Fandom Into the fire (1x1 MzHyde/Gallifrog)

[_gallifrog_]

John had genuinely thought that they couldn't learn anything more horrific from Rinaa's timeline than they already had. But he was wrong, so completely wrong. He could feel the look of horror spreading over his face, and could see similar horror being mirrored in everybody else's face, except Chas (it looked to him like the cabbie was faking), but that really wasn't really important at this moment in time. It wasn't the use of iron that surprised him, this was Jay they were talking about- the woman who carried an array of weapons with her at pretty much all times. It was the idea that things had become so twisted and warped, that something had happened to make the daughter he loved and the woman he.... still had to figure out into the kind of cold blooded killers who would try to burn a child alive. The fact that it was future him who figured out the source, was a whole level of unimaginable mental and physical pain. There was no way to kid yourself when you found out that either your partner, your kid, or worse, both, were murderers. It was like a punch to the gut and the balls just hearing about this happening an alternate timeline, he couldn't imagine what it was like to see it all playing out.

Looking at Fia now, it was clear that this knowledge was eating her alive, that knowing such a thing was possible of her. It wasn't the kind of knowledge anybody should have in John's opinion, especially not a teenager. So he did the only thing he could, pulled Fia into a tight hug, hoping it would make her feel even the tiniest bit better. Cliff meanwhile went after Kay, Fia was in good hands, and even if anybody else had attempted to go after Kay, she would have insisted she go, on the ground that Kay was pregnant and if anything started to go wrong, then she'd already be there to help. It didn't surprise her that Kay was throwing up, with everything they'd found out and the heightened emotional state and hormone levels brought on by pregnancy it was almost a normal reaction to something like this. She stayed by Kay's side, pulling the other woman's hair back from her face, and rubbing a hand between her shoulder blades, something that had helped her friends back in their college days when somebody would get back in beyond drunk and the nearest med student was called to make sure they weren't dying from alcohol poisoning.

"She shouldn't have said that, she had NO right." Rinaa was the only one in the apartment who wasn't disgusted or overcome with shock. She was angry, any empath in the room would have been floored by the waves of anger coming off the teenager. But in a way the anger was a front, Rinaa didn't want to talk about what had happened to her her that day (she couldn't talk about it without breaking down into tears, she'd learned to live with what happened, but she'd never truly dealt with the problem, just suppressed it and faked being okay until she could kid most people that she was okay). Some irrational part of her was hoping that by being angry there wouldn't be any room for being sad.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia briefly went wide eyed when John pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly before closing her eyes and gripping onto him just as tightly and burying her head into his shoulder. She had to use so much willpower to not just break down and cry over it as she felt in some part of her deep deep down that it wasn't her place to cry over it. Despite the fact that as a different Fia to Rinaa's version, she did have a right to cry out of fear of becoming something she was always brought up to be nothing like. Sure, she went through a phase of being ridiculously angry at her mother, being nothing but a daddy's girl, and she could be ruthless when it came her enemies, but to become so twisted to become an utter monster to her own family was something completely unfathomable to her. The very idea terrified her and it had plagued her mind constantly even when she was putting so much effort to bond with Rinaa and make good with her.

She didn't even look at Rinaa when she commented with anger that her true mother would say something to her without Rinaa's permission. "she spat it out to test if I was your Fia, to get a reaction out of me..." she tried to give that Jay some kind of defence even if she was close to dying at her hands. "until you came back, she still didn't believe I wasn't her" she added, refusing to let go of her dad, her grip not lessening in the slightest but still not being so tight that she could cause John any pain. She did feel the faintest amount of relief for sharing it even if she made by that Jay to never speak of it, which she broke that vow by admitting it to everyone in the room.

Kay didn't even pay any attention to who was following her, even if she did hear the footsteps and only truly took notice when she felt Cliff's hands move her hair and rub her back between her shoulder blades. The sickness didn't last too long luckily, so she could finally glance at Cliff, "thank you..." she mumbled. She felt like an utter fool for throwing up at the news but she knew it was purely it had to be a normal reaction with her current state. It didn't help stop the embarrassment from rearing it's ugly head however. "I... I can't believe my alternate self could be such a monster..." she said shakily, understanding why that other Jay would have reacted the way she did, thinking of it in the mind of a mother. Yet there was that part of her that also felt sick to her stomach that in one timeline she could have lost her teenager, and the version of her teenager that didn't even belong to that specific timeline.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John let Fia cling to him, like some kind of warm limpet. John wasn't a tactile person, stemming (like many other things) from the lack of loving gestures in his childhood. Everything he'd learned about the right was of parenting was either from his own experiences with his niece, his god-daughter, Elliott and Noah. (Though it was Elliott mostly). Hugging Elliott tight had always helped during nightmares and as Kay had seen that one night, still helped him as an adult, so he figured it would help in this situation. Rinaa hadn't denied anything Fia said, which was a sure indication that it was all the truth. John hadn't seen the full extent of Rinaa's scars, Fia and Moya were the only ones who'd seen her with a shirt off, even on Cliff's homeworld she'd kept the a t-shirt on, always choosing one that was slightly baggy so the bagginess of the fabric would disguise the melted ruin of her back. he only knew what Cliff had seen at dinner that one night, that Rinaa had skin grafts on the back of her neck.

