Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N One of the difficult things about my spinal cord injury is the meds I have to take for nerve pain seem to have made me a bit more of an idiot. I kid you not, I'm pretty sure I'm dumber because of this injury. That being said, I won't lie, I'm struggling getting the words down onto "paper" so to speak. If things feel disjointed I blame it on the injury/meds and writing in third person. I think i managed better in first person but I had "suggestions" for 3rd person. I hope I'm not butchering it too much. You'd tell me right guys? *hint*
Alex and Olivia woke up to two small children poking them in the face with Lauren saying, "'Waked yet mamas? Wake down."
Alex opened her eyes to see a smiling Lauren. "It's wake UP sweetie," she said before she reached out and pulled the little girl into the bed and curled herself around the small body, cuddling her. Lauren immediately melted into Alex. Alex always felt this was the best part of waking up, her morning cuddles with the babies. Sometimes it was Thomas, sometimes it was Lauren and if Liv was out on a case then it was both of them curled up with her. She could hear Thomas babbling away to Olivia attempting to tell her a story about what was anyone's guess. He was still learning to put together more than two or three words at a time, the rest of it was just sounds and made up sounds. But both mothers thought they were the cutest made up sounds a child could ever make—though they were a bit biased.
After about five minutes both children started to wiggle and were ready to run off to someone else because their mommies were boring. Alex and Olivia set the kids down and off they ran to find someone else. The house was Thomas and Lauren proofed so they couldn't get hurt if they were running around on their own and they knew if they were going up or down stairs they had to have an adult with them. Which is where they ran off to; to find an awake adult to take them downstairs.
Alex stretched herself out before she laid back down on her side facing Olivia who had turned to face Alex.
"Good morning," Alex said with a smile.
"Good morning back, are you 'waked' yet?" Olivia beamed.
"Well it's hard not to be when your alarm clock is poking you in the face." Alex laughed.
"That's very true. Shall we get up? What time is the kids' skiing class?"
"Not until 10:30, and since it's only," Alex peered over to the cable box connected to the tv, "7:45 I think we have tons of time to get them fed and ready AND get ourselves ready."
"Well I am definitely going to need coffee and I know you do too, shall we get up and start our day?"
"Yes, after you kiss me," Alex cooed before she leaned over and gave Olivia a closed mouth kiss. Neither of them were keen on morning breath kisses, it made them both self conscious about their breath—still after all these years—but a quick closed mouth kiss was perfect and had become their morning hello. "Okay, coffee time." And with that Alex flipped off the covers and swung her feet off the bed. "Come on sleepy," she teased Olivia.
"Yup, yup, I'm up, yup, I'm up." Olivia hadn't moved an inch.
"Come on Liv, you wouldn't want me to get Melanie to help you get up would you?" Alex threatened.
Olivia threw the covers off and glared at Alex, "You wouldn't dare."
"Wouldn't I?" Alex taunted.
Olivia leapt out of bed and headed for the door afraid Alex wasn't joking.
The two women headed out of their secluded suite and followed the sounds of tiny laughs and giggles which led them to Melanie's room. They stood in the doorway as they watched Thomas and Lauren tickling their aunt Melanie. Fortunately for Melanie, they were really bad at tickling and hadn't quite gotten the concept so instead that were mostly poking their hands into her sides. Melanie being Melanie, was behaving as though she was being tortured by a tickle monster which made the kids laugh even more. Deciding to save Melanie, Olivia called for the kids to come with their mommies to go downstairs. Lauren and Thomas immediately disengaged from Melanie and gleefully bounded over to their moms each one taking a hand for when they went down the stairs.
"Thanks, I thought I was never going to get free," Melanie grinned. "What's the plan again?"
Alex hoisted Thomas onto her hip, "Well the kids have their class at 10:30 so we have to be ready to leave at about 10. I imagine the entire house is up now so Liv and I are going head down and get our caffeine fix."
