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rsadelleMaster Post - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Three Months: March 2012
The last week before tour passes in a flurry of rehearsal, interviews, packing, and last-minute arrangements. They also use it as a test run for relying on other people to watch Tyler. The first day, Victoria makes them stop every time Tyler cries from the other room.
Gabe puts his hands on her shoulders later, at home, and says, "Okay, babe. I let it go today, but we have to let other people take Tyler."
Victoria bites her lip and nods. "I know." She steps forward to lean against Gabe's chest, and he puts his arms around her. "He's my baby."
"If there were a way for us to do this and be with him every second of the day, we would." Gabe rubs soothing circles on her back. "We've gotta do this, though."
Victoria clings to Gabe for a long moment, and then makes herself pull back. "Okay, okay." Her smile feels a little wavery, but it's there. "Tomorrow I will sing and play my keytar and let someone else worry about Tyler."
Gabe looks at her for a moment. "You want to go watch him sleep?"
"Is it lame if I do?"
"Nah." Gabe throws his arm around her shoulders. "I'll come with you."
*
The rest of the week goes better, at least during rehearsal. Tyler seems okay with being around a bunch of different people, but Victoria can barely put him down at breaks, and has to force herself to let Gabe have him.
On Thursday morning, they fly to Miami, and the plane makes Tyler cry so much Victoria ends up in tears too. When they land, Gabe commandeers Nate to help carry all of their stuff while Victoria cuddles Tyler. It puts them all on edge.
Moving onto the bus is at once both familiar and unfamiliar. Familiar because they've been living half their lives on buses for years. Unfamiliar because they're splitting up into two buses and because the baby bus is set up differently from the buses they've had before. Instead of a back lounge, it has a bedroom, with a bed for Victoria and a crib for Tyler.
"Here," Gabe says, reaching for Tyler. "Let me take him while you get settled in."
Victoria doesn't want to let go of Tyler.
Gabe puts one hand on Victoria's back, and tucks the other against Tyler's. "Come on, babe. You're just winding each other up now."
Victoria lets Gabe take Tyler and listens to him walking up and down the bus singing to him while she stows things away and splashes water on her face. All three of them are pretty calm - Gabe even has Tyler smiling - by the time they park at the venue for the night.
"Hey, baby," Victoria says. Tyler waves his arms at her, and she takes him from Gabe. "Papi calm you down? Yeah, yeah." She nuzzles her nose against Tyler's cheek. "You wanna see where we're going to be sleeping?" To Gabe she says, "Your turn to get settled in."
Gabe follows her as far as the bunks and goes about choosing one while she takes Tyler all the way into the back and talks her way through the room. All of the books and websites say describing what you're doing helps with language development.
When she takes Tyler back toward the front of the bus, she finds that Gabe has claimed one of the bunks closest to her door.
*
Tour, even with Tyler, is a rhythm they settle into easily. They move from venue to venue and get into the swing of things. Gabe and Victoria open up the extra bunks on their bus to members of the crew and the other bands who want a relatively quiet place to sleep for a night or two and have a rotating collection of guests.
Between the crew and Sawdust Werewolves' drummer Kyle - who really is the oldest of eight kids and doesn't mind hanging out with a baby - there's always someone to watch Tyler during soundcheck, shows, and the few interviews they do as a whole band. The tight band of panic Victoria feels at leaving Tyler with anyone who isn't Gabe or Diego loosens after the first few shows, although it never goes away.
The other thing that doesn't go away is the way Victoria's heart pounds every time Gabe flirts with her on stage. It's different, now, from how it's been before. She wants him to mean it, and sometimes, when she's flirting back, she lets herself believe he does, just for the length of the show.
Victoria's up with Tyler one morning when they hit a venue, which means Gabe can get some sleep.
He grumbles, "I hate bunks. They're not made for tall people," and he's probably extra tired because the last couple of days have been busy.
"You can take the bed," Victoria offers.
Gabe looks at her pathetically. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm up with Tyler anyway." She waves him toward the back of the bus. "Stop bothering me and get some sleep."
She does it because Gabe's cranky and they're always in each other's space anyway. She tries not to think about how much she likes the thought of Gabe in her bed.
It becomes a habit, though, Victoria sleeping in the bed at night while they're on the road and Gabe sleeping there during the day when they're parked at venues, and the bed smells like both of them.
Victoria's sleeping in a bed that smells like Gabe, flirting with Gabe on stage every night, and spending her afternoons watching Gabe make up silly songs he sings to Tyler in Spanish.
They hit L.A. with a day off just as Victoria thinks she can't take it anymore. They spend the night at her parents' house - Gabe and Victoria in separate rooms, Tyler in with Victoria - and take Tyler over to Pete and Ashlee's in the afternoon.
Ashlee practically squeals when she opens the door, and she reaches for Tyler. "This is your baby!" She handles Tyler like a pro, and he grabs at her hair. "Oh, sweetie, he's perfect." She turns away when Pete reaches toward Tyler.
"Come on," Pete whines. "I want a turn."
Gabe already has Bronx turned upside down and laughing.
"Let him take him," Victoria says. "They can play with the kids and we can have girl time." Something of her tension must bleed through, because Ashlee gives her a sharp look before putting on a pout and reluctantly handing Tyler over to Pete.
It's warm enough that the boys go outside, and Ashlee and Victoria settle in on the couch.
Victoria doesn't wait for Ashlee to ask before she says, "I'm freaking the fuck out."
Ashlee looks her over for a moment. "Okay," she says. "Why?"
Victoria closes her eyes and says, "I'm in love with Gabe." It's the first time she's said it out loud. She's barely dared to even think it.
She opens her eyes, and Ashlee's looking at her like she's not sure if she should say anything or not. Ashlee finally puts her hand on Victoria's knee.
"Sweetie," she says slowly, "you've been in love with Gabe since before I met you."
She's known Ashlee for almost five years, only a few months less than she's known Gabe.
Victoria laughs a little, but Ashlee doesn't laugh with her.
"Sweetie." There's a twist to Ashlee's mouth.
"Oh." Victoria looks down at Ashlee's hand on her knee. "Really?" she whispers.
Ashlee tugs her forward and hugs her. "Yes, really." She runs her hand over Victoria's hair. "You know, I never thought things were going to last with Jack, even if he wasn't a fucking cheating asshole."
Victoria presses her forehead against Ashlee's shoulder. "I thought I wanted them to." She just breathes for a moment, then says, "I- Do you think- What about him?"
She can feel Ashlee's sigh. "I don't know. He was with Bianca for a long time, and he really loved her."
Victoria wants to cry, but doesn't.
"But, hey," Ashlee says, and her cheer isn't a put-on, "he's living with you, and that's something."
Victoria nods against her shoulder, and pulls back, takes in a deep breath. "Yeah," she says, "that's something." She tries a smile, and doesn't need the sympathetic look on Ashlee's face to tell her it doesn't stick.
"Come on," Ashlee says. "It'll be okay."
Victoria's not sure she believes that - it wasn't okay with Jack - but her smile's a little more real this time, and all the way there when they go outside and Gabe, Pete, Bronx, Tyler, and the dogs are all rolling around in the grass, Gabe keeping a close eye on Tyler so the dogs don't overwhelm or hurt him.
*
On the road northeast to Vegas the next day, while Tyler's sleeping, Gabe asks, "You all right? You seemed a little upset when you were talking to Ash."
Victoria takes advantage, she knows she does, and she curls up next to him on the couch. "I'm okay." She puts her head down on his shoulder. "Tour fatigue, baby fatigue, you know."
Gabe pulls her over more so she's in his lap. Victoria's heart pounds, but she makes herself relax into it. Gabe's arms loop around her waist, and she leans into his warmth. He presses his lips into her shoulder.
"Sucks," he offers.
Victoria laughs and twists to look at him. "That's it? 'Sucks'?"
Gabe runs a thumb over the curve of her cheek. "Made you laugh."
Victoria can feel the line Gabe touched as clearly as if it had been marked. She shoves at his shoulder. "You suck."
Gabe pulls her close again. "There's nothing we can do about tour fatigue, and you know you can ask for whatever you need with Tyler. Pretty much it just sucks."
"Yeah, you're so much help." He is, though, with the way he lets her stay cuddled on his lap until Tyler's crying comes across the baby monitor.
*
A couple of days later, in Seattle, Gabe takes Tyler from her and says, "You have an appointment."
There's nothing on Victoria's calendar. "I do?"
"You do." Gabe grins at her. "At a spa. It comes highly recommended. Think of it as a present from Tyler and me for putting up with both of us on one bus." He hands her her purse and pushes her toward the front of the bus. "Your ride's waiting."
Victoria hasn't been to a spa in way too long, and this is a nice one. She's a few minutes early, so they usher her into a waiting room with comfortable chairs and a soothing fountain, and someone brings her a cup of herbal tea to drink while she waits.
Gabe's present consists of a mani-pedi and a massage. Victoria leaves the spa feeling like she's floating more than walking.
When she gets back, the front of the bus is empty, so she heads toward the back and runs into Gabe in the hallway between the bunks.
"You look happy," he says with a smile.
Victoria's smile comes easier than it has in weeks. "I am. That was amazing." She reaches up and puts her arms around him. "Thank you."
Gabe's arms settle comfortably around her, his hands resting at the small of her back. "You're welcome."
He's still smiling at her, and she's so loose and happy, and she pushes up onto her toes and kisses him.
He kisses back.
He kisses back, and she slides her arms up to hook around the back of his neck, and his mouth fits perfectly against hers, and she would do this forever if she could.
Tyler's crying echoes through the bedroom door and from the baby monitor clipped to Gabe's hip.
They stop kissing, and Gabe rests his forehead against hers.
