Heartstrings Pulled Tight
Chapter Notes
Less than 2 weeks? It's some sort of miracle!
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Alex's POV
A week has passed and I suppose I'm sorta proud of myself for not drinking.
I'm not proud of myself that it's the seven year old that caves first. It's still dark and early when
Kara trots into the clubhouse and unceremoniously shoves her cellphone at me. Her flat look warns
me to behave and when I look at the screen, there's a sad-looking Lily staring back at me.
It takes a moment to find my voice, but I manage a slightly strangled, "hey, Lils. How are you
doing?"
It's obvious she's miserable, and my own sad heart aches for both of us. There's an awkward shrug,
but I can tell she wants to talk and I set down my coffee and step outside into the cold for some
privacy.
"Hey, sweetie, it's okay. You can tell me anything."
The little sniffle and those big, dark eyes getting wetter is torture.
"I miss the chickens."
Not gonna lie, there's a part of me that wants to laugh, although it might be a little painfully
hysterical at this point. C'mon, Alex, dig deep.
"Tell you what, why don't you come along with me on this call then?" The offer makes her perk up,
uncoiling from her miserable huddle.
"Can I?"
"Sure thing. But aren't you supposed to be in school about now?"
The guilty look is very telling.
"Um… I'm in the bathroom at school. I snuck away my phone."
Maybe someday I'll be in a position to tease her about this sort of thing, but for now, I do my best
to look serious and not amused. I don't think I succeed.
"Okay, tell you what. Take the phone to your teacher and let's see if I can stop you getting into
trouble."
Lily doesn't want to, I can see her conflict, but she's a good kid and nods before heading off. A
couple thumps of doors leads to the low babble of kids at work and I hear Lily address someone I
can't see.
"Miss Braeburn? Can I…"
She needs a hand and I speak up, hoping her phone carries my voice enough. "Lily, can I speak to
her?"
The phone's camera swings wildly and a wryly speculative woman appears. "Can I help you?"
"Miss Braeburn is it? My name is Alex Danvers. Lily spent some time at my farm recently and is
missing the animals she was so good with. Would it be alright if she went on my morning chores
with me? I can have her back in your classroom inside twenty minutes or so."
It's been awhile since I've used my doctor voice, firm but kind. For a moment, the teacher is
unmoved, then a smile played around her mouth. Good, she seems nice.
"I had wondered about Lily's vacation. Surprisingly, she hasn't spoken much about it. If you can
help cheer her up, then yes, a twenty minute break is acceptable. Now that I think about it, would
you be willing to share a call with the whole class at some arranged time?"
My delight isn't faked and the smile feels good. "Actually, that sounds like fun. Count me in."
Sam's POV
"So, Lex laughed at me and offered up the money. It was like June 2011 all over again."
Normally, Lena might mildly startle me appearing at the bar, but lately she's been clingy. I get it.
So I find a smile for her and set aside the crate of beer I had been schlepping around. It can wait for
a minute while I knuckle down on being a good partner. Starting with stepping around the bar to
press a noisy kiss to her scalp.
God, her little giggle feels good.
"Okay, in June of 2011 you bought this building. Okay, Lex did, but you have the deed and that's
what matters. What could beat that?"
With a sheepish smile bordering on sly, she turns her phone towards me and I can't help but laugh.
Hugging my love close, I rub my face against her sleek hair and take heart in the bond I can't live
without.
"Babe, they're going to love it."
With some of the unspoken tension between us eased, I hope I can sleep better tonight. I know I've
been more disruptive than usual to poor Lena. It's like my cells miss the quiet of the farm and…
Nope, not dwelling on that.
Lena looks pleasantly surprised by my hug shifting to something almost suggestive and I can feel
my expression both soft and sensual. "Hey, how about I try and get out of here early tonight? I
think we could use some nice R&R."
Lena has very expressive hands and they're gentle when they cradle my cheeks so that I am still for
a long, sweet kiss.
