Safe House?
"C'mon, its only a few more steps, we're almost there..."
The drive back to Searchlight had taken place in a sort of daze, and Mallory had only thought of getting a blanket out of the back of the truck to drape around Julie's bare shoulders once they were actually within the town limits. She was currently walking the werewolf up the steps to the Lighthouse so she could see if that bullet had done more than graze her friend. She kept looking over her shoulder every few feet as if expecting to find another news crew following after them.
Julie's purse was missing, which meant they'd left it back at the Red Cross center. Hopefully there'd be a way to get it back. Mallory eased the brunette up the last couple of steps, reaching for the door handle. Wondering if Julie was coherent yet.
Julie had reverted back to her human form about ten minutes before, and was only half paying attention to her friend as she was still reeling from the mental trauma of the transformation and gunshot. The wound was healing faster than it would on a regular human, it had been a normal bullet, but it still hurt terribly.
As they climbed the stairs she tightened the blanket around her shoulders, letting the fabric cover as much of her as it could. At this point all she wanted to do was grab a bottle of booze and soak in a hot bath and try to pretend that the last few hours had never happened.
Connor had been watching from the window, waiting to see the truck pull up into the lot, and when he heard footsteps reach the top of the landing he darted out from his room and made his way to the door to open it.
"I saw it. It was on television. What the hell happened?"
He'd been half-asleep at the time, dozing in a chair while channel surfing and pondering going to sleep in his actual bed. He'd woken up a bit when the disasterous interview started, then was wide awake when Julie's change started to take place. He looked down at the werewolf where she was huddled in her blanket, then gave Mallory a muted glare. "What the hell happened?" he repeated.
"What do you think happened?" Mallory snapped, annoyed and fed up. "You saw. Some...portal or something opened up out of nowhere and the next thing I know I'm having to shoot our way out of a mob." She managed to keep her voice down, but just barely. She really was not in the mood for this.
"Somebody took a shot at her, but I'm not sure how bad it is," she added, and the Destroyer's muted glare turned more obvious. "Somebody shot her? Are you kidding me?"
"Connor," Mallory said sharply, and the young man started a little. "Either you're going to help me or you're going to get out of my way. I don't really care which, but you're going to do one or the other, and you're going to do it now. All right?"
Silence fell in the hallway as they looked at each other, and Connor sized the redhead up in a new way before nodding. "All right, let's get her inside. I'll get the first aid kit." "Thank you, Connor."
Julie hadn't bothered to expend the energy to glare at either of them, instead she waited for them to finish their argument before shuffling forward through the door and into the apartment. She'd tried so hard for years to hide what she'd become, and in an instant it had all been for nothing. What were her parents going to think? Not to mention all her patrons down here at the bar.
The werewolf continued to ignore her two friends, instead moving at that same shuffling pace toward her bedroom. She wanted clothes to put on after her bath.
Mallory stayed with her, and when they finally got into Julie's room she moved immediately to get some fresh clothes from the chest of drawers. Sweatpants and a T shirt, nothing too bothersome. "We'll need to check you out first," she said to the werewolf, uncertain if the avoidance of eye contact was a bad sign. "Make sure that's just a graze."
Connor returned in the next two minutes with the first aid kit, and he opened it and set it on the bedside table to take out a small bottle of disinfectant and some small gauze pads. That Julie was naked under that blanket had not escaped his attention, but Mallory's prickliness had him focused on more important things right now. The mood she was in, she might bite his head off with no provocation.
"Here, let me see," he said in a low voice, coming to hunker down near the brunette. To take the blanket from her or to let her do it herself?
Julie trusted them both, but wasn't particularly in the mood for chitchat. She lifted the blanket enough for him to see the angry looking red line running along her rib cage diagonally back to front. "It hurts, but it wasn't silver. I'll live." Her voice wavered, and the exhaustion was clear. Maybe even a little disappointed.
How was she going to pick up the peices this time? Where could she go that someone wouldn't know what she was?
Mallory frowned, but neither she nor Connor said anything as he inspected the wound, then pronounced, "Yeah, this is barely a scratch. I'll just use a little of this, just in case, then put a bandage on it." He took the cap off of the disinfectant and used it to soak one of the pads. "You'll be fine."