"He's the only person I would stop doing this for," he says low into her ear. His hands slide slowly across her waist and away, and he goes in to get Tyler.
*
It's not awkward. It just feels like someone hit the pause button on the good part of a movie so they could do what needed to be done elsewhere without losing the mood.
Gabe's smiles are a little softer, and Victoria holds onto that floaty feeling. They play with Tyler, then there's soundcheck, a radio interview Gabe and Ryland go to do while Victoria stays with Tyler, Tyler's bedtime, and the show. After the show, Nate and half of Sawdust Werewolves climb onto Gabe and Victoria's bus, all needing a break from their usual sleeping quarters.
Gabe and Victoria don't get a moment alone, but there's a promise in his eyes when he says goodnight that keeps her from worrying and lets her go to sleep.
The next night, in Boise, Gabe tangles their fingers together for a moment as they walk from the dressing room to the stage.
The day after that, when they pull into Salt Lake City and Gabe passes Victoria as he goes back to sleep for a while, he runs his hand across the line of her jaw and murmurs, "Hotel tonight."
She should not be so turned on while holding Tyler.
The warm flush of arousal stays with her through the familiar ritual of hotel days - moving Tyler's crib and everything else they need for a baby overnight into the hotel between soundcheck and the show, getting someone to stay with Tyler during the show - and into the show itself, where she channels it into the music and tries not to moan when Gabe wraps himself around her to sing.
Jesse, one of the crew who misses his own kid while he's on tour and volunteered to take Tyler for the evening, tells them he won't mind if they don't get back until late, so they hang out after the show, signing, taking pictures, and meeting fans. The fans filter out eventually, and they head back to the hotel.
"Tyler was good," Jesse reports. "A little fussy, but he always is when he's not with one of you."
"Thanks, man," Gabe says. He and Jesse do the secret handshake Gabe made up four states ago for the people who spend time with Tyler. Victoria just laughs at them.
They've been getting adjoining rooms or two-room suites whenever possible, giving each of them space but also leaving them both within range to get up with Tyler no matter which room they put him in. They have a suite tonight, which makes it easy, once they've checked on Tyler, for Gabe to grab up the baby monitor and pull Victoria into the other bedroom.
He puts the baby monitor on one of the bedside tables, and then comes back to Victoria. He puts his hands on her shoulders, and then slides them down to link with her hands.
"Where were we?" he asks, like it's been only moments and not two days.
"Here, I think." Victoria lets go of his hands to put her arms around his neck. She's wearing heels tonight, so it's not as much of a stretch to kiss him as it was before. He still bends to meet her, and he slides his arms around her waist.
Victoria opens her mouth to him, and they kiss deeper, wetter. There's an urgency to it, but it's comfortable, not frantic. Victoria's glad she's started wearing dresses with wider, looser skirts, because it gives her enough room to hike one leg up over Gabe's hip without tearing a seam.
It brings her flush against him. He's hard, his cock pressing against her, and she gasps, murmurs his name into his mouth, shudders with arousal.
"Yeah?" he asks, his voice rumbling in his chest.
"Yeah," she answers back.
She reaches to push his flannel off at the same time he reaches for the zipper on her dress. He pulls the zipper all the way down, then lets go so she can push his flannel off. She tugs his t-shirt up until he gets the hint and takes it off himself while she slips her arms out of the straps of her dress, slides it down her body, and steps out of it. Gabe's tossing his clothes to the side - Victoria takes a moment to appreciate that he's eager enough he's not taking time to carefully fold anything - so she tosses her dress onto the growing pile of cloth.
Gabe has his hand on his belt, but he stops and looks at her. "Babe," he says, sounding strangled. He shakes his head, and traces the line of her bra across the top of her breasts. "You-"
Victoria knows how he feels. She's seen the sharp lines of his abs, but never like this. Never when she can touch them all she wants, never when he's pulling her in against them. Their skin touches, and it's like an electric shock to her system. Their kisses are frantic now. Gabe's hands cup her ass, and if she could get the right angle, she could come from this, from rubbing up against each other like a couple of teenagers.
She wants more than that.
She reaches between them, arches her stomach away from him, and fumbles at Gabe's belt. "Get your fucking pants off," she growls at him, when the way his hands are gripping her proves too much distraction for her to concentrate on even the minimal complexity of unbuttoning his pants.
"Fuck." Gabe steps back. "Fuck, babe."
Victoria waits until he's pushing his jeans down his legs before she reaches behind herself and unhooks her bra.
Gabe almost trips on his pants coming back to her. "You've always had the most amazing breasts." He cups them in his hands and presses his lips against the curve of one of them.
Before, she would have loved it. Right now it's a little too much. She takes his hands in hers and pulls them up to her lips.
"Hey," she says, pressing a kiss to the back of his fingers, "not that." She wrinkles her nose. "Too much."
Gabe strokes her cheek. "Okay. Something else then." He kneels in front of her.
Victoria sucks in a breath, and then another one when Gabe kisses her stomach. She threads her hands into his hair, letting the curls tangle around her fingers. Gabe rubs into it, then turns his attention to unbuckling her shoes.
Victoria balances with one hand on his shoulder as he gently pulls first one then the other of her shoes off. He strokes his hands all the way up her legs, and she's sorry they're on the outside, but then he hooks his fingers in the waistband of her panties and draws them down her legs. There's a mischievous twist to his mouth as he slides his hands up the inside of legs, pushing at her thighs to make her step farther apart.
The anticipation is almost too much, and then he leans in and licks across her clit.
Victoria shudders, steps away from him, and her voice is almost unrecognizably low even to her own ears when she says, "Get your underwear off and come to bed."
She turns her back on him, and pushes the comforter and blankets to the side so she can stretch out on the sheets of the bed. Her eyes dip down to his cock, and then back up to his eyes. She holds her gaze there as she poses, arranging herself into a sultry, inviting curve. Gabe breaks the eye contact to sweep his gaze over her body.
"I don't know how I got so fucking lucky," he says as he comes to join her.
"You haven't yet." Victoria rolls onto her back, pulling Gabe with her. He's heavy on top of her in just the right way.
Gabe smoothes her hair away from her face, kisses her again. They kiss for long minutes, the two of them arching into each other, hands moving across skin.
"Tell me what you want," Gabe says between kisses.
They can barely stop kissing long enough for Victoria to answer, so she resorts to shoving him back by his shoulders. "I want you to get a condom and fuck me."
Gabe groans and presses his forehead against her shoulder. "If I fuck you, it's going to be over really fucking fast."
Victoria pulls his head up, hands on either side of his face. "I haven't had sex in over a year. You don't have to be good, you just have to be there."
Gabe snorts. "Well, you're the queen of sweet talk."
"Baby," Victoria purrs into his ear, "if you don't get a condom, I'm going to make myself come, and then you won't get to fuck me at all."
Gabe pulls away grinning. "You would never give this up." He does a spokesmodel gesture down his body. He also gets up and gets a condom out of the outside pocket of his suitcase.
"Keeping them handy?" Victoria teases.
Gabe unrolls the condom onto his cock. "I knew you wouldn't be the kind of girl who likes to be kept waiting."
"That's right." Victoria spreads her legs, tilts her hips up, opens her arms to him.
"Fuck, babe," Gabe swears as he pushes into her.
"Fuck," she echoes. It feels so good to have something other than her own hand. It feels so good to have Gabe. "Fuck, Gabe. Fuck, come on."
"I'm trying," he grits out, "not to come right this fucking second."
"You can do that later." It's the first time either of them has said anything about this happening again. Victoria pushes her hips up against him, but she can't get enough leverage to get them moving the way she wants. "Just fuck me."
"You-" Gabe doesn't finish the thought, but he does start to move. His first few thrusts are light, even things. Victoria wants that with him - wants everything with him - but she doesn't have the patience for it now. She wraps her leg around him and digs her heel into his ass.
"Come on," she growls.
Gabe picks up the pace, and it's not light or even anymore. Victoria rocks up against him, yanks his head down to kiss him, and it's barely any time at all before they're not even really kissing anymore, just breathing into each other's mouths.
Gabe pulls his hips back, gets his hand between them, and his thrusts press it against her clit.
"Gabe," Victoria says on a gasp.
"Victoria," he growls back.
She can feel her orgasm building, cresting, washing through her. She almost doesn't want to come, doesn't want this to stop, but it's so good there's nothing she can do about it. She comes with an almost silent, "Oh," and Gabe snaps his hips into her hard.
"Come on, baby," Victoria murmurs. She runs her hands through Gabe's hair. "Come on."
Gabe seals his mouth to hers as he comes. They keep kissing for long moments afterwards, their hands stroking restless paths across each other's bodies.
Gabe sighs and pulls away to deal with the condom, then flops down on his back next to Victoria.
"Holy fuck," he says, still panting. "That rocked my fucking world, and you didn't even suck my dick."
Victoria clumsily pats his arm. "When you get it up again, I will."
His fingers twitch against her hip. "I'll do you too."
"Okay." Victoria waits for her heart to slow down and her breathing to even out. After a couple of minutes, she turns on her side and snuggles up to Gabe. "You cuddle, right?"
"Hell yes I cuddle." Gabe grabs at the covers and turns on his side to face her. It's awkward for a moment, but then he shifts, and she wriggles, and they fit together, her leg between his, his arms around her, her head on his shoulder.
*
Victoria wakes up not much later when Tyler's crying comes across the baby monitor. "I'll go," she says when Gabe wakes up too. She scoops her panties and Gabe's flannel off the floor and puts them on.
"Hey, baby," she says to Tyler. She lifts him out of his crib. "Are you hungry? That's it, isn't it?" She sits down in the chair and twitches the flannel out of the way so Tyler can nurse.
When she gets up to put him back in his crib, Gabe is leaning in the doorway watching her. Victoria pulls Tyler's blanket up over him and joins Gabe at the door. Gabe slides his hands around her sides under the flannel.
"You're so beautiful." Gabe kisses her so sweetly, it almost makes her cry.
She jokes with him instead. "Breastfeeding turns you on?"
Gabe grins. "Everything you do turns me on." He pulls her toward him. "Come back to bed."
*
Between the commitments of tour and the commitments of taking care of an infant, they don't actually have sex that often after the first night. Instead there are kisses goodnight and sharing the bed for afternoon naps and more touching than before. It's good. Hell, it's fun, in a way Victoria had almost forgotten relationships could be.
She wonders if this is just a tour fling or if she'll still get to have Gabe when they go back home, but she's afraid to talk to Gabe about it. She likes the way it feels real when he tells the audience, "Give it up for my girl Victoria," and she doesn't want to lose that.
On an afternoon when Tyler's napping and Gabe's doing press and guaranteed to be gone for at least an hour, Victoria calls Amber.
"Let me talk to Gizmo."
Amber sighs dramatically. "You only call me when you want to talk to your dog. What kind of friend are you?"
"I want to talk to you," Victoria assures her, "but if I do that first, I'll forget about Gizmo, so put him on so I can tell you what's going on."
"Fine, fine." Amber puts the phone on speaker. "Gizmo, it's your mommy."
"Hi, baby," Victoria says. Gizmo barks in answer. "We miss you so much. Tyler's getting big. He's bigger than you now. Have you been good for Amber?"
"He's been really good," Amber croons. "I think he likes being an only child."
Victoria laughs. "Good boy. We'll be home in just a couple of weeks." Victoria makes a loud kiss noise into the phone. "Okay, you can take Gizmo off now."
There's a click as Amber takes her phone off speaker. "Okay," she says, "what's going to make you forget about Gizmo?"
Victoria spills everything, from the moment she realized she wanted Gabe up through last night when Gabe laid in bed with her until she fell asleep even though he couldn't sleep on a moving bus. "And I don't know if this is just sex or if it's something real."
"V, he's practically raising your kid. That's pretty damn real."
"But that's just Gabe. He loves kids."
"He loves your kid. Do you really think he's the kind of guy to sleep with you just for increased access to Tyler?"
Put that way, it sounds ridiculous. Victoria giggles. "I guess not."
"You two were practically married without the sex before. Now you're practically married with the sex too."
"Yeah, I guess."
Amber sighs. "Or, and this is a totally crazy idea, you could talk to Gabe about it."
"He could break my heart," Victoria admits. "Way worse than Jack did."
"He could do that anyway," Amber points out. "At least you'd know and you could stop torturing yourself about it."
*
In Chicago, Christine brings Genevieve to soundcheck. Christine lets Genevieve go as soon as they're done, and she hurls herself across the stage toward Gabe. She kisses his cheek and then does it again.
"Daddy's in Cin'natti, and he said to kiss you for him."
Gabe kisses her cheek again. "Now you can give him a kiss from me too." He gives Christine a one-armed hug, and then leads them on a procession back to the bus.
Christine walks with Victoria. "How're you doing?"
"Good. Gabe helps a lot, and we've got a lot of support."
Christine shakes her head. "I can't imagine taking Genevieve on tour."
Victoria shrugs. "The worst is having to let someone else watch Tyler while we're busy, but we're managing." She follows Christine into the bus. "And I can't imagine us doing it without a separate bus."
Kyle has Tyler on a blanket on the floor. Tyler burbles at Victoria, and she bends down to pick him up. "Hi, baby." She kisses his cheek. "Come meet Christine."
"Can I?" Christine asks, holding out her arms.
Victoria hands Tyler to her, and Christine sits down on the couch with him.
"That's your baby?" Genevieve asks, staring hard at Victoria.
Victoria crouches down to Genevieve's level. "It is. His name's Tyler."
Genevieve peers at Tyler. "He's really little."
Christine smiles at her. "You were this little too."
Genevieve pouts. "Wasn't."
"You were." Gabe scoops her up again and sits next to Christine. "I remember it."
Being on Gabe's lap puts Genevieve just high enough for her to look down at Tyler. She looks at him as suspiciously as a four-year-old can.
Gabe exchanges an amused look with Christine and says, "He'll hold your hand." He takes Genevieve's hand in his and stretches it out to Tyler. Tyler grabs onto two of her fingers.
"He's strong!"
"He is," Gabe says. "You were too." He puts his cheek against Genevieve's. "You used to grab onto my sunglasses and not let go."
"You'd have a million of them if you could," Christine says fondly.
"Not a million," Gabe says without looking away from Tyler and Genevieve, "but maybe two or three." Then he looks up and smiles at Victoria.
She thinks maybe, maybe this is as real for him as it is for her.
*
One afternoon, in Michigan, Gabe and Victoria get to the dressing room before anyone else. Victoria leans against the wall. Gabe looms over her, one forearm on the wall by her head and flirtatious smile on his lips.
"You think you can have me?" Victoria teases.
"I know I can have you." Gabe leans closer. "If we had time, I'd have you right now."
Victoria reaches up to put her arms around his shoulders. "Would you?"
"I would." Gabe closes the last few inches of space between them and kisses her.
Of course, that's when the door opens and the rest of their band comes tumbling in.
"Oh-ho!" Alex says. "So that's what's going on on the other bus?"
"Delicious," Ryland drawls.
"Does this mean I'm not your favorite anymore?" Nate asks.
"Fuck you," Gabe says. "You were never my favorite."
Victoria hides her laughter in Gabe's shoulder.
*
Two days later, in a dressing room in Pittsburgh, Alex reads part of a fan's review of the show out loud, smirk firmly planted on his face.
"Motherhood," it says, "clearly agrees with Vicky-T. She's more animated and dynamic on stage than I've ever seen her. Her by-play with Gabe is amazing this tour, and she's just lighting up her side of the stage. I have no idea how she's keeping it up while taking care of a five-month-old baby. The rumor is that she doesn't even have a nanny. I mean, she's practically glowing. I haven't heard any rumors about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if she's getting laid."
Victoria flips him off.
"Oh, if only they knew." Ryland's smirk matches Alex's.
Gabe bends down and kisses Victoria's neck. "Ignore them, babe. They're just jealous you got to me first."
"Fuck that," Nate says. "I'm the original resident of your basement."
*
They're scheduled for a day off at home in New York. Victoria bites the bullet the day before, in Buffalo.
She sits down next to Gabe in the front lounge and asks, "Are we going back to separate bedrooms tomorrow?"
Gabe sounds as uncertain as she feels when he asks, "Do you want to?"
Victoria shakes her head. "No, but we haven't really talked about this."
"We haven't," he agrees. "We seem to be doing okay."
Victoria looks down at her hands. "Yeah, we are."
Gabe takes one of her hands in his. "I'm not planning on going anywhere, okay?"
Victoria nods. It's not everything, but it'll be enough. "Okay."
Gabe leans his shoulder against hers. "In fact, the only plan I have involves you, me, and a bed in our apartment."
Victoria can feel the corners of her mouth turn up into a smile. "Really?"
Gabe nuzzles against her cheek. "I'd tell you more, but Tyler's in the room."
Victoria holds him there with her free hand against the back of his head. "I guess it'll be a surprise then."
*
Victoria knows she's lost some weight on tour - she had to find a seamstress to take in a couple of her dresses - so when they're home, after they put Tyler to bed, she sends Gabe back to his room to wait for her while she changes.
"Just give me a couple of minutes," she says. "I promise you'll like it."
Gabe presses a kiss to her lips. "Don't take too long, or I'll start without you."
Victoria has a lot of practice with quick changes involving complicated clothes, so it takes her only a couple of minutes to put on a black garter belt with its matching negligee and stockings - she doesn't bother with the panties - then step into a pair of black heels and put on her reddest lipstick.
She's wet and her gaze, when she checks in the mirror, is already soft and heavy-lidded.
Gabe left the door to his room open, so she can see him lying in bed with a hand on his cock. She can also see when he notices her coming toward him, because he stops, sits up, and stares at her. She pauses in the doorway, hips to one side, one leg bent, hands high up on either side of the doorway.
"You're ruining all my plans," Gabe complains. "I was going to go slow and make this really good for you."
Victoria turns around to close the door, letting him look at the view from the back. "What makes you think it won't be good this way?" She lets her hips sway as she walks to the bed, then steps out of the heels and straddles Gabe.
"I'm sure it'll be good for me." Gabe runs his hands over her stockings and up to her ass.
"It's going to be good for both of us." Victoria bends over to kiss him. She has her hair down so it makes a soft curtain around them. "It's going to be so good." She takes one of his hands and moves it from her ass to her cunt.
He takes the hint and strokes his fingers across her. It's light, teasing. Victoria presses down against the next press, and his touch firms against her. He dips one finger into her, rubs, comes back to her clit. His eyes aren't on his hands or her breasts; he's looking at her face.
Victoria can feel herself getting wetter and clenching against him. "Condom?"
Gabe reaches for it with the hand that's not against her cunt. Victoria takes it from him, tears it open, and unrolls it over his cock. She pulls his hand away so she can slide down onto him.
He puts his fingers in his mouth and sucks enough to hollow his cheeks.
Victoria rolls her hips against him. "I don't know what makes you think I can wait for you to be slow anyway."
Gabe pulls his fingers out of his mouth and laughs. "One of these days," he says, half promise, half threat, "we're going to fuck for hours." He rubs his fingers along her cunt, around where his cock is stretching her open, and up to press against her clit.
Victoria rolls her hips again. "You'll have to get me off at least once before you can do that." She bends over him, changing the angle and pressing her clit harder against his hand. "Fuck, this is good."
