Twenty minutes later, and Lin had her cornered in the training room on the company building, standing across from her with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed.
"Do I seriously have to put these on?" She asked. She rolled the small, magnet-like devices back and forth in her palm. Just having them there, not even linked up to her nervous system, made her palm strangely… numb.
"I know you can't control your powers when you get emotional." Lin said. "I'm not going to risk having you snap my neck if you get mad."
Beatrice felt her face light up with both embarrassment and anger.
"T-that's not true!" She said, even though it was definitely not a total lie— just an exaggeration. "Besides, you're going to have the advantage on me now."
"How do you reckon that?" He said, as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
"You're at least a foot taller and sixty pounds heavier than me." She said, "I should be the one worried about you snapping my neck!"
"Nope. Unlike you I'm in control of my emotions." He said.
Beatrice grunted and threw her hands out to slam the door to the training room shut, accidentally proving him right.
"Fine." She huffed.
He walked over to grab her by the shoulder to steady her. she pulled her ponytail to the side and placed the chip on the back of her neck.
Almost immediately, an unnatural tingling sensation zapped through her, from her head to her toes, her vision turned into a kaleidoscope of fuzzy lines. Lin steadied her as her knees buckled under her, until her vision slowly returned back to normal, and she regained control of her legs.
"You okay now?" He asked.
She groaned at the buzzing in her skull that was already starting to crescendo into a full blown headache.
"Peachy." She said. "Can you just go ahead and beat the shit out of me?"
"I already told you that I'm not here to beat the shit out of you." He said. "We're training."
Beatrice turned away and grumbled under her breath.
"Well someone probably should. Maybe it'll fix whatever is wrong with my brain."
"What?"
"Nothing." She said. "So what am I supposed to do? Do I just walk up and punch you in the face? Because if I'm being honest, I've been wanting to—"
Her feet suddenly weren't underneath her anymore, and her breath was knocked out of her as she landed flat on her back on the mat.
"Fuck." She coughed.
"Try not to land on your head." Lin said. "That would have hurt you if this were concrete."
"Could you tell me we were about to start?" She spat back at him.
"Is that what criminals usually do?" He asked. There was a tinge of amusement in his voice that only made her all the more angry at him.
If that's how this is going to be, then fine.
She pulled herself up, and put everything into running towards him. She threw everything she had at him, but nothing seemed to help. Punch after punch, he caught each one by the crook of her arms and swatted them away like it was nothing.
He hooked his foot around her ankle, and pulled her feet from underneath her one more time. This time she was able to react fast enough to curl to the side before she hit the ground.
"Fuck." She huffed again.
"Not bad." He said. "You didn't hit your head this time."
"Go away." She groaned.
"No, seriously. Not hitting your head is actually pretty important."
"I'm going to be wearing a helmet."
"It could get knocked off."
"Fair enough."
He offered her his hand, and, somewhat reluctantly, she took it. She pulled herself up, and he went back to the other side of the mat. He clapped his hands together and smiled.
"Alright, now that your ego is nice and bruised we can actually start with some fundamentals."
Shit...
One hour and a dozen new bruises later, Lin finally told her that they were done for the day— at least when it came to training. She sat cross legged on the mat, drenched in sweat and chugging her water bottle when Alice came in.
Immediately, she was thrown into a rage at the sight of her. She threw down her water bottle and hopped back up to her feet.
"Hey, I totally forgot that I was gonna kick your ass!" She hissed.
Lin frowned at her, and pushed her by the shoulder back into a sitting position.
Alice, who at this point Beatrice had ascertained was probably some sort of psychopath, happily clapped her manicured hands together.
"Love your enthusiasm. Amazing. Keep that energy up, because I have an assignment that just came in for you guys on the fax machine!"
She handed the paper over to Lin.
"Why do we have a fax machine? What is this, the dark ages?" Beatrice scoffed.
"Thanke Alice, I'll go over it." Lin said, mostly ignoring her sour attitude.
"Thanks. Love you guys, you're my dream team!"
Beatrice rolled her eyes to the sound of her heels clicking away down the hall. After a minute of Lin quietly reading over the paper she asked him;
"What is it?"
"We need to go camp out at an oil rig in Greenberg to stop some eco terrorists from blowing it up." He said.
"Aw man. I like eco terrorists and hate oil rigs." Beatrice said. "Can't we just help them blow it up? That sounds much cooler."
"You know we can't do that."
Beatrice pulled herself into a standing position again.
"Okay, as long as I get paid, I guess."
Lin looked like he wanted to say something else, but he ended up just shaking his head and continuing to dry his hair with a towel.
"Hey Lin, I actually meant to tell you about something."
He paused and glanced over to her.
"What is it?"
"When I was talking to TJ earlier, he told me that he wasn't the one who was emailing me." Beatrice said. "I don't understand who it could have been? Was it really a trap that just fell through?"
"I already know. The authorities have already contacted me about it." Lin said.
