When it Happens (Don't Mind Me)

[Liara]

“Hey I don’t share with just anyone.” Selene smirked as she took one took “And no. No Cross and no Bartyn either.”

[Clint Cross]

"Interesting." Clint mused and sipped his moscato. "Well it could be I never made it into Intelligence with my criminal background. Or i wasn't adopted by the Cross family. They kinda put me back on the straight and narrow. And got me into archery. Which yeah... it's kind of outdated but it does get past some shields intended to block energy weapons and isn't affected by EMPs, even my specialty heads. Course a good slug thrower is still useful. You'll like the ones in that case. Custom grips, fast reload clips, little black widow hourglasses on the grips."

[Liara]

“Your idea?” Selene inquired as she sucked on a strawberry. “The grips.”

[Clint Cross]

"Kinda... too many people she gave guns to never gave them back. "How do you know it's your's?' and she'd do that elbow to the throat thing and go 'THE FUCKING GRIPS'" Clint said with a laugh. "My successor Hawkeye's husband did that often... drove her nuts. They aren't cheap either, but she always insisted on quality gear that wouldn't jam up or slide out of her hand or her holster. I'm a huge custom grips guy... my bows all have grips made to my hand. Same with my handguns. I have little arrowheads as my 'brand' on them. Those gauntlets though, haven't seen them that small in years, they kept getting bigger with each new version update."

[Liara]

“She found a way for them to be effective with the reduced size. Size and weight are always a concern.” Selene said as she toed off her shoes and shifted to face him. “You really loved her.” Selene said as she looked into his eyes.

[Clint Cross]

"I did. She was partner. And my best friend. I know it sounds cheesy but... it's true." Clint replied. "I think we both surprised each other how much we came to enjoy the whole thing. Given that our line of work, every mission may be the last. No matter how well we prepared. Like her dying in the bar at Ophelia's hand. It was random and yet... it was quick and not because she didn't try to defend herself or it was some 'screw up' it just happened. There were more than a few instances that we figured 'this is it'. We enjoyed every moment we had together. I knew growing old was a fantasy, but y'know... at least we brought a kid into the world and helped a few others, saved a lot of lives. That's a good mission result."

[Liara]

“It is and growing old is a fantasy.” Selene said as she sipped her wine slowly. “For us we only have now.”

[Clint Cross]

"Yeah. Still hurts but we always accepted it, planned for it. Especially with a threat like Dominus. After what he did to Thessia and later Mars and Gorvan Prime, and now with those four Brethren planets that he had Kinsey blow up... we're not guaranteed a single day. But like I said, that's why we set up the family network we have. Anything happened to us, there's backups. Figured Kinsey had to kill Ophelia, but I have this feeling there's more than one of her. Even K'n'zy had clones, hell that's why Kinsey's even alive, she died and ended up bouncing into a back up K'n'zy clone body on Earth. So, if that blonde little she-witch was half as smart as a woman who liked siccing others on her enemies, then I'm sure there's a back up Ophelia. That was always our thing, whoever punches our ticket, the other punches theirs."

[Liara]

“It sounds nice to have someone like that.” Selene said as she looked off into the distance. The life her counterpart had she’d never live up to what Cross was going to expect. To the woman he couldn’t stop talking about. She reminded him of her. How could she not? He’d loved her and she’d loved him. Love, she’d never know what that was. She always thought it was something for children. Apparently not but she’d never have what her counterpart did. Not what Cross was describing to her.

[Clint Cross]

"Yeah it was. Even if it was once in a lifetime, at least we had it for a while." Clint said and looked at her. "Although if you say something like 'love is for children' I'm going to mush a strawberry in your face." he chuckled. "She used to say that a lot when we were still sorting our shit out or when we'd have some weird traumatic FUBAR'd mission. I mean, our bedroom was shot up by a guy that pretty much treated her like his personal sex doll for months when she was under Jackson's control. We went through a bedroom set or mattress at least once or twice a year for a while. Hell our house was blown up by my counterpart. And I'd hear 'maybe this was a mistake, having a life, love is for children...' gotta love that programming."