Chapter 21 – Aftermath
The scene at the hospital was chaotic. People were talking incessantly, trying to be heard over everyone else, begging to be seen by the doctors and nurses who were scrambling to handle a situation that none of them ever thought they'd be in. None of them could ever, in recent memory, remember having so many injured people brought in at one time. Sure there was the occasional rush from maybe a car crash, or some kind of celebration that got a little out of hand and an accident occurred, but never anything like the deluge that Dagon had sent them.
Jane watched with red, puffy eyes as the doctors and nurses tended to the guards that had been hurt. She overheard them taking as they rushed back and forth, listing off injuries: broken ribs, broken arms, broken legs, broken noses, fractured collar bones, dislocated bones, concussions, internal bleeding.
"This is all my fault," she whimpered from her seated position between her mother and Harriet. She looked over to the bed next to her mother's and gazed at Belle. Then she turned to see Harriet. Then she fixed her gaze on her mother. All three were still unconscious. Belle had small burns on her face and arms, and if the sight didn't tip you off to it, the smell of singed hair certainly would've told you how much lightning she'd endured. Harriet was more or less okay, the only thing betraying her condition was the black eye forming from where she'd been hit during her sword fight.
Then there was her mother. She was laying on the bed, looking so frail due to the oxygen mask the nurses put on her once they'd found out she was practically in the middle of the flames. Once again she felt her eyes welling with tears, only to feel them falling down her cheeks. She wiped them away and continued to wait for someone, anyone, to come and help her through this.
"I was told the Queen Mother and the Fairy Godmother were brought here," she heard from across the triage unit. She looked up and saw Adam and King Ben standing at the desk. Oh God, she thought in dread, I am so dead. After a watching the nurse quickly type in a few keystrokes, she pointed in the direction that Jane was currently in.
I'm dead, he's gonna kill me, she thought as she saw Adam coming toward her. She felt the tears starting to well in her eyes as she tried to prepare herself for another tirade from him like she got back at the palace yesterday. As they got closer, she stood, her head down but her eyes looking up at them.
"I am so –"
She was cut off mid-apology when Adam grabbed her and pulled her to him. She felt his arms wrap around her and hold her tight, tighter than even her mother did. The gesture was a surprise to the girl who was mentally prepared to be made to cry again. Just like with her mother, the grip was tight enough to give Jane a little trouble breathing, fortunately Adam let go without her needing to inform him.
"Don't you ever run off like that again, do you hear me?" he said after letting go of her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay," Jane nodded. "But Mom and…and Belle," she told him softly. Adam turned and looked at his wife and at Jane's mother.
"Ben, get a doctor," he told his son, who nodded and walked off. "Where were you? What happened?"
While they waited for Ben to return, Jane began telling him what happened, still being selective with some details, namely the blonde pirate on the bed next to her mother. Part of her stunned at how easily the lies of omission came to her. Adam looked over Belle, his face worried.
"Found the doctor treating them," they heard Ben say as he approached. They looked up and saw him coming with a tall, young, lanky looking doctor.
"Doctor, thank you," Adam said as he stepped up to the doctor. The doctor bowed politely and Adam ushered him back up with a wave. "How are they, Doctor…?"
"Chase, sire," Doctor Chase answered. "Your wife miraculously only received some minor first and second degree burns which should heal entirely in time. We'll keep her overnight for observation, but other than some of her motor skills and some muscle spasms that shouldn't linger for too long, she should recover fully."
Adam and Ben let out a breaths that they hadn't realized they'd been holding.
"What about my Mom?" came Jane's small, scared voice. She stepped in front of Ben and Adam and felt Adam put his hands on her shoulders.
"Tests showed that your mother did inhale some smoke," Doctor Chase began. Jane started to sob at that news and immediately Doctor Chase regretted how he started. "However, she was brought in quickly, so we were able to get her stabilized and begin treatment."
"W…will she be…?"
