"Joss!" The exclamation came almost the moment they entered the museum. It was a male voice, enthusiastic in tone.
"Oh, man ..." Joss evidently did not share the enthusiasm. She sighed. "It's my boss."
The man approaching them was perhaps an inch or so shorter than Bonnie, with a rotund waistline and a rapidly receding salt-and-pepper hairline.
"Joss!" he exclaimed again as he drew closer. "I'm so glad to see you!"
"Evenin', Doctor Narr." Joss said politely.
"Now, now." He waved an admonishing finger. "I've told you to call me Lou." He suddenly noticed Bonnie, standing just behind Joss, and his genial smile faltered a little. "Oh, I'm sorry ... I didn't realize you were here with someone."
"This is Bonnie Rockwaller." Joss did the introductions. "A colleague from the University. We came to check out the 'Moon Madness' exhibit. Bonnie, this is Doctor Louis Narr, head o' my department at NASA."
"Pleased to meet you." Doctor Narr vigorously shook Bonnie's hand, his good humor immediately restored. "You work in the School of Science?"
"Theater, actually." Bonnie admitted.
"Oh." He blinked owlishly. "I'm afraid all that Shakespeare stuff goes over my head."
"That's okay. Einstein goes over mine." The former cheerleader did her best to seem casual. She could sense tension coming from Joss, though she wasn't sure why.
"Ah, Joss ..." Doctor Narr cleared his throat. "... I'm really sorry to do this, especially when you're here with a friend, but I need someone to look after the Moonchkins tonight."
A flicker of annoyance swept across Joss's face, though it was gone so quickly that most people wouldn't have noticed it. Doctor Narr certainly seemed oblivious. "I thought Colin was doin' it?"
"He was." Doctor Narr spread his hands apologetically, "... but he just called to say he couldn't make it. Car trouble."
Joss snorted. "The man designs rocket engines for a living, and he can't keep a Volkswagen runnin'?"
"What are the Moonchkins?" Bonnie asked. Partly because she was curious, but mostly to give Joss a moment to calm down.
"It's a program the museum runs for elementary school kids." Doctor Narr explained. "Teaching them about the solar system and astronomy." He turned his attention back to Joss. "I wouldn't normally ask, but since you're here anyway, could you take them tonight? It's just for an hour."
Joss opened her mouth, her expression obstinate, and Bonnie quickly interceded.
"We'd be happy to help out." She said, smiling pleasantly. Acting lessons came in handy much more often than she'd ever expected.
"Both of you? Oh, that's wonderful!" Doctor Narr beamed. "The children will be thrilled!" He hurried away.
Joss scowled. "I was gonna say 'no'." She muttered.
"I could see that." Bonnie answered, then smiled when Joss gave her a sideways look. She tapped the shorter woman on the forehead. "You always get a little crease here when you're about to be stubborn."
"Stubborn? Me?" Joss gave her a look of mock-outrage, then sighed. "God damn Colin Holt."
"I take it this isn't the first time something like this has happened?" There had been too much irritation in Joss's tone for this to be a one-time thing.
"The man's always duckin' commitments." Joss scowled, then shook her head. "Sorry, I shouldn't take this out on ya. It's just ... this is supposed to be our night to have fun. Not look after a buncha kids."
"It's just for an hour. We can see the exhibit after." Bonnie reached out and squeezed the other woman's shoulder. "Besides, I thought you liked kids."
Joss sighed. "Well ... yeah, I do."
"Right. So let's go entertain your junior rocket scientists."
"See?" Bonnie said weakly, as she sprawled exhaustedly in a chair. "That wasn't so tough, was it?"
"Speak f' yerself." Joss's voice floated up from the carpet, where the younger woman lay, looking as tired as Bonnie felt. "You had the good sense t' stay outta the games. I ache all over. Why didn't ya stop me?"
"Like you would have listened." Bonnie was too tired to laugh, but she managed a half-chuckle. She gestured vaguely at the various odds and ends strewn across the museum function room. "You were having too much fun."
"... yeah." The Montanan grinned at the memory. "I really was."
"So this is one commitment you're glad whatshisname ducked?"
