Chapter 8: Foundations

Jak kept a firm hold on Mar's hand as they walked across the rickety boards in the Water Slums. The path was narrow and without barriers, meaning that Mar would likely end up taking an impromptu bath if left to wander by himself.
Honestly, given the state of the walkway, each trip across risked everyone there getting dunked. The planks creaked and felt far too soft underneath Jak's feet, a clear sign of rot.

Jak and Daxter had helped Ollie with replacing the village's boat dock the previous year back home. The fisherman had taught them a lot about building structures in water and how long they could last, anywhere between 15-30 depending on quality.
The walkway in the Water Slums looked far, far older than 30 years, and probably hadn't been good quality to begin with.

Honestly, it was a miracle that the huts of the Water Slums had lasted as long as they had.

Crack!

"Ah!"

Jak shot around at the sudden scream, searching for the danger.
Had Metal Heads managed to get through the gate to the Pumping Station? No, the door was closed and there wasn't any Metal Heads in sight. Then what had happened?

"Help!"

The sound was coming from one of the huts.

"Looks like they've gone through the floor." Daxter commented, hopping off Jak's shoulder to get a better look at underneath the hut.

There he saw a pair of legs frantically scrambling to find perches on anything.

Wasting no time, Jak ran to the door of the hut and tried opening it, only to find it locked.

"Please, I'm slipping." The person inside begged.

Standing back, Jak kicked out at the door, aiming right where he expected the lock to be. The impact shuddered through Jak's leg, evidently the wood in the door was stronger than its floors, but a couple more kicks managed to break through the lock and the door slammed open.
Jak raced forward and managed to grab the man half in his floor just before his grip slipped.

With a grunt of effort, Jak managed to pull the man up and drag him away from the hole.

"Tha-thanks." The man said between gulps of air, not releasing his death-grip on Jak's tunic.

Jak offered a thumbs-up in response.

It took a couple of minutes for the man to recover himself enough to talk. During this time, Jak and Daxter had to keep Mar from wandering too far near the hole as the toddler explored the inside of the hut, knocking over many things.

The man looked at the hole in his floor forlornly.

"That's not something I can fix." He bemoaned before turning to Jak. "Thanks, again, for saving me. I really did not want to fall in the water."

Jak nodded in agreement and Daxter shuddered.

"Just looking at that water makes me feel sink. I don't want to even imagine what actually taking a dip in there would do to a person." The ottsel commented.

The man gaped at Daxter and pointed at him, mouth flapping as if trying to say something.

"If you say one word about me being able to talk, I will bite you." Daxter threatened.

Jak couldn't help but laugh. His friend had gotten pretty sick of people acting shocked that the ottsel could speak.
Back home, talking animals were common enough, though still rare, that everyone accepted Daxter's existence post-transformation at face value. Though, Jak and Daxter didn't know of any talking animals in the lands surrounding Sandover.
Talking animals in Haven seemed to be much rarer, though not unheard of since no one freaked out after the initial shock.

"Uh, sorry?" The man apologised unsurely, bringing his hand to his stomach.

The man then hissed and pulled up his shirt to reveal many scratched and scrapes all across his torso, likely from the broken boards when he'd fallen and then been dragged out of the hole.

Before Jak even knew what he was doing, he drew closer to the man to take a look at the injuries, mind already calculating how best to take care of them. They were nowhere near severe enough to warrant using precious Green Eco, which Jak knew would suck for the man since these types of injuries could be really irritating to deal with until they healed, but they'd still need to be cleaned and some of them would need to be dressed to prevent infection.
Before coming to Haven, Jak hadn't really known much about infections, just that they could happen if a wound went too long without being treated properly. Like with injuries, the abundance of Green Eco back home had made it a non-issue. But since he's started forcing himself to read medical texts, Jak had learned about things like bacteria and how infections worked, though the exact science behind it was still too headache-inducing for him to properly understand.

"I help with that." Jak signed and tried to speak at the same time.
All he managed to say verbally was, "I…hea...lff" before his throat became too tight to speak further.

The man pulled a face at Jak's attempt at communication, which made the teen's throat tighten even more.

