the shape of things to come
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG-13
Challenge:
Flavor of the Day #231 - elide (to suppress; omit; ignore; pass over)
Honeydew #30 - tiebreaker
Extras / Toppings: pocky chain, peaches (Heads up! Tonight's Moon offers startling insights about someone)
Word Count: 400
Story: Misfits
Summary: Stella prepares to interrupt Joseph and Dennis’ final face-off after being forbidden to join.
Notes: I was going to write the whole scene about Dennis and Joseph facing off and being interrupted so to say for this prompt, but then some evil part of me said, “nah, do a pocky chain from the tiebreaker’s point of view without getting into the shootout to leave it ambiguous.”
Stella isn’t really allowed to be at the scene because she is married to the traitor and pregnant to boot. We don’t send pregnant ladies to shoot-outs.
From her position, crouched down behind boxes and lumber that had been stored in this warehouse, she could see the two men she had known for so many years now. They were part of her life and she couldn’t possibly imagine a life without either of them anymore.
Yes, she had fought with Dennis for many years but over the past few days she had realized how important he was to her.
After all of this was over, she would apologize to him for everything, but most of all, for going behind his back today, for not having stayed back.
***
The men were fighting, yelling at each other but she was too focused on both of them to hear their words. They were both armed and she knew that sooner or later it would come to a shootout, that one would kill the other and that was the reason she was here.
She wanted to be the one to deliver the killing blow.
She had sworn that she would stay back and not get involved but Dennis must have known that she was lying. How could she possibly stay away when this was her husband they were talking about stopping?
***
He had tried to convince her to join him the last time she had seen him, appealed to their love for each other, their child that she was carrying. She hadn’t been sure how to answer, if she should turn his offer down or take his hand.
Now she knew the answer. It had been right there all the time. This was about more than her job, more than simply going after someone who had betrayed the agency. This was about the man she loved. This was the biggest choice she was ever going to make in her life.
***
And it wasn’t a choice at all because when she thought about it, there was only one way to go about this, only one right choice and nobody would be able to talk her out of this.
She slowly stepped out into the open, her gun trained on her husband’s head. Her hands were shaking and she had to suppress the tears but she knew that it was what she had to do. The men thought that they would settle the issue amongst themselves but they hadn’t expected her. They didn’t even notice her.
She had the element of surprise.