Reposted Chapter.

Chapter Three: Of Mine

From your hair down to your toes,
you're not much, goodness knows.
But, you're so precious to me.

-Bette Midler

Cold winds and frequent thunderstorms kept almost every driver off the road. Every once in a while, a pair of lights shimmered across the wet tar and concrete, the car taking one of the many off-ramps instead of braving possible hale and lightening that lie ahead. Even the state troopers that usually tucked their cars into the shrubbery of the median relinquished their positions in favor of waiting for a call to come in. Truckers kept away from the long road, favoring route 467 instead of one that cut through the remaining wooded areas and mountain scenery.

With no one, not even law enforcement on the road, it made the ride for those on the highway an easy commute. And allowed a particular ambulance to make tracks toward a secluded air field where a private jet waited for its cargo.

"We're coming up on the exit now." Michael nodded, realizing afterward that the driver couldn't see the gesture. Honestly, he couldn't give a damn; all he cared about was the tiny, frail hand resting in his own. Running his thumb back and forth over the top of Nyssa's hand, he could feel her thin bones creaking under the slight pressure, the muscles, having almost no tone, seemed to slosh around with the simple motion. His blue eyes traveled up the mud-caked material of a shirt that barely fit her to her slightly cleaned face. Despite all of the movement, having an IV put in and blood pumped into starving veins, she never stirred. Soft, dull beeps registered the feeble beating of her heart as her chest rose and fell gracelessly producing shaky breaths.

With his vision so fixed on the dark hollows of skin and protruding cheek bones, he blinked in surprise when a pale hand came up to softly stroke the sticky strands of hair away from Nyssa's face. Looking over, he lost his breath for a moment. Never before had he seen Selene look so beautiful. For the longest time, the brown of her eyes dull and lifeless; now they had a rich glow that only intensified with the moisture laying on the surface. A mixture of unrestrained joy and complete horror blended perfectly to create a simple and gentle smile as she watched her sleeping daughter. One hand on Nyssa's forehead, the other tightly clasping the child's; it appeared that Selene comforted and received comfort at the same time. Michael knew only once before did the woman he loved ever show this kind of complete weakness...when she lost Nyssa.

Things inside the locked cabinets shifted slightly as the ambulance came to a stop. The driver and another lycan sitting up in the passenger's seat exited the vehicle quickly. Selene sighed and looked over into Michael's stare. Neither moved, just looking into the other's eyes with silent conversation passing between them. The cold air rushed into the cab as one of the doors swung open. Michael nodded to her, moving down to the bottom of the gurney and opening the other door.

Selene shut the last of the shutters, completely cutting the interior plane cabin off from the early morning sunlight. Looking at her watch, she realized it would be another hour until they landed in Colorado. Shifting her arms, she dropped her long trench coat into the set of seats that rested between the bathroom and the end of the cabin. Briefly, she rubbed her temples, the overwhelming emotions that still coursed rapidly through her causing a slight throb in her head. The soft sound of Michael speaking to Marie, a lycan nurse who was waiting in the plane when they arrived, caught her ears.

"We have loose scrub pants and a top that are about her size," Marie told him. "We have to change the IV out anyway. We can get her out of those clothes and wash her off somewhat before replacing the line."

Michael sighed and Selene knew he had nodded his consent. "Selene?" he called softly. She took a deep breath before moving back into the main cabin. The gurney was held in place with special locks and wires that came out from the floor of the plane. A few more of those locks held the machines and IV pole in place; preventative measures in case of turbulence. She perked her eyes up at his inquisitive expression.

"I'm going to get these clothes off of her," he explained, a pair of medical shears being moved between his hands. Marie turned back around from a recessed tray, handing him another pair and keeping one for herself. He sighed and held out the second pair, asking, "Do you want to-"

"Yes," she cut him off, moving over and taking the scissors from his outstretched hand.

Each of them picked a location and started slowly cutting at the dirty material that lay there. Michael started on one pant leg, Marie on the other, and Selene worked Nyssa's top. After a short struggle, Michael removed one shoe then the other, both far too small and both meant for the left foot. The tiny, water-logged toes curled inward, the arch of her foot bent unnaturally in a vain attempt to adjust to lack of space in the shoes.

Carefully, Selene slid the material between the blades and proceeded to cut slowly down the center of the shirt. As she moved down, more and more of the dirty, pale skin came out from beneath the sopping material. When she reached the bottom, clipping one last time to separate the two halves, she put the scissors down and gently peeled back the sides.

