"I missed you last night."

Her coffee cup clattered as she accidentally dropped it into the sink, stunned at his choice of words. The words momentarily softened her, her stony façade melting a little, before she toughened up again. "Missed" her? During which part? While he waited for her? Or while he was slamming pretty women against walls?

She picked up her cup, washing it with more force than was necessary.

"Oh.. Yeah. The festival. I forgot." She lied easily, glancing over her shoulder to watch his face fall. His expression of pure disappointment didn't make her feel as good as she thought it would.

"How was it? Any town scandals?" She asked lightly.

"It was... fine. These town events are all the same." He said, the disappointment seeping into his voice.

All the same? So he drags girls into alleyways at every town event? Wow.

"The lights were... nice though." He added quietly. "I wish you could have seen them."

He sounded genuinely sad that she hadn't seen it and it made her angrier for some reason, so she slammed her hands into the sink, sending a spray of bubbles and water across the surfaces.

"Well, I'm so sorry that Emma's surgery came at such an inconvenient time. Next time I'll ask her to have her lungs sliced out on a day that leaves me available to play the good little wife whenever you need me."

Glaring out of the window, she immediately wished she hadn't said anything because there was no way to explain why she was so angry.

She jumped at the sound of his coffee cup being angrily slammed down on the table, the sound recalling a thousand times Sam had started an argument with the same movement.

Suddenly arms were winding around her waist, pulling her back against him and she relaxed into them, more out of surprise than anything. She hadn't heard him move until he was right behind her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She answered automatically.

He rested his chin on her shoulder, his arms wrapping all the way round her, and it was all too comfortable and over familiar and Norma never wanted him to let go.

"What's wrong?" He repeatedly insistently, pressing a kiss against her shoulder through her shirt.

"I just..." She wanted to tell him what she had seen last night, wanted to tell him all the thoughts and doubts and fears that plagued her, but she bit her lip instead, letting out a shaky breath before she carried on. "Everything's just too much. There's so much happening... with Norman." She felt him stiffen slightly at Norman's name. "And just everything. It's too much. Do you understand?" She squeezed his forearms pointedly and tugged them slightly so he let go of her, never shifting her gaze from where it was fixed on nothing out the window.

"Yes." He choked out, sounded broken, releasing her immediately, but not moving away straight away. She didn't dare turn her head to look at him, for fear her fragile resolve would be broken. "Yeah," he carried on a little stronger now. "I understand, Norma."

He sounded so sad, she almost turned around and kissed him there and then, but then he stepped back, and she immediately missed the warmth of his body against her back.

She span round slowly, noting that he had crossed back to the safety of the other side of the kitchen, examining his cup to check if he had cracked it when he had slammed it down. Really, he was just avoiding her gaze, and she did the same, casting her eyes down to the floor as she leaned against the sink.

"Thank you-" She started quietly.

"No problem, Norma." He said formally, before grabbing his jacket, and taking a step towards her, before thinking better of it. "Have a good day." And then he left, and Norma tried to congratulate herself for stopping something unhealthy before it had even started. But she just felt empty, her cheek cold, strangely missing that sweet little kiss on the cheek she had become so used to.


Married life proved to be rather uneventful for Sheriff and Mrs Romero. She made him breakfast most days, they ate together awkwardly, they spent their days apart and then she made him dinner. She grew to look forward to their daily dinners, when the awkwardness of breakfast had dissipated, and they were both tired and worn from their days - They both let their guard down a little and for a moment, Norma could pretend it was like the good old days. They chit-chatted, always keeping the conversation light, and she would give him a hard time about something or other, and he would let her, and they would catch each other smiling warmly at one another, before they realised what they were doing, and then he would get up hastily and clear the table. She had resisted at first, but he had argued that if she was going to do everything else around the house, the least he could do was clean up after dinner. She had agreed, because no-one had ever offered before, except Norman, and thinking of Norman made her heart hurt, so she let him wash up, keeping an appraising eye on him in case he cleaned something not to her liking.

"Did you have a chance to look at those papers?" She asked, one night, weeks after they had settled into their routine.

He sighed.

"No. I'm sorry Norma. I'll look tomorrow."

"Oh, well, I have them right here. Maybe you could just look at them real quick right-."

He put his fork down with a clatter that made her jump.

"Norma." He said, her name a warning on his lips. "Just..." He sighed again, his eyes narrowing at the stack of forms in her hands. "I had a long day, ok? I'll look at them tomorrow."

There was a long pause, where she just looked slowly from the papers in her hand, to his face and then back to her plate.

"The insurance company said they needed it sorting soon." She ventured quietly, in a voice that would be mistaken for meek by anyone who didn't know her. Alex knew better.

