Amaranthine

Cait leaned against the cinderblock wall of the building’s rear, trying to keep a handle on the situation. She’d tried a few abortive conversation starters as she’d followed the woman out, but hadn’t gotten more than a grunt in return.

“Okay, so, I’m outsid—”

The side of the woman’s fist hit the wall hard enough to chip the stone, sparks flying off of what must not be tattooed skin. Cait’s eyes widened, and she got a second look out of the corner of her eye, realizing those tattoos were covering up a hell of a lot of cybernetics.

“Shut. The fuck. Up.” The woman said, bracing herself against the wall while it looked like she physically restrained the anger within her. When her gaze rose to meet Cait’s again, her eyes might as well have been backlit for all the fire in them. “Listen. You don’t know me. You do know my wife—”

“Oh, come on, that’s what this is? Listen, lady—”

In the more impressive of the dueling interruptions, the woman’s other fist cracked into Cait’s jaw. Literally cracked, that sound hadn’t come from Cait. She watched as the woman took a deep breath to banish the pain of what must be a broken knuckle or two.

“Not like that,” she hissed, breathing hard, “you fucking asshole. My wife’s name is Jess.”

Oh fuck.

The name hit Cait harder than B-man’s truck had, actually making her try to take a step back into the wall as the anger in the woman’s eyes took on the weight that came from understanding.

“It was easy to ignore you, for her, when you were just some nothing lab tech and I was a fucking mech pilot,” she continued, gaze boring into Cait. She was shorter by a good few inches, but in that moment, it felt like she towered over her. “but now that you're everyone’s favorite new hot-shit Guardian, I needed to make sure you remembered who you are.”

Her beautiful face took on a cruel, ice cold grin.

“When I brought you out here, you were thinking I wanted to fuck you, didn’t you?” she said, with laughter that chilled Cait to the bone. “All those women all over you, and still. Jess wanted to pretend that maybe you’d changed, but you haven’t.”

“H-how is she?” Cait stammered lamely. It sounded hollow, because it was. It had been 4 years since her ex had finally crawled out from under her for good. If Cait had cared to know how she was, there were a million ways she could have checked. She hadn’t.

“Not. Fucking. Great.” The woman hissed. “Changed her name though. Jess Schwinn. As in, Ellie Schwinn. A name’s a hell of a lot more than you ever gave her.”

Ellie’s eyes were growing manic and unfocused in her rage. She let out a barking laugh that sounded half crazed.

“A month ago, she was fine Cait. I can’t say she hadn’t thought about you in years, but all the work we’d put in, all the time…. She had friends again. People that could look her in the eyes without seeing you, or worse, her knowing you were going through their mind behind those eyes. You remember Teia?”

Ellie stopped her meandering rant, apparently actually wanting an answer.

Do I remember Jess’ best friend, and the first and most frequent partner in my serial infidelity?

"Yes,” Cait responded, instead of saying any of that out loud.

“That bitch had the fucking stones to send the Smart Script about your first appearance to Jess. Acted like it was something they could work through together. Like if there’s anyone else that shares as much blame as you, it isn’t her. Did you know Jess’ mom still asks about you at Christmas? With me in the room?”

“Wha—”

“Shut up. Fuck this fucking hand,” she groaned, swooning a little as she clutched at her flesh and bone hand with her cybernetic limb. Cait noticed a rugged, black and gold wedding band over a crooked knuckle. “Just fucking, just remember, dickhead. I know you’re a monster. She can’t ever fucking forget you’re a monster. Those pretty little toys in there will learn soon enough, and the city will follow. We deserve better heroes than you.”

She pushed off the wall, cradling her arm as she swung her leg over a vintage Harley. She gunned the engine, speeding out of the lot and into the night.

Hopefully to a fucking doctor, Cait thought, allowing herself a smile entirely incongruous with the tears she felt on her cheeks. She faced the wall, bouncing her forehead off of it, hard enough to shake of dust. A tsk escaped her lips as she remembered she couldn’t use physical pain to drain out the severe emotional damage she’d just taken. She stood there for awhile, before she felt cool fingers tracing along her tattoo.

