(A/N): Another special chapter, this time for my sister's birthday! We're back with Evie, Lisbet and Jerremyah, in 1966. This one's shorter, just about 4,000 words, instead of 6 or 7k.

Evie

January 15th, 1966

"Well. That could have gone better." A bit of an understatement. I stared at him for a few seconds.

"You say that as if you didn't dig your own grave." He cocked an eyebrow.

"Can't say that's an experience I've had, yet." I rolled my eyes at him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"You know what I meant. If you're really so adamant about not telling Nuria, you should have let us know beforehand. Springing it on us- on Lisbet- in the moment, when you had plenty of warning that the night's story would be told, was a mistake." Jerremyah's lips thinned into a line, and he let a breath out of his nose, clearly unhappy with me.

"I get it. I'm fucking up all over the place, today- there are things I won't apologise for, because they meant keeping Lisbet safe, or keeping Nuria from fully retreating into hermit-hood. I will apologise for dragging you into this, and the fact that this will undoubtedly affect you long after tonight, but if you're just going to get on my back about everything else, don't bother. I don't need it." I pursed my lips, staring at him as he started trying to pull his shirt off over his head, but repeatedly failed, because of his limited range of movement, caused by his injury.

"Here, let me-" The sound of ripping fabric cut me off, as he gave up and tore the shirt straight down the middle- revealing a toned chest, and more tattoos. He cocked an eyebrow at me. "Uh... that works too, I guess." The corner of his lips quirked up, like he was amused, but didn't want to be.

"It wasn't worth saving." He shucked off the remnants, and then he knelt in front of me, bare from the waist up. I was not too proud to admit that I may have been openly ogling all that newly exposed skin. "Like what you see?" I flushed, but nonetheless, I nodded. "Oh, Evie... You're going to fit in real well with us." What was that supposed to mean?

"Wh-" He cut me off, wincing.

"You're not squeamish, are you, Evie dear?" Uh-? Jerremyah calling me 'dear' stroked something inside my chest, much like it had earlier.

"Um... I mean... not typically? I look after a bunch of drunks most weekends, and... everything that entails." He winced again.

"I meant more like... blood. Wounds. My wound, specifically. I think there's a scrap from my shirt in there- my body will push it out, eventually, but... we don't have time for that. And... it's... not the most pleasant." He- oh. "I would normally ask Lisbet, but..." He glanced after her, before returning his gaze to me. "I think she needs some time to herself, before being forced back into proximity with me." Right. "So... do you think you can help me?" I- honestly, I wasn't sure. But...

"I'll try my best." He perked up a bit.

"Attagirl!" He said, and grabbed the rag from the bowl of water Lisbet had left behind, and pushed it into my hand. "If you could clean me up a bit while you're there, I'd really appreciate it." Then he swiveled- revealing more skin, covered in yet more tattoos, and... the wound.

It wasn't as bad as I would have expected, if I had had the time to think on it. Sure, it was an open, bloody puncture wound, but it was only leaking blood slowly, and looked smaller in diameter to the stake lying on the other side of the coffee table. I could see no fabric in the wound- not at first glance, at least.

"Erm, well... from what I can see, the fabric must be further in." I watched the muscles in his back flex and shift, as one of his arms reached around, and the tips of his fingers just barely probed the wound- he really couldn't do this on his own, if he couldn't reach.

"I can't feel anything with my fingers, but there's definitely something in there- and it's not a splinter." If he hadn't been half naked, I doubted I would have noticed his slight shudder. Was that just at the thought of that possibility or... had that happened before?

"I'm not doubting you, I just- you needed to know that it wasn't going to be easy. Um... is there a certain way to... Do you just want me to- use my hands?" He shrugged.

"To start with. If that doesn't work... well, Lizzy's got claws." Mhm... yeah... but I didn't want her to have to stick her claws in him again tonight, especially when she was angry with him.

"Alright. I'll wipe away some of the blood to try to get a better look, but after that, I'm going in." He shrugged again.

"Have at thee." It gave me pause for the barest second, considering whether that was how he had used to speak at one point in time- they had been together three hundred and nine years, and by the way he looked, he had been at least twenty six at the time, since he had already been a vampire when they met.

I dipped the cloth back in the water, since it had dried out a bit while we were talking, and I started cleaning away the blood around the wound. I got most of it, before more blood started leaking out.

