Fuel

"I know this is a tough one for you, chica, but you gotta hang with it. How's this sound? We let the others handle the shapeshifter, you and me deal with the ghost. Fair?"

He smiled at her, put his hand comfortingly over hers where it rested on the gearshift.

“Even though it is technically right, it’s a werewolf jerk.”

Lenna shivered by hearing this. Why didn’t the voice stop? Why did it appear in the first place? Can it really be Nick?

“Yeah that does sound fair.”

She suddenly looked at Rome. “Wait just the two of us hunt the ghost? Really? I thought you don’t like hunting just with me. I’m a liability, remember? I can’t shoot; I can’t even give you a gun without being scared. Maybe I’m just not as much a hunter as I thought. Rome I think after this hunt here I wanna go. I wanna be on my own again, like I was before. I know you think I can’t take care of myself but I can when I stop depending on you taking care of me. So let this hunt get over, and I’ll be out of your way.”

Where does this come from? I wanna leave? But he they are my friends, my family and I wanna leave them?
“You finally understand what I’m telling you, Elle. They hold you back.”
They hold me back?

A gross feeling settled in the pit of Rome's stomach as she said it again: this time in a cool, collected, rational voice, that she wanted to hunt alone. That was fine. So everybody left him. He could deal. At least he wasn't a social retard and could make new friends, unlike some people he knew.

At any rate, he decided to ignore this, mainly because he didn't like thinking about it, and was done being upset and pissed off.

"Of course I'll hunt with you, Lennie. You're not a liability. You're a little crazy, sure," he forced a grin and a chuckle, "but I don't ever feel obligated to look after you. I feel..." Okay, was he just about to start talking about his feelings? Frack this noise. "I just don't mind looking after you, that's all."

Rome couldn't wait to get out of this car. He needed some ice packs and a Mountain Dew, stat, while he figured out what he could do with her that wouldn't involve locking her in the trunk until she saw sense.

Lenna started a couple of times to answer him, but she didn’t know what to say. She had a bad headache. She wasn’t stupid she knew something was wrong, but she didn't dare to mention this to anyone, especially not Rome she knew how much he was troubled by his own psychic crap going on. She couldn’t trouble him, with the voice she heard. With the voice of her dead brother she heard.

“Elle, stop worrying in your little head, I’ll make sure everything will be fine. I know what’s best for you.”

This time Lenna didn’t answer Nick. She stared straight ahead, when she drove on the parking lot of the hotel. She parked far away from the crime scene. Just before Rome could get out of the car, she grabbed him at his arm to stop him.

“Hey Rome, can we not tell the other that I’m a bit off my game. Please.”

Rome grinned at her. “I won’t say a word.”

Lenna let go of him and got out of the car. She followed him inside, she had no idea in which rooms the other were.

Lily had never left Rome's room. She'd simply started using the computer he'd just about tossed at her, and fallen in love with his machine. She thought her baby was good, but Rome's... Well, if Lily were shallow enough, and not quite as acerbic as she was, she might consent to marry him simply for his electronics.

A few hours later, she'd dug out a decent amount of information, looking for online archives of the local newspaper, cross referencing various things- [s]and then hacking into the police department's database[/s]- no, she would never do that last one...

And if she got caught, it would be the first time. Police internet security was laughable.

She'd managed to find out that five years previous, there had been a string of animal attacks, before someone was killed by a silver bullet to the heart. Followed by a break in and murder, but she couldn't get any details for that one. And then nothing.

Until now.

Oh, this was not looking good.

She started to check to see if she could find out information for the victim's families, when the door opened.

"So, I hear we got us a werew...oh. Hello." Rome was surprised--but not really--to find Lily sitting on his bed as he left her, still in her pajamas, still surfing on his laptop.

He wasn't sure who he expected to find in his bedroom, but it certainly wasn't Lily. Or maybe it was. He pressed on, regardless: "Find anything? Looks like we got some vengeful spirit activity going on around the school, Lennie's checking that out. What'd you find?"

