Fury

They were so angry with her. All of them, and they were right to be. She had charged at Holcombe without thinking. He Si Fu would be pissed, but that was the least of it. Clara would forgive her as she always did, her mother had been mad at her before, that she could handle, and Annie would come down from her flaming profanity after she accepted Mindy was unharmed, but Mark, she had never made Mark this angry.

"What he FUCK! Were you thinking?" he had shouted. It rang in her mind, over and over.

In truth, she hadn't been. A red fog had clouded her vision, and Mindy had gone a little crazy for a moment. As she stepped onto the side walk in front of the dress shop her only thought had been that Holcombe was going to regret being born. In the last twenty minutes, as she sat on the bed and cried, she had searched herself for why she had acted so rashly, for what had triggered such a break from her normal analytical self.

She knew now. She just had to screw up her courage and go down and tell Mark.

Journal entry March 16

Well, that was… yeah.

Mindy scared the living fuck out of me today. I can't even relate what she did because I'll start shaking. At least we don't have to worry about that bitch, Holcombe anymore. Min's mom is out by the pool with the largest glass of wine I could give her, and Clara went to take a nap. Teddy, the whole crew, Mom, and Annie all called to make sure Mindy was okay. She is, ish.

I yelled at her. I made her cry. I 'm a turd.

"You're not fucking Supergirl!" that was the least of what I said.

Once she understood what she did, she told us she was sorry, but I was so scared. I kind of lost it for a few. We all did.

"What? Are you believing your own damn press?" I'm an asshole.

She ran upstairs to the bedroom a while ago, I guess it's time to go apologize. Wait, she's coming down.

As Mindy stepped off the bottom stair Mark emerged from the office. They stared at each other with lost expressions for a few seconds before crashing together in a weeping mess.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," they both kept repeating.

Clara entered the kitchen to find Mindy's mother, Deborah sitting on a breakfast stool, smiling. Deborah put a finger to her lips and nodded toward the living room service doors.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you, Min," Mark said fiercely. "I was a complete fucking asshole."

"No, you were right to," She said. "I was… I was stupid, and I'm not stupid often."

"First time I've seen it," Mark said nonchalantly, and she couldn't help a small grin.

She looked into infinity for a moment. "Honesty," She said, and looked Mark in the eyes. "I saw her walking toward us and I just… I just checked out. I was SO furious with her. She represents everything that I'm terrified of."

He looked puzzeled. "What are you scared of?"

She looked at him, and for only the second time he saw what Mindy looked like when she was truly scared. "Losing you."

His expression became hard and serious. "Never," he said in low growl. "Minerva Pomona Park, I will love you and cherish you my whole life." The right side of his face made his lop sided grin. "And after hearing your mother yell it, I get the Mindy."

In the kitchen Deborah laughed silently, and met eyes with a smiling Clara.

Mindy smiled a little. "That was Clara. First graders have a little trouble with Minerva. Clara came to my rescue with Mindy the second day. She's been my best friend since. She'd have been top of the class if I hadn't. So we were the smart, pretty, blonde girl and her brainy friend with the glasses all through school."

Clara dabbed her eyes.

Mindy looked back in Mark's eyes. "The thing is, sometimes I don't think I deserve you. Sometimes…"

Mark chuckled once.

"Really, Mark. There are hundreds of beautiful, successful, rich women that would love to have you," she said.

"And one genius engineer I want," he finished. "I worry about the same thing," He said.

"Yeah," she said sarcastically.

"The press, the public, the stalkers!" he said, "I have significant downsides."

Mindy shrugged. "None of that scares me."

"Obviously," He said with a smirk.

"Sorry," she said and blushed.

"I think we just had our first serious disagreement," Mark said.

"More like I fucked up and you forgave me."

"I fucked up too."

"I love you" they said in unison, and then smiled. The kitchen door closed loudly, and they went to investigate. When they entered the kitchen they found a plate with Oreos, a glass of ice and Dr. Pepper, and a note.

"Dr. Pepper and Oreos?" Mark asked.

Mindy smiled fondly. "It's a mom and me thing." She picked up the note.

Well done,

Clara and I are going out for coffee and shopping, we should be gone at least three hours. That should be plenty of time for… apologies.

We love you both,

Mom.