jaina47 | [Guiding Venice Fic] Of Shrimp and Lobsters

Title: Of Shrimp and Lobsters
Fandom: Guiding Light & Venice
Characters: Olivia Spencer, Natalia Rivera, Gina Brogno, Ani Martin
Category: Humor, Romance
Rating: R, for use of the f-word.
Word count: 1,149
Summary: Sometimes fate has something in store for you, other than what you planned.
Spoilers/Timeline For the purposes of this fic, assume it takes place some time in early 2011. It's based on speculation about Venice Season 2, but consider anything that comes before 2011 to be fair game, spoiler wise.
Disclaimer: All characters (Olivia Spencer, Natalia Rivera, blah blah etc.) and situations belong to Guiding Light, Telenext, Proctor & Gamble, etc. I'm not them. Same goes for Gina Brogno and Ani Martin, whom I'm borrowing from Venice and Open Book Productions.
Author's Note: I...don't remember how I came up with this idea, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I'm not promising anything this time, but probably daily posts! I do have everything all written!

Buffy: Anya, when you were a demon, you granted wishes, right?
Anya: Vengeance wishes on ex-boyfriends. I'd wish he was a dog, or ugly, or in love with President McKinley or something.
Buffy: But someone could wish the whole world to be different, right? That's possible?
Anya: Sure, alternate realities. You could, uh, could have like a world without shrimp. Or with, you know, nothing but shrimp. You could even make like a-a freaky world where Jonathan's like some kind of not-perfect mouth-breather if that's what's blowing up your skirt these days. Just don't ask me to live there! - Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Phoebe: Hang in there. It's gonna happen!
Ross: Okay, now, how do you know that?
Phoebe: Because she's your lobster!
[At a loss, Ross looks at Chandler.]
Chandler: Oh, she's going somewhere.
Phoebe: Come on, you guys, it's a known fact that lobsters fall in love and mate for life. You know what, you can actually see old lobster couples walking around their tank, you know, holding claws… - Friends

Part One

"Attention Passengers: Due to some extreme weather conditions, this flight is being redirected to another airfield, so that we can safely land before the weather closes in. Information involving accommodations, compensation and other travel options will be available as soon as we touch down."

Gina winced, glancing over at the long-haired brunette in the seat beside her. "I'm sorry. You took the later flight so that we could go together, and now you're going to be late for your meeting because of me." They'd had their fair share of differences in the past, but one thing that they shared was a work ethic. Both were always determined to go the extra mile to make their work just a little bit better and showing up on time or early for meetings was just another part of that.

Ani smiled, but Gina could see that it didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's okay. Don't worry about it. I'm sure it will be fine. Besides I knew they were having some bad weather out here. I could have flown out earlier."

Gina wanted to wince again. She could almost hear the unspoken, But I didn't because you looked at me, practically begging me with your eyes to let us go together.

"Hey," Ani said, interrupting Gina's self-recriminations. "I'm serious. We'll figure something out when we land. We might still be able to make it."

"Right," Gina agreed, although she didn't believe it even as she said it. Things between she and Ani were still so fragile. Ani had barely started letting her back into her life - at least, as more than friends - after things had gone spectacularly bad with...Clara...Tara...whoever.... Gina didn't really care. She was just glad that Ani was giving her a second - or maybe third chance to get things right between them.

Things had been progressing tentatively between them until this business trip had come up for Ani. Gina had been possessed by a momentary, but gripping panic that if she left, Ani wouldn't come back, or she would reconsider her decision to let Gina back into her life. It was what had spurred her into suggesting that she go with Ani on this trip, saying that it would be good for them to have a chance to get away and figure things out without any distractions. Gina was also hoping that her willingness to drop her business for a few days to go with Ani would show the younger woman just how serious she was about doing things differently this time. So far it was off to a disastrous start.

The plane lurched, falling sharply and Ani grabbed blindly for Gina, catching her wrist and wrapping her fingers around it in a death grip.

"It's okay," Gina said laying her hand on top of Ani's. "It's just some turbulence. The pilot will get us on the ground and everything will be fine."

"How can you say that?" Ani asked, her voice rising with every word. "You don't know that for sure."

"Nothing's for sure," Gina countered.

Ani's slightly panic-y expression turned into a glare. Not quite the distraction that Gina had been going for but if Ani was pissed off it would distract her from the crappy flight. Right, that was her story and she was sticking to it.

"You know I hate flying," Ani hissed.

Actually, Gina hadn't known that, but it explained a lot, like why Ani had seemed tense the whole flight.

"I'm sorry," Gina whispered, moving closer until she could touch her head to Ani's. "Forgive me?" She asked softly, running her fingertips up and down Ani's arm where she was still clinging to Gina's wrist.

Ani gave her a strained smile. She turned her head to give Gina a quick kiss. The plane jolted again and Ani cursed. "Damn it!"

"I can't guarantee anything," Gina said quickly. "But I can distract you until we land."

"How's that?" Ani asked, distractedly staring straight ahead as if she could will the plane to the ground safely.

Gina leaned closer until her mouth was against Ani's ear. "I could tell you all the things that I'm going to do to you tonight when we get to our hotel room." Her free hand slipped under the arm rest and came to rest on Ani's upper thigh.

Ani shot her a disbelieving look. "Are you-" The plane jolted for a third time, this time as series of jolts that seemed like they would never end. "Tell me." Ani squeaked out quickly.

And Gina did just as she had asked.

*** *** ***

The plane had barely stopped moving before Gina was fumbling for her Blackberry. Ani looked over at her in disbelief.

"You and your Crackberry. I thought you weren't going to work this week."

"Not work," Gina said, as she typed furiously with one thumb. Her eyes never left the screen as she took Ani's hand and stood, pulling Ani up with her. "There," she said with a final flourish. "Message sent."

Ani's eyes narrowed. "Should I be worried about what you're up to?"

"Nope," Gina said succinctly, popping the 'p'. "You just hang on and enjoy the ride. Now," she glanced ahead of them at the quickly thinning crowd of people flowing off the plane in starts and stops. "Let's get out of here and see what we can do about renting a car and getting you to your meeting on time."

*** *** ***

"I'm sorry, Ms. There are no more cars available."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Gina said.

The rental car agent looked miffed. "Several flights were diverted here to Springfield after O'Hare was closed due to severe blizzard conditions. Those earlier passengers have already taken all the available rental cars. I'm sure something will be available by tomorrow morning," he offered.

"Tomorrow morning isn't going to work," Gina gritted out. "You have to have something. We'll take anything. Even one of those subcompact cars. Just get us out of here." She so did not want to have to go find Ani and tell her that they were stuck here for tonight. Not after she had promised her that it would only be a matter of postponing the meeting for a couple of hours until they could get there.

"Ma'am, there are no-ne left." The clerk said it as if she were hard of hearing or a little slow.

Gina wrinkled her nose, barely biting back a parting comment and turned to find Ani. Her phone buzzed and she glanced down to see what it was. A message from Michelle. She pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. Well, it wasn't a car, but at least they had a place to stay for tonight, while they were trapped in this dump of a town. No sleeping in the airport terminal for them.

Now she just had to give the good news to Ani.