Chapter 75: The Healing Hands Of Uncertainty

The Quinn Residence, The Backwoods, Temperance, South Dakota...

Layla had spent the better part of her day resting and ensuring the house had been clean. It was a nice change of pace with Brutus gone with her father and even less fun with Brick having gone off to further investigate the missing girl's case. It was a relatively peaceful afternoon for her as she took time to catch up on her studies and socialize with her friends over the phone. She had not worked up the courage to go see them in person with no one to watch the house she more or less stayed in her bedroom thinking about Brick and what they had been up to before the handsome biker took his leave of her. As time began to pass while she'd been busily moving about and enjoying her first real day of freedom. Layla noticed a figure moving through the trees at the height of the afternoon.

The blazing heat of the sun and the silence had left a lot to be desired but she was quite comfortable until the figure appeared to have been coming for her front porch. Armed with the wits and skills her father gave her in times of contention and crisis, Layla grabbed her Daddy's shotgun and approached the front door already weary of what had decided to trespass on her land and more than willing to escort them off or put them in the ground if need be.

Layla gripped the shotgun as tightly as she could and managed to note how heavy it was but she'd had more than enough practice with it, her Daddy ensured she had it as a last line of defense in case anyone managed to get past Brutus or he'd been out with him hunting, as was the case at the time.

Slowly she approached the front door, gun in hand and her blue eyes narrowed and keen wits already at play. Once she opened the door to issue the warning she'd been shocked to see a bloodied and weak Brick Kenneally laying on her front porch in a pool of crimson with glossy eyes and drenched in sweat.

"BRICK!?" she said shocked as she quickly scanned the area to see if his apparent attacker had followed him before putting down the gun and dragging his body into the living room before closing and locking the door behind them.

Brick had been unable to do much groaning in the wake of his flesh stinging and his blood oozing all over her hardwood floor. The bullets were burning him as his flesh bubbled seared from the heat and the reaction to the contents of the bullet burrowing into his bloodstream. He'd been delirious and weak as Layla opted to get his vest off and gathered what she needed for aiding him in his time of need.

She wasn't a nurse by any shot but she'd cleaned a few bullet holes and knife wounds for her father a time or two when he couldn't reach them. He'd outright refused to go to the hospital and even worse, never wanted anyone to come to them on those nights. He'd try and fix himself up on his own but there were times when he required her assistance.

"Shit." hissed Brick feeling the agony of his flesh stinging as he slowly bled all over the floor. "Fuck...it hurts...it fucking burns."

Layla sighed as she set to work gathering up her supplies as she saw her way to getting out the bullets as best she could. Brick had been grateful despite his delirium and the pain as he hissed and growled in the wake of it. She paid no mind to his snarls nor the fact that his fangs had protruded from his mouth as he winced when she started to dig the tweezers into his open wounds to fish out the silver bullets that the attacker had pelted him with.

He had been upset about the attack and about Charlie Mack being killed in the process. He'd been about to turn over a new lead for the investigation at the time and it was as close as anyone had ever gotten to the truth of what might have happened to the missing little girl.

Layla had been shocked to see so much blood coming from Brick as she assisted him with getting out of his cut and tossing it a good distance away from the pool of blood. Brick snarled as his beast blood began to boil enraged at being hurt so badly when he'd not been used to it beforehand.

"AHHHH DAMN!" growled Brick his eyes blazing with fury as they began to shift in the wake of his pain and frustration.

"I'm gonna have to dig out the bullet, if we're lucky it shouldn't be too deep," she said trying to reassure him.

"Fuck, go on then." growled an embittered Brick as he did his best to stave off passing out from the loss of blood and the poison from the silver bullets.

The two pieces of metal had not been enough to kill him themselves but the acidic nature of them beneath his skin and mixing with his were-blood would no doubt end him by way of infection if they stayed inside him any longer.

Layla had been shocked as she noted the pulsing flesh bubbling where the bullets had pierced him as if trying to heal but had been blocked mid-act due to the acidity of the silver bullets.

