A Close Call
Fandom - Primeval / Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing - Connor / Spike / Lester
Rating - R-15
Summary - Spike gets hurt protecting Connor.
Series - # 6 in the Connor / Spike / Lester series- full list here.
A Close Call
Lester was seriously considering introducing the man in front of him to an anomaly by way of a boot up his arse. The jumped-up accountant had been wittering on for the past ten minutes about the ARC’s budgets, and how they could reduce their expenditure. Unfortunately, the man had no clue at all about why most of the equipment was needed, having never been in the path of a herd of pissed off dinosaurs or trying to close an anomaly before whatever was on the other side came through and caused a public-relations nightmare by eating someone. He hadn’t needed to be fixed up in the expensive medical facilities here, for injuries that you couldn’t exactly go to the nearest casualty department with. Lester smiled to himself at the notion of throwing the man though the next anomaly that opened up; let him see how many corners he wanted to cut when he was standing in the real life equivalent of Jurassic Park.
He sighed. As tempting as it was, he didn’t think that the rest of the review committee would appreciate it quite as much as him. Lester hated these reviews. The small group disrupted everything when they arrived, wanting to look into every nook and cranny, wanting to check the validity of any expenses and orders, checking the animal holding areas, harassing the staff. This morning they had questioned Becker about his team, assessing the armoury and questioning everything from the weapons to their training facilities. It was a wonder that Becker had managed to keep his cool with them; even the usually unflappable soldier looked ready and willing to commit murder.
Then they wanted Lester to try and reduce their energy consumption at the ARC, looking annoyed when he pointed out the impracticality of their ideas. The animals needed their environment keeping regulated, as did the humans who worked here. The Anomaly Detector, he patiently explained, could not be made more energy efficient. He dreaded suggesting that one to Connor; it was a good thing that they had an anomaly alert an hour ago, effectively getting Connor out of the way before they could have a chat to him about it.
It was almost 9pm when they made their way back to Lester’s office and he looked longingly out at the darkness outside. He should be at home by this time, but home time looked a long way away at this point.
Lester was glad that his secretary chose that moment to interrupt, looking apologetic. He could have hugged her.
“I’m sorry Sir James, but Connor is on line one. He sounds distressed,” she said, glancing at the four committee members.
Connor wouldn’t call unless he knew it was urgent, especially when he knew that Lester was still busy with the committee. He excused himself and picked up the call.
“Connor?”
“James, Spike’s been hurt. It’s bad; we’re on the way back to the ARC now. He won’t wake up-”
Lester stood up and was half way around his desk before he even ended the call.
“I’ll meet you at the door,” he said. “He’ll be fine, Connor.” Lester hung up the phone and only then remembered the committee, all watching him with a mixture of curiosity and exasperation that he was leaving. “I have to go. One of my team is hurt.”
He didn’t bother to wait for a reply, just left the room. As he reached the outer office, Louisa, his secretary, stopped him.
“It’s Spike,” Lester told her. “They’re bringing him in; he’s injured.”
“Go,” she said, indicating to the office and his guests. “I’ll keep that lot busy and out of the way.”
Lester nodded and hurried off to meet the incoming vehicle.
----------------
(Twenty minutes earlier)
“Connor, look out!”
Connor didn’t even have the chance to take a step before he felt someone push him to the side. He stumbled and looked back in time to see the Sabre Toothed Tiger take a swipe at Spike, knocking him to the ground. Before he could get up, the cat pounced.
There was a second one now bounding toward them, snarling at the first. Becker and Neil were both shooting and he saw one of the cats drop as he attempted to distract the first. He had to get it away from Spike; the Vampire wasn’t moving at all, just lying on the ground, the grass around him dark with blood. Connor could see that the front of his leather coat was shredded, the gashes across his chest and stomach bleeding freely.
The cat started to head for him and Becker shouted a warning seconds before they fired on it.
As soon as it was down, Connor rushed to Spike. He started to check for a pulse, panicking when he couldn’t find one, and then remembering that Spike didn’t have one in the first place. What was he meant to do?
“Spike? Come on, please just open your eyes or something. Spike?”
