Steam billowed out from behind the bathroom door as Annie pushed it open. She patted at her damp strands of hair with the towel draped around her neck and let out contented sigh, then winced and pressed a hand to her side. Maybe Connor was right, she should see a doctor. Except she wasn't a fan of doctors. Used to be she could just take care of things like this herself, but now...

A polite cough tore her from her thoughts and her hand shot to the other towel wrapped around her chest to pin it in place, "Who the hells...?"

She stopped. A woman stood in her doorway, leaning casually against the frame. Strands of white hair that had been tied in a loose bun framed her cold grey eyes, and black armor covered her body like the carapace of some enormous insect. Her hand rested lightly on one of two pistols strapped to her hips on either side, and a finger tapped against it.

"Vrath," Annie’s eyes widened and then quickly narrowed, "Long time. Most people are polite enough to fucking knock"

"Hey Stranger," the woman, Vrath, smirked, "That's what you're calling yourself these days, right?"

Annie ground her teeth, "How'd you find me?"

Vrath glanced at the pistol hanging from the back of the chair across the room and then back at Annie, "You still have my gun."

"I've kept it in good shape," she said, "Stay a while and I'll give you a personal demonstration."

"How about you come with me instead? Though I might suggest you get dressed first." Vrath look her up and down and raised an eyebrow.

Annie bristled, "How the fuck did you find me Jaigra?"

The other woman raised her hands in mock surrender, "Okay, okay. Here," She slowly reached a hand into her breastplate and withdrew the red sphere, allowing it to dangle from her finger, "This is it. A token of your house."

"My house!?" Annie realized she'd shouted the words. She recognized the red sphere immediately. It was a Theran Hound Sphere, a small device that used blood magic to track whoever was unfortunate enough to have their blood inside of one. She'd seen a few of them before, mostly in the possession of bounty hunters intent on claiming some poor sap's head.

Andromeda Flynn, unfortunately, tended to be one such poor sap.

She collected herself and in a lower voice said, "It's been years since I left. I'd have thought they ran out of blood to throw at cheap bounty hunters." She spat the words.

Jaigra-the-actually-rather-expensive-bounty-hunter’s face twitched in an almost imperceptible sneer, "I guess your family traded in a few favors just for you, sweetheart."

The Stranger's cheeks reddened, "If they're thick enough to give it to you then I guess you're still the lapdog of the only House that'll take you. They let you sleep at the foot of their bed too?"

If that barb struck her, this time she didn't show it. With a sudden air of seriousness Jaigra took a few steps towards Annie and said, "This has gone on long enough Andromeda. You've had your fun, it's time to come home."

Annie leaned towards her, "The only reason I'll ever go back to that place is to burn it to the ground," she growled in a low voice.

"Be serious. Nobody can resist Therult, not even a lord contender like you. The amaryllis always blooms."

"Oh don't try that stupid catchphrase with me," Annie groaned, "I'm no contender and if the amaryllis wants to bloom so damn bad then they can send a real Amaryll Lord to do the job, not some two-bit bloodhound."

"Oh honey, you're not that important," the two-bit bloodhound chided, "You'll just have to settle for little old me."

The two women glared daggers at each other until Vrath sighed. She pressed her fingers to her temple and ran them through her hair, "Andromeda..."

"No."

"You don't even-"

"No!" Annie shouted, "Leave. Now. I'm not asking."

Vrath took a step back and then paused. “Please come back Andromeda. I’m the only one who’s going to be nice about this, no one else is going to be as kind.”

Annie lunged at her, pinning the bounty hunter to the wall with her forearm and tearing Vrath's gun from its holster, “I'm done fucking around, Jaigra!” she snarled and shoved its barrel into her ribs under her breastplate, forcing a pained wheeze from the other woman.

Jaigra pressed her hand against Annie's side eliciting a ragged cry of pain from the Stranger as she quickly shoved herself away, gun still leveled at Jaigra's chest. A red stain was creeping down white towel wrapped around Andromeda and Jaigra looked at the blood glistening on the black leather of her glove in shock.

"Andromeda!" she started, hand outstretched.

Annie had slumped onto the bed clutching her wound, gun unsteady in her hand but still pointed at her, "Don't," her voice was quavered, "You've done enough." The words hung in the air between them.

“Miss Annie?” A voice called from the hallway. Jaigra turned to look. Connor was standing there just beyond the door, hand on his sword and his eyes darted between the Stranger and bounty hunter, "Are you ok?"

"I'm..." she winced, "I'm fine deputy. It's just..." her eyes rolled back and she collapsed onto the bed, limp.

"Andromeda!" Jaigra ran towards the bed.

"Stop right there, ma'am." Connor ordered, his voice full of steel, "You are breaking and entering and suspected of committing assault. Leave now or I will place you under arrest."

She whirled on him, "Listen here you little shit-"

The air in the room changed, flooded with a buzz of magic as a silhouette appeared behind the Paladin, outlining him in a halo of golden light. 

"That was not a suggestion, ma'am." Connor stared her down.

Jaigra slowly retracted her hand and placed it on her remaining pistol, "Will you get her medical attention?" she asked.

"Yes?" Connor was a bit taken aback.

