The List

Now, Ivan is used to looking well put together, twenty-four seven. But today? Tonight is different. His stubble has been recently groomed, his sweater is made of the softest material he can find, and the cologne spotting his skin is expensive, designed to be appealing. And with a couple of roses in hand, and DVD cover, Ivan is ready. He is fresh with a PH. There is unabated confidence on his features as he marches up to the apartment complex that he knows is Rose's. He had side-stepped possible trouble signing in by using an alias (complete with a visual mask).

Why? Why does this keep happening? It doesn't matter how secure the facility, or how watchful the people who work there. Hope is becoming resigned to the fact that if it's possible for it to happen, her sister is going to go missing. Hope may just recommend that her sister be stuck with one of those criminal ankle bracelets, so at least they can always have coordinates of where she is.

E-mails have been sent to solicit help from a could-be friend, and she's no clue if he even got the last e-mail or not. What she's sure of is that sitting in the security office, going through the last thirty hours or so of video is boring. The call to her parents was frustrating. And now?

Now, Hope is on her way to her sister's little apartment within the compound, trying to figure out exactly what happened and what the time frame. At least she knows what time her sister /left/ last night. It's a place to start. Without even looking up, she reaches upward to key in the code that will let her in without the swipe-card. She's not expecting that her hand is going to come up and brush against person.

"EEEEEK!"

You'd think she would have smelled him. But she didn't, and she's left feeling the softness of Ivan's sweater. Surprised, the man turns around to peer at the woman, his lips immediately breaking out into a broad grin of satisfaction. One of these days, he'll be able to tell them apart at a first glance. For now, he's just not that skilled. "Hey, you," he murmurs, voice low and intimate, and without giving the action further thought, he reaches over with his arms out wide, looking to envelope the twin in a tight hug.

The hug comes in, and hands lift up to push him away. "Ew! No! What in the world are you trying… are you /fooling around with/ my sister?" Hope glares at him. His presence here is at least why she couldn't find him at the apartment after school. "Get your hands off of me!"

Smile, Ivan! You're on candid camera, accosting the wrong sibling! Hope glares at him, then draws back. She spends a minute fixing her jacket and then shoots him another angry look. "I'm guessing by the fact you bathed in cologne, you don't know."

And, he's being accosted. But not in the right way - Ivan lets out a series of cries and complaints as he pulls away from Rose - except, she can't be Rose. Rose isn't so mean. Ugh. Stepping away from Hope, his expression turning sour. "What in the - hey! Geez, sorry. It's not my fault you look like…I'm not fooling around with your sister! You make it sound so fuc- so bad, when it's not!"

With a scowl, Ivan crosses his arms over his chest, growing solemn-faced. "I did not bathe in colo- wait. Don't know what? What're you talking about?" Suspicion, clear-cut and unabated, characterizes his expression.

Sigh. "I was really hoping you'd have her and this was all just a misunderstanding like when you broke the curfew for mini-golf." Hope actually looks out of sorts as she runs her hands down over her face. She doesn't look at Ivan again, just shifts to the side to type in her super-secret code and cause the door to open.

"I need to get in here and check something. I guess she left last night, a friend said it looked like she went to finish shopping. She didn't come back last night, but if I see that list I'll have an idea where to look. My parents don't want the police involved right now, since they don't want her caught in a media sensation, and this place has been good for her and they don't want to have to move her again."

Ivan blinks. Slowly, he uncrosses his arms, allowing them to fall to his side lifelessly. His lips are licked tentatively. "You hoped that I had her? Where is she? Wait - she's gone?" But Hope's already gone as well, having ducked inside the apartment. Fueled by that sense of mild panic that overwhelms him at the thought of Rose being out there in the unknown, he follows her stubbornly, even going so far as to reaching to grab her arm, and as a result, her attention.

"Hey - hey. Stop for a second. Tell me what's going on - please." That 'please' is like pulling teeth for him, but he's swallowed his pride. "I can help. She hasn't been here all night? When did you find out she was gone? Are you sure this isn't some…ah, god damn it Rose!"

