5. Moment of Peace.

I woke up. I was alone. I thought about everything that had happened, and slowly, it all came back to me. The torture, the brainwashing, Krycheck, the drugs, the rage, the slaughter I did, Damon, and how he bit me on the neck, and it felt like my veins were leaking velvet. Then nothing. My killer instinct was calm, or at least I did not find it. I remembered Krycheck being satisfied as it had shown. 

 Apparently, we had switched places somewhere in between because we were back in Chicago. At least I wasn't in an incubator or tied up. I was still skinny as hell and kind of weak. But I didn't have any of those poisoning symptoms or drugged up anymore, so something had done something. I didn't know that much about vampires, so I didn't know if it was normal to be able to drain something from your fangs. I did not know about it.

I had a shocking cold, kind of sick feeling. I hadn't felt this way in a long time, but the first thing I did was rip out all the cannulas and tie the tubes so I couldn't use them. I wasn't compatible with them yet, and I woke up with an IV. I kept the panic at bay, but I was now quick as I acted.

 I just knew that this experience was going to go to the same place where the nightmares had come from, and now I had new material again. I was so cold I was shaking. My muscles ached, and the light hurt my eyes. I knew I had a fever when the lights turned yellow, and I felt helpless and unsafe.

I wanted to be in my own bed. I wanted to put on my velour suit. Even if it would be too big for me, it would be warm, and those Angora shirts. I got the side of the bed down and pulled myself up to sit up. A huge dizziness hit me, but I held on. I felt like I was going to faint, but I used all my willpower because I didn't want to be here now when I wanted to be in the warmth of my own bed recovering. I wanted to be curled up in my safe bed and just be there.

For some reason, it's so damn cold in here, and the lights looked all yellow. I stood up and held on to the table until I could steady myself. My willpower helped with this. I staggered out of the medbay, and the hallway had never looked so long. When I was downstairs in the medbay.

Halfway down the hall, my legs played jelly and gave out completely, so I slumped to the floor. I tried to get up, but my legs were too weak; they shook, so I got on all fours and started crawling. Now and then, I ran out of steam and collapsed on the floor. Then I kept going again, persevering. I was really exhausted, but every step, every meter, was closer to my bed. My velour suit, my Angora shirt, and my own bed. Then it would be just time to wait for this to pass. I would heal. I was immortal, unkillable.

The hard floor hurt my knees and hands. I was skeletally thin, but I was stubborn and tenacious. I got to the stairs, and it took me a while. Step by step, and luckily, they weren't terribly high, but I knew there were thirteen steps to go, and slowly but surely, I made it up them. I congratulated myself when I got up the stairs and into the hallway. It would not be long anymore.

I sat at the top of the stairs for a while, shaking and trembling with sheer exhaustion. Now, it wouldn't be long before my room, but I was exhausted, cold, and sore all over. Then I started moving again. I could already see the door to my room, and I kept on persevering towards it.

I was halfway there when I heard footsteps. Not so long anymore. I saw someone walk up to me and crouch down. Soon, warm hands were touching my forehead and my body.

"Baby, what on earth? How did you... Oh shit, you're burning up? What's this all about? How did you get a fever? What on earth are you doing, and where are you going?" Damon asked almost to himself as he examined me.

I curled up into a ball and shivered; I felt like my strength was running out at this point, and somehow, just being in Damon's presence brought a kind of peace to me that I didn't have to push myself quite so hard. Damon's hands were gentle as he probed me through.

Samuel also approached me and said, "What on earth, Mimi? Have you crawled all the way from Medbay? Oh, it works. You have a fever. Oh, great. Well, it's not excellent that you have a fever and you're not feeling well, but this proves that you now have an immune system. A bone marrow transplant was needed. But, missy, you're in no condition to crawl anywhere. You're still skinny as hell, and the fever will raise your metabolism through the roof. "

Damon asked Samuel, "What bone marrow transplant? What are you talking about?"

Samuel replied: "I gave Mimi your bone marrow shortly after you left. My theory is that, for some reason, you are each other's biological half. If one of you is missing something, the other usually fills it in. Here's proof. And your teeth are another piece of evidence. So when Mimi has a problem, you often have a solution. That's why your blood works so well for Mimi. Take Mimi and let's take her to that smaller medbay; she may be easier to treat there. If she's not so eager to crawl out of there."

Damon put his hands under me and lifted me into his arms. He was gentle but firm and lifted me effortlessly into his arms.

He said: "Mimi, you are still in terrible shape; you need treatment. My teeth removed all the drugs from your system, but now you have a fever, and you are skinny and weak. Now, you must be a good girl and obey me. This is another lesson on how to obey me. Now we will go to Medbay and see if I can give you a full course of fever medicine and check your bug so we can treat that too, but no more crawling on the floor. Is that clear? You're not in any condition to move. You must be a good girl and stay in bed nicely now."

