Shannon gritted her teeth as she watched what could only be described as a massacre. It was a trainwreck, and PVA was making them look like a school who hadn't cruised to their first regionals win. She wondered briefly if things would be different if Lauren was still on the team, but there was no time for that as she watched as PVA beat her team into the ground. She wasn't surprised that both Santana and Blaine had managed to hold their own, and were both currently the last ones standing, but they hadn't managed to capture any member of PVA, and it had only been twenty minutes. She inhales and turns to her captain, who she expected to be watching the match but instead Charlie seemed to be going through her text messages.

Shannon clenches her fist, "We're losing."

Charlie glances up for a brief moment to survey the competition that was playing out in front of her and nods before going back to her phone. "We are. Played out about as well as I thought it would. Truthfully I'm surprised that it's lasted this long, Dani must be going easy on them."

Shannon blinked, "You knew this would happen?"

Charlie sighed and looked at Shannon, she had so many messages to go through. "Yes—how did you not predict that this would happen? PVA is a nationally ranked team, nearly every member goes on to be a hero or goes to a top school. Not to mention every single member on this team is a level 4, they have this incredibly expensive facility that my grandparents helped pay for. They are structured and they have title history, McKinley is lacking in nearly every conceivable metric against a team of this caliber."

Shannon frowned, "I wasn't expecting a win, I expected that we could at least show up. Our team has quite a bit of heart."

"You know as well as I do, that this isn't a fairy tale," Charlie said as she stood up and stretched rotating her shoulder a few times. "Heart is nothing if you don't have the skill to show up and compete, and they don't have the skills to show up and compete. Well Santana does, clearly Blaine does, Rachel too if we weren't trying to hide her new abilities before competition," Charlie mused she knew Dani well enough, they had grown up together after all. The only reason that Dani had agreed to this was so that she could leverage a win into forcing her to help train her team. They were trying to scout her, unfortunately for Dani and the rest of PVA nothing that she had seen indicated that she needed to put any effort into winning. "Boring," Charlie mutters under her breath. Beating PVA wasn't going to help her with her fight with Charlotte Flair, as it was she wasn't sure if her immunity to heat would hold against Charlotte's abilities.

Shannon frowned, and was about to make a comment when the buzzer sounded indicating that the match was over, and she turns to see both Blaine and Santana being thrown into the fake jail that they had made and sighs, "I guess we're going to have to go back to the—" Shannon turned but Charlie was no longer standing beside her. She blinks twice and returns her attention back to the jail on the other side of the facility and groans when she spots Charlie crouched on top of the cell. "Oh no," Shannon groaned. McKinley certainly couldn't afford to pay PVA back if Charlie wrecked their facility and she glanced over at PVA's coach who was making his way towards the team, probably in an attempt to stop Charlie from wrecking the facilities, as if they could really stop Charlie from doing anything. Well she should probably give Figgins the heads up in case things went south, the man was probably going to have a coronary.

~ O ~

"I know Santana said to focus on the people who clearly needed our help more than others, but the way I see it we don't have time to create and test devices for every single member of the team." Roderick tells Marley as he looks up from his notebook.

"I didn't even gather that much data," Jane adds looking over at Marley.

Marley glanced over at Quinn who looked rather unimpressed, "Do you have any suggestions?"

"Focus on Sam and Rachel for now, they're the ones that really need your help more than anyone," Quinn replied after a moment to think about it. She turns to look at the members of the support team and they don't look that impressed with the Titans either. "PVA is a nationally ranked team, and I'm pretty sure that every member of that team is a level four. This was never going to end in a win for McKinley at least not without Charlie helping out and doing the heavy lifting. Though I don't think Charlie realizes that if they don't shape it's going to be harder for her to get to Nationals."

Marley nodded and turned her attention back to where Charlie had appeared on top of the cage that was holding the Titans. Even from where she was sitting she could feel the air change, forcing everyone to pay attention. "I thought Charlie wasn't going to compete."

Quinn glanced at her twin and sighed, even if her lips twitched upward. "She's not supposed to be using her abilities here, and quite frankly I think both our grandparents will be annoyed with her if she destroys a facility that they had to pay for and built, just to remind everyone that she's the strongest person in the room."

