#joley

“So, how’s the new temp working out?” Rosé asked, leaning against the counter as she watched Denali make breakfast. “You know, I didn’t think they had that in this industry,” she mused offhandedly. She had gotten to the point where humor was the only way she could cope with everything that had happened.

And Denali was sympathetic towards it. Lord knows she’d relied on far worse coping mechanisms in her past. “Symone’s cool, great dancer, charming, gets along with everyone. And it’s kinda nice to not be the newbie anymore.” There was a hesitant beat before she followed up with, “everyone misses Lemon, though.”

She nodded as she poured herself a mug of coffee. “She misses you guys too, said as much when Jan and I went to visit her. It’s only been a week, but I think this program has been good for her. I’m glad we intervened when we did… I don’t even want to think about where she might’ve ended up a year from now if we just let her sort things out on her own,” she couldn’t help but wince at the thought.

There was another silent pause. Denali found herself treading lightly on the subject, unsure of how far she should pry into Rosé’s family drama (drama didn’t even feel like the right word at this point), even if she was tangentially affected. While they’d been intimately involved for months, they’d only been girlfriends for a couple of weeks – it was a fine line to tow. “Did she ask about Priyanka?” she decided to question.

Rosé cleared her throat. “Yeah… She asked how she was doing, if her family was mad at her,” she answered, taking a sip from the cup. “We told her the truth, that things are uncertain, but she’s doing better. I think she handled it well, all things considered.”

Once they were both sitting and eating at the table, Denali risked asking another question. “Do you think Priyanka’s gonna visit her? Or wait until she’s out?”

Rosé strummed her fingers against the table. “Jackie said she wants to, but I think they’d be better off waiting until she’s done, to make sure she’s really ready to face her again. Though I dunno if there’s ever gonna be a way for them to truly be ready.” She sighed, taking small bites of her food, then looking up at Denali. “I’d like you to come with me next time.”

Denali blinked in surprise, though she did her best to not appear caught off guard. “You do? I mean, of course I will, but you’re sure I wouldn’t be intruding?”

She smiled softly, reaching her hand out and waiting for her girlfriend to take it, then gave it a gentle squeeze. “You’re sweet,” she murmured warmly, “I’m sure. I could use the moral support.”

——

The rehab center was about an hour outside of the city, though it took Rosé, Denali, Jan, and Nicky longer, as they went out to New Jersey first to borrow one of Jan’s parent’s cars. Like last time, they’d decided they would spend the night at her family home after the visit with Lemon. As happy as they were to see her, it didn’t lessen the emotional toll of the experience.

It was a nice facility – clean, spacious, though perhaps a bit clinical. But there was a nice yard, a tennis court, and a gym. Denali had joked that it was nicer than many of the hotels she’d stayed at. It was also a women-only facility, a request Rosé had made to Widow ahead of time, knowing that being around men who weren’t on staff would only hinder her recovery.

The four of them sat down in the cafeteria, watching as different families reunited with their recovering loved ones. It was only a few moments before Lemon joined them, looking noticeably calm and well-rested. “I’ll admit,” she said after they’d exchanged greetings, “it is nice to wake up without a hangover.”

“Your nurse says you’ve been doing really well,” Rosé recalled with a proud grin, “says you’ve been participating in group, too.”

Lemon smiled with a shyness that was often foreign to her. “It hasn’t been easy but, y’know, I had to face my demons eventually. Denial’s what landed me here in the first place.”

They all looked at each other, then back at the blonde. It was no secret, the demon in question, but none of them wanted to be the one to address it, until finally Jan cleared her throat. “So… what have you been coming to terms with?”

“Really?” Lemon asked with a humorless laugh. Then she sighed, knowing a non-answer wouldn’t be acceptable. “I know what’s been… the big trigger in all of this,” she gestured vaguely, only to cringe when it was clear that they were waiting for her to continue. “I know I’m in love with Priyanka, okay?”

It wasn’t a surprise, but to hear her admit it brought on an overwhelming sense of relief. A painful chapter in their lives could finally close. “Doesn’t it feel better now?” Denali asked.

“No,” she answered with a dry laugh, “but it will.”

——

“Just make yourselves at home, ladies. You want anything to eat or drink?” Jan’s mother asked, fixing a snack tray regardless. “Oh, Jan’s father has some work friends coming around too, but don’t worry ‘bout them,” she added as she set the tray on the coffee table, continuing to go on until she went off on a tangent, no longer talking to them, but talking for the sake of it.

