A/N: Hey all, hope you enjoy this new chappie! Thanks for your reviews! -Cat

Chapter Thirty-Two

Pogue watched as Victoria walked away from them and out of the family room. "So," Pogue's head swivelled around to look at his father, "You and Victoria are home early..."

"Uh, yeah..." Pogue put a hand behind his neck meeting his father's eye, "Something came up, and Victoria wanted to leave." Pogue shrugged, "So, we did."

Richard Parry watched his son closely, his expression giving nothing away. "So, you two left everyone else in Salem and came here?"

Pogue cleared his throat, he didn't really want to start getting into details with his dad until he actually knew what the details were. Victoria and his conversation was cut painfully short by his dad arriving in the first place. "Yeah, pretty much."

"You two seem to have been spending a lot of time together," His dad said vaguely.

Pogue nodded, no sense in denying the truth. "Yeah, we have."

His dad nodded finally looking away, putting his hands in his black slacks pockets. "Son, I am not gonna bombard you with questions or harass you. I can't imagine what you and Victoria are going through."

Pogue crossed his arms, "No, probably woulda been easier if we had been, ya know, fore-warned." Pogue was still irritated that no one thought to mention to him or Victoria that being a doubleganger was even a possibility.

Richard looked up at his son with a sad smile, "Yes, I know that now, and I am sorry. I was being overly optimistic that you wouldn't have more to bare. But clearly I was wrong in judgement. For that I am sorry."

Pogue nodded appreciating his dad's candidness, "Well, it is what it is now. And Vic and I..." Pogue looked away from his dad out the big windows over looking the spacious back patio. His dad waited patiently for Pogue to find the words, but eventually all he could do was shrug, "We are getting through it all, I guess."

Richard took a deep breath and put a hand on his sons shoulder, "It's a hard road. Just remember that you are in this together, you are always each other's allies, lean on each other for support. Don't try to take it all on yourself."

Pogue looked at his dad, "Yeah, we seem to be doing ok with that part, it's just the rest of the world..." Pogue felt guilty about saying anything to begin with but this was his dad.

Richard nodded like he understood what wasn't being spoken from his son, "It is complicated when so many people are involved. Thing is son, you can only ever be responsible for your own actions, at the end of the day those are the ones you have to lie down next to at night. Everyone else is their own keeper." The advice was vague, Pogue figured his dad wasn't going to throw Reid or Caleb under the bus, after all he watched all the boys grow up together. "But I will say this," Pogue looked up at his dad's change of tone, "You have always looked out for Victoria."

Pogue rolled his eyes, "Yeah dad, she was my best friend's little sister-"

But his dad interrupted him, "No, I know all that, but even when you could barely walk you always looked out for her. Made sure she ok, even if you boys were terrorizing her to high heaven or vice versa. I think you were the only one who didn't actually make her cry. You have always been there for her, watching out for her. Don't underplay or under value that. Just so you don't think all this is coming completely out of left field." Then with that said Richard smiled, "I am gonna go start the pancakes." He turned to go to the kitchen.

"I thought you said we were gonna figure out what to have for brunch?" Pogue teased.

Richard shrugged, "The only brunch-y thing I can make is pancakes, that or you're getting toast."

Pogue nodded, "Pancakes it is. I'm gonna go check on Victoria."

Richard smiled an all-knowing sort of parental smile, "You do that."

Pogue got to his door and hesitated. Should he knock? No, that was stupid it was his bedroom after all. In the end he tapped on the door before opening it, "Vicky?"

He looked in his room to see her laying back on his bed staring at the ceiling. She sat up at his voice and looked at him. Her hair was still damp from her shower, and hung around her slightly messily. The Spencer swim team t-shirt she had acquired from his room hung big on her, and she looked even smaller on his enormous bed. But what Pogue couldn't get over was just how perfect she looked. Like no one could compare to her, and any thought of his life without her seemed completely ludicrous. "I brought coffee." He said holding up the mugs.

Her face lit up with a smile, "You're a life saver."