"Going in." He barely had time to tense, before I pressed the rag to the lower edge of the wound to soak up any new blood, and, giving myself as little time to think about it as possible, plunged my fingertip into his flesh.

I heard him suck in a breath, but other than that, he made no noise, no complaints. I, on the other hand...

"Ew, oh, this is so... not fun. Squishy, fleshy, bloody... ew, ew, ew. Oh, ugh, oh, this is going to stick with me. You're lucky you're hot- oh! I think I feel something!" He let out a strained noise, that I couldn't tell whether it was approving, or decidedly not. "I'm going two deep." He huffed out a breath.

"Said the Actress to the Bishop- ngahh..." He cut off with a pained groan, as I wiggled a second finger into his wound.

"I don't know what that means, but I have a feeling I don't want to know." I feel like he would have laughed, if I hadn't been half way to making a puppet out of him. "Heh." He stiffened slightly.

"Do I- ugh- do I want to know why- ngh- you- fff- why. Laugh?" If I thought being gentle would help at all, I would have done so, but I didn't think it would work all that well in this situation.

"Nothing, just- thinking about how you would make a good puppet." He was silent for a second, barring a few pained gasps and groans.

"How does this- ugh- always h-happen to me?" Was this not the first time?

"You get things stuck in you often?" I saw him shake his head.

"I meant having- an innocent- young woman- per- person, turn out to be- ugh- utterly off their- ngh- rocker." Well, I never! Taking the opportunity now that my fingertips were locked around the shirt scrap, deep within the wound, I started drawing it out of him, as quickly as I could. "Oh, you-" He growled, an actual growl, much like Nuria had done, through the fire.

"Careful. Say the wrong thing, and you're getting the fabric out yourself." He groaned.

"Ugh... lovely person." The words were nice, but his tone could use some work. Still, I let it go, given how I was rooting around in his back like I was digging for gold.

"Good boy." He huffed out a strained laugh, that turned into a pained groan as I finally managed to pull the scrap of t-shirt, and my bloodied fingers, free of his skin. "This yours?" I slung the gore soaked scrap over his shoulder to where he could see it, and watched his head turn to be able to take it in.

"Ugh... yup, that's it. The little... bugger." He took it from my grip, and threw it into the still glowing embers. "Do me a favor-" Another one?

"Another one?" He huffed out a laugh.

"Help me aim my wand." Hm. The perfect opportunity.

"Hm, okay, but if you think I'm going to help you shake off, you've got another thing coming." He turned to look at me over his shoulder, eyebrows furrowed.

"Wha-" Realization dawned on his face, and it split into a grin. "Oh, you- you're good. Better than I expected. Good girl." Hm. Maybe he shouldn't call me that too often, lest I spontaneously combust.

"Come on, hot shot- whip it out." His grin got even wider.

"Oh, I doubt you can handle me- I require two hands." I'm sure. He reached for his wand again, and twisted his arm part way behind his back- just barely missing poking the wound with his wand.

"Well, you're close. Just a little- here." I guided his hand lower, so the tip was pointed at the wound, but wasn't in danger of accidentally penetrating it. "You're good. Fire away... or, whatever." He cleared his throat, and I noticed his hand shaking slightly.

"Vulnera Sanentur." The blood stopped leaking. "Vulnera Sanentur." The blood on his skin disappeared, and I saw the wound slowly, ever so slowly, start closing. "Vulnera Sanentur." It started closing a little faster, now. He moved his wand in little circles, and the sides of his wound closed quicker or slower, based on where the wand was in relation to it. This spell, repeated as it was, sounded almost like a song, or... rhythmic chant, unlike the others I had witnessed. I noticed that, while the wound was still open- for now- it looked much shallower, maybe only to the first joint of my finger, now.

He moved his wand slightly higher, and uttered another incantation. "Sana Ossa." Something seemed to move beneath his skin. He moved his wand slightly lower than the wound now, and repeated, "Sana Ossa." Again, his skin moved- it was kind of gross.

"Um... what is that...?" He returned his wand back to point at his wound.

"I'm healing my broken ribs." O-oh. "Riparare." Now, the wound finished its healing, clearly helped along greatly by his own enhanced healing factor. "And that was another basic healing spell- Vulnera Sanentur gets a bit temperamental if you don't use it in factors of three, and I definitely didn't need that much healing. It's better to just change spells, at that point." I nodded.

