Business as Usual (Riley, etc.)

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie looked at both of them for a long moment, then focused on Roland as he spoke to her. "Hello," she said in her quiet voice.

The tension between them was powerful, and for a split second it grated at her. But as she looked at Roland, she started to understand the reason why he was tense. She looked at Riley and came to understand that she was misreading Roland, and this was the cause of her frustration. What these two needed was to learn how to communicate.

After a minute, she smiled shyly. She liked them both.

"I'm ready when you are," she said. "I need to go to the spot where Katie was found."

[Riley Neves]

"Hi Natalie," Riley said, feeling instantly better when she was looking at the girl. Despite what she said about having no motherly instincts, she was actually really good with children. It was hard to be angry when you were around innocence like that.

"We're both really glad that you can help us," she said when Natalie requested going to the site where Katie was found. "But if it gets to be too much, just say the word and we'll be finished."

She smiled reassuringly at Wesley, then finally looked at Roland.

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland could feel her eyes on him, but he didn't look at her. Instead he continued to focus all of his attention on Natalie. "We do appreciate your help," he said, echoing Riley's statement. "We'll try to make this easy on you, and we'll bring you back here whenever you're ready."

Standing up, he held out his hand to the girl.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie hesitated before she put her hand in his. It wasn't anything against him... she didn't like touching most people. That was often when she saw the visions. But she took a breath and got up from her seat, giving her father a slight smile before turning to Roland and taking his hand.

Immediately, images assaulted her and she closed her eyes as if to shut them out. When they had passed, she opened her eyes and looked up at him, a confused look on her face.

But she didn't say the reason for the look. Instead, she simply said, "Let's go."

[Riley Neves]

Riley watched this in silence. She felt bad for Natalie. There was so much anger and hatred out there that she couldn't imagine what she went through on a daily basis, and she wished the two of them tried harder to calm down before they came in.

She gave Wesley a smile and a nod, following Roland and Natalie as they headed towards the forest.

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland felt a little unsure of himself after Natalie's reaction to touching his hand. He was not quite aware of the extent of Natalie's powers, so he didn't know what kinds of things she had seen. But the confused look on the girl's face made him feel strangely uneasy. He actually looked at Riley for a second, trying to see if she had any thoughts, but she had slipped fully into business mode.

So he said a quick goodbye to Wesley, then walked out to the Forbidden Forest with Natalie's hand still in his. There was no conversation between the three of them, until they reached the spot where Katie's body was found.

"Here we are," he said. "Do you sense anything?"

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie approached the spot, a serious expression on her small face. "I'll need the both of you to step back. I don't want your thoughts and feelings to cloud my reading," she said. "You see, places and objects... they have memories, too. They have feelings and emotions and they can hold on to those of people who have passed by those spaces or touched those objects. But it can be hard to hear them if something else is drowning them out."

[Riley Neves]

Riley stepped back a few feet, in fact, and moved closer to Roland in the process, which may not have helped Natalie at all. She didn't know it, but something in her flaired when she was closer to him... frustration, most likely.

Her attention was focused on Natalie, though, still awed and impressed by her, and feeling infinitely sorry for her as well.

[Roland Ferrera]

Something flared in Roland, too, as she moved closer to him. He tightened his jaw and tensed his muscles, trying to push the feeling down and bury it deep inside him. "Take all the time you need," he told Natalie, watching the girl intently.

She was a few years younger than Amandine, and she couldn't have been more different from his bright, sunny sister. Natalie was like a cloud, whispy and faded. What kind of life could she lead, feeling other people's feelings that way? How could she know what was real?

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie waited until they were standing a sufficient distance away from her before she turned her attention to the spot where the body had been found. She closed her eyes and held her arms in front of her, as if reaching for something. She took a few steps, still reaching, then knelt down and placed her hands in the spot where the body had lain.

Images filled her mind, like flashes on a movie screen. They were quick and vague.... hard to make out.

Finally, she said, "This is where she was found, but not where she died. Someone moved her here. Two someones."

