Fan Fiction ❯ The Vampire Hunter II: Bloodlines ❯ Chapter 25

Chapter XXV

It took them nearly an hour, but Clark and Gabrielle finally crossed the threshold of the high-rise hotel and entered its air-conditioned atmosphere. Clark looked at the time and was a little surprised to find it was only two-thirty in the morning.

It wasn't easy, but Clark eventually convinced the night manager that they didn't need medical attention and were only interested in some room service and going to sleep in a nice clean bed. Cynthia had been kind enough to leave Clark's identification in her back pocket, so Clark was able to get a replacement key to her room, and she and Gabrielle rode the elevator up to the suite.

As soon as they entered, Clark knew the place had been searched. Plus, her equipment was gone. She realized that was most likely how Cynthia had figured out about the spying she'd done on Gabrielle; Cynthia had probably scanned the laptop she'd confiscated.

There was a knock on the door, and Clark went to open it. A sleepy-looking bellhop brought in a tray of food.

"This is all they had," the young man apologized with a thick Arabic accent.

"It's okay. It looks great," Clark said and handed the boy a tip before ushering him out.

Gabrielle helped her set out the food on the table and then sat across from the human while she ate. If the speed at which Clark was eating was any indication, she was starving.

After a few minutes, Clark decided to voice the one thought that she couldn't seem to get out of her head.

"Are you staying here?" Clark asked around a mouthful of food without looking up.

Gabrielle shook herself out of the haze she'd been drifting in. She looked around the room. One whole wall was made of glass, and there was no way they'd be able to keep the sun from coming through.

"Uh, no. I thought I'd return to Subira's for the day and then come back in the evening."

Clark finished chewing and then swallowed.

"No. I meant in Egypt. Are you coming back to New York or staying here?"

"Oh. I'm coming back to New York. This isn't my home anymore," Gabrielle said, realizing it was true.

Clark nodded and took another bite of food. She finished her meal in silence and then pushed the plate away. She crossed her arms, as she leaned back in her chair and regarded Gabrielle.

"So, what are we going to do?" Clark asked.

"About Cynthia?" Gabrielle guessed somewhat fuzzily.

"Well, her too, but I was thinking more immediately. Your people don't know I'm here, right?" Gabrielle slowly shook her head in negation. "And you've been missing since the night before last. They probably don't know about Cynthia either. And I still need to get back home. I'm already about four days overdue," Clark estimated. "So, what are we going to do?" Clark asked again.

Gabrielle tried to make her brain work, but she was quickly losing the battle. She vaguely wondered if her sudden exhaustion had anything to do with the injury to her heart, but then she was falling into oblivion.

"Shit! Gabrielle!" Clark exclaimed in alarm, as Gabrielle slid out of her chair and onto the floor.

Clark rushed to kneel down next to Gabrielle's unconscious form. She checked for vital signs and found a steady heartbeat and slow, deep breathing. As far as Clark could tell, Gabrielle appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but that didn't seem to make a single bit of difference to Clark's terrified state of mind.

"Gabrielle? Come on, wake up. You have to wake up. Please," Clark whispered the last as a plea, but Gabrielle remained unconscious.

Clark angrily brushed at the tears that kept trying to cloud her vision. She was not the kind of person to panic. But after everything they'd been through over the past few days, she just couldn't take much more.

"Damn it, Gabrielle! Just wake up!" Clark ordered, as she roughly shook Gabrielle's shoulders.

There was no change.

Clark pulled Gabrielle into her arms and held her tightly. She started to rock instinctively, and as the events of the last several hours ran through her mind, she couldn't stop herself from considering the possibility that Gabrielle might never wake up. For the first time in over a decade, she couldn't hold back her tears of anguish no matter how hard she tried. The sobs jerked from her body as though someone was yanking them out of her, and she buried her face into Gabrielle's chest.

If anyone had happened upon the scene, they would have thought Gabrielle was dead and that Clark had just found her body. As it was, Clark felt as though every sad moment in her entire life was happening all at once, and she couldn't cry enough for it all.

She wept for the deaths of her parents and brother; for the horrible things she'd witnessed over the years as a Hunter; for the deaths of so many of her fellow Hunters, especially on her own watch; for all the people she hadn't been able to save from vampire assaults; and for everything Gabrielle had gone through to protect her. They'd survived too much for Gabrielle to go and die now.

Clark's chest ached from the violence of her sobs, but she couldn't hold them back, and the harder she tried, the more it hurt. She was practically screaming into Gabrielle's chest, as all the pain from a dozen years tried to get out all at once.

Eventually, the wracking sobs calmed to just simple crying. The fear and rage were replaced with deep sadness, and Clark found herself weeping for everything she'd lost the night her family had been murdered. She'd become a different person because of those events, and even though the loss of her family had caused hundreds of others to be saved because of Clark's choice to become a Hunter, the destruction of that other more innocent Dana Clark still hurt. Her innocence had been shattered, and there was no way she would ever be able to get it back.

Finally, Clark took deep breaths, as she realized she'd stopped crying at some point. Clark raised her head and sat quietly, as she looked down at Gabrielle. She felt a little stupid now, considering Gabrielle didn't seem to be in any distress, and she laughed a little at herself. Maybe she'd finally cracked.

"God, I'm tired," Clark said out loud, in an attempt to keep herself grounded. She felt a little giddy, and she wasn't sure she was quite stable at the moment. "Gabrielle?" Clark tried again.

