𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 - the devils duo

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𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍. 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 all the Hale could feel, her abdomen ached in pure agony. She could feel the wolfsbane clawing its way through her blood in hopes to reach her heart. Her limbs were stiff and her throat felt like she had swallowed copious amounts of glass.

She could hear Jessica, Matthew, and Luke talking in hushed, worried tones just a hair away from her. As she finally felt herself regain full consciousness she groaned, it was hoarse and low but the others heard.

Jessica rushed over, standing next to the table her friend had been placed on. When she had finally been allowed to leave the interrogation room, she had sprinted to make sure that Olivia was okay, and to her horror, her friend was sprawled out on a table, blood pooling beneath her and littering her skin. Worst of all, a slice going straight through her stomach, and it wasn't healing. She didn't know what to do as she paced, fearing the worst.

Thankfully, not long after, Luke had found his way to them and kept the P.I from doing anything drastic. Roughly ten minutes later the lawyer had made his way to the group, the scent of blood and... something else hitting his nose.

He questioned the two, wondering what the hell had happened, though none of them knew; they had been down for the count. Slowly, but surely, the wolf's heart rate and breathing were becoming slower, her breaths coming out in crackly huffs.

"Liv?" Jessica questioned quietly, as she looked her friend over, trying her best not to stare at the hole in the woman's stomach.

"Hey, Jess." Olivia breathed, a small cough interrupting her words.

Olivia swallowed as she opened her eyes to the blinding light, Jessica's face coming into view, showing the wolf just how worried she had been. The wolf groaned in pain; her eyes slamming shut as another wave of pain radiated from her stomach.

Matt made his way over to the girls, Luke following with a frown as he did. The vigilante could tell that blood was still freely flowing from her open wound, and from what Jessica had told him, she should have healed by now. "What happened?"

The wolf huffed a laugh as she panted through the pain. "Your wonderful ex stuffed me with wolfsbane."

"Wolfsbane?"

Olivia grit her teeth as she tried to push herself up, despite the protests of the others. Her arms shook underneath her weight and eventually crumbled, sending her back against the table with a 'thud'.

"Turn me over."

Jessica sent her friend a weary nod, slowly sliding her arms underneath the wolf and carefully turning her so that she was lying on her front.

Olivia puffed out a pained breath with every movement. "There's wolfsbane... inside of the wound, you need to get it out... it's stopping me from healing."

Jessica held her breath as she reached for the hem of her friend's bloodied and torn t-shirt. She lifted it as carefully as she could, seeing Olivia tremble in pain the more she tugged. The P.I and Luke grimaced as the skin surrounding the wound was revealed; her skin had black veins spreading from the hole the blade had made, the blood that had been spewing from the wolf had also turned a deep onyx color.

Matt could tell that neither Jess nor Luke wanted to dig around in whatever monstrosity was on the women's back, so he stepped forward. "I'll do it."

The wolf let out a sound of what he presumed to be agreeance and took Jessica's spot. He quickly discarded his blazer, leaving him in a 'NYPD' shirt, he could only imagine the comment the wolf would have given him for his attire, had she been conscious.

Olivia winced as Matt's cold hands carefully examined the wound, she inhaled a large breath and nodded as he asked if she was ready. It took all of her remaining strength not to howl out in pure agony as Matt pushed a finger inside of the wound, searching for the poison that had rendered her useless.

After a moment or so of digging, Matt finally found what he had been looking for, he slowly pulled out the small and purple flower, frowning as the wolf's skin sizzled each time a petal brushed her.

"Jesus Christ." Jessica murmured. Olivia had briefly mentioned the word 'Wolfsbane' but had never taken the time to explain it fully, not that Jessica had been interested at the time, after all, who would've thought that a tiny flower could do that.

Olivia closed her eyes, taking a second to focus on her rapidly depleting breathing. Her body still wasn't healing and she could still feel the fire coursing through her veins.

Luke took a step forward, eyeing the wound on the women's back as he did, nothing happened, small trickles of black liquid still flowed and the hole wasn't getting any smaller. "Why aren't you healing?"

"It's- It's still in my blood. My body thinks the wolfsbane is still there because there are traces in my blood still... You need to convince my body that it can heal me." Olivia forced out with a choke.

"How do we do that?"

Olivia closed her eyes as a pained sigh passed through her lips. There was only one way to convince her body to begin the healing process; pain. Her body knew that it couldn't heal the wound with wolfsbane it in, and therefore, gave up. If another part of her body was injured, say a broken arm, her body could heal it and re-trigger the healing process which would also cleanse her blood, forcing every ounce of wolfsbane out of her. "Pain."