He walked over to her and handed her the mug. She took it eagerly in both hands and proceeded to risk drinking the pipping hot brew. "Why do you do that?" He asked scoffing.

Victoria looked over the rim of the mug at him eyebrows shooting up, eyes looking all big and innocent, "What?" She asked like she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Every time you get coffee in your hands you are drinking it, even if it is going to scald your tastebuds off." He sat back on his bed, crossing his legs under neath him.

Victoria chuckled, her cheeks turning slightly pink, "I dunno, general lack of self control when I have something I want in reach." She looked up at him.

Pogue nodded slowly, not letting her gaze drop, "You're better than some." He said, feeling completely drawn to her. Victoria smiled, but looked away first, going back to her coffee, her cheeks getting redder. And once again Pogue was reminded of the apparent limbo they now found themselves in, "How are you doing?" He asked in general. He felt like a broken record when it came to Victoria but all he could think about was how she was doing.

She shrugged, "I dunno, every time I think I have one thing figured out, I get walloped by something completely unexpected." She looked back up at him, "Like getting my trust fund, and my mother's estate and hell, her name. I just, I don't even know how I am supposed to feel right now."

Pogue shrugged, "Everything, nothing." He pointedly looked at the bed beside him. Smiling, rolling her eyes, Victoria crawled on the bed carefully balancing her coffee , until she sat beside him, hip to hip. Pogue met her graze, "There isn't a playbook for this, Victoria. You can feel what you want, angry, confused, excited, overwhelmed. All of the above are acceptable. If anyone else tells you different they can talk to me."

She looked at his eyes, "How is it that you know exactly what to say... Like all the time?"

He leaned his chin on his shoulder, "You're easy to talk to Danvers," He said smiling at her.

She rolled her eyes shaking her head, "You're impossible to talk to." She said, a breathy laugh in her voice.

Pogue sat back, looking at her with a raised eyebrow, "Are you kidding me?"

"No!" Victoria snapped. Sipping her still piping hot coffee with a cheeky gleam in her eye.

"Why not? I was a peer councillor for four years, I think I am very easy to talk to."

Her eyes narrowed, "Maybe for some, but you make me all flustered and then I end up sounding like an idiot. You always have, so don't try and deny it." She teased.

Pogue raised an eyebrow at her, the Victoria he knew always had an air of not caring or being uninterested so to hear he was capable of flustering her was news to him. "You hid it well," He said teasing back.

"One does like a little mystery." She said looking at him. Pogue suddenly looked away, ahead of himself, anywhere but at Victoria. "What? Pogue?"

He bit his lower lip. How could Pogue explain it to her without sounding like a complete ass, 'I know you like, literally just broke up with your boyfriend, who is one of my best friends, but all I can think about is you... And not in a strictly friendly manner...' He took a deep breath.

"Pogue what's up? You're freaking me out," He felt her hand on his bicep, which definitely did not help anything.

Pogue took a deep breath, steeling himself, he looked at her, "Vic," She was looking at him expectantly, like she wouldn't let it drop. "I'm sorry, and I don't wanna sound like an ass, but I don't know what happened between you and Reid last night or this morning or whatever," There was a flash in her eyes, of anger? He couldn't tell before a wall came up. "And I don't want to rush you, but in that case, I might need to take a moment. Every so often,"

Victoria's eyes suddenly got huge like she figured out what he was implying, "Oh,"

Pogue cleared his throat feeling painfully exposed, "Yeah..."

Victoria bit her lower lip, "Do you want me to move...?" She pointed at the far side of the bed.

Pogue rolled his eyes, "Ok, I'm not thirteen, just ... Never mind."

Victoria blinked but had this determined look on her face, "I ..." She started and stopped, then tried again, "I don't want to talk about Reid." She said the words bluntly. "And I don't know if it's shock or what but I just … Can't right now. And please trust me when I say, you don't want me to either." Pogues attention caught on that statement, but he didn't want to interrupt her, "I know everything happened last night or whatever, but things haven't been good for a while, and... You..." She search his eyes struggling for words, "It's just..."

"Different?" Pogue offered.

