AN: Another day another chapter


Santana glanced over at Isabela who was basically vibrating with excitement at the thought of spending most of the day with Charlie. She shook her head, it had been awhile since she had seen Bela this enthusiastic about something. "I know you want to play with Charlie, but you need to finish your project first. Charlie's just going to help you, she's not going to do the project for you. Once you're finished if Charlie wants to take you for lunch or dinner she can, but nothing expensive Isabela." Santana said firmly, causing Bela to look up at her. "I'm serious Bela. You need to behave yourself."

Bela puffed out her cheeks in a huff but nodded, "I promise, I'll behave myself," she said. If she didn't maybe her mother wouldn't let her spend time with Charlie anymore. She shifted the supplies in her hand, "If we finish early can we play video games?" Bela asked.

Santana eyed her daughter, "You have a lot of work to do Bela, but if you do finish early then I guess you can play video games with Charlie. Look—even though you see her as a friend, she's your other mother. So her rules go. If things don't go well, you can call Brittany or Rachel to come pick you up." Santana said with a sigh.

"Of course things are going to go well—she's the savior," Bela said as if that were obvious. She was going to spend the rest of the day getting her back on the path. Charlie needed to impress her mom, if operation Praying Mantis was to succeed. Her mom needed a happy ending and it was obvious that the savior needed to save herself.

Santana eyed her daughter once more and knocked on the door, the door swung open after the first knock and Santana stared at Charlie who looked to be quite nervous. She blinked for a moment and looked at her daughter who immediately pulled Charlie into a hug. "I wrote down some rules and some emergency numbers if you need anything." Santana said reaching into her purse to grab the piece of paper she had jotted it down on.

Charlie nods and looks at Bela, "Um why don't you set up on the island, I'll just get the information and we can start working on your solar system project," Charlie suggests and Bela nods moving inside the apartment. "I got her snacks—but then I realized I didn't know if she was allergic to anything—"

"She isn't, I had her checked out. She does like the crunchy peanut butter though," Santana said smoothly studying Charlie. Her eyes were clear and alert, even if she seemed to be fidgeting. "Charlie. She's a ten year old girl, she isn't going to murder you in your sleep." Santana said giving Charlie a look. "She's relatively self-sufficient but don't let her play video games until her homework is done."

Charlie nods as she takes the emergency list from Santana, "I'm going to be okay."

Santana nodded and leaned past the doorway and looked at Bela who had emptied the contents of her bag on Charlie's island. "Do try not to break her Bela." Santana says to her daughter who grins and looks up at her. Santana smiles, when she was younger Bela had been a terror to nearly everyone who she didn't know. She didn't like strangers and finding a babysitter had been damn near impossible. She had never been more grateful for the help of her mother and Brittany.

"I make no promises," Bela says smiling at Charlie, with a mischievous glint in her eyes that probably scared Charlie down to her core.

Charlie eyed both Santana and Bela for a moment not quite following what was going on. There's a small pang, that she doesn't understand their inside jokes and she's just a stranger standing on the outside, like a creeper, watching them. She pushes the thoughts away for now, and looks at Santana for a moment and reaches forward and gives her arm a gentle comforting squeeze. Bela didn't know and she wasn't going to take that away from Santana. She could do this but—she leans in and quietly asks Santana. "What happens if she starts crying?"

Santana stared at Charlie like she had grown another head, "She's ten years old Charlie, and if she starts crying comfort her." Santana said as if it were obvious. She wondered why she thought this was a good idea. This seemed like a terrible idea, maybe Rachel wasn't busy today—

"Alright mom—bye! We have to start working on my project so we can play Mario Kart and I can beat Charlie." Bela said, her mom would never leave if she didn't send her on her way. "We'll be fine."

Santana eyed her daughter and then looked at Charlie, "Emergency numbers. Use them." She informed Charlie bluntly causing the contractor to nod before she finally left to go to the hospital for yet another bought of hell. She sighed and adjusted her wig before she left her daughter with Charlie, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut.

Charlie moved towards Bela who was rolling a wooden ball on her island, "So what do we have to do?" Charlie asked.

"I just have to paint these," Bela said pointing at the paint kit her mother had gotten her. She arranged the spherical objects on the counter so that they were in order, from the giant ball to the smaller ones. "Okay, I figured it out. Mercury is grey. Venus is yellow. Earth is blueish green. Mars is red—"

Charlie nodded as she took a seat, "Okay—why don't we put a base coat on these, then give them a nice coat of paint. So you aren't stuck painting in only one color and you can highlight the different areas in secondary and tertiary colors?" Charlie asks. "I have one of those lamps that are meant to dry paint faster so it won't take as long?"

