{ cold little heart }

As Donna and Jake Maddox took in the sight of a very terrified looking Victoria, they smiled in knowing. Nervous to meet the ‘rents? Check. Donna walked past her daughter with the absolutely horrible mouth and shook the hand gently before pulling Victoria in for a big hug. “Ooooh I’m so excited to meet you. I’ve heard all about you. Except, well, maybe not. Brynn doesn’t really tell us much about her relationships in order for us to not get to this step. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this serious befo–”

It was Jake’s turn to interject himself into the conversation, chuckling at his wife. Surely Victoria could see where Brynn got her mannerisms. He held out his hand to shake Victoria’s, happy when she accepted it. “Don’t worry, I’m a hugger but I understand personal boundaries. So you’re the hot-shot Healer that my boys tell me about. From what Sam was telling me, you saved our daughter from a bad cold, huh?”

Brynn’s face paled. She hadn’t exactly told the truth to her parents about her spine, not wanting to worry them. Glaring daggers at her brother, Sam stepped forward and gave a small and feeble wave. “Dad, let Brynnjamin off the hook. She just wanted to not have you two worry about her. Again. And the boys? Why do you insist calling them that? You sound like a mafia boss rather than a police chief.” Sam rolled his eyes before wrapping an arm around Brynn and ruffling her hair. All Brynn could do in that moment was look at Victoria with slight panic, wishing that she was curled under a rock right at this moment.

Icy eyes widened when the Maddox matriarch pulled her in for a hug. Dear God, no. She almost dropped the obnoxiously expensive bottle in her hand on purposely, just to escape this unnecessary display of affection. Instead, she gave Brynn’s mother a quick pat on the back with her free hand in return. Suddenly she missed the cold and emotionless meetings with other pureblood families. Though, a small part of her was glad to hear the small confession that Brynn was never with someone serious enough to reach this step. That had to count for something. Even if she had to endure this right now. “Lucky me for making it this far then,” she remarked, glancing again at Brynn. Lucky, lucky her. 

Brynn’s dad, she sensed, would be a lot more tolerable to be around. She gave him a firm handshake, keeping a complete poker face at his mentioning of Brynn’s “cold”. “It was nothing I couldn’t cure in my sleep. Your boys don’t call me the hot-shot Healer for nothing,” she told him with a slight smirk. At least she was off to a good start, she hoped, thanks to her bad-ass reputation. She looked at Brynn, who arguably looked more uncomfortable than how Victoria was currently feeling. This was definitely the cue to bring out the wine. “Well, since everyone is here, could I offer anyone a glass of wine? I brought this gem for the occasion.” She held up the bottle. “1996 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Guaranteed to be one of the best Bordeaux reds you’ll ever have.”

Brynn was going to die. She had barely had any time after work to get home and make dinner and her parents were going to be over in, oh god, about an hour. Not to mention that her parents decided that Sam should come over as well so now it was one big happy family thing where they all met Victoria. Victoria. The woman who didn’t do well with parents and made sexual innuendos and would probably not keep her hands to herself under the dinner table. Victoria. The woman she was in love with. Victoria. The woman who was married to a very gay man and restricted to barely living a life of her own due to her manipulative and emotionally abusive parents. That’s it. She should just run off to Canada and never come back.

With a heavy sigh, Brynn shoved a piece of gum into her mouth and, with a crack, found herself in her house. What she didn’t expect were her parents and brother sitting on the couch in her living room, waiting for her. Why was her throat hurting and where did her gum go? Oh. She was choking. On the gum. Obviously. With another loud, choking cough, Brynn went wide eyed at her parents and moved towards them. “What the hell happened to six?” Before anything else could be said, the front door opened and in walked Victoria. “Oh fuck me.”

“Brynn Leigh Maddox! Language!”

Victoria Woods never felt nervous. That wasn’t a word in her vocabulary. But there was a certain level of discomfort having to meet Brynn’s parents. She met plenty of parents in her lifetime. Pureblood elitists, but still parents. But this was different. Not just because these parents she was about to meet weren’t purebloods -- she didn’t care about that -- but the fact that these were parents of someone she was involved with. Someone she cared about. This was a whole new level to their relationship, and naturally Victoria was hesitant about it. How did moving in together feel easier than this step?

Come on Woods, you’re charismatic as hell, she told herself. What did she need to be concerned about? Her arrogance and dry humor were endearing. To some people. Maybe. With a sigh, she got out of her car and headed to the front door. In her arms was a bottle of red wine straight from France -- worth about 1300 bucks -- which she figured would make the occasion little more bearable. She learned from a young age that money always talked, after all. As she walked through, she heard Brynn speaking, then someone else. “Brynn?” As she walked into the living room, she froze. Brynn. Sam. And two other people that had to be their parents.

