Lucy's House – Barcelona

09:36am

Scud emerged from the guest room, adjusting his suspenders and mumbling to himself.

"I don't know why I bother. Damn things are forever twisting!" Sighing, he moved into the bathroom, turned the hot water faucet and held the back of his hand under the clear liquid until it warmed to an acceptable temperature. He splashed the water onto his face, dried it with a towel, and then opened the cabinet that was hung on the wall. Eying the vast collection of hair products, he picked up one of the containers and coated his fingers with the gum, running them through his hair. "God bless Queer Eye." He said to himself, then put the hair cream back in its place and proceeded with his morning routine.

It had become a regular thing. Even though he did in fact have his own place in Barcelona, more often than not he found himself spending the night, week, even the odd month at Lucy's. Seeing how she had been over the last 12 months made him very reluctant to leave her alone for long. He felt that, right now, she needed to be around friends. Or one friend, as it were, a life long friend at that. Someone she could confide in, and confide she had. Over and over again. Accompanied by tears and angry words. He'd gladly provided a strong, sturdy shoulder for her to cry on, along with copious amounts of tissues and he'd even installed a punching bag in her room in Reykjavik. He pitied the padded bag in a way. It had suffered a whole lot of abuse during the last year, getting the stuffing punched out of it, literally. Even when they'd relocated to Barcelona, he'd brought it with them. Lucy wasn't so violent and didn't have as much pent up anger by then, but he'd hung it in her room just in case. Now, she used it to work out more than anything else, instead of just laying into it when she was tired of crying and screaming and throwing things, and the fact that she had stopped doing those things was something her possessions were very glad about.

He made his way towards the kitchen, briefly stopping at Lucy's bedroom door, considering checking to see how she was, but decided against it. It was still early and he didn't think the diamond thief would appreciate being dragged from sleep at such an hour. Anytime before noon was way too early. So, he continued towards the kitchen and proceeded to make himself a much needed cup of coffee. He took the steaming mug in his hands and wondered into the living room, sipping the liquid and recoiling as it scalded his lips. He sighed at his ever present lack of patience and flopped heavily onto the couch, where a rather haphazard looking pile of blankets had unceremoniously been tossed.

"Looks like Lucy had a sleepless night." He mused, setting his mug down on the coffee table in front of him and reached for the PlayStation 2 controller that was set beside it, giving the power button a jab with his big toe. Scud shook his head, trying to get rid of the last few fragments of sleep, and turned the TV on with the remote that lay on the arm of the couch. He watched as the 'Square Enix' logo appeared on the TV screen and loaded his previously saved game.

"Ah YRP, my beautiful fair maidens of the sphere-hunting world. If only there was some sort of device that could make you real, live women." He sighed wistfully, contently watching a cut scene that involved the three main characters of the Final Fantasy X-2 videogame.

"You really need to get out more." The unexpected voice caused Scud to jump and almost loose his grip on the console's controller. His head snapped to the left and his gaze fell on the heap of blankets he was sitting next to. The top half of them were suddenly throw back, revealing a very tired looking brunette's face. Scud blinked a few times, recovering from the shock.

"Lucy?" He asked, dumbly. Lucy rolled her eyes and allowed a wry smile to settle on her lips.

"It's nice to know your videogame-warped mind can still remember my name." She shifted slightly, but didn't sit up. "Really, I'm honoured." Game play forgotten for the moment, Scud stared incredulously at Lucy. He took in her bed hair and sleepy expression, but noticed that her voice held no remnants of sleep and, on closer inspection, that she was wearing the same clothes as she had been the night before.

"Have you been awake all night?" She nodded in confirmation and rubbed her eyes.

"My brain decided it didn't want my body to rest." Lucy said simply and then indicated the TV. "You might want to pause if you plan on staring at me like that for much longer." Scud blinked a few more times before he understood what she meant, and hurriedly turned back to the television screen, pressed the 'start' button on the controller, then set it back down next to his cup of coffee. When silence enveloped them and he realised that Lucy wasn't going to speak unless he prompted her, he ventured forth with a question.

"So, what's up? Why the lack of sleep and overactive brain?" Scud paused. "Or is that a stupid question?" Lucy shrugged nonchalantly and closed her eyes again.

"I had a lot of thinking to do." Knowing how he often reacted to things, she wasn't entirely sure whether she should tell Scud about her late night visit to Amy's hotel room. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Such as?" Even with her eyes closed and despite the fact that she really didn't want to, Lucy still managed to look guilty. "Lucy." He drew out slowly, knowing she was keeping something from him, and wanting very much to know what it was. The brunette groaned loudly and rolled onto her stomach, burying her face in the corner of the sofa where the back met the arm. "Lucy, what did you do?" When he only received another muffled groan in protest, he exhaled noisily and dove at her, attacking her ribs with her fingers.

