Chapter 8: STRIKE AT MIDNIGHT

Conner and Kary broke apart, gasping for breath, only when Cordelia knocked on the door.

"Supper...and I picked up the hottest new release; I think it's called Darkness Falls." Cordy waited patiently for Conner to answer.

Slowly the door began to creak open and Conner's flushed face emerged. "Cordy, how nice to see you." he gave a weak smile while blocking Cordy's view of Kary. Cordy didn't pick up on the subtle hints and barged into his apartment, only to wish she hadn't.

Kary sat up on the bed, face red, breathless, hair ruffled and her shirt seemed to be crooked. It didn't take Cordy too long to figure out what they were up to, and all though she trusted both of them - she knew what it was like if you got caught up in the moment.

Instinctively her sister-sense kicked in and she abruptly turned to the door. "Conner, your father would like you to patrol with him tonight." Cordy started to edge to the exit in hopes that Conner wouldn't pick up on her whole slowly-separate-them-so-they-won't-hate-you trick.

"Well, can't we do it tomorrow? I mean it's not as if the hunts are dangerous - and he's got Gunn and Wes." Conner pleads with Cordy, hoping she didn't have a clue about what was going on.

"NO! I mean, no. I think it would be best if you went tonight... Cordy couldn't stand the look on Conner's face and she caved but you could take Kary, she probably needs the exercise." And with that, Cordy practically flew out of the door and the awkward situation.

Kary, who had remained silent and motionless, leapt to her feet and gave her sister a huge smile. 'This is like the royal treatment compared to the Lab. God, stop thinking about that place. C'mon, focus on happy thoughts - focus on Conner. Oh God! He's staring...he's walking towards me...his hand is on my waits, what the hell do I do? They never taught me this...'

Conner wrapped his arms around Kary's waist and brought her closer to her, 'what the hell am I doing? I don't even know her...but I can't help it.'

Conner lent closer until their noses touched and then cupped Kary's face while running his thumb down her cheek. Kary shuddered under his touch and inched towards his face. Their lips met and Conner's tongue started to flick at her lips. Kary threw her arms around Conner and then ... Cordy threw open the door.

"Let's go...the night is on and your father is waiting. Hurry, hurry,
hurry!"

Conner and Kary flew apart and nearly knocked over the TV. Reluctantly the two followed Cordy outside and found Gunn waiting in the car.

"So...what did you two do all afternoon?" Angel asked Kary and Conner as they tagged along behind Gunn and Angel - Wes had stayed to work on the blood samples.

Conner and Kary looked into each others eyes and then simultaneously stated "Nothing." But when Angel looked back he saw that they were holding hands and Kary was leaning on Conner.

"Yeah, whatever." Gunn may not have had vampiric senses, but he sure as hell knew what they had been doing.

Suddenly Kary gave a small twitch to Conner's side. There was a sharp ache in her stomach and she didn't know what it was. All of a sudden a wave of pain hit her and she dropped to the ground moaning under the strain to stay conscious.

"KARY!" Conner was down beside her before she could hear his call. She could feel Angel and Gunn come running up to her, but couldn't see, the pain was too much. It was like nothing she could have imagined.

But then it hit her...she could imagine it - hell she'd been through it. "Conner...I...I didn't..." But the pain hit her again and she couldn't speak.

Conner didn't hear the ending, but he knew what she meant. Kary hadn't taken her needle and now the pain - the pain he promised to not let happen again - had taken her. And it was all his fault, 'I just broke the needle...people take needles for lots of reasons...why the hell did I have to smash it?.' But he was snapped back into reality by Kary's screams.

"It's the needle...she needs the needle." Conner managed to stutter out as his father picked Kary up and started to run back to the hotel. Conner caught up with them and Gunn ran to the car.

"Well, I gave her some morphine, but I don't know how much its helping." Lorne stood at the end of Kary's bed as everyone in the room silently looked onto the twitching girl. On the way over Kary had fallen unconscious, but the pain also seemed to be less thanks to Lorne. Conner sat by her side, holding her hand.

"Let's just pray Wes has found something...shall we?" Cordy motioned everyone but Conner out and they all headed down stairs.

"Well Wes, what have you got?" Angel leaned against the wall and looked at Fred and Wes with the test tubes in their hands.

"Okay. We took the blood samples and compared them. This is Kary's blood...this is your blood...and this is the stuff in the needle." Angel was no scientist, but he could tell that something was not right.

"Why is hers bubbling?" Cordy glanced nervously at the tube.

"It's not really bubbling...its fighting Angel's blood that's still in there. But focus on this one Wes held up the tube full of the unknown It doesn't look like Angel's blood because it has a new ingredient in it."

Fred came in to explain it better, "The drug is called Nermian. It's a chemical that mixes two different chemicals...or helps them to adapt to each other. See, it is mixed in with Kary's blood so that Angel's blood can mix with it too...and then voila, super strength girl. The only problem is it wears off in about a week." Fred hung her head and headed back to the microscope.

"Well can't we just get the drug and mix it with mine? Then give it to Kary and voila...super strength girl again." Angel knew instantly this wasn't going to work because of the look on Wes' face.

"See...about that. The chemical caused too many experiments that turned out, well, wrong. So the government banned it...and I haven't seen it since ten years ago. It's very rare...very expensive and very hard to transport. But even if we did get some, I would have no idea how much to give Kary. And the wrong dosage could be fatal." Wes handed the tube to Fred.

"So what? You're saying there is no cure for my sister...that I just have to watch her suffer?" Cordy was crying and couldn't figure out why Wes didn't know what to do...he always knew what to do. Angel put his arms around her and could feel her shake as she sobbed over her new found sister.

"Well, there is no known substitute so no, there is no cure. And, remember when we took your blood Cordy, to compare to hers...yeah, she's not your sister."