"And do you... use these spells a lot?" He shrugged.

"I mean," He put his wand on the floor in front of him, so he could reach for the jumper. "Don't get me wrong, I'm no Healer- that's a magical doctor-" Ah. Good to know. Always need to know who to ask for if you need medical care. "But I know enough to get by in most situations. Nuria was kind of militant about it, and with my control issues, it's... come in handy, to say the least." Hm. That didn't quite answer my question.

"But do you have to heal yourself often?" His eyebrows furrowed, and he took a second to bunch up the jumper, so he could slip it on over his head, now that his arms were in the sleeves.

"I mean, typically Lisbet and I usually heal each other, if magic is needed." Once again, not quite the answer I was looking for, and as he smoothed down the front of the jumper, and the spectacle of his bare skin disappeared, I became even more frustrated.

"And is healing magic needed often?" He hesitated, frowning.

"I- no? I mean, if Lisbet's hurt, most of the time she can just feed in order to heal herself, but I'm... well, it's not a good idea. I can feed from animals, or drink bagged blood, but... fresh, human blood, works best, and if we don't have any on tap..." Right... No, scratch that, I didn't really know what he was talking about. I had a feeling that that was more to do with my lack of knowledge about the world they lived in, than any reluctance to answer me on his part. "We'll heal on our own even without drinking blood, it'll just be much slower, and if we're not healed by the time our energy reserves are depleted, we basically... petrify, almost. Once we get more blood in us, however, we're right as rain." Oh. Well, that was good. "As long as we have enough to heal our wounds, now, that is." Less good.

"What sort of wound would require so much blood to heal that you would end up petrified?" He winced.

"Typically, most wounds aren't an issue, especially if we have a healthy diet." I'm guessing a 'healthy diet' meant a lot of human blood. "If you haven't fed properly for a while, it can be a little tougher. The issue is... persistent injuries." What was that supposed to mean? "It's... a long story, but basically, there are elements that can cause major damage specifically to vampires, and those elements can cause lasting damage, that needs constant, repeated healing. These... elements, can be administered by certain individuals- cough, Hunters, cough- over and over, until a vampire falls into petrification, just to be able to survive." That- that sounded awful!

"You're saying- that- that's torture!" Jerremyah seemed surprised by my reaction.

"Well- yeah." He said it so matter of factly- like it was to be expected.

"That's- that's heinous! That's cruel! That's- that's- inhumane!" He let out a shocked little laugh, his eyes wide.

"Because we're not. Human, I mean." I stared at him, appalled.

"But that doesn't mean you have no humanity!" Now, it was his turn to stare at me.

"Um... I hate to break this up, but... it's been twenty minutes." We both turned to stare at Lisbet, instead. "Nuria won't tolerate tardiness- five more minutes, and she'll probably launch a rescue mission. Or, lock her and Minsi in the vault, in case we've been captured and tortured to give away her location." There was that pesky torture again.

"Right. We should get going." Jerremyah rose to his feet, definitely a lot less stilted, and took the bowl of water with him.

"You empty that out, and clean your jeans- I'll clean Evie up." Now that I was looking, I did notice some blood on his jeans- was that all his?

"Yes, Dearest." He disappeared, but in a different direction to where Lisbet had gone. Instead of going down the hall, he turned immediately into a different room, that I guessed was likely the kitchen. Lisbet watched him go, and exasperatedly shook her head.

"Stand with your arms out, if you please, Evie." I did as she asked, and when she returned her gaze to me, she pulled out her wand. Now that I wasn't completely woozy from blood loss, I noticed that she retrieved it from a lacy black thigh holster, from underneath her matching black dress. Boy, she really liked her black, didn't she? "Good girl." God, not her, too!

"Be quick about it." I said, for a lack of anything else to say, and she pointed her wand at my bloody hand.

"Scourgify." The blood vanished, and my skin felt like it had been scrubbed clean- in fact, I thought I could smell soap, as she directed her wand down my arm, cleaning where Jerremyah's blood had dripped. "Scourgify." She moved on to my clothing now- the neck of my dress, where they had drank from me, and around my waist area on one side, where my arm wound had brushed up against my body. Looking down at myself, I did a quick spin, and judging by Lisbet's lack of firing off more spells, I figured I was as clean as I was going to be.

