"Cal?" her mother asked in surprise when the Burn's front door was all but kicked off its hinges by the hurricane that was her entering daughter.
"No time," Cal argues back by way of a greeting taking the stairs to her bedroom three at a time not wanting to leave Ashley unguarded longer than needed as she rushed to throw together a few days' worth of clothes and grab a few more of her more lethal weapons considering who would be hot on her trail if she wasn't already.
"Cal, baby girl hold on a second." Taila tries again reaching the doorway just in time to catch Cal tossing an old gym bag onto her bed, first tossing out the bag's previous content onto the floor before hurriedly cramming in a few cleaner clothes options.
"Don't have a second Mom. We have to leave for a few days at least." Cal argues, almost pulling the dresser drawer apart trying to get the thing open in her haste. "Just enough to get her safe."
"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell…."
"Don't you know?" Cal questioned cutting her mother off whilst finally breaking the hurricane-level mess she was creating in her bedroom to stare into her mother's blank expression.
"Don't I know about what, Cal?" her mother scoffed her arms now crossed tightly against her chest as she glared her daughter down. "About how our resident Barbie fangs got herself free of the humans not even remotely capable of handling her? Because yes, I do. And you would have known that too if you bothered to look at the dozen or so messages, I've tried sending you since I found out." Taila informed her "Or maybe you're referring to the fact you've been straight up avoiding mine and practically everyone else's existence the past three weeks?"
Cal dropped her head in shame at the reminder as her mother rested a hand against her shoulder taking a deep breath before she spoke again. "I'm not going to pretend I understand completely what you're going through Cal, but I can understand wanting more than anything to know someone you…. Care deeply for…."
"I don't just 'care deeply' for her mom. I love her." Cal corrects in a growl leveling an impressive glare at her floundering mother. "I love Juliette. And it's about time you and everyone else accepted that."
"Baby girl you can't be in love with that vampi…." Her mother once again attempts to argue back.
"She's not." Cal cuts in and just from the way she says it Taila can tell those two simple words are the most painful phrases her child had ever had to speak in a long while. "Not anymore anyway. I—I don't understand it exactly, or at all really." Cal goes on still with that same crippled tone of voice that shreds Taila's heart a little more having to listen to. Not to mention the fresh sliding of tears down Cal's cheeks as she chocks the words out.
"Callie, what are you saying?" Taila questioned hardly able to keep up with the sudden change in this already puzzling, attempted talk with her once again fleeing child. "What do you mean 'she's not any more'?"
But Cal was already turning away from her, her daughter's head twisting in concentration towards the door when both of them allowed for a little quieter atmosphere to settle in before verbally attacking one another again.
That's when Taila hears the wheezing coughing coming from the direction of the stairwell.
"Ashley." Cal panicked sprinting back out of the room once again leaving her mother trailing behind her as she rushed away.
Taila blinked a few times in shock considering who it was she'd spotted sitting meekly at the bottom of the stairs doubled over as the figure was with her head tucked between her knees as she struggled to pull in a full lung's worth of air.
Even from the back, there was no mistake in that hunched-over outline.
"Jul…."
"I thought you said you'd stay in the car, Ash. It's safer." Cal jumped in rubbing her hand against the legacy's back before helping the wheezing girl over to a spot on the Burn's sofa.
"I'm not leaving you alone." The one Taila had sworn Cal had just misnamed as Ashley says in answer her eyes holding Cal's easily as she crosses her arms in front of her chest as if in a show of defiance as she struggled to pull in a few more full breaths. "never seen you this scared or upset since we met. And if horror movies have taught me anything…." Ashley wheezed out.
Taila was about to make some snide remark at the comment if it wasn't for the burst of genuine laughter, it brought out of her daughter. Honestly from where Taila stood watching the pair it seemed to her it was taking everything Cal had not to lean over to press a kiss against the shorter girl's head for the gesture as Cal's shoulders shook in honest laughter.
"What? It's not like I haven't seen the news the last few days." Ashley keeps going after a few more coached breaths. "And as distractingly slayer worthy as you are, Cal you know what they say about safety in numbers." Ashley jokes but Taila isn't so shocked by the legacy's return to look past the obvious 'lovestruck' gaze flicked Cal up and down.
"You're safe with me," Cal vows sitting up a little straighter as she says this.
"I know." the shorter girl agrees "but you're safe with me too but I can't prove that when you ask me to stay in the car," Ashley says her tone far more teasing than reproachful when it seemed Cal was relaxing under her gaze.
"I didn't think I'd be gone longer than a few minutes." Cal returns guilt heavy in her words as her hand returns to lightly rubbing small circles against Ashley's back.
"Well, you were, and I was worried." Her now pouting humanized legacy barked leaning a little more against Cal's shoulder.
"Going soft on me, Lennox?" Cal hums
"No," Juliette argues finally getting her breathing back under control the longer she holds the taller girl's eyes.
"Lier." Cal prompts with a shy half-smile.
