AN: Enjoy this chapter.


Charlie groaned as she opened the door to her apartment, Puck had taken one look at her gave her a questioning look and then had bluntly informed her that he'd take care of things today. She had tried to protest, but she was still tired, her shoulder and arm still hurt and she just wanted to take it easy today. She hadn't been to a meeting in weeks and she was going to check if there was one around that she could go to in the middle of the day. She turned on the light and moved to her fridge to grab a near beer and popped the top taking a sip. It felt like the end of the day and she couldn't remember the last time she took a vacation.

"I wasn't aware that you had an alcohol problem as well." Russell said from where he was sitting in Charlie's apartment.

Charlie jumped dropping her beer on the ground, the bottle cracking in half and spilling the contents of her near-beer. She stared at her father wondering how he had become such a creeper. "How did you get into my apartment?" Charlie demanded immediately. She was sure she had the only key.

Russell stood up, "Well, I wasn't going to wait outside while you avoided me. You had to return home sometime." Russell informed her not in the least bit bothered that he had just done something highly questionable.

"Pretty sure breaking and entering is illegal—and that doesn't answer my question." Charlie said, bending down to pick up the pieces of glass before grabbing some paper towel so she could mop up the spilt beer. "What are you doing here?"

"Being sober is important," Russell began lecturing her. "You can't switch one addiction for another—" Russell began.

Charlie frowned as she tossed the glass and the wet paper towel into the trash and stood up, "You don't have the right to come in here after spending years of pretending that I don't exist, telling me how to live my life." Charlie interrupted. She ached and she really just wanted to go in and get some more sleep and go to a meeting. "I'm not an alcoholic, this is near beer. It has less than 1% of alcohol in it. I haven't had a proper beer in a decade. Not since I left rehab anyway. I'm pretty sure my mouthwash has more alcohol in it. Same with my Purell." Charlie says.

Russell watched Charlie for a moment before, deciding to cut right to the chase. "You have a daughter," he said bluntly.

"I'm pretty sure we've had a similar conversation where you called me a liar," Charlie responds moving to get her mop to clean up. "But now that you've seen her, the answer is yes. I have a daughter."

Russell nodded, "And you're sure it's yours?" Charlie glanced at him and raised a brow. "I understand that you might find the line of questioning offensive, but it is done. Have you done a DNA test?"

"No. I'm not going to. I realize that I don't actually care if she's not mine biologically, but she is. I know Santana, and if she says the kids mine, the kids mine. She doesn't have a reason to lie to me about it, especially given the fact that she didn't want anything to do with me for the past ten years." Charlie responds with a shrug.

"I see, well your mother and I would like to meet our granddaughter." Russell said. "What does she like? Judy—your mother hasn't stopped talking about her."

"No." Charlie said bluntly and ran a mop over the area to make sure it wasn't sticky. There was nothing she disliked more than sticky floors.

"What do you mean no. She's our granddaughter!" Russell said scowling at Charlie. "We'd like to meet her. She's a—"

"Lopez. Isabela is a Lopez. She's not a Fabray," Charlie said with a shrug. "So it's not happening. If I have to get a restraining order I will."

Russell frowned, he was not in love with the tone in Charlie's voice. "Is that a threat? You wouldn't dare—"

Charlie frowned at this thinking about Bela for a moment, she didn't really want her parents messing with the good job that Santana had done or butting into Santana's life—or telling her how to raise their daughter. She liked Bela just as she was. "I don't—think that you want to test me on this." Charlie says after a moment.

Russell stared at his daughter who put the mop away and finally turned to face him. "What happened to the woman I raised—I don't understand how you could hurt us like this?" Russell says crossing his arms over his chest. The day the twins had been born, was tied with the birth of Frannie and his wedding day. He may not have been around as much as he would have liked but he had tried. He had read to her, he had gone to as many of her sports events as possible. He had loved her. She had been the one to throw it all away.

Charlie sighed, she didn't want to deal with this right now. "Look can you just leave, I'm not in the mood to have this conversation with you today—or ever."

"I don't understand what did we do to deserve this?" Russell demanded angrily. "We gave you everything in life. The best of everything. You went to the best schools, you had a generous allowance. We gave you everything you desired—and yet you threw it all away. You were the one who decided to ruin your life."

Charlie studied him for a moment, "Yes—I know I screwed up. You threw me away because I made that mistake and for the past ten years I've been clean and trying to get my life around. I didn't have my family to rely on, because I was—an embarrassment. I needed you, I needed my dad to help me. I needed help and this entire family thought that the best thing for me was to treat me like a pariah. A criminal, having to demean myself to get a bit of financial help to fix up my daughter's house. I told you about Bela. I told you and you thought I was lying. Let's not even get into the Beth situation where you made it clear that I wasn't a part of this family."

"How was I supposed to know that you were telling the truth? How was I supposed to know that you needed my help?"

"Because you're my dad. That's why! You got me fired, you basically blacklisted me from doing something I loved because of the optics of it all. I was an embarrassment because I fucked up. I get it, but it didn't matter what I did. It didn't matter how many times I apologized, it didn't matter how many times that I asked for forgiveness. It didn't matter how many years I went without doing drugs. It certainly didn't matter that I rebuilt my life from scratch without taking a penny from you to do that—you left me on my own. You decided that I wasn't good enough for this family. So you made sure that I knew that I wasn't welcome. Even when I showed up sober to the hospital, having been clean for a year to celebrate the fact that I had a niece you cast me out." Charlie snapped angrily, ten years of hurt of feeling like she wasn't good enough bubbling to the surface.

"You're punishing me because I didn't handle your addiction properly? Fine I made a mistake—that doesn't mean—"

"I made a mistake. I made a mistake and for the next ten years you have punished me, you have humiliated me, and you have made me feel worthless. I don't want Bela to ever feel those things. I don't want her to get to a point where she thinks that no one loves her. That she is nothing more than shit on the bottom of someone's shoes." Charlie says throwing her hands up. She exhales trying to regain that control that she had kept on her emotions reigning them in.

"I wanted you to become stronger and grow from this. And if you were truly clean, why didn't you go back to your job? You could have had your life back if you just passed a drug test. You could have become a respected member of society, instead of a hired hand." Russell pointed out.

Charlie studied her father, she liked her job. It might not make her billions of dollars, but she enjoyed her work and she was making plenty of money, more money then she had been before. "You don't think I didn't try? But why would I want to go back to a place where the culture is one of recreational drug use? And just so you know, I like fixing houses. I like doing renovation work, I like spending time with the guys. Even though I have to stop them from doing stupid stuff all the time and goofing off, they at least know how long I've been clean for. They know that I go to meetings nearly every day, well not lately. That I don't drink. They're there for me. What's your excuse?" Charlie holds up her hands she doesn't want to deal with this right now and she opens the door to her apartment. "Look—just leave. I don't want you to have anything to do with Bela. If Santana says it's okay then I'll think about it, but she has way too much shit on her mind then to deal with this so don't you dare go harass her."

Russell straightened out his suit and held his head up high, "If that's how you feel, then I suppose that there really is no reasoning with you. It's disappointing that you're using your daughter as a weapon to hurt me and your mother." He said as he walked out the door, passing Charlie on the way out.

Charlie paused for a moment wondering if she was, "Bye dad." Charlie said and closed the door behind her. She couldn't second-guess her decision. She had made the right choice—hadn't she?


Isabela had always been an observant kid, she noticed things. When adults were lying to her, when her mom was hiding things from her because she thought that she was far too young to get it. But she had noticed something was up with her mother. Sure she had been distracted by Charlie's presence and she was sure that her mom had planned it out that way but it hadn't stopped her from noticing things were off with her mom. She was always tired like every day, she was just absolutely exhausted. She hadn't been out to play with her, and they had been eating a lot of take-out lately.

But then there was the puking, and the fact that her mom always looked a bit pale and nauseated. She hadn't eaten any of her favorite foods and when she did some snooping she realized that her mom was throwing away most of the food that she got. She would crinkle her nose in disgust when the food was served and looked like she was about to get sick. She thought her mom was on some weird diet that her friend's mothers talked about but her mom always scoffed at those fad diets. Then there was the weird thing that was going on where she wasn't sure if her Aunt Brittany had accidentally burnt off her mother's eyebrows or what happened. But that seemed like something her aunt Brittany would do. And then there was all the pill bottles that were currently in her mother's purse.

"Hey mom?" Bela asked as she watched her mother sinking onto the couch and using the blanket she assumed that Charlie had used the night previously to wrap herself up. Her mom turned her attention to her and she moved closer to her, "Are you okay?"

Santana turned her attention to Bela, she was wondering if the numbness that she felt in her knees was something that she needed to be worried about. "Of course I am. I'm just a bit cold and work has been busting my ass lately. "

She could hear the lie in her mother's voice and on her face, and when her mom looked away Bela knew she was lying. "Mom—I'm ten, and I know how to use the internet! I'll just look up the names of the drugs in your purse until I figure out what's going on."

Santana snorted, "You're a nosy little shit aren't you?" She was rewarded with an amused smile from Bela who moved closer to her. She shifted so Bela could have a bit of space on the couch. "I know you're ten and you need to know that I'm so proud of you." Santana said moving and wrapping her arms around her daughter tightly.

Bela hugs her mother back, feeling a flair of worry fill her. "Are you going to tell me the truth now? Are you sick?" Bela prods her mother, not quite sure if she wants to know what the truth was. But she didn't like to be in the dark.

Santana sighs and shifts a bit so she can rest her head against her daughters. "I am," Santana said quietly. "I wanted to tell you but there's been so much stuff going on lately, with Charlie and the house and breaking up with Dani—I just I didn't know how to tell you."

