Brittany tilted her head as she stared at Mikey's father, she had never once met Frannie's partner but it was free fancy food day, and it seemed that even Frannie's partner Joe, couldn't resist the allure of free drinks and fancy food.

"Britt, it's rude to stare," Mike mumbled to her trying to pull her away. He wasn't sure why he felt strangely jealous, sure Brittany looked around and admired but nothing like this.

"I don't get it," Brittany blinked, finally tearing her gaze off Joe, and looking at Mike. "Since when was Frannie into Bohemian eco-warrior hipster? She only brought home men who looked like they bathed!"

Any jealousy that Mike felt disappeared, and he looked at Joe for a moment. "Maybe he's charming?"

Brittany tilts her head again as she stared at him some more, "He's probably really good at sex, would it be rude to ask? I'm going to go ask."

Mike immediately wraps an arm around her arm, "Frannie will send you into a volcano, as if it isn't hot enough here. I want to try the ice slip and slide that Quinn made."

"Has Quinn seen him?" Brittany asks, turning to look at the party that was both classy and family friendly, and from the food and the booze that was currently flowing Charlie had spent a pretty penny on the event. There was even a bartender, something that even her father appreciated. She quickly scans the crowd where Quinn is laying in the sun watching Rachel. "Quinn!"

Quinn pulls off her shades and looks over at Brittany, "What?"

"Have you seen Mikey's dad yet!"

Quinn shoots one last lingering look at Rachel before shaking her head, and deciding to see for herself what had gotten Brittany all excited. "This had better be good," She grumbled following Brittany's line of sight, and she feels her jaw dropping. "That's—unexpected."

"Right?"

"Frannie's going to send you somewhere unpleasant," Mike speaks up, but it falls on deaf ears as Quinn pulls Brittany away from him and they head towards the pit where Charlie is checking on the roasted pig that she's got in her grandfather's old barbecue pit.

"Charlie! Did you see who Frannie brought?" Brittany asked keeping far away from the pit, it was hot enough without the added heat of the amount of flames that were in the pit.

"Joe?" Charlie questions her sisters and raises a brow when they look at her. "How have you never met Joe? I'm pretty sure I vaguely remember breaking his ribs."

Quinn paused, "Joe?"

"Yes. He's nice and his abilities are a strong level 4, I'd argue he's pushing level 5 territory. He's working on fixing the planet, very noble. I think Frannie loves him, but you didn't hear it from me," Charlie shrugged as she grabs her towel and wiped off the sweat on her brow. "I need to check on the crab, you know a bit of help would be nice."

"I'm a menace with sharp objects," Brittany said immediately, "Besides Mike wanted to check out the slide," Brittany grinned when Charlie rolled her eyes. "But we are going to talk about why you didn't spill the beans about this Joe person."

"That sounds like it'll be fun," Charlie retorts flatly as she moves away from the pit and heads back to where there are several portals open and people are rushing in and out of it. She had hired an entire team to keep the food moving, and to do dishes. It had cost her a fortune. She looks at Quinn who was sipping on her soda, "Let me guess, you want to stare at Rachel."

"I do, but I didn't think you were going to pull this off. I mean dad's pissed you missed a week of school. So where were you?"

"Here and there, are you pissed I didn't tell you about Joe. It's not like she told me, I met him passing and put two and two together. Also I thought we stayed the fuck out of Frannie's business because she likes trying to murder us. If you're going to follow me, make yourself useful," Charlie said as she entered a portal and came back levitating a few metal trays filled with food towards the buffet style table that she had set up.

"You sound like mom," Quinn says, the words simply come out while watching her twin attempting to play the perfect hostess.

"Please, mom would have handled this far better than I did. She certainly wouldn't have hired any help," Charlie scoffs as she lays the trays down on the long tables that she had set up. She looks and watches the competitive game of water volleyball that was going on. "She would have been able to do all this and mingle. No idea how she managed to do it," Charlie mumbled the last part to herself.

Quinn shrugged, their mother would probably be proud nonetheless, Charlie had never shown any interest in hosting. And she really had no idea when Charlie had learned to cook just as well as her mother. "Can I ask what you're going to do about Santana? She is in the skimpiest bikini she could get away with her parents nearby, probably for your benefit. You've barely even looked her way. I understand being annoyed with her, Santana is very irritating at the best of times, but you liked that about her. And you know how proud she is and you also know how hard she's worked for this. She's been asking about you all week and I think she wants to apologize."

