A/N : Okay, I know it's been a year since the last update, and I'm sorry. I could make up excuses like 'I didn't have time', or 'I had no inspiration', and though both those statements are true, I also found time to write other stories, so I guess I just didn't try hard enough. It was a bit difficult too to come back to this fic, but I really enjoyed it, so I don't think I'll definitely abandon it. I probably won't update regularly, since I'm actually working a real job now (bye-bye law school, hope I'll never see you again), but I intend in keeping writing the nonsense that goes through my head.

I think I improved my english a great deal since the first chapters, but I know I still make mistakes, so if you spot them, please tell me :)

CHAPTER 14

The day after, the first ferry was at eight o'clock, so they made sure to be among the first in line to get on it. The way across the sea was longer than they wanted, since they were so tense and impatient to go back to work, and they felt like lions in cage, pacing around and refusing to settle in the seats or to simply enjoy the view.

About ten minutes before arriving to the docks, Jamie finally received a text from Mitch. He asked them to meet him at a square near their previous hotel. He refused to give any more information, beside a very cryptic and unsettling 'I fucked up'. So the group, who was already restless and nervous, grew even more restless and nervous, and nearly yelled at the first person who dared standing in front of them on the way down the boat.

They had to find a taxi with enough room for all of them, and couldn't, so they then had to wait for another one and had to drive separately. Chloé was worried about what Mitch had done, but tried to remain in control of herself throughout the whole ride, while Jackson did his best to appear neutral, if not relaxed. Jamie was full-on stressed and spent all her time spamming messages to the vet. Niamh, on her part, was doing incredibly well, for someone easily moved by pressure. She contained her inner wolf and even managed to make small talk to Abraham during their ride.

When they got out of their cars, paid their ride and gathered together, it was nearly ten o'clock, and Mitch was waiting for them on a nearby bench, his face grave with worry and... guilt ? His heart was beating increasingly faster, drawing Niamh's attention on him as she focused on him rather than to let the world overwhelm her. The vet avoided their direct stares and anxious questions, taking one step back when Jamie tried to reach out for him. It was enough red flags for Niamh to bristle and lowly growl.

"What have you done, Mitch ?" she asked warily.

"I, uh... You should sit, guys."

"Mitch. Tell us, now", Chloé backed Niamh up with authority.

He sighed deeply, wiping his face wearily with a hand, holding his glasses in the other.

"I went to Reiden with the Mother Cell to bargain for medicine for Clem."

There was a brief silence filled with shock, and then...

"Oh my God, you bastard !" That was Jamie, immediately stepping back from him, a disgusted and betrayed expression on her face.

"It was for my daughter", the tired man tried to defend himself, although he knew he was guilty.

"Even so", the reporter insisted.

"You gonna tell me if you could've saved your mother, you wouldn't have done the same ?" he bit back, a glint of rightful fury in his eyes that died as soon as it had burnt out.

The young woman couldn't answer to this. It was a direct accusation, and she couldn't avoid it. So she quietly averted her eyes, her jaws closed tightly in unspoken anger and personal guilt. Once again, silence settled between them for a few seconds.

"So you did it ? You traded the Mother Cell for the medicine ?" Chloe asked with resignation and a hint of despair.

If they had lost the Mother Cell, it was over. No more damning proof, no more possible tests, no more research. No more nothing. Mitch pulled the plastic cylinder for his bag with a hurt look.

"No, I didn't".

"Come one, Mitch, don't give us that look, you were ready to do it", Niamh hissed.

"Yeah, I almost did. For my daughter", he defended himself again, hostile and defensive. But he also noticed that even though she seemed pissed by his try to diminish the gravity of what he did, she didn't judge him as hard as the others on his reasons. "Although you seem to understand better than the others, I feel."

"I do. I understand the things one can do for their pack. Your daughter is precious to you, and I understand why you did what you did. I don't like it, I certainly don't stand by it, but I get why you were ready to endanger everything for the one you love most."

"How can you agree with him, Niamh ?" Jackson wondered, baffled by her behavior. "We're here trying to do this, trying to come up with a solution for everything, and you would- you would hust give that away ?"

He was seething, but kept it remarkably well under control, the yound metamorph could feel it. They had nearly died on an island infested with man-killing-and-eating rats, risking their lives to find more clues on how the Mother Cell affected the animals and spread, and meanwhile, Mitch was sabotaging their efforts. He had every right to be mad. Mitch, on the other hand, accepted every attack, gazing at the emptiness of the air in front of him, simply waiting for it to be over, and containing his own frustration.

"Look", he eventually said, stepping in. "While I'm not trying to minimize any of it, you're all focusing on the wrong guy right now. Okay ? Delavane ? Not who we think he is."

"What do you mean ?" Chloé was the first to ask. After all, she was Delavane's proxy, as he called her, so if there was something fishy about him, she had the right to know.

"He was there. In Reiden's office. And not like he was an Interpol agent running an investigation on a shady company. He was there, working for Reiden."

"What ?"

"How can you be so sure ? Maybe he had a good reason to be there", Abe tried to de-escalate the situation, ever the calm and collected one.

"Oh, get serious. I saw his face. Trust me."

"You're asking us to trust you ?" Chloé chuckled with a icy smile.

"I'm asking you to call my character into question at a later date. Delavane was not at Reiden because it was Bring Your Shadowy Interpol Agenr to the Office Day. He was there because he works there."

"So first Shafer is not really a honest FBI agent, and now Delavane isn't law enforcement either ? I'm starting to doubt Chloé's even in DGSE", Niamh scoffed with a sarcastic grin.

"Did he see you ?" the blonde asked Mitch with a terse look for Niamh, and when the vet didn't speak up, paradoxally giving an answer, she added : "This is bad."

"So you're saying the company that put us together is the same company that we're trying to take down ?" Abe summed up, his voice doubtful.

"It appears that way."

As she glanced around them, looking for any sign of danger or FBI, Niamh suddenly blanched at a thought that crept up her mind. If Delavane was working for Reiden... Then the odds were high that Alves did too. And then there was a significant probability that the multinational company knew of her secret. Of an entire species' secret. She couldn't help herself and stumbled, her legs weak under her. What if Reiden took actions against her people ? What if they honed their product to aim specifically at werewolves and Berserkers ? What if they deemed them dangerous and tried to kill them all ? Or worse, what if they thought they could use them ? Calibrate the effects of the Mother Cell to alter their lucidity and then making them compliant and docile ?

