AN: So chapter 3. Oh look another chapter.
Charlie was quiet, playing with her sobriety coin nervously as she looked out of Quinn's Benz at Santana's house. It looked different when the sun was up, more imposing. That was it, it definitely looked more imposing which was the only reason she was nervous. She ran the coin along her fingers and rubbed at the serenity symbol, she didn't feel peaceful and calm. She exhaled and looked at the envelope in her hands, containing a gift card for books. Isabela seemed to like books. She had spent most of the two hour trip talking about fairy tales and how she was supposed to be some savior.
Quinn shook her head, "You wouldn't be nervous if you just wore something clean Charlie. Your jeans have a hole in them and it's covered in paint splotches. And your shirt is wrinkled. You want to make a better impression on Santana and showing up at her door like that might send the wrong message. And a gift certificate?"
"I don't know what she likes," Charlie said frowning slightly. It made sense to her to get her a gift certificate, even if it was to a bookstore. Maybe she should have gotten one to a mall in the area. That way she could get whatever she wanted. She frowns slightly, "Why are we here Quinn? She's not my daughter and Santana made it clear she wants nothing to do with me. I don't even know this kid, she's just a stranger. Who came into my house, ate my food, and then demanded I take her places, after threatening to tell the cops I kidnapped her."
Quinn arched a brow and watched her twin for a moment, "When you put it like that, it sounds just like how your relationship with Santana started," Quinn said before opening her car door. It take a moment before Charlie gets out as well and follows her. "You're good Charlie, you've been sober for years. You have a right to get to know your daughter."
Charlie didn't say anything she just tucked her coin away and followed Quinn onto the porch. They were going to get arrested, she just knew it. She decides to take her mind of her impending arrest as Quinn presses the doorbell and looks around at the porch. It could do with another coat of paint. Well that and it didn't seem all that sturdy. Sometimes doing it to code wasn't enough. "Maybe some Ipé," Charlie said mostly to herself. She shrugs when Quinn looks at her, and looks at the paint. She'd stain it some dark color so it popped a bit more.
The door opened after a moment and both twins looked at Bela who seemed surprised to see them. "Aunt Quinn? Charlie—you came back!" Bela says moving to wrap her arms around Charlie who lifts her hands up and stares down at her.
"Bela, what have I told you about opening the door for strangers!" Santana calls wiping her hands on a towel from where she's making dinner as she moves to the door. "It could be those girl scouts or worse those two weirdos who want us to join their strange cult." Santana said as she approached the door and stopped when she caught sight of Bela hugging Charlie who had a panicked look on her face.
"It's so totally cool that you're identical twins! Do people get you mixed up all the time? How do I tell you two apart? Aunt Quinn said she was the pretty twin!" Bela whispered the last part to Charlie conspiratorially.
Quinn glanced at Santana and flashed a smile, "Hey Santana, we were in the neighborhood and thought we'd visit."
Santana gritted her teeth and for a moment she felt a bit of panic in her stomach, wondering if they had come to take her daughter away. Like hell they had driven two hours just to be in the neighborhood. Santana eyed Charlie who unsurprisingly looked a mess, and then turned her attention back to Quinn who was practically daring her to kick them both out. She exhales slowly. She's not going to give Quinn the satisfaction, they weren't friends anymore and she didn't play those type of power games, at least not with her. She turns her attention back to her daughter, who is now looking at her. "Great Bela, you brought them home, so now they won't ever leave me alone." She tilts her head back to Charlie and Quinn, "What part of stay away from me and my daughter don't you understand?" Santana asks turning her attention to Charlie.
Charlie nods at this statement and turns around and begins to move towards Quinn's car. Quinn rolled her eyes and latched onto Charlie's shoulder keeping her from bolting. "Well, I thought that you'd like to meet your cousin, so I thought we could facetime." Quinn tightens her grip on Charlie's shoulder. "And Charlie got you a present."
"You did?" Bela said turning to Charlie before looking at Quinn, "I have a cousin?" She was unsure which news excited her more.
"Yes you have another aunt and two grandparents who I'm sure would love to meet you," Quinn explains nearly yanking Charlie back. "Give her your present Charlie," Quinn said firmly.
Charlie sighs and looks at Santana, she wanted no part of Quinn's insane scheme. She had heard Santana's message loud and clear, and judging from the annoyance and the barely concealed rage on Santana's face they had overstepped. "I—yeah. I didn't know what you liked so I went to the bookstore and got you a—um gift card." Charlie said handing Bela the card. She looks at Santana hoping that it was an acceptable gift, and they did sell toys and some video games at the bookstore these days.
"What do you say Bela?" Santana said immediately.
