Bran ended the call with Constantine and Dresden. He sighed, sitting at his desk for a minute before heading out. He told Mimosa and Mirella just basically that the boys would be fine and soon would be coming into this house in New Orleans to care for Mimosa's impending heat.
Bran had never seen Mimi in such a pitiful state before. After enduring 12 weeks of brutal sessions, her voice had become unrecognizable, filled with pain. A surge of rage welled up inside Bran, furious at the abuse of his authority. The purpose of the lesson was for men to repeatedly beat Mimi, to teach her a lesson in humility and vulnerability. But now, to know that Mim had to endure three weeks of relentless beatings and subsequent torture in Damien's hand, meaning shed session, a cold pit formed in Bran's stomach as he made his way to his car.
He had foolishly assumed that Mimi had retreated to nurse her wounded ego, as she hadn't returned in weeks. Busy with Marrok's work and with no contact from Adam and Charles, He had just let work take him with it and he had not stopped thinking or even checking via packbonds what Mimi was doing; He tried to be merciful himself as so many werewolves were constantly talking to his mind so he was more or less preoccupied with their problems, but as this had been his punishment to give, he had not seen it through.
Bran felt frustrated as he hurried towards the house in New Mexico. He had maintained contact with Mimosa and Mirella, although not living under the same roof, keeping a close eye on them ever since Mimosa had mentioned her impending heat.
The drive to the house felt interminable, and Bran racked his brain for ideas on how to help Mimi. He hoped she would be in good enough condition to utilize the medical supplies in the Medbay. He tried to remain positive, reminding himself that she had managed to walk and act despite her previous injuries during their last encounter in the woods.
She had been in a terrible state and could still walk, hunt, and run. So maybe she would be fine, eventually. Once he freed her from the silver cage, maybe she could guide him on what to do. As the holder of the master keys to all the silver cages, it was usually Bran who used them for punishments, not Salvatore.
Baffled by Damien's repeated betrayals, manipulations, and harm inflicted upon Mimi, Bran felt a deep sense of frustration. Damien's actions made Bran look bad, and he was deeply upset by that. Arriving at the house, Bran locked his car and entered, making his way to the Medbay. He switched on the lights and prepared a bed, mentally bracing himself for what awaited him in the cellar.
With werewolf strength, Bran easily opened the heavy cellar door. The scent of bitter silver filled the air as he flicked the switch, illuminating the scene. There, at the bottom of the cage, lay Mimi, completely naked. She resembled a living skeleton, her skin barely clinging to her fragile frame. She weakly moved her head, clearly in a state of immense suffering. Bran could not hide his terror at first but soon, he got a grip and tried to keep his expression neutral, not to alarm Mimi.
The cellar door opened and Bran stepped in. He put the ceiling light on and when he first saw me, his expression was quite horrified but he controlled soon his expression. He came to the cage and dug a key out of his pocket, muttering something about fucking Salvatore and everything else. His voice was low. I could not hear what he was cursing about. Maybe he was just annoyed that I called him to help me. So I knew I needed to call someone else to help me.
I turned my head and said, " Help me to medbay and get me a phone, and I'll call the fleas to help. "
Bran flinched when I spoke and came to me. He crouched next to me, stroked my forehead, and spoke softly.
He had nothing with him, and he said, "You weren't lying about your condition, and the fleas, Mimi, I am not sure if they can do anything for you. Mimosa is showing signs of preheat, so even if Adam and Charles get well, they may have other activities, but I will see what I can do for you now as first aid. Then we can look if there are some fleas available, but little girl, you need Colin and Samuel."
He lifted me into his arms, and I felt my skin tearing at my back, which was already burnt to silver. I gasped in pain, trying to hold on. Bran was silent, and the muscle in his cheek now twitched. He had a strange aura about him, and he seemed to be very focused. I had never really seen him like this. He kept me very gently in his arms, not talking much, and tried to move fast.
