If you're lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time
-Lyrics to 'Time After Time' covered by Matchbox 20: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuxCOjoFp7Y
Crimson Ties Part 62
(Flashback)
With the mental images of the unrecognizable Vampire that had come in on her watch, Sally swallowed roughly as the coroner zipped the black body bag closed. If there was to be a service, it would have to include a closed casket. But the doctor was sure that Anna would recommend to her friends that the fallen Infected be cremated considering how little of the remains there would be to work with.
Not looking forward to having to face the family of the deceased, the braided living shed her surgical mask, gloves and cap with a deep sigh. Tossing them in the sanitary can on her way out into the hallway, her steps were heavy and labored as her wonderings over how in the hell such a well-known Vampire's existence had come to such a gruesome end.
Of course, given the prestige of the family involved, such a thing was not for anyone to pry into if it could be helped... especially not by a doctor who was obligated to honor the privacy of their patients.
Stepping into the waiting room, Sally's heart sank at the sight of the distraught clans huddled closely together inside.
Completely surrounded by family and friends, Relena Peacecraft sat slumped in one of the chairs as she stared ahead of herself at nothing. Gold-and-blue eyes shimmering and filled with disbelief, she made no response to the gentle pats to her back or squeezes of her shoulders from her brother and sister-in-law who flanked her.
Anna remained in her bloodied scrubs as she and her cousins consoled Wufei and Heero across the room as best they could while struggling with their own grief. While Karl was not member of their clan, they may as well have been blood family as close as their bands of Infected were.
Being the first to spot the doctor soon after she entered, Treize Khushrenada rose to his feet quickly with his wife on his heels. taken aback at being in the presence of the elite Vampires, Sally found herself in a rare moment of awed silence before she came from her stupor enough to gesture that they follow her from the room.
When they were alone in the corridor, the surgeon faced the Council Representatives and frowned deeply, "I cannot tell you all how sorry I am for your loss. We tried everything that we could to give enough time for the healing to be able to come on, but there was simply nothing that could be done to save your cousin. His injuries..." At the trail off of her voice, she cleared her throat before she could continue, "They were just too extensive."
And that was putting it mildly, but they did not need all of the horrific details to how their loved one had practically been carved apart. Bad enough that the staff that had treated Karl Peacecraft would no doubt be having nightmares over what they had seen for a long time.
Lady Une had to turn away to wipe at her eyes as he husband rested a reassuring hand on the young woman's shoulder. "We appreciate the diligent efforts of you and your team, Doctor Po. I know that Karl had been in the most capable hands he could have hoped for with you."
At the praise, Sally lowered her head a bit and swallowed against the lump that returned to her throat . Kind and sincere as it was, she didn't feel as though it was at all deserved. "Thank you, Sir." she muttered under her breath.
Smiling, the Councilman corrected, "Simply Treize and Lady Une." His wife gave a small grin and a nod of agreement. After a brief silence, Khushrenada had his arm fall back to his side as he stated quietly, "I'm sure that you are aware of the sensitivity of this situation. Were anything to be released to the media regarding what has happened-"
The doctor lifted her head to shake it. "I assure you that will not happen," she declared. "The team that I had with me are my most trusted. What's more, most of them are completely in the dark as to who it was we were treating. The rest do not know that you're even here. And that will stay the case."
Both Vampires eased with deep sighs of relief. Extending a hand, Treize said, "Then it's good to know that we have a new friend."
Eyes growing and blinking, Sally stared in surprise at the hand held out to her. Finally smiling, she accepted it for a firm shake. Though she had no idea where this new camaraderie with the members of the Vampire Council would lead her, she was no less honored to have it.
After all, the more friends one had the better.
(End Flashback)
* * * * * *
Terrified as she was that she had overstepped the boundaries of her relationship with the Representatives, Sally managed to keep her back straight and shoulders back as she told them softly, "You know that I would never pry into your existences if I had no cause for alarm."
Shaking her head, she frowned, "But Anna is a good friend of mine. Between what happened to her and the old man that was brought in by her family, it's a little hard for me to not be involved now." There was an anxiousness in the couple's eyes as they looked to each other, silently discussing how they should proceed.
