Mercedes stares for a moment, trying to register everything Kate's just said. Finally, the wheels start to turn and she slowly gets up off the bed. Going for the phone, she asks the concierge for coffee, the number of a local butcher shop, and a car service in an hour. She then hops in the shower and scalds herself the rest of the way awake. As she's leaving the bathroom clad in a robe, the coffee arrives and the server hands her a telephone number printed on hotel stationary. After tipping the young man, she returns to the phone and calls the number.

"Bonjour, Monsieur. Do you speak English? Oh, thank goodness. That was the extent of my French. I have an odd request that I'm hoping you can fulfill. You see, I'm part of a travelling theatrical group performing locally, and our stage hand has misplaced our supply of prop blood. We're in a bit of a pinch for tonight's performance...do you suppose we could obtain some of the real thing, from you? We don't need much...say a cup or two? Oh, really? No charge, you say! Well that's very kind of you...may I stop by within the hour? Wonderful. You're a lifesaver, Sir! See you in a bit," she says, hanging up the phone with a satisfied look. 

Theater group. Kate said the weirdest things in her sleep!

Finishing her coffee while dressing and attempting to do something with her damp hair, Mercedes finally gives up and wraps it in a scarf before heading out the door. At the front desk, she leaves Kate a note.

Katie,

Back in an hour with the 'prop'. If you haven't eaten yet, let's meet up and find some croissants or something. We probably need to find a dress shop, as well?

XOXO,

Merc

Kate hesitates for a moment as she sees the cabs for hire on the road, then turns and stays on the sidewalk. It would be a longer walk, but it is one she was looking forward to. It is strange being alone, after spending so much time on the plane and in the hotel with Mercedes. Kate had spent most of her life alone, and she had grown to relish solitude- to be at peace without the company of others. But her time in Detroit building bonds with others had changed her. She was blessed with several friends- and then there was Mercedes.

Something to think about later, perhaps. For now, Kate indulged her mind in observing the streets around her. You got a feel for a city by walking through it, not staring out a window. And Kate enjoys what she sees, even if she feels like she would have trouble describing it to others. Kate had several contacts in high society, and she remembered one of them quoting a friend of a friend who'd said that Paris was "a moveable feast"- something so vast and beautiful that you took it with you forever. She wasn't sure that was true, but she nevertheless found herself enraptured by the new world around her.

Eventually, she made her way to the American Embassy and waited across the street in a small cafe. She wasn't usually a coffee drinker, preferring instead to tough it out to noon and just start actual drinking, but she deferred to local sensibilities as she sipped from a mug and waited at a table in the corner. A few minutes later, a thin man in a suit walked by and dropped a folded paper in front of Kate. She winked at him- but he was already gone. Skimming it once, she folded the note and placed it in her pocket.

She had a car take her back to the hotel for time's sake, and she quickly returned to her room. After checking it over with her gun in her hand, she allowed herself to relax and, haphazardly strewing her clothes around the room- she made her way to the shower. Kate rarely relaxed. Not anymore. If she was conscious, her mind was usually racing, with only a very few exceptions. Today was no different.

Set up this new business in Detroit, put together this meeting, write the paper in the next few days, check in with this new associate, reform this process, amend these standards, plan this job for tonight, consider how to best use this influence if we do win over the ambassador, I miss Mercedes...

That last thought hit her like she'd been punched in the stomach. She hadn't missed someone in a long time. She had friends she truly cared about. But to miss them after spending a whole day with them?

It was an uncomfortable feeling- a vulnerable feeling. Ten years ago she'd end the relationship immediately to protect herself. Now? Kate toweled off, staring at herself in the mirror. She was going to break up with Mercedes. Either that or ask her to move in. For now, she tried to clear her mind as she quickly dressed and headed downstairs to the front desk, where she picked up the note from Mercedes.

Sighing, Kate sat a bench outside and waiting for Mercedes to appear, unable to quiet her thoughts. And she hadn't worn a goddamn dress since she was 15...

The car service drops Mercedes off at the curb, and at the sight of Kate sitting on a bench looking perturbed, she smiled. She knew that look. It was an 'I don't wanna' look. Mercedes had been sporting it all the way back in the car, container of cow's blood on her lap. Every time the driver turned a corner, it sloshed around and she'd had to suppress her gag reflex. Seeing the look now on Kate's face, she assumed it was either because 1) she was absolutely not looking forward to sex with Bullitt, or 2) she was going to have to wear a dress.

"Ick. I need to go put this somewhere," she says, holding up the bag o'blood between pinched fingers. "Wanna grab a bite? Or shop? Maybe a drink, then shop?" she asks, trying to make things easier.

Kate sighed.

"Blood first. Then maybe a couple shots. Then shop. Then eat and drink. Sound like a plan?"