Becker called in for backup to deal with the two dead creatures whilst Neil came to attend to Spike.
“He pushed me out of the way,” Connor told the medic, unable to stop the tears that began streaking down his cheeks. “It should have been me that it attacked. Oh God. If he dies…”
Neil leaned over and pinched Connor on the arm, hard enough to make him yelp.
“Pack it in, Connor. Right now, we need to help him. I don’t need you falling apart on me as well.”
Connor glared at him, ready to snap at him for being so insensitive, and realised that it had been intentional. He nodded.
“Okay, so what do we do?”
Neil shook his head. “I don’t know. They don’t exactly teach you how to treat Vampires at medical school. If he was human, I’d say we needed to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds. He’s lost a lot of blood so we’d give him a transfusion.”
Seeing that it wouldn’t hurt, Neil got to work cleaning the wounds and closing them as best he could with the limited medical supplies in the field kit. He’d had to remove the ruined shirts and coat, letting him see the full extent of the vampire’s injuries. It wasn’t pretty.
“I can’t give him any kind of drugs as I don’t know how they’ll react with his body chemistry,” he said. “We need to get him back to the ARC; I can try and transfuse him, replace what he’s lost.”
They got Spike into the back of the car, laid out on the back seat, his head in Connor’s lap. Connor took his jacket off and, before they could stop him, reached over and took the knife that was strapped to Becker’s thigh.
“What are you doing?” Becker demanded, trying to snatch the knife back.
“Giving him blood,” Connor said, swiping the blade over his wrist. He whimpered as it sliced into his skin but didn’t stop, gently forcing Spike’s mouth open and letting the blood drip in.
Neil climbed between the seats to crouch in the foot well in front of them and began to massage Spike’s throat, inducing his reflexes to swallow.
“Captain? We need to get going.”
Becker drove as fast as he could without getting pulled over for a speeding ticket. He didn’t fancy trying to explain why they had a comatose man in the back seat, being force fed blood, to a traffic cop.
Ten minutes later, Neil reached over and took the knife from Connor.
“You’re losing too much blood.”
Connor looked down at Spike. He still hadn’t woken up.
“We’re about five minutes away from the ARC,” Becker reported from the front seat as he took another corner at tyre-squealing speed.
Neil handed Connor a mobile phone after wrapping a cloth around his wrist. “Call Lester and let him know we’re on our way in,” he said softly. “He’s going to want to know.” When Connor began to protest, looking down at the unconscious vampire, Neil picked up the knife. “He can take some from me.”
Connor dialled the number, not taking his eyes off Spike. “James, Spike’s been hurt…”
----------
Lester saw the assorted military personnel and staff who met the vehicle take a second look at their Sergeant holding his bleeding wrist over Spike’s mouth. They may be used to the idea of having a vampire on the team, even like having him around as a friend, but seeing him being fed was different. Neil pulled his arm away and quickly bandaged it as the others got Spike out of the vehicle and onto a stretcher to take to the medical bay.
He saw Connor standing nearby in his bloodstained jacket.
“Connor, are you hurt?” Lester asked.
The younger man shook his head. “That’s Sp- It’s not my blood,” he said, wrapping his arms around himself. He shivered, despite the warm temperature in the ARC.
Uncaring of who was watching at this point, Lester enveloped Connor in a tight hug before leading him to catch up with the others as they transferred Spike to a bed in one of the medical bays.
Neil checked the wounds again, carefully removing the dressings. “They’re starting to heal; I think the blood is working.”
“Then he needs more.” Connor started to roll his sleeve up again, ignoring Neil’s protests that he had lost too much already.
“Take it from me instead,” Dev offered. He still looked a little wary but he offered his arm anyway. Behind him, from the doorway, Danny, Becker and Abby all volunteered as well but Lester had already removed his suit jacked and rolled his sleeve up.
Using the same technique as the others had earlier, he fed Spike.
“Come on, Spike,” he muttered. “Stop being so bloody stubborn and open your eyes. Please.”
Beside him, Connor huddled against his side, his hand on Spike’s arm as though needing to keep touching him to make sure he was still there.
“He swallowed!” Connor said, the relief clear in his voice. “He did! I saw his throat move.”
