Well, well, well. What have we here? A lot happened last chapter but now it's time to see where it's all going. See you at the end for some notes.

Onward~!

Shitshitshitshitshit…!

King made a terrible noise as what used to be french fries and orange juice splashed into the toilet bowl. She let out a choked sob as she reached up to flush everything down, and then another, and another. She backed away from the loo until she was up against the opposite wall covering her mouth with both hands while Marron headbutted her long legs. She knew she should have been happy - and a part of her actually was - but, predictably, her conscience was doing a damn fine job of making sure that she felt every emotion except the positive ones.

"Pourquoi j'ai fait ça, Marron?!" she wept.

Several answers to her own question immediately popped into King's head, each one a little worse than the one before, but all with the same main idea: She was an idiot. Not only was she an idiot, but she was an asshole on top of it. What other explanation could there be for her actions? What sort of idiot asshole would have sex with a woman who was still married and then fuck off to cry about it immediately afterwards?

...Her. The answer was her.

It took several minutes before King was able to collect herself. She got up from the floor, splashed some cool water on her face, and quickly rinsed with mouthwash before leaving the bathroom to retrieve her phone, which she had aimlessly tossed on the sofa beside her wallet, keys and hoodie when she ran into her apartment. She picked up the device and unlocked it so she could try to get a hold of Mary - again. In the time since King left Vanessa's house she had tried calling and texting her friend several times to no avail. It was entirely possible that she was dealing with a case, or maybe on a date with Terry, but there was something about her complete lack of response that was a little disconcerting. Nevertheless, King opened her Favorites list and tapped the little photo of Mary. The phone rang exactly six times, and then:

"This is Ryan. Leave a message."
"OÙ ES-TU PUTAIN?!"

Frustrated, King ended the call and immediately opened iMessage so she could compose yet another frantic text that pretty much begged the detective to get in touch with her ASAP. When she was finished she set the phone down and ran her hands through her hair; she paced around her apartment, her legs slightly shaking, while she wondered what to do next. She really wanted to talk to Mary about what happened, as she would no doubt be able to help her get her head on straight more than Mai (who would be way too delighted to offer any solid advice) or Yuri (who would probably get a little weird about it), or her little brother (who had no business knowing about her sex life), or Marron (who was a cat). She stopped pacing so she could look down at her hands, which were also shaking, and promptly decided that she needed to do something to calm herself. With that in mind she nearly ran to the fridge, pulled out a can of House Wine Rosé Bubbles, and took a long swig.

King stopped drinking only so she could take a moment to breathe: The second she inhaled she was met with the smell of Vanessa's perfume, which was literally all over her. She let out a miserable half-grunt, half… something... before resolving to take a shower. Wine in hand, she made her way back to the bathroom and turned the water on, all the while trying to make sense of why she did what she did.

She didn't love Vanessa, and she certainly wasn't looking for any type of relationship. Her last full-on sexual encounter, was, well, a violent rape, and before that it had been literal years since she was touched by anyone. Not to mention that casual sex was never her thing, so… what was it about this woman that made her decide that fucking her was a good idea?! Vanessa was an acquaintance at most; hell, when was the last time they had even seen each other before all of this happened?! Not to mention she had gone behind King's back, researched her like some kind of weird science project - with an accomplice no less so now he probably knew everything, too - and delved into her personal life like it was no big deal.

Then again, it was kind of… touching? Vanessa knew about King's past - about the things she had done - but hadn't run for the hills. She slept with her anyway, but… that didn't really mean anything… did it? King stripped down and took a long drink; she started to place the remainder of the wine down on the counter but decided to bring it into the shower with her so she could alternate between drinking and washing. However, guzzling the alcohol quickly took precedence over everything else: King stood under the steaming water, drinking her wine and trying to think about anything other than Vanessa. She didn't want to think about her, or the curve of her hips, or the feel of her skin, or how she did that thing with her -

King nearly choked on her drink: she felt her face flush as her mind decided to replay every single goddamn thing her and Vanessa did in vivid detail. She swore under her breath and crushed the can. Determined to get the smell of Vanessa off of her, she washed in what had to have been record time. She turned off the water, wrapped her towel around herself, and picked up the mangled can before stepping out of the shower. She spied her reflection in the partially fogged up mirror and immediately noticed a very distinct, very obvious hickey on her neck.

