He shakes his head slowly. "No. They didn't—none of them. I'd've said."

(Irene, Irene, Irene. Did she really run away from home? Why does he doubt that so much? He hopes she did, but—he still can't help feeling like he failed her. Like if he'd just known more, if he'd just been smarter, if he'd just not hurt her, he could've helped her get to a better place than wherever she is now.)

Dani frowns slightly. "I figured," she says. She did, in fact, figure. Her only hope then, well, is, "Then my best lead is to find out who's kidnapping all these women," she tells him. Which is potentially dangerous and possibly whoever is doing this is someone entirely unrelated. But even if they have magic too, and even if she doesn't manage to find out who she is and where she comes from, whoever is kidnapping girls and doing something to them needs to be stopped. Period. "I don't know how you feel on following up on that, or trying to figure it out, but at this point it may be my best chance of figuring out who I was -- and more importantly, whoever is doing this, well, they do need to be stopped." But it is dangerous. And he has other things on his mind.

Some part of her realizes, in retrospect, she could have made him think whoever it was took Irene -- he'd be much more likely to help her out, then. But she puts the thought out of her mind. It's too late now -- and even if it wasn't, doing something like that doesn't sit right with her at all. She's not that kind of person, she's rather sure.

"Yeah, of course," he says. "Man, even if it's not the same people who did whatever happened to you—what if they pick up Jenna, or Karen, what if they did pick up Irene—if they get you or Valerie at least I could do something about it, probably, but I still don't want that to happen—no, yeah, we're finding them and we're shutting them down, I'm with you on that."

Dani breathes a sigh of relief, something she hadn't realized she was holding in, the pen laying slack in her fingers. His reasoning isn't anything like what her's is, it's not reasoning she'd even expected (though in retrospect perhaps she should have) but it's at least a good reason to get rid of whatever person or people are going and doing this to all the poor people they're taking from their lives. "That's, great," she says, relief showing on her face. "Thank you." And then she frowns and clicks her pen a couple of times. "That said, I'm not actually entirely sure how we'd go about finding them. They do tend to pick up people walking alone in isolated areas, but it's all over the city. I haven't been able to find any sort of consistent pattern in that respect, and I haven't figured out a sufficiently consistent modus operandi. Other than putting out bait," (and she shudders here, remembering what happened to her, terrified of that happening to anyone, anyone else, she couldn't do it herself and wouldn't ask it of anyone else) "I'm not sure what we can do to find them to stop them."

"Yeah, me neither," he says. "But there's gotta be something, right? Like, they've done it to so many people! Where'd they all go?"

"I don't know," she says. "I have thought about it, my best guess, given what they managed to do to me -- assuming they're the same group of people, at least, but even if not -- is that they sell them, to brothels or to people," she says, her tone granting them that status only barely, "to keep, and to, well," Dani shudders in memory of what happened to her again, "use," she finally finishes. And then she gives him a suddenly dawning look. "You're rich," she says, suddenly realizing the implications of that. "Really really rich, right? If they are selling people, it's probably to rich people. Do you have any sort of connections that would, well, help find out about this sort of thing? Where do you go, if you're rich, and you want to buy someone? Or other such unsavory things?"

"Man, I don't know," he says. "I wouldn't even know how to find out. I'm pretty sure if I ask Valerie where to buy sex slaves she won't have a clue." He reflects on this for a moment. "Well. Might ask her anyway, just to see what she says. But I feel like if she had those kinds of connections she would've thought about it at some point."

Dani frowns slightly. "Well, if you have any way of finding out, following up on the buyer's end is the best I can think of, here. If we can't actually find who's doing the selling, the next step is finding out who's doing the buying, and I don't know how we'd manage to do that. Or have enough manpower to tail someone, even if we did. If there are any friends you or your parents or, well, Valerie's or her friends or anything who might have some way to find this out, that'd give us a thread to trace down from there."

"My parents super do not know where to buy sex slaves. I could ask them anyway, I guess. But even if they did, they wouldn't know where to buy 'em around here. I guess Valerie wouldn't either? Well, I'll find out."

"Well, whatever makes the most sense," she says, already trying to plan in her head the best way to find someone who does in fact know where to buy them. They could set a trap, and... she really should be writing this down. She clicks her pen a couple of times and reaches for a pad and puts her hand down. It can wait until they're done talking. "Regardless, thank you for this. And, I'm sorry about the bad news. I hope they find her soon; I can let you know if they do."

"...yeah," he says. "Thanks. And—I know it makes more sense to be looking for the giant kidnapping conspiracy first, but—if you hear anything about her, could you let me know? Please?"

"I can figure out how to set up an alert," she says. "I'll let you know."

"Thanks."

