Chapter 32

September- Age 19

Not a Legal Guardian

Another day in the life. Santana double checked the schedule they had filled out on the wall of the study before she left for the morning:

Santana:

Biology 2 – MWF 8:00-9:15

Inorganic Chemistry 2 – MWF 9:25-10:40

Physics (algebra-based) – MWF 10:50-12:05

Statistics – MWF 12:15-1:30

Introduction to nursing – TR 8:00-10:30

Biology 2 Laboratory – T 10:40-1:15

Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory – R 10:40-1:15

Finn:

Introduction to Social Work – MWF 2:30-3:45

Morals and Ethics – MW 4:00-6:30

Introduction to Psychology – TR 2:00-4:00

Intermediate Spanish – TR 4:30-6:30

Introduction to Sociology – TR 7:00-9:00

It had been three weeks of classes already and there was a system worked out. Santana had classes that were pretty much done by 1:30 every day. Then Finn started at 2:30. Finn got Charlotte for breakfast and lunch, while Santana got dinner and bed time. Charlotte typically went down around 7:30 every night after her bath, and slept on average 12 hours – for which they were both counting their stars for. They had ample time so far to do their homework and get in some quality time with each other. Classes weren't too difficult yet, so they did manage to have some free time. They were very grateful for the fact that Charlotte was very adaptable.

At the end of the day, Santana had put on some music and she and Charlotte were dancing around the living room. This was a fairly typical event in their house. But tonight, Charlotte tripped over her own feet and hit her head on the coffee table. She sat on the ground and immediately began to cry.

"Oh Sweetie, come here," Santana said as she scooped the little girl up, cradling her close. "Let me see." There was a gash on her head, bleeding quite profusely – as head wounds are wont to do. Santana immediately went to the bathroom and broke out the first aid kit. Charlotte was whimpering at this point. "You got a big boo boo sweetie. I need to clean it. Can you be a big girl for me? And hold super still?"

Charlotte sniffled and nodded. Using the phrase 'big girl' usually garnered compliance in the toddler. Santana poured some hydrogen peroxide onto some gauze and slowly dabbed at the cut above her right eye. Charlotte began to cry again but she didn't move. "You are doing so well. I'm almost done. Then I'm going to put some butterfly Band-Aids on the cut. There we go, all clean." Santana put the butterfly closures on the wound and then cleaned the now dried blood off her face and neck. "Okay big girl, let's go get this checked out."

Santana had Charlotte set in her dinner chair where she gathered the correct papers and cards to go to the Urgent Care. With Charlotte buckled into the back seat, Santana drove the short few minutes to the medical facility. This was where things started to go downhill.

Santana checked Charlotte in, and gave all the appropriate paperwork to the front desk clerk. While Santana was straightening things out, they took Charlotte back to get her vitals and get the process started. But they wouldn't ultimately let Santana back in the room with Charlotte, because she wasn't a legal guardian.

To FINN: Call me 911!

A minute later, Santana answered the phone crying. "What's wrong babe?"

"C-Char fell wh-when we were d-dancing. She has a g-gash above her r-right eye. I cleaned it and t-took her to the urgent care. They took her back and they won't let me back or tell me what's going on!"

"Why won't they let you go back?!"

"They said I wasn't her legal guardian!" Santana wailed.

"I'll be there in 10 minutes, sit tight," Finn said definitively, before hanging up the phone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Finn burst into the Urgent Care and demanded that he and Santana be taken to their daughter. Charlotte stopped crying when she saw her Daddy and TanTan. "TanTan!" Charlotte screamed. Santana went over immediately and scooped up the little girl.

"You're okay sweetie," Santana coo'd.

"Who did the beautiful butterfly job?" the doctor asked, impressed.

"I did," Santana replied, kissing Charlotte's head. "Does she need stitches?"

The Doctor turned to Finn and replied. "I think that three or four stitches should do it."

"Why don't you tell my girlfriend, since she asked the question," Finn said pointedly. He was pissed that they weren't treating Santana with the respect that she deserved. He was also relieved that Charlotte was alright. Now he faced the injustice.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But it's company policy to only discuss treatments with next of kin."

