7th story, An American Werewolf in Denver by Sparrow, part one
Title: An American Werewolf in Denver
Author: Sparrow
Fandom: Magnificent Seven: ATF and An American Werewolf in London/Paris
Characters: JD Dunne, Casey Wells, Maddie Stokes, Kate Stokes, Del Spivak, Garber, Kirkland, Chris Larabee, Nathan Jackson, Ezra Standish, Josiah Sanchez, Buck Wilmington, Vin Tanner and various OC characters
Rating: 14A
Disclaimer: I do not own Magnificent Seven: ATF and An American Werewolf in London/Paris. Any poems or songs used in this fanfic belong to their respective creators.
Word Count: 23, 256 words
Warnings: Secondary Character death, mentions of off screen sex (het), minor wolf dominance/submission in human form, captives held in chains, a woman roughed around in an interrogation room, OC Character death, some slight graphic descriptions of gore
Summary: JD Dunne undergoes some changes when attacked by a strange creature on a full moon night. Confused about what’s happening to him, can he trust Team Seven to help him through it all? Or will outside influences turn him against his friends and brothers.
Author’s Note: I just wanna say a huge thanks to bookaddict43 for the last minute step in as my beta and also being my artist! Yay! Written for the first Magnificent Seven Big Bang, this was a challenge and a half to get this all written out and I just want to say thank you for the encouragement and support of my friends while I was getting this out - you know who you are. I hope all my warnings are appropriate and if you feel I’ve missed anything, feel free to point it out and I’ll be happy to add it to the list. :) Enjoy!
Afi - Grandfather
lítill úlfur - little wolf
dótturdóttir- granddaughter
Já - yes
lítill jarfi - little wolves
systir - sister
fæddur varúlfur - born werewolves
“italics” = thoughts
But every day, as it drew towards evening, he would grow so ill-tempered that no-one could speak to him, and it wasn't long before he would go to bed. There was talk about his being a shape-changer, and people called him Kveld-Ulfr ["Evening Wolf"] (Palsson and Edwards, Egil's Saga, p.21).
“Afi! Afi!” A little girl with dark curly hair exclaimed brightly.
“Yes, my lítill úlfur?” An older man with jet black hair and silver colouring at the temples replied.
A slightly older girl with blond hair and blue eyes was sitting next to the other smaller girl; both were looking at Afi attentively.
“When do we get to change, Afi?” The curly haired girl pouted.
“Soon dótturdóttir, soon,” The older man known as Afi promised.
“I want to change now! I feel all itchy!”
Afi’s warm brown eyes went hard and turned the colour amber. “Patience and you’ll change when it’s time to change.” His hand grabbed her chin and forced her face towards the blond haired girl. “Why can’t you be like Kate, Maddie? She has learnt control and patience, when you do to, you can change whenever you want.”
Maddie kept the pout on her face.
“My Maddie, we are descended from the Norse Berserker Warriors, The Úlfhéðnar, who wore wolf pelts in battle. When the Vikings landed in North America, they brought the wolf pelts with them and one of the Vikings was left behind. He mated with an Aboriginal while wearing the pelt and they had a child. The child soon had powers that didn’t require a wolf pelt. She could change anytime she wanted into wolf form, but was still controlled by the moon. When she was old enough, she mated and had another child. Their legacy to us gave us a gift to survive this world. We are fæddur varúlfur and we have control,” Afi explained. “Do you wish to become one of our Viking ancestors of old? We have evolved from that and are better werewolves than that. Do you both understand that?”
“Já, Afi,” Kate and Maddie replied back in unison.
“So control is important my lítill jarfi,” Afi smiled at the two.
~~~
Two honey coloured wolves huddled against a large pine tree in a forest, they were no larger than a full grown German Sheppard. The naked body of a man with jet black hair and grey coloured temples laid on the wet ground, brown eyes stared out dull and empty. A large hole in the man’s chest had blood oozing out, sluggish and slow.
Three other men were in the clearing, all carrying rifles and shotguns.
The tallest of the trio nudged the downed man with a boot and then fired another slug into the head as well, satisfied his prey was down.
“That’s one less werewolf in the world, men.”
“What about those other two wolves?” This time the shorter man asked a question.
The last man discharged the shells from his shotgun and loaded more in. “We hunt them down and exterminate them. Things like their kind should not be left alive in the world.”
Amber coloured eyes watched the trio of men leave the clearing. After a significant amount of time, the slightly larger of the honey coloured wolf, nudged the smaller one with a nose and the two walked around the older man.
Like flowing water, the two wolves shifted in the clearing and soon, there stood two naked little girls.
“Afi,” the smaller girl sobbed and curled around the older man. “Afi.”
The older girl kept wary eyes open and allowed the smaller girl to cry out her grief.
“Kate, Afi’s gone.”
Kate crouched down and hugged her sister close. “We have each other, Maddie.”
Nodding, the younger girl furiously wiped the tears away from her eyes.
Quickly, Kate transformed and nudged Maddie’s leg with a wet nose.
“I hate humans,” was quickly whispered and the younger girl transformed and followed her older sister out of the woods with barely a glance back.
~~~
10 years later
Two girls in their late teens sat in the back of a broke down pick-up truck, located in a field just before a forest. Wrapped in flannel and jeans, the older of the two was chewing on a piece of long grass as they stared out into the woods.
Brown curls were in a pony tail as the younger girl tapped out a rhythm on the cab of the truck.
“When we gonna go? Tired of staying here, Kate,” Maddie complained.
“Soon,” Kate agreed.
“I’m fucking bored here.” And then a canine whine escaped from Maddie’s lips as her head jerked forward.
“Don’t swear, systir,” Kate growled, blue eyes flashing amber.
Maddie growled back. “I’m old enough.”
“Nope,” Kate sing-songed.
Growling playfully, brown eyes flashed amber as Maddie tackled Kate off of the truck and the two started to roll around the grass. After a few minutes of tussling, the two were breathing hard, flat out on their backs.
“What are we gonna do, Kate?” Maddie whispered to her sister.
“Was thinking maybe, bounty hunting,” Kate replied back. “Tracking in the big city can’t be that different from tracking in the woods and we’re both a dead shot. We’d be traveling a lot, but we’d make it work.”
“Bounty hunting, huh?” A large smile bloomed onto Maddie’s face. “Sounds wicked to me.”
~~~
5 Years Later
Kate furiously paced the hotel room.
Six steps towards the door, pivot, six steps towards the wall, pivot and repeat.
They had separated eight hours ago and agreed to meet up at the designated rendezvous point, but she had only made it back to the hotel room.
Maddie should’ve been back two hours ago! Kate thought furiously.
Grabbing her bag off the bed, the older woman headed back towards the door and was about to open it, when the door knob began to turn.
Un-tucking the gun from the back her jeans, she quickly took a step back as the door swung open.
The pale light of the almost full moon highlighted the figure in the doorway.
“Maddie?”
“I did something stupid, Kate,” Maddie whispered and fell forward into Kate’s waiting arms, unconscious.
Letting her bag and gun fall to the floor as she caught her sister, Kate brushed a curly lock of hair from Maddie’s face and swallowed.
Her baby sister was covered from head to toe in blood and not animal blood, but human blood from the tentative sniff she took. Kate could tell the difference.
“Oh Maddie, what happened to you?” Kate whispered.
Stripping her sister from the bloody clothes and Kate washed Maddie down in the shower. Dried off and placed in clean clothing, Kate tucked Maddie’s unconscious form into bed and grabbed a nearby chair to take watch for the night.
If Maddie had eaten human flesh, she could become Vargulf, a rogue wolf with only human flesh on the mind. Kate thought and then shook her head. I can’t think like that, she’s still my little sister, still my responsibility, no matter what she does.
~~~
They had gotten back into bounty hunting a few weeks later when it looked like Maddie had healed, but Kate watched the next few months passed by as her sister descend into bloodlust and madness. She found out that a hunter had captured her sister. The story was spilled out in pieces of drunken anger and madness.
The bastard had tortured her sister with silver.
Maddie had managed to escape and ended up killing and eating the hunter in rage.
Now, as she tightened her hand around her beer bottle in the bar, Kate took a swing of the beverage and watched as Maddie seduced their mark with vodka and a lap dance.
Maddie was getting more dangerous. Prone to taking bigger risks and Kate didn’t know what to do. Her little sister was slipping further and further away from her.
~There is a house
Down in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun...~
The words flowed easily and freely from Maddie’s lips as she took another long sip from the vodka bottle as she grinded her body closer into the older man’s lap.
~It’s been the ruin
Of many a poor boy
And God knows
You’re one...~
Kate listened in, enhanced hearing picking up the slight twist of lyrics being changed as she watched Maddie lead their prey away.
Waiting a few minutes and finishing her drink, she slipped out the same side entrance her sister used. Nose picking up her sister’s scent easily, she followed the trail into an alleyway.
An alleyway light, dimply lit, poured down onto the pavement and Kate could see the man was slumped to his side and Maddie was licking something off her fingers.
“Maddie?”
“Kate!” Maddie grinned, lips stained red.
“We needed him alive, Maddie,” Kate scolded as she slowly approached the scene.
“He tried putting his hand down my pants,” Maddie pouted and something dark and ugly flashed across her face. “Never again!”
