AN: Welcome to Geronimo, another Chartana fic, a different beast all together from the usual fluff, not to say that there won't be fluff. But as you'll soon see, it's not all roses. Despite the title of the fic. I hope you enjoy it though .

Summary: One of the hardest lessons in life is letting go. Whether it's guilt, anger, love, loss or betrayal. Change is never easy. We fight to hold on and we fight to let go. But people who are meant to be together find their way back, they make take a few detours but they're never lost.

Song – Geronimo by Sheppard

Disclaimer – I own nothing.

She exhaled slowly and adjusted the envelope in her hand as she waited for the elevator to reach its intended floor. She used the time to compose herself. To remind herself that she owed it to her to do this in person, to hand over the documents face to face. She inhales and tries to mentally make sure that her check list is complete.

Moved out? Check.

Divorce lawyer? Check.

Notice of Divorce? She looks in her hands at the manila envelope and swallows her hand shaking. It was the nuclear option. She knew it was, but it wasn't working anymore. She wasn't even personally quite sure how they had gotten to this point. It had only been eight years. She wondered if this was the right decision, every couple went through rough patches but they could work through it. She places her hand on her stomach and a small smile slips onto her lips, but a breaking point had been reached and she couldn't raise their daughter in this environment. Not with how toxic it had become, not even if she desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were.

Maybe it had been their jobs that had pulled them apart. She was a social worker in a system that was grossly underfunded, the things she saw, and the people she needed to deal with. It broke bher heart on a day to day basis. Her wife had many hats, she was a journalist, who cohosted a very popular internet news show that was insanely popular. Throw in the fact she was part owner of The Edge and her wife was beyond busy most days. A part of her wonders if maybe they had just forgotten how to love each other, but it's more than that. She knows it is, but it's a part of the puzzle.

She can't pinpoint where it had begun to unravel but it had, and the life growing inside of her had been the breaking point. Their sex life had been lacking for a while, they would go months without having sex and she had gotten nonchalant about her birth control. It had been an accident, one that she wasn't going to get rid of. To some a child would be heralded as the savior to a broken marriage. But she knows better and this child would know nothing but love. Even if the way she had been conceived had been anything but loving. Years ago she would have said that angry sex was the best, it had certainly led to some of the best sex that she had ever had. But the last time that they had sex which was nearly six weeks ago—it had left her feeling empty. There hadn't been the usual smile—there was just more anger. It hadn't made anything better and like many times they hadn't even slept in the same bed after the deed was done.

There was a ding and she adjusted her jacket and the door slid open to the busy news office. She watched the interns running around, they were in the middle of an expansion and moving to a different studio, which of course pulled her wife away more often than not. She sighed and ignored everyone as she walked straight to her wife's office and frowned slightly at the empty desk in front of her wife's office where her secretary should be. She already knew exactly where she'd find her wife's secretary and she held her head high as she walked to her wife's office and knocked twice before opening the door. She struggled to keep her face neutral as she watched her wife's secretary jump away from her wife and the guilty expression on her face.

"Santana—I mean Mrs. Fabray-Lopez?" Dani said looking at her boss, there was a flash of jealousy as she noticed the small spark and the smile that appeared on her face. "I'll give you two a moment," she said immediately taking her leave.

Charlie stands up, "Santana," she says glad to see her wife, "What are you doing here?" She asks, it wasn't like Santana showed up to work anymore. She couldn't even remember the last time that Santana had showed up. Maybe they were finally getting over their rough patch and things would finally return to some sense normalcy. She rubs her eyes as she moves to greet her wife properly. It was another packed day, she still had a live show to shoot later tonight with her sisters.

"I'm here to serve you," Santana manages to get out and she sees Charlie blink at this before that smile flashes across her face. It's the smile that she loves and she immediately feels herself getting worked up. She wants to cry and yell and ask her why things had broken between them. How they had gotten so bad. She's about to follow up with the statement by shoving the divorce papers into Charlie's hand.

"Is this one of those sex games?" Charlie asks seriously even she didn't have time for sex right now. She had to make sure her talking points were—on point or Frannie was going to eviscerate her. The Exchange, their flagship program, was what made the Edge so popular, three sisters on different sides of the political spectrum going at each other. It got personal at times, but with Frannie taking the right, Quinn taking the center and she took the left, it was the perfect way for honest political commentary. They always made sure they had the facts before they put the spin on it. They constantly got approximately five hundred thousand viewers for their live streams. Which lead to nearly fifteen thousand paid subscribers for some of their other programing. But the thought of Santana doing whatever sex thing she wanted is tempting enough to say screw it and wing it. "We don't have long—but I think if I took my lunch break now—" Santana pushes a manila envelope into her hands and Charlie pauses and looks at the envelope and then at Santana. "What's this?" Charlie asks opening the envelope and pulling the documents out.

"Divorce papers," Santana says her tone devoid of most emotion. She was simply stating a fact and she watches as a multitude of expressions flash across Charlie's face. "I thought I owed you a face to face with this, not sending some messenger—I know how things get lost on your desk." Santana waits for a reaction from Charlie. "Plus I didn't want you to call the police when you finally noticed that I was gone." It's a jab and she knows it is. She can't help making them. "I've moved out, and I attached the card of my lawyer on the papers. So when you do get your lawyer have them contact mine. I don't want this to be long and drawn out Charlie and I don't want this to get ugly. We're both adults, even if you fail to act like it sometimes, and I hope you and whoever you choose to defend you can act with dignity." Santana finishes.

