Mitchell
On top of the hospital, Mitchell stood and waited. The sun was starting to set. Time was starting to tick away. Herrick... was usually punctual, but he was taking his time now, and whatever that meant, Mitchell knew that it didn't spell much in the way of good.
Still, this was where they'd decided to meet. This was where he'd wait.
He might as well enjoy the sun setting while he could...
Kate
... Which was really not going to be all that much longer, unless he was going to be able to enjoy it even with a fairly breathless Kate bursting through the door onto the roof.
"Mitchell!"
Mitchell & Annie
"Kate?!" Mitchell asked, staring at her. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay back at the flat!
"Mitchell," Annie snapped. She wasn't far behind Kate. "Herrick's not coming."
Kate
"It's George," Kate supplied with a tone that betrayed what she thought about that particular turn of events, in case her next words didn't. "He's playing stupid fucking hero guy."
On the upside, she seemed to have regained some of her normal way of behaving.
Mitchell
"Jesus," Mitchell swore. He was moving before he was even thinking about it. "Where the fuck is he?"
Kate
Kate turned swiftly to follow him. "The random batshit vampire lady said something about a dungeon."
Not that Kate had... been around any random vampires lately. Ahem.
Mitchell
"The cellar," Annie contributed, helpfully.
"Jesus." That was becoming a favorite word here pretty quickly. "Downstairs. Where he usually goes to transform."
He practically ripped the door back to the stairwell off its hinges.
Kate
That was efficient, if nothing else. And if the day hadn't been going the way it was, Kate may have even been impressed with the use of force, maybe, or wide-eyed, or something.
But she'd been running around with Annie who was being a ghostly superhero, so.
"Well, at least it's nearby," she muttered to herself as she followed him.
Nina (& Mitchell)
Mitchell rushed down the stairs, and then another pair, and then another - then through a hospital hallway, and another hospital hallway, and a--
"Mitchell!" shouted a pretty, diminutive blonde nurse, who looked like she was about ready to eviscerate the first thing she saw with a scalpel. "Mitchell! Where the hell is George!" She blocked his path quite magnificently for such a small woman, and even managed to stop him in his tracks.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," Mitchell said, swiftly, "But I don't know, so if you'll please--"
"I just got this letter. He's..." Nina waved the letter in question around, then rubbed at her brow, where a vein was starting to throb. "He's dumped me, he's finished our relationship, he says..." She paused mid-rant, and stared at the two other girls. "...Sorry, who are you?"
Kate
"Kate Gregson," Kate replied automatically, without really meaning to. It was just that this situation, this total stop to their rushing took her by complete surprise and short-circuited a good portion of her brain.
Having said that, she just stared at the nurse. Didn't they look a little too busy for this?
Nina
"And I'm Annie," Annie said, waving feebly from... behind Kate. "Er, I've seen you at the house-- I mean, not seen you seen you-- look, it doesn't matter."
Nina gave the both of them a distinctly funny look, but no level of urgency or strange stares thrown her way were going to throw her off her righteous rage. "Just tell your friend I do not get chucked by post!" she snapped, jabbing the letter at Mitchell's chest. "If he wants to do this, he'll have to do it face to face!" A beat. "...But tell him to stay the hell away from me because I swear to God if I see him, I'll..." She made a rather distressing strangling motion with her hands, before she suddenly seemed to rethink it. "...No, no, no, wait, tell him this..."
Mitchell
Honestly, Mitchell thought, vaguely, Nina really was George's perfect match. "Nina, shut up, and stay here where it's safe," he said, attempting to move her out of the way without getting stabbed.
Kate
That was a thought that crossed Kate's mind briefly, too. George and this Nina chick could just rant at each other and live happily ever after.
If George didn't get himself killed, that was. Kate gave Nina a forced, feeble little smile, and glanced back at Annie before trying to move forward again.
Nina
"Oh, no!" Nina snapped. "I'm coming with you!"
The net result of which was that Mitchell did, in fact, manage to get her to step out of the way, and Kate did, in fact, manage to get past her, but only long enough for the weetiny blonde to assemble her wits and take after them, determined and unshakeable.
Kate
"Really don't think you should tag along," Kate tried, but it was feeble, and almost like an afterthought. She couldn't say she really cared about what Nina did right now, as long as she wasn't in their way.
~.~
Mitchell
"George!"
Mitchell was the first one down, rushing past the store room in which Jack had hidden without a single thought in mind besides George. He shoved up against the heavy metal door but it wouldn't budge, Annie and Nina and Kate hot on his heels.
"George, don't do this!"
Kate
Kate was stumbling down right behind him, though maybe paying a little more attention to her surroundings. There were really more sensible ways to get killed right now than to fall and break her neck.
