"Blonde doesn't suit you, Vega," Bayley opined, matter of fact, studying the wig that she was wearing.

"Neither would a prison cell," Vega replied in the emotionless tone that Bayley was starting to get used to hearing. She hadn't even taken her eyes off the country road that they had been travelling along for the last half hour.

Now that they were out of the prison and she had dropped the bitchy head guard routine, Vega came across to Bayley like someone who was all business; focused on the job at hand and willing to do whatever was required to get things done. It was quite a change from the viewpoint of someone who had been frightened of the woman for the past month, and had hated her to the point of feeling like she wanted to kill her. Bayley decided to try and clear the air between them, since they were inevitably going to be spending a lot of time in each other's company.

"So what was all that about in the prison?" she asked. "You treated me and Becks like shit, along with everyone else."

Vega glanced over at her and briefly raised an eyebrow a little. "You might have hated me, but at no point did you doubt I was a genuine prison guard, right?"

"Definitely not," Bayley admitted. "I hated you with a passion. I might well have killed you if I'd have felt like there was a chance of getting away with it. That was how much I despised you. But no, I would never have doubted you were anything but a prison guard – a vindictive bitch who got off on having a job where she could torment people who couldn't fight back and defend themselves."

"There's your answer," Vega said simply. "I had my cover down perfectly. I would have thought someone like you would understand that. I read your file. I saw some details on the methods you employed on the robberies you were wanted for."

Bayley looked out of the window at the countryside that was flashing by. Vega had an excellent point, and one that Bayley couldn't argue with. Her cover in the prison had been absolutely perfect. And what forethought by McMahon to have her there, just in case the day came where she was arrested. "I do understand, and I respect it," Bayley admitted.

A small nod of acknowledgement was the only response. Even so, Bayley felt like it was the first time a bit of mutual respect had passed between them. They certainly didn't like each other, but they knew that the other had talents – talents that would prove useful in re-establishing the McMahon empire, which was the endeavour that Bayley and Becky were now going to be a part of. Better that than rotting in a prison cell, she reasoned. However, Bayley hadn't forgotten some of the homophobic comments that Vega had made to her and Becky. She still had a nasty taste in her mouth about that, and she wanted answers.

"You made a lot of nasty comments to me and to Becky in that prison. I need to know if you're homophobic, or if that was part of your act? Because if you really feel that way, I'm going to have a problem working with you, I'll tell you that now."

Again, Vega didn't take her eyes off the road. "First off, you're going to have no say in who you work with or when. Stephanie or I will tell you what you're going to do, when and how you'll do it, and who you'll do it with. But to answer your question, I really don't give a shit who you choose to share a bed with. It makes no difference to me."

"Alright, so why did you continue tormenting me and Becky after you found out we cut a deal with Stephanie?" Bayley demanded.

Vega shook her head in exasperation. "Come on, Bayley, you're smarter than that. I was hardly likely to start treating you differently to the other prisoners, was I? I was a bitch to everyone, in every way I could be. Period."

"I guess," Bayley sighed. After a moment of silence, she decided to move on, since she actually believed Vega that she couldn't care less about her sexual orientation. "How long did you work at the prison? Seems like some serious planning by Stephanie to have you there just in case she was ever arrested."

"That's Stephanie for you," Vega said, her voice full of respect for her boss. "There's no smarter person in the world than her, I can promise you that. Eight years ago, she told me to get a job as a guard in that prison. I wasn't keen on the idea, but of course I did it. I'm loyal, and Stephanie always looked after me with money and such. I worked my way up to head guard, all with a day like today in mind. Breaking Stephanie out of that shit hole feels like the successful completion of a very long, very arduous mission to me."

Bayley took in everything that she had learned in that response. McMahon apparently inspired a serious amount of loyalty from her people. It was striking that Vega had given eight years of her life for the cause, and seemed to be nothing but pleased to have done so.

"So what's your story?" Vega asked before Bayley could follow up with anything else. "I read your record. You were wanted for a lot of robberies, as well as kidnapping and murder. No offense, but you don't exactly look the type."

For the first time since the breakout, Bayley smiled. "That was kind of the point, at least as far as the robberies were concerned. The easiest way to break into somewhere or rob someone is for them not to even suspect anything is wrong until you've done the deed and you're long gone."

