Work Text:
Pip had done it. She had beat the odds. Max Hastings may not be imprisoned for what he did but at least he was gone. She may not be a good person but she had put a bad person away. No more blood on her hands and no more gunshots in her alarms. It’s over, she thought to herself almost giddy with it. It was all worth it, the lying, the hiding, even missing holidays with her family. She wondered if Josh was really as tall as he looked in the photos her mom sent that she didn’t reply to, or if Cara and her girlfriend were still together. Winning was supposed to feel right but there was something missing. Ravi, her cornerstone, how long had it been since they’d last seen each other. 694 days, her brain supplied unhelpfully. Pip’s phone lit up as if it had heard her. She had a whole wall of texts, from her mother, from Cara and Naomi, from Becca who had been released on house arrest for good behavior, but most importantly from Ravi. It sat there, four words, the answer to all of her worries. Worries that Ravi would forget her, that he would move on, that he would grow to resent her, swept away with the relief from a single text. Hey Sarge, remember me?
Later on in the year her family would work up the courage to ask why she ghosted all of them, this time she would be able to answer. Later she would still have nightmares of tape and chemicals and running out of time. Instead of dealing with these alone or with pills she promised to stop taking, she would pick up the phone and call Ravi, the only one who would understand. For now though, she just left the idea of going home sink into her skin and pushed out the loneliness she had embraced out of necessity. Wiping her hands against her leggings as if to truly push the last of the blood off, Pip picked up her phone to answer her family and really start her new beginning. The phone rang once before Ravi’s voice answered.
“Pippus Maximus? Hello? Pip?”
For a horrifying second it was as if pip’s vocal cords had closed up at the sound his voice. As soon as she found it though it was as if a flood gate had opened.
“Oh god Ravi? Can you hear me? I am so sorry, It was all my fault. I’m so sorry.”
She was crying now and could hear it in her own voice. Over the phone she could hear Ravi trying to calm her down. He never could stand when she was upset. Over the sound of her crying she heard him.
“It’s okay! It’s okay because team Pip and Ravi are back, we’re okay.”
Ravi and his endless positivity seeped into her brain. For once she wanted to be hopeful, and she finally could be.