Chapter Text
I'm your hell
I'm your dream
I'm nothing in-between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way
Practice goes extremely well as a welcome back to the new season and it has the Peaches in such a good mood that they decide to have a spontaneous gathering at Jess’s and Lupe’s. It’s a Friday after all.
“Alright, you all get going without me, I’ll be right there. Shall I buy the drinks?” Lupe says, juggling the keys in her hands in front of her car.
“Don’t worry babe, we’ll take care of it. See you home,” Jess tells her, leaning in for a quick peck on the lips.
Lupe smiles into it, and damn is it a good fucking day. Jess can’t keep her grin off as she watches her drive out of the parking lot - Sap, is Carson’s comment - before she follows the others to Greta’s car.
“I call shotgun!”
“Damn you, Jess,” Jo whines.
“Better luck next time, Joey,” Greta taunts her.
“Fuck you too, Bird!”
Carson just shakes her head at their antics, and they’re all laughing as they enter the car.
“See you at yours, then?” Maybelle calls from the other car, where Esti drives shotgun and has banned anyone else from joining them per her insistance - oh, Jess will want to hear that one later.
In the rearview window, Jess catches Jo blowing May a kiss, and her grin now turns full Cheshire cat. “Yep, see you on the flip side, sugarplum,” Jess tells her, blowing her another kiss and making her snort in laughter at the same time that Jo’s affronted “Oi! Don’t steal my line nor my girl, or I’ll throw you out of this fucking car!” comes through.
“Lupe would still manage to kill me first,” Jess says simply, which Jo has to concede as the absolute truth.
It’s a beautifully warm early-spring day in Chicago, and it promises an equally great evening of drinks and smokes, laughter and talks and that very special kind of Peaches fun that always ends up surprising Jess somehow.
After a quick run to get drinks, the two cars reach the building where Jess’s and Lupe’s very fancy apartment - if she so says herself, they have shed literal blood, sweat and tears on the baseball field to be able to afford it - is located.
Lupe still has not come home by the time they’re all comfortably settled in the living room with drinks and snacks, but there is no reason to worry. Right? Jess eyes the phone, where no new message has arrived. Right. Probably just a delay with dance practice. Jesus, Lupe is right that she’s become such a father hen.
“Jess, I really love what you’ve done with the place,” Maybelle says as she spreads half-way on the new couch, half-way on Jo. “It will look just beautiful in the wedding pictures.”
“Yes, Jess!” Esti says, turning towards her with big eyes full of wonder. “I just can’t wait. ¡Estoy muy emocionada!”
“Me too, kid,” Jess says after clearing her throat, yet the catch is still there. Mostly she’s trying not too think too hard about the approaching day, lest she becomes completely useless to the world in the meantime. Who would’ve thought. Not her. God, not her.
Yet, here she is, in the newly furnished living room in the house she just bought with Lupe for their little family of three, surrounded by the team members of many battles, losses and wins alike, the ones who’ve stuck around all these years - Esti leaning on her shoulder, so grown up now, yet she’d always think of her as that gangly teenager who didn’t know any English and needed someone to make her feel at home away from home; Jo with that boastful laughter and winning arm, who’d finally managed to confess her love after too many years of silent pining to Maybelle, who had been just as bad pretending Jo hadn’t struck her heart all along; Greta and Carson sitting quietly next to each other, holding hands and sharing ridicolously cheesy looks when nobody is paying attention to them, finally reconciled after the void left in the wake of Charlie’s lost battle with his illness - who’ve become the best friends she’s ever had, just as much family, and she’s getting married in a month. To Lupe. Let’s not even get her started on Lupe, the love of her fucking life. And on the daughter they are fucking raising together.
Who are still not here. There’s no reason to worry yet, but the family picture is incomplete, two seats are missing their rightful owners, and Jess feels the ache of not being able to hold all her girls together all at once.
So she goes in the kitchen to get a new bottle of wine to fill the time, and it’s when she gets back that she finally hears the front door be opened. A Hey, took you girls long enough is right on the tip of her tongue, but it stops and dies in her throat as the door pretty much slams open and a tornado of a fourteen year old comes rushing in. She only spares a very quick and furious glance - oh no, oh shit - at the room full of guests, before she pushes the door closed behind her and starts making - or rather, stomping - her way towards her room.
But right as the door is about to close, a hand pushes it back open and an equally enraged Lupe - oh fuck, oh mierda - gets in and starts going after her, shouting, “Alma, ¡todavía estoy hablando contigo!”
“¡Déjame en paz!"
"¡Vuelve aquí!"
“¡No quiero hablar contigo!”
“Hey, hold on, girls!” Jess tries, she really does, but her voice gets completely swallowed by the echoes of higher and higher Spanish, which she can understand the meaning of but has no fucking clue about the context.
Fuck, this is all Jess can think as the scene unfolds in front of her too quickly and brutally to be able to do anything about it, and the Peaches are right there with her, gazing in horror, Maybelle even with her hands on her mouth, Esti downright wincing, at the mother-daughter chase, then at Jess, as if to beg her for any instruction. She has none. This is happening and they have to fucking live through it.
No matter any intimation to stop, Alma is fast enough to get to her room before Lupe can reach her. The bedroom door gets slammed and the lock turned right as Lupe gets to it - “¡Abre esta puerta!” - just in time for one last bomb to be thrown from behind it for everybody to hear.
“Just because you got yourself knocked up, doesn’t mean everybody else is as fucking careless as you!”
Kids always know how to hit where it fucking hurts. Lupe takes it helplessly, straight to the gut, leaving her gasping for breath, and Jess can see the pain ripple on her face right before she turns away from Alma’s door, all fight blown out of her, and runs off to shut herself inside their room.
“Holy fucking shit,” Carson breathes out on everybody’s account. That and the second door slam that follows melt everybody’s freeze states just as the seven fires of hell would.
“I thank all the possible gods that your kids aren’t like that,” Jo says to May as they hastily get up from the couch.
“Give them time,” May replies at the same time that Greta whisper-shouts “Not now, Joey!” with a very unsubtle nod in Jess’s direction.
Because Jess hasn’t unfrozen at all; on the contrary, she’s sure her jaw in on the floor by now, shocks of second-hand pain and embarassement keeping her rooted in place. What in the fresh hell had happened?
Taking pity on her, Jo comes up and puts both hands on her shoulders, making her jump at the force of it. “Good luck, my man.”
Jess manages a nod. “I’ll have to ask for a raincheck on our... gathering.”
