Baltimore, Thursday Afternoon

[soniaroadsqueen]

With no classes on Thursdays, Ringo had decided to take her morning AT run in the city, so she'd left early. And it had been a great run, even if she'd had to be careful not to do anything too visible. No need to draw any official attention, after all. In fact, she'd gotten so caught up in the joy of riding in an actual city that she'd lost track of time and almost forgotten about her deal with Kathy.

Ringo and Kathy had been talking about a shopping trip for quite a while, but just this week they'd handwavily made plans to actually do one. A flurry of text messages had them agreeing to meet up at one of the stores Kathy knew in Baltimore.

She probably still could have made it on time if she hadn't gotten turned around once or twice trying to find the right address. American addresses didn't really make any sense, and she didn't know Baltimore that well, and thank goodness for GPS in phones.

So she arrived a couple of minutes late, face flushed from the rush, with a ripped pair of jeans and a tshirt that were a lot better suited for an AT ride than convincing anyone that she had a real fashion sense.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, already apologizing for making Kathy wait.

[NFB for distance]

Comments

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo let her attention turn back to Letty, and then to the clothes she was still holding. "Well, I guess I like the tops because they flare out at the bottom? Like, they're close and the foof!" Good sound effect, Ringo. "And the skirt has these little designs in it? Those are really cute."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Okay," Letty said, nodding. "I'm going to go and see if I can find a few things I think you'll like."

She bustled out of the back room, a salesgirl on a mission, and Kathy looked back to Ringo. "Let's hear it," Kathy said with a sigh. "You looked like you had questions. Wanna ask me a few while we're alone?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Huh?" It took Ringo's brain a second or two to switch gears and remember the whole apartment fire thing. "Oh!"

She turned, eyes serious. "Are you okay?" First things first!

[spin_kick_snap]

"I am," Kathy said with a nod. "I had a nasty burn and some pretty bad smoke inhalation, but Anders healed those for me. Anything left is all surface injuries, nothing to worry about."

Granted, she probably would have told Ringo not to worry about it even if she'd still been limping around and wheezing.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo gave Kathy a long look, then nodded. Accepting that for the moment.

"How dangerous was it?" she asked next.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's wince said a great deal. "I had Dante with me," she offered, like that answered anything. "He did most of the heavy lifting."

Great details, crap answer.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"It sounds like it was pretty scary," Ringo said softly, imagining what it must have been like.

"Were you, um," she swallowed, not sure she could voice her question. "Did you," Ringo trailed off. Apparently she couldn't ask how close Kathy might have come to dying.

[spin_kick_snap]

"He was pretty mad at me," Kathy said, with remarkable understatement. "The eleventh floor was smoldering and filled with smoke, the tenth was actually on fire. We got out the family living on the eleventh floor and then when he was moving them somewhere safer, I, uhh, went down to the tenth."

So, yeah. She'd snuck down to the apartment that had literally exploded a few moments prior without letting Dante even know where she was going. In fairness, he had every right to be pissed off.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"He figured out where you were, though? Went in after you?"

Sounded like someone deserved some sort of reward.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was making him three dozen apology cupcakes?

"Sort of?" Kathy said. "I lugged the survivor in the tenth floor apartment out to the balcony and by that time I'd inhaled a decent amount of smoke. He heard me coughing and jumped down to grab us both."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Would," Ringo paused, swallowing. "What would you have done if he hadn't?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Pushed through it and climbed down," Kathy admitted. "Emergency services had almost arrived by then, leaving the guy on the balcony would probably had ensured his survival, especially if I'd tied something bright to let them know he was there."

Which she would have had to go back into his house to get, because she hadn't been in her Banzai gear.

"Though if Dante hadn't been there, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to go downstairs at all. It would have taken me too long to lug the parents from the eleventh floor out to their balcony instead."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo frowned slightly. "Would you have gone down there anyway?" she asked.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't know if I would have had a chance to," Kathy said. "I wouldn't have wanted to get caught in there. I didn't have my mask or anything to disguise myself and that would have been a lot of questions to answer."

She bit her lip and added, "...I still might have tried. Though I doubt I would have made it in time. I was almost too late as it was."

[soniaroadsqueen]

The frown on Ringo's face deepened. It wasn't really an expression of disapproval, just one of confusion. "Why?" she asked. "You said the fire department was already on its way. Wasn't it their job to do that?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy also looked confused. Wasn't the answer obvious? "Because by the time they got there, the guy on the tenth floor would have been dead and possibly the ones on the eleventh as well. I knew they weren't going to get there in time. Between the smoke and the flames, those people had only minutes to live."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo looked thoughtful. "So you risked your life for theirs? All of them?" Again, not disapproving, just trying to understand. "Even at the end when there was a chance you might not make it back out?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm a superhero, Ringo," Kathy said, shrugging. "It's what I do. I mean, usually it's staring down guys with guns and telling them to hand their drugs over, but it still dangerous either way."

She sighed and looked away. "If I'd--if I'd really thought I was going to die, I probably would have cut my losses. I mean, I'm not up to actually killing myself to save people. But I couldn't just back down because I was scared."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I guess," Ringo said after a few moments of silence to think about that. "I guess I never really thought about what it is you do. What it means to be a 'superhero'." Her eyes were serious. Slightly worried. "It's scary," she said. "And I know it's selfish of me, but I don't like the idea that some night you might just not come back from Baltimore."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I mean--I can't, like, promise that you have nothing to worry about," Kathy admitted. "Because that's disingenuous at best. But I'm fast and I'm agile and I usually have the element of surprise on my side. But it's something that I can't really give up. What I do is too important. Maybe not in the grand scheme of things, but to me."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yeah," Ringo said softly. "I get that. And, well, it wouldn't be fair for me to tell you to stop just because I'm scared."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I wouldn't listen anyway," Kathy admitted. "I'm doing something important, Ringo. My actions matter. It's...it's a heady feeling."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Another slow nod. "Maybe," again Ringo trailed off, shaking her head. Not sure she should speak the thought that had just occurred to her until she'd had time to think about it more.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Maybe...?" Kathy prompted.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo sighed. "Maybe sometime I could go with you?" she said hesitantly. "I guess, well, I don't really get why it's so important to you. I understand that it is, but I'd like to, you know, get it." She just wasn't sure that was a good idea.