Drown in a Burning World

Scout (Prewett). Achillies. Human (?) Monroe Hacker

[athenaganero]

i bleed when i fall down || scout and athena

[scoutprewett]

athenaganero‌: 

“Well I am here, so I guess I’m not going to go. And, I don’t know if you saw the blow up in our communications, but I can’t possibly be Nat’s favorite person right now. I wouldn’t put it past her to have everyone give me the cold shoulder.” As Scout rambled on, Athena took a moment to gauge her well being. She seemed… good. Might be skipping a meal or two, but the bags under her eyes weren’t at the most concerning levels Athena’s seen from the hacker, and she doesn’t smell as though she’s forgotten to shower. 

At the roll call of people who’d traipsed through Scout’s place, Athena couldn’t help but laugh, her mouth slightly ajar at the names mentioned. “Seb beat me here? I am the absolute shittiest then. Yeah, I figured you’re all caught up in your games or something and might have forgotten to refresh groceries or lost your take out menus or something.”

She nods at the offer and slips in through the front door, glancing around Scout’s home. It wouldn’t be the first time she invited herself over, but every time she did come, she had to reacquaint herself with the lay out. As the door closed, she glanced over at her friend, concern in her gaze. “How’ve you been, Scout? I haven’t… heard anything from you since we heard Mickey was ok at the Palais Garnier. Are you…”

The last thing Athena wanted to do was admit culpability, but this wasn’t to Nat, and Scout wouldn’t hold it over her head. She doubted the other woman was capable of it. How could Scout be years older than her, and yet Athena still thought of her as a little sister? “Look, I was an absolute bitch to you. You were doing your best. If you hate me right now, independent of Nat, I’d get that too.”

The conversation felt weird. Normal, in their mannerisms, in their way of managing to talk to each other even through her own verbal stream of consciousness. Strange, in the stilted way Athena lingered outside of her door, looking around as though she hadn’t been in a while.

But since she got back, she’s been slowly walking away from her desk for longer and longer periods, something burning in her chest, the desperation from the con weaning off, the anxiety of all of this being futile filling her bones with lead. 

And then Athena was confessing, and Scout felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes (had she cried yet, since Paris?), before shaking her head. (It was a cooling relief that Athena didn’t hate her, didn’t blame her for what when wrong. But still, her anger was justified.)

“No, no, you were right. I should have done better, could have done better, but I messed things up instead. That’s on me. If anything worse happened, if anyt-” 

Her voice broke and she turned away, taking the food offered and busying herself with putting it away.

“That would be on me. Not finding him, that’s on me.”

I can’t find him.

[nathmxnroe-blog]

Gathering the Troops || Nat, Parker, Scout, Rhi, Athena

@parker-mehta, @scoutprewett, @rhiannon-faust, @athenaganero

The first step of any con was getting her people together, which was admittedly, a relatively easy task. A brief text message with a time and a location was all Nat needed to do to gather them. Back when they’d been in San Francisco it had been even easier, usually just a time and whatever emoji she’d felt like using that day. Today wasn’t an emoji day and the tiny conference room of a local library wasn’t nearly as cushy as she’d have liked. But they were on a time limit and honestly, Nat just wanted to get it all on the table as quickly as possible. She’d arrived first, mostly because she found she was nervous and unable to relax. Being nervous was ridiculous though, one failure does not a pattern make, but she couldn’t shake the general unease.

Armed with her coffee and a magazine she settled in to wait for the others. This meeting was going to be quick and dirty. The faster they got their hands on the goods the sooner they could get the funds. It didn’t take long for people to show up, she hadn’t expected it to really. She smiled at each of them, easily covering up any sign of her nervousness. This was the Monroe crew of San Francisco. A phoenix from the ashes. They had this.

“Our absent friend James Vincent has proposed and idea.” She looked around the room as she spoke, taking in the reactions of her team. “A little… competition you could say. And I don’t know about you lot but I, for one, am not about to get shown up.” She sniffed haughtily, if a little playfully. “We’re going to steal ourselves the Samson and Delilah. The plan is simple enough. We’re going to steal the ink copy from a private collector, replace with one of Tony’s creations, and ransom it back to them. Quick and easy.” She smiled wide. “What do you say to that?”

