Some guys have all the luck (Rhi~)

[Roxy]

By the time she emerged from a cot and out onto port, Hanne was determined not to be a…complete hot mess. 

Physically speaking, she at least looked the part.  Nothing openly seemed to suggest that she had spent the better part of the last three days holed up in a room, soaking her sheets with sweat, trying to stomach even the slightest amount of broth only to eject it instead (very much to the displeasure of her former crew and employer) – except that she might’ve seemed more gaunt than usual. 

Mentally, though, it was evident that there’d been some changes.

Right away the station seemed sharper to her, like if it’d been put under the lens of a microscope.  As her gaze quickly flitted over the dwindling markets she could see from her end of the dock, there was more detail than she could recall from before– colors were richer and brighter, the men and women seemed more distinct even huddled together, perhaps at a later date she’d have the ego to say that not one person could hide in a crowd from her.

Unfortunately… the smell certainly got a lot riper, too. 

Stifling her own grimace, she made her way through the marketplace; a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, and a near-empty kit in the other hand.  She was able to keep some of her supplies, at least, but she needed to scrounge the place later in hopes of possibly finding more – that was part of the purpose, anyway.  More importantly she needed to find someplace to stay, be it brothel or shack, as the sun had just set.

But, of course, her mini-venture got interrupted.

First came the shouts from a bar a little ways away, which rang more like shrieks in Hanne’s ears, and was more than enough to give her pause.  With all the grace of a woman hungry and a little lightheaded, she slid to the side of one vacant stall to crouch down and hide, peering over said side a little to see just what was happening.

[Sorry I didn’t jump straight to the injured part...was worried about overstepping and didn't want to inadvertently dictate how jacked Soli may or may not get]

[Rhi-Rhi]

[ooc: It's okay! No worries! <333]

--------

A snarky tongue and alcohol were a bad combination on most days, but worse in a bar surrounded by rough folks of dubious natures who were equally, if not more, intoxicated.

One careless comment, which Soli couldn't even remember, lead to a series of unfortunate and rapidly escalating events, and before he knew it, fists were flying, blows were landing, and his nose was gushing like a geyser. Blood filled his mouth, and he wasn't sure if it was because he'd been punched there, or because he was breathing through his mouth and his nose-blood was draining there.

...Eugh.

Frankly, however, that was the least of his worries.

Sometime during the confusion, he'd been stabbed.

It wasn't like it was in the movies, where a person got stabbed and screamed in pain as the blade slid home. He'd felt pressure in his side, but that was about it; it could have been anything, another punch, a bump against a chair--the furthest thing from his mind was a knife. The pain didn't come until much later; he noticed the blood, first, after he'd torn himself from the brawl and limped his way out the door.

And that was where he was now: leaning against the wall and staring, eyes wide and transfixed, at the blood on his hand.

That...that was a lot of blood. And he was pretty sure his nose-geyser hadn't somehow launched clear over to his side.

His vision swam and he grasped his side with his other hand, and this time he could feel it seeping through his fingers. The dizziness intensified, and with it came nausea, and he swallowed shakily and felt his legs tremble.

Other peoples' blood was one thing.

His own? That was quite another.

It was while he was reeling with shock that he caught a flash of movement and, as his eyes focused, thought he saw the top of a head.

"Hello?" he called, and waved a bloody hand. The pain was finally starting to register. "Hello? Hey. Uh. I think I'm dying." He paused, realization sinking in. A chill went through him at the thought--the effect of blood loss, no doubt! "...Oh gods. I'm dying! I'm bleeding! Like a lot! Oh gods look at it! You have to help me!"

[Roxy]

Odd, how Hanne seemed to sniff him out first.

…And when that stench first hit her, she buckled over in her spot.  She blanked out, saw and heard little but a flash of white, and rasped, but the reaction came and went swift.  At least swift enough that, when she poked her head back up, she heard him calling out to…her?

She hesitated.  Not only was her mind reeling from whatever-the-fuck-just-happened, from what she could put together were her doubts that the man had any money (apart from chump change), AND engaging him could be a risk in of itself.  What if it was just a ruse to steal her belongings?  And even if he had been hurt, what were the odds he had something valuable to offer?

Then she turned to look at him, catching a glimpse of his raised hand and face; slathered red. 

Blood.

She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth, tongue clacking against the roof of her mouth.

Pulling herself up to her feet, she broke out into a jog towards him.  The duffel bag had to be left behind; she’d only her kit with her, which she hoped had enough to address his wounds. 

