Reece's Faith (54 page)

Cori shot her a pleading look.

"Its alright, Cori, I'm not going to hurt him. Faith did that better than I could. I think he's learned not to fuck with me... or Faith, for that matter. Haven't you, sir?"

Quinn backed up another step; Reece cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. When the man didn't answer, she sat down on the coffee table a good distance away. "Take off your coat, Mr. Ashford, you're staying for dinner."

Violet came out of the kitchen with that comment.

"You want me to stay?" he asked dazed.

"Shit no, I can't stand to look at you and I know the feeling's mutual," she chuckled, "but Faith does."

"She doesn't want to look at me either," he hung his head down. Marsha came over and hugged him.

"Sir, you have a terrific wife and a fantastic daughter. How you turned out to be such a flaming asshole, I'll never know. But," she sighed deeply. "Faith loves you, god only knows why, so I have to play Suzy fucking homemaker."

Quinn looked to his wife as if to say, 'Does she always talk like that?' Marsha just shrugged.

Reece bowed her head and blew out a breath, ruffling her hair. She didn't want to do this, but for Faith, she'd walk through Hell and back. Leaning forward on her elbows she continued, "Faith doesn't want you to leave as much as I don't want you to stay. So, you have options here. You either go upstairs and apologize, tell her how much you love her and make this a great Christmas for everyone -- and personally, I really hated Christmas until Faith walked into my life -- or you can leave and probably never see her again."

Quinn's lip quivered.

"Of course, that would break her heart, in turn make my life a little more difficult, in which case you'd be at the very top of my shit list," Reece couldn't hide the smirk as the man grimaced.

"Thank you," Marsha cried.

"Go on, the choice is yours, but I suggest you go up and be Faith's father. I would have given anything to know what that's like, sir." Reece got up and started to walk into the kitchen. She felt very sad -- for Faith and her father.
How can you make a miracle, produce a life and be so careless with it?

"Reece?"

The tall woman started at her name coming out of his mouth. She turned to see his hand outstretched. "Don't patronize me sir. You can hate me, I don't care," Reece sneered.

"Reece, please. I mean it," Mr. Ashford held his shaking hand out and tried again. "What you said about not having a father..."

"Is none of your concern. Go up and make sure Faith knows hers still loves her no matter what. That's what fathers do, isn't it?"

Quinn wouldn't take no for an answer. He clasped Reece's forearm and turned her around. "Okay, so I'm an asshole."

Reece snorted and looked at his hand.

A flaming asshole."

Reece exhaled a laugh through her nose.

"I was afraid for Faith. All I heard were stories about you... I saw you arrested, lose your cool plenty of times; I was scared. You have to admit, you're pretty intimidating when you want to be." Reece nodded so he continued, "Then I saw what happened today..." he sighed heavily, "I'm ashamed to admit that I was worried about what others may say about Faith; how it would make me look."

"Fuck 'em," Reece shrugged.

"Have you seen some of those people? Not with someone else's..."

"Quinn!"

"Well, you get the point," he grinned. "I was afraid that you were hurting her, I mean the way you hurt me didn't convince me that... Anyway, then Faith told me how much you mean to her, how incredibly happy she is... and she's right you know, every father wants his little girl to be that happy for the rest of her life. I shouldn't care that you're a woman or what other people think."

"She said she's happy? How happy did she say she was? She told you I make her
that
happy?" Reece blurted out.

"You're such an asshole, Reece," Cori laughed.

"Food's almost ready, everyone," Violet announced.

Reece shook Mr. Ashford's hand loose. "Well, time to make merry," she turned to go upstairs.

"Reece? I thought I was going to go up?" Quinn asked hopefully.

"I think she'd love that," Reece smiled and took his hand this time.

"Thank you so much for the chance, Reece."

"Don't fuck it up. I still don't like you very much."

Reece shook his hand a bit longer before going to the couch. A hundred emotions swirled around in her head, making it throb. She leaned back and covered her eyes with her arm.

"Shit I hope I did the right thing."

Someone sat down very close and suddenly Reece was enveloped in a warm soft embrace.

"Hey!" she jumped up uncomfortably.

"Oh stop being so butch and let a mother hug you for once."

"Fine," she said tensely although she had to admit, it felt really good. She relaxed into her lover's mother's arms and sighed contentedly. It felt safe.

"You did really well, Theresa. I'm so proud of you."

To her utter embarrassment, tears sprang to Reece's eyes.

"Shhh, it's alright. Just you let me hold you." Mrs. Ashford had a feeling that the fearless strong woman needed to cry. These last few days had been an emotional roller coaster. She had often wondered about this woman, what made her the way she is? It was apparent that she was hurt, troubled, but she was curious to know why. Cori barely contained her laughter when the older woman asked her if the club owner ever really cried or if she ever talked about her mother. The dancer briefly explained to Faith's mom the hell that was her friend's childhood and this made the older woman weep herself.

