Walk right in all you sinners and saints. Tonight's the night we're gonna take off these chains. Sit back, relax, begin. It's too early for surrender, too late for a prayer. We can't go to hell if we're already there.
synopsis Dom finally confronts Vic about her excessive lies and she's forced to face the truth. What seemingly puts their relationship on the line strengthens their bond now more than ever.
Dom pinned his lips by the harsh return. Man, this was not going to end well, was it? Still, he didn't want to stress her out, cause that was the last thing she needed. Kinda hard not to, though. "You wanna know how I really feel?" he huffed, trying to keep his posture. "I'm having a baby with the woman I love. I wanna feel the luckiest I've ever been, but I can't. Instead, I'm worried sick." He stopped for a second, looking her directly in the eye. "Cause I know you're not in control; you're not eating, you're missing appointments, you work out God knows how many times a day, you struggle sleeping, you're fainting. Like, what do you expect of me, to not notice all these things? And yeah, I'm calling you a liar; cause you are, excessively."
Vic was prepared to keep her guard up and fight back, but little by little, bit by bit, his words chipped away at the wall she'd built around herself. It broke her heart knowing she had ruined what should've been the happiest time of his life. The look he gave her spoke volumes, and as he kept going, she felt so ashamed she couldn't bear to look into his eyes. Being together for almost three years, he'd never confronted her like this, leading her to believe that her masking worked on him as it did on everyone else. A small part of her despised him for it, but most of all, she loved him for noticing her cry for help. "You're right..." Her voice was nothing but a whisper. "I'm... I'm sorry."
Dom let out a heavy sigh; as if he'd just gotten everything outta his chest. Most of it, anyway - a lot more left to do and say. Only now she looked broken, nothing left to break… which was why he lowered his shoulders and tried calm himself down. "Don't be," he mumbled, frowning worrisome, "right now, I don't know the difference between right or wrong. I just… I wanna help you, V. You gonna let me do that?"
"Clearly, neither do I..." Vic muttered while she started to question everything she'd done right or wrong up until this point. Existential crisis aside, she was able to meet his gaze again, even if just for a moment. Now that he'd gotten things off his chest, the last thing she wanted was to disappoint him again so, inevitably, she nodded her head yes. "I, um — I just don't know how you'll be able to help," she admitted feebly, "I mean, I don't want to be your... charity case."
"You're my girl, V. I love you, and I'll keep loving you, but you're not my charity case," Dom crooked a smile, taking a step closer to gently take her hands, "I know people who loves to help cute-ass charity cases like you, though." Trying to release some tension, he turned on some charm. It felt good to have, finally, been able to tell her exactly how he felt. Years in. Like damn. "I'll make some calls tomorrow, if that's cool with you?"
Although she sometimes struggled to believe it, Vic never got tired of hearing him say I love you. But what he said next puzzled her and she frowned slightly as he took her hands. His charming response, however, didn't fail to break the tension and even prompted her to smile. As long as she didn't feel like a burden in their relationship, she didn't mind being someone else's charity case. "Thank you," she said after giving an affirmative nod that he could make some calls. "I need you to promise me one thing though... from here on, always tell me how you really feel, okay?"
Dom pressed his lips together, knowing he was all about fixing things - only she wasn't a thing, she was a woman, with feelings and the biggest heart. Relieved she'd let him make some calls, he frowned curiously when told to promise her one thing. And no, it wasn't an easy thing to promise. Then he'd be having an ongoing schedule throwing her concerning looks and comments all day, all week. "Yeah, yeah... I mean, as long as you do the same," he sighed, "I promise."
Given how much he'd kept bottled up inside, Vic knew it was a big thing to ask, but it proved to help her realize the delusion she was harboring. Not to mention, she didn't want him to tip-toe around her and pretend to be okay when he was clearly not. "I promise," she echoed and gave his hands a gentle squeeze. "You know, speaking of how we really feel... I think this is the first time you've ever raised your voice at me and I don't know whether to be concerned or turned on right now."
Relieved to hear her echo, Dom pinned his lips into a smile. A promise was... a big thing to keep, yet he somewhat believed she was gonna open up to him more from here on out. It was impossible to lose faith in her, and he had no plans to do so - more like never. Like he'd said time and time again; she was the love of his life, no doubt about it. When she turned things in a whole 'nother direction on the other hand, he couldn't help but let out a chortle. "Oh, definitely concerned... I would run if I were you."
Vic was good at keeping secrets, so telling him the truth from here on out would be a bit of a hurdle. However, she had made a promise and she intended to keep it. Especially since Dom proved to be the rock in her life that she didn't even realize she needed, and now couldn't imagine living without. Though their argument had been a rough wake-up call, she much rather preferred the direction their conversation was heading. His chortle made her smile and her tone of voice turned more playful. "Mmhm, I really should," she mused, "but I don't scare easily."
