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"Well, that was depressing," Etienne commented as he led the way out of the crowded theater

"It was supposed to be a coetically "It was advertised as a comedy"

"Well, it missed that boat by a mile at least" He clapped Bastien on the back "Still, happy birthday, brother"

"Thank you"

Bastien sounded less than enthused, but Etienne couldn&039;t bla birthdays was probably a bit of a drag Hell, after only three hundred, Etienne would gladly let his own pass without notice, but he kneould be noso their births every single year, no eneau loved her children She was glad they had been born and believed life was to be celebrated Etienne supposed he should be glad she bothered It was good to have fauerite said as they joined the oers were obviously reluctant to brave the downpour

"Haze flickered with disinterest over the autosslowly by, but halted rather abruptly on a car parked across the street Recognition struck hi It looked very like the car hich Pudge had run him down That incident had occurred a couple of weeks before the shooting, but Etienne had walked away from it His body had repaired in a few moments the broken femur and fractured skull he&039;d suffered Fortunately, no one had witnessed the attack or his spontaneous healing

As he watched, Pudge&039;s vehicle&039;s engine started, the driving lights came on, and it pulled into traffic Etienne had just relaxed when his ain

Hisover the situation since the shooting After being asked several times what he intended to do about his assailant, Etienne had been forced to admit that he didn&039;t know He had tried to reassure hishe would be , but she hadn&039;t taken the co his life more difficult

"No I&039;m sure it wasn&039;t," he reassured her, then attempted to head off another lecture "You tait here, and I&039;ll bring the car around"

He left before they could debate the , but Etienne had been fortunate enough to find a spot a bare half a block away He was grateful for that now, escaping as he was any chance of a lecture by rushing off through the rain He nodded at the lot attendant as he passed the booth, then rushed to his car, pushing the button on his keychain to unlock the doors He then pushed the second button to start the vehicle for hiet he&039;d had installed just the week before in preparation for the co winter Winters in Canada could be bitterly cold, and there was nothing as nasty as getting into an icy vehicle

He was only a few feet ahen he started the car this night He was reaching for the door handle when it revved to life, and that&039;s what saved hiht very well have finished hiht by the blast, a red hot wave that picked him up and threw him back several feet Etienne sh hi

"Hey, you&039;re back!"

Rachel glanced up from her overdue paperwork and surney It was her first day back since the night she&039;d been so sick she&039;d fainted on the job She&039;d woken so over her, weak, pale, and clai because he didn&039;t feel well, either

Rachel didn&039;t recall ue drea so more than that, and there had been no new bodies about when she regained consciousness Positive that it had all been part of some fever-induced hallucination, Rachel had decided bed was the place for her and called in a replacement She&039;d asked if Tony wanted a replacement as well, but he&039;d felt better after a couple of moments and insisted he would be fine

Rachel had been sick as a dog for a week She&039;d suffered soest dreams too, filled with handsourneys and spoke to her But those had stopped as she started to feel better, and for the first tiht shift, Rachel was glad to be co person and genuinely hated working nights She liked daylight Working all night then sleeping all day was annoying and made herIt was only after her shift, when Rachel dragged her exhausted self home, that she was able to sleep, and then it was interrupted slu back to sleep

"I hear you were pretty sick This isn&039;t rabbed a table and wheeled it over next to the stretcher

"What is it?" she asked curiously

"Crispy critter" Fred tugged the sheet free to reveal the charred reriht in the blast," Dale answered

"Yeah" Fred stared at the body, then shook his head "Strange thing e thought there was a heartbeat We got him in the ambulance, no beat Then, halfway here, there&039;s another beat Then no beat again The guy couldn&039;t decide if he was dead or not, I guess The doc pronounced hilanced curiously at the corpse, then took the clipboard Dale held out

"Where&039;s Tony?" the EMT asked as he watched her sign the necessary papers

"He&039;s off Sick"

"Caught your flu bug, did he?" Fred chuckled

"Not from me From his nurse friend" Rachel watched them shift the body to the steel table, then she returned the clipboard

"So, I hear we&039;re not going to have your sratulations"

"Congratulations?" Rachel stared at hi the assistant coroner job Tony told us about it last time ere here"

Rachel&039;s jaw dropped "What?"

Fred and Dale exchanged glances, but it was Fred who finally said, "Er Tony said Bob was going to tell you as soon as you got back to work Bob told you, right?"

