Rewrite

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. So we got through the Christmas Chapter and the therapy chapter. Now we're going to get the New Year's Chapter and we're going to hear from a new character today. Well she's not new, you've heard of her, today you're going to hear from her. Don't forget to tell me what you think, and I'll see you guys on Wednesday!

Chapter 238

Rowan was out of commission for two days after the concussion. Which meant New Year's was no longer going to be a large party, because she was the one who was supposed to plan and put it together. And apparently, even though she gave direction, the boys couldn't figure it out. And though the mob doctor they had pulled to come see her had said she'd be good after forty-eight hours, both Wo Fat and Conejo refused to let her do anything too strenuous.

Which meant that Rowan didn't get to start planning any sort of party until two days before the actual party and at that point she was going for a pot luck and karaoke.

But two days sitting in her room, even if it meant that Wo Fat stayed closer to the house after that, and that Conejo wasn't going to make her run, had been horrible. She had been bored. Terribly bored. Even if her boys were babying her to make up for her boredom.

That day, however, Rowan was done. She was going to use her new bill of good health as an excuse to get herself out of the house.

She had dealt with Conejo and his annoyance about the matter. His insistence with her staying at the house. And unluckily for her, someone else had objections as well. For the second she came down the stairs all dressed and ready to go, her over-protective big brother was on her like white on rice.

"Where are you going?" Wo Fat had asked as he came out of the library.

"Shopping."

"No, no, I don't like it," Wo Fat had said with a shake of his head.

But she had convinced him to let her go and now she was regretting it.

They had gone to get Raul set up, to train him, give him a chance to be in her shoes while she was shopping. But when they got out of the car, when they got to Raul, he had been beaten and he had someone with him. But when Conejo went for his gun, other men appeared with bigger guns and just like that she was afraid.

Maybe she should have stayed home.

"Hello, Rowan Pierce," the man said to her. "Let's see how much your brother loves you."

Oh this guy was SO dead. By either her hand or her brother's.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Letting Rowan leave after the last kidnapping attempt was a big step for Wo Fat. For two days she had been on lock down, mainly because the doctor said she could have no stimulation. She had given herself a concussion during the take down and they had noted some signs of brain swelling. She was given medicine to combat that and then for two days both he and Sin Nombre spent their time filling her bored hours with her keeping her calm and unstimulated. And safe.

Wo Fat had been so upset about what had happened that he had slept in her bed. Just so he could wake up and know she was there. It made him feel better waking up to her face those two mornings.

But he knew, even though he was worried, he couldn't keep Rowan inside forever. She'd rebel and he'd have issues with her. So he had let her go, knowing that Sin Nombre would be going with her and not feeling the greatest about it.

He chalked it up to irrationality. There was no reason for him to worry. There had already been a failed attempt to grab her. An attempt that had been foiled by both her and her bodyguard. They would be stupid to try and grab her so shortly after a failed attempt when Sin Nombre would be on high alert.

So he had gone back to planning with Armando in the hopes of distracting himself out of worrying.

And it worked for the most part. Until the guard showed up. This guard usually stood at the front gate, so it was strange for him to be in Armando's library when he should have been on shift.

He had spoken to Armando in Spanish before approaching Wo Fat as Armando said: "Something was delivered to you."

And then the man offered him the package he had in his hand. Wo Fat took the envelope. It had no post mark, no writing, just a blank sealed manila envelope. He hadn't been expecting a delivery, nor was he expecting a letter so where the hell had this come front? Not through the mail cause it would have had post marks if it had.

"Where did you get this?"

"Some guy dropped it off at the gate," the guard said with a shrug before leaving to go back to his post.

Wo Fat let him leave and turned his attention back to the envelope. Well, if it was explosive it wouldn't do much damage with a package this thin. Luckily it wasn't that anything that dangerous it was just a picture.

A picture of Rowan, out in the market. She was just shopping, she was actually looking in her purse. But it wasn't the picture that scared him, it was the big black X crossed over her face.

It was a hit. A declaration of a hit.

Where was Rowan?

Wo Fat lunged for his phone, throwing the picture in Armando's direction as he went for the car. He needed to find Rowan, to confirm that she was okay, to pull her back to the house so she could be safe.

But neither her nor Sin Nombre were picking up their phones. He shot a glance to Armando who was also on the phone, no doubt trying to get a hold of someone who would know where Rowan had gone.

"Do you remember where she said she was going?"

"Shopping, all she said was shopping," Armando cried. "Any luck with Sin Nombre?"

