Magdaline Bennett (ex_earthshak141) wrote in the_dome, @ 2014-01-14 00:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | 04-19-2017, jack, jack and maggie, maggie |
Safe Now
Who: Jack and Maggie
Where: The Woods, then Jack's Place
When: Evening
Jack had gotten word from Eli and his crew where to hunt down Maggie and her captor. After he knew his sister was safe, even if he and Mannix hadn't gotten to her on time, he went for her. When he got there, he faced off against the vampire, winding up ripping his throat out deep enough to hit spine, then he kept pulling on the spine to sever the head. It was harder to get heads to come off without thumbs. But he managed it, and the vampire turned to dust, which was fucked up, but better than nothing.
Then he went to track Maggie's scent. When he discovered it was a patch of earth he tracked her scent to, a bolt of panic hit him. He started digging, as fast as he could – something he could do better as a wolf so everything had it's perks and drawbacks, now didn't it.
There was mud around Maggie’s eyes from where she’d been crying. How long had she been trapped beneath the earth? It felt like days, but she knew that couldn’t be right. She shouldn’t be able to breathe that long, yet she continued to live. The idea that she might starve to death after being buried alive was so ridiculous that she’d laughed until she’d cried, fallen asleep then woken up to cry some more. She tried to dig herself out, but didn’t even know which way was up. For all she knew, she was digging herself deeper into the ground.
When she heard the sound of digging, she began to panic at first, not sure what it was. She tried to yell, but her voice felt weak. The ground trembled around her and she began to try and kick in what little space she had. Something was coming for her and she wanted it to be perfectly clear where she was.
He heard something, a heartbeat? Breathing? He didn't know, but he dug even faster, dirt flying out behind him as he kept at it, a growl in his throat. Was he not too late? He hoped he wasn't, but even with evidence of something else, it was hard to hope.
Maggie tried to push her hand up, through the dirt and towards the sound. As the dirt began to loosen around it, her hand broke through the surface, grabbing desperately at the air. She’d tried this earlier with no success, so someone had to be digging her up! She screamed for help with dry, dirt coated lips as she tried to dig around herself, but there was nowhere to put the dirt in the small space she had.
Jack saw the hand, and relief flooded through him. He also changed his strategy a little, digging around the hand, trying to dig a torso out as quickly as he could manage without, say, clawing the shit out of Maggie while he was at it.
The closer Jack got to Maggie, the more she was able to work things from her end. When she’d been completely buried, she’d been able to compact the dirt around her, but not actually dig, not without knowing which way was up. Now that she knew and there was less to push through, she was able to break the dirt above her, kicking and pushing, clawing her way to the surface. She gasped for air as soon as her head was free, wiping the dirt from her eyes to see a wolf before her. “Jack,” she gasped, her voice gravelly. It had to be Jack.
He got closer to her, and shifted back, not caring if he was naked, or filthy at the moment, instead he was helping pull her further out of the hole, so happy to hear her voice. “Hey, I got you...” he said, voice slightly rougher than usual.
Even though the worst was over, Maggie found herself crying again and clinging to Jack. “Don’t let him find me. He-- He’s here. Somewhere.” Just because Jack was there didn’t mean the danger was gone. Madison could be waiting to kill Jack and bury her again. He could be heating up his poker in the fire. Blood still coated her neck where he bit her and the wound on her head where he’d hit her. She had burns on her arms and legs from where he’d branded her. After being buried alive, she didn’t know if she could take that again.
Jack stroked her back, letting her cry. “He's dead,” he assured her, trying his best to be soothing, but he didn't know how much good he could possibly do at that moment. Not with her so traumatized. She'd been fucking buried. He smelled blood on her. He didn't even want to know half the shit that went on, because he didn't have a corpse to take it out on. Still. He tried to be there, holding her firmly but not too tight.
“Good. Thank God,” she said, shutting her eyes as she tried to calm herself down. It took a few minutes of crying before she finally stopped, and then she became aware that a nude Jack was holding her. Despite being traumatized, she found a little smile. “Can you take me home?” she asked, forgetting for the moment that the last time she was home it was set on fire. “I… I need a bath. And I’m thirsty. Probably dehydrated. And… are my brother and sister okay?” Madison hadn’t mentioned them, which she always thought to be a good thing, but she still wanted to ask.
“...home isn't an option,” Jack said, wincing faintly. “It's ashes, Princess. I'll take you someplace else. Anywhere else. As for the kids, they're fine.” He didn't actually know definitively if they were, he just figured if the orphanage had been attacked it would have been all around the dome in five minutes, so he was going with them being fine.
“Oh. Oh yeah,” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes as she tried to keep them above his waist. “Anywhere but here is good.” She could even go to his place, so long as they went in the back door or something. Maybe it didn’t matter. Was anyone really going to judge her after what she’d been through? Maggie tried to stretch, but her body ached from being trapped in a confined space for so long. “I hurt all over,” she said softly.