"Quinn, I've got a million things that I need to do so no one can say that I was being cheap, or that I reneged on promised services. Besides, I don't see how any of this is your business. You don't even like Santana."

"You're right I don't, but Rachel's invested and if she's invested in Santana that's time she's not paying attention to me. I assure you that this is purely selfish on my part," Quinn insists, crossing her arms over her chest.

Charlie tilted her head at her twin, "Rachel's parents are getting drunk with the other parents, they're not going to notice if you and Rachel slip out for a bit. This isn't complicated Quinn, smile at her, take her hand and lead her to one of the empty bedrooms. Or you know when she comes for a drink, tell her she looks pretty, find an excuse to touch her and then lead her to a bedroom. Have sex with your girlfriend, that solves the Santana problem. Santana is very sex positive, she'd understand."

Quinn blinked and glanced over at Rachel for a moment, who was currently in the pool with the rest of the team, before quickly glancing over at Rachel's parents. Charlie was right, they were completely distracted, "How long do you think I have?"

"I don't know how long it takes you to make a woman orgasm, Quinn." Charlie rolled her eyes. "But if Rachel's parents start looking for her I'll alert you, just switch on a lamp or something."

"Thanks—will you be okay?"

"It's not like you're helping," Charlie reminded her, shooing her twin away. "If I wanted to have someone just stand there, I would at least pick someone pretty to look at."

"We share a face," Quinn reminded her before heading over to the pool and tapping Rachel on the shoulder.

Charlie rolls her eyes once again as she checks on the smoker, smoked fish had been on the menu and she can feel the heat hit her and she wipes her brow with the towel that she had on her shoulder. The fish would be done soon, which meant that she should probably start working on the rest of the food and the vegan burgers for Rachel.

~ O ~

If Charlie had any idea how many times her parents had made her change before they had allowed her in this bikini, she certainly wasn't showing it, and it was driving her off the wall. She'd been missing for most of the week, and had ignored her text messages, and phone calls, every attempt to reach out had been rebuffed. And she had checked TMZ excessively to see if Charlie was hitting it up with some Hollywood Starlet. She wasn't sure how she could compete with someone who was a movie star or model, or a gymnast. She was flexible but not gymnast flexible.

"Hey Santana," Blaine said, keeping a relatively safe distance. The area in the pool around Santana was heating up, and while there was a hot tub, it was far too hot for that right now. "Pools heating up, just go and talk to her."

Santana slowly turns to look at him ready to bite his head off, when she notices that there was a massive berth between her and everyone else. Sam's siblings had been evacuated from the pool and she sighs, and gets out of it reaching for her towel and wrapping it around her, "I'm going to go see if she needs any help."

"You should probably apologize first," Tina suggests, but quickly looks away when Santana looks at her. "But helping her sounds good."

Santana grumbles and dries herself off before heading towards Charlie who is currently carrying a bucket of meat towards the grill. She takes a breath before slapping a smile on her face as she approaches Charlie who still can't be bothered to look at her. "You know if I had known that you could cook like this—I mean you should have become a chef, I'd eat at your restaurant. Do you need any help?"

"Nope," Charlie replied, popping the P, as she began to place the meat on the grill, enjoying the sound of it sizzling. She finishes loading up the grill and closes the lid before heading to the outdoor sink so she could wash her hands.

Santana gritted her teeth but let out a breath, "So, who is she? The woman you're seeing now? Sasha Banks?"

Charlie grabs a clean towel and dries her hand, "Santana, as you keep throwing in my face we broke up. I broke up with you because I predicted that this would happen. I didn't do it to hurt you, I did it because I knew being with me would hurt your career. You're the one that is shoving me into the arms of another woman because you want to be a notch in my bedpost. What I'm trying to say is that who I'm with is not your problem, you are after all just a notch in the bedpost. So you really should start acting like it."

Santana glanced around, but they were relatively alone and she sighed, "You know that's not what I want. I don't want to see you with other women, I just thought if you went on a few high profile dates, people would forget about me and you and they'd stop saying that I slept my way to the top. Do you have any idea how jealous I've been all week? I imagined you with those weirdos from Cirque Du Soleil."

