FicWad

In one of the medical rooms of Tom Conrad's mansion, Ryan gave a soft sniffle as he looked at the still body on one of the two beds. If her had never confessed his feelings to Brendon, then he wouldn't be laying there, hooked up to numerous blood bags that were in place to try to get his mortally wounded body to come back. He wouldn't have sought comfort in the arms of the dead mortal that was placed carefully in the other bed. He wiped his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair.

When the door opened, Ryan looked up to see Deacon walk into the room, followed by Pete, Ryland, and Adam. ``Hey,'' he whispered. ``There haven't been any changes yet.''

Pete glared daggers at the ex-Dandy, who flinched under the harsh stare with the knowledge that Pete knew this was partially Ryan's fault. ``We're here to figure out what to do with Andy,'' Pete responded with hollow words. It was a reminder to Ryan that Pete still had hatred for both him and Brendon.

Ryland and Adam uncovered Andy's torso, down to his waist where they let the sheet rest, exposing the pale skin of the dead human. The wounds on each of his sides where his own sword had been driven through his body, stood out in stark contrast to his dead flesh. Each of Gabe Saporta's medics examined a wound as they tried to determine if he could be brought back; if he were to be turned.

Deacon moved to Brendon's still body, looking at the bullet wound that had started to heal on the side of his head. If Valencia was right, he could return if it wasn't too late. Softly stroking some hair from his friend's forehead, Deacon emitted a soft sigh, drawing Ryan's attention to him. Rising from his seat, he moved to stand by Deacon's side.

The movement to his right made Deacon turn his head to lock eyes with Ryan, surprising the younger vampire when he looked at him, not with the hatred that Ryan had expected, but with sympathetic eyes. ``How are you holding up?'' Deacon asked, once again catching Ryan off guard with how softly, and civil, he spoke to him.

``I'm fine,'' Ryan answered. ``I could be better if all of this was just some bad dream, but I'm fine.''

Deacon nodded and took Brendon's hand in his own, giving it a small squeeze, hoping that Brendon could feel it. ``I think we all wish it could be a dream to wake up from. Sadly, I don't think that'll happen.''

Ryan shifted his weight from one foot to the other and bit his lip as he took a peak at Andy, Ryland, and Adam. He flinched, and squirmed a little, when Adam began giving one of the wounds a more thorough, deeper, examination, making him tear his eyes away. ``What's got Brendon so interested in the hunter?'' He asked Deacon, who was checking the levels of blood in the bags hooked up to Brendon.

Deacon chuckled softly as his fingers gently toyed with his fallen friend's hair. ``Andy helped Brendon heal when he came to us after William's supposed demise,'' he explained. ``That, and when it comes to Andy, he's treated normal. He's regarded with a respect that he never got while working under William. They got along. Andy never judges him, he's found his equal; but in a human.''

``You make it sound like he had already fallen for the hunter...''

Deacon brought his eyes up to look at Ryan with a slightly raised brow. ``I think you missed the point that he had.''

``Why are you being nice to me?'' Ryan blurted out, unable to beat around the proverbial bush anymore. ``We hated each other.''

Looking down, Deacon studied Brendon's still features as he searched for the right words. ``Ryan... I never hated you. I pitied you, yes I was jealous when you got William's affections, but I didn't hate you. Not once. If I had hated you, like you think and thought I did,'' he looked at Ryan, ``then instead of telling my Master no? I would have reveled in making squirm beneath me that night. I would have done things with you that would have made William envious of you.'' Deacon shook his head as he stared into Ryan's brown eyes. ``I told him no because you hadn't done anything to me. I try, as I always have, to avoid conflict. If I hated you, I wouldn't have disobeyed.''

Lost for words, all Ryan could do was turn away and walk out of the room, desperate to leave as he slammed the door behind himself.

- - - - -

In the next room over, Hilary Wentz sat by the bed that her baby brother lay still in. Like Brendon, Ryland had done what he could to remove the bullet from Andrew's head, leaving the outcome in fate's hands. Hilary had decided that she would stay by his bed as much as she could, so that Andrew wouldn't be alone, should he wake up. With her through every moment was her boyfriend, Nate.

There was more hope for her brother than there was Tom, who had taken three bullets before the one to his head. If he didn't come back to them it wouldn't be a surprise, but they all knew it would crush poor Andrew, if he came back at all, considering it was his manipulated hand that put Tom in his current state. If luck was on their side, then their four mortally wounded friends would all pull through. Right now all anyone could do was wait.