Kate felt something twist inside, what happened with the hunter that turned her sister into this was apparently uglier than she thought. Protective instincts rose inside and she felt her inner wolf growl.
Watching her sister stand up and lick the blood off her fingers, Kate knew something had to be done. Maybe one of Afi’s old cleansing rituals could do something...
“What?” Maddie asked sullenly. “Whatcha lookin’ at me like that for?”
“I’m just worried about you,” Kate said and tugged Maddie into an embrace.
“Get off,” Maddie grumbled and pushed Kate away. “You’re crowding too close.”
Chuckling and bending over, Kate hefted the dead man over her shoulder and the two exited the alleyway with their bounty in tow.
~~~
2 Months Later
Consciousness slowly returned to Kate in the darkened forest clearing.
Wincing, she brought a hand up to her head and pulled away when she felt something sticky. Looking at the blood staining her palm, Kate slowly sat up.
The cleansing ritual was a bad idea and it made Maddie even more paranoid and crazy. Kate remembered something hitting her in the head and knocking her out. Looking over to the side, she noticed a tree log.
Oh, so that’s what knocked me out. Kate thought.
Memories started to slowly return, Maddie snarling and going crazy, eyes flashing amber and how her own sister was betraying her.
And then the log.
Getting up to her feet, she sighed heavily and looked around the clearing. Maddie was nowhere in sight.
She had split; her own flesh and blood had turned on her. Didn’t Maddie understand she was only trying to help? She didn’t want to have to hunt her own sister down, but it looked like she would have to.
Taking a tentative sniff of the air, Kate breathed in her sister’s scent, a scent she knew as well as her own and took off into the woods, following.
~~~
2 Years Later
Well, it's a marvellous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
(Moondance by Van Morrison)
JD smiled in wonder as Casey made her way down the sidewalk, her hand in his as they made their way towards Ezra’s Jaguar. The southern man had lent it to JD for the night, with the promise if “One scratch was on his car, there would be serious bodily harm on JD’s persons.”
With the promise made and the car secured, he opened the side passenger door and helped his girlfriend in.
They were dressed to the nine’s, him in a black tux and her in a red strapless dress with a small black clutch purse, black heels and her hair up in a simple, but elegant up do.
Smoothly navigating the vehicle among the roads of Denver, the duo quickly arrived at their destination: Luca D’Italia.
The car was quickly parked and JD and Casey entered the restaurant and were shown to their table right away.
“That was quick,” Casey commented as JD helped her into her chair.
Sitting down, JD grinned. “It pays to make reservations a couple of months in advance.”
Casey returned the grin as menus were laid out in front of them.
“Our specials tonight are the Dry Aged New York Strip paired with lobster whipped potatoes and local asparagus. Also the Pappardelle Bolognese made in a traditional meat ragù and parmigiano reggiano,” the waiter recited. “The wines for tonight are a local made Green Apple white wine and a local made Blackberry red wine.”
“Oh, the blackberry wine sounds good, JD,” Casey said excitedly.
“Sounds good to me too, Case,” JD replied back and then turned his attention to the waiter. “We’ll get the tasting menu with a bottle of that blackberry red wine, along with a couple of glasses of water.”
“Of course, sir,” The waiter replied back and took the menus back with him.
“This place is so fancy, JD, what’s the occasion?”
“Well, it’s been a couple of years since we met and tonight is actually the anniversary of our first date,” JD smiled at Casey.
“Oh,” Casey sighed. “That’s so romantic of you.”
“Well, it was either this place or the hotdog stand where I took us the first time we dated,” JD grinned.
“Good thing too, I don’t plan on washing mustard out of this dress,” Casey laughed lightly as she gestured at the red dress.
JD blushed. “I did say I was sorry about that.”
Reaching across the table, she grabbed JD’s hand. “I may forgive you someday in the future.”
“Oh good, I thought I’d be in the dog house over that for a very long time.”
The waiter had returned with their water, lemon wedged on the rim of their glasses.
Idle chitchat continued to dominate the conversation, mostly of the “How’s work?” variety and what kind of plans they should make for next weekend, camping was the main topic for that.
Sipping at the water, JD’s eyes widened as he felt Casey’s foot playing with his and then choked on the water as it went up his pant leg.
Casey merely smiled over her water glass as she continued her ministrations.
The waiter returned with their food and placed both dishes in front of them.
“For you sir, the chef has prepared a Lasagne Rollata al Forno, lasagne rolls stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, asiago, parmesan and romano cheese. Topped with mozzarella and seasoned breadcrumbs, baked in five cheese marinara,” the waiter explained and then gestured at Casey’s dish. “For you madam, the chef has made a Garlic-Herb Chicken con Broccoli, rosemary-seasoned chicken breasts sautéed with fresh broccoli in a garlic cream sauce over orecchiette pasta.”
“It looks absolutely delicious,” Casey excitedly said.
Pulling the wine bottle from the wine bucket another waiter had brought, while he had explained the dishes, the red liquid was swiftly poured into the glasses and both JD and Casey could smell the fruity fragrance.
Gazing at one another, they barely noticed the waiter leaving their table as they picked up their wine glasses and toasted one another.
“To our anniversary and us,” JD toasted.
Casey repeated the line and her glass made a light clinking sound against JD’s and they sipped at the wine.
Food was consumed as they shared bites from each other’s dishes.
Light touches against one another’s faces as forks were placed inside mouths and the silverware was slowly removed, trailing past tongue and teeth. A slight bit of juice was resting on Casey’s lip and JD brushed it off with the pad of his thumb and licked it off.
“Want to get out of here?” JD asked of Casey. The food wasn’t even half done and the bottle of wine had been barely consumed, they only had one glass each. He rubbed Casey’s hand. “Go somewhere else?”
“And what else do you have planned tonight, Mr. Dunne?”
“This and that,” came a grin of future promise.
Agreeing, the food and wine were quickly boxed up, bill paid off and once again, Ezra’s Jaguar was being manoeuvred along the streets.
Casey watched as the scenery rolled past by and knew by the landmarks they were heading to Centennial Park. Why there, Casey had no idea, but she assumed it was more or less part of the romantic evening JD had planned. She had hoped that they were heading back to JD’s place for a more, intimate evening, but she was sure whatever was happening, it would be wonderful.
The Jag rolled into one of the side parking lots and JD bounced out of the vehicle, excitement lining his body. Helping Casey out of the car, he had made sure to grab the bottle of wine earlier from the restaurant and then went and unlocked the trunk and grabbed a blanket and a picnic basket.
Offering his arm to Casey, the duo walked across the parking lot, down the side walk and towards the bank near the small pond.
Laying the blanket down onto the grass, he helped Casey seat herself onto the thick woollen blanket. Opening up the picnic basket, he plucked out a plastic champagne glass, uncorked the wine bottle and poured Casey a small amount.
Casey giggled as JD juggled all of the items, set them down and then sat on the blanket himself, plastic champagne glasses in hand.
Leaning on his side, he brushed a piece of hair away from Casey’s face that had escaped from her up do.
She smiled at him and leaned in for a kiss. “You are wonderful, JD. All of this wonderful.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” JD replied and leaned into the kiss Casey brushed against his lips.
They quickly consumed their wine and leaned back against the blanket. Casey snuggled into JD’s side, the full moon shone brightly on them and the stars to them were twinkling.
It was a magical and romantic night.
They traced out what constellations they could find and made up new stories about them.
Soon, it became late into the night and they were both starting to yawn.
“This has been really romantic, JD,” Casey said as she stood up, brushing away imaginary dirt from her dress.
“Good, ‘cause I have one last surprise before we go home,” JD softly stated as he reached for something inside his jacket pocket and kneeled. Bringing out a small black box, he popped it open. “Casey Wells, will you marry me?”
Gasping in surprise and delight, Casey looked at the ring in the box and held out her left hand. “Yes, yes, you silly goose!”
Whooping with delight, JD got the ring out of the box and went to go put it on Casey’s ring finger; he fumbled the ring in his fingers and cursed as it dropped onto the blanket.
“You klutz,” Casey lightly teased.
Cheeks reddening with embarrassment, JD bent over and grabbed the ring when he felt a slight wind pass over his back.
Casey’s scream brought JD’s head up from his searching of the ring and he saw this shape on his fiancé, several feet away. There was no hesitation as adrenaline filled him as he sprinted forward and tackled the ‘thing’ off of Casey.
Getting to his feet, JD ran to Casey’s side. Blood was covering her from head to toe and some sort of claw mark marred her face, shoulder and torso.
He needed to get her to the hospital.
Now.
“J...D...,” Casey choked out, blood escaping from her lips.
He barely got to reply or even help when he felt a searing pain across his shoulder. Screaming, he managed to turn his head to side and came face to face with a large wolf head, amber eyes glaring into his and large teeth clamped onto his shoulder.
He was tossed from side to side, teeth clamping down even harder into muscle and bone.
Air then whistled past him as JD realized he was flying through the air and then hit the ground hard and skidded a few feet into the grass.
Amongst the pain in the shoulder and now his leg and other arm, he blinked past the darkness that threatened to send him unconscious and slowly got to his feet. JD pushed past the pain and did a limping type jog as he tried valiantly to save Casey.
“CASEY!!!” JD yelled out.