[parker-mehta-blog]

He really had to start offering his grifting skills from some of the more … mundane parts of being a crew. Next time, if Nat told him before hand, he could probably get them a bigger room, some place with good acoustics, a private bar. Anything was better than this room, but he stifled the sarcastic remark and settled into a seat with his coffee hand.

As soon as Nat had finished describing the event, Parker shook his head. “I cannot believe that we’re engaging in a competition so soon. But .. it does sound fun.” He smirked at her, before leaning back in his chair. “Isn’t there a big painting of the Samson in a museum somewhere? Why go for the ink copy, if we could sell a forged version, for the full thing?”

[scoutprewett]

Was this the first time she was actually in a room with everyone from the crew? Maybe. At least she hadn’t planned to do anything else today (though when was there ever anything planned - and her computer back home was humming away nicely), so she pulled out her laptop from her bag with ease, automatically checking local networks and fortifying her own.

She nodded along at the explanation, not surprised at the mention of a competition. (Though it did sound completely unnecessary. There was no specific client this time, nothing outside of boosting their own egos. Could they band together and find Carter?) “Museum online security is always really easy to get, so I can be monitoring anything you need me to. Do you need me to?”

[scoutprewett]

drivebysantos‌: 

Despite the frustration that should be present at the idea of his wild hurricane of a puppy gnawing at his tennis shoes, he felt more mild exasperation tinged with laughter than anything else. While he was in over his head with this one, there was nothing in his apartment that was so important, so priceless that he couldn’t bear to part with it. And if there was, he’d put it on a high shelf.

Having a pet – specifically a puppy, and specifically specifically a Bug – was as unpredictable as any a venture. It gave Jack a direction, a sense of something relying on him, dependent on him coming home every day. But Bug was also a reminder to keep things light. Nothing would ever happen to make that dog love Jack any less, so long as he loved him back. Jack had no problem meeting his end of that deal, and he was rewarded handsomely for it. Bug was a terror, but he was a sweet one, and every night, regardless of what went on outside the apartment, he would curl up in Jack’s side and drool on his gym shorts and chase rabbits in his sleep. He was crazy, but Jack was beyond lucky to have him.

He was caught up in his own head before Scout spoke up again, regaining his attention. He shook his head quickly as he charted a new path towards his apartment complex, quickly moving to take a side street and avoid the ever-present traffic on the main drag. “Bug loves company. So long as you’re okay with stepping on a billion dog toys, we’d be happy to have you.” He smiled her way before peeling off towards the apartment. He saw the garage door come into view and quickly hit the switch in his car that would let them in. He couldn’t just park his baby on the side of the street, absolutely not.

Her heart shot into her mouth as they quickly veered away from any semblance of traffic - and decent paving - refelxively tightening her grip on her bag, before adjusting (slightly) to the speed. Fast travel could be fun, potentially, but not with the imminent threat of crashing.

Maybe if there was no buildings, pedestrians, and other cars, she could really enjoy it.

Playing with the dog did sound fun, even if she had never been to Jack’s apartment before, and had no clue how to compose herself, it would be easier to get away with if she was preoccupied by puppy, right? And Jack was Athena’s best friend, so hopefully he wouldn’t mind her presence as much as some others.

They slid into the garage, and she shakily undid her seatbelt and slid out of the car, waiting for her bones to solidfy again, before straightening her hair and looking for the entrance. “Very swanky entrance. Do Athena and Maisie have something like that installed as well?”

[scoutprewett]

Find Him | Open

[scoutprewett]

nathmxnroe‌: 

Nat didn’t miss Scout’s jerk at the loud noise and she felt bad about that. Sure, her and Scout didn’t exactly have a great working relationship but that didn’t mean she liked seeing one of hers wound so tight like that. She kept it to herself. She wasn’t really in the mood to give a pep talk and she doubted Scout would want to sit there and hear it either. Nat’s expression softened as Scout turned back around, smiling wistfully at her. “Perhaps you can learn something from him. Just make sure you don’t let him learn anything from you. Learning new tricks is always a bonus, right?” She smirked, eyes dancing a little. Using Ace to make Scout even better at her job sounded like a great idea to Nat.

