Me here again…I've borrowed some ideas from other fanfics…if you read this and you wrote something that I borrowed an idea from, you'll know who you are. I also borrowed dialog from the movie…if you've seen it, you'll know it when you come to it. That's it…enjoy the conclusion to "Human Again"...it's a little shorter than the first part, but just as good…in my opinion, at least…

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"Okay, that's just gross." Abby was looking into a bucket that currently contained a substance that looked disturbingly like tomato soup. It smelled awful.

"You might want to move; it looks like he's not quite done yet." Hedges was taking way too much pleasure out of this, but Abby quickly moved out of the way as a deathly pale Hannibal lurched towards the bucket, barely making it before the entire contents of his stomach exploded out of his mouth. "I had no idea anyone's stomach could hold so much liquid!"

"I have to leave." Abby said, looking pretty green herself. No one paid attention as she left, since two of the four occupants of the room seemed to think Hannibal's activities were incredibly interesting, and the fourth was a little busy engaging in said activity. "What is that?" Hedges asked, sounding an awful lot like a fifth grader examining roadkill for the first time.

"Blood. Sounds like it's everything he's drank for the past few months. Smells like it too. Man, King, you reek." He gave her a shaky look, unsure whether he should be insulted or amused. He settled for amused, since it took a lot less energy.

"Well, whatever it is, it looks nasty. What does it taste like?"

"Hedges, right?" The man who was the subject of recent discussion asked. "Would you mind not talking about the contents of my stomach? Now is really not the time. Although if you want to try some for yourself, I'm sure you could find a spoon somewhere…" And with that pleasant thought, he returned to his bucket. When he was finished, he wiped some partially digested blood from his mouth. "I think that might be the last of it," he said, sinking to the floor. He felt exhausted, more so than any other point in his life that he could identify.

"So why was he puking blood? Wouldn't it all have been digested?"

"Well, vampires actually have a different method of digestion. I know you're not much for technical explanations, so I'll explain it in terms you'll understand. The digestive system of humans doesn't do well with large amounts of blood; it just can't digest it. So when vampires go through the change, their digestive system shuts down, or at least most of it does. A small amount of blood gets into the stomach each feeding, but not enough to make the stomach reject it. Since King's been a vamp for five years, he's accumulated quite a bit of blood, and his body needs to get rid of it now since his digestive system is up and running again. Thus the puking of blood, as you so delicately put it. And why it smells so bad; some of it has been sitting there for five years, so it's actually in the process of decomposition."

"Thanks for the science lesson," King chimed in, "But it still sucks. Can someone help me to the bed? I want to sleep, but I seriously doubt I could make it that far." He was so tired he was unable to even make a joke about either Sommerfield's explanation or his current condition. It was all he could manage to stay upright. Hedges walked over to where King sat and inelegantly dragged him over to the bed and somehow managed to get him into the bed. The two then left Hannibal to his much needed rest.

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Abby entered the room a few hours later, after being assured that King was asleep and no longer vomiting. She watched him sleep, amazed at how long he had lasted. He was nearing the end of the conversion back to human, and was sleeping easier. She decided to let Zoe in to see him once he woke. She had been bugging Abby since the moment he got there, but until now they hadn't been sure if that was a good idea; they all felt protective of Zoe, even though she was Sommerfield's daughter and therefore no actual relation to the rest of them, so they wanted to make sure King was back to his old self before they let her in.

Hannibal turned over, suddenly restless. He began tossing and turning, in the grips of a nightmare. She could hear him whispering "no" to himself over and over, first defiantly, and, as she watched, less so, as if he were pleading with whoever was in his dream. She couldn't let this go on any more; whatever it was, he didn't deserve it. She began to shake him, trying to get him to wake up.

He jerked awake, mumbling something incoherent as he did. "What?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. I was dreaming."

"I saw. You were tossing and turning."

"And you were concerned? Aww, how sweet. No, it just wasn't a very good dream, that's all."

"What was it about? You seemed pretty upset."

"It was nothing, really. Just about Danica…the horse-humping bitch. Even now that I left, she's still there when I close my eyes…damn it."

"Want to talk about it?" Abby was curious in spite of herself.

"Oh, no, are you one of those chicks who likes guys to talk about their feelings? 'Cuz, man, I've dated a few of those, and the worst was when they wanted to talk after sex. And all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there."

"No, I just figured you might want to get it off your chest. Plus, if you're going to be a part of this we need to know as much as we can about your past with vamps."

"All right," he said reluctantly. "D'you want the long version or the short?"

"The short is fine. Just the highlights is plenty."

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He took a deep breath. "You know the kind of woman that just screams trouble? You see her, and every warning bell in your brain starts going off, but you still manage to ask for her number? Well, that's all I ever hook up with. But this betty... whoa! She blew them all away in the shitstorm sweepstakes. I picked Danica up in a bar, and spent the last five years playing hide-and-go-suck as her little vampire cabana boy, until you found me and got me the cure. And that's basically turning a frown upside-down." He fell silent, waiting expectantly for Abby to say something.

