Painted Ivy and Wax Hearts

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers. We have a chapter here that is on time! Shocking right?! This one is filled with cute but dramatic moments, and it's only going to get worse from here. As always don't forget to leave a review, or drop a fav or follow and I'll see you guys next week.

Chapter 7

This was so like Vincent. Having him out here in the middle of the night looking for a girl who was clearly running from them.

He shouldn't have cared, he should have been happy that she was gone but Bo had been forced to admit, the second he realized that she had escaped them, that he didn't want Charlie to leave.

He wanted her to stay until he could figure out what was wrong with him. Why she made him feel the way he did, all light hearted and butterfly-sick. Why her smile could freeze him at twenty paces and drop him to his knees.

Now he was walking through the woods, trying to find a girl in the dark with just a flashlight. This was fucking hopeless.

There was a sudden low moan that shattered the silence followed by a few sniffles and a half-choked sob.

Bo paused. That sounded like Charlie… or at least a very upset female.

She was either near-by or someone was dying.

Switching directions Bo headed towards the sound. He found her a few paces away. She was against a tree, her knees up, her head in her hands. It was her who was crying and Bo found himself glaring down at her.

"There you are!" he shouted bearing down on her. Her head whipped up, her eyes lighting up when she saw him, in fact she almost smiled. He kept the flashlight pointed at her until he got to her.

"What's wrong with you huh? You got lost? Huh? Tried to run away and got…" he trailed off because she lurched, her hands reaching out for him and he realized that her hands were bloody, did she land in one of Lester's carcass pits?

He kept telling him not to do that. But he also noted that she couldn't get up. Was… was she hurt, where was she hurt?

"What's happened?"

She looked down at her foot and he followed her gaze, pointing the beam of light down until he could see what she was freaking out about. "Holy. Shit."

He knelt down beside her and looked at the rusted bear trap that was clamped onto her ankle. Yeah, that would stop her from coming back. How long had she been in this?

"It hurts so much, Bo," she sobbed. "I can't… I can't get it off."

No she wouldn't be able to get it off, not like that, not on her own, and he didn't have his gloves. He looked it over and knew he wouldn't be able to do anything without tools.

"Get it off me, Bo, please!" she cried.

"Okay… I can't… I can't actually get it off of you right now," he said. Her chest started heaving, she was hyperventilating that wasn't good. "Okay calm down. Here's what I'm going to do… I'm going to head home and get…"

She suddenly lurched at him, gripping his arm tightly as she started to cry. "Please don't leave me. Please Bo, don't leave me all alone. Please. Please. Please."

Bo needed to her to stop, because her begging was doing all sorts of crazy things to his heart. "Okay stop it," he snapped trying to pry her hands off of him. "Uh… yeah… okay, I think… okay can you just let me go please?"

As soon as she let go he started digging around in the dirt and the leaves to try and find where the link was chained down. He jerked the chain slightly and she cried out and he winced.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find where the stake is okay? I'll try not to do it again."

"I just wanna go hoooommmmeeeee" she sobbed and his heart lurched again. Was she calling his place home? Really? Oh God… maybe she was bleeding to death.

He dug even quicker after that. He found the stake and practically broke a finger digging it out. Once it was free, he returned to her. She was in charge of the flashlight, and she gripped it tightly. Once she was set he carefully pulled her up into his arms. It was going to be a long walk back but he didn't care, he just needed to get her back home to get this stupid thing off of her.

They were walking for two seconds, two steps of silence, with her arms around his neck and her head resting against his shoulder when he decided that he needed to talk to fill the silence. He couldn't handle this niceness, he couldn't handle his strong, mouthy Charlie leaning on him.

"What were you even doing out here?" he asked as he held her close to him and started the long trek home.

"I… I was going to pick a Christmas tree," she whispered.

"A Christmas tree in the Louisiana forest?" he asked drily and she near sobbed again.

"Shut up Bo!" she cried. No snappy come back? Holy shit she must have been in all sorts of pain.

"Okay fine, and how were you going to cut it down?"