“Of course, anytime,” Carson says softly, patting her on the back. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“No, no, better fucking not.”
They both wince at the prospect of the next few hours in this household. It’s so new that it had never witnessed a full-blown shouting match between the formidable García girls yet. It’s been christened now.
“Not even me? Maybe I can talk to Alma?” Esti offers.
Any other time it would’ve been a great idea, but no, that blow had been too personal, a knife thrown with vicious accuracy straight into the meat of ghosts past - because yes, this particular ghost has flesh indeed, and sharp fucking teeth.
“Thanks, kid.” Jess draws her in for a hug, placing a kiss on her forehead. “But don’t worry about it, it’ll be alright. Eventually. I’ll let you know if we’re in for brunch on Sunday.”
Esti snorts into her shirt. “I fucking hope so. I was never this bad, was I?”
“Well...”
“Oi!” Esti looks at her indignantly.
Jess pushes her slightly towards the door. “Goodnight, everybody.”
Esti sticks her tongue out at her, which makes Jess shake her head. Yeah, the second daughter hadn’t been planned. Well, neither had the first. Or whatever order we want to say it in; Jess had technically known Esti first, but she’s not technically her daughter at all, I’m too old to be your actual daughter anyway, you know, Esti often protests now, but she’s still invited to every Sunday brunch. So let’s call her her baseball daughter, to differentiate from the other one, her step-daughter, who has just obliterated her own mother, the love of Jess’s life, in one fell swoop, and Jess has to go deal with that immediately if she wants to thwart any possible world war. She loves both of them equally as if they are her own daughters, though. Try figure that one out.
And so they all leave. Greta salutes her before closing the door on the way out, and that draws one last laugh out of Jess. But then she takes in the quiet of the empty living room, and she has to force herself not to panic.
Okay.
Alright.
All good.
She can do this.
She can do this.
Slowly, one foot in front of the other, she snaps herself out of her stupor and makes her way to her girls.
Alma’s room is the first on the corridor, and is obviously locked, but she still has to try. “Querida,” she calls out with a gentle knock.
“Go away!” is the immediated shouted answer.
She wants to keep trying, and maybe she should, but the loud sobs that start after that makes her chest ache. She pauses. This is bad. So damn fucking bad, and she needs to be smart about it to be able to fix it. If only she could wrap them both in the same shirt and knock their fucking heads together.
She sighs and goes to her and Lupe’s bedroom. It seems empty at first, but then she notices the balcony window open and the dark curls peaking on the other side of it. She steps out with caution, testing the waters. When no shouting commences, Jess sits on the chair opposite her fiancé.
Lupe is a damn wreck, but that had to be expected. She’s sitting on the balcony chair with her head leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette and staring blankly at the view of the city. Her eyes are bloodshot and puffy, tears pooling at the corners, but not falling yet.
Even like this, she’s fucking beautiful. Her hair is messier than before, surely by her own nervous doing, the curls parting in all directions around her face. Her golden chain shines under the last sunrays of the day, stark in contrast with the white undershirt below her earth-colored button down. And those jeans... man, whenever she wears them Jess’s only instinct that she would like to answer to is tearing them with her teeth in a desperate attempt to bare the thighs and hips underneath.
Maybe she shouldn’t be thinking about this right now, but hell, she has to think about something as she waits for Lupe to give any sign that she’s ready to talk without biting somebody’s head off, and hers is the only available.
Finally, the sign comes as Lupe blows out one last puff of smoke and puts out the cigarette in the ashtray on the table. She still doesn’t directly look at her, but she does raise her eyes in Jess’s general direction. “Can you believe it? Can you believe it?”
“No, love.” Jess leans her elbows on her knees to better look at her, but doesn’t come closer yet. “She had no right to talk to you like that, she stepped way out of line.”
Lupe is wringing her hands, her face strained for trying to hold the tears in. Jess wouldn’t dare say it out loud right now, but sometimes her fiancé is a little bit of a stubborn idiot. When wounded, she can’t help but curl in on herself and show the world only her quills, daring anybody to get closer.
But Jess does pride herself in being one of the very few people who can peak through and, if in luck, be let in, so she scoots her chair closer and takes her hands. “Please, baby, can you tell me what the fuck happened?”
Lupe huffs loudly, but she squeezes Jess’s hands back. Good. “We were on the way here and she just said, no, declared that tomorrow she has a date. For one, she didn’t ask, secondly, a fucking date with a boy two years older than her, who wanted to drive her to the cinema and then who knows what! She’s fourteen, for fuck’s sake! And I’m her mother, so I told her that I would drive her and come to the cinema too, and she wouldn’t hear a word of it after that! It’s my job to protect her and yes, even prevent her from making my own stupid mistakes, and that was a perfectly reasonable compromise! Instead, here I am being called a whore by my own daughter.”
“Hey, she didn’t say that,” Jess says, rubbing circles on her knuckles.
“She may as well have.”
Jess sighs. Okay. Now it all makes slightly more sense. “I’m sure she didn’t mean it, and is already regretting it. I heard her crying in her room.”
Lupe takes a shaky breath, and her face scrunches up enough that a few tears start falling down her cheek.
“Baby,” Jess can only say, taking her face in her hands and wiping the tears with her thumbs.
Lupe starts leaning into the touch, her eyes almost closed, but then they open back up in renewed fire. “Well, she can forget about the date and that boy altogether if she doesn’t apologize to me, you and all the others for the scene she just made.”
“Let me just talk to her for a moment, okay? I’m sure I can get through to her."
But that is the very worst thing she could’ve said. Jess’s stomach plunges as Lupe takes her hands away from her face. “Of course you can. Here comes knight in shining armor Jess, giving her sweets and cuddles and all the nice things while evil mama dares keep her from the things she wants!”
Mamas also know how to hit where it fucking hurts. Jess has had to witness one too many a time where her attempts at smoothing things over and getting on both of her girls’ good graces saw Lupe mad at her for undermining her authority, misconstruing her diplomacy for picking her daughter’s side. On the other hand, Jess has felt compelled to overcompensate her step-mother (father?) status by too often than not fulfilling Alma’s every wish, so she knows she isn’t innocent either.
“It’s not like that, Lu, I swear I don’t condone her actions at all! I just think you are both too close to the matter right now, and you could use a neutral mediator. That was really fucking brutal, Lu, you can’t deny it’s affected you horribly.” As if to prove her point, Lupe’s sniffles become audible. “But yelling at her even more won’t get you anywhere, don’t you think?”