No, no luck. He got to the car and got in quickly while Armando went into the slid into the passenger seat. "I think she's gone to set up the stall. Coach Raul."

"We never did confirm if he had been working for Diego originally, did we?"

"You really think he'll go after her with Sin Nombre on her?"

"I think he's desperate enough to do anything he'll think of to hurt us," Wo Fat told him starting his car. "I guess no one told him exactly how badly I react to threats against her."

Well like all the others Diego was about to find out how quickly the ruthless monster jumped out of Wo Fat the second his little imouto was threatened.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Diego groaned for the third time in a short matter of time and turned back to where both Rowan and Conejo had been tied to their separate chairs. Conejo had once remarked that Rowan should have been given a warning label for extreme obnoxiousness. And well… she had been living up to that label.

"Shut up, for the love of god, shut up," he growled.

But Rowan was not done. She wasn't going to let him let go so easily. Rowan blinked big innocent eyes up to him. "I'm sorry. But I was merely listing all the reasons this was a stupid idea."

Diego groaned once more.

"But it's true," Rowan cried. "I just don't see what you're going to gain from this except for dead bodies."

Beside her Conejo chuckled. "She has a point, hombre," he said. "Just imagine what's going to happen if I get out of this chair."

Diego's gun came out of his waistband, shoving it into Conejo's face. "I don't need you alive. All he cares about is the girl."

"Yeah, and I care about him," Rowan said quickly gesturing to Conejo as best as she could with tied hands. "You kill my bodyguard and it's the end of the line for you!"

Diego stared down at her, at the glare he sad he couldn't take seriously and slowly lowered his gun. "Though when my brother get's here it's gonna be the end of the line for you anyway so you know… if you wanna go for gold, like really solidify the death warrant you go ahead and put the bullet in the two of us…"

Once more Diego groaned and Rowan smiled up at him, pulling on that little bit of the void so her hands came free again. "And you know you're really bad at tying knots. Do you need me to help you?"

He took in her free hands again and the ropes that were loosely hanging from the arms of the chair. The last time they had tied her back in she had tried to walk him through it.

The Rabbit goes around the tree and through the hole…

He had slapped her pretty hard for that one.

"How do you keep doing that?" he cried, more like whined actually.

"Actually how do you keep doing that?" Conejo asked his voice low. "Like seriously… how?"

Rowan looked from Diego to Conejo and then said, with a typical shrug. "I'm double jointed."

It was a lie, her old fall back and neither of them believed her. She could tell by the narrowed look on their faces. The problem what else could it be? Cause neither of them were going to believe her if she said magic.

"Okay, but no seriously," Conejo said a little more sternly.

Rowan pinned him with a dry glare. "A magician never reveals their secrets."

"Okay, that's enough," Diego snapped coming between them again. "You want your hands free? Make yourself useful. Call your brother. It's time he and I had a chat."

Rowan took the phone that was offered her. The number was already there, all she had to do was press dial. Which she did.

She listened to it ring, wondering if Wo Fat would even bother to pick up a number he didn't recognize. Luckily she didn't have to worry.

"Fat."

"Hey!" Rowan cried attempting to be cheery. "How's my favourite anuie?"

"Pissed off. I told you to stay home, didn't I?" Wo Fat cried. Well, at least he knew that she had been kidnapped and was worried about her. "Now. Are you okay? What has he done to you?"

"Nothing. But he did say he was going to see how much you loved me," she said with a pout and on the other end of the phone he was silent. Probably because it wasn't really an answer to his question.

"What did you say?"

"I told him to keep me here and find out," she answered and earned a soft chuckle from him.

"He hasn't hurt you though, has he?"

Before she could answer Diego had snatched the phone out of her hand and then he was talking to Wo Fat.

Rowan sat there calmly, taking this time to look around to assess her exit strategies. Though, to be honest she didn't really have one. They were men at each door and more just milling around with their guns. It was like they were ready for a tactical ambush. Which… to be fair, was probably a fair response to expect after kidnapping Wo Fat's sister.

She wasn't sure how she was going to get herself out of there, least of all with Conejo who was itching for a fight, or just a simple gun so he could start shooting. She didn't think, even with Conejo who was a crack shot, that she could get them out safely, not without help.

"I've been letting you bully me for too long," he said. "I think you don't know who you're pissing off. It's time I showed you what happens to those who mess with me."

Rowan looked up to Diego, as he listened to whatever it was that Diego had to say. She opened up her other sense, the one tied to the void looking for anything that might help her at this point, as she wasn't certain where Wo Fat was and whether or not he'd get there before they all started shooting.

