A History Of Violence - Violentine AU

Chapter Ten: Practically Family

"I thought he was supposed to be the good cop?" Clementine said, confused.
"He is, that's why it's called Good Cop Ghost Cop." Violet replied.
"But he just shot that guy in the head."
"Because that's the cult leader that sacrificed his partner to Cthulhu, it's the only way his partner can move on to the afterlife."
Clementine furrowed her brown in confusion, looking up at Violet, who she was leaning on.
"This movie's stupid." She decided after a long pause.
"Yeah it totally is, thats why it's fun." Violet chuckled.
Clementine smiled and rolled her eyes at her girlfriend. The credits rolled and Violet turned off the TV. She sighed and laid back, resting her head on Clementine's lap. Clem gently ran her fingers through Violet's messy, blonde hair.
"Hey, Vi. My dad is coming over for dinner tomorrow night, he's making the trip down from Athens. I'd like it if you joined us."
Clem spoke quietly, so as to not disturb Violet's calm state.
"Yeah, that sounds cool. I'll be there." Violet smiled, not opening her eyes, "Did you tell him about us?"
"I haven't had a chance to, he called me yesterday and that was the first time I'd spoken to him since I moved."
Violet opened her eyes and sat up, facing Clem.
"He's not like, one of those people, right?" The blonde asked with a tinge of worry.
Clem caught onto what she was implying right away.
Was her father going to be okay with her dating a girl? Truthfully, Clementine had no idea herself. He was a reasonable man, open to new ideas, but she had no idea how he would react.
"No... shit, I mean, I don't think so."
Clementine began to worry, it occurred to her that her father had never expressed his opinions on gay people. It had just never come up before, she would be crushed if she found out that he didn't approve of Violet simply because she was a woman.
She groaned out loud, her desperation apparent.
Violet put a hand on her knee, gazing at her with deep concern. Clem stared into Violet's ocean-green eyes, she placed her hand on top of her girlfriend's. As tough as it was, she had made up her mind about the dinner. She loved her father, he had been her hero since she was a child. But if he really was going to disapprove of the woman she loved, Clem wasn't going to stand for it.
"Fuck it," she finally said, "If he's got a problem with us, then he's just going to have to deal with it. But I still want him to meet you."
"Then I'll meet him, let's hope he doesn't hate me." Violet said, a hint of humour in her voice.
Clem kissed her on the cheek before drawing her in for a hug. When she let go of the blonde, she noticed the clock in the kitchen that informed her how late it was.
"I'm gonna go for a shower before bed, wanna join me?" Clem asked, raising an eyebrow suggestively at Violet.
The blonde's face became flushed, she let out a nervous laugh.
"Definitely." She sighed ecstatically.

"Could you cut those onions?" Clem asked, briefly looking over her shoulder from the food that was cooking in the pan.
"On it." Violet replied.
She picked up an onion and cut the top and bottom off, peeling away the top layer. Her eyes stung as she sliced into the onion, scraping the half-rings into a large pile on the chopping board.
"Ok done, ugh fuck onions." She blinked the onion-invoked tears from her eyes.
Violet handed the onion slivers to Clementine, who scraped them into the pan with the other ingredients. The blonde surveyed the kitchen, the bench was covered with various bowls, plates and dishes. On the dining table was a small wooden board with crackers, cheese and dip. Violet had never been to such a fancy dinner, despite the fact it was just the two of them, AJ and Clem's father.
"Damn, look at this stuff. Are we on Masterchef or what?" Violet chuckled.
"Think it's too much? I don't know, I guess I don't have people over for dinner that often. I'm used to just cooking for me and AJ." Clem shrugged.
Violet approached behind her, putting both hands on Clem's hips. She brushed Clem's hair aside and kissed her neck softly.
"It all looks amazing, and I can't wait to eat it." She whispered into her girlfriend's ear, leaning her chin on her shoulder.
"Thank you." Clem said, turning and kissing Violet's forehead.
"Hey we've been talking about my dad so much today and it made me curious. You never talk about your family."
Violet tensed up at the mention of her family. She wasn't on good terms with them, and she really didn't like talking about it.
"Nothing to talk about." She said evasively.
"Any siblings?"
"Nope."
"What about your parents? Could I meet them sometime?"
"I haven't spoken to my parents in six years, and I wanna keep it that way."
Clem's face fell, her cheery disposition becoming replaced with one of guilt.
"Vi... I didn't..."
"You couldn't have. I just... I don't like to talk about it."
