To Cesar848: It certainly isn't off the table to play the "Kwami Swap" game! At the moment, though, she's much more comfortable with her suit. But Barkk is absolutely adorable with "her people."
To Butterfly: Well, Bri's pretty attached to her, too!
To Lyger 0: Yeah, probably not. Although this does prove that he is capable of actually carrying on an extended conversation with a woman without getting slapped, so…
To StarDaPanda225: Thanks! This was definitely one of the more challenging stories to write, especially with Bri's response to the trauma.
While Felix brewed tea in the kitchenette, Bri stumbled into the bathroom and took a shower. She closed her eyes as the hot water ran down her body, washing away the sweat and grease she had picked up from the previous night, though it could do nothing for the filth filling her imagination. Anne was out there with the same man who had attacked her, who had cut her, who had been moments away from murdering her and raping her. She could still feel the steel of his knife against her flesh. Absently she picked at the scabs on her chest; their constant itch served as yet another reminder of what had happened. She had almost died… but the itching sensation she felt meant that she was still alive. She was alive, and for now that had to be enough. And if she had lived through her ordeal, then maybe…
"Bri– um… Bridgette?" A knock on the bathroom door. "Everything okay in there?"
She turned off the water and opened her eyes, running a hand through her hair to push it out of her face. "I'll be out in a minute," she called, reaching for her towel.
It was at least thirty minutes later when Bri, dressed in her Ladybug sweatshirt and jeans, finally opened the bathroom door and came out to find Felix leaning against the kitchen counter waiting for her, an anxious look on his face. He handed her a steaming cup of tea as she sat down at the table before taking the seat opposite her. She held the cup tightly in both hands and closed her eyes, allowing the aroma to invade her nostrils and chase away the stench of the Ripper, the memory of which kept returning. She sighed softly. Whenever she had been anxious growing up, her mother had made her tea. Anne had done the same for her this year; when the tables had been turned, Bri had made her coffee.
"I hope it's okay." Felix sounded unsure. "Tea isn't something I make very often."
"It's fine," she whispered, her voice hoarse.
"I–actually got a little extra practice," he admitted with a nervous chuckle. "That's the fourth cup I made, since the others kept getting cool."
Bri sipped the tea and stifled a sob, clenching her eyes shut tight. A soft weight pressed against her arm – Barkk.
"Hey," Felix called gently, drawing her attention back to him. "We're going to find her. Mother is still listening in to the police radio, and they have't found anything yet. And if they haven't found a body, it means she's got to still be alive."
Maybe alive… but probably wishing that she wasn't. Bri nodded. "I know." She glanced at the time. "Don't you have classes today?"
He shrugged. "This is more important."
Bri sighed in relief. After yesterday, even more she didn't want to be alone. Felix had found a box of Anne's cereal in the pantry – normally Bri would never touch Anne's food, though this morning she wasn't here to object. Bri tried to work the tension out of her jaw at that thought. Although she wasn't really hungry, she still forced herself to eat a bowl of the stuff dry. Felix sat quietly opposite her, staring into the distance. Barkk curled up between them on the table, slowly nibbling on a couple slices of turkey. "Are the Heroes of Paris going to help us?" Bri finally asked.
"Yes and no," Felix replied, mouth set in a disappointed line. "Tante Emilie gave Mother the miraculous until we resolve this – one way or the other. She's not as adept with it as Tante is, but she spent all night searching for Anne."
"Searching? You mean with a senti-guard?"
"Yes," he answered, nodding, "but also by combing through the city's emotions. But so far… nothing."
"What does that mean?"
Felix shrugged. "It could mean anything. It could mean that she isn't in Mother's range – London is just on the edge of her range from home, after all. It could mean her emotions aren't strong enough at the moment to stand out–"
"It could mean she doesn't feel anything because there's nothing to feel…" Bri muttered. "Because she's…"
"She's going to be okay," he insisted, placing his hand over hers.
"You don't know that!" she screamed, eyes lighting up with fury and slapping his hand away. "My sister is out there somewhere, and for all we know she's already–she's already– H–how can you be so… so cavalier about this?"
"I'm not trying to be flippant about it," he assured her quietly, holding up a placating hand. "Yes, we don't know if she's alive, but until we know for sure that she isn't, all we can do is work like she is." He fell silent. "I'm sorry."
