By choice or by force Ch. 11

Chapter Eleven

They did the first sample transfusion as soon as the blood was ready, and the solution streamed slowly into Jonathon Richards body.

Sheila had requested that she stick to the diet, and so Laurie sat nibbling at the roast lamb, which was put before her at the evening meal.

The purified vegetable tower that stood proudly on her plate did not taste so bad but she came to the conclusion that she was definitely not a red meat eater -- despite her would-be carnivorous alter ego.

Michael sat across from her again and he waited for his highlight of the evening meal.

The moment she popped that small chunk of chocolate into her mouth.

Her eyes closed and her nose wrinkled slightly, and she gave the most delicious little shiver, as she absolutely savoured that melting delight.

It gave him all sorts of fantasies to store up for the nights when they could be together again.

Dr Grey and Dr Phillips had stayed by the patient since beginning the treatment, but now the two of them came sauntering into the room together looking very pleased with themselves.

"Well we are pleased to announce that the serum and DNA mix has been fully administered and Mr Richards body shows no sign of rejecting the antibodies that we have introduced into his system." Dr Phillips said with a wide smile. "And we took a small sample just before we left him, and the virus seems to be diminishing slowly but steadily."

"Is he improving then?" Michael asked hopefully.

"Well, he is still unconscious, and we aim to keep him that way overnight."

The two men sat down at the table and plates of food were quickly placed in front of them, and both men tucked into the hot meal enthusiastically.

"Yourself and your uncle will be required to come in to our makeshift clinic in the morning to give the blood that we will need to flush and purge his system... we hope to do that as early as possible so if you could be ready to donate by seven o'clock, we dare not keep this foreign DNA in his body for any longer than we have to, especially once it is saturated with the viral spores."

"We could start tonight if you wish?" Michael said eagerly.

"No, we need to give him time to rest and we need to give the antibodies time to do their job. It's a fine line and someone will be monitoring him constantly. The moment it looks like he is in distress we will begin the purge; so please forgive us if we knock you up in the middle of the night baying for your blood!" Dr Phillips chuckled at his little joke, but he meant what he said.

"I will be ready should you need me," Michael nodded. "And I shall make sure that my uncle is as well."

Mathew had not been at the dinner table for the last two evenings; in fact, Laurie could not remember the last time she saw him... it was almost like he was avoiding everyone.

Michael and Laurie took their evening walk together again, and they strolled towards the little bridge with their hands clasped loosely together.

She loved the feeling of her hand in his; his was so large and warm and comforting, she felt held and protected, but not stifled.

She gave a happy little sigh as she stepped onto the bridge. This for now was their spot, their little bit of privacy, their little bit of heaven.

She leaned back against the rail and looked up into Michael's face.

Unable to resist she reached up and stroked a finger gently down his cheek and across his jaw line.

Michael closed his eyes at her featherlike touch, and gave a shudder, and when he opened them again there was a distinct metallic cast to their blackness.

"There were times," he whispered huskily, "when I thought that I would never feel your touch again."

Laurie's eyes filled with tears, but she blinked them away impatiently. "I am so sorry that I made you feel that way. It was the only thing that kept me going, the certainty that I would be with you again. I can't imagine what it must have felt like, for you to think that I had chosen another."

"It wasn't the best day of my life!" he forced a short laugh, as he tried to break the sombre mood.

"No, mine neither."

He bent slightly and their lips met in a gentle promise of better things to come, they would always value what they gained now, since they had come so close to losing it all.

He held her tight to him, and they simply stood there for a while, enjoying just being together.

**

When Laurie went down to breakfast the next morning, her aunt was the only one at the table.

"Good morning Aunt Trudy... where is everyone?"

Trudy was sipping coffee, having just finished her breakfast, and the shadows beneath her usual bright blue gaze said that she had not slept well for a while now.

Laurie thought perhaps it was the stress and the strains of the last few days -- it was enough to make anyone lose sleep!

