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Judy calls her grandparents for what seems like the first time in ages. “Abuelito, abuelita, ¿cómo están?”
Her grandparents’ eyes wrinkle in pleasure, looking like they have a few more lines on their faces but still as glowing and healthy as ever. Moving to a farm in Oregon seems to have done them a world of good.
Her grandmother jumps in first. “Mi bebe, we are good. And you? What is new?”
“Same ol’, same ol’. Well, except…” Judy hesitates.
Her grandfather studies her. “Ah, you have found a woman.”
Judy’s cheeks heat. That obvious? “Si.”
Her grandmother screeches, “What is she like? What does she do? How long have you known her? When is her birthday? I’ll knit her a sweater. What size is she? Have you two talked about children?”
“Abuelita, please. We just recently started dating.” Judy rubs her forehead. “She was a friend before.”
“You know her through work?” her grandfather asks.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Her grandparents think she edits educational BDs, and Judy isn’t inclined to correct them. “Met through Ev.”
“How is Evelyn doing? You don’t talk about her anymore,” her grandmother asks.
Judy inhales sharply. She closes her eyes. “She passed away recently. Suddenly.” She adds quickly, “I’d rather not talk about it.”
Her grandparents glance at each other, a flicker of indecipherable expressions passing between them before her grandfather tentatively says, “Okay. We are here if you do want to talk.”
Judy can’t help but smile. “Thank you.” A long-fought war to make her grandparents give her more privacy happened throughout most of Judy’s adolescence of which an understanding was made if not agreement. They still remember years later that Judy prefers to come forth with her feelings on her own time.
“So, this new girl.” Her grandmother tactfully changes the subject. “When are you bringing her to meet us? I need to know, so I can start cooking.”
“I don’t...it’s complicated.”
Her grandfather’s eyes narrow. “You two aren’t serious? Is she treating you well? Better than the last one?”
Judy sighs. They were never going to let the Maiko thing go. “Yeah, she’s good to me. She has...work things to sort out. I’ll let you know when we come.”
Her grandmother pouts. “You raise my hopes, and then you dash them. I am an old woman. My heart can only take so much.”
Judy rolls her eyes. Dramatic as always. “I will bring her, abuelita. Just not sure when.”
Her grandfather hums quietly. “You really like her. Is she marriage material?”
“No! It’s too early to decide! They need to get to know each other.” Her grandmother slaps her grandfather’s shoulder and starts scolding him while Judy flushes, a slow heat that sinks down her body.
It’s not like she can’t pretend she hasn’t considered it herself.
Another call interrupts her thoughts, and Judy’s heartbeat skitters when she sees it’s V. “She’s calling.”
Her grandmother waves. “You answer. Call us back later. Enjoy your time with her! ” She hangs just as Judy’s grandfather opens his mouth to protest.
Judy responds to V’s call before she can die of embarrassment from the earlier conversation. “Hey, what’s happening?”
“Hey, Judy.” The husk of V’s voice sends parts of Judy’s brain into a short circuit, and Judy’s fairly certain that she doesn’t do it on purpose most times. V adjusts her phone, placing it on a shelf in her place as she bends over to grab a shirt. “Was thinking of you.”
“Uh-huh.” Judy finds it hard to put words together, especially when V, for some reason, decided to call her in her bra. It’s a really nice design. The latticework with the lace is—oh fuck. Judy’s not even going to pretend that’s what she’s admiring. “That’s nice.”
V looks up and smirks, tugging the shirt on and pulling it down past the indentation of her abs, and the spell breaks. Judy shakes her head as if punch-drunk before refocusing on what V is saying. “...thought we could spend the morning together while I’m doing some personal errands that don’t involve shooting someone or stealing something.”
“Uh...yeah, that’d be great.” Judy sits back, head still reeling, before she narrows her eyes. “You called like that on purpose. I’m going to get you back.”
V’s smile turns flirty, seductive, and Judy’s ability to do complex reasoning abandons her once again. “I…” She leans over the vid screen. “...have no idea what you’re talking about.” She slowly blows her a kiss. “See you soon, Jude.” The call ends.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Having no time to take care of... a new, demanding problem, Judy grabs her jacket and heads outside her apartment complex to wait.
