Earlier that morning when Alex began the hazy process of waking up it was because of a slant of sunshine across his face. The dawn was shining against his eyelids through a gap in his curtains and pounding into his skull. He groaned softly and rubbed at his eyes as he rolled away from the woman in his bed. He'd gotten drunk the night before, not unusual for Friday night, but instead of alone with his demons and old photographs he'd gone out to a bar. He'd brought a woman home.

Alex sat at the edge of his bed with his bare toes flexing against the cream carpet and squinted at that blinding white strip of sun through his curtains. His head ached and regret for every single thing he did the night before came washing over him. Drink after drink. For what? For nothing. He could get drunk alone in his house for far cheaper and without the risk of bringing someone home. All he ever did at the bar was sit and drink quietly. He could do that at home.

He stood and looked back at the woman in his bed. She didn't look to be waking up any time soon. Brittle blonde hair lay around her head on the pillow and her mouth gaped open as a soft snore came from her. Alex shook his head before looking up to the ceiling- he hoped maybe she would be gone when he looked back down. She wasn't gone. He left her there and went to take a shower. As he was washing rancid beer and fruity perfume from his skin he rubbed his face under the spray and tried not to think about how he'd brought a blonde, blue eyed woman home with him. He would have never have thought he'd had a type before.

After his shower Alex got dressed for the day before he went back to his bedroom. He glanced to the woman sprawled in his sheets before he approached her. He didn't remember her name. "Hey," he urged with a hand against her naked shoulder until she blinked up at him. "I'm making some coffee," he tells her. "The showers all yours if you want it. I'll be downstairs, alright?"

She croaked out a thanks and nodded. When she smiled at him he didn't smile back.

She rose as he left the room and as Alex reached the bottom of the stairs he heard the shower going. Alex will need to drive her home, or wherever, back to the bar to get her car maybe.

"Shit," Alex murmured after he'd started the pot of coffee brewing, which only came after he'd popped a couple of Ibuprofen and downed a glass of water. "Shit," he seethed again as he looked out the window above the sink. He stood there at his kitchen counter and debated making any sort of breakfast for his guest, for his mistake. When the coffee was done it was a dark red-brown as he poured it and the smell of it put something in place in his brain- he didn't want the woman in his house longer than necessary. He was not making her breakfast.

Alex sipped his coffee after adding just a bit of cream and went to the living room to turn on the television, just for something to fill the silence of the house. He usually lived in silence and didn't mind, but with a stranger in the house everything felt awkward. He turned on the news and kept his ear out for when the water in the shower turned off. When his cell rang he answered it on the second ring with only a bark of his name as a greeting.

Nancy was almost as brusque. "Your broken bird needs some help."

"What?"

"She's afraid to put those boys in school. She thinks her husband will be able to pull the records and find 'um. When you go to check on her today at the diner you should talk to her about it." Nancy let out a breath and Alex could hear the smoke exiting her lungs. He could imagine exactly how she looked with the cigarette dangling between pointer and middle finger over the ashtray as she lounged on the old green chair in her living room. It had been nearly a decade since Alex last stood in her house and he thought maybe she'd thrown the chair out. Alex's mother had helped Nancy reupholster it- he hoped it was still there.

"I don't check up on her," Alex defended mildly and sipped his coffee.

Nancy let out a guffaw. "She's a talkative girl, Alex. She's told me you've been in there four times in the last week and a half."

"They make good food."

"Sure."

Alex heard the shower stop in the bathroom.

"I gotta go, Nance."


By the time he's brought the woman back to her car and made it to the diner on Elm it's ten in the morning. His hangover is nearly gone and what he told Nancy wasn't bullshit, the food at the diner was surprisingly good and he's hungry.

The bells attached to the diner door jangle when he enters. Even as he's walking through the door he's already looking for Norma and he finds her behind the bar. The sun is shining through the windows and bouncing off all the chrome- sunlight over saturating everything. Norma Bates looks like some kind of angel standing in blinding light with her hair a burning halo as the sun shines on it just right. It lasts only a moment, just until she turns away from the customer she'd been speaking too and she's merely a woman again. A woman with dirty blonde hair falling from its bun to lay in front of her face before she tucks the loose strands behind her ear as she nods and laughs and refills a cup of coffee.

Alex swallows softly and keeps an eye on her as he walks to the bar and plants himself at the far end.

"Deputy Romero," she calls out when she sees him. She makes her way over with a smile. She's got a good smile. She grabs a mug on her way and places it in front of him and fills it without having been asked. "Good morning," she greets with the light from the windows on her again as she stands before him. "I've never seen you out of uniform," she notes.

Alex nods softly. "First time for everything," he returns.

