Chapter Text
Of course you were all gonna read and scream about the one tagged 'murder'. YOU WENT IN WILLINGLY hehehehe
LadyKiller - I hope you like kefir and butter, that's all that is in my fridge. There was cheese, but I ate it all!
-ARCANE-
She didn't hear much from Vi after she walked out of their bedroom. Then again, Vi was black and blue and visibly exhausted. Probably hiding her wounds and in too much pain to move unless she absolutely had to. They'd gotten through the morning, but Caitlyn already had no fucking idea how they were going to deal with the afternoon, when everyone was home and they either had to keep making excuses for Vi's absence, or come up with new ones for her injuries.
As she sat on the floor of the home gym Caitlyn idly dragged her thumb over the back of Vi's phone. There were still splatters of blood on it when she found it, emptying Vi's clothing pockets out of habit whilst also debating whether or not she was going to wash them or burn them or hand them over as evidence. She only wiped the phone off so the tacky liquid wouldn't be able to fry the phone.
How had things come apart so quickly? They'd fallen in to such an easy, comfortable routine. And out of the blue, Vi had disappeared and come back a bloody mess with a body on her conscience.
And Caitlyn still didn't even really know what happened. Vi had somehow given her just enough to destroy the life they were building together, without giving Caitlyn much to go on to make her own decisions. Was it cold blooded intent, or heat of the moment fear, or self defence? Or some terrible mix of them all?
Aware she was probably making a mistake, Caitlyn wrapped a couple of black bin bags around Vi's bloody clothes, then took them out and threw them in her trunk. No risk of anyone happening on them accidentally while she was out, at least. Then she checked she hadn't left anything else laying around, scribbled a note to Vi saying gone out on the fridge, on the off chance Vi made it downstairs again. After she was confident nothing incriminating was immediately obvious lest one of the kids made it home before she did, Caitlyn sat in her car and unlocked Vi's phone.
She'd known the pass code for ages. Vi always insisted she had nothing to hide from Caitlyn.
Until last night, that was probably true.
Caitlyn scrolled through her contacts, which were comically limited compared to how she imagined Vi's work phone had looked before. Twenty contacts, four of them being her grown up kids and Caitlyn (who lived in her house anyway) and a fifth was Isha's school. The rest were mostly gym related, by the looks of the contact names. Caitlyn was only interested in one name. She hit call, waiting through the ringing sounds with bated breath.
"Vi?"
"No. Caitlyn. I need to talk to you."
"Why me?"
"Because only three people know what happened last night. One isn't talking, and the other barely knows me."
"Vi made it pretty clear I'm not welcome there."
"So tell me where to meet you."
Had she lost her mind? Possibly. Caitlyn had no reason to trust that she was in no danger, but she punched the address in to her SatNav and drove. She kept one eye on the time - Vi was in no fit state to pick Isha up from school that day.
"Half-expected you to bring Vi and a weapon."
Sevika said as she answered her door, checking behind her when she saw Caitlyn stood there alone. Her bruises were even darker by then, near-black on her already darker skin.
"I told you. I need to talk. Not fight."
She rolled her eyes, but took a step back and Caitlyn stepped through the door. Caitlyn spared the interior a brief glance, but she wasn't there to admire or disparage Sevika's decorating skills.
"We're alone. I'm not much of a people person."
"Oh. I was just looking around."
That was reassuring. If she trusted Sevika's word... though if Caitlyn didn't trust her word at all, she had no reason to even be there to begin with.
"Right. So... what do you want?"
"The truth. Vi... she's honest, but she never really filled in the blanks."
"What did she tell you?"
Caitlyn closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. She wasn't telling Sevika anything she didn't know - Vi had gone to meet her to begin with.
"She killed this... Silco person. Who I believe is - or was, I suppose - Powder's biological father."
"That's it?"
"And that you were working for him when you first sought Vi out. Purely for my own morbid curiosity, is that why you slept with her?"
Sevika snorted.
"No. Before you, fucking didn't mean shit to Vi besides a paycheck."
Caitlyn shrugged.
"I'm not jealous. Or insecure. Vi was entirely open about it happening. I just wondered since that happened quite early on in your... professional relationship. That's not what I came for. Is it true? Is this Silco dead?"
"As a doornail. Is that all she told you?"
"More or less. She was more intent on telling me she had no expectations I would cover it up for her."
Sevika rolled her eyes as she rubbed at the side of her neck. Caitlyn recognised the tell of tension, aware that spot was where the strap for her prosthetic weighed down on her the most when she wore it.
"She didn't turn up with that plan. Hell, I don't think she had any plan when she turned up besides being pissed at me."
Caitlyn sat, her posture straight and rigid enough to make her mother proud as she waited for Sevika to light her cigarette.
"I'd open a window, but we don't really want anyone listening in."
