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I.
“Wilson, you’re up!”
Jane watches as the recruit next to her slides underneath the ropes, stepping confidently into the boxing ring. Jane hates her already. Blonde, cropped haircut with a hint of a smirk making her way across her face as she bounces lightly on her toes.
Jane bites back a yawn as the bell rings, she’s nothing short of exhausted. They’ve been in training for nearly a month, but everyday has been packed full of lessons and “Angel experiences”, as the Bosleys like to call them. It’s not even noon and she’s already jumped out of a helicopter twice, picked her way through a mansion full of doors, and learned how to use a grappling hook properly.
Jane looks back up at the ring, trying to remember if she knew the blonde from somewhere. Sarah? Sabrina? She can’t remember her name. Jane already knows Krav Maga from her time M16, but she can’t help but be impressed at the blonde’s skills, watching as she delivers a brutal back kick to her opponent, some former NASA engineer.
The clock’s ticking down and neither woman has won yet, leaving Jane to wonder what sort of tricks the blonde is hiding. She skillfully dodges a fierce elbow strike and Jane notices her check how much time she has left with a quick glance over at the clock.
Jane’s almost cheering for her at this point, just barely, when she gets knocked down by a weak leg slip, slipping into her opponents choke hold. Jane scoffs, there’s no ways she should be losing, perhaps she overestimated her.
The blonde ducks to dodge a swift shot to the eye, but isn’t fast enough. Jane’s sizing up the fight now, trying to figure out what she would do in that position. She’s just eyed up a weak spot on the left when the blonde wiggles her way there, so smoothly Jane almost wondered if she planned it.
The eye shot opened up the left side and it would have given her a….perfect opportunity to execute one of the best reverse pins Jane’s ever seen, watching as the blonde holds her opponent underneath her, just the clock ticks down to the final seconds.
Her smirk’s for real this time as she exits the ring, and Jane still hates her and all of her cocky, confidence, but at least she can agree that’s she’s got some moves.
---
It’s past dinner when she sees her again, sprawled lazily across one of the couches in the lounge. The Angels in training have free time for a few hours and Jane plans to spend all of them reading up on the class material. A nap also wouldn’t hurt.
She’s just settled down her with stack of books when the blonde speaks up from across the room.
“You know, that isn’t due until next week.”
“I know,” Jane says, rolling her eyes as she looks up from her book.
The blonde’s got a baseball cap slung low over her face, leaving it partially shaded from view. She tilts it up to look back over at Jane though, who gets a good glimpses at her freshly blackened eye.
Jane lets out a low whistle through her teeth, “damn, you really took that hit today.”
The blonde traces a finger across her bruise, “Yeah, I guess. I should probably get some ice on it…” she trails off.
“You haven’t even iced it yet?!” Jane sets down her book and scoffs again, “don’t you know any better?”
Now it’s the blonde’s turn to roll her eyes, “of course I do. I just got busy, you saw the schedule for today, didn’t you?”
Jane just nods, holding out a hand as she leans over the couch. “I’m Jane. Come on.”
---
She’s standing in the kitchen, a bag of frozen peas in her hand as she presses it against Sabina’s (“Sabina”, the blonde had said, accompanying her introduction with a firm handshake) eye. They’re doing an odd sort of dance, Sabina balancing precariously on a stool while Jane hovers over her.
Sabina tries to swat her away, “I’ve got it, I’ve got it.”
Jane throws the bag of peas at her, wiping her damp hands on her joggers. “Fine, suit yourself.”
“‘Hey, wait a sec,” Sabina calls after her, skillfully catching the makeshift ice pack with one hand. “How well do you know this weeks material?”
Jane turns back around, tone wary, “why?”
“Cause I suck at this chapter and now,” the blonde pauses to gesture at her eye, hidden beneath a dripping bag of peas, “I can’t catch up on the reading.”
“So?”
