InsaneJournal

WHO: Jeremy Danvers & Kitty Norville
WHAT: Tending to injuries
WHEN: After this, late night 3/28/18
WHERE: The Pack House
RATING: Medium for mentions of injury and blood
STATUS: Completed gdoc



After getting away from the metal that had been flying at her, Kitty flat out ran. Her left foreleg hurt every time it touched the pavement, but the Wolf didn’t falter. Blood dripped from a couple of her wounds as she flew across the town, barely even able to fully comprehend where she was going - except somewhere safe. The den in the woods was too far, and she hadn’t been back there in almost a month, so instead the wolf altered course and headed for the Pack-that-wasn’t-really-her-Pack.

As she finally reached the grounds, she slowed to a trot, then a walk as she sniffed the air. This place felt safe by virtue of the fact that she could feel a Pack presence on this land, but she was still wary, and she was now weary. She could have run for miles and for several hours, but her injuries weren’t healing right, and her breath came in pants for the second time that night.

When Kitty reached the house, she finally came to a stop and huffed out a soft breath, then sniffed the air again, this time to try and catch a recent scent of someone being close by. Not immediately smelling anyone, she whined softly, then started to edge closer until she reached the steps, and scratched at them idly before leaping onto the porch. Someone had to be inside, right?

***

There was always someone at the Pack house, and often it was Jeremy himself. The Alpha was very much a homebody, had plenty to do to keep himself busy there, between his books and his painting and his grandchildren he kept himself busy. The hour didn’t mean anything except most of the house had drifted off to restless sleeps, some with the help of some tea meant to calm them, and Jeremy was still sat up in his study, paging through books idly.

His own sleep as of late hadn’t been particularly restful either, not nearly as bad as some, and he wasn’t eager to return to it.

He was up to hear the whine outside, was already heading toward the door when he heard the scratching. That was cause for more concern than he would have anticipated there to be tonight.

He went straight to open the door, eyes going straight to the wolf on the porch, sharp and wary until he placed her scent. Kitty wasn’t unfamiliar, though he wouldn’t say he knew her well, and he had given his word to help her when she needed. She very clearly needed. The sharp scent of fresh blood caught his attention next, and he moved outside to kneel down, not close enough to frighten her but near enough to offer reassurance.

“Kitty. You’re injured.”

***

Sharp ears caught the sounds of movement inside, and Kitty backed away from the door just a little, though the scent that hit her when the door open was somewhat soothing. She knew immediately that it was the Alpha, and when he stepped onto the porch, the wolf lowered her head, then lay down herself when he kneeled near her.

She couldn’t fully understand the words, but the tone was calm, and it encouraged her to scoot closer. After a moment when he didn’t move, she returned to all fours and took a couple steps towards him, but flinched when she came down on the injured leg. Under her on the porch, there were a few drops of blood from a wound on her abdomen - it was half closed already, but it still hurt enough for her to stop moving forward fairly quickly, huffing softly in his direction.

***

Jeremy held his ground, stretched out one hand as she moved, his brow creased briefly when she stopped. He’d seen enough injured wolves in his time to know it was her injury, wherever it was, that stopped her.

“It’s alright,” he assured soothingly, and shifted his weight to ease closer to her. He knew how it was during the Change, the fuzzy way words got through and that tone and presence made more of an impact. He kept his tone gentle, his demeanour calm as he moved toward her. “Let me see what happened.”

He smoothed his hand across her fur cautiously, seeing out the source of the blood, the source of her pain. If he could, he wanted to get her inside, into some proper light, to take a better look. He had a medical kit if it was bad enough to warrant stitches.

***

Before his hand reached her, Kitty gave it one last sniff, then a faint lick before she sat on her haunches so he could see the bleeding wound to one side of her stomach, and offered up the injured leg. He may not have been her Alpha, but he was an Alpha, and the Wolf trusted him, particularly in this moment. When his hand brushed a particularly painful spot, she gave a faint whimper, but didn’t draw back.

Relaxing as he brushed her fur to look for the wounds, she watched his hand as far as she could, then lowered her leg when he let it go, obviously favoring the other to keep that one from hurting worse. Wolf knew the injuries would heal soon, and a part of her wanted to go back and track down the man who smelled like copper and rip out his throat, but her human side shoved that instinct down for now. Any kind of rebuttal could wait for another time.

