Template:Featured Articles/39-2023
"On me?" Nica sounded honestly surprised. "I mean, yes, I'll watch your back and try to make sure nothing happens to you, but I wouldn't rely on me. I mess up too much." "Bullshit." The retort was sharp - almost angry - and Nica jumped, startled. She'd never heard Callisto take that tone before. "I'm not your babysitter. You'll fuck up - we all do. But this isn't work experience. This is the work. You are here to keep me alive. Are you telling me you can't do that?" "No!" The response was blurted out without hesitation. "Of course I'll do that! I wouldn't put you in danger!" Nica sounded almost defensive, but she knew now how her words had sounded. She'd been so caught up in her own self-doubt, she'd spoken without thinking. "It's just... well..." She stopped, before taking the plunge into confession. "I put Laurie in danger during a mission, because I didn't think and it's my fault she left the mansion. If I hadn't fried the machine she was hooked up to, she wouldn't have had the strokes, and then maybe someone would have been able to talk sense into her and stopped her from leaving the way she did." There. It was all out now, the weight she'd been carrying for the past nine months, ever since Clarice had confirmed her actions had injured Laurie. Callisto didn't respond immediately, the silence of the underground punctuated only with the hum of power, the occasional ticks and creaks of the structure around them shifting and settling, expanding and contracting like a body breathing. Somewhere, there was a drip - water? Or something else? "You will fuck up," Callisto repeated finally. "We all do. But if you let yourself stew, you're doubling down on your mistakes, and you'll make more. You let that shit in your head, you will put yourself out of action completely. You want that?" She slowed her pace, turning to look properly at Nica, that single light eye boring into hers. "Do you want to be out of action? Or do you want to be here, right now?" "I want to be here. It's all I've ever wanted, ever since..." Nica took a breath. "Ever since my mom died in action. I want to fight for others, defend the people who can't defend themselves and this is the best way of doing that." Under that one-eyed stare, it was impossible to be anything but truthful. "And I can't do that if I can't ever make mistakes." It was a hard admission from someone who had spent her life trying to be the best at everything she did. A slow nod. "I trust you," Callisto said. "D'you think we'd be here right now if I didn't? I'm freelance, kid, nobody's forcing me to be here. We good?" Nica nodded. "Yeah, we're good. Thanks." She gave Callisto an embarrassed half-grin. "Sorry for dumping all that on you. I guess I needed to talk and you wound up being the one I could talk to. The timing could have been bet-" She cut off as Callisto raised a hand, eye narrowing suddenly. She tipped her head to the side. Her lips thinned to a line. At first, Nica heard nothing out of the ordinary - the tickings and drippings and creaks of the building were just wallpaper at this point. But then as the seconds passed she began to hear what Callisto's sharper ears must have picked up on moments before: the pad of careful footsteps up ahead, and getting nearer. |
