A/N: The promos for 5x8 suggest some Normero stuff happening (spoiler alert for those who haven't seen them yet: there is a shot of Alex outside of the wintery snowy motel and one of him standing in Norma's bedroom, plus one of Norma (or Mother?) at her vanity). However I fear they will mess with us again and it will either be incredibly sad or no Normero at all. Hence, before the episode airs, here is my turn on a (melancholically) happy Normero story that makes use of what we saw in the promos.
Important: This story does NOT take place during the season five timeline but several years later in another, happier Normero universe. :) The parts in Italics are flashbacks. It's quite self-explanatory, I hope, but I'm just saying it here so that no one gets confused. And of course memories come and go as they want and have no chronological order.
One more thing: In case you are waiting for an update of my other story Fatal Attraction. Sorry, there won't be one this weekend because I had to write this little piece first. But next weekend, I promise.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Bates Motel belongs to A&E.
The motel is covered with snow. It looks beautiful, as if the place wasn't deserted and the wood rotten. Alex slowly walks across the courtyard, his steps strangely silent because the gravel also is snow-clad. He knows the memories will inevitably come the closer he gets to the house. Alex looks up at it as it rests up on the hill, witness to happiness and pain, fights and reconciliation, marriage and death. Everything began and ended there. When he goes up the stairs and almost trips on an icy spot, his hand reaches out to…
...a small hand grabbing his, a little boy smiling at him.
"Milo!" Norma shouts as she comes running out of the house. "Come back here! You're not supposed to be outside alone." Then she spots her husband. "Alex, thank God! Hold him so that he doesn't fall."
His son smiles at him and Alex can't help but smile back. Milo knows he is not allowed to be outside alone, but the countless steps fascinate him and he is very well coordinated for a toddler. So far, he has never fallen down the stairs. Norma is right though. Alex tries to look stern, aware that she is probably already frowning at him because he is once again too soft with their little rogue in her opinion. What did she expect? They both have a temper and can consider themselves lucky their boy turned out as sweet as he is. If he doesn't decide to explore unknown territory on his own, that is.
"Hey, young man!" Alex lifts his son up. "You know you're not supposed to be out here alone. These stairs are dangerous. You should listen to your mom." He continues his walk up the stairs, the small body of his son safe in his arms, his eyes meeting Norma's as her frown turns into a smile when she watches them.
It feels weird to stand on the front porch, familiar and different at once. How long hasn't he been here? Must have been years. Alex opens the door and steps into another universe that was his past one day.
"I want to see you."
His hands hastily unbuttoning her coat to find their way underneath. Their breath mingling as their kisses become more and more passionate.
Alex closes the interior door behind him and immediately is reminded of the one moment he will associate with this hallway forever.
"Don't… Don't play with me, okay?"
"I'm not. I'm not."
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"I'm sure I want to do this right now."
It's funny how our brain decides to remember this and forget that. Alex is certain, however, that he will never forget one second of that night and what followed after he had carried Norma upstairs.
Here and now, the house is dark. Alex actuates the light switch, but it doesn't work. Of course not. There is no electricity anymore. The daylight outside is sufficient, however, so that he can discern most of the interior although it is one of these typical days in White Pine Bay when everything looks grayish.
His journey leads Alex into the kitchen. Most of the furniture is gone, here as well as in the rest of the house, only some pieces left that are standing around lost. It makes him sad to see them, but you can't take everything with you when you leave. Or everyone. Alex opens one of the wall cupboards just because, because he used to live here and do it every day when…
...she storms into the room like a tornado.
"Did you know the butcher keeps telling people my motel will close soon because of the new bypass?" Norma spits. "I mean. The butcher? Who does he think he is? And how does he dare to say something like that?"
"People have their opinions," Alex responds circumspectly. "Don't worry about him. Did you know they call him Crazy Joe behind his back?" His attempt at a joke falls flat though.
"You think this is funny? If people keep talking like that it will ruin my business."
"Norma..." Her business will be ruined soon, anyway, because the butcher is right. Crazy Joe or not.
"Oh..." She practically recoils. "So you think that too? And you what? You're not going to do anything about it? You're the sheriff. I'm your wife. You must be able to stop the bypass." Norma looks at him as if she suddenly discovered a secret weapon she didn't even know she had in her possession.