Hilary softly stroked her little brother's curled hair as she silently begged him to awaken, looking up when the door opened and Pete came into the room, shutting the door quietly. ``Hey, how's Andy? And Brendon?''

Pete shook his head as he moved to stand on the other side of the bed. ``No change in Brendon, but the good news is that both Adam and Ryland think that Andy can be brought back if he's turned.'' He stared down at Andrew. ``Anything yet?''

``His eyes started moving under his eyelids a couple of times, but stopped after a few minutes,'' Nate answered as Hilary leaned into him, prompting him to drape his arm around her shoulders. ``Nothing else though. So, are you going to turn him? Let him wake up and decide if it's the life he wants?''

Pete gave a defeated sigh as he nodded. ``I know it's what he'd wish for,'' he answered. ``Why does everyone I love keep getting cursed with this life?''

``At least you won't be alone as time goes on,'' Nate pointed out. ``Your sister here thinks that at some point I'll turn her, curse her, just so I can have her for eternity. She doesn't understand that-'' His words were cut off when the previously mentioned Wentz pulled away suddenly and delivered a hard slap across his face. Nate sighed as she stormed out, leaving behind a confused Pete.

``What the Hell was that about?''

``I plan on letting my appearance 'naturally' age to match hers as time goes on, and when I lay her in the ground, I plan to follow. It upsets her, but like you I would give back this life if I could. I won't damn her with it.''

Pete frowned as he looked at his brother, studying with hope for any of the movements he had been told about. ``You and her are in pretty deep, aren't you?''

``She's my life...''

``Patrick and I are facing the same dilemma actually,'' he replied. ``He wants to live forever with me too, but I won't turn him. Gets him riled up like that every time it gets brought up, but I'm not caving.''

Nate nodded in understanding as he brushed his hair back. ``Sounds like we're both in for a handful as time goes on,'' he said with a chuckled as he and met met gazes.

``Especially with H-Hil...''

Pete looked to Andrew as his little brother's eyes cracked open.

- - - - -

Adam bit his lip as he worked on stitching the wounds on each of Andy's sides in attempt to prepare his body for healing even though he was almost positive the human would have scars with how long the wounds had been left alone. Knowing Andy the way he did, he figured the man with the warrior's pride would probably enjoy his scars. He would probably even call them battle wounds one day. While he worked on tending to Andy's wounds, Ryland was busying himself with changing the blood Brendon was being IV-fed.

``Think either of them will pull through?'' Ryland asked without glancing back at Adam.

``Well, we both know it's up to Brendon at this point,'' Adam answered as he finished the stitching of one wound. He moved to the other side of the bed. ``Andy will be tricky,'' he said as he started stitching the second wound. ``We drained his lungs of the blood that had filled them from the injury, but his heart hasn't beat in almost twenty-nine hours.''

``According to Valencia, someone will have to give their blood up for a transfusion,'' Ryland said as he came back over to watch Adam at work. ``All you have to do to bring a vampire back is drip feed 'em some human blood. We're going to have to make Andy's heart pump somehow to get the vampire blood flowing through his veins,so that the change can occur.''

Adam shook his head. ``That's going to be fun.''

``And who's going to have to do it?'' Ryland chuckled. ``Not that I mind. You know, I never would have picked Brendon to fall for a human. He hated them, only used them for his information hunting.'' He studied the stitched wound and nodded in approval. ``You honestly surprised me, turning out to be as good of a medic as you have. You had to take over when I wasn't able to be there.''

Adam gave a sheepish smile. ``Thanks Ry,'' he responded, averting his eyes back to his work, ``but I'm nowhere near as good as you are.''

``Sisky, if you wanted, I can teach you some tools of the trade in case I'm not here next time my services are needed.''

``I'd like that Ry,'' he smiled without looking up from Andy's wound as he finished the stitching, ``thanks.'' He finished and looked at Ryland. ``Well, all we need now is a blood donor and a hospital's defibrillator.''

[Author's note: Sorry it took so long for this but our power got knocked out, and then I started a new job. I've been writing during breaks, but my schedule is such a pain in the butt it's hard to get near a computer aside from the weekends. I'm going to try to work on posting another sometime soon, hopefully before next weekend. I apologize again for the delay in this chapter. Hope you enjoyed!]