CHAPTER FOUR
INTERRIM REST

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Josie did her best to push down her anger as they went to regroup with the others. It wouldn't do her any good at the current moment and she suspected it was being fed in part by her exhaustion. She'd been up with the sun that morning to get to work on time and now the sun wasn't even set. Normally, by this point, she'd be relaxing at home with her family, unwinding from the long day she'd had or even heading to bed early if it had been a particularly long day. But no, she was still on her feet and would need to be for some time yet.

Regina led the way, having somehow communicated to the other group they needed to meet up nearby and decided on a landmark for them to find. Josie walked behind Regina, Robin and Henry, her knuckles white from how tight her grip on her crossbow was. Her eyes were unfixed ahead of her, following only after the vague outlines of the three people that knew the way.

She would have to break the news. Not only to Nicholai, who had a particular fondness for Frank stemming from their similar redemptions from their dark pasts, but to her mother and sister. To her father, if they managed to find him. She would have to tell her father, if they managed to find him, that in his absence, her leadership had led to his best informant being killed.

Josie finally looked over as she noticed Henry lagging behind his mother and Robin so that he could walk next to her. She gave him a confused look and he offered her a white handkerchief.

"You have some blood on your face," he told her. "I thought you might feel better if you got it off."

"Thank you," she said.

She took the handkerchief and wiped her face with it, indeed feeling a little better without drying blood stuck to her face. When she went to hand it back, she found Henry watching her.

"What?"

"You, uh, missed a spot," he said.

He took the handkerchief from her and reached out, gently wiping away whatever spot she had missed just in front of her ear before retracting his hand and giving her a smile.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I will make it through this," she answered.

"That's not really what I asked."

Josie sighed. "No, I am not okay. But I don't think any of us are given what has happened to our two worlds."

"But you have more reason than most, with what just happened to us."

"Frank's death... I admit it hurts. I don't like people with no involvement being used against me. And Frank, he... he was a good man. He didn't deserve that."

"We'll find who did this," he promised her. "We're kinda amazing at catching the bad guy around here. My mom is literally called the Savior."

"I didn't know Regina held such a title."

"No, my other mom, Emma."

"Oh. I apologize, I thought Regina and Robin were in a relationship."

"They are," Henry said, smiling. "It's kind of complicated. Emma is my birth mother but Regina is my adoptive mother. I didn't find Emma until a few years ago."

"Ah," Josie said, understanding. "Not so complicated. Or, not the most complicated thing around these days."

The almost familiar sight of the White Lion came into view ahead of them, as well as the other group. Though they were still a ways down the block, Nicholai's head came up and he turned around before anyone else noticed them, nose flaring as Josie's familiar scent clouded by the remains of blood on her skirt hit him.

He quickly hurried towards them, leading the other group. He pushed his way past Regina and Robin until he was in front of Josie and holding her head in his hands. She noted that once more, his nose was flaring, searching for any sign that the blood was hers.

"Are you alright? Why are you covered in blood?" he asked.

"I'm fine, the blood isn't mine."

"Who's is it then?"

"Nicholai..." she started.

"Josie, who's blood is it?"

"It's... it's Frank's," she told him.

Nicholai's eyes flared blood red as anger overtook his expression. Josie tried to put a reassuring hand on his arm but he let go of her face, hands balling up into fists as he stepped away from her and then fully turned so he wasn't looking at her. She reached out for him again but before she could, he cried out and struck a wooden pole nearby, cutting a chunk right out of it.

Biting back her own tears, Josie reached out for him once again but he flinched away from her touch. She looked up at the wooden pole that he had punched to determine if it would remain standing and was relieved to see that it seemed to be holding steady. Josie counted this as lucky considering the wires attached at its top.

As Josie finally managed to reach out to Nicholai in order to comfort him, she heard Regina explaining what they had learned. She told the others with anger clear in her voice about how the witch they were after had Zelena and Marian, who turned out to be Robin's daughter. This dynamic confused Josie, as she had gathered that Regina and Robin were in a relationship and yet, he'd had a baby with Regina's sister. When he saw her confused expression, Henry assured her that it was a bit complicated and something he would explain at a later date.

