Head Games: A Romulenna Adventure

Lenna rolled her eyes, research wasn’t boring it was a lot safer than playing with one of his guns. “You are unbelievable Rome. Come on let’s go and find some mutated rats.”

Lenna took salt, her silver knife and a flashlight.

“Sewers suck and rats are gross, but you are right this is kind of research. Not less boring just in the fields without books. They are not boring just less attractive than the girls you see.” Lenna grinned at him.

“Yeah I know. That sucks. Where did the rats peek out the toilets anyway?” Rome was waiting for Lenna at the door.

“In the south part of the town. Not far from here.” Lenna said and took also a rope and some water. “Okay let’s go underground and see what pretty things we find.”

"I'm pretty sure the only pretty thing we'll find down there is my face," Rome said, as he took the exit off the freeway to a less trafficked side of town.

When she made a face, he winked and shrugged. "The only thing I'm worried about," he said, "is leaving the car alone in this area of town." He laughed. "I'm kind of excited to find mutant rats. That'd be friggen awesome!"

"Rome, that will be friggen gross!"

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

"Rome, are you, like, 12?"

"And not like the new cartoon series, either, I'm talking about the one from the 80's and--wait, what?"

Elenna was laughing again. Then, "Hey, look, Rome, what about that? Maybe you could park her behind the dumpster?"

Rome followed her finger to where she pointed: at a dark, shady-looking, but dark and out-of-the-way alleyway. "Sweet, that'll work. Good eye, chica."

They parked and geared up in minutes. Rome left his phone in the car, taking only his keys and his gun. He would have gone in there naked in order to keep his clothes clean, but Elenna wouldn't allow it. She, meanwhile, seemed to go for the opposite tactic, and was pulling on a raincoat and plastic gloves as he scouted around. "Yo! Lennie!" Rome pointed down at the conveniently-placed manhole cover at the center of the alleyway. "Lookie what I found!"

He hauled the cover aside--wondering how hard Raphael would have had to be to use these things as shields when he could only barley lift it--and peered down into the smelly, dark, spooky, drippy hole. He bit his lip and grinned hopefully at Elenna.

"Ladies first?"

Lenna looked skeptical at him. “Right as if you would let me go in first. If you could you would make me eat everything with a spoon, just because you think I hurt myself with a knife or a fork.”

“Right I go first.” Rome climbed down while Lenna was standing next to him. “I really hope nothing grabs your leg from down there. That would be really awful.” Lenna grinned. “And hilarious in a twisted way.”

"Okay, I am standing waist-deep--waist-deep, mind you, where all the important stuff is--in a sewer that's most likely full of mutated rats, and you choose now to bring that up?"

Rome slid the last few feet down the ladder to land--splash!--ankle-deep in sludge, bringing his gun and flashlight up to clear the area. The Desert Eagle was really too big to hold in one hand, but since he had lost his mounted flashlight it was the best he was going to get.

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

He couldn't resist, though, sneaking behind her, grabbing her around the waist and tearing her off the ladder as her screams echoed.

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

"Ow!"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

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

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

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

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

Um. Weird? In the mood to screw around?--which was normal--but usually even he could figure out when wasn't a good time. It was like he was picking up on something outside his own--

Whatever. Sure it's nothing.

"Sorry. Let's go."

Lenna shook her head and followed him. But she felt weird something followed them.

What the hell was that?

Lenna stepped closer to Rome and without thinking she took his hand.

Rome chuckled. "Just can't keep your hands off me, can you?"

“No, there was something behind us and…” Lenna looked at their hands and pulled her hand away. “I mean…” Lenna blushed, why did she take his hand? “Something big is following us.” Lenna looked worried over her shoulder, not moving away an inch from him. He took his flashlight back and checked the tunnel behind them. “I can’t see anything.” While he checked the way they came, Lenna kept an eye on the way ahead when suddenly four creatures appeared in front of them. Lenna pulled at Rome sleeve unable to say a thing. Her face was the pure expression of shock. It took him a moment until he answered a little bit annoyed. “What Lenna? Wanna take my hand again?”