Bela stared at Charlie, there was some enthusiasm in her voice and she frowned and looked at the spherical objects. "This seems like a lot of work for a school project," Bela points out, she had just planned to dip them in paint and call it a day.

"If we do it my way you'll probably get an A, which you can show your mom. Who might us let us spend more time together," Charlie suggests and she can see Bela thinking about it.

"Can I use your power-tools?" Bela asks after a moment, this might be more fun if she could at least get to use some of Charlie's power tools.

Charlie blinks at this and stares at Bela, "For—painting?"

"Well I sort of need to put this together somehow. Maybe we can have a stand like Callie's. Mom said her dad probably does it for her. But if you let me use your power tools—"

"No," Charlie said immediately. She may not be good at parenting, but even she could tell this was a disaster waiting to happen. "Your mom will murder me if you come home with any new holes in your body. Especially if it's made from a nail gun."

Bela pouted for a moment, "Fine, but I'm totally not going to beat Callie's amazing project." Bela said with a dramatic sigh.

Charlie frowned not liking the sound of that, back in school she tried to beat Quinn at everything, sometimes she won, other times—most of the time she lost out. "Okay, how about we head down to Lowes and an art store. I have an idea for your project and maybe you could beat Callie's amazing project. You're still going to do all the work though," Charlie informed Bela.


Bela wiped her forehead from where she was wearing one of Charlie's baggy sweatshirts that now had black paint covered on it as well as various other's color. This actually had been a lot of fun, she got to use a device to spray paint the planets, which were now drying under the heat lamp. She had just finished painting the huge black board that Charlie had gotten her. "Okay, so we're going to put the sun in the middle?"

Charlie nods, "We're going to cut it in half—did you use the glow in the dark paint that we got?" Charlie asks Bela as she finishes cutting the planets in half. Bela nods and Charlie smiles, "Did you remember to tape areas we're going to attach the planets to?"

"I did—why did we have to put the tape down?" Bela said poking over where she had painted over the scotch-blue tape. She had spent all day working on this project asking Charlie a million questions, and now all they had to do was wait for the board to finish drying so they could finish the project. She was still slightly miffed that Charlie wouldn't let her use the portable table saw that she had brought from her truck. Just like she was slightly upset that Charlie had handed her a mask to wear and made her stand at a distance while she used it.

"Well because we're going to glue it on, and the wood glue that I got works well when it's wood on wood. We want this to stick so we only have to do it once," Charlie explained as she laid out the planets that she had cut in half, pulling off the mask on her face. She ran her hand over Mars, "I like the fact that you rolled it around in red sand to get that finish," Charlie said and Bela grinned.

"You said the details were important," Bela said proudly and then looks at the black board. "This going to be awesome! It's already better than Callie's and I did it all by myself! Well mostly." Bela grinned she was going to get an A for sure.

Charlie moves to start washing her hands and bites her lip, "So—what's your favorite class?"

"Math, I'm really good at it," Bela says with a shrug. She always got A's in math class. Bela poked the black board, but the paint was still wet.

A small smile appeared on Charlie's face she had liked math as well growing up. She had been really good with it as well, she still was. She wracked her brain for another question to ask Bela so she could get to know her daughter. "Do you like Justin Bieber? He's quite popular I think," Charlie said. When Bela didn't respond right away she turned and noticed the look her daughter was giving her.

Bela stared at Charlie, only to realize that she was being serious. "No, of course not!" Bela said shaking her head and looking at Charlie who looked slightly embarrassed. "He's totally lame!" Bela studied Charlie for a long moment. "Okay my turn. How old are you?"

"I just turned thirty-five," Charlie answers watching as Bela makes a face. "What?"

"You're old!" Bela says dramatically giggling when Charlie tries to give her a stern look. "What you are! You're older than my mom and she's like really old."

Charlie rolls her eyes, "Your mom is like fine wine she only gets more beautiful as she ages," Charlie said crossing her arms over her chest and flicking some water at Bela.

Bela stared at Charlie and crinkled her nose a bit, "You're really weird Charlie," Bela smiled, Charlie still thought her mom was beautiful even though she was old. This was going extremely well, now she needed to know how her mom felt about Charlie. Aunt Brittany had said that attraction was key to a good relationship. Like magnets.