But the beast or wolf, JD wasn’t sure, was done ravaging Casey’s body and had now turned its sights on him.
Maybe luck was with him that day, although JD would vehemently deny that, but the whoop-whoop sound of a police cruiser brought nothing but relief to him and he watched as the creature ran away, bounding along the path and disappearing into a patch of trees.
He didn’t hear the police call out to him in warning as he fell to his knees and then face first into the grass as he passed out from the pain and the trauma of his fiancé being eaten in front of him.
~~~
Buck sighed what felt like the millionth sigh in the past week and a half. Letting his eyes wander over to the figure lying in the hospital bed, it was easy to see why the moustached man was troubled.
JD Dunne and Casey Wells had been discovered by a police cruiser at Centennial Park. The police had been patrolling nearby investigating rumours of unruly teenagers upsetting the atmosphere late at night when they had stumbled upon the scene.
Casey dead and ravaged by what looked like some huge creature, the police officers only saw some sort of shape bound off into the trees.
JD’s shoulder ended up as a chew toy and had sprained his ankle and other arm, which Buck figured had healed up by now.
But his teammate, his friend - no his brother, still hadn’t woken up.
The doctors were spouting some sort of bullshit about trauma and what he saw might’ve sent him fleeing into his own head to heal or hide, but Buck knew JD wasn’t a quitter and could only hope the kid woke up soon and explain what happened.
~~~
It was dark and the full moon hung ominously in the night sky.
The smell of pine and fresh air tickled JD’s nose as he raced through the woods. Feet pounding on the dirt ground, air being sucked in greedily through his nose and exhaled through his mouth as he tried to escape what was chasing him.
He risked a glance back and then cried out as he hit the ground hard.
An exposed tree root had ended up tripping him when he glanced to the side.
Heavy breathing along his left ear alerted JD to the fact that what was chasing him had now caught up.
“You need to get up, JD.”
Casey?
“You need to escape, don’t let it take you over!”
JD tried to move, to see where Casey’s voice was coming from, anything. But the creature had him pinned, belly down in the dirt. But a spark of hope ignited in his chest. Casey wasn’t dead! She was still alive somehow.
“Oh, JD, you couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Whatever JD might’ve thought or said was lost as the thing bit savagely into JD’s shoulder, which caused JD to bring his head up and then scream in horror and in pain.
Casey was a few feet away from him, but she was heavily mutilated. Long, deep gouges across her cheek and upper torso had JD seeing bone and partial organs.
“Cas...ey...” JD choked out.
“I told you to escape,” Casey brokenly whispered.
Whatever else she might’ve said to JD was lost on deaf ears as the beast tore savagely into his back with its claws and howled out its triumph.
A mock cry of the creature’s howl escaped JD’s lips as he felt the pain being inflicted upon his body and his eyes flashed amber.
~~~
Buck sighed as he watched the coffee pour from the vending machines’ small tube into a Styrofoam cup. Rubbing a hand over his face, he winced as he realized his moustache was growing into a beard.
He needed to shave at some point.
It also hit close to home how long he’d been staying in the hospital watching over JD. Only barely pausing to eat and sleep. He could only imagine what Chris was saying to Director Travis about him missing so much work.
The boys would appear at random times, but they would visit at least once a day.
Grabbing the coffee cup, Buck took a long sip and then started the walk back to JD’s room.
A few nurses rushed past him, nearly making him lose his grip on the cup, when a sinking feeling entered his stomach. It looked like they were heading towards JD’s room.
But there was nothing announced on the PA system. Buck thought worriedly and quickened his stride.
That’s when he heard the screaming.
The coffee cup slipped from his hand and hit the floor, liquid splattering everywhere as Buck broke out in a dead run towards JD’s room.
Buck hit the frame of the doorway as he skidded to a stop and watched the chaos unfold before him.
“CASEY!!!”
JD was awake, but he was panicking.
Orderlies were holding down a screaming JD as he tried to escape their grip. A doctor was ordering some kind of sedative, Buck wasn’t sure what kind, just knew that it would knock the kid out.
“CASEY!!! WHERE’S CASEY?” JD screamed as he tried to escape.
That’s when the restraints came out.
“HEY!” Buck yelled and strode forward, intent on stopping the nurses and orderlies from strapping his friend down.
“Mr. Wilmington!” one of the nurses snapped at the older man. “It’s necessary; we don’t want him to hurt himself.”
“Let me talk to him, try and calm him down,” Buck pleaded as he tried to get around the nurse.
The nurse pursed her lips and eyed Buck, then nodded her consent.
Slipping around the older woman, Buck calmly approached the bed and managed to snag an arm and then cupped his hand around JD’s neck.
“JD,” Buck ordered. “Look at me.”
Wild, confused hazel eyes snapped towards the voice and JD’s body sagged back down into the bed, no longer fighting the orderlies that held him in place, but still tense in case he needed to escape.
“Buck?”
“Yeah, it’s me pard,” Buck soothed. “Need to calm down there before you hurt yourself there.”
“Casey? Where’s Casey?” JD asked as he looked around the room frantically. “There was something and then she was in front of me and then she wasn’t and WHERE IS SHE BUCK?” came the last part screamed out.
“Shh, shhhh,” Buck whispered as he massaged the tense muscles in JD’s neck. “Calm down first and then I’ll tell ya.”
JD tried to listen to the voice that hadn’t let him down before, but everything felt too bright and too loud and the smells, it made him want to gag.
“Nonononono,” JD moaned, tossing his head from side to side and began fighting the hands holding him once again.
“JD!” Buck barked out, trying to get JD to listen to him. But he didn’t and continued thrashing against the orderlies and Buck, calling out desperately for Casey.
The fight suddenly left JD as he sagged and his eyes fluttered close. The doctor pulled the needle from the IV line and sighed in relief.
Buck was a jumble of emotions as he watched the orderlies rearrange JD’s body and then placed the restraints on the wrists and ankles.
“Are those really necessary, doc?”
“I’m afraid so, Mr. Wilmington,” the doctor replied. “We want to make sure when he wakes up again, he doesn’t try to hurt himself or anyone else. When it looks like he’s fully here with us, we’ll remove them.” He gently patted Buck on the shoulder. “But he’s woken up, this is a good thing.”
“But he was hollering and screaming his lungs out,” Buck protested.
“It looks like it was just a case of confusion, when he wakes up from the sedative we’ll do more thorough tests. But please remember Mr. Wilmington, he did just survive a very traumatic event. JD is very lucky he’s alive.”
“I know,” Came the mumbled reply.
“The sedative was light, he should wake up again in a couple of hours,” was the reassurance the doctor tried to offer.
Nodding that he understood, he watched as the nurses, orderlies and doctor left the room and Buck took up his customary seat by JD’s bed.
“Oh kiddo,” Buck sighed as he ran a hand down his face. “You’re going to make me go prematurely grey here.”
Pulling out his cell phone, Buck began to make the phone call to the boys to let them know that JD had woken up.
~~~
It had been two weeks since JD had been brought into the hospital and only three of those days he had been awake. The restraints had been removed when it was shown he was in no danger of harming himself or others.
JD complained about the noises and the smells mostly, but no one could hear or smell anything, so the doctors were chalking it up to post-traumatic stress from seeing his fiancé killed in front of him, there was also talk about CAT scans, but JD was ignoring those.
The news of Casey’s death was given to JD on his second day awake and it had sent him into a depression, especially when he was told he had missed the funeral due to his self-induced coma.
What really didn’t help JD was that he kept seeing Casey’s mutilated body everywhere he looked, but he kept that little piece of information to himself. No use in letting everyone think he was going crazy along with the depression.
Curled up on the hospital bed around his pillow, JD stared at the wall. His arm and leg had only suffered sprains and surprisingly the shoulder only had minimal damage, but heavy scarring that he’d carry for the rest of his life.
A nice reminder of his failure to protect Casey. JD thought as he absently rubbed the bandages covering the wound.
They’d be taken off later on in the day to see how the wounds were healing and hopefully he’d get to go home sometime tomorrow.
“JD.”
Stiffening at the familiar voice behind him, JD prayed he was suffering from some sort of breakdown, because he wouldn’t be able to handle seeing his dead, mutilated fiancé behind him.
“You don’t have to look at me, JD, I know I’m not exactly looking my best right now,” Casey softly said. “But you need to listen.”
“You’re not real,” JD insisted stubbornly.
“Oh, JD, I’m very real, just stuck at the moment.”
“Go away.”
“Not until you listen to what I have to say, JD,” Casey insisted back, equally stubborn.
“No.”
“JD!”
“Fine!”
“That creature that killed me and hurt you, it was a werewolf, JD and you’ve been infected.”
A half hysterical sob forced itself out of JD’s mouth. “Bullshit.”
“The supernatural is very real and we’ve become a part of it.”
“I don’t believe you,” JD whispered out. “Please, if you are real, leave me alone right now.”
“All right, JD, I’ll leave, but please remember this,” Casey said. “I loved you in life and I love you in death, but don’t keep mourning me like Chris mourns his wife and son. Get out of bed and start living again, because frankly, you stink.”
JD let a small chuckle escape from his lips as Casey’s words sunk in.
Trust Casey to offer comfort and give a metaphorical kick in the ass as well. JD thought as he slowly sat up and swung his legs over the side.
