A.N. Sorry this chapter took so long, I hit a wall and just couldn't write. It's not much of a chapter I'm afraid, it's only purpose is to get you to the next chapter. But the next chapter will be worth getting to, I promise! Anyway, here you go:

Those stupid squirrels, that are dead!

"Is he back yet?"

Tara shook her head and stepped aside to let Tai into the apartment. It had been three weeks since the incident with Baybars, and after getting a reasonable explanation from Tai, Merrick told them both he had something to take care of and left, and had not been back since. As it turns out Tai was actually ex Australian special forces, according to him his entire team were taken out by werewolves and he'd been quite the accomplished solo demon hunter ever since. He said he'd heard about Merrick and was looking into him when he saw what happened with Baybars and went to get Tara to stage a rescue and he also said he wanted to help out. Merrick had accepted this and allowed him to hang around and to keep an eye on Tara while he was away.

"He's been gone three full weeks now," said Tara as she pulled out two mugs and began making tea, which she had grown quite fond of as Merrick drank so much of it.

"And he didn't say anything about where he was going?"

"No, not a word."

Tai took his tea and leaned his chair back against the wall, this had been the ritual pretty much every day since Merrick had left, Tai would come over and they would drink tea and speculate as to Merrick's mysterious destination. Their speculation was however interrupted this time by the phone ringing. It never rang. Tara answered it.

"Erm, hello?"

"Oh hi Tara, is Merrick around doll?"

Tara froze up on hearing Morgan's voice.

"I-I-I, Y-y-yes, I'll. N-n-no he," she stopped and took a deep breath "he hasn't been here for about three weeks."

"Oh, damn. Yeah he does that, occasionally he'll just up and vanish. Sometimes for years at a time."

"Oh, wow that's comforting..."

At that very moment the door opened and in walked Merrick. His hair was longer than when they saw him last, it fell in a grizzled mane around his face; which had quite heavy stubble on it frown lines that were extremely prominent. He looked like he hadn't slept or washed since they last saw him. He shrugged off his scruffy old coat and threw it in the corner followed by his jumper and he walked topless into the kitchen, completely ignoring Tara.

"Um, Merrick, Phone?" She held out the phone tentatively and Merrick gave her a look that, if looks could kill, would have killed her and her next seven incarnations. Never the less he took the phone from her and made several grunting noises, then:

"Jesus Morgan, I just walked through the door..." more chatter from the other line, then: "yeah, I got what I went for, or at least as much as could be got." More chatter "Fine, we'll get the next flight out once I've showered okay. See you soon." He hung up without waiting for a reply.

Merrick then walked into the kitchen and pointed to the two cups of tea on the table and asked which was who's and when Tara pointed out hers Merrick took the other mug and drank it down in one. He then turned to Tai and rubbed his temples.

"What're you doing here?"

"You told me to keep an eye on Tara, and that I was welcome here. You also said you'd forget this when you got back."

Merrick nodded, apparently appeased by this.

"Well, go back to wherever you're staying and pack a bag. I should think pack for a light couple of weeks." Tai frowned but didn't argue, he got up and left the apartment. Merrick turned to Tara.

"Same to you, pack some stuff. I'm going to shower."

Some twenty minutes later Tara emerged from the bedroom to find a considerably cleaner, shaved Merrick standing in the living room; his now ridiculously long hair pulled back in a tight pony-tail. He looked at the large sports bag Tara was carrying and shook his head.

"That's too big, we're only taking hand luggage, I don't do waiting around for bags to come through." Tara looked thoroughly shocked by this but proceeded to empty the contents of her bag into a smaller bag so she could take it on the plane with her and not have to log it into the plane's cargo. When she had done this Merrick nodded and they left the apartment. They were met on the street by Tai who was sitting in his car which smelled faintly of male cat and Fosters lager. Tai once again took off with absolutely no regard for other road users and they made it to the airport in record time.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cardiff airport.

