Chapter 10: Desperate Measures

So here it is, the final chapter. Thank you to all who have read and reviewed, and thanks for your encouragement along the way! Enjoy! x

Disclaimer: I don't own Being Human, and I don't wish I did because it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it is, and it would get cancelled when I made sure Damien Molony was in every scene!

Bethan woke with a start. She sat up and blinked tiredly, the gloomy dawn light casting dull grey shadows over the room.

"How did I get here?" she yawned and stretched, running a hand through her tangled hair confusedly. She could hear the sounds of cutlery on crockery and Hal's voice from the kitchen. She stood up from the bed and clutched the blanket that had covered her around her shoulders.

In the kitchen, Hal was sat at the compact table studying his paper from the day before. He glanced up at her as she moved towards one of the chairs.

"Not that one." He said simply.

"Oh, sorry Alex." She moved to the next chair along to avoid sitting in the space the ghost occupied, flopping down wearily. "How did I get to my room last night? I don't remember going to bed."

Hal sighed under his breath at the smug smile that Alex shot him from across the table.

"I put you there. Alex made me."

"Oh." Bethan replied, desperately hoping she wasn't blushing.

"Well you could have explained a little better." Alex tutted. He ignored her, looking down at his paper again. "Fine, suit yourself." She muttered under her breath, retrieving a piece of paper and a pen from the worktop and hastily scribbling a message. She thrust the note infront of Bethan.

"What have you written in that?" Hal asked exasperatedly. Bethan smiled and handed him the scrap of paper to read when she was finished with it.

"Only what happened. I thought you should test yourself, you did, it all worked out fine. Don't worry, I put that you were reluctant. I don't want you biting my head off about making you seem over-keen." He nodded, satisfied with her account of what had happened. "I'd better go and find out where Tom's got to. You need to be out of here by ten and you know what he's like. He could sleep for Wales."

"I want to leave by eight if possible. We can't leave it to chance that we won't get stuck in traffic or have car trouble. I don't want him transforming on the hard shoulder of the M6 tonight. Is that alright with you?" he asked Bethan.

"Yea sure, I won't take long to get ready." She answered, rising to make herself a cup of tea.

"Right, then. I'll go and break the news. Prepare yourselves for a very grumpy werewolf." Alex joked, rentaghosting out of the room. Hal looked up at Bethan after making sure the ghost was out of earshot.

"While she's gone, I need to talk to you about tonight."

"About how we're going to be alone together. I mean, not in that way! Just, in the house together. Without either of them." Bethan flushed pink.

"You already know?" Hal asked, ignoring her Freudian slip.

"I realised as soon as Tom said she wanted to stay here."

"And you're not worried?" he asked.

"Considerably less so now. Thanks for putting me to bed last night. And for not killing me too." She smirked at him.

"You really don't mind? Tom will be locked in the basement all night, he won't be able to help if something goes wrong. You do understand that don't you?"

"Yes, but nothing will go wrong. I promise not to take a shower this time."

"This isn't a joke." He frowned at her as she sat back down at the table with her tea.

"Sorry. How do you feel about it?"

"Nervous."

"Way to make me feel better. She obviously needs this time to say goodbye properly, and you did manage to carry me all the way to my bedroom without sticking your fangs in me. So it'll be fine. We'll just stay away from each other until morning." She shrugged.

"So eloquently put." He said dryly. "She hasn't figured it out yet, and neither has Tom, otherwise they'd be up in arms. I don't want him knowing at least until we're almost home. He'll only worry otherwise."

"Agreed. Now stop looking so miserable or they'll know something's up."

"I always look miserable. If I were smiling, then they'd be concerned." He said, the hint of a smile playing on his lips as a contradiction. Bethan smiled into her mug of tea. A minute later, Alex rentaghosted back into the room and sat down. "How was he?" Hal asked, shooting Bethan a warning look to let her know that the ghost was present again.

"Oh, you know, unresponsive. So I sat on him until he agreed to get up. He'll be down in a bit, he's just having a shower. Are you sure you're alright with me staying here for a few days extra?"

"Yes, we'll be fine. Don't worry about us." He answered, feigning frustration so that she didn't press the issue.

Forty minutes later, Hal climbed into the drivers seat of his car, sighing agitatedly at how long Tom was taking to leave the cottage. The werewolf finally piled out of the front door and threw his bag into the boot.

