My Sister's Keeper

5 years Ago:

Alex and Ava are walking around in a secluded area weapons strapped to their chests. Desert all around them in the distance mountains and more desert. They are wearing their Cammies and walking along a fence line. Behind them are small portable buildings and you can see other military personnel in the background some tossing a ball, some laughing and joking around, and some just sitting and looking through their newest packages from home. Its Thanksgiving today and they are so far from home it seems like any other day in the desert. Its hot, its sucks, and It’s a fucking nightmare this holiday.

“So why did we volunteer for patrol?” Alex asks as they walk along the fence.

“So, we could let the sentry’s eat Thanksgiving dinner while it was still hot.” Ava snorts

“So, did you call your mother?”

“And you just ruined our perfect evening together. I was imagining I was walking on a beach with a beautiful woman and you not only spoke ruining it. But you brought up her.” Ava gives her a glaring stare.

“Hey, I am a beautiful woman.” Alex exclaims and it causes Ava to laugh.

“Sorry Alex but we both know we cannot cross that line, like ever...never…ever...” Ava is still laughing as she trails off.

“You know what you a shitty best friend.” Alex snorts

“Its true come on. I mean you’re you. You’re Alex you’re like a sister to me. I mean it would just be weird.”

“Okay well since I’m not beautiful enough to be on a beach with you…” Ava cuts her off.

“I never said that. I think your gorgeous you’re just Alex, so it ruins all of this.” Ava motions over Alex’s body as she laughs. “It’s kind of wasted on me.”

“As I was saying what is your perfect woman. Like when you imagine that beach what does she look like?” Alex asks inquisitively.

“I don’t know if its so much a type you know, I mean she would need to be attractive but its not so much physical you know like I need someone who I can make laugh, can make me laugh, who is kind, thoughtful, and well I want someone who makes the world stop.” Alex has wide eyes as Ava looks over and she realizes maybe she is not explaining it right. So, she stops walking for a second and Alex mirrors her. “okay let me try to explain, you know when your dancing with someone and all of the sudden nothing else matters its just you and her and nothing else.”

“Ava, no offense but this sounds a lot like a Lifetime Movie. And I know you haven’t dated much or anything for obvious reasons this is not exactly the best place to find someone. But I’m worried your looking for a fairytale and I don’t know if that really exists or not.”

They start patrolling again and Ava thinks about what Alex has said, maybe she is right. Maybe her vision of love and happiness is too much just like those cheesy rom coms she always watches, and love is more like those sad depressing movies’ she avoids. “How about I want someone I can’t stop thinking about, who just let’s me be me no matter what and makes me happy.” Ava blurts out.

“See that’s a little more realistic that seems more attainable.” Alex laughs at her, as they continue walking.

All of the sudden in just seconds three loud thumps and a gasp sound causing Alex to turn towards Ava who is just standing still all of the blood has left her face she is pale and trying to say something but instead just drops down to her knees. All of the sudden a stray bullet hits right next to them and Alex realizes what’s happening and screams “Sniper!” and she grabs Ava and throws her over her shoulder and starts to run towards cover. While All the other military personal start running in the portable housing. Alex makes it to the nearest building where she kicks open the door and interrupts a meeting with officers. “Clear a table!” they quickly jump up and knock everything off the table nearest to her and she puts Ava laying flat on the table. She starts looking for where the blood is coming from. “Someone get a medic, NOW!!" Ava is in shock so Alex focus’ on her and starts to talk to her as she is looking around for where she was hit. “You listen to me Sharpe, you’re gonna be okay. They are getting a medic, show me.” Ava reaches up her left arm pointing to the right side of her body. Alex starts to pull her gear off her, first her vest and then her outer Cammie jacket, once she see’s the undershirt drenched in blood, she knows it’s not good. She rips the shirt down the middle and tried to find where she needs to put pressure and she sees three separate holes two clearly in her shoulder and one lower on her right side so Alex grabs the jacket she just took off of Ava and pushes it down and hold pressure as Ava just gasps and grabs for her hand. “Where the hell is the medic? Ava this isn’t bad it’s not. you just have to hold on okay.” Ava Nods and Alex grabs her hand with her free hand. Ava can see everything getting darker and the noise fading until all she hears is the ocean and she can smell the salt water in the air. And then everything is dark.