"Look," the surgeon sighed, "you already know that you can trust me, so I feel as though I've earned the right. Besides, if I'm going to continue to be of any help to you and your clans, I think I need to have a little more of an idea to what you're all dealing with here. You don't want to risk whatever it is being discovered if the wrong person should get involved."
That very reasonable concern was all that Treize and Lady Une needed to hear. As their growing eyes locked once more, they nodded firmly. "You are absolutely right, Sally," the lovely brunette agreed aloud as her gold-and-brown gaze settled back on the surgeon. "But we are going to need a place a bit more... private so that we can talk."
Pleasantly surprised by the acceptance of her request, the braided living blinked. Quickly recovering, she grinned widely in appreciation, "Of course." Waving, she turned on her heels to lead them further down the empty corridor to her personal office.
As her guests stepped inside before her, Sally pulled the door closed behind her and moved to sit across from the Infected at her neatly tidied desk. With a bit of effort on her part, she trained her face to maintain a calm and cool demeanor even while she remained stricken by having the Representatives in her private quarters.
Folding his hands together and resting them on the flat desktop of the oak surface between them, Treize took a deep breath and began, "For any of this to make sense, we're going to have to start at the beginning- back in the early 1900's when my wife and I founded the Preventer organization.."
* * * * * *
At the soft sound of a groan from the redhead lying across from him, Wufei blinked widely as he shot upright in his chair to watch his wife's nose scrunch up just before her gold-and-blue eyes blinked open. Confusion and disorientation clouded her irises and she blinked a couple more times before her vision and mind cleared.
The moment their gazes met, Chang could see the rush of the events that had happened before she lost consciousness come flooding back to Anna and a high-pitched whimper escaped her as her eyes watered over. "Wufei," her crackling voice breathed with a sharp sob.
In an instant, the scaly Infected was sitting on the edge of the bed and he carefully pulled the redhead to sit up so that he could cradle her tightly against him. Allowing his own tears to fall silently down his face, he closed his eyes and slowly rocked the trembling form in his arms that clung desperately to him.
Anna hated appearing weak... of losing control of her resolve and Wufei knew it. Much of her shaking was born out of her doing her best to fight her urge to simply cry and break down for a moment after the nightmare she'd endured.
"Just let it out," Chang urged in a whisper. "I'm here to catch you when you need it."
That gentle encouragement crumbled the last of the redheaded Infected's defenses and her body completely melted against his as the true release came on. Allowing the fears and loss to come back and flow out of her, she buried her face against her husband's shoulder to simply be held.
His voice low and thick with his stirred emotions, Wufei hummed softly to offer every measure of comfort he could while he continued to slowly rock the Irish Vampire back and forth. Instead of having his profound grief overwhelm him, he took this as a moment to really shine as her husband and soul mate.
"Love... you... so... damn... much," Anna murmured against his shoulder between sniffles and hitches of sobs.
Only just managing to hang onto his calm, the scaly Vampire pressed and held a kiss against her temple. "God, I adore you," he replied against the hair at the top of her head, his own voice cracking. "I was so damned scared that I'd lost you."
Forcing a deep breath to steady her voice, Anna turned her head to meet his gold-and-onyx eyes. With a rough swallow past her constricting throat, she smiled, "I knew that you'd save me. That and looking out for Midi were the only things that kept me holding on as long as I did."
Chang bit his lip at that, doing his best to not recall just how close a call it had been in reaching her in time. A short laugh escaping him, he replied quietly, "Well, I had a lot of help in that. Heero, Trowa and I destroyed that son of a bitch Donnie. But Duo deserves the most credit of keeping you alive since he gave you his blood to drink."
Her body tensing again, Anna pulled her drenched face back to look on her Chosen with wide eyes. What joy she should have felt in knowing that the monster that had tormented her so was dead, was overridden by her immediate concern. "Duo... oh my God, is he okay?" she groaned in a panic, knowing that she would have been beyond comprehension in her drinking from him.
