2: Midnight Ether

"Two of them? Are you sure?" Sine asked into her cell phone, turning her face away from the sun that was taking its own sweet time in setting. She was out in her backyard, where she got the best reception on her cell phone, pacing back and forth underneath the same oak tree she had climbed the night before. "Well, no, it's not a problem but I'll need you to get the measurements for me." When another call beeped through, she frowned and quickly wrapped up with Joan, her contact for a steady job supplying costumes to some entertainment business. "Hello?"

There was a brief pause. "Hello? Is this Reneire's?"

Sine felt a tiny shiver ripple through her at the tone of voice, husky and deep, and cleared her throat. "Yes, I'm Sine Reneire, how may I help you?"

"My name's Mark Calaway, darlin', and my fiancée and I were told you're the best dressmaker around."

She smiled at that.

"I'm callin' on behalf of my fiancée and we need a black wedding dress. Can you help us with that?"

Black was… unusual but then again, she had once made an odd shade of green bridal gown so she shrugged. "Certainly. I would need to meet with the bride for measurements, discuss fabric as well as what style of gown she's interested in." She dropped down at her picnic table, pulling the pad of paper she had been using for Joan's order towards her. "Would you like to arrange for an appointment?"

"Is it really necessary for her to meet with you? I have her measurements and exactly what the dress should look like. She don't care about the type of fabric to be honest."

Now that was definitely odd and Sine frowned, really not liking the sound of this. However, she took the measurements and a quick sketch of what his fiancée apparently wanted, hearing him chuckling throughout the process and wondered just what he found so funny. She was trying to hide her mounting displeasure with the situation, knowing that every woman wore a dress differently. Then she made the mistake of asking when he wanted the dress done by.

"Within the next few days."

Sine's first thought that he must have been on crack, adding a note to the paper to charge double what she normally would have. "There will need to be a final fitting requiring your fiancée." She said after a long moment, frowning when something black to the left caught her eye. "Hold please." Setting the phone down, she jumped off the bench and ran towards the clothesline. "Midnight! Bad kitty! Get off the clothes!"

Midnight hissed at her once before retracting his claws from the costume he had been climbing.

~!~

'Taker waited patiently for Reneire to return to the phone, hearing her shouting in the background and rolled his eyes. When she came back, he interrupted her before she could even get started. "What if I paid you twice whatever it is you're askin'? My bride is currently indisposed so we will take whatever you can provide. If it doesn't fit properly, then it will be on us." He was beginning to wonder why he hadn't just bought something off a rack and thrown it into a washer with a bottle of dye. "It would mean a great deal to us, Miss Reneire."

"Mr. Calaway, my work is known worldwide." She said flatly, sounding less than impressed and he found himself amused. "My wedding dresses are all custom made for a single bride and what you are asking for… you should have bought yourself something off the rack and had it dyed."

She was no longer amusing but an annoying mind reader. He kept silent, contemplating what to say next or if he should simply hang up when he heard more shouting, arching an eyebrow.

"DAMN IT! MIDNIGHT NO! OFF THE CLOTHES!"

Midnight? His green eyes narrowed as he stood up from his chair and walked over to the window, staring out the kitchen screen door at his neighbor –Sine Reneire, bridal gown designer- who was now chasing her cat away from a clothesline.

With more patience than he had possessed five seconds ago, he once again waited for her to pick up the phone, still watching her. "Make the dress and I'll pay for it. For the fitting," He didn't bother with the accent, even though it was his natural voice opposed to the dark baritone he had slipped back into. "there won't need to be one, she won't be wearing the dress long anyway."

He could see her jaw dropping from his spot behind his screen door.

"By the way, Sine, it looks like your cat is going for the clothes again."

When she turned towards his house, he nodded his head at her, ending the call.

~!~

Sine was still fuming over his arrogance a day later. Just because he was her neighbor he thought she would do the dress? She had kept the notes on the dress but refused to even consider starting it, her anger overriding her sense of professionalism. Though… that was a perk to owning and running her own business, she got to call the shots.