“When does it ever,” she concedes, rubbing her snotty nose on her arm. Gross, but weirdly cute.
“Alright, so I’ll go talk to her, okay?”
“Fine.”
Jess gets up, but she still leans down to leave a kiss on Lupe’s forehead. “Te amo so damn much, you know that right?”
“Yo también te amo mucho,” Lupe says, smiling just a little, which is enough to calm Jess’s nerves, “even if your pearls of wisdown are incredibly annoying sometimes.”
Jess laughs. “I’ll take that.”
As she makes her way back to Alma’s room, however, her nerves fire back up. She’s threading a fine damn line here, and a lot is at stake; hopefully only a good night sleep, but if it goes beyond that it could drag straight through the wedding day, and she doesn’t want that for anybody’s sake. Their little family deserves that day; both Lupe and Alma have been through too much for Jess to let them spoil it because they love each other to the point that it hurts.
Thankfully, it seems that Alma’s sobs have subsided, so she knocks on her door a little more firmly than before.
“Chiquita, I just want to talk. It’s just me. I can bring you a glass of water if you want, or anything you need. Please.”
She doesn’t need to work at it too much though, because she hears the lock turning before she’s even finished saying please. Alma doesn’t open the door for her, and Jess has the presence of mind to let her get back on the bed before entering. The room is almost completely dark, save for the light cast by the small lamp on the bedside table. Jess goes to sit next to Alma’s small curled up frame, and that appears to be enough to start her crying again. It may break Jess’s heart just a little.
“I - I didn’t mean it, I s-swear, Jess!” she cries. “I didn’t w-want to say that.”
“Yet you did,” Jess says, rubbing her shaking shoulder. “You really hurt your mom back there, you know that, right?”
Alma nods.
“You even said it in English so that everybody could hear it.”
Alma’s sobs get even louder. God, she looks so much like Lupe. Her hair may be longer, but the curls are the same, framing the same eyes and freckled button nose. Her lips and jaw are different, smaller, softer, and the shape of her face resembles more her father, good ol’ Carlos. Jess doesn’t know how she lucked out on these two Mexican girls full of snark and bottled up emotions, who have wrecked her world and made it anew in the last eight years.
“I’m sor-” Alma starts when she’s calmed down a little, but Jess stops her. “Don’t say it to me. You know what to do.”
“I - I can’t, I’m sure she hates me now.”
Jess leans in to place a kiss on her temple. “Of course she doesn’t, silly moose. In fact, she really needs you right now. She may think you hate her.”
That makes her pause. “Maybe only sometimes...” But at seeing Jess’s look she quickly backtracks. “I’m just kidding, jeez! I don’t want her to think that. Still, she must be so mad, she’s gonna kill me!”
“You gotta face the consequences of your actions, kid. But you know that no matter what you do, she will always love you, right?”
Alma sighs. “I guess.” She eyes Jess then, batting her pretty eyelashes at her and pouting slightly. The cheeky little rascal - Jess would like to say it only worked on her when the kid was eight years old, but she’s only human after all. “Come with me, please?”
Not today, though. “Oh no, niña, you got yourself right into this one.”
“Shit.”
“And you really do not have any more swearing passes for today.”
Alma grimaces. “I mean - shoot.”
Jess can’t help but grin. “That sounds about right. Now c’mon, vamos.”
Alma hugs her sweater tight around her body and follows her outside the door. Jess lets her pass in front, and goes to lean against the wall outside her and Lupe’s bedroom. Alma looks at her with panic in her eyes, and Jess nods at her to get a move on. So the girl takes a deep breath and knocks on the door. Jess refrains from rolling her eyes, and opens the door for her, now urging her a tad more forcefully to just get the fuck in. Minus the swearing.
Alma goes in, and Jess can’t help but glance inside to see what Lupe is doing. She feels her insides squeezing as she sees her curled up on her side of the bed much like her daughter was, wearing one of Jess’s big comfy sweaters that Lupe swears she doesn’t steal but is always wearing anyway, which proves she’s a goddamn liar. Albeit a lovable one.
“Mami?” Alma calls out, and Lupe raises her eyes - still quite puffy - from the phone screen. She doesn’t look surprised to see her, but on her face is raging a war between hardening and softening that Jess knows far too well, as she’s often the one who finds herself at the other end of it.
But as Alma starts crying again and throws herself on the bed at Lupe, there was never really any question. “Mami, lo s-siento mucho, no quería decir eso!”
Lupe puts her phone aside and hugs her daughter to her chest, burying her face in her hair. “Yo también lo siento, mija, no debí levantar la voz así.”
And they stay like that, murmuring more apologies under their breath and holding each other tight, and finally Lupe seems to be crying those tears she was keeping in. Jess’s smile feels warm on her face, and she steps away from the door to give them some privacy.
She cleans up the living room, puts the used glasses in the dishwasher and the empty bottles in the trash, then she changes into sweats and t-shirt, and she finally starts feeling like she can breathe more easily. What a turn of the day. Still, as she looks around the house that is by no means super orderly, finally showing signs of being lived in, full of scattered things from three different people, personal touches and decorations, pictures on every wall and surface, as well as baseball trophies and Alma’s dancing awards, she doesn’t lament a more peaceful family. She never would - the McCreadys have always been a wild bunch anyway. And this is home, mess and all.
When she finally feels like enough time has passed, she heats up yesterday’s leftover soup and brings a tray with three bowls to the bedroom. The tones of voice she can hear as she approaches are much more animated than she would prefer at this point, but at least they are not shouting.
"Diez y cuarto."
"Diez."
"¡Diez y media!"
“Diez.”
"¡Venga, mami, tienes que negociar!"
"No tengo que hacer nada."
Jess comes in at Alma’s frustrated huff. “Alright, alright, I can already tell where this is going, so I brought fuel.”
“Yeah!” Alma exclaims, but doesn’t move.
The two of them are cuddling in bed under a throw blanket, Alma with her head on Lupe’s shoulder, Lupe with her arm around Alma, and they look so cozy and adorable that Jess would like to jump on top of them and squeeze them to death. How they manage to still have the energy to fight is beyond her.
As Jess places the tray on the bed and steps around it to get under the blanket with them, Lupe follows her movements with a piercing look in her eyes that contains multitudes, translatable into so many sentences that Jess can hear starkly in her mind - Can you believe the nerve of this kid? as well as Thank you, you idiot, I love you, but also If we were alone I would be eating something else. Let’s just say Jess feels some sort of way about it.
“Hey,” Lupe simply says out loud as Jess wraps an arm around her.
