A Cold Wind Blows (7/13)
Fandom: Guiding Light
Pairing: Olivia/Natalia
Author: goldrun15 aka (TNCwchips on IF board)
Rating: PG to slightly south of R (for same sex kissing and some mild nudity and language)
Disclaimers: the characters of Olivia Spencer and Natalia Rivera and other Springfield-ites are owned by P&G and broadcast by CBS/Telenext. No profit is made from the posting/writing of this fanfiction and no copyright infringement intended.
Spoilers: Just up to the engagement party
Special Thanks: To a great beta-reader. Not only were you great on the grammar gaffes, but there were a few inconsistencies and bobbles that seem to be much better! Thanks lbecka!
Chapter 7
Natalia stared at the amount on her paycheck for what felt like the millionth time. She was beside herself with anger at Olivia. She had called the woman’s home several times on Friday night, but had never gotten an answer. Olivia’s cell routed her directly to voice mail. She’d left one terse message for Olivia to call when she got in. She’d never heard anything from her boss and right now, she was thinking of Olivia as her boss, not the woman that she had finally accepted that she was head over heels in love with.
She glanced at the clock. 7:30 a.m. Too early to call on a Saturday morning. Groaning, she put on her jacket and grabbed her keys. Might as well go to the Beacon and check on things. A couple of hours at work and then she would call Olivia’s cell if she couldn’t catch her at the house. She glanced at the paycheck she clutched. Make that several hours at work.
*-*-*-*
Olivia stretched and took a sip of coffee. She had come home later than expected on Friday night and had gotten up early to come into the Beacon to take care of the paperwork she was sure had mounted in her absence. She had dressed in jeans and a lightweight shirt and slipped in the back entrance to the Beacon around 7:30 a.m., armed with coffee and ready to do battle with paperwork. The staff had seemed appropriately frightened to see the owner walk in, and she’d headed to her office satisfied that things were running well. In fact, she was pleased to see that most of the paperwork had been taken care of by Natalia, so she was spending the early hours of the morning reviewing the marketing plan for the Beacon-Chicago. She was glad to have something to focus on so she wouldn’t think about Natalia. The woman’s face had been an ever-persistent distraction since she’d left Springfield on Thursday morning. She sighed, and ran her fingers through her hair. She was so focused on trying to comprehend the wording of the most recent brochure that she didn’t notice the figure that watched her from the doorway.
Natalia stood there quietly, watching Olivia work. Her face was scrunched in concentration in a way that reminded Nat of Emma. She struggled to keep her laughter inside, and then remembered she was supposed to be angry with the green-eyed, chestnut haired beauty. Clearing her throat, she strode into the room. “What is this?” She slapped her paycheck onto the desk.
Startled Olivia looked up. “What?” She registered Natalia’s presence with an immediate look of pleasure, then replaced it with concentration as she looked down at the paycheck. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Natalia’s lips thinned. “Really? That’s all? This is three times my normal pay! I need more than one syllable.”
Olivia rolled her head to the left and right to loosen her stiff neck. “You deserve it.” She looked up at Natalia and her smile froze as she saw the anger in the other woman’s eyes. “What?”
“How dare you, Olivia Spencer!” Natalia was irate. “What gives you the right to think you can barge in and decide what’s right for everyone in your life?” She patted the paycheck for emphasis. “Did you think I couldn’t take care of myself? Did you think I needed a handout?”
Olivia blinked in confusion, looking alternately from the check to Natalia’s indignant face. She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Natalia. I’m sorry I didn’t speak to you before you received the check, but I didn’t anticipate being out of town for the last half of the week. To be honest, I actually sort of forgot that this would take affect this pay period.”
Natalia wasn’t ready to give up her indignation so easily. “So, what? You thought that since you no longer lived with me I needed help in making the mortgage?” She twisted her hands. “That I’m not capable of taking care of myself?” She glared at the woman. “I can, you know. I don’t need your charity!”
Olivia half rose from her seat, then remembered something and frantically fumbled at her desk drawer. “No, of course not!” She pulled out a small box. “The thought that you couldn’t take care of yourself never crossed my mind,” she answered truthfully. “Do you realize what you’ve done for me here at the Beacon? You’ve made it so easy to focus on the new property. I’m not worried at all about the reputation of the Springfield property dropping an iota while I’m focused on other projects. That’s because of your competence and professionalism.” She opened the box and pulled a small card from it. She placed it on the paycheck. “This is your new business card. I’m so sorry. I really meant to go over this with you last week.”