"Santana, I'm super busy right now, and I really don't have the capacity to have this conversation with you right at this moment. I don't want the food to burn, and apparently I'm the lookout for Quinn. So later, when we're not surrounded by friends and family?" Charlie asks, still not looking at her.

Santana nods, she could certainly wait till a bit later and they had a bit of privacy to hash things out. "What exactly are you on the lookout for?"

"Rachel's parents. They'll probably notice she's not in the pool soon and start looking for her. I think Quinn's attempting to have sex, but I had to walk her through it. I don't really know why the two of them are so bad at this, it really isn't that complicated."

"You walked Quinn through it?" Santana snorted. "I thought she and Marley had sex."

Charlie shrugged her shoulders, "Whatever, once she and Rachel do it once that's the hard part. Then they'll be too busy with each other and leave me alone."

"It's a stroke of genius, you know, throwing Quinn at Rachel so that they leave you alone. I should have done that ages ago. Rachel probably wouldn't be interested in my love life, or lack thereof. Or is this their way of rubbing it in our faces that they're together?"

"I'm pretty sure it's not official, and they've been practically dry humping for months Santana, how did you notice?"

"How did you notice?"

"I live with Quinn?"

"And for that you have my deepest sympathies." Santana grins when Charlie snorts at the statement. Things between them would be fine, she would make sure of it. "I'm going to go and head back to the pool but if you need help—"

"I won't."

~ O ~

Quinn groaned deeply into the kiss as her hand slowly made its way upward towards Rachel's bikini top, maybe there was something to all the healthy eating that Rachel went on about because she tasted and smelled amazing. She really couldn't believe that they were about to do this, but she needed to make sure that she wasn't rushing Rachel into anything and with great reluctance she pulls back. "You good," she mumbles against Rachel's lips.

Rachel flushed, she hadn't expected Quinn to ask and she bites her lip, "Yeah, keep going," she says, swallowing nervously.

"I'm not going to be upset if you need me to slow down, Rachel," Quinn said, looking at her studying here carefully. Enthusiastic consent was needed here, it was Rachel's first time and they weren't even officially dating.

Rachel immediately leans back into the kiss, giving Quinn all the permission she needed. She was far too shy to ask Quinn to do what she wanted, but she wanted it, but just as she feels a hand sliding under her bikini top she hears footsteps and freezes. "Quinn," she mumbles just as the lamp beside them starts to flicker.

Quinn immediately covers Rachel's mouth with a hand and presses a finger to her lips, before pulling away and getting up to check on who was in the house. They hadn't been gone that long, at least not long enough to be missed. She quickly makes her way to the door as Rachel fixes her bathing suit and she opens the door a crack. She had no idea why she'd even trusted Charlie to be a lookout, Charlie didn't have the attention span and she was late. This could have been embarrassing and Rachel would never sleep with her again. But instead of seeing one of Rachel's fathers she spots a child with blonde hair, opening various doors. She slips out of the room, "Hey what are you doing?" She questions as the child jumps and turns around.

"Looking for the bathroom," he whispers.

"Stevie, right?"Quinn said, slapping a smile onto her face as she looked at the kid. "The bathroom is this way, come on," Quinn said motioning towards the bathroom that was upstairs. She turns back to look at Rachel who is pouting and it almost breaks her heart, but she wasn't going to have sex near a child! "Sorry," she mouths to Rachel who gives her a nod. They'd need to find a better place, and she was thinking of skipping class with Rachel. She was going to bother Charlie until she agreed to send them to a place where they could have privacy.

~ O ~

"This is like a week's worth of leftovers," Miguel said as he helped himself to the free tupperware containers and he began to pack food away, there had been way too much food for everyone. Charlie had truly outdone herself, and he had fallen asleep in a deep food coma from the booze and the good food, he was eager to make sure that they got plenty to take home. "Make sure to grab some of those Wagyu steaks. And some of that homemade bacon. And don't forget the side dishes!"

Mirabel rolled her eyes, and glanced over at Santana who was glancing over at Charlie who was saying her goodbyes to people as they made their way through the portal. "Are you coming home with us?" She questions causing Santana to blink and immediately turn to look at her. "You can stay, she probably needs help cleaning up, I'm sure she has someone for that but still it would be nice. I don't think I've ever eaten that well."

