Chapter 127

When Natalia and Isabel finally released one another from their tight embrace, they made their way back into the house. Natalia couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips as she heard her wife and Doris's laughter coming through the door. Part of her wanted to just stand there on the porch and listen to the rich sound forever.

It had been so long since her wife had truly laughed, excluding their drunken state the previous night. It was nice to hear her sounding so carefree and happy, without being under the influence of more than a glass or two of wine. She knew that delightful sound would cease the moment she opened the door and Olivia looked at her. There wasn't a point in trying to hide what she was feeling, Olivia could always tell, even back when they were enemies, Olivia always knew when something was bothering Natalia.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped into the warmth of her home. A small, sad smile on her face. She refrained from letting Olivia see her just yet, wanting to allow her wife just a few more moments of happiness before she took it away again. Removing her jacket, she hung it on the hook and then tried to smile just a little wider as she turned to fully face the two women sitting on the couch.

A tiny but genuine smile overtook her features as she did so. Olivia had her head against the back of the couch, a huge grin on her lips, and that old sparkle in her eye as she peered at Doris who had obviously just said something, most likely inappropriately, hilarious. Doris, who had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard, looked to be just as relaxed and happy as her love. It was nice to see on both of them. She made her way over to them and slid gracefully into her wife's lap as Isabel took the wicker chair. Glad that maybe she didn't have to take this happy moment from her lover after all. Instead, she would join it and tell Olivia about the phone call from her parents later.

"And just what are you two in here cackling about? Something completely inappropriate I'm sure." She said with a smile as Olivia's arms wrapped around her waist and a kiss was placed to her cheek.

"Only a little. She almost started laughing again just thinking about what Doris had just told her. "The mayor here was just telling about an experience she had with a girl back in college. Apparently the woman had some poor aim."

Natalia face was of utter confusion until it set in just exactly what Olivia was implying. Natalia turned her face to Doris. "Are you saying that she uh, she…"

"Oh yeah, she slipped out of one hole and reentered in the other." Olivia finished for her, biting back another chuckle. "That's not the funny part though. Apparently Doris shot away from the girl so fast she hit her head on the wall causing the glass of water on the shelf above her to come crashing down on top of her." She stated, causing herself to go into another fit of laughter.

Try as she may, Natalia couldn't stop a laugh of her own from bubbling up. "Oh my."

Isabel was hiding her mouth behind her hand as she too found the story a bit hilarious.

"Alright you three." Doris said dryly. "It's not that funny."

"Oh, but it is. Can you show Natalia and Isabel the face you made? That was the best part." Olivia joked with her friend.

"Can it Spencer. Or would you like me to share your little saran wrap escapades with Josh with your wife and her sister."

Natalia looked down at her wife with a raised brow. "Saran wrap?"

"Don't ask. Thanks a lot Wolfe."

"Anytime Spencer." Doris replied with a wry smile.

"It sounds like you two have some wild stories between you." Isabel commented.

"Don't get them started. Please. I have only heard a few, and let me tell ya, your head will spin." Natalia told her sister.

"Well then, perhaps you'd like to share a story. I hear there's a rather interesting tale between the two of you?" She raised a brow, much like Natalia.

"Oh, that will require a lot more wine. Let me go grab another bottle." Olivia said good naturedly as she motioned for Natalia to let her up.

Natalia stood and assisted Olivia to her feet kissing her chastely. Once Olivia walked off towards the kitchen, she took her seat on the couch and got comfortable. "Alright Isabel, you sure you're ready for this? It's a long story and I can promise you that by the end of it, not only will your head be spinning, you'll also be questioning how in the world Olivia and I ended up together."

"Yes, I still question that daily. You're much too good for her." Doris added with a wink.

"Yes, I would very much like to hear the, how did you put it, long and complicated story of how you found your happily ever after." Isabel said sincerely.

Right at that moment Olivia came sauntering back into the room. Two wine glasses filled for Natalia and Isabel in one hand and the bottle in the other. She refilled her and Doris's glasses, and then sat herself on the floor by Natalia's legs, laying an arm across her lap with her chin on her knee.

