Hello my lovelies! So, I'm on holiday from work for a week, and the first thing I thought to do was write and get an update up for you!
Thank you so much for your reviews/favs/subs! They really make my day.
So, do you think that Jenna will talk about this mystery woman in the photo album? I suppose you'll have to read to find out!
All mistakes are mine and I don't own Skins or its characters, I just borrow them for my own (and your) entertainment.
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The ride back was done in silence, and Emily wished beyond everything that she had been on the same horse as Naomi so she could feel the warmth of her embrace. It was a comfort that she soon realized that she wouldn't be able to have. The crisp air was licking at her skin which wasn't helping her need for heat. Emily's mind was everywhere at once, contemplating the weight of the possible meanings of the photo of her mum and the blonde woman. Mentally she went back through the pictures in her mind, the unmistakable closeness between the two. At the beginning of the album it wasn't so obvious, but the further she had gone, the more she had realized that this woman was truly someone special to the icy Fitch Bitch.
Naomi was concerned, but it didn't have much to do about the pictures, it had everything to do with Emily. She started to doubt the need for her girlfriend to confront Jenna. It had happened so long ago, did it really need to be brought to light? Naomi wasn't so sure anymore. Originally she had been all for it, but as they made it to the stables and started to dismount, she doubted the urgent need that Emily possessed to talk to her mother about indiscretions from so long ago. "Emily?"
Emily was just removing the saddle from Thunder when she heard the tentative voice of her lover. She turned her head still carrying the large leather saddle toward the tack room. "Yes?" she asked before turning into the room and setting the saddle down it its spot. Emily soon exited and walked toward the blonde, still waiting for a response, but when there wasn't one, she actively looked toward Naomi whilst unhooking the cinch on Sir Paint.
"I... I'm starting to think that this isn't such a good idea," Naomi murmured, her head down.
The red head finished putting everything away, including the bridles, before she even thought about responding. She started to think that maybe Naomi was right, but she also knew that she wouldn't be able to hold it in for long. Emily ran a quick brush along both equines and stabled them, coming out to stand directly in front of Naomi. Rich brown orbs easily found the azure blues when Emily slipped her arms around the taller girl. "Naoms, I know this is something I have to do. I know you may not understand it, and fuck, I don't know if I even do so myself, but... I... I need to do this."
"But what about your family, Ems? What if it tears you all apart?" Naomi tried to reason.
Emily smiled a half-smile and went onto her toes to place a peck to Naomi's cheek. "I know, babe," Emily said softly, touched that Naomi seemed to care about the well-being of her family. The red head knew that in actuality her lover couldn't care less about her family, and that she was the only one (besides Gina) that Naomi loved, well, perhaps Effy and possibly Pandora as well. "This isn't something that I can hold in though. Normally I'd go straight to my dad, but I want to give my mum the opportunity to come clean and tell me what happened."
Naomi only nodded. Emily had had her mind made up from the beginning, but the blonde needed to try, and try she had... and failed. All she could do is wait outside and hope for the best. Her feisty girlfriend had no intentions of backing down. Naomi was proud of her, in a way, for doing it, but it didn't make it any less stressful at the unknown.
"Wait here, okay?" Emily stated, still holding the photo album close to her chest. Once Naomi nodded her agreement, the red head walked inside the house.
Naomi tried to hear through the thick wooden door, but she couldn't hear a single thing. Wracked with nerves, she pulled a fag from her pocket and started puffing away at it, making sure she was ready at a moments notice for her girlfriend.
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Emily walked in quietly, closing the door behind her softly. She traversed the house quickly before finding her mother in the master bedroom folding some laundry. The red head hovered in the doorway for a moment before she took two steps, crossing the threshold into the bedroom. "Mum?"
"Yes dear?" Jenna asked without so much as turning around to look at the younger twin.
"Can we... I have something I'd like to talk about... with you," Emily said, struggling to find the proper way to ask her mother about the incriminating photos.
