(no subject)
Title: Dream a little Dream
Author: royal_ivy
Rating: T
Pairing: Charlotte/Violet femslash
Summary: Violet is having some pretty inappropriate dreams about a certain Dr. King and at Oceanside Wellness gossip travels fast. Takes place in season 2.
Chapter Five:
On Monday morning Violet woke up at 5:30am, went to Starbucks and got Charlotte her usual order. From what she remembered of that night, she knew that their agreement was still in effect. Charlotte was still the prickly little annoying woman she always was. Nice to see some things never changed. She was surprised that the blonde had talked to her at the bar at all, that is other than to insult her. She was even more surprised when the blonde covered her drinks for the night and then drove her home. She hoped she didn’t embarrass herself too much.
She remembered being in the car and then asking the blonde if they could just forget about that horrible fight. After that it was a little blurry. She remembered Charlotte unzipping her dress and gently touching her back, but she wasn’t sure if that was real or another one of her sex dreams.
She waited for the elevator to come impatiently. All she wanted to do was give Charlotte her coffee as quickly as she could and leave. She had a feeling that despite whatever went on that night Charlotte would be just as grouchy as she usually was, if not more.
She quickly strode to the blonde’s office and deposited her breakfast on the desk before looking up.
“Morning Char-.” She stopped when she noticed that they weren’t alone. In the chair opposite Charlotte’s sat a tall blonde man who bore remarkable resemblance to Charlotte.
Charlotte’s eyes widened slightly in panic. “Violet. Morning.” The blonde stood up to greet her. “Sorry, I should have texted you this morning. My brother’s in town on business and decided to drop by for a surprise visit. Violet this is my brother Landry.”
Violet went to shake his hand.
“And this is Dr. Violet Turner, my…friend.”
Landry chuckled and went back to his seat. “My baby sister has friends?”
Charlotte scowled. “Of course I have friends. In fact, Violet’s my best friend.”
Violet froze. Did she really just say that?
“Oh, is that right?” Landry challenged.
Charlotte looked at her with pleading green eyes. This was a new look for her. She figured she could probably get out of being the blonde’s coffee lackey by doing this.
“Yep,” Violet agreed. “Best friends. You know we usually have coffee together every morning, but since you’re here, I’ll leave you two alone. I t was nice meeting you.”
“Wait,” Landry called out before she could get away. “Charlotte and I are going out for dinner tonight. Why don’t you join us? I would love to get to know Charlotte’s best friend.”
“Uh….” She looked back at Charlotte who wasn’t giving her any indication of what she should do. “Sure. Thanks that would be great. I’ll see you guys later then.”
She escaped to Oceanside, grateful to get away from whatever the hell just happened upstairs. It’s one thing to pretend to be friends, but it’s an entirely different thing to pretend to be best friends with your mortal enemy. How were they going to pull this off? And more importantly, why did she care?
Cooper was waiting for her in her office. He had given her space this weekend and refrained from calling her, which was nice, but now she was in for an awkward conversation. The perfect way to start off your day. Cooper was sitting on her couch with the book in his hands. She forgot that she left that here. Great.
“Hey, Vi,” he said patting the cushion next to him. “How are you doing?”
“Hey Coop. I’m fine. How was your weekend?”
“It was good.” He paused. “You didn’t exactly tell me what happened between you and Charlotte last Friday and I just wanted you to know….” He fidgeted with the book for a moment. “That whatever you’re going through-.” He stopped and started over again “What I mean is that there’s nothing wrong with….”
“Coop, just say it.”
“I don’t care that you’re gay. It’s fine. I love you and I support you always and I’m sure everyone else at the practice agrees. And what Charlotte did was just wrong. It was bullying and I made sure that she won’t bother you again. Really Violet, you know you can tell me things and I won’t ever judge. We’re best friends.”
“I’m not gay.”
Cooper faltered. “You’re not?”
“I’m bisexual, actually. And this isn’t a new development. I just haven’t told you. I just…I don’t know. I guess I didn’t know how to tell you. I don’t have a problem with it,” she added.
“Okay. Well, I still love you even if you’re half a lesbian.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks Coop.”
“No problem. So everything is good then? No struggles with your sexuality and self-loathing or any other crappy feelings?”
“No, not really. I don’t have a problem with me, but I’m not crazy about knowing what other people would think if more people knew. I don’t really like being judged.”
Cooper put an arm around her. “No one’s judging and if they are I’ll beat them up for you.”
She laughed. “Please don’t.”
“Alright fine. So how did Charlotte find out anyways?”
“Oh, that.” She didn’t want to lie to him, but she also didn’t want to die of embarrassment so she settled for halfway. “She caught me checking her out.”
