"Frazer, I'm taking point! Gonna clear out the way!" Nadine yelled, looking in Chloe's direction. Chloe offered a thumbs-up.
"Righty-o!" Chloe verbally expressed, leaning over from her place hidden behind a pillar as she shot a few bullets at the men who were in Nadine's way and who might try to get in a lucky shot. Chloe successfully nailed every target, and Nadine dodged several bullets as she vaulted over a fallen archway as she started to engage in hand-to-hand with the men left over.
Chloe hurried out from her cover, prepping a grenade and chucking it toward the remainder of the guys who were to the left.
"Boom, boom, baby!" Chloe called in a slightly self-indulgent taunt as the men were launched in the air from the explosion resulting from the grenade. She then returned her eyes to Nadine's form. She was easily kicking the crap out of every guy that she could see, and Chloe couldn't help but smile a little, enjoying how her best friend so effectively handled the men. Of course, she could tell that Nadine was enjoying it a little and taking longer with it than she likely could have if she had not been just taking her time in the thrill of the fight.
However, Chloe's smile immediately disappeared as she took in the sight of one of the guys creeping up behind Nadine with a machete prepped for a swing. Chloe immediately froze, her eyes going wide as she gaped at the situation. She felt her heart stop in her chest and she couldn't hardly breathe let alone speak.
Finally, as he got dangerously close, Chloe wretched her voice from whatever hole that it had decided to go and hide in.
"NADINE, BEHIND YOU!" Chloe screamed as loudly as she could, unable to take any action except raising her voice. Nadine immediately knocked out the man that she was currently engaged with in favor of spinning around. Chloe's heart jumped into her throat as Nadine narrowly dodged the machete swung at her. Nadine quickly grabbed his machete-wielding arm and snapped it at the elbow, successfully disarming him before she headbutted him hard and knocked him out.
Chloe felt her heart slowly return to its proper place but she wasn't quick to move as she just stared blankly while Nadine made her way back over, stepping over the bodies on her way.
"Ahh… Probably should refrain from using that move anymore. I'm going to have a terrible headache after the adrenaline goes away," Nadine chuckled, rubbing her head where she had smashed it into the man's own as she made one of her rare jokes. Chloe just stood there, limply holding the gun in her hands as she stared at Nadine and tried her hardest not to think of what had just happened.
"But I'm glad you caught sight of that guy before I almost had another nice scar to match this one, hey?" Nadine told her with a slight smile, gesturing to that signature scar on her neck. Chloe absently looked down at Nadine's scar before returning her gaze to meet Nadine's.
Nadine furrowed her brow, tilting her head a bit.
"Frazer, what's the-"
Nadine was immediately cut off by Chloe as she dropped her gun and strode toward her. Chloe only had a moment to catch sight of the bewildered expression on Nadine's face before Chloe was tightly squeezing Nadine around her middle, pressing her forehead against Nadine's shoulder as she hid her face from the slightly younger woman. Nadine froze, tensing up for a moment, but she soon loosened, tentatively embracing the Australian. Chloe breathed out shakily, trying to keep herself together as she held onto the former mercenary.
"Are you alright?" Nadine questioned, that normally tough and infallible voice softening to something that was almost akin to a coo in its ability to demand any authority. Chloe easily could tell that Nadine was completely unsure of what to do. She could tell by the way that Nadine so hesitantly placed her hands on Chloe's back as if Chloe would break at any given moment.
"Y'know, china, you're enough to give someone a heart attack," Chloe admitted, her voice wavering as she spoke aloud. She knew that her embrace was surely making Nadine uncomfortable, but she couldn't bring herself to pull away. Not when Nadine was receiving her so kindly and without any surefire signs of terrible, unbearable awkwardness.
"I've been known to attack… Not necessarily hearts, though. That's more your area of expertise," Nadine told her, her voice somewhat odd, and Chloe smiled a little, patting Nadine's back lightly as she tried to swallow down the vastness of emotion that had just run through her frame.
