Title: Reunion
Pairing: Pepa/Silvia
Disclaimer: nothing is mine, unfortunately.
Note: English is not my fist language.
Hearing a roaring noise, she excuses herself from the conversation and goes towards the car park.
The motorcyclist gets off and takes the helmet off. "Sorry for being late, pelirroja," Pepa kisses her, "I hope I didn't miss anything."
"We did a questionnaire on our life. Something about how happy we are, and then you saved me from a boring conversation on which professors are dead."
Pepa laughs. "Well, you were the one who wanted to come to this thing."
"I know, I know. Do you want something to drink?"
"Why not? I'll wait for you here, I'll need some liquid courage to face all of this."
Silvia departs shaking her head.
"Beautiful."
"Yeah, really precious," Pepa sighs.
"Is it new?"
Pepa, who was still looking at Silvia, turns towards the voice and sees a group of people observing her motorbike.
"Not really, I just take care of it," she answers, starting a conversation.
ooooo
"Here." Silvia hands her a glass.
"Thank you, princesa" Pepa kisses her on the lips.
"And I also brought to you something to eat."
Pepa's stomach chose that moment to growl. "Thank you, I think I need it," she smiles rubbing her belly, not embarrassed at all.
"You know, there is a shooting booth"
"Oh, really?" Pepa isn't really interested.
"Really" Silvia repeats smiling.
"And why are you telling me this?" They continue teasing each other.
"Well, I thought that since last time you weren't able to win me anything…"
"Well," Pepa mimics her, "I don't know if I want to win, after all, last time I got my prize anyway." She grins and winks at the redhead, remembering the night of the street-party, while Silvia pouts playfully.
ooooo
"Here, princesa, I won you the biggest teddy bear at the stand."
Silvia smiles happily and is going to kiss Pepa when a voice interrupts them. "I see that certain things never change."
"What do you want?"
A man approaches them, smirking and leering at Silvia.
"What do you want, Lopez?" Pepa repeats, growling, while Silvia squeezes her arm trying to prevent a fight.
Finally, Bernardo Lopez looks at Pepa. "I want to challenge you. Let's make a bet."
"A challenge?" she raises her eyebrow and folds her arms.
"Yes. I bet that I can hit more bottles than you," he says, pointing at the stand.
"And what are we playing for?"
"If I win, I get a dinner with the pelirroja."
"No."
"Pepa."
"She is not a thing you can win like that."
"Pepa, it's okay," Silvia says, sure of Pepa's ability.
Lopez winks at her and the redhead rolls her eyes.
"And if I win?" Pepa asks, accepting Silvia's decision but not liking it at all.
He is surprised, speechless for a moment, not having thought about the possibility. "What's the most expensive prize?" he asks the stand operator.
"A Swarovski ring."
"If you win, it will be yours."
"Okay. You start," she accepts.
The challenge draws a large audience, and the crowd cheers for Lopez's six bull's-eyes. He tosses the gun at Pepa, and she approaches the stand. She concentrates for a few seconds and begins to shoot.
The viewers hold their breaths: one, two, three, four…at the sixth bottle they clap, but she continues: seven, eight, nine. After shooting the tenth and final bottle, Pepa only stretches out her hand to take her prize.
Then, she ignores the whistles and applause and a gaping Lopez to go straight to Silvia. She opens the little box and takes out the ring. "For you, princesa." She slips the ring on her finger and feels Silvia shiver.
"Are you cold?"
"A bit."
Pepa takes off her leather jacket and offers it to Silvia.
"What the hell are these?" A bewildered Lopez asks, pointing at the guns strapped on Pepa's shoulder.
"You should know better than to challenge a special agent with a 9/10 accuracy who managed to shoot a bottle off a friend's head from 20 meters." Silvia smirks, snaking her arm proudly around Pepa's side.
"You're sticky." She pulls back her hand and looks at it before bringing her hand to her mouth. "Blood?" she asks confused. "Blood?" she repeats seething. "Take your shirt off!"
"But…"
"Take. It. Off. NOW!" she orders.
Pepa swallows and obeys, revealing a bloody patch on her side.
"Lopez, get the medical kit." Hearing the tone, he doesn't question the order, although he doesn't even know where to find it.
"You! Get me water and somecloth." Various people scatter away to fulfil her wish.
Silvia takes her cell out.
"It's cold." Pepa whines.
