Who: Dominik and Darren What: Visiting, Dominik has no concept of time in a hospital. Forgive him. Where: Mercy Hospital, Room 16 When: Sunday afternoon, 24th Status: Complete Warning: None!
The first few hours were touch and go, thankfully Dominik was now in the clear. He’d gotten away with cuts, scrapes, bruises and a mild concussion that baffled the attending doctor. A fall like that surely would’ve killed anyone, he counted him very lucky. It was odd that his bones weren’t broken, but the bruising indicated something internal had happened. He wondered if there was more going on with the way the aunt carried on, and had asked his patient in a side if she was abusing him. The EMTs told him quite the story.
He denied it, of course. He was awake, and despite being on a high dose of morphine, Dom couldn’t rest after his ordeal. He was speaking with his sister when the nurse walked in with that extra blanket he’d asked for, tucking it in around him. She checked his vitals, the stitches over his right brow and under the dressing on the back of his head.
“We’ve extended visiting hours, if you’d like to stay. I know your mother is exhausted, she’s been up for a while.” They had to shoo her off the bed when she started smothering Dominik with too much motherly love.
“You shoul’ geh home,” he slurred, his speech was interrupted by the medication and the bump to the head. “Change,” he mentioned, looking over Ioana’s clothes. She was still wearing her graphic top and printed cartoon pajamas, spattered with blood. He worked up a smile for her as she thumped him on the nose and went to ask the nurse for something clean to wear. She wasn’t leaving anytime soon. “Take mom,” he called out to her, wincing when the pain behind his brow started to override that morphine.
“I’m not leaving!” She called back to him, following the nurse out of the room to talk about Dom’s stay in the hospital. Mostly to apologize for his impatience and demands. He could be a handful when he wanted to. When she returned, she was wearing those hospital blues and went to wake up her mother to take her to the cafeteria for coffee.
Livia wasn’t keen on leaving, but agreed that she needed something for her nerves. She was glad Magda was kept out of the room, the police were still at their home, presumably questioning the only witness to Dominik’s accident. It served her right. The two walked in arm in arm down the brightly lit hallway, her mother leaning heavily on her, “She has a lot to answer for, Ana,” she spoke to her in Romanian so the nurses wouldn’t overhear. “She pushed Ursu, I know it. They were arguing. You will not listen to me, the doctor will not listen. Ursu doesn’t speak to me. He talks to you, what did he say?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she sighed, looking up from chasing lights on the floor down the corridor. She saw a familiar face rounding the corner, her blood running cold. Darren. Of course it was Darren, she’d heard the news from Dominik about what happened to Fin. She tried to move her mother off to the side to avoid conversation, but there was nowhere to really hide here. It was probably the last thing he needed to hear.
Fighting was pretty common amongst people and Darren was just as bad at confronting things as anyone else would. The initial reason because of the fight was petty: Darren hated to think of Fin being entered into some kind of meat parade, even if it was for charity. Darren had fought (and won) against the idea with Fin’s mother only to discover that the blonde was going to enter the thing anyway.
Darren knew it was shitty of him to care about something like that, Fin was free to to what he wanted, but it didn’t hurt any less that he’d battled on the blonde’s behalf and it went by the wayside. Now here he was. He hated hospitals.
Brad had called last night to give him the news (and while the other blonde was the last person Darren wanted to talk to, he listened) and had rushed over as soon as he’d found decent clothes. He’d spent the night there in the waiting room and now was up and about biding some time. Still in the clothes from yesterday Darren looked worn out, exhausted really. It’d been a long day. Sunday had little to no promise.
Looking for some decent coffee, Darren wandered the hallways. He saw a familiar set of people and narrowed his eyes in curiosity. “Ioana?” Strange seeing them here. Where was Dominik? Diverting from his task Darren approached the girl and her mother. He was glad to see them even if they weren’t with Dom. “Everything okay? Where’s Dominik? He come to see Fin, too?”
Ioana pressed her lips into a thin line as her mother began to sniffle again. Dom was going to be fine and she cried at the drop of a hat. The only pressing matter was what to do with Magda. She had some strange obsession with the demon her brother carried and now that it was all out in the open… She doubted her brother wanted to come home to that.
“I think he will see Fin,” when he gets to his feet. She bit at her lip, standing just in front of her mother. She’d yet to change out of her bloody robe, even at the doctor’s behest. “He’s resting now, I’m sure the nurse would take him to see Fin if he wished. He’s pretty doped up if you want to see him- he’ll say just about anything for an extra Jell-O cup.”