"Oh, no… no no no," she murmured as she leaned forward so she could see better. She grimaced as she tilted her head: Thankfully, the mark was easily concealable, and would probably heal in a day or two, but the fact of the matter was that it was another reminder of what she had done - or, rather, what she shouldn't have done. With a huge sigh King slowly walked to her bedroom to get dressed.

###

"She's a Killer Quee~een! Gunpowder, gelatine - dynamite with a laser beam~"

King's eyes flew open as the familiar song startled her awake. She quickly looked around the dark living room, a little confused because she didn't even remember lying down in the first place. Not that it mattered, though: Queen was blaring from her phone's tiny speaker, signalling that Mary was finally calling her back. She snatched the device from the coffee table so she could answer it but her coordination failed her: the phone slipped out of her hand and hit the carpeted floor with a dull thud. Before King could retrieve it the music stopped and a little banner that read "Mary Ryan Missed Call now" instantly popped up on the screen.

"Damn it…!"

A little groggy, King plucked the gadget off the floor and made a face as she looked at the time: It was well after ten PM, which meant that her sleep schedule was going to be fucked beyond belief. She pressed her lips together and unlocked her phone; she was about to call Mary back but the doorbell rang, which stopped her in her tracks. She quirked a brow as she got up; who the hell would be visiting her at this hour? The chime sounded a second time, and was followed by a series of soft knocks.

"Bb…?"

King's eyes widened at the sound of Mary's voice. She flipped a nearby light switch, quickly unlocked the door, and pulled it open with such force that a huge gust of air blew inside.

"Where have you been?!"
"Don't say I never do anything for you," Mary answered nonchalantly while she sauntered past King. She placed a drink holder that contained two smoothies in it on the table so she could take off her jacket and shoulder holster. Right away King noticed two things about her friend: one was that she didn't have her gun or her badge, and two was that she looked tired - like she hadn't slept in days.

Something was wrong.

"Mary, what's going on?"
"He got off way too easy, Céc -" Mary freed a smoothie and handed it to King, who was somewhat alarmed by the use of her name - "What he did to you, and what it still does to you? Justice needed to be served."
"He… You mean... him…? Justice?"
"Yeah, justice. FYI, he'll probably never walk again."

The detective grabbed the other smoothie and took a very long sip. King watched her carefully, a sense of dread metaphorically resting on her shoulder.

"Where have you been?" She quietly repeated her initial question.
"In custody."
"What?! Why?!"

Mary used her straw to stir her drink. She looked down at the floor, contemplative.

"Your recovery was going so well… and then last night was so bad - almost like the beginning again. Maybe even worse. And, like… something snapped. So I paid him a little visit. And I took out both of his legs."

King had a sick feeling that she knew exactly what Mary meant by "took out." She ran her fingers along the barren holster on the table, concerned not for him, but for her friend.

"Mary…?" She asked apprehensively, "Where's Matilda?"
"Matilda's a good girl who has earned some well-deserved time off," Mary replied as she walked over to the sofa, an unmistakable bounce in her step.

Realization dawned on King: She placed one hand on the table to steady herself, her jaw practically on the floor.

"Did you - did you fucking shoot him?!"
"One round in each knee. It was pretty great," Mary replied as she sat down. "Cathartic. I wish you could have seen it."
"I do, too, but… but your career! Your - how are you not in jail right now?!"
"They rushed the arraignment and the DA decided not to press charges," Mary explained with a shrug. "I'm on leave until further notice."
"But how?!"
"I dunno. Something is probably amiss, but, like, that's not important right now."

King stared at the cop in disbelief.