“Hey you.”
And Jess kisses her, trying to say so much more with her touch too. I’ve got you, we will figure it out about the kid, and You’re welcome, hermano - is it weird to call your wife-to-be brother? But it just can’t be helped with them, in a way they are brothers - and Don’t worry, we’ll be having dessert later.
“Ew, gross. Can you not?”
They both snort against each other’s lips before Lupe turns towards Alma, who’s already well into her soup, with an eyebrow raised. “You want to go on a date, but you call kissing gross?”
“That’s because you are my parents. Be serious, now, ma.”
“Yeah, be serious, Lu, let’s talk about this boy now, can’t you read the room?”
Alma giggles, and Lupe just rolls her eyes. “I can’t stand you two.” But there’s no real bite to it.
So they grab their soup and start eating it too, as Alma sings the praises of this kid called Chris - of course he’s called fucking Chris - then starts begging her mother again. “Please, por favor mami, I’ll do anything, I’ll even clean the bathroom, I won’t play video games or whatever, just let me go!”
“Well, that can be a start,” Lupe says, and Alma’s face falls, because she hadn’t really wanted that. Rookie mistake. “Still, you won’t go alone with him.”
Alma groans into her hands. “I can’t go on a date with my mom there!”
“I said I will be far away from you, didn’t I? Also, I am a very cool mom!”
Alma falls back on the bed, defeated.
“No cool mom says she’s a cool mom,” Jess translates that.
“Thanks, Jess,” Alma says sweetly.
“Yes, thanks, babe,” Lupe says, the opposite of sweet, glaring daggers at her.
Fine line. “But, now two moms, that is much cooler.”
“No, it is not, both of you there is even worse!”
“Alma María...”
“Time out, time out.” Jess motions with her hands almost desperately. “I have an idea, and you can make your comments once I’m done explaining it.”
Both Garcías look at her expectantly with indentical gazes and crossed arms. Jess gulps. Be brave, man.
“Phase one: we drive you to the mall, the one with the big cinema, and leave you at the entrance alone, so you can meet your boy in peace and go see the movie together.”
Alma’s eyes widen in delight, while Lupe’s narrow dangerously. Faster.
“Phase two: your mom and I will see the movie too, but we enter at a later point and we stay out of your sight. Yes, we will be able to see you two.”
Alma’s lips purse, while Lupe’s turn upward.
“Phase three: after the movie you can stay until ten no later,” Lupe enjoys that greatly, but Alma doesn’t, “in the mall eating ice cream or whatever you kids do these days, while your mom and I will be around, not following, but doing our own thing and just checking on you from time to time. How does that sound?”
Silence. Slowly, Lupe’s and Alma’s faces turn towards each other. It’s clear neither is entirely satisfied with the plan, but genius has to be recognized, if Jess so says herself. Lupe stretches a hand out to her daughter. “Deal, chiquita?” Alma takes it with a long-suffering sigh. The nerve on her is definitely exponential, but what can they expect from Lupe’s genes? “Deal, mami.”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Jess says casually, but the two of them immediately turn on her like two dogs on a bone, and she can’t help but grin. “Mi amor, don’t you think she should come help us fill up the wedding list and try on our suits tomorrow morning?”
“Noooooo, Jess!” Alma whines, while Lupe bursts out laughing.
“Why didn’t I think of that, it is a splendid idea, mi vida,” Lupe coos sarcastically, her grin matching Jess’s as she regards her daughter. “It will be incredibly fun, don’t you think, mija?”
Alma keeps whining as she buries her face underneath the blanket. “No, it’s gonna be so boring. That is torture. How could you do this to me, Jess? I trusted you!”
"Well, kid, just think that if your mother hadn’t gotten herself knocked up, you wouldn’t have to be tortured today nor tomorrow. So it’s her fault, not mine, if you really think about it.”
Alma whines even louder in shame. Lupe has completely lost it by now, hugging her stomach as she doubles over in laughter.
“It’s not funny, ma!”
“No - it’s not,” Lupe pants as she tries to calm herself down, shaking from fits of laughter. Jess rubs her shoulder in an attempt to help, barely holding herself together from dying the same way.
When Lupe has mostly regained her senses, she takes a deep breath and grabs the blanket to uncover her daughter’s face. Her expression shifts in an instant. “I don’t regret it.”
Alma’s eyes widen as she catches the mood change, looking so much younger and vulnerable all of a sudden. The guilt ripples on her face. “Ma...”
“I don’t know if I tell you enough, but I would do it all over again if it meant I got to have you as a daughter." Lupe speaks slowly, softly, like she does only when it truly means a lot to her to get her point across.
“Still, it was hard, Alma. I think now you are old enough to start to understand. I wasn’t ready at all, and I had to bent over backwards both to grow up myself and raise you. I would do homework one moment and then chance your diaper the next one, or go on a date one evening - without telling your abuela, and no there was no chance of getting pregnant at that point, as it was a girl - " that earns a chuckle from both Alma and Jess, "and then come back to her mad and you screaming because you were teething. I don't know what I would've done without your abuela's help, but she wasn't exactly very nice about it, and I wasn't kind to her either. She was acting on my request to not let me off the hook, yet I would still do everything in my power to defy her, to get out and act my age whenever I could and leave her to deal with you. None of it is your fault, of course.”
Jess has already heard most of this, and in much more gruesome details, but it's still awful to think what that time had really been for her, and for the umpteenth time she wishes she could've met her back then, been there for her. She can be here now and rub Lupe's back as she pours her heart out for her daughter.
Lupe catches fly away tears under Alma’s eyes. “When it was just the two of us it was easier to forget everything else, though, wasn't it? You were the most perfect baby I could’ve hoped for. I don’t know if I was the best mother back then, though, nor now.”
Alma opens her mouth to protest, but Lupe stops her.
“Please, let me finish this, okay? I know I’m hard on you sometimes, and I know you’re young, this is your life, and I’ve gotta let you make your choices and your mistakes, but it is my job to look out for you and help you navigate through life, especially all the new, exciting experiences, exactly because I know how easy it is to miscalculate the risks. You get what I’m trying to say, right?”
Alma nods quickly. “But I wasn’t planning to do anything reckless, with, you know, I wouldn’t, I haven’t even had a first kiss...”
“I know, and I don’t want to take it away from you. Just work with me here, okay? I'm not your enemy, I don't ever want to be. And I know you’ve got a good head on you, you’re much smarter than I ever was.”
Alma's lip wobbles. “So why don’t you trust me?!”
