Beanstalk has taken over my life. I love these children so much. Which is why I choose to write fics where they're grievously injured. Don't question me.
This assumes that Jack, Laney, and Grey don't travel back to St. John's Port with Mr. Thorne. The end of Echoes of a Giantkiller seems to imply - to me, at least - that they travel separately.
Chapter two will be posted next Friday.
Disclaimer: I don't own Leagues and Legends.
Once upon a time, no one could sneak up on Jack. His luck made sure of that. Whenever anyone tried, something tipped him off, and even the best planned ambush would fail.
That time was over, and Jack regretted it bitterly.
Laney was hurling pre-made spells at the group attacking them, the bandages wrapped around her wrists and ankles barely hindering her. Whips of golden fire flew through the air. Jack was parrying blows from swords with his own, doing his best to take on everyone he could. He was uninjured; he had to protect the others. Grey was using magic too, but the glow seemed duller than usual and it was clearly harder for him to reach for the Elsewhere than it usually was. The effects of the mayor's mage damping device still hadn't quite worn off.
The group clearly weren't your average bandits. They were too well-organized, too well-trained for that. And there were far too many of them. It seemed as if every time Jack struck one down, two more took their place. Not that too many of them actually went for Jack; they seemed to be aiming mostly for Grey. That was not something Jack was going to stand for.
Jack slammed the hilt of his sword into the head of one of his attackers just as he heard Grey let out a quiet, "Oh." He whirled around immediately, searching for Grey in the mass of people. The little sound he'd made was one he often made when he saw something interesting, but now he was just looking down, not up at something in the sky or out at something on the horizon.
Jack's heart leapt into his throat when he realized the thing Grey was looking at was the hilt of a knife sticking out of his gut.
"Grey!" he yelled, immediately fighting his way over to Grey, who stared down at the hilt for a moment longer before dropping to his knees. Before Jack could reach him, Grey wrapped a hand around the hilt, yanking the knife out of his gut. The trickle of blood thickened.
"Retreat!" one of the attackers yelled, and immediately everyone was gone. Jack barely noticed as he caught Grey before he could hit the ground.
"Grey!" he gasped. Grey looked up at Jack for a moment, looking confused and paler than he should.
"'M gonna be sick," he finally mumbled, turning away from Jack and vomiting onto the ground. Laney, who had just come over, took a quick step back.
"Grey?" Jack demanded, yanking off his jacket and pressing it against the bleeding wound. "Grey, what is it?"
"The knife..." Grey replied, his voice slurring alarmingly. "It's an Elsewhere crack."
"It's a what?" Jack demanded, reaching for the little knife and picking it up. Grey let out a shuddering breath as Jack brought it closer to him.
"I didn't know you could make knives out of Elsewhere cracks," Laney said in a strained voice, looking at the knife. Jack pressed his lips together.
"There's..." Grey made a retching noise, but he didn't vomit this time. "There's a bit still in me."
"What?" Jack cried, looking at the tip of the knife. Sure enough, there was definitely a shard missing.
"We need to get it out," Laney declared immediately. Jack nodded, dragging his eyes away from the knife. Thankfully, it was short enough that it couldn't do too much internal damage on its own, but if there was a bit of an Elsewhere crack inside Grey...
"My hands are shaking too much," Jack admitted, looking at his trembling hands. There was no way he could manage something as delicate as pulling a shard of the knife out of Grey. "Laney..."
"I'll do it," Laney replied immediately, beginning to dig through Jack's pack for their medical kit. Jack kept one hand pressed on Grey's wound, holding the blood soaked jacket to it.
"Grey?" Laney asked when she had gotten out the forceps and disinfected them. "Are you ready?"
Grey looked up at Laney, taking far too long to focus. "No," he mumbled, leaning over and vomiting again. Jack held him the best he could, rubbing his back gently. There was blood in the vomit this time, and flecks of blood were still on Grey's lips when he rolled back over, his head resting in Jack's lap.
