| Consoling |
[16 Nov 2006|10:48pm] |
((Takes place almost immediately after "Sorry"))
Rain might not be common in the desert, but from time to time, it was known to happen.
Victoria had two main abodes. One was in Fang Noir, hidden behind a panel in her spacious office. The other, here, was a room in the luxurious hotel, the 'Bellagio'. Famous for its impressive architecture the choreographed fountains, just outside, it was a place fit for royalty.
Little wonder, then, that Victoria Foxworth often chose to reside there.
During the evenings, there was no need for the windows to be covered. Rain trickled down the glass, but the vampiress within was happy to rest on her bed, watching an old film on the television.
All that was interrupted with a knock at the door. Vicky frowning in curiosity, getting up to make her way towards it and finding...
"Jill?"
Jill wasn’t really sure what brought her here. To this room, to this door. All she knew was she was standing before it, purse in hand, fighting back tears.
She was perfectly dry ,having arrived at the building long before the rain showed up, her her face was smeared with mascara and tears, her eyes puffy and black, her quivering lip betraying any sense of togetherness and mental stability she’d possibly hoped to convey when the door she’d knocked on opened.
She’d fought with Oliver, that much was true, and at that very moment, she felt as if they were falling apart…so why was she standing before her vampire ex, a tear rolling down her cheek?
Jill didn’t know, but for some reason, it felt like the thing to so.
“Hi…”
Victoria was that peculiar combination of compassionate predator. A woman who took care of those emotionally close to her, regardless of how long it had been since last seeing them. The pair had last met on relatively good terms and it did not take much for her to usher the lawyer in, closing the door behind them and offering a hug, in that way girlfriends do.
"Jill, honey, what's up? C'mon, it's okay...did somebody hurt you?"
That was just it, Jill couldn’t say for sure who had hurt whom. All she could do was throw her arms around her former lover, bury her face in the accompanying shoulder and break into other crying fit. She wasn’t quite sobbing uncontrollably, the way she had just hours before sitting before the door to Oliver’s suite, but it was a hard cry.
The kind that jerks the shoulders and tightens the gut. The kind that ruins mascara even more and threatens foundation.
“I,” she began, sniffling and gripping tight on Vicky’s shoulders. “I…we had a fight, and…”
No words. Tears…lots and lots of tears. But no words.
Victoria was a vampire, that much was true. She killed. She drank blood. Yet, here she was also a proverbial rock, holding the other brunette close, rubbing back and shoulders with a, "Sh-sh-shhh...it'll be okay...you're with me now..."
She would not press for the details. Not if it stepped over some unknown line. To be that upset usually meant not wanting to relive details. To recount them. If the woman wished to do so, it would be in her own time. No pressure. Vicky knew she needed emotional support now and would offer that.
Poor Jill could cry her little heart out. Victoria would be there for her. There had never really been any outright hostility between the two of them. Now there was even less reason to be.
Holding her, rocking just slightly, the more pale of two brunettes kissed a tanned cheek, whispering tiny words of comfort into ear. Moments went by; Jill's tears mirroring the rainwater sprinkling upon windows, outside. Only when she seemed to have settled down a little bit more did Victoria offer a suggestion.
"You wanna take your coat off, bunny rabbit? You can stay here, all night...I won't mind, really. You can sit on the bed with me, watch old movies and we can get room service together!" There was a smile, but one made out of sympathy and fingers stroked back living hair. "You poor thing..."
Jill leaned against Victoria’s hand, for a moment letting herself remember just how wonderful that touch could be. She only allowed the memory for a moment, though, the part of her still in love holding on to the faint belief she and Oliver would eventually work through their bullshit and find each other again.
Near as the lawyer could tell, the man she loved hadn’t outright broken up with her, so there was still hope…right?
She slipped her coat off her shoulders, tossing it onto a nearby chair before sitting on the edge of the bed, sniffling and wiping at her eyes. She snarled in disgust at the mascara that came away on her finger, sighing and glancing at the rain out the window before she tensed up, feeling another onslaught of tears threaten her eyes.
“Been like this all evening,” she said in a rough, broken voice. “Cry hard for a bit, think I’m done, then another wave hits…”
Victoria had sat beside her. One arm around the other woman's shoulders. While it was true that Jill had certainly encountered a few emotional scenes in her time, Vicky still cared for her.
"It happens...it really does...then you figure out how to get over it. Still hurts like ice an' acid, in the meantime, though..."
It wasn't much, but the vampiress saw no sense in lying. Sympathy helped. Knowing another person could feel the same way, could empathize. Of course, there were ways she could end the pain forever, but she was not cruel. Quite the opposite.
"I'm glad you came here... y’know? I've missed you...you're always welcome, honey. We'll get through this together, okay?"
The lawyer couldn’t think of words at the moment, only rummaging the strength to nod. She leaned against the vampiress, deciding for the moment to just relish in the warmth of her arm around her shoulder, the comfort her presence brought.
Months ago, this encounter might’ve escalated, became something more than an upset woman seeking shelter in the arms and…love?...of someone else. But not now, not with Jill still thinking there was a chance she and Oliver could work things out.
They had to work things out. Jill had nothing if they didn’t. Not anymore.
“Didn’t know what else to do,” she finally whispered. “Kinda hard when the person you run to with a problem is the problem…”
"What's that supposed to mean, buttercup?"
Victoria neither said nor did anything more. There was a slight purr to be detected in the voice. A sound familiar to she sitting beside her. Victoria still held her close, but the statement was puzzling. Was it a reference to her having a 'problem' or was this something to do with who had managed to cause this?
Jill sniffled, wiping away at the tear threatening to leave her eye. “Just…Oliver,” she said. “Used to be, I had a problem, I ran to him. He made it all better. But now…”
The lawyer took in a heavy breath, trying to steel herself from yet another breakdown. “He is the problem this time. He’s why I’m crying my eyes out, feeling like any minute now everything’s gonna get turned inside out, and all because he doesn’t trust me anymore…”
Jill had no way of actually knowing that, but judging by how he reacted to the news of her inability to get out of her contract with the firm, Jill felt as if the man she loved couldn’t trust her anymore. And that filled her with a pain she couldn’t even begin to describe.
"C'mon..."
Saying so, Victoria pulled the lawyer down with her, on the bed. Not for the obvious, but just to help her relax. It was certainly large enough. Laying down was far better for someone in need of that.
"Lemme order room service," the vampiress smiled. One hand reaching over to the telephone, allowing her to keep the other arm around the woman beside her. "How'd you feel about champagne? Chocolate cake? Ice cream!"
Victoria would not order any of the latter for herself, of course. It was one of those oddities that vampires could taste even the finest degrees of sweat, blood and other bodily fluids, yet were totally incapable of finding delight in the ordinary flavors of food. Doing so for the other woman, however, was perfectly fine.
The lawyer finally cracked a smile at the mention of ice cream, momentarily remembering the eight-year-old little girl who loved spending Sunday nights getting cones with her mother while Paul was out fighting the bad guys in dangerous downtown Baltimore.
Ice cream always made her feel better—especially if it was her favorite kind.
“Ask if they’ve got the triple flavor,” she said with a soft smile, her fingers trailing over Vicky’s arm. “Ya know, vanilla-chocolate-strawberry. Been my favorite since I was little.”
Champagne probably wouldn’t go well with the ice cream, so Jill decided to forgo that particular offer. But the ice cream…that would more than likely do the trick.
Victoria, on the other hand, wanted some of that - two bottles, in fact. It was sweet and fizzy, just like her. Usually a little expensive, too. The vampiress explained what the film seemed to be about. She had been in a classical sort of mood and been watching romantic comedies from the fifties and sixties. When the room service arrived, she had the trolley brought over to them and the evening was set.
"Woo!"
That was in reply to the cork. Victoria pouring herself a glass.
"You're gonna forget all about your strife, honey! Whatever happens'll happen, right?"
Jill nodded, already having broken into the ice cream and spooned a bite of vanilla and strawberry into her mouth. She watcher with slight amusement the sight of Victoria popping the cork on the champagne, again resolving herself to not having a glass—not just because of the ice cream.
Several other things, too.
Jill didn’t wanna chance drinking a little too much and wind up doing something with Vicky she’d probably regret in the morning. But more than that, Jill was upset over Oliver’s seemingly perpetual drunkenness…and all over some encounter with the bitch he was forced to call mother.
Seemed he preferred the bottle to his girlfriend right now….
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