***

“You seem to be healing,” Jeremy mused. Always interesting to witness that first hand. Werewolves like him and his Pack healed quickly, but not quite that quickly, a broken bone would still lay them up for a week or two, a cut as bad as the one she still boasted would require stitches and bandaging. “That’s good. Can you manage to come inside on your own?”

He spoke slowly, deliberately. He needed her to comprehend the question, even through the wolf brain. With the position of her wound he didn’t feel comfortable simply picking her up, that would likely do more harm than good.

***

Now that the adrenaline rush caused by the danger was fading, her human side was able to comprehend the words, and subconsciously translated them for the Wolf in a way she could understand it. Carefully moving to all fours, the 115 pound wolf took a limping step towards the door, then stopped and looked back to the Alpha - without meeting his direct gaze, of course - and waited for him.

There was a second step, but it was obvious she was trying to not put her full weight on the injury, and if he joined her, she was going to definitely be leaning against his legs to help with the walking. This place smelled safe, like a den, and though her own scent had certainly faded from the place given she hadn’t been there in a while, she was okay with being there right now, too weak and exhausted to want to go anywhere else.

***

Jeremy’s way was much more send the weak and the injured and those under his protection ahead so he could defend against what they couldn’t see. But her cues were easy to read and he moved to walk beside her, letting her lean into him and giving her the support that would help her get inside. Slowly he guided her into the living room, let her get settled on the rug before he moved away again, turning on some lights so he could get a better look.

“I expect,” he said absently as he rejoined her, not really expecting any sort of response now or later, “a full explanation of what happened.”

In better light he took another look at her wound, was satisfied it would heal on its own and it looked clean enough that he didn’t feel a need to tend to it. He moved on to smooth his hands against the injured leg, gentle and practised. He’d obviously had to do this before.

***

Laying on her right side so that he could tend her wound and deal with the injured leg, Kitty stayed quiet, dark eyes watching every movement he made. There was another faint whimper when he touched the leg and she twitched, but the Wolf knew better than to growl at the Alpha, even while she was in pain. He was trying to help, and though it would still hurt, eventually it’d be better. She trusted him. Eventually, Kitty rested her chin on the rug, her nose pressed against his knee as she waited to see what would happen next. The bone was already starting to knit back together, but even that process hurt and there was no real guarantee it was doing so in the right way.

***

Frowning slightly as he examined her leg, it was the faintest of shifts in his expression, Jeremy took only a second to consider it. If it was his own Pack, his kind of werewolf he wouldn’t be concerned about it, the Change back to human form was traumatizing and bones broke and rearranged violently, there would be no purpose in fixing it before that happened. If it was a werewolf like Scott and Liam, who didn’t fully Change, he wouldn’t hesitate to put it right, the temporary pain worth it mending properly.

He wasn’t familiar enough with Kitty’s particular type of werewolf to know if it needed to be fixed, and he wasn’t sure he was willing to take the risk.

She couldn’t tell him the right answer in this state, and he was sure that if she could Change now she would have done so. So he made a decision, hoped it was the right one, and simply pushed the bone into a proper placement to heal. He’d want to take a look again when she turned back, but as long as she stayed off of it while it knitted together again, he thought she’d be fine.

“You’ll stay here tonight,” he said. It was more order than invitation. She had no obligation to him, but he was sure she’d listen this time. She’d come to him for help.

***

When he pushed the bone, there was a half-muted yelp, and her head jerked up inadvertently at the quick shock of pain. After a moment, it actually did start to feel a little better, and she nudged his hand with her nose, huffing softly on his fingers in gratitude.

The order was clear enough to both the human and animal side of her for Kitty’s ears to twitch towards him for a moment, then away as she shifted to curl up on the rug, tucking all four of her legs in close and even letting her tail wrap around her form so that she could bury her face in it and close her eyes.

Kitty took one last deep sniff of the air, taking in his scent as well as those of others in the house and the various scents that cris-crossed through the room they were in, then closed her eyes to let sleep take over.