Aftermath

[Maira]

((ooc: This thread takes place after the All Hallows Eve thread in The Asylum. It will then do a few time jumps to bring it current as All Hallows is actually nearing a year in age...))

Once they had returned from the club to their hotel room, Jezza immediately grabbed up her robe, and some pajamas and headed for the bathroom. She didn't know just how to face Anthony right then and she just needed some time to think. Just before she shut and locked the bathroom door she called over her shoulder, "I'm going to take a shower Anthony, I'll be out soon."

After she'd spoken, Jezza pulled the bathroom door closed behind her and locked it. As soon as the lock was flipped, it seemed a great weight lifted off her chest. She could breathe! Returning from the club, totally alone with Anthony, Jezza had waivered between the urges to cry, scream at him, and beg for forgiveness. Now that there was a flimsy wooden barrier between them she could finally breathe. Locked in the bathroom as she was, she could no longer smell that vile Four Aces female on her packmate. On the man she had hoped to have a relationship with. A man who had seemd at least cautiously open to the idea until she'd wound up kissing Dainiel Hunter with just a little too much enthusiasm...

She sighed pitifully and then proceeded to get undressed and turn on the hot water. Luckily it didn't take long to get the water hot enough and she climbed in the shower. The hot water felt so good and relaxed her even more than just putting something between herself and Anthony had.

Only when the hot water began to fade did Jezza finally turn the water off and climb out of the shower. The little clock in the bathroom showed that she'd been locked away in her steamy haven for nearly 40 minutes and she couldn't help but gawk in disbelief. "Oops," she mumbled to herself, a fair bit of amusement coming through in her tone.

Hurrying to get dressed, Jezza threw on her pajamas and her robe over it for added warmth and then wrapped her long black curls up in the towel to dry. Once she was all dressed, she took the time to brush her teeth as well just so she wouldn't have to do it later. When she was unable to procrastinate going out into the main room any longer, Jezza took a steadying breath and undid the lock and pulled the door open.

[Races The Night]

Being the man he had been brought up to be, despite immediately recent events, Anthony insisted on walking Jezza back to their hotel. It was an awkward return journey, neither one speaking or showing any body language of wanting to socialise with one another. Upon booking the rooms for the weekend, Dainiel had insisted - no wait, that wasn't a term kindly associated with the man - demanded that the two rooms would be either beside or opposite each other. Since Jezza was the only woman in the trio and had argued the cause something rotten against the hairy beast that was Dainiel, he had relented and given her some form of privacy, however small. Anthony and Daine shared a twin room across the hallway.

With no sign of said man, Anthony stood quietly outside of Jezza's door while she fumbled around in her hand bag for the key card. Before tonight, they had thought nothing of entering one anothers room with just the abrest of knocks and Anthony, not wanting to break tradition, followed her in before she had a chance to think sensibly on it and shut the door in his face. He could sense her unwillingness to talk and his thoughts were proven when she said she would go shower.

He perched on the edge of her bed while, back to him, she disappeared into the bathroom. Shortly after he heard the continuous beat of water running in rivulets. A brief image came to mind and he contemplated joining her - as weak a man as he was for the next set of high heels to walk his way, he was but a man at the end of the day.

There was an almost inaudible knock at the door. Anthony went to answer. Dainiel stood on the other end of the wood and pushed his way past when it opened. Passing a quick surveilance around the room, his dark gaze returned to Anthony's. "Wipe that look off your face now, pup. I've had about all I can take of horny teenagers, I can do without another one fantasising about a shower scene in a romance novel." He said gravelly.

"What happened to you? You look like shit, man." Anthony responded, frowning. Daine's face was a mess, a rather nasty looking bruise was starting to darken around his cheek bone and his lip was split. There was blood on his white collar.

Dainiel wiped self consciouly at his mouth. "Run in with a not so friendly true-blood. I thought the council of Weres had decreed some sort of fragile truce between true-blood and virus-born. Looks like some people are still iving in the dark ages and haven't heard of telephone communication yet."

Anthony was about to pursue Daine's cryptic response when the latch in the bathroom door clicked. Both pairs of male eyes turned expectantly towards it.

[Maira]

Being confronted with the sight of both of her packmates when she exited the bathroom was a bit of a shock to Jezza. She was actually sorta surprised they were in the same room together and not at least glaring daggers at each other. She managed not to pause more than a moment before continuing into the room proper and depositing her evening's clothes on her suitcase.

