Aubrey grumbled softly as the vibrating noise of her phone stirred her from her sleep. As she stretched for her phone she felt Stacie's arms tighten around her waist and a soft smile crept onto her face.
"It's your mom." She mumbled as she picked up the phone, Stacie grunting in annoyance as she buried her face into Aubrey's neck, "Hey Thea, what's up?"
"Are you only just waking up?" There was mirth in Thea's tone as Aubrey rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, "God I give you guys one well deserved day off and you sleep in till three in the afternoon?!"
"It's three in the afternoon?" Aubrey frowned, checking her watch as Stacie sighed heavily in disappointment that her hand had moved from her waist.
"Yeah! I really should make sure you guys have days off more often…" Thea mused, "I know you're not supposed to be on until tonight, but I got a call from an old friend and I think you guys need to take a look…"
Aubrey nodded as Thea gave her the details, a soft frown forming on her face, "Are you sure it's a case that needs us on it? It sounds distinctly unsupernatural to me."
"I know but Anna is convinced there's something more to it. You guys will have full access, I've already organised everything with the local PD. If it's nothing then it's nothing, but I'll rest a little easier knowing that we looked into it."
"Alright, I'll see what we can do. Stacie and I will go and see her in an hour."
Stacie grumbled loudly as Aubrey hung up the phone causing her fiancée to chuckle softly. Aubrey ran her hand through Stacie's hair, making no attempt to get up just yet. She'd stay here forever if she could, Stacie tangled around her as they enjoyed the quiet. What she'd give for just a moment of quiet like this every day.
"We have to get up." She mumbled, Stacie holding her even tighter as she tried to move.
"No!" Stacie whined, pouting, "This is supposed to be our afternoon off…"
"I know baby." Aubrey chuckled softly, pressing a soft kiss to the top of Stacie's head, "But your mom needs us to look into this case as a personal favour, it's for an old friend of hers."
"But I wanna stay here…" Stacie groaned, lifting her head to look at Aubrey who was smiling softly at her, "Why do we have to be so in demand all the time?"
"Because we are very good at what we do." Aubrey's smile spread into a grin, "And because your mom knows that."
"Fine." Stacie sighed dramatically, finally loosening her grip around Aubrey's waist and allowing her to slip out of the bed, "But I want it known that I'm doing this under duress!"
"Noted." Aubrey laughed, pressing a soft kiss to Stacie's lips before walking over to the wardrobe and starting to rifle through it for something to wear, "Now come on. We have a distressed mother to comfort, and I have a feeling this will only be a short case. It sounds like she's clinging to straws for an explaination."
"What happened?" Stacie frowned as she dragged herself from the warm comfort of their bed.
"Her son died." Aubrey sighed softly, shoulders sagging a little, "She found him a few hours ago when she got home from a business trip. I think she's trying to find a reason for it that isn't simply… human."
"Shit." Stacie mumbled, shaking her head, "Yeah, okay. Is it wrong that I'm hoping it is something supernatural so that we can help?"
"No." Aubrey smiled warmly as she turned to Stacie, "No it's not. I was thinking the same thing actually. But either way, she's lost her son and there's no way we can fix that."
Stacie simply nodded in response with a heavy sigh. Sometimes these cases were really hard to deal with, and this was definitely one of those times. She hated it when it was kids.
"I'll tell Beca and Chloe what's going on, if we do need to investigate then Beca can join us later when the sun's gone down." Aubrey had finished getting dressed and pressed a kiss to Stacie's cheek as she walked past her, "I'll meet you downstairs."
Aubrey and Stacie had arrived in less than hour and were welcomed by a tear stained and frantic looking woman similar in age to Thea. She looked relieved to see them, as if them being here was going to fix everything.
"You're them right? The team Thea said would be able to help?"
"Yeah." Aubrey smiled kindly as she shook the woman's outstretched hand, "I'm Aubrey and this is Stacie, we're from Vampire Hunters Incorporated."
