No rest for the weary [DragonSong]

[Marjorie]

Raf set Ava down on the landing and lifted Val up, bags and all, onto one of his shoulders. "All hail the victorious Val," Raf said, and then they went away from the stairs and down the hall.

"These are good people," he said to Val a little breathlessly, "If anything ever happens, this is a safe place to come, safe people to go to." He glanced up at her, and caught her eye, to emphasize the importance of what he was saying. "If something happened and you were alone. This is a safe place to come Trenz mining colony, and ask for Griffin... Tell them I - Raf sent you, even if I didn't."

He bop'ed the girl's nose playfully with a finger. "Now you're out of Reckless you need to know what ports are good to go to... When you learn the ports, maybe I'll teach you how to fly Liss. What's the name of this place, again?"

[DragonSong]

Val laughed and wrapped an arm around Raf’s shoulders to steady herself, clutching the bags to her chest with her other hand. “Yeah, victorious!”

Ava, still flushed and scowling even when Raf put her down, felt a smile tugging at the edge of her mouth quite against her will. She shook her head and tried to force it away with a roll of her eyes—though she reluctantly had to admit that she would probably have been in a whole lot of pain if she’d attempted those stairs by herself.

Admit silently, of course. No way she was letting Raf win that one.

“Oh no.” She scowled at both of them. “No flying a ship until she can drive a car—and that’s not happening for another decade.”

“Mama...” Val complained, dragging the word into nearly five syllables. Huffing, she glanced down at Raf and recited dutifully, “Trenz mining colony, go to Griffin’s house.”

Silently, Ava ran through the name herself—then added on a quick repetition of: Alpha foxtrot charily hotel zulu.

[Marjorie]

"But! Flying Liss is a lot easier than a car," Raf protested, "as long as you leave her in auto pilot. You just tell her where to go." He winked at her conspiratorially. Then he flashed a grin at Ava.

"Here we are," Raf sad and knocked on the door, "four twelve. Griffin's house." He didn't need to know - but one day Val might.

Inside the squeals and shouts of children could be heard. A muffled "Uncle Raf is here!" and a chorus of "I'll get it!" followed. The door burst open a moment later and no less than seven children ranging in age from four to maybe seventeen all tried to fit out the good, giggling and shoving. Four of them looked to be actually related - the youngest and the oldest of the bunch... but the rest looked distinctly different from not only the four obvious siblings, but also the other kids.

Within moments the kids were tackling Raf and practically carried him inside the apartment. Inside, the apartment looked like somewhere seven kids lived. There were toys and books everywhere, and somewhere in the background a movie was blaring.

"Raf!" a woman's voice called from the kitchen, "You better be hungry."

"Mama" "Mama" "Mama" was called out seven times, almost in unison. "Raf brought guests!"

"Oh? What's that now?" the woman leaned out past the kitchen wall and nearly dropped her spoon. "Hun," she was moving quickly into the living room now, "you need a doctor... Lucky you, Raf brought you to best one on Trenz." Read that as only doctor on Trenz, but she was a good one.

"Scat!" and the kids took off in different directions around the apartment, one of the younger one's grabbing Val by the hand and carrying her off with them.

"What's your name?" the little boy asked her. "I'm Tomar."

Janeese turned her attention on Ava, looking at her side as if she could see the wound threw her shirt and dressings. "You popped those stitches," she said, "we need to get you patched up before you bleed out on my living room floor.

"Allya!" she called out sharply, "Get my surgical bag, fluids, and... I think I've got one unit of plasma left... I need you to scrub in on this one."

"Yes mama," one of the teenage girls called down from the upstairs railing.

"Raf there's a plastic table cloth in the closet." Raf went and fetched it and spread it out on the living room floor.

"You take your shirt off and lay down right here, dear... don't worry about the kids. It's nothing they haven't seen before," she glanced over head, "and Tomar's got your 'lil one in his room."

[DragonSong]

Both Ava and Val went stock still as the children came pouring out of the apartment, Val quickly scrambling down from Raf’s shoulder in an effort to avoid getting pulled along in the tide.

