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Night 67-70:
Two months after Nick’s rescue, he seemed mostly stable. He could walk, but could do little else. His right arm never moved, while he used his left arm only for vaguely batting at things. He moaned when unhappy, liked bright, contrasting colors and interesting sensations, and seemed to understand very little. He wet himself after every meal and periodically throughout the day, with no hint of any concept of toileting or ability to control himself.
Zoldrak was beginning to give up hope. He’d done been doing research whenever he had any spare time, but all it got him was the same answers. The only similar cases were silver injuries to the head, and they didn’t get better.
The duster had claimed he could cure Nick, and indeed, he’d brought Nick mostly back before messing him up again when he fled. But he didn’t want to be found, and Nick had always been the skilled detective, not Zoldrak. If Nick was back to normal, he could find the duster for sure. But Nick couldn’t even find his way around the house, now.
And to make things worse, Zoldrak was getting tired. He’d already used up his sick time this year rescuing Nick, and his busy schedule allowed him no opportunity to rest. Plus, he was probably starting to risk anemia—he didn’t usually feed vampires this much, but he couldn’t stop hoping the curative powers of his blood would help.
Finally, in desperation, he decided to seek help. He called a couple of Nick’s adoptive siblings, other strays that Snowbird had taken in, but none of them would answer. Perhaps they believed Veritus’ interpretation, where Nick had sided with the duster willingly and helped to kill Snowbird and Dimitri. Well, if they couldn’t see what a load of nonsense that was, so be it.
So instead, Zoldrak called his niece.
Tierza was a medical student, but she had just finished classes and was waiting on exams, and said she could use a break from studying anyway. She was there within a couple days.
The first night, Zoldrak hung out with them, watching them together. She decided to do some informal cognitive testing, and determined that Nick, as best she could tell, had no receptive language, severe difficulties recognizing and interpreting sights, sounds, and tactile sensations, and didn’t have a sense of object permanence. It wasn’t really news, but it still stung.
On the good side, she was good with him. Friendly, patient, and enthusiastic, and she changed his diaper without any hint of embarrassment or awkwardness. She also fed him her blood, gladly sparing Zoldrak.
So, the next night, Zoldrak left Tierza in charge while he slept.
“So, Nick, I guess it's just you and me tonight.” Tierza said as she opened up his crib. He started to scramble out, but she stopped him. “Hang on. You need a diaper change first.” Nick moaned, but didn't fight as she laid him out and undid his diaper. She got him cleaned up and put a new one on, and then led him out to the kitchen, wearing only his diaper.
In the kitchen, she fed him some bagged blood. He drank it happily, moaning around the bag as the wetness indicator on his diaper changed color again. Tierza wasn't surprised—she'd heard that feeding made vampires need to pee almost immediately afterward. It was an adaptation to having a mostly-liquid diet.
She changed his diaper again, and then sat down with him to watch TV in his room. “I've heard this is a really funny movie. It's got a vampire in it, too.”
Nick just stared at the TV thoughtfully.
“I'll put it on, see if you like it.” Tierza said. Judging from her test results, he wouldn't understand any of it, but he might like the way it looked.
After the movie was done, Tierza fed Nick a little bit of her blood—Zoldrak had said he wanted her to, just in case moonlighter blood might help his recovery. Nick had wet himself a little during the movie, and he wet more when she fed him, so she changed his diaper, then wondered what to do. “Hey, Nick, have you been cooped up in here all this time?” Tierza asked. “Maybe we should go for a walk.”
She took Nick's paralyzed hand and tugged him to the door. She opened it and he looked outside, confused, and then recoiled with a frightened sound when a car went past. “Oh, Nick, it's OK!” She hastily closed the door. “You're OK, Nick, you're safe. You want to stay inside, let's stay inside.” She babbled as she followed him into the living room, where he sat on the couch and hugged himself.
She sat beside him and rubbed his shoulder, and he moaned and gave her a confused look, his fangs coming out. “You still hungry? I'll give you a bit more blood.” She said, undoing the bandage on her wrist and offering it to him again.
When Zoldrak awoke around suppertime, Tierza told him about Nick's reaction to the outdoors. “It might be good to gradually acclimatize him to being outside. Exposing him to a variety of stimuli could help his recovery, and he can't very well stay inside forever anyway.”
“How do you recommend I do that?” Zoldrak asked.
“Maybe start by leaving the front door open, while you’re there to supervise, and letting him decide to approach it at his own pace?” Tierza suggested.
Over the next few nights, Tierza stayed and looked after Nick, giving Zoldrak a break. She didn't make much progress getting him OK with the outside, but she did help Zoldrak recover from his exhaustion, which was the whole point of this exercise for him.