Gabe puts his free arm around her shoulders, holding her close, and toys with the strap of her negligee. "I can't believe you put this on for me." He kisses her hard, moves his hand against her clit in counterpoint to her hips.
Victoria's thighs are starting to shake, both with the effort of moving and with how close she is to coming.
"You're just-" Gabe keeps kissing her over and over again. "I can't believe I get to have you like this."
Victoria's so in love with him. She kisses him hard and sucks at his neck to keep from saying it out loud.
Gabe arches up into her mouth, her hips. "Babe," he groans. He comes before she does, and when she growls at him a little, he keeps moving his hand until he gets her there too. He keeps moving even after that, his touches sending aftershocks tingling through her.
When it stops being good and starts being too much, she pulls away, holding onto the condom, and then slipping it off, tying it, and tossing it into the trash can next to the bed. She lies back down on top of Gabe, breathing in his scent while he traces over the lacy edges of her negligee and stockings.
"You know you don't have to do this," he says. He tugs at the top of one of her stockings. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you don't have to do this for me."
Victoria presses a kiss to his chest. "When we were packing to move, Amber was jealous of my lingerie collection and made me take her shopping. I started bawling in the middle of the store because I didn't think I would have anyone to wear it for again."
Gabe's silent for so long that Victoria pushes herself up to look at him.
"I'm just trying to get over the fact that you have a whole collection of this." Gabe cards his fingers through her hair. "I can see what you mean about never being able to wait to do it slow." He pulls her down and kisses her slow, wet, deep. "But I'd still want you even if you were just hanging around in sweats."
Victoria's heart feels like it might burst with how much she loves him.
*
They're lying in bed, post-coital, in a hotel in Virginia, Tyler asleep in the other room, Gabe idly playing with her hair.
"Can I tell you something," Gabe asks, "without you freaking out?"
Victoria turns on her side to face him. "Is it something that's going to make me freak out?" The thing she's most afraid he'll say is that this is over, but he hasn't stopped touching her, so if it's that, he's more of an asshole than she ever would have guessed.
Gabe traces her eyebrows, her cheekbones, the line of her nose. "I hope not."
Victoria tucks her hands under her cheek. "Okay, tell me."
Gabe leans in close to whisper in her ear. "I don't want you to ever find another guy to be in your life."
All of the air goes out of Victoria's lungs. "Oh." She struggles against the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "Gabe," she breathes.
"Hey," he says, wiping at her eyes with his thumbs. "Hey, babe, Victoria, don't cry."
Victoria grabs at his hand and presses it to her lips. "I love you," she says against his skin. "I don't want anyone else raising Tyler."
Gabe's eyes look suspiciously bright too, and then he puts his arms around her and kisses her and says, "Me too."
*
In the dressing room in Atlanta, before their last show of the tour, Gabe plays with Victoria's fingers, twining them with his own, letting go, just touching her.
Nate throws a drumstick in their direction. It goes wide enough that he wasn't really aiming for them. "You two are sickening. Thank God we don't have to watch this much longer."
Victoria cuddles into Gabe as obnoxiously as possible. "Is somebody jealous? You know, just because we love each other doesn't mean we don't love you anymore."
"Yeah," Gabe says. "You'll always be our bitch."
Nate throws his other drumstick their way.
"Look on the bright side," Alex says. "You're going to be all the way across the country from them. We have to be in the same city."
"I wonder how Meredith would feel about moving to California," Ryland muses.
"Ivy League could be a bicoastal band," Alex says.
"We'd be just as famous and play even fewer gigs."
"Fuck you. You're all dicks," Victoria says through her giggles. She kisses Gabe's cheek, then pulls herself up off the couch. She gives Nate his drumsticks back and goes to stand in front of the mirror for a wholly unnecessary check of her makeup.
*
Their first day home is a whirlwind of chaos. Amber brings Gizmo over, and he yips and runs around Victoria's feet while she tries to get Tyler's things sorted out and back to where they belong in the nursery. Gabe unpacks their bags and starts doing laundry. Tyler's fretful at first, but calms down when Victoria sings to him while rocking them in the rocking chair.
Victoria thinks she's going to get to relax when Tyler goes down for his nap, but Gabe says, "You're going to move into the master bedroom with me, right?"
Victoria leans against him. "Yes. Are you going to make me organize my shoes by color?"
Gabe kisses her temple. "Of course not. They should be organized by how often you wear them."
Victoria shoves at him. "You're going to help."
"Does that mean I get to see your lingerie collection now?"
Victoria laughs. "No. That you get to see bit by bit. But you can see all the rest of my clothes." She pulls him down the hall, and they spend Tyler's naptime moving her clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other assorted personal items from her room to the master bedroom.
Because they spend all afternoon doing chores, Victoria insists on making it an early night. She curls up in bed with Gizmo while Gabe puts Tyler down.
"I think he's just as tired as you are," Gabe says. "He fell right to sleep." He bends over to kiss her, and then takes Gizmo and puts him out into the hallway before he closes the door.
"It's been a long day." Victoria watches Gabe line his shoes up neatly in the closet and carefully put his clothes in the hamper as he takes them off.
"It has." Gabe ducks into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He comes back and turns off the overhead light, leaving only one of the bedside lamps on. "Tyler did pretty well, though, for all that."
"I think being on tour probably got him used to chaos."
"Probably," Gabe agrees. He pulls back the covers and gets into bed with her. "You ever consider having another one?"
Victoria reaches for him. "Come convince me."
Epilogue: February 2013
Tyler's laughter comes closer, and he runs through the door into the office with one of Gizmo's toys in his hand and Gizmo following along behind him.
Victoria scoops him up as he gets near. "Are you taking Gizmo's toys?"
"We're playing!" Tyler waves the squeaky toy, and Gizmo jumps up toward it.
"Mommy está trabajando," Gabe says from the doorway. "Déjale en paz."
"It's okay," Victoria says. "Throwing toys is an outside activity," she adds to Tyler as he raises his arm to no doubt hurl Gizmo's toy across the room.
Tyler puts his arm down. "Park?"
Gabe comes into the room and leans over, one hand on the back of Victoria's chair, and the other on Tyler's shoulder, to kiss her. "Up to you," he murmurs.
It's been raining off and on all week, but it's cleared up a little, with the sun bursting through the clouds every once in a while.
"Sure." Victoria kisses Tyler's forehead and takes Gizmo's squeaky toy from him. "You go with Papi to get your coat on and I'll get Gizmo's leash." She hands him to Gabe and closes her laptop.
Gabe's being ridiculously overprotective already, so he hovers while she stands.
"I'm not as tired with this one," she says.
Gabe touches her cheek. "I worry." He brushes a kiss to her lips.
"Love you," she says against his mouth.
"Te quiero," he answers back.
Tyler echoes both of them in a chant of "Love you, te quiero, love you."
Gabe laughs and bounces him a little. "Vámanos, mijo. ¡Al parque!"
"¡Al parque!" Tyler crows.
Victoria whistles for Gizmo and follows them down the hall.
Three Months: March 2012
The last week before tour passes in a flurry of rehearsal, interviews, packing, and last-minute arrangements. They also use it as a test run for relying on other people to watch Tyler. The first day, Victoria makes them stop every time Tyler cries from the other room.
Gabe puts his hands on her shoulders later, at home, and says, "Okay, babe. I let it go today, but we have to let other people take Tyler."
Victoria bites her lip and nods. "I know." She steps forward to lean against Gabe's chest, and he puts his arms around her. "He's my baby."
"If there were a way for us to do this and be with him every second of the day, we would." Gabe rubs soothing circles on her back. "We've gotta do this, though."
Victoria clings to Gabe for a long moment, and then makes herself pull back. "Okay, okay." Her smile feels a little wavery, but it's there. "Tomorrow I will sing and play my keytar and let someone else worry about Tyler."
Gabe looks at her for a moment. "You want to go watch him sleep?"
"Is it lame if I do?"
"Nah." Gabe throws his arm around her shoulders. "I'll come with you."
*
The rest of the week goes better, at least during rehearsal. Tyler seems okay with being around a bunch of different people, but Victoria can barely put him down at breaks, and has to force herself to let Gabe have him.
On Thursday morning, they fly to Miami, and the plane makes Tyler cry so much Victoria ends up in tears too. When they land, Gabe commandeers Nate to help carry all of their stuff while Victoria cuddles Tyler. It puts them all on edge.
Moving onto the bus is at once both familiar and unfamiliar. Familiar because they've been living half their lives on buses for years. Unfamiliar because they're splitting up into two buses and because the baby bus is set up differently from the buses they've had before. Instead of a back lounge, it has a bedroom, with a bed for Victoria and a crib for Tyler.
"Here," Gabe says, reaching for Tyler. "Let me take him while you get settled in."
Victoria doesn't want to let go of Tyler.
Gabe puts one hand on Victoria's back, and tucks the other against Tyler's. "Come on, babe. You're just winding each other up now."
Victoria lets Gabe take Tyler and listens to him walking up and down the bus singing to him while she stows things away and splashes water on her face. All three of them are pretty calm - Gabe even has Tyler smiling - by the time they park at the venue for the night.
"Hey, baby," Victoria says. Tyler waves his arms at her, and she takes him from Gabe. "Papi calm you down? Yeah, yeah." She nuzzles her nose against Tyler's cheek. "You wanna see where we're going to be sleeping?" To Gabe she says, "Your turn to get settled in."
Gabe follows her as far as the bunks and goes about choosing one while she takes Tyler all the way into the back and talks her way through the room. All of the books and websites say describing what you're doing helps with language development.
When she takes Tyler back toward the front of the bus, she finds that Gabe has claimed one of the bunks closest to her door.
*
Tour, even with Tyler, is a rhythm they settle into easily. They move from venue to venue and get into the swing of things. Gabe and Victoria open up the extra bunks on their bus to members of the crew and the other bands who want a relatively quiet place to sleep for a night or two and have a rotating collection of guests.
