Paladin Problems < Esperanza>

[Rhett Keyes]

With all his current free time, Rhett found himself growing bored. He used to work. A lot. And now? Now, he didn't have a job. So he had to find something to do. A hobby was suggested, but what? Rhett wouldn't even know where to begin with trying to figure out what he might like to do with all his free time.

Renee had offered him a job a while ago, but Rhett wasn't sure what he wanted to do for a career anymore. All he knew, and all he had been good at, was helping people stay alive. Could he work behind a desk? Rhett knew the answer. No. He absolutely couldn't do desk work.

So, he decided to go to some district fair thing. He didn't know what to expect. Was it still the same thing from when he was a kid? Rides and various booths? Or did time change things and make it more interesting? Rhett was hoping that he would find something he was interested in at a booth at the street fair thing.

Only, he didn't find anything. Rides were ignored. Booths of food were ignored for the obvious reason. Plus, Rhett didn't see the reason to start learning to cook anything now. Who would eat it? Knitting and crotchet booths were ignored, along with painting booths too. Rhett wasn't someone who sat for very long working on a long project that didn't suit him anyways.

So, he leaves the fair before he wastes anymore time. What he was looking for wasn't here. Why did he even think he would find something? He's at the end or start of the many block long fair space, when Rhett sees something bright and blue on the ground. He heads over to it to see what it is before someone else gets the same idea. It's a piece of plastic and he vaguely remembers having something like this when he was a kid. Maybe even from an event like this.

Rhett snatched it up and twisted the musical instrument in his hands, recalling which side you blew in to make that one of a kind sound. He debated if he should do it, but vampires didn't die from germs. Right? Deciding to go with the smaller side first, Rhett found that he was successful and the thing came to life. So, he kept it and kept walking down the street, away from the fair grounds, making that god awful sound only a kazoo could make.

[Esperanza (DELETED 5865)]

When the first raindrop hit her cheek, Esperanza thought she was just imagining things. She wasn't close to home or near anything she could use as a shelter, so if it rained she would get majorly soaked. How long had it been since she'd passed out here? One hour? Two? Her phone was in Jesse's basement, which meant she didn't have a way to contact anyone. Damn it.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. She tried to push herself up, only to collapse again. Her stomach bore a large, heavily bleeding gash given by a Paladin in the sewers. Good thing she was a vampire, and managed to escape when she did. Blood. She needed blood, bandages, and definitely a nice warm bath. Maybe some of Vic's awesome cooking.

Another rumble had her trying to at least army crawl toward any shelter. It hurt to move, though. Her eyes squeezed shut in response to the intense pain in her belly. "C-come on... come on..." she panted, fingers digging into the wet ground. Once she moved another inch, the sky opened up and suddenly she felt like she was drowning. Only she didn't need to breathe.

Distantly the small brunette heard some god awful noise that sounded familiar; it wasn't a sound she could place at the moment. Esperanza didn't know who made that strange sound, but she hoped whoever it was found her ASAP. A human wouldn't be able to smell the blood. A vampire on the other hand... She only had one shot at this. "Wh... whoever you are... pl... please help... me..." She took a deep breath, swallowed. "I-I live at... Larch Court..." She opened her eyes halfway, ignoring the rain sliding down her face. How odd it was she'd ended up facing the street. "Please..."

[Rhett Keyes]

Rhett was just getting in to the kazoo, rain or shine, when his playing was cute short by someone calling for help. He looked left, the right and then left again, where he determined the direction of the caller. The kazoo was whipped to the wet grassy ground as Rhett moved to the area to see who was needing help. He could still do that. Help. Even if he wasn't currently employed as a paramedic. He was protected by the good Samaritan law or whatever it was.

Now, Rhett was used to helping people, but lately it seemed like the things he needed to help with were getting more and more intense. First, there had been Jesse and now he came across this woman who had multiple gun shot wounds in her gut. Was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was there more to her than what met the eye? Like Jesse? His world had definitely changed the night he was sired, along with his perceptions of people. Or the city. Yeah, it definitely wasn't the same city he was used to after that night.

What was it with people and hospitals? Or lack of wanting to go to them? "My name is Rhett." Rhett said as he approached the woman. "I'm CPR certified and then some. Can I help you?" Rhett asked as he approached the woman, doing exactly as he was told to do when he was off the clock when he first got trained in CPR about a decade ago, before he even knew what he wanted to do with his life.

[Esperanza (DELETED 5865)]

Esperanza's eyes opened halfway when the voice reached her ears. It sounded so far away, yet the owner was so very close. Asking if he could help her. Could he? She sucked in a breath, along with the man's scent. He smelled like a Fforde. "I... I need... blood..." If this man was part of her family, he'd be able to hear her quite clearly--even though her voice weakened by the minute. "My name is E-Esperanza... I'm part of the Fforde family," came the soft murmur. "A... A guy sh-shot me... and another one... c-cut my stomach really bad..." Her eyes closed again. "I'm not s-sure how much blood I lost..."