"How is that not important?! Mary, you shot an inmate!"
"Bb," Mary asserted with a pointed look, "I've spent literally my entire day talking about it. Now, I'll gladly give you all the gory details - after you tell me what's wrong with you. Because, like, I know you love me, but you don't love me enough to leave me three crazy voicemails and twelve texts in less than ten hours. Now tell me what's going on!"

King leaned on the dining table: she fixed her eyes on the floor, disturbed by everything Mary had told her. She wanted to know more, but she also knew that if she didn't come clean about what was going on with her Mary would take the opportunity to practice her triangle choke. With that in mind she took a deep breath and shut her eyes.

"I, um… I fucked Vanessa," she said bluntly.
"WHAT?!"

Mary literally jumped out of her seat, almost is if it had burned her. She looked King up and down, her light eyes filled with pure, unadulterated amazement.

"Were you drunk?!"
"No."
"So you - completely sober - nailed her?!"

King sheepishly nodded as her feelings of unease over the situation immediately began to set in again. She crossed the room and plopped onto the sofa.

"I'm not even in love with her," she groaned. "It just… happened."
"Something like that doesn't just happen!"
"Well, it did. I don't even know why. One second I was so… upset with her -"
"Upset?"
"Yeah, because she used her secret agent connections to -"
"She told you?!"
"Yes! Now stop interrupting me!"
"Sorry, but this is a huge deal! Bb's first fling!" Mary said as she sat down again. "Nice hickey by the way."

King responded with an anguished sound.

"Aww, come on! This is great! A little complicated, but great!"
"'Complicated?!' Mary! She's still married!"
"Okay, well… you knew that going in… so why'd you do it?"
"JE SAIS PAS!" King wailed as she threw herself back against the couch. She stared up at the ceiling, miserable. "Je sais pas pourquoi je l'ai fait! C'était un erreur!"

"Does she think it was a mistake?" Mary inquired.
"Je - I have no idea." King abruptly switched back to English. "We didn't really... talk."
"Yeah, I bet," Mary snickered. "I also bet that you're so bent out of shape over this because you actually enjoyed every second of it. Right?"
"Even if I hadn't enjoyed it I'd be bent out of shape!"
"So you did!"
"I…! Yeah," King said, her tone defeated. "It was… amazing."
"Did you match your personal best?"

At that, King's breath caught in her throat. She quickly covered her face, which was an almost obscene shade of red and swallowed hard. In that moment she wished she was blackout drunk because it would make answering the question so much easier.

"New record," she finally confessed, her voice muffled by her hands.
"No way!"
"Ouais..."
"Are you gonna tell me, or?"
"Do I have to?"
"Well, you don't have to, but -"
"Five," King blurted out. She hesitantly uncovered her face so she could look at Mary, who was wiping some of her smoothie off of her chin and laughing.

"I almost spit it out all over you. Congratulations!"
"Merci," King said dryly. She took a sip of her own drink, which had melted a little; the heat in her face and neck slowly dissipated as she started to calm down a bit.

"So, like, what about 'Nes?" Mary inquired.
"What about her?"
"What does she think about all this?"
"Like I said," King started slowly, "we didn't really... talk… after..."
"Wait wait wait," Mary said as she placed her empty cup on the coffee table. "Don't tell me you -"
"I panicked and -"
"You nailed her and left?!"
"It's not like that," King protested. "I -!"
"THAT LOOK RIGHT THERE!" Mary yelled while pointing her finger at King. "That's your guilty look!"
"I didn't… I didn't know what to say or what to do!"
"Oh my god! I really hope - for your sake - that you made her cu -"
"DON'T FUCKING SAY IT," King loudly interrupted. She grabbed a nearby throw pillow and hit Mary with it before rising from her seat. With a deep breath she took her smoothie to the kitchen, where she promptly pulled a bottle of raspberry vodka out of the refrigerator. She carefully popped the lid off of the plastic cup so she could combine the liquids.

"And for the record -" King stopped pouring so she could look at Mary, who had followed her over - "I've still got it."
"That's awesome and great and I'm glad that you haven't lost your touch -"
"Har, har."
" - but you know you can't run from this, right?"
"I know that..."

