Thanks for the feedback everyone! I like how this alternate version of the episode turned out, so let's continue with me sharing it with you!

I do apologize for my tendency for cliffhangers. What can I say? They just work so well with the story. So here's the resolution to the previous once. These next few chapters were a lot of fun to write.

Chapter 23

The Greater Good

The Greater Good Theory: potential loss is acceptable as long as the
resulting gain is large enough.

Cabe awoke with a splitting headache. The first thing he noticed was the cooler and darker environment compared to his previous location.

He pushed himself onto his elbows. The air was still stiflingly humid, but the floor was cold concrete. He looked around to try and figure out where he was.

He was in an old, steel bar jail cell. He guessed one of the police stations, as much as they were in this country. He must have been in a basement since he saw a set of concrete stairs leading up, presumably to a door to the main level. There appeared to be four separate cells in this room. He was in the second one down. The two on his right were vacant. The single one on his left though, had an occupant.

Walter.

He was still unconscious and he wasn't moving. After a few moments of observing Cabe confirmed he was still alive, although he thought Walter's breathing was slower and shallower than even before. The exact details of what would kill a vampire were clear in some ways, but very vague in others, even by Damon's admission. Most of Walter's injuries were from shrapnel, but a good many of them were from the fire, and Cabe feared the kid's time was running out.

"A very fascinating friend you have there, yes?"

Cabe looked up. At the foot of the stairs stood Zoric. Cabe hadn't heard him descend the stairs, likely because he had been focused on Walter. Zoric had shaven since they saw him on the street, which means he and Walter likely had been in the cells for at least a short while.

Zoric was staring at Cabe with a very smug look on his face.

"You've gotten closer to me than most. If you only hadn't tried to rescue those lawmen your government bribed. I honestly hadn't known you were even there until you ran to try and aid them."

He took a smug step towards Cabe. "What I don't understand, though, is how you are still alive. I was there, watching my work. You were directly in the blast. Your friend here shielded you, but he should be dead." Zoric shook his head in amazement. "No doubt, he should be dead."

Cabe was quick to try and divert any suspicions. "He's tougher than he looks, and maybe he just got lucky."

"Or he's not entirely human," Zoric quickly countered.

Cabe went cold with that statement. "I don't know what you mean…"

"I think you do," Zoric argued with a direct nod of his head as he knelt down to Cabe's level on the ground. "You see, I did think he was dead, and I almost had my men leave him there, but I saw him draw breath, ever so slightly. I went to look closer and your friend opened his eyes for the briefest of moments before falling unconscious again. His eyes…they were, otherworldly. Inhuman. I admit, I was taken aback."

Cabe didn't like where this was going. He looked down and saw something glint on Zoric's finger.

Walter's ring. Zoric had taken Walter's daylight ring. Luckily there was no sunlight anywhere near Walter in the dark basement.

"Ah, yes. I too thought it was extraordinarily beautiful. I just had to have it," Zoric said as he lifted his hand to admire the ring he'd stolen. "But let us not get distracted. So again, I ask, what is he?"

Cabe stayed silent. Their situation seemed dire. Cabe prayed the rest of the team found a way to get them out soon.

Zoric seemed to read his mind.

"If you're hoping the rest of your friends will rescue you, I wouldn't bother. They came quickly to the site of the explosion and were promptly arrested by some of my own 'friends' as soon as they arrived. I love this country. For the right price you can rent your own policemen, as you well know."

Cabe still had nothing to say to him. He turned his attention to Walter. He still wasn't waking up, and if anything his breathing seemed slower and more shallow.

The door at the top of the stairs opened and Cabe heard many people begin to descend.

His team.

He heard many comments, such as sarcastic from Toby, angry from Happy, inquiring about the health safety of the basement from Sylvester.

They all reached the bottom of the stairs and came into view. Sonia emerged first. She saw Zoric and after a brief pause, she screamed and tried to rush at him, overcome by the anger and hatred that had been bottled up inside her for many years.

She didn't get far. One of the bought Cuban lawmen behind her grabbed her roughly by her hair and pulled her back.

Zoric calmly approached the furious young woman. "Ah, by the hatred in your eyes I assume I've wronged you in the past," he taunted.

Sonia spoke some very foul words at him and spat in his face.

Zoric seemed annoyed but unfazed. "Ah, yes, now I recognize your kind. Don't worry, I may not be able to throw you into the graves with the rest of your people, but you can still join them soon enough."

Sonia was shaking from her rage.

"Put them in the cells," Zoric ordered, looking bored. "I have some business to attend to." He turned back to Cabe. "I'll be leaving this country by tonight, but not before we finish our conversation."

Toby was thrown in the same cell as Cabe. Sylvester, Happy, and Sonia were thrown in the next one down from them.

Paige was put in the same cell as Walter, and a large canvas bag was thrown in after her.

"In the bag is a variety of medical supplies. I want your friend to live. I must have my answer of what he is, and if he could be useful to me. If he dies, you all die."

At that Zoric and the men he bought to do his biding left upstairs, leaving the team alone.

****SVD****

When the bomb went off, the team had heard the explosion over the comms. When they didn't get a response from Walter or Cabe they felt there was no choice but to go to where the explosion had occurred. There they were quickly captured.

They arrived at their current location and were led down the station stairs into the dark room holding the jail cells. Paige's eyes were just starting to adjust to the dim light when the cell door in front of her was opened with a large, metallic screech. She was roughly pushed inside, and a large bag was roughly thrown next to her. She heard similar events happen to her friends thrown into cells next to her.

Her eyes adjusted to the darker surroundings. She saw a motionless shape next to her.

Walter!

She quickly dragged herself to his side and put her hand on his chest. Her stomach twisted. The injuries she saw on him were staggering.

