It’s the Week before Thanksgiving
Hannah had been going to Physical therapy for almost two weeks now and its time to start planning the next two weeks out. Ava has managed to keep herself busy during every appointment with random stuff like grocery shopping and early Christmas shopping. But today Captain Danvers or Cap as Hannah calls her has brought Hannah to physical therapy because Ava is stuck at a meeting at school the last day before Thanksgiving. Hannah is sitting on her bench working out her ankle with a resistance band. She has to push the band down every five seconds with her toes. Its not comfortable by any means but Hannah wants out of this damn boot and off the damn crutches, so she is willing to suffer through the pain. Sara comes over rolling her little cart with her laptop on it, this is normal as she goes from patient to patient checking schedules and putting in notes about their therapy. She stops in front of Hannah and starts to talk about the next two weeks.
“So next week is Thanksgiving and were gonna be closed on Thursday. I was hoping you could do Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. Does that sound ok?” Hannah stays focused but nods in agreement. “Wait I didn’t even ask are you going out of town or anything like to visit your folks?” In this moment Hannah realizes her and Sara have talked about a lot. How Sara thinks Ava hates her because when they first met, she thought her, and Ava were a married couple. They talked a little about her time overseas and she heard some of Sara’s stories about when she was deployed and even knows Sara is a black belt in multiple martial arts. But she never had asked about Hannah’s family after showing her the picture. Hannah stops and looks up at Sara.
“Oh well umm. Yeah no we don’t go visit.” Hannah looks at Sara and notices the confusion on her face. The picture she had shown was from years ago, Ava hadn’t completely given up on their mother and their dad was still alive, so she was now understanding the confusion. “Umm well our dad passed away before my last deployment a few years back and well how do I say this... Ava and our mother don’t exactly talk.” She leaves it at that because she feels in this situation that’s not her story to tell.
“Oh, so it’s just you and Ava then.” Sara looks for confirmation.
“Probably Cap too.” She motions to the waiting room where Alex Danvers is sitting reading a magazine. “Ava is stuck at a staff meeting today and Cap brought me since you know I can’t drive anymore.” She smirks. “she really is only coming for the pumpkin pie. Ava had some sort of secret recipe and Cap says she makes a pumpkin pie like no one on earth can. And so, every year she seems to just show up.” She laughs a little and Sara joins in.
“Well I'll put you down for Friday then okay ill be here so I’m having a few people come in that need to come in.”
“So, you’re not going to your family’s gathering this year?” Hannah is now thinking something that may lead to an early death by the hands of her sister.
“Oh yeah that’s a no for me.” Sara shrugs “I would rather enjoy my holiday than sacrifice myself to that kind of hell.” She laughs and Hannah snorts.
“Well honestly if you’re not busy you should come on Thanksgiving. I mean Ava is a wizard in the kitchen and she really does have the best pumpkin pie on earth.”
“No, I couldn’t do that, your sister really doesn’t like me.” Sara is now typing on the computer.
“What no, come on. If I, you don’t come all I’m going to be thinking about is you sitting at home like eating a microwave dinner on your couch like watching some sad lifetime movie.” Hannah is not going to stop until Sara agrees. Hannah turn on the puppy dog eyes, and Sara looks at her.
“Are you seriously making that face right now?” Sara is almost laughing.
“Come on I know Cap is coming and I would be shocked if Sgt Maj shows up. I think Ava invited him, but he doesn’t talk much. It will be fine and there will be wine, and scotch.” Hannah can see the wheels turning in Sara’s mind she thinks about it.
“Okay, on one condition.” Sara is serious now.
“And what’s that?” Hannah knows Ava is going to kill her now, so she might as well go all in.
“Can I bring my sister?” Sara asks, well that’s not what Hannah thought she was going to say.
“Of course. Yes, the more the merrier.” Hannah smiles at her brightly. Sara finishes up her typing and turns to her again.
“Okay I’ll get the address from you next week. Your done for the day put your boot on and go get your driver to take you home. I think she has read all of the magazines in the hospital already.” She chuckles as she walks away.
Ava on the other hand is still stuck in her staff meeting and has contemplated stabbing herself in the eye with a pencil but doesn’t think that’s the way to go. She also has contemplated stabbing Principal Heywood in the eye with the pencil because who the hell schedules a staff meeting when it’s the week before thanksgiving? All this information and everything he is going over could have waited until the following Monday. She has been here since seven in the morning and it now closing in on six in the evening. As her mind wanders, she looks around the room and there is a weird guy with a huge grin just staring at her. She thinks his name is Mr. Green and she knows he is a science teacher. He gave her a tour a few days before she started and now she is beginning to think he has a crush on her or something and its making this meeting even worse because now she is trying to figure out how she escape this meeting without him stopping her and talking to her. He is right next to the damn door. Fuck my life.
Once Hannah and Alex are driving down the road Hannah’s phone dings and its Ava. Clearly stating she might kill herself in the most pointless staff meeting that has ever existed and using emoji’s explaining how she plans to off herself. Hannah laughs as pencils fill her screen up and she shows Alex quickly and they share a laugh. Hannah puts her phone down and decides to talk to Alex about Sara. “So, I may have done a bad thing that may or may not get me killed by my sister.”
“Oh, good lord.” Alex is smiling but not exactly sure what Hannah could do to cause Ava to kill her.
“Well my physical therapist doesn’t really have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving, so I invited her… and her sister to Thanksgiving dinner.” Alex looks at Hannah not exactly sure how that would lead to her demise.
