"Santana, have you accepted K2's offer yet?" Maribel asked as Santana waited for her toast as she got ready for the first day back. "The deadline is fast approaching Santana—and your father and I have the deposit ready."

Santana made a face as she grabbed some yogurt, popping the top and grabbing a spoon. "Summit is—"

"Santana, the only requirement that your father and I had if we were going to support you was that you get into a top school and K2 has the best hero course in the country as well as excellent academics. You have no idea if Summit is going to invite you to try out, and even if they do—there is no guarantee that you'll pass. I mean I would have been far more comfortable with you attempting this if you were still dating Charlie as they are bending over backwards for her, but since that is no longer the case—"

"Do you honestly think that I can't get into Summit on my own?" Santana questions frowning at the statement.

Maribel paused and looked at her daughter studying her carefully. "Of course I do, but given how close you are to Charlie would you even know if she pulled any strings for you?"

"You really don't know Charlie, she knows how important it is for me to do this on my own, and she's not really the pull strings kind of person. When I sparred with Cassandra, she only stepped in because Cassandra was going too far. With that said, if I asked her to get me in she would make such a mess of things, that they'd let me in so Charlie would stop torturing the rest of her class. If I can't get in on my own accord, then it's going to be impossible to catch up to her."

"Santana, your father and I adore Charlie—" When Santana looks up and shoots her an inquisitive look. "Judy raised those girls right, she's humble, she was kind and her manners. She's very polite and helpful and she offered to help quite a few times when she came over."

"She wanted to sneak food!"

"That may be, but she is a bit on the skinny side. Your father is certain she's not eating nearly enough for everything that she does. We support the relationship but also realize that you two might love each other, but love isn't the only thing that matters in a relationship. And the other parts are missing, you two are terrible at communication, about the important things. Charlie doesn't give you the attention that you need, and her mind is generally elsewhere, and you're lacking in compassion. Ultimatums dear aren't going to get what you want, and if you can't get what you need from a partner, then break up with them. It's not healthy otherwise."

Santana grabbed her toast, and swiped the coffee pot pouring it into her thermos, "We broke up, and I don't appreciate my own mother thinking that I'm an attention whore."

"Santana, whenever your father and I thought about giving you a sibling, you'd figure it out and have a nightmare and end up in bed with us. I love you but you have been, since you were an infant."

Santana's jaw drops as her mother grabs her other slice of toast and heads out. She scowled at the fact that she didn't have a response at the ready and glances at the time, she needed to pick up Rachel. Who would be forced to listen to her vent about her mother.

~ O ~

"I truly can't believe that this is McKinley, how the fuck do you go from PVA to this dump," Frannie questions as she studies McKinley. Both she and Brittany had graduated from PVA, and PVA was a massive campus, McKinley just looked pathetic compared to PVA. "And the academics?"

Quinn shrugged her shoulders at Frannie's question, "I mean Charlie and I have already done everything, which is why we really don't need to put in that much effort."

"I can't believe that I'm even here, or that dad and Charlie are babysitting," Frannie grumbled, "Where do they practice, I need to see what I'm working with to see if I can help or not," Frannie grumbled, she had her notes from the last years regional competition, so she had an idea but it had been weeks and their could have been some improvement.

"Don't expect me to help, Sue texted me after Christmas, that she's given me enough time to grieve, whatever the hell that means and that I need to return back to practice," Quinn groaned, she had already gotten into Yale, she wasn't quite sure why she needed to do this, especially since she wouldn't be at McKinley for nationals."

"And what happens if you don't show up? I mean I wouldn't."

"Sue Sylvester turns her crazy onto me, and I don't have time or the inclination to deal with it." Quinn sighs, "I think the only reason that she even left me alone for this long was because Figgins made a huge fuss and threatened her budget if she didn't give me some space."

Frannie lets out a sigh, "Well, let's see if I can turn chickenshit into chicken salad."

Quinn shot her older sister a look, "That sounds absolutely revolting."

"I'm in Lima Ohio, I feel like the colloquialism works for this place. It's probably best that they don't know I'm watching them. They might try and show off and I need to grasp where they are."

"Good luck with that," Quinn sighs as she adjusts her duffel bag.

"I mean how bad could it be?" Frannie questions.

~ O ~

"What are you doing?" Russell asked as he watched Charlie hovering around Mikey who was currently fast asleep. He could already feel a headache coming on.

