Arrivederci Italia
“Ava!” said Bea with a shocked smile. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“It’s a jailbreak, Beebs!” she said proudly. She was absolutely beaming. “Yasmine and Dora are in the car outside and Camila is upfront causing some sort of distraction. I’m not sure what exactly. Knowing Camila it could be adorable or terrifying.”
“Terrifyingly adorable?” asked Bea smiling up at the Warrior Nun.
Ava chuckled softly and then attempted to become serious as she took the seat across from Beatrice. “How did a nice girl like you wind up in a place like this?” she asked using a low gruff voice.
“Oh I swear I did nothing wrong officer,” Bea replied, playing along. Her happiness at having Ava there with her was overwhelming her sense of caution. “But apparently my girlfriend is an idiot who summoned a Tarask and set it loose on the city. Didn’t I tell you that you had thrill issues?”
Ava grimaced in response. “Yeah that may have happened. Seriously, how did you end up in here?”
“A police officer recognized me from a photo that the Vatican sent out this morning. It came with a warrant for my arrest—there’s one for you as well.” Bea thought to leave it here but could already tell from the look on Ava’s face that she was going to push. She took a deep breath, realizing that she was probably going to regret this for the rest of her life. “He was giving me a citation for jaywalking.”
Ava’s brain very obviously did not immediately register the sister warrior’s words judging by how rapidly she was blinking. Slowly, as realization set in, her lips started curling at the very edges. Bea could tell how valiantly Ava was fighting the urge to smile and laugh. She continuously forced her smile down and had to resort to biting her lips during the losing battle. Eventually she broke down completely.
“Oh. My. God!” she said while gasping for breath. “That is the most amazing thing I have ever fucking heard!”
Bea smiled as she rolled her eyes. “You are enjoying this way too much.”
“You’re damn right I am!” said Ava with a bright and mischievous smile. “Wait until Mother Superion hears you’ve been arrested again. Can I please tell her?”
Be groaned as she laid her head over the back of the chair and looked at the ceiling. “Ava!” she whined. “Get me out of here already!”
“I don’t know,” the younger woman hedged. “I kind of like you in handcuffs.” Bea’s head snapped back to look at her girlfriend, a blush running all the way up to her raised eyebrows. Ava winked at her. “What will you do for me?”
Bea smirked at her as she bit her bottom lip. She leaned forward on the table and tilting her head said in a low husky voice, “Get me out of these handcuffs, darling, and I’ll let you put me in a pair anytime you want.” Ava’s face caught on fire as her eyes went wide and she let out a slight whimper. Bea laughed at her. “Seriously, what’s the plan here?” She lifted her hands, jingling the chain.
“Okay, well…” the Halo Bearer had to shake her head to clear it. “I do have an idea for that.” She took both of Bea’s hands in her own, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Soon the Halo began to glow. Ava opened her eyes and focused on Bea’s wrists and watched as they phased through the cuffs as she lifted the sister warrior’s hands off the table.
Bea was in shock. “Wha—how—how did you do that?” She grasped each of wrists in turn, checking to make sure they were both solid and whole.
Ava smiled at her. “I’d been wondering about that for a while now. Okay, up! That was the trial run. Now for the real test!”
Bea stood with her. “What are you talking about?”
Ava pointed at the wall behind Bea. “That’s an exterior wall. Yasmine and Dora are on the other side.” She took Bea into an embrace and planted a kiss on her lips. “You ready?”
Bea’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding?”
“Nope,” said Ava with a smile. “Let’s do this!”
Dora stood outside the back of the building, pacing on the sidewalk while Yasmine sat in the driver’s seat of the car that they had stolen. “What is taking them so long?” Dora asked.
“They’ll be out soon,” replied Yasmine through the open window. “Maybe it just took longer to—ahh!” She screamed as Ava and Beatrice phased through the wall.
Bea put her hand to her chest and the other on the solid wall behind her. Her mouth was open in shock and her breathing was shallow. Her widened eyes had stopped blinking.
“Beatrice,” Dora asked, “are you ok?”
The sister warrior nodded, then shook her head and closed her mouth so she could swallow back the bile that was threatening to come up. She looked at Ava. “I am never doing that again.”
