Chapter 53

Make It Rain

Intro song: Miracles, Coldplay

The scream shattered the early morning silence, seeming to hang in the air. Gabrielle was just pouring a much-needed glass of liquid nourishment when she heard it, and her heart sank. Fearing the worst, she dropped the tumbler, whirled, and hit the study door like a linebacker, throwing it back against the wall so hard the doorknob gouged a hole in the plaster. She flew back down the hall at top speed, Josef hot on her heels.

Beth was standing in the doorway of the freezer room, mist coiling out around her as the frigid air collided with the warmer, moist atmosphere in the hall. Her vivid blue eyes were wide with shock.

Gabby skidded to a stop and grabbed her, enfolding the trembling woman in her arms. "It's okay. It'll be alright," she said soothingly. In her heart she knew that, if Mick were dead, things might never be all right for Beth again.

Josef crowded past them, his heart in his mouth. Bracing for the worst, he charged up to the bench where the injured vampire lay stretched out...and stopped in his tracks. "He's- he's not dead!"

"Of course not!" The light from the broad hallway framed Beth in the doorway as she jabbered excitedly, "He woke up! Mick woke up!" Her eyes wild, she grabbed Gabby's arm and tugged her back into the freezer room behind her.

Josef frowned, looking from the excited young woman to Mick's still, gray form. "Beth, what did you think you saw?" he asked with a patience he did not feel.

Furious at his tone, Beth shook Gabby off and turned on the elder vampire. "I know what you're thinking, Josef! I did not hallucinate it and I'm not seeing things! Mick woke up! He talked to me! I didn't make it up!"

John Spector, summoned by Guillermo, who had also heard Beth's scream, arrived just in time to hear her last statement. "Tell me exactly what happened, Beth," he said, his voice calm and reassuring as he made his way over to the quiet figure on the bench.

Beth took a deep breath. "Gabby and Logan left, and I went over to check on Mick. I kissed him and then I realized he was kissing me back! He opened his eyes and talked to me, and then he went back to sleep." Her eyes roved from Spector to Kostan. "You have to believe me. I'm not crazy. Mick woke up!" Her voice was pleading now.

"I believe you wanted that to happen, Beth." Josef's eyes were sad, his voice gentle.

Frantically, she turned to the physician. "Dr. Spector, check him again. Please!" I'm not insane,, he talked to me!

Spector moved over to the bench and examined the vampire carefully for several long minutes, pressing and prodding the unconscious vampire. When he turned around to the anxiously waiting group, his eyebrows were raised in surprise. "He does appear to react slightly now to pain and pressure, which does not happen with deeply comatose patients – and wasn't happening with him after the surgery. It is feasible that Mr. St. John might have regained consciousness temporarily."

"Can you wake him up again?" Josef asked, his keen eyes traveling over his friend, vampire senses on the alert, searching for any sign that Mick was recovering. Nothing.

"Well..." Spector hesitated, chewing on his lower lip thoughtfully. "It should be possible to bring him around with a large bolus of epinephrine if he is in a deep sleep as opposed to a coma." He looked up at Josef, his eyes bright above his gray beard. "Yes, it should be possible."

"Without harming him?" Gabby interjected, putting an arm around Beth protectively.

"I wouldn't suggest it if there was any chance of it harming him, Gabrielle!" Spector responded huffily. "Epinephrine is adrenaline, a naturally occurring hormone. It is the drug of choice in anaphylaxis, for example - speeds up heart rate, constricts blood vessels, opens airways. I always carry a few Epi-Pens with me for that very reason. Most physicians do. It will not hurt Mr. St. John, even in his weakened state. He will still metabolize it almost instantly - but it may be enough to give him the jump-start he needs."

Josef glanced over at Gabby and Beth, still standing together. Both women nodded. "Do it," he snapped. The interminable waiting had grown intolerable for him. If Beth were hallucinating, he would ban her from the freezer room and force her to rest, even if Spector had to drug her to get it done. If she wasn't hallucinating... I'll throw the biggest motherfucking Fourth of July party Temecula has ever seen!

