Light flickered across the stone walls giving the dark and dingy corridor a rather dungeon like feeling. Although there was likely sun shining somewhere above them it was obvious that the small corner of Level Four that she had been shoved into was from the original design of the building. She had been in holding before, after her parents deaths and before her trial. The cells at the Canadian ministry were much more modern and didn't give her such an antsy feeling.

Lexus leaned against the one stone wall perched on top of the metal cot. The other three sides of the cell were old fashioned steel bars giving no privacy to the Canadian born werewolf. Being so open and vulnerable while caged gave her a horrible trapped sensation. She had been in this particular cage for two days now. After being captured and turning back into a human she had been identified. Witches and wizards came up and down the corridor of cells checking on the rest of the werewolves that were left behind. Some were sent home, once it was discovered they were registered but others, like her, were stuck in limbo. Earlier that morning a young rookie auror had informed her that they were going to be making arrangements for her trial once all the chaos died down.

Lexus rocked back and forth bouncing her head off the stone. She wanted desperately to have a good nights sleep and a hot shower. She hadn't been able to clean herself since she had been captured and judging by the blood and dirt she had found on her skin and under her nails when she turned back into a human she had definitely attacked someone. Fear had completely encompassed her. She couldn't imagine ever seeing anything but another jail cell after this one. With her past crimes and the most recent attack she'd be lucky if they didn't decide to terminate her - though spending the rest of her life in Azkaban wasn't much better.

She ran her hands through her dirty stringy hair. She was glad there wasn't a mirror or any sort of reflective surface in her cell. The last thing she needed right now was to see how horrible she looked. She could only imagine how bad it was, her skin dirty her hair flat and stringy dried blood in more places than she wanted to think of matched with the dark circles under her eyes. She bounced her head a little harder her eyes squeezed shut. She wanted to wish it away, to make it all not true. She hadn't been this messed up since the last time she was in a holding cell her future seeming to drop off before her eyes. She felt the sting of tears and didn't even bothered to stop them from falling. There was nothing that could make her feel worse than she felt at that moment, trapped, deserted and facing her own mortality.

Jonas had long ago mastered the ability to quickly sweep his gaze over piles of papers on a desk, and it was in one such nonchalant check that he'd caught sight of her name.  Between the surveillance on Mulogo and his current magical limitations, the recently-named Auror hadn't been involved in most of the mopping up after the recent full moon, but he'd kept an ear to the ground for mention of his old assistant.

Months had passed since he'd last seen Lexus.  Jonas wasn't entirely certain what to expect; he and his former assistant had not exactly parted on the best of terms, and that had been before whatever events had happened that had resulted in her getting turned loose somewhere in the United Kingdom.  Even finding her and having a conversation wasn't about to bring her very much comfort.  He knew what happened to unregistered werewolves; he'd warned her about it months before.  If Lexus decided to point the finger at him or announced to anyone that he'd known about her presence here in London, he could very well end up in equal trouble with the Ministry.

But it was a risk worth taking.  Jonas wasn't often willing to admit to the mistakes he'd made in his life, but he regretted how things had ended with the Canadian.  Lexus had been, in her own way, a kindred spirit; he'd felt for the young woman who had been so terrified of the government and so uncertain of how to make her way in the world.  If a few dice in his life had fallen differently, he could have well ended up in similar circumstances.

It had been easy enough to gain access to Level Four.  Most of the RCMC workers were still exhausted in the wake of the attacks and were dealing with the loss of several of their own.  Now that he had an actual badge to flash, it didn't take much talking to gain access to the floor and then find someone who could point him towards the cells where the unregistered werewolves were likely to be kept. 

It took him a few minutes longer to locate hers; it was on the older part of the floor and it showed.  Jonas paused outside the silver bars, keeping his expression impassive as he studied it for a moment, and then cleared his throat.

"Well, I can't say much for your choice in accommodations," he remarked, keeping his tone light as he let his gaze play over the rest of the cell.  He gave her a moment to adjust, to collect herself before focusing directly on her.  "How are you, Lex?"