"Thank you, thank you so much for coming. I'm Anna, please come in." Anna waved them in, leading them through the house and straight upstairs, "He's- he's in here. I told them to leave him until you had the chance to look. This- this isn't normal, he's a good boy, an honour roll student, it's not- something did this to him."
"Hey." Stacie gently caught Anna's wrist before they entered his room, a gentle smile on her face, "We've got this. You don't have to go back in there. I'm so sorry this happened."
Anna sniffed as she nodded slightly. She was certainly in no hurry to see her son like that again.
"You are the spitting image of your mother y'know?" Anna smiled softly, tears streaking down her cheeks as Stacie grinned.
"I get that a lot." Stacie chuckled, "You know that we might not be able to give you the answer that you want right? That this might not be something we can do anything about."
"I know…" Anna whispered, "But I'm telling you, once you see him, you'll get it. This isn't- this isn't-"
"Okay." Stacie gave Anna's hand a gentle squeeze, "We'll go and take a look."
"Can I get you anything? Tea, coffee?"
"Tea would be lovely." Aubrey nodded, not really wanting it but knowing that it would be better for Anna to distract herself whilst they investigated.
Aubrey was in the bedroom a matter of seconds before she pulled her phone from her pocket.
"Who are you calling?" Stacie asked as she came in behind her, stopping dead in her tracks as she saw the body of the young teenager on the bed.
"Thea first and then Beca and Chloe. We're going to need them all on this." Aubrey muttered, white as a sheet, "This is definitely a case for us."
Had Aubrey and Stacie not known beforehand that this was a teenage boy, they wouldn't have been able to tell now. His skin was paper thin and clung to his bones, grey in colour and his hair had fallen out. It looked as if he had been drained of everything that kept him alive, his organs had withered away to nothing inside him, nothing left of what had once made this boy a human in his own right.
Stacie took a deep shuddering breath, gripping the edge of the dresser as she turned away from the bed, nausea washing over her. What the hell could have done this? To a child no less.
"You okay?" Aubrey mumbled, gently stroking Stacie's back as she nodded.
"Yeah I'm good." Stacie smiled softly, "I just need a sec… what did that to a kid?"
"I don't know." Aubrey shook her head, "But we're damn sure gonna find out."
Late fall meant that the sun set far earlier than normal, and Beca arrived at five thirty pm as Stacie and Aubrey were just about to sit down with Anna.
"Hey, I came as soon as I could." Beca mumbled, "Chloe's knee deep in research trying to narrow things down, it turns out there is a depressing number of things that can drain a body like that."
Beca grimaced as she filled Aubrey in, Anna looking up from where she sat on the couch and frowning a little as her eyes found the new stranger in her home as they entered the living room.
"Anna this is Beca, she was finishing up another case earlier but she's here to help now." Aubrey reassured Anna who nodded softly. Now was not the time to try and explain the concept of good vampires.
"I'm so sorry for your loss." Beca smiled kindly as she sat opposite Anna, "We're going to do everything we can to find out what happened."
"Tell us what happened." Stacie was sat next to Anna and gave her hand a gentle squeeze, "How long were you gone?"
"Only overnight." Anna swallowed the lump in her throat, "I never left Tom in the house by himself for very long, not because I didn't trust him but because… well he's my son y'know? I'm supposed to take care of him."
"This is not your fault." Aubrey insisted gently, "You had no way of knowing what was going to happen."
"Was he here alone?" Stacie pushed as kindly as she could, "Or did he have some friends over?"
"Um…" Anna sniffed as she shook her head, "I don't think so. He wouldn't, not when there wasn't anyone at home. He was a good boy."
"Would any of his friends be able to help us?" Beca asked.
"Tom… he doesn't- didn't really have a lot of friends. You know how teenagers can be, anyone that's vaguely unique or smart is immediately an outcast." Anna half smiled as she thought of her son.
"Is there anyone at all you can think of?" Aubrey pressed, not wanting to distress the woman anymore than she already was but needing to find someone that could offer some answers.
