XXX Chapter 4: The Scramble

Lots of descriptions of injuries and stuff in this one…

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He'd been typing up some research Thomas needed for his next script, sitting on their living room couch. Virgil had been endlessly scrolling on his phone for the better part of an hour, having been switching between his phone and pacing around ever since Remus left with Roman. He could see the anxious side's agitation, but he figured it was best to let Virgil calm down on his own, seeing as he'd practically snapped at Patton's earlier attempt at comforting him.

Logan wasn't quite sure why Virgil was so agitated about the situation with Remus, really. Sure, Virgil had been afraid of Remus before, and he still was to an extent, but he'd been better with recognizing that Remus's intrusive thoughts he gave to Thomas were just that- thoughts. Virgil hadn't reacted so badly to Remus's presence since the first time the chaotic side had shown himself to Thomas.

And Remus… Logan hadn't ever observed the man behaving like this. At first glance, it didn't seem particularly out of character for him, but this wasn't just another one of the man's random acts of chaos. There was a reason behind it- he was worried about someone who he apparently cared about. Logan, however, couldn't ascertain whether the man's reaction was appropriate or not. Deceit may very well have been gone for a few days, but Remus might have also just not noticed when he was around; after all, the creative side said he wasn't even sure how long he'd been 'missing'. And, well, maybe Roman wasn't entirely aware of this, but before their big argument over the wedding, Deceit had spent quite a lot of time wandering in Roman's half of the imagination. Remus's worry, despite what were likely good intentions for once, may be an over-reaction.

At the same time, though, Remus was the one who lived with Deceit. Neither Logan nor the others had really seen much of Deceit outside of the videos in years. For the most part, they each stayed on their own sides (and even when Deceit was wandering around Roman's side of the imagination, Logan ever really only spotted him from a distance). The Light Sides rarely talked to the Dark Sides anymore, and surely, they weren't the same people they were when they were younger. Remus and Deceit likely knew each other quite well, though, and maybe Remus knew something that made his concern more justified. He did say something about Deceit locking himself in his room, but that didn't seem too strange in itself. Being Deceit, he'd always been a rather private person, and considering recent events, he might have just needed some time to figuratively 'lick his wounds'. Hadn't they all?

"Hm, those two sure have been gone a while," Patton pointed out as he left the kitchen. "Do you guys think something actually happened?"

"Deceit's probably just doing whatever shady crap he usually does and didn't bother to tell Remus," Virgil replied, removing his gaze from his phone long enough to roll his eyes. "I mean, we're talking about Deceit, here. He doesn't really get himself into stupid situations. Hell, this could just be part of some dumb plan."

Despite the scathing words and tone, there was an obvious shakiness in the man's voice, and the hand that wasn't holding the phone was anxiously fiddling with the sleeve of his hoodie.

"I don't know…"

"Well, all we can do is wait for them to return," Logan told them. "Whatever the problem is, I'm sure Roman will tell us when they get back."

"I guess so…"

And with that, the three of them went back to what they were doing. Or at least, they did so for a few more minutes.

Without warning, Roman and Remus suddenly popped back into the living room, and for a long moment, none of them registered the figure held in the green twin's arms. They were wearing black and hanging limp, unmoving, and a red-stained yellow glove was laying across their chest.

Then, with one terrible click, Logan finally connected what he was seeing to what it meant.

"Woah, what the fuck happened to Deceit?!"

Logan felt his body moving to stand.

"Deceit… He fell off a cliff at the edge of the Imagination."

Remus was crying.

"Oh no…"

"We don't know how long he's been there, but it's been at least a few hours," Roman explained. "He hit his head, and I'm pretty sure he has a few broken bones, plus he's all bruised up."

Still holding Deceit, Remus's arms started to shake, likely more from emotion than from the other man's weight.

"Bring him to my room. It's the closest," Logan directed. "Patton, can you go grab the first-aid kit?"

Patton nodded, and Logan moved to follow the twins, who had already started to leave the room. The trip down the hall was short, but it felt long with the rising fear in the air. Based on Roman's description of his injuries (as well as on the method through which he was injured), Deceit was hurt pretty badly. And for some reason, he didn't seem to be healing like he should have- unless he was healing, and the injuries they were still seeing were just what hadn't managed to heal yet.

He saw Remus set Deceit down on the bed, more gently than he would have expected. Then, the two halves of Creativity both turned to look at him, one expression more desperate than the other, and he knew they were waiting for him to do something, waiting for him to help Deceit. He didn't entirely know what they were supposed to do, but the others had always looked to him to guide them during stressful situations, even when he didn't really know what to do any better than them.

Hopefully, he'd retained enough information from the medical dramas Thomas watched a while ago to be able to help.

