Nothing to Write Home About: Bad Habit

I promise not to mind if you go your way and I go mine
- Promise, Eve 6

Lena was still as beautiful as Maggie remembered her.

She looked older, in her eyes, and Maggie wondered briefly at it, before the nervous tension in her stomach threatened to take away rational thought at all.

Her heart sped up, and she clutched the handle, unsure what to do or say now that she was opening Bianca's door to Lena, letting her back in.

At first, Lena was all she saw, until the European woman came forward, barely glancing at her, saying fast and quickly, "Bianca?"

Already, the coiled pain in her throat was getting worse, at just hearing Lena say Bianca's name, in the desperate, loving way she had always said it.

"She's uh... in the office," she managed, nearly biting her own lip off when Lena brushed past her, eyes only for that door. Only for Bianca.

She blinked back the sting of her tears, her weakness, and she found herself taking in a ragged breath.

The office door opened, and Bianca came rushing out, and Maggie was there to witness her rushing into Lena's arms.

"Oh, God, Lena."

"Bianca. Bianca my darling-"

"They took Miranda," Bianca whispered, desperate and scared, clutching onto Lena, wrapping palms around Lena's waist, holding her close.

The stab of pain in Maggie's stomach was so deep Maggie nearly keeled over from it. She found herself shaking now, still holding onto the open door, clutching the knob so hard her fingers ached, eyes now on the floor.

"Easy," she whispered. "She's here to help. God, Maggie, get OVER yourself."

And then she realized there was a woman in the doorway, who had witnessed and heard that.

Losing her voice, Maggie blinked, unsure of what to do or say. The woman was elegant, darker skinned, with angled cheekbones and a slender, lean frame. The look on her face was unreadable, and for some reason, that frightened Maggie more than any greeting.

Without a word, she stepped inside, easy and careful, extracting the doorknob from Maggie's fingers and shutting it for her.

Maggie ached from exhaustion and weakness, unable to move when the older, taller woman carefully tilted her chin up, inspected the darkening bruise on Maggie's cheekbone.

"Have you seen a doctor?" she said quietly, in this smooth, accented voice.

"I'm okay," Maggie managed, suddenly vulnerable. Still, the movement gave her back her mobility, and she jerked her chin out of the stranger's hand, stepping away and looking back toward Bianca and Lena, who were now talking in hushed whispers, completely unaware of her presence.

But the stranger was, and for that, Maggie just took in a shaky breath and ran fingers through her hair.

"Who are you," she asked tersely.

That, at least, reminded Bianca that she was actually still HERE, as her would be girlfriend/best friend glanced up, took in the stranger, and finally, Maggie.

Lena still had her palms on Bianca's hips, rubbing soothingly, and Maggie found herself tightening her jaw, clamping her mouth shut to keep from demanding the woman stop the pawing.

"Bianca," Lena said, and Maggie noticed with a small glare, that Bianca finally pulled out of Lena's embrace, "This is Marina Derevko. She is a friend of mine. She is very good at what she does."

"And what is it you DO?" Maggie asked, a hard grate on her tone. "Another corporate spy?"

Marina smiled tightly, tilting her head to include Maggie beside her. "Up until a few years ago, I used to run a café. May I see your security systems?"

"You're quiet."

Sydney sighed, glancing up to discover Shane staring at her intently, concern etched on her face.

"I told you not to say it," she said dully, picking a piece of lint from her pants.

Shane considered that, threading fingers through her bangs and scratching through them, a nervous and annoyed gesture. "Yeah," she admitted.

Sydney shifted in the car seat, glancing over the small, serene street that held Bianca Montgomery's flat. It was quiet, still, with children playing around it, and fancy cars jumbled in on the sides. No one had any clue as to what had happened, and that was a good sign.

"It's just..." Sydney shrugged. "When Marina called me into this, the last thing I wanted was to deal with a kidnapping. But I would even prefer that than to deal with him again. I'm so tired of fucking Rambaldi."

All she ever heard about was Rambaldi, a prophetic dreamer who died thousands of years ago and haunted her family still, with his cryptic warnings about the Derevko women, as if her entire blood line was cursed to be vipers - to save or bring down the entire world.

Lives were destroyed thanks to Rambaldi, and Sydney, at the center of the turmoil, would have gladly traded her fate to anyone else.

"I guess I should have known," she managed. "I mean, Marina knew there was more to this than what it was."

"Yeah, well..." Shane exhaled, shifting the small computer on her lap. "Marina has always been a better Derevko than you."

"That's not a compliment."

"No it's not." Sydney glanced up, took in the warm brown eyes and small, sincere grin, and she nearly shivered at what it was able to do to her. Shane held a unique gift, in her ability to say the weirdest things and somehow spring Sydney from her despair. Sydney knew Shane was her rock.

Up until recently, she was sure that was all she wanted.

The small ringing of a cellphone broke the moment, and idiotically grateful, Sydney glanced down and flipped open the tiny device, holding it to her ear.

"What's up."

"Take a look," Marina told her, and when Sydney nodded to Shane, the other woman began to immediately type. Sydney glanced at the screen, taking in the grainy images fed to Shane on her laptop.

