seas_open | [Closed - Caden, Coop, Les & Robert]

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[Closed - Caden, Coop, Les & Robert]

Whatever is responsible for this, April doesn't notice when it happens.

She and Caden have been back in town for a few days now and she knows he'll need to go back again in the next little while, but she plans on staying here. Not because she hadn't enjoyed her time in California, but given how much she's banked on Coop's generosity when it comes to her job -- the first legitimate job she's ever had and currently her only source of income -- she really thinks it's a good idea she stay and actually work a little.

She's unpacked, she's settled back in her apartment, and she spends a few days just settling back into town. It's a strange thing to feel, settled in any way, but she does. And she isn't entirely sure what she thinks of it, whether she likes it or hates it, but she's allowing herself to exist in this state, to give it a chance instead of rebuffing it as soon as she feels something out of the ordinary.

Whenever she uses her powers in Siren Cove, she does it almost without thinking. There are times she uses them to get what she wants, times when she's irritated and makes someone do something for her, but none of it is truly harmful in any way. Though it seems someone disagrees.

She's in a coffee shop, she's in a hurry, and she needs to get to the front of the line quickly, so she taps the guy in front of her on the shoulder, gives him a smile and asks him in a gentle, melodic voice if he'd mind letting her go ahead of him. In response he only rolls his eyes and turns away from her.

For the rest of the day she tries it on everyone she meets. She asks people easy favours, she suggests things for them to do, and while some people help her just out of the kindness of their heart, most just ignore her suggestions, and that's never happened to her before. She has never met anyone immune to her powers.

By the end of the day she's so furious she's trembling and she stands near the boardwalk, unsure of what to do or where to go. She needs to see Caden, she needs to tell him something is wrong, but she needs to see her father, too. Maybe he'll be able to track down whoever is responsible for this.

Staring out at the ocean, her jaw clenched tight enough to hurt, April finds the only thing she wants to do is scream.

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"Do you remember coming in contact with anyone or anything that seemed unusual?"

Cons, by nature, were incredibly observant people. That's how they plied their trade and how they stayed one step ahead of everyone else. It was unlikely that someone just shouted down a curse on April in the middle of the street but there might have been something she had noticed.

"And I know you might not like the idea but you need to consult an expert on magic. Spells always leave traces, someone might be able to backtrack it to the source."

"You so did not mean 'hi, good to see you,'" Coop says, rolling his eyes, though it's meant to be good-natured. "Let's go back to the whole 'your powers are gone, Coop' thing because the one time something like that happened to me, a bunch of was were like, marooned on a bullshit island after going on that bullshit cruise last year so it'd be really good to get to the bottom of whatever the hell's going on with you."

Coop realizes this isn't necessarily the best comfort he could offer, and he's capable of offering some pretty damn good comfort most of the time, but he doesn't think April's looking for coddling. Maybe the ice cream had made her look a little less homicidal but he can hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes, there's something empty about her right now that he's really not a fan of having to witness. This isn't the April he knows, the April who always looks so goddamn confident in her own skin, whichever one she happens to be wearing, and Coop's never seen her in her siren form but it's not like that matters.

There's always been something under that surface, something he's never been able to put his finger on because she's so guarded, and Coop's always respected that. Everyone's got their issues, everyone's got the rights to their secrets, and he figures that if she wants to tell him shit, she will. It's how he's always operated, not because he doesn't care but because it's worked for him, and it's worked for his friends. Right now, he'll be happy to stand here in silence with her if that's what she needs but if there's something, anything, that she can think of that might have led to her powers being gone, he'll be there to help work that out, too.

Whatever she needs, Coop will provide as best as he can. He's just a great boss like that.

"Hey," he says, this time a bit more gently, "if you want me to help you figure this out, I will. Just know that, okay? And if you want me to keep my mouth shut and let you be angry, I'll do that, too. Not for long, though, you know I have trouble staying quiet."

