So Lunar Charming (2/6) Annie/Tom PG-15
Six months since she’d lost Mitchell all Annie had was a battered old campervan and Tom. Tom, who’d lost everything too. McNair, the only life he’d ever known, any hope of the wolf pack he’d had his heart set on. He wasn’t even getting the nice settled life Annie now knew his father figure so desperately wanted for him. Still, they had each other and Annie had no idea where she’d be now without him. Drifting probably, a disembodied spirit blowing like ash on the wind, conscious but even less alive than she was now.
Annie and Tom sat in silence as he drove them away from the b+b in the campervan he’d spent all his life in. Annie had packed only the food that was left to keep them going. Nothing else mattered. She had no photos or anything of sentimental value, she’d never realized how few belongings she had until now. They hadn’t discussed where they were going to go just…away.
“He asked me to look after you, you know,” Tom said out of nowhere as they drove through the country roads. “If anything happened to him.”
She turned to look at him, his eyes on the road almost as if he hadn’t spoken at all. “And what did you say?”
“I told him I would. I told him he didn’t need to worry.”
It was strange to think George had thought that far ahead, although she wasn’t sure why she was surprised. It was just like George to think about that sort of thing. To want to make sure she was safe. She wondered if Tom had been ordered to look after the women folk. She’d have been offended if she didn’t know how much they’d needed him. How much they’d relied on Tom when things had turned bad. She wasn’t a killer, neither was Nina, not when she was human at least. It was too much for George to cope with on his own. One or two vampires was fine, but it had rarely been just one or two. The few days before the full moon they always had to face masses of them, twenty, thirty some times and it had taken Annie just a little too long to accept that this was it, this was how it was going to be. She had to fight or lose everyone. Fight or let everybody down. She still remembered the first time she’d accepted that. In a deserted building with George and Tom fighting as if they were born to it, while all she was doing was knocking vampires away from them, and trying not to scream, but then she’d seen him, a man, tall and skinny, he didn’t look like much of a threat at all, but he had Tom up against the wall, both hands bound and pinned, still holding stakes and she’d known it was the vampire or Tom and she was damned if it was going to be Tom. She’d thrust a piece of wood into his back and pushed him aside before he’d even turned to dust. And that was it. The start of the warrior ghost. The end of the girl she used to be. It wasn’t enough, but it was something.
“And here’s me thinking you wanted to travel with me.”
“I did,” he said quickly, not catching the fact she was only joking. “If it wasn’t for you…all of you really but…” he trailed off. They’d been all he had after McNair and the same applied to her. All they had was each other, but that wasn’t all it was, there was more to it than that. He felt protective of her despite the fact she was a ghost and he’d seen the way she fought - she wasn’t the way McNair had told him girls were. She wasn’t weak and she didn’t need a hero. But she needed someone and he was more than happy to be that.
“I know,” she said, reaching across to touch his arm. “I know.”
Two days later they were in a wood somewhere on the outskirts of Kent.
“I’m glad you decided to stay,” she said, looking across at him from the passenger seat.
“Yeah well I couldn’t just leave you to it, could I? What would my dad’ve said?” There was George of course, but they’d already been through that. There had never been any option but this though, whatever had happened he was always going to stay with her, he’d known that the moment Annie had suggested sending Nina away to safety. He hadn’t needed to be told to look after her, he would have done it anyway.
“I would’ve been okay.” She wouldn’t and she wondered if he knew that. If he was as observant as his dad. It would make sense. McNair had probably taught him to be paranoid, to notice every little thing and he was still alive which was more than could be said for anyone else she’d known so clearly something was working.
“I wouldn’t.”
“Tom…” Annie had never been much good at knowing when to drop things. Starting now just seemed sort of stupid.
“He really liked you, you know?”
“I know. He called me kind, and sweet.” Of course he’d been criticising Mitchell at the time, but it was the thought that counted and really she couldn’t exactly blame him under the circumstances. Annie’s opinion of vampires wasn’t that far from McNair’s now, if she was honest.
“I think he’d be glad you were with me. He used to worry.”
She actually laughed at that. Having seen him in action she couldn’t imagine how McNair would worry. Annie had never seen a better fighter than Tom.
“He was very old fashioned, wasn’t he? Protective.”
“He did what he thought was best for me.”