Ava could do little more than take her daughter’s hand and follow Raf and the crowd of children into the apartment, bemused. She smiled a bit when one of the children grabbed Val’s hand and she looked up at her with wide, nervous eyes. There weren’t really all that many kids Val’s age in Reckless, she wasn’t used to...playing, really.

“Go on,” Ava urged her with a hand on her back. “If Raf says we can trust them, we can.”

She snapped her head up when the woman—Janeese—approached her. “Oh, uh...”  She looked from mother to daughter, feeling a smidge of helpless panic begin to rise up in her chest. She didn’t like feeing out of control of a situation, which was rapidly becoming the case.

“Really, it’s not so bad,” she instinctively  tried to deflect. “If you can just give me a few supplies to use I can patch it up myself...”

[Marjorie]

"No," Janeese said, "you've got a nicked artery. That patch job slowed the bleeding, a lot... but it never stopped it." She looked at Raf and raised an eyebrow. "Did you let him sew you up?" She laughed. "You must have been desperate?"

"Come on now," she said softer, while Raf sat on one of the sofas, stood up, pulled a toy out from under his ass, and then sat down again. "I know you wouldn't risk anything that could take you away from your 'lil one, right? You need to let me fix this, now."

"Ava," Raf said moving closer when it looked like she was going to refuse Janeese's help. He had to sew her up the first time, what made her think she could do it the second time? He put a hand on her shoulder, just as Allya came down stairs loaded up with medical gear. She set the things down and pulled a blue light out of one of the bags and shined it on the tablecloth to sterilize it. "She's good people. Let her help you."

[DragonSong]

Well shit. She’d suspected that the shot might have hit an artery, but without the proper equipment she hadn’t t been able to tell for sure...

Magic. Normally she hated relying on it when it came to healing, but it seemed that Janeese’s gifts were for more than just her medical expertise.

“I—“ She froze when Raf came up behind her, tensing slightly, then relaxed again. Slowly, she nodded. “...Alright. Thank you.”

Her eyes started to flick back toward Raf as she approached the impromptu operating table, but she managed to stop herself. Well. Might as well get it over with.

Eyes fixed determinedly ahead, she carefully peeled her shirt off over her head so Janeese and Allya could get at her wound without obstruction. And it became suddenly and abundantly clear why exactly Ava might have needed to talk to her daughter about scars, even outside of her work.

Ava’s back was littered with thin, almost feathery scars, scars Raf wouldn’t have noticed in his frantic patch job of her gunshot wound—or at least she assumed he hadn’t. It wasn’t like she tried to actively hide them, it’s just...they were mostly on her back, and she didn’t feel the need to show them if she could help it. Each mark was clearly the careful, practiced work of a blade, thin and sharp. Maybe a scalpel. Whatever had happened to Ava that resulted in Val, she clearly hadn’t just been experimented on.

She’d been tortured.

Wincing, she boosted herself up into the table and tried to brace her the arm on her good side back behind her. She tried for a wry smile. “Don’t suppose you’ve got anything to numb me?”

[Marjorie]

Raf gave her an encouraging smile. He swallowed hard when he caught an eye full of Ava's back, but he didn't say anything... didn't give an outward response. He knew scars like that - he had some like that. Most of his weren't careful, but he'd been cut, stabbed, shot, blown up, and burned. He'd been tortured before too. He wasn't comparing or competing, just... understanding. Realizing they had a lot more in common than he'd thought. Even if they dealt with it differently.

"Actually I do," Janeese said, "I've got  a local, and then a muscle relaxer I mix with some regular pain meds and a mild sedative. It won't knock you out, but it will keep you relaxed and help you stay still.

Allya washed her hands in the sink and dawned gloves before pealing off the old bandages. "Close your eyes," the teen said, "the light's bad for them." Then she shined that blue light over Ava's entire body. "Alright, you can open your eyes if you want."

By that time Janeese had washed and gloved and drawn up two syringes of medications. "Start an IV on her, so I can get these in, and then I give you the local. As soon as I push these, Allya you hang that bag of fluids, Raf you hold it. We'll wait on the plasma until she's done. I don't want to waste it. I've only got the one."

Raf nodded and moved to where he could be an impromptu IV pole.