"There's his girlfriend Emily something… Junk I think." Anna mused, "But they she's not allowed over here when there's no one to supervise them."
Beca supressed a smirk as she nodded. Teenagers not taking advantage of an empty house? Yeah right. Plenty of things had changed in the last two hundred years, but teenagers hadn't.
"Well we can check with her anyway, she might not even realise she knows something." Stacie smiled gently, having had the same thought as Beca.
"So what now?" Anna mumbled, "What am I supposed to do now?"
Stacie sighed softly, putting her arm around Anna's shoulders, "Now you make arrangements, you grieve, you find a way to honour Tom. We will find the thing that did this, the only thing you have to focus on now is mourning for your son."
"He- he just turned eighteen… he wants to go to Yale next fall, he's more than smart enough for it. How can he just not be here anymore?" Anna sobbed, head falling into her hands.
"It's not fair." Beca sympathised, "It's just really really shit. And I am so sorry that you're having to go through this. Is there anyone we can call for you, that can be here for you whilst you're trying to make any of this make any sense?"
"Th-Thea's coming in a little while. I'll be okay. Y-you should go and find the monster that did this to my son." There was a hint of anger in Anna's tone as she sobbed and not one of them begrudged her of it. Of course she was angry that her son had been taken away from her in the prime of his life, all of his potential snuffed out in a cruel and callous act.
"Bree and Beca can go and talk to Emily and her parents, see if they know anything, I'll stay here until my mom comes." Stacie smiled softly at Aubrey who nodded. It seemed to be another layer of cruel to leave Anna alone after everything that happened.
"You don't have to do that." Anna shook her head.
"I know." Stacie gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze, "But I want to. You don't have to go through this alone."
Aubrey and Beca got quietly to their feet, Aubrey once again offering her sympathies and apologies and pressing a small business card with the number of Vampire Hunters Incorporated's office on into her hand for anything she might need at any point. Beca followed Aubrey out into the cool night air, sighing heavily as they clambered into the car, Aubrey keying in the zip code Anna had given them before they left into her GPS system.
"Do we not have a non-muggle way of doing that?" Beca chuckled, voice a little thick, "It feels a little wrong that we're using a Satnav…"
"You'd think wouldn't you?" Aubrey mused as they pulled out of the driveway and onto the road again, "But sometimes we have to pretend to be human for a little while, muggle our way through basic tasks like driving. Magic can't fix everything."
"I wish it could." Beca muttered, looking out of the passenger side window to hide the tears welling in her eyes from Aubrey, "There's so much I wish magic could just wipe away. Look at that kid, he had his whole life ahead of him, and now what? He's just… gone. It just makes me wonder if everything that we do is… I dunno, a little futile in the grand scheme of things."
Aubrey's brow furrowed a little as she listened to Beca. She knew that Beca had been struggling a lot since Gail had died, but not that she was feeling this despondent about their work. She moved one of her hands from the steering wheel and rested it on top of where Beca's rested on her leg. Aubrey had never been the most physically demonstrative of people, but right now she had this urge to make sure that Beca knew she wasn't alone.
"I get that. I've certainly felt like that before now. Especially in the last few months, we've had a rough year Beca. But what we do matters, even if it's only in a small way to a select few people, it matters. I promise it does."
Beca had started a little at the presence of Aubrey's hand on hers, turning her gaze from the road to the woman who had given her a chance when she perhaps should have just followed her instincts and gotten rid of Beca. Maybe it would have saved all of them a lot of pain.
"I just… I just want this to be easier than it is." Beca sighed, "I though Gail being gone was going to be a good thing, that it would somehow fix all of my problems, but here I am still looking over my shoulder."
"Gail being dead is a good thing." Aubrey pressed, "Make no mistake about that. But her being gone doesn't erase two hundred years of pain in an instant. It's going to take time to heal Beca. But you will, and so will Chloe. We all will. But in the meantime we just have to keep going through the motions."
