"Morning, Baby girl."
As she expected her attempt at a greeting was ignored as she nodes a far quieter greeting to the one keeping watch over her mild meltdown suffering daughter.
Sebastian looked far less put together than Talia Burns had seen in a while since following Cal back to Savannah.
The initial move, having lasted as long as Jack had been able to keep their little girl safely sedated after Cal had literally run herself into exhaustion along with shouting herself hoars in guilt. Calling out for. Pleading to. Begging for the vampire that had single-handedly ripped their family apart. Cal had yelled for her to come back. That she was right. That she loved her. That she was sorry.
Close to eight agonizingly long months had passed since then. And still Talia wakes in the middle of the night to the echoed reminder of her daughter's ragged sobs as she'd cling to her with guilt-ridden "She's gone. She's gone" protests as she stared tearfully at the abandoned SUV found along a roadside just past Savannah city limits.
"Guess it's official then." Talia sighs not needing the crumpled, milk and cereal-soaked envelope left on the floor under the smashed remains of Cal's breakfast bowl to tell her she was right.
After that night only one thing could have driven her child to such heartbroken destructive behavior.
"Not even the council will help us anymore" Sabastian nodes in conformation as he slowly raises a steaming mug, which she already knew wasn't filled with coffee to his lips. "the case has officially gone cold."
"But I'm guessing Margot's still trying to pull those last strings." Talia mused splashing some not so warmed coffee into the offered mug as she tries her best to keep her back to her spiraling daughter.
Of course, all she wanted with to gather Cal into her arms. To comfort her, do something to put her back together again but she also knew from past experience that attempting it would only push her daughter farther away from her. It had already put both Jack and Apollo in the hospital on several instances before they'd gotten the message to stay the hell back when Cal was in one of her moods.
Also, a few months since she'd talked with either of them since a still hurt Apollo had sided with his father in his choice to stay well away from Savannah despite the growing threat of all kinds of hell monsters prowling its streets.
"Come on Callie. Water time." Theo called stepping out from his obediently steadying the weighted punching bag Cal had been tearfully beating on. The only one Cal allowed close to her nowadays.
No one not even Theo himself bothered to say the true reason Cal preferred his company to any others since that night.
He had tried of course. He'd tried to reach out through the sire's bond with Juliette to help narrow their search, but it had been in vain. At first, Margot had said it was because he was 'too fresh' with his fangs to understand it properly but even she had to admit as time had crawled on that something else had to be interfering.
Just what that something might be is still a complete mystery.
"Cal."
Only the true note of something akin to hope in Ben's voice has the girl looking his way after only a few shallow swallows of water under Theo's watchful gaze as the door rebounds off the wall at his arrival.
"Come on."
Again, it's only the shocked glee of the growing teen's voice that has all four following his hurried steps back out the door before Margot has a chance of entering it. "We'll follow you." She promises with a shared nod with her daughter's best friend. "But you best…."
"We're going." Ben groaned in that younger sibling way she'd always admired from the boy.
"You've found her?" Sabastian questioned once the passenger door of Ben's jeep had slammed closed as the car surged hard into reverse with Cal fumbling for her seatbelt passed the morning glare of the windshield.
"Told you she hadn't gone through with it." Theo pipped up earning a quieting glare from his mother as all eyes turned towards Margot for explanation.
"Carmen was finally able to give us a more stable location on where Juliette has been all this time." The mother says seems to be choosing her words carefully as she looked from one curious expression to the next. "But she's also given insight into why it has taken as long as it has to pinpoint her."
"And that is?" Talia asks
Margot takes a deep breath that she lets out far more slowly than it seemed she needed to before she answers. "Juliette has found a way to make herself human." She tells them. "but in doing so it seems that she had to give up all her memories of her life before then."
"So, what she doesn't remember us?" Sebastian asks, his voice cracking in pained realization. "She doesn't remember her heritage? Her birthright as a child of Lilith?"
"Which means she would have also forgotten turning me." Theo realizes
"But if she doesn't remember her time as a vampire that also means that she wouldn't remember meeting Cal let alone falling in love with her" Talia reminds in a tone of one who'd just gotten a full-on roundhouse kick to her heart. "God Margot, have you no heart that you'd let my baby go after her knowing Juliette will have no idea who she is once they meet again?" Talia scolds her eyes blurring so much with angry tears she has trouble dialing Cal's cell number in her own small attempt to warn her emotionally fragile daughter.
Her heart sinks when the answering buzzing hum comes from the direction of the loan corner housing Cal's tossed-away gym bag.
"Actually, I'm hoping that the shock of seeing Cal again will be enough to cure whatever hack charm some foolish witches put on my daughter, so she'll finally come home where she belongs." Margot answers, her arms now crossed tightly over her front as she held Talia Burns's watery glare.
"And what about Cal?" Theo questions
"What about her?" Margot asks in a tone so like Elinor's even Sabastian does a double take in surprise, "contrary to her feelings now it was whatever Calliope said their last moments together that drove Juliette to choose the path she did."
"Margot." Sebastian stepped in his tone scolding as he rested a hand against Talia's arm.
"No Bash." His wife argues "It's Cal's fault we've lost our daughter."