"Small poke," the girl said, and by the time she'd said it, the IV was in. A moment later, Janeese was pushing meds, and then seconds later Ava would feel warm, sleepy, and relaxed. Allya was hanging the meds as Janneese held up the last syringe.

"You're going to feel this... it burns going in, but you'll go numb quickly." Janeese didn't give her any warning, just started administering it in a circle of stabs around the wound. She'd start going numb immediately, but she waited about three minutes for her to go totally numb before she started.

Janeese held her hand out over the wound then and the biofoam got warm, not too hot though, and melted. She flicked her fingers to the side and it floated out of the wound bed and landed in and out of the way spot on the table.

"Allya, steralize."

"Yes, mama." The girl held that blue light on over the wound for a minute.

"Good, and my hands now." Janeese moved her gloved hands around under the light to get them as sterile as she could. "Alright now, stitches out," she flicked her fingers over the wound and the stitches that hadn't been torn untied themselves, before all of them exited the wound and landed on the table.

"Sutures."

Allya handed an individual suture on a curved needle to her mother with forceps. Janeese took it and went to work on the nicked artery firs. Three sutures there. Another six for the inside of the wound, and ten to close up the outside. Allya sterilized the wound again. For good measure, she glued the thing with liquid stitches too, then placed a medicated dressing over it and taped it down good. Then she wrapped her entire abdomen with an ace wrap. "That binder will help you not pull those stitches again. "No showers for three days, and wear the binder for ten.

"Allya hang that plasma when the NS is done, and for you..." Janeese took off her gloves and rummaged threw her bag and came back with two pill bottles. "Antibiotics, twice a day for fourteen days. Who knows what you got int there the first time around. And pain meds... one ever six hours as you need it.

"You don't get up until all that plasma is in. You hear?"

[DragonSong]

Ava's eyes widened. "Wait, I didn't mean--"

Before she could form a proper protest someone was jabbing her with a needle, and she was pressed back to the bed with her eyes squeezed shut to avoid the sterilization UV. She opened her eyes as soon as she felt the light leave her body, hands curled into tight fists on the bed beside her.

The sedative was dragging at her body, holding her down. She gritted her teeth against the feeling, against the nausea rising in her stomach. In an odd way it was almost a blessing--she was too busy trying to breathe through the steadily encroaching panic to even really notice as Allya and Janeese bustled around her, prodding and stitching and sterilizing.

She'd asked for something to numb herself because she assumed a localized agent was all they'd have; she hadn't wanted the sedative.

But it wasn't as though she could exactly protest now.

By the time Janeese was finishing up the sutures, Ava had gone pale and clammy, eyes squeezed shut again as she focused on breathing--in through her nose, hold for three seconds, out through her mouth--and forced herself to hold still.

Gradually, though, she managed to wrestle herself back under control, and her eyes flickered open as Janeese pressed a bottle into her hand. "Right. Thanks." Her voice sounded a little rougher than she thought it should, but she was pleased to find that it didn't shake. She actually started to sit up, still a little addled, but then the rest of the other woman's orders filtered into her foggy mind.

"Oh. Right. Okay." She lay back down on the table, stiff and wary despite the drugs still pumping through her system. Gods, just let the damn thing run its course...

With really nothing else she could do, Ava allowed her head to roll gently from side to side, getting as good a look around the room as she could manage. Then she tipped it back, finding with some surprise that Raf was still standing by the IV.

"Oh. Hey." She tried for something like a sardonic smile. "Y'know, I don't think a man has seen me with my shirt off since before I had Val," she noted blithely in a rather strained attempt at a joke.

[Marjorie]

Raf, Janeese, and Allya all thought that the pail clamminess was because of the loss of blood - current and prior. Raf had noticed her looked a little paler over the last several hours anyway.

"Allya, take her blood pressure and let me know if it's too low... and clean up, would you. I gotta finish dinner up," Janeese said from the sink where she was scrubbing from the elbows down again.

Raf smiled down at her, switching out the fluids for plasma when the bag was empty. He knew how to do that much. He smiled down at her when she joked. "That's a rather long dry spell," he teased back, "Should we celibate?" He smirked.

