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DOCTOR'S SURGERY - LATE NIGHT
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Annika: The night was fairly peaceful, with a sky only occasionally marred with a cloud drifting in front of the moon as a figure approaches hurriedly, carrying a much smaller figure in their arms. They'd moved through back streets to get here, and were now arriving at the back entrance, giving a few firm knocks to get the attention of whoever was on duty at the time.
Doc Plume is still working, fighting another bout of insomnia and deciding to make the most of it as they update patient files with notes from recent appointments. They hear the knocking and get up. They walk to the front door but find no one outside. "Huh." Perplexed, they return inside only to hear the knocking continuing as they seek out the source. They make their way over to a corner of the office to what they thought was only a closet to hold the machinery of the autopump, but upon opening it, they find the sound of the knock amplified. After hurriedly moving aside some dusty boxes and barrels, they clear a path to find the back door to the clinic that they didn't know existed. They hurriedly unlock the door and open it. "Hello?"
Narrator: The standing figure was a tall, well dressed fox chap. One of the more wealthy merchant types, if Doc is tuned into such things "She needs help" He states, rather crisply, passing the bundle over, which was the small fox girl Annika. "There's enough there to pay for any treatment. I trust you can be discrete about this" He passes over another, much larger coin purse on making that statement, enough to actually make upgrades a viable proposition. "She fell down the stairs" He pauses and sighs, and in a little bit less of a 'business' voice "Please. Don't ask questions. For her own sake if nothing else"
Doc Plume glares a bit at the fox, takes the bundle and the coins and then after a moment of consideration, closes the door without saying anything. The door is swiftly locked as Doc manoeuvres their way through the cramped area with Annika cradled in their wings and back into the clinic. Once there, the coinpurse is dropped to the ground as Annika is carried over to the examination table. Their hands free again, Doc moves over to the sink and washes their hands before clicking on the magitech-powered lamp over the table. "Right... so what do we have here..."
Narrator: He accepts the glare, and the responsibility for what had happened, before leaving quickly. He wasn't done with this night, but that was a story for another time... Annika was laid on the table. She was unconscious, and heavily cut and bruised, over quite a bit of her body. It was somewhat consistent with a 'fall down the stairs' as it was put, but there was a harder hit, another, longer fall in there too. Her right arm was broken where she had glanced off something on the way down..which probably saved her form heavier injuries. Under her claws were little bits of blood and fur, and a couple of small scrapes of cloth that had torn away when she..*ahem* "Fell"
Doc Plume assesses all of this as they triage the various injuries. Annika's breathing is checked, as are her eyes for any indication of cranial bleeding. Once those are cleared as reasonable, doc sets their kettle boiling and starts preparing a pot of plaster to cast the arm.
Doc Plume pours most of the water from the kettle into a bowel with some clean cloths. One is removed with tongs and after a moment to drip off, Doc starts using it to gently wash off Annika's wound and removed the caked blood from her fur. "You poor thing," they mutter as they work. After using several cloths to clean all the wounds, Doc fetches their suture kit and gets to work stiching up the two bigger gashes they found, their nimble hands working with precision as the gaping flesh is closed up cleanly.
Doc Plume applies iodine paste to the wounds and bandages them before beginning to work on Annika's broken forearm. After shaving the fur off of the area where the cast will go, Doc carefully presses their fingers in to feel at the breaks and do their best to line up the bones to be set. Plaster is then prepared with the first layer of bandages being soaked with it before the plaster cast is built up on top of them.
Narrator: There's one or two somewhat concerning bruises in the general head area, but other than that, she seems as 'okay' as one could hope considering the circumstances. Annika would slowly come around as the kettle reaches the boil, abet very groggy and unfocused, blinking up at the ceiling, before slowly moving to try and get up, and take stock of her surroundings.
Narrator: Eventually, Annika comes around, and is a bit more cogent, slowly tilting her head around, and seeing where she is properly this time "Oh..How..did I get here? Is Mr Lanier okay?" Shaw Lanier being a notable merchant in the city.
Doc Plume is just finishing up with the casting, dusting the outside of it with more dry plaster powder to speed the drying. "Ah... hello Annika, please don't try to move too much. Your arm is broken and you're pretty banged up otherwise." They take the casting supplies away and move to the sink to wash their hands off again. They return a with a large square of fabric that they're folding into a sling as well as a piece of willow bark, which they hold up to the fox's mouth. "Chew on this. It will help with the pain. Don't swallow though." They raise Annika's head and shoulder up enough to set and tie the sling comfortably before finally ending their flurry of activity. "If he's the one who brought you here, then he's fine... did he do this to you?"
Annika takes the bark, and chews it as instructed "No!" She replies quickly "It was.." She stops herself, wincing "I mean, I fell" She looks to the Doc, knowing that it's a lie, knowing that Doc knows its a lie, before wincing..at the pain, and at the bald faced nature of the lie "..Please..just..don't say anything to the guards..."
