TONI POV:
I walk into the bedroom and see an empty bed. I've already accepted that she's gone. I put my bag on the bed and go into the bathroom. I turn on the shower and slow take off my clothes trying make as painless as possible. I step into the shower and slowly clean myself. I jump when I feel 2 arms wrap around me and feel kisses on my shoulder. I sink into her touch and turn around. I cup her cheeks as I stare into her brown eyes. "Cheryl..." I whisper. "Hey." She smiles. I pull her into a kiss. I've been waiting to do that for 6 months now. "I've missed you so much." I whisper moving hair out of her face. "I've missed you too." She says before kissing me. She looks at me. "I'm sorry I was gone so long." I whisper. "Not your fault." She says quietly.
I look at Cheryl as we sit on the hammock watching the sun set in the backyard. "Besides being covered in bruises and cuts. How was your trip?" She ask quietly. "Wasn't much of a trip." She nods. "I know but might make it sound better." I nod. "We finally cornered Penny down in Hawaii. Once we found her we captured her and..." I shake my head. "Killer her?" She ask quietly. "We had to, she was to dangerous." She nods. "I know." She whispers. "She definitely put up a fight. Obviously." She nods. "I'm just happy to be home." I say cupping her cheeks. "I didn't know when I would see you again. I think that was the scariest part." I whisper. "You're home now, that's all that matters." I nod. "I'm home, with the love of my life and I couldn't be happier." I say quietly. "Hawaii was nice, we should go one day." I say quietly. "Have the honeymoon we never got." I suggest. She looks at me. "I thought that trip to Road Island was our honeymoon." I shake my head. "No! I want a fancy honeymoon and we can afford it so we're doing it." She smiles and kisses me. "I'm not opposed to that." She whispers. I smile. "When do you want to go?" She ask quietly. "Next Saturday?" She smiles. "You already have this trip planned don't you?" I nod. She lies into me. "Can't wait." I wrap my arm around her. "Promise me you won't leave like that again." She whispers. "I was worried about you." I nod. "I won't, I promise." I whisper. "Besides this afternoon, when was the last time you showered?" She ask quietly. "Why? Do I still smell?" I ask quietly. "A little bit, but that's more from earlier." She says quietly. I take a deep breath. "I honestly don't remember the last shower I took." I whisper.
I walk into the Wyrm. "Do you know where Jughead is?" I ask Fangs. "Back office." He says quietly. I nod and go in back. I knock on the door. "Come in!" I open the door. "Toni! You're back! I have your next mission." I shake my head. "This isn't the Avengers!" I tell him. "I'm not doing missions anymore. I was gone for 6 months with no contact with my wife! I can't put her through that again, I can't go through that again! If Keller comes to you needed serpents, get Fangs and Sweet Pea to do this stuff." He nods. "Ok, but if they need you you're going." I nod. I walk out of the office and go home. I walk into the house. "You talk to Jughead?" Cheryl ask as I walk into the kitchen. I nod. "Yeah! He's not sending me on any unless Fangs and Sweet Pea can't get out of whatever they got themselves into which is fine because they don't get into that deep of shit that often." I explain. "So that means we can actually have a life together." I tell her. "What do you mean by that?" I shrug. "I've been so busy we haven't been able to sit down and talk about our future." She looks at me. "I want to have a life with you first before we think about children." She tells me. I nod. "I don't hate that." I say quietly. "What do you want to do before that?" I ask her. "Well, I want to travel the world. I want to have sex and not worry about a kid coming in and seeing us!" We both laugh. "I think that's an amazing idea." I whisper. "What do you want to do?" She ask quietly. "Spend as much time as I can with you." I smile. "Do you want to go on a road trip?" She ask quietly. "Where?" She shrugs.
I walk out onto the porch and look out at the beach. I wrap my arms around Cheryl. "I've missed this." She whispers. "You know, with the sex we had last night, we would made a baby." She hits my side. "There's a reason I'm not married to a man." She whispers. I pull her into a kiss. "I love you." I whisper. She smiles. "I love you babe." She says rubbing my cheek. There's a knock on the door. "Room Service!" I smile. "That must be our breakfast." I say smiling.
I walk up to the bed and lie next to Cheryl. She rolls over and lies into me. "You know, not a big fan of the mirror on the ceiling." She says quietly. "No?" I ask quietly. "I don't need to see what we look like having sex, if I wanted to I'd be a porn star." We both laugh. I move some hair out of her face. "Makes sense." I whisper. I look up at it and get flash backs from the mission when I see my face. I've tried not to look at myself in the mirror lately, there's to many cuts and bruises. "You ok?" She ask quietly. "Yeah." I say looking at her. "Toni..." She cups my cheeks. "Talk to me." She whispers. "I can barely look at my face right now, that's all." She smiles sadly. "I'm sorry baby." She whispers. "You haven't really talked about what happened. I don't know if you want to or if you can." She tells me. "I don't think I can. Like emotionally, I think I can legally." I tell her. "I'm not ready." She nods. "I need time." I whisper. "I also haven't fully processed the past 6 months, I was more worried about getting home to you and I'm not just saying that, you were the only thing that kept me alive at some points." She sits up. "You weren't thinking about killing yourself!" I look down. "I didn't know if I had another out." I whisper. "But the thought of one day getting home to you and being with you made me realize I had something to live for." I tell her. She rubs my thigh. "Well, you're here now and that's all I care about." I pull her into a kiss.
