Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 5.21: Eva

When the doctor saw the new guests being ushered into the house by his wife, he quickly finished up his consultation with the current patient he was seeing so that he could attend to them.

"What happened?" The doctor asked while he readied the instruments needed for the removal of the bullet in Eva's shoulder.

"An attack near the harbour. The person got away." Austin said through gritted teeth. "How's she?"

"Don't worry. She's lucky, it's only a flesh wound. A simple procedure is all it needs. It'll hurt though. Would you like to use local anesthesia?"

"Yes." Austin replied in her stead. However, Eva shook her head.

"I listen to the patient." The doctor shrugged then proceeded on to remove the bullet. He did not want to waste time and let the wound fester while they argued about whether to use anesthesia or not. 

Austin frowned. "Why did you reject it? It's not like money is an issue for me. Is it not painful?"

Eva shook her head. Now that someone was actually fiddling with the wound, it definitely hurt more than when it was left untouched. However, she could still grit her teeth and bear with it. Since it was so, she would rather use the money that he did not mind spending on her to procure more resources for her experiments.

Half an hour later, the doctor was already beginning to stitch Eva's wound back up. He prescribed medicine to prevent any inflammation of the wound, then advised how she could rehabilitate the injured muscle. He then offered to go to Austin's mansion to check her wound two weeks later.

The doctor raised his eyebrows in amusement as he watched them make their way out and back to their carriage. Although the time they spent there was brief, he had noticed the subtle glances and silent understanding that Austin and Eva shared with barely any exchange of words. Now, now, if I didn't know better, I'd think that they grew up alongside each other or something. Perhaps I should help to push your boy forward a little... Keep watching over him, will you?

Two weeks passed by quietly.

Austin did not reveal it on the surface but his nerves were pulled taut every time he went out. As much as he would like Eva to rest at home until her injury recovered, he could not show too much favourtism. Neither did he think acting on it would be acceptable anyway. The best he could do was to catch the culprit as soon as possible. 

Not wanting to alert the other party, he secretly started his investigations once more with only Edwin's aid. This caused him to have later dinners and later nights.

Unbeknownst to them, Eva was in the know of the true reason behind Austin's increasingly busy schedule, thanks to BaoBao. They were making use of any information that Austin gathered and added it on to whatever BaoBao gathered to make their own guesses. 

While Austin was tense every time they went out, Eva was much calmer about it. She trusted in BaoBao's surveillance and ability to warn her in time if something happens. Since this world had no supernatural powers or forces at work, it would be harder for him to sneak up on Austin or her without BaoBao knowing it.

After the doctor checked that her wound was healing up nicely and faster than he expected, he went to the sitting room to inform him of Eva's condition.

Austin was so focused on the documents in front of him that the doctor had to knock on the door repeatedly before he noticed it and asked Edwin to let the doctor in. Edwin left to get tea for the doctor after letting him in. 

"It's all good. She's healing faster than I expected." The doctor reported while settling down into one of the couches.

Austin nodded then picked up his cup to drink his tea. The doctor recognised it as a sign that he was relaxed.