Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms will ever hold"

Suddenly all the lights became flashes and all the spots were dark. Loud gasps and the hottest heat accompanied with pain.

“Paramedics needed… EMT’s needed!”

“FUCK! JESUS CHRIST! RIO!” Jennifer Kale, Rio’s team member, was yelling in horror, not knowing how to help out her friend, who was screaming louder and agonizing in pain. “Rio do not close your eyes, stay with us, the paramedics are here!” Jen says.
Rio could not form a single sentence due to the incredible pain she was feeling.
The EMT’S stabilize Rio and check for her consciousness and breathing, soon taking her to the medical center. Her coach, Paul, known for his basketball court name, Vision, accompanies the EMT’s and Rio.

After a few exams and surgery, Rio is stable, painkillers in her veins and a bunch of people in her hospital room.

“When she tore her ACL she also lost balance and hit her head on the bench, that’s why she fainted soon after” Dr. Torres was on her case. She was usually the one who took care of the team’s injuries.

“So what’s the verdict here? Is she good now?” Vision is right by side with the Dr. Torre’s side and asks her the question with a low register.

“You don’t need to whisper, I’m here, I should know what is going to happen” Rio finally says.

“Rio, don’t move too much,” Jen says. She’s right by her side.

“Dr. Torres, am I going to be able to play again?”

“Yes, Ms Vidal, but you do need time to recover”

“What are you trying to say?” Rio swallows her saliva, worrying.

“You won’t be able to finish this season’s games-”

“WHAT? BUT-” Rio interrupts her

“No buts! Listen to her! Continue, please” Lilia, the team’s sponsor, enters the room.

“Good evening Lilia!” Dr. Torres greets her and then directs her attention to Rio again “You need to follow the post-surgery cares in order to come back for next year’s season.”

“My team needs me!” She nervously says with a shaking voice and crazy eyes. “I can’t be away for that long. Isn’t there, like a… an injection for the pain you can give me?”

“You will follow medical orders, Vidal! We cannot risk losing you for good. The team will be fine.” Vision approaches her.

“They better be. Rio is our top3 best player and we need her to recover from this as soon as possible.” Lilia says while looking at her calendar “So Doctor Torres, what’s the procedure here?”

“Vidal needs to stay still and rest for a week, she can do this here at the hospital or at home if she’s able to have home care. After that, Active physiotherapy input may be required for the last six months or so. “ Rio gasps, worried. “We’ll keep an eye on it, maybe it could be less” trying to calm Rio down.

“Well, can I have a nurse at home with me, then? I don’t like hospitals.” She directs the question to Vision and Vision looks at Lilia for answers.

“We can arrange that. But I need you to take this seriously, Rio. I mean it. My money is on this team and on you. Please.” She approaches Rio while saying it and puts a hand on her arms. “You have to promise me nothing will get in the way of you recovering.” Rio nods.

“Alright, we have Nurse Maximoff on call, maybe she can take your case” Dr Torres says

“Well, well, well… Vision’s hot girlfriend will be my nurse for a week…” She loves to provoke her coach

“If you hit on my wife I swear to god I’ll not let you back on the team!”

“You don’t make that call!” Lilia gives him a warning look. “Do not hit on his girlfriend, Vidal. Better yet, do not hit on your nurse!”

“Well, save the warnings for when she sees the physical therapist they hired” Wanda enters the room and Rio smirks and says “Do tell!”

“Stop that!” Lilia warns her, pointing a finger close to her face.

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And just like that, a week goes by. Rio managed to stay still and let Wanda help her.

On the first day of physical therapy, Rio goes unwilling and gets to the clinic with an incredibly big pout. She waits.

“Rio Vidal?” The doctor calls and Rio looks at her and all of a sudden, no words, no movement. She approaches with a big smile on her face. “I’m Dr. Harkness, pleasure to meet you” Reaching out her hand to shake Rio’s.

“Pleasure is all mine, Dr. Harkness” She’s blushing. She cannot believe she’s blushing in front of her doctor.

“Well, William here will help you get to your bed. If you want a wheelchair instead of the cane, let me know!” She says and then walks into the room while William helps Rio.

“Does she have a name?” Rio asks William in a whisper

“Oh, they told me you might ask this and I’m not allowed to say it. You’re gonna have to ask her yourself.” William says while laughing a little.

“What do you mean they-” Of course Lilia would not let her have this.

They reach the bed and when Rio looks comfortable, Agatha comes closer.

“How are you feeling today?” She asks Rio

“My knee is hurting a little. I think it’s going to rain”

Agatha frowns and asks with a curious face “what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, you know what they say… When someone’s knee hurts, it’s a signal that it’s going to rain” Agatha can’t help but laugh and Rio can’t help but smile and then bites her lower lip.

“Again, what does that have to do with anything?” Rio just shrugged. “Alright, I’m going to start with some Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for that pain and then some exercises. Sounds good?”

“Yeah!” Rio agrees without a question. She just wants to give Agatha what she wants. She’s just cooperating, it doesn’t mean she has a crush. Of course not.

Everything goes smoothly, Agatha helps Rio with the exercises, and everytime she puts her hands on Rio’s waist, Rio’s face burns. This is not a crush. Of course not.

By the end of the session, William helps Rio to the chair so she can talk to Agatha.

“So, today went really well. If you keep cooperating I don’t think you’re gonna need six months of me” Agatha says playfully and smiles.

“Well, in that case I won’t be cooperating anymore…” It’s okay, Rio thinks. That was subtle.

Agatha was caught by surprise and when she was about to answer, William enter the room

“Excuse me, Dr. Harkness, there’s someone on the phone and they say it’s urgent”
Her face just falls. “Excuse me, Ms Vidal, I need to get this!”

Rio watches Agatha through the glass window. She picks up the phone and her face looks worried and hurt. Agatha rests her head on her hands. Not long after the call she tells William something and immediately runs. William comes back into the room.

“Dr. Harkness had an emergency she had to attend to, so she told me to help you out and I will send you the plan via email, if that’s okay.” He says

“Of course. Does she need something? Maybe I can help” Rio is genuinely worried.

“No need. She just needed to go now, but I’m sure everything will be settled soon. Now let me help you out”.

Rio gets to the car and the driver, Jack, drives her home. Once she gets home, she can’t shake the feeling of worry. She goes to sleep that night wanting to text Agatha.

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It’s 8PM, Agatha is sitting on her couch and Wanda joins her with two cups of tea in hand.

“Thank you for getting him to the hospital today, and staying until now. I was hoping nothing would go wrong today, specially today”

“No problem. The babysitter was white as a ghost when I got here!” Wanda jokes trying to light the mood. “But I’m here, whenever you need me. I thank God I was on my day off as well”

“I know… I don’t think I can thank you enough, Wanda!” Agatha looks down at her cup

“There 's no need. I’m your friend, I’m his godmother for chrissakes. I’m here for you both!” She grabs Agatha’s free hand and that makes her look up. “So, how was your first day?”

Agatha takes a big breath. “It was going really well, but, actually I think Vidal might-” She interrupts herself “nevermind”. shaking her head.

“No-no! Tell me, what did she do? Did she make you feel uncomfortable?”

“No! God no! She was very good during the session”

“Good! Because, as I told you, she’s a flirt, but I was afraid she would go too far with you”

“why?” Agatah frowns.

“Well, I have a strong feeling you’re her type”

“I’m Rio Vidal’s type? the basketball player who is seen with multiple models?”

“They throw themselves at her and she just has some fun. She never really dated the public ones. But, she dated an older woman once, I mean, she was 10 years older than her and she was cold” Wanda explains.

“Wait a minute, are you calling me old AND cold?” she asks playfully

“Yes and no!” She laughs. “You’re only 5 years older than she is, and you’re pretty closed off. She’s almost retiring, she’ll maybe play for two more years and then maybe settle down…”

“Are you suggesting I should be the one to settle her down?” Agatha is in disbelief

“I’m just saying you should try to date someone. You’ve been so nervous, it would be nice to blow off some steam.”

Agatha looks at her in shock. “Anyways… I do think she tried to flirt with me today. Once” Says holding up one finger.

“how?” Both of them take a sip of the tea.

“Well, I told her if she keeps cooperating, she might not need to be stuck with me for six months and she said she will not be cooperating anymore…”

“Oh my god, that was the most subtle I’ve heard she was being…”

“Really?” This picks Agatha’s curiosity

“Well, yeah, she’s usually more unhinged.”

“Mommy?” Nick appears at the bottom of the stairs, sleepy. Agatha gets up to hold him.

“Hey, baby. How are you feeling?” She strokes his hair and kisses his forehead.

“I’m hungry” he complains “can I have mc donalds?”

“You can have some soup, if you want! You can’t eat any junk food after what happened today”

“Yeah, Nicky, listen to your mom!” Wanda moves closer, giving him a kiss on the cheek “Look, I have to go, but if you need anything, if he vomits again or faints, let me know, okay?” Agatha just nods. “Also, the diagnosis will be ready tomorrow in the afternoon, do you want me to call you or send it to you?”

“Can you send it, please?” Wanda nods. “And, hey, thanks for the distraction earlier”

“Anytime!”

After Agatha puts Nicky to bed, she showers and thinks of Rio. She thinks about the flirting situation. She hasn’t been in a real relationship since Nicky was one year old and her then girlfriend couldn’t handle a small child. She decided to focus on him then. She had had a couple of hot dates but nothing exciting enough to start dating again. But she couldn’t start right now, not while Nicky is sick. But that didn’t stop her from having dreams about the basketball player.

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Second appointment

Rio buys coffee for both of them.

“Morning! I brought coffee for us since you schedule the appointment for basically dawn.” She says it with a smile on her face, handing Agatha de coffee. “I didn’t know how you take you coffee so I just took a wild guess”

“Well, first of all, don’t be so dramatic, it’s 8AM and second…” She tries the black coffee “You got it right, thank you Ms Vidal.” She starts to walk to the bed where she would examine Rio’s knee.

“8AM is a hate crime against people like me who go to sleep at midnight and please, call me Rio, you already touched my thigh…” She tries to be subtle but her voice comes out really low and raspy.

“I touched your knee! God, you’re being dramatic today!” Without noticing, Agatha plays Rio’s silly game.

“Semantics!” Shrugging

“So, any pain today?” Agatha asks while examining her knee

“Not really. But I think I’ve been so scared of touching the ground, I haven’t been putting any weight on it”

“Well, don’t put any weight on it just yet, next week we will do some strength exercises”

Rio just nods in agreement and they go on with the exercises Agatha prepared for the first week. After they have done everything, Agatha takes Rio to the room so they can discuss some at home exercises.

“So, in this flyer you’ll see some exercises you can do at home to ease the possible pain and to heal faster. Prone Hip Extension, Prone Knee Flexion… the basics I taught you.”

“Alright, thanks!” As Agatha moves to stand up, Rio can’t help herself and asks “Hey, is everything alright? You seemed pretty worried the other day, I couldn’t stop thinking about it” Good Rio, now she knows you thought about her nonstop.

Agatha gives her a light smile “It’s all good,” lies… “thanks for worrying and… thinking about me?” She smirks playfully trying to get Rio not to ask anymore questions and stands up “William, can you come in here?” she yells

“Can you blame me?” Rio just can’t help herself. William enters the room and starts to help Rio.

Once Rio is in the car, before closing the door she asks William “Hey, teen”

“It’s William, Ms Vidal” He corrects her

“Whatever.” Dismissing with her hands “What do you know about Dr. Harkness?”

“I’m not allowed to talk about this, you know that!”

“Come on, kid, help me out here. I’ll even get you courtside tickets to any game you want…” William actually seems to be considering.

“Alright, I’ll give you three facts, the rest of it you have to discover yourself. I don’t wanna get fired”

“Hit me!” Her smile is so big now you can see from miles away.

“Okay, so, she’s not in a relationship, as I’m sure that’s what’s eating you inside. I’m not sure she’s a lesbian, but I get a vibe and her name is Agatha. That’s it, I’m not saying anything anymore.” He walks away before Rio can ask another question.

“THANKS TEEN!!!” She yells.

“Where to?” Jack asks

“My house. Jack, how soon do you think it’s too soon to ask a woman out?”

“Well, I’m not the one here, I asked my wife out on the first day we met” they laugh together

“How did you do it?”

“I just told her I thought she was really beautiful and smart in our class and that I would love to take her out for dinner” Rio just thinks about it and never answers. “for what it’s worth, I think this lady would be crazy not to say yes to you, Ms Vidal” She just gives him a sweet smile.

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It’s now 11AM and Agatha is in her office when Wanda calls her.

“What is it?” sounding really anxious

“Wait, nothing too bad, Agatha! I can’t send you the results via email now, they have to be put in the system first. But I wanted to see if you would want to know now”

“Yes!” she abruptly says

“Alright, Nicholas has iron deficiency anemia and he’s going to need blood transfusion”

“Oh my god, Wanda. I can’t-” She takes a deep breath “I give all have, all my blood right now” She starts to cry

“Hey, Aggs, you know he’s O’negative, we need more of it to successfully do it. Can you meet me for lunch at the cafeteria? That way they’ll think you’re just waiting for the results. I can’t do this through the phone”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on my way”.

Nicky is staying at the hospital day care, so she swings by to give him a hug and check on him before meeting Wanda.

Once they are at the cafeteria, Wanda jumps right into it.

“Look, isn’t there anyone you know that has the same blood type? It’s rare, we’ll have to collect.”

Agatha bites her upper lip “No, I don’t. We have to ask everyone we know, do some sort of campaign. I don’t know Wanda, I can’t let it hurt him.”

“We will figure it out! We have some time, okay? He seems to be doing fine today. Talk to his doctor first and let’s see the options.” Agatha agrees with a nod and right when she looks to the other side, she sees Rio. “Is that Rio? What is she doing in the hospital now?”

“Oh, she has a follow up with Torres and that means my lunch is over! Let me know how it goes, yeah?” Wanda says while standing up and giving a little kiss on Agatha’s head. Right after, Rio locks eyes with Agatha, it lingers for a few seconds and Rio decides to wave at her. She waves back with a thin smile.

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Right after Rio’s appointment, Wanda accompanies her to the exit and they spot Agatha in Dr. Robbins office.

“Hey, what’s that about?” Rio asks Wanda and points to the office

“Nothing that concerns you, Rio. Personal business” Wanda cuts he off but with her nicest voice.

“Rude. I’m just worried” Wanda doesn’t answer. “So… you’re friends?”

“Oh my god, stop with the personal questions”

“Wanda, you’re not just a nurse to me, you’re in my friends circle, come on.”

“Now we’re friends? I thought I was your Coach’s hot girlfriend.” They laugh

“Well, you can be my favorite and continue to be his hot girlfriend” She smirks playfully

“Agatha and I have known each other for twenty years now, so yes, you can say we’re friends” trying to mock Rio’s curiosity

“Have you dated?” Shyly asks looking away

“Oh my god!”

“Seriously”

“Wouldn’t you like to know…”

“I would.”

“No, we never dated. We were always friends” Rio looks at her trying to telepathically ask her if Agatha dates women. It takes Wanda a moment “She’s a lesbian, if that’s what you want to know” Rio can’t hide her smile and wide eyes. “But, please, do not go there. At least not now.”

“Why?” She frowns

“Just… She’s your doctor… she’s going through stuff and you’re a womanizer, Rio. I don’t want to see her being hurt just because you have the hots for her.”

“Ouch?? I just wanted to ask her out”

“Well, don’t” Wanda tries to end the conversation but thinks about it for a moment. “At least, be sure she wants to date before asking her, okay? Don’t just ask out of the blue, she’s a scary cat and… I’m not telling you anything else, shh.” Rio gestures, zipping her mouth and smiles.

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While at the Dr. Robbins office, Agatha tries to understand the options.

“Well, we can start the treatment with an Iron-rich diet” The dr. suggests

“Done!”

“Good, we also have the Iron supplements, but I think you can try the diet for a few days first”

“Okay, and what about the blood transfusion?”

“We need to collect as much as we can so he will have enough”

Agatha nods and continues to listen about the treatment.

The next two days went by okay for both of them. Rio attended her appointments with Agatha, following her guide and bringing her coffee and sweets and making her laugh.

On Rio’s fifth appointment, she arrives with croissants, hot chocolate and a rose.

“Hey, these are for you” Rio shyly hands Agatha everything she got her.