Daxter gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes.

"Look, do yah want help with those scrapes or not?" He said, both translating and acting as though Jak had been perfectly understandable.

"Oh. No, no, it's fine. I can take care of these myself." The man said with a wince. "I'm Harper, by the way."

"J…Ja…" Jak tried once again to communicate.
It was a simple, three-letter word. His name. He should have been able to say that at the very least. But he struggled to make the 'k' sound and then his throat tightened up again.

In defeat, Jak looked to Daxter.

"I'm Daxter. He's Jak." The ottsel gave introductions casually.

Before he could introduce Mar, he realised that the young boy had gone suspiciously quiet. Too quiet for even a mute boy to be.
Looking around the room, he spotted Mar climbing a bookcase. A bookcase that was wobbling dangerously.

"The kid!" Daxter yelled, pointing at Mar.

Jak reacting quickly, leaping from Harper's side to grab the young boy just as one of the shelves gave way under his weight. Unfortunately, it was too late for the bookcase, which was already toppling. So, all Jak could do was pull out of the way before it fell on him and Mar.

The bookcase fell with a thundering crash, covering the hole in the floor, and sending the contents of the shelves into the water below. Thankfully, this didn't seem to do any further damage to the floor.

Unsurprisingly, suddenly being grabbed and the subsequent loud noise startled Mar badly enough that he started crying silently.

"Well, that's one way to cover the hole." Harper sighed in defeat.

Jak and Daxter shared a wince while the older elf did his best to calm Mar down.

Jak then looked at the bookcase and thought about Harper's comment. The hole would need to be properly covered, and depending on how attached the man was to his bookcase, it could probably be used to patch the hole in the floor. Jak had helped repair the huts back home enough times that he was fairly confident that he'd be able to do it.
Jak signed this to Daxter, who then relayed it to Harper.

"I suppose I could use the bookcase. It's not like I can afford the supplies to fix it otherwise." Harper shrugged. "But I'm not really sure about letting you do it."

"P-lease." Daxter dragged out. "Jak and I always got stuck with fixing up the huts after storms back home. We know what we're doin'."

Jak nodded in agreement.

"Well," Harper sighed again. "I guess the only other option would be for me to do it. And I wouldn't know where to start."

Taking that as consent, Jak put Mar, who had gotten over his little shock remarkably quickly, down and lifted the bookcase back up with Harper's help. He then lay down on his stomach so that his upper-half was over the hole, using his hands and feet to anchor himself while poking his head through the hole to get a look at the damage on the underside.

"Ah! Careful!" Harper worried at seeing the teen so casually endanger himself.

Jak ignored the man as he surveyed the damage and looked for the cause of the hole, other than the hut just being incredibly old. The main body wasn't in the water, so it shouldn't have been susceptible to the same water damage as the supports, yet he could see that the wood of the joists was warped and covered with mould, suggesting water-damage as the cause. Popping out of the hole, Jak looked up and saw that the roof of the hut was also warped and discoloured.
It didn't take much for Jak to put two and two together. A leaky roof had dripped onto the middle of the floor, and while the top of the floor would dry out, the true water damage would remain hidden below, weakening the joists until they gave out under Harper's weight.
It wouldn't be a simple matter of cutting the bookcase down to size and fitting the new wood over the hole.

"Why don't you just move?" Daxter asked after Jak replayed the information to him. "You couldn't pay me to live in this thing."

Harper gave an affronted laugh, as if he couldn't believe how stupid Daxter was.

"Move where?" The man said in exasperation. "Who in the slums has the money to move anywhere? I barely make enough to keep my head above the water."

"Oh, yeah." Daxter said, having momentarily forgotten how things worked in Haven.

The boys talked with Harper more, outlining a repair plan, before leaving with the promise to return later. Jak would have helped there and then, but Mar was already getting cranky and didn't have the patience to just stand around while Jak worked, even with Chomp to entertain him.

"…an' Jinx, right, he hands me the trigger and tells me not to press it. I mean, what does he take me for? Am not gonna set somethin' off before am meant to."