“It’s weird though, isn’t it? How protective he was of you and yet…you’re brilliant. Without you...” What had happened to George would have happened before it did, she was certain, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk about that. She didn’t even like to think about it.
“We were soldiers. I’m a soldier. He just wanted to keep me safe, teaching me to fight and kill well that was just part of it”
It made a twisted kind of sense and she’d honestly never been more thankful for anything, for anyone. She didn’t say anything for a few moments, the both of them just sitting there in the front of the van.
Tom noticed the sound first, the crunch of dead leaves under foot. Even three days before the full moon he was always on high alert, keeping half an eye and ear out for danger all the time, even as he was talking to Annie about the songs on the radio, or the things she read about in her glossy magazines. Even as he slept he was alert, the slightest noise and he was up and ready.
“Get the stakes,” he said suddenly.
Annie hadn’t heard a thing, she had no idea why he was so on edge suddenly but she trusted his judgement completely. If Tom said something was wrong, something was wrong.
“I’m on it,” she said disappearing into the back and returning twenty seconds later, handing him the stakes she’d watched him make during the evenings. “What’s going on?”
“They’ve found us.”
It was always just a matter of time of course. Though she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d been actively looking for them or if they’d just got lucky. Not that it mattered, the result was the same. This was it, the first fight with just the two of them. She only hoped she was up to it because she didn’t have any other option. The only thing that mattered was winning, keeping Tom safe.
“Okay,” she said, trying to sound confident.
“I can handle this alone if you want?” he said, slipping McNair’s crucifix round his neck and handing her one of this. He knew she was dead, but any and every advantage they could get against the vampires was important. “There aren’t many of them.”
“How do you know that?”
“Different scents, footsteps. Doesn’t matter. We’re wasting time.” He leapt out of the van before she could say anything about whether she was going to let him take care of this himself or not.
Annie stayed where she was for only a few seconds, pulling herself together and psyching herself up before she appeared beside him.
“Took your time,” he said with a little smile, staying still, watching as the group approached.
“Didn’t want to step on your toes.”
The laughter was the first thing that tipped them off, followed by the screeching of tires and loud music. Something was wrong. This was a set up. The group of vampires on foot had been little more than a scout party.
“Forget everything I said in the van,” Tom said, looking at Annie as he span his stakes. “I’m gonna need you to fight, really, really hard, but I know you can do it. Just remember that, right?”
Annie nodded. There really was no choice. This was so much worse than she’d ever expected things to be their first time together, but she couldn’t worry about that. They were coming, but she had no intention of letting them leave.
If Annie had even a moment in which she wasn’t fighting, knocking vampires back, flinging them out of the way like rag dolls she’d have been staring at the man fight alongside her. As it was she couldn’t even spare him a second look, but she found she was smiling slightly as, with the flick of a wrist, another vampire went flying to the ground cursing them. Another sound of snapping bones and this time Annie didn’t look around to see what it was. She’d seen it before. Tom breaking the neck of a vampire as if it was nothing, casting the body aside and moving on to the next. He seemed to be everywhere at once. Whenever Annie opened her mouth to shout a warning to him she found it wasn’t needed - a spin and blur of movement and the vampires that had been about to attack were reduced to a body crumbling to dust.
“Bloody hell you’re good,” she said afterwards as they made their way back to the van. It was strange to think she hadn’t noticed it before, but then before she’d been too busy keeping an eye on George and him but that had often meant killing rather than checking out his gymnastics. Before. It was better not to think of before. It was better not to think all round really.
Tom shrugged as if the twelve or so vampires he’d just dispatched was nothing. He had to admit though, that had been a good one. His blood felt like it was bubbling in his veins, his heart pounding just like it did before a change. They were going to talk about this fight. It would be a warning to the others. The ghost and the werewolf. They know what they’re doing. Don’t mess with them.
She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed before but as they pulled over to park in yet another wood she noticed the wound on his upper arm. She hadn’t noticed any vampires with weapons but then she hadn’t been looking that closely, she hadn‘t had time to notice any specifics. She‘d barely even had time to think. Reaching up she turned the light on in the cab.
“Have you got a first aid kit in the van?” she asked.
“Are you hurt?” Tom asked automatically, his own wounds never really bothered him. They healed over time and as long as they didn’t stop him doing what he needed to they really didn’t matter.
