Por si éramos pocos by Belenuski - Chapter 7 (Part 3)
Title: Por si éramos pocos by Belenuski
Rating: NC-17
NB: Here's part 3...thought I'd get it posted before I leave town for the holidays. There's one more part for this chapter that I'll try to get translated as soon as I get back into town. Happy Holidays, everyone!
Silvia ran from one side of the house to the other. First, she went into the girl’s bedroom, a blue-colored room with a few white clouds decorating the wall above the crib. The toys and stuffed animals, just like the books, were thrown on the floor, and inside the crib was a pile of four pacifiers.
No, she wasn’t there.
Next Silvia looked in the living room. A half-eaten cookie that the little one had been snacking on sat on the table with nothing else around. Well, that’s not quite true, the DVDs had been thrown on the floor nearby.
“Noah!” Silvia yelled, looking all around.
She finally looked in the kitchen where the empty bottle she had that morning was sitting along with rattles, dolls…the house was full of toys.
She sighed and, resigned, went to the bedroom where Pepa, yawning, was preparing a little backpack by putting in diapers, a bottle of water, and the girl’s favorite cookies.
“She’s not here.” Silvia said while leaning against the door. “Nothing, she won’t come out.”
Pepa turned around and breathed deeply. She passed the backpack to Silvia, grabbed a shoe, and finally walked out in the hallway.
“Noah!” Pepa yelled seriously. “You’re going to make me mad!”
Silence. Silvia looked at her wife with a face that said “I told you so”, and Pepa smiled sarcastically, shaking her head.
“This game ends right now, eh?”
She walked slowly to the bathroom, turned on the light, and pulled open the shower curtain. A little girl, about two years old with her short hair in a little ponytail, looked at her mother innocently, like she had never done anything wrong before. Her blue eyes shone in fear of the scolding she was sure to receive. Pepa crossed her arm while Silvia checked the time. They were going to be late, just like every morning. It wasn’t for one reason, it was for another.
“Get out,” Pepa ordered. The little girl shook her head. “Noah, get out.”
“No.” She said. She didn’t speak very well, but that was one word she had learned perfectly. She heard it all the time.
“Come on, Noah,” Silvia said this time.
“No, no.”
“Okay, you don’t want to?” Pepa asked, angry. “Okay then, that’s it. Mommy and I are leaving, and you can stay there.”
The brunette pushed Silvia out of the bathroom and they made their way to the front door. Pepa, annoyed, leaned against the wall waiting for her daughter to come out of the bathroom. She had no idea how she would get into the bathroom, but she somehow managed, and it wasn’t too difficult to find her since she would hide in there every now and then.
“She’s not going to come out, that tactic doesn’t work.” Silvia affirmed. “Believe me, I’ve tried it.”
Pepa sighed and Silvia smiled at seeing her so bothered. She gave Pepa a kiss before going back to the bathroom much more calmly than Pepa had before.
“Noah, let’s go, my love, we need to go to the nursery.”
“No, no!” She said again.
“This is done,” Silvia said while picked Noah up. The girl started to kick and cry.
“No! Down! No!”
Pepa waited with the backpack in one hand and the car keys in the other. When she saw them arrive, she smiled at Silvia and, still hearing Noah’s yells while she twisted around in her mother’s arms, they went down the stairs to the parking lot. Once there, they somehow managed to get her buckled up in her seat.
“Shall we?” Pepa asked, verifying if they had everything ready to go.
“Let’s go.”
“No go!” Noah yelled, kicking violently but no longer crying.
Silvia took out Noah’s little stuffed bunny and handed it to her. The girl finally quieted down after a few minutes, more focused on playing with her bunny’s ears and feet and rubbing the bunny across her face to feel how soft it was.
“Just wait until she finds out where we’re going…” Pepa muttered.
“Well, she’ll scream and cry, like always. What if one of the other kids is hitting her?”
“Cariño, they’re one- and two-year old children, they can’t hit that hard.”
“Yeah, but one wrong hit…”
“Don’t worry, love, crying is normal.” They stopped at the lights and Pepa gave Silvia a quick peck on the cheek to calm her down. “Isn’t that right, angel?” Pepa asked, turning to face the backseat where Noah was.
“Yes!” The little one automatically exclaimed.
They arrived about 15 minutes late to the nursery and, when the car finally stopped, Noah started kicking again. They had double-parked so Pepa had to stay in the car. Silvia pulled Noah out whatever way she could and, before going inside, she put her down on the floor. Noah immediately grabbed onto Silvia’s leg and looked up with tears in her eyes. She always melted inside whenever Noah did that.
Silvia crouched down until she was at Noah’s height and dried her eyes, but the little one continued to cry.
“You have to go to the nursery, Noah.”
“No!”
“Yes, my love, you have to be a big girl.”
“With mama! Me with mama!”
Silvia sighed and when she saw the teacher, like every morning, her heart contracted. The teacher was a young woman, about 25, with a nice face and a sweet voice, but whenever she showed up, it meant it was time for her to leave.
“Good morning,” the teacher said. “Same as always, I see…”
“Yeah…Listen, do you think another child could be hitting her or…”
“No, no one’s hit her. It’s normal for her to be crying, it’s just her age.”
