They are among us (PRS)

She watched him work, and winced as he applied the rubbing alcohol. She looked at him as he asked about her scar. She touched it with her other hand before answering.
“Funny story actually” she said with a laugh, “I was dancing with some friends, and I was clumsy enough to stumble over my own feet. I fell into a radiator and cut my eyebrow” she said with a grin. Not one word from that story was true, but Regina could never tell this Kehrseite the real story, since some of his kind were involved in why she had that scar. She had just been lucky that she hadn’t gotten more injured.

Regina couldn’t help but notice that the colour of his eyes was almost exactly the same that she gained once she woged. Hers were a bit more to the yellow side, but otherwise it was very similar. She watched him work, and she got all patched up. She smiled.
“Thank you so much, and sorry that I have to run, I need to go” she said before she picked up her backpack with her uninjured hand.
“Sorry, thank you” she said again before turning towards the park. She started walking, and did so calmly. She didn’t want the Kehrseite to suspect something by running, but once she was out of his sight, she picked up the pace. She didn’t run, but she walked faster. She glanced at her watch. She was already late.

As she closed up on the invisible wall that contained the hidden camp, she glanced at her watch again. 15 minutes late. She really hoped that Serena was busy, but looked up and stopped walking. One of the other adult Wesen stood in front of her. He was panting, and looking at her.
“Sorry, I tried to stop her from going, but she was determined to find you” he said, and it felt as if something had grabbed Regina’s intestines and twisted them. Her twelve year old sister was nowhere to be seen, and it wouldn’t surprise Regina if the Kehrseite did their evening search for people with abilities in the forest anytime soon. She cursed, and gave the bag to the man.
“I’ll go look for her” she mumbled and moved out of the forest, towards the park again. She wondered how far Serena had come, and if she had met someone on the way. She looked around, and the surroundings were empty. Her eyes turned amber, and she tried to hear and smell her sister. She caught the trail of her using her nose, and knew which direction to go to. Her eyes turned green again, and she moved in the direction of the smell.

Not many minutes later, she heard steps to her left. She looked, and saw Serena standing between two trees, in full woge.
“Regina!” she exclaimed and ran up to her, retracting her woge in the process. She threw her arms around her neck and Regina felt relieved, feeling her sister’s warm face pressing towards her chest.
“I was so scared something had happened to you” Serena whispered and Regina stroked her hair.
“I’m alright, I just got held up” she said, sighing.
“Did anyone see you?” she asked, and Serena shook her head, her face still buried in her chest. The problem of young Wesen, like her sister, was that they usually couldn’t control their woging until they were teenagers. Serena was good, but not good enough. That was dangerous, especially in times like these.

Eli gave out a small chuckle to her story about dancing and the radiator. He had a feeling it might not be the whole truth in this situation, but still an amusing picture to pain in his head.
“You’re all done,” he said after a while, and the Wesen did not seem to spend any additional second lingering around. She seemed calm enough, but there was perhaps something fidgety about her way of being. He did not blame her – if he would be in her situation in the world they live in at the moment, he would not care to spend any extra time among regular people.

“Take care,” he said, and gave a small wave as she made her way through the park. Her black braid was swinging in the same calm pace, and the improvised scarf-bag gave her appearance an amusing touch, but sooner before later she disappeared far enough for him to lose sight track her.

A part of him had the urge to follow her, but he let it be. He did not have any authority to do practically anything unless diffusing a hostile situation, which it most certainly was not. But it was still quite hard to imagine, a Wesen, here, right here in the city. Non-threatening, thankfully, but something he had not expected to see so soon after his arrival, and most definitely not out in the clear blue like this. During inspections or other more hostile situation it wouldn’t surprise him as much, but this sure was something else. Was it perhaps because he otherwise connected Wesens to raids or trained military situations since their kind had joined the mutants in the outskirts of society? A Wesen shopping for cereal shouldn’t probably be as mind-blowing as he made it up to be… Perhaps he was just too surprised of the situation, that’s it.

With a slight frown he carefully folded the bloodstained wipe from her injury and placed it back in the first aid kit. Could come in handy later or not, but maybe some DNA wouldn’t hurt. Unnecessary? Perhaps. All those CSI TV-shows had maybe affected him more than he knew.
Eli packed up his stuff into his backpack, took a quick glance at his phone that the others were still up for that drink, and moved back over the street and the crushed milk carton to get to their local pub for a get-together.