Lenna shook her head and pointed ahead at this. Four … things holding a pizza box, one of them said. “Would you like some pizza?” Lenna shook still speechless in shock her head. This was worse than mutant rats.

Rome stared, open-mouthed. A rat could have crawled inside and taken a dump on his tongue and he wouldn't have noticed because he seriously was in, like, catatonic frakking shock.

A little girl who met a really live sparkling unicorn that just happened to want to be her friend could not be any more happy than Romulus Remington was right now.

The part of him that said, "Dude, this isn't real and you're officially seeing the freakiest thing you've ever seen in a long line of majorly freaky things," was promptly bound and gagged and thrown in a closet somewhere wherever his conscience and sense of decency were.

"You're the Teenage Mutant Frakking Ninja Turtles!" Rome practically squeaked. It was a fan-boy moment.

"Totally, compadre," Michelangelo. "You want some pizza?"

"And how!" Rome exclaimed, slogging through the sludge to join his friends.

Elenna, however, seemed determined to ruin the moment:

"Uh, Rome?" She tugged on his sleeve with surprising force. "Don't you think you should maybe--I don't know--think about--um--this? About what's going on?..."

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

"Rome, that's exactly what I mean! This is a cartoon! These things aren't real!"

"The lady got a problem?" Raphael. Oh my stars and garters, I'm talking to Raphael!

"Uh. Huh?" Rome blinked owlishly. "No way, man, she's cool--"

"Because we don't need any of you 'umans taking information about us topside!" That one had to be Donatello and--wait. Rome could tell where this conversation was going.

"Wait a minute!" Rome protested. He so wanted this to work. "Wait! We're cool, I promise. She's cool, we're all cool here. We're like, major fans of yours, we know all about you, we just want to--"

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

"Crap. No. Wait!"

It was too late for diplomacy. And Rome wasn't used to his diplomatic negotiations not working out for him. What the hell was wrong with him?

Rome watched in dismay as his four childhood heroes advanced on him, weapons drawn. So unfair. How many Halloweens had he and Raws emulated these very creatures? How many lunch pails had he owned with Michelangelo's face plastered on it? How many Shredder action figures had he pulled the heads off, dropped off of high buildings, buried in the yard, set on fire or otherwise destroyed in the name of TMNT victory?

He couldn't fight them. He wouldn't. Even if maybe, you know, being vaguely competent (unlike the turtles' usual enemies) and holding a heavy handgun, he probably could have taken all four of them, ninjas or no--he couldn't! He just couldn't!

Lenna looked from the crazy turtles to Rome and back. “What the hell? Rome I don’t care if you love them. I have a plan.”

Rome looked still like confused shocked fan-girl. Lenna took Rome hands and pulled him along, the water was splashing while the run back to the manhole and pushed him up the ladder. “Move it Rome!”

Lenna kept pushing Rome and looking over her shoulder, she heart the TMNT coming closer which started to let her freak out. “Rome hurry up, please they are not friendly.”

They finally came back in the sunlight and left the sewers behind. “Normally I would say how awesome is we just met the teenage mutant ninja turtles, but they wanted to kill us. So maybe not so cool and we can add them to the list of freaky things happening here. But hey did you see what was at their feet?”

“I wasn’t paying attention to their feet, chica.”

“More candy wrappings. I start to think this is a clue, and no coincident. Let’s go back to the motel and see what we can find out. I start to think this is all a really, really bad joke or more like a really bad prank.”

Rome was pretty much shell-shocked all the way back to the hotel.

And, no, that pun was not intentional!

He let Elenna drive, because now he had a headache. He kept asking Elenna if he was dreaming or if he had really seen what he thought he saw. Elenna patiently answered his questions, but presently began to wonder if something was seriously wrong with him, so he stopped thinking out loud.

He couldn't shake the feeling that he hadn't quite been himself just then. And this was coming from someone intimately acquainted with not having control of himself.

He definitely needed a shower, in more ways than one.

