Aftermath part 1

[moonshadows]

It was a productive morning.

Mostly.

The firm decided that given the events of last night, they’d have to decide what they were doing with the Life Foundation case and agreed that this would be a good time for Anne to take some of her vacation time.

Eddie’s apartment was, in fact, still a crime scene. Anne added clothes to her mental shopping list. Reporting the motorcycle as stolen was easier than it normally would have been, the silver lining to that mess, and she was able to get the insurance claim going. They’d have to inspect the motorcycle before they could make any recommendations, but the process had been started.

By that point, it was past eleven, so they went to one of Anne’s favorite brick-oven pizza places and Venom got to experience fresh, hot pizza. He judged it tasty and fun, even if it wasn’t scurrying. In deference to her life-partner’s dietary preferences, Anne used the crusts to attract a couple of pigeons for him to snatch up using tendrils of his substance. She couldn’t begin to explain how he managed to eat them just by enveloping them, or where they went inside her body. It was a strange sensation, very alien, but not as identifiably visceral as biting someone’s head off and she didn’t feel like she had to burp up feathers, so as far as she was concerned it was fine.

She did taste the feathers, but a smoothie solved that problem. Venom didn’t like the feathers either, and the smoothie solved that problem as well.

With both of them fed, Anne went shopping. Venom was dazzled by the displays of food and clothing, and she could feel him ransacking her memories as she shopped for all of Eddie’s favorite junk foods and some healthier options, both fresh and frozen. Clothes were next. Socks and underwear were easy enough, as were sweatpants and some generic tee-shirts.

I want to buy him something.

With my money?

Your money is my money. I want to pick something out.

Venom didn’t like any of the shirts with designs printed on them, so Anne let him choose the hoodie – grey, like the one Riot had ruined. Then she remembered Eddie would need something to sleep in, and she set her biological roommate loose on the sleepwear section. He settled on a pair of flannel pajamas, dark blue with some random lighter blue diamond design.

They went back to the apartment to put the groceries away, and discovered Dan in a bathrobe at the kitchen table, snacking on a bowl of cold cereal.

“Pop-tarts?” Dan asked muzzily as she started unpacking a bag.

“Eddie hates hospitals, and I know he can be discharged with an order of bed rest once everything is stable, but his apartment is a crime scene and honestly, if we let him stay on his own…”

Dan nodded. “Yeah. So, our couch I take it? Good call. I can check on him without risking anyone seeing Venom. How’s Venom doing?”

He manifested the face-on-a-tendril. “I have experienced pizza. It was delicious. Your pigeons are less tasty than I had hoped they would be, but still filling. I wish to court Eddie.”

Anne choked, a box of Cap’n Crunch in her hands.

“Go ahead,” Dan told him. “None of my business what you do in your private life.”

Venom continued to watch him as Anne put groceries in the fridge. “I will be courting him with Anne’s body.”

“As long as she’s okay with it, I’m okay with it.”

“We may engage in certain activities while in your shared living space.”

“Keep it PG unless it’s in her bedroom?”

Venom grinned at her, then turned back to Dan while she blushed. “Your mate was concerned that you might be concerned, considering her status as my host.”

“That’s between you and her,” Dan said firmly. “I’m not going to tell her what to do with her body. If she’s comfortable letting you use it to kiss Eddie, then that’s none of my business. If she wants to use her body to kiss Eddie…”

“That’s still complicated,” Anne insisted. “I called the firm. The Life Foundation case is on hold for the moment, and I’m actually using some of my vacation time,” she added dryly. “I need to talk to Eddie, but until he’s well enough to actually hold a conversation…”

Dan nodded. “We can talk about it once you know where things stand there. Until then, everything’s the same but with the addition of Venom, right?”

Anne nodded back, relieved. “Everything’s the same but with the addition of Venom. Um…I kissed Eddie after he agreed to do the report.”

“The report?” Dan’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“She forced his old boss to pay a considerable amount for the right to film Eddie reporting on everything that happened with Drake.”

Dan looked impressed. “Really. How much?”

“Thirty thousand,” she answered proudly.

He whistled. “Nicely done. That’ll get him back on his feet, for sure. And it was a very emotionally intense day,” he conceded. Then he yawned. “I’m going back to bed for a few hours. See you for dinner?”

Anne leaned over to kiss him lightly. “Stuffed peppers are defrosting.”

“Sounds delicious,” he said, smiling. “You’re amazing, Anne. Eddie’s lucky to have you looking out for him.”

Blushing faintly, she took his bowl and spoon while he shuffled out of the kitchen.

“I don’t think he minds.”

“Shut up,” she retorted, blushing harder. “Let’s grab the bag of clothes and get some lunch for Eddie.”

The head-on-a-tendril retracted. I want to eat his face.

That made two of them, she thought, but she didn’t say it.

Venom heard her thought anyway.

She heard his smirk.

 

 

Eddie was sleeping when she entered his hospital room, phone still under his hand and half-eaten sandwich still in its container on the table. It looked like he hadn’t been awake at all in the last four hours, his head lolled to one side making him look as frail and exhausted as he was.

Venom squirmed guiltily.

Anne set the wrapped sub and bottle of soda down on the table and moved the remnants of breakfast to the trash before rummaging in the bag of clothes. Sweat pants, socks, underwear, and a light blue tee on top of the pile. She set them on the foot of his bed, then changed her mind and put the pile on the chair, with the bag underneath it. Venom caught her thought and acted on it, extending a freestanding face to nuzzle and nip at Eddie’s cheek while Anne sat on the edge of his bed.

“Eddie.”

“I’m awake,” he mumbled reflexively.

Anne grinned, taking his left hand in hers. “No, you’re not.”

“Yes’im,” he slurred.

Venom’s tongue caressed his cheek, causing him to grimace and flail and pry his eyes open. Discovering himself face-to-face with Venom’s freestanding face, he smiled. Then he followed the tendrils to Anne, and the smile faltered.

“Annie?”

“I brought you lunch,” she said, gesturing to the table. “Texted you a couple of times, but you didn’t text back so I thought I’d come catch you up in person.”

Eddie’s attention was on the sub, and figuring out how to get it unwrapped with his tube-studded hands. Venom retracted his face and extended tendrils to both unwrap and hold the overstuffed, messy, dripping thing up for him to bite, the paper spread over his lap. After the first bite, groaning in rolled-eye bliss, he gestured for Anne to continue.

“Your apartment’s still a crime scene,” she said crisply. “I filed the police report on your motorcycle being stolen and the insurance claim. They’ll need to inspect it, but as long as it can be fixed, I assume you want it fixed instead of replaced?”

Eddie nodded and gave her a thumbs-up, mouth full.

“Okay, good. Um. The Life Foundation case is kind of on hold, considering…everything. I’m taking a week of vacation while the firm sorts out what they want to do, so as soon as you can be discharged we’ll set you up on the couch. That way Dan can check on you without having to hide Venom, and I can make sure you’re comfortable. I couldn’t get any of your clothes, obviously, because your apartment’s a crime scene…”

Eddie grimaced.

“…so I bought some new ones. Venom picked you out some PJs…”

Eddie swallowed his bite. “You did?”

“I did. And the hoodie Anne is wearing.”

Hurt flashed in his eyes, and Anne took his hand again. “It was too damaged and soiled. The hospital threw it out. And I know you hate breaking in new ones, but I thought…if I spent a while wearing it, and Venom picked it out for you…”

Weakly, he squeezed her hand. “Thanks, Annie.”

“How do you feel?” she asked gingerly.

“Like death warmed over,” he rasped, taking another bite of his sandwich.

Again, Venom writhed in guilt.

“Which is worse,” she asked for him, “the pain or the exhaustion?”

He grunted. “Which will get me out of here faster?” Then he shifted. “I take it back. The tube going up my dick. That’s the worst.”

“That sounds like the exhaustion,” Anne said, trying not to smile. “If you’re strong enough to get up and go to the bathroom on your own, then you’re strong enough to be discharged with a prescription for some nice, strong painkillers.”

“I have more than enough resources to replace some of what I took,” rumbled Venom. “But it will be easier on me if I do not present while I am doing it.”

“Present?” Anne asked because Eddie’s mouth was full.

“When I envelop your body. If I do not do that, it will take less energy for me to undo some of the damage I caused Eddie.”

“So I’ll be the one cuddling you,” she clarified for Eddie. “If that’s okay with you?”

Eyes averted, he shrugged. “It’s fine.”

“I talked with Dan,” she said after a long moment, watching Eddie be fed the last bites of his sub. “He’s okay with Venom using my body to do things as long as I’m okay with them, too. Said whatever happens between you and Venom is none of his business.”

Eddie swallowed and reached for his soda. “So that means…”

“Kisses!” Venom growled eagerly, making Eddie nearly inhale his soda as he choked.

