Colleen Gallagher

“Who said I’m hiding?” she scoffed at the shade. Fatima thought she had been acting the same. Sure she was a little shaken by the whole brawl that had taken place, considering a good friend had died right before her. “If they come, they come. They may be more frightened the anything,” she simply shrugged. It would only be time before lines were clearly drawn and people found out who was associated with the Ouroboros. If it were earlier than planned, Fatima would still be ready for war. Handing her friend the freshly poured glass of wine as she came from her kitchen, she took a seat and propped her feet up on the coffee table. “He’ll be fine. Plus he’s a phoenix, so he has like ten extra lives,” she tried to make light of the incident. She knew Laila wasn’t pleased with the outcome and was trying to her best to keep the phoenix from blowing up. “Besides that, everything should be back on track and now we’re waiting for the next assignment from Grimaldi and the other heads.” 

Colleen shrugged. She didn’t know what to say to Fatima aside from be careful, which she knew her friend was already doing. She didn’t like that Fatima was now known to others, though. Colleen had hoped Ouroboros could remain in the shadows forever. Faceless, anonymous, and deadly if need be. “I know,” she nodded. “I’m more worried about Laila than him to be honest.” She knew how seriously the other phoenix took protecting her brother. “I’m...interested to see what they come up with next.” 

Collins smiled slightly at her apology because he knew she understood. Everyone who was part of the Ouroboros had joined for similar reasons so they all had those moments and days where the past seemed to haunt them but also push them forward with their actions. “It would be rude if you did.” Collins joked, grinning at the turn of topics from his sad past and now to his present company. “I think I would have been disappointed too.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be rude or disappoint you,” Colleen smiled demurely back at him, settling further into her seat. She had no problem being rude to people in general--she was too old for bull shit--but there were those whose good opinion she did wish to keep. Collins was one of them for the time being. “So it’s a good thing you convinced me to stay.”  

“Please tell me you have some good suggestions,” Heloise groaned, knowing that she was at least one of the least boring people she knew here. 

“I was hoping you would have some,” Colleen replied. “But how are you at billiards?” 

“It really isn’t anything you should trouble yourself with. Just that time of year so a lot has been on my mind. Nothing I can’t handle,” he told her. His story was known within the Ouroboros as it was the reason he joined with his mentor when he was still so new to the ways of being a vampire but then his mentor was killed not even ten years later. “No, please stay. I owe you a drink and your company will keep my mind off everything else.”

“Ah of course. Forgive me,” Colleen said gently, her tone gone soft. She understood completely. She too grew melancholy in the last days of summer, just before autumn took its hold. When the sun burned hot and reminded her of trying to escape into the shadows, only to come to a worse end. She allowed her smile to turn coy again, to pretend as if nothing was wrong and move them both past this. “Well then how can I refuse?” she asked, pursing her lips. 

Ramsey nearly stopped in her tracks at the mention of what had been bothering her. She knew that would take years to explain. “ Hmm. Too many words not enough hours in a day. “ She nodded. “I think I’m being haunted. “

“Weren’t you the one to say that time was a construct?” Colleen asked wryly, with a hint of amusement. Still, she followed, though she noticed the slight falter in the blonde’s step. “Haunted?” she asked, waiting to hear more. She wasn’t sure if this was one of Ramsey’s fancies again or not.

“Yo se, yo se,” Elio murmured, knowing that she couldn’t’ve left him even if she’d wanted to. not that she would have wanted to. If there was one thing that frustrated Elio about his best friend, it was her dedication to the cause. On some level, he understood it and on another level, he couldn’t leave that self-preservation mindset behind after so many years on his own. Still, he knew she wouldn’t leave anyone behind and if there was anyone else to get, would feel obligated to do so. So he hurried along the process, securing the towels around her hands as well as he could. “Just hold still–– you won’t be able to help anyone if you can’t hold onto them, Cee.” Shadow stepping was a precise art and he knew she’d never forgive herself if someone got hurt from her doing it. 

She smiled at Elio, hearing him trying to placate her, while knowing him well enough to know that he was likely frustrated with her desire to rush off again. It wasn’t that Colleen wanted to be sure the Ouroboros mission succeeded. She just wanted to make sure her friends were safe. She had no one else, no other family except those she chose for herself. Though she claimed to disdain closeness, she still could not protect her heart from caring about them. And her willingness to rush into danger had always been there. What otherwise sane person would be an ambulance driver during WWII? 

Colleen stopped moving, going perfectly still for him. She knew that Elio was only trying to help. And she appreciate it, appreciated him. She knew how hard won his loyalty and affection had been. Theirs was an unlikely friendship, but an important one to her all the same. “I just want to make sure everyone’s here and get it over with,” she said softly, giving him a half apologetic smile. 

