Author's Note: My hubby and I started watching V and both were just hooked. When they made the announcement that the series would be continued in March, he said he didn't think he could wait that long. He doesn't ask for much and considering what he's been through this past year (you can read my profile page if you're curious), I thought he deserved a continuation. So, here it is!
I do not own V and I am not making any money off of it. This is purely for enjoyment!
V: Deliver Us From Evil
Chapter One
He never reacted well to anesthesia. That was how he knew he was still alive. He had always been taught Heaven would bring comfort, peace and joy. However, what he was experiencing was too vivid and memories that he tried to bury were coming back in disturbing clarity. Strong emotions of confusion and shame washed over him once more and the only thing he was completely aware of was the inability to stop the rush of memories.
Father Jack Landry found himself back in the sun scorched land of Iraq. He was with a small group of soldiers that offered protection as he and one of the combat medics walked through one of the small towns in the middle Eastern country. Every day they had off for rest they would go to the local village and offer free medical service and spiritual advice for those who wanted it. He was always surprised at the turnout that would keep them busy until the sun went down.
It wasn't out of the ordinary for the beggars to come to them, dirty hands outstretched. Lily, the medic, would always give a few of them some money despite everyone's warnings. But this day, something different happened. When Lily went to hand a couple coins to an elderly lady, the woman grabbed Lily's wrist and spoke in Arabic.
"She wants to read your palm," one of the soldiers translated.
Lily was open-minded, something that Jack appreciated being one of the only religious men in the middle of marines and army soldiers. He wasn't surprised when she held out her palm. The old woman stared down into it and then quickly flung Lily's hand away from her. She pointed at her, yelling in her native tongue before quickly hurrying down the street. Their interpreter laughed and shook his head.
"She said you're not of this world."
Lily, and the rest of them, had shrugged it off. Now, since the warehouse, it didn't seem such a laughing matter. In fact, most of the memories that surrounded Lily were far from a laughing matter. He knew the worst ones were still to come and tried to brace himself for them.
"Jack."
A woman's voice was calling to him but he didn't recognize it. He tried to gather enough air in his lungs to push words out of his mouth but the pain in his side prevented that.
"It's alright, Jack."
He was dimly aware of someone putting a hand on his shoulder. He tried to open his eyes and on the fourth attempt, he was successful. Concerned blue eyes framed by blond hair were staring down at him. Erica. It touched him on a deep level that she would be here for him. He knew she was having problems with her son. Now that his eyes were working, maybe his mouth would too. "Where-"
Her eyes flicked off to the side. "You're at Mercy Hospital. Ryan's called someone he trusts to come in and look at your wound."
The painkillers were slowing his thoughts but he managed a wry grin. "Don't trust anyone, huh?"
She returned the smile. "Right."
He shifted slightly. "How bad..."
Erica frowned. "It's...pretty bad. That's one of the reason's Ryan went for someone."
He was about to ask again the extent of the damage when he felt Erica press something into his hand. It was cool, familiar but he couldn't raise his hand to see what it was so he looked back at Erica. She had tears glossing over her eyes.
"Father Travis brought these for you."
His rosary. It must be worse than he thought. He ran the smooth beads through his fingers and closed his eyes.
"Jack?"
"Just resting."
He heard her take a seat next to the bed as he continued to run through the rosary. Even though Lily was what he would consider the center of his crisis of faith a few years ago, he was saddened that he wouldn't get a chance to make things right with her. All he could do was what he had done and that was pray for forgiveness.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offending Thee...
* * *
Ryan never understood the lure of coffee. It never appealed to him as drink and with Valerie's heart condition, she couldn't drink it either. But Lily Heitz, that was all she lived on. It didn't surprise him when he finally made contact with her in a country town in Pennsylvania, that she agreed to meet him at a coffeehouse. The smell was starting to make his nose itch when he finally laid his eyes on her.
"Lily."
Her amber eyes looked up at him from over the rim of a coffee cup. "Ryan."
He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. He forgot how much she resembled Anna. The only differences were Lily's hair had grown long and was a mass of curls and her face held a hundred times more warmth than Anna's ever could. "I don't have a lot of time."
"Good," she set the mug down and grabbed a small bag near her feet. "I don't either. I only showed up to tell you I can't help. I have something more important that I need to do."
"It needs to wait. One of the humans that has been helping the Column was stabbed. I don't trust the doctors and he's dying. Can you help him?"
Lily took a deep breath. "Anna took Grace last night. She went to Maggie's house, posing as me and just walked out with her."
Ryan's heart sank. Grace was the first successfully born child that was half V and half human. Grace gave him hope that Valerie would have a safe, normal delivery. Grace was also the Fifth Column's ace in the hole, the possible weapon that they could use to fight Anna: physical proof that humans and V's can peacefully coexist. Honestly, he didn't know which one was more important, Landry or Grace.
"Please, Ryan?"
"I'll see what I can do so let's compromise." He passed her a slip of paper. "Here's the name and address of the hospital as well as the room number. You do what you can for my friend and I'll start looking into what I can do for Grace. But listen to me," he fixed her with a steady stare. "Don't try anything while you're in New York. We'll handle this together."
Lily reluctantly nodded before standing up from the table and quickly leaving the restaurant. Ryan doubted whether this was a good idea or not. He was sending one of the best V doctors to help Landry but he was also sending her straight to where Anna was. He only hoped she didn't do anything rash but he would also understand if she took matters into her own hands. First, he would go talk to Maggie since he was here. Maybe Anna said or did something that could put him on the right track of where Grace might be stashed and for what reason.
* * *
Erica wasn't used to feeling this helpless. She had left five messages on Tyler's cell phone, all in varying states of worry, panic and finally placation. He hadn't called back yet. She didn't know if she should go up to the mothership herself or if that would be too dangerous. She wasn't sure how much the V's had on her and the resistance that was starting to form.
