Chapter Text
Out of the three of them, Yolanda has the best relationship with her family.
Her family is big, Yolanda alone has three brothers and each of her parents have siblings as well. The Garcia’s seemed to always be growing with new additions being added every six months. Yolanda has shown them photos before of her at various
Regardless of size, Yolanda’s mother always makes the time to call once a week over the weekend. It started as something small that Yolanda would step out of the room for, but as their relationship progressed and after Yolanda accidentally let it slip that they are all three in a relationship, she’d started to do take the calls out in the open with them.
Baran thinks its cute, and has no problem speaking to Mama Garcia over speakerphone when she’s been invited to the the conversation. Secretly she loves seeing the evidence of a strong family relationship and wants that for her own son when he grows up.
Trinity has mixed feelings about the whole thing, but she knows deep down it has to do more with her own mother problems than it has anything to do with Mama Garcia. Seeing Yolanda’s healthy relationship with her mom always sort of stings.
She doesn’t talk so readily over the phone, even when brought into the conversation. So sometimes she’ll stay nearby and listen, and other times when she feels overwhelmed she’ll go to another room to decompress.
(Yolanda teased her once for being like a cat, clingy when you don’t want them to be, and always nearby even if she’s off hiding)
It started with a phone call from Mama Garcia.
Trinity was out in the back yard mowing the lawn with Baran watching her from the porch. It wasn’t even a chore that needed to be done, Baran had hired a lawn service, but after work Trinity still had some pent up anger from a call gone wrong and needed to get her anger out.
So she was taking it out on the lawn and some of the hedges.
Meanwhile Baran watches her from the safety if the backporch, respecting her need for space, but still wanting to supervise. Trinity just thinks she likes ogling her when she’s sweaty.
The back door opens to reveal Yolanda, fresh out of work herself, finishing a conversation in Spanish over the phone.
“Lo sé, mamá, lo sé, les preguntaré qué opinan. Simplemente no sé si estamos listos para eso todavía…. Me tengo que ir. Te quiero. Adiós.” She spoke softly into the phone, sinking into the chair beside Baran’s with a sigh before hanging up the phone.
“Hey you,” Baran greets after a moment, smiling at Yolanda who reaches over for her hand and places a kiss upon her knuckles.
“Hey,” the latina sighs, seeming conflicted about something. “How long has she been at it?”
“Only an hour. She told me it was either this or replacing Dennis’ shampoo with nair.” Baran reveals to Yolanda in an amused tone.
She was unhappy because a patient had coded on her watch and Whitaker had been nearby to help. When the patient was revived it was Whitaker who got the praise and not Trinity.
Although the two clearly loved one another, their competing level in skills would sometimes bring out Trinity’s ultra competitive side and she did not like to lose.
It was hard to watch, but as the three of them had agreed at the beginning of their relationship, it was something that wasn’t for Baran or Yolanda to interfere with or comment on at work. Trinity needed to succeed and fail all on her own.
One of the things Baran admired most about Trinity was her drive to be the best she could be. But sometimes that drive could get the best of her.
Out in the yard, Trinity doesn’t notice Yolanda’s even home at first, but as she turns a corner and glances up at the house she can see her two women talking.
Suddenly whatever Trinity was mad about is less important than joining them, so she decides to call it quits and head back to the house after putting the lawn mower away.
Trinity notices they’re talking about something on the walk back that has their full attention.
Baran only owns two chairs on her back porch, but Trinity doesn’t seem to care as she plops herself into Yolandas lap.
“Ay, you’re all sweaty,” her girlfriend groans as their skin makes contact, squirming beneath her but making no real effort to remove her. “Don’t act like you don’t love it,” Trinity teases.
Baran acknowledges Trinity by moving to smooth back the fly away hairs that escaped her pony tail. “Hey baby.” She croons. “Feeling better?”
Trinity basks in the attention for a moment. Both her girlfriends can be so attentive when it comes to her. “A little, yeah,” she confirms, smiling softly at her.
Baran and Yolanda continue their conversation, while Trinity busies herself with burying her face in Yolandas neck.
She isn’t really listening, too distracted by the comforting scent of Yolanda's body wash that hides there, until she hears Baran ask, “And when would we have to be down there?”
“Probably the 25th to the end of the month. Fly in and fly out.” Yolanda replies, her response echoing under Trinity’s ear against her chest.
“Where are we going?” Trinity asks, suddenly paying attention. Both her girlfriends spare her an amused glance, Yolanda cocks her head and asks, “Oh are you with us now? How do you feel about the beach?”
“The beach?!” Trinity perks up, moving to sit up and officially join the conversation. “I like the beach,” she confirms.
Like is maybe a bit of an understatement, she’s from California, she loves the beach.
“Well we might have an opportunity, we’ve been invited to a birthday party.” Yolanda explains.
Trinity wracks her brain for a moment but cannot think of any upcoming birthdays she knows of, Yolanda shakes her head, “Its my grandmother’s 90th birthday. She lives in Florida and I haven’t visited in a few years. According to my mom we’re going to make it a whole event.”
“Oh.” She says. Oh, because what Yolanda isn’t saying, but is implying, is that the whole Garcia clan will be there together under one roof. When Yolanda went home for Thanksgiving she’d mentioned that there were 40 people there in total, and that was just her immediate family.
That’s a lot of people at once to impress.