"He's outgrown his last ninja turtle onesie. I'm thinking I get him something a bit bigger with a few more of the turtles on it. I mean even though his name is Mikey I feel like he's going to be more like—" Charlie paused and frowned. She couldn't think of the names of any of the turtles outside of Mikey. "Vincent?"

Russell paused, it wasn't as if he was hip to all the cartoons Charlie watched but he was certain that didn't sound right, "Are you asking me?"

Charlie waved him off, "Leo," Charlie said with a snap of her fingers as the name finally came to her.

Russell raised a brow, this wasn't some history thing. Charlie loved cartoons, there had been a lot of times when she'd simply forget things that he was certain that she knew. The names of her favorite cartoon characters was something that he thought she would have permanently etched into her memory. "You okay?"

"People forget names all the time, you cycle through our names after you've had two drinks of scotch," Charlie retorts. "Besides, I've been under a lot of stress lately."

"Might help if you weren't doing the whole glowing eye thing." Russell muttered under his breath. He wasn't even sure that he saw Charlie sleeping, when he went to bed Charlie was up, when he woke up she was outside working out. He wasn't quite sure when his daughter slept.

"I got attacked a few weeks ago, I was caught unaware before that. That's not happening again," Charlie said, before glaring at her father as Mikey let out a cry. But she grins, Frannie had said that she was to let him sleep but if he wasn't asleep anymore then it was time for them to have fun together. "Frannie said that I had to give you age appropriate things to watch, so let's figure out what's age appropriate that doesn't have any puppets. Puppets are evil, they are the absolute worst." Charlie informs her nephew picking him up. "Nightmare fuel is what they are and we don't need no nightmares."

"Sesame Street—"

"What did I just say? No puppets!" Charlie insisted, thinking for a moment before grinning. "I already have the perfect show in mind, come on Mikey, let's get you breakfast then let's watch cartoons till your mom comes back."

"I'm pretty sure that Frannie wanted educational—"

"She said age appropriate! What's more appropriate than a show about babies going on adventures?" Charlie snaps at him as she rubs Mikey's back.

~ O ~

"I'm not one to step on anyone's toes," Frannie began as she crossed her legs and looked at the principal. "But I truly believe that you've failed them as a coach. You have some real talent. Regina for instance, is a star in the making, Emma has some real potential as does Tina, Santana and Blaine. Rachel has hit her ceiling when it comes to heroics, but is still useful, but you aren't using them correctly and you're not coaching them."

Coach Beiste bristled at the insult, she had heard of Frannie Fabray. Everyone had heard about USC's impossible to pass hero course, she failed more heroes than any other school combined. But the heroes that did make it, were alive and doing well for themselves. Many of them had gotten invitations to many of Vought's teams, and the Union of Justice. "We've been doing just fine—"

"You're not doing fine," Frannie interrupts. "I'm absolutely sick of people telling me that they're doing just fine, when anyone with eyes can see that they aren't doing so well. You stepped back the moment that Charlie joined the team and let her play coach, this was fine when Charlie was on the team. Charlie's powerful enough that she breaks the curve and drags everyone towards the right, and she fills in most of your gaping holes in offense and defense. But what were you thinking letting Santana call that play at regionals? I'm also questioning your judgment on letting Santana emulate Charlie. Charlie operates on a completely different level, because of the level of information she has, Charlie is aware of where everyone is. She has an idea of how strong people are and more importantly she knows where the problems are. These are skills that aren't transferable because they are literally how her abilities work. She probably has no idea how to put all this into words but she isn't passing those skills onto the team, she literally can't. Which is why this is a shit show."

"You worked with Santana in the combine—"

"Nationals this year are going to be brutal and if you don't train these kids like actual heroes in training, then you're doing a disservice to them, and more importantly you'll be stopped at Sectionals which is in three weeks. There won't be another trip to Nationals. You've painted a massive target on your back and every school is watching footage and making plans on how to stop you. More importantly they're making alliances with other schools, to push you out of the first round so that they can all compete. And you're not preparing them for any of that. Thank god Charlie at least raised the skill level to an acceptable level for those people that she could because I do not have time to start from scratch."

Coach Beiste hesitated for a moment, without Charlie pushing them there had been a bit of a dropoff in skills, they weren't working as hard, they weren't attempting to survive anymore. "I'm probably going to regret this, but what do you propose?" Almost immediately she shivers as Frannie flashes her a rather sadistic smile.

