"I'm actually on the prowl myself, although for business, not pleasure. My father owns a real estate company. He sends me here to try to make connections, since most of the people here have money to spend on a new place."

Kathryn grinned.

"Don't suppose you're on the market? In the market, I mean. I could show you some houses that may interest you, if you were looking to upgrade from your current living situation."

Grace giggled to herself and then shook her head, "Sorry, just the idea that your father sends you out looking like that on the prowl...." She blushed again and quickly back peddled, "I don't mean like that... You're lovely. You look lovely. I mean..."She smacked her hand into her face. "Oh for fucks sake, Grace. Can you just stop being you for two seconds?" She muttered to herself before taking a deep breath and lowering her hand. "What I mean to say is, sounds interesting. As it was, I'm currently looking for an office space of sorts." She said before pulling open her clutch and grabbing two business cards. "If you know of anything, please get in touch." She said before handing one over to the new woman and Olive. "But, I think I've been in one place long enough. I should mingle. And who knows, maybe some rich fuck will keel over and I'll get to save his life and charge a premium for it." she laughed and then shook her head, "Sorry, Im a bit morbid at times." She said sheepishly. "Lovely to meet the both of you, I hope you have a good evening." She told them both before smiling and then making a graceful exit to mingle with the others of the party. 

The two remaining women exchange a look. 

Very interesting, indeed!

As Kathryn follows suit to bait the mark, Merci turns back to the bar and knocks back her drink. Circumventing the mass of people, she walks along the edge of the wall to re-enter the hallway, tucking herself into a relatively out-of-sight position that gives her visual access to the room Kathryn should be entering. 

Moments later, she does just that, arm linked onto that of the mark, who can't seem to dislodge his eyeballs from her cleavage.

And here she though the leg slit would do him in. Ah, well. Must be a tit man.

Kathryn promptly started moving slowly in the direction of the target, who was speaking to a couple other middle aged men. She could feel his eyes on her as she studied the inscription on one of the many columns surrounding the room. She looked around, the nervous expression on her face playing him like a fiddle. He quickly excused himself from the group and made his way over to her.

Slightly greying hair. Still in good shape. A silver fox... but with a kind face. Fuck. This is why Merci never got close. She buried her thoughts and smiled at him as he approached.

"'evening, Miss. I couldn't help but notice that you looked a bit lost."

Kathryn giggled nervously.

"Is it that obvious? I've never been to one of these before... I guess I'm just nervous. My parents gave me the tickets and I was supposed to go with a friend, but she had to cancel. Uh, my name is Kathryn."

"Well let me tell you, Kathryn, these things are overrated. Just an excuse for a bunch of rich folks to drink. My name is Paul. Would you like me to show you around? I've been to so many of these, it'd be a nice distraction."

"That... that would be very nice of you, Paul- but I don't want to take you away from everything else here."

"Nonsense. It'd be my pleasure."

"Well... okay, if you're sure.

They strolled around the party for quite a while. Paul was obviously trying to impress her, and Kathryn was eager to look impressed. She also played a game she hadn't since college: slowly accelerating the amount of eye contact, lightly touching his arm for a moment... she laughed, perhaps a bit louder than she'd anticipated. Had she been drinking too fast? Paul reached out and placed a domineering hand on her shoulder as they walked. Kathryn could only hope that Merci was trailing behind as she walked closely next to Paul; she then expertly stumbled on her heel and reached an arm around his waist to catch herself. They both laughed as she apologized for her clumsiness. Paul leaned forward and whispered in her ear; Kathryn's went wide for a moment, but then she nodded hesitantly.

She steered him, letting him think he was in control, as they made their way toward the room Merci had discussed. 

There they went, into the room. So far, so good. Merci chalked up the cloying sense of doom to the fact that this wasn't her forte, and she really hated social situations. 

She edged closer to the doorway while continually scanning the hall. Every minute or so she pressed her back to the wall firmly enough to reassure herself that her gun was still there. Just in case. 

