"Not all," said Oriana, who'd been watching Symplicity make her way through the crowd. "Personally, I'm a fan of your style."

Oriana was smirking, her face a perfect mask of cool contentment, until she heard "Catalina Rey". The Symplicity found her elbow grabbed roughly as she was spun to face Oriana, not out of malice but out of shock and need. 

"You knew Cat? I'm Oriana Montini. Cat was my best friend. I was... I was a brunette. I was out of the country when-" Oriana swallowed.

Symplicity stared into Oriana's eyes for a long, confused moment. Catalina had been a great boss, had seemed to trust her for whatever reason, but that was as far as the relationship had gone. She'd been privvy to the developing feelings between Konnor and Cat, and there'd been a few people that had passed through...

"The cheese. You came in and wanted all the cheese. I remember you!" She laughed. Without thinking about it, she pulled the Colt Single Action Army revolver out of the depths of her overcoat and held it up on the flat of her palm. 

"This was hers. It was on her when she... I hid it before the cops came. Then I just kept it," she said, turning her face away. It wasn't theft. She just couldn't get rid of it.

"Guess it looks familiar, huh? Maybe you should have it, not me. You were closer, obviously," she said quietly. 

Oriana just stared at Symplicity for a moment with an open mouth before gently accepting the gun. The blonde seemed like a totally different person. The bold, confident woman of thirty seconds earlier had vanished, leaving behind a confused, shocked young woman who wasn't quite able to cover the depth of emotion she was feeling. 

"... where's the bathroom, please?" asked Oriana in a quiet voice. Symplicity just pointed, and the other woman walked away quickly. She couldn't be sure, but Symplicity thought she might have seen a tear- a stark change from the woman she'd seen speaking to Konnor.

She stood there and watched her go, unsure of the correct thing to do. Give the woman a moment? Follow her? She stepped over to Konnor, leaning in close to his ear. 

"I didn't know she knew her. Catalina. I think I should go talk to her before we leave. Give us a few minutes, then we'll be ready to head out," she said, brushing his cheek with her lips before striding off towards the ladies' room. She'd just handed an upset woman a loaded gun, maybe this wouldn't end in disaster. 

"Hey," she smiled as she came through the door. "I'm sorry if I upset you. Touched a nerve, whatever. I didn't realize... you know. I gotta say, you're a stunner either way, but I think the dark hair suited you better," she said, crossing her arms and leaning against the rusty sink. 

"The lighter color, it detracts from your eyes a bit. Great camouflage, I suppose, but your eyes are one of your strongest features," she said as she pulled tissue from a nearby dispenser... when the hell had that been installed?! Handing the tissues over, she waited as Oriana dabbed at her eyes. 

"Did happenstance just get me a pass on your trust? I can wait 'til the third time around, it's okay," she grinned, hoping to lighten the mood. 

"God fucking damn it," growled Ori as she heard footsteps and quickly wiped at her eyes. Symplicity walked in and leaned against the sink next to her.

"An... ex-boyfriend always hated me as a blonde. Someday I'll go back to being a brunette, probably. Too much fucking work to maintain this forever. But it feels different right now, and I like different."

Her grey eyes didn't look at Symplicity; instead, they stared straight ahead into the mirror as she quickly dabbed at her eyes and threw the tissue away.

"If Cat trusted you, I trust you. When Cat got killed, I was in Italy. I had gotten shot, and I almost killed myself trying to walk out the door and avenge her. Eventually... well, I had her buried." Ori sniffed. "But she was one of the first two or three people in the world to be good to me. I owe my whole life to her. She meant a lot to me, and that gun... for a few years, that gun was my most treasured possession. It was given to me by my first real friend, and I gave it to Cat as a gift. So to hear her name come out of nowhere, then have you just whip that out."

She blinked; the mask was sliding back over her face.

"Fuck. That's embarrassing. Stupid emotional shit. I practically ran in here. If anyone asks... tell them I had food poisoning or something."

Oriana sighed, obviously pissed at herself.

Simplicity barked out a laugh. 

"Entirely possible, in this joint," she said. The empty holster at her side had her itching to get to her bag and replace the Colt with a backup piece. 

"I'd like to talk to you more about Catalina. Maybe if we find some down-time on this trip? If you want to, of course," she said as she straightened up from the sink. Another woman had entered the bathroom, and this wasn't the kind of place where you swapped boyfriend anecdotes while sharing lipstick. 

"Shall we?" She said as she tilted her head at the door. Oriana seemed alright, but her reaction had certainly been intense, and definitely worth exploring later on.

Outside at the bar, they caught up with Konnor, who was conversing with a couple of other patched members. Symplicity had no idea if others would be joining them, so she waited for him to finish his discussion rather than attempt to join in on it. 

