FicWad

Got Postcards From My Former Self Saying 'How You Been?'
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I woke up with a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. It might be the nasty hangover that I'm going to have, but it felt like something more. I got up and dragged myself over to the dusty toaster, found some questionable bread, and threw it into to toast. As I sat at the counter, the clock on the wall binged with the sound of the hour; 8 o'clock. I caught sight of an opened letter, addressed to me, sitting a few feet away. I got up to grab it, but the sound of the toaster popping almost gave me a heart attack.

"You almost scared me there," I spoke, laughing to the toaster.

I didn't know why I just tried to explain myself to a kitchen appliance, but I shrugged, going with it. I went to take a bite of my possibly moldy toast, but a wild banging against the door stopped me. I looked around, waiting to see if Gabe would awake from his vampiric slumber to save me from possible danger. He never came. The door pounded again. I quickly walked over to the door and answered it, ready to repremand the annoying knocker, but to my surprise, a body fell forward.

"Holy crap!" I shouted, barely catching whoever it was.

The weight caught me off guard and sent me tumbling to the floor.

"Are you alright? You almost gave me a-" I stopped talking, almost shocked by the bleeding face.

"Oh my god! Gabe! Gabe come here! Oh my god!"

I bent over the groaning man and put my hand on his forehead to try to stop the bleeding gash. My jaw hung open as I looked at the aged face of my once best-friend. A face that used to be clean-cut and youthful was now scruffy and tired.

"Joe! Joe, speak to me! What happened to you!?"

His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled weakly, with the blue eyes from Gabe's picture.

"Tegan," His voice sounded as if it was being run across a cheese grater.

I held my breath, waiting for some kind of explanation.

"Tegan, is that you?"

I nodded as Gabe's footsteps were heard, quickly approaching us with a first aid kit.

"WHOA." He stared at Joe. "I'm going to need more than this."

He threw down the first aid kit and ran to the bathroom for bandages and towels.

"Tegan, get me some water." Gabe pointed to the sink as he started to cover Joe's injuries.

I got up to go, but Joe grabbed my arm. I looked down at him, and even though his arms were tattooed, and he tried to seem rough and tough, he looked alone, and scared.

"No," he groaned, "Please, stay with me."

I looked at Gabe, who sighed, and mumbled in Spanish about how he has to do everything himself, and swore a bit. While he was running water, I could hear him telling himself that Pete owed him big time.

"Joey, what happened?"

Joe smiled, despite the pain he was in.

"You haven't called me Joey since you and Pete were in the hospital."

I pressed my lips together, half to stop from crying, and half to stop from smiling.

"Joe, you gotta let me know what happened. We gotta know if you want Gabe to fix you."

He struggled to sit up, and leaned against me for support.

"I got jumped by a vampire gang. I barely made it out. I'm lucky I remembered this old dump, and that I made it here. If not I'd probably be dying in a gutter somewhere."

Gabe moved to start cleaning the bigger wounds with vodka, but gasped.

"You've been bitten!"

Joe looked at him, worried.

"What?!"

"You've been bitten dude. The poison's in your bloodstream already. It's only a matter of time before you're a lean, mean, people hunting machine."

I bit my tongue. First my brother, now my best friend? Joe gripped my hand as Gabe explained to him about how life would be now.

"-it makes sense. That's the reason you aren't dead right now, actually."

I went to get up, I needed to get air. I needed to clear my head. I had to get out of this.

"Tegan, don't leave." Joe pleaded.

Gabe got up with a little more animation than I expected.

"Well, Dr.Saporta's done all he can do here. I'm going to make sure Sophia's still alive and well."

We watched Gabe walk into the guest bedroom, and I turned back to Joe, and motioned for him to lay on the couch, instead of the dirty floor. I helped him up, and with much straining, he was soon frowning on the tweed couch.

"Pete's gonna have a freakin cow. I have no idea how I'm going to get in touch with him." He mumbled.

"Pete!? You were with him!?" I almost jumped out of my seat.

"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to talk to you about him. He's fine. He doesn't want you coming
after him. He wants you to be safe. He wants you to get out of the city."

I had a horrible headache. I rubbed my temple. I was going into situation overload here.

"Joe. just rest. We'll talk later."

He nodded and quickly dozed off. I went to go close my eyes again in the hopes of waking up with a happier stomach, but I heard voices get louder, and giggles.

