Chapter 7
When Jim returned to the lab, Maria was still sleeping. Magnus was at her computer, typing rapidly and constantly looking back at the screen monitoring the girl's brainwaves. Corey was deep in conversation with Blair and Will, although she kept glancing back at the sensory deprivation tank holding her sister.
Feeling a little useless, he walked over to Magnus. "Anything I can do to help?"
"At present, I can't think of much," she answered. "You might join Will and Blair with Corey. I'm sure she would be much-encouraged by your example as a functional adult with her sister's symptoms."
"'Functional adult', right," he answered, frowning and turning away. He stopped abruptly, casting around with his senses.
"Detective?" Helen asked, rising. When he drew his gun, she did the same. "What is it?"
"I smell blood. Someone's hurt, and I'm not talking a paper-cut here."
Ever attuned to Jim's mood Blair joined them without being called, his gun out as well.
"Will, stay with Corey," Magnus directed as the three slowly started out of the lab and towards the source of the blood.
A blonde girl was in the next hallway down from the lab, leaning on the wall. Her breathing was labored and her clothes were covered in blood. The way she was clutching her stomach suggested that as the cause of her injuries.
"Ashley?" Blair and Magnus asked at the same time.
"It looks worse than it is," she assured them, waving a dismissive hand. It would have been more reassuring had she not been swaying on her feet.
"Oh, Ashley!" Magnus sighed, holstering her gun and going to the girl's side. "Come on, let's get you into the lab. What did you get into this time? It was supposed to be a standard reconnaissance mission."
"Yeah, well, the sewer monsters had different ideas," the girl answered, sounding for all the world like a sarcastic teenager. When she spoke again, her voice was more serious, and faintly reassuring. "It's okay, Mom. I know you're busy. I cleaned and dressed it, so it's fine for now. I'm a big girl. I can wait a few hours for stitches."
"I'll be the judge of how long you can wait," Magnus answered as they returned to the lab, forcing Ashley into a chair. "Let's have a look at this."
Grimacing, the girl pulled up her shirt as her mother produced a pair of scissors and began cutting away what looked to Jim like a damned good field-dressing.
"What happened?" Magnus asked as she worked.
"Turns out that lizard-man from earlier wasn't an isolated incident," she grimaced. "There's a whole nest of them down there and they're getting more aggressive. People are scared. As soon as I get patched up, I plan on going back down there with a few of those thermite/water grenades Henry made--"
Magnus rocked back on her heels, looking appalled. "You'll do no such thing, young lady!" she ordered, pointing at Ashley with one finger. "I won't hear of it! Those grenades are expressly designed for anti-material applications, not anti-personnel. I won't have you potentially destroying an important part of this city's infrastructure. If you want to burn out the nest, you'll do it with a flame-thrower like a normal person."
Ashley looked ready to argue, then she sighed and shrugged. "Yes, Mother…"
"Some of these cuts could use stitches now," Magnus added with a sigh. "And I really can't be away from the lab just now."
"Guess I can do myself," Ashley answered, shrugging.
"I'd really rather your first experience giving stitches not be on yourself. Will, I know emergency medicine isn't your field, but you did go to medical school. Do you think you can stitch this up?"
The psychiatrist's heart literally skipped a beat at this request. Then it started to jackrabbit.
Keeping one ear on Will's heartbeat in case the man decided to have a heart-attack, Jim offered, "I was a combat medic back in the Rangers. It's been awhile, but some things you just don't forget."
Will's heart started to slow at once.
"Oh, could you?" Looking relieved, Magnus gave him a grateful smile. "Ashley, can you walk?"
"No problem."
"Show Jim to the medical bay and let him patch you up. Don't give him any trouble," she added.
"Ruin all my fun," Ashley answered, planting a kiss on her mother's cheek. "Come on, Jim. I'm dripping all over Mom's clean floors."
"Right," he agreed, more than a little unsettled by her casual attitude towards having her stomach sliced open by some kind of monster. Still, she was relatively steady on her feet, so the damage couldn't be too bad.
They entered a good-sized medical bay and Ashley hopped up onto one of the tables, starting to pull her shirt off. She stopped abruptly, making a face.
"Ooh, that's a little more tender than I thought…"
"Here, let me help you," he said, easing her out of the shirt.
"Thanks. You know, normally I don't let a guy take my shirt off until the third date," she told him, absently resettling a bra-strap.
He grinned. "Special circumstances."
"Yeah, that's what they all say," she answered, lying down. "How bad is it?"
Good question. Pulling together supplies, he stopped to assess the injuries. Three parallel gashes, more superficial than anything, but still pretty gaping.
"Fat and muscle layer compromised, no entry into the peritoneum. You'll be just fine. Where's your Mom keep the Novocain?"
"No drugs."
"It's only a local. You won't even feel drowsy from it, I promise."
She shook her head. "I don't take drugs unless I need them. Besides, I've been in worse pain than this before. It's nothing I can't handle."
He frowned down at her. She may have been lying on her back and therefore in a technically less powerful position, but her return gaze was unflinching. And honestly a little scary coming from a twenty-something monster hunter with the pain tolerance of an Eastern mystic. He looked away, not conceding defeat. Just checking to make sure he had everything he needed. That was all.
