Kirk and Taylor
Kirk directed both Taylor and Mouse up to the front door.
He opened the door and stepped aside.
"When did you get this?" Taylor asked, sticking his head through the door.
"Ah... 'bout a week ago. I think," Kirk replied.
Mouse
Mouse nodded silently.
She looked around the outside, then rested her head against Taylor's shoulder.
Fafnir and Bets crouched behind them, all senses alert.
"It's nice."
Taylor and Kirk
"Wait 'til you see the inside," Kirk grinned.
Taylor put his arm around Mouse and led her inside. There were skylights in both the kitchen and hallway, and the rooms were filled with furniture and other accessories.
"Steel... the TV is huge," Taylor raised an eyebrow, "dare I ask where you got it?"
"A lot of the entertainment stuff is just duplicated from some of my friends' crap," he shrugged, "it's not stolen, trust me. You're fine."
Mouse
The wolves padded in, not willing to let either Taylor or Mouse out of their sight for a moment.
"You guys...can calm on the protection, just a tad," she told them.
No. Fafnir refuted stubbornly.
I failed once...not again. Never again.
"Right...determined beast."
She scratched his ears gently and he rumbled in approval. She looked around, noting what Steel had placed there for them.
"I just wanna know one thing...why?"
Taylor and Kirk
Taylor smiled at the wolves.
"Why?" Steel raised his eyebrows, "Miss Hanson..."
He chuckled.
"...There are a lot of unexplained happenings going on in the world at the moment. A lot of questions don't get answered. Some may already be answered, with the writings sitting underneath the nose of the asker."
He smiled as Taylor grinned.
"And there's also no room in the Hanson home for your new bodyguards."
Taylor froze.
"Say what?"
Mouse
Mouse eyed Steel warily.
"I echo the question. Bodyguards? Since when do we have bodyguards?"
Fafnir growled.
"'Sides the Pack."
Taylor ands Kirk
Kirk chuckled.
"You have bodyguards since also approximately a week ago. Guys?"
He waited a moment, until they heard footsteps coming from the hallway.
"I'd like you to meet Jason and Clarissa. Also known as Bee and Riss."
Taylor's eyebrows raised as even he had to look up as Bee entered the room. And considering Taylor is over six feet tall...
Mouse
Mouse edged closer to Taylor.
Fafnir and Bets stepped protectively in front of their alphas and snarled in unison.
"Right..."
Taylor and Kirk
Clarissa smiled and waved.
"Hey Mousey," she greeted, then spotted the wolves.
Her eyes widened.
"Ooooooh, pretty. Wolves. They yours?"
"They will be living here, yes," Kirk nodded.
"Oh sweet! I love wolves."
"Like we couldn't tell," Bee rolled his eyes.
He held his hand out to Taylor, making sure Fafnir couldn't touch him if he wanted to.
Taylor slowly held his hand out and shook Bee's.
"These guys are mutants. Bee has force fields and healing, whereas Riss has telepathy and empathy. She's also a very good ah... fighter."
Clarissa smiled.
Mouse
"Hi," Mouse said quietly.
You two, behave yourselves.
But, Pack! Fafnir protested.
I don't wanna hear it. You don't hurt them, you don't kill them. And you don't go playing tricks on them either.
Mouse stared at Fafnir steadily, and the wolf glared back for a bit, before dropping his head.
As you say, alpha.
Bets?
What you say, goes. Are they Pack?
No. Friends.
Alrighty then.
Bets shrugged fluidly.
"This is Fafnir, and Bets," Mouse said, looking at Clarissa.
"Fafnir's canadian timberwolf, and Bets is a malamute."
Alright, twolegger conventions settled, I'm going outside.
Fafnir left, radiating injured dignity.
"He'll get over it," she predicted.
Taylor
Clarissa's smile faded a little.
"Steel told us of your predicaments," Bee began in his low voice, "we're only here to make sure nothing happens again."
Taylor nodded.
"My brothers and I normally have a bodyguard when we're on tour and all that, but... yeah, I kinda haven't had one of my own."
He glanced at Mouse.
Bee smiled.
"Well there is a first for everything Mr. Hanson."
"Just call me Taylor... 'Bee'."
MOuse
"I prefer Mouse to Jane...much," Mouse said.
