Disclaimer: I do not own White Collar, Torchwood, Supernatural, or Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom.
"Human satrifice?" Violet excalimed, after Neal and Rex finished telling the team what had happened, "As in pagen human satrifice? As in that episode in season one of Supernatural with the big scary scarecrow god human satrifice? As in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom pulling the heart out of the chest human satrifice?"
"Yes," Neal said, "That's what she told us. She said there was a starifical alter in the basement."
"And you believed her?" Jack asked speticly.
"Well, her story seemed pretty concrete," Rex interjected, "She could even describe the room, and I gotta tell ya, it sounded like a satrifical alter to me."
The fact that Rex, who was the most septical of all of them, was giving this story credience, caused Jack to take this more serious. "What did she say it looked like?"
"There were two small slabs in the middle of the room," Neal began, "And in front of them was table that had a bowl on top, a wicker figure, and two caldelbra with black candles in them."
"This wouldn't be the first time we've delt with something like the before," Gwen added in, "Oh my God, you don't think..."
"No, we destroyed them," Jack said, " Beisdes, alters weren't they're style. But it could be something else. You find anything, Gwen?"
"Actually, yeah," Gwen said, "But it's really weird. I did found that Maggie O'Brian and Midge Ducan are in the care of Eliot and Stacy Kavenah, as well as their natural daughter, Rowan, but I can't find any missing persons report."
"What kind of parents don't flie a missing person's report when their kids are missing for a week?" Martha exclaimed, a mixured of shocked and disgusted.
"The kind that have something to hide," Violet murmered, "Maybe it's not alien. Maybe they're just a couple of freaks who believe they have to satrifice some kind of virgin to some long-forgotten pegan god and children are as good anything else."
"Good theory," Neal said, "But Midge said she heard something in the walls. So there is actually something down there."
"Uh, guys," Gwen interjected, sounding disturbed"I found something else. Over the past fifthteen the Kavenahs have had six other foster children."
"Yeah, and?" Jack asked, not catching on to Gewn's distress.
"And they were all reported missing in the range from October 26th all the way to November 1st," Gwen said, her voice on the brink of devesation, "And they were never seen from again."
"And the police never suspected they had anything to do with it?!" Martha gapped.
"No they did," Gwen said, "But they could never find any proof. All they could do was advise the agency sending them kids to stop. Obviously they didn't. Someone really dropped the ball some where."
"Gee, ya think?" Neal said, "What the Hell did we step into?"
"That's what we're gonna find out," Jack said, "Martha, I want to go back home and check on the kids, see if you can get anything else out of Midge or Maggie, they both seemed to like you. Gwen, do you have the adress for the Kavenahs?"
"Yeah," Gwen said, "Why?"
"Because me and three of us are gonna go up there to see what's what," Jack said, "But I'll need someone to look up any concetions to neopagen rituals and children."
"Neopagon rituals?" Rex asked.
"Yeah," Jack said, "I think that figure Midge was talking about might be a wicker man."
Everyone just stared at Jack blankly.
Jack sighed. "Wicker men were alegedly used in Druid satrifice reituals and while they're not used for human satrifice anymore, Neopegans have been known to burn them like an effigy. So, who's got web browser duty?"
Everyone looked around.
"I'll do it," Gwen said at last, "I might strangle these people if I get my hands on them anyway."
" 'Cause that would be such a lost," Violet murmered.
An hour later, Neal was standing on the front purch a rather nice-looking house, ringing the doorbell. It had been decided that Neal would approch the house frist to see if the Kavenahs were actually home. If they weren't they planed to break in, but if they were home, Neal would claim he found the girls, and charm his way inside. When he could get alone he would give them a signel through the window to come in. If he didn't give the signel in thirty minutes, one of the others would come check to see what the hold-up was.
Just then a woman about Neal's age answered the door. She was a walking Irish seterotype: pale skin, long curly red hair, and green eyes. Neal also noticed that she looked rather frantic. "Oh," She said, suddenly clam if a bit confused, "Hello."