Annie raised an eyebrow at him and managed not to look at him like he was a bit simple. “Dead,” she said simply.
“Yeah right. Sorry,” he shook his head. It was surprising just how easy it was to forget she was a ghost considering she didn’t eat or sleep, but he honestly didn’t think about it. She was Annie, that was the only way he thought of her. “There’s one in the cupboard, blue box. McNair didn’t really like hospitals he preferred to just deal with everything here.” He watched as she clambered over the seats into the main part of the campervan to find it.
“I’m okay,” he pointed out realising why she‘d asked the question and glancing down at the gash on his arm. “You don’t need to worry.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said. “Come on. You can either let me deal with it now or deal with me going on and on about it until you give in. Your choice.”
Sighing Tom climbing into the back with her. “Honestly, I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
Annie ignored him, as she started rifling through the contents of the kit, wincing at the state of it. Decades old tubes of Savlon and bottle of TCP. She wondered briefly if it would be better to just leave Tom’s arm as it was rather than putting this stuff on it. “Did McNair use this a lot? Or recently?”
“Occasionally. Sometimes we’d wake up after the full moon with little cuts and scratches, sometimes something a bit worse, so we’d just clean them up, stop it getting infected.”
“And it worked, did it?”
“Well I’m perfectly fit and healthy so yeah, why?”
Annie held up the tube of Salvon, the metal of the tube rusted at the bottom.
“Yeah, okay maybe we’ll add medical supplies to the list. There’s some fresh bandages and that in that other compartment though,” he said gesturing above her head. “Nina nicked a load of stuff from the hospital before she left.”
“And yet you let me look though the first aid kit of rust and dirt?”
“You asked where the first aid kit was. That’s it.”
Annie shot him a look like she wanted to hit him.
“Sorry,” he muttered, retrieving the newer items for her and handing them over.
“I can do it myself, you know? I mean it’s a bit awkward but…I can.”
“I’m sure you can. But you don’t have to. I’m here and I want to keep you safe and healthy, okay? So-so just let me look after your arm, okay?” she said so earnestly Tom had no choice but to obey.
“Now…this is going to sting a bit,” she said, like she knew what she was talking about, as she wet a cotton wool ball with alcohol. She wished she’d asked Nina a bit more about first aid when she’d had the chance, but there’d never seemed to be any need. She didn’t want to step on her toes and Nina was the nurse. Plus patching them up in the aftermath of fights had been Nina’s main job since they had to protect the baby. Annie should have asked before she left, she hadn’t even known Nina had given them these supplies.
“I think I can take it,” Tom assured her, watching as she dabbed at the wound timidly, clearly afraid of hurting him. “It’s okay” he said “you don’t need to be quite so gentle. I’ll tell you if you’re hurting me.”
“I don’t want it to get to the point where you have to tell me,” Annie said, looking slightly upset. She’d never liked seeing him hurt, but seeing it so close up, knowing all she could do was the bare minimum if something did happen to him was so much worse.
“Annie,” he said carefully. “It’s just a little scratch. I’ve done worse than this to meself fruit picking. And I’m a big boy now, right? I can take a bit of pain. You don’t need to worry about me so much.”
Slowly Annie nodded. She was being silly, letting this reminder that he wasn’t like her, wasn’t invulnerable, get to her. But he was the most important thing in her life now. The only thing in her life. All she wanted was to keep him safe and close. She continued to work in silence, pretty sure that if she tried to speak now she’d end up crying, which always seemed to make Tom especially nervous. Plus she knew he was right, logically, but she’d never really been that good with logic and reason.
“Do you think it needs a bandage?” she asked, although she wasn’t entirely sure why she was asking him, he hadn’t wanted her to do anything to his arm, but the silence in the van was threatening to get awkward so she’d had to say something.
“I think Nina left some dressings. That should be enough. We only really used bandages because we didn’t have anything else.”
Annie nodded as she peeled open a sterile dressing, complete with sticky tape round the edge so she didn’t have to worry about how it was going to stay on. This was probably better than a bandage. She wanted everything to be clean. She didn’t want anything to happen to Tom, not even so much as a bit of dirt getting into his cut.