"Scud!" She yelped through automatic, but less than amused laughter, getting her bearings together quickly and pounding on his back with her fists. It was a closely guarded secret, but Lucy, master criminal and diamond thief extraordinaire, was extremely ticklish. Her limbs flailed about in the air in a desperate, failing attempt to get Scud away from her and he couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"I'm not giving in until you agree to tell me." He warned, continuing his assault, but Lucy continued to struggle, her stomach aching from the laughter she couldn't hold back. "You give?" He moved his hands, attacking an insanely ticklish spot on her side and she lashed out involuntarily, almost elbowing him in the face. "Now, now, that's no way to treat a friend who is simply seeking information."

"Jesus, Scud! Stop it!" She managed to gasp, but he was relentless.

"Not until you say it." Lucy gritted her teeth.

"I give!" Smiling triumphantly, Scud ceased his movements and relaxed back into his place on the couch. Lucy took several deep, calming breaths and waited for her heart rate to return to something that resembled normal.

"You're an ass." She said finally, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

"But a loveable one." He shot back with a grin. "Now, spill. You had guilt-face, what did you do?" Lucy sighed heavily and shifted into a more comfortable position, tucking her legs underneath her body and draping the blankets over them.

"I went out last night." She admitted, guilt-face back and set firmly in place.

"Please do not tell me I'm going to have to have to pose as the boyfriend of an alcoholic bisexual who can't control herself after a few drinks, and explain your behaviour to some beefy jock type. Again." Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Once! You've had to do that once! And only because I was too incapacitated to take care of that idiot myself." She huffed, pouting a little.

"And what does that teach you?" Scud asked, briefly reminding Lucy of a kindergarten teacher. "That drinking solves nothing." He finished for her, fully expecting her to refuse to answer.

"Yes, I know." She said slowly, sternly, glaring at him. "Can we drop the not so subtle drinking hints? I get it. I don't have a glass of JD in my hand right now, do I? And I'd say that is a considerable improvement on the last year." Scud raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, consider the drink talk finished. For good." He relaxed his posture again, but continued looking at the brunette, quizzically. "So, you went out?" She nodded, but didn't speak. "Where? Club? Take away? Visit an old crime boss friend?" Lucy threw a look of disdain in his direction, the last suggestion clearly not amusing to her, and Scud nodded seriously. "Point taken, sorry. So, are you gonna tell me where you went?" Lucy jutted her bottom lip out and folded her arms across her chest.

"I don't wanna." She whined, portraying her five-year-old self perfectly.

"Lucy." Warning seeped into his voice once more and Lucy sighed, defeated. Her fingers picked aimlessly at the blanket strewn across her lap, as her gaze shied away from the man sitting beside her. She wanted to tell him, at least so that she could discuss her own feelings about what had happened and get his advice. It was something she'd always turned to him for. When times were rough, when she was feeling down, she'd turn to Scud and ask for his input. He was her right hand man for a reason. On the other hand, she didn't want to hear another 'I told you so'. She hated that phrase and had come across too many times in her opinion. Still, the phrase would apply in this situation. Scud had told her to steer clear of Amy, to forget about her. He had told her that it would only cause her more heartache. When it came down to it, he'd been right. As he, oddly enough, often was.

"I went to see Amy." Her voice was barely a whisper, hushed, tentative. Almost like a frightened child, though Scud would never have dreamed of saying such things out loud. He knew from experience that Lucy packed one hell of a right hook. Left hook too. To her surprise, there was no sudden outburst of disappointment, no yelled 'I told you so'. His face fell a little at the revelation, but other than that, his expression remained neutral.

"Luce." He sighed heavily, pushing the air past barely parted lips, and rubbing the frown lines on his forehead. "You promised me you wouldn't. You promised." He put extra emphasis on the last word.

"I know." She said guiltily, pulling at a loose thread on the blanket.

"I didn't get you her address so you could swan over there like the Milk Tray Man." Scud admonished, picking the mug up off the coffee table and taking a long gulp of the warm drink. He cradled the cup in his hands and stared down at the brown coloured liquid. He was a little annoyed, disappointed, and maybe even a tad angry, but part of him had expected Lucy to go and see Amy. Part of him knew that when he'd handed her the address, she'd take the first opportunity that presented itself and track the DEB down. He was as much to blame for Lucy going to see Amy as Lucy herself, and because of that, he wasn't about to sit there and yell at her, tell her she was wrong for doing it. "What happened?" A short burst of mirthless laughter emitted from the brunette at the question, and she shook her head.

"I really don't know. I've been sitting here all night, trying to work out what exactly happened, but I can't." Lucy admitted, glumly. She pushed her fingers into her forehead, rubbing it roughly, and frowned. "One minute I knew what was going on, the next.... things kind of got away from me."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Scud offered, taking another sip of his coffee. Lucy moved her hand from her forehead and bit the end of her thumb thoughtfully.

