"Three Bouquets of Delight" By: Dawn Steele (h36a@unb.ca) Timing: After "LC Orders Flowers" by Arletta and Shelly. Note: The use of the "real" Urs was okayed with the Urchin Sympathisers, and the 'Leather' Urs is my own creation. :) The AU Urs of Kim Doherty used with permission, and beta read by Arletta Asbury and Cousin Shelley. Dawn shifted awkwardly in her delivery uniform. Made for a man's figure, it was a little across the chest. "Sub-contract! I'm doing this for a sub-contract that probably won't even net me a pound of chocolate!" A passerby looked at her with an overly expression and Dawn realized that she'd been grumbling a triffle loudly. The only reason she'd gotten the job was because Laurie had done the phone line interception set up with the Florist shop (they tended to be used in Wars), and then she'd been too busy to perform the job. //@#$@! This is what I get for not having a high profile. Forget to advertise before the war and no one knows you're a Merc anymore!// Thinking back to everything she'd done in the last war, Dawn suffered a millisecond of depression. //Maybe I shouldn't be hanging out with the Natpack so much. I think even the Great High Poobah is having doubts about my loyalties.// Guilt. She felt guilty and indecisive and wishiwashy and just like a wimp. Why couldn't she just stick with a single affiliation, faction or even one of the multitudes of fractions that were running around? //I guess it's just the same reason I was the Die-Hard leader for a few wars. Can't make up my mind.// So here she was doing a "Merc" sub-contracted job because spending time with the NatPack didn't give one time to advertise for herself or the time to give other jobs the planning they deserved. Lost in her own thoughts, she almost walked into a street sign but saved herself at the last minute. Looking around, she noticed that the sign was fresh with the concrete not even completely set. It sported a telephone number and a notice. Peering closer she realized that it must have been set up by Federal government officials as it was in both English and French. * Notice to all citizens of Toronto or in the immediate...* yadda yadda yadda *... to our attention of numerous beings arriving that do not meet the required standards of differentiation of appearance ...* //Huh? They've noticed there's a bunch of people showing up who look too much like each other?// yadda yadda yadda *... anyone noticing a cluster of such beings should reveal their location to the above number, whereupon appropriate action will be taken.* "Whoa! Gotta tell the Pack about this!" Dawn scrambled for the cell phone she'd "borrowed" from Merc HQ stores. "... maybe I should tell Dianne or Christine..." She started and stopped dialing different phone numbers a few times before giving up and shoving it back into her pocket. She couldn't face the decision of which group she'd phone and so shelved the matter from her mind. "They'll both see it soon enough." Besides -- it was probably the work of one of the affiliations anyway. The government or police managed to quite become aware of the real nature of the wars. It was like this magic force field aways protected them from discovery. Maybe she was even dreaming at this very moment and they wasn't a street sign there at all. Whatever. It wasn't just to do any self-analysis during wars. Bad for the psyched. Not back to the job at hand! Upon finally reaching her "borrowed" delivery van, Dawn started it with the keys tucked thoughtfully beneath the front seat. Her mind became clear and focused. She had a job to do and would stand in her way... not even herself. *********** delivery number one ******* CERK HQ ***************** After long and hard experience breaking into various places, Dawn finally figured out that sometimes the same innocent face that let bank tellers give her access to funds without any ID, that bouncers always believed and that her coworkers used to finagle free drinks could be used to further her mercenary jobs. So she waited patiently while the security guard took down her ID number //fake//, ran it through the computer //hacked//, and matched it with the employee pictures of the flower shop //planted//. She smiled innocently. "Well... you're cleared." He peered at the list of people presently upstairs. It was a mass of henscratchings, with names written in, crossed out and written in again with small descriptions beside each one. "But I'm afraid you can't go upstairs." "I can't?" "Nope. Only those on the list," he pointed to a much battered and scribbled upon sheet of paper, "are allowed inside." Dawn mentally cursed her luck and outdated information up one side of CERK and down to the depths of its underground levels. Her scaning devices had already picked up valuble information on the CERK security systems, but she would have liked the opportunity to see the upstairs. "Do you mind if I just wait in the corner over there and page the number I was given?" "Sure. No problem." A few minutes wait while they tortured her with bad musac on hold, and she got through. Now she just had to wait. Good thing she'd brought the cooler for the flowers. Half hidden behind a big fern, she watched the goings on in the lobby... with growing amazement. She'd known that LaCroix was one of the more popular characters, but the variety (and sometimes sillyness) of the AU's was amusing. * Swish! * The glass elevator doors opened to reveal a