Disclaimer: I don't own Lady or the boys.
Author's note: Well, after a long school year... I'm back. Too bad that I'm soo busy I haven't had much time to write. ~sigh~ life. Anyway, enjoy this new chapter it might be awhile before the next. Sorry in advance.
Chapter 7: Hero of the Day
Lady put a hand to her mouth, effectively covering a yawn as the elevator opened to let her off on her floor. She was absolutely exhausted, and after Mike had dropped her off back at the Alegra, she had made her way through the nearly empty casino floor, glad that she wouldn't have to deal with any drunken, recently poor or rich guests. Then making it to the elevator she had nearly nodded off, waking when it had 'binged' to inform her of her arrival on the correct floor. Now all she wanted was a bed, and she didn't care if Vergil was an ass about her getting the bed. She deserved it after all the work she had done throughout the night, unlike him, who she was quite sure hadn't moved from the arm chair all night. Lazy bum!
She yawned again, this time not bothering to cover it as a door a bit down the hallway burst open. It took her a few minutes to realize whom the man that stood within the doorway – his head still within the room- actually was, but as spiked white hair made an appearance and a contemptuous snarl was issued before the door was slammed shut, Lady knew all too well who the well-dressed man was.
Brushing her exhaustion to the side as her warrior instincts kicked in, Lady cleared the rest of the hallway in a few seconds to reach Vergil as he was backing away from the closed door, his hand grasping Yamato's hilt defensively.
"What happened?" Lady asked in concern and noticing that he was no longer wearing his coat assumed that it couldn't have been good. Unfortunately now she was also remembering the significance of dawn and that there would be some nasty creature patrolling their hotel room, putting the ancient vase in danger and if it broke... needless to say things could go from bad to hell on earth bad.
"Where is the vase?" Lady continued to question, as of yet not having received any answers from Vergil and seeing her mission clear before her, pulled the knife from her boot.
With an irritated gesture toward the door, Vergil answered grouchily, "In there."
"No kidding." Lady answered just as moodily. She was tired and not going to put up with his cryptic statements and asshole attitude. Sighing, she turned from Vergil and moved toward the door, only to have her arm caught by the jerk of a half-devil.
"Wait!" Vergil responded in that condescending tone of his. "You can't go in there!"
"Well, since 'you' left that vase in there and the possibility of it getting broken are very high, and I don't want to deal with the extra problems associated with that occurrence..." Lady stated angrily and slipped out of his grip, dashing for the door before he could stop her. "That's exactly what I'm going to have to do." She snapped and let herself quickly into the room, Vergil crying out behind her to stop.
On first appearance, nothing seemed disturbed at all, on second glance though Lady noticed the vase sitting in the sunlight on the railing that dividing the two halves of the suite, the symbols on it giving off their own golden glow. Frowning, she moved slowly. Her hand griped the knife lightly so that the blade was toward the floor in a typical fighting fashion.
Pausing beside the luggage cart, Lady pondered for half a moment if she should exchange the knife for a gun, but then decided against it; the last thing she wanted was to be attacked whilst in the midst of an exchange. She did put down her bag though, as it would only slow her down in a fight.
Proceeding forward, Lady watched carefully around herself for any movement and when she finally reached the railing without having seen or heard anything, she felt fairly confident that the creature was gone. She was sadly mistaken as her free hand wrapped around the vase and she came face to face with a ghost.
The spirit of the woman was obviously at the ends of her energy as her form wavered in and out of reality. Not waiting to see if the ghost was going to do something, Lady lashed out with her knife, the iron in it disrupting the spirit's already waning energy, causing it to disappear with a scream that sounded miles away. By the time the spirit would be able to pull itself together, it would be forced to return to its painting and recharge.
With a victorious smile, Lady turned and would have calmly walked out of the room to show Vergil her prize when a deep throated growl stopped her in her tracks.
Turning around slowly back toward the bed, Lady's eyes went wide as a dog-like beast came around the side of the bed from where it had been lying in the sun. It was massive, and seemingly made of stone. When it's pointed ears flattened back against its head, Lady bolted toward the luggage before it decided to attack – she needed a gun and fast!
The beast leapt after her and hearing its heavy body creak the floor boards as it landed behind her, Lady twirled, flinging her knife at it without so much as a pause.
The knife clattered off the animal's hide causing Lady to swear. Without having seen it, she knew that the small weapon hadn't done any damage, and furthermore, she was now out of a weapon.
With the creature only steps behind her, Lady knew she was out of time, and did the only thing that she could think of that yielded some chance of survival. She dove beneath the table, as the creature crashed into the luggage, spilling it across the floor.
