2.12 A Father's Love

Quotes

Director: "This is my first time. Be gentle."

Raveena [re: letter]: "This looks all fancy ? it's not from the holler."

Raveena: "Doc? It's Veena." Deaver: "Yes ... I recognize your voice now when you call me." Raveena: "Oh, I'm sure you have lots of girls calling you." Deaver: "With that accent?"

Raveena: "Stefan was a real eyesore at Cura's."

Chase: "Oblivious Doofus. Almost sounds Latin."

PeanutGalleryGabe: "Pikachu, I choose you!"

Gabe: "Are we there yet?"

The Scoobies are about their usual activities. Stefan hasn't been seen or heard from since he left the Homecoming fair five days earlier. On her way back from an evening run, Raveena drops by the dorm mailboxes to pick up her daily allotment of credit card apps and hopefully a letter from home. There is no letter from her mother; instead she finds a mysterious envelope made of fine parchment, addressed to her in a beautiful script. Curious, Raveena opens it and reads on her way to her room. Her eyes get wide at the contents, and she puts down the letter and picks up the phone.

The gang congregates at Geoff and Chase's house and Raveena reads the contents of the letter aloud. It is from Stefan's father. He is expressing concern for his son's welfare - he sent Stefan a letter about a week ago, revealing some sensitive family history. He never got a reply from his son, and he has been unable to contact him since. The news in the letter would have come as a shock to Stefan, and his father is worried he may do something drastic. Stefan has mentioned his new friends frequently, and so he has contacted Raveena in hopes that she will help find his son and make sure he doesn't do anything ? regrettable.

Chase picks up the phone and tries to call Stefan, but she gets sent straight to voice mail. Unable to reach him, the group packs up and heads for his dorm room. The door is open a crack, and they walk straight in. The room is neat but slightly rumpled, like someone left in a hurry. There is a discarded letter on the bed. Rachel picks it up and examines it. It is from Stefan's father, and it is written in French. No one in the room actually speaks the language, but with his Latin background Deaver gets the gist of the contents - some kind of experiment was performed on Stefan when he was a baby. But Deaver can't get a grasp of what kind. While Deaver is perusing the contents of the letter, the others are scouring Stefan's room for some indication of where he might have gone. Under the bed, Chase finds a large package from France. It has been opened, but carefully closed back up again. Inside, there is an ancient book in immediate danger of falling apart. The leather binding is curled and blackened with age, and the title is almost illegible. Carefully looking at it, Deaver translates the cover - A Study On Blood. The fragility of the book makes him unwilling to open it up and read any further. Deaver takes the book with him to his lab, where he can peruse the book without as much risk of damaging the crumbling pages. Gabe accompanies him.

The three girls remain in Stefan's room, debating the best way to find him. Rachel suggests a locator spell - something that might be able to lead them to him. They all go downstairs to Rachel's room (she lives in the same dorm), where her roommate makes a hasty exit at their appearance. With Raveena's help, Rachel successfully casts the spell and instructs the hovering ball of light to find Stefan. The trio follows the orb out of the room.

The locator zips out of the dorm and heads in the direction of the river. At the edge of campus however, it slows and acts confused, chasing itself in circles. Since the light took them this far, Chase suggests they proceed to the docks - maybe Lorne and the barflies at Cura's have seen him. At the door to the bar, the bouncers look more than a little banged up. The girls leave all their weapons at the coat check and proceed inside, despite the sour looks they're getting from the patrons. They go directly to the bar, where the bartender blatantly ignores them. They finally get his attention and ask after Lorne. The bartender sourly replies that he isn't around. When they ask about Stefan, he clams up. Chase gets annoyed and starts mouthing off. Rachel quickly intervenes with her friendly demeanor, and is much more successful at breaking down the bartender's foul mood (which seems to be aimed directly at them). He tells the girls that Stefan was indeed here a few days ago. He refused to leave his weapon at the check, and instead did a number on the patrons as well as the furniture. He was looking for a group of Alumni, and was asking everyone in the bar where they were. He started using bullying tactics, and really laid in to Grundy, one of the regulars. He gestures towards the corner where there is a pathetic-looking round fellow with a nasty scar down his face, which looks like it took out an eye. The girls thank the bartender for the info and go to speak with Grundy. Turns out Stefan is responsible for the scar. Grundy wouldn't tell him what he knew about the Alumni that Stefan was looking for, and Stefan got a little mad. He doesn't want to tell the girls either, but he will tell them where Stefan went for a price. There are two witches who run a tearoom in town who make a number of lotions and potions, among them one that will fix his injury. If they'll bring him the goop to mend his eye, he'll tell them where to find their friend. They agree and make for the door.

As they leave Cura's, the girls are approached by three tough-looking yellow demons. Irate over Stefan's desecration of the local demon hangout, they decide to take it out on his friends. They draw billy clubs and start threatening the trio. Raveena warns them that she's the Slayer, but they are undeterred. Chase bums an axe from the coatroom at Cura's, Raveena draws her sword, and the girls take the demons on. They win pretty handily. After returning the axe, they start into town to find the tearoom. Rachel is pretty sure she knows where it is - it is a DoH hangout in one of the residential areas. Members Only kind of thing. Thinking that they might need his help (after all, he's still technically a member), Rachel calls Gabe, and they plan to pick him up at the library on their way to get the salve for Grundy.