"I could show you my fangs. Rawr." I heard laughing in the kitchen.

"Ohhhh you big bad monster." I heard a sarcastic giggle as the refrigerator hummed.

Without opening my eyes, I quickly tried to turn the volume down.

"Guys, stop flirting please. Either get together, or shhh. I want to sleep."

I opened my left eye to see Sophia and Gabe walk toward me, out of the kitchen.

"Holy crap! Who's the bloody dude in your lap?! Are we taking in strays now?!"

Joe stirred under me, and I felt how cold he was.

"Gabe, are you cold?" I looked at him.

"Uhh, no?" He raised an eyebrow.

Sophia put a hand on his cheek, almost slapping him.

"Yep. Like ice." She removed her hand, and frowned at him. "Damn boy, you colder than an
igloo."

"Only for you." He winked at her.

I laughed.

"Wow, you guys only met like what, half a day ago? You moved fast, huh?"

Gabe leaned against the doorframe with a cocky look on his face.

"Well, I don't like to brag but..."

Sophia snorted, and sat on the chair across the living room from me.

"Get that smirky look off your face before I smack it off."

Gabe laughed, obviously proud of himself and his attitude and walked over.

"He's going to be realllllllly hungry when he wakes up, so I think that I should wake him up and take him outside, you know, to start him off on animals instead of munching your face off or something."

I agreed and allowed Gabe to wake up and escort a groggy vampire-Joe Trohman out into the mean Chicago streets.

"SO what's up between you guys, huh?" Sophia nudged my arm, waiting for gossip.

"Who? Me and Joe?"

She nodded.

"Is that the guy that got you into a huff at the bar?"

"Yeah."

"So did you guys date or something?"

I sighed, not wanting to go into details about it.

"We used to be best friends when we were like 19, but then I ended up being in the hospital,
and he helped me out, and sometimes we became more than just friends, and it ended pretty badly."

"Ooooooooooooo." Sophia looked at me in a whole new light.

I gave her a skeptical look.

"We didn't do anything."

Sophia rolled her eyes.

"Kay. So what else?"

I shrugged.

"Nothing. After it ended, the whole Beckett thing flared up, he disappeared with my brother. End of story."

She waved at the air around her.

"I'm totally not surprised. I could feel the tension between you two."

I scoffed, getting up, and stretching.

"Sure you did."

I groaned, disappointed at Joe for leaving bloodstains on my jeans.

"Yeah, call me Psychic!"

"More like Psycho." I laughed at my own joke.

I could hear rustling coming from the stairs, and soon Gabe and Joe stumbled in, looking quite
odd. For some reason, they appeared larger, as if they grew in the 15 or so minutes they were outside.

"Hey guys!" Gabe shouted.

"Hello Gabriel." Sophia mocked his tone.

"I started Joe here on a vegetarian diet, so you don't have to worry about him eating you guys while you slumber or whatever." He pat Joe on the back and sat on the couch, and flipped to Spanish soaps.

"Hey Tegan," Joe called from the doorframe.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk?"

I folded my arms. I knew where this was headed.

"We already are."

He sighed.

"Don't do this."

I watched him disappear down the stairs. I looked at Sophia who waved me off, and sat next to Gabe, and became engrossed in 'Asi es la Vida'. I shivered as the cold air traveled up the drafty staircase, and as I stepped past the threshold, out into the world, Joe was standing on the steps.

"What is your problem?" He turned around to face me.

"What is my problem?" He stepped towards me, and I almost crouched back. "Tegan, why are you still acting like you barely know me?"

"What are you talking about?"

He snarled and turned away from me.

"Joe, what is going on with you!?"

I moved forward to look at him, but he had his head in his hands.

"Tegan, you have no idea what I've been through just to get here, what Pete's been through. You should even see Patrick. Patrick's taking it the worst. We've been killing vampires every moment that I'm awake. Men, women, children."

His shoulders dropped from the tense state they were in.

"And what the hell do you think I've been through Joe? How do you think I got here? Do you see this?"

I showed him the scars, and still healing cuts on my arms, and back.

"I got attacked too. Ambushed. I was thrown around a freaking apartment by a vampire. She almost ripped me apart. And how do you think the anxiety problems have been holding up since Pete left? The nightmares still come Joe."

