Bomb Squad
Apprehension sat in the pit of Kris' stomach, it felt like somebody had released a swarm full of carnivorous butterflies and they were trying to eat her alive with nerves. Katherine had entrusted her with picking up the money and she'd done as much, managing to get through the meeting with Bethany without punching the other Slayer in the mouth.

With the bag in hand, Kris left the club and settled in the nearby alleyway, worrying about her appearance of all things. She hadn't been worrying about that the whole time she'd been kidnapped, but now she was faced with seeing people she knew it was suddenly her utmost concern.

Her eyes dropped to her watch and she took a slow breath, coaching herself to forget about the threat that Katherine might detonate the collar anyways if she was late back. She really hoped Hayden could help, or God help her she was going to let the vampire detonate it.

She drew her hair over one shoulder and tried not to pace, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of Hayden.

He and Izzy met a few blocks away and left Izzy's car in a parking lot. From there, they rode together in Hayden's truck.

"Do you see her?" It wasn't raining, and the windshield was clear, but Hayden leaned forward in his driver's seat anyway and peered, as if those extra inches might help him spot her faster. He slowed down and crept past the alley near Devil's Own, looking for her in there, because Kris wouldn't try to do this in plain sight of an entrance. A figure stood about halfway down, walking back and forth. "That's her!" he said, certain of it. The size was right, and so was the posture. She also had a bag in her hand. He steered the truck into a parallel space and parked it. "Let's go."

Hayden cut the ignition and jumped out in his denim coat. Inside pockets were laden with stakes and a small dart gun. They didn't just make them with tranquilizers these days. Some of the ampules contained holy water. It wasn't enough to kill a vamp, but it burned like hell and caused some tissue damage. He didn't actually expect to run into any vampires. But just in case Katherine had her eye on the mission, it paid to play it safe. His heavier weapons were in the truck.

He waited for Izzy to start walking, but just barely. At least it was daylight out. No chance his girlfriend was already turned and leading them into a trap, a 'cut off those closest to you' initiation into the undead.

Izzy hauled her bag out the back of Hayden's truck and hurried to catch up to the Watcher, who wasn't quite running to his girlfriend but pretty damn close. The tech-witch wasn't sure whether to hold back and give the couple a moment of privacy or to barge ahead and get a look at the collar.

She couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Kris. Being held all this time by a vampire who had every intention of eventually turning you into a member of the undead couldn't have been pleasant for her sanity, and being turned into Katherine's personal errand girl to do any number of unspeakable things or risk having your head blown off wouldn't have helped either.

The tech-witch stopped a few feet away from the couple and set her bag on the ground, then unzipped it and started removing items. Izzy figured she could give Hayden and Kris a moment to themselves while she got her tools out and the jammer activated. It wouldn't waste any time and might let the lovebirds calm down just a bit in the process.

Kris lifted her head as she heard the sound of footsteps and drew in a shaky breath as she clasped eyes on Hayden. It felt like an eternity since she'd seen him or another friendly face.

"Hayden?" She called, straying out of the shadows and into the light. Her lips curled into the first genuine smile in weeks and she instantly dropped the bag, moving to wrap her arms around his neck.

Was she clinging? Maybe, just a little.

She might even be shaking, not that she'd ever admit that out loud, in public, and within earshot of somebody that wasn't Hayden.

"Kris..." He was almost running by the time he got there. His big arms enveloped the Slayer, his cheek laying on top of her head. "Hey," he mumbled, shutting his eyes and squeezing her. Under the clothes, she felt smaller, like her body was made of sharper angles. He rocked from left foot to right, unable to let go at first. "I love you so much." He sifted through her hair and kissed her forehead.

He hunched down to look her in the eyes. The collar pulled his attention off her features. It made him suddenly more careful about touching her, scared he'd set something off. "Don't worry, we're going to get this thing off you, alright?"

Satisfied that the jammer was operational, Izzy stood up and approached the couple with a confident air she really didn't feel. This was going to be by far the most dangerous thing she'd ever deliberately attempted, the dimensional portal that had dumped her in Chicago notwithstanding, but she didn't want to scare Hayden and (more importantly) Kris any more than they already were.

"Hi Kris, long time no see," she smiled to try and break the ice. "Like he said, don't worry, we'll get this hunk of junk off you." She'd set up a collapsible camp chair by the jammer for Kris to sit in, along with a small similarly designed table now covered in several different types of small tools and spell components. The tech-witch motioned toward the setup. "I'm ready whenever y'all are."

"I love you too," Kris answered quietly. God, it felt so good to be in his arms and away from Katherine and the worrying thought that she might one day be completely reliant on her. It was bad enough that Kris had become used to having her around.

She breathed in deeply when the collar was mentioned, hoping none of her previous suicidal thoughts took this particular moment to bare all to the world. When Izzy appeared Kris managed a small smile and nodded her head. "I'll be glad to be rid of it, although I'd like to keep it for a tad longer if that's possible. Not around my neck mind you, but more like stowed in Katherine's hideout." Kris' plan was simple: keep the money (it was half hers anyways), message the vampire to say she was running late, haul ass back to the hideout to plant the collar and hope when Katherine found out that Kris had lied through her pearly white teeth, she'd hit the button (trigger happy bitch that she was) and unwittingly blow herself and hideout to kingdom come.

