milliways_bar | OOM and return EP

"Guppy, this isn't working. He's loosing blood faster than we can put it in. We need to find another solution."

He bites his lip, looking to Rae in the sure knowledge she's going to hate this idea. "We need Eric."

Guppy concentrates on what he's doing for a moment, tying off at least part of the bleeding.

"If you're going to let go of those bags you need to put the compressing machine on." he says. "We could do with another line in his other leg, if you saw how I did that IO needle."

Rae's gaze snaps into focus on Jay, the muted glimmer of the sunlight-net in her skin brightening. One of her hands is passing Guppy what he needs, the other resting gently on Emcee's forehead, still passing on what strength she can. The single point of power transfer leaves her feeling distinctly off-balanced.

"He needs Eric like he needs another couple of holes in him, Jay." But even she can feel her ability to keep feeding power into Emcee faltering. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Eric's blood heals." He states directly, already moving to set up the machines. "I know you hate him but it's a fact. Even if he can only heal enough to keep Emcee's blood on the inside, it'll be enough."

"And you can't keep doing what you're doing now, Rae. It'll kill you both."

"I wouldn't normally go for this plan, but Rae, if you collapse, both of you are in trouble."

Admittedly, it'll be the kind of trouble that gets him pressing the infirmary's ultimate tool - the stasis machine - and going for more help, leaving them trapped in a time bubble. But that's a risky solution, because at some point, you have to start time again.

"If you can't find Eric send any healer or doctor you can find in here." he says. "Atton would be good, hell, I'll even take Vyvyan, he at least knows where everything is."

Rae is having trouble keeping her eyes in focus. The edges of Jay's shadows are as red as fresh blood. She knows if she turned her head, she would see the movement of Emcee's shadows slowing under her hand. The rustle of the gown as she moves sounds to her like leaves in the breeze.

"Go then." she asks, voice cracking in defeat and urgency together. Even she knows she can't keep this up much longer. "Get him."

The pump secure and his duties handed off to a rat, Jay runs for the main bar and upstairs, shedding and pocketing his bloody gloves. "Eric! Eric, where are you?" He yells at the top of his lungs as he runs toward Eric's room.

He could be anywhere but Jay knows very well how sensitive Eric's hearing is. "Eric, he needs you!"

The door to Eric's room opens and there is Eric, leaning against the door frame.

"Would you mind keeping it down?" he says.

Flatly.

Jay growls under his breath. "If you can hear me, you can hear him. He's dying, Eric. He needs your blood. Now."

"And?"

Just as flatly.

"He's a queer Jew in Nazi Germany. It's not exactly a surprise, is it?"

"But he's not in Nazi Germany." the you complete prick is implied in his tone. "He's here, now. Which means we take care of him. Now. Eric, he needs you."

Eric narrows his eyes.

"What I do and what I don't do is up to me. Besides, you've got little Miss Sunshine there, don't you? Do you real think I'll risk her freaking out and accusing ne of whatever?"

"Eric, you're not this much of a prick." He shakes his head. "I will deal with Rae. She wants him to live too. I'm not asking you to turn him or anything, just feed him enough to get the bleeding to stop. Eric, please? He doesn't have long."

"I'm a vampire, Eric replies.
Of course he is that much of a pick.

Then he sighs.

"I suppose I can go have a look."
Ans He considers telling Jay that yes, he can hear his heartbeat, even from here (from inside) and that he isn't sure that he has got any time at all.
Any alternatives to being turned.

But he doesn't.

He just pushes away from the doorway and runs down to the Infirmary.

Jay growls an expletive and races after him, aware he can't keep up with Eric but hopefully he can arrive in time to keep Eric and Rae from each other's throats.

When Eric enters the infirmary, he'll find Rae and Guppy tending to Emcee.

He's unconscious, covered in blood, looking as if a hole had been blasted through his stomach. Paler and smaller than he has ever seemed. His pulse is a weak whisper, a tube down his throat helping him breathe. The blood in his veins is draining faster than the machine can pump fluids back into him.