Maybe she was just paranoid, but now that this thought had left its seeds in her mind, she knew there was no way she could get rid of it until she got a proper answer. She pulled her attention back on the conversation, trying to act as though she hadn't just zoned out badly.

Too bad for her, it seemed that Jamie's racing mind had come to the same conclusion as hers, and she was now staring at her younger friend with worry and hesitation.

"Niamh... You don't seem well... What's the matter ?"

"Nothing. I can deal with it", she replied stubbornly, refusing to show any weakness.

"Niamh. We talked about this. We're here for you just as much as you're here for us. Is it about Delavane ? Stupid, of course it is..." Jamie mumbled to herself. "You think Reiden might know about you, right ? About you, and about your people ?"

Clenching her jaws and rounding her back in a defensive position, Niamh nodded as she avoided Jamie's compassionate gaze. She so only then noticed that Chloé had walked a few feet away to answer a phone call that had her worried, her brows scrunched up in concern.

"We're gonna figure this out, I promise", Jamie said, reaching out a hand to Niamh's valid shoulder.

"How so ?" the girl replied with utter absence of hope that froze everyone's blood in their veins. "We don't know where Alves is, or Delavane. We only know that the latter is looking for us, since he saw Mitch trying to sell the Mother Cell, and that we couldn't find anything in Reiden's accounts about funding Shafer. This company is a black hole of information, and it's going to swallow us all."

They were about to try and cheer her up, to find some hope somewhere, but didn't have time as Chloé stalked back up to them.

"We have to go."

"What happened ?" Abe asked, straightening up.

"That was my colleague at the DGSE. The FBI has issued a warrant for my arrest. Jamie and Niamh's too."

"What ?" Niamh blurted out, shocked.

"Ben Shafer." Jamie realized immediately. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry !"

"There's nothing to apologize for. It's only a matter of time before they connect the rest of you. We have to go, guys."

"Hey, h-hold on. Go where, huh ? If-if the FBI is after us, if Delavane works for Reiden, where are we gonna go ?

"Yeah, I don't speak 'spy', but... pretty much feels like game over", Mitch added.

"Yeah, fuck that", Niamh interrupted, her will to fight back in her. "We're gonna fight. We've been doing illegal stuff since the beginning of this mission, how is this any different ?"

"Niamh, we have FBI after us, now", Jackson repeated slowly with fear in his eyes as he tried to make her understand the gravity of the situation.

"And ? We used to have Reiden after us since the beginning without us knowing. We have the animals trying to kill us already. What more is the FBI ? Look, we still have the rats from Pender Island. Mitch, you should examine them, see if we can learn anything from them, then we run. There's always somewhere to go, and if they close in on us, well that's their mistake", she growled menacingly, clenching her fists.

Chloé sighed and looked around them. No sign of incoming enemies for now.

"I think Niamh's right. While Mitch runs tests on the rats, I suggest we keep looking at Reiden's finances. We still haven't been able to prove any link between them and Shafer."

The others nodded and followed their blonde leader to the hotel. It was a weird thing for them, they weren't used to being hunted down. About two hours after they started studying the documents and Mitch examining the rats, they heard him curse, as well as a loud noise they guessed was him kicking the bed.

"What's wrong ?" Abe inquired.

"I don't have half the material I'd need to do anything significant !" the vet nearly yelled in anger. "All I can tell is that those finger-biting motherfuckers here are indeed infected by the Mother Cell !"

"So still no cure in sight ?"

"Of course not !" he retorted with acid in his voice.

"Wait a cure ? So it's back in the field of possibility ?" Niamh interrupted.

"Yeah, we talked about it earlier. Didn't you listen ?" Jackson said, looking at her curiously. "Usually you're quite attentive to this topic..."

"Well, I wasn't this time", the girl replied tersely.

"I was saying that maybe we could use the Mother Cell to possibly reverse the mutation. Theoretically. I think that maybe -and it's a big maybe-, with the DNA of a mutated animal, we could do it. But we'd need a naturally occurring mutation, without the Mother Cell. And it's like trying to find a needle in a stack of other needles, in every country on Earth. But without that animal, we don't have a cure, nor do we have any hope of making one from scratch."

Niamh sighed and dropped on the nearest chair, resting her head in her hand. Why couldn't it be easy like in the movies ? Why couldn't it be done in a couple of hours and be released of this stress and anxiety slowly eating them up ?

The others were glancing at her with pity in their eyes, something that she couldn't stand. She hated being viewed as weak and pitiful, but she wasn't trying very hard to stop her own hopelessness from settling in. It was becoming harder and harder to keep fighting this feeling. She let out a long and deep sigh and closed her eyes. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she raised her gaze to meet Chloé's comforting one. An unknown warmth settled in her heart and stomach, seemingly coming from where Chloé's hand was touching her shoulder, forcing a smile on her lips. A sad smile, but still. It felt good to have friends, to feel supported.

"Thank you. For being here", she simply whispered.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I think you can take the sling off, now", Mitch stated after examining Niamh's shoulder and arm.

He had made her move it around slowly, to test her rotative range, and decided that the wound was healed enough for her to stop having it bandaged all the time.

"Thank God !" she groaned. "I couldn't bear it anymore."

She swiftly took off the annoying thing and discarded it without a second thought.

"Um, considering your inclination to getting in trouble, I wouldn't just toss it away", Jamie pointed out.

"Yeah, maybe you should keep it. Who knows when you'll be shot again in the arm", Jackson added, before pausing for a few seconds. "Well, said like that it sounds a lot less likely to happen soon."

"Still. You should keep it", Mitch agreed with the two others.

"Fine."

She stored the sling away in her bag, wincing slightly at the stiffness of her arm. It would take a bit of time before she had the same flexibility as before her injury.

"Okay so now what ? We got rid of the rats", she said, shivering at the terrifyingly disgusting memory of the drowned man-killing rats in the bathtub then tossed into a garbage dumpster, "and we still have the FBI after us. How do we find our needle in a stack of seemingly identical needles ?"

Chloé sighed, holding her head in her hands, eyes closed.

"First, we need to get new phones. The FBI can probably track ours", she said.

"Right. Let's look like a bunch of criminals and buy burner phones", Jamie snarked ironically.

