Work Text:
Taissa Turner had just made partner at Fuller & Co Property Law. She’d celebrated over a nice dinner with all the other senior members of the firm before heading home for the night. The overly expensive steak sat like a rock in her stomach, it felt too much like other things she had to eaten. Still, this was an accomplishment; something to be celebrated.
She’d lost contact with the other Yellowjackets over the years. Trauma bonded some people and separated others. Natalie, and by association Travis, had become something of a stranger to her after the third time she paid for her rehab, but she felt indebted all the same for things she’d done out there. Lottie had been whisked away almost immediately upon reentering the United States. Taissa had never wanted to be close with Misty.
Van had disappeared after they broke up in college.
Shauna was really the only friend Taissa had kept, her only real friend at all if she’s truly honest with herself. She hadn’t connected with anyone in college other than her ex, Simone. She’d been so hung up on Van it didn’t work out. After that she’d thrown herself into work and she’d only managed cordial acquaintanceships with coworkers.
Her heels kicked off haphazardly by the door, Taissa dials Shauna. Shauna’s got a little girl, Callie, who she’s pretty sure is in elementary school now. Taissa’s sure she could use a break from the stay-at-home mom thing.
“Taissa! Hi, how are you?” Tai cradles the phone between her shoulder and cheek while surveying her closet.
“Good. Just made partner. Come out and celebrate with me, Shauna.”
Taissa hears the telltale sign of a phone being moved and hushed whispers as she exchanges her suit for a wife beater, jacket, and old corduroys.
“Fine. We’re going to Buzz though, I can’t stand those hole in the wall diners you end up picking.”
It’s true, Taissa tries to pick something at random every time so that the news doesn’t get a wiff of any Yellowjackets meeting up again. Fifteen years later and people were still obsessed. She’d called Shauna though for the promise of a single night to forget and have fun though, so their old dive bar from when she came to visit during college sounded ideal.
A scant thirty minutes later has Tai arriving early. Shauna will find her or call her when she gets there so she doesn’t bother waiting, breezing inside and sidling up to the bar. Two beers later and Shauna joins her.
“Tai, look! They still have the pool table. We should play like old times.” It’s unspoken that their old playing partners used to be Jeff and Van.
“One on one?” Shauna shakes her head.
“It’s a celebration. We both grab someone, we both know it’s been too long since we met someone new.”
Shauna sets to work on a twenty-something guy who’d been eyeing her across the bar. Taissa decides against saying anything: on a deeper level, she and Shauna are both aware she only married Jeff to make the argument that led to Jackie’s death mean something.
Taissa spins her chair the opposite way to gaze over all the patrons. She sees a flash of ginger hair. She’s not sure if it’s some misplaced sense of sentimentality or the fact that she and Van had spent a lot of time here when they dated but she finds herself walking over.
It’s stunning how much this woman looks like Van up close. Taissa’s eyes search her face. Are those the same-?
“Taissa Turner, who the fuck thought I’d ever see you again.” And oh fuck, it is her.
Van looks good. The years hadn’t visually changed her much, she almost seemed to be stuck in the same style she’d adopted before the crash. Taissa feels that same pull to her that she always had as a teenager. Something about Van was magnetic, they were two people that would always find themselves together again, weren’t they?
Van is smiling in a way that seems inviting. She’s got a bottle in her hands, the same beer she’d favored all those years ago. Maybe it’s the cheap booze roiling around in her veins but something pushed Taissa to hug her in answer.
Van smells good, like wood smoke and bourbon. Taissa breaths just a little deeper than she would normally. Van’s arms feel like they don’t want to let go even as they drop back to her sides. Taissa opens her mouth, unsure of what words would even come out when Shauna rejoins them.
“Tai, this is Adam. He’s going to be my pool partner. Who did you find?”
“Shauna, look. It’s Van.”