Without warning, the door was suddenly shut.

Not part of the plan. After several interminable minutes of indecision, Merci picked up an abandoned champagne flute and threw it, hoping to break up the grope fest long enough for Kathryn to do what she needed to do. That was what she told herself, anyway. The fact that she was angry was something she'd have to address later.

As she walked into the room to stand next to the piano, he closed the doors behind them and she pretended not to notice, plinking away at the keys and leaving her wine glass and her purse on the small table near the piano. He placed his own glass down next to hers before approaching her from behind and kissing her neck and shoulder.

A part of her couldn't help but shiver. She hadn't been kissed in months, not since her father's funeral. Every time she felt tense and full of energy she simply worked until she was exhausted. But here, she forced herself not to get distracted, even as he told her how beautiful she was. She heard a breaking glass outside; he wanted to check it out, but she said something about drunk people- and he didn't need much persuading.

She arched her back and murmured compliments, knowing that as he kissed her shoulder he could now see down the front of her dress. She reached up around his neck, keeping him there, even as she felt his pressure against her back. She did not want to kiss this man, didn't want to think about how she was going to end his life. Instead, she imagined that it was Merci behind her- Merci, who would use a more expert tongue to glide up her her shoulder blade... she shivered again, this time exaggerating the motion so he could feel her desire- hopefully sending the message that he should stay where he was. Kathryn felt his hands, which had been on her waist, rove over her, first rising to her breasts and lingering there before sliding down to her thighs. It was when he started to pull up her dress that she made her move. 

She pulled away quickly, scampering behind the piano and laughing , laughing so he knew that he'd done nothing wrong. She spoke coyly, tempting him onward.

"You... you are very bad. And very good."

She flashed a sultry smile, one that she knew was irresistible. 

"Close your eyes. I have a surprise for you. And turn around, so I know you're not peeking."

He turned around- he had no choice. It was a matter of seconds to place the poison in his glass and hide it back in her purse. But now what the fuck did she do? She had to do something worthwhile... or he'd be suspicious about having to close his eyes. She ran through multiple possible exit plans in her head. 

Spilling her wine on one or both of them... probably wouldn't matter. If he was like most men, that wouldn't even slow him down. What else could she do without setting off alarm bells for him and shutting down his sex drive? 

In a panicked moment, she had her answer.

With only a small cacophany of sound, Kathryn closed the top of the grand piano and climbed up on it. Laying on one side, feel her dress strain, Kathryn positioned herself and kicked off her shoes. 

"Okay. Turn around. And get up here."

Paul grinned like a schoolboy.

"On the piano?"

She nodded. And silently apologized to himself. She began repositioning herself as she approached, like she was moving to prepare to open her legs... and as he moved toward her on the piano she shifted and slipped, in a way that hopefully seemed accidental, and kneed him in the crotch.

His cursing was enough to show that she hadn't missed.

"Oh fuck.... shit.... FUCK!..."

"OHmygod! I'm SO sorry!"

"It's... it's fine... fuck...."

"Here, drink this- maybe it'll dull the pain?"

Tenuous logic. Kathryn hoped he wouldn't throw the glass across the room- but he chugged it.

"Paul, I'm so sorry. Can I take you back to the party? Get you some ice?"

He nodded and walked gingerly toward the door. Kathryn helped him initially, but as he turned into the hallway she made an excuse about forgetting her purse. Cursing, he just continued back toward the party. This time when Kathryn emerged from the room, Merci was there- and she did not look happy. Kathryn just popped her eyebrows at her. At least it was over.

Looping her arm through Kathryn's, Merci leaned into her and went from stone cold sober to drunk as shit before her very eyes. As they exited the hallway, Kathryn looked to be practically carrying her friend to the door to get her safely into a cab as someone called out behind them. 

"Oh, my God, he's choking! Someone do something!" 

Smiling, Merci straightens without so much as turning her head in the direction of the shouting and frantic pleas. She keeps hold of Kathryn's arm as they exit the building and make their way down the stairs.

