Chapter Text
It takes about three weeks, all told.
The house that they are presented with is an old Georgian terrace, on a quiet street lined with trees.
A serious man with a neat hair cut greets them, and starts to show them through the security features of the house. He is full of clipped sentences about the qualities of the doors and windows, and the alarm system, and which button summons an armed response team within a couple of minutes.
Eve leaves Oksana to stand with the serious man and absorb all of this, confident in her abilities to re-explain it to Eve later.
She wanders through the house. It has wooden floors, and high windows that flood each room with light. Each room is white, but the walls have a faded quality, and need a fresh coat.
There’s a kitchen, small yet serviceable, and a tiny back garden, almost entirely overgrown.
Eve lets her fingertips drag over each wall, as though unwilling to believe it is real unless more than one of her senses confirm the situation.
Almost every room is entirely empty. But there’s a bed frame, in the room at the top of the house, and next to it an old brown leather chair.
Eve sits down with a sigh, and closes her eyes. She smiles, when she hears the front door close.
After a few minutes, Oksana finds her. She leans on the door frame, and observes her. Eve is again reminded of a cat, watching, and perfectly content and unabashed to be caught staring.
Eventually Oksana says “You love it, don’t you?”
Eve smiles slowly.
“I do.”
…..
Of course, not every moment can be filled with a joyful unreality.
There is a soul destroying, brain numbing morning spent in IKEA, during which time Oksana literally sits on every couch and touches every throw and cushion, whilst Eve is trying to measure up wardrobes.
Eventually, Oksana appears next to her, and just says ‘You know that there are design companies who would do this for you? I will call one, and they can do the boring stuff. Come and choose a cushion, and also I have seen a lampshade that speaks to my soul.”
After two more nights of essentially camping in a house, that company arrives in the form of a couple of designers. Oksana, unsurprisingly, has very specific ideas about interior design, and Eve leaves her to lay out her ideas to them. She wades out into the garden, and sets about hacking away at the long grass and brambles.
She spends a number of hot, sweaty hours out there, seemingly making no impression on the thicket of vegetation whatsoever. Once, when she straightens up and looks up at the house, she can see Oksana watching her through a window. When Eve pushes her hair out of her eyes, Oksana is gone again.
The design company leave in the late afternoon. Eve rests her hands on her hips, eyeing the enormous pile of vegetation she has managed to gather in the centre of the garden, and cautiously grappling with the notion that she has no idea what to do with it next.
Oksana appears in the doorway, and she’s gotten changed, into a silk robe that Eve has never seen before.
“You know that there are companies who do that, as well?”
Eve nods and rubs a hand across her forehead, no doubt smearing dirt across her face.
“I know. I just wanted to… take ownership. Show it who is boss.”
Oksana doesn’t say anything for a moment, and then clears her throat.
“Do you want to shower?”
“Yes, ugh, that sounds amazing.”
Oksana smiles at her.
“And then… do you want to seduce me?”
Eve laughs slightly.
“Seduce you…. are you planning to play hard to get? Are you even wearing anything under that robe?”
Oksana smile turns into a different sort of smile, and she shrugs with one shoulder, causing the robe to fall open a little more. And Eve will never know if it is deliberate, she will never know…
“No. I am not wearing anything.”
“So you are playing hard to get by…?”
Oksana grins. “By insisting that you shower first.”
…..
In another few days, the furniture arrives.
Oksana is… a quite highly pitched version of herself, and Eve can see the restless perfectionist coming through. And there’s a resigned look in the workers eyes, as they know that they have encountered the client from hell.
Eve weighs up the possible dangers of her leaving, vs the possible dangers of her staying. Carolyn has reassured her again that there is no sign of the Twelve performing any operations any further west than Berlin. Besides, she has to start reclaiming normal somewhere, and she can’t continue to use Oksana as an omnipresent bodyguard forever, they’ll both suffocate. She picks up her phone and her bag, and presses a kiss to Oksana’s cheek.
“I’m going out. Have fun. Don’t kill anyone.”
“What, and get blood everywhere, are you insane- no, that doesn’t go in that room…”
…..
Much later that day, Oksana messages her.
You can come home now.
Eve has never had much of an eye for interior design beyond functionality, but even she can see that Oksana has achieved something beautiful.
Oksana is lying on their new couch, dressed in a t shirt and comfy jeans, looking exhausted. It’s the weirdest version of Oksana that Eve thinks she has ever seen.
“Please tell me you like it.”
“Of course I do.”
Oksana blinks seriously at her.
“A message arrived from Carolyn today. I am expected to report for orientation and clearance checks tomorrow. I will not be around so much.”
Eve nods. And then she glances at the television.
“Does it work?”
Oksana nods, Eve motions at Oksana.