platinum blonde in casual black jeans and a forest green silk shirt that managed the feat of looking comfortable and beautiful at the same time. She walked casually over to the security guard and then turned around as Dawn hurried up behind her. "There's a delivery for me?" Dawn tipped her hat. "Urs" "Yes." She gave an assured, unconsciously seductive smile that caused the security guard to straighten up and forget about the little-miss-wholesome delivery lady. "These are for you." Dawn handed over the medium sized box with the fragile paper and the bow and watched as Urs delicately yet swiftly disposed of the coverings to reveal the heartbreaking collection of orchids clustered within. "Ooohhhh flowers! They're beautiful." Another smile, and a delicate whiff of the orchids caused the security guard to get a glazed look and allowed Dawn to palm his keys for a quick series of impressions. Urs lifted the embossed card that sported only a large "L" in black ink written with a bold stroke of the hand. Thoughtfully, she tucked the card back amongst the flowers and looked at them. She looked pleased, and tentatively happy. "Sometimes Lucian is so *sweet*." Dawn smiled, made the appropriate noises and forcibly resisted the urge to follow this Urs back to wherever she was staying in order to recruit them to the Urching mini-loop. This was no time to give in to Urchinly Urges. This was a time to... continue making deliveries. //On to the next one!// Dawn knocked on the door of the small apartment. It was vaguely familiar, as if out of a dream. Maybe she'd seen it in the last war? At any rate, the small basement apartment was in a well-kept building in the decent side of town. She'd noticed while walking around the outside that the basement windows had been blocked out. Of course the entire building was surrounded by low maintenance spruce bushes so it wasn't immediately obvious. She juggled the two boxes in her hands and knocked firmly on the door. After the craziness of the last week, Dawn was curious as to who (or what) would answer the door. Penguins, drunks and Mary Sue's were everywhere! Time passed and Dawn repeated her series of firm knocks. A little voice in the back of her head pointed out that it daytime... shouldn't she come back later? But Dawn was pretty good at ignoring that voice. It was the one that told her working overtime everyday and then playing in a war wasn't good for her. It was squashed by the larger voice that reminded her it night time, and had been for quite a while. It was only her internal clock that told her it was daytime. One moment the door was closed and then it was open. Urs stood in the doorway. She looked as though (funnily enough), she'd just been woken up. A short black silk kimono sort of covered her up, and her platinum curls played crazily in all directions. //D*mn! Even without make-up, she looks straight out of a prime-time-female-star-woken-up-but-still-gorgeous scene.// "What do you want?" She sounded a little grumpy and annoyed. Maybe she was the real Urs? Who's AU would she be otherwise? This the real Urs' apartment. "Flower delivery for you. Please sign here." Dawn shoved a clipboard into Urs' hands, and she signed it automatically. Still a bit sleepy, her last name was an indecipherable scrawl. Not that it really mattered. Dawn handed her the wrapped box and watched as she ripped it open. "Hey! These are nice." Urs smiled. "Who sent them? Vachon?" She rooted though the tissue paper on the bottom until she found the card with the "L" on it. "Huh?" The top of the flower box dropped to the floor unnoticed. Urs looked at me closely for the first time. "I don't suppose you could tell me who these are from, could you? I have a lot of 'acquaintances', and I wouldn't want to thank the wrong person." "I could call up the flower shop..." Dawn said. Urs waved her inside, and Dawn scooted in. This was good, and Urs wasn't acting all weird or psycho. Maybe she'd managed to miss the whole mess since she wasn't working at the Raven anymore and didn't see Vachon that often. The place was neat, with a weird mix of modern and antique furniture and wood floors. With Urs walking in front of her to show her where the phone was, Dawn made the observation that Urs painted her toenails green. It was one of those little moments that made you question reality. Dawn dialed up the flower shop, aka Laurie's the MercBard's room but there wasn't any answer. "I'm sorry. The shop doesn't seem to be open." "It's just that... there's Larry who fixes my car and who has a crush on me. There Lenny the scumball upstairs who's the superintendent. Leo who delivers my mail, and Lane who hits on me at work." "You're sure that's all the one's that start with 'L'", Dawn prodded. "I guess so. Why?" She peered at Dawn. "Do you know who it is?" Dawn squirmed. "You do! Tell me." "Do you know a Lucien LaCroix?" Urs' face froze. "Why would LaCroix send me flowers?" She looked at them uncertainly. She carefully left the flowers on a hall table and started to escort Dawn back to the door. "Don't I know you?" she asked. Dawn fidgeted harded than she had squirmed earlier. "Sort of. We met in the last war when you were resurrected from the dead and we gave you a 'makeover'." "Hey! Yeah... Dawn Steele. What are you doing in Toronto?" "You haven't noticed anything strange lately?" Surely the 'real' Urs (if this was the real one) wasn't stupid or she might have to reconsider her US status. "You mean the perpetual night, the weather channel people going nuts with boredom because the same weather system is repeating itself, and the strange people who look like LaCroix, Nick, and Vachon wandering around Toronto?" "Yep. That strange stuff." Urs shrugged. "I haven't really talked to them much since the last... War I think you call it, and I got back to writing music again." She looked at her wall clock and sighed in annoyance. "When things got weird outside I decided to just hang out in here til it was all over." "That sounds sensible." "I do that occasionally." They both smiled, waved goodbye and then Dawn was outside the door and left with a single flower box. With the same address as the one she'd just knocked on. //Sh*t! I meant to ask her if an AU Urs had shown up!