all the things she said – chapter 6

all the things she said – chapter 6

Intro and notes: i feel like a lot happens in this chapter some of it silly some of it very decidedly not silly… take that as u will

Sabine knows something is wrong the moment she steps foot into her apartment. She hasn’t been home in a couple of days since her night at the Grove with Shin and she’s due in D.C tomorrow, but she had one night where she actually got to go home. She’s rarely there—but every month her rent is paid in cash courtesy of the Rebels. It’s not much for personality, dark furniture with very little personal effects save for her clothes. She half expects to see Shin when she closes the door and deadbolts it, a hand reaching for the gun she keeps in her bag. 

Though when she flicks on the lights with one hand, barrel pointed into the apartment with her other, she sees a man. 

“She lives,” Kallus’s voice is cool and calm as he sits on a black velvet armchair. A chill runs down her spine as she stands face to face with the man who got her a job at the Rebels in the first place. Sabine had been a troubled kid with a dead family and a penchant for violence and he abused that, turned her into a killer. And then he betrayed them all—left Sabine for dead. “I should have known you wouldn’t do the honorable thing.”

Sabine remembers a rooftop, rain cascading down, blood pouring from her mouth, air knocked from her lungs. She had been the one to find out Kallus had lied to them and put out a contract on Hera in an attempt to usurp her and take control of the agency for himself. He beat the shit out of her and left her a gun to put a bullet in her own head. That was the worst part. He hadn’t even had the guts to kill her—he wanted her to do it her fucking self. She fired a bullet in the air, let him believe she was dead, and she became a ghost. She asked Hera to wipe all records of her—from then on, every transaction she had, every commission was in cash, she worked under Ahsoka, he would never be able to find her. Not until she had a bullet in his head. 

“Ironic of you to speak of honor,” Sabine seethes, not moving from her position in the doorway. One hand in her pocket, she flips open her burner phone, dialing the last number she called and praying. It’s not that she thinks she’ll need back-up to deal with Kallus, but if he takes her somewhere or worse, kills her, she needs some record of what happened. “You’re a liar. A traitor. What the fuck do you want from me?”

“This little ploy with Elsbeth isn’t going to work, you know,” Kallus continues, standing up from the chair. Sabine instinctively takes a step back even though he doesn’t advance, her back against the door. “She knows someone is coming for her and her team will not hesitate to take whoever it is out. Her guard dog did not take kindly to you Rebels treating his prodigy like a toy.” 

Sabine stiffens at the mention of Shin. “I guess we learned a thing or two from you. If you know about the hit then you know who is sharing information. Going to do the right thing for once and tell me who it is?” 

He sighs, cracking his jaw and only then in the streaks of moonlight leaking in through her sheer drapes does Sabine see the gun in his hand. She flicks the safety off of hers, finger hovering near the trigger. “No, I don’t think I will.”

It clicks in Sabine’s mind then and there. He’s not here paying a threatening visit. He’s on contract. “You’re working for Elsbeth.” 

“Ah, there she is. You always were so smart, Sabine,” Kallus takes another step. “Imagine my surprise when Elsbeth learns about a contract out for her. She asks for the names—it’s exclusive, after all, not hard to figure out given the cracks in your agency and well—right there on paper. Sabine Wren. What a trip down memory lane. I should have killed you back then. And now, well, I just really can’t wait to make up for lost time.” 

He fires a bullet into the door where her head had been, but Sabine is already on the move. She dashes to the side, firing off a bullet and hearing it hit the arm chair instead of Kallus. She stands in the doorway to the kitchen and he aims at her head again, but she ducks, sliding down against the hardwood floor and landing a kick to his shin. He groans and kicks out, getting her in the stomach. Sabine grunts and pushes herself to her feet, coming up behind Kallus and elbowing him in the back of the head with the hand holding the gun. 

Kallus doubles over and Sabine accompanies her first hit with a punch to the spine, kicking him down for good measure. With him on the floor, she shoves a booted foot onto his chest with as much force as she can muster, gun pointed at his face. “Tell me who it is. Give me your source and I might not put a bullet in your fucking brain right this moment.” 

“I remember how scared you used to be,” Kallus says instead, blood in his teeth. “Your hands used to shake when you held a gun. You’re steady now, controlled. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Tell me,” Sabine repeats, her eyes wide with anger and voice calculated. She doesn’t care so much for memory lane, not right now.