"Jamie, please", Jackson tempered. "We have to do this. It's gonna be alright, we're gonna make it through."

She sighed almost desperately, avoiding his eyes.

"Okay guys, let's do this, shall we ?" Abe suggested, taking matters in hands.

He led them outside and left them all in front of an electronics store, only to come back a few minutes later, loaded with enough phones for everybody. Niamh chuckled.

"Woah, that's a lot of burner phones. Did the cashier look at you weird ?"

"You bet he did", he replied with a tense smile. "Probably thinks I'm running a drug dealing business."

"Maybe we should not be standing around in a clump like this..." Jamie remarked worrily.

While the others trid to comfort and reassure her, Niamh only stared blank faced at her new phone. It meant she couldn't call Richard anymore. Not anytime soon, and possibly not before the end of the animal apocalypse. She sighed longly and pocketed the phone while looking around for threats.

"Okay, any calls you make, keep the short. From now on, we pay cash for everything. And no more contact with family and friends", Chloé instructed, turning to Mitch and Niamh in particular.

The girl simply nodded gravely, understanding the situation, but Mitch made a noise clearly stating his disagreement.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Not for me anyway."

"Mitch..." Niamh sighed again.

"Why not ?"

"'Cause I got to get these meds to Clem. And FBI or not, I'm bringing them to her."

Every single one of them suddenly recoiled and turned away from the siren-whooping police car as it drove past them. As soon as it turned round the corner, Jackson spoke.

"All right guys, stop. Just stop. Now we've been together a couple months as a team. We're doing pretty good, so now, now we got to save our own asses, and we got to save the world."

"That's a bit dramatic, but well said", Mitch remarked.

"Agreed. What's the plan ?" Chloé urged him, always the pragmatic one.

"All right, first off, it's time to go public with this thing. Now we need a more official outlet than your blog, Jamie, but we obviously can't risk just walking into a news station, so who do you know ? Do you know someone that you can contact ?"

The reporter thought about it for about two seconds and nodded.

"Yeah."

"Okay, Abe, take Mitch in the car and go get those meds to Clementine", Jackson decided, taking matters in hand but also choosing to save the little girl and not blindly protect themselves first.

"Okay", the gentle giant replied softly but confidently.

"What about us ?" Chloé and Niamh wondered.

"I've got an idea for us." Jackson grinned darkly.

As soon as the others left -Abe and Mitch to get Clementine her meds, and Jamie to call her friend-, Jackson gathered them three together in a conspirational looking circle.

"We need to be proactive about this situation, okay ? So my plan is, we go to Delavane's house, I remember he lives in this city. We go to his house and ambush him. We convince him to side with us and back us up against Reiden and the FBI, and we finish what we started. We put an end to this shit."

"Um, yeah, fine, but... How do we find him exactly ? Because there's no guarantee he'll come home in the next hours. And how do we actually convince him to do what we want ? 'Cause as far as I know, he's more likely to just ignore us, or call the cops", Niamh pointed out annoyedly.

"That's a very good point, and that's precisely the reason why you're coming with us and not going with Abe or Jamie to protect them. We're going to need your intimidation skills. Probably. Maybe he'll cave in before we actually need them."

"Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath", she snarked, holding back a bark of laughter.

"Okay let's go. We don't have a lot of time before Jamie comes back to the meeting point", Chloé decided, pulling them by the arm.

XXXXXXXXXX

The taxi dropped them in front of a lovely house in the richest part of the suburbs, driving away in an unhurried pace. Jackson went first, closely tailed by Chloé and Niamh, and rang the doorbell. It was a pleasant sound, Niamh noted, even though they didn't actually have time to enjoy it. They only had to wait for a minute before the door unlocked and opened on a wary face.

"Hello madam", Jackson immediately said with a reassuring smile. "We're friends of Thomas'. Is he here ? We'd like to talk to him, please."

The woman's face lit up as a warm grin stretched her lips and she pulled the door wide open.

"Oh I never meet my husband's friends ! Come on in, I'll make you some tea. What's your name ?"

"I'm Kenny, and these are my friends and colleagues Nathalie and Aoife", Jackson introduced them using fake names.

For a split second, Niamh wondered whose names were the other two. On such short notice, he couldn't have found farfetched names and must have relied on familiar ones, to an extent. She herself had been given her mother's name, but what about them ? Was Nathalie Chloé's sister, the one they heard about when they were in Paris ? And Kenny ? Who the fuck was Kenny ? And then it dawned on her. Jackson had a conflicted relationship with his father, who wasn't named Kenny anyway, but had a very close frienship with Abe, whose family name was Kenyatta. Kenny.

Sly motherfucker, Niamh couldn't help but think with a smirk.

They followed Delavane's wife inside and took advantage of the fact that she was going to the kitchen to make some tea to look around. Fancy furniture, curtains and decorations adorned the living room. Way too expensive for an international police agent salary. Jackson whistled admiratively under his breath.

"Yeah. Same", Niamh added in a whisper as she leaned in to pick up a photograph.

Delavane and his wife on their wedding day. They looked happy, smiling at the camera, but standing close together as if they were trying to smile to each other without looking. Niamh felt her heart twinge. This photo was a generic wedding photo, so many couples took the same, but it also reminded her of her parents' photos. The way they looked at each other with love and caring in their eyes. She shivered and nearly dropped the photo when images of blood and death appeared over her memories.

"Are you alright ?" Chloé asked, having noticed her sudden palor.

"Yeah... bad memories that's all", she replied more tersely than she wanted.

She delicately put the frame back on the shelf and walked around in the living room, smelling everything she could. Every furniture was imprinted with Delavane's wife smell : she was here more often than her husband. His scent was still there, but thinner. As she was about to go explore a bit more, Delavane's wife came back in the living room with a tray of tea and cups.

"So, I brought green tea, black tea, and sugar. If you want mik or creme, just ask, I'll go get some", she said as she set the tray on the coffee table. "Come on, sit down, make yourselves home." She gestured towards the couch.

All three of them complied and sat there, shoulder to shoulder, hesitant to start talking. After all, they weren't really friends with Delavane, and only Chloé could be reasonably informed enough to talk about him, being his 'proxy' with the group. They remained awkwardly silent for a moment before the other woman spoke again.

"Oh I forgot to introduce myself ! I'm Sasha, just in case my husband wouldn't have talked about me."

