Elenna Fee's Memories

What Goes Around Comes Around - Part 3
Some music for the mood

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"What's in the bags, Rome? And what are those books?"

Rome was … sitting closest to the door…

… books down in front of me, and unzipped the duffles.

Guns.

My eyes went from excited to terrified in about .12 seconds. I felt like running, especially because he pretty much looked like that I had to help him. I could hear him say something but I didn’t get what.

"Easy, easy," Rome told me, gentle, but firm. "We're just going to clean them… Here, look, I think these books have manuals and diagrams and crap. Guns are kinda totally awesome on the inside. We're just gonna take them apart and take a look. Get to know them. 'Know thy enemy,' right, Chiquita?" he winked.
I was first very excited to play a game with Rome, after I was sure it didn’t include us naked which would have been possible… the library… her safe place but his not really…
…“Rome I think, I...”
He had grabbed my wrist …
“Rome please.”  I actually had tears in her eyes. “Can’t I just take the books …” …he would never let anything happen to me… Defeated I dropped my head and moved a couple of inches closer to Rome. …“We just clean them, promise?” asked I sheepish.
"Absolutely, chica," he smiled reassuringly, and drew out his .44. "We'll start with this one. The Desert Eagle .44 Magnum. The one that by all rights should have blown my arm off, but the water dampened the shot I guess, so here I am. Push this little button on the side here--" the magazine clattered to the ground, "and the magazine comes out. I told you how to load one of these, right? Eight rounds in this one. But remember, just because the magazine's out, doesn't mean it's not loaded."

"I know, Rome," I snapped, somewhat irritated. "There could be one in the chamber."

"That's right. You'll have to pull the barrel back for me, though, handicapped as I am today...."

I narrowed my eyes skeptically at the weapon, and then at him.

"Come on," he said, more big brother than drill sergeant… "Do you want to sit on my lap?" he teased.

He was surprised when I moved forward and sat in between his legs.

"Uh. Okay… Good… So, slide the barrel back--" I did so, rather expertly for being a girl about these things, and, sure enough, a bullet fell out. "Awesome. Now it's empty. … you don't want dead--I mean, uh, you know, under normal circumstances. …"

… "… We are going to shapeshift this mother."

"What?" Now my curiosity was piqued. "You can't--how can you do that? You're going to turn it into a crossbow or something?"

Rome laughed. "You'll see. But first we have to clean it, okay? Where's that little screwdriver....Here." He handed it to me. “You're good at figuring this hardware crap out, so I'm gonna let you field-strip it without me telling you what to do."

… "I'll help you if you need me to, but look, I thought you were the smart one, huh?" he teased, gentle enough that I wouldn't snap…
“I am the smart one.” I said a bit sullen, but actually smiling a tiny bit…
“Can I break anything?” I looked shy at him.
“No.”

… “What now?”
"Awesome. See, here, um," … "There's the diagram. So the Eagle works a little different from most handguns. It has a gas-operated mechanism, like in a rifle, rather than your, like, blow-back design. …" he said, pointing to … the book:…

… I looked back and forth between the physical pieces and the book, curious in spite of myself. Rome did a small victory dance inside his head.

"Now here comes the crappy part," Rome said, watching my face pale…

"But--" I began, assuming the worst, but he threw a towel at her face …

"Now we get to clean."
“Oh.” I looked surprised and relieved… “… I and um someone were inventing those dead men’s blood filled bullet thingies.”
She felt bad for bringing it up, she never planned to mention Raws to Rome …
… "Psh, yeah, leave it to my moronic brother to scar you even more!" …
Rome looked at me, to get a gauge on how I was doing. I appeared to be doing fine, maybe even relaxed a little…

"… you put it back together … work the magic!" Rome's eyes shimmered. "It's like a transformer …" Rome produced a bullet. "This is the .44 caliber round, that my Eagle normally takes. This is a .50 cal…"

…"Check it," he grinned. "Now put that puppy together for me. And congratulations, chica, you're building a different gun than you started out with!"
I looked at the new pieces. “Um, wait I’m not using the parts I just cleaned? So why did I clean them.” I turned around to look at Rome.
Rome laughed. “You want them clean so they don't rust if you ever want to switch back. Why do you wash clothes you're not going to wear tomorrow? Because you want them clean the next time you do.”
I rolled my eyes. “You are mean. I meant the question seriously. Don’t make fun of me, I’m really trying here.”
I started slowly putting the gun back together with the new pieces, slowly and checking once in a while the book next to me.
"And I meant the answer seriously," Rome replied, confused for a moment before he remembered: Ah. Yeah. Forgot. Recalibrate to allow for crazy and...

"I know you're trying," he added. "And you're doing a good job. I'm proud of you. Not that I'd expect anything less," he said, grinning at me fondly… "I mean, it's not like even you could screw this up," he teased.

"Hey!" I shouted, "It's not smart to tease a girl who's holding a gun!"

Rome laughed. "Nahh, I'm not worried, we already know you're a lousy shot. You totally had a chance to take me out and you missed! I was like three feet in front of you and you barely...ow! Hey!" Rome yelped and fell back to escape the reach of my fist. "Hey, hey, injured guy here, remember?" He pleaded, laughing, trying to stop my raining blows down on him with his one free hand.
I grinned… “You are a jerk, do you know that?”
Rome laughed. “Yeah I heard that one before.”
I turned my attention back to the gun in her hand. I looked at the book again but it didn’t help me to figure out where to put some kind of little pin. I bit on my lower lip and tried to find a place for it.
“That’s the firing pin.”
“I know that, just looking for...”
I blushed a little. I had really no idea where it belonged. I looked a little helpless at Rome.
“There is no such thing as left over pieces I guess right?”
"And you'd be right," Rome held out his hand for the weapon and I handed it to him. He pointed the weapon at the light and pulled the trigger.

I flinched, but nothing happened, and Rome laughed.

"Okay, and that was gun not-safety 101, but if the firing pin's not in there, thing won't fire. And this one's kinda tricky, and in fact, I think you're sitting on the--" Rome lifted my feet and produced another small piece of equipment, "firing pin spring. All these little guys fit together." Rome opened the gun back up and struggled to put it back together one-handed before handing it off to me again. "Urgh, see, can't do it, now you understand why I'm pissed? Look, see, the pin goes inside the spring and through the stop, and then you hold it together until it..."

But I had already flicked the thing together like it was a baby's Transformer toy.

Rome laughed, a little surprised, but then, not so surprised. "Oh, look at me," he whined in a sarcastic falsetto, "Miss scared-of-guns, and I don't know how they work and ooh, Rome, help me, I'm so dumb and can't do anything, waah, waah--OW!" Rome recoiled his leg where I had socked him in the shin and rubbed the offended area.
“Be glad it was just your shin and not your nuts. So is this one done, now? How do I know I put it back the right way together?” I grinned at him.
I put the gun very slowly and careful on the floor pointing away from us, and then turned around to him. My grin got even wider. “And that’s for making me do this.” I giggled and started tickling him. Which was so easy since he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
… I fed him the perfect line for him to say, "well, we take it outside and shoot with it, of course!"

And then I jumped on him… tickling him.

… I found that sweet spot on his sides… His body jerked, spasmed… but he was laughing.

"Whoa, wait, what're you doing? Ahh! No, wait, lemme up!"

Now he was on the floor, on his back, and I was on top of him, and he was still laughing and quickly getting too weak to push me off of him--which, since I weighed all of ninety pounds, was pretty sad.

"Hey, stop! No fair! Injured guy! Ow, ow, ooh, hee, hee hee haha ow!"

… when the door banged open, and we both froze. It took us a moment to realize how awkward this must look.

His eyes tracked up the long legs of the intruder … until he was grinning up the skirt of Alyson Wesson, who was frowning and had her arms folded.

"Gross, you two, get a room."

"Ugh, no!" Rome exclaimed, reclaiming his strength enough to shove me off of him. "She started it!"

…"Just...don't do anything stupid, okay? …"

…When Aly was gone, Rome tugged on a lock of my hair. "Look, see what you did? Now you got me in trouble!" he scolded, without any shred of seriousness.
I grinned, “So you don’t like your girls on top, huh?”
"Oh, I love girls any which way, chica, I'm not a fussy man, you know that!" Rome grinned sleazily, -I knew what he was thinking of- trying to wipe his mind of the mental image of him doing the no-pants-dance with me.

I helped him up when I looked on the gun again. “How do we know I put it back together right and it works? I… I mean… we don't have to try it, do we?" I looked worried at Rome. "I-I have to admit that they are interesting in the inside, but I did shoot with it you know just 4 days ago. And you know what it just worked fine. So fine that I even saw some blood.”

The smile was gone from my face. “I’m sorry I know you try to help, and I’m such a baby about it. Come on let’s get you on the couch and maybe a shirt you get cold and just were sick.”

… when I suddenly waxed pitiful, he knew he'd pushed me pretty hard today, and brought me into a close embrace. "I'm sorry you're a baby, too," he couldn't resist joking, before, "but I'm proud of you… being brave is. It's being a pussy about something but not letting anyone know. So, like, you're half-way there," he laughed. "Seriously, though, I am proud of you." He didn't look at me when he said it…

"Okay," he said, straightening and turning back to me. "What's this? Resting on the couch? Clothes? Chicken noodle soup? Playing Halo until four in the morning?"
…I beamed at him. “… now couch for you, I’ll get you soup and clothes. And I want some real food, like a sandwich or burger. So come on.”

Timeline: 15^th November 2005
…“Lennie I was looking for you.” He grinned as usual, when he was planning something naughty.


…“What is it this time?” I smiled at him tired.

“It’s boring here, I’m sick of resting a healing. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s go for a trip. Just you and me and this time you don’t run away and no one gets shot. What do you think?”

Now I grinned widely. “Yes let’s sneak away, and see what we find. I can be ready in 30 minutes.”

…The two manage to sneak out unseen and were on the road…

…He almost got a little choked up reading it, honestly, so he had to take a step back and make sure he was properly sophomoric about this:
"So you're legally dead, too? Awesome! Is that what this is about? Are we going to sneak into your funeral? I'm really frakkin bummed I missed mine, it was probably..." he caught the hurt in my eyes and slowed down, "amazing... Uh. Chica? You okay with this? What's wrong?"

I looked straight ahead. “Okay with this? … I know he thinks it is his fault, because he let me go on my own hunting… He never knew that you were the one who kept me safe.”…

…"Okay, chica, take it easy, I hear ya. I-- … Uh. Yeah, okay, so where does this Bobby guy live?"
"South Dakota."
"That's a big state, chica."
"Sioux Falls," I replied petulantly.
"Okay. Then get off this road and get onto I-135, I don't know how you're trying to get there." …

…"Where you at?" Tex asked.
"Never Never Land?" Rome supplied playfully.

I grinned, he was on my side…
“He is safer when he thinks I’m dead.” My voice was trembling and it hurts as hell to say this, but I was protecting him.
… when, tires squealing, I took the Ferrari from 60 to 0 in three seconds on the shoulder.
"Jesus, Lennie! Tex, I'll call you back," Rome turned off the phone and set it on the dashboard before turning to me.
"What the hell, chica?"
I was ignoring him, frantically busy on my laptop and my phone. Deleting numbers. Erasing websites.
"Wait. First you're freaking out about him thinking you're dead and now you want to forget he exits?"
I was handing him my laptop back. “How do I delete the history of my web browser?”…

I was psycho. It was official. I was literally pants-on-head-bipolar-apeshit-nutso. That was cool, though, he could handle this.

At least I was funny, too.

Rome couldn't help bark out a laugh… "You should know that I’m complicated," but he quickly wiped the grin off his face and took the laptop I was shoving into his hands.

"Seriously, chica?" … "Okay, okay," he raised his hands in surrender… "You want me to do do a hard-wipe and defrag and everything while I'm at it?"

"… Rome, stop talking nonsense."

… Rome shook his head. Leave it to the girl who doesn't know how to delete my browser history to not know the first thing about computers. No wonder this thing acted like a stone-age paperweight. "Okay. Look. Never mind, I got it..."

…Suddenly, the computer screen fritzed.

"Hey, what are you doing to my laptop?"

"That wasn't me!" Rome shouted, before the hairs on the back of his neck prickled… "Crap," we said, together.

… As usual the hunts found us…
“Come on my personal EMF meter, let’s see what we find here in the middle of nowhere.”
… “… Get my hands dirty and some new bruises since the old once nearly had vanished completely.”
… "You kinky girl," he grinned widely. "Didn't know you went in for that whole bruising thing."

I whacked him--hard--in the chest… for the first time in a long time, the punch didn't hurt more than it should have.

"Contrary to the nutjob in my present company, I'm actually quite content to feel healthy and uninjured… no matter how kinky the circumstances, so let's be smart about this, okay?" he lectured…

"… It isn't as if I can turn it off and on, and if I start glowing red and beeping we'll know something is definitely way more wrong than just some supernatural activity in...the...vicinit...y..."

"Rome? Rome, what is it?"

…pile of candy wrappers by the side of the road… his Spidey-sense was tingling.

So he poked it with his shoe.
… He hadn't had a vision in...almost a month! … Plus, I was right: he was just a walking EMF meter, and he hated it when I was right!

…“Rome? Are you okay? I didn’t mean that you have to get a vision right away.”

… I let him catch his breath and moan over the headache.
“What did you see?”
Rome looked blankly at me, his eyes still gray, fading slowly back to their usual green. “A guy eating candy, laughing at me.”

…Rome let me guide him back to the car, but pushed me away as soon as he felt comfortable doing so. "It's fine, I'm fine, thanks, chica. You're probably right," he said. "I just need to..."

…But he managed to smile at me… I was convinced maybe 95% … He needed to stop being a little bitch about these things… "Yeah. Let's head into town… try to do some research on this…"…

He sighed and looked up at me. "… call Tex. She can...maybe she'll give us a … Maybe she'll make us come home." … "Either way, we're getting coffee. So let's roll."
I rolled my eyes, I knew that he didn’t liked this visions but I still thought if he would more than just try to get through them they would be less horrible. And it never saw how he looked when he has one. It was worse than any fit I heard of…

…So when he returned with coffee to the table where I was lost in research… myquestion startled him.
"So did you see any more details? Anything I can use for the search?"

"Uh." Rome plopped himself down across from me, and didn't answer for a minute. "I...Don't. Remember." He rubbed his face. "Uh, I mean, he had a distinct face…"

… a man was bitten to death by a Yorkshire terrier, … death … by the gerbils … Rats climb out of the toilet and bite the people in the butts.
… “… sounds like a joke…”…

…“Let’s find a place to crash and see what we find out about those incidents…”

Rome laughed… The vision faded …

"Rome, you're sick," I admonished …

"Rats biting people in the ass? Come on, that's hilarious! Hang on, I'm gonna grab a cuppa for the road."

…attractive dark-haired barista … "Does your girlfriend want anything?"
"What? Oh, no, no!... That's not my girlfriend, she's my sister. My little sister…"


…Rome locked eyes with me and followed the barista out… He gave me the silent let-me-handle this as I came up and gingerly put his arm around the girl. It was probably nothing. … it was very probably …

… “… stupid gerbils… and now he's dead! …" The barista squeaked.
Rome's eyes widened and he beckoned me over.

… “We need to see the... um gerbils.” I felt like laughing … one huge joke. This felt more like one of my crazy dreams I get when I read for days in the library without sleep.

…"Rome, look at this! ... There's EMF all over this thing!"…

"…Sammy and Deanna here…"
"… have names?!"
"Of course …"
"… I didn't expect you to know them..." Which, okay, if he thought about it, I totally would.

…"… be a shapeshifter, …even be a witch spell, … anthropomorphization--"

"… I think you make this stuff up--"

"Rome! I'm serious!"

…"Um, so, are you gonna, like, take them away?" Tiffany asked… looking sidelong at me for clues. He couldn't read me when I had my thinking cap on… Rome's mouth went on …or what I was trying to communicate to him with my eyebrows…"This is just wrong, chica. This is sick, twisted, weird, out of our league, and bizarre, and wrong, and I want to go home, and I think we've got the wrong hunt."…

I looked at him. I started laughing… “Okay you are right this is sick, twisted, weird, out of our league, and bizarre, and wrong… Sorry Tiffany didn’t want you.”

Rome didn't see what was so damn funny.

… "Get in," he told me, "I'm driving… what we can do with these things… shapeshifters, or haunted… " he said condescendingly.

… I had stopped laughing, and looked a little hurt.

He sighed: "Sorry, Lennie, I didn't mean to snap. I just feel… I don't know if even your research skills can turn up anything on this one, chica… a staticky radio says ghost, …killer gerbils sounds like shapeshifter …, and rats crawling out of the sewers to bite people in the ass just says stupid…"

“…have another Shining …"

"So, you admit the visions..."

"No, I do not! …doesn't mean I like them."

"… not …deny they mean anything…"

"… I guess… we always knew they were... " …a familiar-looking man walked out …

…Normally it didn’t take him so long …

…Speaking of monkey… where is Rome?...

…Candy wrappers. …throwing a Twix and Twizzlers wrapper onto my lap.

"Ugh, gross, Rome!" I said, before I stopped. Blinked. Looked back at the hotel door. Back at him. "Wait. How did you--"

Rome laughed. "I slid across the hood, chica, way to be observant. I saw our guy… Like, actually disappeared… No cold spots, no smell of sulfur… I'll go finish flirting with the receptionist."

… "Hey, chica….Keep your eyes open for me, okay?" Rome winked.

I replied by sticking out my tongue and making a rude gesture …

… for some reason it bugged me today more than normally that Rome was flirting with the receptionist. I wasn’t jealous, well okay maybe a little but more that I had to share him and never gets the attention the other girls get. Not that I wanted the same treatment but…

…"Okay, get your big girl boots on, chica: I want to go check out the sewer systems for this rat problem."

I frowned deeply. "But..." …

"Or you can chill here, and let me get devoured by mutant rats when I go down there by myself..."

"Okay, okay, fine!" I slammed my laptop down …"Rome, this whole shoot-first, ask-questions-later thing has got to stop," I scolded.

"What?" Rome pleaded the fifth. "I didn't say 'let's go explode the sewer systems!' I said, 'let's go check it out.' It's still research, it's just less boring," Rome winked.

…“You are unbelievable Rome. Come on let’s go and find some mutated rats.”
I took salt, my silver knife and a flashlight.
“Sewers suck and rats are gross…” …
“… Where did the rats peek out the toilets anyway?”
“In the south part of the town. Not far from here.” I said and took also a rope and some water. “Okay let’s go underground and see what pretty things we find.”
"I'm pretty sure the only pretty thing we'll find down there is my face," Rome said… When I made a face, he winked and shrugged. "…I'm kind of excited to find mutant rats. That'd be friggen awesome!"

"Rome, that will be fucking gross!"

"No, I'm serious! It's like, maybe, like, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be down there!"

"Rome, are you, like, 12?"

"… wait, what?"

I was laughing … taking only his keys and his gun. He would have gone in there naked in order to keep his clothes clean, but I wouldn't allow it… "Yo! Lennie!" Rome pointed down at the conveniently-placed manhole cover at the center of the alleyway. "Lookie what I found!"

He hauled the cover aside… he could only barley lift it--… smelly, dark, spooky, drippy hole. He bit his lip and grinned hopefully at me.

"Ladies first?"…

---

I looked skeptical at him. “Right as if you would let me go in first. If you could you would make me eat everything with a spoon, just because you think I hurt myself with a knife or a fork.”
“Right I go first.” Rome climbed down while I was standing next to him. “I really hope nothing grabs your leg from down there. That would be really awful.” I grinned. “And hilarious in a twisted way.”
"Okay, I am standing waist-deep--waist-deep, mind you, where all the important stuff is--in a sewer that's most likely full of mutated rats, and you choose now to bring that up?"

…"Okay, we're all clear down here, chica."

I should have known he would do it but I didn’t see it coming when grabbed me around the waist and tearing me off the ladder as my screams echoed.

"Jesus, Rome!" I shouted, realizing it was only him, and landing a solid elbow in his stomach.

"Ow!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

"Now everything's heard us for miles, way to go, Rome!"

"Hey, I'm not the one who screamed like a little girl, Lenna!"

"You think you're being cool, but you're being really really childish."

… Rome began, then grinned. "Story of my life. Sorry chica, I was just..."

Rome was quiet for a moment he nearly looked like he was thinking… no way… "Sorry. Let's go."

…something followed us…

I stepped closer to Rome and without thinking I took his hand.
Rome chuckled. "Just can't keep your hands off me, can you?"
“No, there was something behind us and…” I looked at our hands and pulled mine hand away. “I mean…” I blushed, why did I take his hand? “Something big is following us… not moving away an inch from him… “I can’t see anything.” … I kept an eye on the way ahead when suddenly four creatures appeared in front of us. I pulled at Rome’s sleeve unable to say a thing. My face … It took him a moment until he answered a little bit annoyed. “What Lenna? Wanna take my hand again?”
I shook my head … [/left]
[left] … “Would you like some pizza?” … This was worse than mutant rats.
Rome stared, open-mouthed… catatonic frakking shock.

… "You're the Teenage Mutant Frakking Ninja Turtles!" Rome practically squeaked…

"Totally, compadre," Michelangelo…

"And how!" Rome exclaimed…

I, however, was determined to ruin the moment:

… I tugged on his sleeve with surprising force. "Don't you think you should maybe--I don't know--think about--um--this? …"

… Rome still had a dopey smile on his face. "These guys are cool, chica, haven't you ever seen the show?"

"Rome, that's exactly what I mean! …"

"The lady got a problem?" Raphael…

… Rome blinked owlishly. "No way, man, she's cool--"

"Because we don't need any of you 'umans taking information about us topside!" … Donatello …

… "Wait! We're cool, I promise. She's cool, we're all cool here. We're like, major fans of yours, we know all about you, we just want to--"

"You know all about us?" Leonardo's warning tone, accompanied by the sound of a sword leaving its sheath.

"Crap. No. Wait!"

It was too late for diplomacy… What the hell was wrong with him?

Rome watched in dismay as his four childhood heroes advanced on him, weapons drawn. So unfair…

… “What the hell? Rome I don’t care if you love them. I have a plan.”
… I took Rome hand and pulled him along… “Move it Rome!”
… “… did you see what was at their feet?”
“I wasn’t paying attention to their feet, chica.”
“More candy wrappings… a really, really bad joke …”

…A very quiet Rome just went in the bathroom … Rome had bought me a printer so I could print off stuff …
…I … banged with both fists against the bathroom door. “Rome! Help there is a monster robot under the bed! I swear the printer turned into a mini Transformer. Open the door Rome!”
This was as if my nightmare became real, technology attacked me and was now hiding under the bed.

…He didn't shut off the water, he didn't get a towel, and was out of the bathroom assessing the situation in two seconds.
Okay, this was seriously getting ridiculous.
I was cowering in the corner as some kind of robotic-looking creature was browbeating me and shooting laser beams at me…

Rome went for his gun, the heavy .50 caliber, which was always loaded… flicked the safety off … and plugged the little bastard in until he stopped moving and sort of broke apart…

"Was this my printer?" he asked.

… I covered my eyes … I was blushing. I nodded … My ears were ringing from the shots and my heart was racing from the printer that attacked … Rome shooting naked.
“Rome some clothes?” I was mumbling … hiding behind my hands…

"What?" Rome looked down. "Oh." He blushed, slightly… "Geez, Lenna, you're such a prude. The correct response is, 'Hey, Rome, thanks for saving my life,' and 'Sorry about the printer'."

… he … returned with a towel around his waist. "Better?"

I was looking at him a little hungrily. "Much," I said…

He grabbed another towel and held it up in front of his chest with comedic daintiness, raising his voice to an obnoxious falsetto: "Don't objectify me!"
I smirked at Rome. “Because you never do when you see a girl? And I like what I see.” I shook my head slightly, I turned from Rome back to the shot printer. “Something is really weird here. Are you sure it is dead?”
“Yes, the new printer- I just bought- is dead…” Rome grabbed some clothes and went back in the bathroom but didn’t close the door…

…I looked with puppy-dog-eyes at Rome who just came out of the bathroom. “I hate technology and guns.”
Rome placed a mock-comforting hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, chica, technology and guns hate you, too."

…we pulled out of the parking lot of the hotel just as the cops pulled in.

"That was close," I said.

"Probably too close," Rome agreed, "but let's focus on one problem at a time… A trickster …"
… “… like a child but with really mean pranks…”
… This job got more bizarre every minute and … the gerbils were still on the backseat. I could see them in the side mirror and they were looking back at me and… grinning.
“What the hell?” If I hadn’t worn my seatbelt I would have jumped on Rome’s lap… “… the gerbils were grinning like a serial killer. Can we please get rid of them, they start to freak me out.”…

… frequenting these sleazy dives … night was falling, and the full moon was covered by clouds.