Sabina throws her hands up, water droplets scattering around the tiled floor. “So you can you help?”
“Help you?” Jane parrots, holding eye contact with Sabina for an uncomfortable amount of time, trying to asses the situation. Neither of them fidget, holding their serious expressions like they’ve been trained to. “What’s in it for me?”
“Contraband M&Ms?”
Jane strides over to her stack of books, “fine. I’m not even gonna ask how you got those.”
II.
“Hey, hey, deep breathes, alright?”
Jane’s lilting accent carries over from the back seat and Sabina glances back in the rearview mirror, watching Jane trying to calm down Elena. She has Sabina’s sweater wrapped around her shoulders, but she’s still shivering, her hair dripping wet as she attempts to take deep, shuddering breaths. Sabina turns off of the road, gravel crunching underneath the tires as she parks near an open field. She makes eye contact with Jane, the pair unsuccessfully trying to come up with some sort of a plan to enact while they wait for their new Bosley. They both tense as Elena rushes out of the car, subsequent vomiting noises following a few seconds later.
“I’ve got it,” Jane says, sliding out of the door after Elena.
Sabina checks her phone for the hundredth time, hoping Bosley will show up soon. She grabs a packet of sandwiches she found in the backseat, biting back a wince as she shuts the door behind her. Falling off of a motorcycle wasn’t on her to-do list today, and she’s got plenty of scrapes to prove it. Both Elena and Jane wave off her offer of sandwiches, and she still can’t tell if they’re tuna or just really, really old cheese.
Bosley finally arrives, and oh. Sabina feels like she got punched in the gut for the second time, watching Jane steel her emotions as Bosley pulls her into a hug. The way Jane looks away, eyes dark and stormy, and stuffs her hands into her pockets is all too familiar to Sabina, the same motions she goes through whenever she puts her own metaphorical armor on.
She wonders if Jane feels its weight, too.
---
The shower’s running in the background, Elena’s still in there, and Sabina’s towel-drying her hair in one of the many bedrooms the safe house has to offer.
“Hey, are you alright?”
Sabina looks up to see Jane studying her, with the same gaze she has whenever she’s sizing up a potential problem. “Yep. And you?”
Jane sighs, shoulders sinking down as she scrubs a hand over her face, “been better, honestly.”
“I bet…” she trails off cautiously, not quite sure what to say as she throws a dry towel towards Jane, who catches it easily with one hand as she peels off her wet pants. Sabina barely misses the sweater Jane tosses back at her, reaching back to grab it and forgetting all about her bruised side as she does. “Shit,” she mutters sharply, trying to cover it up by swiftly pulling on the sweater. She’s apparently not as quiet as she hoped, because Jane is already hunting around for the first air kit. “I’m fine, I’m fine. Seriously!”
“Let me see.”
Sabina slips out of her sweater, hoping the quicker she does, the faster Jane will be done playing doctor. It’s mildly infuriating how she pokes and prods around, like she’s some sort of professional. Probably has a horrible signature, too.
“Does this hurt?”
Sabina grits her teeth, “no.”
“This?”
“Nope.”
Jane digs her fingers into her fresh road rash, “this?”
“What the hell! Why would you do that?” Sabina jumps out of reach, still swearing as she glares at Jane.
“So I could distract you and do this,” Jane explains, holding up a handful of loose gravel that was apparently embedded in her arm.
Maybe she is a professional. “Ew, dude gross,” she starts, adding in a quick “thanks, I guess,” as an afterthought.
“Mhmm,” Jane mumbles in response, biting her lip in concentration as she does some sort of fancy thing with gauze and ointment, slipping Sabina’s sweater back on for her in one, smooth motion so she doesn’t have to lift up her arms. (Like she’s done it before, Sabina thinks.) “Just have Saint look at it when we get back.”
“Yeah, sure, sure. I’m gonna make some tea for Elena, want some?”