"Gah! Let go of my arm!" Hope shakes her arm free, absolutely determined to find the list that Bobby mentioned. It's essential. She's focusing on it. She's attempting to not fall apart. "Better that /you/ have her than one of /them/, okay?" Considering how much Hope dislikes him, that's saying an awful lot. But she's got to keep her focus. She's got to find that list. She gets on the move again, heading for the kitchen.

"I don't /know/ what's going on! If I /knew/ what was going on, I wouldn't have just scanned through a day's worth of security footage. All I know is that she left sometime last night, and they called me this morning when they realized she didn't check back in at nine." Hope's lip wibbles, but at least she's got her back to the man so he won't witness the fact that she's about to lose her cool.

Ivan frowns quite heavily when Hope, once again, rebuffs his attempts to keep her in one spot for longer then five seconds, but he isn't particularly bothered by it this time. He's more bothered by her declarations. His brows furrow in that clinical, thoughtful manner. "She checked out, and disappeared? Gone?" Beat. "Hope, I need you to tell me everything you might know of any friends she might have. Any and all of them, vampires or not. She's a…she's a forgetful girl. She might have simply fallen asleep at one of their houses. Yeah." There isn't much faith in this declaration - and it's really offered as a way to console the woman. Really, he's already planning on heading to Will's estate the moment he leaves the complex in order to appeal for help in finding the mysterious Just Michael and Hiro.

Hope stops dead in her tracks just before she reaches the list. Her entire body tenses. She doesn't turn to face Ivan, just stands eerily still. Her shoulders lift up as she takes one deep breath, and down as she exhales. Then again. And again. After the third such breath, she spins to face Ivan, eyes filled with a near murderous rage. "SHE HAS FRIENDS THAT ARE VAMPIRES AND YOU ALLOW THAT?!? THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" No, it's not very rational, but considering this is the second time her sister has gone missing in less than a month, it's all she can do to hold on to her own sanity.

Extremely deep breath number four is taken, and she closes her eyes. "The only friend I really know about is this guy Wit. I have a phone number for him, but I haven't been able to get in touch with him yet. She doesn't talk about anyone else. I'm sorry for yelling, but I can't take this. Twice… she's supposed to be safe here in Dallas, it's why we moved, but she's gone missing /twice/…" Sniffle.

Ivan is sympathetic to the girl, he really is, as he watches her shoulders rise and fall with every shuttering breath. But when she spins on him and explodes…well, is it any wonder that his expression hardens. With his jaw clenched, he continues to stare at her with cold, disinterested eyes, a very faint sort of irritation stemming from his lack of patience. "I would appreciate it," Ivan begins, tone dangerously low, "if you would kindly refrain from attacking me now. I understand that I'm not your favorite person ever. But, darling, I don't give two fucks about whether you like me or not. The reality is your sister has gone missing, and we don't have time for verbal grudge-matches. Come here."

Calmly, he moves forward to, for the third time, establish contact between the two by placing his hand on her shoulder and inevitably guiding her to the couch, where he motions for her to sit. Once this has been established, he kneels down in front of her, so that their eyes are by the same level. Before anyone can know it, he has hit cell-phone in hand. "Give me the number the for the friend, please. And, relax. I will find her. She'll be fine. And we'll come up with a system to make sure this never happens again. It's alright. I know this must be hard on you, and I'm going to give you a chance to let it out in a bit, but for right now you've got to be strong. For you, and for Rose your sister…" Beat. "For Faith."

The list! Hope's struggle is out of her, so before she knows it she's seated on the couch. This is what happens when your mind is so focused, and you're at a breaking point. Her thoughts are just running rampant about her sister having vampires for friends, and her sister being turned into a monster, and her sister coming to kill everyone she cares about. So much so that it takes for him to actually be kneeling in front of her before she realizes she's no longer standing in the kitchen, ready to take the to-do list.

The number begins with 555, as most of these things generally do. The rest of the numbers are spouted off from memory, due to the frequent calls and call-backs from the last time Faith went missing. "Ankle monitor," Hope says, resignedly. "Tracking device. Lock her up. Can't let the monsters get her again."