"He's alive," Cabe said through the bars next to her, "but barely. He shielded me from the bomb blast. He hasn't woken up since we've been down here. Paige, I think he's fading."

"Toby!" Paige yelled.

Toby was already kneeling next to Cabe, looking at the situation. "Pass me that bag," he said.

Paige immediately reached over and grabbed the bag and slid it towards Toby so he could reach through the bars and start looking through its contents.

"Not complaining here, but why are we alive?" Happy asked, although she was as focused as any of them on Walter's condition.

"I think because of Walter. Zoric want's him alive," Cabe answered.

"Why does Zoric want him alive?" Sylvester asked as he paced side to side with anxiety in the far cell.

"Zoric saw Walter save me. He saw his eyes. He knows Walter's different somehow, and he wants to know why."

"Not good." Happy, of course.

"I saw his eyes, too. At the beach. What is he?" Sonia said, staring at Walter over the shoulders of Cabe and Toby.

"I'll explain later, Sonia, I promise. Right now we have to figure out a way to save him," Cabe said, looking up over his shoulder.

Sonia gave a short nod, accepting her questions would have to wait.

"This is bad," Toby groaned. "I was hoping there would be transfusion supplies in here. We have antibiotics, bandages, some rudimentary surgery equipment, and some syringes. Zoric's definition of medical equipment is painfully lacking. None of this will help Walter."

They all knew what would, and without transfusion supplies, they all knew the only way he could get it.

Paige looked down at Walter. He had been through so much. He couldn't die here. Not like this.

She wasn't going to let him die.

"Toby, tell me what I need to do."

At her statement immediately came several protests.

"Paige. No!"

"You can't!"

"That's a bad idea!"

She interrupted them. "He needs blood to heal from something like this, right? I know with all of your experiments you must know that. Now Toby, help me or I'm going to try to do it myself."

Toby made a grimace of defeat. "All right," he spurt out reluctantly. He dug through the bag and removed a disposable scalpel blade and removed it from the sleeve.

"Here," he said, handing it to Paige. "Make a small incision over the vein on your wrist. Don't go too deeply or you'll severe the tendons. I'll have a bandage ready to stop the bleeding."

Paige took the scalpel blade and did as Toby instructed. She let out a small hiss of pain as she made a shallow cut over her left wrist. Blood started to drip from the wound and quickly she put it over Walter's lips. Blood dripped into his mouth. There was the smallest movement behind his eyes, but he didn't swallow.

That's when Paige noticed he was no longer breathing.

"No, no, no. Walter! Toby! He's not breathing!"

"Shit!" Toby yelled. "He's not swallowing! The fact that the blood is there is not getting through to him! Does he still have a pulse?"

Paige took her other hand and put it on his throat. "Yes!" she announced, "but barely…"

Toby ran a hand down his face, looking like he was searching his brain for any last information that would help. He grunted in frustration. "From my studies on Walter, his instincts to drink are heavily influenced by his senses. Sight, sound, smell, etc. Also, the closer the blood, the stronger the instinct. Maybe, if we were to overload his senses, as much as can with the stuff with a richer source, maybe he will…" Toby's words slowed to a stopped as he came to the same conclusion Paige then did. Paige and he locked eyes.

"Paige, it's too dangerous," Toby said softly, shaking his head.

But Paige was already moving Walter. She found the strength to lift him upright so he was in a makeshift sitting position. She sat in front of him and leaned him against her.

Toby tried to object again. "He will kill you. In this state, he will kill you."

But Paige wasn't listening. "When he wakes up, he can use his blood to heal me. Then everyone goes home."

"He could kill you before he can! It won't work if you're dead!" Cabe yelled.

"Do any of you have any better ideas?" Paige yelled back. "Besides, he's the only one who might be able to get us all out of here alive. The greater good, right?" Paige invoked the philosophy Walter often used, and she often argued with.

None of them could argue with it now, though, but it was clear they hated the only option presented to them.

"At least pull him closer so we can try to pull you away if we need to," Cabe asked, trying to make some sort of compromise in this dire situation.

Paige pulled Walter until her back was within arm's reach of Toby and Cabe. She placed Walter so his head was resting on the nape of her neck.

His head was right over her carotid artery, where he would feel her pulse, hear her heartbeat, and smell her blood at its strongest source. To add to that, she made a small nick over her neck with the scalpel blade still in her hand, so the blood welled up and dripped down her shoulder.

If this didn't trigger his instincts nothing would.

"Come on Walter. We need you," she whispered.

I need you.

She didn't know how long the two of them sat there in that position, but suddenly she felt Walter's head move, ever so slightly.

His head moved until his mouth was over the cut in her neck, and she felt him start to drink. For about a minute he seemed to just be licking the blood that freely flowed from her wound, but then there was a sharp pain, she felt blood being drawn out faster.

She let out a sharp cry as Walter's fangs pierced her neck. After a few more seconds she felt his arms wrap around her and pull her closer.

Walter was awake, and he was going to be okay.

But he kept drinking, and he wasn't stopping.

She had understood the danger of what she had chosen to do, and didn't regret her choice, but that didn't mean she wanted to die.

She tried to push against him, but found her arms were too weak to even lift. She felt two more pairs of hands grab her from behind, trying to pull her free of Walter's grip, but it was no use. He was too strong, and clearly not aware of what he was doing.

Paige was scared as she thought of her son, but she hoped Walter wouldn't blame himself for what happened here today.

Everything faded to black.

Yeah...another cliffhanger. Sorry not sorry :). Will Paige make it? Will Walter make it? How are they going to get out of this one? Will post next chapter soon!

Feedback always gives me a boost, so tell me what you think! Again thank you to all my reviewers. I challenge someone who is reading who hasn't reviewed yet to hit that shiny button and let me know what they think of this story so far ;).