"God is this were you break out into an inspirational musical number and tell me to do it Once More With Feeling?" Beca snorted, sniffing a little as a betraying tear slipped down her cheek.
"You wish." Aubrey laughed, shaking her head a little as her hand returned to the steering wheel, "We're here. Let's hope we can get some answers from Tom's girlfriend."
"Right…" Beca rolled her eyes as they got out of the car, "Because teenage girls are so forthcoming about the guy they were definitely screwing in his parent-free house."
Aubrey rolled her eyes back at Beca as she knocked on the door, taken aback by the way it was almost ripped off its hinges.
"Uh… Mrs Junk is it?" Aubrey asked, finding herself face to face with a worried older woman, her eyes a little wild.
"Oh thank god, are you with the police?" Her tone seemed as frantic as her expression as Beca and Aubrey shared a look.
"Not exactly…" Beca frowned a little, "We just came from Tom Marwood's house, we need to ask Emily a few questions if that's alright?"
"Tom?!" Mrs Junk raised her eyebrows and Aubrey could tell that there was something wrong here, "What happened to Tom is he alright?"
"No." Aubrey shook her head a little, "Mrs Junk can we please come in? This isn't the sort of thing we want to discuss on your doorstep. Maybe Emily can join us?"
"Emily didn't come home this evening." Emily's mom shook her head a little, "I don't- what happened to Tom?"
Beca looked at Aubrey and knew they were having the same thought: what if the thing that had killed Tom had Emily? Aubrey swallowed hard as she turned back to Mrs Junk.
"Tom was found dead this afternoon when his mother came back from her business trip. We wanted to ask Emily if she knew anything about Tom's plans for yesterday and today but-"
Aubrey was cut off when her attention quickly went to catching Mrs Junk as her legs went from under her, skin a ghostly pale. She caught her before her head could hit the doorframe, Emily's mom letting out a loud sob as she clutched at the arm around her waist.
"I didn't think it was true… she's just a child…" She shook her head furiously, Aubrey and Beca sharing a confused look as they help her inside.
"What didn't you think was true?" Beca frowned as Aubrey went to fetch Mrs Junk a glass of water.
"The curse… an old gypsy curse… those things, they're just scary bedtime stories. She couldn't…"
"Mrs Junk, I think you need to start from the beginning…" Aubrey's tone was gentle as she passed the glass of water to her.
"Katherine. Please, I feel so old when you call me Mrs Junk…" The slightest hint of a smile tugged at her lips as she accepted the water gratefully, "You'll just think I'm nuts, the social worker and the doctors did…"
"We won't." Beca promised her, "We specialise in things that sound a little nuts."
Aubrey nodded as she pulled a business card from her wallet and handed it to a slightly stunned Katherine, "We're from Vampire Hunters Incorporated, we were called in when Tom's mother had some doubts about the nature of his death. So I promise that anything you tell us will be taken seriously, we have plenty of experience dealing with the supernatural."
Katherine nodded a little as she sipped the water in her hand before starting to explain the situation as she knew it.
"My husband and I adopted Emily when she was an infant, we'd tried for years but it just wasn't working. She was perfect, she still is, but when Emily was three she had this accident. She fell off the top of the jungle gym and broke her arm really badly, but before I could rush her to the hospital she put her hand on my arm and it was like… like she was taking a part of me and pulling it into her, almost like she was feeding off me. And then her arm was fine, a couple of bruises nothing more. She didn't even know that she'd done it, I think it was just reactive, like a primal instinct almost."
Katherine shook her head a little at the memory, sighing heavily as she ran a hand through her hair, "I was really sick for like a week after, but when I went to the doctor about her arm and this mysterious illness I had I was dismissed as a neurotic mother with the flu. I thought I was until a woman turned up on my doorstep a week later claiming to be Em's birth mother and telling me all this crazy shit about a family curse, and how she hoped that by giving her up they wouldn't be able to curse her too… it sounded mad but- it made sense... it makes sense."
