Title: De profundis (part 3/?)
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: I think this'll end up staying somewhere along the T/PG-13 area.
Comments: Wow, I didn't think this would be my first D.E.B.S. fic. But the idea just wouldn't leave me alone, so... Well, hopefully, someone will enjoy it. It is just a bit dark, so be warned.
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.' That belongs to the fabulously talented Angela Robinson.
De profundis - Up from the depths (of misery)
"B...7," the computer announced.
Scud hit the mouse button with a flourish, grinning at the sudden, tinny fanfare that played over the speakers. "Hah! I am the god of online bingo," he declared to the empty room.
Sadly, he'd been getting plenty of practice at it lately. For a while now, Lucy had been acting rather... depressed. She'd barely been committing any crimes at all, and even those were only after careful examination of the targets to "see if they deserved it". Even then he sometimes had to prod her into actually doing anything. He wasn't quite sure why.
Well, that wasn't true. He knew.
Scud, I don't know how this happened to me, but being bad doesn't feel good anymore.
Their new lair was arranged much like the L.A. one had been, except it was a bit smaller. Which they could get away with, since they didn't have to find places to put quite as many stolen good, or WAMDs - Weapons of Australian Mass Destruction. That Lucy couldn't even summon up any enthusiasm to hate Australia struck him as bizarrely sad.
She'd hidden herself in her room that morning, giving strict instructions that she was NOT to be bothered for anything short of an utter catastrophe. And he knew why.
It was the anniversary of her split from Amy, and she fully intended to wallow in her feelings. And quite possibly get drunk again.
I've been looking in the mirror for so long.
That I've come to believe my soul's on the other side.
All the little pieces falling, shatter.
If he was going to be honest with himself - and he usually tried to be - he had to admit that he'd initially been a bit glad when things hadn't quite worked out with the two of them. Naturally, he'd have supported Lucy in whatever she decided to do, but he wasn't quite sold on the idea of going straight. He had actually liked Amy, though, so he hadn't been able to bring himself to be any happier then that.
But after he saw what the separation was doing to Luce... Well, he'd been rather tempted to bring Amy back through whatever means necessary. But Lucy had said it was for Amy's own good, and if staying away made Amy happy, that was enough for her.
Love, Scud decided, made you do some pretty stupid things.
By tacit agreement, whenever they emailed, instant messaged, or even on the rare occasions when they talked on the phone, neither he nor Janet mentioned Lucy or Amy. That was another reason he was a bit sad not to have to be dealing with the Debs anymore - he'd liked getting to see Janet in person, rather then just sometimes on her webcam.
As if somehow summoned by the thought, his cell phone started ringing, a familiar number on the display. "Hey, Babe. I was just-"
"Scud, is Lucy there?"
He blinked, surprised. Janet sounded very distressed, almost like she'd been crying. And she'd never once asked to speak with Lucy. About anything. Ever. He'd gotten the feeling that they hadn't quite liked each other all that much. "Hello to you, too," he replied dryly.
"I'm sorry, Scud, I just... I need to talk to Lucy now!" She was definitely crying now.
Alarmed, he asked, "What's wrong?"
"Oh, what isn't? Scud..." She made an effort to get herself under control, then started talking.
By the time she'd finished explaining the situation, his jaw had dropped open in surprise, and he'd bolted out of his room, running towards his boss's. "Lucy!" he shouted, pounding on the door. Into the phone, he said, "Look, baby, just hang on a bit longer. She's-"
The door in front of him was pulled open sharply, giving way to an angry-looking Lucy Diamond. "What?" she growled.
In response, he handed her the phone. "Janet needs to talk to you."
Janet? That had to have been the last thing she'd been expecting, and it knocked her readily off her verbal tirade. Taking the phone, confused, she said, "Hello?" Of all the Debs, Janet was quite possibly the most unlikely (well, second most) to try and steer her into some kind of trap, so she wasn't quite sure...
"Amy's going to kill herself!"
...what... this was... about? "What?"
"She's gonna jump. Or, you know, fall, since she really can't jump, but it's really the same thing, so-"
"Janet!"
"...sorry."
Shards of me,
Too sharp to put back together.
Too small to matter,
But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces.
If I try to touch her,
And I bleed,
I bleed,
And I breathe,
I breathe no more.
Lucy ran her fingers through her hair, not quite sure how to process what was going on. "Why is she allegedly doing this?"
"I... I'm not one hundred percent sure. So far, Max's the only one who's talked to her, but-"
"Max."
"Yeah." A pause. "I know what you're thinking. But if you'd seen her face... This is serious, Lucy. We need you here now."
Even if Amy hadn't been involved, Lucy would have been amazed that the Debs were actually asking for her help. As it was... "Where's here?"
"New York City."
"Janet, we're not even in America!"
"I know. We can..." Lucy heard her sigh shakily. "God, I'm breaking so many regs doing this... Tell Scud to get to his computer."
There was a pause as the two ran flat out back to Scud's room. Once the hacker was settled at his desk, Lucy asked, "Okay, now what?"
Janet read off a string of addresses, codes, and passwords, which Lucy dutifully passed along to Scud. All the while, the only thing on her mind was the indescribably bizarre notion that Amy wanted to kill herself. She couldn't figure out why. She'd done what Amy had wanted, let her get back to her precious career. The Deb should be ecstatic right now.
