Re: Military lockdown: Cat & Matt
She scoffed. "Caring? Is always weakness." She believed that statement entirely. It wasn't something that she needed to embellish, and she certainly didn't need to pretend she believed it. Caring was weakness, and that was simply fact. It gave people power, and it gave people control, and it showed people where the soft spots were. It was the same as baring underbelly, caring, and the fact that Cat couldn't seem to avoid it? That didn't change the reality of it.
"I think," she said, slipping back into Russian, "despite my talk of weaknesses, that there comes a time when you have to let someone in and tell them about the true you. But, for what it's worth, I think he knows more than you realize." Cat, she didn't depend on Steve beyond the group, beyond their work, but she knew he loved his friend. She thought, and she didn't question it, that Steve could be trusted to know what Matt had done, and that he could be trusted to understand. It was more than Cat expected for herself with anyone.
But she had to laugh at that bit about negotiation. "Do you really want to live here?" She looked around his cell with displeasure and disdain. "If I were you? I would ask for somewhere else to live, somewhere better. Somewhere not here." It couldn't hurt. After all, what was the worst that could happen? They'd give him a room instead of a cell? It would still be an upgrade. Alright, so perhaps they wouldn't trust him enough for true freedom, but anything was better than this.
She stepped back, away from the bars, and she looked him over. Head to toe, and then she inclined her head. "Good luck, дорогая." With that, she reclaimed her items, her weapons, and she left. She didn't look at him again before leaving.
She'd said what she'd come to say and, sometimes, Cat knew, you should just keep walking.