It was so late when I got to bed last night. I woke up at about eleven o'clock and slumped downstairs. I forgot about yesterday's incidents until I walked in the living room and saw everyone sitting there, Alec included.

"Good afternoon sunshine!" Caleb ran up to me and pinched my cheeks.

"It's technically still morning." I said.

"How'd you sleep?" Hunter asked me. I rolled my eyes and walked through the living room to get to the kitchen.

"Fine." I called back.

I knew what they were doing. They felt bad about yesterday and now wanted to apologize. It seemed petty of me to dodge their advances, but I was still upset. I wasn't sure if it was at them, or everything else that's been going on, but either way I didn't want to talk about it.

I grabbed a blood bag out of the fridge and warmed it up in the microwave. I opened the cupboard to grab a mug. The one I usually use was placed on the top shelf. I sighed. One of them moved it on purpose...assholes. I grabbed a chair from the kitchen table and brought it over to the cupboard and grabbed the mug. It wasn't anything special, it was just a plain lilac color, I could have easily grabbed any of the other mugs, we had plenty. I just really liked that one.

"You know if you had asked, one of us would have came and grabbed it for you, right?" Connor asked me, picking me up by my waist and placing me on the ground before moving the chair back to the table. I was used to the action by now, he did it all the time.

"Why would I ask one of you, when one of you moved it in the first place?"

"You know we were just kidding yesterday?" Caleb inquired.

"You were, I wasn't." Jonah said as he followed Caleb with Hunter close behind. Once they were all in here, I knew Lorne must have sent them in. Hunter hit Jonah on the head. "What was that for?"

"Nothing happened Jonah." He scoffed at Hunter.

"Anyway, with the exception of your horrid twin..." Jonah growled. Caleb flipped him off. "We are so terribly sorry that we were picking on you."

"Can't promise that it won't happen again." Connor ruffled my hair.

"Can we just get over this? The last thing we need is for all of us to be fighting right now..." Damn you Hunter...but he did have a point. I still stood my ground.

"We aren't all fighting. It's y'all and then me."

"Y'all?" Jonah questioned.

"Shut up. Not the point."

"Look, can we just agree to disagree for now? There's other issues that we need to deal with."

"Fine." The screeching ding of the microwave went off.

"Ouch..." I heard Alec mumble from the living room. I laughed to myself.

"We should have warned him about that..." Connor laughed.

"Oops." Caleb joined him. He looked between Jonah and I.

"What?" We questioned in unison. The two laughed some more.

"Works every time..."

"What does?" We asked. They laughed harder.

"I am so glad I don't have a twin..." Hunter pressed his lips in a thin line. "I feel like that's why I'm the sane one."

"Says who?" The four of us asked. We all kind of jumped back out of shock.

"Let's never do that again..." Jonah mumbled as he left the room.

"Agreed." I said as I grabbed the blood bag out of the microwave. I bit it open with my teeth and poured it into the mug.

"You do know there is this really cool invention called scissors that are used for opening things such as that?" Caleb pulled on one of the strings of my hoodie, messing up the lengths.

"Ed!" I called into the other room. "Caleb messed up my sweatshirt strings again!"

"Screw you, he's going to kill me now." I laughed.

"You had it coming." His jaw dropped in fake shock.

"Come here so I can fix it!" Ed yelled back to me. "You too Caleb!"

"Dammit!" He muttered.

I sipped on my blood as I followed him into the living room. I remembered Alec probably would have difficulty with the smell of blood so close to him, so I chugged it down and rinsed out the mug in the sink. I put it in the dishwasher after that and ran to the living room. The rest of us were used to the smell of someone else's blood bag, but I remember how difficult it was to not run over and steal the mug right out of Lorne's hands.

I did that to Caleb once. He was asking for it though. Ed did it as a test to see how much control I had. He sent Caleb in the living room and told him to just sit down in front of me with the blood mug. That was right after I first got here, so I was still rather new to the whole vampire thing. It didn't go well.

"Caleb did a number on this..." Ed mumbled once he started fixing the strings.

"So it was a good one then?" Ed rolled his eyes and almost chocked me with the strings as he fixed it. He smiled once it was done.

"There we go." He patted my shoulders.

"Thanks." I mumbled and went over and sat next to Alec on the couch. He was in the same place as yesterday. He stared at me intensely. I waved, a bit creeped out.

