Written for melissima's 2009 Halloween Challenge
Posted to numb3rs_slash


Title: Dying to Live (Prequel to Waking World)
Series/Universe: Waking World
Pairing/Characters: Don/Ian, David, OCs
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Sniper Zero
Summary: Don is dying so vampire Ian gives him a way to live - forever
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ


'Base to Eppes.'

Don lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth as he found a safe position to halt a moment in a thicket of trees on the mountainside.

"Eppes, over."

'Did Agent Edgerton reach your position yet?'

"Not yet." Don paused, listening, then checked his beacon tracker. Ian was closer than he thought, practically right on top of him, yet he'd heard nothing. He looked up in the darkness, seeing little in the moonlight night, but spotted Ian making himself visible by stepping out from behind a tree into Don's view. "Scratch that. He's here."

'Roger that.'

"Got to hand it to you, Eppes," Ian said as he approached. "You must be in good shape for a man your age to have gotten so far out I actually had to put some effort into catching up with you."

Don huffed out a breath. "Well, how about putting some effort into finding Statler. He is not getting away this time, so help me."

"You're on the right trail," Ian told him as he joined him. "When I arrived they showed me the last aerial shots they were able to get in before the sun went down and you were closing in on him. He can't have more than fifteen minutes on you at this point."

"Helicopter couldn't drop you closer to where he is?" Don asked.

"They couldn't even get me close to you," Ian scoffed. "There's no place to land for miles. They had to drop me via ladder just to get me close enough to catch up to you."

"Looks like we've got miles to go before we sleep then." Don patted Ian on the shoulder and they headed out, walking - guns drawn - through the woods, keeping a fast pace as they worked their way over rocks and fallen trees.

They traded off taking lead and when Ian went first he seemed to move tirelessly over the terrain, Don breathing heavily to keep up.

Ian gestured for them to split, to take opposite sides of a rare small clearing rather than go through the middle and be out in the open. Don worked his way around only to find Ian waiting impatiently at the other end.

They crossed into an area that had likely been hit with a forest fire years earlier as all the trees were new and green and far smaller than the well established trees surrounding them. The cover was less, but the visibility was better.

Ian stopped him with a gesture and pointed out a broken sapling in the path: they were right behind him.

The rush of finally catching up to the killer Don had been after for weeks fueled him and his step quickened along with his heart rate.

The first shot rang out in the night air, shocking both of them: Statler had doubled back and ambushed them from behind.

Ian went down and Don whirled around, firing into the night as bullets impacted: one, two, three.

He heard Ian return fire and then silence.

The moon was full and white in the sky and it took Don a moment to realize he was on his back in the grass, staring up at the treetops.

"Don!" Ian's worried face appeared above him and he dimly remembered taking two to the vest. He still hurt there, beneath where the impacts were. "Damn," Ian whispered, pulling out a bandana and pressing it against Don's neck.

All of a sudden it hurt - bad. Don recoiled, but Ian pressed him down to still him.

"He got you in the neck," Ian told him. "It's bad; it looks like he hit your artery." Ian's stern face became slightly blurry in his vision. "No way a helicopter can get you out in time."

"I'm going to die here." Saying it out loud should have helped Don understand what was happening, accept it, but the words just rang hollow and meaningless in the suddenly chilly air.

"Yes." Ian never sugarcoated anything in his career and that, more than anything, hit Don hard. He was dying, he had seconds left.

Charlie… He flailed, railing against the injustice of his death, at the loss of the one person who really knew him in life, for fear that this might be the thing to make Charlie cross over the line of emotional stability, one he could never come back from.

"I can't…" Don faltered, words becoming difficult to form. "I can't leave Charlie. He needs me. I need him."

"I'll look after him," Ian assured him. "He'll be fine, in time."

"No, you don't understand. It's not what you think." Don coughed and tasted blood in his mouth. "I love him… He loves me…"

Ian looked at him strangely, more emotional than Don had ever seen him.

"Do you love him enough to die for him?" Ian asked.

"Yes," Don said without hesitation. "I'd do anything for Charlie. Anything."

Ian took a deep breath. "I can save you, Don. But you'd have to give up everything but Charlie - your father, your career…"

"I don't care!" Don railed, the effort costing him dearly. "Charlie needs me!"

Ian closed his eyes for a moment.

"Forgive me," he murmured under his breath.

Don's eyes fell closed as his strength began to fade away. Ian lifted him up in his arms, cradling him so he was half sitting up, then he felt a sharp pain where his neck was injured. His life started draining from him rapidly now and he tried to form a picture of Charlie in his mind to take with him into death.

"I'm sorry," he managed to whisper. "Tell Charlie I love him."

He tasted blood on his lips and heard a far away voice that sounded too unnatural to be Ian's.

"Tell him yourself."

And then the darkness devoured him.

+

Ian laid Don's body back down on the ground, checking to make sure the twin puncture wounds were well hidden in the mess Statler's bullet had made of Don's neck.

He spent a few seconds looking down at Don, indulging in a moment of grief for all that Don had lost, a moment of nostalgia for all he had lost when he had died himself.

Then he pulled out a satellite phone from his backpack and set it up to make a call.

"It's Ian," he said when the call connected. "I need to speak to him now. It's urgent." He waited a few seconds for the phone to be handed to the one being who could help him. "Sire?" Ian relaxed at the sound of the voice, the one that had been there for him when he first awoke from the sleep of death, the one who would be there for him forever. "I know I told you I had no desire to make myself a childe and I know you said I should contact you if I ever planned to make a human into one of us…" Ian looked down at Don, a fondness in his eyes he'd never allowed Don to see in life. "But let's just say this one was unplanned. I need your help."

+

After the satellite phone call the difficult task of informing the team fell to him. Ian pulled out his walkie-talkie and radioed into base.

"Edgerton to Base."

'Base over. We heard gunshots, what happened?'

"Put Agent Sinclair on."

After a few seconds, David's voice came on the line.

'This is David. Ian, what happened?'

"Statler is dead," Ian told him. "And so is Don." Most of David's anguish was lost in static, but Ian still heard enough to feel it kick him in the gut. "You're in charge now. I need you to tell the team, send out a team to our location to recover the bodies and whatever you do? Do not tell Don's family."

'Why not? They deserve to know!'

"Because they need to hear it from me. Edgerton out."

He put the walkie-talkie aside and settled in for his vigil.

Don's lips were still stained with Ian's blood from making him drink, so he wiped it away with the pad of his thumb. Don's taste was still in his mouth and he savored it, even though he knew he didn't have to commit it to memory. He'd made Don. Don would be a part of him now for eternity.

Don looked ghostly pale in the bright white of the moonlight and Ian leaned down to press a kiss to his motionless lips.

"I could never have you as a man," he murmured, "but as a vampire, I can."

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