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Rembrandt never ran so fast in her life as she did when she got that phone call. Which was saying something, because her main job was to run. Run, climb, get out of fights and dangerous situations because no one had ever expected her to do anything else. She was little and Ajax had taught her how to fight as best she could with what she was given, but that wasn’t much. That was why Ajax always had her back. That was why Ajax always went with her but she didn’t always go with Ajax.
And then she got that phone call.
Now she was beating world records to get to Cleon’s apartment. She burst through the door to see the carnage: Mercy sat on the couch, covered in blood, holding a towel over a gash on her head and protesting in pain as Cowgirl prodded at her elbow. She saw Rembrandt before Cowgirl did, calling her name and standing to run to her only to collapse back onto the couch with a yelp.
“Girl, stop doing that!” Cowgirl snapped. “Your ankle is more fucked up than your arm, stop trying to stand on it!”
“What the fuck happened?!” Rembrandt demanded.
“Cleon sent me and Ajax to handle a dispute up near the Gravesend border,” Mercy explained, her words a little slurred. “A couple idiots got in a fight and wrecked a bar and one side kept making threats. The other guys showed up and we got caught in the middle. Rembrandt, I swear, we tried to get out of there but-”
“Where is she?”
“In the spare bedroom,” Cowgirl said quietly. “Cochise is with her.”
“Where are Cleon and Swan?”
“On their way. Fair warning, Cochise had to get Ajax pretty damn drunk to get her to calm down.”
Shoving down the lump of terror in her throat, Rembrandt stepped into the spare bedroom. Ajax laid on her back on the bed with Cochise on the edge beside her, holding her hand and speaking quietly as she wiped blood off Ajax’s face with a damp rag. Ajax gave only the occasional weak nod in reply. Her breathing was shallow and labored, face ashen, her lips almost white from blood loss. Her face was busted up with one eye almost swollen shut. Rembrandt could see thick gauze bandages covering her torso, most of them stained a pale red.
Ajax caught Rembrandt’s eye over Cochise’s shoulder. She flashed a bloody, exhausted smile. “Hi, baby,” she croaked.
Rembrandt flew to her side, taking her hand as tears welled in her eyes. “Oh my god, Ajax…”
“I’m okay. Just a little banged up. Right, Co?”
The last time Ajax called Cochise that ancient nickname was when she got stabbed and they had to bring her to a real hospital because Cochise was afraid the knife hit her lung.
Cochise sighed and squeezed Rembrandt’s shoulder. “Major blood loss,” she whispered so Ajax couldn’t hear, “definitely concussed, wrist might be broken. I can fix it and she’ll be fine, but it’s pretty bad. Cleon’s on her way.”
Rembrandt nodded, fighting back tears. “Ajax, did they jump you guys or something? Mercy just said you got caught in a fight.”
“They decided business wasn’t settled,” Ajax slurred. “Got a little mad at me when I tried to break it up.”
“How many of them were there?”
“I don’t know.”
Outside, they heard the door slam. There was a flurry of indistinct conversation, Cleon’s voice, and then Rembrandt heard Swan roar, “Where is she?!”
“Ah, shit.” Rembrandt stood, only for Ajax to grab her wrist in a death grip she really shouldn’t have had the strength to accomplish in that moment, but Ajax was always stronger than she seemed when it came to protecting Rembrandt.
“Rembrandt, no,” Ajax begged. “I’ll handle it.”
“You’re not handling shit right now.” Rembrandt gently pried her arm from Ajax’s grip and laid Ajax’s hand on her chest. She looked at Cochise with steely eyes and gritted teeth. “Stay with her and don’t let her get up. Please.”
“Whatever you think you’re about to do,” Cochise said gravely, “ don’t .”
Too late.
Rembrandt stepped into the living room. Swan stood over Mercy, her face a twisted mask of fear and rage as Mercy held her hand in an attempt to calm her down. Cleon had a hand on her shoulder, gripping her vest to keep her still. She spotted Rembrandt across the room and roughly shrugged Cleon off.
“Let me talk to her,” Swan growled as Rembrandt stepped up to meet her.
“Absolutely not,” Rembrandt shot back. “Go calm down.”
“She should’ve taken Mercy and let those bastards figure it out themselves! Not try to break it up!”
