AN: Special thanks to Ghostwriter for your support. Please read and review.
Gabriel and Jack stood frozen, staring at Shea's lifeless body. Without a word, Gabe drew Shea's form to his chest and sat on beside her on the gurney. Tears ran down his cheeks as he rocked back and forth.
"I'm sorry, baby. God, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry…" Gabe went on, chanting the words as if he could somehow make her hear him. Suddenly, Shea jerked softly. The monitor never made any other sound but the constant drone. However, Shea was now awake, and looking up at Gabe. Obviously weak, she nonetheless reached up and wiped the moisture from his face. "Oh, God," Gabe managed to Shea. "I thought I'd killed you. I thought…" Shea wouldn't let him finish. "You can't kill something that's already dead."
Gabe kept Shea pulled him, like he thought that if he let her go he really would lose her. Jack watched the scene in shock and silence. The moment he'd realized that Shea wasn't dead, his analytical mind went into overdrive. Somehow, the process hadn't killed her. In fact, it appeared that she was much stronger than she appeared.
Whatever made her a vampire was more incredible than he could have imagined. Quickly, he thought of all the tests they had done. It had to be some sort of a disease, a virus, something so unusual that no test could pick the information up. That didn't make since either. Bacteria and viruses were living organisms. They changed and adapted. Shea's blood was dead, as was her flesh. Then again, it's possible that something could live off her dead flesh…. No. That didn't make any sense either. If it had been living off of her, she would show signs of decomposition, some sign of things breaking down.
What if it was something that couldn't be seen, that lived off of the blood she fed on? Something that was almost impossible to kill. As Shea had weakened, she'd appeared much more dead than alive. Jack realized that if there was something such as this hiding, then it could just as easily be some change in her organs that they couldn't detect.
"Gabriel," Jack said. Gabe didn't respond, focused entirely on Shea. "Gabe, we need to talk. Now." Jack commanded. Gabe shot him a dirty look, but Shea placed a hand on his arm. Whatever Jack had to say, it was important. She nodded to Gabe and said, "Go ahead. I'm fine." Gabe was obviously reluctant, but Shea stood firm. She needed time herself, to process everything that she had gone through and felt. The two men headed out the door and back up to the main desk.
"Gabe, I don't know what this is, but I don't think there's any way to get the information we need to even figure out what makes her this way. Even if we did, we probably don't have the skills or technology even to fix it. I've tried to think of it in terms of viruses, bacteria, infections, everything, but none of those make sense. Then I thought, maybe it's something in her brain or organs, but that doesn't explain everything either.
Nothing we know makes sense with her. Not when the very principles we work on say that she should be dead. I can't make these things add up with her healing abilities or her sensitivity to sunlight. She can fly, man. There's no basis for shit like that. She's got abnormal strength but her bones and muscles show no reason for it. Her heart doesn't beat, blood doesn't flow, but somehow, everything in her lives and even heals. Add in the sensitivity to holy water, and, well I hate to say it, but I think you'd have as much success with a priest. Which is none.
This is beyond science. This is beyond what we know or think about religion. I don't want to say it, but there's nothing we can do. We just don't know what does it or why. We don't even have any means of trying to figure it out," Jack said.
Gabe sat at a stool, his head bowed. Everything Jack said was true, and none of it anything Gabe hadn't considered himself. There wasn't anything to base vampire research on. "I know. Trust me, this is all I ever think about anymore. It's hopeless. I just can't believe this is it," Gabe said.
Jack opened his mouth to respond, but then he heard the elevator doors slide open. Sneaker-clad feet squeaked down to them, and a nurse came up holding a bevy of blood samples. "We need these as soon as you get the chance," she said. "I'll buy both of you dinner if you find some horrible disease or something."
Both men furrowed their brows in confusion at the comment. "Little harsh, isn't that? What did he do, freak out down there or something?" Jack asked the woman. "I wish. Then we'd have had the excuse to drug him. You two heard of the murders outside of the nightclubs downtown, right?" she asked.
Jack shook his head. The guy lived under a rock as much as was humanly possible. Gabe doubted he could name the vice president. Gabe had heard a few things, but had chalked them up to Katja and hadn't really read further. He knew he would just keep wondering if any of those people had been killed by Shea.