She skittered to a halt behind Mitchell, barely managing to keep from smacking straight into him.
Jack
"In there. I think he's still all right," Jack said, stepping out of the storage room and managing (if barely) not to run into anyone. He was still fighting a nervous quaver in his voice.
More softly, he added, "He -- was going to do this either way."
Mitchell & Annie
"So you thought you'd help him?" Mitchell asked, incredulously. He banged on the door, then reached down for the lock-- but yanking that loose didn't seem to do anything. "It's locked from the inside, too," he snarled. "Annie--"
"What is going on here?!" Nina demanded, looking frightened and determined in equal measure, and then she promptly shut up as Annie stepped straight through the door, and started to unlock it.
Jack
"Given the choices, yes."
If Jack had gone back to the house to get Mitchell, George would have come to the cellar completely on his own. No look-out, no one to tell the story or try to stop Herrick if things went wrong. Jack couldn't claim completely pure motives -- he knew his own desire for excitement had gotten mixed up in there -- but he still thought it was the right choice.
"It's a long story," he told Nina.
Kate
Kate had been giving Jack a look that seemed to ask 'you knew about this?' in a rather stunned tone, but now her attention was on the door again.
The door that Annie had just gone through. Yeah. At least they were getting it open.
George, Mitchell & Annie
The door opened a few seconds later, revealing Annie first, and behind her, George and Herrick-- Herrick still standing tall, his shoulders still squared, but George had turned around and screeched, "Annie, no!", and now he was staring at Mitchell as he came in, saying, "No, no, Mitchell, no, no no--"
But Mitchell and Annie simply found their places at his side. He relaxed slowly, his head turning back 'round to Herrick. He held up his Star of David quietly; the vampire hissed, flinching away just the tiniest bit.
Nina stared through the open door, momentarily gobsmacked. But only momentarily.
Jack
For a span of time too short to do much of anything about it ... Jack had known about it.
Not that he was about to get into that debate. He stayed outside the door, arms folded, warily watching the blonde girl. (Girls, really, but Kate had enough sense not to get into the middle of this. He wasn't so sure about the new one.)
Kate
No, Kate wasn't going to wander into a room with a distinctly not nice vampire and a werewolf on a full moon, thanks. She stayed by Jack's side, watching, tense and worried. Her eyes kept darting to Nina, completely prepared to at least try and grab her by the arm if it looked like she was going in.
Not really caring about the woman didn't mean she wanted to get traumatized by seeing her get killed.
Herrick & Mitchell
Herrick seemed ... strangely unmoved by the spectacle of it all. Resigned, maybe, or something else, it wasn't immediately obvious to Mitchell. All he knew was that he didn't like it.
"So..." the vampire said, idly, pacing from one side to another until he suddenly came to a stop. "...a werewolf, a ghost and a vampire decide to live like humans do. They get jobs, a house and a TV licence. They make friends they will lie to, take lovers they will infect." He smiled at Mitchell. "In fact, the only part of humanity they successfully adopt is its ability to deceive and destroy." He dusted off his gloves. "All in all, I'd say your little scheme has been something of a failure."
Mitchell wasn't going to let this get to him. He wasn't. He gritted his teeth. "And what about your plans," he said, dryly, though not without menace. "How'd you say they're workin' out?"
Herrick laughed, of all things, the little prick. "Well, the fat lady ain't singing yet," he said, graciously, and while he might have wanted to continue, he was interrupted by George. George spasmed, something cracking in his spine and he screamed, a nearly unearthly sound that was still human somehow, shot full of pain.
"Well, hello," Herrick laughed, "Looks like your little suicide bomber's about to go off!"
Nina
Nina started forward at the sound of it, crying "George!" loudly.
Jack
"Don't," Jack said, lunging for her just as Kate did. "Are you trying to get killed?"
It wasn't that he wasn't concerned about George -- was he supposed to scream like that? -- but between the werewolf's apparent imminent transformation and Herrick's speech, he felt clearly warned to stay the hell out of that room.
Kate
Yeah, Kate was definitely of like mind. "You can't go in there!" Hell, she'd followed a ghost to a vampire den just a little earlier, and even she knew better than to go in now.
In a way, though, she was glad that Nina had gotten stupid, because it distracted her from just how terrifying that scream had sounded.
Nina
Nina struggled against them, but she was no match for two of them, not even in all her fury and confusion. "George!" she yelled again, and on the other end of the doorway, something in George's back flinched, but he didn't turn.
Mitchell & George
Mitchell was trying to ignore her - if Kate and Jack were anything like he thought they were, they'd keep Nina under control while he fixed this. "George, move away. Let Herrick come with me," he said, imploring.
But George just steeled himself further, fists at his sides. "He's not going anywhere."
"You can't come back from this," Mitchell cautioned him. He'd been where George was now, a long time ago, and he wouldn't wish it on him. Not on ridiculous, neurotic, caring George. He thought of Lauren. Don't let them take anyone you love. They might become cruel. "Once you give that part of you up, you can never get it back."
George took a shuddering breath. "There's no-one else who can do this. Annie, tell him."
Annie & Herrick
It took until George's second "Tell him!" for Annie to jerk, almost robotically. She seemed stunned. "I think he's right," she stammered. "I think we should get out of here."
"I'd do as he says, Mitchell," Herrick added, with a grin. "We're consenting adults, we know what we're doing."
Jack
The full terrible weight of what George was planning on settled against Jack, even as he kept a firm grip on Nina. It wasn't that he hadn't known; it was that the whole 'eye for an eye' philosophy he'd been using to justify it went down easier when no one was pointing out the cost it exacted on all involved.
And he was starting to get the feeling that things would be very, very bad for more than just Herrick if that door wasn't closed right now.
"Let him go, Mitchell," he tried, not sounding terribly confident in it at all.
Kate
Kate said nothing. It wasn't a new thing today, but this time she was pretty much being shocked into silence, trying to understand things she... didn't really want to understand.
Her gaze flicked from person to person, as if someone could tell her it wasn't all as bad as it seemed.
Mitchell
"Don't you see?" Mitchell was feeling-- desperate, everyone telling him to go, everyone. Just. Fuck. "He wants to make you something bad, like him. That's all he can do."
Please, George.
And then Mitchell shut his eyes quickly, sympathy boiling up and choking him as George screamed again, folding in on himself. A second later, he felt George's hand on his, then on his jacket, as George pulled himself up.
Herrick
"Better get a move on," Herrick sing-songed. "I see the bad moon risin'..."
George
"I know... what I'm doing," George choked out, trying to focus through the pain trying to pull his body apart, remake it. "Please." He managed to pull fully upright, thumping Mitchell weakly in the chest with his fist. "Besides..." he said, softly, "I owe you."
Mitchell stared him in the eye for what felt like a long stretch of time, chest filling with emotions he wasn't sure how to express-- gratefulness, fear, guilt, all of that. He focused on George's eyes and nodded, this tiny slip of a movement, and backed away towards the door, towards where Nina was being held.
Annie murmured something into George's ear, then stepped back too.
Jack
Jack tried to feel relieved, but he really couldn't feel anything except horror and the vaguest, tiniest bit of luck he had become slightly less likely to die today. He kept a firm hold on Nina as he tried to edge back from that door so Mitchell and Annie could get out.
Kate
And Kate followed Jack's lead, as if on autopilot. Moving back a little, out of the way, still holding on to Nina's arm. Right.
Mitchell
Mitchell slammed the door shut behind them, putting the lock back on from the outside. He could hear them talking inside, and he couldn't stop himself from peering through the little window to see what was happening.
He could make out the words, but he hoped that was just his vampire hearing at work: Herrick was talking, about changing your objectives, about seeing yourself as a pawn rather than a master, about changing his mind. About how he was just a first step in a larger plan, and all of that rubbish.
It scared the shit out of Mitchell, and so, he very much hoped that they didn't overhear, not even when Herrick raised his voice and said, "A year, a decade from now... this land is ours, and we have all the time in the world..."
Mitchell yanked away from the door.
Nina
"What is going on?!" Nina hollered, pulling at the grip the two teenagers had on her until she managed to get herself a little breathing space. "What's happening to him?!"
George screamed again.
Jack
Jack badly wanted to go someplace else. Someplace where he couldn't hear George screaming or Herrick's calm tone -- which wasn't less terrifying because he couldn't make out the words.
"He's a werewolf," he said impatiently. "He's a werewolf, and it's the full moon, and I don't think he'd recognize any of us right now, so we should -- let it be."
Let nature take its course. Let Herrick be doomed.
He wanted to be somewhere else.
Kate
"And the other guy is a vampire," Kate added, almost surprising herself with how calm she sounded. Almost distant. It didn't reflect how she was feeling. "So we really don't wanna be in there right now."
She was trying not to hear anything coming from the other side of the door. Talking helped with that.
Nina
Halfway into Jack's explanation, Nina had darted forward, and plastered herself to the door. She stared in through the small window, not quite comprehending what was being said to her or what she was seeing -- the only thing she understood was that George was there, on his knees, and he'd been screaming, and that man--
All in all, it shouldn't be a surprise that her fingers were suddenly quick on the lock, and she'd opened the door and pushed on through before Mitchell could as much as make a grab for her. "George! George!"