“Okay…well, I better be going then. Goodbye, Noah.”
“No! Mama! Mama!”
Silvia tried to smile as she walked away, waving, before she finally turned around to get into the car. Pepa looked at her, smiling sweetly.
“I can’t, Pepa…this kills me.”
“But look, I already told you that it was normal.”
“I know it’s normal, but doesn’t it hurt you to hear her cry?”
“A lot, but it’s what has to be done. We’re not going to have this conversation every morning, princesa.”
“I know, I know. Motherly overreactions, I guess.”
Pepa smiled tenderly and pulled Silvia closer to give her a kiss to calm her. She partly succeeded.
“Overreactions that drive me crazy.”
They parked at the precinct ten minutes later and each one went their separate ways to get to work. Both women were only working mornings now. When Pepa saw her desk covered in all the reports she was going to have to archive, she plopped herself down I her seat and rubbed her eyes.
“The pipsqueak acting up, hey?” Aitor asked as he neared her and sat on the desk.
“Acting up? It’s more than that, she’s a natural catastrophe, an earthquake, a whirlwind. She never gets tired, Aitor, she never gets tired.”
Aitor laughed and Pepa smiled, lightly kicking him in the shin.
“Go on, go away, I have work to do. I’ll see you at our break.”
“Silvia’s still not taking any breaks?”
“She’s way too busy, or at least that’s what she says.”
“Well then, I’ll see in an hour and a half. I’m going to go get some work done, too.”
Pepa gave him a smile and when she opened up a folder to see which report it was, she stretched and looked up seeing Silvia in her white coat carrying a little bottle to the lab. They’re eyes met and the brunette blew Silvia a kiss causing her to move more quickly. If she let herself get too distracted, she might forget all about the chemical she was carrying in her hands.
When Silvia finally got to the lab, she put the chemical to warm and put on her mask to get some other things done in the meantime. She had a lot of work piled up because there had been a drug trafficking web broken up in their very same neighborhood, there was a witness that needed to be protected after being threatened, prostitution, a double-homicide…It seemed like all the criminals had conspired to do everything all at the same time.
She heard someone call at the door and told them to come in without checking to see who it was. When she noticed who it was, she removed her mask and smiled.
David had changed. Since he has come back from his stay in Salamanca, he had risen in rank and now formed a team with Gonzalo working as Don Lorenzo’s right hand. He had let his hair grow out a bit, and his smile had gotten a little harder, more masculine. His physical appearance was always very professional, even though Silvia, knowing him well, knew that it was all a formal front.
“Good morning!” He greeted. “I see you’re busy.”
“You have no idea.”
“Well, bad news. There’s another case, this one serious.”
“No, David…please.”
“It’s the mafia that had contacts with the group that interfered with your wedding. They traffic just about everything you can traffic: money, prostitutes, drugs, minors…”
“What do I have to do?” She asked, overwhelmed.
“All the collected evidence from the scene of the crime is in the warehouse. Bones, hair, blood…analyze everything, but we weren’t able to find a body.”
“Okay, okay…”
“Oh, and one more thing…”
“Fuck.”
“You just have to relax,” David said, pushing a strand of her hair off her face. “You can handle this and more, okay?”
Silvia nodded.
David smiled and was about to walk out the door, but before stepping out, he turned around to look at Silvia.
“I’ll see you during our break like every other day?”
“That’s right…and Pepa will be working like always.”
“With your face working through her break and you not being able to be with her gives me an advantage, eh?”
“Oh, stop! Go on, I have a lot of work to do.”
“Okay, okay.”
Silvia watched him walk away and shook her head. At work, aside from a few looks from Pepa, it was David who cheered her up. The hour-long break was the best part of the work day. For both of them.
________________________________
Silvia heard a high-pitched beep and took off her mask. She pulled off her gloves and made her way to her cell phone to turn off the alarm. 11:30, break time.
She sighed. She had gotten a lot done in two hours, but she still hadn’t even gotten to the mafia case that had been given to her.
She took off her lab coat and pulled her hair out of the ponytail as she left the lab looking for David. She found him speaking with her father and she decided to wait for them to finish. When they did, David looked instinctively towards the stairs and smiled at Silvia who started to walk down excitedly.
“What a change,” He said, seeing the huge smile on the redhead’s face.
“Deep down, I really do like working so much…Come on, I’m hungry and it’s a beautiful day to take a walk around the block.”
They were walking towards the door when Silvia realized something. She stopped suddenly, smacked her forehead, and sighed.
“Shit, I forgot. Pepa’s leaving late today, so I have to pick up Noah.”
“And what’s the problem?”
“We came in the same car, I left mine at home. I’m going to look for Pepa to tell her I’m taking the car and she’ll have to take a taxi, wait for me.”
She took off to Paco’s office, where Pepa was now working under her brother who had been promoted. She called several times before opening the door, but there was no one there, just a few reports on Pepa’s desk and her cell phone. She always left it thrown there.
“Hello, boss,” Curtis greeted as he walked by. Silvia grabbed him by the arm.
