I own nothing
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jesse's return was unexpectedly quiet. It began as Amelia left Reid's cabin. There was an odd chill in the air and Amelia noticed a large vulture sitting in a tree. The sky was filled with black clouds and the roads were slick and shrouded in mist... Amelia was on edge, her stomach tense. She felt nauseous as she drove. "Amelia, you never should have come out here," she berated herself, "Idiot. What were you thinking?" She pulled over and slammed her hands against the steering wheel. "You don't belong here. That's why all this shit keeps happening."
She pulled back out on to the road after a few minutes of quiet contemplation. A large dog wandered onto the road and Amelia swerved to avoid it, her car swerving into a ditch. Amelia sat frozen in place for several minutes, gripping the steering wheel to keep from shaking. Her cell phone rang and she jumped, screaming. "Hello?"
"Ames, are you okay?" Sarah asked. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine," she said in a shaky voice.
"I know you're lying, what happened?" Sarah asked urgently. Amelia slid out of her car slowly, her body aching. "I swear I'm fine. I just, I almost hit a dog."
"Oh my God, are you okay?"
Amelia walked out into the middle of the road and looked around. "Yeah, I'm alright."
There was no sign of the dog. Amelia's eyes flashed and the car lifted out of the ditch, the scratches and dents fading. It settled down gently on the blacktop and Amelia climbed back in. "Where are you?"
"Um, nowhere. I just went out for a while."
Suspicion laced Sarah's voice. "Callie said you didn't come home last night."
"I needed to think," Amelia replied, trying to sound casual.
"Oh, well, we're all going out to Nicky's tonight if you want to come. We all figured it would be safe since there's no sign of Jesse around or anything."
The last part of Sarah's statement made Amelia bite her lip. "I don't know. I think I'll just stay home."
"Okay, well I guess I'll talk to you later then?"
"Yeah, bye." Amelia looked around one last time. The wind pushed a few dead leaves across the road and the mist began to dissipate. Amelia pulled the sleeves of her gray top down over her hands. It was deathly quiet and Amelia felt as if she were being watched. She turned around to see Reid standing right behind her, and jumped, screaming for the second time in the past half hour. "Sorry," he said, though his eyes were filled with laughter. She shoved him hard. "God, you're such an asshole sometimes, Garwin."
Then she realized she hadn't heard his truck pull up. "How did you get here?"
He only smiled and it was then that she noticed his eyes were silver.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Reid, have you seen Amelia?" Caleb asked, immediately after Reid answered his phone. "No, why?"
He heard Caleb sigh on the other end. "Sarah's been calling her all night to check up on her and she won't answer."
"Do you think she's okay?"
Caleb sighed again. "I don't know. Sarah said that when she talked to her earlier today, Amelia had almost hit a dog on the way home from wherever."
"Was she okay?"
"She said she was, but know I'm not so sure. Callie's going home to find her-"
Reid had already hung up, pulling on his jacket. He stormed out the front door and climbed into the cab of his truck. His cell phone rang again, but he didn't answer it as he skidded out onto the road, trees passing by in a blur. Amelia was going to be okay. She had to be. Because if she wasn't okay, he wouldn't be okay either.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Amelia finally opened her eyes, she realized she was standing on the edge of a cliff. A strong gust of wind tore at her, pushing her closer. She fell back to the ground and someone laughed behind her. Jesse was perched on a nearby rock, laughing hysterically. "You know, Nemesis, if you weren't mortal you wouldn't have to worry about dying. Of course to be immortal again, you have to die, which I guess is ironic."
"My name," she grunted as she pulled herself up, "is Amelia."
"For now," he said, nodding. He hopped off the rock and walked towards her. "But you will go home with me and when you do, goodbye Amelia and hello Nemesis."
Amelia shook her head. "I'm not going back."
He chuckled slightly. He reached out instantly, striking her hard across the face. "I didn't ask you, I told you."
