1.

Damon, or the Four, as he was called, was in a brooding mood. It had taken them a long time to get to this point, to where Mimi was in the equation and properly. Four knew that he'd been essentially a fucking machine, fucking everything to bits and then again, the enormous pressure, the desperation that had been inside him for years, had taken time to start to release.

He had been hidden in a pen, decades ago. An original witch had done it because their magic, their Salvatore magic, was so great that one could not handle it. It took ten and how the original witch had solved this. She had taken Damon, just Damon, and hidden him in a book, in a pen, in jewelry, in crystals and then they had been found.

Number one was the strongest of them. They were sort of like a beehive. They almost had a common mind, but then again, each Damon was different. Just for the very reason of how and when they'd been recovered, where the thing they'd been captured in had been.

He had been in the pen. He remembered how Bridgette put him in the pen, then gave the pen to Mimi and she put the pen away. It hadn't been bad there in the safe, and Damon had been able to almost put himself in hibernation, biding his time. He had been in love with Mimi and their life had been almost perfect, with no shed session, no pervasive influence of Damien. Mimi had been the one for him. She still was.

Every time Damon, Number One, had divorced Mimi, she had signed those divorce papers with that very pen that held him. And every time he had woken up, only to feel her anguish, pain that came when someone ripped a true soulmate bond out, he had been utterly powerless to help baby, to comfort her, and he could do nothing. He had felt her feelings so clearly when she had kept that pen in her grip and that had made inside him so much pain, so much pressure that it had taken years for him to unload it into mindless sex within the pack. 

The worst had been when Mimi had taken him to the European gig, and even then, how he could sense Mimi, hear her thoughts, be her protector, and yet he was powerless. He'd realized that there was another inside him, ever since he'd been put in a pen, but there was no way he could express it. He remembered how Mimi was in pieces. She had just lost Jake, and now this divorce. Poor Mimi. He had felt a brutal wound in her soul, her biggest loss. One she had not dealt with ever. 

He remembered how bad the condition Mimi had been in, and he'd had a protector radar even then. And that meant he could see Mimi's physical condition as if from some control panel. You could see everything. It had been torture for him. He had deserved it, all those other women, how he betrayed her.

It had been years, decades later, only when Number One had gotten his radar active, and tried to be a better protector, but he had found Mariella, wanted to be with her and once again Mimi had been the one who suffered. 

In that European gig that had made that ball of pain in his soul, Mimi had been once again in an awful place. And Mimi had been in a hell of a state. Fight club after fight club. He'd seen the damage, hoped the baby would get better, and then when he himself, or number one, had come in and divorced Mimi. He'd felt it all; it had caused a pressure inside him, a pain when he was helpless to help, unable to comfort.

Since then Mimi had been like a robot, trying to endure and slowly Damon had had to watch Mimi's strength diminish, how she weakened and used everything she had to get the job done. He had felt her pain of losing Jake and he had felt her put that pain away, not dealing with it. Damon had been relieved when Adam and Charles had grabbed Mimi and started treating her, and he'd still had to watch on his radar as she wouldn't get any better. Damon felt his teeth almost throbbing. How he wanted to get out of that pen. To help his baby.

But then he'd been put away again, in the safe, and he'd gone to wait. The sleep or almost hibernation had taken him. He had been desperate, with no hope for the future, no certainty. He didn't even know if Mimi would ever be all right. And if she'd ever be in his life again.

Then, when he'd been pulled out, he'd punched number one as hard as he could. The fucking idiot. He had been so angry, so pissed off for himself, or a version of himself, too. But when the memories of number one flooded his head and Mariella was his world, everything was different. He didn't even register Mimi, his baby. It had taken time for him to get those memories somewhere else, as they were number one's, not his.

Damon remembered how incredibly offended Mimi had been when he'd called her baby, and that nickname had stuck. How much Mimi had been through and how he had betrayed her repeatedly. He'd just gone off to fuck his demons away when he could have been starting to put his relationship with Mimi in order. But now he had the time and the will. 