"Pretty dress." I glanced down at it, brushing my hand against the light blue material, as Jerremyah commented on it.

"Thanks. It- it's my sister's." I watched him blink, and took the time to appreciate the full body view of him in the knit jumper. He had the sleeves pushed up to just under his elbows, letting a few tattoos peek out, and I noticed that not only were his jeans blood free, they seemed cleaner than they had been when I had first seen him- maybe it had been the lighting in the club?

"You have a sister?" Lisbet asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, Vi. Viola. She's a couple years older than me, but... a bit aimless, I guess." I shrugged. "Me, I've always just pushed on, doing what needed to be done, whether I liked it or not. Vi, she... she's sweet, but stubborn. If she doesn't want to do something, you can't make her- for love nor money. I had to beg her to let me borrow this dress, so I'm glad I didn't ruin it- she would never let me hear the end of it." Lisbet and Jerremyah shared a look, but before I could consider why that might be, Jerremyah stepped towards me.

"Lisbet will apparate first- make sure they're ready for us. Then, I'll take you- don't worry, I won't splinch you this time, I'm much more careful when I don't have a stake in me." 'Apparate'? 'Splinch'? I assumed by the way he said it, that to 'apparate' was to teleport the way we had before, and 'splinch' referred to how I had been hurt, earlier. It was nice of him to try to reassure me, but I wasn't concerned. He had been heavily injured himself, and honestly, I almost would have preferred being hurt to traveling like that again- it had been unpleasant, and... disorienting.

"Okay. I trust you." He blinked, looking shocked by that sentiment, in a way that didn't really make sense to me. Lisbet looked like she wanted to comfort him, but was still too mad at him to give in to the urge.

"I'll get going, now. Once we're there, I'll take a shot at calling on Grey. With any luck, he'll be able to come to us- help us." She hesitated. "Guide us." Oh. They liked this guy a lot, didn't they? They relied on him- on his guidance. I just had to hope that that guidance would be in my favor.

"You know he'll do anything to be here." There was a pause here, like they both knew exactly what Jerremyah wasn't saying. "I'll be right behind you, My Love." He reached out a hand to her, and she stared at it for a second, before she gave in, and took it.

I watched as he squeezed her hand, and he stepped in closer to her. With his other hand, he reached out to her, giving her time to pull away if she wanted, but she didn't. She tracked his hand from the corner of her eye as it moved to cup her jaw.

"I know you're mad at me-" She cocked an eyebrow at him. "-and maybe I deserve that-" She made a noise in the back of her throat, that I found myself agreeing with. 'Maybe'? Definitely. "But don't leave without a proper goodbye. You never know when the last time we see each other will be." She gave an anguished growl.

"Don't you-" And then he leaned down, and kissed her. God, did he kiss her. She melted into him, and he curled his bigger body around her smaller one, cradling her to him, like she was something precious- the thought made something in my chest ache. They kissed for so long that I started to be concerned that they would pass out from a lack of oxygen- and honestly, even past that point. When they pulled apart, oddly enough, neither of them looked pleased- Lisbet looked frustrated, almost dreading, and Jerremyah... Jerremyah looked scared, and more than a little desperate. What was-?

"Go. Be careful, Ma Moitié." Hm... There he was, speaking French again. Clearly, he knew more than just 'thank you'. She gave a small, weak smile.

"Right back at you, Mon Pomme D'amour." Then, she twisted, and with a loud 'crack', she disappeared. Jerremyah stared at the empty space for a second, his face splitting into a sad little grin before he turned to me, and held out his arm for me to take.

"You two seem to have made up fast." He hesitated, and shrugged.

"It's not exactly... she'll always take me, if I make the effort, but... I don't want to make her do things she doesn't want to- despite what I might have led you to believe, thus far." Hmm. I supposed that made sense.

"So that's why you made me dig around in your back- because you didn't want to make her uncomfortable?" He hesitated, and shrugged, pulling on a salacious grin that just... lacked, something.

"Maybe I just wanted to feel your hands on my naked body." He teased, and I blushed- realising that we were alone, truly alone, for the first time.

"Jerremyah-" He cut me off.

"We should go-" I cut him off in return.