"Okay, talk me through one of your robberies," Vega said. To Bayley's pleasant surprise, she sounded genuinely interesting.

Bayley took a moment to think of a good example from her list of successful jobs. "There was one time I got a tip off about an expensive necklace someone had seen in a pawn shop. Whoever sold it there clearly hadn't known exactly what they had on their hands, but my contact was able to ID it and give me the tip off in exchange for a cut if I was able to steal it and sell it on."

"You robbed a pawn shop? How?"

"It was actually easy," Bayley said, enjoying having Vega on the hook with her story. "I had a really good fake ID showing me as a detective. That proved useful more than once, definitely justifying what it cost me. Anyway, I went into the pawn shop dressed in a smart suit, stuck the ID in the owner's face and told him I was working on a jewellery store robbery. I told him he had one of the items in question in his possession and I needed to requisition it as evidence."

Vega glanced at her, a doubtful look on her face. "And he fell for that?"

"That's what I'm explaining to you. He had no reason to doubt I was a detective. It's called compliance with authority. He believed I was a detective, so he did what I told him. He even packaged the necklace up for me for transport. I gave him a fake form and filled in a bogus evidence number for him, to make him believe he would possibly be able to get the necklace back after the investigation…"

"And you walked out of there, bold as brass," Vega finished, a hint of admiration in her voice.

"Exactly." Feeling like she was on a roll now, Bayley decided to give another example of her prowess. "Another time, there was a rich family who had an expensive painting I wanted to steal. It was on the wall in their kitchen."

"If you're about to tell me you walked into their house and stole it while they were there…"

"Got it in one," Bayley grinned. "I made myself a little ID badge for a utility company, put on some work overalls and a hi-vis jacket and parked an unmarked white van a short distance down the street from their house. I knocked on the door, and the woman answered it. I told her we had been working on the water main just down the street, and asked if I could come in and run her water for a few minutes to test it. She didn't ever bother with more than a cursory glance at the ID before telling me I could do whatever I needed. She just walked off into her living room or whatever and left me to it, so I went into the kitchen, took the painting off the wall and left with it. I'm sure I was long gone before she realised what had happened, since I left the water running in the kitchen."

"That's some gutsy work right there, Bayley. Maybe I was wrong about you," Vega said with genuine respect.

"Thanks," Bayley said with a nod. "I don't have a huge set of skills, but I was good at what I did."

"Apparently you didn't make a bad kidnapper, either," Vega commented.

"Honestly, that was mainly Ronda and Charlotte's work. I just drove the van. But yeah, we managed to take Becky without any problems, and if Stephanie hadn't been arrested, we would have come through on our end of the deal."

"Yet here you are now calling Becky your girlfriend. I'm not sure how that happens?"

The way the question had been phrased irritated Bayley. "I'm not calling her my girlfriend, she is my girlfriend," she snapped. "As weird as it undoubtedly sounds to you, we pretty much fell in love at first sight. After the kidnapping plan fell through with Stephanie's arrest, I overheard Charlotte trying to convince Ronda that the best idea was to keep the half a million, kill Becky and dump her body somewhere."

"That would have been the smart play, quite frankly," Vega commented in that emotionless tone.

"Maybe if you're a cold-hearted killer. I'm not. I couldn't stand by and have an innocent woman murdered in cold blood. That was why I took Becky and fled with her. I've done a lot of bad things in my life, but I'm not a murderer."

Vega looked at her for a second. "You murdered Ronda Rousey."

"Yeah, I guess I did," Bayley said faintly. "It was her or me. I had to shoot her or she was definitely going to shoot me. But yes, I killed her. I never wanted to kill anyone, and I damn sure don't want to kill anyone again. I don't need another death on my conscience."

They sat in silence for several minutes. Bayley's words seemed to linger in the air like a bad smell. Hating the feeling, Bayley decided to make some kind of conversation just to have something else to say. "This place we're going to, where we're going to live. What's it like?"

"I think you'll be okay with it," was the simple and rather unhelpful reply.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who left a review on yesterday's update. I tried to work in some of the suggestions I got into this chapter, so I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about Bayley?

Next time, our heroes will be arriving at their new home. What do you think it will be like? Let me know in a review!