Things in life never go the way you expect them to, unfortunately. Merci was busy mentally patting herself, and Kathryn, on the back when out of nowhere, some blonde asshole stepped in front of them with a gun and fired.

Grace heard the panicked cry and pushed her way through the crowd of people around the man. "For fucks sake, move out of the way I'm a god damn doctor!" she practically yelled as she dug her elbows into the elite of Philadelphia. She managed to break free, and dropped to her knees next to the body. "Right, this shouldn't be too hard," she said to herself while wondering if those drinks were going to bite her in the ass. She turned the man's head and stuck her fingers in his mouth fishing out oddly enough an olive. She blinked in surprised but then dropped it to the ground next to him. "Breathe damn you," she muttered as she dragged his body up to a sitting position and tried to do the Heimlich on him.

Nothing was working so she looked around, frantically as his face turned darker and he clawed at his throat. "Knife!" she shouted to the people surrounding them. "God damn it, stop gawking and someone get me a knife and a pen!" she yelled before waving her arms a bit. She pulled at the man's tie and undid the first few buttons on his shirt. "I'm not normally so forward," she told the now unconscious body in front of her. "But desperate times call for desperate measures." She sat back on her heels and yelled again, "Where the hell is the knife?" before someone ran up to her and place it, and a pen in her hand. "Thank you." she managed to say before leaning forward again. 

She eyed up the man's throat wondering if an emergency tracheotomy was even going to do anything for him. "Well, here goes nothing." She said with a grimace before placing the steel blade to his throat and slicing in. Some of the onlookers gasped or swore, at least one high society broad fainted. But she couldn't be bothered with that, she was focused on saving the man's life. "Just a bit more..." she whispered as she pressed harder on the knife. She was just about done when a shot rang out and her whole body jerked, causing her to effectively, and accidently slit open the man's throat. "No!" she cried, "Fuck! SOMEONE GET ME SOME TOWELS!" she yelled out as she tossed the knife off to the side and wondered if he was going to make it. 

Merci shifted her weight hard and to the left in an effort to move Kathryn out of the line of fire. As a result, the bullet sunk into the meat of her bicep as Kathryn spilled to the ground at her feet. More from shock or blood loss rather than any act of valor, Merci then lands on top of Kathryn clumsily as the blonde assailant stands there above them, unsure of how to proceed. Realizing his target is blocked and a crowd is gathering, he takes off into the night, but not before Merci has memorized his face. 

"Friend of yours?" she asks Kathryn before her eyes roll backwards into her pale face.

"Merci!"

That was all Kathryn could manage; her hand instinctively went to her purse for her gun, but it wasn't there. By the time she remembered Merci's gun hidden on her back, the shooter was gone. Kathryn was not particularly strong, so it took her a couple attempts to roll Merci off her without cracking her head on the stone steps. 

"Merci... Merci... you okay?"

Kathryn continues holding the back of Merci's head to keep it from the ground, even as she seems to lose consciousness. Merci's left arm is bleeding... but so her left side, near her hip. There is a lot of blood- far more than Kathryn has ever seen. She yells out toward the crowd.

"Doctor! Get a doctor!"

She reaches down and tries to pat Merci's cheek.

"Merci... wake up... you're going to be fine... wake up..."

Grace had her fingers to the man's neck and shook her head as his pulse slowed, fluttered and then stopped completely. "He's gone," she said softly before pushing herself to her feet. She looked down at him with regret, feeling as if it was her fault that his life had been cut short. "Somone call the po..." she was cut off as yet another cry for a doctor made its way through the building. The crowd around her started buzzing like a nest of hornets as they speculated what was going on. "And into the fray, I go." she thought to herself as she made her way through the crowd, not nearly as upbeat as she had been previously. Not once did the words, "I'm a doctor, let me pass." come from her mouth. She just figured it wasn't much to brag about at this point, what with the corpse on the floor behind her. 

