by Jamie Davis
“Mike, there was never any you and me,” Brynne said. “We were partners. You were my trainer, my mentor, but never were we going to be anything more. You had to know that.”
“I soon realized that you were being brainwashed to turn your back on your humanity. There was no other explanation,” Mike countered. “I knew there was only one way to make it right. I had to get rid of James in a way that would make him leave - leave here and also leave you. The Cause was well on its way to achieving that goal. Then Dean here screwed it all up.” He swiveled the gun to point back at Dean.
Dean put his hands in front of him. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t like they’d be able to stop the bullets. Maybe Ashley could do something. He half turned to her behind him. Mike laughed at his reaction.
Mike sneered. “Do you think your little angel-girl can do something to save you from what is to come? She knows what I’m prepared to do. If she moves a muscle, I cut you all down.”
Ashley’s voice sounded from behind Dean. “I may not act in this case, Michael. This is a situation where human action and free will must carry out to their own ends. Know this, though. Your fate is not yet sealed. There is still time to change your path.”
Great, now Ashley decides to step back and let the humans play without interference, Dean thought to himself. He knew she operated under her own set of rules, and this situation was apparently one of those times she was unable to act or interfere. It was one thing to know the intellectual reasons for things to happen, but was something else to live in that situation and feel helpless to change the events happening to you.
Mike laughed after Ashley finished her announcement. “I don’t need your warnings, Eldara. I know my fate, and it is already sealed. My goal here is to finish something I could not accomplish when I started all of this in motion years ago. Brynne, I couldn’t save you from yourself no matter how many ways I tried. Now I only have one option left, and that is to save your soul.” Mike turned the gun back on Brynne and fired two shots, striking her in the chest with enough force to knock her all the way back into the cushioned booth behind her.
27
It all happened so quickly. Dean never had a chance to stop it or do something heroic like jump in front of the bullets. He just stood there and watched it happen. He wasn’t alone though. As Mike took his attention off the cross in his other hand, James leapt from where he had been lying on the floor. He struck Mike’s back, knocking the man to the ground. With two hands, he snapped Mike's neck with a twist of his head.
The struggling body stopped moving instantly, and Dean knew that Mike was dead. The danger from Mike was gone, but that wasn’t Dean’s primary concern. He immediately turned his attention to Brynne. There was dark blood staining the front of her green cocktail dress where the bullets had entered her chest. She was struggling to get up as she coughed up a mouthful of blood. Dean ran over and clamped two hands over the wounds in her chest, applying pressure. There wasn’t anything else he could do. He didn’t have any of his gear with him, and with chest wounds, there wasn’t much he could have done even if he had her in the back of his ambulance.
“Someone call 911,” he shouted. “Get help here now.”
James was kneeling at his side, holding Brynne’s hand. “Dean, do something. What do you need? Anything, I’ll get it.”
“There’s nothing I can do, James,” Dean said choking away tears. He turned his attention back to his partner, now his patient. “Brynne, you need to stay awake and hold on. Help is coming.”
“God this hurts,” she whispered, then she coughed again, and more blood came out of her mouth. “It’s alright, Dean. I know what this means and what you’re trying to do. It’s not your fault.” She blinked once and then closed her eyes and didn’t open them again. Her breathing became more ragged.
“Wake up, Brynne,” Dean said, shaking her a little. She didn’t move. She was breathing shallowly, and that was the only sign of life. Dean turned and looked at Ashley. She just shook her head.
“Dean, I can do nothing in this place and time,” Ashley said. “I’m so sorry. The time of your choice is upon you, and I may not interfere in any way. This is it. The choice is yours.” Tears fell down her cheeks as she held his gaze for a moment, a grim smile on her face.
Dean looked back to Brynne. What choice? He had no choice. There was nothing he could do to save her. The ambulance was not going to get here in time. She needed an operating room in a trauma hospital, and even then they would be hard-pressed to save her life given the location of the wounds. The bullets had almost certainly pierced her heart and lungs, and likely one of the great blood vessels leaving the heart. That would account for the amount of blood she had coughed up.
Ashley had said the choice was up to him, but what choice was there? He was dumbfounded. Ashley had told him that he would have to make a choice to resolve the situation here in Elk City - a choice that he and James would somehow have to work together to make. He and James. Dean looked at the vampire sitting to his left. He was holding Brynne’s hand and stroking it almost lovingly. No, not almost. James loved her. Dean did not doubt that at all. He wasn’t some sort of monster; he was a man. He had his differences, but at the center was a man who loved a woman - a woman who was dying.
Then it hit him. There was a decision that needed to be made and it had to be made now. Dean looked back up at Ashley, a question on his face. She knew it now too. She smiled at him and nodded. That was the confirmation he needed. Dean looked at James and gripped the vampire’s shoulder. James turned his own red-rimmed eyes towards Dean, questioning the interruption of his grief.
“James, you need to turn her.”
The vampire just looked at the paramedic in front of him and seemed to not understand the words. Dean nodded toward Brynne, dying on the floor next to him. Her breathing was almost gone. There was no more time. “James, listen to me, you have to turn her. There’s no other option. If we want to save Brynne, you have to turn her into a vampire.”
James looked from Dean to Brynne and then back again. “Are you sure?” James asked. “I promised her I would never turn someone against their will. I’ve always held the belief that becoming one of us should be a choice, and not something randomly thrust upon someone like it was with me.”
“I’m sure,” Dean said with finality. “You two love each other. There is no other way to make this all work out. That is my choice, for Brynne, my friend and colleague. You must change her; I know she would want it. James, you have to do it right now, before it’s too late. She’s almost dead, and then it will be too late.”
James looked at Brynne one more time and then nodded. He held his wrist up to his own mouth and bit down hard to open his vein. Once his vampire blood started to flow, he held up Brynne’s head and placed the wounded wrist over her mouth. He leaned down and said, “Drink, my love. Drink so that you may live again.”
Dean looked at Brynne and couldn’t tell if she consumed any of the vampire’s blood or not. There was no change at all. She was already pale from blood loss. James held his wrist in place whispering to her for the last few minutes of her life and beyond. Her breathing had stopped, and Dean slumped back on his heels from where he knelt next to his former partner. James howled in pain, stood, and stumbled away from where Brynne’s body lay on the floor.
Ashley came forward and placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder then crouched down and placed her arms around him. She whispered in his ear. “It was your choice to make for her, and you made it. Do not be sad for Brynne. It would have been what she wanted.”
Dean couldn’t fathom her words. He hugged her close while he looked at the body of his partner, his mentor, and his friend. It was his choice to make, but he must have taken too long. The choice hadn’t become clear until it was too late to save her. She was laying there, no signs of life at all, just a finger twitching here or there. He was overcome with grief.
Wait. Dean broke the hug with Ashley.
He looked intently at
his partner’s body. Did he see her fingers twitch or had that been his imagination? He watched her hand again and this time saw a definite movement, of her whole hand this time.
“James,” Dean called. “Get over here. I think it worked.”
The vampire rushed back to Brynne’s side, and there was renewed chatter among the onlookers from the nightclub crowd. James picked up one hand and gripped it. Dean watched in wonder as the grip was returned. Then he saw Brynne’s eyes flutter open. She looked around at everyone watching her and then at James. She sat up and her free hand flew to her chest, probing around before she pulled away the top of her dress to peer down inside. A look of surprise showed on her face, and she looked up at James where their eyes met. James nodded.
“It was Dean’s decision. His choice,” James said. “He made the choice for you. I hope you are not angry.”
Her voice was hoarse as she responded. Dean saw her look over and meet his eyes. “No, I’m not angry.” She hugged James close for a moment and then leaned back, smacking her lips. Dean saw the newly elongated canines in evidence in her mouth. “I am thirsty, though.” She looked at Dean, and he leaned in to give her a hug, too. James’ arm barred his advance.
“She is too new,” James warned. “She would not be able to control herself.” He snapped his fingers. “A cup of O negative, quickly please.”
Dean looked at Brynne and shivered as she gave him a feral grin in return. He shrank back from her hungry gaze. He looked at Ashley, horrified. What had he done to her? Ashley shook her head.
“Do not blame yourself, Dean,” the Eldara said. “She is different, but she is still the Brynne you knew. Give her some time to acclimate to her new condition and you will see that she is the same as she always was.”
James nodded in agreement. “It will take a few weeks to understand what she has become and what she must do to make sure she does not harm others. I will be by her side and make sure the changes are managed, I promise.”
A server appeared at the edge of Dean’s field of vision. She handed James a white mug that he held to Brynne’s lips. She sipped slowly at first, unsure of what she was drinking, then gripped the mug with both hands and drank quickly, tipping the cup upward to drain it to the last drop.
“That was delicious,” she said when she was done, handing the cup back to James. “But it did taste sort of, I don’t know, off somehow?”
“That is because it was not taken directly from the source,” James explained. “It will take some time before you will be able to do that on your own without risking the life of the person who is donating. You will have to trust me until then.
“If you say so,” Brynne said. “It did make me feel better and I’m not so hungry.” She held a hand out to Dean, and he looked to James for advice.
“She has fed, so it is safe,” the elder vampire said. “Just maintain some distance for her comfort.”
Dean reached out and took the offered hand. Brynne gripped it, and he winced at the force of her squeeze. She let up when she realized what she was doing.
“Sorry, I guess I don’t know my own strength,” she said. “Thank you, Dean, for making the choice for me. It was the right thing to do. I mean, I feel awesome. I can hear, no, I can feel every heartbeat in this room, imagine the paramedic I’ll be.”
James sighed, and Dean and Brynne both looked at him. “Brynne, you cannot go back to that life. At least, not for quite a while. Being a newly turned vampire will make it so that you cannot be around sick, injured or helpless humans or others. With the blood and their helplessness, you would find it difficult to resist feeding upon them. I’m sorry. It will be a few years before I would trust you to go back to that work.”