Ava laughed at her. “Come on, let’s go.” She, Beatrice and Dora piled into the back seat while Yasmine spoke to Camila through the earpiece microphone.
“We’ve got her Camila.” She started the car and pulled forward to the end of the block to find Camila already waiting there. She jumped in the front passenger seat and they raced off through the city.
As they drove through Rome, the excitement in the car was palpable. “Ladies!” said Ava. “Congratulations on our first jail break!” Cheers went up from around the car. Only Beatrice stayed quiet.
“I still cannot believe you just pulled this off,” she said, grinning. “How? Why?”
Dora began the story. “Once I heard where they were going to take you and realized how little time we had left I figured we could stop worrying about caution. So I stole a car and drove to the second safe house.”
“You should have seen it,” said Yasmine. “She comes barging in the house—‘Bea’s been arrested!’ and everyone just stops dead in their tracks and stares at her.”
“You’re lucky it was just the four of us,” put in Camila. “Once we figured out what was going on everyone wanted to come get you.”
“Really?” asked Bea, feeling warmth permeate her chest.
“Oh yeah,” responded Camila, “I think the girls would have stormed the station if Ava didn’t yell at them to stay put.”
Bea turned to Ava with a shocked look on her face. "You were the voice of reason?"
"Not really." Ava grinned. "I was ready to storm the place myself. These three talked me down but then the girls all kept volunteering over each other." She looked a little guilty as she shrugged. "I had to yell at them. I think they would have followed us otherwise."
Bea was speechless. Her eyes were started to sparkle with unshed tears. She turned to look at Dora. “That’s why we do what we do,” she said quietly. The nun smiled and nodded, putting a hand on her arm. “So,” said Bea a little louder and to the entire car, “this is the car Dora stole?”
“Oh no!” replied Yasmine calmly, as if this were all an everyday occurrence. “We had to ditch that one.” She continued proudly. “I stole this one!”
“Then we drove up here,” said Ava. “I scouted the building through the walls and helped Cam get a cord into the building for a quick computer hack so I could unplug the camera. Then when she was done she went up front and I got you out.”
“You are all crazy,” Bea said in awe. The other women all laughed in response.
“Camila,” asked Dora, “what did you do in there anyways?”
Camila simply smiled dreamily at them, “I have my tricks.” She giggled as she turned back around.
Ava gave her a weird look. “That was a little creepy, Cam.”
Camila, Dora and Yasmine continued talking nonstop, but Bea was only focused on the young woman sitting next to her. There were dark circles under her half-closed eyes and she held a sleepy smile while resting her head on Bea’s shoulders.
“You look tired,” Bea observed quietly, leaning over to see Ava’s face.
“I’ll be better soon,” Ava sighed. “I’m glad you’re back.”
Bea kissed the top of Ava’s head. Their quiet moment was interrupted by Camila.
“Bea—I still cannot believe you got arrested for jaywalking!”
“I can’t believe you let yourself get arrested at all,” said Yasmine.
“I couldn’t exactly do anything about it,” Bea protested. “There were children around! Dora, will you tell them please?”
Dora shrugged. “From what I could tell you gave yourself up freely—full confession and everything.” She smirked at Bea’s look of mock indignation as the rest of the women laughed.
Bea shook her head and turned to Ava. “You’re awfully quiet right now,” she observed, smiling at the younger woman.
Ava sighed. “I’m content.”
“Oh? And why is that?” Bea asked her.
Ava sighed happily again. “I called you ‘Beebs’ and you didn’t argue.”
Camila’s eyes lit up as she gasped. “Aww!” she gushed nauseatingly. “Ava finally found a pet name!”
They returned their stolen car back to where they found it. Yasmine was reluctant to leave it—"it's the first car I've ever stolen!"—but they dragged her away to the safe house. The sister warriors who had been waiting for them cheered upon their return, not only for the successful mission but also for the reappearance of their de facto leader. Ava watched with a satisfied smile on her face as the sister warriors swarmed around Beatrice, their joy and relief evident. She hung back from the crowd, giving Bea her moment with the other women. She looked back at Ava with a shocked smile on her face, her eyes glistening at the reception. Ava could only raise her eyebrows as she shrugged and nodded.
