Then we get terrified, like children waking in the dark, we don't know where we are.

[moralitypolice]

( Bonnie, bag in hand at her side, holds the door open this time. She sighs, looking wistfully off at Danny, sullen, in the backseat. )

I wish I could make it all better, like I could undo it all, or, go back and prevent it altogether. Too many of us have no parents. No living family.

( She sighs.

From Danny's seat if or when he looks back, Bonnie and Isaac continue their discussion. Scott texts Isaac, so he pulls his phone out, eyes down quickly.

A couple approaches from the south, arm in arm. The guy in glasses leans in whispering something that makes the girl laugh. As they separate to move around Bonnie, everything happens quickly. The brunette girl brandishes a stun gun landing a blow to Isaac's side. Out of the leather jacket, the man reveals what looks to be something dark colored, with a flat bottom. He drops it. From the car, he can see a spell attempted, Bonnie's lips moving but nothing happening. She tries struggling, but the woman whacks her on the back of the back sending her down. The man quickly pulls out a pair of iron handcuffs the woman waves away, not now, and as fast as it happens, a bright yellow taxi pulls up.

Three others, including one dressed as a taxi-driver throw Bonnie and Isaac into the trunk. When everyone is inside the car, the driver puts down a black device on the top of the cab quickly, puts on a pair of leather gloves, climbs inside the cab and speeds off.

Bonnie's bag, and the contents within including her phone lie on the sidewalk next to Isaac's dropped phone.

The driver in Danny's car starts the ignition, this is probably protocol. )

Comments

[polydeukes]

... Technically I don't think I've grown out of angry werewolf girls. I just picked a different one.

[She's not going to deny that Hope picked up some of those Klaus Mikaelson anger issues when provoked.]

But yeah. I think we're in a way better place.

[jockwitch]

( It happens when Landon isn't the muppet they remember and when Josie realizes she can't escape her life by going to Mystic Falls High, but Lizzie tried to let her sister have her own life. She did. )

Maybe not in the crosshairs of pond-crossing hunters. ( But, they aren't. ) What if he was just being nice to me.

[polydeukes]

Then he was just being nice to you, and he'll probably let you down gently. But at least you tried.

[Which is a step up from not trying.]

But for what it's worth? The way he looked at you, I don't think he was just being nice.

[jockwitch]

It was a split second. You saw something?

( Wait, really? )

[polydeukes]

It was more than just a split second.

[She takes her sister by the shoulder and repositions her so that she's looking in the mirror over Josie's shoulder. The angle provides her a view of Danny when he thinks she isn't looking, and Josie is right.

Every so often, he will glance over, eyeing Lizzie for a moment nervously, then looking away before he gets caught.]

[jockwitch]

( Oh. This is a thing. A coincidence, but maybe something more. It's weird that he's so enmeshed with her aunt, but, maybe that's not a bad thing. He's not a werewolf named Jed, or a hundred year old psychopath. She sucks in a breath, gathering her courage. )

We really do want what's best for each other.

[polydeukes]

Yeah, we do.

[Josie offers her a small smile.]

As long as it's what you want, I've got your back.

[jockwitch]

Well, I can change my mind at any time. That is the power of consent.

( She covers Josie's hand on one of her shoulders with her own, before looking back again. )

I'm going in.

( Steeling herself, she leaves Josie on that side of the room, and maybe because Hope is psychic or has her Tribrid ears (it's that), that Hope crosses back to her girlfriend as Lizzie approaches. )

So... what is the voice in your ear saying?

[undermyfeet]

[He startles when he hears her voice, lost a bit in his own thoughts.]

Isaac and Bonnie made contact. They're okay, but they're not coming back right away. Sending the hunters on a wild goose chase.

[jockwitch]

While we sit like ducks. As for as spirit animals go, we could be more inspired.

( But, that's her surface gristle she always has to brush off slowly. )

But, we - stay here? We're waiting, right?

[undermyfeet]

That's what we were told.

