Claire's POV

'This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed at home, this is little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none and this little piggy went weee all the way home!' Shane's voice echoes around the room, so very different from the gruff voice I'm more than used to, Annabelle's high pitched giggle makes my smile somewhat brighter, the noise is as sweet as wind chimes. At some point in the few meagre hours sleep we had, a trunk of items arrived in the entry way to the door; a mismatch of random clothes and oddments for Annabelle. Looking at some of her own tiny possession makes my eyes prickle with tears, in the corner of the trunk had been a small pink Peppa Pig backpack, with her name emblazed brightly in glitter to show her ownership. Inside had been an assortment of all kinds of things, all her own. A couple of pacifiers, a book of nursery rhymes (which her and Shane are both contently now reading), along with a couple of pull-up pants and a teddy bear- a teddy bear that upon seeing Annabelle squealed loud enough to alarm both myself and Shane, but her smile was bright enough to light up an entire room, Bubba she calls it.

But now I'm just trying to find some order to all the random stuff that came this morning, a weird formula thing for her, some toddler food and a mountain of clothes that seem to show all the stages of fashion from somewhere in the fifties. Although that isn't such a bad thing as some of the dresses are beyond adorable, pink floral print is even appropriate in the middle of this war.

War. That's what this is, we can sugar-coat it as much as we want but it's a war and one of us, two, three even all of us could not make it out. That's what hurts because as much as we all want to make it through, if one of us was to be killed especially Shane I don't think life would be worth it…but no positive thinking is that we're going to survive going to make it through.

Myrnin wants us all in the lab in an hour, wants to try something- all I'm hoping is that it's nothing as drastic as last time. I think the whole theory now is that we need a way of attacking them, of making them weak… because as much as we don't want to admit it battling Magnus again isn't going to be pretty, not going to be pretty at all.

Last time I'd died, like actually died!

Do you have any idea how weirdly weird that is to even say?

I watched people lose their minds nearly, I watched Shane nearly put a bullet in his brain- that's an image I'll never forget! And for all that I said to him, all that I told him he couldn't do that just because I was gone, in that situation I don't know whether if our roles had been reversed I'd have acted any differently…

Bishop coming back is another thing that's playing Double Dutch in my mind, I can't seem to rubbish the idea that adding him to the mix is just like added more trouble too our already awful cocktail.

'One tea, one coffee and a shi…load of breakfast!' Eve declares as her and Michael push through the doors into our room, each handling over-following trays. 'Can she have something?' Eve says indicating to Annabelle. 'Like I brought croissants, some toast, a few crumpets even some cookies… I wasn't totally sure.' She ends a little breathless.

I look down at Annabelle then turn my eyes too Shane, realising I don't actually know. 'She should be okay right; she has some teeth…' I say questioningly.

'Small bites?' Shane says, picking up one of the croissants and ripping off a small piece, before handing it to our daughter in his lap, Annabelle doesn't even debate it; her chubby hand takes the food from Shane popping it in her mouth whole, before swiftly chewing and swallowing.

'mor?' She says expectantly to Shane, leading us all to dissolve in laughter.

'Yeah baby girl…' He says tearing off more strips and placing them in one of the plastic bowls I found earlier in the trunk. 'Guess that's that problem solve, right?' He says giving the bowl to Annabelle.

'Peppa!' She squeals loudly, seeing the picture on the bowl.

'Yeah Peppa!' Shane says with fake enthusiasm. 'We need to get up to date on these cartoons like.' Shane muses, eyeing the pig on the bowl wearily.

'Dude let's just survive first then we can watch all the cartoons you want!' Michael jokes.

'Yeah cause they aren't going to get boring, right?' Eve animatedly adds before taking a humongous bite of toast, lathered in jam and butter.

'Don't even start remember the Buffy reruns when you first got the DVD?' Shane says good naturedly.

'Buffy reruns?' I question, already smiling at what I know is going to be a good story.

'Yeah buffy…' Shane begins only to be cut off by Eve.

'Dude don't say you didn't love it!' She says, spraying her mouthful of toast.

'Not on the ninth time through! Claire I got her the DVD from a friend of mine and honestly it was like hell- every night for like two weeks we were watching Buffy! Only so much a guy can take, before he becomes a chick!'

'What's wrong with being a chick?' I say straight-faced.

'Yeah?' Eve adds, staring at Shane, a trace of a smile in her eyes.

'D-ude.' Michael says, taking a large drink of his coffee and biting into a croissant. The silence drags on a second, all I'm trying to do is not give up to my giggles.

'Whoopsie daddy…' Annabelle says looking at Shane. 'You did 'aughty.' Her expression alone pushes me over the edge as both me and Eve burst out laughing, Shane's composure I can see is slipping as he tries to remain sincere in order to play along with Annabelle.

'Yep Shane you did 'aughty…' Michael says chuckling, holding out his hand for Annabelle to high five, instead she just raising her arms in Michael direction, needing no more than that Michael swings her onto his lap, giving her a cookie from the tray.

Anyways…' I say, swallowing back a laugh. 'Any idea what Myrnin wants? He says he wants us there by nine.'

'You're the one with the mad scientist for a boss, if you don't know I dread to think…' Eve says, faking a shiver.

'Hmm, I know…' I murmur thoughtfully.

'Right before we go and see bipolar man, I think we should probably think about what happened last night.' Shane says bringing an end to my turmoil over Myrnin.

'Guys there was nothing we could do.' Michael says, looking between Eve and me before finally settling his eyes on Eve. 'She saw it, and she was going to do it even if we all held her back, one thing I know about that girl is that she isn't what she seems, she isn't some stupid teenager… she never has been.' He adds.

'But all that time we knew what Charles was doing to her, hell I saw it and I did nothing!' Eve wails, her eyes suspiciously full. 'She was a kid and we did nothing, how sick is that?'

Eve's words lie heavy in the air, heavy enough that we all sit in silence, Michael not even commenting when Annabelle smears melted chocolate down his shirt front. It's true we all knew, but she was so forward and didn't listen, ever. Like I had to literally use myself as a barrier once to make her wait while Eve made her food because for some reason I'm completely oblivious too she knew she couldn't stay- she was sixteen and alone in Morganville and fact is we could have changed that…

'Do you ever arrive on time?' Myrnin says as he barges in the door, making it swing shockingly on its hinges. My eyes find the clock only for me to realise we've been sitting in silence for over thirty minutes and Michael now had chocolate smeared on his cheek, whilst Annabelle is like a chocolate covered monster, something Myrnin finds intensely amusing.

'Tywysoges…' He murmurs to her, taking one of her hands in his own, Annabelle's eyes never even leave Myrnin's face, as he strokes her face before addressing us all.

'Lateness we cannot afford, I myself have found a weapon, a weapon we had last…' But he's interrupted by a voice that makes me want to run and hide.

'A weapon my fool, who needs a weapon.' Bishops voice echoes into our chambers.

'Cachu.' Myrnin breathes reaching for Jesse.

The door swings open and there he stands…

'Oh my god.' Eve says faintly.

There he stands with a drained body tight in his grip.

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