Sig idly pulled himself up on a bar, tuning out the natter of the woman next to him.

"Big man, hey! Yah listenin' ta me?"

Sig rolled his eyes and looked over at the woman who was hanging from the other pull up bar by her legs, working on some sort of device with her hands while she hung upside down.

"Why are you still here?" He raises an eyebrow. "If Krew finds out you've been messing with explosives in here, he'll have your head."

"Meh?" The woman shrugged, clearly unbothered by it. "I'd rather be back home with all my tools too. But I wanna see this kid yah gonna be sparin' with."

Sig groaned and looked around the gym, seeing that there were a few more people hanging around outside their usual workout hours. He's made the mistake of mentioning that he's offered to take Jak under his wing and was going to see how well he could fight off-handedly to a coworker, and that coworker apparently had loose lips. And, apparently, these people were interested in seeing that.
Unfortunately, there wasn't really anywhere in Haven that was both private and safe for him and Jak to spar, so they'd just have to put up with being gawked at like they were the newest entertainment.

When it reached time for Jak to arrive, Sig went to greet the teen and buzz him in. Thankfully, they didn't have to pay the extortionate one-time entrance fee that was there to incentivise getting a membership, Sig able to get Jak in as a plus-one.

The teen's animal companion was with him this time, leaning against Jak's head in a slouched posture, though Sig could see the animal looking around and taking note of all the people in the room. Apparently, Daxter did more than just speak for Jak.

After Jak removed his extra clothes and did a warm-up, it came time for Sig to test just how good the teen was at fighting.

Jak made the first move, striking at Sig with a punch that the man easily dodged. Things started slow but gradually sped up as both combatants got a measure of each other and got more comfortable with the spar. Punches and kicks flew, met with blocks and dodges before the attack was returned. Jak even became bold enough to start jumping and attacking from the air.
Jak was skilled. Sig had already known that from fighting the Metal Heads. But it still impressed the man to see just how well he could fight, as well as his atheism. Sig had the superior size and strength, but Jak matched it by being quick and light on his feet.

"Get him Jak!" Daxter cheered from the sidelines.

"Yeah, get him Jak!" Sig's prior workout companion joined in for the heck of it.
Sig could never remember her name. Mostly because she constantly changed it to whatever she felt like at the moment.

"Show him how true warriors do things, Sig." Someone else shouted out in support of Sig.

Sig did his best to ignore the growing crowd of spectators surrounding the gym mat. Though, he couldn't help but notice that money was exchanging hands in the background.

"Had enough yet, kid?" Sig questioned after taking things up another notch.

Jak only grinned back, sweat beading on his forehead as he bounced on his feet. Then made the universal gesture of "bring it on".

Sig found himself grinning back in return.
He'd missed this, he realised. It'd been too long since he'd last been able to properly spar against someone, not since leaving Spargus. For obvious reasons, most people in Haven relied solely on their skills with a gun and didn't bother training their body any further. The only people who trained to fight physically were those who Krew paid to box in his ring at the Hip Hog for entertainment.

Sig eventually decided to put an end to the fight when he saw that Jak was trembling, sweat dripping down him. The teen was clearly trying to push himself past his limits.
For all of Jak's skill, Sig was still a seasoned warrior with many more years of experience over Jak. So, the spar came to an abrupt end with Sig pinning Jak down onto the mat in a hold that the teen couldn't escape.

"Call it, Cherry." Sig said.

Jak tried and tried to get up, and he might have even succeeded if he was fresh to the fight. But as he was, Jak was eventually forced to concede, slapping the mat twice to convey his defeat.

There were cheers and complaints from spectators as money was collected on. Sig shook his head and rolled his good eye at the bet that had been going on.

Sig helped Jak to his feet, the teen breathing hard from the intense spar.

"You did good, Jak." Sig praised, slapping the teen on the back. "Who taught you to fight like that?"

Jak paused, then his face screwed up in concentration.

"Uh…uhn...lll." The teen tried to speak, frustration clear on his face.

Sig blinked his surprise. He hadn't expected the boy to try and speak.