Marley blinked, she had suspected that Charlie and Quinn came from an upper middle class family, but this was a multimillion facility that looked like it had all the bells and whistles, and the idea that her grandparents had paid for it because Charlie had thrown what she could only imagine was a tantrum was almost unbelievable. "Is she—"

"You're perfectly safe, Charlie probably isn't going to destroy this facility," Quinn shrugged. It wasn't as if Charlie had lost control, she knew exactly what she was doing when she brought the walls of the building down. "You've never actually seen Charlie use her abilities have you?"

Marley shook her head, "I haven't had time to watch the tape of regionals yet," she'd been swamped with the new move, and personally she'd never really cared about watching a bunch of teenagers beat the crap out of each other. Quinn's abilities would leak out every now and again, but she'd never witnessed Charlie's abilities.

Quinn turns her attention back to Charlie for a moment, "Well I guess you're going to see why your spot at nationals is all but guaranteed. I mean it may not seem like it or look like it half the time, but my twin enjoys fighting to an absurd degree. She's competitive in certain things and fighting is one of them. If I were to join the team I can promise you that Charlie would use me as a sparring partner and I'd never see you again. The only reason she leaves me alone is because I have no interest."

Marley nods at Quinn's words and turns her attention back to the field, just in time to see every member of PVA but Dani dropping to their knees in front of Charlie. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, had she missed something, Charlie hadn't done anything. She had just been talking to Dani.

~ O ~

Dani made a face as she locked eyes with Charlie, "Well I guess I understand why you're fond of this team," Dani said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Charlie smiled at Dani, "Do you?"

"I just don't know why you need a team this weak to make you look good," Dani continued as if Charlie hadn't spoken. Almost immediately Dani was forced to turn when every last member of PVA dropped to the ground and she looked back at Charlie who was still smiling at her, and for the first time since she'd known Charlie, Dani felt a hint of fear. There was a coldness in Charlie's eyes, it's only for a split second and she was unsure if it had just been a trick of the light.

"Everyone here is weaker than me Dani. You're weaker than me, so no matter what team I join I'll stand out because of the massive power difference. I hated it here." Charlie gestures to the Titans, "They don't look at me and expect me to wave my hands and get them to nationals, they're putting in the work to be able to stand on their own two feet without me." Charlie hops off the top of the cage, where she had been perched and as her feet hit the ground the cage gets ripped apart freeing the rest of the Titans. "This isn't going to be your year Dani."

Dani kept her face neutral as PVA was suddenly released from Charlie's hold, and her eyes flick over to Santana who is moving to stand beside Charlie, there was a smile on Santana's face that caused her to scowl and she takes a step forward wrapping her arms around Charlie's shoulder and neck and pulling Charlie into a kiss in front of everyone.

It was a moment that shocked nearly everyone there into silence as they stared at the moment between captains, even Charlie seemed to have been caught off guard and had frozen as Dani kissed her. The moment, however didn't last that long as Dani suddenly pulled back after feeling a sharp shock from Charlie, it wasn't that painful but she could practically taste the ozone as she looked at Charlie who didn't look amused.

"What the fuck was that?" Santana demanded taking a step forward, as she struggled to control her temper. Charlie was fireproof but Dani probably wasn't and burning her face off would probably be frowned upon. She's tempted to pull Charlie back and step in front of her, she had no idea why she was feeling overprotective in this instant, Charlie could certainly take care of herself but seeing Dani's hands all over Charlie bothered her.

Dani flashed a smile at Santana, before looking at Charlie who was still processing the sudden kiss, "I was simply saying goodbye, the past two weeks were fun," Dani said winking at Charlie, before turning back to her team. "Alright that wasn't much of a practice, so we're going to be doing drills."

Charlie winced as she felt the heat radiating from Santana and turned to look at her, flinching when she saw the murderous look on Santana's face. "I—" Charlie immediately cleared her throat and turned to the team, who also didn't look pleased. She wasn't quite sure why they were angry, she wasn't dating anyone which meant that she could sleep with whoever she wanted. "Let's go home, I'm sure Beiste wants to talk about your performance." Charlie turns around and immediately begins to walk back towards the bleachers.