No one else had noticed and now they all watched anxiously, a sigh of relief going through the onlookers as he moved again, this time opening his mouth wider. His fangs extended and Lester lowered his arm so that the vampire could feed from him properly. Connor saw him wince as Spike’s fangs sank into his flesh and reached his free hand to take Lester’s. It was bound to hurt as Spike was in no condition to make it feel better, to mask the bite with more pleasurable sensations. He could, though, but not with everyone else here. He needed the others to leave them for a while.
Neil obviously had the same idea, although probably not for the same reasons.
“Right, everyone who doesn’t need to be in here, outside please,” he announced, ushering them toward the door. “I need to work and Spike needs to recover and that’s not going to happen with a room full of people.”
Abby insisted on staying, refusing to leave her best friend and his lover, and so when it was just her, Lester, Connor and Neil left, the medic turned to them.
“That’s better. I thought we could do with a bit of peace.”
Connor nodded. “Thanks.”
“Do you want Abby and me to go too?” he asked, noticing the awkward glances that Connor was casting at Lester. “I’m not entirely comfortable leaving him, or you whilst he isn’t able to control how much blood he’s taking from you, but I will if you want.”
After a quick look at Lester, Connor said they could stay. He felt happier having the medic around at the moment, just in case, and Abby… Well, if they needed another donor, he knew that Abby would be willing.
“Just make sure nothing goes further than this room,” he warned.
They both nodded, and Connor turned back to Lester. He could see that the bite was hurting and did the quickest thing he could think of to distract him. He knew that Neil and Abby were watching them, looking on curiously, but he didn’t care as he covered Lester’s mouth with his own. Lester responded, kissing him eagerly as Connor’s arm snaked around his waist, dragging him closer. It worked, the sting of the vampire’s bite easing into the pleasant haze of arousal and desire as Connor’s hands roamed lower to grab at his arse, pulling him close so that their bodies were connected from chest to thighs.
When Lester staggered a little, Connor caught him, keeping him balanced as Neil rushed to them.
“Spike, you need to stop now,” Connor said, leaning closer to him. “Spike!”
Lester’s wrist was released and Spike’s eyes finally blinked open, squinting up at them against the bright lights. Connor grinned and pressed a kiss to his blood smeared lips.
“Damn, you had us worried for a while.”
Spike struggled to sit upright, hissing in pain as the partially healed slashes across his torso pulled.
“Stay still,” Neil ordered, hands on his shoulders to press him back to the bed again. “Now that you’re awake, you can tell us what we need to do to completely heal you. The blood you’ve been given has started working but how long does it take? Do you need more? What kinds of painkillers can you take, if you even need them? When you’re better, we’re going to have do a full set of medical records for you so we know what to do in future.”
“I don’t need meds. They won’t work on me anyway- only thing that does is booze,” he said. “Which would be nice, right about now.” Seeing no bottle or hip flask being produced he sighed. “I’ll be fine by morning; it’ll take a bit more blood, though. ‘Body’s using it up ten times faster than usual to fix me.”
Abby stepped forward. “If you need more, you can take it from me; they’ve all given you quite a bit already.”
Spike frowned for a moment and then looked around at the bandages on their arms, glancing up at Neil.
“You let me feed from you?”
The medic smiled. “Yes. Quinn, Dev, even the Captain, were all ready and willing to donate if you needed it.”
“Thank you. And I appreciate the offer, Abby, but I’ll be fine until morning. That’s when I’ll need more and, by that time, I hope I’ll be at home in bed.”
Abby grinned. “Deal; that was an invite, wasn’t it?” she teased. “Aw, damn. I was looking forward to it, especially after watching Connor and Lester before.”
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It was only as Lester settled into his bed, arms carefully wrapped around Spike so as not to aggravate any of his injuries, that he remembered what he had been doing before that phone call.
“Bugger.”
Connor climbed into bed behind him and dragged the covers over them all. “What’s the matter?”
“I left the review committee members in my office with Louisa. Poor woman.”
“Well, you can’t do much about them now, can you?”