Doctor Chase nodded. Jane felt herself nearly faint from good news, but Adam was there to hold her up. "Can she go home?" she asked.
"Not yet. Patients with smoke inhalation are kept until we can be sure that there'll be no lingering effects because not all symptoms present right away."
"And my friend?" Jane asked pointing to Harriet.
"Her, she's just unconscious. We ran an X-ray and CT scan, other than a headache when she wakes up, she'll be fine. Can go home today even."
Before anyone else could ask the doctor a question, a nurse came running up, telling him that he was needed for a patient who'd just fallen unconscious. "If you all will please excuse me," Doctor Chase said as he left with the nurse.
"Jane, who's this?" Adam asked after hearing Jane ask about her. She remained silent. "Jane?"
"Thanks for leaving us with the car," came Mal's voice as she approached, Evie, Jay, and Carlos behind her.
"Sorry, but…," Ben started.
"I know, it's your mother," she finished for him. "But you could have at least waited for us to park. This place is so full right now that – Harriet!"
Evie, Jay, and Carlos looked around her and saw what surprised her.
"Whoa, it's Harriet," Carlos said in shock.
"What's she doing here?" Jay asked.
"How'd she get here?" Evie asked.
"Wait, you four know her?" Adam asked.
They all nodded.
"That's Harriet, Harriet Hook – Captain Hook's daughter."
"Jane said that was her friend," Adam revealed to them.
Immediately, all six of them turned toward Jane, each one more or less thinking the same thing: You have quite the explanation in front of you.
In his raven form, Dagon was capable of masterful feats of acrobatics. Whether flying for distance, speed, or even as another form for fighting in, he was comfortable as a bird. Truth be told, he'd often considered staying in that form most of the time, but he wasn't a fan of the molting process. Sure it made way for maintaining his shiny plumage, but he hated the feeling of feathers falling off. Yet despite his prowess in flight, his current trip was anything but graceful.
He was flying erratically, using every bit of his strength and focus to maintain a forward flying direction. But as he was able to stay straight, he sacrificed altitude as he found it near impossible to stay level for any lengthy period of time. Finally, after what felt hours, he spotted what he'd been looking for – the only place in Auradon where, even with all the media coverage telling people to stay away from him and call in any sightings, he could walk in without trying to hide.
He landed on the ground next to a large tree. He starts the transformation back into a human, but instead of a quick, fluid rise, he fell to one knee. He braced himself against the tree with one hand and forced himself to his feet. He felt the world spin for a second and realized he was in danger was just toppling over if he wasn't careful.
Guess Fairy Godmother's not the only one out of practice, he thought with a self-deprecating smile. He looked up and gauged the distance between his current position and the entrance of where he wanted to go. He guessed it was maybe thirty feet. I should be able to handle that without dropping, he hoped.
Chapter 22 – The Pirate, the Beast, and the Fairy
Harriet felt herself slowly coming to and immediately felt like someone had been tap dancing inside her head. They lights of wherever she was were almost too bright at first, but she was more annoyed by the fact that everything was blurry. She began to lift her hands to try and rub her eyes, but became surprised when she felt them stop as if they'd been caught on something. She looked down and, after forcing her eyes to refocus, saw that her hands had been handcuffed to the side rails of whatever bed she was on.
"What the…?" she wondered to herself as she yanked on the restraints. She looked around the room she was in and realized she was in a hospital. She pulled again at the handcuffs, more frantically this time. She stopped when she started to feel pain in her wrists.
She laid back in defeat, her head impacting the pillow hard. I knew getting involved would screw me, she thought. She closed her eyes and started thinking about how she was going to get out of this. Then she started thinking about the things that might get done to her. Getting sent back to the Isle was at the top of the list. That wasn't too bad, she thought. The part that she was dreading was having to face her father. She'd been gone for a while. He'd undoubtedly searched for her. Hell, he probably made the crew scour the entire island, she thought.