She looked past Clem as she spoke, Violet couldn't meet her eye. She felt horrible for ruining the mood, even more so for shutting down Clementine like that. She felt an overwhelming, childish urge to curl up somewhere, hide herself away so she wasn't able to ruin the night further.
Clem stepped forward, pulling her into an embrace. Violet's tense posture loosened, she wrapped her arms around Clementine, returning her hug. She suddenly began to cry, not once in her life could she remember a time that someone had comforted her when she was upset. Clem squeezed her gently, stroking the back of her hair. Neither of them moved for a while, when Violet was feeling somewhat more composed, she let go.
"Sorry..." she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
"You don't have to be, sometimes it's good to let that stuff out." Clem said understandingly.
"I'm better now, thanks."
In spite of the tears, she managed a genuine smile.
AJ sauntered into the lounge and sat down, he got up on the back of the couch and looked into the kitchen.
"Hey Clem, when's he gonna be here?" The boy asked.
"Half an hour, kiddo." She replied, looking at the clock.
AJ let out a groan and fell back, turning himself around so he was sitting upside down on the couch, kicking his little legs.
Violet laughed, she couldn't help it. When she saw Clem smiling at her, she felt significantly better.
They went back to work on dinner, Violet placed a dish of chicken into the oven so that it would keep its warmth. A knock at the door made her snap her head around.
"That'll be him." Clem said, dropping what she was doing to go answer the door.
Violet felt a pang of nervousness in the pit of her stomach. She desperately wanted to make a good impression on Clem's father, but she was terrified that he wouldn't like her from the get go. He might think Clem deserved better, hell, there were times where Violet thought the same thing before her fears were swiftly put to rest by Clementine.
The door was opened and a tall, dark skinned man in a white dress shirt stepped into the living room with a smile on his bearded face.
"Hey sweet pea." He said in a rich, bassy voice, pulling Clem in for a hug.
"Hey dad, it's good to see you." She said with a wide smile.
"Hi Lee!" AJ greeted excitedly.
The boy rushed over to the man as soon as Clem had let go. AJ was quickly scooped up into the man's embrace.
"Hey little man. Look at you, you're gonna be taller than me pretty soon." He laughed, putting AJ down and ruffling his hair.
Lee straightened his posture and noticed Violet standing behind Clem.
"Who's this?" He asked, looking at Violet.
"Dad, this is Violet, my girlfriend." Clementine said, looking back at Violet reassuringly.
"Girlfriend.." Lee repeated slowly.
Fuck, here it comes.
"You never told me you had a girlfriend."
"Yeah, our last phone call was so short and I just forgot to mention her." Clem shrugged, explaining herself.
Lee nodded, Violet was already intimidated. He suddenly thrust out his right hand in front of him, startling the blonde.
"Nice to meet you, Violet. I'm Lee." He said cheerily.
Violet was surprised to say the least, she shook his hand.
"Hi, uhh, nice to meet you too sir."
"Please, only my students call me sir. Lee is fine."
"Okay... Lee." She nodded, not quite sure what else to say.
Clementine came to her rescue, directing everyone to the dining table and the cheese board. Clementine caught Lee up on her life in Atlanta while Violet stuffed crackers and cheese into her mouth and prayed that Lee didn't ask her any questions.
"So Violet, I'd like to hear a bit about you. What do you do?"
"Oh uhh, I'm a photographer."
Lee let out an intrigued 'oh'.
"So you're an artist then?"
"I wouldn't call myself that, I take photos for a magazine."
"You're selling yourself short Vi, your shots are amazing." Clem interjected enthusiastically.
Violet smiled at her before her attention was brought back to Clem's father.
"How long have you two been together?"
"Little over three months." Violet answered.
Lee nodded, he looked at Clementine with raised eyebrows.
"Oh? Pretty serious then." He chuckled.
"You uhh, said you were a teacher, what do you teach?" Violet asked, feeling awkward and hoping to change the subject.
"I teach history at UGA, or torture if you ask Eugene from the science department." He laughed at his own joke.
"Oh, a friend of mine is studying nursing at UGA." Violet said.
"Really? Well how about that."
The oven timer went off, beeping incessantly. Clementine stood up from her chair and opened it, removing the dish and placing it on the stovetop.
"Hey Vi, could you give me a hand please?" Clem asked.
Violet started to stand up, pushing her chair out before Lee got to his feet.
"It's okay, I'll help." He said politely to violet before walking around the table into the kitchen.
Once he was out of earshot, Violet leaned over the table to AJ.
"How am I doing?" She whispered.
AJ gave her two thumbs up.
"Wow, two thumbs? Didn't think I was that good." She joked, making AJ laugh.