It was the hesitance in her daughter's voice that finally prompted Jenna to turn around. Her eyes and face were first in a smile, albeit faux, but her gaze soon moved to the familiar album being held to Emily's chest. She swallowed a lump that formed in her throat and she was already trying to formulate lies about the contents of the photo book. Jenna kept the smile on her face and looked back up to Emily's face, "What is it you'd like to talk about, Emily?" Mama Fitch moved the pile of clothes so she could sit down on the edge of the bed and she patted the spot beside her.
Emily wavered for a moment at the gesture, but soon found her legs propelling her forward. Emily sat down and opened the album to the first page. She tried to keep the accusation out of her voice as she asked, pointing to the blond girl in the pictures, "Who is this?"
Jenna reached for the album, but found that Emily's grip was far too strong. "That's Anthea, she was my riding partner when I was younger," Jenna answered after she faked like she needed to see exactly who it was her daughter was inquiring about.
"Riding partner?"
"Yes, we had a friendly rivalry between us, pretty much grew up together," Jenna tried to sound reflective as she turned the pages to bring to light new photographs. She pointed to one in particular of herself and Anthea standing side by side with their respective steeds, each holding a ribbon. "We pushed each other harder than anyone else could. We strived to be the best, and we were. If I didn't get first and her second, then it was the other way around. We worked well together."
Emily listened carefully, not just to the words her mother spoke, but the emotion that she was failing to hide as well. The more Jenna spoke, the more Emily realized that her assumption was absolutely correct. "So you two were close?"
"Like sisters," Jenna stated.
Emily's eyes squinted as she looked over to her mum. That was a horrible way of explaining it. Jenna knew better than anyone that her twins were more like arch enemies than close friends. "Sisters?" Emily stated bitterly.
"Yes, well, like sisters should be."
Emily grumbled to herself. She knew her and Katie weren't like normal sisters, it had always been a competition. A competition for their parents love, a competition for friends, a competition for dinner choices, practically everything was a competition. Sure, they'd learned in the past few years that they also needed to support one another for more than just selfish reasons. "Come off it, mum!"
Jenna looked over to her daughter just as Emily turned to the last page. "What do you mean, Emily?" she said calmly.
Emily pointed angerly at the photo, her coffee eyes boiling into the side of her mother's face. "That is what I mean, mum. I was trying to be nice about this, trying to let you be honest, but it's obvious that you're just full of shit and you have no problem lying right to my face." The rage-filled red head slammed the book closed and got to her feet. "I'll just have to go talk to dad, because I'm certain he has no idea about your fling with your 'sister'." Emily said that last word using her fingers as air quotes.
Jenna's voice was shaking as she reached her hand out to grasp Emily's arm, "No... don't. Rob doesn't need to know."
Emily was outraged, "Like fuck."
"Emily, it happened so long ago, it's never happened since and will never happen again."
"How do I know you're not full of it? How do I know it hasn't happened again? How do I..."
Jenna's eyes filled with tears and she interrupted her daughter, "Because she's dead."
Those three words effectively silenced Emily's rant. Her jaw was ajar and her eyes stared, horrified, at her broken mother. Her mouth closed, then opened again, but she couldn't think of a single thing that she could say. Of all the things she had thought, the death of her secret lover hadn't been one of them. "W... what happened?"
Jenna didn't want to talk about it. She had kept it boxed up for so long and facing it wasn't something she was willing to do, lest of all with her gay daughter. "She died," she stated, hoping that Emily would understand that she didn't want to discuss that any further.
"I got that the first time you said it," Emily snapped quickly before softening her tone to continue, "but what happened?"
Jenna let out a deep sigh. "It's a long story Emily, one which I'd rather not go into."
"I've got time, and I want you to go into it," Emily said as she sat back down next to her mother, opening to the last picture and glancing down at it.