Lady sat quietly in the darkness of the table's shadow, waiting to see the creature's legs or hear the click of its massive claws on the hardwood floor, but there was nothing. Lady frowned in confusion, her bi-coloured eyes narrowing. Where had it gone? She looked down at the vase in her hands; the symbols that had been glowing golden in the sun were now dark. Was that how it worked? Lady wondered mildly, turning the vase this way and that to fully examine it. Were the symbols not only light based... but activated by the sun's light? Lady recalled how the object had been sitting in the sun when she had entered into the room. It was a very plausible explanation for the sudden disappearance of her enemy.
Before she could test her theory or think about it more, an arm reached beneath the table and pulled her back out into the morning sunlight, subsequently exposing the vase once more causing the symbols to burst into golden light.
"Vergil, wait!" Lady snarled, trying to detach herself from him and return to the darkness beneath the table, her eyes blinded by the burst of light from the vase.
"Foolish woman, you are going to get yourself killed!" Vergil snapped back, attempting to pull her along with him.
Putting her brakes on, her booted heels scuffing the floor as she did so; Lady returned venomously, "You don't understand!"
"Ungrateful..." Vergil was interrupted by the beast's growl as it reappeared just feet from them.
"Move!" Vergil commanded unnecessarily as Lady was already running, still trying to dislodge Vergil's hand from her arm so that she could dive once more under the table.
The beast jumped after them, and Vergil twisted them around the side of the table causing the creature to miss them and slam head first into the wall beside the dresser, knocking the painting from its mounted position on the wall.
At this point, Lady stopped fighting Vergil as she realized that he was steering them toward the exit. Remembering that there were no windows within the hallway, she decided that it was just as good as beneath the table.
Seeing the beast shake its head and charge after them, Lady desperately tried to cover the vase with her hands and body, to no avail. Reaching the door, Vergil yanked it open and shoved her through. There was a sound of tearing fabric followed by a grunt of pain from Vergil, just as Lady and the vase with her emerged into the artificially lit hallway. Lady turned to briefly look at Vergil as he stumbled into the hallway behind her, slamming the door to the room behind him for safety sake.
Turning away once more, Lady noticed a housekeeper's cart just down the hallway. She quickly sprinted to it and pulling one of the many towels from the cart, carefully wrapped the vase in it. This way she hoped to protect it, and thereby them, from any unwanted sunlight should a door open.
"Stupid woman," Vergil growled from where he still stood leaning against the closed door.
"Stupid man!" Lady retorted, examining the now wrapped vase to ensure that there wasn't any part of the clay still showing. Satisfied, Lady decided she would dump the now wrapped vase in a drawer, then throw that painting in a closet and surround it in salt, and then she would finally get some well deserved sleep.
Turning back toward their room, Lady frowned when she saw Vergil still leaning against the door, Yamato held limply in one hand, but what disturbed her more than the fact that he was not glaring at her was that a trail of blood was flowing down the door behind him. "Vergil?" Lady questioned, moving toward him quickly. Sure, she had seen the sons of Sparda bleed plenty of times before, but they healed so fast that they only ever left splatters. Not trails of running blood!
Vergil lifted his head, his icy eyes glaring at her as if the whole thing was her fault.
Disregarding his look, Lady asked worriedly, "Why aren't you healing?"
"If I knew..." Vergil's voice trailed off painfully, and Lady moved quickly to catch him as his body sank to the floor.
Pulling him away from the blood stained door, Lady looked over Vergil's shoulder at the grisly wounds crossing his back. The creature's claws had shredded the silk material of Vergil's shirt and ripped into the flesh deep enough that Lady caught the glistening white of a rib.
"Damn." Lady muttered under her breath, she needed to stop the bleeding and fast. "Come on," she ordered, putting one of Vergil's arms around her shoulder and lying her arm across his lower back for support – careful though not to aggravate the already serious wounds. Lady helped Vergil to his feet, practically having to lift him up, but there was no way she could fix him in the hallway.
"You realize this is your entire fault," Vergil spat out between grit teeth as Lady opened the door to return to the room.
"My fault!" Lady exclaimed angrily, nearly letting go of Vergil. "If you hadn't been so frigen macho and left me alone, none of this would have happened!"
"Oh, yes, and you were doing so well on your own; sitting beneath the table." The biting sarcasm that should have been present in Vergil's voice was absent, causing his response to fall flat and leaving Lady more than a little alarmed.
