Chapter 10
Staring contests are weird. They originated somewhere in grade school, before handheld videogames, when kids had to get really creative to find entertainment. So, they'd sit there, looking into each other's eyes, trying not to look away. Thinking about doing that as an adult is nearly unfathomable. But for Claire Redfield and Kara Thrace, there was absolutely no choice in the matter. They'd just kissed for the first time and it needed to be addressed in some way, but neither wanted to be the first to speak.
Two things were occurring to Claire at that moment: the first was that she should probably be the one to start off the dialogue given that she was still the senior ranking member in the room, and the second was about taking the leap and speaking first; this meant that she could issue forth some questions to Thrace and possibly take back control of the situation. So she opened her mouth to speak, not entirely sure what was about to come out of it.
"How long have you wanted to do that?"
Kara's face took on a stunned expression as she started to assess the situation and realized that Claire had somehow negotiated regaining the upper hand.
"I..." she stammered. "Well, how long have you?"
"I asked you first," Claire stepped forward to push her point.
"Um, ok," she tried to think of a way to keep Claire from completely interrogating her. "If I answer then you have to let me ask a question. Quid pro quo and such."
"Fine, stop stalling," she leaned in and braced her hand on the wall near Kara's face. "How long?"
"Off and on since the first time I met you," she finally spat out.
"What do you mean off and on?" Claire's forehead scrunched.
"Nuh-uh, it's my turn now," she pointed a finger into the redhead's chest before crossing her arms and adopting a mischievous grin. "Did you like it?"
Claire cocked her jaw and tried to bite back the smile that was growing on her own face, "It wasn't bad."
"Not bad?" she tried to look offended. "Really? When was the last time you played hard-to-get? Because you suck at it."
Claire allowed the full smile to cross her face at that moment, but it soon turned to a worried pursing of the lips. "Whether I liked it or not, us continuing to act on it probably isn't the best idea."
"Why?" Thrace asked soberly.
"Because it complicates things. I've probably already landed in a mountain of trouble with Alice over the way I acted about you taking down the Hive. If we took things further, it would only serve to make those moments more frequent."
Kara rolled her eyes, "Jesus, of all the people I've ever met, you are the absolute best at finding a way to ruin your own possible happiness. Claire, we are living in a post-apocalyptic world where monsters roam the Earth and our lives are on the line every single day. Your professionalism as a member of the resistance should be the last thing on your mind. What do you think Alice is going to do? Send you to bed without dinner?"
Claire shook her head. "It's not that simple, Kara. The monsters may be one fight we have to face, but so is maintaining order and that is barely hanging on by a thread as it is. The power held by anyone around here has a little to do with strength and a lot to do with self delusion. It's all arbitrary and can turn on a dime. If Alice doesn't want fraternizing within the ranks, we have to obey that."
"Let me get this straight," Kara stated as she put her hands on Claire's shoulders. "You're telling me that if we hook up, that action could single handedly ruin the ranks of the resistance... And you think that giving this thing between us the added allure of being forbidden fruit is going to make me want it less?"
"That's not what I said," Claire crossed her arms and furrowed her brow in annoyance.
"Don't you think you may be taking all of this a little too seriously? I mean, I've heard of Earth shattering sex, but I never thought I'd have the chance to experience it," Kara joked.
"It's not funny, Thrace!" she growled, punching the other woman in the arm.
"Actually, it is funny, but you know what's hysterical?"
"God, do I dare ask?"
"Well, for one, you basically just admitted to me that the only thing that's stopping this from happening is House Mother Alice's blessing, which I will absolutely ask for if that's what's required to win your hand," the sarcasm from her last statement could have been collected and bottled in abundance. "But the best part is it also tells me that you're not only interested, but taking this whole thing seriously."
"And how do you possibly figure that?" Claire indulged her briefly.
"Because, as allergic to fun as you may seem, Claire Redfield, I know for a fact that you get your kicks from time to time around last call at the bar if the right girl just so happens to be lounging about. You haven't been celibate this whole time and you certainly haven't kept your pen out of the company ink. Girls talk. I know you liked kissing me. The question is what's holding you back from doing it again. And I think the answer is that you genuinely like me and that scares you."
Claire looked deeply into the blonde's eyes. Kara was right, and as much as Claire wanted to bat her away yet again, she was tired of fighting.