"Don't worry, he did", Jackson reassured her with a lie as smooth as his easy smile. "Only good things, I assure you", he added laughing.

"You never know with husbands", Sasha agreed, shaking her head. "He's always so focused on his work it's like I don't exist sometimes. But don't get me wrong, he's very loving."

"We wouldn't dare assume such thing, Mrs. Delavane", Chloé pitched in.

"Please, call me Sasha, we're friends now, are we ? Friends of my husband's are friends of mine. So tell me, what do you want ?"

All three of them froze in fear, faces suddenly expressionless and muscles tensinng in their bodies.

"What tea do you want ?" Sasha repeated, seemingly not even having noticed their nervousness.

They all let a collective silent sigh of relief, feeling the tension leave them a bit, and smiles come back to their lips. Except for Niamh, who rarely smiled to strangers.

"Black for me, please", Jackson spoke up first.

"Me too, please", Chloé added.

"What about you, sweetie ?"

Niamh's skin crawled at the petname and had to make a conscious effort to unclench her jaws and wear a somewhat forced smile.

"Black too, with sugar."

"It's really nice to meet you", Sasha remarked as she poured four cups of tea. "Though I didn't expect someone so young." She gazed at Niamh with a twinkling eye.

"She's our current intern", Chloé explained swiftly.

"I didn't know Reiden took interns so young. Do you intend to apply once you graduate ?"

Niamh could almost feel the tension come back in each and every one of them. Delavane definitely wasn't an Interpol agent, and his wife knew the truth. Forcing her heart rate to stay in line by breathing slower that usual, she plastered a fake sweet smile on her lips.

"I'm not sure yet. Your husband is very enthusiastic about his work when we're... well, at work, but I was wondering if he maybe told you how he felt about the whole thing when he's in the safety of home", she prodded carefully for information.

Jackson and Chloé eyed her, almost surprised. She wasn't exactly the subtle one of the group and more expected her to be grumpy and have to smoother edges themselves with Delavane's wife.

"He's rather secret, actually. He doesn't tell me a lot about his work, but I guess it's just normal. He's the global chief of staff for Reiden, as you know, it's no small responsibility position. He's important, he can't just let information slip out", she assured them proudly. "But have no fear, it's a good company to work in, they're doing a lot of good work to help people in the future."

Niamh felt her fists ball up before she could refrain herself from doing so. The cup shattered in her hands, surprising everyone, but mostly Mrs. Delavane.

"Oh my God, are you ok ?" she panicked, rushing to Niamh's side.

"Bathroom ?" the girl recoiled to avoid her helping hand from touching her, and asked through her teeth, not looking at her so she couldn't see her bright golden eyes.

"Down the corridor, third door to the right. Do you want me to call an ambulance ? We have bandages too", the woman proposed as she noticed the red that was pooling in Niamh's cupped hand.

"No it's fine."

She squeezed her way past Delavane's wife and made a beeline to the bathroom, her heightened senses picking up the conversation in the living room.

"Did I say something wrong ?"

"No, she's just... she doesn't like being touched", Jackson hesitantly said.

"But how did she... ?"

"It's not her fault... She's really strong and she has that thing that means that sometimes she has uncontrolled movements. Earlier today her arm went on an independance trip and bumped itself in a shelf", Chloé tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for her behavior.

Niamh couldn't see if Mrs. Delavane looked convinced or not, and simply pushed the bathroom door open. She turned the tap on and pushed her injured hand under the water stream, wincing slightly at the cold on her open wound, but pleased to feel the tingle in her eyes recede. The porcelain had sliced through her skin in multiple places on her palm and fingers. Footsteps echoed in the corridor behind her, and a few seconds later Sasha was with her, respectfully avoiding touching her.

"Here, I brought you gauze and disinfectant."

"Thanks", Niamh mumbled back.

As she cleaned her wounds and put a bandage on her hand, she could almost hear Mitch complaining about how she always managed to put herself in situations in which she ended up injured, making her groan in annoyance.

"Is it painful ?" Sasha asked, mistaking the noise she made for pain.

"Not really, no. I was just thinking about my doctor. He'll probably get mad at me for injuring myself again. No, don't look at me like that. He's a good guy. It's just that I tend to hurt myself at least once a day, even though it doesn't come to bleeding as often."

"Well, I hope you're going to be fine. I'll be in the living room with you friends." Sasha took leave with a nervous smile.

When she came back in the living room too, she found Jackson and Chloé laughing at some anecdote about Delavane that Sasha was telling. She went straight to sit back next to Chloé, feeling the older woman press her shoulder against hers in a silent question : 'are you okay ?' She pressed back her answer, a long and steady contact meant to reassure her.

Half an hour later, she perceived faint footsteps on the porch and pressed her shoulder against Chloé's again, this time as a warning, though she wasn't sure it was correctly understood. The handled turned and they all heard the door open in the next room. Sasha excused herself with a smile and went to greet her husband while the three others got up form the couch, ready for the ambush. Niamh hid a wolf-like grin as Jackson immediately went for a framed photograph of Delavane in his army uniform, Chloé by his side, while she herself stayed in her corner of the room.

"Sasha", they could hear him say warmly to his wife.

"Ah, good you're home. I was running out of small talk."

"Hm ?"

"Your friends are here", she explained in a hushed tone, gesturing towards them with her head.

"What ?" He turned towards them as well, incomprehension etched on his face, then recognition, and lastly, tension and slight worry.

"You never mentioned Tommy was in the Air Force", Chloé remarked all too casually, staring right into Delavane's eyes as he set the frame back on the shelf.

"After talking with Sasha, we feel like we barely know you."

"Excuse me", his wife said pleasantly before leaving them alone, effectively bringing the nervous atmosphere down to a really tense one.

Chloé, Jackson and Niamh were staring at Delavane, who was staring back coldly, showing no sign of being ready to back down. That tension and silence really was getting on Niamh's nerves, though, and she decided to let it be known.

"Now you're going to talk, or things are going to real nasty here", she threatened.

"I still have the evidence on you Miss O'Connor, don't try to play this game, because I'll win."

Niamh stiffened and let a menacing growl rumble in her throat that had Delavane freeze in an instant. He knew he technically had the upper ground on this particular argument, but he wasn't so sure it would prevent him from dying a horrible death right here and then.

"Beautiful home", Jackson intervened, defusing the explosive situation just one notch down. "My guess is that a government agent couldn't afford the water bill for a place like this."

Delavane still had this forced and tense smile on his face that made Niamh growl even louder. Even Chloé looked ready to rip him apart.

"Good thing you're not a government agent", Jackson hissed with something that could have passed for betrayal in his voice.

"You have no idea who I am. Or what I am capable of."

"You are the Global chief of staff for Reiden Global, I think that tells us all we need to know", Niamh spat venomously. "And we might not really know you, but you know who we are, and what I am capable of, so start talking. Now."

"Maybe I am. Maybe not", Delavane replied almost playfully.

He nearly startled when both Jackson and Chloé jumped forward to get a hold of Niamh, who was agressively starting towards him.

"On the other hand, I put your team together. I know everything about you..." he added, eyeing the three of them warily.

"That's what I just fucking said..." the younger one growled under her breath, glare still trained on Delavane.

Chloé carefully let go of Niamh's arm, asking her not to do anything stupid with only her eyes, and got closer to Delavane, in a classic persuasion technique : invade one's personal space to reduce their defenses and make them feel vulnerable, to make them more compliant.

"Exactly. Why would you do that ? Especially if you knew Reiden was responsible for the very thing you wanted us to investigate."

"He didn't have the balls to take Reiden down by himself", Niamh spat, shaking herself free form Jackson's hold.

"Our culpability is hardly a foregone conclusion." Delavane glared at her resentfully.

"Oh, it will be when we're done", Jackson stepped in, his tone clearly assured and superior, like he knew they could already claim the victory. "The Mother Cell's pretty damning proof."

His threat was met with silence. A tense silence, while they could see the wheels working hard in Delavane's mind. He was determining another attack angle.

"Why are you here ? What do you want ?"

Niamh refrained from letting victory show on her face. They hadn't won yet, it still could go south very quickly, but Delavane seemed to get that they had the upper hand, now.

"We want what you promised when you hired us : resources, information, access." Jackson pushed further, letting his voice carry. "We want you to help us make a cure to reverse the changes we'e seeing in the animal kingdom, and... we want you to come clean. Let the worl know about the Mother Cell and Reiden's role in all of this."

At that, Delavane chuckled, clearly thinking they were out of their mind. It made Niamh snap. She closed the distance between them, standing right in from of him, maybe a few inches from his face since she was almost his height. He had maybe three inches on her, but she was glowering so ferociously he seemed to be actually smaller, even though he held his ground admirably. Or foolishly.

"What's so funny, Tommy ? A whole fucking people is infected by your Mother Cell shit, and every single one of them is eventually going to lose their mind and become brainless killing machines, and you're laughing ? I swear if you don't change your attitude right now, evidence on me or not, I'll fucking rip your guts from you in your own home", she hissed so low Jackson, who was standing the farthest, barely heard her.

Delavane had the decendy to sober a bit, but didn't falter in his position.

"We can't do that, we would be met with billions of dollars of lawsuits, Reiden will be destro-"

A fist connected square in his jaw before anyone could do anything, sending him to the ground. Shocked and scared didn't begin to define how he was feeling, but staring right into those molten gold eyes in front of him made him feel like a child again, cowering before a monster. He could clearly see she was fuming, and barely containing herself not to kill him on the spot. Jackson and Chloé had bolted forward to grab both her arms and keep her in place, but even he knew they wouldn't be able to prevent her from killing him if she gave in to her dark side.

Niamh felt her hands clench in fists and shake with barely contained fury, her nails piercing half-moon cuts in her already injured palms drawing even more blood, soaking in her bandages. Delavane was staring back at her, fear etched on his face that made her feel strong, powerful. That bastard asshole valued money more than the lives on an entire species, he deserved so much more than what he got... She had to fight her inner wolf into submission to prevent herself form simply transforming and butcher him, but the want she felt was almost overwhelming. It took all her willpower and all of the support Jackson and Chloé were giving her through hand contact to keep her dark side in check. She acknowledged Jackson checking that she wouldn't lash out again before speaking.

"We are offering you a chance to be part of the solution. Do that, and maybe, just maybe, the court of public opinion will go easy on you."

Delavane slowly and carefully got up, massaging his jaw and wincing in pain. There would one hell of a bruise there tomorrow morning, but he knew how lucky he was that Niamh didn't simply break his bones.

"I have a different suggestion. You give me the Mother Cell, and I let you walk away", he countered... before jumping back in fear.

Chloé and Jackson were doing their best to hold Niamh back, but even with the both of them litterally pushing her back, they still struggled to keep her away from the target of her righful fury.

"Like hell we're gonna do that !" she growled back, a lot louder than they used to be, and risking getting Sasha's attention.

Delavane's eyes flew to the direction her knew his wife to be in, worry creasing his forehead, but he wasn't defeated yet.

"I'm very good at my job, Miss O'Connor. I know the FBI just issued a warrant for your arrest as well as yours, Miss Toussignant, and that of Miss Campbell."

Running high on adrenaline, senses heightened, Niamh heard Chloé's heart skip a beat, and she stopped pushing forward to Delavane, hesitant.

"Soon, they will link the rest of you to Agent Shafer's murder, and then they will realize that your very team has been present at the source of so many of these animal incidents. It's not hard to imagine that they will come to believe that you yourselves are the cause."

Niamh stopped moving altogether, staggering the other two, who cautiously let go of her. All she could feel right now was a giant void in her heart, at the bottom of which she knew was boiling a hell worse than anything she had ever felt. She was paradoxally very far from snapping and going on a rampage, and very close to it. She felt empty and on the verge of something. She couldn't exactly pinpoint what, but it was so very bad she couldn't even face the thought without shivering internally.

"That's absurd", she distantly heard Jackson reply.

"If you say so. And once that happens, anything you say to try to indict Reiden will be met with understandable disbelief. Give me the Mother Cell, and I'll see what I can do about helping you out."

"The answer's no. No, this is not a negotiation", Jackson deniedfirmly.

"Then I suppose there's nothing left to discuss. You agree with him, Miss Toussignant ?"

"Of course", Chloé growled, sounding very much like Niamh.

Delavane was turning to the youngest girl, even though he looked pretty much scared to do so at this moment, and as he opened his mouth, Jackson cut him off abruptly.

"One more word, and I promise you I let her go. You might not be realizing it because you don't know her well and she looks like she's in another world right now, but trust me, she's this close to eat you alive", he warned, showing his thumb and his index finger nearly touching. "Come on, Niamh, let's go."

