Bad Choices (Hypernaturals 8)

Slowly and Unprofessionally

Now starts the critical part. The human blood that they put in for the chemical flush has steeped in Marvin-the-teabag. Another drain and refill, but this time with pure Vampire blood. More of the few remaining cells of Marvins original, home-made blood would go out into the medical waste, and now he will be literally full of us. Full power female Vampire blood, like Jessica's and Helen's in that mix. I have had Helen's blood in me, and it is amazing stuff. Fixed me up.

Worst case this is merely new blood to Marvin's body. It will do all the things his blood did. Carry stuff around. Oxygen to the brain. Carbon Dioxide to the lungs. Uric Acid to the kidneys. Hormones and chemical messengers running here and there. White blood cells, platelets, and antibodies from healthy young Vampire women jumping on the trash in the blood that the Vampire version of the blood guardians do not like. A bit more Estrogen and Progesterone than normal daily operations in Marvin's body too.

Way, way down in the electron microscope realm will hopefully be strange visitors from various Vampire bodies taking a tour and looking over the real estate, deciding if they like the neighborhood. Every door should now be unlocked in what is hopefully a very low crime area. Unless you are the HPA, and then you hate these little visitors. Vampire blood gentrification makes them crazy.

Once that blood swap finished up, all the plumbing was pulled for the night, but the ports left in place in case we need to go to contingency plan A. Marvin needs to stay hooked up to the monitors, but that is all wireless. He is now full to the eyeballs with Vampire blood, and we need to track everything. For Vampire record-keeping purposes, this did not mention that the new blood is from Vampires, but everything else is being tracked in minute detail.

We installed Marvin in a medical bed, in a patient room on one end of the medical suite. There are two beds in that little patient suite, and Mom is in the other one for the night. Jessica will trade hourly rounds with her so they can both rest. Jessica is a tired wreck though, so I wondered if Mom is going to try and take more of the shifts. Mom has eyes and can easily see Jessica's dark circles under her eyes and the drama around us. I laughed internally at the idea. Jessica will never allow mom to do that any more than I would allow Morgan to proceed without me. She is OK when it is her being stressed, just not when it is me. Female Vampire double standard.

I'm used to it.

Sort of.

Out in the main room of the clinic, at the far other end of the space, we set up another bed. The original idea being that we three, being married and (at the time) not fighting, could sleep there. It is queen-sized so it is big enough if we were our usual mental and therefore physical closeness. That was before all the anger and the slighting of Morgan. I will sleep on the couch before I contribute to that bullshit again.

I was sitting on that selfsame couch and looking at the nursery cam and the little angels it framed. Laura and Rachel Helena. Diana was not in the room, and if I had to bet, she is probably in Nakoma's room, not hers. Diana has always kind of adored Nakoma, and that is mutual. I can easily imagine Diana asking to spend the night with her big sister.

Jessica and Morgan came and stood in front of me, so I flipped the screen around to show them the girls. Jessica took the computer, looked at it, then showed it to Morgan.

"I am glad we put that in for this procedure." Morgan said, touching the screen.

"Laura sleeps in exactly the same way she does everything else. Seriously." Jessica said.

Rather than handing me back my computer, Jessica flipped it shut, and laid it next to me on the couch. "Bedtime. Come on."

"You are in the middle." Morgan told me.