"People here and there." Daxter answered for his friend.

The ottsel was standing next to Sig's prior workout companion, the woman counting out the money she had earned from the bet.

"Mr Carter taught us some stuff. Then some of his friends came to the village and taught us while they were there." Daxter explained flippantly. "Hey, Jak, remember that old crone, with the really long hair?"

Jak huffed and signed something.

Daxter laughed. "Yeah, the look on old Loghead's face." He chuckled.

Seeing as she was the only one in range, Sig snatched the money from the woman's hands.

"Hey!" The woman complained, jumping and trying to grab it.

Unfortunately for her, the woman was on the very short side, meaning that she couldn't even begin to reach when Sig held the money above his head.

"Considering that we were the ones being bet on, I think we deserve a cut of the profits." Sig told her in a tone that brokered no arguments.

He split the money three ways, handing one third to Jak, keeping one third to himself and handing the last third back to the woman. She pouted at her meagre return.

"You're no fun, Sig-clopse." She huffed.

Daxter cackled.

"Sig-clopse." He repeated. "I like that one."

The woman's mood immediately perked up, seemingly forgetting all about her upset over the lost money.

"I have more, Daxy-doodle." She grinned.

Daxter's face soured.

"Oh, that one was terrible." He said.

Jak giggled and offered a thumbs-up to the woman, showing he approved.

"Don't encourage her." Daxter pointed an accusing finger at Jak before turning his attention back to the woman. "Alright, if it's going to be like that," He looked the woman up and down. "Short-stack."

The woman scoffed.

"How original." She drawled, suddenly shifting moods yet again.

Both Sig and Jak sighed heavily.

"They're going to be at this for a while." Sig stated.

Jak nodded in agreement.

"Well. I'm going to go do the gun course." Sig said, gathering his things.

He needed time to evaluate what he had learned from Jak's physical abilities and how they'd factor into things when Sig took the teen on missions.

Jak suddenly looked at Sig eagerly, signing something, he caught a signed question in there, before miming holding a gun. Then pointed at himself.

"You want to come along?" Sig guessed.

Jak nodded and signed again and then pointed at himself more insistently.

"I…" Sig trailed off.

Jak was looking at him with an expression that instantly reminded him of Mar after the toddler had learned that his croca-pup eyes made the big bad Wastelanders cave to all his little desires. It was the eyes. They looked so much like Mar's that it made Sig's chest squeeze before he managed to compose himself.
He was seeing things, that was all. His endless hunt for Mar was just making him draw connections that weren't there. Mar was not going to be the only kid out there with blue eyes.

"I guess that you can come along." Sig said after an awkward pause.

The two ended up leaving Daxter and the woman behind to continue their weird nickname contest, going next door to where the gun range was. Setting up some targets, Sig handed Jak one of his spare guns and instructed him on how to use it.

"Alright, Cherry, have a go." Sig said, standing back.

The first few shots predictably went wide, Jak unused to the recoil and suddenness of the shot. But as time went on Jak made it closer and closer towards the targets. Eventually, he was managing to hit them more often than not, even when Sig pressed the button to send the targets further back.

"Not bad." Sig whistled. "You picked it up fast."

Jak grinned widely at the praise, which gave Sig a warm feeling in his chest.

Sig shook the feeling away. "I think that's enough for today." He said.

When Sig went to retrieve his gun, Jak pulled away slightly and the pleading look returned.

"K…kee…" Jak tried to say as he pointed at himself.

Sig gave a good-natured laugh, understanding what Jak was trying to say. Honestly, he should have expected this.

"Sorry, kid." Sig shook his head, taking the gun back. "This was only to borrow. You're too young to own a gun. And you're not allowed to use it without supervision either."

Jak pouted in disappointment, which only made Sig laugh again. Jak was acting so much like a Spargun youth.

"Alright, I'll come find you when it's time to go outside the wall." Sig said, moving onto the gun course by himself. "And remember, no going out there without me." He pointed a stern finger.

Jak threw his hands up in surrender and scowled slightly, clearly not liking that Sig didn't trust him enough to heed the first warning.