… "Holy sh*t, chica, you're right. These things are insane." … screwing a suppressor onto his handgun. I was staring nervously at him. "What, you want me to drown them or something? …"

I was still staring.

"Go on! What, now you don't want me to kill them?"

"Rome..."

"What?" Rome stared back at me, in exasperation, arms wide. Now I was pointing. Behind him. At the cage.

"Crap," he said.

"Uh-huh," she nodded.

Rome sighed… Full moon. Were-gerbils? …
"They're, um...they've changed into big huge monsters, right?"

I nodded again, and Rome shared the nod… cage snapping apart, and growling and slavering behind him. No one moved for a long time. Maybe if he just didn't turn around, it wouldn't be real…

… were-gerbils I was pale and shaking… Breathing became difficult, and I just reacted and didn’t think. Even though I didn’t like guns I still had some things in my bag, just in case my friends needed help. I grabbed the magazine with the silver bullets and threw it to Rome.
“You just have four shots.” I mumbled and dodged … There was something I needed to talk off my chest. I was covering my ears so I wouldn’t hear him shooting this time, no matter he was using a suppressor or not.
I hate this day.
There was a sequence in Equilibrium …awesome gun-kata thing… the magazines fall out and he slams in two new ones in one smooth movement, like a badass. Rome didn't have two guns, but he did manage a fluid motion, catching the mag I tossed him, releasing the one he had loaded, and reloading in less than a second…

…four feet high, half gerbil, half wolf-thing, half, like, hobbit… The first silver bullet struck gold…The second bullet missed…

… leapt forward, and latched onto Rome's gun-arm… the thing's claws rent his bicep… his silver knife … finished the thing off.

… Rome quickly clasped a hand to his arm to staunch the flow of blood: … but it was bleeding a lot… "Lennie!" He looked around… "Lennie?!" Now he was worried. "Elenna, you okay? Where are you?"

"Here," said a small voice said. I was hiding behind the car.

"Chica? You okay?" He knelt beside me.

"Yeah, I--Rome!" I shrieked, as I caught sight of his bloody arm. "You're bleeding!" I looked like I was about to faint, but not at the blood.

"Uh. Yeah, it's not bad, though, you wanna grab the first aid kit?"

"Did it...bite you?" I asked. I was a little too worried about that.

"Noooo," he said, at first confused, a bit worried… He grabbed my arm to confirm his seriousness: "No, chica, I'm fine, it's just a scratch, like, with its claws… I'll patch up and get these corpses torched, you go get us that room, huh? I won't even make you buy me dinner or nothing." He winked.

…“We got the farthest room from everything.”
… “I can patch it up if you want.”
“Nah I’m good.”
… wrapping up his arm anyway… wondering how to start what I wanted to say.
“I hate were-things… Rome there is something … I need to talk …” … a smile playing around his mouth… not sure to be worried or laugh. “You are not pregnant, are you?”
… A small smile appeared on her face … “No I’m not. But that’s really good to know that you have my back no matter what.”
… “Always chica.”
“I know…It’s not that…”…
“We have a little problem… another thing I’m great in … finding.” I fell silent before I whispered. “Werewolves… Caleb is a… werewolf.”…

Rome stood up, wrenching his arm free, half-bandaged, from her ministrations. His face grew warm with rage, even as his skin grew cold and his stomach dropped…

"What?!"

"Rome, I told you not to freak out, sit down." I tried to grab his arm again, but he snatched it back.

"Not freak out? …"

"…Rome, just think about this!"

"No, you think about this!"…

His eyes narrowed and he got into my face. "Why are you even protecting him? Do you know what he said, Lenna? Do you want to know what he asked me to do?"

For the first time, I looked a bit nervous. "No..."

"He told me to kill you. When we were looking for that werewolf, for Nick, back in Chesterton. He said he that if you had to be stopped, that you would want it to be me who made the shot! And that if I didn't, he was going to…"
…My mouth was dry and I felt as if my heart had stopped… after a long time I found my voice again, but it wasn’t more than a whisper.
“He what?”
“He told me to kill you.” I covered my ears …
“… I think he … has help… I’m sorry maybe I shouldn’t have told you. I just don’t know what to do…”
…“I’m not one of them. I promise.”

"Not one of--who--what? What are you even talking about?"

"I'm not a werewolf," I insisted, sadly.

"I know you're not, moron, we're not talking about you… God, I can't believe you didn't tell me this before!"

"Because I knew you'd react this way!" I pouted and folded my arms.

"… I'm gonna tear his friggen lungs out before I shoot him in the heart! Twice!"

"Rome!" I looked at him, appalled.

"Elenna!" Rome shot back, appalled that I wasn't appalled…

"… What if it was me?" I challenged.

Rome opened his mouth to yell again, but my question stopped him…

… “The world is not black and white, there a lots of grey shades and even some color. I’m sorry I said anything earlier, I truly hoped to be wrong. But I’m not.”

…I looked with tears at Rome, begging him to fix this. He was my big brother could fix this …
The walk helped.

I leapt up from where I had crouched in the corner: I looked like I hadn't expected him to come back, or as if he were a ghost.

"Rome!" I said.

"Paris!" he replied, and, when I didn't get it, "London!"

The tease worked: I forgot my fear from before and put a hand on my hip and stuck my tongue out at him… "Look what I brought," he said… the cheap, creepy-ass motel was a 900-mls-on-sale-for-$13.99, rot-gut, make-you-go-blind whiskey. He drank it out of a large, plastic Big Gulp cup … while I used the paper cup that came wrapped in plastic by the motel's sink… "Bottom's up."

… “Urgh that tastes gross.” I coughed.
Rome refilled my cup. “It’s not supposed to taste good.”…

---

I woke up with a major headache… I climbed out of bed and felt heavy and clumsy somehow as if my limbs weren’t the way they were supposed to be. I went in the bathroom, scratching my stomach… I splashed some cold water in my face, but when I pulled the towel away and looked in the mirror I was greeted by a face

I didn’t expect to see… it all wasn’t mine.
“Nononononono. Rome!” I shouted and busted back in the bedroom, nearly running the door in, it was hanging a little lopsided in the hinge. “Whoa Rome wake up. We are having a huge problem.”…

… he'd gone to bed with me--not in that way--…A large hand was shaking him awake, and the … Rome opened his eyes. Then he closed them again…
He tried again.

… mirrors on the ceiling of this hotel? …

… This guy didn't just look like him--he looked exactly like him! …

Rome shot awake, sitting up and shoving the thing back--or trying to, anyway, maybe the booze had gone to his head because it didn't work, and rolled across the ground for his gun. It felt weird in his hands, but he slammed a silver mag home and trained it on the creature.

...Who screamed and ducked, covering its head.

…"It's me, Rome! It's Elenna!"

Elenna? Rome's mouth opened slightly, and he was about to protest until he caught a reflection of himself in the TV.

"Holy sh*t!" he yelled, practically jumping out of his skin. (Or maybe: jumping out of her skin?) He ignored the thing that looked like him, dropped the gun and rushed to the bathroom mirror, touching himself to see if this was real…

I stood in the bathroom door, which I basically filled out.
Geez Rome is friggen huge.

…“Whoa hands of Mister. Just looking no touching this is a seriously stupid joke.” I moaned … “My head is killing me.”
I closed my eyes. “Stop touching my body!” I whispered … collapse …
Thinking made my head just hurt more, a new experience for me… “Dude I swear if you now stop touch my boobs I gonna tie you up until I found out how to get us right again. And don’t you dare taking of any clothes! Great and I have to pee…”
… I sighed. “Rome we have to figure this out, I’m not sure I can handle being a guy.”

…"Hey. Hey, chica...er, Lenna, come here--… We'll figure out what happened here and fix it, okay? No sweat."

…"… I mean, it'll take some getting used to, yeah, but seeing us fall apart is exactly what the bad guy wants! And, I mean, think about it: we must be getting really closed to him to have him so scared that he'd do this to us, am I right?"

A sniffle. "Yeah, guess so."

"Okay. So we get dressed--yes, get dressed, it's nothing we've never seen before, don't be such a prude… keep hunting this... Let's think about what it could be," he said …

"I don't know!" I said forlornly… this was not me talking. Maybe I was really hungover?

"… There was that guy from my vision… could he be a witch who likes candy? … a spell… sort of curse…"

…“Okay maybe getting dressed isn’t such a bad idea… Getting dressed doesn’t include touching yourself, so hands of!”

…“You know as twisted this is, there is one thing I’m glad about. You are having my body so I know nothing bad will happen to it. All I have to do now is keep your body safe…”

…I took slowly my laptop out … just in case it would turn into a robot again. “Here Till Eulenspiegel, was a trickster. It is more a myth… are like kids that love to play pranks and eat sweets and the crazier the prank the better. But here read yourself.” I was amazed I didn’t need to do my tricks to read the screen.
“Hey Rome, I was wondering if this is because you had a lot more to drink than I had or if the throbbing headache has another reason?” I watched him read the screen, for some reason it wasn’t that easy for me to concentrate and tell him each detail of the article.
Rome peered at the computer screen, but his eyes weren't adjusting yet, so he blinked back at me.

"No, chica, I didn't even black out, much as I wish I had..." He swallowed thickly. "But, yeah, we need a hangover cure now, this friggen sucks." … a glass for me. "Here you go, chica, drink up. I dunno, seems like I just kinda always have headaches anymore… Coffee will probably help, so let's get going to breakfast. But here let me just...read this...first..."

Rome peered at the screen again. It was still blurry. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried again.

"Okay, chica, are you blind or what?"

I looked embarrassed. "Um."

"Um, what? No secrets now, Lennie, if you finally made yourself go blind reading all the time I should know..."

"No! I just--I always had--I have reading glasses."

"What?" Rome stood up. "But you never wear them… you find them and give them to me. Meanwhile, I'm gonna get changed." … underwear was easy, but … really need ones that said "hottie" on the ass? … He was too confused to really be turned on by this anymore… He found a bra… Rome knew all about getting these off, but putting them on....

"Um. Lenna! Help!"

I burst through the door, stopped, closed my eyes, and shut the door again quickly. "Jesus, Rome, put some clothes on me! Do I need to dress you?"

"Oh, relax! And help me put this on!" he held up the bra and waved it in my direction. “I can't get it snapped when it's...behind...do I have to wear one?"

"Yes," I practically snarled, snapping it.

"Ow! This thing pinches!"

"Well! Adjust!"

"So now I have your permission to touch?"

…I couldn’t avoid take a closer look in the mirror, Rome had for sure a hot body. “Hurry up I’m starving, hopefully some food and coffee will help against this headache. You really have to do something about it.”
“Like what meditate?” Rome was standing in perfect Lenna-pose hands on his hips, head on one side and looking skeptical at her, just this time I saw my own body look like myself with my best friend inside… Carefully I picked up … his Desert Eagle. “It is smaller, somehow.” My hand was trembling but at least I didn’t freaked (yet) out I was just standing in the middle of the room with his gun in my hand.
"'Smaller somehow'?" Rome repeated dumbly. "Uh. Yeah, chica, news flash: you're in my normal-sized body now." He took the Desert Eagle from me, tested it in his hands. "Yeah, you know what, screw it, no wonder you hated playing with this one, your tiny hands can't even hold it! I'm going out to the car to get my Tanfoglio."

… I … went to the toilets…
Rome chuckled as he heard the screams from the direction of the bathroom. He was glad he hadn't remembered to remind her to walk into the right bathroom. What a rookie move. Hilarious.

…When I returned, Rome had never seemed so relieved in his life.

"Thank God, what were you doing in there? Those guys at the bar were staring at me."

"Rome, you like being stared at!" I insisted, enjoying the moment.

"Not like that--well--maybe by chicks--and they weren't even hot--but--oh, shut up!" Rome stood up. "I'm gonna go to the can. I already ordered for us."

… coffee I took a sip or more like half the cup burning my tongue, but it was worth it. My head felt better and thinking became easier… It was one thing for me to walk in the ladies restroom but Rome was now small and guys here were huge and evil and....
“Shit.” I jumped up from the table and ran back to the restroom…
… I looked worried at him. “Are you okay? He didn’t do anything fishy?” I looked at Rome from head to toe.

…"I can take care of myself, Lennie," he grumbled and pushed around her to the women's restroom…

…"Headache going away?" he asked, as I chugged the coffee like it was lifewater.

I nodded, but my brow was still scrunched together.

"Okay, so this trickster guy… What's his power level… he'd have to be close to god-like to pull this number on us…"

… “I’m pretty sure it is not a warlock … It’s too powerful. And a trickster is simply said a god...”
My eyes were fixed on something outside, a hot car and... “I would totally sleep with her.
” It took me a moment to realize what I just said. “I mean... I like her car.”
"Haha, I knew it!" Rome cried gleefully, banging hard on the table. "All women are secretly lesbians! …Yeah, that is a nice one…"

"Who's the lesbian now, Rome?" I frowned at him.

"Oh, man, do I wish! But you wouldn't want your body back by the time I got through with it, so..."

"Rome!"

… "Well, at least we now know why you've got my headaches worse than usual...."
I leaned my head against the chair and closed my eyes, my head was getting worse every moment. “You will get a heart attack if you keep drinking coffee like water…”
I had to make sure Rome didn’t see how really uncool his normal headaches were for me.

…I couldn’t handle the headache anymore and fell on my knees, it felt as if her head explode into a flash of white.
The man who had pancakes with the huge amount of syrup was giggling. He was watching them in the reflection of the mirror behind the counter. Each time they forgot they were in the wrong body, he was bursting into laughter again, and not just because they were silly. He was laughing as if he knew about them.
I realized Rome, or my own voice was shouting at me or maybe just talking, I wasn’t sure. I pushed him easily aside, emptying my stomach the wrong way.

…“This is seriously not funny at all! This sucks!” I didn’t dare to look at Rome, I wasn’t even sure why…
“Lenna, are you okay?” Rome said sounding worried.
“No, yes, whatever the pancake guy he has lots of syrup and he was watching us and damn my head hurts.” I wasn’t even sure if I was still sitting on the floor or standing again…

…"Welcome to my world, chica," he said, rubbing my back and offering a bottle of water from his purse-of-holding.

"Rome, that guy..."

"Relax, you're new at this, sometimes the visions don't--"

"Rome, stop it!" I shoved him, hard. "That guy, our guy, he's in there eating pancakes!"

"Well, dammit, Lenna, just sit still for a minute!" He insisted, standing up. "Stay here, I'll be right back." He pulled the Tanfoglio from his purse, flicked the safety off, and, barely concealing the handgun in the bag, he ran back inside the diner.
…finally know how he feels. As soon they would be back in the right body Rome couldn’t lie to me anymore and say after a vision that he was fine.
… “Are you alright?”
I turned around and saw the pretty/hot girl from earlier smiling at me. “I…”
I’m totally not okay, I’m stuck in my best friends body, had just a vision and now you are flirting with me.
“I’m having migraines, but it is alright. My sister is getting me some water and will bring me home.”
“… water in your hand, right?” The girl was standing close enough that I could smell her perfume.
…With some effort I pulled my gaze away from the girl’s boob to her eyes… “… I never thought of her anything less than my sister.”
“It is a shame, we would have a lot of fun...” The girl tiptoed and brushed her lips softly over mine… “Enjoy your water, big boy.”

---

… "Wait did the chick mean Rome and me are more than best friends? …"
 
…I was standing by the car, still, looking bewildered and confused. 

"Dude, what took you so long, chica...ahh!" Rome cried, spotting something very wrong with my appearance… "What the hell happened?" 

He was staring at my jeans. I looked down, now, too…

"Ahh!" I screamed and jumped, like I was trying to get away from it… like I was going to smack a spider that had landed on my crotch. 

"No!" Rome ran forward and grabbed my arm. "Don't do that! … What happened?"

"Rome, I feel weird!" I whined, clamping both hands over myself. 

"Oh, God," Rome moaned. "Look--just--umm--okay, I'll--um--let's get back to the hotel. Get in the car. Try to think of naked old ladies."
 
…“I hate being stuck in a testosterone filled guy body. This is just happening because you are well trained to think with your downstairs brain.”
 
…As soon we arrived at their motel … I disappeared in the bathroom and locked it.
 
…"Okay, chica? Lennie? Lennie, listen to me, baby. You all right in there?"

"Go away! Make it stop!" 

Rome tried to open the bathroom door, but it was locked. "Ugh, dammit, Lennie, what do you want from me, you want me to suck it off for you?"

"No! Go! I want it to go away!"

"Dammit, Lenna, you can't do that!" Rome through his shoulder into the door, but it didn't budge… "Let me help you!"

"You want to take care of this?" I shrieked, appalled. 

"Well, I'd certainly know how! Lenna, there's no shame in this, don't make it weird!" 

"It's grooooooooss!" 

"Okay, fine, then you need to take care of it! Unless you want to know how much it will hurt if you don't?"

"You mean it gets worse?" …

I was leaning against the wall next to the door. My eyes were closed I tried to figure out what to do, of course I knew what to do, it was more considering my two options.
In fact the boner is not the gross thing, it is more that Rome knows about it. Couldn’t I have one under the shower and it would be forever my secret!
 
… I have two options:
I take care of it myself - the bad thing is I know my hand job is not the best.
I let Rome take care of it (I bet his hand job is much better since he has practice in it) – the bad thing here he will never let me forget this…
Oh there is a third option I find a girl and bang her…
“A girl… That’s it.”
I unlocked the door and opened in one hasty movement and caught the falling Rome.
“Hello there!” I said in a flirty voice.
“Did you take care of…?”
“Sleep with me!” I interrupted him. “You get a free ride, you want to know how it is to have sex as a girl, but I know how guys can be and you are basically a virgin. So sleep with me that helps me with my problem and you get what you want.  And it is as if we would have sex with ourselves, in a weird twisted way.” I looked at Rome as if I was undressing him already in her mind, which I actually totally could.
Rome leaped back about twelve feet, meeting the wall behind him. It wasn't quite terror or disgust in his eyes, but it was definitely...surprise? 

I wanted him to have sex with me. Right, because the decisions I made with my downstairs-brain always worked out. 

"Lennie!" he cried, dumbly. 

They stood staring at each other for a few long seconds. I--his body--looked at him hungrily, in more ways than one…
 
"Lennie, Lennie, stop," he said, arms outstretched like he was keeping a wild animal at bay. Which, hell, may as well be… "Think about this, I don't want you to do something you'll regret later."

Now I looked hurt, "You don't like me?"

"Like you?" …

"What's that got to do with anything?" he snapped back. "You only want to do this to take care of your current problem, and I don't think you'd feel good about it after. Just, let me take care of it--hell, Lenna, I'll even blow you," he said with an obvious shudder, "and that's something I can guarantee I will never want to share as long as I live!"

…"Rome, it hurts..."

"Dammit, Lenna!" But it wasn't as accusing as he meant it to be. In fact, more than anything it sounded like a pick-up line.
 
I looked annoyed at him, well as annoyed I could look right now.

"I am pretty sure I feel better afterwards. See it as an experiment, there is no way I let you sleep with anyone else. So if you want to know how it is for a girl that's your chance."

I walked slowly closer to him.

"… I even smell good and the best part we know what the other body likes. And did I mention multiple orgasms?"

I was now standing just an inch from his outstretched hands…
 
((Over-18 Only Warning In Effect.))

…He was shaking. Shaking! Romulus Remington, shaking like a girl during her first time! …
 
"Lennie," he tried to protest again, but his mouth was dry…

But then I kissed him, and his brain just went on autopilot. I was a hell of a kisser!...

I had gotten my jeans and boxers off, and I actually tore the dress in half right down the middle to get him out of it. Which was a little bit scary--he'd never pegged me as the controlling, possessive type…

"You're tense, stop it," I moaned, pushing him back onto the bed.
 
I kissed him again, tried him to relax. It was nearly funny, I never pictured Rome to be tense and nervous in this moment, I would have laughed if I didn’t felt so close to exploding.
 
I was hot, my breathing quickened and suddenly I felt the intense pleasure. It wasn’t longer than a few seconds, but those seconds as awesome it were cleared my head. I stopped, which made Rome nervous … 

It took us a while to get used to navigating … There was many an unromantic "Ow, wait, stop, you're doing it wrong!" and a "Move, no, the other, here let me!" It took Rome what felt like forever to actually reach the petit mort--but, holy crap! Then it was like he couldn't stop! 

It was like giving cocaine to a caffeine addict. 

Sure, sure, hypothetically he'd like to be back in his normal body, you know, someday, but he hadn't been in Lenna's skin for longer than five hours and already he was positive you couldn't pry his cold, dead husk of a soul out of this hot piece of meatsuit for all the money in the world…
 
I collapse heavily breathing on my back next to him. “Ohmygod!” … “Unless we bring chocolate or butterscotch or something I can lick off you in the game I need a break and some food.”
 
Rome chuckled. “I would totally go with this.”
 
“I read once in a journal that two honeymooners starved to death on their honeymoon, because they never left the bed.”
 
“That must be a sweet death, better than drowning in a moldy stink hole filled with water and then get shot.”
 
“If I remember it right you said being shot was worth it to be saved and I took good care of you afterwards.” I kissed him one last time and got up to search some clothes. I picked up the dress Rome was wearing earlier. “You know I never liked this thing.” I giggled.  “Oh and just so you know you are wearing pants from now on, no dresses or skirts until you know how to move in them. And I can handle you in them.”…
 
Rome was watching me from the bed…
 
“We can continue where we stopped later again, but I need food and we might want to investigate for at least a moment what the trickster is doing.”
 
"Oh, but investigations are already ongoing," Rome said, finding a sensitive spot of flesh on me and sucking on it. 

"Aaaaand that's it, off," I said, shoving him to the side. 

"Hey!" he pouted, frowning deeply. He literally felt like he could do this all damn day! It was beautiful! 

I threw some clothes at him, and he stalked off to the bathroom to clean up and get dressed. 

---

"Okay, so, we've found out Tricksters can just appear and reappear wherever and whenever they like, which is why we haven't been able to catch up to the bastard. So the questions we gotta figure out is how do we trap it? Assuming the evergreen stake thing works on these guys, that's easy." 

Rome opened the bathroom door and re-entered, wearing jeans and one of his own t-shirts that was way too large on him…
 
…I smirked seeing Rome in his own shirt. 
 
“Come over here.”
 
I pulled him over to me and made a knot in the shirt.
 
“Well it looks like all the Trickster wants to do was to play and eat. He pretty much lives a sunny live… And yes I’m pretty sure the evergreen stick works.”
 
… I would have enjoyed to keep going with Rome.
 
“I hope you are wearing a bra, I’m not one of those free girls.” I tried to see if he was wearing one or not, I thought it would be rude to check…
 
"You wanna check?" Rome purred seductively, creeping up close to me. 

I backed away, licking my lips. "Rome, not now..."

"Oh," Rome bit his lip, "I could have you right where I wanted you any friggen time, don't kid yourself--"…

...” … this bikini line is practically European. And yes, I looked, and no, I'm not sorry! Do you want to catch this guy or not?"…

…"Rome--" I frowned deeply at him.

"What? You're worried about a bra?" Rome put his hand on his hip. "Chica, you'll be lucky if I wear panties when I go after this guy…"
 
… "… you are smoking hotI She smirked and went back to sharpening stakes. Just before I remembered something.

…"Hey Rome what do we do if we kill the trickster but it won't change us back?"
 
"It'll work. It'll work," Rome said, like a Han Solo who really wasn't sure the raid on Endor was going to work at all.

…I frowned at him. "Be careful."

"You be careful! Try not to get a boner when I'm not around to--" Rome ducked as a shoe flew across the room at his head. "Hey, watch it! …" …
 
… I’ll be around. Kisses L
 
…Prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor, you never looked so good!
 
…He had time for only a short text before he silenced his phone and put it in the purse: Show time.
 
…"Well, hello, there," it said, friendly enough. It looked him up and down, undressed him with its eyes, as Rome took a large bite of chocolate ice cream. It whistled long and low. "Looks like someone let out her inner Diva," it winked.

"Oh, I wouldn't let it all out right here in the middle of DQ," Rome said, 10% threat and 90% promise "Talk about gauche."

… “Hey bastard, you are banging my girl!” I yelled while I walked in through the balcony door.
 
“Oh girl just because the body you are now knows how to hold a gun doesn’t mean shooting me helps you. I’m not threatened by a gun, so no matter what you want you don’t get it. You stay just as you are.” The trickster giggled.
 
