Work Text:
Laura sighed as she walked slowly up the steps to her front door. She was mulling over the topics for tomorrow morning’s news and couldn’t help thinking back to when she had been the one pushing for new stories, writing copies, and hunting down stories for UBA 365. She didn’t regret leaving exactly, the move to YDA had been a sudden shift that she had never expected to make. But when the board president of NBN had called her personally, apologizing for how she had been treated as a young anchor and offering her an unheard of package to return and anchor YDA for a year, she had given it a lot of thought but ultimately made the move. She couldn’t lie that half of her reasoning was that she had been getting ready to move back to NY and that she was not looking forward to returning to a workplace that had Bradley’s face plastered on every corner. Laura had denied this when she had spoken to Bradley at the awards show, but ultimately it had factored into her decision. She had enjoyed the last couple of months, despite the early mornings, where she was only responsible for reporting the copies other people wrote and smiling for the camera. Gordon had agreed, after some convincing, that the change (and benefits package) would be nice and that this would be a true victory lap that would set her up nicely for retirement. All of these memories were bouncing through her mind as she pulled her keys from her bag and approached her door, ready to pour a glass of wine and put her feet up for the evening.
Just as she registered the sounds of footsteps behind her, she heard an all-too-familiar voice call out to her in an apprehensive but sure tone. ‘Laura.’
She turned, her brows drawing together briefly as she registered Bradley looking up at her from the bottom of the steps. Laura paused, her keys still in her fingers, before stepping forward and descending the steps to meet her unexpected visitor. Bradley’s face was conflicted and apprehensive, she opened her mouth to speak but paused before saying, ‘Hi, Laura.’
Laura gave her a puzzled half-smile, ‘Hi, um, what’s up? Did something happen with the video?’
Bradley looked down briefly at the mention of the video, she was still embarrassed about the whole situation and felt her stomach twist into knots at the mention of it. She gathered herself quickly, though, and said, ‘No, no, nothing new with that. They still have it but it hasn’t been sent to anyone else, thank god.’ Laura tilted her head curiously, prompting her first question again. Bradley hurried on, ‘Sorry to show up unannounced, I didn’t think I would run into you. I…um, I wanted to thank you.’ She ducked her head and smiled sheepishly, ‘I was going to leave you a note, but since you’re here… I wanted to say thank you, um, for trying to support me the other day, I know I was kind of rude… in the bathroom.’ She paused. ‘I just wanted to say thanks for sending Alex over, it was nice to talk it through.’ Bradley gave Laura an apologetic smile, blushing slightly.
Laura nodded, accepting both the thanks and the apology gracefully. She had known it was a calculated risk, telling Alex, and that Bradley could have just as easily seen it as another betrayal and held it against her. She felt a wash of gratitude that this wasn’t the case, that Bradley appreciated the gesture and didn’t mind her sharing what was happening with Alex.
Bradley stayed quiet now, looking at Laura and waiting for a response. Laura tried to get a sense of how Bradley was really doing and what she was hoping to get out of coming over, but Bradley was a mask. ‘I’m glad she was able to help.’ She said simply. It still stung that after everything between them, Bradley had refused her support and brushed her off. Some things transcended breakups and Laura had felt that the video being hacked was one of those things. She glanced down, seeing the bitterness in herself and admonishing it. Bradley had just apologized, it was time to move on. If she expected Bradley to be honest, she needed to lead with something herself. ‘I know it wasn’t my place to tell Alex about the video, but you keep things inside and you weren’t going to let me be there for you. I thought you needed someone, even if it couldn’t be me.’ She looked back up at Bradley who was nodding.
Bradley spoke quickly, in her trademark rush of words. ‘I know, and I figured you were probably feeling that way so I thought I should come tell you that I appreciate it. It really was ok, she is actually really good at handling crises. She said it was her specialty and she had a lot of good suggestions so, thank you.’
Laura nodded, ‘You’re welcome. How are you doing with it all now?’
Bradley puffed out her cheeks before letting out a big breath, ‘Fuck, I don’t know. I’m moving forward? I… you were right, I wasn’t okay and I was trying to not show it but now I think I am actually okay? I mean, it obviously still sucks, especially if they release it. But there’s bigger things at play too, so I’m just trying to do my job and not think about it too much.’
Laura studied her face, she supposed that was as good as could be expected right now. She couldn’t really see anything else to be done at this point, so it really had become a waiting game.
Bradley surprised her next by asking, ‘How are you, Laura? This impacted you, too, I said your name in the video. I’m sorry that I didn’t ask before, you just always seem so unaffected in the moment.’
Laura hesitated. Truthfully, the last couple of days had been shit. She had been borderline obsessively worried about Bradley while also trying not to be and also having to report on UBA’s hack extensively every morning on YDA. ‘I… It’s been rough, I won’t lie about that. But at least I have Gordon, and other friends, that I can see now that I’m back in New York.’
Bradley appreciated the honesty but still felt the walls that were up between them. There was a time when both of them would have felt able to be completely honest and not have to run their words through a filter before speaking.
Bradley shifted, shuffling her feet and readjusting her bag in her hands before looking cautiously at Laura. ‘I… Do you maybe want to grab a drink or something? I just… I think we have a lot that needs to be said.’
Laura softened and smiled, she appreciated the younger woman reaching a hand across the divide and asking for connection. ‘Yeah, why don’t you come on up. I was just about to have a glass of wine myself…’