Alex spreads his arms, shrugging. "How? I'm the sheriff not almighty."
She tilts her head back. "I thought you were. You did things. For me."
"Like…?" He knows where this is going, but she can't be serious.
"Like… getting rid of people." Jake Abernathy, Bob Paris. But that was to protect her, not to save her motel from going down the drain.
"Norma, come on."
"So, you're not going to help me?" She is not really expecting him to kill someone. Norma is on a roll, however, and her tantrum is not over yet.
"That's not what I said but..."
"Fine! I'm not hungry anymore. Cook dinner yourself."
And with this, she storms out of the room.
Alex chuckles. Most people might not like to remember arguments they had with their spouses, but he feels different about that. At least since he met Norma. However there is another memory that was created right here in the kitchen. It is the one he will always be most fond of among all the wonderful and terrible things that happened in this house.
"I love you. I want you to know that."
"You… You're telling me this right now?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I love you too."
There are much more situations Alex remembers that took place in the kitchen than in the living room. Probably because Norma never spent much time there when they still lived here. She often was in the kitchen cooking or baking something and if she wasn't there, she usually was either cleaning the house or getting something done outside. She rarely just rested. There was one occasion though, one night to be specific, when they spent time in the living room together and that he loves to think of.
"You're watching TV!" she announces as if she never did such a reprehensible thing. Obviously there is a difference between watching an old movie and a football game. "How long will it take?" She doesn't sit down, remains standing next to the couch. Unfortunately, the game has just started.
"A while," Alex says noncommittally.
"Hm..."
For some time he hears nothing aside from some rustle and believes Norma is busying herself to bridge the time until the game is over. Until she suddenly plops down next to him, that is, wielding her long legs across his lap. Very naked long legs.
Alex looks over to find her smirking at him like a cat who caught the mouse. Norma wears nothing but a bra and matching panties. Black lace. She writhes.
"It's ok. Watch the game. I'll just lie here and wait until it's over."
She rolls over, exposing her derriere to him. This is basically foul play. Norma knows he can't resist her, especially when she hands herself to him on a silver platter like that. Alex traces her soft curves with his hand. Her slender waist, her well-rounded hips, her perfect behind. She lets him for a while, even continues to writhe under his touch, before she slaps his hand away all of a sudden.
"I thought you were watching the game."
No one is a better tease than Norma.
"I am." But his hand is on her again. Both of his hands actually as he tries to pull her into his lap. Something she skillfully prevents.
"It's ok. I'm comfortable here. Just watch your game." Saying it with the most innocent voice as she rubs her legs against each other, wiggling her hips. It's driving him crazy.
On screen the audience goes delirious. There must have been a goal or something, but Alex couldn't care less, his fingers playing with the hem of her panties, slipping in and out, in and out, listening how her breathing changes with every touch.
"Ok. You're right. I'll watch the game."
Alex pretends to keep looking at the TV. His hand, however, doesn't slow down, Norma's moans soon becoming louder than whatever is happening on screen. Then he stops.
"What?" she mumbles, turning her head to look at him. God, she looks gorgeous. Burning cheeks, her blonde locks a sexy mess, that certain kind of expression on her face that tells him she is so aroused that it's rather a question of seconds than minutes. He has good timing.
"I'm watching the game." He shrugs.
"Alex..." She reaches out to slap him gently, but he ignores her.
Norma sighs irritated when he knows for a fact that she only pretends and enjoys this as much as he does. Then she gets up to stand in front of him, taking her panties off and throwing them at him.
"Ok, you win," she fake scowls.
Her panties hit him in the face before they drop into his lap, the brief moment enough to let him smell the sweet scent of her arousal. Alex turns off the TV and pulls her onto his lap. This time she doesn't resist.
"Oh yeah, I do," he whispers.
Time to go upstairs. Only now Alex becomes aware that he subconsciously has been stalling that. Just as the hallway downstairs reminds him of the night they made love for the first time, the hallway upstairs reminds him of something else. Something he would give everything for to forget it or undo that it happened in the first place.
"Come on, baby!"