"So plans for today! Let's go over them one more time!" Lorne smiled. Everyone in the room groaned, Alec included, but very quietly. He'd fit in fine here.

"Just because Evie didn't hear the agenda doesn't mean you have to repeat it again for the five thousandth time." Jonah said.

"Just let him be..." Ed told him, sitting back into the other couch across from us as he put an arm around Lorne's shoulders. Lorne grinned like a little child presented with full sized candy bars on Halloween.

"So we are going to go to the mall to get Alec some of the things he'll need to stay here."

"I hate the mall." Connor snorted in disgust. It was a quiet remark, but we all still heard it.

"I'll be taking the twins and Evie with us. You all will be here with Ed trying to figure out what exactly is happening."

"So basically we are going to the lab to pick up some documents they have on similar occurrences and then we'll try to piece together what exactly happened yesterday." Ed clarified for the others.

Ed works as a scientist in a crime lab about an hour away in Springfield. Because of Ed's impressive brain and deductive skills, he is allowed access to government documents of...supernatural instances that the government tried to cover up. There's a lot of information we aren't allowed to know, but basically the government knows that Ed has a special interest in the supernatural, so they send him out of cover up the things human scientists can't understand. It's all sketchy but his job does get us blood bags, so I'm satisfied with what I know. I'm too amazed with his ability to balance that job and running the bar with Lorne to really wonder about anything else. I guess you have more time to do things when you don't sleep.

"And which exact occurrence are we looking at?" Hunter asked. Ed shrugged.

"Well I want to see what they have on this staff, as well as enchanted weapons. Maybe they will tell us something on Alec's memory loss."

"I doubt it." Alec muttered.

"Why?" Lorne asked. The brunette shrugged.

"Just a hunch."

"We have to try something. Maybe we won't find anything, but something will have to put us in the right direction eventually."

"Eventually Ed, it will put us on the right path eventually! We need answers now, especially if there's some dangerous witches or something out there." Hunter said incredulously.

"We have forever realistically. I figure if we take the right documents, someone will be after us. That sounds like a good starting place to me."

"Okay. So we are going to have to wait for an attack to figure out who is responsible for all of this? Isn't there another way? A quicker way?"

"One day at a time guys, that's all we can do now." Lorne assured us.

"Okay, when are we leaving?" Jonah asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Now."

"Now?! I'm not even dressed!" I protested, raising an eyebrow at him. I heard Alec chuckle to himself.

"I meant as soon as you are ready." I nodded and stood up. The second I was up the stairs I heard Lorne mumble: "Women..."

"I heard that!" I could picture his figure doubling over as he laughed.

"Welcome to the mall!" Lorne exclaimed ecstatically to Alec, throwing his arms in front of him. Jonah and I looked at each other and tried not to look embarrassed as the other shoppers gave us skeptical stares.

"Hmmm..." Alec walked forward and looked around himself. He moved a little fast, so if I didn't know better I'd think he was trying to reenact a dog chasing it's tail.

"Now we can't stay here too long..." Lorne shot a look at me. "We'll have to get back to the others in a few hours." He knew I took my time shopping.

"We aren't going to get anywhere if we stand here talking. We are wasting precious time." Jonah said, mimicking the other male's tone. Lorne rolled his eyes.

"Alrighty then, so Evie, I'm assuming you don't want to stay with us the whole time..." I sighed in relief.

"I mean, if you need me to stay I can..." Lorne laughed.

"It's fine." He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his wallet. He handed me a credit card.

"I have my debit card." He shook his head.

"I told you I would pay for your back-to-school clothes, but then I forgot about it and you used your card anyway. Get as much as you want."

"Yes mother Lorne." I kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Pick me up some eyeliner if you go in Sephora." Jonah told me. I laughed. "I'm serious, I'm running out."

"Liquid or the pencils?"

"Both." I nodded.

"I guess I'll see you guys in a bit. Text me when we're leaving." I began to walk away. I turned back quickly. "And make sure you get Alec a cell phone, and when you do, make sure he puts Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja on it."

Alec sat next to me on the car ride here and I was showing him a couple of the apps on my phone. He had no clue how anything worked, so I decided I would teach him how to use it, it being the twenty-first century and all. When I came across those two games, Alec ended up beating my high scores on both games and set the new high scores impossibly high. I can't decide if it was a mistake or not, but he looked pretty happy that I had brought it up to Lorne.