Once Janet had finished, Lucy and Scud were shocked to see they'd been directed into the D.E.B.S. computer system. Lucy saw why and raised an eyebrow. "You're giving us access to your transporter system?" If it hadn't been Janet, she would have been positive by now that this was some kind of trap. The Debs would never let a thief - especially one like her - get control of something that would let them commit crimes without ever having to leave the lair.
"I told you, we need you here now! We can change the codes later, if we need to." There was a brief, muffled conversation on the other end of the line, then Janet came back. "Look, I gotta go. Max and I are gonna try and stall Amy, but please hurry? Here, talk to Dom." Then came the sound of the phone being passed.
"'ello?"
"Dominique."
"Lucy."
Lucy didn't waste any time on pleasantries. "This is real?"
"Oui."
Out of all of them, the French one seemed her best bet on getting straight answers, without her breaking down and crying. "Why?"
There was a pause and a slight wooshing sound, as if she was blowing out a stream of air. "Apparently, because of you."
Lucy felt like she'd been gut punched. By a steam-powered piston. "What?" she managed to ask, the shaky tone in her voice causing Scud to momentarily flash her a concerned look before going back to work.
"According to Max, she 'as said she cannot live as she is now any longer. She is even less boring then I thought... though maybe not for much longer, if you do not 'urry."
"She can't..." Lucy repeated in a near-whisper, then louder, said, "She can't? She's the one who told me to go! I did what she wanted!"
"Did you?"
"Yes!"
"Or did you just do what you thought was best for her, like everyone else has?"
"I..."
She got the impression Dominique was nodding thoughtfully. "I can understand why you did what you did. But if it makes you both miserable... Of what good is it?"
Lucy was silent.
"You can't decide matters of the heart. It is madness to try."
"Got it!" Scud cried triumphantly. "Okay, just gimme a minute, and I'll have you in New York before you can say-"
"No."
"...what?"
Aware of the expectant silences both in the room and on the phone, Lucy said, "Not yet. I need to make a stop in L.A. first. There's something in Amy's room that I need." To Dominique, she said, "That won't be a problem, will it?"
"The transporter will not set off our alarms, no."
"Good." She locked eyes with Scud. "That gizmo you were working on last week... Did you ever finish it?"
"Yeah, but..." Comprehension dawned in his eyes. "Oooh, I gotcha, boss."
"Good. Let's get to work."
Take a breath and I try to draw from my spirits well.
Yet again you refuse to drink like a stubborn child.
Lie to me,
Convince me that I've been sick forever.
And all of this,
Will make sense when I get better.
But I know the difference,
Between myself and my reflection.
I just can't help but to wonder,
Which of us do you love.
Janet wasn't quite sure just how much longer they could stall. Max had told Amy that she couldn't find Dominique, and had then left to 'go look' for her. In reality, she was calling Mister Phipps to let him know what was going on.
Whether or not that included the part about letting Lucy Diamond have access to their most top secret form of transportation, or even that the thief was going to be involved at all, Janet didn't know.
Amy's goodbye had been touching and very heartfelt, resulting in both of them ending up crying. But she'd utterly refused to let Janet get close enough for a hug, leaving her fellow Deb standing in the doorway to the balcony, alone and miserable.
The worst part was, she wasn't quite sure how much longer Amy would wait for Dominique. The two had never been all that close.
Trying desperately to think of something else to say, to buy more time, she blurted out, "Is that my sweater?"
"What?" Amy blinked, refocusing on the conversation.
"It's okay if it is, I don't mind you borrowing it. It's just that Scud gave me that sweater for my birthday, and I kinda like it."
"Wha- Oh, God, I'm sorry, Janet," Amy said, actually sounding it. It was the first emotion - aside from sadness and relief - that Amy had shown in their conversation, and also much more of a normal Amy reaction. She pulled the sweater off, leaving her standing there in a dark blue t- shirt that was a bit too thin for the chilly weather. She tossed the sweater to Janet, who caught it, wondering what she was supposed to do now.
She was answered by the trademarked double-wooshing sound of the transporter behind her.
Amy sighed. "I told Max not to bring anyone else." She shook her head sadly. "There's nobody else I want to talk to, anyway."
"Nobody, huh?" an eeriely familiar voice said from inside the room. "Well, what if I want to talk to you?"
Amy froze, with such a 'deer in headlights' expression on her face that, had the situation not been so very serious, Janet might have laughed. "Lucy...?" she whispered.
Lucy slipped past Janet - who in turn withdrew into the room a little more - and leaned against the door frame, giving Amy a tired smile. "Hey."
So I bleed,
I bleed,
And I breathe,
I breathe no.
Bleed,
I bleed,
And I breathe,
I breathe,
I breathe-
I breathe no more.
To Be Continued...
I hope everybody's enjoying this so far. *smiles* Oh, and just so you know, now all of my stories are like this. The next one I plan on writing should be much happier and fluffier. You know, for a change of pace. ;) I don't always write so many parts at once, either, but sometimes you just have to get it all down while it's flowing. I'll try to leave some time between updates for people to read what's there, though - partly so that they can get through everything without suddenly having another part to read, and partly so they have time to comment, as I'm a total feedback whore. *lol*
The song lyrics are from Breathe No More by Evanescence.
(And yes, those are original comments from when the story was first written. Long story short? MY next story was NOT happy and fluffy. *grins*)