Even if he is improving, even if this is in fact his apartment, even though he's going to help her catch whoever's doing this to people and maybe also get her past back, and maybe even her memories, it's still a little uncomfortable having him around like this. And she's not the greatest at comforting. "Thanks for coming by to look," she tells him, standing up. "I'll see if we can figure out a different want to find out who's doing this, if your asking around doesn't pan out." She does her best to give him a smile, since he was being helpful, and mostly manages it. And then her face does soften in true feeling. "I'll really let you know about her when I find out," she says. "And I'll see if I can dig a little more into it, just in case."

He smiles back, a little.

"Thanks," he says. "I appreciate it."

Okay, she really blatantly wants him out of here. That's fair. He gets up and goes.

Dani sees him out.

And then collapses onto the couch and curls up a little.

Every time she reaches for ideas, concepts, memories of who she was, she comes up blank. She keeps touching the gaping hole in her mind every time and it's awful, feeling like stepping off into a chasm. She knows things and sometimes she doesn't even know why and when she tries to find out she just falls of the cliff again into the unknown blackness. And every time she tries to find out some way to fill in that pit with anything, she comes up short. Again and again and again, and the only memories that are truly hers (and she curls up the couch at the thought, shaking slightly) are ones so vile and horrible are ones she can hardly bear to remember. And right now her only hope at finding something more palatable is doing something dangerous like tracking down people who are kidnapping women and likely selling them, and they might not even be the right group of people. In some sense, it's just wishful thinking. Just hope. Hope being carved away, chip by stone chip, into a giant pile of nothing. And every time she grasps for light, for a shape, it disappears, dissolves away to formless nothing.

At least this meeting went better than she might have expected, though. Even if it's motivated by fear of losing his friends, he's still very on board with stopping whoever is doing this. And they really do need to be stopped, because a dozen or so women a month being kidnapped like this is just horrible to consider, especially if anything close like what happened to her (and she curls up a little more on the couch at the thought, pushing it far away) happens to them. Or even if it doesn't. And, if she's very very lucky, she might find some scrap of information about her past, enough of a thread to chase down leads and find some information about who she was.

For right now, though, there's work to be done. And even though she'd really prefer to just lie here on the couch, curled up and bemoaning her fate, she at least needs to do as she promised Sean. Taking a few more seconds to lie there, she finally sits up, and pulls the laptop over, and starts figuring out how to do that, a dark cloud still lingering over her thoughts.

Okay. Okay. He... is just... gonna...

...sit in his car and black out the windows and put his face in his hands and cry, apparently.

For fuck's sake it's not fair—well, the world has never owed him fairness—but Irene—he can hope that she just ran away from home, but he doesn't really believe it, it feels like a comforting lie—he keeps thinking back to how they met, calling himself an idiot over and over again for how he treated her, wishing he could go back and redo this whole month of his life with a deeper understanding of what it means to care about someone and why it's important.

He can't, though. He has to deal with the world he actually lives in, and all the things he's done in it.

Fuck.

He takes a deep breath and wills himself clean and drives to Valerie's place.

There's no one home yet; the apartment is empty when he arrives.

Yeah.

He flops on the couch and firmly reminds himself that he should not get all emotional in Valerie's apartment because that's a terrible habit to get into, and takes a minute to hold onto that reminder and convince his thoughts to stop falling back into the pit of worrying about Irene, and then he reads her mind.

Valerie is enjoying the last party before the final rush events of this weekend, walking through the gaggle of simpering girls like the queen she is, with her chosen Lindsey hanging onto her every word and arm. She rather enjoys the way she looks up at her, now, her pretty eyes wide as she looks up at her, her body pressed against her. A couple of the girls look at Lindsey, jealous, but poor innocent Lindsey is entirely oblivious to their glared daggers, having eyes only for her. It's so wonderful to do this to boys and girls, to make them so very enamored of her, the way they should be, and after spending the night with her she's especially into her. There's a quality of the way she looks at her that she hasn't seen before, a desire that's quieter, not so full of the delightful desperation that she's used to. She's not sure if she prefers this. It feels... sweeter, somehow, lighter and kinder, but she does enjoy watching her lessers scramble to please her, the way they should. And Lindsey isn't about to do that, that's not how she feels, she feels more secure in her desire for Valerie. And she does desire her, and she desires Sean, for that matter, after everything she's told her about him. When she suggested to her, this morning, that she might be able see Sean too this weekend, she gave the most adorable squeal. She's still clearly worried and frightened about it, perhaps, with her deepest darkest fantasies being fulfilled like this, but right now just being next to Valerie is enough to overwhelm those silly worries for now.

She'll see how Lindsey feels about it tomorrow, perhaps, just to be sure. She's almost certainly going to be spending the night with Sean (how did she manage to get so lucky last night??) and she's already told this to Lindsey, who completely understood. It's not like she's about to ask Sean for another night away (and plus she really wants to sleep in a real bed again, not such a lumpy hard tiny piece of junk that the college provides the poor serfs), and honestly Lindsey seems more comfortable with the idea of her spending a night with Sean, for some reason.

