my road of good intentions led where such roads always lead Who: Loch Lemach & Aisling Wilde What: Ash was a BFH. Loch doesn't know why. Where: Ash's place in the Commoner's District When: The night Ash returns from the Asura mission [backdated] Rating: PG Status: Complete.
The traps installed to keep trespassers out of Aisling Wilde’s home were unarmed when Loch checked. She knew Ash kept her security system as an ornament, to prove a point—but if the day had come when she’d decided her point had been thoroughly proven, Loch sure as hell didn’t want to find out by means of an electric shock.
She walked in through the front door, after verifying there were no nasty surprises waiting for her when she crossed the threshold. In every room, she repeated the procedure, then headed upstairs. Ash did not seem to be home. The door to Tynan’s office was locked; the kind of locked that could make unwanted visitors very uncomfortable, from what Loch could tell. Perhaps she may have been able to break in, had she wished to, but there was no point. There was nothing in there she wanted.
Loch lit a cigarette and sat down on the couch to wait.
Ash had meant for it to be a quick stop - long enough to shower and change - before heading back to Cian’s, but the smell of smoke immediately squelched that plan. There was only one person who smoked in her house, and that was Loch Lemach. With a sigh, she followed the smell to find the other woman comfortably perched on the couch. “Wasn’t expecting company tonight.”
She flopped down on the seat next to Loch, careful to keep some distance between them; she was sure she reeked of sweat and whatever else she’d had to roll the fuck around in. The smell of cigarette smoke would mask it, she was sure, but better safe than sorry. “The fuck are you doing here for?” she asked, yawning. A nap sounded like a great thing, but she could sleep once she went to Cian’s. As it was, stopping to chat with Loch was making her slightly anxious; they’d gotten the cure, but had been told it would take a few days to concoct and distribute.
If Cian died on her after she went through this, she would bring him back and kill him herself.
“Came to check for traces of blood on the corners of your furniture. Thought you had to have hit your head.” Loch took in the disheveled state of Ash’s clothing and shook her head. “The fuck were you thinking, Ash?”
She had her suspicions—but that didn’t make it less of a fucking stupid thing to do.
“I wasn’t,” she replied, looking up at the ceiling. At least, she hadn’t been thinking anything that Loch would understand. How was she supposed to explain that Cian was sick, and she couldn’t let him die? How was she supposed to explain that to Loch, who had offered - on multiple occasions - to off Cian for her?
Loch snorted. "Yeah, no shit." She plumed smoke into the air above her before turning to look at Ash again. "You ain't getting paid to put your neck on the line for a higher cause. So why'd you do it?"
“Did get paid,” she interjected. Not that she had known that was going to be the case, and not that that would have had her volunteering if someone she loved hadn’t been sick. Still, it at least lent some form of legitimacy to everything.
Not that Loch would accept that so easily.
“Cian is sick.”
At the words, Loch paused with the cigarette halfway to her lips, then completed the motion after a second. “The plague?”
Ash nodded. “He dies, the org goes down.” It was the easiest justification, the one she had fed herself before signing on. And it wasn’t a lie - she was no leader - but it wasn’t the entire truth, either.
“Maybe it does, maybe it don’t.” For years she had believed Ash should have succeeded her father, but there was no point in repeating her opinion now. “Sure, things would get interesting for a while there. But that don’t explain why you had to go save the day.”
She was about to say because he’d do the same, but that was a lie. He’d have let her die. One less problem for him to worry about, one less mess to clean up. Maybe she’d gone because she’d thought, if she’d died, it would make his life easier, but that wasn’t something to talk to Loch about either. Instead, she shrugged.
“Beats me,” she said instead. “Bored, I guess. Wanted to see what it was like to be the big damned hero.”
“Yeah, right.” Loch snorted. There was a pause as she took another drag from her cigarette and considered if she shouldn’t be checking for blood on the corners of the furniture after all. She shook her head and looked at the other woman. “Ash, we go way back. If you’re gonna bullshit me, I’ll pretend to buy it for your peace of mind, but you gotta feed me a better line.”
Ash shook her head. She figured that Loch wouldn’t buy it, but she’d had to at least give it a try. “I couldn’t let him die,” she said, running a hand through her hair; it was getting long. She was going to need to get it cut soon.
“Yeah. He wouldn’t have let you die either, probably. Would’ve sent someone on that volunteer team.” Loch said. Her eyes flickered to the locked door. “Too many people in the org still think you ought to be top dog. You die, they get restless. Wonder if he killed you.” A pause. “Wonder if he killed Tynan.”
She stiffened. It wasn’t something they talked about - Tynan’s death, despite having been five years ago, was still too raw for her - but she knew what the rumors said about it. Hell, she’d confronted Cian about them on Tynan’s anniversary and he’d denied it. Said it hadn’t been him. And Faram help her, but she believed him. “He didn’t do it,” she said tersely. “And he’d off me if I gave him a reason for it.” Like trying to run again. “He’d let me die if I was the one dead to the world in a bed.”
The subject of Tynan's death was abandoned the moment Loch heard Ash's voice. She was pushing too far.
"You know him better than I do." Loch gave a minute shrug. "Better make sure what's good reason in his eyes and be ready to kick back. Be disappointed if you went down that easy," she said with a teasing smile.
“Like hell I’d be taken out by something like that,” she snorted, shaking her head. “I’ll go down fighting or I won’t go down at all. Simple as that.” It was what Tynan had always said to her, one of the reasons why she couldn’t believe he had died the way he had. Not at all like he had planned.
Ash sighed. “How the fuck did you know I’d be back tonight, anyway?”
"A few of your fellow heroes posted to the network when they got back." Loch shrugged. "Figured you'd all've come back together. Was gonna drop by tomorrow if you weren't here today."
She stood up to fetch the ashtray on the table in the middle of the room (there for her benefit, she knew) and stubbed out her cigarette. A look at Ash revealed no apparent injuries, but who knew. "You seen a healer yet?"
“Chiaro was in my group,” she said as if that explained everything. And, for anyone who knew what Chiaro could do, that really did explain it all.
She watched as Loch stubbed out the cigarette. “They put me in charge of one of the groups,” she said, frowning. She still wasn’t sure why the fuck they had done that, but everyone she’d been in charge of was alive, and whether that was because of her or because everyone out there had been seasoned fighters was irrelevant. “Two fighters and Chiaro.”
Loch leaned her weight against the table and raised her eyebrows. “Surprised they didn’t pick one of the fighters,” she confessed. “I’m guessing the little songbird kept you all in one piece?”
“Same here.” Wasn’t like there wasn’t a bunch of them to pick from, really. “And yeah, Chiaro did.” In more ways than one, but that wasn’t something she was going to share with Loch. She still wasn’t entirely sure what the hell that had been, anyway.
“Planning on hanging around here all night?” Ash asked, changing the subject. “Because if you are, you can make me something to eat.”
“Left the apron at home, darling. Ought to be going, anyway.” A smirk pulled at the corners of Loch’s mouth. “Numbers to run, shipments to hide. You know how it is.”
It was on the tip of her tongue, as she turned to leave, to say hope you ain’t gonna make a habit of getting broken for the greater good, but she thought better of it. Instead, “Be seeing you.”
She wasn’t Ash’s keeper. Let Ash play at being a hero if she wanted to. Her own damn problem, in the end.