“We would get a condo nearby, maybe an Airbnb. Somewhere with our own space.” Baran adds helpfully.
“Can we even do that?” Trinity wonders aloud, the doubt creeping into her tone. "I mean, I'm almost at my R4.. I don't want to make a bad impression."
“Well, Baran’s contract is still being worked out by Gloria so she’s free until its finalized,” Yolanda reminds her, “and I have days saved up I need to use anyway.”
Trinity pouts, “Oh, so you guys are gonna go? Oh, well I can stay and watch Farouk or something-“ she starts, talking quickly through the anxiety.
“Oh honey,” Baran cuts her off, placing a hand on her knee, “you’re coming with us. And if you can’t take the time off then I will stay here with you and Yolanda will go by herself.” She tells her seriously, “we wouldn’t leave you here alone.”
“And besides, you haven’t taken a single day off since you got sick last year, I’m pretty sure you can spring the schedule if you get creative with the other pittlings.” Yolanda adds from behind her.
Trinity can feel her stomach churning at the information, theoretically if she could get off work then maybe they could go.. even if she feels a little intimidated by the Garcias.
“Oh. Well, okay then yeah, sure.” Trinity said, seeming to lean into the idea the more she spoke. She could do this. ‘You can do this. Just commit Trinity.’
“Whoop!” Yolanda cheered softly, jostling Trinity in a mock celebration. She said it in jest, but the smile on her face lets Trinity know she’s genuinely excited.
And for that look on her face, Trinity knew she would do just about anything.
—
Vacation planning turns out to be thrilling and awful at the same time.
Thrilling because Yolanda and Trinity have taken the liberty of choosing the bathing suits. Although Trinity hates shopping with a passion, she and Yolanda drag Baran to the mall because “a vacation always requires a new wardrobe,” Trinity tells Baran in a matter-of-fact tone that has her laughing at her.
They may or may not have convinced Baran to try on a bikini for them in a department store and ended up getting a little too excited in the changing room.
The resulting conversation with the manager has them all a little red in the cheeks, and Baran learns that she might have a thing about mirrors.
Its also awful because it turns out that Trinity can get the time off only if she works two doubles and works a week on nights.
The change in schedule has Trinity wrecked and cranky when home, but her girlfriends help her adapt to the best of their abilities.
Baran tries to make sure theres always a home cooked meal waiting for her when she gets home, knowing that a good healthy meal could sometimes help fix Trinitys mood.
Yolanda promises to lay on the couch and watch TV with her when her sleep schedule is inevitably fucked. The promise is to lay with her, not stay awake with her because Yolanda does have work in the morning, but Trinity would rather have someone to cuddle with on the couch than no one. If Baran notices they're both up in the middle of the night she'll come join them and they'll all lay together in a pile.
What brings Trinity out of her funk is that she gets to watch some early morning cartoons with Farouk after work before she crashes for however many hours she can manage before her next shift. Farouk is a little upset that he is not coming with, but he will be with his dad and they’re going camping.
And life goes on and on until suddenly they’re at the airport bright and early one day at the end of June.
They sit all together in a row, with Trinity in the window seat, Baran in the middle, and Yolanda in the aisle (she likes to use the aisle to stretch out her long legs). Yolanda and Trinity use Baran’s neck as a pillow while the oldest woman reads a novel she brought. While Yolanda naps, Trinity reads over Baran's shoulder and occasionally comments on plot points she thinks are ridiculous. Baran eventually grows tired of this and suggests that she find something on the airline's website to watch. Trinity pouts at this but listens. She pulls up an old episode of H2O, but unfortunately both her girlfriends are too old for them to realize the irony.
She's rewarded when Baran spreads a blanket over both of them and uses the opportunity to distract Trinity by tracing her fingers up and down her thigh. "If you're good today, maybe we can find an opportunity to reward you for it later," Baran proposes, not looking up from her book. Trinity considers this, spreading her thighs a little further. "Mmm.." She hums, thinking. "I'll try."
"That's all I ask sweetheart." Baran smiles. Yolanda shifts on her shoulder, taking away Baran's attention for a moment while she adjusts. "I think this is going to be a fun weekend." Baran sighs, seeming relaxed.
Trinity has had a hard time fully settling since they woke up this morning, but the way Baran professes her thoughts with such certainty is a balm to Trinity's fried nerves. Internally, Trinity has been stressing about this ever since Yolanda brought it up.
She doesn't have a great relationship with parents in general. She talks to her own mother maybe three times a year, and it is always strained. Her therapist suggested once that maybe her mother just feels guilty and doesn't know how to show it. But Trinity has a feeling that it has been a sigh of relief for her mother that she's finally out of the house. Being a "hometown celebrity" meant that the moment her trial went public, everyone in her town knew what happened. If Trinity wasn't in town, their was no reason to gossip about their family. She hasn't been back home since she moved to Pittsburgh and doesn't plan on returning any time soon.
Baran seems more open to the idea of meeting the Garcia's. Maybe its because she's done this before and has prior experiences with a significant others family- or, as it occurs to Trinity on the plane, maybe she feels like she's missing that in her and Farouk's life. Although both due to normal circumstance, Baran has already lost both of her parents. Whatever the reason, she seems happy. Trinity leans up to press a kiss to Baran's cheek, wanting to comfort her anyway, before resigning to staring out of the window and watch the scenery change.