One short and uneventful week later, they were all gathered at Antonio and Shannon's house to meet the new baby, Antonio Jr. Little Antonio had just woken up from his nap and Shannon brought him to meet his new fan club.
"Here's my little Tony," she said as Violet and Leslie cooed over him.
"He's too cute for words!" Violet squealed.
"Oh my god, Shan, he's the perfect combination of his mommy and his daddy," Leslie said. "Can I hold him?"
"Sure, he's pretty fussy though, so don't take it personally if he cries," Shannon said placing the little bundle in Leslie's arms.
As soon as his mommy let him go, Tony started wailing, Leslie was frantic, "Make him stop! How do I make him stop?"
"Relax," Antonio chuckled, "The more you freak out, the louder he will cry."
"Oh for crying out loud, Les," Violet said, "Give me the baby." She scooped Tony from her best friend's arms and made soothing sounds as she gently rocked him. "See? Its not that hard."
"I knew it! Violet is now our go to babysitter!" Shannon said smiling.
"It's true, the real reason for this gathering was to interview potential babysitters," Antonio said. "No offense, Leslie, but we both knew Violet would be perfect with kids."
Violet shrugged, "I watched my brother's kids for years, at this point, they are either hungry, tired or gassy."
Roman just stared at Violet holding the tiny baby, she looked so natural with him snuggled in her arms. His brain was going a mile a minute as he pictured their future together, raising a family in a cute little house. His daydreaming was interrupted by Dean's howling laughter.
"Ha! Little guy is gassy!" He hooted, "Man, that's some loud farts for such a tiny thing."
"And this is why we don't have kids, not even pets… or house plants," Leslie said rolling her eyes.
"And thank god for that!" Seth said making them all laugh, "Poor Leslie has her hands full just taking care of all of us!"
"Damn right," Roman added putting an arm around his friend, "without Leslie, we'd all starve!"
"So, Vi, did they officially promote you yet?" Antonio asked. It seemed like forever since all three of them had been at work at the same time.
Violet shook her head, still gently rocking little Tony, "No, they made an offer, but I know that its nothing close to what AJ was making, so I am trying to negotiate more."
"Tell him what you told me," Seth added.
"Oh yeah! I want them to give both of you guys a raise, they aren't going to hire another chemist. So, its perfectly reasonable to ask for more money for both of you since they have one less salary to pay."
Dean snorted, "Logic?! Yeah, OK, they will totally get that."
"Well, at least she is trying," Leslie said swatting at her husband.
Violet reluctantly passed Tony back to his Daddy and went off to help Leslie prepare dinner. They brought tons of precooked meals and stocked Shannon and Antonio's frig full of Tupperware containers. Shannon tried to protest, but the two women would hear none of it.
"You have your hands full with the little guy and housework all day while Antonio is working. There is no reason why you should have to cook too," Leslie insisted.
"And besides," Violet added, "we really like to cook!"
Monday morning came around way too soon for the lab staff's taste as they all dragged themselves into the office area. Violet had officially been promoted to lab manager and successfully negotiated raises for her two chemists.
"OK, guys," Violet started, "Let's spend a few minutes getting organized. Now that I am officially doing the management stuff, I'm going to have to hand off some things to you, but I still want to be able to do some lab work."
"I can take your place in all the safety meetings," Seth offered, "I know how much you looooove sitting through those!"
"Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?" Violet gleefully tossed her safety committee binder on Seth's lap. "Antonio, do you mind taking over the data entry?"
"Not at all," he said, "can we talk about the quality of the coffee in the break room?"
"Don't worry, I've already put in an order to Staples, better coffee will be here by tomorrow afternoon. Along with chocolate, highlighters, post it notes and mechanical pencils," Violet added.
"YES!" Both men replied in unison.
The trio spent the next half hour or so going through their typical tasks and dividing them up, Violet kept a small amount of lab work for herself, mostly the tedious stuff that the boys couldn't stand still long enough to complete. By 10 AM, Seth was on his way to the safety meeting, Antonio was getting started on a stack of data entry and Violet was combing through her emails and doing "important manager stuff" as they sarcastically started calling it.
After an hour, Violet stood up and stretched her back, "I'm going to start the titrations now," she said to Antonio.
"I'm almost done with this data entry, then I'll meet you in there," he answered. "Wait! Vi! I just got a text from Shannon, Tony has a fever and she's freaking out."
"Go home," she said without hesitating, "Go take care of your family. Don't even say a word, just go."
He jumped up and gave her a hug and ran out the door, "Keep me posted!" she yelled after him. She was pretty sure she heard a "Will do" as he jumped in his car.
She sent Seth a quick text to let him know about Antonio. "Thx. This mtg is long n boring. Going to lunch right after."