Lupe smiles forlornly. “Sometimes being smart isn’t enough.”
“When it comes to feelings everybody loses their head, kid,” Jess says.
Alma seems to finally consider this, both of them, in front of her, sharing their wisdom and being open to her needs, and maybe it doesn't have to be such a torture. "Fine. You may have a point, you old wise ones. Just don't let him see you, okay?"
"We promise," Lupe says.
Alma bites her lip. "And I guess I am a bit nervous, I don't know what I have to do."
Lupe tucks one of Alma’s locks behind her ear with a smile. “Not to be super ancient, but "be yourself" still stands. If you have to be somebody else for him to like you, it's not worth it. See me with your dad."
"Yeah, but you're a lesbian, it doesn't really count."
Jess snickers. "There's plenty of ways to still not be yourself even with people you actually like. Pressure to be "cool" and all, you know."
"Well, I don't want that. If he can't handle me at my worst, he doesn't deserve me at my best!"
"Where did you hear that?" Lupe asks, biting the inside her cheek to not laugh.
"Somewhere. On social media."
"Of course," Lupe mutters.
"I say you got this. You have nothing to worry about Al, you're a catch," Jess tells her truthfully.
"Really?" Alma must really like him, because she's rarely so shy. Oh, the woes of first love.
Jess gives her a thumbs up. "That kid won't know what hit him."
Lupe glances back at her and slowly grins. God, she loves this woman. If she hadn’t already done it, she would ask her to marry her right here and now. “And you would know all about it now, don’t you, hermano?”
Jess can only lean down to place a kiss on the side of Lupe's neck and wrap her arms around her. “Oh, you know I have lost my head for you ages ago, hermano.”
“My eyes, please, stop flirting in front of my salad and stop calling each other hermano, jeez, you are so weird...”
They both laugh. “Just let it be, kid. It’s a lost battle," Jess says. "Plus, there is no salad here.”
“It’s a meme, you dinosaur.”
“You are such a pain in the ass, do you know that?”
“You are a pain in the -”
“You have no swearing passes today, I swear to God,” Lupe cuts in.
“Ugh, a pain in the bum. You happy?”
Lupe pauses, before kissing Alma’s forehead. “Yeah. I love you, cariño.”
Alma is caught off guard, but smiles. “Love you too.”
“Even though you are a pain in the ass.”
Alma rolls her eyes. “Moms don’t say that to their kids!”
“Because I am a cool mom!”
“Gosh!”
“Love you girls,” Jess says, chuckling as she extends her arm to hold Alma as well as Lupe. That makes them stop, smile at her and maybe decide they’ve had enough.
They all huddle closer. It’s the best sandwich ever, and it’s peaceful, the only sound their intermingled breaths. Minutes pass like this, and they may even fall asleep soon, but Alma’s voice comes through again, very small, “Mami, I really am sorry about what I said.”
Lupe doesn’t respond immediately, and Jess knows that it still stings. “Lo sé, querida.”
But because Alma never knows when to shut up, she starts rambling again. “I for one am a fan of your mistakes, owe my whole life to them! Except when you didn’t tell Jess about my existence for a whole year, now that was just plain stupid.”
Lupe gasps as Jess is the one to burst out laughing this time. Maybe she should be afraid of a second world war, but Lupe simply puts her hands on Alma’s sides and starts tickling her mercilessly, ignoring her daughter's shrieks. “You cheeky bastard. I will pretend I didn’t hear that!”
“She is right though...”
“You don’t even try, McCready! I will also pretend I didn’t hear that. Now, why don’t you try again?”
“Please - ma - stop...” Alma manages to say between laughter. “I can’t - breathe...”
“Weren’t you saying something?”
“I’m sorry - I’m sorry, alright?!”
Lupe pauses, but doesn’t take her hand away yet. “And?”
“You are the best mother ever and I will never criticize you ever again, even though constructive criticism-”
“Nah ah, stop there. And?”
“And thank you for letting me see Chris, even though I still don’t think it’s super necessary that-”
“Don’t push it, kid,” Jess warns her, shaking her head behind Lupe’s shoulder.
“Fine. I’m sorry and thank you. Te amo. That is all!”
“Mmmm...” Lupe is enjoying this a lot, probably a bit too much, Jess can tell by the glint in her eyes. Jess is all too intimately aware of just how much Lupe likes to have her way and make you squirm until she gets it, and hear you grovel too. So Jess does pity the kid as she hangs anxiously onto Lupe’s drawn out sound for a verdict. “... I forgive you. Let’s rest this case and not mention it again.”
“Yay! Thanks!” Alma jumps up and hugs her mother, and the momentum makes them roll on the bed in a fit of laughter.
“Even though you will be cleaning the bathroom for two weeks,” Lupe adds for good measure - “Ugh, mami!” - “and you’re coming with us tomorrow morning.”
“You ruined our evening, so it’s only fair we ruin your morning,” Jess quips in.
“I hate you both!”
“And there she is again,” Lupe says, but she’s happy. And Jess can rest easy.
Peaches 🍑 😜
jelucathebazooka: heyyy there @lupetops @jessbottoms did your house explode or what??
jessbottoms changed their name to jesstops
jesstops changed lupetops’s name to lupebottoms
jesstops: hello team, we are alive, peace has been restored in the garcia-mccready household, i repeat, peace has been restored
lupebottoms changed their name to lupetops
lupetops changed jesstops’s name to jessbottoms
lupetops: i can confirm, men shot and wounded but alive. brat apologized, all is forgiven. sorry about the ruckus.
speedygonzales: yay!
sonofcar: god i’m so glad. don’t worry about it, we’re just happy it’s been resolved!
gillthehill: now that was fast
jessbottoms: all thanks to yours truly garcia whisperer extraoirdinaire
maybelline: thank goodness! I was so anxious and I warned my kids to never hold their birth against me or else...
lupetops: should’ve thought of that
jelucathebazooka: dude, your daughter is a SAVAGE, I dont know why im surprised since shes your daughter after all but DAMN
lupetops: yeah I don’t know why I am either
lupetops: wait hold on no i take offense by that i am super nice bazooka!
jelucathebazooka: keep telling yourself that striker
jessbottoms changed their name to jesstops
jesstops changed lupetops’s name to lupebottoms
sonofcar: OMG guys can you stop this name change war though! we get it that you switch at this point! ENOUGH! strict top and bottom roles are heteronormative as fuck anyway
gillthehill: boo ooh nobody cares for the lecture cars 😘
sonofcar: 😠😘
jelucathebazooka: for real though, why arent you boning instead of changing the usernames back and forth like fourth graders? i bet youre even sitting next to each other giggling like lunatics, is marriage this sad?