"What the fuck…"

It was those mumbled words that made Logan realize that Virgil had followed behind them, and when he glanced toward him, he saw that the anxious side was staring at Deceit with wide eyes. He could tell that, despite what he said earlier, Virgil was scared, but he didn't know what he could do about it in that moment. Right then, they had to treat Deceit's injuries.

"Virgil, can you get some towels and some water?" Logan asked.

Maybe giving Virgil a task would help to distract him for the time being.

With a short nod, Virgil turned and left the room again. Logan glanced toward Remus, and seeing the state he was in, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to help or not. On top of the crying and shaking, he was muttering something under his breath, and even though it was hard to make out, Logan could guess that the man's own intrusive thoughts were likely overwhelming him. Then, quickly shifting his focus onto Roman, Logan saw that his face was almost painfully blank- though, between the two of them, he was certainly the more put-together one.

"Roman, can you sit with Remus for now?" Logan asked, somewhat quietly (even though he doubted Remus would have heard him even if he spoke louder).

Roman turned his head, first to look at Deceit and then to look at his brother, before nodding a few times.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that."

Then, finally, Logan returned his own attention back to Deceit. To begin with, he was going to have to remove most of the man's clothes to assess the damage.

Hopefully it wasn't really as bad as Roman thought.

The process took longer than he would have preferred, but Deceit wore far more layers than the rest of them did, and the man was quite fond of shirts with a multitude of buttons. He had removed Deceit's capelet and overshirt and was halfway through unbuttoning the shirt beneath when Patton and Virgil came back into the room. They set the supplies on the bedside table.

"I need to remove his clothes to determine the extent of his injuries," Logan told them as he quickly undid the rest of the buttons. "Patton, can you start getting the bandages and some suturing supplies out of the kit?"

Logan wasn't completely sure yet whether they would have to sew up any injuries, but he figured it was rather likely, so they might as well get prepared.

Almost getting exasperated by this point, Logan found that Deceit had yet another shirt on beneath his button-down, but as he took that off so he could get to the tank top, he found himself pausing yet again. Already, with most of his arms and shoulders exposed, Logan could see that the bruising was just as extensive as he'd feared, but that wasn't what caught him off-guard. They weren't even the worst wounds, far from it, but he couldn't help but pause.

No, he'd expected bruising, possibly even a compound breakage in the one arm, but he hadn't been expecting to see neat little rows of crimson red scratches on Deceit's arms and wrists.

And once his brain caught up and realized what they were, as the puzzle piece fell into place, he couldn't stop the sharp hiss that escaped his teeth.

"Lo?"

Patton was standing beside him with the supplies, close enough to have heard the hiss and more than close enough to see the reason. He could see the exact moment Patton saw what he did, as his eyes widened, and he raised a hand to his mouth. Logan quickly looked up toward the others, who luckily didn't seem to have noticed yet. The three of them weren't looking very good, with Remus practically sobbing, Virgil on the brink of a panic attack, and Roman trying to comfort both of them while also clearly having trouble himself, as whatever shock he'd been in before appeared to be wearing off.

This wasn't good. The three of them were already having a hard time coping with this new information, and he didn't know how Patton was going to react to it, either. He couldn't comfort them very well on a good day, and he certainly couldn't do it while treating such serious injuries.

"Patton," Logan whispered urgently. "Take them back to the living room. They need comfort, and I need to focus on helping Deceit. We… we're going to have a discussion about this later. For now, we need to keep this situation from getting any worse."

Patton seemed hesitant, but it only lasted for a few moments. His expression turned more firm and determined, nodding slightly.

"Come get me if you need help, alright?" Patton told him. "I… I can handle it, you know?"

Logan nodded back, and then Patton went to the others, gently prodding them into following him back to the living room. He knew he shouldn't be glad about Remus's distress, but he was sure that, had Remus not already been somewhat 'out-of-it', he would've fought them to stay. Meanwhile, Logan positioned himself to hide as much as he could while he continued to work, removing Deceit's final shirt, his pants, and his shoes.

As he scanned the injuries, he mentally catalogued which ones were the worst and should be treated first. The bruising was extensive, with the worst of it spreading across his back, though his chest had a significant amount of bruising as well. It was likely he had a broken rib or two. One of his wrists was also very clearly broken, and it seemed like the arm was broken on the same side. When he prodded Deceit's ankles, he found one of those to be broken as well (and he noted the lack of even the slightest reaction to his prodding, which didn't bode well at all). He ended his search with the head wound, and that… He had really been hoping it just bled a lot and wasn't really that bad. Head wounds tended to bleed a lot even if they were shallow, and even though it wasn't very realistic, he'd been hoping that to be the case. As he gently washed the area, however, he quickly realized that there was a significant bump adorning the back of his head, and the skin was split deep.

Then, his blood ran cold as cleaning the area revealed a sliver of white beneath the red.

This was bad.

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