Story I – Chapter 9
Kahlan pulled Hotch to her and embraced him in a huge hug. "We'll get through this, Hun."
He sighed as he held her close. "If you say so."
She leaned in even closer to his chest for a moment and the pulled back and smiled. "Your heart's beating."
He stepped back and focused internally and realized he was also breathing even though both his heart and his lungs were slower than they ever had been before.
"You feel that, right?" she asked as she searched his eyes.
"Yes." He ducked his head a little. "I thought it was yours I was hearing," he added sheepishly.
"Mine?"
He shrugged. "I can hear yours, too. I can also hear Dave, Chuck, and Bartles talking in the other room."
Her eyes got wide. "Wow. That's kind of cool, bionic hearing."
He huffed. "Kind of creepy, you mean. It's like your heart is calling out to me. . . wanting me to take you," he offered as he turned away from her.
She frowned. "You want to kill me?" she asked softly.
He turned back around quickly. "No!" He half shrugged, half shook his head. "When the hunger was bad, I could hear people's hearts beating and it was like a dinner bell calling."
She studied him. "Are you feeling that way right now?"
He stood up straighter and shook his head. "No, but I can still hear it."
"But it's not urging you to feed?"
"No."
"Well, then. . . I guess that. . ." She shook her head. "There's no use speculating. Bartles said he would explain everything. Let's get you cleaned up and go talk to him. If he can live a semi normal life, then you can."
He took a deep breath. "I guess it can't hurt to see what he says."
She licked her lips. "Aaron. . ." She went to him and put her hands on his waist. "Bartles told me what you wanted him to do. Please don't tell me you still feel that way."
He cringed a little. Letting him kill me would be the easy way out, but. . . He gave her a small smile. "I promise to hear him out and try to figure out a way to make this work." He put tender hands on her cheeks and locked eyes with her. "If there is a way for me to stay with you and the kids, then I will do my best," he vowed.
She smiled. "That's the only thing you know how to do, so we'll be fine," she urged and leaned up and gave him a quick kiss.
He smiled. "You think he has a shirt I could borrow?"
She giggled. "I'll go ask. The bathroom's right through there," she told him as she pulled away from him and pointed to the doorway off the far end of the room.
He nodded and headed towards it but stopped and turned back to her. She saw him and stopped and looked at him. He gestured to the room around him. "How old do you think he is? This place doesn't look like it belongs to a twenty something year old guy."
She shrugged. "If all these antiques were bought new. . . I'd guess over a hundred at least."
He huffed as he shook his head and started for the bathroom. "And a last week I thought my biggest personal problem was figuring out what to get Jack and Joey for their birthdays."
She giggled and went out the door.
XXX
After Hotch had cleaned himself up, Kahlan came in the bathroom with a long sleeve, button up shirt. "The detective says he thinks this should fit you," she offered as she handed it to him.
He nodded and started to put it on. "As long as it buttons."
"I like the color," she offered as she started buttoning it for him; it was a dark teal. He huffed and she smiled. "What? It looks good with your eyes," she insisted.
He rolled them. "I bet it looks great with fangs, too."
She shook her head at him. "It would still go with your eyes even when they change."
He frowned. "What do you mean, change?"
She bit her lip. "When you have fangs, your eyes change color."
He took a step back. "Change color? Into what?"
She gave him a small smile. "Yellow with a red rim."
The shock was clear on his face. "What?"
She shrugged. "I've seen costume contacts sort of like them."
He sighed. "I didn't realize."
Her brows furrowed. "Did you notice seeing anything differently?"
His eyes darted around for a few seconds trying to remember back. "Not really, but I think my mind was focused on the hunger so much that I may not have noticed anything else. Hell, I could have been missing a limb and I don't think I would have noticed it."
She nodded as he tucked his shirt in. "You have a lot to learn, but hopefully Bartles will help with that."
He took a deep breath. "Let's go find out."
She grabbed his hand as she smiled. "Come on, I'll show you where they are."
He pulled back, though, and made her stop and look at him. "You don't sense anything bad from him, do you?" he asked seriously knowing she was very open to stuff like that.
She shook her head. "No. In fact, I kind of like him so far, but I have a few questions he needs to answer properly before I really decide."
He raised one brow. "Just a few?"
She smiled. "A few that he better answer to my satisfaction or I'm going to kill him."