Present Day:

Ava opens her eyes and shoots up into the sitting position gasping for air. He shirt is drenched in sweat and she has tear falling down her cheeks. She brings her knees to her chest and tries to control her breathing. She hasn’t had a nightmare in months, she starts to count as she takes in a breath and then counts and releases a breath. She reaches her hand up and puts inside the top right of her shirt and her fingers find the scars from two bullet holes and she drops her knees and pull up the right side of her shirt and see’s the scar on her rib cage that’s more of an incision then it is a bullet hole because of the surgery she had. But feeling them knowing they are there helps bring her back. It happened but I’m okay, it happened, and Alex is okay, it happened, and I didn’t die. She gets up and takes off her shirt leaving just a sports bra on. And heads to the bathroom to take a shower. She stops in the bathroom and looks at the scar in the mirror and brushes her fingers across them. Ava closes her eyes and just takes a few deep breaths and then opens them again looking at herself in the mirror. It’s been five years Sharpe get a fucking grip.

Its around noon when Alex shows up at the house she walks in and announces her arrival “I’m here and I found someone outside.” She laughs as she struts in with Sgt Maj Rory behind her carrying a bag that contains beer. Ava is in the kitchen with her hair up in a bun and her apron on and Hannah comes out her bedroom on her crutches wearing sweats and a t-shirt making her way towards Alex. She takes off her jacket and hangs it on the hook on the wall she has a pair of black skinny jeans on and a tight-fitting USMC tank top and motions for Sgt Maj to do the same. As he is putting his jacket on Ava comes into view and is genuinely shocked to see the Sgt Maj there.

“Hey, you were able to make it Sgt Maj.” He just grunts at Ava as she makes the statement. Causing Alex to turn and look at him and glare.

“You can call me Mick.” He states looking at Ava, who is now even more shocked because she has never actually heard him speak.

“Hi Mick, I’m Hannah Sharpe it nice to meet you.” Hannah extends he hand to him balancing on her crutches. He takes her hand and releases it looking around.

“You got somewhere I can put this?” He holds up the bag and Ava steps forward.

“Of course.” Ava motions for him to follow her to the kitchen, and he follows her into the kitchen.

“Nice place.” He mutters

“Thank You.” Ava doesn’t really know what to say she never thought she would hold a conversation with him.

“You got cable so I can watch football?” He grumbles, and Ava smiles and nods.

“Of course, we do, why don’t you grab a beer and head into the living room and make yourself at home I’ll put your beer in the fridge.” He nods grabs a beer out of the bad and heads back into the living room out of sight. She grabs the bag and opens the fridge and finds a place for the beer and when she turns back around Alex and Hannah are in the kitchen laughing at Alex’s phone and Ava raises her eyebrow.

“Peanut sent me some pictures.” Alex hands the phone to Ava.

“What is that?” Ava asks, a she hands the phone back.

“She said it’s a pumpkin pie.” Alex laughs.

“That looks like… I don’t know what that looks like but its not Pumpkin Pie.” Ava states, Alex and Hannah laugh at her and Ava doesn’t understand what’s so funny. Her poor god daughter is being subjected to a horrible Thanksgiving with terrible looking food is all she can think.

“She asked for you to send one of your pie’s, so she doesn’t have eat this mushy fake pie.” Alex says proudly. “I think we may have ruined her. Maggie said that exactly what she said right in front of Maggie’s grandmother.” All three of them break out into laughter and they hear Mick yelling at the TV which causes them to laugh even more.
Another hour or so goes by and Mick is dosing off on the couch while Ava is changing into a nicer outfit now that most of the cooking is done. She is trying to figure out if a turtleneck is good or just a nice blouse to go with her jeans would look nice when Hannah enters her room. Hannah has changed into some jeans and a nice maroon button long sleeve button up shirt and her hair is pulled back.