"I'll have to get it from my bag." Spector waited for acknowledgement from Kostan, ever-vigilant to his reactions since their altercation before he operated on Mick St. John. When Josef signaled his consent, he left the room, the vampire's eyes following him.

The billionaire caught Guillermo's eye and motioned him over. "Go with him," he ordered, in a tone too low for Beth or Spector to hear. Gabby, however, jerked her head around toward him, an unspoken question in her eyes. Josef caught the movement, but ignored her. "Watch every move. If he draws up medication from a bottle, make damn sure you see the label." There was puzzlement in Guillermo's black eyes, but he simply nodded and hurried after the physician.

Gabrielle stared at Kostan, who shrugged and turned away. She hesitated, but decided to let it go for the time being. Victoria was always lecturing her that there was a time and place for everything - and Josef was clearly in no mood to be questioned or challenged right now.

While they waited for the physician to return, all three silently drifted to Mick's side, as if they had conferred on their course of action. Shivering, Beth bent over and kissed him lightly on the lips. There was no response. Did I dream it? She was starting to doubt her own mind.

Gabrielle noticed how violently the young woman was beginning to shake. "Beth, where is your coat? You're freezing in here!"

"In my room." Beth forced out through chattering teeth. "I'm okay." She refused to take her eyes off Mick, afraid that, if she did, that would be the moment he would open his.

Gabby took pity on her. "I'll go get your things. You can't stay in here without a coat." Glowering at Kostan, she spoke in a range that only he could hear, growling, "Talk to her, Josef," before leaving the two alone with the injured vampire.

"Beth..."

"I'm not crazy, Josef!" Beth interrupted, lifting her eyes from Mick to glare at his best friend.

Kostan's mouth twitched, his brown eyes sparkling with humor, despite the gravity of the situation. "Beth…my darling…you are dating - hell, living with- a vampire and you are standing in a freezer room at a vineyard overrun by vampires. Your picture probably shows up next to the word 'crazy' in the dictionary by now!"

Beth couldn't help smiling despite her worry. Her blond hair, held back from her face by a simple black velvet headband, swirled around her shoulders as she shook her head, acknowledging dolefully, "You are probably right, Josef. But, I'm not crazy about this. You'll see."

"I want you to be right, Beth, I really do." Moved by the look of hope on her face, Kostan put his arm around her slight figure, shaking so badly now from the cold that it was a fight for her to remain upright. Pulling her in close to him, he rubbed her arm and back vigorously as he grumbled, "Where the hell is Gabrielle?"

At that moment, the vampire in question returned, Beth's coat and mittens in hand, followed closely by Dr. Spector, who carefully held two odd-looking syringes in his hand as he made his way to Mick's side.

Guillermo trailed in behind them, catching Josef's eye and nodding almost imperceptibly. "It's epinephrine," he confirmed, his comment inaudible to the humans in the room.

"Just a minute, Doctor." Kostan stepped up to the physician as he reached for Mick's IV line. "Tell us what's going to happen here. How long will it take after you give him this for it to take effect?"

"Immediately. I'll inject it right into the blood transfusion. Of course, with a vampire, the drug will dissipate extremely quickly, but epinephrine – adrenaline, as you may know it - has an almost instantaneous effect, so that won't matter. It should be enough to wake him." Spector eyed Kostan uneasily, uncomfortably aware that the vampire was suspicious of him. "Do I have your permission to continue?"

Josef nodded curtly, but remained at the physician's elbow. The unspoken message was clear. I don't trust you.

Beth had been too busy pulling on the outerwear Gabby had thrust at her to catch the interchange, but the New York vampire had noted every word, frowning to herself. What the hell is going on? She resolved to have a conversation with Josef about it. But not now...

The tension was evident in each person's face as Spector injected the epinephrine into a port on the IV. Beth found herself holding her breath. She threw a quick glance at Josef. While he was outwardly calm, she could see a throbbing vein underneath the pale skin of his forehead, and his hands were curled into tight fists.