"Angry Ninja and Fruit Birds, got it." Lorne put a hand on Alec's back and started to lead him away, Jonah trailing close behind them. I laughed at Lorne's mixed up words, and that neither of the boys had the heart to tell him about it.

I moved through the stores rather quickly. I didn't spend much, I didn't want to cost Lorne a fortune. If I did, he wouldn't mind, but it would feel wrong to take advantage of that, especially after everything he and Ed had already done for me. After grabbing Jonah's eyeliner from Sephora, I got a text from Lorne.

Where are you?

At the mall.

Very funny, what store?

Just leaving Sephora, tell Jonah I've got his eyeliner.

We need you down at Forever 21.

Why did you bring Alec to Forever 21?

Jonah suggested it. We need your opinion.

Can't you just send me a picture?

But pictures don't give the same effect! Please Evie, don't make me send Jonah to come get you.

I'll be there soon.

Lorne was impossible sometimes. He needed things to be done in a way that made sure the other person really understood what he was trying to get across. He preferred face to face reactions over anything else when it comes to things like this. It was a bit bothersome in this instance, especially because I was on the complete opposite side of the mall, but it didn't take too long to get to them.

If I couldn't follow their scents, I would have been lost trying to find them in that store. The store itself was two floors, and there were several different rooms with various styles of clothing in each. I got to the men's section at last and saw the three standing around the dressing room.

"There you are! I was so worried you had gotten lost!" Lorne exclaimed when he saw me.

"I believe it has only been seven minutes." Alec told him. "If I remember the directory correctly, this "Sephora" store was on the opposite side of the mall from where we are."

"Damn you've got a good memory." Jonah said. Alec shrugged.

"That's kind of ironic, don't you think?" I laughed at Alec's response. It wasn't some light girly laugh, it was an honest to god "I would have fallen to the ground if I didn't grab Jonah's shoulder" laugh.

"Are you alright?" Alec asked, sounding slightly concerned, but there was a teasing element to his tone. I composed myself.

"Sorry, it's not funny."

"No, it is."

"Thanks you two, for making me feel like a shitty person."

"Jonah you walked right into that one." Lorne smiled.

"I get what you mean though, it was meant to be a compliment at the very least." Jonah raised an eyebrow.

"How would you know?"

"It didn't seem particularly threatening. Anyway, do I have to go put these on again?" Alec held up the pile of clothing he had in his hand. Lorne nodded.

"Again? How many time did you make him try those on?"

"This will be three, I wanted to be thorough."

"That's child abuse."

"No it's not!"

"Really, it's fine. I'll go bug the dressing room lady one more time." Alec walked over to a lady in her mid-thirties with short blonde hair. She led him to one of the stalls in the back.

"It's not child abuse!"

"I'm just teasing Lorne." He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair.

"Do you have a dress for homecoming?"

"Who says I'm going?" He scoffed.

"Me. You didn't go last year, so I think you should go this year."

"Why?"

"It will be fun."

"What did you see?" Jonah interjected.

"Nothing!"

"Lorne..."

"I'm not telling either of you, besides, shush up, we are in public." He whispered. I shrugged.

"I think he meant what movie you went to see with Ed." I attempted to return a conversation to a "normal" topic. He didn't catch the hint.

"Ed and I haven't seen a movie together since 1996."

"Well maybe you should go see one." Jonah suggested. "You two haven't gone on a date in a while."

"There's not enough hours in a day..."

"Well it's not like you need to sleep."

"Lorne, we can take care of ourselves for a night you know."

"Jonah, with everything that has happened in the past little bit..."

"It would be good for the two of you to go out." I finished for him. He sighed. "Come on Lorne, I'm sure Ed wants to get out for a bit too, hasn't he been swamped at the lab?"

"Look..." Lorne lowered his tone and beckoned is closer. "He's been working on the accident..."

"What?" Jonah whispered. "Why would he be working on the accident?"

"Something about it seemed off...Ed's been doing all he can but...there's a lot of unexplainable information. That why he wants to go to the lab today." With how quiet Lorne was talking, there was no way the humans could hear us, but the thought of a human listening scared me.

"He thinks the accident and Alec are related somehow." I concluded.

"I can't believe this..."