Mitchell
Mitchell shot forwards like a light, just a little bit too late, but still going.
And George-- George pushed out at Nina before she could touch him, fingernails already long and sharp, and she fell sharply backwards, into Mitchell's arms. Who yanked her to the corner of the room, trying to keep her still, keep her from flailing. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Jack
This just kept getting worse and worse and worse, and Jack saw absolutely nothing he could do to help. Darting in after Mitchell would, at best, simply mean he had two humans to worry about instead of one.
He stepped back again, hands opening and closing in futility, and turned to Kate.
"I don't know what we should do."
Kate
Kate looked back at him, feeling helpless and looking it too. This was so much worse than she would've expected this day to be.
"Not get killed," she said. Of course, how they were going to ensure that she had no idea, but not going in was kind of a given. Maybe they'd watch.
Run if they had to.
Mitchell & George
"Just stay back," Mitchell said, attempting to wrestle Nina back towards the door, but it felt like everyone was frozen.
"Get her out!" George snarled, his voice starting to break as his throat began to change, his spine began to shift.
Herrick
The only one who was calm was Herrick, smiling still. He looked more than a little deranged. "I realise now that was my role," he said, and leaned over George. "If I'm going to hell, then I'm taking you with me," he whispered.
George
Somehow, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. George, trembling with pain, seemed to grow still, seemed to find some inner calm. "Haven't you worked it out yet?" he asked, with his hoarse, shattering voice. "Humanity... is about love and sacrifice."
His body gave another shiver on the floor, and his words became more muffled as too-big teeth grew from his mouth. "This doesn't rob me..." he said, pausing to drag a breath in, painfully, "...of my humanity."
With that, he lurched, his entire form pulling upwards with a new strength, an animal strength. His eyes had gone a maniacal yellow; hair was starting to sprout.
"It... proves... it..."
Annie
Annie jerked out of her torpor a few seconds later, when George's muscles began to twist and change. She shot into the room and grabbed Nina by her arm, dragging her bodily behind the door. Mitchell followed seconds later, and they finally slammed the door shut, lock coming down hard.
Jack
George was proving his humanity by tearing someone to bits, and Herrick's calm voice of martyrdom was echoing in Jack's skull, and -- well, at least everyone else was out of the room and the door was locked now.
He very expressively kicked the wall once, hard, and swallowed. "We're all okay?"
Kate
Kate had pulled back as far from the door as she could, without even realizing she was doing it, and now she had her back to a wall.
She looked around at the others. "In one piece, looks like." Okay was a stretch.
Mitchell
Nina had plastered herself to the window of the door, but Mitchell figured she wouldn't be stupid enough to go back in this time. "Kate," he said, stepping towards her. "Please. Cover your ears. Everyone."
George had a very distinctive howl, and he didn't want any of them to deal with it, least of all her. He... rather desperately wanted to do something, anything, that'd shield her from the rest of it - Jack, with his background, seemed a lost cause.
He didn't know what to do, though, so he just hovered.
Kate
Kate didn't really need to be told twice. She nodded, though it was a slight movement, then slowly brought her hands up to clamp them firmly over her ears. Then, looking down, she tried humming to herself.
She was fond of the idea of shielding herself from some of this, too.
Mitchell
Mitchell finally gave up and stepped forward, reaching out with one arm to try and hug her to his chest - not so much in comfort as in protection, as the wolf howled savagely behind him.
He could hear George tearing into Herrick's body, but only faintly. Thank god-- it meant the others wouldn't at all.
Jack
Jack didn't cover his ears. He knew about this kind of thing, if only in theory. He wouldn't hide or hum or --
And then the wolf howled again and he gave up on his pride, leaning in to Kate and Mitchell out of some deep need for something to hold onto. Something that might keep him from crying.
Kate
And Kate heard nothing but her own (slightly trembling) humming of Lovecats accompanied by her heartbeat thumping in her ears, saw nothing but the black behind her shut eyelids, and felt nothing but Mitchell -- of course, that was only until she suddenly felt someone she assumed had to be Jack, too.
And she just wanted this to be over so they could go home. Wherever each of them thought that was.
Mitchell
Mitchell wasn't surprised when he felt Annie's touch on his back soon after. He didn't mind-- he'd reached for Jack's shoulder and brought him in, and they stood there until the wolf quieted, Nina's gaze still plastered to the little window in the heavy door.
[[ nfi, nfb, and ooc-okay. that's a wrap! much thanks goes to
vanillajello and
bitten_notshy for indulging me. taken from the Being Human S1 finale, as all previous posts, and flows directly out of both
this and
this. ]]