“That shitty American excuse for a British national treasure that you probably make in the microwave? I’d rather not.”
III.
“Sabina?! Come on!” Her ears are still ringing from the explosion, but Jane can still tell how frantic her own voice sounds as she hovers over an unconscious Sabina. She looks over her shoulder, trying to secure the perimeter as she weighs her options. She lefts the concrete pieces off of her, straining with everything she has left to give, finally scooping Sabina up into her arms.
The fire burns around her and her entire body aches, but she drags them out into the street, dialing her phone with shaking hands.
“Hello? Fatima?”
---
“You really care about her, don’t you?” Fatima’s brown eyes are full of warmth, full of concern Jane could seep into if she wanted to.
And she does, want to. She’s tired, sore, sick of this mission, this whole week. And she does, care. More than she thought possible. “I do,” she sniffs, angrily wiping away tears she hadn’t even noticed until now. “I’ve just never…had a friend like this.”
“Are you crying?”
“Oh, thank god,” Jane rushes to hug Sabina, who’s quietly rustled awake on one of the empty beds Fatima had lying around in the clinic.
She recoils slightly, hand going to her side with a quick “ouch.”
Jane backs away, hands out in front of her, “sorry, sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Sabina laughs, offering the softest of grins before her face turns serious again, “but, seriously, dude were you crying? Cause I’m gonna cry now and you should know, I hate crying. Hate it.”
“No!” Jane starts, “well…maybe. I’m just glad you’re alive, okay? I really thought you were going to die.” She eyes Sabina again, eyes tracing the scratch on her forehead, the darkening bruises criss-crossing her sides, and the burns on her ankle, everything she’s been raking her eyes over for the past two hours. She’s been too scared to close them, only to see the explosion and unconscious Sabina, gasping for breath, reflecting back at her.
Sabina reaches out her hand and Jane takes it, intertwines her fingers and holds it all the way through Bosley’s planning sessions, Saint’s offerings of homemade kombucha, and the car ride back to the second safe house of the day, until they both finally fall asleep again.
(She wakes up early, with Sabina’s arm thrown haphazardly across her back, faces inches apart. She falls back asleep.)
VI.
Sabina is vaguely aware that Bosley is giving them some type of directions as their van pulls into the driveway, but she’s too tired to care. Her eyes are closed and she leans heavily against the window, the glass cool against her face. Whatever Saint had given her for the pain had long worn off, and she’s starting to feel the effects of the last 48 hours.
“Sabina?” Elena sets off the ache in her shoulder as she tries to nudge her awake. Jane can hear the barest hint of concern in her voice, covered up by the exhaustion that’s seeped into all of the Angels by this point. Sabina decides her mission isn’t over yet, she’s a veteran Angel, which means Elena, and probably still Jane, need her.
She cracks open her eyes, attempting to insert some enthusiasm into her voice, “I’m up, I’m up!” She notes Elena’s sigh of relief as they all trickle out of the van, bags slung over their shoulders and heels in hand. It’s dark outside and gravel crunches underneath her feet as Sabina realizes she has absolutely no idea what time it is.
Between the rapid time changes and the length of the mission, she’s lost track of what day of the week it is. She’s too tired to care, stumbling up the steps into the safe house as Saint greets them with an armful of protein shakes and painkillers. She’s too distracting making sure Elena gets checked out to grab some herself, practically forcing an entire sandwich down the scientist’s throat. Sabina finds her way to one of the many bedrooms once she drops off her weapons, double checking behind her to make sure no one’s following her, that’s the last thing she needs.
She needs to get this dress off, stat. Her ribs burn and she lets out a whimper trying to pull the dumb dress over her head, the motion sending spikes of pain up her shoulder. She just wants to go to bed, how hard does this have to be? She’s finally successful, taking a careful five minutes to wriggle into her softest sweatshirt and re-wrap her bandages, trying not to notice the dried blood that coats the inside of her dress. She nudges it underneath a chair, just in time.