"I thought you could take my mobile, just incase you get any problems, then you can call us. Or we can call you. Just put it in your pocket and no one will be able to see it, otherwise you might freak people out if you carry it around." He said, handing his phone to Alex.

"There goes my fun with the floating mobile gag." She smiled at him. "Thanks Tom, but I'll be fine, really. And I'll only be gone a few days." They hugged goodbye and Tom made his way to the passenger side of the car.

"Bye Alex." Hal called through the open drivers side window.

"Bye Hal." She replied with a smile, before rentaghosting away.

The journey was uneventful, even when they stopped again at the services so that Bethan could take over the driving. They hit some traffic outside Cardiff, but made it home in plenty of time for Tom's transformation. A few hours after they arrived home, Tom found Hal washing up in the kitchen.

"There's a problem." He stated.

"Oh?"

"It's the full moon tonight."

"I'm aware."

"So who's going to make sure you don't... who's going to make sure Bethan's alright?" Tom asked unsubtly.

"It's all in hand. I feel much better about being able to control myself, and we're going to stay as far away from each other as possible until morning. Don't concern yourself." Hal replied calmly, laying a fork down precisely on the draining rack.

"Are you sure?"

"Well what other option do we have?"

"I suppose."

After a hasty dinner, Hal disappeared upstairs to get back into his usual routine, while Bethan and Tom settled down infront of the TV for a while. Until the change started. She jumped as Tom threw himself off of the sofa with a cry, contorting on the floor as the first wave of pain hit him.

"Hal? Hal!" she called upstairs, not knowing what to do. She had never seen him transform before. He took a few shuddering breaths and pulled himself up onto his knees, grunting as another convulsion hit. She crouched beside him and laid a hand hesitantly on his back. "What do I do?" she asked him worriedly. Under her hand, his spine seemed bubble as lumps formed all the way down his back, his skin growing taught over them. She snatched her hand away in disgust. He turned to look at her, breathing heavily, crying out again as his teeth seemed to shift and sharpen. His eyes were a golden, terrifying amber. She stared, at him, unable to look away.

"No, Bethan... stay away..." Tom gasped, his breath coming in pants as he struggled to his feet. She hardly heard him, unable to move. Suddenly, she felt strong hands tight on her shoulders and shook herself back to the present as she was hoisted backwards, away from the transforming werewolf.

"Tom, honestly, not again. Did you not look at the clock? Come on, let's get you downstairs." Hal said to his friend calmly. Tom gripped the wall for support as he made his way to the basement, hunched over and groaning as the spasms kept on coming. Hal followed, bolting the door behind him. When he returned to the living room, Bethan was sat where he had left her, on the floor next to the sofa. He offered her his hand to help her up, and she sat on the sofa rubbing her arms nervously. Tom screamed from the basement and her head whipped around to the hallway door.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" she asked nervously.

"No. He just has to suffer it. He'll be fine in the morning though." Hal answered, trying to sound comforting. "For future reference though, you shouldn't go near him when he's like that. Or for a few hours before even. One scratch is all it takes to transfer the curse."

"I'll bear that in mind." She muttered, looking a little ill at the prospect.

"I should go back upstairs. Try not to worry about him... I'll see you in the morning."

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a loud crash. He turned towards the front door, just as it flew back against the wall so hard it left a dent in the tired wallpaper.

"What the..." Three neatly suited men piled in and swiftly pinned Hal to the wall, twisting his arms behind his back to stop him moving. "What are you doing?! Who the hell are you!?"

Bethan ran to see what had happened, but stopped dead in the living room doorway as Mr Rook stepped smoothly through the front door, closing it behind him. Tom screamed again from the basement, cutting through the silence that had fallen. Rook glanced towards the noise unconcernedly, then turned back to Bethan and smiled coldly.

"Good evening. I do hope we're not disturbing you."

"What do you want?" she asked shakily, already knowing the answer.

"You." He said simply.

"I'm warning you Rook! Get out before I do something I'm sure we'll all regret!" Hal growled, struggling against the men crushing him to the wall. Mr Rook walked over to him, pulled a small black box from his pocket and placed it against Hal's neck. The vampire grunted painfully and jerked.

"I've been dealing with creatures like you for a long time Hal. You don't get to ten years in the job without learning a few tricks."

"Did you just shock me with a cattle prod!? How dare you!"

"The more trouble you cause the higher the voltage will go."

"Don't you dare hurt her Rook. I swear, you go near her and I'll..."

