Co-operation

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"No. Absolutely not!" Ruby Lockhart's grey eyes were narrowed in defiance, despite the fact she was stood in her commander's office right then. "Bringing them in will only bring more questions and red tape!" She insisted, her slender fists balled up by her sides.
"This isn't a discussion, Lockhart. I have my orders, and now you have yours." The grey haired man told her, though he sounded somewhat weary, like he was all too accustomed to these childish outbursts. "You are to meet your new partner at 8pm and brief them on the case. The sooner we clear this whole mess up, the sooner I can go back to letting you do things your way, alright? Believe me, I don't want these blind fools involved anymore than you do, but this last case has made local news. We need to stop it before it goes national, or global."
Ruby's lips pursed together as she continued to scowl, seeming to be considering all this new information. There was a reason she didn't have a partner; no one could put up with her hotheaded, shoot first ask questions later attitude. It created mountains of paper work, but unfortunately she came from a long line of the divisions pure bred hunters, and her skills were... invaluable. 
"Fine!" She huffed at last. "But if this yokel ends up dead because they couldn't do what I said or panics when faced with the truth, I won't be held to blame!" Having said that, she stormed from the office, waves of dark hair swinging behind her before the door slammed shut.

Jett knew what he had to do in that single moment. “Fine, then she won’t be a problem for the order any longer, and neither will I.” He told Aren simply. “I quit. I’m taking Piper far away from this pathetic cage you people have built for yourselves.”

Ruby was suddenly thrashing in Tobias’ arms, screaming about someone not listening to her, she wasn’t a witch. It happened from time to time, her past lives would encroach on her current one and leave her rather vulnerable until she calmed herself.

"What?" Aren stared at the young scorcerer across from him. He bared his teeth, his ears pinned back. "You're not going anywhere. You were born into this job. You can't quit." The Captain grabbed his wrist, his talons digging into a tattoo that snaked along his wrist. "This is a shackle that keeps you bound to the Order forever. Are we clear?"

Tobias looked down at Ruby sadly, his eyes lingering on the tattoo on her wrist. He remembered those dark days. The flames... The Captain had been so adamant that the sorceress should die. It had been his job to burn her. He'd refused. But he hadn't saved her either...what a monster he was...if she only knew...

Jett felt the warm blood trickle down his wrist, but didn’t back down. “Not forever. Only until I find a way to put you dogs down for good. Then I’m free, and so is Piper and my sister.” He swore.

Somewhere deep inside, Ruby knew. It was where all the fights and arguments between herself and Tobias stemmed from. She hated him for what he had done, or not done, but she couldn’t change the simple fact that she loved him.

"Stop trying to be something you're clearly not. Brave. And don't kid yourself into thinking the gypsy will ever love you. You betrayed her. That is enough." The captain said, disappearing.
"He's wrong." Piper whispered, taking Arens place. "I will always love you." She pressed her lips to his, her fingers sliding into his hair.

Ruby and Red would find themselves waking up in a dark and quiet room, the Captain and Tobias, working on cleaning guns nearby. The silence was heavy in the air and Red didn't dare break it. For some reason it seemed almost magical.

Jett did something he had never done as Poper told him this; he cried. He held her close and sobbed, unable to bear the crushing guilt of what had happened to his sister without his knowledge, and that Piper could still love after every failure he had been responsible for. His face was buried in her silken hair as he simply held onto her. Too afraid to let go.

Ruby had been awake for some time, staring at the wall directly beside her. The young woman hated what she was, that she was a part of this world that so many people like Red could pretend never existed. Her magic made her feel dirty, like it was a shameful secret she should never bring attention to. All that aside, she couldn’t forget that Tobias had been willing to simply let Jett and Piper die. Would be one day simply let her die too?

Piper held onto Jett, crying with him. She didn't know how long they stood there before she led him to his bed and sat down with him, still stroking his hair. 

"There was a farie in my dream." Red said as he sat up. "She told me to give in and let the darkness win. What do you think that means?" He was hoping Ruby was awake. He wasn't sure he wanted an answer from the other two.

Jett could lie like this until the end of time. Piper’s fingers had managed to calm his fears somewhat, just as she had done when they were children and he had been told of the accident that killed both his parents.

“What do you want it to mean?” Ruby asked without turning to face Red. “Do you want to give in? Does the darkness you have seen in your short time here thrill you?”

Piper sighed softly. Dawn flooded into east window and she slowly slid out from under the sleeping scorcerer. She made her way back to her home, devastated to find that it was completely gone. And with it her potions and her Gran. She had nothing left, not even clothes to wear. It was her turn to grieve, though she believed she was doing it alone. 

"Not at all. It makes me sick to be honest." Red growled.

“It’s just stuff.” A gentle and almost fluttering voice told Piper. “Stuff can be replaced... but dark haired men who carry you from the flames... not so much.”