“Look at you out of sweatpants and into some normal clothing.” Ava is impressed her sister actually got dressed.

“Well we have company coming over and I didn’t want Sara and her sister to think that all I owned were sweatpants and Marine Corps shirts” She laughed as her sister turned back to the mirror raising each of her shirts up trying to figure out which one to wear. She looks back over to Hannah as if to ask silently she holds up each and then waits for an answer. “Neither.” Hannah waves them off and crutches past her into her closet and starts looking around for another top. As Alex enters the room and closes the door behind her she walks over to Ava who is just kind of staring at Hannah in her closet.

“What is she doing?” Alex asks quietly

“She is trying to find me a top to wear because apparently the ones I have chosen are not sufficient.” Ava rolls her eyes and throws the tops onto her bed.

“Are you going to leave your hair up?” Alex turns to look at Ava.

“Why wouldn’t I?” moves to stand in front of Ava and starts pulling bobby pins out the bun that Ava has.

“Because you have beautiful hair and you should flaunt it.” Alex smiles as the hair starts to fall out of the bun, she works her way around to the back continuing to let Ava’s hair fall out as she removes pins.

Hannah emerges from the closet with two new tops in her hand. One is a dark blue button up low-cut silk long sleeve shirt, and the other is a green utility button down with pockets on the front and buttons that go just above her chest. “Both of these will show off your cleavage they’re perfect.” Ava gawks at Hannah and Alex laughs as the rest of Ava’s hair falls out the bun its long blonde and filled with waves it naturally lands on either side of her shoulders.

“Gidget I don’t need to show off my cleavage.” She points back at Alex “Alex is handling that tonight apparently.” Alex slaps Ava in the shoulder after her statement.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Ava turns towards Alex after her question, she motions at the tank top she is wearing. “I was going for comfort asshole.” Ava turns back to Hannah who is un-phased by the conversation and raises the shirts towards her. She grabs them and tried on the blue one first. As Alex and Hannah watch her, she takes the blue shirt off and then tries on the green one. Hannah and Alex both look at each other and say together. “The blue one.” Causing Ava to take off the green one and then put the blue back on.

“There, we happy now?” Ava turns to the mirror and looks at herself, its been a long time since she wore this top. And even longer since she wore her hair down, she messes with her hair a little to get it the way she likes it just natural looking falling against her shoulders. She looks over and Alex and Hannah are standing watching her grinning. “What the hell are you grinning about?”

“You look hot!” Hannah says as Alex stays silent but nods in approval still grinning.

“Well I’m glad the two of you are going to enjoy looking at me in this.” She turns to walk towards the door and hears Hannah clear her throat.

“Well I’m sure Sara might enjoy the view too.” Ava stops dead in her tracks she had totally forgotten about Sara and her sister coming over. She turns back to Alex and Hannah who are still standing there with their stupid grins on their stupid faces while her brain is going to explode. Gay Panic! Gay Panic!

Alex steps forward seeing the tension in Ava. “Ava, everything is going to be fine.”

Ava is actively panicking now, the last time she saw Sara she walked into a wall and stared at her like a stalker and she was going to be in her home soon like really soon. And her sister and best friend have somehow decided that a low-cut shirt and her hair down is the most suitable option for her. When all she wants to do now is crawl into the closet and hide. And then it hits her, this is a big house and there will be a few people here and she can try to actively avoid being in situation where she is alone with Sara, or near her, or talk to her, or breath the same air. She can do this; she can actively avoid Sara. She takes a deep breath and lets it out as Alex and Hannah watch the tension from her shoulder release. “I got this. I know where all the walls in this house are.” She turns back towards the door and heads out of the room and Alex and Hannah follow her out.