"You'll what Hal? You attack any one of us and half a century of hard work will be undone. Besides, I find you're attempt at playing the hero a little rich. Your file is so big it's not a file anymore, it's a whole shelf. Now are you going to behave and let me deal with her in peace or am I going to have to subdue you?"

"Subdue!" Hal barked a short disbelieving laugh. "Who do you think you are? Now I'm going to count to ten and they had better have let me go before I finish. One. Two. Three..." Mr Rook sighed exasperatedly.

"You know, I was half hoping you'd do the job of killing her for me when she moved in here. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you didn't. It would have meant an awful lot of cleaning up. I've read that you're prone to go on rather a rampage the first time you've killed after one of your little forays to the good side. This way the mess will be quite nicely contained." Mr Rook sneered at the livid vampire. He rotated a small dial on the cattle prod before shocking him again. Hal jerked and groaned sharply, sagging against the wall slightly. "Put him downstairs with the werewolf." He instructed his men coolly.

"No!" Bethan stepped forward as the three suited men dragged Hal down the corridor. She stopped abruptly as Rook thrust his arm infront of her to block her path, leaning against the wall and staring straight into her eyes.

"I warned you to stay away."

She leapt at him angrily but he dodged the punch she threw with ease, pinning her arm behind her, just as he had a month ago when they had fought in her apartment. She cried out as he forced it upwards, pushing the joint in her shoulder to its limits. The door to the cellar slammed, and she could hear Hal pounding on it with his fists and shouting furiously. Tom screamed again and the banging stopped abruptly. A few moments later the phone rang loud behind the bar, the sound a jarring contrast to the silence that had fallen in the basement.

"Wait in the car." Mr Rook instructed his associates. They walked obediently past without saying a word. The phone stopped ringing as the door shut behind them. Mr Rook brought his free hand around her to rest against the wall. The knife he held in it gleamed ominously in the dim yellow light. "I've been waiting for this opportunity for weeks. I had the car bugged you see. No ghost, no werewolf, just you and the vegetarian vampire." She backed away from the blade involuntarily, closing the gap he had left between them. She felt something hard against the small of her back and jerked away in repulsion, before she realised what it was. Gritting her teeth, she slowly reached back with her free arm so he wouldn't notice, covertly pulling the stake free from the waistband of her jeans. "You really should have accepted my offer. Now I'm going to have to silence you for good myself."

The phone rang again, quieted against the piercing sound of another of Tom's screams echoing from the basement, this time seeming fused with an animalistic roar. She could hear his loud, panting breaths coming as deep snarls now, and knew she didn't have much time. She choked back a sob, and made a choice she hoped she wouldn't regret.

Tom looked towards the door as he heard a loud bang and shouting from upstairs. He tried to stand, staggering a few steps towards it before his back bent violently, sending him sprawling on the floor, crying out in pain. He felt his spine shift upwards against his straining skin, his canines growing as the bones of his face stretched themselves forward to form a snout, his fingers break and elongate into claws. It was white hot agony, but he was used to that. What really scared him in that moment was what might be happening on the other side of the door.

He gasped for breath as the wave of pain subsided slightly, making the most of the lull before the next tremors hit. Suddenly, he heard footsteps pounding down the stairs and Hal shouting angrily. The door opened and the vampire stumbled through it, falling to the floor beside him. He caught a glimpse of the men outside before the door was pulled shut. Hal stood up and ran at it, beating his fists against it desperately.

"Rook! Let me out! Leave her alone! Rook!" he yelled furiously. Tom screamed again as his arms and legs broke and extended. Hal turned around and slid down the door dejectedly.

"Please don't blame yourself Tom. Whatever happens to me, it's not your fault." He said quietly. Tom watched him forlornly, rolling onto his hands and knees and shaking, trying to hold back, not wanting to let go. "Don't Tom, you know as well as I do that you can't stop it. Just please, don't feel guilty. It'll consume you if you let it, and you don't deserve that. You've been one of the best friends I've ever had Tom, you and Alex both, and I'll never be able to find the words to thank you for what you've done for me in the past few months. If you remember this in the morning, please tell her I said that, and that I'm sorry for bringing about her death."

Tom cocked his head to the side and studied the vampire. He felt a strange mixture of sadness, pity and deep-seated rage. He sniffed the air and turned his top lip up in disgust, the vampire's scent strong in the cramped space. It filled him with fury, though somewhere in the back of his mind, he wasn't sure why. This was his friend. A brother almost. Which was ridiculous, because vampires were the enemy. He snarled.

