Shakin All Over

Story Leads:
Calvin
Maeglin

The following characters are cleared for this hunt:
Richard Ingram
Romulus Remington
Elenna Fee
Georgina Gilmore
Callum Murdoch
Morrigan Beretta

...It was not until 1590 that White was able to return to the colony—but by then it was too late. The colonists were gone. All of the buildings were in disrepair or had been carefully dismantled. The only clue as to their whereabouts was the word “Croatoan,” which was carved on a tree in the center of the town square. Croatoan! What did it mean? White was in a state of absolute shock, but not dismayed. There was no cross located above the word, which would have been an indicator of foul play or some type of attack. There was no sign of fighting, nor any evidence that the colonists were abruptly carried away by natural or unnatural forces. They were simply not where he had expected them to be...

"Mommy, Mommy!" says the little girl, tugging on her mother's purse. She is wearing a pink dress and has a Darth Vader backpack. She looks to be about six or seven. "Lookit the man holding the gun, Mommy, can we go see?"

It is wintertime at one of those Living History towns somewhere in East Coast America. People walk around in historical garb, and the town is decorated to reflect Christmastime in Colonial America. A large, old-looking ship is moored in the background. The young girl drags her mother over to a man demonstrating 16th century weapons to onlookers.

"And here we have a replica of an artillery canonball. As you can see it's very heavy. Can you lift it, young man?"

The little girl shoves her way to the front, and the speaker greets her with a smile. "Why, hello there!"

"What's this one?" The little girl points with a pudgy hand at a large musket.

"This is an English musket, manufactured in Liverpool around 15--"

"Can I hold it?" The little girl asks. The mother, behind her, looks concerned.

"Don't worry, ma'am, this is a replica, and isn't even loaded," the man tells the woman, who nods. "Now it's very heavy, so let's be careful" he says, helping the little girl hold it. "There you are, see? Isn't that impressive? You would make a fine English settler! Now to load a gun like this, you would--"

"Oh, gosh!" the little girl giggles, curls bouncing. "I don't need to load it!" she exclaims happily, and then, displaying a sudden superhuman strength, wrenches the musket from the hapless historian's hands and impales him through the torso with it.

Rome woke in a cold sweat. The dreams were getting worse. Sometimes it was Georgie trying to bleed him like a stuck pig, sometimes it was a little girl going psycho and stabbing a man with a rifle, and sometimes it was a pleasant mixture of them both.

So, yeah, shore leave was over. He was definitely sleeping too much.

He was the first awake downstairs. Well, except for Tex, who he was sure literally never slept. She was making muffins. They smelled like banana.

"Mor got in last night," she said, startling Rome, who had not yet announced himself.

"Oh? School didn't work out, then?" Rome said, sidling up to the mound of bacon and stealing a piece.

"Something like that."

Whack!

"Ow!" said Rome, dropping the bacon and rubbing his offended hand.

"You wait til the others are up. Get a pot of coffee going."

"Yes, ma'am."

"There's a hunt ready for you. In the folder there."

Rome nodded at it, but proceeded to make coffee. "And Callum and Richard? They check out?"

"Callum shouldn't legally be in this country anymore, but other than that, yeah. I think he'll be more help than you realize. And as for the medic, well, at least he oughta make my job a little easier."

"Aww, come on, Texie, you love it," Rome winked.

"Boy, I love nothing more than when ya'll are gone and I can get back to my garden."

"Yeah..."

The coffee brewing, Rome now turned to the manila folder sitting next to a bowl of fruit. He munched an apple as he flicked it open absently. "So what do we got this time? Chupacabra? Evil clowns? Haunted sanitarium?"

Rome stopped.

At a news article.

Homicides continue on Roanoke Island.

He recognized the little girl in the picture. The blonde little girl in the pink dress with the Darth Vader backpack.

The one who ran a man through with a gun like she was threading a needle to sew a girl scout patch on her vest.

Lenna woke up slowly, she was in her room, her bed and it was morning, still early, but her hyper-coffee-sensitive nose smelled coffee. She dragged herself out of bed looking once up and down herself and decided she was dressed enough to go in the kitchen, but it was so bright outside that she took her sunglasses and walked barefoot down in the kitchen following the coffee smell. There were people in the kitchen, or just two maybe. The coffee wasn’t even down yet but she took a large mug filled it and made a mess around the coffee machine, a cloth hit her in the face and there were some background noise that might be someone talking to her. After she cleaned the coffee machine she took the first sip of coffee and her brain acted like a computer you pressed the button to turn it on, it started checking all the systems, checking for new memory, running a full scan, dusting all corners, turning on the light and opening the windows.

