Putting Pieces Together
How Hayden looked was the last thing on his mind when Juliet called, saying she spotted Kris. He barely put on his shoes before leaving. Outside of Devil's Own, reality hit him like a ton of bricks. It said, 'Hey man, this isn't Hooters. You shouldn't have worn a t-shirt and jeans'. Trying to get past security like that? Iffy. At the very least, he'd draw attention. So he waited in his truck, near what looked like an employee entrance. As the long minutes ticked by, he drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel, strung out like he took a handful of pills.

Kris is alive. She's palling around with criminals, but she's alive.

At least he had that. Forcing himself to leave off staring at the door, he mashed the cigarette lighter in and cranked down the window. The weather was cool and dry, and the air smelled like food from a nearby restaurant. He heard music in Devil's Own, a fast number with a lot of bass. Just as well that Hayden wasn't in the strip club. He'd have a hard time blending in, even after the right clothes and a shaving razor. It the place didn't have a dart board and serve wings, he was a fish out of water.

From the moment Juliet re-entered the club she tried to concentrate on behaving normally, feeling Ralphael's eyes on her whenever the man was in eyesight. She knew it was probably just her paranoia kicking in, but she figured it was better to be safe than sorry. The last hour had never taken so long to pass before, even when she'd had Eric waiting to meet her afterwards, though those times had been few and far between with her patrolling almost every night.

Finally she was finished, and seeing Hayden's message she hurried to leave, giving Ginger a quick wave before heading for the exit. Again Ralphael was standing there and her stomach flipped. "Good night, boys," she said breezily, waving her hand in what she hoped was a believably carefree manner. The two of them offered their farewells and Juliet turned toward her car, seeing Hayden's truck and almost stopping dead in her tracks. Instead she pulled her phone out of her pocket and muttered his name into it, the number appearing and dialing immediately as she continued toward her car.

On his dash, the cell phone vibrated on a pile of papers and a windshield scraper. He picked it up and answered, "Hey," while he watched Juliet walk the other way. "You want me to wait until you pull out?" Hayden looked at the door. An employee was standing there, watching the dancer make her way to the car. Whether it was a safety precaution or because they were suspicious, he didn't know. Either way, he was glad his truck engine wasn't running and he hadn't started smoking yet.

"Yeah, that'd be good," she told him, forcing her eyes to remain forward and not automatically turn to look at Hayden's truck. Without saying anything else she shoved the phone back in her pocket, reaching into her back to pull out her remote for the Mercedes. The lock of the driver's door unlatched and the motor started as she approached the vehicle, the cabin of the car now a private sanctuary she wanted to reach, but she managed to close the distance without running, despite the feel of Ralphael's eye drilling in between her shoulder blades. As her hand pulled the door open she rolled her shoulders lightly, settled into the seat and slammed the door shut. The hybrid motor was already purring, almost inaudibly, and she pulled away from the kerb, allowing her eyes to pass over the the doorway, and the two men standing there, then Hayden's truck. At the end of the street she turned right and moved down the block, pulling over to wait, eyes fixed on the rear vision mirror looking for Hayden's headlights.

Once the coils were hot, the cigarette lighter popped out. Hayden ignored it, passing a hand over his bristled chin. He waited until both employees went inside and shut the door. Then he cranked up his rumbling truck and rolled out of the parking lot, going slow and looking out the windows to find Juliet's car. He passed her and pulled his tires alongside the curb in front of her gleaming fender.

Hayden grabbed his Steno pad and keys and got out. He walked back to the passenger door of Juliet's car and squatted down, waiting for her to roll down the window. "Hey... You wanna take a couple laps around the block and talk?" Holding onto the door for balance, he looked back towards the club and tucked a piece of dirty blonde hair behind his ear. "That way, if anybody comes looking, your car's not around."

Hayden swallowed around the lump of stress in his throat. He'd offer to go someplace for coffee, but he wasn't sure he could sit in some diner and act like he wasn't pulling his hair out.

Juliet nodded as she pressed the button to lock the door behind him once he'd climbed in. "At least you're not bleeding this time," she said in a weak joking way. The last time he'd been in her car had been on New Years day, after the battle on the beach. He had been badly wounded and the white leather seat had given Bart some frustration as he'd worked to remove the stains. As was the usual way with the butler he did not ask questions, the youngest member of the family he was interned to apparently safe and intact and that being his only concern.

