A Friend In Need

Who: Gabe and Charlotte
Where: Charlotte's house
When: Late afternoon

There was one last person Gabe wanted to talk to, the last on the list of people he trusted with his secret. It seemed like a bad idea to tell so many at once, but they were all people he knew could help and had been willing to trust him with their own secret. Charlotte might not know anything about cursed werewolves, but he suspected she'd be the most likely to help him with the research he needed. There were things he still had questions about and, without another cursed werewolf to turn to, he was willing to rely on his resourceful friends.

Charlotte topped that list, even if she was the last for him to talk to. Knocking on her door, Gabe waited nervously, wondering how he'd start this sort of conversation.

Charlotte had been upstairs, working on her homework, when Anna started barking about the door. "I heard, I'm coming." she said, hopping up and heading out her room and down the stairs. "Stand back." Anna walked a circle around her and stood behind Charlotte's feet as Charlotte opened the door. She blinked in surprise, but it wasn't an unpleasant surprise. "Hi, Gabe. What's up?"

"Hey," Gabe said with a weak little smile. "Do you have a few minutes? Sorry to just drop by, but... I didn't want to talk over the phone." While he usually wasn't bothered, this was such a sensitive subject that he really wanted to be able to see her facial expressions, to be able to hear more than silence if she didn't know how to react. He had the feeling she'd believe him, based on what she'd already told him, but it was a huge jump from him knowing nothing to being a part of it all.

That sounded bad. Charlotte frowned and stepped back, gesturing for him to come in. She would have said something, but Anna commanded her attention. He smells different. Puzzled, Charlotte looked down at the dog with a confused expression on her face. "What do you mean?" No use hiding it, Gabe knew what she could do. And she didn't like Anna's tone. Different. He's different. Charlotte looked up at Gabe and looked him over, trying to figure out how that could be. "What happened?"

Gabe's expression fell as he watched the exchange, aware of what must be happening even when he couldn't understand. "She can tell," Gabe said softly, wondering if everything around him that wasn't completely human was able to sense the difference. "I won't hurt her," Gabe told Anna, trying not to feel silly for talking to a dog that couldn't talk back to him. "You know I'd never hurt you," he said, looking up at Charlotte. "But I... I need your help. You know more about this stuff than anyone I know, so... I got bitten Friday night. By a werewolf."

Charlotte had been feeling a bit like she'd missed a step going down a flight of stairs, and that was before he said what he did. Once that was out, she felt a little sick. She stared at Gabe, trying to make sense of her head and figure out what to say. "Okay." she finally managed. "Let's go upstairs. What do you know so far?"

"That I need a cage," Gabe said running his fingers through his hair, then over his face. "That seems to be the one thing covered by everyone. And that I have a month, since I'll change at the next full moon." He took a deep breath, then blew it out, nodding as he stepped inside. "I'm sorry to drop all this on your doorstep. I thought you might have books or something."

"Don't be sorry." Charlotte said, shutting the door. "For anything." God, she didn't want to think about Gabe in a cage. "Let's go upstairs." she said again, lightly putting her hand on his shoulder before gesturing to the staircase. She lead him to her room and gestured for him to make himself comfortable. "You need to be really careful right now. If you get really upset... anger will trigger it." She hated telling him that, but it was an important thing to know, and he might not yet.

Gabe followed her upstairs, listening to all the little noises around him. Houses used to seem so quiet; now they seemed alive, like they were living, breathing beings. "Seriously?" Gabe asked, his eyes widening. "I thought it was just the full moon?" That was definitely going to complicate things. Gabe had been aware of his temper for a long time, but had never seen it leading up to a problem like this. It gave him new reason to get it under control.

"Seriously." Charlotte answered, cringing slightly. "I think you can learn to manage it, but right now you're a little volatile." She grabbed her bag off the floor and started pulling books off, then went for her bookshelf. Oh yes, Charlotte had books. "That's why what was happening before the full moon was so concerning - someone wasn't controlling it, or they were doing it on purpose."

"I've always been a little volatile," Gabe said, growing worried. It was a problem he had and everyone knew it. Fights were a regular occurrence for him, but apparently they'd have to stop or he'd do a lot more than break someone's nose. "So, before the full moon, it was like, someone was getting mad enough every night to attack someone new? It seems like that would have to be on purpose. I mean, I've got a temper, but even I'm not that bad."

"I don't know." Charlotte said, shaking her head. She headed over to her bed and dropped an arm's full of books, and sat down to try and figure out where to begin. The logical, have to do stuff now side of her brain was trying to take over. All at once she realized that she'd been sort of overwhelmed by it and hadn't done or said anything that actually mattered. She looked up at Gabe with a pained expression. "Gabe, I am so sorry. How are you doing? With everything?"

He didn't expect her to have an answer to that question. No one did, he suspected, but it was scary to think about. He couldn't imagine someone purposefully flipping the switch that would make them a mindless killing machine. He looked at the books scattered over the floor and wondered where to start, his thoughts interrupted when Charlotte spoke again. "It's okay," Gabe said with a little smile that was more for her benefit than anything else. "I'm dealing, I guess. My mom knows, which is good, cause I don't know how I could manage if she didn't. And Nate was there. I probably wouldn't be alive if he hadn't been there to help me. And I told Claire." There was no good explanation for why he told Claire, other than the fact that he'd started telling her everything, including things he probably shouldn't. "It's just a lot at once. It still doesn't feel real."