King took a tiny glass from the cabinet above her, poured a shot, and downed it before dumping a little more vodka into her existing drink. She stopped for just a moment before taking the shot glass, pouring another, and sliding it toward Mary, who consumed it immediately.

"Okay, well, if you know that, then stay sober long enough to give her a call and let her know that, A, you're sorry, and, B, you're sorry."

King shut her eyes and started sipping on her newly mixed drink, careful not to give herself brain freeze. She then placed the half-empty cup down on the counter and rested her chin in her hands, suddenly very drained. Mary placed a hand on her back and rubbed up and down.

"Bb?"
"I don't even know why I did it," King muttered. "Yeah, she's hot, and yeah, I'd be lying if I said I had never thought about her that way, but -"
"Bitch, please," Mary assured her gently, "You were probably just horny!"
"MARY!"
"What? You're not dead."

King scowled at her friend and wondered if she had even the slightest point. However, she couldn't give it much thought because Cherry Pie started playing loudly from the living room. King's head snapped up at the sound of the song while Mary stopped moving her hand. They looked at each other, wide-eyed, before Mary yanked King out of the kitchen and started pushing her back to the living room.

"You know what you need to do!"
"I know," King replied as she lifted the phone from the coffee table. She took a deep breath before using her finger on the little on-screen slider.

"He-hey..."
"There you are," came Vanessa's voice. "I was wondering where you went."
"I, uh… home," King answered lamely.
"Yeah, I sort of figured."

The two women were quiet. King looked to Mary, who mouthed the word, "Apologize," while making a deliberate motion with her hand. She took a deep breath, and then:

"I made out with one of my employees."

King placed a hand on her forehead as she wondered what the hell she even said that for. Apparently Mary was wondering the same thing because she had an absolutely mystified expression on her face. Nevertheless, King had to try to make it make sense, so she went on.

"It was on Halloween, and she was really drunk and just sort of went for it. I've never even seen her in that way but it happened, and I… never thought I would want to do something like that ever again because of… well… the assault. Thinking about that stuff made me sick, but I, uh, tried to do... it... myself because I thought that, maybe, that incident triggered something, but I ended up crying into a bowl of candy instead."
"Have you been drinking?" Vanessa asked without missing a beat.
"Well, yeah - a little bit - but I'm not…"

King trailed off, instantly frustrated with herself. Every goddamn thing she was saying and doing was wrong! She wasn't used to it - she was used to being (mostly) calm and assertive, not… whatever the hell this was. She glanced at Mary, who was watching her carefully before turning away so that she was facing the wall.

"Fuck it," she stated. "Come over."
"What?"
"I feel weird having this conversation on the phone," King replied.
"Wouldn't you feel weirder having it in person?"
"Yeah, probably, but if I say something stupid you won't be able to hang up on me."
"I can just punch you in the liver instead."
"Exactly."
"That last comment was a joke," Vanessa informed her.

King didn't reply. She pressed her lips together while she waited for Vanessa's answer.

"Well..." Vanessa said thoughtfully, "Kiddo's with the grandparents until tomorrow night so… sure. I can swing by. Just text me your address and I'll be over."
"Promise?!"

King grimaced while Mary raised her eyebrows: god, that sounded fucking desperate!

"Don't worry, King," Vanessa said after a moment. "I prefer to face things head-on."
"R-right. Umm… see you soon…"

As soon as King hung up Mary hopped in front of her, her freckled face screwed up in something she couldn't pin down.

"What the hell was that?!"
"Fuckery," King answered somewhat distractedly as she started typing her address into a message to Vanessa.
"Pfft, no kidding," Mary retorted. "What are you going to do when she gets here? Talk? ...Or 'talk?'"
"I'm about to drop kick you right out that door."
"Aww, come on, bb. Let's be real. It's going to be the two of you here alone, and you've already slept with her once and you've been drinking."
"I am not going to do it again. I'm just going to tell her I'm sorry and that's it."