With her eyes still closed a flicker of a smile played over her lips. The playful comment could have easily been her imagination. She wanted so badly to get out of there, so badly to find comfort in the face of certain doom that it wasn't all that far fetched for her to have imagined him being there. Jonas - the one friend she actually had during those rough beginning months of putting her life back together. He had been her saviour, taking her off the streets and giving her a job. She hated how things had ended with him. She wanted so desperately for things to get sorted out between them but she was too terrified. Which was why she had stood him up when he finally contacted her, asking her to meet with him to talk things over. She had gone as far as owling him, agreeing to the appointment but then never showed. She wasn't sure if she could have faced him after their fight.

She slowly opened her dusty blue eyes, part of her almost wishing she had imagined his voice. Suddenly there he was standing in front of her horrid cage in with an Auror badge on his chest asking her how she was doing as casually as he would have asked her the time of day or to comment on the weather. She rose from the metal cot working out a few kinks in her back as she crossed the short distance to meet him at the front of the cell. Instinctively she went to put her hands on the bars but paused half way through the motion remembering they were made of silver. She crossed them over her chest instead.

For a moment she studied him, her eyes constantly drawing back to the badge. So he was an Auror now, or was it an Auror again? Was this the punch line in life's final joke? Sending Jonas The Auror to deliver the news of her trial or better yet her execution? 'Sorry luv, they've decided to save a few sickles and go right to hanging you.'

A tiny sneer creeped up onto her lips, "Fantastic. Bloody brilliant actually. Five star accommodations, three course meals, hourly massages and the company's fantastic." She gave him a cheeky smile before sighing and letting the strain of the whole situation show, "I have no idea what happened Jonas, you gotta believe me. I took my wolfsbane, I've been taking it regularly since I moved to London, I've always been so safe but it just . . . didn't work."

She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, "The worst part about all of it was that I knew what was happening and I just couldn't stop it. All those people . . ." She shuttered. She had no real sense of how many people she had attacked or how many of them she had just frightened. She knew there had been at least one person injured, she had enough blood on her to confirm that.

She straightened up and looked him over again, "So  . . . you're an Auror now?"

For the first time, the young Canadian witch fit his mental image of a werewolf.  It was so easy to forget it most of the time; not that he'd ever known many, but with both Lexus and with Taryn Aldridge, the fact that both young women turned into ravenous beasts once a month seemed secondary to most of his interactions with them.  The forty-eight hours that Lex had spent in the cell had obviously not been easy on her.  It was far simpler to imagine this worn, ragged-looking woman bearing her fangs and leaping at someone's throat than it had been to picture the friendly, gregarious witch who had been his assistant doing the same.

At the least, Lexus's sense of humor seemed to be well intact.  As was her sense of victimization -- he schooled his expression carefully to keep any hint of a sigh from showing.  Of everything that had led to their ultimate disagreement, their differing opinions over personal responsibility seemed to be the most dramatic. 

Jonas paused at the woman's question, glancing down for a moment at the silver badge.  Getting used to the weight in his pocket, the sense of responsibility that came with it, had been the easiest part of the decision to take it up again.  That had been what he'd wanted, after all.  The pomp and circumstance, the ceremonial scarlet robes, the question that was leveled more like an accusation than anything else -- 'You're an Auror now? -- he wasn't sure that he would ever adjust to.

"Yeah, so it would seem," he agreed, looking up at her with only a hint of a smile.  "Would've sent out an announcement, but you'd be surprised at how hard it is to get blokes to return your owls these days."

"I'm not here officially, though," Jonas offered by way of clarification.  He paused for a moment, and then gave her a cautious look. "Just happened to catch sight of a familiar name on some paperwork, so I thought I'd stop in.  Sounds like they're taking all of the unregistered werewolves they've rounded up quite seriously," he added, eyebrows raising.  "Might need some help getting out of this one.  You've been in touch with your uncle, yeah?"

With her arms still crossed over her chest she began pacing lightly across the front of the cell. While it may have given her more of that caged animal image it was all she could do not to look at him. After all the time they had spent apart, after so many nights laying in bed wishing things hadn't ended the way they did she found herself having trouble just being in his presence. Especially now that he was officially part of the law. He had known for months what she was and never reported her or turned her in, would that loyalty still stand true now that she was locked up and he was part of those that had put her there?

