Disclaimer: I don't own Trollhunters or any of its characters. Hey, I added a third installment, this time from Barbara's POV. It's already finished, but I'm still revising, so I will be publishing a chapter or so every few days. I hope you enjoy! Please review and if you have any critiques, I am happy to have them! I don't have a Beta so all the revisions are done by yours truly. I've got a fourth part I'm working on, but I probably won't publish it for awhile because I'm starting school again soon and won't have as much time. Happy 2018!
His first visit was unexpected.
Few things in the world fazed Dr. Barbara Lake, but a horned teen storming into the waiting room with a bleeding girl in his arms was definitely up there.
She dropped her own clipboard in surprise. He was lucky there weren't more people at the clinic. Most of the staff had gone home for the night, leaving only her and Nurse Madeleine, a sweet old lady who could barely see five feet in front of her (and in Barbara's opinion probably shouldn't even be in nursing still, but Arcadia had a severe shortage of medical professionals and needed all the help it could get).
At first, she'd thought they were a part of a costume party gone wrong, until the girl's armor vanished into thin air right in front of Barbara's eyes. Thank god Nurse Madeleine was in the backroom with one of the overnight patients, not that she would see much.
Being the Doctor she was, Barbara jumped into action.
"What happened?" She asked, guiding the boy into one of the open rooms. She almost thought he was a man on account of his height, however his face and eyes belayed someone far younger.
"Please," he whispered, "do something, anything."
He was shaking. Not good. Her careful eyes caught fresh blood on the girl's temple.
Shit, she thought, possible brain contusion.
"I-I didn't know what to do," he started, voice uneven. "She—it wasn't supposed to be like this."
"Calm down," Barbara said, steading the teen, "and tell me exactly what happened."
"She was attacked from behind by…coyotes. I tried to stop her from going after them, tried to convince her to go home, that she was in over her head, but she wouldn't listen. Why didn't she listen?"
Bullshit, thought Barbara, but she didn't argue with him. He was hyperventilating, his pupils shrunken against the unusually bright blue of his irises.
"I need you to put her on the bed, so I can look over her injuries." She said. "Carefully. Don't try to move her neck. She may have a brain injury."
The teen nodded, placing the girl down so softly Barbara barely heard the bed move.
Immediately, she went to work, checking the girl's vitals. A pang ran through her heart: the girl was the age her son would be. The younger female groaned during her inspection but didn't wake, which worried Barbara. There were scratches on her face, though none of them looked like they belonged to any coyotes, if there even were coyotes in this region.
The blood on her forehead was due to a small cut, which relieved her. Still, they weren't out of the danger area yet. She cleaned and bandaged the wound, then glanced back at the boy in the corner.
After the initial freak-out the teen had gone into a silent state, his face unreadable, unnerving the Doctor. Normal teens didn't do that.
Like the girl, he was dressed in armor, though his was a deep obsidian hue, its color marred by a multitude of scratches, including a claw mark larger than any animal she'd ever seen. Whoever these two teens were, they certainly weren't role-players; his outfit looked too real to be fake. Her gaze coasted downward, spotting the teen's feet talons. They looked mostly human, but the nailbeds were dark and elongated, curling over like cat claws.
Nope, she thought, definitely not fake.
"How is she?" He said.
"Stable, for now. She's got a small knot on the side of her head and some scrapes on her face, but the rest of her body seems to be functioning normally. It was good of you to bring her in when you did. She'll require a brain scan though. I have to call in the radiologist."
"I should go," he said gruffly.
Barbara placed herself in front of the boy. Despite how terrifying he appeared, she wasn't done with him.
"No, she needs someone to look over her while I go call Dr. Zimmerman," she said. "Please, stay."
"And expose myself to more of your kind?" He said mockingly, "Yes, I'm sure that will go quite well."
Her kind? So, he wasn't human.
Of course he wasn't, she berated herself. How many people have horns and fangs? That were real?
God, she was going to need a drink when she got home. Perhaps go out and find a bar to get absolutely sloshed in.