"Just let me have them for the next three weeks. You should probably send out updated waivers."

Shannon blinked, "What?"

~ O ~

It was a new year, and a new day and Quinn Fabray was back at cheerleading, which was probably a sign that things were going well and maybe they could slowly start to date, if it got to be too much too soon, they could always revisit things. Which was why Rachel took a deep breath as she gripped her lunch bag that had some extra vegan sugar cookies and approached Quinn's table where she's reading some large book, completely absorbed. "What are you reading?"

Quinn glances up at Rachel, "The Diary of Samuel Pepys. He tried to root out corruption became corrupt and witnessed a bunch of historical events in person, how was practice?"

"It went well I think. I think with a bit more practice we'll be ready for sectionals—" Before Rachel can continue a portal opens up and Charlie steps out carrying a large paper bag.

"Okay, the premium Hoku Bowl for me, Spicy Miso Bowl for you, I also picked up some mochi, chicken karaage, spicy tuna roll." Charlie stated, placing the items on the lunch table and taking a seat. "Also a monster energy drink for me, and a bottle of water for you." She cracks open her energy drink and spots Rachel. "There are no vegan options."

"It's fine, it smells delicious though," Rachel admits, trying not to frown at Charlie's presence.

Quinn grabs her chopsticks, as she places her book down on the table. "Thanks," she mumbles to Charlie who grunts and begins to shovel food into her mouth. "There were no surprises at practice at all?" Quinn clarified that didn't sound like Frannie at all.

"No, it was just a usual practice. Was something supposed to happen?"

"You're all going to die," Charlie responds only to get elbowed hard by Quinn. "Training so hard," Charlie corrects herself.

Rachel rolled her eyes after looking at the two of them "That is not suspicious or ominous at all," she says flatly, she decided to push their weirdness from her mind. She was simply going to ignore Charlie's presence. "So, I was wondering if you had any plans this weekend?"

Charlie's spoon stopped halfway to her mouth and she immediately turns her attention to Rachel, raising a brow before she pushes the spoon into her mouth and grabs her energy drink and sips it.

"I was going to look around Yale for apartments, and check out the dorms. I'm not sure which one I want, I really do want my own private room though," Quinn responds. "I need to start getting the paperwork done."

Charlie's lips quiver upward only to feel a very sharp kick from what she could only assume were small pointy feet, and she glares at Rachel. She reaches for her phone before stopping, Santana would have loved to witness this trainwreck, but they weren't exactly talking again.

"Oh," Rachel says, her shoulders slumping. "Perhaps I could join you and we could check out places that serve decent vegan food."

Quinn glanced at Rachel after she swipes a spicy tuna roll and chews on it, "Rachel. I really enjoy meat. Bacon especially, and I know you're very into plant based food, but it's just as unhealthy as Charlie's fast food. It also doesn't taste the same, or have the same texture."

"Well, it's not that long of a train ride over, and I can get a season pass, so I was thinking that we look for a place so that we have a place for when I come to visit."

"You don't need to take a train ride, I'm sure if you just texted Charlie—"

"Leave me out of this," Charlie said, as she recorded this shit show. She and Santana would probably talk again sooner rather than later and they would need something to laugh about and Quinn being the dumb twin was probably her best bet.

Quinn looked over at her twin for a moment, shooting her a quizzical look. "We might have to invest in those train tickets, who knows when she'll stop being grumpy about everything," Quinn flashed Rachel a smile, but paused when Rachel looked utterly dejected. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," When Quinn doesn't look like she's about to drop it, she quickly thinks of an excuse, "I was just wondering what circle of hell you two have planned for after school practice."

"I'm babysitting," Charlie shrugs her shoulders.

"Cheerios practice, I have nothing to do with the Titans," Quinn informed Rachel, she wasn't going to touch this with a ten foot stick, she didn't know how to handle Frannie.

Charlie looked at Rachel and rolled her eyes, she had no idea how Quinn got away with being the smart twin when she couldn't even see that the girl that she wanted to date wanted in her pants. "I'm down to take you and Quinn to Yale together, but you should probably talk to your dads about an overnight trip with Quinn."

Quinn who had been in the process of stealing another tuna roll dropped it as Charlie's words register, and immediately looks at Rachel who looks away, "Are you—"

"Did you seriously go to LA to get ramen and poke's? And you didn't think of us?" Kitty questions as she joins the table.