"Hello," Neal replied, "Are you Stacy Kavenah?"
"Yes," Stacy said, sounding a bit confused, "Who are you?"
"My name is Nick Halden," Neal answered, not missing a beat, " I think I have your two foster daughters, Midge and Maggie?"
Stacy smiled. "Oh, thank Tautatis," She said, "Please come in."
"Thank you," Neal said, stepping in the house.
"Are the girls with you?" Stacy asked, as she took two glasses of a walnut cabinet.
"No," Neal said, "I wanted to make sure I had the right Kavenahs first, which, I know sounds completely paraniod, and I wouldn't blambe you for being offened, but you can never be two careful."
"Oh, I understand completely," Stacy said, filling the two glasses with tap water, "Would you like some water?"
"Well, I didn't see her put anything in it," Neal thought so he said out loud, "Sure, thank you."
As she sat the glass and front of him and said on the other side of the table, Neal said, "I noticed that earlier you thanked someone named Tautatis, I don't mean to pry, I know this is probably a personal question, but, who is Tautais?"
"It's alright, I don't mind," Stacy said, "That was just something my mother use to say. She was really into new-age stuff neopagen stuff. I don't know why I said it, must 've slipped out."
"You don't go for any of that stuff?" Neal said, pretending he was just making casual conversation, taking a sip of water.
"No," Stacy replied, a bit too firmy, "That was really more of my mother's thing. Like I said, I don't why I said it."
Something about the look in her eye, like she had just been caught because of some sort of Furdien slip told Neal that she wasn't being comepletely truthful. "So is Tautatis some sort of God or something-"
"Yes," She replied a bit too quickly, "He's a protecter of sorts, that's really all I know about it. Now, what about my children? Are they alright? Where did you find them?"
"Why are you just asking that now?" Neal thought, but out loud he said, "They were wondering around on my street, they were fine, but they said they were lost, and they told me where I could find you." That gave Neal an idea. It wasn't exactly following a plan, but he knew it was the only way he could get her out of there for the others to go in. "I can take you to them if you want."
She paused a second, looking somewhat doubtful. In response Neal said, " I can understand if you don't feel comfortable with that, I mean you don't even know me, I've probably handled this whole situation improperly-"
"Oh, no, it's alright," Stacy said, " I doubt I would know what to do either. I'll go with you, I just need to deal with something upstairs first. Would you mind waiting down here?"
"No, not at all," Neal said.
Stacy got up and headed up the stairs. Neal made sure she wasn't able to see him, then pried opened the window and waved his arm out of it. Not the most suttle signal ever, but under the circumstances, it had to do. With seconds he saw Jack, Rex and Violet, who was holding a shotgun, run up to the porch and let themselves in.
"Could be any less quiet?" Neal asked in a hushed whisper.
"Sorry," Jack whispered, "Now, what's the story?"
"She said she'd go with me to get the girls, but she neede to do something upstairs first," Neal explained,"I'm not sure how much time we have."
"What about Eliot and Rowan?" Jack asked, "Are they in the house?"
"Not that I saw," Neal answered, looking back towards the stairs then looking back at Jack, added, "Jack what do you know about a god named Tautatis?"
"He's a Celtic God that's widely interperted as a tribal protector," Jack answered, "Why?"
"When I told her I hand found the girl, she said, 'Thank Tautatis.' When I asked her about it later she said it was just something her mother use to say, that her mother was into a lot of New Age stuff."
"You're not the only who learn something new," Rex said, " While you were talking with Mommie Dearest Gwen called us and said that their foster children aren't the first kids to go missing around the Kavenahs. Aparently back in their hometown form the time they were high school sweethearts, about sixteen or so, two kids went missing every five years. At least this time outside authorites were brought in, but then the disapearences stoped, oddly enough after the Kavenahs moved to Dublin, where, well, you guess what happened."
"Two kids in the Kavenahs neighborhood went missing every five years," Neal responded.
