Guarded Hearts Ch. 02

He jumped onto the bed gracefully on his first try and settled himself at Haley's back, his head rested on her ribs. He sighed and closed his eyes ready to nap.

Temperance jumped up onto the bed before she shifted not wanting to make a fool of herself when she jumped up. She stripped and shifted in moments, she was almost identical to her sister except for her stripes, she had three running from her forehead to her nose, two wide and one narrow between the two thick stripes, and she had spots beneath her eyes. She wondered for a moment where she would sleep and decided she would drape herself across her twin and rest her head beside her bother's.

Minutes later the room was quiet except for the gentle breathing of sleeping bodies.

*

"Dinner!" Bastion declared as he spread out two dozen pizzas, piles of ribs, wings, chips, nuggets and more, it wasn't the healthiest of dinners but with Temperance trashing his kitchen he had only just gotten it right before realising that there wasn't enough time or food in the house to get dinner ready and on time.

The room quickly filled but the cubs were nowhere to be seen. "Where are the cubs?" He asked Amy.

Amy frowned and sent out her senses, she growled for a moment as she realised where the cubs were. Jeff had a tray of simple foods for his sister and was about to take them up to feed her. Amy went with him and opened the door ready to glare at the cubs and tell them to get out of Haley's room. She paused and stopped Jeff from entering. He glanced around her and smiled at the scene before him, sometime during their nap they had moved. Haley now hugged Serenity, her face pillowed against Serenity's fur.

Temperance was on her back, her head tilted back, mouth open and her paws in the air. She was also wedged between Haley's legs and completely oblivious to the visually uncomfortable position but cats were like that, they could sleep well in odd positions, hell, they just liked to sleep no matter the position.

Thais slept with his head pillowed on Haley's hip with his left forepaw draped over her. His belly was pressed to Haley's back his hind legs were resting on pillows. None of them moved or woke and Amy doubted that they would wake tonight.

Jeff shuffled the tray to an arm and dug his phone out of his pocket, "may I?" he asked Amy who nodded.

Jeff's phone had a very good camera in it, as it was integral for his work it was the best money could buy. He knew his mother would get a little hope out of this picture as well as a chuckle at Temperance's comical sleeping position. Haley hadn't been left alone when she came home; she always had one of their younger siblings in bed with her, ready to offer her comfort at the first sign of true life. She had been normal, talking, when rescued but the moment she got home, she just... shut down.

Haley was cuddling now, it was a start and they hadn't even began to do anything. He took the photo and smiled at it. Amy had made her own camera appear and also took a picture, she was beginning to develop a big collection of photos of the triplets, her favourite ones were the ones of the three of them piled together in odd positions and asleep but she had none of the cubs in Were form sleeping.

They stepped out of the door way and carefully closed the door. "Let them sleep?" Jeff asked as they turned from the door.

Amy nodded, "yes." She answered, "Although they will be starving in the morning, I had better warn Bastion."

Jeff chuckled and for the first time in a month he meant it, this had been the right thing, bringing Haley here had been right. He no longer feared for his sister, for the first time in a month he felt hope.

****

Maria woke slowly, pressing her face to Electra's back, she had found it hard to sleep last night so had crawled into bed with Electra. Nathanael knocked on the door, "Wake up girls." Electra sat up and yawned, she hadn't bothered to take off her visor last night as she was getting more and more used to leaving them on when she slept. They got dressed quickly and followed him down stairs. Katie was looking in her nearly empty fridge.

"Sadly I can't feed us all, we'll have to go into town, and we can have breakfast in the diner and pick up what we need from the shops." Katie told them.

"Don't worry about Ghost, I'll just go load him full of sedatives, I don't want him to wake up until tomorrow, give him time to recover a little more before letting him come out of it." Nathanael told them, he opened his bag and grabbed out a vial of sedatives and went to take care of keeping Ghost out for the count.

Electra wrapped an arm around Maria, "You okay?"

Maria nodded. "It's not as bad as I thought it would be. As long as no one goes to touch me I think I'll be alright." She told them.

Electra smiled. "We'll get your part in all of this over soon I promise."

Maria chuckled, "You just want to get back to shagging your mate."

Electra didn't even try to deny that, she did truly just want to curl up with Mayhem, not necessarily shagging her but definitely wrapped around her. "You'll know how I feel when you find that special someone." Electra told her with almost sage like wisdom.