“Morning.” Lenna mumbled into her coffee mug. “Wha’ time?”

“Not even seven yet, you are up early.” Tex said.

“Bright. Food. Coffee.” As usual Lenna was not able to form complete sentences. She realized that Rome was holding a file Tex made when she had a hunt for them. “Hunt?”

She took off the sunglasses and tried to read what it said but so far the world was a bright blurry picture.

Morrigan stepped out of her car and walked up the few steps to Tex's. "Home sweet home," she groaned, not believing she'd gotten herself back into this.

She stared down at her purse, the college ID still visable in her wallet.

Are you sure you want to quit the semester? a teacher had asked as she filed for early withdraw from her classes.

I thought I could make it work. But I just can't. My brother just died and I really need some time. It was a load of crap and she knew it. Things had changed. She didn't need time, she needed to hunt. It was in her blood now.

She hoped that everyone would welcome her back, but she wasn't even sure if it was going to be the same place. After all, a lot could happen in a few months. Any one of her new friends, Rome, Georgie, Lenna, Aly, they could be dead for all she knew.

She walked inside and found her way upstairs, coming across Georgie in the hallway. "You're back!" she exclaimed, hugging her. "So I'm guessing going back to your old life didn't work out?"

Morrigan sighed. "Not so much. I guess I'm officially going online. I just couldn't keep myself away from this crazyness."

She made her way down the hallway and into an empty room where she crashed. She'd get up and deal with everything in the morning.

Georgie, who would never face people before her hair wasn’t perfect, got up early but had spent at least an hour in the bathroom. After she was done with her daily morning routine that every normal person drives crazy because nobody was patient enough to spend so much time on getting ready, she finally walked out the bathroom and came across Morrigan, much to her surprise. They talked for a bit, then Morrigan went downstairs into her room while Georgie walked straight to the kitchen where she spotted Tex, Elenna and Rome.

“Good morning, sunshine!” She hugged Elenna who held on tightly to her coffee mug. “You’re not supposed to drink so much caffeine, you know that, honey.”

“Shut up”, Elenna grumbled. “You’re so annoying in the morning, like a little cheerleader who had too much sugar in her drink.”

“And you’re always particularly charming in the morning. You should audition for a role in High School Musical.”

“Do you want some coffee, Georgie?”, Tex asked. “That is, if Miss Elenna didn’t already drink everything.”

Georgie smiled. “No, thank you.” At this moment she suddenly noticed that Rome had an unusually pensive and rather serious look on his face. “Something wrong?”

“No”, he shook his head and smiled. “Just the lack of sleep”, he said, jokingly.

“I just saw Morrigan, I didn’t know she was coming here.” Georgie turned to Tex.

“Yeah, I guess you knuckleheads have some sort of influence on people. No sane human being would join you except if they have an urgent wish to die.”

Rome pulled his eyes from the freaky news article and forced a smirk. "You're right on that one, Texie, I wrote the book on How to Win Friends and Influence People." He went to pour himself another cup of coffee, managing to not flinch as Georgie reached for the pot at the same time.

"Aren't you cold?" she accused, possibly sensing his almost-flinch, as she poured herself the last of the coffee.

Rome looked down at himself, still half-dressed in his pajamas. "It's in my contract, I have to be shirtless once every 20 minutes of screentime," he grinned and set to making a new pot of coffee as Georgie rolled her eyes.

"So," he continued, "we'll let Morrigan catch a few Z's while the rest of us get packed, head out midday."

Tex nodded. "FBI's already made an appearance--but luckily it's the real FBI, not your new friend. Honestly, I wouldn't even send you guys on this one, but Aly is off with Caleb and Lily taking care of a Siren infestation at Salt Lake."

Rome widened his grin at her concern. "Aww, Tex, I'll be fine. I could go in drag if it makes you feel any better?"

Tex frowned deeply. "Uh. No, actually."

Somehow, Rome was disappointed.

"Anyway, I think we can keep a low profile," he went on.

Tex almost spit out her coffee.

"All right, lady, you want us to take care of this operation for you, or not?" Rome accused.

"You wanna keep it down, here?" Richard grumbled, stumbling downstairs.

"Morning to you, too, Uncle Fester," Rome replied cheerfully, but handed the man a cup of coffee quickly enough to avoid retaliation.