"Cool, yeah, I'm thinking caffeine would be a great idea," Melanie stated as she climbed out of her bed. "Let's go gang, gotta get to the espresso machine before your brother makes one of his frou-frou drinks and spoils the machine."
"You know it doesn't actually..." Alex was cut off by Olivia.
"Don't try to explain it," Olivia laughed as she walked out of the room.
Getting downstairs was a long process, each kid wanted the go down themselves "I do it" they told the adults. Them being independent was a great thing, something both Olivia and Alex wanted to cultivate in their children, however at 8 in the morning without coffee watching each child slowly step down each step made all the adults wish the children were a little less independent when it came to the stairs. They finally made it to the kitchen 15 minutes later and each adult practically ran to the espresso machine.
"Morning ladies and our young gentleman," spoke Alexander who had been overlooked when they arrived to the kitchen, their sole focus being coffee. He got a return of good mornings from the adults. The children were so happy to see another adult to "play with" that they ran over to their grandfather and both clamored to get into his lap and they both began telling him all about their sleepovers with their rather limited vocabularies. Alexander just nodded and agreed and said things like wow and no way where he thought it was applicable.
With the children entertained the adults were able to go about getting their morning fix of coffee. Once they were all settled they joined Alexander and the children at the table as they sipped their coffee. A few moments later Catherine came in from the garage where they kept an extra refrigerator with her arms full. Melanie leapt up to help Catherine.
"What's all this for," Melanie asked.
"Breakfast dear," answered Catherine. "I figured we could have a nice breakfast so we loaded up for when we're out on the slopes."
"Mom," Alex started, "you don't have to do that, we can feed the kids some oatmeal or something and Liv and I will just grab some toast or a bagel or something."
"Absolutely not, that's no where near enough food! I'm making eggs and bacon and pancakes."
Everyone knew better than to argue with Catherine so instead they offered their help, which was declined as expected. As Catherine was starting to make the pancake batter, Theo and Georgia walked in hand in hand. Theo instructed Georgia to take a seat at the table telling her he would get her coffee. Georgia sat quietly a little uncomfortable. Though she had gotten to chat with Catherine and Alexander on the drive to the mountains she hadn't yet had much of a conversation with Theo's big sister who intimidated her just from how Theo would speak of Alex. And Alex's wife, a Lieutenant with the NYPD Special Victims Unit, was also very intimidating in title. Olivia sensed Georgia's nervousness and decided to help her out, after all, she was once the nervous woman at the table surrounded by Cabots.
"So Georgia, how did you and Theo meet?" Olivia prompted.
"We met at my work, I'm an ER nurse and he came in after a fall from his bike," she explained. "It wasn't anything serious, just a lot of road rash, so I cleaned him up and bandaged him and sent him on his merry way. But as I was cleaning up I found his business card and on the back he had written, 'Would you go to dinner with me?'".
"Smooooooooth Theo," teased Melanie, though truth be told she was probably mentally taking notes, that was a good one for sure.
"So I called him and now here I am." Georgia finished.
"How long have you guys been dating," Alex asked.
"Just about 7 months," replied Georgia.
"You've kept her hidden for 7 months?" Alex asked aghast. "Why?"
"Because you all are nuts and I wanted to get to know HER first before I subject her to you nut jobs," Theo reasoned.
"Rookie move dude," Melanie stated. "Instead you're subjecting your poor girl to a whole vacation with us nutballs?"
"Well if she can survive being around YOU, then I know she's a keeper." Theo teased back.
"Perhaps we could not talk about Georgia as though she's not here," interjected Alexander before he winked and smiled at Georgia.
"Someone help with the plates and silverware, breakfast will be ready soon," announced Catherine.
Olivia and Alex got up to help before they were interrupted, "Not you two, you two have to get the kids all set up," Catherine reminded. "Theo, Melanie, make yourselves useful."
They both looked at each other offended, "We are ALWAYS useful mom," retorted Theo.
"Sure, and yet I still see no silverware or plates," Catherine teased.