"Ok. Call me 'Riss," Clarissa said.
"Sure thing."
Mouse petted Bets's head as the malamute leaned up against her side.
She frowned when she heard a loud caterwauling, punctuated by Fafnir's barks.
"Right..."
She headed towards the front door and almost giggled.
Fafnir was getting the stuffing knocked out of him by a large tomcat.
Wolves! Stubborn, musclebound IDIOTS! I have a JOB to do, you irritating canine!
Get off!
Fafnir rolled and the cat jumped off, spitting obscentities.
"Little trouble there, Faf?" Mouse asked dryly as the two animals eyed each other.
"I don't have TIME for this!" The cat informed them all in a very injured voice.
"I need to find her, and I needed to find her YESTERDAY! Two days ago! Earlier! She was only meant to be looking for a JOB!"
Fafnir made a move and the cat scratched down his face then leapt into a tree.
"And STOP DOING THAT!"
"Fafnir. Here. Now."
Fafnir snarled up at the cat and then padded over to Mouse.
"So...your name is?"
"RK. Short for Road Kill."
Taylor
"Ah... excuse us," Taylor held his hand up before following her.
He stopped at the front door and looked out. He spotted the cat up the tree, and noticed Fafnir's mood.
"Ok, what happened?" he asked in mix.
Mouse
RK's ears came forward, and he tilted his head slightly.
"Christian?"
He flowed down from the tree and padded over, regally ignoring Fafnir's warning growls.
"Your hair...it's not black. What happened? Who's this? Why aren't you...wherever it was you were going after Spook let you go? I didn't think you were coming back to Tulsa. You have to help me find her, before she gets into trouble. She lost all her memories and-"
"Whoa, slow down, cat."
Mouse frowned slightly.
"This isn't Christian."
RK gave her a surprised look.
"Then who, may I ask, is he?"
The prissy tone was so out of touch with the battlescarred tom in front of her, Mouse almost laughed.
"His name is Taylor. When did you meet Christian?"
Taylor
Taylor frowned, eyeing off the cat.
"Christian was kidnapped by a scientist who's after us. I don't know where he is, or... even if he's still alive."
He gulped and glanced at Mouse.
"And I don't know where Spook is, and quite frankly, I don't want to know."
He turned back inside the house, looking for Steel.
Mouse
RK licked his paw thoughtfully, eyeing Taylor.
"Well, then...she disappeared on me. Pffft! I found...blood. I'm quite worried. She isn't Spook anymore, she's my Christina. I need to find her."
Mouse frowned slightly, and looked after Taylor.
"Tay..."
"Twoleggers, all alike. Aliens, humans, mutatants, all the same. Blind. And it doesn't seem to have gotten any better over the centuries..." RK froze suddenly as Mouse looked at him with surprise.
"Oh...goddess."
Fafnir snarled at him.
"Oh, do shut up wolf. The snarling is not conducive to thinking."
Taylor and Kirk
Taylor waved her off, then actually went looking for Steel.
He soon found him sitting at the kitchen table with Bee and Riss.
"Ah..." he eyed them off, "there's a cat here that wants to know where Spook is. You haven't had any luck, have you?"
Kirk hesitated, glancing at the bodyguards.
"I've been quite busy looking out for Christian lately. But I do believe that Christina re-entered America some time ago and did go missing. I was kind of relieved..."
Taylor nodded, then made his way back to the front porch.
"Steel hasn't heard anything since she went missing," he informed them, looking between Mouse and RK.
He made his way over to a park bench on the veranda and sat down.
MOuse
Mouse petted RK and the cat purred in approval.
"So...maybe I should go see Tanya again. Telepaths are really handy to know."
"You know Tanya?"
Mouse blinked, slightly surprised.
"I know a lot of people. I know the one who put the mark on your arm."
Her hand flew to cover her Horus's Eye tattoo almost devensively.
"What are you, exactly?"
"Can we say a cat, and leave it at that, little one? Bad enough that Christina knows some of what I can do...and that Tanya. Although Christian seemed to like her well enough. Why, I don't know. Though she did help me heal Christina."
Taylor
"Tanya treats him like a son, that's why," Taylor said absently, his eyes to the ground.
He glanced across at the houses over the road, then looked down at his hands.
The sudden reminder of Blakesley had unnerved him.
