The kid's never done anything like this before. Stealing from a grocery store was one thing but a hospital? That was something all together different. It wasn't like Ever had much of a choice. She had to at least get this gash above her right eye bandaged for it to heal. It wasn't like the kid had insurance or anything and if she checked in then a doctor or someone would want to call her family and that would be a bad move. That was how she got into this whole mess in the first place. No, it was best to avoid all questions completely.

Surprisingly, it wasn't that crowded in the ER that day but that presented it's own set of problems. It might be easier if everyone was busy. Then she could slip in unnoticed and grab what she needed. Everleigh sighed to herself as she poked her head in and looked around. Just in the hallway, a few yards away, was a cart of medical supplies and it didn't look like anyone was guarding it. She smiled a bit to herself, holding one hand over the gash to keep too much blood from flowing out. She looked around and noticed that there seemed to only be a nurse at the reception desk and a doctor that had just gone back into the main ER door. Now was her chance.

Everleigh sprinted through the double doors and around the corner to the hallway where the cart was, stopping just out of sight of the reception desk. She stood there for a moment and just listened, waiting to see if the receptionist would be coming after her. After several moments, though, it seemed that the coast was clear. Ever didn't think to look around again as she slipped over to the cart and started rummaging through, looking for supplies to clean her wound and some bandages and tape to cover it up. She had only one eye open the whole time she was collecting her supplies. Blood was freely flowing down the side of her face since she couldn't hold her hand against it while she gathered what she would need.

Now that she was standing still for longer than a few seconds, she was starting to feel a bit dizzy. Everleigh leaned herself against the wall for just a moment but suddenly found herself sliding to the ground. Maybe she would just sit there for a moment and catch her breath. She was now just sitting on the floor in the hallway with bandages clutched in her hands and her head resting against the wall.

Cutler stood at the foot of the bed, scribbling notes down in his pocket diary. His client, a Mr Barnsley, was sprawled across the mattress and managing to rasp out words now and again. One of his eyes was swollen shut and black, his nose broken in several places and his upper lip resembled a bright red slug, pecked at by starving birds. He had a knobbly leg held up in a cast, the stench of disinfectant and bandages overpowering in the little room.

“So you didn’t start the fight?” Cutler went back over their story. “She attacked you and you killed her by accident?”

The other vampire managed a feeble nod and a gurgly grunt, the thick, warty eyelid of his good eye drooping and giving his pugnacious face an even dopier expression. Cutler smiled at him to convey reassurance and certainty. Really, he was amused by his inability to take down a young woman without having issues and the opportunity to manipulate the legal system. Again. He would ask a doctor to describe his injuries in minute detail and get him off murder with a self-defence claim. God. He was good at his job.

“Thank you Mr Barnsley. I’ll leave you in peace now.” He started to back towards the exit. “I’ll contact you in the next few days.”

He strolled down the hallway, stuffing his diary into the breast pocket of his expensive black suit. Cutler undid the top two buttons of his shirt, pleased to have finished his work shift. He was looking forward to getting back to his luxurious apartment, grabbing his decanter of blood and sipping a glass’s worth, maybe two or three, while lurking Twitter and Facebook. His heart seemed to ache at the thought of warm, coppery blood streaming down his throat.

The vampire could smell it everywhere in the hospital, but blunted by hot, pulsing flesh, bandages and disinfectant. Like a shark, he picked up on a different scent of blood, one that wasn’t soaking into cloth, but the ground.

Narrowing his eyes and glancing left and right, he tracked the overpowering scent to a small child, slumped against the wall, blood trickling from a gash in her forehead. He dropped his briefcase with a loud thud, clenching his hands into fists to stop from pouncing on the girl and ripping bigger gashes out of her throat. Cutler should just stroll past, keep his mouth shut and leave the hospital. He didn’t care about some stupid little brat bleeding to death.