"I'm pretty sure you can afford whatever slop that McKinley is serving, but my body is like a bugatti engine, only top of the line gasoline in my tank," Charlie retorted, shocking Santana who grabs the rest of the spicy tuna rolls and squeezes in between her and Quinn.

"Chicken karaage, next time get me my own," Santana informs Charlie, grabbing the little soy sauce container. "And you need way more wasabi."

Charlie opens her mouth to protest but then shrugs her shoulders and goes back to her poke. "Touch the mochi, and I will shock you."

"You have mochi? Did you bring enough for the rest of the team?" Tina demands.

"Why in the world would I bring enough for you?" Charlie questions smacking Finn's hand as he reaches for a piece of chicken.

"Because we're your friends and we love you?" Blaine retorts. "And you owe us a meal—"

"If I can pay you off with mochi—"

"We'll take the meal," Artie interrupts.

"Since when do we share food?" Quinn grumbles trying to get to her tuna spicy roll, as she shoots a look at Rachel who still looked like she would rather be anywhere than there.

"Special circumstances," Charlie says, giving Quinn a pointed look. "Even death row inmates get fancy food before they die."

Quinn tilted her head, "True, and as long as your dads are okay with it, then we can do that."

Santana narrowed her eyes sensing something was up, "Do what?"

"I'll show you later," Charlie whispers to her.

Rachel flushed a deep red, "Charlie," she hisses.

"What?"

~ O ~

Santana stretched out and signed something quickly to Regina who smirked and looked over at Emma who was talking to Rachel. She pushes open the door to the training room and notices that Blaine looks utterly terrified. She turns to look at what he's staring at and her eyes widen. "Hell. Fucking. No." Santana said immediately turn around, only to enter a portal only to find herself in front of Blaine.

"No escape." Blaine manages feeling dizzy as he has flashbacks of the summer.

Santana turns to look for the nearest exit, her eyes flicker to the door which opens and Finn moves to take a step inside, "Finn save—" The ground suddenly gives out from under her and she suddenly finds herself hurtling towards the ground that was quickly approaching. The gravitational force makes it near impossible to breathe, but right before she can hit the ground in an unsatisfying splat, she flies through another portal, and another portal, her body being flung in every direction. One more portal opens and she's back in the training room, bouncing against a very hard floor. Her hip takes the brunt of the damage and then the opposite shoulder as she rolls to a stop, her back hitting the wall of the gym and she's left panting for breath.

"Is that the entire team?" Frannie questions, her hands signing everything she's saying with rather sharp crisp motions.

Blaine couldn't turn to look at Santana lest he earn the eldest Fabray turn her ire onto him. It seemed that everyone had snapped to attention the moment that Santana had gone on whatever hellish trip that Frannie had sent her on. "Yes, Ms. Fabray."

Frannie turned her head and looked at Santana who was slowly picking herself to her feet, "Are you going to join us Lopez, for a captain you're setting a terrible example for your freshmen."

Santana gritted her teeth as she dragged her body into line with the rest of the team, which had more than hurt. She had never been ragdolled so badly. "Apologies," she muttered immediately looking at the ground, as she tried to avoid the looks that the team was shooting at her. She had just gotten her ass kicked in front of the team, by someone that most weren't familiar with.

"You've also earned the first of ten hill-sprints for the team."

Santana looked up definitely, "For what?"

"Because you could have saved yourself. I had to save you. You more than anyone know my methods. Should I list all the things that you got wrong?" Frannie questioned. "Actually pop quiz, if you can answer the question, I'll go easy on you today. What did Santana do wrong?"

"Date Charlie?" Blaine muttered under his breath. This was probably somehow related to the two of them, he just knew it.

Frannie turned to look at Blaine who flinched as she raised her hand, only for Regina to step forward and sign quickly.

Frannie turns to Regina and watches her for a moment, "Getting caught is a sin. I agree. What else?"

Rachel looked around, Santana looked like she had just gone through hell. "Before we continue, where is Coach Beiste?"

Santana slowly turned to look at Rachel, she was going to murder the fucking hobbit.

"Up here, I felt it was best to get the team acquainted with Frannie Fabray. This is out of my hands, I'm just here to make sure, things don't get too out of hand," Shannon spoke, turning on the lights to the observation deck, illuminating her figure as she spoke.