Struggling against the strong arms holding her in an attempt to leave her bed to check on her little brother herself, she all but wailed, "If I hurt him, I'll never forgive myself!"
Gingerly tightening his grip on her, the scaly Infected caught her chin to make their eyes meet as he was quick to soothe, "Shh. He's more than fine. Heero needed to balance his depletion with some of his own blood, but they're both perfectly safe and back home since Sally sent them away for the night."
Though their little brother's situation had been much more grave than he let on, Wufei wasn't about to have his lover blame herself or regret something that she had absolutely no control over. Duo was well aware that there was no harm meant and even said himself that there was nothing to forgive.
Physically relaxing once more, Anna released a small sigh of relief and reached up to wipe away the tears that had begun to dry on her cheeks. Tired as she was, there was more that she needed to know before she could rest.
"What else?" she pressed. "Donnie had hinted that there was more going on that was keeping you and the others away." Chang bit the inside of his cheek, chewing on it in reluctant consideration over how to break the news to his wife after everything else she had gone through.
Since there was no way she would let him go on keeping her in the dark, he frowned deeply, "It seems as though Solo, Duo's twin, is responsible for the disappearances and turning of the humans. Packs of his Others had attacked Howard's base and the Maxwell Church. We lost the old man as well as Father Maxwell."
The redhead's already pale skin turned even more white, eyes growing with a strangled gasp. "Oh... dear God," she breathed. As her vision watered over anew, she fell back to lie in her bed again and threw her arm over her closing eyes and said a silent prayer for the fallen.
"Damn it," she hissed. "Something has to start turning around for us. I'm getting pretty tired of us always gripping the short end of the stick in this war."
Lowering himself onto his side to lie beside his partner, Wufei draped an arm around her waist and pulled her close against his chest and kissed her cheek. He kept his voice soft as he told her, "All those things we can deal with when we get back home." Biting his lip, he announced, "Right now, there's something else that we really need to discuss."
The Irish immortal dropped her arm from her face to blink in confusion at her husband.
Gracefully shifting himself to prop his torso up by a bent arm beneath him, Chang locked their gazes together so that she could see the resolve in his eyes and expression. "I want it made perfectly clear how much you mean to me, Anna," he began in little more than a breath that had his bride's eyes widening.
Shaking his head, he ran his scaly finger tips along the other Infected's jaw line and frowned, "It kills me to think that you have any doubt how much I love and need you."
Wufei paused to take a breath and continued, "I know how horribly I started us out, so I do understand where you might think I'm only with you out of guilt or some mystical bond between us, but I swear to you that couldn't be further from the truth."
Taken aback and moved beyond comprehension, Anna began to tremble as fresh tears rolled from her eyes. Kissing them away, Wufei ignored the fact that he was crying silently when he leaned over her again.
Lightly cupping the side of his wife's face, he whispered, "I loved you from the moment I first met you at the lake. What I feel for you is more real and far deeper than anything I've ever felt for anyone. And it scared me out of my mind at first."
"But I have never been happier or felt more complete than I am when I'm with you," Chang continued. Smirking, he added, "Believe me, if I didn't then I would have avoided possibly being shredded apart by Heero and Trowa when I sought your family out before you were released from prison. They didn't make it easy outright, but I wasn't about to be swayed."
Hearing of that for the first time, the redhead's shimmering eyes blinked and she remained unable to find her voice as she just watched and listened to her husband's heartfelt words that were touching her right to her soul.
The scaly Infected declared slowly, "You. Are. Everything. To. Me, Anna Yuy-Chang. And I can't exist without you... I'm not anywhere near as strong as Relena has been since she lost Karl. I wouldn't want to go on in a world where you're not with me." Cut off by a sharp whimper, he shook his head, "So help me, I'll find a way to follow you wherever you go. You know that I will-"
Once again, he was stopped short, only this time by the cool lips that pressed firmly against his in a sound kiss. Sighing, the scaly immortal closed his dampened eyes and clung to his Chosen as they poured every bit of passion, relief and fervor that they had into the exchange. And in that moment, everything that had been between them was forgotten.
