Pilot

And then, suddenly, BAM! he was awake, and he could breathe. He took in an enormously sharp, deep breath that hurt his rib and made him recoil and cough, and he wasn't sure which way was up as he lay there for a few moments, gasping like a landed guppy.

After some time, he wasn't sure how long, voices began to filter to him, as if through water. Raws was there, calling his name. And that chick, Elenna. They didn't sound like they were fighting anymore. Huh. That was weird. Weren't they, like, just about to kill each other?

Rome opened blurry eyes. It looked like he was viewing the world underwater. But he could breathe now and he definitely wasn't under water anymore. Except that his hand was wet. Rawson's face was getting all up in his personal space, talking to him, but the words didn't make sense. Elenna was crouched off to the side, more scared of Raws than she was worried about him. He was lying on the floor by the bed. The light hurt his eyes, so he closed them again tightly.

Finally, he could understand English: "Rome? Wake up, dude. You with me?"

"Nagging."

"What?"

"Nagging. Naggy nagging nagger."

A silence. The kind of silence that said people were concerned about your sanity, or distinct lack thereof. Frankly, Rome was more than a little concerned about his sanity, too.

"'Mokay," he obliged.

"What the hell happened? His eyes turned...weird. Did you see that?"

"'Mrighthere," Rome slurred, insulted that they felt they could talk about him in the third person. "Wanna...bed."

Somehow, between the two of them, they understood this and hoisted him as gently as possible onto the bed. Ooh, there we go. Sleep time.

"Rome! Rome, stay with me, man."

Someone was being bossy, pulling at his eyelids, prying them open.

"Hurts," he complained, but not enough to expend the energy fighting. Whoever it was let his lids drop almost immediately, and he used that reserved energy to screw them tight and turn his face away from the light.

"What happened, Romulus?"

Rome opened his eyes and sat up, wondering why his brother sounded like a chick, before he remembered. Oh. Yeah. Elenna.

"I...dunno," he said, flopping back on the pillow. "Saw. Dream. Weird." He lifted his arm--bad idea--and pointed vaguely in her direction--worse idea--without looking. "You were in it."

"What? Romulus, dreams don't do that to people. And why would you be dreaming about me? What did you dream about?"

"Raws is a nice guy, really. Don't put him in the bubble again."

He must have sounded like a kicked puppy, because she sat next to him and took his hand comfortingly. "Don't worry, Rome, I won't. Just tell me what you saw."

"What's this got to do with anything? Let him rest."

"Rawson, I-I think your brother can--" A long pause. "I'm not sure what happened, but if this was...some sort of vision, we need to know. Traumatic experiences can sometimes make people more susceptible to premonitions, psychic tendencies..."

"You're out of your mind. Rome, you didn't see anything, did ya, kiddo?" A hand on his head.

"Um. A beach? Elenna--you--in a red bikini."

Rawson barked out a laugh. "That's my Romey..."

"Actually I do own a red bikini," Elenna said quietly, then squeezed his hand--miraculously, the only part that wasn't hurt, which was funny because that was the hand with the broken fingers. "What else, Romulus?"

"Uh...there was this...guy...mer...thing. He had, like, a fish...tail...gills. Like. Ariel. Disney."

"A mermaid?"

"Yeah. No. Man. Dude. Um. Changed. Looked like...kid, brown hair, green eyes. I think. Yankees ball cap. And...you called him Nick." Rome managed to pry his eyes open to fix her with a solemn stare. "And then he killed you."

Elenna looked shocked at Rome.

“How can you, I never, you don’t know that. Anything of this, I mean yeah I know that in California is a siren, but I didn’t tell anyone about it. And how could you know? How could you know, you don’t know Nick so stop telling stories about him.”

Elenna was sitting on the egde of the bed rocking slightly back and forth; she was lost in her thought.

He doesn’t know that. That can’t be true. I don’t die; I know how dangerous sirens are. How does he know how Nick looked like, how does he know his name and the Yankees ball cap, it was a present from me?

The only thing Elenna wanted to do right now was to run out of the room, the hotel and just run until she can’t take another step. She wanted Nick so badly to be here and tell her that everything is will be fine. But he wasn’t here and she couldn’t move a muscle.
Elenna felt silent. The hotel room around disappeared and she was standing in her kitchen 4 years ago. And she had done something horrible, something so awful, that she wanted just to end her own life, but she knew exactly what he would say to this thought. “Hell no. Are you insane? You had no other choice Elenna. You know that! Don’t you ever dare to think of ending your life, just because it is difficult! Do you understand me?”