"You're right, Diego, I don't know who I'm pissing off."

Why could she hear him as if he hadn't come the phone? Diego lowered the phone and Rowan could finally see Wo Fat's pink string waving through the storm of deadly possibilities. Oh they were screwed now!

Rowan smiled toothily at them, watching as Wo Fat appeared from the shadows, knife out taking out the one of the two guards behind Diego, the other was taken out by Armando with his own knife. By the time they realized what was happening it was too late, both men had their throats slit.

Wo Fat was behind him, gun to his head, pulling the phone away from his ear. "Hello Carlos Diego," he said smugly. "How nice to officially meet you."

Diego glanced over his shoulder. "Only two men? You think you can take her out of here with only two men?"

Wo Fat pressed the gun a little closer to his skull and easily said: "Yes. Tell them to drop their weapons or I'll blow your brains out where you stand."

"I'd listen. He's in an awfully bad mood," Armando warned.

Diego's mouth twitched but he ultimately decided not to chance it. He shouted the order to stand down in Spanish and his men slowly lowered their guns.

Wo Fat glanced to Rowan and appraised her briefly. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yep," she said as she stood up, she smiled up at Diego and then kicked him straight in the nuts. Diego cried out and went down and she scowled at him, hands on her hips. "That's for hitting me."

Wo Fat glared at her but did nothing to help the man crumpled at his feet. Instead his gun just followed the man's head so he could always feel the steel against the back of his head. "Feel better?" he asked her and she nodded happily, moving to Conejo's side to untie him. Once he was free, Armando tossed him a gun that he immediately loaded. He turned on the others behind them as Rowan got up and swept her aside.

Wo Fat whistled and Rowan turned in time to catch the car keys he tossed in her direction. "Take the car, I'm going to finish this."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll be fine," he said, his eyes on the back of Diego's head. The man looked quite panicked, kneeling there in front of Wo Fat, which was what he deserved. "It's time that Diego learned just what happens to people who mess with my family."

Conejo was already ushering her towards the door, his eye on all the men as if worried they'd make a move on him.

But Diego wasn't going to go down like that. He turned, his hand catching Wo Fat behind the leg, knocking him over. Rowan immediately yelped and started forward but Diego was shouting: "Disparales!" and all his men started shooting.

Conejo grabbed her and threw her to the floor as he opened fire and Diego and Wo Fat wrestled. It took some maneuvering but he got them out of the door and to the car that Wo Fat had left at the mouth of the alleyway that lead to that building.

"Give me the keys," Conejo ordered but Rowan shoot her head. She got into the driver's seat and just sat there thinking for a moment. She wasn't about to leave her brother and Armando alone in that building clearly out numbered.

"Rowan I have to get you out of here," Conejo said. "They'll be fine, but you won't be if you stay."

"I need your knife," Rowan said instead. When he just stared at her, the silent reminder that Diego's men had lifted a whole fucking armoury off of him when they got taken she elaborated. "The one you hid in the car, I know it's here, give it to me!"

He sighed but did as asked, leaning forward to retrieve it from wherever he had hidden it under the seat. When he was sitting up again a knife was in his hand that he was holding out to her. Rowan took the offered knife and used it to pry open the console under the steering wheel. She found the black wire that attached to the airbags and cut it so they'd be disabled.

"What the hell are you doing?" Conejo asked her.

"I'd uh… I'd buckle up if I were you," Rowan warned as the threw the knife into the cupholder. As she buckled herself up she called: "Sandy, link to all available phones and speakers in the area and play the A-Team theme."

"What the hell are you doing?" Conejo asked but Rowan wasn't listening. From the radio, from his phone, from hers came the A-team theme. Rowan put the car in reverse and backed the Audi up as far as she could go. "Rowan, what are you doing?" he repeated.

"Hold on!" she answered, putting the car in park and pressing on the gas so the car went nowhere but the engine heated up.

"Rowan! What are you doing?!" Conejo shouted but Rowan ignored him. Quickly putting the car back in drive it leapt forward already doing about 50, by the time they were nearing the wall, the car was doing 90 and Conejo was screaming her name, over and over.

Conejo braced as they Audi crashed through the wall, taking out most of whoever was on the other side, sending debris flying into everyone else. Rowan caught her breath, opened the car door and called: "Oh Captain! Your chariot awaits!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Conejo thundered from inside the car, just as Wo Fat and Armando made their way past the rubble to get into the car. "Move over, I'm driving!"