“Casey?” JD whispered, but no one replied. Proof that she had left him alone.
It was going to hurt and probably be very painful without Casey by his side, but JD was determined not to let his depression affect him any longer than he wanted to. Even if his subconscious masquerading as Casey was saying he was a werewolf to get him out of bed.
Because everyone knew, werewolves weren’t real.
~~~
Buck sighed what felt like for the fiftieth time in the past hour and looked at his small pile of paperwork. He had come in early to get some of the work that had piled up over the past couple of weeks completed.
The others had helped out in what they could, but a new case had been dropped in Team Seven’s lap. Something about gun runners that only appeared before the full moon and then all but disappeared for about a month before reappearing again. Buck hadn’t really paid attention to the office chatter on it. It didn’t concern him right now.
Draining the last of the coffee from his cup, Buck grimaced as he got up and headed back for the pot that Vin had made. He usually stayed away from that shit, but he needed it strong right now.
The others puttered around the office, filing out various paperwork and Buck let the office chatter flow over him when Chris yelled for him.
“BUCK! MY OFFICE! NOW!”
Grumbling under his breath as he fixed a cup of coffee, Buck headed to Chris’s office and closed the door behind him. Settling into the chair, Buck sighed and looked up at Chris’s face.
“Yeah, Chris?”
“What are you doing here, Buck?” Chris asked his oldest friend. “Shouldn’t you be at the hospital right now?”
“Kid tossed me out and told me to get some sleep, shower and shave.”
“Well, it looks like you showered and shaved, but did you sleep?”
Buck shrugged.
“Buck,” Chris warned.
“I caught a couple of hours, mother,” Buck muttered.
Sighing, Chris settled back against his desk. “What’s eating you, Buck?”
“Did you know the kid proposed to Casey?” Buck asked Chris. “And she said ‘yes’ before she died?”
That startled Chris as his eyes widened in surprise.
Chuckling, Buck took a sip of the coffee. “I guess not.”
“Shit,” Chris sighed.
“I just don’t know if I have it in me anymore.”
“Have what, Buck?” But Chris already suspected he knew what Buck was talking about.
“When I was at the hospital, after JD woke up, he reminded me of you when you lost Sarah and Adam,” Buck explained. “Except he doesn’t have a whiskey bottle nearby to lose himself in, he’s escaping by sleeping and drugs.” Draining the last of the coffee with a grimace, Buck tossed the Styrofoam cup into the nearby trash can. “Trying to keep you from the brink took a lot out of me, Chris and I don’t know if I have it in me to help JD out.”
Laying his hands on Buck’s shoulders, Chris let the man look up and at him. “Buck...what you did for me, words can never be enough. But now, with JD, you have the rest of us to help you out and make sure JD doesn’t fall into the depression I did.”
“Thanks pard,” Buck said, nodding his head.
“Any time.”
“Now, head for the sick room and get some sleep, Buck. We’ll all go and pick the kid up.”
“The boys would never believe it, but you mother hen worse than me.”
Chris chuckled and lightly punched Buck in the shoulder with a teasing grin. “Good thing they’ll never believe you then.”
Buck mocked glared at his friend. “Ass.”
“Now, go sleep.”
“Yes mother.”
~~~
Later on that day it was a group of six that went to go and pick up JD from the hospital. Buck started filling out the necessary paperwork to release the younger man at the Nurse’s station.
Chris had grabbed a nearby wheelchair as they entered JD’s room.
“JD, your chariot awaits with our illustrious leader as the driver,” Ezra said with a grin.
The JD that awaited them seemed in better spirits then when they had left him last. He looked like he had showered, but his face was still peppered with a light beard and he was wearing fresh clothes that Buck had left.
“You seem in better spirits, JD,” Josiah pointed out.
JD gave a small smile. “Yeah. I am, ‘siah.”
“What brought about this change?” Chris asked.
“Figured Casey wouldn’t want me moping like this and decided I’m not gonna wallow,” JD explained, deliberately not mentioning ‘Casey’ stopping by and giving him a kick in the ass.
Vin tilted his head as he looked at JD. “Metaphorical kick in the ass?”
“Something like that, Vin,” JD lightly chuckled.
“Let me just check your bandage and sling there and we’ll head out as soon as Buck’s done with the paperwork,” Nathan said as he started over to JD’s injured shoulder.
“Lay off, Nathan, I’m fine! And besides, the doctor already took a look.” But the words fell on deaf ears.
“Kid, your definition of fine is the same as ours,” Vin laughed.
Nathan managed to wrestle JD out of the sling and shirt. Gently pulling the tape away from the skin and lifting the bandage up, he could see the marks left by the creature. They were now red and ugly bruising turning green and yellow marred JD’s shoulder and his upper back.
“This is healing faster than I thought it would be,” Nathan commented, puzzled.
“That’s what the doctor said when he changed my bandages earlier, it’s probably why he’s letting me leave so early,” JD sighed as Nathan replaced the bandage back on.
He was helped back into his shirt and the sling and JD looked at his friends. “Are we ready to go?”
“Still waiting on Buck, kid,” Chris said. “He’s filling out your release papers and then we can leave.”
JD merely nodded, giving a tentative smile and stared off into space.
Letting a sigh escape from his lips, Chris glanced at the others and saw nothing but determination to help out their youngest member.
They were roused out of their thinking as Buck’s voice carried from the hallway.
“C’mon darlin’, I have power of attorney, I can sign those,” Buck pleaded.
“That maybe so, Mr. Wilmington, but I still have to go over a few things with Mr. Dunne,” A woman’s voice replied back.
Team Seven watched as a nurse entered the room, an annoyed look on her face, curly hair pulled back into a pony tail as Buck followed her in.
Ignoring the others, the nurse went over to JD and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Mr. Dunne?”
Unconsciously, JD’s nostrils’ flared as he took in the new scent and he turned his head to face the nurse.
“Hi there, I just need to go over a few things with you, to look out for when you leave the hospital.”
“Okay,” JD said quietly. She smelled nice and familiar somehow. No, he just lost Casey; he couldn’t be thinking those kinds of things!
JD let the words coming from the nurse wash over him. It was a procedure he was familiar with. ‘Take it easy’ ‘Remember to take your medicine’ ‘Make sure to change the bandages’ and his favourite ‘To make an appointment for physiotherapy’. He knew Nathan would pester him to get this all done, same with Buck. All JD wanted to do now was get out of here and away from this woman’s scent. He didn’t know why his sense of smell had increased, but right now, it didn’t do him a world of good as all he wanted to do was bury his face in the nurse’s neck and inhale her scent deeply.
Those thoughts made it feel like a betrayal to Casey.
Within no time at all, JD was loaded into the wheelchair and wheeled out of the hospital. Away from the women’s scent and back to the CDC with Buck.
~~~
Even a man who is pure in heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.
(Poem from The Wolfman, 1941)
JD didn’t know what woke him up in the middle of the night; he just knew it was something. Something out there, outside of the condo where he and Buck lived.
Prowling.
That was the only word JD could think of to describe whatever it was that ‘pinged’ his radar.
Getting out of bed, he padded softly out of his room and headed over to the living room. Pushing back the curtain, he watched as a figure walked back and forth in front of the building. He couldn’t make out who it was, but whoever it was, was encroaching on his territory.
Territory?
With that word, it was like something surged forward into the front of his mind and his eyes started to glow amber as his lip lifted upwards and he softly growled.
This was his home, his! What was this intruder doing here?
Fully preparing himself to run out the front door, tackle this person and sink his teeth in and rip their throat out; JD was unprepared for the hand that grabbed his uninjured shoulder and spun him around.
“What are you doing out here, kid?” Buck asked as he sleepily rubbed his eyes. Therefore, he didn’t see the amber bleed out of JD’s eyes and return to their hazel colour.
“Buck?” JD asked confused. “What are you doing out here?”
“I asked first, JD.”
Brow furrowed in confusion, a look of alarm graced his face before JD was able to wipe it off. “I’m not sure. I thought I heard something, got out of bed and then nothing until you touched me.”
Understanding filled Buck’s eyes. “Don’t worry about it, kiddo.”
“But Buck! I bla -.”
“Shh, none of that,” Buck said, placing a hand on JD’s shoulder. “It’s probably your subconscious searching for something.”
JD’s mood then turned sombre. “Casey.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Buck shrugged. “It might just be a onetime thing tonight.”
“Or it could happen again!” JD insisted.
“JD. Let’s take it one day at a time and we’ll figure it out, alright?”
“Okay, Buck.”
Moving his hand so his entire arm was around JD’s shoulders, he steered his young friend back to bed.
He never even noticed the intruder leaving the area.
“Now, I’m drawing the line at tucking you into bed and kissing you goodnight,” Buck joked.
A slight curve of JD’s lips warned Buck that the kid was going to give him some sort of smart alec remark.
“Ah-ah!” Buck wiggled a finger in JD’s finger. “You know I love you in a totally platonic brother kind of way kid, but if you finish that sentence, injured or not, your ass will be in a sling.”
JD pouted and wiggled more under the covers.
“That’s better. Night kid.”
“Night, Buck,” JD whispered as he burrowed into the warmth.
Shutting the light off, Buck was about to close the door when JD’s voice stopped him. “And Buck - thanks.”
Buck smiled back. “Anytime, kid.”
