Lucretia has always been slender. She's the bookish type, more prone to be found in the library than on the training ground. Taako can remember many a time when Magnus has tried to get Lucretia to let him give her self-defense lessons, all in vain. She's got sharp elbows for throwing and a sharper wit for avoiding trouble (not that she ever did ) and that had always seemed to be enough for her. She stayed skinny and stayed smart and she ended up helping save the world so no one complained much about it.
When Taako picks her unconscious body off the stone floor, though, he realizes Lucretia has gone from willowy and bookish to downright skin and bones. He's not even that strong and she feels feather light in his arms.
Her blood is getting all over his fantasy Armani tunic. Merle's voice is playing in the back of Taako's mind, reminding him not to jostle Lucretia too much, to protect her head. Should he have stopped the bleeding before picking her up? How long has she been unconscious? She's definitely got a concussion, she's losing a lot of blood, her arm is bending in places it shouldn't bend-
"Shut up," Taako hisses. "Shut up, she's fine. Shut up."
He still runs out the door with her.
Lucretia's temple bounces gently against his shoulder every time Taako's feet hit the ground but he can't slow down to check on her, not when he can feel her blood seeping into his sleeve. A drop rolls languidly down his forearm, drips off his wrist. Her eyes stay closed. There are people in the hallways but they all stumble back as he passes; Taako can hear gasps and some exclamations but whatever expression is on his face is enough to deter anyone from stopping him. Gods but he wishes Merle were here.
He veritably flies down the hallways. For how long he's been avoiding the Bureau of Benevolence, Taako's memory of the place is perfect; they make it to the clerics in record time.
He bursts through the doors knowing that he must make quite a sight; Taako, wizard, one of the seven birds, headmaster of the fastest-growing transmutation school in the plane, gasping and sweating, clutching an unconscious Madame Director, savior of the world and the creator of the Bureau, to his chest as she bleeds like a stuck pig.
"Heal her," he grinds out. " Now. "
The skeleton staff inside- two human men and a halfling woman- spring into action without question. A rolling bed is set up with a flick of a wand, the halfling is already sorting through spells under her breath, and one of the men has gathered up regular bandages and supplies for stitches just in case.
The other human cleric tries to take Lucretia from him and for some reason Taako finds himself hard pressed to keep from hissing at him. His fingers refuses to unbend from where they are buried in her robes. The halfling has to pry them free, still focused on her spells all the while.
In moments, he is left in the small waiting room, staring after the group as they roll Lucretia away. Her blood has not dried on his hands. Funny; when he'd imagined what killing her that day would have been like he never thought about the tackiness of her blood getting stuck between his fingers.
Taako's stomach rolls and he closes his eyes against the crimson. He is still very aware of it on his skin.
They let him see her after three hours. She's propped up against a mountain of pillows, arm in a sling and eyes shut. He takes the single wooden chair at her bedside and looks around for something-anything- to do. The halfling brings him a basin to wash his hands in and Taako stares at the water, rippling gently with every vibration of the footsteps outside of the Director's private room.
"Of course you get a private room," he sneers at her unconscious form, wrapped tightly under stark white sheets. His words lack any heat.
Lucretia does not respond. Taako's getting real sick of staring at her closed eyes.
"Naw, I know," Taako finally relents after a minute. "You'da hated this room- sequestered from all the action, huh?"
Avi and Killian and Carey will be here soon. The only reason he isn't getting harassed for answers right now is the fact that the fiasco near the remains of Raven's Roost has all three down there trying to contain it. He wonders idly how long word about the attack on the Director will take to spread all over the moon. Taako hadn't been able to tell the clerics much when they had interrogated him once it was clear that besides her arm and head Lucretia was not in any life-threatening danger. It seemed the only answers they'd get would be straight from the horse's mouth.
"I think maybe I've had enough action." Says a hoarse voice beside Taako. He jerks in his seat, having slumped forward with his hands clasped between his knees, and stares.
Lucretia's face is more wrinkled and haggard than he's ever seen it, with a few stitches standing out near her hairline. He's still getting used to reconciling his internal image of her as a skinny eighteen year old with this tall, regal woman she's turned into. The fact that she's bandaged from head to toe and lying in the healing wing, skin and eyes dark against the intrusive white of the walls and bedding, does not help. She looks- diminished, somehow. Hurt, yeah, obviously, but it's beyond that. Tired, maybe, but like, Extra Tired. Tired Squared. Extreme Tiredness (tm).
