Chapter warnings: character(s) in bindings; discussions of death; a battle/fighting; physical abuse (with weapons); sexual assault; description of injuries.
Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!
~TLL~
"You know what the first thing I'm doing is when I get home?" Jake asked.
"Bathe?" Rose asked, lifting his wing slightly to massage the oils that Fu had given her into Jake.
"Eat a hot dog. A street hot dog, specifically, with the works. I want so many toppings and so many condiments that I can't even taste the hot dog."
Rose tapped at Jake's foot and he shifted his weight so that she could get oils in on his feet. "Why don't you just eat multiple hot dogs so that you can taste everything?"
"That defeats the purpose."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Is there a purpose?"
"To make it gross and tasty at the same time," Jake said. "To inhale everything at once!"
Rose moved to Jake's front feet, feeling the heave of his breath along her neck as he balanced himself. "I don't understand boys."
"Come with me to get the hot dog and then maybe, at the very least, you'll understand the hot dog."
"You're asking me to go get hot dogs with you?" Rose teased.
"Well, I mean with Trixie and Spud too," Jake blustered, sounding embarrassed, though Rose couldn't figure out why.
"It's just very optimistic of you to think we're both going to survive this."
"If I can't be optimistic then it's over before it even starts," Jake said, "so, are you going to get a hot dog with us when it's all over?"
"I think Spud and Trixie are gonna want to show you Maggie's Diner."
"What is that?"
"It's our hangout spot," Rose said, tapping at Jake's last leg until he lifted out.
"You and my friends are not allowed to have a hangout spot that I've never been to," Jake complained.
"Well, don't get captured next time and it'll never happen again," Rose snapped.
Jake murmured something under his breath, the words lost between the straps of his muzzle.
"It's a good diner," Rose said, trying to cover up her rudeness. "There's, like, a hundred milkshake flavours. Spud's said he'd die for their onion rings."
"Spud does know his food," Jake agreed.
Rose put his foot down. "Well, that's everything for tonight."
"Can you ask Fu for something between my leg and the chain?" Jake asked. "It itches like crazy now that it's healing."
"I'll ask," Rose said and she reached for his muzzle.
Jake jerked his head away. "Do you really have to go? Right now?"
Rose checked the time. "I can give you ten more minutes but you can't argue next time or I'm going to be in trouble."
"That's a deal."
Rose sat in the sand next to Jake, leaning back on her elbows, the side of her arm touching his.
"So, what's your favourite kind of milkshake?" Jake asked.
"Depends on the day. I probably get the PB&J one the most often, though," Rose said.
"I miss peanut butter."
"They feed you steak," Rose said, remembering and feeding him a bit of gruel. Anything to keep his strength up, "You're not exactly suffering."
"Yeah, raw steak twice a day for the last two years. I'm never eating beef again."
"Not even a giant burger? One stuffed with cheddar cheese and topped with bacon and a spicy mustard and gigantic tomatoes –"
"I'm gonna start drooling," Jake said, "you can't keep doing this to me."
"With a side of hot, crispy fries, perfectly salted," Rose continued.
"Oh, god, get me out of here. Please, get me out of here," Jake moaned. "Oh, I'll do anything for a French Fry, Rose. Anything."
Rose laughed and shifted so that she could rub the top of his dragon hand. "Soon enough. But, I thought you wanted hot dogs."
"I'll eat anything. Bring me an Oreo, please? Something. Anything."
Rose offered up a bit more gruel from her uniform pocket and Jake's nose curled.
"That's worse than the steak."
"This is giving you energy," Rose said, "eat it."
"You could be poisoning me," Jake said, but he took another bite.
"I don't have the patience to poison you," Rose said dismissively.
"You know that's not comforting?"
"Well, it should be."
Jake shook his head at her. "I've never met anyone like you."
Rose grinned at him, the words somehow pleasing to her, though she wasn't sure if he meant them as an insult or not. She was in a league of her own. And, rather than make her feel lonely, it made her feel powerful.
"I should hope not," Rose said. "Come on, let me tie you up."
"Other things I've always wanted a girl to say to me." Jake smirked. "Looks like you're checking all the boxes."
Rose tried not to take any pleasure in doing up his muzzle straps this time. She checked that nothing was out of place from when she'd arrived.