"James and Iris had an early breakfast and went out for walk." Trudy smiled as she thought of the other couple, so deeply in love and with a baby now on the way.

"Your father is taking breakfast in his room -- I believe. He said last night that these constant large gatherings for every meal were starting to exhaust him."

"Poor daddy!" Laurie commiserated. "He's still not entirely well himself."

"No, and usually it's just him at his house -- with the odd one-off invasion from one or two of us."

"Yes, and we haven't even done that for a while," Laurie sighed.

"And Michael and... his uncle have gone up to the clinic room, to start the donor transfusion." Trudy finished explained the absence of everyone.

"I wonder if Michael needs his hand holding?" Laurie murmured thoughtfully as she poured herself a cup of coffee and took some toast from one of the hot plates.

"He's a grown man and I am sure he can handle a little needle." Trudy shrugged indifferently.

"He didn't fare too well when they stuck it in me yesterday," Laurie giggled. "For a minute I though he was going to pass out on me!"

Trudy's lips twitched into the semblance of a smile, but it did not reach her eyes.

"Are you ok, Aunt Trudy? You're not sickening for this virus, are you?"

"What? No... no of course not... I, I guess I am just not sleeping too well, not after everything that's happened, and sleeping in a strange place -- a strange bed, it's all just catching up on me I guess."

She looked at her niece speculatively for a moment.

"In fact, I think that I am really superfluous to what is needed here right now. This situation seems to be resolving itself, and your father says that he's struggling with it all... I think it might be time for the two of us to depart this place. I am certain that you, Michael, and Iris and James can all resolve things with Mr Jonathon Richards."

"I am afraid that won't be possible just yet, Ms Beaumont." Michael said from the doorway. "I beg that you indulge us a little while longer; or at least until my father is alert and able to release everyone properly -- it was after all his insistence that you all stay."

Michael looked a little pale, but otherwise unharmed by his donation of blood, and Laurie smiled up at him brightly. "How is he?" she asked him.

"He's still unconscious, and his blood pressure is still a little high, according to Dr Phillips and Dr Grey, but they say that the virus has been totally wiped out by your antibodies and so once flushed out with the new infusion, he should start to improve quickly." He sat down next to Laurie, and smiled briefly.

"Oh, good I am so happy that he will be ok," Laurie sighed with relief.

"Thanks mostly to you, Laurie," Michael's voice dropped into a husky murmur and Trudy rolled her eyes and stood up, as the young couple gazed adoringly at each other.

"I've finished my breakfast, so I'll leave the two of you to enjoy yours."

She swept out of the room, and straight into Mathew, who put his arms out automatically to catch her.

Trudy quickly side stepped him and with a muttered. "Excuse me," she raced away.

Mathew watched her go, rubbing absently at that scar under his grey streak of hair.

He stepped into the small dining room that they had all been making use of, and with a quiet little sigh he stepped out again without even being noticed.

The young couple had eyes only for each other right now and he was so not in the mood for playing gooseberry.

That was probably why the Beaumont woman had been so eager to get away too, he mused to himself as he headed for the side door, and out into the gardens.

**

Jonathon Richards began almost immediately but very slowly to improve; and the days drifted one into another, and the household drifted along uneasily with it, Jonathon had not found the energy or the inclination to release anyone from his home and so an uneasy stasis existed between his home his staff and his 'guests'.

Iris and James were closer than ever, and after a private meeting with Dr Grey and Sheila, they were now looking forward to the next few months, and the expansion of their family unit, but for now they just did not seem to need or want anyone else.

Greg had taken to his room, or occasionally the patient's room, but did not seem to want to be around anyone else much either.

Aunt Trudy seemed to want to keep to herself too, although she did appear at meal times -- albeit for a quick meal before she beat a hasty retreat.

Mathew was busy trying to keep his brother's affairs in order, and the elder council at a distance, and so he was hardly seen.

In fact, since everyone else was so busy, Laurie and Michael spent long hours together -- with just the two of them.