Even having dated two witches now, even considering a witch one of her closest friends and her boss, two titles she wouldn't give to most people, April doesn't know much about what they can do. She knows their powers are varied, but she's always figured if any of them wanted to tell her about it, they would, and so she's never asked questions.

But Les is telling her now and she's willing to try just about anything, so she knows.

"Whatever it takes," she says. "Anything."

She's usually very watchful, keeping a close eye on anything that might appear out of the ordinary, but nothing over the course of the past week or so stands out. She hasn't even been back in Siren Cove for very long and she doesn't imagine anything from California really matters. For someone to have traveled back with them seems a little extreme, but she supposes it's not impossible.

"Les can help," she says, thinking nothing of offering him without even asking first. He'll help her, she's sure he will. "He knows a hell of a lot more bout magic than you might expect."

She rolls her eyes, but the expression is more playful than annoyed as she licks the ice cream and tries to figure out what the best course of action might actually be. Fighting this on her own would be preferable simply because she doesn't like to be indebted to anyone and even though she trusts Coop, it still makes her a little nervous to think she might owe him down the line even if she doubts he would ever look at it like that. People in general have often proven to be untrustworthy and as a result she doesn't trust them, but it's been easy with Coop right from the start. She's not sure she'd ever say this to him, but he's made things easier for her in ways she doesn't even entirely understand.

"I do want to figure it out," she says. "I can't be without my powers, it's... it feels wrong." Her powers have saved her more times than she can count. They've kept her safe in the most dangerous of situations, they've given her confidence and a way to get out of anything that makes her uncomfortable. They literally kept her out of dangerous hands when she was being passed through the foster system and made it so she could keep other boys and girls out of abusive situations as well, though she knows she hadn't been able to save everyone she encountered. She's not a hero by any means, her desire to have her powers back are entirely selfish. If she truly cared that much, she would have stayed in Canada, become a social worker, used her powers for actual good instead of using them to make money. She's not fooling herself into thinking she wants them back for some noble purpose.

She wants them back because she feels vulnerable without them. Susceptible to any dangerous person out there in the world.

"I don't know how to be without them," she says after a moment, finally looking over at him. "It feels dangerous. It makes me feel like I can't defend myself."

"Okay." Les nods smiling a little that she thinks enough of him to trust this plan could work. It might not. His mother's scrying powers were far more advanced this his. If the person has traveled far from the area he would not be able to track them down. "We'll need time to gather up the supplies. I should be able to get most of it from Coombs and Co."

What he couldn't get there Riley would have. She was still out of town but she might be able help. He'd call her later tonight once he was back home.

"Do you want to come by my place in a couple days? We can do the spell then," he says.

"It happened to me once," Coop tells her, catching a drip of ice cream before it manages to slip all the way down the cone, and he glances at her before shifting his gaze back to the ocean. "That cruise last year, after the boat exploded, we all ended up on this island, right? All these people were hurt. They were crying and bleeding and begging for someone to help, and I've got the power to heal, even if it's not all the way, and what can't I do? Fucking heal."

It'd been a hell of a blow, and he remembers what Joel had said in his pained stupor about feeling like he was missing a limb because his magic was gone, too, and Coop sighs. "So it's not the same thing, but I kind of get it. Relying on powers to get you through certain things and not having them when you feel like you need them most, I get that. And I don't know who the hell would mess with you like this, but I promise you we'll figure it out. I'm very well known for keeping my promises."

He pauses because he's not sure that's actually true but at the very least, he's definitely not known for breaking them.

"Anyway, I'm well known for following through when I say I want to help my friends. You ever feel like you need someone to back you up in the meantime, you can always call me. I know you've got Caden, but you've got me, too. Don't forget that." He takes another lick of his ice cream before shifting to face her more, leaning his elbow against the rail. "Okay, so first thing's first, I guess. Have you pissed anyone off lately who'd want to take your powers?"