“I’m dead either way,” Kallus laughs, blood spitting from his lips as he does. She brings her boot down against his chest again, feeling a rib crack beneath it. He spits more blood and she basks in the satisfaction of it. “I’d rather watch you lose.” 

He reaches up and grabs Sabine’s ankle, yanking her down onto the ground. She knocks her head on the end table, feeling her vision go dark for a second, black spots dancing around her vision as blood begins to pour from a small cut in her forehead. She catches her breath, heaving herself back up only to be met with a boot to her back and the cold barrel of a gun pressed to her head. 

“I won’t leave it up to you this time,” Kallus’s voice is cold in her ear as he leans down to speak. Some of his blood drops from his lips and onto the hardwood beside her. 

She grabs the barrel of his gun and uses the leverage to turn herself over, acutely aware of his finger on the trigger. Blood pours over her face, leaking into one of her eyes as she looks up at him, her vision blurred. “At least have the audacity to look me in the fucking eyes when you do it.” 

Blood from his mouth drips onto her as he smiles now that they’re face to face. Looking at him now, Sabine can’t believe she ever trusted him. This is what she deserves for making such a brutal mistake. But goddamn if she is not going to make sure her face is the one that haunts him until he dies. He goes to pull the trigger and Sabine keeps her eyes on him the entire time, but the killing blow never comes. 

The sound of wood cracking alerts the both of them as the door is kicked open. Sabine goes to turn her head, but the gun against her temple makes it a little difficult. There’s a bullet in Kallus’s shoulder before he can even blink and he grunts, clutching the wound as he stumbles off of Sabine and falls to the ground against the armchair. Sabine gasps, forcing herself into a sitting position, still feeling lightheaded from her head wound. 

Shin stands in her apartment, chest heaving and gun pointed straight at Kallus’s bleeding form. Her eyes are wild and they don’t even look at Sabine, fully concentrated on the man sitting on her floor, gripping his arm. “How the fuck did you get here?”

Sabine chuckles, reaching a weak hand into her pocket and taking out her phone—still with an ongoing call to Shin, capturing everything. Suddenly, Sabine was really glad Shin’s agency had her address on file. Kallus’s eyes dart between the two of them. “God damn, I almost didn’t believe the whispers when they said the two of you were on the same team. Match made in fucking hell.” 

Sabine grips the edge of the end table, pulling herself to her feet. She bends down to pick her gun up off the floor. Shin still hasn’t said a word nor has she looked in Sabine’s direction, but Sabine is too focused on Kallus. Although, now that Sabine has her own weapon in her hand, she notices Shin has lowered her own. So, she knows it’s personal. As to how she knows that, Sabine is innately curious. She turns to look at the woman now, gun still concentrated on Kallus. Finally, Shin’s eyes dart over to her.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” she asks, the question steady on her tongue. “You always like to one-up me.”

Shin smiles, a teasing smirk pulling at her lips. “He’s yours. Just like Elsbeth will be mine. Speaking of—” she addresses Kallus now, “Care to tell us how our little friend found out?”

Kallus looks around, desperately searching for where he dropped his weapon. Sabine finds it first, kicking it even further out of reach and sending another bullet into his leg so he can’t get up to look for it. He screams, hand coming up to clasp the blood now flowing out of his shin and staining his dark pants. When he looks up at Sabine, the barrel of her gun is aimed at his head. 

Even so, Kallus’s gaze lands on Shin. “Why don’t you tell us what daddy Baylan put you up to? I know a double-timer when I see one.” 

Sabine falters, hand almost dropping her weapon but she has half a mind to keep it up as she calls back to the woman behind her. “Shin, what is he talking about?”

“Nothing,” Shin spits, “He is trying to keep you from killing him. Desperation is not a good look on you, Alexsandr.”

Despite the reassurance, Sabine still feels uneasy. She’s no stranger to running a job within a job—hell, that’s what she was doing to Shin at first, but if Shin had been doing the same thing and Sabine hadn’t picked up on it, that would be nothing but more trouble. And they were in enough already. 

“Like you said,” Sabine turns back to Kallus. Her hands are shaking, but not from fear—from rage. “You’re dead either way. You gain nothing from not fucking Elsbeth over so just tell us who it is and I’ll make this quick.” 

Kallus just smiles, blood in his teeth, bleeding all over Sabine’s floor. “There she is. That killer I saw in you the first time I laid eyes on you, Wren. You can’t tell me you don’t love it. I’ll die before I tell you. As to what I gain? Absolutely fucking nothing. I just get to die knowing you didn’t get what you wanted. And that, my dear, is a gift.”