[ part one][ part two][ part three]
Author: Sparrow
Fandom: Magnificent Seven: ATF and An American Werewolf in London/Paris
Characters: JD Dunne, Casey Wells, Maddie Stokes, Kate Stokes, Del Spivak, Garber, Kirkland, Chris Larabee, Nathan Jackson, Ezra Standish, Josiah Sanchez, Buck Wilmington, Vin Tanner and various OC characters
Rating: 14A
Disclaimer: I do not own Magnificent Seven: ATF and An American Werewolf in London/Paris. Any poems or songs used in this fanfic belong to their respective creators.
Word Count: 23, 256 words
Warnings: Secondary Character death, mentions of off screen sex (het), minor wolf dominance/submission in human form, captives held in chains, a woman roughed around in an interrogation room, OC Character death, some slight graphic descriptions of gore
Summary: JD Dunne undergoes some changes when attacked by a strange creature on a full moon night. Confused about what’s happening to him, can he trust Team Seven to help him through it all? Or will outside influences turn him against his friends and brothers.
Author’s Note: I just wanna say a huge thanks to bookaddict43 for the last minute step in as my beta and also being my artist! Yay! Written for the first Magnificent Seven Big Bang, this was a challenge and a half to get this all written out and I just want to say thank you for the encouragement and support of my friends while I was getting this out - you know who you are. I hope all my warnings are appropriate and if you feel I’ve missed anything, feel free to point it out and I’ll be happy to add it to the list. :) Enjoy!
Afi - Grandfather
lítill úlfur - little wolf
dótturdóttir- granddaughter
Já - yes
lítill jarfi - little wolves
systir - sister
fæddur varúlfur - born werewolves
“italics” = thoughts
But every day, as it drew towards evening, he would grow so ill-tempered that no-one could speak to him, and it wasn't long before he would go to bed. There was talk about his being a shape-changer, and people called him Kveld-Ulfr ["Evening Wolf"] (Palsson and Edwards, Egil's Saga, p.21).
“Afi! Afi!” A little girl with dark curly hair exclaimed brightly.
“Yes, my lítill úlfur?” An older man with jet black hair and silver colouring at the temples replied.
A slightly older girl with blond hair and blue eyes was sitting next to the other smaller girl; both were looking at Afi attentively.
“When do we get to change, Afi?” The curly haired girl pouted.
“Soon dótturdóttir, soon,” The older man known as Afi promised.
“I want to change now! I feel all itchy!”
Afi’s warm brown eyes went hard and turned the colour amber. “Patience and you’ll change when it’s time to change.” His hand grabbed her chin and forced her face towards the blond haired girl. “Why can’t you be like Kate, Maddie? She has learnt control and patience, when you do to, you can change whenever you want.”
Maddie kept the pout on her face.
“My Maddie, we are descended from the Norse Berserker Warriors, The Úlfhéðnar, who wore wolf pelts in battle. When the Vikings landed in North America, they brought the wolf pelts with them and one of the Vikings was left behind. He mated with an Aboriginal while wearing the pelt and they had a child. The child soon had powers that didn’t require a wolf pelt. She could change anytime she wanted into wolf form, but was still controlled by the moon. When she was old enough, she mated and had another child. Their legacy to us gave us a gift to survive this world. We are fæddur varúlfur and we have control,” Afi explained. “Do you wish to become one of our Viking ancestors of old? We have evolved from that and are better werewolves than that. Do you both understand that?”
“Já, Afi,” Kate and Maddie replied back in unison.
“So control is important my lítill jarfi,” Afi smiled at the two.
~~~
Two honey coloured wolves huddled against a large pine tree in a forest, they were no larger than a full grown German Sheppard. The naked body of a man with jet black hair and grey coloured temples laid on the wet ground, brown eyes stared out dull and empty. A large hole in the man’s chest had blood oozing out, sluggish and slow.
Three other men were in the clearing, all carrying rifles and shotguns.
The tallest of the trio nudged the downed man with a boot and then fired another slug into the head as well, satisfied his prey was down.
“That’s one less werewolf in the world, men.”
“What about those other two wolves?” This time the shorter man asked a question.
The last man discharged the shells from his shotgun and loaded more in. “We hunt them down and exterminate them. Things like their kind should not be left alive in the world.”
Amber coloured eyes watched the trio of men leave the clearing. After a significant amount of time, the slightly larger of the honey coloured wolf, nudged the smaller one with a nose and the two walked around the older man.
Like flowing water, the two wolves shifted in the clearing and soon, there stood two naked little girls.
“Afi,” the smaller girl sobbed and curled around the older man. “Afi.”
The older girl kept wary eyes open and allowed the smaller girl to cry out her grief.
“Kate, Afi’s gone.”
Kate crouched down and hugged her sister close. “We have each other, Maddie.”
Nodding, the younger girl furiously wiped the tears away from her eyes.
Quickly, Kate transformed and nudged Maddie’s leg with a wet nose.
“I hate humans,” was quickly whispered and the younger girl transformed and followed her older sister out of the woods with barely a glance back.
~~~
10 years later
Two girls in their late teens sat in the back of a broke down pick-up truck, located in a field just before a forest. Wrapped in flannel and jeans, the older of the two was chewing on a piece of long grass as they stared out into the woods.
Brown curls were in a pony tail as the younger girl tapped out a rhythm on the cab of the truck.
“When we gonna go? Tired of staying here, Kate,” Maddie complained.
“Soon,” Kate agreed.
“I’m fucking bored here.” And then a canine whine escaped from Maddie’s lips as her head jerked forward.
“Don’t swear, systir,” Kate growled, blue eyes flashing amber.
Maddie growled back. “I’m old enough.”
“Nope,” Kate sing-songed.
Growling playfully, brown eyes flashed amber as Maddie tackled Kate off of the truck and the two started to roll around the grass. After a few minutes of tussling, the two were breathing hard, flat out on their backs.
“What are we gonna do, Kate?” Maddie whispered to her sister.
“Was thinking maybe, bounty hunting,” Kate replied back. “Tracking in the big city can’t be that different from tracking in the woods and we’re both a dead shot. We’d be traveling a lot, but we’d make it work.”
“Bounty hunting, huh?” A large smile bloomed onto Maddie’s face. “Sounds wicked to me.”
~~~
5 Years Later
Kate furiously paced the hotel room.
Six steps towards the door, pivot, six steps towards the wall, pivot and repeat.
They had separated eight hours ago and agreed to meet up at the designated rendezvous point, but she had only made it back to the hotel room.
Maddie should’ve been back two hours ago! Kate thought furiously.
Grabbing her bag off the bed, the older woman headed back towards the door and was about to open it, when the door knob began to turn.
Un-tucking the gun from the back her jeans, she quickly took a step back as the door swung open.
The pale light of the almost full moon highlighted the figure in the doorway.
“Maddie?”
“I did something stupid, Kate,” Maddie whispered and fell forward into Kate’s waiting arms, unconscious.
Letting her bag and gun fall to the floor as she caught her sister, Kate brushed a curly lock of hair from Maddie’s face and swallowed.
Her baby sister was covered from head to toe in blood and not animal blood, but human blood from the tentative sniff she took. Kate could tell the difference.
“Oh Maddie, what happened to you?” Kate whispered.
Stripping her sister from the bloody clothes and Kate washed Maddie down in the shower. Dried off and placed in clean clothing, Kate tucked Maddie’s unconscious form into bed and grabbed a nearby chair to take watch for the night.
If Maddie had eaten human flesh, she could become Vargulf, a rogue wolf with only human flesh on the mind. Kate thought and then shook her head. I can’t think like that, she’s still my little sister, still my responsibility, no matter what she does.
~~~
They had gotten back into bounty hunting a few weeks later when it looked like Maddie had healed, but Kate watched the next few months passed by as her sister descend into bloodlust and madness. She found out that a hunter had captured her sister. The story was spilled out in pieces of drunken anger and madness.
The bastard had tortured her sister with silver.
Maddie had managed to escape and ended up killing and eating the hunter in rage.
Now, as she tightened her hand around her beer bottle in the bar, Kate took a swing of the beverage and watched as Maddie seduced their mark with vodka and a lap dance.
Maddie was getting more dangerous. Prone to taking bigger risks and Kate didn’t know what to do. Her little sister was slipping further and further away from her.
~There is a house
Down in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun...~
The words flowed easily and freely from Maddie’s lips as she took another long sip from the vodka bottle as she grinded her body closer into the older man’s lap.
~It’s been the ruin
Of many a poor boy
And God knows
You’re one...~
Kate listened in, enhanced hearing picking up the slight twist of lyrics being changed as she watched Maddie lead their prey away.
Waiting a few minutes and finishing her drink, she slipped out the same side entrance her sister used. Nose picking up her sister’s scent easily, she followed the trail into an alleyway.
An alleyway light, dimply lit, poured down onto the pavement and Kate could see the man was slumped to his side and Maddie was licking something off her fingers.
“Maddie?”
“Kate!” Maddie grinned, lips stained red.
“We needed him alive, Maddie,” Kate scolded as she slowly approached the scene.
“He tried putting his hand down my pants,” Maddie pouted and something dark and ugly flashed across her face. “Never again!”
Kate felt something twist inside, what happened with the hunter that turned her sister into this was apparently uglier than she thought. Protective instincts rose inside and she felt her inner wolf growl.
