Modesty Blaise
Assist
Genre(s): Challenge, Tragedy
Rating: K+
Character(s): Modesty Blaise, Willie Garvin, OC
Pairing(s): Modesty/OC, Willie/OC
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: The loss of a friend reveals a secret. (Ficathon, prompt "death")
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Modesty sighed quietly as she put down the telephone, returning her attention to Willie. There was a sadness in her midnight-blue eyes that he only ever saw when someone they cared about had died.
"Who've we lost, Princess?" he asked gruffly, the lighthearted mood of their previous discussion gone without warning.
"Avera," she replied, slowly, shaking her head and leaning against the wall, her gaze shifting from his to look out of the window. "Hazards of life, I suppose." Her tone, though steady, was very soft.
He grimaced, sucking in a deep breath. He and Avera had been very close, once upon a time not long after he'd met Modesty, and though he was always mentally prepared to lose any of their employees, somehow he'd never thought it would be her.
"How?" he asked, though he didn't really think he wanted to know. She breathed deeply for a second, preparing her answer for him. It came in a torrent of words and a voice he barely recognised.
"A damned accident, if you can believe that!" She steadied herself carefully, sliding down the wall to sit on the tile floor in the posture she usually adopted for meditation. "She was on her way to do the job, hadn't even come close to the dangerous part of it. Her brakes failed on the road out of San Marino."
Willie stared at her. He'd never known Modesty to react like this, and he'd never expected it from her. He blurted out the sentences before his brain could censor them, unused to not being on the same wavelength as her.
"Blimey, Princess! Never thought you and she were that close." He regretted saying the words the moment he saw the expression they brought to her face. Her eyes had lost their softness and grown empty, darkened to black. "Damn, I'm sorry," he added, repressing the shiver. "Didn't realise."
Modesty stared into space. "I suppose not," she spoke, and her voice was oddly toneless. "Avera and I were together, though only on one occasion." It was the first time she'd mentioned the fact to him, and she didn't look over at him as he took in what she'd said. "I don't suppose that shocks you, Willie?"
A slight grin, as melancholy as her eyes had been, passed over his face. "Not so much, Princess. Funny she never mentioned it, though. I'd 'ave figured Avera would 'ave been all over that coincidence."
She turned to look at him again, and the emptiness had left her gaze, replaced with a warmer feeling. "She was, but I didn't know she'd been with you until afterward." A smile crept to her lips, still laced with regret.
"It's a damn' shame," he said, and Modesty knew what he meant.
"That it is," she agreed, getting to her feet. "Let's go and fix that job, shall we?"
Letting life wash over them both, the pair left the room together.
~fin