Part Two, Chapter Nine: HIGHjinks Volume 1

The next day Beatrice had two surprises waiting on her.

The first was a package that had been hand delivered to her by an armed guard. She'd even had to show her ID and sign just to get it.

She brought it into Charlie's apartment and immediately ripped it open. Inside was her temporary suit, along with a few other gadgets. She pulled the suit out, and held it up to inspect it.

It was a plain, matte black, in pristine condition. It was minimally padded, but still very flexible, and, in all honesty, the nicest one she had ever even held in her hands.

Inside the box it came in, there was another box. There was a note taped to the top of it that read:

Someone named Harleigh sent this over for you.

Alice.

She quickly tore into it as well, and found another note resting on top of a pile of packing peanuts.

I got someone to steal this from the evidence locker at the police station, and I fixed it up for you. I know how much it means to you. You didn’t get it from me, if anyone asks.

Beatrice shook out the packing peanuts, and was quickly met with something else shiny and black.

The original Shadow Witch helmet.

She had to double check at first, but the dent in the side from where TJ had accidentally dropped it off of the top of their apartment building was still there.

She nearly dropped in in surprise, fumbling with her hands as she tried to keep it steady. She ran her fingers over the dent, remembering how devastated he had been that day since he had just got done fixing it when he dropped it.

The police had taken everything into custody when they had killed TJ, including his body. She never thought she would see it again.

She was still sitting on the floor in shock when Charlie came in from the front door. Beatrice looked up at her.

"Where were you?" Beatrice asked her.

"Uh, in the hallway." Charlie said. "Meeting a guy."

"You were… meeting a guy… in the hallway?" Beatrice said skeptically.

"Mhm." Charlie said, rocking back and forth on her feet.

Beatrice narrowed her eyes and stared quietly at her.

"You were buying weed, weren't you?" She said.

Color immediately rushed to Charlie's face, and she sheepishly grinned.

"How could you tell?"

Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"You're always really obvious about hiding something. It's like you just can't keep it to yourself. You wouldn't last a day in my old neighborhood."

"Oh." Charlie said, finally noticing the package she was sitting in front of. "Your suit came in."

"It's just the temporary version." She said. "But look at this."

She held up the helmet and handed it over to Charlie.

"Your old helmet?"

Beatrice shook her head.

"No, it belonged to TJ. The one I used was a backup of his that I upgraded. Harleigh got somebody to take it from the evidence locker at the police station."

Charlie looked back up from the helmet, a huge grin on her face.

"Aw! You guys love each other now!" She squealed.

Beatrice frowned and took the helmet back.

"No we don't! We just tolerate each other!" Beatrice said. "We're… business partners, and we would stab each other in the back at a moment's notice!"

Charlie ignored her, and leaned down to pull her into a tight embrace. Beatrice felt flustered, and did her best to frown through it, but she eventually smiled.

A few hours later, Beatrice and Charlie decided to get high. Well, more accurately Charlie had excitedly hinted at it until Beatrice agreed.

"It'll be just like old times! Back at your apartment!" Charlie had said.

Beatrice had done her best to hold in her amused smile.

Now, half an hour later, they were sitting on the kitchen counter together, already more blazed than Beatrice thought she had ever been in her life.

"Yooo!" Charlie said. "let's get some snacks!"

"Okay." Beatrice giggled.

Charlie hopped off of the counter, but her eyes lit up again before she could make it to the fridge.

"Oh! And we should watch a movie!"

"Okay—"

Charlie seemed to immediately forget about the snacks as she grabbed Beatrice by the wrist and led her into the living room.

Within five minutes of turning a movie on, the two quickly forgot about it and instead began to tickle each other, something that quickly descended into a heavy make-out session.

Every now and then, one of them would giggle in-between kisses, until Charlie became so tickled that she fell over onto the couch in a fit of laughter.

Beatrice climbed onto her and straddled her hips.

