A/N: Not Thoroughly Edited. 

Chapter 4 – Hiding In Plain Sight (Samson Conrad POV) Pt.3

"Come on son," my father interrupts my blank staring, his hand on my shoulder, nodding I stand shakily, following him, "love, I'm going to get us all something to drink while we wait," my mom only nods her eyes on the door that my uncle Trevor left behind after finally telling us that they'd be moving my sister and Fatima into rooms now that they were no longer in the intensive care unit.

"I'd love to help!" my friend Taylor, jumps to her feet, Devin her sister nodding as well, but my dad waves them off, "No thank you girls, I just want to a moment to speak with Samson," he throws his head in the direction of the elevator and we walk together in silence until he's pressed the button for the cafeteria. This is different, I think silently, swaying on my feet from front to back the motion calming, but my mind is barely holding on it feels.

"You heard your uncle Trevor, he said Talia is fine-"

My head snaps to my fathers, eyes wide, wild even. Was he serious right now? Talia is fine? "That's... not what I heard," I choke out painfully. "You know she cannot... he said she could get an infection-"

"Talia has third degree burns, they're already doing what they can for her," my father Ansel says softly, "This is not the same as-" it's only look from me and all he does is stop speaking, the both of us aware of what he wants to say but does not. We do not talk about it... I do understand though. Not completely but I think if I were in everyone's position, I'd find it difficult to speak of, I do find it that way already.

"Someone helped Talia, this is not the same Samson," he rewords his sentence, tone adamant as though that is all I would need to believe him. Like a young child that hangs on the word of a parent, my father, my hero said it would be all right, so it'd be all right. That infallible pedestal I placed him on as a child no longer held true now that I was older. The door dings and neither of us move for a few seconds until we do, walking out side by side, "in fact, the same someone that helped Talia, I hear you gave a hard time," his nonchalance is just a show.

I snort, wondering who opened their mouths, Thaddeus? Caterina? Harleigh?

"What happened?" Dad finally asks when I've not given any sort of reaction. "Today – I'm sure is –" he stops speaking shaking his head eyes on his feet we continue to the lunch area, stopping at the counter, dad quietly puts in his order. We say nothing else on the subject of my treatment of Fatima, or anything else for that matter, it's a day hard enough on it's own, the family did not need anything to increase our inner turmoil, but that is life.

It could only be likened to the ocean waves and undercurrent.

Just because you're down on your luck did not mean life granted you a pass. Sometimes the waters were calm, other times it was a fight to stay above water. I thought we'd been trying to stay above water for the last year, but with Talia's hospitalization, I guess the sorrow had been our calm.

With trays of coffee and tea in our hands we head back upstairs, though I'm lost in thought once again, why would anyone attack Talia? The dorm rooms? Was this personal or was this just a case of someone leaving some electric device on that accidentally led to the blaze my siblings and I caught the end of. I have the same thoughts repeated until I'm at a point where I could smash my head against the wall for not putting together the pieces, the questions that my uncle Trevor asked. Testing Talia's blood, the seizure, and the fact that Fatima of all people was the one to pull Talia from the fire and even then, Talia did not immediately show signs of consciousness.

Nearing the waiting room floor, I shake my head, "Dad Talia never moved, third degree burns and she – she never once..." my father's jaw twitches, and it is then I realize late, that he's already on my mindset. I throw out that this was an accident instantly, I've never been burned to the extent Trevor claimed Talia was, but at the same time, I would expect some type of groan, or sound of displeasure and there was none of that.

"Pulling a corpse," Uncle Trevor's words raise all alarms in my mind, and I feel as though I've jumped into the coldest of waters, "why would she risk her life – run into that building?" I ask a loud, but I'm only seeking an answer from myself.

"She's a kind young lady," my father murmurs, having met the Fatima girl from the dinner I missed that Thaddeus and Brennan could not stop, "Very soft spoken."

"Tiny thing too," dad adds.

"Did you see her?" Taylor and I spoke after class, "I mean she looks as though she starves her self or something, and that hair, as though she has no idea how to use a brush!"

"Dude – you were so out of line," Harleigh had admonished me after the class, ignoring Taylor, "She's a nice person, I mean quiet, but she's new Samson – you do not have to go out of your way to be cruel-"

"I wasn't not-"

"Please, she paid for a bedroom, who knows what else she's paid for to get special treatment-" Taylor added, but Harleigh shook her head, "Yeah... I'm not sure what conversation you were listening too, but I'm fairly certain that Faith was implying that she was smart and would be held back by Samson... that does not sound like someone wanting to get close to you," Harleigh laughs at my expense.

