THE DEAL

12 A new handler

Wednesday morning at the bureau and Lisa was late. The events from a month ago when Jennie was almost killed by a hired hitwoman still hadn't quite left Lisa's bones. The shell shock of it had worn off but there was a deep upset within the con-woman that she couldn't quite shake. 

The moment the hitwoman's gun had pointed at Jennie, Lisa's head was absolutely panicking. Maybe from the outside nobody had noticed but on the inside the tough girl had been a mess. She wouldn't even have faltered, had the hitwoman pulled the trigger on Jennie. Lisa would have shot her in a heartbeat. And that wasn't like her at all.

She hated violence and she hated guns. She thought every crook who wasn't smart enough to manage their dealings without a gun, wasn't a person she liked to associate with. Those kind of crooks weren't her cup of tea at all. And while she knew that technically she herself was considered a crook in the eyes of the FBI, there were huge impactful differences between her and those people. Lisa rather relied on her clever mind and her charming smile to get what she wanted than on the threat of a gun.

The hug that she and Jennie had shared in her bedroom seconds after the attack, had left the conwoman flustered and confused as well. They had admitted to being friends, but that hug hadn't felt like friends hugging. It had felt like Lisa being deadly glad that Jennie was alive and the thought of possibly loosing her, terrified her. And Jennie had sunken into Lisa's arms like Lisa had never thought the tough agent would. She hadn't ever seen this side of Jennie before. Vulnerable and glad that there was somebody protecting her for once. Somebody she could lean on.

Lisa knew that Jennie could easily hold her own. But that situation was fucking scary and the agent didn't have to deal on her own this time. Lisa was there. Lisa vowed she would be there in the future too. Lisa was Jennie's friend after all. Right?

She repressed the memory of how she had cradled Jennie's head in her palm and how strong the urge had been to place a kiss on top of her hair. Also, there were Jisoo's comments about her hitting on Jennie. She hadn't been hitting on Jennie, had she? Lisa thought, she most definitely knew if she did. Her silly flirting wasn't really serious. She tended to do that with pretty women and not have it meaning anything more. 

Her subconscience told her though that she was definitely attracted to Jennie. How could she not be? Jennie Kim was a gorgeous woman who knew who she was and what she was doing in life. She had powered her way up in a male dominated job, just like Lisa if you called con-artist a profession. But so had Jisoo, Lisa thought. And she wasn't even one little tiny bit attracted to Jisoo. So what was it about Jennie?

The back of her mind also told Lisa that Jennie was her boss. The one who put her in prison and the one who got her out. She had power over Lisa. So going down a more-than-friends-kinda-way was absolutely no option. No matter the attraction.

Anyway those thoughts were fucking stupid! Lisa decided while she downed the rest of her coffee, stepping into the elevator up to the bureau floors. She was already half an hour late this morning. 

Maybe it was just physical attraction and giving in to that would be even worse if it played out bad. So why bother with these thoughts anyway? The elevator ride up was as smooth as ever and when it dinged on the right floor, Lisa was greeted with two annoyed faces. 

Jennie and Jisoo.

Their heads snapped towards Lisa's opening elevator door. It looked like they had been in a heated discussion. Not with each other but probably about somebody else. At least that's what their body languages told Lisa from first glance. 

They were standing together quite closely with their heads facing the same way but at the same time they were leaning into each other as if the had been whispering not a minute ago.