“What I need is for you to relax Scout.” Nat held her cup gently, watching the steam rise off of it, her expression carefully guarded. “You’re working too hard again. And I don’t know if it’s because we failed to get the egg but you’ll cease to be at the top of your game if you are exhausted.” She kept her voice pointed but soft. “We lost this one. What matters is that I didn’t lose any of you.” Except for Athena, which stung just thinking about really, but Nat wasn’t ready to really lose her just yet. “This is not my first failure. It is, perhaps, the second most embarrassing failure I have suffered, but there will be other cons. Perhaps cons with less guns and crews working against us.” Her smile turned to a smirk. “And will you be with me for the next one, Scout?”

She shrugged her shoulders at the mention of learning anything from Ace. Sure, he was the best at what he did, but she didn’t really need to gain his skillset as well. And there were too many ‘fundamental principles’ behind his work that he liked to try and teach Madi that she just didn’t have the patience for.

But she couldn’t miss the sincerity and intensity of Nat’s voice at the request to relax. Since when did Masterminds want their crew to stop working as hard? Was it because she knew that she was working on Carter again, and wanted to change her direction? Or was she genuinely concerned?

“I’ll - I’ll try. Hopefully when I get back to London I can take a break?” She already have lists of things to do once she got to London, most of them related to the crew, though several were .. less than tangential. But, it would be a break by her standards at least. More than five hours of sleep a night.

“And of course. Whatever you need.” She couldn’t say anything more, couldn’t make promises she knew she would break. Couldn’t say “and the one after that”, or “forever”, or “as long as you need me”. But they both knew that.

[scoutprewett]

drivebysantos‌: 

Jack scoffed at the idea. “Illegal’s the only speed I even use,” he teased, looking back over at her and winking, grin wide. He breathed easy as they took a lazy turn onto a longer stretch of road. London traffic certainly wasn’t his favorite driving condition, but he was in no hurry – though, he was sure Bug would appreciate if he was – and if anything, it forced him to ease up on the throttle, at least for Scout’s sake.

He laughed at her hubris, knowing full well she was right. They wouldn’t have lasted this long in this business if they didn’t know how to handle themselves, and Scout was one of the best. It’s why the words ‘police station’ hadn’t worried him when she’d texted earlier. Why he’d been willing to come. “Alright, fair point,” he agreed. “Find anything interesting while you were in there?” He then asked, curious.

He turned again, the streets all but blending into backdrop as he drove almost on autopilot. The familiar rumbling beneath him – not too strong, he had some of the best shocks money could buy after all – was almost meditative at times, the smooth finish of the gearshift comfortable in his left hand. “He’s at the apartment,” he answered, smiling. “I’m trying to get him used to me leaving for a few hours. So far, he’s only eaten three pairs of shoes,” he reported with faux pride lacing his words. He’d known he’d have his work cut out for him when he adopted Bug, but he never quite got used to the bits of leather, plastic, and canvas from his shoes strewn about the house.

“Hopefully he’s been good today. You wanna come see him? I’m sure he’s sick of me, and I’ve got no plans, if you’re not busy.” He offered, looking away from the road to her for just a minute.

The pace slowed, enough for Scout to lean back into her chair and stop gripping the handle as tightly, to let a breath out as she looked out at the sea of passing buildings. “I found some stuff. Though I’ll have to go through in more detail later. But honestly, it’s all hypothetical. All the research that’s expected to fall into the crew’s laps with little understanding of the work that goes on behind the scenes. But I don’t mind. It’s interesting, and I always like getting into this section of research.”

The slight frustration in her tone was a surprise to herself, but it was taking away her time to do anything towards looking for Carter. (As impossible a goal it still was)

“He eats your shoes?” They’d never had a pet at home, and though that sounded slightly too destructive for her, the affection in his voice was unmistakable. What was it about small furry animals that inspired such joy and loyalty?

While she desperately wanted to go through the information she had gotten in the peace of her own home, the possibility of being a bit more of a normal human being, of having social interactions that didn’t revolve around crime did sound - good.