This is all for you.
After everyone had settled down, the five leaders retired for a private conversation in a separate room. “Alright Bea,” said Camila after they had the room to themselves, “Dora told us about Eileen, Rosemary and the divinium but I think you’ll agree you owe us an explanation about what happened yesterday.” Bea nodded and told them her suspicions as bluntly as she had for Dora.
“We have a high level leak,” she said to the startled faces on Ava, Camila and Yasmine. “I’ve suspected it since Lilith first showed herself and in my opinion it was confirmed yesterday. Dora said there’s no way the FBC could have been on to us without being tipped off.” Yasmine looked shocked and Camila looked like she was about to be sick. Ava listened intently, her face betraying nothing of what she was thinking.
Dora took up the narrative. “The FBC has been showing up most of the time we’ve gone to fight the wraiths. Up until now we assumed they were pulling them to Earth in some way. I am now thinking they simply knew where we were going to be.”
“Ava and I have not been around,” continued Bea, for now hiding what Lilith had said about the Warrior Nun, “but Mother Superion, Father Vincent and you three have been involved with planning all of the missions.” She watched as the three women eyed each other, suspicion warring with disbelief. “I do not believe Mother Superion would betray us and I also do not believe Father Vincent is stupid enough to do so again,” she continued. “But…”
“You’re saying it’s one of us,” interrupted Camila looking wounded.
“Actually no,” Bea responded immediately and the four women all looked at her in shock. “I will admit that I was suspicious of everyone at one point or another. But after today…” She trailed off, her humility causing her to hesitate. “Anyone who really knows the OCS and wanted to hurt us would have known that today was their best possible chance.”
Ava immediately picked up on her line of thought. “You were separated from us—from me. Everyone in this room knows that the best way to weaken the OCS would have been to keep it that way. I was a wreck and we all saw how the sisters reacted when Bea came back.”
“It would have been far too easy for any of us to ruin the jailbreak,” continued Yasmine, “and make it look completely innocent.”
Bea nodded in agreement and spoke to the room, her eyes settling on Camila. “I apologize for suspecting you. I trust everyone in here with my life—with Ava’s life. I would never betray any of you and I know that none of you would ever betray me or each other. The FBC is still getting information on us somehow, but I know that none of us are passing it to them deliberately.” The young nun gave her a small smile and nodded.
“So a bug then,” said Camila. “Or a bunch of them. We’ll have to do sweeps of the entirety of Cat’s Cradle when we get back." She sighed. "In the meantime, I have to alter the plans for Ava and Bea to leave Italy.” Ava looked at her questioningly. “Even if the Vatican only sent out your pictures to the local authorities in Rome, after today they’ll be all across the country,” Camila explained. “You two should move as soon as possible. A car to Piombino, then you’ll stow away on a ferry to Corsica. If you move fast enough we can get you on a flight from Bastia to Andalucía before all of Interpol is looking for you.”
“How do you have all of that just ready to go?” asked Ava.
“Honestly darling,” said Bea, giving her a kiss on the cheek, “you need to start seeing the value of doing your homework.”
“You’ll both need to change your clothes,” continued Camila, “and Bea will need a disguise, or at the very least we’ll need to change your hair.” She looked over at Ava. “Blonde or brunette?”
“What?” replied Bea. “Camila, no! I hate those things!”
“We don’t have time to dye your hair,” said the younger woman plainly, “and the entirety of Italy will be after you soon if they aren’t already.”
“Well whichever one I don’t take you’ll have to wear,” responded Bea. Camila gave her a confused look. “Try and tell me you won’t stick out in the minds of all those officers as the last person they saw when I disappeared.” Camila could only groan in response.
Bea was driving their newly stolen car north out of Rome to the port at Piombino. Ava sat next to her in the passenger seat, resting her head against the window, looking over at the older woman
“Okay,” said Ava. “Apparently I have a thing for blondes.” She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Beatrice since the sister warrior had donned the blonde wig.
“Darling it’s a wig,” replied Bea, rolling her eyes. “Do you have any idea how much work it would be to actually dye my hair?”
“So you’re saying there’s a chance?”
Bea scrutinized her look briefly in the rearview mirror. “Not with this color.”