"No, she should drive," Armando said once seated, immediately buckling himself in. He reached over the back of Conejo's seat and pulled him back to his own seat. "Trust, she should drive."

"She should drive?! She just crashed the fucking car!" Conejo snarled.

"On purpose too," Wo Fat agreed. "But seriously, out of all of us she's the best driver," he told him buckling himself in, as Rowan got back in the car. A few feeble shots ricocheted off of the car. "Did you have to crash the Audi Ro?"

"Did you bring another car?" Rowan asked as she looked over her shoulder to reverse the car out of the building she drove it into just as a bullet came through the windshield shattering it. She didn't even bother to flinch.

Wo Fat, Armando and Conejo all responded to the shot but pulling out their guns and shooting out the now glassless window. As soon as the car was out of the building Rowan swung it around and began to drive away.

"Well this was fun," she said. "I say we don't do it again."

"Then listen to me when I tell you not to leave!" Wo Fat argued.

"Oh like you knew he was gonna come at me again so soon! Besides, I can't be cooped up all the time," Rowan argued. "Do you want me to be bored around guns and explosives and other things?"

"Okay, maybe we need to teach you self fucking restraint, it shouldn't be this hard to keep you out of kidnapping situations," Conejo snapped. "I mean seriously what the hell is wrong with you? It's like you go looking for them… or you attract him. No one should be kidnapped as much as you are!"

"That was rude!" Rowan said, turning onto the main road to take them to the highway.

"I love you, you know I love you, my little imouto, but he has a point," Wo Fat said. "I can't keep running off to save you. We have to figure out a way to keep you entertained and safe at the same time. Maybe that can be a New Year's resolution hmm?"

"We have a car following us," Armando said interrupting the argument brewing.

Rowan glanced into the rear-view mirror, well shit that wasn't good. It was a big black SUV, climbing up behind them very quickly.

"Okay," she said and then jerked quickly away from the service road she should have used to get them home and back onto the highway instead. "They want a chase, I'll give them a chase."

"Chase? Chase? Rowan why the hell would you want then to chase us?!" Conejo cried but both Wo Fat and Armando groaned in trepidation and reached for the grab handles. Conejo turned to them. "What? What is it?"

"Just, just hold on," Wo Fat ordered as Rowan reached for the knife in the cupholder and began to absently fiddle with the wires that were hanging from the console.

"Oh god what are you doing now?"

"Cutting the line to our lights," she said. "You see a yellow wire?"

"Why would you want to cut off our lights?" Conejo asked as Wo Fat muttered: "I'm not going to get my deposit back."

"Rowan they're gaining!" Armando called.

"Yes, yes, I know," she said, as she cut the light. She tossed the knife back into the cupholder, checked the rear-view mirror and immediately accelerated, which meant the SUV following them had to accelerate too. She waited, waited until they were on par with her, just about to hit her, when she suddenly shouted: "Hold on!" and then braked. The SUV wasn't expecting it, so they hit her full force, their airbags going off, but the Audi's didn't.

Once they could Rowan accelerated again leaving them behind once more. That time she cut off three different cars to take the next exit before the SUV could follow them. Rowan kept glancing back in the rear-view mirror, waiting to see if the car would appear again but nothing showed up.

"Okay. I think we lost them."

Beside her Conejo was gasping for breathe. He turned wide eyes of surprise onto her. "Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?"

"I used to be a rally racer," Rowan said. "I'd run a con on the street racers in the area. Was pretty good at it too."

Conejo turned incredulous eyes onto Wo Fat. "What the fuck is she talking about?"

"I unno, I never could get a straight answer on her and the car racing past," he admitted.

"I thought she couldn't remember her past? I think sending down her picture to Victoria BC with the big words illegal car racer on the header would probably tell us who she really is."

"I really am Rowan," Rowan said with a frown. "We don't need to go looking into my past. And if you do, I'm gonna dig into yours and find out your real name!"

Conejo stared at her in muted horror. "You need therapy," he growled.

"She needs Jesus," Armando interjected but it was Wo Fat that said: "We just need to take her home. Take us home Ro."

And she quickly did as she was told, taking the car off of the road and into the jungle. As the trees covered the car, letting them disappearing into the wilderness, she began to wonder if they were right. Maybe… maybe Rowan really did need therapy. But… where was she going to find herself a shrink in the jungles of Colombia?