“You–You didn’t order pizza?” Brynn’s nose scrunched up cutely, immediately pouting as her face was gently turned so she was looking at her girlfriend. Within seconds of seeing the look on her face, Brynn knew that she’d been caught in what was most likely an awful, awful attempt at lying. Biting her lip, she let out a soft whine because dammit, she didn’t care that Victoria was ‘sparing’ her. Families, or at least she was told, were messy. They weren’t always amazing and quite frankly, a lot of the times she heard they were rather shitty. But it didn’t mean she liked being kept away like some jacket you only bought because you were drunk and too far-gone to realize it was a size too large and looked like an oompa-loompa threw up. 

Focus Brynn.

Wait, did she just say that it wouldn’t be forever? Hello? Did she just say that it was a promise it wouldn’t be forever? !!!!! Brynn’s head shot up as she looked Victoria dead in the eye. “Do you mean it? Will I not be the ugly jacket forever?” God. Why did she speak sometimes? Victoria would have no idea what she meant by that. “I mean, ahem, I won’t be a secret forever?” Hope, or something very much like it, burned in her chest. “I’m glad we had this talk. Makes it that much easier to let you know that my parents have invited us for dinner tomorrow night.”

Before she could even get another word out, her phone rang. Brynn held up one finger, quickly tapping the accept call prompt and held it to her ear. “Brynn here. Whoa whoa whoa Cole. Slow down. What happened? Oh God. The only one? Jesus. Okay, okay. I’ll come in. And Cole–Be sure to send some agents to the victim’s families. They deserve to hear it today, even if we don’t have all the details. Alright, thank you. See you soon. Bye.” Brynn quickly hung up, moving around Victoria to run to the coat rack. “I’ve got to go, baby. Kara Lansing’s team… They’re all dead. Except for one of them.” Her face looked grim. “I think Zach might need the weekend off if he was close to Kara. She’s among the dead.” And with that, Brynn disappeared out of the room, leaving Victoria with two very different pieces of information. 

Victoria’s brow furrowed in confusion at the mention of a jacket. Why was her girlfriend so weird? More importantly, why did she find that so endearing? “No, of course not.” In her mind she planned for it all to be over the very second her parents croaked. Which they didn’t seem too far from doing at their age. “I have no idea what the hell the ugly jacket means, but you’re the furthest from ugly anything.” Then Brynn dropped a bombshell on her -- parents? Her expression of confusion turned into one of a shock. “Wait wh--” But she was cut off by Brynn’s phone ringing.

Everything else happened quickly, but all Victoria could think about was the unexpected -- and quite frankly, undesired -- surprise of meeting Brynn’s parents. Even as Brynn explained that Kara was found dead, that thought stuck with her. “Oh. Okay, sure.” Yeah, sucked that Kara was dead and all. But she had to meet the parents? She didn’t do meeting the parents. How did that even go? What would she even say? Why did she assume that keeping Brynn from her parents would mean she was exempt from having to meet Brynn’s? She stood in the kitchen moments after Brynn had already left. Maybe she would start thinking of what to say to Zach once he heard the news.

“You–You ordered pizza? Shit. I didn’t realize I was in my own little world for that long.” As Victoria stepped closer to her, Brynn couldn’t stop the sigh. She knew that Victoria was a very smart bean, and…. Well…. Fuck. “I’m not pissed. I’m not even mad. I just–It’s hard for me, you know? That all we can ever be is just us when we are alone or when we’ve got our disguise charms on or–You know what? It’s fine. I don’t need to bitch to you about anything. I should have told myself this repeatedly in the head when we started, when I started to fall and–It’s fine. I promise. Just ignore me.”

Giving her girlfriend a fake smile, Brynn moved on her tiptoes and kissed Victoria softly on the lips. “Anyway, what kind of pizza did you order? I’m really craving some mushroom and olive.” Quickly she turned away to go back into the fridge, this time determining to not get lost in her thoughts. “Should we have salad? I’ve got enough ingredients to make salad. Or! Or I could make cheesy bread or garlic bread. Some kind of bread sounds delicious right now.”

It was fairly apparent to Victoria that Brynn was bothered more than she appeared. Mainly because Brynn didn’t seem to catch what Victoria would’ve assumed was blatant sarcasm about the pizza. And it was even more evident when Brynn seeped out what was actually bothering her -- the whole secrecy thing. No quick peck on the lips would distract her. Any other time Victoria would’ve loved to ignore it and move on, but she already learned that pushing things under the rug would only blow up in her face later. So she decided to stay on topic.

