Who: Cate Adler and Mateo Santiago What: Just a normal night at the Kestrel and then Cate gets Splinched When: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 | evening Where: The Crimson Kestrel, then Reserve medical Warnings: Blood and injury Other: Log prompt #2
The bar was more crowded than usual, probably owing to the random and unexpected rainstorms they'd been getting for the last few days. It had kept Cate running around until her legs felt a bit like jelly, because her inability to use her runes meant that she was doing things like climbing step ladders to get glasses and liquor from high shelves; they weren't beyond her abilities, obviously, but the bar hadn't exactly been designed to be worked without magic, either. Maybe that was why their new No-Maj bartender had called out sick tonight.
"Do they make potions for temporarily increasing your physical fitness?" she joked as she leaned against the bar in front of her brother-in-law, taking advantage of a tiny break in customers to drink some water and rest her weary body, albeit still on her feet for a few more hours. "Maybe I need to ask Tony to take me running more often. Or we could just get this whole magic thing fixed. Mom is actually talking about call some expert from New York, because no one here knows what's causing it."
Having that Anthony guy in the office had been a godsend. Mateo didn't feel like he was going out of his mind, now. It actually felt like he could breathe, and he was getting home at a decent hour again, provided no emergencies popped up. Leaning his elbows against the bar top, he shook his head at Cate, laughing. "You really want to go down that road? First you're taking them to get through these crazy shifts, and before you know it? You're completely jacked, and taking part in bodybuilding competitions and talking with a shitty, fake accent. I don't want to have to explain that to your mom."
Swirling the whiskey around in his glass, he switched off the joking tone for a moment. "Has it gotten any worse, or is it still the same?" It was weird, not seeing the runes in the bar at work, and not being able to use any kind of magic in the building - not that Teo regularly needed to use magic when he was there. "Bringing in an expert might not be a bad idea, especially if no one else can figure it out."
"Right, me, the bodybuilding addict," Cate said with a laugh. "Can you imagine? Though, let's be real, Mom would probably understand that more than she'd understand my actual full-time job. I'm pretty sure she still thinks I play video games all day or something." It wasn't that her mother was entirely unsupportive, but Cate still got the occasional side eye that she could interpret as: And you call that work?
Just as she opened her mouth to say that things had gotten better since they instituted the 'no magic' rule, she noticed a margarita glass floating through the a little ways down the bar. She rolled her eyes for Mateo's benefit, then went and grabbed it, which took hiking herself up onto the bar so that she could reach it. It went into a crate under the bar for objects that needed time for their weird magic to fade—which it mostly did, given time—and she called out, "No magic guys! Please and thank you!" before returning to stand in front of the wizard. "Well, that keeps happening. I think it's mostly a novelty for the people who missed the nights when it was the worst."
It was a ridiculous notion, for sure. "Hey, you never know - I've heard crazier ideas. I mean, my life is one giant crazy idea - I married your sister." Mateo still sometimes couldn't believe that had actually happened. "Your mom is an intense woman, but she loves you. She just doesn't understand all this new fangled technology stuff." He did his best imitation of a crotchety old person voice.
Brow raised, he watched as she retrieved the floating margarita glass. Turning, he glanced at the people nearby, eyes slightly narrowed. "It's not like you've got that rule in place right now for shits and giggles. Things could get out of hand, and someone could get hurt if people keep fucking around." Was he speaking slightly louder than needed, in the hope that the jerk who'd been messing with magic overheard, and pulled his head out of his ass.
Cate opted not to comment further on her mom, since Mateo wasn't exactly an outsider observer any more. There wasn't much to say, anyway. Disapproval and love weren't exactly mutually exclusive, and she was sure Claire Adler had plenty of both.
"The one off things don't seem to be causing too much of a problem," she said, low enough that it wouldn't encourage anyone to disobey the rule any further. "It's when lots of magic starts adding up. Best I can tell, it's an 'equal and opposite reaction' sort of thing, to quote my No-Maj schooling. The spells don't work, mostly, but they make other things happen instead. Mostly it's benign stuff like floating glasses and soap bubbles, but I don't know if that's because people don't have any reason to do complicated magic in bars, or if it's the nature of whatever is going on." She shrugged, unashamed of her nerdy analysis of everything.