They took walks around the estate, and Michael showed her all his favourite hangout places on this estate, and he told her a bit about what it had been like for him as a child, and then a young man on this estate.

"Most of our childhood, it was just me and Iris, with the odd highlight visit from Aunt Trudy -- gosh how we looked forward to her coming! Then there were the occasional visits from and to the Frawnings..." she smiled as a sense of nostalgia hit her. "They were always a bit rough and ready, even as boys -- but then isn't that the truth of most young boys, especially when they are raised in groups a lot."

"I was almost always on my own, oh I had several personal tutors on the go at all times, and the odd companion; but until I went to university... well that was when my social life truly started to begin." He grinned as his memories came and went.

"It must have been lonely, growing up like that," Laurie sympathised. "At least I always had Iris -- well until she went to school." she smiled sadly. "There were several years where she was at school, but I was still too young..."

"Yes, I thought that I was the only one, that because of who my parents were, I was somehow separate from everyone else, but I guess it is like that for so many others whether they are the only children -- or like you a younger sibling. It was sort of the same for us both."

"Yes, I suppose it was. I also remember what a shock it was to go to school, and I was still young and the children that I met there were all in the same boat. That must have been a difficult adjustment for you at such a self-conscious age though?"

He shrugged his shoulders and gave her an easy grin that had her heart thudding in her chest.

No, he would not have had any trouble adjusting and blending in. His fellow students would have been falling over themselves to be his friend, and the girls would have been queueing up just for a bit of his attention.

"No, I loved being at university!" he admitted with that same easy smile. "I realised then just..."

He sighed suddenly and ran his fingers through his hair, and he leaned against the wall on the bridge.

"You realised what?" she prompted as he seemed almost too embarrassed to continue.

"You have to understand Laurie, that... we... I guess that I -- even for our race I am classed as intelligent... clever -- astute." the colour winged across his cheeks and he truly did look embarrassed, as he tried to find the right words without looking like he was being egotistical. "I had a good education, the best tutors, all the learning materials that I might need and then again in university -- and I made good use of all that schooling.

I was taller than most and stronger and faster too. You could say that I usually stood out from the crowd -- both physically and academically -- it all came so easy for me, none of it was even remotely a challenge."

"I bet you were awesome!" Laurie murmured, feeling slightly starstruck by the young man that she knew he must have been.

"Well I wouldn't go that far!" he laughed self-consciously, as he tilted her chin.

Laurie didn't believe him, and as she thought about the young man he was then and the hero-worship that his peers would have felt.

She gave a little smile and her eyes grew misty. "They may have idolised you -- but you are mine now!"

Her possessiveness, her tone and her little smile were almost his undoing. Once again, he was faced with the thought; 'no one has ever felt that way about me before!'

True he had been idolised by the male and female students - alike, but that had only served to keep people at a distance, to keep them in awe as Laurie had so rightly called it.

Laurie was perhaps the first person to see him as a normal man, and someone she was equal to. She had effectively staked her claim on him and all he wanted to do was to shout out. "Yes, take me as I am, I am all yours!"

He leaned down and kissed her lips letting his feelings flow and show in that one act, and by the end of it, Laurie was clinging on to him blindly.

"I think that I might have been wrong." she finally whispered shakily.

"Wrong - about what?"

She smiled a slow sensuous smiled and her blue eyes darkened to a sapphire blue.

"You weren't just awesome then -- you are awesome now too!"

Michael laughed feeling embarrassed again. Laurie really knew how to throw him of balance, and having lived his adult life always being the one in control, he found the way she made him feel was something unique and totally special between the two of them.

He chuckled softly.

He could definitely see who the boss of this relationship was going to be -- and he found the whole idea totally exciting.

*

Michael went to visit his father later that afternoon and was pleased to see him more alert than ever.

Jonathon was sat up in his bed, albeit propped heavily against several pillows, and he was reading a document from a pile of several on his bed.

"Should you really be working just yet?" Michael asked worriedly.

"Oh, this is not work, Paul and your uncle are making sure about that."