The wind rustled the leaves of the trees, and Regina pulled out from the embrace of her sister.
“Come on, we’ve got to go back” she said, glancing at her watch. Regina started walking towards where the male Wesen, Sean, had found her before. He was still in the same spot where she had left him, holding her bag.
“Thank god you found her” he said, looking at Serena. His eyes were red as he, being a Blutbad was able to partially woged just like Regina to heighten senses. His eyes turned to his brown colour as they approached.
“I heard steps from that direction” he said, pointing behind him.
“They’re probably going to check the forest for people, and I don’t feel like being questioned” Sean said and Regina nodded agreeably. The three of them quickly walked back to the invisible wall.

They walked through the secret, magical wall, and the washing feeling of walking through a wave of a warm breeze came over Regina. In front of them was now a enormous amount of tents, organized to create some sort of village and order. Behind them, they could still see the forest which they had just been in, but a white mark in the ground reminded them that this was the border to the world which hated them. To the right was a small watch tower, where a woman, also a Blutbad, was sitting. Sean smiled.
“See you later. And don’t get in trouble” he said, the last part he was looking at Serena. He joined his female colleague in the watch tower and Regina felt how Serena let go of her hand.
“I’m sorry” she mumbled and Regina stroked her hair.
“It’s alright. I know you’re worried, but you can’t run off by yourself. I’ll always come back for you” Regina said. Of course she couldn’t promise that, but what else would she say?

As they walked into the tent that had been assigned to them the day they had arrived, Regina stopped when she heard someone shout her name. She turned around, and saw Heidi, one of the mutants. Her skin was white as snow, and in her skin, small snowflakes were imbedded. When the sun shone at her, they were shimmering.
“Hey, something wrong?” she asked, and Heidi nodded.
“Clara and Henry are out there, but they haven’t come back yet” she said, and over their heads, snowflakes started to fall. Regina had only met Clara and Henry twice, and they were young and usually acted before they thought.
“Hey, calm down, they’ll be okay” Regina said, putting a hand on Heidi’s shoulder.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but could you go out and have a look? I can’t…” Heidi said, gesticulating towards her snowflake covered skin. Regina looked back at Serena, who now had sat down in the tent with one of her books.
“Of course I’ll help. I’ll go and have a look. Please make sure Serena stays in camp while I’m gone” she said, and Heidi nodded.

Regina explained the situation to, a quite unwillingly, Serena who finally accepted the terms of what was going to happen.
“I promise I’ll be back. Don’t go and look for me” Regina said, and Serena nodded, hugging her. Regina kissed her forehead before walking out of the tent and walked towards the wall. She walked through it, and it was empty on the other side.
“They’re probably in the city” she muttered to herself and sighed. Sure, being a teenager meant doing stupid stuff, but there was a limit, right? Regina had no idea what kinds of mutant power Clara and Henry possessed, or if they were able to control it. She walked through the park and was back at the street where she had almost died today.
“Thought I didn’t have to come back here for a while” she muttered and looked around. She tried to think in the minds of two teenagers, where did you go if you wanted to get away from everything for a moment? Regina walked a few streets down and stopped in front of the pub she had been to many times. It was a cosy place, and probably a certain place to find two curious almost adults.

Regina entered the pub, and it looked the same as always. The atmosphere was very welcoming, and in the middle, the round bar was standing. People were sitting around the room at the tables and booths, and there was even a flight of stairs which lead up to another room of seats. Regina looked around, trying to see if she could see Clara or Henry. No luck just yet.

“…so I had left it there from the very beginning!” the boy next to Eli exclaimed and the table exploded with laughter and giggles. Elijah snickered as he raised his bottle to touch the glass of the boy with a clink before taking a sip of the beer.
“How do you even remember to breath on a daily basis,” one of the other men chuckled. “Tell me about it,” one of the women continued, “Imagine trying to keep Colin’s ass safe on the field… Oh wait, that’s all I do!” The table responded in another round of giggles as Colin rolled his eyes with a smile, shaking his head. “Love you too, Maya,” Colin smirked, raising his glass towards his squad leader before taking a sip. “Can’t help it that you’re such a mutant whisperer.”

Eli ran a hand through his hair as he took another mouthful from the bottle. His cheeks were almost sore from all the smiling from tonight. Colin chugged the last few gulps from his glass before placing it on the table in front of them, giving Eli a light touch on the shoulder. The others at the table were already turned into smaller discussions, probably not to be too obnoxiously loud in the pub. They had gotten a scolding or two before from the pubkeeper.

