Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, 12 Jan. 1902

[icecoldfrost]

Emma had arrived in the early hours of the morning. She had left Fandom yesterday afternoon after receiving the letter, pausing only long enough to send out some messages. The Portalocity network had required a few connections - something about time-travel networks not all being back online yet - before making it to Paris. She was collected from her portal by Lady Abigail Irene and her servant, Mary, and escorted to a discreet clothier where her skirt and boots were pronounced acceptable (and exquisite, for the boots) and was fitted for a suitable blouse, corset, coat, and gloves with no questions asked.

Which meant after a few hours (and some alterations) she was now at the the hospital, half-dozing in her chair as she waited for the troublesome patient to wake.

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

"That is not at all reassuring." Yes, Emma was totally eavesdropping on you, Jack, and the rest of the hospital as well. And she wasn't sorry. "How - how could they even ask that? Ghosts are usually intangible, for one, and two, what made you think they'd keep their word?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Doctor Garrett would explain it better than I just did," Jack said. "It was a shade. A spirit bound to a physical form by a sorcerer. Strong enough to chip teeth and rend flesh."

"And we had every reason to expect the prime minister would keep his word," Jack said, fingers rubbing against a bandage. "Doctor Garrett is titled and notorious in her own right, and Sebastien was apparently a national hero here some hundred and fifty years ago. The subject simply never came up, according to him."

Jack was still annoyed by that bit, though he tried not to show it.

[icecoldfrost]

"Of course." For all of the above, really, that summed it up.

Emma looked at his bandages, not trusting herself to look him in the eyes just now. "So you went dancing with werewolf, and it appears that you came out the worse for it." Her fingers itched to reach over and touch his chest, but she kept her gloved hands in her lap. "What happened?"

[bitten_notshy]

"The scientist behind the electrical system here -- Tesla -- it was his apprentice who summoned the beast," Jack said, and explained Kostov's role and the effort to trap the beast in a few precise sentences. "... anyhow, so the thing didn't know it was supposed to die, and it charged at me and knocked me down. Sebastien wrestled it away just before I would have been killed."

He closed his eyes, let out a silent prayer, and added: "We think it passed the curse on."

He couldn't not mention it; she'd get it from his thoughts soon enough.

[icecoldfrost]

Emma shook her head. "That's utter nonsense," she said, ignoring the growing feeling of dread in her own heart, and the mental voices of the doctors and nurses in the hallway. "Cursed to be controlled by a sorcerer? Hardly. And you are far from large and homicidal."

"Anything requiring that large a change would require rewriting your DNA. A virus, maybe, but that would require a living host, not some shade..." She was babbling. It was undignified.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack looked at her. At the girl who turned into organic diamond on a somewhat regular basis, whose best friend and guardian was an enormous blue monster. The one who was now telling him things were impossible.

He couldn't help it. He laughed, even though the chuckle he managed hurt.

[icecoldfrost]

"Oh, shut up, Jack," she snapped, throwing her new little muff at the wall above his head. "I am science, not, not, some magical theory that makes no rational sense."

[bitten_notshy]

"And now I know I'll be okay," Jack said, tossing the muff weakly back to her. "I've gotten you to throw something toward my head."

He shrugged one shoulder. "In any event, Sebastien says the signs are there, and from what I can tell the hospital thamaturgist agrees. The only certain test will be the next full moon, of course."

He sounded calm. He wanted to scream.

[icecoldfrost]

"Don't be horrible at me," she retorted sharply, catching the muff and pointing it at him. "'Emma, come to Paris, Jack is hurt and misses you, and oh, by the way, I turned into a werewolf'?!?!?! How the hell did you manage this?"

[bitten_notshy]

"How did I get sold at age five and end up in a vampire salon instead of sweeping chimneys or shoveling out stables?" Jack asked. "How did I turn into a law student in 2011 instead of a whore in 1900? Emma, you've known me long enough to know my life doesn't go like other people's. Any more than yours does. Werewolf is hardly the least likely turn of events, though I can't say I'm overfond of the idea."

[icecoldfrost]

"You couldn't become a vampire like everyone else?" she asked, throwing her arms in the air. "A werewolf? Really? What are you going to do during the full moon every month?"

"How is that even kosher?"

You cope to keep from screaming in your way, Jack, and Emma will cope in hers.

[bitten_notshy]

"Emma," Jack said, giving her a very strange look indeed, "are you honestly saying you would rather I was wampyr?"

(Un)life as a vampire might be a bit better than death, but: no food. No sex. No sunlight. Jack suspected his curse, if he in fact had one, was the kinder possibility -- even if the not-Kosher thing had already been bothering him.

"And I suppose," he added, "I'll have to buy a farm somewhere, won't I?"

He did not precisely sound thrilled by this idea. Ugh, country life.

[icecoldfrost]

"I would rather you had not been put in this position at all," she pointed out. "But at least then you'd know what you were in for instead of trying to guess whether or not you're cursed!"

"God, Jack." She ran a hand through her hair distractedly. "We can't even do near-death experiences like normal people, can we?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Do normal people have near-death experiences at our age?" Jack sounded genuinely uncertain about that.

He sniffed the air a bit as she touched her hair, realizing he smelled her shampoo as vividly as if her head were right beside his. Perhaps some bits of the curse had their benefits.

[icecoldfrost]

"I'm never going to be able to wear perfume around you again," Emma sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "Not if you can smell my shampoo from there."

"I have no idea what normal people do at our age. Just that it's not this."

[bitten_notshy]

"Your lipstick has a scent too," Jack informed her. Because that was in no way creepy.

He reached to play with the bandages again. "I should go back to the island for a bit, I suppose. Maybe Ronan or Karla has a magic cure and I can forget all about this."

He did not sound as if he believed it.

[icecoldfrost]

"Creepy," Emma informed him, almost cheerfully. "I told both of them before I left that you were hurt, and that I'd let them know if they needed to come out."

"Karla wanted to come with." Emma had said no.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack's eyes widened. "You told her that she'd get us all arrested, didn't you?"

He liked Karla. She just sometimes made bulls in china shops look graceful, and all of Paris was a china shop just then.

[icecoldfrost]

"Burned at the stake for illegal magic, actually," Emma provided helpfully. "But if you want her here, darling, she's willing to come in a heartbeat. Ronan, too."

[bitten_notshy]

"Ronan could probably heal me enough to get me walking about without getting us burned at the stake," Jack conceded. "Thank you for telling people. I don't know if I would have had the stomach quite yet."

[icecoldfrost]

"She'll pout," Emma warned Jack, but she was already reaching for the pen and paper Sebastien had left behind from earlier. "I'll take her shopping to make up for it; I assume I'm writing this? Going by your bandages."

[bitten_notshy]

"Let her pout," Jack said. "Remind her about David if you have to. I'll bring her a present either way. And yes -- I think your handwriting will be better than mine at the moment."