Chapter 11: Bourbon & Burn Victims
Jeremy paused the first-person-shooter game after the second creaking floorboard. His room at the Salvatore's was finally all set up, new television and gaming systems included. Maybe Damon felt guilty for all those times he had threatened to kill him - and the one time he did. Or maybe he just wanted to keep the kid out of his hair. Either way, the teenager wasn't complaining.
Damon and Elena had taken off for the airport this morning and Stefan was still, well, no one really knew where. Matt and Rebekah were off traveling and - Jeremy didn't really want to think about whatever else they were doing. Tyler was off helping another pack out of state and Bonnie - Bonnie was sitting right next to him, but was still the farthest person away.
"Did you hear that?" He turned to the ghost.
"I was a little busy trying to figure out who the bad guys were in the game. I think they should color code. Or you know, shirts and skins."
Jeremy couldn't help but grin. Even in death, Bonnie was always trying to make him feel better. Make him smile.
"No one should be here."
"Maybe Stefan's back."
"Yeah, maybe."
Jeremy mumbled the words as he turned the game back on and set down the controller. The noise wouldn't do much to mask his footsteps, or breathing, or even his heartbeat, from an intruder of the supernatural variety, but it was still worth the try. Alaric had taught him how to walk without making a sound and he did just that, slowly picking up his crossbow off the table as he passed it.
The teenager made it all the way down the staircase before a floorboard turned traitor, groaning underneath him. There was a whoosh and Jeremy had his weapon raised before the mess of blonde hair had stopped moving.
"Jeremy!"
"Caroline?" The kid let the crossbow fall to his side. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, just, you know," she bounced up on her heels and glanced around, "needed to refill my blood bag stockpile at home. Figured the others weren't around and wouldn't mind."
" Caroline ."
"Okay, fine!" The vampire threw up her hands. "I came here to see - you."
"Me?" Jeremy lowered his chin and lifted his brow.
"Yes, you. Is that so surprising?"
"Uh, yes?"
"Everyone else is gone. Elena and Damon are on the other side of the country. Tyler and Stefan and Bonnie - none of them will even return my calls! This is our last summer before college. We should all be here, enjoying it together. Instead, all my friends have left me so I decided I'd come here and talk to you."
"Gee, thanks."
"You know we're friends," Caroline rolled her eyes. "Look, I was sad when you died,
okay? Sad for Elena, yeah. But sad for me, too. I've known you your whole life and you know something, we've never hung out, just the two of us. I know you're my best friend's little brother, but still. I know you liked Bonnie, and she was totally into you, and I'm pretty sure you two were more than friends for a while there. And you and Matt are practically besties. And Stefan and Damon have this whole 'older brother' vibe going on with you."
"What's your point?" Jeremy asked, not unkindly and with a grin.
"My point is that if the two of us have to spend this summer alone, well, we might as well spend it alone - together. Get to know each other. Be friends beyond all the 'life or death' moments. And drink. Lots of drinking."
"Ah- ha . So that's the real reason you came over here." Jeremy shuffled over to the liquor cabinet, successfully stopping any tension or sadness from seeping into the conversation.
"Damon might be an ass, but he does have good bourbon."
"I can't believe you dated Alaric and you don't have a single drop of bourbon in your apartment," Damon shut the cupboard doors and returned to the sitting room.
"Damon, is this really the time?" Elena stepped out of the bathroom, carrying Meredith's medicine bag.
"It's always the time for bourbon," Damon shrugged. "And, for the record, it wasn't for me. For wolfy over there. Back looks likes it's going to start pussing and oozing infection all over the carpet."
"How selfless of you," Meredith rolled her eyes, taking the kit from Elena and pulling up a chair next to the injured werewolf who had been deposited face-first onto the couch by Damon.
While not exactly tactful in his statement, Damon wasn't wrong. The Alpha's back was shredded, strips of shirt stuck to blistering skin that had started to bubble and bleed - and glow.
"What the hell?" Meredith unzipped her bag but paused.
