Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 17

"Ava, hurry up and put some clothes on! They are going to call any minute." Beatrice grumbled, throwing a shirt and jeans at the Halo bearer who was lying half buried under the pillows of their bed.

A groan answered her, the younger woman unburied herself enough to shoot Beatrice a glare.

"Why the hell are they calling so eaaaaaarly." She whined.
"It's not even 5am…"

"They are phone conferencing with delegates from other OCS groups around the world immediately afterwards. Camilla said it was something to do with time zones." Beatrice sighed.

"Ugh fine." The Halo bearer sat up; Beatrice automatically averted her gaze from the half-naked woman.

"Oh Bea, its nothing you haven't seen before!" Ava chuckled at her shyness.
"In fact, weren't you the one who took my shirt off last night...?"

Lord, give me strength.

"You're incorrigible." Beatrice muttered, leaving the room to make them both a coffee.


~

"Explain to me again why you need to teleport in and not just astral project? Wouldn't the latter be safer?" Mother Superior questioned.

"Well, I can still be hurt by divinium in my astral body, and I don't have access to the Halo powers. At least teleporting I can use all my usual powers and the Halo has my back." Ava replied patiently.

Beatrice fidgeted, they had been going back and forth over this proposal for the last hour via the zoom call. She had already said her piece on the riskiness of this plan, but Mother Superior appeared to be considering it anyway.

I hate this.

Ava must've sensed her discomfort, a hand found her own under the table, interlacing their fingers, thumb stroking soothingly across her palm.

The Halo bearer had really been trying to be sensitive to Beatrice's concerns and, for the lack of a better word, groveling to atone for the hurtful words she had spoken that fateful night. The sister warrior had told her there was no need for it, but Ava continued going out of her way to make it up to Beatrice. Not that the taller woman could complain, there were some perks to this new arrangement, like Ava cleaning and waiting on her hand and foot as well as waking up with Halo bearer’s head between her legs…

"How is the teleporting training going? Are we close to making an attempt, Beatrice?"

The sister warrior snapped out of her thoughts, trying to stifle the redness rushing to her cheeks, she cleared her throat to buy some time. Ava glanced at her curiously.

"Um, we have about an eighty percent success rate at the moment when teleporting between markers, but we haven't tried anything with distance or distraction yet." Beatrice answered, carefully ignoring the Halo bearer’s gaze.

"Thank you, one moment please." Mother Superior moved off camera to talk to someone in the room with her, the words between them were indistinguishable.

"What were you thinking about, just then?" Ava mumbled to Beatrice, keeping her eyes on the laptop screen.

"Nothing."

"Really? You blushed pretty hard…" The Halo bearer’s hand untangled itself from Beatrice’s and crept across her inner thigh, setting her nerves on fire.

"Ava…" The sister warrior growled half-heartedly, peeking over at the younger woman to see her grinning back cheekily.

"Bea…" Ava mimicked, fingers getting awfully close to the apex of her thighs.

"I'll be sending Lilith every few days to accelerate training…" Mother Superior started, causing both women to jump in surprise and quickly look back to the screen, though Beatrice could feel Ava’s hand still burning into her skin through the denim of her jeans.
"Don't give me that face Ava, she is the most qualified to teach you. In the meantime, we are reaching out to other OCS convents to see if they have any further information on the Brotherhood."
Mother Superior directed the last sentence at her, "Beatrice, I know you don't agree with this plan, but I want progress reports daily."

"Yes. Mother." Beatrice nodded tersely, signing off from the zoom call and slamming the laptop closed.

Ava flinched a little at the violence of the movement before snaking a careful arm around the sister warrior, squeezing gently when Beatrice didn’t pull away.

Leaning towards the taller woman, the Halo bearer pressed her lips against the edge of her jaw, "There's still a chance we might find another way…" She whispered.

God, I hope so.

~Ava~

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"What the hell were you thinking, Ava?"

What the hell was I thinking?! Lilith told me to do it!

"And if Lilith told you to jump off a bridge, would you? Oh wait, I suppose you would considering our current situation."

Would you shut up? I'm trying to concentrate!

The icy waters below were getting uncomfortably close now. Ava couldn't believe she had thought it was a good idea to try Lilith's method of training. The former sister warrior had instructed Ava to fly up as high as she could over the lake and then disappear her wings. The goal was to test the Halo bearer's control and see if she could teleport accurately under pressure, in this case before she ended up falling into the frigid lake.

Come on Ava focus…

Shutting her eyes, she felt the swell nausea inducing breathlessness and in the blink of an eye she teleported.

Fuck yes!

Ava mentally high five herself as she opened her eyes. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't quite managed to teleport all the way to the rock in the center of the lake where Bea and Lilith were waiting for her, plunging with a yelp into the freezing water.

~

Ava was still shivering from the unpleasant experience earlier today. She sat on their old couch cocooned in a thick fleece blanket trying to absorb some heat from the roaring fire to banish the chill from her bones. Bea had made Lilith leave as soon as they reached the apartment, she was thoroughly agitated by the winged woman's disregard for Ava’s safety.

The Halo bearer smirked a little to herself as she remembered Lilith’s face when Bea scolded her like a disobedient child.

"Here you go, darling." Ava looked up to see the taller woman offering her a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

“Oh my God, I love you, you’re incredible.” The Halo bearer gushed before she took a tiny sip of the scalding sweet liquid, instantly feeling a little bit better.

Bea smiled at her relieved face, “Let me into the blanket burrito please, body heat is the best thing to warm you up.”

Ava paused mid sip to shoot Bea a suggestive look, waggling her eyebrows.

“Not right now Ava, you shouldn't exert yourself after a hard training session.” The sister warrior sighed, seeing the younger woman’s expression.

“You’re no fun.” Ava pouted, lifting the side of the blanket up to let Bea slide in next to her.

The Halo bearer nestled in close to the taller woman, humming contentedly when she felt an arm slide around her.

“Well excuse me for having my girlfriend’s best interests at heart…”

Ava nearly spat her current mouthful of hot chocolate out. She couldn’t have heard right; Bea had never ever referred to her as that before and Ava would never push the sister warrior to label them. She accepted and understood the other woman's reluctance after years of homophobia directed towards her when she was a child.

“Girlfriend?!” The Halo bearer managed to choke out.

Bea gave her a slightly insecure smile, “That okay?” She murmured tentatively.

Ava launched herself forward kissing the sister warrior senseless.

When they broke apart for air, the sister warrior gave a breathless chuckle, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

~Beatrice~

"Beeeeeeeeaaaaaa…"
"Cooooooome heeeeerrrreeee." A needy voice summoned her from the bedroom.

Beatrice exhaled, irritated, she was sitting at the kitchen table trying to finish the shift roster for the bar, "Ava, I'm in the middle of something."

"But Beeeeaaaaa…" The sister warrior could hear the pout in her tone.

"Ugh, fine."

Beatrice got up and stomped over to the bedroom muttering under her breath.

"This better be important...Well?" She bit out when she reached the doorway.

Ava was lying on top of the bed, phone in hand and an open book discarded beside her.

The Halo bearer offered her a sheepish grin, "Did you know as of tomorrow it's been 6 months?"

Beatrice frowned, "6 months?"

"Since we closed the portals…we have to celebrate!" Ava sat up suddenly, the sister was sure that if the younger woman had a tail, it would be wagging right now.

"I don't know Ava; we are supposed to be focusing on the mission right now."

"Please, please, please Bea? You don't have to do anything…I'll organize it and everything!

Hiding a smile, Beatrice sighed, she couldn't take this away from the younger woman.

"Oh, go on then."