Shortly after, the kitchen island was covered with serving platters of food and a mini buffet had been set up. Once everyone was settled around the table Alexander raised his coffee mug in a toast to a good day on the slopes. It was an uneventful breakfast with the exception of the kids who would have preferred to be anywhere but at the table. There were bribes, "if you just eat this small pancake you can leave the table." There were threats, "if you don't finish your breakfast you can't go to your ski class." And there was begging, "please just eat this." Eventually the children ate enough to satisfy their moms and were set free to watch a little tv in the living room connected to the kitchen while the adults finished their meals.
Once breakfast was finished and the kitchen had been cleaned the next daunting task of the day was getting two small very excited children into their ski outfits and of course that task needed to end just as it was time to leave because if they were in their outfits for more than ten seconds while still in the house they would immediately begin to disrobe. Alex and Olivia decided they would bring their ski attire and change once the children started their class. They'd stay and watch for a while but the senior Cabots had insisted that they be the ones to watch the class because they wanted to and they had seniority over the mothers.
"Melanie, what time is your class?" Alex shouted down the hall as she tried to get Thomas into his snowsuit. Her son had apparently mutated into an octopus and once she got one limb in another mysteriously popped out.
"It's at 10:30, same time as the kids," Melanie answered.
Alex paused for a moment, trying to remember the other classes that were on the brochure that were set at 10:30. "The snowboarding one?" she called down the hall.
"No, it's called the Snow Bunny class."
Alex burst out laughing. "Why did you pick that class Mel?"
"Because, it's gonna be filled with tons of hot little snow bunnies who will need help and since I already know how to ski I'll be more than willing to help the little helpless cuties. It'll be perfect Al!"
Alex decided she didn't want to spoil the surprise Melanie was in for and just replied with, "Yes, there will be quite a few cuties there for sure." Alex finally wrangled Thomas into his snowsuit and zipped him up before picking him up and placing him on her hip so he couldn't try to escape again. She went to find her wife who was working on Lauren. She found her two favorite girls in Lauren's room nearly ready to go. Noting the time and knowing the kids patience, Alex knew they would have to leave in the next five minutes or there would be meltdowns.
"Melanie, you have five minutes or you're riding in the second car, these kids won't last long and we don't them to be late for their class," Alex warned. She handed Thomas off to Olivia so she could go get the adults' clothing to change into once the kids were settled. She brought a small bag of gear and loaded it into the car as Olivia was getting Thomas and Lauren strapped into their car seats. Alex checked the gear on top of the car to ensure they wouldn't be losing any skis on the short drive to the mountain.
"Psst, Olivia," Alex ducked her head into the car and whispered to her wife. "Wanna hear something funny?"
"Why are you whispering Al?" Olivia asked. "And yes, I do."
"I have to tell you before Melanie gets here," Alex looked around conspiratorially.
"Okay?" Olivia leaned in closer to Alex across her buckled in children.
"Melanie in is the same class as the kids because she thought the Snow Bunny class was going to be filled with attractive adult 'snow bunnies' and not snow bunnies as in little kids!" Alex choked out through fits of laughter.
"Did you tell her?" Olivia asked.
"NO!" Alex was laughing so hard she had her head laid in Lauren's tiny lap. Olivia was laughing so hard she had tears streaming down her face.
"What's so funny gang?" Melanie questioned as she joined the family at the car.
"Nothing," Alex croaked out, "something the kids said, you had to be there."
"Humph, fiiine," Melanie answered. "Shall we go then or are you two too busy with your 'kids say the darnedest things' moment?"
"Nope, let's go gang," Olivia composed herself and climbed into the driver's seat.
Alex ran to the front door, "We're leaving, we'll meet you at the kids' class at 10:30!" she shouted into the house.
"Okay dear, we'll see you soon," answered her mother.
When they pulled into the parking lot of the ski lodge they made quick work of getting the kids out of their seats and into the line for registration and name tags for the Snow Bunny class. Melanie wandered around looking for the adult Snow Bunny class she had registered for but couldn't find it.
"What kind of flea circus are they running here, I can only find one Snow Bunny class at 10:30 and that's the one the kids are in, where the hell is mine?" Melanie fumed to Alex.
Alex, for her part, just stared at Melanie with her signature eyebrow raised.
"What Al? This makes no sense right?" Melanie continued.
"If we hadn't gone to law school together I wouldn't be fully convinced you had the brains to be a lawyer," Alex deadpanned.
"What? They've only clearly marked one class, the kids... Snow... Bunny... Fuck!" It finally sunk in what Melanie had done and she wasn't exactly thrilled about it.
"Watch your language or else I'll put you in time out with the other misbehaving children," Alex teased.
"Oh come on! This is false advertising! EVERYONE knows that a snow bunny is a hottie on the slopes in their cute little ski outfits." Melanie whined.
"Everyone who is still stuck in the 80s knows that. They stopped classifying women skiers as 'snow bunnies' like 30 years ago. Did you seriously think they had a class just for hot women? You've got issues." Alex laughed. "So I'm guessing you'll be hitting the slopes with Liv and I instead?"
"The hell with that! I paid money for that damn snow bunny class, I'm taking the damn thing!" Melanie said as she stormed up to the registration table.
"Hello ma'am," said the young teenager manning the registration table, "is your little snow bunny already registered?"
"First off, I'm not a 'ma'am', secondly, you guys have falsely advertised this class, and third, I'm the 'LITTLE SNOW BUNNY,'" Melanie spoke as she leaned on the table.
"Ma'am... I mean umm, miss? Umm the Snow Bunny class is for children learning to ski, we have an adult beginners class if..." the teenager answered, clearly concerned about the crazy lady in front of him.
"I paid for the damn class, I'm going to take it, I don't care if it's for kids, I'm taking this one damnit!" Melanie spat back forcefully.
Alex heard more than noticed Melanie getting a bit heated. Since Thomas and Lauren were already registered and had their name tags they were with Olivia getting their skis on which allowed Alex to step away and help out the scared looking teenager.
"Excuse me," she stepped next to Melanie. "I'm so sorry for my friend, she was just very confused about the class and thought she was taking a different class."
"What other class would be called Snow Bunny?" the teen asked which he immediately realized was a mistake.
"SNOW BUNNIES!" Melanie grumbled loudly.
Alex used her weight to shove Melanie to the side so that she was no long standing directly in front of the scared teen. Alex leaned down in front of him.
"Listen,... Fred," she started as she found his name tag. "Yes it's weird for a GROWN ADULT," Alex said as she took a moment to glare at Melanie, "to mistakingly register for the children's Snow Bunny class, but despite being cranky, she's harmless and I don't actually see a rule stating that an adult CAN'T take the class." Alex argued.
"Well, no, but it's not exactly normal," Fred responded to the much nicer lady.
Alex sighed, "Well neither is she so can I have her name tag?" Alex held out her hand and Fred placed the bunny shaped name tag with Melanie scrawled on it into Alex's hand. "Thank you Fred." And with that Alex walked away from poor Fred who felt this was a very odd start to his shift.
"Pompous little shit," Melanie said when Alex walked up to her.
"Here's your name tag you pompous little shit," Alex teased. "Please try to remember that not only are there lots of innocent little ears in this class you insist on taking, but MY children's innocent little ears are in this class with you and they better not learn any new words while they're in that class with you!" Alex threatened. "Plus my parents and strangers will be watching the class."
"Yeah yeah," Melanie said as she took her bunny-shaped name tag and placed it right in the middle of her chest.
"Okay, now be a good girl in your class and don't eat the yellow snow," Alex joked as Melanie joined the ten or so children who couldn't be much older than four, maybe five and the very confused looking instructor.
Olivia joined Alex as they both watched their kids try to make a pizza shape with their skis and then make French fries so they could go forward and stop. It was absolutely adorable even though most of the class, Thomas and Lauren included, spent more time on their butts or sides as the toppled over into the snow. The funniest part had to be watching Melanie, who knew how to ski, trying to behave and make pizza and French fry shapes with her skis on a hill that had such a low incline that it almost seemed flat. Eventually Melanie gave up and spent the rest of the class helping Thomas and Lauren stay on their feet which made for some great pictures of the kids with their Godmother.
