AN: Another day another chapter, sorry it's late I totally thought I had posted this.


Santana slowly traced the tally marks on Charlie's side, it was a distraction to keep her guilt at bay. She was dying, she should be able to sleep with an ex-girlfriend without feeling shitty about it. It wasn't that the sex was terrible. No, it had been infuriatingly good. Whatever Charlie's demons were, she still seemed to remember nearly everything about her body. How she liked it, how fast to go, when to slow down. It had felt good, she felt good, but the guilt was eating at her. She was dying, and Charlie still had feelings for her, what made the situation complicated was that having Charlie around was something that she had always wanted, because maybe she hadn't exactly dealt with any residual feelings that she had for her ex-girlfriend.

A mother was supposed to sacrifice everything for her child, and she had done that without second thought. But there had always been the hope that Charlie would get clean again. Because Charlie sober, even with her ego, had been close to perfect. But Charlie while high had been a nightmare, had been abusive, and had been a monster. Which was why she had needed to leave, Charlie had broken promise after promise to get clean, and she had chosen Bela's safety, her safety over making sure Charlie got the help she needed. She had thought that Charlie would find her again, in a few weeks. But weeks turned to months and months turned to years. There had been a lot of late nights, dirty diapers, vomit, a nasty bout of the chickenpox, more vomit, lots of snot, potty-training had been a nightmare, all of this while trying to finish up law school and pass the bar. Sure she had help, her mother and abuela had been a godsend when it came to Bela, so had Brittany.

Maybe she had watched those stupid Disney movies with Bela, and wanted her own knight to show up. No that wasn't quite right, she hadn't needed Charlie to save her, she had needed her partner back. That's what Charlie had been. Her partner. They were supposed to have taken on the world together. Ten years, and it took her little hell-spawn to find Charlie and bring her back.

Santana paused, her little hell-spawn. Bela, couldn't find them like this. It would confuse her, or she'd get her hopes up over a one night stand. She glanced at her alarm clock it was nearly ten thirty, and she cursed Charlie for keeping her up late. Bela was due back any moment. "Charlie," Santana hissed smacking her hard in side. She was rewarding with Charlie rolling over and pulling on the blanket. Santana blinked and picked up her pillow and smacked Charlie upside the head. "Wake up and get dressed. Bela will be home any moment and she is not going to find you butt naked in my bed." Charlie finally began to stir when she heard the front door slam shut, and for once she was glad that Bela liked make herself known. "Hide!" Santana hissed.

Charlie yawned and scratched her messy blonde hair, still slightly out of it. "No, I'm an adult," Charlie said about to flop back onto the bed, she was exhausted and yawned. She wasn't a teenager. "It's Bela—we'll just explain—" Charlie's eyes snap open and she looks at Santana who is giving her a look, while trying to strain her ears to see where her daughter was in the house. "Fuck," Charlie hissed. She threw the covers over her and glanced around the room grabbing her shirt and her boxers and stumbling as she slipped them on.

"Mom?" Bela's voice came through the door. "Are you okay?"

Santana turned to Charlie who looked around before diving under her bed. She face-palmed, this was a disaster and she really didn't want to have this conversation with Bela. It was too early and she was exhausted, but in the good way. "Hold on Bela, I need to get my robe it got hot last night," Santana called out and headed to her bathroom kicking Charlie's clothes under the bed and grabbing Charlie's phone and turning it to vibrate before sliding it across her floor until it went under her bed and she was sure she heard Charlie grabbing it. Santana grabs her red robe and slips it on, and heads straight to the door, and opens it for her daughter.

Bela eyes her mother and crinkles her nose, the only time that she saw her mom wearing the red robe was when Dani had spent the night. "Dani's not here is she? Because she's a villain and Charlie's truck is outside, but I can't find her."

"No Dani isn't here and honestly I don't know what Charlie's up to. She might be on the roof or in the attic. How was your sleepover? Do you need me to make you something to eat that isn't processed sugar or bacon?" Santana asked her daughter moving to leave her bedroom and closing the door to let Charlie figure out how to get of this situation without Bela being the wiser.

"You know, since Charlie's here, you should totally show some more skin," Bela said and Santana whipped her head to her daughter. "Tracey's mom said that's the easiest way to draw a moth to the flame."