But his ambitious nature and shrewd plans caused him to crouch down to her level. He took the bandages from her clammy hands, wrapping them around her head, his incisors pricking his tongue distractingly. That ought to hinder the bleeding, giving him time to find a doctor to mend her properly. It took a phenomenal amount of willpower not to suck on his bloody digits. He’d lose control and drain her dry then. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but this was an unsuitable location to decimate the human population.

“Softy... Softly...” he mused aloud.

It was quiet for a long time. No one passed the child or stopped to help her. It was strange that she should have such an emergency in a hospital but no one is there to help her. It wasn't like Everleigh was aware of how long she was laying there, though. She was out cold for a long time before the vampire happened upon her. It was the sound of his briefcase slamming against the floor that finally roused the kid back into consciousness and she moaned, her heavy head lolling slightly as she felt something being wrapped around her head. Of course, she had no idea it was bandages but it didn't matter. At least the bleeding was contained.

Her eyes opened slowly and she blinked at the man crouched before her, just staring at him for a moment as she tried to focus her vision. His soft words made no sense to her but nothing much was making sense at the moment. She was too out of it to comprehend much. Her head lolled to the other side and she looked down the hall but saw no one else there. A glance in the other direction showed the same thing. They were alone in the hallway.

It finally occurred to Everleigh that she was laying on the floor and she tried to move her arms under her to push herself off the floor but they were like wet noodles and her attempt failed as her arms just flopped back to her sides. Her attention went back to the man in front of her and she blinked at him again. "You're ...a doctor?" Of course she didn't notice his lack of white coat and normally wouldn't have assumed that he was medical staff, especially when he looked more like a lawyer, but she was not herself at the moment.

The kid managed to open her eyes and focus on him. Cutler mustered up a big, warm smile to let her know that he was a nice guy. Right… She thought that he worked at the hospital, and with difficulty, he suppressed the urge to laugh.

“I’m just a Good Samaritan.” He tugged a handkerchief out of his pocket, then scrubbed the blood off his hands. “I can find you a doctor now that you’re not leaving puddles in the hallway. That’s a slip hazard, you know.”

Cutler glided back to his feet, at the same time collecting his briefcase and tidying his suit. He was lucky that it hadn’t smashed open, important papers fluttering in the spilt blood. He’d look unprofessional and unhygienic waving them around in court.

“Who attacked you?” He could exploit this situation in so many delectable ways. Cutler hoped that she didn’t have any memory of the blessed incident, so that he could attempt to frame the dogs.

Perhaps somebody could anonymously phone one of the local newspapers and they’d run a story on his heroic efforts? Vampire Saves Little Girl. Good Vampires Exist. Mystery Monster Hurts Child, the headlines would shout deafeningly. What a shame you couldn’t capture a vampire’s image in print or on film. He’d look even more impressive and likable in a photo, stood next to the brat’s hospital bed, the pair of them smiling in retch-worthy fashion.

It had be a long, crappy day for Nina. Not only was she feeling nauseous. But she needed have to a rectal exam on a large Italian who apparently was very, very found of garlic. The stink was such an affront on her already sensitive senses that she ended up barfing all of the lunch that George had packed for her. After she promised him that she wouldn’t. It was enough to take her irritable mood and put it in the realm of downright bitchy.

Having just left the ER, after a three-hour-long shift of being slumped over a desk, charting, Nina had been on her way to head upstairs to radiology for some scans when she noticed the small drops of blood on the floor, near the supply closet, the sight of it causing Nina to frown in confusion. What the bloody hell? Who was bleeding back here? There weren’t supposed to be patients back here.

That was when Nina heard it. Voices. Coming form the supply closet. And immediately Nina knew that something was wrong.

Nina growled under her breath, and without further ado she stormed up to the supply room door and shoved her way in, her hazel green eyes blinking, quickly adjusting to the light. And felt her eyes widen at who she found there. A little girl, blood all over her clothes. And a man looming over her, blood on his hands.