"It's your home. What happened?"
"Honestly, Vi might not remember too much. Took a nasty knock, had us worried we'd have to take her in. That Loris was about to drive her there as a mugging victim when she came to. I can't tell you it wasn't her."
"I didn't expect you to."
Sevika raised an eyebrow, blew out a smoke ring and stared at Caitlyn so intently it felt like she was being physically touched by it.
"Alright, what do you want?"
"Ideally, for this to have never happened. In absence of that fantastical idea, I need to know how... intentional it all was. Did she have a choice?"
"Sure. A choice between her life and his. As soon as Silco realised she was never going to let him near Powder while there was breath in her body, his men were on her. I mean, I know she's a great fighter, but those guys were bigger than fucking Loris and she took both of them on, and beat the shit out of Silco."
Caitlyn hummed. Sevika had kept coming back for training long after she was already welcomed in to the family as a close friend.
"So it was self defence?"
"Mostly."
"Mostly?"
"She definitely wanted to beat the shit out of him as a warning. Then it was over. He was over. He was threatening you guys and Vi was terrified because you weren't even in the picture when he got locked up, so he'd done his homework. Vi was fighting for her life and her family."
Caitlyn's fingers flexed against her knee, itching for something to do with her hands as she tried to process it all. Sevika crushed the final embers of her cigarette in an ashtray.
"He's definitely gone?"
"Oh yeah. Gone gone."
She drummed her fingers as she chose her words.
"And how do you feel about that?"
"Eh. People come and go in our line of work. I know enough to go fill his place, but not sure I'll bother."
"I'd say you are awfully confident to imply that to a lawyer, but I suppose you do have something on me."
Sevika frowned, then shook her head.
"Not how it works. I know Vi is never gonna give a shit, but I'm taking last night to my grave. Only telling you cus I know that dumb bitch is painting it like she left your place with a shovel and a well-thought out plan."
Caitlyn considered her words.
"I believe you."
"Sure you do."
"I do. Perhaps for the same reason Vi felt so betrayed last night. You came to Isha's birthday. You didn't need to, you had all the access you needed months before. I remember Vi telling me she let you take Powder out by yourself back when I hardly knew them. You were in. But you came and indulged our daughter's every little whim because you cared. Maybe that was never part of your plan. But I do know that it's impossible not to love that family."
Sevika rolled her eyes.
"Whatever."
She refused to look at Caitlyn. Which made her suspect that Sevika was trying to avoid the awareness she may never be allowed within a country mile of any of them, not when Vi felt so betrayed by her.
"Why did he want her lured away?"
"Pow was pretty messed up after Vander died. Silco... he could have worked on that. Fed the worst parts of her. He knew how to tell you exactly what you needed to hear while also feeding you what he wanted you to hear. You saw her in a bad episode, right?" Caitlyn nodded "Imagine that without Vi dragging her back out of that hole over and over. When I first met them, Vi had to dip out of our sessions to go deal with Powder a few times cus she was screaming bloody murder or hurting herself."
"And you decided to hang around and prey on that?"
Sevika was a hard woman to read. Her features were rarely bright - she smirked and sneered and scowled, but smiles were scarce and largely she kept her face passive and neutral. But if Caitlyn had to guess, she looked uncomfortable.
"That was the job. But even someone as thick headed as Vi has to know I didn't have to give her the heads up last night. I could have just brought Silco to your place. Let me tell you, there woulda been a lot more bodies that way."
That was why Vi told her to lock the house up before she left. She had no idea what she was running in to, only that she needed it to not be in their home, and that she had to go and save Powder from this... man.
"Are his people going to come looking for revenge?"
"Not likely. I'll keep an ear out though. A lot of the game in this town goes through Benzo anyway, and he'd die for Vander's kids. He'll definitely let 'em know if anyone knows it was Vi."
Caitlyn nodded. She had her answers... more or less.
"For what it's worth, Vi saved a lot more lives than just her family last night. Silco had a revenge hit list for anyone who helped him get put away."
"That doesn't justify murder."
"C'mon, you're a lawyer. Murder requires intent. Though I guess it's up to you what you think was in Vi's head and her heart last night. Give me the heads up if you do decide to turn her in."
"So you can hide?"
Sevika rolled her eyes.
"I ain't afraid to do time again. If Vi goes down, I gotta make sure that doesn't put a target on her kids."
"Alright. Well... thank you."
That just earned her a shrug as she stood up. Sevika waved her off dismissively, so Caitlyn went ahead and let herself out. She checked the time, but it was still early enough that it was worth going home first instead of straight to Isha's school...
Caitlyn had hoped for clarity when she went to Sevika for answers. She wasn't really sure if she got it.
-ARCANE-
Scuse me I have to go drink kefir and wait for you guys to probably yell at me. (Again)