Strong arms wrap around her as Margot breaks down in painful sobs only realizing once the first few heavy sobs pass that it was Talia Burns, she was clinging to for support instead of her husband as she cried. Talia's hands were so soft and sure smoothing down her hair as she cried whilst her other hand rubbed small grounding circles against Margot's back.
"I—I just want my baby girl back." Margot sniffed pitifully.
"I know." Talia agreed, pulling her back in for another mutually needed hug. "So do I." she mumbles against the other woman's hair. "So do I." she repeats not knowing if it was her own child or Margot's that she longed for as the fellow mother gives another heartbroken sob against her shoulder.
"Are you sure she's in there?" Cal questions eyeing the front window of the place with heavy skepticism once the car had rolled to a stop outside the unassuming diner.
"Sure, as Carmen said so." Ben shrugged, already twisting the keys to turn the car off as he unlocked the doors. One foot was already out the driver's side door as it was.
Cal sucks in a heavy breath looking between the dinner window and Ben's equally nervous expression.
"Let's go." The hunter decides punching down her own emotions as a fresh streak of sunlight peaked out from the thick tree line behind them. Mostly it was the way one of the new arrivals swaggered up to the door after swinging off of her motorcycle a few spaces down from where Ben had ended up parking them.
There was just something about her that Cal didn't like and called for her to shadow this new one until she could say for sure just why she found her so untrustworthy.
The groaning jingling of a rusted bell over the door has Ben wincing at her shoulder whilst Cal has eyes only for the one, she'd followed inside. The one who'd purposefully ignored the small 'wait to be seated' sign glaring at anyone who stepped over the door's threshold as she skillfully weaved her way between the tables to slip into a booth in one of the sunnier parts of the half-empty eatery.
"What's with you?" Ben asks in a whisper from her shoulder.
Cal shakes her head unable to understand even to herself why she seemed so fixated on this one person who clearly wasn't the one they'd driven all this way to see as an unassuming employee slip from the backroom towards them with a grinned "She'll be right out. Got gotta finish clocking in." towards the dark-haired one setting Cal's teeth on edge before turning with an easy "good morning, dears, table for two?" in Cal and Ben's direction as she picked up a few battered menus on her way over to them.
"Oh my, Lilith." Ben gaped as if catching something Cal hadn't yet in her not-so-subtle glaring towards the brightening back corner of the cozy eatery.
"If you'll just follow me, dears we have just the spot for a nice pair like you." The kindly older woman holding the menus prods leading Cal to need to quickly take Ben's arm in guide or else leave him standing like a fool at the door.
They'd only made it a single row of tables deep when Cal's breath froze in her throat as her eyes slid toward what it was that held Ben so spellbound. Her heart equally chilled since that night finally warmed enough to do a few happy summersaults against her ribs as she catches sight of that shy, giddy smile she'd missed so much in the separating months since she'd foolishly let Juliette drive away from her.
But then she notices who was on the receiving side of that oh-so-tempting smile when Juliette dodges past her completely without so much as a passing glance.
"Missed you this morning my sweet little honeybee."
Cal wanted to vomit all over the floor at the sickly-sweet tone of the greeting carrying to them once they'd stopped at the table intended to be theirs for as long as they stayed. And Cal would have been physically sick to expect she had nothing in her stomach to do so other than a few sips of water after her latest practice session with her brother.
"There you are dears. Enjoy."
Ben instantly sinks weak-kneed into his chair whilst Cal remained standing beside hers. Gripping the back of it in a white-knuckled grip as she listened to the pillow talk worthy whispering going on a few tables away. She didn't trust herself to bother lifting her head for the full visual effect.
"Sorry, baby but you know I can't help staying inside on such a chilly morning." Juliette was saying in a guilty reminder. "The woods just seem so peaceful in the mornings I can't just not run through them."
"I know. That doesn't mean I didn't miss you next to me. The beds always extra cold without you in it."
"Baby, I'm at work."
"Kiss me and maybe I'll stop."
The water glass already sitting in wait at the table crashed to the floor startling everyone that wasn't Ben, but the damage done was far more painful than the loss of a water cup as Juliette and the unnamed one leaned apart with a startled gasp.
"Oh, my gosh. Are you alright?" Juliette asks her lips still bruised and kiss swollen as she hastily moved the few separating tables towards Ben and Cal's. "Don't move I'll get something to clean…."
Cal holds her breath when those clouded eyes finally lift to meet hers after she'd also dropped to kneel beside the spilled water stain.
"Hi." The hunter whispers.
Juliette's shaking hand reached up to toy absently with a silvery chain hanging at her throat. Cal's eyes zeroing in on the familiar shape of the bee charm hanging so proudly from the thing now twisted nervously between her legacy's fingers as Juliette gives an answering "Hello."
Then Juliette gives a pained hiss when a glass shard slips from her nervous grip slicing into the soft skin of her finger. "Sorry. I'll. I'll be right back with a fresh glass." Juliette recovers gritting her teeth against both against the threat of a hard raspy cough and the new sting of pain throbbing in her finger as she straightens up leaving a heartbroken Cal staring after her as she makes a quick retreat into the back kitchens with a few departing groaning coughs as she left.
"Cal?" Ben asks
"She doesn't remember me." Cal says her voice cracking at the realization. "She looked right at me. And. And nothing."