About thirty minutes have passed since they got ready Hannah is sitting on the couch with Mick watching football while Alex is out on the back porch on the phone with her daughter. Ava is checking the oven make sure the turkey is coming along well and making sure her pies are still in their hidden space because she has noticed Alex poking around for them when the doorbell rings. And Ava pops her head up and her eyes go wide. I’m not ready, I’m not ready for this. She doesn’t move she just stands in the kitchen staring towards the front door trying to get her shit mentally together when she hears the door open. Mick appears in the kitchen followed behind by Gary Green, and Ava lets out a deep breath of relief. She was not ready by any means. Mick walks past her and grabs another beer out of the fridge and whispers, “Who invited the science nerd?” and he walks back out.

There was Gary in all his glory carrying a wine bottle in his hands in a dark blue suit with a light blue tie and a smile that she swore could scare little children. She smiled as he cam closer and offered the bottle to her.

“Major Sharpe I didn’t want to come empty handed.” He handed her the bottle and stared at her.

“Thank you so much Mr. Green I’m sure all our guests will love it.” He continues to stare at her and she not sure why. She looks behind her to see if maybe Alex is there and when she looks back his smile is ever brighter. How the hell is that even possible? She asks herself. “What?” she finally asks.

“Oh, I have just never seen you with your hair down before, and please call me Gary.” He reaches out as if he is about to touch her hair and she smacks his hand away quickly.
“Personal Space Gary.” She smiles at him and his smile never faulters. “Dinner still won’t be ready for another hour or so, but you can make yourself at home if you’d like too. Would you like something to drink?”

“No ma’am I’m good right now.” he continues to stare.

“Okay well Alex Danvers is out on the back porch or you can go into the living room with Mick and my sister Hannah and watch some football.” She motions for him to go; He looks at his options and heads towards the back porch where Alex is. At that moment Hannah appears with Mick and she is telling him about their hot tub in the back yard as they pass by Ava and they head out onto the back porch. Ava is back to checking on the turkey and the sides to make sure everything is good. When the doorbell rings again and this time there is only one person it could possibly be. And Ava is frozen everyone else is outside which means she now must open the door. She closes her eyes and smiles. I can do this, there is nothing to worry about. Just go open the door and invite Sara in. You know Sara the one who’s smile makes you stare at her and walk into walls. Just go let her in.
Ava makes her way to the front door and opens it with a smile and her behold the beauty that is Sara Lance. She has on a spaghetti strapped orange dress that goes just mid-way to her knees and makes her blue eyes shine brighter if that’s humanly possible. Her shoulders and arms are exposed, and the muscles make Ava’s head explode internally of course. And next to her a slightly taller woman has on a matching Orange top and black slacks with a beautiful smile and wavy dirty blonde hair. They are both holding wine in their hands as Ava greets them. “Happy Thanksgiving, please come in.” She opens the door all the way and steps to the side so they can come in. Sara’s sister enters first and Sara follows, and Ava’s eyes watch Sara as she walks past her. She has on heels and her legs are oh my god her legs are amazing. As Sara and her sister start to turn towards Ava she quickly shifts and closes the door, so she isn’t caught staring.

“This is my sister Laurel…Laurel this is Major Ava Sharpe. Hannah’s sister.” Ava hold out her hand to Laurel and they properly greet each other.

“You have a beautiful home.” Laurel’s voice is soft but stern.

“Thanks, well you know it’s Military issued.” Sara laughs at that statement it causes Ava to tense up a bit, she made Sara laugh this whole avoiding plan was already failing in the first sixty seconds. “Please follow me everyone is out in the backyard.” She goes to lead them to the others but at the same time they are all coming back in and Hannah see’s Sara.

“Sara! You’re here.” She crutches over to her friend.

“I am! And I brought wine.” Sara tells her and then hugs her. Alex comes in the door and stops in her tracks when she see’s Laurel.

“Laurel?” As she speaks Laurel gets a huge smile on her face.