"Bingo," Jack replied, "And I have feeling that whatever's happening to these kids isn't pleasen't."
Just then there was the sound of foots moving around upstairs. "We really need to get a move on," Neal whispered urgently.
Without another word the group rushed over to the basment door, which was in the kichten, and found that it was still unlocked. "Who leaves the door to their secret satrifical chamber unlocked?" Jack wondered aloud as he redied his hand gun.
"Really?" Violet whipered in a hiss, "That's what bothering you?"
Without anymore conversation Jack opened the door and started down the stairs, but paused when they heard the sound of someone singing in a launguage none of them knew. "Tatutis, genaotr lan per sall, ightmay cod, anon liath don hibagon. Oh, rung, nay ordlay , anon liath ork don hibagon."
"Is that...Geltic?" Violet asked, looking around for the source of the chanting.
"Sounds more like geberish to me," Rex said.
"It's neither," Jack said, taking two steps down the stairs, "I think I know what this is now."
They walked down the stairs when reached the basement and stopped to take in what they saw: There, just like Midge had said, were two stone slabs, in front of a ornately craved wooden table, on which sat a white marble with a wicker figure in front of it, and a sliver candlelabra on either side with black candles. But that wasn't the most bizare thing. Kneeling just beside the slabs were two people; a man the same age as Stacy with chaitln hair and dark brown eyes and a girl of about sixteen with long red hair and wide, fearful dark brown eyes. In front of them was a lumpy figure that the team couldn't make out from there. The man was two lost in the chanting to notice that anyone had come in, but the girl turned around and gasped at the team unexpected presence. "Who are you?" She screamed, "What are you doing here?!"
That got the man 's attention. He turned around, then quickly stood up pulling the girl up with him, demanding, "How did you get in here?!"
"You left the door unlocked," Jack said cooly, "Let me guess, you're Eliot Kavenah, and this is your daughter, Rowan."
"And this is private property," Eliot replied almost indignetely, "You are breaking and entering. Leave now before we call the police."
"Oh please," Jack retorted, "And let them find your satifical chamber here? Where you feed helpless children to your "god." Isn't that right, Tautatis?"
Eliot didn't even try to deny it. "How dare you adress a god in that matter?!" He shouted.
Just then Stacy ran down the stairs staying, "What in the world is going-" But she stomped as the lump in the corner got up and slucked its way into the light, reviling that it was a creature the size of a mountian lion, with hairless gray skin, long finger on its paws with tear-droped shaped nails that ended in fine sharp points. It snarled revealing that its mouth was filled with rows and rows or sharp cannaines. The enite Kavenah family feel on their faces, as if it was the Almighty Himslef before them.
"That's a Celtic god?!" Rex exclaimed.
"No," Jack said, "It's a telpathic alien that took little bits of information about Celtic mythology and worked from there, but it only had bits and pieces of it, so it had to get creative, make up reasons for the holes in his story."
"Okay, gonna be a little bit more than that," Rex said.
"This," Jack explained, "I a creature called a Talc. Its slow matabolism causes it to only need to eat every five years in Earth time. It's favortie foods are smaller, weaker, animals with soft flesh, the younger the better."
"Like children," Neal breathed, horrified.
"Exactly," Jack said, "And it also has telapathic abilities. That's how it knew about the neopagen beleifs held by Stacy's mother, that she was raised around, but he was a bit off on some of the details, but he beragied her with telepathic messages until she believed it reallty was a god, and, as gods tend to do, it required satrifices, and she gave them to it with a big, fat, smile on her face. "
"That's blasphamous!" Stacy shriek.
"No, it's what happened," Jack said, "Think about it, Stacy, think back to where this all started."
"I was fithteen," Stacy said, "When he first spoke to me. He told me he needed satficies it, children. But that didn't make sense, the ritual was different from the one my mother told me about. But then he kept talking to me, in my mind, for two years. Then me and Eliot were out in the woods outside of town, a lot of young couples went out there, but we had got into a fight, ...that's when he apeared before us."