She wasn’t quite sure how to say it and her mother was prodding her in the back, upset at her for skirting the issue.
“Darren,” her voice was hoarse from all of her weeping, “I must speak with you before you see him,” there was a note of concern in her thick accent, “please. It’s about Niki and what happ-”
Ioana turned to her mother with a kind smile, “we can talk about it later. He’s in 16, Mr. Dawson. We were just going to grab a cup of coffee, did you want something?”
Darren took a moment to study the pair. They looked as if they’d been woken up, Dominik’s mother was covered in blood in front. Something inside of him was nagging, telling him something was off. Something was wrong.
And his fear was confirmed when Ioana began to talk again. As Dom’s mother addressed him he tried not to look frantic. “What did happen?” He inquired, voice soft. His face was haggard. He needed to know if Dominik had been hurt and how badly.
After hearing the room number the rest of their words faded into the ether. Darren was rushing around the women, running as fast as he could to Dominik’s room. Moisture was touching his blue eyes for the second time that weekend and he hated it but this...he hated this more….
Bursting into the room, breathing heavily from running, Darren moved up to the bedside. “No, no...Dominik,” he said, utterly broken at the sight laying there. “...my baby. What happened?” Ioana's mother sent her an accusatory look, her own lips pressed into a grim line. "Let me talk next time," she frowned, watching him rush off to the room. "He needs to know the truth. Dominik can't tell him that."
Dom's breathing had finally evened out when he hears a rush of footsteps in the hall. He began to sit up when Darren burst into the room, the morphine made his reaction time slow, his eyes widened in surprise to see the werewolf there. He couldn't fathom why he was in his room, his heart jerking in response to the question.
He stared at Darren for a long moment. He wanted to get up to meet him but his legs just wouldn't cooperate. He tipped his head to the side, his eyes closing for a moment as he recounted events in his head.
He gave a small shrug, the fear evident in his eyes. Mags was out to kill him, and he couldn't come up with a reason why. His indifference was probably because of the medication, but he gave pause when Darren drew close, he was wracking his brain for an answer that was right on the tip of his tongue.
He hated being here, it was embarrassing. He moved to cover his bruises on his arms, pulling that extra blanket up to his chest. He hated hospitals.
"Doc says I fell, my mom says Mags pushed me," he scratched at the I.V. in his arm, it itched. "Mags pushed me," he whispered, "I can't remember why. She was very angry about something.”
Two people he was close to in a span of three days had landed themselves in the hospital. Those weren’t good odds, Darren was beginning to feel that fright welling up inside of him that someone was going to get killed again and he wasn’t going to be able to stop it. He hadn’t been able to stop Parker from dying, who was to say that Fin or Dominik wouldn’t travel in those same set of paw prints and meet their fate. He pushed the fear aside trying to focus on Dominik’s predicament. He could worry about his own bad relationships later. Standing at the side of the bed, closest to Dominik, Darren looked down at him. He studied him, hating every mark and bandage he saw. Mags pushed me.
Of course she had. Bitch. “Don’t scratch the IV, baby. You’ll make it infected, you can get staph in a place like this. Just stop.” Dominik was in enough pain, he didn’t want it getting worse. “I’ll show her what angry looks like,” Darren growled, seething with an anger he didn’t know he possessed outside of the lycanthropy. His eyes narrowed, his mind raced with possibilities. Her time would come.
Darren moved to sit down in a chair and scooted closer to the bedside, finding one of Dominik’s hands from beneath the blankets. He held it. “You have to get out of there, Dominik.” The words were soft, full of love. “You can’t stay there. Come stay with me, or I’ll get you an apartment somewhere….please, you can’t go back home, not with her there.”
Ioana had said the same. Magda had burned a lot of bridges to get to where she was now, Dominik knew it, but she'd essentially raised him. He wondered how much of it was her manipulating him all of these years, and for what purpose.
Dom gave Darren's hand a squeeze, reassuring him that he was okay. He hated to see him angry. "No broken bones, Doc said it was weird there weren't any broken bones. He thought the bruises may have come from that," he went back to picking at the I.V., despite what the other man told him earlier. He itched all over, the nurse said the morphine would do that.
"Keep an eye out for me, Ana is bringing my phone so I can look for a place. I'm worried about my family being there with her," his voice had dropped to a low whisper, "I'd rather her anger focus on me."
Everything was rubbing him the wrong way. The medication. If he could just lay out naked on the floor- no. That would bother him too. He felt like he wanted to burst out of his skin and the way Darren was looking at him- his heart broke all over again. He'd told Ioana to leave him be, he'd been through a lot and Dom didn't want to be a bother.
