Panic

The Chapterhouse looked very welcome after my day. I said day, but I guess truthfully it was only the last hour. Still, I think I could feel a headache coming on along with general sores. I wanted to just rest before thinking about anything else.

It was still early enough that I could just walk into the House without a scan. I quickly moved for the stairs only to grab the attention of Miss Lalonde. She let out a gasp as she rushed out from behind the counter. “Sol, what happened to you?”

I stopped not fighting it. Looking over myself once more I didn’t think I looked that bad, but I guess I hadn’t seen a mirror. “That bad?”

She reached out brushing some wild hairs down. Once she saw the purplish-red bruise on my neck, she paused. “My Sol, were you in a fight? Are you okay? What happened?”

Blinking a little bit, I took a step back. “One question at a time.”

“Sorry! I guess instincts took over. How bad is it?”

“I sound better than I did, but it still hurts. You got something for swelling?”

She looked back towards the rear of the lobby. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve got medicine. Not too much for the biological, but some general pain relief and things.” I gave her a crooked grin as she returned to face me. “I’m not a nurse.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take what you got.” We walked to the back of the room and a different door than last time. This looked to be part of the House, not their home. I guess that made sense. This was probably related to their business for Couriers.

Opening the door to escort me in, there was a hallway that I think ran opposite of their home. It continued to surprise me how sprawling the ground floor was. An old building I guess meant it had a lot of room to grow.

Several doors lined one side of the hall with a simple wave pattern along the empty opposite wall. Far at the end another unmarked door stood. I had a few thoughts about what it might be, but she directed me to the first door.

Inside, it opened up into a small room with enough space for two comfortably. A desk stood at the right with a table offset in the middle. I had seen enough Houses to understand this was an exam room. It was probably where her husband worked with Couriers. That they had so many doors spoke to their success as a business.

She opened the cabinet and looked through containers. There wasn’t a sense that she had familiarity. Her husband probably could have found it immediately, but I could see the shakiness in her arms as she searched. Eventually, she stopped and came out with two small containers.

A box along with a cylinder placed on the table. Adelphe opened the box revealing a hand device with a couple of contact points. Handing me the smaller container, she looked over the device. “That’ll help with any pain you’re feeling. Let’s see if I remember…” She began to mumble lightly under her breath. If I had to guess, she got training in all of this at one point, but just never needed it. Leonce probably handled all of this.

I cracked open the small container and saw a tiny pill inside. Looking at the label, it had a number of medical terms I didn’t recognize, but one that I did. The term “Nanomachines” came up in the ingredients. I pinched my brow, staring at it.

“Miss Valeria…”

Snapping my attention back to her, my hand closed the lid and set it back on the table. “Yes?”

“It’s ready.”

“Ready?”

“Y-yeah…” She picked up the device from the box and fit it to her hand. It had a bit of a glove like form with a few wires or tubes tracking along the tops. Overall a simple appearance, which I guess shouldn’t be that surprising for medical technology in first aid. “This won’t be able to repair the damage, but it’ll reduce the swelling and provide some aid to the healing process. So you should see your body recover faster. Especially if you’ve got a good quality healthcare augment installed.”

“That makes sense. So it just helps the natural healing process then.”

“That’s right.” She slid the box over to the edge of the table. More confidence came over her face, though I could see some hints of panic. I couldn’t tell if she was worried that she was doing something wrong or just leftover from seeing me. “If you could sit down.” Her hand shook a little looking at me.

I nodded and pulled over the rolling chair to get still. It should at least make it easier for her. Though my hair wasn’t long enough to really get in the way, I pulled back what I could away from my neck.

She reached out with her naked hand touching where I had been choked. I was mostly prepared for it, so it didn’t really do much but make my eye twitch slightly. Her hand had a soft gentle touch, warm and scared.

Looking up to her, I tried to give her a firm stare. She nodded and breathed out carefully. There was a little less shaking in her hand. I traded a small smile. With a bit more assurance, she approached with the medical tool.

Even at a glance, it didn’t appear to be complicated. The fingertips I estimated contained the functional part of the technology, whatever that might be. All I knew that it did was speed up the recovery of tissue, however it managed that.

Placed in contact, the glove was fairly smooth and cool. I sort of expected to feel her body heat through it, but only the cold tech. Then some warmth, though it felt internal rather than from her. I narrowed my face a little, getting an unfamiliar sensation coursing around me. It hovered almost like static across my skin. I thought I tasted a bit of iron for a moment, but it passed immediately.

Then before I knew it, it ended. She pulled away and tugged on the glove. “How are you feeling?”

I touched my neck still feeling a little of that charged sense hanging about. It already started to fade though. And I couldn’t feel my finger as clearly over my skin. My neck felt a little dull, though if I pressed I could get some of that same pain as before.

Testing my throat, I swallowed and then spoke. “Well I…it doesn’t feel that different. I guess it wasn’t supposed to be an instant fix.”

“No worse though?”

“No…a bit numb, but that’s it.”

She placed the tool away in the box neatly. With the box closed, she collected up the pill bottle and looked at me. “From what I was told, it gives a bit of a local anesthetic. Numbness is normal. That should fade soon.”

I popped up from the chair and lowered my hands. The rest of my body didn’t feel great, so I still needed that rest. But perhaps I wouldn’t be an eyesore anymore. “Thanks! I should probably relax some and let my body start the process.”

“That’s a wise decision. I don’t know how long it’ll take to fully recover, but please take it easy.”

“I don’t plan on getting into any more trouble like today. So that should be reasonable to do.”

She closed up the exam room with everything returned. As we made it back to the lobby, she paused to look at me. “You never said what happened.”

You never gave me that chance. I casually rubbed my neck thinking back to the park and the Clergy. She didn’t need to know the whole situation. “While I was sightseeing, some trouble broke out. People were in danger, so I stepped in to help.”

“What!? Why didn’t you wait for Basilica security to take care of it?”

“I saw people getting hurt. I couldn’t do nothing.”

“But you got hurt because of it.”

“And less people did because of it.”

She grabbed my wrist and patted my hand. I could feel her maternal instinct rising once more. It wasn’t a bad feeling. How many months had it been since I saw my own mother? I might have been an adult, but I still appreciated the gesture. “You really are a strange Courier.”

“I think nosy is the word you’re looking for.” I smiled wryly at her.

“Brave.”

“And a little stupid.”

“A bit perhaps.”

“Thanks!”