"That sounds like Jay alright" Rinaa nodded, wanting to get up and pace the room like some kind of caged animal, but resisted the urge. "I should probably be apologising on her behalf, or saying she didn't mean it, but there's little point. It's a solid method for getting a real answer, I've only ever seen the other one have a conscience once when it came to something related to me and even then it was pretty much an insult in disguise." Rinaa shrugged her shoulders, praying that nobody would want to actually see the scars. She couldn't cope with that, she'd explained about them to Moya before they went to Cliff's homeworld, asking her not to make any comments on them, just to pretend they weren't there as she was beyond insecure about them. And her girlfriend, being the person she was (Rinaa still wasn't sure what she'd one to deserve somebody as amazing as her) had done just that. "Jay's always been a cynic anyway, she questions everything, trying to find every angle. All the shit that happens in my timeline- her private life, her work life, the family life, her past life... well that only made it worse in a way."

Cliff gave a shrug of 'don't mention it' with a sort of half smile, if it had been under any other circumstances she would have made some quip of how at least it wasn't as bad as one time in her student days when somebody had both raging diarrhoea and was vomiting their guts up after somebody spiked their drink. But now was very much not the time for such quips, so she kept her mouth shut and listened. She could see that Kay was embarrassed by the whole 'getting physically sick upon hearing the news', and Cliff really couldn't blame her. She was still trying to wrap her head around how it could have all gone so wrong. "You're not the only one..." she paused, and it was clear on her face she was trying to find the right words in English, no matter how fluently she spoke it, it was still her third language and like anybody who spoke many languages sometimes she just went and could only think in Attili or her native tongue "we're all thrown by it. The key word is alternate though. That.. person, if I can even call them that, is only one tiny option out of myriads. the chances of you becoming them is almost non existent really. There's no point in beating yourself up over it, won't change a thing and will just make everybody feel worse in the end."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia knew this John was pretty useless when it came being tactile with people, unless it was with someone like Elliott when it was really needed, but she also could tell he was getting better at it with her and it did always help to be held by her dad, even if it wasn't her timeline's version of him, it was still him in her eyes. She always hoped there was some part of what she experienced that could be corrected by Rinaa, but she knew deep down Rinaa couldn't deny or correct her on it. She like everyone, knew how dangerous Jay could be when in full assassin mode. She wasn't surprised to hear the other Fia only remotely had a moment of conscience once toward Rinaa, even if it was a back handed way of being a bitch and bully still. "not entirely surprising to be honest" she just said back, her voice being just slightly louder than a mumble.

Kay nodded when Cliff said they were all feeling the same shock at the news. Hearing the first part of what Rinaa said was shocking enough, but to hear what Fia was told in Rinaa's timeline was just too much. She was terrified it would taint everyone's views about her and Fia, and she was even more terrified that it would make John think of her differently, and be forever cautious she'd turn on them like her alternate self. She listened to what Cliff said, letting her take the time to find the right words in English as she spoke before nodding with a deep sigh. "I know... Its just... I don't wanna become worse than even my father was. I don't wanna become that monster that Rinaa mostly knows me and Fia as. If what she knows becomes the reality then I won't simply lose most of my family I found, but I'm damming our kid to Hell and ruining every chance of my kind coming back." she told Cliff, whilst leaving out the 'I can't do that to John either... I love him too much to do that to him'.

 

[_gallifrog_]

When Rinaa mentioned Jay Elliott had to refrain himself from letting out a sigh of relief that Jay hadn't been around to hear any of this. However bad Kay and Fia were taking it, Jay would have taken it worse, and in the other direction of the emotional spectrum. Jay had inferred that the event that gave Rinaa her fear of fire was traumatic, but to hear this would have sent the assassin off the deep end. To hear that future Jay had almost as shit a time as Rinaa made his heart clench. Not only would Jay have been going through similar bullying and abuse, she would have been powerless to stop it. He couldn't imagine what it had been like for Jay to find out that it had been Kay or Fia who attempted to kill her daughter, what kind of rage and spiral it had sent her in to as she began to fully see the damage that had been done to her kid. No wonder the teenager had flipped at the sight of Kay's body engulfed in flames on the spaceship, if he knew anything about traumatic nightmares, then he suspected such a figure would be fairly prominent in Rinaa's.

Rinaa was clearly far from alright, she didn't want anybody to know about this particular aspect of her life, she didn't want to talk about it and she certainly didn't want to go through another period where people looked at her with pity and barely disguised horror. They were all going to act differently after knowing this, and she'd rather they thought of her as cold and quite a bitch than a victim of horrific trauma. If somebody even attempted to touch her, let alone console her, in that moment she'd shrug them violently off. Elliott sensed this and as much as he wanted to do for Rinaa what John was doing for Fia, he didn't want to make things more awkward than they already were. So he stayed quiet and watched while Rinaa continued to rake her hands through her hair, forcing it to stand on end.