Charlotte nodded, and made room on her bed for him to sit down. "It'll probably take a while. It would for me, anyway. It's good that you can talk about it with people you trust. No one should have to go through this alone." Or perhaps at all, but she was attempting to be positive. Gabe would be okay. He could deal with this. She'd make sure he could.

There was why he was glad he could tell Charlotte; not only was she trustworthy, but she could be positive and supportive without making him feel like a monster ready to attack. "It helps to talk about it," he said. "I'm still figuring some things out. Like everything seems loud, but I've heard that's normal and I'll get used to it." He was glad Drea had cleared that up for him. If it hadn't been a werewolf trait, Gabe would have been concerned he was going crazy.

...Oh, heck, Charlotte hadn't even thought about that. She actually face-palmed, her hand flying to her forehead. "You have were senses. Oh geez, I can't even imagine... the volume's been turned up on everything, hasn't it?" She grabbed a book and flipped quickly through the pages, looking for a section she'd read a while back. "You'll be able to sense a lot of stuff you couldn't before. Even just changes in people around you. Temperatures or heart beats, things like that."

"Heartbeats?" Gabe asked, then actually tried to hear one if he could. And indeed he could, but so far it was only his own. That didn't mean it wouldn't change, his senses improving by the day, but he hadn't progressed so far that he could pick up the bodily functions of other people. "I can hear the clock ticking. That seems to be the loudest. I can hear little animals in the house. No one's heartbeat but my own yet, but it's like the walls are paper thin. In class today, I could hear the lesson next door." Not perfectly, but enough that it was a distraction. "Is it just my hearing that gets all screwed up?"

"I don't think so. And it's not screwed up, it's just... a lot more in-tune. All your senses will probably get that way. You'll see better, and smell better... though that one might get annoying. I've never talked to someone who got turned though, all the weres I've known are born." She really wanted to call Ransom right now and get his opinion, but she didn't want to overload Gabe either - and she was pretty sure she'd have enough to overload him by himself.

"I know a born were," Gabe said, nodding thoughtfully. "She didn't make it sound like a bad thing. Just different than what I'm used to. No harm in having better night vision, I guess." Not that he had any idea what he'd do with it. It wasn't like he was going to turn into a werewolf and go hunting. The only thing he could do was turn into a monster and kill things aimlessly. "Is it just my senses that are affected? Or should I be watching for something else?"

"Your instincts might shift a little." Charlotte told him. "Adopting some more animal instincts. But that might take a while. I think there's going to be a lot of slow changes. I'll send you home with books." she said. For instance, she did not think she had the guts to tell Gabe that werewolves mated for life. Considering she was dating a werewolf, she didn't even like thinking about it. That was just too heavy for everyone in the room right now, really. "You might start thinking with a pack mentality."

"As long as I don't start sniffing people's butts, that might be okay," Gabe said with a hint of a smile. Animal instincts? He really had no idea what that meant until Charlotte gave him an example. At least he wasn't going to bury his dinner in the backyard. "How would I have a pack if I can't turn into a wolf?" he asked, hoping that was a sensible question. Books would be good. He had a lot of reading to do.

Charlotte smiled softly at him. "You won't start sniffing butts. As long as you didn't do that before, you won't do it now." She looked through another book, but paused at his question. "You're still part wolf." she told him. "You might not have the wolf form, but you're halfway there. A lot of the wolf instincts will probably come over in time, and that's one of them. You'll start seeing friends and family as pack, probably."

So not only did he need to read up on werewolves, but he needed to read up on actual wolves. Now he wished he'd spent a bit more time watching the nature channel in his spare time. "What does that mean for me?" Gabe asked. He felt bad for asking all these questions, but Charlotte was the only one who he knew to ask. He had the feeling that were-coyotes didn't have pack mentality like werewolves did. "Family's fine, cause that's my mom, but friends... Will I want them to live with me or something?"

"I don't think so." Charlotte said, offering another small smile. "More... the bond'll feel stronger with certain people? Anyone you're really close to. They might as well be family. You'll feel very protective over them. That part won't be a change, at least."

"Not too big a change," Gabe said, returning the smile. He was already protective of his friends, Claire, Charlotte, and Drea in particular. Kyle was also on that list, but he always felt like Kyle didn't need quite as much protecting. Maybe that was due to Kyle not being in a position to need it yet. Gabe looked down at the books spread over the bed. There really was a lot to go through, but it was so much better than being in the dark. "Thank you," he said, looking back up at her. "I think the scariest thing right now is not having answers. I don't know what I'd do without you." Much as he appreciated Claire and Drea, Charlotte had known so much more.

Charlotte smiled a bit at Gabe, and reached out to touch his shoulder again. "It's gonna be okay." she said. "We can do answers." She wasn't certain he'd like all of them, but... it could be a lot worse, right? "We'll figure everything out." It'd be a learning experience for both of them, but at least it was one Charlotte felt somewhat prepared for.