“Oh I don’t want to be a friggen witch again. I actually like this body and I start to get a hang of the visions. I really don’t want you to change us back. All I want is that you keep your hands of my girl, I think the mistake Rome did while he was in this hot body that he left the chicks too quickly. Treat them right and you get as much good sex any time you want and this includes protecting them from sleazy douchbags like you.”…
 
“Seriously I live in a house full of hot chicks and they can all be mine if I do it smart. My own personal harem. I can’t wish for more.”
 
Lenna was still pointing the gun at the trickster, she was trying to ignore Rome as much as possible not because she didn’t want to see him or that she wasn’t glad he was still alive but she knew her bluff would be visible as soon she took a closer look at him.
 
“Get off her and let us go, we won’t hunt you and you won’t bother us ever again.”
 
"Oh my God!" Rome shrieked as I burst in on them, guns blazing. 

So since the bluff wasn't working, time for the double-bluff.

"You weren't supposed to be here!" he shouted, throwing a pillow at me…

Either in genuine surprise or… catching on to the second tier of bluffing, I pouted. "But--but--this was the plan?"

"Your plan, you useless cretin! Not my plan! You get out of here and take your over-compensating ego with you! I was about to score with a god, dude, so, news flash: you're officially the second string quarterback!"

… I … appeared crushed. "You...what?"

…As he grabbed the Trickster, who had been watching them like a soap opera, by the lapels and, exerting his strength, wheeling him around to face him. "Take him away! Please, make him go! I want to stay with you, please! Just snap your fingers and we can be together forever!"

And while he turned on those puppy-dog eyes and anxiously stroked that bald, hideous, candy-eating face, the Trickster's back was facing me. They had only one shot at this.
 
…I pushed the stick from behind trough the Tricksters heart. It was surprisingly easy…
 
“It didn’t work, we are stuck.” I expected to hear my voice crack in panic, but I sounded surprisingly calm. No panic I just accepted the fact…
 
“Are you okay Romeo?”
 
"Am I okay? What about you?" Rome insisted, patting me down to check for injuries.

"Hey, look, I wasn't the moron who got myself kidnapped, okay?"

"Hey!" Rome cried out, pointing. "He's gone!"

"What?" I turned. The Trickster's body, which had been on the floor, had disappeared without a trace. "Dammit!" I cried. "Do you think he got away?"

"Maybe they just disappear when they're killed?" Rome wondered. "Save us the salt and burn..."

"Rome, I wanna go home," I whined.

"Sure, chica, sure," Rome put his arm around my waist, and I put my arm around his shoulder. "Let's go..."
 
The Trickster watched as the two humans walked, arm in arm, out of the house.

…Potentially dangerous? Maybe.

…He hadn't used his outright "smite" power in a long time… a voice stopped him--

"Really, Gabe?"

Shit. "Oh, uh, hey, Z., how's it hangin', man?"

"A little to the left. How's running away from home going?"

"Oh, you know..." …

"… Stop fucking with my mortals, dick!"

…"Absolutely, sir, right away, sir…"

"You're funny … Gabe… put them back the way they were."

"You betcha…"

…“It looks like I have to get used to pee while I stand, and you have to get used to wear a bra and glasses for reading.”
 
… I grinned at him. “And get used to me as your boyfriend.”
 
… “… You are awfully quiet, are you picturing us in any dirty way again?”
 
… "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, chiquita--I mean, well, 'dude', I guess…" …

… by the time he returned from the shower, I was asleep.

… he wanted nothing more than to curl up next to me, maybe not even sleep, just...be near me.

…I was … asleep when Rome curled up next to me, but I felt him even in my …
 
…Rome woke.
With a headache.

…"Gah!" he said, leaping upright to untangle himself from me...

…"Rome?" I blinked up at him owlishly, my brown eyes sleepy and bloodshot.

If he was hungover, I looked like I was still wasted.

…"What time is it?" he asked me… "What day is it?"
 
… I was still cuddled into the warm spot Rome had left.

"…I have no idea what time or day it is."

In slow motion I got up, stopping every couple of inch with closed eyes until I was sitting upright.

"Rome we didn't...? We just slept in one bed right? …" I asked trying to remember anything …
 
…"No way, chica, I think I'd remember that," he winked, trying to make light of it. "I think you just got affectionately inebriated and tried cuddling with my unconscious ass."

…"It's not even noon yet…"…

"Holy crap!"

"Not so loud," I moaned.

"It's ten o'clock on Wednesday!"
 
…“… Let’s go home and maybe we can sneak back in just like we sneaked out. I hope you are sober enough to drive, I’m sure as hell not.” …

The Immigrant Song

Callum , Lenna, Georgie, Rome, Richard
23^rd November 2005

---

… Georgie told me: "And you'll have to let me help dress you."

"Can I watch?" Rome interjected…

"All right, settle down," Tex snapped…
 
I pulled the skirt of my dress down and slipped out of my heels. “Why did we have to get changed before … This dress doesn’t let me breath and my feet are killing me …”
Georgie turned around in the front seat. “But you finally look like a girl. You are so pretty.”
“No I look hideous… Why do I have to go to the auction can’t I wait in the motel or even the car?”
“Stop touching your face you mess up your make-up.” Georgie pulled my hand out of my face …
I rolled my … “I still feel fucking hideous.”
"Geez, Lenna!", Georgie sighed. "Your attitude only shows me that you definitely need to practice how to be a girl. I have no doubt that there's potential, but you make it incredibly hard. And don't take your shoes off, only farmers and Californians do that."

"But I'm uncomfortable!"

"You are being childish..."

"… I'm complaining about being forced into a dress that gives me a hard time sitting at all, and the make-up that-"

"Don't say anything about the make-up, it's Chanel and Dior …"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever!"

…"Okay, if you two continue I'll pull right over and let you walk all the way to Maine", Rome said. "I'm serious."

Georgie and I crossed our arms like sulky little children and stared out of the window. After a minute of awkward silence a smile appeared on our faces, and they both started to laugh.

Rome shook his head. "Girls... Just--try to--look," Rome spluttered. "We're only about a half hour away now. So let's go over the plan. G, hit me," he tested.

…"Hang on," Rome said, and pulled the Ferrari over on the side of the road.

"Okay, we'll stop, I'm sorry!" I shrieked, thinking he was making good on his earlier threat…
 
"Now, Lennie--Elenna," he corrected, "we gotta call her 'Elenna,' no nicknames… So, Elenna, your turn: remind us of the plan," he demanded.

"ID, steal, bid, mug, it's not hard," I replied petulantly, "or wouldn't be if I wasn't wearing this stupid dress--"

"Details, details, chica--I mean, Elenna--tell us what we're really doing. And we don't use the word 'mug' in polite society, we say 'acquire'.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, so we ID, steal, bid, acquire. It doesn’t change the plan even if you use fancy words, Romulus.”
 
…He continued: "Two, ID: that's you, Elenna. You're in charge of figuring out what it is we have to steal. Use whatever you got to, EMF, whatever …"

"…Elenna, play up the Black Sheep number at dinner, shouldn't be too hard, pretend to get drunk…"

…"By the way, Barbie, you're a criminal for forcing me into that dress", I mumbled.

"Correction: I don't force you, the society does. If you would show up in jeans and one of your ridiculous shirts with those offending pictures and slogans on it, they wouldn't let you in and you couldn't do you job, so you see, it's the society that forces you to look a certain way."

I rolled my eyes… I kicked against his seat when Georgie passed me the mirror.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to fix your hair a little, but I don't dare to do it myself so I'm asking you to do it now before we'll arrive."

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"What is not wrong with your hair?", Georgie raised her eyebrows while I looked in the mirror. "How did you manage to mess it up like that?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's probably because I didn't use enough conditioner in the first place", I replied sarcastically.

Georgie smiled. "Now, that's a girly answer. I'm really proud of you, little sister."…
 
… I followed right behind Rome and Georgie and I had a very hard time not to run around with my mouth open …
 
…"Dude, I would feel a lot better if people would stop staring all the time", I mumbled.

Georgie turned to me. "Don't say dude."

"Geez, what the-"

"And don't say geez either."

"Oh my sweet Lord, I feel slightly annoyed", I replied with a sarcastic voice…
 
…I sighed. "I seriously want to get out of this hell as soon as possible."
… …
 
… A real piece of eye candy but it was as quickly gone as he appeared…
“Romulus I think there is an object you would consider as interesting. It would be a perfect addition to your collection of antique swords. Would you like to have a look?”
Gosh speaking like this is serious exhausting and where did the hot guy went I totally wanna say hi to him.
Listening to my pretensions to Society put Rome instantly in a good mood again. If I could play along, they just might sell this. 

He clapped me on the back and brought me into a hug, grinning widely. "Of course, sis, let's go take a look! Honey," Rome called, eliciting Georgie's attention, "We'll be right back."

…My purse began vibrating. He remembered the silent EMF he had helped me build…
 
… I stepped closer to Georgie and whispered. “I saw a real yummy guy. Mouthwatering.”
Now I got all of Georgie's attention. She raised an eyebrow while a smile appeared on her face.
"A yummy guy, hm? Describe! I want every detail!"

"I only saw him for a couple of seconds."

"Hair color?"

"Dark. Not blonde. Rather brown."

"Eye color?"

"He was in a distance, I couldn't really see it."

"Body?"

"What?", I looked around, hoping nobody would listen to our conversation.

"Is he small, tall, skinny, fat, athletic?"

"Seriously…"

Georgie smiled. "…  So, how is he built?"

"Well, he's taller than me- which is not hard. And he's, I don't know, I think he looked athletic or something. I couldn't really see it under his suit."

"Maybe you're getting lucky and will have some time to check that out", Georgie winked at me teasingly. 

"Dude!"

"What was that? Dude?"

"You know what I mean!" I sighed. "And besides, I'm here to do my job, and not to chase after hot guys." 

"That doesn't mean that you can't look at them."

Actually Georgie was right, but I didn't want to admit it...but I really hoped to see that hot guy again. 

… I grabbed Georgie suddenly at the elbow and turned her around. “Look there!”
Georgie was about to tell me that it was rude to pull at her arm like this but he distracted her. “I call dibs I saw him first and you are married anyway. Do you think Rome, um I mean your lovely husband can buy him for me? Please I want him more than any book. Did you see the perfect hair?”
Georgie pulled her gaze away from the guy and looked wondering at me. “I never saw you that excited except when you saw the huge book store in the mall a couple of weeks ago.”
I stuck out my at her and tried to keep track of her guy but he got lost in the crowd…
 
"You have a really good taste, I have to say", Georgie said after the handsome guy disappeared somewhere among the other guests…"So I guess your Mr Handsome is Scottish..."

"Don't call him my Mr Handsome."

"Yeah, I know I'm handsome, thanks", Rome appeared behind us.

"Believe it or not, but we're not always talking about you", I mumbled. 

"I'm sorry, but I find that very hard to believe." He shot me a grin…Suddenly I saw my Mr Handsome again. Only for a second, but that was enough to make her blush. 

Georgie felt something weird. Something almost exciting, like butterflies in her stomach - which was weird because she had just looked at the 80-year old guy again, and the fact that she felt butterflies in her stomach at the sight of that man worried her a bit. Then she noticed Elenna's flushed face. That was the second time this evening Georgie felt like she could actually feel Elenna's emotions. But that was impossible. Well, it was more possible than having butterflies in her stomach at the sight of a wrinkled old man who looked more dead than alive... Or was something utterly wrong with her and she was attracted to old, very old guys?
Rome shrugged at the kilted figure we were staring at. "Hell, I wouldn't kick him out of bed," he winked…
 
…I crossed my arms while the girls watched Rome taking to the attractive brunette. "Seriously? We're here for work!"

"Says the one who can't keep her eyes off Mr. Scotland."

"Firstly, stop giving him stupid names, and secondly, I don't remember going over to him and flirt with him-"

"Because you're too shy", Georgie said dryly.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"This is ridiculous!" I sighed, then quickly looked at Rome and the other woman again. "Come on, he's supposed to be married!"

"Did you expect anything else from him?"

"That chick isn't even attractive!"

Georgie cleared her throat. "…is it simply jealousy? She is attractive."

I grunted. "Jealousy? Yeah, right..."

…I didn’t bother when I bumped into Mr. Scotland. He was tall and even better looking from the nearness.
“Hi.” I mumbled and smiled shy…
 
…Georgie nodded in the direction of the handsome guy in the kilt. "You could introduce yourself to him."

"What?" I blushed. "No...no..."

"It's nothing unusual. You smile at someone, offer your hand, introduce yourself, ask for his name and get into a little conversation. No big deal."

"But...I...that's kind of..."

"After all you are too shy, I was right."

"No, I'm not!"

"Oh my God, he's looking at you!" Georgie grinned. 

"What?"

"Smile!"

"But I-"

"Smile, Elenna!"

"Okay, okay!" I finally managed to smile shyly, and when he smiled back I heard Georgie giggling. 

"Gosh, I feel like we're in Junior High School!" I turned to her. 

"But since we're not", Georgie said while touching my shoulders and turning me back to look at the cute guy, "you might as well go over to Mr. Scotland and talk to him."
 
… He smiled back … taking a deep breath he stepped through the crowd and began walking towards the girls…
 
…I blushed. I never felt that shy, but okay I normally don’t flirt with guys that stink of money.
 
…Callum smiled as Georgina and I discussed kilts. They, or at least I, seemed nervous…

“My name is Callum …,” …

I gave Georgina a look that said I told you so… “I’m an archaeologist…”…
 
My eyes sparked with joy. “An archaeologist?...”
… Callum offered me his arm and I took it a bit stiff…
 
…Rome straightened just in time to see the Scot helping me into the chair next to Georgie. He watched the man work with an overprotectiveness he couldn't quite explain--or, okay, he could explain, but he didn't want to…
 
Rome was still scrutinizing him carefully, and absolutely wanted him to know it. "I'm Elenna's brother. In law." There was a hint of warning in there, too…
 
… he turned to me.

“I have no idea which fork to use.”
I looked to Rome, was he jealous or just being again an annoying big brother? I looked from Rome back to Callum …
“What the hell… In Titanic they said to use it from the outside to the inside.”…
 
…"Since when do you just 'feel' something's wrong anyway, Princess Leia?" Rome asked… "What aren't you telling me, Princess?"

She paled slightly. "It's none of your business," she said quietly…

...Unless she really was pregnant, Jesus. Not a pleasant thought…

For the first time Rome glanced past Georgie to me… "You better watch out for your sister, there, dear, before she embarrasses me." 

Right on cue, I burst out: "Gross! My soup's cold!"…
 
…For a moment, Rome's mind wandered back to the last time he'd seen me drinking champagne: …he regretted the move too late as he thought of crazy-me throwing champagne glasses against the wall. He was prepared, then, to reach across the table and keep my glass upright as it topple while I giggled.

All according to plan.

"Whoa, sis, I think you've had enough..." he said loud enough for anyone listening or watching to hear.

"I'll tell you when I've had enough!" I cried, gleefully dumping my water carafe out into the ice bucket and proceeding to fill it with champagne, giggling.

The Immigrant Song - Part 2

---

Now he appeared to snap: might as well make this Romulus Remington famous for his temper, you know, it went well with his outburst earlier this evening and his wanted-felon status. "Jesus Christ--Georgina, control your sibling! I knew we shouldn't have brought her along!"
…"Elenna, I am serious. Pull yourself together, young lady!"
There was no person at the table who didn't look at the laughing me who grabbed the sleeve of one of the waiters and held up her empty glass. "Another one, mister!" …
 
…Georgie turned to me who shoved down scoops of my dessert. For some reason I seemed pissed.

"Are you okay?" Georgie asked.

"Hm?"

"You seem...tense."

"I'm not. I'm just enjoying the pudding", I replied coldly and was just about to return to my dessert when Georgie touched my arm.

"First of all, that's not a pudding, it's crème brûlée, and secondly, you eat like a wild animal. That's not a nice picture..."

I rolled my eyes and frowned as I looked in the direction of Ms. Cohan. Georgie tried not to smile. It seemed like we shared the same feeling of distrust towards that woman.

"Would you two stop staring at her like this?" we heard Rome saying. "You look like you're thinking of really mean ways to torture her."

Georgie and I looked at Rome, and then at each other. "Doesn't sound so bad actually..."

…"So? That doesn't mean that we have to be nice to her", I mumbled…

…"How convenient that she's attractive too, right?" Georgie didn't even try to hide the sarcasm in her voice.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yes, really convenient..."

"It's really nice to finally see you two agreeing with each other...no, actually, it's creepy, but that doesn't mean you two can get all Holmes and Watson on me and snoop around in my business." He looked past us at Callum who pretended that he wasn't listening to their conversation and politely finished his dessert.

"If we're Holmes and Watson, who is who?" Georgie asked me. "Am I Holmes?"

"Why?"

"Because Holmes is the taller one."

"And he's the smarter one, so that would make me Holmes."

"Excuse me? I went to Yale, okay? And I'm so not Watson."

"Why?" What is so bad about Watson?" I raised an eyebrow.

"He's depicted as small and fat."

"Did you even read one of the books?"

"No, but I watched the 1980s TV series, and Watson is definitely the unattractive one. So I can't be Watson", Georgie replied.

"I can't believe we're seriously having this conversation..." I mumbled.

Rome chuckled. "Well, ladies, I hate to interrupt your very sophisticated discussion, but it looks like the auction is about to start. It's show time!"
“But I haven’t finished my pudding yet.” I complained but one stern look of Georgie made me shut up. “…
 
…I was about to leap up and run down the isle, but Rome grabbed my arm and held me in my seat.

"This ain't The Price is Right, chica," he whispered. "They took down our number and will wrap it up and put it in the car for us. Just relax."

"But I want to look at it now!" I whined.

He patted my knee. "You can look at it on the drive home, okay?"…

…"Great!" Elenna bit her lip. "What now?"
…Phase one ID the object: check; Phase two steal it: not check; Phase three bid for it: not check again; all we can try now is mug, but Rome will feel bad to hit the annoying British chick over the head.

I leaned closer to Georgie so Callum couldn’t hear her. “I hope Rome is really that good in bed so Miss-I’m-British-and-irresistible is well occupied and we can start phase four."


…"And no matter how much we needed to be sure or whatever," he went on, turning a glare at me, "we don't just cut random strangers. I'm sure this is all some misunderstanding. He's probably just some black sheep of the family no one wants to talk about."
 
…Rome took my by the elbow and pulled me aside. 

"Okay, chica, we got one more shot at this… I can't help you more…"

Rome kissed my forehead and pulled me in for a one-armed hug as he thought about the many different ways this could all go epically wrong…
 
… I smiled sugar sweet, while everyone including the guards took a glass of water.

“Wasser in euch, mache sie betrunken!”

I giggled flirty, “What do you think guys, is this skirt too short?” And it worked everyone was drunk and started flirting with their words, their eyes, and their hands. I was surrounded by them all, behind my back I signaled Georgie and the guys to get the sword, now! …


…“Okay work B didn’t worked either, let’s try plan C. Feuer!”
 
Two large fire balls appeared on my hands. I slowly got a hang of this, and using fire was by far my favorite weapon…
 
…“No time to explain!” I said. “We have to get out, like, now! …”

…“Let’s go, Lenna!”, Georgie looked impatiently at me. “What is it?”

…“Dammit!... we really need to get Rome.” 
 
…“Do you seriously think I let you- the clumsiest person I know- run around in a burning building? I don’t think so…” 
 
…“I hope he’s dressed…and not, you know...”

“Dude, as if you’re not used to-“

“Shut up, Lenna!” Georgie tried not to blush. “There are other people listening.”

“Other people?” I grinned playfully. “Oh, like your uncle?” …
 
…I felt ]rather stupid in my maid’s uniform, opening door and searching for Rome who probably will be dressed very little. Richard kept looking weirdly at me, was it because of my outfit or…
 
Oh snap I shouldn’t have used my magic in front of a stranger…
 
It was the last door at the corridor… I hoped Rome was in there. It was obvious they couldn’t go out the way they came in. But I stopped in the door seeing Rome cuffed to the bed… naked cuffed to the bed one arm on each side… I started giggling. “You know Rome if you want to show off, you are doing a great job. Would you like us to help you or leave because you hope she comes back, this…” I grinned and spoke in a very bad British accent. “British-Bela-Bastard!”
 
"Yeah, tell me about it," Rome grumbled, refusing to blush. It wasn't like he was ashamed of anything…
"So is anyone going to uncuff me? I'd kinda like to get out of this, you know, burning building, find that bitch Bela, kill her, twice, and find some pants. In that order. And, Lennie, baby, put some clothes on, you look like a slut."

"Oh, and you look like, what, a monk?" I snapped, coming forward to begin working at the cuffs. 

…I took one of my bobby pins and started picking at the handcuff on his right hand. I shifted uncomfortable.
 
“Rome there is another problem. Callum took the sword he is cursed… He killed at least one guard and ran away… We lost him.”
 
I looked sad away, I really enjoyed talking to Callum and … I didn’t notice that he is cursed.
 
“I think the curse makes you kill people. It is not his fault that he attacked us. I’m sure he is a good guy.”
 
The cuff opened and I tried to smile, I went around to the second cuff.
 
Georgie stood uncomfortably in the room while I uncuffed Rome…

“You gotta be kidding me! The Scottish dude is cursed? …” Rome sighed. “Did he hurt anyone of you guys?”

I shook my head. “We got away, but he killed some of the staff.”

“And now he’s running around with that sword?”

…I nodded. “But he’s not a bad guy, I’m-“

“Yes, you already said that … Hey, G, will you hand me my pants?” … he wanted to tease Georgie a little, and he also wanted to draw her attention away from that box she was eying.

“Very funny, Rome", she said dryly, then picked up the curtain …
 
… "If this would be ancient Greece, we would all run around naked."

"Fortunately this is not ancient Greece...", Georgie mumbled.

…The curtain he was wearing…  it turns out, was flame retardant, which was really frakking handy when you walked out a door only to be met by a wall of flame that went "Ooh! More oxygen to consume! I want to be in this room!" and exploded in your face.

…"Okay. Can't go that way," he coughed.

"The window?" Richard suggested.

"Sure, we're only on, like, the second story… This is a nightmare!" Rome groaned.
 
I looked guilty, it was my fault that the house was an inferno… I never controlled such a large fire…

"I think I have an idea."

I opened the window and leaned out very far, I nearly fell. "Erde die uns traegt, erhebe dich uns hilf uns!"

…"Well that is not how I planned but it worked." I grinned.
 
"A little warning next time? Unless you ladies want another peep show," …

Rome pushed me into the back seat …

"Rome, do you have a plan?" I asked…

"Yes…  Lennie, get me my laptop. And put some clothes on. And find me some pants…"

"What are you doing?"

"She's got my phone right? … So we track my phone, we track her."

I looked surprised at him. "You really thought all that up on your own?"

Rome was not amused. "Aren't you supposed to be finding me clothes?"
 
"Yes I'm on it. Wait you don't like my new outfit, I thought you want me to dress more like a girl."

"A girl? Yes maybe. A slut? No way!"

…"Rome, if you want me out of this dress you'll have to help me!"

"How the hell did you get into it, then?" Rome was still ignoring me, but now in favor of getting pants on himself.

"The real maid helped me."

Rome tried not to think about how hot of a picture that was.

"Well, then, get her to help you! I'm busy!" …
 
I giggled. "Only if you join us."…

"We have to separate Callum from the sword and find a way to destroy it. My first idea would be salt and burn it, not sure it works."…

“Let me help you, I know how to deal with this kind of stuff …”…
 
… “You can have that cursed sword.”…

…“Don’t touch the sword,” his hand had reached out and closed over the hilt.

In an instant he forgot who he was…
 
I heard every gun behind her click dangerous.
 
“You won’t fight a girl that is unarmed and I know you don’t want to fight any of us. This is not you speaking…” I walked slowly closer to him, until I was in the reach of the deadly sword. I looked at him… really looked at him. “You won’t hurt me, you saw me in a room full of well mannered girls… please put it down. I want to help you!”
 
I was standing right in front of him, the tip of the sword right above my heart…
 
Callum felt the pressure of the sword resting of my heart. The sword wanted to finish it. The sword wanted to run me through. But the sword hadn't bargained on Callum's feelings.

… The sword was desperate for blood. But not mine. He couldn't let it have my blood.

"…I can't control it."

I nodded. My eyes were wide but I didn't back down. "You won't hurt me," I said… There was a shot…
 
…I looked up furious, even though I had my back to them now seeing that everyone looked at Rome gave away who shot Callum.