"Well, it actually started before I met Olivia. I was living in this tiny apartment in Chicago with Rafe. One afternoon, I happened to be home, which was rare, I got a visitor. It was a girl Rafe's age, so sixteen at the time. Long story short, she told me Nicky was here in Springfield. I sent her away, but, after she left, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I mean really, after sixteen years was it possible that my Nicky was only a few hours away. I had to find out, so, I came here, and through some car trouble and bad luck, the first person I ran into was detective Gus Aitoro, Nicky."

"Wow, what are the odds that not only is he here, but he's also the first person you ran into."

"Yeah well, stranger things have happened, just you wait."

"I can imagine. Rafe said it was a soap opera."

"Oh, it is. So anyways. I couldn't get back home because of my car and then Rafe got into some trouble, so, when I lost my job in Chicago, I decided to stay." Natalia went on to tell her sister about her early days in Springfield and all the sorted affairs that took place. "I wasn't even sure if I was going to tell Nicky about Rafe or not."

"Wait, he didn't know about Rafe?"

"Nope. He left Chicago before I got the chance to tell him. Just disappeared. I spent years thinking, hoping he'd come back and we'd get to be a family, but it never happened. So, when Daisy showed up at more door and told me Nicky was here, I didn't know if I should tell him or not. I was so angry that he left me the way he did. Didn't say goodbye or anything, he was just gone. I guess I didn't think he deserved to know. I mean, I still loved him, but he had moved on without even telling me he was leaving. When I got here, he was married, and Harley had three kids, the two boys he was raising as his own, I just figured him not knowing about Rafe wasn't gonna hurt anyone."

"So how did he find out? I mean, he did find out right?"

"Yes, he did." Natalia went on to tell Isabel about Rafe being in juvenile hall and how Gus came to find out about her son before moving on to tell her about working at Company and also being hired as a maid at the Beacon.

"Best hire I ever made." Olivia said with a wink.

"Yes, and you thought that back then too." Natalia replied dryly.

"I did." Olivia said as straight faced as she could muster.

"Mmmhmm. Anyways, back to the story." She continued with her early days. Speaking about all of the crazy things that had occurred, including how she ended up at the Spaulding mansion. "And let me tell you, it wasn't out of the kindness of Alan's heart. That man always has his own agenda, I just didn't know what it was at the time."

"That is an understatement if I ever heard one. Alan was a piece of work, and that's putting it mildly." Doris chimed in.

"Oh yeah. Alan didn't do anything that wasn't going to benefit him in some way, that's for sure." Olivia added. "Believe me, I know how underhanded he can be, I married the bastard."

"You're not alone there friend." Doris shot back.

"Wait, wait, wait. You two were both married to a man old enough to have grown children and grandchildren?"

"Yup." Olivia replied, popping the p.

"This is the one you told me about when we had lunch right."

"That's the one. I married two Spaulding men, and if Natalia hadn't been so damn, well, Natalia, I would have had Gus too." She winked at her love.

"I have no doubt you would have querida." Natalia said fondly, bending down to kiss her wife.

"Are you saying that Olivia tried to marry Nicky?"

"Yup. I'm getting there. Told you it was a long story." Continuing, she went into the details of Gus cheating on Harley and how their relationship ended. "Hurt and anger fueled me into taking on Harley Cooper."

"Hold on, Cooper, isn't that the same name as the man from the trial?"

"Yes. Frank is Harley's brother."

"Oh man, this really is a soap opera isn't it?"

"You don't even know the half of it. Now, where was I? Oh yes. So, I'm living in the mansion and just trying to keep my head down and not allow Rafe to get involved with any of his grandfather's schemes, and that's when Olivia enters the story. Unbeknownst to me, Olivia had cut a deal with Alan. Olivia, would like to tell this part?"

"Right." Olivia sat up straighter. It was her turn to recount the days before she even really notice Natalia as more than a person in the way of something she wanted. She told Isabel about Phillip kidnapping his children and how scared she was of him taking Emma again, and then detailed her and Alan's plan for him to get Natalia away from Gus and protect Emma. Then went on to speak about her and Natalia going head-to-head for Gus. "She even locked me a bathroom once."

"Hey, you were trying to ruin my wedding day."

"I almost died on that bathroom floor."

Natalia looked down in shame. "I know." She whispered.

"Oh honey." Olivia rose to her knees and cupped Natalia's face in her hands. "It's okay baby. I deserved everything that happened back then, and it's all water under the bridge. It led us here. And I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world." She kissed her wife sweetly.