"What was the curse?" Aubrey asked, a concerned look on her face. This sounded too similar to what had happened to Tom to be a coincidence. Her stomach churned. She didn't want this to be the fault of another teenager that probably didn't even know what she'd done.
"About a hundred years ago, Em's great-great grandmother slept with a married man. She didn't know he was married, but as luck would have it his wife belonged to an ancient tribe of gypsies and didn't take too kindly to it. She cursed the women in her family line to never be able to touch the people they loved without destroying them. Emily she- she's such a sweet, gentle kid. She'd never hurt a fly, she once brought home a sparrow with a broken wing that she'd found at the park and nursed it back to health… she would never hurt someone that she loved. Especially not Tom, she adored him."
Katherine let out a sob as she shook her head again, Aubrey and Beca sharing a look as Beca got to her feet with her phone in hand to fill in Stacie and Chloe. Aubrey moved to sit next to Katherine, taking her hand in hers and giving it a soft squeeze.
"It's bad isn't it?" Katherine whispered, "That's why she hasn't come home, because it's really bad."
"It isn't good." Aubrey shook her head, "But we'll find her, we'll find Emily and we'll figure this out."
"She doesn't know." Katherine swallowed hard trying to rid herself of the lump in her throat, "She doesn't know about the curse, how the hell was I supposed to tell her about that? I wasn't even sure I believed it until just now…"
"This isn't your fault." Aubrey reassured her, "It really isn't. Sometimes these curses are just old family myths passed down from generation to generation. It just so happens to be that this isn't one of these times."
"You- you're not going to hurt her are you?" Katherine looked up from her feet, Aubrey able to see the desperation in her face, "She wouldn't have done this on purpose, Emily loved Tom so much…"
"I promise you I'm not going to hurt her." Aubrey was entirely sincere. She had no desire to see Emily come to any harm, the poor girl was probably scared out of her mind right now, "I just want to make sure that she's safe and that she doesn't accidentally hurt anyone else. Is there anywhere Emily would go when she's scared and feels like she can't come home?"
"Um…" Katherine sniffed as she tried to focus her mind on where her daughter might go, "God I don't know… she's never- she's never done this before."
"Is there a favourite place of hers? Somewhere she goes all the time, that she knows like the back of her hand?" Beca smiled softly as she rejoined them, "I know when I was feeling overwhelmed I liked to go to this field near the back of my home, sit amongst the heather for a little while, feel the wind in my hair."
"Sitting amongst the heather with the wind in your hair? What are you, a character from a Jane Austen novel?" Aubrey raised her eyebrow, an amused glint in her eyes as Beca glared at her.
"There's this woodland area in the park…" Katherine also seemed amused by Beca but her priority was obviously her daughter, "She used to go there on picnics with Tom, I think they carved their initials into the tree or something."
"Okay. We'll start there." Beca nodded before turning to Aubrey, "Stacie's going to join us when we go out and look, Thea is with Anna now. Chloe's still looking for information but she thinks she's onto something, I told her about the curse and the incident when she was a kid to see if that helps narrow things down."
"Is Anna okay?" Katherine asked, sniffing softly, "She's really been struggling since her husband died and now…"
"Stop." Beca's tone was gentle as she reached out and put her hand on Katherine's knee, "If you go down this road of blaming yourself for something beyond your control, you'll never get off it. Tom's death is a tragedy, yes. But it sounds like it was also an accident and you can't be held responsible for that, and neither can Emily. No-one can."
Katherine nodded gratefully, sighing as she pushed herself to her feet, "We should get going then right? It's cold out, I don't want her to be all alone in the cold and frightened."
"Actually, you should stay here." Aubrey smiled softly.
"Like hell I will!" Katherine exclaimed before Aubrey could explain any further, "That's my daughter out there, I will not just sit around whilst she's out there all alone!"
"Katherine, someone needs to be here in case she comes home." Aubrey explained calmly, "Beca, Stacie and I are more than equipped to go out and find Emily."