She turned her gaze back to the bench just in time to see Mick's eyes flutter open, his long lashes casting shadows on his colorless cheeks. "Mick!" she shouted, elbowing past the startled physician to reach the vampire and grab his hand.

"Beth." He managed to get just that word out before the space exploded with shouts of joy.

"I told you I wasn't crazy!" Beth proclaimed happily to the room, hugging Mick's hand tightly to her as tears streamed, unnoticed, down her face. She bent over and kissed him lightly on the lips, gratified to feel him again kiss her back. "Welcome back Mick," she whispered.

Gabby was also crying unabashedly as she hugged first Spector, and then Guillermo, tightly. "Thank you both! You are a miracle-worker, John!"

"Sounds like a party," the man on the bench croaked weakly, smiling up at Beth. "Who's got the scotch?"

Josef threw back his head and laughed long and hard with a mixture of happiness and relief. "In good time, my friend. All in good time," he quipped, leaning over the bench where Mick lay. He managed to get out, "Good to have you back with us ," before he felt his composure begin to leave him. Unwilling to let the group see him break down, he wheeled abruptly and stomped out, grumbling, "I have to go make some calls and let people know," unaware that he fooled no one.

Beth brushed her lips against Mick's again, her eyes never leaving his face. From the grooves between his eyebrows and the set of his mouth, she could tell that he was still in pain. Not the intense, unremitting agony that had left him screaming in the kitchen three days ago perhaps, but yet he was still suffering. It seemed grossly unfair that, after having gone through so much, he would still be in pain.

"Dr. Spector, is there anything we can give him to make him more comfortable?" Beth asked, a concerned look in her eyes. She ran her mittened hand lightly across Mick's forehead as he grimaced.

"Well," Spector intoned thoughtfully, shoving his hands into the fur-lined pockets of the parka Logan had provided for him that first terrible day after the surgery, "The continuous drip of ketamine seemed to work well - but that would likely render him unconscious again. If I could get my hands on sufficient quantities of morphine, we could use that, but I'm talking about a lot of a controlled substance. I don't know if that is feasible - or even possible."

Guillermo chimed in. "Let me see what Logan and Ryder can come up with. I need to let them know Mick is awake anyway, or they'll kill me. Glad to have you back with us, man," the Latino said to his friend, touching him gently on the shoulder before hurrying out, crossing himself over what he considered to be a miracle. But aren't all vampires miracles in a way?

"Thanks," Mick whispered after him, raising his head slightly, and groaning as the simple act tightened badly-damaged abdominal muscles. He dropped back to the bench. "What the hell happened? I feel like a combine ran over me!" He looked up at Beth, his eyes an odd combination of silver and hazel in his bloodless face.

"What do you remember, Mick?" Gabrielle was standing over him suddenly, filling his vision. The vampire in her cried out for revenge and retribution, and she intended to learn anything she could from her friend.

He frowned as he searched his memory. Images were hazy and jumbled, mere snippets of events. But…"I remember..." He licked his dry lips and tried again. "I remember getting to Campo and getting out of the SUV with Carl. We split up and I got hit in the shoulder almost right away. We were all shooting... then, I vamped and almost ripped some guy's head off... "

He shook his head, his voice faltering with the pain the movement caused. "I- I know there's more, but it's so fuzzy to me right now... I just can't remember."

"It'll come back to you, Mick," Gabrielle said reassuringly. "I want every detail, anything, as soon as you remember it. What people looked like, how they sounded, smelled... If you got any glimmers of anything while you were there, I want to know. We are going to get these bastards, I promise you," she added grimly.

With a glance at Beth, she made herself back off. Not the time for this, Gabby. Forcing a smile, she added, "I think John and I need to leave you two alone for a minute. You've both been through a lot." She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, whispering, "I'm glad you're back too." Linking arms with the physician, she started toward the door, then turned back. "By the way, Mick - I understand now why you are so much in love with Beth. She's pretty remarkable." With a grin at the young woman, she pulled John out of the room, leaving the two alone.