Nicky blinked as she took everything in. They had been there for no more than fifteen minutes, but it felt like she had gone through a family gathering speed-run. “Your mother is very nice, if not a bit…”

“Chatty?” Jan finished. “She’s American-Italian gorge, this is par for the course,” she assured, nudging her affectionately and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

Nicky hadn’t gone to visit with Jan and Rosé the first time, but upon hearing that Denali was joining, Jan realized the moral support would make everything much easier to process. She hadn’t even thought about how doing so would result in Nicky meeting her family for the first time until her mother asked ‘who her friend was’. But fortunately, the introduction had gone without a hitch.

“Hey Jan,” her father entered the living room from the garage with another man – one of the work friends – in tow, “do you remember my buddy, Vinny? Musta been like eight the last time you saw him.”

Jan noticed the man leering at her, but didn’t react – it was something that had long since stopped phasing her. “I don’t, sorry. Nice to see you, though,” she replied politely, albeit a bit curt.

“Sure is,” he said as he continued looking her over. “So, does this mean I get a friends and family discount now?”

Jan’s body tensed up, barely even relaxing when Nicky’s hand protectively gripped her thigh. Her stomach twisted into a violently tight knot and she could feel her heart lodge itself in her throat. “Excuse me?”

“What? Daddy doesn’t know you’re a stripper?” he laughed.

She had only a split-second to plan the reaction that could affect her relationship with her parents for the rest of her life, and all she wanted to do in that moment was fade into oblivion. But, by nothing short of divine intervention, in that split second, she recognized him. “As much as he knows that you threatened me and threw a temper tantrum when you couldn’t pay me for sex,” she answered, managing to keep her voice from faltering.

And with that, Jan’s father couldn’t have cared less about her career. He grabbed Vinny by the throat and slammed him against the nearest wall, shouting, “you tried to pay my daughter to fuck you?!”

Jan’s mother quickly ushered the girls downstairs, insisting they distract themselves with TV or video games. “You guys don’t wanna be witnesses to this,” she added before returning upstairs, her indistinguishable screaming joining the noise.

“We should be fine as long as we don’t hear gunshots,” Jan shrugged as she flopped down onto the couch with a jarring amount of nonchalance.

The other three looked at her as if she’d sprouted a second head. “You’re incredibly calm considering you just got outed as a stripper,” Denali pointed out.

“Yeah, and we’ll worry about that later. Thank god Vinny happened to be such a creep,” she brushed it off and turned on the TV.

Rosé and Denali seemed to accept that, but Nicky wasn’t deterred and sat by her girlfriend’s side. “My love, this is a big deal. We may have gotten lucky just now, but they will want to talk to you, and you need to know what you want to say. And I’ll be there for you throughout it, okay?”

Jan sighed and slowly turned to face her. “I know you’re right,” she conceded. “And I do plan on telling them the truth – that I don’t plan on leaving, I’m there because I enjoy it, and my finances are taken care of because my wonderful, amazing girlfriend supports me no matter what,” she explained, smiling softly by the time she finished.

It was enough to quell Nicky’s anxiety, even if only temporarily. “I trust your judgement, then.”

“I just hope they do too.”

Even though the TV drowned out some of the shouting, they were able to tell when things had actually died down. There was a solid couple hours of silence from upstairs, and for a while, everything was calm.

“Jan? Can you come upstairs?”

Jan’s chest tightened at the sound of her mother’s voice. “Coming!” she called up, taking Nicky with her as she joined her parents in the kitchen.

“We meant by yourself,” her mother started, but decided to drop it and let Nicky stay without further argument. “Jan, how long have you been a stripper?”

“‘Bout… guess it’s been almost four years. Three and a half really,” she murmured, then launched right into her prepared speech. “I’m happy there. Everyone I work with is part of my family and we take care of each other. I’m not there because I have to be, Nicky’s got an eight-figure net worth. I don’t need help and I don’t need pity,” she took a deep breath and allowed herself to properly look at her parents, “but I’d like acceptance.”

Her parents looked at her, then at each other. There was silence, tension mounting, Jan’s heart racing a mile a minute while she had a crushingly strong grasp on Nicky’s hand. “Are you sure this is safe for you?” her mother asked.

“Nothing is guaranteed to be perfectly safe, but our security guard is amazing and it’s run by an owner who cares so much about us,” she answered. “I’m happy, Mom. This is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Another beat of silence, but this time the tension eased. “I suppose as parents, that’s all we can ever really hope for our children. We’re always gonna worry about you, but you got a good head on your shoulders,” she said, then looked at Nicky, “seems like you got a good woman too.”

“Your daughter is the kindest, most loving person I have ever met,” Nicky chimed in, then smiled fondly at the shorter woman, “she is the love of my life, I would do anything for her.”

