Iscariot Ep 6: Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

[Evelyn Vell]

As they rode the elevator up, Vee contemplated her next move. Well, next moves. Iscariot was as good a place as any to spend a little time, provided one knew how to take care of themselves. Which she did. She was certainly going to spend as much time with Briar as possible, though she doubted anything resembling a romantic dinner ending in a pillow fight would occur, especially given Freyas presence. She didn't mind though, it was enjoyable enough just to be around people she liked, and she would hold on to that as long as she could. She'd figure out what to do next after this happy little adventure ended. Next to her in the elevator Briar let out a groan, which earned her a questioning look from Vee. "Ugh, I can't believe I gotta go back to the drawing board! ... Unless..." Vee just smiled, pretty sure they Briar was mostly talking to herself.

As they stepped off the elevator Briar spoke again. "Maybe you could pick for me. Be my lucky ladies for tonight?" Vee grinned. "Well, I for one am certainly feeling lucky." "After accommodations, of course," "After accommodations." She agreed.

The motel they entered was pretty standard as motels went. The man behind the counter certainly wasn't. Vee cast an appraising eye over him as she let Briar do the talking. "Got any vacancy for three? Oh, I love the look," Sequins gave them an appraising look of his own, and seemingly satisfied, he replied. "For you? Of course! Two beds then? A queen and a twin?" he asked, checking his computer screen. "We have continental breakfast in the morning, simple stuff, packaged things and what not. There's another couple staying here with a kid about your daughter's age, if you're looking for friends," Vee looked down at Freya, curious what her response would be. "No friends, please," Vee smiled and gave Sequins a shrug. "Smokin' or non smokin?" he asked. "Ah, non smoking, if possible." She was about to ask what the room was going to cost them when the announcement rang out through the station.

"ALLIANCE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS CONDUCTING AN OPERATION, SHELTER IN PLACE AND DO NOT INTERFERE. REPEAT. ALLIANCE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS..."

A sizable chunk of adrenaline shot into E.Vs system. Outside the motel it was pure chaos, shops hurriedly closing, people disappearing into every alley, household, and she even saw a few dive into the vent. She opened her mouth to speak but Sequins demeanor had changed in an instant. "Two beds it is, Queen and Twin, non-smokin', I'll collect the payment once this's all over. I recommend goin' to your room and stayin' there for a bit," he said, as he moved to the front door and pulled the metal shutter down and locked them. She nodded to him, grabbed the room key and Freyas hand, and turned to Briar. "Well, up we go." And up they went.

"Nothing to worry about I'm sure." She continued, directed as much at herself as the young girl whose hand she held. "Alliance love to pound their chests and make a scene, remind us they're there. Probably just picking up some young punk who mouthed off at the wrong Fed... Ah, here we are!" She finished, making sure to sound totally unbothered, despite the blood pounding in her ears and the little illogical voice in the back of her head wondering if her happy little adventure was about to end with her being dragged off by some faceless purple belly. She unlocked and opened the door, only fumbling with the key a little, and stepped back to let Briar and Freya go in ahead of her, casting a furtive look back down the hall before following them inside. "Home sweet home for the next... however many days!"

[Briar Williams]

"We have continental breakfast in the morning, simple stuff, packaged things and what not. There's another couple staying here with a kid about your daughter's age, if you're looking for friends."

The man's words hit Briar like a ton of bricks. She let out an incredulous chuckle, trying to think of a delicate way out of the awkward misunderstanding.

"No friends, please." Freya didn't seem to mind Briar and E.V. being mistaken for her parents. That made sense. At the end of the day she was a kid, parents or no parents... and they were kind of her guardians for the time being... Oh God, they were her guardians. Moments earlier she'd been having fun role playing a family vacation, but all of a sudden it didn't sit so well with her.

"Uh. We're not--" Briar began, but the man kept forging on ahead.

"Smokin' or non smokin?"

"Ah, non smoking, if possible." E.V. didn't seem to deem it necessary to clear up the confusion, and Briar could feel her face getting hot.

"Hang on a sec--" her second protest was cut off by the announcement suddenly blaring from the station comms.

"ALLIANCE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS CONDUCTING AN OPERATION, SHELTER IN PLACE AND DO NOT INTERFERE. REPEAT. ALLIANCE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IS..."

Briar froze like a deer in the headlights, her gaze darting towards the commotion outside. They're here for me! No, of course they weren't there for her. But what if they were looking to do some random shake-ups while they were here? She'd been keeping her nose pretty clean recently, but not clean enough for someone who'd already gone to penal colony once. She really didn't fancy a run-in with the Feds.

