The smell of disinfectant was insulting to his sensitive sense of smell, and the fluorescent lights cast an eerie, unhealthy glow to everything in the room and the heart monitor kept beeping annoyingly, but Michael Winslet was numb to it.  His anguish was his only companion: he had fixed all of his attention on the pretty little blonde in the bed in front of him.  He did not look directly at her, he certainly made no moves to touch her.  Something deep within him felt that he had no right to do that, but he was content enough to sit there and listen to her breathing, even if her steady breathes were aided by a machine.  It caused him to be so completely miserable to see the tubes, and machines crowd the vast room – it was so unnatural, especially with the sleeping beauty resting amongst so much wrongness.
A throaty voice of an older man broke through and distracted Michael from his despair: “Michael Winslet, I presume?”  
Michael flinched suddenly at his name.  But, the young man merely adjusted his head so he could see the owner of the voice: an older man with closely-cropped hair of silver-grey.  Everything about the man seemed to be large: his huge six foot height, large hands, and large nose.  He also radiated authority; Michael’s heart pounded in his chest, fearing that older man was actually a cop.  Half of Michael wanted to be relieved, the other half wanted to be frightened.  
With dread, Michael responded.  “Depends, am I in trouble for something?”
The older man grunted, “Depends on how co-operative you are, son.  I’m Mr. Lee, and I have something of grave importance to talk about with you.”
Mr. Lee made no move to shake hands; he only stared down at Michael with his piercing eyes.
Michael shrugged, brushing his blonde out of his air in an attempt to be aloof.  “I’m kind of busy already.”
A smile slipped across Mr. Lee’s features; it wasn’t a happy smile or even a pleasant smile, it was the patronizing kind of smile a parent gives a child for asking a stupid question.  
“I don’t think Ms. Elizabeth Talbot is going to eavesdrop.  She seems a little too busy herself.”  The older man gestured to the bed with the comatose woman while he spoke.
Michael shrugged again, and another patronizing smile slipped across Mr. Lee’s face.  They both were trapped in silence for awhile, the younger having no wish to converse and the older choosing his words.
“Interesting rumours,” Mr. Lee said, shaking Michael out of his sorrow, “surrounding Ms. Talbot’s condition.  Apparently, she was attacked by a dog.”
“Yeah, she was,” was the response.
“Must have been a pretty big dog. From what I hear, the bite radius is rather large.”
“I don’t know ... I guess ... maybe.”
Mr. Lee moved attention from Ms. Talbot’s prone form to Michael. “You know, I’ve never heard of a person going into a coma over some dog bites.”
Michael hunched his shoulders in a permanent shrug.  “She’s lost a lot of blood.”
Mr. Lee merely nodded, and turned his attention back to the young unconscious woman.  “Is that what the doctors were saying?  Strange, I could have sworn I overheard one of the doctors mention something about some strange pathogen in her blood.”
Michael’s attention was caught by Mr. Lee’s statement, but he restrained himself from reacting too much, and sat quietly instead, fixing his attention harder on Ms. Talbot.
Mr. Lee continued, “I’ve seen something like it before.  It’s a funny thing.  One in four chances she’ll survive without being infected, and a one in four chance of dying from that same infection.  I’m sure you’re quite aware what happens the other two out of four times.  I’m starting to think the numbers a little skewed, though.  It’s a miracle when someone survives without the infection: I’ve seen more die or go through the Change.”
Mr. Lee met Michael’s face full of alarm and panic with his calm one.  
“She ran, didn’t she?”  Mr. Lee said, stating more than asking.
Incensed with sorrow, Michael could only mutter, “I didn’t mean it. I just ...it ... it was an accident.”
“A predator chasing down its prey is never an accident, Michael.”
Michael flew from his chair in a rage, “It wasn’t ... it’s not like that!  I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her! I lo - ... I just, wouldn’t, okay?!”
Mr. Lee was not astonished by Michael’s attitude – he wasn’t even surprised-- he had seen it a dozen times.
“I think Ms. Talbot would argue otherwise, were she able.”
They stood in silence, the beeps of the machines the only noise aside from Michael’s heavy breathing.  
Michael finally broke the silence with a voice thick with tears, “I’m sorry.”
Mr. Lee sighed, “Sorries don’t fix things son.  But, it does raise some sympathy.”
A choked sniffle came from Michael.
“You seem like a nice enough boy, but you made a mistake, and now you’re going to have to pay for it.  The attack on Ms. Talbot, accident or not, has labelled you as dangerous.  Understood?”
Mr Lee. Turned to see Michael’s face haunted with the possibility of the consequences.  The boy gave a slow nod, which Mr. Lee took as an incentive to continue.
“Good.  Now there are only two choices here, but they amount to the same thing.  Either you come with me, where we can teach you how to control you’re predatory nature, especially on full moons, and never see your family again.  Or, when you leave here, Ms. Talbot will be the last person you’ll see.”
Michael chewed on a nail, before his blue eyes caught Mr. Lee’s.  “Are you saying you’ll fix me if I go?”
Mr. Lee sighed, “No, son.  You can’t fix it; you can’t get rid of the wolf part of you.  We can’t even make you safe; all we can do is make you less dangerous.”
Apprehension was on Michael’s face.  It hadn’t been the answer he had been looking for.
Gently, Mr. Lee stated, “You’re not the first werewolf we’ve rehabilitated, son, nor will you be the last.”
The silence again prevailed.  Michael stood awkwardly, fidgeting while his mind raced.  Mr. Lee just stood perfectly still, like a statue.  
Defeated and haunted in appearance Michael sagged under the guilt.  He fondly looked at Ms. Talbot a final time.
“I’ll go with you.”