"Shit," Shane managed, nearly thrown back at the reception. "Yeah - someone's definitely patched in."

"What are you doing?"

Marina didn’t stop, instead just glanced quickly at the beautiful young heiress and looking back, careful as she shifted through the various rooms of the flat, watching them flicker on the screen.

"Can you loop it?" she asked Shane.

"Hold on," came the tinny voice in her ear. "Yeah - I can do it from out here-"

"Someone's been hacking into your feed," Marina said simply.

"WHAT?" Maggie, the small feisty one, was also quite loud. "TURN IT OFF!"

"What do you mean, hacking? They're watching us?"

"We can't just turn it off," Marina said simply. "If we do that, they'll know that you have called someone."

"Bianca, Maggie - Marina is a friend. You can trust her."

"We don't KNOW that!"

Tensions were already high in the room, and Marina found herself in no mood to deal with the paranoid women. Turning, she studied the triangle, and nodded to Lena.

"Perhaps you can take a look at the ransom note?" she said pointedly.

Lena, fingers at her mouth, arm wrapped around her waist, took a moment to process the request, but nodded simply, and turned to Bianca, careful and gentle.

"Will you show it to me?"

The distraction proved to be a good one - the gorgeous brunette found herself able to focus again, and Marina felt a slight twinge of relief when the distraught mother moved in the direction of her office, Lena right behind her.

It left behind the small blonde, palms wiping tensely at her jeans, staring off after them, obviously struggling not to go after them.

The movement caused a sudden flash, and Jenny now stood in her place, wringing hands - so small and fragile and beautiful and strong and insecure.

Marina closed her eyes, opened them again, and found Maggie back where she was before.

"Maggie," she said finally, catching her attention. "Will you help me?"

They were lucky with their vantage point. Sydney shifted in her seat, careful with her cellphone, and focused in on another lounger, snapping the photo, sending it on it's way.

"We're sure they didn’t set up shop in another place?"

"Talked to the doorman," Sydney said, distracted by her earnest spying. "Bianca and Maggie moved into this place two months ago - they're the newest tenants, and apparently it was a spur of the moment thing - very exclusive neighborhood-"

"They'd know," Shane finished, eyes flickering from her and the laptop, fingers moving quickly over the keyboard. "Got it."

"Yeah." A lean, dark haired man with a kind face ambled down the street, carrying with him a cart of sweets. Sydney narrowed her eyes, took him in. And took a picture.

The small monitors in the background were going fuzzy, and Maggie clutched onto her forearms, suddenly uncomfortable.

Still, standing here staring at Marina was a small step up from standing back there staring at the closed door that Bianca and Lena exited through, and certainly better than being driven crazy at the thought of Miranda.

Marina Derevko seemed to be doing a million things at once, speaking into the tiny microphone dangling from her earpiece, whispering codes and talking about 'loops' and 'feeds'. It was almost as if she had forgotten Maggie was there.

"Was there something..."

Suddenly the woman pushed her phone into her hand. Taken aback, Maggie just stared at it.

"Take a look at these photos," Marina said calmly. "Scroll through each one and tell me if there's something unfamiliar. Out of place."

"I don't-"

"This is your home," Marina interrupted, with a force in her tone that somehow grabbed hold of her heart, "You would know who does or doesn't belong."

This was her home.

Maggie licked her lips, breathless as she couldn't help to look again at the closed doorway.

God.

"Okay," she managed, "Okay."

She began to tap on the tiny button, images on the small screen burst in color. She recognized her neighbors, children who stopped her on her way back from the corner café to jabber for sweets, the nice old man who sat on his steps and waved his cane at her, the glamorous older woman who had nearly tripped over her once and then had the gall to call her a crude American. She had gotten Maggie so worked up Bianca had to grab her around the waist, pulling the smaller woman away from the confrontation.

She found herself smiling sadly at the memory.

She came to a man, a vendor, and her eyebrow furrowed.

"What?" Marina asked, startling her, and Maggie realized she had caught the movement.

"This guy," she said, turning the phone so Marina could see. "He's only been around a week or so but yesterday, one of the kids tried to buy something from him and he chased them off. I remember thinking it was weird. And mean."

She came home with chocolate and roses.

Cliché and overtly romantic, but Bianca had taken too many tentative steps lately.

She had been waiting for something, some sort of sign, some sort of truth from Maggie that would give her the strength she needed for that final push.

It hadn't occurred to her until the day before that Maggie was waiting for that too.

Awkward sexual tension and moments fraught with anxiety - and Bianca loved it. She loved the feeling of excitement, the butterflies in her stomach, the sheer joy that came with just being in Maggie's presence, staring into her eyes and suddenly pausing, so overwhelmed by the moment and the what-if's she could hardly speak.

In Paris, there was nothing else to concentrate on but the company, Maggie and Miranda, and that had never happened before.

She had never been able to just focus on Maggie, on Miranda, and rediscovering Maggie and how amazing Maggie was had been one of the greatest gifts coming to Europe had given her.