Her cackling continues as we swap books from our lockers, "Samson she practically called you stupid but did it low key."

Scowling I shoot Harleigh a glare, her powers of annoyance in full force now, "I'm just saying – now that I'm sure we've all settled Faith is not trying to get you – well you can give her a chance, she's our roommate after all," Harleigh said with a shrug heading off, half way down the hall, Thaddeus joins her leaving Taylor and I alone. "Study up in my dorm after school? I can make us some dinner if you're game?"

I was going to shake my head but Taylor was persistent, "I know what today is and if you think I'm going to let you be alone today well then you do not know me very well buddy!" She said sternly, convincing me.

Blinking at the elevator dinging, I follow three steps behind my father and in the same moment Taylor, Devin and their brother Javier's parents – Shannon and Javier Senior – arrive coming from the elevator next to the one we left. "Oh Kalenah," Shannon cries, throwing her arms around my mother, rocking her as my mother hides her face in her friends neck. I follow dad passing out the beverages we returned with.

"How on earth did this happen? What do you guys know?" Javier asks my father, though he quickly eyes the officers that haven't left, but were giving my family a wide space, just lingering until they'd get a chance to speak with Talia and possibly Fatima as well.

"It was Faith, daddy," Devin cries one hand holding Brennan's tightly, "I mean she made Talia wa-"

"Talia sent me a text, she was cramping badly, and she said could not – the pain was a bit much so she left Faith and went back to the dorms," Javier interrupts – Devin – his sister, and Harleigh nods, "Yeah she said she couldn't go to her last classes and so she was going home to take a warm bath and then her muscle relaxers." Javier senior, my mother and father nod together, and understanding flickers in my mothers' eyes, "that's how Faith knew she was in there – Talia told her." Quietly I sit in the waiting room with my family, Talia was going to go back to her dorms regardless, but it's like mom said.

Fatima knew what the resident adviser did not and she ran into the burning structure. I spend moments wrapping my head around that, the flames ferocious behind my lids, and sadly it's taken me hours to even once even top the line of this subject.

Fatima wasn't human... not completely. I had sat next to her – granted it was for less than five minutes – but still... she did not smell fully human. Could that be the reason she entered the burning dormitory? I shake my head if only to answer myself. There were supernatural beings on the fire department in Bend; none of them had attempted to go after Talia, the building completely engulfed.

There were just some injuries that not even the supernatural was immune too – fire or – burning flesh was one of them. But what those firemen did not do was not the main red flag here, what did worry me, Fatima wasn't fully human, but that meant she was part human, weaker if some supernatural beings were asked. Is that why she asked to be roomed with my sisters? She knew they were not human so she thought she'd fit in with them? I shake my head again, that didn't make sense either, she was new, how would she know that my sisters...

I'm not all sure how long we sit in the waiting room before Uncle Trevor returns and leads us back to see Talia, and I listen as my mother asks him about Faith, unofficially of course.

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Kalenah Conrad POV

Getting a minute alone, knowing that Talia had everyone that loved and cared for her here, I take my phone, closing my eyes pulling one of the numbers that I remember listed for Fatima Safiya Ashlynn from her file. I had long stopped taking on clients but when Walsh reached out to me specifically, I had read enough, knew from the second sentence he spoke that I wanted to help this girl.

"We know you have your kids now, but I really think this girl needs you Kalenah, Fatima has been held captive all her life," I could not quite form a sentence in that moment, "she was not physically abused, not that she's saying or deny that, but I found her on a mountain, alone in a house, with the complete belief that the air outside was poisonous Kalenah..." I pulled the phone away from my ear, surely I heard wrong, but the conversation that followed only left me heavy hearted and seeking out my youngest – Amy – holding her in my arms.

After trying the number he reached out too me from, and getting no response, I call the number he listed, it had already been few hours, surely the school may have already called him. I wait, and two rings later, "Hello, Pomme speaking," I roll my eyes.

"Walsh, it's Kalenah-"

His no nonsense tone is quickly replaced by overwhelming concern, "What happened to Fatima? Did – did she have a bad session – what's wrong?" I shake my head wondering how I was the first person to get in contact with Walsh, but push that aside for later.