“You can practice though, if you want. In case…well I’m probably going to end up like this again let’s just say,” Tom said, as her hands gently pressed against his skin, sticking the dressing down so it wouldn’t just come off again. If it was this important to her that she be able to look after him completely, well he wasn’t going to complain. Anyway he’d let his dad deal with his wounds, having Annie do it seemed better than that he had to admit.
Her hands stayed on his arm as he spoke, stroking gently without really thinking about it, as if to sooth some imaginary pain. “You’ll be careful, won’t you, Tom?” she said quietly, her eyes still fixed on where the cut was despite the fact it was now covered. It really hadn’t been bad. There’d been hardly any blood and it was only about three inches long. If she was in this state over that… She couldn’t think about that, the what ifs. She’d drive herself crazy if she did.
“Course.” It was different now. He had someone to be careful for. “Annie, it really is just a scratch. If you weren’t here I’d’ve ignored it and it would’ve been fine. These things happen, but I’m always fine, right? The curse makes you stronger. I know you’re going to worry no matter what I say, but I’ll be all right. I’m not going to let anything happen to me. I’m not going to leave you.”
She was sure George and Mitchell had said similar things and that she’d believed them. She missed that blind optimism that somehow everything would be okay, because hey she was already dead and Mitchell was immortal and George, well George had them looking out for him and he could look after himself at least once a month. Once upon a time she’d have asked him to promise, but she knew now you couldn’t keep promises like that.
“Come ‘ere,” he said, wrapping his uninjured arm around her and pulling her against him. “I know it might look like it, but I don’t take unnecessary risks. If I did I’d be dead by now. McNair taught me well, really well. You said so yourself, I’m bloody good. And I reckon I’m even better than I was when me and McNair were fighting, because I know what I’m fighting for now. Because I know I have to stay safe for you. I made George a promise and I intend on keeping it, right?”
Annie nodded against his chest, unable to speak, She’d been doing such a good job of not crying lately, but the moment Tom had started talking all her defenses had crumbled and she’d starting weeping silently in his arms.
Clearly Tom had learnt something about how to deal with Annie when she was like this. Not that that was how he thought of it. His desire to excuse himself was nonexistent now and he knew better than to try and say something to cheer her up. He wasn’t great with words, in fact it was what he said that often had her in tears. He held on to her a little tighter instead, stroking her back and rocking her gently in silence until finally, after a couple of minutes she pulled back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands and frowning at the dark patch of fabric on his t-shirt from her tears. She had no idea how that even worked. She was a ghost after all, with ghostly tears. Surely they shouldn’t have been able to wet someone else’s clothes?
It was amazing how much she trusted this man. She’d barely even known him six month ago and they hadn’t been especially close during those six months. He’d stayed in the house occasionally and he’d fought with them and given them information about vampire hideouts but they’d never really talked all that much about anything other than the Old Ones and the trouble with the vampires. They’d never had a real, proper conversation and yet she trusted him completely with her life, her essence.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sniffing a little as she edged away from him. “I know I can be a bit…overbearing. And I‘m sorry for that.” She gestured to the wet patch on his chest.
“Don’t worry about it. Any of it. You’re really not that bad. You met McNair, didn’t you? He wasn’t exactly the relaxed and laidback type. Compared to him you‘re…perfectly reasonable. I‘m not sure what I‘d do if I didn‘t have someone fussing over me, to be honest. Not after that.”
“I’m so glad you’re here.“ She’d said again, she felt the need to say it all the time, especially in times like this. She didn’t really know what she was doing in these fights. In this new life in general. She generally just used her strange ghostly powers and hoped for the best, staking the odd vampire when one foolishly came close enough to her, or was distracted by the sight of Tom killing their comrades as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It was difficult to hold it together though. While they were fighting there was no chance to worry, but afterwards it all just came tumbling down on her. Like now.
“So…where to now?” she asked finally straightening up and attempting to pretend the last couple of minutes hadn’t actually happened.
“Might as well stay, now, yeah? Since we’ve cleaned the place up a bit. Restock, then make plans?”
“Supermarket first then?”
“I’ll wear my big coat,” he said with a little smile.
“I’m not sure I approve of stealing, you know?” Annie said, glancing side long at him, wondering if she should at least try not to smile.
“I’d suggest one of us get a job, but you’re a ghost and I’m a vampire slaying werewolf. Plus we‘re sort of on the run.”