"Cross your fingers that I'll see you in the morning," she said to him, as she'd taken habit of doing every time that she left him.
Jake nodded deeply once, and then he rested his head down again on top of his hands. Rose felt his eyes on her as she crossed the sandy floor of Sector 1, going back in the control room, and stopping the loop. She wiggled out of the control room, through the vents, and over her bedroom. She surveyed her space, making sure that the Master wasn't there waiting for her, and then she dropped down from her ceiling, putting the vent back into place. Rose rolled her shoulders and started toward her ensuite, thinking about the hottest shower that she could manage when her phone started blaring.
"Huntsgirl," the Huntsman purred when she answered it. "I didn't know you were home."
"Yes, Master, I'm in my room."
"Get dressed, something nice," the Huntsman ordered. "We'll have dinner together in my room."
"Yes, Master."
(-.-)
Rose perched like a bird, leaning on the balls of her feet, watching Spud and Trixie swing Huntsclan weapons at one another.
"Trixie," Rose called, "you're overcompensating again. These spears are weighted toward the bottom, not toward the centre."
"Why?" Trixie asked. "That doesn't make any sense, yo!"
"They're heavy," Spud agreed. "Can't we have kids ones or something?"
"We don't need kids ones," Trixie said, smacking Spud on the chest.
Rose straightened up. "Those are the kids ones. You wouldn't be able to handle my staff."
Spud wiggled his eyebrows. "Care to let me try?"
"Spudinski," Trixie snapped, smacking him in the chest even harder.
Rose curled her lip. "No."
"Why would you say something like that?" Trixie hissed at Spud.
"It came out. What do you want me to say? Look at her!" Spud whispered furiously.
"Well, let's stop all this here," Rose said. "I'll be seeing you guys tonight. Huntsclan knows when you're going to be moving supplies around 41st."
"How?" Lao Shi asked.
"I didn't tell them," Rose said defensively. "Even if I did, I'm going to be there for you."
She levelled with Lao Shi's dark eyes, shrouded in wrinkles as they were. He knitted his hands together, the long sleeves of his robe obscuring them in a single motion.
"It was not my intention to accuse you anything," Lao Shi said, "I simply meant: I would like to know how they get their information."
"There's more of us than you think," Rose said, "and your giants don't move through the city unnoticed. A careful observer could put the pieces together too easily. I'm sure if you mention the risk of exposure to the dragon council, they would be here soon enough."
"We haven't heard back," Lao Shi admitted. "I imagine they'll be here in twenty days."
"Why twenty?" Spud asked and Trixie hit him again. "Stop that!"
"We march in nineteen," Rose said, her eyes still locked on Lao Shi's face. "They don't want to fight with us but they will either tag onto our victory or be able to say 'I told you so'."
Haley shook her head. "I don't understand people."
"Best for you to never understand those people," Rose said haughtily. "I gotta go, though, or he's going to notice I'm missing."
"Rose," Lao Shi said, "we were able to hear you on the Huntsclan's side for the last mission. You patched us in properly."
"Good." Rose nodded then admitted, "I think I would have forgotten to ask."
"It's helpful," Fu assured her.
Rose nodded again and then checked the time. "I really have to go if I'm going to go see Jake before this thing."
Fu handed her over the new bag of potions and salves. "All labelled. Is the anti-itch cream working?"
"He hates the smell," Rose confided, "but yes."
"See you later," Haley called as Rose turned her back.
Rose turned her head, smiling at Haley. "Yes, I promise."
Rose rushed back to the Huntsquarters, realizing how late she was. She scaled the side of the building rather than using one of the normal entrances, getting herself into the vent system undetected. It was part research for getting the Magical Militia into the Huntsquarters as quickly and as efficiently as possible and partly because she didn't want Master to know that she was back yet. She didn't want to take her chances on being able to see Jake after the impending skirmish and so she dropped into the control room panel, looped the tape, and then leapt over the viewing balcony onto the sandy ground below, rather than taking the stairs.
Jake's eyes were wide with panic as she came forward. Rose ripped off her mask and started talking at the same time.
"No, nothing's wrong, I'm just super late." She loosened the straps on her muzzle. "I'm sorry but I don't really have the time for banter right now."
"Banter? We're bantering?"
"Leg." Rose tapped at him. "What else would we be doing?"
"Flirting."
