Bristol, Friday Night into Saturday Morning

[chosehumanity]

"Didn't expect to see you up and about so soon." Herrick paced out of the funeral home onto the parking lot, and tilted his head thoughtfully. "Has someone been snacking?"

Mitchell didn't wince, but it was a near thing. He could swear he could still taste Josie's blood on his lips, Jack's face in the aftermath taking up a large quantity of his recent guilt issues, and he didn't. Want. To think about it.

He had more important things to settle here.

"We finish this, you and me. Just you and me. In a few days."

"Ah, I don't know," Herrick said, drawling the words out. It was a taunt, Mitchell knew that much. Fucking Herrick always liked to draw things out. "You know, I'm kinda busy. I've got a heap of work to do. Is the end of this month any good?"

"It has to be then," Mitchell snapped.

Nothing Fandom had thrown at them felt quite the way this did. It was tension, and inevitability. Knowing full well how this would end. "Why are you doing this?" Herrick asked, attentively.

That question, he had an answer for. Thank you, Josie.

"Because you need to be stopped."

Herrick's eyes flicked over his body. He knew what the vampire saw: still too weak, only just back on his feet, still dangerously starved for a little more blood.

"Look at you," Herrick said, "I'll hand your arse back on a plate, you know I will." There was a little pity, in that statement. Mitchell didn't want pity.

And so Mitchell's eyes narrowed. "So think about the message that sends," he said.

"Nah. I just don't get it."

Mitchell shut his eyes. He needed this to go properly, to make things at least a little better, even if he couldn't do as Josie had asked. "There are conditions," he bit out, finally, which was a little closer to the truth. Herrick's eyes lit up; he was hooked now. "You let George and Annie go. And you don't touch Fandom."

"My God," Herrick breathed. "What is this hold they have over you?"

Mitchell's head gave a quick jerk, a shake. "You wouldn't understand. In fact, you could say that's what this whole thing comes down to."

There was a silence, and for a moment the worries took over, tumbling over and over in his head. "Afterwards," Herrick said, "Afterwards, they'll have 24 hours to get away. Like, far away. If they're spotted after that, they're fair game. As for Fandom... I think that one would be a great deal of trouble to us if we even tried, so no need to fret. Just call me when the time comes."

He sighed loudly. There would've been a time where Mitchell wouldn't have been able to stand the disappointment in his eyes.

"And I was going to give you South America," Herrick said, shook his head, and walked away.

---

"What? You've agreed to what?!"

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place - or in this case, a ghost and a werewolf. Annie had her arms crossed and she was eying Mitchell like he was mental - which he supposed he deserved, in one fashion or another. "Here's the thing," he started.

"Are you crazy?!" George shouted, "Why would you do that? Why put yourself in that situation?" He held his hands in front of his face. Mitchell felt the urge to wince again, but he knew he was right this time.

"We need to finish this now. Otherwise they'll hunt us down, pick us off one by one." He shot both of the supernaturals plaintative looks. They had to understand why this was important. Had to.

But Annie had none of it. "So we'll bring the fight to them," she snapped. It was hard right now, to see the old, insecure, withdrawn girl in her. Her eyes practically glowed haunting-blue, and there was something radiant about her. "I mean, look at us in the funeral
parlour! We kicked undead arse!"

"Do you have any idea how many vampires there are out here?" Mitchell asked. They'd be bloody eaten alive. "Just trust me on this. If I beat him, if it works, then this whole thing falls apart."

"But you won't beat him, will you?" George said. His eyes were sharp, too. And a little helpless. "When is this supposed to be happening?"

"Next week. On the full moon." At least, if Mitchell had his schedules worked out right; full moons in Bristol were starting to shift dates in comparison to Fandom, and it made it a little hard to keep track. He hadn't given Herrick a set date, though. That might save him.

George gaped at him. "When I transform? Why then?! I won't be able to be there!"

"Because it's when you transform and you won't be able to be there." He'd... he'd gotten them all involved enough as it was.

He didn't need to get George even more involved. Didn't want to put him in a position where he'd do something stupid.

"Do you want to be punished, is that what this is?" A pleading note had snuck into Annie's strong voice, something high and desperate and he didn't want to think about it. "Some kind of martyr thing? Why are you doing this?"

"Because then he'll let you go."

And the certainty of that, that it had to happen, it seemed to settle in on them then, because it was quiet for a while.

"You can take Nina with you, start another life," Mitchell continued, flicking a look at George. "And Annie can stick by you. It'll be fine."

"No," Annie said, sharply. "No. No, I can't even-- No, we are not even having this conversation! This is--" She threw her hands up. "This is utterly mental," she snarled at Mitchell, and turned, and stomped out of the living room and up the stairs.

Mitchell watched her go, quietly.

"So what are you going to do now?" George prompted.

"I'm heading back to Fandom," he said. "There's a few people I need to talk to, first."

[[ nfb, nfi, OOC-okay, taken and tweaked from Being Human 1x06 ]]