Otalia fic - Heroes & Friends, 21/25
Sorry for the delay in getting back to H&F. Funny how it's impossible to find time to do anything with a toddler running around. Go figure!!! Just to put your minds at ease, I have been working on this since about mid-January and have the ending written including an epilogue. I'll have a new chapter up everyday until it's all posted so no more big, long, painful breaks.
For those who are still reading, thank you. I've deeply appreciated your comments and support. I don't care what anyone says about "art" and such. Really, we just like to know people like what we write. Feedback IS crack!
On with the show...
Title: Heroes and Friends
Fandom: Otalia
Rating: PG-13 for this chapter
Disclaimer: These wonderful ladies and the rest of the town belong to CBS, Telenext, and P&G. I’m just having some fun with them.
Spoilers: I don’t think so. This story picks up at the “no more waiting” gazebo scene and goes off canon.
Summary: Nat gets the shock of her life and it turns Liv’s world upside down.
Warning: Not beta’d so if it sucks, there’s only me to blame.
A/N: For those who don't know the way-back history of GL, Nikki Landers was Russ Marler's assistant and they died in a plane crash. Rumors had swirled around Springfield that Russ and Nikki were having an affair, which Blake was obviously none too happy about. Come to find out that Nikki was a lesbian, so that's how she became a part of this story. I wanted to give Doris a past.
We left off with our fearless duo packed up and ready to head back to Springfield with the gang and Frank's body in tow, while Doris and Blake are helping by getting prepped for Frank's memorial.
Links to previous chapters: Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12 - Chapter 13 - Chapter 14 - Chapter 15 - Chapter 16.1 - Chapter 16.2 - Chapter 17 - Chapter 18 - Chapter 19 - Chapter 20
Chapter 21
This was unbelievable. She turned back to the Mayor and stared at her. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
Doris shook her head. She feared telling Blake this, not that she was a lesbian, but who her lover had been. “No, I’m not.”
“Nicole Landers…Nikki. The Nikki Landers that was my husband’s assistant and that went down in the plane crash with him.” Blake looked like she was somewhere between wanting to slap Doris and laugh at her.
“The one and the same.”
Now she definitely looked more like she wanted to slap her. “And when exactly did you plan to tell me this, Doris? How much longer were you going to pretend to be my friend before you told me?”
The look on Doris’ face made her look as if Blake had taken a swing at her. “What? Pretend? I never pretended to be your friend.”
The redhead crossed her arms and leaned back against the bar. “Sure. Because people in this town, after all I’ve done, just want to be my friend…willingly.”
“I do!” Doris tried to interrupt, but Blake continued to rant.
“What did you get out of it, huh? Some kind of vicarious happiness knowing that I was connected to Ross and he was connected to Nikki, so why not friend me, huh?”
Doris ran a tired hand over her face. This was so fucked up. “I loved Nikki, yes, and I fucking miss her like crazy, but that is not why we’re friends.”
“Why are we?”
Blake suddenly looked so small and unsure. She looked down and Doris had an urge to hold her and make the pain go away. While she hadn’t let herself get to know Blake until recently, the distant connection between them created by their mutual partners had allowed Doris to know a little about Blake’s shady background. She hadn’t exactly earned people’s trust or even desire for friendship, but looking at the woman before her - sad, broken, and expectant of heartbreak - pulled at her heartstrings.
Doris shrugged and stepped over closer to her. “It’s not for your past, Blake, that’s for sure. But what I’ve known of you in the past and the woman I see before me now are two very different people. I like who you are now.”
Blake contemplated her words and then looked up at the Mayor with a little smirk on her face. “I like who you are too.”
“Oh, you do?” Doris teased.
“Don’t get any nefarious ideas there, Mayor. You’re not as tough and hard-edged as you’d like to pretend to be is all. And you’ve been in love and you’ve lost. That changes a person.”
Doris couldn’t help but agree and nodded her head. Her phone chose that moment to ring. She looked down and saw the familiar name. She looked back at Blake. “Olivia. Are we okay?”
“Yeah, we’re okay. Next time though, tell me the important stuff sooner.”
“Deal.” Doris smiled and answered the call. “Hey.”
Doris listened to Olivia explain their plans and when they’d get in even while she followed Blake with her eyes as she went around to fill coffee for the customers. Doris didn’t hear what else Olivia said as Blake came by and ran a hand along her arm. Whatever fears Doris may have had about telling Blake about her were assuaged when redhead placed the coffee pot back on the burner and turned to smile at her.