Between the crew and Sawdust Werewolves' drummer Kyle - who really is the oldest of eight kids and doesn't mind hanging out with a baby - there's always someone to watch Tyler during soundcheck, shows, and the few interviews they do as a whole band. The tight band of panic Victoria feels at leaving Tyler with anyone who isn't Gabe or Diego loosens after the first few shows, although it never goes away.
The other thing that doesn't go away is the way Victoria's heart pounds every time Gabe flirts with her on stage. It's different, now, from how it's been before. She wants him to mean it, and sometimes, when she's flirting back, she lets herself believe he does, just for the length of the show.
Victoria's up with Tyler one morning when they hit a venue, which means Gabe can get some sleep.
He grumbles, "I hate bunks. They're not made for tall people," and he's probably extra tired because the last couple of days have been busy.
"You can take the bed," Victoria offers.
Gabe looks at her pathetically. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm up with Tyler anyway." She waves him toward the back of the bus. "Stop bothering me and get some sleep."
She does it because Gabe's cranky and they're always in each other's space anyway. She tries not to think about how much she likes the thought of Gabe in her bed.
It becomes a habit, though, Victoria sleeping in the bed at night while they're on the road and Gabe sleeping there during the day when they're parked at venues, and the bed smells like both of them.
Victoria's sleeping in a bed that smells like Gabe, flirting with Gabe on stage every night, and spending her afternoons watching Gabe make up silly songs he sings to Tyler in Spanish.
They hit L.A. with a day off just as Victoria thinks she can't take it anymore. They spend the night at her parents' house - Gabe and Victoria in separate rooms, Tyler in with Victoria - and take Tyler over to Pete and Ashlee's in the afternoon.
Ashlee practically squeals when she opens the door, and she reaches for Tyler. "This is your baby!" She handles Tyler like a pro, and he grabs at her hair. "Oh, sweetie, he's perfect." She turns away when Pete reaches toward Tyler.
"Come on," Pete whines. "I want a turn."
Gabe already has Bronx turned upside down and laughing.
"Let him take him," Victoria says. "They can play with the kids and we can have girl time." Something of her tension must bleed through, because Ashlee gives her a sharp look before putting on a pout and reluctantly handing Tyler over to Pete.
It's warm enough that the boys go outside, and Ashlee and Victoria settle in on the couch.
Victoria doesn't wait for Ashlee to ask before she says, "I'm freaking the fuck out."
Ashlee looks her over for a moment. "Okay," she says. "Why?"
Victoria closes her eyes and says, "I'm in love with Gabe." It's the first time she's said it out loud. She's barely dared to even think it.
She opens her eyes, and Ashlee's looking at her like she's not sure if she should say anything or not. Ashlee finally puts her hand on Victoria's knee.
"Sweetie," she says slowly, "you've been in love with Gabe since before I met you."
She's known Ashlee for almost five years, only a few months less than she's known Gabe.
Victoria laughs a little, but Ashlee doesn't laugh with her.
"Sweetie." There's a twist to Ashlee's mouth.
"Oh." Victoria looks down at Ashlee's hand on her knee. "Really?" she whispers.
Ashlee tugs her forward and hugs her. "Yes, really." She runs her hand over Victoria's hair. "You know, I never thought things were going to last with Jack, even if he wasn't a fucking cheating asshole."
Victoria presses her forehead against Ashlee's shoulder. "I thought I wanted them to." She just breathes for a moment, then says, "I- Do you think- What about him?"
She can feel Ashlee's sigh. "I don't know. He was with Bianca for a long time, and he really loved her."
Victoria wants to cry, but doesn't.
"But, hey," Ashlee says, and her cheer isn't a put-on, "he's living with you, and that's something."
Victoria nods against her shoulder, and pulls back, takes in a deep breath. "Yeah," she says, "that's something." She tries a smile, and doesn't need the sympathetic look on Ashlee's face to tell her it doesn't stick.
"Come on," Ashlee says. "It'll be okay."
Victoria's not sure she believes that - it wasn't okay with Jack - but her smile's a little more real this time, and all the way there when they go outside and Gabe, Pete, Bronx, Tyler, and the dogs are all rolling around in the grass, Gabe keeping a close eye on Tyler so the dogs don't overwhelm or hurt him.
*
On the road northeast to Vegas the next day, while Tyler's sleeping, Gabe asks, "You all right? You seemed a little upset when you were talking to Ash."
Victoria takes advantage, she knows she does, and she curls up next to him on the couch. "I'm okay." She puts her head down on his shoulder. "Tour fatigue, baby fatigue, you know."
Gabe pulls her over more so she's in his lap. Victoria's heart pounds, but she makes herself relax into it. Gabe's arms loop around her waist, and she leans into his warmth. He presses his lips into her shoulder.
"Sucks," he offers.
Victoria laughs and twists to look at him. "That's it? 'Sucks'?"
Gabe runs a thumb over the curve of her cheek. "Made you laugh."
Victoria can feel the line Gabe touched as clearly as if it had been marked. She shoves at his shoulder. "You suck."
Gabe pulls her close again. "There's nothing we can do about tour fatigue, and you know you can ask for whatever you need with Tyler. Pretty much it just sucks."
"Yeah, you're so much help." He is, though, with the way he lets her stay cuddled on his lap until Tyler's crying comes across the baby monitor.
*
A couple of days later, in Seattle, Gabe takes Tyler from her and says, "You have an appointment."
There's nothing on Victoria's calendar. "I do?"
"You do." Gabe grins at her. "At a spa. It comes highly recommended. Think of it as a present from Tyler and me for putting up with both of us on one bus." He hands her her purse and pushes her toward the front of the bus. "Your ride's waiting."
Victoria hasn't been to a spa in way too long, and this is a nice one. She's a few minutes early, so they usher her into a waiting room with comfortable chairs and a soothing fountain, and someone brings her a cup of herbal tea to drink while she waits.
Gabe's present consists of a mani-pedi and a massage. Victoria leaves the spa feeling like she's floating more than walking.
When she gets back, the front of the bus is empty, so she heads toward the back and runs into Gabe in the hallway between the bunks.
"You look happy," he says with a smile.
Victoria's smile comes easier than it has in weeks. "I am. That was amazing." She reaches up and puts her arms around him. "Thank you."
Gabe's arms settle comfortably around her, his hands resting at the small of her back. "You're welcome."
He's still smiling at her, and she's so loose and happy, and she pushes up onto her toes and kisses him.
He kisses back.
He kisses back, and she slides her arms up to hook around the back of his neck, and his mouth fits perfectly against hers, and she would do this forever if she could.
Tyler's crying echoes through the bedroom door and from the baby monitor clipped to Gabe's hip.
They stop kissing, and Gabe rests his forehead against hers.
"He's the only person I would stop doing this for," he says low into her ear. His hands slide slowly across her waist and away, and he goes in to get Tyler.
*
It's not awkward. It just feels like someone hit the pause button on the good part of a movie so they could do what needed to be done elsewhere without losing the mood.
Gabe's smiles are a little softer, and Victoria holds onto that floaty feeling. They play with Tyler, then there's soundcheck, a radio interview Gabe and Ryland go to do while Victoria stays with Tyler, Tyler's bedtime, and the show. After the show, Nate and half of Sawdust Werewolves climb onto Gabe and Victoria's bus, all needing a break from their usual sleeping quarters.
Gabe and Victoria don't get a moment alone, but there's a promise in his eyes when he says goodnight that keeps her from worrying and lets her go to sleep.
The next night, in Boise, Gabe tangles their fingers together for a moment as they walk from the dressing room to the stage.
The day after that, when they pull into Salt Lake City and Gabe passes Victoria as he goes back to sleep for a while, he runs his hand across the line of her jaw and murmurs, "Hotel tonight."
She should not be so turned on while holding Tyler.
The warm flush of arousal stays with her through the familiar ritual of hotel days - moving Tyler's crib and everything else they need for a baby overnight into the hotel between soundcheck and the show, getting someone to stay with Tyler during the show - and into the show itself, where she channels it into the music and tries not to moan when Gabe wraps himself around her to sing.
Jesse, one of the crew who misses his own kid while he's on tour and volunteered to take Tyler for the evening, tells them he won't mind if they don't get back until late, so they hang out after the show, signing, taking pictures, and meeting fans. The fans filter out eventually, and they head back to the hotel.
"Tyler was good," Jesse reports. "A little fussy, but he always is when he's not with one of you."
"Thanks, man," Gabe says. He and Jesse do the secret handshake Gabe made up four states ago for the people who spend time with Tyler. Victoria just laughs at them.
They've been getting adjoining rooms or two-room suites whenever possible, giving each of them space but also leaving them both within range to get up with Tyler no matter which room they put him in. They have a suite tonight, which makes it easy, once they've checked on Tyler, for Gabe to grab up the baby monitor and pull Victoria into the other bedroom.
He puts the baby monitor on one of the bedside tables, and then comes back to Victoria. He puts his hands on her shoulders, and then slides them down to link with her hands.
"Where were we?" he asks, like it's been only moments and not two days.
"Here, I think." Victoria lets go of his hands to put her arms around his neck. She's wearing heels tonight, so it's not as much of a stretch to kiss him as it was before. He still bends to meet her, and he slides his arms around her waist.
Victoria opens her mouth to him, and they kiss deeper, wetter. There's an urgency to it, but it's comfortable, not frantic. Victoria's glad she's started wearing dresses with wider, looser skirts, because it gives her enough room to hike one leg up over Gabe's hip without tearing a seam.
It brings her flush against him. He's hard, his cock pressing against her, and she gasps, murmurs his name into his mouth, shudders with arousal.