"I was going to say thank you, geez mom," Bela said grumbling. But she turns and smiles at Charlie, "How did you know I liked to read?" Bela asked.
"Um, you just—seemed like you did? I didn't know what books you had so I thought—it'd be best if I got you a card," Charlie says lamely, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Do you know one of mom's client's works at the hospital that you work at? Do you know her? I think that's why we were in New York. She's—" Bela asks turning to Quinn.
"Bela what have I said about discussing what I do with people. My client list is confidential," Santana says and closes her eyes, she can feel a headache coming on. "Look Bela—can you just play in your room for a bit? Let the grown-ups talk?"
Bela groans at this and takes Charlie's hand and pulls her towards the door, "Come on Charlie, that's what mom says when she wants to talk about boring stuff. I want to show you my room."
Charlie blinked at this, she was sure that Santana said grown-ups, she looks at Santana who steps out of the way with a roll of her eyes. "I—okay—as long as it's okay with your mom?" Charlie says.
Santana glances at Charlie and waves her off, at least someone was trying to determine what was right for Bela without consulting her. Quinn had some nerve and judging from Charlie's attitude, she didn't want to be here in the first place. Santana watches as Charlie gets tugged along by Bela up the stairs and turns to Quinn. "What the hell are you doing, Quinn?"
"Getting to know my niece. You know, your daughter, the one that you kept from Charlie for ten years," Quinn said crossing her arms over her chest.
"Charlie doesn't even think Bela is hers, so unless you've managed to bully her into it being here I don't quite see why you're here." Santana snaps back keeping her voice low and turning to make sure that Bela hadn't accidentally overheard.
Quinn looked up the stairs, "I don't think Charlie honestly believes that Bela isn't hers. So really it was just bullying her to stop ignoring the obvious and deal with her responsibilities. She does have a responsibility to your daughter, one that you should have let her have ages ago." There was an accusatory note in her voice, and she gave Santana a look. Maybe if Santana had told her, she would have gotten clean sooner, she would have been happy.
Santana scowled at Quinn. "You don't get it, I left because I didn't want to have anything to do with you Fabray's. I didn't want to be kept like some dirty little family secret, or have your parents trying to tell me how to raise my daughter. Bela is normal, and well adjusted. She isn't damaged and broken, like the rest of you Fabray's."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Quinn said, her parents rarely offered her parenting advice. Well that wasn't completely true, her mother gave her a lot of unsolicited advice. But her parents as a whole loved Beth and spoiled her rotten while making comments about how they wanted more grandkids. But she was pretty sure that's what most grandparents did. Rachel's parents did it all the time, especially since Rachel was their only child. She got the brunt of it because she was the only member of her family who was married.
"Let's see, you're a narcissistic bitch. You walk in here after ten years and then proceed to ignore me, on how I want my daughter raised. Like you're in charge of the situation, like you know what's best for me and Bela. We haven't talked in ten years because I knew this is what you would do. Judging me and that's not even enough you have to come in here and try and mess up my life. No matter what, you're making me out to be the bad guy. She's my daughter. You don't see me showing up to your house and telling you to remove the giant stick up your ass. Frannie is probably still a sociopathic bitch bent on world domination, and dealing with things in a ruthless and efficient manner. Oh yes and Charlie is a drug addict, should I go on about how damaged your family is and not wanting my daughter to have to deal with that? Bela is well-adjusted."
"Your daughter threatened to tell the cops that Charlie kidnapped her! How the hell is that well-adjusted? Quinn snaps back at Santana. She's irritated at her former friend, but when Santana smirks at the information she just gave, Quinn can't help but smile too. "She's just like you—look that's not why I'm really here. I know why you were at the hospital Santana. Don't worry I didn't tell Charlie or anyone but Rachel."
"Of course you told the fucking hobbit," Santana said with an irritated sigh. "You know, I could sue you for violating HIPPA laws right? You had no right to go into my file."
"We were best friends, and I know you went to see Emma," Quinn said quietly, keeping her voice down. "I had to know how bad it was. You would have done the exact same thing in my position." Quinn exhales and runs a hand through her hair. "I know things are going to be difficult, and I want you to know that even though it's been ten years. I'm still your friend, if you need a place to drop Bela. Rachel can watch her when you're doing your treatments."
"I appreciate the offer, but I don't want her anywhere near Charlie for any extended period of time. Look, I'm grateful that she brought her back in one piece and that she took good care of her. But I can't—it's something else that I'll have to worry about and I just can't spend my time worrying about things like that. Is Charlie doing drugs near my daughter exposing her to things—putting her in some sort of danger?"
"Charlie's alone with your daughter right now—" Quinn says, but she understood her fears.
