Against Bea’s own wishes a few stray tears escaped as she relaxed against Ty. She had never had a brother, but she thought that he was as close as she’d come to having one. “You’re such a fucker, you know that,” she told him, swiping at the wet streaks on her face, trying to hide the way she sniffled just a little bit. Not because Ty would think any of less of her for crying, he was part of the handful of people she never had to worry would think any less of her for showing weakness, but because she didn’t like to cry. “You could have sent a message with V, let me know what was going on with you.”
It was her own way of showing she’d been concerned about him, calling him out like she was. “I spent months looking over my shoulder for you,” she admitted quietly. After years of having him around, it had been difficult to trust anyone else to do that. She’d managed, but sometimes she had that phantom limb feeling, like something was missing out of the equation.
Giving him one last squeeze with her arms, mostly to convince herself that he was there, even though he’d confirmed it, she dropped her arms and moved to settle on the bed with her legs drawn up. “How’s the city?” Even if she knew she’d likely never go back, she liked to know what was going on. If the government was making things better or worse. She thought they were probably –definitely- making things worse, but hell, she could be surprised. “Not as great without me around, right?” she cracked a smile, sloughing off some of the seriousness. She could let go of every thought in the back of her mind that concerned Ty and his well-being.
Things weren’t going to be the same. They were still in a compound that neither one of them were in charge of, though Bea had landed herself closer to the decision making than she had ever honestly thought she’d get, but she had adjusted, and she hoped that he would too. She wasn’t prone to dramatics, but losing him because he couldn’t deal with Sing Sing would gut her in a way she didn’t want to think about.
“Be honest, you missed my bitching at you,” her smile morphed to something a little more sarcastic. “I’d ask if you’d gotten that ankle checked out, but…” Ty was a paramedic, he knew more than the average person. “Love the limp by the way, should get you fucking loads of sympathy from the women around here.”