"I think that sounds great."
It takes me longer to get away than I'd like, but at least it's still a decent hour. Barely. Washing my
hands, I let Nat know I'm leaving and head up. Letting myself in quietly, I note the scents of dinner
fading the air. Damn, I missed her cooking again. Ugh, I really suck at this sometimes.
The lady I never felt like I deserve is scrunched up like a crash test dummy on the couch, intent on
the little screen of her phone. The urge to tease about her usual sitting like a deranged monkey dies
in my chest.
Only seeing the girls sad like this could make me feel worse. Still, I have to be a good partner,
gently asking after her.
"You okay?"
It's telling that she doesn't even jump at my presence, just sort of shakes her head and shrugs her
shoulders, clearly as conflicted as I feel.
"They're moving the pigs to pasture four," she says almost numbly before her face crumples and
the tears start to flow for real. "I can't remember which one is pasture four!"
Wrapping myself around her as best I can over the back of the couch, I resist shushing her and just
hum comfortingly. Neither of us are big criers and wallow in the emotional outlet, my quieter tears
joining hers.
It's not about the pasture or the pigs, or even the forgetting. It's about not being there. But how to
put words to that?
"We'll go back soon. Think of how beautiful it will be in spring."
I have no idea if it's the right thing to say, but Lena relaxes a little and nuzzles the side of my head.
"Sounds like a plan."
I'm not expecting the strangled, wet little laugh that grates up from my love as she rubs a fist across
her eyes.
"It's the farm chat," Lena explains and waggles the phone a little where lines of text are scrolling
by.
To be honest, I'd pretty much forgotten about the farm group chat as I'm notorious for ignoring my
damn phone. Hell, half the time it's not even on me, though I'm careful to not leave the building
without it at least. Lena on the other hand, is scrupulous about tending to her phone like the
information link it is.
A little bubble of amusement escaping Lena makes me feel better and I immediately see why.
"Now Kara's ranting about her sister being stupid and getting drenched in mud."
Sure enough, reading over her shoulder, I skim over the text of Kara's typically expletive-free
haranguing ending with, 'At least the dummy didn't get stomped on by an ostrich this time'
A strangled huff of amusement escapes me, an actual smile creeping over my face at the photo that
suddenly pops up on Lena's screen. With a gentle grasping of her wrist, I turn her hand to better
see, catching her attention into looking as well. Against a backdrop of half-grown pigs behind
sturdy fencing and snow thick on the tress and patchy on the ground and lit gently by a
breathtaking sunset, Alex is standing awkwardly, utterly coated in mud and probably less savory
brown stuff. She's caught clearly in mid-motion, trying to flick it off her hands enough to rub at her
right eye, squinted shut. The other is glaring bloody murder at her no doubt hysterically laughing
sister.
Our soft amusement joins in that distant merriment and suddenly, the evening doesn't seem so bad
anymore.
[Author's note: Normally, I'd have a Lena POV here, but it really needed Alex's reactions, y'know?
So Alex it is!]
Alex's POV
It's been a week and a half and suddenly, there's a New York number on my phone labeled with
Lena's name. in an instant I'm as nervous as my first day in the ER as an intern with too much book
in my head and not enough gore on my hands.
To say that I'm a mess of anticipation and nerves would be a huge fucking understatement. What
the hell do I do? Besides get my ass in gear before the damn call goes to voicemail. Best to go for
casual I guess.
"Hey."
Ugh, Alex, really, what are you, twelve? Lena's voice is as nervous as I feel as she blurts out, "um,
so I have a proposition for you."
I slap down the nervous/pervy response with the not-pervy-less-nervous twelve year old part of my
brain.
"Oh?"
Whoo, go me, monosyllabic responses are a go. What a catch. Ugh.
"My brother was dramatically aghast at my hanging out on a farm on the west coast, no matter how
pretty Oregon is. And I had the nerve to like it and want to go back. He almost squealed at the
mention of the rental RV. Admittedly, it was pretty funny. Still, he had a pretty epic solution for
me."
