loyalty | s. scola

- FOUR

"Hey, Ava."

"Isabella?"

Her sister stood there, on hand hovering where it had been covering the peephole. She stares back at her, her round face smoothed out. Sporting the usual arrogant smirk, Isabella let out an amused laugh at the look on her. Ava let her in and shut the door behind her. She clicked the safety back on as she followed the girl into her kitchen.

In the light, Ava took a good look at her younger sister. Ava stood a few inches taller than the last time she saw her, but she's sure that it was the heels on her boots giving her the extra height. Isa looked normal at first glance, but the longer that Ava looked at her, she caught the stiff set to her posture. She looked... on edge. Ava slammed the palm of her hand onto her light switch, flooding the room with more light, and finally caught sight of Isa's face. Her right eye was black and blue under her makeup, the bruising too dark for her concealer to cover properly. Isa dropped her bag onto the floor, her bruised and busted knuckles on display.

"Paranoid much?" Isa asks, nodding to her gun.

Ava huffed, "It's not like I expected anyone to show up here."

"I texted you." She says, watching as Ava put her gun into its holster. "You texted me?"

"Yep." Isa hums, opening her fridge. Ava checks her phone, and scrolls up to look at her missed notifications. Isa's text was there, right under Deacons. It's a simple, 'I'm stopping by tonight.'

Ava ran her hand through her hair, "I've been busy. I didn't get the time to check it."

Isa pulled one of the beers out of her fridge, hopping up and sitting on the counter like she used to as a kid. Ava leaned against her island, watching her. "Nice shiner," she says, "You wanna tell me how you got it?"

"So you can go all FBI on them? No." Isa snorts. "Besides, it's a few days old."

"Did you get into a fight?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of?" Ava echoed. "Isa, what happened?"

"I didn't drive all the way up to New York just to be interrogated, you know."Ava shut her eyes, bringing a hand up to dig into her eyes. She hasn't seen Isa in three years and the very last thing that she wants to do is fight with her. She's got a quick temper, one which only heightened after their dad was arrested. "Isa."

Isa didn't say anything, watching Ava as she sipped her beer. She sits haunched over, but it doesn't do anything to make Ava stop looking at her like she just screwed up. It's a look she mastered those first few years after their dad had gotten arrested, and it's something that makes Isa feel two inches tall. She came to New York because she had business, and because she wanted to see her sister. As she toys with the label on the bottle in her hands, Ava waits for her to speak. She looks all of sixteen years old again.

"I got into a bar fight."Ava nods.

"Did you win?"

"No." Isa looks down at where Deeks is making his way into the kitchen. She doesn't need to say that she never went looking for a fight that she could win. "I spent the night in holding down in CPD."

"Last I checked, you had a mean right cross." Ava made her way back into the living room, grabbing the beer left forgotten on the table and her mail. "So, why did you let them rough you up?"

"Have you heard from Dad, lately?"

Ava pauses, hand freezing when it is above the counter. Isa never asks about their dad, it's the one topic that they both avoid like a plague, despite it being the reason that they are the way they are. Isa wouldn't be who she is, hopping from city to city on a private eye salary, and Ava herself wouldn't have ever joined the FBI had it not been for their dad. She glances down at the letter from Newark Federal.