by Golden Angel
Heat flamed on his face, which was still angled away from Jesse and towards the door his brother had just fled through. Younger siblings sucked monkey balls.
"Brady?" Jesse's voice, curious and almost unbelieving, made him blush even harder and he cursed the stupid reaction. Seriously, he couldn't remember feeling this much like an idiot since he was fourteen. His time in the lab had made him serious and also given him confidence, the beast in his head made him even more so, and after they'd been rescued he'd learned very quickly what ladies did and didn't like. Not that he'd had to put much effort forth. All the women had been very sympathetic to the Bunson brothers' sad life story. "You slept here? For two days?!"
Shrugging, he turned towards her but kept his head tucked down. His hand was still outstretched holding the cup just where she needed it to reach the straw though. "I wanted to make sure you weren't alone when you woke up," he mumbled.
Soft fingers touched his hand and he looked up to see that her eyes weren't on him at all - she was staring at where her hand was touching his, a look of wondering happiness on her face that sliced straight to his heart.
"It doesn't hurt..." she whispered. "I can touch you, and it doesn't hurt..." She blinked rapidly as moisture gathered in her grey eyes, turning them into luminescent pools. "I wasn't sure... I ache so much, all over, I wasn't sure the procedure had really worked, but this doesn't hurt..."
Her fingers were caressing the back of his hand, running them over his skin, and Brady's cock had risen to full mast from just that one, small touch alone. The beast in his head rumbled approval, snuffling a little; it was normally a big, drowsy brute, but Brady didn't think he'd ever felt it be a happily drowsy brute before. If he had a tail, he was pretty sure it would be wagging right now.
"The achiness sounds normal," he said gruffly, glad of the change of subject from his brother's teasing. He'd like to hit on Jesse, but on his own time and his own terms, and with a lot more suaveness than was possible when his brother was spilling just how into her he was. "We all went through it, it goes away after your first change."
"Really?" Jesse brightened, looking elated. "That's all it takes and I won't hurt at all anymore?"
Brady let out a loud yell and dropped the cup he was holding as she suddenly disappeared right before his eyes. Footsteps, which had been moving slowly along the corridor, suddenly sped up and Dr. Tran appeared in the doorway.
"What did you do? Where is she?" The tiny doctor demanded. The diminutive tiger-shifter barely came up to Brady's waist, but she was the bossiest little female he'd ever met. "Brice just told me she woke up, what happened?!"
A chittering sound on the bed had both of them redirecting their attention. Brady heard Dr. Tran moving into the room towards him, but he was too busy carefully peeling back the sheets as they continued to move, little, frustrated, squeaking noises making him smile as he realized what had happened. No one was really used to small shifters, especially not when he turned into something even bigger than Dr. Tran's tiger (which, contrary to her petite, 5'1" human form, was at least 400 pounds and muscled as hell), so to him it had initially looked like Jesse had disappeared.
One he and Dr. Tran pulled back the covers, they found an annoyed looking little grey squirrel. It cocked its head at both of them, examining them with serious black button eyes, before it swished its tail and jumped up onto Brady's arm, running up to his shoulder. He jerked in surprise when it nuzzled his ear.
"Jesse!"
Dr. Tran chuckled. "Well, it doesn't seem like she's suffered any ill effects." The doctor held out her hand and the squirrel hesitated a moment before moving onto it. "Hmmm... the claws look stronger and sharper and... oh my, yes, Jesse, I see your vicious teeth. Interesting."
Craning his head around to look, Brady's eyes went wide at the huge, retractable fangs Jess had right before she pulled them back into her mouth. The squirrel made a growling noise, and not a normal sort of growling noise when she saw him looking. Definitely more like a cat's growl than a squirrel's mutter.
"Fascinating," Dr. Tran muttered. "She's heavier than I would have expected too... more muscle density? It wouldn't work on a regular squirrel, but being a shifter she should still be strong enough to jump from branch to branch, even being heavier. Can you shift back, Jesse? I want to check your human form for any lingering signs of the Torch, although it seems like you’ve managed to fight it off in the past couple of days while you were out."
