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Cassidy Verity walked into the kitchen of the brownstone she co-owned with her wife, Vanessa Bradley, immediately noticing that sat in one of the kitchen chairs with a bare bottom was her and Ness’s surrogate child (and Ness’s professional protege), Mads. The girl was squirming as she furiously wrote, most likely, whatever Ness had assigned her; typically it would be lines or a reflective essay, things like that.
“Hey babe,” Cass called out gently, getting the attention of her wife from where she was turned around at the stove. She smiled as her eyes met those of the woman she adored, and the two had a quick conversation without sound.
Cass let her eyes flick down to Mads, who was resolutely still writing something and ignoring the two women, then let her eyes meet those of her wife. In turn, Ness quickly looked to make sure Maddy wasn’t looking at her before mouthing the words, ‘hard day.’ That decided Cass’s course of action as she walked into the kitchen and pulled her wife into her arms, kissing her softly.
“Want to talk about it?” she murmured, feeling Ness shake her head where it was tucked under Cass’s chin (sometimes it paid to be the taller partner, even if she was self-conscious about it at first).
“She’s mad,” Ness murmured back, and Cass let her eyes drift over to where Mads was sitting at the table. The frown on the young woman’s face looked like it had been there for a while, and the huffy breaths the girl was letting out when she intermittently dropped the pencil on the table, rested her head against it for a moment, and then returned to writing.
“I can see that,” Cass said back softly, “is there some way I can help?”
“Go say hi to her, she’s going to think you’re ignoring her on purpose because you’re mad at her.” Cass didn’t even know what there was to be potentially irate with, but her wife had Maddy’s psychology down to a science; that was exactly how the young woman would react.
“And then?” Cass prompted, murmuring softly before pulling back from the embrace and kissing Ness’s forehead.
“Can you talk to her?” Ness said, sounding completely miserable.
“Talk or talk?” Cass asked to verify, knowing her wife would know exactly what she meant by the slightly cryptic-to-anyone-else message.
“The latter,” Ness murmured.
“She’s not already been spanked?” Cass softly asked, because she could have sworn she saw Mads squirming in a way that suggested the girl’s bottom was sore.
“Just a little,” the answer was succinct, but then the woman in her arms took a breath and explained, “I needed time to cool off and so I kept it short, with the promise of more to come. But I’m still so mad,” Ness softly confessed.
“Looks like Mads is too,” Cass murmured.
“You weren’t there…” Ness whispered, and Cass knew that this conversation would be continuing away from Maddy’s earshot. However, she needed to talk to her surrogate daughter as well, before that conversation continued. The young woman was quickly flicking her eyes up to Cass and Ness, but the look in her eyes was growing increasingly less irate and increasingly more anxious and insecure.
“Love you, babe,” Cass pulled back and softly kissed Ness again, “I’m going to go greet our miscreant.” Ness had a small, sad smile as Cass turned and headed in Mads’s direction.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Hey, sweet girl,” Cass said as she softly ran a hand through Maddy’s hair. Her hair was one of Mads’s favorite features these days, the red color making her and Ness look nearly biologically related. But right now, it just made her more irate- Ness wasn’t her mother, and she should stop trying to be!
“Hi,” Mads mumbled, refusing to look up. Her voice sounded angry to her own ears, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care about her tone. She kept furiously scribbling words onto the sheet in front of her, watching her penmanship devolve as she continued. Ness had set her at the table to write a reflection essay about the day, and Mads was pissed.
She was mad at everything. Mad at the stupid paper in front of her, mad at the words that were both true and her deepest shame, mad at the hard chair she was sitting on, mad at the fact her pants were around her knees, and mad at Ness. She snorted to herself, Mads, the nickname she had always loved because it was given to her by Ness the first time after the woman took her over her knee, she suddenly found ironic. She was mad at that too.
And that didn’t even touch the reason that she and Ness were mad at each other in the first place. Okay, why Mads was mad at Ness, at least; she still wasn’t sure what she did to piss the older woman off initially, but her subsequent disrespectful attitude certainly didn’t help matters.
She didn’t know why Ness had, away from Maddy’s earshot, been talking about the younger woman. In a closed office, nonetheless (though in a building made of glass, an office afforded little actual privacy). Mads only knew that she was the topic of conversation as she heard a coworker ask, under her breath, “what did you do to get the boss all riled up like that?”
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Passed by earlier, heard your name. They’re yelling in there. Now spill, why are you in trouble?” Mads was usually pretty fond of their technical analyst, Wanda, but currently she wished the woman had never informed her of any of that in the first place.