Her parents nodded, both of them getting up and the four of them hugging. “I guess that’s all we needed to hear,” her father concluded.

——

“What’s up with you?” Brooke Lynn asked, looking at Nicky curiously. “Ever since you went to visit Lemon, you’ve seemed kind of… off. Did something happen?”

Nicky pursed her lips together as she tried to figure out an answer. Her nails strummed against the table and she let out a deep sigh. “No… Well, yes, I suppose. We were staying with Jan’s parents and her dad’s pervert friend outed Jan as a stripper.”

Brooke’s eyes widened in concern. “Oh my god, is she okay? Did her parents, like, disown her or something?”

She shook her head. “They handled it shockingly well. I do not think I’ve seen such a healthy relationship, it was kind of jarring, actually,” she explained. “But I digress. Being with Jan and her family, I feel like I know her deeper, and she’s already met my mother, and that’s the most important family I’ve got.”

“Where are you going with this, Nicky?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. Her suspicions were developing, but she needed her confirmation.

Nicky hemmed and hawed for a moment, considering changing the subject all together for a moment. “I want to ask Jan to marry me,” she finally confessed.

“You’re a crazy person,” she replied flatly. “How long have you two been together again?”

She winced, knowing the answer only hurt her case. “About four months… It’ll be four just before Lemon comes home.”

Brooke took a slow sip of coffee, wanting to choose her words carefully. Nicky has been her friend for years, but she still wanted to tow the line between brutal honesty and gentle guidance. “Listen, you know I only want you guys to be happy, right? That just isn’t a lot of time together to make that sort of move. It takes a while to truly learn who your partner is in their entirety.”

“Maybe,” she conceded. “But I think you can agree that she and I have been through more in these few months than the average couple in a year… or maybe I am just trying to find justification, I don’t know. What I do know is that I don’t have the capacity to ever love anyone like I love her, it just could not be.”

She nodded, smiling softly. “I know what you mean. When you fall in love, it feels like the most amazing thing in the world, like a high you never want to wear off. I never thought I’d find the one… and I guess I didn’t, since there’s two of them.”

Nicky looked down, wishing there was a way she could articulate how she felt. But she couldn’t, not in English, not in French. When she thought too much about her feelings, she would become overwhelmed, something entirely unfamiliar to her. “I know you are right, and I do worry I may still be looking through rose-colored glasses. But I just cannot imagine a future without her.”

“So what’s the rush?” Brooke asked. “If you know you want to be together forever, why do you need to sprint down the aisle?” When that didn’t seem to be a complete solution, she added, “maybe you should talk to Jan about it. You guys seem to communicate pretty well, I’m sure you guys can figure out what page you’re on.”

“Well then… what you are saying is I should stop looking at rings for now?”

——

“Hi, we’re here to pick up Lena McCorkell for discharge,” Rosé said to the woman at the front desk. “Are there any forms we need to fill out?”

“No, we have all of her paperwork on file, you’re good to go,” the woman assured with a polite smile, then pressed an intercom button to relay the message. “She’ll be right out.”

Jan and Rosé watched a nurse enter the office area and pull Lemon’s files, then left just as quickly. They then looked at each other in anticipation. This was it, Lemon was getting released from rehab. As excited as they were, they were nervous about her leaving a controlled environment and jumping back into reality. They had faith in her, everyone that worked with her had glowing reviews. But they didn’t want to hope for too much and be let down, though when it came down to it, they just wanted Lemon to be happy and healthy.

“Lem!” Jan spotted the blonde first and threw her arms around her. “We’re so proud of you for getting through this. Are you ready to go home?”

Lemon nodded with a soft smile and deep breath as she threw her bag over her shoulder. “As I’ll ever be.”

The two of them let Lemon walk out first, only to stop short in confusion when she stopped in her tracks and dropped her bag on the ground, but when they looked forward, they understood and quickly made themselves scarce, mumbling about waiting in the parking lot.

Priyanka cleared her throat and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Hey.”

Lemon looked down, then tucked her hair behind her ear as she looked back up. It didn’t feel real, standing in front of her with everything calm and peaceful around them, but the way her heart raced reminded her that it wasn’t a dream. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, huh?”

“It’s been too quiet without you.”

It wasn’t the dramatic, emotional reunion one might expect for two people in their positions, but that had never been who they were. Instead, they hugged, Lemon resting her head in the crook of Priyanka’s neck. She was afraid her touch would feel unfamiliar, that going so long without each other would have erased the memory of Priyanka’s body against hers. But it felt like they had never been apart. “I missed you.”

Priyanka gently rubbed her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I missed you too. I’m happy you’re coming home.”