"And I'm done listening," she snapped, causing his eyes to widen in surprise, "you know, the only thing I really ever agreed with Alastor on in the little time I knew him was that after a while, the business of killing people gets very boring."
He stepped forward menacingly, causing her to step back towards the edge once more. "I'm only going to ask nicely once more before I do it my way," he glowered at her, his eyes burning, "you know best of all what my way is."
Amelia turned her back to him, peering over the edge. The surf hit the wall of the cliffs hard. She looked back over her shoulder at him.
"What's it going to be?"
She looked back down, and pictured Reid's face, his eyes as blue as the water below her. A part of Amelia was glad he wasn't there. If he had been, it was highly possible he would have been dead by then. He's right, you don't belong here. You belong with him, she thought as she stepped even closer to the edge, you belong to him.
Her thoughts were brought back to Reid as she stepped off the cliff. The cool icy water enveloped her, almost as if cradling her. She should have died. Amelia broke to the surface sputtering as she grabbed onto an outcropping on the cliff's side. She couldn't see him above her. Amelia began to feel her way along the jagged wall which seemed to go on for miles, when a strong undertow grabbed a hold of her, pulling her along the sea floor. She felt the sand scrape along her back gently as she was spit up onto the shore. Amelia gasped for air, coughing up water. She was shivering violently and she was exhausted from fighting the current.
"Amelia," someone yelled far off and she turned, crawl back into the water. A large wave crashed into her, shoving her back. She resumed coughing up water, hunched over and ready to give up the fight.
"Ames," said a gentle voice. She looked up into two very blue eyes. Reid pushed her wet hair out of her face, and she heaved a sigh of relief. "How did you know I was here," she asked between gasps. Reid pulled her up and wrapped an arm around her. "Caleb called to ask me where you were when you didn't answer any of Sarah's calls and I came looking for you. Your car was parked by the side of the road."
Amelia stumbled along next to him. He smiled at her as they climbed into his truck. "You know this will be the second time you've gotten into my truck completely soaked."
She smiled at the memory. He turned up the heater and they drove off toward Nicky's to meet up with everyone. Amelia's hair had dried by the time they arrived and everyone rushed the truck as they pulled in. Sarah enveloped her in a hug, shaking as she began to cry. "We were so worried."
"He's back isn't he," Diana asked in a calm, even voice. Amelia nodded, leaning against the truck and Caleb handed her a bottle of water, which she drank from greedily. Callie put a hand on her shoulder. "What do you want to do?"
"You know, it's not really up to her as to what she gets to do," Jesse said, causing the group to turn towards him, "I told her she's coming with me and she was more than willing to, but my uncle, who happens to be a diehard romantic, decided he should interfere."
Amelia met his gaze straight on. "I was wondering how I missed all those rocks."
He shrugged and held out his hand for her to take. "Come on. You know where you belong."
Reid stepped in between them. "Not with you."
Jesse laughed at him. "Aww, how sweet. You're willing to sacrifice your life for her. Very touching and very dramatic. Also very stupid."
Reid's eyes shifted to black. Jesse didn't even bat an eye. "You can't stop me, you know. Just because you've killed a demon doesn't mean you can kill a god."
"You're going to have to go through all of us," Caleb said in very low, even voice as his, Tyler's and Pogue's eyes shifted to black.
Callie stepped forward. "And me, brother."
"And us," James said as he and Diana stepped forward as well.
His eyes burned in anger. "Don't think I can't kill you all."
"Or die trying," Reid snapped back, "because if I die I'm bringing you down with me."
Amelia felt a warm hand pull her away from the crowd and turned to see Angela, pulling her around to the other side of the truck. She gestured for Amelia to be quiet as something in the atmosphere surrounding them all began to crackle. Amelia felt an odd warmth enter her body. Sarah materialized next to her and glanced at her strangely. Angela only smiled at them and winked at Amelia.
"Can't have anything happening to you three."
----------------------------------------------------------------
review if you want.