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The divorce, was finally final. It had been like pulling teeth. It wasn't even particularly contentious, but everything had been so drawn out. Benji hadn't ever been in a hurry in his life, and when it came to things he didn't look forward to, he turned dragging his feet into an artform.
The girls had been no help. Grace had refused to be involved in any of it. ‘You’re a big girl, mom, you made this decision, I’m not choosing sides or helping either one of you.’ Not that she’d asked her to choose sides, mind. She had just asked her to remind her father to reply to emails, letters, or return phone calls once in a while, but according to her eldest daughter that was interfering, she’d said something about the ‘Prime Directive,’ which was enough to make her regret introducing the kids to Star Trek in the first place. Katie on the other hand, was a little too involved, inserting herself into every conversation she could, fretting and stressed and anxious about every tiny decision, especially when it came to the house.
In the end she’d let Benji keep it, deciding the maintenance on the old house in the suburbs wasn’t worth her time, and had found a nice cozy rowhouse closer to the hospital. Technically, tonight wasn’t a ‘divorce party,’ even though her friends told her that such things were fashionable these days. Tonight was an ‘apartment warming,’ even though she’d been living here for 3 months now, she hadn’t had anyone except her daughters over.
Tonight, the place was crowded, her coworkers, friends, family. It was wonderful, the first time in a long time when she’d let people into her home like this. She’d stopped throwing her annual parties a few years before the divorce, feeling like the tensions weren’t worth it. The house full of life, conversation, it made the old muscles of Dana, the perfect host, stretch out, old reflexes springing back to life. She was having a wonderful time. It was also, unfortunately, way too hot. So after taking a turn through the party, making sure the coolers were still stocked, the snacks still piled, the mess at least contained, she slipped out the front door, to have a cigarette on the front stoop. Some quiet, some fresher air, some nicotine, that was what she needed. To soothe her nerves. She still wasn't sure if the party was a good idea, if her reasons for throwing it were justified.
As the smoke hit her lungs, the door behind her opened, and someone joined her leaning against the brick. "You still throw a good party, Evans." The warm voice of a friend she hadn't yet made time to talk to tonight.
"That so, McKay? I thought I might be getting rusty." She felt a little nervous, and the nicotine was not doing anything close to enough to soothe her worries.
The redhead scoffed playfully, "Oh come on, you're a born host."
"I suppose." She let out a heavy sigh.
"You alright, D?" Concern crept into her voice.
"What am I doing, Cass?" She shook her head slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm almost 60, I'm divorced, what am I thinking?" She leaned her head back, exhaling a thin stream of smoke to the sky.
"You were unhappy, you deserve to be happy, and from the sound of it, you hadn't been for a while." Cassie bumped their shoulders together as they leaned against the brick.
"Benji's a good man, he wasn't a bad partner, and now I'm what, living alone? Katie's pissed at me, Grace's kids told me the new house is weird. All for what, dating again, an empty bed?" Her voice cracked.
"Sorry to be blunt, but I mean, you were the one who filed, right? You wanted this, didn't you?" The younger woman's eyes met hers, her blue eyes glistening in the moonlight.
"I did, I do. I didn't love him anymore. Not sure I ever really did. Not like that, just felt like what I was supposed to do. I guess I just thought, I don't know, it would be easier." She ran her hand down her face.
"What, did you think the second your divorce was final, some perfect hunk would swoop in and sweep you off your feet?" The redhead lightly punched her in the shoulder,
She let out a bitter laugh, "I mean, not quite looking for a hunk, but a girl can hope, right?"
The redhead lifted an eyebrow. "I hear you, I definitely had some expectations when mine ended, but well, you know how well that's going for me."
"I think that's part of what's getting to me, I mean, look at you, Cass. You're a catch. If it's not working for you, what chance has an old lady like me got?" She stubbed out her cigarette end and left it in her ashtray.
Cass's voice rose, a protective outrage in her voice, "Don't talk like that, Dana. You're stunning, always have been."
Her voice fell, "You're just saying that."