jesstops: not married yet
jesstops: and the thing is...
jesstops: *selfie of jess and lupe smiling in bed with a sleeping alma in between them”
lupebottoms: mom life - cuddle puddle turned movie night turned forced sleepover
maybelline: awwwwww this are the best memories
jesstops: send help
maybelline: jess whattt
lupebottoms: don’t listen to jess is a fckn liar she is a simp for my daughter
gillthehill: oh we know
sonofcar: we knowww
speedygonzales: jess you simp
jesstops: lies LIES
lupebottoms: also i hear you carson about the usernames, at this point it’s just war but maybe it has grown old mmmh
lupebottoms changed their name to momandpitcherextraordinaire
momandpitcherxtraordinaire changed jesstops’s name to simp
simp: you slimy traitor
momandpitcherextraordinaire: you love me
simp: if only you hadn’t gotten yourself knocked up
momandpitcherextraordinaire: i will kill you
jelucathebazooka: guys i just can’t even imagining you too in bed sexually fustrated sending each other death threats over your daughter’s savagery while dying laughing
simp: yep pretty much
gillthehill: just go in another room for gods sake
sonofcar: and thank fuck lu about the nicknames even though now yours is far too long, please shorten it, you narcissist
sonofcar: ...lu?
jelucathebazooka: well done bird
gillthehill: i have the only braincell in this group
sonofcar: take that back
gillthehill: i won’t
speedygonzales: no fight only war
speedygonzales: i mant love
jelucatheebazooka: mant
sonofcar: mant
maybelline: mant
speedygonzales: 🖕
gillthehill: god help me
gillthehill: see cars? I win
sonofcar: i resent my own harebrained stupidity
speedygonzales: so they really gone to hav sex now? *shudders* *they’re like my parents too*
jelucathebazooka: i wonder who will top
sonofcar: JOEY!
jelucathebazooka: no regrets
gillthehill: *high five*
sonofcar: greta my love... i just win as last braincell left
gillthehill: DAMNIT
“I feel a little guilty... leaving her alone like this-” Lupe says, already breathless, between kisses.
Jess closes the door behind them and locks it in lieu of an aswer, pushing her further into the room, swallowing any protest with her mouth. Lupe gives in with a gasp.
They fall onto the bed in the guest room, and Jess could almost cry out in relief, because she’d been thinking about doing this since well before the bomb had gone off. She leaves Lupe’s mouth to kiss down her neck and shoulder, one of her hands traveling further down to get under Lupe’s (technically Jess’s) sweatshirt and caress the skin of her stomach and breasts. Lupe is panting underneath her, a neediness revealed in the way she claws at Jess’s shirt to tug her closer. Jess thinks she gets it; after the emotional rollercoster of today, there’s a desperation in Lupe’s desire to chase after the kind of pleasure that Jess’s lips and tongue and hands are all too eager to give.
So she swallows down any temptation to tease and draw this out, and lets Lupe set the pace. Which means breakneck. Which means all their clothes come off in a quick and furious succession, a sigh escaping both of them as their bare bodies entangle with each other, every place where their skins touch on fire. Lupe’s arms and legs wrap her in their hold, and Lupe moans into Jess’s ear as she nibbles and bite at it in a way that drives her mad. Jess cups one of Lupe’s breasts, teasing her hardened nipple with one hand as she brings the other down, where she’s met with the dripping wet folds of Lupe’s cunt. After her first gentle strokes are met with frustrated groans, Jess knows there's no wiggle room, no foreplay even needed before two of her fingers slide inside her with ease, followed shortly by a third, while her thumb circles Lupe’s clit in the best way she knows will drive her over the edge faster.
And that it does. Lupe starts riding Jess’s fingers without holding back and gets louder and louder to the point that Jess has to keep kissing her to silence her. The guest room is on the opposite end of the house compared to their bedroom, but at this rate the kid may still be able to hear it if she woke up. It’s over in a rush of clenching flesh around her fingers and Lupe’s nails digging into her back - marks she will wear proudly and rub in her face later with no small amount of smugness - as the climax has her shiver and shake and almost scream if it weren’t for Jess’s mouth on hers.
It doesn’t end there. Lupe lets them gather their breath and melt on the bed and in each other’s arms for only a few speechless minutes before she kisses Jess again, filthy and wet, and Jess makes a sound that would be embarassing if she weren’t completely gone for this woman already as said woman pushes her head down her body. Jess gives in to her needs again and eats her out thoroughly, she’s nothing but a gentleman after all, and makes her come a second time with all too much eagerness, a hand rubbing at her own clit to soothe the ache there.
When Lupe notices that after coming down from her orgasm, she gestures lazily at Jess to get on her face.
A laugh escapes her, and she speaks for the first time in a while, “Now that is an offer I cannot refuse, now can I?”
“It’s only fair, I owe you after all,” Lupe says with a grin, her voice low and breathy.
Jess chooses not to comment as she makes her way up Lupe’s body slowly, languidly, kissing every plain she passes, twirling her tongue around a nipple, licking at the mark she’d left before on Lupe’s collarbone, all without ever breaking eye contact with Lupe, who’s breathing open-mouthed and whose deep amber eyes, clouded by lust and love, seem to pierce her right into her very soul. It’s the hottest damn thing she’s ever seen.
“You don’t owe me anything,” she finally whispers against her mouth, before capturing it in a kiss. “I just reassured her a bit, that you wouldn’t bite her head off if she went to apologize to you.”
Lupe grimaces. “Maybe without you I would’ve.”
“Nah.” Jess kisses the spot right under her ear and revels at the small sound she makes. “I’ve got your number, Striker. You’re a softy, you’re an absolute simp for your daughter too. And for me. And for the whole team.”
Lupe opens her mouth with the intention to reject such a daring assumption, but it dies in a smile. “Yeah,” she breaths out, wrapping her arms around Jess and kissing the junture between hair and forehead. “You’ll have to keep my secret.”
Jess smirks against her skin. “Oh, everybody knows. You’re not as smooth as you think you are.”
“I did keep a whole daughter secret for quite a while, didn’t I?”
“And how did that turn out for you?” Jess looks at her with raised eyebrows.
Lupe has the decency to look sheepish. “Well, that did kinda blow up in my face.”
“You don’t say.”
“Asshole.”
“Hey now, I thought you owed me?”