Lester sighed. Connor was right. He had abandoned his visitors with his secretary. This didn’t bode well for their final assessment, he thought. He would attempt to smooth things over tomorrow morning.
Well, afternoon.
After he’d had a nice long sleep and some quality time with his lovers.
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The following day, he reached his office at around mid day, having been stopped by everyone he passed as they enquired after Spike. He and Connor had taken the morning off to look after him, though Spike didn’t need it. The vampire had healed completely and so ‘looking after him’ had been more of an excuse to stay in bed than anything else. He smiled at the memory as he walked up the ramp to his office. As he passed Louisa’s desk, she looked up.
“How is he?”
“Completely recovered; it is amazing how fast he heals. He and Connor are down in the staff room.”
She smiled. “I’m so glad he’s alright.” There was a pause. “The review committee are in your office,” she told him, looking nervous though he already knew they would be here. “I gave them all of the information they asked for yesterday, and they seemed happy.”
Lester thanked her. He straightened his tie, made sure his jacket sleeve covered the bandaged-up bite marks on his wrist, and put on his poker face before stepping into his office. All three members of the review committee sat patiently, waiting for him.
“Sir James,” Mr Parks stood to shake his hand. “How is Spike? I understand that he is making a good recovery.”
“He is, though he had us concerned for a time,” Lester told him, sitting down behind his desk. “Gentlemen, I would like to offer my apologies for leaving so abruptly yesterday,” he began, but Mr Shadid stopped him.
“No need to apologise; I would have done the same in your situation.” Lester frowned, wondering what he meant by that. The man noticed his suspicion and smiled reassuringly. “We are aware of your relationship concerning this man, and Mr Temple.” Seeing Lester’s hastily disguised shock, he said, “There was a lot of concern voiced about how yourself and Mr Temple were coping, as well as for Spike’s wellbeing. We overheard some of it.”
Lester eyed them uneasily. “So you are planning to use this information to do what? Ask me for my resignation? Close the project?”
Mr Parks shook his head. “Nothing of the sort. I merely wished to inform you that we know, just as we are aware of Spike’s rather unique true nature.”
“If you intend to try and remove Spike in order to study him, you will have a fight on your hands-”
Mr Shadid frowned, looking confused. “No, you misunderstand. Our purpose in returning today was to complete our assessment, nothing more.”
“From what we have seen here,” Mr Parks informed him, “The project is progressing extremely well. It is true that personal relationships tend to become complicated but nothing I have seen here would be cause for concern. Sir James, our assessment requirements are specific; I see no reason why additional information should be supplied.”
The man next to him, the accountant who had pissed Lester off so much the previous day, rolled his eyes. “What he’s trying to say is that this conversation won’t be in the report.”
The three men asked their final questions and checked a few more things before Mr Parks closed his laptop and packed it away. Lester would get the final report in a few weeks time but, they assured him, their initial impressions were favourable. It seemed that their thoughts on how to economise had been forgotten, the incident yesterday making them see that everything they did was necessary, that they really did need all of the equipment and personnel.
As soon as they were gone, Lester headed for the staff room to check on Connor and Spike. They were surrounded by the anomaly team and most of Becker’s men, as well as a few of the lab techs. When they saw him approach, the crowd parted to let him through.
“How did it go?” Connor asked. “Were they mad?”
Lester shook his head. “Quite the opposite,” he said. “It appears to have gone rather well. And now it’s over for another year.”
At that moment, the anomaly detector began wailing and everyone hurried out of the room, abandoning half-finished cups of coffee and tea. Lester headed back to his office, drawing all of the blinds so that Spike could stay with him in there; it was mid day and so Spike couldn’t go with the team, no matter how much he wished he could. Lester left the office and returned a few moments later with a large box, which he handed to Spike.
“What’s this?”
“I got you something,” Lester told him, sitting in the padded chair next to Spike as the other man opened it and lifted out the contents. “Since yours got ruined.”
Spike pulled out the coat and tried it on; the black leather trench coat was a perfect fit. He went over to Lester’s chair and sank down onto it, straddling Lester’s lap. He put his arms around his lover’s neck and leaned in for a long kiss.
“Thank you, James.”
------
End.