“I'm sure you do...we'll take it slow. I'm going to shift back, so I'll sense anything coming before it gets anywhere near you,” he explained, shifting then hopping up out of the hole. He was nearby, though, in case she wanted to get any help. He'd take her back to his place. That was pretty much all he had, and it was still technically shut down for business, so it would be quiet. She'd be able to bathe, eat, rest. Whatever she wanted.
“Okay,” she said softly, watching as he shifted back into a wolf. The hole wasn’t near as hard to get out of now that she’d been dug up, but her body still ached, so she was slow moving. The burns on her arms and legs were blistering and the lack of blood and water made her dizzy. Maggie’s fingers brushed over the fur on Jack’s neck, taking a light hold as she began to walk. It felt good to move, even if it hurt a little as well.
Jack got her home at a slow pace. It was a little agonizing at times, really, he wanted it to be going faster, but he wasn't able to push her. Not when he could tell how weak she was. Once they were at the house, he led her inside, directly to the bathroom on the first floor with the big tub in it. Shifting back to his human self, he started a bath for her, thinking about when he'd showed up on her doorstep and wound up taking a bath at her place. Which was now burned to the damn ground. Fuck.
As she followed Jack back to his place, she couldn’t help but look at the charred remains of her own house. It didn’t look like anything inside would be salvageable and the house itself certainly wasn’t. It made her want to cry, so she looked away, following him into his house. The brothel. It didn’t look like a brothel, though, and she was beyond caring what anyone who might see them thought. As he began to run a bath for her, she slowly stripped off her clothes, stopping when she was just in her bra and underwear. Normally she’d be more self conscious, but not at the moment. Keeping that last little bit of clothing on was only because it made her feel safe and she stepped into the bath with them on. “Stay with me?” she asked, hissing in pain as she sunk back into the water. A part of her couldn’t take her eyes off him, even if she really wasn’t in the mood to enjoy the view.
He nodded, grabbing a towel to wrap around his waist for decency's sake. He also got out shampoo and soap, putting them on the little tray that sat across the tub's ledges. “Can I get you anything else?” he asked, not really sure what to do here. He'd already killed the guy, though from the look of her, he wished he'd done worse. But he was dead, and that...was that.
Her lips tugged up just a bit as he wrapped a towel around himself. She liked that, though she couldn’t say why. “I’m hungry, but… it can wait till I get out,” she said as she began to wash the grime off her body. There was so much dirt that she might finish off by turning on the shower, but for now this was a good place to start. “How am I alive?” she asked as she dunked her arms under the water, rinsing them clean. It made the burns much more visible and they stung, but it felt good.
Jack got out one of the first aid kids in the house, setting it aside for when she got out of the tub. “I don't know,” he answered honestly. “When I got there, I could tell you'd been under a while. Hell, it took me a while to kill the bastard. So...I have no idea. Maybe you're just lucky, or someone upstairs likes you.”
“It felt like days,” she said softly. “Like I could have dug myself out, but I didn’t know which way was up. And there was nowhere to put the dirt I was digging.” Which sounded crazy, but was what she’d run into down in her hole. That was the problem-- a hole was moved dirt and she had nowhere to move it to. “He kept asking me why she wanted me, why I was special… I never really knew what he was talking about.”
Jack took a little pitcher from a side table, and filled it with bath water, starting to gently douse her hair. “A lot of people were taken. I can't even really begin to know why. This whole thing seems like just one fucked up parade.”
“Who else got taken? Have they been found?” Maggie shut her eyes as the water flowed over her hair and face, tilting her head up slightly. It was nice to be taken care of and she appreciated Jack being there for her. “I’m usually the one doing this, you know. Washing people’s hair.”
“Don't worry about it,” Jack told her, not thinking getting into it all was going to help her calm down. “And yeah, well, maybe it's just time for you to have someone wash yours. Though, I'll tell you now, I'm probably not that great at it,” he admitted. Though really, how hard could it be? Either way, he got some shampoo into her hair, and started to work it in, finding the actions soothing in a weird way. Probably because it wasn't him sitting around helpless.
Maggie knew she’d worry more about it when she had the energy to do so. Right now, all it would do would make things worse. Her brother and sister were okay and that was what mattered. And Jack, though she’d never really worried about him. Maggie shut her eyes and turned in the tub, making it easier for him to wash her hair for her. “I think you’re doing a fine job,” she said, thinking that she could fall asleep right there. In fact, for a minute she began to drift off, then immediately startled herself back awake. “Sorry,” she muttered softly.
“Don't be sorry,” he said, starting to rinse her hair. “You need rest. After you get out of here, I'm going to patch you up, loan you a shirt, and you're going to bed.” Hopefully she'd sleep for a good long while, get some of her energy back. Or something. He wanted her someplace safe and sound, though.
“I like that idea,” she said, reaching back behind herself to unclasp her bra. Because, really, there was dirt everywhere. She’d just wait to do away with her underwear while he went to get her something to wear. “I feel like I should be crying… but I’ve been crying for days. Now I’m just tired.”