It wasn’t more than a whisper when she started to tell a part of her life barely anyone knows.

“I was a girl, a kid still traumatized from all the foster families I had to go. My parents died in a car crash when I was 10, there was no other family. I was not easy as a kid; well I guess that hadn’t change. When my brother turned 18 I was allowed to live with him, he had the responsibility for me and I was more than glad to see him again. We had three great months together and then I read about those murder in town. My brother hated it that I read about it but I wanted to know everything. All the victims were slaughtered and their heart was missing. It was a werewolf; I didn’t know that at this moment. A hunter was already after her. I met this hunter in the library. The hunter was tall with dark hair, leather jacket, he looked awesome. He had all those books around him and I don’t know he seems kind of nice and I am addicted to books. So I went to him and asked why he is reading all those scary books. He said because he is writing a book himself. The book was about a man who hunts werewolves and for that he wanted to know everything about werewolves. I asked if I can help him. He said sure sit down take a book and be my guest. I was supposed to look up everything how to identify the werewolf. I know now why he let me help. To be a hunter is lonely, all your friends are hunters, and all you talk about is something other people wouldn’t think about. He enjoyed that this was fun for me and that I made jokes and had a good time. I was just an innocent kid; I had the innocent he never could give his kids in my age. When it was time for me to go home he offered me to drive me home in his awesome 67 Chevy Impala, I couldn’t say no. At my house he gave me his number and said: ‘Whenever you are in trouble give me a call.’ I did call him one month later. I was scared as hell, because I thought I lost my mind. I mean I never believed werewolves are real, so when I saw my brother turn into one. I didn’t know what to do. So I called that guy again. A few hours later he was back. He told me that the book story was a lie, he was actually hunting a werewolf and it looks like that this werewolf had changed my brother. That werewolf was a chick, she wanted a partner and she thought my brother was cute. So she changed him. I was begging to know how I can heal my brother. The hunter just shook sad his head and said: ‘There is no healing. I have to kill him. I am really sorry.’ I looked at him and saw that he said the truth so I asked: ‘How?’ ‘He has to be shot with a silver bullet in the heart.’ I took his 1911 from his hand and ask: ‘With this?’ He just nodded. I waited until the morning. My brother came in the kitchen all bloody from the nights killing and looked at me with surprise. ‘Elenna what are you doing with this gun?’ ‘You are a werewolf I have to stop you, from killing more people.’ ‘Wait this are nightmares I have. They are not real. I hit myself and got a bloody nose. I mean they can’t be real.’ I just nodded slowly. ‘There is no other choice?’ I shook my head. I stood up and was standing right in front of him. He whispered a last time. ‘I love you, Elenna!’ I looked in his green eyes, when I shot and saw the light going out in them. That is why I can’t shoot, why I can’t touch a firearm, why I am so scared of them. That is why I hate it when people call me ‘Elenna’; it was the name he gave me. He was my best friend, the one I could always count on, my everything. I had to shoot him, my own brother. I couldn’t save him.”

Elenna looked at her knees and tried not to break down. She tried to push all her feeling back behind her lovely smile, but it just didn’t work. Her smile didn’t appear on her face. All she could feel were hot tears running down her cheeks.

“Rawson I am sorry I trapped you in the water. This, you and Rome just reminded me... I am just sorry, I guess I should leave.” Whispered Elenna, but she wasn’t moving her body didn’t do what she wanted him to do. She sat lost and tiny on the edge of the bed.

"Don't go," Rome said, trying and failing to sit up. Still, he moved his hand--those stupid popsicle sticks--so that it rested on top of hers.

What the hell just happened? He'd dreamed up her brother? Was he a mind-reader now? Did he see something in the past, or the future?

There were a lot of questions running through Rome's dizzy head, but the one thing that was painfully obvious was the emotional distress radiating off this girl in waves, and there was no question about what mattered most now. Naturally empathic, Rome tried to think of what he would do if he had had to kill his own brother--not that it took a great deal of imagination, now, as the scenario had not been such an unlikely possibility a few hours ago--and for that matter he'd dealt the death blow to his parents, which wasn't a far stretch.

So he forced himself to sit up and pulled her into his arms. Instead of pulling away, however, she leaned into him and sobbed quietly. "I'm sorry, Elenna," he whispered. The poor girl.

Rome shared a few tears with her, trying not to look at Raws who was being his usual emotionally crippled self and not knowing what to do when people cry, who opted to stand there awkwardly, looking chagrined and retarded instead of admitting how close to home her story had hit him since he could very easily have found himself sharing a horrible commonality with this girl.