Lupe shoves her shoulder. “Now I rather think I may leave you hanging, baby.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t dare.”
“Is that a challenge?”
Jess doesn’t brace herself in time, because Lupe has fully pushed her away from her and escaped from the bed before she can even blink.
“Oh no you don’t, you motherfucker!” Jess cries out in outrage, and makes to get up to start the chase, but in that moment Lupe does a turn around and Jess still doesn’t brace herself in time as Lupe’s expression changes into another familiar one, a dangerous one that more resembles a panther pouncing on its pray, and in fact jumps back on the bed, pinning Jess’s wrists on the matress behind her head and locking Jess’s legs between her strong tighs.
“I thought we established before that you are the motherfucker,” she whisperes roughly, hotly into Jess’s ear, and Jess knows she’s beat. Absolutely dead. She can’t even reply to that. It’s such a basic taunt, yet Jess is too busy chasing down Lupe’s lips with the only movable part of her body, her head, but of course Lupe stays just out of reach, her teeth bared in a daring smile, and Jess has to hold in a whine to conserve even a shred of her dignity.
“Be a good boy and don’t move,” Lupe whispers into her ear, pulling it with her teeth again. “Daddy’s got you.”
Jess loses the hold.
“Yeah, like that.”
“Lu...”
“Tell me, baby?”
“Please.”
Lupe smiles against Jess’s nipple, sucking on it in response, and Jess arches into the touch with a groan. “Please what, mi amor?”
“I need-”
Lupe takes her hands away from Jess’s wrists, since she knows Jess knows better than to move them, and traces down her arms, to the sensitive spots under her armpits, down her sides, and Jess buckles and shivers all the way through. “What do you need, hermano?”
“More. Everything.”
“You’re saying this isn’t enough?”
Jess opens her eyes to glare at Lupe’s pleased smirk, just as she lowers her tongue down on Jess’s chest and licks a line down to her bellybutton, and Jess feels a jolt spark there and even more wetness pool between her tighs, still firmly shut between Lupe’s.
“Fuck. Lu, please. This is torture.”
“You have to tell me what you want, sweetheart.”
“Eat me, lick me, put your fingers inside me, fuck me until I can’t remember my own name.”
Lupe’s breath makes the hair on her navel stand up. “Mmm. Now we will have to test that.”
And she spreads Jess’s legs and dips her face in her cunt. The relief is immediate, then turns shout in Jess’s throat as Lupe’s tongue spares no punches in starting to lap at her fast and dirty, while Lupe’s hands keep Jess’s hips from following the movement. Jess may have made her own rookie mistake, because Lupe does keep asking her name after every few seconds of this assault, staring her down, hovering a few inches from where Jess wants her, until she says it.
“That is not fair, you can’t wait so long for me to say it, it defeats the purpose.”
“Oh, I will know when you’ve truly forgotten it.”
Jess is too gone to know how that is possible, her only coherent thoughts Fuck and Lupe as she forces herself to watch her almost-wife completely take her apart piece by fucking piece. She feels Lupe’s fingers going in, up to three before there’s really any purchase, and Lupe’s lips kissing her other lips with gusto, and at that points she pleads again, “Please, can I touch you?”
Lupe hums and nods, and one of Jess’s hand tangles in Lupe’s curls while the other grabs her wrist in an instant. Lupe must take pity on her then, because she sets her hips free, and Jess takes it as her chance. She meets the movements of Lupe’s fingers and tongue with her own, her world reduced to this small universe of nerve endings and wetness. Lupe tells her later she asked for her name at that point, but Jess didn't even hear it.
It’s Lupe’s hand who has to shut her up as Jess comes this time, and that’s all she can tell as the orgasm hits her all at once that she sees white. The next thing she can tell, is Lupe’s head coming to rest on her chest right where her heart is. Sap.
“Did you come too?” Jess mumbles as she feels Lupe shivering.
“Fuck, yes. Was humping a pillow and all. We have to change this entire bedding before we go back in our room.”
Jess chuckles. “Do we have to?”
“I do not want to have the conversation about why we went in another room if she wakes up before us.”
“She’d just say we’re gross anyway.”
“I’m not having it.”
“If only she knew how gross-”
“Please.”
“I’ll shut up.”
“Good boy.”
Jess sighs at the moan that almost escapes her. “I’ll never live that one down, eh?”
Lupe kisses her chest. “Nah.”
But thinking of their chat nicknames war, Jess smirks. In a swift move, she topples them over and gets a yelp from Lupe that she’s very pleased about. “Know that I went easy on you only because of... attenuating circumstances,” she whispers an inch from Lupe's lips, tracing circles on her hip, “Be aware that I’ll get you back good.”
Lupe’s eyes are dark, her pupils blown wide, so her casual raise of an eyebrow doesn’t fool anybody. “That a promise?”
Jess kisses her in lieu of an aswer, sucks on her tongue and bites her lip, before pulling away just to get the satisfaction of seeing Lupe chase her lips now. “You can bet on it.”
Lupe brings her down and captures her lips again. “Not now. And not tomorrow, we have that lovely double cinema date with two teenagers. God, remember when we did it for Esti too? She was too nervous to see that crush of hers alone the first times.”
“Now I feel old, ages have passed since then. She has a whole girlfriend now. Maybe there’s hope for Alma yet.”
Lupe laughs. “She can be straight, it’s fine. We’ll love her anyway.”
“If we really have to.”
Lupe rolls her eyes. “Si-imp,” she sing-songs.
Jess pecks her lips again. “Nope, I’ll change your name to simp, as we’ve established.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to such description.”
“Oh but you did, you filthy liar.”
If Jess hadn’t been so close, she may have not have caught the shift on Lupe’s face as it happens, the teasing turning into something somber just like it had before with Alma. “Sometimes,” Lupe says in a whisper, the admission rolling heavily on her tongue, “I think my chest may explode for how much I love you all.”
Jess smiles and lays her forehead against Lupe’s. “I know. And we love you. En serio. You’re not a fuck up.”
Lupe bristles in surprise, her mouth falling open as a mask falls and the pain reveals itself. “How did you know I was thinking that?”
“I know you. I know the voices whispering or shouting in your head, and that far too often people made you believe they were right. Hell, or they were the ones feeding you the words.”
Lupe shudders as she exhales, and her eyes close. Jess remembers all too vividly other moments like this where she got to see it, the rawness of Lupe’s sorrows that she holds ever so tight to her chest coming to light. It always leaves Jess breathless, aching but alive with more love than she often knows what to do with.
