David carried Sarah's slender form across the desert landscape, remembering to keep his mouth closed and to breathe through his nose to preserve moisture in his mouth. Nighttime wasn't quite as hot as the daytime, but it was still unbearably humid and the dust threatened to infiltrate his nostrils.

It had taken some convincing to get Sarah to transform, though thankfully it didn't seem to affect her wound much. She didn't like the idea of losing the relative modesty her wolf form's fur provided, but she struggled to move on her own and didn't want to lean on him.

In the end, when she had shimmered down into human form, David had gently scooped her up and begun to carry her immediately in what he guessed was the direction of Tasha's car… hoping that him carrying a naked girl while having a ripped up shirt himself would be somewhat less conspicuous than if he had to deal with an injured werewolf.

It was a good thing that this area was fairly remote and there weren't any people around. However, it also meant there wouldn't be any closelines or anywhere to go for help, either...

He was grateful for all of the endurance he had built up over the years that made carrying the girl across a bit of a distance somewhat easier. The only things he regretted were that he didn't at least have a blanket he could put over her and that he didn't have any shoes. His feet were already starting to protest walking barefoot.

He just hoped to God that he wouldn't run into any scorpions or other potentially hazardous creatures, especially since his pants were ripped up to his thighs. Though the irony that he carried a potentially hazardous being almost protectively in his arms was not entirely lost on him, either…

Right now though, she seemed to be in great pain and barely conscious with labored breathing.

It took about twenty-five minutes until the abandoned house came into sight. At first his heart sank a little when he didn't see Tasha's car anywhere. Had the woman managed to get it fixed and taken it back to Esben, along with everything in the trunk? After everything else that had happened, David wouldn't put it past her.

When he got closer, however, he saw the edge of the car peeking up out of a ditch. Well, that would be awkward to get at, but it was something at least. He gently set Sarah on the ground on the flattest spot of ground he could find near the car, then turned his attention to trying to get the trunk open.

The keys were still in the engine, though the fact that it was practically on its side in a ditch with a gaping hole in the tire from where Hunter had blown it out, would otherwise discourage trying to drive it. David wryly took the keys and put them in his pocket, then successfully popped open the trunk. Some of the research papers and a few other things spilled out onto the ground, but he ignored them for the moment.

He snatched a blanket from the tumbled contents of the trunk, noting that Tasha had apparently come somewhat prepared. He also snatched a first aid kit and a container of items that looked like it might be somewhat useful. He then noticed a backpack with some clothes that had been stuffed sloppily inside.

David blinked with surprise when he realized it was a mix of his own clothes with some of Sarah's. Despite her somewhat treacherous nature, Tasha was… thoughtful, in her own way, apparently. They were very wrinkled due to being stuffed into the bag so carelessly, but who was going to be picky way out here under these conditions?

For the moment David only bothered to put on a shirt. He would change his pants and put on shoes later.

He then turned his attention back to his patient, quickly but neatly placing all of the items he'd found near her. These weren't the ideal conditions to do this, but he needed to operate. And since the wound was still fresh, he hoped he could follow the path of the wound itself, very carefully, to the bullet without an X-ray machine… of which they had none available anyway.

Besides, he couldn't take her to a hospital. But this could also get ugly, since they had no painkillers and he knew from reading Esben's work that apparently, most drugs that were introduced into her system were neutralized within seconds by her immune system anyway. Giving her morphine or even a knock-out substance might have been like trying to give her candy pills for an earache.

He could only hope that her being apparently so close to unconsciousness would work to both of their advantage. This was going to hurt, no matter what, but he had to do it.

David took a large knife from the container of odds and ends Tasha had packed, sterilized it with medicinal alcohol from the med kit out of habit, and then he leaned over the injured girl. "Sarah," he told her, "I'm going to get that silver bullet out of you now. If you can hear me, please try to remain calm and still."

Her eyelids flickered, indicating she had heard him. He quickly added, "This is going to hurt, but please try to stay still."

She tensed even before he began to make an incision. He noted that her healing factor had not kicked in, which would enable him to operate but it would be a hinderance for her. He began to very carefully go in, noting the obvious damage that the silver contact had done to the tissues, especially as he got in further and further, closer to the inflicted hip bone.

Just as he made the incision large enough to reach the spot where the bullet had impacted, she began to whimper and squirm a tad. He gently but firmly grasped her shoulders and pushed her back down, holding her flat. "I know it hurts, it hurts very much," David was saying, hating everything about this when he looked into those tear-filled eyes. "But I need you to be brave and keep still while I get the bullet out. If I don't take it out, it is going to kill you. Do you understand that, Sarah?"

She trembled, then nodded and grabbed his arm. David gave her hand a comforting squeeze, wishing that he had Tasha or someone else here to hold her hand or possibly restrain her if it came to that. He didn't even have a table or anything that he could strap her down on, so he would just have to hope that she could stay still.