“Sab?” Jane’s voice echoes from outside of the hallway, accompanied with a short knock on the door. Sabina’s not sure when she started calling her that.
“In here.”
Jane steps inside, quickly settling herself underneath the covers as Sabina watches, confused. “You’re sleeping in here?”
“Bosley wanted us to, just for the night.” Sabina’s still confused and it must show on her face because Jane continues, “because of the mission and all that? She just wants us to stick close, at least for a little while.”
“Oh. Okay.” Sabina resists a sigh of relief when she slides underneath the sheets.
“Goodnight.”
“‘Night.”
---
“Still tired?”
“Hmm?” Sabina looks up from her untouched bagel she’s been picking apart, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. She’s somehow managed to make her way down to breakfast on time, only realizing once she arrived that whatever she put in her stomach wasn’t going to stay there for long.
“We’ve got debrief after this, sure you’ll stay awake for that?” Jane chides, giving her a playful shove on her shoulder while she walks away to put her plate in the sink.
Sabina bites her lip so hard she tastes blood, using all of her Angel training to steel her facial expressions before Jane turns back around. “Is Elena up yet? I’m gonna go get her.” She’d tried to sneak into Saint’s office before breakfast, but Bosley had popped up out of seemingly nowhere, so she figured she’d try again later.
She’s halfway down the hallway when Elena appears, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with a yawn. “Mission briefing in 5, you ready?”
Elena yawns again, “s’mission what?”
“Just follow me, sleepyhead,” Sabina allows herself half of grin as she leads her to Bosley’s office.
---
Jane’s right. She falls asleep not even 10 minutes into the debrief, and the worst part of it is that no one wakes her up. They just let her sleep like she’s some kind of small, annoying child.
“It’s embarrassing!” She whines to Jane, who just laughs knowingly in response. She’s still curled up on the couch, and it takes her a second to refocus when she stands up, head pounding.
She tries to shake it off, but that just makes the room spin even more.
“Alright?” Sabina doesn’t even have to glance to know Jane’s looking at her like that, all slightly concerned and in the mood to problem solve.
“Never better! I’m gonna go zip through my paperwork, see you in a hot sec.”
“Ah, paperwork, that’s a good idea.”
“You know it!” Sabina does her best to skip off, practically falling straight into bed the moment she reaches her room. For the record, she tries to do her paperwork, she really does. But the words blur on the page and the harder she tries to make them into something that even remotely resembles the English language, the more she wishes she could just curl up into a ball and sleep for three years.
Her bed looks too inviting to say no, so she sets her alarm for an hour and resolves to visit Saint after she wakes up.
---
“Sabina?” She’s pretty sure it’s Jane, unless Elena had somehow managed to perfect her British accent.
“Shhh, she’s sleeping!” That’s definitely Elena, ever the observational one.
“Not anymore,” Sabina mumbles, cracking open her eyes and immediately slamming them shut when the light reaches them.
“You look pale,” Elena notes. Sabina thinks she’s too good at her job.
She rolls over, shoving her face underneath her pillow, “headache. M’fine.”
“Didn’t Saint give you something for that?”
“Uh, no…” she trails off, her answer thankfully muffled in her pillow. Her mouth feels like a damn desert and shoving her face into pillows actually makes her head hurt worse. She shouldn’t be surprised.
“Well, what did he say last night?”
Sabina tries again to get her point across, “nothing?”
“Nothing?” Jane questions, an edge to her voice.
“You didn’t talk at all when you saw him?” Elena asks at the same time. Sabina takes back her previous statement about the scientist being too good at her job. She’s just too innocent to put the pieces together like Sabina knows Jane’s already done.
The room is silent for a moment, but even with her head under a pillow, Sabina can tell there’s some sort of look being exchanged between the pair. The door shuts, her blanket is unceremoniously ripped off of her and she’s not the only one who swears after it happens.