But she couldn't leave Jack unattended. Ryan was afraid to even allow the doctor's to hook up IV's to the Priest and promised to send someone to treat Jack. She hoped whoever it was would get here soon. It seemed with each passing hour, Jack became more and more pale. The IV bags had been changed twice and they were talking of taking him back into surgery tomorrow morning if the internal bleeding continued. In the meantime, all she could do was wait and watch as he sporadically moved the rosary beads between his shaking fingers.
The door to the room opened and shut quickly. The lock snapped into place before Erica could even get to her feet. A young woman with long dark hair was digging through a messenger's bag.
"Excuse me?"
She looked up at Erica with startling amber eyes. "Are you Agent Evans?"
"Yes."
She nodded once. "Ryan sent me. I'm Lily Heitz." She moved towards the bed and once she saw Jack, the messenger bag dropped to the floor and all her quick movements stilled in shock. "Jack."
"You know him? How?"
Lily tore her eyes away from Jack and looked at Erica as if she was seeing her for the first time. She blinked a couple times and returned to her regular pace of movement. She dropped a couple odd looking instruments onto the bed and reached for the clipboard at the foot of the bed. "What are the doctor's saying?"
"They said that it look like whatever he was stabbed with tore through parts of his large and small intestine, as well as his stomach. They've tried to stitch up those organs twice now but for some reason-"
"The stitches keep disintegrating."
"Right."
Lily dropped the clipboard back onto the bed and went over to the IV's. She quickly looked over the fluid bag, morphine drip and blood bag and then disconnected all three. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small clear container that had a bag of blood in it. She hooked it up to one IV and removed the other two from Jack's hand. He groaned a little but didn't wake up. She reached for one of the instruments she laid on the bed and flipped it open. It looked like a hand held scanner she had seen on the TV when the reporter did his show on the healing centers. Erica watched in fascination as Lily waved the scanner over the incision on Jack's abdomen and it slowly started to fade from angry red to light pink.
"It looks like an assassin's shiv that did the damage," Lily was saying. "They're nasty pieces of work. The metal that they use actually leaves behind tiny pieces in the blood stream that don't allow soft tissue to heal. It's like the equivalent of your E-boli virus."
"Is he going to be okay?"
Lily looked at the bag of blood. It was already half way empty. "I hope so."
"How do you know his blood type?"
"I was the combat medic for his unit in Iraq. I knew everyone's blood type."
"Iraq?" There was still so much she didn't know about the Priest.
"He served two tours as an Army Chaplain." Lily started packing her instruments back in the messenger bag. "Ryan says you're FBI."
"Yeah. Are you a V too?"
Lily nodded and glanced over at Jack, a slow smile made it's way across her face. "Hey you."
Erica was relieved to see a slight tinge of color had come back to his face and his eyes were open. His brow was furrowed. "Lily?"
"You remember me. I'm flattered."
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."
Erica and Lily both moved forward and laid reassuring hands on him. Erica figured it best to let Lily comfort him since she didn't know why Lily's appearance upset him.
"Don't worry about it, Padre. Water under the bridge, remember?"
Color was draining from his face again. "Wa...water under...the..."
"That's right," Lily soothed. "No worries, Padre. Just relax."
When Jack seemed settled and breathing evenly, Lily gave his shoulder a little shake. "Padre? Can you hear me?"
"Lily?" he whispered.
"Yes, that's right. I need you to listen to me. I'm going to have to move you."
"Can't move."
"Not right now, no, but I'm going to give you something that's going to help with moving, alright?"
He nodded tiredly. Lily disconnected the empty blood bag and dropped it back into the messenger bag. She pulled out a small silver case and when she opened it, revealed a thin syringe.
"What's that?" Erica asked.
"It's something the V's have developed. It's like an adrenaline shot. It'll give him a boost of energy and mental clarity that will only last for an hour. But before I give it him, we need a safe place to take him."
"I live forty-five minutes away. He can stay there." Lily was still looking at her. "You can too."
Lily gave her a slight smile and then injected the fluid into Jack's arm. The reaction was almost immediate. His blue eyes snapped open and he sat up straight in the bed.
Erica started pulling out the clothes that they had brought him there in and shoved them into his hands. "We have to get you out of here, Jack. Get dressed, quickly."
He looked glassy eyed and wild, his gaze shifting from Erica to Lily.
"Lil-"
"Move it, Padre," Lily snapped and pulled the curtain closed.
Erica could hear him pulling his street clothes on and wished for once he had his clerical clothes. They could pass him off as making rounds. "How are we going to get him out?"
Lily shrugged. "Walk out like we were all visiting someone. He'll be clear headed enough."
The curtain pulled back and Erica was amazed at how normal Jack looked. It was hard to believe he was dying just ten minutes ago.
"We have to move," Lily said as she unlocked the door. "He's going to collapse in fifty minutes."
Erica didn't think it was going to be as simple as walking out of the hospital and she was partially right. Lily took them by back stairwells and employee only elevators. The outside air never smelled sweeter to Erica then when all three of them stepped out onto the busy street. But that quickly changed when she caught sight of the alien ship hovering menacingly over the skyscrapers. Apparently, Lily felt the same way.
"I'll help you get Jack settled," Lily said, "but then I have to come back to the city. I have some unfinished business."
"Me too."
Lily gave her a shrewd look. "Where's your car? We have to keep moving."
Erica moved down the street to the parking garage at the end of the block. The mother inside of her was screaming for her to not leave the city until she had Tyler down from the ship but the FBI agent wanted to get Jack to safety. Lily said she had to come back, perhaps that was Erica's ticket up to the ship to see Tyler.