“So, crazy eyes,” he begun, wiping the corners of his mouth against the sweater he was wearing. “When did you start seeing stuff? You know, different things, the creatures?” Eli shrugged slightly and pursed his lips as he tried to think back.
“Hard to say,” he begun, spinning the bottle carefully in his hand at the same time. “Might have been at the end of high school? I lived in this small town with my dad where there were a handful of people, but I believe it was on a school trip to a nearby city when I saw it first,” he said, pausing for a moment to take another sip. “I thought I was losing my mind at first,” he chuckled and shook his head, giving Colin a smirk. “My dad was already a depressed mutant despising man, so when I thought I was one of them, I just supressed it for the longest time. Then I learned about Grimms and, well, it all fell into place.”

Colin nodded understandingly before tapping his fingers on the empty glass in front of him. “Want anything from the bar?” he asked, but Eli shook his head, slowly standing up as he emptied his bottle. “Let me get this round,” he said, placing the bottle on the table before turning around, heading towards the stairs down to the bar. There weren’t that many empty places left in the pub, and some other groups and couples shared the upstairs area with them.
Eli skipped down the wooden stairs, glancing over to see if there was a line at the bar before his gaze suddenly met a familiar figure, the Wesen woman from before. He pressed his lips together and frowned slightly as he slowed down his steps. What was she doing here? He gave the upstairs area a quick glimpse before steering his steps towards her in the midst of the pub.
“Learned to look left and right before crossing streets yet?” he asked the Wesen with a slight smile, placing his hands in his front pockets at the same time.

Regina looked around the pub. It was fairly empty, but it still required her full attention to look for Clara and Henry. It was too many smells in the air, there was no chance she could locate their smell without being woged. It would be hard even in a full woge, considering the mix of Kehrseite and alcohol smells but also the vomit and urine from the bathrooms.
“Where else can you be?” she mumbled and actually considered asking the bartender if he had seen them. She could just be a worried sister or a friend; Clara and Henry were underage after all. Regina was just about to walk up to the bartender when she heard a familiar voice next to her. She turned her head and saw to her surprise that it was the Kehseite from before. She grinned.
“I actually picked up a book on the subject, quite interesting reading. I’ve learned a lot about road manners” she joked and gave him a flashing smile. For a second she wondered if she was going to keep the conversation flowing. She was here for a reason, she had to find Clara and Henry. But on the other hand she couldn’t walk away from him a second time just like that.

“So, you’re enjoying yourself on a Thursday evening” she said with a smile, gesticulating around the room. She could smell the beer on his breath and body odor, but it wasn’t nearly as much as some of the others around them. Regina had had her fair share of drinks in this very pub, and she had had a great time.
“Can’t blame you, I’d also drink if I saved someone from dying of blood poisoning” she said jokingly, holding up her patched up hand. It was a good thing that she hadn’t been healed by Melissa before she left, it would have been hard to explain to him how her wound had healed in such a short time. Regina looked at him again, realising that she didn’t even know his name.
“I don’t even know the name of my hero” she said with a grin.

Regina noticed how two Kehrseite walked down the stairs, quite loudly and they were swaying slightly. She could smell the alcohol reeking from their bodies from where she was standing. They walked past them, giving the man a nod and a grin.
"Be right back" they said to him before they looked at Regina. They studied her up and down in a fashion that made her want to punch their faces. They swayed out the door and Regina turned her attention to the man in front of her again.

Elijah couldn’t help to give out a small chuckle. She did humor him with her comments, even though he was not sure if it was her just being her or a way to cope with nervousness. He did hope she would keep calm in the pub and not risk woging, as he would be revealed the same very moment.

“I don’t always drink during weekdays, but saving you left me quite traumatized,” he grinned as he freed his hands from his pockets, crossing his arms loosely over his upper body.
He was about to present himself before two loud familiar noises caught his attention. There, down the stairs, two of the members of his group were slowly but surely wiggling their way down, laughing loudly at whatever they found hilarious in the moment. Eli could feel the gaze of the bartender scrutinizing the two men with a quite unpleased facial expression, but to the bartender’s relief they steered their steps towards the door and not the bar.
Elijah knew both of them well. One of the men, O’Brian, was a new recruit just like him to the Wesen control squad, and the other one, Lucas, was one of the few that were notorious for mutant casualties in their raids. He was good, but often let feelings come before reason. He was also one of the few that, after enough incidents and unfortunate casualties, was required to wear body cams on his armor to distinguish killings from real situations of self-defense.