Sabine doesn’t let him say anything more before she pulls the trigger, content to put an end to this. Kallus goes quiet, slouching against the armchair as the only sound in the apartment becomes that of his trickling blood.  Her chest heaves, breathing heavily as blood continues to spill from her wound.

“Sabine, are you—” Shin doesn’t get the rest of the question out because Sabine turns around, gun pointed at her.

“What was he talking about? What job does Baylan have you running?”

Shin takes a step back, bending down to place her gun on the floor and kick it away. She raises her hands in surrender, but Sabine does not falter. “I told you. He was just trying to stall the inevitable. Trying to turn you on me so you wouldn’t look at him. He knows you, he knew it would distract you. Do not prove him right.”

“He’s dead, so I don’t think he’ll care too much,” Sabine spits out, the anger from Kallus not dissipating. “If there was even a modicum of truth to what that asshole said, you better tell me right fucking now because I still have a loaded gun in my hands and you just saw me use it.” 

Silence passes between the two of them far too long for comfort. Sabine shifts with discomfort, keeping her aim steady on Shin, who still has her arms raised. Finally, she sighs, eyes avoiding Sabine’s like the plague. “He tried to get me to run a job. But I didn’t take it. I told him Elsbeth was going to turn on him and two against her is better than one.” 

“What did he want you to do?” Sabine asks, even though she already knows the answer. 

“Kill you. Kill Elsbeth. Take the money and run. To keep it brief,” Shin answers, confirming Sabine’s suspicions. She steps forward despite the weapon facing her, holding a hand out like Sabine is some wild animal needing to be tamed. “But it made no sense. He was acting with blind rage and frustration because you pulled one over on him. All it would have ended up with was you dead and Elsbeth’s men targeting Baylan and I instead.” 

“You could easily take her out on your own,” Sabine offers, voice still rife with disbelief. Her forehead is still bleeding and she feels a little lightheaded as blood rushes into one of her eyes and over her lips. She can see Shin’s eyes darting to it every now and then, brow furrowed. “You don’t need me. You know you don’t. You should have killed me the moment you found out I lied about Baylan.” 

Shin clears her throat, reaching forward and taking the gun from Sabine’s hands, placing it down on the end table. For some reason, Sabine lets her, watching as she takes another step and places her hands on Sabine’s shoulders, pushing her down onto the couch. “Where is your first aid kit? Your bleeding forehead is driving me insane. Then we can talk about this.” 

“Under the bathroom sink. Down the hall to the left,” Sabine sighs, wiping out her eye with a sigh as her fingers come back red. Kallus’s corpse taunts her from the corner. She groans, reaching for where her cell had been tossed to the floor, dialing the clean-up crew. “Hey, Harry. My place. Just one. Thanks.” 

She flips the phone shut and tosses it on the couch as Shin comes back around the corner. She kneels down in front of Sabine and dabs at the blood, keeping pressure on it with one hand while she cleans her face with the other. “I could kill Elsbeth without you, you are right. I spent the last decade working alone in the field because I never needed nor wanted anyone else. But Kallus isn’t Imperial. If Elsbeth is outsourcing, that means Baylan and I’s immunity with her is going to run out and soon. Whoever your rat is—it seems they’re running to more than just my agency. Without you, we have no inside information on the Rebels. It just makes more sense to keep working together. Kill Elsbeth, kill the rat. Done.” 

“That is…” Sabine hesitates, not wanting to swallow her pride. “Very sound logic.”

Shin huffs out a quiet chuckle as she finishes wiping off the stray blood down Sabine’s face. It’s the second time they’ve found themselves like this, although everything feels different now. “I know it is.”

The two of them go quiet as Shin presses a small bandage to the cut—it really was just that, a small cut. Head wounds always bleed far too much for Sabine’s liking. Other than that, though, she’s just sore from falling to the ground and getting kicked around a bit. Nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix. Maybe not here, though. The fact that Kallus had been able to get in so easily unsettled even her. 

Shin stays kneeling down in front of Sabine, hands braced against her knees. Sabine doesn’t ask her to move. Her eyes linger on Sabine’s before they drop down to her lips for a moment, contemplating. Sabine almost makes a move to lean forward when a knock sounds at the door. 

Sabine sighs, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them again on the exhale. “I called the clean-up crew.”

