Who: Murphy and Caroline What: Murphy crashes at Caroline's place and has a dream that results in vampire healing When: Last night! Where: Caroline and Peeta's apartment Rating/Warning: Lowish. Murphy drinks vampire blood Status: Complete
Caroline was the last kind of girl Murphy thought he’d be hanging around with. Vampire or not, she was way too bubbly. She was a lot to keep up with, but Murphy found that he didn’t actually mind her company too much. He didn’t have much in common with her other than the dreams, but they were still able to carry on a conversation about other things over drinks, neither of them wanting to dwell too much on what their dreams were doing.
Murphy managed to get himself a touch too drunk, and Caroline had helped him back to her place so he could pass out on her couch. He hoped that no one at the Ranch would notice his absence. He no longer had a curfew, but he was sure his social worker wouldn’t approve of him staying out all night getting drunk. But he was probably okay. Besides, Neal wasn’t a hardass, and he probably wouldn’t fault Murphy for one night out.
He’d passed out almost as soon as he laid down on the couch, lost to his dreams. Dreams after his attempted hanging of Bellamy. He’d blown a hole in the dropship with the rest of the gunpowder they had, and made his ways for the hills.
But try as he might to avoid the grounders, he’d been captured by them once again. Once again, they’d tortured him for all the information they could, and then they’d taken the walkie talkie he’d stolen from camp so they could listen in on the rest of their preparations.
And then they attacked. Murphy hadn’t told them about the landmines they’d planted around the camp, but then, he thought they’d discover them for themselves soon enough. Sure enough, it didn’t take long before one of them had exploded, taking the hapless grounder that had set it off with them. It wasn’t long after that when his grounder captor decided he’d had all the information he needed for the moment. He plunged his dagger into Murphy’s leg.
“That’s for not telling us about the minefield.”
Murphy was screaming almost before he was awake, by reflex bringing his leg up to his chest and rolling to his side. He’d forgotten he was on only a couch, and not having the room to the side that he thought he had, he rolled off the edge.
Caroline really should be used to drinking with humans by now. Her boyfriend was one after all and they definitely couldn’t keep up with her. She probably shouldn’t be going to bars with teenagers either but oh well. She drank all the time when she was in high school so whatever. And at least she was looking after Murphy, giving him a place to crash for the night until he was sober enough to go home.
Peeta had already been asleep by the time they got back. She showed Murphy to the couch, then climbed into her own bed. Only to be woken not long after by the sound of someone talking in their sleep. That wasn’t Peeta’s voice… it took her a moment to remember Murphy was out on the couch. But it didn’t stop at the sentence he had mumbled, there was screaming and then a thump. In less than a second Caroline sped out of bed and into the living room.
“What’s wrong?”
After the initial scream, Murphy was able to stop himself, though with every exhale he still let out a quiet groan of pain. It took him a moment to figure out what Caroline was saying through the haze of pain, but once he figured it out he gave her a look of incredulity.
“I fell out of bed,” he muttered sarcastically. His entire body hurt, and he had the feeling that this time, the torture from the grounders had actually managed to carry through, and the blood was welling up from under his fingers, where he was grasping his leg. “What do you think?”
Rude much? Caroline was just trying to help. No need for the sarcasm. She was about to say so, but then she smelled the blood. Wow. He was really hurt.
“Dreams,” Caroline said taking a moment to gain control before going to his side. It had to be dreams. Nothing in her apartment could have injured him like that. “I can heal you.”
“Those damn Grounders again,” Murphy said through his teeth, seething. He was really, really getting sick of these dreams. “How would you do that?” he asked. He was pretty sure he’d never heard of any vampires who could heal a person. That seemed to run counter to the general nature of vampires as he had always understood them.
“As in the one that infected you with that virus?” That had ended up getting Peeta sick. Caroline hated them already. But right, onto helping Murphy. “My blood can heal,” she told him. “Gross I know,” which it really wasn’t to her but that was everyone else’s reaction. “So if you want me to take you to the hospital instead we can do that.”
“Same group, yeah,” Murphy muttered. It was really kind of galling how he always managed to get himself captured every time he left the camp. Murphy did give Caroline a look when she mentioned her blood could heal, but it was more a look of confusion than one of disgust. “What do you mean, your blood can heal?” Murphy asked cautiously.
“I’m beginning to hate those assholes,” which was saying alot considering Caroline didn’t even know them, and also she wasn’t one to hate. But whatever, they kept torturing poor Murphy and had caused a diseases that made her boyfriend sick. Yeah, she definitely wasn’t a fan. “I’m not really sure how else to say it? It’s like magical. If you drink it you’ll heal. You just can’t die within 24 hours or you’ll become a vampire.”
“You and me both,” Murphy muttered. The adults on the Ark had sent them down to see if the Earth was survivable, and Murphy was starting to come to the conclusion that it was not. Honestly, the idea of drinking Caroline’s blood was not an appealing one, but if Murphy was anything, it was a survivor. The wound in his leg would not stop bleeding, and he had the sneaking suspicion that Neal’s healing potion wouldn’t fully cut it. “I’ve got no intention of doing that anytime soon,” Murphy said. “Let me have it, I guess.”
While Murphy’s condition seemed serious, it wasn’t life and death… At least not yet. Caroline had enough time to vamp speed into the kitchen to grab a cup. Drinking straight from her wrist was for Peeta, or dire circumstances only. She cut open her hand with a knife letting some blood drop into the cup before her hand healed. “Bottoms up?” she offered with a sheepish smile as she handed the glass over to Murphy.
No, it wasn’t life or death. While Murphy might bleed out, it wouldn’t be for a while yet. Even if Caroline didn’t have magical blood (what?), he still would have had time to make his way to the hospital for stitches or whatever else he needed.
Which meant that he had plenty of time to give the blood at the bottom of the glass a distasteful look. He was tempted to sniff it in order to brace himself for what he was about to do, but he knew doing something like that was only going to turn him off more.
“Bottom’s up,” he repeated, lifting the glass in a kind of half toast before he raised the glass to his lips and knocked it back before he really had enough time to think about what he was putting in his mouth. He barely even grimaced as the coppery liquid slid down his throat. “I thought you were supposed to be drinking my blood, not the other way around,” he said, handing the glass back to her.
“It was tempting,” Caroline admitted. Still was a little bit, because even though his wound was already closing up the blood that had spilled remained. “You’re lucky I have amazing control.” If Stefan was around Murphy might have ended up with a ripped off head.
Murphy’s lips tightened as he glanced over at Caroline. It was hard to think of her losing control, especially with how calm she’d managed to be throughout all of it. It was easy to forget that he was in the presence of someone who could probably drain him dry if they so chose. At least she was on his side. “Yeah,” he said. “Thanks for not killing me, I guess,” he said. He really wasn’t sure if that was something he should be thanking her for.
He was a little surprised at how quickly the blood had worked. He didn’t hurt at all anymore, and he flexed his knee a couple of times to makes sure everything was still in working order. He suspected that even the smaller cuts and bruises the grounders had inflicted on him had closed up, even if he was still covered in blood. “You mind if I hit the shower?’
Caroline didn’t need thanks. Especially for not killing him. If anything the magical blood deserved the thank you, but the vampire didn’t need that either. “Go for it,” she said with a small smile. “Bathroom’s right there,” she nodded to the door on the side of her apartment. “I’ll get things cleaned up.” And maybe drink a blood bag, all this blood was making her hungry.