In Sickness, Health, and Full moons

Chapter One [Azrael]

 At some point Azrael had stopped reading her book and had probably been starting at Tanner for at least ten minutes. The man never once looked up from his goddamn desk; his ability to shut out the rest of the world was almost impressive. At least it would be impressive if she wasn't a little irritated at him. No, it wasn't his fault that he was so busy or that this most recent case was so hard on him but come on Azrael hadn't gotten home from the hospital before ten for the past week and since she'd been home since five, they'd exchanged maybe ten words and eight of them were about dinner with a "love you" thrown in.

"Just so I know, are you going to be at this all night?" Her voice at least made him pause. "Because if so, I do love spending time sitting in silence with you, but I have many other things I could be doing, like laying on the floor and contemplating the act of aging or hurling myself down the stairs."

"I could be at this all night, yes", he replied without even looking up, "or would you rather I do something else?"

Azrael made some noncommittal sound of general disapproval.

"Or--" he continued with the same bored tone, though his serious expression had been replaced by a smirk and quirked eyebrow "--if you feel so inclined to lie on the floor, please do, you know I love your company. But do warn me that you're still there when I inevitably go to bed so I don't step on you."

"If you go to bed", Azrael grumbled as she stood and wandered over toward him. Without warning, she ran her fingers through his hair, ruffling what was already slightly messier than normal. "And there are much more comfortable floors in this house than this one."

"Alright, alright." He caught her hands, preventing her from doing any more damage to his hairstyle and instead pulled her forward so she leaned over the back of his chair and he held her hands over his chest. He tilted his head back to look up at her, a smile over his lips. "Has it really been that long? Did I lose track of time again?"

"No, it just takes fifteen minutes of being ignored for me to find broken bones more interesting", Azrael replied flatly, though the effect was ruined by her inability to resist echoing his smile.

"I'm sorry, love." Tanner pressed a kiss to the back of one of her hands. "Alright. Yeah, I'll shut down for the night. Just give me a second to wrap it up."

"If it takes any longer than five minutes, I am rolly-chairing you right out that door." Azrael threatened as she extracted her hands from his.

"Fine, fine, consider me hurry-" He cut himself off, the affectionate roll of his eyes dropping into something serious, something scared. Standing abruptly, he launched the chair back across the room, every muscle in his body seeming to tense as his eyes clenched shut. "You need to leave", he told her, urgency rumbling in his words.

Azrael just blinked. "What?"

"You need to leave", he repeated in a low growl, "Now." Before Azrael could ask just what the hell was going on, his hands were on her shoulders, his body pressed up against her back, gently but forcefully pushing her out the door. He really did shove her a little, enough to separate them at the doorway so he could slam the door shut behind her.

"Tanner?" Turning slowly, not understanding the closed door cutting her off from him, Azrael tried the handle. Locked. "Babe, what's going on?" No answer. "Tanner?" She knocked a few times. "Tan-" What the hell? Some sound from within the room made her stop. What the hell is that? It had been so long since she'd heard it, Azrael had no need for violence here, not with him, but still that sickening cracking and popping almost sounded like bones dislocating and breaking. "Tanner, for the love of god, what's going on?"

Again, he didn't answer and after a few seconds whatever that sound had been stopped too. The room, the whole house, was dead silent. "Tanner?" Azrael leaned her head against the door. "If something is wrong and you need to be alone that's fine, please, just tell me you're okay and I'll leave you alone." Again, nothing. The blood in Azrael's ears overpowered the silence. If something happened to him... No, he was fine. No one drops dead that fast and as long as he was still alive, she could heal him. He's fine. It'll be fine.

Vowing that she'd later think up a lie on how exactly she knew how to do it, Azrael took a step back then kicked in the door, not enough to make it fly across the room, just pop off its hinges. She didn't know what she was expecting, Tanner on the ground, collapsed in a chair, perhaps back at his desk and this was all just to mess with her.

She didn't know what she expected, but the massive wolf crouched low on the floor wasn't it. What the fuck? The wolf stared at her with golden eyes she didn't recognize. No. Tanner wasn't anywhere in the room, though his clothes were all ripped on the floor around the wolf. No. Not true. She and the wolf just stared at each other as the blood drained from Azrael's face. Not possible.

"Tanner?" she breathed, hardly able to make her voice even audible. The wolf rose to its feet.

Oh my god, I married a werewolf. If that thought froze Azrael in place, the next demanded that she move. Oh my god, my husband is about to eat me.

She kept her eyes low, on the wolf's paws so she could still tell when it, he, started to move. Azrael backed up slowly, out of the room, back into the hallway. Then down the hallway to the top of the stairs, watching the doorway and waiting for that massive furry head to peek out. When it didn't, she sprinted down the stairs and out the door, nearly tripping over herself to grab the keys. As quickly as she could, she locked the door to the house behind her, ran to her car, started the engine, and pulled out. No idea where she was going, just away from home.

Oh my god. She kept driving, trying to focus on not crashing, until she pulled into the parking lot of a twenty four hour gas station and stopped the car. For a few minutes, she just sat behind the wheel in the dark. Tanner is a werewolf. My husband is a werewolf. I married a werewolf. I'm...

A fucking moron. Dear god, why hadn't she picked up that routinely, once a month they'd spend a night apart whether that meant Tanner had some "work thing" he had to do, or he encouraged Azrael to work a night shift, or whatever other bullshit he came up with to keep them apart? She even made jokes about him getting angrier, more hungry, more horny, and did what? Just brush it off "haha that's just Tanner"? What the hell? She was supposed to be smarter than this.

Azrael dropped her head on the steering wheel, accidentally setting off the horn for a half second. I'm the worst wife in the world. Even worse because part of her was angry at him for not being honest. In what world did a fallen angel playing human have any right to be mad at him for not being honest about what he was?

"I feel like that could have gone better", she muttered into the darkness of her car. They'd be okay though, wouldn't they? She'd wait until sunrise, probably drink the gas station out of its coffee in the process, and go back home. They'd have to talk about it, of course, but this didn't really change anything, did it? She didn't feel any differently about him, maybe a little pissed and worried but those were just temporary emotions. This was fine. They'd be fine. She just had to wait until sunrise.