A/N: So this is most definitely the second to last chapter. Most. Definitely.
It isn't until a few days later and after numerous amounts of research that Abbie finally begins putting two and two together. Clenching her hands tightly around the wheel of her car, she all but speeds through the streets, nearly breaking every traffic law in question to get to her desired destination.
Arriving at the address she had to go through hell and high water to find, Abbie gets out of her car and purses her lips into a tight thin line as she realizes the small possibility of her getting to the top of the luxurious building.
She shoves her hands into her pockets and jogs across the street, making her way to the building as she once again finds herself in a position of bribing and conning a doorman to let her in. After about fifteen minutes of arguing, bribing and pleading, Abbie finds herself racing to the elevator where she keys in the code that should take her to the top of the building.
Dragging her hands through her hair, Abbie paces the elevator like a caged animal. There's only one extremely logical explanation for what has been going on but in her heart and her mind she can't help but hope and pray that she is dead wrong. That everything is just going to be a big misunderstanding and she was over reacting just like she had been told not even a week prior.
The elevator finally dings and Abbie finds herself stepping off of the lift and into a narrow hallway as loud music blasting can be heard around her. Doing as the doorman instructed, she walks to the end of the hallway and turns, pushing open the glass door that admits her to what she can assume to be a normally spacious penthouse that is currently congested with people.
Music blasts and lights flash as people bump and grind against one another while others mingle and chat over the appetizers being served to them on trays. In all honesty, Abbie has never seen so many people in one place in her entire life and she can't even begin to imagine how she is going to find anyone specific in the palace like home.
Abbie's heart thumps loudly in her ears against the bass of the music as she pushes her way through the crowd. She can feel some of them silently judging her as she knows she just looks like she doesn't belong here, but she doesn't care; she's on a mission and she will be damned if anyone is going to stop her.
Walking into yet another room crowded with people, Abbie scans the room before she spots a familiar redhead chatting with people at a table in the corner, while having her arm around a woman; a woman that Abbie immediately recognizes to be her wife.
Clenching her teeth tightly, Abbie crosses the room in three quick strides before she gives Casey a hard shove, nearly causing the woman to lose her balance and startling Alex in the process. "You take your hands off of her."
"Keep your hands away from my face." Casey bites back, slapping away the finger that Abbie is pointing at her. "Who the hell let you up here?"
"Stop it!" Alex exclaims, putting herself between the two before anything can happen. She gives Casey a pleading look before she turns towards Abbie and sighs heavily. "Abbie, what are you doing here…"
"I want answers." Abbie states after a brief moment of silence between them. She tears her eyes away from Alex only to find Casey sending her harsh glares that only seem to try her patience. "I want answers about what you're doing with a no good somebody like her."
"Right," Casey chuckles mirthlessly. "I'm no good, but yet I'm the one who's worth millions and you aren't even worth the gum on the bottom of my shoe."
Abbie clenches her fists and makes a move to start at Casey only for Alex to push her back. Seizing the opportunity, she takes Alex by the wrist and begins dragging her away. "Come on, we're getting out of here and I'm taking you home."
Taking a deep breath, Alex plants her feet to the floor, halting any further movement. "Abbie, we need to talk…" she says almost so quietly that Abbie nearly misses it.
"I know we need to talk, that's why we're going home." Abbie states, her frustrations from the loudness of the party increasing by the second.
"Abbie, no, I mean we need to talk now." Alex states firmly as she gently takes Abbie by the arm and pulls her outside on the balcony away from all of the noise. She angles her head to the ground and opens and closes her mouth several times before she settles on sighing quietly. "I honestly don't know where to begin…so I'll just start with the truth." She says quietly before taking a much needed deep breath to continue. "I'm not coming home, Abbie."
Abbie frowns, shaking her head despite deep down in her heart she knew where this conversation was going. "What do you mean, you're not coming home? Of course you're coming home. Look, whatever happened with her was a mistake and I can…I can forgive you, but you're coming home."
This time, Alex too shakes her head as she squeezes her eyes shut to will away her emotions. "No Abbie, I'm not. I can't live like that anymore. I can't constantly being the only one who puts anything into are marriage. I can't always be the one financially supporting the two of us and I can't always be the one who actually gives a damn about trying. I'm so tired of doing this with you Abbie, and I'm not going to do it anymore."
Feeling like a barbed wire is slowly tightening around her heart, Abbie swallows the thick lump in her throat as she tries to find her voice. "I know I messed up a few times Alex, but everyone messes up sometimes and that's part of being in a relationship, isn't it? I'm trying super hard for us Alex, honest I am."
"No you're not. At least not hard enough. I can't be the only one supporting this marriage Abbie and I'm just so fucking tired of living like that! I can count on one hand the number of times that you've done something nice for me. For me! I have everything I could ever want here with Casey. She cares about me and she's attentive and she remembers things that are important to me. When you forgot that it was my birthday, she remembered. When we had that fight about the electricity, she saw I was upset and she took me to lunch and she could actually afford to take me to lunch! Abbie, she supports me and she's going to help me get my career to take off! I'm finally going to get to do the things that I want to do because I'm not busy taking care of someone else. Finally I've found someone who can take care of me and you just…you can't do that. You couldn't ever do that…"
Finally letting her tears fall, Abbie shakes her head as she forces herself to look away. "Then why did you marry me? Why were you even with me this long if you didn't think I could take care of you?"
