Queen's note: Popping back to the present time. There's a reason you should trust your senses, it doesn't matter if you're a human or a demigod. Also grab your ice packs again, aiming for those feels.

Garnets

Chapter Eleven:

Medical

There was something about being full that was always confronting, not over stuffed just full.

Not that Lily had a lot, she had been slowly eating smaller meals after being exposed to the toxins on the mainland. That mix of not being nearly as active and also needing to stretch food, she had a smaller plate then the big guy beside her. Really it was more like the equivalent of a salad plate, but even then there was going to be left overs for her later that night or the next morning.

It was nice though, seeing the Slayer happy to eat her dinner. Their dinner, as he helped cook the last part.

The Slayer did have a much larger portion, and took big bites, but he also did not inhale the food. So that was nice too.

The two had not really made it back out into the massively long dining hall. Lily had sat on the step to rest after cleaning up around the Slayer. Then he offered the smaller plate and just sat down on the floor across from the young woman.

It was another thing that was oddly nice, not exactly like a memory Lily had of her dive team sitting in a sub and eating, but just close enough to let her guard stay down. Legs stretched out, Lily balanced her plate for a minute as she realized she was full. After that she moved carefully to sit on the floor as well, looking up as the bigger man gave a snort. Not for the first time in the last while.

"Did you get some of the seasoning powder in your sinuses?" Lilly finally spoke up, looking up with a bit of worry.

The Slayer frowned a moment at his mostly empty plate, lifting an arm to use the back of his wrist to rub under his nose. Making the human think he had accidentally inhaled a small enough amount of something to annoy but not really bother him. Looking up, the not quiet man paused, leaning forward to reach out. The back of his fingers pressed against Lily's head as he noticed how she was starting to not look flushed.

Not the awkward blush that happened to some other humans and Argenta did when he walked in a room. This was different, and the instinct to see if a fever was there was also thwarted by the Slayer's own naturally high temperature.

"Miss Lily, how are you feeling?" Vega asked as he watched the interaction. Having been monitoring the smaller human as it was since her admission that her arm might be infected.

"Confused," Lily pulled away from the big hand, plate set aside as she reached up with her left hand to feel her cheek. She could not tell if she was hot, but felt cold. The content feeling started to pass as the Argenta painkillers were tilting to wear off, a little abruptly as they seemed to. "Uncomfortable, I think the drug is wearing off, I am starting to feel my right shoulder again."

The Slayer frowned, reaching up and behind to put his plate on the counter. Rolling up to his knees and then kneeling to reach out. His hand carefully wrapping around Lily's whole left elbow to tilt the arm and look at the bandage. Seeing how the one small spot was getting bigger.

That smell was stronger, not just the scent of infection but…

The Demigod was pulling Lily up into his arms, her left against him again as he was still mindful of the recovering right shoulder.

"Ow!" Lily yipped as they made it into the main hall and the Slayer's stride lengthened once away from the tables, chairs and benches in the mess hall. She was jarred and with the worn off painkiller felt a sharp needle like pain in her left arm.

The Slayer stopped short, looking down as he watched Lily's expression change from flushed and annoyed into draining of all color. The large arms around her tensed in reaction, as his awareness sharped from the lul of earlier. It seemed like he could feel the girl's pulse jump. Using the right hand to reach over despite the stiffness and strain to feel around under the bandage and round it. She flinched as there was both that sharp feeling and… something hard under her fingers.

"...I want to get this checked," Lily said, looking up at the eerie blue eyes that were watching her intently. Her voice dropped to a soft whisper, trying not to be scared but clearly remembering how her father had ignored the cut on his right arm from her mother just too long. "Dad got an infection, after mom ripped that boat apart. He started changing a few weeks later."

Eyes narrowed, but the bigger man shifted his hold, holding the normal human close as if in an attempt to reassure. He was moving again, not running but still ground eating pace that even his old Sentinels would struggle to keep up for long.

The medical area was much the same as the last time, only instead of being dropped into a stasis pod. Lily was lifted and set on one of the larger tables to the left of the room. It lit up with a cool light, two drones coming to life from the underside of the head of the bed to buzz around and fetch tools in the room.