Kris settled into the chair, wondering if she held herself any differently than she had before, she didn't know. The last couple of weeks had been... well, traumatising and disturbing, she'd barely slept and had developed an overall dislike of the dark. That would pass, it had to. She wasn't exactly proud of the things she had done, but didn't think anybody else would have done anything differently had it been them in her shoes and with the explosive collar around their neck.

There were too many 'if's - 'could haves' - 'should haves' and Kris was trying very hard not to think about them.

Hayden crouched down and held Kris's knees. "Okay. Here's what we're gonna do. Izzy's jamming the signal to the collar, so Katherine can't use the remote detonator. As long as you're near the jammer, it'll work. She's gonna try to get the collar off. We need to make sure there's no dead man's switch... a trigger that makes it blow automatically if it's removed. Once she's sure it's safe, she'll take it off."

He swallowed and rubbed her legs, trying to reassure her, give her a human touch. His expression was pinched with worry. "If you wanna get the collar back, we have to do it fast. Once the jammer's down, she can push the button any time." And while he sat there, explaining things, time was wasting. He got up and kissed her and moved off to the side, out of Izzy's way.

Izzy gave them both a reassuring smile and then moved in to get a good look at the collar once Hayden was out of the way. The tech-witch managed not to frown as she saw that the outside was just a solid metal band, with a locking mechanism in the front. Any explosives would have to be on the inside, which made her job more difficult if there was a dead man's switch built into the thing.

"Okay, I'm going to take a look at the inside of this thing just to be safe, then I should be able to take it off." Izzy's tone was slightly distant, concentrating on the task at hand now as she picked up the diagnostic glove she'd constructed nearly a year before. It was the same one she'd used to repair Logan's laptop back when they had only just met, and now it would tell her everything she needed to know about the collar.

She slipped the glove on, put her hand gently on the collar and closed her eyes. In her mind's eye the insides of the collar appeared before her, control wires and explosives clearly visible. "Interesting..." she muttered to herself as she spotted the tiny receiver that would trigger the explosives on Katherine's order, and determined the frequency as well.

"Ah." There was a dead man's switch, a tiny little connector tied to both the receiver and the lock. If she didn't disable that before she tried to unlock the collar then they'd all go 'boom'.

The tech-witch opened her eyes and removed the glove, everything was mapped out in her head now and she knew what would have to be done. "I was right, short range transmitter. Katherine would have to be within a mile of here to set it off, but I was also right about it maybe having a booby trap." She brought her eyes up to meet Kris's. "Your vamp paid a pretty penny to have this rigged up, it was made by a professional who knew what they were doing."

A grin. "Fortunately, they never had to deal with a tech-witch before. I can get this off, it'll just take a little longer is all."

Kris nodded her head with a wry smile. "I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm screwed." The vampire was quite comfortable with the notion that Kris was trapped, not going anywhere. She reached out and took a hold of Hayden's hand briefly, squeezing it.

Once Izzy moved in, Kris' attention turned to her and she did everything in her power not to pull away or flinch, kind of used to any close contact being of either the threatening or menacing kind.

She rubbed her hands at the dirt ridden denim that wrapped her thighs, unwittingly working more filth into the small cuts that littered her palms. "Knock yourself out." Kris sat perfectly still, letting Izzy do whatever she needed in order to know what to do next. Nervous? Very. Izzy was messing with the collar that had kept her chained to that undead bitch for the last couple of weeks, one false movement and she could take both Izzy and Hayden with her.

At the mention of Katherine paying a lot for the collar Kris snorted and brushed some of her hair back, tempted to take a pair of scissors to it one of these days because she had some lingering memories of Katherine's fingers in it. "Yay for being special? Although if I know her as well as I think I've come to known her over these last couple of weeks she probably just had it made because she could."

Kris gave a relieved smile. "That's some of the best news I've had in a while." It had been rather short on the ground as of late.

Sticking close by, Hayden scratched an elbow and looked around. Nobody approached from either end of the alley. A truck drove by, but it was a food delivery for a restaurant a few blocks off. He couldn't see any cameras. He was grateful they weren't attempting this behind Devil's Own. No doubt in his mind, that place was wired.

Hayden looked at Kris again. This time, he took in the details. He understood why her appearance raised a red flag for another Slayer. This wasn't the Kris they knew, dirty and rumpled and tired, posture both slumped and tense. He wanted to ask her what happened. He wanted to search her for bruises and bite marks. New scares to fade into the canvas of old ones. When this was done, Hayden didn't know what he'd do first: feed her an enormous meal, put her to soak in a hot bath, or lie down beside her and refuse to let go for days. He stroked the knuckles on her head.