“What for?” She asks in a nice but surprised way. She was taken by surprise

“Well, the croissant is for eating and the hot chocolate is for drinking…” she makes Agatha laugh with this silly joke.

“I meant, the rose…”

“Just a thank you for this wonderful first week of physical therapy, I thought it would suck, but it sucked way less with you” Rio says while walking towards Agatha.

Agatha blushed and was out of words. “I don’t really know what to say… I shouldn’t accept this, Rio.”

Rio walks closer with the help of her cane. “Oh please, don’t break my heart, take it.” Rio just realized the minor double meaning here and squinted her eyes.

“the rose or your heart?” Agatha tries to joke but it comes out in a flirtatious way

“Both?” they are now a little too close, their breathing becomes a little heavy.

Agatha clears her throat and moves “Well, thank you, I appreciate it.” Rio moves even closer, slowly because of her cane.

“Do you appreciate it enough to let me take you out to dinner?”

“Rio… I don’t know if it would be appropriate. I’m your doctor.”

“by day! by night you can be my date” Agatha looks at Rio’s eyes and fishes for a reason not to say yes. For a moment she forgets she’s a womanizer and that her son is sick.

“Dr. Harkness-” William knocks on the door “Dr. Robbins is calling our line and asking for you” In that moment Agatha moves quickly. Rio follows her.

“You got donors? Oh my god, that’s amazing!” Agatha talks on the phone and Rio looks at William fishing for answers and he mouths an I don’t know. “Oh, one? Okay, did he agree? He 's O'Negative? Alright, I’ll wait”. She hangs up.

“What do you need O’neg for?”

“Sorry, Vidal, This doesn’t concern you.” She walks back into the office, Rio and William following her.

“Well, it does if you need O’neg and I’m O’neg… Are you okay?”

“Yeah. No. I just… I need some time alone here, please?” She covers her face with her hands and Rio thinks about pushing a bit more, but doesn’t.

“Your car is outside Ms Vidal” William says. Rio then decides it’s best to leave.

Once she’s in the car she calls Vision.

“Hey, Vision. I need your girlfriend’s number”

“I told you to stop that! I’m hanging up!”

“Wait!!! It’s not like that, it’s about my physical therapist, she’s her friend”

“Rio, please don’t fuck this up!”

“I’m not, I promise.”

She immediately calls Wanda once Vision texts her number.

“Hello? Who’s this?” Wanda says

“It’s me, Rio”

“Hi! Did something happen? Do you need assistance?” Worried on the phone

“No! It’s about Agatha”

“Rio, not this again-”

“She needs blood for something, O’neg”

“How do you know about this?”

“She was talking to Dr. Robbins on the phone. But I realized, she’s a pediatric doctor, why is Agatha talking to her?”

“Rio, I told you I wasn’t going to answer personal questions”

“I just wanted to tell you that I am O’neg, and I know they are having a hard time finding someone, so I am here, willing to do it”

“Wait, what do you mean? you would donate blood to her son?”

“AGATHA HAS A SON?” On the other side of the line, Wanda slaps her own forehead.

“Rio, please, don’t tell her I said anything, she keeps her private life away from professional”

“I won’t. Please, how can I help?”

“You really like her, huh?”

“I think so.”

“Meet me at the hospital in an hour”

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Rio arrives at the hospital and Wanda is waiting for her with a wheelchair.

“I’m not getting on that!”

“Yes you are, that way we get to the office faster”

Three minutes later they are in Dr. Robbins office.

“Oh, Wanda, did I have any appointment and forgot?” She says while looking at Rio.

“No. This is Rio Vidal, the basketball player”

“I know! My wife was your doctor!” She says while sitting down.

“Wait, Dr. Torres is your wife, for real? I knew she was gay!”

“Rio…” Wanda gives Rio a warning look “I’m sorry for her Dr. Robbins”

“it’s okay, I’ve heard all about it” She says while gesturing towards Rio and that only makes her smile. “So, what can I do you for?” She directs the questions to RIo but Wanda answers.

“Rio is O’neg, and she wants to help Nicholas Harkness.”

“Really? I never had such a hard time getting this blood type. Are you really willing to donate?”

“Yes, but I fear It’s going to have to be anonymous. Agatha wouldn’t let me do it.”

“You know how closed off she is, Dr. She doesn’t even know Rio knows the situation, but Nicky needs this.”

“Let’s arrange that. But first, we need to examine you.”

✨
Exams come out clear. Rio has the green light. Robbins calls Agatha saying they will have blood in a few.

When Agatha arrives, she goes immediately to the room where Nicky awaits for her.

“Nicky, I will be here by your side okay? This will be so good for you baby!” She holds back her tears.

Once the whole procedure is done, Agatha talks to Robbins.

“Do we have the name of the person who donated? I wanted to thank them”

“We don’t. It was a regular blood donor. Don’t worry. The important thing is that Nicky is out of risk now. Remember to continue with his diet okay? Reschedule a visit for next week!”

“Thank you so much Dr. Robbins, I-”

“don’t mention it” Robbins leaves the room and Agatha stays with Nicky.

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The following day, on a saturday, Agatha has the day off, she wakes up at 9AM, checks on Nicky, who is still sleeping due to how tired he is. She hears her doorbell ring.
It was Wanda, she was holding a bouquet of Lilies.

“What’s with the flowers, Maximoff?” She said while making space for Wanda to enter.

“Don’t kill me, but she made me bring it to you.” Wanda then hands the bouquet.

“She?” raising her eyebrows.

“Rio Vidal. She told me to tell you to read the card” Wanda sounded annoyed

“I can’t believe her” under whispers

“She likes you. I think.”

Agatha doesn’t answer. She picks up the card and reads to herself.

Agatha, oh sorry, Dr. Harkness…

I hope you are feeling well. I will see you on monday. But if you want to see me before that, here’s my number.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

“What does it say?” Agatha just hands the card to Wanda and she reads. “Alright, smooth. What are you going to do?”

“Wanda, this is inappropriate. I’m her doctor.”

“Do you want to text her?”

“I can’t”

“But, do you want to?”

“Yes…”

“Well, do it then.”

“Wanda, I’m not old enough to be with one more person who can’t handle me being a mom.”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try”

“She’s a star, she has her… flings, she’s not up for this”

“Then why is she asking you out?”

“To get in my pants?” dramatically point to her pants

“If it is, is that so bad? To have some hot sex with a hot woman on your day off?”

“She’s my patient!”

“What if it isn’t that? what if she genuinely wants to date you?”

“Did she tell you to tell me that too?” Agatha says it in a mocking way

“Perhaps… I’m going to make you some coffee while you decide” As Wanda goes to the kitchen, Agatha saves Rio’s number. But she doesn’t text. When Wanda comes back with the coffees she’s still staring at her phone.

“She has way too many model dates on google”

“Oh lord, this still?” Wanda takes a sit by her side.

“I’m just thinking, Wanda.”

“Well, stop then. Just go with what you want, and you want to text. There’s no harm in that.”

Agatha thinks to herself, what’s the harm… She picks up the phone and without thinking too much, texts.

Me
I prefer azaleas. (This is Agatha by the way)

Rio Vidal
Noted. So this means you’ll go out with me?
Me
No
Rio Vidal
Oh

Me
You’ll have to come to mine. I don’t want to get papped.

Rio Vidal
Indoors date already? Oh my, Harkness.
Me
Don’t push it, Vidal. Bring wine.

Rio Vidal
Your wish is my command M’lady.
Me
🙄.

Chapter Text

“We could watch a movie, hit the beach, or just chill and get high.
And we can do whatever you wanna do”

“Alright, this was a mistake. I can’t. I can’t risk my job” Agatha is pacing around nonstop in her living room, minutes after inviting Rio over to her place.

“Stop freaking out” Wanda then grabs Agatha by the arms and forces her to stop walking in circles. “You are making me dizzy, sit your ass down” she points to the couch. “Now, take a deep breath and tell me what you’re thinking”

Agatha does what she says and looks at her “I can’t let a little crush ruin this opportunity for me. I get such a big paycheck at the hospital…”

“Okay… it’s not illegal, you know?”

“It is unethical and inappropriate. If someone finds out, I could get fired. Because of a silly crush on a hot basketball player” she says it as if she wants to make herself want to give up on the date.

“I would never tell, and I’m the only one who knows about it.” She takes Agatha’s hands “And honestly, I don’t think it’s just a crush, otherwise you wouldn’t be fighting it so much. You wouldn’t be considering it so much. Give it a chance. Just have some fun tonight and then see what happens”

Agatha nods.
Few minutes after Wanda leaves she decides to text Rio.

Me
Hey, you there?

It takes Rio about five minutes to reply.

Rio Vidal
Hey! Sorry it took me so long, I was watering my plants

Me
No worries, five minutes it’s not long.Were you tiring yourself? You know you’re not supposed to do that, Rio.

Rio Vidal
You deserve my availability. No doctor talk, please

Me
It’s hard not to do it when I’m literally your doctor

Rio Vidal
Not right now you’re not.

Me
I’m afraid this would be too complicated

Rio Vidal
What are you saying?

Agatha doesn’t answer right away and Rio immediately calls and without thinking, she accepts the call.

“Agatha, do you not wanna see me tonight?” Rio sounds a bit down on the phone

“Rio… It’s not appropriate…”

“But do you want to see me?” She insists.

“I can’t lose my job, I just got hired”

“Agatha, do.you.want.to.see.me?” Her voice is lower than usual now.

It takes Agatha a few seconds but she agrees “Yes…” almost whispering.

“Then let me see you tonight”

“Rio, you don’t understand…”

“Just have this one date with me, I won’t tell a soul. And if even after that you don’t want me, I’ll back off. But let me make you dinner tonight.” Rio can’t see, but Agatha is smiling a bit.

“Oh, you’re cooking now? Didn’t know you knew how to” Both of them are smirking

“I am full of surprises, Harkness… You’ll see”

“I guess I will”

“So that means I can come over?”

“Please be aware of your surroundings when you come. I’m texting you my address.”

“Will do, m’lady” She can hear Agatha chuckling.

“Bye, Vidal.”

“See you soon” and Agatha hangs up. She rests her head on her hands and breathes heavily. I can’t believe I’m doing this, she tells herself.

It’s 7PM, Lilia picked up Nicholas at 6 so Agatha could get ready. Oh, I forgot to mention Lilia is Agatha’s mother figure? My bad! Lilia Calderu took Agatha under her wings when she was young and looking for freelance jobs to pay rent. This job at the clinic was the first one she got without Lilia’s help. Or so she thinks.

Agatha’s room was a mess, all of her wardrobe was on the floor. She couldn’t decide whether to look casual or sexy. Her eyes landed on an old dress, it wasn’t fancy, but it was both casual and sexy. She put it on, just to see if it still fits and it did. The dress was dark green, silky and long. Back cleavage, because why not show off her time at the gym? Her make up was done. Basic, a bit of concealer, mascara and lipgloss. Her hair was down and wavy and she smelled like Madagascan Vanilla, Cedarwood Oil, Ambergris Accord and Musk (I’m taking my time to describe YSL’s Libre perfume). It was exactly 7:05 PM and her doorbell rang.

Just when she opened the door, the figure of the woman she - just had a crush on. She was not THAT interested. Just.a.crush - was standing right in front of her. A sweet scent came along with the wind, Agatha wondered what perfume was that. Rio was wearing dark jeans and a button up white shirt that looked a bit oversized on her. She had a white lace bra on, Agatha could only see it because the shirt was falling from her shoulder, not because she was staring. Of course not. Agatha’s eyes landed on Rio’s red lipstick and-

“Could you help me out with the bags or are you busy staring at me?” Rio had the biggest smirk one had ever seen. Without saying anything, Agatha grabbed the bags from the floor.

“Come in. Do you need help?” She says while putting the groceries on the dinner table. Her dinner table was outside of the kitchen.

“Nope. I got it.” Rio had both her canes this evening.

“How are you going to cook having two canes under your armpit?” Agatha put both her hands on her own hips staring at Rio.

It took a few seconds for Rio to say something. She was busy checking Agatha out.

“You look beautiful” and then she started to stutter “you look go-gorgeous. pe-perfect. fuck-” the curse was under her breath “you’re hot, Agatha”.

“Are you also in need of a speech doctor?” Agatha smirks and chuckles a bit. She moves closer to Rio and says “You’re not so bad yourself” while fixing her shirt that was still falling from her shoulder.

“Green is my favorite color, you know?” Rio is still checking the dress out.

“Unfortunately you don’t have my favorite color on you tonight” Agatha said while looking at Rio up and down, down and up.

“You haven’t seen the color of my underwear”

“So you have purple underwear on?”

“I might…” Eye to eye flirting increasing the hot heat in the air.

“mm… well, shall you get dinner started then? I’ll open a bottle of wine” She then walks into the chickens with groceries in hand.

Rio managed to start dinner just fine. She did have to ask Agatha to cut a few more pieces of cheese. Agatha looked her dead in the eyes and said no, but then did it anyway. It was when Rio was about to finish it, by putting the white sauce over the pasta, that she lost balance, her other leg, the one with the knee injury, tried to save her from the fall, but, of course, it made it worse by putting her weight on it and hurting it. Agatha was in the kitchen and saw it happen, it was when Rio was about to fall, face to the floor, that Agatha held her by the waist and didn’t let her fall.

“Rio, oh my god. Are you okay?” She turned Rio to face her and held her tight.

“My knee hurts” Tears were threatening to fall down

Agatha takes Rio to the couch bridal style, the living room is near. When she finally lays Rio down, she runs to the kitchen to get ice, to put over her knee.

“Here, don’t move. I’m putting ice over it. How bad is it on a scale of one to ten?” Agatha is kneeling right by her side.

“it’s a six, now. But it hurt like hell for a moment”

“Your knee is still very fragile. I knew I shouldn’t have let you cook or stand for that long” She’s now stroking Rio’s hair. She did not notice that.

“It will be fine. I wanted to cook for you” Rio was now facing Agatha

“You could cook for me some other time, not so short after your surgery.” She still haven’t noticed she’s stroking Rio’s hair

“You’re really strong, that was hot as fuck” Rio’s comment makes Agatha chuckle

“Well, I see you’re better”

“Do you work out?” Agatha’s hand stops on her shoulders now.

“I do, five times a week, six when I don’t have a date” Looking Rio right in the eyes, she smiles, or… smirks? Not sure.

“Do you work out six times a week often?” Rio’s little way of asking if Agatha has other suitors makes her laugh

“Yes, Rio” Rio can’t help but smile “Do you think you can stand up with your healthy leg or do you need more time?”

“I kinda wanna lie so you could carry me to the table” Agatha laughs and without thinking she picks Rio up, bridal style again, and takes her to the dinner table. “This is your last request of the night” She points a finger to Rio’s face, looking serious.

“Wait” She grabs Agatha “I have just one more thing to ask” Agatha nods giving Rio permission to ask “Can I get a kiss?” Agatha chuckles and leans down, pressing her lips to Rio’s and giving her a quick kiss.

“That’s all you get” She smiles and walks away to the kitchen to grab their plates. Rio smiles to herself.

When Agatha returns, Rio is filling up their glasses with more wine.

“Trying to get me drunk, are ya?”

“Trying to get us both drunk” Rio winks playfully and Agatha sits by her side.

“Okay, let’s see what you got” She tries the pasta and moans while tasting it. Rio looks at her incredulously and feeling lucky to have heard that. “Okay, this is incredible”

“I could tell by that sound you made”

“Exclusive to when I have things that make me feel good” She looks at Rio, giving her a smile and Rio has her mouth open in a moment of shock. They don’t comment more on that. While they were eating, they decided to get to know each other a little more. Rio told her about how she got into basketball, that a guy saw her play and that was pretty much it, Agatha laughed at how easy it was for her. Rio asked Agatha about her interests and found out they have similar taste in music but would also dance to anything.

“I actually have a record of them, do you want me to put it on?” Agatha asks

“Yes!” Rio gets up with the help of Agatha and they go to the living room. Agatha has this beautiful part of the room dedicated to her collection of vinyl records and CDs and her vinyl player is actually very old, so sometimes she spanks it to get it working.

“There you go!” After two smacks, music starts.

“I wish I could dance” She gestures to her knee and looks at Agatha with sad puppy eyes.