"You mean this guy, over here," Jack said, gesturing over to the creature, who was crouching and looked like it was about to attack.
"Yes," Stacy confrimed, "He told us that ritual had changed with the times, but if we gave him two children every five years, we would stay together and our family would prosper, as the old tribes did under his protection."
"So you found a couple kids," Jack said, a hint of revoltion in his voice.
"Ones I would a babysit for," Stacy admitt, actually sounding just a bit gulity.
"And from that day on, for every five years, you lead helpless children to terrifying painful deaths," Jack said, disgusted, although he had done that very thing once upon a time. But he was disgusted with himslef from that, too.
"We gave them drugs to make them sleep," Stacy justified their actions, "They didn't feel anything. And they're in a better place now, much better than this world."
Before Jack could respond, the angry, hungry Talc lunged at Rowan, talking her to the ground. She screamed, and flailed her arms, which the creature bit onto, causeing her to scream even more. Edmeditly, the team strated shooting at the creature.
"No!" Eliot screamed, lunging at Rex, puting his one hand around the other man's throat, and using the other to take the gun. Neal grabbed one of the cadlelabra from the table, and hit Eliot on the back of the head, sending him to the ground, unconcious. Rex retrieved his gun, and again shot at the creature, which while someone how still standing had stopped attacking Rowan and was slinking into a corner, lunging out at its attackers, and gashing its blood-stained teeth. Jack was about to deliver a killshot aimed at the Talc's head, when Stacy attacked him in a manner slimular to how Eliot had attacked Rex, then took Jack's gun from him and pistol-whipped him, but the Talc had already begaun another attack, and had leaped into the air, landing on Stacy, it's teeth going into the troat of the woman who had fed it for so many years. As a dying Stacy lied on the ground, the Talc turned back to to the group, and Violet took her riffle and shot at the creatures side, sending it to the ground. Jack caciously crept over to it, but his handgun to talc's head, and without a word, fired the killshot into its brain.
"No!" Rowan shirked, then crawled over to mother, and the creautre that had been her whole world for the frist sixteen years of her life, the creautre who just moments before had tried to kill her, and just knelt in from of them, crying.
Jack and the rest of the team dragged the histerical Rowan and the still uncouncious Eliot out of the house, and loaded then into the van as well as the Talc's body and Stacy's corspe. Rex and Violet tranported them back to the Hub, leaving Jack and Neal to get rid of any finger prints that might be there, removing anything that might be of alien orgin, and set the house on fire, leading police in the wrong direction. As they stood there wtaching the flames, Neal broke the slience by asking, "Why did they do it, Jack?"
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, his eyes never leaving the burning house.
"Rowan and Eliot," Neal elaborted, also never taking his eyes off the blaze that had once been a house of horrors, "I understand why, well not actually understand, but I know Stacy did it because she'd been brianwashed by the thing to think it was a god, but it didn't do that with them so why didn't they try to stop her? Why did they help her?"
"Neal, do you know what Foel Ed Due is?," Jack asked.
"It's a French term that means shared madness," Neal answered, "It's when someone goes crazy and someone close to them, a lover or a sibling, starts acting crazy too."
"That's what we have here," Jack explained," At least in the case of Eliot. In Rowan's case she had been raised having it pounded into her that this is acceptable, right even, so she didn't know anything different."
"So she helped her parents kill," Neal replied solemly.
They stood there in silence once more for a moment and then Jack asked, "Hey, are you okay?"
"I don't know," Neal said, "I mean, after everything I've seen you guys-I should be use to this, I shouldn't be this horrified, this-tore up about it, but-I am."
"Hey," Jack said, fineally looking at Neal,"It's good that this still horrifies you, that you're still digusted by this. It means you're still human. You just can't let it get in the way of doing the job, but if you ever stop feeling the way you do now,..." Jack's voice trailed off for a minute, then at last he fineally said, "That's when you need to worry."
