Peter & Mariska: The One Shots [A Collection]

Everything's Gonna Be Alright

Hey guys!

I'm here with another one-shot again. This is set in current year. Mariska has a long day where she feels incredibly overwhelmed with trying to balance family life, the foundation, and her work on SVU. She buckles under the pressure, but of course, her husband is right there to give her some much needed comfort.

Enjoy xoxo

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Everything's Gonna Be Alright

12:23am.

Another long eighteen-hour day. Another night of missing dinner with the family, missing bed time stories and goodnight kisses. Another night of missing all of that.

Mariska loved her job; she loved being an actress, loved her role that she had been playing for twenty years, loved the impact she had, had. But there were times when things could get a little overwhelming. There were days when nothing went right, and it felt like everyone was trying to pull her in a different direction, thus stretching her thin and stressing her out.

Today was one of those days.

A day that had really started at four-thirty in the morning, when she had to be out of bed and in the process of getting ready for a five in the morning pick up to get to set. She had gotten ready while her husband went downstairs and made her coffee and toast, then after she was dressed, she crept into the rooms of her children and kissed them on the head. After whispering words of love to the sleeping little angels, she'd headed downstairs, where she cuddled up to her husband and ate her toast until her phone buzzed, signaling that her ride had arrived. She kissed her husband and told him how much she loved him, then grabbed her coffee and left for the day.

Even the most joyful people had days from hell.

She had already been struggling with the script a little bit. The storyline was heavy; another ripped from the headlines story detailing the awful abuse a child has suffered at the hands of someone that's meant to care about them. The story made her think of her own three children and being lost in her own head meant she had messed up her lines a few times which resulted in the director getting a little annoyed with her. She had accidentally snapped at him at the time, then rushed off to her trailer for some air as she felt like she wanted to burst. Ice came to sit with her and kept his arm around her, encouraging her along and telling her that everything would be alright. She simply laid her head on his shoulder and nodded, while using her free hand to shoot a text off to her husband, simply to tell him she loved him and their kids.

Then there was this afternoon; she had to rush across town and meet with the board about her foundation, Joyful Heart. There were discussions of a retreat or a gala, but Mariska couldn't give a definite answer because she had to check her filming schedule and the schedule of her kids and husband, and that didn't sit too well with anyone. There were mumblings and disgruntled sighs, and Mariska simply rolled her eyes and folded her arms. She was already tired from this crazy schedule, already felt like she was failing as a parent because she was barely at home, so the last thing she needed was snide comments from people that were meant to work with her for a greater cause. After the meeting was over, she left without a word and silently cried to herself during her whole ride back to set.

And then there was this evening, when she her phone rang just as she had finished a scene. It was August, calling as he did every night as it was their thing they had started when he was smaller - just a mother and son chat. He told her all about his day and asked if she would be home soon as he wanted her to bake holiday cookies with them. When she told him that she didn't know what time she'd be home, a flash of disappointment crossed his features which broke her heart. She immediately launched into an apology, but August was as understanding as ever and jokingly told her she could make it up by taking him to a basketball game at the weekend, which she agreed to straight away even though he told her he was kidding. When she later talked to Peter and their younger two children - Amaya and Andrew - she almost cried when they told her how much they wished she was at home to help them. She promised them she'd be home soon, and she and Peter shared a private moment as he left the kids in the kitchen. He told her not to feel bad and that things were okay, and that he'd see her when she got home. Still, the tears slipped down her cheeks as she whimpered out an 'I love you', and he repeatedly told her he loved her too before they finally hung up.