The pair of them both burst out laughing at the synopsis. It was strange because Annie had been fairly certain she was never going to laugh again.
“They should write a graphic novel about us,” she said finally, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Yeah they should,” he agreed.
Annie and Tom sat in silence as he drove them away from the b+b in the campervan he’d spent all his life in. Annie had packed only the food that was left to keep them going. Nothing else mattered. She had no photos or anything of sentimental value, she’d never realized how few belongings she had until now. They hadn’t discussed where they were going to go just…away.
“He asked me to look after you, you know,” Tom said out of nowhere as they drove through the country roads. “If anything happened to him.”
She turned to look at him, his eyes on the road almost as if he hadn’t spoken at all. “And what did you say?”
“I told him I would. I told him he didn’t need to worry.”
It was strange to think George had thought that far ahead, although she wasn’t sure why she was surprised. It was just like George to think about that sort of thing. To want to make sure she was safe. She wondered if Tom had been ordered to look after the women folk. She’d have been offended if she didn’t know how much they’d needed him. How much they’d relied on Tom when things had turned bad. She wasn’t a killer, neither was Nina, not when she was human at least. It was too much for George to cope with on his own. One or two vampires was fine, but it had rarely been just one or two. The few days before the full moon they always had to face masses of them, twenty, thirty some times and it had taken Annie just a little too long to accept that this was it, this was how it was going to be. She had to fight or lose everyone. Fight or let everybody down. She still remembered the first time she’d accepted that. In a deserted building with George and Tom fighting as if they were born to it, while all she was doing was knocking vampires away from them, and trying not to scream, but then she’d seen him, a man, tall and skinny, he didn’t look like much of a threat at all, but he had Tom up against the wall, both hands bound and pinned, still holding stakes and she’d known it was the vampire or Tom and she was damned if it was going to be Tom. She’d thrust a piece of wood into his back and pushed him aside before he’d even turned to dust. And that was it. The start of the warrior ghost. The end of the girl she used to be. It wasn’t enough, but it was something.
“And here’s me thinking you wanted to travel with me.”
“I did,” he said quickly, not catching the fact she was only joking. “If it wasn’t for you…all of you really but…” he trailed off. They’d been all he had after McNair and the same applied to her. All they had was each other, but that wasn’t all it was, there was more to it than that. He felt protective of her despite the fact she was a ghost and he’d seen the way she fought - she wasn’t the way McNair had told him girls were. She wasn’t weak and she didn’t need a hero. But she needed someone and he was more than happy to be that.
“I know,” she said, reaching across to touch his arm. “I know.”
Two days later they were in a wood somewhere on the outskirts of Kent.
“I’m glad you decided to stay,” she said, looking across at him from the passenger seat.
“Yeah well I couldn’t just leave you to it, could I? What would my dad’ve said?” There was George of course, but they’d already been through that. There had never been any option but this though, whatever had happened he was always going to stay with her, he’d known that the moment Annie had suggested sending Nina away to safety. He hadn’t needed to be told to look after her, he would have done it anyway.
“I would’ve been okay.” She wouldn’t and she wondered if he knew that. If he was as observant as his dad. It would make sense. McNair had probably taught him to be paranoid, to notice every little thing and he was still alive which was more than could be said for anyone else she’d known so clearly something was working.
“I wouldn’t.”
“Tom…” Annie had never been much good at knowing when to drop things. Starting now just seemed sort of stupid.
“He really liked you, you know?”
“I know. He called me kind, and sweet.” Of course he’d been criticising Mitchell at the time, but it was the thought that counted and really she couldn’t exactly blame him under the circumstances. Annie’s opinion of vampires wasn’t that far from McNair’s now, if she was honest.
“I think he’d be glad you were with me. He used to worry.”
She actually laughed at that. Having seen him in action she couldn’t imagine how McNair would worry. Annie had never seen a better fighter than Tom.
“He was very old fashioned, wasn’t he? Protective.”
“He did what he thought was best for me.”
“It’s weird though, isn’t it? How protective he was of you and yet…you’re brilliant. Without you...” What had happened to George would have happened before it did, she was certain, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk about that. She didn’t even like to think about it.