“Come here, let me hold you” Agatha rests both her hands on Rio’s waist and one of her arms fly to Agatha’s neck “let go of the cane, Rio” she whispers. Rio does as she’s told.
Now both her arms rest on Agatha’s neck. They dance to “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. And from this moment on, the chapter is inspired by this song.

We better make a start, you better make it soon before you break my heart

The song is upbeat, but they dance in their own rhythm, partly because Rio can’t jump around or anything.

“You are great at leading” Rio finally breaks the silence, looking Agatha right in the eyes, almost as if she’s telepathically asking to be kissed.

“You’re easy to lead” She says it almost too quickly

“I’m gonna take it as a complement so I don’t get hurt”

“I wouldn’t wanna hurt you…” The words came out of Agatha’s mouth without her realizing it. It was like her body was betraying her logical mind. Before Rio can answer, she kisses her. The kiss is slow, tender and careful at first. Almost as if Agatha was testing the waters. Her hands were caressing Rio’s back.

It was when Rio pushed Agatha closer by her neck that she held Rio’s waist tighter. The kisses were getting slowly faster, slowly messy, slowly hungrier. Agatha’s moved to Rio’s hips, putting her impossibly closer, Rio moaned at the feeling making Agatha swallow it. Without giving much thought, Agatha picked Rio up, making her intertwine her legs around Agatha’s waist and make a whine surprised sound which Agatha swallowed again.
Rio bit Agatha’s lips and used the moment to deepen the kiss, using more tongue than before. Agatha hummed against her lips, which Rio felt, making her whole body shiver.
Agatha then walked forward and layed Rio on the couch, immediately spreading her legs a little and pressing her thigh to where Rio needed pressure. Rio starts to rock back on her thigh, craving more pressure. Agatha then starts to trace wet kissing on the curve of her neck.

“Oh, shit”, Rio moans and Agatha starts to unbutton her shirt with just one hand, while the other is occupied holding Rio still. “Carajo…” When Rio mumbles Spanish so close to Agatha’s ear, it makes her dizzy.

“Rio…you know spanish?” She mumbles in between kisses

“I’m Puerto Rican, thought you knew that doc” Agatha pulls her hair and she moans

“No doctor talk” She warns by looking Rio direct in the eyes “and I’m gonna lose it if you say one more word in spanish”

“Y por qué haría eso si te vuelves loca así, mami?” Rio smirks and Agatha takes her lips furiously making both of them moan at the same time.

Rio brings Agatha to her lap, coping her ass and squeezing it hard, making Agatha rock her hips against Rio’s. Rio then lifted the older woman’s dress to feel her skin and squeeze her ass even harder this time. Agatha lifted her torso, facing Rio. Now her shirt was completely open and Agatha started to trace her finger through her belly, giving her shivers and consequently making her nipples hard, which Agatha could happily see through the lace see-through bra Rio was wearing. Agatha decided to take her breast with her mouth over the bra first, and then slowly putting aside. Her hand, instead of going to the other breast, makes its way down to the edge of Rio’s pants and with that, her mouth leaves Rio’s breast and with her tongue, she traces her way down to Rio’s lower belly, opening her jeans with only her teeth, breathing so close to Rio’s clit now, making the younger woman whimper in need. When she lifts herself up again, her dress is falling down, revealing her own chest area, and to Rio’s liking, she had no bra on.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous Agatha” and Agatha can’t help it but lean down and kiss her again.

Everything is going so fast, they weren’t really thinking about it. Agatha’s mind decides to take over and she abruptly breaks the kiss and stands up.

“What-” Rio sits up immediately with a worried look on her face

“Rio, this is going way too fast, we shouldn’t-” She fixes her dress while stressfully trying to talk.

“Did I do something wrong?” Rio has such a surprised and worried look on her face that Agatha realizes the state she left the other woman. She sits by her side.

“No! no. I’m sorry, I’m just… I don’t think we should do this now. It’s too fast, it’s-” Rio puts herself back together while listening and then puts a hand on Agatha’s hand, squeezing it.

“Hey, it 's cool. I would never want to do something you don’t want to, it’s fine.” Rio looks down, a bit disappointed, but it wasn’t because they didn’t have sex, it was because she thought Agatha didn’t want to have sex with her.

Agatha realizes it quickly, then takes Rio’s face on her hands, making her look up “I do want to. I just think we shouldn’t right now. Especially with me still being your doctor” Rio rolled her eyes and tried to speak but Agatha carried on before she could “and I know we said no doctor talk and you don’t wanna hear it, but it’s complicated. It might not be to you, you have all the girls you want, but I care about this job, Rio.” She did not notice just how jealous she sounded to Rio.

“I have all the girls I want?” Rio repeated it and smirked at Agatha, who immediately let go of her face sighing. “you sounded a little jealous Dr Harkness”

“That’s what you got from everything I just said?” Agatha raised both her eyebrows at Rio

“Care to explain?” Rio now is the one raising her eyebrow and it makes Agatha shake her head “I’m holding you to this, sweetheart” Agatha tried to hide her blush over the new pet name. Right when Rio is about to say something else, Agatha’s phone starts to ring. She stands up and looks at Lilia’s name on the screen.

“Sorry, I have to take this” Rio gives her an understanding smile. She goes to the kitchen, in search of privacy.

Rio stands up, putting the weight on one leg to grab the cane and turns the music off.

“What happened?” Agatha is already thinking the worst

“Nothing happened, calm down Agatha” Lilia orders her on the other side of the line. “Nicky wants to say goodnight to you, I thought you wouldn’t answer, so I guess the date has already left?”

“No, she’s still here. Let me talk to him”

“Then why on earth did you answer? Are you not getting some? I feel like I’m babysitting for nothing” Lilia tries to make the mood lighter but fails miserably.

“I would stop everything to answer a call about him and ew, stop talking like that, you sound like a first year college student.” She hears Lilia gasping in offense. “Let me talk to him” Lilia doesn’t comment and passes the phone to Nicky a moment after.

“Hi momma, I miss you!” He says it in a sleepy voice

“Hey baby, I miss you too. I’ll pick you up first thing in the morning, okay?”

“Okay! I just wanted to say goodnight. So goodnight!”

“Good night, Nicky. Sweet dreams. I love you”

“Me too” He hangs up, not even giving Lilia the opportunity to say something.

Rio is now standing at the threshold

“Everything okay?”

Agatha turns around to answer “Yes! All good” She wears a thin smile now.

“I’ll help you clean up before I leave”

“You don’t have to” Agatha looks down to her phone and see Lilia’s message “enjoy your date more”

“I don’t have to what?”

“Help me clean up…” and she then looks up at Rio “nor leave…” When he gets closer to Rio, she holds her face and gives her a quick kiss. “there’s still more wine, you know?”

“There is…” Rio looks at her with infatuated eyes. “Can I choose another record to put on while we finish it?” Agatha only nods in agreement and Rio steals a peck on her lips.

Now they are in the living room again, sitting on the floor close to the records. Rio has one leg over Agatha’s leg, and Agatha's hand rests on that leg. Time has passed.

“Okay, tell me now, what was your first concert?” Rio asks curiously

“I believe it was Cher” Agatha takes a sip of her wine.

“What? Really?? Why Cher?” Rio was genuinely curious.

“Well, Li-” She pauses before saying Lilia’s name because she knows Lilia is known in Rio’s industry. Although she doesn’t know she’s the one paying Rio. “Listening to her music made me want to go see her live, so an old friend of mine got me tickets” She was surprised at herself because of how quick she thought of an answer.

“Oh, cool. Is this old friend still in the picture?” Agatha chuckled at how obvious Rio was being even when trying not to be

“She is… but don’t say it like that, she’s an actual friend, nothing more.”

“Oh no, I didn’t mean it like that, I was just… You don’t o-own me explanations, s-sorry” Rio looks everywhere but at Agatha.

Agatha holds Rio’s face again, with her free hand, just to make her look at her. Damn she’s beautiful. Agatha thinks. But this is a crush. A little date with a crush. She thinks again.

“Tell me about your first concert, Rio” Rio’s heart skips a beat having Agatha so close to her, her hand on her cheek burning.

“O-okay. But d-don’t laugh”

“I won’t, but you may need to see a speech doctor for real, you stumble in your words a lot”

“Beautiful women make me nervous” softly says it, looking at Agatha’s eyes and then her lips.

“women, huh?” Agatha raises her eyebrows in question, teasing Rio.

“Woman. A beautiful woman is making very nervous right now” She tries to look away from Agatha

“mm… so tell me”

“it was britney spears” she says it shyly

“What would I laugh at that?” Agatha is watching Rio very closely and attentively.

“Well it’s very pop, you have other tastes”

“Didn’t we agree that we dance to anything? I like pop!”

“Can I kiss you again?” Rio asks almost too quickly and looks so deep into those piercing blue eyes

“You don’t have to ask every time”

“I like hearing you say yes”

“in that case…” Agatha leaned closer to Rio’s earlobe “yes!” she whispers.
Rio never kissed anyone at such a fast pace.

The kiss was hot. Really hot. Agatha seemed to forget all of her worries when she was kissing Rio.

When they broke the kiss, Rio didn’t want to push Agatha any further. “I should go, it’s getting late” And then gives her another peck.

“Rio, I’m not letting you go home at-” she checks her phone “three am? oh my god”

“See? I can call an uber” She reaches for her phone, but it isn’t even near.

“No, really, it’s late. You can sleep here” Agatha insists.

“Do you have a spare bedroom? or a mattress I can throw here? I think it’s to be difficult sleeping on the couch with my knee in this situation”

“I-” she remembered she couldn’t show Rio to the spare bedroom. Actually, Nicky’s bedroom. The only solution was to… “you can sleep in my bed, I don’t mind sleeping on the couch”

“Never in a million years would I bother you like that, Agatha. I like bothering you in other ways” She smiles.

Agatha stands up, Rio looks at her all confused and in one move she takes Rio on her arms, bridal style again - talk about foreshadowing - and goes to her room

“Agatha, what the hell are you doing, put me down!” she tries to move “damn, you’re strong”

“Or are you just weak?” She jokes and laughs in a mischievous way.

“I’m not weak, I have a situation. I’ll make you pay once I’m better, you’ll see”

“oooh, I’m so scared” she then puts Rio on her bed gently and when she’s about to turn around Rio grabs her arm

“Lay down with me?”

“Rio…”

“Not to do anything, just at least until I fall asleep, I feel weird sleeping in your bed without you” She had the biggest puppy eyes Agatha has ever seen. Not even Nicky had such puppy eyes.

“Alright, little brat” She playfully slaps Rio’s hand away from her arm.

“Thanks” The smile she has on her face can be seen from miles away.

Agatha is drunk. For a second she forgets Rio is there and takes off her dress and puts on an oversized shirt.

Rio clears her throat to get Agatha’s attention “Not that I’m complaining about the sight I have right now, but could you lend me some comfy shorts?” Agatha is blushing.

“I didn’t-” She gave up explaining and just grabbed pajama shorts for Rio “here you go” handing it to her.

“Would you be so kind and help me put it on?” Agatha hesitates but gives in.

She slowly takes off Rio's jeans, avoiding any weight on her knees, and then slowly puts on the shorts. They lock eyes once again.

“Thank you” Her voice is now so sweet

“You’re welcome” giving her a sweet thin smile

Agatha makes her way into the other side of the bed, adjusts Rio’s pillow and leans down facing her. Again.

“Can I kiss you goodnight?” Rio only nods in agreement. “I wanna hear you say it”.

“Yes, Agatha” They kiss. It wasn’t brief. It was actually a very long kiss. “This is the weirdest way to end a first date” she says while giving Agatha quick pecks, finishing the kiss.

“What do you mean?” She looks at her confused

“It’s our first date, I’m laying in bed with you as if we’ve known each other for years”

“Guess it’s a little strange” they laugh together. “Go to sleep now, Rio”

Agatha lays on her side, facing Rio. I’m just waiting for her to fall asleep and then I’ll go to Nicky’s room. She thinks to herself. But it didn’t go according to plan. She fell asleep too.
At some point she found Rio’s waist and pulled Rio closer, buried her face on her neck, and they just unconsciously - in a way, very consciously - cuddled.

Chapter Text

"By the way, you do things to my body."

It’s 8AM on a sunday, Agatha doesn’t seem to realize the state she is in right now. Laying her head on Rio’s chest and legs tangled together. She feels a hand caressing her back and starts to stir, opening her eyes slowly.

“Morning” Rio says in a very sweet way. Voice a little husky. But Agatha sits up instantly when she realizes she slept with Rio. Literally slept.

“Oh my God, why didn’t you wake me up?” She says while getting up and then pacing around not really knowing what to do.

“I just woke up, I didn’t want to wake you by moving.” She sits up “And for what it’s worth, I fell asleep before you did, so it’s not really my fault you were watching me sleep like a creep and fell asleep too” She’s grinning looking at Agatha. Rio has this strange hope that Agatha might actually like her back in the same amount.

Agatha doesn’t answer, she grabs a sundress, white, and goes to the bathroom to change. When she comes back, her bed is made and Rio is nowhere to be seen. She frowns. “Rio?”

“Downstairs” She yells.

Agatha goes downstairs and she sees Rio drinking water in the kitchen. “Sorry, I feel really thirsty after drinking alcohol. And don’t worry, I’m calling an uber” she looks down and moves to the front door. Agatha follows her and in an impulse grabs her arm and pulls her closer giving her a brief kiss. Rio makes a sound in surprise. When they break the kiss, Agatha is the first to speak, tucking a strand of hair behind the younger woman’s ear.

“I loved our date” She gives Rio a warm smile and Rio retributes. “I didn’t mean to be so rude, I just have a… thing I need to go to, now.” Rio simply nods, grabbing Agatha’s hand and rubbing her knuckles in round circles. “Can I ask you a favor?”

“Agatha, I won’t tell anybody” Rio speaks before Agatha can even open her mouth. “But can I ask you something?”

“Yes, Rio, I’ll go out on another date with you” It’s like they can read each other’s mind. Rio has a grin bigger than her head now. “But, seriously, let’s keep that between us? It’s really, really risky-”

“Agatha, I just want to see you again like this, so whatever you want, I’ll do. I loved our date too.” Agatha cups Rio’s cheeks with her two hands. My god, she 's gone. She really likes this woman. Then gives Rio a warm, hot kiss. They only break it because Rio’s phone vibrates in her pocket. “I think my uber is here” then gives Agatha a little peck to end the kiss.

“Doctor talk real quick. Please do your in-home exercises” Agatha still hasn’t let go of the other woman’s face.

“Will do, Dr Harkness” Rio leans in and gives Agatha a peck on the cheeks. “See you monday”

She hesitates but eventually sort of yells cause Rio is already a little far “Let me know when you get home” and gets a thumbs up as an answer from her.

She watches Rio leave and a few seconds later gets a text.

Lilia
Nicky is asking if you’re coming. I made coffee and there’s homemade bread.

Agatha
On my way. And you baked?

Lilia
Joanne did.

So, Joanne was Lilia’s longtime girlfriend. They had sort of a situationship in college, but after graduation never saw each other again, but just ten years ago they reconnected through social media and the rest is history. Joanne was a PR manager, but quit about 8 years ago and became slash, a stay home girlfriend, slash baker.

When Agatha arrived at Lilia's enormous house, Nicky opened the door and hugged her in a hurry.

“Mom! What took you so long?”

“Ugh! Baby, I overslept, I’m sorry.” Nicky shrugges. “How are you feeling today? Any dizziness?”

“I feel fine. Lilia wouldn’t let me eat any candy though. Mommy please, can I have some today?” Nicky has those puppy eyes, but still, not as big as Rio’s. Agatha just runs her fingers through his hair and gives him a peck on top of his head before answering.

“Sorry, Nicky. Not yet. Let’s stick to your diet and then you can ask Doctor Robbins in a few days.”

“Fine” The kid hisses and Agatha just lightly laughs.

Lilia and Joanne were watching the interaction just a few steps behind, inside. As Nicky makes his way to the kitchen, Agatha comes in and hugs both women. Lilia sees the opportunity to tease her when they stop hugging.

"Overslept huh?” Lilia says in a lower tone, smirking at Agatha.

“Yes!” She simply answers, trying to avoid looking at her

“Come on Agatha, how was it?”