[Riley Neves]

Riley looked at Roland, raising an eyebrow. That certainly seemed to match their theories.

"Do you think you could look at the place where she died?" Riley asked, now certain that the cave she and Roland looked at before was the actual scene of the crime. She was willing to trust this girl, but she didn't want to push her luck, so she was leaving the choice up to Natalie.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie looked up at them, her eyes open. "Yes, I can do that," she replied. "Just give me another moment here. There's something... I can't put my finger on. It's just out of reach. You don't have any objects that belonged to Katie, do you? Anything she was wearing when she was killed? I can see the killer's shape, but not her face."

[Riley Neves]

Riley gave Roland a look. Natalie said she, and her mind was drawn back instantly to Bellatrix and Arachne. Both women just jumped to the top of her suspect list, tied for first place.

"I do have something, Natalie."

She pulled out a little leather bag. It looked like one that magically enlarged, but she only had one object in it. She opened it, and handed the whole thing to the little girl. It was the earring that Roland found by the caves.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie took the earring in her hand and was literally brought to her knees by the emotions it carried. She squeezed her eyes shut, assaulted by visions. She could see as if through Katie's eyes, only the vision came from the earring.

"She's at a cave... there's a big spiderweb. She was just walking by... she saw a spider that turned into a human. A woman... I still can't see her face. Katie's hair is in the way. And then I just see a bright green light..."

[Riley Neves]

Riley wanted to take it away and pull the girl into a hug or something to protect her from all of this, but she knew touching her would make things worse, and it was a strange, helpless feeling.

She nodded. "You can stop, Natalie. It's all right." Even if that was all mostly things they had guessed already, she confirmed them, and it was a huge help. She felt like the owed a lot to her.

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland was watching the girl with a similarly helpless feeling. It was good, in a way, because his urge to protect the girl had pushed a lot of his frustration with Riley out of his mind. It all seemed trivial, compared to their mission, the dangers that surrounded them, and the agony this girl must feel every day.

At Riley's words, he stepped forward and gingerly took the earring from her, hopefully ending the vision she was having. The girl really was remarkable... it had taken them a whole day to guess at what she told them in just a few minutes. But it confirmed all that they had already guessed. The only thing new that they had leaned was that the killer had apparently had help moving the body.

"Natalie, if you don't mind... you said that two someones moved the body to this location. One was the killer... did you see anything about the other one? Was that person there when Katie was killed?"

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie looked at him for a minute and nodded quietly. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and moved over to the tree in front of the spot where Katie's body had been found. Putting her hand on the tree, she closed her eyes and tried to see what it had seen.

After a minute, she pulled away, shaking her head. "I can't see the other person. I can see that there is another person, but they're hidden." She sighed softly. "They're thin... not very tall... that's all I can tell you. I'm sorry."

[Riley Neves]

"Don't apologize, Natalie. You've been a great help," Riley said. "Really, thank you very much."

She looked at Roland. She really wanted to be done with Natalie, to let her go back to whatever she was doing before this. She didn't want to cause anymore anguish for the girl.

But she would let Roland give the final word. Her eyebrows were raised.

[Roland Ferrera]

Roland was thinking similarly. They didn't need to go to the spot where she was killed... it was unlikely she would see anymore. At least now, they knew for sure what they were looking for. His eyes connected with Riley's, and they were free of the anger and frustration he'd turned on her earlier.

"Yes... I think that's enough, Natalie. You've really helped a lot. Let's take you back to your Dad, OK?"

He held his hand out to the girl.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie took his hand more readily this time, mainly because the visions she'd had the first time confused her enough that she wanted another look. She closed her eyes and didn't move for a minute, while the images appeared in front of her eyes. They were the same as the first time, and she still didn't understand them.

"OK," she said quietly. "When we get back to the school, I want to talk to you alone for a minute."

She looked up at him shyly for a moment. He was tall and intimidating, and she could imagine that some people would have the wrong impression about him. In cases like this was where Natalie's power was an advantage... she could see into a person's heart and determine what kind of person they really were. And Roland was a good person, she could sense it.