Chapter Text
Cold hands grabbed him from behind and pulled him onto the floor. He tried to fight back, but the monster had a fistful of his hair in its grip. It slammed his head onto the church floor and then….then darkness and the dreams.
He dreamed mostly of Cathryn. The way she was when she first came into his life, having already seen so much death in her young life.
~~~
John Ian Haggis slumped down on the couch in his office and pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket. The sofa was a raggedy thing he had found on the side of the road, but it served its purpose well enough. He took a long swig of alcohol from his flask and sighed.
The past few months had been the busiest of his life. Day in and day out, people were entering his clinic scarred and scratched by those monsters. Some days he could help them, and the only thing left would be the scars as a grim reminder. On other days, they either died on the table, or he....terminated them as they turned. Today was one of those days. He was running himself ragged, running the place by himself. He had tried to find help before, but very few people wanted to be around the things, let alone help people who were possibly infected. Either the universe dropped aid on the front stoop of his clinic, or he quit altogether and moved to another town with what resources he had. Both options seemed implausible.
Suddenly the couch seemed a lot comfier than it ever had been before. He figured one short nap couldn't hurt. After all, he was running on very little sleep at the moment. He took one last drink from the flask, capped and pocketed it, and curled up in the corner of the couch. He was lolling between sleep and consciousness when a loud knocking on the clinic's front door made him sit upright. He scrubbed a hand over his face and, although he wasn't a religious man, he silently prayed that whoever was there would go away.
They didn't go away. It seemed as if the knocking got louder, and if it continued, Haggis was afraid it would wake up his patients. God knows these people needed all the sleep they could get.
The doctor shuffled his way to the clinic's front door, muttering curses here and there under his breath. He took out a cigarette from the inside of his coat, lit it, and let it hang from his mouth as he opened the door. A young woman stood on the stoop before him, clad in jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt. He thought she was pretty, but it was a fleeting thought. He was too tired to think of much else besides his patients.
"Can I help you?" he asked, blowing cigarette smoke into the night air.
"I'm looking for Doctor John Haggis. Someone told me he could help me."
He took another drag of his cigarette and spread his arms as if in invitation. "You're looking at him, the good doctor." He noticed her face fall like she was expecting someone else, someone who was decidedly not him. His face flushed, and he realized he wasn't making the best impression. He had bags under his eyes, his beard was untrimmed, and God knows the last time he had received a haircut and a pair of clothes that were not covered in at least a little bit of blood. Not to mention the fact she could probably tell how buzzed he was.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Uh--anyway, I heard about your clinic, and I was wondering if I could rent a room and possibly--"
He inwardly groaned. "I'm not a boarding house, alright? I have more important things to worry about." He started to shut the door in her face but found it wouldn't close. He looked down and realized there was a boot in the way, attached to the woman currently glaring at him.
She jabbed a finger at his chest. "Listen, asshole. I only came here because some chick at the bar down the road told me you needed help, and I felt sorry for you. Besides, I need a place to stay, and this is my only option at the moment. My father was a medic, and he taught my sister and me some things before he--." She paused and seemed to shrug off the memory. "Anyway, the point is I think I can help. I figured we could make a deal. You teach me what you know and give me a room; I help you with your patients. And then maybe you can get a good night's sleep." She looked him up and down and folded her arms across her chest. "You look like you could use it."
He slipped the cigarette from his lips and threw it on the grass, using the toe of his shoe to crush the still smoldering end. He was deliberately stalling for time, trying to think of what to say. He was impressed by this young woman's tenacity. There was also a world-weariness to her that matched his own. Who was he to turn away help when minutes earlier he had been yearning for it?
He held out his hand for her to take. "I'm John. John Haggis."
She just stood there, seeming a bit stunned that he accepted her offer so quickly. There were a few more seconds of quiet hesitation before she gripped his hand in hers in a tight handshake. "Cathryn Farrell."
He probably held her hand in his far longer than was appropriate but she didn't notice. "It looks like we have ourselves a deal, Miss Farrell."
He saw a slight smile tug at the corner of her lips. It was a welcome sight amid all the death he had experienced for so long.
~~~
Three years later
They sat in his office on opposite ends of the same tattered couch, drinks in hand. For once, they were able to enjoy a respite from death and dismay. They had managed, as a team, to save three lives over the past few days. One was a young girl, who now donned a long scar down the side of her arm. The doctor knew those monsters would forever mark her, but she was alive. They had given her a second chance at life. The following two were a mother and her baby. She had come to him with pregnancy complications, frightened her baby wouldn't survive. Cathryn had caught on fast to what he had taught her over the years. He was there to assist, of course, but she accomplished it mostly on her own. Haggis was proud of her, and he liked how she preened a bit when he told her so. He topped off her glass of whiskey.
They were….a little drunk. It had been so long since Cathryn and the doctor had enjoyed themselves this much. Cathryn was loosening up and telling him stories about her sister. She never told him the circumstances of her death, but he surmised it had something to do with the monsters. She would tell him in her own time, but if she never did, he would be okay with that too.
"I was determined to see Danny--you know, the boyfriend I was telling you about. The sleazeball I dated in high school…."
