An: A short chapter, but we're coming towards the end of this story.


"When is Isabela coming over again?" Quinn asked Rachel as she got ready for bed sliding under the high thread count sheets and wrapping an arm around her wife and pulling her close. She was rewarded with Rachel giving her a curious look and she cursed inwardly. "I was thinking maybe we could do a bit of a barbeque or something you know, with the rest of the family. My parents—they really want to meet her."

Rachel closed her eyes, and sighed, she needed to stop Quinn from shooting herself in the foot. "Quinn, I love you but if you do this Charlie will never forgive you. You're being a hypocrite, and not only will Charlie not forgive you, it's quite possible that Santana will not trust us to take care of her kid."

Quinn sighed, she could sense an argument coming on and it wasn't one that she wanted any part of. "They're my parents, and like it or not Bela is their granddaughter. Charlie's lashing out against them and it's not a healthy situation." Quinn said defensively. "They're my parents Rachel."

"I understand that they're your parents and maybe if it was Charlie I'd suggest talking to her about it. But Santana also made it clear that she didn't want them around, like from the very beginning. This might not have anything to do with Charlie and your parents and more to do with Charlie respecting Santana's wishes." Rachel points out once again.

Quinn sighs, "I know the situation is messed up, but someone needs to keep my family together. Santana told us that she didn't want Charlie around either and look at that situation now? She's letting Charlie around Bela. These are her grandparents, it's the same thing."

"It's hardly the same thing and you know it. Charlie is Isabela's mother, and Charlie didn't try and force her way into Bela and Santana's life. She earned Santana's trust and showed up when she was needed. She didn't approach Bela when Santana said no, sure she might have tried to take a picture of her but after that there was none of that." Rachel shifts so she can get a better look at her wife.

"I'm not trying to—I'm just trying to help. I mean yeah they might be mad at me, but eventually they'll forgive me for it. It's the right thing to do." Quinn protests. Her parents were putting her in a difficult position, and she wasn't quite sure what the right idea was.

Rachel sighed, the anger evaporating. "We told Charlie to take her time, and now look at her. She's spending time with Bela, some of it is unsupervised. Things are finally looking up for her and she's spending time reconnecting with Santana. I've always said that Santana was Charlie's great love." Quinn rolled her eyes and she huffed. She knew her great romances and this was one of them, it had all the makings of an amazing epic love story. "Quinn, you need to tell your parents that you're not going to get involved. If they want to meet Bela then they're going to need to be patient and start fixing their relationship with Charlie. I know you want to make things better for everyone, but that is not what's going to happen and we'll be caught in the middle of all of this."

Quinn sighed, this wasn't enjoyable. "If I don't do this Rachel, they won't get anywhere."

"Well that's not true. If you talk to Charlie she might listen to you. If that fails you can drag Frannie along, I'm sure that Charlie would be more willing to listen to the both of you, if only because she's terrified of Frannie." Rachel says and rubs Quinn's side. "And you can talk to your parents about Charlie, tell them what's been going on in their life and sort of help them understand. Then you're going to need to give it time." Rachel suggests it was the best plan that she could come up with on the fly.

Quinn nods and runs a hand through her hair. That plan might actually work, and it was definitely something to consider. Her parents were going to be disappointed regardless, and they were probably going to put some of the blame on her shoulders. Frannie actually had the argument that what Charlie had told her was privilege. She called bullshit but there was nothing she could do about it. Though it had bothered her that Charlie had turned to Frannie for help, she didn't even know how to handle that. "You're right maybe if I bring Frannie, Charlie might just listen to me."

Rachel flinched at the jealousy in her voice and rubbed Quinn's side. "Quinn, maybe if you talked to Charlie like you talk to other people, she might be more willing to listen to you. You can't come down on her hard, and try and do this tough love thing that your father has been preaching. It makes Charlie feel alienated and like you aren't coming from a healthy place." She immediately holds up her hands. "I know you are, but that's not what Charlie's hearing."

