Work Text:
Knock, knock
In my dream, dark twisting bodies swam around me before they launched themselves into the air, calling out "knock, knock!" I was floating, swimming, joining the sea lions in their game as warm, green water surrounded us. I felt happy.
Knock, knock
Then I felt like I belly-flopped. The serenity of my dream, probably an echo of my wonderful time at the aquarium with Matilda, fled. The persistent knocking shook my mind as it scrambled to remember where I was and what I needed to do next. Right, I'm in my room at the top of the warehouse. It's pitch dark and someone is knocking on my door.
"Catalina, come on, I'm coming in."
The voice through the door was irritated, not fearful. I could probably assume it wasn't another hit and run attack on Rogan's Houston base or an alarm would be going off instead of this impatient messenger. The door swung open soundlessly and the bright light from the hallway struck my face as I still lay in bed. I cringed and kept my eyes firmly shut. Now I was as irritated as my intruder.
"Nevada, what is going on! What time is it! This better be important."
Nevada had been driving our family nuts the last 24 hours since her husband, Conner Rogan, left the country with his mom to go to a funeral. Normally she would have joined them, but Rogan's grandfather had the poor timing to die one week before our family's protection ran out.
Three years ago, my sisters and my cousin registered ourselves as a new House. This wasn't really what we wanted to do since being a House and a registered Prime meant you essentially painted a target on your back. Now other, bigger Houses could try to blackmail, steal, or murder us in an effort to increase their power. Before becoming a House, no one cared what little Baylor Investigation Agency did or who we were. We were just a small subsidiary of Montgomery PI. But then my older sister, Nevada, got dragged into a big case which outed her as a Truth-seeker prime and it all went downhill from there. Nevada had a family meeting where she said that we had to become our own House or our evil grandmother could force us into hers. We voted to become House Baylor with Nevada as its head. Mom voted against Nevada's plan, and she couldn't be our head because she wasn't a Prime. Nevada has always been independent to a fault and the best investigator, so it all fell into place rather naturally.
But if Nevada was usually the one to take care of House business, why was she waking me up?
"Get up quickly and come down to the conference room. Augustine's here."
That's all she said before leaving down the stairs. Ughh, she was so bossy. She barges into my room in the middle of the night, answers none of my questions, and gives me orders. I love my sister, and without Nevada, or family would probably be homeless, but she's difficult to work with.
I follow her orders nonetheless. I was sleeping in just a big t-shirt, so I pulled on a pair of running shorts, slipped on pink flip-flops, and grabbed a hoodie to yank on as I descended the house to get to the conference room. I moved as fast my sleepy body allowed because of the name Nevada dropped in her request, Augustine. Augustine was CEO and owner of Montgomery PI, and owned the mortgage for our family's business. Per our new contract with him, Augustine could no longer compel us to work cases of his choosing. So why was he here?
The hallway leading to the conference room was fully lit and I heard Mom's and Nevada's voices from inside.
"Did you know, Mr. Montgomery, that this gun has a 50 caliber bullet? That means that at this range I could take your whole face out when I aim between your eyes?" Mom was saying in a falsely calm voice.
"Mom, please keep the gun pointing at the ground. Augustine is here on a humanitarian mission. He had brought no threat to our House."
Mom did not like Augustine Montgomery after his role in endangering our family three years ago. In fact, none of us cared for his smug, perfect face. He was a ruthless and conniving SOB. That's why Nevada followed up Mom's subtle threats with,
"You better not have brought any threat to this House. Or I will melt your mind as you stand here pouring out every last House secret you hold. I can do it, you know I can!"
That was my cue to get in there and play my family role, diplomat.
"Mr. Montgomery. To what do we owe this pleasure?" I cut in loudly as I stepped into the room. Upon hearing my usually soft voice raised like that, Nevada straightened from her stoop and removed a wagging finger from Augustine's face. For his part, Augustine seemed relieved to see me and only mildly irritated at my family's posturing. I wondered if he would seem so blasé about the implied violence if Connor were in the room, glowering menacingly like he tended to do. But, it wasn't worth it to wish for my powerful brother-in-law. The time had come for House Baylor to start standing on its own two feet.
Augustine stood at my entrance and declared, "Miss Catalina Baylor. Thank you for attending me. I have a situation that requires your special magic that is most urgent. If you would follow me to my car, we will leave immediately."
"Mr. Montgomery, please sit back down. I need a lot more information before I get in a car alone with you." I responded calmly. I didn't need to bristle at his overbearing attitude because my mom and sister were doing that for me. My heart warmed when I heard my mom flick the safety on and off of her gun. I suppressed a smile when Nevada jumped up and stepped to interpose herself between Augustine and me. My family was the best.
I sat in a chair at the conference table and watched as Augustine sighed, but relented and sat back down again. I was nearly as good as my sister at reading people, so I knew that he still wasn't taking any of our threats seriously. He was playing along, however, and not responding with threats of his own. Maybe he needed me that badly?
Once we were all seated, Augustine pulled out a cell phone from his silky tailored suit pants and showed me a picture of an adolescent boy. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had seen him before.
"Miss Baylor, I respect your distrust of me considering some of our previous dealings. But I truly am here only to save a young man's life. This is Ragnar and he's 15. And we must hurry."