“Why the fuck did you laugh when she pulled me out here,” she growled at Lira, her glare deepening when the redhead laugh, bright, but somehow still sad. Her girlfriend wrapped her around the waist, laying her chin against Cait’s shoulder to meet her eyes.

“Cause you deserved it, babe,” she said, her voice quiet and soft. “I read her entry clear as day, and it reiterated some stuff in yours I’d been ignoring.”

Cait felt fear enter her eyes for the first time in a long time.

“Don’t worry. I can love who you are without forgiving who you were. I don’t even know if you were capable of love back then, but…. I’m confident you love me now, too. Same with Kennedy. Believe me, if I thought you were gonna get up to the same tricks you used to on my girl, I’d be using the sum total of human knowledge to find a way to kill you. But Ellie was wrong. People change. You’ve changed. Just gotta make sure it takes.”

Cait faced her, wrapping her up tight and burying her face in her hair.

“You smell good,” Cait said, finding comfort in every part of Lira. Her warmth, the way she held her tight, the absolute beauty of the girl, inside and out. Lira laughed, and this time, it was her warm, bubbly chuckle, same as always.

“I think you’ve only ever said that about my pussy before,” she purred, pulling away enough to meet Cait’s gaze, before hopping up on her tiptoes for a kiss. That kiss was enough to make Cait believe what she’d said, about things being okay. “You ready to go back inside?”

Cait sniffed, then nodded, grinning. “No damage means no red eyes, right?”

Lira giggled, probably out of obligation, but took Cait’s big hand in her own and led her back into the bar, while Cait put back on the mask of the Bulletproof Bimbo. Kennedy’s honey-gold eyes watched her entrance with concern, but Cait waved her off with a grin. She knew this would probably require explaining, but not right now.

Qi and her Dad were once again in a heated discussion over the answer to a round-end double down question, where a young black man was depicted wearing a military uniform of some sort.

“That is Barack Obama,” Elliot insisted. “Look at the ears!”

Pointing out the man’s prominent feature did make Qi reconsider, but only for a second. “Nope. I’d know if he’d done military service, kinda a USA history buff. That’s Denzel for sure.”

Cait’s mother squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, clearly understanding something had happened but respecting that Cait wasn’t going to be talking about it.

“I think it’s Morgan Freeman,” Antonia volunteered, ignored by the bickering pair who had taken ownership of the answer pad.

Cait looked at the guy again, and, goddamn it if she wasn’t right. No salt and pepper, but the same kind eyes, unmissable now that she was looking for them.

“Huh,” Cait said, putting a hand up for her Mom to high-five, “kinda just assumed he was born old.”

She yoinked the answer pad from her Dad’s hand, writing down her Mom’s answer and jogging it up to the host despite Qi and Elliot’s protests. Cait returned to the table, hands raised and empty.

“It’s done! Up to God, probably played by Morgan Freeman, now.”

Qi and Elliot groaned when the answer was read and it turned out Toni was right, and admittedly, if Cait was her Dad, the self-satisfied look on Mom’s face would have been intolerable.

Well, he should try not being wrong.

The double points put team Clueless comfortably in the lead, where they stayed for the rest of the night. Kennedy proved surprisingly knowledgeable about old music of all genres, not just metal, and carried them through the last round to a personal record for the team.

“WHOOOOOO! GET FUCKED!!!” Cait yelled to the bar at the top of her lungs, her habitual victory cry met with a chorus of laughter and jeers from the regulars, and confusion or offense from any newbies. An overexcited Qi let out a burst of flame straight upwards, catching one of the antlers of the sunglasses-clad stuffed moose head on fire. The team of tipsy superheroes all frantically scrambled to put out the small blaze before it could do more than scorch the bar mascot’s antler tip.

They all hugged, shook, or waved goodbye to Cait’s parents, and quickly left the bar before more damage could be done, piling back into the SUV.