"Dear God," Marie gasped. Michael looked up from his struggle with the tough denim and felt his heart drop. At least twenty gashes and abrasions covered Nyssa's chest, some crusted over with dark scabs, others still raw and oozing with muck and dirty water resting in the opened flesh. Selene stood completely still before turning around and grabbing a rag Marie soaked in warm, soapy water out of its tray and started to wash the wounds.

Ripping material caught Michael's attention as Marie finally gave up with the scissors and just tore open the pant leg wide open. Following suit, they soon slipped the disgusting clothing from beneath Nyssa and tossed it into a biohazard bag. Bony and bruised, her legs mirrored her chest's injuries with black and blue skin off-setting the deep cuts that started at her calves up to her thighs. Marie handed him a lap pad and began to clean each of the wounds. Michael carefully clipped away the small panties and laid the soft cotton pad across her hips to keep her covered.

No one spoke, the three of them too involved in their tasks to even notice the other. In the silence, the water being wrung out of wash cloths, the scent of freshly poured antiseptics, and almost inaudible sighs echoed loudly against the engines of the plane. The biohazard bag at the end of the bed slowly filled up with remnants of the child's clothing, used gauze pads, and wrappers from iodine swabs. Each of the more severe injuries were wrapped in a loose bandage; they kept hope that her starved body would respond to the fresh blood and start healing itself soon.

"Here," Selene whispered, wrapping her arms around Nyssa's torso, her hand cradling the child's head to her shoulder as she sat her up. Michael and Marie carefully slipped the scrub top over limp arms, Selene pulling it the rest of the way down. Michael eased a pair of loose pants up and tied the ties loosely, noting the prominent outline of his daughter's hip bones against her skin.

Instead of a sewer-soaked body, Nyssa lay on the gurney in fresh clothing, her injuries magnified against the clean cotton and soft fabric. Selene gently brushed her hand through her daughter's hair again, knowing she still needed to be placed in a bath to be properly cleaned. Marie left the main cabin and returned with a thick thermal blanket. The two women opened it up, shaking it out to its fullest length before placing it on top of Nyssa and tucking it in tightly. Colorado was quite cool in early November with snow already predicted to fall before Thanksgiving; Nyssa would need something to protect her from the cold until they got back to the house.

A muted humming proceeded the gentle voice of the captain, "We are about ten minutes out from the air strip. Please be seated as we make our descent."

"Is it true? They found her?"

"I don't know. But they took the jet back. They never did that before. Isn't it set up like an ambulance?"

"Yeah. God, I hope they found her."

"Its been almost five years now. One has to wonder about them though."

"Who? Selene and Michael?"

"Yes. I mean, were they looking for their daughter or her corpse after all this time?"

"I don't think either of them gave up hope on finding her."

"Doesn't mean they expected to find her alive."

Amelia pushed through the crowd roughly, slightly disturbed by the passing conversations. Most of the lycans tried to step out of her way, the vampires just shot her looks as she made her way to the four men standing guard of the empty hallway leading to the med labs. They nodded and moved aside as she passed by, carrying a set of warm blankets in her arms.

Pushing the swinging doors aside, she moved through the main lab and into the med room. It resembled a room in an ER, complete with a bed and life support machinery. It seemed odd for a group of immortals to have such things, but with a new phase of the war comes new weaponry and the need to have everything that could possibly be useful.

As she handed off the blankets to one of her lycan assistants, the nearly three hundred year old vampire went back to the computer terminal. As she waited for the status results for one of the machines, a curious thought passed through her mind. I remember Nyssa's delivery. Strange how things work out.

"Amelia!" One of the girls rushed into the med room. "They're coming up to the house now," she told her, holding the radio to her ear in order to hear the voices over the crackling radio; the med lab wasn't known for its fantastic reception.

"Is everything ready?" Amelia asked, slipping a pair of gloves on over her pale white hands.

"We have both human and cloned blood standing by for IV hook-up," another girl said, helping Amelia redo her ponytail. "Which should we use?"

"Human, at first. It gets the fastest and best response from the viruses." She nodded to the one holding the radio, "Where are they now?"

"Coming down the hall," the girl replied, putting the radio down to run over to the door. Just as she opened it, Michael came through backward, guiding the gurney while Selene and Marie pushed it into the room. Lining it up with the bed length, Michael locked the breaks and opened all of the restraints that pressed into the large blanket they wrapped about Nyssa. He unwrapped the blanket, exposing the tiny child to the bright lights of the room and three more sets of eyes.

:"On three," he said, slipping his hands under Nyssa's shoulders. Amelia and Marie braced her upper and lower back, Selene lifting her legs. "One, two, three," he chanted. In perfect unison, they lifted Nyssa off the gurney and onto the bed, the two lycan women guiding her from across the bed. Once she was on, they quickly moved the gurney out of the way and began to work on her.