Despite my mixed feelings, I can feel a smile twitching at me. "And what was his epic solution?
You have me curious."
There's a note to relief in Lena's voice, even as she sounds all the more tentative.
"I have a building for you."
Of course she does. Does Sam ever still feel a little overwhelmed and a lot affectionate like this?
Bet she does. Still, be cool, Alex, and don't freak out.
"Go on."
Both of us are reassured by my calmness and Lena perks up. "Well, it's a pretty ridiculous building,
to be honest. It turns out there's a company asset in New Jersey that makes steel buildings like
warehouses and barns. It's big enough to be the former and painted like the latter. A client ordered
the thing nearly three years ago and there's been some…" her pause makes me grin widely because
I almost anticipate the disgust that follows, "shenanigans about the project."
Someday, when things aren't so loaded, I want the whole story of this insanity. My amusement is
warm and I can hear it color my voice. "So, a warehouse that looks like a barn?"
"Sort of? Here, let me send you the concept renderings. The whole thing is sitting in neat bundles
collecting dust, including quite a lot of interior that can most likely be used. Getting it to you will
be a challenge, but winter hasn't really set in yet. If the thing comes convoy-style maybe it can give
you a warmer place to set up shop?"
"You really don't like that old barn, do you?"
There's something in the long pause that makes me second guess my teasing.
"Lena, I was joking. While I don't know that a barn-warehouse would be the best fit, I-" The
phone vibrates and makes a little chime to alert me. "Hang on, I think the pictures are here. I mean,
really how big and dramatic can it really… be?"
Yes, my voice dramatically trails off like a scene from a movie. Shut up. When Lena said it was
big, she wasn't exaggerating. This thing is a beast. It looks like the lovechild of fancy east-coasty
home and a fancy barn was born a conjoined twin with a huge shop with a door on it big enough to
let in a personal airplane! The size of the garage, shop, whatever it is, is softened by a trio of
ordinary dormers that indicate a space above.
Given that a standard exterior door is three feet wide, this damn thing has to be the better part of
two hundred feet long and some thirty tall! It's all red painted steel and mortared riverstones with a
dark grey roof and trimmed in white. There's a vehicle-sized barn door at the far end of the shopgarage
and a trio of single garage doors under a bank of windows under a cupola big enough to be
its own roof that sets thing whole thing off like a crown. More riverstone makes pillars that support
beams beneath a wide canopy that wraps around some of the structure.
Swiping to the next picture reveals the front, dressed in tons more stone and canopy that makes it
look like a high-end store. The back is more welcoming, a deep balcony running the full length of
the house side above more windows and a double-wide garage door. Wide, friendly steps run down
to split to a T-intersection that leaves room for a seating area. The shop side stretches away
beneath dormers mirroring the front and an only slightly less gargantuan door.
It's… a lot. But, oddly, I'm almost getting used to it.
"It's too much, isn't it?" Lena says, small and quiet and no matter my mixed feelings, I can't bear to
hear her hurting even a little bit.
"Well, it's a lot, yeah, but it's a hell of a building. Why is your brother being dramatic about it?
Besides the shenanigan-y client."
The lame stab at humor cheers Lena a bit, her voice strengthening. "It's a lot of resources going to
waste. Maybe if I could put it up at your place we could use it as a feature piece for the business?
Give the jerk client the finger?"
Yes, I burst out laughing. Setting aside all the weird subtext with the hot moms, I really just like
this family and I doubt there will ever be much I can deny them.
"So, a palatial trophy vacation house with a shop I get to use that I could park the light plane that
Carol and Maria covet in? Sounds like fun."
I've held onto that feeling of affectionate amusement through this unexpected conversation. So the
note of vulnerability once more catches me off guard.
"I just really want to come back."
I find myself wishing that she'd said she really wants to come home.