Jenna couldn't help looking to the side, seeing the woman she had loved for most of her life. Sure, the love had changed and blossomed into something more than friends or sisters, but the loss of Anthea had a huge impact on her life. Her death had been the reason she stopped riding. Her death had been the reason she started to loathe the animals she had grown up loving. "She didn't just die, Emily, not of natural causes."
Emily's ears perked up and she nearly started to ask another question, but thought better of it. Her mum was gathering her thoughts, she was going to talk, and interrupting her might be detrimental to finding out the truth.
"She rode a Friesian mare most of the time and also a palomino quarter horse stallion. She rode Rocky, the stallion, in barrel racing, and she rode Black Babe for pleasure riding." Jenna spoke softly as she recalled the events of Anthea's past, the same past that intersected with her own. When Emily didn't interject, she decided that she was waiting for her to continue, so with a soft voice she did just that. "We were out on her parents' farm, bringing in the horses from the pasture, and some of them were more wild than tame. Anyway, she had gotten off Black Babe for some reason; I think maybe she heard a loose shoe or something because she was picking up Babe's front hoof. I was atop my chestnut mare near the gate and she was bringing up the rear at the time. Well, one of the more undomesticated stallions got spooked and started running right for her. Anthea didn't even see it coming, but Babe did. Babe spun around to kick at the stallion but in the process she knocked Anthea over. She was... she was so vulnerable, and... and when Babe kicked, she hit the stallion, but her hind legs came down and..." Jenna couldn't go any further, her face blotchy and red with streams of tears racing down her cheeks. She put her head in her hands and wept uncontrollably.
Emily was shocked, but also held concern for her mother. She'd never seen her mum cry like this, not ever. She set the album down on the opposite side of her and gathered her mother in her arms. It took only moments for her mum's tears to bleed through her shirt to her skin. So now she had it, well, part of it at least. The pieces were fitting together like a well oiled machine. The history with the mystery woman, now named Anthea, answered quite a few questions. Not only did it explain why this album was kept hidden, yet safe, but it also shed some light on why Jenna stopped riding, and furthermore why she started to hate horses.
There were still a few questions Emily wanted to ask, but they could be brought up later, but one was still poking at her and she couldn't simply ignore it. "Mum... I'm so sorry..." Emily placed a kiss on her mother's head just before Jenna pulled back, wiping at her dripping face with her sleeve. "I'm sorry about Anthea, and that explains a lot, but it doesn't explain why you were in Rain's stall."
Jenna's eyes were like laser beams, looking directly into Emily's eyes. The anguish turned to rage in the blink of her eyes. "I fucking told you what I was doing, Emily. Now, give me that album so I can hide it more properly this time."
"No," Emily responded defiantly, picking up the book of photos and crushing it to her chest as she once again stood up. She turned to face her mother, looking down at her from her standing position, "you did it on purpose, didn't you?" She was saying the words before she thought better of them, and even after realizing she should have stopped, she continued on. "You went into Rain's stall because she reminded you of Black Babe, she reminded you of Anthea, she reminded you of the love you lost... a love that you secretly hated because she was a woman, a love you hated because you didn't let it happen and married dad anyway. You killed her..." Emily's voice shook as her voice got softer, "... you killed her."
Jenna didn't respond, her face now set in a stoic mask, and she wasn't about to dignify Emily's allegations with a reply. "Get out, Emily," Mama Fitch said in the calmest voice she could whilst pointing out the door.
The red head of hair shook a couple of times before she walked out, leaving the bedroom door open and hastening her steps to the door that she knew Naomi would be behind. She threw it open, then closed behind her as she pushed herself into the blonde's chest. It took only a few seconds for Emily to whisper out, "Can we go back to yours, please?"
"Of course," Naomi responded as she placed soft kisses over the crimson locks and pulled the exhausted looking Fitch twin into her body. "Let's go."