“Wait, have you seen Pepa?”
“Yeah, I saw her leave with Aitor, like she always does.”
“Leave?”
“Yes, it’s break time for those of us with any luck. But look, it’s not anything out of the ordinary, I bet she’s at Los Cachis with him right now having a few beers.”
Silvia nodded and said goodbye to Curtis a bit absently. Pepa hadn’t told her about any of this. Well, Silvia hadn’t told her about her breaks with David, but she had her reasons. Pepa was very jealous and she didn’t want her to worry every time she and David went out together. But, Pepa? Why hadn’t she told her anything?
She shook her head, trying to shake off those ideas and she went back downstairs.
“I couldn’t find her, and she left her cell in the office. I don’t know what to do now.”
“What time do you have to go for Noah?”
“At 1:30.”
“Well, that’s perfect, I get off of work at that time. I can take you.”
Silvia smiled. “Would you?”
“Of course, it’s been a few days since I’ve seen the little one, I can’t wait for her to pull my hair and my tie and show me all her toys like she does every time I go to your house.”
Silvia laughed.
It was true, Noah got along really well with David, but it’s because he liked children so much. He had told her that he had been with a girl for a long time and had thought that starting a family would be great, but she was afraid of commitment and when he proposed, she turned him down. Shortly after, they broke up for good.
He was an amazing guy, very caring and sincere, and it was that sincerity that made Silvia a little uncomfortable sometimes. During the past two years, he had had one relationship or another, but he always made it clear to the redhead that he was still in love with her. Silvia could only smile nervously in response.
Noah adored him, though. He could spend the whole day playing with her and wouldn’t get tired. She had long, incomprehensible conversations with him, and if she spent the entire day playing with him, she would sleep the whole night through.
…
Pepa was still working at 2 since she was leaving late. She had already found her cell. When she saw it on the desk, she sighed in relief and checked to see if she had missed any calls. What she found was a message from Silvia:
“David’s taking me to get Noah, so I’m leaving you the car. A kiss, and don’t work too much. Also, I hope your break went well.”
Pepa sighed as she took her seat. She wasn’t sure what she was more bothered by - the fact that David spent the whole day stuck by Silvia’s side or the last words written in the message. Pepa shook her head.
“She’s mad…” she mumbled.
She knew Silvia had found out that she had been spending her breaks with Aitor. The message had been written with the intention of not sounding angry, but she was, there was a reason she had said it in a message. She could’ve very easily walked out of the lab and, before leaving, tell Pepa that she was going with David. But no, she had sent a text instead.
The brunette closed her phone, ticked off, and decided to dive back into the report. Someone knocked at the door and when she gave permission, Curtis walked in.
“I just remembered that Silvia was looking for you,” he said.
“Yes, I already know. I think she’s a little upset because she couldn’t find me.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, she looked alright when she was leaving for her break.”
Pepa lifted her head from the papers and looked at him strangely. “Silvia goes out during her breaks?”
…
Silvia had just gotten out of the car and was heading to the front door of the nursery. She heard quick footsteps behind her and saw David making his way towards her.
“Wait for me, okay?”
“But the car is double-parked, you have to stay inside.”
“Bah, it’ll only be a few seconds. Anyway, I want Noah to see me.”
Silvia smiled. Those were the little things she liked about David. She knew he did these things for her because he really wanted to. That period with Pepa had already passed. They loved each other, they told each other all the time, but they didn’t always show it. Some moments with Pepa were completely unforgettable, and nobody could please her in bed like Pepa could, but the “little things” had disappeared. Their lives were so chaotic with their little bundle of energy, Noah, that their mornings of having breakfast in bed and lifting the little one up in their arms had become quick breakfasts in the kitchen or under the sheets full of coffee stains. Sometimes Noah would lower the side of her crib - because she already knew how - and would walk to her mothers’ room on Sunday mornings, but it wasn’t the same anymore. She couldn’t stand staying in bed for more than two minutes and she would soon jump down and start running around the house, and Pepa and Silvia had to always keep an eye on her if they didn’t want her to destroy everything or end up hurting herself.
They had been told it was just the “terrible twos” and that, when it passed, the little girl would calm down, but neither mother was sure about this. Noah never stopped moving, never stopped wanting to discover things, she was very curious and always smiling, but she would exhaust any human being. It was only after eating that she would get sleepy, but she wouldn’t go to sleep. She’d stay thrown on the couch watching her favorite cartoons on tv for an hour or so. It was the only hour Pepa and Silvia had to relax all day.
Maybe that’s why the redhead enjoyed spending time with David. He always gave her comforting smiles that she sometimes really needed, and he would appear in her lab at the most unexpected moments to tell her “I just wanted to see you”. That way, she never really felt alone at work.
She had to admit that when it was Pepa who, with a free minute, would stop by her lab just to see her, she was much more excited than when it was David, but this happened so rarely that whenever she heard someone knock on the door, she knew it was probably David and she’d smile.
“Good afternoon,” The nursery school teacher greeted Silvia for the second time that day. “Noah! Look who’s here!”
