Chapter Four:

In the Rain

"...ow..." A woman's voice groaned from where she was laying on her back. The woman was stiff and what she was laying on was even stiffer and harder, so it wasn't her bed, or her living room, or her workshop. The fact she still had her helmet on too also said that she wasn't home. "Ow..." She added as the throbbing of her left shoulder penetrated the fog of her mind first from the outside world.

The rest of her senses soon bled back into her awareness. She was cold from being soaking wet, but not to the point where her body wasn't trying to shiver so that was good. Carefully she flexed her fingers, toes, wrists, ankles, and other joints one at a time, though the left arm wasn't responding overly well. Though very stiff and uncomfortable there was not stabbing pain or throb of broken bones for the rest of her body. Maybe a sprained joint or two and a mass amount of bruising along her left and back side (and her backside- ow!), but that was a hazard of crashing when on a motorcycle, even when she hadn't been going over 25 mph.

Wait.

Crash?

Carefully, Jessica- Jessy as she preferred to be called, pushed her shoulder blades up, tried to the left side wasn't working as well still, and arched her back the littlest bits. Testing to be sure she could move her spine, and neck the old fashion way without blacking out or kicking the bucket. Those all important things didn't seem to be broken. Once that was done she reached up and felt around her helmet with her good arm, squinting as she turned the inside display back on. Even with a crack in the visor she could still read the date and time.

"Chaos... over three hours?" Jessy muttered looking at the time and date. It was now almost two-am. The date was still, reality, the same so that was good. "Comp, vitals..." She gasped out as she attempted to roll over, getting it on the second try. One hand whipping some of the mud off her chest, but only smeared it more.

"Damn it..." She muttered, this was her favorite riding jacket too. Though, even without the mud it was going to be a while to wear it again, as the sheep skin inside was holding water like it normally held heat. No wonder she was so cold.

The woman twitched and gritting her teeth as she felt a buzzing through her whole body. It stung but didn't hurt too bad, not with the rest of her frame throbbing in time with either her heart or the rain. Inside her helmet, maybe the only semi dry part of her, a female humanoid display came up, just to the right side of the front. Several places on the wire frame where yellow, the worst of her aches along the left, chest, back and one spot flashed red.

Ah, that's why she couldn't move her left arm very well, at all.

With the task of rolling over accomplished, Jessy slowly sat up, ready to rip off her helmet if she felt any nausea, but the scan proved true in that she didn't have a concussion. That didn't make getting up with one arm any easier but at least she wasn't about to throw up in her helmet.

"Stats," Jessy crocked out next as she wavered for a moment, spotting the headlight of her ride down the road a bit. She took slow steps to the side of the road as the human wireframe vanished and in its place a wire frame of the motorcycle came up. There was a pause as the computer in her helmet linked up to the one in the bike before the display lit up with colors and readings.

Mostly everything was blue, green and few spots of yellow. Nothing that she couldn't fix, though it would eat all the time she had saved at first by finishing it early. It was a good thing Jessy hadn't called the costumer to tell him his motor cycle was done after all. Maybe if it was just paint and a few dents she could still get the early bonus...

Thoughts on that subject paused, shunted aside as the woman growled to herself, now standing by one of the trees. She found a spot and wedged her arm in the dip, then with a yelped and bit out half formed curse she jerked her arm.

"Bloody hell- OW!" Jessy whined as she flexed her fingers, abandoning any 'bad ass bicker chick' image that may or may not have been there; to bounce and spun in a cercal from the pain of forcing the dislocated joint back into place. "Owowowow-bloodyOW!" She bounced on the balls off her feet before pressing her back against the tree, breathing heavy and shallow, but Jessy struggled to control her breathing through the new flare of pain.

The mechanic stared at the soft glow of the wireframe-bike on the inside of her helmet, waiting out the pain until it was down to a throb instead of spikes through the joint. She watched the time tick away, and after ten minutes of zoning out Jessy remembered where her power-stone stash was. Those could be used as painkiller and healing aid, something that would be very helpful.

