Chapter Twenty: JJust Checking

Effy lay awake and watched Freddie sleep; it had been nearly a week and it seemed like sleeping and eating was all he had energy for. With the exception of a little romancing that is. He rolled over and opened his eyes, a smile spreading across his face.

"Hello there sleepy head," she teased, leaning in to give him a sweet kiss. "How are we feeling?"

"If I say better do we have to get out of bed?" Freddie said jokingly.

"Well, there was some shopping I wanted to do…and then I was going to go out and work on my tan…" Effy said teasingly. "But I have all of eternity to do that I suppose."

JJ swung open the door with one hand coving his eyes. "Sorry sorry, I don't see anything," he said taking a test peek from between his fingers.

"Oh, you're decent, good," He said.

The two looked at him dumbfounded as he pulled out a syringe and headed towards Effy.

"Uh, JJ," Freddie said. "Knocking? Explanation?"

"I just need a little blood for testing." JJ shrugged off their looks.

"You feeling ok JJ?" Effy asked.

"Just going light on the meds, for concentration," he answered offhandedly.

JJ took the vampire by the arm and drew a small sampling of blood then quickly turned to leave the room.

"Ok thanks," he mumbled. "Continue as you were…"

Effy gave Freddie a what the fuck look, which was returned on his face.

"Maybe we should get out a bit after all." Freddie sighed as he began to sit up.

The vampire pushed him back down on the bed; she was stronger now and kept forgetting it. She planted a passionate kiss on him.

"Sun's still out," she said in a sexy voice. "We'll just have to kill some time."

"Quit pointing that thing at me!" Katie shouted nervously.

Naomi rolled the squirt gun on her finger in mock cowboy fashion and laughed.

"Don't worry, I think the safety is on…" the blonde teased. "What are you so cranky about anyway? The vampire is gone, now you can go off your diet."

"Exactly, he's gone so why do you still have that thing?" Katie spat.

"Because Emily gave it to me," she answered, becoming suddenly quieter.

The redhead suddenly felt bad; even if it was annoying she preferred silly Naomi to sad Naomi.

"Hey," Katie said, "let's go see Effy when the sun goes down?"

"I guess." Naomi sighed.

Katie leaned back in the chair and sighed; maybe if she could get Naomi out of the house for a while, somewhere that wasn't practically a shrine to her and Emily's life together, she would feel a little better. But truly she wanted to go because she knew that JJ was there; if JJ could reanimate a body, then maybe he could find a cure for Cook and Emily. At the back of her mind she also wondered if maybe, just maybe, he could find something for her as well.

Freddie waited in the living room for Effy to return; the vampire refused to let him go out with her when she was looking to feed. JJ had converted the kitchen into a makeshift lab, which was a step up from his mom's basement, and Freddie knew it was pointless to try to talk to him while he was working. He'd never seen his friend locked on in quite this way.

The door opened quietly and Freddie looked up to see Katie and Naomi step into the house. The blonde girl looked, to be honest, like the first day he had met her—a mixture of miserable and despondent. He gave her a small smile and she sat down next to him on the couch.

"Where's Eff?" Katie asked.

"….out…" Freddie said.

"Katie!" JJ called from the kitchen.

The heard shuffling in the kitchen and Freddie quickly turned to the vampire.

"He's getting a needle, he wants a blood sample. Just thought you should get more warning than Effy did," he said quickly.

JJ was already headed down the hall for Katie.

"Wait wait wait." The vampire hesitated. "JJ, what is this for?"

JJ rolled his eyes. "For comparison to Effy's of course."

"Oh it all makes sense now," Katie said sarcastically.

JJ drew the blood and turned quickly back to the kitchen.

"No problem, you're welcome," she called after the mad scientist.

Freddie laughed from the couch and shrugged at her. Effy entered the room and smiled a greeting to her guests. Katie greeted her with a hug.

"JJ still at it?" Effy asked as she walked into the living room. "Whatever it is?"

"Yep," Freddie answered.

"What's he doing?" Naomi asked.

"Something with vampire blood," Freddie said. "I tried to ask him, but he just gets agitated and locked on so we are just leaving him to it."

