Healing Powers by Thyra10
A/N:
A short fic to cheer up Alison who desperately needs a cure so she can get out of the bed that`s keeping her captured. This story is what I imagine could happen to her if she had been part of the SVM universe. It`s set after Dead in the Family.
The SVM universe is so cleverly thought out by Charlaine Harris and I can unfortunately claim absolutely no ownership – though I would love to borrow her Eric for a little while and send him to sweet and fun Alison as her personal medicine.
This story was so graciously beta`d superfast by Suki59 and I`m very grateful to her!
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A commotion by the door woke her up. Usually she slept through it when nurses and orderlies came in to check on her, but these people walked differently. They almost tiptoed as not to disturb her.
Commotion may not have been the right word to describe the sound that woke her up because it wasn't loud. It was just … out of the ordinary, she thought.
Granted, her whole life was out of the ordinary now. She was in a bed in a hospital and she had been here for over 2 months. Not what you would call an ordinary life for a woman as young as she was.
And now she had someone in her room - someone who didn't belong there. She turned on her bedside lamp and gasped. A tall, blond man stood entirely still, apparently waiting for her reaction.
"What are you … " she started to ask when he looked her deep in the eyes and interrupted her.
"You haven`t seen me. I`m not here."
She shook her head as if something uncomfortable had entered it.
"What do you mean `you`re not here`? You`re standing right in front of me."
Now it was his turn to be surprised and it hit her -he was a vampire and had tried to glamor her. She was 42 years old and had never met a real vampire before even though it had been years since they`d come out of the coffin. But then, in those years she had been pretty preoccupied with getting well.
"Shit," he said under his breath. He glanced at the door as if he were expecting someone to walk through it. Someone he didn't want to meet.
"I haven`t seen you. You are not here," she said and smiled reassuringly.
He stared at her. Then he looked up and before she knew it, he had pushed some of the ceiling panel to the side, jumped up through the hole and replaced what he had removed. The ceiling now looked exactly she had now stared at for months. No one could see that she had a vampire over her head.
She heard footsteps in the corridor and grabbed her book and pretended to read. She also pressed the button for assistance. She never really knew how fast anyone would come. It wasn`t as if she were terminally ill, so no one would come running within the minute. Still, it was nice to know someone was on the way, she thought. If not to help her, then at least to discover her dead body.
The door opened and in walked a guy with a white cowboy hat; a Stetson, she believed it was called. She was British and not really familiar with the whole cowboy tradition of the country in which she was now hospitalized in the hope of a cure the British doctors had said didn`t exist. She figured cowboy hats were common here in Texas.
She glanced down. Yes, he was wearing cowboy boots too. Then she realized that he was too pale to be a real cowboy. Wouldn`t they be out rustling cattle? Really, she thought and giggled to herself. A cowboy vampire?
"Where is he?" the cowboy asked.
"Where is whom?" she asked.
He rolled his eyes in annoyance and then he stared at her.
Here we go again, she thought.
"Where is he?" the cowboy asked again, this time in a deeper voice.
She had no idea how people looked when they were under vampire influence so she let her eyes glaze over and stared at something in the air between her and the cowboy.
"There is no one here," she answered with a voice she hoped was convincingly empty.
"No one came through this door?" he asked in surprise.
"No," she answered in a hollow voice. "No one came through this door."
"Fucking hell," the cowboy yelled and was out the door.
She could hear other doors open and close and finally footsteps down the stairs at the end of the corridor. She released a breath she wasn`t even aware of she was holding.
"You can come out now," she said to the ceiling and watched as the vampire came down through the hole. This was when it hit her that he may be a murderer and the cowboy someone who wanted to stop him. She swallowed.
But when she saw his smile, she told herself that this was not the smile of a murderer. She figured those may be famous last word for her, but she couldn't help trusting him. And she might as well, she figured, because if he wanted to kill her, there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it.
"Thank you," he said.
"You`re welcome." She was a bit annoyed with herself for not coming up with something more to say. Then she thought of something. "Why were you hiding?"
A veil of sadness travelled over his face and then his neutral smile returned. "They abducted my wife. She came here to Texas to her friend`s brother`s wedding and now she`s gone. I`m trying to locate her, but I`m not allowed into this state." He rolled his eyes. "As if state borders could keep me away from her."
She nodded. Her husband had come with her to Texas too. Not because she was abducted, but because she was sick. He had been here from day one.
He looked at her up and down and she thought she heard him sniff the air around her.
"You`re sick," he stated.
"Yeah, congratulations on spotting the sick woman in the hospital bed," she answered bitterly.
"I can heal you." He took a step closer to her bed.
"You know what? I've had self-appointed healers trying that a couple of times. Nothing ever helped."
"My healing will help." He sounded very sure of himself.
She sighed. What did she have to lose? "Okay," she answered in resignation.
Her resignation soon turned into shock when she saw his fangs pop out and then penetrate his wrist. He held the bleeding holes to her mouth.
"Drink," he said and there was something in his voice that made her do as he said.
She held his arm and swallowed the blood running into her mouth. She even sucked a little when the blood didn`t run as easily, causing him to grunt slightly. She pretended it was medicine and she had sure taken some weird tasting ones before. This was nothing out of the ordinary, she told herself.
Suddenly she heard footsteps up the stairway again and she looked at the vampire.
"You should go before they come," she said and he nodded.
Before she could say anything else to him or ask him any questions, he was out the door and she was back to reading her book.
The nurse came in, looking slightly annoyed. She knew the nurse had a busy night, being all alone on duty, and a pang of embarrassment came over her.
"You called?" the nurse asked.
"Yes, I need to go to the bathroom." She didn`t really need to go, but she might as well go now that the nurse was here. They didn`t always come when she was in a hurry so this might save her some aggravation in the morning.
The nurse helped her to the bathroom and sat her on the toilet seat.
"You could get a bedpan," the nurse said – as the nurses always said when they had to almost carry her the short walk for her to do her business.
"I`m hoping to avoid it," she answered, knowing that bedpans were in her near future.
Xxxx
The next morning she woke up and felt nature`s call. She cursed to herself, annoyed that the trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night hadn`t helped. She was about to call for help when she felt how easily she sat up in bed.
She lifted her legs and was surprised to feel full control over them. She swung them out of the bed and before she knew it, she was halfway to the bathroom without any assistance. She tried to remember the last time that had happened and couldn`t.
She sat down and peed and tears came rolling down her face. She was much better, almost well.
Then she remembered the vampire and his promise of healing and wondered how he had managed. She also wondered why he had healed her. And then she wondered what had happened to him. Had he found his wife?
She wished she had a way of contacting him to express her gratitude. But unfortunately – most of all she wondered what his name was.