Scars, Spells and Secrets

Chapter 26

When she began to regain consciousness, Elizabeth was aware that she was being carried. She groaned softly, every muscle in her body protesting at even the slightest movement. She was lowered gently onto something soft. She fought to stay awake, hearing snippets of conversation in hushed tones.

"...Wash off..."

"...Get rid of..."

"...Borrow..."

"...Course. I'll just...."

The witch's head swam and sleep pulled her under again.

She awoke again with a whimper, trying to squeeze her eyelids shut tighter against the light battering against them.

"Hey, you want some coffee?" came a whisper from above.

Elizabeth forced one eye open, blearily blinking up at the alchemist. "Mm... Please," she whispered.

Audrey nodded and hurried away, coming back a moment later with a mug. "You're going to need a shower like nobody's business and I've got some clothes that you can wear after. They won't fit great but they'll do."

The witch forced herself into a sitting position, gasping sharply at the pain in her leg. "I need some of the healing cream I gave you," she managed.

Audrey very carefully walked around the couch that Elizabeth was on, stepping around someone bundled up on the floor. She leaned in close to look at the slice. "That won't do it. I'll get you whatever you need to make something for wounds like this though. In the meantime, you need to clean it out in the tub. Make sure there's no fibers caught in it." She handed the mug of coffee to Elizabeth. "Ready?"

The witch nodded. The alchemist motioned for her husband to come over, the man stepping carefully over the rolled up person in front of the couch. He lifted Elizabeth with ease, carrying her to their bathroom and setting her down. "Takes a while to heat up," Kendall explained. "Have some coffee while you wait. You'll need it today." He gave her a small nod and then left the room. Elizabeth started the water and sipped her sweetened coffee as she waited.

When the water finally seemed hot enough she carefully stripped, wincing as she did so. When she'd fought back the day before she'd obviously pulled nearly every muscle that she had. She set her now-empty mug beside a pile of clothing that Audrey had left for her, climbing into the shower gingerly. She ended up sitting in the tub and just letting the water run over her for a long while before she began to clean herself, paying special attention to the wound on her thigh. There were a few threads pushed into it from her clothing, but she was able to, with a bit of pain, pull them out. The blood began to flow from the wound again but it wasn't terribly deep and clotted again quickly enough. She very staunchly ignored everything flowing down the drain as she scrubbed herself to cleanliness and beyond, only stopping once she felt the sting of raw skin. Once the water turned cold Elizabeth turned it off and stood, drying herself off carefully. She went through the pile of clothing. Unfortunately her underthings were a lost cause, but at least Audrey had provided a sports bra that, while uncomfortable, would work, and had offered a few pairs of underwear still in packaging and in different sizes.

Quite honestly this raised more than a few questions about the types of houseguests that usually stayed the night, but she decided that it was very much not worth the price of what little sanity that she had left to find out anything more about that for the time being. She slipped on a pair that fit and pulled a dress over her head. It was knit and stretched, though the hem only came to her mid-shin. She was willing to bet that it was ankle length on the alchemist. She bundled up her clothing and shoes together, and padded out into the house in bare feet and towel dried hair. When she returned to the living room Hawthorne was sitting up from his place on the floor. When his eyes caught Elizabeth's a smile slowly spread across his features.