"Did you see him?" he asked, "Fin. Did you see him? Is he okay? Wolfie, I'm so sorry."
There was little reassurance in that squeeze. Darren felt cold, angry, exhausted. It’d been a hell of a week so far and this was the icing on that bloody cake. “The demon,” Darren breathed, ever so softly. The thing that lived inside of Dominik may have had something to do with the current condition of its host, the same way the wolf protected itself knowing somehow that it was something else when the moon was done. He listened, not letting go of Dominik’s hand. “You know I can take care of them. Put them somewhere safer,” he said, voice still soft. He didn’t want to be overheard by the staff.
Darren would’ve done anything for Dominik, even risking his own exposure to do it. The words he’d said on Friday were still true, he was falling in love with the man in the bed and love made you do stupid things.
When Fin was mentioned, Darren became stoic. “He’s fine. You’re more important. He tried to drown himself in the ocean.”
Demon? He was starting to sound like his mother. Dominik was leaning in as close as he could, hanging on Darren’s every word. The thought was frightening, all those blackouts- those times he couldn’t remember. It made sense. He didn’t want to think about it, he didn’t want to believe something like that.
“I know, Wolfie, I know you would. Don’t,” he was shivering, the room wasn’t chilly. He was scared and the morphine could only do so much for him. His head ached, his heart ached. He was hurt right down to the bone, “don’t cross her, babe. She’s dangerous.”
He turned on his side, bending his arm so Darren could keep his hand. He brought his other hand up to cup the side of his face, “lay with me? Please?”
The nurse would grouch at him if she came in, but Dominik needed to be held and he suspected Darren needed the same.
He couldn’t stop shaking and there was enough room behind him for Darren if he wanted to catch some shut eye. It didn’t look like he’d had much in the last few days. He got the impression he didn’t want to talk about Fin and Dom was fine with that. He couldn’t hold much of a conversation now.
So many things raced through his mind. He wanted to rip Mags apart for laying a finger on the man Darren had sworn to protect. He’d promised to keep Dominik safe, that no harm would come to him, and he’d failed. Miserably. “She’s not the only one.” It was cold, that tone. Those words. But he meant it. If this happened again…
And his thoughts of kicking ass were derailed at that touch to his face. Darren’s blue eyes focused on Dominik. He couldn’t ignore that request. “Sure. If you get too warm let me know.” Darren didn’t want to move that hand but he did, and stood up. Making his way around the bed, Darren toed out of his shoes, climbed gracefully into the small hospital bed and laid down with Dominik, encircling the man with his arms.
His eyes closed. Darren took in the scent of the taller man and basked in it. He’d missed the other man terribly in the day they’d been apart.
Dominik could feel that angry energy coming off of him in waves. His arm was stuck out awkwardly to keep that I.V. from getting accidentally dislodged. He didn’t like needles, he didn’t like hospitals, but it wasn’t so bad with Darren here. If he could offer him a little comfort for his rough week, he felt like he was doing some good from his hospital bed.
He held his arm as it came around him, tucking Darren’s hand under his chin as he snuggled into that warmth. He held him like a lifeline and counted his lucky stars that he had someone to care for him like this. Dom continued to shake, presumably from the drip of morphine that kept him comfortable. It made him sick, but he managed to keep down his dinner so far. The more symptoms he exhibited, the longer they would keep him- he was absolutely sure of it. After several quiet minutes, the shivering finally stopped and he fell into a lull. That state between sleep and wakeful thought.
He was vaguely aware of the nurse increasing the drip in his I.V., she kneeled beside the bed, searching him for recognition. “Hey darling, your sister said you were experiencing some discomfort. The doctor okayed more of the good stuff,” Dominik shook his head as she spoke to him, his limbs were numb as she helped him tuck his arm into a comfortable position. “Do you need another pillow, maybe one for your friend?”
Her smile was kind, Dom hummed in affirmation as she stood to get an extra blanket and pillow out of the closet. “You are more than welcome to stay, he hasn’t been an easy patient. This is about as calm as I’ve seen him since he was brought up to my floor,” the nurse said as she approached Darren, the offered pillow and blanket outstretched, “a real charmer, has all my girls running around in a spin. Holler if he needs anything, or just press that button right there. He’s already worn it out.”
“With the added dosage, he might start feeling a little sick. Don’t let him get up out of this bed unless he has to use-”
“Talking too much,” Dominik grumped at her, his brows furrowing in what he hoped was a menacing scowl as she held back a laugh, scurrying out the room. “Annoying,” he mumbled, she really wasn’t so bad. She was just distracting him from his zombie state.