Jessica gave her friend a weary look. "Pain?"

Olivia held her arms out. "Jess, Luke, grab my arms."

The two did as they were told, both skeptical of what they were about to do.

"You need to break my arms. It's the only way."

"I- Liv, I can't do that," Luke muttered with the shake of his head. There was no way he, nor Jessica for that matter, could stand there and snap their friend's arms.

Matt sighed as he tilted his head. "If it's the only way, you better hurry, her breathing is getting worse."

Thankfully the two listened to him and gave the woman a count down, allowing her a second to prepare herself for the pain about to come.

The second Jessica and Luke jolted their hands, the wolf's bones shattered, a ground-shaking and agonizing roar left the women's lips causing Matt to recoil and cover his hears.

Olivia had tears running down her face as her body forced her bones to snap into place, her body jerking as they did. She could slowly feel the hole through her abdomen begin to close and finally, she could breathe again.

Matt moved closer as the woman tried to push herself up and helped her as best as he could. Olivia exhaled a breath of relief as she looked down to her stomach, it was covered in black blood, but the wound and the creeping coal colored veins had vanished. Thank God.

"What the holy hell was that?" Jessica breathed as she quickly grabbed the shirt Misty had left -one exactly the same as Matt's- and tossed it to her friend who caught it with ease.

"Wolfsbane." Olivia spoke as she quickly took off her shirt and swapped it with the 'NYPD' shirt, though not without scrunching her nose up at it first, seriously? Could they not just offer a black shirt instead of a dark blue with yellow writing, hideous. "Poisonous to werewolves."

"Poisonous? They were trying to kill you?" Luke spoke, anger beginning to lace his words.

Olivia chuckled as she shakily stood from the table, leaning against it. "Probably."

The wolf frowned as her stomach twisted, a sickly feeling crept up her throat. Ah, her body must have finally begun to cleanse her blood of the remaining wolfsbane and was ready to eject it.

Olivia internally groaned and quickly rushed over to the small blue plastic bin hiding in the corner of the room, ignoring the raised brow on Jessicas face as black blood forced its way out of her mouth and into the bin.

"You okay?" Matt called over, ignoring the scoff and the sarcastic comment Jessica directed towards him.

Olivia lifted her head, Luke's face scrunching up at the sight of the black liquid dribbling down her chin and the small splatters that decorated her cheeks and forehead. She took a deep breath. "Fantastic."

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Misty had come into the room shortly after, Olivia definitely catching the 'discrete' grimace the woman had directed towards her. Sure, she may not have looked like a model in that moment, what with black liquid dripping down her chin, blood, both red and black marring her limbs, her hair a mess and a 'NYPD' shirt engulfing her frame, even so, rude.

Olivia listened as best as she could to what the woman was saying, but she couldn't ignore the fact that her stomach was swirling like a washing machine.

Misty glanced back towards the messy brunette as she groaned and held her stomach in pain. Now, everyone at the precinct knew who she was but not what. What they did know, was that the woman had super strength like her partner in crime, but could also heal herself, that was it. Exactly why they had dumped her onto a table rather than calling an ambulance, thinking that the stab wound would disappear in a puff of smoke.

That is exactly what Olivia had allowed them to believe, after all, it was true, believable and stopped them from digging further. Most of those who worked within the precinct already held disdain towards 'supers' let alone a God damn werewolf. Which was exactly why the wolf thought it best that she withheld some of the truth, but not all.

Olivia had inwardly thanked every person she had ever met when Misty had told her she could do whatever she needed to do in the bathroom before joining herself, Captain Strieber and the others at the Captain's desk.

Olivia took the offer and made her way to the toilets as fast as her shaky legs would carry her. She stared in the mirror and what a sight she saw, blood smeared across her cheeks, black liquid coating her lips and chin and a bird's nest of hair perched on her head.

With a sigh, the Hale scooped up her hair in one hand and brought it to the back of her head, tying it with the frayed hairband that had been resting on her wrist. She turned on the tap and scrubbed her face with the cold water, watching as it turned a grimy wine color before flowing down the drain. The wolf then gathered some paper towels and ran them under the water briefly before pulling up her shirt and wiping away the mess of black that had spilled from her previous wound.

She felt better. Well, about as good as she could feel at that time. The Hale grasped the hem of the large shirt that reached her knees and quickly tied it into a knot, her stomach showing slightly over the top of her high rise, torn black jeans.

