Blood or Love

Jack paused outside the open bathroom door and looked down into her eyes. For the first time, she saw light in them, warmth.

Him.

Her vision of him blurred with tears. The syringe shook in her hand.

His body trembled too as she slowly raised the syringe toward him. He looked away when it came closer. His face strained. The shaking grew worse and he cursed softly.

After a few moments, he breathed out full and slow. He relaxed and looked directly into her eyes again. "I'm sorry." His voice was gentle; his eyes soft, shining. "I'm sorry for everything... for what I've put you through."

He reached forward slowly, carefully, and wrapped his large, cool hand around her quaking hand –around the antidote. "I love you, Kim. I don't deserve you, but I always want to be with you." He guided the needle toward his chest. He pushed it all the way in. His thumb on hers helped her push the plunger. "If you'll still be with me."

"God, yes."

When she pulled the syringe away, the green liquid that had filled it was gone.

She looked up at Jack expectantly, but something was wrong.

He fell back against the wall. His eyes rolled back in his head. His body convulsed.

"Jack!" she said, rushing forward.

Ron made it there before her, appearing out of the bathroom. He blocked her way and caught Jack in his arms. "Stay back," he said, "or you'll get hurt. Or worse."

Jack thrashed around. His hand flew out and ripped the bathroom door off its hinges. The door crashed into the open closet area.

She fell back toward the dresser. Heart pounding, all she could do was watch helplessly as Jack –whites of his eyes turned up, shook and flailed in Ron's grasp.

Ron's huge arm muscles corded and his face tightened with his struggle to keep Jack's movements under control.

She was aware of Benson at her side, holding her arm. Chamey placed a hand on Benson's shoulder and one on hers. She barely felt anything.

Time moved impossibly slow. All she wanted was to go to her husband, but his convulsions rolled on and on.

Finally he went still.

Ron slowly lowered him to the floor. That's when Kim saw the open syringe in Ron's hand. It was full of green liquid.

He smiled at her over Jack's body and held up the syringe. "Guess I didn't need mine after all."

A shot of cold rolled through her. She fell on her hands and knees beside Jack and placed a hand on his chest.

He still hadn't moved a muscle. His body was limp, eyes closed, mouth slack. A small trickle of blood rolled from one corner.

"Oh my god," Benson said, falling to the floor next to her. "What's wrong with him? It never did that to him last time."

"Jack," Kim said, shaking him, willing him to open his eyes, to be okay.

He didn't move.

"I'm sorry," Ron said, looking up at each of them, "but I had to provoke Jack. He was so far gone, there was no other way to be sure."

Chamey stooped down to get a closer look at Jack. "Yeah, we get it... you had to try to pull him out of the red."

Chamey cradled Jack's cheeks in both hands and looked down at his face. "I knew it," he said, his voice soft, filled with awe. "I think somehow he was influencing that thing as hard as it was him. 'Cause I've seen vamps in action before. They don't mess around. They're not gentle and patient with people. We shoulda been torn to bits. I mean broken in half, limbs ripped off, headless, guts torn out, you name it." He slapped the side of Jack's face. "Come on, buddy, wake up!"

Jack didn't wake up. There was no response at all.

"Doctor," Kim's voice rose as she said each word, "what the hell is this stuff you gave me? What did I just inject in my husband?"

"I warned you, a few subjects have had reactions to this formula."

Yes, he'd mentioned at their little meeting that it could cause reactions, including death, but she'd moved on to other questions fast -hadn't listened, not really, because Jack wasn't going to be one of those bad statistics, not an unlucky test subject... She fell on top of his body, holding him, her mind blank, unable to handle anything more.

"Did it work?" Benson said, her voice quivering. "Is he fixed? Or is he -?"

Ron jerked his head up and looked past them to the motel room door. "We've got company."

A knock at the door jolted Kim upright.

"This is the manager," a gruff male voice called. "We warned you assholes about the noise. Cops on the way."

* * *

He let himself into the Roberts' home and paused at the couch, where Benny's laptop sat open. He clicked away the screensaver and was pleased to see the browser opened to Vamped Out -specifically his latest and by far most popular article, which he'd titled, "A Tribute To Vladimir, the Nicest Vampire I Ever Knew, Or Freaky Events as They Occurred To Me In September 2009."

Under the title there was a picture of him and Jack, the one he'd taken with his cell phone in that motel room. He'd covered Jack's face with a black rectangle for privacy, just as he'd promised. Those two nights in Savannah already seemed like forever ago, though it was just a few months.