She was busy adding lace trimming to a nearly finished bridesmaid gown when she heard her doorbell ring, sighing as she straightened up, cracking her back in the process. She headed up the stairs from her basement studio and went straight for the front door. The moment she opened it, she wished she hadn't.

Mark Calaway, her creepy next door neighbor and soon to be married man, was standing there in a pair of black jeans that looked like they had been painted on and a black muscle shirt, showing off his tattoos perfectly. She tried not to give him an once-over, aware he was a bad boy and just like every other woman, and she had a soft spot for the bad boys.

He wasn't bothering to avoid doing the once-over thing himself and she purposefully folded her arms over her chest, wearing a plain white sports bra and a pair of cut-off denim shorts. She usually didn't dress up when she was working and of all people to come to her door, he was last on that short list.

"Hello, Sine." He greeted, extending his hand to her.

Sine eyeballed it, reluctantly slipping her own towards him.

"I don't believe we've ever been properly introduced, I'm Mark." His eyes raked over her face and up over her hair, which she had swept up into a messy pile on top of her head, pinned in place with a pencil.

"Nice to meet you, how can I help you?" She asked, withdrawing her hand from his and leaned in the doorway, crossing her legs at the ankle.

He pulled his left hand out from behind his back, her eyes narrowing in on her cat, wondering how she had missed that and automatically reached for Midnight. "It seems your cat is very intrigued by mine. I also figured getting to know you might be a smart thing to do since I'm thinking about making the house my permanent residence."

Sine simply nodded, cuddling Midnight next to her chest. "I see."

"He got into my basement."

"If he damaged anything, I can pay for damages." She offered instantly, frowning down at Midnight and bent to sniff him, recoiling instantly. "You need a bath, you smell like ether." She coughed, setting him down, snorting when he instantly headed towards the kitchen and his food bowl. "Well… thank you for returning him. Unless there's something else, I really have to get back to work, Mr.- Mark." She gestured to the open basement door to her right, smiling politely up at him. "I hope you and your fiancée are happy in the neighborhood."

He simply nodded, waving at her lazily as he walked away.

~!~

After finishing with the gown, Sine bathed Midnight, trying to understand why on earth he smelled like ether of all things. What the hell was her neighbor doing over there?

"I don't want to know." She muttered, pinning Midnight between her knees while toweling him dry, glad she had worn elbow length rubber gloves because he had gone insane once she introduced him to water.

Sine frowned when she spotted something taped to the top of his back left paw, gently freeing it, it was black, no wonder she hadn't noticed. It looked like… leather, and she unrolled it, taking in the word from squinting eyes. "Help? What the…" She studied it thoughtfully; it looked like someone had used a nail or something to etch that.

~!~

Stephanie McMahon could only hope, pray to God, that someone had gotten the note she had broken a fingernail scratching onto that scrap of leather. She had used a string from her shirt to tie it around the strange cat's paw, barely shipping the cat away from her when the Undertaker had returned.

What had started out as a storyline had progressed into something else and she was terrified out of her mind. She didn't even know what day it was, her way of keeping track of time was waking up and seeing if sunlight was seeping through the tape 'Taker had covered the basement windows with.

When he had found her awake this last time, he hadn't been as amused as before. His annoyance had turned to outright anger when she started throwing whatever she could get her hands on at him. He had actually backhanded her though mercifully the pain hadn't lasted long since he had knocked her out with what remained of the ether the cat had spilled.

She was barely coherent now and the only thought keeping her from closing her eyes again was: someone, please help me.

~!~

'Taker hid his surprise well when Sine Reneire showed up at his doorstep the day after he had returned her mangy cat to her. "May I help you?" He asked, filling the doorway with his massive frame.

Sine offered him a hesitant smile, one he did not return, still a bit peeved with Stephanie's actions from yesterday. "Look, Mr. Calaway, Mark, I was rude to you on the phone the other day and yesterday, I was very short with you."

He idly noted that she did indeed have a soft French inflection, wondering how she had picked that one up or if she was an aspiring actress or something.