When I looked into his eyes, I saw the reason. They were glowing yellow. He had a really close under-the-surface rage. He carried me to the medbay and lay me on one bed that he had opened readily.
I said to him as he had his suit on, "Change into scrubs, in that shelf, there are tops and pants, so your suit won't get dirty."
Bran nodded and said, "You will have to tell me what to do. Don't be afraid. I am good at obeying. I am not Salvatore. I can recognize your expertise on this, so I will do as told."
Then he went to put on his scrubs and came over to me and said, "Now tell me what I can do for first aid. I'll call Samuel and Colin in a minute, but what will help the most? I am so sorry this was not my intention, my intention was just to get those to beat you up so long that you wouldn't heal, but this shed session, never. Damien lied to me."
I said, "There is no Damien, probably. It is just some twisted part of Damon, who likes to manipulate. He used our true soulmate bond to feel my pain. He talked about our good times so he could remember them. It is not a separate part of him and I have no idea how to help him. But first, what you can do is turn on the incubator; I have a fever, but not for long; my strength will run out, and then my body temperature will drop. Plus, Damon stuffed me with drug dreams that dropped my sugar and will drop my temperature to rock bottom. You need to get me my vein connection, but is my heart beating? Do I have circulation?"
Bran listened for a moment and said, "You do have a pulse; it's weak, but there, fine, I go put the incubator on, and then I'll look at that vein thing. When it comes to Damien/Damon, we look at it a little later on, never mind that now. "
Bran had never seen Mimi's condition after the shed session. He'd looked the other way over the years, seeing where Damon was going and hearing how hard it had been for Mimi to recover from them, but seeing the naked skeleton with the skin, smelling the burning skin of this girl, this woman and feeling it tears away as he lifted her into his arms. Feel how miserably thin she was.
He thought that what Mimi told him too, what if that whole elaborate ruse of introducing Damien had been just one of Salvatores' manipulations over the years if he remembers good times in that mode, means that he is not a separate being? Mimi might be right that Damien is just an alter ego of Damon and mister Salvatore will get his lesson on actions and consequences after he has gotten some help for Mimi.
He looked At Mimi. She was lying in that bed, covered with a thick blanket even though she had a fever but Bran wanted to make her as comfortable as possible and he had felt her shivering, or trying to shiver as her fever was cruel. How damn weak.
And to see the scariest thing of all. When he'd come to the cage, Mimi had had 90 straps left. Now, an hour later, there were 88. Would the straps only ever fall off at two an hour, or would the pace quicken? So he tried to find some way of stabilizing Mimi before he could get Samuel or Colin to come and care for Mimi. Now, he would have to get Mimi into an IV and what he would do if she went unconscious.
Something inside of him woke up, need to help, heal, protect. Not seeing her as toy, but as wounded member of the pack. Evil inside him got too bad blow, it was powerless to manipulate him now. Something so pure goodness had woken inside him. Evil part knew that time would help it to come back more surface.
What would he do then? Following Mimi's instructions, he got the incubator on and got the supplies and a cannula inserted into Mimi's heart, where he put a drip on Damon's bump. Mimi had tasted the bump first, ensuring that there was no allergic reaction. No reaction was a good thing, and he hoped that would help her even a bit.
The medicine cabinet was locked, and he didn't know where the key was. He cursed harshly in his mind and tried to be calm. He was no doctor, and he had no idea if there had been any drugs that could have helped her. But seeing those locked cabinets with no way in, made him irritated.
I managed to guide Bran to put a cannula in my heart. I could have had veins somewhere, but Bran's hands were shaking so badly I didn't think he would hit any veins. He was in shock more or less and he tried to do as I said. I tasted the bump first and put it in my hand with no reaction, so it was safe to use. I was not sure if there was anywhere near Charles's or Adam's bump, but that was what we had here. I figured the bump would at least give me something, at least some energy or fluids, because at the moment, I was in such terrible shape I hadn't even got a plan in my head where to start.