He quickly did the best with what little he had, though. He found a relatively clean cloth to put in her mouth, instructing her to bite down on it as hard as she wanted, and he also folded up the blanket and told her to put her arms around it. She hugged it tightly against her chest while he began to proceed, the best thing she could use in lieu of a hand to hold.

It was a little tricky to extract the bullet from the hip bone. David winced when he saw the moderate damage that had been done to the bone by the bullet's impact, but he felt it would heal fairly cleanly and he was even more grateful he had carried her rather than letting her walk. That might have made the damage worse.

Once he successfully took the bullet out, he wrapped it up in a cloth and set it someplace far enough away from Sarah's body for peace of mind. He then used some dental floss to stitch up the incision, hoping it would serve as a temporary measure until her own self-healing could kick in again.

However, he knew it would take time for her system to recover from silver poisoning, even though the source had been removed.

After David finished the suture and bandaged up the wound as best he could, he went over to the ditch and did his best to extract the research papers and notes from Esben's lab.

"What are you doing?" Sarah croaked weakly as he returned to her side.

"I'm trying to find anything I can about treating silver poisoning." David knew he had seen something somewhere in the collection of documents where Esben had apparently inflicted silver poisoning on a couple of his "rejects" to see what would happen. Was there something in here that suggested how to give a werewolf a better chance of survival, or aid in their recovery?

Unfortunately, the results of the documented research suggested that Esben was more interested in noting the damaging effects of silver contact and poisoning than how to help the inflicted party recover. David once again felt a disgusted anger brewing below the surface within himself at the sick man's apparent delight in these experiments and findings, and how callously it was stated. It was almost as though Esben truly felt these individuals were nothing more than bacteria in petri dishes!

The only thing he found that was remotely helpful was a mention that giving a werewolf with silver poisoning a lot of food helped give the body a boost. He knew that her metabolism and immune system were already taxed and the presence of silver, along with the surgery most likely, had taken a lot out of her.

Sarah's energy levels needed to be replenished if she was going to have a better chance.

David thought fast. Then he gently took the blanket and wrapped it around her slender form and scooped her up, heading toward the abandoned house.

"Where are we going?" Sarah asked weakly.

"I'm taking you inside this house so you can rest. Then I am going to hike over to that diner up the road and bring you back some food." It was the only thing he could do, especially since she was in no condition to hunt and the diner was still within relative walking distance. Though the irony of going into a diner to deliberately get a doggy bag was not lost on him…

It took him two trips to place Sarah on the couch and then return outside to grab anything he deemed important and put it inside, too. He didn't want to risk the papers getting stolen or possibly blowing away; they might still prove important somehow in the future. Plus he had grabbed anything else he thought might come in handy.

He even extracted some of the clothes from the backpack and tried to place them in a neat pile near the old bed where he had lain Sarah.

"David…" She reached out toward him feebly.

"Don't move too much, okay? You need to rest and stay as still as you can if you are going to get better." David didn't want her to talk too much, either; she needed to conserve her strength. But it seemed she had something she wanted to tell him.

"David…" She looked a bit anxious.

"What is it?" He leaned closer.

"Tasha has been in here… and that plastic smell."

David tensed in alarm. Well, he couldn't really be surprised about that, especially considering the fact that the front door had already been open when he entered. He had hoped it was only because no-one cared about this abandoned house…

"I'll take a look around and make sure no one is here," he said, giving the back of her hand a squeeze. "I will be right back," he assured her when it looked like she might protest. "You just rest, okay?"

"...Okay."

David did a brief search inside and even circled around the exterior of the house, noting with some alarm that it looked like a window from the lower portion of the house, perhaps the basement area, had been broken very recently from the inside. He took great care to avoid stepping on any glass as he took a look inside.

It was difficult to make out anything in the dark, but the brightness of the full moon behind him helped a little. It appeared that basement was full of junk and various pieces of old furniture, though he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. However, it would be the perfect place for someone to hide…

David went back inside and located a staircase that lead to the basement, noting the fact that the door at the top of the steps was wide open. When he reached the bottom of the steps, he came to a second door that was not only closed, it wouldn't budge.

Not because it was locked… something had been pushed up against it from the other side.

David decided it was safe enough to test the waters. He banged on the door. "Hello? Is anyone down there?"

After a moment, a woman's voice shouted in response. "Help me! I'm trapped in here!"

"Hang on." David tried putting his full weight against the door, but it wouldn't budge. He wasn't sure, but it sounded like it might be Tasha.

When the door just refused to give way, probably due to whatever was blocking it, David raised his voice to be heard through it. "I'll be right there, I'm gonna try the window."

He then headed back toward the front door, knowing the only way he was going to get into the basement anytime soon was to carefully get through that broken window and see what the hell was going on down there...