"'M ready," he croaked, looking up at Laney. She nodded, holding up the forceps. Jack moved the bloody jacket out of the way so Laney could get at the wound.
"Hold him still as well as you can," she told Jack in a low voice. Jack nodded. He didn't particularly want to hold Grey down, but it was best that he didn't move. "Grey, this is going to hurt."
Grey fixed Laney with the best unimpressed look he could manage. "Oh, is it?" he retorted. Laney rolled her eyes, but Jack knew she was just as relieved by the sarcasm as he was. If Grey was feeling able to make snarky comments, that was a good sign.
Laney made quick eye contact with Jack, then she began to dig into the wound. Grey gasped when the forceps first pushed through the skin, his hands scrabbling for something to hold on to. Jack directed one of them to his own arm, which Grey gripped with unbelievable strength.
"It's okay," Jack whispered to Grey, hoping he sounded comforting and not scared out of his mind. "You'll be okay."
"I think I've found it," Laney stated, shifting the forceps slightly and squeezing them.
Grey let out a horrible cry as Laney began pulling the shard out of him. He tried to twist away from her, but Jack held him in place, as much as he hated to do it. Tears leaked from his eyes.
"Almost there," Laney murmured, sounding as if she were trying to comfort herself as much as Grey. "Almost there..."
The sound of relief that Grey made when Laney extracted the shard was heartbreaking. Jack immediately replaced the bloody jacket, trying to staunch the bleeding that had started up again with a vengeance. "I'll get rid of these," Laney said in a voice that was just barely shaking, scooping up the knife and still holding the bloody shard in the forceps. Jack nodded and Laney turned, walking away from Jack and Grey until she could get far enough away that the Elsewhere crack wouldn't be able to affect Grey anymore.
"Hey," Jack said to Grey quietly, trying to meet his eyes. His hand was still tightly clamped around Jack's arm, the nails digging in so deep they had almost broke the skin. "You feeling better now?"
"Yeah," Grey rasped, his voice absolutely wrecked. "Laney's gotten the knife far enough away that it doesn't hurt anymore."
"Okay," Jack said quietly. "Can you let go of my arm? I want to get bandages out of the bag."
"Oh." Grey looked down at the hand on Jack's arm like he'd forgotten it was his. "Sure." Slowly, Grey's fingers uncurled from around Jack's arm. Jack grabbed his pack and started pulling out bandages.
"Wait a second," Grey told Jack before he could begin to wrap the bandages around Grey's torso. Jack watched as Grey lifted a hand, looking as if he were pressing it against something Jack couldn't see. Golden light began to twine around his fingers, pooling in his hand. When he had a carefully cupped handful of magic, Grey pressed it against the wound in his stomach. Jack watched as the golden magic seeped in through his skin.
After a long moment, the glow faded and Grey moved his trembling hand away. "That's all I can do," he murmured. Jack wiped the blood away from Grey's wound to see that it looked to be a few days old, already starting to heal.
"That's more than enough," Jack replied, pressing a square of gauze against Grey's stomach. "Do you think you can hold this in place for a moment?" Grey's long fingers, normally stained with ink but now stained with blood, trembled as he pressed the gauze against his stomach. Jack grabbed the bandages, unrolling the end and preparing to wrap them around Grey's torso.
"I burned the knife," Laney declared, coming back. "There's nothing but ashes left."
"Can you help hold Grey upright?" Jack asked, eyeing Grey. He didn't like how pale he was, but it was only to be expected, he supposed. "It'll make it easier to put the bandages on."
"Sure," Laney replied, kneeling next to Grey and gently pulling him into a somewhat upright position. Grey gasped as he braced himself against Laney's shoulder. "You just always get yourself into trouble, don't you, pipsqueak?" Laney asked, doing a much better job of sounding normal than Jack was managing.
