Wolf's Rain Fan Fiction ❯ Saved ❯ C 3: Safe and Protected ( Chapter 3 )

Saved

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Keiko Nobumoto/Bones characters or ideas. This story is for entertainment purposes only and not for sale or profit.

Chapter Three: Safe and Protected

Thank the Fates that the doorman to her apartment building was asleep at his desk. Marie didn't want to explain her clothes---or lack thereof---or her overly-protective companion to anybody else. The taxi driver had been enough. She'd given him extra for putting up with the animal.

The animal stayed by her side, only giving a single snarl at the snoring doorman. The elevator was crowded with him in it, he took up so much room. The hall on her floor was deserted---thank the Fates again---and they hobbled down the hall. She fumbled for her keys, and opened her door, one small hand holding herself up against the door frame.

The animal proceeded her into the tiny apartment, a low warning rumble in his throat. He made a quick tour of the premises---the single bedroom with its cubicle bath attached, the main living area where her "kitchen" was lined up against one wall. She didn't earn much as a student studying for her master's degree, only working as a part-time computer technician for Professor Davigny. She could barely afford to pay for her classes, and she certainly couldn't ask her mother for help...she was so strained already, with young Cher still in primary.

Still---it was home.

Closing the door, she leaned tiredly against it, before a slight wuff behind her drew her attention back to the animal. He stood in the middle of her living room---making the room seems much, much smaller---his ears perked and bloodied fangs grinning at her. Marie almost chuckled. He was definitely not a dog.

"Like it?" She asked, smiling tiredly. "It's small, but home." She limped to the living room. The animal, silver fur gleaming darker shades on back and softer shades underneath, stalked to her side. Leaning on him, she made it to the bathroom.

"Let me get some peroxide, so I can clean out your cut." She waved airily. The animal sat on his haunches and watched her with an almost unnerving golden stare as she busied herself pulling out peroxide and clean bandages. She had her conscientious mother to thank for stocking her apartment with an emergency medical supply...Marie would never have thought about it.

The bathroom was much too small to hold both of them, so Marie coaxed the animal back into the living room. He waited patiently as she heated water in the micro and pulled some fancy dishtowels---another gift from her mother---from the cupboard. Her mother would die if she knew what Marie intended to use the fancy tea-cloths for, but she didn't have anything else, and Marie was prosaic about it.

"You know, I need to call you something." She said companionably as she gathered the stuff together and hobbled to the living room. The animal had pushed her coffee table flush with the couch with his bulk, and Marie had to smile at the rearrangement of her furniture. She knelt down next to the animal, and pulled the makeshift bandage off. Making a face at the dirty cloth, she tossed it aside.

Yellow eyes stared at her as Marie stared at the cut. In the light of her apartment, she could see that it wasn't bad at all. More mess than blood. She soaked a fluffy towel in the water, and pressed it gently to the cut. The animal rumbled low in his throat, but allowed her to carefully clean the soiled blood away.

"This may hurt a bit." She cautioned as she applied the peroxide. The astringent bubbled and foamed, removing bacteria from the shallow cut. "Do you have a name?" She asked, trying to distract them both while the peroxide did its work.

The animal stared at her. "Woof." He answered, low in his throat.

"Woof?" Marie looked at him askance. Hardly dignified.

The animal wrinkled his mouth at her. She would have to clean the blood from there too, she noted with an internal shiver. The animal added a single, "Worf."

"Wor..." Marie wrinkled her own lips in a frown. Maybe, he meant 'wolf'. At least it was better than 'dog'. "Wolf?" She asked.

A tongue lolled out between bloodied jaws.

"But wolves have been extinct for nearly two hundred years." She said in puzzlement.

The animal growled.

Marie shrugged. So be it.

"Okay, Wolf." She patted the wide shoulder, and the animal again grinned at her. Funny how much he seemed to understand and communicate with a simple action. It was almost as if he was human. She shook her head. She was growing tired, and her headache hadn't let up at all. Her own scrapes and cuts were burning, and she was dying for a shower.

She briskly cleaned up the peroxide, and carefully dressed the wound, with proper bandages this time. It was easy to anchor it across the chest, and she was careful not to pull any of the wire grey hairs out or press the sticky sides on it. She sat back, and smiled faintly.

"Not bad, Degre." She commented with some satisfaction. Wolf didn't blink. "Thirsty?" She asked, and the yellow eyes finally did blink at her then. Taking that as a positive response, Marie used Wolf's back to pull herself up, and she limped back to the sink. Groping through her cupboards, she pulled out the biggest mixing bowl she owned---wiped the dust off it with an impatient sigh---and filled it with water. She put it down on the tiled floor. She didn't want any water on her rugs, thank you.

Wolf came up and greedily sucked down the water. Marie watched him, as he lifted his dripping jaws and stared back at her. The water in the bowl had turned faintly pink. Marie filled it twice more as the animal carefully cleaned his face, using the water and his own tongue to carefully lick away any crust of blood that flecked his mouth and fur.

"Somehow, I should feel sorry for that ass hole." Marie commented drily to herself. A yellow stare was her only answer. She shrugged, dismissing it, and groaned. "Now it's my turn!" She told Wolf. "I desperately need a shower."

She was surprised when Wolf followed her back in the bedroom. "You are NOT following me in here." She glared at him, closing the bathroom door firmly.