"Surely not as cold as you'll get if I throw you out of the house tonight!" She threatens while dialling a number.
"Dad? Where was Pepa tonight? No, she is here, but I want to know who was on shift with her. Dad, I'll learn it anyway, so if you tell me now you save me time. Good, let me talk with him.
Nelson? What happened tonight? Uhuh…What did Pepa do? You know, I really appreciate your loyalty to her…but you better start talking if you don't want to get suspended."
"It's abuse of power." Pepa protests.
"Shut up! Not you, Nelson. You talk." Silvia listens in silence, staring at Pepa who is looking at the floor. "Good." She puts her phone away and begins to wash away the blood.
"What the hell were you thinking? Are you bloody stupid? Driving like this… did you want to crash somewhere?"
"Ah, you're hurting me!"
"What is this compared to bleeding to death!"
Pepa rolls her eyes, but winces as Silvia continues to clean her wound not very delicately.
"Silvia Castro."
"Miranda," both girls correct the voice.
"I know perfectly well who you are señorita Miranda, but I wasn't talking to you." The woman retorts acerbically, probably remembering all the jokes Pepa made about her.
"No, I mean, my name is Silvia Castro Miranda."
"And if you talk to me, you should call me señora Miranda Castro." Pepa smirks.
The woman ignores her. "Silvia, I'm sorry, but I can't give the school kit to anyone. I need to note what it's going to be used for.
Silvia begins to fuss with the instruments. "Well, you can write that my foolish wife pulled one of her usual Dirty Harry stunt and burst into the suspect's house without waiting for reinforcement….why the hell didn't you wait?" she addresses Pepa.
"I was already late…" Pepa says meekly.
Silvia snorts and continues, "And then the idiot had the genius idea to drive her motorcycle to come here without treating the wound before."
"Are you a doctor?" a man near them asks, wanting to be sure that she has medical knowledge before she starts 'operating' on that poor girl.
"Forensic."
"One of the best. She is the one who resolves all our cases." Pepa praises her wife.
"Are you saying that since I wasn't there to crack the case, it's my fault that you had to use your 'method' to resolve it?" Silvia asks outraged.
"No, I-" a glare convinces Pepa to shut up.
ooooo
"Silvia!"
"Mrs Marnos! It's nice to see you again." They shake hands
"They told me you are still involved in science. I hope I had some influence in that."
While Silvia nods, the woman looks at Pepa, now with her shirt on again, in disdain. "And I see that you still associate with certain people…What does your father say about it?" she asks, knowing full well that during high school Don Lorenzo absolutely loathed Pepa.
"He's really happy. You should see them watching a futbol match together. You'd think she was his daughter, not me." Silvia answers sharply: she can be furious at her wife, but nobody better talk about Pepa like that when she is present.
ooooo
They sit on a bench, Silvia at one end and Pepa at the other one, without talking. Then Pepa gets up, while Silvia continues to stare ahead.
"Silvia."
She raises her head and smiles. "Mr Pulas, how are you?" she gesture for him to sit down.
"I'm fine thanks. I just arrived and you?"
"I'm fine, too" she answers, not looking at the teacher with whom she had maintained contact until he transferred to Lisbon.
"You don't seem very convinced."
Silvia looks at him and gives him a small sad smile.
"Problems with Lucas?"
"Oh no…Lucas…we aren't together anymore."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not," then she explains, seeing the shocked expression of her interrogator. "I mean, when we split up I took it pretty hard…but now I know it was for the best: he wasn't the love of my life."
"I assume you found the One then…"
Silvia looks at her wedding ring and smiles brightly. "Yeah…I did…again."
"Again?" he asks curious.
"We knew each other when we were kids, but for various reasons we…I…it never happened then. It was my fault mainly."
The conversation lulls in silence.
"Don't let it go."
"What?"
"Not everyone is so lucky to have a second chance…don't waste it," he says standing up, with a hand on her shoulder. "I'll go to say hello to some old friends."
ooooo
Silvia is sitting in silence, pondering his words, when she feels Pepa's presence next to her. She stands up and looks at her wife who is carrying a huge bouquet of flowers.
The brunette starts to speak, apologizing, but Silvia precedes her.
"Where did you buy them? There isn't a stand here…" she asks fully knowing that she had to take her bike to buy them.
She takes the flowers from Pepa's hands and puts them on the bench, not very carefully, and hugs her wife forcefully.