She didn’t know what she had done, but Ness was undoubtedly mad.
“I have no idea,” she answered honestly, and after shutting down Wanda’s subsequent attempts at wheedling more information from Mads, the other woman finally left the bullpen.
Usually Ness would talk to Mads when her protege had done something wrong, not have a closed-door meeting with the SES, Ness’s boss, about it. What had she done this time that was truly irreparable, in a way that, in her gut, knew that she meant would have her transferred from Ness’s unit and away from Ness and Cass.
Her heart shattered at the idea.
She figured she might as well make Ness’s point for her, and was mouthy and disrespectful through the whole day. At one point, Ness had pulled her into a conference room to ask, verbatim, “what the heck has possessed you today?” Mads was desperately hoping that her boss’s voice would hold some note of concern, but all she heard was anger and annoyance.
Mads had never been convenient.
She stalked out of the conference room and hid from Ness the rest of the day, evading her every time they were in the same room. Finally, after the workday was done, Ness caught up with her despite her best efforts.
“Where do you think you’re going, little girl?” Ness said softly, dangerously.
“I have some errands to run, I’ll take the subway home,” she replied, feigning casualness. She needed to figure out where she was going to live once they kicked her out, but first she had to see what unit she’d be transferred to. If she were transferred at all, rather than being fired entirely, and that thought pained her too.
“No,” Ness said firmly, gripping Maddy’s arm slightly too tightly; the younger woman clamped her mouth shut and refused to say anything, even as she was painfully dragged to the parking garage.
“In,” Ness had said, her tone of voice short, “now.” Mads hadn’t wanted to, had wanted to fight back, but… she also wanted to say bye to Cass, before she was thrown out, even if the other woman hated her too. Which was, she realized sadly, was more than likely.
Ness tried to park her in the kitchen corner while she made dinner, but Maddy had fought back against that plan admirably. Every question Ness tried to ask, Mads responded with a scathing rebuttal, using words that were meant to hurt. Eventually Ness roughly pulled her over her knee, spanked her, and didn’t even offer a hug before plopping the girl down on a hard chair, pants still around her knees, and setting a sheet of paper and a pencil in front of her with instructions to write down what went wrong today.
Naturally, the writing assignment had turned into a rant, and then had turned into her worries; maybe Ness would feel bad when she read it. Even if it wouldn’t spare her from having to leave, she would hope that her boss (former boss?) would feel at least a little bit badly at the words. She had refused to look up at Ness, lest the woman see the tears in her eyes that would betray how scared Maddy actually was.
It was the same reason she was refusing to look at Cass now.
“No, sweet girl,” she heard Cass say gently, her index finger finding her way under the younger woman’s chin and directing her gaze upwards, making her squirm in a way unrelated to the hard chair under her sore ass.
“You’re going to look at me, now.” Mads, who didn’t really have another choice, flicked her eyes upwards, scared to see the anger that would be polluting Cass’s eyes. Instead, confusingly, she mostly saw concern and a confusion that mirrored her own. She blinked hard, willing her tears to go away, and her heart sank as Cass grabbed the papers she had been writing on, her eyes moving over the words.
Even her terrible penmanship she knew Cass could read, having probably seen worse as a professor for as long as she’d been teaching for. Understanding dawned on the scientist’s face as she finished reading the papers, setting them down on the table.
“Can you wait upstairs for me, honey?” Cass smoothed her hand over Maddy’s hair once more, “I need to talk to Ness really quick, and then I’ll be right there. It’ll all be okay, I promise.”
-o-o-o-o-o-
She watched as Mads anxiously scurried away from the table and she heard the steps of the younger woman heeding her directions (and not eavesdropping), before walking back to where Ness was stirring some pasta sauce on the stove.
“I think I have an idea as to what’s going on,” she declared, and watched as Ness’s posture slumped in relief.
“I’d love to know,” her wife stated, and Cass nodded at the papers on the table.
“A big misunderstanding, I think,” she explained, “culminating in her normal fears of us kicking her out.” They had spent a lot of time, early on, working through those insecurities. Even so, they still reared their ugly head from time to time.
“Read those,” she instructed, “I’m going to go talk to Mads. I don’t think I should leave her alone for much longer.” Ness’s eyes were sad as she nodded, whispering,
“Please take care of our girl.”
“Read those,” Cass stated again, firmly, before heading up the stairs to her surrogate daughter’s room and knocking on the door.
“Come in,” Mads mumbled, and Cass entered to see a stressed young woman pacing back and forth.