"I was planning to stay," Santana admits watching as her dad fills yet another tupperware container filled with food. "Papi."

"She said to take as much as we could carry," Miguel replies without an ounce of shame he'd seen nearly every other parent and a few of the teens packing away the food, there was more than enough for leftovers for everyone. "And it's good food!"

Santana rolled her eyes and took a seat in one of the lawn chairs. Arizona at night was pretty chilly and now that the sun was down several people had put on some extra layers. She had put on some shorts and a hoodie, not that she really needed to, and simply waited for more and more people to make their way home. She can't help but watch her ex-girlfriend again, she had played with Sam's twins and even given them rides on her shoulders. Stacy had wanted to touch the clouds and Charlie had gone that high with the two of them. They were pleased to find out that the clouds were wet. She waves at her mother who has finally managed to drag her father away from the buffet table and watches them leave through a portal before she relaxes and just waits. Charlie's more than aware of her presence, and with only a few stragglers left she would soon have Charlie all to herself so they could finally have a conversation.

She drifts off for a bit, but awakens when she hears what could only be Charlie's ringtone going off nearby and opens her eyes to see Charlie looking at her phone.

"You really should be heading home Santana," Charlie informs her with a frown on her face .

"Are you off to save the world again?" Santana asks, rubbing at her eye.

"No. It's just some business that I have to attend to at some point," Charlie said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'll open a portal for you to—"

"We need to talk. Actually talk Charlie, you said that we could and I waited for everyone to leave. If you need help cleaning up—"

"I don't, the cleaning crew will be here in the morning," Charlie interrupts and sighs. "I don't know what we need to talk about Santana."

"So you're fine with the way things are? Because I'm not, and I know you're not as well. I should have talked to you first, made sure you understood that all I wanted was for you to go on a few high profile dates, I didn't want you to have sex with anyone I just wanted people to think you were having sex with other people and that I wasn't important to you."

"While I'm all for screwing over the media Santana, you demanded my phone inform me that you were going to make me a profile—" Charlie sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Santana it's been a month and a bit since my mother, grandfather and grandmother died. What makes you think I have the patience to date anyone?"

It makes sense to her and she knows she should have thought of it sooner but Charlie brought out all these complicated emotions, and after a moment she gets up and walks over to her ex-girlfriend. "I guess it should have been obvious but your mood has been all over the place, and you've been like a brick wall when it comes to communicating with you. But honestly given everything you went through, with your aunt and honestly saving the world, I should have been more considerate."

"I don't actually want to talk about those things Santana, I don't want to even think about them. And everyone keeps asking me questions, everyone keeps poking at the open wound and expecting it to be healed, and I don't think it ever will."

"I'm sorry," Santana says, reaching for Charlie's hand, linking her pinky with Charlie's and squeezing it. "I should have realized you just needed some space to go through the process but you were acting really weird but people don't grieve in the same way, and I keep forcing you to do things that you normally wouldn't."

"I don't trust how nice you're being to me," Charlie says as she studies Santana carefully.

"You sound as if I'm always mean to you."

"I mean, you kind of are. I know you do it in a loving way, but you are always sort of mean to me. I mean most times I ignore it, because you're just prickly and I just push back when you hit one of my boundaries, but the day I got back to school after everything, I really just needed you to be there for me, not be in my face not be combative that I wasn't communicating the way you wanted me to. I was still numb, I'm still numb."

"Alright, I admit that I was a bit harsh, but you were forgetting things. You were like a completely different person, and I suppose I could have handled it better, but I was worried about you and went about it in the worst way possible. I'm not exactly great at this, you're the first person that I've let get this close and you think I enjoy the fact that you have power over me. We broke up, I shouldn't give a shit what you think anymore. I shouldn't care if you sleep with another person and I know it will happen but I think it will wreck me. And I miss you, I miss you so fucking much. And you seem fine with the breakup."

"What are you talking about? I wanted to be so fucking selfish and keep you all to myself, but your career will be affected and I couldn't do that to you. I'm not in the right headspace to have a relationship, Linda thinks I've got some situational depression going on. I'm not okay, and with everything going on in my life, I don't have it in me to give a relationship with you everything I have, and you deserve that. You think I want to see you dating other people? I don't. But you can't be tied to me in that way, not until after your career takes off."