"Want to go out Freddie?" Effy asked.

"Sure." He nodded.

He gave Naomi a comforting pat on the knee before standing to follow Effy out.

The two took side streets and alleyways it avoid running into anyone they knew. The vampire girl wondered why he hadn't contacted his family since he had come back to life, but secretly she was glad she didn't have to share him just yet.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"You'll see," she teased.

She was leading him to the place where they first kissed; back before she had been able to admit that she loved him. She swam away from him that day and had kept running from him much longer than she should have. Since Freddie had gotten back into his body, she had been thinking about turning him; she fought the idea, but the fear of somehow loosing him again kept the thought scratching at the back of her mind. What better place to tell him she was literally willing to make an eternal commitment than the very place she had run from it before?

She could see the platform she had been sunbathing on years ago, but before they reached the water she froze. The wind had shifted and she caught the smell of werewolf. A man was hunched at the edge of the water, scooping up handfuls of water to drink; she knew who it was before he even stood and she began pushing Freddie back.

Foster turned and saw her; he smirked and took a few steps toward her. The vampire bared her teeth and hissed. He stopped.

"Now that really is a pity Elizabeth. I had such plans," he said coolly. "And just when I was getting around to freeing you from all repression. All the hard bloody work I put into getting you…alone…"

His face turned pale as he recognized the boy standing behind Effy.

"You…" he stammered. "You're not possible."

"Says the werewolf psychologist!" Freddie laughed.

Foster bristled, but kept a calm smile on his face. "It was actually fun to kill you the first time."

The vampire girl hissed again.

"This time it might actually be a challenge," Foster mused.

Before either of them could make a move, Cook blindsided Foster, knocking him to the ground and standing over him.

"We tracked you down, you stupid fuck!" the young werewolf said, giving him a hard kick. "And look, no full moon out tonight, so you won't be able to cheat this time."

Foster kicked Cook in the knee causing him to stagger back a step; the man was on his feet again. Freddie tried to rush to his friend's aid, but Effy instinctively pulled him back, trying to stay between her lover and the werewolf that had already killed him once.

"Who's cheating? You have your handy vampire ex, and your young lady friend can come out into the open too; I know she's there," the man said with a shake of the head. "You're young, impulsive; in time you will break. It's just the nature of the pack, and then I will be able to teach you; I'll admit I underestimated you."

"Fuckin' twat," Cook said, taking another swing at the older wolf.

Foster caught his arm and locked eyes with Cook. The younger man's face twisted and contorted with rage, but he couldn't look away—he felt frozen.

"You have so much to learn," Foster said, releasing Cook's arm. "Like this…for instance."

Foster began to transform; his arms lengthening and is face shifting into wolfish features; he seemed to grow before their very eyes. His coat was coming out patching black and grey. Emily screamed as the monster took an angry swipe at Cook's face, knocking the boy back a good couple of feet. Foster turned towards the couple and took a few gangly steps. Effy dropped into a defensive stance, hissing wildly. Foster roared back at her and then, surprisingly, took off down the street.

Freddie and Emily rushed to Cook's side, but Effy couldn't take her eyes away from the direction the werewolf had fled.

"Cook…oh Cook," Emily cradled his head in her lap and tried to use her jacket to stop the bleeding.

Freddie took off his t-shirt and the redhead lifted the jacket to reveal three nasty gashes across the right side of his face.

"Cook, can you hear me?" he said, dabbing at the blood with his shirt. "Can you hear me Cook?"

"Yeah I can fuckin' hear you," the boy groaned.

"That was bloody stupid, even for you." Freddie laughed with relief.

"Well I had to do something didn't I?" Cook said, taking the shirt from his friend and holding it to his face.

"You could have had a plan," his friend pointed out.

"Oi. I had a plan," Cook maintained. "Beat the piss out of him while we were normal. I even had Ems for back up," he added with a chuckle. "She's a scrapper you know."

"It's true." Emily patted the injured boy on the shoulder.

Cook propped himself up on his elbows and tried to look like his face didn't feel like it was on fire.

"Ok then," the shirtless boy continued. "I mean—you could have had a better plan."

