Let's keep this shit going

Adriana led the girls to a diner for breakfast and Nadie eagerly ordered eggs and tortillas, while Ellis took the opportunity to get a stack of pancakes. As the outlaws closed in on more urban parts of Mexico, they found that the food was becoming Americanised. It was an idea that crossed Nadie's mind many times, taking Ellis to America. The beaches, the giant theme parks, the skyscrapers, the greasy food. Bounty hunting was a lot more underground there, so if news of Nadie's past profession got out, she would have a lot of trouble eluding the big city police, but letting her partner have some fun seemed worth the risk.

The maverick focused on Ellis then, and found she was sneaking her pancakes under the table for Blue. Then, without asking, the blonde reached over and snagged some of Nadie's eggs. She ate one and gave the other to Blue.

"Were you raised by wolves?" Nadie asked heatedly. Adriana chuckled and drank her orange juice. She'd already eaten earlier in the day.

"No, why?"

"Use your manners, Bounty. Ask before taking something," Nadie lectured.

Ellis stuck out her tongue and Adriana peered between the two as they started making faces at each other. Nadie squished her cheeks together and scrunched up her nose, imitating a puffer fish. Ellis hooked her index fingers over her lower lip, bared her bottom row of teeth and rolled back her eyes. Their faces only got sillier and Adriana wondered if she should mention that Blue had snatched the food off the table in the midst of the charade, but decided to let them find out for themselves after they got tired of taunting one another. She forgot that Nadie was still a child.

"Geez Piper, you both should have your own show," the gun master remarked when they finally stopped.

Nadie and Ellis exchanged a curious glance, and then the ex bounty hunter grabbed her fork and went to bury it in her remaining eggs, only to discover an empty plate. Something pinched her knee and she swung over and checked under the table. Blue was licking and nipping at her knee where she'd dropped some sauce. Enraged and still hungry, Nadie kicked him and he retaliated by lunging at her and knocking her out of her chair.

"You stupid dog!" Nadie bellowed, pulling Blue's fur while he latched on to her braid and tugged. Ellis ignored the entire thing, her attention on Adriana.

"Why do you call her that?" Ellis asked.

"What? Piper?"

"Yes."

"I'd hear her piping away on that silly little flute when she thought no one was around. She'd practice all the time, but she never improved," the woman said teasingly, loud enough so Nadie could hear.

Nadie shoved Blue off her and reclaimed her seat, the dog bounding over to Ellis as she called for him. The maverick had scratches on her arms and cheeks, but she didn't seem fazed by the attack or what Adriana said. Her expression looked distant, nostalgic even.

"It's true. My life was always like that, you know? No matter how much I tried, I'd always mess up, because I was making the same mistakes over and over again. If no one tells you you're doing something wrong, it's impossible to get any better. I went off track a lot, yet somehow managed to find my way back to the right path. If you could call this right." Nadie was no longer talking about learning to play the flute. She was thinking back on all the stupid choices she made, the aimlessness that touched her very soul. She rarely had any guidance.

"It's because you're a good person, Nadie," Ellis asserted. "Maybe it doesn't matter if someone tells you you're doing something that's wrong or right, because there's something deep inside you, something good, that just knows the difference."

"Ellis..."

"Whoa Nadie, your girlfriend has some insight. Willing to share her?"

"Girlfriend?"

"Oh! I almost forgot! I was so excited that you were in town that I didn't get the chance to ask you why you two were here. Ellis told me you were on some kind of mission?"

Disregarding Adriana's earlier words, Nadie nodded.

"Uh, yeah. We were chasing a ghost. A guy named Florencio Lopez, but he doesn't even exist," she muttered, rotating her butter knife in her hand disinterestedly.

"You know, that name kind of rings a bell…"

Nadie dropped the knife.

"What?"

