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Kate heaved her bags onto the scuffed hardwood floor, the thud swallowed by the cavernous silence of the foyer. The house smelled of lemon polish and gun oil—Jacqui’s doing, no doubt. Upstairs, the sharp click-click of heels pacing the office floor betrayed her mood before the shouting even began. Kate dragged a hand over her face, fingertips catching on the dried blood at her temple. God, this was going to be bad.
"Have ye lost every last shred of sense in that thick skull of yours?!"
The roar was pure Glasgow, rough as gravel and twice as loud. Kate tilted her head up. Jacqui loomed at the top of the staircase, backlit by the harsh office light, her coppery curls a live wire of fury. The tendons in her neck stood out like bowstrings.
"You went on live feed—global bleedin’ feed—taunting him while ye turned a…..what even was it? A monster?? You know what I don’t care as you let it loose on some bastard!" Her accent thickened with rage, the way it always did when she was seconds from throwing something. Kate exhaled through her nose.
"I had a plan."
"A plan?" Jacqui took the stairs two at a time, her black blazer flaring like crow’s wings. "Letting lose a blood thirty monster is a plan. This? This was a suicide note with special effects!" She halted a breath away, close enough for Kate to see the flecks of gold in her green eyes—and the tremor in her clenched jaw. "They’ll burn you for this." Kate didn’t flinch.
"He deserved worse."
A beat. Jacqui's laugh was ice. "Christ. You're not sorry at all."
The words hung between them like a guillotine blade. Then Jacqui moved - sudden as a striking viper - her hand shooting out to grip Kate's jaw. Her fingers dug into stubbled skin, forcing Kate to face the hallway mirror where their fractured reflections wavered.
"Look!" Jacqui hissed through clenched teeth. The mirror showed it all - Kate's split lip, the wild-animal dilation of her pupils, the smear of someone else's blood along her cheekbone. "That's not justice in your eyes. That's bloodlust." Her grip tightened. "And you broadcast it to the whole fucking world like some... some..."
"You weren't there! You didn't see what he did to Ruby! Insulting my father!" Her voice broke. She smashed her fist into the wall, plaster cracking. "I'd do it again!"
"Then you're as broken as he was." Jacqui's words landed like a knife between ribs. The moment they left her mouth, her face twisted in regret.
Kate recoiled as if physically struck. All the fight drained out of her suddenly, shoulders slumping. She slid down the wall until she was sitting in the broken plaster dust. "I know I fucked up," she whispered, voice raw. "Not for threatening him. But... the way I did it. Letting you see that side of me."
Jacqui knelt in front of her, fury giving way to something more complicated. She grabbed Kate's shaking hands - one bleeding from the wall punch, the other still stained with her target's blood. "I've seen every part of you, you daft woman. The good and the bad and the ugly. But this?" Her thumbs rubbed circles on Kate's knuckles. "You were supposed to be better than him."
A sob tore from Kate's throat. She collapsed forward, forehead pressing against Jacqui's shoulder. "I lost control," she choked out. "And now I've burned everything down." Jacqui held her tight, fingers tangling in Kate's hair. Outside, the perimeter alarms continued their shrill warning. "Aye, you did," she murmured against Kate's temple. "But we'll rebuild. Like always."
The moment shattered as the front door exploded inward. Jacqui shoved Kate behind her, drawing her pistol in one fluid motion as black-clad figures poured through the smoke.
Kate wiped her face with her sleeve, fingers already reaching for her own weapon. The time for breakdowns was over. "I'll make this right," she promised, clicking off the safety. Jacqui's answering smile was all teeth. "Oh, we're far past right, love. Now we go for survival."