Who: Alec Vaisey & Katie Bell What: Injured Katie Where: Alec’s Flat When: Saturday, July 1st, 19:15 Rating: TBD Status: In Progress
Katie's arrival at Alec's was graceless, her feet unsteady and her body crashing against one of the walls. She was bleeding, her hand pressed tight against her side where her t-shirt now sported a gash and a deep crimson bloom that had begun to spread faster than she'd known what to do with.
She was disoriented, her head pounding and her ears ringing- the sudden silence compared to the screaming from moments ago making her attempts at drawing breath sound ragged and pained as she slid to the floor, her free hand holding her wand in front of her in a death grip.
"Alec!" She choked, not wanting to waste any time trying catch her breath. Katie didn’t know what room she was in but she knew where she was. She recognised the familiar smell of her surroundings, the furniture and then, after a moment's quiet, the unmistakable sound of hurried footsteps.
-
"Holy shit," he muttered to himself after a short moment, his eyes wide as he took in the sight before him. He had just gotten out of the shower, but that thought lay forgotten now given the state of things.
Grabbing his wand, he let himself drop to the ground by her side, tearing into her already mussed up clothes to get a better look at her wounds to start going about putting her back together. Cleaning them first, then going about healing them…
"I'll grab you some pain potions in a moment; what the fuck happened?"
-
“Hogsmeade-” She huffed, even before he asked, her eyes trained on him as she let her wand fall and moved to hold her bloody hand aside. “The festival. The fireworks. There was some sort of-” She shook her head, crying out as a sudden shift sent a bolt of pain shooting right through her side.
She closed her eyes then, gritted her teeth but carried on. “It was an explosion. The wheel…” She could see the scene as she left it. The cries, the smoke, people hurt, children screaming... “I need to go back, Alec.”
-
"Jesus christ--" Shaking his head, he steadied her after a moment to make sure she didn't end up unduly hurting herself too much again. Whatever had happened in Hogsmeade… fucking hell.
Alec had to bite back a laugh as he did his best to maintain his focus in spite of whatever ridiculous things she was saying. "You aren't going anywhere, love, hate to say it, but you're out of commission for the night." Tutting, he shook his head, moving to grab hold of the rather large piece of shrapnel still sticking out of her side. Well, if he warned her, she'd tense up, and that would be far worse… and if he just took it out, she'd probably hit him, but eh-- he went to the gym; he could take it.
Pulling it out in one swift motion, he accio'd a towel to hold against her wound as she was suddenly leaking blood like a faucet. "Easy now--"
-
Katie was about to protest, to tell him that she wasn’t; that he could patch her up and let her return later, when all of a sudden her vision flared white and the pain she was already feeling multiplied more times than she thought physically possible.
She screamed, a loud blood curdling cry that spilled forth as she dug her filthy boots into the floor and pushed back against the wall, bracing herself.
“Easy now?!” She sobbed, opening her eyes once the shrapnel was gone. “Fuck, Alec. Your bedside manner-“ She shook her head, her chest rising and falling rapidly with the effort it was taking to breathe. “it sucks! It really fucking-.” She groaned, eyes flitting from him to her side and then to their surroundings, searching for anything that she could use to-
But it was too late and instead Katie turned and dry heaved, her empty stomach roiling and her vision growing foggy again.
-
He'd expected it to hurt, but he hadn't expected her to completely lose her goddamn mind, either.
"Yeah, well, you're as much my friend as you are my patient, and I wasn't about to let you anticipate just how much that was going to hurt--"
Oh.
Phenomenal.
Lightly slapping her face, Alec frowned. "Come on, Katie, stay with me..." Her being conscious and remaining as such was his primary concern at the moment, Alec holding his breath as he waited for her to look at him and actually see him, too, before he'd be willing to so much as consider cleaning up that fun puke puddle of hers on his floor.
-
“I’m here, I’m here.” She managed half heartedly, turning her face and meeting his gaze finally. “But I’m not-“ She breathed. “saying thank you.” She could appreciate his intention, that he hadn’t wanted her to know what was coming, but the already fading memory of the pain had her surprised that she hadn’t instinctively punched him.
Or maybe, she thought- her mostly clean hand coming up to his cheek- she hadn’t done it because it was him. Her mind was scattered with thoughts of what must be happening in Hogsmeade, but amidst it all she couldn’t help think on how long it had been since they’d seen each other. How long it had been since she’d seen his face…
-
There was a moment of genuine, palpable relief when she looked up at him, seemingly at least, well-- mostly alert, Alec shaking his head as he suddenly found himself torn on whether to focus on her or on the wound that was presently knitting itself up at her side…
"No, believe me, I know just how little you appreciate my free medical services..." Leaning down to press a soft kiss to her forehead, he pulled back with a smile. "I'm glad you're okay. You've gotten so good at scaring me lately, that I practically dread catching a glimpse of the Prophet..."
-
“The Prophet?” Katie laughed, but then winced, letting her hand drop from his cheek to press just above where it hurt instead. “You’ll see my name- on the obituary page of that damn thing- over my dead body.” She managed, a small smile flashing across her features.
Only with Alec could she find herself in a situation like this- be sitting in a pool of her own blood and cracking terrible jokes. The ease she felt simply being in his presence made even the hardest of events that much earlier to bear and as she felt her body start to relax, she shook her head, realising how lucky she’d been that he’d even been home.
-
"Yeah, literally!" He chortled, shaking his head. "Don't even joke about that… I think about that way too often as it is." God, why'd she have to go off and get herself in this position in the first place? But-- that did beg the question of how this had even come about, and Alec frowned.
"What the hell happened in Hogsmeade, anyway? Other than you getting half-skewered to death..." It wasn't as though that was a regular occurrence-- fucking hell, if it was, she'd have an entirely different problem to worry about in the first place. "Who the fuck decided to blow up the festival?"
-
Katie cracked another smile, moving her foot, giving his knee a playful nudge. She’d no doubt spend plenty of time later worrying about the stress she caused him by getting herself into these messes- though admittedly this one had been the messiest- but for now she was simply grateful that there was somebody who cared enough to think of her when she wasn’t around.
At his question she moved to sit up straighter, motioning for him to pass her her wand so that she could at least help him to clear up the mess she’d made as she spoke.
“I don’t know, but there are people dead. There were kids there, really little kids with their parents and god… the screaming.” She added, not realizing she was still shaking. “I’ve seen Fred and George’s fireworks before, you’ve seen them.” She reminded him. “They’ve never been like that. Never.”
-
Swatting her hand away, he scowled, shaking his head. "Nuh-uh. My job." He'd started cleaning up already-- no reason to stop there. Besides-- he was good at charms work. This was easy. Routine, even. Routine and normal were things that sounded downright comforting in the wake of what had evidently happened at the festival.
"Mm." Nodding softly, Alec sighed. She wasn't wrong; he'd never known their fireworks to target anyone other than Umbridge, and she'd deserved it. And even then-- it wasn't like they'd caused irreparable harm…
"Maybe a third party got their hands on them and tampered with them."