He remembered all those times when Mimi had really tried to save number one from Damien's grip when she had told him time after time that believing in their love, weakened Damien but number one had not believed her, he had been weak and Damien had manipulated him. How Mimi tried to tell him that Damien was not him, that he was a different creature. Even they were number one's memories, he felt them.

Mariella was number one's, she always had been, and even if at first she was the most with the Azores, so 10 men and one woman so it didn't get the kind of time one wanted. As the years passed, Four had come to realize more and more clearly that his feelings for Mariella were, in fact, feelings of One.

And although Mariella was beautiful, charming, lovely; he had never been on the rainbow islands, and Damien had never been taken away from him. It was number one.

He had been himself even then. There was no Damien in him for years and he had also learned that eternity is a long time. But he had that eternity, and incredible as it seemed, he too was growing, evolving as a man and as a multi-shape-shifter. Mimi was back in their lives. Thank god for that. He wanted to start to live an eternity with her. 

Four sat in his armchair for a moment longer, remembering the first time he'd seen Mimi awake. He had been treating her for a few weeks, but he had been a doctor. Mimi was a patient, and he had paid little attention to her appearance.

They had been sitting in the living room when this slender creature, something like 155 cm, dressed in children's jeans and a pink fluffy shirt, had arrived. Mimi's hair had been blond, just above her shoulders, and at a quick glance she would have looked like a child. But when he looked into Mimi's eyes, he saw her experiences, the horrors she'd already been through.

Mimi was not a classic beauty in the sense that Mariella was. Mimi had big dark blue eyes and facial features like a fairy's. Delicate, but Mimi's expression spoke so clearly of the fire that burned inside this woman. He was determined to test and when he introduced himself and shook Mimi's hand, her grip had been very strong and then he had seen into the soul of this fighter. There was a fire burning like no other he had ever met.

He knew how unique Mimi was already physically but also her spark, her soul, was something he, a thousand-year-old, powerful telepath and vampire, had never met. And they had fought, more times than he could even count. Well, Mimi and Number One. Well, it had been him too, before he was put in that pen.

He remembered how Mimi's eyes had flashed as he'd called her baby, but still, the nickname had stuck. Damon awoke from his reminiscences as the scent of strawberries floated up his nose. Mimi was on the move and he went to see what she was up to.

It was hard being a telepath, even though he was in complete control of his abilities, but he wanted to help and he had learned to do more than just fuck recently, as said before, some knot inside him had opened up and he was starting to want to do more.

He had helped Mimi give birth once, but that had gone wrong too and Mimi's life, well, it was wild. Mimi sacrificed herself for the pack more than once and didn't tell number one all the facts, she just went and did it. And Number Four laughed in his mind that this war between Mimi and Number One was going to go on for a long, long time. He was glad he wasn't the leader of the pack.

He got to be a husband, a confidant, who knows what. Number one, well, he was the leader of the pack and that's why he sometimes played tricks on Mimi and reacted all wrong. But now number four got up and lazily went off to see what the young lady was up to. She had been back to pack for so little time and this scent of strawberry was like balm to his soul. He understood they had had also wounds in their soul, where the true soul mate bond had been and now it was where it should be. His soul sing more or less and now Mimi was back; she was his wife again.

Mimi was walking towards the hall.

Four stepped up to Mimi and said, " What are you up to, baby?"

Mimi looked at the four in surprise, then frowned slightly and said, "I'm going to the gym. I need to get myself in a bit more shape."

Four looked clinically over Mimi's body. This one weighed 46 kilos, not in top condition, so really the ideal weight would be something around 70 kilos, but Mimi being Mimi and having her rage, so gym training was one way the lady curbed her rage.

Except it didn't help per se, at least not completely because Mimi had always had to restrain herself and that was the lady's way. It resulted in an emotional force inside Mimi and a huge one at that.

But he knew it was the number one's job and when he could never tell from the weather vane. Magnum had helped Mimi over the years, taught her to unleash her rage in the gym, but he was not here now. Number four was happy that he was. He was spending time with the baby. Maybe tease her, get her to blush. 

Damon said, " Fine, I'll come and have a look, baby, and then I can tell you where there's room for improvement. Right?"

Mimi looked at him and sighed and said, "I can't stop you, but I don't need a trainer. I'm just going to flex a bit and get fit unless you want to fight?"