She accelerated away from the kerb, eyes darting to the mirrors and screen until they were a few blocks away. She recited what she had seen, running through the whole scene in her head as she did, trying to make sure she related everything.

"And there's this collar thing," she said. "Kris really didn't want Bethany to touch it from what I could see."

"What kind of collar?" he asked, pencil circling a word he jotted down. He was completely dumbfounded over the idea of Kris hanging around with a person like Bethany Richards for any reason. Not knowing the contents of the bag was eating him alive, as was figuring out why Kris looked 'like crap', according to Juliet. Few were the times when that was true. It wasn't even thinkable that she switched sides. So why would she cut herself off from everybody and do business with black hats?

Hayden dropped the pencil and rubbed his hands up and down his face, trying to pieces ideas together. Did they have something on Kris, evidence that linked her to George Robinson's dead body? Was she doing business with them and ashamed of it? Did Bethany Richards have anything to do with the rumors in Kris's neighborhood? He couldn't stop himself from asking a follow-up question. "Did she look hurt?"

Juliet's eyes darted across to Hayden, the pain and worry in his voice clear as crystal to anyone listening. "I... I couldn't tell," she said, not wanting to lie, but trying to stop him worrying. "But you know how it is with us," she continued, trying to give him something to hang on to. "We heal pretty damn quick, so... yeah... " Her voice trailed off as she realised that that really didn't help. Kris could have been badly hurt and wouldn't show it because she had healed, so Juliet tried to turn the discussion away from that direction.

"Oh, and as she left? She looked at me and I'm sure she shook her head!" she told him, realising she'd not said that before as she'd been sidetracked with his questions. "Bethany was looking up at the stage at the time, and I'm sure Kris looked at me then, just before she disappeared out the door with the bag."

Hayden's expression shifted. "Why would she do that?" he asked, half rhetorical, half looking for insight from another Slayer. He angled himself towards Juliet and watched her profile as she drove. Everything he knew about his girlfriend couldn't provide good enough answers for his questions. Confusion dampened his relief that she wasn't hurt in a ditch somewhere. He'd say it was good news, if she could still walk and talk, but there were a dozen fucked up things Hayden could think of, where you were hurt or dead, but could still do both of those things. On occasion, being an avid reader of occult books was a negative. "Do you think she was trying to tell you not to ask questions? Or whatever she was doing, it wasn't what it looked like?"

The collar thing, what the hell was that about? As long as he knew Kris, he hadn't seen her wear so much as a choker. He tried to think. It might be some kind of symbol of ownership. A lot of powerful demons marked their 'property' or followers with tattoos, jewelry, uniforms. But try as he might to imagine that, Hayden couldn't grasp the idea of Kris submitting to anybody's orders. Not unless her family was threatened.

"If she was worried I'd go ask Bethany then she sure as hell doesn't need to!" Juliet told him with a small half laugh. "I haven't spoken probably two words with her since I started, and with what I know now? I'm not about to." And of course Rhiannon's warnings, and a few threats the older Slayer had made, were very strong in her mind, Juliet realising early in the piece that if Rhiannon was saying those things there was good reason to take notice. Rumours had circulated through the girls about one who'd disappeared, and there were the stories about the 'interview process' Bethany had used when selecting a 'personal security' guard. And that girl? Jessica? Something was weird about her too.

She grimaced as she slowed for a set of lights, easing through the intersection once they'd turned green again. She tried to describe exactly what she'd seen as Kris had shouldered Bethany out of the way and then looked at Juliet when Bethany had turned to look up at the stage. "She really just.. I don't know, looked up and gave a shake of her head while she was looking at me. It was hard to really tell, but I know she recognised me, and was trying to tell me something. Just don't know what."

Juliet's fingers tightened around the wheel, knowing that wasn't helping Hayden much, and wishing, wanting to be able to give him more. But she just didn't know Kris at all well, not having seen her much once Rhiannon had taken her on herself. All her training and fighting had been done with Rhiannon, whether it was out on patrol, or other times in the park. Kris was as much an enigma to her as most of the others on the email list she saw when messages were sent out to them all. "I am only guessing, but I reckon she was warning me off, maybe, telling me it wasn't what it looked like. After all, it looked like she was working for Bethany.... but she couldn't be... could she?" Juliet's eyes darted across to Hayden before quickly returning to the road in front. She hated seeing that look on his face so kept her eyes turned front.