Natalia grabbed the card and looked at it, her eyes still narrowed with anger.
Natalia Rivera
General Manager
BeaconHotel-Springfield
She felt her anger ebb as she looked to the anxious woman in front of her. "General Manager?" She squeaked. "Are you serious?”
Olivia laughed out of genuine pleasure. “Are you kidding me? Most people would have been in my office months ago demanding a promotion!” She shook her head. “You’ve been doing the job for awhile now, Natalia. It’s about time you were paid for it.” She swallowed. “That’s it. Nothing to do with mortgages or…anything else except the way you do your job.” She smiled again. “You do it well, and I want to make sure that you’re happy here, and compensated in a way that will keep you from looking to greener pastures.”
Natalia rocked back on her heels. This was completely unexpected. “Oh.”
Olivia smirked. “Really? I promote you to General Manager and that’s all I get? I think I need more than one syllable,” she teased.
The desk phone rang, interrupting the exchange. Olivia picked up the handset. “Olivia Spencer.” Her face took on an anxious expression and she pressed the speaker phone option.
“…tornado warning. The alarms should….” Ned, the morning clerk’s voice, was drowned out by the sudden blaring of the city-wide storm sirens. Olivia’s body tensed and she half rose from her seat as she barked orders into the phone. “Get all of the staff into the lobby bathrooms! Get as many people as you can into internal doorways. Amplify the sirens through the hotel’s speaker systems. How heavy is our occupancy?”
“Light. Most have already checked out.”
“Thank God. We’re on our way to meet you.” Standing, she grabbed for Natalia’s arm, “Let’s go!”
*-*-*-*
Natalia did a mental headcount as they huddled in the men’s restroom.
“Where’s Jennifer?”
Sarah, the head of the housekeeping staff, turned to look at Natalia with a look of horror. “My God.”
Olivia heard the exchange and pounced. “What’s wrong?”
“Jennifer is deaf. She wouldn’t hear the alarms.”
Olivia looked at Sarah. “What floor was she working?”
“Sixth.”
Olivia started for the door, “OK I’ll be right back.” She held her phone up and looked at Sarah. “Call me if you see her, ok?”
Natalia followed her. “I’m coming too.”
Olivia objected even as she was starting down the hall, “You should keep everyone calm here.” She sprinted for the stairwell. “Besides, I’ve been running with Dinah lately….I’m in pretty good shape. You’ll slow me down!”
Natalia sped up. “You wish!”
Five and a half flights later, both women were breathless. Olivia’s cell phone suddenly rang. She answered breathlessly. “Yeah?”
“Jennifer’s here. Come back. We can hear the wind really picking up.” Ned’s voice had a panicked edge.
“On our way.” Olivia reversed direction and grabbed Natalia’s arm as she started downstairs. She muttered, “They couldn’t have called when we were on the 2nd floor?”
When they got to the first floor landing, Natalia reached for the lobby door.
“Stop!” Olivia’s voice had a ring of authority that caused Natalia to turn away from the door.
Olivia grabbed her and pulled her to her chest, her eyes straining with a desperate concentration.
Natalia realized there was a growing roar in the air. She felt Olivia shift, then shove.
Olivia twisted the woman in her arms away from the door and into the relative safety of the stairwell. She pushed her as hard and quickly as she could toward the cemented corner. She was never sure whether she heard the sickening thud first or registered the limpness of Natalia’s body in her mind. All she knew was that in her effort to protect the woman she loved, she had shoved her headlong into the cement wall. Natalia was suddenly slumping to the floor in Olivia’s arms, oblivious to the maelstrom that had blown the lobby door off its hinges.
“No, no, no, no.” Olivia repeated, as she sheltered the unconscious woman and tried to lay her down as gently as possible. “Natalia, can you hear me? Please, Natalia. I’m so sorry.”
Around her, the world seemingly exploded, and debris flew everywhere.
Olivia continued her pleas for Natalia’s forgiveness until she was battered senseless by the relentless storm.