"A little bit of both, maybe?" He offered, though not really certain himself. He knew that he, personally, never needed to do any kind of complicated magic in bars - unless some kind of crazy emergency arose, like the time some guy fell and split his head open on a table at a bar back in California. That had been a fun evening. "But at least it hasn't been anything too crazy, and people seem to be mostly abiding by the current rules."
Sipping the whiskey, Mateo leaned forward against the bar top. "Besides crazy bar magic, and disapproving moms, how are things? You liking your new place?"
"The house is great," Cate said enthusiastically, glad for that specific topic to avoid answering the rest of the question. She was keeping up a positive mood and attitude while she was at work, and that was how it was going to stay. "Dad says one more weekend of work will knock out all of the fix-it items, and I got a couple of really nice pieces of furniture from Aunt Tonya, so it's starting to really look like a home instead of a place where I sleep."
She was about to start in on some specifics of the projects they'd done, maybe suggest that he and Nora come over for dinner when it was done, when one of the patrons behind Mateo called, "I'm outta here, man! See you later." And turned on his heel to apparate.
"Hey, no mag—" Cate started to called as a reminder, and then she gasped in a breath, though she couldn't immediately place what had knocked it out of her.
"Well, fuck," the guy said, having a heavy sigh. "Guess we'll have to walk down the street first." Another few seconds, and he and his companion had exited the bar.
Cate stared after him, confused, because no matter how much she tried to open her mouth, she couldn't quite take a deep enough breath to get out words. Brow furrowed, she glanced over at Mateo, then down at herself. It was hard to see in the dim evening lights of the bar, but even when she did see, it took her a moment to comprehend, because she didn't really feel it. "I think I'm bleeding…."
“That’s awesome!” He was genuinely happy for her. There was nothing more freeing than finally having your own place - even if it was a work in progress. “If you’re missing anything, furniture wise, let me know. I’ve got a bunch of stuff in storage that isn’t getting used. I’d be happy to let you have it.” He’d rather see it get some use than just sit around in a storage unit.
The way she stopped mid-sentence was his first indicator that something was wrong. It took a moment for his eyes to catch up with his brain, and to process what it was that he was seeing before him. There was a line down her left side that - if Mateo didn’t know better - looked like it had been splinched. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be possible considering her Squib status, but thanks to the funky magic at the Kestral? Well, here they were.
“Shit,” Scrambling off his stool, Mateo vaulted over the bar, pulling his wand, though he immediately put it back - it wasn’t going to do him any good in here. In fact, he may very well make things worse by trying. “Cate? I - fuck - I need to get you out of here so I can get you to medical. It’s gonna hurt like a bitch, and I’m sorry. Is there anyone here you trust enough to watch the bar? To go and get your mom?” She was the only one on shift, so it wasn’t like he could leave the other bartender in charge for the moment, and someone needed to be here, even if it was just to close things down.
Cate automatically put a hand to her side, as if to staunch the bleeding, and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain. Her hand came back wet, and her shirt attempted to pull away, too. Was her shirt ripped? She balanced herself against the bar with the hand that didn't hurt and tried to focus on something other than how nauseous and lightheaded she felt all the sudden. Mateo's question was just what she needed, even if it took her longer than it should to think who was in that night. "Mrs. Mason!" she called, and the woman looked up from her seat. It took her a moment to realize that something was wrong, but when she did, she rushed over. Cate kept it to a couple of sentences to ask her to watch the bar and to send Zeke for her Mom, leaving the rest to Mateo to explain.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," she said quietly, reaching for Mateo's arm but not actually losing her dinner. "Or faint, I dunno." She hissed in pain as the movement pulled at something, and then all at once fire seemed to spread up her left side. Even biting her lip didn't keep her from whimpering in pain this time. "What's happening to me?" she asked, teary, and all but slumped into his side.
It took him only a moment to explain to Mrs. Mason what was going on, and what to relay to Claire when Zeke went to fetch her. He dare not let his attention drift from Cate for long, and the instant he was done explaining things, Mateo was scooping Cate up into his arms, her uninjured side facing him. “You’re gonna be okay, Cateycat. I’ve got you.” There was no way in hell that he was going to let something happen to his sister-in-law. Not on his watch.