I was still pretty fucking medicated. Damon had flooded that damn cocktail into me all the time, taking my reason out of the game pretty much and my memory was a bit choppy too as I tried to remember where we have the nearest medics in fleas that could do something about me, I had no idea where Colin or Samuel was. If I would have my mind fully working, I might had gotten some help and pretty soon too. But I was too far gone.
Bran said to me, "Little girl, I am going to call Samuel and Colin to let them know about this, and let's see how fast they can get here. Meanwhile, try to rest, and conserve your energy because you gonna need it. Don't worry about a thing. If you have an idea about fleas or a friend who can help, let me know. But first, let's see if those two are anywhere near us."
He walked away to make those phone calls.
Bran went into the other room to call for help, and I thought, if the bump doesn't help, what happens to me if I run out of, say, straps? Where am I going to end up? I just have to try to hang on and survive long enough to have one less crisis. I'd had Bran put sugar drip directly into my heart, and it seemed to give me strength. I had instructed him how to put a multi-connector to my cannula. Three-way connector, so I had a drip bag of bumps and other bags of sugar dripping into me. I tried to think about what I was lacking most, not to think of my pain and agony. And then got in my mind that I needed caffeine, Coke, or coffee. I was not sure did we had any Damon's blood anywhere near. And what would it help?
Fine, this is starting to work. Maybe I can get through this and I tried to think same time what fleas would be best to care for me, Samuel and Colin were top dogs, but Rob could do quite a bit but he was on vacation with his family, Hugh had left fleas long ago, There was few more, Will, Kevin and George, but again, Will worked on other hospitals, Kevin was in Europe and George was in South America, mostly. There were lots of good medics in Fleas, but not so many who knew anything about my physiology or cared for me.
When Bran came back, he said, "Samuel will call in a couple of hours as he's in surgery, and I left a message for Colin. What's next?"
I said, "Go and make some fucking strong coffee and bring it to me, and Coke. I need caffeine, and it has to be from those two sources. After that, we'll take a scan of me and see if I can take the visceral suspension. I have a few fleas who can care for me, but they are most likely not available, right now. I have no idea would Damon's blood would help, but then again, do we have any? It could be that he had taken all away so.."
Bran said, "Fine, I will make coffee and bring you coke, and then we continue with that scan and whatever you want. When Samuel and Colin call me back, then we know where we are so I can then maybe call those fleas and see if they are available. I have a hunch that if we have Damon's blood, Samuel and Colin will need to fix you. Are you in pain?"
I nodded and said, "That is one thing that we can do nothing to this point, so I hang in there. I have wounds and injuries all over me, internal and external. But I try to think about how to keep me going. "
Bran nodded and went to the kitchen to make coffee. Then he returned with a tray with a big pot of really strong coffee, little bottles of coke, several of them and he fetched more blankets around me and tried to make me as comfortable as possible, He gave me a straw so I sipped my coffee and no need to take my hands out inside of the blankets.
I said as I sipped my coffee, "Damon put me on the table, then he took this plate from the ceiling where were these hooks, he put those hooks through my skin, all over me, in my front or the back, and then lifted my body air by them, jellying me, until my skin ripped and I fell this herbal jelly that burned my skin. He did it many times, but my skin got weaker and weaker, so I did not stand that at all."
Bran stood up, he ran into the bathroom and I could hear him throwing up as I told him other things too what Damon had done to me.
I had the coffee, and we took the scan in the end. My mind was not at its best, so it took time for me to tell everything. Difficult to direct someone else to take it when Bran understands nothing at first. Bran carried me to the scanner gently, and I needed to be naked in there. He could see all the wounds and silver burns on my skin and other injuries too, my broken bones and all of them.
While I was in the scanner, he made the bed. He also changed the dirty under bedding away and brought new clean ones, thick warm blankets, and soft mattresses as he could find, I also directed him to cover most of the wounds with sterile dressings or some dressings, pour Damon's blood into them, if that would help at all. He used little that blood. He told me he wanted to ask Samuel what to do and if he could use it.
He lifted me into bed, and wrapped me very carefully so remained as warm as possible as my fever was starting to drop, not sure why, was it was because of the drugs or my general shape?
After I was tucked in, He said, " Fine, the result came, but I don't understand any of this. We have to, little girl, one day make it so that all of us, I mean myself, should be able to do some of these things. I mean the use of the scanner. They should learn how to do them if it ever gets that tight. "
I said, "Take that tablet, turn it on, and bring it to me, and I'll look through the scan. Few programs can read the scan and write a report, AI-based programs. I need to see if we can get licenses on those in our pack. It would be medical jargon, but it is translatable, too."
He brought me the tablet, walked over, sat next to me, and watched the scan closely.
He said, "Just tell me what to do so I will get those programs to our pack. I have pull in certain circles. I can make it happen. But what does your scan say?"
I said, "Fine, I seem to have functioning organs, but some of them are damaged, but I can take an intestinal infusion. Those programs are in medical circles not sure do you have so much influence other than Samuel or Colin, so you can speak about that on those two. But now Bran. You will do the surgery on me and fit a feeding tube. I'll guide you. It is not hard, and you did me surgery earlier when you jellied me, the same thing, but let's do this a little more refined."
Bran said, "I have treated you horribly in the past. I truly am and thank you for letting me do something for you. You could have denied me and called your friends. That was torture, that jellying and all the rapes. How can you trust me?"
I said, "I have learned to move on. I have lost too many important people to bear a grudge. Though if you ever do something like that to me again, I will keep my distance from you. But you are here now, willing to help, so I have also learned to use everything that I have at my disposal. Including you. So let's this get on, shall we?"
First, I had to show the scan again when I had damage and others. My liver, kidneys, spleen, and pancreas were destroyed, but the visceral puree had a spleen, so it digested itself. My intestines seemed to be okay, and my lungs were not, but I'll get through this at some point. My healing will kick in at some point and until that, I just have to hold on. Just be.
I first got him to take a few tubes of my blood as well and put those tubes into an analyzer after I had written the referral and printed it out. It took time to direct him to blood everything, and he took blood from my heart into those tubes. Soon the analyzer was whizzing already.
The caffeine seemed to help me a lot. I had drunk a whole big pot of coffee and all the cokes, there was some sugar too. First, I directed Bran to the cupboard where he could find the recipe and put him in the kitchen to make the base. I could hear him on the phone talking frantically to someone there. The fever was still on, and I was feeling restless, but I held on.
Then Bran came with the bucket and said, "Samuel is coming as well, Colin too. Samuel will take 24 hours. Colin, a little less than he is in Ireland, just got on the plane and then they'll see what they can do for you. Are you sure about this puree?"
I nodded and said, " It gives me strength. Energy. I need it. The caffeine and sugar will help the absorption, but then we will continue to finish the puree. They will see my results on their phones of those blood tests, it is done like that."
I directed him to pour Damon's blood and several nutritional concentrates on it. Samuel had permitted to use Damon's blood as he had his supply stashed and he would bring more if needed. And then, I finally got him to direct me to put a feeding tube and the puree to drip into my stomach. I had a coffee more as he brought a new big pot.
He sat next to me and said, "How are you feeling? What else can I do next?"
I said, "There's nothing else to do now but hang in there and wait for me to get my strength back, or these damn drugs will disappear somewhere so I can think."
I told him what Damon did in the shed, sometimes more detailed, and sometimes I glossed over. Bran threw up several times. Hours went by. He kept bringing me coffee and kept visceral mush dripping into me. At least there was Damon's blood, so it might heal something. I could feel still all of those metals in my blood, but all of our binders were in that drug cabinet and I had put collectors on my teeth, but all I did was velvet and poisons meant for Damon. This was difficult to hang on, one moment at a time, and let's see where we end up.