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【When We Rise】Chapter 13.
WATERFORD
Gilead is a game.
It always has been.
They already knew that.
They just took the wrong enemy.
Check.
【NOVEMBER 24th / THE WATERFORD HOUSE / 6:00AM】
The nipping November air that crept into the attic through the half closed windowput a stop to her sleep.
She opened her eyes and there's a scene she'll never get tired of looking at.
Barely visible freckles spreading across the collarbones and the pale skin made them even lighter. The erect jawline that took a sharp turn where the neck and chin met. Sculptured nose that would, without a doubt, reach into the sky if it weren't for the gravity.
And those eyes.
The eyes she knew too well that even with the lids closed she could still see it, picture it effortlessly. The eyes that always looked alert, always hidden.
June's face was only an inch away.
All it took was an uplift and their noses would be touching and those divine lips would be hers.
Ever since the night at the cabin, Serena became the little spoon. Neither of them suggested it. It just sort of happened.
They didn't talk about it either because frankly talking (especially with each other) really wasn't their thing.
They were doers who preferred actions.
Listening to the sound of her beating heart, Serena decided that she could get useto this. Whether “this” was being the little spoon or waking up in June's arms.
Suddenly she's not cold anymore.
Although it won't hurt to be a litter closer.
Serena never knew you could feel this satisfied from a simple thing.
A touch.
The feeling of your bare skins touching even barer ones.
She couldn't help but think how they've wasted so much time in pondering, guessing if the other person felt what they felt and wanted what they wanted.
Serena sighed contented to herself and watched as June's chest rose up and down with each breath the woman took. A string of June's hair got stuck on her forehead and Serena would've tucked it behind her ears if it weren't for the fact that it would wake her up.
And Serena didn't want to wake her up. Not now.
If fact, she wished that time could just stop.
Right here.
With their legs tangled and her hand on the small of June's back.
So she traced the outline of June's face with her eyes. Inch by inch, over and over again.
Serena wanted to remember everything.
She wanted to grasp any chance she can get and savor every second she had withJune. Embedded it, engrave it onto her skull if she could.
Because she knew that time's running short and their baby girl's waiting.
And that there's a plan.
Her plan.
It's not that she didn't know what June was thinking.
June may not say anything verbally but her eyes said it all.
"How did you do it?”
"What's gonna happen next?”
"Is this part of the plan as well?"
"I trust you."
Sometimes Serena thought that she knew June better than the woman knew herself and vise versa.
It had some kind of truth in it because in some way they were the same, even when they made each other's life a living hell.
That's why they couldn't stand each other nor stand living without each other.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?
Except that enemies don't kiss or enjoy themselves in the biblical way or raising a daughter together.
But hey, people can surprise you sometimes.
Serena knew her little plan was shaky as hell and it required exquisite timing and pennies-from-the-heaven-luck.
One wrong move, they could all kiss the day goodbye and say hello to Hades himself.
They had to be careful.
And if God forbid something did go wrong, Serena didn't want to let June think that it was because of something she did or did not do.
So Serena cut June out of the picture. Or everyone else for that matter.
This was her mess.
So it should be her war to fight.
"Do you think you can quit staring at me?"
June's lazy voice brought Serena back form her little world, and when she looked up, those blue eyes were as fresh as the first breath one drew the minute they were born.
Serena's heart skipped a beat.
"I don't think i ever will."
The corner of her mouth turned into a smile when June kissed her good morning.
Those lips were hers after all.
"Okay, Pervert."
June's in a good mood.
"You're welcome."
Serena figured that she could be in a good mood as well, at least for now.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Serena whispered while raising her hand to touch June's face.
"Anything you make. I'm not a picky person." June closed her eyes the second their skins met and sighed in comfort.
"Really? I think i'm gonna make some bacon then."
Serena watched June's suddenly-wide-open-eyes and laughed uncontrollably.
June never recovered from her dislike of meat she had formed when she was pregnant with Nicole.
And Serena knew it. A little bit too well.
"Asshole." June put on her offended face and Serena would've believed her if it weren't for the teasing in her voice.