Rushing her out of the Kestral, he waited until he was a safe distance away from the building to even attempt apparation. “This is gonna suck, and I’m sorry,” he told her as he started to turn on his heel. With the distinct ‘pop’, they disappeared from the street, and reappeared in one of the emergency bays in the medical building. That was when Mateo got to work.
He coaxed her into taking a pain potion, before he started in on attempting to deal with the wound. His heart was pounding in his ears, more so than it ever had with any other emergency situation. Cate was family.
Cate gave a squeak that was closer to a dampened shout as Mateo picked her up, pressing her face into his shoulder and trying not to think about anything—which was impossible, given how her side was screaming at her. Instinctively, She tried to curl her other arm in against her body, and that turned the few tears that had escaped down her cheeks into full-on sobs. In the glow of the streetlights, she could see blood dripping from her fingertips, and that was enough for her to squeeze her eyes closed tight and not open them again.
Her breathing was ragged and her head fuzzy with the attempt to stay conscious as they landed in medical, and she all-but collapsed onto the bed there, laying on her good side and trying to hold her injured arm in the air with only some success. Her shirt and jeans gaped awkwardly on the side, like someone had taken a pair of scissors and sliced right through them, but she couldn't spare any thought for modesty. She managed to get down the pain potion he offered, and it helped, but more because it made her care a little less about the pain than that it actually removed it. Her head starting toward the more pleasant side of fuzzy, Cate looked up at him. "What...what is this?"
Gloved up, Mateo was carefully separating her clothes from the wound, making damn sure there was no fabrics or threads that might muck up the healing. "I don't know - I think you got splinched when that asshat tried to apparate out of the Kestrel." When he was satisfied it was clean, he started in the spellwork.
He got the bleeding stopped, which was the easy part. The rest, however, wasn't as pleasant. Fixing the skin was a long process, and Mateo did his best to keep her calm, and remind her to breathe. He did what he could, getting the process started, and when she was stable enough he sent out messages to her family, as well as Tony and Kent.
"Splinched? But I'm—" Cate broke off with a hiss of pain as Mateo started removing the fabric from the wounds. She was shocked to see that there was a bright red line running the entire length of her body, even up the underside of her arm to her pinky finger. She had to close her eyes again after that, because the mere sight of the injury was almost enough to send her into panic-induced unconsciousness. Instead, she took deep breaths while Mateo did his job, trying to think of emotionless things like app code. It mostly worked, except when something hurt enough to make her tear up again, and then inevitably her thoughts went to Kent and Tony, wishing one of them was there to hold her hand, even though she knew there hadn't been time.
Finally, she was able to settle on her back in relative comfort, despite the spells and potions that were still working to regrow and knit her skin back together. She still couldn't think about that part, so she was glad when everything was bandaged up, and she was able to get dressed in a simple hospital gown and a light sheet. So long as she was careful not to put anything other than the lightest pressure on her side, it was bearable. Then again, the potion was still working its magic, so who knew how she'd feel when it wore off.
"I think I left my phone at the bar," Cate said, half in a daze. "Can you ask someone to bring it?" She was already getting sleepy from the exertion of it all.
Mateo did as much as he dared in one go. Even with potions, there was only so much the human body could handle. Her arm was pretty much taken care of, as well as her lower leg, but the larger areas were going to take more than one go, he knew. At least he had her to the point where he was comfortable giving her a low dose of blood replenishing potion.
He grabbed one of the small vials from the cabinet, and uncapped it. "Drink this," he told her. "I'll see if Nora or someone can grab your phone from the bar, and you can get some rest, okay?" Teo was damn grateful that he'd been at the bar tonight. Anyone else may not have acted as quickly.
"Okay," Cate murmured in reply, only opening her eyes a slit as she reached out for Mateo's hand. It felt good for a moment just to have that comforting contact. "Maybe I won't ask Tony to take me running for awhile…." And then she drifted off, thoughts randomly turned to warm days on the beach.