"Doc! Doc! Where the hell are you? Lemme in!" Doc walked slowly up from the cellar, black circles under his eyes and hair dishevelled. An empty bottle was in one hand, and his blue eyes stared unseeingly. He didn't notice the din from outside the door till he was almost at the counter. Suddenly, he turned, and looked up.
"Action," he murmured hazily under his breath, staring at the floor as if to re-focus his mind. Fractionally faster, he went to the door, and cautiously unlocked it.
"Doc! For God's sake, you have ter do something! I found her on a fire escape, round in the PR quarter-DOC-quit starin' and help her!"Action rushed through the door and laid Anybodys down on a table. With a curse of exasperation, he plunged round the back of the counter and started ransacking the boxes there. "You got bandanges? Hey, Doc, you got bandages?" He finally found them, and grabbing a box, filled a nearby bucket with water from the back basin tap. Trembling, he snatched a cloth from the counter and turned, ready to tend Anybodys. He halted abruptly. Doc was crying. With his back to Action, he stood over the young girl , head in his hands, shoulders heaving as he wept.
"Doc," Action murmured, surprised. The bandages in one hand, he crept quietly up to the older man, and put his hand on his shoulder.
"I don't know her-who is she? What have they done to her? She's dead… like Tony…who is she?" Action drew closer, and gently dipped the cloth into the cold water. Silently, he began, very gently, to wash away the blood disfiguring her face and clothes. She stirred very slightly, and Doc gasped as her face became familiar.
"See?" Action whispered. "You remember her. Anybodys. The tomboy… the one who tried to save Tony. You remember? She liked you. You called her a lady." Doc was shaking his head.
"Tony… she tried to save Tony. The little girl!" He understood now, and the colour and feeling poured back into his face. "That fearless little waif! My girl. She's not dead… she won't die. Any saviour of Tony's… quit standin' there, Action, help me get her cleaned up!" Furiously, he grabbed a pair of scissors and began to cut the seams of her jeans as far as the thigh. The wounds below were raw and sticky. Undeterred, he unwrapped the bandages and began to clean her, hands moving almost too quickly for the naked eye to see. Action marvelled a moment, then joined in, replacing the now scarlet strips from his shirt with clean dressings. Doc glanced momentarily at the discarded rags, then at Action's ripped shirt. But, he said nothing, never pausing in his efforts to heal her. Only when they removed her overshirt, revealing a tiny slip stained with blood from the cruellest of Anita's lashings did he halt.
"Holy Mary," he breathed, looking at the cruelly jagged lacerations forking her skin. "Who's done this to her?"
"The Spics." Action spat. Doc sighed, set down the bandages and lent on the table.
"I thought that was over. After Tony- after the playground, you all left together." Action scowled.
"We did. Maria took us all off for a meetin', at the gym. But there was Tony lyin' on the ground, and I couldn't hack it."
"I thought you all wanted peace. I thought you'd learnt," Doc cried despairingly. Action darted away from him around the table, his eyes intense.
"Don't blame me! While I was trying to learn, some no-count, gold-toothed half-breed Spic was tryin' to rape her!" Anybodys moaned fitfully, and Action went to his knees, cradling her head and torso. While he murmured to her, Doc took a long look at her injuries, and the blood spreading steadily through the bandages, forming rusty patches on the tabletop.
"Now, look." He said with a quiet firmness. "You and I can't save her. We gotta take her to a hospital."
"NO!" Action gathered her into his arms and backed away, his face white with fear. Doc wrung his hands.
"Action, think! If she has been … well, raped, she'll need a proper doctor…a woman one too," he insisted. Action shivered, and held her tighter as he sank into a chair.
"I don't wanna give her to strangers, Doc. She's only got me." He said in a small voice, sounding like a lost child. And you've only got her, Doc thought, walking shakily to the counter. He had to think clearly, and it hurt. If they took the girl to hospital, and she dies, which she could do easily, Action would never forgive either of them, and Anybodys might just suffer more. He glanced back, and for a second his heart stopped. He had seen that pose; lover cradling loved one as blood flowed and life ebbed, earlier tonight, and for a moment he could have sworn it was Tony's still, bloodied face that lay upturned before him. No, he decided, striding purposefully towards them. The cruellest thing he could do to either of the kids now would be to separate them. Whether the girl died or not. He looked the boy straight in the eye.
"If she's worse in the morning, I take her, with or without your help." He vowed to Action. Action sighed with relief.
"Thanks, Doc." He managed a watery grin, then to Doc's amazement, buried his head in Anybody's shoulder and sobbed. Doc stared-the toughest, most aggressive Jet he'd ever seen..in tears? His heart melted, and he walked forwards and embraced him.
"C'mon. Let's take her upstairs. She'll be better off in bed." Action nodded, and sniffed noisily, getting to his feet with the bandaged waif still in his arms. "That way." He gestured through a nearby door, and held it open as Action carried her through. Almost as an afterthought, Doc walked back across the store and bolted the door. It was still dark outside, and the streets were empty. The clock told him it would soon be dawn. A new day. And a new pair of star-crossed lovers needing his help. He half-smiled, and in the last light before he darkened the room, took a faded snapshot from his pocket, and studied it lovingly in the gloom. A round-faced, red-haired girl smiled up at him in sepia, her jade eyes still sparkling although the print was faded. Doc returned her grin, lines of past happiness crinkling around his eyes as he turned off the last lamp and gently returned the red-haired beauty to his coat. I never had a Maria, it's true, he reflected, strolling gently towards the apartment stairs, but that doesn't mean I've never been in love. Never had a Maria, but what does it matter? I had Kathleen.