Doubt filled his eyes. "If he can be killed." He remembered the little voice telling him that he couldn't be.
She giggled her evil giggle. "He can be killed."
"How do you know?" he asked her as he pulled her back away from the door even further.
"If you would have seen his face when I threatened him. . ." She shrugged. "He may be faster and stronger than anyone I've gone against, but I saw the glimmer of fear in his eyes when I held that stake up to his heart. He can be killed," she insisted.
His eyes went wide. "You threatened him knowing or at least suspecting he was a vampire?" His look told her he thought she was crazy.
She shrugged. "I thought he had done this to you to harm or whatever," she offered and then shook her head. "But I truly think he was more worried about finding you than me harming him. He seems to really want to help."
He took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's see exactly how much."
She nodded and took him to them.
Chuck and Bartles stood up as Hotch and Kahlan entered what Hotch would consider a living room. Chuck smiled at him. "I knew you were tough, Man, but to cheat death. . . That's even ballsy for you."
Hotch shook his head as Rossi rolled his eyes. Kahlan gave Chuck a dirty look. "Shut up, Chuck."
He shrugged and sat back down still grinning.
Bartles stepped towards Hotch and motioned to the loveseat. "Please, make yourself comfortable."
Kahlan moved towards the comfortable looking seat and tugged on Hotch's sleeve, but Hotch pulled his arm away from her. "No, thank you," he told the detective. "I think I'd rather stand."
Bartles nodded and moved to a glass liquor cabinet. "Maybe a drink would help you relax," he offered as he held up an old scotch bottle.
Hotch noticed Rossi already had a tumbler in his hand. "No thanks. I don't think I want to see how bad scotch tastes. I'm still mourning the loss of coffee."
Bartles frowned for a second and then nodded. "You tried to drink it before you fed."
Hotch nodded, not sure where he was going with it.
Bartles smiled. "How should I put it?" He poured a tumbler full and handed it to Hotch. "If you keep the vampire satisfied, then he will let your human side be satisfied."
"So he can still eat and drink?" Kahlan asked with hope in her tone.
"Yes, he can, but he doesn't have to. He may need to, though, to help keep up appearances," Bartles explained.
Hotch looked at him dubiously and then took a small sip. He smiled when the smooth liquor melted on his taste buds and he emphasized the excellent taste with a gloriously resounding, "Ahhh."
Kahlan gave him a smile. "So you'll still like my roasts."
He smiled. "I sure hope so."
"So, Detective Bartles. . ." Rossi started.
"Sabastian, please," Bartles interrupted.
Rossi nodded. "Sabastian, exactly why have you decided to bring Hotch over to your side of the fence so to speak?"
He gestured to the loveseat again. "Please sit. This may take a while. I imagine you have plenty of questions."
Hotch took a deep breath and settled himself in beside Kahlan. "Start at the beginning, please."
Sebastian sat down in the chair that matched Rossi's and crossed his legs. "Like I told them, I only did it to save you."
Hotch frowned. "How to you figure?"
Sebastian took a deep breath. "You don't remember because I blocked the memory, but Zimmerman attacked you."
"What?!" Hotch and Rossi both exclaimed at the same time.
Sebastian held up his hand to sway anymore outbursts. "When you and Agent MacAleese went to the cabin alone, I was about ten minutes behind you."
Hotch nodded. "And it was empty and I decided to take a look around the outside," Hotch put in remembering the last thing he did on the case.
Sebastian nodded. "When I got there, I heard something in the woods and when I got over a small rise, I saw Zimmerman putting something in the back of his pickup and he got in and drove off before I could get to him. I was about to call it in when I heard a moan." He paused as he looked at Hotch. "And when I turned, I saw you lying on the ground. He had attacked you."
Hotch started shaking his head. "No. I slipped or something and hit my head and it knocked me out. The team found me."
Sebastian shook his head. "No. That's just what I wanted you to remember. He had hurt you so bad that you were dying. I had to change you."
Rossi put his tumbler down and looked at the detective with hard eyes. "What do you mean that's what you wanted him to remember?"
Bartles got up and went to Hotch. "Vampires have the ability to compel people to do their bidding and that includes remembering or not remembering something if they so choose," he explained as he knelt down in front of Hotch and looked him in the eyes. Hotch stiffened and leaned back, but he couldn't look away from the man's green eyes. "Remember," he said almost too quietly to hear and Hotch suddenly gasped.