"I expect he knows a great deal," Robert said, though it was entirely possible Les did know more than he might expect. It wouldn't be the first time Les had surprised him, although it would be nice of it were a pleasant surprise this time. If April was sure he could help though then Robert trusted her judgement.

"I imagine you'd like to keep what's happened to as small a number of people as possible?" he asked. Really though, he doubted anyone would suspect that Robert wanted to return the abilities of a siren if he started asking around who could remove them.

Some wild, irrational part of Caden does want to go kiss that woman, if only because it might make April stop looking so upset. It's a thought that flits crazily through his mind and disappears, and it wasn't April's powers that put it there. He stays rooted to the spot and watches her, brows furrowed in confusion. She still sounds like herself, still lovely, but that musical tone that always puts Caden at ease is missing.

"Okay, we should--" Caden cuts himself off, because he doesn't know what to do. This is completely over his head, but he wants to help. He reaches out to take April's hand and squeezes it, looking at her earnestly. "Let's go back to my place, okay? We can call Coop. Or Joel. Maybe it's a witch that did it."

It's Caden's first thought, even though he doesn't really know anything about how this all works. Could a witch take a siren's powers? Is there a spell for that? He thinks of Ursula from The Little Mermaid for another dizzy moment, and shakes the thought away.

"Yeah," she says with a grateful nod and there's still a part of her that's terribly anxious, a part that feels wrong and out of place, but the idea of Les being able to help her puts her mind at ease just a little. She has no idea what might be necessary to make this right, but she'd meant what she had said. At this point, at the idea that she might be without her powers, she's willing to do absolutely anything to get them back.

"Thank you," she says, looking at him. "I appreciate that you're willing to help me."

"That's a safe thing to assume," she agrees. Not that many people even know she's a siren at all and she doesn't want this to be their introduction to the idea. The people she's told are people she thinks she can trust and she wants to keep this information limited to them. "I'll tell Caden and Coop mostly likely. And Les."

But although she doesn't say it, her voice makes it clear she doesn't want it extending any further than that.

"That's shit," she says. "I'm sorry." Because it is shit. If he felt anything like she feels now, it has to have been terrible and she doesn't use her powers to help anyone but herself. Coop is a good guy who wants to help others, who uses what he can do to make people feel better. She knows he uses his powers to help Spencer's husband find him when he was missing and there are times when she wonders if she would ever do something like that. The reality is that she likely wouldn't. If she was able to help someone, unless there was something in it for her, she probably wouldn't bother, because it isn't like very many people have bothered to help her.

Not even her own family.

"Not lately, not that I know of, but I've pissed off a lot of people over the course of my life," she answers, figuring she might as well tell Coop the truth if he's going to offer to help her. "I've taken a lot of money from a lot of different men and I doubt any of them were particularly happy about it."

She doesn't want to ask Spencer's husband for help, at least partly because she's certain he won't give it to her. He has to be a nice enough man if he's married to someone like Spencer, but he doesn't like her and she's never done anything to make it any easier on him. It's probably better to call Coop or Les, but she just nods, taking Caden's hand and squeezing it in return.

"Alright," she agrees. "Maybe Les. He's powerful." And he seems to know a lot about this town, information others might not be privy to. Most of the time she isn't sure how he knows as much as he does, but if he can help her, she isn't going to question it.

"Anyone that I ask will just assume I'm trying to find the way of removing the Siren ability of someone else," Robert reassured her. He's glad that she has people she feels comfortable telling though because he knows how easy it is to keep people away. From what he knows of April it would be especially easy for her to do so. Hopefully it's just not desperation that is making her do that.

"Of course, I am. We're friends, right?" Les gives her a softer smile. He's always going to be willing to help her. Amazingly enough, she is still letting him, and it means more to him than he could probably ever say. Their relationship isn't like that. It isn't built on confessing everything to one another, but it worked for them and he is grateful for it. She is his friend, and she is in trouble. He'd do whatever he could to help her get her powers back.

