Mouse and Logan
Mouse dozed lightly in the taxi on her way to the mansion. She was tired. Walking out of Tulsa, then getting a plane. She was slipping. She should've been more upbeat then this. Shouldn'tve tired her out so bad. The taxi pulled up a few hundred metres from the school and she got out, Fafnir following. "Merci. How much?" She paid the driver off and he did a three point turn in the road then took off in a spray of dust. /Well, let's go see les chats, oui?/ They set off and Mouse faded through the walls and then went round to open a gate for her wolf. He leapt in and she laughed softly as he bit at her throat with affection. She started towards the mansion's front door, knocked on it and waited for it to be opened, running her hands idly through Fafnir's fur.
"Hello?" Logan opened the door, then he grinned. "Mouse! How ya been?"
"Been good, been real good, cher." She grinned back.
"Don't do that, we already got one Creole in the house."
"Maybe je parle avec dis homme, non?"
"That is too scary for words. Come in and meet the gang, kiddo."
"Vraiment." She followed Logan. "How is everyone?"
"Like what you've done to your hair. Mostly everyone's alright. Recovering, anyways."
"Bien."
"Stop it."
"Stop what, cher?"
"You're a tease."
"Oui." Mouse smiled cheekily.
Dawn
"Hey Mouse," Dawn waved. "How's it going?"
Mouse
"Hey, Dawn! You been good?" Mouse waved back, and then refisted Fafnir's fur in her hand, other hand balancing the bag on her back. "I'm coming in for a flying visit. Just a few days to chat with the cats and then I'm gone again."
Dawn
"My cousin's getting married day after tomorrow, did you hear?" she said, excited. "It's cool, I'm a bridesmaid." she bounced around.
Mouse and Nyx
"Oui, I heard." Mouse grinned, and then she was nearly knocked over by Nyx. "Hey kitty."
"Hey, sweetie!" Nyx hugged her hard. "How ya been?"
"Not so good. I needed to get out of Tulsa for a bit."
"Always welcome wherever I am, you know that."
"Thanks, Nyx." Mouse let the catwoman hold her tight and hid her face against Nyx's shoulders. "It's been hard, ya know?"
"Shh, sweetie." Nyx purred comfortingly. "I like your hair."
"Thanks."
Hello, cat. We go hunting later, ey?
Sure thing, wolf.
Dru
Dru, Rosemary, Luka and Sabre wandered through the mansion. The other three were with the housekeeper, asleep since it was day.
"Pretty kitty!" Dru sang as she ran up and kissed nyx's forehead.
Nyx, Sabre and Mouse
"Hello, Dru love." Nyx pressed a kiss to Dru's mouth.
"Lovely! How'd ya boyfriend let you outta his sight?" Sabre picked up Mouse and whirled her around.
"Sabre! Put me down!" Mouse kicked her feet and laughed. "I batted my eyelashes, cher."
"I like your hair."
"Too many bleached blonds around, so I thought I'd go redheaded."
Rosemary
Luka smelled Mouse's skin. "Mmmm. Okay, I know, no biting." he sighed. "With all the sweet children here, it's really not fair." he pouted.
"I agree, baby," Rosemary said. "Let's go wreak havok elsewhere." she said, and they headed out into town, to kill some pedestrians.
Mouse and Nyx
"Ok, very freaked about now." Mouse shuddered slightly, and then a wave of pain rolled over her. "What the hell? Someone is hurting bad."
"That would be Mordred," Nyx sighed. "Bad stuff happened. He shut himself off from everybody."
"I can feel that..." Mouse blinked back tears.
Jessica, Adam and Nyx
Jessi walked past Mouse, glared at her without saying a word, and left, Adam by her side. The last few days had been dredging up so many painful memories for her, ones she'd thought she'd suppressed, but hadn't. Truth be told, Adam was the only thing keeping her alive at the moment.
Dawn watched the exchange wth surprise. "Um, I thought you and Jess were friends," she said to Mouse, confused.
Mouse
"So did I," Mouse said in equal bewilderment. "I better go find out what's happening. Yo, cherie! What's up with the evil death glare?" She hurried after Jessi and Adam. "What the hell did I do?"
Adam
Adam put a hand on Mouse's shoulder. "Mouse, hun, just let it go. She's in a lot of pain, she dealt with some very painful memories this morning, things she had though she had forgotten, just let her go."
