How is your Wednesday going?

Hopefully it is going great and if not, we really hope this would cheer you up a little bit, maybe?

Anyways and as always, we are INCREDIBLY greatful for all the feedback from you, guys. For all the reviews, all the love, all the curiouscats and suggestions!

Love you and thank you so much, always looking forward to hearing from you.

Kisses,

IWC


"I think… I think I will have pancakes with, um... maple syrup and strawberries." she decided after a long consideration and looking through the menu carefully. "Kind of a late breakfast." she smiled at the waitress, a round faced lady in her 60's, who wrote down the order on her little notepad.

"And you, Alex?"

"I will have a sloppy joe, please." It didn't take long for him to decide on his meal as it was usual of him to have the same thing every time he stopped by this place.

"And any drinks?" the woman asked, raising her eyes from the notepad in her hands to look at Norma.

"Um, apple juice for me is fine." she replied without much of a thinking this time.

"And coffee for me. Black." Alex closed the menu, handing it back to the waitress. "Thank you, Rose."

After a few minutes the waitress was back with the coffee and a glass of apple juice, settling the drinks on the table. Norma sipped on her juice, looking through the window to see that the same dark clouds slowly approaching, wind rising gradually.

"Good thing we parked near the entrance as it seems like a pretty serious storm is heading our way." she said in a serious tone, eyes scanning the sky with a slight concern. "Damn, I'm not sure I closed the kitchen window before leaving…" she turned her head back to Alex, eyes going wide.

"Norma! Really?" he asked in a stern voice, frowning at her. Seeing her body twitch a bit at his words snapping at her, it made him regret his harsh tone immediately. He didn't mean it to come out that harsh, his face softening quickly, "Well, it's fine. If it rains, it will probably rain on the kitchen's counter which is water resistant, anyways."

She looked at him with big puppy eyes, lips pressed in a thin line. The expression then began to change, a slight grin forming on her face, bursting into laughter a second later. "Got you!" she giggled, exhaling a long breath to calm herself down.

"Wow, very funny, Norma." deadpan look on his face, clearly not enjoying the joke as much as she did.

"Oh, come on!" she tilted her head at him, "And you kind of ruined my joke, you didn't even get mad-"

"Alex?" A voice came from behind, cutting Norma's words off. She turned her head to see a tall slim redhead in a red coat, sashaying towards their table. "Oh, heyy. What are you doing here?" The woman's voice high pitched, scarlet lips stretching into a wide grin.

"Hello, Rebecca." Alex replied in low voice, shifting a bit. "Oh nothing just- just having lunch." he said, eyes travelling to Norma and back to the redhead next to him.

Norma sat there scanning the woman, way too strong scent of perfume poisoning the air around them. Their gaze meeting, she felt as the woman's judging look travelled down her body.

"Oh. Who is your friend?" Rebecca arched her eyebrow, voice flat even though the fake looking wry smile, still playing on her lips.

"Um, I'm Norma Bates." she replied, trying to make her tone sound somewhat normal, "I own the Bates Motel down the road."

"Oh, that one, yeah… Well, so sad that the new bypass is planned in works." Rebecca gave her a somewhat sad look, tilting her head a bit, "I love small businesses, it's cute that people try even when it's beyond their abilities."

"Norma, this is Rebecca," Alex cleared his throat, hand gesturing towards the woman, "Um, she works at the WPB bank."

Norma gave the lady a fake smile, nodding at the introduction.

"I haven't seen you around for a while, Alex." Rebecca's face curled back into the flirtatious smirk from previous. "Oh, too bad I'm only here for a take out, bit in a hurry frankly." she explained in a regretful tone.

"Oh, yeah. Sad." Norma snapped in a flat tone, before she could think better of it. The tone of her response quickly attracted Alex's attention as he gave her a questioning look. "I-I mean, you're… probably busy. With all the work and stuff. Am...sad you can't even get a quick break." she rambled shrugging a bit towards Rebecca, feeling Alex's confused gaze glued to the side of her face.