“Sure, if, if you’re willing to have me. And if you don’t think Bug will mind me being there?”

[athenaganero]

i bleed when i fall down || scout and athena

[scoutprewett]

athenaganero‌:

Yikes.

That reaction was so far from what Athena had both wanted and expected. She was honestly shocked. She’d seen Scout nervous and anxious before, but it was rare that it was directed at her, and especially to this extent. The woman went from looking at her as though she were a ghost to flushing deep red. And all in five seconds! Her poor blood vessels.

Then, she could barely speak or meet Athena’s eyes. Had Athena really been that terrible during the job? Or was this Nathalie’s influence on the hacker? Was Athena now persona non grata to her own crew?

“Hi. Just came to check on you. Brought some of your favorites… I’m… how are you? You’re looking at me like I’m a mercenary paid to kill you.” She hesitated. “Look, if Nat told you not to talk to me, I can just leave the food here with you. I was worried you weren’t eating if people didn’t stop by to check. Figured I might give you some company… but if you don’t want, I’ll just… see you some other time. Apparently there’s a competition or something coming up.”

Scout nearly interrupted, nearly tried to offer assurances, before the words got tied in her mouth and she tried to figure out why Athena could possibly want to bring food and company over. It wasn’t as though Scout was good company, especially not right now? 

But at the trailing tone, Scout sensed that Athena was about to pull away, and she couldn’t have that. No, she was the one who was meant to apologise right now, for not having done her part in the con.

“No, no, please. I don’t - I don’t want you to go if you’re here. Nat didn’t tell me not to talk to you. Why would she do that? You’re fine. I know I didn’t do my part, and I didn’t know if you even wanted to see me, and Hana came by once, and a couple other people. Like Seb. That was interesting. So I’ve eaten a couple times. Well, more than a couple, but thank you for bringing the food.”

“- Do you want to come in?” 

[lochiels]

“Regardless of my transient joys, I am never free of a feeling of melancholy which somehow forms the base of my heart.”

— Chopin, Quoted in Edward N. Waters, Frederic Chopin (London: Collier-Macmillan, 1963), 79 (via thiscorrosion)

[windflowerfairy]

…but what am I supposed to do if this fear, and not my heart, is beating in my body?

Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena (via windflowerfairy)

[athenaganero]

i bleed when i fall down || scout and athena

@scoutprewett

so, Athena wasn’t great with keeping her temper under control. she had always been a blow up first, clean up the mess later kind of girl… well, now she had a really big mess to clean up. Scout hadn’t been perfect during the job, but neither had Athena, and she knew that what she’d done and the pressure she had added did not help the hacker do her job well. did she still cringe every time she realized that Scout had activated the alarm? yes. the thought made her nauseous. but did that mean that she needed to decapitate Scout in tone and words? not really, no.

she knocked on the other woman’s door, peace offering in hand. it was just some pizza and a giant liter bottle of Scout’s favorite drink, but with the way the hacker could forget to take care of herself, the food would kill two birds with one stone. knocking a bit louder, she hoped that Scout didn’t have her headphones on… or be so hurt by her that she wouldn’t open the door.

[scoutprewett]

It had been a day since she’d gotten back from the police station, more than enough time to get through all the information, take a five hour nap, finish some more of her work, find some more work to do. Enclosed in her study, the lights dim in a constant twilight, slowly feeling the bands of iron tied around her chest loosen, separation of then and now becoming a coherent thought, she found herself nearly willing to face the rest of the world again.

The rest of her crew again.

There was a knock at the door and Scout stood, stretching up and felt her spine pop several times. She was getting too old to stay hunched over a laptop all day, honestly.

There had been a strange sequence of visitors to her door in Paris, but none so far in London, and she wandered over to open the door, curious to see who it was.

And then the floor dropped out from under her.

The tension in her lungs came back with a force, and she could feel the blood drain from her face, even as her cheeks coloured with shame and she tilted her head to look down at the floor.

“Hi-” The voice escaped her, and Scout bit down hard on her lip before trying again.