Maria rolled her eyes, she honestly didn't know if she even wanted to find that special someone. She was comfortable with her life as it stood at this moment, she had her rooms just the way she liked it, her things all organised the way she wanted. She enjoyed her freedom, of not having to answer to someone about what she did or wore or who she hung out with. However, she knew Anna wouldn't let her remain single, that she would start trying to find a match for her, she however wasn't interested, her wolf wasn't interested and no one would force her to do anything against her will anymore.

Nathanael joined them. "So... food." He said rubbing his hands together in anticipation as he was starving.

Katie chuckled. "Yeah, there's Mike's diner, it'll have enough food to feed three ravenous Were." She grabbed her keys and her purse. "Let's take just one car." She suggested as they followed her out of her house. They piled into her SUV and Katie drove off. A short time later Katie parked before the diner. They all got out and stretched before following her into the diner.

The patrons within stared as they made their way to a booth. Maria wedged herself into the corner with Electra next to her, her eyes covertly glancing around the room. She then grabbed a menu and tried to hide behind it.

Nathanael grabbed the menu and deftly tugged it from her hands. "You have nothing to fear, they are merely curious." he told her firmly trying to get her to lose her fear of anything new.

Eric pulled up a chair and joined them. "Mornin'." he drawled his eyes skipped over Electra, Nathanael and Katie and came to rest on Maria. "Eric Walker." He offered his hand to her to shake.

Maria looked at his hand for a moment trying to find a polite way to refuse his friendly gesture. She reluctantly put her hand in his. He watched her for a moment giving her a firm but gentle shake feeling a tingle of energy shoot from her hand to his. He released her hand and sat back waiting for her to introduce herself.

Maria winced and glared daggers at Nathanael as he kicked her shin to prompt a response from her. He gestured with his head to Eric and glared right back at her. It was time she stopped running from life.

"Maria Romano." She said introducing herself.

Eric's smile was friendly as he bowed his head in greeting.

A man walked over to take their orders, "Mornin' Katie, Chief." He said his southern accent was thick and drawn out.

"Just my normal thanks Mike." Eric said with a smile, as he had breakfast here every day.

The burly man with stubble covering his jaw and neck and thick around the middle nodded, his shortly copped hair moved a little with the movement. He turned to Katie.

"Is Janet making her buckwheat pan cakes today?" Katie asked hopefully.

Mike smiled taking away a little of his gruffness. "Yep." He answered, he knew they were a favourite of Katie's and he had a soft spot for her as she had saved his bulldog Bang after he had been hit by a car.

"I'll have that please, oh and the caramelised bananas she does." She added.

He turned to the three strangers, he guessed they had something to do with the badly beaten Were that was found yesterday. He was guessing that at least one if not all three were FBI.

"And what can I get you folks?" He asked in a friendly manner.

Nathanael glanced over the menu quickly, "I'll have the full farmer's breakfast, waffles and... what ever pie you have on offer." He glanced up, "and coffee."

Mike watched Nathanael for a moment then quickly wrote the order down. He turned to Electra who had taken the menu from Nathanael. She glanced it over quickly, "I'll have the house special breakfast, a double serve of those buckwheat pan cakes with vanilla ice cream please." Electra said with a smile.

"Ice cream for breakfast... your ma would kick your arse." Nathanael told her.

Electra shrugged, "I've seen her attack a tub of rocky road for breakfast, she won't kick my arse and look who's talking pie boy." Katie snorted in amusement at Electra's cheek.

"Coffee with that?" Mike asked and got a nod for response. "And let me guess... rare for the steak?" he got another nod of confirmation.

He turned to Maria. Maria took a deep breath, "I'll have three serves of scrambled eggs and toast, as well as a large bowl of fruit salad please, also a tall glass of milk." She finished.

Mike nodded, "Ya'll sure you can eat all that?" He asked just to be sure.

The three Were chuckled but surprisingly it was Maria who answered, "You'll be surprised at just how much a Were can eat. I've seen Electra here," she gestured to the woman next to her, "chew through three sides of ribs, a pan of tuna Mornay and half a jumbo tub of ice cream and still be hungry."

Electra chuckled, "I'm not nearly as bad as Sage."