“What the bloody hell?! Get away from her!” Nina roared out and with that, Nina charged forward, and shoved the man away from the girl, remembering just at the last moment to hold back on using all her werewolf strength, not wanting to send the man flying into the wall, only shoving him a step or two away, Nina then placing herself in front of the girl, using her body as a shield, Nina’s eyes blazing in the darkness, a soft growl coming from her throat, the sound barely audible.

That was when her nose caught it. The scent of a vampire. And Nina felt her entire body freeze. Bugger on toast. The man was a vampire. Nina shivered. And she realized then and there just how much danger she suddenly was in. This vampire… smelled like Mitch. Which meant that he was a Solemus. And she was pregnant with the child that was supposedly going to wipe them all out. Nina struggled to stay calm. She needed to get the girl away from him. Now.

Nina glanced back at the girl, her eyes meeting hers, quickly looking her over. No serious injuries. No bite marks. Which confused her. No bite marks? Did that mean the vampire had actually been helping her? Then, after giving the vampire a warning glance, Nina spoke to the girl, her tone hard. “Did the man hurt you?” Nina asked, her hand silently reaching into her pocket… and pulling out the scalpel she had there. If the vampire made one move… she’d slit his throat. Pregnant or not, she’d fight to her dying breath to protect the girl and her unborn child.

The child blinked several times, taking slow, deep breaths to try and get her brain working again. A good samaritan. Well, at least he had wrapped her wound on her head but he was right, she would need an actual doctor to stitch her up. Everleigh watched as the man cleaned his hands but she had to think about his question. What had happened to her...she knew this one. It would come to her.

Then it did. "I tripped. My head hit a bureau." Yes, she remembered the whole incident but she wasn't sharing it with this stranger or anyone else. Getting her foster parents in trouble would only make life more difficult for her and she wasn't that dumb. Her eyes flickered down to the drops of her own blood on the floor. She wasn't the greatest liar in the world and she couldn't bring herself to stare at the man who had helped her when she just lied to him.

Her head snapped up again when the door slammed open and Everleigh saw stars. She had lost too much blood and was still woozy so the sudden movement of her head made her dizzy. There was a woman there now that she had never seen before in her life and she was very confused. Her eyes flickered from the woman to the man that had helped her and back again as the woman (a nurse judging by the outfit) put herself in front of Everleigh protectively. "He just wrapped my head." It sounded lame even to her own ears but she felt that she had to defend the man in some way. He could have just left her there bleeding, after all.

The child tried again to stand but only found herself flopping back against the wall again with a long sigh. Her body was still too weak from the blood loss. She just watched the scene in front of her helplessly, wanting to do something to help but not being able to.

She’d hit her head on a bureau? He lifted an eyebrow at the kid, not convinced by her explanation. Who’d chucked her against the bureau then? The Invisible Man?

He opened his mouth, hoping to probe the child, but a tiny blonde madwoman stormed into the area. She shoved him backwards, causing annoyance and resentment to flare in the bottom of his stomach. Watch the suit. It hadn’t come cheap. How dare she charge in here and accuse him of harming the girl. She could, absurdly, turn him into the villain of his own plan.

Cutler kept silent, watching her draw a scalpel out of her blue scrubs. He could smell dog on the woman, especially strong at this time of the month. Ugh. Could they please get some ventilation going in the room? She’d no doubt sniffed out his supernatural identity, which was a lot easier on the nose than her own.

The kid defended him. HAH! That ought to shut up the dog!

“Please.” Cutler glanced between her and the child, who was flopping about as though paralytic from alcohol poisoning. He feigned a worried look, his lips parted and close to trembling. Somebody should give him an Oscar at the next Academy Awards. “I've no interest in hurting anybody. I want to help the child.”

He took a big risk by taking a slow, careful step towards the mother bear and her cub, his arms outstretched beseechingly.