you're gonna love tomorrow, i'm making it my personal guarantee

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[swillpot]

[His eyes widen after a moment, like oh. You don't know.]

Original vampires. Original hybrid in Klaus's case, but the rest of them are the first vampires.

[illtempered]

So. Old. ( Big and bad. He nods. ) I'm new. Lydia and me - we fell in with Damon. Everyone. And now Stiles is dead.

( But, Lydia felt something. )

[swillpot]

[Alexander's face skews sympathetic. It's not the first person who's died on this crusade, but he knows that it hits close to home for Jackson. Alexander's peripherally aware of Stiles - you can't know Scott and not hear about Stiles - but not enough to be rattled by the death.]

I'm sorry. About Stiles.

[illtempered]

Thanks. He's in transition. He gets to decide.

( To be a vampire or to not be a vampire. He's not familiar with any of this. He doesn't understand. And, man he's usually more alluring than this. )

I'm better with men when people aren't freshly dead.

[swillpot]

[Alexander shakes his head.]

Don't worry about it. It just means you get to make it up to me later.

[He's not going to judge you for not being on your A-game when your friend is dead.]

Let's just get you to the hospital and we'll figure it out from there.

[illtempered]

Yeah.

( He climbs into Alexander's car, the likes of which Jackson does not make commentary toward.

And he quickly sends Lydia a message. )

Getting a ride to the hospital. )

You're good. At the witch stuff. I wouldn't have thought about what I am to Derek. Even if I don't see him as my alpha.

( And couldn't, literally, since he is no longer an alpha. )

[swillpot]

Yeah, well, everything supernatural is about bloodlines. Vampires have the same thing. It's just a matter of applying the right knowledge in the right place.

[Lydia's response is a perfunctory Okay probably generated by her suggested responses. She's still a little shell shocked, but she'll be glad to see him.]

[illtempered]

Knowledge, I get.

( This race, this - fight. He doesn't always. He could lie low, move somewhere else and live out the rest of his days. But, Ethan wanted to join the fight, and he hadn't. And then McCall had approached him himself. Maybe he was becoming a hero. )

What was it like? Growing up a witch?

[swillpot]

A lot like growing up human, only I had extra homework to do when I got home. I hear there are some witches that let their kids be normal kids and keep it a secret, but that wasn't really my experience.

[He didn't have Bonnie Bennett's life. But he also doesn't want Bonnie Bennett's life.]

[illtempered]

You knew from the beginning?

( From a kid on. He can only imagine being born a werewolf. Or, fuck, a half kanima/half werewolf. )

I asked for the bite. Forced Derek Hale to give it to me.

[swillpot]

How'd that work out for you?

[Because he's not completely unaware of the kanima lurking under the surface. He was channeling him - he'd have to be dumb to miss it.]

[illtempered]

Intensive therapy.

( Does that tell you? He can't quite tell him that the bite twisted him into the person he was. That he killed and didn't remember doing it. That he was some skeezy photographer's slave. )

I wouldn't take it back.

[swillpot]

Then that's all that matters. Life's always going to give us regrets, but better for it not to be the big ones. Especially one that leaves you stuck as something you don't want to be.

[Vampires who hate being vampires? They're the ones who tend to do the most damage.]

[illtempered]

I wanted it. Maybe not how it happened. But, I asked. I forced it.

( He lives with the consequences. )

I don't regret.

[swillpot]

Then I admire your perspective.

[If that's just a general not regretting or regretting this specific moment.]

Not everyone can do that easily.

[illtempered]

It wasn't.

( This is the deepest conversation he's had in months, outside of check-ins with Lydia. And late night conversations with Ethan, who he'll always love. )

[swillpot]

Then good for you.

[He smirks a bit as he pulls into the hospital parking lot, and sliding up to the door so that Jackson can get out.]

You good from here? I know you said you wanted me to stick around, but I've got some calls to make.

[From the parking lot.]

I'll come in once I'm done.

[illtempered]

Yeah, I'll manage.

Hey, Alex.

( He leans forward, then, still in the front seat, but already having unbuckled his seatbelt. He brings his face close, and kisses him as a thank you.

Hopefully... he wants to be kissed. )

[swillpot]

[Oh, he does. He responds in kind, one hand moving to curl around the front of his shirt to keep him close, but eventually he pulls back, holding up a finger.]

We will come back to that when everything isn't on fire.

[illtempered]

( With Dean taking Sam around the corner, Jackson says 'see ya,' to Alexander.

Coming up to the nurse's station with his back to Lydia and the women, Jackson asks the nurse about - )

Elena ...

( What's her last name. )

Gilbert. Or, Stiles. Stilinski?

[beanchaointe]

Jackson!

[Lydia moves down the hallway the moment she sees him, not wanting him to waste time with the nurses when she's right there.]

We're over here.

[illtempered]

Lydia.

( Before they go over there, he wraps her up in a tight, protective hug. )

[beanchaointe]

[Which she will take because she honestly needs it. As mad as Dean's statements had made her, she tends to run cold, not hot. She wraps her arms around him just as tightly, keeping him close.]

I'm okay.

[Physically, anyway.]

[illtempered]

( He knows she's physically okay. )

You were in an accident?

[beanchaointe]

[She nods.]

They t-boned us right off the road. And then they tried for overkill with guns.