Shortly afterwards, V pulls up on her motorcycle, a cocky smile on her face. “Are you ready?”
“As ever.” Judy keeps her expression flat, not willing to give V the satisfaction of seeing the effects of what she did earlier. “Where are we headed to?”
“Little China. Got a checkup with my ripperdoc and to see how Misty is doing.”
“Misty?”
V turns away, smugness slipping from her face. “Friend of mine. Jackie’s girl.”
Ah.
V doesn’t wait for a response and tosses a helmet to Judy.
Judy raises an eyebrow at the lack of similar protection on V’s head. “Nothing for you?”
“Nah, too hard-headed as it is.” V revs the engine, glancing backwards at Judy’s worried expression. She softens her tone. “I’ll be careful. Promise.”
V is not careful. She drives like she thinks brakes are a suggestion.
When Judy finally gets over the feeling like her organs experiencing whiplash whenever V turns, she has to admit that it’s not as bad as it appears. While V seems like she’s reckless, she is actually more calculated with her speed than it first seems. She veers at the last second as she weaves through the cars, leaning at a precise angle to get just the right amount of balance and speed. Of course, this makes the muscles across V’s back and thighs flex, which Judy can feel on her chest, her arms, her legs, and they have been a great source of consolation for the ride.
Twenty minutes later, they dismount her bike in an empty alley near Vik’s clinic just as Judy is getting to enjoy herself. “If you get bored, you can always change your mind and go back.”
“Back to what?” Judy bumps her affectionately with her shoulder. “You invited me, you gonk. I have a day off, V, and I want to spend it with you.”
“Yeah, but I rethought it. Errands....I hate them.” V scowls. She glances at Judy. “Thanks for doing this with me.”
“No problem.” Judy smiles and brushes up against V as she passes. “And good thing you brought me along to keep you excited then, right?”
V blinks, staring before catching up with Judy.
V steers them through the streets into a well-lit shop full of totems, idols, dream-catchers, and other items. Judy’s taken back by the sheer amount of it all, caught at the doorway, while V bounds up to the girl with the massive blonde hair, dark make-up, and a choke collar at the counter. “Hey, Misty.”
The girl perks, a sweet smile crossing her face. “You finally visited.”
V grimaces. “Sorry, I’ve been busy.” She coughs and gestures to the threshold. “And this is—“
“Judy.” Judy steps forward to shake Misty’s hand. “I’ve heard a bit about you.”
“Just a bit?” Misty stares ruefully at V, who rubs her nape and looks away. “Well, V has mentioned you a lot. Something about the work you two have done together?”
“Uh...yeah. You could say we’re worked together before.” If shooting up a facility in the early morning counts, which to V, it probably does. “How about you? How long have you known her?”
“Since she stepped into Night City and had to get her teeth replaced after a club brawl.” Misty shrugs. “Jackie barged right through, carrying V through over his shoulder after she got punched, spewing furious Spanish like a faucet. It’s how we met, actually.”
Judy turns and arches an eyebrow at V, who huffs and looks away. “I was new to Night City. I didn’t quite know the rules.”
“Must have been fate then.” Misty quirks her lips. “Otherwise, you two would have never found us, and we would have never been friends.”
V barks a laugh. “Story of my life.” She jerks her head toward the back door. “Is Vik in?”
“Yeah, he’s waiting for you.”
V bids goodbye to Misty, and Judy follows, padding her way past people sitting on the streets, wrapped in dirty blankets and looking up at her hopefully. Her heart goes out to them.
V bounces down the stairs, past open iron gates and into a dark, wide room where a man with dark square glasses and massive shoulders sits at the desk, tinkering with something. There’s a sense of dignity to how he holds himself, a gravitas lended to him by a sober life. “Hey, Vik.”
“Hey. Good to see you.” Vik glances up and spots Judy behind V. “And who is this?”
“That’s Judy.” V jerks her head at the huge ripperdoc getting up from his chair. “Judy, this is Viktor Vector, my ripperdoc when I first landed in Night City.”
