Crap, thinks Mercedes. This wasn't gonna take long...each woman was wearing a single article of clothing. Maybe if they went reaaaalllyyy slow, he'd keep drinking without even being aware that he was doing it. 

Mercedes makes a show of it, turning Kate toward Bullitt and positioning herself behind her. Ever so slowly, she kneels down behind Kate (there...drinking his first shot), and rising slowly as she caresses Kate's legs on her way up. She stops at the waist, moving her hands forward and across her stomach, and then upwards, stopping short of her breasts. Teasingly (for who at this point, she's not entirely sure...but Bullitt has already swallowed shot number two), she traces her fingertip along the neckline of Kate's gown. Bullitt is nearly panting, but so are the women. Returning to Kate's back, she slowly unzips the gown...but before it starts to slip to the ground, she stops.

Time to push her luck, she thinks.

"Bonus round, William. One shot for each inch of Katherine you'd like to see," she says, but before she even finishes speaking, Bullitt is annihilating the whiskey. Mercedes loses count after four swallows. 

Kate tilts back her head and arches her back as Mercedes lays her hands on her. The redhead, no doubt, could feel her practically shiver in desire. As Bullitt continues drinking, Kate turns her back to him. Mercedes takes several deep breaths before she's lost in Kate's icy blue-grey eyes. Mercedes is so lost that she barely hears Kate as she speaks.

"How about this, William? You keep drinking and I keep going. When I'm done, you can join in..."

He responds by taking a long drink- and Kate immediately banishes him from her universe. Right now, there's just Mercedes. She slinks a few steps toward the other woman and  leans in for a kiss as she feels Mercedes's hands on her. Moving fast, Kates raises both hands and slides the straps off Mercedes's dress and pushes her back on the bed as she hears William start to unbuckle his pants. Striding back to him, Kate grabs the bottle and takes a long drink from it herself.

"William, watch as you drink this. When you're done, you can join us."

Winking, she returns to Mercedes. Climbing onto the bed like a lioness stalking her prey, Kate approaches Mercedes as William desperately drinks. chugs the bottle.

Kate returns her attention to Mercedes and kisses her once, deeply, as Mercedes reaches up and reflexively grabs Kate's hips. When the two women make eye contact, Mercedes immediately realizes that the drugs are starting to affect Kate- there is an emptiness behind her eyes. Kate leans forward and whispers.

"Finish. the job. Sorry had to drink it. Only way."

William had his pants off and was trying to step out of them when he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, starting to go under. Mercedes looked up at Kate as the woman on top of her kissed her a single time before sliding forward on her, falling into a deeply medicated sleep.

Mercedes hugs Kate to her and rolls, putting Kate on her back. Without thinking about it consciously, she pulls the duvet over her, although Bullitt is now slumped and, ewww, drooling as he starts drifting off to sleep. Readjusting her dress, she pulls Bullitt's arm over her shoulders and manhandles him towards the bed. It takes several tries but she finally gets him atop it. Visually checking every few seconds on Kate's breathing, she pulls off Bullitt's clothing and tosses a corner of bedsheet across his groin. Looking forlornly at her purse, she pulls the cow's blood out and opens the lid on the container. 

Sorry, Katie. I'll make it up to you, she thinks as she pulls the duvet back down and drenches Kate's neck and chest area. Gagging only once, she grabs a Polaroid camera out of her bag and begins snapping a dozen compromising photos. Placing them on the nightstand to develop, she paces back and forth impatiently, arms crossed. The urge to clean up Kate and drag her out of there was almost unbearable, but they'd come this far...

Several stressful hours later, Bullitt starts making strange, groaning noises as he attempts to wake up. Thinking fast, Mercedes places her switchblade in his hand and grabs Kate's revolver out of her handbag. Training it on Bullitt, she notices that Kate is coming around as well. When her eyes land on Mercedes, she closes them again quickly, continuing to play possum. As Bullitt comes more fully awake, he stares at Mercedes, at the knife in his hand, and finally, at a blood-drenched Kate.

"What..."

"Shut the fuck up," Mercedes says, cutting him off. "You killed her, you piece of shit," she says, voice full of venom. "I suppose you're under the impression you can use your position of Ambassador to make this all 'go away', but you're quite wrong about that," she says, motioning towards the snapshots. "You're my bitch now, William Bullitt. Whenever I call, whatever I ask for, you will do it. Without question or hesitation. Otherwise, you will find yourself brought up on rape and murder charges. Not sure of the death penalty here, but for a self-important man like yourself, I imagine even life in prison would be unbearable. 

"So. Do we understand each other?"

Bullitt is staring at her open-mouthed, most likely hearing maybe half of what she's said, but the point has been driven home. 

"Ye...yes. Yes. My wife...she can't...no. I'll do anything to keep this quiet, please. But how do I know you won't change your mind, and send out those photographs tomorrow?"

