Echoes of sense 8/9
Title: Echoes of sense Part 8/9
Author: eruvandeaini
Characters: Annie/Mitchell, George, OC
Rating: R for sexual situations and language
Disclaimer: Not mine, yada yada yada
Summary: Annie and Mitchell find more problems in their mutual attraction than just the obvious undead thing
A/N: Set after the end of the first series, spoilers contained therein.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
George waited for Nina, nervously. She had been so jittery lately, he couldn’t predict how she was going to react, but he didn’t see how he could avoid telling her what had happened. She arrived cheerfully enough.
“Mitchell gone home, then? He normally waits with you,” she said, fishing in her bag for her hairbrush.
“Yeah,” George lied, still unsure of how to broach the subject.
Back at Nina’s, they ate something simple, and snuggled for a while on her sofa, watching telly, George rehearsing different opening statements in his head. After a while, she went to get ready for bed - something she had refused to let George see since the fateful night with Herrick. George had wanted to be comforted by her assurance that it wasn’t anything to do with his condition, but he still feared that he disgusted her; somewhere deep down, now she had seen him transform.
When they were in bed, later, they made love with the lights off, and afterwards, he spooned up gently behind her all night. He saw her in to work the next morning, even though he didn’t have a shift, still unable to find the opening to mention what was going on.
“What is it, then?” she asked once they were there.
“What?” he blinked in surprise.
“What’s bothering you, you’ve hardly spoken three words together since yesterday.” She laughed.
“Oh. Yes, well, it’s Mitchell and Annie, there’s been a bit of trouble and I am quite worried about them,” he explained, undecided about how much detail to put in.
“What kind of trouble?” Nina asked, her eyes narrowing.
“The kind of trouble I know you don’t want to be dragged into, the not-human kind,” he replied.
“What’s happened?” she snapped, quicker than he was expecting. He raised his eyebrows and pushed his glasses up his nose again.
“Erm, Annie’s disappeared, and we think it might be something to do with the people that were outside the house the other night,” he said.
Nina frowned, “You mean they’ve taken her? How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, but Mitchell is trying to find out.”
“Well, do you think they might take anyone else?” she stammered.
“They might try, but we’ll do our best to keep out of trouble,” George said soothingly.
“How? How can you do that? If they can kidnap,” her voice dipped from a worried shriek to a whisper. “…A ghost, how can you be sure they won’t kidnap a flesh and blood creature?”
“Nina, I promise you I’ll take care of myself, OK?” he tried to reassure her.
“What about me, George? Are you going to take care of me?” she shouted, suddenly.
George blinked, confused by her outburst.
“Of course I’ll take care of you. You know I’ll take care of you,” he told her, her doubtful expression hurting him. “Besides, I don’t think these people are interested in humans,” he added.
“Well that’s no good to me, George,” she laughed, harshly.
“Look, I’ve said I’ll be careful, OK? I don’t know what else I can say,” he replied, trying to put his arm around her, but she pulled back.
“I’m not worried about you, George! …Well, I am, of course I am, I’m just…” she stopped and took a deep breath, running her hand round the back of her neck while George waited for her to finish.
She took another steadying breath and put her hands by her sides. She smiled sadly, and began to roll up one long sleeve.
“I’m not just worried about you, George. I’m worried about me, too,” she finished, and there was a moment of confusion until George looked down at her arm, and the four parallel scar lines there.
He smiled nervously, thinking, for one wild second that this was the most poor taste joke ever, and then suddenly realizing what she was telling him. He brought his hands up to his mouth in shock, shaking his head, and then the knowledge of exactly why she must have these scars hit him, and tears blurred his vision.
“Oh my god, did I…?” he gasped, reaching out hands to touch her, and then pulling them away.
She nodded, and the tears tumbled from his eyes, and then he was running, sobbing his heart out, the guilt driving through him like shards of glass. He blindly turned a few corners when he ran smack into Mitchell, who was still wearing the clothes he had on yesterday.
“George, what’s wrong?” his friend asked, hands on his shoulders.
“It’s Nina! She’s like me. I made her like me!” George wailed.
To his surprise, Mitchell just nodded.
“What, you knew?” George was horrified. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because she hadn’t told you herself and it wasn’t my place to mention it,” Mitchell told him, frowning.
George took a shuddering breath in through his open mouth and rubbed his cheeks, disbelieving. He noticed Mitchell wasn’t alone; there was a group of men standing a few feet behind him.