I grunted in response, unable to do anything else. He carried me to the small medbay while Samuel walked ahead and held the door open. I was still very insecure and helpless, and somehow, the fever made me feel uneasy. Like I didn't want to be still. Damon laid me down on the patient's bed.

He said, "Now I'm going to taste your blood and see what my teeth do, and then we'll go from there."

He took my hand and bit my wrist, drinking my blood. It felt, like it actually hurt, but I was already uncomfortable enough that it didn't bother me that much. He didn't drink much. Then he started walking again, apparently handling the blood and developing a fever medicine. And then whatever else his teeth wanted to do.

Samuel approached Damon and said, "Well, have you developed anything, or do you know what infection Mimi has?"

He had been studying Damon's teeth for a few days after he had come off Mimi, and they had then driven to Chicago. Mimi had only been in medbay for 24 hours, and they had been on their way to see her when she was already crawling on the floor with a fever. Damon had studied his teeth a bit, but now it was show time. He had tested them out, tasted Adam's blood, and put him to sleep with his velvet almost automatically. Adam had been too stressed about Mimi.

Damon replied, " Streptococcus, a new strain; I don't know where she got it from, whether it's been in her system all this time and is just gaining a foothold. I'm working on a febrifuge, and I feel that when we give the febrifuge, and the fever goes down, we also provide the sedative. But we don't tell the lady that. Because if I know Mimi at all, we just pick her up off the floor for the next week. My telepathy is working to some extent, and I can feel how restless she is feeling, but now she needs to rest properly. She also needs a nutrient drip and a strong one."

He paused for a while to think and see what his teeth were doing. 

"I am doing the antibiotic here at the same time as I am about to take the container to start the draining. Soon the dose will be ready. The antibiotic has to be diluted, and the fever medicine has to be taken orally."

Damon walked over to one of the shelves and took a couple of containers from the cupboard. He put plastic wrap over the jars, bit through the wrap, and drained. First, Damon made a fever medicine. It was pink, and he drained 500 ml of it. That would be 100 doses. One dose was five ml. 

He said, " This is a fever medicine, the dose is five ml and oral, there are a hundred doses, and the shelf life, well it should last at least a month."

He handed it, with instructions, to Samuel, who took an empty bottle from the cupboard, poured the medicine into the bottle, and wrote the label on it.

Samuel said, " Oh, we'll have our own pharmacy with your teeth, and if there's any medicine left over, I'll test it and check it out. It might be that maybe we could manufacture this if needed. But now I'm going to give the lady a dose of this."

He put the medicine in a 5-ml syringe. He would give it to Mimi in a moment. Damon was already making the antibiotic concentrate, and it was bright yellow.

I watched as Damon bit into the jar and apparently spilled something, I couldn't hear what he was saying to Samuel, even though this was a smaller space, these foxes could talk in a way I couldn't hear and I don't know by what means they did it.

Samuel then walked over to me. He had a syringe in his hand with something pink on it; I was wrapped up in a blanket and it was good that my face was exposed; I was so cold and my strength was gone, as gone as it could be.

"Mimi, this here is a fever medicine that is to be taken orally. Damon just made this, so this should work. Open your mouth, and I'll give you this." Samuel came over to me and told me.

He dug me out a little. I opened my mouth, and the stuff he injected into my mouth was incredibly foul-tasting, but I swallowed it whole. It was like olives soaked in mustard with herring broth and vinegary beetroot. Yuck.

I couldn't stand anything vinegary; it was about as awful tasting as possible. The sour taste lingered in my mouth and made me feel even worse, but the stuff was now swallowed, and I'd have to see if it worked. I curled back into the blanket, shivering and just being.

But it worked. After ten minutes, I got boiling, sweat pouring off me, and I tried to get the blanket off but couldn't. I suddenly felt dirty as hell, but I was weak as a kitten and couldn't even lift the blankets off my body. I felt like I'd sweated the last ounce of strength out of my body, and I was groaning and just suffering from the hot flush.

 I watched Damon make a bright yellow substance and then dilute it into five bags. The bags were about two litres, and I wasn't in the mood to tolerate them, or even try to tolerate them.

I didn't want any IVs now. I decided that the drip tubes and cannulas would come off quickly if they put them in me.

Damon had finished gathering all his supplies on a small moving table and came over to me and said: "It's working. Your temperature is returning to normal. I don't know the duration, but there are 99 doses left. Let me get some of these blankets off you already. You must be pretty weak, baby."

I said, "You had to make the worst-tasting fever medicine in the world. You didn't get any flavor in it because you made it out of vinegar. I'm not taking another dose of that."

Damon smiled, and I watched as he took the syringe off the table and pulled the needle cap off, felt my arm for a moment, and then plunged the needle into my muscle and pressed the plunger into the base. I looked at him with a murderous gaze. But when I couldn't even move my arm, I was so damn weak. I was helpless and powerless, and the son of a bitch just jabbed the syringe into me. He stared at me as he put the used syringe in the trash.