"I actually was," Lady answered, keeping her worry from her voice as she half carried Vergil through the suite toward the bed. "I found that the vase works via sunlight. No light... no nasty critter."
"Hrmm," Vergil's murmur was barely a sound, and he was leaning harder on Lady as each minute ticked by. God, how she wished Trish were here. The demonic woman always seemed to know what to do with serious injuries and unexplained ailments.
Reaching the bed, Lady was nearly giddy with relief. Vergil was now practically dead weight in her arms and the arm that was holding him steady around his waist was soaked in blood. Helping him to sit on the bed, Lady put a hand to his forehead in a motion her mother had often done for her as a child. Lady pursed her lips grimly as she felt the warmth radiating from Vergil's forehead. He was burning up.
"I need to get that vase before housekeeping throws it in with the rest of the laundry," Lady stated. In her concern for Vergil she had left it sitting next to the door. There were just too many things requiring her immediate attention.
Vergil didn't nod; didn't even move as he seemed to be concentrating on breathing. He had even allowed Yamato to fall to the floor.
Worry plagued Lady and she hesitated between tasks, but a shrill scream from the door decided the matter for her. Turning, Lady found a woman standing by the door, her eyes glued to the blood Vergil had helpfully left behind.
Dashing toward the woman and nearly tripping over their luggage, Lady tried ineffectually to calm the woman with her voice and before Lady could reach her, the woman was running down the hallway. Coming to a halt and realizing that the woman was only part of the hotel's cleaning staff, which meant that Danny would be showing up in short order; Lady picked up the wrapped vase and then shut the bloody door behind her. Depositing the vase carefully into a drawer of the dresser standing close to the door, Lady turned once more to find that Vergil had collapsed back onto the bed.
Lady made a sound of indignation in her throat that came out as more of a squawk. She just couldn't catch a break!
Racing back toward Vergil, Lady stopped first by the scattered luggage and rummaged through it until she located her first aid kit. Triumphant on at least one front, Lady returned to Vergil. Dumping the kit on the bed beside him, Lady used both her hands to unbutton the black silk shirt covering Vergil's torso. After some struggling she managed to not only remove the ruined article, but also flipped the half-devil onto his stomach. What sent her brain twirling further into worry was that throughout the entire procedure Vergil remained unconscious. She was also quick to notice, as she grabbed a pillow to put pressure on his back and slow the bleeding, that while he was visibly sweating, Vergil was also shivering. Something was very terribly wrong!
Lady knew she needed help, but how was she going to explain the truth of the situation to a doctor or anyone else for that matter. Uh, excuse me, but this isn't normal. Usually he takes hits like this without even flinching. Yeah... that would go over well. She'd probably get locked in a loony bin just for trying to explain that one.
Noticing Vergil's coat lying in a heap on the floor nearby, Lady thought of another option. Sliding around Vergil so that she was still keeping pressure on his back, she used her leg and booted foot to drag the coat to her. Despite the arguments that had followed when Dante had first gotten it, Lady knew that Vergil always kept his cell phone close at hand.
With the coat now close enough, Lady nudged her boot beneath it and with a precise kick that could have rivalled Dante's, the coat lifted into the air to land neatly beside her on the bed. Using one hand, she dug through the pockets until she found the dark blue metallic phone. After that it only took a few seconds to find Trish's number – she didn't really want to call the office as Dante was the last person she currently wanted to talk to.
The number dialled and since Lady couldn't recall the time difference, hoped that Trish would pick up.
"Thank God!" Lady exclaimed in relief as Trish answered with a "What did you do to Lady now Vergil?"
"Huh? No, it's me!" Lady responded quickly and then rattled off her current situation to her fellow huntress; being sure to give specific details about the creature's description.
"Gee... You guys can never do anything the easy way, huh?" Trish sighed in exasperation. "I'll get Lucia to check into what type of demon that was, but it sounds like Vergil was poisoned. So we'll treat it like a snake bite for now."
"What the Hell?" An angry voice sounded out across the room.
Lady looked up from Vergil as the door suddenly burst open. Danny and three other men entered with guns drawn. Although she was somewhat prepared for Danny's arrival, she was not prepared for the guns being pointed in her direction and for a moment thought that the CIA had entered.
"What's going on now?" Trish's voice demanded from over the phone.
"Hang on," Lady answered and was about to yell for Danny and the three men behind him to get out, when Danny beat her to the punch.
Lowering his gun, the security manager looked from the blood stained door, to the trail of blood and finally toward Lady again. "Jesus Christ! I thought you guys were professionals?"
"We had a bit of a hiccup," Lady stated unkindly. She didn't like her professionalism being questioned by anyone. "Now if you would..."