“We were soldiers. I’m a soldier. He just wanted to keep me safe, teaching me to fight and kill well that was just part of it”
It made a twisted kind of sense and she’d honestly never been more thankful for anything, for anyone. She didn’t say anything for a few moments, the both of them just sitting there in the front of the van.
Tom noticed the sound first, the crunch of dead leaves under foot. Even three days before the full moon he was always on high alert, keeping half an eye and ear out for danger all the time, even as he was talking to Annie about the songs on the radio, or the things she read about in her glossy magazines. Even as he slept he was alert, the slightest noise and he was up and ready.
“Get the stakes,” he said suddenly.
Annie hadn’t heard a thing, she had no idea why he was so on edge suddenly but she trusted his judgement completely. If Tom said something was wrong, something was wrong.
“I’m on it,” she said disappearing into the back and returning twenty seconds later, handing him the stakes she’d watched him make during the evenings. “What’s going on?”
“They’ve found us.”
It was always just a matter of time of course. Though she couldn’t help but wonder if they’d been actively looking for them or if they’d just got lucky. Not that it mattered, the result was the same. This was it, the first fight with just the two of them. She only hoped she was up to it because she didn’t have any other option. The only thing that mattered was winning, keeping Tom safe.
“Okay,” she said, trying to sound confident.
“I can handle this alone if you want?” he said, slipping McNair’s crucifix round his neck and handing her one of this. He knew she was dead, but any and every advantage they could get against the vampires was important. “There aren’t many of them.”
“How do you know that?”
“Different scents, footsteps. Doesn’t matter. We’re wasting time.” He leapt out of the van before she could say anything about whether she was going to let him take care of this himself or not.
Annie stayed where she was for only a few seconds, pulling herself together and psyching herself up before she appeared beside him.
“Took your time,” he said with a little smile, staying still, watching as the group approached.
“Didn’t want to step on your toes.”
The laughter was the first thing that tipped them off, followed by the screeching of tires and loud music. Something was wrong. This was a set up. The group of vampires on foot had been little more than a scout party.
“Forget everything I said in the van,” Tom said, looking at Annie as he span his stakes. “I’m gonna need you to fight, really, really hard, but I know you can do it. Just remember that, right?”
Annie nodded. There really was no choice. This was so much worse than she’d ever expected things to be their first time together, but she couldn’t worry about that. They were coming, but she had no intention of letting them leave.
If Annie had even a moment in which she wasn’t fighting, knocking vampires back, flinging them out of the way like rag dolls she’d have been staring at the man fight alongside her. As it was she couldn’t even spare him a second look, but she found she was smiling slightly as, with the flick of a wrist, another vampire went flying to the ground cursing them. Another sound of snapping bones and this time Annie didn’t look around to see what it was. She’d seen it before. Tom breaking the neck of a vampire as if it was nothing, casting the body aside and moving on to the next. He seemed to be everywhere at once. Whenever Annie opened her mouth to shout a warning to him she found it wasn’t needed - a spin and blur of movement and the vampires that had been about to attack were reduced to a body crumbling to dust.
“Bloody hell you’re good,” she said afterwards as they made their way back to the van. It was strange to think she hadn’t noticed it before, but then before she’d been too busy keeping an eye on George and him but that had often meant killing rather than checking out his gymnastics. Before. It was better not to think of before. It was better not to think all round really.
Tom shrugged as if the twelve or so vampires he’d just dispatched was nothing. He had to admit though, that had been a good one. His blood felt like it was bubbling in his veins, his heart pounding just like it did before a change. They were going to talk about this fight. It would be a warning to the others. The ghost and the werewolf. They know what they’re doing. Don’t mess with them.
She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed before but as they pulled over to park in yet another wood she noticed the wound on his upper arm. She hadn’t noticed any vampires with weapons but then she hadn’t been looking that closely, she hadn‘t had time to notice any specifics. She‘d barely even had time to think. Reaching up she turned the light on in the cab.
“Have you got a first aid kit in the van?” she asked.
“Are you hurt?” Tom asked automatically, his own wounds never really bothered him. They healed over time and as long as they didn’t stop him doing what he needed to they really didn’t matter.
Annie raised an eyebrow at him and managed not to look at him like he was a bit simple. “Dead,” she said simply.