“I didn’t order any pizza. Because I was being sarcastic,” she sighed. “Brynn, look at me.”  She reached out to the blonde’s face and turned her head so she would look at her. “You wouldn’t know it because you don’t know my family, but I’m actually sparing you. You don’t need to ever be apart of that part of my life. It’s a pain in the ass. And I like you as far away from it as possible. You make me forget it even exists, sometimes. My real life is here, with you. I know we have to be a little secretive, but I promise you it won’t be forever.”

Zach: How rude.

Zach: Sorry.

Zach: You do have feelings, hence why you're getting up in arms about this. But don't worry, I'll back off.

Zach: Yeah, yeah. I'll let you know. I'll leave you alone.

Vic: Bold of you to assume how I feel about anything from words you read on a screen.

Zach: PLEASE DON'T TRY TO ENVISION THAT. It's private for a reason!

Zach: Well uh, I'll send her jaded ass your way some time.

Zach: Except for your parents, if I remember correctly.

Zach: Okay dude, I just don't want her to hurt you. You're like a really good friend of mine and I look out for my friends.

Vic: Too late. Not that it matters because I genuinely can't see it anyway.

Vic: My relationship with my family is none of your business either.

Vic: Don't insult me, Marlowe -- I don't have any feelings to hurt. Appreciate the concern, but it's not necessary. I know what I'm doing.

“There is no way in hell that I’ve got any cooking skills, I can promise you that. I can cook but I’m not that amazing.” Granted, she could cook, but the poor girl couldn’t bake to save her life. Maybe that was for the best. Her head shot up at the mention of Victoria being gone, a pout appearing on her face. “What? I didn’t know that was coming up this week.” Her jealousy seemed to be rearing its all too ugly head but she wasn’t about to let that be known to the other woman. “Well, here’s hoping you have a wonderful time. Say hi to Ronan for me.” 

Brynn grimaced at the mention of sexy texts. “Oh no. Never again. Not after your intern or whoever that was saw that text of mine about the no panties thing and–How do you feel about pizza? I’m thinking about a garlic herb chicken. That sounds pretty good to me.” Okay, well, maybe she was bad at the whole not showing jealousy thing. What with her desperation to change the subject and slight annoyance to her voice. Brynn went to open the fridge, hoping that maybe it would somehow teleport her to Narnia and she wouldn’t have to be in this damned kitchen anymore. 

It’s just, well, she wanted a life with Victoria. A life where she was a part of it in every single sense. Not just the parts she was allowed to be in because they involved being hidden away from prying eyes. She loved Victoria, she did. But she really hated being a secret. She’d never been in the closet, never needed to when it came to her family. So this was just completely out of her element. Brynn then realized she’d been stuck again in her own head. Fucking dammit. “I uh–How long was I staring into the abyss for?”

“Well if you haven’t kill me yet, that takes some skill, no?” she asked with a smirk. She never had an issue with Brynn’s cooking -- was she just not used to home-cooked meals? Either way, she wouldn’t change anything there. “Yes, this week. I’m just as enthused about it.” She sent another text to her sister-in-law as she spoke. “I probably won’t because teenagers are the worst.” Teenagers and her family? A nightmare. “But it will be Gatsby-themed so at least there’s booze.”

Victoria chuckled. Before she could say anything in response though, Brynn suddenly changed the topic to pizza. And normally she wouldn’t mind but she had quickly sensed the change in demeanor of Brynn. Icy eyes silently followed the blonde to the fridge. She watched as Brynn just stood there for a moment, staring at... well, she had no idea. Staring into space, probably. “Enough time for me to have just called and have a pizza delivered,” she responded dryly when Brynn came back to earth. She took a few steps toward her. “Brynn.” She didn’t even want to ask the next question because she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like the answer. She wasn’t a mind-reader, but she could feel something was up. “Are you pissed I’m going to this birthday party?”

Zach: Yeah that part sucks ass. But good thing I can have more than one. Orgasm doth not mean my little Zach's need to go a swimmin'.

Zach: Kara? I mean yeah. I guess. If you love a person who could go full serial killer at any moment.

Zach: ...... Please don't tell her I said that.

Zach: She dated Rick the Dick. That's fuck up numero uno. Numero dos fuck up was the fact that she led you on and then went for him. And now she's over here making you cheat on your husband. She sounds not that great. Kinda shitty tbh.

Vic: I’m actually trying to envision you and Lauren having sex and it’s just a complete blank for me.

Vic: Those are the exact type of people I like to be around.

Vic: Let’s be very clear on something. She hasn’t /made/ me do anything. No one on the planet /makes/ me do a damn thing. I’m thirty-eight years old. I make my own decisions. Yes, she made a really stupid mistake with Rick. But I’m over it and so is she.

Zach: Do I even want to know what you mean by 'than usual'. Have you had a fantasy you've had a dick, Vic? Oh God that rhymed.

