The morning after [For Eleanor/Daphne]

[thecautionarywhale]

New Year's Eve had started well. A couple hours out and then back to the Apartment with Daphne. They'd had a few drinks, watched a movie and kissed maybe more than a little. Then the reports started rolling in on television. The animals were attacking.

Juno had sat up, a baseball bat clutched in her hands, watching the cats and Milo. She was waiting for Captain Jack or Eve to go crazy.

Hours passed, and nothing happened. Eve had abandoned the living room to sleep on Eleanor's bed, and the Captain lay on the couch, curled into a fluffy ball. Milo was asleep in her room, on the floor near to Daphne. At 3am, after being cajoled be her sleepy girlfriend, Juno gives up, deciding that whatever happened to the animals in Darrow had passed their pets by. She puts down the bat (and why is there a baseball bat in their apartment anyway? It isn't even like either of them play the game) and goes to bed.

Sirens wake her the next morning. Groggy, Juno rolls over, reaching for her phone to see what time it is. Barely 7, and Daphne was still asleep. Milo has his head up, listening to the sounds, but other than that looks like he usually does. Alert, attentive, and waiting to alert Daphne if there is a problem.

She slips out of bed, thinking she'll go to the bathroom and get some water and go back to bed. Only her feet don't hit floor. Instead they land on a pile of cds and books, scattered everywhere. Carefully, she picks her way across the room to open her door, thinking that she must have knocked over the shelves while sleepwalking or something. However, that doesn't explain why there's a tipped over coffee table in front of her door, why the couch has moved, or why the kitchen chairs are pushed in front of Eleanor's room.

The hissing makes her freeze. Eve is sitting atop the kitchen counter, watching Juno. She has no idea where the Captain is, and honestly, she's a bit scared to find out.

"Um, Eleanor," she calls out across the apartment, her voice trembling. She hears Milo move and hopes that he's not gone rogue too. Juno wishes she still had the bat. "Eleanor, I think we have a problem."

Comments

[happy_dsign]

Of course the sirens didn't wake Daphne, but she was an early riser by nature, and it didn't take much nudging against her arm by Milo to wake her up today. She sat up in bed, frowning at the dog. "What is it?" she asked, because Milo wasn't giving any of his usual signals. He paced back and forth a few steps and then sat down, watching her intently and whining, though she didn't know that.

She climbed out of bed and noticed the mess, her mind immediately jumping to a burglar or some other kind of intruder before animals gone crazy, despite the news reports they'd seen the night before. "Juno? What's going on? Is someone here?" she hissed in what she hoped was a low enough voice to not be heard by anyone who might be lurking in the kitchen or something.

[thecautionarywhale]

She's practiced now at turning to face Daphne before speaking. Today, however, her eyes keep flicking back to the open door, even as she eases it shut. Juno doesn't want to cut off Eleanor but the other woman is in her room and the cats are both starting to growl and hiss.

"I think the cats are trying to take over."

[happy_dsign]

"Oh, no, are you kidding? Like the stuff we saw on TV last night? It's really happening here?" She shot a panicked look at Milo, who immediately came to stand next to her obediently, ready to work. "Okay, he seems okay..." she observed, which was a huge relief, but still left the question: "What do we do now?"

[thecautionarywhale]

It's a relief when Milo heels next to Daphne, her held breath rushing out. "I don't know. I'd say call someone, but I don't know when anyone is going to be able to get here if stuff out there is still crazy."

[happy_dsign]

Daphne wanted to call Scott. Her sister's werewolf fiancé would probably be pretty damn handy in a situation like this, but his secret wasn't hers to share. "So, what? Lock the door, stay stuck in the bedroom all day?" And of course, the moment she said it she realized she had to pee, because of course she did.

Of course, Scott had another connection, one that could prove far more handy in this situation. "Oh! I could call Scott. He works for a vet. Maybe he could...I don't know, get some tranquilizers or something and come over here? I mean...we don't want to hurt them if we don't have to, right?" Hopefully this whole bout of craziness wasn't going to end in every animal having to be killed, hopefully it would just blow over like things had done on the island, like things sometimes did here--but not always.

As for how Scott would manage to get from their farmhouse to the vet and to the apartment...that would be his problem to explain, she guessed. If even he could. She had no idea what the roads were like, just what they'd seen on last night's news reports.

[thecautionarywhale]

"No because..." Because they couldn't just be trapped in her room. They needed to get food, get to the bathroom, and they didn't know how long this might last. "because we might end up trapped in here for weeks if we do that."

Daphne's suggestion is a good one. Not that she's sure how well anyone is travelling through this, but it's the best idea that she's heard today. "Maybe we can corrall them. Into a cupboard, or closet, or something."

[happy_dsign]

Daphne bit her lip, looking around the room for ideas. "Maybe if you use a pillow as a shield so they can't claw you?" she suggested, thumbs tapping out a brief text to Scott asking for his help.

[thecautionarywhale]

"Or blankets? When we had to take Eve to the vet we wrapped her in a towel to get her in the box. Maybe I could throw a blanket over them?" She has no idea if it would work, but it's better than her bare hands.

[happy_dsign]

Daphne missed the first part of what Juno said, glancing between her and the phone, but she caught enough to get the idea. "Yeah, good idea, let's try that." She gestured to Milo, a silent command to stay, and then grabbed the blanket from the bed. "Be careful," she cautioned, because this was super creepy, and she didn't know exactly what to expect, but she knew even a house cat could do a fair amount of damage when it was angry.

[thecautionarywhale]

With Daphne she thinks they have a chance of corralling the cats without hurting them. At least she hopes they do, as she really doesn't want to hurt Eve or the Captain.

She pauses at the door, waiting until Daphne is looking at her before opening it again. "You count to three, then I'll open the door and we'll go, okay?"

[happy_dsign]

Daphne nodded, glancing at her phone hopefully, but there was no response from Scott yet, so she had to drop it onto the bed for now to keep both hands free. "All right. One, two, three!" She shook the blanket out, ready to watch for any flicker of movement once the door swung open. She didn't know if they would be waiting just outside the door or in the other room, so they had to prepare for any potential situation.

Gosh, she loved this place some days.

[thecautionarywhale]

Darrow was crazy. Full on needed meds crazy. But it was also their home, what they were stuck with and really.... What else could they do but deal with this crap as it got tossed at them?

Juno swung the door open on Daphne's count, and stepped out, blanket held up. The cats were looming, and she shrieked, tossing her end of the blanket over them.