Rose tried not to choke on air. "You're as bad as Spud."
"Spud's flirting with you too?"
Rose finished with Jake's last leg, not taking as much time to rub the solutions in as she should but it was magic. It should figure it out on its own. "I'm jumping on your tail."
"Or my –"
"I will not open those muzzle straps ever again if you finish that sentence," Rose said, holding down his tail.
"Heart?" Jake finished lamely.
"Come on," Rose said, scrubbing furiously at his tail muscles. "We don't know each other well enough for flirting or for discussions of the heart."
"We could, you'd just rather be the tough guy than have an honest conversation."
Rose rolled off of Jake's tail and then grabbed the bag Fu had given her. One bottle left. She read the inscription: ingestion. Well, at least it would shut Jake up.
"I've never lied to you," Rose said, kneeling by Jake's head. "I think that's pretty honest, don't you?"
"By definition," Jake said, "I guess so."
"Head up."
"Huh?"
Rose grabbed Jake by the throat and poured the potion down his throat. He started to gag and she clamped her hand around his dragon snout under the muzzle straps, holding his mouth closed until he swallowed every bit of it.
"Aw, man, that tastes awful," Jake mumbled around her hands.
"I didn't make it. Come on, I've gotta go."
"Already?"
"I warned you."
Jake looked sad. "Can't you stay?"
"No."
"Can't you come back?"
"I don't want to make a promise I won't keep," Rose said, reaching for his muzzle straps.
"Tomorrow?"
"I'll do my best."
Rose cinched him back up, caught in the look in his eyes. It was emotion that she'd never understand, because she simply didn't feel things the way that he did. Still, she ruffled the hair on the top of his head.
"I'm going to get you out of here," she said, and she could swear that he was smiling and she bounded away from him.
She undid the loop on the tape and then scrambled back into the vents, finding her way back outside, so that it would look like she was just entering the Huntsclan building. As she expected, the moment that she stepped foot inside, her phone was going off.
"Master," she greeted formally, pausing in the great foyer of the building. It was busy, but other Huntsclan members flowed around her, none of them willing to get in her way and incur her wrath.
"Where have you been?"
"Following your orders," she said, alluding to the Magical Militia's assassin. "I expect to have better news for you this evening."
"Get your armour on," Master ordered, "and then meet me in the deployment zone."
"Yes, Master."
Rose swept up to her room, outfitting herself in the pads and the communication mask. She latched her weapons belt around her waist and then left as soon as it had clicked into place. She knew that the Master was watching the time as surely as she was. She would have loved to have taken her sweet time in getting to him, perhaps it would delay him long enough that the Magical Militia wouldn't have to fight at all, but she didn't dare put herself under direct scrutiny like that. She strode into the deployment bay, all the Huntsclan foot soldiers tumbling out of her way as she made a beeline to the Huntsmaster.
"You read the brief for tonight?"
"I did," Rose replied, offended that he'd even ask. "The assassin will surely be there, Master, if they're moving such a large quantity of weaponry."
"You are no doubt correct," the Huntsman said, "that is why I want you at my side tonight."
The deployment doors opened and the Huntsclan started creeping out into the night, all of them heading toward the same block radius where the ambush would take place. Rose watched them go, wishing that she were one of the shadows disappearing into the night, rather than being Master's shadow. She cleared her throat, and hoped that Fu was able to hear her clearly. She was on tenuous trust with Lao Shi as it was half the time; she didn't want them to think that she was betraying them.
"Your side, Master? Of course, but, if I may ask why? You've always trusted me to move independently before."
She kept pace with him as they also melded into the dark of the night, moving without sound, moving without notice, so much so that they might as well be invisible, for all the average person would take notice of them.
"This isn't about trust, Huntsgirl. This is about the fact that this is a large amount of weaponry – more than all of our intel anticipated that they would need. That means that not only is it going to be more heavily guarded than everything else but that all of their strongest players will be out to guard it."
They alit upon the rooftops, settling in and watching their destination. Rose looked to the east. Soon, that's where the convoy would appear. The winter chill in the air was strong and she tried not to think about doing the opposite of this, dressed in her Magical Militia robes, waiting for the Huntsclan to march by. She felt no bloodshed toward the magical creatures but, she knew, with Master there, she couldn't help them. She couldn't take down any of the Huntsclan.