With that, Jak left to go collect Daxter, leaving Sig to try and beat his current score on the gun course.

"Okay, left a bit. Now back. Hold it."

Hefting up the hammer almost too heavy for him, Daxter took a nail and began hammering it into the wood.

He had unfortunately been roped into helping Jak fix Harper's hut. Small and light as he was, it was better for him to go below the hut and nail in the new joists than for Jak to potentially damage the foundations further by climbing around under there.
Daxter honestly didn't know why they were wasting so much effort. From his view down below, he could easily see that fixing this small section of floor wouldn't do much to improve the safety of living in the hut. The leaking roof may have sped up this certain section, but the rest of the floor, and especially the support beams in the water, didn't look that far behind. Like plugging a hole in a cracked dam.

Once the joists were done, Daxter fished himself out of the hole in the floor, which was bigger than before due to removing the broken planks. Jak had spent the previous couple of days cutting the bookcase, as well as some other salvaged wood, into new planks for the floor.
It had taken a while to actually cut the wood up as Harper lacked the proper tools needed, and didn't know anyone who had them. It was another stark change from Sandover, where the tools for building new huts were always lying around somewhere.

"Yah know, I thought one of the few advantages of being like this is that I got to escape this sort of stuff." Daxter complained, indicating to his furry form.

Jak said nothing as he fitted the new planks into place and Harper hammered them down. The finished result was an undeniably amateurish patch job, with the new boards being at a different level to the old ones and gaps between the boards from bad cutting. But it was better than nothing.

"Thanks for this. Really." Harper thanked. "You didn't have to do this."

"-oo nee halpp." Jak winced at his voice. Though, he'd sort of managed a proper sentence this time.

Daxter didn't mention it, but he was impressed with how far Jak had come. In the past, Jak had given up before he could reach this point. Not even wanting to impress Keira had motivated Jak enough to keep at it.

Daxter let out a long and drawn-out sigh. "We're neighbours, aren't we? Neighbours help each other out." He translated what Jak had tried to say.

"Huh." Harper huffed in surprise. "I guess. Really, most people just keep to themselves. I mean, how much money have you lost out on just to help me?"

Jak frowned at Harper's words.

"Ugh, don't remind me." Daxter complained.

In reality, they probably hadn't lost out on any money. Odd jobs were still few and far between, though had been picking up slightly as Jak built up a minor reputation as a reliable worker, so there was a chance that Jak could have found some work in the past few days. And no one had come by looking for healing in the past few days either.

Jak jostled the shoulder Daxter was standing on, causing him to roll his eyes.

"But helping each other is vital to the health of the village." Daxter tonelessly recited the words that had been drilled into their heads since they were little.

"Huh." Harper huffed again. "I've never heard it being said like that before."

He was likely referring to one of the phrases that Praxis liked to use in his propaganda.
"Sacrifices must be made for the safety of the city and the citizens."

Jak pointed up at the roof and signed a question mark. Thankfully, Harper had been around Jak enough to pick up the meaning behind that sign and worked out what Jak was trying to ask.

"I don't know yet." Harper sighed. "I'm using tarp at the moment. But I can't really secure it properly, so it always ends up blowing away when winds get high."

"It's too bad that we don't have the stuff to make caulk." Daxter said.

Caulk was used all the time back home to repair stuff like leaky roofs, Ollie even used it to fix leaks in his boat. The fisherman had taught the boys how to make the stuff once, then instantly regretted it not long after when Jak and Daxter used it to get into trouble. Unfortunately, the caulk was made from plants from the Forbidden Forest, so they had no way to make it now.

"Look, I don't have any money to give you for what you've done." Harper sighed.

Jak signed "No debt." But Daxter didn't translate for him.

"But…?" Daxter prompted.

Unlike Jak, he was more than happy to get rewards for a job done.

"But I do know a guy who's looking to hire some manual workers for a short time. I can recommend you to him, if you want." Harper offered.

Daxter groaned.

"More work?" He complained.
That wasn't a reward at all.

Jak smiled and offered a thumbs-up to show that he accepted.