The squirrel chittered and jumped from Dr. Tran's hand onto the bed, then lay back and raised its tiny paws in the air. Brady just stared at the strange posture, completely confounded, before Dr. Tran gave a sigh of exasperation and leaned forward to tuck the squirrel in.
Right before his eyes, the tiny head and paws grew, the bushy tail shrinking, and then Jess was back in front of him, no longer clothed in the hospital gown. She blinked, tiredness in every line of her body, but her face was shining with happiness.
"It doesn't hurt," she whispered, right before her eyes closed.
"Jesse?" Brady asked immediately, leaning forward.
Dr. Tran tapped him on the shoulder. "She needs to sleep. Her body's been through quite an ordeal and she probably shouldn't have shifted so quickly. We'll add some more nutrients to her IV."
"That was probably my fault," Brady said sheepishly. "I remembered that the ache went away after we shifted for the first time, but I wasn't expecting her to just do it."
The doctor gave him a small smile, her short black hair swishing around her chin as she turned back to Jesse. She gave Jesse a quick examination, checking her eyes (Jesse didn’t even stir when the doctor lifted her lids and shone a light in them), pulse, and palpitated her throat. Grinning, Dr. Tran straightened. “Completely healthy. No residual signs of the Torch at all; in fact, she’s exactly what I would expect from a big shifter who’d been sick with it and fought it off.”
“Even though she slept through all that?” Brady asked, still worried.
“Yep. That’s how I would expect the Torch to present in a cat species,” Dr. Tran said. “Felines spend a lot of time sleeping to recover their strength, it’s not surprising she spent so much time unconscious while she healed. I’ll check her over again when she wakes up and can answer questions, but she’s looking good.”
“Good.” Relief swept through him, making him feel weak with the strength of the emotion. They were going to have time – real time – to get to know each other now. He could take her on a date. Show her around Lakewood. Maybe take her and Daniel back to Steele’s pack with him, if she was amenable. He and his brothers had promised to return to fight with Steele’s unit once they were trained, and they were pretty much done here but Eli had extended things for them once he’d realized Brady wasn’t going anywhere until he knew Jesse would be okay.
"Would you like to come with me to visit Daniel?” Dr. Tran asked, interrupting Brady’s visual inspection of Jesse’s sleeping countenance. “Brock sent word that he woke up too, right before I came here. I'm sure Jesse would appreciate a full report."
It only took him a moment to decide. After all, Jesse was asleep now - a peaceful sleep - and he knew she'd want to know about her brother as soon as she woke up again and could think straight. This time her thoughts had been for herself, which was only natural, and next time they'd be for her brother. Brady would prefer to be able to tell her that Daniel was just fine and he'd seen him with his own eyes. It sounded a lot better than saying his brother reported her brother was doing well.
Daniel was in the next room over, also looking flushed and more lively than ever, even though he was leaning back against the bed. Lively wasn't really the way to describe him, even now, but compared to how he'd been before... Seated by his bed were both of Brady's younger brothers. Brice was still grinning widely and even Brock's normally serious mien was disrupted by a slight curve of his lips when he caught sight of Brady.
"Hey there Casanova," Brice said.
"Shut up," Brady growled, thankf
ul when Dr. Tran ignored the interaction and went straight to her patient, who was looking at him and Brice far too curiously.
Jesse's younger brother was like a male version of her. He was already her height, despite only being fifteen, and had the same auburn hair, grey eyes, and freckles. The biggest difference was that Jesse was always graceful with her movements, until the pain had made movement a chore, whereas Daniel was definitely a gawky adolescent who wasn't quite used to his current proportions. Probably wasn't done growing yet either, going by how big his feet and hands were.
"How are you feeling Daniel?" Dr. Tran asked
"Achy, but I'm not on fire anymore," he said, and then blushed as his voice cracked at the end. Everyone in the room ignored his embarrassment, treating it like the perfectly natural occurrence it was. He looked at Brady. "I thought you were with Jesse."