“Hypocrite.”
“What?!”
“Everybody take a breath,” Cleon interjected. “Swan, Rembrandt’s right, you need to calm down.”
“Swan, please ,” Mercy begged. “Ajax got me out of there!”
“Not soon enough!”
Swan tried to dart past Rembrandt. Rembrandt shoved her square in the chest. Hard.
Everyone froze. Swan stared at her, eyes wide, jaw slack, as Rembrandt squared her shoulders and clenched her fists.
“Rembrandt, move,” she demanded. Rembrandt shoved her again. “Rem-” And again. “What the fuck!”
“Back off,” Rembrandt growled.
“Swan, stand down,” said Cleon. “You need to cool it before you do something you regret. That’s an order .”
“Oh, she’s not listening to orders now, are you, Swan?” Rembrandt said cruelly. “You’re not mad another Warrior got hurt, you’re mad your girlfriend got hurt. If you wanna go after mine for that, you’re gonna have to go through me first. Back. Off. ”
No one knew what to do. When Ajax and Swan got into fights, or really any of the other Warriors, Cleon had always made it clear that Rembrandt was not to be involved. If she got in the way, it ended. If she pulled one participant off the other, it ended. Not that Rembrandt got in the way often. But this was different. Rembrandt was the one starting the fight, staring Swan down in a direct challenge that would’ve already come to blows if it were anybody else.
Was this something that could get Rembrandt into serious trouble with Cleon? Of course. But Ajax always protected her and now Ajax, for the first time, needed her to return the favor. Rembrandt was going down swinging on this one.
Swan turned to Cleon for support. “Cleon-”
Rembrandt tackled her.
She got two solid hits in before Swan elbowed her in the stomach and tossed her on her ass. She was on her feet in a split second, before Swan could even get up on her knees, launching herself at the war chief with a roar that did not sound like her in the slightest. Swan stiff-armed her in the face. Suddenly there was blood in her mouth and tears in her eyes as someone hooked her under the arms to drag her back. Cleon was helping Swan to her feet, her lip split and pouring blood onto her shirt.
The grip on her was tight but Rembrandt was nothing if not slippery. She twisted her arm to get out of the restraint and went right after Swan again, ripping her from Cleon’s grip and getting her to the floor. Swan put her arms over her face because Rembrandt admittedly could not hit that hard but fuck was she going to try.
Swan managed to shout, “Rembrandt, fucking quit it!” before jabbing her hard in the solar plexus. Rembrandt stumbled back, the wind knocked out of her, stars sparking in her vision. She elbowed Swan in the teeth with a sharp crack one last time before someone had the sense to put her in a headlock.
Swan was up, her arms pinned behind her back by Cleon while Mercy desperately tried to calm her down. Rembrandt spat a mouthful of blood in the war chief’s face.
“ Hey! ”
Everyone turned to see Ajax standing at the edge of the room, held upright by Cochise. Her one good hand was clenched into a fist by her side. She glowered at everyone, Rembrandt included, which hurt worse than the busted nose and bruised chest.
“Who started it?” she snarled.
“I did,” Rembrandt admitted.
Ajax took a long breath. “I have to lay down for five minutes and you try to get yourself jumped out!” she said in exasperation. “C’mon, Rem. You give me shit for that all the time.”
“You taught her to fight better than I thought,” Cleon said as she released Swan, who just stared at Ajax.
“Running doesn’t always work.”
In the sudden calm after the fight, the gravity of what she’d done fully settled over Rembrandt. Cleon had every right to hand down severe disciplinary action in response to going after her number two like that. Mercy could demand retaliation if she wanted, or, more likely, Swan could, and Ajax was in no shape to fight but Rembrandt was certain she would if it came to that.
The fight drained from Rembrandt as she glared at the floor. Cowgirl removed her arm from around Rembrandt’s throat but kept it barred across her shoulders in case she tried to start up again. Not that she would.
Cleon looked at her expectantly. “Rembrandt? You got something to say?”
“I’m sorry, Swan,” the tagger mumbled. “I shouldn’t have jumped on you like that.”
Swan shook her head. “I shouldn’t have tried to start a fight.” She turned to Ajax. “You look like shit.”
“Yeah,” Ajax chuckled. “Feel like it.”
