After the game, Lauren neatened herself up and put on her street clothes. Several of her tattoos peeked out from beneath her halter-top and snug blue jeans. She fiddled with her hair for a while, trying to figure out the right style for it, until Janell finally took her in hand and braided her hair. "Good huntin'!" Betty called out.

Sue rolled her eyes. "Subtle, Money, real subtle."

Lauren smiled at the by-play between her teammates. "I'll see you lot tomorrow. Ta!"

As she left, she could hear Betty taking Janell and Tanisha's bets on her chances of scoring at the bar that night and whether that score would have anything to do with Sue's bet. It seemed that Betty had money riding on her hooking up with a Monarch; she hoped to prove Betty right.

The Eye was crowded, as it always was after a Storm game. A couple of young Monarchs were mingling with the locals. Lauren veered over there, but a long look at the scene indicated that one of them already had an engagement for that night and the other one had taken a very wrong turn. She could probably persuade her erstwhile opponent to ditch the groupie, but that would be classless and time-consuming, and ruin her reputation at the Eye. She instead took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer, surveying the crowd for a likely candidate for some fun, either inside or outside the limits of the bet.

After she had deemed herself sufficiently liquored up, she worked her way onto the dance floor, such as it was. There wasn't all that much room for dancing, but that did mean she got into very close contact with people. The way she swung her hips had a way of drawing attention, but she was not impressed with the quality of that attention. She kept trying, crossing the floor several times, and eventually there was someone behind her whose grinding met with her approval. At the end of the song, she turned, starting to say, "Buy you a drink?"

Ticha grinned at her, and Lauren's sentence stopped halfway through, partly from surprise, but partly because Ticha had resurrected her leather outfit from the "This Is Who I Am" commercials. "I like the waaaaaaaaay you move," she warbled, her voice cracking and going wildly off-key, her accent twisting the vowels, and generally butchering what the song had been.

"And I don't like the way you sing," Lauren cracked quickly.

"You and everyone else. But why should that stop me?"

"Common decency?"

"Bah, if you were so worried about that, my hips would not have been so busy. You dance well. If you're as thirsty as I am after that, I'll buy you a drink instead of you trying to buy me one."

Lauren gasped out a laugh as she got her breath back. "You ever known me to turn down a shout? I'll take a Cooper's- no one else here has it on tap, much as I ask for it."

"Don't tell me, tell the bartender." Ticha pulled Lauren through the crowd and ordered drinks for them. "So I hear you've hit a bit of a dry spell. Must be hard, going so long without."

"A week's not long at all, as if it's any of your business how often I get a root."

"I meant the deal you made with Bird," Ticha elaborated, clearly unimpressed with Lauren's skills at deduction. "People have been talking, and I haven't heard much about you doing well."

"Shows how much you know."

"From what I've heard about you, if someone had had you, they would be telling the entire world about it. Unless that's just a rumor also." Ticha smiled as Lauren was taken aback at the implication.

The Aussie recovered quickly, though. "Care to find out, mate?" she asked, making sure that Ticha saw the way her eyes roved up and down Ticha's body.

The hubbub of the bar, the pounding beat of the music, the stale stink of spilled beer and sweaty bodies- they vanished for a moment as Ticha considered the offer, quietly and subtly appraising Lauren as she did. It was easy to imagine the possibilities in those long legs and that kissable mouth. Ticha liked what she was imagining. But Seattle and Sacramento were rivals, every year more bitter than the last, and gossip spread through the league like mold on old bread. Her teammates might understand the urge, but they wouldn't forgive her for giving in to it so easily, and the trash talk from the rest of the league would be nastier. She leaned in closer to Lauren to give her answer. "Make it worth my while and I'll make you scream."

"No one's managed that trick in ten years, hard as they've tried, and I've made it more than worth their while." The words were cocky, but Lauren's voice was surprisingly matter-of-fact. Ticha took a moment to appreciate the paradox before clearing up Lauren's misconception.

"You have to make it worth my while in some other way. The sex pays for the sex. But for proof… unless you want me to tell Bird you never put a hand on me, much less got my pants off?"

"Wanker. Right, then, what else do you want of me?"

"Well, I never did find a copy of Athens Dream…"

Lauren laughed. "Come now, you'll see the real thing live, in color, and un-airbrushed. I'm a fair sight better that way."

"Yes, but so much less portable, especially for a point guard."

"Mmmm, good point. There were a few shots that never made it into the spread. Fancy one or two of them?"

"You've got a deal. If I can just finish this drink?"

"Ticha, I'm an Aussie. What makes you think I'd ask you to stop drinking? Abandoning a drink is a bloody crime."

In fact, it ended up being Ticha who had to drag Lauren out of the bar, since Lauren had decided that her beer would be lonely without another to keep it company. Heads turned at the sight of the tall blonde being dragged out by a woman a good six inches shorter. "Drinks are all well and good, but you need sex from me, and I was not about to have sex with you in the bar. I am not so much an exhibitionist, and it would also scare the rookie," she had said after Lauren had started her car.

