I know I am in the Middle of an HP fic and I will get back to it after my exams end, but I needed to get this out of my head so I could concentrate on European history! Stupid Metternich! So here is a short little ficlet. Probably end up with three chapters. Trench pairing, unbeta'd. Hope you like it!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE NEW BOOK

"Morgan. This is a surprise. The last time I saw you, you were playing with demons." His voice was cold, with edge of pain hovering around the edges.

She stared at him as she stood in the middle of his office and wondered what the hell she had come here for. "I had to stop Al from snatching people. He grabbed Pierce and I needed to make sure he wouldn't do it again. It was the only way. Not that I need to explain myself to you, Trent."

The elf raised an eyebrow but chose not to comment. "Why are you here, Rachel?"

She seemed to shrink a little at the reminder of her purpose. Trent's forehead furrowed lightly in confusion. "Trent…I-I need your help."

"You need…With what?"

"I know you have the political power to get this shunning reversed! I know it! You have to help me. I can't work! I can't go out! People are vandalizing my church. I-I have no one else to turn to. You are the only person I know with the power to do this." She was tense. Her body held taut, waiting.

Trent dropped his eyes from her gaze, looking at the floor for a moment. "Rachel, you know I can't do that. I can't risk my reputation by publicly endorsing you and I don't have enough pull within the coven to do it otherwise. It's political suicide if they try to extend the shunning to me too. Rachel, I—"

Her head jerked up and she glared fire at him. Her body still tense as a wound spring, she stalked toward him. "No! You do have that kind of power. I know you do! You have to do this. This is all you fault to begin with, so Fix. It. You bastard!"

"How could you getting shunned possibly be my fault!?!" Trent's eyes widened and he snorted. Wrong thing to do.

Rachel's lip curled back in impossibly apt imitation of Al. Trent shuddered. She snarled at him and leapt. She attacked, punching kicking, screaming, and clawing. He held her off as best he was able and watched her carefully. Fear crept into his eyes as he took in her desperation. She would do anything she had to, to make him do what she wanted. She thought she had nothing left to loose.

After several minutes, the fight seemed to go out of her. She slumped in his grip, head against her chest. She whispered in a broken voice, "It is your fault. You told me you would change. That you wanted to be more. And I believed you. I fucking believed you. No, maybe it's all my fault for being taken in again. For being a stupid fucking idiot. If anything else goes wrong in my life, I think I might just back out on the deal with Al and then he'll come and take you. Even if you are my familiar. He'll take you back with him. To the Ever-After. "

He realized then that she was crying. Ignoring her threats, Trent pulled the petite redhead against his chest and let her weep into his silk shirt. "I have nowhere else to go. You have to help me! If I hadn't gone back to save your ass, none of this would have happened. I sacrificed everything to save you and your stupid race! My freedom, my family, my work, my future! All for you. You have to help me. I thought you'd change, that you really did want to be more. I believed your self-serving lies again and it cost me my whole life!"

"Nothing cost you your life, Rachel. Everything will work out." He murmured softly into her hair.

She lurched back from him and stared him in the eyes. "My mother left me to go live with my brother a thousand miles away. Jenks and Matalina are both dying, one faster then the other and I can't save them. I have no chance now of finding a blood balance with Ivy. I love her, but I can't be what she wants me to be." Trent's gut twisted oddly at her words, but he ignored it. "I can't do my job because I can't get supplies. I've been shunned. No one will sell to me. My church is being vandalized because of it. I have a date every Saturday with a demon just to keep your sorry ass out of the Ever-After. Something I used to do willingly because I suckered myself into believing that you would change. I should have known when you tried to kill me that that would never happen. That you would always hate me. Al said it and he was right. It wasn't Pierce. It was you. You're Rachel candy. Strong and independent and dominating, but then you were in trouble and you needed my help. I hated myself for helping you every time, but I never hated you. I believe you could stop hating me because I wanted you to so badly. And now Al snatched Pierce because I was talking to him inside the line." Trent's gut clenched again at the mention of this unknown guy, who he assumed was the man with whom he had found her and the demon. "He was a ghost but still. Kisten is twice dead and now I know who killed him. I know that Kist gave his life twice because he loved me. I killed him, not that vampire he was given to. It was my fault. My friend and almost boyfriend won't speak to me or acknowledge me because I've been shunned and the worst part of that is that I don't blame him!! And to top all that off, it doesn't even bother me to take curse imbalance anymore. I have to do so much of it for Al that I don't even feel it now."