“Lune? It’s Harry,” a voice comes from the door. She recognizes the voice, a wave of relief washing through her as she isn’t sure she could take another fight if Kallus called back-up. But as far as the evening goes, it seems like he was the only ghost Sabine has to deal with tonight. She stands, albeit a little wobbly from the loss of blood, heading for the door. 

“You look like shit,” Harry, an older gentleman who cleans up every one of Sabine’s New York hits along with his crew, says once she opens the door. “Just one, you said?”

“Yup, but it’s a doozy,” Sabine says as she holds the door open so he and another man can push into the apartment. Shin sits on the couch now, packing away the first aid kid and hardly sparing a glance to the dead man on the floor. 

“Kallus?” he asks once he gets a glimpse of the corpse. “Shit. None of my business. All right, we’ll take care of this and be out of your hair.” 

“Thanks, Har,” she sighs, opening up her wallet and placing two gold coins on the counter. “I think I’m due for a night at the hotel.” 

Shin stands from the couch then, tossing Sabine her phone and reaching to pack away their weapons. “Fuck that. You are coming with me. Goodnight, Harry.”

“Night, Wolf,” the older man doesn’t seem to notice the tension in their exchange (or rather—Shin’s demand) as her hand wraps around Sabine’s bicep, grabbing her bag and tugging her out the door. 

“What’s wrong with the hotel? It’s neutral ground, I’ll be fine,” Sabine reasons as they head for the elevator (Sabine tries not to think about what happened last time she and Shin were in an elevator, but even in the wake of death, her mind gets the best of her). 

“I think even you would be disturbed sleeping in a place crawling with killers when there is a price on your head, Wren,” Shin huffs out. The second they’re on the street, Shin lights a cigarette and beneath the street lamp, Sabine swears she can see her hands shaking. “You stay with me and then we head to D.C. in the morning. We can come back to get your items for the trip. Simple.” 

Sabine leans against the metal streetlamp and watches Shin take a long drag, the woman avoiding eye contact. Her lips break out into a small smile. “You’re starting to like me, aren’t you? Little Miss I hate you, you’re a bitch is keeping me safe and sound. It’s cute, it’s a good look on you, really.” 

“Your ego is the worst I have seen in my entire life,” Shin bites, turning to look at Sabine with a pointed glance before looking back out on the street. “I can want to keep you alive and still find you completely insufferable.”

“Totally,” Sabine nods, reassuring her for a moment, “but you like me. We’re becoming friends. That’s what’s happening here, I hope you know.” 

Even though she’s joking, it does feel strangely true. The sex is only a part of it—that’s carnal, intended to be separate from the way they feel about each other. But Sabine begins to feel it creeping up on her—she knew if she hit Shin’s number, she would come. She has Ezra on speed dial, she could have just called him, but no. She called Shin. And Shin came. 

“We are not becoming friends,” Shin iterates, dropping her cigarette and crushing it beneath her boot before unlocking the sleek black car in front of them. “Let’s go.” 

Sabine chuckles quietly to herself as she opens the passenger side door, not knowing where Shin is taking her. Then again, just the other night, Shin had let Sabine do the very same thing. It seems trust has begun to bleed through despite Sabine’s intentions. Shin tosses her bag in the back before climbing in, only shooting one quick look at Sabine before starting the car and pulling away from the sidewalk. 

They stay quiet for a while, but eventually, Shin asks. “What happened with you two? It sounded personal on the phone.”

She debates answering. She could make something up, brush it off with some cheeky one-liner that gently tells Shin not to bring it up again, but she doesn’t. “He took me in, got me in with the Rebels, trained me. I… lost my family and I was still young, still thought there was value, power in connections. He became family to me. And then he threw it back in my fucking face.”

“I still think there is power in connection,” Shin hums. “Call me naive, but I do. If you know who to trust.” 

“Yeah,” Sabine mutters, thinking of Ezra, Ahsoka, and Hera. They were the only family she had. “I think so, too. I just wasn’t so good at picking the right people back then. And it almost got me killed. If he wasn’t such an egomaniac, it probably would have. But no, he was too good to kill me. He thought I would take care of it myself. He underestimated me. And tonight, it was for the last time. It’s over.”

Shin goes quiet once she explains, eyes focused on the road. She pulls into the parking garage of a nice-looking apartment building, finding a spot and turning off the car. Sabine lingers for a moment, unsure of what to say. “Thank you. I don’t think I said that.”