"Wait," Trish interrupted Lady before she could finish her sentence. "Some hotels have spas that make their own creams and lotions," she explained.
"A hiccup!" Danny was ranting now as he gestured to the blood on the floor. "I don't know if I should be calling a doctor, Mike or the god damn morgue!"
"NONE!" Lady snarled at Danny. "Take a friggen chill pill and be quiet for a minute!" Then ignoring Danny and focusing completely on Trish's voice, responded with an "Ok" to let Trish know she could now continue.
"Find out if they have Plantain. You'll need fresh leaves to make a poultice to draw the poison out of the wounds." Trish explained, speaking slowly so that Lady heard everything correctly. "Also, you'll want to make a very strong tea made of Echinacea – which will help with the fever – and garlic or ginger. Either one is fine, since they both will help his heart and blood circulation. Unfortunately with him being out cold, you'll have to figure out how to get him to swallow the tea."
"Alright, I got it," Lady informed Trish and then looking back to Danny, whom was speaking with his men, she quickly caught his attention with an ordered "Hey!"
Danny turned back to look at her with a slightly bewildered, slightly angry expression. "What now?"
"Does the hotel make its own lotions and stuff?" Lady asked, having no problem in competing in the glaring contest with Danny. He certainly was no Vergil.
"All the best hotels do." Danny returned, gesturing to his men to complete the tasks he had already apparently given them.
"Do you know if you carry or grow Plantain?"
"Beats me, but I can find out." Danny shrugged, moving toward Lady in an attempt to see the cause for all the blood. "You sure you don't want me to call a doctor?"
"No. I'm also going to need an Echinacea and garlic or ginger tea. The basic herbs will be fine though if you don't have a tea." Lady responded to Danny, and then checked with Trish if there was any additional supplies she was going to need.
"Some hard core alcohol, like Tequila, to clean the wounds," Trish answered.
"Shit..." Lady swore. That was going to burn like hell!
"What?" Danny asked in alarm. He was now standing beside the bed looking down at Lady as she practically kneeled on Vergil's back. "What's wrong now?"
"I need a bottle of Tequila too," Lady answered grimly. And about half a dozen strong guys to hold him down once that Tequila was poured onto his back.
"Alright," Danny muttered. He had calmed considerably and pulling his cell phone out of his suit coat's pocket, set to ordering the necessary herbs and alcohol.
"So how do I go about stitching these wounds back together?" Lady asked a bit desperately. She had plenty of training when it came to stitching herself up, but these wounds seemed a bit out of her league.
"You know how to stitch," Trish stated in a placid tone.
"That's not what I mean," Lady deadpanned. "What about the nerves and blood vessels?"
"Can you see the spine at all?" Trish asked gently.
"No, just a bit of a rib," Lady responded.
"As long as nothing is punctured past the rib bone, then you're fine. And you won't need to worry about all that other stuff. You can't stitch back together every severed nerve and blood vessel. His demonic healing will look after all that stuff, once whatever is keeping him from healing now gets out of his system. All you need to know is that there are three tissue levels that you will need to individually stitch back together. Make sure you use the self dissolving suture thread for the inside and a tougher non-dissolving one for the outside." Trish explained carefully, giving Lady hope as she went.
"Ok, thanks Trish." Lady breathed in relief. She could do this.
"No problem. Just promise me that when you're done that you call Dante and let him know what's going on."
"Sure," Lady murmured into the phone, her thoughts already fully on the task at hand.
"Well, good luck then," Trish stated and hung up.
During her conversation with Trish, Danny had set about salvaging the clean white pillows from off the bed, and few minutes after Trish had hung up, the herbs arrived along with Charlotte.
"I managed to get a hold of some Plantain. It's a good thing we have a snake exhibition going on right now. As common as it is, most people think it's just a weed." Charlotte strut into the room, her heeled feet nimbly avoiding the blood splatters on the floor.
"Thanks," Lady told the concierge thankfully.
"Geez," Charlotte whistled upon seeing the blood staining the white bed sheets. "You going to need some help?"
Lady nodded, "Danny, I'm going to need you to try and hold him down. Charlotte, if you could just pass me what I need." Lady highly doubted Danny was going to be able to hold Vergil, but he was all she had available at the moment, and she was quickly realizing that she couldn't manage it on her own.
"I don't know," Danny was looking at Vergil's well muscled arms sceptically. "If you're going to do what I think you're going to do... I'm not going to be able to hold him. Maybe if I get some of my guys..." Danny suggested helpfully.