"Yeah?" he asks, his voice rumbling in his chest.
"Yeah," she answers back.
She reaches to push his flannel off at the same time he reaches for the zipper on her dress. He pulls the zipper all the way down, then lets go so she can push his flannel off. She tugs his t-shirt up until he gets the hint and takes it off himself while she slips her arms out of the straps of her dress, slides it down her body, and steps out of it. Gabe's tossing his clothes to the side - Victoria takes a moment to appreciate that he's eager enough he's not taking time to carefully fold anything - so she tosses her dress onto the growing pile of cloth.
Gabe has his hand on his belt, but he stops and looks at her. "Babe," he says, sounding strangled. He shakes his head, and traces the line of her bra across the top of her breasts. "You-"
Victoria knows how he feels. She's seen the sharp lines of his abs, but never like this. Never when she can touch them all she wants, never when he's pulling her in against them. Their skin touches, and it's like an electric shock to her system. Their kisses are frantic now. Gabe's hands cup her ass, and if she could get the right angle, she could come from this, from rubbing up against each other like a couple of teenagers.
She wants more than that.
She reaches between them, arches her stomach away from him, and fumbles at Gabe's belt. "Get your fucking pants off," she growls at him, when the way his hands are gripping her proves too much distraction for her to concentrate on even the minimal complexity of unbuttoning his pants.
"Fuck." Gabe steps back. "Fuck, babe."
Victoria waits until he's pushing his jeans down his legs before she reaches behind herself and unhooks her bra.
Gabe almost trips on his pants coming back to her. "You've always had the most amazing breasts." He cups them in his hands and presses his lips against the curve of one of them.
Before, she would have loved it. Right now it's a little too much. She takes his hands in hers and pulls them up to her lips.
"Hey," she says, pressing a kiss to the back of his fingers, "not that." She wrinkles her nose. "Too much."
Gabe strokes her cheek. "Okay. Something else then." He kneels in front of her.
Victoria sucks in a breath, and then another one when Gabe kisses her stomach. She threads her hands into his hair, letting the curls tangle around her fingers. Gabe rubs into it, then turns his attention to unbuckling her shoes.
Victoria balances with one hand on his shoulder as he gently pulls first one then the other of her shoes off. He strokes his hands all the way up her legs, and she's sorry they're on the outside, but then he hooks his fingers in the waistband of her panties and draws them down her legs. There's a mischievous twist to his mouth as he slides his hands up the inside of legs, pushing at her thighs to make her step farther apart.
The anticipation is almost too much, and then he leans in and licks across her clit.
Victoria shudders, steps away from him, and her voice is almost unrecognizably low even to her own ears when she says, "Get your underwear off and come to bed."
She turns her back on him, and pushes the comforter and blankets to the side so she can stretch out on the sheets of the bed. Her eyes dip down to his cock, and then back up to his eyes. She holds her gaze there as she poses, arranging herself into a sultry, inviting curve. Gabe breaks the eye contact to sweep his gaze over her body.
"I don't know how I got so fucking lucky," he says as he comes to join her.
"You haven't yet." Victoria rolls onto her back, pulling Gabe with her. He's heavy on top of her in just the right way.
Gabe smoothes her hair away from her face, kisses her again. They kiss for long minutes, the two of them arching into each other, hands moving across skin.
"Tell me what you want," Gabe says between kisses.
They can barely stop kissing long enough for Victoria to answer, so she resorts to shoving him back by his shoulders. "I want you to get a condom and fuck me."
Gabe groans and presses his forehead against her shoulder. "If I fuck you, it's going to be over really fucking fast."
Victoria pulls his head up, hands on either side of his face. "I haven't had sex in over a year. You don't have to be good, you just have to be there."
Gabe snorts. "Well, you're the queen of sweet talk."
"Baby," Victoria purrs into his ear, "if you don't get a condom, I'm going to make myself come, and then you won't get to fuck me at all."
Gabe pulls away grinning. "You would never give this up." He does a spokesmodel gesture down his body. He also gets up and gets a condom out of the outside pocket of his suitcase.
"Keeping them handy?" Victoria teases.
Gabe unrolls the condom onto his cock. "I knew you wouldn't be the kind of girl who likes to be kept waiting."
"That's right." Victoria spreads her legs, tilts her hips up, opens her arms to him.
"Fuck, babe," Gabe swears as he pushes into her.
"Fuck," she echoes. It feels so good to have something other than her own hand. It feels so good to have Gabe. "Fuck, Gabe. Fuck, come on."
"I'm trying," he grits out, "not to come right this fucking second."
"You can do that later." It's the first time either of them has said anything about this happening again. Victoria pushes her hips up against him, but she can't get enough leverage to get them moving the way she wants. "Just fuck me."
"You-" Gabe doesn't finish the thought, but he does start to move. His first few thrusts are light, even things. Victoria wants that with him - wants everything with him - but she doesn't have the patience for it now. She wraps her leg around him and digs her heel into his ass.
"Come on," she growls.
Gabe picks up the pace, and it's not light or even anymore. Victoria rocks up against him, yanks his head down to kiss him, and it's barely any time at all before they're not even really kissing anymore, just breathing into each other's mouths.
Gabe pulls his hips back, gets his hand between them, and his thrusts press it against her clit.
"Gabe," Victoria says on a gasp.
"Victoria," he growls back.
She can feel her orgasm building, cresting, washing through her. She almost doesn't want to come, doesn't want this to stop, but it's so good there's nothing she can do about it. She comes with an almost silent, "Oh," and Gabe snaps his hips into her hard.
"Come on, baby," Victoria murmurs. She runs her hands through Gabe's hair. "Come on."
Gabe seals his mouth to hers as he comes. They keep kissing for long moments afterwards, their hands stroking restless paths across each other's bodies.
Gabe sighs and pulls away to deal with the condom, then flops down on his back next to Victoria.
"Holy fuck," he says, still panting. "That rocked my fucking world, and you didn't even suck my dick."
Victoria clumsily pats his arm. "When you get it up again, I will."
His fingers twitch against her hip. "I'll do you too."
"Okay." Victoria waits for her heart to slow down and her breathing to even out. After a couple of minutes, she turns on her side and snuggles up to Gabe. "You cuddle, right?"
"Hell yes I cuddle." Gabe grabs at the covers and turns on his side to face her. It's awkward for a moment, but then he shifts, and she wriggles, and they fit together, her leg between his, his arms around her, her head on his shoulder.
*
Victoria wakes up not much later when Tyler's crying comes across the baby monitor. "I'll go," she says when Gabe wakes up too. She scoops her panties and Gabe's flannel off the floor and puts them on.
"Hey, baby," she says to Tyler. She lifts him out of his crib. "Are you hungry? That's it, isn't it?" She sits down in the chair and twitches the flannel out of the way so Tyler can nurse.
When she gets up to put him back in his crib, Gabe is leaning in the doorway watching her. Victoria pulls Tyler's blanket up over him and joins Gabe at the door. Gabe slides his hands around her sides under the flannel.
"You're so beautiful." Gabe kisses her so sweetly, it almost makes her cry.
She jokes with him instead. "Breastfeeding turns you on?"
Gabe grins. "Everything you do turns me on." He pulls her toward him. "Come back to bed."
*
Between the commitments of tour and the commitments of taking care of an infant, they don't actually have sex that often after the first night. Instead there are kisses goodnight and sharing the bed for afternoon naps and more touching than before. It's good. Hell, it's fun, in a way Victoria had almost forgotten relationships could be.
She wonders if this is just a tour fling or if she'll still get to have Gabe when they go back home, but she's afraid to talk to Gabe about it. She likes the way it feels real when he tells the audience, "Give it up for my girl Victoria," and she doesn't want to lose that.
On an afternoon when Tyler's napping and Gabe's doing press and guaranteed to be gone for at least an hour, Victoria calls Amber.
"Let me talk to Gizmo."
Amber sighs dramatically. "You only call me when you want to talk to your dog. What kind of friend are you?"
"I want to talk to you," Victoria assures her, "but if I do that first, I'll forget about Gizmo, so put him on so I can tell you what's going on."
"Fine, fine." Amber puts the phone on speaker. "Gizmo, it's your mommy."
"Hi, baby," Victoria says. Gizmo barks in answer. "We miss you so much. Tyler's getting big. He's bigger than you now. Have you been good for Amber?"
"He's been really good," Amber croons. "I think he likes being an only child."
Victoria laughs. "Good boy. We'll be home in just a couple of weeks." Victoria makes a loud kiss noise into the phone. "Okay, you can take Gizmo off now."
There's a click as Amber takes her phone off speaker. "Okay," she says, "what's going to make you forget about Gizmo?"
Victoria spills everything, from the moment she realized she wanted Gabe up through last night when Gabe laid in bed with her until she fell asleep even though he couldn't sleep on a moving bus. "And I don't know if this is just sex or if it's something real."
"V, he's practically raising your kid. That's pretty damn real."
"But that's just Gabe. He loves kids."
"He loves your kid. Do you really think he's the kind of guy to sleep with you just for increased access to Tyler?"
Put that way, it sounds ridiculous. Victoria giggles. "I guess not."
"You two were practically married without the sex before. Now you're practically married with the sex too."
"Yeah, I guess."
Amber sighs. "Or, and this is a totally crazy idea, you could talk to Gabe about it."
"He could break my heart," Victoria admits. "Way worse than Jack did."
"He could do that anyway," Amber points out. "At least you'd know and you could stop torturing yourself about it."
*
In Chicago, Christine brings Genevieve to soundcheck. Christine lets Genevieve go as soon as they're done, and she hurls herself across the stage toward Gabe. She kisses his cheek and then does it again.
"Daddy's in Cin'natti, and he said to kiss you for him."
