When Mario reached us he gently shoved me to the side and ripped Federico's doublet open. The site wasn't pretty, his middle had been sliced and was gushing blood. When my eyes saw the damage to his torso a pained little cry came from my throat. Ezio came up to me and put his arms around me holding me close, not being able to stand what I saw I pressed my face into Ezio's chest. Gently Ezio began to pull me away from the place, and I could hear Mario calling for men to help move Federico. While Ezio was pulling me along he was whispering soothing words to me, that I barely heard. Soon he'd got me to the gate and lifted me onto the back of a horse and mounted behind me.
At the villa I got to the parlor and sat on a couch with my head in my hands. Ezio went to explain to Maria and Claudia what had happened. We waited perhaps another hour before Mario and his men made there way back to the city. Federico laying on his back in a wagon, torso wrapped with a lot of make-shift bandages which were almost soaked through with blood. Mario came into the villa followed by two men baring Federico on a stretcher. When he saw me Mario called me to go get Maria, which I did without hesitation. We both ran back to the front room, and Maria through her self to her sons side tears in her eyes. She took in Federico's mangled middle and pale face. Reaching forward she gently brushed some hair out of his eyes and I heard her whisper quietly.
"Ohh, my poor boy." Then it was like someone threw a switch, and she studied the wound with a clinical eye. Without any hesitation she directed the men to take Federico to a room and ordered a list of supplies to be brought to her. Before she dissappeared into the room she looked back at me and called in an urgent tone.
"Amelia, I will need your help please." Taking a breath to brace myself I got up and followed her into the room that housed the injured Auditore. The sight that greeted me wasn't any prettier then the one back in the field. Federico was now semi-conscious and writhing in pain, his doublet cut all the way off exposing his wound to the air. Maria didn't hesitate she began giving me orders on what to do which I did with teary eyes.
First she had me help peel away any fabric that was still stuck to him and then lift his body to place a clean towel underneath of him. After that she took a small hand cloth and began to trickle water onto the wound slowly cleaning it. It must have been agony because he began to thrash against Maria's efforts until she ordered me to try and hold him still. To do so I had to get half way onto the bed to hold down his shoulders, with him weakly fighting against me. While I had to brace him to the bed I tried to comfort him I whispered to him gently.
"It's alright Federico, it's alright. I know it hurts, just hold on a little longer. Then you can sleep." I don't think it helped, Federico seemed deaf to the world. As he still tried to fight against me he moaned weakly his face growing paler, he'd obviously lost a lot of blood. Not soon enough Maria had all the blood cleaned away from the wound and around the surrounding skin. The wound was weeping a small amount of blood although for the most part it seemed stanched. Leaving the bed side for a moment Maria quickly returned with a bone needle and a long string of what she told me was catgut. Although it seemed that all the fight had gone out of Federico I still held his shoulders in case he came to again. I watched as Maria meticulously sewed the wound close stitch for stitch.
"I can't believe you know how to do this." I remarked to her drily. Not once looking up from her work Maria answered my remark.
"The life of an assassin is a hard one. This is but one of the many I have had to treat." It was only a few minutes later when the last of the flesh had been stitched together. Maria got up so she could wash her bloody hands. Before she went she handed me a bottle and a roll of fresh bandages giving me instructions to use them. So carefully as I could I applied the contents of the bottle to the damaged skin, it seemed to be some kind of salve. It smelled like herbs, and I didn't know if it was suppose to fight infection or sooth the pain but I didn't question Maria's instructions. After the salve had been put on the wound and the surrounding skin I took the bandages and went to use them. It was awkward at first, but I was eventually able to worm the bandage under his back and around his torso.
After the bandages were placed and secured I looked at Federico's face, to anyone else it would have seemed to be sleeping. But to those of us who knew him better then that, he looked like death. Not being able to do anything else for him I left him in Maria's hands and tried to get some sleep.
It was strange waking up the next morning, the whole house operated as if everything was normal. Even the Auditore's were going through the usual motions. Mario and Giovanni especially placed special emphasize on getting Ezio and me back to training, but it felt wrong without Federico there to goad us. It felt so wrong in fact that I actually fussed at Mario when we were sparring fist to fist.
"What is the point of this, I should be helping tend to Federico." I ducked as Mario aimed a swing at my head, and he checked my counter-attack. We disengaged and began to circle each other around the ring as Mario retorted back to me.
"And what good will you really be adding. All that you can do right now is train, improve yourself for the future. And then you can pray for Federico, he will still be there when you finish." It was a hard lesson, but a few ugly words, and a lot more bruises later I learned it. That I couldn't put life on hold for him, no matter how much I wanted to. Eventually the senior Auditore's released us and Ezio and I made our way back to the villa. I actually ran into Maria who was holding a bowl that had new bandages and that bottle of salve, her face lifted a bit when she saw me.
"Amelia I need to change my sons bandages, would you please help me?" I quickly agreed and followed her into Federico's room. Taking the time to use the wash basin before I actually touched the bandages while Maria peeled the old ones off. Coming beside her I looked at his face and it seemed he was very peaceful as he lay there.
"Has he woken up at all?" I asked in a quiet voice she answered with a shake of her head.
"Only briefly, and those times he was only half awake." I went to the other side of the bed so I could help lift him to put wrap the bandages around him. Before that however I noticed that the skin around the wound was now an angry red. Carefully I reached forward a put my fingertips to the red flesh, and sure enough it was hot to the touch.
"Maria, I think he might be getting a fever." Maria didn't look surprised by what I said at all. That was when it hit that she knew, but there was nothing she could do about it. We changed his bandages in silence and I wished we were in my time so we could take him to a hospital. Get some antibiotics or even just some Tylenol to help the fever. The next few days it was the same depressing routine, train, help Maria, sleep. The only thing that changed was that Federico's fever got worse. His wound was burning hot to the touch, and his face was always flushed and sweaty. It seemed like he was trapped in a never ending nightmare, his eyes danced crazily beneath his eyelids and his hands twitched against his sheets. Maria and I were kept busy keeping cold clothes to his forehead and forcing broth and water down his throat. It got to the point where one of us had to be with him 24/7, and no one could be sure if he'd survive.
One such night it was my turn to stay with him and I was incredibly tired, but I somehow kept my eyes open. As I was pressing a cold cloth to Federico's face he moved his head and muttered lowly. I'd learned to not get excited by this, it happened a lot. Looking at his face carefully I whispered to him.
"Federico I'll let you in on a secret, so you better listen to me. Your my best friend and I couldn't stand it if you didn't wake up. So you better get up soon, or I'm never going to forgive you." After that exhaustion finally overcame me. Laying my head down onto the side of the bed I drifted of immediately. My sleep was deep and without any dreams I expected to be woken up by Maria. So imagine my surprise when I woke up to the feel of large calloused fingers running through my hair. Looking up I saw Federico staring at me as he reclined against the bed. His face was still tinged with the pink of fever and gaunt from not eating enough, but he still managed to pull off that lazy smirk of his. Tears began to run silently down my face and Federico moved his hand down my face to wipe them away.
"Why the tears Bella? Are you truly so disappointed to see me?" Not being able to stop it I began to laugh while tears continued to fall down my face.
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