It takes a moment, and a few exchanged looks before the rest of McKinley looks to Santana who is still standing there. The blistering heat that most of them had come to expect when Santana was pissed, was now subdued before it goes out completely and Santana finally follows Charlie. After another exchange of looks between the team they immediately follow their captains.

~ O ~

Shannon sighed as she looked at her team, she wasn't surprised to see that the team morale was down. Getting their asses kicked by PVA had hurt, but that was nothing compared to learning that your captain had spent her suspension sleeping with the enemy. "The good news is that we still have plenty of time before nationals before we face PVA again—" Beiste paused when she saw Rachel's hand shoot up, and nods at her. "Rachel."

Rachel hesitated for a moment, before standing up. "I think we need to be honest about what just happened, our level of skill simply isn't good enough. We lost, we got crushed," Rachel stated, taking a deep breath. "Something needs to change, because they barely let us get any offense in, and I feel like because of who we are, we have a massive target on our backs, we need to be able to defend ourselves."

"Who knows if it's because we suck or if someone decided to share our weaknesses while she was busy screwing the captain of a rival team," Santana said, turning to look at Charlie who looks up from where she was fiddling on her phone.

"It's because you suck," Charlie offers bluntly, deciding not to mince words, as she meets Satnana's gaze. She wasn't going to be bullied into feeling bad.

Shannon groaned, "Charlie—" she began with a reproachful tone.

"Dani's my ex-girlfriend, I spent the entire two weeks training and watching tape, did I sleep with her? Yes. But—" Charlie turns to look at the rest of the team for a moment before returning her gaze to Santana, "I certainly never talked about your weaknesses with her, she didn't need my help to win. I needed a place to sleep and Dani wanted to convince me that joining PVA was in my best interest, it's not. But I did enjoy her efforts in attempting to convince me," Charlie smiled at the memory.

Quinn pinched the bridge of her nose, she had no idea how Charlie couldn't see that she was digging her own grave. She glances over at Marley, but she's already got her head in her notebook, writing out some designs. She sighs and looks at Charlie carefully, she had to wonder what Charlie was thinking. She and Dani had broken up for a very good reason, and while she knew that Charlie's feelings on Dani were complicated, Charlie should have known better than to sleep with her.

At Charlie's words Santana bursts into flames causing everyone around her to scatter, as she marches towards Charlie and gets in her face. "You're supposed to be our captain. You're supposed to lead us but you've spent every second since this team's inception fucking everything in a skirt."

"You weren't exactly—" Charlie blinked as her mouth was suddenly frozen shut and she turned to glare at Quinn.

"I'm older than you by five minutes which means it's my duty to save you from yourself," Quinn informs her with a simple shrug of her shoulders. It certainly wouldn't hold Charlie for long, but hopefully she'd actually think about her words before she said something stupid.

Santana didn't hesitate to continue, "Dani is a rival, and you thought it was a good idea to sleep with her, to let her mock us, to make us feel small, and you let it happen because you agree with her."

Charlie broke free from Quinn's binding and stared at Santana, not quite understanding why she was so upset. She glances up at the rest of the team and notices that some of them are nodding along with Santana. "I have never once lied to you and I've always been pretty blunt about what I think about the team's current power level. There was no doubt in my mind that PVA would win. The only person with comparable strength here is Quinn, and for me I need to constantly recalibrate what is average and what is outside the norm. You guys, as a collective, are below average."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Charlie blinked and turned to Sam, he rarely if ever spoke up. He seemed content to fade into the background and she adjusts her body so she can have a closer look at him. "Excuse me?"

Sam flushed when everyone looked at him, "You keep telling me that I'm your sidekick, but I can't use my abilities very well, and you've never helped me. You haven't really helped any of us—maybe if I could have used my abilities better we wouldn't have gotten our asses kicked so bad."

There was a murmur of agreement that runs through the gathered students, causing Charlie to tilt her head as she looked at them, studying each one of them. "I don't see how the fact that you can't use your abilities is my problem," Charlie responds. "I wake up every day at 4 am and train my body and my abilities, I then drag my ass to school so I can run a practice where many of you choose to skip. I then gave up my lunch to train you but again quite a few of you skipped. I never complained, I'm certainly not going to waste my time running you guys down and dragging you to practice. That's on you. You want to get better put in the work and stop blaming me because you suck."