"I know, I wouldn't either, I just, I almost lost you, before I ever even had you and it would have been my fault."

Olivia kissed her again as she watched a few tears fall. "Hey, stop, I was joking honey. I'm fine. We're fine. I love you and none of that matters anymore. Okay?"

"Okay." Natalia kissed Olivia one more time and wiped away her tears as Olivia settled back onto the floor. "We're getting ahead of ourselves anyways. So, Gus was taking care of Olivia and before I knew that she was sick I actually started to think that he was going to leave me for her." Natalia took back over the story. Outlining her, Gus, and Olivia's interactions from back then. Explaining Olivia's illness and exactly how she came to be locked in the bathroom at the Bauer cabin, and what happened afterwards. Going into detail about everything Olivia endured back then and before long it was time to speak about Gus accident and how Olivia came to have his heart.

"It just so happened that his heart was a match for Olivia. I didn't get a whole lot of time to even think about it. They needed the heart pretty much right away. I wasn't going to do it. It was too much to ask. They wanted me to give my husband's heart to the women who had tried every trick in the book to take him from me. I just couldn't allow her to have that piece of him. Luckily, as I was walking out of his room, Ava and Emma were coming to see Olivia. Emma, my sweet, loving, caring, little girl. She noticed I was sad and she offered me one of the flowers she was taking to Olivia. An orange Gerber daisy. In that moment, I knew. I knew I had to save her. I couldn't let her die.

A lot of horrible things could have been said about Olivia back then, but one thing no one could argue with, was that she was a good mother. Emma is such an amazing little girl and that is all due to Olivia. I realized, as I looked into those green eyes so much like her mothers, that Olivia was more then she appeared. It just wasn't possible for Emma to be the wonderful person she was and is if Olivia was nothing but horrible. I consented for them to give Olivia Nicky's heart and then I left the hospital. I might have been willing to save her, for her daughters, but I certainly wasn't going to stick around and watch it happen." She had to stop for another minute as more tears silently streamed down her cheeks.

Olivia sat up once again and instead of just simple getting on her knees, she rose from the floor and seated herself in Natalia's lap, kissing her temple and whispering in her ear. "Take a minute honey. I'll take over from here." As hard is that part was for her, she knew it was harder for Natalia, but stopping wasn't an option, they had started this story for Isabel, who was hanging on their every word, and they needed to finish it.

Olivia told Isabel about her depression and wanting to end her own life when she found out who's heart had saved her life. Leading her to explain how Natalia had come to be a more permanent person in her life and how the two actually ended up bonding over the loss of the man they both loved. "She refused to let me die. She was not going to let me waste the gift that she and Gus had given me."

Natalia kissed her cheek and took over once more. "At first, I told myself that I was only helping her because she had Nicky's heart. I had to keep her alive and get her healthy so I could hold on to that last piece of him, but, over time, and a whole lot of fights, we slowly came to have some sort of truce. We found a sort of respect for each other. I'll never forget how relieved I was when she finally ate something, and when she started taking her pills without me nagging her. Watching the color come back to her cheeks and the literal life come back to her body. The way I felt everyday as she got a little bit better and a little bit stronger, I should have known then that I was falling for her." She smiled fondly at the woman in her lap.

Olivia leaned in close and whispered. "I was falling for you too."

Natalia kissed her love sweetly and then moved forward with their story. Telling every moment, she could remember. Every interaction the two had leading to Olivia moving into the farmhouse. She told her sister about everything that happened with Rafe and how Olivia was there for her. Also filling her in on the things Olivia had done to hurt her and to feel closer to Gus. As much as Natalia disliked the things Olivia had done early on, she knew that all of it led them to where they were now, and she wouldn't trade any of it. Not for the world. When she finished telling her sister about the amazing Christmas gift Olivia had given her that first year, she moved on to how they actually ended up together. "A month after receiving that piece of molding and gifting Olivia a key to the house, Emma had a project at school about what made her family special. She wrote it about us, and the title was...madam mayor." She held her hand out towards Doris, smirking as she prompted her to answer.

"My Two Mommies." Doris grunted out. Still feeling shame for what she done back then.