"Yeah, you, um… Just… Just don't die on me, okay? I can't have you disappearing on me like him, yeah?" Chloe told her, starting to try to pull away but finding herself quite firmly held against the South African. Chloe chuckled under her breath, knowing that Nadine was most definitely not going to release her after that subtle comment about Chloe's father.
"I'm not going to disappear or leave you or something like he did," Nadine spoke aloud, her voice resolute and firm in its emphasis, and Chloe easily inferred its purpose in leaving her with no doubt of Nadine's steadfast presence.
"Bandits took him away from me, Nadine… It wasn't a choice that he had. Not entirely," Chloe explained, and she could feel Nadine's arms tighten a little more around her, the largeness and warmth of her frame enveloping Chloe. Chloe smiled just barely, noting that the usually so touch-averse yet touch-starved woman was overcoming a lot of her hang-ups in this one large gesture.
"Ja. But I happen to have someone backing me up, eh?" Nadine tried to reassure, and Chloe sighed deeply, starting to pull away once again and finding Nadine's hold to be quite persistent. Chloe just sank back against Nadine, and resigned herself to Nadine's embrace, deciding that she most likely was not going to get away any time soon despite her overwhelming need to pace throughout an emotional discussion like this.
"Yeah. But I don't know… It's just…"
"Just what?" Nadine asked, prodding at Chloe just a little and Chloe groaned.
"It's just that you don't do things like that, and that's the beauty of our relationship. I jump into situations headfirst and you plan things out carefully. And I hate to break it to you, but what you just did was not by any stretch of the imagination what could be considered tactical," Chloe informed her, and Nadine huffed slightly, shaking her head.
"I just took point to keep them off of you," Nadine told her, the slightest bit of humor in her voice. Chloe immediately felt a wave of simultaneous irritation and fear run through her as the scene reemerged in her mind. Nadine's professional disarming techniques with swift hand-to-hand as the man crept up behind her with a machete readied.
"Exactly! And that's the problem! You ran, pulling out all your fancy fist-fighting, and before you could even see it, there was a guy right behind you, swinging a machete at your head!" Chloe told her in a raised voice, pulling away from Nadine and the larger woman looked at her oddly.
"Why is this upsetting you so much?" Nadine questioned uncertainly, furrowing her brow and tilting her head a little.
"Nadine," Chloe started, the thoughts that she truly wanted to express floating to her mind. She wanted to tell Nadine that she couldn't stand the thought of the former mercenary having that machete ran through her head, and that the man with the machete and the wound that would result from it reminded her of her father's wounds and what little she had managed to see of them before they ensured the casket was closed.
However, Chloe, as always, could not say what was on her mind. It was too painful, and she had serious trust issues as it was.
"Well, sue me for giving a crap once in a while," Chloe finally said tiredly, turning away from Nadine as she tried to shut down the conversation. Chloe was already feeling the flood of memories creeping upon her like a thief in the night.
"What are you," Nadine started, obviously realizing that Chloe was just leaving her standing there. But Chloe's mind was so filled with glimpses of the past that she couldn't even begin to formulate a sarcastic comment to shoot at Nadine.
"Hey!" Nadine yelled after her, and Chloe swallowed hard, trying to block out the images of a barely sewn up gash of giant proportions stretching an expanse from what appeared to be the left side of the forehead all the way to the other ear.
"Look, I just don't understand! You never get upset about all the other close shaves I've had. Why is this one any different?" Nadine questioned, and Chloe could easily hear that the other woman was close behind her, but the sound was almost drowned out by the sound of everything else.
The closing of a casket, the sympathetic words of a man who did not even know him, the cries of her mother, the sound of the rain as it pounded outside, Chloe's own feet crashing into puddles, the sound of thunder reverberating through alleyways, the sound of a daughter pitifully crying for the father that she never had, a girl-
"Chloe!" Chloe was suddenly shaken from it as she zeroed in on Nadine's face. Nadine's soft, warm brown eyes were locked with her own gray-blue ones.
