12.08.98; 06:07; Medicine station, Castle Wyvern:
"How long do they still need?" Deborah asked, walking up and down in front of the door to the operating theatre.
"You have to have patience, teacher." Goliath told her, working hard not to look at the door himself. "There is nothing we can do."
It had been hours now that his mentor had been anesthetized and taken into this room. Half an hour later, three medical assistants that Xanatos had somehow got by contacts with P.I.T, wordlessly entered the medicine station, racing wordlessly into the room.
Goliath hoped that the long time of waiting was a good sign, showing that there was at least something to do... something to help.
The door opened.
The three medical assistants walked outside, every one of them wore medical dresses, and each had a hard look on their faces.
"What is it?" Deborah asked, looked up. "My mate, how is he?"
A woman with short blond hair took off her mask, avoiding Deborah's seeking eyes.
"You have to ask Dr. Moore." she explained, passing the gargess.
Deborah didn't want to accept this, but before she could drag the woman back, the doors opened again.
It was the clan's healer, entering with her back turned to these gargoyles, waiting while pulling the end of the sickbed in. Deborah raced to the bed, starring down at the unconscious gargoyle lying there.
He breathed, this was the first thing she noticed much to her relief. She looked down to his wounded leg...
Where Hudson's right upper leg should be, the blanket covered nothing... It just laid flat on the bed.
Not wanting to believe what her eyes showed her, Deborah pulled the blanket from this part. She would never forget what she saw in this second...
Her mate's leg was missing, but the first third of his right upper leg.
For a second she could just stare on it, the stump being covered by white bandages that were so damned short.
Deborah looked up to Moore, the doctor stood at the head of the sickbed, who helped to roll it further into the room while looking directly into her eyes.
She was by him faster than Moore had believed a gargoyle could move, grabbing his shoulders and pressing him against the nearest wall, her claws digging into his soft flesh.
"YOU HAVE TAKEN HIS LEG!" Deborah furiously screamed on the human, her eyes shining blood red.
"Would you rather have him dead?" Dr. Moore threw back on her, angry himself since his frustration mixed with the screaming pain he felt in his shoulders. "We had no other choice than this."
Deborah felt her anger dwindling a bit by these words, the possibility of having lost her mate made her feel even worse.
"I saw it with my own eyes." the clan's healer told her from behind, her voice sounding sad and sympathetic. "Too large parts of the bone were infected and brittle... and it would have spread even more if we hadn't done anything."
While she still stared on Moore, Deborah felt Goliath's strong claw resting on her own shoulder while she slowly took her own claws from Moore's bleeding shoulder.
"He did what he could." Goliath, having come over the initial shock by himself, told her. "Let him be, teacher."
Deborah resisted at first, but then took a look on her unconscious mate and took her claws off the human.
The clan's healer continued to pull the sickbed further into the room until it finally was place by a wall, in an order to the other beds.
Deborah followed it, always being by the side of her mate, having tears in her eyes and just barely holding them back while holding Hudson's right claw.
"When will he wake up?" Goliath asked the doctor, who now took down his mask.
"Probably not before sunrise." Moore explained, looking to his patient.
Silence spread in the room when all looked to Hudson, lying on the bed and his mate by his side.
Finally, Deborah began to speak without looking up from her mate.
"Please, leave me alone with him..." she asked, her voice sounding weak. "At least, until tomorrow."
"We will." Goliath told her, taking a last look on his unconscious mentor and then following Dr. Moore outside, noticing the color of red spreading on his shoulders.
When she heard the doors fell shut, Deborah knew she was alone with her mate and allowed herself to cry openly, never stopping to look on the other part of her soul.
To be continued...