Before the situation could devolve into a full blown mutiny, Beiste steps in blowing her whistle causing every single teenager to turn and look at her, "I understand your frustration. Today was not a good day for us, and I'm extremely disappointed that we didn't do better—"

"PVA practices twice a day, they are constantly doing training exercises with other top schools, constantly battling to perfect their skills. You guys complained when all you had to do was increase fitness," Charlie continues. "This line of work takes dedication which you guys have been lacking, or did you all hope to ride my coattails to nationals?" Charlie questioned looking at them .

There was dead silence from the group for a moment as Rachel looked around, "Practices should be mandatory," she says speaking up and deciding to be the sole voice of reason in the group. She could see what was going on, Santana wasn't angry that Charlie was sleeping with Dani, she was angry that Charlie was sleeping with someone else. The rest of the team was embarrassed that they had done so poorly and had hoped to take it out on Charlie. "They should. We're all incredibly lucky that there were no scouts who witnessed our joint practice, because if we were on any lists we certainly would have been removed."

Beiste blew her whistle once again in an attempt to regain control of the conversation, "I like the passion that you guys are showing, and from here on out, practices will be mandatory. There isn't that much time till sectionals, and this has shown us that we've got a lot of work left to do." Beiste turned to her captain who had lost interest in the conversation and was back on her phone. To the untrained eye, Charlie looked rather unbothered but she could see the slight grimace on her face. She suddenly understood why Charlie had never wanted to be on a team before. The resentment was palpable, but Charlie was a member of this team which meant that she needed to be a part of the team, if the team failed then she failed as well. Charlie could no longer carry herself above the team. "Charlie?"

Charlie grunted in response.

"Keep it in your pants," Beiste informed her, watching as Charlie looked up at her. "I understand that you and Dani have history together, but you're a Titan now, and your actions affect the team's morale. You're an important member of this team and while I understand blowing off some steam, I ask that you don't do it with anyone who we will be facing in competition."

"Please everyone knows she's a sex addict," Santana muttered under her breath loudly.

Charlie turned to look at Santana before rolling her eyes and shrugging her shoulders, "Fine. I won't have sex until after nationals. I need to focus on my training anyway." With that said Charlie turns to look at Quinn, "Can we go home now? I need to see Arte and Wolfgang, I bet they missed me."

"Since we're all here we should probably have a practice and go over what went wrong." Rachel offered hoping to be the calming voice of reason.

"I haven't been home in two weeks, I'm going home," Charlie says bluntly, before turning to her twin. "Quinn?"

Quinn raised a brow, "I'm Marley's ride home—"

"We should stay and start to go over, the plan for every member of the team is, I think I'll be here for a while," Marley interrupts, looking at Quinn. "So maybe drop Charlie off and come back? I think we could really use your help." When Quinn's brow furrows slightly Marley leans forward and gently kisses Quinn on the cheek. "Tensions are high and maybe it's best if Charlie went home," Marley whispers into Quinn's ear before pulling away and shooting her a look.

Quinn glanced at her twin who looked agitated and nodded, "Yeah, come on I'll drop you off at home and be right back."

Marley flashed Quinn a grateful smile, and watched as Quinn grabbed Charlie by the arm and dragged her off, Marley sighs and looks back at the team. "Rachel and Sam are the two people we need to help first. Rachel was sidelined because her abilities affect anyone who can hear them, I imagine that friendly fire would apply here. And Sam we need to get you a control device."

"How soon can you have a working prototype? " Shannon asks.

"If we get the parts that we need as quickly as possible, I think we should have something by the end of the week, maybe mid-week next week at the latest, if we work nonstop," Rodderick stated.

"We still need to do the measurements, and see what they think about design choices," Marley adds looking at them. "But if we're being honest, Rachel's gift requires us to create a device for everyone on the team. Which would take more time."

Shannon nodded, "Get me a list of the parts that you require and I'll make sure that you have them by Monday. Charlie makes a very good point that we need to have more of these practices. I'll see if I can set something up so we can have at least two of them a week on top of special training done by professional heroes. We need to get stronger quickly because there are scouts who are very interested in you guys and I want to make sure that they see you all in the best light."