"But I- she needs to know that I'm not mad at her… that this wasn't her fault…" Katherine's shoulders sagged a little in defeat, knowing that Aubrey was right but hating it.
"And she will." Beca nodded, "We will call you the second we find her."
Katherine nodded, sinking into the sofa again as she sighed heavily, "Just- just find her okay? Bring her home."
"We're all over it." Beca assured her, "We'll call you as soon as we find her."
Stacie met Beca and Aubrey at the edge of the woodland in the park that Katherine had given them directions too, smiling sadly at her friends as they joined her.
"How's Anna doing?" Aubrey asked, grateful for the way that Stacie immediately wrapped her arms around her waist and let her sink into embrace. It had been a very long day and it wasn't even close to being over.
"She's a wreck." Stacie sighed softly, head resting on Aubrey's shoulder, "But what can you expect right now?"
"Come on." Aubrey pulled away reluctantly, hand brushing over the back of Stacie's as she did, "Let's find Emily before she freezes to death out here."
Beca's phone began to ring as they headed into the woods, making them all pause as she answered it and put it on speaker, "Hey Chloe, we're all here what's up?"
"I think I know what the curse made Emily into."
"Oh?" Aubrey raised her eyebrow.
"I was trying to figure out why it would only affect the people that she loved, that's a really specific attribute that would help narrow down the depressing number of things that suck the life essence out of humans. It got me thinking about sirens, y'know the parasite demons that lured pirates to their deaths using their voices and the pirate's general horniness? They only live out at sea, they need the saltwater, but it got me wondering if there was a dry land equivalent and I found something. A succubus."
"Of course…" Stacie sighed, "That fits. Nice catch Chloe, this really helps."
"Wait, what exactly do succubuses do?" Beca frowned, hearing Chloe stifle a laugh.
"Succubi Beca."
"What? What did I say?" Beca raised her eyebrow, "It's the same thing!"
"It's really not." Chloe was laughing softly as Beca pouted a little.
"Well excuse me for not knowing what the plural of succubus is, it's almost like I don't have a reason to know it!"
"Anyway…" Beca could hear Chloe grinning and it made her heart skip a little. It was the little things that made Beca think that Chloe might be okay someday.
"SuccuBI feed on a person's soul, they use it as food, as a way to heal from injuries, and to prolong their own life. Traditionally they use their sexuality to lure young men into their trap and feed from them for a few days, really draw it out and make it as painful as possible. But obviously that's not we have here. I think the curse gave Emily these powers but none of the inherent evil that comes with them, she and Tom must have been fooling around and the succubus in her took over and just drained him completely. She didn't know what she was doing…"
"God poor kid…" Beca sighed heavily, running her hand through her hair, "We need to find her, she must be out of her mind terrified."
"Agreed." Aubrey nodded, "Thanks for this Chloe, it's just what we needed."
"Yeah, of course. Just find her okay?"
"That's the plan." Stacie grinned, Beca hanging up as they headed into the woods.
They seemed to search for hours, even their heightened powers and Stacie's magic making it difficult to make sense of the dense woodland. It was getting darker and colder, and they were starting to get seriously worried about the condition of the teenage girl hiding from them.
"Emily?" Beca called, frowning softly as she squinted through the darkness. She could smell blood, only a hint of it, but it was unmistakeable, "Guys, over here."
Beca beckoned to Aubrey and Stacie who followed her through the thicket, Beca sniffing as she moved through the woods. As they moved, Aubrey could hear the sound of quiet sobbing and she called out again.
"Emily?"
"D-don't come any closer!"
They spun to the left, eyes falling on a cowering teenager with dark hair pressed against the trunk of a tree. She was shivering furiously, eyes wild, arms wrapped tightly around as she pulled her knees as close to her chest as possible, small cuts on her arms and her cheek from where she'd run through brambles.
"Emily?" Stacie stepped forward a little, lowering herself to her knees as Aubrey and Beca hung back a little, not wanting to crowd the petrified young woman, "It's okay. You're okay now."
