuff."

"Of course dear," Judy said with a snort. She definitely felt sorry for her daughter, she was glad that things between her and Santana had worked out, but if Charlie honestly believed that Santana was simply going to let Charlie take over and treat her like an invalid then her youngest had taken one too many blows to the head.

Charlie smiled, "Alright let's go curl into bed with your mom, and show her your stuffed animals."