The door to Owen's & Co. swung open and then slammed sharp. The soft ring the bell gave out and the loud sigh that followed signaled the arrival of Potter Roum.
Novella looked up from her bookkeeping as soon as she was made aware of the entrance of her best friend. She'd been in desperate need of some girl time with her apartment having been taken over by Wendell and Victor.
"What's up Potty Pants?" Novella wasn't given a response, just a long sigh. "Come on tell Mama Novie what's wrong."
Novella patted the counter in front of her resulting in Potter hopping on top of it with another sigh.
"I dunno what's wrong Noves," Potter said and put a hand in the middle of her chest, "it just don't feel right in here."
Novella wrapped her friend in a hug and pulled a muffin from under the counter.
"Here, these always make Vic feel better when he's pissed. It should work for what's going on with you."
Potter took the chocolate chip muffin from her and took a bite from it. The relaxed expression that immediately graced her face was enough to let Novella know that the food had helped - but not nearly as much as they would've both liked. Still, it was better than no improvement at all.
"Damn woman," Potter said but her voice wasn't nearly as jovial and carefree as usual, "you sure know how to cook. Whoever Vic is he is one lucky man."
Novella let out a light laugh, that somewhat helped Potter's down mood, and shoved another muffin towards the girl.
"Don't stop eating until you're happy again, alright? I need my bouncy baby back." The wink that Novella sent Potter mixed with her blush so that the heavy feeling in Potter's chest lightened ever so slightly.
"I thought eating my feelings was a bad coping mechanism?" Potter's question earned a shrug of Novella's shoulders and another of her musical laughs. That sound somehow pulled a not so forced laugh from Potter.
"If it is then I have horrible coping mechanisms . . . and so does Vic." Novella thought back to her first visit with Jerome and how Victor had shown up with a milkshake right after. "I mean he gives me chocolate whenever I'm stressed and I give him muffins when he feeling . . . aggressive."
Novella wasn't sure if aggressive was the right word, but it was the closest thing she had to describe how Victor got when he hadn't had a job in a while.
"Aggressive doesn't mean he hurts you right?" Potter's brows scrunched up in concern and Novella couldn't help the disbelieving look that came over her face.
"Oh my gosh no! He wouldn't hurt me even if he had to. Can't say the same about that one time I was kidnapped though . . . I almost died and I'm pretty sure Vic or Dad killed whoever it was that got me." Novella had just started being able to talk about the events from all that time ago, and she still didn't know the whole story.
"Weren't you kidnapped around the time Jerome came back to life?" Potter made a weird zombie-like motion towards the end of her sentence.
"I believe so. Actually, I think I was watching the news about him when my ex decided to go psycho." Novella didn't know how she was talking about it all, but for some reason, Potter was just easy to talk to about anything.
"Well, I promise to not go too psychotic on you," Potter smiled her frighteningly beautiful smile at Novella, "but only if you promise not to leave me when I really start losing my marbles."
"Ah, you can't get rid of me that easily Potter-Tot. If I can stick with sociopaths then I can stick with Potter-o-paths." She lightly bumped into Potter's arm and grinned at the dark-haired girl.
•*•*•*•
Shortly after Potter had left Owen's & Co., Novella called Jim. It had taken everything inside of her not to blow up on him for keeping the truth from her, but she'd managed. At least she had until he walked in the door of her small establishment.
"Hey, Novie." Jim's gruff voice made Novella prickle and the wave he sent her only angered her further.
"Cut the act, Jim." She took a deep breath in, the struggle of not calling him Dad getting to her. "I know the truth."
It didn't take Jim long to understand what his daughter meant, and he didn't like it one bit.
"How-how did you, when did you . . . " He trailed off his questioning when Novella cut him a look.
"Barbara was kind enough to point me in the direction of my cousin." She let the word slip from her lips with enough venom to convey that she wasn't happy about it in the slightest. "Not you, my father, but Barbara freaking Kean! The woman that went so bat-shit she made Jerome look sane. Even she knew that it was important I knew who my mother was."