~ O ~

"How's Russell," Artemis said as she sipped on her cup of tea, and looked at her oldest daughter, watching as she flushed. She had suspected that they would fall back into bed with one another, when Judy clears her throat, she knows her suspicion is accurate and she is glad Lawrence was in the garage making a crib for Frannie. "Use protection."

"Mom." Judy snaps at her mother, mortified that they were having this conversation. "I'm not having another child!"

"I understand but I was more concerned about the fact that it's Russell, but I'm glad to hear that you're not going to have any more children. You overshot with the twins and I'm afraid that if you try again it'll be triplets," Artemis smiled dryly as Judy scowled at her. "In all seriousness though—how's the court case going?"

"It's in the lawyers hands, I'm not worried about it," Judy admitted with a shrug. "I know Russell wants to send a message, but I think that once this is over I'll ask Brittany to fix that girl's face. I just have to find a way to do it discreetly."

"It could be a bonding exercise with you and—" Artemis turns her head when the front door opens and she hears the sound of loud bickering coming from the twins. She looked to Judy who groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You can't seriously be thinking about quitting the team! They're pissed at you for sleeping with Dani, I'm pissed at you for sleeping with Dani. What were you thinking?"

"I didn't want Frannie to murder me?" Charlie repeats for the umpteenth time. "You only want me to be on the team because you know as well as I do that they won't make it to nationals without me, and you want me to do this because of Marley."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "Obviously, I care that my girlfriend gets to show off at Nationals so she can get an internship at an amazing company. But I also think you're being an idiot, the team needs you, they're upset that you're sleeping with Dani, and even if it's because they resent you who cares, you don't actually care about the competition, it's a means to an end so you can fight Charlotte Flair."

Charlie was about to say something when she hears a rhythmic thumping and she grins and looks up to see Wolfgang staring at her from where he was laying at the top of the landing, his tail wagging fast and thumping against the ground. "Wolfgang! Where's your sister?" Charlie said as she practically bounds up the stairs and begins to fuss over her fur babies.

Quinn pinched her nose and headed to the kitchen, "I have to go back to school, Marley still needs a ride, and I can help out. Charlie called dad and asked him to find him a nationally ranked team that she can be a part of so she can go to Nationals. The team is mad at her for sleeping with Dani, and because they got their asses kicked and they're blaming Charlie." Quinn explains to her mother and grandmother. She turns to her grandmother. "Fix it. I have to go back now."

Judy watched Quinn leave and looked at her mother with a hopeful look on her face, she's not truly surprised that her mother ignores her. "She listens to you."

"You're her mother," Artemis responds to her. "And she needs her mother, not her grandmother at this moment."

Judy bit her lip, she wasn't sure what to say to Charlie. "I just—"

"She feels isolated, this has happened before. Her strength scares people, and they turn on her. This isn't about her abilities, your daughter is hurting and she's only going to isolate herself further from everyone else."

Judy looked up at the ceiling and bit her lip, before nodding. Charlie was still only sixteen and she probably needed some guidance, and Russell would probably just do whatever Charlie asked for without actually fixing the underlying problem. "I'll make an effort."

~ O ~

"—so the idea behind these bracers is to help you with your control. From what we can see when you activate your abilities, you use quite a bit of your body. And whenever you use your abilities you're basically just using the momentum of you tripping to propel yourself forward. With these braces you should be able to redirect the chemical energy into an area of your body, which should free up your movement," Marley explains to Sam who still looks rather confused as she holds up her design.

"You're going to have to relearn how to move," Rodderick added. He turns his attention back to Jane who was sketching out some designs for the Titan's new communication devices, "Make them as discreet as possible, we want a low profile in the ear."

"Not yet," Jane argues immediately. "Once we figure out how to block Rachel's abilities from affecting the rest of the team we can figure out how to make it smaller."

Shannon shifted her attention away from the support team and back to her current team. They sounded like they knew what they were doing and right now she needed to do something about the terrible morale. "So does anyone have any ideas on where we went wrong?"

Immediately Rachel's hand shoots up and she waves it hoping to grab Beistes attention. She had a few ideas.

"Anyone other than Rachel?" Beiste presses looking at Santana.

