Jack jumped at the touch of Van Helsing's hand on his head, fingers moving gliding over his dark hair. He blinked back sleep that had overtaken him during the night after trusting a maid to look after Lucy after she had insisted that he get the much needed rest that he had forsaken in the duty of looking after her during the night.
"And how is our patient," Van Helsing asked with a kind smile, one that Jack always knew to belong to his mentor.
"She was well when I left her, or rather when she told me to leave," he answered, a soft smile pulled over his features at how she had wished for him to be in good health upon watching her.
"Come, let us see."
He followed easily, wiping the remnants of sleep from his face, as he moved into Lucy's room, his view blocked by Van Helsing's shoulder.
"Gott in Himmel!"
The declaration from the good professor had taken Jack by utter surprise as he watched the color drain from Van Helsing's face as if he had just seen a ghost. His gaze moved from his professor onto Lucy and his knees trembled at what he saw.
There on her large bed, she lay like a woman under some enchantment. Her gown pulled down upon her chest from her previous movements in her bed. Her flesh, even her lips and gums resembled that of a fresh corpse drained of blood.
"My God," Jack whispered breathlessly as he and Van Helsing moved almost as if cue. He moved and bundled up the blankets at her feet and covered her almost naked form out of modesty's sake as Van Helsing moved to pull her up upon her pillow and moved to examine her.
Jack took note of the ghastly state of her gums, which had pulled back as one would see in a corpse, but something else showed as well…the elongation of certain teeth.
This was like nothing he'd ever seen before.
"It is not too late," he heard Van Helsing call to him, those words pulled him from his examination of how deathly she looked, "Her heart, it beats, feeble, but it beats. We must perform another transfusion. Roll up your sleeve, friend John."
And without even a second thought, Jack moved to tug off his jacket, absently letting it fall to the floor at her feet by her bedside. He rolled up his shirt and extended his arm as he watched Van Helsing ready the equipment.
Jack winced as he always did when a needle was thrust into his vein. Jack's eyes kept away from his arm, eyes always on Lucy's pallid features. He could feel himself, after a short time as his warm blood entered her cold body and slowly, but surely, brought a lovely shade of pink back upon her features. His eyes grew heavy just as he felt the Professor pulling the needle from his veins.
"That will do."
Jack shook his head. He knew it hadn't been enough. She needed more and with furrowed brows made in confusion he looked away from Lucy and back to his old mentor, "Already? You took more from Art."
Jack took note of that sad smile, the one that revealed to him just how much Van Helsing knew of his affections for Lucy.
"He is her lover, her fiance. And you are her doctor, and a doctor to many others. You have given her enough to make her strong once more. Now, friend John," his voice turned lighter as Jack applied pressure upon his sore arm, "you must go lay down, and I will see to you once I am finished with our patient."
Jack nodded as he slowly pulled himself from her bedside to make his way to her fainting couch where he laid back. A small smile pulled across his features as he thought of his blood running through Lucy's veins. He had felt a sense of pride come over him when he watched his blood bringing color back to her deathly paleness.
No man knows until he experiences it what it is like to feel his own life blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves.