Disclaimer: I do not own or operate "Moonlight."
A/N: Many thanks for the reviews and for choosing to get updates when the story gets a new chapter. I appreciate it!
Sorry for the chapter duplication. Fixed now! OOOOPS!
Chapter 10: Drive South
Mick especially enjoyed being at the Bluebird Café. He knew he was fully human, with no almost-vamp traits to trigger any weirdness. He and Beth danced and sang along to the songs they knew. For a little while, he almost forgot he had ever been a vampire. This was happiness and freedom.
They spent the rest of the weekend doing some of the tourist rounds, but also going to the zoo and the Hermitage, in spite of the heat. Everyone could see that Josh and Suzanne were really crazy about each other. They were holding hands and going off together every chance they had.
Beth smiled as she watched them, sitting on a bench under the trees, talking and laughing. "They're great together, aren't they?"
Kay grinned, too. "Yeah. I'm so glad. Suzanne has been alone for a long while. She needed someone."
"I know it. She lost all that weight and she looks great, but she's still really wary around guys. I don't blame her, though. Some of them really tried to treat her like dirt. Only she didn't hang around that long."
Kay nodded. "I understand. I had the same problem, until I met Short, Dark and Fascinating over there."
That got a laugh. "That's cute. Dar's really a good-looking man, but not in the conventional way, exactly. He's sort of boyish-looking, but then, there's this… I don't know, underneath."
"Hotness, I call it," Kay said with a grin. "But we suit each other exactly. Like you and Mick. If everything works out with this, I can see you two going the distance, for sure."
Beth looked over to where Mick and Dar were deep in conversation, glad neither had vamp hearing. "I hope so, too. You don't know how much I hope so."
"I think I can guess," Kay said, patting Beth's shoulder.
She nodded. "You don't know how comforting it is to be with someone who's gone through all this already. It makes it seem less strange."
"I liken it to having a loved one who has any kind of experimental treatment or gone through clinical trials. We're all in the same club, so to speak."
"Would you have married Dar if he hadn't been cured?"
Kay shook her head. "No. I loved him and I trusted him implicitly, but I just couldn't be part of that world. I know I fell in love with him just as he was, but I couldn't live like that, and I didn't want to be turned, for sure. And he wasn't about to turn me. He absolutely did not believe in siring another vampire if it could be avoided, for any number of reasons."
"Wow. I guess I haven't looked much beyond the right now with Mick. Anything else is just too scary," Beth said.
"That's the other thing. I couldn't deal with the scary part. I'm just a wimp, I guess."
"Not you. So, have you two managed to solve the world's problems?" Beth asked Mick and Dar as they came up the walk.
Dar grinned. "Nah. We're just working on world peace, right now," he teased.
"It's time we were getting back to pack up and drive home," Kay said.
"Yeah, it is," Dar agreed. "We need to see if the cats have torn up the house in our absence."
"The paper towels will probably be all over the house," Kay predicted.
When they were ready to start back to Alabama, the group gave Josh and Suzanne a little extra time. After a very lingering kiss, she came to the car, tears in her eyes. "I don't really want to leave," she said.
"I know," Kay answered. "But you can come back. Get a job here, in fact."
"I'm going to start looking as soon as we get back to Birmingham," Suzanne vowed.
Dr. Kara had asked that Mick and Beth stop by UAB before they went back to their hotel. Dar and Kay took Suzanne back and stayed around so she wouldn't be by herself.
"I like the look of this bloodwork much better, Mick," Dr. Kara said. "This is what I was hoping to see. I still haven't worked out what it is about your genetic profile that doesn't match with the lab salve, but that really doesn't matter. I have quite a bit of the natural salve left, so I'll start the new protocol on you this week."
"What will be different?" Beth asked. "I thought you had to collect several pints of blood over a period of time."
"That is how we did it with Dar Belanger. However, this method is easier on everyone, and just as effective."
"How?" That was Mick.
"Well, your blood, when under the influence of the salve, is human blood. No trace of the V-enzyme. So, what we're going to do is a sort of dialysis technique, where we hook you up to the machine, your blood circulates out and the salve-infused, genetically altered blood goes in, along with several pints of crossmatched donor blood. The donor blood won't replace the full volume, but it, along with the infusion and your own, normal blood, should knock out the V-enzyme for good. Naturally, you'll need to come back for frequent blood checks, but I believe this protocol will be better for your heart and indeed, your whole system."
"I think you're right," Mick answered. "When do you want to do the procedure?"
"Tuesday. We don't want to wait because we want the salve to be at full strength in your blood, and have had time to settle in and differentiate in your body. I'm also going to throw in some stem cells from cord blood. They will not recognize the V-enzyme and should attack it to keep it from replicating, if it tries to come back."
"Really?" Mick said. "That is science fiction."
"You'd better believe it. I've even looked at the idea of full body radiation and chemotherapy to kill the V-enzyme, then introduce the patient's own, treated bone marrow, to replace the blood. I've done some test tube studies. The V-enzyme and vincristine do NOT like each other. Vincristine just disintegrates the V-enzyme. We've always known that medication was one tough customer, but it really kicks butt on that enzyme."
"My God," Mick said. "You really are on the forefront of this thing. But who would get vincristine?"
"The most refractory patients -- those who didn't respond to other therapies. Adriamycin is also an option, since it disrupts the DNA structure. The research is very promising. I hope to be able to offer all of my V-enzyme patients a cure within the next five years."
"Amazing," was all Mick could say.
"Technology helps, for sure," Dr. Kara said. "Now then. Come to the clinic at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Nothing by mouth after midnight. God willing, by Friday or so, you should be able to go back to Los Angeles as a normal human being. All contingent on this blood we've taken today, but I don't think there will be any problems."
"Let's do it, then," Mick said. A chill ran up Beth's spine, but she squeezed Mick's hand.
"We'll be here," she said.
"And we will be ready. I have great confidence this will be completely successful," Dr. Kara said with a grin. "But remember, Mick. When you are fully human again, for your full term of years, you must begin to take care of yourself. You must eat well, exercise—all those things you never worried much about before. Taking care to prolong your life so you and Beth can grow old together – and growing old, and dying. It's all part of the price of the cure."
"I don't mind paying that price," Mick said.
"Very well then. We'll see you Tuesday."
They took a taxi back to the hotel. Beth sat with her head resting on Mick's broad, strong shoulders. She wondered if she would still have that option after Tuesday.