Mercedes exhales sharply. "As a good faith gesture, I'll dispose of the farmgirl here. I'll leave the room for you to worry about...I'm sure you've got people well rehearsed for that kind of thing," she says. "Now get yourself out of here. Take your wife to breakfast or something. I need an hour or two to get her out of here," she says, motioning towards Kate once more. 

"Go!"

After the door slammed, Kate waited perhaps a minute before opening her eyes. She realized that she was covered in blood and choked down the urge to vomit. Her voice, still somewhat drunk and somewhat drugged, was much smaller than usual.

"Mercedes... did we... did we get him?"

"Yea, Kate. We got him."

Kate sighed, resting her head once again and, for a moment, it looked like she was going back to sleep. Then her eyes burst open and she sprinted to the bathroom and slammed the door. Mercedes heard the unmistakable sound of vomiting- then a shower running. For a long, long time.

As Kate showers, Mercedes collects the photographs and stuffs them into her handbag. When Kate emerges from the bathroom, they grab their handbags and beat a hasty retreat using the fire escape and a waiting car in the alley below. Once back at the hotel, both climb out of the dresses and each takes a very hot, very long shower. It is Kate's second in an hour's time. 

They haven't spoken a word or even made eye contact. With any luck at all, this would benefit them both for years to come, but right now, Mercedes wonders if it isn't more like a toxic chemical crawling through the bloodstream of their relationship.

Once showered, both fall into a very deep sleep, one that lasts most of the day.

Kate woke up with a start. Her head was on Mercedes's shoulder and her leg was strewn over the other woman. Sighing contentedly, she stayed there for a few moments, thinking. Finally sitting up and stretching, she took the sheet that had apparently fallen off the bed and wrapped it around her. Resembling a Greek goddess of upper class thread counts, Kate quietly made her way across the room and dialed a number on the phone. She spoke quietly and directly in a brief conversation before returning to the bed and laying down next to Mercedes. Picking up the redhead's hand, she kissed it until Mercedes began to stir. When her eyes opened, Kate was staring at her with a smile.

"Hey. We need to talk."

Mercedes startles and turns to Kate, grateful that the blonde in her nightmare was no longer doused in blood.

Both relieved and repulsed at what they'd had to do, she swallows hard and attempts a believable smile.

"Kid gloves, Sweetheart. I think I'm fragile but I want to hear what you need to say," she says. Katie was like a keg of dynamite...the boom was powerfully addictive but could blow off your extremeties without warning.

Kate leaned forward and kissed Mercedes on the cheek.

"I- uh- know this has been hard for you. And I feel kind of guilty of making you go through all of this... with me... and everything. I'm just saying that it surprised me, too. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Billie's show isn't for a few more days. I just booked us a train to the Riviera. How do a couple days of you and me at the beach- just us, no work- sound?"

Mercedes exhales a breath she'd been unaware of holding. Smiling, she answers.

"That sounds perfect."

She then remembers something she's been carrying with her the entire trip, waiting for the right time. This seemed like that time. Pulling a decorative case out of her bag, she passes it to Kate. When Kate opens the lid, her eyes widen noticeably.

There's a pristine Smith & Wesson .38 Special inside. 

"I can't give you the traditional engagement ring, but I thought you'd, I dunno. Want to retire the piece your father gave you. Maybe I can be your family now," she says quietly. 

With that, she leans over and kisses Kate one last time in 'La Ville-Lumière'.

Kate froze as she opened the box as she tried to think of the last time someone had given her a gift like this. For a moment, she just looked at the gun, then at Mercedes. 

"Merc, I..."

She reached down and picked up the gun, studying it in the light and appreciating the long barrel.

"It's beautiful. Just like you. But-"

There were a lot of things that could come after that "but".

But I've used the same gun since I was 16. But I've had that gun just about my whole life. But no one other than my father and I have held that gun since the 1880s. But I didn't get you a present. But it's not even Christmas. But what if I'm just not as good with this gun?

"Merc. I...

Kate took out her 1873 Colt Single Action Army and held it it her hands, the barrel reaching up towards the ceiling.

"I've told you my father was an outlaw. When I was 15, when my mother died, my father came back into my life. When I was 16 I started shooting this gun every day until I was competent. Then good. Then great. And every day when I was done, I had to hand it back to him. He didn't give it to me until I was 20. He was dying- and he didn't want to die in a bed- so he had me kill him with that gun. And the whole time I was bouncing through the Southwest to Vegas, from Vegas to Chicago, from Chicago to Detroit- and everything that's happened since I got here... I'm the only person who's ever even touched it. I've been through a lot of a shit and killed a lot of people- and that gun has been under my pillow every night. So when you tell me to retire it, it's hard for me to comprehend that. It'd be like losing a part of myself."

Mercedes started to speak and Kate silenced her with a look. Wordlessly, Kate empty the rounds from the cylinder and snapped it back into place. Her gaze lingering on it for an extra long moment, Kate turn the gun and held it by the barrel, offering the handle to Mercedes.