With that King walked back to the kitchen and resumed drinking her alcoholic beverage, which was probably a little too strong but she didn't care: she could handle her liquor… it was her ability to handle her feelings, however, that was debatable. She glanced at Mary, who was staring right at her, arms crossed over her chest.

"...what?"
"She's probably just as conflicted about this as you are."
"If she is, she has an… interesting way of showing it," King responded, her cheeks flushing slightly.
"I'm serious, Céc. Her marriage is on the rocks, she's lying to literally everyone about what she does. On top of that she's a mom."

King realized with some degree of horror that she hadn't really thought about things from Vanessa's perspective at all - she was too preoccupied with her own fears and doubts that the other woman's feelings never actually crossed her mind - and it made her feel awful.

"Now twist the knife counterclockwise," she told Mary sadly.
"Bb…"
"I'm going to have to kick you out in a minute," King abruptly changed the subject.
"Yeah, I know, but let me help you straighten up a little bit before I go. You go scoop out that foul demon's litter -"
"Don't talk shit about my cat."
" - and I'll do the dishes."

As Mary started toward the kitchen King stared after her, suddenly a little emotional. While it was true that she was incredibly close with Mai and Yuri, there was something about Mary that set her apart from them. Maybe it was because she had met King when she was at rock bottom and never judged her for the things she had done, or maybe it was because, despite her hatred for cats, she was always willing to pet sit if needed, or maybe it was because she walked into a penitentiary and shot her rapist (again) knowing full well that it could end her career or even send her to jail - a thought that was simply terrifying.

Despite never being much for physical affection King couldn't help rushing over and throwing her arms around the smaller woman.

"Wow, bb, that vodka's hitting you hard, huh?!"
"Shut up…!"
"Was it something I said? Did?" Mary asked, slightly taken aback.

King could feel the corners of her eyes beginning to tear up. Maybe the vodka was hitting her hard. She continued to hold on to Mary like some sort of lifeline, all at once a little scared of what her next meeting with Vanessa was going to bring.

"Just… shut up," she whispered.
"Awww," Mary laughed. "I love you too, bb."

Obviously this chapter was much slower and had a lot of talking, but I feel like it needed to play out like this. Anyway, let's go:

* Pourquoi j'ai fait ça, Marron?! = Why did I do that, Marron?!
* OÙ ES-TU PUTAIN = WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU
* House Wine Rosé Bubbles = Apparently canned wine is becoming more and more popular and packs a little bit of a punch. As a bartender and lover of wine, King definitely has this stuff lying around.
* King drinking in the shower = disaster bi
* Mary's ringtone in King's phone is Killer Queen by Queen
* There are some very intentional parallels to earlier stories, where Mary casually brings over smoothies and just talks with King about the status quo
* Have you read Bang? Do you remember it? That took place during the last chapter. Obviously there was a lot of research involved in the logistics that would surround an officer not going to jail for shooting someone.
* Mary's gun is named Matilda, which is the name of Leon Kennedy's starting handgun in Resident Evil 2 (this gun also makes an appearance in RE4). +5 points if you got it.
* JE SAIS PAS = I DON'T KNOW
* Je sais pas pourquoi je l'ai fait! C'était un erreur! = I don't know why I did it! It was a mistake!
* When Mary says "No way" to King's answer about her personal best, King replies with "Ouais," which is French for "Yeah" but also a play on words, as it is pronounced "way"
* Merci = Thank you/thanks
* When King starts talking about making out with an employee, she's talking about Sally, and the events of Closed. Her allusion to failed masturbation refers to Bothered and Bewildered.
* Mary canonically hates cats
* Headcanon stuff: Mary and King met when King went to the police after being defeated by Ryo in AOF1. King was, obviously, a wreck, and Mary was a rookie on the force. Ask me about it some time.

Okay, that's it. Just a quick thank you to everyone sticking with this one! A warning that I'm going to have to go on a little bit of a hiatus soon, so the next chapter probably won't be out for a minute. Anyway, as always, let me know what's up! Cheers~