"Who's up for a game of foosball?" Dante asked the group after they finished eating. "We can play doubles."
"I'm game," Robyn agreed standing up.
"You can be on my team since I'm the best," Stefon said as he stood up and grabbed her hand. He then proceeded to drag her over to the table. Robyn laughed as she allowed herself to be moved across the floor. Dante and Kyler followed behind them snickering.
Each team took their side of the table with Dante and Stefon standing across from each other. Dante gave her a lopsided smile. "First to 5?"
"Good with me. Let's do best 2 out of 3," she replied. "You start."
Dante handed the ball to Kyler, "Go for it."
Kyler dropped the ball and the game began. They spent the next chunk of time playing and laughing. The boys had quite the competitive personalities. After their 3 games ended, Robyn and Stefon were declared the winners by 1 point.
"That was fun! Good game," Robyn said. "You had us on the run for a while there."
"Thanks for the challenge," Dante said as the boys ran back upstairs. "The boys are pretty good, but you brought some extra heat." He walked around the table and stopped in front of her.
"Oh yeah?" Smiling, she looked up at him.
He reached out to hold her hips, "Yeah." He moved his hands around to her back, pulling her closer.
She slid her hands up his arms and clasped them behind his neck. "Are you a fan of heat?"
"God yes," he said, dragging her into a kiss. She immediately opened her mouth and met his tongue with hers. After a few moments, they broke apart, rapidly inhaling air back into their lungs. "You mentioned needing a distraction and someone to talk to. What's going on?"
"Right, talk." Robyn leaned back and moved her hands to his chest. "I think I can still do that."
He smiled, released her then led them to the couch. When they sat down, instead of her normal straight posture, she leaned back and slouched against the cushions. He silently watched her as her lips slightly pouted and her forehead furrowed in thought.
Robyn worried her lower lip as she worked through her thoughts about where to start. She felt Dante's eyes on her and without speaking, she turned her head towards him.
He gently removed her lower lip from between her teeth then dropped his hand and picked up hers from her lap. "Talk to me, Robbie," he said softly. He angled his body towards her then leaned his shoulder against the couch.
She reminded herself that she needed to be okay with sharing her family and thoughts with him. He already knew about Delilah, Mel and the rest of the group, what was holding her back? She figured it was the fact she was going to have to admit where she was wrong in the situation. Lord knows she knew she wasn't perfect and Dante knew it too. He was well aware of her ability to make mistakes. The fact that it was family and not work was what gave her pause. She sighed and then told Dante about the conversation she had with Delilah that morning.
"I feel awful that Dee feels like she can't talk to me," she admitted after her recap. "We've always been able to talk to each other, even when we butt heads about the subject. I feel like I've become a bad mom."
"You are so far from being a bad mom. She loves you and she will do anything for you. I've seen her in action when things get crazy." He entwined the fingers on their joined hands. "From what I have seen, like her mom, your daughter is a worrier. It doesn't help that teenagers are notorious for hiding things from their parents. If you really think about it, she's actually being a normal kid, even if it is an annoying aspect. It's not like we told our parents everything we did."
"OK true, well how about the fact that she's always been an awful liar? Either she's gotten much better at it, or I really haven't been paying enough attention to see what was going on," Robyn countered.
"I know you well enough to know that you always pay attention. Did you really not have any idea at all?"
"You're right," she sighed. "I suspected something was off, but she always had an excuse so I just let it go. I didn't think it would be something that would cause her to hurt someone else. I wanted to give her space and trust to be her own person."
"So you were paying attention, you just wanted to trust her. She didn't mean to hurt the kid though, right? That part was just an accident," he reminded her.
"I know, but from what I can tell, the moves that she's learned are too advanced. Where Mel started, that's not where you start with a newbie teenager who's not seeing fights on the regular. I don't understand why Mel thought that was the place to start. That kind of knowledge about damage requires a lot of responsibility with it." She paused with a pensive look. Turning her head, she looked at the picture by the stairs. "It's not like Mel talked to me about it either after she knew how I felt. I've seen a lot of evil in my line of work and I never wanted it to seep over into my life and affect my family the way it has. I've told Dee I don't want that for her either," she sighed again. "After all of the mistakes I've made these past few months, I've brought the evil right to them and now they're a part of it. I acted too impulsively and I think I caused a setback in my relationships with them."