“Move up then. I think we are due a movie.”
Oksana arranges herself whilst Eve turns on the tv, and Eve sinks into her side, moving Oksana’s arms until she has her head on her chest and she can hear Oksana’s heartbeat, low and steady and reassuring.
Oksana sighs a couple of times, and then says “This is good.”
“Yes” Eve agrees.
…..
The three weeks come to a certain end when Oksana comes to find her in the kitchen, one sunny morning.
“I have been cleared. Officially. I start work today. I will not be here for a few nights, I don’t think. And I will not be able to contact you.”
They haven’t talked about this really, but Eve knows that this means Oksana has been given someone to kill. Eve thinks that she could have guessed it, just from the air of repressed excitement Oksana is carrying with her.
“Are they a bad person?”
Oksana looks cautiously at her.
“Yes? Your bosses seem to think so.”
“Would you tell me if they were a good person?”
Shrugging, Oksana says “I guess you will just have to trust that your government is only interested in making bad people disappear.”
There’s something twisting at the pit of Eve’s stomach, but she finds that it isn’t disgust.
It’s worry.
She presses a soft kiss to Oksana’s cheek.
“Be careful, okay?”
Oksana grins.
“I will. I always am.”
…..
She calls Niko.
There is one, terrible conversation in her old kitchen, in which Eve explains that she is very sorry, but she is never coming back, and she will be seeking a divorce whenever he is ready.
Niko’s jaw works for a moment, and then he shrugs.
“I have started seeing someone else, by the way. Someone from work. I had started seeing her before you fucked off to do whatever you did.”
“Oh?” Eve doesn’t really know what to do with this information, so she just stands there, waiting for more. She understands that Niko needs to feel like he has won at least some part of this.
“We had been on the cusp for a while. I knew she was interested, but… well. She doesn’t think I am boring” he continues after a moment, sounding like a sulky teenager.
Eve swallows, because she probably deserved that one.
“I wish you joy.”
Niko looks at her for a moment, and then nods.
“Are you happy?”
Eve smiles despite herself.
“Yes.”
“And I’m not going to get killed any time soon?”
“No.”
Niko laughs abruptly, and runs his hands through his hair, in the way that he always does.
“Well. I suppose that that’s the best we could have hoped for.”
……
Carolyn gives Eve her old job back.
In fact, it isn’t really her old job, because god knows what that was. This time it is a task force set up to try and determine the links between the various known victims of the Twelve, because, as Carolyn says, “if we could just figure out what their aims are, we could maybe get a bit closer to figuring out who the devil they are.”
It’s surreal to be back in this building.
She’s even sitting across from Elena. And Kenny is there as well, blinking like he’s seen a ghost.
Bill used to walk down these corridors. But Bill… Eve hopes he’ll forgive her. He’d understand, even if she doesn’t fully understand herself. Bill knew way before Eve knew.
After an awkward first morning, Elena brings Eve a coffee.
“So, just between you, me and the Ken doll over here…” she murmurs, “are you fucking the psychopath?”
Eve glances at both of them, and then rolls her eyes.
“Yes.”
Elena’s mouth drops open with an amused gasp, and Kenny nods at her, saying “Told you” baldly. Eve pulls a face.
“Okay, this is highly unprofessional.”
“We’re unprofessional? Oh my god Eve you have lost your head…”
Eve laughs. “Yes, quite possibly.”
…..
Oksana comes back to her after three nights, and crawls into the bed in the middle of the night, still wet and naked from the shower.
Eve gives herself to her willingly, and doesn’t mind the thought that Oksana showered to remove any trace of murder from her body before touching Eve.
Oksana’s mouth is between her legs, but her eyes are staring up at her. And Eve knows everything that Oksana has seen, and everything that Oksana has done, and it doesn’t matter, because Oksana looks at her like this.
Afterwards, Oksana climbs up her body, and Eve kisses her mouth clean, running the palms of her hands over the muscles in Oksana’s back.
Oksana whispers to her, and her hips work gently over Eve’s thigh.
“I remembered, sometimes, in order to do my job, I have to make people think that I want them. Not sleep with them, but… flirt, I suppose would describe it. Do you mind?”
“No” says Eve, surprising herself with the simplicity of her emotions. “I don’t mind work. As long as I am your only pleasure.” She says this as her hand slips lower, until she find the wetness between Oksana’s legs that she is rapidly coming to think of as home.
Oksana groans, and rolls onto her back. She gasps when Eve murmurs “good girl” into the skin of her neck.
“You are my only pleasure.”
Eve smiles down at her.
“This might take a while. But I know you can be patient.”
Oksana moans restlessly, and then forces a stillness upon herself.
“For you? Yes.”
…..
The End