“Sabina, what the hell,” Jane’s voice is low and sharp, something that would scare Sabina at any other time, but she’s in too much pain to care. She forgot she shrugged off her sweatshirt in the middle of her nap and there’s no hiding with only a sports bra and shorts on.
She looks around for Elena, but she’s somehow disappeared, and Sabina’s just left with a very, very disappointed looking Jane.
“She’s getting Saint for you, because you were apparently too much of an idiot to go yourself,” Jane says, “I’m just glad I made her leave so she wouldn’t have to see this shit.”
A part of Sabina knows she’s right, knows how much she would hate herself if Elena had seen the countless bruises that line her body, the scrapes and gashes that are consequences of almost any mission. The other part of her hates Jane for making her think like that. “Fuck you,” Sabina spits out, “so what if I didn’t go? I know what I’m doing, I know how this job works, don’t you think I can take care of myself?”
“Obviously not. Look at yourself,” Jane shakes her head, lips pursed together tightly, “tell me one reason why I shouldn’t get Bosley right now and tell her you’re done for a month.” She’s standing tall over Sabina, who’s never felt more exposed until now, doing everything in her power not to curl into herself, the way her body is begging her to.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Watch me,” Jane makes a move for the door and Sabina scrambles after her.
She sways on her feet as she stands between Jane and the door, propping herself up by leaning against the door frame. She’s panting now and her voice has an embarrassing whine to it, pure exhaustion, but she can’t let this happen. “Jane, come on. I need this job, okay? I need it. I-I can’t…” She trails off, sinking into the hug Jane pulls her into.
“I know. I know,” Jane’s practically carrying her back to her bed at this point, but Sabina has nothing left to protest with. “You’ve already helped us, okay? Now, help yourself. We’re a team, we need all three of us to work.”
“I know,” Sabina says, resting her head against Jane’s shoulder, “I’m just...” she gestures mindlessly, while Jane nods knowingly, and Sabina wonders who never took care of her too, who left her to think no one ever would.
Jane lets Sabina hold her hand as tight as she wants when Saint pops her ribs and shoulder back into place and stitches her up, brushes her sweaty hair off of her face and tells her she’s okay. And when she finally cries because Bosley tells her she has to wait three weeks to heal before her next mission, Jane just tells her that they’ll wait for her, that she’ll wait however long it takes.
And after it’s all said and done, and she’s dozing off, high on painkillers and tucked in between Elena and Jane, she can finally believe it.
They’re okay. So she’s okay.
V.
Jane can hear the music before they even roll up to the gallery opening, bass thumping through the open doors and windows. It’s just her and Sabina tonight, Elena still has months of training to go.
It’s a quick job: get in, take back the money, and get out. 20 minutes tops.
“Ready?” She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t hesitant about Sabina being back and mission-ready. She knows injuries are a part of the job description and it’s been a month since Sabina’s last one, but her worries still linger.
“Ready is my middle name! Let’s go!” Seeing the blonde practically jumping out of her seat eases her mind slightly, but Jane’s still promised Bosley and Elena that she’d keep a close eye on her tonight.
They do their handshake and head into the party. Sabina immediately flags down a passing waiter and downs two shots, throwing her hands in the air like she’s never missed an opportunity to party in her life. Jane’s sure she hasn’t.
She says nothing, just arches a brow in response.
“Oh, did you want one?” Sabina flashes her a grin, practically floating through the crowd. Jane wonders how truly stir-crazy she’s been the past few weeks, cooped up in the safe house.
“I don’t drink on the job,” she says, grabbing Sabina’s wrist so she can synchronize their watches. It’s warm and strong, and maybe Jane holds on a bit longer than necessary. “See you in ten.” Then she’s off, weaving her way through the dance floor and up the back staircase. The office door is locked, nothing she can’t bust through with a few tools and a little elbow grease.