"Hmm, I thought you would know by now that i'm not against them, if not before as least from last night." Serena teased back with a straight face.
June looked at Serena disbelievingly with her mouth forming into an “O” shape and the next thing Serena knew was the sudden pillow fight she found herself in.
"Okay, okay, truce." Serena surrendered when the pillow fight turned into a tickle game.
"That ought to teach you a lessen." June smiled victoriously when she leaned in tokiss Serena.
"Grilled cheese it is." Serena murmured against June's lips.
June took in the sight in front of her.
Serena was wearing her outrageously thin night gown (seriously, if Gilead didn't want the Wives to have intercourse, they shouldn't have made the night gown with the thinnest fabric they could find), and June knew that the usually-elegant-woman didn't bother to even try putting on her underwear this morning.
Part of it was her fault. Things got heated pretty quickly after an extremely hot make out session June started.
Okay it was definitely her fault but somehow June couldn't be happier about the fact that she was the only one in the entire world who knew Serena Joy was goingcommando.
And i took that underwear off of her myself.
Her gaze shifted from Serena's exposed legs to her waist then to her hands that were busy buttering the pan.
She could still remember the feeling of those hands touching her skins and settingher body on fire.
Those hands sure can do more than gardening.
When Serena raised her hand to brush the side of her face, June's gazed followed the motion and landed on Serena's neck.
Her neck.
Her beautiful neck.
Wait, is that...a hickey?
"Oh God, you startled me." Serena turned around and jolted a little when she saw June standing beside the kitchen door.
"Please, who else could it be." June tried to sound as poised as possible so that Serena wouldn't notice the blood that was rushing to her checks.
"I don't know, it could be anyone. Anything really." Serena put the food in their plates and sat down next to June.
"Well, sorry to disappoint, it's just me." June joked before taking a bite of her food and sighed, it's been so long since she had a real grilled cheese.
"You will never be a disappointment. Not to me." Serena said strictly.
"Okay." June squinted her eyes trying to read Serena's expression but there were nothing much to read. So she figured it was just one of those things Serena usually did when the blonde tended to take the most insignificant thing too seriously.
"The food is good." June was telling the truth. It really was. Better than the borschtanyway.
Serena smiled in return.
And it was that exact smile made June realized something.
"You enjoy doing this, aren't you? This whole Martha Stewart thing." The tease in June's voice could not be more obvious.
"What if i am? Are you gonna arrest me?" Serena looked at her defiantly and batted her eyes at June.
Suddenly the grilled cheese was not what interested June anymore.
"Well, tell me, Miss What-if-i-am. Is this what you had in mind when you walked into the kitchen?" June licked her lips and wiped her mouth with the napkin. She got up from her chair and with a few steps she straddled Serena's legs.
June was happy to see that Serena's hands were immediately on her waist.
"It will be from now on."
Serena had many good qualities.
Rushing into sex wasn't one of them.
Lucky for her, June Osborne was not the type of person who would rather wait when sex was on the table (or in this case, lap) either.
"Could you?" Serena turned her head back slightly to look at June who was standing beside the main bedroom's bed and nodded towards her back.
June walked up to Serena's side and zipped up the Gilead Wife's dress after she put a gentle kiss on the hickey she spotted earlier that was on the lower right side of Serena's neck.
God bless the turtle neck.
"There. You're all set." June whispered against Serena's neck and pulled her into a tight hug.
June still remembered the first time it happened. She was on the receiving end of course, and the hug was not really what she was expecting for. But now for some reason June didn't want to let go.
She stared at their reflections in the mirror.
Serena looked beautiful. Queenly even.
But there was something about the atmosphere around Serena that felt different. June noticed this a while back and at the time she couldn't quite put her fingers on what had changed.
Now though, with Serena in her arms and gazing lovingly at her through the mirror and the colour of their dresses blending together slowly, June knew what it was.
Serena became a real mother.
A mother who would do whatever it takes to save her daughter.
June squeezed Serena's waist a little harder due to that thought and Serena raisedup her hand to rest on the top of June's head then gave it a little pat.