"Look you two, this is bigger than us. What's important now is that we stay close and help him..." Lorne jabbed his thumb back towards the dressing rooms. "Adjust. I have a feeling we'll need all the help we can get. The poor boy has been through enough; you guys have been through enough, and it's not going to get any easier, but the least we can do is be there for each other."

"Which is why you and Ed should go on a date tonight before things get any crazier." Jonah ended with a smile. Lorne slapped his forehead. I sent a text to Caleb.

Bug Ed about going on a date with Lorne tonight.

"I'll consider it. You have to promise me you two will keep things sane at home."

"Yup."

We should have a party. An initiation ritual for Alec.

Oh god, I don't even want to know what you have in mind.

Trust me sis, I've got this. See you later.

"Evie! Earth to Evie! Ta da!" Jonah snapped his fingers in front of my face. He pointed at Alec.

Alec stared at me with the same intensity as he did this morning when I sat down next to him. His red eyes were covered with blue contacts, giving his eyes a purple tint. Lorne tried the brown ones on him and thought blue would suit him better.

He had on a black leather jacket with a light gray shirt underneath. I could tell from the ripped black jeans, Jonah had picked out his outfit. Alec looked good though, he really did, just not normal. He looked too perfect to be normal. He went from an attractive corpse to a model for some sort of Greek statue. That boy's cheek bones would cut my face if I got too close, I swear. Not that I'm thinking about getting that close, I'm just making a point. I wish I could look as flawless as he did...

"It's awful isn't it?" Alec asked me with a smile. I shook my head frantically.

"No, no, of course not. It looks good."

"Just good? Ouch Evie!" Jonah teased. I shot him a glare.

"What do you want me to say? You could put him in a garage bag and he'd still be attractive..." And I totally forgot he was standing right there...I hate myself.

"Hmmm, maybe we should get you a couple pairs of jeans that aren't ripped..." Lorne told him, changing the subject.

"Okay. That would be great, thank you."

"I'll go grab a couple more pairs, you can change and then meet me at the registers?" Alec nodded. Lorne turned on his heel and walked away, Jonah and I began following him. Jonah grabbed my shoulders to stop me.

"Someone has to wait for him, to make sure he doesn't get lost, you know?"

"And since I just made a complete ass of myself, you would rather it be me for your own amusement." He laughed.

"You know me so well Everleigh."

"I hate you, I really do."

"Love you too. Well, I better hurry along to make sure Lorne doesn't buy half the store."

He winked at me and walked off. I sighed and pulled the sleeves of my shirt down around my hands, gripping them for dear life so I wouldn't punch something. I cannot believe I could embarrass myself that much. What the hell is wrong with me? I'm not good with new people.

"Ready?" I heard his voice ask.

I nearly groaned. I felt bad that he had to deal with me. I've been a mess. I nodded, stood up, and started following Lorne's scent. It was silent for a little bit, but then he spoke again.

"You didn't make an ass out of yourself."

"Huh?"

"Now we're even."

"What are you talking about?" I was playing dumb, I knew that he was talking about last night compared to what had just happened, and he saw right through it. The little shit winked at me. "Oh that's cute."

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't know what I'm talking about?"

"Nope not at all, care to clarify?"

"Really?"

"Now who is asking so many questions?" I scoffed.

"Still you, you are the one who starts it." He shrugged.

"Such is life."

"You have a lot to learn about life pal."

"Seeing as I was just a corpse yesterday?" He whispered.

"See there you go again! You weren't technically a corpse, you were just incapacitated." I whispered back.

"Same concept. Anyway, I have no clue how this little world of yours works, so touché pal, you've got me there in terms of learning about life. Though we are both technically dead, so the question is are we living life, or are we just wandering through it?" I had realized we had stopped walking. He stood behind me and spoke directly in my ear.

"That was almost poetic, wasn't it?" He then laughed. "I'm just messing with you, but really, can we call our journey life if we aren't actually living?"

"That was more poetic, you go Shakespeare."

"That's the first person mentioned today that I actually knew of. Maybe I'm not as unknowledgeable as I originally thought." He smiled at me. "You seem smart." I snorted.

"Thanks. I don't feel it most of the time."

"Ed says you're smart. He says if I have trouble in school you could probably help me out." Of course he did...