"No," he said, practically barking it, in comparison to how quiet he usually was. "Sorry." Hayden shook his head and pulled on the denim covering his knees. Juliet was doing her best to help out, putting herself under scrutiny to do it. He didn't like the idea of people questioning his girlfriend's loyalties, but if he was honest with himself, it was a fair question coming from a relative stranger. "There's no way. Some people, you never have to ask. You just take it for granted they're doing the right thing. She's one of them."

Having exhausted all the information Juliet had, he looked at her. "Hey... I really appreciate this. If they found out you were reporting this, you'd be in trouble, right? Do they even know what you are?" So far, his interactions with Juliet were limited to dropping off books Rhiannon thought would be useful, seeing her pitch in at New Year's, and talking to her at a party. She looked like a girl whose heart was in the right place, though. A little bit of a firecracker, too, if he had her pegged right.

Shaking her head Juliet's jaw tightened and lips thinned. "No, they don't, but I don't know how much longer I can keep up the front. Ralphael... " She looked across at Hayden for a brief moment. "... the guy you saw standing at the door tonight, the one watching me leave? Well, he's been watching me more. And it's been creeping me out a bit. I don't think they know... well, actually, I know they don't, because I really don't think I'd be still there if they knew." She shook her head and told Hayden about some of the things that had been rumoured to happen to staff who'd run foul of the owner. Her fingers tightened their grip on the wheel again, a determined look on her face. "But they're not Slayers, and I can look after myself." There was a slight hint of bravado in the determined tone, but Juliet knew that it was only that, bravado. "Always have, always will," she added with a small, but defiant lift of her chin.

"Man." He shook his head and smiled ruefully. Hayden rubbed his eyes, the instrument panel blurring behind his fingers. "It's gotta be in the DNA." This one was no different than Rhiannon and Kris, even Destiny and Jo, in at least respect. He explained, "Every Slayer I've ever met's got that same stubborn streak." Hayden closed his notebook, the binding of it creaking slightly around torn bits of paper. "Call me crazy, but I've gotta ask. Why do you work there, if you know it's dangerous? You could dance in other places."

Granted, it was a little hypocritical. Back in Searchlight, he used to use his 'everyman' status to get into dangerous situations and investigate on the inside. A few times, people had to pull his ass out of the fire. The last time he got burned, he took a two-year hiatus, only getting back into the fray once he knew without a doubt he could handle himself. He refused to be a liability.

Pulling up to another red light Juliet looked across at Hayden a for a slightly longer moment before speaking. "If I wasn't there we wouldn't know Kris is still alive," she said simply. When Rhiannon had told her about Bethany, and Darian, she knew she had kept dancing there because her curiosity was too great, but she'd been warned by Rhiannon to not let herself be discovered. All the time she had spent there had been watching what was going on, which most of the time had been absolutely nothing, but tonight had been the night that had made it all worthwhile. She knew her days there were numbered, the attention she'd been receiving from Ralphael, and she couldn't even bring herself to acknowledge one of the things Elfleda had shown her, another reason that had kept her at the Club. That was a reason she wouldn't even admit to herself, let alone anyone else. Ever.

"Hey, don't get me wrong," Hayden said, not wanting there to be any mistake about it. "I'm grateful. You're saving my ass. But you didn't know you'd run into Kris." Clueless as to any private reasons that kept Juliet working there, there were only two assumptions Hayden could make. "Is it because you're keeping a look out, or because you like the idea of being in danger?" The pencils, reclaimed, tapped a muted rhythm on his leg. "I'm way out of line asking, so you can blow me off if you want. I'm just curious."

The reasons they, the Chosen ones, did things fascinated Hayden. It still kicked his ass that he never got to train a Slayer, but the stars never seemed to line up right in Searchlight, no matter how bad he wanted it. There was a girl, Eva, that he thought he'd get to help, but she didn't stay in town long. He told himself he was fortunate, because he was close enough that his brain still got put to good use. Back in Nevada, he was a primary researcher for the group and a steady contact to the Council.