"Shut up." The legacy whined with a playful shove against Cal's shoulder. "Aren't you meant to be packing or whatever it was you were doing?" she prods only then noticing their audience shadowing them from the top of the stairs. "Oh- uh hello."
"Hello." Taila greets coming a few more steps down the swaying staircase.
"Ashley, Ashley Lennox." The vampire says holding out her hand for a more formal greeting. "Nice to meet you."
"Really?" Taila questions her eyes narrowing in suspicion even when she accepts the offered handshake with a firm one in return.
"Mom, don't." Cal steps in her hand slipping back into Juliette's tugging her along up the steps with her very similar to the first time she'd brought her legacy home with her after Cook's body had been found in the woods as she led Ashley up towards her bedroom.
It seems Ashley must have remembered a little of her first allowance considering once she'd crossed the room threshold, she made sure to catch the door Cal had attempted to push closed for a more stolen seconds of privacy.
"Nice, place." Juliette comments only giving the space the briefest of glances as she takes a seat on the very edge of the half-stripped off bed.
"Yeah," Cal answers absently more focused on tugging open a few more drawers in her attempt to pack up as soon as possible. Not that Ashley seemed all that interested in her surroundings, but Cal didn't want to run the risk of her bedroom triggering one of her fog-hazed ex's coughing fits and drawing her mother's already piqued interest.
It wasn't that she didn't want Juliette back because she did, achingly so, but she also wasn't about to just ignore Ashley in favor of the girl she was before. Maybe if she understood a little more, about why Juliette asked for this… persona as a human the hunter could coax her stubborn, heartbroken legacy back sooner rather than later.
"Is this blood?"
Cal's eyes dropped to the shirt in question realizing too late it had been pulled from the discarded mess the hunter had spilled from her duffle bag. "Uhh—" she gets out as the rumpled Academy tee-shirt she'd been wearing the afternoon she and Juliette had needed to deal with 'Smashley'
"Man, how ruff is your school?" Ashley questions in a trembling cough of what could have been a laugh as she shakes out the shirt to examine the long-dried stain of blood on its ripped shoulder.
Cal's first thought was to rip the shirt away and either toss it out the window or head back downstairs to burn the thing in the kitchen sink but given how tightly Ashley was holding onto it all without the tint of the sight triggering any 'Letty coughs' as Ben had come to call them, the hunter doubted she could get away with either idea without earning even more questions.
"That's Savannah for you." She answers with a shrug of her shoulders as she closes the still-opened dresser drawer with her hip. "Gotta keep your head on a swivel most days. Never know what's out to get you here."
Ashley for once only accepts the comment with a stiff nod of her head and an equally tight "Noted" as her fingers reach up to toy absently with the silvered charm hanging around her throat. Not yet ready to give up the blood-splattered gym shirt. "Ready to get outta here?" she probed jerking her chin towards the half-packed duffle bag resting an arm's length away.
Cal dumps another armload of clothes inside with a spare pair of sneakers and just a few more choices from her smaller collection of weapons before giving an agreeing nod. "Ready." She whispers tugging the strap of the bag over her shoulder.
When she held out her hand in what was meant as an innocent offering to help the other girl up from the end of the bed it was as if she'd raised her hand to hit her given how quickly Ashley recoiled from the offered hand. Hunched low as she was over the rumpled tee shirt now hugged tightly to her chest as she stared up untrusting into Cal's face for half a second before seeming to come to her senses.
It was in that split second of confusion that Cal would have sworn she'd caught the flash of Juliette's fangs in the untrusting curl of Ashley's lips before the human legacy was giving her head a clearing shake with a guilty "Sorry. I—I don't know why I did that." before bashfully accepting the hand the hunter still held to her.
They head back down to the main house hand in hand. Cal's 'overnight' bag slung over her shoulder whilst pretending she hadn't seen Ashley stashing the bloodied gym shirt underneath her jacket as she pulled her ex back to her feet.
"Hang on, at least have something to eat before you take off on me again, Cal." Taila Burns calls out hearing the pair on the stairs. "You too vam- erm Ashley." She adds as an obvious afterthought. "Foods already on the table."
"Think we can make a break to the car before she notices us leaving?" Ashley asks in a low voice with a hesitant glance in the direction of the called-out voice of the Burns's Mother.
"Don't think so." Cal sighs giving her now pouting legacy a little spin twirl as she redirects them towards the kitchen.
"Thought not." Ashley huffed inwardly pleased that Cal chose to keep ahold of her hand as they once again faced the intimidating woman that was Cal's mother. "You know this is my first 'dinner with the girlfriend's family'. Kinda funny it's with yours thought and not you know my actual girlfriend." The nervous legacy admits her fingers tightening reflectively on the hand she was holding. "I mean even though I do consider you a friend and you are a girl." She stammers floundering now.
"No, it's alright I get it." Cal saved though she did drop back a step, or three so Ashley wouldn't notice the picker punch to the heart expression the giggled comment triggered as they headed farther into the combination kitchen and dining room.
"Wow, your family's defiantly carnivorous huh?" the blonde wonders noting immediately the lack of anything even resembling a salad or vegetable on the already set-out table. Four plates. Yet only three held portioned out meals.