"In my house upstairs, and you know as well I as I do that she'd have periods of sobriety and I can't—"
"I get it, I didn't let Charlie anywhere near Beth for the first five years of her life. Even though she'd been clean for about six years at the time. You don't need to explain it to me," Quinn said quietly. "It took me years of checking on Charlie seeing that she was always sober every single time that I came to visit, before I trusted her. Even then it was supervised visits, Rachel or I had to be there with her. Even now—sometimes I wonder when she takes Beth out—but nothing bad has happened. But I get it. You know Rachel—she hasn't really changed much. I mean yeah sometimes the fame goes to her head a bit but she still makes those blasted power point presentations. She schedules our vacations together. It's still Rachel. If you don't want Charlie alone with her it won't happen. Cause she gets it too." Quinn said.
Santana chewed the inside of her cheek thinking about it. Rachel was responsible and anal about things and probably watched her daughter like a hawk while still supporting her. "Isn't she busy?"
"She's in between shows right now she's thinking of branching out and doing television just for a change of pace, so really she's not that busy," Quinn said. "She wants to help Santana, and you need help, Beth is family—even if you don't really like it—we're family. So let us help, if you need anything. Charlie might be trying to duck responsibility, but we won't. We'll make sure she does her homework everything you need."
Santana studied Quinn for a moment, Rachel was probably more responsible than Brittany was sometimes. She didn't quite understand how you lost a kid. Sure Brittany was still apologizing for letting Bela borrow her credit card and book a bus trip to New York. She didn't want to leave Bela with Dani. That relationship wasn't going to get any better if she forced them to spend time together. Which left her parents, she didn't want to deal with her mother freaking out, or her dad's tears. She couldn't handle that on top of everything else. Bela would whine or worse demand that Charlie look after her if she even suggested a babysitter and from Quinn's words she could tell that Quinn didn't even completely trust Charlie. "We'll try it out. But honestly if Charlie is going to pretend that Bela isn't hers—then just let her Quinn. I'd rather Bela be disappointed now, then let her start falling in love with Charlie only for her to check out."
Quinn frowns, "Alright, I'll tell her to stay away from Bela. But the rest of the family they'd want to meet her. My mom wants more grandkids," Quinn says.
"Look I get it you told the hobbit, but that's it Quinn I don't want you telling everyone in your goddamn family about Bela. I'm serious, you Fabrays are all fucking insane," Santana said firmly.
"Alright, alright—god you're still such a bitch." Quinn said holding her hands up, but she smiles. "I'm going to hug you now."
"Don't you dare!" Santana immediately puts up her hands to stop Quinn from hugging her, but it's too late and she feels Quinn's arms wrap around her. She scowls at her. "Damn Fabray's."
Charlie eyed the room that she was currently sitting in. It was very—pink. There were bookshelves and that were filled with books many of which were fairy tales. Some of them were piling up on the ground, "You're going to need a new shelf," Charlie mumbles to herself.
"Mom bought me one but we haven't had time to put it up," Bela said pointing to the Ikea bookshelf that was still in the box. "Okay I have some questions for you," Bela pulled out a notebook and flipping to the right page. She eyed Charlie who had moved to the box and was opening it taking out the pieces one by one. "So, what do you do exactly?"
Charlie flicked her eyes to Bela, who was giving her a suspicious look and she bites her lip before looking back at the instructions. "Um, I'm a home contractor—I mostly do renovation work, but I also can build things as well. During the winter, I usually make money by basically dealing with burst pipes." Charlie answered putting the instructions down. It looked easy enough and she began to put it together.
"So you can help fix things around the house?" Bela presses, grinning and drawing a smiley face next to the question.
"I guess," Charlie says looking at Bela. "If your mom wants me to."
Bela smirks at this, "Are you married? Or dating someone?" Bela asks glaring at Charlie.
"No. Are you?"
"Gross! No. I'm ten." Bela huffs and rolls her eyes.
"Good, I think ten is too young to be married anyway," Charlie says as she puts in one of the screws and begins to tighten them.
"So you have a penis?" Bela asks going back to her interview questions and rolls her eyes when Charlie turns to her. "Relax my mom taught me all about sex, she said it was important."
"I—well I mean—I don't think that's appropriate?" Charlie said but wilts under Bela's frown. "I—yes?"
"That's so cool!" Bela says going back to smiling and draws another happy face. This was going much better than she expected but she looks at the next question and glances at Charlie who is still working on her bookshelf. "Are you a bad person?" Charlie turns to her and Bela shrugs. She had heard Dani complaining about dealing with the drug addicts, and how if you used drugs you were a bad person.