"Well, that's true. But that's what happens when you are successful." she quickly gave Norma a sly smirk, turning her eyes back to Alex. "So will you maybe stop by after this…" she waved her hand towards them, 'business meeting or whatever. I have some papers for you to sign, related to your checking account."

Norma shifted a bit in her seat, nervously sipping on her juice while looking at the interaction between Rebecca and Alex.

"Ok, well, I will stop by when I have time. Or just mail them to my office." he said with a neutral tone, ignoring the flirtatious tone in Rebecca's voice.

"Well, enjoy your lunch. See you, Alex." she smiled at him then giving Norma one last look. A dreamy smile changing into the forced grin through clenched teeth, eyes narrowing a bit.

Just the second Rebecca walked away, the waitress was back to the table with their meals. Norma got a mouthful bite of her pancakes, getting more on her fork, now inspecting the syrup covered piece of strawberry.

"So… You and your banker get along quite well." she said after after a pause, clearing her throat. She wasn't even sure why she brought up this subject, immediately realising how stupid that remark should have sounded and shoving another bite in her mouth.

"Yeah, well, I've known her for a while." Alex replied in a nonchalant voice, not quite sure where she was going with it.

"She seems like a … like a very friendly worker." she said while toying with her food on the plate, drawing circles with the syrup with her fork. "I wonder if she's so friendly with all of her clients." Norma could see in her peripheral vision as he frowned a bit at her words.

Alex sat here, watching her messing the syrup around her plate, trying to figure out what was happening. Why she suddenly acted so weird and what was behind all those comments? And then a faint idea crossed his mind. Was she… Was Norma Bates jealous? The thought caused a slight smirk appear on Alex's face that didn't go unnoticed by Norma.

"What?" she raised her one eyebrow at him, "What's so funny?"

"No, nothing." he was caught off guard, his eyes now meeting her confused look, "You- you got syrup on the corner of your lips." he quickly replied, pointing towards her mouth. Her tongue darted out, licking her lips, such an innocent act still sending shiver down his body, making Alex drop his gaze to his plate.

"Well, now I know who the hell you sleep with." she let out a forced chuckle, making Alex choke on his bite. "Oh, come on. Admit that the two of you are sleeping together, it's obvious!" she said in a teasing tone, looking at him with widened eyes, sly and curious smirk playing on her lips.

Alex coughed, looking around awkwardly as Norma's exclamation attracted a few glances from the people sitting at the table nearby.

"Norma-" he started as he had no idea what she was talking about, seeing her lean on the table.

"Oh, come on, don't lie. So am I right?" she asked narrowing her eyes a bit, voice a whisper. "You have to be sleeping with someone all this time. Is she the one?"

He sat there saying nothing for a second, just staring at the curious expression on her face. "Ok, well-" he started, letting out an awkward chuckle, "we had some... non-business meetings back in the days."

"Back in the days? What do you mean?" she asked raising one eyebrow at him.

"Well. A year ago or so, to be more specific." he explained as Norma leaned back trying to contain the small smile that was threatening to blossom.

"Oh." was all that she managed to say, now feeling stupid at letting her curiosity take over and bring this whole thing up. But she was just curious, right? People are curious species in general.

"So…" he started, after chewing the bite of his food, trying to change the subject now. "What about you? Weren't you tempted by the 64-inch plasma tv?"

"Ah, George?" she scoffed, putting a half cut strawberry in her mouth. "Well, have to agree, the TV seemed really nice though."

"Then what did stop you?"

She chewed for a few seconds, thinking. "It's just… I'm not sure it would work out."

"Oh, it's not really that hard to learn how to use those fancy TVs." he joked, clearly understanding what she really meant.

She chuckled a bit, "I mean me and George. Well… we did go out a few times." Norma let out a sigh, hesitating for a moment before continuing. "But, I guess, he isn't my kind of a guy really. He's not someone for me." she explained.

