Fearless

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jwhouk
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Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

Time Frame: shortly after the birth of Aeterna Dixiana Antonia.
Place: A certain Juvenile Correctional Facility outside Irma, Wisconsin.

I had just finished filling out the food order for the following day when the phone rang. At our institution, any phone calls after 11 PM are unusual – and this one was no exception.

"Yeah, you're going to be getting one in, a sanctions youth, sometime after midnight," the counselor at communications informed me. "He went AWOL from his placement."

"Sanctions" is a generic term for a youth in the state of Wisconsin who has been "adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile" – what would be termed a "convicted felon" in the adult system – but had been placed in a less-restrictive setting. Usually, this is either a group home, or on the "bracelet".

When such youth fail to follow the rules of their placement – things like going AWOL, or failing to check in at appointed times, or failing a drug test – they end up getting returned here, if this was their prior placement.

"What's his name?" I asked.

"Kevin Glover, I think," he told me. "Sounded like whoever was taking the call was in a rush."

"Ohhh-kay," I replied. I looked down at the board: we had an open room with a camera in the Sanctions hallway, so that wasn't a problem. "Give me a call when they get here, I may have to go set up the room."

Turned out the room was already set up, complete with the bed already made. So, all I had to do was wait for the youth to show up.

Working with juvenile delinquents in a remote setting can be unpleasant at times. Thankfully, the cooler weather had made things quieter in the cottage – or I guess I should say "living unit". The problem is, the design of the buildings make them look like Swiss chalets, not "living units". The extensive use of brick and dark woods (at least on the exterior surfaces), make for a visual effect of a "cottage", not a "living unit."

I decided not to write down the youth's name until I got his packet of information from communications. They would do the intake on him, and get him into institution clothes. We don't make our kids wear orange jumpsuits at LHS; they're given white t-shirts, sweatpants and shorts at intake. Eventually they get their buttoned shirts and black pants when they head off to their assigned living unit.

Or cottage. You know what I mean.

I did do a quick search in our database to see if the kid had been here before. The only result was for a very obvious adult commitment – the entry had a DOC identification number that started with a 1, something I'd never seen in my two decades in juvenile corrections.

I shrugged and decided just to wait until they showed up.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

I was just about ready to pick up the phone and call in my midnight count when the phone rang again.

"Uh, yeah, that kid just showed up," came the reply on the phone. "They'll bring the paperwork up with him."

"So what's his name?"

"They said they'd let you know when they got up there."

"Wait a minute – they?" I stopped for a moment when I saw headlights pull up to the front door of the cottage. "Uh, they're here, I'll call you back," I said, clicking off the phone.

This was highly unusual, to say the least. Usually, patrol staff would bring in new youth through our kitchen door, not the front door. I closed the booth door and went over to the upper dayroom area by the front door.

The first thing I noticed was that the vehicle wasn't one of our regular patrol vans. It looked more like a police car…

An LTD.

I think I actually made a gulping sound.

Our night patrolman had finally emerged from the passenger side of the car, looking like he'd seen a ghost. The driver immediately got out, whirled around and went to the back door of the car. I didn't need to see her face to recognize the dark coat and dreadlocks.

I was shocked back into reality when the patrolman, Ed Black, opened up the front door of the cottage. He pushed the door open, putting the door stop down.

"Where's he going?" he asked.

"Room 5," I told him, pointing down the Sanctions hallway.

"Get the room door open now," he told me. I was a bit wide eyed as he said it, but I hoofed down the hall to unlock the door to the unoccupied room.

A couple of the other Sanctions youth were woken up by the movement in the hallway. At least two rooms turned their call lights on, assuming that they'd be able to come out to use the lone cottage bathroom.

"Not doing lights right now," I said loudly as I briskly returned to the dayroom – just in time to see two women in dark coats escorting a dark-haired youth into the cottage.

I bit my lip.

"Hello, Cavin," I said, somewhat painfully.

"What the fu…" Ed was almost panicking as he saw me stare directly into Cavin Foxglove's eyes.

I put up my hand to stop him.

"I'll take care of this, Ed," I said. I finally looked up at the two ladies who were holding Cavin by the shoulders. "Long time no see, ladies."

I was about to say more when Ed suddenly ran off into the counselor's booth to use the bathroom. I looked upward, hoping that he managed to make it – or my night was going to stink even worse.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"He was over at Marshfield for a medical checkup," Lily Pratt – the woman with dreadlocks – explained. "Snuck out on his guard, got all the way up to Wausau. Sherriff's office tracked him down. Fortunately, Agent Billens was in the area and notified us."

"The county judge found he had a prior, so he ordered him sent up here," Suzie McBride – the redhead with glasses on Cavin's other side – continued. "Unfortunately, we can't get a court order to have him returned to Federal custody until morning."

I looked into Cavin's eyes again. He was getting uncomfortable at my stare, but he refused to say anything.

"So you had him sent here?" I commented, slightly annoyed at the prospect.

"No, that was the judge's decision," the dreadlocked lady said. "We only agreed because we knew you were working."

"That was a pretty big risk you were taking," I replied. "I'm off on vacation next week." I looked at both of them, then back at Cavin. "Mr. Foxglove, we do need to get you to your room."

"NO FUKKIN' WAY!" he screamed, and something suddenly appeared in front of him. I simply closed my eyes, walked forward and put my hand on his shoulder. Lily gave way and moved behind him.

"Stop that," I told him firmly. "You know it doesn't work on me, or the girls here." I motioned toward the hallway. "At least you're not all the way down at the end like last time."

Suzie and I escorted him to the room, with Lily trailing behind.

In the security lighting of the room, I could see that he already had institution clothing on. That meant one less thing I had to deal with, thankfully.

"You know the drill," I said, continuing to make sure I looked him in the eye. "Just lay down and try to get some sleep." He looked at me again, realizing I wasn't going to fall for anything. Reluctantly, he sat on the bed. Suzie stepped out, and I closed the door.

"Hey, baby, nice outfit!" One of the other Sanctions youth was standing at his door, looking out his room window at Lily.

"Get in bed, Smith," I told him.

"Ay! When we comin' out for the bathroom?"

"Later," I said testily. "I gotta deal with this kid showing up right now."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

The three of us marched back down to the dayroom. I motioned Lily and Suzie into the counselor's booth. Ed was still in the bathroom – and from the sounds of it, he was heaving his guts out.