"See," Master said, gesturing. "Down to street level."
Rose went to lean forward but he grabbed her by her arm, taking her down to the alleys below with him. They peered around the corner together. Rose saw Lao Shi and Haley both, walking alongside the convoy, nostrils flared. She took comfort in knowing that they already knew the Clan was there and that there were giants walking beside them. The giants could cause damage without even meaning to and it was the kind of protection that they would need.
"What do you think Huntsgirl?"
"The dragons are always the biggest threat," Rose said. "They take more strategizing than the giants. We can't discount the possibility of smaller creatures hiding inside the wagons as well. If they're there, they will be armed."
"Spells?"
"Possibly. But, I don't see a spellcaster. Whatever a magician has done is likely all they've got."
"Which one do you think is more important for you to take out?"
"How do you mean?" Rose asked and she hoped that it wasn't just Fu Dog that was listening to this conversation but that Lao Shi and Haley could hear her too. She knew exactly what Master meant and she needed time to think through every option that her choice could bring.
"The dragons," Master drawled with impatience. "When I send you to kill one, which is more important for you to take out?"
"The old one," Rose said. "Look at how the young one is always looking at him for advice. She'll be completely lost without him and easy to take out."
Rose caught the bewildered and hurt look on Haley's face and breathed a sigh of relief. They could hear her.
"Good, I agree," the Huntsman said. "Go. Kill."
"Yes, Master."
Rose felt him back away, going to watch from his safe vantage point. She wished that there was a chance for her to say something just to Lao Shi or Haley but she knew that all of her Clan brethren would hear it too. She was forced into silence until the time that it would take for her to strike.
And, strike she did, drawing blood from Lao Shi on the first blow.
It was the signal the Clan needed to start raining down terror onto the Magical Militia. The fight quickly grew into a full-scale battle in the one block perimeter. Lao Shi leapt for Rose's throat and she kicked out at him, backing him further into the alley that Master had left him in.
"Huntsgirl," he growled, like he really didn't know who she was at all. If she knew him any less, she might actually feel as though she were in danger.
"Dragon," Rose replied, lifting her Huntsclan staff and striking a defensive pose.
"Should we make this real?" he asked.
Rose was grateful for how smart he was. She'd been hoping to repeat that day in the training arena with him, she'd just hoped that she had remembered it as well as he had. She didn't really want to fight him, particularly because she didn't want to have to kill him.
"Make it real, dragon," she snarled, deepening her stance. "Make it as real as possible."
Rose held back as much as possible while still putting on a good show and she knew that Lao Shi was doing the same. He came at her like a freight train, nearly throwing her into the side of the nearby building. He set the junk in the alley behind him on fire so that there was no escape for her except to go back on the street. Rose threw herself at him, her staff scraping against his skin. She wasn't afraid of fire. She wasn't afraid of anything. She had to fight for her survival with Master watching and she wasn't going to let him get in the way of her being able to be in her own bed tonight. Lao Shi lunged, his claws taking part of her thigh but she got a good gash in his tail. Smoke filled the alley, making her eyes well with tears, and Rose willed herself not to cough. Lao Shi moved easily through the smoke, as if he were a part of it.
Rose found herself tossed into the corner of the building, Lao Shi towering over her. She raised her spear, it digging into the skin above his heart, and they both froze. Rose could hear nothing but her own breath in her ears. Sulphur filled her nose and all she could think of was Jake. Lao Shi lowered his head to hear ear and Rose resisted the instinct to plunge her staff through his chest.
"When we've done enough," he said, very quietly, "go for the end of my tail."
That's the problem, Rose wanted to say, it will never be enough.
But her tongue was tied.
She grunted and brought her leg up, kicking him in the head. They battled their way into the middle of the street. She could see her Huntsclan brethren locked into a battle for their lives. Trixie and Spud had trained the Magical Militia well; the magical side was anticipating the moves that the Huntsclan would likely make before they even acted on instinct and made them. The weapons trucks trundled on, leaving the battle behind as they and their guards headed toward safety. Rose knew that Master would be seething over the turn over events and she took a perverse pleasure in it. It was something that she knew would haunt her later, but this what she was here for.
Lao Shi swiped at her, almost lazily, and Rose realized how she was fatiguing the old man. The battle was waning as she looked around her, and she knew better than to push her luck.