“Why would that upset Ava, she always makes more than enough food to feed the whole damn block.” Alex is focusing on the road.
“Well I guess I should tell you this then,” Hannah turns so she can face Alex as she is driving. “Okay, our first meeting with my therapist wasn’t exactly smooth. It was the day that Ava had talked to that kid and demoted him. And she was in a weird headspace or something. Because good lord she was acting super weird around my therapist. Like she couldn’t talk, and she walked into a damn wall. Like literally a wall.” Hannah thinks about what she just said, “please don’t tell her I told you that she’s probably kill me for telling you she walked into a wall.” Alex thinks for a moment her mind is racing why would Ava have been so weird when she left that day, she was fine. She was a little upset about Jensen, but she was mostly concerned about getting Hannah to her appointment on time.
“Were you guys late or something?” Alex had more questions but that one was important.
“No, I was with Ava. Fifteen minutes early is late for her.” Hannah is trying to read Alex, but she keeps her head forward. Alex is thinking hard about what could have caused the turn in Ava’s mood. Okay they weren’t late that was one of Ava’s things she hates being late. Hannah interrupts her thoughts “Oh and you should have heard her she literally could barely speak. Like she was almost stuttering, and it was weird. I’ve really never seen her like that before.” And as soon as that comes out a lightbulb goes off for Alex.
“Wait is your doctor the one you were talking to the blonde woman?” Alex tried to meet Hannah’s eyes but needs to keep her eyes on the road.
“Yeah that’s her.” Hannah still can’t get a read on Alex but notices a smile crossing her face. “What?”
“Did she turn into like a statue for a while like she was trying to figure out what to say or do?” Alex was totally aware of what was going on.
“Yeah she did actually. And I’m pretty sure I caught her staring at her before we even went back there to meet her. You know through the glass in the waiting room.” Almost as if she read Alex’s mind Hannah caught up to herself and sat back facing forward. “Oh my God… Ava likes her, doesn’t she?”
“It’s a rare thing to Ava in action.” Alex is smiling. She hasn’t seen smitten Ava in ages. After her last tour Ava has pretty much given up on dating and whenever Alex would ask her, she would just change the subject.
“I’ve never seen her like someone before I mean. I think maybe once but she didn’t act like that it was more of a shy thing and she was only like seventeen. Then she moved out and well I didn’t get to really see that side of her because I rarely saw her.”
“We had this Lieutenant that was in OCS with us years ago and she started to flirt shamelessly with Ava like noticeably and Ava was so unaware of it. She kept saying there is no way she is interested in me and kept trying to play it down. Until one day the woman literally said I’ve been flirting with you for weeks and waiting for you to make a move. So, are you into me or what? Alex started laughing thinking about Ava’s reaction. “She just froze she had no idea what to do or say. The woman asked her to dance and Ava just stood there like a freaking statue. So, I pushed her into the girl who grabbed her hand and took her onto the dance floor and got her to loosen up a little and get out of her head. She eventually did and they dated for a while but then that chick got stationed some where else and they broke it off.”
“Wait was that Emma?” Hannah was trying to think about Ava’s girlfriends there hadn’t been that many as she rarely had relationships.
“The one and only. Ava’s first.” Alex smiled she was glad she had a hand in that. Because she noticed that Ava was a little more open after that like it was okay to be herself and relax. “weird thing is I’ve known Ava for a while and I’ve never known her be into blondes? Like really honestly I don’t think she ever dated a blonde girl before.” Alex and Hannah both seemed to be trying to figure that one out.
“Wait no she did. When were in high school there was a cheerleader and that’s how I found out about her being like you know into girls, I was a sophomore and she was a senior, The girl was on the cheerleading squad and she was struggling with her grades. And Ava was asked by the cheer coach to help her. So, Ava being Ava of course she said yes. Well one day I went down to meet her at the field because well that’s where she went after school to help this girl. And I saw them like making out under the bleachers it sounds super cliché but believe you me if I could unsee it I would. So, I slowly walked up and cleared my throat and when Ava saw me her eyes almost popped out of her head. She didn’t jump or anything she was really sweet, I think. She leaned in and whispered something to the girl and then kissed her cheek and walked towards me. I’m pretty sure that went on for a few weeks more” Hannah turned and met Alex’s eyes she had long since pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant they are grabbing food at on the way home. Alex is in shock and her mouth was half opened just not knowing what to say.
“Where the hell is that Ava and how do we get her back?” Alex started laughing.
“I don’t know because she seemed cool calm and collected back then. But the one I saw a couple weeks ago well that’s one I have never seen.” Hannah was laughing out loud, and Alex had joined her.
“Okay so yes this is going to be weird but, if were right on this then It could work maybe. She obviously saw something she liked and neither of us have seen her like that in years so getting Ava into a comfortable setting is a good thing. And your doctor is bringing her sister so there is a buffer too for her.” Alex looks around in thought, “okay we don’t tell her until next week that way she can’t back out because she feels obligated. You know how she is about helping people and if we play it off like they didn’t have plans and no family in town it could work to where you don’t die an agonizing death at the hands of your older sister.” Alex smiles and ill need to be there with you when you tell her.
“Why?”
“Well I’ll say I agreed to the invitation when I heard they didn’t have anything to do. She hasn’t said anything to me about what happened. And she can’t kill her sister and her best friend, all she would have left is Carol.” They both start laughing, Hannah nods and agrees as Alex jumps out and goes to grab the food.