Part Two, Chapter Eighteen: Sellout

Beatrice felt awful about leaving Charlie to go on her mission. Although she was all smiles the next morning, Beatrice could tell she was still in an emotionally vulnerable state. Beatrice had even offered to play sick so that she could stay home with her, but Charlie had encouraged her to go in anyway.

"I wouldn't want to hold you back from your job." She had said.

Beatrice hadn't had the courage to tell her that it didn't feel like being held back. If anything, she felt like her job was holding her back.

And so Beatrice had gone, expecting the mission to last one night at most, but that quickly stretched into two, and then into three. Three days and no sign of their target. Three days of camping out on a rickety pier at a trash filled lake, staring at an environmental hazard to see if it was going to blow up or not.

Between taking turns with Lin keeping watch on the oil pipeline she texted Charlie and played solitaire, wondering if stopping evil was always this painfully boring.

Maybe being the evil one was always more exciting.

Eventually she moved on to skipping rocks across the water to pass time, when her phone started ringing.

She used the button on her wrist to answer the call.

"What's up?" She said, expecting Lin to be on the other end.

"Are you busy?"

It wasn't Lin. It was her brother.

"Unfortunately I am not." She said. "Why? What's Going on?"

"Nothing really, I just wanted to talk." He said.

"Oh, okay." She said, "I could use some entertainment anyway."

"So, how's it going so far?"

"Well, I'm just standing on a pier right now, kind of waiting for something to happen." Beatrice said. "So pretty boring."

"I actually meant like, in general." He said, "You know, are you happy being a hero?"

Beatrice tossed another rock across the pond while she paused and tried to gather her thoughts. For some reason, she didn't want to be completely honest with him.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I was just thinking about how when you were little, you used to tell me that you wanted to work at a zoo. You know, in that room with the jungle wallpaper, so you  take care of the reptiles and the amphibians."

Color rushed to her cheeks as her stomach filled with embarrassment, despite the fact she was alone.

"That was back when I was a dumb kid." She said, "I'm an adult now, TJ. I can actually make money doing this."

"I just want to make sure that you're safe and happy."

"Well, I want you to be safe and happy too." She said, "You're the only family that I have and the only family I've ever had."

He chucked a little but, something she was thankful for.

"I'm happy," he said. "Hey, I started a garden yesterday."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, well, it's just seeds so it's kind of just a bunch of pots with dirt in them right now, but I'm sure in a few weeks it'll be slightly more impressive—"

There was a muffled bang, and something whizzed by her helmet.

She sighed and threw the last rock in her palm into the water.

"Hold, let me put you on hold. Someone just shot at me."

"Wha— B—!"

She pressed the button on her arm cuff that paused the call and waved her arm, creating a force field. She whipped around to face her assailant.

He was a man probably just as young as her, wearing salvaged body armor, who's hands shook so badly as he held his gun that it was almost laughable. It was no wonder he missed the shot with resolve like that. She had been such an easy target too.

When she turned around, his eyes widened in surprise, and he reflexively fired out six more desperate shots. Each one of them bounced off of the forcefield as she slowly walked closer to him. She gave him a disapproving glare and crossed her arms.

"Can you be careful with that? One of those might bounce off and kill you, and if you die then I'm going to have to fill out so much paperwork, and I sort of already have a lot going on right now."

He yelped and fired one more shot.

She waved her hand, and the gun flew out of his hand and into the lake below them with a pitiful plop.

"Try not to pee your pants." She told him. "I'm not gonna hurt you that bad."

Beatrice didn't even have to react fast, because the man just stood there, clearly frozen with fear. Instead of using her powers, she used her foot to hook his ankle and sweep him off of his feet like Lin had shown her to do. She smirked when he hit the ground of the pier with a satisfying thud and let out a string of profanity.

"Wow, that was fun."

Before long she had his hands cuffed behind his back and his face down on the ground. She sat on his back, and got back on the call with TJ.

"Hey are you still there?" .

"Jesus Christ, B! Are you okay?"

She winced at the panic in his voice, and suddenly felt bad about mentioning being shot and also being so blasé about it. She knew she should be more mindful of how he felt.

"Yeah, sorry for stressing you out. I'm fine." She said, "I probably should have been paying better attention anyway."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been bothering you at work anyway just because I was worried."

"It's fine. I wanted to talk to you anyway." She said, "I've got to get going anyway. I need to meet back up with Lin."

"Okay, bye, B. Please stay safe."

"Bye TJ."

She ended the call and sent Lin a quick message to let him know that she had one of the three men contained. The man she had apprehended started to flail around underneath her, but she just pretended like she didn't notice or care.

"Hey!" He finally said.

She rolled her eyes.

"What?"

"You know, before you started to work for the police, I thought you were cool." He said.

Beatrice narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't work for the police."

"You work for the government with the police." He said. "That's almost the same. You're saving an oil pipe."

"I'm just paying my bills." She responded, trying to sound disinterested, like he wasn't getting under her skin.

"Isn't that why you have a rich, capitalist girlfriend?"