Mouse and Nyx
"Fine then." Mouse retreated, hurt. "I'm sorry, whatever happened Jessi. Really." Nyx was glaring at Jessi's back. "Nyx? What's going on?"
"Elle doit grandir, Souris," Nyx said coldly. "She think she got the dibs on the pain. Only one ever been hurt that bad. Like to see her be trapped for five hundred years and tortured beat and raped everyday." Nyx stalked off, and Mouse glanced around, eyes wide and on the verge of tears.
"Can't someone tell me, please? You just all hurt so bad!" She crumpled onto the ground, keening softly. Fafnir bolted to her side and licked at her face. The overloaded empath curled in on herself, crying.
Don't cry, please, don't. Pack! Wake up! He whined and snarled at Sabre as he came over. BACK OFF!
Adam, Jessica and Rachel
Adam took Jessi to the guest room and laid her dow on a bed, since she hadn't really slept that day. She quickly started to doze off, and he went back to try to smoothe things over with Nyx and Mouse.
"Listen, girls, Jess doesn't mean to hurt you, she doesn't mean to hurt anybody. Can Rachel and I please talk to the two of you alone?" he asked, as Rachel joined him.
Nyx and Mouse
"Fafnir, let her up." Nyx was trying to convince the wolf to let Mouse up. The empath was moaning with the pain that washed over her from Jessi, Adam, Mordred, Elisha and everyone else in the mansion. Now she'd let down her shields for a moment in surprise, she couldn't focus to get them back up.
BUGGER OFF!
"Well, that was an emphatic no." Nyx ran a hand through her hair in dstraction. "Sweetie, I'd love to talk to ya but Jessi just sent a blast at Mouse that's gonna take her most of the day to work off. At least let me put her in a bed."
I'll bite you if you come near her. Fafnir warned Nyx, teeth bared threateningly.
"You're really not helping here, wolf."
PISS OFF!
"He's not gonna let anyone near Mouse until she recovers." Nyx sighed. "Knew I shoulda sent her somewhere else. The Mansion's full of pain at the moment. She came up here to get away from that."
Adam
Adam projected as many happy, loving feelings opnto Mouse as he could, trying to help her, while Rachel chased everyone away, so that it was just the four of them and Fafnir.
"Mouse, it's okay, just put your blocks up," Adam said. "You can do it."
Mouse and Nyx
I can't I can't I can't, oh, it hurts! Mouse wailed. Fafnir nudged her onto her feet and then resettled the two of them into a corner. He laid in front of her as she buried her head in his fur, whining slightly.
She's come back into the Pack. Let me have her, heal her. Fafnir looked at Adam with worry. I'll tell her what you say. She can't cope with being people at the moment. Let her be Folk. Let me hold her deep and soothe her pain.
Nyx sat down on the edge of a chair. "Talk, sweetie. Mouse'll hear ya. The wolf understands ya, and he'll tell her. She needs to be Pack for a while." Nyx lit up a cigarette. "Needs a place to hide, but he can reach her. Jessi ain't the only girl screwed in the head." She sucked in the nicotine gratfully. "Didn't mean to snap this morning. Really. But I killed something, so I feel better." Her grin displayed all her pointed teeth. "I ain't human, so don't expect me to act like it. So. Talk. Explain why Jessi shouldn't get her ass paddled. Mouse only wants to help, and she's one of the sweetest people I know."
Adam and Rachel
Rachel began. "You see, on Jessi's 13th birthday, her boyfriend at the time, Jason, planned this really romantic evening. Candles, dinner, music, the works. HE told her how much he loved her, and he convinced her to sleep with him. But at the last minute, she changed her mind. She said no, and he wouldn't stop. HE raped her." Rachel shook with the memory. She had been flying overhead in bird morph, and heard her best friend's cries, so she swooped down and began to peck at him until he let up. "A few weeks later, she finds out she's pregnant. She tells Jason, and he splits. Goodbye, nbot forwarding address. She got really drunk that night, drank kero like there was no tomorrow. A few days later she miscarried. BEcause the baby was half human, she blames herself, thinks she killed her baby." Rachel sat down, the memories still hurting her. She had been there with Jessi through it all. Adam spoke up.
"That's when she started going to parties, trying to forget, to lose the pain. She went to a party at her friend Sarah's house, and Sarah's alcoholic father beat her, raped her, and locked her in the closet for three days. After that, she took off, ran away from home."