Watching her sister stand up and lick the blood off her fingers, Kate knew something had to be done. Maybe one of Afi’s old cleansing rituals could do something...
“What?” Maddie asked sullenly. “Whatcha lookin’ at me like that for?”
“I’m just worried about you,” Kate said and tugged Maddie into an embrace.
“Get off,” Maddie grumbled and pushed Kate away. “You’re crowding too close.”
Chuckling and bending over, Kate hefted the dead man over her shoulder and the two exited the alleyway with their bounty in tow.
~~~
2 Months Later
Consciousness slowly returned to Kate in the darkened forest clearing.
Wincing, she brought a hand up to her head and pulled away when she felt something sticky. Looking at the blood staining her palm, Kate slowly sat up.
The cleansing ritual was a bad idea and it made Maddie even more paranoid and crazy. Kate remembered something hitting her in the head and knocking her out. Looking over to the side, she noticed a tree log.
Oh, so that’s what knocked me out. Kate thought.
Memories started to slowly return, Maddie snarling and going crazy, eyes flashing amber and how her own sister was betraying her.
And then the log.
Getting up to her feet, she sighed heavily and looked around the clearing. Maddie was nowhere in sight.
She had split; her own flesh and blood had turned on her. Didn’t Maddie understand she was only trying to help? She didn’t want to have to hunt her own sister down, but it looked like she would have to.
Taking a tentative sniff of the air, Kate breathed in her sister’s scent, a scent she knew as well as her own and took off into the woods, following.
~~~
2 Years Later
Well, it's a marvellous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
'Neath the cover of October skies
(Moondance by Van Morrison)
JD smiled in wonder as Casey made her way down the sidewalk, her hand in his as they made their way towards Ezra’s Jaguar. The southern man had lent it to JD for the night, with the promise if “One scratch was on his car, there would be serious bodily harm on JD’s persons.”
With the promise made and the car secured, he opened the side passenger door and helped his girlfriend in.
They were dressed to the nine’s, him in a black tux and her in a red strapless dress with a small black clutch purse, black heels and her hair up in a simple, but elegant up do.
Smoothly navigating the vehicle among the roads of Denver, the duo quickly arrived at their destination: Luca D’Italia.
The car was quickly parked and JD and Casey entered the restaurant and were shown to their table right away.
“That was quick,” Casey commented as JD helped her into her chair.
Sitting down, JD grinned. “It pays to make reservations a couple of months in advance.”
Casey returned the grin as menus were laid out in front of them.
“Our specials tonight are the Dry Aged New York Strip paired with lobster whipped potatoes and local asparagus. Also the Pappardelle Bolognese made in a traditional meat ragù and parmigiano reggiano,” the waiter recited. “The wines for tonight are a local made Green Apple white wine and a local made Blackberry red wine.”
“Oh, the blackberry wine sounds good, JD,” Casey said excitedly.
“Sounds good to me too, Case,” JD replied back and then turned his attention to the waiter. “We’ll get the tasting menu with a bottle of that blackberry red wine, along with a couple of glasses of water.”
“Of course, sir,” The waiter replied back and took the menus back with him.
“This place is so fancy, JD, what’s the occasion?”
“Well, it’s been a couple of years since we met and tonight is actually the anniversary of our first date,” JD smiled at Casey.
“Oh,” Casey sighed. “That’s so romantic of you.”
“Well, it was either this place or the hotdog stand where I took us the first time we dated,” JD grinned.
“Good thing too, I don’t plan on washing mustard out of this dress,” Casey laughed lightly as she gestured at the red dress.
JD blushed. “I did say I was sorry about that.”
Reaching across the table, she grabbed JD’s hand. “I may forgive you someday in the future.”
“Oh good, I thought I’d be in the dog house over that for a very long time.”
The waiter had returned with their water, lemon wedged on the rim of their glasses.
Idle chitchat continued to dominate the conversation, mostly of the “How’s work?” variety and what kind of plans they should make for next weekend, camping was the main topic for that.
Sipping at the water, JD’s eyes widened as he felt Casey’s foot playing with his and then choked on the water as it went up his pant leg.
Casey merely smiled over her water glass as she continued her ministrations.
The waiter returned with their food and placed both dishes in front of them.
“For you sir, the chef has prepared a Lasagne Rollata al Forno, lasagne rolls stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, asiago, parmesan and romano cheese. Topped with mozzarella and seasoned breadcrumbs, baked in five cheese marinara,” the waiter explained and then gestured at Casey’s dish. “For you madam, the chef has made a Garlic-Herb Chicken con Broccoli, rosemary-seasoned chicken breasts sautéed with fresh broccoli in a garlic cream sauce over orecchiette pasta.”
“It looks absolutely delicious,” Casey excitedly said.
Pulling the wine bottle from the wine bucket another waiter had brought, while he had explained the dishes, the red liquid was swiftly poured into the glasses and both JD and Casey could smell the fruity fragrance.
Gazing at one another, they barely noticed the waiter leaving their table as they picked up their wine glasses and toasted one another.
“To our anniversary and us,” JD toasted.
Casey repeated the line and her glass made a light clinking sound against JD’s and they sipped at the wine.
Food was consumed as they shared bites from each other’s dishes.
Light touches against one another’s faces as forks were placed inside mouths and the silverware was slowly removed, trailing past tongue and teeth. A slight bit of juice was resting on Casey’s lip and JD brushed it off with the pad of his thumb and licked it off.
“Want to get out of here?” JD asked of Casey. The food wasn’t even half done and the bottle of wine had been barely consumed, they only had one glass each. He rubbed Casey’s hand. “Go somewhere else?”
“And what else do you have planned tonight, Mr. Dunne?”
“This and that,” came a grin of future promise.
Agreeing, the food and wine were quickly boxed up, bill paid off and once again, Ezra’s Jaguar was being manoeuvred along the streets.
Casey watched as the scenery rolled past by and knew by the landmarks they were heading to Centennial Park. Why there, Casey had no idea, but she assumed it was more or less part of the romantic evening JD had planned. She had hoped that they were heading back to JD’s place for a more, intimate evening, but she was sure whatever was happening, it would be wonderful.
The Jag rolled into one of the side parking lots and JD bounced out of the vehicle, excitement lining his body. Helping Casey out of the car, he had made sure to grab the bottle of wine earlier from the restaurant and then went and unlocked the trunk and grabbed a blanket and a picnic basket.
Offering his arm to Casey, the duo walked across the parking lot, down the side walk and towards the bank near the small pond.
Laying the blanket down onto the grass, he helped Casey seat herself onto the thick woollen blanket. Opening up the picnic basket, he plucked out a plastic champagne glass, uncorked the wine bottle and poured Casey a small amount.
Casey giggled as JD juggled all of the items, set them down and then sat on the blanket himself, plastic champagne glasses in hand.
Leaning on his side, he brushed a piece of hair away from Casey’s face that had escaped from her up do.
She smiled at him and leaned in for a kiss. “You are wonderful, JD. All of this wonderful.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” JD replied and leaned into the kiss Casey brushed against his lips.
They quickly consumed their wine and leaned back against the blanket. Casey snuggled into JD’s side, the full moon shone brightly on them and the stars to them were twinkling.
It was a magical and romantic night.
They traced out what constellations they could find and made up new stories about them.
Soon, it became late into the night and they were both starting to yawn.
“This has been really romantic, JD,” Casey said as she stood up, brushing away imaginary dirt from her dress.
“Good, ‘cause I have one last surprise before we go home,” JD softly stated as he reached for something inside his jacket pocket and kneeled. Bringing out a small black box, he popped it open. “Casey Wells, will you marry me?”
Gasping in surprise and delight, Casey looked at the ring in the box and held out her left hand. “Yes, yes, you silly goose!”
Whooping with delight, JD got the ring out of the box and went to go put it on Casey’s ring finger; he fumbled the ring in his fingers and cursed as it dropped onto the blanket.
“You klutz,” Casey lightly teased.
Cheeks reddening with embarrassment, JD bent over and grabbed the ring when he felt a slight wind pass over his back.
Casey’s scream brought JD’s head up from his searching of the ring and he saw this shape on his fiancé, several feet away. There was no hesitation as adrenaline filled him as he sprinted forward and tackled the ‘thing’ off of Casey.
Getting to his feet, JD ran to Casey’s side. Blood was covering her from head to toe and some sort of claw mark marred her face, shoulder and torso.
He needed to get her to the hospital.
Now.
“J...D...,” Casey choked out, blood escaping from her lips.
He barely got to reply or even help when he felt a searing pain across his shoulder. Screaming, he managed to turn his head to side and came face to face with a large wolf head, amber eyes glaring into his and large teeth clamped onto his shoulder.
He was tossed from side to side, teeth clamping down even harder into muscle and bone.
Air then whistled past him as JD realized he was flying through the air and then hit the ground hard and skidded a few feet into the grass.
Amongst the pain in the shoulder and now his leg and other arm, he blinked past the darkness that threatened to send him unconscious and slowly got to his feet. JD pushed past the pain and did a limping type jog as he tried valiantly to save Casey.
“CASEY!!!” JD yelled out.
But the beast or wolf, JD wasn’t sure, was done ravaging Casey’s body and had now turned its sights on him.