Vik glances over Judy, a warm smile across his face. “So, you’re the girl who tamed V.” He grasps her hand in a firm handshake. Despite his size, he’s surprisingly gentle. “Pleasure to meet you.”
V scoffs. “She didn’t tame nothing. I still got bite to me.”
“Right, right.” Vik glances Judy over, studying her. “How’d you two meet?”
Judy runs a hand through her hair. “By a good friend of mine.”
Vik raises an eyebrow. “Through work?” When Judy nods, he chuckles. “Figured as much. I don’t think V has any hobbies that don’t involve her job of some kind.”
V scowls, crossing her arms. “I have a life outside of my gigs.”
“Yeah, I’m looking at it.” Vik rolls his eyes. “I’ve been telling you to relax for ages, V. Take some time to destress that isn’t a three-nighter.” He jerks his head towards Judy. “She looks like she might help you do that.”
Judy looks at V. “Three-nighters?”
“Old stuff. In the past now.” V waves it off. “Totally irrelevant.”
Vik snorts. “Not that far back. I remember when V used to came in with a busted face after some hard partying at—“
“Thanks for the story, Vik. Let’s get on with it,” V snaps.
Vik gives her a shake of his head before he gestures for V to sit down in the chair and turns to Judy. “Mind hanging out with Misty? We just got some things to discuss that are personal. Patient-confidentiality rules and all that.”
“No wait, she can—” V stops when Vik gives her a look. “I mean...yeah, Judy. Go chill with Misty. She’s pretty cool. Be out in a second.”
Judy raises an eyebrow. What is that all about? “Uh...sure, I guess.” She turns and heads back slowly up the stairs as Vik closes his clinic behind her.
“Wait.”
Judy looks back as Vik motions for her to return, his gates nearly closed. He waits until she gets close to drop his voice low. He looks her over with furrowed brows before he nods, seeming to come to a decision. “Take care of her, okay? V’s like family at this point. With Jackie dead...I don’t have many of them left. I can’t lose anymore people.”
Judy’s hit with an unexpected wave of grief, Evelyn rising to her mind. She closes her eyes and turns her head away, taking a moment to compose herself. “Yeah. I know the feeling.”
Vik examines her carefully before something in his face relaxes. “Guess we’re alike, you and I. Not really people-persons, are we? Not too many close friends.”
“Not like V.” Who seems to have an endless network of people calling her up for gigs and asking for requests. And among some of those she meets, a rare few that V mentions who genuinely enjoy her company, like Judy.
He nods as if making up his mind. “Tell you what. If you need ripperdoc work done or if you want to talk about V, come to me. Sometimes, we all need a third party to listen and get our head straight, yeah?”
Judy eyes him. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because V trusts you.” He meets her gaze—solid, steady, like a pillar of steel. “And she’s important to me. Since Jackie’s gone, she needs someone to look after her.”
“V seems pretty good of taking care of herself.”
Vik snorts. “She can’t cross the street without getting into a firefight.”
Judy can’t argue that.
He gives her his number before closing the gates and leaving Judy behind with a strange, new contact that she’s not sure what to make of since the list on her phone is filling up just by hanging around V. She’s not sure how to feel about this sudden expansion of her social circle, but she concludes that it isn’t bad. More like standing on a surface that’s slowly tilting, trying to find her balance.
Judy reenters the shop, greeting Misty who watches her at the counter. They stare at each other, and even Judy isn’t that comfortable with that much silence. “So…how’d you get into—” She gestures to everything all around them. “—all of this?”
Misty launches into a full story about the time she spent in the Himalayas, how she got into spirituality after spending time in a convent there with the monks, how she brought back the concepts to Night City, because, damn, does the city need spiritual guidance and find Jesus, Allah, whoever it is that they can believe in to become better.
Judy doesn’t disagree. “You get a lot of buyers for this stuff?”
“Not really. Most of the time, people who come in go straight to Vik, V included. She did try out tarot card therapy and—”
“Wait, what?”
“Tarot card therapy. It’s a new thing I came up, since business was slowing down and a lot of people have issues.” Misty pulls out a deck from under her till. “V only came in once, but she paid for a bunch of sessions. I told her she can come in any time for the rest.”