Haggis nodded and encouraged her to continue with her story. "Well, anyway. I came up with a plan. I would sneak out and meet him at the old corner store. Easy, right? Well, I forgot to take into account my fucking nosy little sister. She barged into my room just as I was about to climb out of the window. I had one foot in the room and one foot out the fuckin' window, ready to go. She ran outta there yelling to dad that I was breaking out and leaving them forever." She broke into a laugh, unable to continue for a few seconds until she got herself under control. "It makes me laugh now, but God, I was so angry at the time. I didn't talk to Leigh for a week."
Haggis wished he could say he was paying attention, but all he could focus on was how animated Cathryn got when she was telling her story. Her hand gestures were often so large her drink would slosh at the corners of her glass. He was afraid she would spill the whiskey on herself and the couch.
A realization hit him like a bolt of lightning. He wanted to spend the rest of his life listening to her stories and trying to make her as happy as she was at that moment.
He suddenly realized he had been staring at her for far too long after her story was over. They were also a lot closer on the couch than they had been before, knees bumping each other. He coughed nervously, looking around at anything but her. It was then he felt a warm hand on his cheek. Cathryn was caressing his face so gently it made him ache. It was a wonder he didn't declare his undying love for her then and there.
He leaned forward, her hand still resting on his face, and met her lips in the ghost of a kiss. His heart raced in anticipation.
She abruptly pulled away and stood from the couch, avoiding his eyes. "This wasn't a good idea. I-I think I need some air." She strode out of the room, leaving Haggis dazed and wondering how on earth he could have been so stupid.
They didn't talk about what had happened.
~~~
He heard a gunshot and then a voice growing louder as it approached him. It was a voice he knew, but he couldn't quite place what or who it was. All he knew was that he wanted to run towards it desperately. But his body didn't seem to want to move, no matter how hard he tried.
He felt like he was drowning in a dark sea. He was trying to keep his head above the waves, but it was getting harder. He wondered if he would die here without telling Cathryn how much she meant to him. How much he loved seeing her smile, although it had been a rare occurrence lately. How frightened he was that she wouldn't come back from a job one day and he would be alone. Again.
The voice was like a light in the distance. It carried him towards some safe harbor. He swam towards it like a madman, desperate to hold onto life. He was almost there. He would make it back to her, no matter what.
He felt himself come to, sitting upright and coughing like he hadn't had a drop of water in days. Once the fit subsided, he saw clearly who the voice was. Cathryn was sitting there, soaking wet and muddy, but he had never seen a more beautiful sight in his life.
~~~
John Haggis was staring death in the face for the second time that day. He had seen one of the monsters pull Cathryn into the pit, and before he knew it, he was grabbing a piece of stray wood and hitting the thing once with all his might. Now, it was staring headlong at him. He felt a chill run down his spine, but he held his ground as the monster charged. Using the courage he had previously summoned from somewhere deep within himself, he held the wood like a batter at the plate and swung just as the monster approached him. It went down instantly, twitching a bit as it lay on the ground.
Cathryn didn't seem satisfied with that, however. John watched as she beat the thing into broken bones and brain matter with a femur that had been sitting in the pit. He let her take her frustration out longer than he should have; he believed for her sake. She needed to let something out, whether frustration, anger or every emotion pent up from the last twenty years.
They did need to get going, though, and soon. Haggis cautiously approached Cathryn on the downswing and laid a hand on her shoulder. She relaxed at his touch and turned, finally looking at him. He saw a steely determination in her eyes, and he wondered what the hell she was planning.
~~~~
Haggis was standing at the end of the church road, Beth beside him. He could tell the girl had calmed down considerably since her ordeal. Enough to try to engage him in conversation while they waited for Cathryn to return. He prayed to God she would return.
"She's gonna come back, you know. I could always tell Cathryn was a fighter. Just something about her, I guess. Besides, who would you swoon after if she’s gone?."
Haggis turned to look at Beth so fast he was surprised something in his neck didn't snap. "How--but---"
Beth rolled her eyes. "C'mon, doctor. I'm naive, but I'm not stupid. I have eyes ya know, two of 'em."
"If I had known you were such a sarcastic kid, I would have---" an explosion cut him off mid-sentence. The church and the cemetery were now engulfed in fire, flames shooting up into the sky. His stomach dropped, and he felt his knees go weak at the sight. He gripped Beth's shoulder for support.
"Doctor, I know she made it out. I just know it. I---" Beth burst into tears, and Haggis didn't know how much strength he had left to hold himself together.
Something caught his eye then, a flash of brown hair. Cathryn was running towards them, no, sprinting towards them. He didn't fully take in the fact that she was alive until she was in his arms, almost barreling him over with the force of the hug. He buried his face in her shoulder, utterly unable to say anything but "It's stopped raining." The laugh Cathryn let out would forever be burned in his memory as one of the happiest moments in his life.
~~~~
Cathryn’s head rested on his chest as they lay together in a random room in a random town they had stumbled into after the church incident. They were both too exhausted to do much of anything that night besides holding each other and sharing gentle kisses. John slowly rubbed his hand over Cathryn’s back soothingly, thinking about what the future held for them. He let his eyes drift closed as these thoughts raced in his head. It was the most restful sleep he had experienced in twenty years.