Charlie is quiet for a moment and thinks about the question. "Yes, I think so." It doesn't seem to be enough and Charlie looks back at the shelf. "I hurt a lot of people before and it's not an easy fix Bela. But people aren't just bad or good, they're both sometimes. But I think I was mostly bad. I hurt the people I care about."
"Like my mom?" Bela asks.
"Like your mom," Charlie agrees and begins to screw in the next one, she doesn't want to see the look on Bela's face. She isn't a good person and Bela needed to understand that.
That wasn't the answer that she wanted that she was hoping for and Bela frowns at this and draws a frowning face on the question. She wanted her mom to be with a good person, maybe Charlie's redemption was to find her mom her happy ending instead of being it. "Do you still love my mom?"
There's a bang as Charlie hits her head, once again surprised by the question. It feels like some sort of interview. "Yeah," she finally says after a moment. "But—I messed that up and it doesn't matter. Besides isn't your mom dating that cop?"
Bela crinkled her nose at this. "Dani? I don't think you have anything to worry about. I took care of it," Bela said with a pleased smirk. "Now for the super important part, do you like video games?"
"I've never played them before," Charlie said as she puts the finishing touches on the shelf. Bela is quiet and Charlie turns to look at her and frowns at the look of disbelief.
"We'll fix that right now." Bela said stopping and looking at the shelf, "Thank you," she says before grabbing Charlie's arm and pulling her towards her door only to run into her mother who had come to check in on them. "Charlie built my shelf!"
Santana turned to the shelf and then to Charlie who shuffles under gaze. "I was going to do it this weekend," Santana says crossing her arms. She didn't need Charlie helping.
"You've said that for the past three months," Bela responds and immediately ducks behind Charlie when her shoots her an annoyed look.
"Your aunt Quinn is calling Beth for you so you can talk to your cousin," Santana said. "But then they have to get going."
"They'll be coming back right?" Bela says immediately. It had been weeks since she had seen Charlie. She hoped she wouldn't have to wait another month before getting to see her again.
"I've got business in New York, so the hobbit—I mean your aunt Rachel is going to be taking care of you and your cousin."
"What about Charlie?" Bela asks immediately. "I've got to show her my video games!"
"I'm sure Charlie's busy with—whatever it is she does," Santana responds looking at Charlie and the paint on her jeans.
"I'm a home contractor. I noticed—" Charlie begins wanting to talk to Santana about some water damage that she spotted.
"Oh look a Fabray ripping someone off, how original," Santana drawled, she waits for the comeback but Charlie doesn't give one instead shutting herself off. Santana sighs and motions for Bela to follow her. "Charlie has to work. I'm sure that finding people and having missed deadlines is super important."
Charlie smiles at Bela, "I'll just go wait in the car then," she said it was obvious she wasn't wanted. Not that she could blame Santana one bit.
Charlie rubbed her legs and looked at Quinn who was tapping the steering wheel as they hit traffic. "Maybe I could spend a bit of time with Bela when Santana's busy?"
Quinn winced at this, "Look Charlie—Santana doesn't want you around Bela by yourself. She really doesn't even want my help, but she trusts Rachel's slight neuroticism better than me. It's going to take her some time, like it took me to trust you with my daughter."
"Then why did you insist that I come? I thought I was supposed to get to know her!" Charlie says annoyed. She had been clean for nearly ten years. She was trying her best and it was like there was no one willing to give her the chance. It was tiring.
"You just need to give Santana a bit of leeway Charlie and it's not about you. It's about what's best for Bela, who according to you isn't even your daughter," Quinn points out. "Which means it's weird for you to hang out with her. She's ten."
"I know—but I just—" Charlie says trying to find the words. But she can't. She doesn't quite know how to. "I thought you'd convince Santana that I wasn't a complete screw up." Charlie admits.
"What more do you want me to do Charlie? I practically forced us through that door and you were ready to bolt at the first sign that Santana might start breathing fire. Yeah you've been clean for a while now, but the last time Santana saw you, you were high most of the time. You got physical with her when she threw away your drugs while you were high. You stole money from her and spent it on drugs, for fuck's sake Charlie you're lucky she let you spend time with Bela at all. She needs time to forgive you and then she needs time to trust you. So yes she gets to make that decision and you need to stay away from Bela. Because Bela's who is important in all this." Quinn said and looks at Charlie, who nods her head. "So stay away?"
Charlie studies her hands for a moment, "Fine," she says quietly and looks out the window. She's quiet for a moment longer, "Bela seems pretty cool though—for a ten year old right?"
AN: I'm going to get hate that Santana is the bad person in this fic. She's a mother first, everything she does right and in the past was to protect her daughter. Including as mentioned before leaving a drug addicted Charlie behind.
