So I now bring you my next retelling of the epic Re-Animator franchise, "Raptured in Re-Animation", which begins where the first movie ends and eventually progresses into "Bride of Re-Animator", however with a twist: Megan survived the end of the first movie instead of Daniel. Which means she becomes Herbert's partner and (spoiler) eventual lover. ;D Inspiration for that came from simply Jeff Combs and Barbara Crampton's duos in "From Beyond", "Castle Freak", and most of all "The Evil Clergyman". In addition, an anonymous fan/blogger on a Jeffrey Combs Tumblr site requested Herbert/Meg if there was any, and as far as I searched, there wasn't any of them in THIS way you'll see them. ;D So I bring you the start of this interesting couple; that is if there aren't any of them that we're not aware of. This was a dream come true, so I hope you guys enjoy this deliciously heartbreaking but compelling piece. And I don't mean that in a narcissistic way.

Disclaimer: I own NONE of Re-Animator or H.P. Lovecraft, which once more you will see multiple references and similar parts from the original story. And my idols - Jeff, Barbara, Stuart Gordon and the rest - if you see this, I hope you enjoy this whenever you want to.

Chapter One

A Good Doctor

They were running down the hallway, away from the morgue and the angry, cannibalistic cadavers that were still loose about, and now that those doors were open, and Hill was dead, they were free to run about as they pleased.

One perfect example was the naked maniac flailing about after them very much like one of those zombies in the movies and stories which gave her nightmares as a little girl. Brought to hideous reality. Only this was no voodoo magic being the reason of its walking the earth.

Meg had plenty of time – or so she thought – to hurry and press the UP elevator button to take them both out of this place and to safety. Just the two of them left who knew the truth about all of this; for all she knew, West could be dead back there, torn apart by his own doing, like Daddy had been only minutes before. That son of a bitch got what he deserved, beginning all of this mess to begin with by a simple arrival and starting with poor Rufus.

Daddy… She had to keep her emotions under control until they were out of this –

– and then she heard Dan's strangled cries behind her and spun around as fast as she could, crying out in sheer horror as she did.

The corpse was on top of Dan, hands wrapped around Dan's throat with no other objective on its dead mind besides the need to kill the person it could set its eyes on. And it was going to kill her beloved. Her body acted before she could acknowledge it, moving first to grab the thick neck of that thing and try to get it off of him, but failed. She could see that she was running out of time, by the look on Dan's face and the horrible noises he was making.

Fast.

She looked ahead and saw the fire axe in its place. Running over to that, she mustered up what limited strength she had in her body and swung her elbow in, smashing the glass so she could get what she needed. Once the weapon was in one of the tightest grips she could manage, in her life she ran back over to where Dan was losing the battle with his assailant.

With a wild scream, like that of a she-animal in the jungle, Meg raised the axe and brought it down in blunt executioner's style, having to do two swings until the head was off its owner, and the body – nothing left but a bloody stump now – loosened its grip on Dan's neck and collapsed beside him. Deciding that checking his pulse and all that could wait until they were safely into the elevator, though she needed to make haste, Meg threw the axe into the opened elevator behind her and began to drag her boyfriend by the under arms in after her with little to no difficulty.

She was prepared to push the number button of needed destination when another unexpected arrival burst into the elevator and grabbed her neck.

The full force landed her onto her back, on the floor not too far from Dan's unmoving body, so she saw that her attacker was a half-burned, blackened beast uttering guttural growls of victory that it had caught its prey. Though the powerful hands – one burnt and the other normal, if partial – were cutting off her air supply with more energy than the average human being, Meg was lucky enough to turn her head to her side and reach for the axe that was within her reach. Closing her fingers around it, given the corpse wasn't smart enough to knock it out of her hands, she used it with the style of a cutting knife, slashing first at the neck and then sawing off the burnt hand that remained on her neck until she managed it off herself, tossing it out after the beast that backed away in pain that it could not express in human tongue.

Gasping for precious air for a few moments, while managing to sit on her knee and reach up to press the button for the floor to the emergency room, Meg finally turned behind her to where Dan still lay. "Shit…God DAMN!" she managed to hack out as she crawled over and began to perform CPR. How could she have been so careless?

Her inner voice reminded her that she had to fight off two undead monsters that tried to kill her – the first being the one to already kill Dan, as there was currently no pulse or intake of breath.

NO! she screamed to that second part of her as she continued to try to force air down into his strong body and pressed down repeatedly on his heart with both hands. No, she would NOT let him die. She wouldn't…she had to get him to Dr. Harrod before it was too late…

The elevator finally dinged, and Meg once again hoisted her boyfriend's body by the underarms and began to drag him out, abandoning the axe altogether and ignoring the blood that had splattered on the walls of the elevator, Dan's well-being too important for her at the present. Smoke was clouding the air that she could barely see the figures at the end of the hall; the fumes in the morgue must have gotten into the vents and would get to certain parts of the hospital. "HELP!" Meg screamed at the top of her lungs as she continued to drag Dan's body down the hall with as much speed as she could muster. He was twice her size and could pick her up easier than she was trying to do to him. "Someone help, please! My boyfriend...!"

Her cries were answered, for there was a familiar figure who would stand guard outside the morgue while Dan, who had access, would bring in the bodies of those he failed to save. "Mace!"