"What is it?" She asked.

A familiar, attractive smile spread across Charlie's face, and Beatrice couldn't help but smile at the sight of it.

"Nothing —nothing!" Charlie said between laughs. "Just something embarrassing I thought of. I was only thinking it because I'm so high!"

"Tell me anyway!" Beatrice said. She pinched Charlie's sides for added effect.

Charlie squealed and giggled even more, twisting wildly underneath her.

"Okay! Okay!" She laughed, her face flushed pinker than Beatrice had ever seen it before. "I was wondering... you know your telekinesis thingy you can do?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you like, use it… during sex?"

Beatrice blinked.

"During sex?" She asked

Charlie sheepishly pulled at the dollar of her shirt, her eyes glancing away. "Ah ha, yeah."

Beatrice smiled and waved her hand. Charlie gasped as her hands were yanked up above her head, and pinned there, though Beatrice tried to make sure the pressure wasn't too hard.

"You mean like that?"

Charlie somehow managed to get even more flushed, and the core of her body suddenly felt incredibly warm underneath Beatrice.

"Or do you mean like this?"

Beatrice waved her hand again, and Charlie's button up shirt flew open, buttons scattering across the floor.

"Ah!" Charlie gasped, her eyes wide. "Uh, yeah, ah ha."

Beatrice settled back onto her hips, and ran her hand down the center of her chest.

"What? You want me to top you?" Beatrice teased. "That's a first."

"Don't make fun of me!" Charlie whined. "I'm high and vulnerable!"

"Mmm." Beatrice grinned. "Its okay. I don't mind taking care of you if that's what you want."

She leaned down, and took her nipple in her mouth gently, keeping her hand up so that Charlie couldn't move her wrists.

Charlie buckled underneath her and whimpered in response.

Encouraged by her increasingly undone state, Beatrice continued to kiss her way across her chest, slowly letting her free hand drift a little farther down until it found the band of her pants.

Charlie let out a gentle, frustrated gasp, and tried again to move her hips underneath her.

Beatrice tried to continue, but an annoying buzzing sound started to echo around in her head. She stopped what she was doing, withdrew her hand, and sat upright.

"Do you hear that too?" She asked, squinting into the distance. "Or am I just high?"

"No, I hear it too, but we're probably just both high together." Charlie mumbled. "Keep going."

Beatrice kept staring at the wall, trying to get her thoughts in order, when a sudden realization hit her.

"Holy shit! I know what it is!" She said.

Charlie blinked.

"What is it?"

"....huh?" Beatrice asked.

"You said you knew what the noise was." Charlie said.

The realization hit her a second time, and she let go of Charlie's hands.

"Oh yeah! It's my pager!"

"Oh shit! That's not good!" Charlie said. "Wait, maybe it's something chill… like a pizza."

Beatrice blinked, thinking about pizza…

She shook her head.

"No, no. It can't be about… pizza. That's not how this works, Charlie. Fuck."

Shit. Now I've got to go help Lin stop some kind of crime while I pretend to be sober. This is going to be a mess. I can't believe I screwed myself like this. Lin is going to be pissed.

She stumbled off of Charlie and clumsily started to tear off her clothes. She grabbed her suit, and fumbled tremendously as she tried to get it on.

I'll just have to act so sober he won't know I'm high. Then he can't report me. Okay. Good. Just act sober. Sober flober. Not that hard.

Once it was on, she grabbed her pager from the counter and squinted at it until the words started to make sense.

Robbery in progress. 231 Peachtree Way.

"Fuck…" she said quietly.

It would be something difficult.

"Charlie , I'll… I'll be back. Gotta go." She said.

"Uh, what?" Charlie said, her head popping back up from the couch.

Beatrice shook her head and grabbed her helmet and her bag, and then headed for the door. All the way she repeated silently to herself.

Gotta sober up.

Gotta sober up.

Gotta sober up.