Zach: I am not warm and gooey!

[fifteen minutes later]

Zach: Okay after further investigation, I have gathered that apparently I'm like an annoying fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie. I don't think I should text Kara out of the blue ever again about what I am.

Zach: But that's besides the point. Doesn't being with Brynnglton make this cheating? Never took you for a cheater, Vic. Her on the other hand...

Vic: Not in terms of envy but I’ve imagined it out of curiosity. But the multiple orgasms you can have in one go vs. the one-time shot of a dick kinda kills the curiosity fast.

Vic: I’m thinking me and your future sister-in-law should start getting to know each other. I get an inkling we’d get along.

Vic: A few months now? Well it was a bit on-and-off for a while but I think we're in a more stable place now.

Vic: I still ask myself that, actually. But I'm not really complaining. Some things you can't shake off, I suppose.

Zach: Well holy fuckballs.

Zach: You can totally shake things off. A pesky fly. An unwanted lump in your pillow. Even pee off your dick when it's super cold out.

Zach: Did you want to shake Brynn off? Or uh, not be with her I guess?

Vic: I'm suddenly happier than usual to not have a dick.

Zach: I can't with you.

Zach: Hold up. What? Since when? But Brynn is

Zach: She's.

Zach: She's kind of annoying.

Zach: How the hell did this happen?

Vic: A few months now? Well it was a bit on-and-off for a while but I think we're in a more stable place now.

Zach: ...........................

Zach: I agreed to move past that if you agreed to stop telling Roger down on fifth floor that he has perpetual mooseknuckle.

Zach: Why are you taking Brynn? Plus ones are meant for either real close friends or like, lovers. Last I remember you two were neither.

Vic: Can I go to this wedding and still tell Roger that he has perpetual mooseknuckle instead? The man refuses to get larger sized pants.

Zach: So I was thinking [deleted]

Zach: YO HOMESLICE I WAS WONDERING [deleted]

Zach: Gracious Queen of Healing [deleted]

Zach: Hey Vic, would you like to be a groomswoman? Groomsman? I dunno how it would go but I'd really love for you to be standing up there with me when I say the big ol' I do.

Zach: Oh! Duh! Your hubs can come as your plus one. I've yet to meet the dude.

Vic: I look great in a suit. But you knew that already. Of course I'd be happy to participate in your nauseating little love fest. It's the least I can do for making you look like a serial killer for two months.

Should she make breakfast for dinner? Or should she ignore her extreme desire to have pancakes right now and make something normal for the evening meal. Like soup. Brynn pouted a bit as she listened to Victoria talk about work. When she brought up something about Zach’s future sister-in-law, she turned around to face her girlfriend. “Kara Lansing right? We heard about it at work a couple days ago. A whole unit went missing and they are trying to get some Wardens on the case. They wanted me to but I’m sure it’s fine. That girl always found trouble wherever she went, if my little time as a campus officer told me anything. That and her sister is cray-cray if she actually fell for that wannabe Healer boy.” 

Brynn didn’t actually hate Zach. She didn’t hate anybody, really. Maybe Rick. Okay, definitely Rick. But definitely not Zach. She just loved to torture him because, well, it was just so easy to torture him. Her mind immediately stopped thinking about Zach when a kiss was pressed to her neck, feeling arms encircle her waist. With a low hum in her throat, Brynn leaned back into her, still mentally debating what they should eat for dinner. “I smell like my shampoo which I can officially go back to doing by myself now that you’ve got my body back under control. But anyway… Baby, what do you want for dinner?” She paused for a moment, instantly realizing what context could be taken. “And don’t say me.”

“I don’t know her at all, so.” She shrugged. Why would she care about someone she didn’t know? She barely cared about the people she did know -- with a few exceptions, of course. Still, she did prefer Zach being his weirdo self over whatever mopey version of him was walking around the center. It reminded her of the depressing atmosphere of RIAP that pushed her to leave. “His future wifey seems like that type that wouldn’t mind being around... that,” she gestured vaguely in reference to Zach. Either you had to be insane or the chillest person alive. Lauren struck her as the latter. “But anyway.”

“I do like the shampoo,” she remarked with a grin before giving her neck another kiss. She rolled her eyes as Brynn seemingly read her mind before she could give a response. “Fine,” she sighed. “Dessert then.” She stepped away and went back to the cup of coffee she hijacked. “I don’t know, surprise me. You’re the only one with any culinary skills here. I trust whatever you make.” Even though Brynn wasn’t out here cooking gourmet like the chefs Victoria used to hire, she somehow enjoyed Brynn’s cooking more. There was just something about it. Maybe because Victoria didn’t need to pay Brynn to cook? She wasn’t sure.