“…okay,” he gasped, shaking his head. “Thank you for helping me eat.”

“It was my pleasure.” The tendrils crumpled up the empty wrapper and turned into a face, which nipped teasingly at Eddie before kissing him briefly. “You are almost as delicious as pizza,” he rumbled. “But I will not devour you.”

Anne snickered.

“What is so funny?”

Smirking, she shared memories of going down on Eddie in revenge for how thoroughly he’d wrecked her with his tongue.

“I know that look,” Eddie chided her, fighting down a grin. “Please do not. Not right now. There is a tube in a very inconvenient place and it does not feel good.”

“Another time,” promised Venom, licking his face.

“Thanks.” Eddie yawned. “I’m just gonna…”

Anne patted his leg. “Go ahead and sleep. Want me to wake you up before I go, or just come back in a few hours with dinner?”

“That,” he said through another yawn. “Dinner. Thanks.”

Venom retracted his face again, and Anne carefully snuggled up to Eddie, who was either already asleep or pretending he was.

Asleep, Venom said as he extended tendrils into Eddie’s body.

Anne just held him tight as Venom seethed into every crevice of Eddie’s laboring heart and carefully breathed life back into the struggling organ. Lungs were next, and she could hear the difference in his breathing once Venom was done there.

That should be enough for now, she told him silently. Don’t want to have his recovery be suspiciously fast.

The symbiote turned his attention to the sea of blisters and seared skin that was Eddie’s back, and did something that came across like cross-stitch but which she knew was helping the burns not hurt so much. Then, his store of excess resources expended, he returned completely to her body.

A nurse came in to adjust things and check on others while Anne was climbing back out of Eddie’s bed, and Anne asked her about removing the catheter and what they wanted to see before they’d discharge him.

“He needs bed rest,” the nurse said disapprovingly.

Anne held both hands up in disavowal. “No arguments here, but trust me, he’ll rest a lot more cooperatively somewhere that’s not…here.”

The nurse sniffed. “He’ll need regular medical supervision-”

“I live with Dr. Lewis,” Anne interrupted dryly. “And I’m taking the next week off from work, so I’ll be available to see to his needs which – we were together for a couple of years. Trust me, I know how to keep him on bed rest, and he’ll be crawling the walls to get out of here as soon as he has the energy to stand up and walk.”

“Well, he’ll need to display that level of alertness before we can discharge him,” countered the nurse, but she was giving Anne a wry smile. “More specifically, he’ll need four hours of his blood oxygen level in a better range, and we’ll want to see his heart rate and blood pressure back up closer to normal.” She peered at his instruments. “…although he seems to be doing better, so if he keeps that up, there’s a good chance he can go home tonight.”

Anne smiled. “Thank you. I’ll be back in a few hours, but if anyone needs to reach me for any reason I’m available.” She nodded at Eddie’s phone, then realized it was perilously close to the edge of the bed and moved it to the table. “I’m an emergency contact on his phone.”

The nurse nodded. “We’ll see.”

What are we doing now? Venom asked as she left the hospital room.

She pushed the elevator button and leaned against the wall, eyes shut, running through all the tasks in her mental checklist. Work, Eddie’s apartment, Eddie’s bike, Eddie, Dora-

“Right,” she muttered as the elevator dinged. “Need to call Dora and see if she’s ready to have a chat.”

Skirth. Yes, call her.

Once she was in her car, she called Dora and put it on speaker.

“Skirth. Anne?”

“And me,” Venom added from a freestanding face.

“Venom!”

“Up for a chat?” Anne asked, grinning.

“Absolutely. Where should I meet you?”

“Let me text you my address. Dan wants to talk, too, once he wakes up.”

“Sounds good.”

“Oh, and check your trunk. I left some trash in there.”

Silence.

“I’m not going to find any body parts in there, am I?”

“No. I ate them all.”

More silence.

“You know, I probably should have expected that. Okay, I’ll wait for your text, Anne, and be over as soon as I can.”

Venom chuckled as Anne said her goodbyes and hung up.

 

“So. We finally meet face to faces,” Venom said as Dora settled into a chair, and Anne sat on one end of the couch.

Anne could feel his smirk, even though the freestanding face wasn’t great for expressions.

“Yes!” Dora shifted excitedly. “And I have so many questions!”

“Me first. When did you first realize I was more intelligent than a rabbit or a fish?”

The scientist flushed. “Not until your first human host.”