Maybe luck was with him that day, although JD would vehemently deny that, but the whoop-whoop sound of a police cruiser brought nothing but relief to him and he watched as the creature ran away, bounding along the path and disappearing into a patch of trees.
He didn’t hear the police call out to him in warning as he fell to his knees and then face first into the grass as he passed out from the pain and the trauma of his fiancé being eaten in front of him.
~~~
Buck sighed what felt like the millionth sigh in the past week and a half. Letting his eyes wander over to the figure lying in the hospital bed, it was easy to see why the moustached man was troubled.
JD Dunne and Casey Wells had been discovered by a police cruiser at Centennial Park. The police had been patrolling nearby investigating rumours of unruly teenagers upsetting the atmosphere late at night when they had stumbled upon the scene.
Casey dead and ravaged by what looked like some huge creature, the police officers only saw some sort of shape bound off into the trees.
JD’s shoulder ended up as a chew toy and had sprained his ankle and other arm, which Buck figured had healed up by now.
But his teammate, his friend - no his brother, still hadn’t woken up.
The doctors were spouting some sort of bullshit about trauma and what he saw might’ve sent him fleeing into his own head to heal or hide, but Buck knew JD wasn’t a quitter and could only hope the kid woke up soon and explain what happened.
~~~
It was dark and the full moon hung ominously in the night sky.
The smell of pine and fresh air tickled JD’s nose as he raced through the woods. Feet pounding on the dirt ground, air being sucked in greedily through his nose and exhaled through his mouth as he tried to escape what was chasing him.
He risked a glance back and then cried out as he hit the ground hard.
An exposed tree root had ended up tripping him when he glanced to the side.
Heavy breathing along his left ear alerted JD to the fact that what was chasing him had now caught up.
“You need to get up, JD.”
Casey?
“You need to escape, don’t let it take you over!”
JD tried to move, to see where Casey’s voice was coming from, anything. But the creature had him pinned, belly down in the dirt. But a spark of hope ignited in his chest. Casey wasn’t dead! She was still alive somehow.
“Oh, JD, you couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Whatever JD might’ve thought or said was lost as the thing bit savagely into JD’s shoulder, which caused JD to bring his head up and then scream in horror and in pain.
Casey was a few feet away from him, but she was heavily mutilated. Long, deep gouges across her cheek and upper torso had JD seeing bone and partial organs.
“Cas...ey...” JD choked out.
“I told you to escape,” Casey brokenly whispered.
Whatever else she might’ve said to JD was lost on deaf ears as the beast tore savagely into his back with its claws and howled out its triumph.
A mock cry of the creature’s howl escaped JD’s lips as he felt the pain being inflicted upon his body and his eyes flashed amber.
~~~
Buck sighed as he watched the coffee pour from the vending machines’ small tube into a Styrofoam cup. Rubbing a hand over his face, he winced as he realized his moustache was growing into a beard.
He needed to shave at some point.
It also hit close to home how long he’d been staying in the hospital watching over JD. Only barely pausing to eat and sleep. He could only imagine what Chris was saying to Director Travis about him missing so much work.
The boys would appear at random times, but they would visit at least once a day.
Grabbing the coffee cup, Buck took a long sip and then started the walk back to JD’s room.
A few nurses rushed past him, nearly making him lose his grip on the cup, when a sinking feeling entered his stomach. It looked like they were heading towards JD’s room.
But there was nothing announced on the PA system. Buck thought worriedly and quickened his stride.
That’s when he heard the screaming.
The coffee cup slipped from his hand and hit the floor, liquid splattering everywhere as Buck broke out in a dead run towards JD’s room.
Buck hit the frame of the doorway as he skidded to a stop and watched the chaos unfold before him.
“CASEY!!!”
JD was awake, but he was panicking.
Orderlies were holding down a screaming JD as he tried to escape their grip. A doctor was ordering some kind of sedative, Buck wasn’t sure what kind, just knew that it would knock the kid out.
“CASEY!!! WHERE’S CASEY?” JD screamed as he tried to escape.
That’s when the restraints came out.
“HEY!” Buck yelled and strode forward, intent on stopping the nurses and orderlies from strapping his friend down.
“Mr. Wilmington!” one of the nurses snapped at the older man. “It’s necessary; we don’t want him to hurt himself.”
“Let me talk to him, try and calm him down,” Buck pleaded as he tried to get around the nurse.
The nurse pursed her lips and eyed Buck, then nodded her consent.
Slipping around the older woman, Buck calmly approached the bed and managed to snag an arm and then cupped his hand around JD’s neck.
“JD,” Buck ordered. “Look at me.”
Wild, confused hazel eyes snapped towards the voice and JD’s body sagged back down into the bed, no longer fighting the orderlies that held him in place, but still tense in case he needed to escape.
“Buck?”
“Yeah, it’s me pard,” Buck soothed. “Need to calm down there before you hurt yourself there.”
“Casey? Where’s Casey?” JD asked as he looked around the room frantically. “There was something and then she was in front of me and then she wasn’t and WHERE IS SHE BUCK?” came the last part screamed out.
“Shh, shhhh,” Buck whispered as he massaged the tense muscles in JD’s neck. “Calm down first and then I’ll tell ya.”
JD tried to listen to the voice that hadn’t let him down before, but everything felt too bright and too loud and the smells, it made him want to gag.
“Nonononono,” JD moaned, tossing his head from side to side and began fighting the hands holding him once again.
“JD!” Buck barked out, trying to get JD to listen to him. But he didn’t and continued thrashing against the orderlies and Buck, calling out desperately for Casey.
The fight suddenly left JD as he sagged and his eyes fluttered close. The doctor pulled the needle from the IV line and sighed in relief.
Buck was a jumble of emotions as he watched the orderlies rearrange JD’s body and then placed the restraints on the wrists and ankles.
“Are those really necessary, doc?”
“I’m afraid so, Mr. Wilmington,” the doctor replied. “We want to make sure when he wakes up again, he doesn’t try to hurt himself or anyone else. When it looks like he’s fully here with us, we’ll remove them.” He gently patted Buck on the shoulder. “But he’s woken up, this is a good thing.”
“But he was hollering and screaming his lungs out,” Buck protested.
“It looks like it was just a case of confusion, when he wakes up from the sedative we’ll do more thorough tests. But please remember Mr. Wilmington, he did just survive a very traumatic event. JD is very lucky he’s alive.”
“I know,” Came the mumbled reply.
“The sedative was light, he should wake up again in a couple of hours,” was the reassurance the doctor tried to offer.
Nodding that he understood, he watched as the nurses, orderlies and doctor left the room and Buck took up his customary seat by JD’s bed.
“Oh kiddo,” Buck sighed as he ran a hand down his face. “You’re going to make me go prematurely grey here.”
Pulling out his cell phone, Buck began to make the phone call to the boys to let them know that JD had woken up.
~~~
It had been two weeks since JD had been brought into the hospital and only three of those days he had been awake. The restraints had been removed when it was shown he was in no danger of harming himself or others.
JD complained about the noises and the smells mostly, but no one could hear or smell anything, so the doctors were chalking it up to post-traumatic stress from seeing his fiancé killed in front of him, there was also talk about CAT scans, but JD was ignoring those.
The news of Casey’s death was given to JD on his second day awake and it had sent him into a depression, especially when he was told he had missed the funeral due to his self-induced coma.
What really didn’t help JD was that he kept seeing Casey’s mutilated body everywhere he looked, but he kept that little piece of information to himself. No use in letting everyone think he was going crazy along with the depression.
Curled up on the hospital bed around his pillow, JD stared at the wall. His arm and leg had only suffered sprains and surprisingly the shoulder only had minimal damage, but heavy scarring that he’d carry for the rest of his life.
A nice reminder of his failure to protect Casey. JD thought as he absently rubbed the bandages covering the wound.
They’d be taken off later on in the day to see how the wounds were healing and hopefully he’d get to go home sometime tomorrow.
“JD.”
Stiffening at the familiar voice behind him, JD prayed he was suffering from some sort of breakdown, because he wouldn’t be able to handle seeing his dead, mutilated fiancé behind him.
“You don’t have to look at me, JD, I know I’m not exactly looking my best right now,” Casey softly said. “But you need to listen.”
“You’re not real,” JD insisted stubbornly.
“Oh, JD, I’m very real, just stuck at the moment.”
“Go away.”
“Not until you listen to what I have to say, JD,” Casey insisted back, equally stubborn.
“No.”
“JD!”
“Fine!”
“That creature that killed me and hurt you, it was a werewolf, JD and you’ve been infected.”
A half hysterical sob forced itself out of JD’s mouth. “Bullshit.”
“The supernatural is very real and we’ve become a part of it.”
“I don’t believe you,” JD whispered out. “Please, if you are real, leave me alone right now.”
“All right, JD, I’ll leave, but please remember this,” Casey said. “I loved you in life and I love you in death, but don’t keep mourning me like Chris mourns his wife and son. Get out of bed and start living again, because frankly, you stink.”
JD let a small chuckle escape from his lips as Casey’s words sunk in.
Trust Casey to offer comfort and give a metaphorical kick in the ass as well. JD thought as he slowly sat up and swung his legs over the side.
“Casey?” JD whispered, but no one replied. Proof that she had left him alone.