“You shot him! What the hell do you think you were doing Rome? I had everything under control.” I shouted angry at him…

“… I gonna find a way to break the curse…”

…I started searching for books that could help me… It was not easy for me to hold my tears back, it wasn’t right that they treated him like a monster he is the victim here. He needed help…

“One more move and I’m going to blow your non-existent brain out.” Georgie pressed her gun against Bela’s forehead…
 
…Georgie said, imitating her British accent. “I like your shoes, and I’m indeed very capable of killing people for shoes, believe me… As a matter of fact, take them off. Now.”
 
… Rome mumbled… "… I just wanted to make sure you weren't hurting Lenna. I think we can agree on that one." … there was someone else far more dangerous.

Well, aside from me in this mood.

…

Now Rome approached the really tough problem.

"Lennie? Hey, Lennie, baby," he put his hand on my shoulder, but I shook him off. Sighing, refusing to get mad, he crouched behind me and spoke softly. "Lennie, I was trying to protect you, okay? And I'm not going to apologize for that. You wanna be mad, that's fine. But do you know how to break this curse or not?"

The Immigrant Song - Part 3

---

I sighed I wanted to stay mad at Rome, but how could I be mad at someone that always wanted the best for me? I shook my head.
 
“Not really I have two options… burn the sword with rock salt, cayenne pepper and graveyard dirt… second option is that we need blood, lots of blood. But not just any blood, it needs to be from someone who is under the curse. We need nearly half a gallon. And… Rome? Don’t kill Callum, please?”
 
I turned around and looked with pleading eyes at Rome. “The ritual to break is easy … You can do it, let me touch the sword and use my blood…”…
 
"What?!" Rome grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. "Are you insane? You're not going to do that, you understand me?"

"We can't kill him!" I insisted.

…"What? Rome, what's wrong?" I asked…
 
“What?! Rome no I didn’t mean that you do it.” I jumped up.
 
“To bad chica that is exactly what we are doing. Get the rope.”
 
I shook my head but did as I was told. I got the rope, a blanket to wrap the sword in it, and my knife from the trunk.
 
“This is a horrible idea… I don’t like hurting you…”…
 
…Rome tried not to flinch as I came at him with the knife.

But this was looking more and more like a bad idea…
 
As I approached Rome, Richard tensed. The way the knife was shaking it was likely to cause Rome a serious injury, and possibly even myself. He reached out a hand.

“I’ll take the knife…” He wasn’t sure how much I took in but I seemed relieved to hand the knife over…
 
…I nodded when I went to the fire. I added the salt and the pepper to the blood, cayenne pepper and graveyard dirt it turned into a paste (completely disgusting!) I unwrapped the sword and carefully making sure I didn’t touch the sword with my bare hands I rubbed the paste on it. I felt the power of it in my hands it was as if there was a fire trapped inside the sword. For a moment I wanted to touch the sword feel its real power, but I resisted and threw it in the fire. For a moment nothing happened and then the fire rose huge. My eyes sparkled, but I turned around and looked finally at Rome and Callum.
 
“How can I help?”
 
I haven’t noticed yet that I burned both of my hands.
 
…“You can…” Richard’s eye’s widened as he turned around and saw my hands. “… First thing to do is find some snow and bury your hands in it. Make sure it’s clean.”

Richard dashed to the bike as I looked with shock at my hands… He soon set to work bandaging up Rome, who was insisting that he help me first.

“The best thing she can do now is cool down those burns. The snow isn’t ideal for that, but it’s the best we’ve got right now.” … He then turned his attention to my burns, approaching with the clingfilm. I backed away.

“I’m fine, really I’m fine.” I protested.

“If I don’t cover your hands then one of two horrible things will happen. One is an infection, the other, well, in any case you are risking losing your hands. It’s far, far better than nothing.” He was exaggerating, but given the reluctance of the patient and the circumstances it was worth the bluff.
 
…There was a knife stuck into the ground by his knee, and since Richard was busy with me--crap! Elenna!--Rome quickly set to freeing himself from the tree.

… "… I need to check on Elenna."

"Is she all right?" the man asked, his eyes wide.

"Uh." Rome was startled by the naked concern in Callum's eyes… and he seemed especially worried about me.

But that was his job! Rome wanted to, but didn't dare think to himself. No, he batted that back down. Hell, this guy was a fair sight less sleazy than my usual hookups, and was probably even actively decent…
 
I back a little more away from Richard. “My hands cannot really fall off… can they?” I looked at my hands, they did hurt a little but Richard was… it looked like he is some kind of medic… I stepped a little closer to Rome, just in case something would happen.
 
“You’re a doctor or something?”
 
“Paramedic.”
 
I nodded in my eyes they were all the same, and all were horrible. Very slowly I held my hands to him…
 
… Rome hitting on everything with boobs (everything except me)…
My hands hurt, but my mind kept wandering back to the sword and the trapped fire in it. Was it possible that I was able to see the curse in it?
 
…"I suppose I could stay for a wee while," he said, playing up on his accent. "If you'll have me?"

I almost blushed and avoided the question. "I thought you were asleep."

Callum shrugged. "Too much to think about... and a gunshot in the shoulder doesn't help."…
 
I smiled shy …
 
“I still wonder how you could touch the sword and when I kind of did it burnt my hands. Also it looks like as if in the sword was a fire trapped.” …
 
“I think back at the mansion I used too much magic… But it was amazing it was so easy to control it this time.”
 
…And as for me...

"So you started the fire?" he shouted, dredging up enough energy to be furious. "With magic?"

"Yes, I--Rome, it was--well, I had to--"

"Jesus, Lennie, a few sleepover tricks with a ouji board is one thing, but launching your magic missiles in a public place is unacceptable. We can't be proud of the whole Freak angle, chica, we're not the X-Men!"

The car was quiet after his tirade.

Until I started giggling. "Sorry, 'Slim'," I joked. Then Aly snorted. Georgie covered a smile with her hand.

Rome was outnumbered. He'd scold me about using my magic later, but for now, "Oh, bite me, 'Marvel Girl'!"
 
…“And to be honest we are like the X-Men without the suits.”
 
…She shot me a side-glance. “And you’re reading the book upside down, honey. Or is that the new ‘geek-way’ to read books?”

I blushed because I was caught. I cleared my throat and turned the book around…

…“I think all the rooms are crappy”, I said. Georgie waited until she heard the sound of the shower, then she left the room …
 
I didn’t go under the shower I waited until I heard the door and went back in the room. “I’m still calling dibs for the shower.” I informed Aly who was lying on the first bed…
 
I went to the third bag and took out a pink satin sheet, a super soft pillow and a warm cozy duvet.  I quickly made Georgie’s bed and disappeared back in the bathroom and this time really under the shower, which actually wasn’t that gross. It wasn’t a five star hotel shower but it was clean-ish and had hot water.
The room door opened and I could hear Georgie complaining something like the boys room is even worse. Just when I heard a hysterical shriek. I smiled under the shower rinsed off all soap and went in just a towel dressed back in the room.
 
“The shower isn’t that back, at least the water is hot and…”
 
“Lenna did you do this?”
 
“What no whatever it is it wasn’t me… oh you mean the bed? Yeah I know how picky you are and thought it would be nice to be prepared, you know so you get your beauty sleep and I get some sleep too.”
 
Georgie hugged me, which nearly lost my towel. “Thank you so much. It is still horrible here, but this is really cute of you.” I smiled and changed into my pajamas, took my book I was reading right now - an actual novel nothing insanely geeky – and sat down on my crappy bed.
 
“How are the boys?” I asked trying to sound as if I not really cared or thought about to go over to them, what I probably should to have Richard put a new bandage on my hands. A thought that scared me but at least it would let me see Callum before I went to bed.
 
“They are fine.” Georgie grinned at me, and the grin got even wider when I got up and mumbled something about my hands and bandages.
 
“You are not going dressed like this, are you?”
 
 I put on a sweater, walked across the corridor to the boys room and knocked at their door.
 
…It wasn't Georgie. It was me and that changed things. Rome let me in. Callum sat on his bed…
 
I smiled shy at Callum, when I remembered why I came to the boys room in the first place. Well at least what I intended to use as cover.

"Um Richard. I... My hands... I showered and... the bandages stuff came off and I need... help."

I didn't look at Rome because I was worried he would see right through my lie why I came, and I didn't looked and Callum because I didn't want him to think of me as a weak little girl. Which I totally was right now, but actually Richard had scared me when I said my hands could fall off. No matter that I did consider it to be a bluff, but all this together was a good reason to come to the boys’ room and show of for someone a little what I had…
 
Richard had just finished wrapping Rome's arm up properly when I came in to flirt.

Which was about two seconds too long for him to be in there.

"Sure is handy having a Doc on the team," Rome remarked, standing up and ignoring Richard's quiet "I'm not a doctor."

"I'll be in the car," Rome concluded, grabbing his coat, gun and laptop.

"There...are three beds?" Richard said, confused.

"Yeah, that's another thing you'll need to learn: I don't sleep," he winked, nodded to everyone, gave me a chaste hug and made his way outside.

…As soon Rome let go of me after I got a quick hug I felt cold and rather silly. What did I expect when I came here, half naked.

“Elenna, your hands?” Richard sounded careful.

“Yes.” I sat down … I held my hands up and waited slightly shivering until Richard had put on fresh bandages on.

“… Thanks for the bandages.”

I got up and went in my own room.

“You are already back?” Aly asked still lying on her bed.

“No I just need pants.” I got into my sweatpants and disappeared back out of the room. I saw Rome sitting in the car. For some reason I needed Rome… (to be honest, no it wasn’t him being okay with Callum staying but actually Rome) to be okay with Callum staying …and also I felt as if he had to yell at me for using magic. I shivered, the November night was cold and I actually forgot to put on shoes. I went slowly to the car and opened the door.

"You are not running away, are you?”…
 
Rome raised his eyebrows at his guest and shut the laptop, well, if not quite guiltily, then at least with the idea of not wanting me to see.

"Hey, chica," he said. "What're you doing here? How's those hands?" He lifted his arm and I settled under it, against his chest.

"Fine," I said.

"It's sure handy having a doctor on the team, isn't it?" he said.

"Yeah, I guess," I replied despondently.

"So, what, you staying here all night with me?" Rome grinned. "You'll have to close your eyes while I shut a few windows."

"No, I just..."

"Chica, talk to me. You're like ten times weirder than normal, and that's pretty freaking weird. You look guilty and like you want me to scold you for coming on to the first, like, seriously, the first ever half-decent guy you ever slipped a condom on."

"You're gross," I said, whacking him in the chest.

"I'm not even kidding, chica," he laughed. "You sure know how to pick 'em. So you want me to get mad at you for Mr. Boy Scout in there? You know he's probably still a virgin, right? So I should probably tell you to be gentle with him before I get all territorial and big-brotherly on his ass!"

I frowned into his chest.

"I guess I do need to get mad at you about the very public display of magic in a crowded building full of people who are more likely than our usual crowd to know about the supernatural. Jesus, chica, we're lucky Richard didn't turn around and start hunting you instead of helping us! You know better than that."

"Sowwy."

"Being cute didn't help against those witch hunters, did it?"

"No, but it usually works on you."

Rome barked out a laugh, watching his breath cloud in the cold car.

"You should go back inside."

"Nahh," Rome said. "I got enough battery for the night, don't want to keep the guys up, and… I'll comb the interwebs for news reports on what happened tonight, in between surfing for porn."

"So that's the sign for 'go to bed, chica'?"

"Yeah, pretty much."
 
I sighed. "Fine but try to get a little sleep between all this. Please." I looked pleading with my pretty brown eyes at him, just before I kissed his cheek.

"See you in the morning big bro." …

Alice

2006
People in this memory: Georgie and Lenna

---

I sighed Georgie had actually convinced me to have a beauty day …
“And you promise no games today? No hide and seek or anything like this?” Georgie looked nearly worried to lose me again.
I giggled. “Yes I promise when you keep your promise that I can read my book, it’s about the Roman Empire.”
“Yes okay, but we will also talk.”
“About what?” I looked confused, but kept following her, we passed a pet store and for a moment I thought that there was a white rabbit running free in it… As if…
“We can talk about your Mr Scotland.” Smirked Georgie
I blushed a little. “He is not my Mr Scotland… it is nice to have someone on the team that reads real books.”
"Hey, I read real books...occasionally." …

"Oh, really? Name me the last book you read."

"The Nanny Diaries."

"The Nanny Diaries?"

"Yes, the Nanny Diaries." Georgie ignored the sarcasm in my voice …
 
“… I won't stay young forever …"

"… You're seriously worrying about that now?"

…"What on earth is that thing doing here?”…

"Jeez, it's a harmless rabbit, Georgie! It's not going to attack you."

"I don't like rabbits -"

"And horses, and turtles, and monkeys with funny faces..."

"Stop mocking me", Georgie turned to me…

"Okay, let's just get away from that...person, okay? Something is wrong with her!"

"Yes, I know. She's wearing the color peach. Excuse me, but that is so not fashionable!"
I giggled. “And Blondie is a dessert.”
“So is Brownie my dear.”
“Can we just agree that we won’t talk to people that are named after a fruit?”
Now Georgie laughed. “Yes, we can do that.”
Peach was still standing at the same spot we had left her, and for a moment she looked rather familiar . But that couldn’t be possible, the next moment I looked at her she looked as peachy as before…
 
“Oh look free samples of lemonade, let’s try them.” I looked excited like a little child.
“You are not going to try them? Do you know how much sugar is in them?”
“Of course we are, they are free and I love lemonade, it comes right after apple juice.”
I took the first small cup. “Ew gross, grapefruit and there is not even sugar in it.”
“Oh then I might try it.” Georgie took one cup.
“Eww that’s getting worse, this says it’s pink grapefruit. You must like this one.” I handed Georgie a glass with pink lemonade, while she moved on, there was a blue one, a green one, and two clear ones and one red one, the last one was not that bad. Until she reached another clear one, it didn’t have a label like the others. Well it had one but it didn’t say what flavor it was. All it say was “Drink me!” I handed one cup to Georgie.
“I think I had enough, I feel the sugar ruining my teeth.”
“Okay okay it is the last one.”
“Fine. What flavor is it?”
“Um I don’t know, it just says drink me. I guess it is a surprise. Let’s try to find out the flavor.”
Georgie looked skeptical at me but nodded…
“Okay that was gross and I have no idea what it was, my first thought was old men’s feet.” …
 
…"I need a new outfit for running. I'm kind of bored of my old one."

"You're doing running?"

"Well, I need to stay fit."

"You are fit from just being a hunter. And aren’t you a cheerleader or something?”

“I was a cheerleader in school, and that’s a couple of years ago. Besides, when I want to do some sports I don’t want to do cheerleading in front of all of you.”

I chuckled. “I so wanna see that! And I bet Rome wouldn’t mind either. Do you still have the uniform?” 

"Yes, I do, but you're not going to see it." …
 
The customer assistant smiled. "Oh, you're still cheerleading?" 

"… I'm not that old."

… The assistant looked nervous. "You look very good for your age."

"For my age?" Georgie raised her eyebrows. 

…a group of pre-teen girls …
 
Ma’am? What the hell, I’m maybe 5 years older then you.
“You are just like my mom she never stopped dressing the way she did in College.”…
 
…“Move it Lenna!” Georgie pulled me away, when I suddenly had a thought…“Hey how old is your mom?”
 
…“Forty-five.”
“Schöne Scheiße!...We have a huge problem… Apparently we look old to everyone else. And I’m not sure why…”
 
…“They said we look OLD?!”

“Yes, something like that.” 

Georgie turned around with a furious glance… ‘Cookies - Free Samples!’…

“I want to try everything!”

“Georgie?” I turned up behind her, raising my eyebrows. “You know that the cookies are not fat-free, right?”

“I bloody don’t care right now!”

… I shrugged my shoulders and turned to the woman. “Could I have some samples too, please?”
The white rabbit   ran past them…
 
I took Georgie’s hand and together we went upstairs to the bar, to get Georgie her drink.
 
“Excuse me girls, where do you think you are going?” The waiter asked.
 
…“… No kids in here, and you are clearly under 21.”
 
“Excuse me?” We stared at him. “Kids?”

…“Are you kidding me? You look like 10, not one day older.”

…“…First those pre-teens call us old, and now that guy thinks we’re kids. What’s going on?”

…I sighed. “I told you I have a bad feeling.” …
 
I tried to stay calm when I saw our reflection in a shops window.
 
“Oh. My. God! Georgie…”
 
“What Elenna? What can possibly shock you right now?”  Georgie sounded as if you would take out her gun and shoot everyone who didn’t see their true age. I pointed at the shop window.
 
…“We do have to find out what’s going on here.”
 
… “… do you recognize anything, like a white rabbit, juice that says drink me and cookies that say eat me?”
 
…. “… we are in the Wonderland just like Alice?”
 
“I think so.”
 
“You are insane.”
 
“Really? Look at us. Do you have any other explanation?”…
 
 
TBC

---

 
…I woke up slowly, I was in my room, my bed and it was morning, still early, but my hyper-coffee-sensitive nose smelled coffee. I dragged myself out of bed looking once up and down myself and decided I was dressed enough to go in the kitchen
…
 
“Bright. Food. Coffee.” As usual I was not able to form complete sentences. I realized that Rome was holding a file Tex made when she had a hunt for us. “Hunt?”
 
I tried to read what it said but so far the world was a bright blurry picture.
 
…“Good morning, sunshine!” Georgie hugged me while I held on tightly to my coffee mug. “You’re not supposed to drink so much caffeine, you know that, honey.”

“Shut up”, I grumbled. “You’re so annoying in the morning, like a little cheerleader who had too much sugar in her drink.”

“And you’re always particularly charming in the morning. You should audition for a role in High School Musical.”

“Do you want some coffee, Georgie?”, Tex asked. “That is, if Miss Elenna didn’t already drink everything.”

…"Okay, kids," Rome stood up, startling the others. "I got us a plan."
 
… I got up and was hiding behind Rome, pretending to read the laptop screen.
 
“What is the plan?” I tried to sound normal but my voice was a little high pitchy…
 
Georgie raised her eyebrows as she noticed me hiding behind the laptop screen, pretending to be busy…

… “Wendy’s!” I yelled when they passed an advertisement. “There’s a Wendy’s in 2 miles, let’s stop there.”

… I stepped closer to Georgie when I heard the gunshot… I wasn’t sure why but Georgie wasn’t complaining when I took her hand, nearly as if she really knew that I was scared.
 
… Rome turned back to us, his girls, now that the Park Owner had escaped him. "Let me get this straight: You're seeing things?" he asked me, "and you got The Shining?" he asked Georgie. He tried to sound light, even though this was far too serious than he wanted to consider, and he chuckled nervously and lowered his voice:

"Come on, girls, seriously? That's my angle you're working."
 
I let go of Georgie’s hand and tried to overplay how uncomfortable I had felt.
 
“Sometimes you are such a jerk Rome. I’m not seeing things, I’m seeing ghosts. This is not like any hunt we had before.”
 
…Georgie nodded. “Just a little scratch.”
 
…"What does 'Croatoan' mean?" Rome asked, cocking his head at some fresh-looking graffiti on the wooden door.
 
… I took a pen out of my bag and drew on my right wrist the symbol for fire and for earth.
 
… Rome crossed to me and handed me the newspaper clippings. "Here, what do you make of--"

…I took the newspaper article from Rome. After reading them twice I saw a pattern every attack was done by someone who was at the first attack.
 
… Georgie sighed. This was a nightmare. And if I really had seen ghosts earlier, it could only get worse.
 
…"So the question I want to start out with is who's seen a ghost?" Rome asked.

I raised my hand. Rome also, sheepishly, raised his hand. "In my defense, I see a lot of things, and I'm not sure what's real… Chica, what's your story?"
 
I looked at Rome. “My ghost was a chick, just like yours she was dressed like all the actors here, she looked sad at a group of kids passing her.”
 
…On the side was the word Croatoan carved. “Maybe you weren’t that wrong Richard. Maybe it happens again. We should find salt and iron against the ghosts. I bet there is somewhere a storage of road salt.”
 
… Georgie looked a little pale, so Rome reached out to her to squeeze her hand, saying, "You okay, G?"

But he didn't quite get the words out, as contact with her skin triggered a …
 
 
… After a moment, all he could manage was, "Shit, G!"
 
…"Rome, what the hell?" I demanded. I sounded mad at him. Which, fair enough...

"Where did Georgie go?" he wondered, still delirious.

"How should I know? She left! You weirded out on her--I'd be pissed, too!"

"I didn't--mean--" Rome gulped. "It happened again. I saw..."

Catching the look in his eyes, knowing immediately that Rome meant 'visions' whenever he talked about 'seeing,' I sat down, suddenly quiet. "Okay."

"Yeah."

"What'd you see?" I was practically whispering.

"… That she...freaked out, went ballistic, was trying to kill me, and people were screaming that we had to shoot her..." he licked his lips, "the other crazies, or whatever we wanna call them, whatever's happening to these people."

Suddenly he sat upright, looking around. "We have to figure out what's happening here. We have to find Georgie!"
 
I was looking at Rome. “I’ll go and find her.”
 
“Whoa, no you are not going alone.” Rome was trying to get up.
 
“”I’ll be fine.” I just hoped that for once Rome’s vision was wrong.
 
“No I’m coming with you.” I rolled her eyes, but helped him up.
 
…I pulled my jacket tight around me and braced myself to go outside into the storm.
 
… “… I hope you know how to help her.”
 
I didn’t dare to tell him that I had no clue at all what to do.
 
… I looked at the running Georgie, there was no way we would catch her now. “Rome you okay? Georgie got you.”
 
… I started to feel better; I was finally doing my job, thinking.
 
“What if… … Croatoan is … a disease? Maybe the first colonists got infected by a supernatural disease?”
 
… Rome appeared not to be looking at me, but he nodded when I said it.

"Yeah, sounds reasona...ble...wait!" he looked at me. "So it's spread by blood contact?" He motioned to his bleeding arm. "So I'm next? Fan-freaking-tastic!"

"I don't think she bled on you, Rome."

"Well I sure as hell hope not!" He paused, going over the fight in his head. "… she fought it, right? It was a struggle, for her..."
 
… Rome pushed me out of the Sherrif’s reach.
 
I didn’t realize they are that close…
 
“Lenna what the hell wake up!” Rome yelled at me.
 
But for once Rome couldn’t protect me, the Sheriff cut my arm and pulled me closer to him, with his bloody hand…
 
… The room was quiet for a few seconds. How had things gone so badly in such a short time?

The only good news, apparently, was that the Sheriff had killed the annoyingly perky blonde (yeah, yeah, too soon, whatever). So Rome took charge.

"Um. Okay. Everyone--remain calm."

…I was bleeding. I saw in Rome’s face what he was thinking: ‘Shit. Had the Sheriff bled on her?’ The look of terror in my eyes was enough to confirm that. ‘Double shit.’ If I wouldn’t have known it better I would have sworn he projected his thoughts into my mind.

Rome lowered his voice as the hunters huddled around him. "Okay, so this--disease… this is Croatoan?"

… “…Chica, you hit the books. I know we're kinda limited right now, but let me know if you can dig up some, I dunno, some healing spells, or some intel at least." He forced a smile at me, touching my cheek to let me know it would be all right.

… Rome turned to me again. "Chica, baby? You okay? Did he get you?"
 
…I wanted to laugh, tell him that I was fine, but I couldn’t. I shook my head, putting pressure on the cut of my arm to stop the bleeding. “Romeo, I… I think this is not all my blood.”
 
I closed my eyes and tried very hard not to freak out. “Let’ me see.” Rome took my left arm and had a closer look at the cut. “It is not very deep.”
 
“I know, but all the blood. Rome I don’t wanna end up like Georgie or the Sheriff or all the other crazies.”
 
“You won’t because you will find a cure for this and then we find G. Okay?”
 
I nodded. “Okay. Go on help the others I’m gonna be fine… Rome? When there is no cure, then…”
 
“You’ll find one!” …
 
I was going through the few books of the park history that were here. But something was wrong.
 
“Rome?” I yelled sounding a little panicked. Within no time he was next to me.
 
“… did you find something?”
 
I shook my head…
 
“I… Rome I feel funny. I’m freezing but um I think I’m rather warm. And it is difficult for me to read.”
 
Rome felt my forehead, it was feverish hot.
 
“What if that’s how it starts?” I asked worried not looking at Rome. I felt silly of so stupid to get infected by Croatoan. After a long pause



I looked at Rome … my eyes. But that was not possible.
 