Satisfied that she looked at least mildly presentable rather than looking like an extra from a horror movie, she tossed the paper towels away, turned off the sink, and made her way out of the bathroom.

As the wolf passed by one of the rooms, she heard her name being called out by a mildly familiar voice, as she turned, her brows furrowed, Foggy Nelson and Karen Page stood before her.

The Foggy and Karen she had once saved.

Hew frown deepened as she quickly entered the room in hopes of avoiding Misty. "What are you two doing here?"

A relieved smile appeared on Karen's lips. "You remember us?"

Over a year ago, before she had even met Jessica, Olivia had been on her way back to the hotel after picking herself up her never-changing order of sweet and sour chicken and a pack of beer when she had seen a group of about four large men following the two people in front of them, a rather tall and thin blonde-haired woman and a shorter man.

She had kept herself on the opposite side of the road, able to keep an eye on both parties. The pair in front must have caught on to the fact that they were being followed and had begun to take every right turn. Olivia watched on as the pair stopped and turned, they had taken four right turns and were now standing right where they had started.

The four men made their way closer, spitting slurs and rude comments with every step they took. The man stepped forward, a hand in front of the blonde woman as he insisted that if the group let them be, there would be no trouble.

The men had ignored him and quickly pushed him to the side, snapping the wolf into action.

Olivia had raced forward and placed herself in front of the blonde woman before she cocked her head towards the man they had pushed. "You should listen to him."

"You can join us, sweetheart." The biggest man had slurred, alcohol lacing his words, making the wolf grimace.

Without bothering to reply, Olivia had thrown her fist forward, sending the man flying backward and slamming to the ground unconscious. The other drunk men all took their turns to throw punches towards the brunette who quickly made easy work of them and sent them all to the ground with large bruises on their faces.

With a huff, Olivia had turned to face the two. "You both okay?"

They stood eyes wide, after all, they had just witnessed a five-foot-five woman who looked as though she weighed absolutely nothing drop three men to the ground in front of them and one flying across the street, denting a car as they collided with it.

The woman stuttered as she nodded. "Uh, yeah, thank you. I'm uh, I'm Karen, Karen Page. This is Foggy Nelson."

Foggy nodded as he stuck out his hand. Olivia quickly followed his action and shook his hand with a small smile. "Olivia Hale."

Olivia chuckled at the memory. "Of course, it's not often that I'm generous enough to give people my Chinese food and beer after saving their asses."

The two laughed fondly, remembering when the woman had handed over her bag of takeout and beer, telling them they should finish their shitty night with full stomachs and tipsy minds at least.

Olivia frowned as Karen's smile faded, she looked guilty, of what, Olivia couldn't guess.

"We uh-"  Karen cleared her throat. "We were wondering if you could... do us a favor?"

Olivia shifted on the spot; what on earth could the pair of them want from her? "A favor? What exactly do you want me to do?"

Foggy sighed as he placed a hand on Karen's shoulder, taking over the conversation. "Matt." Foggy paused as he swallowed, his face falling into a frown.

Olivia cocked her head and furrowed her brows, they knew Matt? Ah. the partner Matt had spoken about must have been Foggy, she thought.

Her eyes focused back on the man as he opened his mouth to explain. "He's our friend, best friend, actually. And... I pushed him to keep doing this, to keep going out not knowing if he would ever come back-"

"-You saved us." Karen interrupted. "People you didn't know. You followed us for thirty minutes just to make sure we would be okay. We didn't know who else to ask-"

"Karen, tell me what you need me to do." Olivia coaxed with a smile, trying her best to reassure the woman, whose heart sounded ready to explode. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.

"Can you- Could you just..." She sighed in frustration. "Keep Matt safe? He's-"

"Family?"

Karen swallowed as she nodded glumly. "Exactly... I uh, I looked you up, I know what happened to-"

Olivia cut her off with a sad smile, knowing that the woman had likely found the articles about the fire that had stolen her family from her. "I'll do whatever I can, Karen, I promise."

To Olivia's surprise, Karen let out a breath and engulfed the hale in a hug, resting her head on top of the wolf's before pulling away a moment later, wiping her eyes hastily as she spoke with sincerity. "Thank you, Olivia."

Olivia looked between the two and the relieved and hopeful looks on their faces made her features soften. She could tell just by looking at them that the pair cared for Matt endlessly, they would do anything for him, they cared about him the way she cared about Derek and Peter, her family. And she'd be damned if she watched another family get torn apart.

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10-05-2020