“Doris?”
“Huh?”
“You haven’t heard a word I said, have you?” Doris rolled her eyes and turned away from the redhead that was suddenly distracting her.
“Of course, I have. You said that you guys are getting in late tonight.”
“Noooo, I asked how the memorial prep was coming along.” Doris couldn’t see the famous Olivia Spencer death glare through the phone, but if Doris had been an employee and not a friend, she would have so been fired! Olivia made a mental note to see if it was possible to fire friends. Doris, on the other hand, was oblivious and simply ignored any hints of irritation from Olivia.
“Oh, it’s coming right along. Don’t worry.” Doris was suddenly smiling as Blake came back around the counter, held up one of the coffee cups in her hands, and quirked an eyebrow indicated that it belonged to her. Doris listened half-heartedly to Olivia as she watched Blake settle back down at her laptop and begin her steadfast search for Frank’s ex-wife.
A shouted “Yes!” startled Doris even as she saw the shift and change on Blake’s face at having apparently found Eleni.
“What in the hell was that?” Olivia asked.
“Um, nothing. Gotta go, Spencer.”
**********
The small private jet had been in the air about thirty minutes when lights gradually started being turned off and blankets were doled out. Even little Henry was sacked out sound asleep on Mallet’s chest in spite of the noise and air pressure that tended to drive babies crazy.
Olivia handed a pillow to Natalia then flipped open the thick blanket that was big enough for both of them to curl up under. The brunette found the button for the armrest and lifted it out of the way so they could easily cuddle up together on the oversized seats. Olivia settled down with her own pillow and pulled the blanket up to her shoulders. She faced Natalia who didn’t look the least bit tired. The long nap they had earlier that afternoon had done them a world of good, but now they were wide awake.
“So,” Natalia whispered, “what should we do for the next three and a half hours?”
It took less than three seconds for Olivia’s mind to consider initiating Natalia in the Mile High Club before she slapped the devil on her shoulder then kissed and made up to it by promising they’d get to the good stuff later. Natalia was so much better than a quickie on a plane.
“You’re not tired?”
“Not even a little bit.” Natalia smiled and it showed off her dimples.
Olivia mentally glared at the devil mocking her, and he quickly tucked his pointy little tail between his legs and hunkered down. “We could talk.”
“About?”
Olivia smiled. “Anything…everything.” A somber look passed over her face. “We could talk about what happened with Edmund.”
Natalia sighed and closed her eyes. “I want to. I do. But right now, I’m just so happy that we’re together again, that my son’s safe, and that we’re finally heading home, and I don’t want to ruin that talking about what happened. We will though. I know I need to. So, I promise. We will, okay?”
The older woman nodded knowing all too well how hard it is to talk about being a victim. There were so many things they had to talk about and share, things that they had to learn about each other and their pasts, but for this brief moment, Olivia was just as happy as Natalia to simply bask in the joy of being together.
“Okay. Your choice then. What do you want to talk about?”
She could see Natalia’s blush even in the dim light of the cabin. The brunette quirked her mouth to the side and smiled. “When did you fall in love with me?”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t start with something easy like explaining quantum physics in fifty words or less, could you?”
Natalia giggled. “Nope.”
The laughter died down but the smiles remained as Olivia reached under the blanket to take Natalia’s hand in her own. “I don’t recall a specific moment. It’s like it’s always been there, this love I feel for you. I can’t remember ever not feeling it. But, I do remember when I admitted to it.”
Natalia scooted a little closer, her voice lower, as her hand played with Olivia’s fingers. She briefly closed her eyes trying to will away the mental images the sensation of touching Olivia’s hand put in her head. “And when was that?”
“The day last fall when I came to the prison after you talked to Rafe and you were so upset because you’d lost the money in that Decker deal. I just remember taking you in my arms and thinking ‘I never want to let her go.’”
She couldn’t see the tears in the now completely darkened plane cabin, but she could hear the sniffle and felt Natalia lift her hand out from under the covers to wipe at her eyes. “That long? You held it in that long.”
Olivia shrugged, then remembered that Natalia probably couldn’t see her either. “I didn’t want to lose you.”
“You couldn’t lose me.” Natalia’s voice was louder with the force of her conviction.
