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Winnie comes to her months down the line, the sweet smile on her face trying to hide the tears in her eyes.
Gloria can tell as soon as she opens her front door, her heart sinking at the sight of her. She places a hand on Winnie's shoulder, guides her into her home with a sympathetic smile, "Come on in. I'll make you some tea."
- - -
Gloria helps her with the divorce papers, a self deprecating tinge of humour to her voice. "Take it from me, I'm the expert on this."
Winnie smiles, soft eyes fixed on her friend, who turns to look at her with an unasked question of: "What?"
"Just..." Winnie's fingers reach out gently, touching the other woman's knee. "Just wanna thank you, is all. You've been such a good friend these past few weeks."
Gloria's eyes cast between the hand on her knee and the soft features of Winnie's face. She feels her own smile, curling on her lips as she places her fingers atop Winnie's own. "Well, what are friends for?"
- - -
"I got a date," Gloria tells her one evening, the two of them drinking wine at her kitchen table.
Winnie is over more often than not nowadays, her apartment feeling too small and pokey compared to her previous marital home.
"Oh, yeah?" Winnie doesn't know why her heart flutters a little uneasily at Gloria's words, but she forces a smile regardless. "Who's that then?"
"One of them fellas off those dating websites," Gloria says, eyes a little distant as she thinks about it. "Nathan got me on one of them. I thought there'd be a lot of weirdos out there, you know? But this fella Joe, he seems pretty nice."
"Oh, yeah?" Winnie tries so hard not to sound disappointed, taking another long sip of her wine. She's happy for her, she is, she just... she doesn't know why she feels like this. "Well, uh, make sure you meet him somewhere public. Well lit, you know? You hear all sortsa horror stories about them dating sites, you know?"
Gloria's brow furrows a little, her smile fading slightly. She nods firmly, holding Winnie's eye. "Well, it can't be much worse than the things I've seen, huh?"
- - -
Online dating ends up not working out very well for Gloria, but she doesn't mind much.
Nathan's turning seventeen, and Gloria is working her way up her career ladder. She's thinking of joining the Department Of Homeland Security, the opportunity being too good to refuse.
Winnie encourages her, although Gloria can tell that something is off when she starts talking about moving for the job. Nathan's off to college next year, so it's the perfect time for her to move, but Winnie seems almost sad when she smiles and tells her she's happy for her.
Gloria can't help but feel a little sad too.
- - -
On the day of Nathan's seventeenth birthday party, Winnie arrives two hours early with a gift and a smile, "Need a hand?"
Gloria is surprised to see her, but her eyes light up all the same, smiling as she opens the door and welcomes her in. "Well, jeez, if I knew you were prepared to help out, I'd have asked you over earlier."
There's the sound of music playing on the radio in the kitchen and the voices of Ron and Dale, talking about the cake Gloria had decided to purchase.
Winnie laughs as Gloria takes her coat, her hands sliding over Winnie's shoulders and giving them a quick squeeze before she places her coat on the rack. Winnie's cheeks flush warm at the touch, despite the cold Minnesotan air.
"Is that Miss Lopez?" Ron calls from the kitchen, his voice sounding cheery.
Winnie beams as she makes her way to the kitchen, Gloria following behind, "I thought I'd come to help you out. God knows parties can be a pain in the kaboose."
Dale greets her with a smile, and Ron waves as she enters the kitchen.
"Winnie, let me ask you a question," Ron says, waving her over to the table. "Does this cake look a bit funny to you?"
Winnie squints as she leans over the table, inspecting the round cake with a couple of soccer balls and a big 1 above them. "Well... if you were to ask me, I'd say those soccer balls and that big ol' one there resembled something similar to male genitalia."
"I told you," Ron chuckles heartily, turning to Dale, who rolls his eyes.
Gloria mirrors Dale's response, folding her arms as she leans against the door frame, "Well, you try finding a bakers around here that specialises in birthday cakes for seventeen year old boys."
"Ooh, better not let him hear you calling him a boy," Winnie says as she turns to Gloria and playfully pokes her in the arm. "He's a young man now. Seventeen."
Gloria sighs, a melancholy smile playing on her lips. "Yeah, I know. It's just that the time goes by so fast, you know? Next year, I'll be off to Washington, and he'll be at college. It's gonna be a little lonely."
Winnie's fond smile softens, her eyes growing sadder as she places a hand on Gloria's arm. She squeezes it gently, holds Gloria's eye for a moment before nodding, "You're gonna be fine. Anyone can see that."
Dale and Ron exchange wordless glances, as if saying something would intrude on a moment between the two women.
"I know," Gloria nods, taking in the lines of Winnie's soft features. She's been far too kind to her. She brought her back from feeling so hopeless all those years ago, and now she was doing the same, and yet, it felt somewhat like it wasn't working the same. "I know."
The sound of the front door opening distracts them, and the distinct sound of Nathan's voice calls through the house, announcing his arrival.
