Otalia fic - Heroes and Friends, 2/?
Thanks for the encouragement and comments! Just an FYI, I'll be out of town for the next few days (conference and family vacation) so my Internet access will be limited. Therefore, I may not be updating until next week. I couldn't leave you hanging though until then so without further ado...Chapter 2.
Title: Heroes and Friends
Fandom: Otalia
Rating: Mostly PG-13, eventual NC-17 for sex and violence (Not between our girls though…the violence that is…promise. The other? Well…teehee).
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: We’ll see if I’m that good. If you don’t want anything with spoilers and haven’t read any at all, don’t read this because I think I’ve hit just about every single spoiler out there.
Summary: Nat gets the shock of her life and it turns Liv’s world upside down.
A/N: I’ve been spending WAY too much time in the BPD speculation threads. This fic revolves around one of the possible scenarios I came up with regarding upcoming spoilers.
A/N2: Thanks to Ndasky for giving me an idea for the title. Actually, I swiped it from a Melissa Etheridge song.
Chapter 2
A knock at the door had Olivia jumping out of her skin. She looked at the clock and it was a little past midnight. She covered up in her robe and padded to the door. When she saw Natalia through the peephole, her heart raced with worry.
“Natalia, what’s wrong?” She could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were red and a little swollen.
Natalia immediately slipped into her arms and relaxed against her. Olivia guided her to the sofa and urged her to look up at her, “What’s going on?”
“Rafe came over.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” she looked up into Olivia’s now fearful eyes, “It wasn’t good. He basically gave me an ultimatum…you or him.”
Olivia felt tears coming up too. She had been afraid this would happen, but she forced herself to keep it together for Natalia’s sake. Inside, she fought the urge to race over to Frank’s place and yank Rafe’s sorry ass out of there and smack him around a few times and insist on him apologizing to his mother for being a selfish, insensitive brat.
Instead, all she could do was look into the lost and forlorn face of the woman she loved and brace herself for the coming heartbreak.
“And?”
Natalia took a deep breath, “I raised him for 19 years, gave him everything I’ve had, but I just found you. I want 19 years with you,” she shrugged and smirked, “lot more than 19 actually. I can’t lose you. Not now.”
The relief Olivia felt was palpable. She felt like she’d come up for air after nearly drowning, but she couldn’t allow Natalia to do this. She loved Natalia far too much to let her face the heartbreak of losing a child.
“Natalia, I don’t want you to lose Rafe because of me. If we need to back off until he has more time, we’ll do that. I can do that.”
“No…no. I can’t. I won’t. I love you, and he’s just going to have to get used to it. This isn’t easy, but it’ll work out eventually. I prayed and I have faith that it’ll be all okay someday.”
Natalia pulled Olivia into a hug and held her close, feeling the comfort of her warmth as it settled her soul, “This feels too right and too good to lose, Olivia. I won’t let you go.”
*******
Olivia hung up the phone after talking to the coordinator for the state education association’s annual conference, and not for the first time wished that Natalia hadn’t quit her job. She really had far more patience for panicky people than Olivia did. She rubbed at the crease between her eyes when she heard a knock at the door.
“Come in!” She smiled when a familiar dimply face peeked around the corner. “You didn’t have to knock! Get in here!”
Natalia quickly came over in about three strides and let Olivia wrap her in a hug. Ever since their conversation at the park yesterday, the casual contact between them had been easy and uncomplicated. They had both set their minds on moving forward and taking their relationship to a more physical level, and it was evident in every interaction they had.
Natalia nuzzled into Olivia’s shoulder enjoying the feel of her. Olivia hummed her appreciation, “You smell good…sweet.”
The blush racing up Natalia’s cheeks when she pulled back made Olivia smile. God, she loved this woman so much! They had come so far that it almost seemed surreal. Here Olivia was with her at one time sworn enemy gazing longingly into her eyes, wanting so desperately to wrap her in her arms and push away the world. The emotion of it all was almost too intense. She forced herself to come back to the present and the reason Natalia was probably there.
