1.6 Growing Pains

Kalissa: "Don't mind Geoff; he's been pollinated."

[Director's note: Due to missing notes and delays in the posting, the information this week is vague. When I relocate the notes for tonight, the summary will be improved. Thanks for your patience!]

At Chase's place, Kevin arrives for the '03 party, looking dashing yet uncomfortable in his Regency getup. He whisks her off into the night in his little black convertible and they arrive at a fancy house in the good part of town.

While working the night shift at the greenhouse, Gabe takes a break to find some plants with interesting magical properties. Following his map, he comes upon two trees blocking the normal path. He attempts to continue around them, but every attempt to enter a particular area of the garden has been cordoned off by plants. Gabe decides to investigate by going around, but the plant won't let him, moving into his way and slapping him with a branch when he tries to scare it off with fire. He decides to wait until his shift is over and call some gang members to see what they think.

Geoff stops by Chase's to let her know about some goings on at the morgue, but Julia answers the door telling him to go away and find a life. She does let it slip that Chase is out with Kevin, and Geoff leaves, concerned.

Deaver sits at the police station, undergoing routine questioning into the the death of one of his students. As he's about to leave, Nikki walks in, carrying official looking documents with names crossed out. He asks about her day. She's frustrated in her attempts to get integrated, and Deaver helps, strangely never asking why somebody who was in town to visit relatives needs a new driver's license. Nikki is most appreciative of his help, and he helps her find the DMV.

The '03 party is a dinner party sized gathering of the Alumni only including vampires from years ending in (surprisingly enough) '03 and their guests. Most of the vamps are cold but polite to Chase, and she and Kevin find a place to sit with the other vamps Kevin's age.

At the morgue, Geoff helps Raveena sneak in. Unfortunately, as she's about to leave the area, her cell goes off, blowing her cover, and she and Geoff leave quickly. Geoff asks if he can tag along for whatever's afoot, as he could use something to do.

Jade joins Gabe at the plants, and they begin research on what could potentially be happening. The others (Raveena, Deaver, and Kalissa) gather, and after several different attempts at defeating the plants, Gabe and Jade finally manage to stun two of them long enough to get inside.

At the party, dinner is finishing up and there is talk Eric not having arrived yet. Recognizing a potential hazard to his favorite source, Kevin volunteers to go looking for him, and he and Chase head out.

Back at the crazy plants. Once inside, they find fruit throwing trees. After darting this way and that, attempting a consensus on right left or pathless, the gang heads right. After turning around a bend, they come upon a trellis with different colored flowers. Geoff studies them as Raveena pokes a couple. Almost simultaneously, two purple flowers blow pollen at them. Geoff is knocked to the ground. Raveena stumbles, attempting to regain her balance. She looks around and blinks. "Where's Momma?"

Kevin has led Chase to the odd plant patch, as Eric usually has a working area set up in this vicinity. Dark, moonlight, light breeze, Kevin and Chase make out. They hear frantic voices inside (the plants, not their heads), which Kevin quickly recognizes. He tries to get Chase out of the area, but she says that they need to make sure no one's dead before they move on.

Kevin rolls his eyes, but gives her a lift over the plants, then makes an impressive leap to hurdle them himself. They quickly reach the group, which is in chaos. Raveena cries, asking who everyone is and where's her mother, and Geoff is still passed out.

Chase leans over to take his pulse and he opens his eyes. "Can I wake up like this every day?" are the first words out of his mouth, and the gang turns to stare. Geoff grins and looks around, a little non-plussed. "Did Eliza tell you to meet me?"

Meanwhile Kalissa vainly attempts to calm Raveena. Eventually with promises to help her find "Momma", they calm her down. Geoff asks Chase if they know each other, 'cause she looks really familiar. The gang begins bickering on how to proceed. Geoff attempts to not let Chase and "the weird guy" leave together, and Kalissa gets mad and storms off. Geoff sighs and follows to get her back.

Eventually, Kalissa and Geoff rejoin the party on the other side of the age-defying flowers. The gang battles a plant that alters your clothing (Gabe gets kickered up, Raveena and Jade get bikinis, Chase in a poodle skirt, Geoff walks through it til he gets baggie jeans and a hoodie, and Kevin jumps over the plant, missing it entirely). The find ent-like creatures and somehow get around them (with much sign-language in the process that almost gets Kalissa sacrificed).

The whole time Raveena whines like an 8 year old, and Geoff and Kevin taunt each other while Kevin eyes the innocent slayer with hungry eyes. They finally face a spread of spikes and a wall of entangling vines. The vines entrap Chase and Kevin and Geoff work together to get her out. Kevin leaps over the vines and Geoff ally-oops Chase. The remainder of the gang goes for a mud-bath when they find that the vines won't entangle dirt. [Gabe, I'm sure, now looks like a real cowboy. The director snickers evilly.]

Throughout, Chase remains about to stake both Kevin and Geoff, Raveena frightened and confused, and everyone else weary and covered in mud. Eventually, they make it to the big center. A Green Man waters a garden while three humans are trapped in vines. Two evil ents wander.

Fighting chaos ensues. Raveena kills one and starts to cry, now covered in mud and sap. Chase and Geoff untangle people. Gabe and Jade sling spells. The Green Man waters plants. Two people are untangled by the time the two ents are killed.

The Green Man tells them to leave with their two people, because he's keeping the third. Kevin is fine with that deal as one of the two is Eric, and he starts to leave. That isn't, however, OK with the rest, so more butt-kicking erupts. Gabe finds that spellslinging actually makes this guy stronger, so he and Jade work on getting the last vine-wrapped package to safety. They realize that she's Azriel, a member of the Daughters of Hecate, and that the other girl is Gwen, a member of Cernunos Grove, a rival coven. Green Man is taken down. The garden returns to something resembling normal (for this garden at least), and the gang leaves.

Gabe and Jade take Raveena straight to the Daughters to get her revived. They try to get Geoff to follow, but he says he'll join them later.

At the DoH, they find that Gwen was once a member of the DoH, but she recently left and joined ranks with Cernunos Grove. She and Azriel had a fight that involved much magick, and that combined with the wacky experimental plant yahoo already present in the garden allowed a minion of the Green Man [no, they didn't fight the real Green Man - he would've fertilized the garden with them] [anyway] entry into this dimension.

[See, there was an actual plot and reason. Everyone was asleep so the footage that explained it got cut from the televised version. Kinda like the footage that explained Connor's killing rampage on the Angel finale. Actually, our cutting was an homage, not an omission, on the part of the director. Really.]

Kevin takes Chase home. Chase apologizes for the chaos, and he gives her an address that she can "stop by anytime" and kisses her goodnight.

He leaves, and soon after Geoff shows up. "Hey, I'm sorry about whatever I did to piss you off. I wish I remembered what it was."

"You're really going to hate yourself when you remember all this."

Geoff winks, "I just hope you're still here when I do."