"No. You need to listen to me. This will only take a minute." He froze, looking shocked by my adamance. "I'm not going to pretend like I know Lisbet better than you do- that I have a better grip on your relationship than you do- but... I have to tell you, as someone on the outside looking in... things are in a bad way." His eyebrows furrowed. "You can't keep acting like your know better than everyone else-"

"I don't-" He tried to protest, but I steamrolled right over him.

"You are hurting Lisbet." He flinched. "You are hurting your relationship. I understand that you value her life more than your own- more than anything- but... do you value it more than your relationship with her? Because... I don't want to hurt you- either of you- but... I don't think Lisbet is going to tolerate what you've been doing, for much longer." He stared at me, shocked, and... and hurt. He was quiet, for over a full minute.

"Yes." Huh?

"'Yes'? Yes, what?" He continued to stare me down, staring into my soul, looking more pained than he had even with a wooden stake sticking out of his back- more than when I was digging around in his wound, I suspected.

"Yes, I value her life more than our relationship." Oh. Oh, no... "Even if she were to spend the rest of her life hating my guts... well, at least she would be alive to do it." And I had no doubts, that he was already heading down a similar path. The only question, was how long Lisbet would put up with it- she didn't seem like the type to tolerate such an attitude, not to mention the way he acted because of said attitude.

"We- we should go." There was nothing more I could do- nothing more I could say. I could only pray that I was wrong, and I had misjudged the situation. I would be happy to find out that I had.

"Yeah... Hold on tight." And with that, the world went dark.

(A/N): Evie: *rooting around in Jerremyah's back* *laughs*

Jerremyah: 'Why are you laughing?'

Evie: 'No reason. Just thinking about how you would make a good puppet.'

Jerremyah: * 0.o *

Jerremyah: 'Why is everyone I meet literally INSANE?! ...And why do I kind of like it...?'

'Said the Actress to the Bishop' is basically the early version of 'That's what she said', and is first documented as a written phrase in 1928, in Leslie Charteris novel, 'Meet the Tiger'. It's thought to originate somewhere between 1901-1910, because Actresses at the time substituted their income by turning to prostitution, and clergymen were well known for trying to convince them to change their ways, and the phrase and variants like 'as the Actress said to the Bishop', was born as an innuendo referring to these Actresses confessing their sins to said clergymen. I thought this was particularly fitting to have Jerremyah use, given his relationship with the church, which we'll learn about in detail, soon. The phrase 'That's what she said' was apparently made popular in the 1970's by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live, but was popular with 'plenty of Brits' before that- which basically means, a 'that's what she said joke' is definitely not out of the question for the Marauders.

Attagirl: 'That a girl!' An expression of encouragement, approval, or admiration given to a woman or girl. First known use in 1917, a variant of 'Attaboy', which is first known to have been used in 1909.

Translations (French):

Ma Moitié = My (other) Half or My (better) Half (This is what Jerremyah meant)

Mon Pomme D'amour = My Candy Apple (... yeah. I had Lisbet say the most ridiculous term of endearment I had in my repertoire. Hence why Jerremyah grinned, after she left)

Spells:

Canon-

Vulnera Sanentur = This is the spell Snape uses as a counter curse to Sectumsempra in the movies, but there's no proof that he created the spell- in fact, there's proof to the opposite. It's the only known healing spell meant to deal with deep gashes, and it's meant to be repeated. I read somewhere that it worked better used in threes, but that's not on the wiki page, so I'm honestly not sure where I read that from. The only description we get of it being used here is that it sounds melodic, like a song. It's also seen to be used by Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, and theorized to be used non-verbally by both Dumbledore, and Madam Pomfrey- hence why I said there was evidence that Snape DIDN'T come up with it, as a lot of people seem to think.

Scourgify = The Scouring Spell. Apparently this can be used to scrub someone's mouth out with soap, if they have a potty mouth- maybe Lisbet could use that on Leo or Danniel at some point, lol.

Me Made-

Sana Ossa = Healthy Bones, in Latin. I needed a spell to set and mend bones that are bigger than things like noses, or toes (how Episkey is used).

Riparare = Mend (Repair), in Italian. Why Italian? Well... everything else I tried before that didn't work. That's literally it. It also has 'rip' in it, so I figure it works for wounds. There are canon mending charms that CAN be used to heal wounds, but leave significant scarring, so it's possible that this could be related, but has different effects because of the vampires enhanced healing abilities.