"Well," I said to no one in particular, "THIS is a great way to start my night." I went over to the multiplexer controls for the cameras and brought up Cavin's room on the monitor. He was still seated on the bed, thankfully. "So how's this fluster-cluck going to go?"

"You sound like our old boss," Suzie commented.

"He got caught by an undercover cop trying to buy Meth," Lily explained. "Bottom line is, sadly, he stays here for the night." Lily giving Suzie a sidelong glance. "I'll take your puking patrolman back to the front gate area, then come back here. We're under orders from MIB to stay with him until we can get him back in our custody officially."

"And the hits just keep on coming," I said as my hand immediately went to my forehead. "How you gonna explain that to the supervisor on duty?"

"Billens is doing that right now," Lily replied. "He's going to take the LTD back to Minneapolis and pick us up in the morning – hopefully, with the court order in hand, so we can take Foxglove with us."

Cavin had finally decided to lay down on his bed, though not under the covers.

The door to the bathroom finally opened, and Ed was looking only a little worse for the wear.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, looking shakily at me.

"I suspect it was residue from whatever drugs he may have been on," I offered as an excuse.

"I'll drive you back down to get your van," Lily said. The two of them headed out the front door, leaving me with Suzie.

"Oh, swell," I said aloud.

"Hey, it's not like I wanted to be here, either," she retorted. "I had plans for tonight."

"Yeah, yeah, welcome to my world." I held my hand up before she could protest. "I gotta get Cavin's info entered in and logged."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Names of anyone - other than myself - in this story are fictional. Names may have been changed in some cases to protect the innocent.

There was a long, somewhat uncomfortable silence in the booth until Lily came back from Communication. She now had a set of keys – probably a spare patrol set.

"How'd you manage to get keys?" I asked.

"Your supervisor had a little discussion with our boss over the phone," she replied. She stuffed the set in the outside pocket of her coat. "She was very convincing."

"So – how the hell did he end up in Marshfield?"

"Bureaucracy at work," Lily said, taking a seat next to Suzie on the other side of the booth. "He just finished his six months at the Rochester facility, and we were going to place him at this group home that's attached to the orphanage where my granddaughters used to live."

"That must be an interesting place to work," I said.

"Paras only," Lily added. "It'd be too dangerous, even for someone like you. Anyways, the county agent in Hudson heard about this and demanded that he be released to a group home in Wisconsin. Never mind the priors he had in Minnesota. They got the placement changed to group home in Chippewa Falls. We got the okay that he'd be able to attend groups and get more medical attention at a facility run by MIB."

"Over in Minnesota? Or here?"

"Here in Wisconsin," Suzie interjected. "Marshfield Clinic had some unused space in their facility, and MIB turned it into a paranormal hospital."

"That still doesn't answer how he ended up there," I pointed out. "Or why he was heading to Wausau."

Lily motioned to the monitor.

"Does that thing have a zoom function?" I nodded in response. "Bring up his room, full screen, if you can."

I pressed a button, and the sleeping form of Cavin Foxglove filled the screen. I then pressed the zoom function button.

"It's only crappy digital zoom, mind you."

"Shouldn't matter," she said, walking around behind me and pointing up at the top of the screen. "Zoom in on his head."

I looked up at her as I reached in front of her to manage the controls of the multiplexer. The screen zoomed in on the bed, closest to the room window, where his head was on the pillow.

"Notice the extra 'bump' on his head there?" she pointed out with her finger. "They've been working on an antenna transplant with him."

"Uh, Lily?" Suzie piped up. Lily turned, and suddenly realized that she was practically leaning on top of me.

"OH!" She backed away from the screen in the cramped quarters of the booth. "Oh, sorry, I was just trying to…"

"It's bad enough that these booths are smaller than a postage stamp," I said, bringing Cavin's camera feed up to full screen. "Okay, so, he's got a transplant antenna. Is that supposed to help him, or what?"

"It's a new thing in para medical circles, from what we were told," Suzie said as Lily walked back over to her chair next to her. "It's been successful in trials, but they're not sure about side effects." She pointed behind me.

"Uh, what does that light mean?" I turned to see what she was pointing at – and immediately rolled my eyes in frustration.

"Ugh. Call light."

"Wait a minute," Suzie asked, confused. "They don't have toilets in their rooms?"

"No," I said, standing up to look down both hallways. "That wasn't how these buildings were designed. And it's not something they can add after the fact, because of the sheer amount of plumbing they'd need." I let out a grunt in frustration. "Smith again. He's been an ass since he got back up here."

"Need some help?" Suzie offered.

"I'm supposed to have patrol here when I let anyone out to use the bathroom," I told her.

"We technically are your patrol for the night," Lily stated. "We want to keep Cavin's interaction with others down to a minimum – unlike last time."

"So – just put the outgoing mail there," I pointed to the bag in front of Suzi, "on the back doorknob?"

"That works – if you're being serious," Suzie replied. I raised my hand in surrender.

"I do at least gotta let control know what we're doing, so they're not freaking out any more than they already are at what they see on camera." I picked up the phone and dialed down to communications.

"Yeah, just for your information, we're going to run some call lights," I told Cale, our night communications guy, stepping out of the booth for a moment.

Suzie looked a bit uncomfortably at Lily – who was more interested in what she saw on the monitor.

"Wait, who do you have there with you?" he asked, somewhat surprised.

"The two FBI agents. Apparently the feds don't want this Foxglove kid to have contact with others more than necessary."

"Is the kid the one who has his light on?"

"No, it's one of the other Sanctions kids."

"Uh, I better call Steve," he stammered, then hung up the phone.

"He's got to talk to our supervisor." I blew out a breath in frustration. "Not a big deal, these guys usually have to wait for patrol to show up anyways."

"That the kid on the monitor?" Lily was pointing at the screen with Cavin's room as part of the multi-camera setup.

"Yes…" The kid – Jaywan Smith – was standing at the door, peeking down the hallway through his room window. The camera info blocked the view of what he was doing, but it was apparent it wasn't something I really wanted to see.

"Oh for God's sake," I said – just as the phone rang. I reached back in to the booth and picked up the phone.

"Yeah, it's Steve – let them out one room at a time, but tell the two agents not to do anything unless provoked."

"Oh, I'm sure they'll love hearing that," I said, hanging up the phone. "You two aren't to do anything unless provoked, okay?"

Suzie eyed the screen.