Four watched through Mimi. This one had curves, not as much as usual, but with Mimi's tight, firm body and her unbridled passion in bed, she was a must. And he had had little to do with Mimi. He remembered the sex beast. 

He understood he had been a fucking machine almost all the time, but shortly before their longest separation; they had grown closer and the seven years had been painful for him too. And now Mimi was back and they would start a new life.

Four said lowly, "I can fight, baby, but then it'll probably lead to us sanctifying the entire gym and possibly more."

Mimi glanced at him and snorted, continuing on her way. Then they arrived at the gym and Mimi went straight into action. Damon leaned against the wall and watched.

Mimi was fast, strong, and untamed. She was magnificent as always, like a force of nature and when Mimi started to get going, Damon sensed Mimi's rage which she unleashed, and then came the mistakes.

They weren't that big or of any great significance, but Damon's keen eyes did pick them up. In a rage, Mimi was fast and strong, but sloppy, and often the punch or kick didn't go quite where it was supposed to, even when it did its job. And the more the rage came out, the more noticeable the mistakes were. The rage was more out, stronger. 

Damon realized there was more to it than that. Mimi has another terrible memory, experience, or something unpleasant and she is trying to beat it out of herself. But when it doesn't always work, not even close. Her desperation almost smelled in the air. After an hour of beating, kicking, and almost raging, Mimi stopped for a moment and dried her face and chest with a towel, sat next to the wall for a moment, and sighed.

Damon straightened up and walked over to Mimi, sat down next to her, and hissed, " What are you trying to banish baby, what is it now? Something to remember. How about you tell me that story, that memory, so I can finally and properly help you? I am no longer powerless and unable to do anything for you."

Mimi looked at him, sighed, and said, "It's nothing, Damon, just leave it."

Damon put his arm around Mimi's shoulders, pulling his sweaty wife against him, and said, " Come on baby, start talking. Number one and Mariella's not here. But I am. Do you know how fucking much I suffered during that whole European gig? And every time you signed those divorce papers, I woke up, felt your pain, your emotions, and I was utterly helpless. How did I see you? I already had a protector radar, you know? And I knew about Damien. I could feel him gone. It was part of the magic. How I was powerless and watched you weaken, hurt, and then number one divorced you. Please, baby, let me help, just this once. I know you haven't never dealt with Jake's death and I am not gonna make you yet, but tell me what it is."

Mimi turned to look and looked Damon straight in the eye. "When I don't know if we get closer, then Mariella will come between us, and I can't. I mean, I can't take it anymore. That seven years was enough. It was enough and I don't want it anymore. And yes, I haven't dealt with Jake's death. I should, as he left me something, but I am not ready. I am not wanting to go through it again, that Mariella takes everything from me. She is jealous still." Her voice was quiet, strained. 

Damon said, " Hey, don't worry, I'm a fucking machine or cook in Mariella's eyes. She's not watching me. Come on baby, tell me what you got? A memory, come on little lady, tell me. I'll help you. It's all right, and it's gonna be all right. Remember, our time in England? Tell me."

Mimi sighed again and said, " It was one gig, back in the day, during those seven years. You probably didn't know that I was a prisoner in a pharmaceutical facility 16 times. Well, we had one place, one big facility that we were guarding and we'd drawn up plans for it. And everybody, I mean there were 25 of us and Dexter and Murdock, Magnum, Alaric, Wulfe too, and we'd gone through everything so damn carefully. I and these 25 would go there, the others had their jobs to do. We had to go into that facility through the woods so we could get to the back of the facility where the drain cover was. We were supposed to go in the drains and everything had to be in order."

Mimi's expression was neutral. Damon's telepathy unraveled the memory, and he could feel himself to be part of that mission, too. He was holding her, smelling her sweat, her strawberry, hearing her emotions in her voice.

"We left at 6:00 in the evening and drove for four hours. Then we got to the site and there on the other side of the woods, it would take us about an hour to go through the woods and there was a talk that I would go ahead in cat form and I would smell if there was a problem. We started walking, and I was almost there when I stepped into the trap. I mean the snare and my hind leg. I couldn't do anything in cat form and I assumed, being a crazy, foolish person, that it was just a coincidence and waited for my team to arrive."