"She was walking through a park in the evening, about a month later," Rachel said, "When she saw a homeless man begging. She went to give him five dollars, and he snatched her, dragged her into an alley, raped her and left her for dead. So, now she'd been raped 3 times, by three different men, and she truly blamed herself. Tobias and I flew all over Oklahoma looking for her. I finally found her, cleaned her up, and convinced her to come home. She never told anybody what had happened, and nobody in her family mentioned it, for fear of her leaving again." Rachel took a breath.
"So she started to go out again. To partioes, out with friends, started dating. She was seeing this guy, Brian, and she really cared about him, thought she'd finally found somebody she could trust. But Brian hit her. Several times. She wouldn't speak up, but Clarissa and I reported him, and now he's in jail. But she was starting to believe she deserved the abuse, so she let herself get into a third abusive relationship. It ended just before Chirstmas, and she hadn't been with naybody since."
"She was finally starting to heal. She had us for friends, and other friends as well. She was starting to get better, not cutting as much. She stopped doing drugs and stopped getting drunk." Adam said. "Until Owen. When he took her, I thought I would die. I had only told her how I felt about her the day before. But Owen had her dreams, her mind. He was able to find all of her painful memories from the past and convince her that it was all her fault, that she deserved it all. So she decided to kill herself, slash her wrists. Ike found her in the bathroom and they had her healed. That's when she started to think you were her friend Mouse. You WERE her friend, are her friend. But Jess has serious trust issues. When you said that stuff about her family, and told her not to come with you, she interpreted it as you saying you didn't want her as a friend. I know it's not true, but to Jess, you were throwing her away."
"And Logan, well, I should have warned Jess before she came, and Logan as well. His mannerisms, and his voice, well, they're nearly identical to Sarah's father's. When she saw him this morning, in her panic and fear, she thought he had come back to get her. She freaked." Rachel explained.
Adam sat down next to Mouse. "It's not your fault, Jane. You didn't do anything to hurt her, you just didn't know. These past two years have been like hell for Jess, I mean, she's not even 15, she's just a little girl, she had to go through all this. And Nyx, you have the right to think she's being selfish. You've been through worse, but you're a godling, and thousands of years old, I'm not trying to make anybody's pain seem less, or justify anything, but you're better equipped to handle pain than she is. She's a little girl!"
Adam felt tears rising to his eyes. "I'm sorry if I'm out of line."
Nyx and Mouse
"I forget." Nyx looked ashamed. "I'm only a cat, ok? People have always been too complicated for me. And she hurt Mouse. Mouse is mine. I *didn't* want to start a fight with her this morning. Didn't mean to. Been too on edge lately. Too mnay people dead, and I'm trying to figure out this thing so we do all survive. Or as many as possible. I'll stay away from her, and I'll tell Logan to as well." Nyx got up and started to pace. "That's the best I can do, cos I guess she won't accept an apology."
Mouse sighed and nuzzled into Fafnir's side. "She needs Pack," she said sleepily, too drained to make much sense. "Tay is Pack. She's a part of Pack. I protect her. Y'never leave Pack behind."
Well, at least she's talking human now. Fafnir sighed.
"Shh, Pack." Mouse bit at his neck and then licked it. "She don't get Pack, is all. We could hunt 'em down and kill them." To a wolf, that made a lot of sense. "Would that help?" Mouse inquired fuzzily. "C'ould rip out der throats and go on a hunt. Hurt Pack, must die. Simple." She yawned again.
Jessica, Adam and Rachel
No, I think that killing them would just make it worse on her, though they all deserve to die." Adam spat. He was normally a gentle and kind person, but when it came to Jessi, all reason flew out the window.
"It's also been hard on her, getting ready to comefor the wedding," Rachel said, gently. "Because Jean's pregnant, and Scott has never hurt her. Now they're going to have a baby conceived in love and give it a wonderful life. Just seeing all this happen is harder on her." Suddenly, they heard Jessi scream.
"She must have ahad another nightmare. I'll go," Adam said and he quickly ran out of the room.
"I think she can heal, it's just going to take some time. She's been talking about moving her for a while, and I think it might be good for her," Rachel said. They sat in silence for a few moments, and then Jessi and Adam came back into the room, Jessi holding Adam's hand in a deathgrip.