Santana pulled away, "I don't want you to simply disappear from my life Charlie. I don't want to see you with you with anyone else even though I know it's necessary. I'm an only child. I wasn't forced to share my toys growing up and I'm certainly not going to share you."

"San," Charlie sighs after a moment. "Quinn stole all my toys, as did Brittany, so I mean I didn't learn to share either I just learned that they'd take what they wanted from me. And I can't be in a relationship right now. I have so much going on and it's like I'm treading water and if I stop even for a second I'll drown. So what do you want from me Santana? If I can give it to you—you know I would do it in a heartbeat."

Santana chews the inside of her lip before making a decision, Charlie couldn't be in a relationship not with everything that was going on, "Friends, like before. We're best friends with amazing benefits, we should probably work on that part of our relationship before we work on the rest of it. You do need to see other people and I need to see other people, and when that happens we pause on any sex that's going on between us."

"When you say benefits—" Charlie begins as Santana takes a step back and pulls off her hoodie revealing the bikini underneath. "Oh," she mumbles. Charlie reaches and immediately picks up Santana's hoodie and hands it back to her. "I really just want to cuddle with you, as the big spoon. That's what I've wanted to do since they died, it was never about the sex, I mean my sex drive is nonexistent. And I've been on autopilot a lot lately, so when I'm making overtures, I think it's because I'm supposed to. Linda says it's normal given everything that I've been through, trust me it's not that I don't want to but I just—"

For once as she listens to Charlie's word she doesn't feel the sting of rejection. "You should have just told me that you wanted me to cuddle you," Santana said with a shake of her head, as she pulled her hoodie back on. "You don't have to be Charlie the hero all the time with me, you know that right. You can be Charlie the epic dork, who thinks she's cooler than she actually is. Honestly sometimes I have to squint rather hard to see past the epic dork part."

"I thought we were working on you being nice to me," Charlie grumbled opening a portal. She didn't want to be in Arizona anymore, the place reminded her of her grandfather.

"It's a work in progress. Where are you taking me?" Santana questions as Charlie takes her hand.

"My place."

"Isn't this—"

"This was my grandfather's, and yeah I inherited a ton of properties and even more corporations and shares of companies, but this is mine. My place, don't mention it to anyone, I don't want Brittany to move in. Apparently squatters have rights."

"Why would—" Santana's voice trailed off as she took a look at the panoramic view of downtown LA, "The view, how much did this cost you?" It was simply stunning.

"I don't know, my lawyer bought it for me," Charlie said with a shrug. "I should probably pay a bit more attention but that's why I have people."

"Well, I'm definitely keeping this secret," Santana promises. This was to be their oasis away from everyone and everything. "But this should be our little hideaway from everyone. Our space."

"Alright," Charlie said with a laugh. She was glad that Santana liked it, and she didn't regret showing it off to her at all. "Let me show you around. I am not going to be in the dorms at Summit, I don't like sharing my space. I had to share a womb with Quinn and a bedroom until Frannie moved out for university, and public showers with people I'm not sleeping with or related to gross me out. LA is only an hour ahead."

"I almost regret choosing K2, we could have been roommates. I mean we'd probably end up sharing a bed more nights then not, but we'd still technically be roommates. You should have mentioned it might have changed my decision, but that was unlikely." Santana smiled when Charlie turned to look at her. "Your sister is going to work me to death, but I think I'll appreciate it far in the future. You appreciate it right?"

"Sure?" Charlie replies in a tone that suggests she was stretching the truth. She wasn't sure what the response was, and people's mileage with Frannie varied. Frannie probably wouldn't attempt to murder Santana.

Santana rolled her eyes, and pointed to the couch that was in front of the television., "Can we cuddle on the couch while watching something not animated?"

"We can watch the new Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle movie. It's live-action," Charlie states simply.

Santana opened her mouth before closing it and rolling her eyes. She would need to be far more specific in the future. But she had promised to be nicer and it seemed that Charlie just wanted to relax and cuddle. "Sure, but lets make some hot chocolate and get some very light snacks."

"I'm actually kind of hungry—"

"How?"