"Yeah, yeah, now I remember. I used to see that guy in the bar. He always tried to order more than he could handle. People just thought he was a raving drunk, but it turns out he was a sick dude. So many drunks are there that it'd be hard to tell him apart from the rest, but I know him because he came to the shooting range and asked me some concerning questions about guns. Like their fatality rate and stuff. I kept an eye on him after that, thinking that maybe he was planning something. He seemed too sick to be a menace, but I was worried that he was a danger to himself rather than others. He moved after a while; wife said they were going to a city with a decent hospital."

Nadie was stunned. She was sure that it was a lie, but now she had proof. Proof that Florencio Lopez was real, alive, and possibly a murderer. As this fact clicked, an image sprang to her mind. She was a child again, clinging to flowers with their roots still attached, sprinkling dirt with every tremble of her fingers. Then a bang, a gunshot, and the flowers were splashed with blood.

Nadie blinked and she was back in the diner. Ellis was across from her, watching with worry. Blue had mounted her lap, also watching. Adriana looked incredibly confused.

"What's the matter?"

"We have to go. We have to find him." Nadie reached over the table and grasped Adriana's shoulder tightly. "Where did he move exactly?"

"Monterrey. Not sure if he's still there. He might've moved to the border, but his wife told me they're slowly going northward because they want to move to America one day. It's been his dream."

"It looks like his dream is never coming true," Nadie declared, rising to her feet.

"You have a score to settle with a dying man?"

"More like a dead man. Ellis, Blue, let's go."

"Well, children, it's been a blast. Let's hope our paths cross again," Adriana said, smiling as her friends buckled their seatbelts. She bent down over the car door and pecked Nadie's cheek, winking at Ellis as she stood back up. The witch bristled, unintentionally causing the wind to pick up speed as her jealousy flared.

"Haha Nadie, your girl is so easy to wind up," she chuckled, cupping her hair so it didn't fly into her eyes.

"She gets like that with everyone."

"Possessive much? Just kidding, Ellis. You're sweet." Ellis glared and it only amused Adriana further. She stepped away from the vehicle. "I'll see you guys around."

"Not likely," Ellis grumbled and Nadie nudged her so she'd bite her tongue.

"It was nice running into you. Catch you around, Teach."

The car coughed and came to life, rumbling as Nadie stretched out a hand and firmly clasped her master's. It was their ritualistic farewell. A promise that chance would bring them together once more and Nadie would be slightly more skilled with a gun, working her way towards outdoing her teacher. Adriana didn't say it, but she was proud of her student's progress, proud of who she'd become.

The women let go and Nadie hit the accelerator. Adriana waved and Nadie honked the horn, Ellis' scowl staying in place until Gallows was nothing but a memory. This was a recurring event. Nadie and Ellis always seemed to be leaving someone behind in the dust, while they kept moving forward.

Nadie was going to drive as far north as she could. It didn't matter how many jobs they had to take, it didn't matter how many nights they slept under the glittering stars, because Florencio had to be stopped at all costs. He would not leave the country. Not if Nadie could help it.

"You scared me, Nadie," Ellis said suddenly.

"How?"

"When you told me you were always slutty after drinking, I thought about all the men in the bar. They were so dirty and I was thinking that you might've woken up next to someone really horrible, someone who would've hurt you if I hadn't taken you away."

"Are you seriously more disturbed by that than the fact I tried to have my way with you?" Nadie asked incredulously.

"That part wasn't scary; that was sexy."

Nadie laughed, the anger and determination fuelling her ebbing briefly. Ellis always had the strangest way of putting things.

"That's why I hate letting myself go. I've learnt my lesson. In the past, I did end up with someone that I had trouble getting away from. I wasn't always an escape artist and I didn't always have the ability to protect myself, so I had some pretty close calls. I'm sorry that I worried you. I won't get drunk again," she reassured.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Then I forgive you, Piper," Ellis chirped, leaning over and hugging Nadie's arm happily, but Blue wasn't pleased by the sudden shift. He huffed disapprovingly from his usual spot on Ellis.

"Not you, too," Nadie groaned.

"It's cute," Ellis decided, smiling.

Nadie, for once not feeling the need to argue, lifted her hand out of Ellis' grasp, ruffled her hair and replied, "You're cute."