And additionally, Sean had been very clear about what he wanted. And as much as Valerie would like to cut off any chance of escape for this cute little thing, and bring Sean such a delicious and delightful prize to take, giving her time to think about it on her own without Valerie near is the sort of thing Sean would approve of. Unfortunately. But since he wants it, it's the right thing to do. Because she's his (nff, fuck, she draws Lindsey a little closer and kisses the top of her head to hide her sudden rush of passion, making her squeal softly and grin brightly up at her), and whatever he says is what she's going to do. That's how it works.

Likely at some point he'll text her, and she'll head back when he does. There's no more work to be done here, other than making sure the girls staring jealous daggers at her Lindsey don't dare to try and sabotage her in any way shape or form, which isn't difficult for the likes of her. Just a comment here and there about how devastated she would be if something happened, with a bit of a glance at them, and they're looking all contrite and terrified. Just like they should. (And that's hot too, fuck. Why didn't she think of joining a sorority before?) Lindsey is just as oblivious, of course, and that's how she wants it. And since she wants it, that's what she gets. That's the proper order of things. 

Oh, Valerie. She's so... Valerie.

But it is nice seeing her... understand what Sean wants from her, like that. Seeing her accept what he wants, and that she should be giving it to him and not trying to convince him to want other things.

He lets her have another few minutes, and then he texts her and tells her to come home.

Valerie reads her text and grins and presses her legs together a little thinking about the kinds of fun she might be having tonight (tempered with a little anxiety about how to break the news to Sean, perhaps, excited and anxious all at once), gives her wonderful new toy a kiss and tells her that she's off to see her boyfriend (which lights her face up with a pretty showing of desire, she wants to be there too, she can tell, Sean is going to be so happy and reward her), bids everyone goodbye, all of them hers, and heads into her car. And drives as quickly (but safely! Unfortunately) as she can to get home, keeping both her hands on the wheel and being cross about not being able to touch herself.

But being cross doesn't last long, not when she has Lindsey, such a precious and adorable little submissive treasure to think about. And bringing her to Sean, and watching Sean deflower her, and Sean thanking her, and telling her to bring him more like her, which she'll only be so very happy to do... Her fantasies devolve into a series of ideas, concepts of her being at the head of a harem of girls, all dominated and devoted to Sean, being licked until he wants his favorite, and all the other girls looking on with desire and jealousy, touching themselves as they watch his chosen fuck him. Lindsey features prominently in several of these tiny scenes in her mind, as part of a chorus of horny sluts moaning and touching themselves and each other egging Sean on as he fucks Valerie, or Valerie egging Sean on as he uses Lindsey, or the two of them making out as he uses another cute toy...

On some level Valerie knows this isn't likely to be how things will end up. But maybe Sean will see that this outcome is far too much fun to not do it. And even if it doesn't end up quite like this, well, there likely will be fun in her future. She can't wait to watch his power and dominance and control over so many other cute toys, and to, if she plays her cards right, be at the head of them.

She makes it to the apartment, horny, gently dripping down her thighs despite her careful obedience to Sean's orders (she did pay attention, she did, even if she did fantasize a biiit more than she should have), and rushes into the elevator to finger herself, getting herself hot and wet and ready for Sean to use her. Use her any way he wants, fuck. Any way he wants at all, she's horny and she wants to feel his power and control and to kneel at his feet and be his. She can't wait to see his reaction when she tells him about Lindsey. (Even if she is a little anxious about it.) She can't wait. And she can't wait to be fucked either.

She opens the door to her apartment, one hand between her legs, keeping herself hot and wet, thinking of Sean and sex and dominance and fucking Lindsey and power, and looks around to see where Sean might be.

On the couch, smiling at her. "C'mere."

Valerie grins, poses and walks in a way to make herself look sexy (not that that's hard, of course, with it being her, but Sean deserves the best), and saunters over to him, grinning sexily. She knows full well this won't make him do anything, what with the fucking hot way that he knows exactly what she's trying to do (and she presses her finger into her clit, hard, her face contorting for a moment in ecstasy at the idea of being so controlled that even she can't manipulate herself out of it), but she knows he enjoys looking at her like this anyways. She looks at him, seeing the way he's indicating where he wants her, and grins at him a little bit more seductively, lowering herself into his lap, to press up against him. She can tell he wants to touch her, wants to put his hands on her, and she wants that too, wants him to grab her in a show of power and dominance and put her wherever he wants. She wants to feel him take her and make whatever he wants of her, to feel him move her into a kiss, or pull her to the ground. She wants to feel his control on her, and feel the electric shock of power in the air and her body when he does. But she will, of course do whatever he wants. She's devoted to him.

He wraps a hand around the back of her neck and pulls her into a kiss. It's good to have her here, warm in his lap, wanting him.