(for now)
Pairing - Connor / Spike / Lester
Rating - R-15
Summary - Spike gets hurt protecting Connor.
Series - # 6 in the Connor / Spike / Lester series- full list here.
A Close Call
Lester was seriously considering introducing the man in front of him to an anomaly by way of a boot up his arse. The jumped-up accountant had been wittering on for the past ten minutes about the ARC’s budgets, and how they could reduce their expenditure. Unfortunately, the man had no clue at all about why most of the equipment was needed, having never been in the path of a herd of pissed off dinosaurs or trying to close an anomaly before whatever was on the other side came through and caused a public-relations nightmare by eating someone. He hadn’t needed to be fixed up in the expensive medical facilities here, for injuries that you couldn’t exactly go to the nearest casualty department with. Lester smiled to himself at the notion of throwing the man though the next anomaly that opened up; let him see how many corners he wanted to cut when he was standing in the real life equivalent of Jurassic Park.
He sighed. As tempting as it was, he didn’t think that the rest of the review committee would appreciate it quite as much as him. Lester hated these reviews. The small group disrupted everything when they arrived, wanting to look into every nook and cranny, wanting to check the validity of any expenses and orders, checking the animal holding areas, harassing the staff. This morning they had questioned Becker about his team, assessing the armoury and questioning everything from the weapons to their training facilities. It was a wonder that Becker had managed to keep his cool with them; even the usually unflappable soldier looked ready and willing to commit murder.
Then they wanted Lester to try and reduce their energy consumption at the ARC, looking annoyed when he pointed out the impracticality of their ideas. The animals needed their environment keeping regulated, as did the humans who worked here. The Anomaly Detector, he patiently explained, could not be made more energy efficient. He dreaded suggesting that one to Connor; it was a good thing that they had an anomaly alert an hour ago, effectively getting Connor out of the way before they could have a chat to him about it.
It was almost 9pm when they made their way back to Lester’s office and he looked longingly out at the darkness outside. He should be at home by this time, but home time looked a long way away at this point.
Lester was glad that his secretary chose that moment to interrupt, looking apologetic. He could have hugged her.
“I’m sorry Sir James, but Connor is on line one. He sounds distressed,” she said, glancing at the four committee members.
Connor wouldn’t call unless he knew it was urgent, especially when he knew that Lester was still busy with the committee. He excused himself and picked up the call.
“Connor?”
“James, Spike’s been hurt. It’s bad; we’re on the way back to the ARC now. He won’t wake up-”
Lester stood up and was half way around his desk before he even ended the call.
“I’ll meet you at the door,” he said. “He’ll be fine, Connor.” Lester hung up the phone and only then remembered the committee, all watching him with a mixture of curiosity and exasperation that he was leaving. “I have to go. One of my team is hurt.”
He didn’t bother to wait for a reply, just left the room. As he reached the outer office, Louisa, his secretary, stopped him.
“It’s Spike,” Lester told her. “They’re bringing him in; he’s injured.”
“Go,” she said, indicating to the office and his guests. “I’ll keep that lot busy and out of the way.”
Lester nodded and hurried off to meet the incoming vehicle.
----------------
(Twenty minutes earlier)
“Connor, look out!”
Connor didn’t even have the chance to take a step before he felt someone push him to the side. He stumbled and looked back in time to see the Sabre Toothed Tiger take a swipe at Spike, knocking him to the ground. Before he could get up, the cat pounced.
There was a second one now bounding toward them, snarling at the first. Becker and Neil were both shooting and he saw one of the cats drop as he attempted to distract the first. He had to get it away from Spike; the Vampire wasn’t moving at all, just lying on the ground, the grass around him dark with blood. Connor could see that the front of his leather coat was shredded, the gashes across his chest and stomach bleeding freely.
The cat started to head for him and Becker shouted a warning seconds before they fired on it.
As soon as it was down, Connor rushed to Spike. He started to check for a pulse, panicking when he couldn’t find one, and then remembering that Spike didn’t have one in the first place. What was he meant to do?
“Spike? Come on, please just open your eyes or something. Spike?”