Kate hesitated, looking at Mercedes for a few seconds and imagining breaking up with her. Sitting her down. Explaining that she was getting too attached. The scooped out feeling in Kate's stomach and the coldness in her heart physically repulsed her... but so did being vulnerable. Or someone using Mercedes to hurt her. Or Kate dying and hurting Mercedes. Fuck.

"Uh- I need a few shots if we're wearing dresses. It's been a long time."

Mercedes' smile falters a bit. Something was off.

'Uh. Well, I'll run this up to the room. Want to meet in the bar?" she asks uncertainly. When Kate agrees, they enter the hotel and Kate splits off to the left, where the lobby bar is located, while Mercedes continues straight to the elevators. As she makes her way to their floor, she stares at the bag, unsure how to keep the blood...fresh? As the elevator doors open, inspiration hits and she fetches some ice from the ice machine and then fills the bathroom basin with it, snuggling the container within the ice. 

Returning downstairs and heading into the large, dark bar, she can see that Kate has already gotten a head start, if the empty shot glasses in front of her were any indication. 

Yeah. Something was very off. Sitting down next to Kate, she asks the bartender for a couple shots herself. Wordlessly, she knocks back one, then the next before turning to face Kate.

'Okay, I'm ready. As ready as I'll ever be, anyway. Let's hear it," she says. 

Kate felt her stomach clench, then warm, as the alcohol hit it. That... was probably enough for now. Didn't want to lose her footing, especially in a strange place. She patted Mercedes once on the shoulder as she tilts her head toward the door, and Mercedes quickly did the other shot before following. Kate smirked as they both hit the sidewalk. 

"I'll be fine. Just lots on my mind. Let's get this shopping thing over with, huh? I haven't worn a dress in... sixteen years. Not since my mother- well, long story. But seems like there's not too many women walking around here in pants, and we're hitting a fancy place, so I get it."

Kate raised an eyebrow.

"So what's the deal? You pick mine and I pick yours? Lead on."

Two American women wearing pants walk into a French boutique.

It sounds like the beginning of a silly joke, and it is. The looks they receive from the upper crust Parisian women are laughable on their own, but Mercedes and Kate will most certainly make it worse. It's...what they do.

Mercedes hits the racks first, grabbing an armload of dresses that may or may not fit. Kate does the same, and they take them to the dressing room, where the woman in charge attempts to split them up into two separate rooms. 

"Oh, no, Madame. We'll be sharing a dressing room," she says, loudly. "We share everything," she adds as she pushes her way past the flustered, red-cheeked clerk. Smirking, Kate follows her and tips a wink at the woman, further reddening her cheeks. Laughing, Mercedes closes the curtain and makes an ordeal of stripping off garments and flinging them over the curtain rail for all to see. She turns to pick up a random dress to try on when a gold glint catches her eye. Pulling the dress out slowly, she turns toward Kate and holds it up to her. 

"This. You. Oh, God, Katie. You. In. This. See if it fits!" 

As the curtain closes, Kate leans forward, laughing, and kisses Mercedes. 

"Kind of freeing being in a place where no one knows you. Don't need to worry so much about expressing my affection publicly."

Kate stared at the dress for a moment. It was just strange. Like someone who'd lived in Siberia wearing shorts... after decades. But hell, she was committed. And a bit tipsy, which was probably a good thing. Kate could feel Mercedes's eyes on her and she felt herself warm from more than the alcohol.

Working together in Detroit was... difficult. They were both so busy, they only rarely got a chance to meet for long. Often, Mercedes would make her way over to The Paragon Tower in the middle of the night, they'd maul each other, and one would be gone in the morning before the other woke up. This trip was so different. They'd probably spent more time together in the past 24 hours with clothes on then the previous week or two in Detroit.... which made Kate want to be with Mercedes even more.

She took a breath, clearing her thoughts again as she carefully hung up her jacket- gun inside- on a hook on the wall. 

"Hey. Merc."

Kate spoke softly, her voice was practically purring. She took a few steps toward the other woman, unbuttoning her white shirt as she went as she lightly chewed on her lower lip.  With her thumbs tucked into the front of her pants, she moved within a few inches of Mercedes, who stared as Kate as the blonde reached her arms around her neck and  began kissing Mercedes intently, reaching her hands around to grab her. When Kate spoke again her voice was covered in silk- and nothing else.

"Merc. We should go to..."

Mercedes's reply was entirely businesslike.

"You're not getting out of wearing the dress."

"Oh Gawd damn it!". Kate practically growled as she ripped the dress from Mercedes's hands. Shooting Mercedes an angry glare every few seconds, Kate, flipped through all the other dresses, pausing occasionally, until finding one she liked. 

"Purple. Color of royalty. Fitting, since you're bossing me around."

