One Day at a Time -- Desperate Housewives
One Day at a Time
Chapter Three
Fandom: Desperate Housewives
Pairing: Bree/Katherine
Rating: PG
Format: Chaptered
Summary: Katherine moves in with Bree to help her quit drinking, and learns there are a few things she herself could use help with as well.
Note: Work-in-progress.
Four days in the big scene does take place -- the one where Katherine pours out the alcohol and Bree cries, the one where Bree argues and shouts and cajoles and Katherine gives one-sentence, infuriatingly calm replies. It's during this scene that Bree figures out, belatedly, why Katherine waited to do this: she needed to understand the situation before she made any sudden decisions, and she needed to know where Bree's stashes were. Which she does. Every single stash Bree has checked on today she has found empty, and that terrifies Bree, because it shows just how single-minded Katherine is in her determination to haul Bree back on the wagon. Bree watches with clenched fists as Katherine dumps bottle after bottle of cheap wine, but when she begins on the display bottles, the argument bursts out.
"That's a $150 bottle of Scotch!"
"And I hate to waste it, but there's not a single food bank in Fairview that will take a 40-ounce bottle of single-malt oak-aged Scotch whiskey, so this will have to do." She tilts the bottle a little more, shaking out the last $10 or so. "Think of it as $150 blackout," she adds. "If you can't live without it, you can get the blackout and the morning-after headache for free by cracking yourself over the head with a sledgehammer."
"I just don't see that -- Katherine, that rum is for the buttered rum glaze on the bundt cake for the Schwartzes' 30th anniversary party!"
"I'll take care of the glaze myself. With one of those airline-size bottles of rum."
"You can't do that. We're partners!"
"Yes --" Katherine turns to face her, and all traces of mockery have disappeared from her face -- "and you're an alcoholic." Katherine knows just how much Bree hates that word, but her gaze stays steely and unrelenting. "You know we can't leave this stuff in the house, Bree."
"Orson has kept alcohol in the house for years!"
"Yes, and what a triumph that turned out to be." Bree flinches, but lets her hand drop from the rum bottle she'd been cupping protectively. ":Look, I've got this covered," Katherine says. Her hand moves up to smooth a lock of hair softly off of Bree's pained face, then drops so quickly Bree isn't wholly sure it happened in the first place. "Why don't you head to the test kitchen and work on that new souffle recipe we're premiering at the Anderson event? I'll be in in a minute." She resumes pouring the rum down the sink. And Bree is pretty sure that if she stays in the room one more second with the dark, heavy scent of alcohol flooding the air, she'll throw herself face-first into the sink and start lapping at the little puddles that haven't yet washed down the drain, so she actually does go to the test kitchen.
Her hands are shaking as she digs into the second produce drawer, ripping out bags of Romaine lettuce and Swiss chard until she comes to the fake plastic bottom she's been using to conceal another alcohol stash. By now she's not drinking solely due to stress, nor even to addiction; in large part, she's drinking because Katherine is pissing her off and trying to force her to quit. Bree is not going to be forced. She'll quit on her own damn time, when she's damn well ready, and if Katherine wants to help her get to that place that's fine, but right now she needs a drink and she's fucking well going to get one because --
The compartment is empty, and Bree's legs quietly fold under her. Placing her head against the cool exterior of the refrigerator door, she hears Katherine's voice drifting in to her -- "Don't bother looking. It's been gone since this morning --" and wonders drearily if it is possible to hate another human being any more than she hates Katherine Mayfair at this moment.
Chapter One
Chapter Two(previous chapter)
Chapter Four (next chapter)
Chapter Three
Fandom: Desperate Housewives
Pairing: Bree/Katherine
Rating: PG
Format: Chaptered
Summary: Katherine moves in with Bree to help her quit drinking, and learns there are a few things she herself could use help with as well.
Note: Work-in-progress.
Four days in the big scene does take place -- the one where Katherine pours out the alcohol and Bree cries, the one where Bree argues and shouts and cajoles and Katherine gives one-sentence, infuriatingly calm replies. It's during this scene that Bree figures out, belatedly, why Katherine waited to do this: she needed to understand the situation before she made any sudden decisions, and she needed to know where Bree's stashes were. Which she does. Every single stash Bree has checked on today she has found empty, and that terrifies Bree, because it shows just how single-minded Katherine is in her determination to haul Bree back on the wagon. Bree watches with clenched fists as Katherine dumps bottle after bottle of cheap wine, but when she begins on the display bottles, the argument bursts out.
"That's a $150 bottle of Scotch!"
"And I hate to waste it, but there's not a single food bank in Fairview that will take a 40-ounce bottle of single-malt oak-aged Scotch whiskey, so this will have to do." She tilts the bottle a little more, shaking out the last $10 or so. "Think of it as $150 blackout," she adds. "If you can't live without it, you can get the blackout and the morning-after headache for free by cracking yourself over the head with a sledgehammer."
"I just don't see that -- Katherine, that rum is for the buttered rum glaze on the bundt cake for the Schwartzes' 30th anniversary party!"
"I'll take care of the glaze myself. With one of those airline-size bottles of rum."
"You can't do that. We're partners!"
"Yes --" Katherine turns to face her, and all traces of mockery have disappeared from her face -- "and you're an alcoholic." Katherine knows just how much Bree hates that word, but her gaze stays steely and unrelenting. "You know we can't leave this stuff in the house, Bree."
"Orson has kept alcohol in the house for years!"
"Yes, and what a triumph that turned out to be." Bree flinches, but lets her hand drop from the rum bottle she'd been cupping protectively. ":Look, I've got this covered," Katherine says. Her hand moves up to smooth a lock of hair softly off of Bree's pained face, then drops so quickly Bree isn't wholly sure it happened in the first place. "Why don't you head to the test kitchen and work on that new souffle recipe we're premiering at the Anderson event? I'll be in in a minute." She resumes pouring the rum down the sink. And Bree is pretty sure that if she stays in the room one more second with the dark, heavy scent of alcohol flooding the air, she'll throw herself face-first into the sink and start lapping at the little puddles that haven't yet washed down the drain, so she actually does go to the test kitchen.
Her hands are shaking as she digs into the second produce drawer, ripping out bags of Romaine lettuce and Swiss chard until she comes to the fake plastic bottom she's been using to conceal another alcohol stash. By now she's not drinking solely due to stress, nor even to addiction; in large part, she's drinking because Katherine is pissing her off and trying to force her to quit. Bree is not going to be forced. She'll quit on her own damn time, when she's damn well ready, and if Katherine wants to help her get to that place that's fine, but right now she needs a drink and she's fucking well going to get one because --
The compartment is empty, and Bree's legs quietly fold under her. Placing her head against the cool exterior of the refrigerator door, she hears Katherine's voice drifting in to her -- "Don't bother looking. It's been gone since this morning --" and wonders drearily if it is possible to hate another human being any more than she hates Katherine Mayfair at this moment.
Chapter One
Chapter Two(previous chapter)
Chapter Four (next chapter)