Damon could feel a snare digging into his leg. Mimi's memory was rotten. Rot made it oppressive, haunting, nightmarish almost. Her voice was quiet. She steeled herself as she felt everything, too. Her memory was her greatest gift and worst curse. He squeezed her a little bit more, trying to comfort her.

"When bad guys arrived, several darts were fired at me. The lights came up from the roof and there were so many people. My leg pinned me and I was about to eat my leg off, but then they threw a net over me and started hitting me with taser sticks so that the drug that had been shot into me started to take effect."

Damon squeezed her a little more. He could feel her shaking slightly. Mimi turned her head and looked him in the eye as she explained more. Her face was still glistening with her sweat, there was genuine pain in her eyes, her voice was somber.

"You see my rage, can't withstand electricity, and if somebody electrocutes me while I'm trying to use my rage to keep the medicine from working, the rage doesn't work, so I started to waver and all I could hear was my group being chased and I didn't know who was going to get caught or killed. "

Mimi sighed and Damon squeezed her against him; Mimi's memory was so damn rotten, and he was unraveling it and it was going to leave another big cavity and Damon could already feel his teeth wanting to velvet Mimi. But first, the entire memory would have to come out. 

Four was calming Mimi down, and Mariella asked him in his mind, " What are you doing? I thought we could spend some time together. Number one went to make dinner."

Four sighed. Mimi had been right, and Mariella was jealous of him already. 

He said in a firm voice. "I'm with Mimi now and I'm erasing a fucking terrible memory. Did you know that this unique creature, this one of my own, had been held prisoner in a medical facility 16 times over the last seven years? "

Mariella was silent and said, " Maybe me and number one should come there then. It requires anesthesia if the memory is rotten and Number One needs to know."

Four said, " Never mind, you'll find out. I'll help Mimi now. Because I want to, make food, fuck all you want, but give me a break, I've already got the memory, and it's rotten. "

Mariella said, " Fine, but I'll tell number one. He might listen."

Four snorted in his mind. Number one was a fucking machine. Now when Mimi was back, meaning lust circulating properly, he had gone back to fuck. 

Mimi sighed and almost shuddered, and Damon said, " Go on, it's fine. I am here."

Mimi went on, her voice quiet, but there was a pain in it, self-loathing so clear, and Damon had to restrain himself from starting to convince her that it wasn't always Mimi's fault.

"I woke up in bed, tied up, a thousand different things dripping down on me and I was medicated, weak, and sore. And I felt all this metal. I tried to get myself untied, but I had metal spiked shackles and my arms were still tied up. A strap went over my waist, and there were spiked shackles on my legs. And I was so fucking weak."

Again Damon was there in Mimi's memory, felt everything, and knew that number one and Mariella did this usually like that they would not be in a memory but just looking at it, as Mariella did not want number one to feel everything that Mimi felt. She was protecting him. But number four felt how refreshing it was to feel this horrible memory, to be part of it, and to understand Mimi so much more. Mariella wanted to keep number one as hers, not let him to be with Mimi. 

 He kept her close. He could feel number One coming "online" meaning he heard what was said, but he kept him from feeling.

He kept Mimi in his arms. "I could feel the spikes biting deeper into my wrists and I tried to wrench my arms free. I couldn't connect with my rage and it was so damn hard to think of anything clear, anything other than panic and despair, the fucking drugs and metals that were being dripped into me. I didn't even think about what was happening to my group, what had already been done to me."

Number four knew that it would take years to help Mimi over those satanic seven years. She kept on telling her story, letting rotten, oppressive memories unravel and come out. He felt it all, unraveled it. 

"Then people came into the room and no Sark. These were completely different people. They started examining me. They didn't ask me any questions, they just took some readings with some fucking thing and one guy said," " This is done, now is the time."

"And then they left and people kept coming in to bring more drugs and I started to feel pretty bad again, it hurt, I felt so fucking weak and powerless, I couldn't get away and I could see all the drugs they were dripping into me. possibly poisons as well. i was too out of it."