She was weeping harder then before. Trent pulled her to his chest and rocked her softly for a long time, until she stopped shaking. His beautiful lilting voice whispered sweet empty comfort into her hair as he rubbed circles into her back.

Once the shaking stopped, it took her several long minutes to fully realize where she was and who she had just pored her heart out to. She flinched and pulled roughly away from him. Holding herself carefully, gingerly, as if she felt she might break apart, she trained deadened eyes on the elf. "Thank you for letting fall apart in your office. And Congratulations. Now, we are finally even. I finally hate you as much as you hate me. You ruined my life completely and took everything I have from me. Congratulations."

She turned on her heel and opened the door. Trent cringed at the despair, the defeat, that had etched itself into her frame. She looked as if she had finally reached her breaking point. Strong independent, fierce Rachel, defeated and alone. She looked so alone. He wanted desperately to go to her and enfold her in his arms, to keep her safe from the world that had betrayed her. Her head turned over her shoulder and he could see that she'd closed her eyes. "I never wanted to hate you. I'm not sorry that I went back for you into the Ever-After. But, I've just about had all I can take."

She exited. Trent stood, frozen to the stop, staring at the door for several long minutes. His shirt was wet, his face was almost definitely bruised, and he was late for a very important meeting. He didn't care. He stood and looked at the place where she'd been and didn't care about any of it. He couldn't let the world swallow her up like that. She was right. It was his fault. Especially since he could very well have stopped the shunning. He'd been angry. Angry that she was still dealing in demons and angry that she hated him and angry that he couldn't be who he'd told her he wanted to be. He was going to fix this. She would not break from this. He couldn't allow that to happen. Not to his fiery little witch. Shaking his head at the thought, he reached over to the desk and snatched the phone. Dialing a number, he waited only a moment.

"Hello? Yes. This is Trent Kalamack. Yes. I need you to do something for me…"

­

Rachel wandered the halls of Trent's house, that labyrinthine pit, completely lost. She had started crying again and she hated herself for it. Why could she just not get it together? Life goes on. Well, it would once she got the fuck out of here.

Hearing a faint noise she looked up and relief washed through her so strongly that she almost dropped to the floor. "Quen! Oh my god! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

"Ms Morgan. I believe that you are lost. Am I correct?"

She nodded helplessly. "This house is a fucking maze! Please just get me the fuck out of here."

His voice dropped a little as he reached her to take her arm. "Rachel. Everything is going to be alright. Trent will back you, I am positive, and the shunning will be revoked. You only need to swallow that pride of yours and ask him."

A fresh tear dripped from her eye and she brushed it angrily away. She turned to face him, putting her back to the corridor. "Trent won't touch me, he will barely have anything to do with me. And he certainly won't back me publicly."

"Yes he will, just—"

"No, Quen. I did ask him. He won't do it. And the most horrible part of this whole thing, is that I can't blame him either. It would tarnish his reputation with something that could never be polished away. I'm the plague, Quen. I'm a freaking albatross! Trent's right not to try and save my skin."

This little speech caused Trent, who had come in search of her to make sure she got out okay, to go perfectly still. He stood behind her at the other end of the corridor. His perfect eyes were wide in shock and his mouth hung open a little. His eyes met Quen's eyes, filled with disapproval and a touch of anger, and the bodyguard gave a minute shake of his head. Breathing rapidly, Trent turned on his heel and disappeared down a different corridor.

"Come with me, Rachel. I will get you to your car."

Later, the redhead would have a very hard time remembering how she got home. She remembered getting into her car, but then she was at her front door, keys in hand. Shaking her head, she opened the door and entered, praying that no one was home. For once, her prayers were answered.