"My God, Megan! Is that Daniel?!" the guard exclaimed, running over to help her. "I just called the police, and they're on their way!" He was much stronger and one time larger in size, so he was able to haul Dan over one shoulder and hurried with her to the ER where people had their attentions focused one her, wearing a bloodied collared shirt too big for her dainty body, as well as the most horrified of them all on the body slung over the shoulder of the security guard who'd ran from the downstairs morgue to yell for someone to call the cops.

"Oh, God, Dan!" That new voice was Dr. Harrod, her and Dan's employer and their acting mother figure. Meg had lost her mother before she got into medical school, and she'd gotten to work part-time for her surgeon courses in the ER if not the same as Dan. Dr. Harrod was the substitute who didn't wholly fill that void in her heart but nevertheless was the closest of a mother Meg could have. "Get the IV, charge the paddles!" Harrod yelled to the nurses.

Mace laid Dan down on the bed, and the nurse grabbed a pair of scissors to cut open Dan's wife-beater from the neck down to expose his sculpted chest and then place the patches on to monitor his heart rate while the paddles were charged; one of the interns had by then set up the IV. Megan hated the way things were moving slow, or maybe that was only in her mind. She was studying to be a surgeon, so she couldn't let a life leave just like that; haste had to be made always. "Give them to me." She took the paddles and demanded for the paste before applying them to either side of Dan's chest and charging the electrical source through his body, which flopped in response.

The nurse looked up to the EKG machine; flat lines. "Nothing," she announced.

No, damn you, Dan, don't do this to me! I don't want to lose you like I lost Daddy! Meg shoved the nurse aside and began to perform CPR, interlacing her slender fingers and shoving down as hard as she could without applying too much pressure to the bone of his sternum. While she continued to do what didn't work in the elevator and prayed it would now, she heard the terrible words but did her best to try and shun them from her ears: "Trachea is fractured...pupils dilated...no response..."

And then there was Dr. Harrod. "Megan..."

She didn't hear her voice really, just focused on trying their best to get Dan's heart going again. The EKG machine gave no noise of the life lines coming to life...no, no she would not let that happen...she had to keep going; she HAD to save him...

But then she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Meg..."

Dr. Harrod's voice sounded softer than before, but firm enough to make her finally stop. Meg didn't want to, but her head moved on its own volition and met the older woman's gaze...and found her shaking her head no. It's too late, her eyes told her. Meg felt as though her world had stopped altogether.

No...no, no...NOOOOO! her mind was screaming as she numbly released her hands from the chest of the man she loved, the man whose life she tried to save and FAILED. The nurse, Harrod, and the others were removing the needles and patches from his chest and arms, but Meg barely acknowledged them, too consumed in her own grief and barely hearing Harrod quietly tell her they were going to leave her alone for awhile.

First Daddy...now Dan. She slowly looked up, starting from the strong torso still covered in blood until she reached his handsome face, peaceful as though sleeping rather than dead. The purplish bruises from the corpse's powerful hands around his thick neck were plainly visible, and from the lump in his neck, the trachea was fractured, as the nurse had said. There had been no way to give air back into his lungs with a broken neck like that.

Her father's teachings about the idyllic afterlife still lingered on her mind, so she said a silent prayer as she leaned forward and gave Dan one last kiss on his firm lips, still warm but now turning cold as his skin began to blanch at the loss of blood. No sooner had her lips met his one last time, Meg felt her whole body quiver with the sobs that escaped her throat.

It was not long before the realization hit her, and her attention shifted to the floor and followed the invisible trail to the black bag still resting on the floor, where a certain sickly green fluid was waiting patiently for usage...a formula she had no idea how to use, but it was now or never.

Opening the bag and pulling out the vial she'd first seen Dan pull from West's fridge, her stomach lurched not only because of the color but because of the effects. Do it now, her inner goddess urged. She didn't know the exact dosage, but twelve had to be the start, based on her experience. Megan knew all about basic medication, but this was too strange for her. It's just as foreign as he was when he came all the way from a country across the Western Ocean.

Now that she thought of it – West! If he's dead, then that means I'm the only one left who knows what really happened. That means I'll be left alone to face police interrogation. They'll call me a madwoman and lock me away in the Sefton Psychiatric Ward for the rest of my life.

Meg shoved the thoughts to the back of her head and loomed over the body of her beloved whom she still harbored an intense love for despite the cruel words she'd said to him before all of this, despite the horrors he'd gotten involved in. She didn't see how Herbert West had done it, but she guessed, based on her studies of brain death, that the top of the spinal cord had to be where it was done. Looking into Dan's peaceful face once more as she brought the needle to the bottom of his skull, she whispered, "I love you."

Awww, nooooo, Dan! I never thought of killing Dan off before, but the more I thought of this idea, the more irresistible it became. It's also fun to see Meg fill in his shoes here, too. In the movie she was of little use besides being the dean's daughter, loving Dan and hating Herbert, getting molested by Hill and eventually dying. She needs to be developed. And I thought of the idea of a surgeon for her because there was always the question: her boyfriend is in medical school; what's SHE studying? Surgeon seemed appropriate because we can't have her the useless tormented heroine, right? If she's going to be Herbert West's unwilling assistant, then she has to possess what no one thought she'd have before. She has to have a side very few people know.

R and R, and that goes for every chapter to follow. :)