"I think he's already crossed that line," she said – a bit more menacingly than intended.

"Down girl," Lily said under her breath. "Play nice for Mr. Houk."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fearless

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It's going to be that kind of night, I thought to myself as I walked down the hallway to Smith's room. He was one door down from Cavin's room – at least it looked like he was finally asleep.

I got to his door, and told him to just use the bathroom – and not talk to the other staff. He nodded, and I unlocked his door.

Usually, youth have two speeds when they come out to use the bathroom on third shift: slow and stopped. This wasn't the case with Smith at the moment, as he was already down the hallway and in the dayroom.

I quickly closed his room door and hustled down the hallway. Just as I was about to say something, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"And just what were you thinking of doing?" Lily stood there, hands on her hips, staring the kid down.

"I, uh…" He was standing, stone still, in the upper dayroom by the entrance to the bathroom.

"Smith, go use the bathroom," I said – a little louder than I would have liked. He turned and quickly went in to the youth bathroom.

I stood next to the corner of the booth, monitoring the bathroom entrance. I quietly asked Lily, "What'd he do?"

"I think he was trying to get a look-see at me," Suzie said, emerging from the booth. She thumbed back toward the booth. "Okay if that stays open?"

"Three of us, one of him – don't think the odds are in his favor." I raised my eyebrows at her. Lily crossed her arms with a hmph.

The youth bathroom in our cottages is shaped in a reverse U fashion: a center wall divides the shower room from the bathroom, with four toilets on the one wall, four sinks on the middle wall, and three shower heads in the wall opposite the sinks. The toilets have half-dividers between them to give youth a certain amount of privacy while they're doing their business.

Smith flushed the toilet and nervously went over to the sink to wash his hands. He kept making nervous sidelong glances towards me, even as he finished up.

Stepping out of the bathroom, he somehow managed to utter something.

"Uh, can I, uh, get a drink of water?" The water fountain (yes, we call them "bubblers" up here) was on the other side of the upper dayroom on the far wall.

I looked at Lily and Suzi, nodded and pointed. "No talking."

Smith quickly went over to the bubbler, nervously walking past the two women. Normally, he's good for a good minute at the fountain, reading the menu and various notices on the bulletin board we have above it.

Tonight, though, he just drank, then turned and walked quickly back to his room. I escorted him back, opening his door for him.

Once he got in, he turned and asked, "Mr. H, who the hell are those two?"

"Federal agents," I said, closing the door. "They don't answer to anyone on grounds." I raised my eyebrows, and pointed at his bed. "Go back to sleep."

I got back to the booth, where the two women were looking up at the monitor. Cavin was still fast asleep, but they were a bit more intent on Mr. Smith's actions.

"Little fucker was jacking off at his door, I saw it," Suzie said with her teeth bared.

"He's a teenager," Lily retorted. "You're fresh meat to him." She didn't seem too happy with the kid, either.

"Either way it's inappropriate behavior," I pointed out as I scooted behind Suzie and over to the panel. "And I think the two of you scared the crap out of him." I looked at them both. "Not much I can do to him, though."

"Oh, I think he's sufficiently scared," Suzie replied. "But, why isn't that light off?"

I looked up and saw the reflection of the call light indicator in the glass of the booth window.

"Oh great," I said, looking down the other hallway – yep, at least three call lights had come on. "Rule number one of answering call lights on third shift: There is never only one call light." I suddenly noticed something: "You gals don't cast reflections in the glass, either?"

"No, just our clothes. Why?" Suzie asked.

"I just noticed it." I looked at her for a moment. "Your glasses look like they're floating on the booth door glass."

"I don't think any of them will notice," Lily said. "Suze, you might want to stick in the booth for these guys."

"Lemme just call Cale and let him know we're doing more lights."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fearless

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A minute later I was down the hall and answering call lights. The reaction by each youth that came out was the same: they'd do their usual saunter out of their room, and then they saw Lily standing at the door of the booth. You could almost see the wheels turning in their head as they walked down the hallway – hey, that's someone new, I wonder if OH MY GOD. They all took wide berths of her and nearly ran into the bathroom. Then, after they did their business, they would turn and see Suzie sitting in the booth – and they'd sprint back to their room. I had to tell a couple of them to slow down!

The last youth to come out, name of Tempelhoffer, had just come back from the "safety unit" (read: secure detention cottage) that morning. He'd gone to security for fighting with another youth – who was still there, because he had refused to stop when our patrol staff arrived. He wasn't cowed by Lily or Suzie, so he sauntered out of his room without much care.

He looked at Suzie for a moment as he walked into the bathroom. Instead of making him speed up, like the previous five youth had done, he had slowed way down. I stood over by the bathroom side of the booth, while Suzie quietly said something to Lily. They were looking at something on the desk; since he'd returned from security, his paperwork was sitting there to be filed in his cottage folder. Suzie was holding the report and scanning through it.

Tempelhoffer had decided to sit down on the toilet – which meant it was going to take a while. I went back over to the booth door.

"Of course the last one has to take a dump," I said somewhat tactfully. "Interesting reading?"

"Not the kind of report I'd write, personally," Suzie said, flipping through the forms. "But I suppose it's a little less elegant in here." Lily was more annoyed at the kid, but she was also keeping an eye on Cavin on the monitor.

"I had those set aside to be filed," I explained, "before you two got here. They usually come with him when he gets back from security."

"Your seg unit?" Lily asked?

"Yeah," I said. I explained quickly where it was in the institution, keeping an eye on Tempelhoffer in the bathroom. I also noted that the file cabinet was right behind Suzie.

Curious, she opened the cabinet and pulled out his file.

"Uh, that stuff is confidential," I said.

"We have clearance," she explained – with one fang exposed in her annoyed sneer toward me.

I wasn't about to argue.

She looked at the file, saw the youth's info – and both eyebrows shot up.

"I thought I recognized him," Suzie said. "He was part of that whole Malcroft case." She looked up at Lily.

My eyes immediately picked up that the two of them were excessively agitated about the case – which wasn't difficult.

Their fangs gave it away.

"Uh, ladies?" They both looked at me. "Part of my duty as an employee of the Wisconsin DOC is to protect both the public and those placed in our charge. You're treading dangerously close to that line."

That was the exact moment that Tempelhoffer came out of the bathroom.

The two girls looked at him, then at me.

I just returned their gaze.

