On Monday morning, I could only shake my head as I came to the realization of just how much I didn't know about Zee. She'd come into the office with me to get paperwork done and get her into the system with a security badge so that she could seamlessly start the internship after she graduated, and that meant entering her information into the database. Information like a name. I didn't even know her real first name, because I was pretty sure it wasn't Zee, which was what was on her resume. Hell, I'd barely remembered her last name because I'd only seen it that one time on the resume when we went out to lunch, too! Yeah, the form had so many pieces of information that it needed information entered on, and that I just had no answers for, that I felt like a complete idiot.

Zee was oblivious to this, as she sat out with Will chatting about the best way to take down Elliot if he ever showed up again. No, I was completely serious about that, because Zee even had her brass knuckles in her small purse because she really does take them everywhere, and Will now wanted a pair. We'd only come in because we needed to get her a photo into the system for a security badge, and I wanted Will to meet her so he would know that she'd be working with me as an intern. Plus, I got to give her a little tour, which was a basic thing since the office wasn't too big.

"Hey Zee, I need some information when you have a moment!" I called out through the open door. She gave me a quick wave before she shared a fist bump with Will, then came in, plopping herself on my desk and giving me a smile that made me want to live out her whole fuck your girlfriend on the office desk fantasy, even if I had told her we couldn't. Maybe later!

"You need my social security number?" she asked innocently.

I snorted, then nodded slowly. "I will, but I need other stuff first. Like, what is your actual first name? It isn't really Zee, right?"

Her jaw dropped open as she turned to look at the screen. Yeah, I had filled in only my own address as her mailing address because she would be living with me. I didn't know anything else about her that was useful other than her last name. How good she tasted and the sounds she made while she came on my tongue weren't exactly pertinent here. "Oh damn. Umm. Okay, we're really a mess, huh?" She let out a low laugh, then pulled over one of the other chairs to sit next to me. "My first name is Zarina, and you have the last as Reyes. Nobody ever calls me anything but Zee though. Middle initial is E for Elena." She gave me her SSN as well, and then we went in for the rest of her info.

"Who would you like as a beneficiary for the company life insurance policy?" I asked. I was a little nervous about that one, because I assumed that it would be a parent or other relative of some sort, but she didn't appear to be close with any of them, so it might lead to a topic she didn't want to get into yet.

"You," she replied quickly. "Or is that weird? Should I choose someone else?"

I looked over at her in shock. "You don't have any relatives that you would want to leave that money to?"

She shook her head before looking away. "No. I'd rather give it to someone who needs it. Would it be okay to give it to Jashanna? Shit. Can I think about it?"

I nodded quickly, trying not to cry for my lovely girlfriend. I still wasn't sure about her home life, but I really hoped that she'd trust me with it soon. In a case like this, the insurance didn't even matter, I just wanted her happy. "Hey, come here." I gave her a little tug, and she shifted out of the chair and onto my lap. "I know it is a sore subject, but you have a lot of people who are in your corner, myself included. You're not alone in this."

She leaned back, then curled up into me and wrapped her arms around my neck as she buried her face in my hair. "Finding you has been the best part of my life." I could hear her on the verge of crying, and I just held her tighter. "It's like my tunnel suddenly has a light at the end, and it's almost blinding with you and the girls there."

"We'll keep being there, I promise. I told you, you always have a home with us, no matter what happens."

She was quiet for a minute, just relaxing against me before she spoke in a whisper. "My grandparents are all Cuban immigrants, and very conservative. My parents got their beliefs from them, and were incredibly strict. My whole childhood, I was punished for anything that wasn't considered perfect, and I was compared to my older brother, who my parents thought was an amazing child. But then he ran away when he was seventeen, leaving behind a note that told them how much he hated living by their rules, and that he was going to go live on his own. I was twelve at the time, and they took it as a personal attack on their parenting and blamed me for everything. The next year, it got worse, because we found out he was killed in Texas by redneck racists who thought he was an illegal immigrant and thought they could eliminate a problem. He was going to school on his own out there. He was going to try to be a therapist, but obviously never did."

I sucked in a breath, trying not to cry, though she already was. "I'm so sorry, baby."