He pulled her by the arm, pleased to see she didn't resist, and mildly terrified to feel the steel-like muscles tensed as if ready to pounce on her prey at a moment's notice. He nodded to Chloé, who took Niamh outside while Jackson lingered a bit longer. She distantly hear him threaten Delavane one last time.

"We have nothing to lose. When this is all gone, don't say we didn't give you a chance."

He then left the house without a glance back and grabbed Niamh's right arm while Chloé took the left and they both lead her away while Jackson called a taxi.

"Are you okay ? Hey, Niamh ? Niamh ? Do you hear me ? Are you alright ?"

She slowly lift her empty gaze to meet Chloé's concerned one.

"I... don't know. I feel... empty... terrifyingly empty", she whispered, averting her eyes.

"We're gonna find a cure, I promise you."

"Hm..."

When the taxi came to pick them up, she was still trying to come back to her senses, and it took her the entire ride to begin looking around with a semblance of soul and life in her gaze. They paid the driver, and climbed out of the car to join Jamie inside the bar they had defined as their next meeting point. The reporter was already inside, waiting for them near the pool table. They ordered beers for everyone, including Niamh who surprised them with her wish to do the same, as well as a basket of finger food. They soon understood why the young metamorph asked for alcohol, this time, when she dumped a handful of painkillers in the bottle and then proceeded to drink it all in nearly one go, shocking and scaring the others.

They quickly explained how the conversation with Delavane went, while also side-eyeing Niamh, clearly worried she might just collapse from her medication.

"So Delavane just stonewalled you guys ?" Jamie asked.

"Didn't even blink", Jackson confirmed.

"He did when I punched him..." Niamh muttered under her breath, shoving a mozzarella stick in her mouth.

"You what ? How do you expect him to help if you punch him ?"

"He was being an asshole, and he was already adamant on his position."

"Guys, he's going to make a phone call. To men who get paid a lot of money to make other men disappear. Other men, and other women", the reporter hissed lowly, terror tainting her voice.

She looked up at Chloé, who glanced back with understanding, but also resignation. It was too late to be scared now, it was done. They had to keep fighting.

"Let them come. I'll fucking punch them too..."

"Niamh, you're drunk", Jamie stated matter-of-factly.

"No I'm not. I'm high. Have you even seen how many pills I took ?" she scoffed as she took another mozzarella stick from the food basket.

"How are we at a point where that doesn't even sound insane to me ?" Jackson complained flatly, eyes trained on nothing.

"Okay guys, let's not get carried away. how long until we talk to your friend ?" Chloé asked Jamie, triying to get back on tracks.

"Wilson ? About an hour."

"So we have to stay hidden until then."

"Look, even if he buys our story and we end up on the front page, that doesn't solve our bigger problem here. We still need to find a cure for the animals and Niamh", Jackson tempered.

"How do we do that ? I don't mean it like I gave up, Niamh, I just... We need an animal that wasn't infected by Reiden but that still mutated on its own. That's impossible !" Jamie threw her hands up in frustration.

"Do you still have Leo Butler's ledger in your bag ? Can I see it ?" Jackson inquired.

Jamie nodded and searched her bag for the small leather bound book. She handed it to Jackson, who immediately started browsing it with purpose.

"Process of elimination. Okay. This contains a list of every location around the world where Reiden products have been used. All right ? Since we need to find an animal that hasn't beene exposed to Reiden products..."

"We can eliminatre any animals in that particular area", Chloé finished his sentence triumphantly.

"Exactly."

He then proceeded to tear the world map hanging on the wall from there and put it flat on the pool table, to the great annoyance of the bartender. Chloé sighed and handed him a $100 bill to shut him up.

"Hey, want to take it easy on the spending money ? We just lost our benefactor, remember ?" Jamie almost tactfully reminded their leader, who frowned at the comment.

"True", she admitted begrudgingly, still furious at Delavane.

"That's gonna be the title of my book : How to Save the World on Eleven Dollars a Day", the reporter joked, words laced with sarcasm. "Okay, we know the lions in L.A. were given Reiden feed."

"Right", Jackson agreed as he drew a circle around that area.

"There's hundreds of locations here", Chloé remarked with a hint of despair. "So why haven't all the animals in these places been affected ?"

"Uh, maybe some animals are more susceptible than others. Some people smoke and don't get cancer. All right, what's the next entry ?"

"Agra, India."

Niamh sighed heavily, looking down at the now empty basket of food that she had all but eaten alone.

"We're never gonna see the end of this... I'm getting more food. Do you want anything ?"

"Niamh, what did I just say about money ?" Jamie complained.

"You said to go easy on the spending money, but I'm hungry and not in the mood to be hungry. So I'll spend a few more dollars on junk food and if you want some, you need to ask, because if you don't, I'll eat it all", she replied with a set of flat, deadpanned tone and dead eyes.

The others sighed and asked her for three more beers. So while they were still hunched over the map and Butler's ledger, Niamh made a beeline to the counter and relayed their order, to which she added another basket of food and a hot chocolate.

XXXXXXXXXX

They'd been at it for half an hour, now, and the map was marred with circles of infected areas. Chloé and Jackson had left a few minutes ago, needing a break and fresh air, leaving Jamie and Niamh inside to keep circling the locations.

"Brest, France", Niamh read aloud.

"Isn't that where you're from ?"

"Not exactly. I lived in the region, and more precisely south east from Brest. Passau, Germany."

Jamie circled the next location and sighed, looking at the map. The paper was covered with red markings, and as they were nearing the end of the ledger, they were scared that they wouldn't have a single area clean of Reiden products left.

"La Paz, Bolivia, and Saskatoon, Canada. Oh, I know a pack, there. My parents took me with them on a diplomatic trip with my uncle and his partner. Very nice people, and excellent hunters at that."

"I thought you hated hunters ?"

"Human hunters with guns. Wolf hunters in wolf form, them I respect. They hunt for food, and only kill the old and sick from the herd. They don't kill for sports or fun. The turn into wolves for fun, they run and play, but they don't kill for fun", Niamh explained calmly, eyes trained on the ledger as she turned the page. "Port Elizabeth, South Africa."

"Damn, we're never going to find this animal, are we ?" Jamie whined hopelessly.