I was too weak to defend myself, and this guy was just coldly jabbing me with needles.

"What did you just put in me?" I asked in a voice that should have been murderous but was probably weak and sick.

Damon grinned and stroked my hair.

He said: " Sedative, I just sedated you. Don't worry, it'll help. We'll get you cannulated and dripped with antibiotics. You're so weak and tired you'll probably fall asleep from that sedation alone. You'll be fine. It's all right. I'll take care of you, and Samuel will take care of you. We'll start wiping you down and changing dry sheets and pillows for you. The drugs will help. Now you need rest, and then you'll be fine. "

Fuck, he drugged me. He did drug me. What can I do about it? I mean, it was unbelievable, but I was helpless, powerless, just a rag doll lying in bed, unable to lift my head. I could not find my rage, not anything that would help me. I was too exhausted to even try.

Damon fetched a bowl and a sponge while Samuel gathered up all the blankets from the bed. Next, Damon put an enormous pile of thick towels on another bed and lifted me naked on top of the towels. The towels were already soaking up the sweat from my skin, and I felt so dirty even then and tired.

They changed the clean sheets and pillows on the bed. Then Damon took a sponge and washed me all over, wiping away the sweat and dirt. The water was warm, and his grip was firm but gentle, and oh, that felt good.

They even washed my hair, and Damon blow-dried it and braided it tight. Then they put on my nightgown and lifted me up to the bed. The medicine Damon had given me had started to take effect, and I was almost unconscious. I just felt myself being lifted back up, and then nothing.

By the time Damon and Samuel got Mimi washed and dried, she was about out cold. So they put her into a clean bed to sleep, cannulated her, and were already placing a bag of antibiotics and a strong nutrient concentrate into the drip.

Damon thought to himself that Mimi's digestive system might be working at some point because she was already healing, and all the stitches had been removed as soon as he woke up and took his teeth out of her neck so her digestive system would be working. But what would be the perfect power food for Mimi?

When I woke up once again, I was alone and saw that I was still in an IV. The tubes had been disconnected; the cannulas had been ripped out, and I sat up. I was cold again. I was restless and did not know the time, but when I was sick, I was restless and a terrible patient.

On this medbay, the beds didn't have those bed rails. I got up, and my head was spinning pretty badly again. I sat for a while, and then I could stand up. I staggered away and down the corridor. I wanted to go to my room because I had a fever and a cold, my muscles ached, and I didn't want to be in the medbay on an IV at all. Not a drop.

It was night when everyone else was, but I had made this trip before, so I knew the route. The darkness didn't matter. The trip took a lot of energy, but I was persistent.

Finally, I got to my own bedroom and wanted to get under the covers because it was so damn cold again. I didn't make it to the bed. I fell on the floor after I stumbled on the carpet and my wrist hurt pretty badly, as did my hip. I just pulled the covers off my bed and put them on, wrapped myself in their warmth, closed my eyes, and fell asleep or dozed off. I woke up to being carried and lowered back into the patient's bed. Damon. 

He looked at me. His expression was something between desperation and disbelief, with a good dose of honest irritation.

"Baby, how many times..., uh. I don't have to. Samuel and I have been picking you up off the floor all over this house for a week now. Moving around like this is not good for you, and you need those IVs, trust me. Your infection isn't going anywhere when you can't stay still. That's enough. Now, I'm going to give you a good dose of anesthetic strong enough to keep you asleep until the infection is gone. Mimi really. How you can't believe and understand. But now you'll sleep well the rest of the time."

I was quite embarrassed because this was actually the first time Damon had actually gotten mad or upset with me. When I had been impossible, they had faithfully carried me to the medbay time and time again and given me fever medicine that I had spit out of my mouth. And properly.

Eventually, Damon had done the intravenous version of that, too. They tried and kept me sedated. They tried to keep me in bed on an IV and resting, recovering. 

But I just crawled out of bed and started moving. Again and again and again. Plus, I kept tying the tubes, so they had to be changed. They didn't appreciate that either. I was the worst patient any of these three had ever seen.

They had locked the door to my room, but I had then gone into one of the guest rooms, and it took a while to find me; the guest rooms were locked, and my room was open, but even though they were watching me almost all the time, I always found a time to move when no one was watching or around. 

Damon was doing something in the medicine cabinet, and he pulled out a syringe and came over to me and said: "Sleepytime, baby."

Then he stuck the syringe right into my heart and pushed the plunger. I fell asleep with a couple of heartbeats.

To this day, he still has the patience to care for me whenever I get sick. He liked to put me to sleep just because this was not the only time I was a terrible patient. But he has been there for me. As my doctor, my nurse, and my husband, in his doctor mode, he can be incredibly patient with me, but I will run his nerves to the very end.