UMMMMMMMM. i do not ever have evidence of anything i only have notecards pulled from file lockers of my mind palace … BUT i have this pic of aram and will suspiciously posed in a group photo

pairing: ava/beatrice summary: You let yourself be led from the car into Jillian’s villa, from the front door to a conference room with the remaining Sisters, where you sit down in a chair and try to stop yourself from counting everyone in the room. There are fewer people here than there should be, for many reasons. or: beatrice (and later, ava) in the aftermath of season two

previously

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“We will get some new recruits soon.”

You look up from your book to find Mother Superion standing directly in your light, blocking the sun. She clasps her hands in front of her—a part of her will always be searching for the cane, you think—and though she doesn’t smile, there is a lightness to the way she speaks. A lightness you realize she expects you to share.

You don’t bite. “How soon?”

“A few weeks, a month at the most.”

“We don’t even have a new pope yet. Father Vincent can’t be trusted. Who is sourcing new members?”

“I have contacts, still,” Mother Superion answers, “though you’re correct, they are being vetted more thoroughly than in the past, for obvious reasons. The OCS is diminished, Sister Beatrice, but not destroyed.”

The smile settles fully into her cheeks now, a small one but still there. A part of you wishes you could share it, the same part of you that will always seek Mother Superion’s approval not because she’s your superior but because you respect her. You know she’s smiling because she is hopeful for the future; because some of her proteges are still here; because you responded to her news tactically, like the most promising nun you once were.

That is not what you intended.

She walks away satisfied, comforted by the belief that days may yet return to normal.

You lean back and return to your book.

You have been given an expiration date.