She screwed up her nose a little as she pulled a face. "Figured if Bethany's as bad as everyone says there'd have to be something going on around her, and while I could get in there? And not be pegged?" She shrugged. "Why not?" The lights changed and she put her foot down a little harder on the accelerator than before.

Compared to everyone she knew of around Rhiannon, Juliet knew she was the 'baby', the one who still had so much to learn, and so little experience. She'd never liked being that 'newbie' and wanted the experience, wanted those years under her belt, needed to have something to bring to the table, and if that meant doing something she knew she was damned good at in a place no-one else could go without raising suspicion, then she would be in there boots and all. "Plus it gives me something to do while waiting to go out on patrol," she added with a completely put-on air of nonchalance.

"Right..." Hayden nodded, and despite the anxiety of the situation, he had to work to remain solemn. He liked Juliet, she was plucky, which explained why Rhiannon liked her so much; the more attitude a person passed off, the more that Slayer seemed to attach to them. He thought Juliet was an interesting mash-up. There was something naive and kind of amusing about her, despite her interaction with worldly and bleak surroundings, and a life that looked, from the outside, like it was delivered on a silver platter. "I've gotta hand it to you. Most people don't bide their time by doing vigorous exercises on a pole."

The light-hearted way he said it meant he didn't judge her for it. He scratched his head. "I don't know how you stomach being around that Slayer's boyfriend." Hayden only knew Bethany Richards by reputation -- just enough to know she was on the wrong side of the fence -- but he had more direct experience with Darian. "Guy's a slimeball."

"You said it!" Juliet replied, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, but she covered it quickly. "Have to be to hang with Bethany though. She's a real cold bitch." Juliet hadn't ever really talked about her employer to anyone but Rhiannon, and then she was usually mainly doing the listening. Now, it was almost like a relief to know she could, and it helped cover up the awful realistion she'd been doused in by Elfleda. Again she shoved that thought aside.

"And her personal security? Christ, I mean why would a Slayer want that? Unless she's... god, do you think she might be having it both ways? I mean Darian, and that Jessica chick? Rumour is they fought ... as in all the applicants for the job of her personal security had to fight her as their interview. Have you ever heard of anything so bloody arrogant? She's a Slayer for chrissake, and she beat the crap out of all the men, but took on this Jessica chick." She nodded, her runaway train of thought careering down the track that led to conclusions she didn't care about, and helped her ignore the rest of it all.

"Yeah she's probably got them both on a string," she concluded, a derisive snort punctuating the statement as she swung the steering wheel and turned the corner, not even really thinking where she was going.

Hayden's forehead creased, because he had his doubts. "Have you met that guy? I don't think he shares." A couple of years back, Darian hung around Nevada, scouting for ways to make deals and take the white hats down a peg or two. When Kris got poisoned by Elfleda and nobody could figure out how to fix it, Hayden made a trade to get a cure. He never forgot the smug look on the Dealmaker's face, or how he kept stopping by to grind salt in the wounds, like a self-important asshole. "He seems too focused on getting what's coming to him." Hayden exhaled and rubbed the back of his head. "But hell, what do I know? Maybe all three of them get it on together."

"Met him? Hey, did you hear about a few weeks ago? When I was... " She paused, lips tightening a moment before she continued. "When Rhi and I had a bit of a falling out," she continued, voice a little stiff, but easing again. "Anyway, looks like something happened that made us... different, and he was different, man, really different. If I didn't know better I'd have said he'd gone emo punk with a bad taste in clothes!" She snorted again. "And birds! Though they deserve each other, and their playmate. I need something to eat," she said, pulling into the drive thru entrance of a Golden Arches. "You want anything?" She hadn't given him a chance to speak and knew it, but was also wanting to change the subject from Darian, the demon's face flickering in front of her eyes for a millisecond.

A lot of that confused the shit out of Hayden, but he let it ride. "Yeah, come to think of it, I heard about it. I got an email, didn't catch the specifics. My roommate Sonya was acting weird. She kept organizing things by alphabet." He couldn't picture Darian in that wardrobe or mindset, having always thought of him as robotic. It wasn't a good mental image. He leaned across the car to check out the menu through Juliet's window. The smell of greasy food made his stomach growl, and he realized he skipped dinner. "Yeah, I'll take a number four with a coke." After arching up and pulling a wallet out of his hip pocket, he tossed a couple of bills into the car console.