As the loud pair made their way past them, they gave Eli a big grin and a nod, perhaps their way of approving him talking to this girl. Eli gave a slight nod back to the pair but could not help to cringe at their behavior, especially how they scrutinized her from her head to her toes in a very poorly disguised manner. As they finally managed to find their way to the door, Eli shot her a careful smile and cautiously scratched the base of his neck.
“Forgive my friends, they have hopefully had enough for tonight,” he said, sincerely hoping that they were going home instead of really returning to the pub after whatever adventures they were on right now. His best guess would be that they went to get something greasy to eat. They all had an early morning tomorrow, and it wouldn’t be the first time they would show up hungover.

“I’m Elijah by the way, but call me Eli,” he then continued with a smile, nodding his head slightly. “If you’re not in a hurry I could maybe get you something to drink? We have a table upstairs, unless you’re here with friends?” He had noticed her looking around when she came in, but would be quite surprised if a whole gang of mutants or Wesens would actually risk it by having a night out in a pub. Or worse, listening to their loud conversations, as he now grew a bit unsure how much they had actually said out loud at their table.

Regina had a bad feeling about the two Kehrseite walking out of the pub. They were clearly too drunk to function, and they seemed to be those kinds that weren’t exactly the funniest to be around when drunk. Regina tried to let it go and turned her attention to the Kehrseite, who she now knew went by Elijah, or Eli.
“I’m Regina” she said, putting her hand at her chest. She looked at Eli with a smile. He invited her for a drink, and her eyes flickered to the direction of the stairs. Were there more of his very drunken friends up there? Regina didn’t really feel like sitting among Kehrseite, drinking alcohol when she was supposed to do something else entirely. She had promised Heidi to help her find her siblings, and she had to keep that promise. But then again, why did she go to a pub without drinking anything? It would probably seem quite strange to Eli, and in these days strange was quickly associated with mutants or Wesen.

One drink, and then she could keep looking. It wouldn’t take too long to drink one drink.
“I could go for a drink. My friends clearly stood me up” she said with a laugh, gesticulating in the air around her. One of the advantages of hanging out with drunken Kehrseite was that she could most likely sneak out some information from them. Supposing they had any, that was. Regina walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. The bartender nodded and placed it on the counter, taking the cap off. He then turned to Eli, waiting for him to order. Regina took the beer and held it in her hands. It was cold, and she made a circle in the condensation on the glass with her right index finger. She had now turned her back towards the bartender, waiting for Eli to get his drink. Her ears picked up the sound of two voices, the same voices that had said hello to Eli before. They were probably standing just outside the pub. Regina couldn’t quite hear what they were saying, but she could swear she heard the word “hunt”. Hunting Kehrseite for fun or for eating was something certain Wesen did, like Blutbaden, Cyotls, Wendigo or even Balam to some extent. A few from each breed would always claim that the “old ways” were the best, which included hunting Kehrseite. However, at times like these, “hunting” could also mean Kehrseite looking for mutants or Wesen. Wesen wouldn’t be that stupid to talk about hunting in the middle of a Kehseite city.

Regina hoped she had heard wrong, but the thought had planted itself in her mind. She bit her lip, and turned towards Eli. She just had to finish the drink rather quickly, excuse herself, and then keep looking for Clara and Henry. She kept her face calm as she focused one ear towards the door, in case any of them said something else.

“Nice to meet you, Regina,” Eli replied with a smile, accompanying her to the bar. What the hell are you doing, he thought to himself, assessing the whole situation he’s at from an outside point of view. He had absolutely no doubts that she was a Wesen, which kind still a bit unsure, and here he was, a Grimm, offering her to join him for a drink. It is a justified situation, he declared for himself in all silence. This was probably the greatest opportunity he would gave to get to know a Wesen up front, which could most definitely come in handy in future situations. He was still relatively new to this world, and any information would be more than welcome. Besides, he had the upper hand at the moment, and nothing to worry about.

“Two beers, please,” he told the bartender with two fingers raised on his hand, and the bartender reached for two more bottles that he opened in a swift move in front of them. He had almost forgotten to get Colin his beer, which was his main goal before running into the Wesen girl.
“Keep the tone down, will ya,” the bartender said with raised eyebrows to Eli as he nodded to the upper floor before snatching the bill that Eli held out in front of him. Eli mimed ‘sorry’ with an apologetic smile before grabbing the cold bottles in front of him, turning towards Regina.