She took in a deep breath that she hadn't realized she needed and noticed the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes. She, however, refused to submit to the allure of the salty water.
"Why didn't you just tell me?"
Jim looked at his daughter, his beautiful but somewhat broken daughter, and sighed.
"I didn't want you to be disappointed in me." At Novella's confused look Jim went into a deeper explanation.
"Your mother was a beautiful, free-spirit. She had this way about her that pulled you in and made you feel like everything was warm and sunny - even when it wasn't. She and I started out in our freshman year and then she got pregnant when we were both sophomores."
Novella opened her mouth to interject, but Jim held up his hand.
"We were both young, but we loved you more than anything. It was our plan to raise you and eventually get married," Jim paused and looked away from his daughter. When their eyes met again he was fighting back tears as well. "Your mother didn't make it through your birth and I wasn't strong enough to raise you and deal with my grief so I did the only thing I could think to do."
She knew what happened from that point and even if she'd hated the life she'd had with her real aunt and uncle, she had an explanation now.
"You gave me to the only person you trusted enough to care for me . . . your sister that couldn't have children of her own." Jim nodded at Novella's words and then began to further explain.
"You're so much like her, you know, and maybe that's why they didn't accept you as they should've. They always had hated Lena, but she was my world back in high school and she would have loved you."
Novella watched her father as he pulled out an old photograph from his wallet and handed it to her. The tears that she'd been trying to keep at bay fell at the sight of her mother. For the first time in almost twenty-two years, she understood herself.
She understood why her complexion was a few shades lighter than Jim's, and why her nose was just a tad smaller. She understood why her blue eyes would sometimes look green in certain lights and why her natural hair would indeed have a few reddish hints in it. It was because her mother, her beautiful amazing mother, had all of those features.
She had dazzling green eyes and light red hair. She had that pale skin and a dainty little nose that made her look just a tad bit ethereal. In that moment, when Novella locked eyes with her young mother, she understood why her father had fallen for her - and why it had resulted in a teen pregnancy. She was the most beautiful person Novella had ever seen and she didn't doubt one bit that Lena was just as kind as she was beautiful.
"Please tell me she wasn't a psychopath like her nephew," Novella said with her baby-blue eyes peering up at Jim.
He let out a loud laugh at the thought of his Lena hurting anybody.
"No, she wasn't and if she was still alive she would be putting Jerome in line." Jim looked up at the ceiling and back to Novella with that same fond look he'd had the entire time he'd been explaining Lena. "Actually, if she was still alive she would've taken Jerome from Lila the second she thought he was being mistreated. We might've never known the terror that was Jerome Valeska."
Jim rubbed his face in a tired way and smiled at his daughter. Despite the anger she'd felt when he first walked in, Novella adored Jim and welcomed the explanation he gave, but wasn't quite ready to hear any more.
"Thank you, for telling me, maybe we could continue this another time though?" Novella wiped under her eyes where her makeup was starting to run from her tears. "I just don't think my mascara can handle much more."
The duo let out nearly identical hoarse laughs at Novella's attempt to change the subject, but it was Jim that finally redirected the conversation to a similar yet different topic.
"If you want, you could -uh you know call me Dad or whatever." At Novella's uncomfortable expression Jim quickly said, "or not you don't have to-"
She cut him off with a smile. "I definitely will take you up on that. I've actually had my own question concerning names and such."
She paused and almost considered not asking, but at Jim's supportive nod, continued. "I sort of was thinking of calling the shop Gordon & Company. Since I own it, it's technically not a part of their company. What do you think?"
"I would like that," Jim said but quickly added, "check with Victor first though. You might want to call it Zsasz & Company here soon."
Novella was shocked, to say the least. She had assumed that Jim disapproved of her relationship in every way possible, but his comment showed that he not only accepted it - but might even approve of it.
"You think he's going to . . ." she trailed off. not able to say the words that she hoped were true.
"The way he looks at you - Novella he better."
"And you'd approve?" She asked, genuinely concerned about his answer. It's not like it would change her relationship with Victor, but she did hope her father wouldn't resent her for it.