“I know that now, but then…Natalia, you were and are my best friend. The only real friend I’ve ever had, and the only person I ever trusted enough to let in and call family. It scared the hell out of me, and when I realized what I was feeling for you, I didn’t want to lose my friendship with you. I assumed that’s all we could ever be was friends, and I couldn’t risk losing that.”
She could hear the smile in Natalia’s voice. “But you did take a risk. We both did, and look what we got. We have so much more.”
There was a long stretch of silence as Olivia worked out in her head the question she had been wanting to ask for so long. “Are you really okay with this, with us, being together? I mean like really together.” She closed her eyes and sighed. Even thinking it through, she still mangled it.
She could feel the leather of Natalia’s seat move and shift as she slid even closer. A firm but gentle hand gripped her thigh and slowly moved up over denim, until she felt warm fingers lift her shirt and nails graze the base of her spine. She shuddered at the sensation and instinctively moved closer to Natalia. Hot breath was on her ear as lips nipped briefly just below the lobe.
“If you mean ‘this’ as in sex, I certainly hope this clears up any misunderstanding.” Olivia moaned as Natalia’s tongue teased the curve of her ear. “I want to make love to you, Olivia. Slowly, deeply, thoroughly, and quite often. Is that clear enough for you?”
The brunette smiled when Olivia audibly swallowed. “Crystal.”
“Good.”
Natalia pulled back and kissed her, letting her tongue play softly over her lips before breaking the kiss. Olivia groaned at the loss of contact. “This is going to be a long flight.”
Natalia took a deep breath to calm herself. She had never been very aggressive in sexual matters, but something about Olivia brought it out in her. She loved how she felt alive just being close to her. She smiled as Olivia took a deep calming breath too and racked her fingers through her hair. “So, I answered a question. I guess it’s only fair you get to ask me one.”
For months Olivia had restrained herself with Natalia and trying to not push her or tease her with sexual overtures, and she had every intention, at first, of playing nice with the younger woman but that kiss and the suggestive conversation set her off. It was going to take all she had not to commandeer the plane and make an emergency landing just so she could find the nearest hotel and ravish her. She wanted the first time to be at the farmhouse, but damn, if it wasn’t getting almost brutal in its torture.
Eventually, Olivia narrowed her eyes and smiled wickedly at her soon-to-be lover. Natalia was going to have to get used to Olivia’s sexual appetite, so right now was as good a time to start as any.
“Okay, fair is fair. Tell me, baby, what’s your favorite fantasy of me and of us?”
A few seconds of silence. “Um, that’s two questions.”
“Hopefully, the fantasy is one and the same, so technically, only one question.”
“Oh. Um…” Olivia tilted her head down to catch the brunette’s shy glance away. When Natalia didn’t respond right away, she got worried.
“You…you have thought about it, right?”
Natalia jerked her head up, hearing the doubt in Olivia’s voice. “Yes!” Then she quickly ducked back down when her exclamation was a bit louder than planned. She smiled and whispered as Olivia let out a relieved sigh, and giggled, “God, yes.”
Olivia felt her whole body warm with Natalia’s breathy whisper. She hoped to hear those two words spoken many times over in her lifetime and in exactly that same way. “Good.” She ran a finger across the younger woman’s lips. “Tell me then.”
“Okay.” Even in the darkened light of the cabin, she could see the darkness on Natalia’s face giving away her blush. “Well, I think a lot about that little makeout session we had on the couch. You know, the night before everything happened and Emma had that bad nightmare that interrupted us. And, um, I think about what I wanted to happen.”
Olivia could feel her heart racing and she felt suddenly nervous because Natalia was really going to tell her. She was really going to put her desire to words. It was almost too much.
“And? What did you want to happen?”
Natalia nibbled at her bottom lip. “I didn’t want to stop. I wanted everything, and I wanted it with you. So bad.”
Olivia watched the full lips moving and felt the desire shoot like fire right to the very heart of her soul. She inched closer, wanting to taste those lips. “Tell me about everything. What’s everything, Natalia?”
She could have sworn she heard Natalia groan, and if they had been alone, there would have been nothing to stop her. She knew without a doubt that she’d be making love to Natalia this very second if they were alone.
“When you touched me, Olivia, it felt so amazing, and I felt so alive. I just wanted you to touch me everywhere. I…I can’t explain it. It’s like, like I just surrendered. Something clicked deep inside of me when we kissed and I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be yours…completely yours. In every way possible.” Natalia got a dreamy look on her face.