"Mr. Tempelhoffer, let me escort you back to your room," I said quietly. When there wasn't movement for a moment, I turned to look at him.

He was frozen in place, afraid to even move.

"You," he was stammering as he saw Suzie standing in the doorway. "You, you… were the, the one that took down Antonio…"

I was suddenly concerned that he was going to do something really stupid – like attack a pair of vampires. And I was going to have to stop him.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case. He actually ran and hid behind me.

"Don't let them get me!" He was nearly squealing.

I just motioned back to the hallway he had come from. I made a point of physically putting myself between Tempelhoffer and the pair, keeping an eye on them more than on Tempelhoffer. I was about to move to shut the door when he SLAMMED it shut – thankfully, just before I would have put my hand anywhere near the door.

He was cowering under his sheets as soon as I looked in the room.

I walked purposefully back to the booth.

"Thanks a lot," I sarcastically uttered. I brought my thumb and forefinger up in front of me. "I'm this close to telling both of you to get. Out. Of. My. Cottage." I didn't have fangs, but my teeth were grinding.

"But I won't." I strode purposefully, right between the two of them, into the booth and back over to the chair in the opposite corner. "Because if I did, you two wouldn't leave – and I'd be forced to clean up buckets full of blood that'd be oozing from your eyeballs."

The two girls were both surprised.

"You don't think I asked the Library about things?" They turned and looked at each other. "Yeah, you said that you probably wouldn't be dealing with me anymore, but in this business, I've learned you never say 'never'. I looked things up, asked around a bit – and talked to your 'shadowy' boss after Kath's wedding. Which, by the way," I pointed at Lily, "is one reason why I won't kick you two out. Kath would hate me forever."

I sighed, looked up at the monitor, saw that everyone – including Cavin – was asleep.

"At least I have a quiet cottage for the time being," I said finally. "That would have been a huge strike against you in my book."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Post by lake_wrangler »

Very interesting story. I find it amusing that Suzie and Lilly are getting quite the literary workout, in recent fanfics... I can't wait to see where the story goes, as far as Cavin goes.
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

Neither one said anything for a long time. I was focusing more on the other youth in the cottage – though it appeared now that Tempelhoffer had stopped shaking out of fear, and had actually managed to go to bed.

"Wow. Phix was right."

I turned my head. I wasn't aware how much time had passed since any of us had said anything.

"What?"

"You are fearless." Lily had said that. I only laughed slightly – and maybe a bit too derisively.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You stood up to him," she nodded toward the camera with Cavin's sleeping image on it. "You stood calmly in the face of having to deal with Nudge. Phix admires you, my daughter thinks highly of you. And how the hell you actually manage to speak to the Demon Shepherd, I've got no clue."

I looked at them both.

"Well, the last one's on my speed dial nowadays, but that's just so I can say I have 867-5309 in my contact list."

Suzie let loose with an uncontrolled giggle.

"You have no clue, do you?" She looked at me briefly over the top of her glasses. "You have done things, just in this past year alone, that would make your average paranormal shit their pants." She looked briefly at Lily, then back at me. "And yet you think absolutely nothing of it."

"See, that's what I don't get," I said matter-of-factly. "This is all because of him." I motioned up at Cavin. "I find a way of dealing with him as part of my job duties, and it's like everyone thinks I've climbed Everest or something."

"It was the way you did it, Joe." Lily looked at me in earnest. "You were knocked back, then moments later you were telling a fae kid to sit quietly in the corner of his room."

"And if that's not enough," Suzie looked up at her partner, "you're sitting there while you have two vampires blocking your only means of egress from this booth."

"That's because I know you two." I crossed my arms as I quickly became aware of what she meant. "Besides, if you two attacked me, you'd have all of heaven and hell come down on you. And," I raised a finger at them, "you'd both burst into flames two sucks in."

A moment of silence was interrupted by Suzie unable to hold back a giggle. That led to a smile on Lily's face, then the whole booth was filled with laughter.

I had to pause for a moment myself , pointing up at the screen. "We're going to wake the kids."

I noticed that Cavin was balled up on the bed, sleeping – but had apparently "shrunk" down to his smaller fae size.

"Is that a side effect of his treatments?" I asked.

Lily shook her head, more to clear herself from laughing again than anything.

"From what the docs told us, he's in the stage where the transplant is in the 'familiarity' mode." She looked at me. "That little stunt he pulled when he came in is apparently his psychosomatic response."

"Doing what's become comfortable, even if it hurts you?" I asked.

"Yeah, something like that. We think that may be why he escaped from the Paraclinic: he was looking for a meth fix."

"Meth is a hell of a drug," I replied with a twinge of humor. "Is he on any meth-like meds at the moment?"

"Dunno," Suzie said. "This whole mess came down pretty quick. That judge in Wausau is a prick, at least that much I'll say."

"Hm." I looked up again, and Cavin had returned to a relatively-full-sized human-like being. "I hope that's not a sign that he's rejecting his transplant."

"Docs told us that the sign would be a bit more obvious." Lily looked at me. "Which is the reason why we need to keep an eye on him – and we need to make sure he gets out of here ASAP."

"Well," I looked up at the clock, "I still have things I need to get done for the other 23 kids in the cottage – including a few printouts, if you don't mind."

I got up, hesitated a bit, and looked at Suzie. I turned and opened the locked metal cabinet in the booth that held our spare set of keys, and I handed them to her.

"This is just in case you need to get in somewhere quickly," I explained. I showed her which keys were which, and went over to the cottage classroom, where our printer was located.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

"The worst part is, I haven't had anything since lunch, either," I heard Suzie say as I got back to the booth.

"Sorry I can't help you two out there," I said. "Not much in the kitchen, save for the makings of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Or cold cereal, if that's your thing." I stopped for a moment. "And hell no if you're talking about blood."

"Wouldn't mind snacking on that Tempelhoffer kid," Suzie said, looking up at his room camera. I slid back into the booth, seeing he was still curled in the fetal position on his bed.

"We've had that discussion already," I said to her.

"So – what do you do to keep yourself amused all night?" Lily asked to change the subject. I shrugged.

"Most of the time it's just reading and doing stretching and walking," I said. "And answering call lights. Basically, nothing to do until 5:30 or so, once I get the filing and paperwork stuff done."

"I think I'd probably go stir crazy in here after a while," Suzie observed. "Though this place is more pleasant than most jails I've seen."