“Rembrandt,” said Cleon quietly, “I want a word with you.”
Cowgirl released her and handed her a paper towel for her still bleeding nose before she followed Cleon into her bedroom. Cleon jerked her head towards the bed, and Rembrandt sat, unable to look Cleon in the eye as she stood over her and crossed her arms.
“I expected something like this from Ajax. Hell, I even expect it from Swan sometimes. But you? What made you think that was a good idea! If you tried that with literally anyone else, you would’ve gotten your ass kicked. You kinda did. ”
“I know,” Rembrandt grumbled. “I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough. I want a real answer from you. Why would you go after one of our best fighters? You can’t do shit like that, Rembrandt!”
“Because she was gonna fight Ajax! And if she tried, Ajax would’ve fought back and gotten hurt worse than she already is! You know she wouldn’t have backed down.”
“And that led you to this conclusion how? ”
Rembrandt gritted her teeth. Her eyes stung and she wanted to cry but she knew she couldn’t. Not after what she just did. “Ajax always tries to keep me out of fights. Ajax always protects me and this time I needed to protect her. I didn’t care if Swan kicked my ass. I wasn’t going to let her get to Ajax.” Clenching her jaw, she lifted her head and looked Cleon in the eye. “You guys act like I’ve never been hit before,” she said coldly, and Cleon flinched. “I know what it feels like, remember? I’m just not scared of it anymore.”
“I remember,” Cleon said quietly. She sat beside Rembrandt. “You’re training new recruits for a month.”
“I figured.”
“And Swan is going to give you more fighting lessons. Not Ajax. I did not see you block a single hit and you need to learn how to do that.”
“Swan’s not gonna teach me to fight now. I tried to break her nose.”
“That’s her punishment for trying to start shit, which I will admit she was trying to do. I want to make sure you know I wasn’t going to let her fight Ajax. Not right now.”
“I know you weren’t. Sorry I got carried away. I really don’t know why I thought that was a good idea.”
“Same reason your girlfriend thinks it’s a good idea. But maybe next time, try your way of de-escalating situations before you try Ajax’s.”
“I will.”
“Good.” Cleon helped Rembrandt up and patted her back. “Go be with your girl.”
“Thanks, Cleon.”
Outside, Swan sat beside Mercy on the couch, holding a bag of frozen peas over her mouth. Rembrandt cringed internally; she’d hit Swan harder than she thought. Swan nodded silently to her. She nodded back before going to the spare room to find Ajax. Cochise had wrangled her back to bed but let her sit upright. Cochise stood when Rembrandt walked in, gave her a quick hug as she passed, and left the couple alone.
Ajax immediately grabbed Rembrandt’s hand and held tight. Her injured wrist was tied up in a splint. Planting a gentle kiss to her forehead, Rembrandt pressed a hand over her chest, and Ajax let her gently lay her back. She picked up an ice pack sitting on the bed and held it against Ajax’s black eye. Ajax smirked.
“Proud of you,” she whispered.
“Don’t compliment me on that,” Rembrandt chided. “It was stupid. I did the same shit that I get on you for.”
“But you did it well. I didn’t think you could take on Swan like that. Sorry to say.”
“She went easy on me.”
“Still.” Putting an arm around Rembrandt’s waist, she pulled her into bed with her. Rembrandt smiled and closed her eyes as she curled up against Ajax’s chest. “For real, though, please do not start a fight if I’m not there to back you up.”
Rembrandt chuckled. “I won’t. Not again.” She kissed Ajax’s cheek and propped herself up on her elbows above her. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty shitty, I won’t lie. But I’ll live. I did try to get us out of that fight, you know. Shit just went down too fast.”
“I know. Mercy said.”
“Is she okay?”
“I think so. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go check on her and Swan right now, though. She might try to hit me back for that.”
“Yeah, Cleon’s gonna make the four of us talk this shit out eventually. Just not tonight, please.” Ajax reached up to brush her thumb across Rembrandt’s cheek. “She really clocked you.”
“Just stiff-armed me. She never actually hit me.”
“I figured she wouldn’t. She’s smarter than that.” She pulled Rembrandt into a slow, feather-light kiss. “Thank you for protecting me.”
“Always.”
“But don’t do that shit again.”
“No promises.”