They didn’t speak for a long moment. Olivia gently brushed some hair behind Natalia’s ear and Natalia got lost in staring down at their entwined hands. The older woman wondered what in the world she was thinking. She had been quiet too long and when Natalia got quiet, she got worried.
“What are you thinking now, baby?”
Natalia quirked her mouth to the side and blushed slightly before smiling. “That you have beautiful hands.” Olivia simply watched as Natalia softly stroked her fingers along the back of Olivia’s hand. “I think about your hands.”
Olivia sucked in a silent breath. “What?”
“I think about your hands and what they’ll feel like when we…” Natalia glanced up at her nervously, her face crimson even in the dark.
“You think about that?” Olivia asked incredulous.
Natalia nodded. Then she let out a heavy sigh. “This really is going to be a long flight, huh?”
***************
They talked a few more minutes being sure to steer clear of topics that neither could do anything about a few thousand feet in the air. They talked about their kids, agreeing that they’d get in too late to get Emma tonight. They’d get her first thing in the morning though. Both of them missed her terribly and couldn’t wait to be home with her. And they talked about the Beacon and getting back to work. Natalia was sure she’d have a pile of work waiting for her when she talked to Blake, and Olivia had a major conference coming in next week. She hated doing it without Natalia. She knew if the younger woman still worked for her everything would be in place right now, kidnapping or no kidnapping. She made a mental note to talk to Natalia about coming back. She really missed working with her.
Finally exhaustion caught up to them, and they fell off to sleep. The plane landed just as the moon was reaching its highest point in the night sky, and the jolt of tires hitting pavement unceremoniously pulled them from their slumber. Natalia reached over her head and stretched as the cabin lights blinked on. The others behind them stirred and yawned. They waited until everyone was off before climbing down the steps to the tarmac. Mallet and Buzz got the bags from the cargo bay.
Olivia pulled out her phone to call the city morgue when she saw an unfamiliar face in a dark suit walking up out of the shadows. She slipped the phone back in her pocket and walked toward the imposing man who was easily a foot or more taller than her.
“Ms. Spencer?”
“Yes, are you Jacob?”
He reached his large paw out to her. “Yes, ma’am, I sure am.” He gestured behind him to another man who was barely visible in the dark. “Ronald and I will take care of Detective Cooper’s body and have him prepared for the ceremony.”
“Thank you, Jacob. This is Detective Cooper’s family.” She motioned to Buzz and the others. “Take good care of them, okay?” She looked to a grateful Buzz and winked at him. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He nodded to her and she turned away, guiding Natalia to the parking lot with a gentle hand on the small of her back, while Rafe followed behind. When they finally settled into her car, Natalia let out a heavy sigh, dropping her head back against the head rest, and Rafe curled up in the corner of the back seat trying to catch a moment of sleep.
She looked into her rearview mirror and smiled at Rafe, his eyes already drifting shut. “So, what will it be? The apartment or the farmhouse?”
He hesitated a moment and looked back at her with sad eyes. “I don’t think I’m ready for the apartment yet. I do want to go back, just not right now.”
She looked at Natalia, who was wearing the same sad expression as her son, and nodded. “Home then.”
************
When they walked in the front door of the farmhouse, they all breathed a deep sigh of relief, even Rafe. He was the first to move from the doorway and shuffle wearily into the living room. Olivia and Natalia followed and stood at the foot of the stairs as he slumped on the couch and laid back with a moan.
“Honey, you can sleep in Emma’s room.” Natalia offered. She got a mumble and a snore as a reply.
She looked at Olivia who shrugged. “I totally sympathize.”
“Me too.”
The two women slowly climbed the stairs and stood in the hallway outside their rooms. Olivia raised her hand and pointed to the door of her room. “I guess I’ll just…”
Natalia took the hand in her own. “You’ll stay right here.”
Olivia groaned. “I love you, you know that, but it’s late and I’m so tired.”
The younger woman rolled her eyes. “You’re so presumptuous sometimes. We can sleep together without sleeping together, Olivia. We’ve done it before. Right now, I want nothing more than to wake up in your arms, in our home, and in our bed. Please, stay.”
Olivia sighed and wrapped her in her arms. “I can’t refuse you anything.”
Natalia leaned back and smiled mischievously. “I’ll remember that when we’re not so tired.”