Disclaimer: I don't own anything Officer I SWEAR!... those shirtless pictures of Damien Molony are purely educational.
So here we go guys Chapter 3
"He's going to need blood," Annie said wiping the sweat from her brow, "these wounds won't heal until he's had blood."
She tightened the makeshift bandages covering Hal's torso. Then she ran her fingers lightly over them. Already a faint pink was beginning to show through the sheets.
"Right well he's already had some," Alex said bitterly, "my blood to be precise."
Annie looked up at the young Scottish woman in shock. She had forgotten what Alex had said before about how Hal was the reason she was dead. Annie suddenly felt very ashamed. She knew what it was like to be dead and forgotten, for one's death to go unknown and unresolved.
"Did he – did Hal kill you?" Annie said fearful of what the answer might be.
Alex looked the other woman over. For a moment she thought about lying and saying that he had actually killed her. He practically did. She could just imagine how much shit Annie would give him for killing someone. Maybe the other ghost would even put the poor guy out of his misery.
"No," Alex said, in the end she couldn't do it, it'd probably hurt Annie more than it would hurt Hal.
And Alex found that she actually quite liked the other ghost even if she was a bit spacey.
"No he was tricked or somethin'," Alex continued, "it was that bastard Cutler who actually killed me. Hal was just the reason I got involved."
Annie wasn't comforted by the new information. She supposed it was a good thing that Hal hadn't actually killed someone but he drank blood. He had fallen off the wagon. Images of black eyes and blood-splashed headlines assaulted her mind. She thought of Mitchell and the Box Tunnel 20. Annie found no comfort in hearing that Hal had not killed Alex; she only felt nauseous.
"He'll need more if he's going to survive," Annie said remembering years ago when Herrick stuck a stake through Mitchell's chest.
"Well how are we going to get it to him," Alex said crossing her arms over her chest, "oooh is like in that TV show where they have little bottles filled with synthetic stuff in it?"
Annie just stared at her a look of utter confusion and incredulity on Annie's face. Alex seemed excited at the idea. It must have been an interesting TV show but Annie had no idea what this "synthetic stuff" was.
"Noooo," Annie said not quite sure how to break the news to Alex, "I'm going to the hospital and I am going to steal some."
"Oh," Alex said immediately crestfallen, "I didn't know, sorry. I'm new to this world."
"Believe me I know that feeling," Annie said walking out of the room to the bathroom, "don't feel bad. I've barely got the hang of it even after years of trying."
Alex trailed behind her suddenly very curious about the other woman.
"You've been a ghost for a while, then?" Alex asked.
Annie turned the faucet letting loose a stream cool water in the sink and thrust her hands under the water. She wasn't quite sure why she avoided the question. Annie just didn't feel too comfortable sharing her life or death with someone she'd only just met. Slowly the blood on her hands and sleeves began to rise in smoke and evaporate from her skin, an unnatural sight to see.
"Oh! Christ!…what is that?" Alex said backing away from the other ghost like she had seen something terribly offensive, "what the bloody hell is that?"
Annie backed up as well throwing her hands in the air and looking everywhere for a threat of some kind. She didn't relax despite not finding one. In Annie's experience it was always the threats you didn't see that ended up mucking everything up the worst.
"What?" Annie cried eyes darting wildly, "what is it?"
"The blood," Alex said, "the blood on your hands just - it just like evaporated or somethin'."
"Oh," Annie said breathing out a sigh, "I thought it was something bad. You really need to calm down."
Annie couldn't even begin to discuss the irony of her words. Annie was anything was calm but she was very good at pretending.
"What did you just do with your hands and how or where do I learn," Alex said though she still sounded distressed, she was quite the sarcastic one.
"I don't exactly know how it works but the blood isn't really real," Annie explained with difficulty, "it's like the blood is just a figment of our imaginations. We see blood and we think it should stain our clothes and our hands and so it does but it's not real. It's all in our heads."
"So then what's with the water?" Alex asked.
"Like I said, it's all in our heads," Annie replied, "but visuals help."
"That's pretty cool," Alex said curiously reaching her hands out to the water.
Alex thought she could feel the water but the sensation faded. Cold or wet, she couldn't distinguish but she focused on the idea of washing up on what it should feel like. Her mouth dropped open as the blood began to disappear like it did with Annie.