Shortly after that somebody saw the fire and called it in, so Jack and Neal left, so they were well away and back at the Hub by the time the cops showed up. Eliot had already been given the amnesia phill, and had lost two much time to mentaly stable. Rowan didn't even need to be given the amnesia phill. Shortly after they had got in the car Rowan had gone into a chatonic state, and just sat there, in silence, like a shattered statue.
And so as Jack took Eliot and Rowan off to a mental intiuation he knew wouldn't ask questions, Gwen went home. By the time she got in the house, Rhys and Anew were already alseep, so she quietly locked the door, and crept into the nursery. She stood above Anew's crib, looking down at her sleeping daughter. She would be a year old soon enough. She was getting big lengthwise, and had devolped a hed of black hair, like her mother's. Anew stired a little, and just then Gwen heard Rhys' voice behind her say, "Gwen?"
Gwen turned around to face her husband, who was standing in the doorway. "Are you just getting in?" Rhys asked.
"Yeah," Gwen confessed, "I'm sorry, but there was this thing at worked, and it involed kids, and...I just had to make sure she was okay."
"It's alright," Rhys said, understandingly, walking over to Gwen and taking a hold of her gently, "And Anew find. No one or nothing is gonna hurt her. Not ever. " He held Gwen tighter as he added, "We're not gonna let them."
At the same time this was happening Violet was also ariving at her aparment. The baby siter, an older, retired, woman who lived next door named Dot, looked up from her sewing, " Are you alright dear?" Dot asked, as she packed up her sewing bag, "You look rather pale."
"I'm find Mrs. Sharm," Violet said, taking off her coat, "Rose in bed?"
"Yes," Mrs. Sharm said, getting up, "Rough night again?"
"Yeah," Violet replied.
"I know in these times you can't be too picky about your job," Dot said walking towards the door, "But sometimes I think they ask too much of you."
"It's fine, Mrs. Sharm,"Violet said as she let Dot out,"Thanks for watching Rose."
"My pleasure," Dot said, "And I've told you, call me Dot."
"Right," Violet said, "Thanks, Dot. Good night."
"Good night dear," Dot called out as she walked out the door, and to her house which was right next to Violet's. Violet closed the door and locked it, then snuck down the hall, and into Rose's room, where a blanket- covered lump that was Rose's body laid, moving up and down as she breathed. Violet crepted over to the side knelt down in front of her sister's face. Violet had no idea what she would do if anything happened to this precious, percious child, the child was her life. A stran of hair fell into Rose's face. Violet couldn't help herslef, she reached over and brushed the strain out of Rose's face, and stroked her hair. Just then Rose's eyes fulttered opened. "Violet?" She said, sleepily, and confused.
"Hey, little duck," Violet said, quietly.
"Is everything alright?" Rose asked, "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Violet said.
"Then why do you look upset?" Rose asked.
"Sometimes the kid picks up on a lot more than I give her credit for," Violet thought. Outloud she said,"Rough day at work. It, ah, made me want to see you."
Sliently, Rose raised up, leaned over to Violet and huged her. Violet returned the hug, clinging on tight and not letting gof for a long time.
And as all that was going on, Neal was about to leave the Hub, when he saw Martha sitting all alone on a bed in the infirmiry with a yellow legal pad in front of her. He walked over to the doorway and said, "Martha?"
Martha looked up at the sound of his voice. "Neal," She said, surprised, "What are you still doing here?"
"I was just about to head out," Neal said, walking into thr infrimery, "Then I saw you sitting in here. Everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's just," Martha looked down at the lega pad she was holding, "You're gonna think this is so stupid. "
"No, I won't," Neal said, walking closer, "I promise."
Martha gave in. "I want to talk to Micky about something, but I'm not sure what to say, well, more than not sure I falt-out don't know what to say. So I decided to try writing it down first." After a moment Martha added, "Would mind looking at it? See what you think about it?"