The office door is locked, but the computer password is written on a sticky note taped to the desk. Philanthropists, Jane scoffs, always dumber than she remembers.
She’s downloaded half of the hard drive before remembering Sabina supposed to be here, acting as her scout.
“Sabina? Where are you?”
It takes a few seconds, but her intercom crackles to life with Sabina’s response, “uh, on my way.” There’s some muffling and Jane swears she hears water running before Sabina speaks again. “Be there in 5.”
The doorknob rattles and Jane swears under her breath, she still has a whole safe to crack open. “Well hurry up, we’re about to get company.” She slips the hard drive into her pocket just as the door opens, plastering a surprised look on her face.
“Oh, am I in the wrong spot? I just got so distracted looking at all of your art, it’s simply gorgeous.” She lays the accent on thick, batting her eyelashes with everything she’s got.
The owner of said art is an older, balding man in an ill-fitting tweed suit. His eyes narrow as he takes a step closer, “this door was locked.”
She plays with her hair, looking concerned. “Oh really? I guess I got a bit turned around, maybe you could show me the way out?”
“I’d be happy to.”
She’s dodging his weak punch before she knows it, muscle memory kicking in as she pulls him into a chokehold, binding his hands together with his tie. She’s a second too late to compress his vagus artery though, rolling her eyes at the wink he gives her after pressing a button underneath his desk. He maybe be knocked out, but she knows she’ll have a team of security after her ass in a moment of minutes.
“Sabina, where the hell are you?”
Radio silence.
“Sabina?” She fights back the rising panic in her throat, shaking her head to refocus on the task at hand.
There’s footsteps coming up the stairs but she’s already out the window, still struggling to shake the thoughts of Sabina lying somewhere, bleeding out.
“Sab—“
“S’okay,” Sabina’s answer is slow, slightly slurred, “just…give me a second.”
Jane feels like she’s fallen deep, deep into the already expansive pit in her stomach. “Where are you?” She doesn’t even wait for an answer, swiping through her phone till she can find Sabina’s location. She’s somewhere in between a bathroom and hallway.
Jane’s there in a flash, fists clenching as she watches some sleezy businessman place his hand on Sabina’s lower back.
“Babe! There you are, I was looking all over for you,” Jane slides in between the two, slinging her arm over Sabina’s shoulder and throwing in a peck on the cheek for good measure.
The businessman shoots her a disgusted glare, but she just pulls Sabina in closer, comforted in the way she leans into her side. Sabina’s fine, she notes with a sigh of relief, they’ll just ditch the creep she’s with and get back to the plan in no time.
Jane takes a deeper look at her, trying to make eye contact so they can make a plan to get out here, when she feels her stomach sink again. Sabina’s eyes are glassy and Jane can tell her pupils are enlarged as Sabina looks up at her, a vague expression on her face.
Jane remembers the two shots Sabina knocked back, the waiter disappearing into the crowd, the bathroom Sabina was in before this.
Her grip around Sabina’s shoulder tightens as she pulls her along, practically dead weight at this point, “come on, we’ve got to get going, love.” She’s trying not to let the panic sink in, watching the security guards begin to filter into the gallery, searching through the crowd.
They’re almost out the door when someone calls after them, “where do you think you’re going?”
Jane’s seconds away from whipping out her gun when she turns around, only to find the businessman from earlier, drinks in hand. “What’d ya say, sweethearts? Think I can turn you two straight? I’d say it’s my lucky day.”
Jane’s already curling her hand into a fist, but Sabina beats her to the punch, doubling over and vomiting all over his expensive, Italian loafers.
It turns out to be the perfect distraction they need to escape, all of the fuss he’s making opens up the perfect opportunity for Jane to drag both of them out of the gallery. Bosley’s car is right around the corner and Jane tries to keep Sabina talking until she arrives.
“Hey, hey, love. Open your eyes for me.”
Sabina lolls her head back so she can look at Jane, clumsily wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “S’what you’d say about love?”