Rome pulled off his jacket and went to the small suite refrigerator for a can of Mountain Dew--his twelve-pack was more depleted than he remembered it--which he held against an aching rib before drinking half of it down. He checked a mirror quickly. Okay, except for the previous night's shiner--which, what the hell?--his face was still good. That was what mattered.

Lily raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you have any idea how much psychic sludge you drag along with you? My shields aren't strong enough to block you out, which means that you're a hell of a broadcaster, since I normally don't pick up on thoughts. And could you please stop picturing me naked? Because seriously? Comparing me to Keira Knightly isn't likely to get me in your bed."

Rome blushed, paled, and went cold all at once. It was sort of like that my-boyfriend's-a-body-builder-actually-and-he's-standing-right-behind-you feeling.

"Psychic...wha?" He stammered for a moment before setting the soda can down, meaning business. "Look, I don't know what you're--"

"You're doing it again. Would I help if I put something on?"

"Um. Hey, look. I, ah, don't know what you're talking about, Lily, I..."

The familiar spike of pain, the flash of white, and then he was remembering. Remembering a vision? As another vision? What the hell?

"Hey, I'm Rome, nice to meet you." He didn't offer his hand. She didn't look like she wanted to be touched. Actually, she didn't look like she wanted much of anything right now.

But she met his eyes. And that triggered something--a flash of white, and before Rome could think "Aww, crap!" he was seeing elsewhere:

A small, pale white hand holding a weathered photograph, standing in the rain. Three coffins matched the three in the picture: Mom, Dad, son. Tears fell from those gray-green-blue eyes, from that face, pale and freckled framed in flaming red hair...

And then he was back, almost without missing a beat. This wasn't a hard-hitting one, though it did leave a spike of pain behind, but that was about par for the course for him these days. As he tried to recover before anyone noticed, however, he caught Lily giving him a weird, knowing look.

"Ow!" Rome whined, holding his head and almost doubling over. "How the hell did you do that to me? Stop it!"

"Right, because I get my sh**s and giggles by forcing people to deal with visions, and make them hurt. Because I am just that nice of a person." Lily's voice was dry and sardonic. She wasn't as at ease as she was coming across, but she really was tired of picking up on Rome's 'sludge', for lack of a better term.

Well, at least he wasn't imagining her without her clothes on anymore. That had been mildly disconcerting, to say the least. She wasn't sure whether or not to be offended by the fact that she was scrawnier than he'd been picturing.

"Why do you carry around so much of the dregs with you? Why don't you just let it go? It's a lot healthier, you know."

Rome was still holding his head, though now more in confusion. "Um...let it go?" He looked at her like she had grown whiskers. "Jesus Christ, if I could let it go!" He laughed, a little manically, probably due to lack of sleep and that he really needed an ice bath and would probably be pissing blood for a week, anyway.

Then he looked back at her. Really looked.

"You're serious?"

She nodded, the Duh!-nod.

"You have the same..." Rome motioned vaguely at his head, finally deciding on, "problem? And you can control it?"

Rome dared to be hopeful. Maybe this was it! Maybe she was the answer to all his prayers! Maybe she could even get rid of it! He felt like Frodo Baggins encountering Galadriel, or Anakin Skywalker meeting Padme Amidala: just in awe. Maybe she could fix him!

Lily hesitated. "Well, sorta. I can usually control it. Lately, I've been having problems, but it stems from me having issues controlling anything lately."

She looked at him. "You've had this... handicap, ability, whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it, and haven't learned how to control it?"

Rome's jaw hardened into a stubborn line. "Well, it's not like I was ever really around anyone who could teach me."

Lily's eyes widened. "Neither did I, and I still had enough brains at seven to research it as much as possible and experiment with ideas until I developed control. Jesus Christ, how have you survived this long without managing to win yourself a Darwin Award?"

Oookay...Lily could apparently be mean. But Rome harbored a strong suspicion that--like practically all the socially inept losers he hung out with these days--she didn't exactly intend to be as b*tchy as she came across.

Rome shrugged. "Lady Luck's got a crush on me?"