"And that's the last time you spend the night at Tracey's house," Santana said closing her robe tighter. She was beginning to regret talking to her daughter about sex at an early age, but with the way technology was changing she needed to make sure that Bela understood the dangers of being an idiot with a phone. "Bela you want people to like you for who you are, not how beautiful you look, and definitely not how much skin you show."

"You mean like how you love Charlie?" Bela prodded.

Santana paused for a moment, "Charlie could use with showing a bit more skin," Santana said and Bela made a face and rolled her eyes, causing Santana to laugh. The smile on her fades when there is a thud that comes from her room and Santana groans inwardly.

Bela turns back to her mother's room and then glances at her mother suspiciously. Her mother was hiding something from her. She would have asked but her mother but she didn't expect the truth from her. She immediately rushes to her mother's bedroom door only to have the door open and Charlie open the door, wiping her hands on a hand towel. "I fixed the leak in your bathroom," Charlie said flicking her eyes to shot her a look.

Bela blinked and looked at her mother and then at Charlie and poked the dark pants that she was wearing that didn't have any paint on it. Neither did her shirt and she stared at Charlie, it was about the cleanest that she had ever seen her. "Did someone die?" Bela asked abruptly and looked at her mother. "Why are you all dressed up?"

Charlie hesitates and looks up at Santana who makes a face and then nods. "I had a date last night—sort of," Charlie admits truthfully. She's met with a horrified look from Bela who looks at her.

"What do you mean you went on a date? You're not supposed to go on dates Charlie." Bela said and then turned around to look at her mother and then grabbed Charlie's arm and attempted to tug her away, but Charlie didn't budge. Bela frowned at this and looked at her mother who was watching the two of them and tugged on Charlie's arm so she could at least whisper her question in her ear. Charlie finally bent down a bit so she could. "What are you doing Charlie? You know my mom is prettier than whoever she is! She just wants you to show more skin so show her your boobs or something, Tracey's mom says that's really important."

Charlie flushed and pulled away from her daughter and looked at Santana. "Bela, I don't think—um—that's not very good advice."

"Tracey's mom?" Santana asks and Charlie nods. "Yep you're definitely not spending the night there again." Santana said with a roll of her eyes. "Bela, let's let Charlie go home and change and then you two can start working on the project that Charlie wanted to do with you."

Bela blinked and turned to Charlie. "What project?"

Charlie rubs the back of her neck. "Oh, have you ever been to an arcade?" Charlie asks.

"One of my friends had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese," Bela said and thought about it. "Are you going to build me an arcade?"

"Well, I guess we can start with—" Charlie begins and she feels Bela grabbing her arm again and tugging her forward, causing her to stumble forward.

"I'm going to be the coolest kid in school, where are we going to put it? Maybe in the basement? Are we going to use power tools? Can I use them?"

"No," Santana said immediately, "You'll lose a finger, or a hand or something." This wasn't a knock on Charlie's parenting abilities but Bela was entering her awkward stage and she didn't need any accidents happening.

"Well what am I supposed to do then?" Bela demanded. She didn't want to just stand around and watch Charlie work.

"Well—I was thinking that I could get you a couple of cans of spray paint and you could paint the wood and make the designs on it." Charlie said and she winced when Santana shot her a glare, she wasn't going to be winning with either of them. "She'll wear a mask!"

"You're teaching my daughter how to graffiti!"

"Why is she only my daughter when she's doing something bad?" Charlie asked and Santana gave her a dry look. "Right, silly question. You can't keep the spray cans, you have to give them back to me, and you're not allowed to use them on public property. But maybe I can get you some wood so you can practice on it. But you have to use the mask that I'm going to get you—"

"And protective eyewear," Santana adds crossing her arms over her chest.

"Mom." Bela whines and looks at Charlie. "Tell her I don't have to! I don't want to be lame!"