Deaver tags along for the adventure. He tells them that the book they picked up in Stefan's dorm room is a reference volume on demon blood. The logical conclusion is that the "experiment" that was conducted on Stefan involved some kind of demon blood, and resulted in Stefan being part demon. The crew stops off at Gabe's room to pick up his old DoH pendant to use as camouflage. They pull up outside the house and the debate begins - who gets to go in and fake being a DoH member? Chase ultimately gets nominated. Because she knows nothing about magic or the organization, Gabe whips up a spell that will allow them all to stay in telepathic contact. Chase approaches the gate off the side of the house, which appears to lead into the back yard. As she reaches for the latch, a mild electric shock hits her. She tries again, and the same thing happens. Looking around, she spots a discreet sign bearing the DoH seal and the words "Witches and Warlocks Only". Rachel comes to her aid, takes her hand, and tries to get the two of them through the gate. Rachel makes it through without incident, but the way is still barred for Chase. Looks like Rachel will have to go. Chase hands off the pendant and Rachel proceeds to the back of the house. The back porch is glassed in, and beyond is a small shop - thankfully, Rachel doesn't recognize anyone inside from her DoH days. She enters. Rachel tells the two women that Ashlyn sent her to get the salve for a "deal" with a demon. The women eye her a bit suspiciously and ask her name. Rachel introduces herself as Gwen and tells them that she is a new initiate. The women tell her that they don't have any salve on the shelf, but Stacy (one of the women) can throw some together. The other woman, Diana, invites her to have a seat. On the table between them is a strange sort of board game. Each corner of the board is labeled with an element and its corresponding color. Diana challenges Rachel to a game while Stacy sets to work on the ointment. The game is this: the witches pick opposing elements and use willpower to pit them against each other. Rachel chooses water, making Diana fire. The game begins. Rachel concentrates hard on her little blue wave that manifests above the board, but Diana's flame is too powerful. Or so it seems, when Rachel glances up from the board and sees Stacy, unmoving, concentrating on the board as well. Rachel drops the pretense of the game and pointedly tells Stacy that Ashlyn will be ticked if she doesn't get the salve. Abashed, Stacy quickly finishes and gives the jar to Rachel. She tells them that this is hush-hush - the demon in question is finicky, thanks them, and leaves. She gets back to the car before she cracks up laughing.

They all take the salve back to Cura's. Grundy eagerly digs in and applies the smelly stuff to his face, which heals instantly. Intrigued, Chase studies the jar while Grundy reveals to them what he also unwillingly revealed to Stefan: that an Alumni affiliate vampire runs a nighttime travel business out of a warehouse on the docks. He likely knows where the specific group Stefan is looking for went. Concerned, the group gets directions to the warehouse and leaves. On the way there's a lot of girl talk and ribbing on Raveena about Harrison and his deadness, causing Gabe and Deaver to squirm and endure.

On the pier, the warehouse is dark and quiet. The name "Sanguine Shipping" is emblazoned over the heavy cargo doors facing the water. Raveena tries to pull open one of the doors, but can't quite move it. Looking beneath the pier, Raveena sees that the water currents seem to change patterns close to the building. She drops underneath to get a better look. Raveena discovers that this particular warehouse has doors at the water level that are not connected to the ones at pier level. Tugging on one of them, she's able to slide it to the side with little trouble, although she disturbs the chain that has been strung through the handles inside the warehouse. Inside is a pitch-dark dock with a several black speedboats tied up. The ceiling is undoubtedly the floor of the warehouse above. Echoing through the cavernous space, Raveena hears some distant muttering, and sees a hint of light at the far end of the warehouse. She pulls herself back up onto the pier to alert the others, and they all quietly drop into the water, swimming towards the boat slips inside the warehouse.

As quietly as possible they pull themselves up onto the dock. Raveena sneaks along in the darkness towards the light and the voices, passing the rows of lockers that line the walls of the warehouse. At the far end of the space, she spies the source of the muttering - a crouched figure is rocking gently back and forth, staring at a massive pile of chain on the floor in front of him. Creeps closer, she recognizes the language followed quickly by the voice. It is Stefan. She calls out to him, and he looks up at her with a glazed expression. He looks like he has been through hell. Cradling his sword on his knees, Stefan points towards the pile of chain, bitterly telling her that this bastard knows where the vampires are who killed his brother. And he can't break him. Raveena takes one look at the vamp wrapped in the heavy chain and can tell Stefan has been torturing him for days. She rebukes Stefan for savoring the vampire's pain instead of slaying him and pulls him up off the floor. He suddenly collapses on her shoulder, weeping. Raveena and Deaver find the button to open the cargo bay doors upstairs and arrange to take Stefan to Deaver's to rest. Chase will head to the hospital to get some supplies to clean him up. As Deaver and Raveena carry Stefan upstairs and out to the car, Chase stays with Rachel while she stakes the blank-eyed vampire. They then follow the others out into the night.