"I'm sorry Freddie," he said.

"Just be careful next time." Freddie sighed.

He couldn't remember how many times he'd had this conversation with his wild friend; it was probably pointless to ask Cook to think, but just maybe this time he would actually get it.

"Not about that—about everything," the injured werewolf said. "About blaming Effy when it was really my fuckin' fault. I got you killed; it was my fault and now I'm not even sure I can make it right."

Freddie gave his friend a confused look. "It wasn't your fault, or Effy's. Foster killed me, it's him."

"No," Cook insisted. "See, the two of us…we could've taken him together."

Freddie shook his head. "What does that matter?"

The boy was loosing a lot of blood and was loosing his strength; maybe that was why he was saying everything he felt at the moment—it certainly wasn't because he wanted to have a hallmark moment. This was worse than the time JJ had given Cook some of his pills; he had no choice but to keep talking because he had to stay awake.

"Me…bloody me…if I hadn't been so fuckin' jealous, so fuckin' hung up on Effy. I could have been a friend; I could have been fuckin' happy for you." He struggled and Emily tried to sooth him. "…then I would have been with you…you would have told me and I would have helped you like a proper mate…bloody me…"

With that Cook passed out.

"What do we do?" Emily asked.

"We'll take him to Effy's. If JJ can do this," Freddie said pointing at himself, "then he can stitch Cookie up no problem."

Freddie and Emily each took an arm and propped the unconscious boy up; the shorter girl holding the blotchy red shirt in place against his injured face. They shuffled up the hill and past the vampire.

"Effy, come on," Emily called when she realized the vampire wasn't with them.

Effy still hadn't moved an inch; she still stared into the darkness after Foster. Now she knew that he feared her—now she knew she could kill him.

Back at Effy's, Naomi had fallen asleep on the couch; the first decent sleep she'd had in weeks. Katie took this opportunity to go collect a few more of her things from her room, happy to have some changes of clothes; she'd been stuck in the same outfit for a long time. She had considered raiding Emily's closet, but didn't want to risk upsetting the girl she had been protecting, so instead, she had worn some of the blonde's mother's oversized shirts while she ran the same skirt and tank top through the laundry. Now, she tossed the outfit that used to be one of her favorites into the trash.

She heard shouting coming from downstairs and rushed down the stairs to see what it was.

"It will work!" JJ shouted again. "I did it! I did it!"

The vampire rushed into the kitchen to see the boy triumphantly washing a dose of medication down with mango juice.

"What? What are you shouting about?" Katie shushed him. "You'll wake Naomi."

"Yeah, sssshhhh, you'll wake Naomi," the blonde said from the doorway.

"Look! Look what I did," the boy said, pointing excitedly to a large aquarium on the counter.

Two white mice scampered happily around piles of dust in the habitat. Katie pressed her face close to the glass to see what the big deal was and sprang back rubbing her eyes.

"Shit!" she exclaimed.

"Oh!" JJ smacked himself on the head, "Sorry Katie that's an ultraviolet light."

"Lead with that around the vampire next time." Naomi snorted. "Ok so you are…training mice to enjoy the beach?"

"I'm curing vampirism," JJ said proudly. "See. Cassie and Sid are happy as clams in there."

He sadly motioned to the four piles of fluff and dust scattered in the bottom of the cage. "Michelle, Maxxie, Jal, and Angie didn't do so well though…there were more, but they didn't survive the turning process…"

"Where did you get their names?" Katie said, still rubbing her eyes. "Why not just Fluffy or Piddles like normal pets?"

She wanted to say like a normal person, but the idea of a cure was too exciting for her to feel like insulting him. Even if they were just mice, they did look normal and unfazed by the artificial sunlight.

"Well…" He paused. "The first one just looked like a Cassie to me, and it went from there. Besides, they aren't pet's…they're case studies."

"Yeah," Naomi teased. "Can't you see that? That pile of fluff looks like an Angie to me."

Katie rolled her still red eyes and flipped them both off. "So…a cure…"

Please review if you can; even if it's not flattering, I could use the advice. And thanks to everyone who has been leaving me reviews, it's very encouraging just knowing that people want me to finish.