Kate watched Mercedes try it on out of the corner of her eye while she struggled with the gold dress that Mercedes had given her. 

Looking in the mirror as they stood side by side, Mercedes couldn't help but smile. They looked really, really good. Unless this Bullitt guy was strictly into men, he didn't stand a chance. And even if he was...glancing quickly at Kate in the mirror, she reddened a bit. She herself had once though she was strictly into men. 

Now, there was only Kate.

"I think we're set. You know, if we were upstanding citizens, these dresses," she glances down at the exorbitant pricetag, "could be written off as business expenses. Where to next?"

Kate looked at Mercedes, first in the mirror and then in person. Smirking, she traced a single finger along the edge of the dress where it plunged down.

"I like my choice. That rack of yours is either going to get his attention- or get us arrested."

Kate glanced at herself in the mirror, somewhat grimacing.

"Me, however... I mean, I love the dress you picked. I just feel... like not myself. This is going to be very strange for me."

She walked as much as she could around the small room.

"It just... fuck, Merc... you're sure I look okay like this?"

"Are you kidding?!? You look like a million dollars. By comparison, I look like the loose change dug out of a car's ashtray. The blond and the tan and the gold are all doing this sparkly reflective offset thing. You look like you're glowing from the inside," she says. "And honestly, I think it best we don't feel like ourselves this evening. Under the circumstances, I'd like to mentally distance myself from as much of this evening's antics as possible." she says, disgust passing over her face.

Kate beamed a genuine smile for a few moments before a businesslike facade returned.

"Yeah. We'll just have to see what happens, I guess. Focus on each other. I know what you're saying, about not feeling like our selves. I mean, it's gotta be him though, right? And he's not... that bad. Younger than I thought based on your description. I mean, it might be fun, ya know?"

Kate sighs looking into the mirror, thinking for several moments. Mercedes looked a little concerned at the silence as she saw several emotions play across Kate's face over a couple minutes. Suddenly, Kate snapped, snarling and punching the mirror with her left fist, leaving a shattered wall of cracked webs behind her.

Stopping only to grab her jacket, Kate half walked and half ran out through the store, throwing several bills at the woman at the counter before quickly moving outside.

Mercedes was shocked by the display and, after a few moments, collected her things and her thoughts to follow after Kate- barely stopping to pay for her dress as well. When Mercedes reached the sidewalk, she saw a park across the street where a naked back and a glint of gold in the afternoon sun caught her eye. She walked towards Kate, but Mercedes couldn't help but freeze as she realized what was happening.

Mercedes had seen Kate exhausted and worn down. She'd seen her physically vulnerable, but no matter what sort of physical pain she was in- Kate had never cracked. She'd killed men and women without blinking, made life or death calls, and generally carried herself like she was an indefatigable, unbeatable machine who was always in control. And so it took Mercedes a moment or two to process what she was seeing.

Kate Logan was crying.

Mercedes jaywalked across a traffic-laden street, horns honking and pissed off Parisians yelling French obscenities at her through open car windows. The dress was tight, so her stride was shortened and she felt ridiculous. But that was nothing compared to the awful gnawing sensation in her gut. It had appeared in the bar and sat idling during the shopping. Now it grew to uncomfortable proportions and without knowing why, her eyes started to water. As she approached Kate, she touched her lightly on her bare shoulder. 

"It's me, isn't it? Us. You can't do it. You're scared, you're worried, you're over thinking everything you do, because of me. I'm making you weak, vulnerable," she says, kneeling down to face Kate directly. 

"I knew the risks going in. I can live with them. But you...you can't, if it takes away from who you need to be for your crew, for Detroit..." she trails off, waiting for Kate to put her thoughts into words. 

She thought this day couldn't get any worse. 

She was wrong.

Kate looked up at Mercedes and locked eyes for a few moments before glancing away.

"Yea, it's us.

I just... I feel... hurt. I can't remember feeling like this. I built myself up, and it's like I've been walking around with armor my whole life. And now I'm just... soft."

Kate reaches down and picks up one of Mercedes's hands. When she spoke, it was with a small, quiet voice.

"There's a part of me that is fucking pissed at you for putting me through this. My life has never been easy, but it used to be simple. And now it's not."

Mercedes looks up at Kate's face; the blonde seems to be fighting an inner battle with herself: she's crying, but she's not letting it break her voice- but it's increasingly straining under the emotion.

"I can't go through with this tonight. And I hate myself for it. But I can't lie. I thought about you and this guy together and I just started getting angry... and then I imagined what would happen if one of us ever got pregnant and I just got fucking enraged. And then I got even worse, because I realized that I wasn't just pissed... I was jealous that some fucking guy got to have a kid with you and I didn't, which is just all kinds of fucking stupid for so many reasons obviously. So I thought about having a family with you- and I'm not supposed to be thinking about shit like that. I should have been fucking dead by now- like twenty times over. With my line of work I shouldn't even be dating. So I keep getting torn up because I think this is a giant mistake that will end in one or both of us being miserable. And then I think about being apart from you and it gets even worse. So I'm trapped."