His chest felt as though it were bursting as his ribs expanded, making space for the swollen organs caged within. He screamed one last scream and crouched back on his haunches, breathing heavily as the pain faded away to nothing.

"Tom?"

His head snapped towards the vampire. He bared his teeth and stood up to his full height, watching as the creature scrambled back towards the door. The howl that ripped free from his throat was the final release as the animal in him came to the fore.

Alex sat at the bar in the pub, watching the punters growing steadily more drunk as the evening progressed. She sighed and rested her head in her hands on the bar. This was where she and her friends had regularly hung out in her late teens, playing pool, abusing the other customers by putting terrible cheesy pop songs on the juke box, laughing and joking the nights away. It had seemed like a good place to visit to relive the memories, but all it was doing was making her feel bitter and resentful. She couldn't taste the beer, couldn't join in the chatter with the locals she knew so well, and she couldn't get wasted. Which was exactly what she wished she could be doing given the week she'd had.

She jumped up from her bar stool and walked out into the cool fresh air. At least she assumed it was cool and fresh. She couldn't feel anything. It was funny the little details you missed when they weren't there anymore. Wandering down the street away from the pub, it struck her that she missed the B&B. It surprised her, especially since much of her time there had been taken up with looking after Hal. The last few months had been traumatic, awkward and gruesome at times, but they had also had their fun times too, and now she and Tom and Hal were really beginning to feel like a family. And there was Bethan there now too. It was almost as if there had been something pulling her back to Wales ever since the others had left. She tried to reason with herself that it was just because that was where she had died, but it wasn't just that. She really felt like she belonged there with them.

One of her old neighbours came walking down the street towards her, his small dog barking angrily at her as it went past, looking at her as if it could see her. She wondered if it could.

"Oh piss off you wee, yappy little shite." She said to it with a grin, feeling liberated again at being able to speak without people hearing. There were upsides to being a ghost. Her smile faded as she remembered Tom. Considerably larger than the yapping mutt and certainly nowhere near as annoying, he would be transforming tonight. She hated listening to him when it happened. It made her glad she was out of the house. Hearing him in pain was terrible. She wondered how Bethan was coping, listening to her first werewolf transformation. Hal would make her feel better, she was sure. He was a moody old git, but he could be kind when he wanted to be. She stopped dead.

Tom was transforming. Which meant Bethan would be alone in the house with Hal all night. She frowned, conflicted over what to do and angry with herself for not realising sooner. After he'd managed so well the night before, she trusted him a lot more, but was it enough? Could he hold himself back with no one there to help him if he needed it? She tried to convince herself everything would be fine, but she couldn't shake the niggling worry deep in the pit of her stomach.

She remembered Tom's mobile sitting in her pocket. One quick ring couldn't hurt could it? She fumbled it out, hoping no one would see it floating in the street in the dark, but moving away from the glaring street light next to her just in case. Finding the number for Honolulu Heights she rang it. No answer. She rang it again. Still no answer. That wasn't like Hal. She paced nervously for a moment before making up her mind. It wouldn't take her long to rentaghost back, and it was better to be safe than sorry. If anything happened to any of them, she didn't think she would ever forgive herself. She closed her eyes and disappeared.

Hal had been close to death more times than he could count during his life. This time it wasn't just fear he felt, but sadness at the mess he would leave behind him. No matter what he said, he knew Tom would never forgive himself for what he was about to do. That was part of the cruelty of his curse. He really couldn't control himself when the beast took over. And right now, the beast was almost in control. He could see it in the feral way Tom looked at him, as if he was equal part friend and foe.

Tom suddenly writhed and cried out again, a sound that illustrated the curse with an ironic beauty, part man, part wolf. Hal was momentarily distracted as the dizzying smell of fresh human blood flooded the room from under the door. Sweet, tangy, metallic human blood. And lots of it. He looked at the door behind him and swallowed the lust and the dry throat away, abruptly realising that it could mean only one of two things. Either Bethan had somehow managed to injure Rook and get away, or she was hurt badly. He knew which was more likely, and another stab of guilt hit him, as it often did these days. He should have been able to protect her. It didn't stop him hoping he was wrong though. She was tough, tougher than he gave her credit for, and perhaps, just perhaps, she had found a way.

He looked back over to Tom. No, not Tom anymore. The werewolf.

"Tom?"

