Bad Blood ~Rewrite~

Twenty-One

"Tom, I'm glad to see you haven't changed," the woman spoke out suddenly as they all sat silently in the living room. Caitlyn stared intently at the two strangers. The first was a tall man. His broad shoulders had stretched across the majority of the doorframe as he stood behind his friend earlier. The other was a young woman with daggers for eyes. She stared intently at Thomas as a finger twirled nervously through her long red hair. She was much shorter than her friend and very thin, but more than anything, Caitlyn couldn't help but notice how beautiful she was.

Thomas glanced nervously at Caitlyn, looking away quickly before she could look into his eyes.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Luke asked, sitting beside the older man. "We thought you were on the run..."

"Or worse," Calum added.

"We were," he said, his voice pained as he stared down at the floor. "After the last strike, Depp had a target on our backs... we barely got out of the warehouse after they executed everyone else," he said, giving Dylan a sympathetic smile. "Since we were on his chopping block, we decided it would be best if we skipped town... our families were already dead, and we didn't have anything left to lose. So we bolted." Thomas looked down quickly as Annika tried to make eye contact with him.

"We spent our time traveling the country," she said, looking down at the floor. "Finding Depp's bases and taking them out... getting as much information as we could about his plans in an attempt to stop them."

"With that, we also gathered allies... we've been working on rebuilding the alliance so that we can finally stop the son of a bitch once and for all."

"So what are you doing here now?" Thomas asked, his voice dark and cold.

"Urie reached out to us," the man said softly. "He asked if we'd found anything and said that things here were worse than ever before."

"How many allies have you found?" Luke asked hopefully. "How do you know they're safe?"

"About thirty or so," Annika said softly. "They're all like Will and me. Lost crusaders, fighting to get revenge on Depp and his entire industry. Every ally we've met has worked with us on the outside to help us take him down..." Dylan looked down at his watch and sighed softly.

"Shit. It's eight. We need to head to work..." he said, glancing at his friend nervously. "You two can stay here while we're gone. Tonight, we'll go over everything." Thomas's jaw clenched as he stood up and looked at them.

"Just, don't touch anything..." he muttered. "You can stay in the basement..." Without another word, he turned and stormed off down the hallway. Caitlyn bit her tongue gently as Annika turned to her suddenly.

"Hey," she said suddenly, giving her a sharp smile. "I'm Annika. We've never met before." Caitlyn stared intently at the girl for a moment, trying to determine her intentions.

"I'm Caitlyn," she said suddenly, taking the girl's outstretched hand.

"Caitlyn?" She asked, glancing toward Dylan, who had gone off with the others. "O'Brien?" Caitlyn just nodded her head softly in response as she pulled her hand away. "Dammit... I'm sorry you got dragged into all of this. I know Dylan was working really hard to keep your family out of it." Caitlyn glanced at her brother and sighed softly.

"Yeah, well... I'm here now."

"How did they drag you into this, if you don't mind me asking?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest.