closed with @le-coureur
She had told Jean not to go, begged her to turn it down, to stay home. Something had felt wrong about the whole operation, and she had protested it up until the morning left.
She regretted not giving the other a proper goodbye.
When Jean was declared missing, she had refused to believe it. There was no way Jean had gone missing, been reckless enough to do that. She was just late, making sure the job was done.
When Jean was declared dead, Alice thought she was going to break in two. All the air seemed to leave her lungs the moment the words left Maria’s mouth, and from her handlers body movements, she could tell the other thought she was going to lash out. But she hadn’t. Instead, she shut down, going completely numb. She didn’t show up to work for the next month, and no one asked her to.
When she did return, she acted as if Jean were still on the mission, as if she had never even been missing. No one had the heart to correct her. After a few months, she stopped talking about Jean at all - as if the other didn’t exist. She only went on solo missions, made reckless decisions but always came out the winner. She was getting results, and so SHIELD wouldn’t stop her.
The rain thrummed softly across the windowpane, pale light seeping through and illuminating strips of hardwood floor in her apartment. Alice sat on her sofa, curled up with a coffee and a book, cat sat purring on her lap. The scene was idyllic.
Head jerked up at the knock at the door, and she calledd over a quick ‘coming’ as she removed the animal from her lap, before trapsing over to the door and swinging it open.
“Yeah? What do you wa-” She chokes, eyes widening ever so slightly at the sight before her. Her mind screams, Jean, repeated over and over like a mantra, like the only thing keeping her grounded.
The anger comes next.
“What the fuck!”
She pushes into the others chest, just aware enough to subdue her force, so as to not crush the others lungs. Her left eye takes on it’s kakugan form, crimson iris swimming in a sea of black as she steps forward, now mere inches from the other woman.
“Five fucking years! You were gone for five years, Hanson! They thought you had died! What the fuck!”
The girl doesn’t notice that she’s crying, the black tears making tracks down her face were the least of the Ghouls concern.