He came forward and sat on the bed across from her, a hungry look in his eyes that was unlike any other hungry look he'd ever given a woman in his bed before. She flinched slightly at the quick movement.

"Lily," he said solemnly, trying not to betray as much neediness as he felt.

Hunt? Gone from his mind. Elenna? She could take care of herself. Rawson? Hell, it didn't matter if he never came back.

"Can you help me control it?"

Being attacked by a vengeful spirit had a good part. Rome stopped watching her like a hawk. That gave her the opportunity she needed.

“There you go Elle, you don’t need all this stuff. That’s my girl.”
I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for me. I’m done hunting; I’m done fighting stupid monster. I wanna be left alone by everyone, including you; I think.

Lenna packed all the things in the trunk in a bag and carried this bag with a lot of effort into her room. She dumped the stuff under the bed, without feeling anything. In the bag was her life, all the things she once called the most important objects in her life, her friends, the place she could hide no matter what. Lenna was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling.
She knew that Rome expected her to do research about the vengeful spirit at the school, but she just couldn’t do it. For the first time since she lost everyone she didn't care to help.

I wanted this life, 5 years ago. Why can’t I enjoy what I have? I want to save people, help them but lately everything changed. Nick? Are you here?
“Do you really think I would leave you alone, like he did?”

Lenna didn’t answer Nick. She hoped somehow, someone would just fix everything for her.

“Gee, I need to get out of here. They wanna hunt their... you-know-what and I wanna just go out. They need to wait for their hunt and I need distraction.”

Lenna got up and went to take a shower. She knew exactly what she wanted right now. And this was not her usual wish.

“I’m so proud of my little girl, she is growing up.”

Lenna had to grin when she heard Nick's words. She had a plan to get what she wanted and distract everyone.

"I can try? I do a lot of meditation, and things slip through." She set aside the computer (an inner voice cried out "My precious! We wants it!" but she shoved it down) and settled cross legged. "Start at the beginning, and I'll see if what I know of what to do matches up with your experiences. From what I can tell, you and I run along similar veins, but we don't have the same gifts. So what works for me might not work for you. But I'll do my best, and what I don't know, I'm willing to research."

She wondered how far he was willing to go for control, and part of her - briefly- considered pulling something drastic, gross and embarrassing, just to see if he'd do it.

But if he was anything like her in this regard, he'd do it with no questions asked. Her "ability" was something that she'd get rid of in an instant if she had the chance, provided no one died, and anyone not her didn't suffer for it. From the few things Rome had said, and the wave of relief and need that she was catching off of him, he was in the same boat.

"You gonna do some kind of Vulcan mind-meld thing on me?" Rome laughed, a little nervously, before settling cross-legged before her. "Or is this some kind of yoga self-help thing?"

She clearly wasn't finding him funny, so he stopped.

"Uh. So, Doc, symptoms started, uh..." Rome tripped up. There was a reason he didn't like talking about this. "Uh...about...two years ago."

"Rome."

"Hm?"

"I can't help you if you try to hide things from me."

"Uh. Yeah. Right. Duh. Um. So, I was...we had a run-in with a demon. He had a joyride inside my meatsuit for about eight months and--"

She sucked in a sharp breath, but nothing more, as he continued:

"And, ah. So, yeah. Elenna said something about trauma and psychic tendencies. I guess that's where it started. I don't know. Anyway. I get these...visions, right?" Rome couldn't believe he was saying this. It sounded so stupid when you said it out loud. Like, Twilight Zone, seriously. He pressed on before he could think about it too much. "Of...what's going to happen. I guess. Sometimes the past, maybe. Uh. They're really...vivid. And they kinda hurt my head. Um. A lot. And I get dreams, too, weird dreams, but they're less accurate, you know? More like--" Rome laughed at himself, blushed, but there was no better word, "Omens? Anyway. Sometimes I think I can hear people, what they're thinking, if it's really strong. But that might just be me, I mean, I was always practically psychic with the way I could say what my brother was thinking before he even said it. Or Elenna, you know. So, I guess only those two. And I can, uh--but, no, that was djinni screwing with me. So yeah. That's it."