He could sense her weakness, smell almost the sharp tang of those drugs, spikes digging into her flesh. He was breathing calmly, smelling her strawberry, hating those bastards.

"Then I was moved to another room, and they put a cannula in my carotid artery, my jugular vein and I knew I'd had to clean people's blood in my time and it was hard work. I was now strapped down on my side and I still couldn't get out, but I was starting to clear up a bit. But you see, that was the name of the game."

She looked at him, before carrying on with her story. 

"Then they brought the first one in. A member of my team and he had cannulas around his neck as well. This main researcher came into the room and said, 'Come on flea, now we're going to do experiments like this. So you've got some metals, some experimental drugs stuck in you and you're going to digest them in your peculiar way. So you've got a hell of a lot of new compounds in you. Let's see you killing your friend. We'll connect your bloodstream and you won't stop your heart, but how long can your friend take all that stuff in your blood? You've got 65 liters of blood, give or take, and your friend's got 5 liters, so pretty much he's going to get your blood and whatever else is in there. And as people are fragile, it can take time, so we put you two face to face like this so you can talk about it before you kill your friend. As you can see, he's perfectly fine, very healthy, and well, not for a while.'"

Her voice was quiet, but she was taking a deep breath. Mimi's strength amazed number four. That memory had not been pleasant, and she was not broken, not at all.

"They connected the cannulas, and the blood started flowing and it became apparent pretty quickly that I was indeed killing my friend. And I wasn't strong enough to finish him off painlessly with poison. I tried to struggle to get the cannulas out, to do anything I could while watching my friend poisoned, how he suffered, slowly dying, slowly struggling, and knowing all the fucking time he was going to die."

Her description of the events was heartbreaking. Mimi was a doctor, and savior and she had been made to do this.

"His breathing, was frantic at first and then it became gasping, desperate, he couldn't breathe and then he started bleeding, his nose, his ears, even his eyes and I could see in his eyes the regret of why he had joined the fleas. He only realized that he shouldn't have. I'll kill them all. It took eight hours. Slowly, he was conscious the whole time. And I was suffering because human blood was a cleansing treatment for me and all the shit started coming through my skin or I threw up. I was sweating and running a fever."

She paused a bit before continuing her creepy, awful story.

"The fucking scientist came in several times to see where we were going and they were fascinated by how the human blood was affecting me. Then my friend was dead, and they disconnected us, and took him to the autopsy, right in the same room, so I could see and hear everything. His body was then burned." 

Her voice was strained and Damon tasted velvet almost in his mouth. Memory was rotten, nasty, oppressive, but he lived through it.

"They probably stuffed me with more drugs and shit. I was pretty unconscious, and then when I started to come to, there was the next member of my group. And we were already hooked up. This time it took 24 hours. They had changed the substances they put in my blood. We talked, we tried, and she tried to convince me it was OK. She didn't mind, and she knew what she was doing. I could not get close enough to bite them to end their suffering with my fangs. No way."

She looked now to the floor as she continued her story. Memory oozed out. Damon kept his hand around her, comforted her, and helped her. 

"Every time my friends died, when I murdered them, they opened the body in the same room and told me in such fucking detail how I had killed them. I still remember every statement, word for word, and I know they weren't lying. I'd seen the symptoms, I'd know. Do you know what a bergamot does to my blood? "

Four was silent. He wanted to destroy the scientist, and he realized the scientist was still alive. He felt Mimi's desire for revenge and realized why she had come to the gym.

He said, "I've never come across a bergamot before, so what did it do?"

Mimi looked at him for a moment and said, "Let me show you. Don't worry, it will fade in a couple of hours."

Mimi teleported out a one-milliliter syringe with just a hint of the stuff in it.

Mimi looked at him and said, " Now you can't drink from me until this is gone, or shall we say you really shouldn't drink from me? This is a bergamot extract, 1% strength, and there is very little of it here."

Mimi inserted the needle into her vein and pressed the plunger. The protector's radar began to alert immediately as Mimi's blood pH began to drip and drip. Eventually, it corresponded to battery acid. Mimi was now taking deep breaths and Damon could see that this was not good. She was struggling, it was very painful for her.