"Not like I asked for this to happen," Grey retorted, his voice somewhat breathless. Jack finished wrapping the bandages around his torso, tying them off carefully.
"What are we going to do now?" Laney asked Jack, an absentminded hand on Grey's head as he breathed shallowly against Laney's shoulder.
"We need to keep moving," Grey replied hoarsely, pushing away from Laney slightly. His face was a certain shade of pale that Jack knew meant he'd lost more blood than he should have, but the set of his mouth was determined. "We can't stay here. It's not safe. We don't know if those men will come back."
"How exactly do you plan to keep moving?" Laney retorted. There was a slight twist to the side of her mouth that Jack had learned meant she was worried. "There's no way you can ride."
Grey scowled. "Then tie me to the saddle. It won't be fun, but it'll be more fun than staying here and getting ambushed again."
"He's right," Jack said, although he hated to do it. Grey was clearly in no fit condition to ride, but they had no other choice. "We won't go too far. There's a village in a few miles. We can stop there. We'll get a room in an inn and rest for a while."
Together, Jack and Laney managed to get Grey onto his horse, and Grey managed not to pass out from the pain. "Are you sure you'll be alright?" Jack asked as he ties the ropes around Grey to keep him from falling off the horse. Grey offered him a pinched smile.
"As alright as I can be," he replied. "Don't go too fast."
"We won't," Jack promised. He looked to Laney, who'd already mounted her own horse. She set off at a steady walk. Jack pulled himself up onto his horse and grabbed the reins for Grey's, following Laney at the same slow pace. He could hear Grey's labored breathing and hated that they were doing this, but they had to keep moving. If they stayed here, things would only get worse.
"I think he's out," Laney muttered to Jack, gesturing at Grey. He was slumped against his horse, his skin ashen.
"'M not," Grey mumbled, blinking and looking up.
"It wouldn't be a bad thing if you were," Jack told him softly. Grey grumbled and dropped his head back against the horse. Laney nudged her horse so she was riding next to Jack.
"What's the plan?" she asked quietly. Jack shrugged.
"What I said. We go to the town and we stay there until Grey's well enough to keep traveling."
"What about Rupert?" Laney countered. Jack sighed.
"I want to find him as much as you, but you know he wouldn't want us to look for him if it meant hurting Grey."
Laney glared at her horse. Jack was practiced enough in reading her that he knew she was frustrated. He didn't blame her; so was he. "I hate that those are our two options," she muttered.
"So do I," Jack replied grimly.
"There's a third option," Grey offered, startling Jack, who thought he was unconscious. "You leave me in whatever inn you find and keep going yourselves. I'll move on when I'm ready."
"We're not leaving you behind," Jack declared immediately.
"It would defeat the purpose of keeping everyone safe if we left you in some inn, pip," Laney added.
Grey scowled, pushing himself a bit more upright. "I'm not actually going with you, though," he countered. "You're off to work with Thorne, and I'm going to the Library. We'll have to split up at some point anyway. Why not here?"
"Because those attackers knew to stab you with an Elsewhere crack," Jack retorted. "A knife made of an Elsewhere crack can't be easy to get your hands on, but they got one. Laney was using magic too, but they didn't go for her. They were going for you the whole time. That attack was meant for you."
"I can handle myself," Grey protested.
"Not in this state, you can't," Jack countered. Grey huffed.
"You need to find Rupert. I'm only slowing you down."
"And you know as well as I what Rupert would say to that," Jack retorted. Grey pressed his lips together, but Jack couldn't quite tell if it was from annoyance or pain.
"Fine," he muttered, irritation clear in his voice. He slumped back down on his horse, closing his eyes. Jack sighed, looking over at Laney.
"I'll scout ahead," she offered, nudging her horse forward. Jack watched as she cantered forward, then looked back at Grey, who appeared to really be unconscious this time.
Circumstances were far from ideal, but they always seemed to be. They'd get through this, just like they'd gotten through everything so far. Jack wouldn't allow for anything else.