"It grows on you. Kinda like fungus." I looked up again. "So – antenna transplant, side effects, meth withdrawal. I believe that qualifies for 'messed up kid' in my book." I thought for a moment. "How the heck did they find another fae who they could transplant the antenna to him? I thought they were essentially immortal?"

"Turns out that fae can be killed – but only by other fae." Lily shifted a bit as she tried to get comfortable in our not-so-comfortable booth desk chairs. "There was a lot of theory about whether or not a transplant would work, according to the brief we got. The two clan system they have makes it more interesting."

"Yeah, I heard. What about rejection?"

"Not as big of an issue with fae, apparently. They've been able to heal themselves with the help of others in their clan for eons. They just weren't sure about the psyche side of the story."

"Which is why we're here," Suzie concluded. "Yeah, you can see through his gossamers, but if things were to start getting physical – well, you'd be way out of your league. We can at least subdue him, enough to get him out of here and back at either Rochester or Marshfield."

There was a long silence as they trained their eyes on the sleeping figures in the various rooms of the cottage.

"So how exactly did you get wrapped up in all this paranormal crap, anyways?" Lily asked. "My daughter didn't really know for sure herself."

"Long story." I gave the pair the somewhat Readers' Digest version of the events back in 2008, and of the recent revelation of my involvement in one of the time loops. And the fateful decision I had to try to open that back door to Chino Latino's earlier this year.

And, of course, the panic I had when I found out about Cavin.

"You knew who he was?" Suzie asked. "Not too many outside of para circles know about the fae."

"Found a reference to them accidentally when I was doing a Wikipedia search on fae and faeries. Of course, my run-in with Jin broadened my search. It was a good thing that a friend of mine from Nashville was writing some speculative fiction about similar things."

"Speculative fiction?"

"Okay, fantasy," I shrugged. "Ever hear of the Dreamland Chronicles?"

"That's the one with the kid who travels between the Dream World and real life?" Suzy said with a thought.

"Basically. There's some elements that translate well to the paranormal world."

There was movement on one of the cameras. A youth in a bunked room had sat up – and just like that, he reached over and snapped on his call light.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends," I said, picking up the phone to let Cale know we were going to handle another call light.

The youth was only partially awake when I finally opened his door. He slowly rose from his bed, and got dressed even slower. Two things that pretty much happen every time I answer a call light on third shift, really.

Most of the time, the most time-consuming thing about a call light is waiting for the patrol staff to show up. After that, it's pretty simple: the youth comes out, he uses the bathroom, he goes back to his room. And, pretty much every phase is done in slow motion – partly because the youth is half-asleep, but mostly because the kid doesn't want to be in his room.

Tonight, the kids were in slow motion – until they got out of their rooms. As soon as their feet hit the dayroom, they saw who was in the cottage with me – and that was when the fear factor apparently kicked in.

"This has got to be the fastest I've seen kids use the bathroom on third shift, ever," I mentioned to Lily. She was leaning against the frame of the booth door, while Suzie was sitting back, reading the youth handbook with disinterest.

"Probably just perception on your part," Lily said.

The kid finished with his business, and walked out of the bathroom. He saw a perturbed Lily standing there – and promptly made a beeline for his room.

I looked at Lily as I heard his door slam.

"I'd say that was more than perception."
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Re: Fearless

Post by Sgt. Howard »

So...what was the nature of the donor? AND... Daughter of the Blackthorn can kill fey as well... or does he know this yet?
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

Patience, Padawan...

---

That was the last of the call lights for the night, thankfully. The girls managed to subsist on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from our cottage kitchen. Weekday morning breakfasts were generally light – coffee cake and fruit were on the menu for the morning – so there wasn't much for them in terms of human food.

"I dread the day we ever end up with a juvie vampire in here," I said while looking up at Cavin's sleeping form on the monitor.

"You won't," Suzie said between bites. "Junior vamps are pretty much unheard of. And unlike the movies, they'd be dead before they even got here."

"Yeah, vampires don't end up the way they are because they got bit or something," Lily added. "The blood thing is just to keep us going, like protein and carbs do for you."

"Which begs the question: does the blood of Type II Diabetics like myself 'taste' different?"

Suzie laughed.

"No, it's…"

The phone rang. I looked up at the clock – it was quarter after 4. Usually they didn't start calling for overtime – regular or otherwise – for another 20 minutes.

I commented on that to the girls as I picked up the phone.

"Yeah," Cale was on the other end. "You have a Tempelhoffer in the cottage?"

"Yeah, why?"

"We just got a call that he's being picked up for court in about half an hour," he explained. "Private transport is taking him to St. Croix County for a morning court date."

I looked down at our calendar – there was nothing there about any court date. But there was a note about an OJOR hearing. OJOR is short for the Office of Juvenile Offender Review – in short, it's the DJC version of a parole board. After their initial intake, a youth's first OJOR hearing is set, usually three to four weeks after they're received, to determine what programming they'll receive while at LHS (or, on the girls' side, Copper Lake School).

If a youth has a court date scheduled, the OJOR reviewers are usually notified, and reschedule the hearing until after they return. And, even if there was some emergency, usually a phone call would be made to OJOR, and people would be notified.

"Uh, I've got it that he's got OJOR today," I said. "Do we have a court pickup notification from these people?" I motioned to Suzie to hand me a clipboard that was hanging on the wall behind her chair.

"Steve's looking for it right now," Cale told me. I looked through the memo and release clipboard.

"I've got nothing here," I told him. I was getting quizzical looks from the two vampires. "Uh, lemme call you back, I'll see if I can find anything else here." I hung up, and informed the two agents what was going on.

"That's pretty unusual for you guys, I take it?" Lily asked.

"It's not unheard of. If a kid is from one of our southern counties, down by the Illinois border, they might leave early. What's strange is that a court hearing was scheduled for the day of his OJOR hearing." I paused. "And that he's being picked up by a private transport company."

"Oh yeah, I've heard of that – I think it's Lock 'N Load or something, right?" Suzie interjected.

"Yeah – but usually it's only one of our southern counties that does it. Everyone else has our people transport them. And I've never heard of St. Croix doing it…"

"Wait," Suzie said. "He just came back from your seg unit, right?"

"Security, and yes. I think you were reading his conduct report earlier?"

"There was a second one in there," she said. "Said something about him getting access to the social worker's computer or something?"

I looked at her, then at Lily.