“You've been through a lot. You're going to react how you're going to react. There isn't a 'should',” he reassured her. He finished getting the soap out of her hair, then sat back. “But there's a nice warm bed here, and I'll be nearby, standing guard,” he added.
“Thank you,” she said, looking over her shoulder at him. “For finding me, and for bringing me back here. I’d rather here than the hospital, though someone should let my brother and sister know I’m okay.” And then she wanted to do exactly as he’d suggested, patch herself up and fall into bed.
“I'll get word to them,” he promised. He wasn't sure how to go about that, but he would get it done. Right now he'd do just about anything to keep her in good health, mentally and physically.
Maggie gave a little nod, trusting Jack to do as he said. He knew how much those kids meant to her. She’d be with them now if she didn’t think that would make things worse. At the moment she was definitely unfit to be their guardian, even if by no fault of her own. She finished stripping in the tub, the water a murky brown by the time she was done washing off. Though she felt like she could use another bath, it could wait. “Towel?” she asked, turning towards Jack with a little pink in her cheeks. She’d imagined him seeing her at some point, but not quite like this.
Jack yanked the plug of the tub, then got her a towel, handing it over as he did take a look – how could he not? But he didn't stare. Mostly because she was injured, and traumatized, and he just couldn't find anything hot about that. All it did was make him feel protective.
“Thanks,” she said, wrapping the towel around her as she rose from the tub. It was soft, and clean, and warm, all things that she’d been missing, and she let it swallow her up for a minute before she stepped from the tub. “You said I could borrow a shirt?”
Jack nodded, then started to lead her to he and Mannix' living quarters, his room specifically. It was down in the basement, but they'd fixed it up well, and it was warm down there. Getting her into his room, he got out a t-shirt he thought would drown her, so she could retain some modesty even without pants.
It was weird to wander through the house in a towel and Maggie kept expecting to run into someone dressed in lingerie or hear sounds behind closed doors. Instead, the house was relatively quiet, maybe people talking in their rooms, but nothing more. There was a distinct shift in the way the house was set up when they moved into the basement, not just with the lack of light, but with the decor. It was definitely where two men lived, and the thought made her smile a little. Upstairs wasn’t Jack’s place. Downstairs was. His room was like a little cave, except warmer. She took the offered shirt, then turned her back to him to pull it over her head. It came down to her mid-thighs, almost like a nightgown, and it smelled light Jack. Even without senses like his, she could tell. “I feel like I keep saying thank you,” she said, going to sit on his bed. “Like I can’t say it enough. If you hadn’t found me, I’d have died down there. I’d have starved.”
“Don't worry about it,” he told her, honestly. “I just want to concentrate on you being alive, and keeping you safe.” It was how he wanted things to be. “You should lie down. I'm going to be right here though.”
“You’re so sweet,” she said giving him a little smile. She knew Jack didn’t think he was sweet, but he could be, and right now that was what he was being. Charming. He could charm the pants off her, and probably any other girl, if he wanted to. And in this case he didn’t have to. She had no pants left. Maggie scooted back on the bed, pulling back the covers and climbing under them. “How did you find me?” she asked as she laid down.
“One of the other werewolves in town, he was tracking you down. One of his crew had the idea to get your scent off of stuff at your shop – from there they circled around town til they got closer, then, after Lily was safe, I took over.” He shut the door to the room, leaning back against it.
“Like you’ve got a pack of werewolves helping you out,” she said, patting the bed beside her. She hadn’t realized Lily was missing. God, Jack must have been going crazy. If she’d lost one of her siblings, she’d have been tearing the dome apart to find them. “I’m glad you could do that, get my scent off stuff. I tried to leave it on the lawn, so you’d know what happened, but then he set it on fire.”
“Yeah, anything anywhere near the fire was a wash,” Jack said, moving to crawl up onto the bed. He didn't get in close, though. He was still a little dirty, and was planning on turning into a wolf to keep watch. “And yeah, I have a pack of werewolves I can call to help me out. It's kind of scary,” he admitted. Especially since they were kinda just kids.
“That’s pretty cool,” she said, laying her head down on the pillow. It was scary how quickly she felt like going to sleep, but it made sense. She hadn’t really rested since Madison took her, even if she had slept. “You know, it scared me when you told me what you are, but if you weren’t a werewolf, I’d still be underground. And you wouldn’t have a pack to help you. You still feel like you to me. Like nothing’s changed.”
“To be fair, I don't know that much has,” he admitted. “I don't feel that much different. We can talk about it when you've rested though. Close your eyes, you're safe,” he assured her. And, to deter her from talking more, he shifted, settling himself at her feet on the bed, facing the door.
Maggie smiled a little when he shifted, then pulled the covers up around her and closed her eyes. She felt safe with him there, watching over her, especially in his wolf form. Being down in the basement, with only one door to the room and him guarding it, she knew nothing could get to her. Finally, she was able to rest and it took only seconds before she was pulled into sleep.