Annika gave the Doc a desperate, plaintive look "You'd..you'd ruin everything."
Doc Plume doesn't reply for a while as they take some time to put things away and make a cup of tea. "No job is worth taking any sort of abuse, Annika. And I don't care who he is, if he's hurting people the guards should do something about it..."
Annika: "He's not!" She says again "It's..." She groans, leaning back "He's helping..I mean it..just.." She tries to move in the wrong way "Just..not the guards! I..he.." She shuts her eyes "It's not his fault..I know what that sounds like..but this time..this is true. He's a good man"
Doc Plume shakes their head. "All right, I'll think about it. But I think you should stay the night here, just to make sure that you don't have any internal injuries that flare up..."
Annika: "That..seems fair. Don't worry. I've got plenty to pay for the bills when it comes to it" She closes her eyes, not sleeping, but its easier than keeping them open "Thank you"
Doc Plume looks at Annika again. "He paid, don't worry." They walk back over to the small closet where the back door is and take out the simple cot from its hooks on the wall. They brush off the dust and screw the legs onto it before setting it up in the far corner of the room behind a couple of privacy screens. A small pillow and thin blanket are added before Doc moves over to the examination table. "Let's get you more settled for the night, all right?"
Annika: "Oh, that's nice" She nods "What do you need to do to settle me in?" While she's much better, she's still fairly sleepy and out of it, looking at Doc for explainations as much as something to focus on rather than her aching body. "Thank you" She repeats herself, seemingly as a sort of punctuation, not knowing what else to say
Doc Plume helps Annika to her feet and guides her slowly over to the cot. "Now, it's important that you sleep on your back so that you don't risk damaging the cast or your arm again, all right?"
Annika: "Okay" She slowly moves with Plume, leaning heavily on them as she goes to the cot "I understand, I'll keep that in mind..I don't think it'll be hard to fall asleep no matter how I am. I'm feeling pretty tired already"
Doc Plume helps Annika lie down again and sets the blanket over them. "If you wake up and need anything, just call out. I'll be here."
Annika: "Thanks..ah..I should be okay, but could you leave a glass of water beside the bed? That's the only thing I think I could need"
Doc Plume nods "Of course." They go over to the sink and fill a glass with water, bringing it over and setting it on the windowsill next to Annika. "I hope you sleep well."
Annika: By the time the glass was filled, and Doc had returned, Annika was already asleep, dozing gently.
Doc Plume picks up the pouch of coins on their way back to their desk and stares at it quietly as they try to not let their anger boil over.
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PLUME'S OFFICE - DAWN
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Nesseth approaches the front door of Plume's practice, wondering if they're awake or not at the moment. He leans over to the side a bit and looks at one of the windows nearby, noting a soft light coming from within the darkened two-story house. To avoid startling Plume needlessly by barging in, he instead raises a fist and gently knocks on the door, in case they're working on a patient.
Doc Plume had dozed off face down on their desk. The knock makes them start awake and almost fall out of their chair. "Huh? Who's there? Annika?"
Nesseth continues to softly knock on the front door, a sound coming from the opposite end of the office from where Plume set Annika up for the night. After a short bit, he shrugs and pulls out his key, then starts to unlock the door so he could step inside.
Doc Plume is just getting up from the desk as Nesseth opens the door. "Oh! Ness... good good... I need to talk to you..." They speak quietly, their eyes darting over to where Annika sleeps the sound sleep of the sick and injured.
Nesseth blinks as he opens the door to find Plume standing right in front of him. He's about to lean in for a quick hug, but pauses and tilts his head at Plume's low, urgent voice. He follows their gaze towards Annika's cot as he responds in a similar tone. "What's wrong?"
Doc Plume hugs Nesseth gently before walking back to their desk. "Do you know Annika? She was brought in tonight. Bad state- cuts, bruises, broken arm, unconscious..."
Nesseth hums softly at the hug, then follows Plume over to their desk. "Yeah, I know her a bit... Shy, a bit quiet." His brow slowly furrows as he casts another glance over to the cot, "What happened to her, then? Did she get mugged, or assaulted or something?"
Doc Plume shakes her head. "Supposedly she 'fell down some stairs', but she had blood and fur and cloth on her claws. This was a fight. She did fall, but it wasn't an accident. I'm sure of it. She was brought in by a Mr. Lanier... looked to be a well-to-do fox. Think I've heard the name before maybe..." They shake their head and then poke at the bulging coinpurse. "Gave me that for her 'treatment', but it's way too much. Probably thinks he can buy my silence..."
Nesseth frowns deeply and crosses his arms. "Sounds like you and I are thinking about the same. If I had to guess, she must have gotten into a big fight with someone this Mr. Lanier knows..." He sighs and shakes his head, "Damn it... May was on the dot."