"Really? How so?" Alex asked, her words making him feel a strange relief for some reason.

"I think we are very different. Too different. He's this sophisticated man, always in suit, perfect life, perfect job, perfect house. Expensive dinners, fancy vacations. Just everything perfect and somehow… fake at the same time?" she tried to explain her thoughts while gazing at her plate, "And that makes me uncomfortable, all that perfection. He has the same idealised image of me in his head and I just can't bring myself to tell him the truth, I just… don't feel like I want to tell him anything? That I'm not like that, that I'm flawed. I've walked through hell in my life and I still struggle. And I think that's the person I need. The person who is flawed same as me, who has seen the worst in life, not only the best. Someone who would see the real me, with all of my flaws and scars and story behind and love that, not some idealised version." she finally raised her eyes to see Alex staring at her, expression unreadable but eyes, the warmest brown, softly studying her face.

Alex had to fight the urge to brush his fingers over her hand, that was placed on the table. It's was all that he wanted to do at the second, to touch her skin, to show her something that he wasn't able to express in words. Something that he wasn't even able to explain to himself.

Norma chuckled weakly, tilting her head as she dropped her gaze from his. "Anyways…" she trailed off, turning her head to look through the window. The sky was now fully dark, clouds heavy and electrified, threatening rain any second, "I think we should hurry up if we want to get home before the storm kicks in."


The day had flown by, as they had spent the rest of it at home. With the dangerous storm raging outside it was impossible to leave the house. Alex had been on his phone most of the rest of the day, handling some work stuff, while Norma did some laundry and now was rewatching the movie, the same one she was supposed to watch with Alex the night before. And she was surprisingly enjoying it, same as the first part of it, the one she had seen before falling asleep.

It was almost 7pm and Norma could hear her stomach making tiny noises from the lack of food, and decided it was time for dinner. She headed to the kitchen, opening the fridge that was now fully stuffed with food. Taking out all the ingredients for her turkey pot pie, she arranged them on the counter, now searching through the cupboards for a cutting board. She couldn't hear Alex talking anymore, so she assumed he was done with his phone calls for the day. Finally.

"Alex!" she yelled loudly from the kitchen.

"What?" he said, standing almost behind her, making her startle.

"Oh geez, Alex! I didn't know you were in here." she exclaimed, putting her hand on her chest, calming down her heart. "I thought that maybe you would like to help me with dinner?" she asked him hopefully.

"Norma… I can't cook. You know that." Alex sighed.

"I will teach you then." she shrugged, "Come on, Alex, it will be fun!" her hand coming up to lightly punch his upper arm, "Oh, come on, say yes." she whined, giving him a puppy eyes look.

"Ok. Fine" he finally agreed, not really caring about cooking at all, but the idea of spending some time together actually sounded nice to him.

So they got started on the making of the turkey pot pie. Norma decided to teach him how to properly cut all the ingredients first, as best as she could. He was a rookie after all, and he wasn't the best student.

"FINELY chopped, Alex." Norma said looking at the onion that looked like it had been chopped four times, and four times only. "Those pieces are too big. Way too big." she said while making the crust for the pie.

"Well, it looks fine to me? Definitely good enough to fit in a mouth." he gave her a questionable look, staring down at the cutting board with the failed "chopped" onion on it.

"Well, we are not eating the onion itself." she raised one eyebrow at him, trying to suppress the giggle as she watched him, his face in a mixture of confusion and concentration while trying to cut it into smaller pieces, slowly.

"This thing hurts my eyes." he mumbled and Norma wasn't able to keep the laughter quiet anymore.

"Oh for god's sake, the big daddy of White Pine Bay defeated by the onion?" Norma let out a dramatic breath, shaking her head at him and bursting into laughter once again, seeing as his mouth also curled up into a smile. "Look," she said, taking the knife from him and showing all the steps, "you just take this, hold it there and then cut."