"And the eyewear. Don't worry we'll get you a cool gas mask," Charlie said and a massive grin appeared on Bela's face. Charlie turns to Santana, about to offer to grab her one, they could make this into a bit of a family project, she's about to ask when her phone starts buzzing and she immediately fishes it out of her pocket. She frowns and is about to ignore the call and stuffs it into her pocket. She didn't want to talk to her parents, she was quite content to ignore them for the rest of her life if she could. She turns her attention back to Santana, "You can help, if you want. I can pick up a mask for you as well—" her phone rang again, and Charlie shifted a bit trying to ignore the vibrations. "And we can make it together. I can show you how to use the power tools."

Santana was about to say there was no way in hell she was going to possibly lose a limb when Bela grins widely and nudges Charlie who turns to her. "She accepts. You're smoother than I thought you were."

"What do you know about smoothness?" Santana challenges and is rewarded with a shrug from her daughter. She was definitely going to need to monitor the Netflix account, because it was obvious that Bela was watching far too many fairy tales, and far too many romantic comedies. It was clearly having a negative effect on her daughter, one which she needed to—a buzzing sound filled the space on the stairs and Santana flicked her eyes over to Charlie who flushed. "They aren't going to stop calling you so why don't you just answer it Charlie?"

Santana's right and she knew her parents well enough to know that this conversation wasn't just going to go away. "Hey," Charlie says quietly turning around so she could end this call. They'd been asking non-stop if she wanted to come over for dinner. She didn't.

Bela frowned and looked at her mother, "Who is that?" she asked her keeping her voice down.

Santana frowned and gently thumped Bela on the head. "I didn't raise you to be a nosy little snot," she reminded her daughter and was rewarded with a dry look.

"Yeah, you sort of did," Bela replies and takes a step away from her mother as she rubs the top of her head.

"Mom—I don't—" Charlie began closing her eyes.

"Is she talking to my grandparents?" Bela asked turning to Santana who groans. "Beth said that they're the best grandparents ever!"

Charlie turns to look at Bela for a moment, and sighs wincing at the excited look on her face. "I'll think about it. I've got to go now." She ends the call quickly and rubs her arm as she looks at Santana and then Bela, who were both giving her expectant looks. "They invited me to come for a family barbeque that they are having today but I'd much rather do stuff with the two of you, so let me just go get dressed from the change of clothes in my truck and we can go to Lowes, and Best Buy, and maybe an electronics place. I can order the parts that we can't find online and we'd have to stop by a paint store—" Charlie sighed as her phone went off again. Here it came, the barrage of her family trying to get in touch with her. Quinn probably wanted a confirmation.

"They still do that?" Santana asked curiously though there was an amused smile on her face. It was such a Fabray thing to do to get into each other's business so quickly. Charlie makes a face and nods and she watches as Bela glances between the two of them. "Fine, we might as well go this time so they'll leave us alone."

Charlie blinks a bit floored by this, "Are you sure? I mean—they're my parents," Charlie reminded her.

"Yeah, we might as well. I don't want them to show up to Bela's school and try and take her home with them. Might as well do this in a relatively controlled environment," Santana said with another shrug. Besides going shopping with Charlie and Bela while it would probably be fun, it would also be tiring.

Bela studied Charlie, she didn't look thrilled at the idea and moved to give her a hug, wrapping her arms around her. "If they say anything mean, we can just go right?"

Charlie hesitates for a moment, it's not like her parents had a dungeon. At least she hoped not, that would be weird and possibly gross but she hugs Bela back. Santana had raised an amazing caring child, who probably cared way too much. "If they say anything that makes you uncomfortable or you don't like we'll go." Charlie says looking at both of them. She doesn't want to go but if her family did then she would just sit in the background and watch them. This wasn't about her, this was about Bela. Charlie's quiet for a moment and then sighs, "You're going to need a bathing suit," she said finally pulling away from Bela, who broke out into a smile. Charlie turned her attention to Santana who immediately shook her head no. They still needed to talk about last night and what it meant, but she wasn't going to push it. "You don't have to wear a bathing suit if you don't want to. I don't even think I have one."

Bela who was about to race into her room stopped and stared at Charlie. "You have to wear a bathing suit Charlie! How else are you going to show mom some skin?"

Santana burst out laughing as Charlie turned a deep red. "Yeah Charlie, you have to wear a bathing suit so I can see some skin," she teased shaking her head.


AN: Reviews make me happy