Marsha was determined to let the dark woman know she had someplace to go if she just needed to be held.
Everyone deserved that much out of life... to be hugged, noncommittally, no questions asked. What a shame,
she thought,
that Theresa never knew a mother's unconditional love. She never knew what it felt like to have someone tell her she was special, or important, looked at her through a mother's eyes.

The older woman felt her daughter's lover clasp her tightly and try to pull away. Knowing that the usually controlled woman was probably mortified by her actions, she had to reassure her. Marsha pulled back and held Reece's face in her hands. She tried to convey as much understanding with her eyes as she could. She wiped the tears away with her thumbs. "You're such a beautiful girl Theresa. I'm so sorry you never had a mother's love." Mrs. Ashford pushed long black strands behind Reece's ears gently. "It's a terrible shame," she leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"Stop it, Mrs. A., I don't deser... need this, alright?" Reece was terribly ashamed to be crying like this.

"No, you stop it. You're worthy of a little TLC too, you know. No one's too big to need a mommy."

"Jesus!" Reece breathed as her tears renewed themselves. She allowed the older woman to hold her, rock her. She felt like a baby, and for once, it was okay with her. She rubbed her face into the older woman's shoulder, finding her humming reassuring.

"Why don't you think you're deserving of love, sweetheart? How did you get this way? Who hurt you so badly? Hmm?"

"No one. Everyone."

The older woman cradled the tall club owner as she wept. "You're only human, Theresa, and human's need to feel safe; they crave contact. When it's denied too long, they become wild. Is that what happened to you?"

"Yes," Reece shook her head.

"Well, I'll tell you something, never be ashamed to be human."

Reece nodded.

"Faith makes you feel safe, doesn't she?" Mrs. Ashford peered down at the contradiction in her arms.
All power and strength, yet she's as frail as a butterfly.

Another nod followed by a loud sniff.

"Well, we'll keep this our little secret, won't we? No one has to know anything, okay?"

"Okay," Reece sniffled, feeling much better that she did a minute ago.

"Faith is going to come down those stairs and faint dead away when she sees this," Violet whispered to her lover.

"Nonsense. She's gonna crawl up on her momma's lap too," Cori whispered back. "This is so sweet I think I'm gonna cry."

"You think she's ever been hugged like that before?"

"No, never. I can hardly imagine a nun doing motherly... and that bastard who beat her... But Faith
is
Marsha's daughter, so I think Reece got pretty lucky."

"Oh god, Reece! What's wrong?" Faith ran over to the embracing women in a panic.

Reece sniffed a few times before pulling away from the embrace. "Your mom was feeling me up again."

Faith raised an eyebrow at her lover and watched her carefully as she stood up.

"Sir," she acknowledged Mr. Ashford as she passed him by.

"She does give good hugs, huh?" Quinn whispered with a wink.

Red faced, the club owner swiped at her eyes one last time. "Are we gonna eat or what?" she asked, standing behind her lover and wrapping her arms around her middle.

"I'm starved!"

"Yeah, where's the food!?"

"Come on!"

After everyone crowded into the kitchen, the tall woman squeezed Faith harder. She drifted them under the mistletoe and kissed Faith's head. "Are you okay?" she leaned over and kissed an ear, then some neck.

"Perfect. I was going to ask you the same thing," Faith said suspiciously.

"Never been better," she said as she lifted then twirled the actress around.

"Mom does strange things to you, hon. I'm worried about this," Faith chuckled.

"What happened with your father?"

"He surprised me. I woke up and he was sitting on the bed. I had no idea what was going on. Then he told me he loved me," she shook her head. "Coulda knocked me over with a feather," Faith smiled as Reece caressed her belly and showered her neck with tiny kisses. "As if you had nothing to do with it," Faith narrowed her eyes accusingly.

"Me?" Reece pointed at herself and blinked rapidly.

"Oh, right. The picture of innocence. Yeah, you," the actress turned in her lover's embrace and hugged her tightly.

"I only did it 'cuz I thought it would make you happy," the club owner pointed to the mistletoe and Faith leaned up for her kiss.

"And I love you dearly for it," she returned to her position and kissed Reece's bicep.

"He impressed me."

Faith drew back eye's wide and stared at her lover.

"In his own asinine way, he was being as protective of you as I am. I don't think I can really blame him, Faith."

"What do you mean? Whom was he protecting me from?"

"Me," She put her fingers on Faith's lips to hush her, and grinned at the pout she found. "Faith, look at it this way, if you were in his shoes and the only time you met me, I was dressed entirely in leather, groping your wife, beating you up, getting arrested for assault... What would you think? I'm not sayin' he's right for the way he acted, god knows he's an asshole, but really, what would you do?"