"So, you told them everything?' she looked at Rachel, and the blonde nodded. "okay, I can deal with that. Maybe it's easier having people know, and not having to hide." she looked at Mouse. "I'm so sorry I freaked out at you Jane, it's just. . .sometimes it gets to be too much for me. I thought you hated me, I don't know why. And Nyx, I'm sorry, there's not much I can say. I'm a broken person, and people don't like to be around the broken, it scares them."
Nyx, Mouse and Nathan
"Sweetie, I been broken and put back together so many times it dont matter no more." Nyx smiled gently at Jessi. "You want help moving, come see me. I need to go, I have classes to teach. Come and take one with me sometime, show ya some moves to break any bastard who tries messing with ya, ok?" Nyx rose supply to her feet and swayed out of the room. "Didn't mean to snarl, sweetie. Hey, Seraph." Nathan entered after Nyx, eyes wary and wild as he shuffled his cards.
Fafnir growled warningly, and Nathan lifted his lip and snarled right back. "I'm not gonna hurt yer Pack, wolf, so settle right back down. I'm a loner, not Pack."
"He smells it on you," Mouse said. "Never meant to hurt you, Jessi. Didn't really. Just I needed to get away for a bit, you know? Didn't mean I didn't love ya none."
"Trust snaps back on fingers like a trap," Nathan said then moved over to Mouse. Fafnir growled. "Shut your muzzle. I ain't alpha, and I ain't challengin'. LIttle girl lost in her head with the wolves by her side. Yer lucky, streetbrat. Ya got someone to love ya." He flicked his fingers through her hair and Fafnir let him sullenly. "You need to tone down on your aplha bitch role when you're with people, brat."
"S'part of me."
"I said tone down, not get rid of." Nathan stood again. "You're safe anyway. Where's the cat? You lost your little one. Not your fault neither."
"WAS my fault," Mouse hissed, sitting up. "My fault she died! She shouldn't have been there! That woman was hunting me! My FAULT!" She bared her teeth.
"Back down, brat. Wasn't, ya know. Everyone has things they blame themselves for. This isn't something you should." Nathan perched on the edge of the chair. "Everyone has their demons and their problems. We need to know where the pieces fit, we're all so broken."
Jessica, Adam and Rachel
Jess laughed bitterly. "Damaged goods, that's what we are." Adam put his arm around her. "Come on babe, lets go for a walk." They left and Rachel sighed.
"She's right, you know. We're all damaged. I can never have children because I fought an interstellar war before I was old enough to drive. Had to kilkl my own cousin, too. So I packed up, and left. Moved in with my dad. But it's good I did, or I;d never have met Jessi. She and I are kindred spirits."
Mouse and Nathan
"Never been raped in me body, but I been raped in my mind since I was five," Mouse slipped back into the Creole Patois. "J'eu un bebe. Cannard made me watch him kill me parentes. Ev'ryone round me dies. Sidhe, me parents, all mes animeaux. And always everyone pressing, pressing. Dans me tete, all the emotions. Je be'n raped, be'n de raper, felt de glee, felt de pain." She started to rock slowly. "Je suis tres fatigee...I be so tired."
"And you'll fight. We all fight." Nathan started to cough, clamping a hankerchief over his mouth. When he removed it, it was wet with blood. "Damn. That just keeps getting worse."
"You're dying, vraiment."
"I know. Don' care. This is the way I want to die."
Becky
Becky walked in with a cup of tea. "Drink this, Mr. Nathan, it will help." she said, pressing the hot cup into his hands. She looked around.
"I'm sorry I don't have time for proper introductions, but I have to check on Eli. I'm Becky," she waved at Mouse.
Nathan and Mouse
"Thank you, Angel." Nathan smiled at her and sipped at the tea.
"Mouse," she nodded from her corner. "Fafnir's the wolf."
She smells like sugar.
Hush, wolf.
Becky and Rachel
Becky smiled "'And the wolf shall lie down with the lamb,'" she quoted. Then she ehard her little brother crying. I must go to Eli, he needs me." she rushed up to be with her brother.
"A hellgod and a murderous mutant attacked in tandem," Rachel explained. "Elijah and Elisha were twins. Eli's telepathic and empathic, and his twin had telepathy and hydrokinesis. They had a link," her face looked grim. "Cain tortured and killed Elisha, while Elijah was watching, and linked to him. Glory tortured Eli, breaking every bone in his body, and then sucking his brain, so that he's crazy. His body's been healed, but his mind may never be." Rachel cursed. "tell me, what do innocent children to do deserve this kind of pain? Elisha, Wlijah, Jess, all thirteen when they were first attacked. You were just a tot. Ducky, her parents were killed when she was little, so she ran off, and was adopted by Ducks. So many of us wind up living on the streets. I gues in comparison, I'm lucky. My boyfriend is a hybrid stuck in the body of a hawk, only able to be human for two hours at a time."