// Am I supposed to knock again? Dawn picked it up, turned around... and got the fright of her life. There, standing in front of her was Urs. Sort of. She looked taller than Urs, even though Dawn know she was probably the same height. Her hair had been slicked back and she was wearing black leather from head to toe. "Hey Dawn! How's it going?" The sign that this Urs knew her wasn't good. Or bad. Or good. Or bad... Dawn thwacked herself a few times. This was an alternate universe Urs. Probably created out of an Urchin Sympathisers unconscious and reflecting parts of that person's wishes and dreams. //For all I know this could be my...// Dawn put a stop to that thought right then and there. "Uh, hi Urs. It's going just fine." "What the bl**ping bl**p are you doing in that downer of an outfit? It looks like something I would have avoided in the seventies." Dawn shifted uncomfortably. "Just a job." A small, battery sized lightball went off above her head. "Do you live in that apartment?" "Not really." She gave an almost imperceptible shrug. "Found myself in Toronto the other day and I've been getting these weird urges to go to the Raven, the CERK building and this place. I gave this address when I booked myself into a hotel though, and I thought I'd check it out." "So you don't know who lives here?" "Does it matter? If I want the place, they can leave or I can toss their body in the middle of Lake Ontario." Urs smiled and her fangs flashed for a moment. "I don't like sharing my living space." Dawn considered her options, considered them again and decided to live dangerously. "I think this is for you." This Urs ignored the clipboard held out and took the box. A blur of movement and she was holding the flowers with shreds of the box floating to the floor. "Ugh! I don't like getting flowers, everybody knows that. A bunch of dying plants that stink and make a mess you have to get rid of." Dawn frowned. This was weird, and the unpleasant thought of subconscious egos, Jungian shadow aspects and time rifts all led to the fact that this Urs was probably "hers". The leather could be from her guilt in wearing the leather jacket her sister had given her despite Dawn being a vegetarian. The swearing could probably come from Dawn's own lack of restraint on occasion and her frustration in being brought up so that she felt bad about swearing in public. Even the flowers were a bit of an exaggeration. She'd far rather get a live plant and the smell of a lot of flowers gave her headaches. The forthright attitude... probably her own tendency to bull through stuff. Dawn had no idea where the slicked back hair came from though. Maybe she'd watched one too many episodes of "Dracula: The Series" with Klaus the mixed-up vamp. Whatever had happened, she may recognize the result but that didn't mean she wasn't in trouble. What was she supposed to do with this sort of Mary Sue from Hell? "L? Who the bl**ping bl*p would just sign an initial?" Urs tossed the flowers in a corner. "Probably that psycho LaCroix. What a bl**p." "Ah... I've got to be going." Her time to escape! This Urs seemed happy enough to wander through this war without her and that was just fine by Dawn. "You're not going anywhere." "I'm not?" "Nope." Urs smiled and the fangs became more prominent. "I've been seeing a bunch of those Nick-wannabes slurping down some juvie without doing anything more serious than gettin' them high." "So you want to try doing that?" Dawn had severe reservations. The fact that all those donors were still alive (and non-zombies in contradiction to FK lore) didn't give her confidence since getting bitten by a vampire had never been a urge implanted in her subconscious. This Urs probably wouldn't be able to do it. "Nah. It just made me hungry." //BL**P!// Dawn started to back away. "But I'm an official card carrying member of the Urchin Sympathisers!" "I don't need any sympathy..." *THOK!* Urs face became almost a parody of surprise as she looked down at the stake that went right though her chest. "But... I haven't raised hell yet..." (insert screams, moans of agony and a death scene longer than Pee-Wee Herman's in the Buffy movie.) "I suppose I should thank you." Dawn looked at Urs. Still in her bathrobe, she now sported a few streaks of blood across her face. More Buffy flashbacks went through (in and out!) Dawn's head. "That's all right. I figure we're even." "Huh?" Dawn mentally thwapped herself again. She was saying that too often. "I remember the last war and how the Urchin Sympathisers 'recreated' me." She smiled. "You just did it a War ahead of everyone else and in a group." the end. **********************