Jessy carefully rolled her shoulders as she pushed off the tree, easing back to the road with about the same slow pace from before. With the adrenalin flowing again, and being wide awake, Jessy spotted the other form sprawled on the ground not far from where she had been.

Her heart sunk so far it felt like it hit her bladder.

Almost nub with fear, Jessy stumbled over, the closer she got the clearer the dark outline was. She dropped down to her knees and rolled the furry form over, checking for dips in the rib cage or for open wounds. The mechanic pulled her gloves off and lifted the anthros head up, angling it away from the flooding road. Pausing for a moment the woman pressed her free hand down to the ground, staring.

"Comp, full nocturnal enhancement," she ordered the computer in her helmet, there was a soft whine somewhere behind her left ear, then the visor lit up on the inside. The bike display vanished as everything was highlighted with soft golden lines. Jessy looked around then back at her hand, where the water was rising up to her wrist. "Crap, it is flooding. Okay dude, you're breathing so I'm getting you out of here-OW!"

Jessy jerked her right hand back, hissing at the new sting of pain across her palm, having just tried to lift the rare anthro up off the ground by putting her hand under his back.

"Chaos and the North Winds, what the hell do you have on you?" She demanded of the unconscious form, flexing her hand and watched blood ooze out of the, thankfully light cutes. "Damnet, I need to fix bikes this weekend... right, flooding. Very bad. Okay Jessy, think. Out cold Anthro that you ran over. We're in a flooding area… Comp, maps, stats on Lumar Road." She paused to check the only road up to her house, and cringed at the report the computer got from online.

The way home was already flooded, by two feet at last report a half an hour ago. Had she been at home there wouldn't be a problem, as she was fully stalked up and had three motorcycles to work on, not to mention her own generator. But she was on the wrong side of flooding.

"Um, contacts... contacts... Comp, display Red O'Connell's address." Jessy ordered as she set the anthro down to pull on her gloves. "Don't you dare rollover buddy," She added to him as she stood, slashing through the water to the motorcycle, the light was still on and from the link up it should still run. Lifting it was harder than normal with a stiffening left shoulder. Jessy pushed it over to the anthro, reading the transparent map to her uncle's, who wasn't too far away. Plus, he was up on a hill.

Jessy kicked down the supports to keep the bike upright before kneeling back beside the anthro. Wondering just how she was going to do this. The thought of leaving him didn't even occur to the woman. Her upbringing and deeply ingrained Clan morals were demanding, more like ordering, that she do everything in her power to help the anthro. Funny how that voice in the back of her head sounded like Jessy's father.

"Sorry about this buddy, but Red's a vet, and probably knows more about anthros then some of the hospital doctors this far up north." Jessy said, and cringing internally started to unfasten then unzip her leather jacket. "This isn't going to be very graceful leather, you're skinny as a twig but you're nearly my height."

Jessy had her jacket over her one shoulder, and reached out to grasp the anthro's wrists, standing over him with his legs between hers she pulled back and up. Getting the limp hedgehog into a sitting position. She grabbed at one of his shoulders and dropped down to her knees over him, letting the dark furred anthro lean against her front as she pulled the jacked over him, flatting the possible deadly quills down doing so. Zipping the jacket up was hard enough but Jessy tied the sleeves in the back, synching the lower strap as far as it would go to keep the jacket in place.

Taking a deep breath, Jessy shifted, trying to get leverage but settling for sheer strength as she locked her arms around the anthro and lifted him up.

"Good gods, you are skin and bones and still heavy." Jessy complained as she man handled the anthro over to the motorcycle, getting his torso balanced on the handle bars first. Then she had to get on long leg over the bike and not drop him. By the time the hedgehog anthro onto the bike, Jessy was gasping, sore all over again and her left shoulder had increased from a throb back to spikes again.

Drawing on the pure stubbornness that came with being apart of her nomadic clan (ironically called the Storm Runners), was the only thing that seemed to let Jessy start the motorcycle and keep one arm locked around the anthro to keep him from falling off.