"They had done their homework on us." Blaine says speaking up, he immediately shifts when the rest of the team focuses on him. "It's what Dalton would have done. It's what all the top schools do. They build entire strategies around teams. You guys were a brand new team there was no data on you which is why you surprised nearly everyone. But that one appearance at Sectionals—they now have footage. They used it."

"And we were weak," Santana adds with an irritated shrug. There was no point mincing words, PVA had toyed with them.

Beiste was about to respond when she finally spotted Rachel shaking her hand to get her attention. "Rachel."

Rachel lets out a breath and stands to her feet, "They did overpower us, and they probably did watch our tape but we also didn't exactly have a plan going into it. PVA was coordinated, they knew what they were doing each and everyone of them had a role, and each of them managed to execute that role. They have more combat experience than us, and we don't have a lot of time to fix that problem, but I think that might be a useful tool. Mr. July does insist that combat increases abilities quicker than anything else."

"I'll see what I can arrange, I'll try to get one a couple times a week," Beiste sighed, it wasn't as if there weren't teams that were trying to practice with them, Vocal Adrenaline had petitioned them for an opportunity. It was something that they could arrange rather short notice as well.

"I believe we should aim for a minimum of three times a week," Rachel counters. They needed to get better in a hurry and they needed to learn to work as a team. She's about to add something when she spots Quinn making her way towards Marley and the rest of the support team. She hoped that Quinn's offer to train her was still available, while Quinn wasn't Charlie she had grown up in that crazy family she had been trained and she probably did have some combat skills. "Quinn—"

Quinn holds up her hand to stop Rachel, "Charlie is thinking of transferring to another school, in other words she's thinking of quitting," she announced, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at the Titans, even Beiste seemed stunned by that announcement. "My grandmother is currently working on it, so this might just be a blip but if Charlie is going to be stubborn about this then I think you guys need to do whatever it takes to get Charlie to reconsider."

"Why the fuck would we do that?" Santana questions, finding her voice first as she struggles to contain her anger. "If she wants to quit let her fucking go. We don't need her."

Quinn flicked her eyes to Santana studying her for a moment before shrugging her shoulders, "You and Blaine might not need her to get noticed, but everyone else on this team needs Charlie forcing scouts to pay attention. Talk to Charlie or don't but if you guys want to win nationals, it'll be a lot easier to do with Charlie on your team rather than having to face her on an opposing team. My two cents anyway. I'm going to go and help Marley I'll talk to you guys later."

Beiste finally found her voice and closed her eyes, getting to nationals required Charlie's participation, she was excellent at covering over any weaknesses the rest of the team had, and she could single-handedly turn the tide of a competition on a whim. "I'll talk—"

"If Charlie wants to be a quitter, then let her be a quitter. We don't need her. She doesn't get to force us to bend the knee because she's throwing a tantrum. How fucking hard is it to not sleep with the enemy? I don't give a shit that they had history, she's supposed to be our captain but she's a shitty captain," Santana interrupts. "So we don't get to Nationals, our team skews young and we've got some powerful people on our team, with Marley's help we won't need Charlie at all," Santana interrupts forcefully.

Rachel flinched and glanced at the rest of the team who suddenly looked unsure of Santana's proclamation. She sighed someone neutral needed to talk to Charlie, and Santana was anything but neutral. Charlie's feelings had probably been hurt and she was lashing out, and Quinn was right. They did need Charlie, despite what Santana thought.

~ O ~

Judy studied her youngest child's door, and bit her lip looking down at the plate of bacon wrapped cherries that she had made. It was Charlie's favorite snack and while Charlie ate she was sure she could get a few words in. Still she wasn't quite sure what to expect, Quinn had been the broody one out of all her children. Brittany had been the ray of sunshine, Frannie had been fiercely independent and intelligent, and Charlie—well her youngest had always just been spoiled. Whether it was her grandparents, or her father, Charlie had always enjoyed playing on the fact that she was the youngest. "Charlie," Judy says, knocking on the door. "I made you some bacon wrapped—" The door to Charlie's room swings open, before she can even finish and Judy spots her daughter lounging on the bed with both Arte and Wolfgang curled up on her side.

"Thanks mom," Charlie says without looking up from her phone. "Just put it on my desk."