Gabe kisses her cheek again. "Now you can give him a kiss from me too." He gives Christine a one-armed hug, and then leads them on a procession back to the bus.
Christine walks with Victoria. "How're you doing?"
"Good. Gabe helps a lot, and we've got a lot of support."
Christine shakes her head. "I can't imagine taking Genevieve on tour."
Victoria shrugs. "The worst is having to let someone else watch Tyler while we're busy, but we're managing." She follows Christine into the bus. "And I can't imagine us doing it without a separate bus."
Kyle has Tyler on a blanket on the floor. Tyler burbles at Victoria, and she bends down to pick him up. "Hi, baby." She kisses his cheek. "Come meet Christine."
"Can I?" Christine asks, holding out her arms.
Victoria hands Tyler to her, and Christine sits down on the couch with him.
"That's your baby?" Genevieve asks, staring hard at Victoria.
Victoria crouches down to Genevieve's level. "It is. His name's Tyler."
Genevieve peers at Tyler. "He's really little."
Christine smiles at her. "You were this little too."
Genevieve pouts. "Wasn't."
"You were." Gabe scoops her up again and sits next to Christine. "I remember it."
Being on Gabe's lap puts Genevieve just high enough for her to look down at Tyler. She looks at him as suspiciously as a four-year-old can.
Gabe exchanges an amused look with Christine and says, "He'll hold your hand." He takes Genevieve's hand in his and stretches it out to Tyler. Tyler grabs onto two of her fingers.
"He's strong!"
"He is," Gabe says. "You were too." He puts his cheek against Genevieve's. "You used to grab onto my sunglasses and not let go."
"You'd have a million of them if you could," Christine says fondly.
"Not a million," Gabe says without looking away from Tyler and Genevieve, "but maybe two or three." Then he looks up and smiles at Victoria.
She thinks maybe, maybe this is as real for him as it is for her.
*
One afternoon, in Michigan, Gabe and Victoria get to the dressing room before anyone else. Victoria leans against the wall. Gabe looms over her, one forearm on the wall by her head and flirtatious smile on his lips.
"You think you can have me?" Victoria teases.
"I know I can have you." Gabe leans closer. "If we had time, I'd have you right now."
Victoria reaches up to put her arms around his shoulders. "Would you?"
"I would." Gabe closes the last few inches of space between them and kisses her.
Of course, that's when the door opens and the rest of their band comes tumbling in.
"Oh-ho!" Alex says. "So that's what's going on on the other bus?"
"Delicious," Ryland drawls.
"Does this mean I'm not your favorite anymore?" Nate asks.
"Fuck you," Gabe says. "You were never my favorite."
Victoria hides her laughter in Gabe's shoulder.
*
Two days later, in a dressing room in Pittsburgh, Alex reads part of a fan's review of the show out loud, smirk firmly planted on his face.
"Motherhood," it says, "clearly agrees with Vicky-T. She's more animated and dynamic on stage than I've ever seen her. Her by-play with Gabe is amazing this tour, and she's just lighting up her side of the stage. I have no idea how she's keeping it up while taking care of a five-month-old baby. The rumor is that she doesn't even have a nanny. I mean, she's practically glowing. I haven't heard any rumors about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if she's getting laid."
Victoria flips him off.
"Oh, if only they knew." Ryland's smirk matches Alex's.
Gabe bends down and kisses Victoria's neck. "Ignore them, babe. They're just jealous you got to me first."
"Fuck that," Nate says. "I'm the original resident of your basement."
*
They're scheduled for a day off at home in New York. Victoria bites the bullet the day before, in Buffalo.
She sits down next to Gabe in the front lounge and asks, "Are we going back to separate bedrooms tomorrow?"
Gabe sounds as uncertain as she feels when he asks, "Do you want to?"
Victoria shakes her head. "No, but we haven't really talked about this."
"We haven't," he agrees. "We seem to be doing okay."
Victoria looks down at her hands. "Yeah, we are."
Gabe takes one of her hands in his. "I'm not planning on going anywhere, okay?"
Victoria nods. It's not everything, but it'll be enough. "Okay."
Gabe leans his shoulder against hers. "In fact, the only plan I have involves you, me, and a bed in our apartment."
Victoria can feel the corners of her mouth turn up into a smile. "Really?"
Gabe nuzzles against her cheek. "I'd tell you more, but Tyler's in the room."
Victoria holds him there with her free hand against the back of his head. "I guess it'll be a surprise then."
*
Victoria knows she's lost some weight on tour - she had to find a seamstress to take in a couple of her dresses - so when they're home, after they put Tyler to bed, she sends Gabe back to his room to wait for her while she changes.
"Just give me a couple of minutes," she says. "I promise you'll like it."
Gabe presses a kiss to her lips. "Don't take too long, or I'll start without you."
Victoria has a lot of practice with quick changes involving complicated clothes, so it takes her only a couple of minutes to put on a black garter belt with its matching negligee and stockings - she doesn't bother with the panties - then step into a pair of black heels and put on her reddest lipstick.
She's wet and her gaze, when she checks in the mirror, is already soft and heavy-lidded.
Gabe left the door to his room open, so she can see him lying in bed with a hand on his cock. She can also see when he notices her coming toward him, because he stops, sits up, and stares at her. She pauses in the doorway, hips to one side, one leg bent, hands high up on either side of the doorway.
"You're ruining all my plans," Gabe complains. "I was going to go slow and make this really good for you."
Victoria turns around to close the door, letting him look at the view from the back. "What makes you think it won't be good this way?" She lets her hips sway as she walks to the bed, then steps out of the heels and straddles Gabe.
"I'm sure it'll be good for me." Gabe runs his hands over her stockings and up to her ass.
"It's going to be good for both of us." Victoria bends over to kiss him. She has her hair down so it makes a soft curtain around them. "It's going to be so good." She takes one of his hands and moves it from her ass to her cunt.
He takes the hint and strokes his fingers across her. It's light, teasing. Victoria presses down against the next press, and his touch firms against her. He dips one finger into her, rubs, comes back to her clit. His eyes aren't on his hands or her breasts; he's looking at her face.
Victoria can feel herself getting wetter and clenching against him. "Condom?"
Gabe reaches for it with the hand that's not against her cunt. Victoria takes it from him, tears it open, and unrolls it over his cock. She pulls his hand away so she can slide down onto him.
He puts his fingers in his mouth and sucks enough to hollow his cheeks.
Victoria rolls her hips against him. "I don't know what makes you think I can wait for you to be slow anyway."
Gabe pulls his fingers out of his mouth and laughs. "One of these days," he says, half promise, half threat, "we're going to fuck for hours." He rubs his fingers along her cunt, around where his cock is stretching her open, and up to press against her clit.
Victoria rolls her hips again. "You'll have to get me off at least once before you can do that." She bends over him, changing the angle and pressing her clit harder against his hand. "Fuck, this is good."
Gabe puts his free arm around her shoulders, holding her close, and toys with the strap of her negligee. "I can't believe you put this on for me." He kisses her hard, moves his hand against her clit in counterpoint to her hips.
Victoria's thighs are starting to shake, both with the effort of moving and with how close she is to coming.
"You're just-" Gabe keeps kissing her over and over again. "I can't believe I get to have you like this."
Victoria's so in love with him. She kisses him hard and sucks at his neck to keep from saying it out loud.
Gabe arches up into her mouth, her hips. "Babe," he groans. He comes before she does, and when she growls at him a little, he keeps moving his hand until he gets her there too. He keeps moving even after that, his touches sending aftershocks tingling through her.
When it stops being good and starts being too much, she pulls away, holding onto the condom, and then slipping it off, tying it, and tossing it into the trash can next to the bed. She lies back down on top of Gabe, breathing in his scent while he traces over the lacy edges of her negligee and stockings.
"You know you don't have to do this," he says. He tugs at the top of one of her stockings. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you don't have to do this for me."
Victoria presses a kiss to his chest. "When we were packing to move, Amber was jealous of my lingerie collection and made me take her shopping. I started bawling in the middle of the store because I didn't think I would have anyone to wear it for again."
Gabe's silent for so long that Victoria pushes herself up to look at him.
"I'm just trying to get over the fact that you have a whole collection of this." Gabe cards his fingers through her hair. "I can see what you mean about never being able to wait to do it slow." He pulls her down and kisses her slow, wet, deep. "But I'd still want you even if you were just hanging around in sweats."
Victoria's heart feels like it might burst with how much she loves him.
*
They're lying in bed, post-coital, in a hotel in Virginia, Tyler asleep in the other room, Gabe idly playing with her hair.
"Can I tell you something," Gabe asks, "without you freaking out?"
Victoria turns on her side to face him. "Is it something that's going to make me freak out?" The thing she's most afraid he'll say is that this is over, but he hasn't stopped touching her, so if it's that, he's more of an asshole than she ever would have guessed.
Gabe traces her eyebrows, her cheekbones, the line of her nose. "I hope not."
Victoria tucks her hands under her cheek. "Okay, tell me."
Gabe leans in close to whisper in her ear. "I don't want you to ever find another guy to be in your life."
All of the air goes out of Victoria's lungs. "Oh." She struggles against the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. "Gabe," she breathes.
"Hey," he says, wiping at her eyes with his thumbs. "Hey, babe, Victoria, don't cry."
Victoria grabs at his hand and presses it to her lips. "I love you," she says against his skin. "I don't want anyone else raising Tyler."
Gabe's eyes look suspiciously bright too, and then he puts his arms around her and kisses her and says, "Me too."
*
In the dressing room in Atlanta, before their last show of the tour, Gabe plays with Victoria's fingers, twining them with his own, letting go, just touching her.
Nate throws a drumstick in their direction. It goes wide enough that he wasn't really aiming for them. "You two are sickening. Thank God we don't have to watch this much longer."