"Whoa, chica, um."

Rome had never seen himself when he had a vision. But everyone told him his eyes turned weird when it happened. That they went gray.

…"Okay, um, chica, why don't you just sit down, okay?" Without waiting for a response, Rome scooped me into his arms and brought me to a cot, which he then slid over to be near the office. The "safe" (uninfected) civilians were in one half of the bunker, with Rome, Morrigan, and me in the other half with the potential Crazies. They were separated by a few rows of supply shelves and a bend in the room, but it wasn't much if anyone else snapped. Of which me was now a prime potential.

Not that they had seen any changes in eye color in any of the Crazies. Maybe it was a witch thing.

Rome brushed his fingers along my hair. I was really warm. "I'll get you some water," he said, and straightened up.

…As Rome got a bottle of water and brought it back to me, the thing that bothered him the most was knowing who the ghost was talking about.
 
Rome wasn’t gone long but it was enough time for a ghost to sit down next to me. “You shouldn’t fight it, you will enjoy it.” And then she disappeared again.
 
I felt another rush of heat through my body. I desperately grabbed the water from Rome. I was breathing heavily.
 
“I think we’ve got a problem Rome.” I whispered.
 
Rome checked my temperature again. I was just getting hotter.
 
“I saw another ghost. She… she told me not to fight it, I will enjoy it…” My voice was low, calm and not normal for me in this situation. I suddenly looked at Rome. “What if the ghosts somehow are related with the Croatoan? No that doesn’t make any sense.” I shook my head.”I think it is starting Rome. Don’t let me hurt anyone. Promise me that this won’t happen.”
 
I took Rome’s hand with my hot hands and looked desperate at him. “Promise me Rome.”
 
Rome tried laughing at me teasingly as he took my hand. "As if I could let you do anything fun," he joked. "Anyway, you're talking crazy, chica. Georgie isn't enjoying this, and neither will you." He was serious now. "You just gotta keep fighting it. Maybe it...wears off, or something."

…"Okay, chica, you stay cool. We can have you sit nearer the door if it's too warm here, okay? I need to go talk to Morrigan."

Rome stood, squeezing my hand again, and crossed over to the office where Morrigan was…
…Rome went to talk to Morrigan and… They were talking about me weren’t they? I felt as if everyone was staring at me, sharpening the pitch forks to hunt me down, they planned how to get me on the stake to burn me alive.
I closed my eyes and lie back on the cot, breathing heavily.
 
This is not going to happen. I rather shot myself than let anyone get hurt by me.
 
“Miss? Are you hurt?” A teenage boy asked me in an cute Irish accent.
 
“Fuck off boy!” I snapped at him, but I went pale (if I could even get any paler) and without looking at him I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean that, just leave me alone”

Shakin All Over - Part 2

---

… He left me … and went to Rome and Morrigan. “Excuse me Sir?”
 
Rome looked at him, still in a little shock of not having a cure for this.
 
“Your girlfriend -how many do you have anyway- she spilled water over herself and it vaporized as she is hot like an oven. I just thought you might want to know that.” …
 
…Rome looked at the boy sideways. "Don't go near her, understand?" he said, a quiet warning…
 
…He sat down for a minute to collect his thoughts, and while he was at it, to harden his heart. There were some things needed doing, and none of them were pretty options.

He stood, decided, and went out of the bunker …

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention," he said, striding back into the room with as much authority as he could pretend. "This is what we're going to do..."
 
… First Rome left, he mentioned something of a plan but I didn’t pay attention. I was too hot, I had to get out of here and before anyone could stop me I was out of the door. Taking deep breath, this was really not funny. And then I heard a shot, a part of me wanted to run back inside and hide but I didn’t. “Rome! There is trouble! I’m going to help.”
 
… an easily visible trace of melted snow… I knew the ghosts, Georgie and everyone else infected wouldn’t attack me they waited for orders. They waited for my orders.
 
… “I’m not yet done with the hunters!” I said in an ice cold voice I didn’t sounded at all like myself…
 
…I definitely heard his thoughts: ‘And Elenna is infected. Or sick or something. And there is, like, an army of friggen ghosts. And Elenna is controlling them.’

"Lenna!" Rome tried to sound more angry than scared, and he put a hand on my shoulder to shake me, maybe snap me out of it. "Jesus!" he cried, reclaiming his hand--I was seriously hot! "Lenna, what the hell? What--"

And now my eyes were different colors?

… Rome was pulling Georgie up and hugging her to him. She was cold. That was comforting, maybe. "Okay, guys, form up. Everyone loaded? Salt rounds. Be ready for anything."
 
I felt dizzy… Georgie looked like a never fed lioness, the ghosts might be gone for the moment but I heard scream from the bunker. I was pretty sure that the few maybe infected were just ripping more innocent people into pieces.
 
“There is no cure is there? It is just a matter of time that I freak out too. Maybe the other dude was right and you should just shoot us. Oh and I think those ghost they have Croatoan too.”
 
I was defeated. I was kneeling in the snow still hoping it would cool me down.
 
"I think I can control the ghosts. I have no idea how, and it scares me."
 
Georgie looked at me. The fact that something was wrong with me seemed to give her some normal, human feelings back, at least for the moment.

“You can control the ghosts?”

“I think…I’m not sure.” I still felt hot, and I didn’t know what I could do to make it stop.

…evoked by that Croatoan thing, but now she seemed to pick up my feelings. Just a brief moment ago she was freezing, and now she felt…hot? And there was something else she felt, something that came from me as well. Something dark, and not human…
“Why is it so hot here?”, Georgie mumbled, more to herself.

“Not you too!” Rome looked at her and touched her skin, but it was ice cold, not like mine.

…At was a weird sensation to know that Georgie was one of mine again. My breathing was unusual fast as if I just sprinted. It was a bizarre state I was in. I knew I should feel cold in the snow … but …just impossible for me to be cold… all snow around me melted.
… knowledge …  voices I could hear in the wind.
 
“Croatoan is a gift, it brings us together in a way nothing else ever can do it. You don’t need to be scared to get infected with it. You will see it sets you free forever.”
 
“Wait it will set us free forever?” Callum asked, thinking about the words. “Didn’t you tell me ghosts are trapped between the afterlife and the living life?”
 
“Yes so?” Rome seemed not to understand Callum. He was too worried about Georgie and me…
 
“What if those ghosts are not trapped? What if they are free?” Callum… was saying …
Not far from the group I collapsed unconscious into the snow. Within seconds Rome was holding me in his arm. “Lennie, come on we need you. Wake up.”
 
Groggy and slowly I opened my eyes. “I feel funny.”
 
“Tell me about it, you are burning hot.”
 
“You finally see that too.” I grinned up at him. I sighed. “Ghosts, means salt and burn the remains… We need to find where the first pioneers that were infected went. And after that you gonna lock me in a freezer so that I cool down again. I feel like the Human Torch close to the super nova.”
 
…"Seriously, your like a thousand degrees. Can you stand?" Rome asked. "Chica..." His bravado turned to concern instantly.

I nodded. "Let's see what I can do."
 
Salt and burn.

Beautiful in its simplicity.

That was good, they could handle that.

"… Callum, you're with me. We'll look after Georgie. Rich, you and Mor keep an eye on Lenna. You get the salt, we'll bring the burn. It might be in--the forest?" …

"Rome?"

Rome was silent, frozen. He had made the mistake of turning around and looking down the hill at the cluster of buildings. There was blood in the snow. Lots of blood.

…Rome shook himself. "And now we have a bunch of homicidal Croatoan-Crazies on the loose. Everyone armed? You're gonna need it."

Rome cut the ropes tying Georgie's hands but took her firmly by the arm. "Chica, G, I need you with me on this. I'm letting you go, but I'll do what I have to if you don't keep fighting it. You hear me?"

He exchanged a meaningful glance with Richard--if it came to it, Rome couldn't kill me and Richard couldn't kill Georgie if their lives depended on it. But the other way around, well, there was at least a chance.

…"Okay, team. Salt and burn is the order of the day. Let's go."
 
…Both Rome and Richard turned around to look at me and Georgie, who didn’t seem well at all … “… in the forest…I knew I wasn’t alone. Something was there…”

…I lifted my hand and with ease a fireball appeared.
 
“That is awesome I was never able to use my powers that easily.”
 
I grinned happily.
 
“Lenna you do remember that we have to find the remains of the first infected people?” Morrigan asked carefully… “The remains are not far from here. I can feel them in their graves.”
 
"Lenna, baby, I--" Rome gulped, couldn't finish, and hugged me to him so he wouldn't have to answer. I was acting too weird. He didn't like it. This wasn't me talking.

…"Rome! Rome, did she bleed on you?"

"What?" Rome looked down at his arm. Which had been cut, through the coat, though not badly enough to worry about.

Except that wasn't his blood.

"You're kidding me!" Rome cried… “… --ahhh!"

Rome was cut off … but no bullets found their mark… whatever had grabbed Rome from behind and was trying to pull the gun out of his hands.
 
… I was still drunk with power…
 
… the woman … was infected … Georgie shot her multiple times until she felt the other woman stop moving.

…“G, are you okay?” He picked up his gun.

Her heart was beating insanely fast. She took a deep breath. “I think so…” …
 
…“You’ve got to be kidding.” Behind me was one of the infected civilian. I flipped my hand and the shoes of the girl caught fire, but it didn’t stop me. I saw the wild rage in the girl’s eyes … I had infected Rome… and this girl I was fighting right now scared me… it was more the fact that I liked how much Croatoan increased my powers.
 
“I’m sorry.” I mumbled before I set the girl on fire and burned her to a crisp.
 
…There was a humming in the air a weird humming, but neither Richard nor Morrigan seemed to hear it. “Um guys? I think we have a problem. The ghosts are coming and they are not friendly.”
 
… as closer they got to the forest, the warmer it got.

“I have the weird feeling that Lenna is behind this…”, Georgie mumbled while she observed the landscape around them. “She was so hot, she could have melted the snow”, she said half-jokingly, half serious.
 
I was sitting on a tree trunk, juggling with fireballs. I was annoyed and tired of burning civilians that tried to kill us, and yes I really liked how well my powers were working but being watched by Morrigan and Richard wasn’t fun at all. I felt a little bit better but I knew that this wasn’t normal. It needed to end and I hoped that with burning the remains this would end…
 
“Seriously stop starring at me you two. I’m okay.” I suddenly shouted at my friends.
 
“Really?” Morrigan looked skeptical at me. “And the fireballs are normal?”
 
My toys disappeared in smoke. “At least I got rid of all the snow.” I snapped …
 
“Guys finally we got bored. You got salt? We found the remains. Join the party and let’s burn some bones.” I greeted Georgie, Rome and Callum. “Meet the lost first colonists or their mass grave.” I grinned … “And it better stops this madness. I wanna be normal again.” I looked at the ground, for some reason I hoped Georgie knew what I felt. I was scared of myself, I was scared of my own powers, and scared that I infected Rome and … didn’t felt bad about it. I didn’t even dare to look at him, he sure was mad at me for infected him.
 
Rome didn't look at me. He couldn't. Or maybe he didn't want to. He couldn't look at Georgie, much, either, not when she got that glazed-over-hungry look in her eyes that wasn't the sexy kind of hungry and really only scared the crap out of him.

Because if he had to shoot his girls, he wasn't going to be able to do it looking them in the eye.

Rome shook himself--noting that they'd just as likely needing to shoot him--and set to work unloading the salt. Everyone grabbed a bag, cut open the top, and spread it around the alleged grave. He wasn't sure why no one else had seen this before now, but whatever.

"Okay, everyone stand back," he said, waving the team away. They looked on, sullenly, as he tipped in a canister of propane. "Elenna. Light us up."

I seemed all too happy to do so, and as I set fire to the area a wave of warmth moved over them like someone had opened an oven the size of Texas. Rome stepped back a few feet, watched it burn. He didn't feel any different. Georgie didn't look any different. I didn't look--

"Okay, Elenna," he warned, "you can scale it back now, I think that's enough."

I just kept pouring on the flames. Like the handle was stuck on my blowtorch. It was a solidly steady stream, just of fire from my hands, and I didn't look like I could hear him and now my eyes weren't the right color, and--

"Elenna, stop!" he demanded, taking a half-step toward me before he realized I was likely to burn his eyebrows off. "Elenna!"
 
…It felt good to use my powers.
 
Just let go, you don’t need anyone as long you go with the fire.
 
From very far away I heard Rome. “Elenna, stop! Elenna!” But I couldn’t I was trapped in my own powers, and it felt so nice in this trap, warm cozy and safe… It took all my strength to pull my hands away from my fire, but I let go of it and collapsed on the burnt ground. Rome hesitated, but Georgie didn’t she ran to me and pulled me into a tight hug. “Lenna are you okay?”
 
“I think I made a mistake using my powers so much. Something is happening with me.” I mumbled, I was out of breath and for the first time I was shivering because of the cold.
 
“It wasn’t you it is the disease.” Georgie held me close, for the moment they were both themselves but who knew for how long.
The forest around them caught fire …
 
“Seems like I overdid it a little bit, huh?” I giggled a little. 
 
…“We have to get away from here!” Rome yelled …

“How can we get off the island?” I looked around…

Shakin All Over - Part 3

---

…Rome realized the danger too late.

He only had time to say, "GET DOWN!" … the van caught fire and the full tank of gas … went up in a fiery KABOOM!

…"Get back to the bunker!" Rome shouted… The shelter was supposed to be bomb-proof, right? They could only hope that meant it was fire-proof.

And, you know, Crazy-proof.
 
For moment I was standing in the burning forest watching the flames as if I was hypnotized. Georgie grabbed my arm and pulled her along.
 
“Lenna you do remember that fire usually is bad? So move your ass.”
 
… I suddenly got scared. Scared of how much I was pulled to the fire. I knew that I was more myself again, but the connection I made with the fire stayed and it made me feel strong and useful.
 
“We need to get off this island…  Georgie we can’t stay here!” I sounded so scared.
 
“Hey, hey Lenna look at me… We will get off this island …?” Georgie ensured me… “We are always in a mess like this and we always find a way out of it and first of it we will go into the bunker to be safe okay?”
 
I nodded and followed Georgie…
 
…Rome grabbed me and Georgie each by an arm, using surprise to his advantage in case either of us decided to Hulk out and kill him, and before anyone knew what was happening, he had thrown himself with us in tow into the office and slammed the door behind him.

"Don't let us out until you're sure we're all right!"

"Rome, what are you doing?" I shrieked, looking horrified at him, though exactly why was hard to tell.

"The three of us are infected, and I'm sure as hell not going to risk the other three getting it, too, okay?" …

"Rome, are you sure this is a good idea?" Richard's voice, muffled, through the door.

"No, I think it's a terrible idea," Rome replied, "but we're kinda out of options right now, and twenty-three casualties is better than twenty-six." With that, Rome grabbed the desk chair in his hands, threw it over his head, and slammed it down on the door handle.

The doorknob snapped off.

No handle, no way of opening the door from the inside.

For better or worse, they were stuck in here until the others let them out.

"Rome!" Now Georgie looked pissed. Which, you know, since she could probably kick his ass even not amped up on Crazy, was a bad sign. And since I didn't look much happier and my eyes didn't look right, Rome was beginning to think his list of small favors was about to come to a very abrupt, unfortunate end.
 
I turned away from Rome and Georgie and sat down in the furthest corner of them… I wasn’t really mad at Rome but I was overwhelmed. On the one hand I enjoyed being able to use my powers so easily but on the other hand I felt actually really sick… And suddenly I saw her reflection.
 
“Whoa!” I jumped up, so quickly that Georgie and Rome looked at me worried. “What the hell is wrong with my eyes? I don’t have blue eyes I have brown eyes!”
 
“They turned blue since you set the forest on fire.” Georgie said too calm for the situation.
 
…I sat back down and dropped my head on my knees. “This is not happening. I don’t want to kill one of you or that you have to kill me.” I was breathing very slowly, in and out, in and out. After a few moments I looked up and check my eyes again, they were their usual brown.
 
“What if it doesn’t go away? What if we will die tonight?” I had tears in her eyes. “Gee I’m so hot.” I took off my shoes and striped down to a tank top and panties…
 
… Georgie walked over to me and touched my shoulder carefully.

“Your skin feels like it’s burning…” She frowned.

“Chica, are you okay?” Rome looked worried at me.

I didn’t answer… I looking so small and helpless. I actually looked very fragile… my voice sounded broken. “Why is this happening to us?”

“Because we’re the lucky ones who always manage to attract those kind of situations.” Rome tried to joke, but he didn’t really smile.

“What if this is it?” I looked from Rome to Georgie. “I mean, we’re hunters, so the possibility that we die younger than an accountant is very high, but-“

“We’re not going to die!”, Georgie interrupted me… “You’re not going to die, I’m not going to die, and that maniac behind me who managed to snap off the doorknob is not going to die either …” Georgie shot a brief side-glance at Rome who smiled sheepishly at her, and then she turned back to me.
“You understand? Nobody is dying here, at least none of our group.”

“But-“

“Don’t argue with me, Elenna Abigail Fee!”

I looked at the ground. I still felt hot and miserable. Georgie hesitated for a moment, but then she pulled me into a hug. She didn’t care that it felt like hugging a human torch, she just wanted me to calm down again.
 
…“We will fight this right, we will shake it off right? We always duck the bullets. So how do we treat a demonic virus? Exorcism?”
 
I forced myself to breathe slowly, to stay calm and not give in of the rush of power lurking in the back of my mind.
 
…“I’m sorry I set the forest on fire, I got carried away.” I looked over Georgie’s shoulder at Rome. “And sorry that I… infected you. It was as if I wasn’t thinking at that moment. It was as if I watch my body move without me doing it. I know it was wrong, but I couldn’t stop.”
 
… the rush when I used my powers, a part of me want to feel it again even though I knew that it wasn’t right…
 
…But then I went Crazy again. I shoved Georgie across the entire room and into the wall, which she hit with a sickening crack. My eyes went blue again and my hands lit on fire.

"Hey!" he said. "Cool your jets, Pyro, we are not going Crazy in here! You cannot let it win!"

Georgie picked herself up out of the rubble. He went to offer her a hand but she looked like she was going to bite it, so he recoiled…

He didn't want us to kill him, sure, but he also didn't want us killing each other!

The desk slid against the wall, BAM!, pinning me from the waist down. A filing cabinet similarly pinned Georgie.

…And, you know, was a freak that moved things with his brain.

Rome was pretty sure he screamed like a girl, if not when he started rearranging the room like he was Phoenix-Jean Grey, then certainly when I set the desk on fire and Georgie shoved the half-ton filing cabinet over like it was a cardboard box.

What did that make this, then? Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla vs. Mothra? Darth Vader vs. Darth Maul vs. Darth Tyranus?

…“What the hell!” I yelled at Rome. “Let me the fuck out!”
 
I didn’t care that Rome just had moved the desk with his mind, I didn’t care that Georgie hulking out again.
 
… I was standing in front of Rome, considering setting him on fire, punch him, or try to burn the door to get out.
 
 “Get out of the way! I won’t stay with you two yahoos here.” I bellowed at my best friend. In each of my hands was a ball of fire resting ready to throw it at anyone or anything that would come in my way.
 
Georgie wasn’t focused on Rome, her eyes were set on me… She knew it was dangerous, but she couldn’t think straight right now, so she grabbed the corners of the filing cabinet and pushed me so hard against the wall that I let go off the fireballs that went up to the ceiling.
I pushed the filing cabinet away, but Georgie lunged at me and dragged me to the ground.

“Stop with the fire!”, she yelled at me.

“Get off me!” I kicked Georgie in the stomach, and she fell back, but before I could get up Georgie grabbed one of my arms and twisted it.
I let out a scream, and I formed a fireball with my free hand.
 
But before I could set Georgie on fire my friend pushed my arm down to the ground and the fireball hit the chair and set it on fire.

"I said get off me!" I closed my eyes and concentrated, the fire on my hands went off but my body started to smoke. Suddenly Georgie screamed in pain. My skin was burning hot. I got up.

"All you do is hold me back and I'm not letting you do this anymore." I set the floor around Georgie on fire and looked angry at Rome. "Get out of my way, or I will hurt you too."
 
"No. You won't."

Rome's eyes flashed. He didn't think they really flashed, or anything, but it felt like it.

Part of his headache was a vision: the two images on top of one another, like two sets of film running at the same time.
 
…He, black-eyed, was loving it, too.

As slow-motion as the vision was, in real life everything seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon the whole room was on fire. The filing cabinet was actually bent from having being thrown across the room and punched by us girls. Rome had heard chick-fights were vicious, but this was--

Well, inhuman.

…"Sit down, both of you." Is that my voice? Are my lips even moving?

As one, Georgie and I turned our heads toward him, like owls. For a single, terrifying moment he thought we were going to turn on him, but "Now," he added for emphasis.

Real-life and the vision he was still seeing had synched up. Both pairs of girls were staring at him.

And both pairs of girls sat down quite obediently. They crossed their legs and folded their hands in their laps.

"Stay."

They didn't move. They couldn't move. I was struggling against his mind lock, but he held us firmly…

… Rome’s nose was pouring blood. And his eyes had faded to the gray everyone said they did when he had a vision.

But now the vision-part was fading, and it was just two girls sitting quietly in a burning room.

Rome quelled the fire. Somehow…

The fire went out. Like it had never been there.

It was quiet, dark. The heat was cooling. He joined them, sat down cross-legged in the center of the rubble-torn room. We looked like a meditation circle or a yoga class, just sitting there. His nose was still bleeding--it ran down his chin and dripped onto his shirt and his crotch. He would hold us, we would sit here until we got better, the world ended, or someone put them out of our misery.
 
It was strangely quiet in the room. None of us said anything. None of us did anything. They just sat there, us girls unable to move… Georgie sobbed. It was just a quiet sob, but she sobbed… “My hair…it has never looked so bad. And what’s that…am I getting a scar? Right on my forehead? I look like I’m from a freak show!”

Rome and I exchanged confused looks. At least Georgie sounded a lot more like herself, just the sobbing was very irritating…
 
… "You are insane Georgie. Rome? Can I at least sit more comfortable on the floor, please? …"

… It was weird I felt the chains he mentally put on me and a part of me wanted to fight those chains, but I subconscious knew he was right. We either sit here until we are cured or until we die.

"What do you think the others are doing on their said?" I asked my friends.
 
My question went unanswered… Hours passed. Georgie gave up freaking out about her hair. I gave up trying to talk. The door was heavy and they had no clue what was going on outside.  

More hours passed…

… the next day…

Georgie and I were asleep, had curled up next to each other.

The door creaked open, slowly, ominously… guns also raised.

"Holy..." Richard was at a loss for words. Admittedly, there was a lot to react to. The room was a mess, blood everywhere.

Rome took a deep breath, as if he had been holding it all this time, and stirred. He reached out a cautious hand to touch my arm, a tender touch he wouldn't have done if I was awake.

"She's not hot anymore. And I think they're--"

…"I'm--shit, ow." He raised his hand to hold his head, saw the blood on it. "I think it's over," he gasped out, wanting everyone to go away so he could hold his head shut and die in peace.

Then his head snapped up, and everyone flinched and went for weapons. Morrigan squeaked. "Chopper," was all he said. A last vestige of his cosmic psychic powers? Or just exceptional hearing?

"What?"

"There's a helicopter outside."
 
I woke up slowly and… “So cold!” I found my clothes, got dress … “Anyone has coffee?” I asked grumpy.
 
Georgie looked at me. “That is your only problem?”
 
“Girls, there's a helicopter outside.” Rome repeated.
 
“Wait a helicopter, we are getting out of here. We get food, a shower and sleep in a bed.” I got up and ran to the door.
 
“You coming or do you wanna stay here?” I looked at my friends, I seemed to have forgotten what happened yesterday. But I hadn’t…
“That is my uncle’s helicopter.” Georgie looked confused.
 
“Your uncle owns a helicopter? Gee are rolling in money or what?” I asked overwhelmed. “Actually whatever, let’s get the hell out of here.”
 
…I opened my eyes and looked with my best puppy dog eyes at my best friend. "Georgie? Sorry I wanted to kill you."
 
Georgie chuckled. “That’s okay, I’m not taking it personally. Besides, I wasn’t very ladylike either. I hope I didn’t hurt you too much…”

I shook my head. “I’m alright.” …

---

I woke to the smell of coffee.

Sure enough, it wasn't a dream. There was a cup of coffee sitting on the bedside table beside me. It was still warm. Grumbling, I rolled over. It was my birthday, and I hoped to sleep through most of it.