Michael removed his jacket, tossing it onto an empty tray before washing his hands and arms and donning a pair of gloves himself. The IV kit sat on the tray, spread out and ready for use. Turning Nyssa's arm over, he searched for a moment before a tiny vein seemed to stand out enough to be used. With precision and skill scarcely used, he placed the line in flash and turned the IV machine on. A few beeps later, human blood slid down the tubing and into Nyssa's body.

"Excuse me," Marie said softly. Michael stepped to the side, watching with conflicted anger as she put a restraint on the child's small wrist. Looking over, he realized that the other arm and both ankles. When Nyssa woke up, she would be in a new place and surrounded by large machines and strange people. God only knew how she would respond at first; four-point restraints were a safe bet to prevent damage being done to her or anyone else.

"We'll start with the wounds on her chest," Amelia told him and Selene, who stood at the end of the bed. "They seem the worst. But with the blood, she should start healing on their own soon. How much did she get before?"

Michael blinked before quickly responding, "About a pint. We didn't have enough time to give her more on the plane. We tried to start cleaning the wounds as best we could."Amelia nodded, running her fingers over one of the cuts, pressing down enough that a clear liquid seeped out.

"I think she's already beginning to heal herself. I won't use sutures, only TAC." Everyone looked up as Selene suddenly left the room, going into the lab without a word. Michael gave Amelia an apologetic look before going after her, not noticing the fingers on the tiny hand he laid back on the bed as they slowly flexed.

Selene stood in the lab, a small black duffel bag sitting before her on the lab table. Shaking her head, she opened the bag and began rummaging through its contents and placing things beside it. A small pair of sneakers with white socks tucked inside one of them, a child's purple sweatshirt, a pair of black stretch pants, and a set of purple camouflage pajamas soon covered the steel table. Briefly, she ran her hand over the PJ top, the symbol of the moon cradled into a sun almost teasing her.

Selene and Nyssa. Moon and a new day. How perfectly opposite we are, Nyssa. Tears fell down her cheeks. Why?

Shaking slightly, she gratefully turned around into Michael's arms, the latter coming up behind her silently during her idle activity. Pressing her face into his shoulder, she sobbed softly, her hands sliding up and over her eyes to further hide her tears. "It took too much time," she whispered. "This took too much time."

"I know."

"God only knows how long it will take her to recover. Before she even wakes up." She raised her head and looked into his saddened blue eyes. "Michael-" He cut off her question, this time using a soft kiss to silence her worries.

They stood for a few moments, just pressing lips together, arms loosely wrapped each other. But Michael took another step, parting her lips with the gentle slide of his tongue. Immediately, she responded, allowing him to taste her as she tightened her hold on his shoulders. Over the last almost five years, they rarely went further than a brief, heated kiss. Both of them felt guilty by even thinking about any kind of satisfaction; they had a missing child and focused all of their energies on that.

Deepening the kiss further, they let go of their exterior world for a moment, knowing their child was receiving the best care possible and was under their roof. But both of them pulled back as a shrill scream reached their ears. Rushing back into the room, Michael caught Marie as she stumbled backward.

Nyssa was wide awake, tearing at the restraints on her arms and fighting off Amelia and the two lycan girls. Resounding snaps signified her tearing through the leather holding her left ankle and wrist. With a the freed hand, she started clawing at her other wrist, her barely extended fingernails cutting into her skin as well as the leather cuff.

Michael stood Marie up and looked to Selene. "Try to hold her still. I'll have to sedate her." Selene gave him a tearful look as he ran to the Pixius machine to get a mild sedative. "Selene, you have to hold her down, please," he called, punching in his access code quickly.

With a deep breath, Selene moved up to the head of the bed, nudging the one lycan woman out of the way before grabbing Nyssa's free wrist. In a flash, she pinned the child flat to the bed. Nyssa paused momentarily, a slight shock to her system, before thrashing against Selene's hold. "Get her leg," Selene ordered. Amelia and one of the girls held her leg down while the other placed a double cuff on her ankle.

"Done!" They let go and watched as the child yanked at the new restraint, vainly trying to free it once again. Already, it was noticeable that she was tiring; from the wild movements, now she only tugged at the leather straps, arching her back and grunting against Selene's hold. Only now did Selene realize that Nyssa had her eyes squeezed shut, tears slowly trickling out from beneath the tightly pressed eyelids.

