Recap: Stephanie realizes she can't leave. Lester gets more Tru Blood, then accidentally injures Stephanie.

Stephanie

Fuck. Oh Fuck. I thought I was doing OK. Starting to get a handle on this. I mean, as good of a handle as I could have in my first hour as a vampire. Maybe not a handle. Maybe just a doorknob. One of those rickety old ones that don't do a great job opening doors and always feel like they are about to fall off.

And then this guy who I don't know but who is obviously trying to help dropped a hot coal on my lap and before I knew it I was vamped out and hissing at him. And it took all my self control to not bite him. I'm talking like skipping-the-pumpkin-pie-at-Thanksgiving level of self control.

Calm down Stephaine. Deep breaths. Shit, that isn't helping at all.

"Oh God" I cried and started weeping again. Which was super gross because I was now crying blood. It wasn't any more dignified than the hissing, but I was less likely to hurt someone. Ranger was patting my back and soothing me, whispering sweet little lies, telling me that it would all be OK.

But I knew it wouldn't. Things would never be OK again.

Ranger

It took another half hour to get Stephanie calmed down again. The additional Tru Blood helped. Finally she stopped sobbing, and asked if she could have some time by herself to wash her face, and if I could get her a new set of clothes. She gave me the key to her place, apparently thinking that would help me get in. She didn't know about my way with locks yet. If the Rangeman building had been finished I could have just gone upstairs and grabbed some things from my penthouse. But it would be a few months before the place was ready to move into. For a moment I imagined her in nothing but a Rangeman shirt that just barely covered her ass.

Fuck. Focus Manoso. Don't think of her wearing just one of your shirts.

OK. Time to plan. First order of business, learn what we could from our prisoner. Then go to Stephanie's apartment and get clothes, her hamster, and whatever entertainment items I could. Get other supplies, like a TV and other electronics to put into her cell…room. Shit. We'd put her in a lockable cell, not knowing what she would be like when she woke up, and not wanting to risk her hurting anyone or getting out if she was out of control. The furniture was from a guest room, but everything else, from the bars on the doors to the metal sink and toilet, screamed jail cell. I didn't want her to feel like a prisoner, but whether or not the door locked she was stuck in the building for the time being.

As far as I could tell she didn't know her own strengths or abilities, and had really strong emotional reactions. But she wasn't a mindless monster. Not a monster at all. Just a woman who's life had spun out of control, because I had failed her.

I slipped out as she stood at the sink, staring at the taps. Lester, Bobby, and Tank were standing in the hall, the blank look of soldiers on their faces. Time to take command, a role I felt more comfortable with anyway.

"We need to learn as much as we can about vampires, and Stephanie needs some things from home. Tank, you're with me. Lester, Brown, get anything you can out of the prisoner." I dropped my voice to a whisper, not knowing how well the vampires could hear. "Don't do anything that might scare her. If we have to get very…creative, we do it when she's not in earshot."

"I found something that might be helpful. Not sure, but worth a try." Lester said, pulling a clamshell package out of his assortment of bags on the floor. There must have been a dozen 6-packs of Tru Blood there, along with chips and beef jerky.

I grinned at him. "Good thinking." Then I walked to the stairway, Tank on my heels.

Bobby

Battlefield medicine is very different from research. Mostly the same injuries over and over. Bullets in places they shouldn't be. Shrapnel. Concussive injuries. And it's a lot noisier and more chaotic in the field than in a lab. Still, I was always a curious person, and being one of the first few medical professionals to examine a vampire was pretty exciting.

Not that I was going to exactly examine Ramirez. I didn't fancy ending up a juice box for him. But there we needed to know. And the way to start learning was to ask.

Santos and I approached the door of his cell. Questions were running through my head. But could we actually trust any information he gave us? It seems like he wasn't all that stable even when he was human.

"Mr. Ramirez?" I asked, figuring I could always get more aggressive later if necessary. "We have some questions for you."

His cell was dark and he wasn't much more than a shadow. There wasn't much furniture in there, just a bed. Anything we had down here had gone to Stephanie's room, and even that wasn't much.

"And why should I tell you anything? You spoiled my fun" came a high pitched, creepy voice from the darkness.

"Mostly because we have food for you." I pulled out a bottle from the bag on the floor, and when I stood up he was at the door, looking me up and down.

"You aren't my type. I like little girls. Like to hear them scream. Like the bitch over there. She screamed for me. Made the blood taste sweeter."

Jesus. Poor Stephanie. I didn't want to think about what she had gone through in the hours she was with him. And even from the other side of the hall, she could probably hear him.

Suddenly my hand holding the bottle of True Blood was yanked through the slot in the door. I pulled back, but it was no use. Might as well have been pulling my arm away from a tiger.

"Shit!" Lester yelled, opening up the small device in his hand, a UV sterilizer. He focused the beam on Ramirez's face, which was digging into my arm. He screamed and retreated to the corner we couldn't see, and I pulled my arm back.

"What's going on?" Stephanie asked, sounding panicked.

Stephanie

I really didn't think this day could get any worse. Well, I suppose for most people the day they died was one of the worst ones, but usually they didn't have to deal with other stuff afterwards. I really didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of me. So hearing Benito attack the guys who were trying to help me was heartbreaking.

I saw them stumble back from his cell, Bobby clutching his left arm to his chest. Lester was holding something in his hand that made my eyes hurt. I pulled back from my door, trying to get away from it.

Bobby was ripping off his t-shirt and wrapping it around his arm, which looked torn up and bleeding. Kind of like Ranger's hands had. I thought for a moment. When Ranger had wiped my bloody tears away his hands had healed right before our eyes.

"Come here, I might be able to help." Bobby looked skeptical. Maybe he was right to be. His arm was smelling really good. I looked around the room. There was a pillowcase Ranger had used as a handkerchief when I was crying. I grabbed it and ran it under a bit of water to wet the blood again, then passed it through the door to Lester. "Put that on the wound. Maybe it will help.

Both men traded glances, but Bobby gently unwrapped the t-shirt from his arm, and dabbed at a large gash with the bloody pillowcase. In seconds the skin started to knit together, his breathing eased, and his posture relaxed. He looked at me, dumbfounded.

"Well, I sucked as a bounty hunter, but now I have a new career. Walking first aid kit!" It wasn't that funny, I know, but someone had to break the tension. "So, what's a girl got to do to get a shower around here?