The nurse sighed and shook her head. "Every few weeks or months, some guy picks up a pretty young thing at a bar. Always a cute little one, always way too drunk to know better. In any case, the girl's always found in a dumpster. Rape, torture, death, the whole nine yards. The guy's a sick fuck.
"Anyway, a few weeks ago, they finally catch him. The cops were patrolling the area because of all of it, and actually found the guy in the act. The last girl was in some back alley, and he'd been having a time of it. The cops grabbed him, shoved him in the car, and tried to keep the girl alive until the ambulance arrived. She's still alive, but that sonofabitch did a number on her. He liked to cut them up before slitting their throats. He sliced through a bunch of muscles, so that she couldn't get away. She'll live, but God only knows if she'll ever walk again. I know some of the doctors that worked on her. They said she'll never be able to use any of her limbs normally for the rest of her life.
So anyway, the cops are so busy with the girl, not to mention sick with what they saw, that they forgot the guy. When they get back to the cruiser, they don't say a word to him. One of them said that they were so sick by it, they were worried they'd shoot him right there. They took him to the station and booked him.
In the process, they forgot to read him his Miranda Rights. They had one of those dashboard cameras, with the microphones, you know? His attorney got it, took it to the judge, and the case had to be thrown out. Bastard walked right out of it, and the cops who got him felt so horrible, they're both out on leave. Couldn't deal with the fact that they'd let him get off, though if you ask me, I don't blame them. God knows what seeing shit like that does to you," she told them.
"Jesus Christ," Jack said. Gabe was busy making a mental note to tell Shea that if she bit this one, he'd hold him down. "So what's he doing in here?" Gabe asked. The nurse smirked. "The story was all over the papers. He can't go anywhere without someone recognizing him now. Some guy saw him and beat the hell out of him. I hope like hell that the cops don't find him. Or that if they do, they forget to tell him his rights," she said with a sardonic laugh. Gabe shook his head. Jack looked over the test requests. "You know, just from looking at these, I think I'm seeing some sort of foreign matter or something. I'll have to run the tests, of course," he grinned, "but you might want to prep him for some exploratory surgery."
The nurse grinned and turned to leave. Jack and Gabe returned to the back room, where Shea was now standing, dressed. "What are you doing? Are you okay?" Gabe asked, crossing the room to her. "I'm fine," Shea returned. Jack gave her an unsure smile, not knowing what to say. Shea's smile was reassuring. Disappointed was an understatement for how she felt, but neither of them needed to know that. Jack turned to his equipment and started running the tests requested.
Gabe looked at Shea hopelessly. She knew what he was thinking. "It's ok," she said. "It's nothing I didn't say to begin with, right?" Gabe bowed his head, defeated, and Shea held him. It seemed like hours had passed when he finally pulled away and starting putting things back to order. He packed up Shea's blood as well, although he knew deep inside there was no longer any use for it. When he was finished, he turned to Jack and asked, "Can you cover for me? I need to get out of here." Jack looked away from what he was doing and responded, "Don't worry about it. Get going." Gabe put his arm around Shea and left.
They arrived at Gabe's apartment, and he slid his key into the deadbolt. Before he could turn it, however, the lock turned and the door swung open. They both jumped, and Gabe found himself face-to-face with Lucy. "Surprise! Holy Shit!" Lucy exclaimed, seeing first Gabe and then Shea. Her eyes flickered between the two, and she looked at her brother questioningly. "OK, um, what's going on? Holy shit! You're not a vampire again, are you? If you're a vampire again, Mom and Dad are going to kill you. Wait, actually, maybe that can be my excuse. Are you a vampire again?" she asked.
"No, I'm not. What are you doing here? Why aren't you in school?" Gabe asked. He was exhausted. Lucy was not something he wanted to deal with right now. "Don't try to change the subject," his sister said quickly. "I wasn't trying to. My story's longer. I can bet yours isn't. You dropped out, didn't you?" he asked. Lucy's eyes widened. "How'd you know?" she asked. "You hate every damn thing about school. You didn't want to go in the first place. You want to follow your own dreams, not theirs, and so on, and so forth…" Gabe's voice trailed off. Lucy's lips twisted as she gave her brother a dirty look. "Oh, gee, looks like you figured it all out. Aren't you the genius? I guess you can start explaining why you're dating a vampire again," she said with a sly grin. Gabe's eyes rolled. Shea snickered softly. As Gabe shut the door, Lucy couldn't help but say, "And everyone say's that I'm just like Mom."