Dom hadn't seen her playful side coming, and it showed through his whole body. Smiling back at her, he raised a brow, admiring her from head to toe. A need he hadn't felt in forever, and he desperately yearned to explore - hence he could barely wait for her to finish her sentence as hungry lips crashed into hers. And so did their bodies.
Sadly, Vic couldn't remember the last time they'd thrown themselves at each other like this. With her body changing due to her pregnancy, she hadn't exactly felt the most attractive, but right now in this very moment, every self-deprecating thought vanished and all she could think of was the urge she had for Dom. Ripping each other's clothes off, their lips collided once more as they scurried toward their bed.
location Cedars-Sinai Medical Center & King's residence in Calabasas
tagging Dominic King & Victoria Greyson
synopsis At 16 weeks pregnant, the couple is getting a sonogram, but what is supposed to be a joyful chapter in their pregnancy, V's eating disorder is still not under control and Dom is at his wits' end
Dom didn't know what else to say or ask at this point. This was not good news, far from. Sure, a heartbeat... probably the most beautiful thing he'd listened to in ages. Making a guy like him shed some tears, which made it even harder to catch up with everything else. The baby's health was all that mattered - and at this point, something needed to be done. Taking a deep breath, he nodded at the Doc when asked if he was okay. "It's a lot," he mumbled, still holding V's hand, their fingers caressing nervously. Eyes rested upon the sonogram, and then the Doc again when she got to print out pictures. Figuring the check-up was soon to be over, he calmly scooted back and stood up from the chair.
By now, her cheeks hurt from smiling so much that Dom's honest response to the Doc prompted Vic to give him a discreet yet puzzled look. They had just heard their baby's heartbeat. Sure, it was overwhelming, but was it wrong of her to expect him to jump for joy? Instead, he looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pinning her lips, she sat up on the bed and waited for the Doc to go print out the pictures before she glanced up at her boyfriend. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet," she tried to jest, "after all, you've been through this before. I thought I was supposed to be the nervous one."
Dom's mind felt like a labyrinth by now, with no idea what to do next. It was easy to tell they were on two different planets with the way she looked at him. What was there to say? He was a realist, and as much as he tried to take in every positive angle, he still struggled to pull a smile. Though she made it hella easy when trying to uppen the mood. "Yeah?" he hummed, "you're saying you're not?" He took a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "You know you're stuck with me for life, right?" Words whispered against her ear, just to let her know. Hell, right now he had no idea what she expected of him. "Here you go, and we'll schedule a new appointment in a couple of weeks - if that's okay with you?" the Doc looked at V along with a warm smile while handing off the picture.
Vic breathed a little more easily when his features softened. "Oh, I totally am," she admitted, her smile growing wider when he kissed her cheek. "Sure hope so." There was no one she'd rather be stuck with for the rest of her life, but now more than ever she really needed his reassurance. Receiving the picture, she smiled at the Doc. "Yes. Thank you." Admiring the picture of their baby, another plethora of emotions surged through her. As the Doc left the room to let her get changed, V handed the picture over to Dom. "The size of an avocado, can you believe it?"
Dominic let out a snicker, cause why not lighten up a bit. After all, he was good at reading her face, and something told him he'd been looking a bit too melancholic. "Thanks, Doc." Nodding and thanking, he carefully pinched the photo when given. "Like, a good one or a bad one?" he teased while doing a motion with his hand as if he was feeling out an avocado. Sure, a bad joke at this point. However, this avocado needed to grow into the most ripe shape ever. Taking another look at the picture, he tugged a smile. So damn tiny. "We should take a picture of this - send it to Audrey."
It was a relief to see his mood change for the better. He even cracked a bad joke and like always he managed to make her laugh. "Definitely a good one. With blue eyes," she teased as she held her hand up and crossed her fingers for good luck. Her smile grew wider at the mention of Audrey. "You do that while I go get changed," she nodded, "and tell her she's gonna be the greatest big sister in the world." Smiling, she got down from the bed and started to change back into her own clothes. "Is it weird that I'm craving an avocado and toast right now?"
"Blue eyes, huh?" Dom smirked, "maybe." Audrey had brown ones, but maybe, a blue-eyed baby would be cute. Their baby. So tiny and yet filling them with so much hope. "Yeah, will do." Placing the picture on a counter, he captured it and sent it to his daughter with love from both Vicky and himself. It felt so real sharing it like this. Their friends knew, family, a lot of people, to be honest. More than he'd like to. Nothing to do about, so why bother? "When are you not weird?" he hummed, "I mean, as long as it's good for the baby."
