Guarded Hearts Ch. 02

Amy walked into the room. "Alpha..." Jeff said as he turned to her, "did you get my sister up today?"

Amy glanced over to Haley and frowned, "no, in fact I was going to get you to go wake her."

Jeff walked over to Haley; Haley spotted him out of the corner of her eye. "Jeff." She said after swallowing.

He stopped dumbfounded, before him was his sister, not just the empty shell he had brought here yesterday. He glanced to the triplets wondering what they had done. He turned his attention to his sister. "Haley."

"The food is great." She told him before she frowned, "where are we?" She asked her brother.

"Wolf Haven pack," he answered, "Haley what do you last remember?" He asked as he had a sinking feeling.

She thought for long moments then shrugged.

"Leave her be." Amy said, "her memory, if lost, will return in time." Jeff nodded and sat to eat.

Nathanael walked in ten minutes later and walked over to Haley, he had been updated on the facts that that last night she was catatonic only now she was coherent, which had his mind running through possibilities of how and why. "I'm Nathanael," he said introducing himself to Haley. "While you are here I'm in charge of your treatment and I would like to look you over if you are finished."

Haley nodded, "could you explain why I have a massive gap in my memory." She said as she stood then quickly sucked down the rest of her smoothie, Maddie had been right they did taste good.

"Depends on if it is a medical reason as to your amnesia or if there is an emotional reason behind it." He explained as he started to guide her from the room. He knew Amy didn't want him to explain what had happened; she had to remember on her own.

When Haley was gone Amy pointed to the triplets and made a come with me motion with one of her fingers. They hopped down from their chairs and followed their mother into her office. "Sit." She told them as she pointed to a couch. "Now... I'm not angry with you, but I need to know what you did to draw her back."

The triplets glanced at each other before turning to their mother, "all we did was sleep with her." Temperance said honestly and got nods from her siblings. "I think." She added.

"So you didn't enter Haley's mind and draw her out?" Amy asked.

They all shook their heads vigorously, to the best of their knowledge all they had done was sleep with Haley, nothing more.

Amy watched her cubs for a moment but knew they were being honest; they didn't do anything deliberately to draw Haley back, which confused her, as she didn't understand how it was possible. It was possible that the cubs' developing powers acted subconsciously on Haley, their need to help Haley, to comfort her had their powers acting on their own. Alternatively, it was possible that the cubs had just slept with Haley and Haley felt comfort and that had drawn her out.

"Okay, go on Ghan is waiting." She told the three. Serenity and Temperance ran from the room but Thais waited. Amy said nothing, she just waited for him to make up his mind, he felt like he had something important to tell her, she wouldn't rush him.

"She won't remember." He told her with a concerned little frown.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Her cat won't let her," he explained. "She has no memory of it; her cat took it and hid it." He explained.

"Will she ever remember?" Wolfgang asked as he had walked in after the girls had left.

Thais shook his head. "No... and I'm glad she won't." He said as he hopped off the couch and left.

Wolfgang watched his son for several long moments as Thais went to join his sisters. He turned to Amy, "I think he's seen her past... but I thought he could only see the future." He said a little pained at the thought of what his young son might have seen.

"So did I." She answered, just as concerned.

****

Electra sat in front next to Eric, Maria was in the back of the car. They had decided to split up after they finished breakfast, Nathanael was helping get Katie's fridge and house full of food and would take care of the cost with his trusty pack bank card. Electra and Maria were going to the crime scene to get Maria's main part in this over with.

They pulled to a stop outside of some crime scene tape, which was being guarded by several men. Three were getting video cameras ready. Eric got out and opened Maria's door for her. Maria got out and gave him a small smile.

Electra started to strip as she wanted to go over the scene with a Wolf's keen senses, causing the officers to go red and turn away. Eric ducked his head and pulled his hat down to block Electra out.

"Humans and their modesty." Maria muttered as she ducked under the crime scene tape. Eric followed her closely. Maria shivered, "please don't walk right behind me." She told him stepping to the side.

Eric tilted his hat up and tucked his thumbs into his belt. "Sorry..." He apologised. "What happened to you to have you so distrusting of the world around you?" He asked.

Electra nudged his shoulder with her snout as she walked pass. He jerked and stepped back in shock, he had thought Ghost was massive, but Electra was bigger than Ghost was in full Wolf form.

Tell him Maria. Electra told her as she sniffed around.

He doesn't need to know. She told Electra.

He's an investigator; he will keep asking questions until he gets an answer. Electra told her lifting her head and waiting.

Maria ignored Electra, "Okay there need to be three cameras on what I'm doing at all times." She told the three men holding the cameras. "Now I'm going to make some echoes appear, stay out of their way and don't touch me until I stop."