The rain continued to drench them, and vaguely she wondered if vampires could go into shock from major blood loss. It was another thing she would have to ask Victor, or Jesse. Or anyone else. She supposed the nice thing about vampirism was that she couldn't get sick anymore. Small favors and all that. She tried rolling onto her back, but stopped once she got onto her uninjured side. The once white tank top was stained with blood and dirt.

Esperanza opened her eyes a little wider this time, deep blue gaze meeting his. "Rh.. Rhett... can you please take me b-back to Larch Court? I left my bag there, and..." Her voice trailed off, eyes closing once more. Everything seemed fuzzy at the moment. Hell, maybe she was just imagining this guy and his scent and was out here all alone. That didn't matter at the moment, however.

[Rhett Keyes]

Why was it every Fforde in town needed blood? "You're not going to ask for my blood, are you?" Rhett cracked a grim smile, thinking back to the night he bumped in to Jesse and how he needed blood too. "Kidding." Rhett reassured her before he looked over her wounds and assessed the woman known to him now as Esperanza. Again, he couldn't help but wonder when and why the city got so violent. Violence was on a rise, or so he saw in some paper at a news stand, as he walked to work a few weeks back.

"I got you." Rhett told her before he had a hand under the arm pit furthest from him, his arm resting on her back, and then his other arm under her knees. "I have a, uhm, well, time? Tame? Tome?" Yeah, that was what Jesse gave him. A tome. "Can I use it?" Rhett wasn't sure how these things worked. He always ended up at Larch Court and so did his clothes and anything he had in his pockets, but would she? "That takes me to Larch Court." Rhett added in, in case she wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"Good thing is, you'll live. Vampire and all." Rhett said as he hoisted Esperanza up off the ground and took to a standing position, finally. "Ready to see?" He hoped it worked. Larch Court was too far away and while she might not die from blood loss, and she wasn't all that heavy, Rhett couldn't very well walk around the city with a woman looking like this in his arms. Who knows what people might think? Who they might call. "Here we go." Rhett said as he looked over the tome, jumbled over the words and vanished to the place he always ended up at when he used the tome. Near a couch and surprisingly, this time, no one else around. He looked down in his arms to see the woman still there. "Well, that's handy." He said as he initially walked towards the couch. White. Bad idea. Very bad idea. "Is there a bed in this place?" Rhett hadn't really looked around the house before, because he didn't feel he could. It wasn't actually his house, even if he was part of the Fforde 'family,' now.

[Esperanza (DELETED 5865)]

Kidding, he said. Espy had to crack a smile at that. If he was joking, she knew everything would be fine. When Rhet picked her up she couldn't help but think how... nice... it felt to be in his arms, even though he was just being helpful. Then they were in the basement of Jesse's house, and he was asking about beds. She cleared her throat a couple times. "Uh. Yeah. There's some in the room where everyone hangs out. The room that has the basement stairs. And then at the top of those is another room that has beds." Her voice was hoarse. "As for blood, I'll be fine with a few heated blood packs," came the soft murmur. "I've never... um..." She trailed off.

She took a deep breath before continuing. "I haven't had blood from the neck, so... you don't have to worry about me trying to attack you or anything." A pause. "Not that I could, mind you. O-or would." Great. Now she was babbling and he probably thought she was a basket case. Maybe she could blame it on the heavy blood loss. Yeah. She could do that. "And if you need a first aid kit, I'm pretty sure there's one in the basement bathroom." Absently the small brunette thought stashing extra clothes here happened to be a very, very good idea. And hopefully there wouldn't be a need for him to help her change. How embarrassing.

"Oh.. and... it's okay if you explore the place. I did after Vic turned me. Did you know there's arcade games in the living room? I would've played but I'm not very good at them." Keep up the small talk, keep up the small talk. Don't let the awkward silence happen. But what else was there to talk about? They both knew how the weather was (absolutely terrible at the moment). Plus he was older than her. What could they possibly have in common. Then she remembered. "What'd you... what'd you do before you became a vampire? Something in a hospital, right?" she ventured, chewing nervously on her lip.

[Rhett Keyes]

She's babbling and Rhett just lets her. There's no need to interrupt. Some people were more at ease with babbling. It brought them a sense of security. If they could talk, then they would be alright. Not that he had any doubts that this woman would be fine, but it was pretty much human nature. To keep talking, moving or other things like that to show that someone was still with it and alive. Some of the guys at the station called it 'False Hope.' But Rhett was an optimist and never called someone a potential DoA until they were DoA.

Rhett doesn't answer Esperanza until he's put her down on a bed. The first location she gave him, only because it saved him time in looking for the other beds. "Paramedic." He says before Rhett disappears to get the kit she thought was in the bathroom. He doesn't explore around, because right now she needed to get attended to. And now that he was a vampire, he didn't see the need to rush anything. Unless it qualified as an emergency.