Whatever.
"So what the hell, Madame Director," Taako asks. He tries for conversational and ends up somewhere around accusatory. Oh well.
"I beg your pardon?"
She goes for the water glass at her bedside and Taako reaches out to steady it for her without thinking. Her hands are shaking quite badly. Is that normal for older humans?
"I mean why the hell was some nobody from some weird organization I've never heard of in your office trying to kill you and spouting off some quasi-religious bullshit while you lay on the floor and bled? "
Why weren't you doing anything to stop it?
Lucretia settles back on her pillows and closes her eyes. Her sigh is ragged and long. "I didn't know they all had an organization."
"Yeah, the elf called it the 'Ragged Harmony, like that makes any sense," Taako says before the implications of what she just said catch up with his mouth. "Wait a fucking second."
Lucretia opens her eyes and arches one exhausted eyebrow. Taako gets the immature urge to tell her her face will get stuck that way.
"You didn't know they were organized, meaning you did know they existed? "
Lucretia's eyes shift to the left, just a little, so she's not meeting his and suddenly a fire is burning in Taako's chest. What the fuck.
"I- that is to say, I expected something like this to happen, of course. It's not new."
" Not new? " Taako explodes. He leans forward, unwilling to let her gaze slide further from his without a fight. Lucretia has always been able to lie with her body, her words- but never with her eyes. She pointedly looks down at her hands fisted in the sheets. "This has happened before? What the fuck, Lucretia, why doesn't anybody know about this? Why wouldn't you say anything?"
Her laugh is hollow and grates on his nerves. "And say what, exactly? 'Oh, sorry for the interruption, I know you're very busy but some people are trying to kill me.'"
"Uh, yeah! That'd be a pretty good start."
Her expression is exasperated. It makes something in Taako's chest knot up and he can feel his face closing off, his eyes narrowing, his shoulders hunching against her disdain. "People are trying to kill me every day, Taako. I can handle myself. You just- came in at a bad time."
Oh come on. She is seriously not starting this shit with him.
Taako leans away, clenches his jaw, grips one fist in the other so hard he can feel his bones creak. "You're- you needed help and wouldn't let go of your fucking pride enough to ask for it? Seriously? Fuck, Lucretia, I knew you were a dick but I didn't know you'd let yourself get killed over it."
"I can fight my own battles, Taako." Lucretia snaps, eyes finally meeting his. Fire burns there and Taako's own flames leap to meet it.
He scoffs. "Yeah, that's clearly not true."
"I don't need your help."
Lucretia raises her chin and that- that just does it. Taako has never been able to stand her haughtiness, her holier-than-thou attitude that only got worse when she helped save the world. This- this- he doesn't need this. He saves her fucking life and this is how she acts?
"Fuck this," Taako surmises. His chair makes a terrible screech as he pushes to his feet. He hopes his glare burns her as much as his spells burned the elf currently residing as a pile of ash on her office carpet. "See if I ever save your ungrateful ass again."
He storms out and leaves someone he once thought of as family lying in a sickbed, alone and in pain. He only feels a little guilty about it; the rest of his guilt is burned in the anger raging through him. Fuck her. He actually does something nice after everything Lucretia put him and the others through and she spits in his face. Of fucking course.
The trip back home passes in a blur of anger and righteousness. Taako gets back in the early evening but he can't be bothered to make dinner or call Kravitz or distract himself further than opening all the cabinets and banging them shut again. He throws a lamp at the wall. He contemplates breaking a mirror.
"Seven years of bad luck my ass," he mutters to his reflection as he changed into pajamas, shoving his arms roughly into a worn tee-shirt. "I've had bad luck since I saw her stupid face."
He goes to bed even though it's not even nine yet, because at least if he's asleep he won't be fuming about her again. And he can ignore the fact that the sting in his chest isn't all from anger. Taako rolls onto his side, hauls the sheets up to his chin even though he's sweating and overheated, and clenches his eyes shut.
Then he rolls onto his other side. Then onto his back.
She's hiding something. She was lying- that's why she wouldn't meet your eyes. She didn't want you asking questions.
She thought the elf was right to try to kill her.
Taako's eyes snap back open and he's glaring into the dark. "That bitch. She wanted me gone and she godsdamn got me out."
Well. They'd just see about that, wouldn't they?