Hanging her head, Alex gives a sad shrug in response. "It's a question that I've been asking myself a lot lately and I honestly haven't been able to come up with an answer."
"I saved for months and sold more than half of my belongings to have enough to buy you a decent engagement ring." Abbie murmurs, her voice cracking with emotion. "When I slipped it on your finger I was so embarrassed because it wasn't anything special but you said it was special to you because I had tried so hard. What happened to that?"
"I just…I found someone else! She makes me feel like I've never felt before and with her I don't feel like I'm…" Alex pauses as she tries to come up with the right word but it's time for being honest. "I don't feel like I'm settling with Casey…she wants to get married."
"Wow. Settling. Married." Abbie repeats, her eyes wide and glistening as the tears fall. "The night, after I took you to dinner, when I made love to you in the shower and we made love after that…you had never responded to my touch like that before, but it wasn't because of me, was it? You were thinking about her…" seeing Alex nod, she continues quietly. "Alex, I…I don't want this to be like this. You're the center of my world and I don't…I don't want to go home alone. Please tell me that there's something I can do to fix it."
"You can't…I'm sorry."
"Don't leave me…"
"It's done Abigail. I'm sorry." Alex says again as she moves to go back inside. "Please just…just leave while you still have some of your pride."
Shaking her head, Abbie tries to follow only to be stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder. Coming face to face with the woman that stole the love of her life, she tries to shove Casey away to go after Alex but she soon finds the redhead dragging her down the stairs and back into the lobby.
"Just get in your car and drive away." Casey instructs firmly as she gives the brunette a shove towards her car. "Get out of here."
Giving a spontaneous yell of frustration, Abbie moves forward and attempts to land a punch to Casey's nose, only for her arm to be twisted behind her back in painful quickness. "You stole my wife!" she yells, struggling as her tears pour down her cheeks. "You stole my wife you bitch!"
"No." Casey says firmly before she leans in to whisper into Abbie's ear. "You gave her to me, and now she's mine, and I can take care of her in all the ways that you can't and never will. Now go crawl back to your hole and worry about keeping your lights on."
Wincing at the pain in her shoulder, Abbie wants nothing more than to knock that smirk off of Casey's face. Gently massaging her shoulder she gathers what's left of her pride and slinks back to her car where she gets in and immediately begins pounding the steering wheel as if it's at fault for her troubles. She had come here with a sole intention of bringing her wife home and she isn't entirely sure that she can cope with the fact that she's probably never going to do such thing ever again.
Serena is awoken by the pounding on her front door and she immediately grabs her bat from her bedside. Slowly slinking from her bedroom, she creeps up to the door and stands on her tip toes enough to look through the peephole, frowning when she sees who is on the other side.
Quickly undoing the bolted locks, Serena pulls open the door to a puffy eyed trembling Abbie who looks as if she's been crying. "Abbie, what happened?"
"She was having an affair." The brunette croaks as she shuffles past the shorter woman and into the apartment. She immediately takes a seat on the edge of the sofa and drops her head into her hands as she continues to shake. "She's been having an affair right under my nose and I was too stupid to see it."
"Oh, Abbie…" Serena says quietly as her heart immediately breaks for the woman she has grown to call a good friend. She joins her on the sofa and places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Can I get you anything?"
"Not unless you can get me my life back." Abbie jokes bitterly as she drags both hands through her hair. "I can't believe I was so stupid! It was right there! How she'd just leave and not tell me where she was going, how she would go on these 'business trips'. I just didn't think about it because I trust her and I never thought she would cheat on me. God, I'm such an idiot."
Shaking her head, Serena lifts Abbie's head and forces her to look at her. "You aren't an idiot. You are an extremely kind and talented woman with a big heart and if Alex doesn't want to recognize that, then that's her loss."
Wiping her eyes, Abbie takes a rather shaky deep breath as she realizes just breathing is causing her pain. "I love her so much Serena…I just…I can't believe I've lost her. I don't know what I'm supposed now."
"The only thing you can do." Serena explains gently. "You be sad for as long as you need to be, but eventually, you're going to have to pick yourself up and put yourself back together. Because I promise you that there is someone out there who deserves a good kind hearted woman like you and whoever that is, I know she'll be lucky to have you."
"How did you ever come to be so positive?" Abbie asks, smiling for the first time since she left the party.
"Years of practice." Serena responds with a grin as she bumps shoulders with the other woman before she stands. "Now let me make us some tea. It'll make you feel better."
"Tea doesn't solve the world's problems Serena…"
"It does in my world."
A few evenings later, while Casey is busy finishing off the final portions of the expansion deal with Liz, Alex sets about cleaning out her office after submitting her letter of resignation. As she places her belongings into a single cardboard box, she is only made aware by the other presence in the room when a voice clears.
"So I take it you've just stopped telling me things now." Kim states flatly as she folds her arms tightly across her chest.