"I have the upper body strength of a potato!" she snapped. "Of course I wasn't going to cut it down I was gonna find one I liked, mark it off, then I was gonna drag your stupid smug ass out here and then make you cut it down."

Oh of course she was. That was so Charlie.

"Did you really think I was leaving?" she asked softly. When he nodded she asked: "Did Vincent think that too?"

No, he did not. But that wasn't what Bo said. "Yep. Course, what else was he going to think? That you would want to stay with him."

"But I do want to stay," she said to him. Bo swallowed his cry of surprised. He swallowed the urge to ask her if she wanted to stay for Vincent alone. She suddenly said: "It hurts so much I wish I could die…"

"You're not dying Charlie," he said to her. "It's gonna be okay. Okay? I'm gonna get you back home… and it's gonna be okay."

She mumbled against his neck and he knew immediately that he needed to get her back ASAP cause not only did he need to get this trap off of her, he also needed her to always be curled up against him… this was not good for him.

-HOW-

Vincent had gone around the town hoping she wasn't there, and she wasn't. That meant he didn't have to kill her, but it also meant that Bo was right, she had just left them.

By dawn he had given up hope of finding her. He had returned to the house with the intent to mourn her, but he was inside for two minutes before he heard the call of his name coming from the back. He went out to the back porch and found Bo coming up the steps with a bloodied looking Charlie in his arms.

"Keep the door open," he ordered, as he came up the steps. "I'm going to need hot water, the iodine and a lot of towels or bandages or whatever the hell we have. Rip up a sheet or something."

"What happened to her?" Vincent cried following after him. Charlie was roused by his voice, a hand lifting to reach out for him as he trailed behind Bo. Vincent gripped her warm sticky fingers and held on tightly.

"She stepped in a claw trap," he said. "We need tools to get it off."

Ha! She hadn't left him! She had gone wandering and gotten hurt, just like he thought she did.

"I knew…." Vincent started and Bo turned on him. "GET WHAT I NEED VINCENT!" he shouted and Vincent ran off.

When Vincent came back, Bo had Charlie on the kitchen island. She was sitting up but barely, her face was dirty, stained with tears and steaks of blood probably from her own fingertips. Bo was on his knees looking over her injury clearly trying to figure out how he was going to fix this.

He stood up and he and Vincent went about ripping up a sheet to have bandages to wrap around her ankle. Vincent looked over to find Charlie sprawled against the island.

"Bo… Charlie!" he cried pointing at her. Bo swore and rushed to her side rousing her and forcing her to sit up which just had her crying. She held his hand as he propped her up.

"It hurts so bad!" she sobbed to him and for a moment Vincent swore he saw fear cross over Bo's features, fear and pain. He knew then that this was serious.

"I know, okay, I know, but we're going to get it off of you," he told her. "Okay you got enough bandages?"

That last question was pointed at him. He nodded. "Yeah."

Bo nodded. "I have to get my tools," he told them, Charlie immediately reached out to him, and Vincent came to take Bo's place almost immediately. As he left, he frowned, as if he expected her to cling to him and beg him not to leave. "Keep her conscious."

Vincent nodded and Bo left. As soon as he was gone, as soon as he had an arm around Charlie's shoulder she slumped into him and he let her have it.

"Where did you go Charlie?" he asked softly as she cried into his shoulder.

"I… I went to get you a Christmas tree," she whispered. "It was gonna be my gift to you… a proper Christmas… to thank you for my sculpture."

She nuzzled a little closer into him and he held her a little tighter. This had happened because of him. He never should have told her that they hadn't had a real Christmas in a while. He never should have agreed with her when she and Bo argued about Christmas, maybe she would have stayed here and been safe instead.

Bo returned with gloves and pliers. He seemed surprised by the way Vincent was holding her but he blinked his eyes and chose to ignore it, instead kneeling down in front of her again.

"Okay Vincent, get ready," he said before turning his eyes to Charlie again. "Okay, now, Charlie… Charlie… this… this is going to hurt, okay? Cause, it's cut off the circulation so when you get circulation back it's gonna… uh… it's gonna…"

Vincent smacked his shoulder. "You're scaring her!"