"Dad is going to be so pissed at me," she lamented.
"And I wouldn't blame him one bit, even if he is a villain," came a loud booming voice.
Harriet's eyes shot open, her head coming off the bed. She'd nearly cursed out loud at her luck when she saw former King Beast standing at the foot of her bed.
"How did you get here?" he asked bluntly, not caring one bit fit formalities.
"I…uh…," she stuttered.
"Was there a break in the protective barrier we didn't know about? Are you the only one here? Or are there others? Are you apart of Dagon's plan?"
Harriet's mouth opened and closed, no sound coming out since she didn't know which question to start answering first. She could feel herself becoming hot from nervousness. Back on the Isle she, and most of her friends as well as their parents, always talked about the things they'd like to do to the Big Bad Beast if they ever got him alone in a room.
Now, she had the wish of everyone citizen of the Isle, and she was too afraid to act on her ideas.
Her fear wasn't even from the fact that she was restrained. She just never expected to be in this situation. Or for the Beast to be so intimidating. She'd heard that he was tall, but right now he might as well have been a giant. He was famous for his temper as well, and without a shadow of doubt, Harriet would definitely agree. He looked reasonably calm, but she could tell that he was holding things back to keep from flying off the handle and make this moment a waste of time.
"Harry, you're okay," she heard an excited, tiny voice say. She looked over and saw Jane had come in, still wearing what she'd picked for her this morning, though she was wearing a blue coat that looked three sizes too big as well.
"Janey," Harriet said, happy to see that she was alright.
Jane moved to stand next to Harriet's bed and was shocked at what she saw. "Why is she handcuffed?" she asked Adam.
"Precautions," Adam told her.
"Precautions? Against what?" Jane asked.
"Against me," Harriet revealed.
Jane looked down at her friend and saw the fear in them. She looked back up at Adam and saw the steeled looked of a man who'd already made up his mind about the situation before him.
"But…but she's not a threat," Jane insisted as she took hold of one of Harriet's hands. "She's just a kid, like me, or Mal, or –"
"She's also an escapee from the Isle," Adam said to Jane. "The daughter of a bloodthirsty pirate."
"She's not like that, though. She tried to protect me and Belle," Jane argued. "That's how she got hurt."
"And while I do appreciate her actions today, that doesn't excuse the fact that she is here illegally."
"But –" Jane began only to be cut off.
"What's going to happen to me?" Harriet said in a raised voice in order to stop Jane from continuing.
"Once the current situation is over, and you're properly questioned, you'll be sent back to the Isle," Adam answered her, his voice surprisingly softer. Jane was too caught off guard from the sight of Harriet handcuffed and the realization of how she was being treated to really hear it however.
"Why does she have to go back to the Isle? She hasn't done anything?"
"Jane, there's no questioning this, it's the law."
"But…"
"Jane," Adam raised his voice, quailing her into silence.
"Don't worry, Jane, I figured this might happen. Deep down, I was prepared to go home eventually."
Jane was about to speak up, to try and argue that Harriet should be given the chance to stay. Before she could however, Mal came running into the room.
"Jane, your Mom's awake," the purple haired girl said excitedly. She then looked toward Adam. "So is Belle."
Without waiting for anything else, Adam rushed out of the room, Mal following him. Jane stayed behind, wanting to see her mother, but torn by the fact that she wanted to stay here and try something, anything, to protect her friend.
"You need to go, Janey," Harriet told her.
"But what about you?"
"You heard King Beasty, I'm not going anywhere until they catch Dibalo – Dagon – whatever he's called and they talk to me. So I'm stuck here for a little while longer," she told her friend. Jane opened her mouth to speak when Harriet raised her eyebrows at her since she couldn't really raise a finger. "Go see your mother."
"I'll be back later, I promise," Jane implored as she gave Harriet's hand one last squeeze and ran from the room and back to her mother's side.
