:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Sidney nodded and smiled, a bit over-enthusiastically. “Th-that’s great! I’m so glad to hear that!” It had been the longest time she’d spent without seeing Emmy, and it was hard to not feel overwhelming guilt for losing touch with the child she loved while she started to become a real person. Ultimately, it was up to Eden to invite Sidney to spend time with Emmy, and she just had to wait for Eden to decide. She tucked a lock of caramel colored hair behind her ear and looked away as she tried to gather herself, telling herself she could let herself feel the guilt later when she got home. 

“Um… Well, I’ve mostly just spent the last couple of weeks moving and packing and getting ready to come back to work here, so…” Sidney trailed off, realizing that’s what she’d already said. She looked at Eden and instantly just dropped the wall she’d put up. “And I went to rehab,” she blurted, her eyes wide with vulnerability.

Eden gave her ex-wife a nod, accompanied by a sweet smile. Was it really great, though? The question held too much weight and depth, and it was one that the blonde wasn’t too keen on dwelling on for too long. 

Sidney took a deep breath and raised her eyebrows, tucking her tablet under her arm before replying. “Well, um, I-I got back… three? Three days ago. I’ve just… I’ve been moving in and getting ready to come back to work.” Sidney had spent the last three days getting settled in, unpacking, grocery shopping, and calling therapists and searching for more AA meetings around town, but maybe it wasn’t quite time yet to lay all of that on her ex-wife.

 She smiled nervously for a second and then took her tablet back out shakily. She unlocked it and glanced at the chart once more, but immediately forgot what she was doing with it. The doctor looked up at Eden again and smiled again. “Um, h-how have you been? How’s… How’s Emmy?”

“Three days,” Eden repeated with a slight head nod, really trying to wrap her head around whatever was happening. In theory, three days wasn’t that many days. But somehow, in that moment, it felt like three days was way too long for Sidney to be back without even saying a word. Their communication skills had improved miraculously a little while after Sidney moved, but over the last few months, there’d been a lot of ghosting. Which was fair, they both were women who led busy lives. Though, Eden still wished ( irrationally so ) that despite the lack of communication on both ends, that Sidney would’ve thouht to tell her she was coming. Not that Eden would’ve if she was in her shoes, but she hated being this caught off guard.

@doctorxseuss, @jordyngarcia, @toni-rowland

Sidney found herself on her way to the intake office after being handed a chart by one of the nurses. She scanned over the information as she walked, slowing to a stop as she entered the room. The doctor looked up and made eye contact, equally shocked by the other person in the room. Eden. She actually dropped her tablet, though its fall was fortunately broken by its case. Sidney quickly stooped down to pick it up, not even taking notice or registering any relief when the screen appeared to be uncracked. 

“H-hey,” she stammered as she stood up. “Nice to m– G-good to see you.” Her nerves had certainly gotten the best of her already, but it wasn’t as though she hadn’t expected this. “Y– Um, d-did you get my text? Or, um, yeah, we should just… Hank Gelfand.”

“I did, I just, um.. clearly misinterpreted it,” Eden chuckled softly, turning back to the brain scans that lit the dim room. There was almost another soft bit of laughter at the situation— how one glass of wine after a long day had somehow made her read a text from Sidney of all people incorrectly. But the blonde held it in, in exchange for a smile on her lips. Should she have been happy to see Sidney? Probably not, especially given... whatever it was that’d been going on between Eden and Jordyn. 

An immense amount of learning had been done in the last few years of the Latina’s life, she had jumped though many a obstacle and had been growing mentally. Each of her past relationships had taught her patience in different ways, Daniel had taught her that not everyone is going to be as infatuated with her as the last person and to be patient because not everyone’s affection was the same. Kim taught her patience in the category of being a woman as a whole, same sex relationships were more complicated in her opinion and woman’s feeling needed to be taken more seriously and attended to quicker. Woman need to be assured and loved a completely different way than men and for a long time Jordyn couldn’t understand that because she herself was more like a man when it came to being loved. Eden’s blue eyes were beautiful as she looked into Jordyn’s, her smile lit up the brunettes whole aura. “Absolutely. Thank you for coming to see me today.” Her words flowed out of her mouth like water, calm and smooth. Their eyes stayed connected for a few moments before Jordyn took her free hand and placed it on the side of Eden’s face, rubbing her thumb along the other woman’s jaw line. She pulled the blondes face closer to her, sending a soft smile before connected her lips with the others, hoping to god the signals she was getting from Eden were correct.

Eden almost nodded and turned out of the brunette’s office. 

Almost. 

