1-2-3 Years...
The Second Year
Chapter Two
"Chicken or Turkey?" Was Jena's main question before she even put on her apron.
"Turkey..." Abbie who was setting up some paper work on the dining table instead of helping was the first to answer.
"Turkey." Eve's excited voice second it.
"Chicken." Olivia who was taking out the foul from the freezer voted otherwise.
"I want chicken too." Jena confessed. "Since I am cooking my vote counts for two so we go for chicken."
"Your right to two votes is superceded by the fact that there is one more voter that needs to vote." Eve used simple but very legal terms to point out that Alex should have the deciding vote.
"And you had to go and find a lawyer to date. She is turning our daughter into one." Olivia muttered under her breath before she called out for her girlfriend.
�At least she is not a blonde bimbo.� Jena retaliated under her breath too before Alex walked in.
"Chicken or Turkey." Jena asked aloud the same question once again.
"You got to vote." Eve immediately walked up to Alex and took her hand so that her voice was heard and considered first. "B and I want turkey and Olivia and mom wants chicken. So, now you have to vote."
"Can't we have both." Alex asked innocently.
"NO" All the four women agreed at least about that.
"Okay..." Alex looked around a little bewildered that she had to make the deciding vote.
"It is Thanksgiving and turkey is a tradition. We have to follow the tradition." Eve pitched for her team.
"You go girl." Abbie cheered for her team mate from far.
"Come on you can't sell tradition to a gay democrat." Jena pointed out remembering that she and Alex was the only registered democrat in the room. While Abbie was probably the only lesbian Republican apart from Mary Cheney and Olivia was always undecided and liked to vote for the people rather than the party.
"We defy tradition. We like to break free of them. And the best thing about chicken is that...." She paused. "Like women." She whispered the two words before continuing. "They are best to be eaten with your fingers."
"I certainly can second that." Olivia agreed for her team.
While Alex only looked from one side of the kitchen to the other side of the dining table still undecided.
"She is not really a bitch." Elliot was trying his best to keep an eye on his twins and talk to his wife at the same time. "She is just Olivia's ex you know. So, they have hard feelings. She is not really or was not really very, what can I say? Accommodating to Liv."
"In simpler words she was a bitch to Liv." His teenaged daughter once again used the word that Elliot was trying to avoid. "None the less, I can't wait to meet Liv's whole new gay extended family. I think it�s so cool that your partner is gay."
Elliot had no words for his daughter�s excitement. He was just amazed at how old he felt every time he got shocked by Maurine's reactions.
"It's okay." Katherine who was much closer to their kids mouthed to her husband as they waited for the elevator in Olivia's building.
Only couple of minutes behind them, another new generation kid was surprising her parents with her witty comments.
"I know what gay is. You don't have to explain to me." That was Sarah's answer when Chris had tried to afore warn her daughter about Alex and Olivia's relationship. "I think it is cool that Alex is gay."
"Cool....I don't think it is cool" Gina accepted Alex but that didn't mean that she still didn't hold reservations against gay people. So, there was no way that she was going to let her god daughter think that it was cool to be gay. "Sarah, listen to me ..."
"G!" Chris interrupted before Gina could start with her little negative advice. "Let's not get into detail. She is just a kid."
Couple of hours later everyone who was invited had arrived and were all scattered in the living room forming small groups to chit chat with till the food got ready. To Alex's big relief the twins, Sarah and Eve had taken a quick liking of each other and had disappeared inside Eve's room leaving the grown ups outside.
Elliot's wife Kathryn, Abbie and Chris had found a common topic of raising eight year olds, while Olivia was enduring Munch's experimental cocktails. Gina and Fin were both getting a little loud discussing the role of Federal Investigators and the local PD, to which the Captain was acting as an umpire.
And Alex was acting as a perfect host hovering around everyone and making sure everyone was comfortable while Jena had only made couple of trips outside the kitchen and to the balcony just to take a cigarette break. And that was where she was when Abbie broke away from the ladies and joined her girlfriend.
"Enjoying the party?" Jena asked taking in a long drag of smoke.
"I haven't seen these people in so long. It really feels good to share some light hearted time apart from some heated case discussion with them. The only thing I am disappointed is that Lenny and homicide guys couldn't make it. I would have really liked them to meet you. I worked with them longer than I worked with the SVU."