“So, what did Rick say?”
“Well, nothing really conclusive yet. He did a full battery of tests and some we won’t know for a couple of days, but he felt they were long shot possibilities anyway. He just wanted to be sure, but he didn’t think it was anything to worry about.”
Olivia smiled, relieved, “Well, that’s good! It still doesn’t help with knowing why you’re dizzy and throwing up though.”
Natalia pursed her lips, making her dimples show, “Actually, he thinks he has a pretty good idea.”
“Really?”
“Well, he asked about what’s been going on with me lately, and we just got to talking and…I told him about us and everything going on.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he’s really easy to talk to, but anyway, he thinks it’s plain, old-fashioned stress.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow, “Stress. Seriously? That’s it?”
“Yeah, he didn’t sound worried at all. Why? Did you want it to be something worse?”
“No! No, of course not!” Olivia quirked her mouth to one side, “So what now? Do you have some pills or something?”
Natalia shook her head, her ponytail swinging with the movement, “Nope, I don’t want medicine. He just said that I need to relax. We still have to wait for the rest of the results, but I’m sure I’m fine.”
“Me too. Everything’s going to be fine.”
*********
Emma and Natalia bustled around the kitchen pulling together the ingredients needed for potato salad. Olivia worked at the table basting some chicken wings with Natalia’s spicy Spanish glaze that everyone loved. Of course, Natalia had a couple dozen cookies baking in the oven as well. She couldn’t go to a barbeque without baking something sweet!
The women shared a look between them as Emma swiped bites of some of the finished cookies. Tonight was the night. They had agreed that they needed to do this before the barbeque so they could just be themselves there so they wouldn’t have anything to hide, even from Emma.
Olivia could tell that Natalia was a nervous wreck. She had cooked way too much food and when Natalia was nervous…she cooked…a lot! She also caught the glances that Natalia gave Emma when the little girl wasn’t looking. After what happened with Rafe, she was afraid of losing someone else she loved.
When Natalia came to the Beacon the other night when she saw Rafe, they sat for a long time talking. Natalia couldn’t help but worry about Emma’s reaction. Natalia wasn’t sure if she could take hearing Emma say hurtful things to her. Olivia wasn’t sure what to say to that. She was afraid too, but they promised to work through these problems together. She wasn’t about to let Natalia go back to the farmhouse alone that night so she finally talked her into sleeping there. Olivia took the couch, of course. The last thing they needed was for Emma to wander in on them like Rafe did. The next morning though, Natalia was like a completely different person when Emma ran into the room and into her arms. The first thing Emma said was that she loved Natalia. They took that as a good sign.
“She’s always going to love you. You know that, right?” Olivia looked at Natalia pleased with her daughter’s amazing people skills.
“Just like her mom?”
“Always.”
Olivia smiled at the memory. Somehow deep down, she knew this would be okay. She looked at her watch and realized the time.
“Hey guys, I’m gonna call for the pizza. A thin crust with ham, pineapple, and extra cheese, right?”
“Right!” They turned in unison to answer.
“Oh!” Natalia added at the last minute. “Can you get some of that dessert pizza too? Cherry.” She winked at Olivia.
Olivia laughed as she dialed the number. When she hung up, she announced that it would be there in thirty minutes. Natalia turned and looked at her with a look of trepidation. Olivia smiled at her and Natalia visibly relaxed. They worked to pack up and put away the food that had been cooked.
“That should do it!” Natalia announced.
Olivia snapped her fingers, “Oh, I forgot about the ice chest. It’s out in the barn.”
Natalia waved her hand in the air, trying to act far more nonchalant than the look on her face depicted, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it in the morning. Let’s just enjoy the pizza and movie.”
“Hey, Jellybean, here are the plates. Can you take them out to the living room?”
“Sure! Can I go ahead and put the movie in?”
“Yeah, just don’t start it yet, okay?”
Olivia looked back at Natalia who was deathly pale, “Hey, you okay?”