Gabrielle didn't even twitch.

"Shit," Clark cursed in resignation.

She briefly considered taking Gabrielle to Subira's, but then decided against it. Though Gabrielle had spoken of Subira as a friend, Clark wasn't going to trust anyone with a defenseless Gabrielle.

Clark looked around the room. There was no way she could keep the sun from coming through the windows. However, the bathroom didn't have any openings to the outside, and the crack beneath the door could easily be stuffed with a towel to keep out the light.

Clark moved Gabrielle off her lap and tried to make her comfortable on the floor, while she sorted out what she needed to do. The first items on her list were a shower for herself and a bath for Gabrielle. She'd intended for them to take turns in the bathroom before Gabrielle had to leave, but that was out of the question now.

The Hunter looked down at the sleeping vampire.

"Okay, me first," Clark said to herself and headed for the shower.

Half an hour later, Clark came out of the bathroom. She tossed her clothes in the trash and brought out fresh ones from her suitcase, which she happily put on. The clean clothes felt great against her freshly scrubbed skin.

She headed back to the bathroom and started filling the tub with hot water. It was steaming, but not hot enough to cause discomfort. She went back into the living area of the room and walked over to Gabrielle.

"Gabrielle?" Clark inquired, as she knelt down.

Gabrielle didn't move, and Clark swallowed to keep the lump in her throat from bringing on the tears again.

"Come on. Time to get clean," Clark mumbled, as she gently picked Gabrielle up off the floor and carried her into the bathroom. "You know, this was not how I planned to see you naked for the first time. You were supposed to be much more involved in the process," Clark spoke to her unconscious love, as she peeled away the rank smelling garments that hung in rags on Gabrielle's small frame.

Finally, the clothing was piled on the floor, and Clark slowly lowered Gabrielle's body into the tub of hot water. She'd been hoping for some sort of reaction, but Gabrielle remained limp and unresponsive.

"I really hope you come out of this on your own because I can't exactly take you to the emergency room, okay?" Clark tried to joke, but she had to take several deep breaths to keep herself from breaking down again.

Clark took the washcloth she'd used on her own body and began smoothing it over Gabrielle's skin, removing old flakes of dried blood and dirt from the pale flesh and slowly turning the clear water to a dark brownish red. Had Gabrielle been awake and enjoying the touches, Clark would have probably taken great pleasure in the procedure, but as it was, she was just scared and worried and beyond tired.

Clark emptied the tub and refilled it once with fresh water before pronouncing Gabrielle clean. She lifted Gabrielle up and onto her lap where she had a towel waiting and then dried her off with a second towel. When she was done, she carried Gabrielle out to the bed and laid her down. She checked the clock. There were still a couple hours before the sun would rise, so she had time.

She brought out one of her T-shirts and a pair of boxer shorts that she normally used as workout clothes. They were the only things she had that were likely to fit Gabrielle's small form without simply falling off. The elastic band on the black cotton boxers went loosely over Gabrielle's hips. Satisfied, Clark brought Gabrielle's arms up and slipped the black shirt over her head. The bottom hem of it went all the way to her thighs, but it stayed on.

Clark looked over her sleeping charge and wearily lowered herself to lie beside her. She propped her head up on her hand and just stared at Gabrielle.

Gabrielle looked like she was only about twenty-five years old. Her short blonde hair was still a little damp, and it stood up in spikes in different directions. At this distance, Clark could see the tiny soft hairs that covered Gabrielle's cheeks like peach fuzz. Clark reached out a finger and traced the edge of Gabrielle's jaw from her ear to her chin, and then she cupped the side of Gabrielle's face. She leaned in and tenderly kissed her cheek.

"I love you, Gabrielle," Clark whispered. "Please, wake up."

Tears were streaming down Clark's face, but she sat up after a few more minutes with no change in the vampire. She was tired, and she didn't want to take the chance of dozing off and leaving Gabrielle exposed to the deadly rays of the sun. She wiped her tears away and went back into the bathroom. She trashed the discarded clothing and then used the towels to wipe up the floor and dry out the tub.

Clark returned to the bed and gently moved Gabrielle to the floor, so that she could pull up some of the bed coverings. She lined the tub with the soft blankets and placed a pillow at one end. Then she went back and knelt down to pick up Gabrielle. She carried her into the bathroom and nestled her into the makeshift bed she'd created in the tub. Then she pulled a sheet over Gabrielle and kissed her on the forehead.

Clark settled back on her heels and tried to decide what to do. There was no place for her to rest near the tub. The toilet was right next to it, and though the bathroom itself was quite luxurious, it just wasn't that big, at least not enough for a six-foot tall woman to sleep in.

Clark shook her head again. As much as she wanted to keep watch over Gabrielle, she had to get some sleep. Even with the healing Gabrielle had performed on her for her numerous injuries, or maybe it was especially because of it, Clark felt like she was one of the walking dead.

Clark lowered her head for one last kiss.

"I love you, Gabrielle. Sweet dreams," she whispered.

She stood up and then cut the lights and closed the door. She took one of the towels and stuffed it into the airspace beneath the door. When she was satisfied that she'd light-proofed the room, she turned off the bedside lamp and climbed onto the bed. She still had a thin sheet and one of the pillows, and she drowsily wrapped herself in and around them both before promptly falling asleep.