"Holt? Yeah, I guess." Joss reached up and grabbed the edge of a table, then pulled herself to a seated position and leaned against one of the chair legs. "Or at least, I will be glad, once I got the energy to feel anythin'. I had fun, but I'm glad I don't do this ev'ry day."
"You know you'll have to do this with your own kids, right?" Bonnie managed a weary-sounding taunt.
"Yeah, but I'll only have three or four, not twenty-five."
Three or four? "That still sounds like a lot."
"Well ..." Joss hauled herself up a little further and crossed her arms on the table top, then rested her head on her arms. "That was what Saffy 'n' I were plannin'. We both wanted a big family. I don't know how many I'll actually have ... a lot will depend on who I'm with, and what they want."
"How does Reba feel about kids?" Bonnie asked the question with forced casualness. She was mostly ... mostly ... reconciled to Joss's relationship. After all, it wasn't like she had been ready to act on her own attraction, when she had the chance. But she still felt a little resentment toward the woman who'd captured the Montanan's attentions.
There was a long moment of silence.
"... I haven't asked." Joss admitted at last. "It seems too early."
Bonnie stared at the ceiling with a slight frown. She'd heard an edge of discomfort in the younger woman's tone. "When is the right time to ask something like that?" Not waiting for an answer - it was a rhetorical question, after all - she continued. "So she's never said anything about kids?"
Another long moment of silence.
"She's sometimes talked about the ones that come in her work." Joss's discomfort was stronger now. "... she doesn't seem to like them much."
"Oh." Bonnie acknowledged the other woman's reply, but didn't say anything more. After a few seconds of silence, Joss sighed.
"You aren't going to tell me that I need to talk to her about it? That's what my dad said."
"It's your relationship, not mine." Bonnie straightened up enough to meet Joss's eyes, and tapped her own nose. "I won't stick this in unless you ask for my advice." Even then, she would probably try to avoid the question. I don't trust myself enough to give you an impartial answer.
"Hmmph." Joss sighed. "I wish dad'd take that attitude. I'm sure he'll be on my ass about it at Thanksgiving."
"You're flying home for the holiday?" Bonnie caught the answering nod, and posed the question she simultaneously wanted and dreaded to ask. "What's Reba doing?"
"Seein' her parents."
"You're not spending it together?" The brunette felt a moment of satisfaction, then a stab of guilt for her selfishness.
Joss sighed. "If we'd met earlier, we probably woulda have made plans together ... but I booked my flights months go, t'make sure I could actually get tickets. That's why we're going away for Halloween. It's kinda our substitute for Thanksgiving -" she grinned suddenly "- with the added bonus that Reba's bought one of those 'sexy witch' costumes to wear for me."
Bonnie didn't trust herself to reply to that, and after a while, Joss spoke again.
"How about you ... are you going home to see your folks?"
"No!" The word came out more sharply than Bonnie intended, and the former cheerleader took a slow breath before continuing. "I'll see them for Christmas, instead." Though I'll only do that because they'll pay for the flights. She gave a harsh little chuckle. "My father likes us all to go to Midnight Mass."
"Oh. Is he religious?"
Bonnie paused, weighing her answer. "It's ... complicated." She straightened up, seeing from Joss's expression that the younger woman wanted to ask for more information, but wasn't sure she should. "The Rockwallers were one of the original Pilgrim families, but my grandfather ... my father's father ... married a Catholic, and converted. He got disowned by his family. So for my father ... being Catholic is kind of a point of honor." At least when it suits him.
Joss considered this for a moment. "That does sound kinda complicated." She paused, then cleared her throat. "How ... how would he feel about you hanging out with me?"
"... you mean because you're a lesbian?" Bonnie asked the question for as a delaying method than anything else. What else would she mean? "I don't know." Which was a white lie, to protect Joss's feelings. "But it's not his decision to make." Which was true. "It's mine. And I feel pretty good about you hanging out with me."
Joss grinned. "Thanks. I feel pretty good about hangin' out with you, too." She paused. "So what are ya doing for Thanksgiving? Yer not stuck here by y'self, I hope?"
"Actually ..." Bonnie dropped her eyes, then glanced up again, as she struggled and failed to keep a goofy grin off her face. "... I'm going to London."