Judy glances over the deck in Misty’s hands, which admittedly had some sick art. She vaguely knows how the readings work. “What cards did V get?”
“The Fool, the Tower, and The Lovers reversed.” Misty continues. “The therapy part of the session is confidential, but the cards are just cards. It takes a skilled reader to put meaning to them in the context of the seeker’s life.”
“So...what does that mean for V?”
“For her, I read it as someone at the beginning of their journey, innocent, a free spirit, who soon experiences calamity, terrible misfortune. Sudden awakening and upheaval. Destruction. Chaos. And in their future lies a tough choice with significant consequences—one that forces them to pick a path that aligns with their highest values, no matter how much they may want to run away, no matter how much they wish otherwise.”
Misty shakes her head. “V disagreed. She said that no one decides her fate but herself. If you don’t believe, you don’t believe.” She shrugs. “But things like tarot cards have been used for ages to help focus the mind on what it already subconsciously knows. I would recommend everyone try it at least once.”
Judy puffs a piece of hair out of her eyes. “I dunno.” She pauses before saying quietly, “I’ve always been unlucky.”
Misty peers at her solemnly. “You and V both, I guess. Maybe that’s why you two found each other.”
Judy chuckles. “What a pair. Think that’ll change?”
“I’m not sure.” Misty holds out the deck. “Do you want to find out?”
Judy thinks about it for a few moments before nodding. “All right, lemme try. Gotta admit you got me curious.” She sits down at a nearby table while Misty begins shuffling the cards and instructing her what to do.
Judy draws three cards, and Misty flips them on her table, the smell of incense candles making Judy’s nose wrinkle. Misty tilts her head as she studies them. “Reversed Star. Judgement. The Lovers, but yours is upright unlike V’s.”
Judy raises an eyebrow at the odd collection before her. “So, what does this all mean?”
Misty touches the Star card. “Your past. You lost faith and hope in the world. You felt disconnected from where you were, and you wondered if it’s time to move on. You were feeling overwhelmed and asking why you were being put through everything. You wanted an answer. You called out to the heavens to find one, but you struggled to see how they were on your side. A test of faith. You either chose to crumble or stand tall in your conviction that the Divine is everywhere. If you went with the latter, you learned to trust yourself. You overcome your challenges.”
Misty pauses. “Does that sound like it applies to anything?”
It sounds like every fucking thing in Judy’s life up until now. “Yeah.” She clears her throat. “Go on.”
Misty touches the next card—an image of naked men, women, and children rising from the grave, arms outspread to an angel blowing a trumpet. “Judgment. You are called to rise up and realize you are destined for so much more. You are in the midst of making a life-changing decision, a crossroads where any choice you make will bring a significant change with long-lasting effects. You are about to reach a significant stage in your journey. You thought through everything that’s happened to you and learned from them. You see the full tapestry of your life story, and it has been healing. You are now able to put the past behind you. You found absolution.”
Judy furrows her brows. “Not sure how that one applies.”
“Maybe it already passed?” Misty moves onto the last one, a picture of a naked man and woman beneath a branch bearing a single apple. “Your future. The Upright Lovers. It represents open communication and raw honesty, opening your heart and sharing your truest feelings, clarity about your values and beliefs, and figuring out who you are and what you stand for. You’ll be ready to decide what’s important to you. At the heart of this card is choice: the choice to be who you want to be, how you connect with others, and what you will and won’t stand for.
“It also encourages you to unify dual forces in your life to create something whole, harmonious. And it can mean…” Misty looks up to meet Judy’s eyes. “...that you believe you have found your soul mate or life partner, that you have a beautiful, soul-bond connection with someone you love like...V?”
Judy’s ears burn along with the rest of her face. “Umm...right. We’re not quite there yet.”
Misty smiles. “That’s why this is your future card. Besides,” She leans forward, collecting the cards, “it might not even be about your love life. It could be about a companion, a friend. Someone you feel utterly connected to. Or it could be about you.”
Judy sits back, arms crossed, as she processes what Misty told her. “I think I’m even more confused than before.”
“I get that a lot. In the end, these are just cues that you’re already aware of. Our brains are always processing information, predicting what will happen next, and the cards are meant to draw your observations and intuition out of you.” She pauses, watching Judy. “What do you think they mean?’
“The past card makes a lot of fucking sense. Been there, done that. The present one, I don’t get. The future...” She glances away, her voice giving out on her. Fuck. “It’s what I’m hoping for. With V.”
Misty gazes at her, voice quiet. “I hope the same for you too.”
Judy nods and stands, pretending to brush off specks of dust on her pants while a flush spreads down from her cheeks into her chest and the rest of her body. “How much for the session?”
Misty shrugs, gathering up her cards. “V already paid for a bunch of future sessions. I’ll dock one from her account, and you can settle it between yourselves.”
“Thanks.” Judy rubs the back of her neck, feeling the full-body blush like a thick layer of heat. “Can I use your washroom for a second?”
She takes several minutes to make sure she’s not looking like she has a bright sunburn before she exits. V still hasn’t returned, and Misty stands at the till, sighing. Judy sidles up to the register, figuring she might as well kill more time and avoid any talk of their recent session. “So, any juicy bits I should know about V? Anything she’s hilariously afraid of?” A thought comes to her when she thinks about her call with her grandparents earlier. “What about V’s family? Have you ever met them?”
Misty studies her carefully. “She doesn’t have any. She came here with Jackie.”
Doesn’t have—oh.
Judy grabs onto whatever other topic is still there. She won’t die of awkwardness, but it doesn’t mean that she won’t want to. “So, how did those two meet?”
“Through a smuggling gig. He wanted to keep the cargo.” A wistful smile crosses Misty’s face before flickering away. Her eyes fix on Judy’s face. “V’s a nomad, part of the Bakker clan before they disappeared. Didn’t she tell you what happened to them?”
Judy’s never asked. Looking into the face of a close friend of hers who did, it makes her wonder why she hasn’t before. “She...doesn’t talk much about her past.”
“No. As I suspect you don’t either.” Misty puts the cards away into a tin box under the register. “And maybe it doesn’t matter to her.”
Judy doesn’t know much about the nomad life, but she hears clans are extremely tight. Hard enough to get one to accept you into their fold. Much harder to leave. “No parents then? Siblings? Grandparents?”
“No. V was always alone.” Misty straightens up. “I think this is something you should ask her personally.”
Judy nods, running a hand through her hair. “Yeah, just not sure how to bring it up.”
Misty shrugs. “Maybe you don’t. Maybe you wait until V does. Or maybe you do when you get the chance. Whatever you choose to do, you shouldn’t feel bad for her. She’s already made her own clan here.” She points to herself, somewhere in the direction of the clinic, and then to Judy. “And that seems like it’s enough for her.”
The back door slides in, and V and Vik walk in, arguing about something. Vik’s voice is strong, but there’s a desperate undercurrent to it. “—don’t have much time left. You should tell—”
“Not now, Vik,” V hisses. “I’ll call you tonight, all right?” She strides ahead of the crestfallen ripperdoctor to Misty and Judy. “You two have fun?”
“Yeah, Misty read my fortune.” Judy exchanges glances with the blonde woman. “It was good.”
V arches an eyebrow. “Glad to hear it.” She raises a hand when Vik steps forward to say something. “See you later. You too, Misty.”
“Bye, V. Come back sooner!”
V promises to do so and leads Judy out into the streets. “Sorry, that took longer than I thought.”
Judy glances over V, noting no new cybernetic upgrades that she can see. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, Vik just wanted to talk about the biochip some more.” She keeps moving forward, her tone casual. “Nothing to worry about.”
“V.”
V sighs, “Fuck, Judy. I just...okay, there’s a ton to worry about. I just need some time to wrap my head around it.” She glances down at her feet. “I didn’t want news of my impending death to ruin our morning.”
Judy would argue that it would wreck most mornings, regardless of whatever else had been planned, but she knows it’s not what V needs right now. She leans in, wrapping herself around one of V’s arms, and V relaxes, shoulders loosening. “What do you want to do?”