The werewolf turned its head sharply at the sound, snarling and towering above him. It turned its head skywards and howled a deafening wail that bounced off the walls in the tight space, amplifying the sound so that it was almost tangible. So this was it. The end. Five-hundred years of terror and tyranny and blood. Hal could see the irony in the situation in that second. He had sent a staggering number of werewolves to their deaths in dog fights over the years, and now here he was, about to be killed by one that had become his closest friend. He might have laughed had he not been about to die a horribly gruesome death.

He gritted his teeth as the werewolf ran at him. He leapt out of the way as best he could, his survival instinct kicking in however futile a gesture it was. The creature missed his throat by inches, but its jaws still met his arm, the sharp canines just catching the flesh of his bicep and making him cry out in pain. He looked up from his injured arm just in time to duck away from the next attack, landing heavily next to the door. Which someone was unlocking from the outside.

He glanced back at the werewolf, which was shaking itself having smashed head first into the wall he had dived away from. The door flew open just as it got back to its feet, and Hal took his chance to dive out, hefting the door shut and locking it behind him. He closed his eyes and sank to the floor at the bottom of the stairs, breathing heavily. Tom pounded at the door, running into it a few times in frustration at the vampire getting away.

Hal looked up at his rescuer for the first time. There she sat infront of him on the stairs, not a hair out of place and looking... well, radiant, considering what had happened. He noticed suddenly that Bethan was really quite pretty. Well, he'd noticed before of course, but he hadn't allowed himself to really look at her like that. It was too dangerous, given his track record with women. Now, strangely, it seemed as if it was ok for him to admit it. The smell of the blood was stronger out here, and he had to concentrate to keep himself from losing control. Not with her here, she just saved your life he thought, bringing himself back from the brink.

"Are you alright?" he asked, looking her up and down for injuries. There was nothing obvious, not even a spot of blood on her. He sighed relievedly, not waiting for her answer. "How did you escape?" She looked down at the carpet, but he could see she was upset. "Bethan?"

"I didn't."

Alex rentaghosted into the street outside the house just in time to see Rook disappear into the passenger side of a grey van. She watched it drive away frozen to the spot. Looking up at the house, she rentaghosted inside, finding herself in the kitchen. She ran through the double doors into the living room in a panic.

"Hal? Bethan? Tom?"

"We're down here Alex." Came Hal's weary reply from the basement stairs. She rushed back into the kitchen and out into the hallway. As she reached the top of the stairs Alex stopped abruptly at the scene below her. Taking a few tentative steps down, she frowned at the vampire.

"Hal, what are you doing?" she asked cautiously. She didn't know quite what she had expected to see, but this definitely hadn't been on her list. There he sat on the bottom step, with his arms around the girl he had been doing his best to avoid for the past month. She wondered for a second if she had been too late, until Bethan turned to look up the stairs. Hal let his arms drop to his sides and looked up at the ghost solemnly. "Rook was outside. Has something happened? She's upset." She noted as Bethan wiped her damp cheeks with the back of her hand. "Why has she been crying Hal?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" he answered softly.

Alex was sure if it had been able to, her face would have drained completely of colour. She realised that Bethan wasn't just looking in the direction that Hal was talking. She was looking directly at her. Bethan could see her.

"Hi Alex. It's nice to finally meet you." She said with a sad smile. Alex sat down where she stood before she fell down.

"You're dead." She breathed, hardly believing it.

"Yea."

"Hal..." Alex looked at him, desperately hoping it hadn't been him that had killed her.

"It wasn't him Alex. It was Rook. Well, technically it was Rook, but I did sort of let him."

"Why?" she asked. Hal looked away ashamedly.

"He put Hal in the basement with Tom. He had a knife. I had a stake on me, and I maybe could have defended myself, or taken him down with me, I don't know. But it would have taken time, and I realised he was going to kill me anyway, whatever I did. So I decided to let him. I dropped the stake and he..." she stared straight ahead at nothing and subconsciously rubbed her throat where Alex assumed Rook had slit it.

"She got me out." Hal finished the account for her, startling her out of her thoughts.

"I can't believe it." Alex breathed.

"You're telling me." Bethan sat back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment. "So I suppose this means that I'll be staying with you a little longer than planned..."

(So there you have it! As in the programme itself, I seem never to wrap up all the loose ends in my stories, and I can only apologise if that is slightly frustrating. No plans for any more at the moment, but who knows what will happen in the future. Thanks again to everyone who has read this - I hope you enjoyed it! KatyNewt x)