Ashe is right. She has done this before, and to great success. But how often does lightning strike twice?
Watching her silhouette as she looks out over the warehouse, Jesse knows that if anyone could make it happen, it’s Ashe. Ruthless, smart as a whip and with just as sharp of a sting when she lashes out—she’s a born leader, and a self-made one despite having had the means to just buy whatever she needed. Fleetingly, he wonders what she would have been if she hadn’t stayed with Deadlock. If she’d been recruited for Blackwatch with him, or left with him when he’d come to see her after going solo.
But he’s also aware that, despite the criminal element of her plan, it’s the most proactive attempt at rebellion he’s seen anyone dare try in Deerington. Her intentions are good, even if the means she’s using to that end aren’t. But at the end of the day, he’s less worried about her being villainous, and more concerned with her getting burned by the fire of her own ambition.
And he hasn’t forgotten what she’d said in the bar that night either. Right before she’d run out. Whatever he’d thought about Ashe before, the good or the badness of her—the truth is so much more complicated than that.
He hands over the cigarillo without complaint, humming his assent with a wry smile.
“Don’t think you could do things the easy way even if you tried. You always find the rockiest, most godforsaken path and walk right down it.”
But he can hear it—the hesitation in her voice. Or if not hesitation, uncertainty. For all her talk and bluster, maybe she’s not so sure about the plan. About herself. It gives him hope, somehow, seeing her not going into this blindly.
“You really think you’re a bad guy, though? Because the way I see it, you’re workin’ with what you know to try and do somethin’ good for everyone here.” He seeks out her gaze through the haze of cigarillo smoke with his own.
“Just hope you’re bein' careful enough. Settin’ boundaries for yourself and makin' contingency plans, and all that.”
no subject
Watching her silhouette as she looks out over the warehouse, Jesse knows that if anyone could make it happen, it’s Ashe. Ruthless, smart as a whip and with just as sharp of a sting when she lashes out—she’s a born leader, and a self-made one despite having had the means to just buy whatever she needed. Fleetingly, he wonders what she would have been if she hadn’t stayed with Deadlock. If she’d been recruited for Blackwatch with him, or left with him when he’d come to see her after going solo.
But he’s also aware that, despite the criminal element of her plan, it’s the most proactive attempt at rebellion he’s seen anyone dare try in Deerington. Her intentions are good, even if the means she’s using to that end aren’t. But at the end of the day, he’s less worried about her being villainous, and more concerned with her getting burned by the fire of her own ambition.
And he hasn’t forgotten what she’d said in the bar that night either. Right before she’d run out. Whatever he’d thought about Ashe before, the good or the badness of her—the truth is so much more complicated than that.
He hands over the cigarillo without complaint, humming his assent with a wry smile.
“Don’t think you could do things the easy way even if you tried. You always find the rockiest, most godforsaken path and walk right down it.”
But he can hear it—the hesitation in her voice. Or if not hesitation, uncertainty. For all her talk and bluster, maybe she’s not so sure about the plan. About herself. It gives him hope, somehow, seeing her not going into this blindly.
“You really think you’re a bad guy, though? Because the way I see it, you’re workin’ with what you know to try and do somethin’ good for everyone here.” He seeks out her gaze through the haze of cigarillo smoke with his own.
“Just hope you’re bein' careful enough. Settin’ boundaries for yourself and makin' contingency plans, and all that.”