“Come sit down,” Cass instructed as she sat down on the edge of the bed, watching Maddy eye her warily.
“You didn’t tell me to wait in the corner,” she said, her tone suggesting that she was challenging Cass to say anything different.
“No, I didn’t,” Cass agreed, “though I would like you to come sit down now , Madison.” Using Maddy’s full name seemed to help spur things along, the agent gulping nervously before sitting down on the bed as far away as possible from Cass. That was fine, she could work with that.
“What?” Mads asked, and Cass knew that the younger woman was aiming for an annoyed tone, but all she could hear was the scared child underneath.
“I read what you had written, sitting at the table,” Cass started, but was interrupted before she could continue.
“What about it?” Mads asked, aiming for hostility but, again, all Cass could hear was her daughter’s fear.
“I think today might have all been a really big and really bad misunderstanding.”
“I knew you’d take her side,” Mads shot back, and Cass was surprised at the vitriol present in the agent’s tone as she referenced her other surrogate parent.
“I’m not taking any sides,” Cass tried to soothe, though Mads just scowled harder, “but I do know what that meeting this morning was about, if you would like to be clued in?”
“I already know what it was,” Mads shot back, “I thought you had read what I wrote. Figures that you wouldn’t listen to me as well.”
“Madison Bradley-Verity,” Cass said, tone sharp, “Watch the attitude, little girl.” The words made Maddy’s glare just a little less antagonistic, the scared child underneath her posturing being called out directly. “I read what you thought the meeting was about, but would you like to know what it was actually about? Because Ness called me right afterwards and filled me in, sweet girl.”
“So you know I’m getting fired, or transferred maybe if I’m lucky. So what? Do you know what I did to make Mo- Ness mad at me in the first place?” Cass smiled internally as she caught Maddy’s small slip-up; the younger woman had been doing that more often lately, and Cass fully expected for Mads to start calling Ness “mom” sooner rather than later.
“You didn’t do anything, honey,” Cass said gently, and before Mads could argue she held up her hand, “no, wait, sweet girl. Please just hear me out?” she paused then, waiting until Mads gave a small nod before continuing, “That meeting wasn’t about transferring you, and Ness isn’t mad at you. That meeting was about the SES wanting you for an op that everyone knows is too dangerous; Ness only started yelling when the bitch tried to justify why she had picked you, because the justifications were mean.” That was the understatement of the century, Ness had called her nearly sobbing after to repeat some of the worst parts, but Mads didn’t need more detail to add to her arsenal of self-battery.
“Oh,” Maddy said softly, the look on her face conflicted. Cass wasn’t particularly surprised at that, she had given the girl a lot to chew on.
“Any annoyance towards you today was because of disrespect, kiddo,” Cass smiled sadly as Mads dropped her eyes, the look on her face quickly going from petulant to guilty. “We’re going to take care of that disrespect tonight,” she continued narrating, “and then we’re going to make a giant nest of blankets in the living room and eat dinner and watch movies and cuddle. And I’m saying that you and Ness will be taking tomorrow off,” she stated with no room to argue. Her wife and kid had both gotten way too worked up, and returning them to the office where the pressure of that assignment still plagued Ness would not be good for either of their mental health.
“Taking care of it?” Mads asked, her voice no longer angry and instead just nervous.
“Yes, sweet girl,” Cass said, “do you want a snuggle while I tell you what’s going to happen?” She watched as the wording caused Mads to blush a deep red, but soon she had an armful of teary junior agent. She pulled Maddy up onto her lap as she scooched back on the bed, getting her into position for what was to come.
“I’m going to spank you,” Cass started without fanface, smiling internally when Maddy abruptly became squirmy at that proclamation, “though I doubt that’s a shock to you at this point. Then we’re going to go downstairs and you can apologize to Ness for some of your more choice words after she washes your mouth out.”
“She what?” Mads asked quietly.
“Your words today were meant to hurt; this is meant to remind you to think harder about your word choices next time,” Cass explained, though this wasn’t the first time the young woman would have experienced that particular punishment. Still, it was a pretty rare occurrence, and Cass couldn’t help giving the girl on her lap a quick squeeze of a hug, “and then Ness and I will snuggle you until you’re absolutely sick of it, and probably a little more beyond that too.” Cass was satisfied when, as anticipated, that brought a small smile to Maddy’s face.
