Chapter Text
"So, you know Agatha's back in town, right?"
Rio's head snapped up, and she nearly dropped the tablet.
"Huh?"
"Agatha Harkness," Alice nodded.
"She's back in town."
"Oh."
"That's all you have to say? Rio, you two were practically inseparable in high school."
"Yeah, well, I mean... That was a long time ago."
"What ever happened with you guys? I mean, you still stayed friendly a few years into college, right?"
"Nothing happened. We just fell out of touch. People fall out of touch, even in this modern age."
It was true, mostly. Rio and Agatha had simply fallen out of touch almost four years ago, after the summer between their junior and senior years of undergrad. It had confused the hell out of Rio, since previously there had been such an effort on both ends to stay in contact, but eventually she figured things just changed. Maybe Agatha was too busy to even text her, to call now and then, to write a good old-fashioned letter.
Or maybe Rio had done something to upset her. Maybe that summer had been bad somehow. Maybe finally acting on the feelings they had suppressed for years had scared Agatha, or hurt her.
Yet by the end of that summer, Agatha had seemed fine, even happy. She had been, from what Rio could tell, excited about the new aspect of their relationship, and for the first two months apart, each back at their respective schools, things had seemed okay. Then Agatha had begun to pull away. More and more she was too busy for calls, her replies to texts got shorter and more delayed and then one day, nothing. She did not, to Rio's knowledge, come back to town at any point during that academic year, or the summer after, and they had not communicated since.
Rio figured Agatha met someone else and ghosted her rather than actually directly breaking off whatever they had. It did not seem like Agatha to do that, at least not Agatha as Rio knew her, but then, people changed.
"She living at the old house on Ellis?" Rio asked, trying to seem as offhand as possible.
"Nope," Alice said, "she sold that. She's staying at the lake house, from what I heard."
"She's out by the lake?"
"Yeah. I'm kinda surprised you haven't run into her yet."
Once upon a time, the Harkness lake house had been a frequent stop for Rio, at least in the summer, but since that last summer, there had been no reason to go around. It was fully on the opposite side of the lake from where Rio lived, and it had been unoccupied since the last time Rio saw Agatha as well. Agatha's mother Evanora had never been one for visiting the lake house, simply consigning her daughter to it for a couple of months each year. Agatha, in turn, had assuaged her loneliness by throwing little parties for her small circle of friends.
The last summer she had been there, she had only invited Rio. They had spent basically all of July and the first half of August hanging out, goofing off, and, once all their long-buried feelings came to a head, making love.
Well, maybe not totally making love. Maybe, despite things that were said, there had only been love involved on one side.
For the rest of the afternoon, Rio tried to focus on work, and she tried to remain chill. There was minimal chance, even as small as Westview was, that she would run into Agatha anywhere. Surely Agatha Harkness, the wealthiest person in town thanks to her inheritance, would only concern herself with the finer things.
Agatha might be back living in Westview, but she would never be an ordinary citizen. No, she would probably head to fancier places for her shopping and other needs. No way she would be anywhere downtown for anything, or come into a little local non-chain café like Coral Shores for a drink.
Once she closed up shop and headed home, Rio was lost in thinking about repairs and inventory and the number of carafes they had lost so far thanks to that one kid who had seemed like a good hire but was dangerously clumsy. It took bumping over an unfamiliar rough spot in the road for her to realize she had taken the north fork off of Lake Drive rather than the south. Muscle memory, she guessed, aided by Alice's earlier revelation that Agatha had returned. She could just turn around in one of the driveways and...
Well, she was this close to the Harkness place. It might as well be that driveway.
The headlights of the truck splashed across three reflectors and then a mailbox. The box looked new, name and house number painted neatly on the side.
Harkness
165 North Lake
The wheel seemed almost to slither through Rio's palms as she steered into the end of the drive. She jammed hard on the brakes and peered through the trees, knowing it would be too dark to really see the house, but...
Ah, there were lights on. Agatha was home, and probably awake.
Before she really considered what she was doing, Rio eased off the brakes and continued up the driveway. Agatha was an old friend, after all. What harm could there be in at least dropping in to say hi?
The house looked pretty much exactly as she remembered. There was even the same car parked out front: the used Acura that Agatha had been driving since high school. Rio had kind of figured Agatha might splash out on something more high-end once the inheritance came in, but apparently not.
Pulling her truck to a stop alongside the Acura, Rio looked up at the house again. Memories of all sorts ran through her mind, from the sleepover back in freshman year of high school where they had all scared themselves shitless with a Ouija board to that last golden Friday afternoon almost four years ago, kissing Agatha goodbye there on the front porch, never imagining it would be years before they would meet again.
Rio fought down the urge to cry and got out of the truck, marching up toward the front door of the house. She was just going to go and knock at the door and... No, actually, there was a change. Doorbell. Neat. It did not look like the kind with a camera, which meant Agatha would be surprised. Whether the sensation would be pleasant or not, Rio could not be certain.