"I guess I kind of went over there for two reasons. I wanted to confront her." The admission was laced with underlying guilt and Scud could see it on her face. "I wanted to know. Why she did what she did. Maybe yell at her a bit. But I wanted to see her too. I wanted to be able to be in the same room as her, see her in the flesh, not just in some photo. So I had the opportunity to reach out and touch her again." She took a deep breath. "Things didn't quite turn out the way I thought they would, though. Well, no, they did." Scud arched an eyebrow and peered at her, quizzically. "Uh, a bit of both?"

"What do you mean?" The young man asked, sipping his coffee slowly, thoroughly confused. Without missing a beat, Lucy reached out, swiped Scud's mug out of his hands and continued, leaving him staring at his now empty palms.

"It wasn't going too bad, except for the fact that she was being defensive. Asking all kinds of questions, being really cold, you know? So I called her on it and she just exploded. Started yelling at me." Lucy made a face, her brow becoming furrowed, her lips pursed and jutting to one side. "But then my temper kicked in and I yelled back. I decided it had been a bad idea going there, so I tried to leave, but then she said something about leaving being what I'm best at and I saw red again." Scud stayed silent, nodding occasionally, but letting Lucy speak. "And that's when things got really confusing." She took a sip of Scud's coffee, who looked on with something that resembled a glare, and sighed. "I made a comment about her stabbing me in the back, then I told her I was there at Endgame that night, that I heard everything, and she just got quiet and looked shocked, like that was the last thing she'd expected me to say." Lucy herself became silent after that, staring into the coffee mug, lost in thought.

"Did she say anything?" Scud asked, and he reached out, trying to take the mug from Lucy, who evaded his attempt with ease, slapping at his hand with her free one.

"She said a lot of stuff after that. It's why I've been awake all night." The brunette gnawed on her bottom lip, something she was never aware of doing before she met Amy. "She said that she had no idea I was there. To cut a long story short.... she told me that Max had written the speech for her. That she'd had to take the stage and say it. It was like, like a cover up. So no one would find out what happened or suspect anything. She said that doing it was the only way she could save her career." Lucy paused, a look of total sadness covering her face. "She said she'd hoped I'd go back for her. She told me.... she told me she still had feelings for me." Silence fell between the two of them. Scud's was stunned, confused, Lucy's contemplative and unsure. He was lost in trying to piece together everything Lucy had told him, and she was lost in memories of the previous night.

"Was she...." He trailed off, trying to word his sentence right and not wanting to upset Lucy with his question. "Did she seem.... sincere?" The brunette looked at him for a moment, before nodding, her movements slight and almost undetectable. Scud scratched his head, then dropped his hand back to the arm of the sofa with a huff. "Well, talk about a misunderstanding." Lucy blinked at him in surprise.

"You believe her?"

"Do you?" He threw back. "I think that's the more important question here." Lucy didn't respond, instead, she glumly looked down at the blanket thrown across her.

"I don't know." She ran her hand over the top of her head, feeling its messiness and tried to smooth it down. "I know I want to, but it's not that simple." The brunette sighed heavily and let her head loll backwards, staring up at the ceiling. "I almost kissed her."

"You what?" Scud literally squeaked, then realised what he'd done, cleared his throat and repeated his question, lowering his voice a few octaves. "You what?"

"And she almost let me. I could see it in her eyes, she wanted me to." Lucy continued. "I was so close, it almost happened. Then she turned her head at the last minute. Started spouting that 'we can't do this, my career' bullshit." She spat, bitterly.

"Ouch." Eyebrows raised slightly, Scud nodded sympathetically. "What did you do?"

"Told her what I thought and left. I walked around for a while after that, tried to clear my head and calm down, then I came back here." She finished her story with a rough rub of her eyes, leaving them red and sore looking. "I shouldn't have gone. I should have left things alone." Frustrated, Lucy threw the blanket off her, grabbed the coffee mug and stomped into the kitchen. Scud made a gesture with his hands, splaying his fingers and arching his hands out away from his body, looking bewildered and got up to follow her. He arrived in the kitchen just in time to see Lucy dump the contents of the mug into the sink. His eyes widened in tired annoyance, but he said nothing, and instead pulled out one of the island stools and sat down.

"So, what are you gonna do now?" Lucy turned to face him, leaning back against the sink and resting her hands on its cool metal edge.

"I have no idea."

AC Front Maritim Hotel Poblenou area

Barcelona 11:37

Amy's room

Amy slid her gun into her ankle holster and settled the leg of her jeans down over it, hiding it from view. She quickly ran a brush through her hair and applied a small amount of lip gloss out of habit. Ms. Petrie had beamed in earlier that morning, briefed them all on what the day was to hold and given them a number of hot spots to check out. The DEBS had quickly scattered to their respective rooms once she'd left to get ready and gather any things they might need. Things were hectic as usual, but for once Amy was glad about it. It took her mind off other things, namely everything that was going on with Lucy. It made her head spin to think about it, not to mention the pain it was causing.