“Let’s get your spanking out of the way now, sweet girl,” Cass said gently, helping to maneuver the younger woman so that she was, instead of being cuddled in her lap, laying face-down over it, her bottom elevated over Cass’s thighs, “lift up,” she tapped Maddy’s hip, reaching around and unfastening her pants before sliding those and her boyshorts down to the bottom of her thighs. Mads whined, as she normally did when finding herself in this position, and Cass began.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Mads could never figure out if she preferred Ness or Cass’s style of spanking more. Fortunately, neither were too chatty during the actual spanking, though they made her talk about her feelings before and after. Especially before; after, they were more likely to cuddle her than anything else.
She wished they could just skip to the cuddle phase.
Especially because Cass’s hand was surprisingly hard and very mean. It shouldn’t even be a surprise anymore, but Maddy managed to forget that fact every time she landed herself in this position. And, unfortunately, she landed herself over one of her mothers’ knees more often than she’d care to admit.
Cass was really not lecturing during the event apparently pouring all her attention into the spanking. Over and over again her hand fell on Maddy’s rear end, making the agent twist and squirm in a futile effort to avoid further pain.
Maddy always started spankings stoic, her pride couldn’t handle anything different. She always ended spankings as a miserable puddle of snot and tears. The rate from which she went from the former to the latter depended on her emotional state, and how guilty she felt. She hadn’t been feeling guilty up until Cass had explained things, but her emotional state had been a roller coaster all day.
This is all to say that she was reduced to tears embarrassingly (in her opinion) quickly. Sniffles held out for a while until they were replaced by shuddery breaths, which lasted for a while until they were replaced by small cries, which were eventually replaced by embarrassingly loud, full-bodied sobbing.
And then the assault on her bottom was over, her underwear and pants pulled back up to their proper position, and Cass’s strong hand had changed from punishing to comforting as she gently rubbed Maddy’s lower back. Maddy cried out the last of her heaving sobs that way and then, when she was merely sniffling, Cass helped her sit up next to her and pulled her so they were reclining on the bed.
Maddy let herself rest against Cass and absorb all the comfort that the older woman was offering. She wasn’t ready to face Ness, yet, but she knew Cass would let her have all the time she would need.
-o-o-o-o-o-
After a while Mads started to shift nervously, still cuddled next to Cass, and the older woman turned to face her surrogate daughter and gently smoothed the girl’s hair back.
“You ready to face Ness?” Cass asked softly.
“Is it going to be really bad?” Mads said in a small voice, making her sound even younger.
“No, sweet girl,” Cass reassured the young agent, “Ness isn’t mad, and neither am I. Let’s go get the mouthsoaping out of the way too, shall we?” Cass stifled a laugh at Maddy’s scrunched up nose, the girl didn’t need to think that she was being laughed at. Despite the obvious distaste on her face, Mads didn’t fight Cass on it at all, following the scientist back to the kitchen where Ness sat behind a cup of tea. Her wife looked tired, and Cass hated to add another thing to Ness’s plate, but… Maddy needed this, from both of them, and Cass knew that Ness would agree.
“Sorry,” Mads mumbled to Ness without Cass needing to prompt.
“Come here,” Ness said, the words gentle but still undeniably an order. She herself stood up, and soon she was face to face with their kid. Reaching out, she grabbed Maddy’s hands and held them gently.
“I love you,” she started, pulling Mads into a quick hug. “I love you so much, and I'm so sorry you ever thought otherwise. You're not being fired, or reassigned, or anything like that.” Cass could hear what Ness wasn't saying, though.
“You are, however, getting your mouth washed out. We’ve got the spanking taken care of,” Cass smoothly broke in, watching as Maddy’s face colored red as she shifted on her feet, now reminded of her sore bottom. Cass directed her next words towards her wife, “but I think you should handle the mouthsoaping.” Cass could tell her wife wanted to raise her eyebrows, the stunned look in her eyes usually accompanied the motion, but fortunately Ness held it together for Maddy’s sake. They hadn’t talked about it before, no, but it seemed fitting that they both show their daughter just how much they cared for her.
Still, Cass raised her eyebrows, standing behind Mads, silently asking Ness if she needed Cass to take back over. However, Ness’s next words showed she was on board with the plan.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Words can hurt,” Ness stated bluntly, and watched as Maddy winced and looked away. Squeezing her surrogate daughter’s hands gently, she instructed her protege to raise her eyes back up to meet Ness’s own.
“Words can hurt,” Ness reiterated, again gently squeezing Maddy’s hands, “and we’ve talked about this before. Clearly a spanking alone isn’t helping, so let’s try washing those words out of your mouth too.” Maddy stood in front of Ness, not able to hide her squirming, and Ness internally grinned- turns out those resources that Cass thrust upon her were actually as useful as her wife proclaimed.
