Work Text:
Alana sighed heavily as she looked at her watch, while she waited for her last patient of the day. Only one hour and ten minutes to go. Seventy whole minutes until she’d be able to get in her car and drive off home to Verger Mansion. Where she was sure Margot would be waiting at the door, eager to hear how her day way and unsubtly needling Alana about her feelings.
Her feelings about that. The so far unmentioned catastrophic visit to her parents’ house. Well, Margot had tried mentioning it. Numerous times. But Alana had either told her that she didn’t want to talk about it, which was true, or said that she would discuss it later when she wasn’t busy or too tired. Which was kind of also true.
This meandering around the sore subject had gone on for two weeks. Every time the topic had come up, Alana was conveniently able to slip away or change the conversation to something more pleasant, like Margot herself, for instance.
Even now, nearly nine months since they met, and three since they’d been engaged, Alana was still finding out new things about her fiancé. Some of it fascinated her, while a lot of it horrified her. She felt a pang in her heart as she thought about the horrors that had made up Margot’s life.
Alana sighed again, eager to head home, but at the same time, not looking forward to Margot trying to get her to talk about what had happened.
Alana knew bottling everything up was unhealthy. She was a psychiatrist, after all. She could never seem to take her own advice, though, which had always been a personal failing of hers. She would rather move on and forget the mess that had been her parents’ reactions. She didn’t have time to wallow in self-pity or regret. What’s done was done, and at least she still had Margot.
She wondered how Margot was handling it. She knew Margot was good at not letting her emotions show, but Alana had begun to learn to see through her façade. Lately, though, either Margot was fine about the whole fiasco, which was highly unlikely, or she had been fooling Alana with a precision that she had not thought possible to master.
Alana let out a mental groan as she checked her watch. She was two minutes late! She had to make sure to keep the door to her mind locked when she was at work.
Luckily, her last patient seemed to be running late as well, as she was making her way to the entrance of the building as Alana opened her door.
Alana spoke, with false cheeriness, “Hi! Come on in.”
58 MINUTES LATER:
As her patient left the building, Alana reclined in her chair, grateful that she could go home and rest now. She stood up slowly, wishing she had thought to bring her cane, as her hip ached alarmingly.
Cursing her stubbornness, she made her way to her car, bidding her receptionist, Ashley, goodbye as they both left to go their separate ways. Walking with as much dignity as she could, without hobbling, she got settled in her car and turned on her phone.
She had a missed call and a voicemail from Margot. Curious. What could she have left a voicemail for? She would have texted, if it wasn’t too important. Trying not to worry, Alana listened to her fiancé’s voiced message: “Hey, princess. I just wanted to tell you that I miss you and I love you. I’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”
Alana’s heart melted as she heard those words. She had missed Margot, as well, but she was too preoccupied with her work to fully acknowledge it.
As she listened to the message again, she noticed that Margot sounded tired, as if she had just woken up from a nap. Well, that was odd.
Margot never slept during the day, especially if she was busy. Even when she wasn’t, Margot was always trying to spend as much time with her as possible.
Although, Alana conceded, she had been making things a little difficult in light of recent events. She resolved to get home and cuddle with Margot. They both deserved time alone with each other that didn’t involve anything except holding one another.
As Alana got home, she noticed that Margot wasn’t waiting for her at the front door, like she usually did. That was odd, but nothing to get too worked up about, Alana thought with a frown. Wanting to surprise her love, she walked into the house, going straight to the bedroom, where she suspected Margot might be.
She found Margot sprawled on the bed, breathing lightly, looking for all the world as if she had a heavy burden lifted off her shoulder. How long had she been asleep for? Heavy snoring interrupted her thought process. Alana did a double take at Margot, but found that the sound wasn’t originating from her.
She knew who it was and felt her way, quietly, through the bedsheets. Sure enough, a wet nose prodded her hand and then the covers moved as Applesauce the Dog revealed herself. She shook herself off and went to greet Alana. The happy barking stirred Margot, who blinked blearily as she laid her gaze on her big sweetheart cuddling her little sweetheart.
“Hello”, Margot smiled. “Hey”, Alana replied.
Too tired to do anything but crawl into bed with her two girls, Alana laid her head on Margot’s chest, not noticing the slight wince as Margot shifted her leg to accommodate Alana’s body. Soon, all three members of the soon to be Verger-Bloom family fell into their own peaceful sleeps, without a care in the world.