Dante paused for a moment before asking, "You carry a lot of guilt around don't you?"
"... Maybe," she mumbled.
"It's not always in your control, Rob. Let's start with one piece at a time. What part of all of this bothers you the most? The fact that Mel and Delilah lied, that they went behind your back against your wishes, that Mel overstepped with your child or the fact that Delilah r didn't push to talk to you more and hurt someone?"
Robyn growled and turned to look back at him.
He laughed, "Okay, I know it all sucks, but let's see if one at a time makes it slightly more digestible."
Robyn paused before replying. "Let's start with the fact that my daughter thinks I'm too busy for her."
"We both know what it's like to parent when you have a job with time-sensitive issues. You don't always have the ability to drop everything and have a conversation that can wait until later. Especially if there are lives in danger. How does Delilah deal with that?"
"I thought she was handling things fine. Especially since she found out about the equalizing and knew I wasn't working with charities. Even before though, when I was gone for extended periods of time, she had her dad and Aunt Vi to talk to when I wasn't around," she frowned. "I know she had a lot of anger at me after I first left the company, but that leveled off after a while."
"Come here," he said quietly. He gently pulled her back against his chest and draped his arm over her shoulder. She reached her left hand up to take his right and lacing their fingers again, she rested them crossed over her chest below her neck. She continued her thought.
"We've talked multiple times about how important she is to me. No one else comes before her."
"She might just need a reminder about that. I swear the older Kyler gets, the more he seems to forget things. I firmly believe he thinks I'm not paying attention or looking half the time." Robyn snickered. "Do you think she went to Mel after you said no because she considers her family?"
"Yeah, and I don't have a problem with the fact that she talks to Mel. My problem is that Mel ignored my wishes and lied with my child behind my back. Well, in front of my face really. She willingly overstepped her role in Dee's life. And not just once, but over and over again for weeks. By association, I'm annoyed at Harry too, because I know he knew and supported her. It's like everyone thought acting behind my back was the right thing to do. Aunt Vi found out a couple days before me, but she told Dee she needed to tell me what happened before she did. Then the fight happened."
"I can understand your mix of emotions with everyone. Any idea how you're going to handle things or even where you're going to start?"
"Kinda. I should probably start with the kid who has been trained on how to hurt people." She leaned her head over to look up at him. "Marcus, I really appreciate you being a sounding board for my issues and giving me different angles to look at everything."
He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm always here for you. I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to talk to me. I know talking about your family with me doesn't come naturally for you."
They sat quietly for a few moments and listened to the music, each lost in their own thoughts. Robyn released Dante and sat up, "I should probably head out. I didn't mean to take up so much of your time today."
"You will never take up too much of my time. You can have as much of me as you need and want," he said as they stood up.
They walked to the door and Robyn rose to give him another lingering kiss, "Talk to you later?"
"You absolutely will," he replied.
Robyn wandered over to her car and climbed in. Her racing mind was causing her to feel restless and she wasn't quite ready to go home. She could always take her frustrations out on her punching bag, but she wasn't feeling motivated enough for a workout. She started her car as an idea came to her. Since she was out, she might as well get a chore done. She turned on her hip-hop playlist and pulled onto the street.
A while later she pulled her car into her storage unit and turned off the engine. She closed the unit's door and rolled down her windows so she could still hear the music. She had some equalizer chores she could take care of. While she was good at keeping her guns and equipment clean, she had fallen behind on restocking supplies and refilling the go bags she kept on hand. She also needed to grab her laundry from her last after-case changes.
When she had a day where her clothes ended up excessively dirty or damaged, she made a point to change before she went home. Sometimes the family didn't need to see how her day had really gone. Bulletproof vests were designed to protect her body, not her clothes, and blood tended to be disrespectfully messy. She made a note of the clothes that needed to be replaced then turned to open the hidden compartment of the unit. She grabbed the first go bag to see what was missing and got to work.
A couple of hours later, Robyn arrived home to an empty house. Aunt Vi was in Connecticut with Trish for a few days and Dee was with Miles and Kelly. They were hosting some kind of party and wanted Dee to attend. If she were being honest, she didn't actually pay attention to the type of party Miles said it was. She tossed her clothes into the washer and then went to the kitchen to find something to eat. She opened the fridge to stare at its contents. She spotted a container of leftover sauce and decided to make some pasta. Locating some noodles, she started her dinner.