Minutes passed by in near silence. Cars drove by in the distance, and the bar at the end of the intersection let out noise any time the doors opened. A single owl decided to yell at them as it flew by, but neither Addison nor her potential client took notice of it.

The woman rolled her eyes as if a great disservice had been done to her. “Fine. I’m here.” She shifted her weight without letting the tension in her face and shoulders ease even an inch.

Addison didn’t ease at all, playing her cards close to her vest. She wasn’t going to extend an invitation without knowing what the bargain was first. She may not love being in charge of deals, but she at least recognized the power she held in the middle of them.

The only place she had it, after all.

“I want to make a deal,” the woman said.

So cliche, but to the point. Addison couldn’t get mad- it's not like people came out to do this every day. She only knew anything because she didn’t have any choice in the matter. “What do you want?”

It wasn't a wish that brought people like this woman to the crossroads. It was never something simple when they stood they're looking clean and dignified.

The woman looked Addison in the eye and then shifted her gaze to the horizon. In the dim light, it was hard to tell for sure, but the facial expression seemed to grow dimmer. Determined. Desperate.

“I want a baby,” she said. The words left her mouth and her eyebrows shot upward instantaneously. “Not someone else's baby! I want my own baby. I want to be pregnant, and give birth…”

A smirk pulled at Addison's mouth even as she tried to stifle it. She didn’t mean to laugh at her plight, but watching someone drop that fast made her feel a little better; a little more human.

“I could make a deal for someone else’s child anyway. You can offer only a soul that is attached to you.” Hence how she had come to be where she was, incidentally.

The woman let out a long sigh; it sounded tired and weak. “I want to be a mother, and I can’t. I don’t want to leave a kid motherless though…”

Each of her thoughts seemed to overburden her. She had given the whole thing thought, but struggled to verbalize it; to make it true. Addison wondered if she feared making it real and being rejected. Matters of the heart did stupid things to smart minds.

“The deal would. Or it would leave a mother childless. An exchange must be made, and your end doesn’t last forever.” The terms were shit. Humans never made out as far as Addison could tell.

The woman's lips pushed against each other, forming a thin peach-colored line. She squinted, effectively hiding her best facial features. “You would make me pregnant, only to come one of us?”

“Down the road. Yes.”

“What's the point?” she shouted. Her arms began to gesture as she spoke. “Why would I take that deal? Why does anyone take this deal?”

Addison smiled; a wide tooth-filled smile. She had never made this deal before. She had never been sent to collect a specific life, but she saw where the loopholes sat. “For many, it’s worth it. They get to be rich, or famous or loved or a few years. They push the rest - out of sight, out of mind.”

She ended the sentence on a lift, signaling she wasn’t quite done. She also decided to let it hang; let the thought sink in that the woman could eat her cake and have it too.

“But there may be something that I can offer you.”

The sentence sat there, not yet offering solace. A breeze blew between them, shuffling the loose dirt at their feet. One man’s howling laugh came from the drunken wasteland across the way, and Addison waited.

“What's the offer?” The words came through the woman's teeth, her jaw clenched just shy of audible grating.

“We make you fertile. You have twins? We take one.” A smile crossed Addison's face. She wondered if this had been the type of deal her mother aimed to make. She doubted it; she had never been a pair, and her mother had not sought out fertility.

She would have already been pregnant when she stood in a spot like this, asking for something the cretin deemed worthwhile.

“If it's worth it at all, that is. Take it or leave it,” Addison said, letting her smile spread at last. She didn’t know why it felt so good.

Maybe she saw the leverage and reveled in it. Maybe she felt resourceful instead of helpless for a moment. Worst case scenario - the assholes in the pit were rubbing off on her.

“I would still lose a child,” the woman said, her voice wavered as it came out.

“You can take your time,” Addison said and turned her back. She saw nothing on the woman's face that told her she would decide right then. It was both good and bad news.

Perhaps she would sleep on it, and decide the life was never worth it. Or perhaps she would get desperate again and hope that the devil would forget. Either way, Addison wasn’t going to lose any more time waiting to get hit by a swerving car. It was time to make use of her little bit of free time.

Until the woman said yes or no- the deal was active.