The chime of the bell was loud, two simple notes. Rio stepped back a bit after pressing the button, content to wait for some response. She startled a little when the porch light popped on, but a deep breath grounded her again for a moment, at least until the door began to open; the slow creak of the hinges made Rio's heart start to race again.
"Well. Rio Vidal. I wondered when you would turn up."
"Hi," Rio managed.
Agatha was standing there in a robe, her hair long and loose around her shoulders, and Rio wanted to lunge through the doorway and push Agatha back against the wall, then kiss her hard, fingers tangling in that thick hair.
More than that though, in the moment, Rio wanted answers.
"It's been too long," Agatha said, and her voice was so soft, so gentle somehow.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why did you cut me off? What did I do wrong? You... You said you wanted to be with me, that you wanted us to stay an item, and then... Then you just stopped."
Agatha stepped back a bit, her expression not one that Rio could easily interpret.
"I was a bitch to do that," she said simply.
Well, that was a sort of a start.
"Come inside, Rio," Agatha went on, and now she fully stepped aside.
Rio's stomach was knotted with tension, and suddenly she was uncertain about any of this. She should have left the matter alone, just let the past go. She should...
"Rio, please."
Snapping back to the moment, Rio saw that Agatha had extended her hand, offering it as if to guide Rio into the house. Ignoring the offer, Rio brushed by Agatha and entered the house.
Inside, things were different than they had been. Gone were the old, dull furnishings and decor Evanora Harkness had kept here. Now, the place was undeniably Agatha, like her old teenage bedroom had expanded to fill a whole house. There was so much warm light, and the furniture looked plush and cozy. There were bookshelves newly built in around the big vaulted living room now, and all of them crammed not just with books, but knick-knacks that Rio knew instantly their old friends would have called "Agatha's witchy shit."
"It's very you," Rio said.
"Thank you, I think," Agatha laughed.
"That was a compliment."
Agatha moved past Rio. A faint fragrance of lavender wafted around her, and Rio felt pulled in by the scent, led further into the room.
"Sit down and relax a while, Rio."
Rio tried to sit very stiffly at one end of the sofa, but the damn cushions were so soft and plush that she sank down into a relaxed schlump.
"Would you like anything to drink or..."
"No, thank you," Rio said.
After a moment of silence, Agatha settled on the other end of the sofa, keeping herself far more upright than Rio had managed. She sighed.
"I really did hope to see you now that I'm back in town, Rio. There are so many things I want to say, so many things I need to explain."
"All I wanna know is what happened? Was I bad to you or something? Did I hurt you or..."
"Never! Rio, it wasn't your fault. I mean, it wasn't... You didn't do anything wrong. I just had to... I needed to keep things to myself a while. My mother..."
"Were you afraid she would find out you're gay? I get that, Agatha, I do, but we could have been discreet. I never would have made demands on you or anything."
"I was afraid of Mother knowing about us, but there were other things I had to keep away from her too."
"Like what?"
Rio raised herself up slightly as she asked, and moved closer along the length of the sofa, bringing a hand down to rest on the cushions, fingers stretched toward Agatha.
"There are things, Rio, that I wasn't willing to risk then. Mother being dead this last year and the estate finally being settled is why I came back to town. I needed to come back and see you, to finally apologize for ending things so abruptly without saying anything. For just... Stopping. I needed to tell you the truth."
"Okay," Rio nodded.
"So tell me."
Agatha leaned toward Rio, just barely, but before she could speak, there was a high, frightened cry and then a small repetitive thudding sound from above them. They both turned, and Rio's eyes widened as they settled on a small figure peering through the railing along the portion of the upstairs landing that overlooked the living room.
"Mama!" the tiny child wailed.
At once Agatha was on her feet, hurrying up the stairs. Sliding open a baby gate at the top, she went and lifted the toddler in her arms. For a while she stayed up there, whispering to the child, jostling him gently in her arms, before she moved to carry him downstairs.
"It's all right, Nicky. Oh, shh. Shh. Poor baby. Mama's right here, my baby."
Rio stood as Agatha carried the boy to the sofa and sat with him. He had been crying, but he stilled a bit and peered up at Rio, then quickly turned his face away against Agatha's shoulder.
"Don't worry," Agatha whispered, "this is just Mama's friend Rio."
"Hi," Rio said softly, but the child did not dare look at her again.
"Rio, this is Nicky. He's three. Just had his birthday in May."
May. Just last month. Three years old in May. Rio did the math in her head—not that she really needed to, just from what she had seen of the child's face.
"Is he..." she started.
Agatha looked up, nodding.
"You're the only one, Rio."
There was a bit of information missing from the statement, but Rio understood. For a moment, her vision went swimmy and all the breath seemed to leave her body. This new knowledge was a total system shock. In a rush, Rio sat down again, looking at Agatha, at the woman she had loved that little handful of years ago, the woman she had never stopped loving. She looked at Agatha, and at the child in Agatha's arms.
Their child.
"Agatha..."