It was going to hurt and probably be very painful without Casey by his side, but JD was determined not to let his depression affect him any longer than he wanted to. Even if his subconscious masquerading as Casey was saying he was a werewolf to get him out of bed.
Because everyone knew, werewolves weren’t real.
~~~
Buck sighed what felt like for the fiftieth time in the past hour and looked at his small pile of paperwork. He had come in early to get some of the work that had piled up over the past couple of weeks completed.
The others had helped out in what they could, but a new case had been dropped in Team Seven’s lap. Something about gun runners that only appeared before the full moon and then all but disappeared for about a month before reappearing again. Buck hadn’t really paid attention to the office chatter on it. It didn’t concern him right now.
Draining the last of the coffee from his cup, Buck grimaced as he got up and headed back for the pot that Vin had made. He usually stayed away from that shit, but he needed it strong right now.
The others puttered around the office, filing out various paperwork and Buck let the office chatter flow over him when Chris yelled for him.
“BUCK! MY OFFICE! NOW!”
Grumbling under his breath as he fixed a cup of coffee, Buck headed to Chris’s office and closed the door behind him. Settling into the chair, Buck sighed and looked up at Chris’s face.
“Yeah, Chris?”
“What are you doing here, Buck?” Chris asked his oldest friend. “Shouldn’t you be at the hospital right now?”
“Kid tossed me out and told me to get some sleep, shower and shave.”
“Well, it looks like you showered and shaved, but did you sleep?”
Buck shrugged.
“Buck,” Chris warned.
“I caught a couple of hours, mother,” Buck muttered.
Sighing, Chris settled back against his desk. “What’s eating you, Buck?”
“Did you know the kid proposed to Casey?” Buck asked Chris. “And she said ‘yes’ before she died?”
That startled Chris as his eyes widened in surprise.
Chuckling, Buck took a sip of the coffee. “I guess not.”
“Shit,” Chris sighed.
“I just don’t know if I have it in me anymore.”
“Have what, Buck?” But Chris already suspected he knew what Buck was talking about.
“When I was at the hospital, after JD woke up, he reminded me of you when you lost Sarah and Adam,” Buck explained. “Except he doesn’t have a whiskey bottle nearby to lose himself in, he’s escaping by sleeping and drugs.” Draining the last of the coffee with a grimace, Buck tossed the Styrofoam cup into the nearby trash can. “Trying to keep you from the brink took a lot out of me, Chris and I don’t know if I have it in me to help JD out.”
Laying his hands on Buck’s shoulders, Chris let the man look up and at him. “Buck...what you did for me, words can never be enough. But now, with JD, you have the rest of us to help you out and make sure JD doesn’t fall into the depression I did.”
“Thanks pard,” Buck said, nodding his head.
“Any time.”
“Now, head for the sick room and get some sleep, Buck. We’ll all go and pick the kid up.”
“The boys would never believe it, but you mother hen worse than me.”
Chris chuckled and lightly punched Buck in the shoulder with a teasing grin. “Good thing they’ll never believe you then.”
Buck mocked glared at his friend. “Ass.”
“Now, go sleep.”
“Yes mother.”
~~~
Later on that day it was a group of six that went to go and pick up JD from the hospital. Buck started filling out the necessary paperwork to release the younger man at the Nurse’s station.
Chris had grabbed a nearby wheelchair as they entered JD’s room.
“JD, your chariot awaits with our illustrious leader as the driver,” Ezra said with a grin.
The JD that awaited them seemed in better spirits then when they had left him last. He looked like he had showered, but his face was still peppered with a light beard and he was wearing fresh clothes that Buck had left.
“You seem in better spirits, JD,” Josiah pointed out.
JD gave a small smile. “Yeah. I am, ‘siah.”
“What brought about this change?” Chris asked.
“Figured Casey wouldn’t want me moping like this and decided I’m not gonna wallow,” JD explained, deliberately not mentioning ‘Casey’ stopping by and giving him a kick in the ass.
Vin tilted his head as he looked at JD. “Metaphorical kick in the ass?”
“Something like that, Vin,” JD lightly chuckled.
“Let me just check your bandage and sling there and we’ll head out as soon as Buck’s done with the paperwork,” Nathan said as he started over to JD’s injured shoulder.
“Lay off, Nathan, I’m fine! And besides, the doctor already took a look.” But the words fell on deaf ears.
“Kid, your definition of fine is the same as ours,” Vin laughed.
Nathan managed to wrestle JD out of the sling and shirt. Gently pulling the tape away from the skin and lifting the bandage up, he could see the marks left by the creature. They were now red and ugly bruising turning green and yellow marred JD’s shoulder and his upper back.
“This is healing faster than I thought it would be,” Nathan commented, puzzled.
“That’s what the doctor said when he changed my bandages earlier, it’s probably why he’s letting me leave so early,” JD sighed as Nathan replaced the bandage back on.
He was helped back into his shirt and the sling and JD looked at his friends. “Are we ready to go?”
“Still waiting on Buck, kid,” Chris said. “He’s filling out your release papers and then we can leave.”
JD merely nodded, giving a tentative smile and stared off into space.
Letting a sigh escape from his lips, Chris glanced at the others and saw nothing but determination to help out their youngest member.
They were roused out of their thinking as Buck’s voice carried from the hallway.
“C’mon darlin’, I have power of attorney, I can sign those,” Buck pleaded.
“That maybe so, Mr. Wilmington, but I still have to go over a few things with Mr. Dunne,” A woman’s voice replied back.
Team Seven watched as a nurse entered the room, an annoyed look on her face, curly hair pulled back into a pony tail as Buck followed her in.
Ignoring the others, the nurse went over to JD and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Mr. Dunne?”
Unconsciously, JD’s nostrils’ flared as he took in the new scent and he turned his head to face the nurse.
“Hi there, I just need to go over a few things with you, to look out for when you leave the hospital.”
“Okay,” JD said quietly. She smelled nice and familiar somehow. No, he just lost Casey; he couldn’t be thinking those kinds of things!
JD let the words coming from the nurse wash over him. It was a procedure he was familiar with. ‘Take it easy’ ‘Remember to take your medicine’ ‘Make sure to change the bandages’ and his favourite ‘To make an appointment for physiotherapy’. He knew Nathan would pester him to get this all done, same with Buck. All JD wanted to do now was get out of here and away from this woman’s scent. He didn’t know why his sense of smell had increased, but right now, it didn’t do him a world of good as all he wanted to do was bury his face in the nurse’s neck and inhale her scent deeply.
Those thoughts made it feel like a betrayal to Casey.
Within no time at all, JD was loaded into the wheelchair and wheeled out of the hospital. Away from the women’s scent and back to the CDC with Buck.
~~~
Even a man who is pure in heart
And says his prayers by night
May become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.
(Poem from The Wolfman, 1941)
JD didn’t know what woke him up in the middle of the night; he just knew it was something. Something out there, outside of the condo where he and Buck lived.
Prowling.
That was the only word JD could think of to describe whatever it was that ‘pinged’ his radar.
Getting out of bed, he padded softly out of his room and headed over to the living room. Pushing back the curtain, he watched as a figure walked back and forth in front of the building. He couldn’t make out who it was, but whoever it was, was encroaching on his territory.
Territory?
With that word, it was like something surged forward into the front of his mind and his eyes started to glow amber as his lip lifted upwards and he softly growled.
This was his home, his! What was this intruder doing here?
Fully preparing himself to run out the front door, tackle this person and sink his teeth in and rip their throat out; JD was unprepared for the hand that grabbed his uninjured shoulder and spun him around.
“What are you doing out here, kid?” Buck asked as he sleepily rubbed his eyes. Therefore, he didn’t see the amber bleed out of JD’s eyes and return to their hazel colour.
“Buck?” JD asked confused. “What are you doing out here?”
“I asked first, JD.”
Brow furrowed in confusion, a look of alarm graced his face before JD was able to wipe it off. “I’m not sure. I thought I heard something, got out of bed and then nothing until you touched me.”
Understanding filled Buck’s eyes. “Don’t worry about it, kiddo.”
“But Buck! I bla -.”
“Shh, none of that,” Buck said, placing a hand on JD’s shoulder. “It’s probably your subconscious searching for something.”
JD’s mood then turned sombre. “Casey.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Buck shrugged. “It might just be a onetime thing tonight.”
“Or it could happen again!” JD insisted.
“JD. Let’s take it one day at a time and we’ll figure it out, alright?”
“Okay, Buck.”
Moving his hand so his entire arm was around JD’s shoulders, he steered his young friend back to bed.
He never even noticed the intruder leaving the area.
“Now, I’m drawing the line at tucking you into bed and kissing you goodnight,” Buck joked.
A slight curve of JD’s lips warned Buck that the kid was going to give him some sort of smart alec remark.
“Ah-ah!” Buck wiggled a finger in JD’s finger. “You know I love you in a totally platonic brother kind of way kid, but if you finish that sentence, injured or not, your ass will be in a sling.”
JD pouted and wiggled more under the covers.
“That’s better. Night kid.”
“Night, Buck,” JD whispered as he burrowed into the warmth.
Shutting the light off, Buck was about to close the door when JD’s voice stopped him. “And Buck - thanks.”
Buck smiled back. “Anytime, kid.”
[ part one][ part two][ part three]