"I met one cop....I met them all. Frankly speaking I am getting an overdose of law enforcement officers right now."
"Uhhhh my sweetheart.... your dated a cop then a prosecutor, you should be used to having lawyers and cops in your home."
"This is not my home." Jena snapped killing the light moment.
"Still feeling a little jittery about being here?" Abbie asked knowing that Jena hadn't really been thrilled about having Thanksgiving in a house that she once called her home. But, that place was bigger than theirs with the number of their guests reaching double digit it seemed like the most practical solution.
"Let me just keep it this way, the sooner I am out of here the better I�ll feel."
"Come on now...it can't be that bad. I mean I am sure it doesn't look like how you left it."
"It looks exactly as how it was. She hasn't changed a thing. Even the utensils in the kitchen, they are exactly where it used to be. I can find everything. And for a moment out there, it felt like..." Jena stopped. She wasn't sure if she could share that to her girlfriend. But then she decided what the heck. "It felt like nothing had changed. Like ...."
"Hey..." Abbie did not let her continue. A lot of things had changed and if Jena needed a reminder she was going to give her one. She silenced her lover with her lips and deepened the kiss taking a good taste of the nicotine as well as her sweetness. "So..." She said breaking the kiss and taking cigarette stick out of Jena's fingers and into her own. "You think things have changed?" She asked taking a drag out of the little white stick. Jena allowed a second so that Abbie could let out the smoke before she pulled her into another kiss. "Yes, it certainly has." She answered feeling much happier than she had been only couple of seconds before. Abbie slipped the cigarette between Jena�s lips for a second and pulled it out for another quick drag when Jena�s eyes met the ones that were staring at them from inside. The pair of eyes whose one look had stolen her young heart once upon a time ago, still had strong pull in them but Jena turned away. She had to. Like Abbie had just said, a lot of things had changed. And she needed to remember that. So she pulled her girlfriend into another kiss.
Inside by the bar Olivia didn't turn away. She kept staring at her ex now in a lip lock with the southern beauty that she desperately was trying to convince was the only one in her heart.
"Here you go." Munch said breaking the detective's unconscious thoughts. "Let me warn you though." He said putting forward his latest concoction. "It hits right on your heart."
"Whatever poison it is, my heart needs it." Olivia said without even taking a second to look what it was and gulping it down.
Meanwhile Maurine, Elliot's eldest offspring who had been hanging with Jena in the kitchen interrupted Abbie and Jena for a reason. "The Turkey is ready." She announced.
Alex resuming her duties as the hostess made the same announcement loudly for everyone once the table was set. She had ultimately voted with Eve and Abbie even though Olivia had pouted about it through out the afternoon. Once most of the adults were almost seated she walked into Eve's room to call upon the children who were in the middle of wrestling a bald headed tattoo covered small but masculine looking woman.
"Dinner is ready." She announced and the kids all rushed out like a gust of wind leaving their victim still on the floor.
"Need help." Alex asked extending her hand to the woman she had only heard about but had not yet been introduced. "I am Alex by the way."
"Jaq." She introduced herself too taking Alex's hand to pull her self up and changing it into a handshake immediately after.
"I figured that much." Alex said ending the shake.
"I am surprised Olivia actually told you about me." The bald cutie wondered.
"Of course she does. She told me that you basically set this room up." Alex playing a gracious hostess remembered the little detail her girlfriend had mentioned about her friend.
"Oh Yes I did." Jaq said taking a moment to look around the room that had been was kept intact. "I clicked all those pictures too." She proudly pointed to the pictures of Jena and Olivia holding Eve hanging all around. "God they were so happy." She reminisced aloud.
Alex had nothing to say to that.
"Oh! I am sorry." Jaq realized the awkwardness she had put her hostess in. "It is just that this room holds so many memories. Both good and bad though." She took a couple of steps towards the center to signify the importance of it to her own heart. "They were their best and they were their worst here." She explained about the pair that she had loved. "In the end I was only glad that they broke up." She turned around and faced Alex. "You see that was the only way either of them would be happy again. And all I ever wanted was both of them to be happy. When Jena met Abbie I only hoped that Olivia too would find someone to share her beautiful heart. And my prayers were answered by you."
