She wipes her eyes and grins raggedly up at Ami.

"Glad to see you. Some measure of cheer other than the work itself."

She smiles weakly.

"I'm glad. You—you know I'm always here for you, right?"

She pauses a moment.
"…I stayed away to avoid involving you in… all this, again, but… I wanted to see you any chance I could get."

Hailey looks off to the side, the faintest hint of pink on her cheeks. 

"Ami..."

She trails off. Heartfelt emotion's never been her strong suit.

Then she turns back toward her, looking her consideringly in the eyes.

She stares back, the tiniest bit flustered, but hiding it well.

"Yeah?"

Hailey steps closer, eyes searching, an almost taut tenderness on her face.

Almost on reflex, Ami steps in as well.

…Is she…?

She crosses that last gap, reaches up, buries a hand in Ami's hair, and pulls her down into a desperate kiss, fear and anger and need and nostalgia all pouring into that simple action.

She loses herself in the kiss, her thoughts drifting away as her lips meet those of the woman she's—fine, yes, loved for so long.

Gods, she should have admitted that years ago, should have…

…She pulls away, sighing.

"…We really need to talk to Violetta."

Hailey takes a flustered breath and looks away, huffing.

"Damn it, she is going to be so smug when she wakes up."

She lets out a tiny, slightly-relieved sigh.

"Yeah. She will, won't she?"

She paces and huffs and grumbles. "'You've got a crush on her, Hailey,' and I kept denying. 'You should invite her over for dinner, Hailey,' and I didn't. Now look at us. She's going to want a kiss from you to see what the fuss is about, and of course she's won the bet now and I'm going to owe her two weeks straight of extra-elaborate meals after she's recovered."

She blushes a bit at the mention of Violetta kissing her—that sounds wonderful, if also a bit terrifying.

Then she grins. "Like you weren't already going to give her that?"

"I mean, sure, but it's the principle of the thing."

She giggles. "Of course, of course!"

Laughing again, she sits down on the bed.

Hailey frowns and looks down at her hands.

"She'd better wake up. I'll be so pissed at her if she doesn't."

Ami sighs and hugs her. She wants to reassure her—tell her of course Violetta will wake up, it'll be alright! But she'd be lying, and they'd both know it.

So she hugs her and strokes her hair and just says "Me too."

She blows out a tense sigh, hugging Ami some more.

"Fuck it. Nothing for it but to kill our way out of the mess. Put Iosef out of our misery, make sure Viggo doesn't come back to bite you for warning me, figure out where the little bastard put Maya."

Ami chuckles at Hailey's phrasing.

"Sounds like a plan."

She holds her there for a few more minutes, then stands and walks to the room's kitchenette.

"Want something to drink, before we go to find him?"

"Unless you've got a better idea, our best lead's going to be downstairs, and we could get a drink at the same time."

She smiles.

"Sounds good to me."

And downstairs they go.

After a bit of freshening up, anyway.

Once that's done, they head out along the purple-carpeted hallway, down an old-fashioned cage elevator, through the laundry facilities and utility rooms, to a black door with a coin slot.

Hailey inserts a coin.

A grated window in the door slides open briefly, before closing back up, revealing a classy jazz club, with a bar, live music, and guests scattered around tables and booths.

Ami grins, her posture relaxing ever-so-slightly at the music. She's always liked jazz.

She takes Hailey by the hand, and confidently moves inside the club alongside her.

Hailey spares Ami a small smile and a handsqueeze as she takes the lead.

She heads deeper into the club, eyeing the tables and booths for someone in particular.