"Escape attempt?" I asked them both.

"He had a history of it." Lily's fangs were visible through gritted teeth. "It was one of the reasons why we had so fucking much trouble with the Malcroft case – everyone around him managed to evade arrest." She looked at me.

"What's the number for your supervisor?"
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

The van turned up the long drive up the hill to the school's main entrance, stopping at the sallyport gate.

This was an easy plan. The four of them had done it before at some of the adult Huber centers, and they'd sprung Antonio from a prison in Minnesota. These backwood hicks probably wouldn't even realize the kid was gone until they were halfway to Canada.

The van was tricked out in official decals and numbers. The three of them had uniforms with patches and everything, just like the private prisoner transport company that they'd copied the vehicle from.

Or, more accurately, stole from. How Antonio had managed to do that, they'd never guessed. And Antonio was no longer around to ask questions about how he did it.

The kid they were going to "pick up" was Tempelhoffer. He had been Antonio's runner on the east side of the river.

He was also the son of their new leader.

Things were quiet as they pulled up to the speaker. Usually, they'd been ushered in through the fences right away, no questions, and had their guys waiting there for them. Tonight, though, there was none of that.

There was a brief discussion, then the driver stepped out of the van and pressed a button on an intercom speaker.

"May we help you?" came a response.

"Yeah, Lock 'n Load to pick up one for court?" The driver tried to look more annoyed than nervous.

"One moment," came the reply. He looked toward the building. A figure, in a dark coat and baseball cap, came walking out of the side door.

"Hey," she said to them. "The kid you came to pick up? He's at Marshfield Clinic. He had an emergency appendectomy done last night."

"We were told he'd be here," he replied, looking nervously back into the van. The woman touched the brim of her cap for a moment.

"It took us a while to realize he was the one who went," she stated. "Might want to contact your superiors and see what they want you to do."

He got back in the van. The woman watched as the four discussed things between them.

This was new. They'd never had an instance where their "transport" wasn't at the institution or jail. There was a long, heated discussion between them. They decided they would risk asking where the hospital was, and try to "liberate" him from there.

The woman apparently anticipated this, and handed the driver a piece of paper through the fence, with a map.

"Sorry to say it's about an hour and a half drive from here," she told him.

He nodded and got back in the van. Something didn't seem right, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. They pulled out, doing a Y-turn to head back down the driveway to the entrance.


They didn't even get back to the freeway before they were surrounded by sheriff's cars, a SWAT team – and a black late-model car.
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Re: Fearless

Post by Sgt. Howard »

.... nice... well done... nothing like a well-planned ambush...
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

On whose part? ;)

---

Suzie re-entered the cottage with a smile on her face.

"It worked. They took the bait, and the scanner says they had four in custody. And our fellow agents showed up to join the party, too."

"Nice work," Lily said. "You always have this much fun on nights around here?"

"No, not really," I said, somewhat relieved. The phone rang as Suzie took off her "disguise" and switched back into her long coat.

The call was from the supervisor; the institution-wide program suspension was over. Also, he had a message for the two agents. I handed the cordless phone over to Lily.

"Yes?" she said into the phone. Listening for a moment, her eyes perked up. "Okay… Did she say when she would be here?" Another pause. "Okay, we will be waiting." She handed me back the phone to hang up. "Our Tactical Director is going to be here in a few minutes. She just found out about our situation with Cavin. She's going to see if she can speed up things."

"Tactical Director?" I asked.

Just then the back door buzzer rang.

"I'll get it," Suzie said, a bit too eagerly.

"You know, if she's not careful, she could end up getting a job here in relatively short order," I quipped to Lily.

"Nah, she knows too much as it is." Lily turned to look back into the kitchen.

I had a suspicion who the Tactical Director was – and it was confirmed when I saw a young, blonde-haired woman stride in with Suzie. The way she carried herself belied her young looks – which I knew wasn't indicative of her true age.

Lily stepped back to allow her to step into the booth.

"Hi, Acacia," I said plaintively.

"Nice place you got here – not," she said with a hint of sarcasm. "So, had enough excitement for one night?"

"Most definitely."

"So – which one of you three came up with the idea to misdirect those idiots into the hands of the cops?" Both Suzie and I pointed at Lily. "Good job, Miss Pratt. They got all four of them, and they're in custody." She peeked down at the board, then up at the screens. "Which one is this Tempelhoffer kid?"

"He's been sleeping," I told her as I pointed up at room 24. "These two nearly scared the crap out of him when he came out to use the bathroom earlier."

"Hm. We're gonna need to get a statement from him at some point." She turned to look at the other monitor. "I assume that the miniature figure in the upper left corner is your Mr. Foxglove?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said with a bit of sass.

"Okay, I get it, we can drop the formalities." She looked between the two screens. "Has he been any trouble?"

"Other than the little screeching he did when he came in?" I shook my head. "No."

"He tried to throw a gossamer at Mr. Houk while we were escorting him to his room," Suzie explained. "He dismissed it and took Cavin to his room."

"Nice." Acacia seemed impressed. "Joe, I hope you don't have anything going on this morning, because we're going to need you to stay around with these two until I can get that court-ordered transfer later this morning." She looked at me. "You will be compensated, obviously."

"Oh great, now I'm on the MIB's payroll?" I looked up at Cavin. "Get me a $50 gift certificate for Mucho Mocha and I'll call it even."

"I think we can do that," she said with a smile.
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Re: Fearless

Post by Sgt. Howard »

Yeah... as I said earlier, well done. Lily came up with that, eh?
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Post by lake_wrangler »

Why do I get the feeling that this Tempelhoffer kid is a Chekov's gun? While the story is, I believe, meant to revolve around Cavin Foxglove, Joe, and the two vampires, I can't help but feel that the other kid was not just a parenthesis to fill in the cracks while waiting for morning...

(In other words, nicely done, captivating, etc, etc...) :D
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Re: Fearless

Post by jwhouk »

Lily and Acacia interviewed Tempelhoffer about the escape attempt in the social worker's office. I had already contacted Steve – who was obviously busy in his own right, since he was contacting our security director and superintendent about the attempt.

"They're going to move him to Krueger once first shift gets here," I told Suzie after I hung up the phone. "It's gonna take a while for me to write up a report on it."

"Krueger is your seg unit?" Suzie asked.