Both Silvia and David moved to the right to see where the little one was. She was sitting on the floor, babbling to a little boy who was attentively looking at her while holding a rattle in his mouth. When she heard her name be called, she lifted up her head and, seeing her mother, she got up a little clumsily and started running.
“Slow down, slow down,” The teacher advised.
Silvia squatted and opened her arms and Noah, laughing, threw herself into them. The redhead picked her up.
“Mama!”
The first thing the little one did was give her a kiss. It was just because of that that everyone could forgive her for being so restless. She was a very affectionate little girl and, without having to be asked, she gave big hugs and kisses to her loved ones, especially her mothers of course. Silvia had made fun of Pepa every time she’d get a dazed look on her face with Noah, for no particular reason, would kiss her. Whenever she would do that, they would forget all about the bad things and remembered why they wanted to have a child in the first place.
“Were you good today?” Silvia asked, looking at Noah with a smile.
“Yes! I play with my friend!”
“You have a friend?”
“Yes!”
“Very good, that’s what I like to hear.”
David, who during this time had been standing behind Noah, called her while tapping on her shoulder. When she turned around, her face lit up again and she threw out her arms for David to pick her up.
“Hi!” Noah greeted him. “You here?”
“Yes, I’m here because I wanted to see you.
Noah hugged him around his neck, but quickly pulled away in surprise. David looked at her confused.
“Itchy!” She yelled, pointing at his face.
David smiled and took her hand. He placed it on his chin to show her what was itching her. The little one rubbed her hand over the stubble, laughing because it tickled a little bit, and David started to laugh seeing her like that. He turned around to look at Silvia who was watching the touching scene and smiling.
“I didn’t shave this morning,” he said. “But it seems she likes it.”
Silvia caressed her daughter’s face and turned to look at David. The woman who ended up with him as the father of their children would be very lucky indeed. He was going to be an exemplary father.
They said goodbye to the teacher and this time, Silvia sat in the back of the car with Noah sitting on her knees since David didn’t have a car seat. When they made it back to the house and they got out of the car, Noah started to walk quickly to the stairs and she stopped there waiting for her someone to help her get up, but she saw that David hadn’t gotten out of the car so she went back to the car and pulled on the pant leg of her mother who was saying goodbye to David.
“Say ‘bye’ to David, angel.”
“No…” Noah muttered sadly. “No, come.”
“Cariño, I have to go.”
“No! Peeease! Peease!”
David looked to Silvia who was shrugging her shoulders. “Why don’t you stay to eat?”
“I don’t know, I don’t want to be a bother.”
“Believe me, you’re not a bother. If you keep the girl entertained, I’ll invite you to eat, to have dinner, or to whatever you want.”
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
At that moment, Silvia was a little paralyzed. It was things like that that made her feel uncomfortable, but at the same time, flattered her.
“No, David, I’m not asking you out on a date.”
“Yeah, yeah....and it was more than that, it was a date with an insinuation. That ‘whatever you want’ can be interpreted many ways.”
Silvia smiled and opened the door. “Well, don’t interpret it in any way. And get out of the car before I regret it, come on.”
David got out, laughing, which affected Noah, who, when she got inside, started running around the house. She returned with a surprised look on her face and went into the kitchen.
“And mama?” She asked.
“She’s working, she’s going to get her late,” Silvia said while she hung her coat up on the coat rack.
“Why?”
“Because she has a lot of things to do.”
“Lots of bad guys?”
David let out a loud laugh. To kids, a cop’s job was to catch bad guys, just like on tv.
“Yes, because today there are a lot of bad guys. She’ll get here while we’re eating, okay?”
The girl nodded and grabbed David’s hand. “Look! Look!” She yelled while she pulled him to her bedroom.
Before exiting the kitchen, David turned around. Silvia was opening the freezer to take out what she wanted to cook. There was still time for him to go.
“Will it bother Pepa if I’m here?” He asked.
Silvia looked at him and shook her head. “No. And if it does, I don’t care.”
That contemptuous voice didn’t go unnoticed by David. “Are you two mad?”
Silvia smiled a bit uncomfortably. “No, it’s just…nothing, us being silly.”
David finally let the little one lead him down the hall. Silvia leaned against the freezer and took her cell out of her purse. She had gotten a message ten minutes ago while they had been in the car. She sighed as she read:
“If you’re angry, we need to talk about it. We already know what happens when we hide things. Oh, and I also hope your break went well.”
Great. Pepa had found out that she wasn’t working through her breaks, and not only that, but probably that she was spending them with David, too. They were going to have a serious problem if they didn’t stop lying to each other, but they both hated having to put up with each others' jealousies. But no matter what happened, and though Pepa was also angry, it was she who insisted that they talk and fix things after an argument. To Silvia, those “we need to talk” moments were incredibly uncomfortable and she hated feeling as though her arm were being twisted. But today, she had the luck of having David in the house. With him there, the discussion would have to wait, at the very least until that night.