"Thank you." Alex said unable to find another appropriate response.
"No thank you." Jaq insisted instead. "So, Eve tells me that you voted for turkey?"
"It's called a turkey day." Alex explained the reason behind her vote.
"Exactly the reason why you should not have. Olivia must have pouted."
"Oh yeah she did, all day long." They both laughed remembering how silly Olivia looked when she wore a pout.
By the time they came out of Eve's room, everyone were already finding a seat on the dining table that they had set up long enough for everyone to fit in. Alex maneuvered to reach her seat next to Olivia while Jena had reserved a seat next to her for Jaq.
It was when they were all seated and enjoying the feast that they formal introductions took place. Abbie took it upon herself to introduce the former colleagues to her family. Then Alex introduced her friends to her everyone. And at the end Jena was shaking hands with Gina. The two women had never crossed each others path but their lives certainly had.
"Its pleasure I must say." Gina had said politely shaking the gay woman's hand.
"Likewise." Jena had been polite too.
"You know I never in hell could have put you two together." Gina jumped on the topic that she had been wanting to comment on. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you two meet?" She asked about Abbie and Jena.
"It was actually funny how we met." Abbie said trying to brush aside the topic.
"Come on I am sure we would like to hear." Gina insisted.
"We had got a tip that drugs were being laundered from the rooms in this motel. So, we had got a warrant and cops wanted me to accompany thinking that the owner might cause some problems. Apparently she was known to tear away search warrants." Abbie turned to her girlfriend remembering the first time they had met. "So, I was all set for a verbal catfight when I marched into her office. And guess what? She gives me no hard time at all. Instead she gave us her full cooperation."
"I had too." Jena decided to tell her side of the story too. "The moment she walked in I just knew I was going to ask her out so, I had to give my co operation."
"But I was the one who asked you out."
"That was only because the cops were distracting me."
Abbie and Jena's eyes were on each other as they both remembered their early days.
"So, you owned the motel huh?" Gina broke their connection.
"Not really, I just own the franchise. I was there doing a check on motel. Then the manager told me that the cops were making more than one trip so, I stayed on to tear up few warrants and scare them a little."
"Franchise that is impressive. What franchise is that?" Chris asked.
"Decon. We have seven motels under our wing. Lodger�s Cabin, Daylight Inn, Howard�s Cottage, Comfort Motel..."
"Jack's Resort, Mayflower Inn and Family Haven." Chris completed for Jena. "My brother Adam works for the head office of Decon." She explained her knowledge.
"Adam huh....I am sorry we have many employees, it doesn't ring a bell." Jena confessed.
While Alex couldn't help but recognize few of the motel names that the two had just recited.
"So, you just walk in and out of your franchise motel as you please?" Gina asked this time looking at Alex hoping that she was listening.
"Well, mostly the head office people have the right to do so. When we are in any of our franchise motels we have as much right to look around as would an employee of the motel would be."
"That is interesting...so you do all your checking yourself?"
"No, there are many whose only work is to travel all around and give a surprise check. But I do that sometimes too."
"So, you travel a lot too."
"I haven't done so lately."
"I put a stop to that, after all last year she was traveling so much that she had to be hospitalized because of the stress." Abbie added.
"You were hospitalized?" Gina liked every answer she was getting. "For how long?"
"About two weeks or so. It was just stress."
"I am sure it was." Gina smiled back. "You know what I need to go take a cigarette break." Gina said getting up and pretending to search for a pack. "Do you have a smoke?" She asked Jena.
Alex who had been letting every piece that Gina was throwing around fall to its place, keenly eyed the yellow pack that Jena took out and offered to her friend. The pack was nothing new to her, it was the same kind that Olivia smoked too.
"Hummm....haven't seen this before?" Gina commented on the pack. "It's American Spirits Yellow. Not many people smoke this. But I like it."
"It has no addictives added." Olivia and Abbie both added.
"That�s how you got me hooked to it." Olivia complained.
"Me too." Abbie joined in.
"Then I guess I'll refuse. I need those addictives to feel like I am smoking." Gina sat down knowing that Alex had clearly noticed the pack.
Alex had remained silent through out the conversation and the dinner till it got over. Once it was over guests were slipping out or just relaxing by themselves. Alex chose to take that time to take a breather and retired to the balcony letting off some stress she felt with her hosting duties when her friend joined her.
