Secrets and Sins

Chapter 14

~Beatrice~

"Is it working?" Ava's voice wrenched Beatrice out of her meditative state.

"If you have to ask, then no, probably not." Beatrice sighed.

They were sitting side by side on the mat of the private training room Mother Superior had organized for them. Everywhere Ava went, stares and whispers followed her. The Halo bearer took it all silently with no complaints, but Beatrice knew she was extremely uncomfortable with the attention. At least here and in her room, she had relief from that.

It had been just over a day since Ava had blown a hole in the wall of the medical wing, they had spent much of that day training in meditation.
Ava, with all the patience and energy of a golden retriever puppy, was finding the training difficult to say the least. Beatrice knew that today was particularly challenging for the Halo bearer, they had been granted the opportunity to visit Sister Camilla later in the afternoon. This meant they would have to walk past the same wall that Ava had blown up.

The younger woman was getting more and more jittery with nerves the closer they got to the visit.

"Why is meditating sooooo haaaaaard." Ava groaned, flopping dramatically onto her back with the slightest of winces.

"Be careful Ava, you don't want your scar to start bleeding and have to be cleaned again."

"Worked out pretty well last time." Ava winked at her.

"Well, the sooner you can control the halo the sooner we can get back to that." Beatrice smirked seeing Ava's pout.

"Tease."

~Ava~

Anxiety swirled through her body making her feel sick. Ava tried to push it down, she wanted to see Camilla so badly. Bea was walking slightly ahead of her down one of the main hallways of the convent. Ava could feel the eyes of everyone they passed lingering on her, she kept her head down, guilt and shame eating at her.

When they reached the doors to the medical wing, Ava stopped. She really didn’t want to go in there, the memory of being trapped and losing control replaying over and over in her head. Ava’s heart began to pound in her chest and her whole body began to tremble as she struggled with the urge to run. Swiftly, familiar fingers entwined with her own breaking her out of her trance. She turned to Bea who was looking at her with sympathy.

"It'll be okay Ava. Just stay close to me."

Amazed that Bea had picked up on the start of her panic attack, Ava squeezed her hand and nodded.

Looking around quickly to make sure they were alone; she pressed a lightning-fast kiss to the corner of the sister warrior's mouth.

"I fucking love you."

Bea gave her a gentle smile and led her through the doors, surprising Ava by keeping hold of her hand even in front of the nurses going about their business ahead of them.

“I love you too.”

The rubble from the wall had been cleared from the corridor but the hole was still there, glaringly out of place. Ava shuddered, an image of the people she had blasted lying lifelessly on the floor flashing through her mind. Bea pulled the Halo bearer close to her, so their shoulders were pressed together, stroking her thumb over Ava’s knuckles. Once they were past the wall, Ava released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

Camilla’s room was near the end of the hallway, a large colorful flower had been stuck to the wood of the door under her name. The hand drawn picture made Ava smile. To say that the nun was happy to see them was an understatement, beaming as they walked in, but once she saw the pair were holding hands, she literally squealed in excitement pointing at their linked hands.

“Oh my God, Oh my God! You have to tell me everything! When, how, everything!  Give me the whole run down. I've been soooooo bored.”

“Geez Cam take a breath, you're gonna pass out.” Ava said, leaning down to give her friend a hug before taking a seat cross legged on the bed.

Bea followed suit, hugging her old friend tightly and sat down in the chair next to the bed.

“How are you feeling?” Bea asked, she was a little flushed from Camilla making a fuss over them holding hands but was keeping it together well.

“Bored as hell, I had a headache for like half a day but I’m fine now. Doctor keeping me in here for a couple more days just in case.” Camilla replied, rolling her eyes.

“Anyway, tell me about all this.” She continued, gesturing between them.

Ava cleared her throat, unsure if Bea wanted to come out about ‘them’ to Camilla. The Halo bearer was more than happy for the other woman to call the shots when it came to these steps in their relationship. Ava would never want to make Bea uncomfortable and completely understood her apprehension after the few stories she had heard about the sister warrior’s childhood.

Before Ava could subtly tell Camilla to leave it, Bea surprised her by speaking first.

“We…we haven’t put a label on it.” Bea spoke tentatively, fiddling with her hands in her lap.

“But we love each other, so I suppose we are a 'thing' now?”

Bea glanced at Ava quickly. The Halo bearer felt her heart clench at Bea’s unsure expression.

I’ll show her how much I want this.

Ava stood, she really hoped that Bea wouldn’t mind what she was about to do. The Halo bearer closed the distance between them and leaned down to kiss her softly ignoring Camilla’s squeak in the background.

“We can be whatever you want us to be. I just want to be near you.” Ava whispered, pulling back to look her love in the eye.

Bea looked shocked, but her face softened at Ava’s words. She reached out to squeeze her hand in thanks. The Halo bearer retreated back to her spot on the bed. Camilla had her hands covering her mouth and was looking between them with almost comical joy.

“Wait till I tell Yasmine I got to see that, puts her whole first kiss witnessing to shame.”

~Beatrice~

Mother Superior, Vincent and Yasmine were waiting for them in Ava’s room when they returned. Beatrice dropped Ava’s hand feeling guilty that she couldn’t face that level of intimacy with so many people around her yet. Ava gave her an understanding smile, reassuring her there were no hard feelings.

“Please take a seat, we have some new information.” Mother Superior requested; expression serious.

Beatrice sat down on the bed next to Yasmine, hiding her smile when Ava dragged a chair over so that she could sit directly beside her. The Halo bearer was like a magnet, always looking for closeness to her. It had been hard initially to get used to after years of being closed off, but Beatrice now loved how much the other woman gravitated towards her. And, if she was being honest with herself, Beatrice loved how Ava tended to do it more with her than anyone else, even from the very beginning.

"As you know, we initially thought the group of FBC's in the mall started the fire. However, the samples we have gathered from the burn area aren't adding up." Vincent started, rubbing a hand across his face, the circles under his eyes telling Beatrice just how much research the man had been doing over the past few days.

"So, they didn't start it. Why were they there then?" Ava's expression a mixture of concern and confusion.

"It appears that they were attracted there by something burning in the fire. I don't think they would have even attacked anyone if you hadn't shown up." Mother Superior replied.

"Do we know what was in the fire to attract them?" Beatrice asked.

"Yasmine?" Mother Superior said, deferring to the other nun.

"Right, yes." Yasmine muttered, fumbling slightly with her tablet, before handing it to Beatrice.

The sister warrior tried not to react when Ava leaned over to look at the screen, placing a very warm hand on her thigh.

"As you can see whatever was burning had very high traces of divinium and an unknown metal alloy. The closest metal match I could find was…"
"...the Halo." Beatrice finished.