Meanwhile, outside of Bayfield in an undisclosed location, in a dark room, Rose is not happy.

Rose has had some very bad experiences with being locked up in the past and she can't say she's happy to find herself locked up again. She feels sick and panicky and awful. Things keep spinning out of control. Someone hit her and there's blood on her face but she's not so bothered by that as she is by the claustrophobic dark room she's in and the fact that she can't really move.

So she's doing the sensible thing and panicking, hyperventilating, and crying.

So of course she's too busy doing that to notice the little pile of unconscious faerie hooker in the corner. Auriel had put up A Fight. He had plans with Gem, damn it. He stirs now, drawn out by all that noise.

Sitting up, he sees Rose. He's very confused right now.

"Rosalie?"

Rosalie's only further confused by Auriel's appearance, or the manifestation of his voice. It's very dark, and her eyes haven't adjusted. Possibly because she's got them tightly closed. And she's busy hyperventilating damn it.

Auriel shuffles over in the direction of the hyperventilation.

"Shh," he hugs her tightly. "It's okay. We're going to be okay." Especially considering their kidnappers are up against the Clan.

Rosalie tries to calm down a little. It's Auriel. Auriel is not an evil and deranged unseelie rapist. It will be okay. He's also not tied up.

"Aurie," she manages, sniffling. "Can you untie me?"

They are not Going to Be Okay. They are going to Escape.

He works on undoing the ropes. They're annoying and well tied.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Absolutely none, you?" Rosalie asks, holding still so Auriel can untie her, and taking deep breaths.

"I know those assholes broke my side table, the really nice one."

"Aww, that's awful," Rose is momentarily distracted from the horror of the current situation. Poor Auriel! Poor sidetable.

"Yeah," Auriel is sad. That side table was very aesthetic.

"Well, once we escape we can get a new one," Rose decides. Priorities.

"I've been wanting to go to Ikea for a while now," Auriel muses. Rose's ropes, meanwhile, are all undone.

"Ikea, ooh," Rose says, "I saw this really cute bedspread in the cover... Oh! Did I mention," she drops her voice a little, "I totally got laid. Okay. How's that door locked?"

"Awww!" Auriel says, excited. "You big slut! Good for you!"

Rose blushes in the dark. She's running her hands over the door, trying to work out how it works, trying to feel it. Of course that's silly, because it's not physically possibly to feel the inner workings of a lock, nevermind for it to just fall open... oh, wait, it just did. Well, that's odd.

"He's gorgeous too... He's a ballerina. And a terrible homosexual," she drops her voice and peers into the corridor outside. "C'mon."

Auriel beams. He's happy about the door, sure but Rose got laid! By a ballerina! A gorgeous ballerina!

He follows her out into the hallway.

It's dark in the hallway, but there's a guard at the end, a guard with a big steel blade and a gun. A light flicks on, and he looks menacing. He brandishes his weapon.

"How did you get out?" he demands. Being a goon he's Not Very Smart.

Auriel shrugs. "What can I say," he says. "I'm very clever, and angry. You broke my side table."

The guard is confused by this. He did not. It was another goon, but all goons are interchangeable.

He waves his blade menacingly near Auriel's head, and Rose, unthinking, blocks it with her arm.

Something explodes. The guard goes flying.

Rose stares.

"What, the fuck?"

Auriel has an idea about that. But he looks confused for Rose's benefit.

"Uhh, maybe he dropped an explosive thingy. Goons aren't clever. Also, thanks."

"Huh," Rose is willing to roll with it for the moment. She picks up the goon's gun with her good hand. "Which d'ya think's out?"

Auriel gets the sword.

"That way?" He guesses, pointing to the right door.

"Worth a shot," Rose agrees. They head that way.

They walk up a flight of stairs into a large room full of goons and vans.

Things are exploding on the other side of the room, and goons are running around in confusion, yelling.

Auriel walks up to one of the vans, looking all inconspicuous. Escaping? Him?

The goon guarding the van raises his gun to shoot Auriel, but he gets knocked over by a fast moving blur of rainbow. Oh look! A gay hooker. Wonder what he's doing here.

"Hi," Cobalt says. He and Auriel were once at a party together. "Rose," Cobalt really just came for Rose. He looks horribly relieved. "Come on."

Auriel doesn't bother being confused. Today has been one of his weirder days.

Cobalt is tugging Rose by her hand. The room is in chaos. Only a couple goons try to kill them on their way towards the exit.

Auriel follows Cobalt. They're out of there soon enough.

They meet up with Cobalt's mother who's secretly Rose's daughter on the way out. She looks faintly guilty. Her ex and her wife are so going to kill her later on. But oh well.

They head down the street to where Di left the truck.

No goons follow. They're failures of goons.

Possibly they've grown a braincell and worked out what the fuck is going on and that really, following Diane McKnight is always going to be a Poor Choice and say, Remembered What Happened to That Felipe Guy.

"We got everyone?" Diane asks, quietly. She too is so fucked.

Auriel doesn't know if they've got everyone because he still has no idea what's going on.

Rosalie is equally clueless. Diane sighs and supposes she's going to have to call Hugh. That won't be any fun at all. Maybe not. She calls Alec instead, to let him know she's got Auriel and Rosalie (so Alec can tell Gem her precious hooker is fine) and to see if they're still missing anyone. A sundry boyfriend, apparently, but that's all.

Gem is very happy. She and her puppies have a happy party.


Everyone gets in the car.

Di starts the truck up. It's a tight fit since the truck has no backseat. Auriel and Cobalt are practically on top of each other. But don't worry because they're both straight.

They have girlfriends and everything. Auriel just totally happens to be a gay hooker.

Cobalt isn't even one. He's an assistant in an art gallery for heaven's sake. It doesn't get any more heterosexual.

They drive. They're quite a ways out of Bayfield.

"So," Auriel says. "You guys know why Rose and I were kidnapped?"