Chapter Text
"Wake up Tobs, you have a plain to catch" she hums and tries to ignore it.
If I ignore her long enough, she'll let me sleep a bit more; I have time, she tells herself.
"Come on Tob-Tob, you gotta go" she speaks again. Tobin opens one eye first to see her tanned face over hers. She's standing on a side of their bed.
"Let me sleep a bit more please, mi amore, I beg you" she rolls to her side and hides her sleepy face on a white pillow.
"You can't. You have to get on a plane back to the U.S in a couple of hours" Laure tells her with a sad smile plastered on her face.
A grumpy Tobin finally sits up and fully opens her big brown eyes to stare deep into hers. "Come here" Tobin makes her sit on her lap. And Laure hides her face on the crook of her neck. "I know, I know. But I have to go back, you know that right?" The French girl nods in her spot in the crook of her neck and she continues. "I would not leave you if I had the chance, but I have to"
"I know" she simply answers.
"You mean a lot to me" she tries to get her to look at her but Laure seems to be more comfortable in what has been her hiding spot since Tobin got to Paris from California last season. "Hey, look at me" she finally looks up with tears building up in her light blue eyes.
"You mean a lot to me too" Tobin wipes one sneaky tear away for the girl's cheek before continuing.
"I'm sorry. Je suis désolé" the French girl laughs and kisses her sweetly, just a peck on the lips.
"Oui" she gives her another peck on the lips in response and gets up. "Now get up and start getting ready, I'll make breakfast"
She gets up like she told her, right when Laure walks out of the room, leaving her all alone in her soon-to-be ex-bedroom.
She tugs her messy hair into a ponytail and walks to the bathroom, strips of her clothes and gets in the shower.
She contracts her muscles once the cold temperature of the water comes in contact with her warm skin, 'just what I needed, a cold shower', she thinks.
"Come on, hurry up, pancakes are getting cold" she hears from afar.
Tobin finishes her shower and leaves the small bathroom in only a sport bra and Nike Pros, looking around the room for her only outfit outside the boxes, stashed in the small apartment's living-room. She finds her clothes folded, laying on top of the already made bed. 'She must have put it here while I showered'
She puts on her ripped skinny jeans, black v-neck shirt and combat boots with a dark green jacket, kinda like a military jacket. She takes her still damped hair to the right side and takes her phone and Bible from the nightstand; she puts the first object on her left back pocket and the other one inside her PSG backpack.
She takes her suitcase and bag and steps outside, finding Laure in the kitchen, putting a plate of pancakes and bacon on the kitchen island.
"I thought I was getting baguettes, cheese and wine" she kisses her temple and sits down in front of the plate, taking a big bite of her food. She hums before talking again. "This is delicious Laur"
"I'm happy you like it. Now, eat it fast, we have to go. The girls wanted to say goodbye too so they're waiting at the airport" she states with her thick french accent and takes another sip of her orange juice.
"Thank you" she kisses her one more time, making the most of the last hours they have together. It was supposed to be just sex from the start, it was supposed to be easy and liberating, and she wasn't supposed to catch feelings like that, but she did. She's not in love or anything, but she cares deeply for her ex-teammate, she cares for her in a new level, higher that she would have imagined the first time they saw each other.
"You're very welcome"
She finishes her plate and takes it to the sink, drinks her own glass of juice and wipes her mouth with a napkin. "I'm ready" and with that, she leaves the room grabbing the stuff she's taking with her, the rest Laure will ship out in a couple of days.
They get inside Laurie's cars after putting her luggage in the back.
They start the drive in silence, quiet, steady, like they're afraid of saying the wrong thing. They don't want to say goodbye but they have to.
Tobin, in the other hand, feels conflicted about her migration back to the States. She's excited, it's been a while since she has seen her friends, family, teammates and Alex. That's the thing, Alex. Alex is the reason why she's nervous and anxious.
She hasn't seen or talked to her since their big fight, about something that's still confusing, frustrating and not entirely clear for Tobin.