"Oh my god, will you shut up!" came the high-pitched, annoyed voice from the kitchen.

He grinned. He couldn't wait to see what had Benny riled up now. He followed the sound of her voice toward the kitchen. He was also lured by the smell of pizza. He was ready for a slice or ten.

"Howdy, howdy," he said, walking straight to the pizza on the kitchen counter. He stopped in front of the one that had everything. Ahh, Kim knew him well.

She handed him a plate. "Help yourself, Chamey.

"Thanks, I surely will." He piled the plate high with pizza while sneaking looks at Benny.

She was sitting at the kitchen table looking fine as usual, wearing a red shirt and jeans. Her light brown hair was piled up on her head, all messy and sexy.

"I told her you were here, Chamey," Jack said from behind his newspaper. He lowered it and looked at Benny. His eyes held laughter, but he kept his voice straight. "How long ago did I tell you that?"

"Okay, you knew it a long time before I did, so what?" Benny shot Chamey an exasperated look. "He won't stop showing off. He thinks he can do anything now."

"I

can

do anything." Jack put down the paper, leaned back in his chair, and removed his name-tag from his work shirt. He threw it down on the table. "I could even be a super-soldier if I wanted."

"Now that's where I draw the line," Kim said, crossing her arms at her chest.

Chamey chuckled at that, almost choking on his mouthful of pizza.

Jack shot him a warning look. "Don't laugh at vampires." He leaned into the kiss that Kim planted on his temple. She ruffled his dark hair, leaned down, and kissed him again.

It was great to see them so happy, especially Kim. Jack was the main reason for that of course, but Chamey also knew she was much less tired and stressed out. Jack had somehow convinced Ron Rhodes to convince Dr. Kitcher to forget the whole debt for the antidote –past and future, as long as he'd come to the new lab a few times a year and let them look him over, run some tests, that kind of thing. She'd been able to quit her second job.

She started to walk away from Jack, but he caught her hand and pulled her down for another quick kiss, this time on the lips. Her smile was huge when she walked away this time.

Benny wasn't so forgiving. "You think you're better than us, don't you? Because you can lift cars and hear people when we can't?" She pointed at the textbook in front of her. "At least I'm the smart one in the family."

"All right, you got me there."

Benny gave a sharp sigh. "I saw that look, Jack."

Chamey sat down at the table between them and reached for a napkin. "Benny, you gotta admit, Jack is pretty awesome."

Benny turned her harshest glare on him.

It still made his heart skip a fearful beat. Of course, Jack heard it. This time Jack was the one laughing at him.

Benny grabbed up a carrot stick and pointed it at Chamey. "You just said the wrong thing, buddy. You know better than to take Jack's side, especially since you've been begging me to go to that Taylor Swift concert with you. Now what do you think my answer's gonna be?" She snapped off a bite of carrot and crunched it while watching him.

Chamey swallowed, but the lump of pizza in his throat took its time going down. He coughed a few times.

Way to be cool, man.

"It's not 'til March. That's plenty of time to wear you down."

"Whatever." She glanced at the clock, then stood up and started gathering her things. "I'm meeting Amber. Going to a movie. We might do a little Christmas shopping first." She looked at Chamey out of the corner of her eye. "What're you doing this evening?"

He looked at Jack. "What are we doing tonight? Vampire hunting?"

"No!" Benny and Kim said at the same time, their voices shrill.

He leaned back in his seat and chewed another bite of pizza with a smile. Couldn't help but beam in pleasure at Benny's concern... and also that she wasn't going to the movies with a guy.

He'd had a few mind-blowing kisses from her after that night in Savannah, but then she'd cooled off fast. He was in this for the long haul though. Yep, she'd eventually realize she was crazy for him too.

Benny walked by him on her way to Jack, and Chamey got a soft whiff of her sweet perfume. Man, she always smelled so good.

She put her hand on Jack's shoulder.

Jack stood up fast and pulled her into his arms. They stood hugging for a long while. "Be careful," he finally said into her hair.

"Okay." Her voice was muffled against his chest.

Chamey expected Benny to roll her eyes and sigh at Jack's over-protectiveness, but instead she was smiling as he let go of her. Then she turned that smile on Chamey as she strolled past him on her way out the kitchen door.

She's so awesome, Chamey thought. She always let that big heart of hers show -just when he least expected it.

That's what he loved most about Jack and his family.