They stood their for a while. Neither of them moved nor wanted to.
Finally Serena managed to turn around inside June's arms and she used her index finger to lift up June's head when the petite woman didn't look up.
One look and they knew.
“I don't want to let go.”
“I don't want to let go either.”
But instead of those words, they exchanged their final confirmation.
"Now?"
"Now."
As soon as they opened the door of the Waterford house, Serena stopped. And when June was about to ask what happened, she saw it too.
There were at least half a dozen Gilead guards waiting on the driveway and none of them looked remotely familiar.
June clenched her fist under the disguise of her handmaid's dress and turned to her right side.
The look on Serena's face made June's heart sink and quiver.
June may not know how Serena made a giant building collapse or how she's planning to smuggle them out but she was certain of one thing.
This was not part of the plan.
【NOVEMBER 24th / THE HOSPITAL / 8:30AM】
"Why Serena?"
Fred Waterford questioned the second they walked into the room. Hoarse and grainy voice was disturbing for one's ears, and not to mention the venom leaking from within.
Turned out those guards were taking them to the hospital under Commander Waterford's order who magically woke up from a coma this early morning and gave the command just in time.
Of course, who else could it be.
Blessed fucker.
June had to admit that she was surprised at first when she saw Fred half-lying on his hospital bed. Not because of the fact that he woke up but rather the state he was in.
His usually-impeccable-looks got replaced with a hospital gown and some messy hair and crazy growing beard. There were multiple bruises and cuts all over his exposed face and chest skin and June swear she saw a giant hideous scar on his left forearm.
June had never seen him like this.
Under very different circumstances June may feel sorry for him but now all she wanted to do was to give Serena a “well done” kiss.
"What are you talking about Fred?" Serena weighted the situations and she decided that it's best to play dumb first.
The confusion and concern in Serena's voice made June laugh inside her head.
The Globes would be a belittlement, this woman deserves an Oscar.
"Gilead was your idea...and now you want to destroy it and cast it away. And you want to cast me away too." Fred didn't even look at the two of them who were standing beside the ward's door.
He wasn't buying at all.
"Why?" He questioned for the second time.
Those words and that tone again.
He sounded like a wounded animal confronting his hunters.
"We were good."
Fred finally turned and faced them.
His gauze-and-bandage-covered right eye was a shock at first but the sadness on his face, authentic as it could ever be, made June want to puke.
Looks like Serena isn't the only one who can act in this room.
"I don't think getting emotionally involved with another woman when you are married can be considered as ‘good’.”
A great lobbyist always knew when to play dumb and when not to.
Serena was impatient. June could tell.
But so did June.
They had a plan. Serena's plan. They shouldn't be wasting time here.
"I did not do such thing."
Fred rushed to deny before Serena could finish.
"Really? In case you couldn't see clearly with one eye, she's here too. Do you wanther to tell you how she felt when you were RAPING her?”
Serena was always fiesty when she's impatient.
June thought that she would've gotten used to the true nature about the ceremony right about now, but hearing Serena say it out loud still did something to her inside.
"Don't you remember that YOU were the one who suggested it, Miss feminist?"
Fred sounded agitated and apparently he shouldn't be this fluctuating because hestarted coughing right after the last syllable.
"It was supposed to be a strict measure to improve the birthing rate! A sacred action. But you and your fellow men turned it into a stupid game to flaunt your male chauvinism in front of everybody.”
Serena took the chance to fire her guns and June had to hand it to her that it was a brilliant shot.
You should never mess with a mother who's trying everything she can to get together with her daughter.
"At least me and my fellow men were doing it under God's eyes."
Ugh, not again.
June was so sick of this whole doing-good-deeds-under-god's-words-thing.
Because guess what?
God doesn't give a damn.
"But YOU..."
Fred pushed himself up a little from the bed and now had his back leaning against the wall.
"...don't think that i don't know your little game with the handmaid. When did it allstart huh?" He looked at Serena straight in the eyes when he said the word "handmaid".
His arms were shaking.
"Was it before or after she's pregnant? It was the plan all along wasn't it. To have ababy.” He didn't look away. In fact, he looked like he just found the world's greatest treasure and going mad because of it.