“Not a hundred percent sure. But it’s possible,” she simply shrugged. If they did she would prepare herself for the possible repercussions of her actions, if not, she would continue on living to see another day. At the end of the day, the werewolf was ready to defend herself appropriately. “Should I fix you a glass of wine?” At Colleen’s proclamation of feeling okay herself, Fatima had to hold back her reaction unlike the as the shade had done earlier to her own response. “How’s everyone else? I’m assuming you made other house calls.” Everyone was hush hush about the aftermath as if nothing happened, it did, but like Fatima said, she was okay. As long as everyone else was, they could move forward. 

“Well you can’t hide in here forever,” Colleen said practically. “But nor can you go on not knowing.” She chewed on her lip. She didn’t like this. She had known that people would not take kindly to Ouroboros’ goals, and that sacrifices would have to be made, but lately she found herself worrying about everyone. The incident at the gala would have backlash for a while to come yet. 

“Please,” she nodded in response to Fatima’s question. She got up off the arm of the couch and moved to actually sit and make herself comfortable. 

Colleen shrugged again, this time in a ‘what can I do?’ sort of manner. “Everyone’s saying they’re fine for the most part,” she smiled ruefully. They were a hardy bunch. “Andrew is bored being in the hospital, and Laila is furious that he landed in there. Blames herself.” But who among them didn’t blame themselves for something? Colleen rubbed her hands together unconsciously, feeling the phantom heat she had felt when shadow stepping Andrew.

“I think I owe you a drink for being so rude but I would owe you many more if I burdened you with what was on my mind,” he told her. “My mind was able to escape me for a while whilst I drank by myself to fill the void of company but you are here now.”

Colleen rolled her eyes. “Don’t be coy, Collins. If I had no interest in knowing, I wouldn’t have asked.” There were only a few people whose troubles Colleen could say she cared about. She and Collins had grown to know each other well enough over the years that she counted him amongst those few. “Would you prefer to be left to escape into your mind?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, clearly poised to get up again. 

“Apologies.” Collins said to Colleen, rubbing his fingers along his forehead as to ease his mind from his worries and troubling thoughts. “I didn’t mean to ignore you- how are you?”

“I’m fine, but I think I should be asking you how you are. Drink for your thoughts?” 

“Because I love annoying people. It’s the perfect way to start my day off right.”

“That and coffee.” 

“Can I get your employee’s discount too?” She raised her eyebrows and plastered on her sweetest smile. “I’m just teasing. I can survive without it.”

“Depends how much you buy,” Colleen replied with a light laugh, and a wink in the young woman’s direction. 

Elio swore in Spanish, giving his best friend a look and grabbing some towels already, running them under water before wrapping them around her burned hands. “But he was still as hot as a furnace. You’re lucky it’s not worse. I’ll find Helena–– I saw her counting. Alexandre’s been in and out too.” He couldn’t say definitively if everyone was here, already one body had come through and Elio didn’t want to think of how Colleen would blame herself for that.

She hissed as the rough fabric of the towels pressed against her sensitive hands, the sensation only made fractionally better by the coolness of the towels. “Well I couldn’t just leave him there,” she said practically, a thin rod of steel in her voice. Leaving Andrew hadn’t been an option, and waiting for him to cool down hadn’t either. 

She nodded, closing her eyes for a moment in relief to hear that Alexandre had been in already. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t get into trouble later, but for the moment, the fact that he had been seen at all was reassuring. And Colleen was glad that Helena hadn’t tried to go dashing off anywhere since she shadow stepped the girl back. 

“I have to see if there’s anyone else to get,” she said, rephrasing her former statement. Because if everyone was not here, then her work wasn’t done.

Oh… she was teasing him without mercy, and he adored her for it. “My mother taught me to celebrate the small victories,” he said. The seat next to her was vacant but he did not sit down yet, not without her permission. 

Colleen could see that he was waiting for an invitation to sit. It intrigued her and was something she found refreshing. Men usually sat without asking, without being wanted. Here, this man had already made his interest known, but was still waiting. She liked that. 

With an elegant flick of her wrist, Colleen gestured to the seat beside her. “Would you like to sit while I allow you to try to convince me to keep you around for longer?” 

“And now say it in a way that will make me believe you.” Although what he said was perhaps not the most sensible, his tone was still gentle. Hesitation was still visible in his eyes as they, for a moment, were completely interlocked with hers. 

“No matter how I say it, will you believe me?” she asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow. She took a sip of her coffee. “Anyway, how are you?” 

He slumped down next to her, gaze travelling from the floor to the other as he did so. “How are you?” the question itself was causal enough, and the way he leaned in, perhaps too far into her bubble gave her the opportunity to answer so that only he could hear her.

He was a little too close for comfort, closer than she’d normally allow anyone. But he was Alexandre, and he knew that their familiarity allowed him more privileges. “I’m fine,” she replied, though only moments ago she had been telling him to go away because she was not in the mood.