“Yeah right. Sorry,” he shook his head. It was surprising just how easy it was to forget she was a ghost considering she didn’t eat or sleep, but he honestly didn’t think about it. She was Annie, that was the only way he thought of her. “There’s one in the cupboard, blue box. McNair didn’t really like hospitals he preferred to just deal with everything here.” He watched as she clambered over the seats into the main part of the campervan to find it.
“I’m okay,” he pointed out realising why she‘d asked the question and glancing down at the gash on his arm. “You don’t need to worry.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said. “Come on. You can either let me deal with it now or deal with me going on and on about it until you give in. Your choice.”
Sighing Tom climbing into the back with her. “Honestly, I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
Annie ignored him, as she started rifling through the contents of the kit, wincing at the state of it. Decades old tubes of Savlon and bottle of TCP. She wondered briefly if it would be better to just leave Tom’s arm as it was rather than putting this stuff on it. “Did McNair use this a lot? Or recently?”
“Occasionally. Sometimes we’d wake up after the full moon with little cuts and scratches, sometimes something a bit worse, so we’d just clean them up, stop it getting infected.”
“And it worked, did it?”
“Well I’m perfectly fit and healthy so yeah, why?”
Annie held up the tube of Salvon, the metal of the tube rusted at the bottom.
“Yeah, okay maybe we’ll add medical supplies to the list. There’s some fresh bandages and that in that other compartment though,” he said gesturing above her head. “Nina nicked a load of stuff from the hospital before she left.”
“And yet you let me look though the first aid kit of rust and dirt?”
“You asked where the first aid kit was. That’s it.”
Annie shot him a look like she wanted to hit him.
“Sorry,” he muttered, retrieving the newer items for her and handing them over.
“I can do it myself, you know? I mean it’s a bit awkward but…I can.”
“I’m sure you can. But you don’t have to. I’m here and I want to keep you safe and healthy, okay? So-so just let me look after your arm, okay?” she said so earnestly Tom had no choice but to obey.
“Now…this is going to sting a bit,” she said, like she knew what she was talking about, as she wet a cotton wool ball with alcohol. She wished she’d asked Nina a bit more about first aid when she’d had the chance, but there’d never seemed to be any need. She didn’t want to step on her toes and Nina was the nurse. Plus patching them up in the aftermath of fights had been Nina’s main job since they had to protect the baby. Annie should have asked before she left, she hadn’t even known Nina had given them these supplies.
“I think I can take it,” Tom assured her, watching as she dabbed at the wound timidly, clearly afraid of hurting him. “It’s okay” he said “you don’t need to be quite so gentle. I’ll tell you if you’re hurting me.”
“I don’t want it to get to the point where you have to tell me,” Annie said, looking slightly upset. She’d never liked seeing him hurt, but seeing it so close up, knowing all she could do was the bare minimum if something did happen to him was so much worse.
“Annie,” he said carefully. “It’s just a little scratch. I’ve done worse than this to meself fruit picking. And I’m a big boy now, right? I can take a bit of pain. You don’t need to worry about me so much.”
Slowly Annie nodded. She was being silly, letting this reminder that he wasn’t like her, wasn’t invulnerable, get to her. But he was the most important thing in her life now. The only thing in her life. All she wanted was to keep him safe and close. She continued to work in silence, pretty sure that if she tried to speak now she’d end up crying, which always seemed to make Tom especially nervous. Plus she knew he was right, logically, but she’d never really been that good with logic and reason.
“Do you think it needs a bandage?” she asked, although she wasn’t entirely sure why she was asking him, he hadn’t wanted her to do anything to his arm, but the silence in the van was threatening to get awkward so she’d had to say something.
“I think Nina left some dressings. That should be enough. We only really used bandages because we didn’t have anything else.”
Annie nodded as she peeled open a sterile dressing, complete with sticky tape round the edge so she didn’t have to worry about how it was going to stay on. This was probably better than a bandage. She wanted everything to be clean. She didn’t want anything to happen to Tom, not even so much as a bit of dirt getting into his cut.
“You can practice though, if you want. In case…well I’m probably going to end up like this again let’s just say,” Tom said, as her hands gently pressed against his skin, sticking the dressing down so it wouldn’t just come off again. If it was this important to her that she be able to look after him completely, well he wasn’t going to complain. Anyway he’d let his dad deal with his wounds, having Annie do it seemed better than that he had to admit.