"I'm sorry, I'm not normally that way. I've got your dress started."

His eyes widened, not expecting that.

"I stayed up most of the night doing it, it's actually almost halfway finished, and I am willing to let you have it at regular price, my way of apologizing."

'Taker noted she was staying on the porch, looking over her shoulder to find the nosy old broad who had told him to his face that he was the devil watching them like a hawk. "That's… nice of you." It also explained the Band-Aids on her fingertips. "How much?"

"I don't know off the top of my head, I have the estimate written down in my shop." Sine shrugged, tugging at the bottom of her pale pink tank top and he noted she was in yet another pair of denim shorts. "I know you said your fiancée is indisposed and I am terribly sorry to hear that so maybe you would like to come see it?" She chewed on her lower lip, obviously trying not to look annoyed. "I'm sorry; I'm just not used to people ordering a wedding dress and not wanting to look at it before actually wearing it. I'm a perfectionist."

Considering he now wasn't going to have to kill her bastard cat as both a warning and because the cat had discovered a way into his house, he found this reasonable, she was making the dress after all. "Understandable. Would you mind if I looked at it and took a few pictures for her?"

Sine simply nodded.

"Is now a good time?"

Another nod.

Sparing a glance back towards the basement door, he stepped out of the house and followed her, knowing precious Stephanie was too out of it to even consider getting away. Providing she was even aware she was being left alone, which was highly unlikely.

~!~

Sine guided Mark through the open cellar doors from the side of her house down into her workshop. On a dummy was the black wedding gown. Truth be told, it was an old wedding gown she had never gotten around to finishing as the client had backed out of the wedding contract, she had simply dyed it overnight.

Keeping behind him, she watched as he examined it. The moment he bent down to examine the black silk trim at the hem of the dress, she moved forward. Picking up her sewing machine required strength, lifting it over her head had the muscles in her arms screaming in protest but a mixture of fear and adrenaline seen her through the act of raising it and then bringing it down.

At the very last minute, he turned, his eyes flashing acid at her and he reached out to push the machine away, cursing when all he did was soften the blow, clipping his shoulder. He felt backwards into the dummy, toppling it and cracked his head on the cement floor.

Sine stared down at him for a moment, knowing he was probably just temporarily stunned and hoped she wasn't doing something very stupid because prison was not an appealing option to her. Without a backwards look, she bolted back outside; the upstairs door already locked and slammed the cellar doors shut, padlocking them.

Her heart was racing furiously in her chest as she ran inside his house, going from room to room. She finally made her way downstairs, freezing at the sight of the young brunette woman lying on a bed, the lingering scent of ether assaulting her nostrils. Now she knew where Midnight had acquired that particular scent. This was Calaway's 'fiancée'.

"Oh merde…" She cursed softly, wishing she had thought to bring her cell phone with her, though the odds of it getting signal inside were slim to none. She had no idea how long Calaway would be out, but she was hoping for at least another ten minutes.

Grunting, and ignoring her arching arms, she dragged the wan girl out of the bed, somehow made it back up the stairs and then finally outside, never so happy to breathe fresh air in her life. "Wake up fille, we have to get you out of here." She urged, jostling the other woman.

Sine nearly jostled herself right out of her own skin when she heard pounding coming from her house, knowing Calaway had woken up.

"Sine? Who's your friend?" Mrs. Meade asked from her grandson's car, instructing him to pull up alongside the curb. Her eyes widened when Sine dragged the girl over, opened the backseat and stuffed her inside before sliding in alongside her. "What are-"

"Drive Tommy, NOW!" Sine ordered, seeing a flash of blue eyes before slamming the door shut. "Go!"

Tommy peeled out of there like a bat out of hell, having no idea what was going on but not about to argue either, looking at the groggy stranger through his rearview mirror. "Um…"

Mrs. Meade had shifted in her seat, also staring at the young woman. "Just drive, boy." She ordered sternly. "And don't you dare slow down."

Tommy nodded stiffly.