“Alex?” She maneuver’s around Sara and Hannah and embraces Alex in a bear hug. Ava makes her way to the island in the kitchen and just observes all the greetings and has no idea how Alex knows Laurel. But then that not the only person that was already known at the gathering. When Sara notices Mick her shocked voice pipes up cheerfully.

“Mick?” she can’t believe her eyes she hasn’t seen him in years. He looks in shock at the smaller blonde and he reaches in for a hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever, how you are?”
Ava is kind of in shock right now. Laurel and Alex know each other so that’s new and Mick and Sara know each other and that just seems odd. She watches as everyone is chatting and she notices Hannah in the middle being involved in two different conversations and her smile. Hannah hasn’t smiled like that in a long time. And if Ava makes a complete ass of herself tonight, she knows now it will have been worth it just as long as her sister is happy.

As Ava is sitting there enjoying the chatter, she hears someone next to her and looks over and sees Gary just inches away from her. “Gary, Personal space.” She pushes him a little further away he moves back.

Ava is content for the moment just watching everyone mingle. But her eyes of course land on Sara as she takes a longer look at her, the dress she is wearing is fitting in all the right ways and her muscles in her back tense up when she laughs. Ava finds herself mesmerized by this woman. She can’t help but stare at all the perfection, and her laugh god Ava could listen to it everyday for the rest of her life. She wants to make her laugh like that, but it that’s probably unlikely to ever happen.

After everyone calms down, they all get drinks and head to the living room and from pieces of what Ava is hearing she is learning things about how everyone knows each other. Sara and Mick used to frequent the same Bars a few years back and hang out with the same group of friends before Mick was deployed. Now it seems they have all grown up a bit and are spread out over the United States. Turns out Alex actually knows Laurel through her Ex Maggie as Laurel works for the D.A.’s office. So, they are just catching up and thankfully as it turns out Gary likes football, so he is sitting with Hannah on the couch as they watch the game together just laughing about some of players names. Ava is content to be off to the side enjoying people watching with her glass of wine. She makes it a point to count when her eyes land on Sara which is every time she laughs. She makes sure not to stare longer than ten seconds, which seems hard because it seems like she is laughing every ten seconds while talking to Mick and every now and then including Laurel in the conversation when she knows what they are talking about. At one-point Mick motions over towards Ava who is calmly watching her sister and Gary yell at the TV over some bad call. Sara turns and looks at Ava while she is taking a drink of her wine her eyes move and lock with the piercing blue eyes Sara breaks into a smile which causes Ava to almost choke on her wine causing some of the wine to seep back into the glass. Embarrassed Ava quickly straightens up and slowly walks back towards the kitchen her inner monologue continues to yell at herself. Dammit Sharpe! Just be cool you can do this.

An hour later Ava has managed to setup the kitchen island with casseroles lining each with there own serving spoon. And on the dinner table there are rolls, Mashed potatoes, vegetables of all sorts, and fruit. One large space remains open for the turkey to be placed. She quickly picks up her phone to text Alex that dinner is ready as she thinks some big grand gesture of announcing it would end up making her look like an idiot. Ava puts the phone down and turns back to the oven and pulls out the turkey and all its trimmings as she can hear talking in the other room as everyone is making there way to the dining room. As they enter Ava places the turkey in the middle of the table and stands back up to see everyone looking at her in awe of the room and all the food. She looks around and smiles and says, “Happy Thanksgiving.” Everyone randomly at their own pace responds and makes their way to the table. Once at the table Hannah clears her throat before anyone sits and raises her hand.

“Okay guys so Ava and I decided that since its just normally us and maybe Alex some years we decided that we would randomly select a person to carve the turkey. We didn’t know where everyone was going to sit so that is how we decided to randomly pick a person. So now that your standing by your seat pick up the plate in front of you and the person who has an envelope not only gets to keep what’s inside the envelope, but they get to be the turkey master. Which basically means you get to carve the turkey and you choose who gets the wish bone.” Hannah looks over at Alex and smiles, “Also let’s make sure everyone gets to try the pumpkin pie.” Alex hits her shoulder and smiles she knows she is obsessed with the pie and soon everyone else will be. But Ava had already pulled her to the side and told her she had made one just for her and peanut for this weekend.
Everyone started lifting their plates to see who had the envelope and low and behold to Ava’s surprise because Hannah was the one who stashed it, Sara had the envelope which for some reason made Laurel chuckle.