The water was already up to her ankles when they left, and kept rising until Jessy found the hill up to Red's house. It was more than a tense ride, lasting forever and only fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.

This time when pulling up to her Uncle's clinic, she went around back to the house, right up to the door and pulled her helmet off. "Red!" Jessy yelled, bellowed out at loud as she could, reaching for the door and when it was lock she hit it with her helmet, "Red! Red! Wake up! I's Jessy- the wrench welder!" She added, remembering that her name was fairly comment in their family. "RED! There's been an accident! Wake the hell up!" She abused the door with her helmet with each word.

When it was flung open from the inside, Jessy over balanced and dropped, grunting as the anthro fell on top of her. She stared at the slipper covered feet in front of her, "I need help." She informed slippers as she hissed in pain.

"Chaos- Jessy! What in the world happened!?" The big, red haired and bearded man demanded as he carefully lifted the still limp and out cold hedgehog bundle off his niece.

"Ran 'em over, dislocated my should- ow- watch those quills, an' flooding." Jessy attempted to explain as she crawled in after her Uncle, rolling over to kick the door close before taking a moment to enjoy being inside at last. The mud room was starting to live up to its name with her sprawled in it, though not large it was big enough to have not only a washer and drier on the left but some shelves to the right. With the motorcycle in under the overhang porch, so she wasn't even going to worry about that. Shivering, Jessy rolled over and pulled both her sweater and sensor shirt off as her uncle left to bring the anthro into his clinic. The mechanic got boots off fallowed by her jeans and the sensor 'tights', then finally sitting up she reached up and pulled down the drier's door, fishing in there to pull out one of her uncle's shirts to up on.

"Jessy?" Red's voice drifted over.

"I'm good, take care of him if ya' can." Jessy called back as she pulled out a towel to wrap around her head, getting a second to wipe the rest of her off before grapping one of Red's longer coats as she came into the house, bounce on one foot then another to pull on socks. She fallowed the light and sound into the clinic where her uncle was, with his eldest son and assistant. She took a brief moment to morn her favorite riding jacket that had been tossed almost carelessly aside before focusing on the two men.

"By the wind gods, what happened Jessy?" Red asked, looking up from where he was examining the anthro. Though all three knew perfectly well the poor thing wasn't an animal, the sad fact was that with anthro's rare enough here in the Old Word, and more so this far up north, the vet was the best option at the moment. To get to the nearest hospitals that would take in an anthro, let alone was able treat one were a good day or two drive to get to. Not to mention with the flooding this little community would be semi isolated for at least a week or two.

"I was stupid," Jessy admitted, rubbing her eyes before heading to one of the sinks in this large back area of the clinic, she reached for disinfectant as she turned on the water, "I could sleep earlier, so I was working in the shop, and decided to test drive the bike I finished. It wasn't raining as bad then. When it started to pick up I turned to head home and then this guy popped out of nowhere from the dark… I hit him- he knocked me off. I dislocated my shoulder and was knocked out for three hours...ish. Hey, watch out for those spiky thingies, their sharp," Jessy held up her right, currently pink hand and displayed the cuts on the palm.

"Doesn't seem like he broke ribs…" Red stood up after finishing checking the anthro's legs, "surprising… what about you?"

"Not sure," Jessy shrugged, "Don't think so, doesn't feel like it, I wasn't going too fast. Thanks Jacob." She added as her cosine stepped over to check her hand.

"Doesn't look like you need stiches but it's still going to need to be wrapped up." Jacob said, the young man was about Jessy's age. Around 25, and though he didn't have his father's broad chest and shoulders, the young man had just as bright red hair, friendly smile but his mother's blue eyes. "We need to get you warmed up too, you're freezing Jessica."

"Being conked out in a flooding road tends to make one hypothermic," Jessy said with a shaky smile, looking over at the anthro, and arched an eyebrow despite herself as she noticed something now that they were in the light. Even under the mud and being plastered down, Jessy commented ever so brilliantly, "Dude, he's blue."