"Yes, it was called my two mommies. I was such an idiot; I didn't understand what Emma's teacher and classmates parents were thinking when she gave her presentations. Olivia tried to explain it to me and when I still didn't get it, she kissed me. To say I was shocked is an understatement, but God her lips felt good against mine, in that moment, with that kiss, I knew I never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't easy, but that is how Olivia and I got together." She ended with a short but passion filled kiss to her wife.

"Wow. That is a crazy love story. But I'm still confused on one thing."

"What's that?"

"Where does Frank fit into all of this?"

"Oh, well, that's because Olivia and I are both idiots." She went on to tell Isabel about the date Olivia set up for her and Frank while they were both denying their feelings, and then continued with everything he put their family through, up to and including the attack on Olivia.

"I see. So, one date with this guy and he goes crazy. Seems a little out there to me."

"Yeah, there's a little more to it than that. Olivia and Frank have a…past. And not a very savory one. That's part of what tipped him so far over the edge. Not just was I refusing to date him and instead dating a woman, I was dating Olivia Spencer." She looked at her wife with pure adoration before leaning in for a brief kiss.

Olivia looked at the love of her life with just as much love and adoration, stealing one more kiss before turning back to Isabel. "I have a past with pretty much all of Springfield and none of it's pretty." Olivia delved into her past with Frank, including everything that happen with she and Frank as well as what happened with Buzz. "He thought I set him up to hurt him after helping with that date for him and Natalia and then 'stealing' Natalia from him. Natalia leaving me last summer didn't really help much either. He assumed she left me because I'm, well, me. To be honest, I thought the same thing."

"Wait, Natalia left you?"

Natalia took a deep breath and gave the women sitting on her a gentle squeeze and a kiss to her neck. "Yes, I did. It was really stupid and I wish every day that I could go back and have never left, but I can't."

"Can I ask what happened?"

"Might as well tell you the whole thing now." Natalia took a deep breath and then retold everything that happened between she, Olivia, and Rafe that led to her departure. "I left to figure things out so I wouldn't lose Rafe or her, and I almost lost her anyway. I am truly lucky that she is so very forgiving and gave me another chance." She stroked Olivia's back and kissed her shoulder. "Thank you my love."

"Nothing to thank me for. I was an ass." She kissed her loves cheek and turned back to face her sister-in-law. She told the women her side of things while Natalia was gone and how she treated Natalia when she returned and how, eventually, she and Rafe made an arrangement. "Rafe may have been the reason she left in the first place, but he is also the reason we are where we are now. I am just as stubborn as Natalia and by the time I read those letters on my own, it may have been too late."

"That really is a truly amazing tale. You two have been through so much, and yet here you are. I know I just met you all, but, between the trial, and what I've seen here, you have the closest family I have ever seen. You all care so much for one another. I can only hope to find even a tenth of what you guys have." Isabel stated, completely floored by what all she had heard. "So can I ask another question?"

Olivia and Natalia shared a look before Natalia answered. "Go ahead."

"If Rafe was so against you two, how did you end up where you are now? I mean, he calls Olivia mom."

"Well, that is a tale of its own." Natalia went on to explain what all has happened since her return from the retreat. Keeping them, all chatting and drinking wine for another hour. Once their long tale was told, Olivia claimed it was time for bed. Natalia, Emma, and Rafe needed to be up early for church and she was hoping to get some work done while they were gone. They convinced Isabel to stay in the guest room with Doris just sleeping in Emma's bed.

When the Spencer-Rivera women were finally lying-in bed together, Natalia snuggled in as close as she could get. "Thank you querida, for helping me tell my sister the story of us. It meant a lot to me that you allowed me to tell her."

Olivia smiled at her wife and kissed her forehead. "You don't need my permission sweetheart, it's your story as much as it is mine."

"I know, but it's very personal, and I would never tell anyone, especially not in that much detail, without your okay."

"I know you wouldn't baby and it only makes me love you more."

"Mmm. I love you too honey, so much."

"Oh? How much?" Olivia asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Natalia rolled to be halfway on top of her. "More than words could ever express." She kissed her then, long, and slow, and deep. "But I could show you." She raised a brow before bowing her head and claiming soft pink lips once again. This kiss was heated and filled with so much passion Natalia thought she might explode. It was a kiss for all that they were, past, present, and future. A kiss for their love, yes, but also of pure lust. A kiss to begin a very long night. Sleep could wait.