"Okay," Jaigra sighed, glanced at the old pistol hanging on the back of the chair, and rubbed her eyes, "I'm leaving. Damn it!"

Connor didn't take his hand off his sword until the bounty hunter walked out the motel's front door, then he dashed to the bedside. 

"Annie!" he lifted her gently and pat her cheek a few times, "Annie can you hear me?" No response except her steady, wheezing breaths, "Alright, hang on!" He pulled a loose blanket from the bed and draped it over her, hurriedly grabbed her clothes from the bathroom, then lifted her off the mattress and carried her back out into the hallway. 

"Tallis!" He shouted, "Will you run ahead and tell the doc we're coming? Annie needs help!"

Tallis nodded and hopped the counter, taking off out the door and down the street.

"Hang on Miss Annie, just hang on..." he whispered. 

“I… Heard a little bit of what she said, miss Annie.”

Andromeda froze, then slowly turned to Connor, “Yeah?”

“She really knew how to get under your skin, didn’t she?”

She puffed out her cheeks in a long wheeze, “Yeah,” she said.

The silence that hung in the air between them was long and stilted and, much like a novice stilter, crumbled easily at the slightest push.

“I'm not gonna pretend to know you, miss Annie. Your business is your own. But as long as you're in my town, I'm here if you'd like to talk."

All the gears in Annie's head ground to a sudden halt, she could swear smoke would pour out her ears any second. Talk? To a person? In real life? The thought left her dumbstruck. Tears leapt to the corners of here eyes unbidden and she tried to blink them away. Like hell she was going to cry over a little thing like this.

"Um... Yeah. Sure." She rubbed her eyes into her sleeve furiously, pushing her glasses up onto her forehead briefly before they plopped back back down to the bridge of her nose when she was finished. Then she shuffled back into her room unceremoniously.

Connor poked his head around the doorframe, "Is that a 'I'm game to talk,' yeah sure or a 'Please leave me alone,' yeah sure?"

"Yeah." Annie flopped down onto the bed to stare at the ceiling.

"Well that's just plain unhelpful!" He trotted in behind her. She heard the click of her door closing and the creak of Connor settling into the room's solitary chair, "You know, I haven't actually spent much time in the motel's rooms. It looks nice though."

"It's better than sleeping in a tent."

"I'll bet!" Connor laughed. It was a pleasant sound, the sort of deep lilting laugh that comes from genuine joy that one could feel in their bones and just had to share with the world. It wasn't loud, exactly, but it had a presence that couldn't be missed; like the warm rays of dawn that creep through the window and alight along your skin before you're fully awake and willing to open your eyes.

[might need a bit more filler here]

Annie sighed, then took off her glasses and set them on the dresser beside the bed, "Fuck it, fine. What do you want to talk about, deputy?”

“I’m primarily concerned with the scary-looking heavily armed woman who broke into your motel room. But if you don’t wanna talk about her you don’t have to!” he somehow managed to make that sound cheerful.

“Of course you do,” Annie cupped her hands over her face briefly and pressed her fingers to her eyelids, “We used to be friends, I think.

“Were you close?”

“I trusted her more than anyone in the world. And she…” the tears welled up once again and she rolled on her side to face the wall away from Connor, “She broke my heart.”

”That’s awful Annie, I’m sorry. What, uh, what happened?” he asked.

“She sold me out.” Annie laughed bitterly, “She’s the one who… Ugh! It doesn’t matter anymore. It was a lifetime ago. I left because of her, let’s leave it at that.”

“Left where?”

“Therult. I was born there."

Connor was quiet for a moment, studying her before he said, "Is it true y'all have red eyes? Is that why you have the glasses?"

Red eyes. That's the first thing anyone asked about Therans. They were a symptom of blood magic usage which, to be fair, was a common enough practice in the Theran Empire. Especially when you compared it to the surrounding countries that banned its use outright. But that's not something Annie was eager to tell the Paladin of the Lamaryll Union no matter how nice he was.

"Some of us do." She said.

"Huh. I wonder why?"

Annie shrugged noncommittally and made a vague "I dunno," noise. Connor seemed satisfied with that.

"You couldn’t stay?" he asked.

"I wanted to be my true self. They made it very clear that wasn't an option, so I left."

"I know the feeling," Connor said, "My 'ma wasn't all that welcoming when I came out either."

Andromeda sat up to stare at him, "What?"

"Yeah, she wasn't thrilled about it, kinda made it into a whole thing. My 'pa took to the idea like a fish to water though, said he'd always wanted a son and all that." He shrugged. 

"Seriously? You? Connor Kenton McFucking Junior?" 

"Oh yeah, he loved the 'Junior' bit. He got all teary-eyed when I told him that's what I wanted to be called," he paused, "Huh."

"What?" 

"You really do have red eyes," Connor tilted his head to the side not unlike a confused retriever, "They're pretty, like rubies."

She blushed and turned away. Nobody had talked about her eyes that way since... Well it had been a long time. "Thanks, Connor."

“It’s just the truth Miss Annie, no need to thank me for it!” Connor beamed. Something about it irritated Annie.

"You're too damn nice, you know that?"

"Well, I think that's better than being too damn mean. Don't you?"

Andromeda was far too much of a grouch for this line of thinking, but she supposed she could see his point. So she just grunted irritably.