Cathouse: Jubilee & Laura - Of Promises

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Jubilee checks on Laura, and later that day they talk about their plans.

Jubilee took a drag on her cigarette and blew the smoke out the window of the bedroom, leaning back over the windowsill on her back to do so before pulling herself upward.

"How you doin', kid?" she asked her companion.

Laura was, to put it simply, focusing on not screaming. The pillow softly laid over her head helped a little, although she removed it after it got too uncomfortable. She had just fell on her bed and not moved for a while, not precisely exhausted, but feeling like she could stay there for months.

"You know, the usual: feeling like a million dollars."

"It'll get worse," Jubilee replied, not unkindly, curling her arms around her knees where she perched on the window sill. "If you need out, don't think it's whimpin' out to call it quits, yeah?"

Laura's head rolled to a side as she fixed her eyes on the woman's face. "Winners don't quit", said as she tried to sound as relaxed as possible, even though there was little to be relaxed about. "But keep asking, as it makes me remember why I'm doing it in the first place. I can't allow myself to lose my north right now."


"Fair enough," Jubilee replied, feeling for the younger girl despite her best efforts to keep in character. It had been so many years since she'd been the uncaring and uncared for street kid, putting it back on was like wearing an ill fitted suit. It scratched in all the wrong places, and where it didn't scratch, it ached. "We need to do some recon, see what sort of schedule Barry has his men on."



Standing up, Laura sighed. It was a one way road, no time to stop and consider turning around now. "Yes, we should. The sooner we have more information the sooner we can do our job." Which was sharing said information, and then getting rid of these men, something she wouldn't do personally, but still enjoy thoroughly.



"Meet me out back around midnight, yeah? We can share information and I can have a smoke," Jubilee replied, jumping to her feet from her perch on the window and walking out the door. "And Laura? Be careful, Morgan would kill me if you got hurt."



***


After a completely hateable day -and boy, weren't those starting to look like routine?- Laura made her way to the back, looking around to meet with Jubilee. Being stealthy around people was something she had gotten really good as of late, but still, she took all the precautions not to get caught or followed. All that there was to do was waiting for the other woman now.



It didn't take long for Jubilee to appear, her gait the walk of someone terminally beaten down and broken. It was an act, but she really only had to reach into her far past for inspiration to pull it off. She fished a battered pack of cigarettes out from under one bra strap and tapped out a cigarette before lighting it with a small paf from a finger. She opened her palm afterwards, letting a small lightshow start up there as she took a drag on her smoke, blowing rings around the small fireworks as they exploded.



"I've got enough eyes that I can get a good idea of their movements in the next few days," Jubilee murmured, her tone low but not a whisper. "They aren't completely hopeless, but they're cocky. I'm going to be very happy to disabuse them of their notions of competence."


"I'll be ever so glad when you do that", was the initial curt reply from Laura, who wondered just how worse her life could get if she started smoking. Perhaps not much, but it wasn't the time to start getting new vices. "They seem...experienced. Not in handling a brothel, but at handling people as less than furniture. Not the kind of person to mess up with, I guess."



"They've been doing this sort of thing for awhile now, trafficking in people. They know how to manipulate people into giving them what they want. Dangerous as hell to cross, even scum will fight back if you back 'em into enough of a corner," Jubilee replied, leaning her head back against the brick wall as her eyes took in the strip of night sky above the buildings. "But that's why we've got the calvary, dude. Enough force to convince them to come quietly, but not so much that it draws attention."


Every word of Jubilee made her want to go to them and cut them open right on the spot, but she couldn't; she had to return and smile and be a good girl while she get some spanking, because that was the plan and she knew that nothing good would come of doing otherwise. "And once you draw them out?" It would be a lie there was expectation on her voice.

"Sarah and I will have a very pointed conversation with them about their business dealings," Jubilee replied, making sure she held Laura's gaze as she said it. Some things you didn't say out loud, and what Jubilee intended for the men who currently ran the Brothel was not something you discussed, not even at midnight when you'd already checked for bugs or people who might overhear. "I know it's difficult, but believe me, the conversation won't be pleasant for them."

Laura nodded, understanding what she meant perfectly, and finding out without any remorse she was glad to hear that. "Good, I don't want it to be pleasant for them. At all."