Rage at the Moon 21/?

[lady-sci-fi.livejournal.com]

Title: Rage at the Moon 21/?
Series: TDS, Countdown w/ KO.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Disclaimer: I do not own Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, or any known political figures who appear in this story.
Summary: AU. Most people believe that the creatures werewolves and vampires only exist in myths and legends. But, they’re very much real, and in the city of New York. A chance of accident leaves one comedian in the middle of the eternal werewolf/vampire conflict.
Author's Note: Please comment. Feedback is good.

Author's note: Here are some illustrations done by towel_lord: Jon and WolfKeith, Grooming

Morning After the Moon

One /Two /Three /Four /Five /Six /Seven /Eight /Nine /Ten /Eleven /Twelve /Thirteen /Fourteen /Fifteen /Sixteen /Seventeen /Eighteen /Nineteen /Twenty



Chapter 21

Rachel did not sleep. She couldn’t trust Shepard enough to not try anything. And, she was too worried about Dan.

It was a little past three in the morning. Shepard was presumably asleep on the sofa in the living room. Dan hadn’t moved an inch since Shepard and Rachel had laid him on the bed.

Rachel had managed to stay relatively calm since finding Dan. She was hoping to stay like that at least until Dan woke up and they could go home.

She sighed and stopped stroking Dan’s hair. She kissed his closed uninjured eye and said, “I’ll be right back.”

Rachel went to the kitchen for a cup of water. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Shepard leaning against the counter, holding a small glass filled with a dark red liquid. Next to him was a plastic bag like those used for IV drips in hospitals halfway filled with the same crimson liquid.

Shepard looked to be embarrassed and tried to push the bag behind him. There wasn’t much he could do with the glass.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, Rachel. I am… I do… I do need it to survive.” Shepard’s hand shook slightly as he took a quick sip and set it down behind him on the counter. The disgusted wrinkle of his nose as he drank it did not escape Rachel’s notice.

Shepard cleared his throat and asked, “So, what did you come in here for?”

“Water. No offense, but I don’t think I’ll have any right now.”

Shepard let out a little laugh. “I understand. Seeing someone drink… well, it’s not the most appetizing sight.”

“You don’t like it,” Rachel stated.

“No, I don’t. I’m not like the other Fox vampires. I hate this. I hate having to drink the blood of other people to survive. It disgusts me.”

“What about the whole vampire lifestyle, with the fancy mansions and groupies and all that?”

Shepard shook his head and gestured to his apartment. It was modest, and there was nothing extravagant about it. “I like simple things. Yeah, I’ve got the money to live like the rest of them do. But, that never appealed to me.”

Rachel nodded. “Do the others get their blood supply from the blood banks too?”

“No, they prefer is as fresh as you can get, meaning from their groupies.”

“You’ve never had it like that?”

“No, and I don’t plan to. None of this appeals to me, Rachel. None of it. It’s just something I have to do.”

“Sorry if I’m prying too much.”

“Don’t be. You want to know when and how. I had only been with Fox News for a year when I went to a meeting with Rupert Murdoch. He’s the one who made all of us Fox vampires.”

“Honestly, I’m not really surprised about him being the one. I am sorry, though.”

“I’m sorry for you, as well. Even more so. Werewolves get the worse part of the deal.”

They stared at each other for a moment, then started laughing. Rachel said, “This has got to be the mushiest moment between a vampire and werewolf.”

“It’s probably up there, yeah.”

The laughter stopped the instant they heard a low moan from Shepard’s bedroom. Then came the panicked yelp and cry of pain.

Rachel ran into the bedroom. She didn’t see Dan on the bed. A glance to the opposite corner said where he was. Rachel dropped to her knees in front of him, unsure of what to do.

Dan was huddled in on himself, hugging his knees and hiding his head behind them. Muffled pleas of “D-don’t hurt me anymore. Can’t t-take it anymore… no name…”

“Shit, should’ve thought of that,” Rachel muttered when she realized why Dan was panicking. They were in a vampire’s home. While Shepard didn’t smell like the ones who had beat him, he smelled close enough.

Dan didn’t respond to the multiple times Rachel said his name. He flinched when she said, “Open your eyes.”

“No… It hurts. You’ll just hurt them again. Please, no more.”

“Dan, it’s me. It’s Rachel. Please, look at me.”

Dan didn’t respond to that. Rachel slid her hand between Dan’s legs and torso, hopefully close to his nose. “Come on, Dan. Smell me.”

It took a moment for Dan to raise his head. Instead of the warm brown, his burned eye was a milky white. Rachel expected there to be a look of relief on his face, but there was only fear.

“Rachel? No, they… they got you, too. You have to get out of here. They’re going to h-hurt you.” His gaze went to look past Rachel’s shoulder. His eyes widened. “There’s one b-behind you. D-don’t hurt Rachel, please. Ple-“

“Dan,” Rachel said repeatedly. Her friend ignored her and kept begging Shepard to not hurt Rachel.
Rachel put her hand against the side of Dan’s face and moved his head so that he was looking at her. “Dan, look at me.”