Cliff had to bite back a remark on how technically alternate Fia was damning herself to Hell all by herself. There was no need to be pedantic on details at a time like this, it was hardly going to help matters. It could potentially just make things worse with Kay blaming herself for not being a good parent in the future, for encouraging her kid down the path or darkness instead of dragging her away from it like a good parent should. "Yeah I get that." Cliff's voice was soothing, having found from experience that adopting a calmer, softer tone always helped in situations like these. "None of us want to become our alternate selves or want you guys to become your alternate selves. But now that we all know this, know the effects it can have and the lives it would ruin, no matter how hard a pill it is to swallow, forewarned is forearmed. Already things are going different to that timeline, and surely given what we now know, we'll actually be able to stop it happening, to react differently to things and prevent everything going to shit."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay knew deep down in the rational part of her mind that it was alternate Fia's doing, but as a parent she knew her alternate self was partially to blame for the behaviour by seemingly encouraging it and not stopping it. She was a complete and utter monster for acting the way she did and for all they knew it was her alternate self that tried to kill a teenager. No one could say for sure who it was and if Rinaa did know, there was no way she was going to say which one of them it was. She also knew Jay would take it even harder and after they hadn't long managed to really get her to start opening up around them and get along properly, she didn't want that to be shattered into a million pieces. She listened to what Cliff had to say and nodded, knowing she was right. ".... You're right. I just don't want any of you... Especially John to look at us differently thinking I and Fia could turn that drastically. I know it's selfish to say, but.." she trailed off before telling Cliff she loved John.

Fia remained curled up in John's arms, finding relief and reassurance in it that the news didn't make him see her differently, and if Kay could see it, it would have given her that same reassurance. Fia knew just as well as Elliott did just how badly Jay would have taken the news and part of her wished she could be able to keep her mouth shut when John gave her the look of 'I'm not letting this drop so you better just spit it out kiddo'. "I'm sorry I told everyone Rii" she said truthfully from the safety of her father's grip, having a feeling Rinaa would know there would have been no way she could have avoided telling them all with the way the topic went. The only way she could have done was if she just stayed in the makeshift bedroom, something she now wishes she did.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Neither Rinaa nor Jay knew who it was that had tried to kill Rinaa. It wasn't for lack of searing, that timeline's John had pulled in favours from all over the place and the building had been scoured for any signs of what could have gone wrong. Aisha had been called in bringing as much of the London Met with her as she could, Nat and Noah had come down from the north to add their PI skills to the mix, Bobo (or Detective Chimp as he was also known) had been the second magic correspondent outside of John and they'd even gone so far as to get Jim Corrigan over from the States to see if his Spectre expertise could turn up something. Jay had spent almost all her time in the hospital, though she was far from idle, pretty much running the operation from her daughter's bedside. But they'd turned up nothing and eventually they'd had no choice but to move on and accept that they might never know.

Now that Kay was no longer vomiting, Cliff let go of the other woman's hair and positioned herself in a more comfortable sitting position on the edge of the bathtub, an almost identical position to the one she'd taken that fateful morning where Kay's morning sickness had made itself known for the first time. Only this time she was wearing her hearing aids and knew the cause of the vomiting. "I don't think it's particularly selfish to think that, I don't think any of us would look at you differently after all of this, even John. Not unless either of you DO something that would remind us of those alternate bitches and they way they act, which I honestly doubt is gonna ever happen. Besides, I'd be more worried about how everyone's gonna act around Rinaa from now on and around Jay when she gets back. Best guess is that neither of them want Rinaa to be treated like a victim because of this."

Rinaa shrugged from her position in the chair, she could hear the genuine sorrow, regret and anguish in the other girl's voice and knew that this Fia (unlike the two-tongued snake that was the Fia in her timeline) genuinely meant what she was saying. John hadn't left her with any choice but to say what she knew, so she understood that Fia had no choice, the only small mercy was that it had completely slipped Fia's mind to ask what it was the others had actually learned. "Would've come out eventually, it always does." Rinaa replied, which was her way of saying 'you're forgiven, I'm not gonna hold it against you'. Her words were true, it really only would have been a matter of time before one of more of them heard her either screaming the apartment down due to nightmares or unsuccessfully trying to muffle the heaving sobs and rising sickness that accompanied such nightmares. "Only thing I can say is that at least it wasn't Sykes, I think I'd have actually DIED of embarrassment had that happened." John could hear it in Rinaa's tone and the dark chuckle she gave at her own joke that this extreme piece of gallows humour was a self defence mechanism, a way of not letting her true emotions on the matter out.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay remained on the floor but pressed her back against the bath next to Cliff as she listened the other woman reply and give her reassurance that she wasn't actually being as selfish as she thought she was. It helped her to hear that Cliff didn't think that anyone especially John would look at her differently, making her nod in acknowledgement. "I think you're right, none of us could possibly know how to be around her, and now I think back on it, it makes it all the more incredible that Fia and Rinaa are getting along" she replied, running her hands through her hair, brushing it back and behind her ears. "and I feel for Fia for having known this detail and keeping it to herself for who knows how long before telling us." she added. "I'm so terrified of being a bad mother and letting Fia down, on top of everything else, and I guess hearing that our alternate selves are so callous is just bringing that fear more and more to the surface." she explained.