"You said it would be a real fight, old man!" she shouted, and then she brought her staff down on the end of his tail.
It wasn't a debilitating injury by any means but from the guttural roar that Lao Shi let out, she knew how much it hurt. He swiped at her with his sharp claws, and though it took all of Rose's pride, she let him catch her across the ribs, falling to the pavement, and letting go of her weapon. Lao Shi crunched the spear in half with his heavy foot and then she forced her backward. Rose scrambled to her feet and tried to fight him hand to hand combat, but the sheer size of him was overwhelming.
"Retreat," her earpiece crackled to life. "Retreat, you failures. Retreat."
Rose would have rather let Lao Shi eat her than retreat to the Huntsclan stronghold when the Huntsman had that tone in his voice. Instead, she inclined her head in the subtlest semblance of a bow that she could manage. Lao Shi recognized the signal and began to batter her out of his way, forcing her backward into the fray of retreating Clan members. Rose let herself get swept away in the tide, wondering what they were all moving so quickly for. When they all got back to the Huntsquarters, they would go to the nurses, show off their new wounds to their buddies, and complain about how much better the magical creatures seemed to be tonight. When she got back to the Huntsquarters, however …
"Stupid! Stupid!"
Rose didn't fight it. She tried to take herself out of her body as Master kicked at her limp body, lying on the floor. It was getting harder to harder to do, the more that her eye seemed to swell. She could taste blood trickling from her lip into her mouth and that just served to ground her rather than letting her float away.
"Huntsgirl!" Master seized her by her hair, forcing her to stand on her shaking, naked legs so that they were eye to eye. Rose didn't let herself cry out from the pain. "You lost."
"I did what I could. They're better, Master."
The Huntsman threw her onto his bed. "BETTER!?"
"Than they were!" Rose shrieked, but it was too late.
She felt the sing of the whip through the air before she felt it lay on her skin. She lay prone, as if she were bound by chains in the same way Jake was. She knew that she would only make it worse if she fought back, because she knew how Master delighted it moments like this. When he found any opportunity, he would punish her, even if he was punishing her on behalf of other's mistakes. Rose focused on the ceiling, knowing how he'd slap at her face if she closed her eyes to block him out. She didn't make a sound as he tore off her clothes and whipped her again. She didn't blink as he put himself on top of her, forcing her way into her. She didn't even change her breathing when her body betrayed her in the moment. She just focused on that one spot on the ceiling and let it all happen because there was no stopping it.
When he was finished, the Huntsman climbed off her. He looked her over. This was the part that Rose hated the most; when he decided if she was bloody and bruised enough to have paid for her sins. This time had been more than brutal enough. If he lifted his hand, she might just have to fight back, naked and afraid as she was.
"Go."
Rose didn't have to be told twice. She gathered up the tattered remains of her torn clothes and beelined for the door. The Huntsman's hand caught hers, almost affectionately, after all that he had done to her tonight.
"Huntsgirl, if you go and seek treatment, I'll know."
"I know."
Scars were a mark of honour in the Clan no matter what, but Master took a sick pleasure in seeing how she was healing from the beatings that he gave her specifically.
Rose shook her hand free from the Huntsman and then she took herself up to her room. Rose showered before she even took stock of her injuries, needing to get the smell of the Huntsman off her as soon as possible. She ran her hands over her body, trying not to look as she covered the wounds from Lao Shi and the wounds from the Huntsman. She touched between her legs and nearly cried out as they came back covered in the brutality of unnatural blood. She watched the water go down the drain as a weak pink colour, and she wondered, if she just laid down here, if the water would eventually wash so much blood from her that she would never wake up. It was tempting, so tempting. If there was nothing out there waiting on her, Rose would have, no ifs or buts about it. Instead, she thought of Trixie and Spud, Haley and Jake, Lao Shi and Fu, and she turned off the shower, drying herself off. She reached for her first aid kit and then, she heard a noise outside of her room.
No.
It likely wasn't the Huntsman but Rose was taking no chances. The last thing that she wanted was to see him again. She seized her first aid kit in her teeth, her clothing under one arm, and climbed up in the vent. She dressed in the control room, and then she looped the security tape, stumbling down the stairs into Sector 1. Jake looked asleep, though the lights in his room didn't dim, no matter the hour. She thought that she might just sit in the dirt at the base of the stairs so that he didn't wake when he heaved a big sigh, his nostrils flaring. He picked up his head as best as he was able and looked at her.
