Part 3 Continuation of Farewell co-written with @helloaschefire

part 1
part 2

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Long Post UnderCut, Story Post, Over Due Post. Sorry for the Wait!  queued post while part 4 is being worked on.  XOXOX Cliche trope alert I fangirl over, fight me LOL!

Valentina quickly found herself inside the safehouse of Home Plate. The corner of a pallet tried to take her feet from her while she tried not to trip over Dog and  Cupid.  She’d never been inside and found the dim light and close-packed clutter confusing. She got just a quick look around before Johan sat her down on an uncomfortable couch jammed in a corner. She saw a cloud of dust billow up around them as Johan rummaged around, full of nervous energy. Waving off what dust threatened to enter her nose, she found them surrounded by boxes of ammo, weapon systems, cans of food and potable water. Among the pallets of junk, she knew more than one box was full of liquor and chems. A small sigh escaped her.

Johan returned and handed her a small box of soaps shaped like roses. He carried in his other hand a bottle of whiskey. She spied the familiar bulge of a jet inhaler in his pocket. He fell onto the couch beside her, and with pain-filled eyes asked her, “How was the pie?”

"Pie? What?” It came back to her. She’d been at the Castle when he shoved a piece of pie at her and stormed off. “I loved the Pie. I wanted to save you a bite, but I couldn’t find you.”  She had looked for him a little later but was told he left. She would not tell him she felt oddly guilty when she tasted the pie, that didn’t taste as sweet as she thought pie should because she wanted to cry. She thought he was mad at her, but she didn’t want the pie to go bad?

He whispered, distracted, looking at her up and down. “Good, good, I’m glad.“

"Johan, are you okay?” Valentina could not hide her concern or confusion.

“No, I’m not alright. I miss her,” he said with a set jaw. He smoothed his left hand over his beard. “All the time.”

“Ohhhhh Nora.” She nodded while distracting herself with the faint rosy scent of the soaps. She smiled a tiny bit, not to be dismissive of his feelings, but happy that the cause of his distress wasn’t something dangerous or something she caused. Valentina still felt horrible because her number one goal was to see Jo happy, and tt was obvious to anyone he was not. She closed the soaps up and watched him with concerned eyes. This sad, grumpy bear broke her heart because there was nothing she or anyone could say that could take the pain away.

“Yeah, Nora.” He said her name with a sigh as he worked the cap off the whiskey. "Piper looks like her. Too much.”

She blinked rapidly and turned her head to hid the shift from sadness to jealousy. Did she really have to hear about Piper too? What was she supposed to say? She decided to stay silent and patted her knee for Cupid’s attention. The scent of whiskey filled the dusty storage room. She pulled a sour face as she looked around at the clutter. She felt suddenly stupid for acting the schoolgirl at his hand grabbing. “I had no idea,” she said eventually.

“I can’t look at her anymore,” he said while offering Val the bottle and the first swig. “I have to keep my eyes on the future. Not, not the past.” He didn’t see the safe house or Valentina’s discomfort. He saw his old life as just a shadow smear on the far wall. Gone. All gone.

She’d take the bottle with silent thanks more than happy to take a much much MUCH needed drink. One of those long pulls, burning throat or no. It’s not the whiskey that made her choke after she pulled the bottle away from her lips. It was what he said and tried to cover up with a half ass cough? He never does that. Why was he…. she’s  looking at him, with a little furrow in her brows, the back of hand drying the corner of her mouth and chin. She hands the bottle back to him with the other hand.  She wouldn’t even realize she was doing it. That look. But it wouldn’t last long.

And then, with a whiskey gravel voice, "I broke up with her. It was… wrong.”

“You broke up with her because of Nora?” Lovely perfect Nora, Val couldn’t be mad at a ghost, but Piper must have been. That woman could spit fire and cut with words. “I’m sorry, Jo.” She didn’t know what to say yet again. She shook the bottle for him to take because obviously, he needed a drink too.

He did need a drink and drank deep. The liquor turned his voice whiskey rough. “I’m an asshole, Val. I should’ve never hooked up with her. I should’ve….” He didn’t know what he should have done. Kept it in his pants? Yes. That. He drank again.

When he paused to take a drink, she jumped in a little angry that he called himself out like that. “You’re not an asshole, and besides, we all make mistakes.” She didn’t think much else about it and gave him a little shrug. Was she angry, at him? At Piper? At Nora? Maybe herself, but not him.  He was no asshole.

“She thinks you and me …“ Johan trailed off while giving her the sideways eye. She slapped her hand over her mouth to keep a laugh from coming out.

"What? Piper said you and me…. What?” What a crazy notion, she thought, while also trying to figure how to explain what it was that made her laugh. Perhaps it was the egg on Piper’s face, because she and Johan did not cheat on her. Was Piper going to be angry with her too? “I mean, what?”

“Would it be so crazy? The thought of you and me. Together?”  He offered her the bottle since he’d been stingy with it so far. “I told her we weren’t. I would never do that. I don’t think she believed me.”

Val bit her lower lip to keep words from spilling out when he asked about it being crazy. How dare he out her like this, here. Now. She was unaware what color her face was turning, white or red. She had more than a few familiar daydreams run through her mind as she reached for the bottle, refusing to meet his eyes as she did. Then she heard what he said.

‘I would never do that.’ His words.

They stung and made her angry. She tried to wash whatever was boiling up away with a strong drink, but putting alcohol on a fire never diminishes it, only encourages it.

“Never do that. What? Exactly? Is that? That you’d never do?”  Her accent was more apparent, her words bitten off. Why was she so angry when she was just so happy? Why did this man have her so twisted in knots? She thrust the bottle back at him before she shot to her feet.

Mumbling part to herself and part whoever could hear, “so… bin ich jetzt so, wie ich bin unwürdig, ein Witz. etwas, das niemand lieben oder lieben möchte”

She eyed the door and went to motion Cupid with her hand.

Johan watched, dumbfounded and confused as to why Valentina was so angry? Valentina had always been easy to talk to. Easier than any in the Commonwealth since he emerged from cryostasis. Now, she was unable to understand? He stood up, the bottle dangled from his fingers. “Dammit, where are you going?” He asked. “I would never cheat on her.” Dog, from the shadows, darted in, quick as any cattle dog and deft as any wingman, to try to trip up Val’s feet.

Dog’s sudden movement alerted the already whining Cupid, sensing her partner’s change in mood. Valentina’s faithful dog moved to jump between Valentina and Dog. Valentina spun on her heel, turning back the moment she heard him speak. Her original intention was to get some fresh air to clear her head and maybe cry. Why did he break her down so quickly?

Any quip she had ready was dead in the air;  air that was also filled with two dogs vying for position around her lightly drunken feet in an already cluttered room.

“I’m Sorry. Of course, that’s what you meant, Johan. I’m a trottel,” she said. Trying to step over and around Dog and Cupid, forced from her course and sent her right back to the couch, or what should have been the couch. Instead, Valentina found herself catching herself on Johan and looking up straight up at him.

He caught her. With one arm strong around her waist, He lifted his free hand, still holding the bottle, just brush her cheek. Her eyes. Her eyes. He lost himself in them until the Dog’s low warning growl cut tension and his awareness blossomed to where they were. He let her go, that strong arm guided her behind him. Dog crouched by the door. Cupid did the same on the opposite side. The lock turned while he replaced the bottle with a pistol.Preston Garvey sticks his head into Home Plate.

Dog barked an immediate retreat when Preston Garvey stuck his head into Home Plate.  "Hello, General. We’ve been trying to get you on the com.“