"Could have told her that," Mick said weakly. "My Beth." He managed to summon the strength to reach up and touch her face, hovering over him, wet with tears. "Don't cry. Everything will be alright."

Beth's eyes roved over him, drinking in the miracle of a living, talking Mick St. John. She could feel her insides finally begin to unknot, her muscles relaxing as she allowed herself to realize that he was going to be alright. With that thought, the fear coiled inside her began to recede slightly. "I think," she said, taking a deep, tremulous breath, the cold air searing her lungs, "I can actually begin to believe that. God, Mick, when I first saw you, I didn't..." She couldn't finish, her words catching in her throat. Instead, she bent down to kiss him again, a tender embrace that contained all the heartache and love she had held inside her over the last three days as she waited to see if he would live or die.

When they finally broke apart, Mick was the first to speak. "Wow," he whispered. "What have I been missing?"

"A lot," Beth teased, stripping off her mitten to touch his cold face. Sobering, she admitted, "Most of it was nothing you would want to relive. And," she added firmly, her hand still against his cheek, craving the skin-to-skin contact, "nothing I want to go through ever again."

"I'm so sorry. For everything." His hand grasped hers and he turned his head to plant a kiss in her palm. His eyes - those strange, otherworldly eyes with their silver halo - looked at her with love.

"No apologies," she answered, sweeping her hair back from her face. "I just want you in one piece and well again - so I can kill you myself!" She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. Their depths were haunted by the nightmare of the past few days. "I thought I was going to lose you, Mick. I- " Despite her best efforts, she began to cry again, the tension and dread she had held at bay for so long, washing over her.

"Beth, it's okay!" Worried, Mick tried unsuccessfully to sit up. The pain was too great, however, so he tugged her down to him, wincing as he moved his arm. He noticed, for the first time, the IV tubing secured to the back of his hand, his eyes following the line up to the bag of blood hanging over Beth's head, swaying in the protective covering that kept it from freezing. The sight called up an unwelcome memory - Beth's voice pleading with him to drink blood as he was overwhelmed with a sensation of being engulfed by pain and drowned by the red liquid pouring down his throat... He remembered that - and he remembered the pain itself. Excruciating, stabbing, grinding pain in his gut, pain so intense he couldn't breath, couldn't speak, couldn't think...

He flinched, clutching Beth tightly to him. The feel of her tears falling on his bare chest, and her sweet-smelling hair brushing against his cheek, brought him back to the present. Maybe she was right - maybe there were things he shouldn't remember. Mick raised his other hand slowly and carefully, mindful of the pull any movement made on the incision that seemed to extend the length of his chest. What the hell happened to me? He had not experienced anything like this in all of his years as a vampire. Touching Beth's hair, he entwined his fingers in the long, golden strands. "Hey," he whispered hoarsely, tugging gently. He smiled at her when she raised her wet face to him, nose reddened from the cold and her tears. It wasn't like Beth to lose her composure like this.

"I love you, Beth. Everything is going to be all right - or it will be if you kiss me again like that."

Her smile this time was genuine. "I'd be happy to."

As her hand wound up around his neck, he spotted the heavy bandage on her wrist. "What happened to you?" he asked, cautiously touching the gauze where a few drops of blood had seeped through.

"Nothing," Beth replied evasively, avoiding his eyes. "I just- a knife slipped, that's all."

"That's not all - I know you well enough to figure that out even if I'm not all in one piece yet."

"Later," she said into his ear, her good hand playing with the hair at the back of his neck, the curls stiff from the frigid air. "Right now, I just want to kiss you." Lowering her mouth to his, her warm breath blew over his face, dissolving the frost crystals lodged there. Delicately, she traced his lips with her own, closing her eyes to savor the feeling. His mouth was cold, but soft, and oh, so familiar to her. The groan that rumbled in the back of his throat... this she recognized, the pleasurable sound so different from the agonized screams that had been haunting her sleep. Her joy deepened as she felt his hand tighten in her hair, holding her face to his...