“I’m really nervous about this, Liv. What if it goes terribly wrong?” She put a hand to her stomach. She closed her eyes and squeezed her lips tightly together. Uh oh, this didn’t look good. Olivia instinctively backed up as Natalia put her hand to her mouth.
“Go…go,” Olivia shooed Natalia out and up the stairs. Fortunately, Emma didn’t notice since she was engrossed in an iCarly episode.
A few minutes later, Natalia headed back down the stairs, her face freshly scrubbed. The pizzas had arrived while she was in the bathroom, sitting open on the kitchen table. Olivia smiled at her when she came in the kitchen.
“Hey, feeling better?”
Natalia stood next to Olivia and leaned her hip against the counter, “Yeah, I think so. Probably just nerves. I just love Emma so much, you know? I don’t want to hurt her. I just want us to be a family.”
Olivia ran a finger along Natalia’s chin, lifting it so their eyes could meet, the clean smell of soap and toothpaste greeting her, “You love me and you love her. How in the world could that possibly hurt her? I don’t know what either of us would do without you.”
Natalia smirked a little, as she glanced at the still empty plates, “Probably starve.”
They both laughed before Natalia’s look turned serious again, “Will you do the talking?”
“Of course.”
**********
Olivia precariously carried three plates of pizza while Natalia navigated around her with the glasses of soda to set on the table.
“Yay!!! Food!” Emma slid down from the couch to the floor and dove into the pizza in front of her. “You guys ready to start the movie?”
Olivia looked at Natalia, who was nervously biting a fingernail, and decided to move around closer to her so she wouldn’t feel so alone in this. She rubbed her suddenly sweaty palms on her jeans and took Natalia’s hand sitting her down on the couch next to her.
“Actually, sweetie, Natalia and I wanted to talk to you about something first, if that’s alright?”
Emma shrugged and put down her slice of pizza before turning to her mom and Natalia. Olivia noticed the big innocent eyes so much like, yet unlike, her own completely open and trusting in whatever her mom was going to say. Olivia did something unusual then. The offered a silent prayer to whoever was up there listening that this would all be okay and she squeezed Natalia’s hand before running in head first.
“Well, you remember how you did that really great presentation about our family for Mrs. Jennings?”
Emma nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, that was a lot of fun, but I didn’t understand why I couldn’t play with Derek after that.”
Olivia looked briefly to Natalia, “Well, that’s kind of what we wanted to talk about. See, there’s a lot of different types of families, but most families have a mommy and a daddy.”
“Like Derek has.”
“Right. Well, some families have one mommy or one daddy and some like yours have two mommies.”
“But I do have a daddy.”
Olivia nodded, “Yes, you do. He just doesn’t live here.”
Emma looked at her confused, “But we don’t live here either and we’re still a family, right?”
“Well, yeah. We don’t have to live together to be family.” Olivia was starting to feel flustered. The conversation wasn’t exactly going in the direction she had hoped. She looked over to Natalia, trying to whisper, “I really thought the presentation angle would work.”
Finally, Natalia shook her head and slid down to the floor to look Emma in the eye, “Emma, you know your mommy and I love each other right?”
“Yeah, of course. You’re BFF’s, like I told Rafe, and he’s like my brother. We’re a family.”
“Yes, yes we are, honey. But, your mom and I…we love each other more than just BFF’s.” Natalia paused at the confused look on Emma’s face. Then another incident came to her that might help in explain this. “Remember when we made the Valentine’s cards and we talked about butterflies in the tummy and how liking someone sometimes make us feel funny things?”
“Yeah?”
Olivia watched in amazement as Natalia delicately led Emma to understanding the situation. She put her hand on Natalia’s shoulder to let her know she was doing great. Warm, brown eyes turned up to look at her and a hand reached up to take her own, “Well, I get those butterflies in my tummy when I’m with your mom. She makes me feel funny inside, but it’s a good kind of feeling. It means that I love her more than anything in this world, and I want us to always be together.”
Olivia looked back at her daughter who was watching them intently. The young girl was wise beyond her years so she wasn’t surprised when green eyes narrowed at both of them and flickered between looking at their hands entwined and their faces.
“But don’t girls feel butterflies in the tummy for boys?”
Olivia finally spoke up, feeling the final gauntlet in this should be thrown by her, “Sometimes. But, sometimes girls can feel butterflies for other girls. And, boys can feel it for boys too.”
“Oh,” Emma looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking back up at Natalia, “Did you feel butterflies for Uncle Frank?”
“No, baby, I didn’t.”
“That’s why you didn’t marry him?”
Natalia smiled, feeling they may have actually gotten over this hurdle with minimal injury or trauma, “Yeah, that’s right.”
Emma looked down at her pizza then back up at both women, “So, does that mean the two of you will get married now?”
Olivia smirked as she looked down at a stunned Natalia, who struggled to wrap her mind around what had just happened, “It may be a little early for that.”
The little girl looked at her mom excitedly, “But you want to right?”
“Ummm,” Olivia was the one at a loss for words now. [i] Thanks for putting me on the spot, Bean! [/i] “Do you want us to?”
“Sure! That would be fun and I’d get to be a flower girl again. Only one thing though,” she looked down and picked a piece of ham off her pizza before turning back to them, more specifically at Natalia, “No running out. Okay?”
Natalia laughed a little, the worry falling off her shoulders like a weight, as tears of happiness glistened in her eyes, “You got it.”
“Good! Can we watch [i]Wall-E[/i] now?”
“Absolutely!”
Olivia didn’t think she had been any happier than she was in that moment. In spite of all the madness and chaos going on with Rafe, she was so glad that she and Natalia could have a small moment of joy in the midst of it.
She pulled Natalia up off the floor and sat her down on the sofa next to her. Both sighed with relief as Olivia took Natalia’s hand in her own and they cuddled up for the movie with their daughter.
*********
Two hours later, Emma was sound asleep in between Olivia and Natalia on the sofa. Natalia raised a finger to her lips to quiet Olivia and smoothly slipped her arms under the sleeping girl. When she stood, Emma immediately curled into her and threw an arm over her shoulder. Olivia mouthed “awww” as she watched Natalia navigate the steps with her child.
A few minutes later, Natalia quietly closed the door behind her and came back down the stairs to find Olivia rifling through the DVD collection. Quietly, she snuck up behind Olivia and wrapped her arms around her waist, startling the older woman.
“Natalia! You know better than to do that to a heart patient.” Olivia turned in her arms and wrapped her own around the other woman’s shoulders as they stood and nestled together.
“Oh, please! Bet you’ll outlive us all.”
“Poor you then. At least if I went first, you’d get a few years of peace and quiet.”
Natalia glared at her, “Don’t even joke like that.”
Olivia smiled and laughed in spite of the admonition, “Okay, fine. So, what do you want to watch? Romance, action, comedy?”
“Hmmmm, how about horror?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. Didn’t you know that horror movies are the best date movies?”
Olivia turned and bent down to get “Saw” off the shelf, “No, guess I didn’t. Why is that?”
Natalia took her hand after Olivia had put the DVD in the player and led her back to the couch, “Because when a girl gets scared she’s supposed to try to get as close as possible to her date so she’ll feel safe and protected. It’s great for make out opportunities.”
Olivia looked at her girlfriend surprised, “And you know this how?”
“I read a lot.”
“Uh, huh,” Olivia stared at her unconvinced.
“Oh, just hush and watch,” Natalia leaned over and hit play on the remote then laid her head in Olivia’s lap, her hand resting on Olivia’s thigh just under her chin. She smirked as Olivia squirmed.
“Comfy?”
Olivia swallowed hard, at the hand on her leg and the unbidden thoughts of Natalia’s head so close to…, “Yeah, I’m great! Just peachy.”
“Good,” Natalia shifted her head a little to get more comfortable and then closed her eyes when she swore she caught a scent of arousal from Olivia. Dear God, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Before she realized what she was doing, her hand had begun running intricate patterns on the inside of Olivia’s thigh.