“Oh, stop bothering her, Lilia.” Joanne seemed to be defending Agatha. Seemed. “Maybe the date went horribly and she’s just embarrassed”

“I’m not- It didn’t-” Agatha then takes a deep but quick breath, mentally preparing herself. “It was good. Really good. I’m fucked. And that’s all you’re getting.” Agatha points a finger to the women in front of her and tries to head to the kitchen but Lilia tries her again

“Literally or…?” Lilia and Joanne get a little closer with mischievous looks on their faces. Agatha just shakes her head in ‘no’.

“Metaphorically? Oh baby, our little girl is gone” Joanne jokes while turning her head to Lilia and they both laugh. Agatha can’t help but roll her eyes. When her phone vibrates, she sees Rio’s text and involuntarily smiles.

Rio Vidal
I’m home. Did you get to your thing safely?

Me
Good to know. I did.

Rio Vidal
It’s not too far, then. Is it a fun thing?

Rio was trying to make conversation, but it could wait, so Agatha pocketed her phone.

“Is that the one who’s fucking you… metaphorically?”

“Oh my God, Lilia, stop it.” Agatha hisses at her, bringing both her hands to cover her own face.

“You guys coming to eat? I’m waaitiiing” Nicky kind of sings from the kitchen.

Breakfast went smoothly for Agatha, but not for Rio, who was now frantically checking her phone to see if there’s any notifications from Agatha.
She suspects the thing has to do with her son, but if Agatha hasn’t told her she has one yet, then she’s not going to push it. I mean, she also has a little secret regarding Nicholas.

After an hour went by she decided to go do what Agatha asked of her, which was doing the in-home exercises. In the middle of the exercise, her phone rings and she sort of jumps closer to it using her butt. Of course it’s not Agatha.

The annoying Jen name appears on the screen. She 's facetiming.

“Hey! You disappeared last night! Everything okay?” Jen sounded genuinely worried

“Hey! Yeah, sorry I had a date last night, and sort of, this morning…?” Rio says while relocating herself to rest on the headboard.

“What? What do you mean this morning? Rio, how did you go out on a date with a bad knee? How did you even have se- you know what? Don’t answer that, I don’t want to know that part” The way Jen sounds a bit desperate and shakes her head on the other side of the facetime call as if she was trying to erase her thoughts, makes Rio laugh a bit.

“Alright, calm down, woman!” - Rio can’t help but chuckle again. “I just have an insane crush on someone and I didn’t want to waste any time. And we didn’t have sex, but I did sleepover.”

“Wait, wait, wait-” Jen gestures a stop sign with her hands “you slept at this woman’s house, and didn’t have sex? Oh my”

“We made out a lot though” poor thing was trying to recover.

“You made-” she fake coughs “Are we back in high school? Wait- RIO” Jen just seems to realise what might be happening and has her mouth open and goes into deep thought “Rio, don’t tell me you’re in love with this woman. Please. You don’t do well in love”

“I’m not! I just-”

“The Rio I know would have nailed the woman, even with a bad knee. You’re telling me you spent the entire night talking?”

“Pretty much, yeah”

“Rio, you took your time getting to know each other”

“Well, that’s what dates are for, Jen”

“You are in love, Rio Vidal. Who is she?”

“Am not, Jennifer Kale. We went out on one date, it’s not possible”

“Who is she?” Rio doesn’t respond “Rio…?” Still no answer “Fine, but I will get this answer out of you sooner or later”

“Alright, bye-bye Kale, I have to do my at home exercises the doctor recommended”

“The hot-” Rio hangs up before Jen could finish her question and ask her something more specific. They were really close friends, and she really wanted to tell her about this dangerous crush she has on her doctor and the way she wouldn’t stop thinking about her since the day they met… But she promised Agatha she wouldn’t tell anyone.

Rio spent the day relaxing - minus the amount of times she checked her phone to see if Agatha had texted - and by the end of the day, she decided to use her bathtub. It was something she always did in order to relax and focus on something other than her problems. Not that Agatha was a problem, but the situation was making her a bit anxious.
With a cinnamon scented candle lit up, hot tea on the side and a thin book on her hand, she was doing okay in her bathtub.

Just when she was starting not to overthink about her unusual situation, she gets a notification. When she sees Agatha's name on the screen - she is saved as Hot Dr Harkness. She should probably change that - in a desperate action to get the phone and answer, her slippery hands can’t get a strong hold of it and she drops it in the tub.

“No. Fuck-” Rio catches the phone quick but not quick enough. Soon she’s up, her whole weight in one leg and grabbing the towel to try and dry the phone. Thanking past Rio, who left the cane near the bathtub, she grabs it and goes to her kitchen, it was time to try the bowl of rice thing - the one where you put the wet phone into a bowl of rice in order for it to dry and come back to life - So, with difficulty, because of her state, and also because she’s naked and wet on her kitchen with a cane supporting her weight, she does as planned.

“fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck” when she realises she is naked and there’s a pool of water in the middle in the kitchen, she goes back to her room. Thank God she doesn’t live in a two floor apartment.

After texting Rio, Agatha orders Nicky to go shower and goes to the kitchen to make them dinner. She takes her laptop with her, places it on the kitchen island so she can check her schedule for the following day and see if there’s any new emails. While the soup is heating up, she receives an email from riovidalcontact address.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: DON’T HAVE MY PHONE

Agatha, I dropped my phone in the bathtub, it’s currently in a bowl of rice, I couldn’t even see what your text said. Sorry for using your professional email address, it’s the only one available on the Hospital’s website. Now I have a pool of water to dry out in my kitchen because I went there naked.

In the spirit of how emails work: Hope this message finds you well. (get back to me, please)

A laugh escapes Agatha as she reads the message, amused by Rio’s eagerness. With a smirk, she begins to type her response.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]

Vidal, I also hope this message finds you well… Why is the phone in a bowl of rice though? Why did you pick it up while in the tub? You’re so reckless.
I only texted saying my thing was okay, it was at a friend’s house.

Also, the kitchen situation couldn’t be a bad sight to have.

By the time Agatha’s e-mail arrived at Rio's, one nail was gone due to the biting.

She immediately started to type back.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: You have to put a subject here

It did find me very well… They say it helps it dry and come back to life. And I wanted to see your text. I’m glad it was okay. And well… the situation is the same in the kitchen, I can take off my robe and you can come over to have the sight.

Agatha get’s the message and even though she chuckles, she also gets a tiny bit horny reading it and imagining it. No, Agatha, you cannot have sex with your patient.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: no

Stop flirting with me via email.
I’ll see you tomorrow, Vidal.

Rio is not going to fight this. She’s just answering back, a win is a win.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: yes

It’s not that easy when your picture here looks insanely gorgeous.
Can’t wait to see you tomorrow, Dr Harkness.

Agatha can’t stop the blushing from making her face red and it’s right in this moment Nicholas decides to join her.

“Is dinner ready?” She looks away from the laptop to meet his eyes.

“Yes, I’ll grab you a bowl, go sit on the table, baby”

Agatha turns off the stove, fixes the food for her and Nicky. There’s water on the table already. She places both bowls on the table and sits across from her son.

“Alright, eat it! And don’t complain it’s veggie soup, you’re supposed to eat lots of veggies.”

He only mutters but eats the entire thing.

The following day, Agatha has two patients before Rio. She scheduled the Basketball player at 11am so she wouldn't hear any complaints about it being so early. But it’s soon coming to bite her in the ass.

Rio arrives at 10:50am, wearing gym shorts and a sports bra. Light purple. She looks so good it’s annoying. She remembered Agatha’s favorite color. How annoying. She’s at the entry talking to William, so Agatha approaches.

“Vidal? Are you ready?”

“You still have five minutes to spare Dr Harkness” William warns her very sweetly.

“It’s okay. Come with me, Ri-” She stops herself before getting personal at her place of work. At least that’s something she thinks she could do. “Vidal”.

“Lay down for me, please” Rio does as she’s told and she starts to examine her “any pain?” The younger woman answers with a simple head shake in ‘no’. “Is your phone okay?” Rio looks at her surprised at the personal question.

“Yeah, the rice thing actually worked,” Rio sweetly smiles to herself.

“Good. Now get up, we’re doing only a few exercises today and I’m putting you on ice bag time out later”

“time out?” Rio looks at her with those big brown eyes in total confusion and oh boy does Agatha feel weak.

“I heard you fell on saturday? We are taking it easy today” She’s trying so hard to keep it profissional it’s actually funny to watch.

The couple exercises she helps Rio do are easy and while in the ice time out, Agatha goes to her office and William arrives with a huge paper bag in hands trying to hide it from Agatha.

“Kid, I told you to be careful” Rio whispers while waving him closer

“I was! She didn’t see it.” whispering back

“Good. Were you able to get everything?”

“Yes, but please don’t tell on me for this. I can’t get fired from my internship.”

“Relax. Now get my backpack” he does and Rio opens it and hands him 50 bucks. “Here, as agreed. I’ll get you the tickets during the week” She hasn’t forgotten the promise of getting him court side tickets to games. “Now remove this damn ice bag from my knee, it’s burning” He, again, does as told.

William guides Rio to Agatha’s office and leaves her by the door.

“Hey, I’m done with the ice thing” She approaches slowly, Agatha doesn’t look up from her computer until she hears the sound of the bag being put on her table.

“And what’s this?” She points at the bag and then looks at Rio. She’s wearing huge glasses, and Rio has to take a breath so she doesn’t stutter again.

“Lunch. We’re having lunch together” Rio is still standing and she has those big puppy eyes again. Goddammit.

“Rio…” Agatha stands and looks around to see if there’s anyone near. “This is my work place, I can’t have lunch with my patient” It does nothing to Rio because the next thing she does is move closer.

“Agatha, is just lunch. Sit and eat with me, I got you arabic food” She puts a hand on Agatha’s hand and starts to make little circles on her knuckles.

“Why don’t I want to say no to you?” Agatha whispers her thoughts out loud without realizing and looking deeply into Rio’s eyes. This is so fucking strange, I can’t control it. She thinks.

“Do you usually say your thoughts out loud?” Agatha doesn’t answer and Rio talks again “I like it” She then takes the other woman’s hand and moves her to the chair, they both sit side by side. Agatha accepts the situation without saying a word but Rio doesn’t seem to want to keep quiet. “So, I got falafel, which I love. You should deep it in the spicy sauce, trust me! I also got-” Agatha stands up abruptly and directs herself towards the door. “What-” Rio looks at her confused. She then closes the door and locks it. “Agatha?” Agatha stands in front of Rio, in the little space between the chair and the table, grabs her by the arm to make her stand up, holds her by the waist, to make sure she doesn’t put any weight on her bad knee and kisses her furiously. Rio makes a little squeaky noise in surprise and as Agatha deepens the kiss using her tongue, Rio moans into her mouth, making the older woman swallow it. One of Rio’s hands make their way into her hair, pulling it a little and getting a moan out of Agatha and the other free hand pulls her impossibly closer by the waist.

Their breathing was uneven, the air was filled with something inevitable. No one could really put a name on it. Agatha’s hands roamed on her back, Rio wasn’t wearing anything but the sports bra and shorts, so she could feel her burning skin burning her hand. Nails started to dig into Rio’s skin, making her arch her back, breaking the kiss and giving Agatha enough room to hungrily kiss her neck. Rio’s hands were still tangling the older woman’s hair, as if she was asking for more, and Agatha gave it to her, biting the side of her neck. “Agatha-” she murmured. Giving no space for talking, Agatha devoured Rio’s lips and in one motion, gripping her hips and spinning them, she pinned Rio against the table, earning a low moan. Every touch was like a moth to a flame. Agatha wasn’t even thinking straight. She was dizzy with want. Rio wasn’t one to question it, being so dizzy with want herself. No slowing down now. Agatha brings one hand to Rio’s breasts. They were the perfect size for her hand. Perfect. “I don’t know why, but I need you” Agatha whispers against Rio’s lips, with her other hand touching every part of Rio she could reach. Rio, fighting for air, takes a breath breaking the kiss. “Then take me”. It was all Agatha needed to hear now. A hand slid down, fingertips teasing along her thigh, bringing one up higher, around her waist. Rio’s breath hitching.

They were past the point of reasoning. Agatha kisses Rio again. God, did she love her kiss. Her soft lips, sharp and warm tongue. Her hand traveled further up her inner thigh, carefully reaching the source of the heat.

“Agatha, please just-” Rio says, breaking the kiss but staying so close Agatha could feel her breathing.

“Patience, Rio” Kissing her again.

She then avoids touching Rio’s sensitivity spot through the gym shorts. Wasting no time, her hand found its way inside the shorts. Rio whined, immediately rocking her hips involuntarily, seeking any form of friction. “Agatha, please I’m so-” Agatha’s face looked flustered, in a nervous, impatient way.

“Why did you buy it in purple?” she whispered. And again, this wasn’t directly to Rio, she was thinking out loud. She kept her eyes averted from Rio’s face, finding her neck once more and trailing kisses along it. “Fuck, you’re so wet” finally facing her now.

Rio’s hand flew to the back of Agatha’s neck, finding a balance. “Agatha, don’t let me fall”. And then Agatha inserted two fingers inside the other woman. With no warning. She then palms her clit. “I got you” she murmured to Rio.

“-ah” Rio puts Agatha closer and kisses her in an attempt to muffle her own moans. At least one of them was thinking. But as Agatha’s thrusts become faster, she can’t hold them back anymore.

“Dr Harkness-” someone calls from the entry of the waiting room.

They break apart, eyes wide, catching their breath. Rio loses her balance and Agatha immediately catches her again. “I’m sorry, you okay?”

“Dr Harkness, are you in there?” It’s a male voice.

“Yeah, I’m good, you should go see what that’s about” As they catch their breaths, Agatha helps Rio to sit and goes to the waiting room. It’s one of the Hospital’s directors. He’s old and cranky, but nice to Agatha.

“Oh, there you are! Am I interrupting something?” Just my first time fucking my patient, who I also had a date with, in a very inappropriate location. She thought.

“No, I’m just taking a lunch break. Is there anything I can help you with?” He starts to talk and explain how he needs some sessions.

While Agatha seemed composed and put together when she left, Rio was a complete and utter mess. For the seconds after Harkness left the office, she just looked at the ground, in shock, trying to process what the fuck just happened.

“Rio…” Agatha said as she was entering the room again, sitting beside her. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking. I actually wasn’t thinking-”

Rio faced her, slowly coming back to her senses, taking a deep breath.

“Are you okay?” Agatha asks, placing a hand on her face. Not even thinking twice while doing it. What is it with this magnetism?

“I’m more than okay, Agatha” finally speaking. “Maybe you should not think more often…”

Agatha removed her hand from Rio’s face and stood up “Rio, this can’t happen, I’m your doctor and this is my place of work and for some goddamn reason everytime I’m near you, all I can think about is kissing you and my hands feel magnetically attached to you. However, this cannot happen”

“What can’t happen Agatha? You fucking me in your office or you wanting me?” Rio asked. Words came out crisp. She was looking up at Agatha, who was now paused in place.

“Neither. I can’t do this. I can’t have a relationship right now, I-”

“I’m not asking you to marry me here, I simply asked you to have lunch with me, because I liked our conversations, I didn’t even think about kissing you here, because I know how worked up you get about your job.” Rio looks at Agatha up and down. And then looked at the floor “Look, I know I get a bad rep about hookups, but it’s not like that.” She then looks up again “Agatha, would you sit down?” Puppy eyes and authority at the same time? That was new. It worked again. Agatha sat.

“...You said you liked our date and now you say you can’t stop thinking about kissing me. But at the same time you don’t want anything to do with me, so what is it? Do you want me to back off?”

“No…” Agatha’s voice is so low, it's barely more than a whisper.

“Then what do you want? Because I would like to just have this lunch with you” Rio’s hands land on Agatha's thighs and start caressing the spot.

“I can’t have anything serious right now, I have my so-” Rio straightens her back thinking Agatha would now tell her about Nicholas. But she just corrects herself after cleaning her throat. “I have my responsibilities now.”

“Do you want to have this lunch with me now? Casually…” Rio is trying so hard to convince Agatha not to let her go. She would actually accept any condition to have Agatha near her. “We could just go with the flow” Rio rolls her eyes at the realization of how cheezy that phrase was. “Just, no pressure. Casual”

“Why would you wanna do that?” She frowned in confusion.

“Because I want to keep kissing you, and just might happen to have the information that you want to keep kissing me” Rio brushes a few stray strands behind Agatha’s ear, fingers lingering for a moment. “And of course, if you want to continue that” points at the table with a head movement. “I would not be complaining…” She smirks and gets a chuckle out of Agatha. Making the moment lighter.