Victoria cuddles into Gabe as obnoxiously as possible. "Is somebody jealous? You know, just because we love each other doesn't mean we don't love you anymore."
"Yeah," Gabe says. "You'll always be our bitch."
Nate throws his other drumstick their way.
"Look on the bright side," Alex says. "You're going to be all the way across the country from them. We have to be in the same city."
"I wonder how Meredith would feel about moving to California," Ryland muses.
"Ivy League could be a bicoastal band," Alex says.
"We'd be just as famous and play even fewer gigs."
"Fuck you. You're all dicks," Victoria says through her giggles. She kisses Gabe's cheek, then pulls herself up off the couch. She gives Nate his drumsticks back and goes to stand in front of the mirror for a wholly unnecessary check of her makeup.
*
Their first day home is a whirlwind of chaos. Amber brings Gizmo over, and he yips and runs around Victoria's feet while she tries to get Tyler's things sorted out and back to where they belong in the nursery. Gabe unpacks their bags and starts doing laundry. Tyler's fretful at first, but calms down when Victoria sings to him while rocking them in the rocking chair.
Victoria thinks she's going to get to relax when Tyler goes down for his nap, but Gabe says, "You're going to move into the master bedroom with me, right?"
Victoria leans against him. "Yes. Are you going to make me organize my shoes by color?"
Gabe kisses her temple. "Of course not. They should be organized by how often you wear them."
Victoria shoves at him. "You're going to help."
"Does that mean I get to see your lingerie collection now?"
Victoria laughs. "No. That you get to see bit by bit. But you can see all the rest of my clothes." She pulls him down the hall, and they spend Tyler's naptime moving her clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other assorted personal items from her room to the master bedroom.
Because they spend all afternoon doing chores, Victoria insists on making it an early night. She curls up in bed with Gizmo while Gabe puts Tyler down.
"I think he's just as tired as you are," Gabe says. "He fell right to sleep." He bends over to kiss her, and then takes Gizmo and puts him out into the hallway before he closes the door.
"It's been a long day." Victoria watches Gabe line his shoes up neatly in the closet and carefully put his clothes in the hamper as he takes them off.
"It has." Gabe ducks into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He comes back and turns off the overhead light, leaving only one of the bedside lamps on. "Tyler did pretty well, though, for all that."
"I think being on tour probably got him used to chaos."
"Probably," Gabe agrees. He pulls back the covers and gets into bed with her. "You ever consider having another one?"
Victoria reaches for him. "Come convince me."
Epilogue: February 2013
No, I didn't get arrestedVictoria scrolls through the comments on Gabe's blog post. There are a few of the "you could do better than Victoria" variety, but most of them are congratulations and speculation about how good-looking their kid is going to be.
But that is me, my girl, and our kid at the courthouse. Yeah, I said our kid. The judge signed the papers, and I'm now legally responsible for him until he's 18. Please don't teach him to do things that will make the cops call me. He has his Uncle Nate for that.
That's only half our good news. I managed to convince Victoria that Tyler shouldn't be an only child. His little brother or sister is due in September. This isn't going to change our plans for tour! We've done this before, and this baby's going to be born between tours just like Tyler.
I'm still trying to convince Victoria to convert to Judaism. If you see us on tour, help a boy out.
Tyler's laughter comes closer, and he runs through the door into the office with one of Gizmo's toys in his hand and Gizmo following along behind him.
Victoria scoops him up as he gets near. "Are you taking Gizmo's toys?"
"We're playing!" Tyler waves the squeaky toy, and Gizmo jumps up toward it.
"Mommy está trabajando," Gabe says from the doorway. "Déjale en paz."
"It's okay," Victoria says. "Throwing toys is an outside activity," she adds to Tyler as he raises his arm to no doubt hurl Gizmo's toy across the room.
Tyler puts his arm down. "Park?"
Gabe comes into the room and leans over, one hand on the back of Victoria's chair, and the other on Tyler's shoulder, to kiss her. "Up to you," he murmurs.
It's been raining off and on all week, but it's cleared up a little, with the sun bursting through the clouds every once in a while.
"Sure." Victoria kisses Tyler's forehead and takes Gizmo's squeaky toy from him. "You go with Papi to get your coat on and I'll get Gizmo's leash." She hands him to Gabe and closes her laptop.
Gabe's being ridiculously overprotective already, so he hovers while she stands.
"I'm not as tired with this one," she says.
Gabe touches her cheek. "I worry." He brushes a kiss to her lips.
"Love you," she says against his mouth.
"Te quiero," he answers back.
Tyler echoes both of them in a chant of "Love you, te quiero, love you."
Gabe laughs and bounces him a little. "Vámanos, mijo. ¡Al parque!"
"¡Al parque!" Tyler crows.
Victoria whistles for Gizmo and follows them down the hall.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 04:21 am (UTC)"Oh-ho!" Alex says. "So that's what's going on on the other bus?"
"Delicious," Ryland drawls.
"Does this mean I'm not your favorite anymore?" Nate asks.
"Fuck you," Gabe says. "You were never my favorite."
Victoria hides her laughter in Gabe's shoulder.
COBRAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSS. *giggling*
I couldn't help but laugh and have hearteyes for this, okay? Seriously.
I like how you handled it and the way that Gabe and Victoria slide into something more, because it's very intense to be helping someone raise a child, and that goes for someone who was a nanny. (Being a Nanny is super stressful and so I liked that you put Victoria's own stress in)
There's so much that I loved about this fic, but if I was quoting it all, I'd take up a few comment boxes. I didn't want this to end!
One thing I will say, I think I almost would have loved for you to have ended it with the blog post. But that's just me and I like weird endings. XD
But this was so lovely, Ruth.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 05:32 pm (UTC)Did you say this before you read my commentary? Because the original ending was going to be the blog post, but the rest of the story is Victoria's pov, and I didn't want to abandon that.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 07:05 pm (UTC)But I do get it, so yeah. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 08:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 08:31 am (UTC)And Gabe. Fuck, the things he did for her were just amazing. I think (hope?) that true love is exactly like what you wrote here, and that one day I might find someone who cares this much about me. His protectiveness was spot-on too, I think. Gabe seems to be the kind of person that would do anything to protect or help the people that he loves, and you depicted him exactly like that.
I really enjoyed reading this, and was so excited about its length because it meant that I got to keep reading sfor longer! Thanks for sharing. =)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 05:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-27 11:52 pm (UTC)Like, massively enjoyed reading it.
I like how you didn't just randomly get rid of Bianca, and kept just a general air of reality to everything. As if the story could happen in real time.
Ryland, Alex, and Nate were hilarious. You wrote them so well and everything they said was spot on. I honestly can't tell you who I thought had the funniest lines.
I enjoyed all the background characters too, Victoria's parents, Christine, Amber, and Ashlee, and everyone else.
Such a well written story and a nice read!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-28 05:06 pm (UTC)I'm glad you enjoyed it!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-28 12:41 am (UTC)Also, it could have used like a smidge more Jack, but maybe that's just because I love him, xD.
Except, maybe not because Gabe seems like a way better daddy. lol
I could totally go for more of this family. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-28 05:07 pm (UTC)I don't know much about Jack - I mostly used him as a convenient person to be the boyfriend at the beginning.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-29 05:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-29 05:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-29 11:43 am (UTC)and and and BABY COBRA and AWWWWHHHH. \O/
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-29 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 01:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-02 04:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 03:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-27 03:42 pm (UTC)(I legit got teary-eyed when Victoria said Tyler was going to be Tyler Diego Asher.)
I really really love what you did here. <3 Such a beautiful story!!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 09:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-29 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-06 08:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-09 02:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-11 11:47 am (UTC)I really liked the slow progression of Gabe and Victoria's relationship, how it's almost backwards, the way it begins with forming a family and ends with realizing they're in love, and I think you did a great job including women -- I read your notes about making an effort to do so and it really paid off. They don't feel shoehorned in at all. And I love the way you handled the pregnancy and let it be known that Victoria was entirely capable of going through it alone even as she accepted and appreciated the help that was offered her.
I was also pleasantly surprised by your getting the few Spanish sentences you threw in right! (It's vámonos rather than vámanos in Gabe's last line, but other than that? Two thumbs up.) I feel like most writers, fan and, alas, pro, just draw from their high school classes and don't even bother to get it proofread, and it never fails to throw me out of the story/movie/TV show, so I really appreciate your thoroughness there.
What else -- I'm not in bandom, so I can't comment on it from that angle (the only people in this I didn't have to google for visuals were Pete and Ashlee), but I can tell you your characterizations were so realistic and three-dimensional I didn't feel like I was missing anything.
Anyway, thank you for writing this story. It really was a lovely read. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-24 01:21 am (UTC)I have college level Spanish to draw on (although that was some years ago), and those parts still made me nervous, so I'm glad to know I got it almost right.
<3
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-04 07:38 am (UTC)The entire time, the most ridiculous smile known to man kind was gracing my face.
You are fantastic and this just made me so fucking ridiculously happy.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 :D
You are amazing.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-05 01:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-05 01:04 am (UTC)I kind of wish you'd write a sequel...I just need more of these two in my life. In a little bit, if I have time between doing homework, I'm gonna continue on to the part two of the story where Victoria is a director...but I really want more happy family mommy and daddy Gabe and Victoria.
I almost wanted more of jack ass Jack to be in there...if anything just to have a scene where Gabe and the band beats the shit out of him. hahahaha. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-05 10:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-26 06:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-27 12:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-06 05:54 am (UTC)I loved every bit of it. I loved how natural the progression of Victoria and Gabe's relationship felt, how the story really focused on what Victoria was going through - her feelings, emotions, interactions with others - all of those factors made the story great. I'll definitely be bookmarking this one.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-06 07:13 pm (UTC)