When she turned around she saw that both men were watching her and she had the sudden urge to flee back into the bathroom. Instead she took a minute to look at both of them and realized that Daine was roughed up a bit and Anthony was looking concerned. Curious, she asked, "What happened Daine?" Whatever he'd been up to after leaving the club, it had involved somebody else's fists connecting with his face and that was rarely a good thing.

[Races The Night]

Dainiel snarled, retreating from them both on a mental level. "Nothing." He mumbled. "Just alleycats." Brusquely, he moved on. "We need to leave asap, make arrangements to either sleep elsewhere or find flights, suucubi, wolven and vamps aren't the only critters out looking for a goodtime tonight." Before they could question him further, he took out his cellphone and began making calls and arrangements.

"Pack your bags, puppies." He announced when he returned the phone to his pocket. "We're off to the other side of town."

***

The flight home and previous night were uneventful and the trio landed to find Mikhail and Christine waiting for them with happy smiles, a bubbly Abigail bouncing at Christine's side. Kneeling to be on her eye level, Dainiel produced yet another wolf plush to add to her global collection. Abby smiled and hugged him.

"You spoil her." Christine chastised teasingly. Dainiel shrugged and ruffled the child's hair affectionately.

"Anything happen while we were away?" He asked.

"Not much." Mikhail replied, cleaning his glasses absently. "Few territory disputes with our neighb ours but nothing talking couldn't sort out. Altogether quite uneventful without you around to be a burr in my backside." Replacing his spectacles, Mikhail's mouth cracked in a grin before he hugged the taller wolven, beating his back in a manly gesture. "Welcome home kids, you want a McDonalds on the way back?" The Alpha chuckled.

"Thanks but no thanks, I'm watching my figure." Anthony gibed, patting his stomach.

"So how was your trip Jezza?" Christine asked as they guided their charges back to the car.

[Maira]

Being ordered to get packed, and being called a puppy in the process, raised Jezza's hackles. Why, just once in his life, couldn't Daine not be so damn insulting?! She wanted to growl at the man and throw something at him. Instead, she contented herself with ordering him out of her room. "If you want me to pack, and expect me to leave my room so we can switch hotels, I have to get changed again. This means you need to leave. Go get yourself packed Daine and I'll come across when I'm ready."

That said, Jezza yanked the towel out of her still wet hair and pulled off her robe. Under the robe she had her pajamas on but she heard the boys making a hasty retreat from her room nevertheless. When she heard the door shut behind her, she turned, growled and launched her robe at the door. "Damn bloody, stubborn, pissy, mangy mongrel!" she muttered heatedly. Oh she wanted to pommel Daine!

*****

Jezza only had a chance for a brief meeting over breakfast with her sister Emily the next morning because Daine had booked early flights home for the trio. Again, Jezza had wanted to throw things at the older wolven but she had wisely refrained.

The flight home had been an interesting one. Jezza wasn't sure if Daine had booked the tickets the way he did on purpose or not but she had wound up seated between him and Anthony. This made it a little claustrophobic as both men were much larger than her, and more than a little evil. She had managed for most of the flight to stay awake but at one point she had fallen asleep and only woke when they landed again. Luckily for all involved, Jezza's head had been resting on neither man's shoulder but leaned up against her pillow she had wedged between her seat and Daine's.

Waiting for them at the airport were Mikhail, Christine and a bouncing bubbly Abigail. Just the sight of Abigail lifted a little bit of the black mood Jezza had been in since the night before. After Daine had presented the girl with a stuffed wolf, Jezza had knelt down and picked the girl up for a cuddle. With Abigail still in her arms, Jezza answered Christine's question simply, "I didn't get to see my sister as much as I wanted to."

She really didn't want to talk about everything else that had happened in the presence of men or Abigail so Jezza asked her Alpha female with her mind, *Can we talk later?*

[Races The Night]

Christine raised a quizzical eyebrow at the younger wolf. "Of course we can. By the sudden need for privacy about this, I'm assuming it has something to do with the boys? They didn't get into trouble or anything, did they?"

The ride home took longer than anticipated. Mikhail and Christine sat in the front of the people carrier, with Daine's huge frame and Anthony's slightly less but less intimidating male figure cramming into a space that should have beena dequate, but looked slightly claustrophobic with the two men in the back.

What should have been an easy 40 minutes took almost two hours to complete when a snag of traffic prevented the group moving off the central motorway connecting the northern regions of Britain. They sat beside the Angel of the North construct for several long, tedious minutes, Daine growing more and more moody as the journey progressed. Even Mikhail was losing his calm in the face of such a long line of cars.

Christine was itching to find out what was troubling Jezza and practically pounced on the girl as soon as they stepped over the threshold to Dainiel's home in Middlesbrough. She dragged the woman to one side while the men hauled baggage in.