"Well, if you don't like Justin Bieber what do you like to do? Or listen to?" Charlie asks after a moment, rubbing her wrist. Her daughter thought she was weird, she wasn't quite sure that was right. She frowned, but she had always thought her parents were—off. So maybe it was a good sign.

"I also like to write," Bela studied Charlie for a moment. "In fact, I want to tell you about operation Praying Mantis since you're the—"

There was a firm knock on the door and Charlie held up her hand to stop Bela from rushing to go get it, "I'll get it," Charlie said moving to the door and checking the peephole. She relaxes when she sees it's just Santana and opens the door for her. Charlie immediately holds her arm out for her, because she looks rather green. "You okay?"

Santana waves off the question, she feels like shit. Like she normally does, this isn't something that's new for her. So instead of focusing on it she forces a smile to her lips. "How did it go today?" Santana asked as she entered the apartment leaning against the wall for support. She stared at the various paints and the massive black board that was being dried by a lamp. She flicked her eyes to the portable saw and then turned to Bela who was wearing a baggy shirt and was covered in paint. "What. Did. You. Do?" Santana demands turning to Charlie.

"Nothing! We just worked on the project. Don't worry I didn't let her anywhere near the saw," Charlie said, holding her hands up. "I did all that, she wanted to beat—"

"We worked really hard on this mom! I really wanted to beat Callie and Charlie made me do all the painting and she didn't let me touch the saw—or the nail gun. We didn't need the nail gun. But we wanted to make this project really good so I could get an A and you'd be super proud." Bela interrupted. "Isn't it awesome?" Bela said moving to the black board. "We plotted out where the planets were positioned to the sun and it might not move but it's going to be super cool once we glue all the pieces together and trace out the lines. Charlie gave me painting advice and she let me use her stuff!"

Charlie rubbed the back of her neck and looked at Santana, "I'm sorry I got carried away," she adds after a moment.

Science had never been Bela's favorite subject and to see her so enthusiastic about doing her project and doing a good job was a surprise. A pleasant surprise and as long as Charlie had been responsible and hadn't thought that it was a brilliant idea to let Bela near a saw, she was okay with this, mostly okay with it. "So—how are you going to get this into the car?" Santana asked and looked at both Charlie and Bela. The board was massive and it was probably too big for Bela to carry on her own, and with the current state of her body there was no way that she was going to carry it. She watched as Bela and Charlie looked at each other, and she sighed they were so alike it was nearly comical.

"Well, you can leave the board here to dry and take all the other pieces home and I'll swing by the house tomorrow and we can finish it?" Charlie offers. The house was safe for them to move back in now, all that was left for her to do was paint the areas that had been damaged according to Puck, and she was going to do that room by room. "If that's okay with you Santana?"

"Please mom?" Bela said looking at Santana who rolled her eyes. "Please!"

Santana glanced at Charlie for a moment and then looked at her daughter before letting out a lofty sigh. "Alright. You can come over tomorrow and help finish that. But Charlie—next time let's try to make it a bit manageable. You can't make these gigantic projects all the time just because you can. As it is I think her teacher is going to accuse me of doing the project for her."

Charlie grins widely at this. There was going to be a next time. She had fun, today had been fun. Even if Bela thought she was an old weirdo, she wanted to do it again. "We'll keep it on budget next time I promise." Charlie vowed.

Santana nodded and turned to look at the planets that her daughter had painted, they did really look well done, and they seemed to have a brightness to them. She flicked her eyes to Charlie, who immediately began to help her daughter put the planets away, keeping them separated so that they wouldn't really make a mess. The pit in her stomach was gone and she relaxed this could be something that they did. Shared custody, getting Charlie to help out when she could. It was a relief that it had gone so well. She moved to stand beside Charlie and nudged the contractor's hand gently with her pinking, causing the taller woman to turn and look at her. She rested the finger against Charlie's pinky, a move that was made to comfort Charlie. "See, I told you it wouldn't be so bad." Santana muttered to Charlie. "She doesn't bite—well not anymore."

"I'm ten mom!" Bela said with a huff.

"She had a biting problem when she was three years old. She was a terror at daycare. Until one day when another kid bit her back. She never bit anyone else again," Santana informed Charlie who turns to grin at Bela who doesn't seem pleased that she was sharing the story with Charlie.


AN: see you tomorrow.