"We need a lot more intel on this one," Tex went on, leaning against the counter as she built a veritable mound of pancakes. "Could be demon possession, spirit possession, something in the water, an artifact that's making people go crazy, anything."

"I heard that," Callum frowned as he trotted downstairs, still in his pajamas.

"No offence meant, Mr. Murdoch," Tex continued, not looking up, "but it changes how we go about helping these people."

Callum nodded as Rome pondered, finally in possession of a new cup of coffee--which helped immensely. Okay, there were six of them now, three boys and three girls, which totally killed the sweet setup he had sharing hotel rooms with a bunch of chicks, which was lame, but whatever. They should all take different routes and arrive separately, so as not to arouse suspicion. And they'd need solid alibis, especially if the Feebs were already involved. Which sucked, but whatever. And we'll just ignore the fact that my dream about the little girl came true, well, you know, now that it's too late (why, oh God, why couldn't he have awesome dreams?). Maybe should think about mentioning my other dream to Georgie. Like she'd take that well. So, okay, maybe not.

Rome had pulled out a laptop and was surfing the internet casually as Tex continued: "I want you kids in constant contact with me. I can help with the research from here. Unless it's a demon, in which case you'll hardly need me. But I still want to hear from you..."

No hotels on the island itself, bummer, but plenty on the mainland, right by the ferry. And it's off season, so good rates, not that it matters. Sorority girls on a road trip might be a good cover (sorority girls can get anything they want), and he and Callum could be, hmm...journalists? Maybe Richard could be there to, um, dunno, be a local historian or professor or something. Get him a tweed jacket or something, then he'd look old enough. Ha, like Georgie would ever let a relative of hers be caught dead wearing tweed! Still.

"I'd be prepared for anything on this one, guys. Sorry I can't help you much more until I know what it is we're dealing with..."

So three cars. Pile the girls into the Audi, maybe he and Callum could use Mor's Range Rover, and get a rental for Richard, the visiting scholar. This was getting hilarious already.

"Okay, kids," Rome stood up, startling the others. "I got us a plan."

Lenna was finally awake enough to realize that Callum was just wearing a light pajama, light enough that she could through his figure right through it. Lenna got up and was hiding behind Rome, pretending to read the laptop screen.

“What is the plan?” Lenna tried to sound normal but her voice was a little high pitchy. She wasn’t sure she understood what was going on with her? Why did Callum who was more dressed then Rome make her so nervous, while Rome who basically wore nothing. She was totally okay with that.

Georgie raised her eyebrows as she noticed her friend hiding behind the laptop screen, pretending to be busy. Even if she hadn’t noticed how Elenna looked at Callum when he came into the kitchen, she could definitely feel what was going on. Wait…feel? Once again she felt like somebody else’s emotions were transferred to her own, and she had no idea how that was possible. Or if she was only imagining it. She really didn’t know what was going on, but since she first noticed it at the auction, the amount of emotions she felt during a day had increased – and she knew that many of those emotions were definitely not her own. She didn’t want to tell the others yet because she wanted to figure it out herself, if there even was anything to figure out…
For now she tried to ignore it but it most certainly didn’t help that Elenna suddenly got all excited about a Scotsman in pyjamas. Elenna tried to hide it and stared rather indifferently at the laptop screen, but Georgie knew what was going on with her friend. Or she felt it…

Richard had arrived back late. He’d followed the trail of a small hunt nearby, and ended up dealing with the ghosts of twins. Two more off the quota. Coupled with heading back to finish the job with Hendricks, Richard hadn’t spent the time he would have liked catching up with Georgie, never mind getting to know the rest of them. Which included not having a chance confronting Elenna about her ‘abilities’.

It felt that he’d barely put his head on the pillow when he was woken by the sounds of breakfast below. Grumbling downstairs, he took in the scene. This was different from previous breakfasts, looks like there was a new hunt. He joined the crowd at the laptop, unlike Elenna actually watching the screen.

“How’s your history Richard?” Rome asked, grinning. “You get to be a Professor.”

“I know as much about history as you know about medicine.” Richard replied dryly.

"Ha-ha!" Rome laughed warmly, and then stood up and shooed people away from his laptop. "Okay, back, people, back, don't want you all up in my porns." At a few of the raised eyebrows, he rolled his eyes and "I'm joking," he added, "but I'm only ordering hotel rooms, so chill. It's on an island, so we get there by ferry. And we need tight alibis, so I'll be making some new IDs for people in case we run into the Feds." He tried to say this casually, but the newcomers raised their eyebrows in concern, so he continued quickly.

"Ladies'll stick together: sorority girls on a roadtrip in Georgie's Audi. We'll need to put fake names on the hotel and drivers' licenses and stuff. Richard, being a professor is easy, all you have to do is wear glasses and ask to see their archives. Callum, you're with me, we'll work the reporter angle, I'm thinking the..." he re-checked his compuer, "the, uh, 'Gazeteer'. It'll be fun," he encouraged, clapping the wary Scotsman on the back. "And I'll do most of the talking."

"So," he turned back to the group, "with the three angles: talking, researching, and wandering around like drunk tourists, we should be able to find something out. Hey! And I wonder if the Father would let us borrow his Oldsmobile for Richard here..." he winked.

"And yes, Texie, we'll keep in contact! Okay, gang, eat up, pack up, and let's hit the road!"

Morrigan had barely gotten out of bed when Rome was ready pack up and take to the road. She dressed quickly and ran downstairs. She didn't know why she had slept so long because she wasn't tired. Maybe something was trying to tell her she was crazy for going back to this life. Better to sleep in and miss the ride.

She slung her bag over her shoulder, making sure she had all the essentials. Holy Water, salt, her set of pistols, toothbrush, hair ties, a mirror and an old set of eye shadows, extra string equipment for her bow in case something broke.

She looked over at the new guys, sticking out a hand formally. She knew exactly how they felt. It wasn't easy throwing yourself into the middle of this team. They had method to their madness.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she said with a nervous smile.

Lenna glimpsed a last time at Callum before she got in the backseat of Georgie’s Audi; expecting Morrigan sitting in the front seat next to the driving Georgie. She had taken her usual amount of books, okay this time it were just 7 big heady old books, she couldn’t carry more and in Georgie’s car it was the rule that she can take as many books as she can carry together. She was so quickly vanished in the car that she hadn’t even said bye to Rome, because he was standing next to Callum.

This is getting ridiculous. Since when am I all jittery around a guy?

Lenna sighed she had to go back acting normal again, she was sure that Callum could teach her a lot of interesting things,… about archeology. She grinned again remembering what Rome had said to her a week ago. "… You look guilty and like you want me to scold you for coming on to the first, like, seriously, the first ever half-decent guy you ever slipped a condom on…"
He could not possibly really be falling for Callum, could she?

“Hey guys let’s go we have a long way to go.” She shouted to Georgie and Morrigan friendly.

Callum watched Elenna jump into the car with the other girls before putting out a hand to open the door of his car. Rome slid in front of him, preventing him from getting in.

"Oh no. You're not driving," Rome said.

Callum frowned and then remembered that cars in this country were the wrong way round. He walked round to the other side, laughing at himself. He jumped into the passenger seat. He drummed his fingers on his knees as he waited for them to set off.

"Nervous?" Rome asked.

Callum shook his head and tried to look calm. Rome was the last person he was going to tell that he was nervous. And he was nervous. He had no idea what was going to happen or what to expect. He didn't even know if he could fool people that he was a reporter. And what if the authorities found him? His working visa had most definitely expired and well if he was caught he was going to be thrown out the country and never allowed back. He was living for the moment more than he ever had before.

He smiled at Rome, masking his anxiety. "Let's hit the road."

Rome nodded, and started the car. The girls and Richard had already driven off. Tex was on the doorstep, waving. Rome waved back, and she went inside. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground, but the sun was bright.

"Okay, look," Rome said, turning off the ignition and dropping the keys in the cupholder next to his Mountain Dew.

Callum looked confused, trying to smile. "What?"

"You're nervous. And it's making me nervous."

"I'm not nervous!" The Scottish accent was actually kind of hot, especially the way he hit those 'R's. But that wasn't the point.

"You can stay here, man, no harm, no foul. You don't have to do this."

Callum was quiet, thoughtful.

"I just--for what it's worth--I kinda know what you're going through. It's a big discovery, you know, like, that you were right when you thought the monsters under the bed were real. And to be right in the middle of it, have that thing, uh, you know, take control of you, that can be scary as shit man, I get it."

Why are you monologuing? Rome thought at himself,Is this the buck-up-old-sport speech, or the let's-commiserate speech. You sound retarded. If anything's going to convince him to get out of this car and never look back, it's you opening your big stupid mouth.