“This way,” he smiled, and made his way to the stairs. “If your friends do show up, they can of course join us, or maybe they’re somewhere up here,” he continued, giving a quick glance back to her before walking up to the second floor. His crew were still sitting at the same table, but now a couple guys short than before since O’Brian and Lucas had disappeared. Colin was still at the end of the table joined by two women and a man, but he looked up with a smirk as Eli walked up.
“I just wanted a beer, you didn’t have to bring me a date as well,” he laughed, grabbing the beer from Eli’s reached out hand. Eli rolled his eyes as he grinned and pulled out the seat near him as a gesture for Regina to sit down, before taking the seat between hers and Colin’s.
“Colin, this is Regina. Regina, please discard anything this man says to you,” Eli said, placing the beer down on the table in front of him.

Right, upstairs. It would be harder for Regina to hear what was happening outside if she went upstairs, but she didn’t really have choice. She walked behind Eli, and saw the table with Kehrseite which Eli belonged to. It was quite interesting that a little more than a year ago, Regina would have no problem hanging out with a couple of Kehrseite for the night. But times had changed, and she was much more careful now.

She couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow at the comment by the man, whose name apparently was Colin. He seemed to think of her like an object, not a woman.
“You don’t have to tell me twice” she said with a grin after Eli explicitly told her that she shouldn’t listen to what Colin said. She looked around the table, and smiled.
“So, I just met Eli after he saved me from getting run over by a car today, anyone else that he has saved the life of?” she said with a grin, taking a sip from the bottle and leaning backwards. Why not be comfortable when she had to pretend to have a good time? One of her ears were still focused on the stairs, but she didn’t hear anything else but the babble from downstairs among with the sound of the beer taps and bathroom doors. Of course she could partially woge, making her eyes amber, to hear better. But the tiny, tiny chance that anyone in the room she was in would be a Grimm kept her from doing it. She wondered if there was any possibility that the Kehrseite around the table knew if there was a Grimm in the city. Probably not, but it was worth a shot to dig around a little.

Regina wondered what the Kehrseite around her would say if they knew that they were actually socializing with a Wesen. One of the more dangerous Wesen even. Sure, all Wesen had their powers, but it would be much, much easier to face a weak Wesen like Seelengut than a Balam for example. She stroke a strand of hair behind her ear and looked at the people around the table. The majority were men, including the two that had left.
“Or what’s your deal?” she continued her sentence and made an including gesture around the table. It was always good to know how a group knew each other, and Regina also tried to remember how every single of them looked like, if she needed it in the future. You could never be too careful.

Colin gave out a quick sarcastic pout to both of their comments about him. “Nice Eli, always such a bully,” he said, smirking as he took a sip from his beer. Eli chuckled and raised his bottle to him in a salute. Colin was a great colleague, but sometimes said everything that came to his head without any kind of filter, which could sometimes get him in a lot of trouble. It usually did.

The group at the table listened to her speak with amusement. “Oh my, Eli. What a knight in shining armor,” Maya said sarcastically with a short smug on her face. “Did you stop the car with your bare hands?” Eli took a sip as he grinningly shook his head. “I wish!” he continued after swallowing. “To be frank, the car had already driven away when I swooped in, but yeah, I was quite irreplaceable at the scene in my opinion,” he chuckled, switching his amber gaze towards Regina.

When it came to their occupation, he was glad the others did not spurt it out immediately, something he half had expected Colin to do. According to code, it was not anything to be discussed in unknown company. To be fair, it was something none of them took too seriously in outings like this, thinking back to how they earlier had shared funny stories and scenarios from training and the field loudly among these tables. When dressed as a civilian, be civilian – it was just one of their protocols. A story among the ranks goes that off-duty military personnel were at one point targeted by mutants and Wesens, a way to kill off special corps outside the battlefield for example on their way home from the store, very effective and quick. It might as well be an urban legend like many other stories, but he did not want to take chances, especially as she indeed was a Wesen.

“I’ll have you know that you’re sharing a table with the finest people at Wesley & Hoffs Bookkeeping,” Eli said, raising his bottle. The others did the same, exclaiming their agreement to the statement with short whoos. It was one of their go-to occupations in needed situations and a way to get everyone quickly on the same page, and usually boring enough to be shrugged aside without further questions. “Penelope, Frank and I are in accounting, Maya and Colin are in administrational management,” Eli continued before taking a sip, gesturing with his other hand at the people seated at the table. “So even if Eli saved you, I’m usually the one saving this guy. His reports are rubbish,” Maya whispered loudly with a smirk, pointing at Colin who rolled his eyes in protest. It was the truth, but with a slight modification. Maya had saved Colin’s life so many times that it was almost becoming a joke.
“So what do you do?” Eli asked while placing the bottle down on the able and pointing his attention back at Regina.