My heart can't take this damage.

”No. No don’t apologize. I didn’t mean it like that. You have grown up, a little faster than I would have thought, but I’m trying to get used to that. When your mother first introduced me to you, she told me about it, about you being grown up. It’s just different meeting you. I thought I understood it, but I didn’t.” He was trying to say the right things, but he didn’t know where to start with this. ”I know you will. But if something happens, just promise me you won’t try to deal with it all alone. Talk with your friends or your mothers or me.”
He listened to her explain how everyone was working against each other. ”Then we need to remind them what it is important. I will come back with you and beat some sense into them. Literally or metaphorically,” he said with a short smile. ”Okay. So we will find another way. Just don’t loose hope. If you loose hope, you will not be able to find him.” He tried to think about anyone who could help them when she directly asked for it. ”I might know someone. If she can’t help, maybe she knows someone who can.”

She shook her head. She was way to touchy tonight and she couldn't really find herself in all these thoughts. So everytime she heard something knew, she was holding onto it like it was how she was supposed to be. She gave him a nod, when he asked her to promise him not to deal with all this alone. She tried but things were so complicated.
"It makes sense.. The enemy removed some of the glue from the group, and now they all are freaking out. I never really was apart of the whole group, I have my serpents.. but now things have changed.. they are my people.. my responsibility," she took a deep breath in. Mariella couldn't remember the exact moment she had become so close into the spiderweb of the people in the mansion - she had always tried to avoid it, keeping some things separate between her and Lion. But somehow she had stepped into the web and now she was stuck.  
"I'm not planning on giving up.. its not in my nature," she chuckled a little by the end. It wasn't. Maybe she wasn't an optimist, but she wasn't a quitter either. She could find to find him to her last breath if necessary.  Mariella gave him a small nod when he said he might know someone.
"Anyone I might know? Like everyone who might be able to help and will help is appreciated."

Jayden had not been through much hardship. He had lost someone he loved twice, three times if you counted Felicity, but a broken heart was not someone that killed you. Even though he had felt so lost since Clara died, he had started to find his ground again. He had a family now. Mariella knew him in the future, so he couldn't exactly just lay down and let the pain overwhelm him. He had been with someone since her death, but it had never been too serious. His situation with Dylan was complicated. He didn't know what he had with her, he just knew he liked her, and that was enough right now.

Jayden didn't want her to have responsibilities. Not in this amount. She was still a child. She deserved to be that. "Okay listen, I get that you care about them. You should, but other people are not your responsibility. You are not supposed to take their wellfare and safety on your shoulders. The only time you get to do that is when you become a parent. You are 16, Mariella. You are not supposed to take care of anyone but yourself. I am not telling you that what you're doing or feeling is wrong, but it shouldn't be like that. So instead of taking care of anyone else, how about you let me do my job as your father and take care of you for a little bit?" He suggested with a small smile, to not seem to harsh but neither to lose the point he was trying to make.

"Good," he replied. He didn't know if Mariella might know Dylan. He didn't know that much about her, if he was being honest. "I don't know if you know her. I'll give her a call. Why don't you go order for us? I'll have a number 16," he said and pulled forward his phone. He scrolled down his contacts until he came to Dylan's number. Why did he know so many people with a? "Hey," he said into the phone. "I'm not sure if I'm in a position to ask you a favor. I need help finding someone. I would do it myself, but I never got the hang on the whole tracking thing." His voice was soft and a tiny bit pleading. He wanted to make Mariella happy again.

Maybe she needed to know, it wasn't her burden to bare. She had kept everything on her shoulders, in hopes of not letting the others suffer to much in all this. If she could seem somehow calm - then they wouldn't worry as much. Mariella took a deep breath in and listened to her fathers words. She looked down by the end of his words, and took a deep breath in before looking back up again.
"Someone has to step up dad. Someone has to do something," she tried to put an argument. "I don't think about myself in this.. I don't know how to," she added but gave him a nod to he could take care of her for a while.

Mariella nodded once more when he asked if she would go up and order. So she walked up to the cue to wait for it to be her turn. Despite being a siren, she was a very picky eater when it came to meat. So she always ordered a plain cheese pizza with pineapples .- The would have her beheaded if she didn't.

Dylan looked at her screen when she saw Jaydens name show up, and frowned for a second. But she picked up. "Heey," she started, "everything okay?" She asked before letting him speak. Dylan took a deep breath in, when he asked for her help. "Of course I will help. Tell me the time and place. I will meet up with you for information," she answered without questioning what it was. She knew he wouldn't ask her if it wasn't important. "But are you alright?"

Mariella got a number and walked over to her father, but didn't interrupt him while he was on her phone. They just had to wait for the number to be called.

Jayden knew how to think of himself. He had been selfish in life before he learned to be humble and appreciate what he had. "And somebody will. We will, together. If you friends can't cope with this, if they can't work together, then we will teach by example. Let us show them how to work together, and then maybe more will join us." He scratched his stubbles on his chin a little. He watched her walk away towards the restaurant, before he started the call.

Jayden was appreciate when she agreed to help. "The forest, tonight at 10. You know the spot," he informed her. They had their first and second kiss in that spot. He looked to Mariella when she came towards him again. He smiled at her, but turned his face away when Dylan asked a question. "No. I'll explain tonight," he just said and ended the call. He tried to be strong. He was supposed to be strong for Mariella, that's what parents did, but he was afraid. He didn't know who she had lost, but he was afraid she would go through what he had. He finally managed to put on his brave face and turned to her. He put his arm around her neck. "Let's go eat," he suggested.

She smiled as much as she could. It wasn't much, but she tried. Mariella went back with her father to the appartement an told him the details she knew. That her husband was missing and she had no idea where to find him. It wasn't easy to talk about when you worried about someone who had been taken. Mariella stayed with her father the night. She was so tired that she ended up falling asleep while he was out talking to his friend.

//out <3