“Should we have lunch then?”

The sweet look Agatha gives Rio, makes her relax.

Lunch went smoothly, Rio had to leave because Agatha had more patients during the afternoon. Rio didn’t push her. It was surprising how patient she was being. Agatha thought for a second she judged her too soon for those hookups tabloids.

Rio didn’t go straight home, she needed to see Dr Torres for a follow-up.

As she is making her way to the waiting room of the Dr’s office, she sees Lilia and Natasha. Natasha is Joanne’s daughter, and works as PR for Rio’s team and is Rio’s assistant, organizing her side jobs, such as campaigns. Also, one of Rio’s best friends.

“Hey, Vidal!” She waves her over, motioning for her to join them. It takes a moment, as she moves with her cane.

“Hi! What are you guys doing here?”

“Well, we have a meeting with the doctors of other teams,” Lilia explains.
“Lilia, would you mind if I have a word alone with Rio? It’s business”

“Sure, but be quick.” They move away from where Lilia is standing.

Natasha whispers, just to make sure Lilia isn’t eavesdropping. “Why did I have to spend my Sunday night reading flirtatious emails of you and your physical therapist?”

Shit. Shit. Shit. In the heat of the moment, Rio forgot Natasha had access to it.

Chapter Text

”I can't be everything to everyone
You call at 3 AM, I'm pickin' up
I need the guts to go and give you up”

For as long as Agatha can remember, she’s been taking care of everyone around her. It’s mainly the reason she got into her field of work. The bad part is, she thinks way too much before doing something for herself.

For as long as Rio can remember, she’s been putting her needs first. Not that she doesn’t take care about the ones she loves, but because she doesn’t think twice when it comes to going after what she wants.

Agatha’s mother got sick when she was seventeen, and she is an only child. Although it seemed, in the eyes of her mother, she was an only handmaiden. She could never take a break from her house chores, only if it was for school. Evanora would always say, “you work outside to get what you want and you work here to get what you need. Well, take it as you wish. To Agatha it meant that she should help around the house because her mother was doing her a favor of letting her live there, and to work outside, at first it meant to succeed but then it started to mean it was her only way out.

So at seventeen, with a mother in a bed, sick, she had to learn how to be a nurse, because god forbid Evanora paid a professional caretaker when it was “her daughter’s obligation.”

One day, at exactly 10PM, Evanora’s usual bedtime after the last pill of the day, Agatha decided to accept Anne’s request to take her out to ice cream. Anne was this beautiful blonde, green eyed girl she met on the college tour she went to a couple months prior. Since her mother was asleep, she wouldn’t need her so much - she wouldn’t be awake - so she finally put herself first, and went out on a date.

Anne decided to accompany Agatha to her house after the lovely time they had together, before Agatha could enter the house, she kissed her. Sweet, vanilla and red velvet flavoured kiss. But it became bitter once her sick mother miraculously was standing there, watching the scene.

“What in God's name do you think you’re doing?” Evanora hissed

“Mother, why are you on your feet? You should be resting” Agatha said while entering the house. Poor Anne didn’t know what to do so she just stood outside watching.

“Do not put a hand on me, your hands are as filthy as your mouth” She slapped her daughter’s hands away and pointed a finger at her “If I had known a daughter of mine would turn into such a dirty sin I would have taken you out of me before growing”

“Hey, wait!” Anne entered the house trying to intervene and defend Agatha from such hurtful words. “You can’t say that to her, she’s your daughter”

“Get your dirty self out of my house” She yelled at Anne, but then soon turned back to Agatha “Close this door and don’t you dare talk to that being again”. Agatha only looked at Anne, silently asking her to leave.

I can’t say Agatha wasn’t glad her mother died a month later, but it was bittersweet.

That counts as one. The second person to depend on Agatha and hurt her was her first girlfriend, Susan. She was this deadbeat at the university Agatha got in with a full scholarship. The woman was so selfish and lazy, she would only call when in need of sex or money. The third person was the professor she had an affair with. Mrs. O’connor wasn’t much older, she was about 32, tall, skinny and short beautiful brown hair. For the first time in years, Agatha thought she was doing something for herself, something fun and reckless, but it turned out to be just another failed so-called relationship with another woman using her for secret pleasure during office hours.

Around this time she met Wanda, this tiny yet brave redhead, full of energy but also centered. They were in a job interview and started chatting, exchanged numbers and made a habit of having breakfast together every week. Agatha was always looking forward to those breakfast moments. It was the first time she had someone close to her not wanting something more than kindness in return. They were both hired as secretaries at Lilia’s company and that’s when Lilia got to know Agatha, bit by bit, and helped her finish college and get jobs. Lilia would never take no for an answer, trying to teach Agatha how to let people help her. Although she was really grateful, she felt some kind of way about letting Lilia get her all these internships or jobs at fancy clinics, she wasn’t even being interviewed, she would just get in. So the hospital was the first job she applied to outside of Lilia’s influence, with the help of Wanda to get her resume updated and rehearsing for the interview, she was hired.

Besides her friendships, she could never commit to anyone, she would never let them in, afraid of the damage they would do to her or how they would try to use her. She could only date people for a couple of days, if not just one night stand. It felt like no one would really take care of her “for free”. Also a big reason as to why she would never let anyone near Nicky. She made a promise to herself she wouldn’t make him feel the way she felt. She would love him unconditionally, take care of him and never ask him to drink holy water after kissing someone.

However, ever since she met this annoyingly beautiful and widdy woman named Rio Vidal, she couldn’t understand her feelings. It was always so easy to shut it down, to avoid it, but now, her hurt ached. She felt this strange urge to get to know the other woman.
For a moment (honestly, more than one) of lack of self control, she kissed Rio, she wanted Rio. She even thought fucking the desire away would help. It actually increased it. No one was ever so intense and so persistent as Rio. Why did she want Agatha so much? Must be the desire of having everyone. She thought. Or she’s just horny and I’m some kind of kink for being her doctor. She thought. But then Rio said she wanted to keep seeing her, in whichever way she wanted. So casual it was. She could do casual.

Or could she?

“Dr Harkness?” An affirmative voice was pulling her out of her deep thoughts. “Dr Harkness?”

“Oh, hi! Sorry Dr Torres, how may I help you?” Agatha said standing up to greet Callie Torres.

“Much to think about?” She asked in a playful way

“You could say that… please take a sit” Agatha hand pointed at the chair, offering

“Oh no need, I came here to ask you if you know where Rio Vidal is. She has a follow-up with me but I emailed her saying I have to use Robbins office on the third floor because mine has an infiltration the guys are fixing right now”

“She didn’t get back to you?” Agatha remembered Rio seeing the notification but saying she would reply later because they were having lunch.

“She told you?”

“Yeah, we- we were, um, discussing her next, um, exercises” She said while putting the rest of the food away. Damn, maybe she was the one in need of that speech doctor.

“um… okay” Torres was feeling her sudden nervous tone to be odd, frowning in question but no really asking anything “So, maybe I should go to the fourth floor and see if she’s there”

“Wait, I’ll come with, I have to talk to Robbins about Nicky’s appointment.”

Both of them headed to the fourth floor, even though Agatha should've stopped on the third. It didn’t take long, Agatha’s clinic was on the first floor. As they were getting closer to the office, they could see Natasha and Rio nervously whispering to each other.

“What the actual fuck, Rio? You can’t keep it in your pants, ever? What the fuck are you thinking?” Natasha was more worried about this getting out to the press than actually angry at Rio.

“Stop swearing at me, I’m not actually doing anything wrong. I just like-” Rio stopped herself before saying anything she could regret “I would like to take her out, that’s all”

“Rio, she can’t, she’s your doctor. This is so frowned upon. And oh my God, Agatha of all people-”

“Agatha of all people, what?” Great timing. Agatha had to arrive right now. Both of them just silenced. “You guys?” Agatha tried again. “Natasha?”

“You know Natasha?” Rio turns to Agatha

“You know Rio?” Agatha turns to Natasha

“Since when do you call your patients by their first name?” Lilia asked while approaching.

“Alright, too many questions. Vidal, I sent you a message saying I’ll see you in Robbins office today but you didn’t answer.” She said, driving everyone’s attention to her.

“Sorry, I got caught up on-” She looks at Agatha and then quickly back to Torres “on something. I’ll head there then, thanks”

“Alright, we still have a good fifteen minutes so I’ll just grab a coffee and I’ll meet you there” Rio just nods and then the group’s attention goes to her.

“So?” Rio asks the three.

“Natasha we’re gonna be late, let’s go!” Lilia knew Agatha didn’t like to share personal information. But she hadn’t realized anything just yet. “Agatha, help your patient get to the consult, will you?”

Natasha just gives Rio a warning look and says “call me as soon as you get home”

In seconds, they are both left alone. Agatha opens the door to the files office and holds it till Rio enters. Once they’re in, Agatha closes and pins Rio to the door, one hand above her head, on the door and the other resting on her own hips.

“Alright, are you stalking my people?” She hisses aggressively

“What do you mean?” Rio is genuinely confused at this point. “Natasha is “your people”?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know that already”

“Agatha, she’s my manager”

“What-?” Agatha brings both her hands up and runs through her hair. Great, she revealed a personal thing to Rio. “She never said anything”

“Why? Is she some kind of romantic person to you?” My god, this is not the time to get jealous, Rio.

“What? No, ew. She’s like my sister”

“She is?” Rio says it, raising both eyebrows.

“Yes. She is the daughter of someone who’s also “My people”.” Agatha moved closer to Rio, standing side by side, her head resting on the door.

“Well, your sister has access to my email and read our messages, that’s why she was mad at me.” Rio was also resting her head on the door, so she just turned her head to look at Agatha. She tried to say something but Rio went on “I didn’t have time to say anything because ironically, you got here when I was about to ask her why she said you of all people, so I guess now I know” Agatha just closes her eyes, breathes deeply.

“Fuuuck” whispers

“Hey, she’s not going to say anything, I know it.”

“It’s not… that easy, Rio”

“I’ll talk to her” Her voice is so sweet now, trying to solve the issue like nothing seems messy to her.

“don’t… just don’t tell her everything, please?” Agatha gathered the courage to face Rio now.

“Alright” whispering.

They lock eyes for a lingering moment before Rio shatters the silence, her gaze drifting to Agatha’s lips.

“Can I kiss you?” Agatha is about to protest but Rio, again, goes on “casually…”

Agatha leaned in, cupping Rio’s face as she pressed a sweet, lingering kiss to her lips. For a moment, the weight of her worries melted away—because when Rio asked for a kiss, she could never say no. A pull, undeniable. A magnet.

But it was casual. So, no harm, right?

Problem is, Rio could not do casual. She tried to deny it, but she was falling in love with Agatha.

For most of her life, she put her needs first.

You should never put yourself second if it’s your happiness you’re after.
Was her motto. Cheezy? Yes! But also true.

There’s no sad background to Rio’s family other than the fact that she lost her dad to lung cancer and ever since that day (five years ago) she takes care of her family.
She would always help out, but now she takes full responsibility for it.

Well, even though there’s no sad background, there is a sad present situation. A story for another day.

The fact is, Rio is a helper. She likes helping people, being there for the ones she loves.

That could easily be covered by her fuckboy reputation. It all started when she broke up with her then girlfriend. She broke things off after finding out she had been cheated on and there was no excuse for such act. From that moment on, she decided she would get with anyone who would show her interest, but not enough to enter a relationship. All she knew was untrusty relationships. That’s fucking why she didn’t fucking understand why the fuck Agatha’s presence lingers in her mind like the last notes of a song you never want to end.

At first she thought it was just her hot doctor, who she could hit on and maybe have some kind of kinky porn situation. Disgusting thought? Maybe.

It was odd how much she wanted to spend time with Agatha. She would accept any form of condition, to be near that piece of art of a woman. Even a casual date situation.

The kiss went from sweet to hungry in a heartbeat. What was it with these two being so horny around one another? They’ve known each other for like a week or so.

“Rio, you should go to your consult” Agatha murmured against Rio’s lips

“mhmm…” as they kissed.

The kiss went on for a few more seconds before Rio’s hands found Agatha’s hips and she pulled her closer. Her hips rolled against Rio, as their lips brushed. Words slipping through the gaps between kisses, never pulling away completely.

“Seriously, we should stop”

“Yeah, we should”

Agatha’s hands settling on the curve of Rio’s neck. Then, her lips drifted lower, pressing soft kisses along Rio’s skin before teasing it with gentle bites—just enough to draw a quiet moan from her. Before the sound could linger, Agatha reclaimed her lips, both to silence her and simply because she just wanted to kiss her again.

Rio’s phone started to ring on her backpack, which was thrown to the floor sometime after they started kissing. Agatha broke the kiss abruptly.

“No… come back here” Rio whined.

“Must be Torres. You have to go” Agatha said while wiping her face with the back of her hand, brushing away the lingering warmth of their kiss. Rio pouted, Agatha reached out—the same hand that had just touched her own face—gently swiping away the wetness from the corner of Rio’s lips. “Go, Rio.”
But as she tried to pull away, Rio caught her hand, fingers curling around it, holding on tight.

“Can I see you tonight?” Again, those fucking puppy eyes.

“Rio, is monday, I have a k-” almost, almost told Rio about Nicky. “I have a job in the morning”

“Ouch” Rio puts her free hand on her chest theatrically “you’re saying I’m a deadbeat?” Making Agatha laugh a little.

“You know what I’m saying, now just go, you’re gonna be late” Removing her hand from Rio’s and feeling the ghost of the touch immediately.

“Can I call you?” Rio knew she was pushing a little bit, but she just had to ask

“maybe…” Agatha moved Rio away from the door so she could open it and Rio just walked out without saying anything but saying something, with her eyes. Agatha was then alone, standing by the open door, she took a deep breath and when she was about to leave

“I cannot believe I had to hear you almost have sex in a file office” behind her, from inside the office

Agatha turned around, a sharp gasp escaping her lips as her hand flew to her chest, heart pounding against her palm.

“Fuck… Wanda what the fuck?”

Chapter Text

“You're beggin' me to make a move
I'm beggin' for a sip of juice”

It was never supposed to be like this, it wasn’t ever supposed to take this turn.

Agatha Harkness could not fall in love with anyone right now, not ever. Love wasn’t supposed to come now, or any other time. But Rio had to come around, now.
Attention seeker, attention giver, Rio.

It was so strange how her hands burned magnetically in wanting to touch the other woman. It was odd because it was all so fast. The date was fast, the kiss was fast, the attraction, the longing… Whatever in the hell was happening to her right now shouldn’t be happening and it needed to stop.

At least that was what she told herself before kissing Rio in a -not so- empty hospital room.

“Agatha??” Wanda tried to get her friend’s attention

“I-” Agatha brought her hands to her face, trying to think of something to say

“Were you?”

“Was I what?”

“Going to have sex inside a file office?” she started to whisper scream “better yet, inside a fucking hospital?”

“No!” She joined the whispery screams “I don’t… I don’t know what I was doing”

“Are you two dating dating?”

“What?” Agatha furrows her brows in confusion, but beneath it all, she’s angry at herself for surrendering to Rio so easily.

“Are you finally seeing someone, Agatha?”

“No, this is… it’s casual”

“you don’t talk to a fling the way you two were talking to each other”

“eavesdropping much?”

“don’t change the subject” Agatha looked around avoiding Wanda’s eyes. “Casual or not, be careful, if you get caught fooling around like horny teenagers, she is not the one getting fired…”

“I know, I know…”

Wanda decided not to push her friend, knowing really well she’ll come to her senses when she’s ready to face the situation.

“Alright, let’s go back to work now?” Agatha only nods and they part ways.

Meanwhile, Rio’s check up becomes more of a gossip session.

“Spit it out” Dr. Torres said when she saw Rio entering the room

“Sorry?” She was genuinely confused

“Are you dating your doctor, Vidal?”

She was still standing, not knowing how to answer, she started to stutter

“I-, no-, we-, she-”

“Sit down and try to remember the english language while you’re at it”

Rio then sits and the doctor starts to examine her knee with her hands, looking for bruises or any sort of discomfort.

“Any pain here?” Rio simply shook her head, offering no verbal response. “Are you following your doctor’s instructions for at-home care?” A small nod. “Did you get with your doctor?” Still in the rhythm of mindlessly answering, Rio nodded without thinking. “VIDAL,” Torre’s voice snapped, firm and sharp

“Wait, it’s not like that, I swear”

“How is it then? Cause she cannot date a patient!”