Rose hadn't looked in a mirror but she could guess what her face looked like, and then, she thought that she might look worse, judging by Jake's reaction to her. She tripped over her feet and landed heavily in the dirt in front of Jake's nose. Her fingers shook as she reached up to his muzzle and undid the latches, struggling to fit the pieces into the proper holes so she didn't set off the sensors. When that was done, Rose felt the strength go out of her, and she fell into the ground.
Jake nudged her with a claw and, then, his nose, because that was what he could move the most.
"Rose? You smell like blood."
"Yeah."
"It's gonna be really stupid of me to ask if you're okay, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Rose swallowed hard. "Jake, I came here because I needed to hide. I wanted peace."
"Oh." Jake withdrew his hand and his head, instead, laid his head on his hands in the sand, like he did when he was about to go to sleep.
Rose laid there, staring up at the ceiling, the red flash of Jake's wing in her peripheral vision. She knew that she had to sit up and deal with her wounds as best she could, but, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she just didn't have it in her. Her ears rang and her vision blurred.
Sit up, she willed herself, but her body answered with a resounding no.
Rose turned her head. Jake was watching her back intently. She knew it wasn't fair, to intrude on his space like this and then snap at him. And, maybe, though she wasn't quite ready to admit it, there was comfort in being with him.
"I didn't mean peace and quiet," Rose mumbled to him.
Jake's head perked up. "You want me to talk about stupid stuff? Distract you?"
"Yeah." Distraction sounded so nice right now.
"I am the king of talking about stupid stuff," Jake bragged. "I could talk forever about nothing. It was one of the things that one of my teachers, Rotwood, actually hated most about me. That I could talk about nothing. He thought I was a dragon so he went on this whole witch hunt so Trixie dared me to never lie to him so I had to do a whole bunch of, like, double meanings and distractions, you know. So –"
Rose chuckled, even though it hurt, and that gave her the strength to pull herself up from the ground. She sat up and pulled off her pyjama top, not caring about Jake's presence. What was he going to look at? The burn marks? The whip scars? The bruises? He'd be more likely to look away in shame.
Sure enough, Jake's steady stream of words petered off.
"What happened?"
"What happened to peace?" Rose pushed.
"Rose, it's okay to let me care."
Rose shook her head. "Your grandfather."
"Gramps wouldn't –"
"He had to," Rose snapped. "This is how bad it is out there. We're allies and doing this to me was the best of all the options out there. So, you want that hot dog, Jake? Work for it."
"I'm sorry," Jake said, shuffling as far away from her as he could. "I didn't mean to make light of it. I guess I really didn't get it."
"The Huntsman did most of it, after the fight your grandfather and I were forced into tonight," Rose said. "You want to know why I'm on the side of the resistance? The most of it is why."
"Rose –"
Rose angrily ripped a bandage off for herself. "I'll tell you what you want to know about the war tomorrow, in as much detail as you can stomach, but for now, please just talk about the stupid stuff."
"Rose," Jake said, his voice much softer and emotion laden than she'd ever heard it.
Rose looked over at him, regretting it the instant that she looked into his eyes. They were heavy with an understanding that she didn't want anyone to have and full of a sympathy that she didn't deserve. He was the one who was chained to the floor, hoping that she wasn't the monster she looked like.
"Stupid stuff," Rose prompted.
"You're not alone."
"Jake," Rose said, "I get what I deserve. You're the one who's not alone. You're the one that all this is for."
He opened his mouth and Rose could just tell from the look on his face that it was going to be something more sentimental than she could handle hearing.
"Stupid stuff."
"I'll be your peace," Jake vowed again, and then he decided on another story, "I burnt the kitchen table when I threw a party when my parents were away. I tried to blame it on Haley. It didn't work."
Rose nodded. That was what she was looking for. She spread antiseptic over her dragon burns and then started wrapping a bandage around it. Through her gritted teeth, she asked, "Why didn't it work?"
"'Cause Haley's the perfect, kid, you know?"
Rose kept nodded, focusing in on Jake's voice. It was the only thing that kept her from passing out as she wrapped herself in bandages and antiseptic salve.