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Three days later Rowan was sick of Armando's safe house in the jungle all over again. After Diego's second slightly more successful attempt on grabbing her she went on a real lock down. Wo Fat had her in someone's line of sight at all times, whether that be him, JC, Armando or Conejo, she was never alone. She was no longer allowed to go to the village, she was forced to give Conejo notes to coach up Raul who would be taking over the stall, she was no longer allowed out to shop, she wasn't even allowed past the walls.

Hell Wo Fat got antsy if she sat by the pool. Too open he said. A sniper could drop her like a deer.

And on top of the smothering, both she and Wo Fat had started having nightmares. Which actually worked out well because it meant that she wasn't alone in bed. She'd always wake up to him already there, arms length across the bed from her already asleep again. It sort of helped her feel better. But not by much.

The kidnapping brought back the Paris incident. And with it the awful memories and the red coated haze of her psychotic break. And once the Paris incident was done with her, the Japan one would come back in full force. It made her realize that she wasn't internalizing the damage like she was so usually good at. With the tunnels, and even Irina's attack on her, those memories would stay buried for months at a time. These ones were much more persistent. She knew she needed help she just didn't know what to do to get it.

Because she got locked down it gave her a lot of time to play a party but absolutely no time to actually get supplies for it. Which was quite annoying as the boys never, ever, got the right things. In the end she gave up, too depressed to actually plan a good party.

And she didn't have to.

To her surprise her boys put together a pretty nice shindig. JC brought in the Karaoke machine and set it up with not just popular songs, but some of her own. Wo Fat got a party sized sushi tray, Armando was in charge of the décor and Conejo was in charge of morale. Which meant Conejo spent the whole time pumping everyone up.

The karaoke started off great, where they took turns and laughed at everyone's choices. Conejo sung Sweet Caroline, but changed every Caroline to Rowan. Wo Fat did Don't Stop Believing, quite theatrically, while both Armando and JC chose Spanish songs. But Rowan recognized JC's because she had helped him write Despacito.

Then came the duets. All four boys sang Bohemian Rhapsody together. Rowan luckily got a video of that. She and Con sang A Whole New World together. She and Wo sang I Got You Babe. JC and Armando ended up doing a very lively version of Gasolina. And then she and JC sang on of her newer songs, actually one that was inspired by their lover's tryst, Reggaetón Lento.

But it was because of that song, the requests for Rowan's special songs started up and just like that it turned into a focus group.

Rowan and JC sang their Hey DJ song together. Rowan sang both versions of her Brother songs for Wo Fat and Conejo. They decided that Wo Fat's version actually sounded better as Lover and not Brother in the chorus, but he liked his version none-the-less.

The last song she sang was Auld Lang Syne. Then the countdown to the New Year came and while everyone cheered and celebrated she kissed Conejo.

She was certain that Wo Fat saw but it was New Years and that was all that the kiss was, a New Year's kiss. But once the party died down and it was time to go to bed Rowan was left alone with her thought and her nightmares.

She had been thinking about this for a while. That the only person she really wanted to talk to was… well… her mom.

Earlier that day she had sent a message to Kong through the app, requesting her cellphone number, because while Rowan remembered her home number she didn't remember her mom's cellphone. And after calling the house and having her mom yell at her she didn't want to chance her not picking up for her again. Even if the cloned phone she had changed her number with each new city she entered.

Kong had gotten her the number within minutes but Rowan hadn't called. She had been too afraid to. But now… now she was too afraid to go to sleep, so really, what was the better choice at that moment?

So, she shut herself in her room, kept the lights off so the boys thought she was asleep and then, before she could change her mind, she dialled her mother's number and prayed to god that she answered.

H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O

Roselyn Carter hated celebrating the New Year.

All the New Year reminded her was that in 20 days she'd hit that anniversary again. The anniversary of her stillborn baby. It was coincidentally the same time of year that her divorce to Trenton was finalized and when she moved her only living child, Trevor, out to the west coast of Canada.

There she had started her practice, built up her reputation and now she was a part time therapist with only the most exclusive clients, who also lectured at the University of British Colombia. She was the leading female in her field of child psychology, she had authored many well received and acclaimed papers, and she donated her time and money to many different charities.

So why did she feel empty? Why did she feel sadness? Why did she still wish, after 30 years that she had her picturesque family? The college sweet heart, and the one of each children.

What she didn't know that this was the year that was going to change her life. The start to getting all of that back.

It started with the phone ringing. A few minutes after 10pm. She had just gotten back from a party, a charity function where she had been the key note speaker. She had done her job and snuck out. She was too tired to stay out pretending to smile when the countdown to her saddest day started in 2 hours.