“It’s… it’s nothing, we kissed once and I guess it got awkward when she became my doctor” Lies, Liza Minneli in the room.

“That 's it?” To be honest, Dr. Torres was waiting for some drama

“Yes, I swear”

Torres decided not to take the subject any further, seeming to believe Rio’s words.

At the end of the day, Agatha puts Nicky to bed, at 8:30, makes herself some tea and her phone starts to buzz on the coffee table.

It 's Rio calling.

“I said maybe”

“Well, you answered anyway, so it’s a yes”

“What do you want?”

“I wanna see you… kiss you”

“Vidal…”

“Come on, it’s early still, I’ll leave early, I promise”

“you’re that confident in yourself?” both of them were smirking on both ends of the line.

“I’ve never heard any complaints…”

“Maybe I should be the first then”

“You have to try it first” Agatha didn’t respond, she was contemplating the option of letting Rio come over, so Rio continued “So… Can I come over?”

The older woman took a few seconds to weigh her worries. Her kid was home, but he was sleeping, and he slept like a rock. At this hour, on a Monday, no one was likely to drop by. Still, Wanda was loud enough to make her own guilt palpable.
Yes, Agatha knew this wasn’t exactly right. But no matter how much she tried to reason with herself, she couldn’t ignore the pull—an undeniable attraction to Rio that left her powerless to resist.

“Yes, but you remember, this is-”

“Casual, I know. I’m on my way”

Once Rio hung up the phone, she started to freak out a little bit. Because she needed to be very careful of her son at home but also because she wanted to look good, and smell good for Rio. What in the actual fuck was going on with her? Everything is so confusing, nothing is easy.

She decided to take a quick shower, picked her most expensive lotion and then grabbed her best body spray—Victoria’s Secret Pomegranate & Lotus. It was just right for the occasion—not overpowering, but alluring enough. Perfume felt like a waste at home. She applied a little concealer and light mascara–just enough to enhance her confidence while keeping it casual. Casual. Her new favorite word, it seems. To complete the look, she slipped into a floral robe, tying it loosely over simple black lace underwear.

As if no time had passed, Rio’s arrival was announced by the doorbell. Agatha realized she’d forgotten to ask her to text instead, but thank God Nicky was a deep sleeper. She padded downstairs and opened the door.
~
Rio stood there, leaning on a single cane this time. In her free hand, she held a small bouquet of azaleas. Agatha paused, caught in the sight of her. She looked effortlessly stunning, as if beauty was second nature. A short black skirt—very short—paired with a black blouse and jacket. Sneakers on. A knee brace peeking out.

“You’re gonna let me in or you prefer to stare at me all night? I wouldn’t mind it, but it is kinda cold outside.” Rio was smiling and holding herself on the cane so she wouldn’t put any weight on her bad knee. Agatha moved so she could enter the house.

“Why are you wearing a knee cap?”

“Dr. Torres told me to wear it today because I told her I was going to be out and she was just worried I would ruin her work”

“Last time I checked, I was your doctor”

“Jealous?” Rio raised both her eyebrows and smirked.

“I will deal with it tomorrow morning.”

“Did not answer me…”

“Would you like anything to drink?”

“water is fine. And I, um, brought you this” Rio raised the flowers on her hand and gave them to Agatha, who took with hesitance. Just when she was about to say something, the basketball player continued. “don’t even try to say the word casual right now. This is just a gift, I like to treat my women right”

“women huh? how many are there?” Agatha raised an eyebrow before turning on her heel, making her way toward the kitchen. Without a word, Rio followed, her steps slower, more deliberate, the soft tap of her cane echoing through the quiet house.

“Second jealous strike” a tut of the tongue and a deep breath from the younger woman “you are one strange casual partner”

“Here’s your water” avoiding subjects was her expertise. Rio drank the water, looking deep on those blue eyes, not flinching for a second. “Anything else?”

“I would like a kiss now”

Without hesitating, Agatha closed the distance between them, giving Rio her warmest kiss, before hunger took over. In seconds, the kiss deepened. Agatha’s hands found Rio’s waist, while Rio tangled her fingers in Agatha’s hair, tugging just enough to make her groan into the kiss.

“Bedroom” Agatha murmured. Voice filled with need.

They should have waited. But patience was a virtue neither of them possessed when it came to each other. They kissed their way down the hallway, touched their way into the bedroom, and by the time the door swung shut behind them, Agatha had Rio pressed up against it, lips hot against her throat.

“God, you smell good,” Rio said, tilting her head back to give Agatha more room

“I taste even better,” Agatha rasped against her pulse, letting her teeth graze over the delicate skin. The moan that spilled from Rio’s lips was sinful, a sound that sent heat pooling between Agatha’s thighs. But before she could act on it, Rio flipped the script, hands firm as she spun Agatha against the door instead. Her lips crashed back onto Agatha’s, all dominance, all hunger.

Rio barely had time to gasp before she was flat on her back, sprawled across the bed. Agatha sat back on her lap, taking off her robe, the silk slipped from her shoulders like water, leaving her in nothing but sheer, lace lingerie.

Rio’s breath hitched. “My god, you’re so fucking gorgeous, Agatha” Agatha couldn’t even respond, she just leaned down and kissed Rio again.
Agatha leaned down, pressing her body against Rio’s, the heat between them unbearable. She kissed her slow and deep before sliding her hands under Rio’s shirt, nails dragging over her skin.

“You’re wearing too much,” Agatha murmured against her lips, voice thick with desire.

“Then fix it.”

A wicked smile curled on Agatha’s lips before she yanked Rio’s shirt over her head and unclasped her bra in one smooth motion. The moment Rio was bare to her, Agatha’s hands found her breasts, thumbs rolling over her already stiffened nipples.

Rio moaned, arching into her touch. “Fuck—”

“That feels good” whispers Rio, “Agatha, please”

When Agatha’s lips finally wrapped around one nipple, sucking just enough to make Rio’s hips jerk beneath her, a strangled moan escaped. Agatha’s free hand found the other breast.

“Agatha—”

“Hmm?” Agatha hummed against her skin before dragging her lips lower. The sound of Rio’s breathing, rapid and uneven, was intoxicating. She kissed down her stomach, tongue teasing the edge of Rio’s skirt before glancing up through heavy-lidded eyes. Agatha pushed Rio’s skirt up, eyes darkening at the sight of the ruined lace beneath. “Jesus, you’re soaked.” She leaned in, placing a single teasing kiss on the inside of Rio’s thigh, then bit down just enough to make her gasp.

“Agatha, please—”

“Use your words, baby” Her fingers danced along the edge of Rio’s panties, but she didn’t move them aside. Not yet.

Rio’s head fell back against the pillows. “I need your mouth. Fuck—”

That was all Agatha needed.

She hooked her fingers under the soaked fabric, dragging it down Rio’s legs before spreading her thighs open. This sight should be one of the world’s 7 wonders.

Slick, swollen, so ready for her.

Pressing a lingering kiss to Rio’s inner thigh before finally, finally giving her what she begged for. The first long, slow lick had Rio’s entire body tensing.

“Oh my—fuck.”

Agatha moaned against her, dragging her tongue through every inch of Rio’s dripping heat before latching onto her clit and sucking just hard enough to make her back arch off the bed.

“Holy—oh, god—”

“As much as I love listening to you,” Agatha paused only to slide her tongue lower, teasing her entrance, “I’m gonna need you to keep those pretty sounds in.”

Rio barely managed a nod, biting her lip, but then—

“Good girl.”

The words wrecked her. A choked whimper escaped, and Agatha just chuckled, pleased at how easily Rio gave in. She held her hips down and went back to work, tongue pressing deep. The taste of her, the heat of her—it was addicting.

Rio was shaking now, her hands buried in Agatha’s hair, gripping tight as she rode the pleasure that built impossibly fast. “I—god, I’m gonna—”

Agatha slid two fingers inside her with no resistance, curling them just right. The way Rio nearly screamed would have been obscene if Agatha hadn’t been so damn proud of it.

“That’s it, baby,” Agatha purred against her clit, pumping her fingers deeper, faster. “Come for me.”

Rio shattered.

Agatha fucked her through it, slowing her movements, coaxing her back down with gentle kisses up her stomach, her ribs, her lips.
Rio was still trembling, chest rising and falling, eyes shut.

“You okay?” Agatha asked softly, brushing a few strands of hair from her face.

Rio swallowed, then smirked, eyes dark with something dangerous.
“I need to taste you, Agatha. Right fucking now.”

Agatha raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You think you’re ready for that?”

“I’m starving.”

“How do you want me?”

“Do you always ask?”

“I like to hear the answer”

“Sit on my face, so I don’t have to ruin my knee for you, my doctor would be very pissed on my next session”

“Oh shut up”

“Come make me” Oh boy, and she did. She sat on Rio’s face and fucked her face so hard, the baskball player could swear her soul left her body for a second.

That was the first hour of their whole night. One more accidental sleepover.

Rio woke up feeling sore in all the best ways. A reminder of the night before. Agatha’s slow, steady breath ghosted against the back of her neck, and the warmth of her arm around Rio’s waist.
She knew damn well Agatha would freak out the moment she realized they’d had another accidental sleepover. It was better to slip out before that happened.

Carefully, Rio eased herself out from under Agatha’s arm, moving as quietly as she could. She sat up, reaching for her clothes on the floor, using her cane to drag them closer. Her socks were nowhere to be found, but she didn’t have time to look for them—she just laced up her sneakers, stood, and made her way downstairs.

Should have walked straight out the door.

But thirst got the best of her.

One quick glass of water. That was all she needed.

Big mistake.
She had just taken a sip, phone in hand, mid-way through calling an Uber when—

“Who are you?” Talk about jumpscare. That made Rio choke on the water.

Oh, if it isn’t the little boy she donated blood to in order to make her crush happy.

“Oh, hi! I’m Rio” She tried to sound as sweet as possible, so the kid wouldn’t start screaming for his mom

“What are you doing here? Where 's my mommy?” rubbing his sleepy eyes.

“She’s upstairs sleeping, I came over because…” come one, Vidal, think fast
“I am her patient, and I hurt myself, but her clinic is not open yet, so I came here”

“My mom is going to save you?”

“She sure is” and just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, Agatha wakes up.

“Nicky?” Rio could hear the steps approaching and she couldn’t really do much, she wouldn’t just leave the kid and she couldn’t exactly run.

“Mommy, your patient is here” He yelled from the kitchen

“What are you talking about, sweetheart—”

If a death stare could kill, Rio would be six feet under by now.

“Nicky, why don’t you go change into your uniform? I will make you breakfast, okay?”

“Kay, mom. Bye, Rio” He waved her goodbye, she waved back and then took a deep breath.

“Why are you still here?” Agatha’s voice was barely a whisper, sharp and pointed.

Rio hesitated, her eyes darting between Agatha and the floor, trying to make sense of the situation. “We... fell asleep. I tried to leave, but then he saw me” Her face twisted in confusion, as if trying to piece it all together.

“You need to go.” Agatha’s tone was firm, but there was something else—guilt?

“But I told your kid I was here for help. And, by the way, why didn’t you tell me about him?”

Agatha’s expression darkened, her gaze narrowing. “I don’t go around telling strangers about my son.”

Rio’s heart sank. The words stung more than she expected, and she couldn’t hide the hurt in her face.
“I’m a stranger to you?”

“That’s not what I meant, Rio—”

But Rio was already pulling away, her voice quieter now. “It’s fine. I’ll go.” She moved toward the door, but just as she started to walk, Agatha was there, grabbing her arm to stop her. The other hand slid to her waist, keeping her steady, grounding her in place.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” Agatha’s voice softened, her tone shifting to something warmer. She met Rio’s gaze, her eyes kind and apologetic. “Will I see you this afternoon for your session?”
Rio mumbled, her voice laced with reluctance. “It’s not like I have a choice.”

Agatha paused for a moment, then made a bold move. Her hands gently cupped Rio’s face, tilting her head just slightly, and before Rio could protest, Agatha pressed a soft, lingering kiss to her lips.
“I’ll see you then,” Agatha whispered, her voice hushed and tender. She kissed her again, just a brief, sweet connection.

At 1PM sharp, Rio arrived at Agatha's clinic, avoiding the other entrances of the hospital building so she wouldn’t accidentally run into Lilia or Natasha. She has not been answering her calls. She was also so ready to make Agatha want to kiss her during the session. She chose black leggings shorts and a black sports bra. Her hair is in a ponytail.

Jokes on her, Agatha looked incredible. She wanted to kiss her. Wearing tight jeans, light green button down shirt, short heels and her hair was down, wavy and rebellious. She was staring a little too hard.

“Miss Vidal?—Miss Vidal!” an irritating little voice called out.

“Yeah?” Rio turned to face the source—William.

“Before we go in, you might want to stop drooling,” he teased with a smirk.

She scoffed, crossing her arms. “You’re getting a little too comfortable, kid.”

“I’m not a kid!”

“Teen!” she shot back in a mocking tone

“William, could you bring Vidal in, please?”

With the help of William, Rio sat up on the examination bed.

“How are you feeling?” Agatha asked in her doctor voice.

“Good, you?” eyes hopeful she could start the flirting

“Stop that!” she pointed a warning finger at Rio. “I’m asking about your knee. Any sort of pain? Did you go easy on it?”

“You know I tried…”

“Vidal, please, cooperate.”

“You’re no fun” she fake pouted. “Alright. It was a little sore a couple of hours ago, but I put some ice on it, and I stretched my legs before coming in here.”

“Good. You should take it easy on them, okay?” Rio look at her with wide eyes and raised eyebrows “Stop making commentaries with your face, Rio” she whispered

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it”

“Well, try, please”

“You look beautiful, by the way.”

Agatha blushed. “Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself for someone who got no sleep”

Rio answered first with a tut of the tongue and then said “It was for a good cause”

“What was?” Of course Teen had to make his comeback at the most inconvenient time to help Agatha take Rio to the bar to exercise

“Nothing” both of them answered with a deadpan face.

While William was positioning Rio on the parallel bar, and grabbing the tools they would need, Agatha started conversation again.

“So, Rio, after our exercise, I will need you to come to my office so I can run your next schedule with you.“

“Ok”

Everything went smoothly for the next forty minutes of the session. When it ended, Rio followed Agatha to her office.

“William, you can take a little break now. Our next patient will be here at five.”

“Alright, thank you, Dr. Harkness. I’ll be back in a few.”

“No need to rush, teen!” Rio called out as the door shut behind him.

The moment they were alone, Rio perched on the edge of the desk, a playful smirk on her lips. “So, what exactly are you going to change about my routine now?” she asked, feigning innocence.

Agatha didn’t answer—not with words. Instead, she closed the space between them, capturing Rio’s lips in a kiss. Of course, Rio didn’t fight it.

“Is this part of my treatment now?” she murmured between kisses. “Not complaining.”

“It is if you don’t stop looking so damn good in your sessions,” Agatha muttered, deepening the kiss, fingers sliding into Rio’s hair, tugging her closer.

Rio let out a breathy chuckle. “I’m getting flashbacks…”

“Shut up,” Agatha hissed, lips tracing a path down Rio’s neck, tongue flicking against her pulse.

“Agatha—”

“I got you,” she whispered, fingers slipping beneath the waistband of Rio’s shorts. “You’re soaked.”

“I’ve been wet since I walked in.”

“Fuck—” Agatha traced slow circles around her clit, savoring the way Rio shuddered against her. “I don’t think you ever dried up from yesterday.”

“Agatha, please, fuck me.”

Agatha was addicted to the way Rio unraveled beneath her. Two fingers, then three, curling just right—

“Ag—FUCK—”

“Tone it down, baby,” she murmured against Rio’s ear, biting her earlobe.

“Too good—too much—”

“Want me to stop?”

“Fuck no!”

Rio glanced at their tangled limbs, grinned up at Agatha. “I guess this is how we hold hands.”

Agatha rolled her eyes, “Shut up.”

“Kiss me.”

And so she did.

-
That was just one of many encounters that week.

In the back of Rio’s car, Agatha straddled her lap, Rio fucking her with slow, teeth teasing sensitive skin.

In Agatha’s basement, where she could savor every sound, every desperate plea, uninterrupted.