“You checked Charlotte out?” he said slowly. She wasn’t sure if he was sure if he was angry at her for checking out his ex-girlfriend, but then a lascivious grin spread across his face and she knew he definitely wasn’t. “Seriously?”
“We may hate each other, but I’m not blind. She’s hot. Really, really hot. Okay?”
His grin got even bigger and she knew exactly where his mind went to. “Do not imagine us having sex,” she said while punching him in the shoulder.
“Alright, alright. I won’t. Man, I love bisexual Violet,” he said enthusiastically.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you do. Oh, you should know that Charlotte has apologized to me. I mean really apologized to me. And I apologized to her to too.”
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“Yes, I did. I said some really mean things to her Coop. I really shouldn’t have said them and I regret it. But everything is okay now. Really. We have an understanding and we’re just going to go back to passive-aggressively hating each other. So you don’t have to declare war on her anymore.”
“If that’s what you want, Vi.”
“Yeah, it is. Plus, I technically work for her now and I don’t really want to give her a reason to fire me.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Okay she would, but you bring in a lot of money and she likes making money. I think you’ll be okay. So tell me about these other women you check out. Are they hot?
She laughed and leaned back into the cushions. That hadn’t gone as badly as she thought it would.
0oo0oo0
“I’ll pick you up tonight at six.”
Violet started at the sound of the Charlotte’s voice and dropped the file she had been holding. “Jesus, Charlotte! You scared me.”
The blonde smirked. “Wear something nice. We’re going to La Sirène.”
Violet bent down to pick up the file and gather the papers that had slipped out while the blonde just watched.
“Yeah, sure. Okay.”
“No need to be snippy.”
Violet scoffed. “No need to be…. You’re kidding me.”
Charlotte followed her as she strode over to Dell at the receptionist desk. She gave him the file and he gave her a strange look. Charlotte glared at him over her shoulder and Dell went back to his paperwork.
“Thanks, Dell,” she said before heading back to her office. She was aware of how weird it was to have Charlotte King trailing behind her. She flopped down on her couch and looked over at the blonde.
“You told your brother that I was your best friend and now he invited me to this dinner that we’re never going to be able to pull off. We know nothing about each other. He’s going to know that you’re lying.”
Charlotte sat delicately on the edge of the armchair. “I’ll just make up stuff about you and you can Google my name.”
“Seriously? Can’t you just bring one of your real friends instead?”
The blonde clenched her jaw and stayed silent.
Violet sighed. “Of course, you don’t have any friends. Not when you have 101 dalmations to keep you company.” She couldn’t help it. She knew she was being a horrible person, but teasing the blonde just came naturally to her. After years of fighting and suffering through all of Charlotte’s insults, it just happened automatically.
Charlotte stood up and glared menacingly at her. For being a tiny person the blonde could be pretty scary.
“I am not Cruella,” Charlotte growled.
She should really stop and apologize now. Be a good person. That would be the right thing to do.
“Are you sure about that? I thought I heard barking this morning.” But who said she had to be a good person.
The blonde scowled and took a threatening step forward. She was a little afraid that the blonde would hit her.
“You little-.” Charlotte didn’t get to finish whatever disparaging thing she was going to say because at that moment Addison walked in.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” The redhead asked, concerned.
Charlotte visibly relaxed and took a step back, away from Violet.
“We were just discussing a case Dr. Montgomery. And I have to go now.” The blonde turned to leave. “Six o’clock, Turner.”
Addison shut the door once Charlotte left and arched an eyebrow at Violet.
“What was that? What’s going on at six?”
Violet smiled at the redhead nervously. “That was nothing. It’s just work stuff. Really.”
“If you say so.” Addison said with suspicion creeping in her voice.
0oo0oo0
“Is anyone worried about Charlotte following Violet around?” Addison asked the breakroom collective.
Pete put his herbal tea down and Naomi turned from the fridge and gave the redhead her full attention.
“Wait, what,” Pete asked.
“Dell said that Charlotte was talking to Violet today, but not arguing. And I saw Charlotte ready to kill Violet. I thought I was going to have to pull her off of Violet.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Pete commented. “They’ve been fighting a lot more lately. I wonder why?”
“I don’t know. Do you think we should do something,” Naomi asked
“We could cage Charlotte?” Pete joked.
Addison rolled her eyes. “Or we could make them work out their differences once and for all. Now that Charlotte’s not dating Cooper there’s no one to keep them in check.”
“Yeah, this is bad,” Naomi agreed.
0oo0oo0
The doorbell rang just as Violet was putting the finishing touches on her makeup. Charlotte had arrived exactly at six. Not a minute more. Not a minute less. She was more than a little anxious for dinner tonight. It was already going to be a train wreck, what with them pretending to be BFF’s, but on top of that she had also managed to piss off Charlotte again.