A very quiet Rome just went in the bathroom as soon they came back to the hotel. Lenna shook her head and went to her laptop. She was searching through a couple of pages, glad Rome had bought her a printer so she could print of so she didn’t had to read on the screen.
She did find a couple of monsters one was Till Eulenspiegel she printed or more planned to print the folklore stories of him, but as usually when Rome was busy the printer didn’t work. An error bubble appeared on the screen that said there was a paper jam. Lenna sighed got up and went to the brand new printer.

“Why do you do this to me? Just print!”

“Because you got two hands so write it yourself.” Came the answer in an electronic voice. Lenna stopped and looked around, the shower was still running and she was sure that Rome was still under it so it wasn’t him.

“You stupid girl, it’s not the one who understands technology talking to you.” The electronic voice said. Slowly Lenna turned back to the printer and in front of her eyes it changed into a small robot, just like the Transformers she had as a child. But her toys were less dangerous this one had real weapons and was friggen huge, at least four feet. He reminder her a lot of Frenzy from the Transformers.

“You are a real pain in the ass, just read the sh*t on your friggen laptop and leave me alone.”

Lenna was thunderstruck, not moving an inch and just starring at the robot who was once her printer.

“Say something normally you never shut up.” The printer-robot lifted his right hand that was a mini gun or more a cannon and shot a small rocket at her.

“What the hell?”

Lenna ducked behind one of the beds. She looked panicked at the bathroom door, but apparently Rome didn’t hear the mini gun shots or rockets exploding of the printer. She threw shoes and whatever she could grab at the printer, but he didn’t care. Then she finally could reach the bottle of holy water. She got up from behind the bed. “One more shot I swear you will drown.”

This threat finally stopped the shots and let the robot disappear under the second bed. Lenna quickly looked once more at the robot and then banged with both fists against the bathroom door.

“Rome! Help there is a monster robot under the bed! I swear the printer turned into a mini Transformer. Open the door Rome!”

This was as if her nightmare became real, technology attacked her and was now hiding under the bed.

The rape shower was helping, so he stayed beneath the water for longer than was necessary, hoping Elenna didn't need to get in here just yet.

The knocking on the door startled him, and at first he assumed she was just going to hurry him, so he ducked his head beneath the spray again to wash out the shampoo. But as she continued pounding urgently on the door, he presently became aware she was screaming at the top of her lungs that something was attacking her, and if something was wrong, he had to get out there now.

He didn't shut off the water, he didn't get a towel, and was out of the bathroom assessing the situation in two seconds.

Okay, this was seriously getting ridiculous.

Elenna was cowering in the corner as some kind of robotic-looking creature was browbeating her and shooting laser beams at her.

Really??

Rome went for his gun, the heavy .50 caliber, which was always loaded, though he had left it with his shoes and dirty clothes on the sink counter outside the bathroom. He took it, flicked the safety off, dropped to a knee and plugged the little bastard in until he stopped moving and sort of broke apart.

There was a long silence as Rome inspected the pile of rubble.

"Was this my printer?" he asked.

Lenna starred with mouth open at him. Before she covered her eyes with her hands, but you could still see that she was blushing. She nodded and wasn’t able to say anything. Her ears were ringing from the shots and her heart was racing from the printer that attacked her and Rome shooting, okay Rome shooting naked.

“Rome some clothes?” She was mumbling slightly shivering and still hiding behind her hands.

“Aww come on don’t tell me you don’t like what you see.” He was grinning at her.

"What?" Rome looked down. "Oh." He blushed, slightly, on all four cheeks, he was certain--good thing her eyes were closed--but he didn't tell her that. Instead: "Geez, Lenna, you're such a prude. The correct response is, 'Hey, Rome, thanks for saving my life,' and 'Sorry about the printer'."

So he retreated back into the bathroom, shut the door, toweled off, and returned with a towel around his waist. "Better?"

Elenna was looking at him a little hungrily. "Much," she said.

Rome felt uncomfortable. For probably the first time in his life.

He grabbed another towel and held it up in front of his chest with comedic daintiness, raising his voice to an obnoxious falsetto: "Don't objectify me!"

Lenna smirked at Rome. “Because you never do when you see a girl? And I like what I see.” She shook her head slightly, she turned from Rome back to the shot printer. “Something is really weird here. Are you sure it is dead?”