"Playing the hero has never been a look for you, Augustine," Nevada said coldly, "Tell us what's really going on instead of taking advantage of my sister's soft heart."
My calm evaporated at this point. How dare Nevada insinuate that I was a gullible pansy to Augustine! I think she forgets that I'm now 21, and have been working as a PI and a Prime in the family business for all these last three years right alongside her. I turned toward Nevada and glared. She and I were going to have a long, and loud, discussion after this.
"I came directly to you because of the special circumstances of the problem. Right now, Ragnar is standing on the roof of Memorial Hermann Hospital and he's thinking of jumping. No psychiatrist or other hospital official can get close because he's a Prime. If we don't hurry, his broken body will be the leading story on the morning news" Said Augustine
I forgot about the power jockeying with House Montgomery and House Baylor, and playing referee for Nevada. This was life or death for this boy, and I had never dealt with this situation before.
"Augustine, you know that's not what I do! I've never pulled someone off a roof before. If I fail I'll be responsible for his death!" I said.
My sister was watching me and Augustine, frowning. She said confidently, "but you can do it. It's within your power"
I didn't feel so sure and I'm sure my face betrayed my doubts, but Augustine looked between Nevada and I.
"Nevada, you came to me once asking for a favor. I'm now asking you for assistance, from one House to another. She had one sister left. Right now she's at the hospital, praying he doesn't fall to his death.
Again my sister, who had a steel heart and I didn't know how Connor got through to it, responded, "and why are you coming to us, head of house Montgomery? I'm sure you have a special ops team on call that can take on one teen in a non-lethal way."
"I do, but I was thinking of his remaining sister. You see, most of this young man's condition is because his mom and other sister were killed in a house fire two days ago. I can't imagine what losing her little brother would do to this woman who had already lost so much. I want the situation resolved as non-violently as possible. And quickly. No one can do that except Catalina." When Augustine said my name, he looked right at me. His eyes had a little bit of desperation. His eyes were saying please even if Augustine would never let the word pass his lips. Maybe he was serious? As I hesitated, Nevada asked,
"What are the terms?"
It made me uncomfortable when we, as Houses, put monetary values on lives to save. I always felt like the House community should do magic as a community service, like teachers teach and EMTs save lives. I always volunteered for the pro bono cases that the business took on. Nevada knew this and quickly took charge of negotiations before I could be manipulated into another pro bono case, for the filthy rich Montgomeries no less.
"Miss Baylor, this is an exchange of favors. I helped you before, now you are helping me now. Right now there's a boy who needs help so badly that he only sees death as a way to escape. Are you coming, Catalina?"
"Yes, I'll try" was my automatic response as my mind thought about Ragnar. I thought about my grief at losing my father and how I could barely speak for days because the pain seemed to strangle me and my throat burned with repressed tears. I was thinking about how precious every life is. It is so precious that my family sold our house and mortgaged the business to House Montgomery for mere months with my dad. I didn't even look at Nevada or my mom as I turned to leave the room with Augustine. Nevada called out to Augustine, "This conversation was recorded. We're even now, House Montgomery!" But no one tried to stop me. They knew I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try. Our House has only three rules. The first is that when we're bought, we stay bought. We don't betray our clients. The second rule is that we don't do anything illegal, at least we try. Leon was having trouble with that one. But the last one is the most important. The third rule is that we have to look ourselves in the mirror afterwards. This was something I couldn't turn away from, even if there's no reward for your house. I may not be the scary, confident, and ruthless one like my older sister Nevada. Or the smart one like Bernie, or dangerous/crazy one like Leon and Arabella. In fact I didn't really know how much of an asset I was to House Baylor since I rarely used my magic. But my place has always been to see the unnoticed and help those that were helpless. This job was what I was made to do.
The head of the house only looked at my sister with a gaze like a Roman sculpture, emotionless and superior, as tugged his perfectly tailored jacket more securely to his body as he stood. Then he turned to me and his face softened with the concern that he had masked when confronting Nevada as head of our house. This is why I liked being shy Catalina. I maintained my distance from the media and I seldom worked the high-profile cases. I did best as the underdog, as the wallflower that poses no threat, until it's too late. In moments like this, I got to see people with their guard down. I wonder what else I could get from Augustine if he continued to be distracted by his mission and unchallenged by nice, sweet Catalina Baylor.
He grabbed and opened the door handle to see a semi-circle of people hovering just outside.
Bernard was there, looking very groggy still but already doing something on his tablet. Leon was next to him, leaning on the wall with his arms akimbo and giving Augustine an intense glare. He started ruining his tough guy look by twitching and fidgeting, however. He probably was trying not to pull out a gun on the powerful head of House. Maybe he was smarter than he looks.
Arabella was there, with her bright blonde hair going all different directions. While Arabella's shapeshifting magic is truly terrifying, her typical impression was that of a cheerleader. At this hour of the night, her spunk was absent. Her eyes were closed as she leaned back against the wall and I wondered if she would even remember this interview in the morning. The last member of the family was Grandma Frida, who was standing closest to the door and was probably the chief eavesdropper. She looked right at me, completely unashamed, and smiled.
"Make us proud, Cat."