“Wow, this is just great! It’s all been going on, hasn’t it? Nina, you and Annie - and no one bothered to mention anything to me!” George suddenly paused. “Hold on, what are you doing here, and who are they?” he said, pointing to the men, who scowled at him, one of them flicking his eyes a threatening vampire-black.
Mitchell looked down for a second.
“They’re with me,” he said.
“Yes, I’d worked that one out. Am I going to have to play twenty questions before you’ll tell me why, or is this another thing George isn’t allowed to know?”
“The Ministry are here, George, in the hospital. They use the new research wing, and I’m going to go in there and find out what they’ve done with Annie,” Mitchell said in low tones, trying to avoid being over heard by one of the passers-by.
“That doesn’t tell me why you’ve got vampires following you, does it?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to face when I get there, and I thought some back up would be useful.” Mitchell shrugged, but George could read his nervousness in an undertone.
“You’re taking vampires into a hospital on purpose? To do what, exactly?”
“I don’t know what we’ll need to do,” Mitchell snapped. “I don’t know what I’m going to find.”
“Oh my god, you’ve actually decided to try and lead these monsters, haven’t you?” George exclaimed, and Mitchell’s guilty expression told him he was right.
“It’s just to get Annie back, George, there’s no other way,” Mitchell said.
“Is that what you’ve been telling yourself?” George asked.
Mitchell took a sharp breath in. “Are you coming?” he asked.
“Coming? What happens afterwards, Mitchell? You kill some lab technicians and then all turn on the Lyco for kicks?”
“It’s not going to be like that, I’m not going to be like Herrick,” Mitchell said.
George shook his head, already moving away from his friend, past the vampires who continued to bait at him. He looked back, meeting Mitchell’s eyes, and began to run again, though he didn’t know where. After a few minutes, he stopped, sobbing.
“What am I going to do?” he said aloud, to no one in particular. Looking around, he didn’t recognize anyone, and then his eyes fell on the door he was standing next to. The sign on it said ‘Chapel’.
~*~
Mitchell watched his friend run, and his insides dipped. He would have to convince him later, he thought, and turned to the eager vampires who still waited behind him.
“Come on,” he said darkly, and as he began to walk, his eyes turned black.
~*~
“Here, in the hospital?” Mark asked, looking petrified.
“Yes, and my friend is doing something very stupid, as we speak, to try and find her,” George explained, sitting in a chair next to him.
“OK, George, what would you like me to do? I can stay here and pray, perhaps?”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d come with me to the research wing. Maybe we can try and, I don’t know, mediate,” George suggested.
“Yes, I was worried you were going to say that,” said the priest nervously, taking in a deep breath and getting up.
George looked up at him.
“Well, come on, it’s not everyday I think ‘martyrdom - oh, what the hell!’” Mark insisted, and George leapt up to follow him.
When they reached the research department, there was a security guard by the door. He shook his head as they approached.
“No one is allowed in without clearance, sorry,” he said, in a broad Bristol accent.
George looked at Mark, who nodded.
“This is quite important, I’m part of the hospital ethics committee and I’ve been sent with my colleague here to inspect some of the procedures inside,” the priest said.
The guard shook his head.
“I was intimidated by them other fellas, but I’m not going to be pushed around by a vicar, no offence,” he replied.
“Other fellas?” George asked, alarmed.
“The bully boys with the novelty contacts in. The professor came out and told me to let them through, but I’m not going to be fooled by a vicar-gram,” he said, clearly not the brightest penny in the jar, thought George.
“He’s the hospital chaplain,” said George, going for a bluff of indignant confidence. “He’s been here for years, helping lots of people through some difficult times, I think you should show him some respect.”
The guard frowned, and the priest drew himself to his full, dignified height. After a minute, the guard frowned, and relented.
“I’ll just pop to the loo, then, and say I didn’t see you,” he said, as they moved past him, through the door.
The lab inside was clean and new, cluttered with equipment and folders bulging with paperwork. George and the priest went cautiously forward, a few technicians turning to look, but no one saying anything. In the middle of the lab, there was more floor space, and in the space stood Mitchell, flanked by the other vampires.
Directly opposite Mitchell, there was an asian woman in a neat grey trouser suit, holding a thin folder. She was motioning to a platform behind her, and George gasped as he recognized Annie, crouched down on it, shaking slightly.
At his gasp, the woman looked up and over at him.
“Oh look, the lycoform. Come on over, this makes things so much neater,” she said.
