Behind closed doors

Exhauted

(Cliff-hanger, PTSD, Trauma, Post-Season 1)

His words weren't even making it through to Carmen anymore.

Shadowsan's 'lecture' only succeeded in landing on deaf ears... and burying the Argentinian further into an endless black hole.

Of guilt.

The thief was exhausted, she had been throughout the mission... It was why their caper had gone sideways so quickly.

Tonight, VILE had been planning to steal a famous painting from a famous tourist landmark in Paris, the louvre museum.

They had been planning this for a week now, both parties had.

During the week of the Caper, Team red had been casing the museum and occasionally running into VILE operatives as usual.

They looked for every security camera, window, door, entry, and exit.

Everything had gone smoothly...

Until the night of the heist.

What was supposed to be an easy mission became incredibly difficult when ACME showed up on the scene, causing team red to alter their plan almost entirely.

The night prior to the caper, Carmen had woken up from one of her famous 'Shock Therapy' nightmares. As a result, she was incredibly unsuccessful in getting back to sleep.

Therefore, she was incredibly unsuccessful at playing decoy out front of the museum.

The battle between Carmen and the VILE operatives known as Tigress and Le Chèvre would usually be an easy one.

She was doing a good job at throwing punches, as well as blocking the ones she received.

However, the fight began to wear her out faster than expected.

All it took for the Argentinian to cry out in pain and pure exhaustion, was for Tigress to upset an old wound on impact. This had caused Carmen to double over in pain, and clutch the side of her stomach.

Allowing the VILE operatives to get past and help El Topo steal the priceless artefact.

After screwing up, Carmen had additionally been too close to getting captured by ACME agents, the young women was only just saved by Shadowsan, who had heard her cries of pain over his comm.

As a result, the Japanese man had to abandon the painting and flee the scene while carrying Carmen to their getaway vehicle.

In the end, the samurai had to fix the young women's stitches in a moving van, with no anaesthetic.

During the painful ride to the hotel, Player had managed to get one of the earliest flights back to San Diego, which happened to be in a matter of hours.

As soon as Carmen was patched up and had packed away all of her luggage, Suhara seized the opportunity to have a 'chat' with her.

That leads us to the present, where Carmen was unable to walk away from the drawn-out berate between her and her father-figure.

Occasionally, she was able to pick up a word or two that he would say, such as, 'ruined, lost, or priceless'.

Thanks to tonight's events, she was able to connect the dots.

As Shadowsan droned on, despite her hazy vision, Carmen could see the hand gestures he made, the expression he wore, and his lack of eye contact. As if he too, were lost in thought.

Soon, keeping her eyes open and regaining her balance became impossible for the Argentinian. Her scrambled and disoriented thoughts only served to further confuse her.