17. La Camisa Negra.

The nausea was still on, and when I got inside, I walked straight into one bedroom, shut the door, and went into the bathroom to vomit. My rage simply wasn't enough to the extent I had it on display, and I was too tired and didn't want to bring it up anymore. Now was the time to recover and see if this nausea would stop.

I collapsed on the floor unconscious and woke up to the sick feeling rolling over me. I could barely hold on to the sides but was still vomiting bloody foam.

At some point, I noticed Charles saw what my situation was; he crouched down next to me and said, "'Don't worry, I'll get Colin; the men are in the treatment now, and you, Missy, are next in line."

Charles left, and a little while later, I woke up to find Colin and Charles had come back and were helping me from the bathroom floor to the bed. Colin gave me an injection.

Colin said, "What's making you sick?"

I said, "Mercury, iron, copper, and zinc, I guess, and an enormous pile of herbs, but I don't know if they did anything."

Colin stroked me, but he, too, looked tired and didn't go through me. He seemed to be tired and preoccupied. 

He said, "Fine, I'll get the wizards in here to suck the metals out of you, and I'll keep you asleep as best I can. Right now, what you need most is rest."

I nodded and fell asleep.

 I was completely exhausted and just lying in bed when Dresden came into the room with Constantine, and they started sucking the metals out of me. Colin was there and gave me another injection of something.

Whatever Colin had given me, it helped because I was barely awake. I could barely feel the metals being pulled out, and I was on the edge of unconsciousness and consciousness the whole time, but I could feel nausea receding, and that helped, too; I sighed. I was quite well worn out. I had no strength left, not that I would have reason to tell them to look me over, nope I was keeping my state a secret.

I was still wearing nothing but scrubs, and I thought I needed to change somewhere and maybe take a shower. I heard Colin tell someone we had been in captivity for over a month. The men would still need to be tended, and that was quite a work, and I would sleep and recover. Colin tucked me in, and the wizards left.

Colin closed the door behind him and headed back to the medbay. He checked that all the men were asleep, and then he checked everyone's stitches. The men weren't the easiest patients, but he carried on. He was the doctor. The antibiotics had worked wonders, and Adam and Samuel had already had something to eat. After only three days, he removed the shackles. The men had recovered well and could move on their own.

His phone beeped, and he looked at it irritably.

Fuck, another one of the Samuel clinics is having problems, and he said to Bran, "Those guys can wake up and eat, they are fine, and Mimi is sleeping and recovering. She will probably wake up at some point, too. She is out of metals so she will recover; I have to go now. Samuel's clinic is having problems again,"

Bran grunted and nodded. He was researching various pack problems that came to his head when he was Marrok, and all the werewolves in North America could talk to him. 

Damon woke up from medbay. He was feeling much better. The vervain was gone; he was completely healed. He was still thin and maybe a little weak, but he would get better and fast. He got up, took a shower, and washed up, then he took several bags of Adam and Mimi's blood and downed it; the powerful blood helped him to recover so much better. Mimi being his biological half, her blood was best for him. 

He talked at length and firmly to Bran about the security of the houses, told him what he went through, and Bran believed him; he was going to take much more consideration of security from now on. Bran had quite a bloody nose too, as Damon instilled his lesson in Bran's head with his telepathy.

Damon knew Adam would probably get some kind of armory, and Mimi would probably keep herself ready. Damon ate several times during the day that he had been awake. Adam and Samuel were also awake, eating, and recovering, and all agreed that much better security and a gun cabinet are now standard equipment in every house.

Damon just went to the door to check on the sleeping Mimi. He didn't even go into the room yet as he let her recover and sleep. 

I woke up in the night to find I was freezing. I was dizzy. My stomach was hurting, and it felt like it was on fire. I was so cold that I was trembling, and I knew I had an infection and a pretty bad one. But I was immortal, I would get better in time like always. 

As usual, my high fever drove me to move. I sat up on the edge of the bed, wrapped myself in a blanket, and stood up. My eyes were swimming pretty damn badly, but I stood up and moved. Luckily I was downstairs and in my mind, I thought that I probably would have fallen down the stairs, I wouldn't have been able to descend them.