"She fell asleep, and I wanted to be able to report back to her how you were doing," Brady responded with a wink. Daniel nodded his head seriously, his grey eyes far too old in his young face. Brother and sister had faced so much loss and, other than their aunt, didn't have anyone else to look out for them; the way they looked out for each other reminded Brady of himself and his siblings. "The ache will go away after you shift. That's what made her pass out though; I don't think she really had the energy to shift twice."
"Don't shift yet," Dr. Tran immediately said sharply, giving Daniel a look. "I didn't get to examine your sister before she shifted, so I need to examine you."
As Daniel willingly underwent the examination, Brady and his brothers distracted him with conversation. He wanted to know if his aunt had agreed to the treatment yet - they let Dr. Tran be the one to tell him no. None of them told him that the old lady had been hollering with anger louder than she had been with pain when she'd woken up to find her niece gone. Even Eli coming in and showing her the signed form of consent hadn't placated her. Eventually she'd been sedated.
Brady hadn't been there, but Brice had reported in to him. Now Brice was staring at the ceiling, pretending he didn't have any extra info on the aunt.
"So, Daniel, what do you want to be now that you're going to grow up?" Brock asked.
Brice immediately elbowed their middle brother in his side for his blunt phrasing, but Daniel just laughed, apparently not at all put out by the acknowledgment he'd been dying and might not have had any dreams in that direction.
"What I've always wanted to be - a soldier, just like you guys," he said, his eyes shining with hero worship. The answer wasn't too surprising, since Brady had noticed Daniel definitely had an interest in the soldiers around the compound, but it was still one that made him wince.
"Uh, what does your sister think about that?" he couldn't help asking.
Daniel shrugged, looking slightly guilty. "Well, she's not real happy about it, but she'll get over it. I mean, you guys have sisters, right?"
"Yeah, but..." Brady's voice trailed off, trying to think of something to say that wasn't completely hypocritical.
"There's three of us," Brock said, his gesture including him and all his brothers. "If one or even two of us go down, they've still got at least one brother left." If Brice had made the statement, it would have been a joke; from Brock it wasn't nothing but simple pragmatism. Brice also probably would have stopped there. "If you go down, Jesse won't have any."
Dr. Tran coughed and shot Brock a reproving look, which had absolutely no effect on him, as Daniel's face paled. "Well... I still want to be a soldier. I want to help people. Rescue them, the way you were rescued."
A little bit of glow came back into his face, earnest and determined. Great. Brady shot his brothers a look when Brock started to open his mouth to say something else. "Well there's plenty of time to look into how to help people," he said. "What about Jesse? Think she'll go back to teaching pre-school?"
They managed to keep Daniel distracted from both his examination and thoughts of being a soldier until Dr. Tran had finished her exam. Unfortunately, when she asked if he could shift for her, Daniel was too exhausted. He also admitted that shifting had always come more easily to Jesse than him - said she could do it while moving. Brady and his brothers exchanged a glance; they all shifted easily and hadn't realized that shifting while moving was a big deal. It was something they'd trained for at the lab while they were captives. Since coming here to train with Eli's men, they hadn't done any of the exercises involving shifting during training... they'd assumed it was because they were already as far along in that as they could be, but had worried it was because no one wanted to train with their monstrous animals. Nice to realize it was more likely the former than the latter.
After Daniel was given something to help him sleep, and nodded off, Brady hurried back to Jesse's room. She was exactly where he'd left her, looking like a sleeping beauty. Smiling slightly at the smooth lines of her face, completely unstressed by pain, Brady lowered himself into the chair by her bed. Eventually Eli would throw him back on the roster, but so far their esteemed leader seemed pretty understanding of the Bunson's interest in the O'Neals.
Chapter 2
Jesse awoke with a start because something was wrong. Something was strange. Something was different.
It took her a moment to realize the strangeness was her lack of pain. Not hurting in any way felt wrong. How awful was that? She lifted her hands to stare at them. Moved her fingers.