"Open your eyes, Nyssa," she commanded softly, moisture building in her eyes as Nyssa began shake with sobs. "Please, please open your eyes. We're not going to hurt you," she whispered, leaning down to touch foreheads. "Please, Nyssa, open your eyes and look at me." With an audible sob of resignation, she slowly opened her eyes and looked directly at Selene.

Immediately, Nyssa ceased to move. The inky black of her hybrid nature melted away to reveal icy blue eyes. She looks just like Michael. The child stared into deep brown depths of Selene's eyes for a moment, searching, it seemed, for something.

Thinking quickly, she took one hand away, pressing her nail into her palm until a thin rivulet of blood ran. She pressed her hand to the child's face, watching as she flinched away, squirming as if she was going to be attached. Selene sat on edge, hoping somewhere within, despite their separation, her blood would spark some memory.

"Nyssa, please," she begged, "look at me. I would never, ever hurt you." Nyssa kept her face turned away still and with each second that passed, Selene felt a part of her very soul being burnt to ash. "Please..no one here will hurt you."

Finally, Nyssa relented and stopped pulling away from Selene. Keeping her eyes averted, she lifted her face into Selene's palm. A slight jolt went through the child when her cheek touched the blood. She sniffed softly at the liquid, unsure then curious.

Then hungry.

Her eyes came up, their natural blue depths almost the icy white Selene's took on in the deep of a blood thirst. Going on a brutal gut feeling, Selene brought her wrist to her lips and bit down on the cluster of arteries resting there. As she extended her arm back, Nyssa moved forward, latching onto it with a dying hunger.

That familiar sting then rushing sensation, like spinning under a star-lit sky, caused Selene to grab ahold of Nyssa and pull her close. Her head drooped down and she panted softly. She felt everything and nothing at all. But with the now threatening weakness, a thought pulsed through her as well. She'll see, she'll see, she'll know me, she'll know that I'm her-

"Momma?" Selene hadn't realized her eyes fell shut until she opened them again. When she looked into Nyssa's eyes, she could have sworn she saw her memories play across the beautiful blue orbs. She could see the first time she held a crying, newborn Nyssa, cradling her close despite having almost no strength; when she watched Michael hold her close to his chest, humming softly and looking into the sleepy gaze of his daughter. Every memory of her daughter, including the many times Selene cried herself to sleep with her name on her lips and the aching relief when she lifted her daughter from the sewer tunnel and into her arms.

She could see all of those memories in Nyssa's eyes, along with a disbelief and hope that these memories were true.

"Momma," Nyssa whispered, touching Selene's face gently. The child's bottom lip trembled as her face squished up with tears. It was obvious the girl had no idea that someone was looking for her, let alone loved her. Selene slid forward on the bed, wrapping Nyssa in a warm embrace as she started to cry again herself. She kissed her daughter's still wet hair gently several times, rubbing her one hand up and down her back. Thank you God, she prayed silently.

At a soft whimper, she looked and realized that Nyssa was trying to embrace her as well, but the cuffs on her wrists prevented the action. Quickly, Selene ripped off the restraints, sighing with a sob as Nyssa wrapped her arms carefully around her neck and pressed her face into her neck. Rocking back and forth, Selene whispered reassurances in her daughter's ear, telling her how much she loved her, how they missed her, and how sorry they were they didn't find her sooner.

Nyssa pulled back slightly, gazing into her mother's eyes. Selene smiled softly, kissing her nose, cheeks, and forehead before touching foreheads again. Her heart nearly burst as Nyssa gave her a tiny smile. The child looked to the left, her eyes filling with tears once more. Selene looked up and realized that Michael had been standing there for the extent of their mother/daughter interaction.

"Who is that?" Selene asked in a whisper. "Do you know who that is?"

Nyssa's lips moved around silently, her mind recognizing the man from Selene's memories but finding the name for him with some difficulty. Michael knelt down at the side of the bed, his eyes soothing and comforting as he smiled at his daughter.

"Da-daddy," Nyssa fumbled out, looking quickly to Selene who nodded with tearful assurance. Gently, Michael reached up and stroked her cheek before wrapping his arms around her. Selene turned to undo the straps on her ankles and found the three women standing across the room, holding the leg restraints in their hands.

Michael pulled Nyssa into his arms, lifting her off the bed as he held her. She nuzzled his shoulder before resting her cheek against his warm skin. He kissed her forehead, one hand massaging her head as he ran his fingers up into her hair. Selene held his other hand and he pulled her up into the embrace.

For the first time in nearly five years, they were a family again.

A/N: COMPLETELY REWRITTEN...the other version of this chapter sucked.

Until next chapter,

anthestria