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Naomi realized immediately that something seemingly catastrophic had happened whilst Emily was having the conversation with Jenna. It wasn't just the need to be held close the moment she walked from the door, it was also during the ride home. Emily was silent, not only was she quiet, but she had turned off the radio as well, leaving the car in utter stillness. It was uncomfortable, and even thought Naomi wanted to ask what had happened, she figured it wasn't really her place, and she knew that Emily would tell her when she was ready to do so.
Once the pair arrived they walked into the house. Gina quickly greeted them both with a hug and a kiss along with an offering of tea. Naomi didn't want any and was about to say as such, but when Emily nodded her head she could do little but follow her girlfriend into the kitchen.
Gina ushered the two girls to the old table with the peeling paint, sitting them down next to each other whilst she flicked the kettle on. "How are my two favourite girls?" she said with a smile, obviously oblivious to the dark look in Emily's usually light and expressive eyes. When neither of them said anything Gina turned around after pouring three cups and setting the cups in front of them and taking a seat herself. "Something has happened," she stated knowingly, "Emily, is it your mum?"
Naomi looked up from her tea to glance at her mother, trying to tell her without words to leave it be. She should have known though that Gina wouldn't listen, she did get her stubbornness from the woman after all.
Emily nodded in response but she kept her gaze down.
"I don't know what it is, love, but if you need my help, you can come to me any time," Gina said as she reached across the table to grab Emily's hand, squeezing softly. "You've become a daughter to me, and let's be honest, I'd say we get on better than Naomi and I do anyway."
"Mum!" exclaimed Naomi.
"It's true, Naomi. Don't get a bee in your bonnet about it. I'm glad to have two daughters to look after, and the both of you will always be accepted here."
Emily's eyes looked up and a lopsided smile adorned her lips, "Thanks Gina."
"You're welcome dear."
"Are we now going to sing a campfire song and hug and get high?" Naomi said with a laugh.
Gina shrugged, "I do have some tip top splif if you girls are interested."
Emily couldn't help but laugh at the offering of drugs from her girlfriend's mum. "I think I'm alright, Gina, but thank you. Naoms?"
Naomi said chuckling, "I'll just get into your stash later if I want some, mum."
"Okay love," Gina said, finishing off her tea and getting to her feet. "Well, I'll just get out of here, you two be good." She waived over her shoulder at the two as she made her way into the garden.
"You and your mum have the strangest relationship," Emily commented once the door had shut behind Gina, leaving them alone and away from the prying ears of Mother Campbell.
"Yeah, we do. It's worked for us though, and it'll work for you too, Ems. You do realize that she was serious, yeah? You might as well have been born from her womb."
Emily guffawed, and soon Naomi joined in. The blonde grabbed the now empty mugs and washed them out in the sink. "Why do you think that is?"
Naomi looked at her girlfriend with a shocked expression. Did she really not know just how lovely she was? "Ems, you're amazing. It's like... well... you have this aura around you that's so beautiful and brilliant that those of us who are willing to look at it, well, we're in awe of it. My mum recognized it right away when she first saw you, and I did too. You're selfless, Emily. You took care of me when you had no reason to do so. You could have fucked off, you could have ignored me. You could have not ever saved my life in the first place when I started choking on a fucking MDMA pill. You are magnificent. You have saved me time and time again, and even if you hadn't, my mum had been just as fond of you as I had been upon first seeing you. You're like a beacon shining light for the passing vessels, keeping them safe and sound. Let's face it, Emsy, you're a catch, and anyone who is too up themselves not to see it, don't deserve you anyway. Fuck, I sometimes don't think I deserve you. Sometimes I wonder why you keep me around, maybe it's the fear I can still strike in people. Maybe you know that I will protect you with my life, up until my very last breath. I love you, Emily, every part of you is fascinating and wonderful, and now I've been going off like some love-sick puppy," she ended with a look of embarrassment on her face.
Emily smiled. "I love you too, Naoms. I love you, too."
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