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When everything was said and done, and Eve had forgiven Michael for biting her with a passionate kiss in one of the many dark corners of the building, he went to find Shane. Claire was just leaving the room he was resting in, lips red and pink and speckles of blood on her skin. She smiled up at him as she closed the door behind her. “How is he?” Michael asked, voice raw.“He’s alright,” Claire replied softly, running a hand up and down her arm. “Exhausted. Scared. He’s in a lot of pain too, I can see it, but he refuses to admit it.” She glanced at his face and met his eyes then and Michael had the intense, irrational urge to jerk away from her. “How are you? You sure you don’t need some more bags from the Bloodmobile?”Michael shook his head. “No, I should be fine for now. I’ve had more bags in a few hours than I normally have in a couple of days, but I can’t say I didn’t need it.” He jerked his chin at the door. “Could I… do you think I could go and see him?”When Claire smiled, Michael suddenly felt that just for a moment, all was right in the world. Almost as if she wasn’t dead a few hours ago. “Of course. I think he would love that. Just keep in mind that I’ve given him a lot of pain killers so he might be a little-” she pointed to her head and rotated it in a circle as she whistled twice, the universal signal for crazy. “-loopy.”“Sure,” Michael laughed softly. “I’ll make a note of it.” He pointed back down the corridor he’d come from. “Could you go and stay with Eve for a sec? I think… I think she needs the company.”“I was on my way to see her actually.” Claire smiled as she passed and put her hand on his arm. He almost flinched at the gentle contact, a kindness he didn’t deserve, not after what he did, but he let her do it. “I’m glad you’re alright.” She said and then she was gone before Michael could say anything. She was dead the last he’d seen her- he’d carried her vacant corpse from the morgue to their home in the back of a police cruiser- he should be saying that to her.Taking a deep breath, Michael placed his hand on the doorknob, steeled himself for what was to come and entered the room his best friend was resting in.Shane was lounging on a ratty old couch that was an off-yellow colour and was slowly getting dyed red by the blood that he was still coated in. Michael didn’t see him get hurt so he was confused for a moment as to why he was bleeding and wondered if he had done something to cause it, but then he remembered that Shane had dived into the pool to save him and the other vampires and that the draug were just as deadly to humans as they were to the night’s children.His skin was stained red as if he’d sweated out blood and his body was covered in little pinpricks from where Claire hadn’t managed to wipe away the gore. His eyes were closed as though he was sleeping but his shoulders were tense with pain. Either the medication Claire had given him hadn’t kicked in yet or it just wasn’t strong enough. He opened his eyes when Michael entered and slowly closed the door behind him and for a moment Michael could see the pure agony and fear in his friend’s eyes before Shane blinked and smoothed it over with his usual carelessness and humour. “Look what the cat dragged in.” He raised his fist or a fist-bump and Michael hit it with his own as he went to join his friend on the couch. “How are you feeling?”Michael shook his head as Shane moved his legs for him to sit down, trying and failing to hide the pain he felt from the movement. “Everyone keeps asking me that when I should be asking everyone else. Claire’s the one who died. You’re the one who jumped into a pool full of people-eating slime monsters to save a bunch of vampires, most of which you can’t stand.” He slapped Shane’s knee and felt is shaking. “You look like shit.”“I feel like it too,” Shane laughed and winced at the unexpected pain. Michael felt another burst of sympathy. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a semi-truck and I really hope someone got the rego on it.” He looked at Michael. “You’re not going to go crazy and drain me, are you? If you’re thinking about it I’m sorry to tell you that I think those water-things took most of it out of me. I feel like a pin cushion.”Lightly, Michael laughed and placed a hand on Shane’s shoulder. Apparently sensing the change in mood, Shane stopped laughing and looked at Michael’s sombre expression with a raised eyebrow. “Thank you,” Michael said gently. “You risked your life to save us when you could have just let us all die. I know you have no love lost for vampires and sometimes that extends to me, too. So… thank you. Just thank you.”Shane raised an eyebrow at Michael as if he had just spoken about removing his fangs and pickling them in a jar for later. “You’re kidding, right? I wasn’t just going to let you die. I… hate that I couldn’t get more vamps out. I just… they tried to pull me in and I couldn’t keep going.” His frown was replaced with a smile and he winked at Michael as he reached over and slapped him on the shoulder. If the wince he tried to hide was any indication, then he was still in a lot of pain. “Either I went in or Eve did so really it was the better of two evils.”The image of Eve jumping into the pool filled with the murky draug in her black poufy skirt and heavy combat-boots to save him and the other vampires filled Michael with dread. It wasn’t that Eve was necessarily weak or anything- but compared to Shane and his swimmer's lungs and powerful muscles and his brute force, he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have stood a chance. “I’m glad.” Michael sighed. “I’m not sure she would have been able to get as many of us out as you did.”“I think she might have,” Shane smirked. “Or she wouldn’t have tried at all and just pulled you out and ran away.”“You’re giving her too much credit.” Michael sighed as he leant his head against the back of the couch and crossed his arms loosely against his chest. Shane looked as tired as he felt and much more sapped- pale and thin and obviously exhausted. “You should rest,” Michael suggested. Suggested because he knew that Shane wouldn’t listen to him anyway. “It’s been a big day and you’ve been through a lot.”But Shane didn’t even seem close to entertaining such an idea. Instead, he was looking at Michael through new eyes and Michael felt himself unconsciously squirming under the scrutiny. “You know that none of this was your fault, right?”Michael was somewhat surprised how easily Shane could see through him. Although it shouldn’t be that much of a shock- Shane was his best friend after all and knew him better than almost anyone. “It’s that easy to tell, huh?” Michael sighed as he averted his gaze.“Come on, man,” Shane tilted his head and watched Michael through a sad, lopsided smile. “I can read you like a book. Tell me what’s going on.”Clearing his throat, Michael was suddenly more interested with the grime under his nails then Shane and his conversation. “I feel like… I shouldn’t have gotten captured so easily. I should have resisted it more, like you and Eve did.”Shane shook his head. “There’s nothing you could have done. They almost got the two of us while we were out changing a tire when we got those supplies you needed. Hell, I nearly jumped out of a moving car for them and I would have too if Eve hadn’t stopped me. They’re more effective on vamps- we know that. If we nearly couldn’t resist them there’s no way you could have.”“I still should have been stronger.” Michael hugged his knees to his chest. “I should have fought them off but I bailed on you guys when you needed me most. I should have… I don’t know. Been better.”Biting his lip, Shane continued shaking his head vigorously but as Michael watched he saw Shane’s eyes glaze over slightly and his head still before he could refute. “Nah man, that’s not true…” he trailed off as if he’d lost his train of thought and Michael assumed that the high dose of unknown medication that Claire had given him before she’d left was finally kicking in. Even his tense shoulders seemed to un-bunch from around his ears in pain. His head lolled on his neck a little as he rested it on the arm of the couch.As Michael stood he patted his friend on the shoulder with a faint smile on his lips. “You should get some rest man,” he said softly. “I’ll send Claire in when I find her and let her know that the pills are starting to kick in.”Michael was about to exit the room when he heard his voice called weakly from inside and he turned to see Shane watching him leave with sad, unfocused eyes that still somehow held the intensity of a speeding bullet. “Bitting Eve… that wasn’t your fault. Nobody blames you for it. Especially her.” Michael nodded, throat closing up and as Shane shut his eyes and tilted his head into the cushions Michael gently closed the door behind him.Running through the halls with no real destination in mind, Michael put a hand up to his mouth and cried.