"Since Santana is in nursing school, she is raising Charlotte with me, I believe she needs to be included," Finn said firmly. The doctor sighed but nodded.

"I think three or four stitches should do," the doctor explained, now facing both of them. "It was very thoroughly cleaned and closed with butterflies. That was the best option that we could have hoped for. We can wrap her in the blanket or you can hold her while we stitch, your choice."

"I'll hold her," Santana said fiercely. Finn nodded in agreement. "Hey Char, they need to fix your cut. Now, they're going to give you a little needle. It's only gonna hurt for a second, but you can squeeze your Daddy's hand as hard as you want to. But then you won't feel it when he stitches you. Can you be my big girl for that needle?"

"You sing to me?" Charlotte asked. Santana nodded, chuckling softly. "I big girl."

"You certainly are sweetie," Santana replied, kissing her head.

Finn pulled a chair up next to Santana and held Charlotte's hand. "You go ahead and squeeze my hand when it hurts. It will hurt less if you squeeze."

The doctor showed Charlotte the little needle. He gave her three little injections and then waited for it to be totally numb. "Okay, which color do you want me to use?" he asked. There were blue, black, purple, green, and pink. Charlotte picked the purple ones. "Now, you're going to feel me tug on you, kinda like this," the doctor explained, gently tugging on her hair. "But you shouldn't feel any pain. You let me know, and then I can go back and make you more numb."

Charlotte came through her four stitches like a champ. They got her after care instruction and headed home. Once they got there, both Finn and Santana were too frazzled to cook, so they ordered Chinese food. Charlotte fell asleep around 8, not long after they got home.

"That can't happen again," Finn said vehemently.

"I am so sorry, Finn!" Santana pleaded. "It all happened so fast."

"No, I'm not upset with you at all!" he explained, pulling her close to him. "I was a klutzy child, she will certainly be as well. I'm mad about them not letting you back with Char. That probably made her more scared and upset than necessary."

"I went from mad to very upset," Santana said. "I was hoping to take care of all this without getting you out of class, but I wasn't expecting this to happen. I had all the papers Carol said we needed, but they didn't seem to care."

"I know it's going to be asking a lot of you, especially since we haven't been dating officially for a year yet," Finn began. "But would you legally become one of Charlotte's legal guardians?"

"Heaven forbid this happens again, I don't want any of us to go through what happened tonight again," Santana replied. "I'll do anything I need to do not to have this happen again."

"Okay, I'm calling Sam," Finn said. "She'll know what we need to do." He got out his phone and dialed Sam Carter's number.

"Finn Hudson?"

"Hi, Ms. Carter, I'm sorry for calling this late. I hope I'm not disturbing you? You said to call if we ran into any legal problems with Charlotte."

"No, I just got home," she replied. "Is everything okay?"

Finn explained the situation that just occurred. "I want Santana to have legal guardianship over Charlotte, so this doesn't happen again."

"I can mail you the proper forms and you have to get it notarized and mailed back to me," Sam replied. "But if things get more serious between you and Santana, she might consider adopting Charlotte to make things indisputable."

"We will keep that in mind," Finn replied. "Thanks so much. I thought this would be such a long process."

"It can be, but since Quinn is not in the picture, things are much easier for her guardianship to be legalized," Sam explained. "I'm glad you called and that it was something I could help with. Look out for papers hopefully by this weekend."

"Thanks so much Ms. Carter!" Finn said.

"You give both of your girls a hug from me," Sam chuckled as she wrapped up their conversation.

"Will do, thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

Finn let out a sigh of relief and hugged Santana firmly. "That's from Sam," Finn explained. "And this is from me." He leaned down and kissed her quite thoroughly. "I hope you realized how much I appreciate how much you do for Char."

"I love that little girl so much," she sighed, squeezing him tightly. "Thank you for letting me in her life."

"Thank you for being in my life."

"Now I think you should appreciate me, back in our bedroom," Santana said coyly. Finn chuckled and hauled her up carry her over his shoulder back to their bedroom.