She clenched her fists.

"Shut up!" She hissed. "You don't know anything about me."

"I know you're a sellout."

Just as her temper was about to run too hot for her to contain, Lin came up on the pier. He pulled his helmet off and shook his head, the dark brown curls bouncing around as several stuck to thr sweat of his forehead. At least one of them had exerted some kind of effort.

"Good job, B." He said. "I already got the other two in the van go be booked."

"Eh, I wouldn't thank me. This guy fights like a third grader so I hardly had to do anything." She said.

"Well, did you at least have fun?" He asked.

"Yes, I loved sitting around for three days and then getting into a roughly two minute long fight." She said.

Lin shrugged.

"It's like that sometimes."

He walked over and pulled the man up so that he was standing. Beatrice shot the man a venomous look, but it seemed like he wanted to keep his mouth shut now that there were two of them.

"At least now that I've experienced one hundred and thirty five seconds of anti-climactic action, I can finally know what it's like to be a straight woman."

Lin looked disgusted, but didn't say anything.

"Come on, let's get this guy turned in so that we can finally go home."

Beatrice sighed.

"Sure. Let's do it."

Beatrice didn't realize that she was going to be coming home to chaos, but that was what she opened the door to.

Charlie's usually immaculately clean apartment was in a state of disorder like Beatrice had never seen before. There were piles of clothes all over the living room. There were dishes overflowing from the sink. Random junk was strewn about everywhere, seemingly with no rhyme or reason as to why.

For a moment she worried that they were being robbed, though she couldn't imagine why someone would break in just to ransack the place.

"Uh, Charlie?" She said, stepping over a pile of socks as she entered the apartment.

"Oh shoot! B!." Charlie exclaimed, appearing from behind the white fuzzy couch in the living room. She was holding a pack of cheese in one hand for some reason. "I didn't know you were going to be home early."

Beatrice dropped her bag by the door, just another thing to add to the mess.

"I'm not. I'm actually a day late." She said.

Charlie looked mortified, and her cheeks lit up a flustered pink color. The bandage was gone from her forehead, and now Beatrice could see the stabbed over gash that ran across it, a backing of purplish bruised skin behind it.

"B, I'm sorry–"

"I think you should be proud of yourself. I don't think I've ever seen anyone make this much mess in just three days. It's— it's kind of impressive Charlie." She paused to cross her arms and survey the room one more time. "Wait, what happened to your housekeepers?"

"I fired them." She said, "And the cook, and the driver— I fired all of the staff."

Beatrice cooked her head to the side and blinked.

"Why?"

"I went to see my dad the other day. I told him I didn't want to work for the company anymore, and I didn't want any more of his money or his financial support. I…" she paused and swallowed. "I told him I didn't want to see him again for a while."

Beatrice felt a pang of guilt shoot through her chest. She hoped Charlie hadn't done that for her. She hated the man, but she didn't want Charlie to feel forced into cutting off her only living parent, even if he wasn't about to win any father of the year awards.

"... Why?" She asked it again, this time more quietly.

"Because it's not right of me to say I don't support his decisions, and still benefit financially from them." Charlie said. "I've had everything handed to me my whole life, and I want to prove to myself that I can make it on my own."

"So what happened to the apartment?" Beatrice asked.

Charlie paused to look around and survey the state of the apartment, and quickly deflated like she had been defeated by the dirty dishes in the sink. She sighed, and sat down the pack of cheese in her hand and rubbed the back of her head.

"I was trying to get the apartment ready to sell, because I honestly don't think I'll be able to afford it without my dad's money. Somehow, it ended up like this. I've never been the most organized person, so I guess I should have expected it."

Her brows were knitted together in worry and her hand came up to grab her chin. Her brown eyes seemed distant and unfocused. Everything about her seemed unfocused at the moment.

Beatrice walked over and grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it.

"It's okay Charlie. We'll figure it out. I'll help you."

"I just don't want to disappoint you. I know you never had anything for most of your life, and I wanted to give you everything."

"Charlie, I don't need the most expensive apartment in New Atlanta to be happy. I lived without running water for two weeks once. All I need to be happy is to be with you."

"I'm sure having running water definitely helps, though." Charlie said. "I'm sure all of the money helps too."

"But it's not necessary."

"Well, what if I stop being funny?"

"Then I might leave you. That's crossing a line."

Charlie chuckled snd squeezed her hand.

"By the way, you didn't fire your security team, did you?"

Charlie let out a nervous laugh.

"Charlie!" She hissed.

"Okay, okay. Maybe I can keep some of the staff." She said. "I'll get on it, I promise."

"Okay." She said. "Becuase I can't be here to keep you safe all of the time.

"Don't worry." Charlie said. "I think I can finally handle myself now.

Beatrice smiled and tried to look optimistic, but deep down she was worried. The future seemed to uncertain right now.

Here Charlie was, discarding her financial and physical security based on principal, while she was chasing the security of working for the government and the approval of the public.

Maybe I really am a sellout after all.