[CoH] Riot Red: The wolf at the door...

The emergency room team at the hospital in Galaxy City doesn't even blink when Latch carries Angelica in with Larina behind him. When Fedelitas carries Soricidae through the doors. They jump to help them then flinch back from Red and the warwolf in her arms.

"You can't bring that in here," a nervous looking receptionist tells Red.

"The fuck I can't. Do something for her."

"Th-that's a ..."

"A hero," Red snaps. "Now help her."

The woman shudders, motions an orderly over, and flees. "I'll take care of her," the orderly says and for a moment Red isn't certain that he's not talking about the receptionist until he smirks and says, "But you'll have to put her down first." He gestures toward the gurney and Red reluctantly puts Fiona down. The orderly straps her down and looks at Red. "You look as beat up under that armor as you do where it doesn't cover?"

"I'm fine."

He rolls his eyes, shakes his head, mutters, "Stubborn heroes," as he pushes the gurney toward the ER.

Red takes a slow, deep breath and sits down, closes her eyes.

#

"Red?"

Red opens her eyes slowly then sits straight up. What the hell is she doing falling asleep like that. In public. In a hospital. She looks up at Larina who's standing wide-eyed over her. "They brought everyone to a room."

"How's Shelley?"

Larina says, "Fine. She's sleeping, but she'll be okay."

Red nods slowly. "Fi?"

Larina glances at the soda machine. "You want anything?"

Red shakes her head and pushes herself to her feet, ignores the ache in her muscles as she walks over to the desk. "Where'd they put the wolf?"

"Are you family?" It's a different receptionist and Red wonders how long she was out.

Red rests her hands against the counter and looks down at him. He sinks down into his chair. "What room is she in?"

He squeaks the room number and Red stalks to the elevators, Larina following behind her reassuring her that Fiona was fine, really, just a little unhappy about being in the hospital.

Unhappy is an understatement. Fiona is strapped a little more firmly to the hospital bed than she was to the gurney. She's also awake, feral eyes taking in her surroundings.

Red takes a deep breath as she opens the door to the room, whispers, "Fi?"

The growling starts.

"Hey, hotstuff, I know you're in there." And Red realizes, as she speaks the words while she's walking over to the bed, how much like Latch she sounds. The emotional side of her wants to say that this is different, that she knows Fiona is still in there, beneath the growling and the snarling muzzle. The business-as-usual side just laughs because Latch was pretty certain Angelica was still in there, too, and Red didn't believe him.

Red sighs and touches Fiona's cheek. "C'mon back, Fi."

For a moment, the wolf is compliant, calm, and then she snaps, motion quick enough that Red couldn't have jerked away had she been inclined to do so. The sharp teeth close on her hand, catch the side of her finger. There's pain, blood. Larina gasps and Red keeps her gaze locked on Fiona's. She nods slightly, hand held still, Fi's breath hot against her skin and over her fingerless glove. "Do what you need to do, Fi."

They stay like that for entirely too long, long enough for Larina to say nervously, "Getting a soda from the machine. Want anything?" her gaze locked on Red's hand in Fiona's muzzle.

"Snickers bar," Red says, just to get Larina out of there.

Larina darts out of the room and Red's gaze never leaves Fiona's. Slowly Fi opens her mouth. Red draws her hand back slowly, blood running down her fingers, dripping onto the floor. Red keeps her gaze on Fiona, though. She'll deal with her hand later.

"Everything's going to be okay, Fi. We'll figure out how Requiem did this to you, and find a way to get you back." Fiona shakes her head slightly then snarls as Larina comes back in, says, "Snickers bar!" Red holds her uninjured hand out for the candy and Larina gasps again.

"Your hand," Larina says.

"Hmm?"

"You're bleeding." Mistress of the obvious.

"I know."

Fiona closes looks around the room, eyes half-closed. She's looking for something. Taking the room in. She may be wild, but there's enough intelligence in there to look for a way out of a trap. "Just relax, hotstuff. We'll figure this out," Red says.

"Give me your hand," Larina says. Red holds out the candybar and Larina sighs. "The other one."

Red holds out her other hand and Larina closes her tiny, cold hands around it. The chill sinks through her hand, turns warm somewhere below the surface, and the warmth spreads back up to her skin.

"You'll want to wash the blood off," Larina says.

Red nods, flexes her hand absently, and keeps her gaze on Fiona. "Thank you."

Larina fidgets, then says, "I'm going to go check on Angelica."

Angelica. Red takes a deep breath, nods. "I'll be there in a little while."

Red stays with Fi until she falls asleep, and even then, she's not certain she wants to leave. Fiona's posture, even in sleep, screams of a trapped animal waiting for a chance to escape. Red only hopes no one gets hurt in the process: hospital staff, or Fiona.

As soon as Fi's body relaxes into real sleep, Red heads down the hallway to Angelica's room. She's awake on the bed, deep in conversation with Latch and Larina. Red pokes her head in, says, "Hope I'm n--"

"Red!" Angelica leaps from the bed and wraps her arms around Red in a tight, enthusiastic hug.

The thoughts that run through Red's head are totally inappropriate to the time and place and she takes a slow breath, wraps her arms around Angelica a little more reservedly and says, "Good to see you're okay, Angelcakes."

Angelica blushes a little and sits back down on the bed.

Red glances at Latch, then Angelica. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay before I hit the street to see what I can find out from the Council about their warwolves."

"Warwolves?" Angelica asks.

Red nods and Latch asks, "How's Fi?"

"Sleeping," Red says. "For now."

Latch nods and Angelica turns her confused expression from Red to Latch. "What happened to Fi."

Red smirks. "I'll let you explain." She turns and pauses at the door, glances over her shoulder. "Latch?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry I didn't trust you." Red grips the doorframe, opens the door, and stalks out.

#

Red presses her lips together and Ashwan looks away. "Look," Red says. "You know about the Council. Just tell me who I need to talk to, and I'll leave you alone. I've done more than enough errands for you..."

"Sorry, Red, I don't know who's got the dirt on the warwolf program."

Red slowly curls both hands into fists. There's a scar on her finger where Fiona's teeth sunk in, and she's got bruises under her armor, still. "Look, there are some things that happen in this city that you probably don't want your family to have to worry about. Like whether or not the kid down the street's going to go out to play baseball one afternoon and come back a warwolf."

Ashwan flinches. She caught him with that dig. Caught him in a way she might not have any other way. He closes his eyes, sighs. "Fine." He takes a notepad from his pocket, scribbles a name and an address and hands the page to her without looking at her. "You go down there, you might jeopardize some of the things Hero Corp has in the works."

Red takes the paper, looks at it to get the address and the name, then crumples it, tucks it into a compartment in her armor. "If they're not trying to find out how these warwolves get made..."

"They're not."

"Then what I want to know from these people is more important. Because if they can make them, they've got to have the data that'll let someone unmake them, even if they don't know how to do it themselves."

"Red..."

"And then the kid down the block's nice and safe."

He looks away and crosses his arms over his chest. "Do what you need to do Red. Just leave my name out of it if the shit hits the fan."

Red smiles. "I'll do what I need to as well as I can. And I don't even know your name."

"Thank you," he whispers softly.

Red hops on her motorcycle and opens a comm channel to Larina's frequency. "How d'you feel about a game of twenty questions with the Council about their warwolf program?"

"Um, sure, I can help!"

"Good." Red gives her the address. "Meet me there in twenty." She revs the bike's engine, leans forward over the tank and weaves between the cars, looking like an even crazier driver than the rest of Paragon City's drivers appear to be.