"We almost kissed." Amy had mused obsessively, trying to put everything that had happened the night before together and make sense of it. She couldn't, things has spiralled out of control so fast, the entire thing had been a rollercoaster of emotions, and like a rollercoaster itself, had left her feeling a little ill. "I have to focus on the mission." She reminded herself, nodding sharply in determination. "The mission comes first."Amy ignored the voice in the back of her mind that told her that the mission, her career, was a large part of what was causing so many problems.

A loud rapping at the door to her room made her jump, and she spun around quickly as if she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have. Which, when she thought about it, was exactly what she had been doing.

"Who is it?" She asked, a brief visual of Lucy standing outside the door passing through her mind.

"It's Max." The answer sounded more like a bark than actual words. Amy sighed, exhaling through her noise, and told the squad leader to come in. "You ready yet?"

"Um...." She paused, looking around her room and bending down to pat around her ankle to make sure she had in fact remembered her gun. "Yeah, I think so." She made to leave, not really wanting to risk the conversation turning sour, which it often did, but was stopped by Max's hand on her shoulder.

"Actually, we need to talk." Amy's body stiffened at the words, feeling them send tendrils of dread to every nerve ending she had. Panic-laced thoughts that Janet had told her about Lucy or that somehow the dark-haired DEB had found out anyway. Maybe Intelligence had tracked her down and given Max the information.

"Oh? What about?" Amy asked, a little too hurriedly, her heart pounding in her chest. "Don't we have to get moving?" "I wonder if I'd live a drop from the balcony."

"Yeah, but first I need to talk to you." Max persisted, dropping her hand from Amy's shoulder and closing the door to the room.

"Right, of course. If I had to suddenly run back up here for something, she'd probably shoot me, but if she needs something...."Amy ran her fingers through her hair nervously and looked at Max. "What's this about?" The dark-haired DEB avoided eye contact for a few seconds, before she set her steely gaze on the blonde.

"Us, actually." Amy visible baulked at the statement, reeling as it took her completely off guard. "This thing between us." Max moved her index finger back and forth between them, and Amy gave her a look of pure confusion.

"What?" This was the last thing Amy had been expecting and, when she thought about it, she might have gladly talked about Lucy being in Barcelona and how she knew about it instead.

"Look, I know I've been kinda bitchy this last year." Amy bit back a retort about that being an understatement. "And, even though I think I've had good reason, I've decided to try and put this behind us. We can't keep working together with this tension between us." Amy blinked a few times as she stared at Max.

"You've decided." She said slowly, taking in what the other woman had said.

"Yeah, I figured it was about time I stopped riding you and put the mission first. We're never gonna find this guy if we can't communicate." Amy exhaled loudly and smiled in disbelief.

"Okay, just.... let me get this straight." She took a step towards Max, who looked at her strangely, as if wondering why Amy hadn't just accepted what she'd said and why they weren't downstairs already. "You decided this? You can just click your fingers and decide that you forgive me?" Anger began to seep into her voice and she shook her head, blonde locks flailing about, looking as irate as she was. "What about me forgiving you for all the crap you've given me over the last year? You know, you've made it ten times more difficult for me to get up every morning and do my job, knowing I'd have to face the hostility and cold shoulder again."

"I think I had every right to be cold towards you after what you did." Max snapped, her eyes flashing wildly. "If anything, you should be thanking me right now."

"Thanking you? What for?" Amy scoffed.

"I saved your ass! You would have been kicked out of the Academy if I hadn't come up with the Endgame idea." She reminded Amy, almost cockily, as if the blonde might have forgotten.

"And I can't count the times since then I've wondered if I would have been happier if you hadn't come up with it." Amy countered, honestly. It was true, she'd spent many sleepless nights wondering what would have happened if she'd been shipped off to Siberia. Even with the lack of toilet paper and diet coke, she'd often thought she would have been a lot happier there.

"Jesus Amy, I try to help you and this is the thanks I get?" Max all but shouted, taking a large stride that brought her almost toe to toe with the taller woman.

"Help? Is that what you call it?" Amy stared down at her.

"I just want what's best for you! That's all I've ever wanted." Max's hard demeanour dropped just slightly as she said the words, but Amy didn't notice, and her next words were on her tongue and out of her mouth before she'd even registered thinking them.

"Yeah, you keep saying that. Did you ever think that maybe it might be better for me if I decided what's best for me? Because if it's not what you want for me, I really don't think you could give a damn at the end of the day." Without another word, Amy stormed out of her hotel room, leaving a stunned Max behind.