He steps away from the railing with a nod. "I'll call you when I'm ready," he says but pauses before he walks away. "Stay safe. With Caden or someone. Who knows if somebody really is coming after you."

For a moment she hesitates and then she says, "Thanks." He doesn't have to help her and she knows their relationship is still strained at times. Most of the time she isn't sure what she wants or expects out of him and she's sure he knows it. Their relationship just doesn't make sense and she isn't sure if there's a way it ever will.

But maybe they can make it work for them somehow anyway.

Coop only nods his agreement because this whole thing right now isn't about him, it's about what's going on with April. He'd had his time to feel like crap, like there'd been nothing he could possibly to do help anyone when it's the only thing he'd wanted at the time, but the thing is, he'd gotten his powers back. He can heal again, he can dreamwalk again, he can do all the things he's supposed to be able to do, and April is the one left without that same comfort. Sirens' powers are different from witches', but they're still effective on each other if there aren't protective charms in play, so he supposes it could be anything responsible for taking April's powers away from her.

Which makes the whole thing a hell of a lot more difficult but that's not going to keep Coop from trying to help.

Granted, he doesn't expect her to admit to pretty much being a con artist, so he lets a long moment of silence pass as he blinks dumbly at her while he continues to look at his ice cream, if only because he doesn't want the goddamn thing to melt all over his hand. He's sure he looks like a full-blown moron right now, standing there trying to process what she's so casually told him, but he's not really sure what else he's expected to do.

"Okay," he says slowly, "okay, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details but that on its own pretty much sounds like a decent reason for one of those guys to want revenge. I'm thinking I'm going to need a little more sharing time, though, you know? Just to like, maybe clear a few things up? If you're up for it, I mean."

"Right, Les," Caden says after a moment, frowning slightly. It's not that he has anything against Les, but he sort of gets the feeling that Les doesn't like him very much. They've barely spoken since the break up, even though Caden made sure Les knew that he wasn't upset, and that he was open to being friends.

But Caden's own feelings don't matter, even if he does feel a bit helpless. If Les can do anything to return April's powers to her, then Caden will do whatever he can to facilitate that, even if it means stepping aside.

"We can call him," Caden assures her, holding her hand tightly as he leads them towards his place. "When did this start?"

"Today," she says and she can be sure of that. She uses her powers a hundred different ways every single day, mostly in small, unimportant ways, but she would have known if it had happened yesterday. "Overnight, maybe. I used them yesterday to get that asshole at the Thai restaurant to give us a discount on dinner and then I tried again this morning and there was nothing. The guy at the coffee shop just looked at me like I was crazy."

It's not a feeling she likes. She's vulnerable now, open to anyone, open to other sirens. She doesn't like it at all.

She almost laughs when Coop just stares at his ice cream and as it is, the corners of her mouth turn up into a small smile. It's more than she's managed all morning and somehow it doesn't surprise her even remotely that it's Coop who manages to make it happen. It's always been easy to be around him, to be free of expectations, and he's strangely been the one to encourage the most open and honest relationship she has in Siren Cove. Robert might know more about her, but that's only because he's kept tabs on her through the years, which is still sort of creepy. Les and Caden both know a fair bit, too, but it's hard to avoid sharing things in a relationship -- which she has to admit she's in -- and she's done her best not to be completely closed off. It's a struggle at times, but she's doing what she can.

With Coop it's different. She doesn't think she'd be able to explain it if she tried, but she knows if she'd had a friend like him a long time ago, she might not be quite the woman she is today. If pressed, she wouldn't be able to say if that was something she would prefer or something that would undo everything about her that she likes.

