Mercy crossover w/ Roswell MAJOR Roswell AU - I cherry picked what I liked from the books and the original TV show and made up a bunch of stuff to suit the story I wanted to tell. (nothing from the new show; I consider that a completely different universe) Roswell characters are basically who they were in the series (a mix, if they were part of both) but make no assumptions about backstory.
This story takes place after the events of Storm Cursed.
The smell of roasting hotdogs, hamburgers and pickles peppered the late summer air, mingling with the fresh perfume of the Columbia River.
I sat at a picnic table, eating my burger and watching kids in bathing suits, shorts, or nothing at all, running up and down the sandy river bank, under the watchful eyes of their parents. Adam sat across from me, chatting with one of his Hauptman security employees, though I didn't think it was about work stuff.
A few other pack members were attending the Labor Day picnic. Mary Jo stood by the corn hole boards, along with a handful of other firefighters. Her arm was wrapped around Renny's waste, which made me smile. I knew Kelly was around somewhere, with his wife and kids. Warren, Kyle and Zach were also around.
Everyone was happy, having a good time.
It says a lot about the state of my life when everything going well makes me uneasy. The memory of burning flesh and the stink of zombies and black magic still crept up on me now and then. I brushed off the feeling, and finished my hamburger. "I'm going down to the water."
Adam caught my hand, and gave me a questioning look, at the same time, reaching through our mate bond.
"I'm good." I gave his hand a squeeze. "Just need some clean air."
"I'll join you in a minute." He turned back to his conversation and I walked down to the river.
I found Kelly, one of the pack members, and his wife Hannah. Their two oldest, Makaya and Brayden, stood shin deep in the murky water, splashing each other and giggling. As I approached, Brayden caught Makaya full in the face, then took off into deeper water.
Hannah held her youngest on her hip, while the other boy played in the sand.
"Dare me to jump in, Mercy?" Kelly and Hannah laughed at the look I shot him.
"I'd rather not have to drag your drowning self out of the river." We chatted for a bit, then Hannah's eyes snapped to the water. "Brayden! That's too far!"
My gaze locked on the little boy, sandy hair plastered to his head, struggling to tread water. And pushing himself further out, where the current grew stronger.
Half a second after I spotted him, he disappeared.
Everything happened so fast, yet it was imprinted in my memory with agonizing slowness, each detail clenching my heart. Hannah screamed, still clutching her daughter. At the corner of my left eye Kelly lunged forward. I threw out on arm to stop him, because werewolves don't swim, they sink. Several other people started for the water.
A dark shape darted passed me, and dove into the river. The speed immediately made me think it was one of the pack.
Adam appeared on my right, eyes scanning the rippling surface.
"Was that one of ours?" I started forward, not that I had any better chance of saving either the boy or his attempted rescuer. They'd have been swept away by now.
"It was a boy, a teenager, I think." Adam grunted. "Moved so darn fast I barely caught a look at him."
Seconds had passed, every single one a precious drop of oxygen for the two people lost under the water. Several firefighters reached the shoreline, prepared to dive in.
"Stop!" A blond girl came running, waving her arms. "Wait, please. Michael is a really good swimmer." She stopped a few feet from me, and several details made themselves rapidly clear.
She was several years younger than Jesse, her hair hanging in soft curls down to her shoulders. Despite her assurance about her friend, she radiated anxiety, along with a scent I had never come across before. Ozone, overlaid by the blandness of unscented soap.
Adam moved to stand between us, which meant he'd caught the scent too.
Everyone stared at the girl, and her cheeks reddened. "Please, he'll bring the kid back." Though her voice trembled, her grey eyes held confidence.
Kelly held Hannah, their three other kids huddled around them. His jaw held so much tension I thought it might snap. Hannah sobbed, and tried again to wrench free of his arms.
Two of the firefighters started to wade out.
"Wait," the girl called.
The taller of the two gave her a pitying look. "Honey, your friend is drowning."