Judy raised a brow and didn't move, staring at her youngest until Charlie finally looks up at her, "I'm not your maid."

Charlie blinks and sits up on her bed, ignoring the growl of protest from Wolfgang, her mother sounded annoyed with her and she quickly gets up and reaches for the plate only to have her mom move it out of her reach. "Sorry?" she tries with a frown on her face.

Judy sighs and gives Charlie the plate and takes a seat at Charlie's desk. She hadn't come to start an argument, except she didn't really know what to say to her youngest. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about?" Charlie questions as she unwraps some of the bacon off a cherry and feeds it to Arte and Wolfgang who looked pleased at the treat. "That's all you're getting," Charlie informs them before turning her attention back to her mother.

"You wanting to quit the team, I thought things were going rather well—you had friends. And what's this I hear about Dani? Are you two getting back together? You always looked so good together and I still don't know what you did—"

"What I did?" Charlie interrupts, narrowing her eyes. "What makes you think I did anything?"

Judy hesitates for a moment, "Charlotte—I love you but I've seen the way you treat women, it's been a constant point of contention ever since you and Dani broke up. I know that you've been aware of your father's—indescretions but I had hoped that you wouldn't follow in his footsteps."

Charlie rolled her eyes, "I never cheated on Dani, mom. I'm not dad. Dani and I broke up because I found out that she only wanted to be with me because she knew that I was going places. She wanted to be with me because of what I could do, that's why she got close to me. I thought she liked me, I thought she loved me like I loved her but I was wrong." Charlie finished with a shrug of her shoulders, as if what she had just admitted wasn't a big deal. It wasn't, her father and grandfather had always warned her that people would want something from her.

Judy froze, unsure of what to say to such an admission. Charlie had never told her why they had broken up, she had just announced it at dinner one day, it had been during an argument with Russell. "Why didn't you—Charlie why didn't you tell me this? I'm still friends with her parents? We text! We share recipes!"

Charlie stared at her mother as she popped a bacon wrapped cherry into her mouth. "It wasn't important—"

"Do you really believe that?" Judy questioned her daughter.

Charlie pauses at the question for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders. "It doesn't matter now, I don't trust Dani in that way anymore, I also don't want to talk about Dani."

Judy nodded, "Do you want to talk about why you want to quit the team then?"

Charlie frowned, truthfully she had expected either her grandfather or grandmother to talk to her about her decision, her mother had never cared what she did before. "I want to fight Charlotte Flair, I want to beat Charlotte Flair. I don't need McKinley to go to nationals, I could be spending all my time training for the fight, with a team that doesn't need me to hold their hand through everything. I already called dad and he's going to call around and let a few schools that I'm interested in joining a proper team, on the condition that I get to fight Charlotte Flair."

"And what about your friends? They depend on you even if they're upset with you," when Charlie gives her a look Judy pauses, "Santana? Rachel?"

Charlie shrugged in response. Santana was mad at her for whatever reason and Rachel was more Quinn's friend than hers. "I think I'd be happier if people just left me to train for the biggest fight of my life. This is my debut onto the world stage mom, nothing is more important than that."

Judy frowned, "There are more important things than just training Charlie. You're seventeen at the end of the month, you still a year before you can become a pro. Training shouldn't be your entire life. I'm not going to stop you from looking for another school to join, I know how important this is to you. But I think you're being rash, I may not know the entire story but I know that you aren't a quitter Charlie."

"I'm not quitting, I'm just—"

Judy smiled as Charlie hesitated, maybe her mother was right Charlie wasn't that difficult to figure out. "I didn't expect you to try and find a shortcut. But again, you're growing up Charlie and you need to decide right now if the ends justify the means, because that will certainly affect the hero you want to be in the future don't you think?" With that Judy chooses to make her leave, it would be best to let Charlie stew about this for a while.

Charlie watched her mother leave as she popped another bacon wrapped cherry into her mouth, frowning as she did so. Her mother had been rather heavy handed with the emotional manipulation, even if she had a point. Still if she was given permission to look then she certainly would, she needed a change, she needed to figure out a way out of this block. There wasn't much time and as it was, unless she figured out a winning strategy then she was going to get her ass kicked.