"Yeah sure. I mean, I can't say that I'm right all the time but I can help a bit."

I returned his smile. I will kill Ed later for that one. He's smart too, you know, and Ed could help him just as easily as I could. Alec laughed. His laughter sounded so pleasant and easy...it was so weird. Vampires are supposed to be this appealing to humans as a mechanism to attract their prey...I wonder if that water that was on the floor did anything to him while he was in the casket to make him extra attractive...nope Everleigh, nope. Shut up.

"Ed spent half the night quizzing me on various things and I guess I passed seeing as he wants to put me in school with you. Lorne kept protesting it because of the events that had happened, but it's alright. Best we move on." Before I could respond we had reached the register. Lorne was already at the front of the line.

"Oh there you are! Why don't you hand me those and you two head out and Jonah and I will meet you out there!"

Lorne took the pile of clothes from Alec's hands and pushed us towards the door. I was confused by his actions, but the two of us did as Lorne said. As we were leaving, a cluster of human girls walked past us. I heard Alec inhale sharply as they passed. He smelt their blood, as did I. One of them had a different blood type than the rest, probably AB or something, but it smelt delectable. My mouth was nearly watering and I had blood earlier, so I can't imagine how Alec is feeling. Whatever blood he drank last probably didn't fully satisfy him. I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the store before he could act. I saw it in his eyes that he would have if I didn't intervene. I didn't stop outside the store, I dragged Alec right out of there and to the car. He wouldn't have lasted long without loosing it.

Why would Lorne even think of bringing him out? Ed probably wanted to test his control. I don't care how smart Ed is, that is such a stupid idea. I mean putting Alec through that much strain...I should probably be thinking more of the humans who would have been slaughtered, but I can relate to Alec better than I can some stupid humans. Not all of them are stupid...but honestly sometimes I can't stand them. It's probably best to treat him as a newborn until we learn more about him.

"Hey...are you going to let go anytime soon?" Alec asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked down at our hands. I had my right hand wrapped firmly around his wrist, so firmly that cracks were starting to form. I let go quickly.

"I...um...sorry." I hung my head low, not wanting to meet his gaze. I could feel it on me. It was annoying.

"Don't fret about it. I'm glad you got us out of there. I don't think I could handle the disgusting smell of food any longer."

"Like that's why you let me drag you out of there. I'm surprised you didn't struggle." He laughed. That god damned smile on his face...

"That would have looked more conspicuous. I mean for starters, you are short and tiny and don't look like you could take someone the size of me."

"Excuse me?"

"Not like that! I just meant like in a fight, and obviously you could take me...in a fight! Definitely in a fight!" It was my turn to laugh. I knew he was talking about a fight but he just made this whole situation something more, my mind didn't even go there. He was fun to mess with though.

"Yeah okay then. Fight me, right here, right now."

"And bruise my fragile ego even more? No thank you. I'd like to think I'd have a fair chance against you and I don't want to change that view at the moment."

"Fair enough." He casually leaned back against the car. "Did Lorne drive you bonkers yet?" He shrugged.

"Let's just say I have never met anyone like him, which is a funny thing to say, seeing as I don't remember meeting anyone else."

"Wait until you see him at the bar."

"Oh god, we can get drunk?! Where is this bar, can we take a detour for entertainment purposes?"

"No, we can't get drunk! Ed and Lorne own a bar a little ways from home. I work there a couple days a week. If you think he's bad at home, just wait until you see him with drunk humans." I leaned closer to him. "Off the record, Connor and Caleb are trying to find a way to get drunk."

"How's that going for them?"

"Lot's of upchuck."

"What's upchuck?"

"You know..." I made a gagging sound and pretended to puke my guts up on the ground.

"So vomiting then? Lots of vomiting?"

"Yup. Gross as hell. I think they will figure it out eventually though. We have time."

"How do you guys live here? There's just so many people everywhere..."

"You get used to it eventually. It's really hard at first, I won't lie. You just have to remember that everyone else went through the same thing you are now...well, not exactly, but you get the gist. We just have to be there for each other." He smiled.

"This is all so feels like a dream...it really does." Alec's smile suddenly dropped. He stumbled about a bit before dropping to the ground. This time, it was his turn to pass out. I had to haul his unconscious body into the car and tell Jonah and Lorne to run before someone called the police. It probably looked like I drugged and or murdered him.