"OK, 'fess up. What's troubling you? Was it not gettign to see your sister for long enough? We can arrange to have her flown over here if you would like?"

[Maira]

The ride home was long and Jezza could feel both Daine and Mikhail getting anxious and frustrated with the traffic. The tension in the car didn't help her mood any either and by the time they got back to Daine's house, Jezza was hopped out of the car and ran to the house, just to get some breathing room.

She used her set of keys and let herself into Daine's house and immediately went for the kitchen. None of the luggage would be being brought back there so she knew she would be safe for a while from either Daine or Anthony looking at her.

Just after reaching the kitchen, Jezza heard somebody behind her and turned to see that Christine had followed her. The Alpha's tone was gentle and concerned and Jezza nearly broke down in tears before she'd had a chance to even say anything. Not wanting to embarrass herself, Jezza turned from Christine and rummaged in the fridge for a soda that she knew would be in there.

Only after she'd taken a couple sips of the bubbly drink did Jezza turn back to Christine and answer, "Men suck. Whatever was in the club sucked. Lets just say Anthony and I finally started to enjoy each other dancing when Daine got protective or jealous, or whatever the hell he gets, and he shoved his way in between and for some completely random reason he kissed me."

Christine looked surprised but Jezza could also tell she was going to say something. To stop her, Jezza held up her hand and then continued, "Oh it gets better. I kissed him back! Apparently quite enthusiastically though my head is still fuzzy about the details. And when I did, he reacted back. I could tell he wanted to take it farther but instead he pushed me away and told me to talk to him later if I still felt the same then he stormed out. And Anthony told me to go away and find my sister. Then Emily had to leave unexpectedly to go visit with our other sister so I went back out to find Anthony and he was making out with, of all people, Becca from the Four Aces. Just how in the hell did she wind up in the same town I'd be visiting my sister in? Then that night Daine came back from his wanderings, looked like he'd been in a fight, and moved us to a different hotel and now we're home. That flight was the longest most stressful damn flight I've ever been on and... and.... " Her voice trailed off and she finally gave way to tears. Again, not wanting Christine to see, Jezza turned and set her soda on the counter then hurried toward the bathroom where she could hide and cry.

((ooc: feel free to have Christine stop her or follow her, she's just embarrassed and stressed and very confused))

[Races The Night]

"Wow." The woman breathed. "When you do the holiday from hell, you sure go to all length's dontcha?" She followed the hysterically Jezza into the bathroom, closing the door discretely behidn them. "So, you ended up kissing Dainiel? More importantly, he was kissing you?" The whole idea was a perplexing one to the alpha. "Interesting." Rubbing Jezza's back and offering her a tissue, Christine went on, "Aside from all that, how is your sister? It must have been very exciting for you."

"Men will be men, whatever we do, Jezz." She lifted the other girl up to face her. "Why don't I have a word with them? Or better yet, talk to them both, explain it, I'm sure they will understand - and if what you say is true, Anthony is one to talk! Cheer up, you're back home now."

A thought appeared in her mind. "Just how do you feel about them? I mean, we all know about you and Anthony, the man is besotted with you. But Dainiel? Honey, we all like a bit of bad boy every now and then, but that's just taking it a bit far!As his alpha, even I am advising you to stay well clear of Dainiel in that respect - the man has baggage!"

[Maira]

Jezza took the tissue when offered and was only slightly resentful at being followed into the bathroom. When Christine started rubbing her back, for some bazzarre reason, the action both calmed her and made her want to cry more. She fought the urge to cry more and answered Christine's question softly, "Emily nearly punch out Anthony because even after all this time we dressed almost identically for Halloween and apparently thought she was me or something. She got upset and tried telling him I was dead, that's when she nearly punched him, then I showed up and she spazzed and hugged me like I haven't been hugged in a long time. I missed her so much Christine, I didn't even realize..."

Her voice trailed off and Christine immediately picked up the conversation but with a totally different topic. One that if she didn't object to would likely cause way more problems for Jezza than she already had. So, wanting to head off any more chaos, Jezza firmly answered, "No, don't talk to them. They'll both see it as me being the 'pup' they both call me all the time. Somehow, I need to deal with this insanity on my own..."

The next set of questions tied Jezza's stomach in knots and all she could answer was, "I honestly don't know. If it were clear to me what my own heart wanted then I wouldn't be having these issues at all now would I?" The last was said with a sarcastic tone, and the look on her face was slightly grouchy.