Fia felt some kind of relief that Rinaa accepted her apology and she accepted that what Fia said was infact genuine and heartfelt. For a girl who could be ruthless when it mattered, Fia was a kind and loving old soul deep down, almost to th epoint she could be described as sensitive when it came to her family. She listened as Rinaa continued on by saying it was a small relief that it wasn't Sykes that dropped the bombshell information, the tiniest smirk appearing on her lips in response to Rinaa's words, knowing she was trying to use dark morbid humour to hide her real feelings. "I guess so..."she replied, readjusting her face in John's shoulder ever so slightly so she wasn't so squished and could see everyone in the room better, noting that neither Kay or Cliff were back yet. A small yawn escaped Fia but she refused to leave her dad's grip, a notion that she hadn't done since she was a small child when she got so upset over something like a generic bad dream and refused to leave her dad's side until she had fallen asleep.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cliff had to agree, it was impressive that even knowing what she did not only was Fia able to look the other teenager in the eyes, but also form some kind of friendship with her, however tenuous it was. "Agreed, there is not only hope, but PROOF that those two can and will get along. Even with both holding secrets that are eating them alive, I doubt that the reason Rinaa has such an intense fear of fire is the only secret that's being kept from us." Cliff had sensed from the very beginning that both teenagers were hiding things from everybody, but her instincts and knowledge of their backgrounds and timelines said to her that Rinaa was hiding was significantly more. There had been a few moments where Cliff had looked into Rinaa's eyes and seen glimpses of something more, something hidden lurking below the surface of Rinaa's gaze. Though what it was she hadn't the slightest clue. "The prank earlier ended up being more than just teenage revenge, it seemed to be some kind of bonding." Cliff could understand where all of Kay's fears were coming from and could somewhat sympathise with the other woman, although she wasn't a parent herself, the age gap between her and her siblings met that when it came to Matteo and Nat she'd played a pseudo parent role. "I'm not surprised, I'd definitely be going through the same thing if I was in your shoes. But all of them out there" she pointed a finger at the wall behind her, which was the one closest to the living room "they all believe, like I do, that you won't turn into one of the alternate bitches, that you'll never even come close to being like that, you'll do the exact opposite and be an amazing parent and do right by both teenagers."

There was a smattering of half smirks and uncertain looks at Rinaa's gallows humour, nobody was quite sure if it was alright to laugh at such a thing. The little that Rinaa had divulged of Sykes' history and the small portions of knowledge they could eke from redacted, high classified documents told them that the wolf had been been brutally and unrelentingly tortured in the name of 'scientific research'. Rinaa merely rolled her eyes. "It's fine to laugh at my incredibly morbid sense of humour, y'know, I'm not gonna get all offended and defensive about it." She told them, in a tone that on anybody else but a teenager would have sounded like one a parent would use when explaining social etiquette to their kids. The unspoken part of Rinaa's sentence was 'it's better than the alternative of bawling our eyes out about it'. "And Sykes is off brooding now that all the drama is over." Elliott raised an eyebrow at that remark. So you can, what, sense what she's doing and thinking?" "Sort of yeah, usen't to be able to, but now I can. Think of it like two people in the same car, one driving, the other in the backseat. The driver is aware of themselves at all times, and has a pretty good knowledge of what the other is doing. Or at least that's ow I think of it, I know FUCK ALL about psychology." By now the hugging had gone on long enough for John to start to feel awkward about it, so he sort of half let go of Fia as he sat back down on the couch.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay listened and nodded to what off was saying, she was right after all. They had seen for themselves that the two teenagers could get along with each other, and bond. Fia just seemed to have this knack of making people like her and it seemed that Rinaa was no different. Sure there was a long way to go, but the start of a friendship was there between the two of them, of that there was no doubt. The mention of the prank made Kay smirk ever so slightly, remembering back that it was Rinaa who managed to bring Fia the supplies, and willingly. When Cliff continued to talk with her, she continued to listen, feeling glad that someone in their group could understand where she was coming from and still able to reassure her that she would be okay with her rapidly changing lifestyle. She even looked up when Cliff pointed to the wall behind her toward the living room, and smiled ever so slightly. Nodding, she look back at her knees with a sigh. "thank you Cliff... Guess I should go back to everyone" she commented finally, slowly and awkwardly standing up, using the edge of the bath as a crutch to push herself up.

Fia was like everyone else, unsure if she could or should laugh at Rinaa's morbid humour which was why she resorted to the little smirk. So when Rinaa said it was okay to laugh at her sense of humour, she just nodded feeling slightly surprised at the comment in some ways and not in others. The remark about Sykes being off somewhere in her mind made her raise an eyebrow out of curiosity, wondering how she could know such a thing or even how that works and seemed Elliott was thinking the same thing as he asked outright the very question on her mind. Listening to the answer, she sensed John getting the awkward feeling of hugging her for so long and it reminded her that he wasn't the version of himself that was her father. So she reluctantly let go so he could sit down on the couch, whilst she remained standing. She didn't know whether to go back to bed or stay up with everyone else, feeling torn by both options.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"What else is the extended family and friend group for?" Cliff shrugged rhetorically with a genuine smile. She was glad that her words could help Kay in some way or another, no matter how small it was. "And besides, I'd like to think you'd do the same thing if I was in a similar position" she added, pulling her hair lose from it's tie, shaking it out as she did so. At work, she tied her hair back into a short stubby ponytail, usually she'd have taken it down upon getting home, but between the files, the prank and the new information about Rinaa's timeline she hadn't the chance to do so. After Kay got up, Cliff rose from her perch on the edge of the bathtub. "Well as lovely as this bathroom is, I wouldn't recommend sleeping here" Cliff replied with a cheeky grin "did it once, and like Rinaa ended up with neck pains for the next day."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I know fuck all about it all too." Elliott replied with a smile. Despite his MindWalking skills, he'd never taken any interest in psychology. It wasn't for lack of trying, he had tried to compare what he experience in his his head and in others with conventional psychology, but it just didn't match up and let him confused, on edge and frustrated. But he had to admit he was interested in what exactly the deal with Sykes was. She was a whole other consciousness and had access to all of Rinaa's memories, just as Rinaa had access to all of hers. Rinaa's description made it a hell of a lot clearer. "Kinda does actually" Rinaa replied with a flicker of a smile "at least I'm not the only one whose confused by it all." "So if I was to go into your mind...?" Elliott left the question unfinished, trusting that Rinaa would know what he meant. "There'd be the two of us there, now that's she's as strong as she is, she'll have a mind form there, regardless of who is ACTUALLY in charge of the body. Though I think the Mindscape would be somewhere important to me as opposed to one of hers, probably my student flat or somewhere like that."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay smiled at Cliff's comment about the extended family and friend group. The very words yet again reminding Kay that yes, these people were her friends and her family. People she found on her own when life was getting hopeless and she was starting to think about giving up all together before John found her with the demons and saved her ass. At Cliff's next comment she looked at her and nodded, "of course I would. There's no doubt about that" she told her back, seeing her untie her hair. "and yeah, sleeping in baths is not something I'd recommend either" she replied slightly amused, deciding to leave the bathroom, "think I'm going to call it a night, if the others ask, tell them please?" she requested of Cliff.