“Let’s just go on with our day, pretend for one morning that I don’t have this problem and enjoy what we have.” V meets her eyes. “Let’s talk about anything else but this chip for a few hours. I’m sick of hearing about it—from Vik, from Johnny, from whoever the fuck else knows about it on my contact list. Anything.”
Judy nods. She can do that. “So...Misty mentioned you were from the Bakker clan. Do you want to talk about that? Why you left?”
V exhales through her nose. “Yeah, that’s marginally better. Let’s grab coffee first. It’s a long story.”
“Sure this shop won’t be shot up too?” Judy teases.
“If the coffee is as bad as I remember, then, really, they’d be doing me a favour.”
They stop by a café and sit at one of the outdoor tables with cheap, plastic chairs that seem to barely support V’s weight. “So…” Judy leans in, watching V grimace at the taste of her drink. “What is it like being a nomad?”
V puts down her cup and pushes it away from her. “Most nomads have the same story. They lived for a time in one place before corpos took over their lands and chased them from their homes. Or you had a job for the corps before they fired and blacklisted you. With nowhere to go, they band together to help each other out, and in time, they form a common bond. They grow stronger together. They have each other’s backs. They’re like a family.” Her face twists painfully for a moment. “But mine thought a bigger clan would protect them. They traded safety for their independence, and within a year, they were gone. Absorbed and assimilated into Snake Nation.”
Something stirs in Judy’s chest. “What about your parents, relatives?”
V shakes her head. Her voice comes out hard. “Snake Nation does not like dissenters, people who oppose them, and they show it.” She clears her throat. “There’s no one left for me to go back to.”
Judy blinks before reaching out to grab V’s hand, who grasps at it tightly like a lifeline. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.” V shrugs. “We made a bad decision, and we paid for it. No one escapes the consequences of their choices.”
Silence lapses between them, and Judy wishes she could wipe away the look in V’s eyes, a look of misery like falling into an endless well. She squeezes her hand, her voice coming out gently. “What did you like most about being in the Bakkers?”
V gives her a puzzled look before seriously considering the question. She smiles. “I always wanted to be a Scout. They were the warriors of the clan, the protectors. They’re the ones who look ahead for any danger and fight off any threats. I even trained for it.”
“That sounds so cute that you were in the Scouts.”
“Not when you realize that the Scouts were the vanguards of an advancing fleet, so they had the fastest trigger hands, the quickest judgment, the biggest risk of dying first. You had to have balls as big as your guns to be one.” V chuckles. “Training always kicked my ass, but only the best become a Scout.”
Judy glances over V, seeing her in a new light. “That’s why you took on merc work when you came here. Same skills, right?”
V snorts. “Yeah. Not exactly like I could hand my resume into a corp and note that my top skills are shooting, robbing, and riding.”
Judy isn’t so sure about the last one.
V continues on. “No one leaves a clan lightly. Most who do are never welcomed back. That’s why I was urging Panam to reconsider, because she was so torn. Some decisions, once made, you can never take back.” She exhales. “She’s happier now. She managed to work things out with the leader of her clan. I’m glad for her.”
“Because that wasn’t the case for you, right?” Judy asks, and V gives her a sad smile.
“No, because my clan dissolved. It doesn’t exist anymore.” V glances over, reaching out to grasp Judy’s hand. “So, I get it—what it meant to you to show me Laguna Bend. I know what it’s like to lose your home to the greedy decisions of corps, and I know what it’s like to wander, feeling like you’ll never find one again. I know I’m not quite like the community you lost, but at least I hope I can be the start of one. You don’t have to be alone anymore. You have me, for now.”
And just when Judy figures she couldn’t fall even more.
She leans in and presses her lips against V’s, whispering against her mouth. “Mi querida. Mi amor.”
“Your what?” V looks dazed.
Judy deflects, smiling. “How can you spend so much time around your friend and not pick up Spanish?”