"Divorce? Gone—? I know it's been rough lately—but this?" Charlie asks and looks at Santana who has already begun to move away from her and head out. "Santana, you can't just walk away from this—you can't just walk away from me." Charlie says moving to stop her but Santana pulls her wrist away and shoots her an annoyed look that has always managed to stop her in her tracks. "Santana—"

"It's hard to walk away from someone who already left," Santana says just as calmly. "Look Charlie we've already begun to go our separate ways. This just makes it official. I want to move on with my life—I have begun to move on with my life. Just like you have." All those late nights with Dani, did she think that she was an idiot? That she didn't notice how there was a lingering perfume all over her clothes?

"Moved on—who is she?" Charlie asks her temper flaring and jealousy rising. Not hearing the second part, she focused on the idea that someone else had touched her wife. Someone else could make her smile and it bothered her, it broke and tore at her heart. She felt betrayed, and for the first time she doesn't see Santana's ring on her finger. The one that she had busted her ass for. It was cheap, but it had all she could have afforded at the time. Now that she had money she had offered to replace it, something big something that wasn't that cheap but Santana had insisted that it was her favorite thing in the world. It floored her and she didn't know what to say or do. "Santana—" Charlie said taking another step towards her.

"Goodbye Charlie," Santana said before walking out. A part of her needs Charlie to come after her, it's silly and primal but it's what she wants. But like she expected Charlie doesn't chase after her and she can't help but shooting a glance backwards and Charlie is standing there in shock. She sighs and keeps her head held high, she's making the right choice for the both of them.

"Who is she?" Charlie says nearly choking over the words again, she doesn't care who hears her. She doesn't care if she's the office gossip.

Santana stays quiet for a moment placing a hand on her stomach slightly and swallows, "Isabela." She says and smiles mostly to herself but it's the last thing she says. She needs to leave now before they cause a scene and it's the last thing she wants. She once again holds her head held high and she nearly bumps into Dani Harper and even though Santana wants to kick her ass and quite possibly scratch her eyes out she smiles. "She's all yours." She waits until the elevator door closes before she breaks down. Tears streaming down her face and she lets out a choked sob.

Dani blinks in surprise and turns to Santana who walks out of the office and turns to looks at her boss who seems to be very close to exploding in anger. "Charlie?" She asks watching as Charlie looks at her for a moment and then closes the door. Dani pauses and immediately moves to her own desk to call someone—immediately dialing the extension to Quinn's assistant, she flinches when she hears a thump and she swallows. "Hey Kitty, I'm going to need you to send Quinn to Charlie's office immediately." Dani immediately ends the call and starts the call to Frannie's assistant.

Quinn glances at Dani and nods her head at her as she and Frannie move towards Charlie's office. She doesn't bother to knock, Dani had made it seem urgent and she blinks as she looks at the mess that is Charlie's usually pristine office. There are papers everywhere and her laptop and her identical twin is sitting in some sort of catatonic state in her chair slumped over, tears on her face. "Charlie?" Quinn says cautiously and looks at Frannie. "What happened?"

When Charlie doesn't answer in any sort of time, Frannie rolls her eyes and walks up to her youngest sister and turns her chair, so she can look at Charlie. "Charlie we have a show to shoot in an hour and whatever it is you need to snap out of it." Charlie doesn't look at her and Frannie sighs and looks at Quinn for a moment, before slapping Charlie hard across the face which seems to snap her out of it.

"Frannie!" Quinn snaps at her older sister and pulls her away from Charlie before moving to comfort Charlie who is now rubbing her cheek. "Okay Charlie what happened?" Quinn asks sighing as she patted Charlie's leg.

"Santana—she—" fresh tears and she can't believe it. Her words get choked up and she wants it to be better or maybe it's a dream or a nightmare that she'll wake up from. "I—she—"

Frannie groans they don't have time for Charlie's blubbering. She looks around the avalanche of paperwork and spots the notice of divorce on the table completely untouched. "Divorce." Frannie says blandly and Quinn turns to her and she nods towards the table.

"Santana is divorcing you?" Quinn asks flabbergasted, she hadn't seen that coming. Sure they had problems but—it's not like it was uncommon. Nothing that a vacation to some beach where they got to know each other again and got back on the same page couldn't fix. "Charlie—?" Charlie just cries harder and Quinn sighs and looks at Frannie who is already on the phone. Good, this was good she'd call their mother and things would be alright.

"Hello, is this Ryan, Howell and Del Monico law? I'd like to talk to the best divorce lawyer you have," Frannie said in a bored tone.

Quinn groaned, "Frannie." This wasn't helping anyone.

"She's going to need a divorce lawyer, a good one. There is a lot of money on the table here and Charlie owns a third of the company. I'm being a decent sister and making sure she's protected." Well the business was protected, honestly they had worked far too hard and sacrificed a lot to get their business off the ground, and she wasn't going to let a divorce ruin it. Maybe if Charlie could have the two of them buy out her shares, temporarily to safeguard them. It was an idea it seemed slightly illegal but desperate times and all that.

Quinn sighed and patted Charlie's leg she wasn't going to be able to go on today and they would need to call in one of their guest hosts to fill in for her. They only had an hour to find someone, maybe someone from some of the other shows. "We'll figure it out Charlie. I promise."

Charlie can barely hear Quinn over the sound of her own sobbing. She'd known Santana since high school. They'd been together for nearly twelve years. Sure things were rough now but they had been great before and they could have been great again. How could things have gotten so messed up?

AN: Well how could they have gotten so messed up, this story takes place in both the past and the present and at the end we'll take a look into their future. So I think this story is going to be one chapter present, one chapter past, then we head back to the present. So we're headed to the past. Anyway you know the story I like reviews, and this story is basically going to be the story that I'm going to be writing while I'm busy for 7 weeks. Don't worry I'll try and update other stuff as well. So I hope you enjoy this ride with me. Please take the time to review. They really do make me happy.