Fia just looked between Rinaa and Elliott as they spoke about the fact neither knew anything about psychology and what it would be like if he mind walked inside of Rinaa's head. She couldn't help but wonder how her mother was either, as she seemed to be gone for quite some time. She knew she was in safe hands with Cliff, but Fia being Fia couldn't help but be concerned anyway. It's just how she was, after all in her eyes it was what she said which tipped Kay over to needing to be sick in the first place. Because of this, she decided she would stay up until she knew how her mum was, and only then would she decide to go to bed.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Elliott gave a slow nod in understanding as Rinaa explained. He had no particular desire to talk to Sykes, it had been bad enough the one time he did speak with the wolf. But he wanted to be forewarned if Rinaa ever did decide to let him into her head (something he didn't think would happen, given how secretive she was and how easily he could accidentally stumble across something he wasn't supposed to), or if she ever agreed to be part of a MindWalk again. "Makes sense, though I can't say I've ever heard of anything like it before." John commented, having been listening to the conversation between his son and sort of granddaughter. "That's just one of many anomalies associated with me I guess, maybe you have to be a chimera to make it work, who knows? Biology..... not really my area, give me physics any day. I had to bust my ass studying for the mandatory biology modules and even with help i just about scraped through."

"Of course." Cliff nodded when Kay declared she was going to attempt to sleep. Cliff couldn't blame her, they'd all been thinking of going to sleep before the airhorn incident, and as a doctor she knew all too well what happened when somebody didn't get enough sleep. And sleeping often helped digest tough situations (or at least it had helped her in the past). "I should be doing the same anyway, practicing what I preach and all that." She gave another shrug and smile before saying "good night" and heading back to join the others. Heads turned at the sound of her footsteps, some people she could tell from the expressions were expecting it to be Kay and not her. Before any of the others could even open their mouths to ask a question Cliff was giving an explanation. "Before you ask she's feeling better, I wouldn't say fine, don't think any of us are feeling 'fine' right now. But given everything, she's much better and has gone off to sleep. Which is what I'd be recommending for anybody her with a job" she gave a look at her wife, who was the only one that statement was applicable to "any more airhorns and bombshells can wait until tomorrow."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay nodded her thanks to Cliff and started to walk back with her before turning and going into the bedroom she was using with John. Walking inside, she was glad the airhorn had been removed earlier as it was the last thing she needed right now, and wasted no time changing out of her clothes and getting into bed. It felt weird going to bed without John, but for once she didn't mind too much. The earlier vomiting and the shock of the news did give her a muzzy head that she knew just a decent sleep would sort out, so the moment her body laid down, a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she laid on her back, pulled the duvet up and closed her eyes. It only took her a few minutes before she was completely out for the count and sleeping.


With the sound of footsteps, Fia turned her head in the hopes she was going to see her mother, and judging by how everyone else looked up they thought the same thing as her, and got curious when it was only Cliff that reemerged. She went to open her mouth to ask about Kay but Cliff instantly stopped her in her tracks and explained where Kay was, making Fia sigh with relief that she was in fact was okay. The little airhorn remark did make Fia smirk ever so slightly, but the overall information that she wanted to hear was about Kay. "good to hear she's okay... I'm gonna go back to bed myself actually, I'm shattered" she replied, before letting herself yawn.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John gave a nod at Cliff's words on how Kay was, trusting that the doctor knew what she was talking about. "That's good" was all Rinaa said on the matter, but for somebody who couldn't even acknowledge Kay's existance up until a few weeks ago, it was a sign of how much had changed that she had actually been worried about the woman. Cliff and Cal said their good nights before heading up to the mezzanine floor. After Fia left, John, Chas and Elliott began a game of poker while Rinaa threw herself back into her coursework, switching between working on the laptop, taking notes from her textbook, conferring from her own notes she'd made in class. While she worked she listened to some soundtrack, though at a quiet volume so she wouldn't get too distracted by it.