As Dominik shivered Darren did the best he could to hold him, to make the shaking stop though he knew it was partly because of the medicine. He hated seeing Dom this way but there was little to nothing he could do, though that only served to fuel the fire that burned inside of him already. If he had his way he’d steal Dominik, take him far away and keep him safe.
He watched the nurse as she came in. Her voice was kind, Darren was grateful and when she brought the blanket and pillows he took one for Dominik, getting the man comfortable before accepting the one for himself. Pulling the blanket over both of them, Darren nodded at the nurse, “Thanks for taking care of him.” He really was grateful for once.
And when the nurse was gone Darren held Dominik again, gently, buried himself in the other and closed his eyes. Sleep would take him, but not for long. He had already began to feel the effects of a nightmare creeping in.
Dominik was still in that dream-like state when those outward signs of a nightmare started to come to the surface, the witch turned very carefully onto his back, taking a moment to collect himself and get some feeling back into his limbs.
He was careful with his I.V. as he rolled onto his other side to face Darren. This position was no good but he brushed his fingers along his jaw. He hadn't meant to wake him.
Taking those nightmares from him was his priority. The wolf didn't seem to care for it, but Dominik pulled those frightening images to replace them with something more pleasant. His lips closed over Darren's to seal the deal, "sleep, Wolfie."
Dom tucked into the warmth, curling around him. Sleep eluded him, and the images didn't frighten him any. He was numb to it.
He laid there for hours, listening to people walk in and out. The familiar click of heels brought him out of his daze, and his fingers caught into the fabric of Darren's shirt as the noise drew closer. A hand wound into his hair, careful of the bandage on the back of his head. He could tell it was Magda and he didn't want to look.
"I brought your phone, your mother and sister went home. They allowed him to stay?"
"I can't believe they let you in," he ground out, knocking away her hand as best he could. He didn't want her sympathy, or her words. "It's after hours, fuck off. Go manipulate minds elsewhere."
His blood ran cold as she laughed, her fingers untangling from his curly locks as she made to leave. She paused in the door, causing Dominik to flinch- he used whatever energy he had left to shield Darren from her wrath, but nothing happened.
She was gone as quickly as she arrived. He was going to be sick.
Darren found himself easing further into a state of actual sleep. The wolf had vanished with the swish of a black tail, on to bigger and better expanses of mind. Always hungry, the wolf.
It was hours later when those fingers gripped his shirt did Darren begin to stir. He fought, struggling to hold on but reality was winning the tug of war for his conscious mind. And that voice was what ultimately snapped him out of any slumber he’d been trying to salvage. Darren kept his eyes closed, pretending to sleep, listening.
The exchange of words was brief and when they were left with only the echo of that laugh Darren opened his eyes. He pulled Dominik protectively against himself, mind clearer and willing to be more rational. This wasn’t the time or place to strike. But she’d get hers.
“Shhh… she’s gone…”
He could finally breathe a sigh of relief. As Magda disappeared down the hall, Dominik found himself pulled into the safety of Darren’s arms once more. He cold still feel her fingers in his hair, a thumb pressed into his bandage. If she was out to make his life as miserable as possible, she was doing an excellent job.
“For how long?” he asked, his voice cracking with exhaustion.
The phone Magda had brought him was buzzing with messages on the table beside his bed, he ignored them in favor of burying himself into Darren. “Sleep, don’t worry about her,” Dom did enough worrying for the both of them. “Sleep,” he repeated, his voice a low whisper as he leaned up to press a kiss under his jaw. “I love you, thank you,” he knew the man had other places to be, but he stayed and he was grateful. He turned again, hopefully for the last time. He was comfortable on his left side, the pillow had been bothering the bandage over his brow. Dom would take Darren’s arm with him, clutching onto him tightly as he finally settled in for the night.
That was a question he couldn’t answer, one that would nag at him until there was a resolution. Had this been any place but Maine Darren could’ve used his power to overpower her. Right now he was powerless and felt helpless and useless because of it. But he’d think of something.
The notion to sleep was something to tantalize but now that he was awake he wanted to make sure Dominik stayed safe. She wouldn’t creep up on the other man again, not while Darren was there. “I’ve slept long enough, baby,” he said softly, lifting his head up to welcome that soft press of lips against the underside of his jaw. When Dom pulled back, Darren looked down at the man in his arms again. “I love you too. Just rest. I’ll protect you.”
Allowing Dominik to turn, Darren slid against him, curled his arms around like before and he held on as they both settled in for the rest of the night.