As promised Luke came to pick Vic up and Rosaline tagged along. Vic smiled
when she realized they were heading to the diner.
"Showing her our place?" Vic asked happily and Luke grinned.
"Of course, Eggy." He replied and kissed her when he helped her out of the back seat. Vic had insisted his mother sit up front with him. She smiled when she realized just how happy Victoria made Lucas. His eyes were sparkling. She hadn't seen them do that since he fell in love with being a firefighter.
"Come on you two. I came to eat not watch you flirt in the parking lot." Vic laughed and they made their way to their table. This time it was Rosaline who insisted Vic sit next to Luke, so she did, and Rosaline sat across from them.
"So how was your shift?" Luke asked shifting back into his Australian accent with his mom around, but Vic was used to hearing it. It made her heart sing.
"Boring and lonely. They had so many calls, I was alone with peanut most of the time and there was nothing I could but sit there. My knee started bugging me from sitting so long so I went for a quick walk around the corner. I texted Travis, of course. They were on a call and someone had to know where I was." Vic answered. He frowned at her.
"No, don't do that. It was still better than sitting at home alone every day for a month."
"Your knee was bugging you? Did you have one of them look at it?" He asked, truly concerned.
"No, but I did examine and palpate it. It was just sore, so I did some of my physical therapy exercises and it felt better." She explained and he nodded, accepting that. At least she hadn't just ignored the pain. She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
"Lucas, you failed to mention she was recently injured and you sure as hell didn't let me help take care of her. Were you scared I, your beloved mother would run her off?"
"No mom. Well kind of, but also because Jen and Lila stayed with her for a few days until she could at least scale the stairs on her own with little pain. And Vic is way too independent for that."
"I would never had thought to run off such a sweet woman. She cares deeply for you and that is all a mother can ask for. And everyone likes to have help when they are injured. But at least you didn't leave her completely alone."
"He came home every day on his lunch break to check on me. He also took me to all my appointments. Most of the time I was sleeping because between the light doses of pain killers, the baby and the boredom, I was exhausted." Vic replied, eyes still closed, but she was smiling now.
"I'm glad you're okay. If I may ask, what happened?" Rosaline smiled and patted Vic's hand.
"Well it was mostly a chore day at the station, we cleaned the trucks, and everything. We took a hydration break and then went back to cleaning. I was mopping the catwalk and the pole area when I slipped and fell to the ground in the barn." Vic replied and was surprised when she noticed that her mother-in-law understood all her firefighter lingo, but then again, her son was the Fire Chief.
"And you were only out for a month?" She asked.
"Yes. Vic negotiated it down from six weeks to four with her doctor." Luke pretended to scold her but when she smiled up at him, he couldn't help but smile back.
"I'm good at that." She beamed.
"Also good and yelling at your superiors, but that's another conversation entirely."
"I'm still not going to apologize for the first time. I will always feel a bit guilty about the skyscraper incident but not the peer reviews. I was right and we both know it, or you wouldn't have made 19 help 23 clean up their response times." Vic replied, sticking out her tongue.
"You are worse than Lila." He chuckled.
"I know." She teased.
"Do you two ever not flirt?" Rosaline asked a bright smile on her face as the waiter brought them their coffee.
"I don't think they know how to stop." Came the reply from Pruitt Herrera. She grinned.
"Rosaline this is my former Captain and a man I regard as a father-figure, Pruitt Herrera. Captain, Luke's mother, Rosaline." Vic introduced them and they talked with him for a while before he left.
It was another two hours later when they all climbed back into the truck and went back to the house. Vic fell asleep on the way home and Luke was shocked she hadn't passed out sooner. He gave his mother the keys to open the door and carried Vic in and up to their room. He and his mother had a heart-to-heart about Victoria and how happy she was for them.
When Vic woke a few hours later she found them sitting on the porch swing and went over plop herself down on Luke's lap.
"So sleepyhead, I guess you didn't sleep very well without me, considering how hard you crashed."
"No, I tossed and turned all night. Thanks for letting me get used to you holding me." She sighed and he smiled.
"If it helps, I did the same thing." Luke smiled sadly and Rosaline decided to call Jennifer and see how she was doing so she left them on the swing to go inside to the guest room she'd been staying in.
"You know I really like your mom. She's so sweet." Vic said as she looked up at him and he beamed.
"She loves you too. It's all she's been talking about since we got home, and I put you to bed."
"Wanna go add some spice to our bedroom, while she's talking to Jen and Lila?" Vic grinned as she trailed her fingers down his chest.
"Vic—"
"Just a little making out. It's too weird for anything else, with her here. It feels disrespectful." She got up and tugged him onto his feet and he followed her. They closed the door and he pulled her on top of him.
Fifteen minutes later they were still making out. His hands resting on her ass, hers in his hair. She had taken to slowly grinding on him and he sighed.
"Keep it up and we're both going to need cold showers." He reminded her.
"Yeah sure, throw that in there and make me visualize that." She replied sarcastically as she rolled over next to him and he took her hand.
"I didn't think that one through, made it worse for me too." He whined in response.