[But is it what he wants to do? Not really. Lizzie isn't wrong about his being angry. He wants them to pay for what happened to his parents, his sister. But he also knows he needs to be smarter about this, and not give them what they want.]

Going after Isaac and Bonnie isn't really an option.

[jockwitch]

So. We just - have time.

( Like that big funky clock. )

...What are the odds.

( Meeting but not knowing one another? )

[undermyfeet]

Yeah.

[One hand idly taps against the side of his leg, trying to lessen the nerves.]

World's full of crazy coincidences, yeah?

[jockwitch]

Less so in ours. My sister, her girlfriend, we are... not coincidences. Just results. Maybe there aren't any.

( Plus Malivore. But, is that... wait, is she saying her seeing him, meeting him isn't a coincidence? She doesn't want to come on too strong but here she is, running her mouth. )

[undermyfeet]

Maybe.

[He taps his fingers again before looking up at her.]

Look, about earlier ... I really wasn't tryin' to weird you out. I just didn't know you were a witch, and that made it a little harder to explain things.

[jockwitch]

I've been the witch at the football game, okay? I know the drill. The less said, the better. It's not fun flirting when the other team thinks you're a group of boarding school freaks.

( She grumbles, crossing her arms again, missing what she's implying now. )

[undermyfeet]

[His eyebrows go up a bit at that. Because one, oh she was definitely flirting with him. That's good.

Two, it at least gives him an idea.]

Maybe we can start over, more on the same page?

[jockwitch]

Yeah. It's not like we don't have the time. ( She straightens up. ) I'm Lizzie. Saltzman. Born witch, narrowly avoided the neuroses and cursed brain cells I was gifted upon my birth. Magically Gemini born to my mother who survived an attack on her wedding day. How does that page read?

( It's easier to lay it all out right in front of him. Give him every reason to run from her brain chemistry, from her and her sister's curse, from everything complicated about her life.

Josie would be kicking her. )

[undermyfeet]

[Well, if we're going to go for the worst bits of them right off the bat.]

Well, I'm Danny Brighton, and my whole family was murdered, so now I'm expected to take up this mantle that I was never really trained to carry, and I'm not really sure if I want it.

[He shrugs as he slides his hands in his pockets.]

But I'm also not sure I have a choice.

[jockwitch]

Josie and I, that's my sister, we have our own mantle. Destined and doomed.

( Somehow, this doesn't feel as uncomfortable as it should. )

You shouldn't do something you're not ready for, if you don't want to. It's one thing to try, it's another to be forced into it. Is - that's why Aunt Bonnie was taken?

[undermyfeet]

I don't know.

[And that he can admit honestly.]

I mean, I thought at first Isaac was the reason they were taken. He works with Allison Argent, one of her top lieutenants. I would have thought these hunters were trying to take him off the board for a while.

[But it was Bonnie they were after. To try and keep him from reaching his full potential.]

Apparently there's this potential she's supposed to confirm on the Solstice. But ... I never knew anything about it. I wasn't the heir, so I didn't get all the one on one training.

[jockwitch]

Allison Argent was at our graduation. It really is a small world after all.

( Increasingly. )

She's here for the solstice? She never mentioned anything, didn't even mention you needed to be with her, just that you were. It was like a vacation or something. Why wouldn't she tell you she was a big part of you taking the next step? Or us?

[undermyfeet]

From what she said on the call, I don't think she knew either.

[Real big mystery, honestly, but it's something he's going to have to discuss with Bonnie in person.]

Or find another hunter to interrogate. Someone further up the food chain.

[jockwitch]

We let those two go, but, we do have eyes on the outside, right? Shouldn't be hard for him to Big Brother those two, especially when they don't remember who we are.

( Bad ideas are only bad ideas if they don't end the way you want them to, she reminds herself. )

[undermyfeet]

[That ... is a good point. But that does mean asking the adults for help.

At the same time, the adult can probably still hear them. He taps his earbud.]

Hey, William. Do you think you might be able to find those hunters we let go?