Links to the original story written in Spanish:
http://pepaysilvia.mforos.com/1469855/8481210-por-si-eramos-pocos-01-11-09-23-40/
http://pepaysilvia.mforos.com/1469855/8680673-por-si-eramos-pocos-ii-28-11-09-21-35/
Rating: NC-17
NB: Here's part 3...thought I'd get it posted before I leave town for the holidays. There's one more part for this chapter that I'll try to get translated as soon as I get back into town. Happy Holidays, everyone!
Silvia ran from one side of the house to the other. First, she went into the girl’s bedroom, a blue-colored room with a few white clouds decorating the wall above the crib. The toys and stuffed animals, just like the books, were thrown on the floor, and inside the crib was a pile of four pacifiers.
No, she wasn’t there.
Next Silvia looked in the living room. A half-eaten cookie that the little one had been snacking on sat on the table with nothing else around. Well, that’s not quite true, the DVDs had been thrown on the floor nearby.
“Noah!” Silvia yelled, looking all around.
She finally looked in the kitchen where the empty bottle she had that morning was sitting along with rattles, dolls…the house was full of toys.
She sighed and, resigned, went to the bedroom where Pepa, yawning, was preparing a little backpack by putting in diapers, a bottle of water, and the girl’s favorite cookies.
“She’s not here.” Silvia said while leaning against the door. “Nothing, she won’t come out.”
Pepa turned around and breathed deeply. She passed the backpack to Silvia, grabbed a shoe, and finally walked out in the hallway.
“Noah!” Pepa yelled seriously. “You’re going to make me mad!”
Silence. Silvia looked at her wife with a face that said “I told you so”, and Pepa smiled sarcastically, shaking her head.
“This game ends right now, eh?”
She walked slowly to the bathroom, turned on the light, and pulled open the shower curtain. A little girl, about two years old with her short hair in a little ponytail, looked at her mother innocently, like she had never done anything wrong before. Her blue eyes shone in fear of the scolding she was sure to receive. Pepa crossed her arm while Silvia checked the time. They were going to be late, just like every morning. It wasn’t for one reason, it was for another.
“Get out,” Pepa ordered. The little girl shook her head. “Noah, get out.”
“No.” She said. She didn’t speak very well, but that was one word she had learned perfectly. She heard it all the time.
“Come on, Noah,” Silvia said this time.
“No, no.”
“Okay, you don’t want to?” Pepa asked, angry. “Okay then, that’s it. Mommy and I are leaving, and you can stay there.”
The brunette pushed Silvia out of the bathroom and they made their way to the front door. Pepa, annoyed, leaned against the wall waiting for her daughter to come out of the bathroom. She had no idea how she would get into the bathroom, but she somehow managed, and it wasn’t too difficult to find her since she would hide in there every now and then.
“She’s not going to come out, that tactic doesn’t work.” Silvia affirmed. “Believe me, I’ve tried it.”
Pepa sighed and Silvia smiled at seeing her so bothered. She gave Pepa a kiss before going back to the bathroom much more calmly than Pepa had before.
“Noah, let’s go, my love, we need to go to the nursery.”
“No, no!” She said again.
“This is done,” Silvia said while picked Noah up. The girl started to kick and cry.
“No! Down! No!”
Pepa waited with the backpack in one hand and the car keys in the other. When she saw them arrive, she smiled at Silvia and, still hearing Noah’s yells while she twisted around in her mother’s arms, they went down the stairs to the parking lot. Once there, they somehow managed to get her buckled up in her seat.
“Shall we?” Pepa asked, verifying if they had everything ready to go.
“Let’s go.”
“No go!” Noah yelled, kicking violently but no longer crying.
Silvia took out Noah’s little stuffed bunny and handed it to her. The girl finally quieted down after a few minutes, more focused on playing with her bunny’s ears and feet and rubbing the bunny across her face to feel how soft it was.
“Just wait until she finds out where we’re going…” Pepa muttered.
“Well, she’ll scream and cry, like always. What if one of the other kids is hitting her?”
“Cariño, they’re one- and two-year old children, they can’t hit that hard.”
“Yeah, but one wrong hit…”
“Don’t worry, love, crying is normal.” They stopped at the lights and Pepa gave Silvia a quick peck on the cheek to calm her down. “Isn’t that right, angel?” Pepa asked, turning to face the backseat where Noah was.
“Yes!” The little one automatically exclaimed.
They arrived about 15 minutes late to the nursery and, when the car finally stopped, Noah started kicking again. They had double-parked so Pepa had to stay in the car. Silvia pulled Noah out whatever way she could and, before going inside, she put her down on the floor. Noah immediately grabbed onto Silvia’s leg and looked up with tears in her eyes. She always melted inside whenever Noah did that.
Silvia crouched down until she was at Noah’s height and dried her eyes, but the little one continued to cry.
“You have to go to the nursery, Noah.”
“No!”
“Yes, my love, you have to be a big girl.”
“With mama! Me with mama!”
Silvia sighed and when she saw the teacher, like every morning, her heart contracted. The teacher was a young woman, about 25, with a nice face and a sweet voice, but whenever she showed up, it meant it was time for her to leave.
“Good morning,” the teacher said. “Same as always, I see…”
“Yeah…Listen, do you think another child could be hitting her or…”
“No, no one’s hit her. It’s normal for her to be crying, it’s just her age.”