~*~
Author: eruvandeaini
Characters: Annie/Mitchell, George, OC
Rating: R for sexual situations and language
Disclaimer: Not mine, yada yada yada
Summary: Annie and Mitchell find more problems in their mutual attraction than just the obvious undead thing
A/N: Set after the end of the first series, spoilers contained therein.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
George waited for Nina, nervously. She had been so jittery lately, he couldn’t predict how she was going to react, but he didn’t see how he could avoid telling her what had happened. She arrived cheerfully enough.
“Mitchell gone home, then? He normally waits with you,” she said, fishing in her bag for her hairbrush.
“Yeah,” George lied, still unsure of how to broach the subject.
Back at Nina’s, they ate something simple, and snuggled for a while on her sofa, watching telly, George rehearsing different opening statements in his head. After a while, she went to get ready for bed - something she had refused to let George see since the fateful night with Herrick. George had wanted to be comforted by her assurance that it wasn’t anything to do with his condition, but he still feared that he disgusted her; somewhere deep down, now she had seen him transform.
When they were in bed, later, they made love with the lights off, and afterwards, he spooned up gently behind her all night. He saw her in to work the next morning, even though he didn’t have a shift, still unable to find the opening to mention what was going on.
“What is it, then?” she asked once they were there.
“What?” he blinked in surprise.
“What’s bothering you, you’ve hardly spoken three words together since yesterday.” She laughed.
“Oh. Yes, well, it’s Mitchell and Annie, there’s been a bit of trouble and I am quite worried about them,” he explained, undecided about how much detail to put in.
“What kind of trouble?” Nina asked, her eyes narrowing.
“The kind of trouble I know you don’t want to be dragged into, the not-human kind,” he replied.
“What’s happened?” she snapped, quicker than he was expecting. He raised his eyebrows and pushed his glasses up his nose again.
“Erm, Annie’s disappeared, and we think it might be something to do with the people that were outside the house the other night,” he said.
Nina frowned, “You mean they’ve taken her? How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, but Mitchell is trying to find out.”
“Well, do you think they might take anyone else?” she stammered.
“They might try, but we’ll do our best to keep out of trouble,” George said soothingly.
“How? How can you do that? If they can kidnap,” her voice dipped from a worried shriek to a whisper. “…A ghost, how can you be sure they won’t kidnap a flesh and blood creature?”
“Nina, I promise you I’ll take care of myself, OK?” he tried to reassure her.
“What about me, George? Are you going to take care of me?” she shouted, suddenly.
George blinked, confused by her outburst.
“Of course I’ll take care of you. You know I’ll take care of you,” he told her, her doubtful expression hurting him. “Besides, I don’t think these people are interested in humans,” he added.
“Well that’s no good to me, George,” she laughed, harshly.
“Look, I’ve said I’ll be careful, OK? I don’t know what else I can say,” he replied, trying to put his arm around her, but she pulled back.
“I’m not worried about you, George! …Well, I am, of course I am, I’m just…” she stopped and took a deep breath, running her hand round the back of her neck while George waited for her to finish.
She took another steadying breath and put her hands by her sides. She smiled sadly, and began to roll up one long sleeve.
“I’m not just worried about you, George. I’m worried about me, too,” she finished, and there was a moment of confusion until George looked down at her arm, and the four parallel scar lines there.
He smiled nervously, thinking, for one wild second that this was the most poor taste joke ever, and then suddenly realizing what she was telling him. He brought his hands up to his mouth in shock, shaking his head, and then the knowledge of exactly why she must have these scars hit him, and tears blurred his vision.
“Oh my god, did I…?” he gasped, reaching out hands to touch her, and then pulling them away.
She nodded, and the tears tumbled from his eyes, and then he was running, sobbing his heart out, the guilt driving through him like shards of glass. He blindly turned a few corners when he ran smack into Mitchell, who was still wearing the clothes he had on yesterday.
“George, what’s wrong?” his friend asked, hands on his shoulders.
“It’s Nina! She’s like me. I made her like me!” George wailed.
To his surprise, Mitchell just nodded.
“What, you knew?” George was horrified. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because she hadn’t told you herself and it wasn’t my place to mention it,” Mitchell told him, frowning.
George took a shuddering breath in through his open mouth and rubbed his cheeks, disbelieving. He noticed Mitchell wasn’t alone; there was a group of men standing a few feet behind him.