I knew what the infection was, and I was a bit irritated I hadn't healed as well as I thought I would when I had plucked the stitches out. My stomach was on fire and moving was darn painful, but it kept again dizziness less.

I went into the kitchen when I saw the light on; I thought I'd report my condition to someone in case I needed an antibiotic or something. I did not know who was even in the house. Maybe Samuel or Colin or whoever would tell me to sleep and rest and it was not so bad. 

Damon was in the kitchen looking for food. He was already much better colored, although tired. He turned around when he heard my footsteps. His eyes were alert now, and he furrowed his brows as he saw me wrapped in a blanket and shivering.

He looked at me for a moment and said, " Morning, baby. What are you doing up at this hour? Dresden and Constantine took all the metals out four days ago. You've been sleeping since then. I guess you've been trying to heal or regain your strength. Charles, Bran, and Samuel already left, and Adam is asleep. He is fine, too, just sleeping. Charles and Magnum will finish destroying the place. They know where it is. Why are you wrapped in a blanket? We're getting all right. How about you?"

He turned completely around now and looked at me, waiting for an answer.

I gathered my strength and tried to stay upright. The kitchen lights looked really yellow, and I felt absolutely awful. Pain tore through my belly, and I was a little hunched, shook like a leaf. 

But I got myself going and went to Damon and said, "I don't think I'm okay. It's bloody freezing, and I feel sick. I've got a bloody infection, and if I could get some antibiotics, the strong ones that Samuel uses a bit everywhere, it would help. And I'm so sick now that I think I might even handle an IV. They are in capsules or in IV and he keeps them in a little bit of every house. So if you could get some of them for me, they would help me heal. No need to fuss too much over me."

 Damon felt my forehead and said, " You're burning up with a fever and a lot. And this was not the best medbay to be in. I think you were comfortable in bed. And Baby, I will not give you an antibiotic straight up. I'm going to have to go through you and see if my teeth would be more useful than Samuel's generic antibiotic. So I am going to fuss over you and not gonna listen to any 'I'm fine' sentences, missy."

Damon picked up a jar of pickles and started eating them eagerly. He was really diving in. The smell made me nauseous.

I watched for a moment and asked, "Do you have any weird cravings or something?"

Damon laughed with his mouth full and said, "No, I don't really like them either, but as these are charging my teeth and apparently, they need to be well charged, I'm drawing everything from vinegar to get the ingredients for velvet and other stuff missy, as you seem to need."

I nodded and said, " All that love does is make you eat things you can't stand just so you can treat me."

Damon smiled. He ate next some vinegary beetroots and some pickled cabbage. I sat at the table for about ten minutes, and then I felt like I couldn't sit any longer. I pressed my upper body against the table. I was so damn tired. Mere sitting up was draining my strength.

 Damon sipped the rest of the vinegar juice and said, "Well, missy, you must be pretty tired. We'll have to look at a room for a while and then figure out a plan of action. You are not feeling very well now, do you? You seem to be in pain and knackered out."

We had returned to the same house from which we had been abducted after Adam's people had put the house in order. This was a small house for a pack, with three floors and not a million rooms.

I had been looking forward to getting into my fancy mansion, but things always happen. I nodded, and Damon came over, lifted me into his arms, carried me into one bedroom, and tucked me into bed.

He said, "I'm going to see what kind of medicine cabinet there is. You stay there, okay?"

I nodded. I shook in bed, under the covers. I was so damn tired. The pain was hot stabbing, ripping, and it made me even more tired.

Damon left the room cursing; Mimi was miserably thin, probably about 36-38 kilos, hot as hell, and smelled so damn sick. This would not be easy to deal with again, not even at first. She was in pain, shaking like a leaf and so damn tired and powerless.

He walked into the medbay. Started looking through the miserable medicine cabinet, cursing to himself. There was no bump, no decent dentifrices, nothing useful at all. Most of the meds worked for normal werewolves, but there wasn't much of Mimi's medicine here at all.