"Calm down, it's okay," Nadine assured her, her hands firmly on the Australian's shoulders, and Chloe suddenly realized she was crying as wetness streamed down her cheeks. She sniffed hard and made no move to fight when Nadine hugged her tightly. In fact, Chloe carefully latched on to the gesture, and she embraced the other girl in return. Chloe buried her face in Nadine's shoulder, and Nadine just tightened her grip a bit, trying desperately to make Chloe feel better.
"If I knew you were going to be this upset, I never would have done it," Nadine told her quietly in a somewhat panicky tone, obviously finding herself to be much too ill-equipped for handling a sniveling and sobbing Chloe Frazer. Chloe shook her head, just hanging on to the South African.
After a long moment, Chloe shifted her head's position against Nadine's shoulder so that her forehead was just pressed against it and she could actually speak. She parted her lips slightly, trying to find the words and the voice to articulate them.
"The machete… It, um," Chloe took a moment to clear her throat hard, fighting down that infuriating sob that was wanting to return to her. She honestly couldn't believe that she was seriously about to admit this to the other woman. But she supposed that if there was anyone in the world that she could explain this to, Nadine was the best she could ask for when it came to listening. And when it came to whatever trust Chloe had left to give at this point in her life.
"It reminded me of Dad, and the attack," Chloe ground out, feeling strange after uttering the words. She had never told anyone about this. Ever.
Nadine did not utter a single word in response to this, but Chloe could easily feel her posture soften a little.
"One of the bandits at the camp had… hit him in the back of the head with a machete," Chloe admitted, her voice rough from her tears, and Nadine froze a bit, stiffening herself once again. Chloe could almost feel the guilt emanating off of the secretly soft-hearted younger woman.
"It's… Still branded in my mind. That little glimpse I caught of him before they shut the casket. I guess they didn't realize that ol' Mister Frazer's kid was there looking on. I was a sneaky little ankle-biter," Chloe confessed, purposefully using an almost stereotypical Australian terminology in an attempt to lighten the mood. Nadine huffed just barely but ultimately remained listening.
"But it was gruesome, Nadine. Horrid. And it was that very thing that unavoidably flashed through my mind when," Chloe swallowed, her mouth going dry as Nadine's close call inevitably reappeared in her mind.
"Chloe, I'm… I'll be more careful next time, eh?" Nadine softly spoke, sounding as if she felt horrendously guilty, and Chloe nodded, taking a deep breath as she started to pull away. It was a motion to rescue both her own composure and Nadine's sense of intense remorse. Nadine let her go hesitantly, and Chloe sniffed hard, looking at the ground and surreptitiously wiping her eyes as she tried to act as if she were looking at something to her far left.
"Huh," Chloe huffed slightly in amusement after she had wiped her eyes sufficiently. Nadine immediately looked at her attentively, waiting for whatever Chloe would say.
"Kind of feel like a Disney princess with all of that sappiness," Chloe admitted, and there was a beat of silence before Nadine finally started to chuckle slightly. Chloe tried to fight down the grin before adding onto her statement.
"No, seriously. All I've got to do to totally sell it is put on a crown and get a cute animal sidekick," Chloe explained, and Nadine laughed a bit harder, grinning widely, and Chloe could easily see that the South African wasn't finding the entire thing humorous so much as she was just very thankful that Chloe had returned to her ordinary self.
"Wait, scratch the cute animal sidekick. I've already got one," Chloe deadpanned, looking at Nadine, and Nadine lost some of her laughter, trying desperately to look as if she were miffed about Chloe's decision to make her the animal and a sidekick. Chloe couldn't help but laugh at Nadine, and Nadine tried to fight away the smile and the slight shake of her shoulders with the laughter.
"That's not funny," Nadine finally told her, and Chloe cracked up anew.
They must have appeared a rather strange sight— two women out in the middle of a bunch of ruins laughing as if they had just witnessed the most humorous thing on Earth. But they didn't care. They had each other.
And that was all that mattered.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed! Please let me know what you thought if you have time! This one was pretty fun to write. Of course, I do love to torture my girls, lol…..