Obviously, Vic would love their baby no matter the color of their eyes, but it was no secret that Dom's icy blue eyes were her favorite feature about him appearance-wise. "Ha-ha," she jested in return when he mocked her, "I can blame it on my hormones. What's your excuse?" Sending her boyfriend a smirk, she finished getting dressed and went to pick up the sonogram from the counter to put it safely in her purse. "You ready to go?"
"Being stuck with you," he shrugged, "I don't know." Nah, even him didn't like to joke around too much, not for the past couple of weeks. Things were tense between them, all because he didn't wanna nag about her relationship with food all day. "Yes, ma'am," he sighed in relief, only to approach her on their way out. "Hey... I love you." Leaning down, he kissed her lips softly before taking her hand and pulling her with outside.
"Oh, you poor thing," Vic continued to joke around because it was a lot easier to deal with as opposed to his melancholic mood and the lurking tension that always threatened to grow between them. "I love you too, baby," she whispered against his lips and stole a second kiss from him before they exited the medical center. Soon they were driving out of the parking lot, after he'd been an absolute gentleman and helped her into the passenger seat of course.
Silently listening to Open Arms with SZA, Dom's right hand was entwined with V's. Something about driving with her in the passenger seat he couldn't help but love. How they could both talk or be completely silent without it being a problem. He wouldn't even question the possible task of driving her from Cali to NYC. However, she was bound to stay, with the baby and all. "You wanna take it easy today or should we do the, uh... meal plan, get it over with?"
There was something almost therapeutic about taking a drive with her man, holding his hand, and getting lost in the music surrounding them. Like a moment of peace from the hustle and bustle of their daily lives... which lately, in her case, mostly consisted of doctors and specialists pointing out everything she did wrong. "Can it wait?" she mused with a small shrug of her shoulders, "I was kinda hoping to take it easy today, you know, maybe look at some more designs for the nursery and stuff. And I promised Fianna I'd give her the full rundown of the appointment today."
Dom pinned his lips with a tiny nod, trying not to make a big deal out of it. Nah, wasn't tempting to get all passive-aggressive these days, cause she caught him every damn time. Just like she was a good talker, talking herself out of most things - things he saw important to her. "Yeah?" he sighed, darting her for a second, "she coming over?"
And there it was again. More subtle this time around, but she could tell his mood changed and his thoughts consumed him. The worst part is that she was fully aware of the reason why but she just couldn't get herself to talk about it. Instead, she chose the evasive route. "Mmh... or I could just give her a call," she mused as she moved their intertwined hands over to his thigh, her thumb stroking him slowly. "Because rumors has it you give the best massages and I just so happen to have bought a brand new body oil."
Dom shrugged his shoulders, not too bothered by her response. He had nothing against Fianna, though he'd rather be the person she wanted a rundown with. How to move forward, plan things... discuss. "You should," he added to make himself not seem like a total bad guy. The sudden change from Doc's appointment to her moving their hands and talking about massaging; it was like she did a 180 and expected him to follow, and hell... right now, he struggled not to. "You have, huh?" he glanced at her, swallowing a snicker, "man, you're doing me dirty right now."
Neither of them said it out loud, but they had been in a bit of a dry spell lately which was unusual but not much of a surprise. Her disorder and pregnancy had put a strain on their relationship, not leaving much room for romance. Maybe it wasn't rational, but in her mind, they could discuss meal plans, appointments, and whatnot on any other day. Not now. "Mhmm," she hummed, slowly freeing her hand from his to stroke his thigh. "Noo, I would never..." Innocent eyes looked into his icy blue ones. "But I'd love to do dirty things to you though."
Dom raised a brow when she kept teasing him, slowly moving his--now--free hand to grab the steering wheel along with the other. What was even happening right now; cause he was baffled, to say the least. She hadn't done this in forever, and… he was just gonna roll with it? Damn. "Babe," he mumbled and pinned his lips as eyes met hers for a brief second, "you better not be screwing with me right now."
His baffled face was both amusing and kinda worrisome. She knew she hadn't taken the initiative in a while, but had she downright neglected him? Sure made her feel bad but all the more eager to satisfy him. "I'm not, baby," she hummed, her hand moving up to his crotch for extra reassurance, "that would just be cruel."
If this had been some random Wednesday a year ago, Dom would never say what he was about to say. It was just something scary about her being pregnant and he driving a car at the same time. "No shit," he hummed, swearing for having to be the one backing off, "I just don't wanna drive into a ditch, you know?" Glancing her for a second, he placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed it. "At least lemme give you a massage first."