"Well that's just brill," Alex said, " got any other tricks up your sleeves, your very gray cotton-y sleeves."
Annie smiled because Alex reminded her of a different time. A time where Annie would jump around a pink house in Bristol trying to be scary or trying to figure out how the whole dead thing worked. She was reminded of a young man in cut down in his prime. RAF Pilot's uniform, military salutes and walks in the park.
"Yea I think I have a couple of tricks I could teach you," Annie said, "but first we've got to get Hal stable."
Then Eve woke up screaming her cries echoing through the whole house and Annie realized she couldn't go to the hospital. Her stomach sank because there was no way she could get to the hospital. It wasn't safe outside for Eve and it definitely wasn't safe to leave the baby there alone.
"Em you gonna get that?" Alex asked standing aside awkwardly.
"Alex, I need you to do me a favor," Annie said, "a huge favor."
"How huge we talkin'?" Alex replied.
"Annie," Alex hissed at the woman who was currently rummaging around for a knapsack, "Annie I don't think I can do this."
"Don't be ridiculous you'll do fine," Annie said and then let out a sound of satisfaction as she wrapped her hands around what she had been looking for.
Alex stood in the middle of Annie's room as the other woman moved about looking for a pen and piece of paper.
"Alex!" Annie called not noticing that the other woman was still in the room with her.
"Present," Alex said pulling an exaggerated expression of the perfect student.
She wove her fingers together, smiled being sure to show off her pearly whites and put her forearms out and flat as though they were placed docile on a desk. Her sarcasm went unnoticed.
"I'm going to write down a list of things that we're going to need," Annie said, "it's not too much, I can go myself once Tom gets back but – Oh! You'll need a map of some sort, can't have you getting lost and all."
Annie went on a hunt again for another piece of paper. When she found a nice clean sheet she began to work out a juvenile map of the hospital. Annie being Annie drew little pictures and symbols all over the place. She made sure to leave little notes of instruction as to how to get to the right place. Alex walked up behind her and tilted her head to get a good look at the drawing.
"Hold on," Alex said hands on her hips, "how do you know all this about the hospital? Were you like some kinda nurse there or somethin'?"
"No my friends work - well worked in hospitals a lot and they always told me that hospitals are all set up in a pretty similar way," Annie rambled concentrating on her drawing, "plus I've broken in before."
"Now that's what I'm talkin' about," Alex said grinning wryly and Annie grinned back.
"All right, Alex," Annie said straightening up, and handing the Scottish woman the map, the knapsack and the list, "now you need to concentrate. I showed you that picture of the hospital on the computer so just concentrate on that and chances are you'll get pretty close."
"Wait pretty close?" Alex said, "what do you mean pretty close?"
"You've got a few things holding you down," Annie said reaching up to place a reassuring hand on Alex's shoulder, "but don't worry you're a fast learner you'll do great. Just focus."
Alex gave Annie a nervous glance then looked at the knapsack and two pieces of paper in her hand.
"Hang on to those," Annie said trying her best to look cheery, "don't drop them I'm not sure what happens to the stuff you let go of while rent-a-ghosting."
Alex still didn't move or leave. She was scared, which was a strange thing to feel once one was already dead. Annie had explained that nothing could really hurt them now that they were dead. Ghosts didn't have bodies to hurt and any sensation they felt was a trick of the imagination. They were a burning candle without the wax. But that presented a new dilemma, an even more terrifying idea. Perhaps they were not waxless flames, free of pain and pleasure. Maybe they were more like snails robbed their shells more perceptible to both agony and bliss.
Frankly the thought was a just a little bit too Friedrich Nietzsche for Alex so she ignored it and smiled back at Annie. The sassy Scottish lady shrugged her shoulders and with a half bitter half excited whisper of 'well here goes nothing' she was gone.
Annie took a deep breath once the Scottish woman popped out of the air. She held it in all the way until she entered Hal's room where the injured vampire slept. Every other room in the house felt either too empty or too dangerous. It was the only place Annie felt safe. A year later that statement would be ironic.