"I can't help what Charlie hears," Quinn said petulantly. It didn't matter if she was being obstinate about this, the entire situation was messed up and she just wanted some sense of normalcy.

Rachel poked her wife in the stomach causing Quinn to let out a laugh and she smiles. "Yes you can, you just haven't cared. It's not as if Charlie didn't need to hear that at the beginning, she was a mess and she needed to hear that. She did, I'll be the first one to admit that Charlie needed to hear it again and again until it sunk in." Rachel kissed Quinn's forehead. "Quinn, you need to know that I love you but you've been a bit of a broken record on this. It's been years and Charlie might be a mess but it's not because of the drugs. Up until Bela stormed into her life she was practically a hermit."

Quinn grimaced at this, "Yeah but it's not as if my mom hasn't tried to set her up. She's tried to set up Frannie as well—it just doesn't work."

"Well, Charlie has been a bit hopeless in that situation. But you also need to think about the type of aunt you want to be to Charlie's daughter. She's not just Santana's child, and you always wanted to be the fun cool aunt. Now you can, as long as you get things squared away with Charlie and Santana."

Quinn nodded and then flopped back on the pillow as Rachel moved to straddle her, "I got incredibly lucky marrying you," she murmurs to her wife leaning up to kiss her.

"You really did," Rachel says with a pleased smirk.


Bela rubbed her arm as she looked at her mom who had fallen asleep on the couch again, there was a bucket nearby, that seemed used even though it had been cleaned out and she frowned. Today hadn't been a good day for her, and her mother actually looked rather skinny and green. She immediately heads to the closet by the stairs and pulls out the quilt her abuela had made for her and goes to place it back on her mother's lap. Charlie would be around later to help around the house and feed her but until then she was on her own.

Her frown deepens when her mom doesn't even shift. She had always been the mom that jumped up at the littlest sound, ready to help Bela with whatever she needed. This was new territory and Bela didn't really know how to navigate it.

She paused for a minute, trying to figure out what to do. She and her mom had been fighting so much lately, everything felt wrong. But ever since she was little, her mom had always promised that she slept better on the couch when Bela snuggled in beside her. Resolving to do just that, Bela carefully sat down next to her mom, pulling her outstretched legs into her lap.

Santana grumbled a little, stirring at the movement. Bela stiffened reflexively, holding her breath. Even if her mom didn't say it, Bela could tell she hadn't been sleeping well. But eventually her mother relaxes a bit and shifts, and Bela exhales slowly when her mother's arm finds it way around her shoulders. Even while sleeping her mom was still her mom. "I don't want you to die," Bela mumbles, she sniffs a bit. "So please get better, please. I just want to be a family with you me and Charlie."

Santana doesn't answer, but she does let out a deep breath and Bela rubs her leg over her mother's leg gently, playing with the frayed edges of the quilt. "I didn't mean to say that I wanted to go live with Charlie, and yeah she's my mom too, but I want to stay here with you. Charlie's weird, and quiet and she's not you. I'm sorry mom, I'm sorry that I went to New York to bring her back, but I just wanted you to be happy. That's all I wanted, for you to have your happy ending." She mumbles the last part, all her life her mother had let her believe that everyone had a happy ending. They found the person that they loved more than anything and they lived happily ever after going old and grey.

But her mom didn't have anyone else. Just Aunt Brittany who went on a lot of dates with other people. It was weird all of her friends knew who their other parent was, even the ones that had divorced parents like Tracy. Everytime she had asked her mom about Charlie she would get this far off look in her eye and she'd smile a bit before telling her all the adventures that they had gone on. How romantic Charlie had been. How she was the greatest gift that Charlie had ever given her. Her mom loved Charlie, she knew it and Charlie loved her. They just needed to be reminded that they were true loves and kiss and make up. Then the three of them could be a family, that's all she wanted, and she knew deep down that's what her mom wanted too.


AN: See you tomorrow