The pilot barely paid attention to what E.V. was saying on their way to their room. Her mind was too distracted by the triple whammy of them being mistaken for a nuclear family unit, the Feds suddenly barging into the station and the slow realization that her plans for betting-related fun might have to be suspended indefinitely. Any one of those would have sucked on its own, but together they put her in a very strange mental space.

She walked through the door in a daze. For a moment she just stood there in silence, blinking at the room before her without really registering any of the details. After a beat she turned to E.V.

"I don't really look like a mom, do I?" She didn't even know where to begin to untangle the mess that had formed in her head within the past ten minutes or so, but that seemed like as good a place as any to start.

"Not that there's anything wrong with bein' a mom. I've known some pretty badass moms. My mom's pretty badass. I just... I don't really..." She shook her head and turned away from E.V., abruptly changing the subject.

"You reckon they've got a mini bar?" She tried to sound cheerful and casual, as if she hadn't just come close to a weird mini-breakdown in front of her travel companions.

[Freya]

Freya's hand tightened around E.V's as she was led up to the room, her jaw tight and her shoulders up near her ears. She didn't think she'd done anything recently for the Law to be looking for her, but she was just as nervous and paranoid as the other two when it came to law enforcement looking where they didn't belong.

"Nothing to worry about I'm sure ... Ah, here we are! Home sweet home for the next... however many days!"

The room itself was simple, a far cry from the more extravagant hotel visible through the window. But where it lacked the rich furnishings and perfectly functional electronics, it made up for with its charm and personality. And, it was clean. It looked like the proprietor downstairs took meticulous care of his building, taking pride in what he'd built up even if it wasn't the Ritz. There was one Queen bed, made up with simple but tidy white sheets and a white comforter, a quilt folded up at the base of the bed, and one Twin bed made up similarly. A small television set was connected to the wall above the dresser, its remote sitting neatly on a white doily. The nightstand between the beds had an opening down below its one drawer, a black metallic door indicating the presence of the much needed mini-bar.

Freya looked around curiously, staying next to E.V and watching Briar turn to face them.

"I don't really look like a mom, do I?"

Freya turned her head to stare up at Briar, her gaze scanning the woman thoroughly, her lips pulled down and her brows furrowed in serious concentration. Then, she shrugged. "I don't know," the orphan answered simply. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. Freya didn't have enough experience in that area to offer her opinion.

Leaving Briar to what sounded like an anxiety attack, Freya slipped her hand free from E.V's so she could look around the room. Tossing her meager belongings onto the Twin bed nestled up in the corner before she started opening drawers and looking through the one closet and one dresser in the room.

"You reckon they've got a mini bar?"

"Am I adopted?" she asked them.

[Moira Chambers]

Location: Station Commons

Fortunately, Holliday did not comment on her blushing. How very gentlemanly of him. What was less gentlemanly was the way he helped himself to the abandoned noodles. She hovered next to the table, displeased and unconvinced by his excuses as to why it was a perfectly civilized thing for him to do.

"Listen, I know for a fact that whatever the Feds are doing here has nothing to do with us and everything to do with my chief competition and the reason that you're so skittish: Lil Sebastian. So his eyes are elsewhere. And nobody else is here, either."

For a fact, huh? He was awful confident. Not a bad trait to have in an accomplice, she supposed. His assurance did little to ease her mind, however; trouble for Lil' Sebastian could potentially mean trouble for his entire down-line, herself included. She ignored Holliday's invitation to his place, but did take a seat next to him, crossing her hands on the table. She side-eyed his noodle-slurping with disapproval but also some degree of jealousy. She hadn't had lunch yet. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long.

She listened to his rundown patiently, her mood growing more sour with every word. She'd been foolish to think this would be a simple transaction. She'd let her inner spoiled Core brat get her hopes up and forget where she was; in the gutter, where she belonged. Begging for scraps.

"It's risky. A little crazy. It might work. But we'd have to talk it over with your... uh... friend? The cute one."

"Please don't talk about her like that." Moira was a big girl, she could deal with flirts like Holliday (kind of), but she suddenly felt very protective of Octavia. She stared at her hands for a moment, fiddling with her fingers.

"'Risky', 'crazy', 'might work'... None of that garners much confidence, you know." She looked up and turned to him, her face cool and unimpressed. "But let's hear it."