"N-no." Emily shook her head furiously, "No it's not. I- I didn't mean to, I don't know what happened, but I killed him. I can't- that's murder!"
"No sweetie." Stacie shook her head softly, "It isn't. We know it was an accident, this wasn't your fault. My name is Stacie, this is Beca and Aubrey, we're here to help you."
"Y-you can't help me." Emily shook her head again, tears pouring down her cheeks, "I-I don't know what's wrong with me… I just- I'll just stay here, I can't hurt anyone out here. Just go away!"
"We can't do that." Aubrey smiled gently, "Your mom is really worried about you, and we promised that we'd bring you home safe."
"C'mon Emily-" Stacie reached out her hand towards Emily, cut off from her reassurances by the teenager.
"NO!" Emily screamed, cowering further away, nostrils flaring as her eyes were wild and bright with fear, "Don't touch me! I'll hurt you, I don't- I can't-"
"Hey, hey it's okay." Beca gently pulled Stacie back and knelt in front of Emily, "I know what it's like to be afraid of yourself and what you can do. To be something scary that you don't understand and never wanted to be. You can't hurt me, we know what your powers are and I promise you they can't affect me."
Emily frowned a little in confusion as Beca smiled kindly at her, hand reaching out slowly towards her.
"You can't hurt me Emily." Beca repeated, "It's really cold out here. Your mom really wants to see you. Come with us, and I promise we'll figure all this out."
"Are- are you sure I can't hurt you?" Emily whimpered.
"Certain." Beca nodded, waiting patiently as Emily hesitantly reached out for her hand.
As she gripped it, Beca carefully helped Emily to her feet, shrugging off her jacket and draping it around Emily before putting her arm around her waist and guiding her out of the woodland, Aubrey and Stacie close behind. Beca helped the trembling Emily into the car, feeling the hand in hers grip her harder as Beca went to pull away.
"It's okay." Beca reassured her, "I'm not going anywhere, I just need to call your mom and let her know we're taking you back to our office whilst we figure things out."
"You'll come back right?" Emily was pleading, "You won't leave me?"
"I will be right back, I promise." Beca nodded, a soft smile on her face.
"Okay." Emily whispered, feeling exhaustion start to fall on her like a lead blanket. It wasn't long before she fell into a fitful sleep, head on Beca's shoulder when she got back into the car next to her.
Katherine met them at their office, already sat inside with Chloe when they arrived. She scrambled to her feet as Beca entered with Emily in her arms, fear written across her face as Aubrey quickly shushed her and gently encouraged her back into her seat.
"She's okay. She fell asleep on the way here, it's not surprising really." Aubrey smiled softly, Katherine watching as Beca carefully settled Emily onto a sofa and found a blanket to drape over her.
"God, this is all such a mess…" Katherine sighed heavily, hands tangling in her hair.
"I know." Chloe sympathised, "But we'll figure it out, we'll find a way to break the curse and help Emily."
"Unfortunately that's easier said than done…" Stacie sank into a chair next Katherine, "Katherine I need to be brutally honest with you here."
"What is it?" Katherine frowned, heart lurching, "Is she going to be okay?"
"Gypsy curses can't be broken by anyone other than the witch who cast it or her descendants. The Council has great records on almost everything, but this is the one thing they have been unable to keep track of. It could take months, years even before we find out which family it was that cursed Emily's family and where they are." Stacie felt tears sting in the corner of her eyes as she watched Katherine's face contort into a look of horror and sadness.
"How- how am I supposed to keep her safe, to reassure her that things will be okay when I don't know when they will be?" Katherine exclaimed, her eyes flicking to her sleeping daughter as Beca sat by her side, gently brushing her hair from her face, and keeping her promise not to leave her side, "How do I get her to leave the house again when she's afraid to be around people?"
"We have something of a solution to that." Aubrey smiled softly, "There's a safe place for kids like Emily known as The Academy, it teaches supernatural kids how to control their powers and keeps them safe. I talked to Thea, she's the head of the Council, and she found a place for Emily to stay there."
