"ABBY!" ROARKE POUNDED on the wooden door, trying not to dent it with his strength. "Aibhlin! Answer your door, for crying out loud."
A few tense seconds passed, with Ace still moaning pitifully.
"Roarke? Roarke, what the hell?" Abby's face appeared in the window beside the door frame, her blonde hair glowing in the moonlight. "I do have parents you know. Just because you're my best friend, doesn't-"
"Yeah, yeah. Please just let us in, Abby?" Roarke pleaded. "It's pretty urgent."
Aibhlin unlocked the door reluctantly, eyeing the three strangers over Roarke's broad shoulders. "Ok. But just be real quiet," she said, looking nervously back up the stairs.
REM AND CIRI, still dragging Ace, filed in through the single door after Roarke, and stood awkwardly in the hallway, looking around them. Abby's house was not as extravagant as Roarke's, although it wasn't as modern. The house was a two-storey Victorian, with a porch encircling the entire first floor. All but one of the second floor's windows was dark. "Still reading?" Roarke noted, glancing upwards to the lit window.
"Um. Yeah," Abby said, not meeting Roarke's inquiring gaze. "I couldn't sleep. You know." She shrugged casually.
Another long silence passed, with Ace clutching his head and leaning heavily on Roarke. "Do you want me to Heal him, or what?" Aibhlin eventually said. Roarke just looked at her. "What, is that not why you came?"
"It's… more complicated than that." Roarke transferred his weight onto his other foot, being careful not to let Ace fall. "Basically, there're some rebels after Ciri here," Roarke said, gesturing towards Ciri, the girl with the brown hair "and we're fleeing them. And Ace," he continued, jerking his head at Ace's slumped form, "protected us from the Speed Demons with his Deflection. The leader of the rebels was a Thought Demon, and he kept trying to get Ace's guard down. I don't know how exactly, but Ace used a lot of energy holding up his shields and stuff. Ciri gave him some alcohol, to dumb his mind down - as if it could get any worse. So, that's why Ace is a bit under-the-weather on us. The constant 'war' in his head has made his brain overheat - or shrivel as I like to refer to it as - and so it wants to shut down." Roarke gave an exasperated look and dragged Ace into the lounge room, letting him fall onto the nearest couch. Roarke rotated his neck, stretching his back.
"I'D NEVER THOUGHT I'd see the day when my best friend found something that was relatively heavy to him," Abby said as she walked up behind Roarke.
"He's not heavy," Roarke protested, "It's just the way I had to carry-"
"Oh, I'm sure." Abby laughed, patting Roarke on his shoulder in mock pity. "I think I could heal his pain and fatigue, but not his brain… thing." Abby looked at Roarke for affirmation.
"I don't know!" he insisted. "You're the Healer and all."
"Whatever. I'll try my best." Aibhlin knelt down beside Ace's limp body, his arm dangling off the couch.
"Wait. What are you doing?" Ciri asked as she rushed through to the lounge, after making sure Rem couldn't get to the fridge.
"I'm just going to try heal his pain. I don't know if I can fix up his brain, though," Abby said patiently.
"You can't knock him out," Ciri said sharply. "If he's unconscious, he'll drop the shield."
Abby exhaled, irritated. "What exactly is wrong with him?"
"His brain's under too much stress from work. Think of it as overworking. His brain sensed his distress and it tried to knock him out to perform a diagnostic, to heal him. I gave him some whiskey. Lots of it. He's drunk, and there may be a burst blood vessel in his head."
"May be?" Abby said skeptically.
"I may be a Sight Demon, but I can't see inside his head, I can only create fake images," Ciri shot back, her eyes narrowing.
"Did he complain of peripheral vasoconstriction? The edges of his vision turning black?"
"No, he didn't complain of it," Ciri said slowly. "But he had it."
"Excuse me?" Abby said, frowning in confusion.
"When I change what a person sees, I can perform a special technique that allows me to convert what they see into two layers - what I make them see and what they are really seeing. Ace couldn't see anything in his peripheral vision. I made it seem like he could though."
"Okay, so he has a Class Two hemorrhage," Abby said, sighing as she hooked a strand of hair behind her ear. "He should recover if he rests, but I'm guessing you don't want that. Where is the bleeding?"
"Near his ears," Ciri replied. "How do you know all this?"
"I'm training to be a doctor," Abby explained offhandedly. "Makes sense, me being a healer and all. Roarke? Would you mind flipping him onto his side?"
"Sure." Roarke stepped in between the two girls and shoved Ace up onto his shoulder traditional rescue-style.
"Ok. I need quiet so I can focus," Abby said, leaning forward to place her hands, palms downwards, on Ace's shoulder and arm. "It might be best if you both go out. This is harder than my usual healing."
Agreeing, Roarke and Ciri stepped out into the hallway, listening to Aibhlin's quiet murmuring.