"What…are you?" She finally asked. "If you don't mind me asking."
His bright eyes zoomed in on her, studying her. Barbara shivered. "Does it matter?"
"No, I suppose not." Hell yes it did, but Barbara wasn't going to argue with the six-in-a-half-foot demon kid or whatever he was. "Still, stay with her, at least until her parents get here. Do you know her parents' number? Or a friend's maybe?"
Absolute silence. He shuffled his feet, claws clicking against the floor. Great.
"Can you at least give me her name?"
He snuck a peak back at the girl in the bed, gaze softening. "Claire. Claire Nuñez."
It was a start. She would put in a report to the police as soon as possible. Leaving out the giant horned teen of course.
"How do you know each other?"
"She's my enemy."
Barbara raised an eyebrow. Even a blind person could see what was going on. Every few seconds his eyes flickered between the floor and the unconscious girl. She was not paid enough for this shit. "I…see. You know, not many people would go out of their way to save their enemy."
"What are you implying, human?"
"Doctor," Barbara corrected him.
"What?"
"Doctor. I'm Dr. Lake. I went through four years of medical school and three years of residency to get this title. The least you could do is refer to me as Doctor, not human."
"My apologies," he grounded out, "Doctor."
"Apology accepted," she replied. She set down the clipboard, regarding the two kids. "You must really care about her if you carried her all the way here."
He scoffed. "Care? As if. She's just a stupid girl who keeps getting in over her head in a world that would sooner see her dead. She and her other human friends are a clueless bunch of idiots. How she has survived this long I have no clue. Certainly not because of her so-called trainers."
"You like her," Barbara stated.
He flushed, then turned away, his gaze directed at the window. "She's just a kid."
"So are you."
"Not anymore," he replied darkly. "Believe me, hu—Dr. Lake. In my world, girls like Claire are lunch for the people I deal with every day. Literally."
"Well, since you're already here you watch over her, at least until her parents arrive."
"That's— "
"I'm not asking you," she said firmly, "I'm telling you."
"I shouldn't even be here in the first place. If they find out… I'm practically risking my life talking to you right now."
"There's no changing the past. I promise I won't tell anyone that you were here, but only if you stay with her until her family gets here." Barbara added, "Brain injuries can be nasty and I need someone to monitor her breathing while I go make my calls."
Like a balloon, the boy deflated, his cold façade replaced with open unease.
"You won't tell her I'm here, right?"
"Not unless you ask me to."
"No," he moved closer to the girl's bed. Hesitantly, his hand covered the girl's. "It's better that she doesn't know. It's already complicated enough as it as."
Were all teenagers this melodramatic? Perhaps Barbara was being a tad harsh, but after working an eighteen hour shift it was hard not to judge.
"Suit yourself," she remarked, heading to the door.
"Wait," he called out as she twisted the knob. "Thank you, Doctor."
"It is my duty as a Doctor to help those in need, Mr…?"
The teen coughed, not looking her in the eyes. "…Atlas. Forget I was ever here."
"Take good care of her, Atlas."
Barbara wasn't fazed by much, but damn if those eyes didn't do something to her cold dead heart. No child should have those eyes, so haunted, as if he would break at the smallest of touches. It brought old feelings and that scared her.
No, she wasn't going to think about that right now. It was too late in the night. Remembering right now was not going to help this Claire girl. She picked up her phone and began her calls.
She found out he was true to his word. When she returned, followed by the girl's frightened parents, he had vanished, a slightly open window the only evidence of his presence.
Part of her breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever world he and the girl were apart of had nothing to do with her. She already had enough problems in her life. Besides, who would believe her? In the end, against her better judgment, she lied to the parents, only telling them that some random samaritan found her and brought her there, vanishing right after. The daughter appeared suspicious, but said nothing, confirming Barbara's lie with such certainty.
It made her hate herself all the more.
Which brought her to the other, larger portion of herself, the one that felt worried for the two. Seeing children in danger made her sick to her stomach. Even the thought of it made her uneasy. She only hoped that they kept safe, or at least relatively whole.