Nathan, Chelsea and Mouse
"Life is life and must be lived." Nathan smiled. "Ask the cats for a solution. Ask Priss, she's nicer then the other two. Sabre's too alpha and Nyx doesn't think before she speaks. Priss is more mature." He leant over and tapped Racheal's hand. "They know how to shift."
"Nathan?" Chelsea appeared at the door.
"Lil' red, come in and sit for a while." Chelsea came in and headed straight over to Nathan, sitting at his feet and letting him stroke her hair. "This is Chelsea. She's my student."
"And you're a great teacher." Chelsea smiled up at him. "So, who've we got today?"
"Look at them and tell me what you see."
"Ok." Chelsea looked at Mouse. "Empath. Alien...but she looks like wolf too."
"I'm Pack, that's why."
"Interesting." Chelsea looked at Rachel next. "You're human, but not. Something's been grafted...something that lets you change your shape."
"Very good." Nathan grinned proudly.
Rachel
"I'm an Animorph," Rachel said. "An alien race called the Andalites gave mew and my friends the ability to morph into animals to aide us in fighting an evil alien race called the Yeerks." she shuddered.
Nathan, Mouse and Chelsea
"The ones who crawl." Nathan nodded. "Seen their thralls, and I ran. Worse then some demons. They wanted Nat, but they weren't getting him." He stood. "Got to go. C'mon, little red." He left with Chelsea bouncing along behind him.
"What are we gonna do today?"
"Go out t' the city, mebbe."
"Cool!"
"Sweet kids." Mouse watched Racheal from under half lowered eyelids. "Course, he's as mad as anythin' but he's kind. Means well." She shifted slightly and then Nevyn ran in. "Hey, rat." He ran over to her and snuggled up. "Nevyn. Means no one in Devonderry. I think it's based on Gaelic, but I wouldn't bet on it."
Rachel
"Groovy. I've been a rat. I can be just about any animal, but I have to touch it. Would it be okay if I touched Fafnir?" Rachel asked.
Mouse
"Sure." Nevyn go over and let her touch you.
The things I do... Nevyn sighed and walked over to Rachel. He sat at her feet expectantly.
She ain't touching me.
Do we havta go outside and teach you some manners?
Rachel
Rachel put her hand on Fafnir's head, and acquired his DNA. Then she did the same to Nevyn. "The trance will wear off in few seconds, but once, Cassie used it to stop a crocodile from killing a little boy. Of course, it turned out that she was allergic to crocodile DNA, and she actually burped up a crocodile. It was odd."
Mouse
"Sounds damn odd." Mouse giggled. "You know, I didn't know I was an alien until I broke into the Hansons's house? Thought I was just a freak. But I ain't human, and sometimes I say thank god for that."
Rachel
"Well, I am human, but sometimes I think it's easier to be an animal. Sometimes I hate being a person, you know? And now that I've been morhing for a few years, I'm a complete vegitarian." she shuddered. I like animals, but before I met Tay, I had no clue that people could actually talk to them."
Mouse
"Oh, join the club, but not on the vegetarian thing. I like to hunt, I do. Gets right down to the meaning of what Pack is." Mouse ruffled Fafnir's ears. "I don't talk to animals, such as it is. They think in images and emotions, I can tune into that and 'talk' back. Not like Tay does." She smiled widely. "Faf's accepted him as Alpha, and that really makes the whole thing easier, you know?"
Rachel and Ophelia
"Oh, that's cool. So, I hear Zac's finally got a steady girlfriend?" she sighed. "That figures, he finally stops cheating, and he never even thinks of me. Oh well, Tobias and I have sorta gotten back together. It's odd. Kinda difficult when your boyfriend is a hawk" she glanced at Fafnir. "Please tell your wolf friend not to hunt any birds on the ground, one of them is my boyfriend." she smiled. Rachel looked up when Ophelia walked into the room.
"You must be Mouse, I'm Ophelia." she held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you. Oh, and Dran, he's that big oak tree out front, he asked me to tell that wolf to please not mark his territory on him. He's a dryad, a tree-person, not a regular tree, and he didn't particularly like being peed on earlier." she laughed.