"I just, well, you know, it helps, now that I know, to keep busy, right? Not have time to dwell on it. Get the job done, exterminate the next bad guy, and maybe you'll save the next person from having to see what you see. It doesn't matter what you do, or how you do it, but you just get the job done, man, make it up as you go along: saving people, hunting things. I dunno, that's what helps me sleep at night. Well, you know, figure of speech." Rome laughed at his own irony. "Anyway, you look like the type of guy who likes saving people: a good guy, Cal--can I call you 'Cal'?" Before waiting for an answer, Rome went on, "It doesn't matter if you lie to the cops or they think we're the bad guys: we're helping people, and that's what matters." He started the car, and there was a long, awkward pause.

"So, you in or out? No shame in walking away."

"Of course I'm in," said Callum. "I was one of those people you saved, so the least I can do is hang around and help."

He might be scared but Callum was not one to run from his fears. And maybe, in his own way, he could somehow repay these people for saving his life. He was going to stick around until his so-called debt was paid. Indiana Jones hadn't run when faced with voodoo - but then this was maybe a bit more real than Indiana Jones.

Rome gave him one final long stare, Callum's last chance to back out. Callum raised his eyebrows and nodded at the road ahead. "Shall we go?"

Rome picked up the keys and started the car.

Rome chuckled as they drove off toward the interstate. "Yeah, man, it's like paying it forward, only way more violent..."

((Time skip to arriving at Roanoke.))

It was night. He and Callum hadn't stopped often, so they were the first to arrive after a day and a half of driving. The roads were terrible up here, but Rome was used to driving in slush--for that was what this was: the sucky-part-of-winter slush. They had talked some, hardly anything more probing than their first awkward conversation, mostly about movies: the Big Three being Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and The Princess Bride. It was almost like having his brother back.

Only this guy wasn't an ass.

"Cal," Rome said, whacking his sleeping companion in the chest. "We're here."

Callum sat up with an undignified snort. "You kept driving?" he was rubbing his eyes furiously.

"Yeah, why not?" Rome said, bouncing from his usual sugar-and-caffeine high. "Get it together, dude, I'm gonna get us checked in to the hotel. Call Lenna for me, would ya? See where they're at."

“I can’t believe you paid $450 for a room for one night Georgie, in Nashville are many reasonable prized motels and you pick The Hermitage Hotel.” Lenna was sitting this time next to Georgie in the front seat.

“We needed some luxury, and you enjoyed the night as much as I and Mor did.” Georgie grinned. A night in a super luxury hotel had lighten her mood a lot and she didn’t moaned so much about their 2 day drive.

“Yeah I did but still that was a lot of money.” Lenna looked at Georgie; she was glad that Georgie didn’t mind to share a bed with her.

“Don’t worry my beautiful golden credit card paid for it.” Georgie said, while she changed the radio channel again.

Suddenly Lenna’s phone was ringing and she was blushing.

Nonononono no one was suppose to hear this.

Georgie busted out into laughter. “Oh Lenna did you think about to tell him this?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about… Hello?” Lenna tried to sound normal, when she answered the phone.

“Hello Elenna, Rome and I just arrived where are you?” Asked Callum with his cute Scottish accent.

“What you are already there? Let me guess Rome didn’t stop for the night as we did. We have at least another eight hours of drive ahead of us. And no worries you will hear when we roll into town, Georgie will make sure you do.” Lenna giggled for no reason.

“Alright, I think we will check in and then start our work as reporter.”

“Do you know where Richard is?”

“No I called you first.”

“Oh okay, um yes. So I guess we see you in a couple of hours. Well from the distance you know, because we don’t know each other to stay below the radar and stuff. So have fun with that and take care.”

“Yes you too.”

“Rome and Callum are at Roanoke, as I know Rome he didn’t stop for the night.” Lenna tried to ignore the giggled girls around her. “And are now checking in at the hotel and start working.”

Morrigan was glad for the stop. She'd never been in such a nice hotel. It was certainly better than her dorm at school, and it definitely beat the last hotels she'd stayed in with these people. She hadn't gotten a lick of sleep, although given the circumstances of her brother's death, she didn't think she could have slept anywhere.

"So, what's the plan, ladies?"

“Like Rome said, when we get to Roanoke we pretend to be a group of Sorority girls-“

“Which is not going to be hard in your pink car”, Elenna mumbled. “The only thing that’s missing is a bunch of Chihuahuas in ridiculous tutus.”