When Alexander and Catherine showed up they started to ask why Melanie was in the same class as the grandkids but Alex just shook off the question stating, "It's Melanie, don't try to figure it out." And so they didn't. Instead they watched with adoration as their grandkids tried to learn to ski with Melanie's help.
Olivia and Alex were shooed away with strict instructions to leave the kids with Alexander and Catherine and they'd call them later so they could all meet up for a late lunch or early dinner. Theo and Georgia were already on the slopes which is where they were supposed to be too, Catherine had told the two women.
After getting changed and snapping on their skis, the two women found themselves riding the ski lift.
"Don't forget Alex, I am no where near as good as you are on skis so no black diamonds." Olivia stated.
"Of course not my love, I would never want to endanger you," Alex answered with a kiss. Alex glanced ahead and assumed they had more than enough time for a mini make out session. She brought her lips back to Olivia's and ran her tongue along her bottom lip before sucking it into her mouth and sinking her teeth into the flesh. Olivia moaned into Alex's mouth. When Alex released Olivia's bottom lip Olivia instantly deepened the kiss and swiped her tongue across Alex's. Both women were so focused on each other they nearly missed the exit off the lift. Once they were on solid ground they picked their trail, a blue square indicating it was a medium trail. What they did not realize was that the start of the black diamond trail, the hardest trail, also started in the same place and down the path the two veered apart.
It was a beautiful day for skiing though despite it being just a bit too cold for comfort. The mountain weather had been up and down all week so there were spots on the slopes that had iced over but generally it wasn't too bad. The two women skied down the hill while chatting with each other. They went back to talking about how ridiculous Melanie was for registering for the "Snow Bunny" class thinking it was just going to be a bunch of hotties. They were laughing so hard they didn't notice they took the wrong side when the path turned into to two separate paths. Olivia noticed the path getting a little faster but assumed it was a short part of the path created to give the skier a little adventure. That was until she saw the black diamond to the right of the path which brought her to a dead stop.
"Uhh Al?" Olivia called out.
Alex came to a smooth stop next to Olivia. "What's up Liv?"
Olivia pointed with her ski pole to the black diamond. "What's that?" she asked though she already knew the answer.
"Oh shit," Alex cursed, "how did we get on the black diamond trail?"
"I don't know but I don't know how I'm going to get down." Olivia worried.
"Well take it slow and you can make huge zigzags so you won't pick up too much speed. I'll go in front of you to make sure there's no major things to catch you off guard. It'll be fine, I have faith in you." assured Alex.
"At least one of us does," Olivia mumbled. "Okay, let's go."
Alex started down the hill on a tighter line than Olivia in order to get ahead enough to warn Olivia of anything difficult. She turned around and watched Olivia slowly zigzag across the entire trail staying mostly perpendicular to the downhill incline to control her speed. Alex continued on as she heard from behind her "Okay, this isn't the worst".
She turned her head to see Olivia skiing a little faster than before and with more confidence. In Alex's completely unbiased opinion, she believed Olivia could do absolutely anything so when they realized they were on the black diamond trail, she wasn't worried. She knew Olivia would be just fine. She picked up a little more speed to ensure she would stay ahead of Olivia when she came across a frozen icy patch of snow so she warned Olivia.
"Ice!" She shouted back to Olivia then stopped just after the icy patch.
"What?" Olivia shouted back as she continued her path towards Alex.
"ICE!" Alex shouted louder.
"I can't hear you, hold on, I'll come to you," Olivia shouted back and aimed herself towards Alex. As she headed towards Alex, she began to pick up a little more speed.
"No Olivia, there's..." Alex's warning was cut off as Olivia hit the icy patch and tried to come to a stop. Instead her skis hit the ice and came out from under her and she fell to the ground and slid down through the icy patch directly into Alex. She knocked Alex over and the two women's skis got tangled as they slid a few feet until they came to a stop.