MOuse
"Nice lady."
RK looked at Mouse with inscrutable glowing golden eyes.
"Watch yourself. There are forces at work with you...and him."
He glanced at Taylor briefly, then left. With a blink, he almost seemed to shimmer from sight.
Mouse rubbed her thumb across the bridge of her nose thoughtfully.
"Odd cat."
Kirk and Taylor
Kirk appeared at the door.
"Well... I'd best be off. And you both have some moving to do..."
He made his way over to Taylor. He looked up as Steel handed him the keys.
"Enjoy."
"Ah... thanks."
And Kirk left. Bee came to the door and looked out.
Mouse
"And he's just as odd," Mouse told Taylor.
She stood slowly, using the railing as support.
"I'm so not used to people doing nice things for not much reason..."
Taylor
"When we did the road trip to Quantico... we had a lot of time to talk."
Taylor looked up at where Kirk had disappeared behind a row of hedges.
"I think... he seems to think he's taken my life away or something."
MOuse
"Interesting guy," Mouse said, before she turned and walked inside.
"Right...we have bodyguards now."
Mouse shook her head and sat down heavily on a couch.
"It's right, you do," Clarissa said cheerfully.
Taylor
Taylor looked up as Bee stepped outside, then looked away again.
"I know it's going to be awkward for a while..." Bee began slowly, "but you'll get used to it."
"Do you mean the house or the bodyguard thing?" Taylor folded his arms across his chest.
Bee shrugged.
"Both."
Taylor looked up at him again, then away and shook his head.
"Sorry," he began, "it's just... it's sudden. I wasn't really expecting it, you know."
Bee nodded, then went to sit beside him.
Mouse
Mouse rubbed Bets's head as the malamute came over and put her head across the alien's legs.
"So..." Clarissa looked at Mouse thoughtfully.
"Yeah," Mouse said quietly.
"I'm guessing it's going to take a long time for you to trust us, if you ever do," Clarissa hazarded a guess.
"You get ten points."
Taylor
"I'd looked up your file..."
"I have a file?" Taylor raised his eyebrows, looking up.
"Well, you do now if you didn't before. But every alien in Tulsa has a file... for the black market. Midnight market. Underground operations as it were."
Taylor frowned and looked away.
"And what's in the file?"
"Bio stuff. Who you are. Sometimes what the future holds for you. It's helpful having seers working on them. You can tell who's going to be in trouble."
Taylor held back a chuckle.
"And I guess I'm in for a lot."
"Well not if I can help it, Mr... sorry, Taylor."
Mouse
Mouse settled back into the cushions with a bit of a sigh, scratching at Bets's head thoughtfully. She closed her eyes.
"How did you meet up with Steel?"
"Usual ways..."
Mouse opened an eye slightly.
"Poking around at my shields is not conducive to the trust."
"Sorry." Clarissa shrugged. "Habit."
Taylor
"How did you end up with Mouse?" Bee asked, trying to make conversation.
"She broke into our house one night," Taylor chuckled slightly, putting one foot up onto the bench and putting an arm around it, "I can't say it went from there. I was annoyed at her at first. But I don't know... I guess something happened a while later and I realized I liked her. We started going out on Valentines Day..."
"This year?" Bee raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah," Taylor sighed.
Bee hesitated, looking him over.
"Don't you think it's a little early?"
Taylor looekd over at him.
"For what?"
"Well... to get married? You haven't even known her a year..."
Taylor hesitated, gnawing his bottom lip.
"I don't know. All I know is that I can't stand not to be with her. And I don't see that feeling ending."
Mouse
"So..."
Mouse looked up at Clarissa as the woman spoke.
"What's your deal?"
"Wouldn't Steel have made sure you knew?" the younger girl said dryly.
"Yeah, but I wanna hear what you think of it."
"Ok...when I was real little, the Spider killed my parents. I went through a series of human fosterhomes-"
"No alien contact at all?"
"Nah. Thought I was some kind of freak..."
Mouse bit her lip slightly.
"When I was eleven, I skipped out. Went on the road. Picked up Sparra in New York, Nevyn in New Orleans, then Faf up in...Arkansas, I think. Wolf rebreeding program. He's from Canada originally."
"How'd you wind up with the Hansons?"
