FicWad

And so it ends. Thanks for the ones who stuck by me, and extra thanks to those who left some encouragement and some advice. Hopefully I'll see you all around for more stories!

“Twenty bucks says that I kick your ass.”

“Forty bucks says you’re on.”

“Eighty bucks says I murder you both.”

“One sixty says you’re all morons and should shut up.”

“Two hundred says you should all just get a room already.” His croaky voice quieted the others in the room.

The light blinded him, but he opened his eyes anyway. There was no gasping. No uncontrollable movement. Just them, his friends, immediately dropping everything to race to his side.

“Pete, are you okay?” Patrick nervously asked.

“Of course he’s not,” Andy snapped.

“You could give him a little room,” Joe added.

He couldn’t answer. He was in one of the beds at the safe house, staring at the big screen TV and random game console at the ready, some of his friends still holding the remotes. Nothing in him ached, and he made no sound as his eyes followed the I.V. in his wrist to the package of red liquid hanging on a pole.

“Goddamnit,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut.

He was waiting for the one voice who still hadn’t said anything. The one voice he needed to hear more than anything in the world.

“It’s okay,” and in a whisper, she shooed the boys away.

She pressed her lips to his forehead and he felt her climb into the bed with him. That’s all the answer he needed.

“How’s it ‘okay’?” he asked, opening his eyes and giving Gwen a pleading look. Anything to keep him from going more insane than before.

“You’re here, and the boys are alive,” she slipped her hand into his. “In my book, that’s better than okay.”

Pete finally got a good look at them all. Gwen looked as though she hadn’t slept in days, her petite body tucked away in Pete’s jeans and hoodie. She had a cast on her left arm, her neck and face bruised and her lips swollen. Patrick was still nursing the same bandages as before and his hand was wrapped up tight. Joe and Andy were banged up, but with no casts on any limbs, just bruises and cuts as usual.

“And the Dandies?” he asked, his throat tightening.

“Mostly dead, and not in ‘The Princess Bride’ kind of way,” Patrick answered from his chair. Pete gave him a faint smile. “We think they died the same moment Beckett exploded. We’re not sure why yet. I’m working on it,” he said, motioning to the thick, dusty books crowding a couch.

“What we do know is that Urie got away.” Andy shook his head. “My sources are trying to find where he ran away to, but we’ve got nothing yet.”

Andy switched on his cell and starting typing away. “The police on our side have also ‘leaked’ to the media that a gas leak caused the explosion at the mansion.”

“Good to know we’ve still got some of them.”

Gwen squeezed Pete’s hand in encouragement.

Joe sighed heavily. “I hate to tell you this, man, but Dirty’s gone.”

Pete shot up, furious. “What? That’s impossible, he has to be somewhere—”

“Pete. Dirty’s dead, you know we can’t do anything about that. We waited until you woke up to have his funeral. Besides, there are people that want to come down for him.”

He balled his hands into fists, unable to say anything.

“We’re going to give you two some room.” Patrick grabbed his things and led the others out the door.

“Can’t any of us catch a break? We’re trying to save the world, for fuck’s sake,” Pete said in frustration.

“I miss him too. But you can’t lay here and pity yourself. You need to get better so you can go out and help more people.”

Staring at the ceiling was giving him no answers. He wanted to touch what most felt real to him, something he could rely on. “Can I…can I kiss you? Or would that be asking too much, too soon?”

There was no pause, no holding back. Gwen immediately pressed her lips to his and the feeling starting coming back in his body. But he needed to hear it.

“It’s never too much and never too soon, not for us.” She rubbed her nose to his.

“So you’ll stay with me? Even though I’m a monster?”

This was the do or die moment, and Pete was almost certain that he’d die if he didn’t get an answer soon.

“You’re not a monster. This wasn’t your choice. Besides, Trick is trying to find a way. The Dandies gave him ideas—”

A new thought occurred to Pete.

“Speaking of the Dandies…” his voice trailed off, but they both knew what he was leading up to.

She sat up, unzipping the hoodie and pulling the collar of her shirt aside to show him the pale scars on her neck. “This is the only mark any of them left on me. I was never with them, and everything Beckett and Lilith ever told you was complete and total bullshit.”

“Okay,” Pete was trying to avoid the obvious question.

But Gwen wouldn’t let him have it. “Speaking of Lilith, it sounds like you have a lot to explain to me. She showed me things that I couldn’t—”

Pete thought he’d swallow his tongue when he heard “Sophomore Slump or Come Back of the Year” ring out. Gwen hurriedly dug into the purse next to the bed and fished out her cell phone. The look she gave the caller I.D. told Pete that he would be off the hook.

“Heeeey mom, haven’t heard from you in a while,” Gwen said, standing up.

As usual, Pete was able to her mother’s voice loud and clear as if she was sitting in the room with them.

“How’s that boy, what’s his name, Patrick? How is he and when will I get to meet him?”

Gwen’s free hand clenched the air as if she was strangling someone. Pete tried his best not to laugh.

She sighed. “Mom. His name isn’t Patrick. You know that his name’s Pete, I’m sure Nikki told you all about him.” Gwen shot him a look that could kill—with laughs. “We’ve been dating for a while now. You know what? When do you want to meet him?”

Pete shook his head, his mouth incapable of forming words.

“How about the tenth? Or is that too soon?” her mother eagerly asked.

“Ohhh, no, Pete’s definitely looking forward to it.”

He felt his brain melting at the sound of her mother’s voice rattling off a list and going on and on.

Gwen let out encouraging sounds, reserving a grin for him. She held a finger out to him, covering her cell and muttering “Don’t think your ass is saved. We are SO not finished yet.”

As she turned to finish speaking on the cell, Pete consciously made a tough to-do list: fight vampires, save the world, survive girlfriend’s mother, the most important item being the last. He felt horror like he hadn’t felt in years. Suddenly being a vampire hunter and a famous musician didn’t seem so difficult anymore.