Another thing he was going to keep in mind and let others know. But where did Mimi have the infection? Damon thought for a while and then remembered that Mimi had had some stitches here and there, and if she still had them when she escaped, fine, that would be one possibility where the infection might be hiding.

He walked back to the bedroom empty-handed. He knew he had a first aid kit full of supplies in the car, and he might find something in there. But now he had to get her in some sort of condition first. He had grabbed a couple of jars with lids and some syringes and needles in case his teeth got excited and produced something else.

I was so cold and miserable I didn't even want to move. The stitches that had been bothering me before I had been driving, and then I had picked them all off. No one had noticed. They had been the source of the infection because I knew the wounds had been open. I had assumed that when the wizards got the metals off, I would be healed, but I hadn't been in a condition to beat the bug.

I stuck my hand inside my scrubs and felt my time. When my fingers touched my hot skin and then something wet, the pain hit me like a million volts, and I whimpered loudly. I felt several open wounds and couldn't bear to touch them, as they were so damn sore.

Taking a deep breath hurt, and so my breathing was quite frantic and shallow. But I tried to feel how many wounds or stitches I had left. I gently pressed on one spot as it felt so soft, and I felt something hot coming out of the wound and soaking into my shirt. It did not smell very good. When I took my hand off, it was covered in blood and rot.

 Damon came into the room just as I was looking at my bloody, rotten hand.

He sighed and crouched down next to the bed. "Let me guess, you plucked those stitches out, didn't you? I think you'd been cut up a hell of a lot, too. I think there's a pretty nasty infection going on, and no one had gone through you while you were still wearing those scrubs. Fine, I'll have to look into it and get some more supplies first. Now, don't put your hands in there again. Okay?"

He looked at me with that look in his eye that he's relentless when he takes care of me and even ties my hands up, so I was a good girl and nodded. The pain made me stay still, and I felt blood dripping lazily from where I was pressing, blood or rot. I didn't know which it was.

Damon got up and trotted away. He went to his car and dug out a large sports bag, took out some packets. He took various bandages and decided that he would take Mimi elsewhere for treatment. The infection was not a mild one and had been festering for several days.

Damon remembered how Mimi had killed a very large number of people there and probably ripped out the internal stitches. This would require quite an operation, and recovery could be another ordeal. He gathered his first aid kit and went back inside. He went into the bedroom, where Mimi was shivering under the covers.

 He returned after a few minutes with packages of various bandages. He sat down on the bed next to me. He put the packages on the table.

"Now baby, let's do it so I can see what's going on in your belly. If there is an infection, as I suspect, there is no way to close it yet, even with my blood. And then we'll go to another house, the nearest one with a good medbay. I think I'll actually drive us to Chicago. At least there's top-of-the-line equipment there. And I'll call Samuel."

His expression was calm and steady, but I knew he was in full doctor mode, and that's when I knew I had to behave. And I had brought this on myself, and now I was almost forcing Damon to treat me.

He said, " It's quite a long drive, over 12 hours, but we'll get there. I'll see if Adam wants to come along, and he can drive part of the way, then."

 I looked at Damon innocently and said, " Thanks for doing this. It's probably not what you wanted to do. I wasn't too smart when I took the stitches out and didn't think to tell anyone."

Damon gave me a pat and said, " Baby, don't worry, I'll help you first. Now I'll give you the black velvet first. It's strong, so you'll fall asleep. I hope that you'll stay asleep long enough for me to examine you and then for the drive, or at least part of the drive. And I'm loaded, so I can do more when I need to."

I nodded and shivered. The fever was rising relentlessly, and I was too weak to even put up a proper fight. Now, not even the panic of my impending injection kicked in as I saw Damon bite into the jar, drain the night black velvet, and pull about eight cc into the syringe. Damon took one of my arms out of the blanket, stuck the needle into my vein, and pushed the plunger.

He said, " Sleepy time, baby."

I fell asleep.