"It's going to start hurting a lot worse once I start flushing it."
"Look, jarhead, I know what I'm capable of handling a lot better than you do. This is nothing I haven't been through before a hundred times in the past. So just get to work already."
"I was Army, not Marines," he told her, picking up a saline-filled syringe.
"My mistake, GI Jim," she answered, looping her hands behind her head.
She did not make a sound or even flinch once while he flushed, disinfected, then stitched up the gashes. Even her expression did not really change, except to grow progressively more bored-looking. Jim was impressed.
"All done. You were good. Wish I had a lollypop for you."
She smiled and pushed herself up on one arm, staring at her stomach.
"You do good work," she told him. "That might not even leave a scar."
"Well, we'll have to wait a few days to see about that."
"Rate of healing, risk of infection. I know, I know." She nodded, sitting up the rest of the way and trying to get up.
"Easy," Jim cautioned, putting his hand on her shoulder to keep her on the bed. "So you're stoic, I get that. But you don't have anything to prove, not to me. You've lost a lot of blood. You still look a little shocky. I need you to rest."
"There's extra blood in the fridge," she told him, sighing and stretching out on the bed again. "Mine is on the top shelf."
He raised an eyebrow. "You people prepare for everything, don't you?"
"Have to in this line of work. As long as I'm being lazy, could you bring me a blanket? They're in that cabinet there."
Jim tucked the blanket around her, raising the head of the bed and making her drink a cup of orange juice while he started the infusion.
"Thanks, I feel better already." She smiled at him. "You know, you're good at this."
"Yeah, well, when Uncle Sam trains you to keep the frontline troops in fighting condition, he expects to get his money's worth. More juice?"
"Please."
He poured more, handing it to her. "So, you been doing this for long? Monster hunting?"
"Few years. I think Mom was hoping I'd turn into a scientist like her. Think I ended up taking after my father." She looked troubled by this.
"Want to talk about it?" he offered. "We have the time."
"Since when is an Army Ranger all sensitive and caring?"
He sighed. "Since Blair moved in with me. Guess, after the first few years, he started to rub off. He's all into that touchy-feely crap. But the offer stands. Having a disappointing father is something I can relate to."
"Oh, was your father a serial killer, too?" she asked with artificial brightness. At least, he hoped it was artificial.
"Your father was…"
"A serial killer," she confirmed, nodding. "Tried to kill me the first time we met."
And he had considered his relationship with his own father strained?
"Seemed to have a change of heart later on," she continued, staring at her orange juice. "But I haven't seen him since, so who knows if it took."
He opened his mouth, not sure what to say. He was saved the need to figure out by the sound of footsteps in the hall outside. He spun in that direction.
"Someone's coming."
"Are you always hypervigilant?" she wanted to know.
"Pretty much," he agreed, relaxing slightly at the smell of wolf. "It's Henry."
"How do you sleep? I mean, hypervigilance doesn't exactly lend itself to that."
"Takes practice," he answered with a shrug.
"Ash, you okay?" Henry asked, entering the medical bay. "Your mom says you got hurt." Looking up at Jim, he grinned. "Hey, no gun this time. Guess that means you like me now?" he asked, paying more attention to Ashley than to Jim.
"I'll wait outside," the Sentinel offered.
"Oh, that's okay," Ashley assured him. "Henry and I don't have any secrets. Right, Henry?"
"No secrets," he agreed, looking for all the world like a man who had a few where his feelings for the girl were concerned.
A monster hunter and a werewolf? Sure, why not?
"Your mom said it looked pretty bad?" Henry asked her.
"Mom tends to overreact," Ashley told him, peeling back the blanket to show her stitches.
"Oh, man," Henry muttered, looking sick. "Ash…"
"It's no big deal, Henry," she assured him, grabbing his arm. "I've had worse and we both know it. But, as long as you're here…"
"Sorry, Ash. No thermite grenades. Your mom insisted."
She regarded him with an expression of deep disgust.
"However, she didn't say a thing about thermobaric charges. I can have some ready for you by morning."
Ashley grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down to her level, planting a kiss on his mouth. He staggered away with a bemused grin.
Jim watched him go. "You do realize that there's very little actual difference between thermite and thermobarics?" he asked Ashley.
"You gonna tell on me?" she countered, giving him a wicked grin.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the wisest course of action for me is to stay out of your family's business. I should be arresting you right now, but--"
"Those monsters aren't going to kill themselves," she pointed out blithely. "They're man-eaters, Jim, and their hunting grounds are starting to spill over into the subways. You're a cop; I know you don't want those kinds of casualty figures on your head. So you handle the human maniacs out there and let me handle threats of the supernatural variety. Okay?"
He squeezed the bridge of his nose. Having seen what one of those creatures had done to a skilled fighter, he had no desire to see what kind of havoc they could wreak in a civilian population. Hell, kids used the subway to get to and from school.
"Just… don't blow anything up."
"Since you asked so nicely." She fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Jim checked the progress of the transfusion. "You stay put. I'm going to go check on the others."
"Come back soon. I might get lonely."
"Right," he answered, leaving the med bay.
Yes, Blair, I gravitate towards dangerous women. But no, Blair, I have absolutely no plans on getting to know this one any better. She's a little too dangerous even for me.