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Three months after the events on the Dixie Queen. Villanelle, Eve and Benita are clearing a table and carry the dishes to the kitchen. It's the safe house in Cuba. Benita wipes her hands on her apron.
"Are you sure, I can't help you with anything else?"
Villanelle turns around and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Benita, darling, you have done more than enough. Thank you for everything."
They embrace in a long hug with Eve putting on rubber gloves and smiling in the background. Benita leaves, a last wave from the door. After the door falls shut with a muffled bang Villanelle joins Eve at the sink. She grabs a towel and starts to wipe dry the first cleaned cups and plates and small bowls Eve hands her. The clattering of porcelain and cutlery echoes through the house. Eve displays a mild somewhat crooked smile and looks at her from the corner of her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell me? I mean...."
"It had to be realistic, Eve. I'm sorry for all you had to go through. But -- we are here now, aren't we?"
"Yeah, great, but you have no idea. I thought I finally had lost you. I, I mean, I didn't want to live anymore. I mean -- what was I supposed to do without you? You were everything..."
Villanelle softly put her right index finger on Eve's lips. "Shush, dear. I know. I really do. There just was no other way. It was Konstantin's and Carolyn's idea. Carolyn and I, we really had a connection after Cuba. My undeniable very public and very official death was the only way to keep us safe from The Twelve."
"Yeah -- on the brightly lit front deck of the Dixie Queen with CCTVs and the entire bridge crew watching..."
"That was part of the plan. Undeniable. Everyone saw it."
"Do you have an idea what I went through?" Eve sounds a bit edgy now. "The endless questioning at the Met and Scotland Yard? I almost went bonkers! Look, you were shot while I held you in my arms! That was very real!"
"True. But, well, I took a bullet for us, darling."
"How did you even survive that?"
"Oh come on -- remember? The shoulder Eve!? The shoulder!?" Villanelle flashes a naughty grin and pinches Eve in the soft skin above her hip.
Eve snickers. "Leave it! But yeah. I actually do remember that one. But under water, I clearly remember..."
Villanelle utters a dismissive guttural laugh. "You clearly remember? You were in shock, darling! You remember you saw something, anything at all, in the murky water of the Thames at night? What does the Psychologist in you say to that? Apparently you you didn't see the breathing bubbles from the rescue divers. The rest was blood packages. Special effects stuff."
Eve frowns and sighs. Of course it was. The last dishes are cleaned and dried, Eve takes off her gloves and grabs Villanelle's hands. They face each other, calmly look each other in the eyes. Eve clears her throat. She smiles.
"You can be such an asshole, you know that?"
Villanelle's smirk clearly says that she expected that. "And you, my dear, can be a real dork."
"Says the assassin."
"Ex assassin, please."
They embrace in a tight hug, Eve burying her face in Villanelles shoulder, Villanelle hers in Eve's hair. Eve feels silent tears running down her cheeks, Villanelle's heartbeat seems to be all around her. Suddenly something wet and warm drips onto her earlobe. It takes Eve a moment to grasp what that is, and she tightens her grip around the love of her life even more. She cannot fight it anymore.
"Vill, I, I love you. I really do."
Villanelle sounds like her nose is stuffed, a bit like when she said it was an accident after dropping Martin on that table, knocking him unconscious.
"You know that I love you, too. And I'm so, so sorry, darling, but we are safe now. I promise."
Both were slightly sobbing now. Eve's hand finds her way under Villanelle's loose black T, slowly wandering along clammy, shivering skin. She gently explores the new gunshot scar. They both now have almost identical gunshot scars at the same spot. Villanelle gently pushes her away and locks eyes with her.
"Also -- I actually deserved it."
"Deserved what?"
Villanelle looks to the ground, hesitates for a moment, swallows hard. "I, I shot you. Now I got shot. In the same spot. It just seems fair."
Eve pulls her back into the embrace, one hand rubbing her back the other caressing her neck. "You are here. That's all that counts, okay? All that pain, all that injury, I mean...?"
Villanelle breaks loose and spins around. She manages to instantly switch to giddy girl mode again, an ability Eve had always envied and loved her for. "So what are we going to do today? Go dancing, beach loafing? I always wanted to learn SCUBA diving. Or we go sailing. I can sail. What do you say? And I have money. Don't worry about it."
"And we are really safe here?"
"Yeah -- MI6 and the SFB have our back, and believe me: I have an army of rather grateful women behind me here. Cuba also turned out to be a death trap for The Twelve. I killed one of their members here and half a dozen of their foot soldiers. It was a joke of fate, somehow. And you killed that Lars guy in Berlin, who also mainly was based here. He ran like a scared rabbit from the fox when he spotted Carolyn and me together. He wasn't very impressive."
"No. He really wasn't. So -- you made us safe."
"We, actually, but yeah -- I guess mostly me."
That sly grin again, this time accompanied by a wink. She grabs Eve's hand and pulls her out of the kitchen. "Come on, sweetie -- the sun is still rising, the breeze is mild, the ocean is blue. We can do whatever we want."
All I want, I think all I wanted all my life, is to be with you, even before I knew you, Eve thought. "What happened to Alaska?" Villanelle winces.
"I figured out cabin life is not really my thing."
Eve snorted. "Like dancing, hm?"
Head shaking with flying blond hair. "Oh, nonono. Dancing I have come to like. As long as it's with you. And -- come on. We are in CUUUUBA!"
Eve squeezed Villanelle's hand and allowed herself to be pulled out of the bright and cozy safe house, their new home for the time being, into the warm light of the late morning Caribbean sun, into the great wide open. Into the here and now.