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“To look for my damn car.” The words were out before she could even consider the ridiculousness of their nature. Honestly, she’d just needed to get away from Ryan before she went from stopping a ramble with a kiss to either confessing far more than she wanted to put on her friend or dragging the Bat inside.
All in all, though, it wasn’t a bad idea to see if the car was locatable, and it would give space and time for each of them to come to terms with the change of their relationship that had just taken place. Once she had gotten fully out of sight of Ryan, Sophie dropped to a much slower stride and found a large tree to lean back against and think.
“Woman what are you doing?” she asked herself softly. The feelings for Ryan had grown over the last few months and while she knew them to be real, they were all kinds of tangled up in different situations that had just made this all a mess. It didn’t help that she’d made the very real mistake of calling Kate the love of her life to Sophie’s face, albeit when the younger woman was wearing the Batsuit.
She knew that wasn’t true. She’d been with Kate in secret when they were young. Tyler of course was a whole different mess, and now that she was single, she’d definitely been mingling like crazy, but she had yet to have an actual open, honest, adult relationship with a woman. And now there was Ryan.
Ryan, who was younger but infinitely more experienced when it came to women.
Ryan, who she’d spent years thinking was a drug pusher and criminal, rather than someone who backed the wrong partner.
Ryan, who until the recent drama with Renee had finally started to be comfortable around her.
Ryan, who not only played along with the fake girlfriend story she started, but ended up making it even better.
Ryan, who she just could not get out of her head. She shook it once more, before once again starting off to look for the missing vehicle. If she couldn’t find it, it’d be a long walk back to the city. Hopefully it hadn’t been too destroyed to be drivable. She’d figure out what to tell her mechanic later.
***
Hours later, with the young boy in the custody of his mother and Luke staying behind to talk to the rangers about what happened, the former Crow found herself driving her once pristine car shakily back to her apartment. Ryan had fallen asleep in the car with few words spoken, humming softly when Sophie suggested they go straight back to her place so that they could sleep as soon as possible.
As she parked in her space and looked at the sleeping woman beside her, Sophie pondered her next move. Given everything they all had been through, waking Ryan could potentially be traumatic and she very much didn’t wish to alarm her friend. Maybe she could carry Ryan upstairs? She definitely had the strength, but after last night, she didn’t have the energy really, however much cred that might have gotten her.
However, murmurs that had only emerged occasionally throughout the ride suddenly got louder when the engine was cut. “No… Mary no, please. I’m sorry… please don’t hurt them! Leave her alone… SOPHIE!” Ryan sat bolt upright as she shouted, waking herself out of a dream that was fading quickly but left her to look around frantically with ragged breaths.
“Hey, hey, I’m right here,” Sophie soothed, dropping all thoughts of romance and cuteness in favor of getting her friend safe and okay. “It was a dream. I’m safe. Luke is safe. And I promise, once we get reorganized, we’re going to get Mary and probably even Alice back safe.” Hands reached out and clasped across the front seats, neither being sure who grabbed who, and it definitely not mattering. “Come on, let’s get upstairs and get some sleep. I’m sure I’ve got something you can sleep in after a shower.”
Ryan it seemed had recovered a bit of her cool, answering, “What are you saying I smell? It’s almost like I was blown up in the woods.” She sobered immediately. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have joked about that, especially after…” she trailed off, remembering her rant and the way it ended. Waving her hands slightly, she pivoted. “Right, okay. Bag, shower, bed. How bad is your couch because I’m not sleeping on whatever bed Alice was using?”
“Bad enough that you’re not sleeping on it. We’re grown, Ryan. We’re going to shower and change and you can share my bed and we can talk tomorrow.” There. Definitive, declarative, non-suggestive. Sophie hoped that she had for once managed to convey to Ryan what she meant without it having any negative or confusing connotations.
A soft smile was her answer. “Sure, Soph. Thank you.”
“What are friends for?” They both got out of the car, trying not to laugh as they struggled with the doors and shutting it up as tightly as possible. Several of the windows were broken, so there was a chance it’d be gone when they came back downstairs, but Sophie was beyond caring at this point. Making their way into the lobby of the building, they stumbled into the elevator. The ride up was accomplished in silence, with the shorter woman actually leaning long enough on Sophie that she almost fell asleep standing up.
The ding at the arrival on the correct floor was enough to startle Ryan back into wakefulness long enough to make it inside and to set down her bag with the Batsuit in it. As she followed Sophie to the bathroom, vaguely listening to where various products were and how the pressure was good, but the hot water took forever and be careful because part of the tub was notorious for being slippery, she realized how much this felt like coming home.
Sophie, for her part, was now the one rambling as she showed Ryan around the bathroom, realizing that now that they were here in her home and Ryan was about to be naked in her shower, she was nervous. “I’ll find you something to wear but I promise it won’t be something of Kate’s or… or anyone else’s. Not that there have been that many others, but you know-”
This time it was Ryan who pushed in for a soft, barely-there kiss. “Hey. It’s okay. I get it. And as much as I would love to talk about this, I gotta get some sleep but if I don’t get the smell of the woods off me first it’ll be hell to get any rest. I’ll be fine with whatever you give me. No drama.” The bathroom door shut with a click as the older woman was left with a small smile mirroring the one she’d left on Ryan only hours earlier.
“Well okay then.”