Damn, that was fast. I wonder if they're listening in on TJ's hospital room, or if they just go in and bother him for more information every so often.
"Wait, they're talking to you? Why not to me?" Beatrice said.
"Don't worry, they're barely talking to me either." He said. "You're my partner. If I find out anything you'll be the first person I tell. I swear it."
"Okay."
By the time she left the office and made it back to Charlie's apartment, it was already dark.
Beatrice made a promise to herself to be honest with Charlie about her feelings. It made her feel weak. She shouldn't be so scared of someone hurting her, that she had to try and hurt them first. It was something a coward would do, and she knew she wasn't a coward.
Then why is it so fucking hard?
She cursed to herself over and over, and paced back and forth in the living room as more and more time continued to pass.
She didn't know where Charlie was, and she didn't know when she would be home. They hadn't texted each other at all today. The anxiety over the ambiguity of the situation grew in her stomach, and made her feel nauseous.
Charlie had said she'd see her later, right? Well, then where was she?
After some time she decided to give up and crash on the couch, but just as her eyes were starting to get heavy, the door chimed and slid open. Beatrice set up, and saw Charlie standing in the doorway.
She was fidgeting with her hair, which was uncharacteristically messy, and at the same time trying to tuck her shirt back in.
Beatrice set up, and glanced over at the digital clock that shimmered against the wall. It was almost midnight.
"Charlie?" She said.
"Gah!" Charlie jumped in surprise, dropping her keys on the ground. "Beatrice! It's not what it looks like! I swear!"
Beatrice furrowed her brow in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not cheating on you!"
"Why would I think you're cheating on me?" Beatrice asked. She kicked herself up from the couch and walked over to Charlie.
"Because I'm coming disheveled at midnight?" Charlie said. "Everyone I dated before would have been flying into a rage by now…"
Beatrice rolled her eyes. With a flick of her wrist, Charlie was pulled over to her, and she grabbed her by the shirt collar. She put her nose against Charlie's neck and inhaled.
"You smell like… rubbing alcohol and sweat." Beatrice said, wrinkling her nose. For the first time, Beatrice noticed that she had a bandage above her eyebrow. "And you look like you got hit in the head. What have you been doing?"
Charlie's eyes widened, and she glanced away, kicking her foot against the ground.
"I'm sorry, B, I don't wanna talk about it right now." She said, "It's nothing that bad, I swear, I just… I'm tired tonight."
Beatrice let go of her shirt collar, and gave her a gentle look.
"Well, you know if there's one thing I love it's not talking about my feelings." She said, "I guess I can't blame you for not wanting to talk about yours once."
"Thanks, B." Charlie said as she rubbed the back of her head. "I'm really glad you're not like, screaming at me or something right now. I know that you haven't been very happy with me right now, which I understand. I just—"
Beatrice reached over and grabbed her finger tips.
"I'm not mad at you Charlie, I'm just… mad in general. But I guess I have been taking it out on you. I'm sorry. I shouldn't do that."
"I've just been so worried you're going to break up with me—" Charlie visibly swallowed.
"What— Charlie no—"
"But you're the only person I've ever dated that I feel like has liked me for me, and I don't want to screw up this time. I mean, I feel like everyone else has always liked me for shallow reasons. They just wanted what they could get out of me because, deep down, I know that I'm not that great. I've just been lucky my entire life. If I was born in any other circumstances, I wouldn't have made anything of myself. I’m just not that great."
Charlie let out a shuddering breath, and clenched her arm.
"You know, all those people who used to look up to me… they don't even like me anymore."
Her hand subconsciously went up to the bandage above her eyebrow and she winced. Beatrice found herself wincing along with her.
"And all it took was a little bit of bad press."
Beatrice swallowed herself too. She reached over, and gently grabbed Charlie's hand.
"Come on." She said, "Let's get you in the shower and then to bed."
Charlie nodded. Her eyes were glassy and distant, like she was fighting off tears.
Beatrice silently escorted her to the master bathroom, and turned on the shower. As Charlie stood there blankly, she ran to the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, and screwed the top.
When she returned, Charlie was still staring distantly at the wall, so she walked over to her and gently grabbed her shirt collar.
One at a time, Beatrice undid the buttons on her shirt, and then gently pulled it off of her shoulders. There were a few burgeoning bruises on her forearms as well, but Beatrice chose not to question her about them.
Instead she helped her careful out of the rest of her clothes, and then removed her own as well. She handed the open beer to Charlie, who wordlessly accepted it, and stepped into the shower. She followed after her.
Charlie stood with her head back, letting the water hit face, and Beatrice came up and held her from behind.
"I love you, you know."
Charlie sucked in a breath at her words.
"And not because of your money, or your fame, or even because you might have some kind of crazy strong power. I love you because you're funny and goofy and honestly kind of charming. You have nice shoulders, and you do this cute thing where you wiggle your toes when you're sleepy." She said, "I love you because you're you."
Charlie didn't say anything, but Beatrice could tell by the way her shoulders started to shake that she was crying.
"I love you too."