"What if you're right? What does that matter?"
"It matters because I'm brave enough for the both of us. And I don't take kindly to giving into fear," she put an arm around Claire's shoulders and started to lead them out of the conference room. "Now come on, I've got to be up early in the morning and I'd like to have a few drinks at the bar. If you're lucky, I'll let you get me liquored so you can try to take advantage of me."
"You know, that whole smartass thing isn't going to be entertaining forever," Claire protested with her words, but her body followed the girl's lead.
"And that's exactly what the booze are for," Thrace replied as she led them away for what would hopefully be a non-violent evening.
"They can't just keep us locked up down here forever," Mal stated, his tone agitated, but even as his fists gripped the bars that held him and his compatriots captive within the Hive, he knew that the aggressors who'd stormed the castle may very well be planning on doing just that.
"Well sure, they'll have to take us for bathroom breaks at some point," Tony joked from his relaxed position on one of the corner benches.
"This is no time for jokes, Stark," Mal said as he turned from the bars and faced the arrogant scientist. "This entire facility has been taken over by people who are more than likely terrorists. We could all be dead by morning if we don't figure out some kind of plan."
"Right, and I'm sure as the head of the maintenance crew you're more than apt for that task," he pulled a plastic spoon from his lab coat. "I swiped this from the lunch room earlier. Was going to use it for my pudding cup, but perhaps with your expert skill you could figure out a way to use it as a makeshift shovel and dig our way up to the surface. Should only take you a couple thousand years."
"I swear to God, you super brainy types are all alike. We're all in the same danger right now, all bound to the same social station, yet you still lord over the rest of us like your shit don't stink."
"Could you please use whatever the functioning part of your knuckle-dragging brain is and think about why we're still alive in the first place? We were gassed, Mal; then shoved in here for safe keeping. If they wanted us dead we would be because they're certainly not going to be using us as hostages- no one would ever claim us. Umbrella may pay some of us well, but they don't give a damn about our lives and should anyone try to so much as whisper about a highly technological facility running dangerous experiments below the Earth's surface, they'd be down here guns a blazing in a hot minute. Not to save our asses, but to save theirs from the political fallout. So, why don't you sit down before you think this through too much and hurt yourself."
"God! Could you guys just shut it?" the voice came from one of the female guards. "Some of us are nursing the after effects of a very annoying concussion."
"Rain's right," the long haired Kara Thrace asserted as she gently checked the dark haired guard's wounds with the Hive's doctor, "Bickering with each other isn't going to get us anywhere. We need to work together to try to figure out what they want."
"Oh, I'm really sorry if we're interrupting a beautifully touching moment of comfort between you and your girlfriend," Tony responded. "But once you two finish up playing doctor, maybe you could use your feminine wiles to extract some information from the male guards outside the door."
"Is it just your goal to be the most hated person in the cell block or something?" Lauren, the Hive's head physician, asked.
"I believe it's always important to excel at something," he replied.
Before any further argument could commence, the outer door opened and two women in tactical gear walked into the holding area. The one with short dark hair seemed to be in charge as she stood slightly ahead of the shorter girl and spoke first.
"Good morning," she said. "My name is Agent Jill Valentine. I am one of the lead field Agents for the Resistance Army and, as of now, I am in charge of all prisoners along with my associate Rain Ocampo."
"Oh my God!" Kara jumped up at the sight of a mirror image of her lover standing on the other side of the bars. "They've somehow gotten a hold of a Seventeen model," she said to the girl next to her.
"Yeah, I noticed. She was kind of bashing my head into the ground earlier," the other Rain stood as well to regard her twin.
"I'm sorry about that," the Recruit said.
"Not now, Rain," Jill admonished softly before addressing the prisoners again. "I'm sure that you all have a lot of questions that need to be answered and I assure you they will be in due time, but for right now I need you to understand that as long as you cooperate with us you will not be harmed. You'll each be brought out one by one for an interviewing session where you will be given food and water as well as bathroom privileges. But for right now, we ask for your patience as we get things situated around here."
"What do you people want?" Mal asked, his jaw tight. "What the hell is the Resistance Army?"
"Believe it or not, we're here to help you," Jill answered.
"Um, sweetheart, if you'd like to help me specifically, might I request a scotch on the rocks and a more revealing outfit?"