"No," Lady shook her head as she opened her first aid kit and went about setting up the things she was going to need. "The more people holding him down, the worse it will be." She knew that if Vergil did wake, it would be to an extreme amount of pain which would cause him to be on the defensive. If there were a bunch of guys forcefully holding him down... pain or no pain, the consequences would undoubtedly have fatal results.
"Alright, if you say so," Danny stated with a sigh, and steeling himself for what was to come, positioned himself in front of Vergil.
Charlotte too had moved up onto the bed, and knelt beside Vergil, opposite of Lady. Lady passed her the rolls of gauze and the suture kit, so that the concierge could pass them at the appropriate time.
"Ready?" Lady asked as she opened the bottle of Tequila Charlotte had just passed over and then slid over Vergil so that she was seated on his thighs.
Nodding in resignation, Danny took hold of Vergil's arms.
Charlotte scuttled a bit backwards so that she was just out of range of any wild swings or kicks.
With every one ready, Lady took a deep breath and yanked the pillow away before pouring a good portion of the Tequila over Vergil's back.
The scream that erupted from Vergil was not immediate, but it came quickly. And just as Lady had thought, Danny was unable to hold the white-haired half-devil down. The young security manager was even forced to dodge a wild punch that suddenly came at him.
"Vergil! You are not healing! I've got to do this!" Lady shrieked out at Vergil as she attempted to maintain her current position.
"FOUL WOMAN!" The string of curses and language that followed from Vergil's mouth was none too pretty.
"Stop being such a baby, Vergil!" Lady snarled angrily. The amount of times she had to sit still while getting patched up... and he couldn't even behave once!
Vergil paused momentarily and Danny took the opportunity to tackle him, this time succeeding in forcing Vergil to hold still as the half-demon's strength quickly left him. That however did not stop a new string of curses coming from Vergil's usually proper mouth.
Lady didn't care; he could curse as much as he wanted. Now that he had physically settled, Lady set to work on cleaning any foreign material from the wounds and then slowly began stitching them. After a time Vergil lost consciousness again, for which Lady was extremely grateful. The stitching job was long and tedious and after Vergil was no longer conscious, Danny had slowly relaxed his grip until he was able to let go entirely. Then once it no longer seemed as if he was needed, he left, stating that he would supervise the clean up. Lady hadn't even noticed the cleaning staff that had arrived at some time to clean up all of the blood.
However, Charlotte maintained her position throughout the procedure, keeping the roll of suture string close at hand and continually dabbed at any excess blood as Lady worked.
When she was finally through, Lady and Charlotte set about crushing the Plantain leaves between dampened sheets of gauze. Then the poultice, along with more gauze, was applied to Vergil's freshly stitched back. They finished the job up by laying a hot towel over the wound dressings to keep the poultice warm and help the Plantain leaves do their job.
With that done, Lady set about preparing the Echinacea and ginger tea that Charlotte had brought. She wondered mildly how exactly she was going to get the tea into Vergil, as he was practically lying face first on the bed. Lady supposed that it too would be a long and tedious task.
"Thank you," Lady told Charlotte gratefully, feeling like she should say something to break the silence.
The concierge looked up from the box of tea that she had been reading. "No problem," she responded, "I used to volunteer at a veterinary clinic as a teenager. Helping with surgeries was my specialty." Charlotte smiled and then holding up the box of tea changed the subject. "So what exactly is this for?"
Lady dunked four of the tea bags into a cup of hot water before responding. "My associate told me that it will help with his fever and additionally help with his blood circulation."
"Hmm," Charlotte put the box down on the table and continued, "You know there are drugs for that."
"True," Lady murmured, "but the herbs will work better for him." The herbs actually had a better chance of not being neutralized by his demonic blood, and actually doing the job they were intended for. As opposed to artificial medication, which Dante had proved often enough – every time he had a hangover – that they barely worked, if at all.
"Alright," Charlotte tipped her head slightly, giving the win to Lady. "Listen, I've got some things to look after, but I'll be back later today."
Lady nodded mechanically. The cleaning staff had cleaned up most of the blood, leaving only the bed, and had left along with Danny. With the departure of Charlotte, Lady would be alone to care for Vergil, but at least it would give her time to call Dante.
"And you should get some rest as well. You've done all you can for now." Charlotte stated with an encouraging smile. "I'll be back later," Charlotte promised and left Lady to her own thoughts.
Lady sighed and sat down heavily in the closest chair. She was completely exhausted, there was no question about that, but glancing toward Vergil's prone body, Lady also knew she would not be able to sleep for the next long while.