As Elisa expected, their homecoming created a flurry of activity.
Taking no chances with his wife's health, Xanatos had arranged for Doctor James to meet them at the landing site just outside of New York City. There was no way to land a craft this size at the castle, so they would land at the off island location, and a helicopter would fly them to the castle.
No one who had been on the fateful trip to Australia was excited about that prospect, but in the end, they all climbed aboard.
During the short flight, the good doctor not only ran Fox through the standard head injury checklist, testing both her cognitive and reasoning, as well as her physical reactions.
He must have decided that she was fine, because just before landing at the castle, he rounded on Elisa.
He frowned over the gash. "This should have been stitched," he grumbled. "You might have a scar."
Elisa saw Nayeli's flinch and glared at the doctor. "It's a battle wound," Elisa snapped, glaring at him. "It's a reminder of just another situation in my life that I've lived through."
He caught the glare, but didn't understand it. What he did understand, and only after years of knowing her, was that she wanted him to stop talking about it.
He sighed. "Well, it's clean," he said. "How did you get it?"
"My hand slipped, and I sliced my hand on a screwdriver," Elisa said.
"When was your last tetanus shot?" he asked.
Elisa opened her mouth and closed it again.
"That's what I thought," Doctor James said. He re-wrapped her hand in clean gauze and began packing his things back in his portable first responder kit. "When we're at the castle, you're going to get a tetanus shot just in case, and I'm going to want you to stay home, off your feet for at least a week."
At Elisa's horrified expression, he began laughing. "Sorry. Fox told me to tell you that."
Elisa glared at the back of Fox's head where she sat in the pilot's seat, her noise cancelling headphones in place.
"Oh, really…" Elisa drew out.
Doctor James wisely kept his mouth shut. Elisa's reaction had been worth the prank, even if he hadn't known where it was coming from, was worth it.
He was just glad that her irritation was not aimed at him.
For once.
{+}+{+}+{+}+{+}+{+}+{+}
Once the blades stopped rotating, David and Fox were the first out. Doctor James hustled them inside, and probably down to the clinic on the lower floor.
"Should you not go with them?" Goliath asked.
"Nah," Elisa said with a shrug. "I can go later. He's just going to give me a shot, then I can go about my business. Fox seems better," Elisa said, gesturing in the direction they went, "but they're going to run every test known to man to make sure that she's going to be fine. I'll go when they're done."
"I'm really sorry," Nayeli said, her cheeks flushed.
"Nayeli," Elisa said, shifting in her seat then let out a frustrated breath. "Let's get out of here first, then I have something I want to tell you."
Together, the last of the helicopter's inhabitants lowered to the helipad.
"Boys," Elisa said loudly so that she could be heard above the wind. "Can you give us girls a minute?"
The three males exchanged a weary look, but in the end Bolin carried Liam and together he and Goliath leapt to glide down to the courtyard.
"Nayeli," Elisa said in a gentle, but firm voice that Elisa had learned from her own mother. "I want you to listen to me. I meant what I said to Doctor James. Scars stopped bothering me a long time ago." She put a hand on Nayeli's shoulder. "I stopped looking at them as something to hide. They're reminders to me, and to anyone who sees them, that I'm a survivor." She pulled a little at the neckline of her shirt, exposing a portion of the scar from when she'd accidently been shot years earlier. "We have matching ones now," Elisa pointed out. "You have a pair of your own, and while I hope you never get another one, you shouldn't be ashamed of them."
Nayeli gave her mother a watery smile. "I guess I never thought of it like that."
"This," Elisa raised her hand, "is nothing. Honestly, I was tired, hot and getting dehydrated. I probably would have done this on my own if I had kept going as I had. This made me stop. Made me think so I could figure out the problem. I don't want you to think about it anymore, alright?"
Nayeli nodded, then hugged her mother tightly. "Thank you," she said in a near whisper.
Elisa stood there, on the helipad, her daughter in her arms and the night wind blowing in her hair, and was glad to finally be home.
