Chapter Two
Adeline could barely keep her eyes open as the blonde man effortlessly carried throughout the alleys. Now that she had some time to think about it, this man could easily be some serial killer that was going to slit her throat as soon as they got far enough away from civilization. For some reason she doubted that, but that may have been the naïve and innocent part of her sneaking through. But still, who was this man?
"Do you have a name?" she asked him groggily.
He paused in his steps to smile down at her with one eyebrow raised.
"Of course I do, why wouldn't I have a name? It's Courfeyrac if you were wondering."
She smiled back at him, her laugh turning into a grimace as she was reminded of her pain. Hey, at least he had a sense of humor. How bad could he really be?
"Addie," she replied.
Of course, she could have lied and told him her name was something completely different, but she had no reason to do something like that. The so called Courfeyrac seemed friendly enough, plus he had saved her from her probable death. The rest of the walk was quiet, Addie listening to the far off bustle of the street and Courfeyrac challenged with the task of finding his way to wherever he was going and making sure the woman in his arms still was alright simultaneously.
The young man sighed with content as he finally reached his destination. It was a small clearing, appearing to be an abandoned inn or something of the like. There was a broken stone fountain in the middle of a square clearing that about eight or more men were sitting and conversing around. At a first glance she didn't recognize any of them, but they all looked inviting. A few glanced toward the injured girl as Courfeyrac carried Addie forward, setting her down on a cool stone bench. The cold against her back immediately made her noticeably wince, and her blonde rescuer left for a moment to explain the situation to his colleagues.
"I found her getting beaten in an alley by some men. She seems to be quite injured, but I'm not an expert in that area," he stated, knowingly glancing at another of the men. "Judging from her looks, she's not from around here and she is obviously completely clueless when it comes to life out here in the slums. I was hoping Joly could take a look at her and we could get her back to her home, wherever that may be."
The red-haired medical student approached the broken form of the woman after sincerely smiling at Courfeyrac in reply to his suggestion. Still a bit dazed, Addie didn't completely notice when the ginger approached her. He snapped in front of her a few times before beginning to speak.
"Mademoiselle? Can you hear me?" he asked patiently.
The snaps did their job in bringing the woman back to reality as her heavy eyelids lifted and she smiled lightly, nodding at the new man. Her response reassured him that nothing was too wrong, at least neurologically, and he went about introducing himself.
"My name is Joly and I'm a medical student. Courfeyrac here has asked me to take a look at you and make sure you're alright. What hurts?"
Well, pretty much everything hurt. She wasn't going to go about whining to this nice man though, so she focused on what hurt the most, her shoulder. Her shoulder and the arm and back surrounding it still had the same pain they had had when she had been stepped on.
"My left shoulder feels like it's being crushed," Addie managed to reply, her voice quite hoarse.
The med student's eyebrows knitted together in concern before lightly prodding at the shoulder, producing a rather painful sounding whine from the injured woman. He nodded at Courfeyrac who frowned and gave Joly some space, not letting any of the men within about ten feet of the scene. Joly intertwined one hand with the injured woman's left while placing the other on her ribs for support. She winced a bit at the contact, but pushed through the pain knowing that it was for her own good.
"Your shoulder is dislocated and I'm going to have to move it back into the socket. It will hurt quite a bit, but the pain should stop after that. I'm going to count to three. One-," he pulled on her arm until he heard and felt the joint go back into place.
She let out a strangled cry, a few more tears falling. He had been right though, the pain that that injury had caused had all but subsided. All that was left was a slight ache and soreness throughout the limb. Addie soon realised that her shoulder had been the cause of most of her pain because what was left was only the aching soreness and bruising on her back. She glanced over to see Courfeyrac staring worriedly at her, along with all but two of the men who stayed in the corner. Addie sat up with a little difficulty and aid, and smiled at Joly.
"Merci, monsieur, thank you so much. You were right, the pain is barely there," she thanked the ginger, deciding to exclude mentioning the bruising as she felt there wasn't much he could do about it anyway. She swung her legs over the side of the bench and carefully stood, testing her balance. Addie cautiously took a few steps with Joly right beside her before mentally confirming that her ability to walk had been restored.
This ability would come in handy in the next few moments, as she soon found out. Her eyes skimmed the group of men before locking with an unnervingly familiar pair of hazel. His brown hair did nothing to hide his freckles, and the resemblance between the two of them was remarkable to not have been spotted before.
Could it really be? Was Marius really gazing into the soft eyes of his little sister, or was his mind just playing tricks on him again? He missed her desperately and thought about her every day. The two Pontmercy siblings hadn't seen each other in over a month, but surely Addie knew better than to wander the streets! Even if she had tried to leave, their grandfather would have stopped her, wouldn't he have?
All of these thoughts scrambled through the older brother's head as he carelessly pushed his friends aside to get to his sister. Addie however was having none of it. She wasn't supposed to be out of the house, and she didn't know what Marius would think of her now that they finally were seeing each other, but on these terms. Would he hate her? She hadn't seen him in a long while, and the first time they had found each other again was from Addie getting beaten in an alley? This was all just happening so fast. She took a step back and pivoted on her heels, preparing to run yet again.
Although before she could take more than a step, she crashed into another figure. She frantically flailed her arms and fell backward, toward the ground. A pair of unfamiliar hands gently but securely wrapped around her waist before she could fall any farther, and helped her back to her balance. She warily gazed up, anxiety and thoughts of Marius clouding her mind until everything dissipated. She felt as though her thoughts were visible through her eyes, windows and reflections to the bluest blue she had ever seen.