But curiosity and coffee killed the cat, or something like that, and after a minute I sat up on one elbow and reached for the coffee.

No sugar, a little bit of milk, just the way she liked it. And now I was up, I noticed something else on the table.

A card. A birthday card.

I never got birthday cards - nice since…

I tore open the envelope with such haste that I damaged the card. It was kind of stupid: a standard cake-and-balloon-filled card. I opened it up.

Chica,

Happy Birthday, sleepyhead! Rise and shine! You thought I'd forget, didn't you? You wish! I hope you want cake for breakfast and to go ice skating, because that's what we're doing, to celebrate the fact that you're another year older and not at all another year wiser.

I hope you know that I love you and am happy you were born, especially so I don't ever have to say it.

Oh! And as a gift, well, I thought about it a while, and since the Ferrari is in a Federal impound somewhere, I figured I needed another set of wheels. So since I love giving people gifts that are as much for them as they are for me, LOL, I thought I'd get you a card.

Without the 'D'.

Go to the window.

--Romeo

PS: Hurry. It's really cold outside.

I looked up, my heart pounding. Rome had written HAPPY BIRTHDAY in the frost on the window.

I ran to it, and threw it open, heedless of the cold.

Rome stood below my window, hopping from one foot to the other to keep warm, and grinning.

"Geez, took you long enough, chica!" He shouted, then nodded to the vehicle behind him. "What do you think?"


 
I stared with open mouth at Rome and before he could shout again in case I hadn’t heard him I went back inside. I smiled seeing the HAPPY BIRTTHDAY once again before I ran down the stairs and out to Rome.  Still bare feet and just my typical PJ’s , it had snowed but I didn’t care I stood in front of the car slowly touching the hood of it and smiling even brighter when I felt the metal under my hand.
 
“Is that really for me?” I whispered. Rome laughed, “Yes it is really for you.”
 
For a second Rome was worried, and even more when I fell on the hood and hugged it.
 
“I love it!”
 
It took a couple of moments for her to climb down from the car and climbed into the driver seat. “I gonna call it Bumblebee. Can we take him for a ride?”
 
“Lenna you are basically naked, come on lets have cake and you get dressed and then we take him for a ride.” Rome enjoyed seeing me smile and happy. I looked at him and jumped into his arm. I was hugging him tightly. “Thank you so much. Not just for the car which is already awesome, but also for the card and the HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the window and for remembering me. Thank you for making me feel special.”
 
Rome lifted me up easily, closed the car door and carried a crazy grinning me in the kitchen where the others started singing. I had actually tears in my eyes, but it were happy tears.

 
I was sitting behind the wheel of my shiny new car, Georgie had complained that it was yellow but I loved it… Rome was the best big brother I could ever wish for…


I already sat in the car when Georgie left the Safehouse. She really had to get used to the bright yellow, but she was probably the last person who was allowed to say something about the color of the car- after all, hers was shiny pink. When Georgie opened the trunk, I opened the door and peaked out.
“Hey, you’re not loading my car full of your Barbie crap, are you?”

“Define ‘Barbie crap’.” Georgie didn’t look up while she put her massive Louis Vuitton in the trunk.

“You know what I mean… …”

…Georgie ignored me and turned to Rome and Richard who appeared next to the car. “Did you really have to buy her a car? I’m not sure if it’s safe when she-“

“I can still hear you!” I shouted out of the car.

“Ssshh!”

“Don’t ssshh me!”

Rome grinned. “It’s not like she doesn’t have a license, she drove before.”

“Just because she has a license doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s a good driver.”

“Hey!” I complained.

… Rome sat down in the passenger seat so that he could have a watchful eye on me…
 
…Then Aunt Helen’s eyes wandered to me I was still irritated by the hugeness of the house and that massive chandelier that hang over me.

“You look familiar…” Helen said. “Have I met you before?”

I shook my head. “No. Um…I’m…ah…Lenna…Elenna.” I seemed to be intimidated by everything in this house, even by that pearl-necklace wearing stepford wife in front of me.

“Are you all hungry? You came all the way from Kansas, didn’t you? Dinner should be ready any second.” She looked at her watch. “I think we can just go ahead otherwise the dinner will get cold…” …
 
I unzipped my hoodie (not a piece of clothing Georgie approved of), Georgie looked at me in disbelieve. She had asked me several times not to wear anything offensive and here I was wearing a very inappropriate shirt
I grinned at Georgie, knowing that my blond friend hated my shirt…
The team followed Mrs Gilmore into the dining hall, this whole house was insane. Something was weird, when Mrs Gilmore looked at me I felt… weird. Why did she ask if I knew her? …But it was not just that Mrs Gilmore thought she knew me, I felt as if I knew some of the pictures of Georgie as little girl, or maybe just the girl.
 
“Dordie.” I mumbled suddenly. I wasn’t even sure what this word meant or why I remembered it. Georgie turned around. “Did you say something?”
 
“No. I didn’t.” I hurried to follow my friends. I didn’t want to be alone, I was worried that I might break something. They all set down at the dinner table and I moaned as soon I saw all the cutlery.
 
“Seriously? What is it with you rich people and the cutlery? …” …everyone was staring at me. “What soup is this anyway?”
 
“It is asparagus soup Miss.” The maid in the behind me answered.
 
“Ah.” I looked up. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
 
"Please forgive Lenna, Mrs. G," Rome said amiably… swiping the napkin swan from the coffee cup and draping it with a flourish over my lap, and taking the spoon gently from my hand. "She's not used to polite society, but I promise she cleans up beautifully." He turned and took a passing maid by the arm. "Could we get a clean coffee spoon? I'm so sorry. Thanks," … turning back to me, selected my soup spoon and handed it to me with a grin.

I glowered and snatched it from him…
 
…Rome … sit next to me… and then he started sweet-talking Aunt Helen…
 
I smiled very sweetly and Georgie. “I think I just puked into my mouth.”
 
“Elenna!” Georgie looked shocked at me.

“I’m sorry, but rich people are kind of exhausting and just shallow talking. I mean I’m sorry Mrs Gilmore you are very nice person, but why do you try to butter each other up. It sounds exhausting and annoying and… Blondie stop kicking me.” I looked angry at Georgie.
 
Mrs Gilmore smiled at me. “… you are in a way right. It can be exhausting. Are you sure we haven’t met? I feel like I know you from somewhere.”
 
“I’m pretty sure I’ve never been here. I think a very long time ago when I was still wearing pigtails I went once to Boston with my family, I mean… I.” I looked embarrassed at my plate. “I’m pretty sure we haven’t met, my family never used that much cutlery in a week.”
 
“That is an interesting t-shirt you are wearing Elenna. “
 
“Oh, um thanks. Yeah I’m not a Barbie like Georgie, I’m more the in the mud playing and finding slugs type of girl.” I looked up and smiled at Georgie. “Georgie can be lucky to have you.”
 
“Do you hear that Georgina? Your young friend is thankful in your name.” Lewis Gilmore walked into the dining room…
 
Lewis starred at me, while Georgie and Helen looked at him. They both saw that something was on his mind.
I was intimidated by Lewis and at the same time I felt as if I knew him…
 
… Lewis looked at us younger people. “Whose car is the yellow one next to the garages?”

“That’s mine”, I said proudly.

“I also noticed a bike…” … Lewis cleared his throat and looked at me again…
 
…“So…Elenna was it, right?” Lewis looked at me who clearly used the wrong spoon for the soup. I looked up, almost flinched as he talked to me.

“Um…yepp.”

“Where are you from?”
 
I looked at Mr. Gilmore. “I’m from New York, um… Chestertown most of my life.”
 
I didn’t feel comfortable talking about myself. Why was Georgie’s uncle so interested in me?
 
“That is not very far from here. I think I know you from somewhere, what is your family doing?”
 
“Um my dad was a Reverend and my mom a housewife she used to be a teacher.”  I looked at Rome, I knew that he didn’t like how I was behaving but I didn’t know how to stop.
 
“What did you say your last name is?” Lewis asked calmly but you could hear in his voice that he expected an answer.
 
“Fee, Elenna Fee. Daughter of… daughter of Christopher and Lorelai Fee, sister of Nicklaas Fee.” Georgie heard in my voice that I really didn’t like talking about this.
 
“Uncle, if I wouldn’t know it better I would think you are examining Lenna.” Georgie smiled at me.
 
“I am not examining your friend, I am simply doing conversation.” Lewis studied my face… he had this funny knowing look on his face …
 
…“Actually…” Lewis looked in my direction. “Would you mind if I talk to you for a moment?”

“Um…did I do something?” I looked almost scared at him.

“Don’t worry, I just have a few questions.”

Helen sighed. “Really, Lewis? They just arrived here…”

“It’s important, Helen.” He got up. “And I won’t cross-examine her.”

I looked from Rome to Georgie…

“It won’t take long, Elenna, there is just something I need to talk with you about.”

“In case he gets on your nerves, just call me”, Georgie said…

I nodded and followed Lewis into the living room …

“You probably wonder why I want to talk to you”, Lewis began, but he noticed that my attention was all over the place. He cleared his throat.

“Oh…um….yes!” I nodded. “Um…what’s…what’s up?”

Lewis seemed a bit irritated … “You look a lot like your mother, that’s why you also looked so familiar when I first saw you. Do you-“

“Wait, you knew my mother?” … “How? …you’re a lawyer…?”

“Chief prosecutor…”

“Yeah… a reverend …”

Again the knowing look on his face… now he had a confused girl in front of him who wanted to know how he knew my parents.

“Well…I…helped a friend of your father …”

“Okay…” I still seemed confused. “… My parents?”

“Yes, … really the daughter of Christopher and Lorelai Fee.”

I nodded. “Yepp.”

“Good to know.” Again the knowing look…
 
… Lenna looked confused at Lewis… he said I look like her mom, I really liked when people saw that. My friends couldn’t say this since I never had shown them a picture of my parents.
 
… back Georgie looked at me, but I wasn’t sure what to say…
 
…If he wasn't so busy flirting with Georgie's smoking hot aunt, Rome would have had more time to be appalled. Sure, I was a social cripple at the best of times… and I was still acting like a bitch.

…Rome, Georgie, and I looked at each other pointedly.

"Now, not at the table, you three," Helen warned. "Not having milk in the house is hardly reason enough to discuss 'the other profession' or anything of the sort. And I won't have That kind of talk at the table, thank you." And that was it, and she went back to her black coffee.
 
After dinner the maid showed the boys where they would stay while Georgie showed me my room, it was insane how huge this house was.
 
“Hey Georgie, why does your uncle and aunt think they know me?” …
 
“Maybe because they meet so many people that they just thought they know you but actually met someone else.” Georgie opened the door … and I was actually speechless, a rare occasion.
 
“So what do you think it is the best guest room we have?” Georgie smiled at me… “Are you sure this is not one of those museums …?”
 
“Yes of course silly…”
 
… Georgie laughed. “… have you ever been in Boston? Maybe we should out enjoy the fact that we have no hunt.”
 
“Sounds like a plan…”
 
…I didn’t sit still very long before I started wandering through the house… I had found the library… many law books but I didn’t care I wandered around and touched the books. I looked truly happy. I found a historical atlas, it made me smile because my mom used to take the atlas and tell me stories about all the countries. Just for a moment I wanted to remember the time I had, I took the atlas … it was weirdly stuck… the book moved … the bookshelf next to me opened to another room, it was small compared to the library but full with books, books that made me grin. I had just discovered the secret hunter’s library in the Gilmore house, I wondered if Georgie knew about this.
 
…Georgie noticed something she had never seen before in the library- an open door that led to another room. The door was actually covered behind the bookshelves, and there was no way she would have ever discovered it.
Georgie slowly approached the open door and peaked into the room. I sat on a chair, my face hidden behind a huge book.

“There you are…”, Georgie mumbled while her eyes wandered through the room. This was not just any other room or office, it was a smaller library, and from what she saw she realized it was a hunter library.

I looked up. “Cool place. Did you know about this?”

“I had no idea…” She stepped into the room …

“There’s pretty useful stuff”, I said. “Your uncle was really good in research.”

“And how did you get in here?” Rome raised his eyebrows. “Snooped around a bit, hm?”

“Hey, I only touched a book that seemed to be stuck, and when I pulled it the door opened automatically.”

Georgie sighed. “I lived here so many … a secret room like this… Anyway, I’d say we get out of here, I really need a drink or two…” She turned to Rome who started grinning cheekily. “And no, you’re not going to get me filled up. And you…” She turned back to me and snatched the book away from me. “Stop reading.”

“Hey!” I complained while my friend literally pushed me out of the secret library…
 
“You can’t go out like this Brownie, come with me…” Georgie grinned and pulled me back to her room…
 
… Helen smiled at me…
 
“Downtown. Why?” Georgie was curling my hair.
 
“… Promise me to stay with the boys and not to leave them, please.”
 
… “Aunt Helen Lenna and I can protect ourselves very good… You are ready to go Lenna.” I looked at myself in the mirror. “I actually don’t look to bad. Thanks Blondie.”
 
… “At least you look nice tonight and not like a hobo girl that has to wear whatever clothes she gets. Everyone ready to go?” Georgie looked at me, while I was studying the baby portrait of Georgie.
 
… "Okay, seriously? Forty-year-old guy riding the bike built for a twenty-year-old only looks bad to me? He could have come in the car with us."

…"Plus, then he'd look like our chaperon or something," I giggled.

Rome laughed before turning to me and wagging his finger in my direction. "Look, don't you try to be cute with me, you're still in the doghouse."

"What? What did I--"

"What did you not do? You're lucky I don't do embarrassed, because if I did I would have marched you outside and made you sit in the car until lunch was over, okay? You're on probation tonight, and if I have to get you a hotel so Georgie's hot aunt doesn't have to deal with your PMS-ing, I'll do it."

I glared at him… He glared right back.

"Someone struck a nerve," Georgie commented.

"She started it," Rome tried, knowing how childish he sounded and not caring.

"Okay, fine, I'll drive," Georgie said, taking the keys from Rome's hand…

Rome let me into the back and sat next to Georgie in the passenger's side…

"So...are we thinking there's a hu--" Rome started, but Georgie interrupted him.

"Don't say it."

"Say what?"

"The 'H' word! … This is a vacation…"

…"… That's why I parked the car!"

"You call this 'parked'? It's practically perpendicular to the curb! Geez, I can't take you two anywhere...you go inside and get us a table, I'll park the car..." he said.

Whiskey In The Jar - Part 2

---

… I exploded out of the back seat, hardly waiting for him to move before folding down the seat so I could get out of the back. We glared at each other again, but when I stuck out my tongue at him, he laughed and shook his head, and just like that, the tension between us was gone.

… I watched him re-park my car, just to make sure he didn’t scratch my precious baby. I knew that Rome wouldn’t scratch it on purpose but I couldn’t stop.
 
"Heeeey, nice shoes." I turned around and saw the teenager flirting with Georgie and it was hilarious. “I always knew you will find one day a guy who appreciates your enormous show closet and here he is. I just didn’t think he would even be younger then I am.” I giggled.
 
“Shut up, Brownie.” …
 
…“You wanna wait in the car because your ID suddenly got lost?” Georgie looked annoyed at me. The young brunette smiled friendly at her friend.
 
“I’m sorry. Got it, you’re not into teenager…” …
 
… neither did I, who was still one year away from legally being allowed to drink – which didn’t change the fact that I grabbed some booze whenever I felt like it, that mischievous girl! Georgie still liked to tease me that I was too young, but luckily for me I always had a fake ID on hand.


…Rome spotted his three hunt-mates at a table in the back. "Will you shut up already?" Georgie cried, snatching a drink menu away from me, who, true to form, was apparently already annoying again. "And you, Missy, behave."

"Yeah, missy, behave," Rome admonished as he slid into the seat next to me and across from Georgie, throwing a cavalier arm around the back of the seat behind me…and flagged down a waitress… a softball player, if he had to guess. "How 'bout them Sox, huh?"

"Curse of the Bambino strikes again," she grumbled.

Rome didn't actually follow baseball--or any sports-… when another voice piped up:

"What was Francona thinking, letting Millar go like that?"

Rome's head whipped around. "Georgie, since when do you follow sports?"

"I do not follow 'sports'," she sneered, like this was something peasants did when she was royalty, "I follow the Red Sox." She turned back to the waitress. "Two Sam Adams and two Malibus, please," … Rome was still aghast about the sports thing, and was staring Georgie down.

"What?"… "Oh!" he laughed.

"What?" she demanded.

"You just cock-blocked me."

"What?!"

"Because you were jealous."

…"In your dreams, Remington."

"Oh, often," he replied.

"Guys, seriously," I groaned…
 
He was about to give a sarcastic answer when I let out a deep sigh. “Guys, don’t you think this all is a bit…strange?”

…“That boy…”

“That Irish kid on crack? Come on, he’s from Ireland, they are all strange over there…”

“And you know that because you have been to Ireland so often before, right?” Georgie …

“Can we just for once not think of ‘strange happenings’ and just enjoy a couple of drinks?” Rome was especially talking to me, who had that skeptical look on my face again…
 
… Igot up, to get another round of drinks. “Hey can I have two Aggravations and two more Sam Adams.”
 
“… no way I can make you a Aggravation, there is no cream… no cream or milk in all Boston.”
 
“What do you mean there is no milk or cream in Boston?”
 
“… it is spoilt before it can be used.” …
 
… “You won’t believe it but apparently Boston is bad ground for dairy products… spoilt milk problem … It’s not like there are fairy to drink it all. Even though I think it would be hilarious if we had to fight Tinkerbell.”
 
Rome snorted. "Fight Tinkerbell, that's--"

…a sharp scream from the bac… Georgie, who was giving him the don't-you-dare-spoil-my-vacation death-glare… He could smell the blood before he even got there.

And the vomit… our type of problem.

"Let me through, let me through, FBI," Rome said… Rome, who had seen a few nasty things in his short but danger-filled, freaky life, would say this looked like a cross between a ritual disemboweling and a gluttonous feast on human flesh.

I pushed up next to him, and groaned at the sight of the body just barely visible out the back door into the alleyway. That was how bad it was: we hadn't even seen the whole thing yet and already Rome wanted to puke.

…He turned back to the body, steeling himself, waiting until I stood at his shoulder.

"You ready for this?" he asked.

"No."

"Me neither, let's take a look," he replied, and they stepped outside into the cold Boston night.

It smelled really bad. And looked really disgusting. "Do you see anything?" he asked me.

"You mean besides the obvious?"

"Yeah. You think this is our kind of problem?"

"Rome, this guy wasn't mugged for his wallet. There's a cut down the middle of his chest, half his guts look like they were set on fire, the other half thrown over there--and half his face looks like it was eaten off! Yes, this is our kind of problem!"

"Okay, okay… I just wanted to make sure."

…"Okay, we need to be gone by then. Lenna, can you do some magic mojo to see what went on here?"
 
I looked at Rome. “Yes I guess I can try.”
 
I … cut my arm. A small blood dripped down my arm on the body.
 
“Feuer, Erde, Luft und Wasser! Elemente die ihr seit hier zeigt mir die Wahrheit ueber das geschehen!” A sudden wind appeared, and for a moment my eyes shimmered unusual. My blood … started to smoke. I wasn’t sure if everyone could see what I saw or just me, the smoke formed a door and I knew right away not to open it, but I tried it anyway. A sudden flash of light threw me backwards into the wall behind me. I wasn’t aware of my surroundings or my friends anymore. “This is huge and there is more magic then I ever saw behind this door…”
 
…For the first time, Rome brushed against my skin as I sat in the front seat next to him.

…"Argh!" Rome cried, holding his head.

"Rome!" I said, reaching out, but he batted my hand away.

Great, so now my magic was setting off his psychic episodes?...
 
 “Lenna, I hope you’ll get some good research done, we need your highly active brain in this whole thing.”
 
“Oh I love to go back in the library of your uncle.”
 
I grinned at Georgie, before I looked at Rome… I considered asking him in Morse code but he asked us not to touch him.
This was weird. Rome had never seen the outcome of one of my spells.
 
…I got up and opened as if I always went into it the hidden hunter library. I liked it there it was smelling of books, blood and hunter. Weirdly soothing, it smelled like Bobby’s entire house.
.. “… Irish. Hold on a minute… milk!”
 
… Irish mythology… didn’t look at all like a sadistic ritual made by humans.
 
“They love cream, which, like alcohol, intoxicates them.” I starred at the section … about fairies not so much the little Tinkerbells but more the whole bunch. This was insane fairies weren’t real… Right?
 
“Elenna? What are you doing here?” Helen was standing in her nightshirt and a rope in the door frame.
 
“… a hunt here in Boston and I … research … I hope I didn’t wake you Mrs. Gilmore?” I was now that I was doing what I did best a lot friendlier, it was easier to be well behaved when I know the terrain I am in.
 
“No you didn’t wake me up my dear.” Helen looked intense at me, I blushed …
 
“Elenna dear, there is something you need to know.” Helen went to the book closet in the hunter library and opened another hidden wall to a bookshelf. She pulled out two similar books, they looked like journals. “Those two belonged to your mother. She sent them to us along with many of the books you see here asking us to give them to you when you are coming with questions. I started to hope you would never come with those questions, but to see you’re here with those books not knowing anything about your family, I have to answer the questions you don’t know to ask.”
 
I looked confused, I didn’t understand what Helen meant that I didn’t know the questions to ask until I opened the first book Helen handed me.
 
This book belongs to Lorelai Schmidt (soon to be Fee)

Today Christopher told me the truth, the truth about everything and it explained so much. The things that are out there in the dark… I am glad he told me and I am glad he asked me to help him to hunt those things down. I am now at night a hunter of supernatural creatures and at day I am the fiancée of a Reverend. It might be a long shot but I wonder what I will one day tell my children. I don’t want them to be afraid but I also want them to be strong and know what is out there…
 
I starred at the page, this was not true my mom and dad weren’t… hunters.
 
“When you were just a little girl you and your family came to visit my brother in law and his family, Adam and Josephine were once hunting with your parents and afterwards they got together for a weekend. You called Georgie-“
 
“Dordie!”
 
“You remember meeting her?”
 
“No but I remember the imaginary friend I had, she was a princess with blonde hair and a pink knife. She was protecting me from the monsters under the bed and in my closet. She was real?”
 
“Yes … something changed … Elenna are you alright?” Helen came closer to me, but I backed away from her.
 
“Sorry I gotta go, we have a hunt and I need to tell the others what I found.” I stuffed the two journals in my bag, took all books about Irish mythology in my arms and the newspaper articles to go and find the wine cellar. I was pale, shaking and looked rather shocked.
 
“I might have found something.” My voice was shaking.
 
…"Guys? It's me!" came my voice through the door. "Let me in!" Rome pounded up the stairs and let me in, half-embracing me … "I think I may have found something," I said, looking a little pale.
 
I didn’t want him to let go … I didn’t like knowing that my mother was a hunter oh and my father too.
 
…“The kid is a leprechaun and he freaking counts salt.”
 
“… is he good or bad?”
 
“Not sure yet, he sure is gay. He is totally into shoes.”  …
 
“… What makes you think we not just kill you on the spot?” I asked coldly, everyone who knew me well would hear in my voice that something is wrong…
 
“Because you need me to get the book that explains how to kill the Red Caps.” Rigby said fixing me with his eyes…
 
… “I’m just peachy.” …
 
“Where is the book?” …
 
“They have it.” He looked at me annoyed. “You know you are not very nice.”
 
“Well bite me …” …

…“The FBI is looking for us since some month now. Why did they only come today to ask for Georgie?”
 
Now Lewis looked at me. And not the first time I reminded him of my mother. Often asking the right questions to the right time. Staying calm, while she was borderline insane… and then he saw the journals in my arm. The promise he had given my parents all those years ago was broken, I knew …
 
… Dordie, had yellow hair and was wearing a crazy pink princess dress and had a little pink knife to protect me against the monsters I kept seeing.
Maybe I really did see monsters and they weren’t just a thing of my imagination?
 
… Rome stepped a bit closer to me, since I seemed on edge about something, and put his hand on my shoulder. "… Let's head out."
 
I leaned into Rome’s hand. I wished it would have just been him when I found out about my parents…
 
“I’m driving.” I took the car key from Rome, not waiting for a reply…
 
… Georgie wasn’t particularly fond of my driving. Rome was way too easy on me. Buying me a car was one thing, but letting me actually drive around in that thing…well, not that anybody here actually cared for Georgie’s opinion…
 
“… I am going back to the fairy trail and start the ritual.” I tried to carry all the things I needed, the book and had a hard time not to fall over.
 
“Actually Rigby you can come with me.” …
 
Rome nodded, pulling me to him for a quick hug…

…I limped forward and cautiously took the dossier from Lewis, mumbling a small, "Thank you."

"Two more things. Helen insisted on packing you a picnic basket, which is just there," he pointed to a huge basket standing on the floor in the foyer, which Richard picked up with a nod. "Second, Mr. Remington, a package arrived for you by courier just after one." …

"Rome?" I said, hobbling up to him and taking his hand. "… Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?"

…"I'm driving," Rome said, throwing his bags into the trunk.

"Rome, that's stupid, you've been shot," Richard pointed out.

"Oh, gee, thanks, man, I'd forgotten. It's also my left leg, the car's an automatic…" he growled and slid himself into the driver's seat…

...My little fairy I hope you will find your way, I have the horrible feeling that something bad is going to happen and I can’t be there for you anymore. No matter if you way will have a normal life or if you will follow your dad and my footsteps and become a hunter, I will always love you and are proud of you!”

I closed my eyes to stop the tears from pouring out, after a couple of deep breaths I whispered. “I think there is somehow a bigger plan for us, all out parents got killed by a demon. I haven’t worked it out yet, but something is not normal here. I think it was the same demon…”

 
I fell into the big armchair; … another group of hunter … were drinking in the bar. I was reading when the other hunters crashed my alone time.

“Hey there, what are you reading?” … He wasn’t bad looking, not at all. He was smoking which was kind of gross but I didn’t plan on marrying the guy, and maybe I should try smoking …

…“Wanna have a drink and watch the sunset?”

“What drink?”

“I’ve got some scotch …”

I got up and followed the guy out … further away and sat on the ground. He offered me a cigarette … after a couple of glasses scotch the cigarettes didn’t taste as bad anymore. “You always have been a hunter?” …

“Yup … No better life.”

… the guy was who was just sticking his tongue down my throat. He tasted as bad as he thought he would. For a moment I thought why always the weird guys, but then I remembered that they were there only ones wanting me.

… Rome just walked up to him, pulled the sleaze off of me, and punched him full in the face.

Caught off-balance, the man fell backward. A few other guys shouted and leapt up, and the sleazebag kissing me scrambled back to his feet, wiping his mouth and cussing. "What the fuck was that, asshole? She didn't tell me she had a boyfriend."

Rome curled and uncurled his fist in the silence that followed … "She's not my girlfriend," he said.

I looked shocked at Rome. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” I rubbed my arm on which it was forming a bruise. I had difficulties to get up… rather dizzy and drunk. “I don’t need you to act like my boyfriend!” I tried to push Rome away, while Eddie … pulled me back into his arms. “So when he is not your boyfriend than he won’t mind that I make out with you. You taste good.” Eddie was kissing me roughly and held me just as violent as before, but this time I didn’t want him. It was like as if the moment Rome showed up I realized … it, and he started to hurt me.

"Hey, look, asshole, I'm not gonna tell you again!" Rome bellowed, landing a sharp strike to the back of Eddie's knee. He ignored me: I was clearly drunk. The guy staggered around, a wild, slow, stupid punch, which Rome dodged and clocked him on the side of the head before--

"HEY!"

Oh, shit. Tex.

"Ya'll do NOT fight in my house!"

"He started it!" Eddie said, pointing at Rome.

"I wasn't fighting," Rome insisted. "I was teaching this dickhead some manners."

"Lenna, what happened?" Tex asked me.

I looked with glassy eyes at Tex, well I had troubles focusing on one of the two Tex I saw.

“Erm I was reading a book…” I fell on my knees, “… whoops. And then I got some scotch and then I wanted to make out with…” I turned around, Isaw Rome more or less clear since he was standing the closest to me, but the others guy was more a blur, “… him. But oh man my arm hurts.”

I managed to get up but wasn’t sure where to go, I was mad at Rome for stopping my fun but I knew he was right … I knew that but somehow I always ended up with douchbags. After a few steps I fell over my own feet, Rome caught me before I hit the ground with my face first. “I don’t like that you take all my fun away, but thanks for catching me Rome. Since when can you duplicate yourself?”

"I'm sorry about the mess, Tex," Rome said, with another glare at Eddie and his gang. "Let me take her inside and I'll get out of your hair for a few hours."

Tex stared hard at him. "I don't think you're the problem," she said… Eddie and his Assholes to get off her property as Rome guided me inside and up to my bed.

"I don't wanna go to bed, I'm not at all sleepy." I whined. "Can we go drive somewhere…" I tried to push, pull or drag Rome …

"What is it with you and assholes, chica?" Rome demanded, less nicely than he meant to. "You always go for the complete tools. Why is that hot to you? You know you could do better. Like, a LOT better."

I looked surprised at him. "What like you?"

"Hell no, not like me better than me!"

I shook my head, "You are making no sense and just so you know there is no one out there who would take me. I'm completely mess up and insane, that's why just weirdoes want me in the first place. So I either become a nun or deal with douchbags."

"Yeah, that's why you're stuck with me," Rome joked, and then frowned. That was wrong. And sad. But he didn't want to touch it with a ten-foot pole, especially not now. "You're drunk, chica. Go to sleep," he said, tucking me into bed on my side.

… "I have a date Rome, let me go!"

"What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't know … Oh man I am confused. I hate scotch."

"Scotch is good, but not that crap he was drinking. You and me, tomorrow night, we'll have a date. We'll watch the sunset and drink GOOD scotch, okay, Chica?" he tried, petting my hair. "Just go to sleep now. I'll go get you some water."

"Mmmh good scotch sounds good!" My eyes were closing slowing even though I tried really hard not to fall asleep. "Rome? Don't ever leave me okay?"

Rome frowned again. "Sure, chica. Just gonna get you water, not leaving you."…

 
“Rome, I’ve got a request.”
 
“What is it?” Rome looked up from his laptop…
 
“Well there is this store in town, and I really would like to go.” I … actually looked rather shy, which I hadn’t since a very long time when I was alone with Rome…
 
"Umm. Okay? You need me to give you some cash?" This was kind of an awkward scenario. Rome had really hoped to be left alone with his laptop today.
 
“No actually I was hoping you would tag along.” I looked at Rome hoping. “We don’t get a lot quiet days and your laptop porn will be there later tonight.”
 
Rome rolled his eyes and snapped his laptop shut. "FINE," he sighed. It was kind of pathetic how he wasn't able to deny me anything. I was likely to get spoiled.
 
I smiled happily. “It will be less exhausting like Georgie’s shopping trips. I promise. It will be like getting you new guns.”
 
"We're going gun shopping?" Rome brightened.
 
“Well,” I took the car keys and went outside. “We could afterwards. Maybe… It’s a shop I will get some more supplies for the spells I use, it will make them more powerful.”
 
"Oh. Um." Rome frowned, but followed me outside… "We're sure that's safe, right?"
 
“… It’s just shopping not vampire hunting…”  …
 
“Okay I need a few moonstones … Hematite, a turquoise … tigers-eye… a large amethyst.”
 
… "Couldn't I just buy you diamonds like a normal girl?" Rome sighed heavily, but followed me … "What the hell do you need a big stone skull for?" …
“… spell which makes me be able to call ghosts to talk to them…  it might be helpful.”
 
"Whatever." …
 
"… ritual that I can call protection against werewolves." … another stone actually seven … “… you might like them help you form premonitions and they don’t knock you out like the tea I made some time ago.”
 
"Yeah, maybe."
 
"Hey I promised I would never knock you out like that again. Didn't I?" …
 
"Yeah, yeah," Rome said, poking through a box. "Hey, cool, shark teeth!" he exclaimed, hardly noticing as the basket grew heavier.
 
“It’s actually a fossilised tooth. And they had back there entire jaws, I have to go to that section anyway. They have another skull we need.” I showed Rome the way to the jaw and stopped beforehand to look at the tiny carved skull made of something weird.
 
"Anoooother skull?" Rome whined.
 
"Yes it is a special skull, and actually not even a real one. It is just carved out of the hip bone of a Wendigo." My eyes where sparkling with excitement.
 
"Eww," Rome said, making a mental note not to touch it.
 
"It is very powerful. It will make sure my magic stays safe. It kind of stops me from accidently selling my soul for more power."
 
"Oh, super."
 
"Don't touch this it will cause you visions." I said when Rome was about to touch a green-grey stone.
 
Rome jerked his hand back like it was hot, and looked around at the shop seriously for the first time. "Wait, you mean all this isn't just some new-age-wiccan mumbo-jumbo? Like, it actually works?" He reached his hand out almost to touch the stone, as if to test it, but pulled back again just in case.
 
"Dude do you really think I would go to a new-age-wiccan mumbo-jumbo? I get all this stuff to help us." I grinned … I took a reddish stone with white streaks in it. I pressed it to my mouth and whispered. "Erwache." I pressed the stone in Rome's hand and waited for him to feel the nice feeling run through his body.
 
Rome immediately put the rock back in my hand. "No, no, no, no, no, no. That stuff gives me the creeps. Let's just get outta here, huh? I'm carrying around a basket of rocks," he whined, switching the basket to the other hand.
"Fine I think I got everything, and the stone would not have hurt you. I bet you would have liked the feeling that it would have given you." … I knew it would be expensive.
 
Rome hardly looked at the clerk, shoving his black credit card forward until the man said "That'll be....three thousand twelve dollars and ninety-five--"
"WHAT?" Rome cried, looking at me briefly in horror before he looked back at the nervous-looking clerk. "HOW much?"
"Th-three--"
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. Lenna!" he snapped, rounding on me again. "What the hell did you BUY?"
 
“Erm just a few stones. It’s like when you order all that online porn.” I looked innocently at Rome. “And it is really not my fault you are spoiling me since the moment I met you, I got used to it. It’s like my addictions that you buy me whatever I want. Do you think there is a rehab for spoilt Lennie’s?”
 
… but he handed the credit card over. "Yeah, the rehab for spoiled best friends is to stop being spoiled, Jesus. And don't do any of that hoodoo weirdness at me or while I'm around, okay?" …
 
“Rome it’s not Hoodoo. It’s ancient rituals of the Greek Gods. And I really do appreciate that you buy me all those things and if you would say you are done spoiling me I would totally understand that. I got all my stuff before I met you. And I wasn’t bad flirting my way out of jail.” I giggled.
 
"Okay, I don't even want to know," Rome groaned.
 
"I know you always get funny when I talk about my life before I met you." I looked happy at the big box full of stones. "It was one thing for sure, a lot more lying to people."
 
"Well I'm glad we don't have that now," Rome said, in spite of himself smiling at me and patting my knee. "Let's go."
 
"Okay let's go." I grinned cheeky. "I have a stone that makes Georgie dream of spiders."

 
I was lying in the library, reading my parent’s journals. I really liked my dad’s it … was like a super short but detailed encyclopaedia of weirdness. But it was my mom’s journal I read over and over again… I had two godparents… well no they had died but I knew Georgie for such a long time and I had no idea. This fantasy of mine, this friend I always pretended to have was real… my parents had been hunters, and Nick knew…
… I took the book Rome had used to show me how his gun was put together and went with it to find Rome…  I found him in the TV room.
 
“Hey, what are you doing? If you are not busy could you… um…” I turned the book around that Rome saw the cover. “You showed me how to clean it but not how… to use it.” I was ignoring all other problems … and tried to fix the one that was stupid to have in the first place.”Just if you have time and are not busy.”
 
"Christo," Rome said, half-joking and half-serious. When I didn't flinch except to put my hand on my hip, Rome touched his bracelet to my arm. "Hmm," he said, mock serious. "Not a shapeshifter."

"Are you done?"

"Yeah, probably. This is your job," he said, rubbing his eyes clear from computer-screen-vision. "My only other guesses would be either you're not feeling well or Georgie wants to take you shopping so you picked the lesser of two evi--"

"You know what? Fine. Never mind. I shouldn't have ask--" I began, but Rome grasped my wrist as I turned around:

"Hey, chica," he said, and smiled. "I was just kidding. Of course I'll teach you? You wanna come with me to get the stuff?" Rome asked, but still held onto my hand and hauled me up the stairs with him…

"Okay..." … guns… ammunition, and extra gear in a single duffle. “We'll start with something small and reasonable, like the Glock, which is only a .22," he explained… "And what does the '22' mean?" he prompted.

"The bullet's 22/100ths of an inch in diameter," I responded…

"Um, yeah, okay. Good. I...think," Rome said, then shook his head. "Okay, then we'll graduate to the .45 Tanfoglio, and the--" he paused at his Desert Eagle… was too big for my hands, and put it back, "no, that one's my baby," he explained. "And if you're very good, we'll play with the assault rifle," he said, grinning broadly at me.
 
I nodded, but I was a little nervous…

“Yeah you Desert Eagle and I have no good memories together.” My voice sounded small and rather shy.
 
I looked at Rome, and he looked weirdly proud at me. A small smile appeared on my face and out of the blue I hugged Rome tightly. He might not see it or know it but it meant a lot to me that he was helping me. And more that he was there for me without asking what was on my mind what was in the journals, what happened in Boston.
 
“Wait… there is nothing about rifles in the book. I didn’t read anything about any rifle. I don’t know what to do with a rifle.” I suddenly stepped back away from Rome and was searching panicked through the book if there was anything about rifles in it but it wasn’t and it scared me… I felt like I planned on bailing from the entire lesson.
 
… "You won't do anything wrong with the rifle," Rome told me wearily, intentionally ignoring my line about his Desert Eagle. "And it's an assault rifle, so you're probably looking in the wrong book. They're usually military issue: you have to have a special license to use one of these, because they're so freaking deadly and shockingly easy to use..."

… my eyes bugging out in terror…

"Anyway, we're not starting with that," he said, as they made their way downstairs to the range…

He was chatty as he laid out the weapons and ammo on the table, sharing with me what was happening in all the latest TV shows, what artists were on the Top 40, and a bunch of other stuff I didn't care about but at least didn't give her time to wuss out on him.

"Okay," he said, finally, standing back to let me take a look at the table. My eyes were still wide and I looked nervous, though, so he paused:

"Hey," he said, and took my chin in his hand. "You okay?" he asked. It was tender enough, but he wasn't really asking me--

He was telling me.

Eyeing the weapons again, I nodded as much as his grip on her chin allowed. "Yeah. I guess. I mean--I need to learn this stuff," I added quietly, looking down.

He smiled and pulled me in for a hug. "We all need to learn about stuff we're scared of, baby," he told me.

…"Okay. What do you do when you first pick up the gun?" He drilled.

"Um... Keep it pointed at the ground?"

"Well, yeah, unless you're shooting something," Rome grinned. "I meant you need to check if it's loaded." He pointed to the unintimidating .22 without touching it. "Show me how you check if that one's loaded."

"It's not, I can see," I said, pointing to the magazine that rested beside it.

"Don't wuss out on me, Lennie," Rome said. "Check if there's a round chambered. Pick it up."
 
I sighed it took me a few more moments until I stepped closer to the table… The metal was heavy and cold in my hands… I pulled at the barrel and saw that the chamber was empty.
 
“See I said it is not loaded.” I smiled triumphant at Rome.
 
“Yeah but you couldn’t have know that.”
 
“Maybe your psychic powers rubbed off on me.” I giggled… “Okay so the piece of deathly metal is not loaded what next?”
 
… "Pop the clip in there," he said, sounding nonchalant and easy about it, not giving me time to freak. I was smart, I'd figure out which way it went.

Sure enough, I slid the clip home.

"Good girl," Rome said, and leaned against the table as his leg twinged slightly. "Now it's a point-click interface, just like a computer--"

"Rome, I hate computers," I reminded him.

"And you hate guns, I know, but guess what? You're a hunter, and it's the 21st century: you're not a little girl and you're not a Luddite, so you don't got much of a choice," he snapped back, folding his arms across his chest. "Point it at the target, safety off, and pull the trigger."

Frowning at him, looking almost angry… I turned and lifted an arm at the paper target hanging from the line.

"Oh, not like that," Rome said, pushing off from the table to stand behind me. "Both hands on the gun. Cup your left around your right, just like that, yeah. There'll be recoil, you want both hands on the weapon."

I nodded, took a deep breath, and on the release I pulled the trigger. I kind of squeaked and kind of fell back, but no harm had been done.

"You didn't hit anything," he told me.

"Oh, thank God," I said, "I was scared I--"

"No," he corrected: "you didn't hit anything. And the object of the game is to, you know, hit stuff." He pointed at the paper target that was only ten yards out. It was still clean, unblemished by the mark of a bullet. "Here, try again," he told me, rushing me again, not giving me time to start thinking. He stepped in close behind me and guided my hands and arms. "Drop your stance, bend your knees. Lean forward more, good..."
 
I bit my lip and lowered my arms. “The target was moving.”
 
“Chica the target is a piece of paper. It can’t move.” Rome chuckled. “Come on lift up your arms or do you wanna shoot the table?”
 
“No. But this is really hard Rome.”
 
“So you wanna quit?”
 
I shook I head. “No.”
 
“Good. So up the arms and pull that trig-” Rome couldn’t finish his sentence because I did as I was told and had pulled the trigger, squealed and jump a little backwards into his arms.
My shot wasn’t perfect but it was on the little target disk.
 
“That wasn’t half bad.” Rome sad calmly. “Do it again.”
 
“Rome!” I turned around in his arms, making sure the gun was pointed away.
 
“Lenna!” He said imitating my high pitchy voice.
 
I looked up, I wouldn’t tell him but I liked it to do things just with him. Rome put his hands on my shoulders and turned me back around… Ileaned a little more back into Rome. And as weird as it sounded -me holding a gun- I hadn’t felt that safe in a very long time.
 
“Rome my parents were hunters, and Nick knew, he knew it since forever. Why didn’t they tell me?” I whispered after I had fired the entire magazine and the weapon in my hands was clicking empty. “My mom’s journal is full with apologies, but she never told me. I thought she and I have this special bond, but apparently I wasn’t even good enough that she told me.”
 
I leaned my head against Rome’s shoulder, needing him …
 
…"Lenna!" Rome cried.

Clearly, this wasn't about learning to shoot.

He gently scooped the gun out of my hand, thumbed the safety on and laid it on the table so he could bring his hands back to cup my face. "Lennie, baby, you were, like, nine years old when she died! She was trying to protect you."

I started actually crying, so he wrapped his arms around me. "Lennie, baby," he whispered. "It's all right, okay? Easy," he told me, rubbing my tiny back, and feeling a swell of protectiveness. "She wanted to protect you," he said again. "When people love each other they want to protect each other."

"But she's not here anymore!" I wailed, now weeping openly, and clinging to his shirt. Rome was struck by his own loss, missed his own mother, his father, missed his brother. A lump formed in his throat.

"I know, chica. But I am. And I'm gonna protect you."
 
… “I know you are. Sometimes I think it was fate that brought us together.” I broke off before I said something wrong. I didn’t intent ever to tell Rome about our true first time we met.
 
“I know you gonna protect me, you always have. You mean so much to me… It’s just all this stuff … from my parents. It is messing with my head.” I whispered, just before they heard the door to the shooting range open.
 
“Hey you two, get upstairs I looked through all the files Lewis Gilmore gave you. Tidy up here and meet me in the kitchen.” Tex as so often didn’t say anything about mine and Rome’s closeness… “Hey look I hit the target disk.” Even though it was easy to see that I had cried a few moments ago I was now smiling proudly, while I and Rome were walking back upstairs.
 
…”… Psychic? I’m not psychic! It’d be a lot easier to score chicks if I was psychic, let me tell—“

“Rome, this isn’t funny,” Tex scolded.

“And I ain’t laughing! What the fuck’s their scale, here, anyway? Is ‘10’ good? Bad? What does ‘Code: A’ mean? And what the hell does ‘force’ mean? If I was a Jedi, I think I’d frakking know!”

Richard narrowed his eyes after glancing at the paper. “Telekenesis…. You can move things with your mind?”

“What? No!”

I looked at him.

“Well. Maybe! Yes. It happened once. But I don’t have any control over it! I don’t know,” he groaned, settling back into the chair, his head in his hands.

“Rome, are you okay?” Georgie asked worriedly.

“Psychic headache,” he snapped, kind of sarcastically, kind of truthfully…
 
… “I’m not a witch.” I mumbled.
 
“I don’t know about that you do can do some freaky little tricks.” Georgie said partly impressed partly worried.
 
“I never made a deal with a demon to gain demonic witchcraft. I don’t even have any powers I just channel the energy that is around. A few years ago I got a book from…” I looked up at Rome, I wasn’t sure how to tell him, “… Andre… that showed me how I can use the powers of the elements… my soul is still mine. So I am not a witch!” … profit level high. What profit, profit for whom?
 
“This sucks they are totally lying about me!” I was sulking like a little child I looked at Rome worried now that he found out that they met before they had met.
 
"Wait, what? Andre was after you, too? When did--" Rome began to ask, and then did the math. The pause was long enough, and I wasn't looking at him enough to confirm his suspicion:

"You're kidding me. Andre gave you a spellbook while he was riding my ass around?" … another thought struck him: "And you didn't do anything?" …

… I mumbled. “I did try to safe you, and I thought for a minute the exorcism worked but then he was back or never had left and then you vanished into thin air … You were the reason why I left Bobby to find you and exorcise Andre properly, which in the end nearly killed you.”
 
…“I tried my best but it wasn’t enough.”
 
…“It wouldn’t hurt if you’d look into your mother’s journal, Georgie, that will give you some answers …” Tex said…
 
… Rome said, standing up. "We are all of us up to our necks in a river of crap. We can't help each other if we keep lying to each other!"…
 
… "Gave me the spell book." Rome reached out and took my hand, and squeezed it, apologizing for his harsh words before.

"And me," Georgie said, as all eyes turned back to her.
 
…I had her typical ‘thinking-face’ on. “So, there’s obviously a connection. I mean, it can’t be coincidence that we all ran into the same demon.”

…"I'm sorry," Rome said softly, to the room at large.

…"You shouldn't use that book, Lenna," Rome said… "I'm sure it's a trap of some kind. Whatever Andre was doing giving you the spell book, I'm sure it wasn't out of the kindness of his heart…"

He turned to Georgie. "But why would he visit you just to taunt you? Why all three of us--before we met each other? Was he trying to get us together for a reason? …"
 
… was he right? Shouldn’t I have used the book? I knew it was a trick, I knew I was dealing with a demon but it was just too tempting to use it…
 
“No I had no idea …” Georgie said looking at me… our past but …
 
Tex looked from Rome to Lenna to Georgie. “Did you ever hear about the legendary trio?”
 
Everyone looked at her. “What?” I asked confused what this had to do with their situation.
 
“Three hunters, three women, three mothers they just did a few hunts together but they always stuck together one helped the other until one day they never spoke again, they denied they ever knew each other. No one knows what happened but something did. I thought you knew Lenna but me and your mom we always had a close friendship, well but even this broke up after I got the last letter it must be after the breakup of the legendary trio.” Tex … showed them a picture an old picture of five children. In the middle was a blonde girl smiling next to the little laughing brunette while a blonde boy stood near them smirking at the blonde girl. While on each side another boy was standing both blonde both looking like they didn’t like seeing the three children between them together.
I stepped closer still confused who the legendary trio was. “That’s me and Georgie, and that at the left corner is Nick, but those two boys I don’t know.”
 
…I turned around and … I knew who the boys were.
 
“Wait are you telling me my mom and Blondie’s mom and… Rome’s they knew each other?” I starred at the picture. I actually started to feel sick.
 
“You never knew?” Tex asked.
 
I shook her head… Time to think, and which place was better as the library…
 
…Fate…
 
… I was standing in the open door frame Georgie smiled. She knew it was me long before she had knocked at the door and I didn’t need to tell her how I felt.
 
“Hey.” I mumbled.
 
“Hey.”
 
“Crazy February is already over.”
 
“Brownie, are you here to talk about the date.” Georgie blow on her nails she just had put fresh nail polish.
 
“No I’m not. I feel like it’s been ages ago we talk how are you doing… Dordie?” I grinned cheeky at my best friend. “I found this in the box of mom’s stuff. Pictures of you and me… Georgie I think I had you as my invisible friend. You were dressed all pink and you had a knife and fairy wings. And when I got older I forgot this special princess but the feeling of having a best friend stayed. It never left me and when I talked to other kids I missed this best friend but I didn’t know where it was. I could never explain it but now that I see those pictures and…? And just so you know mom said in her journal that I talked about you none stop. And there was this song, and I always get sad because I felt well someone was missing in my live. Here listen.” I got out my phone and after several minutes of me trying to figure out how my phone worked I found the song I had downloaded earlier –another moment I missed Rome even when he was just down the hall but I didn’t feel like bothering him with a silly problem like downloading a song- …
 
Georgie smiled when she heard the first seconds of the song. She recognized it immediately despite the fact that she hadn’t heard it in ages. In all those years she came across this song once in the radio, and it reminded her of something but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Now she finally knew why it was so familiar to her… “But you were called a different name back then…”

“Elle.”

