Searching Who: Patrick, Fiona, and Lochlan When: Early afternoon Where: The outer ring of town
Lochlan had worked himself out of being stunned at how they’d found the pub and that the girls were all missing and on into being furious by way of determined. It was fueling him as he texted his family and Lily’s brother as requested by Aidan. It was fueling him as they swung by to pick up Patrick at his place on their way toward the edge of town to search the houses on the outermost part of the dome’s center. It kept him quiet and focused and on the edge of raging at anything or anyone that got in his way. He was trying not to think about what could be happening to the girls. They were soft and beautiful and feisty and his. His sister, his cousin, his girlfriend. This felt personal on so many levels but reports were coming from everywhere that others were taken as well during the night. He tried to remain objective but he needed Eily to keep him level-headed and she wasn’t there. So he was relying on Fiona and Patrick, most especially Patrick as his alpha.
“I’m going to kill people by the time this is over. You know that, right?” he said to no one in particular as he looked into the windows of a house that looked empty or abandoned thanks to the dome’s doors shutting and possibly a good hiding spot for kidnappers. Especially if it had a basement. “I’m going to fuck some shit up before then too. How could they do this?”
Fiona had remained focused and determined due to the dire situation, refusing to accept the idea that something was happening to the girls or that they were far too late to be rescued. They couldn’t have been gone too long before she and Lochlan discovered the pub in its chaotic state, so there had to still be time. That’s what she kept telling herself, anyway.
She only nodded to Lochlan when he spoke, unable to find it in her to do much more. She had gone through an entire cycle of emotions in the amount of time that had passed and doubted that she was done moving through them; anger, depression, anxiety, and just about everything negative in between. She lifted her hands to her head, locking her fingers in her red locks as she growled in frustration. She felt so helpless and like all hope was close to being lost. She couldn’t afford to think like that, though. Lives depended on it, lives that were so important to her. So important to everyone. “Can either of you smell anything like them yet?”
"You and me both," Patrick said to Lochlan. There was no way there was not going to be some of exactly what his cousin had said, fucking shit up and probably some killing of people. He wasn't above it, not when those idiots had decided to mess with the O'Reilly's. No one messed with an O'Reilly, not on his watch, not ever.
He sniffed the air again at Fiona's request but shook his head after a moment, trying hard not to let it get him disappointed. He needed to stay focused, to stay calm and calculating. Someone had to and as hard as it was, as infuriated as he was at losing his family, he'd put himself in this position that required him to be level-headed. "Lochlan, how's your nose?"
Lochlan paused to also sniff the air, feeling like he’d done it so often now that smells had absolutely no meaning anymore. He shook his head and threw a frustrated kick at the outside wall of the house. “Nothing, man. Nothing familiar, at least. Should we check this one out inside anyway?” He wasn’t sure how long they’d been at this but it felt like their opportunity to find the girls alive and unhurt was dwindling to nothing. His energy might have been waning at this point if he wasn’t so angry. It was that alone that was keeping him moving. “You okay, Fi?” he asked, knowing she wasn’t as strong as he and Patrick were now.
Fi shrugged her shoulders lightly, not sure how to honestly answer that. She wasn’t okay even in the slightest. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically, but she wasn’t going to admit that to Lochlan or Patrick. They’d just make her go home and rest, and she couldn’t do that. That wasn’t an option. “I’m fine.” She relied on the typical female answer for if a girl is anything but fine, hoping that it would work just as ineffectively as it did in every other situation with men. “We should go inside, yeah.” She worked back to his question, adding her own opinion in. All she needed was one shot of adrenaline to her body and she’d be good to again.
Patrick watched Fiona, studied her, and thought about telling her to go home. After a moment of debating, he figured he'd be just as concerned for her there as he was here and at least here he could make sure she wasn't kidnapped too. Turning to the building, he nodded. "Sure, we'll do a quick sweep but if we can't smell them, then they're probably not here. We'd be able to smell them," He said, really banking on the fact that he believed he'd be able to smell his sister, his cousin, all of them. Heading toward the building’s door, he began the process of opening it eough for them to go inside, though quietly, slowly, just in case.
Lochlan wasn't buying Fiona's response. Not for a second. He gave her an annoyed look, his expression more of a revelation of his inner thoughts and feelings of helplessness. He wouldn't send her home but he'd sure as hell tell her she needed to rest. "Okay, let's go in. Fi, you guard the door. Sit down. Do it. Patrick and I will take a quick sweep and see if we can't catch a scent." He was beyond being nice. Fiona could take it or leave it but she was human and needed the break. He'd give it to her whether she wanted it or not. Lochlan was beside Patrick in an instant, pushing into the house after his cousin finally had the door open. Once inside he was assaulted with the smell of death and he struggled so hard not to believe that any of that was any of the three girls. He couldn't live without any one of them. He looked to Patrick as the elder, his cousin, and most importantly his alpha, his eyes dark with potential grief.
Fiona didn’t like being told what to do, but she complied only because she really was that tired. She slowly sat on the ground just outside the door, almost wincing at how much her legs burned from all the moving; the way they were running around, it took adjusting to again. Moving like this hadn’t been necessary since being trapped within the dome and she unfortunately hadn’t made much of a point of staying active. She just always adapted to the situation, relying on adrenaline to push her through whatever physical feat she had to overcome. She leaned over to observe her brother and cousin as they moved into the building, keeping her ears and eyes open not only for what they had to say about if the girls were possibly in there but also for anything outside that might pose a threat. Being outside and not having senses so on par with the boys, she didn’t get struck with any scents that caused alarm in her. Seeing the way Lochlan looked at Patrick, though.. that made her uneasy. She pushed herself to stand back up, leaning into the doorway more. “What is it?”
Assaulted with the smell, Patrick forced himself not to cover his nose and breathe through his mouth. This could be the girls, as desperately sad as that would be. He had to decipher but all he could smell was rot and decay, so he ultimately shook his head and decided he needed to really start honing his skills here. "It can't be them. It smells so old and they were only taken recently. It has to just be the house…" He watched Lochlan, hoping to see that he agreed with him because he was ready to leave and canvass elsewhere so as to not waste their time here. "It's not them," He responded to Fiona, keeping the feeling of uselessness out of his voice.
Lochlan was always trying to boss Fiona around because he thought he knew what was best for his little sisters, but this time he was simply looking out for her logically. She needed to rest. She was only human. So he was glad she listened. He'd make it up to her later if his mind ever came back to it. It might not. Not with that smell… His mind, instead, was swirling with guilt. He'd begun remembering that he'd simply told Eily to have Aidan walk her home when she'd asked him to come back and hang out after her shift. And he'd let Avery off with just text messages. Lily… he should have hung out until he knew whether she was doing a shift at Eatzy's and if not, he would have been with her. None of this would have happened if he'd been better. If he'd done more. It was shaking him to the core but he was pushing through it because none of those girls deserved to have anything but his top game right then. He wanted to argue with Patrick, tell him he had to know for sure, they had to go look. But instinctively he felt that was the wrong response to his alpha. So he chose to believe Patrick and nodded. "Okay, where to next then?"
Fiona looked between Patrick and Lochlan for a moment before she relaxed just enough to not be in full alert. If they weren’t insisting that the house needed to be searched, then she had to trust their judgement on the matter. She wasn’t really able to contribute all that much right now, so who was she to try and call the shots? She turned her back to them so she could inconspicuously rub at her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest before turning back to face them. “The next house, I guess..” Anger was coming back in full force, infuriated that all she could do was offer guesses that were probably going to lead no where. That this was happening at all. She clenched her fists and her jaw, falling silent as she internally fumed.