chapter 4: the hunters catch
Nina and Scorch were picking up the pace when Alex went down but they were not fast enough, Nina screaming focused all her psychic might holding him together funnelling the boys blood looping back into the mangled meat of his destroyed legs.
Scorch reached rubbed his hands together focusing his heat "HURRY! CAUTERISE IT!" Nina shouted levitating a healing potion sprayer, doing as told Scorch whispering an apology for any pain placed his burning hands on the stumps with light pats til the blood stopped leaking.
The potion was sprayed over the burnt wound cooling it and potentially allowing for some relief. Nina checked Alex's pulse "56bpm and dropping, no consciousness, shit" she said pulling surgical supplies out of her bag to start working on the other wounds, "crowds forming do we have time to do this?" Scorched asked with Nina looking up snapping at him "TO HELL WITH THE CROWD! I AM NOT LETTING HIM DIE! THIS HAS TO BE DONE NOW!"
Scorch nodded in agreement as sirens bellowed in the distance as the two got to work with what they could do to stabilize him with Nina doing what she could to rejoin blood vessels to put him in a state that would mean he could make it to the hospital. Getting him loaded onto an ambulance when it arrived Nina bent herself over to fit inside the vehicle focusing her power on keeping his blood flowing and lungs pumping whilst the paramedics kept drug levels in check, Scorch himself stayed behind to clean up the scene and answer questions police had during their on field operation Scorch had inspected the mangled legs to see if there was even a glimmer of hope for reattachment but ended up being disappointed.
Later the two met at Nina's Motostoke hospital when Scorch arrived at Nina's office with two large cups of tea and he saw her with her head in her hands, "how is he?" Scorch asked putting down the cups on the desk before pulling a chair beside her. "stable.. for now but I had to induce a coma so the little guy wouldn't wake up screaming" Nina said picking up her cup that for most more normal sized Pokemon would of counted as a bowl with both her hands letting the sweet smell fill her nose.
"That bad?" Scorch said putting an arm around her "we came so close to losing him today" Nina said a wobble forming in her voice as she held back tears, "come on princess you don't have to hold it back" Scorch said using the nickname he had given her when the two first met as scorbunny and raltz.
"There is still so much to do" Nina said trying to suppress the emotion rising in her voice "look at me princess" Scorch said with Nina looking at the Cinderace whos fur looked ruffled and usually perky ears flopped, "you look like you need to rest" Nina said with a smile her face relaxing to show the utter exhaustion from the multiple hours she had just spent in the surgical theatre. "That princess is the pot calling the kettle black," Scorch said using a thumb to wipe her tears "you look in way worse shape than me, don't you keep a bed in here from when I had to go hunting for him alone?" he added.
"Alone? Bullshit you had Cinder, Fritz, Jessy and Tonk to help" she said gulping her tea at a pace that instantly told Scorch that she had been neglecting to eat and drink again, "true though when you're not by my side I may as well be alone" Scorch said getting up and walking over to the sofa that many a patient and parent alike sat before to consult Nina.
With a flick the sofa folded out to reveal a mattress "before we get some rest honey bunny," Nina said using her nickname for the cinderace "would you like to see him?" Scorch stopped considering it for a moment.
"There is nothing more I want to do right now than to make sure he is safe, after everything he had done for us" Scorch said lifting his leg and touching an area around his ankle where once a trap had snapped shut when he was a scorbunny, Nina stood remembering that day 10 years ago weeks after he had picked up Nina as his first pokemon after the local professors warning and Nina almost blinding him with dazzling gleam.
They stood at the window into the recovery room of the human wing seeing Alex's chest rising up and down with assistance of support machines, this was not enough for Nina though Scorch was usually the more gung-ho of the two charging in usually with no plan he had to follow Nina in to make sure that she was going to be able to walk out this ward to get some rest tonight.
When Scorch had a closer look he noted what was left of Alex was a skinny battered mess, malnutrition wracked his body as well as the scars of several cuts some small like he had been crawling in thorned bushed but others looked more like knife injuries. He wrapped an arm around Nina again holding her close as the gardevoir began to cry softly, they had not even spoken to him in 2 years and here he was right in front of them.
The first nurses of the night staff walked onto the ward with the head nurse of the group bringing the two chairs before wordlessly leaving, they stayed by Alex's side for most of the night neglecting to get sleep themselves with even a few nurses pleading for them to get some sleep. Scorch nudged Nina's shoulder "is there something you can do? To let him know we are here?" he asked, Nina shook her head "a coma isn't like in the movies some sounds might slip through but in general he is having a dreamless sleep" she said with a sigh leaning against him.
"I think someone needs sleep as well" Scorch said looping Nina's arm over his shoulder before lifting her up to drag her back to her office.