Chapter 4

It was verry late at night when Ben awoke, startled by a noise. Sometime after he light a small fire to keep him and his mother warm, he must have dosed of. In the dark he saw a figure walking slowly towards the light glimmer of the fire. A soon as the Figure reached the fire he recognised, that it was Mal. She was holding ger side and she looked quite exhausted. The girl sunk down and landed with a soft thud on the floor, now sitting in front of the fire. The thud had also startle Belle awake but before she could wake up fully and see what was going on her son had sprung into action kneeling beside his girlfriend.

"What the hell happed? are you okay?" the worried King asked. He had one of his arms around her shoulder fearing she could fall over. Surprisingly Mal held herself together sitting up straight.

"I´m okay." She assured him still pressing her hand on her left side.

This was when Belle spoke up. "You cannot call a bleeding wound on your side okay Mal. We need to get you to a doctor!" the queen exclaimed. She had gone completely into the Mother mode, worrying about her future daughter in law.

Ben quickly through a piece of wood into the fire in hope he could create more light to assess the wound. "My Mum is right we need to have someone look at this"

"Its fine" Mal said rolling her eyes "besides the only `doctor´ here is Facilier and he is not really a doctor of medicine. I can do it myself"

The Mother Son due tried to protest bus Mal had already stood up and gone over to a cupboard on the wall. She opened it and took something like a las t resort first aid kit out of it.

"What are you doing" Belle asked. She started to fuss over Mal awkwardly helping her to sit down again. Ben too tried to help but was unsuccessful. He had no idea what to do is this situation.

The girl in question began taking of her leather jacket as soon as she had set the kit down. "I´m going to stop the blood. A tight bandage should do the trick till tomorrow." Visibly struggling with her left arm still stuck in the sleeve Ben aided her. Looking at her Boyfriend Mal knew he only wanted to help "You can open up one of the dressings" And he quickly did as told while Mal took her shirt off with Belle´s help. Ben blushed hard as he tried looking anywhere but Mal and still helping her doing the dressing.

This made Mal chuckle a bit. "Ever the gentleman" she mocked him. Making him blush even harder and his mother laugh. "You can look I don't mind and it makes it easier. I want to get dressed again its darn cold here."

Belle grinned. She like the dynamic between the two. Mal was absolutely capable of cleaning and dressing the wound herself, which sadden her, but Mal still let Ben help to give him the feeling of accomplishment. And in turn Bens smile hand touch made Mal feel warm inside.

"There all done" Ben said with a big smile in his face. He had just finished tying the ends of the bandage together and securing them with a bit of medical tape.

Together they decided that they will sleep for a couple of hours and then be on their way to see Hades. And after Mal assured Ben, that she was okay ant that she will let Lady Persephone have a look at the injury when they get there, he too fell asleep cuddling his girlfriend. He was too afraid to let her go.

The rest of the night was quiet. Belle slept through the night without waking up once. Ben on the other hand woke up every time he couldn´t feel Mal beside him. Then he would scoot closer and put his arm around her and go back to sleep within seconds. Mal woke up every time Ben put his arm around her. Not because she didn´t like him touching her but because of the placement of said arm. So her nighty routine was moving is arm up or down on her waist so it would be laying on her wound. The first time this happened she had already decided she would not tell Ben, he simply would worry to much.

Despite the duo waking up regularly all three woke up with the sun rather well rested. As they were eating breakfast Belle asked the dreaded question:" What happened yesterday? Suddenly there was smoke and the next thing I knew was that Ben and I were running."

Mal took a deep breath and started:" As soon as I saw Will I knew his crew wasn´t far away. He is a coward and Bens shouting made them antsy. I knew that one was about to start a useless fight. So, I told Ben to run, grab you and that I was right behind him"

"Which you weren´t" Ben pouted. Both of the women laughed quietly at that.

"come on ", Mal grunted slightly while standing up "we need to head out". Her share of the meal was long gone.

Nodding Ben and Belle packed up their food and without talking both insisted that Mal would not be carrying anything too heavy because of her wound. After everything was Packed up their carefully made their way out of the door and onto the dusty streets of the isle.

Thank you guys for all the support and interest in my story. In the next chapter the trio will finally meet the good of the underworld.