Doc Plume frowns a bit. "Or Lanier himself... I didn't see much of him. Came to the back door, which I didn't know I had... should get that walled up, really..."
Nesseth seems a little taken aback, his scowl momentarily forgotten. "This place has a back door?" He pauses for a moment, and his frown returns in force, "...And Mr. Lanier knew about it?"
Doc Plume nods. They stand and take Nesseth over to where the plumbling for the autopump runs, opeing the door. "I thought it was just a closet for the magitech stuff, but there's a door at the back there... And it seems like a good way to hide a dirty secret by coming in the back..."
Nesseth follows Plume over to the autopump and peers into the room just past the plumbing, nodding when he sees the faint outline of a door on the opposite wall. "Mmh... and if Mr. Lanier knew about it, that means whatever happened has probably been going on for a while, even before Annika..." He thinks, then his eyes widen as a thought occurs, "Which means Hooktail abided by whatever Lanier asked of them and never said anything."
Doc Plume shakes their head as they close up the cramped closet again. "Maybe... I'll check his file and see, but I doubt Hooktail would put anything about stuff like that IN files..." They wash their hands again after closing up the room and sigh. "But whatever happened, whoever hurt Annika, they need to be held to account."
Nesseth nods. "Agreed. This town's supposed to be a place of respite, a place for folks to rest and maybe start anew." He sighs softly and shakes his head, "It's not some rich blighter's playground."
Doc Plume fetches a small dish from near the examination table and offers it up to Nesseth. "This is what I scraped out from under her claws. Maybe you'll find matching fabric or something..."
Nesseth hums thoughtfully as he accepts the dish and focuses on the fabric resting upon it. "Hmm... Let's see what we've got, here..."
Nesseth carefully picks up an unbloodied piece of the fabric in his fingers and runs it between his fingers, getting a feel for the material, and noting how readily it snags on his scales. "Delicate... probably silk? Rich folks, so not surprising..."
Doc Plume picks up their rough notes on Annika and reads them out. "Injury report: Small cuts on hands, arms and legs along with numerous contusions. Larger cuts requiring stitches on right forearm and right side of the head just below the ear. Clean fracture, likely tortional of both radius and ulna in left forearm. Bones set and plaster cast applied. Patient presented with disorentation and tiredness when awake."
Nesseth hums as he sets the cloth back into the dish with a little effort, the fabric clinging stubbornly to his scales for a moment. "Evidence of a scuffle, some time during which Annika either got thrown or pinned and her arm broken... Could be that she fought back, too, which resulted in the worse injuries."
Doc Plume nods a bit. "The cuts and bruises on the arms and legs are consistent with a fall down stairs, as is the broken arm if she reached out while falling and caught it somewhere. The larger cuts on the arm and face don't seem to be from the fall though."
Nesseth tilts his head. "The cuts on her arm and face, were they rough or smooth? I might be able to figure out how... serious the other party was about injuring Annika." He sighs, "If it was with claws, then it might have just been a disagreement and an accidental shove down a staircase. If it was with some kind of weapon, well... attempted murder would be the likely charge... Either way, I suppose we can't rule out the fall being on purpose, though."
Doc Plume shakes their head. "Seems like claws or blunt force..."
Nesseth hums and nods, piecing together a simple, probable chain of events in his head, though he also notes he might be jumping the gun a little. "So likely claws or fists. Some sort of disagreement happened, then..."
Doc Plume sighs and sits down at their desk again. "I suppose..." They look at Nesseth. "I don't understand why someone would treat her like that. She's super nice."
Nesseth sighs and sets the dish down on Plume's desk. "I don't know... But then, I guess some folks don't need reasons. Could have been anything from a disagreement gone horribly wrong, to petty jealousy, to... well, there are all kinds of reasons, I guess."
Doc Plume shakes their head. "I wish I could make that not happen..."
Nesseth nods. "It would be nice if we could just undo what's happened. At the least, though, I can poke around a little more and see what's going on."
Doc Plume clenches a hand into a fist. "It just... it makes me angry..."
Nesseth shakes his head as he leans against the desk a bit. "I can't say I'm at all pleased to find out someone is causing these kinds of problems in town. Much less how they got you involved in this..." His hands slowly ball into loose fists against the desk's surface, "I'm gonna try and figure out what's going on. If it's something really bad, I can get Brunilda's help."
Doc Plume nods. "Sure..." They sigh a bit. "Doesn't help that I couldn't sleep tonight..."
Nesseth tilts his head curiously, then nods in understanding. "Mmh... I had a feeling you didn't get much, if any sleep making sure Annika recovers."
Doc Plume hugs against Nesseth. "Maybe you should stay here for the rest of the night, just in case..."
Nesseth wraps his arms around Plume and hugs them close. "Feeling a bit worried, then? I can stay."
Doc Plume hugs Nesseth close and sighs. "Thank you..."