“Yes, the new printer I just bought is dead, what happened anyway?” Rome grabbed some clothes and went back in the bathroom but didn’t close the door.

“I don’t know. I was searching for what we are hunting. I found some things, like a German trickster Till Eulenspiegel. I wanted to print this and then the printer started talking and then turned into this thing and attacked me. I told you this is not a good printer. He is mean and really horrible.”

Lenna looked at Rome who just came out of the bathroom with puppy-dog-eyes. “I hate technology and guns.”

Rome placed a mock-comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, chica, technology and guns hate you, too."

As he dodged her fist, he began quickly packing up their stuff. "We gotta clear this room, chica--find us a new hotel--no, wait--tell me about this Tiloogginspielberg thing--no, wait, um--get the car loaded. Someone's probably already called the cops."

There was no way Rome was getting those bullets out of that rubble in time, but at least they had time to wipe the room for prints. Luckily, they hadn't unpacked much yet, so they pulled out of the parking lot of the hotel just as the cops pulled in.

"That was close," Elenna said.

"Probably too close," Rome agreed, "but let's focus on one problem at a time. What did you say this thing was you found? A trickster? Is it, like, attracted to candy or something?"

Lenna read the file on her laptop again. “It doesn’t say anything here, but it would make sense. If all you do are jokes and pranks then you don’t care for a healthy diet. He is like a child but with really mean pranks. I’m not sure yet how to kill it. Take the next turn right at the end of the road is another small motel.”

Lenna looked at the town disappearing and then the motel appearing in front of them it was just outside town, probably not a bad thing. In case they would be attacked again by TMNT or printer that turned into Transformers. This job got more bizarre every minute and if it wasn’t weird enough already the gerbils were still on the backseat. Lenna could see them in the side mirror and they were looking back at her and… grinning.

“What the hell?” Lenna shouted, she would have jumped on Rome’s lap if she hadn’t worn her seatbelt. Rome looked at her weirdly.

“What now? Did the car bite you?” he asked in a teasing voice.

“First not funny I know a car that did want to kill me and second no, the gerbils were grinning like a serial killer. Can we please get rid of them, they start to freak me out.”

The new motel looked like a shabby place out of a horror movie, but it was the only other place for them to stay in town.

To be safe, Rome pulled the Ferrari around to the back of the motel where it was out of sight. Man, they really had to stop frequenting these sleazy dives all the time. Just once, he'd like to go somewhere where the Ferrari was an asset and not a liability. Luckily, night was falling, and the full moon was covered by clouds.

"Okay, okay," he said, pulling the cage out of the back seat. The little buggers were leaping around like Mexican jumping beans on crack with rabies. "Holy sh*t, chica, you're right. These things are insane." He set the cage on the ground quickly and wiped his hands. He rummaged around in the car for his weapons bag and began screwing a suppressor onto his handgun. Elenna was staring nervously at him. "What, you want me to drown them or something? He tossed her his wallet. Go get us a room, pay cash. I'll follow you in."

She was still staring.

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

"Rome..."

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

"Crap," he said.

"Uh-huh," she nodded.

Rome sighed, knowing what was coming. Full moon. Were-gerbils? Really? It was a kind of Murphy's Law of Freaky: whatever weird things could happen to them, would.

"They're, um...they've changed into big huge monsters, right?"

She nodded again, and Rome shared the nod. They were both nodding, like a pair of bobble-heads, nodding at the unfortunate truth of their truly frakked-up lives, and presently Rome heard, behind him, the sounds of the cage snapping apart, and growling and slavering behind him. No one moved for a long time. Maybe if he just didn't turn around, it wouldn't be real.

Yeah, right.

Lenna starred at the were-gerbils he mouth open her eye wide in shock. She was pale and shaking. For a moment she closed her eyes hoping when she opened them they would be gone or normal again. But as she opened her eyes they were still behind Rome. Breathing became difficult, and she just reacted and didn’t think. Even though she didn’t like guns she still had some things in her bag, just in case her friends needed help. She grabbed the magazine with the silver bullets and through it to Rome.