“Hey.” She tilted her neck to stare at a spot just above Athena’s head, one hand coming up to push back her fringe, before looking to the side and touching her nose. “What are y- how are you?”

[3prinz-deactivated20240918]

f u c k e d   u p

[scoutprewett]

drivebysantos‌: 

Jack adjusted his grip on the gearshift as she slid into the car beside, checking the rearview mirror to leave as soon as she clicked her seatbelt. He’d never liked to stay in one place for too long, least of all in an area of higher-than-average police presence (though, admittedly of course, he didn’t exactly look like the demographic that tended to have run-ins with the cops). Needless to say, his natural instinct was to peel out of there and bolt before he could overstay his welcome. He only hesitated when Scout spoke up.

At her words, he smiled and peeled away from the curb – at a restrained, if pushing-the-legal-envelope speed – to turn back towards the apartment complexes. “I keep forgetting speeding’s generally frowned upon,” he smiled, eyes on the road and absolutely no remorse in his tone.

“So is there a reason you were hanging out in a police station?” He asked, throwing politeness to the wind. “I mean, I’m assuming if you got arrested, you wouldn’t be driving out with me, so…” he trailed off and raised his eyebrows as he made another turn.

The sun is shining too brightly.

It feels wrong, what with the grey of the interior of the station, of the dark cloud that still lay across her ribs, of the blood that nearly stained the streets of Paris not long ago. It was too blue, too white, too not-England cloud and depression, the contrast increased by the unburdened mood of Jack sitting next to her.

It felt good.

A smile touched her lip at the comment of speeding, at the restraint she could feel as they pulled away from the curb. A smile, and a breath of relief as her grip on her arm rest lessened slightly. “It’s also generally illegal. Though I do understand how you can begin to forget that.” The words are light, free of meaning and panic, and if they touched at it, she hoped it would be ignored.

“Please, like I would get caught. And kept in this pokey place?” Scout is nearly affronted at the lack of belief in her abilities, before sobering quickly, as she tried to squash down on any sense of guilt. “Nah, I was just checking up on a lead, installing some backdoors, other sorts of prep for the various cases that are being considered.” 

It’s not all a lie, and she can make it not by doing some work once she got home, but the sun was shining. There was no need to dampen it with heavier topics. “But where’s your dog this time?”

[scoutprewett]

Find Him | Open

[scoutprewett]

sebastian-lam‌:

This had been a mistake. He shouldn’t have come here at all. He wasn’t a people person and never had been. It was a wonder Maisie and Mickey and Madison put up with him at all.  Scout looked nervous. she looked vaguely terrified. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, not in a setting like this.  His halting, straightforward explanation seemed to help somewhat as she all but slumped and invited him inside. 

He entered, taking a quick look around not really interested in looking for answers in what was around him. She was flittering and rambling on and Sebastian shook his head. “It’s fine. I’ll take whatever you don’t want.” He offered, laying the drinks on the nearest counter with the bag of pastries and what not. This really hadn’t been his smartest idea. They didn’t get along really, now just a few tense jobs between them and Maisie in common really.  “ I brought food for you and I’m not that hungry.” He responded to her inquiry, hoping it wouldn’t send her off on another tangent. 

Scout wasn’t part of his crew, that was the beginning and the end of the matter. However, neither was Athena or Ace or Rhiannon. These multiple satellites that revolved around those Sebastian were closest too. It made them important to him in their own complicated way. Out of these satellites though, only Scout seemed like she had no defenses other than the crew that harbored her. Was this pity? He wasn’t sure, but it made him feel better to label it as such. 

He took another sweeping look around the room, searching for any sort of conversation starter. There wasn’t really one. “Thank you for helping try to find Mickey.” Sebastian finally said, giving her a nod, his expression turning slightly grateful. She might not have succeeded towards the end, but she did help even though it hadn’t been asked for. 

Even her offering of biscuits was dismissed. This, this was why she only ever interacted with Felix. And Hana. And now Maisie and Athena. And Madi and Ace. And sometimes Parker and Rhiannon. And occasionally others. Okay fine, this sort of engagement was forcing her to be more social, which wasn’t a bad thing, but it was the truth that the other’s only put up with her because they were utterly amazing human beings. Which wasn’t to say that Seb wasn’t also one, just not in the same vein. Just, amazing in different ways. 