The look got even darker when Christine basically told her to stay away from Daine and she answered softly, "Christine, we all have baggage. I've been living with him for nearly a year now already, if you think I don't know the man has baggage you're even more naive than everybody seems to think I am." Okay, so maybe that wasn't an appropriate way to talk to somebody who was trying to comfort and help her, let alone her Alpha, but Jezza was starting to feel cornered again and this time not by the men. That little bit of advice was much too similar of a tone and speech as her parents had given her all those years ago about her choice of friends after she'd been raped (unknown to them). It just got her hackles up and she couldn't help being defensive.

[Races The Night]

"I'm going to pretend that you haven't just stepped out of line of your rank, young Jezza." There was a subtle growled warning in Christine's voice as the she straightened in agitation. "You may be old enough to know what is best for yourself but you are by no means a fully fledged Wolven." Working with teenagers was difficult at the best of times and the alpha tried to remain calm in the face of such insurbordination. There were times when displays of power were needed to maintain rank, there were also times when diplomacy should be employed.

"Your heart clearly does not know where it wishes to lie - and at your age I wouldn't expect it to. We may all have some form of baggage, but that man, " She jabbed a finger at the closed door of the bathroom in Dainiel's general direction, "has more than just baggage - he has a full airport room of unclaimed luggage! He is not...right." Christine paused, trying to censor her wording. "Mikhail and I have long since suspected that Dainiel is not all he pretends to be. There are moments when even Mikhail doubts his own ability to keep Daine in line and in rank. There is a great darkness to Dainiel and he hasn't volunteered the reasoning behind that - which makes me think we may not want to know at all."

"Just," She sighed, knowing the advice she was about to impart, probably wouldn't sink in on attentitive ears, "be careful. If possible don't make any hasty movements in either man's direction, not after events of late, like you said. Dainiel only calls you a pup and a whelp because thats what he calls everyone except Mikhail - it is just his way and I wouldn't take offense to it. Now, let's get back out there and start getting you unpacked, then hopefully we can go get some food or something, you all must be starving and out of sync with yourselves after the journey." She watched the younger wolven for any signs of the head-strong teenager relenting - at least for the time being.

Christine raised an eyebrow. "We've all been young once - gods I never thought I'd have to say that for a good few year yet. But most of us have went through the change and aclimatised to our situations. It just takes a bit longer to find our places in our new surroundings."

[Maira]

By the time Christine was done talking about Daine's "baggage" Jezza was nearly bristling. She was the one that trained with Daine on a daily basis, she knew he had a dark side. Truth be told the few times she had glimpsed it, it had scared her shitless. That didn't matter though because she also knew him to have a softer side. One that he didn't show to anybody intentionally, not even Jezza.

After Christine had finished talking about Daine, and was basically just warning Jezza to be careful, her temper started to subside a bit and once it did she was more than a little embarrassed. What had she done?

Only once Christine was done talking altogether and was heading back out to the house-proper did Jezza finally say anything else. She reached out a hand to stop Christine from opening the bathroom door and said, "I'm sorry Christine. I didn't mean to get that way with you. Its just that before I came here I was talked down to so constantly, first by my own parents and then by Jake and the others... I just don't deal well with being told certain things, and who to like or have feelings for is deffinately one of them." It was a shitty ass apology but it was the best that Jezza's pride and Storm Runner would let her give.

[Races The Night]

Christine smiled sadly and patted her friend on the shoulder. "Unfortunately, that is the way of the wolf. It is the adults job to teach the pups the way of the hunt, how to howl for help and their duties to Pack and Blood. We do not do it intentionally, but understand that as Alpha, both me and Mikhail must enforce and re-enforce certain things into certain members' minds. It is our job or we would not be the Alpha pair here at Teesside Howl - and we definately would not have kept our Territory as it is. Who knows, someday you may have your own territory to defend - then you will know where I am coming from." She shrugged. "You might even take over Teesside Howl one day if you remain in the region." The friendly pat turned into a friendly jab. "And then you will know what it is like to have to teach young ones the Ways. We don't talk down to you intentionally. It is just our way. Mikhail is probably the least likely to do as such since he lectures for a living and is extremely patient."

"I'm hungry damnit! What are you womenfolk up to in there? This isn't a nightclud y'know!" Dainiel bellowed from in the living room. "We're going to the pub, now, with or without you if you are not out of there in the next thirty seconds!"

Christine raised an eyebrow, her chest puffing out. "Looks like someone else needs to be reminded of their rank... HAULD YE WEESHED YA MILK-SUPPING WHIMPERING EXCUSE FOR A MAN!" She yelled back, throuh the door.