"Hmmf," Jill smirked at his incredulity. "You're going to be particularly fun to speak with, Mr. Stark. Just not the kind of fun I'd assume you're used to."
"Well, it was worth a shot," he leaned his head back up against the wall as if bored by the conversation.
"Actually, I'd say it's worth a lot more than that," the long, blonde haired doctor stepped forward. "You people can't expect us to just sit back and say nothing about what you've done. There are a substantial number of absent faces from this crowd. I don't assume you've got them held up in some holding cell unknown to the rest of us."
Rain's face fell to the floor and Jill knew it had happened without even a glance. That's why she had to stay strong and keep her own held high.
"It is utterly regretful that any lives were lost in our siege of this facility, but I assure you, every precaution was taken to keep casualties at a minimum."
"I highly doubt that," the doctor spat.
"It's true," Hive-Kara stated with a dazed stare. "I met you earlier, didn't I?"
The question was posed to Rain who answered with a worried nod.
"What are you talking about?" Hive-Rain questioned and she stood to draw closer.
"I um..." the lab assistant faltered. "I ran into her in the hallway and... thought she was you."
"Uh-huh, and what happened after that?" the tone was tinged with jealousy.
"Well, we just had a quick chat and... I mean, she was pretending to be you, so I assume she was doing so in order to keep me in the dark and spare my life."
"I was," Recruit Ocampo nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah, well if I know Kara well enough, I'd say you did more than that," Hive-Rain challenged.
"Ok, we kissed, but I swear I didn't want to," Resistance-Rain said as much to her clone as she did to Jill, who was wearing a smile she could not see. "She looks just like my best friend. It was like kissing my sister. I just didn't want to see her die."
"So you did kiss her!" Hive-Rain shrieked.
"How was I supposed to know it wasn't you? You look just like each other and the kiss was quick."
Further argument broke out amongst the prisoners and was finally silenced by Jill.
"Hey, hey, hey! Everybody settle down! Believe me we're all unhappy about this entire situation, but we need to try to understand the circumstances before we devolve into fighting with each other."
"I hate to admit this, but I think the cutie-pie in charge is right," Tony Stark agreed. "They say they're a part of this Resistance Army. Umbrella knows about every damn threat in the world. Small militias can't gather without them alerting us to it. If they were advanced enough to take down the Hive, and we've never heard of them, then I'd say we probably need to listen to them... That and, if they are enemies of Umbrella, they're probably the good guys."
Everyone became silent as he stood to address the Resistance himself.
"You're probably gonna want to question me first," he cleared his throat. "I'm kind of the one in charge right now."
"Don't be so sure you haven't signed your death warrant with that boast," Sheva, the head botanist, warned as she put a hand on his arm.
"Like I said, sweetheart, I'm betting these are the good guys," his confidence was faltering, but still he stood tall.
Kara awoke to an obnoxious alarm, in a bed that was certainly not her own. Her head was pounding and her mouth was dry and tasted like death. As she took stock of her facilities, she realized that she was clad only in her underwear and undershirt, so she looked around to figure out exactly where she was and what had transpired last night. When her eyes landed on a smirking Claire Redfield, she cringed in both embarrassment as well as remorse.
"How ya doin there, hero?" the agent asked with a moderate amount of snark.
"I've been better," she rasped. "What happened last night? And please tell me we didn't sleep together because if we did, I don't remember it. And I'd really like to remember it."
"Oh, we slept together alright," Claire answered.
"Oh God! Then please tell me I was good," she moaned, burying her head in the pillow.
"Slept, being the operative word," the redhead decided to save the torture for another time. "You were so wasted by the time we got back here that you promised me the time of my life and then passed out before I'd even switched off the lamp."
"Yeah, that sounds just like me," she finally removed her blonde head from its safe haven and regarded the Agent with glassy eyes. "I didn't puke all over you did I? Because that sounds just like me too."
"Nope, no vomiting, minimal drool, and a lot of snoring," she moved to sit on the bed and hand the girl a glass of water. "You're lucky I have headphones, otherwise you'd never be allowed to sleep over again."
Kara drank greedily from the glass and then processed that last sentence, "Wait does that mean I am allowed to sleep over again because you had headphones?"
Claire rolled her eyes, "We'll play that one by ear. Now get dressed, we're supposed to be heading over to the Hive soon and I don't want to be late."