“And why did you never test us for intelligence?” There was annoyance in that demand, and it made both women wince.

“We had no idea how,” Dora said apologetically. “You had no organs we recognized. You were nothing like anything we knew. I couldn’t even be certain that you could see outside of a host, or hear, or…”

Venom huffed. “I learned your language from listening to you.”

“We knew you were less…aggressive…than the other two…”

“They were idiots.”

“…but Drake…I don’t think he believed your species was capable of rational thought until Riot took him as a host.”

Dan wandered out and sat next to Anne, giving her a kiss on the cheek and sliding one arm around her.

“When he came to watch you feed us,” Venom started, “you chose to feed Phage, knowing that of the three of us, Phage was the least patient. Why? Were you hoping that a failure would dim his enthusiasm?”

Dora’s jaw dropped. “I…am astounded,” she spluttered. “You picked up on that? Of course you did. Yes, and that’s the reason I didn’t pick you for the first human trial.”

Anne smiled as Venom curdled with proud delight at being right, and Dan cleared his throat.

“Can we talk about food?” He asked. “Not for us. What Venom needs to eat, and how much, and how often.”

“And using which method,” Anne added. “And what side effects it will leave me with. I swear I pooped out a feather earlier.”

“You did not! I broke them all down.”

“It was a joke,” she assured him as the other two got their expressions back under control. “But I’m serious – you bit that guy’s head off. I felt it crunch.”

“It was a good crunch.”

“…if you eat a mugger, clothes and all, what happens to the clothes and the rest of the things you don’t digest?”

Venom’s head turned to peer at her. “What is digest?”

Dan cleared his throat again. “The process we use to strip nutrients out of what we eat. It leads to the excretion of the parts we can’t use.”

The symbiote pondered this for a minute.

“I have no idea.”

 

The conversation ranged into a wild three-headed thing from there, with Dan and Dora and Venom – using her mouth – discussing the finer points of symbiote biology. They worked out a rough estimate of how much living biomass Venom would need to consume as a maintenance diet, although the scientist’s measurements were in terms of lab animals and she had no idea what Venom’s ideal mass should be. There was also the issue of the extra resources he would need to get Eddie back to an uninjured state, and no one was able to float even an estimate of that.

They moved on to the subject of where, exactly, Anne could get her hands on five rats a week. Or three rabbits. Or half a dozen chickens. Ethnic butchers were offered, as was the fish market, but neither of those were ideal – especially in the long run. Anne flat-out refused to go walking in a bad neighborhood alone at night inviting muggers and rapists, although that would have given Venom an outlet for his aggressive energy. The question was put aside as they put stuffed peppers in to cook and casually invited Dora to dinner.

Dan excused himself to shower and dress, and Venom indulged Dora’s curiosity about symbiote culture and reproduction. The revelation that it was asexual brought a moment of shuddering horror, because Riot had been loose for six months and reproduction required a certain level of mass to support. The grey symbiote could have spawned a handful of times in those six months, but Venom thought it was unlikely because Riot hadn’t brought any offspring to the fight.

They resolved to be on the lookout for corpses with cellular damage and changed the subject.

They had just sat down to stuffed peppers and a crisp green salad when Anne’s phone rang.

“It’s Eddie,” she announced before answering. “Eddie?”

“Annie, you gotta get me out of here, please! I can’t take it, Annie, you gotta get me out!”

He sounded on the brink of tears, and it tore at both Anne and Venom’s hearts.

“Hold on, Eddie, I’m coming,” Anne assured him, interrupting his frantic babble. “We just sat down to eat but-”

Intent from Venom. A slurping sound, pressure in her stomach, and an unexpected belch that tasted like stuffed pepper.

“-but I just finished,” she said, staring at her empty plate. “Hang in there, I’m coming. Okay?”

“Hurry,” he whimpered.

The phone was forcibly removed from his hand, and the nurse from that afternoon said, “Please come get him. We’ve given him a mild sedative, but with his vitals the way they are, we can’t give him anything strong enough to actually calm him down”

“I’m on my way,” she said dryly. “Told you.”

“Yes, you did. Thank you.”

“Going to get Eddie,” she announced as she stood up.

Dan grinned. “We gathered. I’ll put some sheets on the couch and grab your spare pillow for him.”

Anne kissed him briefly. “Thanks, honey. Dora, you’re welcome to stay but I won’t be offended if you leave.”

And then she was grabbing her purse and rattling down the stairs.