“Okay…well, I better be going then. Goodbye, Noah.”
“No! Mama! Mama!”
Silvia tried to smile as she walked away, waving, before she finally turned around to get into the car. Pepa looked at her, smiling sweetly.
“I can’t, Pepa…this kills me.”
“But look, I already told you that it was normal.”
“I know it’s normal, but doesn’t it hurt you to hear her cry?”
“A lot, but it’s what has to be done. We’re not going to have this conversation every morning, princesa.”
“I know, I know. Motherly overreactions, I guess.”
Pepa smiled tenderly and pulled Silvia closer to give her a kiss to calm her. She partly succeeded.
“Overreactions that drive me crazy.”
They parked at the precinct ten minutes later and each one went their separate ways to get to work. Both women were only working mornings now. When Pepa saw her desk covered in all the reports she was going to have to archive, she plopped herself down I her seat and rubbed her eyes.
“The pipsqueak acting up, hey?” Aitor asked as he neared her and sat on the desk.
“Acting up? It’s more than that, she’s a natural catastrophe, an earthquake, a whirlwind. She never gets tired, Aitor, she never gets tired.”
Aitor laughed and Pepa smiled, lightly kicking him in the shin.
“Go on, go away, I have work to do. I’ll see you at our break.”
“Silvia’s still not taking any breaks?”
“She’s way too busy, or at least that’s what she says.”
“Well then, I’ll see in an hour and a half. I’m going to go get some work done, too.”
Pepa gave him a smile and when she opened up a folder to see which report it was, she stretched and looked up seeing Silvia in her white coat carrying a little bottle to the lab. They’re eyes met and the brunette blew Silvia a kiss causing her to move more quickly. If she let herself get too distracted, she might forget all about the chemical she was carrying in her hands.
When Silvia finally got to the lab, she put the chemical to warm and put on her mask to get some other things done in the meantime. She had a lot of work piled up because there had been a drug trafficking web broken up in their very same neighborhood, there was a witness that needed to be protected after being threatened, prostitution, a double-homicide…It seemed like all the criminals had conspired to do everything all at the same time.
She heard someone call at the door and told them to come in without checking to see who it was. When she noticed who it was, she removed her mask and smiled.
David had changed. Since he has come back from his stay in Salamanca, he had risen in rank and now formed a team with Gonzalo working as Don Lorenzo’s right hand. He had let his hair grow out a bit, and his smile had gotten a little harder, more masculine. His physical appearance was always very professional, even though Silvia, knowing him well, knew that it was all a formal front.
“Good morning!” He greeted. “I see you’re busy.”
“You have no idea.”
“Well, bad news. There’s another case, this one serious.”
“No, David…please.”
“It’s the mafia that had contacts with the group that interfered with your wedding. They traffic just about everything you can traffic: money, prostitutes, drugs, minors…”
“What do I have to do?” She asked, overwhelmed.
“All the collected evidence from the scene of the crime is in the warehouse. Bones, hair, blood…analyze everything, but we weren’t able to find a body.”
“Okay, okay…”
“Oh, and one more thing…”
“Fuck.”
“You just have to relax,” David said, pushing a strand of her hair off her face. “You can handle this and more, okay?”
Silvia nodded.
David smiled and was about to walk out the door, but before stepping out, he turned around to look at Silvia.
“I’ll see you during our break like every other day?”
“That’s right…and Pepa will be working like always.”
“With your face working through her break and you not being able to be with her gives me an advantage, eh?”
“Oh, stop! Go on, I have a lot of work to do.”
“Okay, okay.”
Silvia watched him walk away and shook her head. At work, aside from a few looks from Pepa, it was David who cheered her up. The hour-long break was the best part of the work day. For both of them.
________________________________
Silvia heard a high-pitched beep and took off her mask. She pulled off her gloves and made her way to her cell phone to turn off the alarm. 11:30, break time.
She sighed. She had gotten a lot done in two hours, but she still hadn’t even gotten to the mafia case that had been given to her.
She took off her lab coat and pulled her hair out of the ponytail as she left the lab looking for David. She found him speaking with her father and she decided to wait for them to finish. When they did, David looked instinctively towards the stairs and smiled at Silvia who started to walk down excitedly.
“What a change,” He said, seeing the huge smile on the redhead’s face.
“Deep down, I really do like working so much…Come on, I’m hungry and it’s a beautiful day to take a walk around the block.”
They were walking towards the door when Silvia realized something. She stopped suddenly, smacked her forehead, and sighed.
“Shit, I forgot. Pepa’s leaving late today, so I have to pick up Noah.”
“And what’s the problem?”
“We came in the same car, I left mine at home. I’m going to look for Pepa to tell her I’m taking the car and she’ll have to take a taxi, wait for me.”
She took off to Paco’s office, where Pepa was now working under her brother who had been promoted. She called several times before opening the door, but there was no one there, just a few reports on Pepa’s desk and her cell phone. She always left it thrown there.
“Hello, boss,” Curtis greeted as he walked by. Silvia grabbed him by the arm.
“Wait, have you seen Pepa?”
