Somewhere near Stanford

Ashlyn walks into the room, the sniper in hand.

"It's done, babe." She lets out.

Hope, who just hang off the phone, looks at her with a smile. She then gets up, before wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and kisses her passionately. Ash kisses back with fierce, the sniper still in hand, until Hope puts it on the couch.

The dark-haired the pulls away, smiling.

"You're hot with a gun on your hand" she then concedes, before walking on the opposite side of the room. "And with your freedom back, thanks to me."

"Who were you talking to on the phone ?" Ash asks, serious.

Hope turns around, smirking.

"Lucy Bronze." She says, but when she realizes it's not enough for Ashlyn - who is insanely jealous sometimes - she adds : "I was just making sure she wouldn't turn her back on me too. Getting rid of Kallman may have made her feel threatened."

Ash silently nods.

She then sits down on a chair in front of Hope, before the dark-haired is already walking again, not seeming to get any sort of rest. Her plan is all working, and now that everything has been put together, she is happy.

But Ash is not that much.

"You're working with your daughter's father again. Are you fucking kidding me ? I thought you never wanted to ever hear of him anymore."

"How did you know he was..."

"His name, Hope ! For fucks sake, I went to UCLA, I know that fucking name because I played with your fucking daughter !" Ash continues, out of her mind.

There is a knock on the door, and that makes the short-haired enrage even more. She lets a loud sigh out, as Hope is throwing a death glare at her before opening the door. Lucy Bronze then comes in, and looks at the former Bruin like if she wasn't expecting her.

Of course that annoys Ash even more.

"Great, I sure needed to see that fucking Brit today" she hisses.

Lucy doesn't say anything, mostly because she doesn't understand why Ash is to enraged. But Hope is pissed now.

"Behave" she orders her girlfriend, before turning on Lucy. "Did you bring me what I wanted ?"

"Yes."

The British girl takes out the file Hope asked her to gather, and when Ash sees the name on it, she rolls her eyes.

"Really ? You asked her to steal your daughter's school file ?"

Lucy freezes.

"Wait..." she starts.

"Ashlyn" Hope hisses.

"What ?"

But the British girl is not done.

"... Abby Dahlkemper is your daughter ?" she asks in disbelief.

There is a long silence, during which Ash just bursts into laughter. When Hope loses her nerves, she just walks toward her and punches her in the face really hard, so hard that the short-haired falls on the ground, sobbing. Lucy is in such a state of shock - for the whole 'daughter reveal' thing and what just happened - that she freezes.

After turning on the newest addition of their H Team, Hope shakes her head and sets her jaw. She then aggressively grabs Lucy's collar, almost lifting her from the ground. The Brit starts breathing heavily, as Hope's hand is around her neck now.

"Yes." She admits, as Lucy's back touches the wall behind her, and that her feet are barely even touching the ground. Hope is enraged. "And if you tell anyone, I will fucking blow up the whole town, do you hear me ?"

"Y-y-y-yes, I-I'm gonna b-be quiet... P-p-please..." Lucy stammers, heavily breathing.

"Good."

When Hope lets got of her neck, the pain level is pretty high - enough to indicate the goalie that she'll have a bruise soon - and she falls on the ground, hands around her neck. When Hope turns around though, she freezes.

Ashlyn is pointing a gun at her.

"What the fuck are you doing ?" Hope asks her, not that impressed.

"Why have you never told me about your daughter before ?" Ash hisses, still pissed that her girlfriend has been in touch with the father recently.

Hope raises her hands.

"Babe, you're insane. Put that gun down."

"You bitch, I won't-"

The dark-haired takes the occasion to try and get the gun, but Ash shows resistance. When it falls on the ground, the two girls start fighting body to body, only trying to beat the other to give them a lesson.

Meanwhile, Lucy takes the gun into her hands.

"STOP" she yells.

But the two girls don't even listen to her. She figures the security is still on, so she fires a shot on the ceiling... But the security definitely wasn't on. The bullet hits the walls (two of them actually) before the rebound lead it right on the two girls. There's a loud scream, and then a dreadful silence, as the gun slips of Lucy's hands.

Shit.

Ashlyn gets on her feet, facing the Brit, in total shock and anger.

But Hope doesn't get up, as the blood spreads around her. The bullet hit her in the middle of the forehead, and she just fell there, dead. At first, Ashlyn is staring at Lucy as if it was the last time anyone would look at her. But then, her eyes slips on her dead girlfriend again, and she bursts into tears, falling on her knees next to her body, holding her close.

Lucy takes advantage on that moment to put the girl on her bag and run away from the apartment.

*

Hospital near UCLA | 4:03 am

There is a dreadful silence in the waiting room.

Kassey has been on the emergency operation room for four hours now, and still no news from her. The doctors and nurses are way too busy to even talk to the girls, and who could blame them ? Around twenty young college girls are not easy to calm down and reassure.

As they're sitting here, all together, a small scream comes out of Gibby's throat, as she is looking at her phone screen with shock. When Rose and Jane curiously look at it too, they have the exact same face.

"Oh... shit" Jane lets out, shaking her head in disbelief. She then reads the headline : ",.,"

Everybody stop breathing for a second. Rose is the one reading the following piece of article in a shaky voice :

",.

,

Silence is king again, as everybody is processing the news : Hope Solo is dead. The main question now is : did Ashlyn kill her girlfriend ? But more importantly : is she going to come after them as well ?

Nobody can answer those questions.