Jane fights back the heat that rises to her cheeks, “I-just stay awake, okay? We’ve got to figure out what they drugged you with.” Sabina nods in agreement, lets Jane help her into the backseat of Bosley’s car, head in her lap.
“We’re 10 minutes away from the safe house, Sabina,” Bosley says, glancing back in the review view mirror, “any chance you’re gonna puke in this car?”
Sabina shakes her head, then immediately clamps a hand over her mouth once the car starts moving. Dutifully, Bosley pulls over and Jane holds her hair back, both wincing as the blonde dry heaves onto the street. They repeat the process a few times before finally making it back to the house, the trio heavy a collective sigh of relief.
Jane lets Saint take over from there and heads to her room—she needs to get the lingering stench of vomit off of her before she does anything else.
---
“Knock, knock,” Jane stands in the doorway of Sabina’s room, hands shoved into her pockets.
Sabina looks up, exhaustion written all over her face. “Hey…you can come in, Saint says I’m done puking my guts out now.”
Jane settles on the edge of her bed, toying with the sheets under her. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Me too,” Sabina chuckles softly, “I never want to be roofied again. That shit sucks.” They both laugh for a second, until the room falls silent again. Suddenly Sabina scrambles upright and Jane leans away, she likes this sweatshirt without any puke on it.
“No, no, I’m fine,” Sabina gestures with her hands, face morphing into a pout, “but what about the mission, we didn’t even get into the safe!”
Jane pulls the hard drive out of her pocket, “I did get this…” she trails off, watching the grin emerge on Sabina’s face. “And Bosley already has the money, it’s on it’s way back to France.”
“You got it? But how?”
Jane just smiles, “a magician never reveals her secrets. Besides, you were pretty out of it for most of the mission, so I’m sure you don’t remember.”
Sabina just nods, looking increasingly impressed. They talk for a few moments longer before Jane heads back to her own room with a yawn.
“Hey, wait,” Sabina calls after her.
She pauses in the hallway, door halfway closed. “Yes?”
“You looked good tonight,” Sabina offers. Jane murmurs back a hasty “thanks”, reminding herself that Sabina’s still high on whatever drugs she’s on, it’s late, she’s not thinking clearly.
+VI
“Jane, come on! Let me see,” Sabina pleads, trying in vain to move Jane’s hand.
Jane squirms away, just out of reach. “No, no way.”
“Jane,” Sabina draws out her name, peering at her from underneath her eyelashes. “I bet it isn’t even that bad!”
“Nope. Still no.”
“Well I still can’t believe Elena punched you hard enough to give you a black eye,” Sabina laughs, finding this whole situation entirely too entertaining for Jane’s liking. “Remember when she tranqed herself? And look at her now!”
Jane grins at the memory, but stands firm, hand clenched over her eye.
Sabina tries a new tactic, “come on, I bet it’s gotta hurt at least a little. Don’t you want come ice or something?”
“Sabina, I said I’m fine! Forget about it!” Jane protests, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
“Damn, that is a shiner. Remind me not to get on Elena’s bad side,” Sabina says, as Jane rushes to cover up her eye again, swearing under her breath at her own mistake. “Come on, I’ve already seen it now,” Sabina argues, as Jane lets her hand fall down to her side.
“Fine.”
Sabina lets out a low whistle, her fingers coming up to trace the bruise on Jane’s face, coming to rest against her cheek. She jerks away at first, but Sabrina places a finger over her lips, pressing her against the doorframe. “Shhh.”
Jane’s hyper-aware of it, of the way Sabina stares at her, the proximity between them, Sabina’s breath hot against hers.
“Can I kiss you?” Sabina finds herself asking, the question leaving them both breathless, on the edge of something.
Fuck.
Jane nods, leaning in at the same time Sabina does, grinning as their noses bumped together.
Sabina pulls away before she does, hand still warm on her face. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me too.”