"Tegan, when you were going to the rehab center, we were all there for you. Patrick, Andy, me, Pete. We all wanted to help you. You shut us all out. We all worried about you. It didn't help Pete, especially after the incident. You were really fucking selfish Tegan, and maybe you still are now. But I'm not going to make the mistake this time of being there for you. Especially not after you lead me around like a lost dog. I loved you Tegan, and I thought you loved me too, but I guess you just used me."

He turned around to glare at me. I didn't know how to respond, or how to feel. I felt like someone just pressed the off button, or reset me. He walked past me, and stormed up the stairs. I felt terrible. I sat on the front steps and stared out at the sidewalk. I didn't know he loved me. Maybe I was just too wrapped up in my own problems to see anyone else.

"Tegan!"

I heard someone calling my name from somewhere up above.

"Tegan, it's Sophia! Come on inside! Gabe said that there are a bunch of vampire groups on the hunt at this time!"

I sighed and got up. I felt like I was a kid again, being told to come in for dinner after playing outside all day. I shut the door behind me and trudged up the stairs and back into the stuffy apartment, where Joe and Gabe were discussing attack plans at the small kitchen island.

"-and Pete said he was going to strike here," Joe circled on a map, "and here. But he doesn't have enough people with him now, so he'll probably wait until Dirty calls Travis and his buddies to come help."

Sophia walked over and looked at the plan.

"Who's Dirty?"

"He's a friend of ours. He does a lot of recon stuff." Gabe explained.

I sat on the couch and sighed. I tried to keep my head as blank as possible to maybe keep my thought process from going awry. I heard a lot of talk up picking up shop and moving early tomorrow night.

"Why?" Sophia asked. "If I'm going anywhere that could be dangerous, I want a valid reason."

"The Dandies know where we are. If they get to us, Beckett will kill us, find Pete, kill him,
and then use you guys for blood."

Joe cleared his throat.

"And what do they do to us?" Sophia almost seemed afraid to ask.

"You don't want to know." Gabe responded with a horrified look.

"I do." I piped up from my spot.

Joe glanced over at me with a tired and irritated expression.

"If this is one of my possibilities, I want to know what might happen to me." I affirmed myself.

"Do you want to know too Sophie?" Gabe asked.

Despite the dark cloud in the room, Sophia smiled at the new nickname.

"I want the least graphic version possible."

"And I guess you want the full-out truth?" Gabe looked over at me.

I nodded. Joe got up and came over to me and sat next to me. He sighed.

"Look, Tegan. It's pretty bad."

"I want to know."

"Well," He ran a hand through his unruly curly hair before resuming, "when I said use you guys for blood, notice how I didn't say kill you?"

I nodded.

"There's a reason for that. What happens is that he would 'harvest' you guys."

I frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Let's put it this way: think of meat production. How does that happen?"

"Well cows are kept in a huge warehouse, they're fed and they produce livestock, then they're
put into....the..."

I could feel my jaw hang open.

"Exactly." Joe scratched his neck. He was obviously nervous, or anxious.

"But he won't kill you guys. That's the worst part. He'll keep you locked up, give you barely enough food to live, then drain enough blood for you to barely stay alive, wait for you to recuperate, then do it again, and again, and again. And his breeding methods aren't exactly the norm."

I shook my head.

"I don't want to know that."

He got up, almost cracking a smile.

"Believe me, once you see something once, you can't un-see it."

He rubbed his eyes, and looked at Gabe for some cue of what would happen next.

"I think that tomorrow, we should start heading for Pete. Once we start to get into a larger group, it won't be as hard to fend off attacks."

Everyone gave a noise of agreement.

"Alright. So I'm going to get some sleep. It'll be a long night tomorrow."

Sophia walked towards the guest bedroom, with Gabe on her heels. Me and Joe sat awkwardly in the living room/kitchen. I really honestly felt that the last thing I needed to do was sleep. The guilt inside that Joe planted tore at my insides, dying to get out. He looked at me, and I looked away, pretending to get ready to go to sleep.

I didn't expect the road to finding my brother would be this emotional. And I think with Joe in the picture now, it'll be more difficult than ever.

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AN: Hey guys! It's me again! I've had a lot of time to write considering I'm on break right now, so I'll be updating verrrry soon!
ohsotay23: ohhh goodness. captain planet! :D too bad he doesn't always save the day.
zewookpecker: i absolutely love your name! and i love the fact that you x infinity love this story! thanks sooo much for reading! :D