"I've never seen wolfsbane do that to a werewolf," Elena gasped and shook her head.
"You put wolfsbane in a grenade ?" Erica made to lunge at the girl, stopped by the hand on her wrist.
She glanced down at her Alpha as he ground his teeth and gripped her arm. "You remember what I taught you?"
"That was for bullets," Erica gawked at him. "This is - Derek, this is bad . Your whole back - the wolfsbane - it's everywhere . Besides, it's already burned. You want me to burn your entire back, again?"
"What are you talking about?" Elena eyed the two of them. "Meredith can treat him and he'll heal. We've seen it before. Well, not the glowing."
"You've got to be kidding me," Damon shook his head. "You're those werewolves, aren't you? I thought you'd gone extinct years ago."
"Damon, what do you mean?"
"These wolves aren't born," Damon gestured at the Alpha. "Well, he is. I can smell it. But these wolves aren't all born. It's not just in the bloodline. They can turn others. Ran into them before. Mostly weak."
"Not helping," Elena put up a hand and turned to the wolves. "What do we do?"
"You've done enough," Erica snapped.
"Burn it," the werewolf grunted from the couch and then groaned. "It has to be burnt out. All of it."
"You want us to set your back on fire?" Elena swallowed. "Can you survive that?"
"Control - the burn," he glanced from Erica to Meredith, "then patch - me up. I'll heal - eventually."
"We're talking third-degree or fourth-degree burns here," Meredith shook her head. "Worse."
"If we don't - do it - I'll die. Wolfsbane - will kill me."
Meredith stared into his hard gaze for a moment before taking a breath.
"Okay, okay. We do this. But we do it smart. Damon, I'm going to assume you have a blow torch or something in with those weapons of yours."
"How did you -"
"It was Ric's bag, after all," the doctor smiled sadly at Elena. "Damon, you're going to burn the affected area, carefully . Doing exactly what I tell you to do."
"No way," Erica stepped between her Alpha and the others.
"He needs to do it," Meredith put a hand on her arm, "because I need you to be ready to fix him after and I need you to hold him down. And because you care about him. You don't need to cause him pain. You might hesitate - or blame yourself - if something goes wrong. Just hold him down."
"He's stronger than me."
"Elena will help," Meredith nodded. "Then she's going to help me."
"What do you need me to do?" Elena moved toward the werewolf's legs. She wanted to help and would hold him down, but that didn't mean she was going to risk getting bit.
"After it's done, I need you to go to the sink and get me a bowl of cool, not cold, water and some towels from the cabinet. I have bandaging but not enough. Damon, you're going to get another bowl of water and soap. Elena and I are going to have to cleanse the area. I have some hydrocolloid dressing and ointments in my bag," she dug them out and threw them on the coffee table along with the bandaging, scissors and a scalpel. "We'll pretty much be beyond them at that point, but it can't hurt to be ready. I might need to remove dead tissue, but there also might be bleeding I have to deal with. So if I tell you to hand me something, or to do something, you need to do it, Elena, okay? Things are going to get messy and I can't have anyone in this room lose focus, all right?"
The doctor looked to both girls, who nodded in return.
"It's Derek, right?" He grunted and Meredith picked up the scissors and began cutting the werewolf's shirt away. "Well, Derek, I'm going to give it to you straight. This is going to hurt, a lot."
Derek just groaned in acknowledgment while Erica stood at his head, arms crossed and watching the doctor's every movement.
"Ready?" Meredith glanced around her at the others. "Here we go."
The scene played out much like Meredith had described it would, except for the screaming, she hadn't warned them about that. Erica had never heard her Alpha make such sounds before. For the most part, Derek gripped his beta's hand and kept himself from thrashing too much. He had tried biting into the couch cushion, but just tore right through it. His body would lurch and writhe without his consent and Erica would take the shoulders, while Elena dealt with flailing and kicking legs. Until a few minutes in, when the werewolf went limp. Meredith checked his breathing and pulse regularly. Thankfully, Derek remained unconscious for the rest of it all. Unconscious, but breathing.