*
She was pacing when Tobin got to their hotel room. She looked up to see her walking in with a bit of fear in her brown eyes, but that doesn't seem to appease her, it actually makes her angrier.
"Is it true?" She asks already knowing the answer.
"What's true?" Tobin asks back once she's already in the room, keeping her distance, knowing Alex can be very difficult when she wants to pick a fight.
"Don't play dumb with me, Tobin, is it true?!" She yells making the other girl jump back.
"What's happening Lex?" she talks patiently, careful.
"You did it, didn't you?! You said yes! You signed the fucking contract!" She takes a step forward and Tobin takes a step back.
'Oh, shit. If she's cursing then it must be important', she's too occupied talking to herself to realize that Alex keeps talking in spite of her not answering.
"I can't believe you'd do that to me. After everything we've been through. After everything I did for you!"
"After everything you did for me?! You gotta be kidding me. I don't know what you're talking about, Alex, because all you have ever done is take advantage of me!" She didn't mean to, but her voice got at Alex's level by the end of that painful statement.
She knows she struck a nerve, because she watches as Alex's whole demeanor changes in front of her eyes as she goes from mad to shocked to sad to furious.
"So, I took advantage of you. Poor Tobs, the sweet little girl who can't do anything wrong ever. Poor, poor little thing. You know is the big bad wolf, mean Alex who took advantage of dear Ms. Heath!" She's getting madder by the minute and Tobin knows it, but she won't back down, not anymore, not this time.
"Stop! Yelling!" she steps closer and now there's only one step between them.
"Shut up Tobin!" Alex takes the last step towards the girl and kisses her roughly.
"No, no. We're not doing that anymore. I'm done with being your pain reliever. I'm done with this sick twisted relationship that's not even a fucking relationship in the first place!" after a couple of seconds into the kiss, she pulled back, pushing her hard, making Alex take a couple of steps back to gain back some stability, Tobin finally declaring something she should have done a long, long time ago.
"So there it is. We're back there again. I'm always the bad one. I'm always the one to blame" Tobin now is not only mad but exhausted.
She laughs without fun and shakes her head. "So it's my fault now. I'm the one who won't break up with her boyfriend but keeps hooking up with her supposed best friend, giving her just enough to keep her tight wrapped around her finger but not enough to actually be with her! You're with me without being with me. You're here but nowhere near. You're intimate with me but we have no intimacy. You broke me, Alex, and now the only thing I can do is get myself back together but I can't do this here, can I? Not with you being everywhere. Every time I turn around there you are, reminding me of how stupid I was. How stupid I've been for all this years putting you before everyone and everything, including myself! But not anymore. That's it. I'm different and I'm leaving" she takes a deep breath, calming herself down a bit.
"I can't believe it" Alex whispers more to herself than to Tobin, looking at the floor, melancholy clear in her blue ocean eyes.
"I'm leaving, Lex. I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm not coming back until I'm healed. I'm not coming back until I'm 100% sure I can be around you without letting your power affect me in any way, and that might take some time" she's calm now, easy, like she normally is.
"You can't leave me!"
*
- - - - -
Her palms are sweaty, her knees weak and her head feels heavy. She's about to walk out of the luggage claim area. She's delaying the inevitable.
'You have to do this at some point, Tobin. You can't keep delaying it. You already stayed 2 months more than you needed to, you can't go back to Paris. Or can you?'
"Why is your head like that, Tobs?"
"Cheney!" She was so distracted arguing with herself that until that moment she hadn't realized she walked out with her head tilted to the left and lost eyes. Lauren spots her and took her out of her trance, making her jump to her welcoming arms, looking for that comfort only she could bring to the nervous girl. "You came" she whispers, her words hitting against Lauren's chest.
"And I'm not the only one." That's when she really saw through. That's when her eyes meet with a sight she wasn't ready for.
Her heart stopped. 'I can't believe it'
This is the beginning. This is how it starts. She's back. And nothing has changed.