Red’s words were like a stab to Ruby’s gut. She herself was a creature of darkness, as neither she nor Jett knew where their power came from. All they knew was that a strange tattoo bound them to the order. “You can still leave. Just go, it’s not like you could handle the darkness anyway.”

"Momma." Piper couldn't remember when she'd last heard the elder woman's voice. The fae woman had abandoned her only child when she was five. 
She had slipped off into the snowy midnight though not without Piper running after her, wailing like a banshee. 
Though it was devastating to the young girl, she was not to know it was the only thing that kept her alive during the gypsy genocide conducted by the elves that night. Everyone inside the home and even the bunkers below ground were murdered...
"What are you doing? Hoping there was something left in father's will?" Piper asked bitterly, turning to look for her mother in the faint dawn light. "I'm afraid not. The elves took everything. Even his scarf." 

Red gave Ruby a deep frown. "Was my answer wrong? I thought we were supposed to fight against the bad guys and win..light verses darkness?" 
Over to the left the two men cleaning guns looked up and began to laugh in earnest at his proclamation.

“You think I should mourn them still?” Piper’s mother asked, sadness in her voice that didn’t seem to fit with the guilt that was also there. “You are still young, I couldn’t ask you to understand.”

Ruby heard the laughter, but didn’t glance in their direction, nor she did she laugh too. Her latest dream had been so very real, and the parts she remembered terrified her her. “And let me guess, self righteous assholes like you are the ones who got to decide that darkness was evil and light was good?” She spat.

"They were not your people. Why mourn them?" Piper gave up on looking for the fae and instead focused on the the plague that was nailed to a nearby tree. Jett had made it for her. She'd almost forgotten. She ran her fingers over the small golden sheet metal. The moment her fingers touched it, her father appeared. She'd forgotten the magic Jett had left here. The sweet memories of the wonderful man who never stopped smiling. 
This was Jett's memory at the moment. Her father was dancing with her mother while a smaller version of herself and the twins peeked around a corner, giggling.
Piper's chest ached. Her father had known they were there. He'd told them loudly this was how to treat a woman. Then he'd brazenly pinched her mother's bottom. 
Piper could only smile at the chaos that had ensued.

Aren was undetered by Ruby's rage. "In case you missed things, dear, I am an elf. A captain within the Order. That is, as a matter of fact, what we do." He snarled at her.

“True, yes, I was not one of them. That was why I had to leave.” Piper’s mother breathed, daring to reach out and stroke her daughter’s hair. “I was too slow... I thought leaving would save them... from my people.” 

“You can’t do a fucking thing without myself or Jett!” Ruby hissed, finally turning her furious gaze on Aren, but not yet Tobias. “Why else would you have us both branded and tied to you for an entire lifetime, against our will!” Ruby should only have hoped it was a lifetime. At least then there was a way out. As it stood... forever truly was a long time.

"Maybe if you'd have stayed daddy would still be alive." Piper whispered, taking her fingers away from the tree. "How can you tell me to go back to a man when you didn't?"

"A lifetime..." Tobias snorted. He slammed his gun down. "Indeed." His tone of voice was heavy with a  deep bitterness.

“I can’t ask you to understand... And I can’t ask you to forgive me.” The elder woman breathed. “All I can tell you, if that I thought I was doing what was right, that by returning to my family, I was keeping them from hurting you. I couldn’t have known at the time it was too late.”

Ruby finally turned her gaze on her on/off lover. There was a tone to his voice that made it sound like more than mere irritation at her forced servitude. “We may get lucky, I might die young.” She snorted, unaware that that was exactly what happened. Every time.

Piper shook her head. "I was five years old, mother. The elves forced me to live in the house with the ghosts of my family. All those except the one I was longing for. And they were all angry at me. Do you know what that was like?" Piper asked, glaring into the dark trees. "If not for Jett and Ruby, I'd have gone insane!" 

"Oh yes. Indeed."  Aren agreed. "The question is how. This millienial bet is gun shots. But my money I on a plane crash. Poor Tobias...there is only one seer left and she's not known for her visions." The captain purred with glee.

“I wanted you far away from the Lockhart’s and all their misery.” Piper’s mother whispered. “Their fate was never meant to suck you in, it was intended for them, and them alone. Dark magic brings nothing good, even a norm knows that simple fact.”

Ruby was simply staring at both men now. She didn’t like this feeling of others knowing more about her than she did. The young woman didn’t explode in rage like she usually would have, instead she simply shook her head, betrayal there in her grey eyes as her gaze met Tobias’. She knew he had secrets, hell, she had a pretty huge one she still didn’t know that Piper had set loose. But still... it hurt that he kept answers to questions about herself from her.