"Well that's certainly the highlights. It doesn't explain your sleep-talk, but it's more than I knew."

"What sleep-talk? I don't talk in my sleep. I may sing, dance, or jack off, but definitely no talking."

Abby tactfully decided to ignore the last comment. Hannibal tended to avoid uncomfortable topics by making outrageous statements, many of which weren't true but usually made people stop talking about it. Unfortunately, Abby was not prone to giving up easily. "Come on, King, I heard you saying 'no' over and over, and I'm pretty sure you weren't talking to me, since I wasn't doing anything."

She wasn't going to drop it, was she. Fuck. He hated talking about stuff like this, mainly because it made him feel vulnerable, and he hated feeling that way. Danica had done a pretty good job of making him feel that way most of the time, and he tried to avoid it in any other situation whenever possible. However, he had a feeling that this chick was not going to let it go, so getting it over with now was probably the best choice. "Okay, you want to know what the issue was, fine, I'll tell you. Danica liked to play rough. Really rough. As in, she thought it was a hoot to keep me chained up in a room for her to play with whenever the fuck she wanted. And she wasn't gentle, either; most of the time, when she left I had huge gashes and scratches and holes all over. Granted, I was a vamp, so I healed quick, but it hurt like a bitch until it did. Plus, she would take advantage of the fact that I hated what I was, and she'd torment me with hunting and blood…like scratching herself until she bled when I hadn't fed for a while and teasing me with the blood, that kinda shit. Consequently, I've been having nightmares about the shit she put me through. Happy now?"

She looked stunned. Had he taken it too far? He hoped not; he couldn't afford to get kicked out now, in his current condition he'd be a sitting duck for Danica and her incest-obsessed brother. Abby looked at him and quietly asked, "Can I see it?"

"What! See what? I can think of a few things, but somehow I don't think it's what you're talking about, considering what we've been discussing."

"Your glyph, idiot. I figured you probably had one, and I want to see it so I can see if maybe we've run into the house before."

Oh. That made sense. "I guess." He pulled down the waistband of his pants until she could see the glyph tattooed on his skin. She looked at it, then motioned for him to pull up his pants. "Nope, don't know the glyph. It's not one of the twelve houses."

"Yeah, she's not a pureblood, doesn't belong to any of the houses."

Suddenly there was a light tap on the door. They both watched as a little girl entered the room and walked over to Abby. "Mommy said I could come in; she says the sick man is better now, so I can come look."

Hannibal looked at the kid. It had been a while since he had seen someone with such pure intentions. Until recently it had been people who saw him more as entertainment than anything else, and more recently it had been people who feared him on principle. But this kid, she had none of that; she had just heard about someone new in the building and wanted to investigate. It was a nice change of pace. "Hey, I'm Hannibal. What's your name?"

"Zoe," said the kid shyly. "Is it true you used to kill people?" Abby looked shocked. "Zoe, that's not a very nice thing to ask someone you just met."

"No, it's cool. Yeah, Zoe, I did. But I didn't like doing it, so when your friend here found me she took me back with her and your mom made me all better."

"Oh." She looked thoughtful for a minute. "Are you going to stay for breakfast?"

"I think I could manage that." He looked at Abby. "Can I ? Pleeeease?" He threw in the theatrics for the kid, making her laugh as he put on his best puppy-dog eyes and looked pleadingly at Abby. She sighed. "Yes, King, I think you can stay for breakfast."

"Yay!" Said Zoe, making Hannibal smile. He was definitely going to like it here. "My mommy says you haven't seen a sunrise in five years."

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"The sun's gonna come up in a little while. Wanna see?"

Hannibal grinned. It was about fucking time. Abby looked at him meaningfully. "I'm not sure if you're ready for this, King. We don't know how effective the cure is this soon, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to ash when you're so close."

He looked back. Was she crazy? "I'll be fine, Whistler, don't worry so much." He turned to Zoe. "Definitely. Lead the way." She grabbed his hand and led him down the winding halls to a small door. She opened it, standing on her tip-toes to reach the handle, then continued up a steep staircase until she reached a metal door at the top. She opened this one, and led Hannibal out onto the roof. "We have to wait. The sun's not ready yet."

Hannibal stood in the semi-darkness, wondering if Abby was right. He felt okay, but was he really? What if he did just burn into ash the minute the sun came up? Not that he'd care much if it did, after all, he'd be dead. But what about the Nightstalkers? They had helped him out, cured him, given him his life back. It would be awful for them to be so close to success only to have him die on them. But now it was too late to turn back; the sun was coming up.

He closed his eyes, reflexively flinching away from the sun. It itched a little, but no burning. He opened his eyes. It was a little bright after the dim fluorescent lights of the building below, but not unmanageable. Sunrise was really beautiful. And this one was especially so, partly because it had been so long since he had seen one and partly because it proved that everything was going to be different now. He looked down at the little girl beside him who represented his new life. He was definitely going to like it here.