He watched her chop the onion into small pieces, just staring amazed at how simple it looked in her hands.

"See? Not that hard." she said, pointing at the perfectly shaped cubes, "You have to learn these things. I mean, how are you gonna survive when it's time for me to leave?" she asked jokingly, giving him a look.

He didn't answer her. His mind unwittingly drifting away to the day when she actually will leave. When this whole bubble will be over, the bubble they had created over the last couple of days. He hadn't felt this good and relaxed, since... he can't even remember the last time he felt happy. Not alone, not with someone. Ironical, of course, knowing what this whole situation was about. But still, it made him upset to think that she was going to leave at some point, that all of this is just temporary. He hadn't really thought about that part just yet, too focused on her presence here, at his place, with him.

Norma could see how his face fell a bit when she had said that. She hadn't intended it and, frankly, she didn't know it would be upsetting to him in any way possible. Even though he made her feel very welcome here, she still thought that finally giving back Alex his private life and his personal space will be a relief for him in some way.

"You okay?" she asked, sensing a sudden mood change.

"Yeah, why?" he asked, not making eye contact with her. He was afraid if she looked into them, into his eyes, they would simply tell her everything, give everything away without any words.

"You just look a little… distant." she said in a soft voice, scanning the side of his face. She could feel the warmth coming from his body, their sides almost touching each other because of the small space between them.

"Well, I guess… I guess, I was kind of getting used to having you around." he let out a weak chuckle, feeling a bit embarrassed of his honesty. He wasn't familiar with expressing how he felt. "And it's just that I… I will probably miss having you here." Alex finished off, shrugging a bit. He finally dared to turn his eyes to Norma, giving her a sad smile.

Norma didn't know what to say, clearly not expecting to hear these words from him. So she just stood there, looking at him, her gaze a mixture of surprise and gentleness. She could feel her heart start beating too fast. So fast that it almost hurt how hard it was slamming against her chest. The feeling of the blood in her veins going in full speed around inside of her body made all of her lucid thoughts go away for that moment. So she leaned forward before she could think, grabbing his face in her palms, her mouth suddenly crushing down over his in one fast move. At first he remained still, completely thrown by her unexpected action, but then parting his lips the second later. He deepened the kiss, his soft tongue slipping inside the sweetness of her waiting mouth, her fingers brushing over the side of his lips. His hands moving to pull her hard against him, the pressure of his body filling her with such heat and need that she clawed at his shoulders and bit his lip. She was the first one to let out a moan, the sound vibrating against his lips, his hands sliding down to get a firm grip around her hips, trying to push her even closer to him. He could feel her heart racing when her chest made contact to his own, her hot breath tickling his lips, driving him crazy.

In one fast and impatient move, not breaking a kiss, he turned them around, hoisting her up and on the counter, grabbing a hold of her legs to set her down on it. He felt as her legs immediately dangled around his waist, hands grabbing a hold on his face again. His hand traveled down from her waist to her rear, the contact making her let out another moan into his mouth as her hands were on his back, feeling every muscle there with her fingertips.

And then it was over.

The loud sound of his cellphone reaching them, breaking the moment and making them return to reality.

They broke apart from each other, Alex stepping back from between her legs. Lips swollen, chests rising and falling from heavy breathing, the sudden realisation of what just happened making them both look away from each other.

"I'm sorry, I-" Alex started, not quite sure what he was apologizing for, this or his phone interrupting them.

"No, I'm sorry, I- I don't know why… ehm…" Norma stuttered, not sure how to finish the sentence. "You should probably get that." she said sliding off the counter, pointing towards the living room where the sound was coming from.

He turned around, leaving the kitchen to get his phone, "Sheriff Romero" he answered in a serious voice, mentally cursing at the deputy on the other line for the timing of the call.

"Sheriff, I'm sorry to call you at this hour but you informed me to let you know if we have any news on the man named Cohem." the deputy stated in a rushed voice. "I think, you need to come to the station. It's urgent."