Maria thought about it for a moment then nodded, "I agree... feeding her is almost impossible. I should know... I've tried."

Nathanael chuckled, "She is still a growing woman."

"With a bottomless stomach." Maria slid in.

Mike walked off to place their orders.

"So what's on the books for today?" Eric asked.

"Since Ghost is still out I think we'll get Maria to do her thing first." Electra said and smiled as Mike put down mugs, a large jug of milk on the table and a whole pot of coffee.

"So is Maria a hot shot crime scene investigator or something?" Eric asked as he added sugar and cream to his coffee.

Electra chuckled, "Not quite."

"What do you understand about Were?" Nathanael asked.

Eric shrugged, "Bits and pieces, there's not much of a need to know in free territory."

Nathanael nodded appreciating his honesty, "All Were are born with or develop some kind of ability. Healing, telekinesis and so on. Some abilities have been deemed as admissible in a court of law. Maria has one such ability." He explained.

Eric turned to the clearly shy if not nervous woman. "What is it you do?" He asked curious.

"I call it Ghosting." Maria answered, she pulled a face and bobbed her head from side to side, "Not a very accurate term for what I do. It'll be easier to show you than to try to explain." She told him, beginning to warm to the friendly Chief as long as there was someone between them.

He turned to Electra, "What do you do?" He asked.

Electra smiled, "I produce globes of darkness," she held up her hand and a small ball of darkness appeared between her fingertips. "In these globes... and I can make them as big as I want... I am the only one who can see inside them." She made the globe vanish.

"And that has something to do with why you wear that visor?" He asked as Mike appeared with the first of their meals.

"Kind of I guess," she answered, "My eyes can't handle light, see when I was very young I was locked in a lightless cell, my eyes were forced to adapt. Abilities are different in many ways, those who are born Were discover their ability most of the time by accident, some however slowly grow into their ability, they are aware of it but it doesn't reach its full potential until they become adults. Those who are turned come into their abilites shortly after they shift for the first time." She grinned and adjusted her eye visor, "Still getting used to them though. I only got these recently; they work much better than sun glasses."

"What about you?" Eric asked as he turned to Nathanael.

Nathanael smiled as his breakfast was put before him, "My ability is medical related, that's all you need to know," and with that he started to eat.

Electra smiled and shook some salt on the slab of meat on her plate before cutting a slice, adding some egg and a bit of hash brown to her fork before putting it in her mouth. She hummed as she chewed. Eric and Katie watched in amusement after they finished their meals as Electra ordered another helping of pancakes.

"Where does she put it?" Katie asked aside to Nathanael.

"Beats me..." he answered with a shrug.

****

Haley felt a tongue brush against her cheek, she moaned and shifted, pressing her face to shaggy fur. It took her brain a moment to realise there was something wrong with sensation she had felt, the tongue hadn't been rough like sandpaper; she opened an eye and squinted as she looked for the source of the tongue.

Thais licked her again, a long slow swipe from her neck to her forehead. She focused with one eye on him for a moment before pressing her face back to the shaggy coat. It was just a wolf cub, nothing to stress about. It took her sleep-befuddled mind a few moments before she remembered that there were no wolves in her pride. She jerked awake and glanced around wondering where the fuck she was.

She felt the bed move down near her feet and saw a white tiger cub, there was more movement to the left of her and she turned to see another white tiger cub. "Where am I?" She asked, her voice cracking.

Serenity was suddenly there rubbing her face against Haley's face. Haley instantly relaxed; she doubted that she could be tense with this one. The other white tiger however was playfully batting at her feet and seemed like a live wire. She glanced to the wolf but he was sitting watching everything with his head slightly cocked to the side. His bottom jaw opened as he panted for a few moments before his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth in an amused yet knowing wolf grin. She liked him instantly.

He pulled his tongue back in and closed his mouth before nosing her legs to prod her out of bed. She smiled and got out. She looked around the room hoping it would give her some indication as to why she was here or how she got here. She checked the drawers of the dresser but except for a couple pairs of generic sweats, they were bare.

She turned to the three cubs, "do I live here?" she asked them and they nodded. "Have I lived here long?" she asked, as it was the next logical question. The three cubs shook their heads.