"You said you'd read it days ago. It just needs a couple of signatures. I just- If the insurance doesn't come into effect soon, Norman could lose his place at Pineview and-"

"That's not a problem." He cut her off, tiredness tinging his voice with irritation.

"What does that mean?"

He rubbed the bridge of his nose exasperatedly, avoiding her gaze.

"It's taken care of, Norma, ok?" He said slowly, deliberately, clearly wanting the conversation to be over. He couldn't tell her that Norman's first few months at Pineview were paid for by a stack of cash he had taken from the man he had killed for her. Bob Paris's money had bought them a few months before he had to worry about starting the arduous process of transferring his insurance to Norma and Norman Bates. And with the DEA still circling at work, making his days seem longer and fraughter than ever, he just didn't have the energy to start pouring over a stack of paperwork, not when he knew that it wasn't as pressing as she thought it was.

She rolled her eyes, slapping the stack of papers down on the table, making him flinch.

"Ok. Fine." Her tone was clipped, and she pushed her chair back abruptly before he could respond. Breaking the pattern that had been working so well for them, she grabbed her plate, dumping it in the sink before reaching for his.

"You finished?" She asked, not pausing before grabbing the half full plate of food from in front of him.

"Not really." He tried to say, but she was already scraping his food into the trash, slamming the cupboard shut with her foot while he sat there in shock.

He considered saying something, pressing her for a reason for why she was being like this, but he knew her well enough to know she would tell him any second.

He settled back in his chair, watching her slam around the kitchen with her back to him, trying to stop the smirk of amusement of watching her stomp around like an angry toddler.

She faltered for a moment, and then whirled around, and Alex fought to keep the smile off his face as she predictably turned on him.

"You know, if you didn't want to help me, you didn't have to." She started, holding a hand up to stop him interrupting when he went to speak. "I would have been just fine. I would have figured something out." She turned back to the washing up for a moment, lowering her tone. "I always do."

She wasn't finished.

Whirling around again, her hands on her hips, she fixed him with a glare that would send a lesser man scampering.

"If you weren't going to bother sorting out the insurance, why did you even marry me?"

She sounded genuinely intrigued.

"Why are we even doing this?" She added, quieter now.

Romero stood up suddenly, making her take an involuntary step back.

"Haven't I always done anything you asked?" He asked, watching as she floundered for a moment. "Jake Abernathy. Bob Paris. I even got your damn car back!" His voice increased in volume as he listed the things he had done for her.

He had expected her to concede, maybe even apologise, but that was because he didn't know her as well as he thought.

"You can't just throw a list of people you've killed in my face every time I ask you for something! It doesn't work like that!" She yelled, crossing her arms in front of her. "But, thank you again for my car. That was actually very sweet." She added, reluctantly, haughtily turning her head to the ceiling.

Sighing heavily, he took a step closer to her, noticing how she stiffened at his approach.

"You asked me to marry you Norma. And I did it." He lowered his tone, coming to stand right in front of her, right where they had stood the last time he had kissed her, the morning after their night together. "What more do you want from me?"

She fixed him with an unreadable expression, her arms still crossed defensively across her body.

"I want you to do what you said you would. I want you to read these damn papers and sign them." She jerked her head at the pile of paperwork, before glancing back at him coolly. "I kept up my end of the bargain."

He squinted at her, his eyes darting all around her face, trying to figure out what she meant. She replied with a single quirk of her eyebrow and a cold smirk and he suddenly understood, taking an involuntary step back.

"I know you're attracted to me. I'll sleep with you. I don't care."

Her words from the day she had proposed to him flashed through his mind, and he felt sick, taking another shaky step back.

He felt like she had used him and he had used her, somehow all at once. She watched him edge away from her with a cold façade slipped in place, not daring to let him know how much the hurt in his eyes tore her apart.

"Wow," he breathed out, chuckling coldly. "Hm." He nodded to himself, before grabbing the paperwork off the table and heading upstairs without another word.

Norma released the breath she didn't realise she had been holding, letting go of the edge of the counter, her legs trembling when she realised the counter had been holding her up. Biting her lip, she resolved not to cry, not again. She was sick of crying over Alex Romero.


AN: Thank you so much for the reviews and follows for this story. One key theme is that keeps cropping up is people saying "Can't wait for it to get fluffy" and I feel I must clarify that this story has kinda snowballed away from me - I intended for it to be like, 5-7 chapters, but I've already written SOOOOO far ahead and it's SO long now! Don't get me wrong - it WILL get fluffy eventually, but there's gonna be quite alot of angst ahead before it does. It's going to be a journey, so I hope that you're all ready to join me for the ride. I'm sorry if that's not what you signed up for. I hope you enjoy the SHITSHOW OF HEARTACHE that I have planned for you all. *evil laughter* Reviews are love!