Lauren laughed, reviewing the scene in her mind, as she fumbled her key into the lock of her apartment door. Ticha looked at her oddly, but Lauren waved it off. "Welcome to my pad. Make yourself at-mmph!"

The "mmph" came because Ticha's mouth was covering hers, as Ticha had gotten bored with the talking. Part of it might also have had something to do with Ticha using Lauren's shoulders to springboard herself high enough to get that kiss on. It lasted a good long time, until Lauren became aware of the crick in her neck that had developed from being on the same level as someone so much shorter.

"Very nice."

"Just a teaser," Ticha replied, stalking ahead of Lauren, rolling her hips as she went. Lauren, inflamed, reached out, grabbed Ticha by the waist, and pulled her back, making sure that her hands lingered long on the curves so expertly defined by the leather pants. Ticha squirmed and turned, and her hands slid under Lauren's shirt, working it up until it was essentially a scarf that did not hide bright tattoos and smooth skin. She realized that she had miscalculated, though, when she tried to nibble on Lauren's throat, as the bunched-up shirt got in the way and she ended up with a mouthful of fabric.

Lauren chuckled and finished taking off the shirt, tossing it casually over a chair; she had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't going to need it again that night. She reached for the waistband of Ticha's pants, but Ticha held her off until they had worked their way into the bedroom. "I'll need to find these again in the morning," she explained with a mischievous smile, and that explanation was good enough for Lauren, especially when Ticha was so much more willing to disrobe after it. There was a quiet moan- neither of them were ever sure who had let it out- when they kissed again as if they would never be apart, hands wandering with definite intent, no matter how random the patterns looked. The low hiss that broke up the liplock, though, that definitely belonged to Ticha, because somehow Lauren had managed to slip her hand into the ridiculously tight waistband of Ticha's pants and hook a finger into a very good place. She had to pull back before long, before the tightness of the aforementioned pants cut off circulation to her hand, because neither of them would want to explain that situation to anyone.

"Bed," Lauren suggested. Ticha rolled her eyes and shoved Lauren onto the bed, Lauren obviously having been oblivious to the fact that they were in the bedroom, and proceeded to leap atop her. "Watch the shins, they're tender!"

Ticha ignored the advice, seeing as she didn't have any erotic plans that involved Lauren's shins, instead placing her hands firmly on Lauren's breasts and rubbing her thumbs in small, steady circles until she felt the nipples harden under her ministrations. She smiled wickedly as she moved her hands down, expanding the circles that she had previously restricted to her thumbs. Lauren moaned, then gasped when Ticha brought her mouth into play, kissing and nibbling, stopping at her belly button for a long moment. By the time Ticha slid her hand between Lauren's thighs, Lauren was more than ready.

Ticha was known for her skillful, deft hands, and now those hands were turned to one purpose and one purpose alone as she slipped a finger inside Lauren. Two more soon followed, long and graceful, even as Ticha's other hand continued caressing Lauren's thigh.

Though there were other goings-on afterward that left her visitor as satisfied as she, the last thing Lauren would remember of that night was screaming Ticha's name.

But when Lauren woke up the next morning, Ticha was gone, and so was any trace that she had ever been there. Ticha had been so thorough that not even a hair was left on the pillow; she hadn't even taken the display copy of Athens Dream that Lauren used to show off. Lauren ground her teeth in frustration, swore undying vengeance towards Ticha and the entire Sacramento franchise, and started to think of interesting ways to get her revenge before laying eyes on the clock. All her schemes were immediately driven out of her head as she realized just how close she was to being late for practice. She dressed and ran in a hurry, not even noticing the bandage on the inside of her thigh.

"Take off your pants."

From the doorway of the locker room, Lauren blinked at Sue. "Well, now, I didn't think you were going to help me with our wager…"

"Lauren, I'm not in the mood for this nonsense. Take off your pants."

"You do know I'm not wearing-"

"I got a call from Ticha this morning. Take off your pants."

Lauren took off her pants. Sue examined her half-naked form, then said, "Open your legs."

"Some manners! How easy do you think I am?"

"Look, I'm really not in the mood to continue with threats, so this will be the last one. Spread your legs or I'll ask JB and Tiff to hold 'em open."

There was an intrigued look on Janell's face and a rather nasty smile on Tiffani's, and Lauren realized that Sue was dead serious. She did as ordered, accepting as her due the wolf whistles she received from teammates. Sue, however, was immune to her charms. She spotted the bandage on Lauren's thigh and ripped it off. Studying what she found underneath it, she burst into laughter. "Okay. You've officially got Sacramento now."

"I could've told you that without you opening my legs to look."

"Yes, but see, Ticha left proof. Look." Sue pointed at the inside of Lauren's thigh, and Lauren bent her head to look. In slightly smeared Sharpie, Ticha had left her distinctive autograph: "Ticha #21", with the doodle of a basketball and the basket, although the cross-hatching on the net was a bit uneven.

Lauren stared at it for a while, unable to believe that she had slept through such an involved signature, then shrieked loudly enough to be heard across Puget Sound, "SHE BLOODY WROTE ON ME?!"