"A few things about me for those of you who have never had the misfortune of crossing my path. I am the eldest of four, I wanted to be an only child and there are many times where I attempted to murder my sisters when they annoyed me. Charlie of course was the usual target of my ire, she learned how to save herself when she was 6. Remember, Charlie's the dim one, Quinn figured it out by three. Brittany by two and a half." Frannie smiled, "That was a joke," she said in an inflection that suggested that she was not joking at all. "What isn't a joke is my expectations. We only have three weeks, and I need to turn the shitshow that I witnessed this morning and at regionals into something presentable."

"We won regionals!" Jason protested.

"Going wild is not a strategy. In fact, another pop quiz, what did you do wrong?" Frannie once again questions. When no one says anything she turns to Santana, "Captain?"

Santana swallows as she racks her brain trying to remember her arguments with Charlie over Regionals. "Overkill?"

Frannie raised a brow, "My family's views on the use of force are exactly that, they are not something for any of you to emulate. In fact, unless you are a level 5, don't ever ask yourself what my sisters would do. So don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Charlie is her own person and you need to be yours with ideas of your own and different viewpoints. So I ask you again, Santana, what did you do wrong at regionals?"

Santana bites her lip, Frannie hadn't added laps yet and she wracks her brain for an answer. "It was disorganized. It was haphazard, there wasn't any real teamwork."

Frannie nodded, "And the reason that you felt that way was because this entire team got arrogant and sloppy. This morning as I watched you run through your drills it was sloppy, mistakes here, showboating here and there. Now let's say that I'm your opponent. All of you against me, is your strategy going to be as sloppy as it was in regionals? Well, Captain?"

"No," Santana mutters.

"Charlie trained you to be just good enough and she's such a pushover that she covered your weaknesses. She coddled you. I will not."

Blaine could feel the tears in his eyes threatening to fall. They were all going to die.

~ O ~

Mikey giggled as the metal spoon flew through the air as Charlie made train noises with her mouth as she worked on her Spanish homework, Santana probably wouldn't be in any mood to help her and she was tempted to simply show up where Dr. Lopez worked and get help that way, but she could only imagine Santana's anger at her. Well she imagined that there would be quite a few members of the team who would be pissed with her. It's a good thing that they probably would be too tired to really bitch at her, and clearly if they could bitch at her Frannie was being nice to them.

Her phone buzzes and she decides that she's had enough pretending to do Spanish homework and instead picks up her phone just as Frannie opens a portal and steps through. "Have fun?" Charlie questions Frannie as Mikey immediately flashes his mother a huge grin and reaches for her.

Frannie immediately picks him up and kisses his cheeks, "Yes, this wasn't the worst idea which you had, and getting my hands, it won't take long to beat the bad habits out of them. Are they texting you?"

"Blaine did, just an emoji of a skull and crossbones. I can only take that to mean that pirates are now back in fashion. I should get an eyepatch."

Frannie rolled her eyes, but gave Mikey a once over, making sure that he has all fingers and toes, "Did you give him a bath?"

"Yes, we went to the park, he likes the trees so we just sat there and he took a nap, destroyed his diaper so I came home bathed him, we played with ships, and then I fed him and then after homework I was going to read him one of the boring books that you want me to read him. Then we were going to watch cartoons."

Frannie shook her head, "I came just in time to rescue you didn't I?" She blows a raspberry onto Mikey's cheek who laughs at this and grabs his mom's face.

"Oh, Santana's texting—Estoy muerta! Todo esto es tu culpa maldita sea, te voy a matar joder!'' I have no idea what any of that means. She knows I'm barely passing Spanish," Charlie tilts her head, and then texts something back. She immediately throws her phone across the room when her phone begins to ring and she sees Santana's name and picture on the screen.

Frannie stared at her youngest sibling, "Michel, I know you love your Aunt but you need to make certain that you don't end up catching her weirdness. And we're going to make sure that you can speak a few languages. Do I want to know what you did?"

"Well, I asked if she liked this present better than the sexy underwear I got her," Charlie says, not quite understanding why Santana would be upset with her. She was a practical gift giver, she really didn't understand why people seemed to have a problem with that.

"Well if she tries to murder you let me know so I can add more hill sprints."

Charlie raised a brow at that, it was Frannie and sprinting up Cavanal Hill, the largest hill in the world would be up her wheelhouse. She'd been forced to sprint up it multiple times. "When you say hill sprints—"

"It was a medium sized hill, Charlie. They only had to sprint up it 30 times. Only half of them puked, you did a good job with their fitness. I'll give you that."