Hey guys! I know it's been a super, super long time but I just wanted you all to know that I'm alive and still writing, though it's obviously taking me a lot longer than it has in the past to get stuff out. Anywho, this is weird. It takes place between Season 3 and 4 and its kinda like... an Au of my Au...? it's Tara x Veronica with mentions of Jax x Tara and Juice x Veronica and i really really like it.
Tara hadn't stopped to think about the reasoning behind this until now. She was naked, sheets drawn up over her chest as she shifts to look at the woman next to her. She watches the rise and fall of each breath and both hated and loved she had someone to watch as they slept. The woman's hair had been cropped short, curls mussed by sleep and sweat and sex sticking to the back of her neck. Tara reached a hand out, the one not placed protectively over her stomach to run fingers through the sleeping woman's hair.
Or at least Tara thought she was sleeping. Veronica rolls over smiling sleepily over at her before pulling Tara's hand towards her, placing a small kiss to her palm. Sometimes when Veronica did little things like that, nothing amazingly special but still so sugary sweet it made Tara want to scream. Now though, with both of them naked under the sheets, her stomach rounder than it had been a few months ago, she just wanted to cry.
They'd been friends before Tara left for college, taking solace in the fact that they, along with Donna, seemed to be the only level headed young women around the clubhouse. Tara had heard little about of the time she'd spent away from Charming, it seemed Donna had been the only one to maintain a clear head. From what Tig had told her (though Tig was a notoriously unreliable source) Veronica had fallen fast and hard for Juice, had completely lost her shit when things went ass up and did what Tara had, got the hell out.
Tara had been back in Charming about a year and a half when Veronica rolled back into town; to say things were tense between the two was a gross understatement. Tara remembers words, grit out through a clenched jaw, things like 'bitch' and 'backstabber' and 'you left me behind' making her wince still.
Veronica stretches, not bothering to cover herself up where the sheet slips and exposes her to the early morning light. The crow on her thing shifts over muscles, the wings stretching and it should set a lump of something like guilt in the back of her throat but that's not what does it. They've both come to terms with the easy way they can be around each other. But thinking about the men coming out of prison, the ones who put the crow on Veronica's thigh and Tara's back makes her uneasy.
Men who they'll be waiting another nine months on, who will miss so much, just thinking about it makes Tara nauseous, more so than usual. She bounds out of bed, rushing to the bathroom as fast as she can move. When she shuffles back into the bedroom, the room is empty, bed made and the sounds of movement in the kitchen coming down the hallway.
She dresses for work slowly, piecing together an outfit appropriate for Dr. Knowles today. She's color coordinating socks to bra and panties and she knows she's just biding time, avoiding leaving the room and making this, whatever this is, more than it already is or should be. She snorts at herself than as she laces up her sneakers. She remembers Jax making a comment like that, how angry she had been and wonders how Veronica would react to it.
She doesn't want to fight with the younger woman, knows this would be harder for both of them without each other. Tara knows this, and still when she finally walks down the hall and into the kitchen, sees Abel already in his high chair and breakfast in front of him and all down his front, sees Veronica pulling her hair back and shooting a smile over her shoulder at Tara before getting back to breakfast it stops every harsh word she had ready to end this.
For now, Tara knows they need this. So Veronica will putter around the house, making meals and cleaning and taking care of Abel, or helping out around the garage. Tara will work; try to keep the different parts of her live in their separate little places. She'll complain when Veronica slips her orange juice instead of decaf though Tara is always telling her caffeine won't have any seriously terrible effects on her baby.
And at the end of the day, after Abel has been put down to sleep and the dishwasher is humming along, they'll fall into bed together. Sometimes they just lay there and talk for hours in hushed tones so they don't wake Abel, fingers threaded together between them.
Other times, like last night, they'll go around the house locking doors and shutting curtains before heading to bed. They fuck like they fought as teenagers, never giving an ounce of leeway, more teeth and fingernails and snarling mouths than either of them is proud of. And if Veronica is bruised and sore in some places or Tara has to cover bite marks with high collars the next day, they're the only ones who really know what the bruises are from.
When this ends (because they both know it's going to, sooner or later) it will be one of the few things that are theirs and theirs alone. Maybe someday when Veronica and Juice have kids they'll sit on a backyard and watch the kids run around and one of them will slip, rest a hand on a thigh for too long or lean in for a kiss that shouldn't be happening and they'll both scramble to cover it. Or they'll tell them, wait to see how Jax compartmentalizes this along with all the other shit, and watch Juice seethe for days with jealousy and hurt before confronting Veronica about it, because of the two he's more prone to it.
But for now they have what they need, whatever this is.