Kahlan grabbed his hand as Hotch's eyes slammed shut and he started flinching as images of what really happened came flooding back. When he sucked in his breath and held it as his whole body tensed, Kahlan shoved Bartles away from her husband. "What did you do to him?" she demanded to know as she stood up.
Bartles held up his hands to stave off anymore of the anger he could see growing in her eyes. "He's just remembering what Zimmerman did," he defended himself without moving from the position he'd fallen in on the floor.
Hotch finally exhaled and grabbed Kahlan's hand to stop her from doing anything. "I'm fine," he assured her.
She didn't know whether she believed him or not, but she sat back down beside him. "What happened?"
Hotch took a deep breath and then a long swig of the scotch as Bartles got up and went back to his chair. Once he swallowed, he looked at Sabastian for a second and then looked at the rest of them. "Zimmerman attacked me with a sledge hammer. He blitz attacked me from behind a tree and his first blow caught me completely off guard." He ran a hand down his face. "I think he broke my jaw because I couldn't even scream."
Kahlan sucked in her breath as she imagined it. "Oh my God."
Hotch nodded. "And once I was down, he just kept hitting me over and over again." He took a shaky breath. "He laughed when he heard my bones breaking."
"Jesus Christ!" Rossi exclaimed as the blood drained from his face.
"I'll kill that fucker!" Chuck yelled as he stood up.
Hotch held up his hand to try and calm them all down. "I was going to die, so he did save me."
"When I found you, I knew you wouldn't survive even being moved let alone last long enough for help to come. I asked you if you wanted to live, and you murmured you did, so I changed you."
"That's bullshit!" Chuck yelled as he turned on the man. "I've had my bones broken like that. Of course he said yes! When you're in that kind of pain you'd agree to anything to make it stop!"
Bartles sunk into his seat a little. "I know, but I also knew that once it was all said and done that I would give him the chance to make whatever decision he wanted. It wasn't supposed to happen this way," he tried.
"What do you mean?" Rossi asked him.
"The whole time line has been messed up," Sabastian started as he got up and went to the liquor cabinet. He refilled his glass and went around and filled everyone else's, too. "It's been about a hundred years since I changed anyone, but normally it wouldn't have started to take effect for about forty-eight hours."
Kahlan frowned as she studied him. "You saved his life, but you didn't expect him to change for forty-eight hours?"
Bartles sat back down and sighed.
"You bit me," Hotch offered as his hand went to the side of his neck and rubbed a spot that wasn't there.
Bartles nodded. "Yes. I drained you and then made you drink some of my blood, and that saved you. It started to heal you immediately, and when you were alright again, I blocked your memory and knocked you out and let your team find you. You weren't supposed to go through the change for two days, so I had planned on talking to you and preparing you for it before it happened, but, unfortunately, you started early and they thought you were dying and called the ambulance."
Rossi sat back in his seat as he studied both Hotch and Bartles. "Why did that happen?"
Bartles shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I wanted to get him and help him through it and of course find out if that was what he really wanted. I would never force this life on anyone," he insisted as he looked at Rossi and then Kahlan. "I swear!"
Kahlan pat her husband's thigh and then nodded. "Since you didn't realize he was going though it quicker than you expected he got to wake up in the hospital completely unaware of what was happening."
Bartles winced. "Yes, and I am so sorry about that. I know what losing a loved one feels like. I would never have wanted any of you to go through that, especially witness it. I know how painful the process is and it is terrible to watch."
Rossi nodded and then took a drink of his scotch. "Yes it was."
"And once I realized he had entered that first stage, I was planning on getting him from the hospital to be there when he woke up, but that wasn't supposed to happen for another day or so and by the time I got there, he was already gone," Bartles went on to explain.
"So I woke up even faster than you thought I would?" Hotch asked him.
"Yes. And I searched the city for you, but I couldn't find you."
"Why would you search the city? He went right back to the hotel," Kahlan explained.
Bartles winced. "Normally when they wake the hunger is so strong. . ." He sighed. "I assumed he was out hunting."
Hotch cringed at the thought. "And yet I didn't even have any idea until Kahlan cut herself."
Bartles studied him. "I knew you were a good man. I would never have offered to save you if I didn't think that, but to see how much control you have already. . . I'm beyond impressed."
