AN: Special thanks to Ghostwriter for your support. Please read and review.

Gabe ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. Shea almost smiled; he still did that. Then she quickly reprimanded herself.

It was hard enough to accept things as they were the last time. To be forced to do it again… Gabe didn't think he had it in him. He was just as obsessed as he had been. It wasn't surprising; he doubted he would have ever quit trying if it wasn't for the lack of…

Blood.

Gabe's heart jumped in excitement. He'd had to discontinue his research before because he didn't have anything to research. Gabe had looked for any information he could, from historical folk tales to modern blood diseases. It had all led to nothing. But now…

"Shea, I need you to come with me," Gabe said excitedly. Maybe this time I can do it, find a cure, he thought. "Where?" Shea asked suspiciously. "To the hospital where I work. I need a sample of your blood," he stated, pulling her along by the arm. Shea jerked back, exclaiming, "Excuse me?"

Gabe turned back to her and framed her face in his hands. "I'm a doctor, Shea. I research blood disorders. I don't think I have to explain how my interest became piqued," he said. "I finally gave up on my research because I didn't have any blood to examine. With your blood, maybe I can develop a way to reverse it, a cure!"

Shea's heart sank. "Gabriel, you can't do this to yourself," she started to say. "I have to!" Gabe burst out. "Don't you understand? I need this, Shea. I can't handle this, having you here again, without trying. There has to be a reason that we're both here, again, now!"

Shea sighed. She didn't believe there was some cosmic force pulling them back together. More like she should have been more careful. Katja should have been much more careful. But she didn't have the heart, as much as she hated to admit it, to deny him this. Nodding, she placed her hand in his.

Being back on Gabe's motorcycle, behind him like they'd rode so many years ago, was harder than she anticipated. It brought back the memories even more, no matter how she tried to push them down. Nostalgia is a bitch for bringing back emotions one has tried to deny. She was grateful when they finally reached the hospital.

Gabe led her in through the back, where the trucks came in. He didn't want to get spotted by anyone in the ER, which was the only other way they could have entered. Ducking off into a side room, Gabe started digging through shelves of scrubs and materials. "Here, throw these on," he ordered, tossing a set of scrubs to Shea. Donning a pair himself over his clothes, he then pulled Shea's hair up and secured it under a head covering. After that, he tied one over his own head. Shea looked at him questioningly. "I'm kind of on an involuntary leave of absence," he stated sheepishly. "Long story."

Exiting the closet, he led Shea through a series of corridors and to a set of elevators. Others were waiting at them as well, and Gabe was relieved to see he didn't recognize any of them. The plus side to working in the lab all day was that he didn't have to interact with many people. The lab was still open this time of night, but usually, there were very few people in there. The hospital itself was rather small. When they arrived at the correct floor, Gabe headed to the end of the hallway and glanced around, trying not to look suspicious. He didn't want security coming to check on him. He was relieved to see only Jack working in the lab.

Gabe entered the lab, Shea following behind him. Jack looked up, expecting an intern or nurse, but was shocked to see Gabe. "Gabe! Man, what are you doing here?" Jack exclaimed. "Keep your voice down. I don't want anyone to know I'm here," Gabe said softly. "Then you've got good timing. I'm the only one here tonight. I'm the only one here every night. For the next few weeks, actually. Solely for the fact that I'm your friend and you flipped out and left us short-staffed. Remind me to thank you for that," Jack replied.

"I'll owe you one," Gabe said wryly. "Listen, I need to use one of the lab rooms tonight. Can you keep anyone who shows up out of it?" he asked. "Uh, sure," Jack replied hesitatingly. Gabe nodded and led Shea to the back, opening a door for her. Suddenly, Jack grabbed his forearm. "Hey, I need to talk to you for a minute. Can you excuse us for a minute, miss?" he asked Shea, who nodded quietly. Gabe flipped on the light and closed the door with Shea inside. "What is it?" Gabe asked his friend impatiently. "What do you mean, what is it? What do you think I'm gonna ask? What's going on here?" Jack demanded.

Gabe sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was to make a bunch of explanations right now. Especially ones that made sense. "Remember the girl?" Gabe asked him. "The mysteriously reappearing, not-quite-dead one? Whoa, is that her?" Jack asked. "Yes," Gabe replied abruptly. "That's her. She's not dead. But she is sick. So I need time to try to figure this out. I need you to trust me."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Don't you think you should take her to a regular doctor? I mean, it's probably not very healthy for you if you take this all on yourself," he told him. Gabe sighed. "She won't go," he said, which was the truth, if not all it. "She says there's nothing that can be done. I need to do this, Jack." Slowly, Jack nodded. He didn't like this, but then again, he really didn't like what had been happening to his friend the past few days. Jack was trying to piece together the story in his own mind. Right now, he'd built up the idea that the girl was sick, and had somehow faked her death or convinced Gabe she was dead because she wasn't going to make it. It was some sort of slow illness or something that would hit all of a sudden, because that girl looked perfectly healthy to him, if a little pale. Gabe somehow found out she was alive, and was now determined to defy the odds or something.

Jack shook his head. It didn't make much sense, but then again, nothing about Gabe was making much sense lately.