"I broke into their house."
Mouse grinned as Clarissa registered shock.
"That was all kinds of fun, that was."
Taylor
"When did you propose?" Bee, asked, sitting back.
"August," Taylor smiled, "I kinda... It's hard to explain, but we have some kind of, I dunno, connection. If she feels sick or in pain, I can feel it and vice-versa. I know how to block my feelings from a telepath. And I blocked her just before I proposed."
He chuckled.
"Scared the hell out of her."
"I can imagine."
"But at least I got a good reaction."
Mouse
"So, you two getting married?" Clarissa asked.
Mouse smiled happily and looked at the ring on her finger.
"Yeah. Kinda a shock...he blocked me before he did. I was freaking out all over the place. Thought he was gonna break up with me."
"As you would..." Clarissa agreed.
"But no...he asked me to marry him."
"And you said yes, obviously."
"I still think he's an idiot to be in love with me...but we're all fools in love."
"Too true, too true. Any empath could tell you the same. When you'd start going out?"
"He asked me out on Valentine's day..."
"Aw, so he's a real sweetie then?"
"Could say that, yeah."
Mouse's smile got a bit wider.
Taylor
"To have the kind of connection that we do at the moment... I don't know what I could do without her," Taylor looked up for a moment, then down again.
"I couldn't blame you."
"And no one does," Taylor shrugged, "I just... I worry about her so much. And I keep ending up in these situations where I'm hurting her, and I can't do anything about it..."
"Which is what we're here to stop, Taylor. Riss and I are here to make sure that that kind of thing does not happen anymore."
Taylor looked into his eyes for a moment, then shivered.
"I know. I just... I can't help but worry. And when the triplets are born, Blakesley's going to want them back. We're not going to be able to watch over them 24/7."
MOuse
Fafnir stalked into the house, stance sullen and combative.
"YOu didn't find the cat, did you?" Mouse asked him.
No, I didn't. And if I find that mangy tom again, I'm gonna eat it.
"Because you were doing such a great job of it before."
Fafnir curled his lip at her then settled at her feet.
"So, when are you due?" Clarissa asked.
"Uh, late Decemberm early January. We think."
Mouse shrugged slightly.
"There were nosy godesses who can't keep their noses out of things, and some prophecy which saw me spending about four months my time on Olympus, but only about a week passed here."
Clarissa blinked.
"You'll get used to it after awhile. I can garuntee that Nyx, Sabre and Priss are all going to drop by unannouced at one time or another. Cats."
"Say what?"
"See, this is where my life got *real* complicated...aside from all the alien stuff, which really is freaky enough..."
Mouse explained about Bastet, and her children.
Taylor
Taylor sighed.
"Well... I guess we have some stuff to be moving," he shrugged.
He yawned, then stood up. Bee followed.
"The best thing is the garage," Taylor chuckled, "there's enough room for bikes, two cars, and a makeshift studio."
"I heard about 3CG..."
"Really?" Taylor looked surprised, "I didn't think you were the kind of person into..."
"Files, Taylor," Bee smiled.
Taylor hesitated.
"You have a point. I'd better see what Mouse is doing."
And he walked past Bee and into the house.
"Mouse?"
Mouse
"Hey, cher."
Mouse lifted her head and smiled at him.
Clarissa sighed slightly at the wave of love that just radiated off the two of them.
"So...what are we doing now? Moving your stuff?"
"You don't have stuff?" Clarissa asked Mouse.
"Streetkid, I'm sure you know...all I need is in the room already."
She petted Fafnir's head as Bets pressed up closer and smiled at Taylor.
Taylor
"Well... you might not have much stuff, but I certainly do," Taylor raised his eyebrows with a grin.
"And you know what's going to take the most time? Instruments. Keyboards, piano, a couple of guitars are mine..."
Bee raised his eyebrows, obviously not having realized before.
"I think we might need a trailer or something..."
"Yes, yes indeed," Bee agreed, raising his eyebrows, "I do have a friend that lives nearby with one. Want me to call him?"
"Ah... sure?"
Mouse
Clarissa chuckled softly as she stood.
"Ok...let's go get all this stuff...and move you two in."
"This is still really odd," Mouse said, then shook her head.
"You;ll get used to it," Clarissa predicted cheerfully.