She clenched her eyes shut tightly, hot tears sliding down her cheeks. "No–I'm sorry," she whispered, sniffling. "I shouldn't have yelled like that."
He put his hand on the table next to hers, and she clutched it like a lifeline. "You don't need to apologize for anything," he told her firmly. "After this week, you have every right to be angry and yell."
She nodded curtly and squeezed his hand. They sat in silence for a minute before she finally asked, "So… are they going to help us look?"
He frowned and shook his head. "Not right now," he admitted. "They want to help us, but they're also worried about getting themselves overextended and having to solve every problem everywhere if they start investigating everything. But if we don't find anything ourselves today, then Sent-Bee and Carapace are both going to come and help us search."
"So it's up to us." Bri scoffed gloomily. "Of course it's all on me."
He squeezed her hand gently. "It isn't all on you," he assured her. "You aren't alone. We're partners: we help each other. I'm right here with you."
She sighed in resignation. "Thanks, Pup." Downing the last bit of her tea she stood up and went back to her bedroom to find the shoes she'd kicked off the night before. The outside hallway was deserted, sparing her any questions from the others on the floor as they left the apartment building and stepped out into the grey midmorning. Bri felt a few drops of rain land on her still-damp hair; Felix withdrew a collapsible umbrella from his bag and held it over them both. Bri extracted an earbud from one bracelet before hitting the button to open their communicator app. Amelie – la Paonne Deux – was already in it, as was Felix.
"Anything new, Mother?" Felix asked, his eyes wandering up and down the Strand before he led the way across the street and onto the college campus.
"Not yet," la Paonne Deux replied, her voice dripping with irritation. "Scotland Yard has expanded its search perimeter to the edge of the metropolitan area; they are working their way back in toward the city boundary as we speak. The Metropolitan Police for their part is focused on the library – they've been over it with a fine-toothed comb twice – but their crime lab has nothing. And my senti-swarm has found nothing. They've been at it for – what the hell time is it?"
"Nine-thirty," Bri answered.
La Paonne Deux muttered a curse.
"Have you slept at all, Mother?" asked Felix, stifling a nervous laugh.
"There's coffee," she replied, speaking quickly. "Why didn't we already have a coffeemaker in the Hero Study?"
Felix pursed his lips and met Bri's gaze. Leaning closer he whispered, "We didn't even have a real coffeemaker in the house." Louder he said, "Mother, perhaps you need to take a nap to recharge. We can search on our own for now, but we'll let you know if we need help."
La Paonne Deux was quiet. Felix gave Bri a nudge, a question in his eyes.
"It really is okay, Amelie," Bri assured her. "You've done so much already."
La Paonne Deux sighed heavily. "Oh, very well. But you two had better let me know if you need anything."
Felix whispered, "Thank you," as La Paonne Deux disconnected from the communicator. Bri nodded in resignation. "Mother has gotten far too good at pushing herself too far when she thinks I might need her help – especially since I became a hero." He ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry: I know family is a touchy subject for you."
"No; it's okay," she told him, though without any force behind the words. She couldn't exactly deny that little twinge of jealousy at seeing how close Felix and Amelie were. She had been that close with her father once; she still wanted to have that close relationship with him, in spite of everything. And she couldn't quite shake the guilty feeling that after telling Felix her name last night, the Heroes of Paris were even now tracking down her father to arrest him. She let out a breath. "It's nice to see how much your Maman loves and supports you."
"She would do the same for you," he pointed out earnestly.
Bri gave him a bewildered look. "What are you suggesting?"
Felix paled. "Not–not in any weird sense," he protested. "It's just, she's been talking to Tante lately, and Tante mentioned how she's sort of become a surrogate mother for some of the Heroes of Paris. And since all of us are working together so much, she wants to offer you the same support."
Bri hummed in understanding. "Oh. That sounds… nice," she admitted. She glanced around the campus as they approached the main building.
Barkk slipped surreptitiously out of Felix's pocket and phased through the pavement at their feet, moving at a sharp angle toward the building's basement. A minute later, the Kwami reappeared from the ground in front of them. "Nothing," she reported, her ears drooping sadly.
