Deja Vu September 29, 2513

Marcus takes off his belt and hands it to Matthew. “Make a tourniquet, stop the bleeding, you’ll be okay.” He then gets his portable terminal and takes it back to Matthew. “Call Grieves, he’ll come fix you up.” Matthew looked at him in surprise, “Where are you going? You’re not going after that jinu after she shot me are you?!!” Marcus glares at him, “You brought this on yourself, accept the responsibility. I warned you. Besides, you’re not going to die. We’ll have a talk about what else you’ve done before I’ll let that happen.”

It is a miracle she makes it out of the Dojo without detection, even more of a miracle she makes it to Marcus’ shop, uses his forgotten keys to enter and makes her way to the sound of voices without falling over. What is it with this shop and these boys that has her so out of commission so often, is it jinxed, was it bad luck? As she leaves the shop, she steadies herself by leaning on the wall for a moment. She will have to take this into serious consideration when she is feeling up to it. The nausea and dizziness is back, too much too soon. She only hopes to make it back home before it’s too late. Right now, what she feels like is, is, what was that noise? She turns in its direction and stares uncomprehendingly at the man before her, within seconds the man is suddenly attached to her and she looks at him curiously trying to figure out how that happened. In the next moment she is out cold.

He holds her as upright as he can get her for a moment, arms around her waist and behind her back, pressing her close. He stands, wondering what to do, not truly wanting to leave his brother to bleed to death on the storage room floor. He does not want to leave her propped up against a wall in the alley either. He has a moment of sheer hair pulling frustration for what his brother has gotten them into before he makes a decision. Picking her up in his arms he decides Grieves can take a look at her too, hopefully before she wakes up. He shoulders his way back into the storage room and places her on the table before going over to help his brother. He sees pain, fear and panic in his brother’s eyes and is moved to pity. “It will be okay Matthew. Grieves is good. Did you call him?” A paler, more humble Matthew looks at him. “No, I, I can’t.” He looks down at his bloody hands holding the belt tight around his leg. “I’ll call. The bleeding has slowed, the belt is helping, you’ll be okay Matthew.” He puts a hand on Matthew’s shoulder and looks him square in the eye. “We will have to talk about this.” He says to Matthew, not without compassion.

Matthew looks at the unconscious girl on the table. “What did you do to her?” Marcus, in the middle of the wave to Grieves does not reply. He puts away the terminal and goes to get his med kit. He uses a patch on Matthew to stop the bleeding until Grieves can arrive. “Why don’t you tell me? Since you did it.” He looks at Matthew expectantly. Matthew looks at the floor, face filled with shame, as cold beads of sweat break out on his forehead. “Later then. Grieves will be here soon.” He stands up and goes over to collect Rae. He is not sure if he is relieved or worried she is still out. He again takes her to his room, deposits her on the bed and goes to get cold packs. Returning he flips on his light and leans over her, noticing for the first time her colorful condition. Blood is caked in her hair and some in the corner of her eye; half her face is showing a mottled bruise and her chin and mouth look pink and puffy. On impulse he picks up her arm and looks at it. She has bruises on her wrist and bicep. He turns on his heel and marches back to check on Matthew, an idea growing in his mind.

There is a knock at the back alley door and a well-dressed man walks in carrying a large bag. He walks swiftly over to Matthew and crouches down. Working swiftly he sterilizes the wound and area, deadens the area, removes the patch and bullet, and then uses a dermal mender to heal the incision. He is done in record time. He gives Matthew a shot for the pain and smiling brightly tells him, “It should be better in a no time.” He discards his bloody gloves into a small plastic bag and packs his bag up. “If that’s all should we step into the other room to discuss the fee?” Marcus gives Matthew a look as he asks, “How long until he is able to be up and around on his own?” Grieves smiles pleasantly and says, “Oh, I’d say two days or so. Nothing rough mind you, but he should be ok to move around on his own. Shall we get him to a bed?” Marcus nods and reaches down to grab an arm and haul Matthew up. Between the two of them they put Matthew in his bed. Matthew nervously watches them go.

Once out in the hallway Marcus stops Grieves, “That isn’t all. I have someone else for you to check, she is unaware of our.” He pauses as if searching for the correct term. Grieves supplies it for him, “Nefarious dealings?” Marcus nods. “I see then, well, I’ll be sensitive and discrete in dealing with the, lady is it?” Grieves asks. Marcus nods again and leads him into the other bedroom.

If Grieves is surprised by the colorful girl, he doesn’t show it. He goes over to her and quickly takes stock of her injuries. “Yes, yes, she’s going to be dizzy and most likely nauseated for awhile with that one.” Pulling out a scanner he holds it over her, taking a reading to see if there’s anything his eyes could have missed. “Hmm, seems she should recover. She should be monitored though; head injuries can be rather nasty. The rest is just superficial.” Marcus looks at Grieves and nonchalantly asks, “What is the rest?” Grieves raises his eyebrows and looks at him with surprise, “I assumed you knew. It appears to be minor abrasions and cuts, some mild bruising on the legs and arms. Mostly on the knees and thighs. Otherwise make sure to keep her awake as long as you possibly can, watch to see if anything is odd about her eyes. If there is a problem, get her to a hospital, I won’t be able to fix it. I’ll give you something for the nausea and headache she’s likely to have when she wakes up” He leans down and removes the butterfly band-aids, reaches into his bag and pulls out the dermal mender and some alcohol preps. He cleans the area and applies the mender. “There, that should take care of any scarring. Anything else I can do for you? Oh, here give her this for those scratches.” He pulls out a small tube of ointment. Marcus takes the ointment and looks at it, “Thanks Grieves, now, for your payment. This way please.”