“Sir…please, I can help, but we got to get away from here…do you think you can walk?” Hanne was trying to do quite a bit at once.  With one hand, she reached for his right arm, in the hopes of looping it around her shoulders so that if he needed a crutch in order to walk faster, she’d provide.  It was also an effort to try and buck him into motion, as it’d be a risk to loiter around on the off chance the man who injured him came out looking to finish the job.  “Do you have a ship nearby…or do you live close?  If not…come, I’ll take you back to a stall.”  With the other hand, she dug through her kit, trying to feel for clean dressing – towel – whatever to abate the bleeding.

The man seemed too bad off to make any long journeys.  In which case, she’d have to try and guide him towards the said stall or alley, someplace a touch more isolated than being out here in the open…. she just hoped he didn’t fall unconscious en route.

One way or another, though, she’d make sure he’d pay for her services.

[Rhi-Rhi]

It occurred to him briefly that the woman rushing toward him could be bad news. And yet, in that moment, Soli couldn't bring himself to care. He was already in a 'bad news' situation! On many levels. So if it got any worse? Well, he couldn't say he'd be surprised, though he would be very bummed.

As it turned out, however, she was keen on helping.

"Uh, yeah. I think I can a little...sort of," he said, right arm slung around her shoulder and left hand pressed to his side. The world was spinning and tilting in an uncomfortable, sickening fashion and his head lolled and dropped against the woman's shoulder. His already pale face was ghost white--where it wasn't red. Still, he managed to put one foot in front of the other, eyes on his feet, only stumbling occasionally. This wasn't the first time he'd been wounded--it was just the stupidest cause.

He hadn't even been that drunk! Just a bit tipsy!

Still was.

"Oh, thank you. Thank you. I thought I was like...gonna die and stuff there. Unless you're like a serial killer or something, in which case I'll let you know I'm a loud screamer and...oh yeah. You said stuff. Uh..."

Well, there was Darvish's ship. But that was a bit of a walk, and there were so many other reasons why that would be a capital letter Bad Idea. He shook his head, and let out a groan when it made everything whirl.

"Stall is good."

[Roxy]

When his head drooped and he stumbled, slightly; Hanne realized two things:

One, the guy seemed fucked.  The reward for her efforts was looking more and more likely to be lint from his pocket.  A dead guys’ pocket. 

Two, he was really, really too close.  She knew he couldn't help that, and she did offer him support - but for some reason she felt...jittery, especially now that all she could do was turn her head and there’d be his face, busted and all.  It didn’t seem to be just anxiety, either - with a turn of her stomach; she recalled that it'd been too long since she ate or even drank.  She broke out into a fine sweat, trembling a little, the sight and the smell…

Shakily, she grasped a thick, cotton gauze in her kit with her left hand.  As they walked, she reached around the small of his back to put it in his own.  "You’re welcome - keep this pressed here; tight! Hopefully it should still some of the bleeding, for now..." Not enough, though.  The wound didn’t seem to be superficial.  "I won’t harm you.  Well…I might have to a little, it may need to be sewn up.”  Was he even coherent right now?  It mattered, she supposed – in the jumble of her thoughts Hanne knew she had to keep him conscious and alert.

She quickened her pace, pulling him back to where she came, glad that he'd made the choice for her (albeit inebriated and possibly near-death).  Yet, extreme nervousness also spurred her on, the discomfort growing too strong for her liking - she was surprised she didn't blank out again, frankly, it was so potent.

Hanne didn’t go to the stall she cowered behind – too far.  So, with the man in tow, she rounded the back of a stall 6 stalls up and entered, rather uncaring of the objects left behind and inside.  There was still enough room to tend to him, she thought – and she highly doubted the vendor him or herself would appear to complain.

Slowly, very slowly, she tried to lower him to the ground.  Which wasn’t as gentle, considering her slight, unabated shaking.    “O-ok….try sitting up.  I’m going to need your shirt off, if you can, so I can get a closer look –”  Hanne said this, as she (very suavely) already started to move in on his space.  “Oh-…” She feigned a sigh.  “By the way, Sir…I’m sorry and I will treat you, but this isn’t going to be free.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

It felt like a longer walk than it was, and time passed in a daze. Soli at least managed to keep the gauze pressed firmly to his side until the lady got him to the stall and lowered him to the ground. It wasn't gentle, but with the pain in his side, he hardly noticed anything else.

She was speaking to him, though, and it took a couple delayed seconds before he registered the message.

"Huh...? Oh. My shirt..."

He started dumbly at her for a few more seconds. Take it off? Uh. That was...a bit of a problem. Shifting a little, he lifted his shirt, but winced when moving his arm stretched the wound and made it ache. So he stopped just below his ribs--enough room for her to work with, leaving the injury exposed.

Vaguely, he noticed that she seemed a little nervous--or at least off balance. Was it the blood? Did she know what she was doing? Soli had happily gone off with her, but he'd never thought to ask if she was actually a medic--he'd just assumed. Actually, come to think of it, maybe his serial killer comment wasn't too off color.