Chas tapped out first, after yawning for about ten minutes straight (though his playing had been deteriorating for quite a while beforehand). John, Elliott and Rinaa all retreated to the roof to give the cabbie some peace and quiet. After pulling the tarp off the deck chairs that lived on the roof, they resumed the game of poker, with Rinaa picking up Chas' hand. She was a skilled player and as neither had played with her before, she had the upper hand as they had no clue what her facial tics were. At what point it devolved from poker to an in-depth discussion on music none of them were exactly sure. But by the time morning rolled around the two guitars had made their way onto the roof and all three were singing and playing without a care in the world. Rinaa had been reluctant to sing at first, but as she relaxed she began ad-libbing lyrics, lyrics that reduced them all to stitches of laughter.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay's sleep was plagued with dreams and thoughts of what was spoken about earlier before she went to bed. She hated seeing what her mind was concocting from the little they knew and she was restless, despite being in a deep sleep. She was unaware if John ever came to bed or not, but at some point her sleeping form had managed to grab ahold of the pillow John had been using and was hugging it tightly. Fia took a bit longer to get to sleep after she left everyone else to do what they originally planned to do for the evening, but she did get to sleep nonetheless and slept deeply. She slept better than Kay did but it was still haunted in some ways, of things from her timeline that were clashing with what she knew of Rinaa's timeline, both of them weaving together to form some glitching imagery in her dreams.

By the time morning came, Fia woke up first, yawning and stretching her arms and legs until she felt certain joints make a little popping sound and her muscles then relaxing. Sitting up, she pushing her hair away from her face, another yawn escaping her as she rubbed her eyes to wake up more before deciding to get dressed and walk out into the hallway and living room. She heard laughter, singing and chatter from up on the roof, focusing her ears to work out that it was John, Elliott and Rinaa deciding that neither of them actually went to bed and Kay slept alone. She walked onto the balcony and called up, "morning, guessing none of you actually slept?!"

Kay eventually woke up with a yawn, nuzzling into John's pillow before realising what she was nuzzling into and opened her eyes to see that John never came to bed, making her sigh. She knew after the airhorn prank that he said he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon, but she didn't think at the time that meant not sleeping at all. She rubbed her eyes to wake up more, feeling like crap from the bad sleep she had.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John had briefly considered heading down to the room he shared with Kay but ultimately decided against it. He wasn't going to sleep at all, he really was too wired and lying, staring at the ceiling for a couple of hours wasn't appealing in the slightest and perpetually tossing and turning all night long, unable to find a comfortable position on his side of the bed was hardly any better. John had no idea whether him turning on a light so he could read would disturb Kay's sleep or not and so decided against it. Disturbing her sleep was the last thing he wanted, out of the two pregnant women he'd ever known, both of them had become incredibly cranky when they didn't get enough sleep, their hormones sending them into overdrive. the last thing he wanted to deal with was a hormonal sleep deprived, pregnant woman, he'd take a mob of demons any day, ta very much.

At the sound of Fia's voice and the sight of her head popping up from the balcony Rinaa let out a slight laugh, though there was no malice in the sound or in her following comment. "Hardly surprising really, out of all of us, I'm pretty sure we're the most likely to pull all-nighters given that he" Rinaa gestured with one hand in the direction of Elliott, the other gripping the neck of the guitar "doesn't even need the eight hours humans and phoenix people do. For him" she gestured at John "a normal sleeping cycle is optional at the best of times. And me? I only need about six hours, though I don't sleep great anyway, never have really" even before Rinaa started having PTSD-esque nightmares about being trapped in burning buildings she'd had problems sleeping, her brain always too active to let her sleep (a problem Leah also suffered from as a kid, and still did as a teenager). "But being so displaced from time makes it worse." Elliott gave a shrug and a look of 'she has a point' at Rinaa's words, Cal had the same alien physiology that meant she only needed four hours, but she also had a wife, an liked to make the most of what time she had with her. John couldn't deny Rinaa's words either. "And we're all such considerate people that we fucked off onto the roof so Chas could get some kip."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia smirked at Rinaa being the first one to reply to her and explain how they were the three less in need of regular sleep compared to the others. Fia knew what Rinaa said was utterly true as it was the same in her timeline for the most part. "touché" she replied with before John spoke about being considerate for the sake of Chas who was still on the couch. "some things never change then for you three" she commented whilst chuckling slightly, the very comment showing mostly to Rinaa that what she said was the same in Fia's timeline as well, even for her other self. "guess I'm the first one you've noticed be up?" she enquired, not sure if Cal or Cliff had already been up and she just missed them, or if for a rare occasion she truly was the first sleeping soul that woke up.

Kay eventually sat up in bed with a groan as her whole body ached to match her mental state from the bad sleep. She found herself accepting that she wasn't going to feel much more awake than she already was but one thing in her dream still remained vivid in her mind, making her grab her sketch book and a pencil to quickly and roughly sketch it out onto paper on the chance it might be important to her kind or her life or anything else for the group. She knew it could very possibly be nothing, but she didn't want to take the chance. She had never seen it before her dream, and wondered why she was seeing it now as she stared down at the rough linework she drew. When she was done, she ripped it out her book (something she rarely did as she hated doing that) and got up, got dressed and headed to the living room where she saw Fia up. "morning" she said sleepily.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Rinaa couldn't help but smirk slightly upon hearing that her alternate self Leah also suffered from the same inability to get to sleep as she did. It shouldn't be comforting, but somehow it was. Fia was up far earlier than usual and some hidden part of John's mind wondered if this was because she hadn't slept great as a result of everything she'd learned and spilled the night before. Elliott took the next question. "Cal's up and gone already actually, the apprentice at the forge was supposed to be doing the early shift, helping Dan set up everything and practice setting up all the forge fires manually. But they called in sick, some kind of stomach bug so Cal went off to help. Cliff went back to bed, declaring that she doesn't want to be disturbed unless it's an absolute emergency, we know where the food is and to help ourselves." Cliff had been sporting a fairly spectacular bedhead when she gave those 'orders', but somehow managed not to look and sound a complete idiot while doing so.

