Hearing the doorbell in the middle of the night, Aoife trudges down the hallway and peers out the side window.  A young man in a uniform is standing there.  He looks businesslike and professional, not threatening.  She lays the Colt 38 on the table that is next to the umbrella stand.  She slowly opens the door and as she does, he hands her an envelope.  Then he is off into the night and out of her sight.  She opens the envelope and sees that it is a telegram from Kathryn.  This cannot be good news, and her brow furrows deeply as she reads it, digesting the ominous words slowly.

Aoife’s hands are trembling as she puts down the telegram.  Her heart pounds as she rereads it one more time.  She knows she must move quickly before it is too late, adrenaline racing through her veins as she finishes getting dressed.  She grabs her bag, always ready with appropriate supplies and heads out into the cold night. 

She hails a taxi and heads to the other side of town, all but screaming at him,

 “As fast as you can, this is urgent!”

She has him drop her off about two blocks from her  final destination, paying him quickly as she gets out of the car and onto the sidewalk.  She runs as fast as she can, praying that it is not too late to find Kathryn and help get her out of this mess.  She stops at the edge of the building and puts down her bag.  She is dressed completely in black, skin tight clothing.  She slips a mask over her face and tucks her red hair inside.  Then she opens the bag again and pulls out a few items.  She puts the crude looking bomb outside the door and heads around to the other side of the building after setting the timer. 

Aoife walks sideways along the wall, careful not to make a sound .  She almost gasps as she sees Kathryn inside.  There is a gun pointed at her head, and a low menacing voice is heard.  She can’t quite make out the words, but Aoife knows she must work quickly.

"Look, Bernard... can I call you Bernie? No. Fine. Fine. Look, Bernard... I'm sorry about your boss. And I'm sorry about your buddies there. But Moreau was a bad man. You know that. Even if he wasn't, killing me wouldn't bring him back. Me dead just gets you hunted down and slaughtered. Me alive? Well, that gets you all sorts of possibilities."

Bernard Durand just scowled down at Kathryn, who was kneeling in front of him. Despite the gun pointed at her, she seemed calm. Wearing jeans, a t shirt, and no shoes, Kathryn had been grabbed from her apartment. Seeing the car pull up, she'd had time to send off a single message to the only other person still in the city- everyone else had moved to LA. She'd shot two of Moreau's former soldiers- but the third one had taken her down, evidenced by the bruise on her jaw. Kathryn was determined to keep him talking, hoping Aoife would be able to arrive soon; she'd already been lucky once guessing the location of where she'd been taken: the Moreau gang had used this spot as a base of operations previously. Now she had to hope her luck would hold.

Aoife peers through the window for what seems like an eternity.  She looks at the layout of the room and speculates what her action may be.   She wants to think this through, so that the chance of success is higher.  She needs to prove to Kathryn, and to herself that she is capable in an emergency.  For a split second she thinks about using charm on the thug, but decides that would probably be the easy way out, and would probably not have the outcome she desired.  Perhaps the element of surprise would be a better idea.  Aoife is fairly certain that the hooligan inside isn’t expecting her.  She also thinks if he got a look at her, he would probably laugh at her.  That thought sends her into a redheaded rage. 

“That son of a bitch had better not underestimate me, he won’t know what hit him!” 

She shakes her little fist into the air at the thought.

His back is to her as she stands at the window.  If he would move just a tiny bit, she might be able to let Kathryn know she was there.  Ah, Kathryn.  Aoife would walk through hot coals for her boss.  Kathryn had taken Aoife under her wing.  She had given her a chance, and Aoife was as loyal as they come.  She would never forget.  Never forget.

 Aoife comes back from her daydreaming and glances at her watch.  She only has about 2 minutes before the bomb goes off.  She digs into her bag for the leather strap and holds it tightly in her hand.  Bernard, as she could hear Kathryn calling him had moved to the side and Kathryn looked up at that exact moment.

Aoife held up the strap for Kathryn to see, and though she remained stone-faced, Aoife knew that Kathryn had seen her.  Twelve seconds left, she heads toward the door.

As the explosive goes off, Aoife bursts through the door and runs toward Bernard. He is temporarily confused and she takes advantage of the moment.

 He is just as surprised as she thought he would be.  She jumps on his back and slips the strap around his neck, pulling as tightly as she can.  She wraps herself around his massive body and hangs on for dear life.  Eventually he falls to the floor, but she doesn’t let go.

Kathryn watches as Aoife wraps her legs around Durand's stomach, crossing her ankles near his belt buckle. Aoife's legs looked strong enough to squeeze the life out of him- but the strap around his throat seems to be doing the job much faster. Kathryn watches, either unemotionally or just refusing to show any, as Aoife hangs on through the frantic, desperate death throes of Moreau's final Capo. Kathryn had been fiddling with the rope that had tied her wrists behind her back, but she stopped until the deed was finished. 

Her blue eyes looked up gratefully towards Aoife as the redhead disentangled herself from the corpse and stood.

"Glad you got my message, Aoife. I commend you on your impeccable timing. You certainly know how to make an entrance. And could you, uh...?"

Kathryn tilted her head back toward the rope joining her wrists. 

Aoife runs quickly over to Kathryn, and pulls out her pocket knife to cut the ropes.  Her heart is racing and she is breathing heavily, all the while trying to forget the past few minutes.  Aoife had never killed someone so up close and personal before, and it had affected her noticeably.

“Are you okay?  He didn’t hurt you did he?  Yes he did, you have a bruise!”

Aoife, who is nearly in tears continues to fuss over Kathryn, so happy that she is alive and mostly well.  She can’t even bear to think what would have happened if she had not gotten there in time.  She cuts the ropes and helps Kathryn to her feet.

“That certainly was a close one!’”

Kathryn flexes her hands, returning feeling to them, before resting one of the on Aoife's shoulder.

"It was a close one... glad you didn't decide to stop for a drink..."

Kathryn looks at her associate intently.

"Are you alright, Aoife? Had you ever done... that before?"

Wordlessly, Kathryn gestures toward the body.

Aoife smiles wanly and tries to speak, but she can't.  All the emotions of the day converge on her at once, and she simply shakes her head and starts sobbing.  After a few minutes, she pulls herself together, telling herself that she can't fall apart like this in front of @Kathryn.

"I've never killed anyone without using my gun, so this is a first for me.  It was hard work, did you see how BIG he was?"

Aoife feels a self confidence that she has never had before.  She was able to come through for Kathryn, and she managed to pull it off.  Maybe she really was cut out for this type of work.

Kathryn lets Aoife cry for a while before wrapping her in a supportive hug. She understood. For some people, killing was like swatting a fly. But others suffered a slow grinding down and numbing of the soul, increased every time. It was better, in some ways, not to think about it. By the time Aoife is sounding proud of herself, Kathryn pats her on the back.

"You did well, Aoife. Let's get back to my place; I could use a drink..."

Picking their way over the debris towards the exit, Kathryn and Aoife vanished into the night.