"I want her to be prepared!" He snapped back and then looked up to her. "Okay? You got it?" he asked and she nodded. "If you need to pull my hair, just go for it okay." She nodded again, one of her hands gripped the edge of the island the other ran through Bo's hair. For a moment he shivered, their eyes connected, and then he cleared his throat and he looked back to her foot.

"Alright Vincent," he said. "You ready? Cause as soon as I pull this thing free, she's gonna start bleeding."

"I'm ready," he said. Bo turned up to Charlie. "Try to stay conscious."

"Okay."

Bo nodded, and then pried it loose with one giant tug. The bear claw trap fell to the floor, Vincent threw himself forward with the ripped up sheets they were using as bandages and Bo tugged her shoe free of her foot.

Charlie screamed, this agonizing wail that pierced Vincent straight to the heart. By the time they had finished wrapping her up she had collapsed against the kitchen island. Bo stood up and tapped her face. "Stay up, Charlie, open those eyes… now!"

"Stop hurting her!" Vincent cried, pushing him away. As soon as he was away, Charlie's hands gripped Vincent's shoulders. He pulled her up into his arms and held her tightly to him as she cried into his embrace.

"It hurts," she kept crying to them and Vincent felt like he might cry too.

Bo put a hand to her back. "You'll be okay, its okay now." She nodded softly but, selfishly, Vincent pushed Bo away from her wanting him to stop touch her.

"Get her ice, make her tea, do something," he hissed. Bo scowled at him but he did as he was told, which left Vincent to carry Charlie to the couch. "It'll be alright," he whispered to. "I have you now and it's going to be okay."

-HOW-

But it wasn't okay.

Charlie got worse. Despite disinfecting it over and over, her wound got infected. It started to leak pus, it wouldn't stop bleeding or scab properly and it apparently hurt more and more by the day. By the third day she was feverish. She was subdued and no longer argued with them. Her appetite left her and she did nothing but sleep.

They took shifts with her. They took turns helping her up the stairs and to the washroom. Every night, Bo would carry her up to Vincent's room and let him stay with her to make sure she was alright overnight. Bo had come to like the quiet hours he had with her as she was curled up on the couch beside him, but he would have rather had her arguing with him, because that would have meant that she was getting better.

On the fourth day, when she asked to stay in Vincent's bed, Bo who had been carefully carrying her up and down the stairs every day, was slightly put out. But apparently moving hurt and she just wanted to sleep, so instead of taking her downstairs to sit on the couch with one of them and watch TV, read or sleep, he let her stay up there. Bo and Vincent made her soup and tea. By lunch she had eaten none of it but drank part of the tea. Vincent made her another cup and Bo reheated her soup and then the two of them tried to make her eat it.

But Charlie couldn't keep her eyes open or any food down.

After another failed meal, Vincent took Bo aside. "She's getting worse," he said as if Bo had no idea.

"I'm aware, Vincent."

"She needs a doctor."

"She'll be fine," he snapped. But he had a feeling that she wouldn't be. She really needed help but there was no way to get it to her without raising attention to them and their ghost town.

"If she's not… what… what do we do?"

"We can't take her to the doctor Vincent," he said. "They'll ask where she came from, she'll sell us out immediately. It's too much of a risk."

They didn't talk about it for the rest of the day. And when night came as Vincent lay himself down beside her, Bo watched from the door. He had done this every night. Charlie's back would be to Vincent and she'd seemingly relax into the hand he'd put on her back to assure her that he was there.

Vincent seemed to sense him because he half turned to his brother and asked: "Would you like to stay?"

He would, actually. He had been trying not to show it, but he worried. He was worried for her and he wanted to see for himself if she got better or worse. He lay on the other side of her, her green eyes were in slits, blinking lazily at him. She reached out and put a hand to his chest, her fingers gripping his shirt very tightly. She smiled at him before slowly closing her eyes again.

For a moment there… it felt like she might actually like him. That maybe, things would be okay after all.

The problem was, when he woke up the next morning, it was cause she was groaning at him, or just groaning in general.