"Agreed," she says and the prospect of coming clean should maybe be a little more frightening than this, but she's tired. Her powers are gone and she feels strangely empty without them and she's tired. Eventually she's going to have to tell Caden and as much as she doesn't want to, because she doesn't imagine he's going to react well, maybe she can think of this as something of a trial run. Coop can ask what he wants and she can be as honest as she's able and maybe it'll build up to what she'll need to say to Caden. "We can do that. I'll... do my best to explain."

"You know I'm always happy to help," Robert said. That certainly hadn't always been true but it was now. If that meant that April took advantage of him because of it then so be it. It was the least he could do for her after all these years. If that's what it took for her to be safe, or as safe as she could be, then he was going to do that.

"Bench," he says, waving vaguely in some direction or another, Coop isn't actually paying attention because he's tilting his head at April now and trying to envision her conning the more insanely rich assholes out of their money. It's really not that difficult, and he thinks maybe this is the kind of thing people should probably frown upon or something, but he's gotten to know April too well over the course of the year to think poorly of her in any way.

In all fairness, she hasn't tried to con him, so that's probably easier for him to say than those other dudes. He's pretty sure they must have all deserved it, though.

He starts to walk to the nearest empty bench, gesturing for April to follow, and lowers himself down with a sigh that's more indicative of his mental preparation for what she'll be telling him than anything else. "Okay," he says, taking a bite of his cone and snorting at how ridiculously inappropriate the sound of the crunch is in the face of something that's probably somewhat serious. But it eases the mood a little, and he's able to lean back against the bench with the tension that's built in his shoulders slowly fading away. "Okay, I'm totally listening."

"I thought he was being a little too accommodating, given his previous attitude," Caden says distractedly. He's not really aware of how she uses her powers, or on who. There are times when it's at least a little obvious, to him at least, but mostly he assumes it's subtle enough for him not to notice.

"Okay, today. That's not too long," Caden says, trying to reassure her. He leads her towards his house and bites his lip, feeling worried. He has no possible idea what he can do to help. "You'll be safer there, and we can call whoever you want. We'll get a whole team together to figure this out if we need to."

She hates the idea of having to be protected in any way and her jaw tightens a little as she frowns down at the ground. It isn't Caden's fault and none of her anger is directed at him, but it's there anyway, a little fire burning in the pit of her stomach. She's afraid that someone took this from her, that someone was able to make her feel like she needs to be protected.

"A small team," she says, her voice soft, her fingers still twined with Caden's. "I don't... I'm still not okay with having a lot of people knowing about me and what I can do." She thinks he'll understand that, especially when he's one of the few people she's trusted with the information in the first place. There's still so much she needs to tell him, but she doesn't want many people involved in this.

Now that they're here, now that they're sitting down and she's presented with the actual opportunity to tell someone all that's happened, she finds she doesn't really know where to begin. She sinks down onto the bench beside him and concentrates on eating her ice cream for a moment as she tries to decide what might be the best place for her to begin. It honestly all starts with her childhood and she doesn't want to go that far back, she doesn't want to start telling Coop about what it was like growing up in a series of foster homes or that she learned to use her powers by making sure no one hurt her or the children she was with.

"I didn't know I was a siren," she says. "Not until I was in my teens. My parents... well, Robert fucked off and my mom was an addict, so my sister and I were taken away and I had no idea, but I knew I could do things. I could make people do things just by telling them to and when you grow up in foster care..." She trails off and shrugs. "There's a lot of reason to tell people what not to do, anyway. There was no one to really take care of me, no one to help me figure out how to go to college and when I realized what I was and that I could just make people give me their money, that seemed a hell of a lot easier than trying to find a legitimate job."

And it was. It is easy and she loves it. She doesn't feel guilty, she doesn't see any reason why she should.

"I don't target men with children," she says. "I don't target good men. The people I've taken money from have generally been assholes, but that also means they might be more inclined to take revenge." She pauses, then smiles faintly and looks over at Coop. "I'm still wanted to New York and Alabama."

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[Closed - Caden, Coop, Les & Robert]

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