She laughed and sent off an "OK", plugged her phone in to charge and headed to her spot in the lab to get set up. She sorted her samples, measured out acids and bases in small beakers and started making notes in her data sheets. She heard the outside door swing shut and figured it was just Roman or one of the other guards making his rounds, she waved in the general direction of the windows and kept working. She was only mildly surprised to hear the door to the lab open.
"I hope you have safety goggles, I'm working with acids and bases," she said sternly, Roman knew the rules, must be one of those kids that Ambrose just hired. She was constantly chasing them out of the lab area, in reality, it wasn't that big of a deal, but she didn't like people traipsing through her nice clean and organized lab anyway. And Dean always thought it was funny when one of them came back with their tails between their legs after she yelled at them.
"No one gave me any safety stuff," she heard a familiar voice answer. She froze, chills going down her spine, no, its not possible…
"I know what you're thinking my little flower, you thought I was in jail, didn't you? Well, my mommy couldn't let her baby boy rot in a cell for very long. She bailed me out the very next morning." Jake said closing the lab door and locking it.
Violet squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath, "What exactly do you want from me, Jake?" She said cursing herself for sounding so shaky.
"You know exactly what I want, I want you. You are mine, Violet, you always were and you always will be."
"Jake, listen to me," she said looking around the room trying to come up with an escape plan. "You have to get out of here. If they find you here, you'll wind up in jail again."
Jake was blocking her path to the wall phone and she had left her cell phone charging on her desk. If she could back away without him noticing she might be able to get to the other door.
"I knew you still cared about me," he said moving closer to her.
"No, Jake, please. Don't." She said frozen in place. Where the hell was Roman? Shouldn't he be making his rounds now? No, it was lunch time and they didn't have lunch plans for today...
"Violet, you belong to me," he said firmly, his eyes turning icy and focusing on her.
"No. No." She whispered backing away. She wanted to run, to turn and run but a tiny voice in her head reminded her to never turn her back on an assailant. Assailant, she thought, that's a fancy word, where did she learn that from?
"Violet!" Jake yelled pulling her back to her terrifying reality. "Come with me right now."
"I can't," she said, "Not until after work. I have to finish this test," she added pointing to her setup.
"Wrong answer, Violet," he said taking another step towards her, "I really don't want to have to hurt you."
"Jake, please," she whispered, "I can't leave right now. I'll get in trouble."
"You already are in trouble my little flower."
Jake grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, he pulled her so that she was pressed against his body and yanked her ponytail back. Everything she learned in all of her self-defense classes seemed to fly out of her brain as the pain and the fear ripped through her body.
"You have made me very angry, Violet," he said with is mouth against her ear, his breath hot against her face. "How dare you parade around town with that long haired freak?"
She opened her mouth to answer him and he twisted her arm tighter, "I don't want to hear any excuses, Violet. Its too late for that, you are going to have to suffer the consequences."
No, she thought, I've suffered enough… She used every ounce of strength to break out of his hold and she raced to the other side of the lab and pulled the fire alarm. Jake grabbed her by her lab coat and yanked her backwards, she grabbed onto the countertops, desperately trying not to fall. She finally freed herself from her lab coat and grabbed the closest thing to her, a bottle from her lab bench… she wrestled with the lid and turned around throwing its contents in his face.
Dean was in his office when the alarm sounded, he swore loudly, grabbed his radio and paged every single one of his security guards and raced across the plant property to get to the lab.
"I need a headcount, ASAP!" Dean screamed into the radio.
Roman's voice came back to him, "Rollins is in the meeting with me. Cesaro left early. VIOLET!"
Roman and Dean reached the lab at the same time, they pulled the doors open and raced in. They scanned the building and saw no sign of a fire or of Violet.
"Ambrose, that door is normally open," Roman said grabbing the handle, "It's locked."
Dean pulled the master key from his pocket and quickly opened the door, both men stood in shock as they took in the scene. The counters were a mess, sample bottles over turned and spilling on the floor, glassware broken and scattered everywhere and most shocking of all, Jake lying motionless on the floor.
"Violet? Sweetie, where are you?" Roman called out.
Dean kicked Jake's legs and smirked when he didn't move, "I'll secure the suspect," he said kicking him again, "You find our girl."
Roman nodded and walked around to the other side of the lab where he finally found Violet. She was huddled on the floor with her back pressed against the cabinet doors. She was holding a broken shard of glass out in front of her like a sword.
"Sweets, let me take that from you," he said softly squatting down in front of her.
"Is he? Did I? It was acid, I think. I don't remember. It was…"
"Shhh, Violet, its OK, come on, let's get you out of here." Roman put his arms around her waist and lifted her to standing position. He made eye contact with Dean and walked her out the back door to keep her from having to see Jake again.
As soon as he got her away from the lab, he pulled her close and hugged her, "It's over now, Violet. You did, you beat him. I'm so proud of you."