Her bruises are gone now, pale skin where green and blue had been. As she's glancing down at his flannel shirt he's studying her face and cataloging how her features look unmarked. She hadn't let him take pictures of the bruising that morning when he found her on the highway. She'd been vehement she wasn't going to press charges against the husband she was running from. And now the bruises are gone. Solid, good evidence, gone. She'll have the scar on her lip though.

"Are you doing alright? Do you need anything?" he asks.

She nods with a shrug. The blue of her uniform matches her eyes, those eyes- god, those eyes, as she smiles again when she glances up at him. "I have to get the boys in school. I don't really know how to go about it. I don't have any of their documents or- or anything. Um, and I'm a little nervous to put their names out there."

"I'll take care of it."

"What?" Confusion twists her face.

He pours his cream into his coffee. "I'll take care of it. I'll get them enrolled."

"But their names-"

"Pick a new name."

She laughs a little and leans forward. "Are you serious?" Relief consumes her face- tension that had been so subtle disappears and the almost easy joy of a child radiates off her like a physical wave. It sucks him in.

He leans forward with his elbows on the counter. "I'm serious."

"I-" she falters and shakes her head. "I need to think about it."

He's got contacts. He's got ways. All this town is made of is shady shit and it's about time some of that shady shit was used for some good. He can get her new documents. He can get her a new identity and a new life. He would get her anything she wants.

As he's made it halfway through his omelette a pain filled yelp fills the air. He knows it's Norma immediately. He turns on his stool in time to see the coffee fly from the mug in Norma's hand and splash across Keith Summers face. "What the fuck?!" Keith shouts. Coffee drips down his face and has drenched down the front of his already stained shirt. "You fucking bitch!"

Alex went to school with Keith Summers.

Alex stands from his stool as Keith erupts from his booth. Alex's napkin drops from his lap and flutters to the ground as he watches Norma back away until she collides with the counter. Her jaw juts out and her eyes glare. She's defiant and she's strong, but she is afraid- Alex can see it. How could she not be as Keith screams louder and as he gets closer? Her eyes dart to the side for a moment and then they clench shut as her shoulders cave forward. She's preparing to be hit.

Alex rushes forward and plants himself between them. "There a problem here, Keith?" Alex asks as he pushes his old classmate back. The man is hard to budge, but another rough shove has the shorter man taking a step back.

"You don't see the problem?" Keith shouts.

"I think you spilled some coffee on yourself," Alex says neutrally. Alex takes a step forward which forces Keith back another step as Keith splutters in shocked anger.

"That bitch-"

"That young lady," Alex cuts in and now there's edge to his voice, "didn't do a thing that I saw." Alex takes another step and gives Keith another shove until the back of Keith's legs hit against his booth seat. "Take out your wallet and leave a twenty on the table. Then get the hell out."

Keith's face has turned a dramatic shade of maroon and his jaw is clamped shut. There's the kind of hateful rage in his eyes that sings of violence, but Keith looks around and doesn't find any allies.

Alex tilts his head to the side and his narrow. "Don't make me tell you again," he warns quietly.

Keith does what he's told under Alex's watchful eye then. Alex stays between Keith and Norma until the bells jangle and Keith is retreating to his truck and throwing himself into the old red piece of shit and gunning it in reverse and out the parking lot. It's not until then that Alex faces Norma. She's still there with her back against the counter. He holds a hand out in the air between them. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she says and she's nodding, but her voice is breathy and she's shaking softly. She's still holding the mug in one hand and her other hand smooths over her skirt in a repetitive motion. "I have tables." She gestures out to the still quiet diner before returning her hand to smooth her apron over and over.

"Yeah, they can wait." Alex takes a step towards her with his hand still held out gently. "What did he do?"

"He put his hand under my skirt," she says and shrugs, suddenly nonchalant- or trying to be. "He grabbed my ass."

"He hurt you," the woman behind Norma whispers. She leans forward to say it. "I heard the sound you made, darlin'."

"He assaulted you?" Alex clarifies quietly. His rage is a different sort of thing then other peoples. It's cold. It's calculated. It's always so cold as it spreads and spreads to every inch of every part of him. Not an ounce of this shows on his face though. But he's seeping in rage. It's his job to protect. He'd promised to protect her. No one gets to hurt Norma Bates, not anymore. He looks behind Norma to the older waitress that's holding Norma's upper arm. The old woman nods.

"He's a pervert, Deputy," the old woman says. "He's in here every day making all the girls uncomfortable. He hasn't taken a shine to any of them like he has Norma. You should have heard the stuff he said about Norma her first day and saying it real loud too for the whole diner to hear."

"Ugh, will you stop. Just stop." Norma shakes her head. She looks suddenly flustered. Embarrassed. "I have tables, okay, I'm fine." She steps to the side. As she walks away Alex stares at the white bow at the small of her back and grinds his jaw.