"No matter what, I won't let you go."
THE END
What follows is the first end that I wrote. Re-reading it I didn't like it very much, so I wrote another one. After a month it didn't seem so bad: not plausible, but I love the idea of Silvia trying to explain their story…and lovely thought I should include it, so here it is.
"May I have your attention please? We have the results of the questionnaires. The people who arrived in time already know about it, but we'll be kind enough to explain for the latecomers what the forms are and why we gave them to you."
"He always managed to make you feel guilty for not doing your homework even without saying it explicitly."
"Maybe it was because you never did your homework," Silvia whispers harshly, making clear to Pepa that her wife is still angry with her.
"….we wanted to know how you are doing in your life, if you are accomplished, happy. We asked you to use a nickname so that we wouldn't have been influenced by personal sympathy. We elected as the happiest person of the party, the woman, well, we supposed she was a woman, who chose as the nick 'Princesa'. Where is Princesa?"
Silvia slowly raises her hand.
"Please, could you come here? We'd like to ask you some questions."
Silvia approaches him cautiously.
"What's your name?"
"Silvia Castro Miranda"
"I think I remember you…anyway, why did you chose that nickname?"
"It's what Pepa calls me." She glances quickly at her wife.
"How many years have you been married?"
"Three."
"And you were together for…"
"Two years"
"You didn't waste time, eh?"
Silvia looks at the person who spoke. "Actually, we wasted a lot of time…we've loved each other since we were 17…"
"And you got together only five years ago?" The same person asks incredulously.
Silvia nods. "Pretty stupid, don't you think?"
"Why? If I can ask…"
"There were a lot of reasons…fear and the need to conform above all. At the time it was an extraordinary thing, and I wasn't ready to admit it. But in the end, we found each other again, because we were meant to be." Silvia smiles at Pepa, who blows her a kiss.
"Some of the judges who read your answers would like to ask something, if it's okay with you."
Silvia nods. She meets a lot of people who doubt their relationship and their happiness.
A woman whom Silvia doesn't recognize speaks up "Do you want us to believe that your marriage is perfect? You talk about love, friendship and passion like they are the only things needed to make a marriage work…" she provokes her.
"No," Silvia shakes her head. "We had our difficulties before and after the wedding…we still have them." She looks at Pepa sternly. "But we manage to get over them, thanks to the things you listed and thank to our family."
"Your family?" the woman asks, surprised. Usually families cause problems between couples, with mother-in-law and everything else…
"Yeah. They often are nosy and don't leave us alone," Silvia pulls a face, thinking about all the times they got interrupted during sexy time, "and I can't say that our family isn't strange, I mean, my niece married my ex-husband…"
"Your niece?"
"Yeah, and Pepa's niece, too. Pepa's brother and my sister were married…we're sister-in-laws."
"Uhm, family dinner must be fun," the woman says sarcastically after recovering from the surprise.
"Now that my father doesn't insult the love of my life and accuse her of having corrupted me…"
Silvia sees the curious faces around her. "It's long story that include two sisters-in-law, a Communion party and a kiss." She smiles remembering it.
"There has to be something you don't like."
Silvia looks at the man who spoke. "Excuse me?"
"I hate family reunions, but you seem to love them, do you love to fight, too?"
"No, but I love making up!" She smirks seeing many people looking away.
"So I suppose you find something positive even when someone hits on your partner…" he continues, trying to catch her at fault.
"Well, I'll admit that I love watching their face when they find out that Pepa is very much taken and that they have no chance."
"Come on! There has to be something you don't like! It can't be all that perfect!" The man is almost exasperated and Silvia, even if she was enjoying herself, decides to give in.
"Yes. I hate that she doesn't think before acting, that her recklessness often puts her in danger…but, you know, they say 'a lover doesn't see your faults, but a friend accepts and loves them'. And Pepa was my best friend, before being my lover and I always knew that she was a trouble-magnet; I can't blame her for it." Silvia looks at Pepa silently asking forgiveness
When the questions end, Silvia approaches Pepa.
"I'm sorry about before…if I hurt you."
"I'm sorry that I worried you." Pepa answers seriously, then she lights up. "Let's go home."
"Why?" Silvia asks looking around. The party is still going on.
"Do you know what is the best part of a fight?"
Silvia raises her eyebrow and Pepa lower her head to whisper in her ear.
"Making up."
THE REAL END
Thank you for reading