Bethany

Bethany sat in the club alone. She was early, as usual. She knew Gabriel would be late, as usual. But it didn't really bother her, she wanted some time to sit and think and while a noisy club was possibly not the best choice of venue for a serious think, being at home in the silence was far worse for her at the moment. Whenever she started stressing out about anything it was always ten times worse when she was alone. She thought it was possibly a side effect of being a twin, and being so close to her twin. She was always used to having someone there by her side, if not him then someone else. Though to tell the truth 99% of the time, it had been Bailey. And now he was gone. She still saw him every day and they still talked and shared things with each other, but she couldn't help but feel like they were constantly avoiding the issue of Gabriel.

They'd be sat there talking naturally when one of them would stumble on to a topic of conversation that included Gabriel and instantly they'd both try and redirect the conversation. It didn't usually work well and just made things awkward between them. Before Gabriel they'd never had an awkward silence with each other in their lives. She didn't resent either of them for it though, not any more, she'd long since accepted that that was just the way life was now, and it was her issue to deal with, not there's. If something happened, or didn't happen, someone would probably end up getting hurt eventually. And yes, she'd probably be the one to pick up the pieces, but she knew one thing for sure. Whatever happened, she would be there.

Which was why she tried to work things out with Gabriel when she could, as she was tonight. She didn't agree with keeping things from the rest of the group, even if it was only on a temporary basis. Assuming Gabriel kept his word and they told everyone else everything after tonight. If he didn't then she would. Truth be told this was freaking her out even more than she'd let on on the phone. Things like this didn't happen. In all the years she'd been having visions she'd never had anything like this and she had a great fear of the unknown.

Though she realised Gabriel had a point. She automatically assumed this girl was evil or up to no good, but maybe she really was an innocent party and just happened to know something, possibly without realising that she knew it. And as much as she hated Gabriel's rash acting, she knew that there really was only one way to find out either way. And of course she needed to be there or he'd be here forever looking for a girl he didn't know. Especially when he had nothing more than a name to go by, having no clue what she looked like at all. And that was obviously the part that made her stick to her theory about this girl being up to no good. The mysterious memory loss that just happened to be at the time when Ruby, if that was really her name, was with Gabriel was just far too weird to be coincidental. But even though she was fairly sure this girl was up to no good it certainly wouldn't hurt for her to think that they trusted her. Either for Gabriel to get some information from her, or if all else failed, to make it easier to get rid of her.

She didn't like to think of it much beyond that. Get rid of her. It made it sound like they were going to chase her out of town and that would be the end of it. They'd all learnt the hard way that there was only one way to stop these people from coming after them again and again. And that was to make sure that they were the ones to end it all. Bethany didn't agree with the methods that were taken, but she knew there was very little left in the way of other choices. They'd tried it other ways in the past but Gabriel had put an end to that when doing it that way had almost cost Bailey his life. And for that reason alone Bethany kept quiet and made her excuses whenever Ella and Gabriel planned something like this. It was always those two. They were tougher than the rest of them, more street wise so to speak. They knew what had to be done and didn't have a problem with detaching their emotions and getting the job done.

She was thankful for that, they needed someone to be tough or they would all be in danger. Even in a kill or be killed situation Bethany didn't know if she'd actually be able to pull the trigger. And that scared the hell out of her, she could die at the hands of someone else who deserved to die, just because she refused to break some sort of moral code that she had developed over the years. Though if it was the moral code that would prevent her from pulling a trigger, it was a slightly screwed up moral code if it allowed her to close her ears off when she heard others plotting murder. Not for the first time that evening she wished it was Ella here instead. If on the rare chance this girl was innocent but they came to the wrong conclusion and thought she was against them she knew what would happen. But then what happened when they later find out they were wrong?