Rome sighed deeply, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, like going to Confession. It was stupid how often he didn't take his own advice: sometimes it really did help just to talk things over with someone.

Lily frowned slightly. "Okay. You're the first psychic I've really dealt with. Other than Tex, but... well, let's just say that doesn't really count. So I'm not entirely sure what's going to work with you. But here goes nothing." She lay her fingers on his forehead, not really sure if that would do any good, but it felt like it would.

She froze, unable to move as she found herself trapped in a memory of Rome trapped in his body. There was a lot of blood and violence.

And death of two of the people that mattered most to him, and since Lily was along for the ride, she felt the searing loss as keenly as he did.

When Lily was finally able to move again, she managed to get to the tiled floor of the bathroom before getting sick.

She tried to speak a few times, her mouth opening and closing as she leaned against the wall for support. Finally, her voice came out, dry and wispy. "Never again. Holy f***ing hell, I am never taking a trip into your skull ever again. It's a wonder you're not in the psych ward, or suicidal, and I'm not going to go there instead of you. I'll help you deal as best I can, but I am never going to intentionally climb inside your brain ever again."

And she knew, she knew, that as bad as it had been for her to see it, feel it, the way she had, it had been ten times worse for Rome, and that this was one of those things that he carried around with him.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, not this memory. No!

Rome was sucked back into the memory, back to the time, to the pain, the smell, the emotions. When she finally let him go, he couldn't breathe, and tears stung his eyes. When his vision finally cleared, Lily was gone, but he could hear her barfing in his bathroom.

He stumbled to his feet and rushed to her, monumentally guilty, whiteknuckling the doorframe. "I, ah...I'm sorry," he said--

"Never again!" she bellowed, when she could. "Holy f***ing hell, I am never taking a trip into your skull ever again!"

"I, I'm sorry, Lily, I--I didn't do it," he tried to reach out a hand to her, but she jerked back, as if afraid to touch him, and kept talking, more calmly this time, but he didn't or couldn't listen. "I...I'm sorry..." His breathing sped up, and he began to feel trapped, to panic, and his head hurt like he was about to get a vision. Rome shook his head, turned, and ran out of his room, his head down, out of the hotel, outside, into the parking lot, where he crouched, shaking, breathing hard, trying not to, no, definitely not crying.

And definitely trying not to remember.

No. No. Suck it up, Remington, it's over. She can't help you, so just deal with it. What about Elenna? Rome sniffled and lifted his head up. Yeah. That was good. Because keeping Elenna sane (or trying to) usually kept him sane. That's it. She needs you. Grow a set, Remington, and get back in the game.

And don't bother Lily ever again.

Lily looked up, only now realizing that he was no longer in the room with her.

Hell.

She left his room, flipping the door jam so that the door wouldn't shut and lock behind her, just in case he didn't have his key, and then followed what was his probable path outside.

She spotted him in the parking lot and crouched next to him. "I'm sorry."

Words wouldn't cover it. Words wouldn't begin to cover it.

But she didn't know what else to offer him that would give any semblance of help or comfort or... whatever it was that he needed.

"Uh. No worries. It's not your fault, and--and I'm sorry for--for making you see that. This was probably just a bad idea. So I'm sorry. I'll, um, try to control my, ah, 'sludge,' in the future and...thanks for trying to help and--"

Okay, what was wrong with him? Romulus Remington did not stutter like that! It was sickening.

Where was that part about growing a set?

He coughed, straightened, wiped his eyes. "No, seriously," he tried a practiced grin. "I'm okay. I really am. I was just, ah...just on my way to check on Elenna, actually. See if she found anything on that ghost at the school." He chuckled. "To get my mind off it, you know? Tell you what, I'll buy you a drink or twelve tonight if you need to forget." He winked, and stood up, helping her to her feet.

"Uh. So." Rome checked his watch. "It's two o'clock. Do you know where your clothes are?"

Lily looked down, blushing brightly as she realized she was still in her pajamas. Rome burst out laughing, and she must have caught where his train of thought was going, because she slugged him in the arm and rolled her eyes.