Gabe entered the room to find Shea studying the various equipment. Motioning to a chair for her to sit in, he opened a drawer and pulled out something Shea didn't recognize. Then again, it had been more than a half a century since she'd been to the doctor. Gabe pulled up her sleeve and tied a tourniquet around her upper arm. He then began trying to find an artery, but to no avail. He couldn't even find a small vein. "I haven't fed in a while," Shea explained. Gabe laid his head down on the desk near him in frustration. Then, he shot back up. "Hold on," he told her, and jogged out of the room.

Jack thought it was weird when he saw his friend run across the hall into the blood bank storage fridge. It became beyond weird when Gabe returned carrying a few pints of blood, then re-entered the back room and closed the door. What the hell is he doing back there? Jack thought. Although he almost felt guilty, he did get a little excited when a nurse approached with a sample from the ER. A sample which the results of were needed immediately. A sample which could only be tested in the machine in the back room.

Gabe handed Shea the bags of blood. She eyed them warily, the snickered. "Vampire fast food," she said, earning a grin from Gabe. "And just as cold as any drive-thru burger could be," he replied. "Sorry." Shea shrugged and picked up the first bag. Looking up at Gabe, she asked, "Um, could you turn around, or something?" She didn't want Gabe to see her vamped out. He seemed to understand this, and turned without a word. Shea transformed, and bit into the first bag. Gabe was right, the blood was cold. She hadn't fed in long enough that she could handle it, along with the fact that the blood wasn't terribly fresh. She finished the first bag and then the second, and was halfway through the third when the door opened.

Jack froze when he saw the scene in front of him. Gabe was facing him, eyes wide open in shock, and he jerked around to see what Jack had seen of Shea. Jack had seen everything. Namely, his buddy's girlfriend, formerly thought dead, her features distorted as she sucked on a bag of blood. Jack tried to turn and run at the same time, and ended up falling to the floor. He flipped over and started to do some odd combination of running and crawling out of the room. Before he got anywhere, Gabe grabbed him by the back of his lab coat, dragging him back into the room and slamming the door. Shea was standing by this point, her features back to normal as she removed the tourniquet.

Jack's eyes jerked back and forth between the pair. "What's going on here? What the fuck is happening?" he asked, his breathing heavy and panicked. Gabe looked down and picked up the sample and chart Jack had dropped. "Sit, Jack. This is going to take a while to explain." He said. Jack wouldn't sit. "What the hell happened to her face? I saw that Gabe, I know I did! She was sucking blood out of the bag! What kind of sick fucking shit did you get into?"

Gabe didn't reply, as he didn't really know how to begin. Instead, he looked at the chart in his hands and started preparing the sample for testing. "Jack, this is Shea. Shea, this is Jack. Shea is a vampire, Jack. Not really a blood disease, so to speak, but I didn't think you could handle it. She's the reason I started researching blood disorders. She faked her death so that I wouldn't try to find her. I did anyway. So now I'm going to try to find a way to cure her."

Jack blinked. His friend really had gone completely insane. "Okay, Gabe, let's talk about this. Think about it. Vampires aren't real." Shea interrupted him. "I beg to differ," she said. Quickly, her face vamped out and returned to normal again. Jack sat down quickly. "Don't worry. I'm not going to eat you for dinner or anything. Gabe is convinced he can fix this, and I can't seem to convince him otherwise. So, here I am. It's a lot to accept, I know. Vampires are real, I am one, and Gabe is convinced he can undo that fact. Believe it or not, you have nothing to fear from me."

Gabe finished preparing the sample and got the testing underway. "If you can wrap your mind around it, I could use your help," he told Jack. Jack was still shaken, but didn't really want to refuse. "Uh… sure," he replied. "I need a blood sample," Gabe informed him, nodding his head at Shea. Jack swallowed. "I'm, uh, I'm not too comfortable with sticking the pointy object into your vampire girlfriend, Gabe. I don't think I want to piss her off. I saw the fangs, dude." Gabe snickered. "Sorry. I guess I'm too used to it. Get me a few specimen tubes, then, would you? Your sample's already running." Jack hadn't even noticed what Gabe was doing.

Gabe wrapped the tourniquet around her arm and was pleased to find the arteries now present. He wiped her arm with an alcohol swab, and Shea giggled. "What's so funny?" Gabe asked. "I don't really need to worry about the dangers of infection, do I?" she informed him. Gabe laughed. "Guess not. Sorry. It's a habit." He uncapped the needle and prepared to stick her, and Shea grimaced and turned away. Jack saw this, and commented, "You're a vampire and you're afraid of a little needle?" Shea shot him a dirty look and stated, "You know what? When I was little, we had to get smallpox vaccines. Try getting one of those and see if you like needles." Jack's eyes widened. "A smallpox vaccine? How old are you?" he asked. Shea's face scrunched up in thought for a moment. She hadn't really kept track over the years. "I'm going on eighty," she informed him. Jack's eyebrows lifted and he started studying her face intensely. Fear was weighed against curiosity and lost. Gabe snickered, and said to Shea as he pulled the needle out, "Wow. I had no idea you were that old," he quipped, earning a dirty look from Shea. Jack couldn't help himself. "Must be depressing to realize you look a good ten years older than your geriatric girlfriend."