"Do you ever think about it?"
Hattie pulled her sunglasses off her face and looked pointedly at her sister-in-law. "Think about what?" Mirena shrugged, adjusting in her sun chair so she wouldn't burn.
"A life outside of all of this." Rena gestured to Hattie's serious demeanor, making the blonde scoff. "What do you mean, 'all of this?'" Hattie mimicked.
"I get it, Hat, I do. The badass MI6 chick, too tough for anyone. If anything I'm the only one who understands." She muttered, pushing her sunglasses onto her head to look at her friend. "But don't you ever think that you'd maybe want to settle down? Raise a family?" She asked, a hand on her growing stomach and a thoughtful smile on her face.
"I don't think that's in the cards for me, love." Hatti sighed, pushing her glasses back up on her nose. "Never could find anyone who could keep up."
"Except Colin."
Hattie gasped at Mirena's mention of the name and frowned. "You know you're lucky you're carrying my mini-me in there." She warned, holding herself back from smacking the top of the brunette's arm. "Yeah, lucky me." Mirena rolled her eyes, sarcasm dripping from her mouth. "You do recall that I kicked your ass at the last family get together, correct?"
"At cricket," Hattie emphasized.
"Yes, well, all the more reason for you to feel ashamed." Mirena shrugged, grabbing the water that sat next to her. "I see no reason as to why I should put forward any effort when I'm happy as a clam now." Mirena scoffed and Hattie looked at her sternly.
"I'm serious."
"You're serious?" Mirena chuckled, shaking her head. "Why do I need to try when you and Deck have the spotlight? It's taking a load off my shoulders that's for damn sure." Hattie tossed her magazine aside and leaned down, eye level with Mirena's still relatively flat stomach.
"Thanks for that ducky," Hattie whispered to Mirena's stomach making the woman push her head away. "Stop conspiring with my daughter." She commanded and Hattie fumbled with her sunglasses once more. "You know it's a girl then?" She asked excitedly.
"We're going to find out when he gets back from Prague." She smiled, a gentle hand running up and down the growing bump. "Oh, that's so exciting. You hear that ducky!" Hattie cooed, making Rena laugh, happy she finally had that family she dreamt about.
The room was so tense you could cut it with a knife and Mirena had half a mind to do so. "Jonah, it's almost dawn." Luke pushed, making his brother look up with a permanent scowl. "Don't rush me."
"How long does this process even take?" Asked one of the many cousins that had gathered around. "30 minutes and 33 till I go viral." Hattie sighed, turning to Mirena and Deckard. "Look, I really think we should revisit other options, hmm?"
"Don't strike a match just yet, Hats, mmkay?" Deck said softly in an attempt to calm his sister's nerves. "We are seriously going to miss this window. Let's do this, come on!" He boomed, making Mirena snake a hand around his forearm. "Decks." She chastised, hand squeezing his arm as she raised her eyebrows. "Alright, alright! Fine." Jonah exclaimed, initializing the sequence to extract the virus. Hattie reached out for Mirena's hand instinctively and Rena gave it a hard squeeze.
"It's working..." Jonah said softly, gaining everyone's attention. "It's working!" He laughed, surprised at himself. "See, Hats? Nothing to worry about." Mirena winked, giving her neck a hug as Hattie let out a sigh of relief.
"They just triggered the first alarm!" Called one of Luke's cousins who was on watch. Deck looked to Luke with a determined glance. "Just like we planned." Luke nodded and Deckard agreed for the most part.
"Quick addendum, yeah?" He offered, turning to the smaller of the women on the table. "You stay put." Mirena's jaw fell open in protest. "In what world do you think I'm going to- Deckard!" She yelled as she was thrown over his shoulder and taken from the garage. "Put me down right now or I will shoot you." She threatened, seeing that as she attempted to flee, Hattie followed close behind, extractor in hand. "Couldn't shoot me when there was a bounty on my head and you definitely couldn't shoot me now." He called behind him, swatting at Mirena's exposed bottom.
"You think we should be this close to the front line?" Hattie asked, seeing the perimeter from earlier now much closer than she had remembered. "Absolutely," Deckard said confidently, tossing his wife down on an open car seat. "Closer for a quick getaway and I can keep an eye on the two of you."
"Since when have I ever needed an eye on me?" Mirena huffed, pulling her hair up into a ponytail and snagging a nearby pipe wrench. "Look, I've done things I'm not proud of.. Things I most definitely need to make amends for. But right now," He looked between the two women. "What's important is the three of you stay safe. You got it?" He asked with a pointed finger and the women in his life nodded. "Yeah yeah now get out of here already." Rena rolled her eyes with a smirk. Deckard pulled her to him forcefully, without thinking, and pressed a searing kiss to her lips that made her squeak.