Ivan takes note of the number rather quickly, saving it on his cellular device before throwing a curious look around the apartment and finding his way onto his feet. "You sit here," he tells the dark-haired woman, very conscious of the fact that something bad is going to happen to her. Either she's going to lose it completely or shut down. The air is crackling with her frantic energy. "I'm going to look around for any clue of any others, or any intentions she might have had for leaving. You saw the surveillance cameras, right? She wasn't carrying anything? No bag filled with clothing or the like, right…" Beat. "And before you protest and try to get on your feet, I want you to collect yourself. You're going to need a clear head for a little while. Panicking can wait until later."

And thus detective Ivan begins his search, glancing around table-tops and photographs, looking for any sort of evidence that Rose's disappearance could have been premeditated. He only looks back to Hope once she offers the 'alternatives' to keeping Rose safe, and he does not look impressed. "Lock her up? So, you intend to keep her life safe by robbing her of the ability to live at all? Interesting."

Hope recalls the emails, and begins to talk while he's talking. "No, Bobby was here before. He checked for me. He said that it was clean and tidy. He said there was nothing but a list." The list is important! "Nothing. Just her leaving. Could have been meeting someone. Once she leaves the grounds, they can't keep track of where she is. Don't know if the tapes were modified…"

Curling into a ball on the couch, Hope exhales a deep sigh. "Only way to keep her safe. Don't want to do it, but they'll want to. Put her in a padded room, super secure facility. If I don't find her, they're getting the FBI…"

"A list?" Ivan picks up upon, and with new determination, with a focus, he begins to scour the apartment, looking head to toe for this piece of paper. Eventually, he happens upon it, growing solemn when he finds it. Groceries, perhaps? Why hadn't he insisted on grabbing everything, like he said he was going to! With a tired sigh, he picks it up before traveling back to the living room and settling upon the couch beside Hope, dejectedly offering her the list. "Do you think he meant this one?" Regardless of her answer, he's going to keep looking for clues. But for the moment, he will take a short-lived break.

His eyes flash in her direction. "Keep her safe? You realize that there's no possible way of keeping anyone completely safe? Hell, we could be struck down by some sort of mortal viral infection right now. So, forgive me, but I don't much understand the concept of safety at the cost of the subjects happiness. What's the point of being alive if you're miserable the entire time?"

"You're asking /me/ that? Excuse me if I don't find it ironic. Dealing with /this/ does keep one miserable the entire time. My parents are broken people now. They're not just thinking of her being fixed anymore. They're talking about putting her away." Hope can't concentrate on the list at the moment, she's got to close her eyes to fight away the tears.

She shakes for a moment, then nods. "Groceries, I guess that's it. Looked like she had just a few things to get. Got to figure out where she went to get them. What busses she needed to take."

"Yes, I am asking you that." Ivan parrots, looking solemn as he fixes his hard gaze upon Hope. This is, most likely, not the time to be discussing the other sister's treatment, but…then again, this is one of the few times the two have managed to remain civil with one another. "It must be difficult for you, I am in no way negating that, but it's hard on her too. All that medication she's put on…it messes with her head, Hope. it makes her unstable and unhappy - it's made for people with mental deficiencies - not for people like Rose. She's not mentally deficient." Beat. "Perhaps…some sort of tracking device would be wise. Just to know where she goes when she disappears. But monitering and restricting her every move is not what she needs. What she needs is to be treated like an adult."

Alas, he went and pushed too far. It really isn't the best time to be discussing these things. Hope lifts an arm, extends her pointer finger and positions it so that it's pointing at the door. She doesn't say a word, not yet. Hopefully he'll get the hint and go before she loses it on him again. When he keeps talking about the medicine, she shakes her head. "You're wrong, and I think you need to go. She's /my/ family. /I'll/ take care of this. I don't want your help, or the help of those monsters. I'll do it on my own, and you need to leave before I call security."

Ivan pauses, looking a bit wary as he considers the woman. Finally, he exhales deeply, and for the briefest moment, he simply looks weary. He finds himself climbing to his feet, smoothing out the material of his clothing before throwing her one final glance. "Pride comes before the fall. I just hope you take what I said into consideration." Already, he is walking towards the door, uninterested in going through the motions of yet another Epic Fight tonight. "I'll let you know when I find her, Hope. I'll call you again." There is no 'ifs' about that statement - it's made factual by his confidence.

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