Rae's magic has a tenuous hold on him, keeping him just this side of alive.

Eric walks over to the bed and looks down at Emcee.

Tiny and fragile.
And dying.

Then he lets his fangs drop.

(This won't help).

Jay comes running in a moment later, his hands out in a placating gesture to Rae and Guppy.

Sunshine makes no move towards Eric as he comes in - both of her bloody hands are busy, in any case. Her glare at the sight of his fangs is formidable, however, despite how hard it is for her to focus at the moment. The light web set into her skin is hardly glimmering any more.

(When had she crossed the irrevocable line? When she had gone out to the lake that night? When she had determined that she would take Con with her when she escaped? When he had healed her with the blood of the doe? When Bo's heart had burned and deliquesced through her fingers to drip black and foul upon the broken pavement? Or when she, wishing to die, ready to die, chose to live by accepting Con's own blood, the heart blood of a vampire?)

She does not like this. She cannot like this. But it may be Emcee's only hope. "Well?" She demands of Eric. "Can you save him?"

Will he save him?

Edited 2016-12-15 07:55 (UTC)

Guppy doesn't look up at the placating gesture, he's too busy. He's making progress, just not fast enough.

"If you can't, decide quickly." He says. "If you can't, I'll have to freeze him in time until we find someone who can, but that requires me and Rae to let go of everything we're holding and I don't like those odds."

Eric steps closer, biting down on the meaty part of his hand as he does so.

(It won't work.)

He lets the dark blood drip down directly at the gaping wounds and briefly new skin blooms around the edges, stretching inward - before curling up and into itself again.

(It doesn't work.)

He looks back up.

"There isn't enough life left in him," he says, his voice cool and flat.
"Even my blood won't work here."

A pause.

"Not like this."

And the alternative is - no.
That wouldn't work either.

"We have to do something. It can't end like this." Jay states it as a fact. A fact he will burn the world if he has to to make it true.

"And what do you propose then?" Eric says, his voice still both cool and flat.

Detached.
(He can feel Emcee's slowing heartbeat inside his own body).
Cold.
(It always ends like this).

In the last few minutes since Jay went to fetch Eric, everything has taken on a feeling of unreality. Sunshine hears the words being spoken, so urgent compared to the slowing heartbeat under her hands, but they hardly register. Her poor hands, they are covered in blood again. She can feel the stickiness of it - already cooling, congealing in places - through the thin latex of the gloves. She is throwing all of the strength she can through those hands into Emcee, though she knows it is barely enough to keep him afloat, and she won't be able to continue much longer.

('After the night that has passed, maybe the light of morning will make us all feel better.' As the Goddess said 'better,' she pulled on the window's curtain string, and the full light of dawn fell upon Con, sitting, filthy, in her office. Even in her exhausted daze, Sunshine didn't dare breathe.)

(She felt her affinity slam itself through their connected hands, traveling to where the sunlight-knife had burned him. 'Miss Seddon," Con said. 'I'm afraid must beg you to keep my knife for a little while longer. I don't believe any of my pockets have survived this night's encounters.' He held it out to her, turning and opening his hand to show the skin that had held it unburned and unmarred.)

Lurching upright from where she had been leaning heavily against the infirmary bed, Rae strips off the bloody gloves from her hands, praying silently but fervently to whatever gods might be listening for this crazy idea to work and not kill them all.

"Eric," she says, her voice rough, urgency in her tone as she struggles to focus. One day she would like to not have to make up her magic-handling apprenticeship as she goes along. "I need your hand. I think I can... I think I can save him, but I need your help."

She looks at Eric, looks into the vampire's eyes. "I need you to trust me. For Emcee's sake."

As Rae lets go, Guppy ties off another little bit of the bleeding and glances at the obs machine, which has taken quite a dip.

"Jay, back on the fluid bags while they're doing that, if you can." he says.

Whatever Rae and Eric are about to do, it better be quick.

Please don't make me have to tell Gil he can't give 'Emmy' his present.

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