"No, he isn't." She swallowed, eyes growing bright.
Something hummed in the air. It prickled over my skin, raising the hair on my arms. Adam tensed beside me.
The firemen stood frozen, arms limp at their sides.
I wanted to step around Adam, to reach for the girl, but I couldn't. My muscles just wouldn't work. I still felt every agonizing minute that passed. Four agonizing minutes, as I learned later. I would have guessed four years.
"There they are!"
People shouted, pointing down river. A quarter mile away, two heads bobbed in the water. Whatever spell the girl had cast broke, and the firemen, along with pretty much everyone, went running down the bank. The girl flew past me. I exchanged a significant look with Adam, and we joined the crowd.
By the time we reached the spot, a black haired, stocky teenage boy was dragging Braydon out of the water. The little boy spluttered and coughed, water streaming from his nose and mouth. The teenager, Michael the girl called him, collapsed onto the sand, cradling Braydon in his arms. The little boy fought him, crying in his blind panic.
Hannah appeared, scooping her son into her arms.
The boy's rescuer drew one knee up to rest his forehead, breathing deeply. Though not nearly as deeply as I would have expected for someone who just spent several minutes without oxygen. The girl, on the other hand, was flushed and trembling. She crouched at his side, and whispered in his ear. "We have to go."
I knelt beside them, Adam standing just behind me, allowing me to take point. The girl jumped at my presence, and watched me with wary eyes as I placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.
He lifted his head, and dark brown eyes met mine.
"You were under water for a long time. A paramedic should check you out."
I expected either him or the girl to protest, but he nodded. "Yeah, sure. Is the kid okay?"
Adam glanced over his shoulder. "He's with the paramedics now. Come on, let's get you over there." He reached a hand down to help the boy to his feet.
Michael stood about six inches shorter than Adam, and looked maybe a few years older than his companion, who stood a few inches shorter than him. She didn't look pleased with his agreement, and stuck close to his side on the walk to the medic station.
"Isabel, it's fine," he whispered. "You're going to make them suspicious."
Braydon clung to his mother while a medic checked his lungs. Kelly hovered over them, his other three kids ranged around him. His attention darted to Michael when we reached the tent, then back to his son.
A paramedic draped a towel around Michael's shoulders and pushed him into a chair. Another medic, a middle aged woman with a no-nonsense demeanor, set a chair in front of him. "That was a foolhardy thing to do, young man."
He said nothing as she checked his lungs, frowning heavily. Her gaze found me and Adam. "Mr. Hauptman, how long were they under?"
"Four minutes." Adam answered. "And around 17 seconds, according to my watch." Adam wore the sort of high-tech super watch that could probably handle a missile launch. "I happened to check it," he whispered low enough only I would hear. "Right before she cast whatever spell that was."
The second the paramedic said my name, the girl, Isabel's, eyes widened, and her hand on Michael's shoulder tensed. Her eyes darted from me to Adam as the color drained from her face.
They knew the name Hauptman, which was no surprise as Adam was something of a minor celebrity. The question was, what frightened them? Werewolves were scary, but I had a feeling there was more to it.
Michael shared his friend's unique scent. With the excitement over, I picked up a bit more. There was a human-like component to it, though still quite different from anything I'd ever smelled. Both their scents were overlaid with maybe three or four others similar to them. And Michael apparently had a lover, a woman.
The paramedic shook her head. "No water in your lungs, breathing normal, heart rate normal." She narrowed her eyes at Michael. "You on a swim team?"
"No team, I just swim a lot. Since I was a kid."
She grunted, slinging the stethoscope around her neck. "You're lucky." With a glance behind her at Braydon, she grinned. "Nice job."
Michael looked down, shoulders hunching. "Thanks."
"Can we go?" Isabel was looking at the paramedic. She had been studiously avoiding my gaze and Adam's.
The paramedic turned to Adam and me. People tended to treat us as authorities, no matter the situation. I wouldn't pass up a chance to learn more about these two. "Do you have a way to get home? We can drive you."