After the flood of words, Kate pulls Mercedes on the bench to sit beside her and takes both her hands.

"I've spent all day today planning on different ways that I could break up with you, either here or when we get back. So I think I just need to be honest. When I told you I loved you, back in the penthouse... I didn't really mean it. I thought I did at the time. I wanted to fuck you, I had fun with you, and I didn't want you to be sad. I thought that was love, but it isn't."

Kate closes her eyes- it's almost like she's unable to speak the words and look at Mercedes at the same time because it would break.

"But I do love you. Really love you. And it's scaring the shit out of me.

I don't want to do this job tonight. Not the way we planned. I want to just get him on drugs or something and try to trick him.

She sniffed.

And then I want to go home, and I want you to move in with me at the penthouse. I... want to be with you as much as I can until the end. Even if it breaks me.

Kate finally made eye contact with Mercedes.

When Kate finally looks at Mercedes, she sees a weepy mess. Mascara is running down her face, most of her hair has fallen loose and is blowing haphazardly in the breeze, and her bottom lip is trembling uncontrollably. She bites it for a moment, trying to speak past the lump in her throat. A garbled half-word escapes, so she bites down again. Instead, she leans forward, wrapping her arms around Kate's shoulders and tucking her face into her neck. Breathing deeply, she inhales Kate's scent, and it calms her enough to enable her to say something. Sort of.

"Nnkkay."

Kate desperately held Mercedes, determined not to let her go. They remained like that for a while, Kate's face buried in Mercedes's neck until Mercedes said something and got them back on track. For now, she was content.

With a huge effort, Mercedes composes herself and absently wipes at her nose and eyes with the backs of her hands. Tucking her hair behind her ears, she looks again at Kate, who seems as emotionally rundown as she feels herself. Sunlight is glinting off her gown. She looks like a fallen star.

"What we'd planned to do tonight, I would have gone through with it. Ten times over, if you'd asked me to. I didn't want to, but I'd have done it. Closed my eyes, pictured you in my head...it's you I'd have been fucking, Katie. But I am SO glad we're not proceeding as planned. Hell, I bet even the cow's blood is rancid by now," she lets out a huge sigh. 

"Let's go back to the hotel. We can work something else out before the afternoon's over. 

"Can we keep the dresses?"

 Kate nodded about the dresses as they both stood and headed, hand in hand, to find the cab. They'd have a couple hours to regroup in the hotel room and regain their focus. Then it would be time to work. 

An odd sight, indeed...two women walking hand in hand down the sidewalk in Paris in the middle of the day in evening gowns, completely disheveled. As they approach the hotel entrance, the doorman does a double take before grabbing the door handle and opening it for them. Once inside, they make their way towards to elevators and up to their room, where both change into clothing they're more accustomed to...Kate in pants, Mercedes in a robe. They each sit on the bed and stare at each other for a few moments. 

"Okay. Shifting gears here. Drugs, do we have any? I've got, like, less than an ounce of coke in my bag," she says, looking a bit chastised at Kate's disapproving glance.

"But other than that, unless we can get with Noto's contacts here, I'm not sure what to do. How does one 'score' in Paris?"

Kate immediately went to the bathroom and wiped off her face before returning to the main room.

"Look... just before we do anything... you can't tell anyone else about any of this, okay? Today... this has to stay between you and me, Merc. I'm not saying- I'm just saying that I don't want anyone else to know. Please."

She smirked.

"I'll buy you silence however you have to. And drugs? I've got no idea. We could always just get him really drunk. The problem is that we could guaranteed he's sleeping here with our previous plan of the double seduction."

She pauses, a little uncomfortable.

"I- just to be clear. God, this sounds so shitty. I really, really don't want to do this, and I would love for you to find some kind of knockout drug. But if I have to, I could always just handle him myself. I know that's not a fair double standard, that I'm so jealous that the thought of you being with someone else makes me physically ill- and I'm assuming you feel the same- and that I'm saying this. I'm just saying that if all our other plans fail, we've got to get him passed out in the room for a couple hours so we can set up the "murder scene" and get a few incriminating pictures."

She looks at Mercedes unflinchingly. The vulnerability may still be there, but she's pushed it as far down as it'll go.

"I don't like talking about this, of course. Can we find another way to make sure he's conked out for a few hours? Basically, I'm thinking we keep the same plan. Lure him in with the idea of the threesome, get him to dismiss any security and come here alone, then make sure he's out cold before we'd have to go too far. Then we can still do the blood thing, and make it seem like we've got him for a murder."