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The next day, the lunch room seems more tense.  Maybe it's just the feelings from yesterday bubbling in people's heads.

As soon as Donnie arrives, John walks up to him.  "Donnie, I'm sorry about how I reacted yesterday.  I was mad but it wasn't at you, you just got the brunt.  I'm sorry."  And then he moves to sit down.

Donnie reaches out a hand to John, a peace offering. "I know I have a temper, and I know I went too far yeaterday, but I was pissed off that my girlfriend was attacked, and when Alicia came walking back into the lunch room, smirking, it just set me off. I am ready to let bygones be bygones, or Sarah will drop me from a thousand feet again until the cold numbs my stupid temper."

John shakes Donnie's hand, but he doesn't say anything else.

As John turns away, Donnie says "Sorry for telling you to go to hell."

Sammy shows up a few minutes later, dressed in a turtleneck shirt with too long sleeves that covers everything from her chin down, and a too big, shapeless men's sweater over that which just makes her look lumpy in the wrong places.  Her hair is pulled up and restrained in a way that could only kindly be described as eccentric at best.  Her pants are corduroy, and they squeak when she walks.  Nothing matches.  Its the look of a girl who is deliberately NOT trying to look cute, exquisite, enchanting, delightful,  or even remotely interested in a three way.  In addition to her normal bag, she has a largish plastic bag that is full of what might be someone's coat.

"Hey," she says to the kids already at the table.  She pulls out her lunch and a copy of "Twilight", a real life story about a teenaged girl in Washington state who fell in love with a vampire.

Donnie nods at Sammy. "Hey yourself."

He then goes back to the hamn'cheese sammich.


Looks around.


Takes a sip of coke.


Yeah, this is uncomfortable.

"Glad you and Pip had a good time. He doesn't get to show off too often. Wish he would have caught Dylan though. It's one of his personal goals to catch that guy unawares one of these days."

Rhys shows up and sits down next to John. Pulling another huge sandwich out of his lunch bag, he looks around the table. "Hey, all. Anything exciting happening?"

Sammy looks up exquisite, Dylan called me exquisite and blinks owlishly.  "Oh.  Well, he, um, came close."  She looks down, and swallows hard.  She sets her book down carefully, and looks like she's ready to cut and run for her life if necessary.  "It was ok?  Dylan showed up on his own, and I didn't invite Pip either, but please don't get angry at them if they didn't clear it with you first.  You know I'm not trying to steal your dragons, right?  That I never have been?  That all I want, all I ever wanted from them was just companionship up there?"

Then Rhys three way? I haven't even had a two way, but he wants me to be part of it sits down next to John and says hello.  She nods.  "Hey."

Donnie nods and taps his temple. "I know, but sometimes-" he taps his heart "-I don't know. It's confusing and frustrating sometimes." He shrugs. "I sent Pip to you. Dylan does what Dylan does. We're brothers of the soul, and he checks up on the things I want to but can't or don't know how. His visiting Sylvia and protecting her was out of his own generosity. He is learning temperence to his bonfire emotions, and I am learning the same. He was born to the fiery passions of his kind. i am having to learn to control them all at once. But, he does not want to cause tension between us either. It might happen if we spent too much time together. It's all rather confusing, really. I have some reading material you might want to look over. It's a bit superficial, but it is some history you might find fascinating. Perhaps we can go over it at our weekly workouts over at Jack's."

"Um, uh, sure."  The girl who doesn't need to breathe exhales, and a little bit of tension escapes.  "Sylvia's all right, isn't she?  I was a little harsh with her yesterday, but I needed to get her attention fast.  Things were getting out of hand, and I wanted to stop it before everything totally went to hell.  Sorry I didn't move fast enough."  She looks at John.  "Thank you, by the way.  I was really glad you were there."

Donnie shrugs. "She beat the heck out of me with the bokken last night. You should talk to her. You are friends, afterall. She'll deal. i did remind her that you were the one to jump in between the psy-uh, Alicia and her yesterday."

John nods and mumbles "Anytime" though food as he eats.

"Is she coming today?" asks Sammy. "Either of them, Sylvia or Alicia?"

Donnie shrugs. He is a master of shrugging, our Donnie. "Eventually. I think she is likely going to be helping Sarah with her Math work she likely didn't end up doing last night."

"Oh," is Sammy's lame reply.  She takes a drink of water and fiddles with the edges of the pages of her paperback.  Her sandwich sits neglected, uneaten.

Sammy turns to Rhys.  "So, if El likes you, all he'll need is a drummer.  He's replacing two guys who beat up my friend Nick when their minds were being controlled.  I don't think its because of that though.  They were kind of creepy even without that.  Maybe we'll be ready to play for his Valentine's day party, if he doesn't miss it like he did his Christmas party, when he was in the hospital."

Colin arrives with his usual large backpack, and the usual newspaper tugged beneath his arm.

"Good morning." He says with smile. He looks at Sammy's unusual clothing for a moment, but he doesn't comment.

He takes a seat and turns to Donnie. "How is Sylvia? Is she going to come today?"

He also starts getting stuff out of the backpack, like his later mystery book, a map of the city with three red circles on it, and a drawing of what looks like an alien landscape, with a liquid creature in the foreground.

He slides it to Rhys. "Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asks.

Jakob walks over to the table, eying everybody warily.  He pulls up a chair and sits down.

He seems about to say something but thinks better of it and simply nods a greeting to his friends before digging into his lunch bag.  He pulls a package of chocolate chip cookies and tosses them towards the middle of the table.

"If you liked my aunt's apple pie you're gonna love these."

"Not to lunch. She's at school today though."



"What's the map for? Another construction site hit?"

"I sure hope so. I'm really looking forward to playing again. Why was he in hospital, if I may ask?"