Olivia closed her eyes when fingers began to softly draw out an unseen message on her thigh. She let her head fall back on the couch as she fought to hold back a moan. When she felt blunt nails dig into the inside of her thigh, she instinctively shifted to spread her legs a little. Sweet Jesus, she’s gonna kill me! The ache was quickly building and she was powerless to stop it.
When Olivia looked down, dark knowing eyes were staring back at her, “Natalia.”
The throaty whisper of her name made Natalia roll over and push herself up, closer to Olivia. She felt shaky fingers brush through her hair before reaching around her to hold her up, as her own hand wrapped around Olivia’s shoulder. She couldn’t resist the pull anymore and she gave in as Olivia wrapped both arms around her and pulled her into a kiss. It was slow and deep, holding promises and barely restrained desires. Natalia had never felt more loved or in a more perfect moment than laying in Olivia’s arms as they kissed. If this love was sending her to hell, it was so worth it.
Olivia broke the kiss and pulled Natalia closer as she kissed her way down her jaw to the pulse point on her neck. She could feel the erratic thump of Natalia’s heart under her lips and she let her tongue caress the pulsing flesh. Natalia let out a soft moan and laid her head back, offering her neck to Olivia. She kissed and nipped her way down to the sensitive flesh at the base of Natalia’s neck and was rewarded with a sharp burning pain as Natalia’s fingernails dug into her back. She hissed and sucked a little harder and again felt the sting of nails into her raw flesh.
She was quickly losing control and while all of her common sense was telling her to pull back and take it slow, her primal nature had other things in mind. She found the hem to Natalia’s shirt and slipped underneath, letting her nails graze the soft skin just above the waist of her pants. Natalia arched into her.
She pulled back to look at Natalia, her dark eyes glazed over with desire. She watched her lips part in anticipation as Olivia slid her hand further up her side.
“Olivia...,” Natalia whispered her name like a prayer.
“Do you need me to stop?” Olivia prayed she didn’t say yes because if she had to stop she may just die on the spot.
“No, don’t stop.”
Olivia moved in to kiss Natalia when a scream upstairs made her jump. They looked at each other and quickly snapped out of their lust-induced haze.
Natalia was the first to speak, “Emma.”
They both scampered off the couch as another scream pierced the quiet night. Olivia took the steps two at a time and Natalia was right on her heels. They both ran into Emma’s room, or at least the room that used to be Emma’s when they lived there, and went to the little girl’s side.
Olivia immediately crawled onto the bed and stroked her hair, soothing her as she came out of the nightmare. The look in Emma’s eyes was positively horrified. They were wild and dark, almost frantic. When they settled on Natalia, Emma whimpered and reached for her. She wrapped Emma up in her arms and rocked her.
“It’s okay, baby. It was just a bad dream. We’re here now. We’ve got you.”
She could feel Emma shake her head and her shoulder was cold now from the tears soaking through her shirt, “It’s not okay. You were gone. You were gone and we couldn’t find you. And…and, you were screaming for us to find you because you were hurt. And…”
Emma broke into fresh tears when she couldn’t finish the tale and all Natalia could do was rock her and reassure her. Olivia got up and went to get a glass of water from the bathroom.
“Here, sweetie, drink some water.” Emma gulped the glass down in a few swallows and took a ragged breath as she began to calm down.
Natalia crawled up into the bed and stroked her long dark hair, “I’m not going anywhere, Emma. You have my promise, okay?”
She felt a tentative nod, “Okay.”
All three sat there for a few more minutes until Emma started to get drowsy again. When Natalia moved to stand up, a small hand came up to pull her back down.
“Stay here, Natalia. Don’t leave.” Natalia looked to Olivia, who smiled and mouthed that it was okay.
“Okay, sweetie, I’ll stay,” Natalia kicked off her shoes and crawled under the covers, “Here, slide down and close your eyes.”
Olivia watched as they got settled before she leaned over and gave both a kiss, “Love you.”
“Love you too,” they said in unison.