So Rome flashed his brother a sleazy grin and held out an arm to bring him into the hugfest. "Come here and join the chick flick moment, you overly-macho bastard."

“Be nice to your brother you shouldn’t call him an overly-macho bastard, he is a good guy. He... he saved us as much as I did. I never could have got through to you so that you can take of the bracelets. He has his weak spots, but he is a good guy. And he liked my car, which is a big plus.”

Elenna didn’t move an inch away from Romulus; she could remember when she felt safe in the arms of a guy. She was careful not to hurt him, when she suddenly saw something. It was a little disturbing.

“Um. Rome do you know that you have a threaded needle dangling from your shoulder?”

Elenna wasn’t thinking when she took the needle and finished with soft careful touches the stitches in his shoulder. She was humming while she did this.

I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see them dancin'
Walking around on those - what do you call 'em?
Oh - feet!I
Flippin' your fins, you don't get too far
Legs are required for jumping, dancing
Strolling along down a - what's that word again?
Street

Up where they walk, up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin' free - wish I could be
Part of that world

She looked like a nice girl from next door when she looked up at Romulus. With a shy smile she said.

“Sorry, I do that to distract myself when I need stitches and...”

With a worried look she turned to Rawson.

"Okay, so this is all getting way too Disney-movie for me, I don't know about you guys," Romulus began with some trepidation. He was also pretty sure that his eyes were looking in different directions at once, and he couldn't feel a thing even though Elenna had begun stitching up his shoulder.

At some point he had settled back--or someone had settled him back--against the pillows, and his eyelids felt as heavy as marble, and his head still felt like an elephant had sat on it and was still considering whether it wanted to get off or not. He was so far past time to cash in, he'd already spent his winnings on wine and women.

"Gonna...sleep now. No killing," he snapped his eyes open to glare at his brother. "No fighting," he repeated, this time at Elenna. "And if anyone's gonna try and wake me up before, like, next year, you really better have pizza, or I'm gonna, like, I dunno, bleed on you...be grumpy...something."

Rome didn't retain consciousness long enough to hear what the reply was, or if there even was one.

She touched him! How dare she. I still sure as frack don’t trust her and what kind of a person just starts giving someone else stitches? Especially after she just admits to fratricide. So help me God but Rome better get over this obsession with her. And, by the way, he totally could have chosen a better chick to hallucinate in a bikini. I mean, come on- he could have at least gone for Grace Park, or for Sarah Michelle Geller if he wanted the whole urban fantasy twist.

Rawson knew he was being a rather touchy, but after the past forty-eight hours, he felt like he deserved it. And sleep. Rome always told him he was a beaver in the mornings. Or was that bear? Something. But he figured being awake for over a day gave similar results. Ugh.

Rawson found himself plopped next to Rome while he slept, duffle bag on the floor, brooding a bit as he made a mental to do list.

1. Rest – the body can’t function adequately on this little sleep for too long
2. Retrieve my laptop! Maybe grab Rome’s from the house so he can do his techno-research geek-ness
3. Figure out more about the bracelets
4. Figure out if I can fit in a job while Rome’s out of it- using cash when none’s coming in is a poor life choice
5. Figure out a safe way to sleep while still keeping an eye on the girl
6. Stock up on ammo
7. Who knows about the supernatural world? Can I use this for business?
8. Get to a gym or somewhere quiet to train without leaving Rome unattended
9. Get Rome a girl- he so needs to relax
10. Ditch the chick
11. Get back to my life, but with Rome on my side this time.

That shouldn’t be too hard, no? But first thing’s first- sleep. Rawson pushed the beds together, and climbed into his; he’d been looking forward to this since… before trying to get Rome semi-clean and the interruption. Wait, the girl.

“You’re welcome to take the couch if ya want, or I’m sure you there’ll be a suite open somewhere a couple floors down,” Rawson told Elenna. He slid under the sheets before stripping down- his scars were no-one’s business. Not even Rome’s, for now. He'd deal with number five for the next time he slept. Although... He grabbed a knife to stick under the pillow and propped a ‘45 on the far edge of the bed. With a look in Elenna’s direction, he changed his mind, sticking the gun under his pillow before she saw it and flipped and the knife on the side of the bed.

“Night.”

“Night.” Elenna mumbled.