It was a short task, and when the Destroyer was finished he gently patted it dry before applying another white pad to the deepest part of the wound. Just in case. Satisfied with his handiwork, he nodded almost to himself, then righted his posture. The kit was closed, then set aside.
"See? Good as new." Looking down at her, he smiled a little, knowing what she had to be feeling. He'd watched her fight the change on that news footage, struggling against it with everything she had only to have her nature assert itself anyway. One arm went around her blanket-covered shoulders awkwardly, and he saw Mallory nod over her shoulder as if in approval. "I'm sorry, Julie."
Julie leaned into his embrace, and let her head come down on his shoulder. "Thanks."
She didn't remember everything, most of the time after telling Mallory to get the newscrew out of there was a blur with flickers of images, scents and sounds. Just as it always was after a change, she rarely remembered much of what she experienced while transformed.
The brunette looked over at Mallory. "I...I...didn't hurt anyone did I?" She wasn't sure she'd be able to live with herself if she'd passed on the curse to another person.
"No, no one was hurt. You snapped at someone, but you missed." No point in saying Julie had snapped at her, Mallory decided. That was a path she didn't intend to even look at, much less start down.
"You probably need some sleep," Connor suggested, and he meant both of them, but Julie likely needed the respite more. "Do you want me to..."
He indicated the hallway with a jerk of his thumb, and Mallory looked at Julie inquiringly. "You want to be alone, or should one of us stay?"
Julie had returned her head to Connor's shoulder. The past few weeks had led her to a dificult decision, but right now the last thing she wanted to talk about was relationships and whatever else Connor was he was still a friend. "I probably will get some sleep in a little while, but right now I just want to sit here for a few minutes, then have one of you fetch a bottle from downstairs while I start to soak in the tub."
She wanted to forget this night ever happened.
"All right. We've got some whiskey, I can go grab a bottle whenever you want it." Connor held onto Julie for a few moments longer, just being glad that she was safe and whole, if a lot shaken up by the recent events, and he released her after another careful squeeze. His hands almost immediately went into his pockets, as though he were unsure of what to do with them, and he looked down at his sock-clad feet.
Mallory noted the exchange, and the left corner of her mouth quirked upwards. Cute. Cute and awkward, like a puppy that hadn't grown into its paws yet. She might need to have a word with him, but not now.
"Here's some clean clothes," she said to Julie, handing off the small bundle to the werewolf. "If you need anything later, just holler. I'm probably going to hang out for a while, just until I know you're asleep."
"Thanks," Julie put her hand over one of her friend's. "Thank you for being there Mal. I know that when I'm...changed...I think of you kind of like a pack-sister. If you hadn't been there to help keep me calm, well...it would have been ugly." She probably wouldn't have died, but she'd have killed a whole lot of people and wouldn't have been able to live with herself.
Either way, her time in Nevada seemed to be coming to an end, and she didn't even want to think about her parents reaction. Still... "Connor...my folks haven't called, have they?" She probably already knew the answer to that question, but needed to hear it out loud.
"The phone hasn't rung yet," Connor said carefully, rubbing the back of his head and tousling his already unruly hair even further. Yet being the operative word, and he knew what Julie meant. He wished he could protect her from it, but that was going to be her fight.
"I'm really sorry," he said for the second time, and he folded his arms across his narrow chest to lock his hands onto his elbows. He and Mallory made eye contact with Mallory, then glanced over at the wall.
Yeah, she was definitely going to have a word with him later.
The Destroyer picked up the first aid kit, fumbling with it briefly, then mumbled some excuse and stepped out into the hall. "You're going to be all right?" the redhead asked Julie, looking her friend over. "Remember, anything you need, me and Connor will both be downstairs."
"Sure, thanks Mal." Julie forced herself to smile at her friend. "You go on and relax, you had a rough time too."
The werewolf dropped the blanket and started putting on the clothes, at least for long enough to make the trek to the bathroom and fill the tub with hot water and bubbles.
Mallory waited until she heard the water start to run, wondering if she shouldn't have tried to say something encouraging. Then she let out a long sigh and padded out of the room, deciding to leave Julie in peace. There was nothing she could say, anyway. The cat - or rather, the wolf - was out of the bag now.