"Yeah," said Oriana. "We can talk more about her."

She returned to Konnor and flashed a smile. Whereas Symplicity hung back, Oriana piped up immediately.

"Hey. Sorry for the wait. You've got quite an interesting friend here."

"Just tell him I'm riding up there, he doesn't have to be there for it. Just have a few guys ready for me when I have to go, got that Jo?"

His VP nodded, looking for his President's shoulder to notice the incoming arrival of his old-lady and the hitwoman they had hired a few weeks back. He looked at Kon, wondering what the heck they were doing for a moment but he shrugged to himself. Taking a sip of bourbon, Konnor seemed to be more relaxed but his drink remained in his hand. 

"I got it, man, keep yourself calm. We need you to get back whole, especially if you know who is planning something big down there. You never told them that she was there, did ya?"

Konnor shrugged, this was a need to know basis and he had important things to think about right now. The Russians were a pebble to his rock, he knew that this kind of shit was not going to go down well with his partners on this job. Hence why he had got a few patches from California waiting for him. 

"I didn't say a word, now get going, brother."

Konnor waved him away, just as Joel was going to say something else. Oriana busted in, standing in the middle as Joel stood there watching her for a moment. Konnor gave that steel gaze once more before shaking his head, without knowing it, the hitwoman had saved him. Joel walked away, leaving Konnor to his thoughts as he turned his eyes to the sunny-haired woman. 

"Aye? She's something alright, are we all settled here?"

He asked with a grunt, deciding to move ahead and keep himself centred. He strapped the duffel bag over his shoulder, his eyes searched Oriana's for a moment. Then they looked to Symplicity, it seemed the two had some sort of moment as he smirked towards the ravenette. 

Oriana gave a nod and Simplicity bit her lip to suppress a smile. If the other woman was aware of the misogynistic pecking order of motorcycle clubs, she clearly gave zero shits about it. 

"Did I hear correctly? We're not flying? Oriana might prefer to make the trip by car. Lance can drive her, unless you think she should just fly out ahead of us. I don't know how she'd feel about days of travel by iron horse," she said, then glanced at Oriana. 

"I could be mistaken, though. Do you ride?"

Ori looked skeptical.

"The only other time I tried, I broke my collarbone. Granted, I was being shot at at the time, but still. If it's all the same, I'll fly and meet you there. Or if someone's driving me, I guess that's fine. Or I'll learn how to ride. Whatever. I did have fun for the five seconds before I crashed."

"Woah....no...I have a few trips to make before I get there, you guys can take the flight. I'll be in California before heading into the country of banditos."

He spoke with a bit sarcasm, only his face was straight as a chuckle only escaped for a moment before looking between them. Konnor could just make out the small bit of suspicion or a better word would be the wonder of why he was going to California. It seemed a bit impromptu and in this very case, it was. Something that had him reaching for another packet, only to stop his hand as he smiled briefly. 

"I'll be going alone, you guys. Especially you." He pointedly looked at Sym with a narrowing of his eyes, her reputation amongst the brothers out west had some taint on it. Due to the way of Kip, only that was something that barely a few brothers knew and the ones out west had voices of their own. 

"You don't need to come, this is simply a detour before moving forth. Tell Lance to stop at the Passion Hotel in Mexico, you'll have somewhere there waiting for you while I clear up some business."

Konnor was making it clear that they could go ahead and make it there without him hovering. He needed to make sure the brothers in the west were ready to make sure they all made it out safe, things tended to go a bit awry with things like this. Plus if the rumours were true, he would need to keep his wits about him. 

"So, is that understood?"

Konnor grabbed the lapels of his jacket, pulling them slightly. Seemingly trying to shield himself for a moment, one of the nervous tics that he had picked up from Jury and Estarossa. Now he just needed to make sure they made it to Mexico, safe.

"Alright then," Symplicity said, shrugging her shoulders. Turning to Oriana, she asked if she wanted a lift to the airport before casting a final glance over her shoulder at Konnor and then heading out the door. 

Lance was still in the car, dozing behind the wheel.

"Wake up, Soldier. Me and the lady here need a lift to the airport now," she said, slapping her hand on the hood as she rounded the car. Lance straightened immediately, then did a double take at Oriana before scrambling out and opening the rear door for her. Rolling her eyes, Symplicity climbed in the other side and dug in her coat pockets for her airline ticket.

"We can probably get you a seat on my flight, if you don't already have a ticket," she said, studying the itinerary and then passing it over.

Oriana noted the sleeping bodyguard- not exactly the most vigilant man she'd ever seen on the job. Still, she flashed him a smile as she opened the door for her. It never hurt to win people over.

"No, no ticket. I wasn't even sure what I was being hired for when I showed up today. But yea, that could be good- give us some time to talk about Cat."