“Oh, this is great!” Laurel was staring at Sara with a huge smile.

“What?” said Hannah

“Your giving my sister a knife.” Laurel giggled Sara was now literally getting annoyed.

“Should we not be giving her a knife?” Hannah questioned and Sara threw her hand up to block Hannah’s view of Laurel and spoke.

“She is making fun of me, I am a black belt in multiple martial arts, so I have experience with knifes, swords, and other sharp objects.” Sara takes her hand and pushes into Laurel face and Laurel smacks her. They start swatting at each other much like siblings do and everyone watches in amusement, except Ava her mind has drifter to Sara doing martial arts in her mind and how good she probably looks kicking the shit out of someone. She in is a daze and doesn’t realize it until Alex touches her arm and brings her back into reality her eyes meet Alex’s as she is motioning them towards Sara who is speaking to her. “Do I need to get the knife?”

“Oh... Oh no umm... hold on.” Ava rushes over into the kitchen and pulls out multiple knifes and brings them back to the table. Not sure which one Sara would prefer to use she figured options were best. Sara walks over to meet her by the turkey and Ava holds out her hand with plenty of options for Sara to choose from. Sara picks a knife and takes it from Ava’s hand when Ava puts the rest down on the table and motions for Sara not to do anything else yet and she rushes back into the kitchen and returns with an apron over her arm. “Here this is so you don’t get anything on your…” Ava has lost the words again and what comes out is unexpected. “You look really nice.” A blush settles in Ava’s cheeks as Sara smiles so brightly its like looking into the sun for Ava. Sara twirls the knife in her hand like a pro and sets it down and takes the apron from Ava’s hand brushing her fingers against Ava’s which send a lightning bolt through Ava’s entire body which causes another round of red to creep up Ava’s neck. She looks down and see’s the extra knifes on the table and realizes that is a good way for her to excuse herself. She grabs the knives and heads back to the kitchen. Ava is in the kitchen standing in front of her fridge with her bod half leaning into the freezer when Alex strolls in to check on her with a smirk on her face after what just happened in the dining room.

“You know everyone is going to be in her soon to hit up some of this food.” Alex motions towards all the food on the island.

“Yeah I just needed a minute.” Ava says quietly.

“Yeah you did.” Alex says, as Ava closes the freezer door and turns to her.

“What the hell is wrong with me? I mean seriously what is wrong with me? Alex can tell that Ava is close to freaking out if she wasn’t already and tries to calm her down.

“Hey, all you did was pay Sara a compliment. Nothing wrong with that Ava.”

“Right but you know what is wrong with it? It's that my head said I don’t want you to get anything on your dress. But my mouth said something different. That’s what wrong with it. Like when I’m around her I can think or speak and now well now all I’m thinking about is the fact she has black belts in martial arts and I cannot tell you how hard I am trying to push those thoughts away.” Ava covers her mouth almost like she over shared just in that moment.

“You’ve got it bad Sharpe?” Alex starts to chuckle and makes her way over to Ava who is just standing in front of the fridge watching her. She lowers her hands from her mouth and Alex is standing in front of her and take her hands into her hands. “You haven’t done anything wrong; you get that right? So far everything is going great. Now were going to get focused and head back into the dining room and sit down and enjoy dinner. Ava just nods as Alex kisses her forehead, somehow Alex has always been her rock in these situations she seems to know how to calm her down. But there is still plenty of time for Ava to make an ass out of herself before the night is through.

“I haven’t walked into any walls yet.” Ava chuckles as they made their way back to the dining room.

“Yet, being the key word here.” Alex responds.