When they finally broke away, Anna rested their foreheads together as their eyes opened. Sniffling, she whispered, "I am so sorry for ever doubting you, Wufei. You have my word that it will never happen again."
Clearly seeing the dedication and light in her golden irises that was no longer hidden by the distant clouds of her fears, Chang knew the truth in her words. A brilliant smile spreading across his face, he cupped her cheek, leaned in for another deep kiss to express his gratitude and gently rubbed his wife's freckled arm when he pulled back.
Drawing a deep breath, Wufei grinned, "After this damned war with Solo and the others is behind us, I'd like to go back to Ireland and renew our vows... only this time we can say them without any questions or uncertainties."
The eyes watching him widened with happy tears that warmed him to the core of his being. Shrugging, he smirked, "That is, if you wish to marry me again."
With a bubbly laugh, Anna wiped at her face, nodding. "Of course I'll marry you again. Nothing in this world would make me happier or more honored." On that declaration, they held each other tight and sealed their pact with a sound kiss.
Elated and thrilled as she was, the redhead couldn't hold back the wide yawn that broke from her when their lips parted.
Between the loss of blood that was still replenishing and the emotional upheaval of everything that had happened, her energy was just about at its end. Her eyelids heavy when she tried to open them fully, she slurred in a sigh, "'m pretty tired, love."
"You're still healing," Chang replied softly as he brushed the long locks of her hair behind her ear. Mindful of not agitating her wounded body, he turned to lie on his back so that his partner could pillow her head against his shoulder as he held her against his chest with more ease.
Pressing a kiss against her forehead, the Chinese Infected urged, "Sleep now. I'll be right here when you wake up. Nothing in this existence will move me so much as an inch before then." Quickly pressing a soft kiss at the tip of the Irish Vampire's nose when she looked up at him, he whispered, "I love you, my Celtic Rose."
Anna smiled lovingly before her eyelids won the fight and closed on her. Sighing she nestled her head and slender form comfortably against her husband and tightened her arm around his waist as she mumbled tiredly, "Love you, too, Wufei... so damned much."
Every muscle in the redhead's body eased as she was pulled into the deep recesses of slumber. Letting out a deep sigh of his own, Chang closed his eyes and burrowed his head into the thick hair at the top of her head.
While he could have done without the events that had brought them to this time and place, somehow it all worked out better in putting to rest those demons that plagued their relationship. Thanking whatever Deity it was that was listening, the scaly Vampire smiled to himself.
As far as Wufei was concerned, the only thing on his mind was putting his focus on soaking in every bit of love and joy that he could as he lay with the most important creature in his existence. True to his word, he wouldn't move a hair until Anna woke.
Solo, the Others and the rest of the world would just have to wait until then.
* * * * * *
Lowering the buckets in her hands that were nearly filled to the rim with thick, sloshing red liquid, Noin and Relena peered back into the living room that they had just mopped up.
Striped of its furniture and cream-colored carpets so that only the floor baseboards remained, the space held the same eerie feeling it had when they first set foot into Wufei and Anna's mansion. And even after all of their efforts, a large spot in the floor where the redheaded Infected had hung was still stained darker than the rest from where the majority of her essence had gathered.
Zechs stepped up between the Infected to wrap an arm around his stricken wife and sister's shoulders as they continued to stare at the dark ring.
Relaxing at his touch, Relena frowned, "It's a good thing we insisted to Heero and the others that they see to the rest of the repairs so that they didn't have to see this. Bad enough that they had to come here to see Anna in such a way... being cut over and over like that." Zechs and Noin shuddered along with her and nodded their heads in agreement.
Reluctantly, Lucrezia peered down at the buckets sitting at her feet. "My God. Have you ever seen so much blood in one place before?" she asked, her voice so low that her husband's heightened sense of hearing almost missed it.
"No," Merquise ground out through his teeth, glaring at the stain in the floor. "Of our blood or not, Duo, Anna and Catherine are family. The sooner we got to the bottom of those responsible for making these strikes to repay them the better."