Laughed, because the joy bubbling up inside of her couldn't be contained.
As soon as she laughed, movement caught her eye and she looked to the right. Brady was sitting there, sitting up now and yawning like he'd just woken up. Scruffy dark hair shadowed his jaw, making something inside of her sit up and take notice. Not just her squirrel either; something deeper inside her that she hadn't felt in years.
Down girl.
"You're still here," she said, smiling at him and allowing her surprise to show.
Brady just blinked at her blankly. "Of course I'm still here," he said, his tone matter-of-fact, like it was silly to suggest he'd be anywhere else. Granted, Jesse thought he and his brothers were going to be interested in her recovery, because of their own situation, but she hadn't thought she'd find him sleeping by her bed again. And Brice had said he'd never left before... did she dare hope maybe Brady's interest was more personal and less about seeing the good coming out of Dr. Montgomery's... mmm, work?
Because Jesse would be so okay with that. She hadn't really been able to concentrate on anything but the pain before - and it would have been silly to have a crush on a guy when she wasn't sure she was going to live, anyway - but now all the memories of him checking in on her, distracting her from the ongoing agony, talking with her, and even looking into her super nerdy interests like Harry Potter and Doctor Who just so they could share that... well, it would be kind of hard not to have a crush on a guy like that now that she no longer felt like she was on fire, not to mention she actually had a future. Heat bloomed in her cheeks as she really let herself see, for the first time, exactly how hot he was.
Like, smoking hot, really. Tall, broad-shouldered, muscled in all the right places without being overly muscled, short dark hair, warm hazel eyes, and a slight smile which occasionally turned into a panty-melting grin. The tight black shirt he was wearing showed off his body to perfection without making it look like he was trying to show off. His pants were bulkier, with lots of pockets, the way all the compound soldiers' pants were, but she was pretty sure the lower half of his body would be just as great as the upper half.
So yeah, physically hot, but he was also funny, sweet, caring, and super protective of his family. Geez, and she really thought she might have a chance with a guy like this? Jesse was suddenly yearning for a hot shower, a mountain of soap, toothpaste, and a hairbrush. Not a mirror though. Nope, she definitely did not want to know what she looked like right now when he was sitting there looking all delicious and hot; because if she knew she looked bad, that would be so much more embarrassing than just suspecting it.
&nbs
p; "How are you feeling?" Brady asked, getting up and picking up a nearby cup with a straw sticking out of it. She recognized that cup from the last time she'd woken up.
"Good," she said, holding out her hand to take the cup from him. He seemed strangely reluctant to give it to her, but she felt too weird letting him hold it when she was capable of doing so. After relinquishing it, he sat down on the edge of her bed and it sagged under his weight, making her giggle as he cursed and scooted further back on it to help even out the weight distribution. His eyes teasingly dared her to say something about it, but she just gave him an impish smile. "I don't hurt at all. It's really weird, but I think I'll be able to get used to it quickly."
Brady's grin flashed wide and if she'd been wearing panties, they definitely would have melted. Damn hospital gowns. "I'll bet. You look great."
Self-consciously she reached up to brush a lock of hair off of her forehead, and then told herself it was just her imagination which made it feel greasy and unwashed. Heat rose in her cheeks as she blushed, feeling highly unattractive when she definitely needed a shower and he was looking so incredible, like he always did. She needed to change the subject before she said something embarrassing about how she probably looked awful and he started thinking she was fishing for compliments or attention. "Do you know how Daniel's doing?"
"Oh, yeah, I meant to tell you immediately; I went by to see him. He woke up around the same time you did, but he couldn't quite manage his shift." Brady looked a little worried.
"That's totally normal," Jesse reassured him. During their conversations together she'd realized Brady and his brothers didn't know a lot about shifters, even though they technically were shifters now. "He's still in the stage where it's really easy to shift without meaning to, because of strong emotions, but it's hard to do it on purpose, especially if he was tired."
Looking fascinated by her description, Brady tilted his head. "He made it sound like you were just better at it than him."