JOSEPHINE

"Good evening Miss Bishop and..."

Kate smiled, her hand interlaced with the other girl's, "Jo is fine," Josephine smiled at the doorman.

"Wife kids? All good?" Kate asked with a sincere smile, the doorman smiled, "Wonderful, wonderful. Merry Christmas!"

"Kate wait," Josephine pressed her lips together, stopping midstep, and her girlfriend turned around a concerned look on her face. 

"Maybe now isn't the best time for me to meet your mother," Josephine nervously scratched the back of her neck.

Kate gently grabbed Josephine's other hand, looking at her brown eyes, "She's going to love you, Jo."

Josephine was not convinced in the slightest, "I don't know Kate, maybe I should lose the septum ring, and-"

"Jo, I can assure you she will be more upset over the whole bell tower situation than your nose ring." Kate jokingly nudged her, and a small relieved smile spread across Josephine's face, "Now c'mon, Eleanor Bishop is not the most patient lady in the world."

The elevator bell dinged, releasing them into the foyer, Josephine nervously trailed behind Kate. 

"Hi, sweetie." 

Kate's mother had yet to step into sight, and Kate gave Josephine's hand one last reassuring squeeze.

"Hi, Mom," Kate replied, peeling off her coat and hat, while Josephine stood there stunned taking in the proximity of the building around her. She was aware that Kate's family had money, but she was still a bit stunned by her home.

"There you are," Eleanor smiled, opening her arms to her daughter.

Kate smiled, "Oh, you look amazing! What are we looking all fancy for?"

"The charity auction." the woman adjusted her hair with a small smile.

"Ugh," Kate pulled a face, and Eleanor shook her head, "I know right? All those poor people and non-profits relying on the more fortunate." she mused sarcastically. 

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Kate sighed, and Josephine cleared her throat from several feet away, announcing her presence.

"Oh," Kate took a couple of steps back, "Mom, this is Jo!"

Josephine awkwardly held out her hand, "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Bishop."

When Eleanor didn't shake her hand, she dropped it back down by her side. Kate shot her mother a look, she could have at least tried to make an effort.

"Jo will be spending Christmas with us." Kate declared, and Josephine shot her a look, "Only if that's ok with you, of course."

Josephine wanted so badly to make a good impression, and if that meant skipping out on Christmas, so be it. She had never really celebrated the holiday before, so what's one more year?

"Of course it is," the woman smiled, and if Josephine didn't know any better she might've thought it was sincere.

Eleanor tore her eyes away from Josephine, falling back into conversation with her daughter, "As much as I love having you back home for the Holidays...I'm not thrilled I'm about to replace an irreplaceable clock tower."

"It was a bell tower." 

"The dean said it had a bell and a clock," Eleanor began to walk back through the doorway, Kate and Josephine following behind her, "And the overachiever that you are, you managed to destroy both."

Kate dropped her hands down by her sides, entirely unable to come up with any defense for herself, "What can I do to make it better, Mom?"

"I started by canceling your credit cards, and we're going to have a much longer talk about this tower that you destroyed when we don't have company." Eleanor glanced at Josephine who still lingered by Kate's side.

"I know that young people think that they're invincible and rich people think they're invincible and you have always been both. So, take it from someone who hasn't, you're not."

Josephine watched the conversation continue to unfold, she had never really experienced parenting of the sort. She and Kate were very different in that way.

"You will get hurt. So please, don't go out looking for it."

Kate's eyes dropped away from her mother's briefly, "Sorry, Mom."

"You get that from your father, you know." Eleanor gave her a slight smile, "Why don't you start making it up to me by putting on that red dress in your bedroom and coming with me tonight?"

Kate gave her mother a slight nod before catching herself, "But, what about Jo-"

"I can go with you, it's okay." Josephine interrupted not wanting Eleanor to dislike her any more than she already seemed to, "I promise I can handle myself at a fancy event, Kate."

"It's settled then," Eleanor smiled.

     The evening from that moment forward was quite eventful. Josephine was unsure what she had been expecting when she agreed to go back home with Kate for Christmas, but it certainly was not this.