“You just have four shots.” She mumbled and dodged behind the hood of the Ferrari. Hoping Rome would shoot the beasts and they could move on. There was something she needed to talk of her chest. She was covering her ears so she wouldn’t hear him shooting this time, no matter he was using a suppressor or not.

I hate this day.

There was a sequence in Equilibrium like this. Okay, there were lots of scenes in Equilibrium like this, with the awesome gun-kata thing, but what he was referring to specifically was the scene where the magazines fall out and he slams in two new ones in one smooth movement, like a badass. Rome didn't have two guns, but he did manage a fluid motion, catching the mag she tossed him, releasing the one he had loaded, and reloading in less than a second.

That was about where his badassitude ended, however.

The first shot went wild as he turned to face the monsters, because, yeah, they were freaky-looking--about four feet high, half gerbil, half wolf-thing, half, like, hobbit--but he was pretty sure he had had one lead round chambered, so it was okay.

The first silver bullet struck gold, as it were, killing the creature instantly. The second bullet missed, and Rome swore loudly.

The still-living creature, furious at the death of its mate, leapt forward, and latched onto Rome's gun-arm. "Ahh!" he cried, as the thing's claws rent his bicep, but pulled his silver knife out of his jeans and finished the thing off.

As the creature dropped to the ground, Rome quickly clasped a hand to his arm to staunch the flow of blood: it didn't seem to bad, but it was bleeding a lot. All in a day's work. "Lennie!" He looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Lennie?!" Now he was worried. "Elenna, you okay? Where are you?"

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

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

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

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

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

"Noooo?" he said, at first confused, a bit worried, like, What did it matter if it bit or scratched me? before, Oh, Duh! Were-gerbil! He grabbed her arm to confirm his seriousness: "No, chica, I'm fine, it's just a scratch, like, with its claws. Hand me the first aid kit and go get us a room. I'll patch up and get these corpses torched, you go get us that room, huh? I won't even make you buy me dinner or nothing." He winked.

Lenna walked on wobbly legs to the reception booked a room and went back to the waiting Rome. Even after all those minutes to calm down she was still pale and shaken up. The were-gerbils were burning at the side of the parking lot.

“We got the farthest room from everything.”

She took their bags and walked to the room, knowing Rome would follow her. She picked as usual the bed next to the bathroom away from the front door.

“How is your arm?” She still sounded worried. “I can patch it up if you want.”

“Nah I’m good.”

Lenna was just half listening to him, took over and started wrapping up his arm anyway. He didn’t really complain. She was looking straight at his arm, wondering how to start what she wanted to say.

“I hate were-things.” Lenna sighed. She didn’t dare looking at him so she spoke to the wall behind him. “Rome there is something I know and I need to talk o someone about it, but you have to promise me to listen and not do anything stupid.” She quickly gazed up at him with fearful eyes.

He pulled her down next him, a smile playing around his mouth. He seemed not sure to be worried or laugh. “You are not pregnant, are you?”

His question confused her. She looked up and saw him smiling at her. It made her wonder how he can be annoying and a pain in the ass and other times he is this awesome big brother. A small smile appeared on her face when she shook her head. “No I’m not. But that’s really good to know that you have my back no matter what.”

This time she got gently punched in the stomach by him. “Always, chica.”

“I know.” She mumbled. She sighed. “It’s not that. Just hear me out.”

Lenna brushed her hair out of her face and looked up, his gun was out of his reach and she had still the car keys in her pocket.

“We have a little problem. You know I told you I’m good hunting demons? Well yes I am but there is another thing I’m great in hunting, or more finding.” Lenna fell silent before she whispered. “Werewolves." She was shaking. "There a lot of signs even when they are not turned. And I know we found one. He is pretty good in covering it, but he is one. The first time I thought was when we had the usual hunter greeting and he was touching my silver rosary, an animalistic shimmer was in his eyes. The same time when we came to the Safehouse and the silver shot glass of Tex.…. Rome, Caleb is a… werewolf.”

Lenna felt horrible telling Rome about someone else’s secret but Caleb wasn’t around to talk to him and she really needed to have someone to share this with, it terrified her.

