Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

When You Are Under

Mom pulled back the sheet over Vera's unconscious form and reached over to the table where the coma gear awaited. "Nakoma. We need to get Vera set up for her nap. Let's put the absorbent sheet under her and then start the catheter... Help me lift her hips?"

I came over and said "I'll lift. You two arrange." As they worked, I looked at Vera's body and remembered it. Remembered the change for me. Imagined all the things going on inside her now.

Vera has not been ravaged by time or anything. Her mid-thirties body is about to lose ten years, but it won't make much of a difference. She was a Siren and always going to live for a long time. There will be subtle things though. Under one of my hands, on her buttocks, is a tattoo of a butterfly. Her body will view the subdermal ink as damage and dissolve it. They have tried to find inks that will work, but so far, nothing does. Some last longer than others, but nothing lasts forever. The best so far is ink that would be poison to a human: high metal content. Very interesting looking. Vampire bodies view that as food and take the metal to the bones, though.

All of Vera's body piercings will now be a lot harder to maintain. If she takes out a nipple ring, it will start healing fast. Ditto all the other ones.

On top of her right thigh, there has always been a scar as long as I have known her. A burn from hot oil when she was a teenager. That will fade away. She had a mole removed on her abdomen while we were dating. That left a small round scar. That will go away too. The freckles across the tops of her breasts will remain more than likely, but the ones there from sun damage will go. She never liked Hippy Hollow, but she went with me, and there were times she did not put on enough sunscreen. You cannot be at a nude beach and be her skin color and not be really good at applying sunscreen.

When Mom and Nakoma were done, I set her hips easily down onto the pad. The NG feeding tube went in, and they started a fluids IV. I watched Nakoma work, standing next to Angel. "Our kid is damn amazing." I told her quietly.

"The best." Angel said, still sounding pretty stabbed in the heart.

I shared one of my thoughts. "If you know where her labia ring is, might want to go get that and put it in. She is going to start healing up fast, and she could lose that piercing quickly. I noticed she does not have it on right now."

Angel looked at me and grinned a little. It was good to see. "She let that heal up a while back. She got that one for some guy she was seeing. Once she had it, he never seemed to care very much. I did not like it. So she got rid of it."

"Oh. OK. I didn't know. Last I knew she had one." I said.

"Nice of you to check and think of it." Angel teased.

"Why didn't you like it?" I asked. I am used to me not liking that kind of thing, but I usually take a lot of shit if I ever express that so I do not. Not my body.

"I like my love to be soft there." Angel said.

I nodded. "I chipped a tooth on one of her earrings once."

"She told me. Why around you she never wore anything but the bellybutton ring. She did not care about people messing with her belly button much."

"I never said anything." I said.

"It is enough that you were unhappy about going to the dentist. Vera is a lot more sensitive to things like that than people think. She'll tell you to get fucked if you ask for her to take off a ring. You know her. That you did not ask meant she made sure she was ready for your mouth where she wanted it. You think it was an accident at 'The Firehouse' she did not have them in when she placed her breasts in your mouth? No. She wanted those hickeys. She was so happy with them. Showed them to me and then took me to bed to give her more."

As Angel and I talked, the medical team worked on. "Let's get a blood draw. Immediate post-coma sample. We'll do one every 8 hours while she is under. Monitor the progression." Mom said to Nakoma.

"I see I have been replaced." Lori said.

"When you are under and in this bed, you'll want Nakoma to know all these things." Mom said.

"Good point." Lori nodded her approval. "Sample away."

"I'll take the first shift. Night shift." Nakoma said. Outside, the sun is just now going down.

"Ok, Dear. Jessica or I will relieve you in the morning." Mom said.

"What do you want for dinner, Medical Tech Nakoma, Ma'am?" I asked. "I'll go make it."

"Finger food for A-Mom and I." Nakoma said. "Thanks, Dad."

I said nothing about Nakoma ordering for Angel. Angel's head is not in the game right now. She is looking at Vera, all plugged in and plumbed, and her face resumed being a mask of worry.

I returned the medical suite with sliders and sides. Grade 'A' organic short rib burgers.

Mom, Morgan, and Jessica were looking at test results in the exam room / lab area. Nakoma and Angel were perched at a table in the patient room. I distributed food. Looked around. "Where is Helen?" I asked.

Nakoma smiled knowingly. "She went outside for air."

"I see." I said.

I went outside, paid attention to scents, went down the stairs, and looked and listened. I headed off behind the house, past Danny and Lori's place, to the trail that leads up to Marvin and Skye's house. Partway into the woods, I found Helen sitting on a log.

She looked up. Pointed at a nearby tree. "That's the one. Right? The one that you pushed Morgan against? That time you two went insane out here?"

I glanced at it. "Yes. Why?"

"Just curious."

"Bullshit."

"Do you really think she did that because of me?" Helen asked.

"Angel does. Nakoma does" I said. "I never thought about it before that happened. But: 'Yes'. If Angel and Nakoma say it then 'yes'. I think you can take it to the bank, and it matches what I know about Vera too. The core of her I have always seen, but gave up on that fateful day. It does not mean it was your fault. You didn't do it. Vera is responsible for what she does. She is a big girl. We are all at least somewhat acting like she tried to kill herself. She didn't. She took an option we were offering Lori and Danny. The same risks. Same everything, other than the double dose part."

"Because she hates herself. Because I hate her." Helen added.

"She does not hate herself. Only her Siren part. That is not all she is. You do not hate her either." I said.

"Oh?"

"No. You, my loyal and loving wife, did not like what she did to me. Long ago before you arrived on the scene and jumped into my bed and then I had my way with you."

Helen responded as I hoped. "Other way: I had my way with you."

"Ways were had. Orgasms frequent and lovely." I allowed. "Since then, Vera has done stupid stuff and redeeming stuff. She feeds her Siren nature with Johnny or whoever Angel has found to be the latest bopping boy, and she fills her loving side with Angel. Vera has fought by our side over and over. Taken on ever-increasing responsibility and most important of all, she ordered a decent beer selection for 'The Firehouse'. Vera does not know she earned your respect along the way. You don't tell people things like that. Not your way. She should have known that about you. I could have told her if she asked. Instead, she went this route."

Helen looked a little perturbed but denied nothing. "Now we have yet something new. A Siren turned Vampire. To go with all our other flavors around here."

"This is where you go when you are an oddball Vamp." I said. "Before we head back, so you can eat your sliders I lovingly made you, would you like to make love? Here?"

"Not against the tree?" Helen asked.

"No. Make love. I kiss your naked body all over softly and lovingly. You need love. That tree is for animal rut. Nice, and we'll do that again someday, but as your Doctor, I prescribe love. Besides: I feel like kissing you, not pounding you pneumatically senseless."

"You are the Doctor." Helen said, standing and holding out her arms. "Undress me, Doctor."

I did as I prescribed.