Maggie had fallen asleep with her, the joking and laughing culminating in exhaustion, and when Bianca awoke, she found her wrapped up in Miranda, breathing evenly beside her, one palm slumped over Bianca's flat stomach, as if reassuring herself that Bianca was really there.

Lying there, taking in the state of things, Bianca had had an epiphany. Well, not so much an epiphany as a realization about the way she wanted her life to go.

She wanted Maggie, like this, every day, for the rest of her life.

Because this - this was perfect.

She had never 'wooed' Maggie. She had never wooed anyone really, and the idea made her nervous and kinda giddy, and a little silly.

But she did it - she bought the chocolate and the roses and made the reservations, and she was going to do it.

Just the decision put the most idiotic smile on her face.

"Bonjour!" she said, nodding to the little old man on the steps, and he waved his cane at her, grinning merrily.

"Bonjour, Belle!"

For an absurd moment, she felt like she was in the middle of a Disney musical. She nearly burst out into song.

Quickly, she crossed the street and entered her building, juggling the roses and the chocolate and her purse, carefully to keep from tripping up the stairs with her load.

Fumbling for her keys, she leaned against the door, and nearly fell in.

It was unlocked, which was odd, but Bianca found herself too excited to ponder it, swinging it shut with her foot and teetering around.

"Maggie?! I'm home! I want you to get dressed into something amazing because we are so headed on a night on the..." she blinked struggling with her packages, words failing when she noticed the house was completely dark. "Maggie? Miranda?"

It was minute, the feeling coming upon her subtle at first, until she recognized the dread, the sixth sense that came to her with her fear of the dark.

Michael's face flashed before her, and suddenly she was struggling to breathe, the panic setting in.

The chocolate and the roses fell, trampled by her own feet when she rushed into the darkness, calling Maggie's name, finding overturned furniture, and empty cradle, utter silence.

She fumbled for lights, tears of fear stinging her eyes, and when she saw the figure crumpled on the floor, she nearly fainted.

Lurching forward, she paid no attention to the bruising her kneecaps would take when she fell on the floor, gathering Maggie to her.

She was bleeding from her lip, she was dead to the world, but she was breathing.

"Maggie! MAGGIE!"

Eyes searching the room wildly, Bianca panted, holding Maggie close, heart hammering, the room closing in on her.

Miranda. Miranda.

"Oh, God," she wheezed. "Oh, GOD."

An discarded bottle, the milk seeping on the floor. An overturned chair. On the table, ten feet away, was a note.

"Bianca."

Bianca's world tilted, fell into place, and she discovered Lena, focusing before her eyes, into crystal clear reality.

The note, held delicately in Lena's fingers, was crisp, clean.

"Lena," she managed, and suddenly began to tremble, palm pressed to her face, eyes closing to try to stop the unshed tears, and they came anyway.

"Bianca," she heard, before familiar hands smoothed over her shoulders, and she gave into her weakness, crumpling into the embrace. "Shhh... it's all right, my darling."

"No - no. They were here, Lena. They took away Miranda, and Maggie..." She shook with her emotion, fighting the flashbacks, fear crippling her rationality.

"Maggie is fine. We're going to get Miranda back," she heard, soothing words bouncing against her brain. "I love you, Bianca. I'll help you with everything I can."

She saw Maggie, glassy-eyed from pain and dizziness, whispering and broken, and she saw Miranda, as she had left her.

Lena held her close, and she breathed her in, her world on a precipice, teetering her into desperate heartbreak.

"I can't lose her again," she whispered. "It's killing Maggie as much as it's breaking me, and I can't help her. I'm too weak-"

"You're not weak," Lena responded vehemently, rough now, shaking her shoulders, forcing her gaze on her. "You're strong, Bianca. You're so very strong."

The was a thud against the wood of the door, and Bianca stared at it beseechingly, unsure if she could find the energy to move away from Lena, afraid if she let go she would crumple to the ground.

Maggie entered, turning the corner, and discovered her, holding desperately onto Lena.

Bianca couldn't move - took in Maggie's expression, the darkened eyes, and the haunted gaze.

Bianca took in a haggard breath, found herself suddenly grateful that Maggie was here. Alive. Bruised and beaten, but she was alive and here.

She detangled herself from Lena, ready to go to Maggie when her friend took an abrupt step back, forcing Bianca's steps to falter when Maggie said hurriedly, "I'll get the door."

Bianca's fragile state was all too familiar, stuck now as she watched Maggie move, felt Lena's fingers on her wrists.

"Wait."

Maggie paused, stared at Lena with a narrowed glare, but the older woman paid no attention. She left Bianca's side and moved to the door, careful now, peeking through.

"If they're the same guys they got what they came for," Maggie said dryly. "I doubt if they're coming back to take us too they'd bother to knock."

"It's all right," they heard, floating through the door. "I'm a friend of Marina's."

Bianca stood, breathless, and Lena reluctantly pulled open the door.

The sight of the woman on the other side, stepping into her flat, stunned her completely.

She narrowed her gaze, mouth dropping open.

"Shane?!"