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

Caleb Daly? A werewolf? A man he trusted--scratch that--had trusted? Caleb, whom Tex knew the longest and trusted the most? A guy who had keys to the Safehouse? A guy who could be there at this very moment--with Georgie, with Aly, with Morrigan, with Tex, with Dan or Lily or the Padre--just waiting to wig out and kill someone?

"What?!"

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

"Not freak out? What do you want me to do, write a poem about how I feel?" Rome searched around for his phone: "I've got to call Tex, and warn her!"

"No!" Elenna swept up his phone from where it lay on the nightstand and held it tightly. "Stop, Rome, just think about this!"

"No, you think about this!"

Rome couldn't say he was surprised. I mean, there had to be a better reason that Caleb was a werewolf hunter than he simply studied hard in How To Kill Werewolves 101 in The School of Hard Knocks. But the hypocrisy was mind-blowing, was what really pissed Rome off.

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

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

"He told me to kill you. When we were looking for that werewolf, for Nick, back in Chesterton. He said he that if you had to be stopped, that you would want it to be me who made the shot! And that if I didn't, he was going to! Some werewolf hunter, willing to kill an innocent person to cover his own ass!"

Lenna mouth popped open and for several moments she just stared at him. Her mouth was dry and she felt as if her heart had stopped, no not just her heart she felt as if her entire body was shut down or maybe it turned into stone. Finally after a long time she found her voice again, but it wasn’t more than a whisper.

“He what?”

“He told me to kill you.” Lenna covered her ears closed her eyes and thought about this.

Me a werewolf?

“But why?” She didn’t expect him to answer, so she just skipped the thought of her being a werewolf and the burden she would have been for Rome. Having to kill someone you are care no matter if it was to save this person was a weight on your shoulder that never left you, at least not her. “I think they are safe. I think he locks himself up or even has help. I’m not sure who knows about him. I don’t remember very well what happened in Chestertown but, I know they just when they sleep so as long he doesn’t sleep they are safe and they are hunters. They can watch their back unless the people in this town. I’m sorry maybe I shouldn’t have told you. I just don’t know what to do. The last time I met one so close, he meant the world to me and… you know how that ended. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or worse.”

Lenna had dropped his phone bed and went back to wrapping up his arm, not just to keep him close to stop him from doing something hasty but also because her ghosts from the past were haunting her.

“I’m not one of them. I promise.”

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

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

"I know you're not, moron, we're not talking about you. We're talking about that two-faced team-killing-f*cktard Caleb! God, I can't believe you didn't tell me this before!"

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

"You've put a lot of people in danger, chica, by staying quiet about this. If he lied about this, no telling what else he's lied about. I'm gonna tear his friggen lungs out before I shoot him in the heart! Twice!"

"Rome!" Elenna looked at him, appalled.

"Elenna!" Rome shot back, appalled that she wasn't appalled.

"Rome, he hasn't killed anyone!"

"Yeah, that's just lucky. You know I haven't seen Lily around for a while, maybe he ate her!"

"Rome, stop it! That's not funny!"

"And I ain't laughing!"

"Aren't you...Rome, he's our friend! I know you guys don't always agree, and, okay, yes, maybe this is really the only way, but don't you at least feel bad about it? Jesus, Rome, he's still a person, you know, sort of! What if it was me?" she challenged.

Rome opened his mouth to yell again, but her question stopped him.

And stumped him. Okay, he'd already blatantly proved he was a p*ssy when it came to even the thought of icing Elenna, no matter the circumstances. But that wasn't the point. She wasn't the menace to society, Caleb was. Why was he even entertaining the idea?

She's a witch.

As much as she liked to deny it, you know, there were those witch-hunters back in...God, wherever, whenever, and they seemed to know their stuff and they thought she was--and they had--and Rome had killed them instead. Killed humans, other hunters, people who were supposed to be on their side, just for doing what they thought was a service to the world.

Rome looked away from Elenna. The sick feeling in his stomach grew worse.

Heck, when you got right down to it, the whole psychic thing? Wasn't exactly squeaky-clean, either, right? Didn't help him trying to work the "normal" angle.

Where did you draw the line?