"Well guess what? Serena? She's NOT your daughter just like she's not mine either!" He said while laughing. Like self-pitying but for the both of them.
Uh-oh.
Bull's eye.
Now June actually felt sorry for him.
Seriously, and speaking from personal experiences, you don't want to deal with a furious Serena Joy.
"You make me sick."
Serena's voice didn't have any emotions at all.
Told ya.
"And MY little game? Really? Because the last time i checked, it was YOU who invited ‘THE HANDMAID’ to play Scrabble and it was also YOU who took her tothe Jezebel's.”
Serena didn't want to use that specific word but she did it out of the needs to emphasize and for ironic purposes.
She's sure June could understand.
Well. She hoped.
A gentle pat on the small of her back proved her right, and it gave her some strength she didn't know she needed.
"So how do you feel like telling everyone that a Commander got killed because of you?" Serena said slowly and suddenly not impatient anymore.
She knew how digging up old dirt would affect him.
"Me? I didn't even know he was there and i certainly was not the one who killed him." Fred took the bite easily, almost corny.
"Plus EVERYONE was a regular. You don't really have a case there." Fred said rather confidently.
He was still rational.
"Maybe." Serena said in a low voice.
She saw this coming.
"But you did kill someone didn't you?"
That's why she dug deeper.
Now it was Serena's turn to smile.
"I did that for YOU! He shot you!" Fred looked at Serena implausibly like she had lost her mind.
Just like she thought, he's about to lost it.
"A murder's a murder."
Serena knew she won. So she added a little indifference into her voice just for fun.
"You have no prove." Fred gnashed his teeth while saying and trying to maintain his last bit of class. If he did have any to begin with.
"Don't be so sure Waterford." Serena said calmly. She was done circling and playing house with him.
She really had way more important things to do.
When she turned around and was about to walk towards the door, Fred's voice was heard again.
"Please Serena, stay...we can still work it out...I, I still love you." He was pratically begging.
Gross.
"Cut the bull Fred, a love of decency does not abide in you." Serena's not even trying to hide the disgust in her voice.
"...you are just a pathetic little clown who's incapable of love and by some Goddamn miracles if you can? The only person you'll ever love is and will always be yourself." She turned to face him again.
Years of marriage certainly could teach you a lot about your partner.
"No! That is NOT true...I love YOU Serena, even now...i...It was her!...Yes! It was HER who took you away from me! This is all her fault! You ungodlier succubus!"
Fred lifted up his shaky hand and pointed at June while shouting at the top of his voice, which sounded like a broken record considering the fact that he had to breathe deeply in between every other words.
Apparently Fred Waterford flunked a lesson named “Marriage”.
"You know what, Fred? Even after all that's happened and all that i've said, i still think you can be a charming man when you wanted to." Serena shook her head ever so slightly.
He was looking at her dully but with a hint of hope that wasn't there before.
Serena, on the other hand, walked slowly to stand beside his hospital bed and gave him a condescending look.
"But the least thing you should do in your soulless self-righteous inappreciable life? Is to insult the mother of my daughter in front of me." Her face wore nothing but disappointment.
With that, Serena managed to caught him off guard and used the syringe she lifted earlier to inject some air into his infusion tube.
Fred looked gawky like he couldn't process what's happening.
Serena dropped the syringe on the floor the second it became useless.
Fred tried to grab her by the arms but he was too weak and slow and Serena was too decisive.
Fred's belated realization made him press the emergency button on the side of hisbed. The siren went off.
"You both are going to hell! HELL!!" He shouted like a maniac.
"Can't you see? We're already in it." Serena grabbed June's arm and looked back at him one last time.
"And don't worry, I'll burn that mother to the ground too."
With that, they disappeared behind the door.
"You will never leave Gilead Serena, i swear to GOD! NEVER!!"
Fred's voice was echoing in the hallway.
Behind the two running women was a beaten down Gilead guard and a bunch of worry-looking doctors rushing towards Fred's ward.
The sound of siren went on and on.
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