"Tell me what?" Bela asked her face scrunching up, her mom wasn't dying. She was way too much of a badass for that.

"I have—well simply put I have cancer. I have a stage three thymoma, I've been having chemotherapy sessions to shrink the tumor. At the end of the chemo, I'll have a surgery so that they can take it out of my body, because it's too big for them to take it out now." Santana explains slowly so that Bela can understand her.

Bela stared at her mother in shock and pulled away from her scrambling backwards. "You have cancer? Are you—are you going to die?" Bela asked, wanting her mom to say no, but when her mom looked away she could feel the tears spring to her eyes. "You're going to die and you didn't tell me?"

Santana closed her eyes, she wasn't quite sure how this was supposed to play out. Maybe she should have told her sooner, but things had been hectic. She was the mother, she was supposed to worry about her daughter, and she was supposed to protect her. "I'm not just going to roll over and take it Bela, I'm fighting it. Dr. Pillsbury—she says my most recent scans are looking good so it's working." Bela didn't seem to be pleased by this information and she sighs. "Bela—I didn't want you worrying about me."

Bela frowned at this, feeling betrayed by her mom she didn't lie to her. She closes her eyes, and tries to ignore the tears running down her cheek as she pitches forward and wraps her arms around her mother tightly. "You can't die mom. You can't leave me alone," she begged. "You haven't gotten your happy ending yet."

Santana winces at the sudden hug, it was tight and crushing, and she had never felt weaker and more vulnerable in her life as she tries to keep the tears out of her own eyes. "I don't plan on leaving you alone ever. And I have gotten my happy ending Bela. The past ten years that I've been your mother have been the greatest of my life. The happiest day of my life was when you were born." Santana said. "Bela, I don't want you worrying about me, I'll fight this. I'm just—my body isn't what it once was and I just feel so tired, but I'm fighting."

Bela pulls away and looks at her mom for a moment, it was as if she was finally seeing her for the first time, the things that she had brushed away as mere tricks of the light. She swallows. "Who else knows?"

"Your Aunt Brittany, she's been with me for my last two chemo sessions—and no Bela you can't come to the sessions with me. It's no place for children but trust me I'm in relatively good hands with Brittany. Your Aunt Quinn figured it out the day you met her, then she told your Aunt Rachel." Santana explained. "Charlie figured it out last—but you can't blame her. I told her that I was going to tell you."

Bela frowned not liking that Charlie was keeping things from her, she thought that she had been different. She was annoyed that she was the last to know, and she felt guilty she had been difficult to her mom these last couple of weeks, trying to trick her into letting Charlie come around. Sure it had worked—but she had been really rude to her mom. "Okay so we have to work on making sure you get better! Is that why you haven't been eating?"

"I haven't been eating because I can't keep things down, some days are good some days are bad. I've got pills for that actually." Santana explains and bites her lips for a moment before closing her eyes and removing her wig. She hears the sharp inhale from her daughter. "This also happened, but once the chemo ends it'll start to grow back!" Santana added quickly before fixing the wig back on her head. "It's itchy and I'm always worried about it falling off when I'm in the middle of kicking someone's ass." Santana explained. She doesn't add that she doesn't feel beautiful anymore, she doesn't let her daughter know how sick she really feels. How difficult it is for her to get up in the mornings. How she doesn't want to look at herself in the mirror anymore.

Bela crinkles her nose, "You look weird without hair," she said and Santana lets out a harsh laugh, and Bela reaches for it and touches her mother's bald head. "Weird! You don't have to keep it on around me mom. I can shave my—"

"No." Santana said immediately. "I don't want anyone shaving their head in support of me. Besides your hair is so beautiful." Santana reached forward and ran her hand through Bela's hair messing it up causing her daughter to scowl a bit and fix it. It felt good that she didn't have to wear the stupid wig in front of her daughter anymore. "How about we get something from your favorite Chinese place and we watch a movie. Just for tonight you don't have to worry about doing your homework, I'll write you a note."

Bela grins and nods, "Okay, I'll go get the takeout menus, and you can pick out the movie. But we also have to work on finding you your true love, so you can kiss her and you'll be fine. Dani isn't on the list. But Charlie is. Now we just need to come up with a plan—you can fake drowning!"

Santana stared at her daughter, she didn't actually know where that part of her personality came from because it wasn't from her and she didn't quite think she got it from Charlie either. "I'm not faking drowning so Charlie can slobber all over my face."

Bela blinked, "You're right that could be gross. But we'll figure out a way together to find your true love!" Bela informed her before running off.

Santana sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, if Bela thought that Charlie was a horrible kisser she might lay off it for now. She yawned and curled up a bit on the couch waiting for her daughter to return, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep not noticing that Bela had come back and adjusted her blanket a bit so she wouldn't be cold.


AN: See you tomorrow.