"We... We'll talk in a bit."
Sitting back, Rio watched Agatha soothe their son to sleep, then carefully stand and walk with him as far as the foot of the stairs. On the first step, Agatha looked to Rio.
"Come help me tuck him back in?"
Rio shot to her feet and moved to the stairs as if compelled, following Agatha up silently, moving along the hall past the landing. They stopped at an open door that, in Rio's memory, led to a bland, ordinary enough spare bedroom. Now, however, the space had been turned into a cozy, wonderful space for a child. The ceiling was all soft night sky with glowing stars, the walls a forest at sunset. At the center of the floor lay a large, circular, mossy green rug.
From the doorway, Rio watches Agatha carry Nicky to a toddler bed in the corner, placing him gently down amid sheets covered with tiny images of rabbits. At the foot of the bed a little glowing diplodocus stood on the dresser as a nightlight. There was a massive wooden toy chest, a rocking chair, and a bookcase loaded with all sorts of books that a little one might enjoy.
Rio stepped back into the hall as Agatha left the room, closing the door quietly.
"He's ours?" Rio asked, moving a few steps away toward the landing.
Agatha nodded, tears in her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me about this, Agatha? When you... When you knew you were pregnant, why didn't you just tell me instead of going no contact?"
"I had to keep him a secret, Rio, at least until Mother was no longer a concern. She... I couldn't let her try to control him, to break him like she had always tried to break me."
"He's my son. I have a right..."
"You do. You have a right to know him. You always have. But Rio, I... I was scared. Scared of Mother, scared of what you might say or do..."
"I would have taken care of you. I would have dropped everything and come out to California and protected... Protected my family."
"That's part of why I was scared. I worried you would do your chivalrous routine and stop your education in its tracks and try to take care of us. And if Mother had found out, she would have hurt you too, Rio. She would have tried to pull us apart..."
"So you kept our son from me?"
"I had to protect you both!" Agatha cried.
They both froze in place, listening with bated breath to hear if Nicky woke again. When it seemed everything was fine, a shudder went through Agatha, and her tears started to fall. Instinctively, Rio pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Okay, Agatha. I... Hey, look, I... I gotcha. I gotcha."
"I wanted to tell you," Agatha said, her voice hollow.
"I wanted you there with me during everything. But I couldn't risk..."
"Shit, Agatha. I wish I could have helped you."
"I had to keep the whole pregnancy secret from Mother, and I knew at any time she might find out somehow. She never gave much of a shit about me as a person, but she damn well would have considered our son a stain on the family name, especially if she knew you fathered him."
"She never did even like that we were friends, did she?"
"If you had been there and she had found out about everything, that would have been dangerous for you. It was actually easier to just hide the pregnancy instead of the pregnancy and a relationship. I had a few friends and some understanding professors who helped me make it through. I gave birth three days after my last final."
"Christ, babe. I... Agatha, were you safe? I mean was the pregnancy... Healthy?"
"Mostly. I actually got pretty good care. There was a professor who helped me with getting insurance and everything."
"Insurance? Did Evanora..."
"Took me off any family insurance when I turned 18."
"Of course she did, that vile bitch."
"I was lucky. It wasn't easy, but Nicky came out safe. Though, I want to ask..."
Pulling away, Agatha looked at Rio.
"Were you a big baby? Because our son was massive."
"Oh. Uhm, yeah, I... I was pretty big."
"Knew it."
Rio was not sure if she should laugh or cry, so she settled for hugging Agatha closer again.
"Were you really going to tell me about all of this? What if I hadn't come out here tonight?"
"Rio, a huge part of coming back here for me was the desire to see you and tell you about Nicky. I started searching around just after Mother died, and when I found you'd returned to Westview after college and started a business, I made my plan. When the estate settled, I knew I couldn't raise Nicky up in the house Mother brought me up in, so I sold it off and decided that the lake house was the way to go. This is where all my happiest memories of my childhood were."
"Out here can be a good place to raise a kid," Rio nodded.
"I also thought it would be appropriate, since this was the closest there was to a place where we, you and Nicky and I, had ever been a family, even if we didn't know he existed yet the last time we were together here. And, I may have found out you were still living in your grandmother's old place on the far side of the lake. Figured it would make things a little easier."
"Things?"
"Co-parenting. If... If you'd want that. To be involved in his life, I mean."
"Hell yes I want that! I... I just found out about Nicky, but damn, he... That's my son. My boy. I wanna help raise him as much as you'll allow."
"I want you to know him, and for him to know you. I think it'll be good for him. Help him. He's still so young, maybe eventually he won't even remember much of the time before he was around you."
"Yeah? I... I kinda hope you're right. I got three years to make up for. Three years."
"I'm sorry I kept him from you."
"I... Well, I won't say I totally understand, 'cause I think we could've made it work, but I know you were scared. I know how hard it was for you, growing up with that bitch for a mother. We got time to work things out and make up for stuff."
"Think you can ever forgive me?"
"I think I can try. Just gimme some time."