In Agatha’s clinic, again—but this time, with Rio sitting on the chair, eating her out, fingers digging into Agatha’s thighs.

All casual, of course. It wasn’t like they were addicted to each other or anything. Just a perfectly normal inability to keep their hands to themselves.
To keep things light, Agatha insisted on no calls, only texts. But on a Friday night, Rio broke the rule.

“Hey, sorry to call, but I’m leaving a meeting and Lilia reminded me about her dinner tomorrow. Are you going?”

A pause. “Yeah. It’s with some of the hospital staff, so she said I had to. Apparently, she has a big announcement.”

“Alright…”

Silence stretched between them.

“What are you wearing?” Rio finally asked.

Agatha smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Yes.”

“Not telling you, Vidal.”

“Stop being mean, Harkness.”

A sly hum. “Well… let’s just say it won’t be pants.”

Rio exhaled sharply. “Good enough for my imagination, thank you.”

“You called just to ask me that?”
“Yeah.”

“Hmm… Goodnight, then. See you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

Chapter Text

“ I thought you thought of me better

Someone you couldn't lose

You said, "We're not together" ... “

Agatha

Somehow, in her brain, a long low waisted black skirt and a tight black blouse would do the job of looking professional and sexy at the same time. At least she hoped Rio would think so. 

Wait. Why in the hell was she considering Rio’s thoughts? 

Oh, actually, it’s normal to want to arouse the person you are sleeping with… casually. It is super normal to want their eyes only on you, forgetting the existence of other people

Light makeup and the same body spray she used on her date with Rio. Good choice. Not at all intended to impress Rio. But in hopes it would.

Lilia asked her to arrive a little earlier, along with Natasha. Both of them waited at the door.

“Appropriate look for when you know a certain patient is coming to dinner…” Natasha began, eyebrow raised.

“I dress for myself,” Agatha said, not missing a beat.

“Agatha, we need to talk about this, she’s been avoiding the conversation and—”

“There is nothing to talk about, Natasha”

“there’s so many thi—”

The front door creaked open, cutting her off. Lilia with a warm smile.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting, come on in” and as they do, she checks out Agatha’s outfit “that’s… an interesting choice”

“Thank you, Lilia” the sarcasm tone at its finest form.

✨✨✨

As they helped with the finishing touches—folded napkins too perfectly pressed to be casual, wine glasses that cost more than rent—the guests began to arrive. Hospital directors. Shareholders. And finally, the basketball players.

"You’re going to give yourself whiplash with how fast you turn every time the door opens," Wanda murmured as she glided up beside Agatha.

“what?” 

“You’re staring at the door, Agatha”

“Am not” 

As if on cue, the door swings open and reviews the one she’s -has not- been waiting for.

Rio decided it was a good idea to wear a mini skirt and blazer, paired with sleek black pantyhose. And she topped it off with a brand new cane, the kind only an old rich man—or Rio—could pull off. It was bedazzled, deep green.

It didn’t take long for Rio’s eyes to find Agatha’s, before Rio was swallowed up by a few of teammates and shareholders. Still, her gaze kept drifting back—Agatha, then the people chattering around her, then Agatha again. 

After fifteen long minutes, she finally broke free. Walking towards the doctor, slipping to Agatha’s side, just outside the dining room. She hands Agatha a glass of red wine.

“Hi, Dr Harkness…” Soft and slow. 

Agatha looked at her—up close now. She took the glass. Rio was smiling. And smelled so fucking good .

“Vidal.” She manages to keep it cool, while inside she is holding on for dear life.

“How are you?” Vidal’s tone was a mix of politeness and genuine curiosity. 

“I’m well. You?” Agatha turned slightly to face her, sipping her wine, eyes never leaving hers.

“I’m alright” Rio mirrored the movement, took a sip—and then leaned in.

The move was so sudden, so close, Agatha flinched.

“You look so fucking hot,” Rio whispered, letting her breath brush against Agatha’s ear. Then—closer still—smelling her “And you smell so fucking good.”

Agatha was seconds away from unraveling.

“Rio…” is more a plea than a warning. Vidal heard it well and pulled back.

“I’ll see you around” and the motherfucking wink. 

✨✨✨

The dinner party is going well, but the doctor and the basketball star? They were two teenagers again, texting.

Rio Vidal

I need you to cover yourself, it’s torture looking at you and not being able to touch you. 

Me

Behave. Owners of the hospital are here.

Rio Vidal

They are not in the bathroom…

Agatha has red cheeks and it’s looking down at her phone, thinking about what to respond

“Agatha, are you even listening to me?” Wanda complains

“Yes, woman! Oh my god”

“Well, care to share your thoughts? She’s being too secretive about it, apparently there’s a big change at the hospital’s directorship or something”

Agatha is far gone, she wasn’t listening, she couldn’t care less. So she typed.

Me

Meet me down the hall, last door to the right. Three knocks. 

Then she turns back to Wanda

“Wands, would you be so kind and lie if anyone asks about me? Thanks, you’re a doll” 

“What-”

It takes Rio 5 minutes to get to the bathroom down the hall. Three knocks.

“Hey,” Agatha says, voice low, eyes sharp.

“Hey,” Rio answers, like it’s nothing

“Took you long enough”

“Try dodging the person who pays your salary while she asks about where are you going and then try lying to her smart ass. Not to forget my fucking knee—”

“Come here” She grabs Rio by her blazer, yanking her forward into a kiss. Locking the door behind her quickly. She backs them toward the marble sink — big, solid, perfect. “You had no business coming to a dinner party in this fit” Agatha mutters between kisses.

“Why?” Rio murmurs, lips brushing hers

“It’s not appropriate” Her fingers slide into Rio’s hair, gripping tight,

Rio groans at the pull and answers with her body, hands landing on Agatha’s hips, nails biting through silk.

“Just say I look hot,” she says, placing wet kisses down Agatha’s throat.

“Fuck. You do” Her voice breaks when Rio’s tongue traces a line to her ear, teeth sinking into the lobe.

“Say it all!” Rio whispers

“you look—” Moan so filthy Rio thought she might need to pray asking for forgiveness. 

“I’ll take it”

“Rio…”

“What do you want, baby?” The pet name hits deep. Agatha's stomach flips “Want me inside?”

“Please”

Without a second thought, she pushes up Agatha’s skirt and lifts her onto the edge of the sink. Arm around her waist, grounding her, the other slipping between her legs.

“I love how wet you get — so fast” Rio murmurs, thumb drawing slow circles over her clit, making Agatha moan a little loud and bratty “Is it only for me?”

“It-” Agatha chokes on the truth and swallows it. Almost says yes. She can’t say it. Not to Rio, not to herself. “Fuck me” 

She means it as a command, but it sounds more like a prayer.

Underwear to the side, two fingers in and Rio takes her lips in a kiss that swallows her moan. Agatha’s hips rocking into the rhythm

Her legs shake, head rests on Rio’s shoulder as the younger one keeps working her through it.

Agatha’s breathing is ragged, fingers clutching at the back of Rio’s neck like she’s afraid to let go.

She drags her lips to her ear. “Taste me,” she whispers, voice barely there.

Rio pulls back just enough to look at her.

“Why don’t you taste yourself?” she says, cocky. Her fingers pull out slow and she brings them to Agatha’s lips. “You taste so good, baby.”

Agatha doesn’t hesitate — lips part, tongue flicking out, tasting herself off Rio’s fingers. And Rio watches, head feeling dizzy, like she’s barely holding it together.

But then — Agatha’s phone buzzes.

“Your phone is buzzing” Rio is inside her again, thrusting harder now, making Agatha gasp and grab at the counter for balance.

“Let it ring,” Agatha breathes, back arching.

But it never stops.

“It’s Wanda,” Rio mutters, breathing warm against her neck. 

Agatha blindly fumbles for the phone, she grabs it and swipes to answer, barely able to steady her voice. “H-Hey”

“Where the hell are you?” Wanda’s voice is crisp  “Dinner’s about to be served, Lilia is asking for you”

Rio’s fingers don’t stop. If anything, they get slower. Crueler. Agatha bites down on her own lip.

Head thrown back, trying to remember how words work. “Just needed some air.”

“You sound weird. Are you okay?” Wanda asks, sharper now.

“I’m fine. I’ll be— right there.”

“Hurry up, please. I can’t think of more excuses”

“We should go back” She warns Rio

“Okay”

✨✨ 

Everyone was already seated and the only places available were by Wanda’s side. She side eyed them.

“Well, I hope you air was real pure for it to take it so long for you to breath it” 

“I thought it took so little” Rio shrugged while sitting down and before Agatha could even answer, Lilia started to speak at the end of the table, Joanne by her side. 

“I’ve gathered you here because I have some news to share. As you know, I am married to this beautiful woman right here, and I have promised her I would one day take a long vacation and increase our quality time together. So my dear coworkers, from the hospital directors to the women representing my exciting teams, I will be taking six months off” the room starts to commotion, people asking questions, making comments “I know! I know we are in the middle of the season, but you have capable people working with you, we have an injured player, but she’s been doing well with the newest Dr-”

“I’ll say…” Wanda murmurs under her breath, but Agatha hears it and gives her a little kick under the table. But at the same time, she feels Rio’s hands on her knee, calming her stress out.

“Um.. Lilia, who is going to be replacing you mid season? We have a system that works, all of your girls are being treated at the hospital” One of the Hospital’s shareholders asks.

“And they will continue to be. I have a very capable and responsible woman covering for me for the next six months. She is a bit late though, due to her flight being delayed, but she will join us shortly.”

“Do we know her?”

“No, she is coming from London, she just had an amazing year working for three top hospitals, she will know how to manage it. We already had this conversation with the Hospital owners last week but this dinner is for us to enjoy and celebrate the new things, eat up!”

No one would argue with Lilia, everyone dug right in and ate their food, having light conversations and right in the middle of that, the new person arrived. Lilia made her way to the door, bringing her closer and everyone turned their heads to face them.

“Everyone, this is Anne, she will be taking over my duties for now” 

Anne.
The blonde from the college tour.
The blonde who took her out for ice cream.
The blonde she kissed.
The blonde she asked to leave.

Now, Anne was standing in front of her. She hadn’t aged a day. Hair shorter, wardrobe sharper—like a senator.

“Hey, everyone! Sorry I’m late!” Anne said.

Their eyes met. Agatha was silently begging the universe for an answer: How the hell did you end up here?

“You okay?” Rio asked gently, her hand finding Agatha’s knee again.

“I need some water,” Agatha muttered, already rising and slipping out of the dining room while the others welcomed Anne.

Rio looked at Wanda confused, she tried to get up and go after Agatha but Wanda was faster.

Agatha had her head down, hands on the sink and breathing heavily. 

Wanda approached her slowly

“Hey, what happened?” she asked, voice low and warm.

“I don’t know… how the hell is she here?”

“Is she your ex?”

Agatha had never talked about that day with anyone other than Lilia and Joanne. She never named names though.

“We went on a date once” she said finally, facing Wanda, letting her gently swipe a tear away.

“Did she hurt you on the date? I could smack her face for you” The joke made Agatha let out a tiny laugh and Wanda smiled. “Seriously, though, do we need to talk to Lilia?”

“No… It’s not her. She-” Agatha stopped, inhaled deeply. “After the date, I went home. We kissed. My mother saw. She said things no one could forgive her for, Wanda. She was cruel. She was evil. And seeing Anne tonight just… brought all of that back. And these… confusing feelings. I don’t know.”

“Do you want to leave?”

“Maybe, but later. I don’t wanna make a scene”

“Okay… Rio is worried, you know”

Before Agatha could say anything to that, Anne entered the kitchen

“Excuse me…” She said

Wanda looked at Agatha. “Do you want me to stay?”

“It’s okay” Agatha gave a small shake of her head.

Once she was alone with Anne, they hugged as a greeting move. It felt weird, it felt out of place. It felt like she wasn’t deserving of a hug or that she was dirty. All the feelings from that day were brought back.

“I’m sorry I didn’t reach out,” Anne said, keeping a respectful distance. “I saw your name on the hospital’s website, but… texting felt weird.

“It still feels weird.” She agreed “You look great, though,” Agatha added.

“You too. I see you made a good life for yourself. Is the mother here?”

“God no! She died.”

“Oh thank god- Wait, no, sorry!”

“Don’t. I’m glad”

“So, is that your girlfriend out there?”

“What do you mean? The redhead? No, she’s just a friend.”

“I mean the brunette, Rio Vidal, she was sitting next to you, looking at you in a certain way…”

“Oh, Rio… she, um… no, we’re nothing, she’s my patient at the hospital”

“We’re nothing” was what Rio heard as she was making her way to the kitchen to check on Agatha. 

If she could run, she would. But all she could do was ask Natasha to call the driver and take her home . 

Natasha helped her outside, scanning Rio’s face.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Did you fall?” 

Only looked at her with glassy eyes, shaking her head.

“Text me when you get home”

Rio only let herself cry once she got home. 

We’re nothing. We’re nothing. Am I nothing?

She knew this was casual. But in reality nothing about it really was. But to be nothing ?

“Hey, where’s Rio?” Agatha asked Natasha once she made her way to the living room, where everyone was having drinks after dinner

“She left”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know, Agatha. You tell me.”

“What do you mean?” 

"One minute she’s laughing with you, the next she’s in the car, barely holding it together.”

“Where did she go?” 

“Home. I hope”

Agatha turned on her heel and grabbed the key to one of Lilia’s cars.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Natasha called, following her.

“If she’s hurt she needs me”

She hits the gas.

 ✨✨✨

“Rio, it’s me, open up” Agatha banged at the door and by the third knock, Rio opens it.

“What do you want?”

“Why did you leave? What happened?”

“Why are you so worried? I’m nothing to you, right?”

“What are you talking about? Why is everyone spitting phrases out in the air like I’m supposed to magically get it?!” 

She stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

“Let me make it easier for you then. I don’t want this anymore.”

“What?”

“You can go and reminisce whatever the fuck you had with your old friend that just magically showed up to work as my fucking boss and I won’t bother you anymore. Actually, I’m not even bothering you since I’m nothing to you”

“Why are you saying this?”

“I heard you. Talking to her”

Oh.

Oh.

“Wait, I didn’t mean it like that-”

“How did you mean it then?”

“I meant we were not together. Officially”

“We’re not to-” Rio takes a deep breath and spins in a circle before standing still again “What the hell are we then?”

“We talked about this, Rio, this was supposed to be casual, I couldn’t-”

“This” Rio motions between them “was never casual. You fucking know it. I know it. We can’t keep our hands to ourselves, we fucked in every single place we could because we cannot resist each other. You moaned my name like it meant something. And it did. It was sweet, Agatha. Not just hot. Sweet . As exciting as it was, it was never casual. It will never be casual to me. So if that’s what you want, go be casual with Lilia’s wannabe and let me be nothing away from you.”

“Rio…” She tried reaching out

“Don’t” 

“I’m sorry” 

And she left. 

It was never casual.

She couldn’t admit that because to want something real, meant exposing parts of herself she had buried for years. She had been hurt too many times. By exes, by her own mother, who had made love feel like a punishment and an obligation. She had learned the hard way: wanting too much was wrong.

And there’s Nicky. She couldn't risk inviting someone into that sacred space, only for them to leave. People always left.

It was easier to destroy now then to let someone else do it after.

Sometimes when you screw up, there’s no turning back. 

Chapter Text

“Admiring you from a distance

Scared to go and make a move

Didn't wanna be distracting

You be all up in your groove”

It’s been two weeks. Two very strange weeks. Rio asked to be paired with another doctor, that was Dr. Sam Wilson, he would be in the clinic for the nighttime patients, so Rio lied saying she could only attend the physical therapy at night from now on, trying not to get anyone suspicious about Agatha and her. 

Agatha made a promise to herself not to enter the hospital so much, bringing lunch and snacks everyday, afraid she would bump into Rio whenever she had an appointment with Torres. William would sometimes comment about her, saying he misses her and that he saw her upstairs, and most recently that she had invited him to the game that week’s weekend. All Agatha could do was give him a failed smile. It hurt not to know if she was okay, if she was recovering, if she was hurting because of Agatha or if she got over it. It also hurt because she was a coward and couldn’t face the simple truth.

It was now friday, she knew Rio would come by the clinic around 7PM, it was currently 5:30PM, so she made sure to update all the charts and leave as soon as she could, and just as she was leaving, Sam arrived.