She could kick herself for doing something so stupid, especially when the blonde was all vulnerable and possibly about to open up to her. She ruined her chances at not having Charlotte hate her guts. She tried to apologize via text message, but the blonde didn’t respond.
She tied the sash on her bathrobe tighter and made her way down the stairs to open the door.
“Took you long enough,” the blonde huffed, while passing her to get inside. Charlotte eyed her bathrobe and frowned. “Why aren’t you dressed?”
“I was just about to. Just give me a minute.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes and took a seat at her dining room table.
0oo0oo0
After the therapist had gone back upstairs Charlotte began to explore the house. The last time she had been here she hadn’t had a chance to see anything and to be honest she was kind of curious about what kinds of things the curly-haired nuisance might have in her house.
The walls of the Spanish styled house were done in warms tones and the floors were a rich dark wood. It felt really comfy and homey. She traveled to what must have been the living room. Right away she spotted a piano tucked away in the corner. It was covered in sheet music and upon closer inspection she could see that the music notes were handwritten. The therapist composed her own music.
That explains the treble clef.
From the piano she moved over to the bookshelves occupying the back wall. There a couple of rows of classics and psychology texts, but the shelves were predominately filled with romance novels. She almost laughed aloud at this. The therapist did seem like she would be one of those sappy romantics.
0oo0oo0
Violet slipped on the silky midnight blue dress and then put on silver sandals. She grabbed her clutch purse and headed downstairs. She found the blonde in her living room looking at her embarrassingly large collection of romance novels. Charlotte definitely did not need to find out any more of her secrets.
While her presence went unnoticed by the blonde she took a moment to study her. Charlotte was petite and delicate, but had a fiery energy that radiated through her body. She was beautiful with her golden skin, her silky yellow hair and her green eyes. It was no wonder she dreamed about the blonde. Tonight, Charlotte had decided to wear a burgundy colored strapless cocktail dress. She looked flawless like she always did.
The blonde finally noticed her and turned around with a smug look on her face. The blonde had been aware of her staring.
“You look good,” she offered weakly.
“I considered wearing my coat made of dalmation puppies, but it was too hot.”
She chuckled. “You made a joke. You do have a sense of humor.”
“Imagine that,” the blonde said flatly. Charlotte turned back to the bookshelf, obviously not over the teasing that went on earlier today.
“Did you get my text?”
“I got it. I just didn’t care for it.”
“Oh.” Violet stepped into the room, making a beeline to the piano in the corner. She had been working on a song over the weekend, throwing all the emotions of the week into it. It wasn’t quite done yet. She ran her hand over a few keys and played a few notes.
“Okay,” she said while sitting down on the bench. “So I shouldn’t have made that joke when you were trying to tell me something serious.”
The blonde crossed her arms and scowled. “I don’t appreciate the name calling.”
“Yeah, I get that. I, uh, I won’t call you Cruella ever again, if that helps?”
“Or Tiger, or the Source of all Evil or whatever else you have.” The blonde’s green eyes were cold and hard. The nicknames must have hurt Charlotte a lot more than she let on.
“Okay, no more name calling. Done.”
The blonde let out a breath of air. “Good.”
She started to play the beginning of the song she was working on. Her fingers flew across the keys in a flurry of motion while Charlotte watched on silently. She frowned when she reached the part of that she had been having trouble with. For some reason she just could come up with the next part. It’s like her inspiration just dried up and left the page blank. She played the last few measures again and stopped. Still nothing. She played those measures two more times before the blonde gently removed her hands away from the keyboard.
“Come on. We’re going to be late.”
“Oh. Yeah.”
0oo0oo0
The restaurant was just as nice as she expected it to be. Elegant and understated with splashes of red in the décor. The wine was delicious, the food was great, but the company was surprisingly better. Landry was actually a pretty great guy. Smart, funny and easy on the eyes. She was pretty sure that they were flirting at one point.
Charlotte was another surprise. Outside of the hospital, the blonde was a completely different person. She smiled more, laughed more, and just seemed happy for once.The learned that the blonde had a dry sense of humor that sent her into fits of giggles. She was also learning a lot more about Charlotte’s childhood. Lots of very funny stories.
She couldn’t believe that they were actually pulling this off. As it turned out all those times Cooper had ranted about Charlotte had stuck and she knew just enough personal facts to get by. Charlotte narrowed her eyes suspiciously whenever she was able to answer something like what the blonde’s favorite book was. Charlotte of course just made up stuff about her. None of it was too ridiculous, but still.