"What the hell were you trying to do?" She asked wasting no time in asking the Agent about the little stunt she pulled during dinner.
"Showing you how all the pieces fit together."
"No they don't." Alex wasn't having any of it so she just denied what Gina was trying to show her.
"Come on now. You can't be that blind." Gina was surprised Alex hadn't put it together. "Everything fits. Jena owns the franchise; she can get in and out of any of the motels just like a hotel employee. Remember we could not figure out how David was getting contacted because we checked all the guests. And there were no employees that were common to all the hotels. But all the hotels had one thing in common. They were all under one franchise hence all accessible to Jena. She smokes the same cigarette. And not to mention the fact that she was hospitalized at the same time that we thought our guy should be in hospital because he must have got shot while killing Valez."
"These are all circumstantial evidences. It can fit the mold to anyone who works or has access to Decon head office. From Abbie to even Olivia. They all also smoke the same cigarette. What you are forgetting is that there are too many holes in your theory."
"Are there? Especially since drug and violence seems to follow Ms. Rollins through out. From convenient store she owns to motels, seems like drug is always planted in the business she owns. Peg that against Det. Monahan's theory that our guy is a freelance drug dealer slash assassin for hire. Jena is a top rated shooter. She travels a lot due to work. And every time she looses money is legit business, she is miraculously funded out. Even though I haven't been able to prove a direct connection of her money and drug money, but I have been able to get the proof of some pretty large monetary gifts she received just when she is at the verge of loosing it all."
"And that is what you had been doing in MA?"
"Yes MA where everything started. Do you know that, that is where Jena is from?"
"No, I didn't know that but I don't care either because your theory is too far fetched. Jena is a business woman who happens have a common past with you and also happened to own the franchise. Other than that there everything else you are putting together is just forced."
"May be you are right, may be I am imagining all the connections. And that can be easily proved so, if Jena gives us her DNA. We have the DNA from the Valez crime scene that we isolated as the one of the killer. If hers doesn't match then I am the one who is making a mistake here and I'll back off."
"You want me to go to the ex of my girlfriend and tell her I need her DNA because she could possibly the one who tried to kill me?" Alex asked allowed so that Gina could understand the impossible position that she was in. "Do you see how absurd that sounds? And there is your proof by itself. If Jena was the killer as civil as she acts around me, she wouldn't have missed the point blank shot on me."
�May be she did miss it for a purpose."
"What purpose would me being alive do to her?"
"She could keep her family intact." Gina was now staring at Olivia who was picking up glasses while Jena was right behind with a garbage bag so that Olivia could dump the remainder of the glasses before she put it all in a big container she was carrying. "Sometimes the only way you can move on from a relationship is when you know that you can never go back to the one that you left behind. May be Jena needed that to be completely happy with Abbie. And when she realized that you might be Olivia's girlfriend, she missed the shot. She allowed you to live so that if ever her heart yearns Liv again, there was no chance for her to get her back. Seems like it worked."
Alex remained silent for a moment or two wondering if Gina was right. Then she shook her head and chased it away. There was no way that Jena, Eve's mother, Abbie's girlfriend and most of her Olivia's girlfriend at one point would ever be the one to be involved with one of the most dangerous drug ring in the country.
"You know what Abbie is right." Alex said turning away from the scene of domestic bliss being played by her girlfriend and her ex. "You still have hang up against Olivia because of what happened. And you have been waiting to hurt her. That is why you did your level best to keep us apart when I walked out, and now that you can see that we are stronger than that, you are fabricating this theory which if Olivia even gets a hint of, she would really get pissed. I mean you are trying to frame the mother of her child because of what went down over a decade ago. Can you please see how desperate you sound?"
"You are actually going to disregard my theory because of what Abbie told you. Abbie, who has her own interest to protect here. For all you know she knows everything."
"Now, you see I know for a fact that you stretching everything, if you are even going to implicate that Abbie might be involved in it too. If I know anything about Abbie, I know that her integrity is unquestionable."
"It might have been before she fell in love. Love is known to have changed people in stranger ways."
"Not Abbie."