[DragonSong]

Ava snorted and crinkled her nose up at him--an expression oddly reminiscent of Val, and it became clear that the girl had learned it from her mother, even if Ava didn't use it as often. "I think that depends on your definition of celebrate," she huffed wryly. With a nod in the direction she'd heard Janeese move, she added, "Doc says I'm supposed to be taking it easy, apparently."

It was...strange, to be the patient rather than the medic. Even aside from the effect the sedative had on her, she wasn't at all sure that she liked it.

Still sort of a little fuzzy around the edges of her mind, she let her head lull to the side and just sort of frowned as her eye-line lined up with the bottom of a sofa. "...Are you sure you just want me to lay in the middle of your living room, ma'am?"

[Marjorie]

Raf got a shit eating grin on his face then. "I mean... there's plenty of things that can be done gently."[/b] He snickered.

"Oh please," Jeaneese said, "call me Jeaneese. Raf you can take her to the couch if you want, but make sure she lays back down. If she pulls my fresh stitches I'm gonna be pissed."

"Yes, ma'am," Raf smirked, until a wooden spoon connected with his shoulder. He broke out into laughter and then reached down a hand to help Ava up.

[DragonSong]

Really quite despite herself, Ava felt a very subtle flush warm her cheeks. At least it helped chase away the cool clamminess to her skin, which honestly felt rather good.

"You're a cad," she informed Raf dryly, "and I shudder to think the influence your particular brand of humor will have on my daughter."

She managed to smile and nod gratefully at Jeaneese--then burst into laughter when the other woman whacked Raf with a wooden spoon, even as she reached out to take his offered hand. "See! Mothers. Fearsome things," she chuckled, swaying slightly as Raf pulled her to her feet before she tried to shuffle awkwardly toward the couch.

[Marjorie]

Raf shrugged. "I never did tell you I was raised by prostitute, did I," he chuckled, "her name was Liss. Soft to the touch, but tough as nails that woman was." Raf grinned at her. She was still a little high. "She seemed rather amused by the name of my ship."

"Ummm," Raf said, sliding his free arm around her and helping her to the couch, "I wouldn't know." His tried to sell him to a John before he skipped out on her forever.

[DragonSong]

"Well, that actually explains a lot," Ava mumbled. She frowned when she noticed that her words were almost slurred, then took care to enunciate each clearly as she continued, "I'm sure she's honored to be immortalized by your fine ship."

Nope. Still a little slurred. Well, that was rather irritating.

I fucking hate sedatives.

Her body still felt slow and heavy, and she almost wasn't entirely aware of raising her hand to pat Raf's cheek gently in thanks when he slid her onto the couch. "Well, I suppose all things considered you turned out alright," she muttered as she turned to lay on her good side.

[Marjorie]

His mother - the woman who gave birth to him - hadn't given two shits about Raf. Liss had taken care of him... until he was older and some of their clients started looking at him with interest too... then his mom thought she might be able to squeeze a buck out of him too. He was out the window before money even exchanged hands. He still missed Liss some days, but he rarely even thought of his mother these days.

"She'd be tickled by it," Raf said, "if she knew."

Anyway... enough of that.

He snatched up some child's abandoned blanket off the floor and draped it over Ava to cover her up a little until she could get her shirt back on. Then he sat on the arm of the sofa as he continued holding up the glass bottle of plasma that was now half empty. He brushed some hair out of her face, and his fingertips lingered on her shoulder for a moment before he took his hand back, resting it in his lap.

[DragonSong]

"Mm. Maybe you should tell her..."

Ava's eyelids fluttered. Gods, she hadn't realized how tired she was. Or--maybe she had, but she'd been too busy trying not to panic to really notice. Or maybe trying not to panic had made her tired.

Regardless, it was getting harder to keep her eyes open.

She shifted slightly on the couch when Raf's fingers brushed briefly against her skin and tilted her head toward the touch just slightly before it ended. "Is, um..." She licked her lips, frowned, tried to focus. "Val. Is she okay? She doesn't get the chance to play with kids her own age much."

[Marjorie]

He'd have to go home for that, and he didn't even know if she was alive anymore... or at the same brothel. Or at any brothel for that matter... she'd be nearly sixty now. "Maybe some day," it wasn't like he could call her or anything. He hadn't even considered figuring out how to contact her.

