11:45 AM - Jane and Bunny
Jane reached out and touched Bunny’s arm lightly, tentatively. “But I miss you. I miss your friendship. Our friendship. I’m not saying I can forget things I know about what the MC, or forgive what they’ve done in the past, but I am working on keeping a more open mind. It’s hard, but I am trying. So...yeah.”
Jane, who sometimes didn’t say as much in a day, let a alone in a single, awkward soliloquy, felt drained. Her hand fell away from Bunny’s arm and let it fall stiffly at her side.
Unlike her friend -- because friend was what she still considered Jane, despite the rift that had reopened between them -- Bunny no longer felt any need for hesitation. As Jane’s hand fell away, she reached for it, wrapping her slight fingers around Jane’s far stronger ones. Though conscious of the fact that they were surrounded by all the other people attending the brunch, she couldn't simply stand there and do nothing while Jane was so clearly hurting. Some things were just worth saying, ‘damn it all’ and ignoring convention. Besides, the whole point of this event was to bring them together, wasn't it? Well, here they were, being brought together.
“I miss you too,” Bunny said, squeezing Jane’s hand. Jane looked down at their clasped fingers and a wave of relief washed over her. For as vigilant as she had been earlier in the brunch to keep an eye out for Hellhounds and cops being too friendly, she didn’t give two shits who saw them like this.
“I don't know how you've been picturing me feeling since that day we met here at The Bar,” Bunny continued, heartened by the fact that Jane hadn't pulled away, “but I haven't been holding a grudge about the fact that you walked out. Just feeling awful sorry that trying to be a friend to me was tearing you apart.”
Jane wasn’t sure how exactly she’d been picturing Bunny’s reaction to her freakout. At her lowest, Jane imagined Bunny may have simply written her off but that assumption was always quickly dismissed. No matter what stupid shit Jane could have done, Bunny wouldn’t have resented her, or wished her ill. Only Jane’s own pigheaded pride and stubbornness had kept them from talking about this sooner. Jane inwardly lamented how much time she had wasted being angry and scared.
“Being your friend is one of the easiest and best things I've ever done,” Jane replied, squeezing Bunny’s hand back. “The only thing tearing me up was me.”
Despite Jane’s words Bunny knew that, given the bad blood between the Hellhounds and the APD, it had to be mighty hard for Jane to have to accept the group’s members into the fold as law-abiding citizens. It wasn't such a stretch to think she would find it hard, too, to accept Bunny’s connections to them. And Bunny had always understood that.