"Yeah, we call it a 'safety unit'. Don't ask," I put a hand up. I looked up at the screen; Cavin was sleeping peacefully, but was now on top of his blankets, sprawled out on his bunk. "He must have gotten hot."

"Fae body temps tend to run lower than humans," Suzie explained, watching as Lily emerged from the office with Tempelhoffer at her side, and Bud closing the door behind them.

"I'll get that," Suzie offered as she got up and walked out of the booth. The effect nearly froze Tempelhoffer in his tracks.

"Easy, kid," Lily said, placing a light escort hold on his right arm and shoulder. "She's not going to hurt you. Mr. Houk won't let us." She walked him past the booth, where his eyes were darting between Lily and me.

"Today, anyways," I said with a smile. "You gave Ms. Pratt and Ms. Budur your statement?" Tempelhoffer nodded. "Good. I can buzz him in from the booth, if you want to walk him down there?"

"Uh, Mr. Houk?" Tempelhoffer squeaked. "Can – can you walk me down there?" It was just about then that Suzie and Acacia joined us by the booth.

"Sure. Suzie, you wanna watch the booth?" She nodded, and I walked Tempelhoffer down to his room.

After the door was opened and he was in, he turned and asked me a question: "I'm going to go back to the hole for this?"

"Probably," I said, closing the door – with Lily right next to me. "They won't pick you up until later, though, since they'll have to release someone." I turned and looked at Lily. "I think it might be noted that you were cooperative with staff." She gave me a sardonic smile, and I closed the door.

Back at the booth, Acacia was talking to Suzie. "They'd done it before, similar MO, always doing it during the overnight on pretense of an early court date. He'd managed to get in to the social worker's computer and print out a release authorization. She found him out, but he still managed to call his uncle and get a fake court date set up." She handed me a transcript. "Lily was more than happy to take the statement for you."

"Why, thank you, Bud – if I may call you that?"

"Sure thing," she smiled. "He's in a mess of trouble. Might want to keep an eye on him, that he doesn't do anything stupid."

"How's Cavin doing?" I looked up at the screen again. Same view as before – asleep on top of the covers.

"Hasn't moved much," Suzie said.

"Maybe you know the answer to this, Bud," I asked as I sat back down in my chair. "How exactly did this transplant thing all come about?"

"His parents' top scientists went over some old notes," she began. She hesitated a moment, looking back at Lily. "Uh, this isn't something that you should go repeating to your grandcritter, by the way."

"I gotta step outside for a moment, anyways," she said. "Suzie?" The redhead got the hint and went out the back door with her.

"I hope she remembers there's no smoking on grounds," I said, looking in the bubble mirror as two shadows made their way out the back door. "So. I take it this involves Ca… Castela, right?"

Bud nodded. "The same Seelie clan scientists – if you can call them that – that made her were also researching transplants. Damn spooky if you ask me – dangerously close to what the Lanthians were doing."

"I understand that the Seelie are the ones who like to explore everything, right?" Bud nodded in response. "So they had already done research into it?"

"Yep. They did some splicing and dicing – not unlike the idiots at Planned Parenthood, sadly."

"The fae equivalent of stem cells?"

"I'm a dance instructor, not a doctor," she shrugged as she sipped on her coffee. "They're about 90% sure the transplant is going to take, from what I've been told. The only problem now is his little meth addiction."

"Little?" I asked, incredulous. "Everything I've read says it's ten times worse for the little buggers. Little things set them off, and all that."

"Yeah, I know. Your supervisor's already freaked. He admitted as such – and that was before the whole thing with Tempelhoffer." She contemplated the video screen with Cavin's sleeping form. "You're not even close to being prepared for dealing with him."

"You're telling me." I jerked my thumb towards the general direction of the back door. "If those two hadn't showed up shortly after his psychotic episode, I don't know what would have happened."

A slow smile came to Acacia's face.

"You probably would have had a ton of people all completely freaked out while you were standing there, wondering why they weren't dealing with the little kid cowering in the corner." She paused for a moment. "The only thing that really would have been dangerous is if they would have used the pepper spray on him directly. You did read about that, right?"

"Calista told me about it. I did read up on it later. There wasn't a whole lot of stuff written about what exactly happens, though."

"You ever see the movie Scanners?" Bud asked.

"Not completely, no. I never cared to see people get blown up from inside out."

"Unfortunately, that's pretty much what happens." She made a "boom" motion with her hands.

"So I guess it's not a good idea to house a kid in a place where he could explode if they try to get him to comply to direction."

Bud only shook her head.
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Re: Fearless

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The game plan for the morning was simple: I was there to watch Cavin until they came to pick him, Lily and Suzie up. First shift staff was going to run the rest of the cottage – getting kids fed, up to school or what not – while I just kept an eye on Cavin.

And the two girls would be the extra two sets of eyes on him.

Bud had gone back to Communications to talk to the Supervisors about what was going on with both Cavin and Tempelhoffer. She would let us both know when Billens was there with the transfer papers.

Unfortunately, I was still going to have to write an incident report about what happened when Cavin came in – because I put a hand on him. It was pretty simple to explain: youth was agitated, I attempted to calm him down, he moved forward into my hand. Yes, it sounds like the old "walked into the door" thing, but at least the video was going to support the story.

Before she left, Bud did give something to Lily and Suzie – which I didn't quite pick up on until after I'd gotten my cottage kitchen worker up for the morning. I noticed that the two looked a bit better than earlier in the night – which I commented to them.

"Miss Budur brought us some AB-positive 'energy shots' to get us through the morning," Suzie explained in sotto voce.

"Best thing is, they're laced with taurine and ginseng. Gives us a boost as well." Lily watched as my kitchen worker started setting up bowls of cereal and fruit sections for breakfast. "Is there a way we can keep Cavin separate from the other kids until Billens finally gets back here?"

"He looks like he'll stay asleep for a while," I said while looking at the screen. "We can always have him eat in his room. You two don't know about any food allergies he has?"

"It never came up when he was here?" Suzie asked.

"He was here what, not even a full 24 hours?" I shook my head. "I know that fae have a slightly more… interesting diet than humans."

"I don't think he's got any issues with what you have on the menu," Lily replied.

As much as it had seemed the first part of the shift had dragged on, now it was moving quickly. The first of the two staff to arrive for the morning shift was a new staff who'd only been at the institution for a month. He was a bit wide-eyed after I introduced them to him, but I made a point of explaining to him it was just because of the "special interest" the Feds had in this kid.