And she needed to stop this train of thought right here. Especially because it had reduced her to an immobile state in the center of the living room. 

“You’re amazing.”

Scout blurted out the words, the final thought in the process, then realised what she said and promptly blushed, bright red spreading across her face to the tips of her ears, and she ducked her head as  she went to fiddle with the bags of pastries. 

“And thanks.” She did wonder why he came to gift her these, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, as much as Seb wasn’t a horse. Though he could punch like one. Aaand she wasn’t about to go back down this route. Instead, she picked through the bag and pulled out a chocolate brioche and the strongest sweetest smelling coffee, and started to sip at it. (There was no way she was going to sleep any time soon, okay Hana.) 

At his words though, she stilled, and she put the coffee down in favour of picking at the layers of the pastry on the brioche. 

“I- you’re welcome, though I didn’t really do that much. I think Athena thinks that I hindered it, which I definitely definitely did, but she knows better than me. And I messed up. We were searching for someone, and I messed up.” Quietly, she swore under her breath, suddenly aware that emotional judgement after staying awake for 45+ hours was probably not the best idea, and she bit her lip as she watched the pastry slowly flake away. “But thank you.”

[scoutprewett]

drivebysantos‌:

After safely depositing the cash from the back of the Rimac into his private account – fuck off, he deserved it, the way the job had gone – Jack had bolted from Paris. He didn’t care when he ended up, so he easily decided to accompany Parker on a tour of Tokyo Fashion Week, schmoozing and spending his way into whatever events he could find. He thought the last job would be right up his alley; high society and pointless opulence were kind of his bread and butter, after all. But he’d failed miserably, and it left him with, as odd as it sounds, a bit of an identity crisis. A crisis of faith, if you will.

Fashion Week had helped. His lavish success over the break reminded him that his failure was less about him and more about his targets. Understandably, he had a much higher rate of success with the average socialite than with terrorists and terrorists-adjacent. The audience was much more receptive, and it made his life infinitely easier. 

So Jack enjoyed a cool few days off amongst the elite and the dreamers, but he wanted to get back to normalcy, to a touch of reality, and most importantly, to his dog. So his jaunt came to an end, and he caught the next flight out to London Heathrow and booked it to the doggy daycare in which he’d selfishly imprisoned his son before crashing in his apartment, Bug snuggled in his chest.

He’d slept through the whole night and most of the next morning before he woke up to Bug licking his face and his phone ringing out with a number of texts. He hadn’t really expected much contact until the crews got back together, but even more unexpected was that the texts were from Scout. They were friends, sure, but he wouldn’t exactly call them drinking buddies or anything. 

“I know, buddy, I know,” he murmured, running his hands along Bug’s back, the puppy shaking from excitement. “Looks like our friend needs some help. Think you can handle an hour without me?” He didn’t like to leave his dog alone after what felt like forever without him – but was, in actuality, less than a week – but he also wanted to do something right. His friend had asked for him, and he wanted to be dependable. It was a quick decision for him.

He answered her text as he pulled on a fresh t-shirt and flip-flops, filling Bug’s bowl before making his way to the parking garage. He decided to take the Audi, a familiar face a welcome change after such harsh memories in the Rimac. Even without the hypercar, he made quick time navigating the London streets and pulled up in front of the Wood Street Station in no time, parking on the curb right in front of where Scout stood.

“Door-to-door service, talk about quality, hm?” He spoke up through the open window, unlocking the car doors for her to step in. “Hop in. Cops and my cars don’t have the best track record.”

She had been waiting for less than a minute on the curb, resisting the urge to take out her phone just to fiddle with it, pretending like she was supposed to be there. Jack had responded with an affirmative, so he should be here soon -

And there he was, driving up, no dog in the backseat this time, charming grin and laid back attitude refreshing after the way her thoughts were still chasing themselves in circles. 

“You’re a true gentleman,” she responded, even as she opened the door and slipped into the passenger seat, pulling her bag onto her lap and holding it tightly as she braced herself for the speed she knew Jack liked. 