Vic furrowed her brows in slight confusion, obviously not expecting him to turn her down once she finally made a move on him after all this time. "Mmh, I'm slightly offended, but... you got a point," she semi-joked and slowly retracted her hand after he'd squeezed it. On the bright side, he didn't completely reject her, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't mess with her wavering confidence.
Dom recalled their so-called dirty car rides in the past, but that didn't stop him from letting the baby cockblock them. Not that he'd cleared that out completely; it'd do for now. Hell, he couldn't remember to ever have rejecting her - like, who would? As much as they struggled lately, this was the worst time to go down that lane. Though he was gonna make it up to her, in so many ways she had no idea. Kissing her lips, almost to make sure they were good, he exited the car… of course opening the door for her. "You go ahead and call Fi," he told her while stepping out of his shoes, "don't want any disturbances later when you're all mine, you know?"
Vic reciprocated his kiss while simultaneously trying not to overthink the whole thing. Easier said than done, but his sweet gesture and flirtatious words definitely helped. "Absolutely," she smiled and fetched her phone from her purse. What was supposed to be a quick phone call turned into twenty minutes of her subconsciously telling Fi a false narrative. Yes, both she and the baby was healthy. Yes, she followed the meal plan. Yes, her eating disorder was under control. To her, it was easier to believe this false narrative than the actual truth. Hanging up the phone, she then went to find Dom. "So... Fi says hi and totally squealed when I showed her the sonogram," she chuckled, "now, I believe I'm owed a massage?"
Dom wanted nothing but give his girlfriend space, but with everything going on he couldn't help but eavesdrop her conversation with Fianna. Some part of him expected her to tell the truth; tell her friend it wasn't all bed of roses over here, so - safe to say he turned rather disappointed. Hence he'd ended up sitting on the bed rather than make it ready for their romantic massage. "Yeah-huh," he sighed, looking in her direction, "I don't know, V." Choosing to stand back up, he started approaching her slowly. "Baby's healthy?" he started off, "never been this hungry in my life?" So many lies. "Why?"
Vic was nothing short of confused by Dom's standoffishness. Whatever happened to their romantic plans? Needless to say, her smile faded and even more so when she realized he'd eavesdropped on her conversation. A part of her was annoyed by that fact, but the disappointment in his eyes told her to leave it be. Instead, she lifted her shoulders helplessly. "What do you mean why?" she asked dumbfounded, "what else was I supposed to say?"
Dom didn't like what he'd just jumped into, but it had to be done. This was killing him, and had been for days. So, a part of him felt like losing tons of rocks off of his shoulders. It had to be done, even if he didn't like her whole body language at the moment. "I'm just saying… she's your friend, and you just lied to her," he said, his tone displeased yet calm. "You brag about our perfect situation to Rachel too?" Yeah, it was easy to say his mood had gone from romantic to downright upfront.
His calm tone was not easily matched and instead, Vic got defensive when he confronted her. "Wow... excuse me for wanting to brag about our baby's first sonogram," she scoffed disappointedly and shook her head at him. "Yeah, our situation might not be perfect, but we're working on it. I'm working on it. Why would I want to worry Fi or Rachel about trivial things?"
"You know it's not about that," Dom sighed, trying to find multiple ways to face her defensiveness. It was for damn sure he was gonna brag about the sonogram to Cody; to all of his friends, but to lie to his close friends about their relationship struggles? His girlfriend and baby's health. No. "I hear you, and I see you, I do. I just don't feel right about this. Lies upon lies upon lies, you know, it's not gonna stop, know what I'm saying?" I'm extremely worried about you, is what he wanted to say. However, she seemed too disappointed to go there. "Nothing's trivial about this."
Deep down, Vic knew it wasn't about her bragging about the sonogram. But growing up with parents who swept every problem under the rug to appear picture-perfect to the outside world, she really struggled to see Dom's point of view. "No, I don't know what you're saying," she kinda snapped back, torn between frustration and despair. "All I'm hearing is you calling me a liar... You know what, I'm doing the best I can, but if that's not good enough for you then tell me how you really feel."
Dom pinned his lips by the harsh return. Man, this was not going to end well, was it? Still, he didn't want to stress her out, cause that was the last thing she needed. Kinda hard not to, though. "You wanna know how I really feel?" he huffed, trying to keep his posture. "I'm having a baby with the woman I love. I wanna feel the luckiest I've ever been, but I can't. Instead, I'm worried sick." He stopped for a second, looking her directly in the eye. "Cause I know you're not in control; you're not eating, you're missing appointments, you work out God knows how many times a day , you struggle sleeping, you're fainting. Like, what do you expect of me, to not notice all these things? And yeah, I'm calling you a liar; cause you are, excessively."
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