With their work for Harper done for now, Jak and Daxter left to go collect Mar for Beatrix and Teddy.
Only to run into another one of the Water Slums residents. Daxter only recognised her because many people had emerged from their huts to gawk at them over the past few days while Jak worked.

"Are you done in there?" The woman asked.

Jak nodded.

"Do you…think you could look at my hut next? She smiled in a way that was probably meant to be flattering.

"What?" Daxter burst out.

Were they running a service now?

"It's just that I worried that what happened with that guy might happen to my hut. And you did help him." The woman pleaded.

"Listen lady." Daxter drew himself up to his full, short, height. "We can't do anything for you."

"It can't hurt to look." Jak signed to Daxter.

"Are you serious?" Daxter looked at his friend in disbelief. "We're not carpenters."

Jak gave Daxter a look. One he knew all too well.

"Agh!" Daxter groaned loudly in frustration.

And that was how Jak and Daxter got to know some of their neighbours better. Once the people of the Water Slums realised that they, or really just Jak, were willing to help with the damage to their huts, suddenly everyone was really social. Amateurs that they were, and lacking funds for materials, there wasn't much that they could do, but they still did what they could.
As the smallest and lightest one, Daxter reluctantly climbed under the huts and into roofs to check for notable damage, which he found plenty of. Then Jak would use what materials he had on hand to fix what he could. Some of the neighbours were even willing to trade materials.

Thankfully, Daxter had managed to make sure that their work didn't go uncompensated. Poor as everyone in the slums were, they didn't have and lari to spare, so they had to trade in other things. Food, blankets, clothes, other items and favours were all exchanged in return for their labour.
Daxter also made sure that these things didn't take up all of Jak's time.

"…onnn…tha…waaer." Jak said slowly, then coughed to clear his throat.

Mara, another one of the Water Slum residents, looked at Jak in confusion before realising what he had been trying to say.

"Oh, yes. I've heard that the water is much better outside of the walls, not that we can really go out there." She said.

Jak couldn't fight the grin at being understood.

Helping out the other residents of the Slums had given him the opportunity to try and speak more, and thankfully most people didn't react after first learning about his speech issue. He still couldn't be understood most of the time, and his throat still tightened after a few 'words', but it was still progress.

"Anyway, here's my little one's old cast-offs. I've taken them in for your brother's size." Mara said, handing Jak some folded clothes.

They were a bit big on Mar, which was why Mara had adjusted them, but that just meant they'd fit him for longer.

Jak looked over to Mar, who was happily playing with some older children and Chomp, with Daxter riding around on Chomp's back. It was the first time that Mar has really been around people closer in age to him, and Jak could see the difference it made. Mar was smiling and full of energy, clapping happily at the antics of the older children.

"They really do get on well together." Mara sighed. "Maybe they can hang out together more."

Jak nodded in agreement.

He had intended to leave as soon as Mara had given him the clothes, but decided to stay for longer so that Mar could keep playing.
Sitting down, Jak pulled the piece of wood he'd been working on out of his bag and pulled his knife from the sheaf in his boot. Trusting Daxter to keep an eye on Mar, Jak settled down to continue his whittling.

After a while, Jak finished his attempt at wood carving. It was a rather wonky interpretation of Chomp. A toy for Mar.
When Jak flipped the piece over and went to carve Mar's name into the base to mark it as his, the teen paused. Mar was only the boy's place-holder name until they discovered his old name or he chose a new one for himself. It wouldn't do to mark the toy with a name that would eventually be discarded. But in the absence of that, Jak didn't know what else he could etch into the base of the new toy to mark it as Mar's.

"No, don't put that in your mouth!" Daxter's sudden yell caught Jak's attention, finding the ottsel dragging something away from Mar's mouth. "Dirty pup."

Pup.
Teddy had started calling Mar that, and Daxter had sort of picked up on using that. And Mar seemed perfectly fine with the nickname.
A nickname. Even if Mar grew out of it, it would still hold more meaning than a name meant to be discarded.

With that thought in mind, Jak etched the word 'pup' into the base of his carving. Deciding to do it in the Precurian language for some extra meaning.