She frowned as she tried to remember how she got here but she had no idea, she couldn't remember and it frightened her. Serenity hopped down from the bed, stumbling a little before making it to Haley and rubbing her face against Haley's legs.

Thais hopped down and went to Haley nudging her to the bathroom. Haley took the hint and went to shower and clean up. When she returned twenty minutes later she came out dressed in a set of sweats she had taken in with her. She was confronted with three strange children. Thais smiled and waved, as if by instinct she knew the boy was the little wolf cub, the girls however were not that easy to pick. They were identical in the face if not their clothes, she knew they were the tigers but didn't know which one was which.

She watched them for long moments, Temperance started to bounce and she knew instantly that this one was the live wire, the one with the spots under her eyes. Which meant the other one was the calm one, the one with the stripes under her eyes.

"I'm Temperance," she said, she was dressed simply in a pair of shorts and Little Miss Trouble t-shirt. "That's my sister Serenity." She added.

Serenity smiled, today she was dressed in denim shorts and a black shirt that said 'if you think I'm cute, check out my Aunt' and on the back in bold and capitals, it read 'AND SHE'S SINGLE.'

"And our brother Thais." Temperance finished with the introductions.

"Let's go get breakfast." Serenity said as she got off the bed she reached for Haley's hand. Thais hopped off the bed and disappeared for a moment before he reappeared with slippers for Haley. He put them down before her and she slid into them.

They took her down to the dinning room and sat with her. Anna put a few boxes of cereal down before the cubs and a pitcher of milk. "Do you want juice or water?" She asked the cubs not expecting Haley to talk.

"Juice please," they said as one.

"Orange or tropical?" Anna asked.

"Orange," they declared as one.

Anna smiled indulgently and went to get the juice as Serenity grabbed the rice bubbles, Thais grabbed the wheat puffs and Temperance grabbed the corn flakes.

"Do you want some?" Serenity asked.

"Leave her be." Anna said gently as she put a pitcher down near the triplets.

"Actually I wouldn't want to bother you but do you have any porridge?" Haley asked.

Anna stared in surprise; Amy had talked to her and Bastion about Haley, the catatonic woman who was living with them for the moment. She had been discussing ways of getting her to come back to her self. "Of course, I can whip you up some quickly; do you want it with nuts or berries? Honey? Nutmeg? Cinnamon?"

"I didn't mean to be..." Haley began to say but Anna stilled her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"You are no bother, how would you like your porridge?" Anna asked.

"Berries?" Haley said a little unsure.

"How about I surprise you?" Anna suggested and Haley nodded.

Thais offered a glass of juice to Haley. She smiled at the gesture but she would rather have a coffee. She glanced around, the table was mostly empty, but it quickly filled. Anna was putting down a large bowl of porridge, with nuts and berries less than ten minutes later.

A supplement smoothie was put down before her, "healers orders, you have to drink all it." Bastion told her firmly before he walked off; Anna had told him that Haley seemed coherent enough to understand what was happening for the moment. He knew that soon Nathanael would be ordering Haley to drink these at every meal until she put on a decent amount of weight so was pre-empting him.

"They don't taste bad." Maddie said as she sat across from Haley with her own smoothie. "You get used to them, to the point it just becomes habit."

Keira sat next to her, "but Nathanael hasn't told you to stop drinking them." She gripped the table for a moment still fighting the temptation to scratch at her arms, she quivered.

"If Ghan catches you scratching he'll tell Nathanael." Maddie warned.

"I left the cream in my room," Keira explained. Temperance made a tube appear in her hand and tossed it to Keira. "Thanks." Keira said as she caught it, she quickly rubbed some cream into her fore arms and the itching vanished. She studied her arms for a moment; some scabs had started falling off leaving pale pink flesh, which was slowly returning to the light tan colour of the skin around it. If she did scar those scars would be so faint they would be invisible.

Haley stared as she watched Tarval walk down the table his arms firmly around Alanna's waist; she then stared at Sage as she made her way along the length of the table looking for what she wanted to eat.

Jeff raced into the dinning room; he was a little frantic as his sister hadn't been in her room. He had gone to dress her and bring her down for breakfast but she hadn't been there. He opened his mouth ready to tell the room that his sister was gone, before pausing as his eyes focussed on his sister who was eating and drinking on her own. He also noticed that her hair was damp, as if she had already washed.