"Let me know if you need anything, Izzy." He bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Just keep an eye out, this next bit will be a little tricky." Izzy was completely focused on the collar now, and the last thing she needed was a passerby interrupting them wondering what the hell was going on.

She closed her eyes again to call up the map of the collar's makeup, and mentally double checked the steps she needed to take the contraption off the Slayer. There wouldn't be any second chances on this and she needed to do it right.

"Tilt your head back as far as you can," she instructed Kris after opening her eyes again, "and let's get this costume jewelry off you." Once the Slayer had done as she asked, Izzy took a daub of putty from the table and smeared it along the edge of the latch and mumbled a short incantation to Hephaestus under her breath. The god of the forge had a following among engineers in her dimension and numerous spells called upon his favor. It seemed to work, as the putty glowed and then appeared to ooze into the open spaces of the latch.

Izzy rocked back on the balls of her feet, a satisfied expression on her face. "That should take care of the booby trap, now to get this thing off you."

Kris looked up at Hayden as she tilted her head back and then took a couple deep breaths, trying to calm the nerves that filled her stomach again at the thought that Izzy would be taking the collar off. Part of it was the fear that it might explode and another part, a much quieter part, far more shameful part, was the fact she'd grown used to it. She hated how easy it had been to forget it was there until Katherine waved the threat of it in her face.

She pushed those thoughts out of her head and just gave a weak smile. "Go for it." Closing her eyes wouldn't do a whole lot, but it would certainly make the waiting easier. God, she hoped that everything would be okay and she wouldn't be responsible for taking both Hayden and Izzy with her.

Faith, had to have a little more faith.

Next to her, Hayden squeezed her fingers. "It's gonna be alright, Erastis. Just hold still." He gripped harder. It wasn't smart, kneeling where the explosives could take all three of them out, if anything went wrong. But if that happened, he'd rather get blown to pieces with them, than watch it happen from the street.

He looked at Izzy and nodded.

Izzy took a small screwdriver and began to work on the bolts holding the latch in place to the collar. As soon as the screwdriver made contact with a bolt it seamlessly merged with it to ensure a perfect connection, and another small incantation helped loosen the metal enough to begin unscrewing it from the socket.

Plop. The first screw came out and dropped to the ground, automatically disengaging from the tool that had removed it. Izzy repeated the process five more times, and the collar split in two without blowing them all to kingdom come.

The tech witch let out her breath and gingerly removed the device from around the Slayer's neck, setting it on the table. She'd done it, and it had actually gone easier than she'd thought it would, though it could have easily gone the other way had she made the slightest miscalculation.

"We're done."

Kris kept her eyes firmly shut for another couple of moments before she realised she hadn't blown up and that's when she opened her eyes. One hand went to her neck and a disbelieving laugh escaped her as she felt nothing but skin where there had been metal beforehand.

"I can't believe it's actually gone." She swallowed hard, relieved not to feel the cool press of metal around her throat. "It's been-" Kris rubbed at her hair, trying to comprehend the idea that her life was her own again.

Her gaze slid to the collar. "Can I have that?"

Exhaling hard through his nose, Hayden wrapped a palm around Kris's head. He kissed her temple and just held on for a second, eyes shut. His relief almost hurt. His girlfriend's question about keeping the collar was a loaded reminder of what could happen if they didn't get rid of the device soon. "No way Izzy's gonna want to keep it," he said, looking at his roommate. His look seemed to be saying 'I owe you big time'.

He got up. "We've gotta go," he said, fully intending on going with Kris to drop off the collar. She wasn't going back by herself, no matter what. Izzy, however, had gotten dragged into enough danger. "Listen, let's put your gear in my truck. I'll get it back to you at the house. We'll take it from here."

"He's right, there's no way in hell I want it!" Izzy exclaimed, a little repulsed by the idea. That just wasn't her thing at all. "It's all yours."

She handed the offending item back to the person who had been wearing it only moments before and started packing up her gear. The tech-witch glanced over at Hayden and nodded. "That'll work, help me get everything packed up and then I'll head over to my car."

After packing up the gear and getting it stowed in the back of Hayden's truck, she paused and looked at the couple. "Be careful, ok? I'll see you soon."

Kris rose to her feet and took the collar from Izzy, turning its weight over in her hands. All this time.... she inhaled a breath, fingers curling around the metal a second later as an idea she had been toying with finally firmed itself in her mind.

Katherine was going to get a taste of her own medicine and she was going to be the one who hit that button.

She picked up the bag of money that Bethany had handed over and wandered after both Hayden and Izzy, looking up as the witch said her goodbyes. "Thank you," Kris said after a moment's pause. "For all your help. I, um, I really appreciate it."

Hayden got his truck started and then hopped back out. He went around to the passenger door and opened it for Kris. "Don't worry," he chimed in quietly, "She won't be paying rent for months." He gave his roommate a wave and waited for the Slayer.

"I won't lie and say it was no big thing," Izzy told Kris, "but it was something I was happy to do Kris, so don't worry about it."

"See you soon." She waved to the couple and started out of the alley.