ONE-SHOTS

Freeze-Frame, Pause, Rewind, Stop [Lou x Debbie]

Freeze-Frame, Pause, Rewind, Stop
by hope_s

Summary:
"You frame him, I walk..."
Lou doesn't regret what she said on the beach, but she's surprised at the anxiety in Debbie's eyes as she tries to convince Lou to stay. She listens as Debbie painstakingly explains her entire plan. Debbie is uncertain, and - more surprisingly - Debbie is scared.
There's much that goes unsaid between them, much that Lou herself isn't quite ready to say. But Debbie asks to be reminded of what she would miss if she got thrown back in the slammer, and though she can't quite find the words to tell her yet, Lou *can* show her...

Lou listened.

Lou listened, and she watched – watched the tension ripple in Debbie's shoulders as she finally, painstakingly told Lou the entire plan. Her own words echoed in her head: You frame him, I walk. She didn't regret her outburst. She wasn't sure the words had been true, but the sentiment was real. The anger that had ebbed slightly when Debbie agreed to tell her the whole story was still there, deep in her bones. It kept her sitting stiffly in her chair, resting her chin on her entwined fingers and watching Debbie. Debbie fidgeted, and Lou sat still as a statue. It was an utter reversal of their usual behavior, and that fact calmed Lou, made her believe they could maybe, maybe fix this.

"Claude isn't the priority," Debbie said, "I promise."

Lou raised her eyebrows. "What is it about him?" she asked quietly, sternly. It was the first question she had asked in minutes, and she could tell it made Debbie pause.

"What do you mean?" Debbie asked, eyes narrowed and concerned.

"Why can't you just...I don't know...let him go? Why can't being free – and being free of him – be enough, Debbie?"

Debbie grimaced. Her lips formed a thin line. "I don't know." If it hadn't been for the tension in Debbie's jaw that betrayed her honesty, the words would have stirred Lou's anger. As it was, the evident truth of Debbie's statement made Lou pause. There was something about Claude that Debbie wasn't telling her, that much was obvious, but perhaps that something was incomprehensible, even to Debbie herself.

"What do you know, Debs?" Lou asked finally.

Debbie's brow knitted once as though she was remembering something unpleasant. "I know he hurt me," Debbie said in a voice barely above a whisper. "It's not...not clear to me how...I..."

"You really don't know..." Lou marveled. Perhaps that was why Debbie had been so determined to track her down after their argument on the beach. Debbie was uncharacteristically uncertain. Lou had to admit she was impressed that Debbie had followed her all the way here to the club. It wasn't a short walk from the loft, and the weather was less than perfect. "You really don't know," Lou repeated musingly, almost to herself.

Debbie managed half of a self-deprecating smile. "I really don't. All I know is..." She sucked in her breath and let it out slowly. "...someone is going to jail for this job. It can't be one of us, not even Daphne Kluger. He makes sense. He deserves it. I'm sure of that, even if I haven't really processed what...what happened."

Lou gave Debbie a small nod, and the tiny motion seemed to help Debbie to relax just a little. Debbie's admission that she hadn't – and perhaps couldn't – process the past (not yet, anyway) surprised Lou more than anything Debbie had said thus far. While they were both aware that Debbie wasn't particularly emotionally aware of herself, it took a lot for her to admit when she couldn't sort something out. "Must have been bad," Lou noted.

"It wasn't good," Debbie said with the hint of a smirk.

Lou rolled her eyes. They sat in silence for a minute. The tension between them still crackled, but it was no longer close to a breaking point.