Her hands stayed on his arm as he spoke, stroking gently without really thinking about it, as if to sooth some imaginary pain. “You’ll be careful, won’t you, Tom?” she said quietly, her eyes still fixed on where the cut was despite the fact it was now covered. It really hadn’t been bad. There’d been hardly any blood and it was only about three inches long. If she was in this state over that… She couldn’t think about that, the what ifs. She’d drive herself crazy if she did.
“Course.” It was different now. He had someone to be careful for. “Annie, it really is just a scratch. If you weren’t here I’d’ve ignored it and it would’ve been fine. These things happen, but I’m always fine, right? The curse makes you stronger. I know you’re going to worry no matter what I say, but I’ll be all right. I’m not going to let anything happen to me. I’m not going to leave you.”
She was sure George and Mitchell had said similar things and that she’d believed them. She missed that blind optimism that somehow everything would be okay, because hey she was already dead and Mitchell was immortal and George, well George had them looking out for him and he could look after himself at least once a month. Once upon a time she’d have asked him to promise, but she knew now you couldn’t keep promises like that.
“Come ‘ere,” he said, wrapping his uninjured arm around her and pulling her against him. “I know it might look like it, but I don’t take unnecessary risks. If I did I’d be dead by now. McNair taught me well, really well. You said so yourself, I’m bloody good. And I reckon I’m even better than I was when me and McNair were fighting, because I know what I’m fighting for now. Because I know I have to stay safe for you. I made George a promise and I intend on keeping it, right?”
Annie nodded against his chest, unable to speak, She’d been doing such a good job of not crying lately, but the moment Tom had started talking all her defenses had crumbled and she’d starting weeping silently in his arms.
Clearly Tom had learnt something about how to deal with Annie when she was like this. Not that that was how he thought of it. His desire to excuse himself was nonexistent now and he knew better than to try and say something to cheer her up. He wasn’t great with words, in fact it was what he said that often had her in tears. He held on to her a little tighter instead, stroking her back and rocking her gently in silence until finally, after a couple of minutes she pulled back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands and frowning at the dark patch of fabric on his t-shirt from her tears. She had no idea how that even worked. She was a ghost after all, with ghostly tears. Surely they shouldn’t have been able to wet someone else’s clothes?
It was amazing how much she trusted this man. She’d barely even known him six month ago and they hadn’t been especially close during those six months. He’d stayed in the house occasionally and he’d fought with them and given them information about vampire hideouts but they’d never really talked all that much about anything other than the Old Ones and the trouble with the vampires. They’d never had a real, proper conversation and yet she trusted him completely with her life, her essence.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sniffing a little as she edged away from him. “I know I can be a bit…overbearing. And I‘m sorry for that.” She gestured to the wet patch on his chest.
“Don’t worry about it. Any of it. You’re really not that bad. You met McNair, didn’t you? He wasn’t exactly the relaxed and laidback type. Compared to him you‘re…perfectly reasonable. I‘m not sure what I‘d do if I didn‘t have someone fussing over me, to be honest. Not after that.”
“I’m so glad you’re here.“ She’d said again, she felt the need to say it all the time, especially in times like this. She didn’t really know what she was doing in these fights. In this new life in general. She generally just used her strange ghostly powers and hoped for the best, staking the odd vampire when one foolishly came close enough to her, or was distracted by the sight of Tom killing their comrades as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It was difficult to hold it together though. While they were fighting there was no chance to worry, but afterwards it all just came tumbling down on her. Like now.
“So…where to now?” she asked finally straightening up and attempting to pretend the last couple of minutes hadn’t actually happened.
“Might as well stay, now, yeah? Since we’ve cleaned the place up a bit. Restock, then make plans?”
“Supermarket first then?”
“I’ll wear my big coat,” he said with a little smile.
“I’m not sure I approve of stealing, you know?” Annie said, glancing side long at him, wondering if she should at least try not to smile.
“I’d suggest one of us get a job, but you’re a ghost and I’m a vampire slaying werewolf. Plus we‘re sort of on the run.”
The pair of them both burst out laughing at the synopsis. It was strange because Annie had been fairly certain she was never going to laugh again.
“They should write a graphic novel about us,” she said finally, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Yeah they should,” he agreed.