"Ughhh," Kara grunted as she slowly pulled herself from the comfort of the bed. "How did I manage to get so incredibly drunk last night?"
"Well, by the time we made it to the bar word got round of your mission success and people were offering to do shots with you left and right."
"And I felt the need to drink all of them?" the girl asked incredulously as she made her way to the shower.
"I warned you that doing so may not be in your best interests and you replied with 'Listen, Ginger, these assholes may never be nice to me again. Tonight I get to be the popular kid on the playground!' and that's when I shut up, sat back and watched the destruction."
"What destruction?" she asked, peeking out from the bathroom door.
"I'd say your pride, mostly," Claire tried as hard as she could to keep her delight in check. "Your dancing skills are probably pretty terrible on solid ground, but they were atrocious on top of the bar."
"Jesus fucking Christ. I don't want to hear anymore," she finally said as she started the shower.
"You mean you don't want to hear the part about the very hairy men and the body shots?" she said, not even trying to hide her smile.
"Not now and not for the rest of my life!"
"Good," she said under her breath. "Then I won't have to tell you I just made that part up."
They went about the rest of their morning packing and preparing for their departure. Alice and Chris would be accompanying them with a contingency of scientists, tech analysts as well as tactical reinforcements, but a full blown integration of the Hive was not expected right away. There were too many variables especially considering the clones still residing within.
Claire's eyes were wide with awe as she took in the sheer scope of the Hive. It had to be massive given how far below the surface they were. Kara noticed it even in her hung-over state and it caused a swell of happiness to rise within her. Claire so seldom looked as wide-eyed as a child; in fact, it was sometimes difficult to believe she'd ever even been a child. But today, she was somewhat softer around the edges.
"So, what do you think?" Kara asked.
Claire was brought out of her reverie by the question and sobered herself to answer.
"It'll do, I guess."
Thrace responded with a chortle, "It'll do? Should we have rolled out the red carpet and thrown rose petals at your feet, princess?"
"Oh, come on," Alice piped in. "If Claire acted too excited, she'd have to admit you were right about something."
"Yeah, we certainly can't have that," The blonde shot back.
"I'd be careful who you side with, Alice," the redhead bit back. "You've felt my wrath before."
Alice only replied with a chuckle before they reached the security desk and she returned the salute of the recruit standing guard.
"Commander Alice with more recruits to be lodged within," she said with a smile.
"Affirmative Commander," he said sturdily. "We've been waiting for you. Your belongings will be delivered to your quarters. I believe Agent Valentine is awaiting your arrival on level four in the conference room."
"No rest for the wicked," the Commander said softly to her compatriots. "I'll be right up, Recruit."
"Agents Redfield and Thrace, you are welcome to settle into your rooms and familiarize yourself with the facilities," he said before giving a final salute and sitting back down.
"Thanks pal," Kara gave a quick salute back before addressing her companion. "So, I guess this is it for a while. I'd like to ask you if you have plans later, only so you could turn me down, but sadly I've promised some girly time to Ocampo."
"Well, I'm glad you're not the clingy type because I have plans too and would have shot you down."
"You and Alice hooking up later?" Thrace asked, though she assumed she already knew the answer.
"No, contrary to popular belief, Alice isn't the only person around here with whom I choose to associate besides yourself."
Thrace was somewhat taken aback, but tried to project a cool demeanor.
"Should I be jealous?" She asked flippantly.
"No more-so than you actually are," Claire replied, catching her in the act. "See ya tomorrow."
Kara waited for the redhead to leave before requesting a complete list of all the current occupants of the Hive so she could pour over it nervously before making her plans later that evening.
After a grueling session with Alice and the head Resistance psychologist concerning the emotional difficulties of integration between the strongholds, Jill was exhausted. Past actually figuring out whether or not the clones could be trusted, there was the much larger issue of anticipating their reaction to what was, for all intents and purposes, an occupation.
All she wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to bed. She'd prefer it to be curled up against a certain female recruit but she knew that Rain was otherwise occupied with some much needed friend time. She was glad the girl had someone to confide in and talk to about everything that was going on.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a familiar face popped up.
"Hey. How goes the hostile takeover?" Claire Redfield asked as if she were interested.