Alex goes to the hardware store and picks up a few things he's been meaning to buy.

He goes to the liquor store.

And then he goes home.

He makes himself some dinner. He has two glasses of bourbon and he stares at the picture of himself as a child with his mother that hangs on the wall in his living room. He was always told he looked like her. In the photo they share dark hair and dark eyes and their smiles match- not that either of them smile much anymore.

The days light dwindles and dwindles around him until he's sitting in darkness.


At around eight he takes his cruiser back into town and he finds Keith Summers truck in the parking lot of the same bar that Alex had been to the night before. Alex waits in the parking lot with his car idling and his lights off until Keith stumbles out at around ten.

Alex slips out of the cruiser without making a sound.

The neon sign for the bar has made the world a vivid green, like algae staining the world. Clouds block the stars and the moon tonight. It's suffocating darkness above him and that strange green is the only light. It skews things and makes things seem strange as Alex propels himself forward and makes sure his gloves are secure. He's graceful and unhurried as he glances left and right and makes sure the parking lot is as empty as it seems. The bar doesn't have any surveillance for their parking lot and Alex has been waiting long enough to know there's no one hanging out in their car as he had been.

Keith is sloppy drunk. Keith drops his keys as Alex comes up behind him. Keith is bending down to pick them up as Alex rears back his foot and kicks him right in the ribs.

Keith squeals out this horrible sound, a wheeze that's both a bark of surprise and a wail of pain. He doubles over with his hands and knees on the ground. Alex kicks him again, and again, and again, and braces himself against the side of Keith's truck as he does it. He lands one kick right into Keith's jaw. There going to be blood on his boot that he'll have to clean, but he relishes in the sight of that blood dripping down Keith's pitiful face.

"Stop, please, stop!" Keith begs. He's curled up and bleeding. The neon green light makes his blood look like oozing black coating down his chin. He's trying to wedge himself between the undercarriage of his truck and the ground, but he's too fat to fit. "Please, stop, stop-"

"You touch her again and I'll kill you," Alex tells him. Alex reaches down and grasps a fist full of Keith's hair and forces him to look at him. Keith's eyes are wide and he's panting and sobbing. Keith is just a pitiful piece of shit. "I'll kill you, Keith, I promise. Don't go near her again."

And Alex Romero doesn't break promises, not any more.

"Who the fuck is she to you, Alex?" Keith says and it was a mistake because Alex rears back his fist and brings it down to break Keith's nose.

"You touch her again and I'll kill you," Alex repeats.

"I won't, I swear I won't," Keith begs now with tears rolling and clearing clean tracks through the black blood and dirt on his cheeks. "I won't even look at her, man. I won't touch her."

Alex lets him drop and turns right around back to his waiting cruiser. He walks just as gracefully and just as unhurried as before.


Alex waits a couple of days before going back to the diner for breakfast.

He's realized something.

Through absolutely no conspiring on her part, Norma Bates has entirely too much power over him. He's not sure there's anything to be done about it.


It snowed this morning. Puffy snow that looks good on the way down and that won't stay on the ground long, but the mere sight of it has Alex in a terrible mood.

He's eating his breakfast at the diner before his shift. Tuesday's are usually pretty quiet before eight and Norma is the only waitress here and he's the only customer. Norma is flipping through a newspaper absentmindedly as she leans against the bar across from him. She tucks some hair behind her ear. "Norman's never even seen snow before today," she tells him.

Alex nods slightly, but even when he's not even truly adding to the conversation that never stops her from talking to him. He likes to hear her talk. But that's exactly part of the problem. She's not available and she won't be for a long time. And even if she were, he's not exactly available either. He's…he's…

"I love the snow so much. It looks like it's from a postcard. Or a holiday card." She laughs. "Like something out of a fairy tale."

He takes a sip of coffee and watches her as she flips the page of the paper.

"You know, I wasn't built for Arizona," she continues. "I couldn't stand to be in the sun too long, I'm too pale. I burn so easy. Lobster red in a second and then right back to ghost white."

She talks and talks and talks.

"I'm trying to eat," Alex says.

She snaps up straight immediately. He can tell she's off-put by his tone as a confused expression crawls across on her face. Her forehead crinkles softly and her eyebrows draw together. "Oh, sorry," she says. "I just thought we were talking, you're my friend-"

"This is a diner and I'm just trying to eat," he responds. He sees how her face crumples and her shoulders slump before she makes her face blank and her shoulders are up again. The anger in her fills the air.

"Of course, I'm sorry, Deputy," she says as she's ripping her order book out of her apron pocket. She slams his bill down and walks away.

"Norma, wait-"

But she's already gone back into the kitchen and by the time he has to leave for his shift she hasn't come back out.