As she climbed into the backseat, she looked at the other woman.

"Sorry about before. I'm not in the habit of that, as you'll see. There's just a very small number of people that I've given a shit about in my life, and Cat is one of them."

For now, that's all that passed between them- no use getting into a long conversation when they were just a few minutes from the airport. As Symplicity handled finding a ticket next to hers, Ori hung around the desk, ready to jump in and upgrade them to first class if Symplicity wasn't planning on it. After the job in Peru, there was plenty of money for small indulgences.

Settling in next to Symplicity as the engine roared to life, Oriana leaned in toward Symplicity. The blonde seemed hungry.

"How'd you meet Cat?"

"Me? I finished culinary school in New York, and she hired me straight out of the chute. Filet & Vine was a great place to work. It took me a while to keen to what she actually did, who she was. Nobody talked about it, and she was real good about keeping it out of the restaurant. I guess it got to be pretty obvious, though, once you paid attention to who was coming through those doors. It's how I met Konnor, inadvertantly. When Miss Rey died, she'd asked me to deliver an envelope. I fell in love with the recipient," she smiled, then accepted a cocktail from the stewardess as she passed because, why not? 

"Supposed to be lemon rind in this, not lime," she muttered after taking a sip. 

"Your story must be more exciting. You're... connected, obviously. Worked right under her if I recall correctly? All I gathered was that you were a frightening bad ass," she grinned.

"Frightening badass is about it for me. I was her right hand."

Ori's face was stone. I should have died with her, she thought, not for the first or last time.  I should have been here to protect her. But she set her face and continued, trusting that Cat would be happy she survived.

"I don't suppose you have any good stories about Cat?"

Symplicity smirked. 

"None that didn't involve a hefty dose of imagination. I think her and Konnor... well. I don't know that he and I would have had a chance had she lived. There was a thing there, plain as day to anyone who bothered to look. 

"How about you? Any interesting stories that aren't just speculation and exaggeration? We had a wake, of sorts, us employees there at the restaurant before I split for Chicago. We ignored the elephant in the room and blew through all that booze and prime cuts before someone came and shut it all down."

She took another moment to sip from her cocktail and watch the puffy clouds pass by under the window next to her.

"Plenty of stories. Let me tell you about the time she stole a dress for me from a woman in a bathroom. I was covered in blood and needed a new one..."

Oriana told a few stories about Cat, sticking to the lighter ones, even though those often involved someone dying. As Oriana talked, Symplicity began to get a bigger idea of the relationship.

Oriana had been a woman on the run- from what, she didn't say- and Cat was her shelter in the storm, the person who'd taken her in. Her first friend in a new world. The stories Oriana told usually involve alcohol and violence, but the common thread was a deep friendship where both women relied on each other.

"I miss her," concluded Oriana. "It was... really nice to talk about like this. I talked about her with my other close friend, but it's nice to meet someone who worked with Cat. Who knows her independently, you know?"

She glanced out the window. 

"Looks like we're almost there."

A jumper flight had them in Mexico without issue. Symplicity didn't speak Spanish, but Oriana did, and a frightening cab ride involving multiple dodged chickens  soon had them deposited in front of the hotel with the silly name that Konnor had directed them to. 

"Hubba hubba. Hey maybe we can score some cheap champagne if we can get the honeymoon suite? I hear you can't drink the water anyway," Symplicity smirked as she entered the lobby. 

Konnor had booked them a room, but City couldn't help uograding, because they indeed had a honeymoon suite. Judging by the raised brows of the desk clerk when she passed over American currency, she'd just paid way too much for it, as well. Eh, maybe they'd get extra towels or something.

"Oh Lord. I may not have thought this through," City laughed when they entered the large, velvet-walled room. 

"Which half of the heart are you sleeping on?" She asked with a grin as she flounced down on the bed. 

Ori smirked as she walked to the bed, then put on her best poker face as she sat next to City on the bed.

"Which half? I dunno, I guess I'd pick the bottom if I had to choose. But Konnor seems like the possessive type," she smirked, reclining on the bed.

""How long do you think it'll take Konnor to get here?" asked Ori, changing her tone to be a bit more serious.  "I don't suppose there's anything told you he needs scouting or prep-work done on any locations or people?"

Symplicity sighed, shaking her head. 

"Not this time. He's got a habit of trying to shield me from things. People. I'm guessing there are clubs out here who'd like to get their hands on the woman who killed one of their presidents," she muttered, standing and pacing to the window.

"He'll be along as soon as he takes care of this California business," she said, trying to sound convinced but failing. This California shit was last minute, and he'd not told her anything about it. She just had to trust that whatever it was, it would go smoothly. All those promises he made her meant fuck-all if he got himself killed.