"Which we did." John gestured at the selection of food smeared plates and bowls beside them. Thanks to her enhanced hearing Rinaa could hear the tiredness in Kay's tone and the slight dragging noise her feet made as she walked across the floor and couldn't help but wince every so slightly. She was blaming herself for Kay's lack of sleep, knowing that if she hadn't made a passing remark about her timeline, none of the gory details would have come out and Fia never would have had to publicly explain just what the trauma was that had caused the extensive burn scars on her back. She removed the guitar strap from around her shoulders and put the guitar back in it's case, while the others called down their greetings. Somewhere in the past few minutes Chas had woken up and ambled towards the bathroom to spruce up and shave. "We should probably head down." "Sounds like a plan." John agreed, copying Rinaa and putting his guitar back in it's case too.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia listened to Elliott explain that Cal was already up and gone to the forge, nodding at the information before smirking at the mention of what Cliff said. It sounded utterly typical of Cliff from what she knew of her in her timeline and here and now. She glanced up and saw all the plates of food that had been well and truly eaten, leaving just the remains of what was on their plates. When Kay greeted them, she looked behind her and saw the state of her mother, frowning at how tired she looked. "shit night sleep?" she asked. "could say that, just a bunch of seriously weird dreams mashed together" she explained, as Chas got up and went to the bathroom and the other three decided to come down from the roof.

Fia walked over and did the rare thing of hugging her mother, "sorry to hear that, let me get you some food" she offered, which surprised Kay. "thanks kiddo" she replied, going to the nearest couch and sitting down on it, pulling the paper she drew on out of her hoodie pocket and staring at it, trying to figure the symbol out, or at least trying to figure out if she had seen it somewhere before her dreams. Fia went into the kitchen aware of what Kay did, "what's that?" she called back in question. "something I saw in my dreams, I cant work out what it is, if anything or if I've seen it before. It feels familiar and not familiar all at the same time. Or maybe I'm just going mad and cresting shit in my dreams" Kay just said yawning as she spoke, glancing up as the other three decided to join them by coming off the roof then back at the symbol she drew.

Spoiler: The symbol 'sigil of the phoenix'

 

[_gallifrog_]

By the time Chas was finished sprucing up the three had come down from the roof and the guitars were back in what had become their usual place- leaning against the wall underneath one of the windows. One look at Kay was enough for them to see that she hadn't slept well, if at all. Rinaa had winced slightly at the sight, while John couldn't help but feel guilty, some part of him thinking that he should have been able to tell she wasn't sleeping well and some other part of him thinking that he should have done something. Almost unconsciously he scratched at his wrist, causing raised red lines to appear across the area where the bon sigil lay dormant. His nails weren't ragged enough to draw blood and he wasn't scratching at them for that long, ten seconds at most.

Seeing the page in Kay's hand he wandered over to have a look, eyebrows furrowing as he looked at the sketch. There was no doubt it was a sigil symbol of some sort, but what one it was eluded John. There were thousands of common magical symbols, and even more uncommon ones, and as good as John's memory was, he couldn't remember the name and uses of every symbol he was. This one was nagging at him, he'd seen it before, somewhere, somewhere fairly recently. "Ell take a look at this will ya? You seen anthin' like it recently" he asked, Fia evidently didn't recognise it and Elliott was the only other mage in the room "cos I think I have, but I can't bloody place it." Elliott ambled over and carefully took the page from Kay's hand. "You're right" Elliott replied slowly "it is familiar." He stared at it for a good two minutes solid before a flicker of recognition crossed his face. "Well?" John asked, an eager edge in his tone. "I'm about eighty percent sure I saw it when we were Mindwalking one of Kay's dreams, the one with the rock wall carved with various symbols? It think was somewhere above the runes Jay knew, though I'm not totally certain, could be mixing it up with something else. And regardless I have no idea what it means."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia walked over from where she was in th ekirchen and handed Kay some breakfast of a couple of slices of toast. She could cook more but she didn't want to risk making Kay too much that she felt sick again. So she figured toast was the safe option to go with. "thanks kiddo" she said sleepily, barely even noticing the guilty looks in John's and Rinaa's faces, but that wasn't to say it wasn't noticed at all. She noticed it more when John briefly scratched at where his bond lay dormant. She didn't want them to feel bad that she felt so tired, in her eyes, it wasn't their faults that she had a crap night's sleep. It had been a long time since she had such a bad night, but it wasn't completely unusual for her to get them. It just so happened that no one in their group had truly seen what a bad night's sleep can do to her.

She let John look at the sigil she roughly sketched out in her barely awake state before letting Elliott take it from her hand and look at it properly. Another yawn escaped her as Elliott studied it intently, trying to pinpoint exactly where it was seen before, if at all. When Elliott said he was eighty percent sure it was part of the signs and drawings on the walls in that first mindscape of hers, it made her feel relieved that she wasn't just going crazy and creating weird sigils in her sleep. "that's actually reassuring to hear in a way... Thought for a second that I was going crazy and coming up with sigils in my sleep" she admitted to them all. Fia looked over Elliott's shoulder at the drawing properly, and just shrugged. It seemed familiar but not at all all at the same time to her.