Victoria looked like he had just taken a weight off her shoulders. "Yes,"

Pogue turned to face Victoria, he decided being honest was the best bet. She seemed to know what she wanted so he wasn't afraid of jading her choices, "This might have been different for you, but... I dunno, after I woke up from that first dream..."

"Nothing was the same?" Victoria jumped in.

Pogue smiled at her, "Yeah, and I mean... I still loved Kate but it... It wasn't the same, no matter what I tried to tell myself. So then when things did end, it was awful but... It was better than pretending."

Victoria looked like she wanted to cry, "Do you ever wish it didn't happen?" Pogue met her eyes but she looked down studying her palm instead of meeting his eyes, "No doublegangers, no me... Just normal?" Her words scared him, because what if she felt like that? What if she cursed everyday as a doubleganger and hated that she would forever be linked to him? And just as his heart seemed to stop beating, she said, "Because, no matter what has happened between me and Reid or anything else that is possibly gonna happen with our powers or being a beacon or whatever..." Victoria looked up at him and met his eyes, "I still feel like it is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Like... Finally coming home, or something" She shrugged, looking confused. "And I just was wondering if you felt the same... Way..." She looked at him with worried eyes.

Pogue watched her, his heart pounding in his chest. "Victoria," he took her coffee mug from her hand and put them down on his side table and moved closer to her on the bed, he met her eyes, "Waking up from that first dream... It was like seeing properly for the first time in my life. Understanding something... Something I didn't even realize I didn't get in the first place." She giggled at his terrible description. He leaned forward putting a hand behind her neck. He could seem to feel the breath that caught in her throat at his touch as light electric shocks ran down his arm, but he didn't fight it. He let them travel through his whole body, letting him feel alive. Pogue met her eyes, "You are my everything, no matter what happens or has happened, no matter what. You are all I care about or could ever care about and if you need time, I have all the time in the world. Especially if waiting means you are there at the end of it all."

But before he could even finish his sentence Victoria was shaking her head furiously, "I don't wanna wait any more." She leaned forward, reaching out to him, her hands landing on his shoulders. She pulled herself to him within the second and he found her lips coming up onto his.

It was just as amazing as he remembered from the hotel room. He had started to imagine how amazing that first kiss had been. Sure there had been tons of kisses in the dreams... Kisses and more... But this was like... It was different. Never before had he been so aware of the difference between Victoria and the rest, Sabine, Anne, Mera, none of them were Victoria. Not his Victoria. As she kissed him, he let his arms wrap around her back and she collapsed into him, letting him pull her onto his lap. Without missing a beat Victoria let her legs wrap around his waist, unintimidated by the closeness, like she had been waiting just as desperately as he had been. Yes, this was definitely his Victoria.

Victoria reached down to the bottom of the white tank top he had been wearing since last night and pulled it up, they broke their kiss long enough for her to pull it over his head and off his arms before he grabbed her back to his chest, her hands finding his neck and working their way into his hair. Pogue felt like his chest was going to burst.

"Kids! Pancakes!"

They both froze at Pogue's fathers voice echoing down the hall. Victoria smiled against Pogues lips. He let his arms drop from behind her and fell back on to the bed staring at the ceiling. "He really needs to stop interrupting." Pogue groaned rubbing his hands over his face.

Victoria chuckled, She leaned forward, leaning on her hands which she rested on the mattress on either side of Pogues head. He opened his eyes to see her dark hair surrounding them like a curtain. "Don't stress, we have the rest of our lives after all." She said it casually but he noticed her eyes searching his for a reaction.

Pogue couldn't help but smile at her words, He reached up and pulled her down on top of him and in an instant rolled over on top of her amidst her giggles, and squeals. But after they hit the mattress he met her eyes and she quieted under his gaze instead just smiling up at him, "Don't tease me now, Danvers."

She smiled putting a hand on the side of his face, "I wouldn't dare." She leaned upwards lightly kissing him, "Come on," She pushed him off of her and rolled on her side cheekily looking back over her shoulder at him, "I am starving."