Georgie nodded. “Yes, it was Elle. That’s why I didn’t recognize you again when we first met in Gallup. I mean, the last time I had seen you, you were a toddler who couldn’t pronounce the letter ‘g’ and you were talking about Peter Pan, so of course I didn’t immediately recognize you when we met after all those years.”

“It’s weird…” I said.

“Honestly… our mothers had a connection…”

“… There seems to be some sort of plan behind it, a plan that we didn’t choose…”

I smiled. “Yeah, agreed.”

…"It's so weird if your uncle would have known that your parents were my godparents I would have grown up like you. In a big house..."

"... and with manners." Georgie laughed.

"I do have manners, sometimes, in a way. Oh look Auntie Phenie." I had found a picture of me and Georgie's mom. "Do you miss them?"

"Yeah." Georgie looked a little sad at the picture of me and her own mom.

"Oh look there is a video. You wanna watch it and see us in little?" I was really excited, I had like one video from me and my family and that was still safe at ...
 
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Rome was in the shooting range… every day… Rome trained…
 
… they grew stronger … patchwork family they became.
 
“How can I dice onions, isn’t a die suppose to be all sides the same size?” I said sniffling from the onions. Rome chuckled. “Yeah well just cut the onions in small pieces without cutting off your fingers.”
 
“Hey I would never cut my… ouch.” I put my finger in my mouth I just cut herself.
 
“You were saying?” Rome asked laughing.
 
“Oh shut up, you made me cut the onions on purpose so I’m the one that is crying.” I tried to sound angry but I was widely grinning. “And how come all that Georgie has to do is set the table?”
I chopped the onions more randomly with just one hand so that I couldn’t cut myself a second time than proper cutting them into dice.
 
"Dammit, Lenna!" Rome laughed, whisking the knife out of my hand and shooing me away, chopping the last of the onions and sliding them into the frying pan. "Can't stand the heat, get outta Hell's Kitchen!"

It was Sunday, and they were having Dinner.

Rome had initiated, had insisted on it, needed it. He had gone to the store early and had picked up enough food for at least twelve armies, and had started off the afternoon baking cookies. The smell was slowly luring everyone to him, at which point he cheekily told them he hoped they had no plans, because they were having Sunday Dinner whether they liked it or not. They couldn't say no. Actually, they probably couldn't say no to the apron.

Now the mountain of cookies waited on top of the refrigerator where they were most easily defensible. I had already stolen one, but he had whacked me good with the wooden spoon, so it was all right.

Tex had scoffed at him and been on her way, but she promised to come back. Richard had smiled and nodded, mumbled an excuse but also promised to return by 6:00. Georgie and me, when they found him, offered to stay and help, but it was becoming clear that Rome's painful duty as the only domestic in the household was to single-handedly build the most epic of meals.

"All I can say is, I am not doing any dishes," Rome laughed as he flipped potatoes in a frying pan so high that they almost hit the ceiling before he caught them back in the pan. He added spices willy-nilly, picking up hot food and shoving it in his mouth to taste. "Especially because--" he tried, with his mouth full, as he flipped the green beans with as much flourish as he had the potatoes, "you are about to experience Chef Remington in action. I am making my specialty: Stuffed pork tenderloins with a red wine gravy; spicy papas for a bit of a kick; long-stemmed green beans with lemon and garlic; a cranberry-almond rice pilaf; and caesar salad with fresh parmesean."

Us girls stared at him, open-mouthed. He was pretty sure I was drooling. Georgie was calculating how much give there was on her jeans. Rome just managed to restrain his cackling.

"What's on top of the refrigerator?" Tex asked, coming down the stairs.

"Oh, cookies," Rome said dismissively, though truth be told he was a cookie-baking god. "Glass of wine for you, Tex?"

"Sure, hun," she said, accepting the glass he was already pouring. Georgie and Lenna's cheeks were already pink from the glass they'd had each, and Rome hummed with delight.

"So we got five on the pork, and the veggies are done. G, you wanna set the salad out for me, beautiful? Thanks. And does anyone know where the hell our Richie Rich got to?"
 
“Not hell. Just out for a Sunday drive,” Richard replied from where he’d been leaning casually against the opposite doorframe. His eye’s drifted to the fridge. “Though I should have kept quiet and nabbed a cookie first.”

“Don’t you dare,” warned Rome, brandishing a spoon in a comically threatening manner. Richard put up his hands in mock surrender.

“Ok, the cookies are out of bounds. I’ll settle for a beer.” Richard headed to the fridge, Rome watching him in case Richard pulled a sudden grab for the cookies, but he just took a beer from the fridge as he’d said. “I’ll be back in a moment. Don’t want to swamp your cooking in dust from the road.” Richard headed off to his room for a clean set of cloths.

After a few minutes he returned to the dining room where we girls were finishing off setting up the table and Rome was triumphantly escorting the main course to its place on the table. Richard gave Rome a hard look, with humour and a slight smirk behind it. “I had no idea you were such a domestic goddess.”
 
“I’m quite surprised myself, I have to admit”, Georgie said, but the moment that triumphant grin crossed Rome’s face, she cleared her throat and added: “Don’t even think that your cooking skills impress women so much that they all line up to sleep with you.” She raised her eyebrows as she unfolded the napkin and placed it on her lap.

“Well, it’s not like it hasn’t worked before.” Rome grinned.

“What a revelation”, Georgie replied dryly, then shot me a strict side-glance. “Elbows.”

“Hm?” I looked up, my mouth already full.

“Take your elbows off the table.”

I just glared at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

“And don’t speak with your mouth full.”

I rolled my eyes, but since Georgie still gave me that ‘You-better-do-what-I’m-telling-you’-look, I gave in and took my elbows off the table. “You happy?”

“Yes.” …
 
I helped herself to more wine… I looked around I saw a family. Laughing and making jokes. A part of me wished we could stay here forever in this tiny safe bubble, but I knew the bubble was too small for all of them.
 
“I’m glad you didn’t make me wear a dress Blondie.” I giggled they wine had made me tipsy.
 
“Well I tried but you ignored me as usual.” Georgie winked at me. We were teasing each other in a loving sisterly way and enjoyed it… we loved each other. But not just us girls were having fun all of them, Richard and Rome were talking manly with each other while Tex watched us… she didn’t see stranger anymore but a family, a real family and nothing could change this.

 
I had heard Rome leave the house, it was insanely early so nothing would make me leave my bed. It was too cozy in my bed, but then suddenly (it was probably not that suddenly but it felt like that) I heard a car outside. There was no car suppose to come. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes.
“Lenna! Georgie! Richard!” Rome shouted from downstairs. I check the clock, it was not even six yet.
“This better be important.” I grabbed the sweater and went downstairs more stumbling than into the kitchen and then I felt like someone hit me right in the face. I never thought a lot about him, but there he was.
“Rawson?! Christus!”
I reached across Rome to touch a piece of silver against Rawson's skin, but Rome snatched my hand out of the way. "Lenna! Stop it! He's wearing a silver bracelet!" he snapped, pointing at the matching wolf bracelet linked around Rawson's right wrist. "What is your problem?"
I recoiled, looking hurt, but Rawson gripped his arm. "No, Rome, it's okay." He flashed a grin up at his brother and winked at me. "At least she's being smart about this." He took the silver-holy water-salt shot glass I offered and downed it in one gulp. "See? Now everyone's happy…”
He sighed, then, but spoke. We had a right to know, and this was a stupid time to get sentimental and protective of emotions and crap. "You know the wolf. His name is--was, if that makes it easier--Caleb. Caleb Daly."
He let that sink in. Georgie looked shocked, but I and Rome looked uncomfortable, and Richard looked grim.
"I--I know," I said, after Rome gave me a hard look. "I, well, I guessed. I didn't think he would..."
"You knew?!" Georgie cried, rounding on me, "And you didn't think that might be important?"
Rome wasn't prepared for when his fist went through the wall by where the keys hung. Neither, apparently, was anyone else, who looked at him sharply.
"That rat bastard!" Rome snarled. "That two-faced team-killing-fucktard! I swear to God, it will be a fracking pleasure to shoot him so full of silver we can use him as a doorstop. I..."
Why is it bugging me so much that Rawson is back? It’s not like Rome and I have any special relationship.
I got up and took my duffle and went downstairs.
“Drink this!” Tex ordered, I looked confused at the silver shot glass I knew it contained salty holy water but I never had to drink it in the morning.
“Why?”
“Because you are the first downstairs and are actually awake, you are either very eager to kill a werewolf –which would also be very unlike you- or you are not yourself. So drink up!” Tex looked stern at me until I drunk the shot without a flinch. “Happy?”
“Yes, why are you so much awake it is just six in the morning.”
“I never slept. Anyway when are we leaving? I’m not riding in Rawson poison green car. I’m driving my own car.”
"What have I told you about driving and talking on the phone at the same time?"
"Tex is driving," I said, ignoring him trying to be funny. "She said her sister's house is hard to find. She also cusses a lot when she drives," I added over Georgie shrieking in the background for Tex to keep her eyes on the road.
"God help us all," Rome said.
“She cursed a lot”, Georgie said dryly. “But I’m quite used to it, thanks to Rome and Lenna.”
The young man chuckled. “I wasn’t aware that there are hunters left who don’t find cursing appealing.”
Before Georgie could make a sarcastic remark, I already said with my mouth full: “She’s from Boston’s upper class, you know, where people still have sticks far up their-“
“Thank you, Elenna, for that valuable information”, Georgie interrupted me sarcastically.
“Sorry, I’m just honest.” I grinned innocently.
I was wishing Rawson to disappear again to have Rome for myself again. I just felt alone when everyone around me had someone…
"Hey, chica, what's the haps? Where are you guys?"
"Oh, Tex's sister gave us lunch, and Georgie's flirting with some hot guy here."
"What? Get her out of there, Lennie. What kind of a wingman are you?" he teased. "Nah, look, I'm just kidding. Hey, leave her there if she wants to score the hookup, but we need you here. We think we've got a contact, and I forget if it's a silver bullet to the heart or brain or gall bladder, and I really don't much care 'cause my aim's not that good anyway, so we need you."
“Rome called”, I said. “Can’t leave those guys alone for more than an hour, they are a helpless mess without a working brain in their group.”
I was rather quiet it was bugging me how much I wanted Rawson to go away, how much I wanted to be the one that was investigating with Rome at the lake. We would have fun, probably ended up playfully fighting in the shore of the lake, him telling her that he was teacher her how to protect herself. But it was not me that was with Rome it was Rawson the guy that hated me. Rawson never really wanted me to stick around, to teach Rome everything about hunting. I sighed.
“He still cares for you, you know that right?” Georgie said looking at her manicured nails.
“I hate your powers, first Missouri poked around in my head now you. And I have no idea what you are talking about.” I mumbled…
“Rome?” I shouted to make sure we would not accidently got shot. “The girl with the brain is here, where are you guys?
"Hey, chiquitas," Rome said, greeting us like he was a high school football jock and the cheerleading squad had just arrived, "thank you for saving me from the sausage fest. How is it we kill werewolves again?"
"Silver bullet to the heart," I said automatically. "But we have to find him first."
“Those look like werewolf foot prints.” I mumbled.
“Really they look like human prints to me.” Rome was crouching next to me, I nearly jumped out of my skin when he was suddenly beside me.
“A werewolf doesn’t look like you think they look like humans, well sort of advanced humans. So their foot prints looks like humans, but they will not wear shoes so this barefoot print is clearly a werewolf. It has claws and well it just is.” I wasn’t looking at Rome I just couldn’t. “So when we killed Caleb I guess that will be it. This is the last hunt of the X-Men. Luckily you taught me now how to shoot.”
“Whoa chica didn’t I tell you I need your brain?”
“So you will call me once in a blue moon, for information.”
“Silly girl, as if I would ever let go ride off in the sunset with Georgie alone, you two would kill each other.” Rome laughed and after while even Lenna grinned.
Rome took my hands and forced me to look at him. "Look, stop that, you freak," he admonished gently. "I'm the one with freaky premonitions, remember?" he said, and messed up my hair before pulling me to his chest for a hug.
Rawson was still trying to keep me away from him. “God dammit Rawson you are not the only one caring about him. We didn’t bail on him like you did, so stop treating us like we are the bad guys.” …
“Do you still think those little migraines Romey is getting can help you?” Rawson snarled, trying to push himself between Rome and me again. But this time I ducked away and then stand close to Rome.
“Those little migraines as you call them are vision. And they always are helpful. Which you would know if you wouldn’t have bailed months ago. So shall we hear what your bother saw?” I snapped sounding for once rather serious. A way I had spoken to Rawson before.
“Sure tell us Romey what you saw?” Rawson was looking at me, and it took all my strength not to punch him.
"Please stop fighting," Rome moaned...
This was how it all began, didn't it? With Raws and me fighting like cats and dogs.
"Shut up, you two," Rome said.
“It starts to creep me out that people around me can either read my mind or my emotions.” I sounded sour as I turned around and walked to my car…
“Okay, so it’s maybe not Rawson himself, but you’re kind of obsessed with the idea that he takes your precious puppy away from you.”
“Bullshit.” I almost drove over a red light- not that I cared. “And Rome is not my puppy!”
Georgie shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever.”
“He’s not.”
“Sure. If you say so.”
“What do you wanna do trap me in one of your little water bubbles again? It didn’t work the first time, witch.” Rawson snarled.
“No I have a lot better methods nowadays. Wanna try me?” I looked angry at Rawson, for a moment this anger flashed through me, making the world look sharper somehow maybe Rome was right and all my reading was ruining my eyes, changing them?

For Whom The Bell Tolls - Part 2

---

"I'm flattered and all, but being fought over by my brother and my sister-from-another-mister is kind of just gross."
“… Lenna and me will take this entrance. I can--" Rome seemed to be more at peace with his powers he tried: Can everyone hear that?
"Ow! Jesus, Rome!" Rawson snapped. "Not so loud."
"Yeah, loud and clear, kid," Richard confirmed.
I waited until the other were gone to their sides when I walked next to Rome. “You know I could have taken a side on my own as well.”
“I know chica.” Rome didn’t need to look at me to know where I was. His new powers let him feel my thoughts as if they were his own.
“You know it is creepy that you read my mind like this. What if I think something private.” I kept her eyes on the warehouse.
“You always say out loud what you think anyway so there are no secrets.” Rome grinned...
“Not true.” I sounded like a sulking child, I tried really heard not to think too much now that Rome was able to poke into my head like as if he opened a book.
They turn human when they get shot, most hunters don’t know that. And all of them had no idea what they did.
I was looking at him with a look, a small half-smile on my face, and he opened his mouth to explain, but shook his head and shrugged. And then--
"Rome," Elenna said forlornly. "I'm an orphan now."
"The hell you are, kiddo. You're an honorary Remington, now."
--my memory in Rome’s head?
There was a wave of warmth and brightness along with it, like the sun coming up for the first time in spring, like this stupid little moment was somehow the gamechanger. Rome felt weird picking up the rush of emotion, so he looked away, trying to dislodge it, trying to focus his mind elsewhere. And he never knew that I heard and weirdly saw this thought process of him. It was bizarre to see my own memory through his eyes.
"No, Lenna!" he hissed, panic in his voice. "I can't hear my brother anymore!"
There was Caleb--he didn't even look like Caleb anymore, with long hair and teeth and nails, yellow animal eyes--the wolf, then--standing in a sliver of moonlight, eyes locked on me …
Rome fired off a shot over my head. "Lenna, get down!" he shouted, surging forward to put himself between the beast and his best friend.
I flinched at every shot Rome fired, I might slowly get used to guns but I still didn’t like them. I stared in horror at the monster Caleb had become. For a second I froze remembering the moment I wished I could forget, but I had grown and as weird as it sounded I felt Rome poking in my head and I knew that he would do everything to protect me. 
“Feuer!” I yelled and right away a large fire ball appeared and I didn’t hesitated and threw it at Cal- the wolf. But he didn’t think of being attack by me with fire was funny. He ran forward, within a few steps he had reached me and threw me through half the warehouse with just one push. I landed in a pile of boxes and stuff and it sure hurt so did the bruise that was forming on my hip. “You bloody bastard. You wanted to kill me because you thought I might be a werewolf and here you are thinking you got your transformations under control. Guess what you don’t. Erde die uns traegt ergreife ihn!” I first felt it and then large roots ripped open the ground under Caleb and tried to bind him down. 
“Rome where are the other ones we are clearly over our heads here?” I yelled at him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know," Rome said as he tried to replace the clip. But his hands were shaking… "You ok-kay?" he asked me, seeing me wince as I sat up.
"Fine," I said, and, "here." Rome could hardly believe it, but I took the Desert Eagle from his hands and reloaded it for him with precise movements, pulling back the chamber to load it and handing it back to him. "Don't miss."
"I won't," Rome vowed, before he turned around I couldn’t stop thinking about his lips.
A beat, then, "Where are the others?" I hissed.
"I--I don't--" Rome ducked back behind the boxes. "Cover for me. I'll try to--try to find--"
Suddenly out of the darkness -which was oddly dark- it came, or he came and didn’t’ wait. Caleb’s caws went deep into my side and I felt the warm blood run down my hip when he disappeared in the darkness again.
“You fucking bastard! I should have shot you when I first found out!” I yelled, because I really didn’t want to start crying but this really hurt. Georgie was spinning trying to see Caleb in the darkness when she asked over her shoulder. “Hey smarty pants, do I need to worry that I do have to point this baby at you any time soon?”
For a moment I wasn’t sure what she tried to say but then it clicked. “No, I’m not turning into a wolf from a scratch and this felt 100% like claws and not teeth.” I felt sick and in pain. “Just so you know I hate werewolves! Next hunt I want to hunt some fairies, cute little fairies.”
"God damn it, Lennie!" Rome hissed, tearing off his jacket and wrapping it around her middle. "Put pressure on that," he snapped, hands shaking…
"Come on!" Rome pulled Lenna against him and led with his handgun.
“Oh shit.” Lenna pulled at Rome’s sleeve trying to make him understand that he had to read her mind.
I think I got it. What if someone is controlling Caleb? What if it is not Caleb attack us but someone using him to attack us? There is someone trying to catch or even kill us what if they figured they can do it easily through him? Rome can you find anyone else here?
“Don’t do anything stupid.” I heard Rome’s voice in my head, I shook my head slightly and then thought still wondering how his powers work. 
Get out of my brain, I don’t know what happens when I use my powers. So get out!
 I didn’t mean to sound angry I wasn’t angry with Rome...
 “Feuer, Erde, Wasser und Luft. Element die uns umgeben ich befehle euch kommt her und werded eins in mir und stop ihn!” I was standing up straight looking right at Caleb. A pale light stated to surround me I felt the powers connect in my mind and for about a second it felt amazing until something happened. My mind did a summersault and then ended up in a knot and it didn’t feel right at all. I knock myself out.
 Rome?
 “Chica what did you do?”
 I smiled, I wouldn’t have know how to find my way out of my own mind if I hadn’t Rome you led the way.
Within this insane blackness I found as surprising as it was my gun -for a moment I thought of the times Rome had taught me- I knew I had to aim but right know I didn’t care I just fired until the magazine was empty and the gun just clicked. I had lost track of Caleb again, this was getting really, really bad.
We gonna die won’t we? Right here in a dark warehouse we gonna die!
No, Lenna wasn't accusing Rawson in her head, and no, Rome wasn't overhearing it, and no he was definitely not believing it.
"Get down!" Rome cried, diving on top of me and pulling me behind a bunch of boxes, where he changed out a magazine and sprayed-and-prayed toward where he thought the dart had come from. "Lennie, stay down!" he shouted, holding me tightly, and pressing his face into my hair. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I'm going to look after you, going to get you out of this. I love you, Lennie, baby, chica, I'm going to get us out of this."
For a moment I just let Rome hold me, I felt like all those time back when some real witch hunter had captured me, when he was literally rescuing me. I did believe him, I believed that he would get them out, he always did. 

“I’m sorry to.” I mumbled as I lifted her head.
 “For what are you sorry?” Rome stopped scanning the area and looked at me. 
“I don’t know, everything?” It was weird because the way I felt I felt like everything was lost and the only thing we had left to do was say goodbye.
 “Whoa! Lennie! Stop! No saying goodbye. I get us out of here. All of us.” Rome brushed some of my sticky hair out of my face, it was sort of wet properly sweat and some blood. But no matter what Rome said I didn’t see a way out of this mess and suddenly without know why I leaned forward and kissed Rome, not like you would kiss your brother and more like you kiss your boy before he goes into certain death. But his lips were so soft, and warm and it felt as if to lost puzzle pieces finally fell into place.
Rome squeaked as I kissed him, but he did not try to pull away, and even moaned into the kiss. This felt--wonderful, it was as perfect as it was freaky and wrong and she's like my sister, sister with benefits, true love, you don't have a true love you don't get a true love, just a friend, but home--it felt like coming home. It felt like he had kissed her before. It felt like he was where he belonged, where he should have been all along. If Rome knew that she could hear his thoughts?
"Lennie--" he gasped, looking determined.

A barrier went up around them, protecting them, swelling to cover Georgie and Richard, too, and outside he unleashed hell--
Lights sparked, windows broke. Water was either freezing or boiling and cars lifted up in the air like a tornado was picking them up. He heard--might have heard--sirens--coming for them.
"Rome, why is your nose bleeding?" I whispered so gentle.
I didn’t realize that I had started crying, but this was getting all too much. This was insane.
“Es ist Zeit das Sie ihre Kräfte für die richtigen Zwecke benutzen oder garnicht!” A deep male voice said with a heavy accent as he stepped easily through the vanishing barrier. Rome was too unconscious to keep it up.
I was tired, I was bleeding, had been fighting and lost. That is the only way of describing it. The entire day was a huge failure and mistake. So here I was being dragged naked into a van. And suddenly it hit me. This was it, we would all die, tortured to death. 
“NO!” I started screaming, kicking and fighting. I would not die without a fight…. not this time. This would be different. They thought by tying me hands together that they would be safe but they have not thought this through, they had never a… witch like me. 
Fine you want a witch, you are getting the strongest witch you will ever meet. 
“Feuer das in mir brennt, Wasser das in mir strömt, Luft die mich belebt, Erde die mich trägt; ich stehe hier und befehle: Vereinigt euch last mich eure Werkzeug sein!”
I felt four times an energy rising inside of me, it was breathtaking…
The last I saw before the doors of the van I would be locked in was my Bumblebee crushed by Rome’s power explosion. I was hammering and mumbling to command the elements back but it didn’t work, I would have know that I was powerless when I had a little light but because I didn’t I didn’t see the spell written on the inside of the van, written in blood -infant blood- a spell so powerful that no one would overcome it.
“I love you Rome! I really, really love you and I never regretted for a second that I picked up your brother on the middle of the street to save you from Andre! I would do it again! Do you hear me? Rome? Georgie? Richard? Anyone? Is anyone there?”
But no one answered, I was all alone…

---

I curled up in a ball and let my mind wander, to better times… my live felt like a distant memory, a dream maybe it was never my life? What if I never had this life? What if the boy I called Rome was nothing but an imaginary character I had made up?


“That is really not fair; I always meet the families that can be saved. And Nick hadn’t even a chance to be saved.” Said just outside my cage a young looking Elenna Fee in a sassy t-shirt, jeans and my favorite purple Converse….

“Rome doesn’t need to be killed. Most of the time the host survives the possession. But if Rome’s body is injured he will suffer and maybe die. But like I said the chance that your brother comes out of this alive is not bad” The blue eyed Lenna outside went on, my broken self inside the cage was hurting so much. “Why are you doing this? Just kill me!”…

"Would I kill him? Yes. If that's the only way I can free him, I'll do it without hesitation. There are things worse than that, and being trapped in your mind while a monster controlled your body? I'd say that counts as one. So would Rome. I know what he would want, and I owe him that much, at least." Rawson barked at me, was he a copy or the real one?...

"Well, if it isn't the too-little-too-late crew," Andre said, schooling Rome's features into a shark-like visage, all black eyes and toothy white grin. "You've become more trouble than your worth, girl," he snarled…

"She was cute, too.” Rome repeated as he ran his hand through my dirty hair. "She was cute, too.” Just as if he was remembering me, as if I was finally dead…