"Away from me?" Katherine sighed softly, "Like you're locking her away?"
"You would be able to come and see her whenever you wanted." Stacie shook her head, "It's not a prison or a punishment, we want to help her. Bree and I both went through The Academy, it's amazing. She'll be so safe there and they'll be able to help her better than any of us can."
Katherine looked over to Emily again, chewing her bottom lip, "I- I just want her to be okay… I don't want her to be alone and afraid."
"She won't be." Aubrey reassured, "Alone at least, we know her roommate. Her name's Ellie and she's a great kid. She's been through a lot herself, but she'll be able to help Emily work her way through this."
"You promise me that she'll be safe there, that this is the best thing I can do for her?" Katherine hated the idea of sending Emily away, but she so wanted her to get help, to not accidentally hurt someone she cared about ever again.
"I promise." Stacie nodded, giving Katherine's hand a gentle squeeze.
"Okay." Katherine nodded, "Okay I'll do it. As long as she's safe and getting help, that's all I care about."
Chloe was sat by the window in the apartment upstairs, watching as Aubrey and Stacie got into the car to drive Emily and Katherine to The Academy. Emily had been reticent to go at first, but had been persuaded to try it for a little while, and considering the nature of the curse she had been too afraid to go home with her mom in case the same thing happened to her.
Beca joined her, sighing softly as she leant against the window frame, "Poor kid. Her whole life has been turned upside down by a mistake a relative she's never met made years before she was even born."
"It's so sad." Chloe shook her head, "She seems like such a nice person, and now she's never going to be the same because the monster inside her took over and hurt someone."
Beca glanced over at Chloe, wondering if she was still talking about Emily, "Yeah. It can really mess a person up to not be in control and do something they wouldn't do if they were able to put a stop to it."
"It's not the same." Chloe whispered, shaking her head, "I know what you're thinking Beca, but it's not. I was still in there. I had every intention of killing the person holding me because I thought it was Gail. I don't get a free pass because of that."
"It was- you know what I'm not doing this." Beca shook her head, her tone growing harsher than she meant it to, "I'm not going to stand here and tell you the same thing I've told you a hundred times. One day you'll see that you and Emily aren't that different, that Sheila's death isn't your fault, that you are a good person because you're sorry that you hurt people even if it wasn't you that hurt them. But I am exhausted from trying to tell you these things when you're not listening to me when I say them."
Chloe turned from the window, watching as Beca walked away from her. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she felt the crushing weight of her sadness weigh in her chest. Beca paused as she walked away, sighing heavily as her shoulders sagged.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled, turning back to Chloe, "I didn't- I'm just worried about you Chloe."
"I don't mean to make you worry." Chloe whispered, gaze dropping to the floor as she sniffed, "I don't even want to be here, it would be so much easier for all of you if I wasn't."
"No." Beca shook her head furiously as she sat next to Chloe, gently lifting her head so that she was looking at her, "We would not be able to do this without you. Look at today, we were able to give a frightened little girl some answers as to what was happening because you found them. You have to be here Chloe, I- I need you here. I can't do this without you."
Chloe's eyes widened a little, chewing her bottom lip as she looked at Beca, "I don't- I'm sorry, I can't-"
"I don't want you to be sorry Chlo, you have nothing to be sorry for." Beca shook her head, "I shouldn't have said that it's not fair. But you are needed here Chloe, you are such an important part of this team."
"You really think so?" Chloe whispered.
"I know so." Beca nodded, only allowing the tears to run down her cheeks when Chloe let her head rest on her shoulder, "We'll get through this Chloe. You, me and the vampire hunters equivalent of Jay-Z and Beyonce, we'll get through this eventually."
Chloe laughed softly as Beca slowly wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into a gentle embrace.
"I'll try to listen when you tell me it isn't my fault." Chloe mumbled into Beca's shoulder, "I'm really going to try."
"That's all I can ask for." Beca smiled softly, her embrace tightening just a little, "All I can ask is you try."