She glanced up at him when he mentioned not being there on official business. Considering the nature of their last fight she found it hard to believe that he was just interested in her well being. More than likely he wanted to make sure that they were taking all the necessary steps in keeping such a dangerous creature locked up. A little dramatic she knew but that's how she felt. Jonas The Auror wasn't there to help her out and to see how she was coping, he was there to make sure the idiots on level four were doing their jobs right, after all the tone he used in saying that they were taking the unregistered werewolves rather seriously implicated that they hadn't been doing so in the past.

She gave pause to her maddening pacing when he mentioned her needing help to get out of this one. She narrowed her dusty blue eyes, her upper lip twitched so ready to pull back into that snarl that had become all too natural for her in the last few days, "You offering your services on that one?" Her tone wasn't friendly or hopeful, quite the opposite, it suggested sarcasm and disbelief.

Her head reeled slightly when he mentioned her uncle, "Oh yeah, Uncle Joey had no problem marching in here and letting me know I'm not only a disgrace to the family but to the entire country -" She paused for a moment, "But how did you-" She stopped herself before she even managed to finish the question. This was Jonas Trevelyan after all, the man had gone from Auror to Private Investigator and then back to Auror. It wasn't that far fetched for him to have linked the wayward Werewolf from the Great White North to her prestigious, pompously self important Ambassador Uncle.

She drew herself up, squared her shoulders and tried to calm her features as best she could, "So what happens to me now? Some Rookie said they're preparing for my trial."

He wasn't quite ready to answer her first question, not yet, so Jonas let it pass.  This wasn't as simple as inviting the young woman off the street and buying her dinner, or giving her a job to ingrain a sense of purpose.  He wasn't entirely certain that he could help even if he tried.  His position as an Auror was new enough that it still felt precarious; getting an unregistered werewolf off the hook and back out on the streets was likely well beyond his purview at the moment.

The second question, though, made him smile even as she cut it short.  "Read the file," he said, giving her the barest of smiles.  "You'd be surprised at what ends up laying out in the office."

It was disquieting to imagine what it must feel like on the other side of the bars.  Jonas had had six years to think about it -- six long years to mull over what sorts of horrible consequences would face him if the Ministry ever managed to track him down, six years for his mind to drudge up all kinds of horrific fates.  Lexus was an unregistered werewolf, a criminal; she'd been careless and had attacked innocent people as a result.  Their situations could never be analogous.  He knew that.  And still, it was hard not to think about the similarities.

"Well, I can't say I know very much about werewolf registry laws," he said after a beat.  "But yeah, I'd reckon there'll be some sort of trial."  Laws, regulations -- neither had ever been a particular interest of his, especially not in the magical realm, where dusty codexes might have been preserved on well-worn scrolls for centuries.

"Your uncle have someone who can represent you?" he asked with a slight frown, still watching her.  "Or the Ministry must be assigning you someone, yeah?"

She began to pace again, her arms still wrapped around her chest. It was frustrating to have a conversation like this with the thick silver bars between them. She couldn't help but think of the first time they met. Lexus had lost her balance and had landed square in his lap. She remembered thinking that he was attractive back then, if it weren't for his attitude she may have tried to woo him like she did with many of muggles around London. How things had changed since then. She spared a glance at Jonas becoming well aware that he hadn't offered any sort of answer to her question. Perhaps she had finally ended up in a situation that her saviour couldn't help her out of of.

She huffed slightly at his comment of things lying around the office. For a law enforcement office you'd think things would be more organized. Then again if Jonas had learned his organizational skills from the Aurors, it was a wonder they were able to find anything at all. Jonas' office had been a complete mess before she got her hands into it. She wondered what he had done with the quaint little office now that he was back in red robes.

"Uncle Joey wants to represent me himself. He tried to for my first trial but they decided it was a conflict of interest him being family and all. He was still there though. He was the only family that came to support me," She chuckled softly to herself, "Well him and Dahlie." She said mostly to herself unaware that Jonas had met her intellectually veracious cousin over the Christmas Holidays.