“Hey, Dr. Harkness, how’s it going?” They shared a brief hug, they are acquaintances, it’s only normal.

“I’m fine, how are you?” 

“Can’t complain” He made his way to the snacks table they had at the clinic for patients to make some tea “didn’t think I would see you here at this hour on friday” 

“Yeah, well, I had to update the charts for next week’s patients…” If she needed an update on her former patient, to seem casual, this is the right time “So, um, Rio Vidal… Is she getting better?” Alright, this was good, pretty normal.

“Um, yes! Tonight is her last session, actually”

Oh, she was finishing this journey without Agatha. 

“Your work with her prior to mine was impeccable, when we started she was already aware of everything she needed to do in order to be on her feet properly, so zero complaints and just dedication, thank you!”

Agatha chuckles “It’s nothing. Just doing my job.”

“Mommy!” Nicholas was waiting for Agatha in the hospital’s daycare, so William went to pick him up.

“Your child is safe and sound, can you give me a ride now?” William tiredly asked while Nicky hugged his mom and she was kissing his little face so hard he was giggling

“Oh my baby, are you good? Was William nice to you?”

“Yeah!”

“Please, what could I have done to him in the whole five minutes it took me to pick him up?”

“Hey, you are getting too comfortable, watch the way you speak to me!” She pointed at him serious and then smiled “Now come on, kid”

“I’m not a kid, god!”

“alright, teen ”

✨✨✨ 

When at home, Agatha sends Nicky to shower and put on his jammies. From downstairs she asks loudly “Nicky, how does pizza sound for dinner?”

“AWESOME!” She yells back, making her laugh a tiny bit to herself. 

Few moments later they are sitting on the floor, eating pizza and watching The Jetsons. Agatha made Nicky love the cartoon. 

“Mommy, did you fix your patient?”

“What patient?”

“The one that came here for help”

“Oh” Agatha did not see her son remembering that episode

“Did you?”

“She didn’t need me anymore, Nicky”

“How come? I thought you fixed people”

“I help them, yes.” This was torture “Now, finish your slice, it’s still early we can go for a walk, what do you think?”

“But I’m in my jammies”

“It’s okay, we can go outside wearing our matchy robes”

Agatha got them a pair of purple robes because she mainly thought it was cute.

Minutes later they walk on the sidewalk, hand in hand, talking about the stars and the moon.

“That one looks like a dinosaur” He said point at the sky, making Agatha look up as well.

“It does! And look, there’s a banana!”

Nicky laughs and corrects his mother “that can’t be a banana, mommy, don’t make any sense”

“Sure, cause there’s only dinosaurs in the sky”

“Yeah!”

They spend some time like this, together, looking at the sky and laughing. When they were making their way back, they saw Wanda walking towards them.

“Hey you two! What are you doing here?”

“We were looking at the dinosaur stars” Nicky told her with a sleepy voice and yawning right after.

“Yeah, and now we’re going home to sleep” Agatha had her body turned to Nicky and now was moving to face Wanda “Would you come have a glass of wine with me?”

“Yeah, let me text Vision that I will be late”

They walked together, in silence. As Agatha was putting Nicky to sleep, Wanda grabbed the wine and glasses and made her way to the couch. Agatha joined her shortly.

“How you doing?” Wanda asked while handing her the glass of red wine.

“I’ve been better” She let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in

“Are you finally ready to talk about what happened? It’s been two weeks, it’s not healthy to keep so much to yourself”

“I know… it’s not easy for me to just… talk”

“Okay, I’ll ask questions and we go from there” Agatha nods. “Why is Rio not your patient anymore?”

“She broke things off with me”

“What? Why?”

“She heard me talking to Anne and stormed off, I went to her house, I reminded her we were not in a relationship but she ended everything”

“What did she hear exactly?” Wanda thinks of a scene and with wide eyes she asks “Did Anne make a move? She was flirting?”

“No! God, I wish that was it”

“Why? Are you into Anne now? Have you talked to her after that day?”

“Slow down, woman. Oh my god”

“I’m sorry, you’ve been distant, I need updates”

“I’m sorry for that” She takes a deep breath in “So to answer in order… I said a very hurtful thing about Rio and I to Anne, Rio heard it. No, I’m not into Anne but it is confusing to see her now as an adult and yes she texted me a couple of times and greeted us at the clinic, but that was all”

“What did you say?”

“I said we were nothing”

“Agatha…” Wanda had that disappointed but also warning tone to her voice

“I know, I know. It was really fucking wrong” 

“Yeah. So why did you say that?”

“I panicked because of so many things… it was so strange to talk to her, and now she was in Lilia’s place, I couldn’t just say I was dating Rio when she was my patient and I couldn’t say it because we weren’t dating and I just phrased wrong, I-” tears came rolling down her face, she couldn’t hold that lump in her throat any longer, she moved closer to Wanda, resting her head on her shoulder”

“Oh, Agatha…” She embraced her friend, hand making small circles on her back, trying to get her to calm down “I got you, let it out” Wanda felt a bit out of place, it’s been so long since Agatha let out her feelings, crying. 

After a few minutes of sobbing, she grabbed Agatha’s face with her hands, making her look up and face her.

“You can’t keep your feelings in just because you think it’s the best for everyone. It’s not the best for you and you need to let yourself feel and enjoy. Even if it 's sad, okay?” Agatha nodded, sniffing.

“Can I ask you one more thing?” Agatha nodded again “Do you like Rio?” 

“Does it matter now?” 

“It will always matter if you decide to keep it in and let her go without a fight”

“What, you want me to make her take me back?”

“How is she going to take you back if you were never hers in the first place?” Wanda arched her eyebrows, questioning Agatha and letting go of her face “Weren’t you casual?”

“Okay, ouch?” 

“Weather you like it or not, you hurt her”

“I know.”

Agatha’s phone vibrates with two different notifications. One from Anne saying “You free tomorrow night?” and the other one was a post from google reminding people of the Basketball game tomorrow, it was the semi-finals and Rio’s team was still fighting for the finals. 

“Are you going to answer her?”

Agatha types on her phone and hits send. She then shows her phone screen to Wanda and she reads the reply that said “I’m not, sorry.” Wanda simply smiles. 

After a while Wanda left and Agatha made her way to bed. She was sleepy because of the wine but it didn’t stop her from typing Rio’s name on the message app and realizing she was blocked. Okay, maybe she deserved that.

Maybe it was for the best. Rio didn’t deserve to be hurt by someone who never learned how to properly love a significant other. She deserves someone a hundred per cent in and not a broken soul.

✨✨

Morning came, and she was woken up by a kid singing about his love for pancakes and that was a hint she was making pancakes that morning.

Later, the afternoon hot wave hit, she was sitting on the couch going through Instagram while Nicky was taking his nap. As she was sliding through people’s stories, she saw William’s. She followed him back after many whines of “please, follow me back”. He had three stories up. One was of him and his date sitting on the bench, second one was the view of the courtside ticket he got from Rio and third was… Rio. Rio, William, the boy and another woman. One Agatha had never seen before. Rio had her arm around her, but it didn’t seem romantic. At least that was what Agatha wanted to believe. Her eyes were now focused on Vidal’s outfit. Oh, for god's sake. She had a white crop top, jeans, blue button up was open and an orange cap backwards. This was torture. In one motion she put down the phone and decided to occupy her mind with reading. 

Hours later, google gifted her with gossip news. God, it’s about time she turns off the notifications from google. 

The headline was “Rio Vidal’s new fling”. She couldn’t help but scroll down and read it.

• “Rio Vidal takes a date to watch the game and it seems like it was a good lucky charm because her team won!”

It wasn’t even good writing. She thought. Well, maybe she deserves this. She had to be hurt back.

What Agatha did next did not make her future self very proud. She will be cussing herself out, I promise.

Message app was open, Anne’s name was typed, message was sent.

Me

Hi! Turns out I’m free tonight!

Chapter Text

"Self-destruct, show up like an idiot
Why, oh, why does God keep bringing me back to you?"

Nat’s amazing concealer will do the job of hiding the bags under her eye from crying all night long, feeling used and thinking less of herself. Rio was hurt. But what hurt her more was that she wouldn’t let go of the feeling of wanting to be in Agatha’s arms. 

She didn’t cry by herself. The night of the fateful break up , she called Natasha.

-

“Rio, is everything okay?”

“Nat, can you come over?” Her voice sounded low, hidden and she was sniffing

“I’m on my way!”

Natasha never drove so fast. She got to Rio’s place and the door was open. Rio hadn’t had the strength to go and lock it. Rio was on her way back to the couch with a bowl of ice cream in hands

“Baby…” Natasha reached out to hug Rio and she accepted. “What happened?” They let go of each other and Nat sits on the couch, tapping the empty space next to her, asking Rio to sit by her side. “Did Agatha ever find you?” 

Rio huffed. “Oh yeah” mockingly. 

And she sat down

“What does that mean?” And Rio chose silence, looking down at the bowl “Ri, tell me” still nothing “Oh my god, you two deserve each other, you don’t talk”

“Hey, that’s low” She said while looking back up at Natasha

“Start talking then” She says it in the sweetest way possible, wiping away her tears.

“She doesn’t like me, or she only likes the way I make her feel when I’m eating her out because that’s not how you act around someone you like”

“Ew, don’t talk about sex with Agatha with me”

“You wanted me to talk”

“Be more objective” She raised her eyebrows

“I don’t really know what to say”

“I’ll ask questions then” Rio only nodded “When the hell did you guys think it was a good idea to fuck around with her being your doctor?”

“I thought it was going to be this silly little thing, but I can’t help it if she’s the most amazing woman I have ever seen in my life”

“My god, you’re whipped”

“Why doesn’t she like me? Am I just not enough?” She said it in a low, broken voice. “I’m not as good as her ex”

“What ex? What are you talking about? You’re literally an angel compared to the fuck ups she’s dated” 

“Then why the fuck does she only want me for a quick fuck in the bathroom?”

“You’re gonna have to stop telling me about how and where you guys have sex”

“Had” Rio pointed out

Natasha knows Rio is heartbroken and that Agatha was a bitch, but she also knows why Agatha is the way she is.

“Look, Ri, Agatha is not fucking with you, trust me, she wouldn’t be running after you. I know this must be really confusing, that’s why you two need to sit down and talk and dear lord, Agatha needs to sort her shit out, but it is not my place to say anything and I promise you I’m gonna talk some sense into her.”

“NO!” She said in worry, raising her voice “I mean, please don’t. She’s gonna think I’m pathetic and I need my friend to talk to people for me”

“I’m her sister. Not by blood but by heart. I get to yell at her”

Rio laughed a bit and that brought a smile to Natasha’s face.

“Can I ask you something?” Nat said

“Yes”

“Do you really like her?”

“Does it matter now?”

“It does”

“I broke things off, I don’t think she wants me back”

“How old are you again?”

“Thirty five”

“Then fucking act like it. Fucking talk to each other”

Natasha left a little after Rio fell asleep on the couch

The following day Rio was woken up by loud knocks at the door.

“What the fuck is going on????” As she aggressively opens the door 

The woman barged in and threw her bag on the sofa “Holaaa”

Ana was Rio’s sister, both of them were close when they were little but not so much as adults. Ana has had a bit of trouble in her life and as part of her recovery Rio decided to spend more time together, but with the whole casual situation, she had forgotten about the game today.

The game was one of their best ones yet. Rio could not hold back at how proud she was, chanting words of empowerment to her girls. It was a tie, but it was good enough to keep them on the run for the finals. After everyone was gone and only a few journalists and social media managers were around to do interviews and make content, Rio decided to play a one on one with her sister.

“Are you sure you’re good to play?” William asked

“I’m fine, doctor cleared me”

“Yeah but you drank like five Aperol drinks”

“I’m okay” She gave him a warning look

He didn’t want to push it, raising his hand in a mocking surrender 

While playing, the team's social media manager was videoing to post it and Rio kept saying “It’s probably not a good idea to play when you’ve had five Aperol spritz but I fucking miss this, watch me!” And those were her last words, when Ana, trying to get the ball from Rio, launched her body a little too hard, making Rio fall on her knees.

All she could see was a bunch of heads surrounding her, screaming, calling. Next thing she knew, she was inside of an ambulance.

Agatha was on her way to meet Anne when Natasha called.

“Hello?” Agatha first said

“Hey! Where are you?”

“Far. Why?”

“I just wanted to check in, you never said anything after you ran away from the dinner party”

“My bad.”

“Look. I’m tired of dancing around so I’ll just say it. What happened with Rio? She didn’t tell me”

“Nothing”

“Agatha be fucking for real, the woman was wrecked”

“Okay, I’m hanging up”

“Hold on, Agatha, I’m serious. I’ve never seen her broken like that because of a fling”

“Maybe she got too attached”

“Maybe you need to stop being such a dumbass and call her”

“Why?”

“Look, I love you, you know that. But you’ve got some issues and you need help, you won’t ever be able to have anyone around you… Hell, you won’t be able to be there for Nicky if you don’t learn how to deal with your stuff”

As harsh as that was, Natasha wasn’t wrong and deep down, Agath knew it.

“Wait, hold on, I’m getting a call on my work cell phone” she didn't hang up on Agatha, so she was able to hear the other conversation

“What? What do you mean?” Natasha’s voice was a mix of worry and annoyance

“Is Rio at the hospital right now? I’m on my way” She then hung up and for a second forgot Agatha was on the other line

“What happened?” All of a sudden Agatha’s voice became fragile and low

“Shit-” Natasha was already on her way, you could hear her steps “Rio got injured playing one on one with her sister”

“Her sister?”

“Yeah, she’s visiting”

Oh. Oh. That’s who that was. Dumbfuckingass.

“Ag, I have to go. Will call you later”

Agatha never moved so fast. She didn’t think, she didn’t even reflect on it. She just changed directions. 

Anne’s name was typed. Message was sent. Sorry, I have an emergency to attend to, I won’t make it.

It was out of instinct, out of lack of self control, out of love.

Ten minutes later, Agatha arrived at the hospital. The one she works at. Privileged in a way, she could cut the lines and just enter.

She got to Rio’s room, outside stood Natasha, Wanda, William with his date and Ana. 

“Agatha…” Wanda approached, trying to stop her from going inside

“How is she?”

“We don’t know everything yet, the knee is bad but she's alright nonetheless”

“Then I am going in”

“That’s not a good idea” Natasha added

“Wait, who is she?” Ana asked William

“Agatha Harkness”

“Why do you want to see my sister?” Ana now directing her questions at Agatha

“Um… That 's Rio' s sister, Ana” Natasha intervened. Agatha just looked at the girl, not paying too much mind

“I’m going in”

No ceremony, Agatha just opened the door and then once in, she locked it.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Rio first said

“What the fuck are you doing here? Why did you think it was a good idea to play?” She said, getting closer to Rio

“That’s none of your business, Dr. Harkness ” Saying it like it was bitter, and it tasted bitter

“It is. It fucking is. What if you get hurt for good?”

“Why the fuck do you care? Why don’t you go kiss your ex girlfriend, current boss, like that’s not a concern for you?”

“She’s not- I’m not-”

“You’re not what, Agatha? In love with me? Yeah, no shit” Rio’s tone could slice Agatha’s throat. It was some sort of yelling

“I am” Agatha screamed, throwing her hands in the air.

“What?”

“I fucking am” Agatha took the courage to stand right by Rio’s side, but moving nonstop “I am in love with you, and that’s why it fucking scares me cause I don’t know how to deal with it, I can’t act on it, I don’t know how, but something crazy just brings me back to you all the time”

All Rio could do was stay in silence, absorbing the words she just heard. Then one question was asked

“Why did you say I was nothing?” Rio’s voice broke mid question

Agatha took the biggest breath she could take “I don’t know. I’m fucked up, Rio”

“Figure your shit out, then”

“Rio, let me just-”

“Leave, Agatha”

“This is it, then?”

“No. This is not it, I just-” Rio brought her hands to her face, covering, taking a deep breath”

“Got it” 

Agatha left the room, grabbing Wanda’s hand and making her walk with her. 

“Would you grab some azaleas and put it in Rio's room, put it on my name, please? But don’t do it right now, wait a bit longer”

Wanda nodded and Agatha started to walk towards the elevator

“Where are you going?” Wanda asked

“To figure my shit out”

She made her way to Dr. Monica 's office. 

Dr Monica Rambeau - Therapy