Lenna hadn’t eaten the last few days, and the room service was exactly what she needed. But somehow she forgot to order food, well she did order chocolate mousse, but mainly she had ordered Champagne. She never had it before and thought it would be time to try it.
The TV was on; music was playing. Lenna was dancing, in nothing more than her underwear, in her room.

“Elle, what the hell are you doing? Get dressed and leave them, this is your moment.”
Not right now. I’m busy.
“What do you mean you’re busy?”
You wanted me to grow up and that’s what I’m doing.

Lenna emptied another glass of Champagne and threw it against the wall like she did with the first two glasses she had. The room service didn’t asked question when she ordered 20 glasses since she ordered three bottles of Champagne.

“That is much more fun, then reading in some dusty books. I should have done this year ago, Nick. In that way I will progress your death in no time. You wanna have some Champagne Nick? The stuff is great to get slowly and in a posh way drunk.”

“No you wanted to leave them.”

“I will leave them but not right now. Look dude when you don’t wanna celebrate with me you might better just wait in the car. See you later.”

Nick was shocked how this turned out and even more shocked when he actually got pulled back to the one place he was locked in for the past 5 years. Two of Elle’s friends were outside it was the douchbag. Nick walked to him and standing close to Romulus when he yelled right in his ear.

“You frigging moron, look what you did. She is going crazy and I can’t control her. What stupid ideas did you put in her head? She is drinking and having a party in her room. She does not what I want her do to. This is your fault, you taught her this behavior. Stay away from her. Do you hear me? Stay away from Elle!”

Nick got slammed back in the car and couldn’t get out.

Does Elle have powers over me? No it must be something else that sent me back in the car. Okay I’ll wait; I waited for five years it won’t hurt to wait a couple of hours until she is listening to me.

Georgina knocked at Elenna's door and waited. She wanted to know what was going on- both with the local high school and Lenna. She heard loud music from behind the door and opened it.
Georgie couldn't help but hold her breath for a moment when she saw Elenna in her underwear while dancing to the music. She raised her eyebrows when she saw the bottle of Champagne.
What the hell?
Elenna didn't see her because she had her back turned to her.

"Hey, what's going on?" Georgie asked, but the music was so loud that she couldn't hear her own voice so she turned it off. Elenna turned around and looked at her both angrily and confused at the same time.

"Why did you turn it off? I liked that song."

"What on earth is going on? Are you drunk?" Georgina scrutinized her worringly.

Elenna shrugged her shoulders and trumbled towards the table to refill her glass. "I was thirsty."

"Then you should have ordered a water or soda. You're 19, you're not allowed..."

"Dammit, Barbie, who cares? You're not my mother okay? And I'm so tired of people telling me what I'm supposed to do and what I'm not allowed to do."

Georgina kept quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Lenna. I didn't want to be bossy or anything, I was just concerned..."

"I'm fine", Elenna responded with a weird grin on her face. "I'm doing great, really!"

"I can see that..." Georgie's glance wandered to the champagne bottle. "So, you came back from the high school, right? Anything interesting?"

"Got to do more research." Elenna sighed. "Of course, Rome expects me to do research but guess what- I don't want to right now! I wanna go out tonight, I'm tired of spending all my time on books!"

Georgina wrinkled her brow. Okay, something is definitely wrong here!

Lenna looked feisty at Georgie.

“You should eat something, before that.” Georgie tried to sound cheerful and supportive.

“Fine, I’ll eat something but if you dare to give me salad I start throwing punches.” Lenna sipped at her Champagne and turned on the music again. It must be a weird picture to see Lenna dancing in underwear, with a glass Champagne in her hand. Georgie managed to order some food. It took just a couple of minutes until the room service brought the food. Georgie opened the door so that Lenna wasn’t seen, took the plate and went back inside.

“Lenna? I have food. Bacon cheeseburger.”

Lenna came over took a bit of the cheeseburger took some fries and went to refill her glass. She didn’t pay any attention what Georgie was doing or if she even stayed in this room.