She glanced down at the sweats they had given her to wear after she was captured. A tighter than comfortable tank top and an over sized pair of sweatpants, all with logos from a quidditch team she didn't follow, "Think they'll let me change before shipping me off to Azkaban? Can't imagine serving life in this." It was a poor attempt at lightening the mood but it was all she had.

The question, however practical, nearly made him laugh.  Jonas flashed her a crooked smile, unable to hide his amusement at the fact that, despite her situation, clothes still mattered a little.  "I can see about getting you something different," he offered nicely, crossing his arms.  "Still would be in the same flat, yeah?"

He paused, his forehead creasing as he considered how much more to offer.  Even if he'd had magic, he couldn't wave his wand and get Lexus off the hook.  Having her uncle represent her in front of the Wizengamot was probably the best shot she had.  But still...a vague idea, still barely anything, was beginning to form in the back of his mind.  Perhaps there was another way to get her out of this.  Perhaps there was a way to kill two birds with one stone. 

All that, though, still depended on the Canadian.  He wasn't afraid of sticking his neck out on her behalf, even if she ran as soon as she was free; Tamis would probably kill him, but he didn't think the Head Auror would fire him.  But he didn't want to make this worse for Lexus.  An unregistered werewolf, even one who had unintentionally killed others, was probably going to be locked up in Azkaban.  An unregistered werewolf who had turned treasonous on the Ministry was going to get far worse.

The best he could do was ask.

Jonas studied her, his forehead creasing as he tried to gain some insight from her stance, her expression.  "What would you do if you got out of this, Lex?" he asked with a frown.  "Go back on the run again?"

Despite herself a smirk played across her lips and a chuckle tickled the back of her throat. She lowered her dusty blue eyes to keep the amusement from showing too much. She couldn't help herself, the thought of Jonas going back to her flat and rummaging through her closet to find something more appropriate for her to wear during her trial was just plain funny. She gave him a soft nod, "Yeah I'm still at the same flat." She shook her head and as soon as the amusement came it quickly disappeared. She could remember the painful transformation she had made the last time she had been in her flat, then leaping out her window onto the balcony and down the fire escape to wreak havoc on the streets of London.

She was surprised by his next question and it showed in her features. She stared at him for a long while trying to figure out what was going on in that head of his. Did he know of a way to get her out of here? Or was he simply trying to gauge her reaction, seeing if it were even worth trying to get her out. She stood there for a long time running things through her head before she began to voice her thoughts aloud, "If I did get out of here, assuming I went to trial and was somehow cleared then there'd be no reason to run now would there?" She searched his face for another long moment.

"The ministry already knows about me, there's no coming back from that. If by some miracle they do decide to let me go I can't imagine them not registering me. If they register me then there's nothing left for me to run from." She sighed and lowered her eyes, "Truth be told Jonas, I like my life here, the one I had with you. It's the first time in five years I've felt normal, like I had somewhere to belong and I would do anything to get all that back."

She brought her eyes back up to gauge his reaction this time. Would he even believe her? Or was he still expecting her to run?

It was impossible to be certain at what he read in Lexus's expression.  He wasn't a Legilimens; he couldn't tell what anyone was thinking merely by gazing into their eyes, and most of the time, he wouldn't want to.  But there was a point where one simply had to trust.  Jonas knew firsthand the toll that running took, and he had never been as physically on the run as Lexus had.  Picking up and vanishing to Exeter was nowhere near as grueling as taking off to another country and spending the better part of a year living day to day in the woods.

He could talk to Radley and to Raynor.  The investigation into the WBA was on the verge of stalling out as it was, and Level Two could use all the help it got in Knockturn.  Assisting the Aurors definitely was not the life that Lexus said that she wanted, but at least it was a possible step on the road there.  Without a doubt, it was better than what she faced alone.

"Well, don't give up hope then, yeah?" he asked, flashing her a tight smile through the bars.  "I'll see what I can do about getting you clothes.  And if anything happens," he added, dropping his voice, "and you need help in a hurry, make 'em send word to me on Level Two."

That was the most that he could offer; it would take wheels turning on another end to get her more concrete help.  Jonas paused, glancing back at her, and then gave her a tight smile again.

"Chin up, Lex," he said quietly as he started away.  "We'll all see what we can do."