"No, we're fine. Thanks." Michael rose to his feet, throwing an arm around Isabel's shoulders. He steered her past us, out from under the tent.
Hannah looked up as they passed, and caught Michael's arm. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
He gaped at her, his shock and embarrassment making him seem much younger. "It's fine." He carefully pulled his arm free, and they left her staring after them. She hugged her son to her chest, tears trailing down her cheeks. Kelly knelt beside the chair and wrapped his arms around them.
I wanted to go after the two, but I had no concrete evidence of anything. And I had a strong feeling they wouldn't be very cooperative. I shared a look with Adam, and he nodded. "Me too. We'll look into it."
Since I had claimed the Tri-cities as our territory, and under our protection, anything preternatural fell to us. These kids were definitely not ordinary humans, and they knew it.
Adam wrapped his arms around me, chin resting on my shoulder. "Stop worrying. Whatever they are, they don't seem threatening." He sighed, and I wondered if he was thinking what I was. Maybe this one we could let go. A couple of kids who seemed to want to be left alone, but had saved a boy from drowning at the risk of drawing attention. Not really raising red flags, compared to what we'd dealt with before. Still, what that girl had done, that took serious power.
The chaos had broken up the picnic a bit, but people were trying to pull things back together. Kelly and Hannah took their kids to the car to settle them down, but insisted they would be back.
"I'm going to ask around, and see if anyone else talked to those kids."
Adam nodded. "I'll check with the other pack members."
Along the river's edge I found a group of teenagers our two mysterious strangers had talked to for a bit.
Apparently they'd been out walking along the river, and stumbled on the picnic. They shared a few sodas and talked for a while, but not about anything terribly significant. They'd just moved to Kennewick a few weeks ago, and the discussion had mostly run to movies and music.
When Hannah yelled, Michael had leapt to his feet and taken off running.
"Did they say anything else?"
One girl shrugged. "The girl, Isabel? She mentioned an older brother and his wife. I think they live with him." Her face brightened. "Oh, and he said he'd gotten a job flipping burgers. He didn't say where."
I thanked the kids, and went to find Adam. He stood with Warren, Kyle and Mary Jo, near the picnic tables where we'd eaten lunch. I gave them a run-down on what little I'd learned. They hadn't fared any better.
"No one else spoke to them, and they bolted straight out of here." Warren tipped back his cowboy hat to scratch his forehead. "But it sounds like they've settled here. We ought to be able to find 'em."
Adam gave a brisk nod. "We'll call this low priority for now, but I want to know what's going on with these two."
I knew what he was thinking. After everything we'd dealt with in the past almost four years, letting any oddity slide didn't sit well.
"Mr. Adam! Mercy!" Makaya, Kelly's older daughter, ran toward us, little arms and legs pumping. "Come to the car. Daddy wants you to see something."
My heart leapt into my throat, although if it was life threatening, Kelly would have sent her to fetch the paramedics. Adam and I followed the little girl to the make-shift parking lot, a field of summer-dry grass, parking spaces marked with little red stakes.
Kelly and Hannah's SUV was parked in the third row, the trunk open. Brayden sat on the edge, legs swinging, looking surprisingly unconcerned. Maybe because Hannah and Kelly were going to great effort to not reveal their inner turmoil. The werewolf and Hannah smelled of fresh fear and panic, though they smiled when we came up.
Kelly ruffled Brayden's hair. "Bray, show Adam and Mercy your new tattoo."
With an excited grin, Brayden lifted his tank top.
A silvery handprint glowed in the center of his chest.
"Holy cow," I muttered, sharing a look with Adam.
"Yeah," he said, in response to the question evident in my eyes, as well as Kelly and Hannah's. "Finding these kids just became priority one."
Credit to Patricia Briggs for the Mercy Thompson series, Jason Katims for the original Roswell tv series and the Roswell High book series by Melinda Metz