“Yeah, I saw her leave with Aitor, like she always does.”
“Leave?”
“Yes, it’s break time for those of us with any luck. But look, it’s not anything out of the ordinary, I bet she’s at Los Cachis with him right now having a few beers.”
Silvia nodded and said goodbye to Curtis a bit absently. Pepa hadn’t told her about any of this. Well, Silvia hadn’t told her about her breaks with David, but she had her reasons. Pepa was very jealous and she didn’t want her to worry every time she and David went out together. But, Pepa? Why hadn’t she told her anything?
She shook her head, trying to shake off those ideas and she went back downstairs.
“I couldn’t find her, and she left her cell in the office. I don’t know what to do now.”
“What time do you have to go for Noah?”
“At 1:30.”
“Well, that’s perfect, I get off of work at that time. I can take you.”
Silvia smiled. “Would you?”
“Of course, it’s been a few days since I’ve seen the little one, I can’t wait for her to pull my hair and my tie and show me all her toys like she does every time I go to your house.”
Silvia laughed.
It was true, Noah got along really well with David, but it’s because he liked children so much. He had told her that he had been with a girl for a long time and had thought that starting a family would be great, but she was afraid of commitment and when he proposed, she turned him down. Shortly after, they broke up for good.
He was an amazing guy, very caring and sincere, and it was that sincerity that made Silvia a little uncomfortable sometimes. During the past two years, he had had one relationship or another, but he always made it clear to the redhead that he was still in love with her. Silvia could only smile nervously in response.
Noah adored him, though. He could spend the whole day playing with her and wouldn’t get tired. She had long, incomprehensible conversations with him, and if she spent the entire day playing with him, she would sleep the whole night through.
…
Pepa was still working at 2 since she was leaving late. She had already found her cell. When she saw it on the desk, she sighed in relief and checked to see if she had missed any calls. What she found was a message from Silvia:
“David’s taking me to get Noah, so I’m leaving you the car. A kiss, and don’t work too much. Also, I hope your break went well.”
Pepa sighed as she took her seat. She wasn’t sure what she was more bothered by - the fact that David spent the whole day stuck by Silvia’s side or the last words written in the message. Pepa shook her head.
“She’s mad…” she mumbled.
She knew Silvia had found out that she had been spending her breaks with Aitor. The message had been written with the intention of not sounding angry, but she was, there was a reason she had said it in a message. She could’ve very easily walked out of the lab and, before leaving, tell Pepa that she was going with David. But no, she had sent a text instead.
The brunette closed her phone, ticked off, and decided to dive back into the report. Someone knocked at the door and when she gave permission, Curtis walked in.
“I just remembered that Silvia was looking for you,” he said.
“Yes, I already know. I think she’s a little upset because she couldn’t find me.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, she looked alright when she was leaving for her break.”
Pepa lifted her head from the papers and looked at him strangely. “Silvia goes out during her breaks?”
…
Silvia had just gotten out of the car and was heading to the front door of the nursery. She heard quick footsteps behind her and saw David making his way towards her.
“Wait for me, okay?”
“But the car is double-parked, you have to stay inside.”
“Bah, it’ll only be a few seconds. Anyway, I want Noah to see me.”
Silvia smiled. Those were the little things she liked about David. She knew he did these things for her because he really wanted to. That period with Pepa had already passed. They loved each other, they told each other all the time, but they didn’t always show it. Some moments with Pepa were completely unforgettable, and nobody could please her in bed like Pepa could, but the “little things” had disappeared. Their lives were so chaotic with their little bundle of energy, Noah, that their mornings of having breakfast in bed and lifting the little one up in their arms had become quick breakfasts in the kitchen or under the sheets full of coffee stains. Sometimes Noah would lower the side of her crib - because she already knew how - and would walk to her mothers’ room on Sunday mornings, but it wasn’t the same anymore. She couldn’t stand staying in bed for more than two minutes and she would soon jump down and start running around the house, and Pepa and Silvia had to always keep an eye on her if they didn’t want her to destroy everything or end up hurting herself.
They had been told it was just the “terrible twos” and that, when it passed, the little girl would calm down, but neither mother was sure about this. Noah never stopped moving, never stopped wanting to discover things, she was very curious and always smiling, but she would exhaust any human being. It was only after eating that she would get sleepy, but she wouldn’t go to sleep. She’d stay thrown on the couch watching her favorite cartoons on tv for an hour or so. It was the only hour Pepa and Silvia had to relax all day.
Maybe that’s why the redhead enjoyed spending time with David. He always gave her comforting smiles that she sometimes really needed, and he would appear in her lab at the most unexpected moments to tell her “I just wanted to see you”. That way, she never really felt alone at work.
She had to admit that when it was Pepa who, with a free minute, would stop by her lab just to see her, she was much more excited than when it was David, but this happened so rarely that whenever she heard someone knock on the door, she knew it was probably David and she’d smile.
“Good afternoon,” The nursery school teacher greeted Silvia for the second time that day. “Noah! Look who’s here!”