She smiled at the statement even as she put on her seat belt and shook her head lightly. “Well, you can start to repair that relationship by not driving away from here at a hundred miles an hour. It might help my sanity as well.” 

[scoutprewett]

Find Him | Open

[scoutprewett]

nathmxnroe‌: 

Nat watched Scout putter around, not missing the way she seemed to curl in on herself at Nat’s less than friendly remarks. She knew she shouldn’t have been so sharp but Scout had a way of bringing it out of her, didn’t help that Nat was already in a less than pleasant state of mind. Losing the egg, losing Athena. It had taken a lot out of her. She force herself to relax more, let it go. Scout hadn’t done a damn thing to get snipped at, yet, and she would try harder not to do that to her.She didn’t need to lose another so soon.

“I don’t know if anyone wants out of Paris right now, if they want tickets they can ask you or get them themselves. I have a…feeling more will want to stay behind that I would initially like so I won’t waste your time trying to get everyone a seat.” Nat was more than aware of what Scout did for their family at the end of the crew but she wouldn’t make her do all of that work if half of them wouldn’t even give it a second glance. And Nat wanted Scout to relax, it was beyond obvious she was on edge, frayed.

“Don’t let Ace push you around.” Not that Nathalie knew Ace at all but she didn’t want Scout to be meek around him either. “Just make sure all the footage of us is suddenly…not there anymore.” She smiled. “And I don’t want you spending a week doing something the two of you can do in a few days.”

A shrill whistle pierced the air, and Scout flinched away from the source of the noise, before remembering it was the kettle. So she busied her hands with pouring the drinks, an extra spoon of coffee in her own (there was no way she could even think about sleeping just yet), nodded at the instructions.

Nearly smiled at the thought of Ace trying to push her around.

“Of course, sure, sure.” They were all still in Paris to watch Mickey recover, probably all in the hospital, standing around with worried expressions on their face, Mickey making a joke from where he lay on the hospital bed. She had thought about going to visit, but she was the reason he had lost his gift from Athena, and if Athena was there, well, she didn’t want to face her just yet. 

Eventually, sure, in time.

(But it wasn’t just Athena was it? No, it was the hospital bed, and a person who had been found where they had once been lost, and her wounds still ached inside her ribcage, and to watch someone else healing felt like the most profound act of blasphemy)

“I’ll leave that on stnadby, and Ace is better with leaving no trace on systems, so I’ll get him to help there, and it should only take a few days, though maybe faster if we want to get back home, because I think we’ll only be able to do it while still in France. Is there anything else that you need doing, getting done, finished?”

Her words tumbled out as she tried to arrange them in her head, slipping from her grasp and landing on the floor, so she took a sip of her burning hot coffee inside, nearly choked on the heat of it.  

[scoutprewett]

In London /to Jack

Jack: hey sry i just saw this. just got back last night so i crashed hard

Jack: thats np i can be there. u need me now?

Scout: thank you

Scout: uh yh u can arrive sometime within the hour

[scoutprewett]

Police Station on Wood Street

A week after Paris

@drivebysantos

Scout emerged from the police station, laptop safely tucked into her bag, ball cap tilted low on her face as she tried her best to seem unhurried. She had managed to bluff her way in under the pretense of having lost her phone, then waiting for a friend in the waiting area, then using her laptop in the internal WiFi of the building to begin building connections and working her way into the system.

There had been a file of Russian mobsters that operated in England around the time that Carter had dissapeared, touches of more information on the little that she had been able to gather, strings connected across events in her mental picture. She’d managed to download the file, then left after installing a few backdoors for herself in the future, making her way to the curb, trying to see if Jack had responded to her text and was available to pick her up.

[scoutprewett]

In London /to Jack

Scout: Can I ask a favour?

Scout: Again, I know, I'm sorry, but I think Athena's still mad at me, and Maisie is worrying over Mickey and her sister

Scout: I'm at the police station on Wood Street.

Scout: Things may end up going south, in which case I might need a ride out.

Scout: If you don't want to that's okay

Scout: I should be fine anyway