This time, she feels like she may know it. She cups Lupe’s face and waits until her eyes open again. “I wish - I wish I could go back in time and find that pregnant, painfully queer girl with a killer arm for baseball who got scorned for it all both in school and at home, and tell her, after punching all the assholes of course, that she’s the most amazing, beautiful, kind and loving person I’ve ever met and that she had always deserved so much better than what she got. Oh, and that I don’t ever want to know what my life would be like without her.”
“Stop,” Lupe croaks out, because the tears had started falling already and now she can’t keep the sobs in anymore, not that Jess wants her too.
She doesn’t waste a second to gather Lupe in her arms and kiss every inch of her face as she cries helplessly, holding on to Jess like a lifeline. “It’s true Lu, it’s all true. Fuck, I love you.”
“I - I heard stuff like that so often,” Lupe manages to say against Jess’s chest, not looking her in the eye, “my parents most of all, but coming from her... I don’t know, it made it so much worse. I did so much,” a sob shakes her whole body, “sacrificed so much for her. I didn’t want to keep her, you know? But then they put her in my arms and I thought - I thought she didn’t deserve abandonment as the first act of love towards her. Because I loved her. Yet she sees me as a fuck up too.”
“She doesn’t.” Jess holds her tighter. “She doesn’t, Lu. She’s a teenager. Everything is against her, and she has many weapons to hurl whenever she feels threatened. She just has more ammo against you, because she’s been in for the whole ride. But hell if that kid doesn’t love you, Lu.”
Lupe breaths in, then out. Breaths in, then out. By the third breath her hold on Jess loosens. By the fifth she looks at her. “Why are you so good? Why haven’t you escaped this house of madness?”
“Do you think I’m not messed up too?”
Lupe’s shoulder goes up in a barely-there, involuntary shrug, but Jess notices it anyway. “Not remotely like this. God, I’ve hurt you over my messes enough time to know.”
Jess pushes sweaty curls away from Lupe's face. “And I’ve forgiven you, Lu. Truly and always. Do you think anything you do can drive me away at this point?"
Lupe doesn’t move, nor does she look away, so Jess sees it and isn't surprised, not really, that this part of her does seem to think that there is a possibility.
“Well, there is none. And do you know why that is? Yes, I may have a good family that always let me embrace who I am and gave me free rein to explore it too, but you know what they would say?” She imitates her father’s voice as best as she can, “‘Oh, that’s Jess for you, she’s just weird like that, wild as always, do not mind her’”.
“Sounds about right,” Lupe says with a chuckle.
“It does.” Jess smirks for just a moment too, before sobering up and inching that much closer to Lupe’s face, so to breathe the same air. “But not until I met you anybody had ever truly got me. I had resigned myself to be the oddball, the undefianable creature of chaos that people would either laugh at or want to fuck, then you waltzed into my life, being just as intense as me, just as wild and insatiable about the best things in life...”
Lupe quirks an eyebrow up. “What, baseball and women?”
“Obviously. And you were always so goddamn cocky about it too.” Jess can’t resist kissing her lips, enjoying the sound of approval she makes. “I can’t believe I fell for it so fucking hard.”
Lupe’s smile is blinding now, all teeth that the press may call “vampire” but to Jess they make the hottest damn smile in the world. “Oh, but you did. The unfuckable fuckboy Jess McCready, absolute ladykiller, completely undone by me. You bought me a fucking ring. A very badass ring, but still.”
“Oh hey, hi pot.” Jess kisses her again, harder this time, pushing her back on the mattress, before whispering against her lips, “I’m kettle. You bought me a damn ring too, unfuckable fuckboy Lupe García, absolute ladykiller, completely undone by me.”
“Damn right.” Lupe opens her mouth to deepen the kiss, pulling at Jess’s braid to get better access as their tongues meet. “I have no regrets whatsover.”
“Exactly.” They’ve started to move against each other now, the friction of each other’s tighs perfectly angled to make them both gasp again - so maybe they do have another round in them after all. “We’re a perfect match, and you’d be a damn fool to think I’d ever let you go.”
Lupe has no words as her head falls backwards in pleasure, while Jess’s lips press on her pulse point, so they don’t speak again until after they’re done riding this new wave together. The sound of their bodies slapping against each other is entirely filthy, especially as they are completely slick with sweat at this point, the smell of it, and of sex, so encompassing that it is downright intoxicating and makes Jess press that much harder on Lupe's cunt and chase her own pleasure at the same time. They forget to keep quiet as they both come, but they barely notice.
“Woah,” Lupe says, breathing hard against Jess’s shoulder. “You do make a convincing argument, hermano. I’d be a fool not to marry you, if I’m always gonna cum this hard.”
Jess lets out a chuckle, her head resting on Lupe’s chest. “I knew you were only with me for my ladyloving skills.”
“What other reason could there be?”
“Puta.”
“Hey! Do not go sounding like my mother now.”
Jess starts laughing harder, and Lupe slaps her playfully on her back, before holding her tighter as she laughs too. Then she stops. Her fingers have found the scratches on Jess’s back, and she groans.
“Oh yes, you did that.” Jess looks at her, and Lupe tries to cover her shit-eating grin with her hand, which only makes Jess grin wider. “I call it a job well done on my part.”
“I’m never gonna live this one down, am I?”
Jess kisses her palm. “Nope. I’m gonna brag about it when you least expect it.”
“Díos mio.” Lupe rolls her eyes and lets Jess’s face go, only to pull Jess’s head back towards her to kiss her again. “You’re gonna be the death of me.”
“Nah ah, you ain’t getting off that easy. You are about to swear until death do us part.”
“I may kill you first then.”
“You could never do the world such a disservi-”
Lupe just shuts her up again, and Jess falls in easily.
They make out lazily for another while, before finally deciding to go take a shower and get back into their room. Not that they don’t drag it out as much as humanly possible - they’re gonna need so much coffee in the morning - making out a little bit more in the shower or soaping each other up a little bit too sexily or giggling like fourth graders just as Jo had called them when they change the sheets in the guest room because Jess made a joke about it being as if they’d peed the bed.
But when they see Alma, the menace, still asleep in their bed, looking so innocent like she often isn’t anymore, they can’t help but share a look and smile fondly, before getting under the covers on either side of her and falling asleep almost immediately, their hands clasped together around their daughter.
It may have taken them awhile to get here, to learn how to be a family, how to love each other right, but what matters most is that there’s nowhere else Jess would rather be. And she doesn’t feel like that much of an oddball anymore.