Aly pinned another victim to her murder-board and returned to her chair. The officer/groupy actually had a decent investigative mind. If she were still with the Bureau she would recommend him for Quantico. Unfortunately for him, she was not, and he wasn't going to know until she was far from town and the call came back about his shattered dreams.

She sat back and stared at the board. The murders were grouped into two categories--those that died due to the removal of the hearts, and those that died because of a silver bullet. There were more of the former than the later, though they still had boxes of files to go through. She had a feeling they were getting somewhere though. Almost all of the heartless ones were found within a mile of the high school--which was where Rome said there was a haunting--maybe one of the wolf's victims? Made sense to her--well, not really but in the crazy world she now found herself in it made sense. Of course she couldn't use such terms as werewolf or haunting around her pet detective, so she talked in terms of serial murder instead.

"Then why the silver bullet? I mean all of the victims so far had their hearts removed. Why switch MO?"

"What if we're dealing with two killers here? One that kills through dismemberment, and the other hunting him?"

Aly's eyebrows raised. "Tell me more."

"This is going to sound crazy--and I'm not saying this is real or anything like that--but what do you kill with a silver bullet? Every old movie buff knows you kill werewolves with a silver bullet."

Aly held her breath.

"What if we're dealing with a movie-buff who thinks the serial killer kills like a werewolf--so he tries to kill the killer with a silver bullet?"

She stood up and rearranged the murder board. "So this was the work of the serial killer." She picked out the odd two photos and set them aside. "And these were the result of a man trying to stop the killings."

The killings had stopped after the woman's death--or had they? why did she had two victims with identical CODs if the woman was the wolf? Her question was answered by the next file out of the box.

"We have another one--spaced exactly a month after Erickson's death."

"Our vigilante got the wrong guy."

"Okay, so we have Jane Erickson, 22--student, worked at a small bar in the city, here for the weekend with family, but stayed when her little brother was one of the victims. Turns out she was in the area when two other attacks happened--but was ruled out as a suspect early on."

The young detective opened another file and read from it.

"And Nicklaas Fee, 18--senior at the high school--killed by a silver bullet in a home invasion--no other connection to the murders. Says here his sister was found hiding in the closet--Elenna."

Aly's coffee fell from her hand sloshing all over the desk.

"You alright, ma'am?"

She nodded hurriedly as she mopped up the mess and excused herself to the bathroom. She took out her phone and started texting wildly.

Rome--serious development. String of murders with same MO 5 yrs ago. 2 vics w/silver bullet. Elenna's brother was one! Thinking sloppy hunter as COD. Why didn't you tell me her family was involved?! Returning to hotel soon. ~Aly

She returned to the room with the board after having wiped the coffee off her pants. She startled him when she spoke.

"So, I'm thinking there's got to be a reason this hunter suspected Fee. Did the killings stop after Fee was killed?"

"No ma'am--there was one more a short distance out of town found a few days later. Time of death was unclear due to decomp. Then of course, there's the new cases."

"Right. So this vigilante doesn't think the cops know what they're dealing with, so he goes all lon Cheney on those he suspects to be the killer. He doesn't have hard evidence though. Check hospital records for a mental patient around five years ago, probably mid twenties, into old horror movies. Also run down any leads on the Fee boy. There has to be some reason he was suspected--even if it's as circumstantial as aiming a spit ball at a victim--I want a connection."

She gathered up her coat and headed for the door.

"I'll be back in an hour--have to check in with my partner and change these pants. You have my cell number if you dig up any leads."

She let out a deep sigh as she exited the station. It felt good to work again--even if it wasn't real. The hotel was only a few blocks away so she decided to walk. It was a pleasant enough evening.

Morrigan was tired of crying. That's all she'd done for a good portion of the last few hours. She knew she had to stop. Shane would want her to get up and get the job done. She owed it to him.

The Feds had never showed up to question her. She silently hoped that Agent Wesson, Aly, had taken care of everything and that she would no longer have to deal with questions surrounding her brother's gristly death. There would be enough questions when she went home to her family with a body bag.

She pulled out her laptop and started doing some research of her own.