"What were you saying Alex?" Olivia asked once they had come to a full stop.
"Ice," Alex deadpanned before she started laughing out. Olivia began laughing along with Alex. They laid there laughing for a solid minute before they began the task of untangling themselves and standing back up. Alex was adept at going from the ground to standing up in skis but Olivia was a little less adept. The first attempt did nothing had her sliding down the hill a few feet. Alex skied up to her and tried to help her line of feet up completely perpendicular to the hill and then instructed her to use her poles to help push her up. The second attempt she accomplished nothing but sliding herself a bit more down the hill. The third try she made it up but misjudged how much strength she would need and ended up pushing herself right over til she was laying on her other side. At this point Alex and Olivia were laughing so hard they were crying which did not help with the project of getting Olivia upright.
"I have an idea," started Alex, "set your skis against the hill again and I'll stand on the downside of the hill and stop your skis from sliding and I'll just lift you up instead of you using your poles."
"Can you? Lift me?" Olivia questioned.
"Are you calling me weak?" challenged Alex.
Olivia, being the smart wife that she is replied, "of course not my beautiful bride, I was just pointing out that sometimes that can be difficult for anyone."
"Shut up and give me your hands," Alex retorted after she had set herself against Olivia's skis with her own.
Olivia held her hands out to Alex which Alex immediately grabbed. Once they were both certain they were ready Alex leaned back as she let Olivia's skis stop her from going anywhere and pulled. Olivia didn't budge. Alex leaned forward towards Olivia again and then back quickly attempting to use momentum in her favor. Nothing. Olivia was laughing.
"Stop laughing at me!" Alex scolded.
"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing because it's absurd and we'll never get me up, I'm going to have to slide down the mountain on my butt!" Olivia explained through her laughter.
The silliness of it all made Alex start laughing too. Olivia might be right, she might have to slide down the rest of the hill on her butt. The image of her scooting up the lodge had tears rolling down her face.
"What is going on?" Both women attempted to stop laughing and looked up to see Theo and Georgia looking at them as though they were complete lunatics escaped from the looney bin.
"Olivia can't get back up," Alex began laughing again.
"Alex can't pick me up," laughed Olivia. "I'm going to have to slide all the way down on my butt."The two women lost control again and started laughing even harder.
"Jesus, you two are useless," Theo said before he shooed Alex out of the way. He took the same position Alex had been in and reached his hands out for Olivia to grab them. When she did he easily hoisted her up to her feet. Theo made sure she was steady before he pushed himself away and back towards Georgia. "Can I trust you two to make it downhill without breaking any bones or having ride your butts down?" He teased.
"Go away," Alex answered.
"We're fine, thanks Theo," Olivia responded. And with that Theo and Georgia skied out of sight down the hill like pros.
"Alright wimpy, you ready to get down this hill?" Olivia teased Alex.
"Sure, just try not to run me over again." Alex razzed back.
Eventually the two women made it back to the lodge safe and sound. Undeterred they got back onto the ski lift and skied back down again careful of the path markers. Olivia had improved quickly and they eventually lost track of how many runs they'd made and what time it was. It was only when Alex's phone rang and it was her mother calling her to tell her the kids were getting tired and hungry and suggested it was time to go back home. Alex agreed to meet the rest of the family down where the bunny class was and the two ladies finished the last run of the day. When the entire family was accounted for, everyone made their way to the cars and drove back to the house all a bit more exhausted then they were when they started the day.
A/N That ice patch situation happened to me only my first attempt popped my ski off and it went about 15 feet before my aunt caught it. Then she had to trudge up the black diamond hill to bring it back to me then I had to get up... it was a disaster and we were laughing about it for days. Also if you don't know about ski trail ratings, the basic breakdown is Green Circle for easy, Blue Square for Medium and Black Diamond for hard. Also I'm shamelessly begging for reviews because I feel a bit like I'm struggling.