The redhead's voice was painfully sincere, "I mean it, any man would be lucky to have you.-"
She coughed, cutting the younger woman off, "Or whoever."
"Or whoever?" The younger woman coughed. "But I mean it, Dana. I know it's hard, because of the schedules we work, but it's not hopeless. I mean, are you even on any of the apps? Samira told me I had to get on the apps."
She scoffed. "Oh what does she know, she met her girlfriend at work." The idea of taking romantic advice from a twenty something who'd snared a surgery attending by batting her eyelashes once or twice made Dana Evans irritated, then again, a lot of things did.
"Sure, Yeah. But she had to make a move, that's the point. You have to put in some effort, on your part. Open yourself up to things."
The older woman sighed, "so just announcing my divorce, and throwing a party isn't quite enough, huh?"
Cassie paused before she answered, "I guess it could be, if you'd invited someone to the party, that you were, you know, interested in."
Dana Evans wished she'd brought a beer with her when she'd come out to smoke, she needed something to do with her hands. "Maybe I did."
Cassie's voice was a low whisper. "You gonna talk to him?"
She took a deep breath, feeling for all the world like she was standing on the edge of a cliff, "Never said it was a him, Cass."
"'Or whoever', you said."
"I did."
"Think... she," the resident enunciated the word carefully, waiting until she saw Dana nod slightly, "might get the message?"
"I think," the charge nurse tried to keep her voice even, but there was a quaver in it all the same "she might."
Cassie's hand brushed against her knuckles, "Dana?"
She did not remember the last time she'd felt this nervous, "Yeah, Cass?"
The younger woman pushed away from the wall, moving to stand in front of her, face to face, "Shit, are you, I mean, are you saying what I think you're saying?"
She let herself get lost in those blue eyes, marveling again at the wedge of hazel in her right eye, like a mountain cutting through a clear blue sky "I'm trying to. Unless you don't want me to."
"I," Cassie hesitated, catching herself "you're not gonna regret this in the morning?"
She smiled slyly, "I've been thinking about this a while, McKay."
The resident's eyebrows shot up, "Please tell me you didn't leave your husband for me."
She let out a pleased huff. "That had been coming long before I met you. Although..."
"Although what?"
She lifted her hand, to gently hold Cassie's chin between her forefinger and thumb, "Those baby blues sure didn't hurt matters."
Cassie laughed, the real deep cackle ringing out brightly through the warm dark night, as she lightly punched her in the shoulder.
The charge nurse's voice was low, hungry but "So, what do you think?"
"I think I've wanted to kiss you for a long time, Dana Evans."
"I ain't stoppin' you."
Their mouths drifted together in slow motion, starting tentatively, the faintest brush of lips, both mouths still acrid from their recently discarded cigarettes. The heat between them built steadily, gentle contact escalating as an arm found Dana's waist, and a hand pulled Cassie in by the neck. She sucked the younger woman's lip into her mouth, a low groan escaping from deep in her throat. The world around her, every thought every sound were absorbed into the to the kiss, the first of what she hoped were dozens more. She licked into Cassie's mouth as her other hand found itself eagerly cupping the redhead's ass, while her hand fisted in the front of dana's sweater.
"Woo! Dana Evans look at you go!" The all too familiar voice of the one and only Trinity Santos.
She was accompanied by Dennis and Victoria, stumbling tipsily out of her house, presumably to wait for their rideshare.
Cassie snorted "Of course the second I kissed you, we get caught by the kids."
Victoria giggled as she grabbed Trinity's sleeve, "C'monnnn Trinnnnnn, let 'em smoooch."
"'M just enjoyin' the show, Crash, the car's still a few minutes out." As her arm found the youngest's waist. Dennis was resolutely staring at what he seemed to think must be a particularly fascinating square inch of side walk.
"Careful, Dr Santos, if you ever want a free moment to catch up on your charting on shift..."
A warm whisper against her lips, "ah, c'mon Evans. I don't mind giving her a little bit of a show." The redhead's lips found hers again, parting as a warm tongue licked into her mouth. Ah well, of all the ways she lose her dignity in front of some drunken junior doctors, this was pretty close to the best she could think of.