“You’re and asshole you know that. I fucking hate Thanksgiving.” Ava blurts out.

“Turn your brain off and you fucking love Thanksgiving. You made enough food to feed an entire battalion.” Alex pulls Ava as she quickens her pace back to the dining room.
Dinner went smoothly all things considered as Ava had taken her seat next to Alex and across from Laurel and was able to engage in conversation with the two. She liked talking to Laurel she seemed like someone who was easy to talk too. But then Gary decided to ask Sara what was in the envelope and everyone watched Sara as she slowly opened it and a small card was inside her eyes immediately went wide in amazement it was a hand drawn picture of a turkey. Simple not colored or anything but it was so real looking that Sara was amazed. At the bottom right corner were two simple initials of A.S. So, when Sara flipped the card around for everyone to see they all were impressed at the artistic capabilities of whoever A.S. was. Alex bumped her shoulder into Ava who had managed to keep her head down and when she looked up her eyes were met again by those piercing blue eyes and that smile that as bright as the sun. And Ava could feel the blush spreading from her neck all the way up.

“Ava did you draw this?” Sara asked. All Ava could do was nod, lord that’s all she wanted to do because who knew what might come out of her mouth if she spoke.

“Oh, that’s nothing.” Hannah blurted out in between bites of her food. “We have two paintings in the hallway you should see. One is of this beautiful lake in Germany she drew after my accident, you could see it from my hospital room. And this other one she did of mountains in Colorado.” Hannah smiled with pride over her big sister’s artistic ways.

“Oh, I’d love to see them.” Sara said. And Ava was again all in her head almost panicking attention didn’t need to be drawn to her. So, she decided it was time for dessert.

“Who wants desert?” Ava all but blurted out to try and change the subject and Alex jumped up.

“You guys don’t understand this pumpkin pie is to die for.” As she headed out the door to go grab some pies and Ava followed her to help bring in some more options.

Everyone sat around enjoying the end of the meal laughing and talking about random things and eating sweets. Laurel had Ava engaged in a conversation about what she did at the school. While Alex would chime in telling Laurel how the first few months had gone and how Ava had decided that this generation wasn’t worth anything. It was helpful for Ava to stay engaged so her avoid Sara plan could be back on track. Just a couple more hours she could do it she kept telling herself. Everything was going so well until Hannah had to open her mouth with a suggestion led to not only Ava not being able to avoid Sara but would actually have her alone with her for a short time.

“Ava, take Sara and show her your paintings.” Hannah said loudly.

Hannah, I fucking hate you right now! Is the only thing on Ava’s mind and she is trying hard not to let it show on her face. “No, it’s okay she wouldn’t be interested in those.” Ava just tried to shrug it off but then Sara spoke, and she almost fell out of her chair.

“No, I’d love to see your artwork.” Sara said as she smiled that damn smile how was Ava supposed to avoid her now. And Ava can’t say no because she would actually rather walk into a wall before saying no to Sara. And now they had already finished their food, and everyone was just sitting around talking there was no way out of it.

“Sure.” Ava said rising out of her chair and grabbing her wine glass as if it was a lifeline. She motioned for Sara to follow her out of the dining room and they made there way towards the hallway that led to bedrooms. A thought that by itself shouldn’t have crossed Ava’s mind started too as they walked towards the hallway. She packed it away because now was not the time to be thinking things like that right now she needed to focus and make sure she could put a coherent sentence together while in the presence of this fucking goddess. “Here is one.” She motioned on the right side of the wall to a large painting that was full of snow-capped mountains.

Ava kept her wine glass close to her lips trying to avoid conversation due to the fact putting a coherent sentence together already seemed unlikely in her mind. Sara glanced over the painting almost in awe of all the colors she was seeing. The texture in the painting stood out a little on the painting and she had urge reach out and run her fingers over it, but she stopped herself and kept her hands to her side. She was kind of nervous being around Ava, she was sure she had offended her in their first meeting. She didn’t want to go touching her painting and upsetting her more. She had noticed that Ava avoided her all day and she wasn’t about to cause more upset. The painting was beautiful, someone who could do something like this had a wonderful gift. She could barely draw a stick figure let alone a mountainous range with a lake and deer so detailed it was almost as if she could close her eyes she would be there.