"Good," Jill replied, surprised that Claire had any interest in receiving that kind of update from her as opposed to Alice. "Well, kind of. I mean, there was a lot more disgusting behavior going on with Umbrella than we'd previously believed, but..."
"Yeah, yeah, that's great. Listen, are you off duty now?"
Jill's face showed complete confusion as she answered, "Yes... Why?"
"Because you're going to hang out with me tonight."
"I am?" she asked, her confusion was still unwavering.
"Yes," Redfield answered as if there were no conversation on the matter.
"Ok, not that I'm unappreciative of this extremely kind gesture on your part, but... why do you want to hang out with me?"
"Because I want to talk about girl stuff and I can't discuss it with Alice," she answered as if it should be so apparent to the other woman. "Now, you can refuse and I can go back to hating you, or we can go to the bar, grab a drink and talk to each other like grown-ass women."
Jill knew her answer would be yes, before she asked her next question, but it seemed to issue from her lips without warrant. "There's a bar in this facility?"
"Duh, it was one of the first things I inquired about. Now are you in or not?"
"I'm in. Lead the way O-beer Wan."
Claire looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head.
"It's a Star Wars reference," Jill tried to explain herself.
"Yeah, I got it. I just didn't think you were such a dork," the redhead answered as if she were rethinking her offer.
Jill caught her distance and responded quickly, "I'm not! I'd love to hear about your girl stuff. I've got girl stuff to talk about too. I'd love to talk about girl stuff with you!"
"Sweet Jesus, I hope they have hard liquor," Claire huffed leading the way. "Come on, then."
Jill followed suit swiftly.
Just as Kara had put away the entire contents of her room, which really only consisted of a duffle bag, a knock could be heard coming from her door. Upon opening it she found the smiling face of an obnoxiously happy Rain Ocampo holding two bottles of what looked like champagne.
"Ready to braid my hair?"
"You know it," Thrace deadpanned, though the very idea of drinking any kind of alcohol was a somewhat nauseating, she did know that their girls night was not optional and that possibly a little hair of the dog might help with her general disposition. Plus she really did want to talk to Rain about everything that had been going on.
"Nice digs, Agent," Rain remarked. "How does it feel to be one of the important people now?"
"About the same as it did to be one of the unimportant ones... aside from the fact that I don't have to share a room with someone who hates me anymore," she moved to grab a couple of glasses that had been stocked in her cabinets and uncorked one of the bottles. "Never thought I'd ever see this stuff again. Though, I must admit, I probably never actually saw the stuff in the first place. Gets a little fuzzy sometimes regarding what I have and have not done in real life as opposed to the memories."
"Same here," Rain said, accepting one of the glasses and clinking it together with Kara's. "To our amazing victory and your promotion. Cheers"
"Here, here," she took a sip. "So, how have things been here on the new home front?"
"Honestly, and I hesitate to say this just because I might jinx it, they've been pretty incredible given the circumstances in which we consistently live. This place runs like clockwork, the clones, though not specifically happy with their situation, are adapting, and I've eaten actual food for possibly the first time in my life."
Kara took in a deep breath and let all of that sink in, knowing she felt the same way.
"It's weird isn't," she remarked to the dark haired clone. "Feeling this way, I mean."
Rain chuckled, "Yeah, I think they call it 'happy', but I can't be sure."
Thrace responded with a whole hearted laugh, "So... You have something else to be happy about as long as nothing's changed since I left for the Whitehouse. You ready to spill about you and tall, dark and deadly?"
"Yep, let's take a seat on the fancy couch you now own."
They made their way over to the sitting area and collapsed on a couch.
"So, you kissed?"
"Yeah, like a lot."
"And?" Kara asked with a mischievous smirk.
"Aaannnnd... It's amazing," Rain blushed. "It's one of the most incredible feelings I've ever experienced. Granted, I've only actually been experiencing feelings in general for a few months, but these... they're really good."
Kara noticed a hesitance in her speech, "I get the idea there's supposed to be a 'but' somewhere in there. Which really makes no sense, given that you're kissing a girl. That's usually a positive thing. Or, at least it is in my book."
"No, it's totally a positive thing; it's just that it's all completely new. Seriously, with all the crap those scientists put in my head, you'd think I'd have at least one relationship in there to have as a reference point. I mean, I can name all the state capitals, in alphabetical fucking order, but I have absolutely no idea what to do in bed with a woman."