"Why on earth baby, you just poisoned yourself. Now, young lady, no more of your tricks and no more bergamot. Your blood is now battery acid."

Mimi nodded and said,her voice was getting breathless, "They put a dose of bergamot in me once, about 100 times, what this was, and then they connected us again. Do you know how much it hurt my friend when my blood burned her from the inside out? How she screamed in pain and I hoped she would die quickly, but I had been given something to keep my pulse slow, and my heart wasn't beating as hard as normal, so the acid would flow slowly."

Number four frowned. He was now worried about her. That bergamot was not a good thing, and she was not in the best shape, not at all.

"It took a while and I'll never forget the scream, the smell of slowly acid eating away at someone's insides, blood vessels and all, and the autopsy, all the damage, and how long he lasted. Then they fed me tomatoes, herbs, and all the harmful stuff and so I poisoned the next member of my group. Everyone was caught, and I killed them all. I apologized to everyone and some of them understood, but I did hear the truth so many times. How dangerous it is to be with me when you get under my charisma, how I pull everyone in and kill them all?"

Her voice was quiet, full of self hate, guilt, self blame as well.

"How many regretted that they were with me, and I had considered them my friends? Some even forbade me to go to the relatives, because I had no right, but that's why I had to go. When I escaped from that institution after three months, I was nothing but skin and bones, nothing but rage and despair."

He was silent. There were no words to help her. All he could do was keep her in his arms. Take away that rotten piece of shit from her mind.

"No one could get me to sleep, no matter what Colin did. I didn't sleep because my friends would have come into my dreams again and I would have had to relive the horror, to look them straight in the eye and find the moment when they discovered that I wasn't as strong, as invincible as I had let on, that I couldn't protect them, not at all. A year and I was fine. It took me an entire year and my rage was so high it was never on."

Mimi sighed and fell silent. Damon managed to pull the whole rotten memory away, Mimi was still panting, and even though the protector's radar showed that Mimi's blood pH was slowly rising, that plant would be poisonous and he would have to find where Mimi was hiding, where she grabbed that syringe from.

"Mimi, my love, you should sleep for a while so I can get that cave that memory had caused out of your head. I'll fill it with all the good stuff," Damon said, still holding Mimi close to him.

"I have a cocktail ready if you want one." Number one said from the doorway.

His expression was full of regret. He hadn't caught Mimi's stress, Mimi's distress, and now a fucking machine made Mimi open up and tell him one horrible memory. Damon had looked into the past, just a glimpse, and it had been too much.

He walked over to the other side of Mimi and said, " Baby, that was a horrible experience and now you need to rest like number four said, but I know you're better now, or I understand why you're having trouble with your meds, and maybe you need to take it easy, but baby, I'm still so fucking sorry for the whole seven years, and everything I put you through. "

Mimi was clinging to number four now, and he was stroking and soothing. Number one was sighing and putting on a numbing energy, pushing the needle into Mimi's upper arm and pressing the base of the plunger.

He stood up, and said, " Then bring her to medbay. Let's see the blood tests again."

Four nodded, barely even visibly, he was now completely focused on Mimi and stroked her, purring softly.

Number one walked out of the hall, wondering in his mind how jealous he was. That's him and then it's not. He would have so wanted that in that number four's place, he would have been. Helping Mimi, listening to that awful story, supporting her, but at the same time he realized that Mariella would have come when she sensed his distress and he would probably have taken her in his arms, not Mimi. And that would have been wrong to Mimi.

He understood the four, too. He had listened to all of this in his mind; he understood how this pack was mutating, how all versions of him were finding themselves, and how they were then more the Damon that Mimi was with.

He was the core, the flank type, the darling type, but when these versions were taken they had been Mimi's Damon on them, not him. Therefore, this pack life would become more and more interesting and different.

And Mariella had noticed the same thing. Two, five and seven were the closest to the core of Damon, but then all the others. They were completely different types and she would have to start getting to know them, but what if they wanted Mimi and not her? Then Mariella sighed in her mind and decided to go help in the medbay where the four had just carried Mimi when she had finally fallen asleep, holding onto four the whole time.