That comment was met with an even longer silence than the one before. It was Scott again who broke the silence.

"So, I'm asking again. What's with the salt?"

This time it was Jensen who answered thus giving his partner a much needed break for his voice.

"It keeps the son of a bitch out. There's different ideas why it helps, from spirits having to count all the grains before they can enter over the purity of salt and its meaning for life, blah blah blah, but fact is it does. We put a protective circle around the whole house and again one around this room just to make double sure."

Scott didn't look convinced, not one bit. "Did you see what that thing did to my friend? And SALT is supposed to keep it away? Really? If only Alex had taken his salt shaker with him, how very stupid of him…"

"Look man, we don't like it any better than you do that your friend got hurt. But I'm afraid we're your best shot at getting rid of that thing. Like it or not." Jensen said. He had taken up a second gun and started to take it apart for cleaning.

"That's all very well, but how about you just go and leave all of us the hell alone? I mean, if that thing really is after Jared, then you are putting people at risk unnecessarily. Did that ever cross your thick head?" Scott would have loved to hit the other guy. It unnerved him how calm Jensen sat on the bed, polishing around on his stupid guns, looking like he didn't have a care in the world.

Jensen was about to say something, but he didn't get a word in before Belle quietly spoke up.

"They are staying."

"Oh really? And how come you get to decide that over all our heads, huh? Did I miss a memo there? Has the terminator taken over command and stupid me failed to notice? Because so far you sure as hell have been pretty quiet there in your corner. But then, of course, I forgot. You made coffee." Scott's anger welled up again. Belle seemed to have that effect on him.

She answered him as quietly as she had before. "Because I don't want anyone else to get hurt. And as you said, this thing is obviously after Jared for some reason. But it's not after Jensen, or me or Luzy or you. It didn't hurt me back there, even though it could have. From what the guys patched together so far, it's kind of selective about its victims. Which makes it fairly safe for us. So that means that Jensen can go after it, but Jared shouldn't. So we've decided that he should stay here, because a, the place is relatively easy to be kept safe, and b, he's not alone, and thus less likely to do something stupid." She gave Jared a faint smile then looked back to Scott. "And if you don't like it, no one forces you to be here."

Scott had shut down the moment she'd said the part about the thing being selective about its victims.

"It's SELECTIVE? Tell that to Alex, will you? Oh but I forgot, he's not in a state to hear you right now, he might never be again, 'cause for all I know he's probably not even making it through today! Selective? REALLY?" He was yelling by now, and he silently wished for Belle to say something stupid so that he could go on and get rid of all this anger and rage inside him.

"It's enough… " Jared had seized Scott by his shoulders and shook him. "Stop that. It's not her fault that he got hurt, okay? If you want to blame anyone, then blame me. It was me who went off even though I knew that thing might be after me still and it was Alex and Belle who pretty much saved my life out there."

Luzy wasn't sure how much more of that she was able to take.

"Can't we just simply stop the blaming all together? It doesn't help. It's exhausting and it doesn't lead us anywhere." She glanced over to Belle, who sat motionless in her chair, hugging her knees to her chest. Luzy felt terrible, seeing her like that, but she just didn't have any words to comfort her. No one could tell whether Alex would be okay. And with that wall her friend had built around her, she knew there was no sense in going over and trying to hug her. She'd just shrug her of.

Belle seemed to feel that she was being watched, and when she saw Luzy looking over, she just gave her a tiny nod. It was enough to tell Luzy that her friend knew what she was thinking. It was in those moments, that she was grateful that they understood each other blindly. While she maybe couldn't do anything at the moment to make Belle feel better, she at least wanted the other girl to know that she would if only she could. Knowing that the message had been received didn't change much, but it helped. At least a little.

Scott was still shaking with anger. He didn't even realize that Luzy had put her hand on his shoulder in a fruitless attempt to calm him down. He got up, looking at no one in particular and simply announced that he had to get out of there, before they all drove him mad.

Luzy murmured "So much for making you shut up…" and looked after him, unsure whether to follow or not. Then Belle was beside her. "Go. I guess he can do with a friend."

Luzy gave her a long, searching look. "And you?"

She knew the answer before it came. "I'll be fine."

Luzy shook her head, half sad, half in anger. "Of course you will. What was I thinking…" Then she followed Sott downstairs.

She found him on the terrace. He had closed the door behind him, which told her that while he might not believe in much of what he'd just heard, he wasn't ready to take chances. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to believe any of this. Her head was still spinning form Jared's tale. It was crazy, it was hard to believe, but what else was there? Unless all this was a very, very bad joke or an extremely vivid and long lasting nightmare, she'd no choice but to believe the guys.