Suite? Right didn’t he remember where I normally stay? I guess not. Okay I see why you said you are his PR guy. That’s what he need. He shouldn’t speak at all in public and... Damn I start again. Okay deep breath. Rome said he doesn’t want me to go and I bet Rawson has somewhere hidden a gun. Well two option the Mustang or in a room full of any kinds of firearms and a guy who doesn’t mind using them. Damn it. Looks like I lost my mind somewhere between the street where I pick Rawson up and here.

Elenna went quiet to the couch and sat down. It was a long time ago that she spoke about Nick.

I won’t die! Sirens are dangerous and that is what I expect, that she turns into a copy of Nick. So it won’t surprise me. And... He hasn’t said anything to me. Nothing, not even the typical I am sorry. I will leave tomorrow as soon Rome wakes up and then they can handle they vision problem on their own. I need to kill something and why not an evil friggin “Nick”-siren.

Elenna wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes. Before she could think anything else she was asleep. In her dreams the world looked different. She was on her way to college and not to kill a siren. And Nick wasn’t a memory he had so many advices for her that she felt dizzy.

“Elenna?”
“Nick?”
“Take care and promise me you call as soon you arrived.”
Elenna smiled “Yes quit worrying. I am a big girl and can watch out for myself.”

Suddenly her dream vanished and nothing was there.

"You can't possibly expect us to let you go on this... 'hunt' alone."

"Why not? I do this all the time. It's my job."

Rome was sitting up in bed now, in significantly less pain, the headache down to a distant throb, and was, pretty readily, he thought, on the road to re-adjusting to life as master of his own meatsuit. He'd woken up late in the afternoon and managed haul himself to the shower, wherein the solitude of which he allowed himself a brief meltdown (okay, so replace "brief" with "traumatic" and "meltdown" with "Raws finding him half an hour later crying for Mom and sitting under scalding water trying to scrub his skin off with a loofah") which was a definite step in the right direction on the grieving/recovering-rape-victim/post-traumatic-stress spectrum, as far as he was concerned. The upshot being, by dinnertime he was clean, he had pizza, he had pain killers, he had Raws, the hunter-chick hadn't yet absconded, and his brain didn't feel clogged with cotton anymore. Granted, he didn't feel up to an Academic Decathelon or anything, but he was improving.

"Okay. Okay," Rome tried again. "First you tell me that this--whatever I saw, that it was definitely something...supernatural-ish. Right? I'm seeing people I've never met before, seeing monsters you have already lined up to kill and about which I know nothing except what I saw in the dream. Right?"

She was glowering at him, such a small step away from pouting it was almost (replace "almost" with "actually totally") funny. "Yeah," she snapped petulantly.

"And then you try to tell me that just because the vision had you in it--you dying, by the way--that I should pay it no mind, that it was probably just a dream, there's no way you'd be that stupid. Is that what you're trying to tell me?" Before she could speak, he turned to his brother. "C'mon, Raws. Help me out. She can't go after this thing alone, right?"

"She can do whatever the frack she wants."

Rome flopped back against the pillows, exasperated. "You people. What does a guy have to do to foster some camaraderie and teamwork around here, huh? Get his ass possessed by a demon?"

Elenna looked uncomfortably away at that, and Rawson's eyes flashed. Finally. He'd struck a nerve. Two of them, it looked like. He hated pulling his brother's strings like this, but when he wasn't being a knuckle-dragger he was usually cognizant of his machinations and was on some level a willing party to them, even if just to keep him happy. As for the girl, well, she was a girl, right? All he had to do was turn on the puppy-dog eyes, and badda-bing, badda-boom. Sometimes people just didn't realize what was good for them.

"Don't even go there, dude," Rawson growled, his voice angry enough for Romulus to tell that it was masking extreme anguish.

"Believe me, I don't wanna!" Rome said, when in fact he would have gone almost anywhere to keep these people together. Something had just clicked, like Luke-Leia-Han-clicked, and he wasn't sure whether it was him being psychic or psycho but they had to stick together. "Look, Raws--"

Idea.

"How do you know it's not gonna happen again, huh?" Ooh, Raws did not like that one. He was setting himself up to get clobbered here, injuries or no, if he didn't watch himself. "How do we know, Raws? We don't. It just happened, for no reason, or for some reason we don't know. No reason it couldn't happen again. I don't like it any more than you do, bro--" he was pretty sure he liked it considerably less, in fact, only he wasn't going to say that, "but you gotta face facts. The best way to keep it, or, God forbid, others like it," Okay, I'm really not keen on that one, "is knowledge. This lady's an asset, you can't deny that. She knows her stuff. She can teach us a lot about what we can only guess is out there in the dark."