Becker called in for backup to deal with the two dead creatures whilst Neil came to attend to Spike.
“He pushed me out of the way,” Connor told the medic, unable to stop the tears that began streaking down his cheeks. “It should have been me that it attacked. Oh God. If he dies…”
Neil leaned over and pinched Connor on the arm, hard enough to make him yelp.
“Pack it in, Connor. Right now, we need to help him. I don’t need you falling apart on me as well.”
Connor glared at him, ready to snap at him for being so insensitive, and realised that it had been intentional. He nodded.
“Okay, so what do we do?”
Neil shook his head. “I don’t know. They don’t exactly teach you how to treat Vampires at medical school. If he was human, I’d say we needed to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds. He’s lost a lot of blood so we’d give him a transfusion.”
Seeing that it wouldn’t hurt, Neil got to work cleaning the wounds and closing them as best he could with the limited medical supplies in the field kit. He’d had to remove the ruined shirts and coat, letting him see the full extent of the vampire’s injuries. It wasn’t pretty.
“I can’t give him any kind of drugs as I don’t know how they’ll react with his body chemistry,” he said. “We need to get him back to the ARC; I can try and transfuse him, replace what he’s lost.”
They got Spike into the back of the car, laid out on the back seat, his head in Connor’s lap. Connor took his jacket off and, before they could stop him, reached over and took the knife that was strapped to Becker’s thigh.
“What are you doing?” Becker demanded, trying to snatch the knife back.
“Giving him blood,” Connor said, swiping the blade over his wrist. He whimpered as it sliced into his skin but didn’t stop, gently forcing Spike’s mouth open and letting the blood drip in.
Neil climbed between the seats to crouch in the foot well in front of them and began to massage Spike’s throat, inducing his reflexes to swallow.
“Captain? We need to get going.”
Becker drove as fast as he could without getting pulled over for a speeding ticket. He didn’t fancy trying to explain why they had a comatose man in the back seat, being force fed blood, to a traffic cop.
Ten minutes later, Neil reached over and took the knife from Connor.
“You’re losing too much blood.”
Connor looked down at Spike. He still hadn’t woken up.
“We’re about five minutes away from the ARC,” Becker reported from the front seat as he took another corner at tyre-squealing speed.
Neil handed Connor a mobile phone after wrapping a cloth around his wrist. “Call Lester and let him know we’re on our way in,” he said softly. “He’s going to want to know.” When Connor began to protest, looking down at the unconscious vampire, Neil picked up the knife. “He can take some from me.”
Connor dialled the number, not taking his eyes off Spike. “James, Spike’s been hurt…”
----------
Lester saw the assorted military personnel and staff who met the vehicle take a second look at their Sergeant holding his bleeding wrist over Spike’s mouth. They may be used to the idea of having a vampire on the team, even like having him around as a friend, but seeing him being fed was different. Neil pulled his arm away and quickly bandaged it as the others got Spike out of the vehicle and onto a stretcher to take to the medical bay.
He saw Connor standing nearby in his bloodstained jacket.
“Connor, are you hurt?” Lester asked.
The younger man shook his head. “That’s Sp- It’s not my blood,” he said, wrapping his arms around himself. He shivered, despite the warm temperature in the ARC.
Uncaring of who was watching at this point, Lester enveloped Connor in a tight hug before leading him to catch up with the others as they transferred Spike to a bed in one of the medical bays.
Neil checked the wounds again, carefully removing the dressings. “They’re starting to heal; I think the blood is working.”
“Then he needs more.” Connor started to roll his sleeve up again, ignoring Neil’s protests that he had lost too much already.
“Take it from me instead,” Dev offered. He still looked a little wary but he offered his arm anyway. Behind him, from the doorway, Danny, Becker and Abby all volunteered as well but Lester had already removed his suit jacked and rolled his sleeve up.
Using the same technique as the others had earlier, he fed Spike.
“Come on, Spike,” he muttered. “Stop being so bloody stubborn and open your eyes. Please.”
Beside him, Connor huddled against his side, his hand on Spike’s arm as though needing to keep touching him to make sure he was still there.
“He swallowed!” Connor said, the relief clear in his voice. “He did! I saw his throat move.”