She grinned at a comic retelling of Charlotte’s first pony ride. The blonde playfully punched her brother on the shoulder.
“I was not that bad. Besides I turned out to be an excellent rider.”
“Okay, okay I’ll give you that,” Landry conceded. “Do you ride, Violet?”
“Me? Oh, no. I don’t think I would fair too well on a horse.”
He smiled charmingly at her. “I’m sure you’d be fine. Next time Char comes home, you should come with her. We have stables on our property. I could show you how to ride.”
She giggled a little and then grinned. Oh yeah, definitely flirting. “Really?”
She felt a sharp pain in her shin and tried her best not to gasp aloud. She couldn’t believe that Charlotte had kicked her. She looked over at the blonde was discreetly glaring at her.
Okay, message received. Flirting with the brother is not welcome.
Landry nodded his response and then refilled her glass with more wine. “So how did you guys become friends anyways? My baby sis is usually more of a loner. Not many people can handle her unique personality.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Ha ha, very funny.”
“Well, I can handle it. Before she became super doctor with two jobs my practice used to co-op with St. Ambrose. Nothing exciting.”
“Just as well,” Landry mock lamented.
There was a pause were Landry was just gazing at her and vice versa. She wondered how long he was in town for and she was about to ask when a heel clad foot ran up the length of her calf. She jumped a little in her seat and widened her eyes in surprise at the blonde. The blonde tapped her wrist signaling that she was ready to go. It was an extreme way to catch her attention, but it worked.
“It’s getting a little late,” she said.
“It is, isn’t it?” He said reluctantly.
The meal was paid for and they made their way to the entrance where they waited for the valet drivers to get their cars.
“So, that was a good dinner sis. I’ve got a lot of meetings tomorrow, but later in the week we should meet up again? I know you’re a busy, busy girl, but I like seeing my only baby sister.”
“That sounds good. Give me a text when you’re free and I’ll try to make it work.”
Landry turned to Violet, pulled a business card out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her. “It was really nice meeting you Violet. I can’t believe Char has a good friend like you.”
“It was great meeting you too.”
The valet driver came and handed them their keys. Landry hugged his sister goodbye and then hugged her and kissed her cheek. She smiled at him.
Charlotte wrapped her small hand around her wrist and tugged her towards the car. Once inside, the blonde glared at her.
“You were flirting,” Charlotte accused.
“So? He’s nice and it’s not a big deal.”
“You’re not supposed to flirt with my brother. You’re supposed to be my best friend.” Possessive much?
“First of all we’re not even real friends and second all you do not get to tell me what to do. You can’t control everything.”
“Well, don’t sleep with my brother.”
“Maybe I will. Wouldn’t you like that?”
“Violet,” Charlotte warned, while putting the car into park. They had reached her house somehow without her noticing.
She sighed. “You know I won’t. Besides, it would be too weird. He looks too much like you. It would be like sleeping with you.”
“Wouldn’t you like that,” Charlotte repeated to her, venomously. The blonde’s green eyes were swimming with emotions and she had a feeling that there was something more going on here.
Violet stayed silent for a moment. She wasn’t certain that she wouldn’t like that. They had a cataclysmic relationship. She didn’t completely hate the blonde, but there was something about her…something about the blonde that drew her in. And there was something between them. She knew there was because they could have very easily just ignored each other and went on with their lives. Yet here they were arguing on a daily biases and pretending to be each other’s best friends. She wondered if she cared about Charlotte more than she thought.
By the time she realized that she had taken too long to respond, Charlotte had already turned the engine off. The car was silent and something in the air shifted. She looked over at charlotte. The blonde was wearing a strange expression on her.
Charlotte looked at her. Then grabbed a handful of her dress, pulling her towards her. Before she knew what was happening Charlotte was kissing her. Soft, warm lips moved against hers and she responded in kind. Just as quickly as it started it ended.
She pulled back slowly, not sure what to do. Charlotte looked nonplused by the whole ordeal. Maybe she imagined everything?
The blonde arched an eyebrow. “Forget what your house looks like? We’re here. Get out already.”
She rolled her eyes and then smiled at the blonde. They were going to pretend it never happened. Good. She could do that. What she couldn’t do is try and figure out what just happened.
“See you tomorrow,” she said while getting out.
Charlotte nodded and gave her a small unsure smile.
She let out a heavy sigh once she was in the house. Tonight was a doozy, but hopefully they could go back to yelling at each other come Tuesday. She looked through the glass panel of her front door only to see the blonde still sitting in her car, with the engine still turned off. It was too dark to make out Charlotte’s expression, but she knew the kiss had affected her more then she let on. A minute later the engine came to life and Charlotte drove away.