Baby Eve gurgled as Annie bounced her on her knee. The little girl had been Annie's one tether to the ground at first then she had been surprised to realize she had Hal and Tom as well. She should have died really actually died when George left, when Nina left, when Mitchell left but she didn't. She had survived and if she could just pull through one more night, if everyone could get past that night Annie was sure that everything would be okay.
She was wrong.
"Ann- Annie," Hal croaked from the bed, "Annie."
"Hal!" she said.
Her feet couldn't take to him fast enough. She fell to her knees besides him with Eve still pressed against her chest. His eyes were squeezed shut and his bottom lip was between his teeth.
From the corner of his mouth just the tiniest bit of red peeked out but Annie saw. She reached out her hand and brushed it away with a part of her sleeve. Annie wanted to tell him everything. She wanted someone else to know what she had seen and what she now knew. Annie wanted someone to share her burden with but Hal was too weak. He was dying.
He let out another groan and there was more blood at the corner of his mouth this time. Annie wiped it away dutifully. All the while she kept Eve close to her one hand wrapped protectively around the baby the other tending to Hal. She swiped her thumb carefully over the corner of his mouth.
"Hal," Annie said hoarsely, "I need you to wake up. The streets aren't safe anymore and we need a plan. I can't do this on my own, Hal. I need you to get better. I need you to try, at least, please."
He gave no answer to her pleas only made another heavy sigh, a slurred moan of distress. Annie looked down at the baby in her arms and then back to the dying vampire in the bed and for a second she considered running. She considered taking the baby and just making a run for it.
She was certain she could make it pretty far. If she stayed hidden, kept to the shadows then she and Eve could probably go years without detection. There would be no War Child, there would be no savior just a gray ghost and a little girl wandering the world but that would never work. Nothing is ever that simple.
Someone would find them be it vampire or otherwise. Someone would figure it all out and then where would they be, she and Eve. Alone without a friend in the world.
Annie had already seen the future, the war, the death and suffering, Annie had seen it all. Eve or whoever that woman was had spared her no image of the time to come no matter how gruesome or disturbing. But the thing about seeing the future is that you don't ever really learn from it. You can't because life doesn't work in reverse like that.
Annie saw the future but all she could think was that it wasn't real. The future wasn't real yet and it could still be changed but Hal was now. Tom was now. Eve was now and the future didn't matter, it couldn't. At least she couldn't let it matter because the whole thing was driving her mad.
She just wanted Hal to wake up or for Tom to get back. She just needed someone.
"Annie," Hal mumbled, "they - they - get out get out ruuuun."
She took his hand in her own as if to say 'yes, I'm here'. He continued to babble incoherently and when Annie went to check his wounds she nearly threw up. Beneath the makeshift bandages was the foulest of odors. His flesh was decaying yet at the same time he was heating up with fever speeding up the rot. Hal wasn't dying; he was already dead. Nature was just finishing up what the supernatural had started.
"Annie," Hal said but the rest of his sentence was too soft to make out.
Annie leaned down to put her ear closer. She waited for him to speak again and what he hissed made her shiver. Everything seemed to stop.
"They're here."
A/N: So this chapter was a bit plot heavy I guess. I needed to move things along but I hope you all still enjoyed it. As always guys send me your death threats if you feel the need and be sure to sign them will love or not whatever you feel like.
WATCH OUT! below are my finale feels so don't read for fear of SPOLIERS
So I have watched the series finale and I have to say there are a lot of things I feel about it. In a way I felt just a tad bit disappointed with Annie's end, not because she didn't deserve it but because I wasn't ready to let her go. Also I was ABSOLUTELY upset that the Old Ones were so under developed I mean HOW long have we been hearing about them and all we get are a bunch of vampire stereotypes standing in chalk squares.
UGH. but never the less there were a lot of things I really liked. I was so happy for Annie that she got her family back in the end (and that future Eve turned to dust my goodness I could not stand her). Mr. Snow deserved more screen time but Gatiss was amazing for however little he got. I'm actually looking forward to series 5. Hopefully we can get back to the old domestics and try to build characters and relationships rather than over reaching plotlines.
Overall my feelings about how everything went down are completely jumbled. I wish Annie had stayed I feel like there was so much the writers could have done with her character if they'd only try but oh well. That's why we've got fanfiction right?
Anyway sorry for the ridiculously long A/N.
I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!
maluhia i waho
bri