Surprisingly, Damon followed the doctor's instructions, though he didn't much need to. He knew his way around weapons. He kept the flame just close enough to lick and burn the wolfsbane away. The fire took skin with it too, there was no avoiding that. But Damon had an almost surgical precision for doing the least amount of damage possible. Meredith had been worried the vampire would obey, but be careless, setting the werewolf's back aflame without caution or concern. She was pretty sure Elena's hard gaze on him had something to do with it.
Meredith and Elena made quick work to soak the newly discolored skin. There were less blisters than before. Derek's back bled between sickly shades of black and white and red and yellow. There were patches of it just missing in some places, places where Damon had had to burn just a little deeper. Sometimes the shocks of white between the chaos wasn't skin at all, but bone. They peeled away dead tissue and cleaned what they could, Damon and Erica bringing them new bowls of clean water and more towels, and even Meredith's bed sheets. Between the bone and blood and blisters and bandages, the women worked in shared silence. After retrieving another bowl, Erica picked up a rag and started to help. While the strangers tended to her Alpha's back, Erica tended to his face, flushed with sweat and pain. She cooled his brow and wiped away the blood from a few minor cuts from the fight. She was still soaking his forehead when his back was finally bandaged and the other women sat back on the floor and coffee table.
"Pup's patched," Damon declared, breaking the silence. "Let's go before -"
The body on the couch shifted and groaned and Meredith was there, leaning over the younger man before his eyelids had finished fluttering open.
"Hey, welcome back. Don't try and move. We've done what we can, which isn't a whole lot outside of the hospital. But you should be able to heal now, given time."
"Thank - you," Derek's voice cracked and he swallowed halfway through.
"You shouldn't move from this spot, really, unless you need to." Meredith started collecting to bloodied towels together. "Even then, someone's going to have to help you. You're welcome to stay here until you're well enough to move on your own."
"How do we know we can trust you?" Erica seemed to suddenly realize she was still pressing the cloth against her Alpha's brow and fumbled it, missing the way he looked up at her.
"Could ask you the same question," Damon twirled the blowtorch and pointed it at her.
"I was talking to her ," Erica snarled without raising her voice, "but I don't trust you either."
"Meredith's a friend," Elena stood and stepped in front of her boyfriend.
"Of who? You ? Is that supposed to make me feel better? I just said I don't trust you."
"She just saved him." Elena gestured at Derek.
"From something that was your fault."
"She saved your friend. The one that was in the car accident."
"Saved him? We don't know what she did to him. He was dead . He flatlined when they first brought him in. His father told me." And Derek stiffened at that, because he hadn't known. "People don't just come back from the dead.
Except Peter , Derek thought with an internal snarl.
"Oh, princess," Damon stood, making a scene of straightening his sleeves, "you don't know how wrong you are. Time to go, Elena."
"Wait, what?"
"We thought that they were the evil werewolves that were going to hurt Meredith. We were wrong. Ergo -"
"You know about the Alpha pack?" Erica's head snapped up and she looked straight at the vampire.
"The what now?" Damon twisted his neck.
"You said you thought we were 'the evil werewolves'. So you must know about the others. Who are you?"
"We read about the 'animal attacks'," Elena explained. "We thought you might be hurting people, and that you'd hurt Meredith for what she did."
"And what, exactly, did you do?" Derek groaned out as she helped him sit up. "Do you have magic?"
"Me? No. No way. My skills are all strictly medical."
"Then how did you heal him?"
"You heard the woman," Damon motioned, "kick ass medical skills."
Before anyone else could speak, the door to the apartment burst open and two young and panting werewolves came barreling in.
"Derek, we have a problem."
A/N: I am not a doctor, nor am I a wolfsbane expert. On TVD, wolfsbane grenades burned and blistered and whatnot, but they healed. In TW, wolfsbane needs to be burned out of the body. So, I improvised combining the two. But - hooray! More characters! And for every review, I'll add another one. Just kidding, they are all coming, I promise. But reviews wouldn't kill me, either. They just might make poor Derek heal faster, too...