Both Silvia and David moved to the right to see where the little one was. She was sitting on the floor, babbling to a little boy who was attentively looking at her while holding a rattle in his mouth. When she heard her name be called, she lifted up her head and, seeing her mother, she got up a little clumsily and started running.
“Slow down, slow down,” The teacher advised.
Silvia squatted and opened her arms and Noah, laughing, threw herself into them. The redhead picked her up.
“Mama!”
The first thing the little one did was give her a kiss. It was just because of that that everyone could forgive her for being so restless. She was a very affectionate little girl and, without having to be asked, she gave big hugs and kisses to her loved ones, especially her mothers of course. Silvia had made fun of Pepa every time she’d get a dazed look on her face with Noah, for no particular reason, would kiss her. Whenever she would do that, they would forget all about the bad things and remembered why they wanted to have a child in the first place.
“Were you good today?” Silvia asked, looking at Noah with a smile.
“Yes! I play with my friend!”
“You have a friend?”
“Yes!”
“Very good, that’s what I like to hear.”
David, who during this time had been standing behind Noah, called her while tapping on her shoulder. When she turned around, her face lit up again and she threw out her arms for David to pick her up.
“Hi!” Noah greeted him. “You here?”
“Yes, I’m here because I wanted to see you.
Noah hugged him around his neck, but quickly pulled away in surprise. David looked at her confused.
“Itchy!” She yelled, pointing at his face.
David smiled and took her hand. He placed it on his chin to show her what was itching her. The little one rubbed her hand over the stubble, laughing because it tickled a little bit, and David started to laugh seeing her like that. He turned around to look at Silvia who was watching the touching scene and smiling.
“I didn’t shave this morning,” he said. “But it seems she likes it.”
Silvia caressed her daughter’s face and turned to look at David. The woman who ended up with him as the father of their children would be very lucky indeed. He was going to be an exemplary father.
They said goodbye to the teacher and this time, Silvia sat in the back of the car with Noah sitting on her knees since David didn’t have a car seat. When they made it back to the house and they got out of the car, Noah started to walk quickly to the stairs and she stopped there waiting for her someone to help her get up, but she saw that David hadn’t gotten out of the car so she went back to the car and pulled on the pant leg of her mother who was saying goodbye to David.
“Say ‘bye’ to David, angel.”
“No…” Noah muttered sadly. “No, come.”
“Cariño, I have to go.”
“No! Peeease! Peease!”
David looked to Silvia who was shrugging her shoulders. “Why don’t you stay to eat?”
“I don’t know, I don’t want to be a bother.”
“Believe me, you’re not a bother. If you keep the girl entertained, I’ll invite you to eat, to have dinner, or to whatever you want.”
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
At that moment, Silvia was a little paralyzed. It was things like that that made her feel uncomfortable, but at the same time, flattered her.
“No, David, I’m not asking you out on a date.”
“Yeah, yeah....and it was more than that, it was a date with an insinuation. That ‘whatever you want’ can be interpreted many ways.”
Silvia smiled and opened the door. “Well, don’t interpret it in any way. And get out of the car before I regret it, come on.”
David got out, laughing, which affected Noah, who, when she got inside, started running around the house. She returned with a surprised look on her face and went into the kitchen.
“And mama?” She asked.
“She’s working, she’s going to get her late,” Silvia said while she hung her coat up on the coat rack.
“Why?”
“Because she has a lot of things to do.”
“Lots of bad guys?”
David let out a loud laugh. To kids, a cop’s job was to catch bad guys, just like on tv.
“Yes, because today there are a lot of bad guys. She’ll get here while we’re eating, okay?”
The girl nodded and grabbed David’s hand. “Look! Look!” She yelled while she pulled him to her bedroom.
Before exiting the kitchen, David turned around. Silvia was opening the freezer to take out what she wanted to cook. There was still time for him to go.
“Will it bother Pepa if I’m here?” He asked.
Silvia looked at him and shook her head. “No. And if it does, I don’t care.”
That contemptuous voice didn’t go unnoticed by David. “Are you two mad?”
Silvia smiled a bit uncomfortably. “No, it’s just…nothing, us being silly.”
David finally let the little one lead him down the hall. Silvia leaned against the freezer and took her cell out of her purse. She had gotten a message ten minutes ago while they had been in the car. She sighed as she read:
“If you’re angry, we need to talk about it. We already know what happens when we hide things. Oh, and I also hope your break went well.”
Great. Pepa had found out that she wasn’t working through her breaks, and not only that, but probably that she was spending them with David, too. They were going to have a serious problem if they didn’t stop lying to each other, but they both hated having to put up with each others' jealousies. But no matter what happened, and though Pepa was also angry, it was she who insisted that they talk and fix things after an argument. To Silvia, those “we need to talk” moments were incredibly uncomfortable and she hated feeling as though her arm were being twisted. But today, she had the luck of having David in the house. With him there, the discussion would have to wait, at the very least until that night.
Links to the original story written in Spanish:
http://pepaysilvia.mforos.com/1469855/8481210-por-si-eramos-pocos-01-11-09-23-40/
http://pepaysilvia.mforos.com/1469855/8680673-por-si-eramos-pocos-ii-28-11-09-21-35/