"Yesterday when you shook my hand. Do you know what it is?"


Rhys reaches for one, and no matter how far they are away from him, he manages to get one - even his arm has to get a little longer to do it.

"And I'm sure I won't find her if she doesn't want to be found." he says, shaking his head. "How is she?" he insists.


"Not yet. But this one is not too far from the others. I have no idea how many construction sites there are in the city, but he shouldn't know we're on to him, so maybe he won't feel the need to pick one further away. I was wondering if anyone could patrol it."


Colin looks up at Donnie, bites his lip and lowers his eyes.
"Well... you heard the name Torrance yesterday. She was really a bad girl, and she had mental powers. She arranged things so he got hurt." he says, hesitation thick in his voice.


"Nope. Unfortunately. But, knowing myself, it probably has to do with your past. Or your future, but usually when it's about the future I pass out. I don't mean to be nosy, but when did you find out you were different?"

Sammy looks over at Donnie too.  "Have you talked to Elrod about it yet?  He says he doesn't hold a grudge, it wasn't your fault."

"I wasn't always. Couple of years back, I was in the woods outside Cardiff with a mate, just knockin' about. I found this... thing. I don't know what it was or where it came from, but it could turn itself into anything I needed or wanted. Then, about a month later, it was gone. I thought maybe Owen had taken it, or I had just lost it somewhere, or it had turned into something so ordinary I just couldn't find it. But then I found out I could do it. Maybe it gave me its power and then vanished? I don't know. But I'm not complaining." He finishes up with a big grin.


Rhys watches this exchange and follows Sammy's advice and keeps his mouth shut. But he files it away as one more reason to keep out of Donnie's way.

"You... found it? And how was it like?"

"Well, it was about as big as my hand. Black, and smooth, like that hard rubber they use to make clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces. And as soon as I thought that - mewn cachiad chwanan! - it was one. Owen wanted to know what it was, so I showed him. He wanted to know why I wanted to keep some old mouthpiece, and I just didn't want to tell him what had just happened. So I told him I was going to play a joke on somebody, you know? He was always really into that practical joke cachiad. Truth is, I thought it was really cool and just didn't want to share it. I'm actually kind of ashamed of that now."

Sarah strolls in with her lunch bag and two chocolate milks from the cafeteria.  She gasps openly at the addition to the table and sits down next to Colin.  "Someone else..." she starts.  She reaches across the table towards Rhys but her hand stops short and picks up a cookie.  She holds it before her like a talisman.  "Someone else brought cookies?"  She takes a bite and closes her eyes in bliss.  "Homemade cookies!"  She opens her eyes to look at the odd collection gathered.  Donnie and John and Sammy all looking slightly uncomfortable... big surprise there.  Jakob and the new kid... oh right.  "Hey new kid," she says to Rhys.  She brushes off her cookie hand and extends it across the table again.  "Sorry about that.  I'm Sarah Rollins.  I heard you joined our table yesterday and had a front row ticket to the show.  Next time bring a poncho it can get messy.  You're here for day two so it couldn't have been all bad?"

Rhys transfers his sandwich to his left hand to shake with Sarah. "Rhys Gruffudd. Pleased to meet you."


Rhys looks at the assembled lunchers and can sense the still-extant tension. He plasters on a big, wide smile. "Nope. Not bad at all," he says just before taking another bite of his massive sandwich.

"Uhm." Colin says, scratching his chin.

"It was just a black ball of something sitting on the ground in the middle of the wood, then or were there any traces around it? You said you kept it for a month. What did you use it for?"

Rhys looks at Colin curiously. "You mean like was it in a crater or something? No, it was just there. Middle of nowhere. I can't explain it. And what I used it for? This and that. Nothing special." He looks evasive somehow, though. He's not a good liar.

"Uh-uh." Colin doesn't look convinced, but he doesn't press the matter farther.

Heh. Patience.

He picks one of Jacob's cookies, and puts the map in the middle of the table.

"Does anyone know of any other construction sites in the area?"

Munching the cookie, he turns to Jacob. "God and Great Spirit, Jake. Now I know how you ended up like you did."

Rhys is visibly relieved as he plows back into his sandwich.

Sammy seems glad for a further distraction.  "I could ask my father.  He's a civil engineer in the city. He might be able to tell us how to access the land records-- builders have to have permits before they can dig or build, ya?  Its that or I -- actually Rhys or I -- can fly around and do air reconnaissance.  A land records search would be faster.  And warmer."  Her sandwich still sits untouched before her.

"I don't mind being outside. I can not feel the cold if I want." He realizes he sounds a little overeager. "If you want, that is. I'd like to help if I can."

"You're lucky," Sammy says.  For some unfathomable reason she blushes; nobody said anything embarrassing or off color.  "Maybe first get the records for current projects, then scout the sites?"

"Sure. Not feeling the cold is definitely a plus. Actually, the very best thing would be to be able to set some kind of motion detectors over there, to know where to go if something happens, so we don't have to keep Rhys in the air all night. Donnie, could we put a spell on the sites to warn us if anyone trespasses?"

"Working through it. She's good. I get the feeling it won't be more than a day or three before she's back."


"Absolutely. I need to get out more. Jack put me through the ringer last night and I need the exercise." Donnie takes a bite of his sandwich, chewing enthusiastically.


Donnie stops chewing, and struggles to swallow. He takes a gulp of coke and hiccups.


Donnie looks suddenly ill. "I-I had almost convinced myself that hadn't happened. I haven't spoken to him. I know I need to." He puts down his sandwich. "Looks like I need to do some apologizing too."

Sammy nods.  "It'll be ok.  His mind was manipulated too, remember?  He gets it."