Chapter Four: Le Petit Mort

"Nothing good starts in a getaway car." -Taylor Swift

September 4, 2012

Audrey gulped. The guy cocked his head at her curiously.

"Why are you up here?" he asked slowly.

"Um," she said. "I needed to get something for Mr. Bardot," she blurted. "It was important. He wanted to show his...prototype...to an investor." Then, it occurred to her that she might as well ask the same of him. "How did you get up here?"

He gave her a look, like she was a dead fish he'd tripped over on the beach. "Are you new, or something?"

"Yes…?" she answered, not sure if she was supposed to recognize him.

"I live here," the guy said plainly. "Bardot's my stepfather."

"Oh," Audrey said. "My apologies, sir. I should go now."

He ignored her, leaning back against one of the bookshelves. "He's such a bastard. He's clearly going to leave my mom once she turns forty, the way he leaves all his wives."

Audrey didn't want to get into this guy's beef with his stepdad, especially not in a room she'd just trespassed into. Nevertheless, she found herself saying, "I'm sorry to hear that, sir."

"Whatever," he responded, taking a sip of the glass in his hand and stepping towards her, his gait uneven and swaying.

Audrey lifted up her hand to press the button on the comms piece, hoping that the sound of their conversation would alert the team without her having to say anything.

"Do you want a drink?"

"No thank you, sir."

"Have a drink with me, pretty waitress."

"The hell is that?" Clint asked. "Did someone lose their piece?"

"I think I better not, sir," Audrey said.

"Sir makes me sound old. You can call me Henry." He grinned. "Or you can call me baby."

She resisted the urge to gag. Baby was a more accurate descriptor than sir. This kid couldn't have been older than seventeen, and yet, he was trying to hit on her. Even if he didn't know that she was a qualifying AARP member, it was weird. Audrey looked to be at least in her early twenties. "Henry is a nice name," she said finally, recognizing that she was probably trapped here for at least a little while.

"Audrey?" Delphine's voice asked. "Are you compromised?"

She hummed. Henry gave her a look. She smiled, hoping his drunkenness would keep him from reading too much into it.

"She has the intel," Clint supplied. "We just need to figure out how to get her out."

"Now that you know my name, why don't we have that drink?" Henry asked, raising his eyebrows at her. She resisted the urge not to roll her eyes at him.

"I'm a teetotaler, actually," Audrey fibbed. At Henry's confused look, she added, "Besides - aren't you a little...young to be drinking?"

Henry waved her away, holding out the glass to her. Audrey took it delicately and set it down on the desk. The boy tried to step towards her, but when he stumbled, reached back to brace himself on the desk.

"I hate Julian," he confessed. "I hate this house." His bottom lip began to quiver.

Oh no no no. Audrey winced. This kid was about to start crying. She was so close to completing the mission, to getting out, and of course the person who caught her was about to burst into tears.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Audrey reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay," she said awkwardly.

"Barton, go get them," Delphine ordered through the comms set. "I'll get a car ready. Get her out and down to the valet."

"That'll look suspicious. She's a waitress, she can't be running through the valet," Natasha interrupted. "But we can figure that out. Clint, you should still go get them."

Okay. That was good. Clint would be upstairs soon, and then she'd have an escape route. All she had to do was stall a bit longer. "How long have Julian and your mom been married?" she asked Henry.

He sniffled. "Eight months."

"I see," Audrey said. She listened for footsteps, but heard nothing. "And has your mom been married before?"

Henry shook his head. "Men never want to marry her. She was so happy with Julian proposed, but he doesn't love her. He has mistresses everywhere."

She winced. Even if this was some spoiled rich kid, that had to suck. Audrey knew that if anyone even thought about disrespecting Peggy, she would start swinging. Being in a place where she couldn't stand up for herself or for her mom at all sounded like a nightmare.

"I'm sorry, kid," she said, patting his shoulder tensely in a failing attempt to be comforting. "Do you live here with him?"

"Sometimes," he answered. "I go to boarding school in Switzerland, but when I come home for holidays I have to see him."

Sigh. Audrey reconsidered. Even if his mom's marital situation sucked, he was clearly still living a charmed life. Boarding school - and not just boarding school. Swiss boarding school.

Before she could even begin addressing that, she heard the sound of someone running down the hallway. Clint appeared in the doorway, still dressed in the official guard gear and his mask. "Hey!" he barked. "What are you two doing in here?"

"It's my fault," Henry blurted out immediately.

Audrey blinked. She hadn't been expecting this sudden altruism.

"Get back downstairs," Clint yelled at her. "And you," he said, this time to Henry. "Shouldn't you be somewhere else?" Henry nodded somberly, stumbling back up to his feet. When Audrey hesitated to leave, Clint shook his head at her. "I'll deal with him."