Winnie pulls away from Gloria, watches with a smile as Gloria calls out to her son, gently telling him off for coming home so early.
Winnie wonders how lonely she's going to feel when Gloria is gone.
- - -
Months go by.
Winnie goes on a few dates, but they don't work out. The men remind her too much of her ex, or none of them are interested in having kids. Some of them tell her she's too old to even keep considering that.
She isn't even offended. She's just... frustrated. She spends most of her nights off at bars with Gloria, or at Gloria's home that's slowly growing less cluttered as she prepares to move.
Gloria's been focused on the house mainly, getting it looking pretty for the realtor pictures.
Winnie helps her paint over brown wood with a fresh coat of white, and Gloria catches herself captivated by it, smiling as Winnie twirls around her living room in a pair of overalls to a song playing on the radio, paintbrush in hand.
"I'm gonna need you to teach me some of them moves before I'm gone," Gloria says as Winnie bumps the side of her hips against Gloria's. Gloria makes a little 'oop' sound at the contact, laughing as Winnie leans into her.
Gloria's hands move to Winnie's biceps, almost holding her back against her front in an embrace, as if they'd just finished dancing together. Gloria swallows around the lump in her throat, eyes fixed on Winnie's soft face and round lips stretched into a grin, and those familiar, comforting eyes.
Winnie's grin softens into a smile, her body unmoving as she holds Gloria's eye for the longest moment, the song on the radio having shifted to commercials by now. Winnie leans away from Gloria's touch, and Gloria's stomach sinks, eyes casting down to the carpet as she regains her posture.
Gloria's disappointment fades when she feels the warm weight of Winnie's hands, pressed against her shoulders, and she looks up to meet Winnie's eye again.
"I'm gonna miss you," Winnie says, and her voice is so soft that Gloria has to repeat the words in her head. She rubs her thumbs across Gloria's shoulders, a comforting touch, one that's almost afraid to let go. "I'm gonna miss you so darn much, Gloria Burgle."
Gloria doesn't realise how emotional she's getting until she feels the hot prick of tears behind her eyelids, and it's just like back at the bar all those years ago, when Winnie had given her a sense of worth again.
Looking up with a melancholy smile, Gloria doesn't care about the tears staining her cheeks, or the way her voice cracks when she speaks, "You don't have to miss me."
Winnie's eyes widen a little, lips parting as if searching for words.
Gloria's fingers, warm and gentle, press against Winnie's cheeks as she closes the gap between them.
It's a soft, chaste press of lips, the both of them almost too frightened to move.
But then Winnie is closing her eyes, and Gloria can feel the grip of Winnie's hand in her paint stained t shirt, pulling her closer into the kiss.
Gloria's thumbs caress Winnie's cheeks, stroking over warm, wet tears that fall there as Winnie's lips move against her own.
They stay like that for a moment, until Gloria's pulling back gently, their foreheads pressed together as she catches her breath and tries to remember how to speak, "Wow."
Gloria can feel Winnie's cheeks shift under her fingers as she grins, and Gloria responds with a soft chuckle.
"Well, that sure was something," Winnie beams, her fingers holding onto Gloria's waist as she pulls back, looking at her once again, taking in the flush pink of her cheeks and the curve of her mouth. Winnie's chest blooms. "Well, I never thought I'd see ya blush, but here we are. And it's from me, too!"
Gloria's laughter is like birdsong to Winnie as she shakes her head, not quite believing what had just happened either.
Although, in some ways, she had expected it. Like these past few years had been leading up to just this. To the two of them standing in Gloria's near empty living room, the smell of paint in the air and kissing like they were a couple of young sweethearts, and not two cops who've seen so much carnage and been through so many obstacles.
It's all they both could ever ask for.
- - -
Varga gets exactly what's coming to him.
Gloria comes home with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.
Winnie is sat on the couch, hand laid over her round stomach, hair loose around her shoulders. When Gloria smiles at her, she can tell that she's won this thing without her saying a word.
"I bought us some burgers," Gloria announces, shaking the bags in her hands as she makes her way over to the couch. "I know the IVF doctor said you gotta cut down on the red meat, so I got you fish fillet."
"Oh, I don't think Dale and his new vegan craze is gonna like that," Winnie beams as Gloria presses a kiss against her forehead and hands her her burger.
"Hey, it might be his sperm, but it's our baby," Gloria settles down on the couch besides Winnie, their shoulders pressed together as she unwraps her own burger and fixes her eyes on the television, settling back into the comfort of a home life she never thought she'd find again.
It takes a minute or two for Gloria to realise that Winnie is looking at her, and when she turns her head, Winnie's glowing smile is like a warm swell in her chest. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Gloria laughs, "What? Ketchup on my face?"
"No," Winnie takes a bite out of her burger, her big eyes shining under the fairy lights that line their apartment walls. "It's just... I just love you, Gloria Burgle."
As her face cracks into a grin, Gloria thinks that she's never going to grow tired of hearing Winnie say that, "Well, I love you too, Winnie Lopez."