"Don't worry. I have hope. We have to", Niamh whispered as she turned the last page. "And the last one is... Nagoya, Japan."

"Okay... so do you see any place free of red ?"

They surveyed the map for a moment in silence, sometimes almost jumping in victory before noticing a circle excluding the area they had first thought of.

"So, how are you holding up ?"

"Excuse me ?" Jamie blurted out.

"The FBI has issued a warrant for our arrest", Niamh whispered. "How are you holding up ?"

"Fine, why ? It's not like we actually killed a government agent, did we ? Oh wait, we did exactly that ! I did !", she hissed back. "How do you think I'm faring ? We have the FBI after us, and now Delavane and probably Reiden too !" Jamie snapped with venom.

"Yeah, so ?" Niamh retorted without backing off. "We have a mission, Jamie. Fuck the FBI, fuck Delavane, and fuck Reiden. I'm asking you how you feel. Yes, you killed a man, and that's what I'm worried about. How you're coping with that."

Jamie seemed to deflate a bit and averted her eyes. Her knuckles were white, clenched fists rested on the map.

"It hurts", she eventually breathed out, barely audible. "I keep having flashbacks of this day. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night at the sound of gunshots in my dreams. I can still feel the weight of the gun in my hands, the recoil when I fired it, the loudness... I hear Shafer's body hit the ground in that dull 'thump', and see his lifeless eyes staring back at me in shock and pain. I see you... crumbled on yourself, blood on your shoulder and trembling as you fought to control your wolf. No I'm not fine, and I probably won't ever be. I killed a man, Niamh. How do you expect me to be feeling ?"

Niamh let a small, sad smile creep on her lips as she closed the distance between herself and the reporter, and pulled her into a soft hug. Jamie's glassy brown eyes welled with more tears that then began rolling down her cheeks in silence. Calm and composed, Niamh pressed herself against the other woman in an attempt to absorb her sorrow, to soak it up and help her feel better. Jamie raised tentative arms to hug her back weakly, containing her sobs to a minimal.

"You took a first step by telling me how you felt", she whispered, her heart beating slowly in her chest, but strongly enough that she was certain Jamie could feel it just as well as she could hear hers thundering against her ribcage in frantic emption. "I am here to help. We all are. You don't have to face that alone. Whenever you start feeling bad, tell me, or any of the others. Whenever you wake up in the middle of the night frightened, wake me up or any of the others. You are not in this alone, Jamie. We're a family now. You're my pack, and I take care of my pack. It is my mission and my role as an alpha to help my pack mates, my family members, to make them happy. You are not alone", she repeated, insisting on each word.

Jamie squeezed harder, as if to assure herself that the younger girl was still there, to what Niamh replied by pressing her head to the reporter's. Wolves were very tactile people, looking for contact and connection with others.

The hug lasted not as long as Niamh felt like would have been needed, but Jamie expressed the desire to let go, so she complied. The brunette nodded to the metamorph, expressing a whole lot of emotions : gratefulness, acknowledgement for her support, sorrow, pain, and distant nostalgia. She wiped her remaining tears, leaving her eyes dry, but still red and shiny. She gave a weak smile and cleared her throat.

"Anyway, um..."

She sighed, incapable of finishing her sentence.

"Thank you. For caring."

"That's my line", Niamh drawled, rolling her eyes sarcastically with a smirk.

"And you ? How are you dealing with being shot ?"

"Well... Better than you, I'd say. Okay, I was shot, but it wasn't my first life or death fight. I handle it better."

"Not your first life or death fight ?" Jamie repeated increduously in a hushed tone. "What the hell does that mean ?"

"I told you all my life story, remember ? When the coup took place and the pack overthrew my uncle and father, they went after me. I was with the Berserkers in Norway, and they came to kill me. Jorgen and his clan protected me, and we went to battle together. I never killed anyone, and at first I didn't even want to fight. He understood that, after all, they were still my pack mates, even though they wanted me dead now. I grew up with them, some of them were almost like siblings to me. So I planned to stay out of the fight, but since life isn't fair, two wolves found their way to me. I had to defend myself. I didn't kill them, I couldn't bring myself to. I've still got a few scars from that day. So, yeah. Life or death situations, I know 'em."

Jamie's eyes glistened with new emotion, but before she could act on her probable wish to hug her friend again, the back door opened, letting Chloé and Jackson in.

"Guys, it's almost 2 P.M., we should go meet your friend", Jackson said as he stopped by them. "Are you okay ? You look like you've been crying."

"I'm fine. We had a talk, that's all." Jamie dismissed his worry with a wave of her hand. "Um, Wilson, yeah. Corner of Madison and 3rd street, let's go."

They gathered their stuff : map, wallets, bags, and left. They climbed into their rental car and drove to the meeting point, where a tall guy with a receding hairline and a beard was waiting for them, fidgeting with his square shaped glasses. They hurried over Wilson, and began explaining him what they contacted him for. Or rather, Jamie explained after having made basic introductions. As they talked, they got inside the warehouse in front of which they had set their meeting point, wanting to be sure no to be overheard by passers by. Niamh found herself tuning out the conversation to focus on their surroundings. It would be easy to set an ambush here : countless hiding spots, enough wild shapes everywhere to hide someone's silhouette. She focused on her sense of smell and hearing, but the warehouse reeked of oil and chemicals and with the ongoing conversation, she also had a hard time listening for quieter noises like creeping footsteps.

"So this Mother Cell is Reiden Global's secret sauce ?" Wilson eventually summarised.

"It's used across product lines, from agricultural to consumer to commercial to pharmaceutical", Jamie insisted. "If Reiden's name is on it, the Mother Cell is present."

"And now it's out in the wild, accelerating massive changes to the genetic makeup of animals across the globe", Jackson added.

"You know, a reporter on my desk was attacked by a bird this morning on her way to work. is it possible that that was because... ?"

A distant 'clang' caught Niamh's attention, distracting her from the talking. She narrowed her eyes and focused, but nothing more came to her.

"And you have proof of this ?" Wilson asked, the discussion continuing without any sort of worry or concern.

"We have the Mother Cell itself."

"Damn, Jamie." The other journalist blanched in realization.

"Not to mention reams of data, okay ?"

That was Jackson again, though Niamh didn't pay attention to him as she was feeling more and more tense as time went by. Something was off, it ticked her and set her off, like a rampant itch that she couldn't identify or alleviate.

