Chapter Text
She really should've known better than to take the train. At least, they hadn’t had to jump off this one while it was moving, but running through the busy station after their would-be killers had been knocked out had been an absolute bitch.
And now, to top it all off…
“Oh, fuck off, Judith, not again!”
“Yes, again! It’s still the closest, safest place I know. Now, c’mon!”
Hindsight being what it was, Debbie knew she’d made it through their last cloak and dagger escapades relatively injury free. Especially considering the sharpened knitting needle that currently stuck out of her thigh. Even with Judith practically carrying her from their “borrowed” car to the waiting lift and her Assassin McMansion, every step felt like agony.
“Jesus Christ, how did you do this for nearly three decades?!” she gasped in the elevator, leaning heavily into her taller/stronger friend.
Judith only tightened her grip, “Years of training, remember? But even then, it fucking sucked.”
Thankfully, the doors finally opened and she was led to the open concept bedroom and carefully placed on the pristine bed, which she protested until her friend rolled her eyes.
“Debbie, believe me, I’ve bled here way more than you. Now, sit tight, I’ll be right back.”
She waited impatiently, eyeing where she knew that secret room to be which she hadn’t gotten around to telling Judith she knew about. So, sue her, she’d earned some secrets after, well, everything else that’d happened recently in her life. The fact that her best friend had clearly lied to the organization she’d pledged her life to about their friendship at the time had felt like enough of a revelation.
“Alright, let’s get this out,” Judith announced upon reentry, minus the black wig and holding a sizable first aid kit.
“Do I wanna know how many times you’ve patched yourself up?”
She’d tried for brevity, but clearly it fell flat as her friend’s expression became somber.
“Another story for another time?”
She took the out, “Okay, fine, let’s get this over with.”
With an ease that really told her all she needed to know, Judith injected a shot of what she assumed to be morphine into her arm and after a few minutes of waiting cut her jeans away from the wound and carefully pulled out the needle. She felt the pressure and slide of it but no pain, and watched in a daze as her best friend inspected, disinfected, then bandaged the wound.
“So, what’s the prognosis, Doc? Think I’ll live?” she asked cheekily, earning a smirk as Judith took her hand.
“Yes, but I wouldn’t go around sharing that a grannie got the jump on you.”
“Hey, that grannie would’ve got you if I hadn’t stepped in!”
The grip of the hand in hers tightened, almost too tight, and she squeezed back.
“I’m okay, Judith. I’m okay because you got us out of there.”
Silently, her friend released her to clean up the used supplies, then returned to slide on to the other side of the bed. She rolled on instinct, happy that her injured side wasn’t pressed into the mattress, and found Judith’s hand again fast. Only when her brown eyes met green did she see the tears, and she covered their hands with her second.
“Honey, it’s okay, I’m still here,” she tried to comfort, but her friend shook her head.
“That bitch knew where to aim. A couple more centimeters one direction and you’d have bled out and I’d…I’d be lost. I’d have pillaged, burned and salted the earth in your name, no matter if you’d have abhorred it. I would’ve ensured every future assassin knew of you as a cautionary tale, to know their targets lest they become one themselves.”
Not for the first time, Debbie realized the power she carried. That by unknowingly befriending one of the world’s top assassins she’d in turn gained the ability to determine the fates of so many. The day she made Judith promise she wouldn’t kill another person her friend had stuck to that promise, and if she decided to withdraw it then she knew Judith would act accordingly with zero hesitation. It was a heady kind of feeling, the power to choose life or death, and one she had zero want to wield, but there she sat.
“Well, tough titties, I’m not going anywhere.”
Judith blinked, shocked, then laughed. And she laughed too. They both laughed until there was nothing left to say, but still she held on to her friend’s hand.
“And so long as I’m here, anybody that messes with you is gonna wish they were dead because that would be a kindness. Deal?”
She tried not to cry as she saw Judith’s own tears well up again, but between the adrenaline let down and the pain killers a few drops made it through as she closed her eyes. Damn, she really was tired too…
“Deal,” she heard Judith answer, “Now, rest.”
She opened her mouth to protest, they had to keep moving until this latest assassin shit show was cleared up, but fuck her eyes really weren’t cooperating.
“Ah, ah, none of that. Sleep, and I’ll take the first watch.”
“You say that like you’ll actually wake me up, and we both know you won’t.”
She heard Judith chuckle, and felt a kiss pressed to the crown of her head as she finally fell to sleep.
“You’ve always been a quick study, Deb.”