Ticha opened the locker room door, or at least tried to open the locker room door. For some reason, it seemed to be stuck closed. "Oh, no, not this again," she grumbled under her breath. Then she thought about it a bit more. "But we're not playing San Antonio, so it can't be this again. Damn thing must just be stuck." She put a little more force into it, and anyone who knew Ticha knew that she could put a lot of force into something if she felt the need to. She felt the lock give with a shrill protest of metal grating against metal. "This is going to be fun to explain to Joe and Gavin," she muttered. But at least she was in. "Look, I thought what happened after we found Chantelle and Becky on the floor gave everyone a hint that blocking the door was a bad idea. I do NOT want- Meu Deus!"

It was clear that the two women in front of her didn't care what she had to say. She shook her head, hoping that when her vision refocused, she would not find the same scene. The trick never worked, and this time was no exception. There was still black leather, a rather large bullwhip, and what seemed to Ticha to be an excessive supply of "Yeah, bitch, yeah"s and "Fuck me up, God, fuck me up!"s. Ticha swallowed, if only because it was better than retching, and changed gears. "No one, and I mean no one, on this team is allowed to prance around in black leather other than me! And since I'm me, you can't be me, which means you better change out of it by the time I come back!" With that parting shot, she left, letting the door slam behind her.

"Why is it that whenever I see you come out of the locker room, you look like you want to take your eyes out and flush them down a toilet?" Yolanda asked.

"Because you, with your remarkable sense of timing, always put yourself in my path after I've seen something that no mortal woman should see. I guess it's something that comes from a long time as teammates."

"So who was it this time?"

"Hold on a second." Ticha buttonholed Kara as she was on her way into the locker room. "You saw Ben out there, right?"

"Right," Kara agreed, not sure where this was going.

"Could you go tell him that she's in the bathroom and she's going to be a while and she'll catch up with him later?" Without waiting for assent, Ticha turned Kara around and pointed her at the other door.

"Mya and who?" Yolanda asked once she was sure that Kara was out of earshot.

"Lisa."

"We don't have anybody named Lisa on the team."

"Brilliantly observed."

"So she's screwing around? With a chick, no less? Now I know why you told the boyfriend to get lost. But how do you know the chick's name?"

"Because I know the... um, chick. And so do you."

"Really? I don't even go to the same clubs as DeMya half the time, so how would we know any of the same people?"

Ticha recited a soothing mantra under her breath, then decided to go for broke. "DeMya's beating the everloving shit out of Lisa Leslie in the locker room, and both of them seem to be enjoying it. Apparently when she said 'I'm gonna fuck that bitch up,' it was a statement of plans after the game, not a threat."

Yolanda's eyes crossed and her face twisted into a grimace. "But she's- and she hates- I never would have thought she was into that scene- and she's the bottom? Are you sure, T?"

"Lisa's a rather distinctive-looking woman, and so's DeMya." Ticha shrugged. "I don't know why either. The ways of women are mysterious, as we both know from lifelong experience. All I know is that I walked in to find DeMya on my turf as the black leather queen of this team, which, frankly, offends me more than anything else about this."

"Coach is gonna have a shit fit if he ever finds out she's into S&M."

"Why? She might miss a game with injury related to repetitive motion? She's the S, not the M. She does the hurting. She doesn't get hurt, unless she's incompetent, and I can't see her being bad at that."

Yolanda considered all this, plus a few more things, then suggested, "Let's go watch."

"I wouldn't. DeMya didn't seem to appreciate spectators. She was lashing that thing at me. She'd never have seen it again, but she made her point."

"Do I have to remind you who you're talking to?"

Before Ticha could frame an answer, the slap of skin on skin echoed down the hall from behind the sealed doors of the locker room, followed by a hoarse shout of "Shut up, bitch!" and some muffled screaming.

"On second thought..."

"My thoughts exactly," Ticha said hastily, before Yolanda managed to divine that, yes, they'd both been thinking the same thing, up to and including watching DeMya beat the daylights out of someone who had beaten the everloving daylights out of them. It wasn't something she'd want to admit to the next morning.