Lily made a face as the Demigod moved to carefully feel over the spot. Finding the same odd hardness under the skin before peeling off the patch like bandage.

He finally placed the scent under the smell of oozing infection.

That last time he had seen the altered marine. The same scent was lingering around the missing arm and shoulder, and in his chest cavity where that crystal had formed.

Lilly was staring with wide eyes as some more of the infection wiped out around the stitches in her bicep. She looked up at the Slayer as he concentrated on inspecting the spot, then reached to activate the surgical table fully.

The human felt a soft buzz against her skin as the light in the table brightened. In turn she felt oddly lighter, but could not focus on that as one of the medical drones hummed back carrying two needles.

"This will relax your muscles and numb the area for the infection to drain safely." Vega said smoothly, voice coming from nearby above. "From what I can tell on the first scan, an infection started when you were in the stasis pod."

"Just that?" Lilly asked worriedly, pulling on her fingers as the bigger man shifted to take the first short needle. Pulling her forward to inject in faster under the skin behind her arm. Almost at once her whole left shoulder, arms, ribs and neck all when numb at the higher dose. "What was tha?"

Her words slurred as the Slayer was already moving to take up the second idem the drone held. Not just a needle and syringe of human make but an Argenta injector. It hissed against the side of Lily's neck, the demigod almost able to see where the right vein was as he huffed. Dropping the injector to the side and wrapped his hands around the human to catch her.

The Slayer waited for a good count of five as he watched the hazel eyes glaze over. His expression was calm despite the lingering worry simmering under his veins.

Surface? Under the surface. That was the right phrase, but it felt… like it was under his veins, as inside was where his anger flowed with his blood.

After five he watched the stressing expression on Lily completely fade. Her eyes unfocused before rolling as the sedative and anesthetic both kicked in full force.

Vega activated the real antigravity in the medical, surgical table in that span of time. The man shifted to make sure the smaller human was fully in the blue light and the small field. Turning partly to hold the affected arm exposed to the hovering medical drones to start cutting first through the stitches he had painfully put in just a week ago.

Once there was a neat x cut in the soft skin, and some of that hidden infection oozing out. The Slayer could find what was hard under the skin layer, it was just starting to grow into muscle.

Even with the sickly cream of the infection pocket around it, and the blood oozing. It almost looked like that green sea glass, about an inch wide, and nearly two inches long. Thin mostly and tapering slightly, it was a chip off of the very tip of a claw of that infected, possessed, marine that had broken off. On the 'inside' edge was a slight point trying to grow inward into the muscle, yet did not reach bone.

That had been her father throwing her up to the portal right?

Carefully, the man set the claw tip on an offered tray from one of the humming drones. He looked back to the human, quietly following instructions to help the drones. Making sure Lily was suspended from the surgical table. The memory of several possessed on the platform with those sea glass like growths still fresh in The Slayer's mind. As well as the scared whisper admission just a minute ago, of Lily's father getting something like this before turning.

Once another sliver was out, Vega started a deeper scan on the human without being signed to. The Demigod walked around the medical table a few times before pausing on the right side. Staring at her right shoulder, still completely covered in dark bruising that was clearly in the shape of his hand higher up it. The stasis pod had kept the bruising fresh.

The Slayer looked down at his hands, then backed up.

Vega. He signed.

"Yes Slayer?"

Did I get the little one infected? Had he done more harm than good trying to save the human?

"I do not believe so, I will finish this scan, and double check her blood work." Vega was calm and if anything reassuring. Reaching out to the new AI they had from the platform. Riggs was more or less stuck in the greenhouse systems, but had spent the longest time taking care of Lily. "If there was a risk from the claw tip, we both caught it in time, and the infection insulated it enough."

Clearly thinking hard, the Slayer watched the medical table and drones work before leaning forward to reach out. The medical table buzzed and sent prickly sensations through his hand and arm, but he really did not feel it.

The man caught the back of Lily's head for a moment. Holding the human mostly steady in the low gravity of the table. Then his hand slid down, Slayer adjusting his fingers so the small neck was now in his palm. Acutely aware of the pulse against his fingers as they wrapped around Lily's neck. The feeling of the delicate seeming bones of the neck and jaw as his thumb and forefinger were put in the right position.