"I would make a joke about you're already crazy but you're clearly too tired to take my crap" Fia couldn't help but smirk, making Kay nod, not even having the energy to throw a cushion at her or give her the middle finger as she ate the food Fia did for her. "I know I slept throughout the night but it feels like I've had no sleep at all...not had those nights for a while and what makes it worse this time, I can't rely on coffee to perk me up" Kay just replied with.

 

[_gallifrog_]

john nodded slowly at Elliott's theory. he didn't remember seeing the sigil there, but he'd spent very little time near that wall. "I trust you on this Ell, if you think you saw it there, then I believe you." Anything Elliott was going to say was cut off by Kay and Fia talking. John gave a sort of shrug at their words before giving his own opinion "it's not as crazy as it sounds to come up with sigils in your sleep, quite a lot of mages with psychic ability can do that. Or just plain psychics in general." It was hardly the typical way to reassure somebody that they weren't crazy, and probably wasn't the way the Joh Fia knew would go about doing it, but this was the best this John could do. "He's telling the truth." Chas chimed in, knowing that since he was perceived as the voice of reason in the group, it would add some credibility to his mate's words. "The one psychic I knew well used to get all kinds of things from dreams and visions."

"I would offer up some caffeine pills as a help" Rinaa hadn't intended to make any remark on Kay's state, especially given how it was her fault that Kay was in this state in the first place. However she was still on a high from the sheer amount of undisturbed time she'd spent with John and Elliott just being herself, something she had never been able to experience in her timeline. "But one, they're industrial grade strength and would either blow the head off you or have you bouncing off the walls, and two, given my vague knowledge of biology and how biological stuff works, it's more likely to be the caffeine IN the coffee that you can't tolerate as opposed to the coffee ITSELF, so it'd only make it worse."

"Do I as a doctor and a beloved family member even want to know why you have industrial strength caffeine pills? Cliff asked, descending from the mezzanine level. Her blond hair was still a complete mess (but she had changed out of the old sports jersey and sweatpants she slept in into something more normal for her). There was a slight edge of mischief in her tone, the nights sleep had done her good. "Jay works twenty four or thirty hour straight blocks and between my university courses, studying, my job, band commitments, my social life and my double life a kick of caffeine goes a long way. Plus I don't take a whole pill, I portion, I'm not completely dependent on drugs....." Rinaa paused, then corrected herself "not completely dependent on caffeine anyway." Cliff nodded in understanding, as Rinaa's sort of doctor, she knew that without some form of medication the teenager would be suffering from chronic pain and migraines that wouldn't go away, not to mention the anti-psychosis and chemical blockers to keep Sykes under some form of control. Changing the subject she asked "So what's the mystery this morning then?" gesturing at the page in Elliott's hand.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay looked up at John when he told her that it was pretty normal to make up sigils in dreams and such for psychics. It wasn't quite the reassurance she wanted to hear, but she knew she wouldn't get much of a normal one from him, and she was fine with that fact. He hadn't ever gone down the typical or normal route for anything to help her, or very rarely done so, so it wasn't unusual to her. For Fia however, it was slightly unusual as in her timeline she was used to seeing him better at it toward Kay and her. With Chas speaking up for John and his remark, Kay nodded believing the two of them that it was normal, even if it wasn't normal for her.

Rinaa's comment about offering caffeine pills if she wasn't in the state she was, made Kay look at the teenager surprised that the thought was there even if it wasn't a viable one. "it's fine Rinaa, I'll deal with it. Not the first time I've felt like this" she replied to the girl after Cliff appeared from the mezzanine and asked why the teenager would have such pills on her possession. "I saw that sigil in my mash up of dreams last night. It was repeating in nearly every scene, like a damn flash light doing sos or strobe lighting" she explained. "so naturally, I wale up and roughly draw it out incase it meant anything" she added. "which brings up the topic of, you've not said what was in the dreams other than this sigil" Fia pointed out. Kay didn't reply straight away as she couldn't help but be curious at what Cliff thought of the sigil on the paper as she was looking at it.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Neither Elliott, Chas nor John were particularly surprised that Rinaa would have industrial strength caffeine pills, she already carried around speedster protein bars and loved a good coffee nearly as much as Cliff did. What was more surprising in Elliott's mind was that Jay needed to work twenty-four hour or longer shifts. He knew Jay had gone back to being an assassin some time after his death, but the way Rinaa phrased it- shifts instead of periods- made him suspect that she wasn't talking about kill assignments. While Kay was explaining the source of the sigil Elliott couldn't help but ask. "What does Jay do then that requires such long hours, hardly medicine, she's not the type." Rinaa smiled slightly at that "Jay's good at many things, but not not that. And as for what she does, it's classified, I'm under oath not to reveal it."

The page torn from the sketchbook was passed to the doctor, who rubbed her eyes to remove any grit from them before taking a look. First holding it at arm's length, then bringing it closer to her face, she scrutinised the page. Cliff didn't have long or short sightedness, but sometimes after she'd had a particularly long and good sleep, her senses took a few minutes to wake up. She'd put the hearing aids in earlier and it was slightly ironic that one sense she didn't have was probably the one that was working best in that moment. recognition flitting over her face as she did so. "Oh that?" she remarked in a tone of 'why were you looking so confused, the answer is pretty damn obvious to me'. "It's embossed in the back cover of the phoenix book you gave me, is it not?"