"You're allergic to silver?" she asked with an arched brow.

"Only when it passes through my skin," replied Brick in a gruff tone. "You can't imagine how humiliating it is to be the baddest thing walking only to be felled by shiny objects that go past the skin barrier."

Layla sighed as Brick sat up against the sofa along the floor his blood still oozing from his wounds as she carefully took the tweezers and began to explore his wounds. Brick grunted in reaction to the ripping fibers of his muscle tissue and skin as he sat allowing her to dig into his already pain-riddled and blood-covered chest.

"You did this before?" asked Brick with an arched brow as sweat continued to drench his now sickly pale flesh.

Layla nodded not at all proud of her experiences with her father in cleaning his bullet wounds and many cuts.

"I'm not an expert or anything, but Daddy never seemed to be any worse off after I had to take a few bullets out of him," she replied.

Her eyes widened when she noted the black veins that began to form along Brick's battered and clammy flesh. Brick had heard the clanking of metal into a plastic container as Layla seemed to move about on limited skill removing one of the bullets from Brick's chest. Up close she could see where the black veins were coming from the three holes that were put into him, all that had been left was the one in his pectoral muscle and the other in his belly after she'd removed the first one.

In an instant, the black veins began to retreat after the first bullet was removed and she could have sworn it began to heal rapidly. Layla turned her attention to the second bullet as Brick hissed in agony and she pulled it free after some long-standing digging and a bit more pain for her big bad biker lover. Just as before, the veins retracted and it seemed to be healing the moment the bullet had been free of the wound.

Layla took a deep breath as her hands trembled and she met Brick's slightly dazed eyes. She knew he'd been in a good deal of pain and the black veins seemed to be thickest on his abdomen where the third and final bullet had gone straight through his impressive abs.

"Shit," grunted Brick still annoyed about having been so easily shot. "This one's gonna leave a scar."

Layla sighed before turning her attention back to the task at hand.

"I'm gonna need you to lie back on the floor for this one," she instructed him.

Brick nodded and slowly moved to lie back amid the hardwood flooring. He hissed as he moved the gut shot appeared to have been more painful and bled more profusely in the process.

Despite her fears, Layla opted to steady her hands as she aimed to remove the final bullet. Brick's body had still been ghastly pale and he was slick with sweat as he faded in and out of consciousness while the black veins continued to spread through him due to the silver bullet making him weak and sicker with each passing moment.

Brick had become quite delirious in the wake of the infection that he howled rather sorrowfully as Layla dug into his flesh for the bullet. She tried several times to find it but it had been difficult. Something told her that Brick would die here and now if she couldn't get the thing out given how pale he'd become and the continued loss of blood had not helped.

"All things considered, I kinda glad I managed to get back to you," said Brick still half out of it. "If I was to die here and now, I wouldn't have a problem with it, nor would I blame you, Layla...I had a damn good run of years but nothing has ever come close to being as good as when I'm with you."

"Shut up jerk you're not dying," said Layla determined to find the bullet. "Not on my watch."

A sharp pain ripped through Brick as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He could feel the infection spreading toward his heart and gasped as his lungs began to burn and more sweat drenched him.

"Y-You know I love you, don'tcha?" asked Brick growing weaker by the second. "Don't know if I ever told you this before."

Tears threatened to spill from the wells of Layla's blue eyes as she tried again and again to find the bullet that was causing all of Brick's problems. Spurred by the sense of impending sorrow and helplessness she finally found it and pulled it out of the organ it was nestled in. They'd been fortunate that it didn't fragment as she dropped it among the others slick with the crimson of Brick's blood just as he passed out and the black veins began to recede.

"Brick," said Layla dipping the towel she'd gotten into warm water and placing it at the base of his wound. "Brick I got them all out, BRICK!"

The hulking brute of a werewolf had been silent as he lay on her living room floor with his eyes closed and his breathing nonexistent.