The large hand was steady, despite the stinging sensation from the deep scan. It was not remotely the first time the man's extremely long lifespan had a life quite literally in the palm of his hands. Either to try and protect, reacting to the dying cries of civilians to give a quicker mercy as the demons left them half alive. Screaming Sentinels putting themselves at his feet, as they would rather be ended by their commander than suffer from Hell's false care.

The Slayer took a deep, slow breath, looking back at the passive face of his attempt to… to directly save something.

Someone.

Anything.

His hand stayed steady, adding no further pressure, but unable to pull back. If he was responsible for the small human getting infected or possessed?

…well, it was not the first time he had a life in his hands. It would be his fault, so he would fully take responsibility to make sure Lily never woke back up as anything other than human. The Slayer was willing to make sure to give mercy so that she would not wake up in pain or live in fear while turning.

He had the control though, to not squeeze and twist until Vega confirmed.

It took ten minutes to do that scan. Another five to ten for blood samples to possess. While that happened Vega started a second scan to compare and see if there were any drastic changes.

The medical drones had finished cleaning out the infection spot, making sure it could not regrow. The left arm being careful stitched up once more.

"There are no signs of alterations. Of demonic alterations that is, the shots from the stasis pod, and the sensitives are all that's in her system." Vega spoke up, he and Riggs having been keeping a close eye, so to say, on the Slayer. His hand placement gave Riggs plenty of stress, even though both understood. Yet Lily had been the lesser AIs sole responsibility for nearly a half year.

Feeling a shuddering breath start, the big man loosened his hold with his left hand, reaching out with the other hand to put the new mask of Lily's medicine dispenser in place. Giving her a somewhat bigger dose than normal so she could stay peaceful in unconsciousness. There was an awkward pause as Slayer looked up at the cameras, the young human's head more cradled in his hand now.

"Could you wrap her left arm?" Vega asked, keeping the drones from doing so, just holding the needed supplies. Knowing enough that the Slayer needed something physical to do as the medical table was implanting two monitors. So Vega and Riggs both can monitor Lily, see if anything changes to cause concern.

Vega was sure she just needed time to heal.

Yes.

The Slayer signed as he stood up. He was a little slower to wrap the arm and shoulder then with his own wounds. Or those of other Sentinels in the past. The Argenta were human-like, yes, but distinctly larger over all like himself. He did appreciate Vega giving himself something to do though. Once done he lifted Lily out of the light of the table.

There was really no difference to him between her natural weight and the lower gravity of the active surgical medical table.

The Demigod hesitated, glancing at the nearest camera. Freeing his left arm, the girl supported between his chest and his right arm, to sign in shorthand. Where put?

"Please put her in the recovery room beside the medical bay. Just to the right as you step out." Vega instructed, his drones cleaning up. "I can monitor her and there's the equivalent of CPAP there. She'll just need her blankets from the room you originally gave her."

Vega hummed internally in his systems, as Riggs thanked the more advanced AI for helping his human. Giving Riggs permission to the camera in the recovery room to check on Lilly as the other AI needed. They were settling pretty well with each other in the Fortress. Riggs, though not as advanced as Vega, had worked with other AIs before. He was happy in the greenhouse and oxygen recycling systems. Taking those pressures off Vega's direct attention, and other routine things that Vega assigned to Riggs as needed.

Once Lily was firmly, but gently, tucked into her new bed. Really the Slayer had practically wrapped her up like a commercial burrito in Vega's opinion. He might try to loosen the blankets with drones later. The AI let Riggs help monitor Lilly as he followed the Slayer's path down to the now secured greenhouse.

He sat down heavily, beside the corralled guinea pigs. Reaching over to pet the first whistling creature that came to demand attention. It did not take him long to give it to temptation and move to carefully sit inside the large run.

It was not like his Daisy, he knew, could see. Yet… it was nice. When he finally moved away from the guinea pigs, as the lights dimmed for plants and animals the demigod did not get far before he sat again. This time to try once more to coax one of the three cats that came with Lily and her supplies.