"Well it looks like work to me?" Michael shrugged as he wandered over to the window.

"No, it's just a few documents that had been sitting on my desk for weeks," he chuckled. "It was the only thing that Paul would let me have, and I shall be glad to see the back of them."

"Oh," Michael murmured absently as he spied Laurie walking across the driveway, heading towards the bridge. There was something about the set of her shoulders, the way she walked?

He turned at the light tap on the door, and Trudy came in.

"I'm disturbing you?" she said apologetically. "I shall come back later."

"No, that's ok," Michael hurried to reassure her. "I was just leaving any way."

He smiled at his parent who smiled back absently and went straight back to his document.

Once out of his father's room, Michael strode purposefully down the stairs and across to the main door, and anyone who thought to waylay him took one look at his face and backed away hastily.

It didn't take him long to get to Laurie, and one look at her dejected form, told him he'd been right to come.

"What?" he asked softly.

Laurie shrugged. "...When the Frawnings brothers took me... my bag was left in the back of their van... someone must have found it, and Bill had Marissa bring it up to me..."

"Well I suppose that was the right thing to do?"

"My mobile phone was in it, and well I had to borrow a charger off Marissa..."

"But you got it working again?"

"Yes... I had several missed calls from work... the last one left a message 'due to my failure to appear for work, or to contact them, or reply to their attempts at contacting me...'."

"Ah Laurie," Michael sighed as he took her in his arms for a comforting hug.

"They sacked me, Michael." she mumbled into his chest.

"I'm so sorry, Laurie."

"I haven't been working there for very long, and so they could release me without any prejudice either way. They said that whilst I was there, they were very happy with my work, were most regretful that it turned out like this, and that if I needed a reference for future employment, they would be happy to provide one based on my work." she sniffed into his chest. "Mr Grant was very concerned about my welfare and asked that I contact them at my earliest convenience so that they would know that I was ok. He said that if he had not heard from me by the end of the week then he felt it only his duty to contact the police."

Michael stiffened suddenly and she looked up at him. "Oh, don't worry, I called him back and made up an excuse about illness in the family, and though he was sympathetic and understanding, and he had even delayed any paperwork for as long as he could, to give me the opportunity to resign, rather than being dismissed... and we both felt it was the right thing, that my leaving was left standing."

He hugged her tight to him and wished that he could say the exact right thing to make her world okay again.

"I will make sure that you are compensated for your loss of employment," he mumbled. "It is after all partly our fault, and my father takes things like this very seriously. And I promise to do everything that I can to get your career back on track."

"Thank you, Michael," was all she could manage, and her meek acceptance made him acutely aware of how much the fight in her had been snuffed out by this latest blow to her world.

He pushed her back a little and looked into her face.

"Where did you work anyway... Grant, that name rings a bell?"

"It was the publishing firm, Greaves and Grant. I was on their design team, and I consulted for one of their magazine clients -- a house and home one, I did interior design commissions for and through them, on occasions too."

"It sounds like you were building your reputation, that you were on the way to becoming a freelancer, so perhaps you should think about setting up for yourself... I bet you could garner contacts through your past alliances, and I will help you any way that I can through my business enterprise company."

"It was my end goal," she mumbled doubtfully. "But it was meant to be a few years down the road, when I had enough experience."

"That's sometimes the mistake," he grinned at her suddenly. "Remember what you said to me the other day? About not waiting... Maybe this is the universes way of giving you a little nudge, telling you to just get on with it?"

She reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Thank you, Michael. I accept any and all help offered -- and thank you for understanding."

He hugged her tight and they simply stood there for a while.

"Michael," Laurie suddenly mumbled.

"Yes Laurie?"

"When we get back to our lives... do you think... could you teach me -- teach me to shift without the full moon, to shift without the terror and the pain?"

He squeezed her lightly for a moment, and then looked down into her face, and his eyes were bright with excitement.

"Laurie when the time is right, I will teach you to embrace your alter ego -- I will teach you to fly -- Laurie - I will teach you soar!"