Who: Melinda Bobbin Harper, along with Marina Rosier, Coma!Marek, and Healers (all NPC) Where: Marek's hospital room When: Wednesday late morning What: Good thing Melinda's vigilant. Warnings: minor grossness maybe Status: complete
Melinda was sitting in the chair by Marek's bed, scarf hanging loose around her neck, fiddling with her new ring. Her sister was sitting in another chair on the other side. Melinda was telling Marina about the activities of the last 24 hours -- it had been meant to stay a secret, but of course, Marina had noticed the new ring immediately. Melinda's sister had left just long enough to drop her son off with the house elves, then come back to sit awhile and hear about it.
"Honestly there's not much else to tell," she said, looking down at the ring as she twisted it on her finger. "We had the little ceremony there in the office and then came back home." She took a deep breath and looked over at her brother. "Good thing, though. I got back in time to see him awake."
Marina sobered, nodding a little. "How was he?"
"Loopy," Melinda said, looking up at the older woman. "It was obvious he'd woken up on his own, not from them waking him. I told them when they put him back down, he's been building up his tolerance to poisons for years. Since we were still in school. You have to be careful not to underdose him with an immune system like that." Both twins had always been strong of body, really, Marek's version of it just happened to be a lot more inconvenient in this situation. She shook her head a little. "And how's Jacob?"
"Better," Marina said, nodding. Her husband had a Mark and had been fighting alongside his wife's younger siblings. "They've mostly healed him up, there's just a few curses that are...lingering on him. They said he should be out in a few more days, though." Melinda nodded absently, but her attention had been drawn away. "What is it?"
Melinda sat forward and sniffed the air. "Can you smell that?"
"What am I smelling for?" Marina asked warily, already holding her breath.
"It's not strong, just..."
Melinda trailed off and Marina sat forward, sniffing. She frowned. "I smell it too, actually," she said, pulling a bit of a face. "It smells like..."
They reached the conclusion at the same time, but it was Melinda who said it. "Infection."
Both women moved at once. Marina went to the table, picking up a quill to owl their parents, and Melinda went out the door, pulling the scarf up around her face. Even a tiny infection could be a serious shitstorm for Marek. He didn't have exposed bone anymore, but there were still muscles and blood vessels open to the air. More than enough for even a minor infection to become systemic and life-threatening very quickly. She nearly walked right past the Mediwizard station, noticing and turning back before she got too far. "My brother needs to be seen by a Healer, now."
The woman on duty gave Melinda a belligerent look. "And why is it your brother's more important than all the other people in this hospital?"
Melinda grit her teeth under the scarf. How dearly she wished she still had a Mark to whip out at a time like this. "Because he has an infection. I can smell it."
Her expression turned patronizing. "Have you been bathing him?"
"Of course I have." It was mostly spells for the sake of not having to look at and/or touch her brother's junk, but she kept him clean. "He doesn't smell dirty, he smells like infection."
Finally, the mediwitch sighed and put her wand to her throat. "Healer Smith to room 403. Healer Smith to room 403, please." She put it down. "Happy?"
"Ecstatic," Melinda spat, voice dripping with venom, and turned away, going back to the room. Marina was holding a letter.
"Okay, who needs one?" she asked, drawing her wand. "Mum and Dad, who else? It just says what we...well, smelled, but I said saw, and that the Healers are looking into it and we'll owl them again with more."
"Send one for Alec." Another name came quickly to Melinda's mind, but she looked reluctant. Still... "I guess his girlfriend too. Felixa Abaddon."
Marina nodded and Duplicated the letter twice, leaving the room to hunt down the hospital's owlery. Melinda sat down in her chair again to await the healer, holding her hands between her legs to try to stop them shaking. She looked Marek over. She couldn't see the corruption, at least not at first look, but faint as it was, she couldn't ignore the smell. She held the back of her hand near one of the deeper burns, and it felt warm. That made her nervous.
The Healer arrived, took one look at some of Marek's injuries and made Melinda move back, casting a Bubble Charm over the bed.
"It's a good thing you were here," he told her, casting various spells to banish all germs and infections from within the bubble. "He's the one who woke up last night, isn't he?"
Melinda nodded. "Yes," she said, voice soft. "They upped the doses of all his...things to keep him under. I told them he's got a ridiculous resistance to anything chemical," she added.
The Healer nodded, still casting spells. "And that's something that wasn't considered. But a resistance to chemicals doesn't necessarily mean a resistance to germs," he said. "These things are designed to fail if there's a new problem, so that explains why he woke up. Another few hours, though, and your brother would have been dead."
The words made Melinda feel cold, but she forced herself to focus on the first part. Another few hours. "But we're in time."
"Yes, don't worry. This will slow his healing considerably -- we don't want to close him up any more and risk sealing the infection in. But once it's gone we can resume, might move him to a clean room for the remainder. This shouldn't add more than a week."
A week. Still, that was far preferable to forever. "Okay," she said, voice even softer.
The Healer seemed to notice that and paused long enough to rest a hand on Melinda's shoulder. "You saved your brother's life just now, Miss Bobbin. He'll be fine."
The words came unbidden to her lips. "I'm Mrs. Harper now. I got married last night."
The Healer smiled. "My best wishes to you, Mrs. Harper."
There was silence for a moment as Melinda let the Healer work. "That's sortof a secret," she pointed out awkwardly. "So probably best if you still call me Miss Bobbin. I don't know why I told you."
The Healer smiled a small, knowing smile, reflecting on the wonderful recklessness of youth. "I won't tell."