"Don't die." He said to Hattie who put up an awkward thumbs up in his direction as he ran off. "No promises." She said grimly and Mirena smacked her upper arm.
"Oh you are so lucky you're pregnant." She teased with fake anger as the two women settled into the small outer shed near the garage, out of sight from Brixton's men. "You know you've been waiting to use that line." Rena chuckled, gripping the wrench tightly as an explosion echoed from across the compound. "Is it pathetic that I have?" Hattie laughed, grabbing Mirena's hand with a genuine smile and. "Not in the slighte-" Darkness overcame Mirena and heat radiated from the back of her head, her body collapsing down to the ground.
"Rena!" She heard Hattie scream before everything became fuzzy. She wasn't completely knocked out, not entirely. She had blurs of vision as she was carried...somewhere. She faintly heard the rumbles of a helicopter and Hattie struggling behind her somewhere. "Deck..?" Mirena called out softly, her eyes fluttering open to make out the outline of a man. "Fraid not, love." Brixton's voice chuckled out as she was placed down in the hull of the helicopter. "You mother.." Rena attempted to swing on him, losing her balance due to the blurred vision and splitting headache. "Come on, now. Don't wear yourself out, Mi." He almost cooed before turning his attention to the pilot. "Take us up."
"Rena, you alright?" Hattie asked, sliding next to her sister despite the hold one of the goons had on her wrists. "Yeah, yeah..." She nodded, shaking her head to alleviate some of the pressure as her vision came back. Just as she felt right enough to stand the entire helicopter rocked forward, knocking her into Brixton's hard body. "See? Didn't I tell you you'd fall all over me again?" Rena reeled back, hitting his smug face with her fist only making Brixton laugh. "God she's feisty!" He called, looking out the side of the helicopter to see that it had been hooked to a line of cars in an attempt to bring it down.
"They did it." Hattie said breathlessly, a thankful smile on her face that turned downward as Brixton shoved Mirena down in a seat. "Don't try anything stupid." He warned before kicking the pilot out of the seat and inevitably out of the helicopter.
"What did you see in this guy?"
Mirena looked to Hattie, a frown on her face. "So not the time." She huffed, swiping the leg of the guard next to her and kicking him out into the open air. Hattie followed suit, bending back another man's arm and heaving him out the side. "Oye! What did I tell you?" Brixton yelled, attempting to fly the machine and yank Deck and Luke off the cliff.
"Hattie!" Her attention fell out of the helicopter to Hobbs who stood below, outstretched hands. "Jump!" He commanded and she looked to Rena with concern. The small woman shook her off with a glance. "I'm not going without you!" She yelled, reaching for Mirena's hand. "Don't hate me." Mirena yelled back after a beat.
"What?"
Mirena shoved Hattie with all her might out of the helicopter towards Luke, checking to make sure that she had made it before turning her attention to Brixton. "Still struggling with the buttons, Brix?!" She called, swinging her body around the pilot's seat and knocking Brixton in the face once more. "Let me drive for a while, love." Her words like venom as she quickly undid his buckle and grasped onto the overhead bar, pulling him from the seat with her thighs latched around his waist. Brixton struggled against her grip due to the sheer awkward position it put his body in and Mirena smirked.
"What's the matter, Brix? You used to adore being tangled between my legs." She mocked, swinging with her entire body and pushing with her whole core, rolling him out of the helicopter. "Bye Brix." She huffed, dropping down into the pilot's seat and buckling in. Rena's eyes searched below her as a storm began to rage down upon them, her vision becoming less and less clear. What was abundantly clear, however, was the pull Brixton had as he caught himself on the chain that bound the helicopter to the truck. "Shit." Mirena swore, watching as Brixton smashed the chain, releasing the helicopter and pulling the truck down to the water below the cliffs. "Shit!" Rena swore again at the force of the release, attempting to steady the bird as she circled back around the cliffs.
"Come on Decks..." She bit at her lip nervously, wary that she was unable to see anything except the rocks below. A slight movement of white caught her eye down below and she made the dot out to be Hattie, crawling from under the rubble of the truck. "Damn!" Rena searched and searched but finding a safe place to land the helicopter was next to impossible in these kinds of conditions. She pulled the machine across the cliffs, hovering over the beach, hoping to find some sort of rock or bend to delicately land the helicopter. Then suddenly, she saw it. Near the edge of where she saw Hattie, Mirena spotted a flat rock on the edge of the cove. "Alright, ducky." She said affectionately with a deep breath. "It may be a little bumpy, so hold on." She said out loud, a gentle hand resting on her stomach for a moment before she focused all of her energy into landing the bird safely.
Hattie watched in anticipation as the helicopter circled, no doubt looking for where they had landed. Her focus on the bird was pulled away as the man she held between her thighs wriggled in an attempt to get free. Hattie held his neck tighter, trying to cut off all his air supply so he would just stop moving but this man was stronger than she had anticipated. Just as she thought she felt him slipping, his arms broke free from the hold her legs had on him and went for his gun. Three shots rang out, making Hattie's entire body freeze where she was in fear. Suddenly the body stopped moving and a warm sticky liquid began to seep through her pants. Hattie quickly released the man's now lifeless body and shoved him aside, inspecting the blood now on her jeans.
"What would you do without me?" Hattie's head snapped in the direction of the voice and her face broke out into a wide grin at the sight of Rena, gloved hand still wrapped around the gun she had swiped from the helicopter. "Probably crash and burn. More than likely die." Hattie chuckled out with tears in her eyes, wrapping the smaller woman in a hug. "Did you..?" Mirena looked down to Hattie's forearm that was relieved of the extraction device. "I never doubted you for a second." Rena smiled but that smile quickly disappeared at the sound of a man groaning in pain. Both Hattie and Mirena's eyes widened at the noise and together they rushed over to the edge of the cove. Their breath returned to their chests at the sight of Deckard and Luke standing over Brixton's mangled body, somehow still breathing.
"You both alright?" Mirena asked as she wrapped her arms around Deckard, burning her face into his soaked shirt. "Are you both alright?" He echoed her question back to her, pushing her back lightly and placing a gentle hand on her stomach. Tears threatened to fall as Mirena nodded feverishly. "Yeah. Yes." She cleared her throat, placing both of her hands on his stubbled face. "We're both fine." She confirmed with a small laugh.
"Touching." Brixton sneered, spitting out the blood that had pooled in his mouth. The Shaws wore matching scowls as Mirena handed the gun over to her husband to deal with the maniac in front of them. "You set me up as a traitor. Turned my own sister against me. Forced me to kill my own brother. You!" Deck yelled at the broken man before them who rolled his eyes, anger seeping from his pores. "And yet here we are again. Come on then! Like last time, yeah?!" He yelled, referencing the last time Deckard had put a bullet in him.
"You made me kill you once, Brix. But, I ain't doing it again." Deckard said solemnly, dropping the gun and pulling his wife to his side protectively. "Brother, you may have all the technology in the world but we have heart. And no machine will ever beat that." Luke said confidently, making Mirena look at him with disgust. "You are un-fucking-believable." She sighed at the cheesy line before looking to Hattie.
'This guy?!' She mouthed, pointing discreetly at the giant and making her sister blush.
"Brix, I-" Before Deckard could even finish, back Brixton fell hundreds of feet down to the crashing waves below. All Mirena could do was shrug and let out a deep sigh of relief. "Well never mind then I suppose." She said with an almost hysterical chuckle as she nodded towards where she landed the helicopter. "Come on guys. Let's go home." She smiled, leaning into Deckard's side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Hey, thanks for being my sidekick through this whole thing, brother." Luke chimed, already back to his old antics and making Rena and Hattie roll their eyes. "How about I sidekick that stupid look off your face." Deck threatened, releasing Mirena and stepping to the man he was making nice with mere moments ago. "Why don't you show me, huh?" Luke challenged just as Mirena and Hattie shared knowing looks. Hattie and Mirena stood between the two men, their backs to one another as they did.
"You two can finish this later, yea?" Hattie asked, her eyes boring into Luke's while Mirena simply gave Deckard a disappointed frown. "She's right." Luke sighed, making a truce with Deckard for a moment longer. "But as soon as shit gets back to normal, I'm shoving your teeth down your throat." Deckard lightly pushed past Mirena and shoved Luke's shoulder. "You better watch your mouth." He threatened with a pointed finger at the Samoan man's chest before turning it on his wife. "There's little ears around, eh?" He said, referencing the life that was growing inside her. Luke's face brightened up as the cogs in his head put two and two together.
"You two?! Well, I guess you three?" He asked, a bright smile on his face as Hattie folded her hands atop his shoulder. "I know.." she trailed off with a grin at her brother. "It's about bloody time."
***Author's Note: I cannot believe it's finally done! Thank you all so much for all your patience and your likes and messages and comments. Keep an eye out for an epilogue! See you when Fast 9 comes out ;) XoXo OCS***