Baltimore to 33 Apocalypse, Laaaaaate Thursday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was half-inside the cooler when it happened, appreciating the blast of cold air on her skin while she debated whether she should get a Coke for the road or stick to water. The tiny convenience store had been surprisingly busy when she'd stopped to gas up her bike and grab a snack; her EMT course didn't get out until after midnight and yet she'd passed two kids with skateboards on her way to the back and the door had jingled again just a moment ago.

Still, even knowing this was a less-than-great neighborhood, she was still surprised when she heard a muffled, "Stick 'em up!" coming from the front by the register. Easing the freezer door closed, she peeked around one of the aisles and saw a masked man holding a shotgun at the terrified clerk. The two teens also remained frozen in place, one of them in the process of shoving a bag of chips into her bag and now too afraid to move.

This was entirely under the heading of heroics she'd sworn to give up, but the masked guy sounded jittery; his hands were shaking and his voice was over-loud. She wasn't sure if he was on something specific or it was just nerves, but this was the kind of thing that had the potential to get bad, fast. "Who's motorcycle is that outside?" the burglar demanded, waving his shotgun around. "Where are they? Bathroom? What!"

Well...shit.

The teller tried to stammer out an answer, but between his accent and the fear, he wasn't really getting anything coherent out. The burglar looked like he didn't have a lot of patience to try to figure it out, either, leveling his gun on the cowering man. On catlike feet, Kathy eased her way over to where the teens were, silently grabbing one of the skateboards and motioning them back the way she'd come, a finger over her lips to remind them to stay quiet. She had a half-baked idea and a skateboard; the last thing she wanted was to put anyone else in the line of fire if this didn't work.

Once the kids had slipped away, Kathy breathed a prayer, set the skateboard on the ground, and sent it slamming into the front counter immediately to the left of the burglar. He whirled in that direction, gun blasting the poor board in half, and Kathy launched herself at him, tackling him from behind. She hit him with enough speed to knock him to the ground, the gun spinning out of his hands and across the floor. She followed that up with a sharp kick to his ribs and pushing an endcap full of snacks and toys over him. The kids took that moment to make a break for it, the girl stomping on the guy's questing hand on their way out the door. Her friend kicked the shotgun over to Kathy before disappearing into the night.

Kathy snatched up the gun and passed it over the counter to the teller, who clutched at it like a security blanket, staring at her with wide, shocked eyes. "Don't look at me!" she snapped, kicking the guy again since he didn't seem to understand the concept of staying down, "call the cops!"

She very, very much would have preferred to bail like the kids had, but she was worried about what would happen if she left the cashier alone with the guy. Even with the shotgun, he seemed shaken and afraid, so she stayed until the police arrived--which then meant giving a statement and going to the station and also getting fingerprinted since she'd touched the stupid gun with bare hands.

Ugh. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Amateur move. If she'd been thinking like Banzai, she wouldn't have made such a dumb mistake. She also would have been carrying zip ties to keep the burglar immobilized and could have bailed long before fingerprints were a problem.

And she never did get her drink, dammit.

It was a lot later than normal when she finally got home, her fingers still smudged with fingerprinting ink. She let herself in as quietly as she could, planning on heading into the kitchen to make some tea. She was exhausted, yeah, but she had a lot to think about.

[Establishy, but up for housemates if they're awake for some reason? Based on this video, which might be fake but is still pretty awesome]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't want you to get hurt," Dante said.

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"I know," Kathy said again. "I can't say you're wrong to. Hell, I can't even say I wish you wouldn't, exactly." She had complicated feelings about his concern. "I just wish I even knew what I wanted. Sometimes I miss it so much I ache. Other times, the very idea gives me flashbacks to LA and I wanna throw up."

Oh look. Kathy was feeling confused and conflicted. Where was everyone's surprised faces?

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't wanna stop you from doing whatever you wanna do either," Dante said slowly. "But, well."

She didn't know.

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"But well what?" she asked, head tilting slightly.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You don't know what you wanna do," Dante pointed out.

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"I don't." Story of her life right now, really. She looked up at him, full in the eyes. "Would it be a deal-breaker if I decided to go for it again?"

She didn't know. She really didn't. But she wanted to get the lay of the land before she really started to think about it. If she really started to think about it.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Depends on what," Dante said, after a long pause. "And how."

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Kathy just raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for him to explain.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante just shrugged. "I don't know," he said.

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"So...you don't want to stop me from doing something, but it does have the potential to be a deal-breaker, but you can't exactly explain how or when," Kathy summarized.

She needed a drink. Forget the glass, she was looking for where he stashed the bottle.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Look, if you're gonna take off to beat up on zombies or whatever, that's gonna be a problem," Dante said slowly. "Everything else, I won't know until we get there. Sorry."

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Kathy shuddered. "I can swear on a stack of bibles right now that I will never go deliberately looking to fight zombies ever again," she said, goosebumps racing across her skin at just the thought. "It's not even a matter of being smarter now, but--"

She was afraid. Truly afraid. Being forced to face an ex was something right out of her literal nightmares.

She set the bottle down, not wanting to betray the way her hands had started shaking and casually wiped clammy palms on her leggings. "And it's okay. It's not something that'll even happen before I disentangle how I feel about it. So you probably don't have to start worrying until winter of 2020."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Just talk to me when you figure out what you want," Dante said, looking up to meet her gaze. "Then we'll see where things fall, okay?"

He took her hand again, giving it a squeeze. "But I'm not gonna argue with you defending yourself and looking good while doing it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You don't know whether I looked good," she said, giving him a smile. His hand on hers helped calm her racing heart.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You always look good," Dante said softly.

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"You're just bia--" Kathy stopped, thought a moment, and then changed what she'd been about to say. "Thank you," she said instead. "That makes me happy to hear."

Look at that. Turned out she could respond to compliments without denying that she deserved them.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante pressed a firm kiss to her cheek, out of words for the moment.

[spin_kick_snap]

They'd pretty much played this topic out for now. That was okay, though. Kathy had another one in mind, guaranteed to be just as uncomfortable.

"You know I know you're not sleeping great, right?" she asked quietly, taking another sip of her drink.

[rebelseekspizza]

Busted.

Dante sighed. "I'm sleeping fine," he muttered.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You really gonna look at me in the eye and try to bullshit me?" she asked quietly.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I can handle it," Dante said, after a long pause.

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"This is why I worry that our relationship is one-sided," she said, standing up to take her glass to the sink. "I'm not going to push you about it, but I just want you to think about how you want me to come to you whenever there's something wrong, but won't do the same to me. You can give me a thousand reasons why it's 'different' for you, but it still just feels like you don't trust me."

She was willing to let the matter drop right there, but she needed him to know how she felt.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I trust you," Dante said, watching her go. "Okay?"

He just wasn't. Good. With this one.

[spin_kick_snap]

Did he think that any of the times she'd come to him had been easy?

"Okay," she said, disappearing into the kitchen to rinse out the cup. And to try to scrub the ink off her fingers while she was there, not needing another reminder of the events of the evening.

[rebelseekspizza]

No. But she'd at least known what to say about it.

Dante let out a deep sigh and collapsed against the sofa, letting his legs slide onto the floor.