"Time's up, Blondie!"

Josef had re-entered the room, the embracing couple oblivious to his presence. He smiled at the sight of them. Not only was this proof positive that Mick was getting better, he had been caught in a clinch. Perfect!

Beth reluctantly raised her head, protesting vigorously. "I just got in here, Josef! Mick just woke up!"

"Um... no. Nice try, though. You've been in here at least a half-hour since I left and you were here quite a while before Mick woke up. With no coat, no nothing.,Time for you to exit, my dear," he repeated sternly, making a twirling gesture with his fingers. "Out! Marguerite is making you, John, and Simone breakfast. I'm in enough trouble with her already over the state of her kitchen - there will be hell to pay if no one eats the meal she's prepared. Besides, Mick is gonna need his beauty sleep." He nodded toward his friend, whose eyelids were drooping.

Beth saw how Mick was fighting to stay awake and immediately felt guilty. He was still gravely injured and here she was, selfishly focusing on her own needs.. With one last stroke of his hair, she straightened. "I'm so sorry, Mick. Josef is right. You need to rest."

Throwing a murderous look at his friend, Mick rasped, "Josef doesn't know everything. It's you I need, Beth." His strained voice reminded both of them of the ordeal he had just been through.

"I'll be right here when you wake up. The more you rest, the sooner you'll be well." Beth bent down to kiss his cheek and whisper 'I love you'. It seemed inadequate somehow. Her eyes overly bright, she pivoted to leave, eyeing Kostan as she did so. "Coming, Josef?"

"In a minute," he replied vaguely, with a furtive glance at Mick.

Beth realized that the billionaire had had no time alone with his friend since the injured man awoke. Knowing how devastated Kostan had been and how hard he had worked to keep Mick alive, she relented. "Don't stay too long. As you said, he needs his beauty sleep." With a wicked grin at Kostan, she blew a kiss to Mick, her breath coalescing into a small vapor cloud that hung in the cold air as she exited.

Josef crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at his friend for a long moment after Beth left, his face stern.

"Oh-oh. Here it comes. What?" Mick forced the words out in his gravelly voice, shifting painfully on the tightly-woven mesh bench.

"You, my friend, are a first-class idiot!"

Mick opened his mouth to respond, but Josef held up his hand. "No! You just lie there and listen for a change! I'm going to take advantage of the fact that you can't walk away."

The elder vampire started pacing back and forth along Mick's bench, waving his arms animatedly as he talked, his movements stiff and angry. "Do you have any idea of what you put all of us through?! No, wait." He stopped dead for a moment. "Scratch that. Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?! All because you wouldn't listen. Not to Beth. Not to me!"

"Josef..." Mick croaked.

"I'm not finished!" Kostan thundered, his voice echoing off the soundproof walls. "If just one thing hadn't gone right... just one..." He waved a forefinger in Mick's face for emphasis. "You'd be one dead vampire. If Guillermo hadn't gotten to you in time... if we couldn't have flown Spector out here quickly enough... if Beth hadn't fed- ." Josef snapped his mouth shut, chagrined at his slip-up. Beth had made it clear to all of them that she did not want Mick to know what had happened in that kitchen. "Shit," he muttered, turning away.

"What do you mean, Josef? What did Beth do?" Mick demanded in a hoarse whisper.

"She did what she had to do to keep you alive, you ass! We all did. Now, let's get back to you and your lunatic, death wish of a life."

Mick frowned, his brow knitting in concentration as he struggled to dredge up images and memories that seemed to float on the current of his mind, bobbing just outside his reach. Abruptly, the taste of Beth's blood filled his mouth, that sweet taste unmistakable. He could feel her wrist against his lips, her blood pouring into him. He could taste her terror, her love - and her determination for him to live - with every gulp.

His face cleared and he looked up at Josef with his silver eyes. "She cut herself and fed me - that's what that bandage on her wrist is about. Isn't it?"