The other staff, Marge, a veteran lady who didn't take crap from anyone. She was non-plussed to see the two girls.

"More shadowing from Madison?" was her comment. When I explained to her that they'd been involved when Cavin was here the first place, she pointed out that she wasn't there at the time. She'd injured her shoulder breaking up a fight about a month before my incident with Cavin, and was out on medical leave until a month ago.

Lily made the suggestion about having Cavin come out to get his tray alone, to take it back to his room. Marge had no problem with this.

Suzie walked with me down to his room, and we managed to rouse him long enough for him to tell us he "didn't want nuthin' to eat." When we got back to the booth, I shrugged at Marge.

"Well, we offered him breakfast," I said. "He declined."

"What's his story?" Marge asked. "He do something big that I didn't hear about?"

"He was part of a drug ring that ran across state lines," Lily quickly explained. "He was also a user, which made him a bit unstable."

"So you two are his handlers?"

"Not exactly," Suzie said with a half-smile. "We're more his bodyguards."

I giggled slightly at that comment, then shook my head at Marge.

"Trust me, you don't wanna know the full details."

Breakfast was provided for the rest of the cottage youth. Both the reception and sanctions youth were reserved when they saw the pair were still there. Tempelhoffer also ate in his room – and the way many of the youth were looking at the pair, they were wondering if they could just eat in their rooms as well.

"You two seem to have an intimidating presence on these guys," Marge commented after the last youth had returned to his room. "I've never seen kids move that fast in my 20 years at this place."

"We really don't mean to be getting in your way like this," Lily began.

"Oh, no, I'm not complaining at all. Though," she said, squirming her large-ish frame over to the coffee machine, "these booths were definitely not built for five staff."

The phone rang. It was Bud down at Communications. Billens had the court order, and would be there to pick the three up in an hour.

"Wait, where are they coming from?" Marge asked.

"Minneapolis," Lily said. "It's a shorter drive when you've got lights blaring, trust me."

"Whatever. As long as he's out of our hair."

Bud also informed us that, due to the Tempelhoffer incident, the cottage was on program suspension until he could be moved to Krueger. That meant no external movement for any youth in the cottage.

"What did he do now?" Marge asked. We gave her a summary of the whole abortive escape attempt. She was impressed. "They actually bought the story?"

"They were on the 'not-too-bright' side of the ledger," Suzie explained wryly.
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Re: Fearless

Post by Sgt. Howard »

Hmmm... so Templehoffer throws a gear in the wrenches while gunning for Chekov... did I get that right?... no, wait a minute... oh nevermind... the punk blew everybody's plans out of the water...
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Re: Fearless

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The morning passed without further incident. Breakfast cleanup went by quickly. Because of the program suspension – what was informally known as a "lockdown", though it's far from that – no one was going anywhere. As a result, the only thing to do was have Tempelhoffer and Cavin come out to use the bathroom.

I suggested trying Cavin first – with the two girls' help. Marge was just about to click on his door switch when I interrupted her.

"They want us opening his door manually," I explained. Marge gave me a "you're kidding me" look, but both Lily and Suzie were nodding in agreement.

I accompanied the two of them down the hall to Cavin's room. A tap on the door was followed by a quick opening of the lock.

"Cavin?" The small form on the sheets moved slightly. "Do you need to use the bathroom at all?" There was only a small grunt from him in response.

"Cavin," Lily interjected, "They're going to be here to pick us up in about an hour. You might want to get cleaned up." She stood behind me, while Suzie stood out in the hallway, her back to the booth.

He rolled over on the bed, turning to look at me.

"I'm not going back to that torture chamber, am I?" he asked. I looked back at Lily, suddenly feeling a bit uneasy.

"No, you're not going back to the hospital," Lily said, moving next to me. I allowed her to move into the room door – which wasn't very wide to begin with – while I moved back to hold it open with my foot and hand. "You're going to go back to that home we talked about, okay?"

"I'm NOT an orphan," he said, slowly pulling himself to a seated position. He had clothes on, but I knew that it was just a projection.

"It's not the orphanage," Lily explained patiently. "It's in the building next door. Your parents are waiting to visit with you there." She paused. "They were worried about you when you went missing."

"Why do I smell that blackthorn, then?" He had a look on his face of annoyance – and an obvious lack of trust.

I picked up on it right away.

"Lily," I said out of the side of my mouth. "Get lost." She didn't pick up on it at first, but when it dawned on her, she quickly stepped back and out of the room.

I looked right at Cavin.

"Okay, look. This place might be where you belong – if you were human. This place isn't for you, though." I nodded back toward Suzie and Lily. "They're going to take you back where you do belong. And Miss Pratt isn't going to let anyone – not even a blackthorn – do anything to you."

"How the frak do you know?" he asked, giving me a sour look.

"Her granddaughter actually minds her," I said. "C'mon, at least make yourself look presentable."

He made a visible show of rolling his eyes, then jumped down off the bed – and slowly rose to a height of about 4' 9".

"No cuffs this time?" he asked.

"Why?" I asked. "You just woke up." He raised an eyebrow – and, I could tell from his hair, his antennae raised at the same time. I got out of his way as he slowly made his way down the hallway, with me directly behind me and Suzie beside him. Lily was standing by the booth door.

He looked at her, then at the staff in the booth. Marge was in the kitchen, helping the workers get stuff out to the garbage. He shrugged and went in to do his business.

He made a bit of a show of washing his hands afterwards, then came back out. By this time, Suzie was on my right, standing next to the front booth window.

"They said when they were comin'?" he asked, peeking up at the dayroom clock.

"Probably around 8:30," I told him. I motioned back toward his room. "You can go and rest up until then." He rolled his eyes again, but walked back to his room. Suzie followed behind as I trotted along behind him.

He got all the way to the door before he turned to me. "What would you do right now if I refused to go in?" he asked with a bit of a sneer.

I looked him directly in the eye.

"I'd tell you to go in. And if you didn't, I'd tell you to stop it, touch you on the shoulder, and push you in with one finger." My eyes closed slightly into a glare.

"And if that didn't work, I'd get Castela to come up here to put you in your room."

He looked at me for a moment, then stepped into his room and sat down on his bed.

"See you," I said, closing the door a bit quicker than I wanted.

"You did it again," Suzie said as we walked back down the hall to the dayroom. "Just so you know."

"I am more than ready for this day to be over," I sighed.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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