"So, let me get this straight, Dorian drank a potion that you made for me to suppress vampirism?" Mina had heard and seen several oddities in her life...and how was an incident of this magnitude near the bottom of that list?

"Yes, I will have to collect more supplies later to create it again for you; I hope...this encounter...has not...you know..." Henry mumbled, feeling the urge to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment but not wanting to stop the comfortable position of having Mina's arms wrapped around his and his other hand on hers, his wrists and hands having been bandaged with great care by Mina who had managed to find some clean wrappings in one of the boxes.

"It has not; I appreciate your efforts and am impressed that you have found a way to suppress..." Mina trailed off, looking at the street momentarily before offering a smile.

"Don't get me wrong! I love you for you! I just wanted you to be comfortable and happy..." Henry looked at the ground, biting his lip in anxiety over trying to find the words he wanted to say and say them correctly "I know how it is not to be able to enjoy things the way-"

A soft finger was pressed to his mouth, ceasing his building stress as blue met grey.

"It is alright, I do want to try it" Mina could hardly hope to think she would ever be able to be an ordinary woman again, even if it only would be for a day, to have such a thing at her fingertips, the vampiress had to fight to keep her excitement down to prevent unleashing the darker part of her self.

To be able to feel her emotions again fully, not to have to suppress them to try and keep the vampire under control, to keep from hurting others, so many things she had once taken for granted, the taste of food, the warm sun in her face without being irritated by it, she had no doubts her skin felt cold to the touch or a disgusting lukewarmth.

Henry was always warm; flashes of heat plagued him, and Mina hoped her chill brought him some comfort from his fevers. To think he had done all of this for her, only Jonathan had ever bothered to care about her in such a way before him.

Mina still missed Jonathan terribly, his strong arms wrapped around her, keeping her safe, even after learning of her curse, he had still wrapped her in his embrace, loved her just as deeply as before, he had even said he would join her in vampirism if that is what she wanted, but Mina had, of course, refused, she would never curse the man she loved with this sorrow, she had been his bride, his wife, through sickness and in health, till illness took him from her.

Suppose Mina could find amusement in the fact she seemed to have a type in men who were not traditionally masculine...not that it stopped said men from moments of great bravery and passion.

Henry could never be Jonathan, but he did not have to be, they would never have the wedded bliss that Mina and Jonathan had shared, the doctor had no interest in marriage anyway, he had been content to remain a bachelor the rest of his days, but he, like anyone, still needed companionship, he had also taken such a thing for granted, but now they had each other, all of their good and bad doing its best to co-exist.

What a pair they made.

Henry smiled as Mina put her head on his shoulder, reaching up he brushed some hair from the vampiress's face and smiled back even as Hyde let his presence be known.

"That little fucker is still back there, alive," Hyde growled. He had been stirring fitfully ever since they had left the warehouse, the back of Henry's mind pounding with the heat of his rage "We should have let Mina finish him off"

"I did not want that thing on her a moment longer; Dorian Grey is not going anywhere far in the state he is in. Best to get Mina back and feeling safe before we come up with any plans on how to handle this," Jekyll argued back; he wanted to make Dorian pay for what he had done, itched to do something to make him suffer as much if not more so than how Mina had with that device around her throat.

But Mina was the main priority now, get her back to the Nautilus, then come up with some excuse later to leave, he did need more ingredients for the potion to give Mina, and he remembered her mentioning how she did miss a specific brand of sweets from when she was human.

Pharmacy, sweets shop, and then off to find where Mr. Grey had slithered off to.

"Promise me we can at least make his true demise as painful as possible"

"I think I can agree to that..."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Oh! I forgot I did make two of them" Henry smiled as he held out a simpler vial of the suppressor potion, it was nowhere near as pretty as the rose vial, but Dorian had ruined the surprise anyway...

"It is incredible that you were able to...how long have you been working on this?" Mina asked, fighting the urge to grab it, eager to feel like herself once again after so long, but she could wait a moment longer.