"He's saved you more times than I can count and in more ways than just physically. He might be bad, but he's good for you, and that's all I really want for you Novie. I just want you to be happy and with someone that loves you. Victor checks both those boxes," Jim said and kissed the top of her head before walking towards the door.
"I'll see you later, Novie. DOn't be a stranger."
"See you later . . . Dad." She didn't see it, but Jim's smile widened considerably at how she used the word and it never left his face the entire day.
•*•*•*•
After her extremely emotional and eventful day, Novella Gordon walked into her apartment to be greeted by Asterion barking and jumping on her legs and Wesson meowing at her for food.
"If you two don't shut the hell up-" she started but was cut off by a smooth as ice voice.
"So if I started talking to you right now what're you gonna do tough stuff?" Novella stopped her anger as soon as she saw Victor and ran over to him, jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist.
"Get a room." The gravel-like voice that could only belong to Wendell called over to the two, causing Novella to glower at her friend.
"We have one, but you're in it," she did to him.
"No, your room is that way." He pointed to the bedroom that had the door cracked slightly open.
"No my room is wherever I decide to fu-" Victor's hand closed over Novella's mouth, much to Wendell's amusement.
"Now, now," Victor's breath was hot against her ear and she grinned a little at the feeling, "if you go around saying things like that you're gonna have to follow through."
She turned around in his hold, a few pieces of her lilac hair still connected to the front of Victor's suit.
"I can follow through Mister, the question is, can you?" The mischievous grins they shared were answer enough to Novella's rhetorical question.
"Okay, so I'm just gonna, yeah." Wendell pointed to the door that led out of the apartment and went as fast as he could to whatever place didn't have a horny assassin and his lilac lady.
•*•*•*•
After a long while of Novella and Victor doing things that would make even the most experienced people blush, the two took a pause.
Neither knew how exactly they got to the bed, or why the centerpiece from the kitchen table was in the living room, it just was.
"So I feel like I've just been used to let out some pent up aggression . . ." Victor trailed off as he picked up a piece of Novella's hair and flicked it at her. "Not that I mind, in fact, if you wanna go for round two?"
"I'm pretty sure it be like round three or four, Vic." Novella laughed out at the rushed review of the past couple of hours.
Her review went a bit further back and soon she was thinking about her family again and how she hasn't told Victor about it.
She didn't think he'd be mad, he'd understand it was her secret to tell, but she still felt bad that she hadn't told him sooner.
"So about that pent up aggression," she said as a start.
"What about it?"
"Well, I may or may not have figured out who my mom was." She didn't want to say it, she didn't want to have him look at her any differently, but she's already started.
It won't change anything, she thought to herself.
It might change everything, the thought pushed against her brain and twisted it around.
"Who was she?" His undivided attention was on her, but it didn't make her squirm as it would do to others. There was something comforting about having his deep brown eyes intent on her.
"Lena . . . Valeska." Novella guessed at the last name since Jim hadn't exactly told her her mother's full name.
"As in Jerome?" Victor's face hardened considerably at the mention of the ginger-haired maniac. "I hate that guy."
"Why? Because of the competition?" Novella joked with Victor, but he cut her a soft glare.
"No, he's bad for business. If everybody is inspired to kill on their own what's left for us honest assassins?" His question left Novella gasping for air as she let out her laughing fit.
"There's no one quite like you, Mr. Zsasz," she said and leaned up to kiss his nose.
"Same to you little Novella." He wrapped her in a hug that warmed her in just the way she needed after spilling her guts.
Sometimes, when she was wrapped up in his arms, she would let her mind wander to all the people he'd maimed and killed and tortured, but she never let her mid stay there long. To her, he was utterly perfect. He'd never laid a hand on her, and she was willing to bet he never would.
"I love you, Victor Zsasz."
"And I love you, Novella Gordon."
•*•*•*•
A/N : Look at me updating in the middle of the night! Anyways do we like? I hope y'all do cause I'm trying to get all this cutesy stuff in before it goes to shit! Yes, get ready for all the fun of season 5 cause we're almost there!
QOTC :
Any ship name ideas for Victor and Novella?