"Can you drop me back at my truck after?" Hayden asked. "I need to send out some emails."

"Sure. But if you want to send emails?" she said, indicating the dashboard in front of Hayden as a panel slid forward at the push of a button and a keyboard and screen appeared. It glowed to life, a browser already open. "Daddy thinks of everything when ordering a car," she told him dryly.

Juliet ordered the food and moved the car forward, the almost entirely silent engine and tyres moving across smooth concrete gave an almost surreal floating feeling. Gliding to a stop next to the window the glass slid down at the press of a button, the grill across the cashier's window leaving just a small slit, but Juliet flicked a card out that was quickly scanned by the card reader built in beneath the glass window, the appropriate charges soon being transacted from her bank account.

Another glide forward and she was being handed the food, passing it over to Hayden as she pulled away, the window sliding back up silently to mute all the white noise of the black night. Back out in the street she headed back toward the Club, and Hayden's truck. As they crossed an intersection she glanced over, noticing he was still just staring at the computer console, silently sighing and wondering for a moment just how old he was. "Don't worry, you'll be back at your truck soon."

She found a spot to pull over half a block from his truck and looked at the clock, the date glowing beneath the time. "Happy birthday to me." The simple statement was murmured quietly, the realisation she was now eighteen having surprisingly little interest, or affect on her.

Hayden was the kind of guy who sat and mulled over emails before he typed them, and didn't store email addresses in his online address book. He relied on his laptop to auto-populate the drop-down fields. Toby's was too recent an acquisition to have made it yet. Despite only being thirty and growing up around computers, he stuck with a pretty old school mentality. So he passed on the touch-screen as politely as he could. Once they were back at the drop-off point, he folded over the top of the fast food bag and paused with his hand on the door handle. "It's your birthday? How old are you?" He wouldn't have guessed a day over nineteen, but with remnants of her stage make-up on, it was hard to gauge.

She looked across at him quickly and shook her head, putting on a broad smile. "Don't you have no manners now boy?" she retorted, putting on a rich 'southern belle' voice. "Surely your mamma taught you it ain't po-lite t' ask a lady her age!" She let it drop as she continued. "And it's for me to know you and to wonder about, so go on, get home and get the word out. And hopefully you'll be one step closer to finding your girl."

As he pulled the handle, Hayden stared at Juliet in a sort of mystified bemusement. "What was that?" he asked, smiling as he climbed out, notebook and McDonald's bag in one fist. "Lady, I'm from New York." He bent down and spoke to her across the passenger seat. "Meaning I'll just ask Rhiannon." He saluted with two fingers and shut the door. A quick look around assured him that nobody from Devil's Own was watching for the dancer's car. He got in his truck and started it up, giving Juliet a final wave as she drove by.




Email
To: "Connor", "Toby", "Rhiannon", "Faith", "William", "Purity", "Izzy", "Sonya", "Juliet", "Logan", "Whistler"
From: Hayden.Maragos@gmail.com
Subj: Update on Kris

Kris still hasn't come home, but there's some good news. Juliet spotted her in Devil's Own, talking to the owner (Bethany Richards, an untrustworthy Slayer). Apparently she passed some kind of bag to Bethany and had a brief conversation with her. Before she left, she caught Juliet's eye and shook her head. We're thinking it was either a warning not to get any closer, or a heads up that it wasn't what it looked like. Either way, it's a relief to know she's alive. Juliet had a couple more details. She said Kris didn't look great and she was wearing some kind of collar.

I got a message from Connor, who managed to track down one of the girls Kris trains (Teresa). It confirmed what we thought. Kris was having problems with a man in her neighborhood, George Robinson, spreading bullshit rumors about her. She hasn't been in touch with anybody in a week.

You probably saw an article about George Robinson in the newspaper. On the night Kris met up with him to talk, she disappeared and his body turned up poisoned in a bar. Witnesses mentioned a brunette, but nothing specific enough to say it was Kris or somebody else.

Obviously, something's way off with her. If you see her doing anything unusual, please ask questions first. Don't jump to conclusions.

Toby's been included on the email. He's a friend of Kris's from the gym. Please keep him in the loop if you hear anything.

Hayden