He turned to Elenna. "As for you," he said dramatically, "while some of my best friends are conscientious objectors, the whole refusing-to-use-firearms thing, while understandable," he added, raising a hand to keep her from interrupting to defend herself, "knowing your history, is not a safe way to live in this business, I'm guessing. In fact, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say not all of your opponents are as nonviolent in their approach as you are. To the remedy of which I offer my brother, who's about the most violent person I know, and he's really friggen good at it, and I speak as one who's been on the receiving end of an ass-whuppin' many a time as kids."

He paused, and, as no one attempted to jump down his throat with an immediate retort, he considered it a score for Team Rome. They were considering his words, at least.

Rawson snorted. "What's your job in all this, then?"

Rome grinned. "I'm the cute one. Duh."

“I have no other choice as to agree to this, right?”

Elenna looked at Rome’s grinning face.

“Fine.”

Elenna went over to her books and packed them.

“You know people are dying in California. So what do you think when we can leave, Rome? And just for the record I am not leaving the Mustang behind.”

Elenna looked from Rawson to Romulus.

And I still think this is a bad idea, even though Rome is kind of right. But Rawson doesn’t seem too happy that Rome doesn’t want me to go alone.

“I hope you know that this siren is killing innocent people, right now. And I really would like to stab something after the whole Andre story. Hey Rome, since it was your idea to hunt together any suggestion how we arrange the car situation? I guess you two drive together and I the Mustang.”

So now I am member of a team, wow I didn’t see that coming. I guess someone will be glad to know I am not hunting alone anymore.

Elenna took her mobile and started writing a text message.

Hey Bobby. Looks like that I found two new partners. New hunters, I think some kind of marine guys. They know how to fight and I am the brain between the hunts. We are on our way, I hope soon like now, to kill a siren in Cali. No idea for how long we stick together. We will see.
Love Lenna

I hope this will be alright and Rawson and I get along better in some time. I am really trying to be nice, he is just ... grumpy.

Elenna looked at Rawson when she thought the last word and smiled friendly at him.

I will just keep trying and be a nice girl and then he will be nicer too.

"Two cars are better than one, I think, and we can always trade off drivers," Rome suggested, painfully aware that he wasn't consulting his brother on this one. He was even kind of avoiding eye contact, knowing that if Raws said "No," he wouldn't be gainsaid.

He coughed gently, feeling the pull in his ribs. It wasn't dangerous, but it was there. And in his shoulder. And still his head. And he definitely couldn't put much weight on his right leg. "And, ah, I think I can sit in a car. Won't be much help in a fight, but I can, I don't know, use my psychic powers on it," he joked. No one laughed. "Okay, yeah, not funny. I'll just sit this one out, but no reason I should hold you back. Sitting in a hotel room not much different than sitting in a car."

Finally he dredged up the courage to look his brother in the eye. "Innocent people are dying, Raws, you catch that? We gotta go help her. Soon."

The absolute worst thing, was that Rawson could rarely find it in himself to say no to Rome. He could do it easily, and quite willingly, of course, if he thought Rome was going to wind up in danger. But in other situations, while Rome would ultimately follow his lead, one of his few pleasures in life was making his brother smile.

That still didn't mean he had to like this. He leaned closer to Rome and started talking quietly.

"I caught it, and I don't particularly see how it's my business unless there's a nice fee in it. And judging by the state of her, I get the feeling there won't be. Or she hasn't found out how to get it, at the least." He shook his head.

"Separate cars, a decent hotel, and I want to get to this so-called 'Hunter bar' sooner rather than later. You don't get yourself in a position where you'll be hurt, and no matter what he prissy 'oh no, my brother that I didn't even try to save myself' issues are, I'm not going anywhere without packing serious heat. I maintain the right to get the hell away if this looks like a no good trip or if you're more injured than you're acting." Rome looked like he was alright with the stipulations.

"Oh, and if this isn't a one time thing, which I truly, deeply hope to the gods it is, if we're gonna start doing some saving people thing- and you really do have an annoying hero-complex- I'm still going to be making my own cash on the side. You missed a lot, and I'm not endangering either one of us by staying someplace stupid."

Rawson looked between his hopeful, bright-eyed brother and the girl. He smiled, grabbing a whetstone and slowly rubbing the long blade of a knife along it. Might as well be productive while they conversed. "I saw we pack up the gear and kill this sumb**** so Rome'll stop freaking out over female deaths." He glanced at Rome with quirk of his mouth that, if he were anyone else, would be considered almost a grin. "So say we all?"