everyonelives | the challenge, bring order to the whole

Why do neither of you answer your fucking phones.

[It's not an actual question. She intends to issue an order soon after, but before she can, there's a burst of gun fire, followed by bullets hitting a wooden door.]

( Between the late hour and the incessant ringing, his (3) leaves recognition to be desired. It's a voice and it's a fucking annoyed voice, that much he knows. The brain fog is strong in this tired witch. Gunfire, that doesn't need any placement in memory. It's gunfire.

Ezra gives his husband a look, hits the speaker button and gunfire erupts on the line. )

Are you looking for me or for David?

What I'm looking for is a goddamn door!

[Her voice explodes from the speakers and David sits up ramrod straight. He doesn't have the luxury of forgetting that voice, no matter how much he sometimes may want to.

"Jaq?"]

There you are. Learn to answer the --

[She's interrupted by another burst of gunfire.]

-- fuck!

Jaqueline?

( It's been almost ten years since he's even heard that name and when David says it, it becomes clearer. )

Where are you? ( He snaps once, twice, because at one time his husband did care. ) Door, door.

My office.

["Which used to be your dad's office, so ..." David drums his fingers quickly as he thinks about potential entrances. "You still have the bookcase installed."

There's a beat of silence and then:]

Yeah. Yeah, come through the bookcase.

["Be right there." And with that he is up to his feet, and heading towards the door to their bedroom. He yanks it open and on the other side is a minimalist looking office, with a brunette woman on the other side of the desk. Blood is dripping down one shoulder and she looks pissed.

The door breaks down and Jaqueline rises from behind the desk, twisting her hand in their direction.]

Incendia.

[The hunters burst into flame and she darts towards David, throwing herself past the threshold as he slams the door behind her.]

( Ezra is up then, grabbing pajama bottoms and shirts, tossing on set, one by one, to the bed for his husband considering their impending company. As he steps into his own, David opens the bedroom and he catches the end of the melee as Jacqueline makes contact with their bed.

Eyeing the door, still on guard, he knows it's going to lead to their hallway, but still he waits. )

Hunters?

Yeah.

[She glances down at her shoulder and winces at the blood.]

They came out of nowhere. I don't even know how they fucking found me.

( Seeing the blood, Ezra ducks into their bathroom and retrieves supplies to clean the wound. )

Take off your shirt.

( First, he can clean her up, disinfect and patch it. )

Last I checked, you're not searchable. Doesn't your family usually maintain spells that prevent this from happening?

( Did the spell go down? )

[She does as she's told, pulling off her top and trying to get a better look at the gouge the bullet left in her arm as it grazed her.]

We do. But apparently someone managed to get around them.

[And if she didn't already know how, she would very much like to find out.]

You'll live.

( The antiseptic stings, but he patches over it. )

Did they say anything about being Monroe's leftovers?

Who's Monroe?

[So no. They didn't say anything about that. "Big name hunter. Managed to rally an army and tried to hit big supernatural holdings." David watches Jaqueline carefully as Ezra works on her arm. "She recently died."

Dryly:]

What a shame. I'll be sure to send my respects.

( A (15) to sense her motive in not knowing Monroe, for the record, but he sighs, handing her shirt back to her )

Her dying could've rustled up the purists, the ones who see her as the martyr she isn't. But, they found you - which, with the hunters we've encountered? Is not possible. They're amateurs at best.

[Well, with that 5, he can sense something not quite right. She's familiar with the name, but given how common "Monroe" is, who knows? Or at least that's what she's hoping.]

Maybe she was saving the pros for round two.

( There are Monroe's everywhere, it's true, and she's in danger, but he won't forget it. Monroe was too prevalent to them all for this to be unrelated. Jaq's recognition could be pissing her off... or being the witch who helped her... )

What, if my nimrods can't get the job done, I'll send in real help?

( Weirdly enough, not illogical. )

You didn't do something?

What was I supposed to do? There were like ten of them against just me, and opened fire as soon as they saw me.

[She may be powerful, but even she has her limits.]

I was outnumbered, so I called for help.

I mean to them. You. Your family. If they didn't declare in the name of Monroe -- I'm just saying, hunters are everywhere. And they sound more tactical. Less --

( Shoddy. )

Oh, god no.

[They would rather die.]

I don't know how we wound up on their radar. Usually we do a pretty good job of flying under it. But you're not wrong about them being very efficient.

So, they leveled up.

( He looks to his husband. )

What do you think?

I think that this is bad. If they have enough information to out Colony witches, then ... Monroe's little black book of supernaturals went deeper than we thought.

[He rubs his chin, before glancing at his watch.]

Elena at the hospital tonight?

Yeah. She's got the overnight. You don't think --

( And at the same time as Dean calls Elena, Ezra gets the brighter idea to grab his phone and call the hospital. )

Yeah, Lorraine. It's Dr. Katz. Yeah. Can you page Elena Gilbert for me? It's about one of her patients. Yeah. Thanks.

[David is about to say something else, when there's a knock on the door.]

That's probably not good, is it?

["Don't answer it. Just get us out of here." Jaqueline moves to the bedroom door, waiting for David to do his thing. Perception checks please.]

Elena didn't answer, either.

( He shoots her a 911 text and nods to his husband. He gets a (13) for perception. )

[It feels almost like a shiver. It glances over Ezra's skin, like a chill up his spine. He doesn't know where or why, however, and David and Jaqueline don't seem to notice either.

But when David tries to open a door, using the bedroom door again, all he sees is the hallway when he opens it.]

... That's not good.

( Ezra shakes out his shoulder, not liking this sensation before he realizes what has just happened. )

Something's blocking your magic. And - I'd guess - ours.

( Thinking quickly, he moves to the safe in their closet, spinning the lock before opening it. Taking one of their totes, he fills it with cash, their passports and takes out not one, but two guns they have registered (magic can't be the only thing you're proficient in, in the Colony) and brings everything out, handing his husband one gun. )

I don't have a third.

( But, he throws his gun down on the tote before moving to above the opposite wall to their crossed antique swords and carefully taking one down, offering it to Jacqueline. )

Best I got.

( He also knows someone is at the front door, he gets an (11) to see if there's anyone outside of their bedroom window. )

[She reaches for the sword and swishes it around to check the weight. "It'll do."

Ezra glances down and he doesn't see any people. But he does make out a thick line of some kind of dark dust that seems to be wrapped completely around the house, cutting off the means of escape somehow.

David takes the gun and joins him at the window.]

Looks like mountain ash.

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