“C’mon Bea,” whined Ava, reaching over a placing her hand on the sister warrior’s thigh, “you look hot!”
Bea rolled her eyes, but Ava could see the small satisfied smile that graced her lips. “And you look exhausted,” Bea replied. “Try to get some sleep. We don’t know if you’ll be able to on the ferry. We may have to keep moving.”
Ava reached up and took Bea’s right hand off the wheel, holding it tightly as she wedged herself—not uncomfortably—between her seat and the door. She sighed quietly. “How much more is there that you’re not telling us?” she asked. “I mean, I sort of get it—well not really I guess.” She looked over at Bea, “I’m not an OCS operative. Secrets and lies aren’t really my thing.”
Bea squeezed her hand. “I know,” the sister warrior answered quietly. “I really appreciate how patient and trusting you’ve been. When you do what we do, sometimes the secrets are necessary. Lives can depend on it. Just know that I meant what I said before. I trust everyone who was in that room with my life—especially you. I trust you with so much more than that, in fact. I promise you will be the first person I explain all of this to as soon as it’s safe.”
Ava stayed quiet, feeling irritated. That answer was disappointing at best. What could Bea possibly know that she couldn’t share with her?
“If it was just about me, Ava,” said the older woman, clearly reading her discomfort, “I would tell you in an instant.”
“I trust you Bea. I’m disappointed but I trust that you know what you’re doing.” Ava sighed. Bea squeezed her hand again.
“I love you Ava.” This time Ava squeezed it back.
“I know,” she said. And when Bea looked over at her again, Ava gave her a small smile.
After successfully sneaking onto the ferry, the two women were able to relax. “It’s a three hour ferry ride and Camila was able to get us on a last minute flight that departs around midnight tonight.”
“How could she possibly have done that?”
“No idea, I’m pretty sure she works miracles. These kinds of logistics were always beyond me.”
Ava knew she should sleep, but her catnap in the car had done enough to energize her. “Wait,” said Ava teasingly, “did we find something you’re not the best at?”
Bea rolled her eyes. “There are plenty of things out there that I am not at all good at.” She sighed deeply and closed her eyes.
“Okay,” replied Ava, “but I can think of a thing that you are wonderful at that will help us kill time for the next three hours.” She ran her hand up and down Bea’s thigh and winked when the older woman looked at her.
“The blonde is really doing it for you, huh?”
“You are really doing it for me,” said Ava. “But—yes.” Bea laughed.
A minute later they found themselves making out inside a bathroom, busily working to remove each other’s clothing. Ava was sitting up on a counter while Bea moved her lips down her neck, nipping at and tasting her skin. Ava started to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” asked Bea, smiling into Ava’s jawline.
“This just got me thinking of the last time I was in a ferry bathroom and—um—nothing.”
Bea pulled back and stared at her, an amused smile on her face. Ava leaned in to try and kiss her again but the sister warrior pulled back and gently pushed on her shoulder.
Okay, so not that amused.
Bea stood there and waited. “Well, I mean,” said Ava, thinking Bea was looking for an explanation, “you already know about JC and well he and I…” She trailed off as Bea sighed and began buttoning up her shirt. “No! Wait! Please don’t!” Ava said desperately.
Bea laughed a little mirthlessly as she shook her head. “Hearing about your past sexual experiences is not exactly a turn on for me.”
“Experience, Bea—singular.”
“Not any better.”
Ava sighed. “I’m sorry. Really. I shouldn’t have said anything. Please don’t put your clothes back on, Beebs.”
Her puppy-dog eyes and the use of the new nickname seemed to do it. Bea grinned at her and laughed. “You are ridiculous,” she said as she leaned back into Ava’s neck.
“I am,” Ava agreed and thinking she still needed to make it better she continued. “And you know, it didn’t really mean anything to me—not like—with…” Bea pulled back again and stared at her. There was no amused expression this time. “I’m sorry,” said Ava immediately. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. My mouth really seems to want to get me in trouble.”
Bea sighed at her again. “If your mouth is going to get you in trouble,” she said evenly. “Then why don’t you occupy it with something that will make me happy instead of piss me off?”
Ava beamed at her. “I can do that,” she said as she leaned in to lock their lips together.