Shin turns to her, brow furrowed, “What?” 

“Thank you. For coming when I called,” she clarifies, eyes meeting Shin’s across the center console. “He would’ve killed me if it wasn’t for you. I guess you really are the better agent.” 

It’s meant to be a joke, but Shin doesn’t crack even the slightest smile. All she offers is a brief shake of the head. “Sabine, you’re one of the best agents I’ve ever run into in the field. Most people who fight me don’t survive and you have, often. If I think about how many times I have tried to kill you and you survived, I get annoyed.”

“Wow, you really know how to flatter a girl.”

Now Shin laughs, a light chuckle, shaking her head as she gets out of the car. Sabine follows after her, grabbing her bag from the back and slinging it over her shoulder. Shin leads them towards an entrance, buzzing herself in with her key and holding the door for Sabine. 

“I mean it, though,” Shin continues the conversation from earlier. “Even the best get knocked off their feet sometimes. Shit happens. I came when I did and it was fine. We move on. It does not matter how close he was to killing you, it only matters that he did not succeed.” 

As they slide into the elevator, standing shoulder to shoulder, Sabine can’t help but nudge her a bit. “You like me. We’re friends.”

Shin groans, rolling her eyes. “We are not friends.” 

The elevator ride is silent from that point on until the doors open again. Sabine has only just now registered that Shin is bringing her to her home—or at least, the place she lives. Shin guides them down the hall and pushes into one of the apartments at the end, holding the door open for Sabine to enter. 

It’s only slightly more personal than Sabine’s apartment—a jacket on a hook by the door, a bowl by the door for her keys, but it’s nice. And it’s Shin’s. 

“I will get you something to sleep in. Stay here,” Shin tells her, disappearing further into the apartment. Sabine drops her bag, leaning against the now-locked door, contemplating. This could just be a long con designed to kill her—lead Sabine up to her apartment, disappear, come back with a weapon and then it’s over. But Shin doesn’t. She just comes back with a pair of sweatpants in her hand and an unsure look in her eyes. Something’s shifted between the two of them. More than the biting remarks and the sex. It’s intimate, but not in the ways Sabine is used to. The feelings it begins to stir up in her chest are not ones Sabine has the ability to entertain. 

“They might be a little long, but they should suffice,” Shin looks down at her with a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She looks like she wants to say more, but she hesitates, opening her mouth and then closing it again. Reaching up, she tucks a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear, pursing her lips before finally. “Do you feel safe here? Or would you like me to go somewhere else?”

Sabine wants to kiss her. But she absolutely cannot do that. Instead, she just shoves the budding feeling of oh down, swallowing the lump in her throat and answering. “This is fine. Just don’t kill me in my sleep, I’ll haunt you forever and it will drive you crazy.”

Shin chuckles, handing over the clothes and stepping back. Now that she’s not so close, Sabine can almost breathe again, but the revelation remains. “I would not kill you in your sleep, that would be dishonorable. And boring. It’s much more fun when they fight back.” 

“You’re insane, has anyone told you that?”

She just laughs quietly, heading back into the apartment and motioning for Sabine to follow her. Shin notices Sabine doesn’t move, turning back and nodding. “Come on. We have to be on the road early tomorrow. There is only one bedroom, but I’ll sleep out here—”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Sabine shakes her head, the words leaving her mouth before she can decide if this is a good idea or not. “I’ve seen you naked. We can share.” 

“You are really setting it up for me to kill you in your sleep,” Shin jokes, arms crossed as she leans against the wall, a sort of dare in her eyes Sabine is dying to accept. 

Sabine kicks into action, taking a step forward to follow Shin into the bedroom. “All right, just know I’ll haunt you forever.” 

Shin rolls her eyes, but Sabine can see the smile bitten back. “That might be a sacrifice I am willing to make. We will have to see.”

End notes and comment

leave it to me to have them kill a man together and then also have a wattpad ass moment at the end like what is wrong with me this is what i get for writing fanfiction after a glass of wine i hope you guys enjoyed sorry they didn’t fuck sabine had to have feelings instead such a bummer i know anyway i feel like their dynamic can just be summed up as like average lesbian situationship atp

also SORRY if there r any kallus defenders reading this fic i just needed a villain so i politely ignored his whole redemption arc for the sake of needing a shitty man. could i have invented one? maybe, but that’s a decision past me made and now current me had to live with it so here we are