"Yes, she did, although she will probably stake me for telling you. What of it?!"

"I hate that she did that, that's what! That she felt like she had to do that!" Mick whispered, his voice tortured.

Kostan leaned over his prone friend. "She didn't have to, Mick. No one was in the room but you and her. No one 'made' her do anything- she wanted to, you idiot! Thank god Beth loves you enough to do what she did - although who knows why she does. If she hadn't, though, you'd probably be dead right now and we'd be planning your funeral. That's what I'm trying to impress on you! You were this close to being toast, my friend." He held his thumb and forefinger an eighth of an inch apart in front of Mick's eyes.

The injured vampire frowned. "I don't remember much. And what I think I recall...none of it makes much sense." He turned his head slowly to look around the room, grimacing with pain. "I don't even know where I am."

"You're at my vineyard in Temecula." Josef's sharp senses registered Mick's pain and he made a mental note to get Logan and Ryder working on acquiring a supply of morphine as Spector had suggested. "It seemed like the most secure, secluded place to bring you when you got your ass shot. Sorry, I stand corrected. Your ass is about the only part of you that didn't get shot or cut open!"

Mick made a face over the bad joke.

"Besides," Kostan continued, "we needed someplace where we could land my new helicopter. My shiny, new, I've-never-even-ridden-in-it helicopter. And, for the record, you owe me a detail job on it. The fucker is brand new - and you got blood everywhere! It looks like a slaughterhouse in there!"

With great effort, Mick propped himself up onto his elbows. "Josef?" he gasped weakly.

"What?!" the irate vampire snarled.

"Is there anything you aren't mad at me about?"

"Yeah." Kostan's tone softened. "You didn't die on me."

Mick slowly, painfully, eased back down onto the bench, a lopsided smile forming at the corner of his mouth. "Glad I could oblige... dad"

"Told you before, I'm not your sire. I just re-turned you! Can you also please oblige me by telling me who the fuck shot you? Because I want the bastard..." Josef's eyes reverted to the icy blue stare of a pissed-off vampire, and he bared his fangs, keeping his fury in check with difficulty.

"Sorry, Josef. One of the things I can't remember yet. But, I have this weird feeling that I know who it was." Mick's voice was growing steadily weaker.

"Whoever did this had to know you're a vamp, Mick. And, they aren't playing around - they shot you with hollow points filled with silver fragments and dust. Guillermo and Spector had to cut you from stem to stern to get most of it out. They couldn't get all of it, though, which is why you're hurting now. It's a damn miracle you survived at all!"

Josef tried to get himself under control. The more he thought of what Mick had gone through the last several days - what they all had gone through - the more his bloodlust rose. That's not how you're gonna get revenge, Kostan. He took hold of his emotions with difficulty and gradually, his eyes returned to normal. "I want them, Mick. So anything you remember, whenever you remember it, I wanna know. No matter how small the detail, got it?"

"Yes," Mick whispered, closing his eyes against the wave of fatigue and pain washing over him. "Got it. Gabby said the same thing. Gotta sleep, Josef. Sorry." He had more questions to ask - and answer. A lot more. His battered and torn body, however, was not up to the task. He gradually relaxed as sleep overtook him.

"You do that, Mick." Josef put a hand on his friend's bare arm for a moment, thanking whatever passed for a god that Mick had been spared. This time, he thought grimly. Well, he would ensure that this didn't happen again - not to Mick, nor to any other vampire. "You've got my attention now, you bastards," he growled.

Kostan glanced up at the hanging blood bag, a move that had become reflexive for all of them over the past several days as they kept blood pouring into the injured man. Seeing that it was half-full, he made his way toward the door, pausing once to look back at his silent friend, the still-raw incision a long, crimson line on his pale body.

"I'll make them pay, Mick," he promised, then left to find Beth, Gabrielle and the rest of the vampires, who were, no doubt, celebrating somewhere in the vineyard with his best wine and blood. And Simone...

End Song: Make It Rain, Sofia Karlberg