Joy starts crying, as she is seeing Victoria crying.

'Oh, babe…we won't mess it up. We've worked so hard to be together. I have an idea, why don't we do therapy together? It might just help both of us.'

Victoria slumps down on the floor by their room, and reaches out her hand.

'Joy, give me the pack of cigarettes.'

Joy hands them to her, and she takes out two, handing one to Joy.

'Lighter.'

She picks up the custom expensive lighter, handing it to Victoria, who promptly lights a cigarette. Joy sticks the cigarette in her mouth, and Victoria with a flick of a lighter, lights Joy's cigarette for her.

The two women sat on the floor in their bedroom, smoking a cigarette, inhaling then exhaling. Dangling the cigarette in her fingers, Victoria sighs, exhaling a stream of smoke.

'We don't need therapy, dear; we just need to talk more. Communication is key in a relationship. Trust is essential, that's what it says in those self-help books I got for Christmas from your mother.

'Mum did something right, I suppose.' Joy sighs, and then takes another puff of the cigarette. She dabs it in the ashtray by the nightstand, and reaches over and puts her arm around Victoria.

'We've made it this far, love. Trust me when I say that I love you and would never hurt you. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't hurt me. You love me Victoria.'

Victoria presses a kiss against Joy's cheek. 'You know me all too well. I've just been stressed and overwhelmed lately,' she says, then takes another puff of the cigarette.

'About what, baby…you can tell me.'

Victoria dabs the cigarette out, and sighs. 'Remember that Colin you dated…you know to get back at him for what he did to me?'

Joy groaned, 'Oh god, him?'

Victoria nodded,'Yeah, and now he's making work a living hell. Everyone wants him gone but somehow, the station refuses to fire him. When word got out that I was seeing you, he's been attacking me.'

'Nobody, nobody hurts my Tori, and gets away with it.'

She takes Victoria in her arms as she cries silent tears, and holds her, stroking her hair gently.

'Don't cry babe, it's alright. I'm glad you told me.'

Victoria smiles at Joy, 'I'm glad I told you too. For some odd reason, I feel better.'

Joy presses a kiss against her forehead, 'And you should feel better, babe. It's a release, to tell someone the truth. You're no longer bottling it up.'

Victoria smiles sweetly at her, 'Thanks for listening.' She then looks around and notices that the room still smells of cigarettes.

'We need to freshen up the rooms, before Sade gets home. She doesn't know we smoke occasionally.'

Joy smiled. 'And she shouldn't. We only smoke when we're alone and stressed, or after sex.' They both get up, and Joy runs to open up their bedroom windows, and Victoria goes and sprays the bathroom, while Joy puts the ashtray out on their balcony. Victoria hides the cigarettes, somewhere where she knew Sadie couldn't get at them.

'You better get dressed, dear. Sadie should be home soon from her weekend with Melanie, and you are naked under the bathrobe.'

Victoria peers down and realizes she is still in her bathrobe fresh from her bath.

'Fuck. Well, I'll go get dressed, and then let's have lunch together, alright my princess?'

Joy smiles, 'That sounds great, love.'

Victoria walks towards their bedroom, then turns, 'I love you, and thanks for being my rock.'

Joy looks up from what she was doing, and smiles, 'I'll always be your rock, don't forget that.'

'I love Joy; it's just that I always fear it will mess up, just like my five marriages did.'

The doctor listens attentively, taking notes. Victoria had taken Joy's advice, after getting past the stubborn, and saw a therapist. She figured they might be able to figure out why she was hitting bumps with Joy. Joy was proud of her, finally admitting that it might help her open up, and it could improve hers and Joy's relationship.

'Do you tell her that?' the doctor asks, looking up from his notes.

Victoria sighs, 'I tell her I love her every single day. I tell her that I love her more than anyone else I've loved before. She and i—we have a connection.'

The doctor nods, taking more notes.

Victoria continues, 'I am so glad to have her in my life. She completes me. Maybe I'm just scared because if I mess up, it means another mistake in love on my part.'

The doctor looks up again, 'Victoria, you're just scared that Joy will leave you like your marriages did.'

Victoria sighs, 'You're right. I wasn't the best in marriage, wasn't the greatest mother…that was until Sadie came along, she's our adopted daughter. Joy wanted a child, and I promised I'd help her. In these last three years since Sadie came as a four year old, I've found I could be a great mother. I denied Emmy, Oscar and Tony the privilege of me being a real mother. I guess it took me not being heavily into my career and not be in demand anymore as much to see that.'

The therapist nods, continuing his notes.

Victoria continues her train of thought. 'After my last marriage, was when I questioned everything. And in that time, I fell for Joy. I learned much later she fell for me also.'

Looking up, the therapist says, 'So that's when you pursued a relationship, as someone more than a best friend, a lover?'

Victoria nods, 'Yes. And Joy and I have hit it off and made it work. But lately, I've been disinterested. Depressed.'

The therapist replies to that, 'You're probably depressed because you miss acting. You feel bad because prior to being with Joy you divorced five different men and your children resent you. And your father's womanizing and hitting on your friends also colored your relationships. You fear Joy will leave you and take Sadie. Victoria, you fear abandonment.'

Victoria sighs, knowing the therapist was right.