“Oh, shut up”, Georgie said, grinning. “Anyway, we get to Roanoke to investigate those weird cases without trying to look suspicious. That’s why we arrive in different cars.”

“Okay”, Morrigan nodded.

“Elenna, what are you doing?” Georgie slapped Elenna’s hand while her friend tried to change the radio channel.

“I can’t listen to this girly music anymore, it drives me crazy!”

“We’re sorority girls, remember?”

“We pretend to be sorority girls, and since we’re not in Roanoke yet we can still listen to normal music.”

“That’s not how it works, honey”, Georgie said dryly. “Driver picks the music, Shotgun shuts her cakehole.”

"Not much we can do tonight," Rome said, having hopped and puffed ridiculously in the freezing night on his way from the door of the hotel to the Rover. "Whaddya say we grab a drink and a bite and sort of feel the place out before we crash, and get an early start tomorrow?"

Callum had only been sleeping for about three or four hours, and it was only 8:00pm--plenty of time to grab some food, even in a tiny town like this--so he nodded. Rome hoped that soon the guy could occasionally disagree with him, but for now, following his lead was fine. Or maybe British people were just really polite?

"Now, there's a strip club just down the road here..." Rome began, eyeing Callum sidelong.

That woke him up. He sat bolt upright in his seat, and "Em," he stammered, before Rome laughed.

"Dude, I was totally just seeing if you were awake. I'm kidding, there's a restaurant in the hotel here. Come on, grab your stuff. Oh," Rome added, stopping him as he made to get out of the car, and handed Callum a state of North Carolina ID and a Press Pass.

"Welcome to Roanoke, Peter Parker."

Callum laughed. "Seriously?"

"Well," Rome winked, "we can't both be Clark Kent."

Callum raised his eyebrows. Rome was crazy. He glanced at his fake ID.

"Do I have to sound American? Cause if I do it's not going to be pretty and it's not going to last very long."

Rome laughed and began walking over to the restaurant. "Just let me do the talking... but if anyone asks, you've lived in Scotland most of your life... or something like that..."

Callum hurried after Rome. He really hoped he wouldn't have to speak to anyone. He glanced at his ID again. It really said Peter Parker. That was a bit of an unnecessary risk surely? Peter Parker was Spiderman. He couldn't tell if Rome was joking or not.

"Rome, we're not seriously going into this with the fake names of Peter Parker and Clark Kent?" said Callum.

“Oh cake that would an awesome idea, do you think we can get some pie?” Lenna looked hopefully at Georgie.

“You know the rules missy, no food in the pink lady.” Georgie said stern. It wasn’t long since they had lunch, but Lenna was already hungry again. And some people do have dinner at 5 in the afternoon.

“Mor can you back me up here. What do you think about some pie and while we are at it what about some bacon cheeseburger?”

"Oh, come on, man, nobody looks at the names. If they do, say you had weird parents. Two beers, please," he flashed a smile at the waitress behind the bar.

"Can I see some IDs?" she asked, smiling broadly in return.

"Sure thing."

It really looked like Callum was going to give them away, sweating bullets as he was, but she was too busy flirting with Rome to bat an eye at the comic names.

"Told ya," Rome whispered as the waitress moved away to pour their drinks. "So. We mingle a bit, try and find out what the word on the street is here, what's going on at the Theme Park, don't get too nosey, and then we turn in early. Sound like a plan?"

"Em...yes?" Callum answered.

"Atta boy, man. It's just something you learn how to do as you go along. And think about it this way: it's not like we can do any worse here than in Pembroke, right?"

Callum paled further, if that was possible. He looked like he needed the drink that was sitting before him.

Rome laughed. He liked this guy. He liked him so much, in fact, that he might even stop teasing him in about a week or so, once the novelty wore off.

A flicker at the back of the bar caught his attention. When he looked directly at it, it disappeared, but when he turned back to Callum, it sort of reappeared in the corner of his vision.

But when he looked again, it was gone for good.

Morrigan's stomach growled. "Food would be lovely."

Lenna smiled and flashed a sly look at Georgie. "Well, I guess you are outvoted then."

Morrigan grabbed the keys and dangled them in front of Georgie's nose. "Got to eat sometime. We can't be fabulous kick-ass women and without some good dinner and dessert now and again."

She missed homemade meals and the family dinner. It had been way too long since she'd had a decent meal with people. "We should go somewhere fancy, sit down and enjoy before this mission gets crazy. We booked the hotel, might as well do the whole package."