"What?" Joss blinked, then grinned, her nose crinkling in a way Bonnie found adorable. "To quote a good friend of mine: 'You have to be shitting me'."
The older woman laughed. "This guy I know ... he spent a couple of years at UAH ... I was speaking to him on the phone, and he invited me."
"A guy?" The Montanan raised her eyebrows, her interest clearly piqued.
"It's not what you think." Bonnie held up a hand. "We're just friends."
The younger woman looked unconvinced. "You bought tickets to London to see 'just' a friend?"
"He got them with his miles." As soon as she said it, Bonnie knew it was a mistake.
"Well, there you go!" Joss practically bounced up and down. "He's gotta be more than just a friend to do that! Or at least, he's gotta want to be more."
"Trust me ... he's about as interested in dating me as you would be in dating him." Bonnie sighed. She hadn't meant to 'out' Andy to Joss ... hadn't meant to mention him at all, really. But what's done is done. She watched as first confusion, then understanding, flickered across the younger woman's face.
"Oh." Joss chuckled ruefully. "Really? Well, I feel dumb."
"You weren't to know." Bonnie shrugged, then glanced at her watch. "We have about forty minutes until the museum closes. Do you want to race around the exhibit?"
The Montanan considered the suggestion, then shook her head. "I really am pretty beat. How 'bout we just order some take out for dinner and head back to your place?"
"Isn't your place closer?" Bonnie had never seen the other woman's apartment, and she was curious to do so.
"A little." Joss looked uncertain. "But it's not really set up for entertainin'."
"Is that code for 'I haven't cleaned up'?" Bonnie grinned.
"Hey!" The younger woman stuck out her tongue. "Nah, it's code fer 'I don't have much furniture'."
"Do you have a couch and two forks?"
"... yeah."
"Then it's set up enough for take out, at least." The older woman shook her head and stood. "Really, how bad can it be?"
"Okay, this is pretty bad." Bonnie admitted, staring at the Joss's near-empty living room. The room boasted a couch; which looked new; and a steel footlocker; which didn't. The only other items in sight were a pair of computers: a standard laptop and one of the tiny netbooks almost every student carried these days. "You don't even own a TV?"
"The networks put everything online these days, anyway." Joss shrugged as she closed the door behind them. She gave a wry grin. "I did warn you."
"Yes, you did." Bonnie agreed, gravely. "I shall never doubt you again. What did Reba say when she saw it?"
"She hasn't." The younger woman's reply caught her by surprise. "I always go to her place. She starts work earlier than I do, so it's more convenient that way."
It is for Reba, anyway. "Well, thanks for letting me into your secret lair."
Joss laughed and bumped the older woman with her hip. "The kitchen's through here. I'll just get the food into bowls. Want something t'drink?"
"Got any diet soda?" The former cheerleader followed the Montanan through into the small kitchen.
"Ugh." Joss shuddered theatrically, then shook her head. "Sorry ... no. There's juice in the fridge, though. D'ya like cranberry?" She started to turn toward the refrigerator, but Bonnie waved her back to the food.
"I'll get it. You want one, too?"
"Sounds good. With ice, please. Glasses are in the cupboard on the left."
Bonnie snagged a couple of tumblers from the cupboard, then added ice to both from the refrigerator's ice machine. Joss was apparently not one for decorating her refrigerator. Only one thing broke the plain white surface: a small card, with the handwritten words "Reba. 555-" upon it. The rest of the number was hidden by the magnet pinning it to the fridge.
Fighting an irrational burst of irritation at the card's presence, Bonnie yanked open the fridge door with more force than she'd intended. The magnet slid sideways, and the card fluttered to the floor. Bonnie caught a flash of some kind of black and silver design on the other side.
Stop being an idiot, the brunette scolded herself, closing the refrigerator once more and crouching down to pick up the card. She flicked it over, idly curious about the design she'd glimpsed.
Oh my god.
Author's Note: Oh my god, indeed. I'd originally planned to tell you what Bonnie saw ... but it still woulda been a cliffhanger-y moment, and it might have created some incorrect assumptions. Besides, this way you get to guess what it is :)
Oh, yes ... the M-rated material I said was coming? It's next.