With everyone up to date, they decided collectively that it was time to take a couple of hours to rest. Emma promised that they would go and retrieve Frank's body and bring him to a morgue where he would be kept from decomposing until they found the time to bury him. Josie thanked her, then departed with Nicholai by her side.

When they finally found their way to the van Helsing home, one of the men that her father employed, Eugene Hughes, came out the door to greet them. His eyes briefly widened at the sight of the blood on Josie's skirt and blouse, but he didn't say anything and just led them inside.

Luella was right there as soon as she heard the door opening. "Josie, darling? What happened out ther— Oh, my."

"I would very much appreciate a bath at the current moment," Josie said, gesturing to the blood all over her outfit. "And then, I think, some tea would be nice."

"Yes, of course," Luella agreed.

The mother quickly instructed her youngest daughter to go into the kitchen to begin preparing the tea with Nicholai offering to accompany and assist her. From there, Luella guided her eldest daughter up to the second floor of their home. While her mother went to draw the bath, Josie went to her room and undressed until she was in just her slip, pulling all the pins from her hair so it hug loose around her shoulders. She left her bloodied clothes on her bed for her mother and made her way to the bathroom where her mother had finished drawing the bath.

Luella kissed the top of her daughter's head on her way out of the room, causing Josie to smile. Once alone, she removed her slip and entered the bath, letting the warm water relax her for a few moments before she set about cleaning herself. Before long, the water started to cool and she dried herself off, emptied the bathtub and headed back into her room. She redressed in something more simple, a plain skirt she had for doing work around the house and the accompanying blouse, pairing it with a black shawl that her mother had made.

In the living room, Josie found her mother, Nicholai and their three hunter employees waiting with the prepared tea. Josie took a seat next to Nicholai and her mother began to serve the tea to everyone.

"So, Frank is... dead?" Luella asked, passing a teacup to Josie.

"Yes," Josie said.

"We'll have to give him a proper funeral," Luella said. "It's what he deserves after everything he did to help your father."

"I agree. No expenses spared."

"If we can find the cemetery," Oliver said. "Who knows where it is now."

"We don't know where anything is any longer," Nicholai pointed out.

"I hope whoever did this is as inconvenienced as we are," James said.

"They have to be. Whether they were from our world or the other, everything is different," Josie said, leaning back and sipping her tea. "Nothing is where it was before. I thought we weren't going to be able to find our way back."

"At the very least, it will make it harder for them to get their revenge," Nicholai said.

"Revenge?" Luella questioned, looking alarmed. "Is that what they are after?"

Josie nodded. "Whoever is behind this, she vowed revenge against... the one who stopped the power of the Dark One and freed a sorcerer named Merlin. Or something along those lines. It didn't mean much to me but the others seemed to."

"Others?" James asked.

"Residents of the world we collided with. We may not have been out there for very long, but we did manage to find ourselves some allies."

"And you said a woman was behind this?" Luella asked.

"Two, apparently, according to Frank." Josie turned to Nicholai. "Your group didn't see anything strange? Nothing bizarre happened?"

"Nothing at all like what you experienced," he said. "At one point, I was sure that we were being followed and when I mentioned this, Killian believed he recognized a person hiding behind a building some distance behind us, but he said he wasn't sure with the brief look he got and so refused to elaborate."

"I wonder if it was the same woman I saw watching us..." Josie mused.

"What woman?" Nicholai asked.

"Oh, well, when we first arrived at Emma's home, I saw a woman lurking behind a building and watching us, but I did not get a good chance to look as it was that moment that you smelled him," she explained.

"What was he doing watching you?" Luella asked.

"We do not know," Josie said. "Nicholai only smelled him, we did not get a chance to see him."

"Now that is two, possibly three, people who have been spying on us since meeting the others," Nicholai realized. "Does that not strike you as strange?"

"Nic, this is all strange," Josie said. "Our world has been forced together with another. Everywhere we go there are people watching us, strangers, friends and foes alike. Perhaps he was simply checking in on you. It would not be the first time and after all that has happened."

Nicholai scoffed dismissively. "He does not care that much."