"Just follow my lead," Kate passed her girlfriend a tray of appetizers.

Josephine sent a glare in her direction, "The last time I followed your lead, you wound up destroying a bell tower."

The archer rolled her eyes, more forcefully shoving the tray into her girlfriend's hands. Begrudgingly, Josephine followed her girlfriend, forcing a small smile at the man who stood in front of the stairwell.

"Well this isn't creepy at all," Josephine glanced around at the cobweb-filled, stone hallway. At the end of the hallway was a doorway leading to what appeared to be a wine cellar. 

Kate slowed to a stop, where the two of them could peer through the bottles of wine, into what appeared to be some sort of secret event. 

"Is that Jack?" Josephine questioned, her voice hushed and Kated nodded her eyebrows pulled together in thought.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated, and we will begin." the auctioneer spoke, quieting the crowd, "For our first item of the evening, we will be traveling back in time."

"A black market auction occurring below a charity auction," Josephine murmured, watching the bidding on the dinosaur skull unfold.

"Excuse me," one of the actual waiters, tapped on Kate's shoulder. 

"Oh, perfect!" Kate exclaimed, switching her tray of appetizers for a tray of champagne. Josephine plastered a smile on her face, following the brunette's lead.

The man narrowed his eyes at the two, "I thought I was supposed to be the only one working down here?"

Kate hesitated and she took that as her sign to step in, "Gary sent us down here. Something about hungry rich people."

"Yeah," her girlfriend agreed, "So maybe if you want to bother, Gary..."

The waiter seemed to accept the reply and began to walk away. Josephine sighed, taking one of the glasses off of Kate's tray and downing the bubbly liquid.

The curly-haired woman set her empty glass back down, and finally met Kate's eyes, "What? You drug me down to a black market auction, I needed some liquid courage."

Kate laughed, "You are my favorite person ever, Jo." 

Moments later, while the auctioneer was bidding off a literal assassin's suit, one of the stone walls was blown in. Josephine's first reaction was to get Kate the hell out of there...however, Kate had quite a different idea.

"Kate? Are you okay?" Josephine questioned, her ears only slightly ringing, "We really need to leave."

The brunette shook her head, "What about all of these people?"

The thing was Kate just had an effect on Josephine, she was quite literally able to get the woman to do anything. One sad look in Kate's eyes and she was ready to go to war for her.

Kate crawled forward her eyes landing on a box, "Please tell me you're not about to put on that suit."

"Sorry, Jo." the twenty-two-year-old shrugged, "Just stay safe." 

As far as Kate knew, Josephine had no self-defense training. The curly-haired girl would have liked it to stay like that, but she couldn't just stand there. She sighed reaching to the wine rack in front of her and removing one of the bottles.

"Hey, fellas!" she rounded the corner, her eyes glimmering with mischief, "Going somewhere?"

Josephine stepped forward smashing the bottle over one man's head, simultaneously kicking the other. Her heart thudded in her chest, as the adrenaline rush hit her.

She slid down onto her knee kicking the third man's legs out from underneath him. 

"I'll be taking this," she murmured, swiping away the gun. She was nearly silent as she crept around the next corner, the gun raised in front of her. Josephine almost shot the person who rounded the opposite corner at the same time. 

"Jesus, Kate!" she quickly lowered the gun, "I could've shot you."

"Yeah, yeah, where'd you learn how to fight like that, anyway?" Kate reached for her hand 

Josephine sighed, "It's kind of a long story... c'mon we have to get out of here." she accepted Kate's hand and they quickly exited the building.

On the other side of the wall, the same dog they saw earlier was attacking one of the men. 

"Hey!" Kate exclaimed letting go of Josephine's hand, she ran up and kicked the man in the head, and the dog ran off. Of course, Kate being Kate, ran off after him.

Josephine couldn't just stay there so she chose the lesser of two evils and ran after her. A gasp escaped her lips as Kate ran into traffic after the dog. 

"What the hell?" she shouted over the cars, where Kate was standing luckily unharmed.