Beatrix stood up and wiped up the little bit of sweat that had fallen to the floor with a stray rag before throwing it to the side. Then she sheathed her blade before putting in the rack at the other end of the room. She looked over to where BB sat, deeply engrossed in a coloring book and allowed herself a brief smile. Her daughter had show some initial interest in watching her mother practice but the lure of her book won out. At least for now, she was content to be in the same room with Beatrix.

It had taken awhile. The initial joy of their reunion quickly morphed into two weeks of awkward silences. It was only when Beatrix finally allowed BB to watch her work out that they started to take some tentative steps into a relationship.

In the beginning, she never thought she'd have children. Beatrix didn't consider herself particularly motherly. Elle hadn't either. That had been Vernita's gig. A brief flash of pain quickly squashed at the thought of her former friend? lover? Beatrix wasn't sure who Vernita was to her now beyond betrayer. Once she had been someone. Now Vernita was just a memory.

"You two with those swords," she'd said on more than one occasion. Vernita had found out that she didn't have the temperament for the longer blade even though she had a base level of proficiency. Shorter, razor sharp fangs had been more her speed. With those, she'd moved like quicksilver. Elle sliced through one of their training partners with as much dispassion as she'd dispatched the dummies in the dojo. As the dead man was carted away, Elle touched the bloody mat and licked the tacky blood off her finger with relish. Her single orb caught Beatrix watching and her stained lips curved in a cruel smile.

"Stick around, little girl, and one day this might be you."

Beatrix had been drawn to Vernita as much as she'd been repulsed initially by Elle. There was rivalry; how couldn't there be? Even with the little bit of training they'd all come to the squad with, each woman had been honed into something even deadlier. That made friendship hard. Fucking, not so much.

"You two wish you were as good as me," Elle sneered one night, even as she threw down another shot of tequila. Vernita snorted and stood, whipping off her shirt to display miles of brown skin unmarred by any blade.

"I am that good," Vernita had said, hands fisted on her hips. She'd looked down at Beatrix who sat on the other side of the table, one foot pushed against its edge tipping her back in her chair. "You in or are you out?"

Beatrix was all for some bad ass and braggadocio. "Oh, I'm in. Think you can keep up?"

Keeping up and then staying ahead. Those had been heady days. Before Bill fucked them all in the head (and Elle and Beatrix in the body), before Vernita and Elle stood in that dusty church to shoot her dead.

Beatrix didn't regret killing Vernita. Motherhood hadn't slowed the other woman up one bit but the child herself had. Cute kid, Nikki.

"It was not my intention to do this in front of you, for that I am sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it coming. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting"

Beatrix hadn't been kidding when she'd thrown out that challenge. It's what Vernita or Elle would have done in her place. Actually, Elle probably would have just axed the kid right there and kept on stepping. But Vernita? She would have offered her another shot at the brass ring.

Beatrix looked over at BB, with her coloring book, little girl jeans and t-shirt. How much Bill had taught her was still unknown. She thought about Nikki. She'd come. Beatrix was sure of it because Nikki was Vernita's girl. It all depended on whether she'd come for revenge or to learn Beatrix's truth, which in turn was Vernita's truth as well as Elle's. You could have friends, you could have power. What you needed most was skill and cunning: a way to survive so you could grow into the person you were destined to be.

Beatrix walked over to BB and sat down on the floor beside her. Serious brown eyes looked up at her as she paused in her coloring. "Can I see?" Beatrix asked.

BB shrugged and turned the picture toward her: a field of flowers with a blue sky. Big yellow sun in one corner with flattened Vs standing in as birds. "Do you like it?" BB asked softly.

Beatrix's fingers traced over the birds that flew off into a crayon sky and thought for a moment about another little girl who might have drawn the same picture and she smiled. "I love it. Would you draw me another?"

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