As soon as she rounded the corner, she heard Natasha's voice in her ear. "Grab a coat from the coatroom and head out the east door to the lot," she ordered.

"Got it," the blonde mumbled, racing down a service stairway and then making a tight turn down a hallway. In the coatroom, she found herself surrounded by various furs and peacoats. She opted for the first black trench coat she could find, figuring it would cover more of her uniform than anything else.

Audrey wrapped the coat tight around her body and pulled the ponytail holder from her hair as she dashed down the hallway and out the door. Delphine was already waiting in the driver's seat of a car that looked unimaginably expensive, somehow already out of the catering uniform and back into her usual jeans and leather jacket combo. Maybe it was the adrenaline of the mission, or maybe it was the slight smirk Delphine was giving her, but her heart was racing.

Audrey threw the car door open and settled down into the passenger seat. Barely before she had the door closed, the tired squealed against the concrete and they were off, racing through the streets of Paris.

She pivoted in her seat to see if anyone had caught onto them. It wasn't like how she'd always pictured undercover missions going. There were no men in black chasing them down, or big vans of security guards following them. Although that would've been much, much worse, there was something ominous about the fact that they weren't being followed. It made Audrey feel like there was something she wasn't seeing.

That was probably just paranoia, though. Setting the thought aside, Audrey turned to Delphine and smiled nervously. The brunette met her gaze, face illuminated by the red light they were stopped at.

"So that was your first time undercover?" Delphine asked.

Audrey nodded.

"You did a good job," she said. Her eyes darted down to Audrey's lips.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," Audrey said quietly, voice more breathless than she'd realized. Her heart thudded in her chest, as she tried to discern if she was reading the signals right. She had no idea what she was doing - with the mission, or with Delphine. All she knew was that she wanted to kiss her. Very badly.

Delphine leaned toward her slowly, and Audrey's pulse grew even quicker. She leaned in.

A car behind them honked, and they jumped apart, startled. The light had turned green, and neither had realized it. Delphine swore in French, and then pressed her foot down on the gas, sending them hurtling down the street.

A nervous laugh escaped Audrey's lips before she could stop it. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Delphine glance over at her.

There was no way she'd imagined that. Right? Delphine had leaned over, Delphine had looked at her lips. Maybe Delphine had wanted her too.

As the buildings flew by, Audrey tried to catch her breath. Whatever the moment was, it had passed. Her adrenaline, however, had not. Her heart pounded in her chest, and although Delphine was now focused on the road, Audrey still directed all her attention to the other woman's lips.

She was so caught up in her thoughts of Delphine that she barely noticed their arrival at the hotel. As Delphine handed the keys off to the valet, Audrey pulled her coat on over the jumpsuit and stepped out onto the pavement, wobbling slightly on her heels. She waited as Delphine spoke to the valet in French, grinning brightly. After thanking him, Delphine turned to Audrey, still smiling, and said, "Let me walk you to your room."

Audrey blushed, and then hoped the shadows hit it well enough. "Okay."

After a short elevator ride and a few turns, they reached Audrey's door. As the blonde unlocked it, Delphine lifted an eyebrow at her, the corners of her lips turning up in a smirk. "You did good today."

"Thank you," Audrey said, grinning back at her.

Delphine looked down and put her hands in her pockets. She bit her lip. She looked back up at Audrey. "Goodnight, Audrey."

She tried not to let the disappointment blooming her in her chest affect her voice. "Goodnight, Delphine."

Neither of them moved.

Audrey leaned back against the door, while still bracing herself to keep it from swinging open. And then, very suddenly, Delphine pushed herself up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to Audrey's lips.

She reacted almost immediately. Her lips parted and she stumbled back, letting the door open wide. Inside, Delphine backed her up against the wall in the entryway. Audrey barely registered the sound of the door clicking shut behind them, her focus on the woman in front of her, kissing her, tangling her hands in her hair.

Delphine hummed against Audrey's lips, and Audrey reached around and settled her hands in the back pockets of the brunette's jeans. Delphine pressed her body even closer to Audrey's, her hands moving from her blonde locks to the sides of her face, where they cupped her cheeks, then down to her waist as she drew her lips down Audrey's neck. The blonde shivered. Delphine's lips, impossible soft, on her skin.

But just as soon as Audrey registered the softness of Delphine's lips, she grew rougher. She steered them toward the bed and pushed Audrey down onto its edge. The blonde scrambled to push her things off the duvet as she let Delphine push her onto her back. Chest to chest, lips to lips, closer than close.

Outside, on the street below, someone played the violin. The music, the feeling of Delphine so close, the smell of her shampoo, everything.

Audrey shut her eyes, sighed, and let herself get lost in it.

a/n: thank you so much everyone for reading! please leave a review letting me know what you think of audrey and delphine, and what you thought of the chapter in general :^)