No one else had noticed and now they all watched anxiously, a sigh of relief going through the onlookers as he moved again, this time opening his mouth wider. His fangs extended and Lester lowered his arm so that the vampire could feed from him properly. Connor saw him wince as Spike’s fangs sank into his flesh and reached his free hand to take Lester’s. It was bound to hurt as Spike was in no condition to make it feel better, to mask the bite with more pleasurable sensations. He could, though, but not with everyone else here. He needed the others to leave them for a while.
Neil obviously had the same idea, although probably not for the same reasons.
“Right, everyone who doesn’t need to be in here, outside please,” he announced, ushering them toward the door. “I need to work and Spike needs to recover and that’s not going to happen with a room full of people.”
Abby insisted on staying, refusing to leave her best friend and his lover, and so when it was just her, Lester, Connor and Neil left, the medic turned to them.
“That’s better. I thought we could do with a bit of peace.”
Connor nodded. “Thanks.”
“Do you want Abby and me to go too?” he asked, noticing the awkward glances that Connor was casting at Lester. “I’m not entirely comfortable leaving him, or you whilst he isn’t able to control how much blood he’s taking from you, but I will if you want.”
After a quick look at Lester, Connor said they could stay. He felt happier having the medic around at the moment, just in case, and Abby… Well, if they needed another donor, he knew that Abby would be willing.
“Just make sure nothing goes further than this room,” he warned.
They both nodded, and Connor turned back to Lester. He could see that the bite was hurting and did the quickest thing he could think of to distract him. He knew that Neil and Abby were watching them, looking on curiously, but he didn’t care as he covered Lester’s mouth with his own. Lester responded, kissing him eagerly as Connor’s arm snaked around his waist, dragging him closer. It worked, the sting of the vampire’s bite easing into the pleasant haze of arousal and desire as Connor’s hands roamed lower to grab at his arse, pulling him close so that their bodies were connected from chest to thighs.
When Lester staggered a little, Connor caught him, keeping him balanced as Neil rushed to them.
“Spike, you need to stop now,” Connor said, leaning closer to him. “Spike!”
Lester’s wrist was released and Spike’s eyes finally blinked open, squinting up at them against the bright lights. Connor grinned and pressed a kiss to his blood smeared lips.
“Damn, you had us worried for a while.”
Spike struggled to sit upright, hissing in pain as the partially healed slashes across his torso pulled.
“Stay still,” Neil ordered, hands on his shoulders to press him back to the bed again. “Now that you’re awake, you can tell us what we need to do to completely heal you. The blood you’ve been given has started working but how long does it take? Do you need more? What kinds of painkillers can you take, if you even need them? When you’re better, we’re going to have do a full set of medical records for you so we know what to do in future.”
“I don’t need meds. They won’t work on me anyway- only thing that does is booze,” he said. “Which would be nice, right about now.” Seeing no bottle or hip flask being produced he sighed. “I’ll be fine by morning; it’ll take a bit more blood, though. ‘Body’s using it up ten times faster than usual to fix me.”
Abby stepped forward. “If you need more, you can take it from me; they’ve all given you quite a bit already.”
Spike frowned for a moment and then looked around at the bandages on their arms, glancing up at Neil.
“You let me feed from you?”
The medic smiled. “Yes. Quinn, Dev, even the Captain, were all ready and willing to donate if you needed it.”
“Thank you. And I appreciate the offer, Abby, but I’ll be fine until morning. That’s when I’ll need more and, by that time, I hope I’ll be at home in bed.”
Abby grinned. “Deal; that was an invite, wasn’t it?” she teased. “Aw, damn. I was looking forward to it, especially after watching Connor and Lester before.”
-----------
It was only as Lester settled into his bed, arms carefully wrapped around Spike so as not to aggravate any of his injuries, that he remembered what he had been doing before that phone call.
“Bugger.”
Connor climbed into bed behind him and dragged the covers over them all. “What’s the matter?”
“I left the review committee members in my office with Louisa. Poor woman.”
“Well, you can’t do much about them now, can you?”