"so you knew daddy was going to die?" Piper choked on the words. She shoved to her feet and turned to run toward Jett's house. 

Tobias didn't hold her gaze long. Her made a show of grabbing for a larger gun and  setting to work on it. His lips set in a thin line.

The elder woman traced a finger lightly over the plaque Poper had been looking at and closed her eyes. She could hear the music playing, feel her husbands arms around her as they spun around the garden. A fat tear dropped off her cheek and once again the street was empty, both women gone.

Ruby watched him begin cleaning the gun for only a brief moment, feeling that the simple refusal to even look at her gave her all the answers she needed. “I guess you were wrong.” She told Red rather bitterly as she stomped to the door.

Piper busyed herself with making breakfast for Jett with what little he actually kept in his fridge. She found herself wondering how he survived on a diet as pitiful as this one. She'd have to go shopping for him today.

 Red got up and followed her, followed her. He did notice that Tobias was taking aim at his back.

Jett hadn’t woken until almost noon that day. He started he’d like a lazy cat, for a brief moment forgetting the previous nights events. It took no more than a minute before he was bursting into the kitchen shouting Piper’s name, worried than the order had come and spirited her away as he slept.

Outside Ruby was hunched over, her hands resting on her knees as she seemed to be fighting back what looked like a very human panic attack. She was trying to calm her breathing and resist the urge to sob uncontrollably.

Piper had made use of herself by that point. Cold breakfast still sat on the counter but she'd gone to the store and filled his kitchen with food. 
Currently she was on the floor, her skirt tied into short and her hair pinned back as she scrubbed years of filth and grime from it. She'd already done the same with the rest of his kitchen, leaving it smelling like a giant lemon. While she worked she sang an ancient gypsy song, something he would recognize right away.

Red sat down beside her and gently rubbed her back, knowing she probably didn't want him to touch her. "Let it out." He whispered. "You're safe with me. You can trust me. It's going to it you alive if you don't."

Once he realised Piper was safe, Jett leaned in the doorway, his arms cross over his bare chest as he watched the young woman cleaning his kitchen. He was smiling, remembering the song she was singing from when they were children. Even then he had known he wanted her.

“Stop! Crying never solved anything!” She gasped, though her shoulders was beginning to shake as she looked at Red with tear filled eyes. “If I cry, that son of a bitch has beat me.” She adde,d though didn’t elaborate on whether she meant Aren or Tobias.

Piper was so engaged in her work she didn't know she was being watched. She'd pushed aside the darkness from the morning and was focused on her work. 

"No one is beating you. You are powerful and amazing. But everyone needs a moment to be weak or we will break completely. You must know that." Red said softly.

Jett couldn’t take it any longer. He crept up behind Piper, sliding his arms around her waist as she worked. “Has anyone told you dirty is a good look for you?” He breathed, allowing his lips to brush against her slender neck as he spoke.

“No!” Ruby insisted stubbornly. “I was weak once, it swore it won’t happen again!” She added, seeming to have calmed her breathing somewhat. “Weak gets me... I mean people, hurt.”

"Jett..." Piper breathed a deep heat sliding into her stomach. "I was beginning to think you'd never wake up."

"No one gets hurt. Every one is fine." Red said gently, still rubbing her back. "You don't always have to be strong, Ruby. No one should expect you to."

“If I knew I had you to wake up to, I’d have done it a whole lot sooner.” Jett teased, spinning Piper round to face him and dancing around the kitchen with her, never knowing she had been reliving the memory of her parents doing something similar.

“Well they do!” Ruby snapped before she thought better of it, and finally a fat tear rolled down her soot stained cheek. The young woman felt she had no choice. She had to protect Piper, keep Jett out of trouble, and then... pretend like it didn’t kill her a little more each time that all Tobias seemed to want was casual sex and nothing else.

"please don't..." Piper pulled herself away, pretending to be upset about the floors. The memory was still eating away at her. The new lesson that her mother had set her own husband up to die made it worse. 

Red pulled her in close and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. Her tears almost made him want to cry. It was a terrible reminder that he'd never actually cried for what happened.

Jett’s smile faded and he let his arms drop back to his sides. Like his sister, he was much more vulnerable than he liked people to know. “Sorry... won’t do it again.” This was the second time she had recoiled at his touch, and the rather fragile young man was beginning to get the hint.

That was all it took. Ruby sobbed until she could barely breathe, not even caring who saw. The young woman had carried so much pain for a very long time that she forgot what it felt like to simply be free of it.

Piper dropped onto the couch and curled into a ball, holding tightly to her knees. "My mother showed up at the remains of the house. I didn't even ask why. I just got angry. I'm so stupid. "

"You should see if there's any one who can keep your rage under control. If you don't you're going to end up killing more gypsies." Aren had followed them outside and was watching the whole thing with a sneer.