"Chloé..."

"Hmm ?"

"Something's wrong", she whispered, looking around.

"What is ?"

"I don't know but... I feel it. It's coming closer. We need to mov-"

"FBI !" a new voice rose from behind them, startling them. "Don't !" the man ordered when Chloé's hand flew to her gun at her waistband. "Lay your weapon on the ground. Slowly."

The old man, looking in his late fifties or early sixties, was pointing his gun at them all, his eyes flying from one to another and was drawing closer cautiously. Stoic, unflinching and determined, Niamh went to stand between him and the others, pushing them behind her, except for Chloé, who resisted after having put her gun on the ground.

"My name is Chloé Toussignant. I'm DGSE operative-" she began.

"I know who you are, Ms. Toussignant. Maybe I was unclear on the exact pronounciation, but I do know that you're know DGSE. Not anymore anyway", the man barked. "I am special agent Ronnie Brannigan, and my credentials are real."

He took a step forward, wishing to get Chloé's gun, but stopped when he noticed that Niamh wouldn't back off. He aimed his gun at her head to force her to obey, but only elicited an angry growl from her.

"Niamh... Please do as he wants... Step back", Chloé pleaded, her voice shaking with fear.

The girl eventually complied, but made sure to keep everyone behind her, and slightly to the left, so if Brannigan decided to shoot, he wouldn't hit any of them.

"Ms. O'Connor ?" he asked, looking her straight in the eye as he pushed the gun aside with the tip of his shoe.

"What do you want ?"

"Ben Shafer was a friend of mine", he growled, absolutely furious.

"He was a dick."

"That didn't allow you to kill him !" he yelled, brandishing his gun and scaring the others to the point of yelping.

"I wouldn't have had to if he hadn't tried to kill my friends and myself first !" she snapped back agressively, taking the blame with no hesitation whatsoever under Jamie's incredulous eyes.

"I love him like a son-"

"No Niamh, don't ! I-" Jamie pleaded.

"I don't care what kind of relationship you had with him. He was a bastard who tried to kill us. I have no remorse", she spat with more venom than actually needed to make sure he would keep his focus on her.

"Why would he do that ? Why would he try to kill you ?"

"Because your friend was working for a corporation called Reident Global, and we'd uncovered some things Reiden would rather have remained secret", Chloé explained calmly, cautiously, staring dead at the gun still pointed right between Niamh's eyes.

"Ben Shafer was FBI special agent", Brannigan defended him, hammering each word like it would invalidate the cold and harsh truth of reality.

"He was dirty", the ex-DGSE agent insisted empathetically.

"Excuse me ?"

This time he was pissed. He was angry before that, but now that they were questioning Shafer's very honor and righteousness, he was so ticked, ready to snap and his knuckles white on his gun.

"Your friend was dirty. He was taking money from Reiden, using his position to cover up their mess."

Brannigan tightened his grip, his voice suddenly cold and devoid of any emotion but hatred.

"In over twenty years of law enforcement, I've only discharged my weapon three times in the field. Imagine that. Three times. Right now, I just want to blow you little head off", he said in this scary emotionless tone as he cocked his gun and raised it to aim at Niamh's head.

It made adrenaline rush in her veins faster than she could consciously acknowledge, and before she knew it, she had lunged forward and punched the gun away.

"Run ! I'll catch up later !" she ordered to her friends while she kept her eyes on Brannigan, who seemed to hesitated between going for Chloé's gun, closer from him, or his, that had been yanked far away from him, or, last possibily, going for a hand to hand fight with the one he thought murdered his protégé.

"No, Niamh !"

"RUN !" she growled back to Jamie, turning but a second to glare at them with now fiery golden eyes and feral snarl before returning to Brannigan.

Chloé took the time to pick up her gun and ran with the others, sparing one last glance at the young hybrid that she did not notice.

Seeing the gun gone, Brannigan elected to go with the brawl option and lunged at Niamh with a battle cry. She dodged swiftly, and using his momentum against him, she wrenched his arm behind his back until she felt the articulation was ready to pop out. And then she stopped, keeping him in that position.

"Leave us alone", she hissed through her teeth with difficulty, feeling her fangs push against her gums. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Murderers, that's what I'm dealing with", he spat back with a strained voice. "Someday I'll catch you, and I'll make you pay for what you did to my friend !"

"Your 'friend' tied up Jamie in a hotel room and tried to steal something really precious that could save the orld, and when we tried to get it back, he fucking shot me. I have no remorse", she repeated.

As she pushed him to the ground, she broke both his index and middle fingers from both his hands to prevent him from trying to shoot at them or fighting again, and ran away without looking back, ignoring his pained cries.

The bolted out of the warehouse, nearly colliding with the others, waiting there for her. Well, except Wilson, who had already fled.

"What are you doing here ? I told you to run !" she yelled.

"We couldn't leave without you, dumbass", Jamie retorted with a sarcastic roll of her eyes while Chloé was closing the iron curtain and breaking the electronic remote.

A warmth that was starting to become familiar bloomed in her heart at the thought of her friends' affection for her, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Come on. We need to get to the car. Get in, guys." Jackson hurried them.

"What did you do to him ?" Chloé wondered, a bit worried.

"Just broke a few fingers. He'll live, but I couldn't let him try and shoot us."

"Thank you. Are you alright ?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem", she replied, a bit stiffly.

"You shouldn't have done that..." Jamie eventually muttered, with a slightly accusing tone.

They were both seated on the back seats, while Jackson drove and Chloé was sitting front.

"Done what ? Breaking his fingers ? Come on, I've done worse."

"Taking the blame. it is my burden, you shouldn't have done that."

"He thought I did it. He was keeping his gun on me, which was fine. If I had let you say you killed Shafer, he would have aimed at you, and I couldn't let that appen. I can take a bullet, no problem, but any of you ? It takes only one time of bad luck to die from a bullet wound."

She could see Jamie wanting to argue that she could also die from a bullet to the head, and that it also took one time of bad luck for it to happen, but instead, the reporter settled for peace.

"Thanks. For caring."

"Of course I do, dumbass. So, where are we going ?"

"Mitch just sent a text. His wife and kid were attacked by crows at the park. He's with them at their place. We're going there, we have things to tell him, and we need to regroup", Jackson explained as he stopped by a red light.

She nodded and leaned back into her seat, trying to relax somewhat after today's events.