She had assumed that, whoever was calling, was wondering where she was and why she wasn't at the party. What she found was a strange number on her screen. Starting with +57. What the hell kind of country code was that?

She answered with trepidation and in response the person on the other end paused.

There was a breathy sigh of: "Hi." The caller was female and she was nervous. "Hi… is… is this Roselyn Pierce?"

Whenever she heard her married name she couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath of pain. It was always an unintentional subconscious response. Because it hurt to remember how happy she used to be before January 21st 1986.

"No… oh… I'm sorry. Carter. Is this Roselyn Carter?" the caller rephrased after Roselyn's pause. Then under her breath, almost so soft that Roselyn didn't hear it, she said: "I always forget they're divorced."

But she did hear it. And it made her very suspicious.

Almost two years ago now, she had gotten a call from someone claiming to be her dead daughter. Upon mentioning that to Trevor she got a long-winded story about how he and his father had performed an experiment to try and pull the dead girl from an alternate reality. He had asked if that phone call had come from Hawaii, which she didn't know but soon learned that it had once Trevor had looked the number over.

He had been excited to tell her that he was certain that the experiment had been successful. He was certain that Rowan was in their world and being kept from them by a corrupt Hawaiian Special Tactical unit, or at least he leader of it.

Roselyn had thought Trevor crazy, that her ex-husband had infected their son with the same insanity that had corrupted him. But then Trevor had shown her pictures of a girl, the right age, with Roselyn's nose and Trenton's ridiculously blue blue eyes and she almost let herself believe it.

But her suspicions and hopes didn't mean that it was Rowan calling her again and it didn't mean that she believed it was really her daughter either.

"Yes I'm Roselyn Carter, who am I speaking to?"

"I… you don't know me… but… I need help and I didn't know… I didn't know who else to call."

Roselyn paused. She didn't know who this girl was let alone where in the world she was, how in the hell was she supposed to help? "Okay, if you're in that much trouble, dear, I would recommend that you call the cops… I'm not sure what else I could really do for you…"

"No, it's not that kind of trouble," the caller said.

"Well then, as I said before… I can't help you."

"No wait!" the caller cried and though Roselyn itched to hang up the phone she didn't. "Look… something… something really bad happened to me… actually a lot of really bad things have happened to me. Some from my past some pretty recent and with quick succession. I just… I'm struggling with everything and I just thought… since you're the expert that you could… help me."

There was a hitch on the other side. A sound Roselyn knew like the back of her hand. The girl was trying not to cry but failing. She was either silently crying or just about to start.

"Okay… I suppose… if you come to my office after the holiday…"

"I don't live in Victoria," the girl said, a slight stutter to her words. "I… I don't have a home anymore. I thought… maybe I could talk to you over the phone."

"That's highly unorthodox…"

"Please? I… I really don't have anyone else and… and… I just want to stop hurting inside… please?"

Roselyn herself paused. She could hear the girl crying now and her heart went out to the girl on the other line. She couldn't help it because she too knew how it felt to just want the pain inside to go away.

"If I agree to help you… if… have to know what to call you…"

"I can't tell you my real name…" "You're a criminal aren't you."

The caller went quiet and Roselyn held her breath. She waited to hear what the girl would say. She had been leaning towards this girl being a criminal. It would explain how she got a hold of a private line that wasn't in a single phone book. It would explain why she didn't have a home, if she was living a roving fugitive life. But it would explain why she had, apparently, a series of terrible things happen to her.

"No," the girl said after a momentary pause. "But my brother is."

Ah, so family was criminal and she could be tied to them if she divulged her real name. Roselyn let herself into her office, picking up her pad of paper from the small table by her comfortable chair and the couch she'd offer her clients.

"Alright. Then what would you like me to call you?"

"Uhm… my… my mom always called me Wick."

Wick. What a strange nickname. Completely unheard of. Except Roselyn had heard it before. Because her daughter was conceived under what she romanticized as the magic of the Rowan tree, she had decided to name her child after it. Rowan, which she would have nicknamed Wicky, as the common name for the Rowan tree was the Wicky tree.

How strange was it that this girl had a mother who called her something similar? Those hopes she held, that irrational thought that maybe, one of Trenton's experiments had not only worked but had fulfilled her greatest desire, quickly flared to life. She carefully cleared her throat and herself free of any of those debilitating hopes before they could hurt her further.

"Alright… Wick…" she whispered. "You get me for the next hour. What would you like to talk about?"

And then Roselyn sat back at her desk, pad of paper in hand, and began to listen to the poor girl's tale.