She got outside and looked around, before a woman grabbed her arm, "You have to help her." the woman gasped before pointing at Olive on the floor. 

"Holy shit," Grace said before dropping down once more and looking at the arm. "What happened? Was this the gun shot?" she asked the other woman who's name she couldn't remember. She looked around, "She's losing a lot of blood. Can you help me carry her to a taxi?" she asked the woman who didn't look like she could lift anything heavier than a wine glass. "I know where we can take her." she said, "but if you want to save her, we've got to get out of here," she added just as police sirens started sounding in the distance. "And I need to get out of here before those guys show up," she said as her face went white, realizing that she may have to explain to the police that she didn't mean to murder a man, she had been trying to help. 

She crouched down and got Olive's arm over her shoulder and rose slightly, bearing most of the woman's weight. "This," she grunted, "Would go a lot smoother if you got the other side," she told the woman who was just standing there. Once the stranger had a grip on the other side they made their way awkwardly down the stairs to a cab that was waiting at the curb. They gingerly set her inside and Grace got in the front seat. Giving an address to the man, they sped off towards her work. 

Kathryn sat next to Merci in the back seat of the cab, trying- and largely failing- to process the situation. They were in a cab, not an ambulance. Grace... didn't want the cops around? What the hell was happening?

It didn't matter. Kathryn did something she hadn't done in months and simply switched off her brain. She sat with Merci's head resting against her shoulder. She tried to press the fabric of her dress against Merci's side, but who knows if it was making a difference. Mostly, she just talked to Merci, telling her she was going to be okay, occasionally cursing at her for taking the bullet, but mostly just telling her she was going to be fine.

She just hoped the hospital was close.

After a few blocks the hospital came into view. "Go around back to the loading dock," she told the driver. She pulled a hair tie out of her purse and quickly twisted it into a bun on the top of her head. She turned around in her seat and looked at the woman who seemed to be devoid of emotion. "Look, once we get in we're going to have to be quick. We're going to have to carry her a bit further, but then once we find an empty gurney we should be able to get up to my office rather quickly. Keep your head down and don't talk to anyone, ok?" she told the woman just as the cab slowed to a stop. She got out and moved around to the back door and pulled it open. Supporting most of the unconscious woman's weight again, she leaned against the cab and waited for the stranger to help her. Just as they were about to make their way into the building she leaned down and told the driver to wait there, "I'll pay you when I get back," she told him before they turned and headed into the building. 

It was the lower level of the hospital, but there was luckily a few gurneys down there already. She didn't have the heart to tell the woman who commented on their good luck that these were down here because people had died. She just helped get Olive on the gurney and started pushing it towards the elevator. "Wait..." she said mostly to herself but then instead of getting on the elevator she turned left and headed towards the morgue. 

The other woman saw the signs and started asking questions, "Where are you taking her? She's not dead yet. You said you could help her!" all the while holding on to the woman's hand and helping push the gurney. Regardless of what they wanted Grace to believe previously, these two were not strangers. 

"Look, getting her up to my office is a risk. Do you want to answer questions about why your friend was shot? Do you think she wants to wake up and answer those questions as well?" she asked the woman as she stopped outside the morgue doors. "At this hour, the place will be empty. It will have the things that I need to help your friend and we'll be able to get it done without interruptions or interrogations. So do you have any other concerns you'd like to voice or shall we go in and help your friend?" she asked, her hands on her hips staring the woman down. 

Brief moments of clarity came and went as Merci drifted in and out. She was in a car. She could smell Kathryn's perfume. Everything hurt.

"What the fuck happened? Oh, hey, Grace. You like cherries. He's gonna tell on us, " she says, gesturing lamely at the cab driver before a pothole in the road forces her to grunt and fall out once more. 

Moments later, she's lying on a gurney and staring up at the faces of two arguing women. 

"Get a room!" she barks nonsensically before fading out again.