Relena winced at that in her silent dread of having to come clean about Meiran's role. Whenever Treize and Lady Une joined them again, she would have to pull her whole family aside to break the news to them at the same time... the only way it would go easier on everyone involved.
Taking a deep breath, the Council Speaker met the gazes that were locked on him and gestured to the large roll of carpet that he had leaned against the nearby wall. "I found that spare supply in one of the closets. We'll be able to make quick work of installing it so that we can move the furniture back in," he said.
Just happy to have some role in helping their dear friends, Noin and Relena grinned in the relief of knowing that they would have the room back in a presentable order before the residents returned in a few hours. Without hesitation or complaint, they followed Zechs' lead and got right to the work of carpeting the living room.
Further down the hallway, there was a flurry of activity.
Heero and Duo were in the process of closing up the back patio windows that had been shattered in the Others' quick escape from the mansion. Broom and dustpan in hand, Midi was a blur of herself as she got all the shards of glass that covered the floor while her husband kept filling and taking out large garbage bags of debris that he was picking up.
Carefully lowering the new pane that he and his lover had picked up to replace the main window, Yuy's hand came down on a jagged shard of glass that they had missed in their cleanup. Letting out a sharp, "Damn it!" he pulled his sliced palm back as thick drops of red blood ran from the deep wound.
Before the first trickle even hit the floor, Midi was there to catch it in her pan. Violet-and-silver eyes wide, as he set the pane down to the floor, Duo hurried to his Vampire's side to have a look at his clenched hand. "Let me see, Heero," he requested urgently.
More embarrassed than in pain, the Original sighed and opened his fingers only to blink in shock along with his partner and cousins when they looked on. Where there should have been a gaping gash, there was only smooth and perfect skin.
Blinking, Heero closed his gaping mouth and faced his equally stunned partner. "That must be part of that enhanced healing that comes from your blood," he guessed aloud.
"There's more to it than just that," a familiar voice commented from the doorway.
Quickly spinning on their heels, the Infected and Companion found Quatre returning from his trip to the gift shop. Arms filled with the first drop off of wrapped flowers, stuffed animals and balloons, he set the offerings down to have a close examination of Yuy's hand. Whistling through his teeth, the scientist shook his head in wonder, "That's just impressive."
Duo's cheeks burned with a deep blush in the wake of the eyes that fell on him. Never one to like being the center of attention, he waved at his friend and family with an exasperated, "What?! It's not like I asked to have these abilities! They're just a part of me and completely out of my control!"
A sudden thought striking him, the Companion's silvered eyes grew and he looked on the living to ask, "You didn't happen to get any further in your studies to know what the hell is up with me, did you?"
Biting his lip, Winner straightened his back out when their gazes met. "As a matter of fact, I did," he replied. Instantly, all of the Vampires' focus and wide-eyed anticipation fell on the scientist.
Quatre raised a hand, wincing, "But given how you could use as many ears to hear it as possible along with the situation of Anna's drinking your blood and what it could mean, I think it would be best if you had your whole family here to take it all in at one time."
Shoulders drooping, the blonde shrugged, "Besides, there is the element of my not having your sister's blood to run one last pass on my findings to confirm them to compare a fresh sample with her blood before she drank from you."
"Problem solved," another voice announced. Now when the lot looked to the doorway, they froze in finding a most unexpected guest entering with Treize and Lady Une.
Behind the surgeon, Khushrenada grinned to the faces that turned to seek out an explanation. Gesturing to the surgeon, he smirked, "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to our first human Preventer agent and official medical liaison, Doctor Po."
Smirking, the braided woman handed over her medical scrubs that were crusted over with dark, dry blood to Quatre. Her head tilting, she stated, "I believe that should be more than enough of Anna's fresh blood to work with."
Practically shaking from his excitement as he took the balled up offerings, Quatre's face was nearly split by the wide grin that spread across it. Turning towards the 'little mother' of his friends, he cheered, "Coffee, please, Midi! And lots of it!"
TBC...
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