Something about Vermont

Chapter 8

"It's you" Vermont said stopping in her tracks which made Hades stop a moment too late and bump in her back, his hand coming around to her stomach stabilising her without hitting her wound.

The older woman's eyes drift down to his hand on Vermont's stomach before looking up to Vermont and smiling. "Hi dear" she said softly, leaving the stove where there was a pan cooking something and walking toward Vermont.

As she reached Hades and Vermont she smiled softly, her hand lifting to reach Hades' face, she pats it twice and rubs her thumb across his cheekbone.

"Hi Momma" he says and that's when Vermont realises, he still has his hand on her stomach, immediately she moves away letting his hand fall away. He must notice even as he looks at his mom and grips the back of Vermont's T-shirt not letting her move to far away.

"This is Clare, my mom" Hades introduces, and Vermont looks at the woman again, noticing that she had the same green eyes and sandy blonde hair that she had obviously passed down to her son.

"Who made that apple pie?" was the first thing out of Vermont's mouth, she realised after she said it, that she probably should have introduced herself but she had forgotten, her lack of human connection becoming apparent.

Luckily the woman laughed rather than finding her rude, "I did, dear", Vermonts mouth gapes, "Can I kiss you?" Vermont once again says and immediately turns red realising she had failed to shut the fuck up and think before talking, "I think I should leave that to my son, but I'll hug you instead" the woman offered and Vermont tilted her head, both ignoring her first statement and also thinking back to a time where she knew what a hug was.

"Okay" Vermont said and the woman opened her arms with that same smile that made Vermont feel human, Vermont realised that she had been staring at the woman with open arms for a beat too long and only moved when she felt a small push at the small of her back. She looks back to Hades who nods his head with his lips tipped into a small smile.

Vermont falls into the woman's open arms which close around her securely, her shaky hands move up to copy the older woman's and she breathes in her warm cinnamon scent.

It was the first time in a long while that Vermont felt safe.

The hug went longer than Vermont supposed a hug was meant to last for, the woman had begun to rub Vermont's back and all Vermont could do was melt further into her soft body.

A clearing of a throat broke Vermont away from Clare making her turn and stand in front of the older woman her body taking on a protective stance before she realised it was Tank who was standing there next to Hades watching the two women. She looked over to the stove when she heard sizzling and found bear standing there with a spoon in his hand moving something around in the pan.

"I think the pasta is done" he said which made Clare make an 'ooh' sound and walk over there, she nodded as she stirred and added a few leaves and things that Vermont guessed were herbs, she had never cooked before so she couldn't really tell you.

"Dear, did you want to taste it first?" Clare asked Vermont whose only response was a nod and a quick walk over to where Clare held a spoon with a singular curly noodle with red sauce on it, she didn't even question what it was before she opened her mouth and let Clare feed her the pasta.

"Oh, that's really good, that's really really good" Vermont told the woman earnestly and Clare smiled in response.

Vermont helped Clare dish up the pasta into about 20 bowls before a whole bunch of bikers begun to come into the kitchen, one by one grabbing a bowl, kissing Clare on the cheek, and thanking her and then adding some cheese if they wanted.

Vermont felt warm inside just looking at the interaction.

Hades was last to collect his bowl of pasta but instead of picking up one bowl he picked up two, Vermont thought to herself that he must be hungry but instead he passed her one of the bowls, she was about to say something, but he just says "eat" in a low gruff voice that showed no room for argument.

He kissed his mom's cheek added cheese and moved out the way to allow Vermont to do the same, except she hugged Clare instead and added extra cheese.

Then she followed the huge shaggy haired biker back to the bar where he went to sit in a booth that already had Tank and Bear sitting in it, she stopped as he sat down, unsure if they were okay with her joining but that was quickly squashed when Hades grabbed her free hand and pulled her carefully into the booth.

The last person to join the booth was Chaos who sat on the other side of Vermont, which she noticed wasn't a common occurrence as all three of the other men's eyebrows raised which made Chaos just shrug.

When Chaos began eating Vermont took it as a sign that she was allowed to eat and once again inhaled the food as if it were trying to run away from her. She listened as Tank talked, speaking to the other bikers in the booth about something about having church tomorrow which Vermont quickly understood as a meeting.

Vermont watched each of the men, following the way their mouths moved as they talked and their hands moved when they were explaining something, she noticed the tattoos across Tanks knuckles, one hand said 'Liam' and the other said 'Rosa', she didn't quite know what either of them meant to represent but maybe one day she would ask.

Vermont turned to Hades who seemed deep in a conversation with his president, she then looked to Chaos who was already looking back at her.

"Do you think we could go listen to that music again?" she asked him quietly as to not disturb the other bikers on the table, she watched as his blue eyes lighten even more than the icy colour they were already, he didn't seem like a man of many words so he only nodded to her before standing up which caught the attention of the other three. Chaos didn't seem like he was going to explain so Vermont decided she would at least offer a little bit of explanation for their abrupt leave.

"we're going to listen to music" she told them which seemed to baffle them even further, although she didn't have time to watch them to understand why because Chaos just begun walking back across the bar, placing both of their bowls in a sink where a prospect was already doing the dishes, Vermont mumbles a small 'thankyou' assuming that it was the right thing to say.

Eventually Chaos led her up to his room which was only a few doors away from her own, the room was neat with a black bed spread instead of the white one that was in the room she had taken ownership of. On one of the bed side tables was a speaker of sorts with a port for a phone, which Chaos plugged his mobile into and tapped on a few buttons before sound begun to emit from the speakers.

Vermont smiled at the familiar tune; it was the same song that played in the truck earlier this morning.

She watched as Chaos climbed on to his bed making the timber beams underneath the mattress to groan in protest. She decided that she wanted to lay on the floor, which he gave her a funny look for but didn't bother asking her why.

The floor felt familiar is what she would have told him as an explanation.

And before Vermont even noticed she had fallen asleep on the clean timber floors to music that made her mind quiet.