It wasn't a question she needed to ask herself, it had happened to them before and it had hit everyone, especially Gabriel, particularly hard. Maybe it had been a necessary death. One accidental death to protect the lives of five others, a mistake had cost a person their life, but if they'd been more thorough researching into the background and he had been an enemy plotting against them, they could have supplied him with enough time to cause some real damage to them.

Ella saw it as nothing more than a war, albeit a small one in comparison to the number of bodies involved. Any 'civilian' deaths were, yes, tragic. But they were also unpreventable and worrying about them afterwards would not help them win the war. Bethany wasn't sure if she respected and envied that point of view, of if she hated herself for even considering the fact that the death of an innocent person to save her own life was worth it.

It would be worse this time though, a lot worse. Last time none of it had been directly to do with her, and for that she was grateful. This time if something went wrong and this girl was innocent and they killed her, she would be to blame. She was the one person who could identify her and if something happened to this girl because of them then she would be particularly responsible as she could prevent it all simply by refusing to identify the girl in the first place. She wouldn't do that though, the five of them had survived as long as they had despite the odds being stacked against them because of the trust they had in each other. If she started tearing at that trust things would spiral downhill pretty quickly. Besides Ella would know if she was up to something. Ella always knew.

Bethany looked up startled to see Gabriel stood in front of her with an unreadable expression on his face. She wondered how long he'd been stood their watching her thoughts and emotions flash across her face and she knew they would have done. She was so awful at hiding her emotions that it wasn't only Ella who could tell what she was thinking all of the time.

"You good?" She knew he wasn't just enquiring about her health, he knew the dilemma she would be facing and the past memories she would be dredging up and he knew how it would affect her. But if she discussed it with him he would simply tell her in that matter of fact voice of his that they were only doing what had to be done and if they had another choice they would take it. So she hardened her resolve and nodded.

"I'm good. I've looked around, but can't see her yet."

"Not a huge surprise, it's still early. We'll hang around for a while and if she doesn't show up we'll take this to the group in the morning."

"And if she does show up?"

"If she does show up... Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Drink?" Her eyes narrowed at his apparent lack of thought as to what to do with this situation. She knew he'd have given it more thought that he appeared to, but the fact that he was refusing to bring up that subject for now meant he was simply hoping the situation would sort itself out without any involvement from them. He'd have a plan ready in preparation for the inevitable, but he'd have buried it to the back of his head in the vain hope that it wouldn't have to be used. It's how he always did things, and the back up plan almost always ended up having to come out in the end.

"Please."

"I'll be right back. Try to avoid any seductresses that go by the name of Ruby until I get back." She rolled her eyes at him and watched his retreating back as he walked over to the bar, pushing in between two people and getting served almost immediately despite the fact that other people had probably been stood waiting up against the bar for ages. She envied him for that. If it had been her she would have been one of those people who were stood at the bar waiting to get served whilst new people kept coming up to the bar and getting served before her again and again. She had thought it was to do with looks originally, but when she'd mentioned this theory to Ella it had been laughed off. Ella had told her it was all about confidence, you could be the most normal looking person in the world, but if you had the confidence you could pull practically anything off. Whether it was getting served quickly at a bar or pulling the best looking person in the room.

Whilst Bethany had been doubtful of this theory at first she'd watched people and concluded that Ella actually had been right. They only appeared more attractive because of the confidence. Not that it meant she could ever get served at the bar in a reasonable amount of time, she just couldn't pull of the confident look, it wasn't her and she just felt awkward when she attempted it.

Gabriel came back to the table and slid into the chair opposite her whilst simultaneously taking a drink out of his glass and handing her her own drink. All whilst looking effortlessly cool and not spilling a drop. He caught her bemused look.

What are you thinking about?"

"How you get served at the bar so quickly." He gave her a cheeky wink.

"Baby, when you're as fabulous as me, everyone wants a piece." She just rolled her eyes and his typically Gabriel answer.

"So, what do we do now?"

"Now, we wait. And if that waiting process happens to include several alcoholic beverages? All the better for us."