He presses his hands against her chest in an attempt to resuscitate her, afraid it's too much so that he will break her ribs, scared to death it's not enough so that she will die, all the time worrying that this has to hurt, that he is hurting her albeit it is the necessary thing to do, the only thing he can do to save her.
When she startles and takes a deep breath, he fears his imagination is playing tricks on him. But it isn't. She has come back to him. Alex doesn't believe in higher spirits, never has prayed to anyone, but in this moment he swears to become a better man.
His steps carry him farther down the hallway in an attempt to take him physically away from this memory that will always haunt him.
"I think I need to scrap off the paint from the wall," Alex says. "It keeps falling on the floor." He is talking a bit louder because Norma is in the bathroom and he wants her to hear him. Actually she has been in there for quite a while now. "Norma? Everything ok?" He knocks at the door.
She opens it, not looking at him but at something she is holding in her hand, an expression on her face that is half confusion, half excitement.
"I know we said one kid is enough, but..." Norma holds the pregnancy test out to Alex. Two streaks as if the test knew it would be their second child.
He has the same reaction he had when she told him she was pregnant with Milo which is basically none. Alex can't believe it. He is not used to receiving good news, let alone celebrating them. Once he had accepted it was true back then, that Norma was really pregnant, he went in overprotective mode. It drove her crazy.
"Norma..." Alex reaches out to touch her face tenderly as if she could shatter in front of his eyes any moment.
"Stop that! Will you hug me? I'm not fragile. I'm pregnant." She throws herself in his arms. "Are you happy?" He hears it. The slightest flicker of doubt in her voice because there was a time in her life when a pregnancy was no reason for happiness.
Alex takes her face in both of his hands. "How can you ask that? You know I am."
She steps back in his arms and lets him hold her for a moment. "You know. Maybe you were right about moving. Maybe this is a sign for us to start over somewhere else. The motel is closed, anyway." Norma pauses. "Of course not too far away so that we can still visit Norman. And he needs to have a room so that he always will have a place to live when he will leave Pineview one day."
"Of course."
And just like that painting the hallway has become looking for a new home.
Alex pushes the door to the bedroom open. It's the last part of his journey through their past. Even though it should not be possible, the room smells just like it did when they lived here.
Norma spots him in the mirror and turns around to look at him. "Don't do that," she says when she realizes he is standing in the doorframe, watching her. "It's kind of creepy. You know that, don't you?"
She is sitting at her vanity, combing her hair.
"I love to watch you," Alex states and she can't suppress an embarrassed smile, blushing.
He walks over and sits down next to her on the bench, taking the brush out of her hand.
"Can I?"
"Alex..." Norma frowns. Sometimes the utter adoration he feels for her is too much, even for her.
"I want to."
She sighs and lets him brush her hair. After a few strokes, he pulls her close.
"That's not enough," Norma complains. "If you want to do it, you have to do it properly. At least twenty more brushes; otherwise it won't be as shiny as you like it."
"I can't believe this is real," he says, his nose buried in her hair. "Promise me this is real."
"Alex..." Norma pushes him away from her gently. "What is going on with you?"
Steps outside bring Alex back to reality, his heart pounding wildly. This has always been his greatest fear, that his happiness is the delusion of a mad man, only imagining the life he always wanted to have because he couldn't face the truth. But the images were so vivid. Those had to be real memories.
He touches the door frame, the wall, the handrail on his way down. Real, he tells himself. Everything I remembered was real. Because what if it wasn't?
"Alex?" Her voice is muffled. The front door opens, then the interior door. "Alex, are you in here?" She spots him on the stairs where he froze, looking at her as if she was a ghost. "Come on. We have to get back. The boys are waiting in the car."
She dropped him off about two hours ago. The motel and the house are being torn down tomorrow. Finally there was a buyer after all these years. He only wants the piece of land, though, not the buildings. Alex wanted to say goodbye whereas Norma told him she had done that already when they moved out years ago.
"Are you ok?" She studies him as he walks down the last steps to stand beside her.
"Yes." He embraces her. "I am now."
It is real. All of it. The pain. The happiness. Their two boys. Milo and Josh, one blond, one dark-haired. Their future waiting to happen.
Alex takes Norma's hand.
"Let's go."