Dan’s eyes flickered back to Shepard. Rachel brought his attention back by saying, “Ignore him. Look at me. You’re safe. We’re safe.”

Dan’s gaze went back to the vampire. “B-but he-“

“Listen to me. I know, Dan, I know he’s a vampire. But, he’s not going to hurt you. He helped you.”

“Home… want to go…”

“I want to go home, too.” Rachel stroked her friend’s cheek with her thumb. “But, they might be waiting for us there. Dan, do you trust me?”

“So scared. D-don’t want them hurting me again. So… so much p-pain.”

“I won’t let them hurt you again, Dan. I promise. Do you trust me?”

Dan’s eyes shifted back up to look at Shepard. Rachel brought his focus back to her. “I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

Dan brought a trembling hand up to rest upon Rachel’s chest. His fingers curled into the fabric of her shirt. “Yes.” It was the first thing he had said with some air of confidence.

The corners of Rachel’s mouth twitched upwards. “That’s it, Dan. Good. Now, we need to get you back in bed.”

“Okay.”

Rachel put one of Dan’s arms over her shoulders and started helping him up to his feet. Shepard took a few steps forward to help. Dan panicked and huddled into Rachel. His broken foot gave out and knocked Rachel backwards into the wall.

Shepard took the initiative to back out of the room. Rachel threaded her fingers through her friend’s hair to calm him. “Dan, Shepard left. He’s not here anymore. It’s just me.”

It took Dan a moment to become calm. He avoided putting his broken foot down as Rachel helped him hobble over to the bed. He laid on his front and turned his head to the side, pressing the right side of his face into the pillow, like he wanted to hide the burn over his eye.

Rachel stretched out beside him. Her fingers went to the back of his head and neck.

“Want to go home, Rachel.”

“I know. I want to go home, too. We will.” She saw how tense her friend’s body was. “Dan?” Why didn’t he respond to his name? What sick mind games had those bastards played with him? “Hey, you need to relax. Close your eyes.”

Dan stared at Rachel with his good eye for a moment, then let it droop closed.

“Good. Now, I want you to think of home. Anything about it. Me, Keith, Jon, whatever.”

Dan’s breathing evened and calmed. After a few minutes, Rachel said, “Okay, now, I need you to do something for me. I need you to focus, and change.”

“C-can’t,” Dan said after a minute went by with nothing happening.

“Can’t focus or can’t change?”

“Can’t ch-change. I’m trying, I really am.”

“What the- What else did they do to you?”

Dan shook his head, obviously not wanting to remember. “Don’t know… needle, I think.”

Rachel quietly seethed with anger. She kept it in check when she said, “I’ll be right back.”

Dan’s hand shot out and grasped the hem of her shirt. “No, please. Don’t leave me.”

“I’ll just be outside of this room. I’ll be right back, I promise. Just try to rest, okay?”

Once she left the bedroom, she quickly found Shepard pacing in the living room. He said, “Is he al-“

Rachel seized the collar of Shepard’s shirt and pinned him against the wall. She kept her voice low. “What the fuck did they do to him? I want answers. Now.”

“Rachel, what-“

A threatening growl cut Shepard off. “He can’t transform. What’s stopping him? What did they do to him?”

“Rachel, please let go of-“

“He mentioned a needle. Now, tell me what they did to him.”

Shepard let his arms hang loosely at his sides to be non-threatening. “You have to understand, Rachel, that I don’t hang around with them. I don’t know what they plan to do, or anything like that. But, I did over hear them talking about developing some kind of serum that could prevent willful transformations. Looks like they were successful.”

“You better tell me that there’s an antidote or something.”

“I don’t know. But, I’m certain that it’s not permanent. They don’t want to cure werewolves. They want to make them easier to beat down.”

“You’re saying it’ll wear off?”

Shepard nodded. “No longer than a day or two, I’m sure.”

Rachel let go of Shepard’s shirt and backed off. She took a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. If one of my best friends was… well, I’d be just as angry. How is he?”

“I’ve, um… I’ve got him calmed down. Do you have any pain medication I can give him?”

Shepard fished a bottle out of a kitchen drawer and shook a couple pills into Rachel’s hand. Rachel filled a cup with water and took it to Dan.

“Dan, sit up for a minute,” she requested.

Dan slowly sat up, took the pills, and swallowed most of the water. Rachel set the cup on the bedside table. She held her friend’s face in her hands and half-smiled. “You okay?”

“Tired…”

“Alright. Go to sleep. I’ll be right here when you wake up,” Rachel softly said as she pulled the blanket up over him.

The last thing she heard from Dan was, “Love you… and Keith… and Jon.”