When she leaned into his touch, Raf's fingers lingered a little longer. "Val's fine," he said, "I don't hear anything but laughter coming from upstairs. "It's good for her to be a kid." Raf brushed his fingers threw her hair again. "Sleep," he said, "I'll wake you when dinner's ready."

[DragonSong]

Ava nodded in response to that; it was good for Val to be a kid. Even before everything had gone to hell, she hadn't had the chance as often as she should have. It made her chest tighten painfully to think about it.

"I should've done better by her," she murmured softly, not even fully aware that she was speaking aloud as her systems began to slow. She felt slow and warm and heavy.

"Just...keep an eye on her, okay? I'm just gonna close my eyes for a minute..." She tilted her head slightly into his touch, lashes fluttering against freckled cheeks as she finally lost the battle to keep her eyes open.

[Marjorie]

"You did fine," Raf said gently, "she's fierce and more importantly she's happy." He kept brushing his fingers threw her hair, trying to sooth her. He was out of practice with being gentle. It felt... awkward, even though it was nice when she leaned into his touch. "I will," he said, "she's safe here." When she finally fell asleep, Raf sat there, holding up the bottle of plasma until it was empty. Then he removed the IV before heading upstairs to play with the kids.

About an hour later Griffin arrived home from the mines. He dropped his filthy vac suit by the front door, and went into the kitchen and kissed Janeese by the stove. "It smells like heaven in here," he said, "who's your patient on the couch?"

"Raf's friend."

"Raf brought... a woman with him?" he arched an eyebrow.

"And her kid," she responded with a smirk, "maybe he's thinking about settling down."

Griffin laughed. "Impossible."

"Go call the kids down to dinner," Janeese said.

Griffin kissed her again before climbing the stairs and banging on bedroom doors. "Supper's ready! Let's go, who's hungry." In short order a noisy stampede of kids was rushing down stairs in search of food.

"Don't be animals!" Janeese shouted, "set the table, we have guests!"

"Hey Val," Raf said mussing her hair, "why don't you go wake up your mom, see if she's hungry." In the mean time, Raf went and grabbed a stack of plates, and one of the kids started setting them out around the table.

"Little kids in the living room!" Janeese shouted. The living room table had sense been cleared and sterilized, so the four youngest kids set up plates in the living room where they could sit around it on the floor.

There was fresh baked bread, pasta with some kind of vegetable sauce, meat cutlets... though Raf wasn't sure it's source, vegetable salad and a fruit salad. Raf hadn't seen so many fruits and vegetables in, well in years... they were hard to come by in space, and he hadn't had a home cooked meal in as long. Gods damn, he could just about eat a loaf of fresh baked break and a bowel of fruits and die happy right now.

[DragonSong]

Val had been quite contentedly playing with Tomar and a few of the other younger children, albeit with some general sense of shy awkwardness. That faded quickly enough though, and by the time Raf came to check on them she seemed quite happy, settled on the floor with the others who were teaching her how to play some sort of rhythmic clapping and rhyming game.

When the call for dinner went out though she hung back a bit from the stampede, automatically moving to grab Raf’s hand almost as a sort of safety blanket. She started a bit when he mussed her hair, then smiled and nodded quickly with a chirped, “Okay!”

Ava was sort of dozing by the time Griffin returned home, and in her half-asleep state she thought she heard an unfamiliar voice, but she couldn’t make out the words. Maybe I’m dreaming, she mused silently to herself, drifting sort of in between waking and sleeping.

Then a soft, familiar voice cut through the fog, tiny hands touching her shoulder lightly. “Mama?” Val whispered, leaning in close. “Do you wanna get up now? Raf’s friends made food...”

“Mm.” Ava forced her eyes open, blinked groggily, then managed a tired smile for her daughter. “Yeah, chickadee, okay.” She sat up carefully, and was pleased to find both that her side felt significantly better, and that the drugs seemed to have almost entirely worked their way out of her system. She glanced around, saw the table in the living room being set, and got to her feet.

“Did you have fun worth the other kids?” she asked quietly, stroking Val’s hair. The girl smiled and nodded, flushing happily.