She composed herself as good as she could manage for the moment, and then followed Scott outside, carefully stepping over the salt circle drawn around the door.

"Scott?"

He stood with his back towards her.

"What?" Defiant.

That was a good question. What did she want to tell him? Was there anything to say at all? She didn't know. Life didn't prepare you for a demon attack on the friend of a person you held more than only a little dear. Come to think of it, it didn't prepare you for any of the moments that mattered. She couldn't really imagine what Scott was going through. She knew how upside down she felt, and she didn't have to deal with a close friend's life hanging by a threat on top. Not that she didn't care about Alex, but that wasn't the same. All she could do was to try and give him comfort. So she simply wrapped herself around him from behind.

"Nothing. I just… I just thought that you shouldn't be alone."

That seemed to have been the right thing to say. She felt how some of the tension left his body.

"Shouldn't you be inside, trying to take care of the terminator?" His voice was flat when he said that, but the aggression from earlier had gone.

Luzy let the 'terminator' go uncommented.

"I have a feeling that Jared will take care of that. Maybe he can do a better job than I could at the moment."

She'd seen Jared look at Belle when she herself had went after Scott. Maybe he would indeed be able to get her to come out of her shell again. He got along with Jensen after all, and if someone had reached an even more impressive level of repressed emotions than Belle, it was certainly Jensen. Which might in turn have given Jared some practice in dealing with people like that.

Luzy shifted her attention back to Scott. He was still standing still, like a monument to himself, neither moving nor speaking.

"Scott say something… please. It's enough that Belle is sitting up there, closing all her fears and emotions in. Don't do that to me."

He laughed mirthlessly.

"There's not much to say Luzy. I'm scared. Scared like hell. For Alex, for you, for all of us. I've never, in my entire life felt so helpless. I'm used to go and make things happen. I'm used to taking care of myself and those I love. But right now? I can do nothing. You know what I'd like to do? Take Alex and you and get the hell off this island. But we can't do that, can we? 'Cause that silly little friend of yours, and if I'm not totally mistaken, you too, have it in their heads to go and help. Or at least support the two freaks up there. And Alex…" He broke off. The memory of Alex and what he looked like at the moment, what he was going through, was way too disturbing to go on speaking. He swallowed.

"Well, bottom line is, we're not leaving I guess" he said when he had composed himself again. "And that makes me angry. Because it means I have to sit here and watch things happen that I do not understand. Things that I cannot control. Things that might get more people hurt. And that… that is killing me."

Luzy hugged him tighter. She wanted nothing more than to make him better, to tell him everything would be alright, but she couldn't. Because she felt exactly the same. Every word he had said, had hit home He had put into words the things that she had carried around with her since Belle had called her earlier that night.

"No one's going to die here" she said as determinedly as she managed. "And for the fear thing… I really think we all feel the same. The way you handle all this by raging and ranting… that is the other end of the spectrum of what Belle does. She's as afraid as you or I am, and as concerned. Granted, I also would love to smash her head against the wall because she so stubbornly insists on being okay and having it all worked out. But that's the way she deals with things. Otherwise she'd be falling apart."

Scott turned around and looked at her. "And you? How are you holding up?"

Luzy shrugged. "I don't know. Worrying about others so much that I don't have time to worry myself? Jokes aside… I guess I'm managing. But for me it's a little easier. I wasn't there, like Belle was, when this… when Alex got hurt. And while I like him, he's not that close to me as he is to you. Or as important as he is to Belle. Don't look at me like this, she really cares about that guy. But as I said… that makes it slightly easier for me. Not much less disturbing, though."

Scott smiled faintly. "And thank god that you are above over-analyzing , huh?"

She just shrugged apologetically.

"Nah, that's alright. And thank you. Thanks for coming after me and dealing with my shit, even though I didn't quite show my best behavior in there."

Luzy smiled. "See. That's why I like you. You go mad in no time, but at least you have the decency to be sorry afterwards and remember your manners."

He just grinned and then took her hand and pulled her over to the bench on the edge of the terrace, snuggling her in. Simply being there, not fighting, not having to try to make sense of the world and all the crazy things around them, just being there and being together, did them worlds of good.

Luzy couldn't tell how long they'd been sitting there and she didn't care. She could have stayed there forever. Scott seemed to agree, for he didn't make the slightest attempt on getting them back inside. Only after a long time he moved at all, running his hand along her neck, turning her head towards him. He kissed her, and then smiled, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"Just for the record… liking will not be enough in the long run."

That, Luzy thought, was by far the best thing she had heard all day.