I walk into the room. "Knew you'd find me sooner or later." I hear. Penny walks out. "Get her." I get hit to the back with a bat and fall to the ground. I feel someone beat me senseless until I pass out and wake up tied to a chair. "Help!" I scream. "Oh your awake." I look up see Penny. "Please let me go!" I beg. "Please!" I whisper. She hits me. "Found this on you." She shows me my ring. "Cheryl." I whisper. "Blossom?" I look up. "No! Don't hurt her! Please! Kill me don't touch her!" I yell. "Oh, I'm gonna kill you, I can't promise I will keep your maple princess alive." I start crying. She punches me again. "Stop being a pussy." She yells. "Don't hurt her!" I beg. "I bet her head would be amazing on my mantle." She says quietly. "You know, if I don't feed her to the dogs." She adds. "You can't touch her!" I yell. She walks up to me and punches me in the face. "I can't promise that sweetheart. You know that." She whispers getting down to my level. "Please. I can't live without her! Kill me if you have to." I beg. "What if I kill you both?" I shake my head. "No!"
CHERYL POV:
I hear noises coming from the bed. I look over and see Toni tossing and turning. "Please!" She whispers. I start to walk out of the bathroom. "Don't!" She begs in her sleep. "Please don't hurt her!" She yells as she jumps awake. "Toni!" She looks at me. I go and sit on the bed. "Talk to me." I whisper as she cups my cheeks. "I can't." She whispers.
There's a knock on the door. I pick my head up. We both groan. "I'll get it." I whisper wiping my mouth. I grab a blanket and walk over to the door. I open it and pop my head out. "What?" I ask confused. "Room service." The guys says quietly. "Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot about it. One second." I close the door and grab a shirt and underwear and put them on. I throw the blanket at Toni. "Make it look like you're still sleeping or something." She smiles and does so. I open the door. "Sorry about that you can bring it right in." I smile. He brings the stuff in and leaves. "Breakfast?" Toni ask quietly. "Yeah." She gets up. I get a good look at the bruises and cuts on her. "Are you sure you're ok?" I ask her. She nods. "Yeah, just getting my life together. Maybe coming back so quickly was a bad idea though." I nod. "We can go home if you want." I tell her. "Can I think about it?" She ask quietly. "I'll have an answer tonight." I nod. "It's up to you babe."
TONI POV:
I look at Cheryl. "Can we go home?" I ask her. She nods. "Yeah." I whisper. "When?" She ask quietly. "Tomorrow night?" I ask quietly. She nods. "Ok, good, I already booked tickets." She smiles. "Ok, but we're still having that fancy dinner." I nod. "I changed it to tonight." I whisper. She cups my cheeks. "What?" I ask quietly. "You need to see someone." I shake my head. "No, no! I think once we go home I-I'll be fine." I say quietly. She looks at me. "Toni. You just went through something traumatic. I don't think you're gonna be ok." She says quietly. "I can't Cheryl ok?" I say pissed. "Like if I go and talk to a therapist, they'll report everything to the police!" I tell her. "Yes, Keller knew we were going to get Penny but he didn't know we were going there to kill her! He thinks it was in self defense." I explain. "I can't go back to prison. It's hard enough getting work already." I explain. She nods. "Ok, but if you put me or anyone if physical danger, you're going, I don't care what happens to you as long as everyone is safe. Ok?" I nod. "You can also talk to me. Just because I work with children doesn't mean I can't do the same with adults." She tells me. "I forget you're a psychologist sometimes." I whisper. "Why?" She ask quietly. "You don't try to do your job on me." I say quietly. "Because I know you hate when I do." She says quietly. "But if you need to talk. I know what I'm doing so I can help you." She looks me. I nod.
I sit down in front of Cheryl. "Can we talk?" I ask quietly. She looks up. "Yeah." She nods. "I thought you were dead." I whisper. She looks at me. "Penny said she was gonna kill you." I tell her. "I begged for her to kill me and let you live. When I came home I thought you were dead but I had already accepted it." I tell her. "I figured." She whispers. She nods. "I'm sorry ." I say quietly. "It's not your fault." She says quietly. "Is that why you did what you did?" She ask quietly. "Part of it, yes." She nods. "I had no choice if I wanted to live." I whisper. "I also had to, under Jughead's orders." She nods again. "Can you please say something?" I ask quietly. "I'm just here to listen." She says quietly. "Especially today." She adds. I take a deep breath. She looks at me. "Do you think I'll ever get over this?" I ask her. She looks at me. "Probably, you'll be able to accept what happened. And be able to move on, you'll still think about it, but you'll know that what happened, happened and there's nothing you can do about it." She tells me. I take a deep breath. "You don't know anything I'm going through." I whisper. "I know you don't go to sleep until you know every door and window is locked, until I'm asleep. I know you sleep with a gun next to the bed within arm's reach of you." I look at her. "You're not mad?" I ask quietly. She shakes her head. "You're paranoid. I would be too." She whispers. She looks at me. "I can get ride of it if you need me to." She shakes her head. "I know the gun is registered
So I'm not worried about getting caught with it." I nod. "I'm sorry." I whisper holding back tears. "Don't be. You had no choice." She whispers. "I'm a murderer." She shakes her head. "No you're not." She whispers. "I killed someone." I whisper. "You told me yourself, you had no choice." I look down. "I think we're done for today." I whisper standing up. I wipe my tears. "Ok." She nods. I walk out.
I look at Cheryl. "Can we keep everything we talk about in your office?" She nods. "Like when we leave this room we're married and when we're in this room I am your client." She nods again. "Of course." She smiles. I nod. "And everything we talk about is in this office stays here and you don't bring it up outside of here." She nods. "Of course." She smiles. I nod. "But you can bring our marriage into our conversations when needed." I tell her. "If that's what you need." She says quietly. "Do you mind if I take notes?" She ask quietly. I shake my head. "I don't care." I whisper. "Just don't share them." She nods. "Of course." I nod. "Can we start?" She ask quietly. I nod. "Ok." She whispers. "Do you want to start from the beginning?"