But right then, he was too dizzy and floaty to care much.

"I got money," he mumbled, voice faint in his ears and eyelids feeling heavy. "Uhm...you a doctor...?"

[Roxy]

"Yes, of course!  One of the best."  Hanne beamed up a split-second smile at him, small and strained.  She didn’t look all the best right then and there – if he wasn’t too out of it to have noticed her jittery behavior, he probably could have seen how her face was slick with sweat, her eyes wide and pupils dilated.  A hint of white flashed from beneath her upper lip, only to hide just as quickly.

He was right there, right in her face, and she was railing against herself with a mantra:  Sew up.  Get paid.  Get gone.  Sew up….

Unfortunately, she found she didn’t have much if any sterile thread or needle left.  It wasn’t a kit of complete convenience after all, she cursed to herself.  Consider the pay very reduced, then.

After a cursory glance to catch any blade, she decided to tourniquet the wound.  Well, it wasn’t a tourniquet in the strictest sense (as that would, technically, only apply to limbs), but it’d stave off the bleeding longer, enough time for him to call for further aid.  If he had any, at least.  As she went to work, she began to pepper him with more questions:  “Do you have anyone you can call?  I can stop the bleeding longer, this way, but I don’t have all of the equipment I would need…I’m sorry to put this on you, kid.  If you don’t, I could try contacting my old crew.”  If they were still around. 

After sufficiently binding and bandaging the wound, she took a wipe, intending on cleaning his nose – something that she should’ve done first so that his breathing wouldn’t be inhibited, but only thought of to do so now.  “Try to stay with me, please.  I could find some water if you want or need…”

She trailed off when she pulled back, looking at the wipe. 

She stared for such a long, long time, he could have said or did anything and it wouldn’t have reached her.

Then, a moment of great squick occurred:  she rolled her tongue over it.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Oh, great. That was an awesome bit of news. She didn't have all her stuff. Was that why she was acting all weird? She seemed kind of nervous, so Soli rationalized that that was probably why. Made sense that a doctor would get all jittery and uneasy, trying to help someone and realizing they couldn't.

Soli let out a groan. "I...no. No one," he said with a frown, though it was a lie. He could have called for Darvish, but he didn't want to think of what he'd say if he saw him in this state. It was best not to; best to just get cleaned up quietly and return with his pride intact.

Besides, he didn't want his doctor here rethinking things when she saw who he was running with.

At least she had managed to bind the wound enough to stop some of the bleeding.

He was rather out of it by the time she took to wiping his swollen and broken nose, and he blinked rapidly to stay awake and coherent.

Which, seconds later, he somewhat regretted.

Because that was--and he couldn't even believe what he was seeing--that was when she took the wipe, with its nose blood on it, and...and...

"What the fuckity hell?!" Soli blurted as she licked it, and he suddenly felt very awake and very alert. He jolted in alarm and gasped in pain, but hardly felt it as mortal horror tore through him. She was licking the blood! The blood from his nose! But still blood! Wide eyed and panting, he tried, unsuccessfully, to jerk away from her.

"Oh gods! WHY? Why would you do that?!"

[Roxy]

It wasn’t much, as part of it soaked into the wipe, but what remained on the surface didn’t have much taste.  There was a twang of steel, heavy and rustic, and it lit her up if only momentarily.  In that, her body felt a little “un-stuck”, like she could feel her own blood surging again, and the faint thrum of her own pulse.  Needless to say, a tiny smidgen of 72 hours of feeling like pure shit just got lifted. 

Hanne looked up from the wipe, but too casually.  Even as he shouted and shot off a little to the side, she was gazing at him coolly, with an undercurrent of intent.  In the matter of a few seconds to a minute, she’d undergone a personality transplant:  from fumbling, placating, and nervous to unnervingly stone-faced, pupils dark and enlarged, twitching all over.

There was only so much a woman could fight, and for how long.  She should’ve known this would happen, sooner or later, yet she’d given too much credit to her own control to have made the mishap in helping this man.  Or rather, at the time, she had prized money and the possibility of a place to stay moreso than her own, basic needs.

She crept closer to him, hovering over him slightly.  “I apologize, dear.  I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Here, she reached towards him, to put her hand on his neck.  “But you did agree to pay me.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

"I-I did! I'll pay you! I will!" Soli said, jerking back from her touch. She looked different now, cold and predatory, and every primal instinct was screaming at him to get the fuck out of dodge! But he couldn't; he was stuck, wounded and defenseless, and she was scaring the shit out of him.

Then a horrifying thought struck.

"What did you think I meant when I said that?! What kind of payment?" His heart was beating fast, and that was not doing any favors for his bleeding.