“Now you see what I mean. Bobby taught me that the world is just black and white. When it’s not human you kill it end of question. But there are people in the world that clearly have abilities that are not human. How do we decide who’s worth living and who has to die? Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Rome? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

She sighed and sat back down on the bed.

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

She pulled her knees up and hugged them. “I don’t want any one of us to die. Can’t we try to talk to him it looks like he knows how dangerous he is, we could lock him up at full moon. I built once a supernatural panic room I can built a werewolf prison. We can’t just sign his death sentence, I can’t do this. Please Romeo.”

Lenna looked with tears at Rome, begging him to fix this. He was as her big brother could fix this and her. But this time it was different. Rome looked mad, turned around, mumbled something about fresh air and a walk and left the motel room. It was the second time Lenna was speechless this evening. She considered following him, but she didn't know what to say anymore. She took a quick shower left all electronic devices in their bags, took her book and hid in the corner between the two beds. Hoping he would come back and not leave her here.

"Geez being the one left behind sucks big times!"

It was dark and Lenna started to feel uncomfortable alone in the motel.

The walk helped.

Okay, no, it didn't. Not really. Nothing could "help" a situation like this. Well, he could think of a few things, but he didn't like thinking of those things. It was also a plain and simple fact that Rome just didn't like thinking.

Which was why, when he returned to the motel just under an hour later, he was carrying a large brown paper bag.

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

"Rome!" she said.

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

The tease worked: she forgot her fear from before and put a hand on her hip and stuck her tongue out at him. Before she could ask where he had been, he set the bag on the table, and, "Look what I brought," he said.

The convenience store run had been interesting, as, for the first time in the history of his life, Rome had just stared at the wall of alcohols with absolutely zero clue as to what to purchase.

This was not a celebration, so wines and champagnes were out.

Nor was this a party, so tequila and vodka (even the cheap ones) were not an option.

He could think of few things he wanted less than to relax right now, so no beer, either.

He contemplated gin, for some time, but gin was a comfort drink, and a good portion of him just wanted to suffer.

And he really just wanted to get totally forget-my-name-shlammered, so the top-shelf sippin' whiskey or 18 year old scotch whisky was not in his future, either, because puking that stuff up was a cardinal sin.

So what he pulled out of the brown paper bag at the cheap, creepy-ass motel was a 900-mls-on-sale-for-$13.99, rot-gut, make-you-go-blind whiskey. He drank it out of a large, plastic Big Gulp cup which had housed who knew how many refills of Rockstar energy drinks, while Elenna used the paper cup that came wrapped in plastic by the motel's sink. Because the point wasn't to enjoy this.

He poured Lenna a double and himself a triple, not that he could really gauge properly in these things.

"Bottom's up."

For a moment Lenna wanted to ask him if this was his solution for the problem, but to be honest it was just this once good enough for her. Just to forget the problem. So she drank the pretty full cup at once.

“Urgh that tastes gross.” She coughed.

Rome refilled her cup. “It’s not supposed to taste good.”

Lenna tried to think of something to say but there nothing else she could say. Even though none of them said it out loud, but they both knew that there is only one way out and they both didn’t liked this way. The night went on and the liquor kept running.

Lenna woke up with a major headache, she wasn’t sure but she felt as if the room was still spinning. She climbed out of bed and felt heavy and clumsy somehow as if her limbs weren’t the way they were supposed to be. She went in the bathroom, scratching her stomach.

Whoa I’m not wearing a shirt? What the hell happened last night?

She splashed some cold water in her face, but when she pulled the towel away and looked in the mirror she was greeted by a face she didn’t expect to see.

“What the hell?” Lenna leaned closer to the mirror but the face stayed the same, she still looked a lot like Rome. She looked down at herself and realized why she is not wearing a shirt or why she felt heavy, or why she felt as if her limbs were not hers, because… it all wasn’t hers.

“Nononononono. Rome!” She shouted and busted back in the bedroom, nearly running the door in, it was hanging a little lopsided in the hinge. “Whoa Rome wake up. We are having a huge problem.”

It felt really weird to have Rome's deep voice but actually manage to let it sound squeaky.