"Sure," Neal said, then he walked over to Martha and sat down on the bed. She handed him the pad. "Micky," Neal read aloud, "We need to talk." He looked over at Martha and stated, "That's all it saids."
"That's because it's as far as I got," Martha explained.
"Oh," Neal said, "You know, maybe I could help I knew what you wanted to talk to him about."
"About, Maggie, and Midge," Martha replied, "The past few days I've been looking after them, taking care of them, getting to know them, and they're wonderful kids. At frist I though it was just this terrible situation, that made me...well, love them so much, but now I don't think anything making me, I just...I just do. I us to adopt them."
"Wow," Was all Neal could think to say, "Wow. That's...that's great. That's a really big decison Martha."
"I know," Martha said, "That's why I'm struggling with this. What if we're making a mistake?"
"A mistake?" Neal repsonded, "How can it be a mistakes giving two kids their lives? Look, if you told Micky what you just told me, it'll all work out."
Marths looked up. "Thanks Neal."
"Don't mention it," Neal replied.
The next morning, as Micky was about to head out for the day, when Martha walked up to him. "Micky," She began," "Can you sit down for a minute? There's something I need talk to you about."
"Sure love," Micky said. They walked over to the couch and sat down, facing each other. "What's this about?"
"Midge and Maggie," Martha responded, "I..." Her voice trailed off. Suddenly she couldn't remember anything she had said to Neal the night before. She had plan to repeat it to Micky today.
But it turned out she didn't need to. He had been thinking the exact same thing. "You want to keep them too," He said, more statement then question.
"Yeah," Martha said.
"Well," Micky said, "You said that joining Torchwood would buy a house and maybe have a couple of kids one day."
"Are you sure?" Martha asked, "I mean, it just seems like we should talk about this more. I mean, we're both away at work a lot, we have dangerous jobs, we could die on a near dayly basis, I mean we could give these kids more issues than this whole ordeal has."
"Most of the time at least one of us and here, and we're pretty good at staying alive," Micky asured her," They'll be fine. Although we probably should ask them if they actually want to stay with us. Otherwise this might all be academic."
"Alright," Martha said, "Good thing I decided not to send them to school while they were here." Then she called out " Maggie, Midge, could you come here a second? !There's something me and Micky need to talk to you about!"
Micky chuckled.
"What?" Martha asked.
"I just realized," Micky began, "Micky, Martha, Midge, and Maggie. "
Martha, compredhending for the frist time that all their names bagan with the letter M, grined. "I can't believe I didn't think about that until just now."
"I know," Micky said, "It's like a sign from God."
Just then Midge and Maggie arived in the living room. Midge was the one to speak. "Yeah?"
"Sit down," Micky said, gesturing towards the two chairs with purple and green seat chusions that just happened to be in front of the couch. When the girls sat down, Micky began. "We wanted to talk to you about, we wanted to ask you..." He turned to look at Martha. "We really should've planed what we were gonna say before we called them in here."
"Yeah, we should've," Martha admitted, then she turned to the girls and said, "What Micky is trying to say is, that we would like it if you would stay with us. As part of our family."
After a moment of silence Midge said, "Are you trying to saying you want to adopt us?"
"Well," Martha said, "Basicly yes."
Niether of the girls said anything for a moment and then Maggie luged at Micky, throwing her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Is that supost to be a yes?" Micky asked, reciprocating the hug. Maggie looked up at him and nodded egearly.
"Well, Maggie's on broad," Martha said, the comment directed at Midge, "What about you?"
Midge didn't say anything for a moment. Not because she had to think on it, since it became evident her mother was never coming back for her as she had promised, there was nothing Midge had wanted more, than for someone to want to keep her, but she was a reallist, and knew it wasn't likely. This was more than she could ever hope for. But suddenly her mouth was dry, and she couldn't speak. At last she got something out, a simple,"Yes." Then she too, enbaced Martha, happy tears streaming down her face.
None one said anything. For a moment they all just stayed like they were, taking it in.