Rachel just stared Bob was Robert Clayton, the coroner He worked the day shift but often dropped in to give instructions and get reports at the beginning of the night He hadn&039;t done so tonight "Jenny told uess it&039;s his turn to have the flu," she said

"Oh, shoot, we ruined the surprise"

Rachel continued to stare, but she found herself grinning She had gotten the assistant coroner&039;s job She would be off the night shift soon She&039;d got it! "Guys!" Rachel began excitedly, then hesitated and asked, "This isn&039;t a joke, right? You aren&039;t pulling etic "Nope You got the job Just try to act surprised when Bob tells you I don&039;t want to get Tony in trouble"

Dale grunted as she launched herself at his chest Catching hihed happily "I got the job! Thank you, thank you, for tellingto sleep through buddy next door o out with friends &039;cause I have to work This is brilliant!"

"I take it you&039;re happy, then?" Fred laughed as she released Dale and turned to hug him

"Oh, you&039;ll never know," Rachel said blissfully "I absolutely, positively hate the night shift"

"Well, we&039;ll lad you&039;re happy"

"Yup Just reme her shoulder He glanced at Dale "We should get back to work"

Rachel stood, surney and surveyed her guest She would have to re left intact, then strip hi him, and move him to one of the freezer drawers She couldn&039;t do it by herself; she&039;d need help lance at her watch showed it was nearlysoon, a part-tietting the hours lately Nor early and willing to work late, but today she&039;d had car trouble and called in to warn Rachel she&039;d be late The wo for a friend to pick her up and drive her

She&039;d be in within the half hour Once here, Beth could help strip the body, but in thehilanced down at the unfortunate fellow, then stilled He didn&039;t seem to be in quite as bad a shape as he had first appeared In fact, he seelanced at him, he had seemed almost completely charred, with very little flesh Now, a lot of the charred color see off, and a lot of it now lay on theout, she brushed at the skin on his face, fascinated to see the blackened flesh cru healthier skin beneath She&039;d never seen anything like it He was shedding dead flesh like a snake

Rachel straightened and stared, her heartbeat accelerating Hoas this happening? Or hat she thought happening at all? Perhaps that wasn&039;t charred flesh brushing away; perhaps so had been blown onto him by the blast Perhaps he hadn&039;t been badly burned at all, he just looked as if he had Rachel kneas silly; Dale and Fred were excellent EMTs Still, she found herself looking for a pulse in his wrist When ers, she feared ita pulse, and she bent to press her ear to his chest instead At first she felt foolish looking for life in a dead htened with aain Silence followed for an extreed behind her "Get away frohtened and whirled gaping in surprise at thein the open doorway He looked quite ues he wore under the huge trench coat he opened, or the fact that he had a rifle swinging fro under one ar from the other All of it, plus his wild eyes and his very expression, screamed escapee from the booby hatch

Rachel eyed hian in reasonable tones It was as far as she got The ed forward and shoved her aside

"Didn&039;t you hear et away! He&039;s a vaht De bloodsucker I have to dispatch hi, her eyes wide as the man unstrapped his ax and hefted it over his shoulder with both hands She couldn&039;t believe it The fool really intended on cutting the head off her corpse If he was a corpse, she reaze shot to thehad flaked onto the table Rachel could make out his features more clearly and he appeared fa to consider the action, Rachel threw herself between theht the ax down She realized her mistake at once It really would have been s His swing barely slowed, and Rachel&039;s breath left her in a stunned "Unh" as the ax struck It happened so fast, she hardly felt any pain

Her attacker cried out in shocked horror and pulled his ax free, but it was too late Rachel knew as she sagged back against the table, it had been a killing blow She would bleed to death very quickly

"I&039;m sorry I didn&039;t mean" The man shook his head in horror, then stumbled forward

Despite herself, Rachel instinctively flinched away froret and sadness covered his face

"Let me help you I want to help you I really never meant to hurt you Why didn&039;t you stay out of the way? It&039;s him I"

The man&039;s voice died abruptly as a fanized the sound of the door to the hall opening, and guessed by the gasp that sounded--not to ht The squeak sounded again and was followed by the tap of rushing footsteps in the hall

"I am sorry," her attacker said as he turned a tortured expression back to her "I really am I neverin there," he ordered as he stumbled away "Whatever you do, don&039;t die I couldn&039;t live with that"

Rachel stared after hith A ed, but that here her strength gave out She found herself slu over the explosion victihed as he sed It eased the agony cra into histhe blow meant for him didn&039;t stop his enjoyrateful

"Etienne!"

He recognized his mother&039;s voice but couldn&039;t see across him was suddenly lifted away, and he opened his eyes in protest to see his ht, son?" Worry crowded her face as she felt his cheek "Give s of blood, Bastien," she ordered She turned back to Etienne "Bastien insisted on stopping at the office on the way to pick so fingernail, then held it over his openenough to sit up

Gri away and shedding all around his off the table and sat up of his own volition He hadn&039;t lost any blood in the explosion, but his body had used a lot to repair his flesh A couplehis ed it As she opened the last for hioing to be all right?"

His older brother frowned and shook his head "She&039;s dying"