She was still beside him, her eyes were open but they were foggy and not focusing on him. Bo put a hand to her cheek and she was sweating she was so hot. She made that noise again, that guttural groan and Bo was suddenly up and hovering over her.

"Charlie… Charlie can you open your mouth?"

She suddenly shuddered this terrible shaking that tightened her body and had her eyes rolling back in her skull. Oh god, oh my god.

He slapped Vincent awake. His brother growled at him but this was more important than Vincent's dislike of early mornings. "Her jaw's locked."

That had Vincent up. "What?"

"She's running a fever, her jaw's locked and she having full body spasms," he said. "I'm going to check her ankle, but I need you to call Lester."

"What's Lester going to do?" Vincent cried.

"Vincent!" Bo shouted back. "For fuck sake, CALL LESTER! Tell him to come here NOW!"

Vincent scrambled away and Bo gingerly felt at Charlie's bandages which startled another groan out of her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whispered as he peeled back a few layers to take a better look at it. It was still bleeding, he could see pus leaking out of it and the edges were turning a blackish colour. Goddamn, tetanus and gangrene? Son of a fucking bitch.

"Okay, okay, Charlie," he said pulling her up into his arms and holding her tightly to his chest. "We're going to… we're going to fix this. I'm going to take care of this. I'm going to take care of you."

He took her down the stairs and then sat down on the couch with her in his lap. "Did you call him?" he asked.

"He said he's on his way," Vincent said, he appeared by her head to drop a soft damp cloth to her forehead.

"Good thinking," Bo said. Another spasm hit her and Bo held her tightly to him to ground her and help her through it. When it let her go a groan fell from her lips and Bo nearly burst into tears, god she sounded like she was in such distress, in such pain and he didn't know how to help her.

"Oh God, Bo, what if she's dying?" he asked.

"She's not dying," he said even though he was lying. She probably was and that hurt him. He didn't know why but it hurt him. "Lester's going to take her into town. I've thought of a back story for him. He's going to take her to the hospital and hopefully get her out before they can ask her any hard questions."

Vincent knelt down beside her and slowly stroked her hair. She groaned again before another spasm shook her body. They were getting more frequent. Fuck.

"Call him again, make sure he's coming," Bo ordered and Vincent rushed off to do it.

She moaned again and after making sure that Vincent was busy he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. "I'm not going let anything happen to you. Okay? I'm going to make sure you live and I'll protect you for the rest of your life."

She tipped her head into his neck and something in his chest fluttered.

"He didn't pick up." That better have meant that he was on his way. "Will this work, Bo?"

"If he gets here, yeah," he said leaning back with her tucked into him. This would have been wonderful if she wasn't on the cusp of dying.

After ten minutes of waiting and four more spasms, a horn blared outside. Vincent helped him get up with her and then together they went outside.

Lester watched him come towards them. "What the hell is that?" he asked. "I mean… when Vincent mentioned a girl I figured she was dead."

"Shut up," Bo snapped as he slid her into the car. He buckled her up and let Vincent stay with her, while Bo talked to their younger brother. "I need you to take her to a doctor."

"A doctor… and how the hell am I going to explain this?"

"Just tell them you found her stuck in a bear claw," he said. "You wrapped her up and you brought her to them."

"Oh just like that? And when she wakes up and they ask where she's been, what do you think she's going to say?"

"Fucking get to her before that!" Bo snapped. "The point is she needs a doctor and you need to take her there."

"No, we need to let her die."

Vincent practically flew at him. Bo had to put a hand out to stop him from attacking him. "As you can see, it's important to Vincent that she survives. So you better fucking make sure it happens."

Lester looked back at the girl in the front of his truck and sighed. "Alright, talk me through this backstory again."

Bo talked him through, gave him more details and then finally Lester got back in his truck. Both brothers stood shoulder to shoulder watching her leave them, worried, concerned, both wanting nothing more than to follow her, to be there when she woke up, but both of them knew it wasn't possible.

Something was squeezing in Bo's chest. He felt like he might actually be on the verge of crying. My god this girl had damaged him, but he couldn't bring himself to try and fix it, because fixing it meant Charlie not coming back.