"We never even got to that – in fact-" I swallow, I wanted to admonish him for not giving me more information, I was not expecting Fatima to be the Faith that was rooming with my daughters, that was not in the file. Instead, I start again, "There was a fire-" I hear a gasp and listen carefully as I speak as well, "She's not – Talia my oldest daughter was inside the building Walsh, and Fatima – Faith," I sigh, "She went in after Talia, burned her left arm pretty good, but as of now, it's the fall she took-"

"She jumped out the window from her dorm?" he jumps, no, leaps, from what I said to what he's probably imagining. "No, she didn't jump from anywhere, she was pulling Talia and from what I could see she slipped backwards, flew down the steps and landed on her back, her head bounced and she-"

"Oh God," I hear Patricia and know that I'm on speaker, "I knew we should not have-"

"We're on our way – but how is she – what type of head injury are we looking at Kalenah?" Walsh demands information that we currently do not have past her drugs, "her brain was swelling but they've gotten that under control, as of right now, I think that she's holding steady, my brother-in-law Trevor, he is her head physician-"

"Okay – so no surgery?"

I sigh relieved; "No surgery," and I can hear Walsh and Patricia do as well. "We just landed in Virginia a few hours ago, had a stop in Newark first, but we'll be there shortly, if Faith wakes before, let her know we're on our way," Walsh orders ending the call to make the arrangements to come back to Portland if only for a short time.

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Going between both girls, Faith and Talia for the night, my Talia wakes first. "Ohh," I hear and startle awake, jumping to my feet, hovering over my daughter, "hold on baby, I'm going to get uncle Trevor," but when she shakes her head from side to side furiously, pain and fear etched on her face, I look at the door only going to the curtain instead that separates the girls and knock on the glass, calling my husband. Instantly, Ansel's eyes darts up to meet mine, jumping to his feet from the side of Faith's bed, he looks behind me darting out of Faith's room and when he enters Talia's room he does so with Trevor hot on his heels.

"Oh god, Talia," Ansel cries going right to the opposite side of her bed, "What – are-"

"It's h-h-hurts," she says her voice shaking from the pain, her hands squeezing mine and Ansel's as well I'm sure, "what – I-" my girl whines and Trevor walks directly to her IV, injecting something. It's not instantaneous but when it does take control of her pain her eyes flutter close.

The next day, while Talia still cannot bear to be awake, and Trevor sedates her at one point, from the police we hear that they suspect arson, and I know for sure that this was deliberate... we had enemies. Many of them, the type of people that wouldn't think twice about burning children alive – that may also think that our children, were abominations and that by killing them, they were saving... all I know is when we learn that the fire was deliberate, that also told us that whoever this was did not care that our daughter had the blood of a rare shifter.

So I take the news – of arson – tensely, knowing that Faith had ruined and altered a well thought out hit on my child, and it was all chance though. When I hear from Harleigh – fully – what happened in class that day with Samson and his attitude – the part Taylor his friend plays in it all, but most the attitude, which we had become accustomed too since Silas' death three years ago. Faith in a near panic in front of everyone in the middle of class and Talia helping her out, the text Talia sent saying she wasn't going to her last class.

A building Faith ran into, that not even well geared firemen wouldn't.

Talia's pulse so low that there could've been a chance that Faith would've left her behind.

The shriek of agony - her voice so timid - louder than all the commotion around us, the flames around her, burning her, she could've dropped Talia and ran out herself. Had Talia leaving the class with her solidified a friendship between the two? My daughter was the thoughtful kind type, had that unconditional kindness towards Faith, the children not aware of Faith's history been what saved her life?

"She might have been the one to start the fire," Shannon Rosario murmurs to my children, "I mean it's awfully convenient that she was around - I mean really Kaley... it's all a bit too much." Her words spark a whole new kind of feeling, yes our children were close, our family had been friends for nearly thirty-five years but she didn't know the truth about Faith like I did.

"My daughter wouldn't be alive if it hadn't been for that girl, the nurse already said that Faith was with her when the police and arson investigator said the fire would have been started, she had nothing to do with. You want to know what did happen though? I don't know by I'm willing to bet the kindness my daughter showed Faith is the reason she's alive right now, yes, she's suffering from burns - but she's alive," I snapped on the second day, standing abruptly and putting some distance between the crowd of family here. Away from everyone, I understood of course why Shannon, hell all of us should be concerned after hearing this attack against Talia was premeditated, but not about Faith.

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