"Ooo. Yeah, I can see how that might make things a little awkward. Does she know?"
"I think so," she nodded. "She mentioned something about me having a lot of firsts with her the other night. But just because she's sweet and understanding doesn't make it any less difficult on my end. Like, what if I'm completely terrible in bed?"
"Oh, you won't be terrible in bed," Thrace said nonchalantly. "They made you Latina; genetically you can't suck in bed."
"I'm going to try to ignore the fact that your last statement was thoughtless and borderline racist and simply take it as your way of reassuring me."
"It is. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about Valentine not getting her rocks off. It's pretty obvious she's in love with you. That can cover for a multitude of shortcomings."
Rain couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of Kara's blunt disposition, "Wow. I'm not sure you could suck more at anything as much as you suck at girl talk."
"Apparently you haven't seen me dance," she took another sip of bubbly. "But half the resistance army could probably attest to that being my suckiest skill."
"What? When the fuck did you dance? And, more importantly, why were you doing it in front of people?"
"Ugghhh. Last night. Apparently scoring the new digs also allotted me a brief moratorium in the social leper department and everybody wanted to celebrate with me. The worst part was Claire saw the whole thing and totally razzed me about it when I woke up this morning."
"Whoa, wait, when you woke up?" Rain sat up and leaned closer as if she weren't hearing things well enough. "Like in the same bed?"
"Yeah, but it's not like that," she said, then corrected herself. "Well, it's kind of like that. I mean, we didn't have sex, but we sort of made out before all of the drinking commenced."
"And you didn't open with that?!" the brunette punched her lightly in the arm. "How the hell do you let me go on and on about my bullshit insecurities and not so much as mention the fact that you sucked face with someone who, I had simply assumed, was going to kill you when you got back?"
"It's not that big a deal," she tried to brush it off, but didn't believe her own tone.
"Whatever, this is a bigger deal than you making Agent status. That only required nearly dying in a laser tube. Kissing Claire meant you had to do something alluring or, at the very least, endearing. That's so much harder for you."
"I'm going to take that as your attempt at humor and getting me back for my previous comments."
"Yeah, pretty much, now dish! What happened?"
"I'm not really sure," she smiled, but furrowed her brow as if deep in thought. "We were arguing with each other, which I totally expected to happen, but then it got really heated and all of a sudden I basically demanded that we kiss."
"And she just went with it?"
"Well, she did after she pushed me up against a wall and called me a suicidal coward," she chuckled.
"Are you serious?" Rain couldn't believe it; the story was getting better and better.
"To her credit, I had just brought up that dead girl with the bargain brand name."
"God, you're attempts at flirting are worse than mine!" Rain's eyes were the size of saucers and her hand was over her mouth. "I'm surprised she didn't punch you."
"I think that may have been the other response she had in mind at the time."
"So, how was it?"
Rain was starting to get concerned that if she asked any more questions the smile on Kara's face would grow so wide that it would actually reach her ears.
"It was hot," she admitted. "Like, really hot."
"So is that it? Was it just a hot kiss or do you think it's going to happen again?"
"I don't know for sure," she paused for a moment trying to figure out if she said that out of fear or worry, then shook the insecurities out of her head. "But I'm certainly going to try."
Rain nodded in understanding, "So this is who we've turned into; two pathetically love struck school girls trying to figure out women during the end of the world?"
"I'm fairly certain that women have been an enigma since the beginning of time. The only difference between now and then is that now we all come with Umbrella baggage."
"Well," the brunette raised her glass for a toast. "Here's to us trying to date and save the world at the same time."
"Here, here," Kara moved her glass in for the clink.
"Do you get women?" Claire asked, sipping her drink.
Jill choked on her own drink as she tried to understand the implications of what Claire was asking her.
"Is that your way of asking if I get around?"
"No, I mean, like romantically. Do you understand them outside of just a platonic setting?"
"Oh," Jill nodded in understanding, then tried to figure out how to answer the question. "Well, it's kind of complicated. I didn't really have a whole lot of relationships before the Apocalypse and then Umbrella got a hold of me and things got really weird regarding the 'romantic' side of my life. So, I guess the short answer is no."
"That wasn't really a short answer, but we'll go with it for now," Claire shook her head at the other woman. "Do you think that two really, really passionate people that argue a lot could possibly make a relationship work, or do you think that it should just be about sex so that they don't inevitably end up killing each other?"
"Did you sleep with Thrace?!" Jill turned more in her seat to better experience the gossip.
"No! Jesus, all we did was kiss," Clair sounded shocked at the accusation. "But we kissed after a very intense argument that ended with me slamming her against the wall. I feel like if we ever made it to the point where we have sex, concussions may be involved."
"Do you think it's possible the animosity you both feel for each other stems from each of your individual insecurities? That maybe if you dealt with those, you'd be more successful in dealing with others in general?"
"Well I do now!" Claire stated unhappily as the concept washed over her. What if it was true? What if, in order to be in a healthy relationship, a person needed to already be mentally stable? They were living in the Apocalypse, how possible could that be for anyone.
"Claire, I know this may not be something you want to hear," Jill pressed forward, "but both you and Kara have been through a lot in your lives. Maybe you need to heal separately before you can be together."
The redhead's face fell as she contemplated postponing this one thing that had made her heart flutter in longer than she could remember. Then she thought of something else.
"Hey, wait a minute. What about you and Ocampo?" she accused. "You're pretty much head over heels for that girl and you told me you had some girl stuff to discuss. Should we start dissecting your mutual compatibility, given the traumatizing circumstances under which you both met?"
Jill tried to figure out a way to respond that could possibly refute Claire's claims but eventually came up short.
"Yeah, I'd rather not look too deeply into that."
"Well, speaking of which, how are things developing on that front? Let's get the focus off of me for a minute."
"They're actually going really well," Jill focused her eyes in on her drink and tried to contain the smile that wanted to erupt on her face. It just seemed wrong to show too much happiness to Claire, given their past.
"You guys sleeping together yet?" Claire deadpanned.
"No... I mean... Yes... We sleep together, but it's actually just sleeping. And kissing," she corrected herself. "A lot of kissing."
A slight hint of sexual frustration slipped through with her last sentence and the redhead picked up on it.
"Kissing's good," she nodded. "But I get the impression that you might want a little more than that."
"No, I'm fine with just kissing," Jill said. She didn't even sound convincing to herself.
"Uh-huh," Claire replied sarcastically.
"We're going slow," she remarked defensively. "Really we just kind of fell into this in the past few days, it's not like it's that weird."
"Please," Claire laughed. "You two have been dancing around it ever since you stepped foot off of that rescue chopper. Nearly half the army has bets on when you guys are going to seal the deal," she paused for a minute and thought. "I've actually got dibs on the end of next week. It'd be great for me if you could speed things along. It's not like you're in high school and she's trying to keep a tight grip on her purity ring."
"No, but it is like she's a virgin and she's pretty much never done anything before and we're both a little nervous about crossing that bridge," Jill's anxiety showed through in the statement. "I've already done enough in the past to hurt her. I don't want to mess this up with something I can actually control."
"Wow, you actually care about her, don't you?"
The surprise in Claire's tone cut Jill deep. She answered without a hint of anger, and wide range of humility and understanding.
"I know that it must be difficult for you to imagine me caring about anyone, I truly do, but please try to understand that I wasn't always the monster you remember. I do care deeply about her. I care about a lot of people," she finally forced their eyes to meet. "Including you. I was ecstatic when you asked me to spend time with you tonight. At the idea that someday, you might actually see me as a friend."
Claire didn't know what to say at first. The thing was she actually did believe everything Jill was saying. It also made her uncomfortable given both their past and Claire's complete inability to act like a human being when under positive scrutiny. So, of course, she brushed it off with a joke, which actually made Jill feel better as well.
"Jesus, if you're going to be this dramatic we absolutely will not be friends. I think I preferred you when you were evil and homicidal."
They both laughed it all off and Claire lit up a smoke before continuing.
"You're ok, Jill," she exhaled. "And maybe in time you and I will actually be alright. So, take it one day at a time and don't ever get that mushy on me again, ok?"
"Will do," Jill said with a smile.
"Good, now tell me," Claire continued. "What do we need to do to ensure I win that bet?"
***Author's Note: I've obviously taken some liberties with the cast here. So just to keep my ass safe from any kind of copyright infringement, I'll go ahead and say that no money is being made off of this piece of fiction and no harm intended on the part of Marvel, Lost Girl or Firefly owners.