"So what is it you're going to do?" Eric asked.

"Magical law dictates that everything we touch, handle, everything we do leaves behind an imprint of ourselves." She told them. "So what I do is make that invisible energy visible. I call it Ghosting, as the energy appears ghost like. In the case of crimes I can make what happened visible, the entire sequence of events." She explained. " I can also stop it and hold it, when I do I want you to take close up images of everything, faces, weapons and what ever you think is relevant."

Everyone nodded.

Maria took a deep breath and held her hands out from her body so that her palms were facing the ground. "Since we don't know where this started everything is going to be happening backwards." She warned as she felt her power flow out of her hands, soft whispery silver tendrils that moved almost as if they had a life of their own, independent of what Maria was doing. The tendrils entered the earth and started to snake out searching for what it wanted. A ghost of Electra sniffing around appeared and vanished, in moments Eric and his deputies appeared taking down crime scene tape.

A truck pulled up and a dozen men piled out and took Ghost from the back and laid him down in the middle of the scene. Eric hovered over the body.

Eric and his men watched in both fascination and a little fear at themselves and were glad that they had taken such a proactive measures. She showed them quickly looking over the scene then they vanished. They waited for a few minutes and men suddenly appeared and started to beat Ghost. Maria paused the scene and waited for the close ups to be done before letting it go again. The men beat him for long minutes then they too left.

A truck came from nowhere and ran over Ghost at speed, Maria paused it so they could get up and personal with the truck. When they had what they needed she let it start again, the truck came back and backed over him. The truck left and Ghost stood and started to back off the road.

Maria started to follow the shadow that was Ghost as she didn't have a large range and the others kept on her. Electra stayed out of the way as she sniffed and darted around looking for evidence that was only relevant for a Were, scents. They came to the place where he was shot with the rifle. Maria paused so that they could take photos. Electra yapped and Eric and one of the cameramen went to find her. She stood before a whispery image of a man holding a rifle. Eric took pictures and carefully bagged the spent casing.

They made their way back to Maria and she let the wispy Ghost continue his reversed journey. They finally came to the start of all this, a partially eaten buck. Ghost was over it, his head turned to a man with a shotgun who fired as Ghost went to run. Maria paused it to let this man be recorded and his spent casings to be picked up she then let it continue to run to see if he had done something to trigger the aggressive response from these men.

They watched Ghost eat and they even watched him bring the buck down. Nothing he did gave the men a reason to attack him. Maria drew her power back into her body, the ghosts disappeared. Eric approached and handed her the canteen he had flung onto his shoulder.

"None of the men who attacked him were local." He told her hoping to reassure her that none of the people in town were going to hurt her.

She sipped from the canteen then handed it back to him.

Electra approached, I got what I needed. I have their scents stored in my mind. She told Maria. I'm going ahead to change... that's if you think, you'll be okay with Eric.

"Go on..." Maria told her. I have to start trusting people, besides you won't be far away.

Electra washed her face for a moment before she ran away. Maria wiped her face to remove the little of bit of saliva Electra had left behind.

Eric took a quick drink before returning the canteen to his shoulder; his men were already tracing their paths back to their cars. He kept a good space between himself and Maria noticing that she always seemed to flinch when people got too close to her. They walked in silence, he was contemplating the woman beside him, she was gorgeous but he saw her nervousness, even the way Electra hovered protectively over her. Something had happened in her life, something that had left her wary and afraid.

She was thinking also, this was the first time she had left the safety of pack land and so far, nothing bad had happened. There were no big bad men around every corner out to hurt her, everyone seemed friendly and curious like they had never met an actual Were before, which was crazy in this day and age. She had to admit that there were bad people out there, but not everyone she would meet would be bad and she was doing a disservice to those good people by tarring them with a label they hadn't earned.

They made it back to the sectioned off area. Electra was waiting, dressed and perched on the hood of Eric's car. She smiled at Maria, See not so bad.

Shut up. Maria snapped growling a little. Eric glanced to her then to Electra and shrugged it off.

"The scene can be released; we don't need it any more." Electra told Eric.

He nodded and turned to his men giving them the go ahead to take the crime scene tape down. He turned to Maria, "That is one handy talent you have." He said paying her a compliment.

"It's not very useful in day to day life but it has its uses... mainly when Bastion wants evidence of Temperance's latest misdeed. Or when the FBI needs me." She told him, "It's not like I can lift things with my mind, heal, or throw a room into complete darkness." She shrugged and went to get in the car.

Electra rolled her eyes and hopped off the hood. Be nice, he just wants to be friends.

It's not like I'm going to be around long enough to become friends...

The screech of protesting tires as a car made the turn at speed had everyone turning. A gun muzzle became visible; the repeating fire of the automatic gun rang loudly.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG.