One of God&#39;s children

"He needs to stop being proud and find someone who can help him," Jack said, with quiet anger. It wasn't at Mitchell, so much: It was more at the situation as a whole. "I don't think anything they're doing is making any kind of change."

Which was also Captain Obvious territory, from his point of view.

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"They're giving him blood, though," Kate said with an almost imperceptible shrug of her shoulder, eyeing the blood bag and the drip over the rim of her coffee cup before taking a quick sip.

"I mean... isn't that what the fangs and no tans crowd revolves around?"

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"Only works for him if it's straight from the vein," Jack said, and leaned his head back to close his eyes. It was unfair that Mitchell's choices were risking murder or starving. Other worlds, his own included, were kinder. "I think the only person he'd take from is George -- and George can't."

He stopped there, but that was about where he started giving Kate a distinctly speculative look.

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It took Kate a moment to notice that look. She was momentarily hung up on actually living part-time in a world where some people actually fed on human blood, and she was still glad the contents of her stomach were mostly coffee.

It didn't take her forever, though. She glanced over at him.

"... What?"

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"Well," Jack said, a little embarrassed and hoping Kate would realize this was not actually a kinky sex thing at the moment, "there is you..."

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It wouldn't currently even cross Kate's mind that it could be a kinky sex thing, so he needn't worry about that.

But. "Uh." It took a moment to process what he was saying. "You mean he should -- ?" She didn't really finish the thought out loud. They both knew what he meant. She frowned a little. "Why me? Why not you?"

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Oh. This facet of Jack's life hadn't exactly come up, had it? Either way, he didn't look ashamed.

"My guardian drank from me on Wednesday," he explained, lifting his cuff a bit so she'd see the bandage on his wrist. "It's too soon. It wouldn't do us any good if I needed a transfusion too."

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"Oh." Well, that was new information, which she'd maybe process in its entirety at a later time. Right now, she was just picking up the essentials.

And that left her eyes darting from Jack to Mitchell and back to Jack again. "... That'd help?"

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"It should," Jack answered, eyes also going to the almost still form. "Different universes, nothing is certain. But it should."

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"Oh," Kate said again, eyes fixed on Mitchell now. She was chewing on her lip.

She couldn't have possibly looked any more conflicted without someone actually writing the word across her face with a thick black marker.

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Jack saw that expression and bit a thumbnail. He couldn't tell her it didn't hurt, since that wasn't exactly true. And he certainly couldn't tell her it wasn't a big deal -- that wasn't true either.

The idea of pressuring her beyond putting the idea in her head made his stomach twist. It was life or death, all right, but there seemed to be some time.

So he lightly stepped back

"Think about it," he said. "That's all."

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"I'm thinking about it," Kate muttered, almost under her breath. And she was. Weighing the pros and cons in her frazzled mind as far as she could see them. It was kind of a scary thought, but... Jack seemed to be used to it, and he was okay, but then it wasn't the same at all. She didn't even know.

And this was Mitchell. Who she'd run here for, blindly, again.

"Maybe."

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"All I can ask," Jack said. "We'll talk to him about it next time he's awake."

In a way, Jack realized, what would have surprised him would have been immediate and enthusiastic acceptance from Kate. The whole thing, he was certain, would have sat differently with him if he was -- well. Different.

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And Kate was just trying to not go into any kind of shock over everything. This wasn't as hard as last time, but then again this was. Just in entirely different ways.

"Mmm," she agreed vaguely. "See what he thinks about it."

She pushed away from the wall, and wandered towards Mitchell's bed again, half empty cup of cooling coffee in hand.

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Her presence seemed to make him stir awake again, eyes drooping as he struggled to open them. "...Kate?"

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"That'd be me," Kate said, quietly, as if she didn't want to bother him too much. She put her hand lightly on his arm again. "Still here."

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"Whas--" Mitchell blinked a few times. "What's... going on?"

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"Nothing much." That was a lie of sorts, yes. "Jack... was telling me about what would make you better."

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There was no comment from Jack, just a worried and somewhat guilty look as he tried to hang back.

He wasn't going to argue about this.

... yet.

[OOC: I can kindasorta use a proxy, but consider this an estabishy ping.]

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"I can't make new blood," Mitchell said, sluggishly. He wasn't sure what she was getting at, exactly, but he was starting to form ... an idea he wasn't too happy about. "Kate?"

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Kate fidgeted, stroking his arm a few times. "And you need it, from a person," she said. In case he didn't know that yet. "And George can't provide, and Jack can't, so..."

So.

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That's what he'd been afraid of.

"Kate, no," Mitchell said, but it sounded more like a whisper, or at least nowhere near as vehement as he'd been trying to make it. "I don't want you getting involved in any of this."

Sometimes, he could be the grown-up. And sometimes, he had a lot of memories to deal with.

Edited Date: 2010-11-17 05:25 pm (UTC)

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"Because I'm so not involved yet?" Kate wondered. The dry, sarcastic tone wasn't really there, but the thought of it was. "Mitchell, I want to help."

And this was the first thing that had presented itself as something that could stop her feeling so damn helpless.

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"Then look after George," he said, shifting to get upright. "I don't know how much I'll be able to control myself, and I'm not taking that risk." (Somewhat uncharitably, he found himself thinking, I'm not bloody Sebastien, but he shoved that thought away because it wasn't the point.)

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