"I suppose we couldn't be so lucky right off," Felix consoled her as she slipped back into her pocket.
"What's the plan for our search?" asked Bri.
Felix frowned before handing her the umbrella and turning down the path to the left. "Split up to cover the campus and meet back here?"
Bri's eyes widened and her heart rate spiked. She raced after him and grabbed his hand. He turned in surprise. "We only have the one umbrella," she pointed out. "It would make more sense for us to stay together."
"But we could cover more–" Felix froze, staring into Bri's eyes. He swallowed and nodded, interlacing his fingers with hers. "Together it is."
They spent the next hour searching the college campus but without any luck. Bri noticed a few surprised looks from the Engineering students milling about between classes; the girls in the apartment next to hers pointed at her and Felix, covering their mouths and giggling. She rolled her eyes in annoyance, gripping Felix's hand tightly, the only thing keeping her grounded and together. Anne was out there somewhere – whether she was alive or dead was still unclear. Maybe she was still alive, but after Bri's own experience, perhaps Anne would be better off if the Ripper had already killed her. She could still feel the bite of the Ripper's blade against her bare chest, tracing around her curves, smell his breath in her nostrils. His raspy voice echoed around her. She froze up, standing stock-still in the middle of the sidewalk, and clenched her eyes shut tight.
"Bri?" Felix's voice came to her as if from a great distance, muffled like she was underwater. "Mon Fer?"
She blinked once and looked down at her hands, clenched into tight fists. Felix's fingers were starting to turn purple from how tightly she held him. "Sorry," she whispered, forcing her grip to loosen. She hoped she could blame the wetness around her eyes on the rain that was now beating a steady staccato on the umbrella above them.
"We'll find her," Felix promised, squeezing her hand back and putting his free hand on her shoulder. "We will stop the Ripper before he hurts anyone else."
The image of the woman she had found last week, gutted and covered in blood, rose unbidden before Bri's eyes. Then the woman's blonde hair turned to red, and all Bri could see was Anne's face, eyes staring sightlessly into the sky. Then the hair was brown, and it was Bri herself, chest ripped open, clothing torn to shreds, both her bracelets shattered. The pressure on her hand grew sharp, and she gasped. Felix stared into her face, his mouth twisted in worry. She gave her head a sharp jerk. "I know we will," she agreed.
The rest of the day passed in a blur as they left the campus and began working their way east along the Strand, into the Ripper's usual hunting ground. When Felix insisted that they stop to pick up something for lunch, Barkk flitted out of his pocket and dove into the hood of Bri's sweatshirt, where the Kwami pressed against the back of her neck through the fabric, her tail wagging constantly. Bri took comfort from the Kwami's presence, from the feel of Felix's hand in hers, grounding her to the present. The swarm of senti-bees flew over their head several times as they covered the city from above. It wasn't entirely on her. She wasn't facing the monster alone this time. She was never going to be alone – not really. The rain picked up as noon turned to mid-afternoon and the sun, which had never emerged fully from behind the dark clouds, began to sink lower in the sky.
"We're not going to find her," Bri moaned as they walked along Fetter Lane back toward the Strand. The sun had finally set two hours ago, and the streetlamps had come on. "It's been more than a day now, and nothing."
Felix groaned in frustration, smacking his thigh. "If we just had some clue…" He sighed heavily. "It might be time to call in reinforcements."
"Why couldn't they help sooner?" Bri demanded.
Felix shrugged. "They have enough to deal with in Paris, I suppose. And half the point of giving me a miraculous was so I could take care of things on this side of the Channel."
"Well, we haven't exactly been doing such a bang-up job of it lately…" she grumbled, rolling her neck against the tension that had been building in her muscles all day. She frowned: light reflected off the clouds above them. "What's that about?" she wondered.
Felix followed where she was looking. "I've seen that light before – it's from your campus library," he told her.
"But why is it on now? The library closed an hour ago."
"Doesn't it just stay on all the time?" he asked in surprise.
"Not normally." Bri furrowed her brows in contemplation. "But now that you mention it, Anne heard something unusual when we were in the lower floor earlier this week – only a day after the last Ripper attack, too."
"Do you think there could be a connection?"
She shrugged and picked up her pace down the road toward her workshop, dragging him by the hand behind her. "There's only one way to find out."