"Think about it Alex, I mean look at her right now." She pointed out to their boss who was talking to Jaq and Eve looking radiantly happy. "She looks so happy. To me she fits the profile of a woman who would do anything to keep her family intact. After all she was even willing to step out and ship me to MA so that she could let you two get back together and give Jena her peace. Isn't that what you said to me? If Abbie is willing to give Jena her peace even with her ex, may be Abbie is willing to look away for the sake of her family."
"I have heard enough." Alex put her hands on her ears in the emphasis of her words.
"Alex..."
"No...get out." Alex was serious. She was not going to hear anymore. "I want you to get out right now."
Gina lingered on hoping Alex would calm down. But it didn't happen. So, she walked into the apartment, fetched Chris and Sarah and left.
Abbie noticed the quick departure of Alex's guests. She excused herself from her conversation with Jaq and walked out into the balcony to make sure every thing was all right with her peer. While Jaq, on whose shoulders Eve had dozed off, walked inside the kitchen to catch some alone time with her friend. When she walked in, Jena was in the middle of wrapping up the leftovers.
"What are you doing?" Jaq asked seeing that Jena was laboring hard at her task.
"Oh making sure that everything is all stored right. Otherwise you know Liv, she'll toss half of good food to trash and I just hate that. At least this way she'll have some real food to eat."
"No, I am not talking about what you are doing with the food. I am asking about what you are doing here, back in this house. Playing this bull shit game? What are you trying to pull off?" Jaq had never been the one to sugar coat her concerns with her friend. "Do you realize that this just might fuck up every thing? You two have to be apart. You can't play this, 'I am so over you that I can even share my life with you, without any problems' game. She meant too much to you and too much shit went down in this house for you come back and bake and pack in here." Jaq lectured.
"I know..." Jena agreed but continued with stuffing the fridge.
"Then take my advice and go back to Washington. Before I yank you out of here." Jaq approached her friend in a threatening manner.
"Okay I'll as soon as Abbie is done with her work here." Jena said for the heck of saying.
"Promise me that." Jaq insisted transferring the sleeping child from her shoulder to her mothers.
"I promise you." Jena said gently taking Eve and kissing her friend good bye.
After Jaq had left, Jena tip toed to Eve's room to put her to bed. When she opened the door Olivia was inside gathering up the toys. As soon as she saw the mother and daughter, she walked to Eve's bed and pulled out the covers so that Jena could put her down.
"God she is so beautiful." Olivia marveled at their daughter's sleeping face as they both pulled up the covers for her. "You did good." She gave her ex a compliment that was overdue. "You were right...you truly did come through for her."
"No, I didn't." Jena declined honestly.
Jaq was right. That room had a lot of memories for them both. Jena looked around for the first time as her eyes landed on each an every photograph that still hung on the walls. She couldn't lie in that room anymore.
"I remember what a nightmare she could sometimes be. Yet you did it. You raised her all alone." Olivia was getting all sentimental about it and she wanted to give Jena her due.
"I wasn't alone. I just said that to make you feel bad." Even Jena was feeling sentimental and didn't want to continue more lies. "Jaq was there. Ray was there. My mom was there. They all were always there. They did more than I did actually. I wasn't all that alone."
Olivia knew that already. She had figured that before she had even come back from Washington. Otherwise she would have never left Eve with Jena. But it still felt good to hear Jena admit it.
"And you were right about the other stuff too." Jena continued her confession. "That I would have made life hell for everyone, including Eve, if you had stayed. So you don't have to feel guilty. Most of it was my doing." Jena stroked her ex girlfriend's cheek lightly as she allowed the truth to be said out loud. "I was the one who shut you out. If you stayed out, you did it for Eve. And I knew that."
Olivia unlike Jena had never wanted to hear a confession from her old lover. She was happy taking the blame. She did not mind nurturing angst inside her. But just as the night she had lost her virginity, when Jena had untangled her web of torment and freed her with love. In that split second, sitting on the opposite end of their daughter's bed, in the room that they had both labored and showered with love, Olivia's heart once again felt the peace and openness as she allowed her lips to land on the same woman's and capture them to fill the vacuum left behind as pain melted away. And Jena kissed her back. Seconds ticked by but they did not stop. They let their lips find the old rhythm and allowed them the sin of its pleasure. That was till they both heard the door open. They quickly broke the union and turned to the door where silhouettes of their respective girlfriends were staring at them.