A loud, menacing growl made her open the door again, blue eyes wide. They stared at each other for a long minute. Crossing her arms, Marie's eyes narrowed. "You are not going to watch me take a shower! Even I have limits!" She said.

Wolf grinned, a long tongue lolling between sharp teeth. Amusement goldened his eyes, but he deliberately turned his back and stalked back into the living room. Marie watched as he carefully turned around and laid down on her rug, his back toward her. When the bathroom door creaked as she tried to close it again, a warning growl made her freeze it in mid-swing. The head didn't turn, but she knew he wasn't going to put up with her closing the door.

She was too tired to deal with it. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed her fluffy bathrobe off of the back of the door and used it like a big blanket as she quickly took off her soiled clothes. Hobbling, she bent over long enough to turn the hot water on. Feeling the temperature warm her fingers, she pulled the shower ring up and did an acrobatic display maneuvering herself behind the curtain and still keeping the bathrobe dry to save her dignity. Once behind the curtain, she nearly slumped against the wall in ecstacy as the warm water massaged her bruised skin.

Mentally groaning, she allowed the water to plaster her hair to her head. Pins pricked at her scalp, and she raised tired arms to pull them free, leaving them in the soap dish with little "pings" of impact. Scrubbing her butter-blond hair back from her face, she just soaked in the soothing warmth for a few moments, before she forgetfully used her right foot to stand, and a sharp pain sent her off-balance and sliding down the shower stall with a loud protest and ungraceful thump of her rear hitting the tub floor.

A questioning wuff from the other room had her saying loudly, "Don't worry about it! I'm fine!"

Now that she was sitting, she might as well look at her own cuts. The warm rain thundered over her as she pulled her foot up, awkwardly sliding in the narrow tub to stare at the bottom of her foot. Something had pierced the padded heel, leaving a deep, but narrow, gash. Dirt was cleaned away by the flowing water, but she was surprised that the cut wasn't still bleeding. The wolf must have stopped the bleeding when he cleaned the blood from it. She had heard once that dog drool had healing qualities in it, but she still wasn't going to trust it over good soap and disinfectant.

Carefully cleaning her heel, she turned her attention to checking the rest of her body for scrapes and cuts. Her palms, knees, and elbows were scraped and abraded, and the lump on the back of her head made her temples pound when she delicately touched it, but she was surprisingly free of any more hurts. There was really nothing, besides the cut on her foot, that a good rest wouldn't cure. She had no fear of tetanus or anything else, she was current with her shots, and she didn't want to pay the money a hospital would demand for doing what she could do herself.

She was really tired by the time she had rinsed her hair out twice. Mind-numbing and sleep-blinking tired. Her muscles were relaxed from the steamy water, and she felt like she was wading through glue. All she could think of was how to get herself from the bath and into bed by the shortest route possible. She wasn't too mind-blurred not to snake a wet hand out for a hanging towel and dry herself off behind the shower curtain. She wrapped the wet tendrils of her hair into the towel and shaped a lop-sided turban to keep it up and off her neck. Another hand snaked out to grab her fluffy robe and she belted the fluffy fabric around her, cursing as the long hem sipped up water from dragging against the sides of the tub. She was going to have to have a talk with Wolf. This was damn awkward.

Wolf watched her, head resting on his paws, as she emerged from the bathroom. She gave him a sour look, and went to her dresser, pulling out a soft sleeveless shirt and short-shorts, her normal sleeping attire. Giving the wolf a baleful glare, she said "Good night.", and firmly shut the bedroom door. Her damp bathrobe came off to pool on the floor around her as she pulled on her nightclothes. The heavy towel came unwound as she bent to pull her shorts up, and the hand she tried to stop its downward momentum only succeeded in pulling it free. Marie was too tired and grouchy to try and wind it back up. She would just have to sleep with wet hair. She did, however, manage to squeeze the worst of the water out, until her blond hair laid damp, but not dripping, down her shoulders and back.

She barely made it to the double-sized bed lumped with pillows and old, soft blankets. She had hauled that bed from her mother's house, and nothing was like the cushy softness of the worn mattress. She nearly groaned in pure happiness as she sunk down into the welcoming folds, tiredly pulling a blanket up over her shoulders as her eyes closed...

She jumped when the blanket was swept aside by sharp teeth pulling it off. She blinked in confusion as a large body jumped next to her on the bed, barely rolling away in time to avoid being squashed under the heavy weight. "What the...?" She glared at the wolf, who merely grinned back at her. He was so large he nearly took up all the bed.

"You are not sleeping in my bed!" She said angrily.

He growled back at her, and stretched his front paws out, knocking a pillow off. Yellow eyes stared at her as he calmly laid his silver head on his paws and curled on his side. The tail flicked once and then stilled. Marie glared back at him, but she was too exhausted to fight him right now. Heaving a big sigh of exasperated defeat, she warned, "You better not drool on me!", before huffily turning her back.

It wasn't that comfortable, laying stiffly straight on the very edge of the bed. She groped, and pulled another blanket up around her, at least part of it---the wolf was laying over the bottom, and she only had enough cloth to cover herself up to her breasts. Darkness tugged at her mind, and she couldn't stay stiff forever. As exhaustion tugged at her soul, she relaxed and curled instinctively into the warmth beside her. The wolf's heated breath whispered over her shoulder, and a heavy head laid alongside hers on the pillows as her back curled against his, her legs tangling in the sheets. A soft rumble soothed her, and she fell into welcoming darkness, feeling safe and protected...