Lester sighed. Connor was right. He had abandoned his visitors with his secretary. This didn’t bode well for their final assessment, he thought. He would attempt to smooth things over tomorrow morning.
Well, afternoon.
After he’d had a nice long sleep and some quality time with his lovers.
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The following day, he reached his office at around mid day, having been stopped by everyone he passed as they enquired after Spike. He and Connor had taken the morning off to look after him, though Spike didn’t need it. The vampire had healed completely and so ‘looking after him’ had been more of an excuse to stay in bed than anything else. He smiled at the memory as he walked up the ramp to his office. As he passed Louisa’s desk, she looked up.
“How is he?”
“Completely recovered; it is amazing how fast he heals. He and Connor are down in the staff room.”
She smiled. “I’m so glad he’s alright.” There was a pause. “The review committee are in your office,” she told him, looking nervous though he already knew they would be here. “I gave them all of the information they asked for yesterday, and they seemed happy.”
Lester thanked her. He straightened his tie, made sure his jacket sleeve covered the bandaged-up bite marks on his wrist, and put on his poker face before stepping into his office. All three members of the review committee sat patiently, waiting for him.
“Sir James,” Mr Parks stood to shake his hand. “How is Spike? I understand that he is making a good recovery.”
“He is, though he had us concerned for a time,” Lester told him, sitting down behind his desk. “Gentlemen, I would like to offer my apologies for leaving so abruptly yesterday,” he began, but Mr Shadid stopped him.
“No need to apologise; I would have done the same in your situation.” Lester frowned, wondering what he meant by that. The man noticed his suspicion and smiled reassuringly. “We are aware of your relationship concerning this man, and Mr Temple.” Seeing Lester’s hastily disguised shock, he said, “There was a lot of concern voiced about how yourself and Mr Temple were coping, as well as for Spike’s wellbeing. We overheard some of it.”
Lester eyed them uneasily. “So you are planning to use this information to do what? Ask me for my resignation? Close the project?”
Mr Parks shook his head. “Nothing of the sort. I merely wished to inform you that we know, just as we are aware of Spike’s rather unique true nature.”
“If you intend to try and remove Spike in order to study him, you will have a fight on your hands-”
Mr Shadid frowned, looking confused. “No, you misunderstand. Our purpose in returning today was to complete our assessment, nothing more.”
“From what we have seen here,” Mr Parks informed him, “The project is progressing extremely well. It is true that personal relationships tend to become complicated but nothing I have seen here would be cause for concern. Sir James, our assessment requirements are specific; I see no reason why additional information should be supplied.”
The man next to him, the accountant who had pissed Lester off so much the previous day, rolled his eyes. “What he’s trying to say is that this conversation won’t be in the report.”
The three men asked their final questions and checked a few more things before Mr Parks closed his laptop and packed it away. Lester would get the final report in a few weeks time but, they assured him, their initial impressions were favourable. It seemed that their thoughts on how to economise had been forgotten, the incident yesterday making them see that everything they did was necessary, that they really did need all of the equipment and personnel.
As soon as they were gone, Lester headed for the staff room to check on Connor and Spike. They were surrounded by the anomaly team and most of Becker’s men, as well as a few of the lab techs. When they saw him approach, the crowd parted to let him through.
“How did it go?” Connor asked. “Were they mad?”
Lester shook his head. “Quite the opposite,” he said. “It appears to have gone rather well. And now it’s over for another year.”
At that moment, the anomaly detector began wailing and everyone hurried out of the room, abandoning half-finished cups of coffee and tea. Lester headed back to his office, drawing all of the blinds so that Spike could stay with him in there; it was mid day and so Spike couldn’t go with the team, no matter how much he wished he could. Lester left the office and returned a few moments later with a large box, which he handed to Spike.
“What’s this?”
“I got you something,” Lester told him, sitting in the padded chair next to Spike as the other man opened it and lifted out the contents. “Since yours got ruined.”
Spike pulled out the coat and tried it on; the black leather trench coat was a perfect fit. He went over to Lester’s chair and sank down onto it, straddling Lester’s lap. He put his arms around his lover’s neck and leaned in for a long kiss.
“Thank you, James.”
------
End.
(for now)