Over the last few days, Eden had practically thrown herself into work. Even if it meant spending hours doing the most mundane and tiring parts of her job— that’s what she was doing. She’d asked one of the nurses to go grab a doctor for her, one to help her assess a new patient with her from differing standpoints. Since she was so into the case, Eden hardly noticed when someone else had entered the room, and when she turned her head to speak to them she nearly dropped the tablet in her hands. 

“What?” She was dreaming. This must’ve been some exhaustion-induced hallucination, and blinking a few times would surely show that Sidney wasn’t standing right beside her. A few blinks later, and somehow she was still there. Somehow, this seemed familiar. Like she should’ve known Sidney was in the building. Which, she absolutely did, she’d only just misinterpreted Sidney’s words as they jumbled up in her tired mind the night before. But, Eden didn’t quite know that yet. 

Jordyn’s eyes squinted as she listened to Eden begin her speech. Halloween night definitely got interesting to say the least, the way Eden had reacted to the topic they were discussing caught Jordyn off guard, reminded her of a familiar feeling she would experience when Kim would get overwhelmed. In the last few weeks the two had barely interacted, a sense of awkwardness filled each space they were caught together in. However Jordyn didn’t feel an ounce of awkwardness in these moments, the brunette couldn’t help but smile softly when she realized that Eden liked spending time, she enjoyed the company that she provided and this was never something that could ever have been predicted, nothing close to this. These two clicking? What an unexpected situation. Jordyn didn’t speak while Eden spoke towards her, however her eyes made it clear that she was listening and was taking every single word in. A smile came to her face as she got up off her chair and walked around her desk towards Eden, she bent down onto her knees. “Listen Eden, you are allowed to be scared, absolutely. Fear is real and is normal and okay to feel.” Jordyn reached up and took the blondes hand in hers. “You are not a Kim, trust me. What you did was completely different than what Kim chose to do. You protected your child, Kim punished her ex-wife with no reason to punish her. You do not stand close to a Kim, understood?” A small smirk appeared across her lips “and for the record, I’ve really liked having you around too and I definitely do not like having Kimberly around. Got it?” Her eyebrows raised, tilting her head to the right while looking up into Edens bright eyes.

“Believe me Mandy, If I get to the bar and there is not a drink already made for me I will probably drink the window cleaner instead.” A frustrating sigh filled her office, her whole day had been filled with unpleasant interactions and god was she glad that her day was over. She placed her head down on her desk and let out a louder groan of annoyance, not expecting a familiar voice to fill her ears. The Latina lifted her head to see the blonde and two coffees, not quite vodka but the smile on Eden’s made up for it. “Oh!..Eden…” She paused, her eyes carefully taking in the blondes expression before smiling her own soft smile at the words she was saying. “Just sit down wont you.” Her arm extended to take the coffee from the other woman. She took a sip of the coffee “Wow, the self-deprecation really just makes the flavour.” 

Slowly approaching the other therapist’s office, Eden clutched the coffee cup in her hands tightly, as if somehow that’d make her feel better. As she neared the door, the blonde inhaled a long, staggering breath just before knocking lightly. The immedaite sight of Jordyn alone in her office brought the blonde an unbelievable amount of relief, and an insane amount of fear as well. A soft, dimpled smile slowly appeared on her face as she walked towards Jordyn’s desk, setting the coffee down gently. “That’s some.. sorry that I ruined Halloween a little bit with my dramatics coffee,” she spoke softly. “It’s a really.. it’s a nice blend of, um.. self-deprication, lots of apologies, and just a little dash of shame.”

The illusion? Such a mom thing to say – though it didn’t matter because the more Eden did not know, the better. Demetria couldn’t have anybody finding out about her tutor boyfriend, otherwise they were going to be OVER and in all honesty, there would be nothing else that could set Demetria back any further than what she had come. It seemed as though most people were beginning to notice her laid back approach to things and that was simply because Jared was teaching her more about HUMANITY than she ever could have imagined. Little pieces of their personalities was beginning to chip away, gradually embedding itself in the others skin – morphing them into becoming much better human beings that they were before. Luckily, the therapist had taken it upon herself to change the topic, back on to her secondary daughter ( the younger, biological one who didn’t have fucking ISSUES ). “If her persuasion technique is THAT good, tell her to run for PRESIDENT – I heard that the outside world is currently all fucked because of the giant dickbag sat in office. Thank god I’m not out there… I mean, I don’t really understand politics like that but I am one opinionated bitch and the world needs more people like Emmy. As for the costume, I could only be tempted by Belle. Let’s be honest, I have the features for it.” A coy smile lifted to the corners of her lips, lightly nudging Eden with the crimson wings that accompanied her shoulder blades intentionally but it was too good to be true – again, the topic had circles back to the beauty, her hazels now not looking for anybody in particular, in case it gave her act away. “Technically, he is not my date. It was never a mutual agreement that we would come together but more so, see each other here? I don’t know.”