V shrugs. “It’s a talent. No, seriously. I didn’t catch it—“
“Another time. A lady’s gotta have some mystery.” Judy looks at V, a glorious warmth swelling in her chest whenever she looks at her—a feeling like she’s standing in the middle of a golden field as the sun rises and she knows she’s made it another day. Something fragile and exquisite, like a flower that only blooms once a year in the darkest of nights. She needs time to figure it out for herself, so she changes the topic. “If a nomad leaves the clan, does the clan leave the nomad?” She gestures all around them. “Are Misty and Vik part of your new one, or are they just friends?”
V furrows her brows. “No, they’re more than that. They were the people who took me in along with Jackie’s mom when I first came to Night City. They’re like...what I have of family at this point.”
Judy feels the swelling in her chest rise—hot and sweet and beautiful. “You introduced me to your family?”
V makes a face. “Sort of. Not like that though. I mean…there’s still more of them.” She rubs her nape. “I just didn’t mind you meeting them.”
Judy doesn’t know what expression she has on right now, but it seems to make V uncomfortable, shifting slightly under the table. “How was your reading?”
Judy shakes her head, punch-drunk for the second time that morning. “Good. Misty knows what she’s talking about.”
V gives her a puzzled look. “Was it something bad?”
“No, I—” Judy exhales, looking up into the sky. “—just need more time to process it.”
V looks at her skeptically. “But it isn’t something terrible, is it?”
Judy laughs. “Misty said you believed in no one deciding your fate but yourself.” She looks down and meets V’s gaze. “No, it wasn’t bad. The opposite, really. First card talked about losing faith in the world and shit, and I... gotta admit that’s not too far off. Second’s about getting to make a choice in line with my values and healing, which I dig. Third—” She glances away, feeling that full-body blush return with fury, especially in light of the emotions that still ripple through her now. “Uh...I just...want to keep it myself for a while.”
“Why?” V lays a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Are you sure it isn’t bad? Can I, like, shoot the fuck out of whatever it is?”
Judy smiles, a quick one. “Not sure you’d want to.” She glances back. “No, it’s fine, really. Just want to think it over some more.” And she looks at V, really looks at her. This beautiful woman with eyes like a sandstorm in the golden light of the sun, like the changing shades of a snapping fire. The rising fury of an avenging angel. The compassion and conviction of a dying saint. “Just don’t know how to put it into words yet.”
V raises an eyebrow. “Will you tell me what it is once you figure it out?”
“Cross my heart.” Judy leans in, pressing another kiss softly to a surprised V’s mouth. “Just wait a little longer,” she whispers hotly.
V nods, looking stunned once again. She gets up and starts walking in the direction of her motorcycle, movements jerky as if she forgot how to use her limbs. Judy follows.
After a few moments of silence, Judy glances over and nudges V with her elbow. “So...tarot card therapy? Misty said you paid for future sessions.”
“Oh, that.” V startles and looks away. “Misty’s shop was struggling, and she wanted to try a new idea to get more customers in. I figured I’d help her out.” She runs her hand through her hair. “It’s what Jackie would have done.”
A slow smile spreads across Judy’s face. She steps in, linking her arm through V’s. “You’re such a sweetheart for a merc, you know.”
V’s nose wrinkles. “Ugh, don’t say that. You’ll ruin my rep. It’s everything in this town.”
“Sweetie pie. Sweetheart. Sweet cakes,” Judy teases. “Mi calabacita.”
“The hell is that?”
They reach the bike, and V hops on, offering her helmet again to Judy who takes it. “Fine if we head back to my place this time? It’s closer.”
Judy wriggles in close, pulling the front of her hips flush against V’s firm backside, and a heat settles in her body, coiling low in her belly. It’s nowhere near the level of warmth in her heart, and Judy’s seized with a desire to connect with V—really connect. Like right now.
“Better make it fast.” Judy wraps her arm around V’s waist, feeling her heartbeat soar as if she’s just run a mile at top speed.
V sounds puzzled. “Why?”
Judy leans forward, lifting her helmet to run her tongue slowly along the back of V’s ear, who jolts. She nips at her earlobe when she finishes. “That’s why.”
V’s ear reddens. “Holy fuck!”
Judy smiles as V takes off as fast as she can. “Told you I would get you back.”