"Not long after we...well...I thought it might be nice to have a ...p-proper date ...dinner...a show..." Henry blushed, Mina's smile afterward only adding to the shade "Even those like us deserve some happiness, right?"

Mina nodded with no shortage of experiences, mourned for being unable to fully enjoy them in her eyes.

The vial was placed gently in the vampire's hand, and Mina almost shook as she popped the cork out of it and tipped the glass to her lips, careful not to spill it any.

The potion burned her throat, and it was not the most pleasant tasting of things, but the monster that lay curled in the back of her mind slowly receded, more than distracting her from such insignificant unpleasantries as her face too, found a blush as her blood flowed freely after sitting dead for far too long.

Henry watched in awe as Mina's cheeks developed a soft pink hue, and her eyes sparked, her fangs turning back into human canines.

Dear God, she was undescribably beautiful no matter her form.

" And she is ours, Henry" was the greedy thought Hyde expressed for both of them, his rage sated at the image.

"How do you feel?"

"Human"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"You look great!"

"How about a kiss for ol Rodney to celebrate, hm?"

Nice to know Mina was still capable of a scathing glare even as a human...

"You must be thrilled," Nemo offered before everyone would see a floating bruise in the shape of a woman's hand wandering around the following days. "Shall I assume you will be heading out to enjoy the rest of the day?"

"Actually, considering the circumstances I think staying here would be prefu-aaauhh" Mina yawned suddenly, covering her mouth before blushing in mild embarrassment "Oh, Pardon me."

"Seems the potion returned your need for sleep," Tom noted, chuckling a bit.

Mina frowned, she did not want to spend her day as a human sleeping it away, not after all the hard work Henry had put into it for her.

"I think enjoying a nap would not be a bad idea," Henry said, making Mina turn to him in slight surprise at his lack of disappointment "it makes sense your body would need a bit of a recharge after...the incident earlier today, and I do need to get more supplies to make more of your elixir. Afterward, I'm sure Nemo would not mind us borrowing the library for a reading date."

"You have to go right now?" Mina was curious about this lack of annoyance and honestly would have liked him to take a rest with her since he too looked like he needed it.

Henry nodded offering an apologetic smile "I'm afraid so, I'm not sure if our next stop will have the chemicals I need, and I want to have it on hand in case we come across a festival or other event."

Mina did not like it, but it made sense since Dorian drank her would-be first dose of the medicine. Glad he did, though, as it hopefully put him down for good this time! It had been a shock seeing his corpse drop to the ground all bloodied before Henry had distracted her, Mina's mind was still slightly buzzing with this image, but it could also be her exhaustion talking, they would have to return to the spot in order to retrieve the body just in case he did-

A kiss to her cheek distracted from the idea of a foul job, and Mina was smiling again.

"I won't be long, don't start reading anything too interesting without me" Henry allowed himself a mild joke.

"No promises," Mina quipped back.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Jekyll gripped the bags in his hand tightly, finding what he needed had been without incident and had only taken him about ten minutes, if he timed this right, he would be back before his absence proved worrisome.

And might even have time to pick up those donuts, the shop owner said he would have some fresh in the next hour or so, which would more than explain his tardiness if someone asked, a warm bag of sweets would distract anyone.

And the resulting fight over them would also prove a good diversion from unwanted questions of where he had been well waiting for baked goods of all things.

"Other way, Henry, do not get distracted; I know that little rat bastard is here...he has a different scent from the one he had before, but it sticks out like rot," Edward growled.

Rot was the perfect way to describe it too, no doubt the potion not allowing his life of hedonism to go unchecked anymore, and Mina had been healthy, unharmed by the potion at all, but this...Dorian seemed to have been affected by it, the scent of disease hung in the air so thick that even Henry could smell it, if all of the picture's visible sins appeared on Dorian as the day progressed, the once-immortal would be dead before the hour was up.

A mild pity, all things considered.

Good thing he brought gloves.