“Wow, this is just great! It’s all been going on, hasn’t it? Nina, you and Annie - and no one bothered to mention anything to me!” George suddenly paused. “Hold on, what are you doing here, and who are they?” he said, pointing to the men, who scowled at him, one of them flicking his eyes a threatening vampire-black.
Mitchell looked down for a second.
“They’re with me,” he said.
“Yes, I’d worked that one out. Am I going to have to play twenty questions before you’ll tell me why, or is this another thing George isn’t allowed to know?”
“The Ministry are here, George, in the hospital. They use the new research wing, and I’m going to go in there and find out what they’ve done with Annie,” Mitchell said in low tones, trying to avoid being over heard by one of the passers-by.
“That doesn’t tell me why you’ve got vampires following you, does it?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to face when I get there, and I thought some back up would be useful.” Mitchell shrugged, but George could read his nervousness in an undertone.
“You’re taking vampires into a hospital on purpose? To do what, exactly?”
“I don’t know what we’ll need to do,” Mitchell snapped. “I don’t know what I’m going to find.”
“Oh my god, you’ve actually decided to try and lead these monsters, haven’t you?” George exclaimed, and Mitchell’s guilty expression told him he was right.
“It’s just to get Annie back, George, there’s no other way,” Mitchell said.
“Is that what you’ve been telling yourself?” George asked.
Mitchell took a sharp breath in. “Are you coming?” he asked.
“Coming? What happens afterwards, Mitchell? You kill some lab technicians and then all turn on the Lyco for kicks?”
“It’s not going to be like that, I’m not going to be like Herrick,” Mitchell said.
George shook his head, already moving away from his friend, past the vampires who continued to bait at him. He looked back, meeting Mitchell’s eyes, and began to run again, though he didn’t know where. After a few minutes, he stopped, sobbing.
“What am I going to do?” he said aloud, to no one in particular. Looking around, he didn’t recognize anyone, and then his eyes fell on the door he was standing next to. The sign on it said ‘Chapel’.
~*~
Mitchell watched his friend run, and his insides dipped. He would have to convince him later, he thought, and turned to the eager vampires who still waited behind him.
“Come on,” he said darkly, and as he began to walk, his eyes turned black.
~*~
“Here, in the hospital?” Mark asked, looking petrified.
“Yes, and my friend is doing something very stupid, as we speak, to try and find her,” George explained, sitting in a chair next to him.
“OK, George, what would you like me to do? I can stay here and pray, perhaps?”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d come with me to the research wing. Maybe we can try and, I don’t know, mediate,” George suggested.
“Yes, I was worried you were going to say that,” said the priest nervously, taking in a deep breath and getting up.
George looked up at him.
“Well, come on, it’s not everyday I think ‘martyrdom - oh, what the hell!’” Mark insisted, and George leapt up to follow him.
When they reached the research department, there was a security guard by the door. He shook his head as they approached.
“No one is allowed in without clearance, sorry,” he said, in a broad Bristol accent.
George looked at Mark, who nodded.
“This is quite important, I’m part of the hospital ethics committee and I’ve been sent with my colleague here to inspect some of the procedures inside,” the priest said.
The guard shook his head.
“I was intimidated by them other fellas, but I’m not going to be pushed around by a vicar, no offence,” he replied.
“Other fellas?” George asked, alarmed.
“The bully boys with the novelty contacts in. The professor came out and told me to let them through, but I’m not going to be fooled by a vicar-gram,” he said, clearly not the brightest penny in the jar, thought George.
“He’s the hospital chaplain,” said George, going for a bluff of indignant confidence. “He’s been here for years, helping lots of people through some difficult times, I think you should show him some respect.”
The guard frowned, and the priest drew himself to his full, dignified height. After a minute, the guard frowned, and relented.
“I’ll just pop to the loo, then, and say I didn’t see you,” he said, as they moved past him, through the door.
The lab inside was clean and new, cluttered with equipment and folders bulging with paperwork. George and the priest went cautiously forward, a few technicians turning to look, but no one saying anything. In the middle of the lab, there was more floor space, and in the space stood Mitchell, flanked by the other vampires.
Directly opposite Mitchell, there was an asian woman in a neat grey trouser suit, holding a thin folder. She was motioning to a platform behind her, and George gasped as he recognized Annie, crouched down on it, shaking slightly.
At his gasp, the woman looked up and over at him.
“Oh look, the lycoform. Come on over, this makes things so much neater,” she said.
~*~