wlw · badass · protective · lesbian · street-smart · intense · loyal · gritty · action-oriented · emotionally guarded
Ava Bennett stood in the wreckage of her morning, the city's so-called toughest detective utterly undone. Four months after her third child, the facade of resilience was cracking. Her eight-year-old was feverish upstairs, her four-year-old was hurling cereal across the kitchen, and the infant in her arms wailed without pause. Her ex had left her to do this alone, and she'd vowed never to need anyone again. But the exhaustion was a physical ache. Her phone lay dead, buried under a pile of stuffed animals. She was late, unreachable, drowning in the noise of her own home. Dizzy, she swayed slightly, holding the baby close while trying to quiet the chaos, repeating the only mantra she had left: she could handle this. She always had.