paradisa | (no subject)

You're enough evidence. And you admitted it to me.

[She runs her hands through her hair and just sits on her heels where she had been standing.]

I've trusted you with everything. Did you know that?

Dolcezza, what does he expect to do? What do you expect to do? Arrest me?

[He stands up to approach her, kneeling down to her level. He reaches to push a hand on her shoulder.]

I know, yes. But you know that is my work, too.

He probably expects me to throw you into the cells until you go home. You're my responsibility until he feels I fucked this up.

[Punching him is still very enticing. She brushes his hand away and stands to walk off to the other side of the room.]

I've kept your work related secrets. I've gone out of my way to. I've had fights with people over you.

[He follows, though he keeps a little space between them for her sake.]

He has no authority over you, nor over me. You know that... and if you've kept so many secrets, you can keep one more.

[A large part of her agrees with that. Murder is wrong, but maybe this was unavoidable. She wants to believe it was. What did Tim expect her to do? Justice was shaky here, even more shaky than in Gotham. If she didn't do something, Tim...

He'd want to take Batgirl away.

And maybe she would let him, because perhaps she didn't need to be Batgirl after four years in Paradisa. Four years of struggle and different viewpoints and so much unresolved crime. How much did Batgirl do, and how much did Stephanie Brown do? She did her best to help people here, but she didn't need the Bat or Batman's resources to do it.

But any step away from Gotham was a step away from Tim. Then again, he knew what this was doing to her. He was setting her up for this decision. It was all part of the game that he and Bruce liked to play with her. It made her blood boil.

On the other hand, she didn't owe Ezio shit anymore.]

So I get to scrounge up a last moment lie for my boyfriend. And hope my body language reading best friend doesn't tattle on me. For you.

[No warmth in that.]

Cassandra will side with you. She has known since it happened.

For fuck's sake.

[Filter is off.]

Well, this is all pretty funny now, isn't it?

[Ezio raises a hand in some "now wait a minute" gesture.]

Stephanie, nothing need change. You need not be upset, either.

It's a little too late for both of those things. I have always, always been able to defend you because I could trust you. I thought that if you ever did kill someone, you'd tell me before making a really, really stupid journal entry. Let alone sit on it for half a year. Half a year--

[She feels like such a moron.]

[Ezio feels himself losing a bit of patience.]

Tim has no evidence. He has no ability to prove my guilt, either, unless Micheletto returned and confessed –– even then, who noticed his departure from this plane?

And how was I to tell you, when you would react like this?

[It doesn't matter to Tim. He'll hound Ezio forever now. But saying that would translate into HEY EZIO GUESS YOU GOTTA BEAT TIM UP OR SOMETHING.]

I wouldn't have reacted like this back then. Sure, I'd be pissed, but--you would have had me on your side.

[Now... ugh. Thinkthinkthink, Steph. The butthurt will still be there after you talk to Tim, but what will you tell him?]

You said it was in self defense. He attacked you?

Yes, he did. That is where I got that stabbing wound I had on the expedition.

[He's moving right back to the first point, though:]

You are not on my side?

You tell me.

[She sighs and rubs at her face.]

He attacked you, possibly because Cesare gave him a verbal order before he left. You know how to put guys down without killing them, but he was going for the kill. You got hurt. The only way you were getting out alive was to kill him. So you did, and you hid the body, and you never told me because you were afraid of my reaction. I'll say you didn't think I'd believe your story, too.

[Even the courts take self defense into consideration.]

That's what I'll tell Tim. I don't know if he'll buy it, but that is the last thing I'm doing for you.

[She gets back a crappy, shaky, awkward relationship with Lucrezia, and loses the trust she had in this one. It's not a fair trade.]

What you describe is, more or less, what happened. You know there is no quarter for Borgia accomplices. But I do not consider anything changed between us, Stephanie. I am an Assassin, and you have known that since the beginning. It would stand to reason that I would work again.

[Women aside, of course. Lucrezia is free by that much.

"The last think I'm doing for you." Ezio reaches for her again, slowly, to give her ample space to move away.]

You're missing the point. I don't care if you're working again, I care that you didn't tell me what happened.

[She stands her ground, but she'll smack that hand away. No touching, no hugs. Right now she's mad and she doesn't want him to think he can just coddle her and that will make it go away.]

Would it have changed much? I don't know, but I do know you wouldn't have Tim on your heels right now. [She wouldn't be in this position. She wouldn't have to lie.] You made me into a huge moron and that is a really crap thing to do to a friend.

[He probably got a kick out of the Bats not figuring it out sooner.]

How are you an idiot for not knowing what you could not have even guessed? Perhaps I should have told you then, but having told you then would not have prepared you for now. You would lose his trust if you kept my secret all this time and only admitted to having known when Tim noticed me. It is better for you to say "he lied to me" than to admit you lied to Tim.

[He feels somewhat aggravated suddenly.]

I cannot stand that smug bastard, and yet I did what was best for your relationship with him. Does that count for nothing?

Oh, please. Don't try to turn this into you trying to protect my relationship.

[She shakes her head. Real nice, Ezio.]

If I had known all along, this wouldn't be happening right now.

[A scowl.]

No? What would be happening?

Nothing.

Because?

Because I wouldn't let him know about what you did. [Keeping shit from her = no. Keeping shit from Tim = sometimes necessary.] I wouldn't suddenly have this huge issue on my hands.

Why is it an issue at all? If you could hide it from him then, you can hide it now.

It's an issue because he's got you pegged for the murderer, and is watching to see how I deal with you. If I have it in me. And I'm hiding it by bending in your favor.

[Making Ezio the victim in all of this might not work with Tim even if it is mostly true. Steph's sure Ezio didn't try to walk away from a fight.]

So that is foul, for him to use me to test you.

Sure is. Hey, maybe the both of you can finally be buddies and talk about how fun it is to be foul to the people around you.