Clem and Lee returned to the table carrying dinner. Once the food was on the table, they took their seats and began loading their plates. Violet spooned the spicy green curry onto her plate, the sauce soaking into the rice. She waited for everyone else to serve themselves, then scooped up a chunk of chicken and some rice and put it into her mouth. If dating Clem had taught her one thing, it was that the girl was an amazing cook. Violet had seen her take leftovers and turn them into an entirely different meal, more complex than the dish they came from.
They made small talk throughout dinner. Lee was enthusiastically informing them about the battle of Chickamauga while AJ nodded along pretending to know what he was talking about, Violet followed suit. Clem lifted her hand and gently placed it in Violet's on the table, the blonde smiled at her.
"Sorry, I've been going on for too long about this haven't I?" Lee said apologetically.
"No uhh, it's fine. Never hurts to learn more right?" Violet replied with a half laugh.
Lee grinned and pointed a finger at her.
"That's exactly what I tell my students." His focus switched from Violet to Clem, "You know, I like her a lot more than that Gabe guy."
"Dad." Clementine said sternly, furrowing her brow.
"What? It's true." Lee said defensively.
Violet tried very hard to hide her grin, covering her mouth with her hands. All her anxiety about the night was thankfully unwarranted, Clementine's father wasn't anything like she had expected. Most importantly, he wasn't an asshole.
When everyone had finished their meals, Violet stood and began clearing the table, removing the used dishes.
"Vi, I'll handle the washing up, you sit down." Clementine said, with a hint of guilt in her voice.
"It's cool, you cooked, I'll clean. Sounds fair to me." Violet reassured.
She leaned over to pick up Clementine's plate, planting a kiss on her cheek as she did.
"I'll give you a hand washing those." Lee offered, standing up.
"Dad, no. You're a guest."
"I'm family, and family wash dishes." He replied, "Besides, I can't let Violet do it all by herself."
Clementine shrugged before excusing herself to go to the bathroom.
Lee stepped into the kitchen, rolling up his sleeves and taking up his position in front of the kitchen sink. He dunked his hands into the rising hot water, pulling out a bowl and began scrubbing away at it with a soapy sponge. Violet stood ready, holding a hand towel ready to dry whatever came her way.
Lee handed her the first bowl, which she dried and placed into the proper drawer.
"While I'm over here, I gotta tell you something." He suddenly said in a hushed voice.
"What's that?" Violet inquired.
"You two obviously make each other happy, and I'm glad for that."
Violet's anxiety returned, she waited for the 'but' part of his statement.
"She's been through a lot, too many people in her life have let her down. You do right by my daughter, understand?"
Violet's demeanour changed quickly from intimidated, to indignant. Lee was effectively implying he thought she wasn't serious about Clementine, and that pissed her off.
"Sir... I don't know who you think I am, but if you think I would do anything to hurt her, you're dead wrong." She did her best to stay civil, not wanting to have a fight with her girlfriend's father on their first meeting.
"I care about Clementine more than anyone in my entire life, so don't insult me by thinking that little of me."
Lee was speechless for a moment, he blinked a few times and regained his composure.
"I'm uhh... I'm sorry, that wasn't fair to you. You understand where I'm coming from though? She's my daughter, I'm just looking out for her." He apologised remorsefully.
"I am too..." Violet whispered.
"Good, then I don't have to worry so much." Lee said warmly, putting a hand on her shoulder.
She appreciated the gesture, unfortunately his hand was still wet and covered in soap bubbles. Violet laughed, using the towel to dry her shirt off.
"Sorry about that." Lee chuckled.
"You two look like you're having fun." Clementine commented, walking out of the hallway and back into the room.
"Fun is right." Violet smirked.

"Thanks for having me around, Clem." Lee said, standing in the doorway.
"It was good to see you again, Dad."
Clementine hugged him tightly, AJ ran up and joined in.
"Bye, Mr. Everett." Violet said with a small wave of her hand.
When Clem and AJ let go, Lee opened his arms.
"Come on, get in here." He chuckled.
"Oh uhh, I...." she was at a total loss, her brain couldn't compute what was happening.
"You're practically family, bring it in."
She received a light nudge from Clementine, Violet shrugged and stepped into Lee's embrace. It was a strange experience for her, for various reasons. Chiefly, she could genuinely not remember a single time her own father had hugged her as a child, it was an odd feeling receiving a hug from Clementine's father.
"Alright, I better get going, long drive back to Athens. You all take care." He bade them farewell and with a wave of his hand, he moved down the corridor to the elevator.