“Come here, darling,” Ness said, pulling Maddy towards the sink. Maddy, to her credit, didn’t fight- though her displeasure was plenty clear on her face. Once she had the young woman situated next to the sink, Ness reached into a cabinet that held a small stash of soap that wouldn’t be dangerous to use for this purpose. Quietly, without much fanfare, Ness unwrapped the small bar and ran it under water briefly.
“Open, darling,” Ness tapped Maddy’s chin and Mads complied immediately despite her apprehensive look. As soon as the soap touched the young woman’s tongue, her face scrunched up, “and bite.” Mads sent a pleading look to her surrogate mother, but Ness held firm.
“Five minutes, I think,” Ness said, and heard Mads groan around the soap, “I could make it longer, if you have objections.” She cocked an eyebrow upwards, shooting Mads her best ‘unimpressed mom’ look. Maddy looked vaguely remorseful, shaking her head rapidly until Ness steadied her with a gentle hand cupping her daughter’s cheek.
She had Mads hold eye contact through the entire ordeal, and her heart felt like it was breaking as she watched Mads give up on stoicism and give into her tears, undoubtedly for not the first time that day. Ness gently kept running her thumb over her kid’s cheekbone, wishing for both their sakes that the timer would go off soon.
It felt like the timer took its sweet, sweet time, but finally it beeped. Mads looked at Ness pleadingly, and Ness gave the younger woman a nod. Mads wasted no time in spitting out the soap, and Cass immediately held out a cup of water for Mads to rinse with.
After Maddy had rinsed as much of the taste away as she was ever going to, Ness pulled her protege away from the sink and into a tight hug.
“I read what you wrote,” Ness started.
“Sorry,” Maddy mumbled, her arms growing even tighter around Ness.
“It’s okay,” Ness soothed, “your feelings are never wrong. But I think we have to talk about what actually happened today.” She held up her phone, “especially since my argument meant nothing, and you’re being called on that operation.” Ness felt like her blood was boiling, but she couldn’t let Mads see, lest her surrogate-daughter think that Ness was angry at her.
No, she was angry at the callous text that she received when Mads was rinsing her mouth, a text that made Ness’s stomach plummet instantly. Everyone knew that operation was unsafe, and apparently Ness couldn’t spare Maddy from it.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“What?” Mads whispered, Cass’s earlier words coming back to her memory. If Ness was objecting so vehemently to an operation, she most definitely had a reason. Cass had mentioned it being unsafe, and Maddy felt vaguely queasy at the thought. She was finally living a life she loved, something she never thought she would have; she didn’t want to be maimed or killed!
“Couch, please,” Cass instructed, “I need both my girls next to me right now.” The words made Maddy’s eyes fill with tears; she didn’t want to lose this. Even if the operation went okay, the nature of their work meant that Mads would be in deep cover. Ness would be her contact person, sure, but their interactions were short and sporadic as to avoid raising suspicion. And she wouldn’t be able to see Cass at all until it was over.
“Oh, sweet girl,” Cass tucked Maddy into her side, holding the younger woman steady, “we’ve got you.” Mads couldn’t make out the words Cass was murmuring to Ness, but soon she heard Ness’s voice directed towards her.
“Alright darling, time to explain what happened today,” Ness sighed, running a hand through her hair, “I was called because a supervisor had requested you for an operation that, quite frankly, I don’t want you on.” Well, Mads had expected that, but somehow the words still stung. “Not,” Ness held up her hand in a stop gesture, clarifying her previous words, “because I think you’re not capable. I don’t want you on this op because I think it’s poorly planned and needlessly dangerous.”
“Oh,” Maddy whispered.
“What Wanda heard from my office earlier was me yelling about those same opinions. Well, partly. Partly because they were being assholes to you, even if you weren’t there to see it, and I wasn’t going to stand for that,” well, that thought made Mads feel warm-and-fuzzy or something.
“And so they assigned me anyways?” Maddy asked with increasing dread.
“Yes, darling, they did.” Ness got up from where she was seated on the other side of Cass, and relocated as to be next to Maddy. Soon, Ness’s strong arms were surrounding her, “but we’re going to work to make it as safe as possible. I’ve got your back always, kiddo.” The term of endearment made Maddy’s heart swoop; it was a weird feeling, but not unwelcome, and she mostly just felt… loved.
And she would fight to come back to this, every day; regardless of what operation the FBI saw fit to send her on.