"Perhaps not, but considering everything else that's going on, I cannot say that I am surprised he was watching us," Josie said. "What does concern me is the two women Frank talked about. At least one of them is a powerful witch with what she was able to make Frank do to himself. No offense, Nicholai, but witches are the most difficult of what we hunt."

"Hear, hear," Oliver agreed.

"None taken," Nicholai said. "The others of my species are much too predictable."

Josie glanced out the front window behind her mother and saw that the sky was beginning to dark into shades of orange and pinks as they began to pass from day into evening. Night would soon come to follow and the first night in Nightmoor for the residents of Storybrooke would not be kind, she was sure.

"We should get what few hours of rest that we need before the sun fully sets," Josie said, standing up and setting her teacup down. "We will have to be out on the streets tonight. Nightmoor is not a good place to be when it is dark and with what has happened, I cannot say I am optimistic. We will need all the backup we can get, so we will have to prepare our new allies to face vampires and what else will come out of the woods. I do not think it will end well if one of them were to be bitten."

"Agreed," Nicholai said, also standing. "Thank you for the tea, Mrs van Helsing, it was lovely as always."

"Yes, it was quite good, Luella," James said, prompting a chorus of agreements from Oliver and Eugene.

"Oh, no need to thank me, you're all family. Have been from the moment my husband hired you," she said before turning to Nicholai with a fond expression. "Or since the moment you showed up on our doorstep. Now go, the five of you, get some rest. Your room is made up for you, Nicholai, and the guest room is made up for you three boys."

"Thank you, again," Nicholai said.

As Luella gathered up the teacups and saucers, Josie led the way for the group to head into the hallway where the stairs led to the second floor. As they turned to go up the stairs, they all caught sight of someone sitting on the landing and peering through the gaps in the railing. A smile spread across Josie's face as she saw her younger sister, Tori, who had obviously been listening in on them while they were having tea.

"Have you been eavesdropping, Tori?" Josie questioned her.

"I'm worried about Daddy," Tori admitted.

Josie sighed and gave Nicholai and the three hunters a look and they understood, passing Tori up the stairs to disappear into their respective rooms. As she came up the stairs too, she extended a hand to Tori, who placed her small hand in that of her big sister's and allowed her to pull her to her feet and guide her up towards Josie's bedroom. There, the sisters sat on the bed and Josie wrapped one arm, covered in her shawl, around Tori.

"It's going to be okay, you know that, right?" Josie asked.

"I miss Daddy," she said.

"I know, I miss him, too. But we'll find him. Nicholai and I, James, Oliver and Eugene, all together. With the new friends we made. Everything will be alright."

"He'll be safe, right?" Tori asked.

"He's resourceful and careful. And the best hunter we know, right? How could he not be alright?" Josie told her, hugging her tightly. "Or do you not believe that he's the best?"

Tori giggled. "No, Daddy is the best!"

"Exactly. So he'll be fine."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You're going out tonight. And you and Daddy always say that it's dangerous at night," Tori explained.

Josie sighed. "Yes, you are right, it is dangerous at night. It's not just going to be me out there tonight, Nicholai will be with me and so with James, Oliver and Eugene. But it will be even more dangerous out there for those people who don't know what they are up against. There is now a whole town full of people who don't know how to protect themselves or even what they need to protect themselves from."

"So you and Nic are going to protect them?"

"We are." Josie kissed the top of her sister's head before unwinding her arm from around her Tori. "Now go, I am sure you have some reading to do before bed. Mother won't let you slack on your schooling just because we are in a strange land."

A sigh fell from Tori's lips as she stood up and went to the door. Before leaving, she looked back at her sister once more.

"Please be careful."

"Of course," she promised.

With that, Tori smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her as she went. When her sister was gone, Josie quickly dropped her shawl on the chair in the corner of her room before returning to her bed and pulling back the sheets. She didn't bother changing into a nightgown for the short little while that she would be in bed, simply tucking her long skirt under the blanket and then resting her head down on her pillow.

She did her best to push away all her worries and concerns and thoughts about the day so that she could get some real rest before the long, dark night ahead of her.

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an. a brief reprieve before everyone is plunged into more chaos. I hope you enjoyed it, too!