Rhett appears back with the kit. "I don't know Vic." Rhett admits, but since he was sure this was Jesse's place, he wasn't going to snoop in the guy's stuff. Sure, they were once friends and now Rhett was whatever to Jesse now that he was a vampire, but he wasn't the nosy sorts. "It's not all that great." Rhett muttered as he looked inside the kit to find gauze, medical tape and some antiseptic. "The blood from the neck bit. More trouble than it's worth." He said before he set the kit aside and had to go to the bathroom to get a wash cloth. He had hoped there was some rubbing alcohol in the kit, but that turned up empty. Rhett decided after this he would get a better kit for the house than what Jesse had. He returns with the wash cloth that was now warm and wet and kneels down beside the bed.

"I'm going to have to lift your shirt a little. Do I have your permission for that?" Rhett held up the wash cloth. "To wipe the area clean. This will only be a temporary fix, but I hear we heal fast. Stitches would be better, but we'll make do." He offered her a small smile and a nod of assurance.

[Esperanza (DELETED 5865)]

Could he lift her shirt? If Esperanza hadn't lost so much blood, her face would've been redder than a tomato at this point. She cleared her throat and nodded. "Yeah, it's cool. It makes a lot of sense, actually. I mean... you need to get to the.. um..." Annnd cue mental facepalm. "Yeah." The silence stretched for a bit, then she spoke again. "You don't know Vic, huh? I'm pretty sure he'd like you. He's a decent guy." Her eyes flicked to the ceiling. "I was human and injured, and he took me to the hospital. He could've turned me then and there. It must have been difficult for him, being around a heavily bleeding human. After I got out of the hospital, he took me in. I was so happy."

"Kenlie was so nice to me, even though she's a vampire." A soft sigh escaped. "Jesse could've killed me at anytime, but... he didn't. I was out late one night, and met him on the bridge. It's funny though. I felt safer with him because there were a lot of creeps out. He... he cared enough to get me home safely. I can't really remember our entire conversation. He seemed a little apologetic that I had to be turned, though." Her eyes slowly closed. "After Vic turned me, I didn't see him for a long while. So I went and killed things in the quarantine zone to deal with my anger."

"He finally showed up after a few more weeks, and he told me he'd needed some time to himself after turning me. I guess... it was difficult for him to turn me. Before all this happened he said I had the choice to either live in an apartment or disappear from Harper Rock." She clenched her fists. "I'd just found my new family, so... I chose to stay." One hand brushed the side of her neck, where Victor's fangs had left marks. "Being a vampire is great and all, but I miss the sun. I miss feeling it on my skin. At least I can still eat," she murmured.

[Rhett Keyes]

Shock. The lack of words and slow thought process indicated to Rhett that Esperanza was in some state of shock. He didn't interrupt when she started talking again, though. Her thoughts more concise than they had been a few seconds ago. He lifted her shirt and started to clean the area, after she gave him the permission Rhett sought. He was thorough, yet gentle as to not irritate a wound that was already heavily irritated.

"I don't know Kenlie either." Rhett finally said as he started getting out the tape and gauze he found in the bathroom. He wondered how old she was as he kept listening, figuring her for her early twenties. The way she dealt with things and the way she talked implied there was an age gap between the two of them.

"Why was it difficult?" He asked as Rhett put a large square shaped patch on the wound and started taping it. "Were you his first?" Rhett inclined his head in her direction, his eyes focused on her and not any characteristic about her body. That would be unprofessional, and while in this mode, Rhett was ever the professional. Not that he was interested in women. Or a woman. Or men. Definitely not any men. He just had other things to do and focus on. Or did. Now, he wasn't sure, but any form of relationship wasn't on his mind. Even if he had a half naked woman right in front of him.

[Esperanza (DELETED 5865)]

Why was it difficult?

Were you his first?

She let out a small breath. "It was difficult because I'm so young." Her eyes drifted shut. "Technically I'll be nineteen in October, but I'll be this way forever." Wasn't that a song? She couldn't remember the words to it. Just the "forever young" part. "I wasn't his first. My younger sibling Kaelyn--the girl who likes to watch movies a lot? She was turned first. So I guess she'd be considered my 'older' sibling." Esperanza sighed softly. "Kae and Vic have a very strained relationship. I'm just hoping it'll get better soon."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the small woman knew she'd be incredibly embarrassed under different circumstances. Another sigh huffed passed her lips. "Should I wait a little while to change? It's not like I'll get sick or anything. Just uncomfortable to lie around in wet, bloody, and muddy clothes." The bed sheets would have to be changed, but that had to wait. All she had to do was heal up. It would go faster if she drank blood. Absently she licked her slightly enlongated fangs.