"Fuck off, Kimberly." Alex responds with an exaggerated eye roll. "Last I checked I didn't report to you."
"True, but last I checked we were best friends." Kim retorts as she steps closer. "Or did you forget that minor little detail? Or did it just suddenly become so unimportant to you that it was that easy to forget?"
Sighing heavily, Alex puts down her box and holds out her hands. "What do you want from me, Kim, honestly? Here you are standing her bugging me about petty things that don't even matter."
Kim raises her eyebrows as she lets out a rather exaggerated 'oh' and nods her head. "So I see it now! Our friendship is a 'petty thing that doesn't even matter'! It all makes sense now!" she says in a faux voice of understanding before her face and tone darken collectively. "You know, ever since you got with Casey, you've really changed and you haven't changed for the better. I never thought I'd say this, but you definitely made the wrong choice when it comes to deciding who to be with."
"Since when did you become my conscience." Alex bites back, before chuckling mirthlessly. "I hardly think that I should be taking relationship advice from a slut."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me Kim. You can hardly criticize me at all and you know it because you know that you have been up and down and around the block more times than you can probably even care to remember."
Falling silent, Kim shakes her head as a sad sigh escapes her lips. "I know that you don't mean that, and whatever spoiled spell Casey has you under is bound to wear off sooner or later and when it does, I'll be here."
"Right." Alex snorts as she picks up her box to leave.
"Are you ready…" Casey asks, annoyance evident in her voice as she appears in the doorway.
"Yes, I just had to finish packing up."
"Well hurry up." Casey snaps, startling the two women in the room. "Go wait in the car while I finish up here."
Alex frowns at the tone as she makes her way over to the door. "Well Kim and I weren't finished…"
"Well you are now." Casey responds tightly as she thrusts her finger towards the elevator. "Now go wait in the car!"
Snapping her mouth shut, Alex scowls deeply but does as she's told, leaving the other two women alone in the room. Casey's eyes darken in anger as she crosses the room and backs Kim into a corner. "I need you to stay out of our business."
"Alex has known me far longer than you so she is more of my business than yours." Kim retorts, trying not to let her fear show at the other woman's sudden change in demeanor.
"Well now she's my business and you need to stay away and I'm only going to tell you once." Casey threatens warningly. "You're smart. Listen to what I say."
"And if I don't?" Kim challenges, arching her eyebrow for good measure.
"Is that something you're really willing to test me on?" Casey smirks, slamming her hand against the wall right next to the brunette's head, causing her to squeak and flinch on reflex. "I didn't think so."
"You didn't have to help me do this." Abbie states as she continues to rearrange the apartment and pack up Alex's things.
"It's the least I could do since for all you've done for me." Serena states with a shrug as she proceeds to tape another box closed. "I couldn't stand the thought of you over here breaking down and doing this by yourself. The least I could do is give you someone to talk to while you're doing this."
Abbie smiles at this, though Serena can tell clearly how the smile doesn't quiet reach her eyes. Looking away, the brunette sighs as she moves yet another box to the center of the living room. "I didn't realize until just now how much stuff Alex really has in here. Guess more than half of everything really was hers."
"Well that just means that there will be more space for you." Serena supplies with a shrug as she moves to begin assembling another box that they can put stuff in. "Have you thought at all about what you're going to do next?"
"I've been trying to weigh my options." Abbie responds with another heavy yet tired sigh. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford a divorce lawyer right now. That's what really hurts about this, you know? Having to actually say the word divorce…I never really believed in divorce and I really thought that we would be together forever."
Serena hums as she nods her head in agreement. "I totally understand where you're coming from. I felt the exact same way with my ex. When we met she swept me off of my feet and the love she showed me was out of this world. Then as time progressed she begin showing how much she wanted to control me and when I defied that, she lost it. It begin happening more frequently. Something pissed her off, she took it out on me. She didn't get what she wanted, she took it out on me. Something was wrong with her work, she took it out on me. She just became a whole different person than the one I knew when she wooed me into being with her. She turned into a monster. I never once thought that another person could make me fear for my life like that before I met her."
Snorting Abbie shrugs as she tosses items into another box. "Yeah well, when I went to bring Alex home she had to make a point of how she has everything she's ever wanted. How Casey gives her this and Casey gives her that and Casey shows her this. Now that I think about it, I feel sick to my stomach."
Immediately something clicks in Serena's mind as her posture goes rigid and her head snaps to Abbie so fast that she nearly gets whiplash from the movement. "Abbie, did you just say Casey?" she asks. "As in Casey Novak?"
"Yeah…but what's it matter." Abbie mumbles with an indifferent shrug as she spins around and continues her work.
"Abbie!" Serena exclaims as she stands up from her spot on the floor and nearly trips over her own feet to get across the room where she grabs the brunette by the shoulders and spins her around. "Abbie, Casey Novak, is my ex-girlfriend."
It takes all of three seconds for the statement to register in Abbie's mind before she snags her keys and sprints out of the apartment with Serena trailing quickly behind her.
So…it looks like Cavak took this one, but something tells me that victory isn't tasting so sweet right now…and something also tells me I am about to get a hell of a lot of all caps reviews….