Dean looked back and forth between James and Brynne, realizing what the older vampire was saying. Brynne could no longer be his partner at Station U. Her transformation would prevent it for a long time, perhaps forever.
“It’s okay, Brynne,” Dean said. “I’ll still come up and visit from time to time. I promise.” He knew that it was a small consolation. Brynne loved being a paramedic. He had not thought about that when he had made the decision to change her. Of course, the alternative was death. Ashley had once said that everything magical in life came with a price. This was part of the price that must be paid for saving Brynne. He would lose her as his partner, and she would cease to be a paramedic.
Voices at the doorway interrupted them as the Station U paramedics and police arrived at the club. There would be a lot of explanations and statements to be made. Dean hoped that when all of that was done, they would finally be able to lay this whole episode to rest. The trauma of the evening washed over him, and he started shaking as the adrenaline drained from his system. He wanted to go back to making normal life-and-death choices, the kind a paramedic made every day. It certainly didn’t involve watching friends die then turn into vampires. Paramedicine was what he had trained for, and that was what he longed to be again. He stood up to tell Bill and Lynne what was happening as they rushed across the floor to where Mike lay. There was a lot he needed to tell them about the new normal, because this was as normal as it was going to be ever again.
Epilogue
‘Normal’ is a lie. It is a word that Dean decided was used way too much. He had been hoping for the past weeks and months for everything to get back to normal, even a new normal. He thought that if he solved the problems facing him and his patients in the Unusual community, everything would go back to being the way they were. Nothing, however, was the same. Nor would it ever be. He pondered this as he drove to work through Elk City in the early morning hours of what should have been a ‘normal’ Monday.
It had been four weeks since the incident with Mike in the nightclub. That night would be forever burned into his memory. Dean knew he would always wonder if there was something he could have done differently to save Brynne. He had visited her several times, always chaperoned by James or Celeste for his own safety. Brynne said she was doing well, acclimating to her new reality. She told Dean that she was glad he had made the choice on her behalf, the choice that she be transformed into a member of the undead. He knew her too well though, and saw that the change brought with it regrets and things she missed as a human. James told him that it was a common reaction to the change in lifestyle required for new vampires. She was just adjusting to her new normal.
Dean snorted under his breath as he drove. There was that word ‘normal’ again. He thought about it more as he pulled into the parking lot at Station U. There was no normal. It was fiction devised by people living in the past and not looking towards the future. Dean had learned the hard way that change was constant, and that you could accept the changes thrust upon you, or work to enact changes of your own that were more agreeable. He had been a literal agent of change and was determined to be more proactive in shaping the changes around him in the future.
The past few weeks had brought more change for him than he could ever have expected. Chief Ari had praised him for his perseverance to serve his patients and recommended him to take the two-week paramedic preceptor course. It was unusual for someone as new as he to take that class, but the Chief had said it was well-deserved. Then, while he was out of town attending the preceptor course, he had received a cryptic text message from Ashley. She said she had something urgent to attend to, and had to leave town. He had not even had a chance to say goodbye or learn when she would return. Her phone was turned off and untraceable. Now he was driving to the station to start his first shift as a preceptor, and was getting a probie of his own to break in. Another new guy to show the ropes in the world of the Unusual community and extreme medical services. It was not a return to normal at all.
Dean strode into the station break room to a flurry of greetings from paramedics staffing the previous shift, Brook and Tammy. The two women were packing up their things after their twelve-hour shift and he knew they looked forward to getting home. Tammy had her kids and husband to see off to school and work respectively, a
nd Brook probably looked forward to having the bed to herself after her husband left for work. There was something to be said for the value of a good day’s sleep after working all night. He returned their greetings and thought of his own empty bed. He missed Ashley and wondered when she would return.
“Hey, Dean, you ready for the new probie inbound this morning?” Brook asked. “At least you’ll be able to sympathize with them since you can easily remember what it was like to be one yourself.”
“Yeah, Brook,” Dean replied with a chuckle. “I have that going for me. I think my best bet is to work under the mantra ‘what would Brynne do?’”
“How is Brynne anyway?” Tammy asked. “We were going to call and schedule a time to stop downtown and visit her since she’s can’t go out in public yet.”
“She’s well. I saw her yesterday,” Dean replied. “I think she would like seeing you guys. She misses her old friends and colleagues. It has been a difficult transition for her, though James said that it is all going the way it is supposed to go.”
“Well, he’s the expert,” Brook said. “We’ve got to follow his lead, Dean. I’ll call on my way home and set it up for us to drop by this afternoon before we come back to work. Does that work for you, Tammy?”
Tammy nodded and picked up her purse. “We’ll cheer her up. I want to hear what the sex is like now that she and James don’t have to hold back with each other.”
Dean and Brook both laughed. Tammy always fantasized about what it would be like to date an Unusual, even though she and her perfectly human husband were infatuated with each other. She loved to hear tales of her colleagues’ escapades.