"Why are you vegan all of a sudden?" Taila asks carrying a small basket of warmed bread in from the kitchen as Cal moves to pull out the chair Ashley guessed was meant to be her own. "Cooked yours on the rare side, Hope that's alright." She adds sliding over a freshly warmed-over stake cutting.
"Perfect actually," Ashley answers as she takes her chair at the table. "Just something about the added tang of blood that makes it just taste better you know?" she hums trying to distract from the happy butterfly feeling when she notices Cal opting for the seat between the two of them even if that did mean the taller girl had to drag the opposing food-laden plate of the seat Ahsley guessed had already been assigned as hers across the table much to her mother's agitation.
Not that Cal let the 'Seriously' sounding expression on her mother's face at the action sway her as she immediately began digging into her food.
"And no I'm not vegan, but I am an avocat for a well-balanced diet," Ashley adds drawing Taila Burns's attentions back to herself as she eyed the portioned heavy meal laid out in front of the too-large table for an intended feeding of only the three of them. "And this spread looks more at home in a royal court." She goes on eyeing the thickly chosen cuts of meat set out on each of the three plates. "Yummy yes but not interlay balanced is it?"
Taila's eyes narrow for a fraction of a second before she gives a coughed kind of laugh as she too gives the offered meal another look over. "You know, your right."
At her shoulder Cal's knife and fork clatter harder than needed against the plate as the girl pauses in hacking up her portioned stake into more manageable pieces. "What?" Cal gaped staring in open surprise at her mother's so easily offered acceptance.
"I said she's right," Taila says still eyeing Ashley with warry interest before whipping her mouth on her napkin and standing up from the table. "I'll be right back." She tells the girls before turning on her heels and heading back into the kitchen.
They hear the opening of what by the humming buzz they guessed to be the freezer, and a few seconds of rummaging before the door was closed again.
"How'd you do that?" Cal asked in a low voice over the sounds of the kitchen cabinet being opened, a glassware dish being pulled out, and something small and frozen being shaken into it.
Ahsley shrugged her shoulders now ripping absently at a cooling dinner roll under the sudden scrutiny as the sounds of the microwave carried to them from the kitchen.
"Found a half bag of baby carrots and another of broccoli," Taila announces with a dash of pride as she sets the steaming bowl down on the table.
"Sounds yummy." Ashley smiles spooning a few bites of the new dish onto her plate whilst Cal and Taila only watch her with similar expressions of curiosity.
"What?" Ahsley asks noticing the sudden attention though her eyes chose to focus on Cal rather than her still-watching mother as Taila once again picks up her fork and knife from the table.
"You're amazing you know that?" Cal answered earning another bashful grin as Ashley dropped her head to attempt to hide behind her hair as she tucked into her food.
The rest of dinner passed in a relative quiet other than the scrapping of cutlery across a plate as each became lost in their thoughts as they ate.
"I've got the dishes," Ashley says almost as soon as the last morsel of food has been cleaned away.
"Nice of you but don't you need to get going?" Taila reminds her eyes flickering between her guilty daughter and the now nervous seeming Ashley as Cal tugs her stashed away duffle bag from beside her chair.
"Oh, right." The fog-hazed legacy agreed her dishes free hand drifting towards something tucked inside the inner lining of her jacket before she shakes herself back out of her head. "Right, your right we uhh…. We should get going. Eerm thanks for dinner, Mrs. Burns." The stammering girl gets out now gingerly setting down the plate stake in her hands with far more tenderness than needed.
She hangs back even more as the three of them wander closer to the front door Cal's eyes are wet with tears again as she burrows into her mother's arms her head pillowed against Taila's shoulder as Ashley can do nothing but watch from the sidelines.
"Keep my baby girl safe, you hear me," Taila commands her eyes burning into Ahsley's over Cal's shoulder the longer the mother-daughter embrace lingers.
"Forever," Ahsley vows the words coming like instinct as Cal's watery eyes catch hers as the taller girl rocks back on her heels still tucked within the circle of her mother's arms.
"It's that my line." The hunter laughs, her tone lacking any real humor as the two look at one another.
Taila, having been distracted by a newer-looking car, now driving slower than needed down the roadway as Cal and Ashley walk the short distance back to their car. Maybe she'd imagined it in the glimpsed flash she'd gotten when the passing car's tented window was rolled down a crack, but the mother had thought she'd seen a smirking glimpse of the Fairmont's other daughter behind the wheel as the car inches by their front lawn.
"No way I'm driving," Ahsley argues that the offender's passenger window was quickly rolled back up with the car speeding off at a much faster pace. "Because you have no idea where we're headed for one and two it's my turn." She goes on to argue as Cal tosses her duffle bag into the back seat, meaning that neither she nor Cal has noticed the possible dangers shadowing them as they bicker between themselves.
"Fine." Cal finally relents in a groan before climbing into the front passenger seat. "But I pick the driving music."
"Okay then." Ahsley grins slipping easily into the driver seat.