Ava watched Sara in Awe and found herself staring at the woman in front of her. She had freckles on her neck that she could see where the hair wasn’t covering. And her mind went racing with thoughts of what it would be like to kiss those freckles and a warm feeling settled in her stomach. Get your shit together Sharpe! This was a bad idea being alone with Sara she couldn’t seem to not stare they were so close and yet so far away. Space, you need to put space between you and her! Ava snapped herself out of her trance and took a few more steps into the hallway to where another painting was hanging. This one was a beautiful lake and in the background on the shores were buildings that lined the shore of all colors and shapes and sizes, clouds in the sky spread throughout the painting and you could even see people on the far shore. Ava cleared her throat to get Sara’s attention, Sara looked up and moves gracefully to stand next to Ava and look up at the painting and Ava was sure she could hear her gasp when her eyes saw the painting. “It’s the Muritz. Hannah could see it from her recovery room, and she was always asking what it looked like from the shore. And she kept saying she wanted to go and walk around it and just sit on a bench and look at its beauty.” Ava explained as Sara’s eyes never left the painting, she was committing it to memory. “She couldn’t though obviously she...well at that point she couldn’t walk. So, when Carol came and sat with her, I started going down to the bay and there was this bench I sat on and I sketched the lake and all the buildings. I made sure to get her building in it too so I could show her where she was in the painting.” As Ava spoke, she pointed to building almost directly in the center, this caused Sara to take a step forward closer to the painting. Ava dropped her arm down and it slightly grazed Sara’s forearm and Ava could feel the goosebumps spread through her whole body at just the slightest touch. Her eyes instinctively moved to Sara.

Sara spoke for the first time since seeing the Murtiz painting her words soft and meaningful, Ava’s eyes were still on her. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Ava’s eyes still trained on Sara her hush response almost a whisper “yes, it is.” When Sara heard the response, she started to turn towards Ava and she quickly moved her eyes to the painting, so she wasn’t caught yet again staring at this magnificent beauty in front of her. Once Sara was facing her she kept looking at the picture afraid of meeting those piercing blue eyes and the thoughts that raced through her mind about those eyes.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry” Sara whispered, Ava’s eyes went wide, and she knew she had to look at Sara.

“What for?”

“I know I offended you when we first met.” Sara looked down and her hands fidgeted around her wine glass. “when I assumed you and Hannah were married.”

“What?” Ava started to laugh she couldn’t help it. Sara hadn’t offended her she knew that, but Sara thought for some reason she had. “You didn’t offend me at all.”

“Well you seem to be avoiding me today, and honestly I was hoping to be able to apologize because well sometimes I’m not great at first impressions and I really want you know that sometimes my mouth says things before my brain can stop it.” Sara stopped not realizing she was rambling a bit; Ava was still amused in front of her.

“I was avoiding you a little.” She put her fingers up to show her. “I honestly I was embarrassed, I’m sure my first impression left you thinking I was an idiot.” She rolled her eyes and took a drink of her wine as Sara looked back up to her meeting her eyes. Ava could feel a ripple of heat go through her body when Sara looked at her.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot. I think you have an amazing gift.” The smile that appeared across Sara’s face took Ava’s breath away. Break eye contact Break eye contact!!!
Ava’s averted her eyes down to her wine glass, which was now almost empty, she looked at Sara’s and noticed the lack of wine also. “We need more wine.” Ava said abruptly and grabbed Sara’s glass and walked out of the hallway and towards the kitchen. Sara just stood there watching her walk away not sure what just happened, but she was sure again in her mind she had done or said the wrong thing. There was something about Ava that just made her nervous and fidgety. She put her hands to her face and cursed herself a little. Good Job Lance! Fuck!