She gave a little shrug, then kept going. "It was weird. I was so sad, but at the same time we weren't very close. The men that killed him were all convicted, though they didn't get much of a punishment. My parents took his death hard and became even more strict. When I was fifteen, I got my first crush on a girl. I mean, I'd had them before on pretty much every hot female celebrity out there, I thought everyone did, but this girl in school was the first time I felt it for a girl my age. I know her name was Angie, and she was two years older than me, but I never knew much else. She let me kiss her, once, in the locker room after a volleyball practice, and two of her friends cheered us on. They also took a picture and posted it to her Instagram page and maybe a week later a friend of my parents saw it and showed it to them."

I held my breath, not daring to talk, but I kept rubbing her back to help her through it. I was almost afraid to hear the next part, but she never stopped talking.

"I was kicked out of the house the next day, but not before my mami held me down while my father beat me so hard that I could barely walk. I took a duffel bag of clothes, the same one I still have, and lived outside for a bit. Thankfully, it was winter, so it wasn't as hot as it could have been, and my parents had never cancelled the family YMCA membership, so I could take showers there before I walked to school." She paused a bit, as though trying to decide what to say next, opening her mouth as though changing her mind several times. "The next three years I bounced around a lot, crashing with whoever would let me stay with them for a bit, or until I wore out my welcome. It wasn't fun, but I was able to get a few odd jobs here and there so I could try to contribute. Anyway, I guess I would have put my brother down as a beneficiary had he lived, but never my parents. None of my other family either, as they wouldn't take me in once my folks kicked me out. I was dead to them all for being a lesbian."

I sniffled a little as I felt the tears sliding over my cheeks. I wanted to go kick her parents' asses for doing that to such an amazing woman, as unrealistic as that was. But it made me want to help her even more, which I didn't think was possible. I had a feeling that there was more she wasn't saying, but the story was already heartbreaking enough. "You've done an amazing job becoming who you are. I'm so proud of what you've overcome to get here. Thank you for telling me all that. Wait, is that why you don't call me mami?"

"Yeah, I called my mother that, and I never wanted you to be associated with her at all. You're too special. Mommy is perfect for you."

"You know you don't really have to call me mommy, right? Don't get me wrong, I love hearing you say it, but you can call me whatever you like. I think I just said that the first night because you told me you wanted me to call you daddy."

She snickered, her body shaking with her laughter. "I still can't believe I said that now that I know you. There is no way I can imagine you calling me that now. But I like calling you mommy. I like you being in control most of the time, and it makes me feel excited and safe at the same time."

"As long as you don't get mami flashbacks, okay?"

She nodded against me, then kissed my neck. "I just wanted you to know who you were getting involved with. This is pretty much all I am. I have nothing and I'm nobody."

"Not anymore," I assured her. "That is all changing. You have a lot of people already, and you're going to get more. You just got here, and Will seems to like you, and I bet the rest of the team will too. You know my family loves having you around, and everyone else will too."

"And this helps? This is us talking, right? We wanted more?"

"It is, baby. You don't have to repeat it unless you want it, but I will always support you, okay? And you can ask anything you like about me too. This needs to go both ways."

"Does it matter what I ask?"

I turned my head, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead. "Nope. I want to make sure you're comfortable, so if there are things you want to ask, then go ahead and ask. We need to get it all out there, right?"

She took a deep breath, then whispered into my ear once more. "If things work out, and we fall in love and want to be together, do you see yourself wanting to be married again? Or did that asshole make you not want to be married again?"

"Zee, if we get to the point where I move you up to my room, and we're professing our love, then I will want to be married at some point, yes. Elliot was a complete ass, and he soured me on a lot of things. But whoever I am with, if I see them as my forever person, then I would want to marry them to show my love, trust, and loyalty. Is that okay with you?"

"Very okay!" she answered quickly. "I'm not a religious person, I think I got turned off of all that by my parents, but I very much would like to be married someday. I know it can get messy, but I would want to call the woman I love my wife. And I'm really hoping that it turns out to be you."

Yeah, I melted a little more at that. How could I not?

"Then I guess we better do the best we can to see if we can get there, huh?"