Her final nap ended rudely with the obnoxious odor of smelling salts.She tried to smack the hand away that held them but her arm was in a sling. Her next bet was to sit up and slap someone, but that idea was cut short when a searing white pain shot through her side. 

Looking around desperately, she spots Kathryn and slumps back down. 

"Please enlighten me?"

Kathryn sat in the chair next to Merci, face in her hands- but her blue eyes snapped up when Merci spoke. Kathryn rushed to the bed, taking Merci's right hand in both of hers and squeezing it.

"We did the job. Then someone shot at us and you got hit twice. We're in Grace's office. She can... she can explain the medical stuff. Uh... do you want me to call Augustus? Get him out here?"

Grace had been washing her hands in the sink when Merci spoke. "Oh good, you're awake,." she said as she turned around, drying her hand on a towel. She watched the women and realized there was more to them being at the party than just hobnobbing. She tucked that away for later, but now she was exhausted and just wanted to go home. She pushed a loose bit of hair out of her face and took a seat next to the bed. "Sadly, we're going to have to move you tonight. I can pop upstairs and grab my medical bag in case something happens during transport, but you can't stay here," she told the women. 

"Now, this was pretty simple as far as bullet wounds go. Your arm shouldn't have any longstanding issues, as long as you let it heal and don't use it to much. The bullet came out of the wound tract pretty easily, but if it starts to get overly red or inflamed, please call me and we'll see about getting you some antibiotics. As for the wound in your side," she grimaced, "That was pretty nasty. It didn't hit anything vital, but your rib is what stopped it. So moving around is probably going to be incredibly painful for a few weeks while that heals as well. You do have a small incision on the side, where I had to cut into you to make sure that I got everything out, but that has been sewn shut and you should be ok." 

She sighed, "I don't know what you ladies are involved in, and I'm not going to ask any questions. At least not tonight. We're all tired, today has been hell and I know you both just want to go home." she slowly got to her feet, placing her hands at the small of her back and stretching slightly. "Lets get you two in the cab, while I run upstairs and get my bag," she told them. She looked at the woman sat next to Olive and asked, "If I get you a wheelchair will you be able to manage?" 

Merci interrupts. "Sure she can. Would you mind calling Augustus first? I don't want to just show up at home like this," she says to Kathryn. "And speaking of home, are there return tickets already? We need to get the hell out of town as quickly as possible. Way too many people saw us," she says, turning to Grace as Kathryn nods and leaves the room to make some calls and hunt down a wheelchair. 

"Guilt by association. We may have put you in a...situation," she says. 

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "You don't say." she said before moving to the woman's side and helping her sit up. "Easy does it," she said as she supported the woman. "There you go." she frowned and adjusted the strap of the sling over the woman's shoulder. "I'll make sure you guys get settled into the cab. I was going to follow you home, but if you're heading straight out of town..." she let her words trail off, "Well I can recommend a good doctor where ever it is you're going, but thats about it at this point." she sighed and shook her head, "Let me get the name and number for you." she told Olive as she turned to go to the desk. Grabbing a notepad she scribbled down a friend's name and his phone number. Tearing it off she moved back to where Olive was sitting and tucked the paper in her hand. "I know we just met, but I do hope that things start looking up for you. I imagine its not every day you get shot, so perhaps you should try to stay out whatever trouble got you in this mess." she told the woman. 

"Thank you," she murmured. "And if I can figure out where the trouble came from, I'd be happy to comply," she says. As Kathryn returns with a wheelchair, she adds, "We owe you one. Can we pay you for your trouble? There must be something...?"

Kathryn had used the phone in Grace's office to quickly call Augustus. Her voice was calm, mechanical. She'd handle the return tickets to Vegas when they arrived at the airport. She hung up the phone and returned her attention to Grace and Merci.

"Mer-Olive. We're ready to go. Thank you, Grace, for everything. Things are... chaotic now. But I'd like to talk to you more about all this soon, when things are a bit more settled. Is there anything else? Or should we go?"

Kathryn looked at Merci.