33 Apocolypse Ave, Late Wednesday afternoon

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel had returned from the Reserve meeting and was talking things over with Wyatt when suddenly he'd orbed away.

And left her behind.

She was going to kill him when he got back. But until that happened, Isabel was going to pace the living room and worry.

[Expecting two but open to calls, texts or any other visitors or residents]

Comments

[bitten_notshy]

"I never liked it," Jack said, with a bitter smile, then realized he should explain. "Sorry, it just sounds familiar. The person I lost just before I came here -- he was my guardian, and he was my friend. And he was a vampire."

He glanced over to Isabel for a moment to judge her reaction. "Anyhow, we had that fight a lot, about what was too dangerous for me. By the end he was almost willing to trust my judgement."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Jack got it. Awesome!

"Wyatt deals with demons on a regular basis," Isabel grumbled, still moving restlessly about the room. "When I can help. I do. I've got powers of my own and am more then capable of looking after myself." She was just going to ignore the fact that her powers were useless against this particular crisis. "I don't like being left behind and worrying."

Fortunately Jack had provided her with a nice distraction. "A vampire? Really? One of my very good friends is a vampire. He's great. Tell me about yours." Distract me please?

[bitten_notshy]

"I do not have powers," Jack told her, leaning back. It felt good to talk about Sebastien to someone new, someone who didn't already know the story.

"When I was small -- and this is a very long time ago, by the way, there's time travel in this story -- my parents had to sell me into service. I worked for a few years. I wasn't treated especially well. Sebastien caught sight of me and, for reasons I'll never understand but am unfathomably grateful for, decided a half-starved seven-year-old might make a good protege. He was my teacher until I came here. He's a very good man, a bit inscrutable when he wants to be. He's one of the best private detectives in his world." A pause. "Tell me about your friend."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel would. Once she stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry," she said, trying hard to swallow the semi-hysterical giggles. "It's just, Angel is a private dective as well. What are the odds of that? Are all those books about scary vampires are wrong?" Well no, she'd met Angelus, but Isabel preferred not to think about Angel's scarier other half.

"Sebastien sounds like a good man. If we're lucky, we'll get him back."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack laughed with her, also a bit hysterically. "I had a friend when I was first here who swore vampire detectives were a cliche," he informed Isabel. "Maybe she was more right than she sounded. But no, Sebastien's not one of the scary ones."

They existed, but Jack didn't want to talk about that right now.

"We'll get everyone back," he added. "It sounded at the meeting as if you're missing a lot of people."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"If she and Angel make it to the same Homecoming we'll have to introduce them," Isabel replied. "It could be fun." And it gave them something to look forward to. Maybe...

Looking away, she began to list the missing. "I am. My parents. My brothers. A sister-in-law, a girl who might as well be another sister-in-law. Friends. Wyatt's family. My whole world, his...we're all that's left."

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't think she graduated, but maybe," Jack nodded enthusiastically. Something to look forward to was a wonderful thing.

He listened to her list of losses. "That's terrible. We'll get everybody back. We have to."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"That's what I keep telling myself. The trick is believing it." Isabel was starting to feel strangely nostalgic for the trolls. "It's not like we haven't faced serious stuff before. My senior year, there was a sickness that came through. A lot of people got sick. One student died, Ronan came close. But we beat that. And beat a bunch of other things over the years. We just have to do it this time."