Some 16 hours later.

Isn't it funny how, no matter where you go, all airports look the same. From Los Angeles to outer Mongolia. Always the same, too many windows, too many shops and too many queues. Always looking over modern and always looking out of place. Into just one of these generic airports walked three people with nothing but hand luggage.

"Wales?" Tai's voice had more than a hint of confusion in it. Merrick took a deep breath.

"Wales!"

"I've never been to the UK before," said Tara breathlessly, rushing to catch up with the two taller men "actually this is the first time I've been out of America!"

"Well, you couldn't have picked a worse place to go on your first trip abroad, quite a shit-hole this country. I don't know if it's even an official country."

"Yeah, but what the hell are we doing here?" Tai looked around in confusion at the airport that any South Wales resident would have called packed but was, by LA standards, a miserably quiet dive.

"You'll find out soon enough, come on we have at least a two hour drive ahead of us."

Merrick gout out to the airport's long stay car park and pulled a tangle of keys from his pocket, he selected a Citroen car key from the tangle and walked over to an old mint green Saxo.

"Oh I do hope this piece of shit still works, I'm not sure when I last started it..."

He unlocked the door and climbed in to the driver's seat, he put the key in the ignition and turned it. Nothing. He tried again. A cough. Third time lucky, he pumped the gas to flood the engine and this time the car started after much protesting.

"Ok everyone in, let's go!"

It took Merrick a while to get used to the clutch and gear changing of the French manual, right hand drive car and they stalled several times before they even left the airport car park. Thankfully he did drive on the right, or rather left side of the road the entire time and they pulled up outside a medium sized semi-detached house just over 2 hours after leaving the airport.

"Ok wait here, I'll go see what's what."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile...

Morgan lay on her back, an impish smile plastered on her face as she looked up at the ceiling with glazed eyes, the smile faded into a grin and she looked down.

"Hey!"

A pretty, pale, blonde head emerged from under the covers and ginned at Morgan.

"Who said you could stop?" Morgan said, and pulled the blonde into a hungry kiss, Morgan rolled her partner over so she had the girl pinned down. The door opened and someone cleared their throat. Morgan leapt up and covered herself with the quilt and went beet red.

"I'm just... gonna go out... and come back in... OK?" Said Merrick

Morgan simply nodded, and Merrick left the room and closed the door. Morgan leapt out of bed and threw on a robe. This time Merrick knocked on the door and entered and had to duck to avoid being hit with the airborne chair that smashed against the wall where his head was.

"Merrick what the fuck where you thinking?! Don't you knock?!" Morgan was furious, her face was redder than Merrick though was humanly possible and she was screaming at him, and as a singer she could scream pretty loud.

"No, you know this. You called me and knew I was coming, it's not my fault you decide now to start some shenanigans."

"How the hell did you get in anyway?!"

"Your mother let me in."

"Oh no, she's home?" The colour drained from Morgan's face and she rushed and closed the door behind Merrick muttering curses under her breath.

"Are you going to run around muttering expletives all day or are you going to introduce me?" Morgan looked at Merrick in confusion and then her face formed an 'O' and she made to introduce the girl in her bed but no words came out. The blonde giggled at this and got out of the bed, not bothering to cover herself up.

"Hi, I'm Tena, that's with an 'E'."

"Hi Tena, I'm Merrick, with an 'M'." Tena burst into another fit of giggles at this and shook Merrick's hand. Morgan stood in the corner looking horrified.

"Tena, darling, aren't you going to put something on?" Tena looked down at herself and looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded. She walked around the bed and picked up a blue sweater and pulled it over herself, it went all the way down to her knees. Merrick smiled at the scene that had just unfolded and opened the door.

"So, let's have some tea and you can tell me all about this problem then..."

E.N. The name 'Tena' is pronounced the same as Tina, it's spelled Tena because it's short for something else which shall be revealed later.