Jak had just set Mar down to sleep, the young boy clutching his new toy close to his chest, when a knock came at the door. Though, it sounded more like a kick than a knock.
Opening the door, he came face to face with the woman from the gym.

"Oh, hey, it's you." The woman grinned. "Wha' a co-inky-dink."

Jak looked the woman over, seeing that she was cradling her hands inside her jacket.

"Heeel?" Jak asked, signing the word.

"Oh, yah, I got told there was a heala here. Well, I wasn't sa much told, as I overheard Jinx talkin' 'bout it. Yah do under tha radar stuff, right?" The woman said, rather loudly.

Jak nodded and let the woman inside with a finger over his mouth to indicate she should be quiet, then went over to the bed and drew the sheet down around it.

"Oh right, I'll be quiet." The woman grinned. "So quiet yah won't even hear me."

"Alright chatty, over here." Daxter said.

Since their last patient, they had upgraded their facilities from a blanket on the floor to a blanket-covered pallet on top of some crates as a makeshift cot. Which the woman happily sat on.

The woman then brought her hands out of her jacket. They were wrapped in towels that were stained red with blood.

"Geeze, what were you doing to get like that?" Daxter question, curious about what reason the woman would give for the state of her hands.

The woman shrugged with a wince. "Tha bomb I was makin' blew up in ma face." She answered casually.

The boys looked at her in shock, surprised by her honest answer.

Removing the scarf she wore showed that there were cuts and burns on her lower face. And when she unwrapped her hands, they were covered in burns and cuts that were still bleeding.

"You can help, right, Jak-Jak?" The woman asked, trying to keep the blood dripping onto the towels.

Jak was amazed at how calm she seemed. As if she had just gotten a splinter instead of multiple cuts and burns.

Sighing, Jak did his best to clean the wounds while consulting his notes. A couple of cuts were bleeding more than the others, and his notes mentioned something about nerves, though didn't expand further. He felt like cursing his past self for not writing down more about nerves, especially where they were in the hands, all he'd written were that damage to the nerves could be permanent if not treated properly. And that would be bad if it happened in the hands.

Looking to a jar with a miniscule amount of Green Eco inside, Jak weighed his options.
Through healing, he had learned how to use the Eco to feel out the damage inside a body without using it up. He'd be able to use it to check if there was any damage in the woman's hands, since he didn't want to send her off with lasting damage if he could help it. But the warning from Sig was still echoing in his mind. If he wasn't careful, the woman could spot his usage and then possibly tell on him.
Jak frowned to himself, He wasn't going to let this woman suffer just because of the risk.

He signed to Daxter to keep the woman busy while he used the Green Eco.

"So, short-stack. What is your name anyway?" Daxter asked, standing up higher than the woman so she'd have to look up and away from her hands.

Jak tuned the conversation out as he worked on the woman's hands. Through the Eco, he could see thicker lines inside the fingers. Were those nerves, or something else? He could see that one on each hand had been cut into, and he didn't know if they were important enough to need immediate healing. Hoping that he was doing the right thing, Jak sent the minuscule Eco into those cut lines, barely pulling them back together.
With that done, Jak cleaned the hands of as much blood as he could again, then applied some antiseptic from a bottle he'd received through trading his labour, which caused the woman to hiss in pain. Then he covered the wounds in gauze and wrapped the hands with bandages. Finally, he attended to the woman's face with more antiseptic and plasters.

"Thanks. Tha' would have been a mess if ah tried to do it maself." The woman grinned, jumping to her feet.

"Maybe wear gloves next time, crazy." Daxter advised.

"Will do, dad." The woman said mockingly.

With careful fingers, she fished some lari out of her pockets and tossed it to Jak. Then, she gave a salute and left through the door.

Sighing, Jak counted out the lari and mentally added it to their total saving.
They had managed to save up a considerable sum, at least for a family of three living in the slums. It was enough for a big purchase while still having enough left over to live on. And today had reminded Jak of what one of those big purchases were. A tablet from the library so that Jak could actually bring some of the medical texts he needed to study home.

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