Oh Boy...

Jack appeared in the lobby of St. Mungos, helping Elijah Krum on one side of her, and helping an unconscious boy she did not know who was slowly sliding from her grip. Elijah was able to stand, but the boy was pure, limp weight and her hand slipped and he slowly landed to the ground at her feet, though she moved her foot to keep his head from hitting the ground.

She looked around, keeping as calm a demeanor as she could and she quickly helped Elijah over to the chairs, though she did not pause to help him into one, thinking he could lean against them on his own. She hurried over to the other boy and stooped, grabbing him under the arms and dragging him over to Elijah and into the chair next to him.

She turned. "Could we get some help please?" She looked back at Elijah, hurrying over to continue to support him if he needed it. She shook her head. "I always seem to show up in the nick of time, eh?" She was actually thinking she always happened to work her way into situations she would rather stay out of, once she was able to look back at them. She sighed.

Apparation did nothing for Elijah’s ribs, if anything it hurt them more. He was feeling incredibly out of breath now and that told him that he’d definitely had some rib-lung contact under there somewhere. He exhaled and couldn’t help but lean heavily against Jack. He tried to hold himself as much as possible on his good leg but he was off balance and he couldn’t feel his limbs. He could feel the pain in them but he couldn’t feel the appendages themselves which worried him slightly. This was like tissue damage from heat exposure except the other end of spectrum.

Elijah couldn’t believe he’d thrown his cigarettes away. He could have used one about now. It would have done him no good but he needed the nicotine. He’d needed it for a little over 72 hours and that was probably what spurred him to hang off of the side of the Shrieking Shack. He needed something that wasn’t sex or booze that would keep him...medicated so to speak. Adrenaline was the next best thing. Elijah was just thankful he didn’t do drugs. He didn’t want to have to deal with withdrawal on top of everything else.

The broken and battered Slytherin slipped down into the chair behind him and he gripped the arm rest with his good hand. He could see Sadie up at the reception and he knew full well she could see him. She was taking her sweet time about it too. Elijah exhaled heavily and reached over to pop a few of the buttons of his shirt open. He looked over at Dominic and stared critically at the boy. He was breathing, the great lummox. That was a good sign.

He looked at Jack and smiled, his eyes closing. Elijah tipped his head back and rested it against the back of the chair. “For your constant aid I will be eternally thankful, Jaquellene.” He said drowsily, purposely using her full name as she did his. “Maybe one day I’ll return the favour.”

Jack glanced over at her wards, the strange boy and Elijah, who she was supposed to be on good terms with, and yet always felt as though she was not. The boy had even offered to be "friends" though had done nothing to uphold the title, and Jack thought that in a few ways, this was just as well. She did not need another obligation. Still, it irked her that everyone was so fine with offering to be there for her, but when it came time to do so, they retracted their duties..

No, she was used to people leaning on her- once metaphorically, but now increasingly more literally- and she would have to learn to forget that was not all people did, that occasionally, they offered their support. Best to pretend it did not happen so she would not feel as though she was missing out. She sighed, standing next to him and crossing her arms.

He "thanked" her, though if he were truly grateful he would not be using her full name. There was being playful and there was being rude. Jack did not care who you were; if you used her real, first name, she felt that you were the later. It was bad enough to have blood connections to her parents, but to bare the pretentious name they had given her was worse in her eyes. That was why she had people call herself Jack. That was why she did not appreciate Elijah's words.

"You can start by calling me by my name that I prefer," she said, a bit dryly, a slight edge in her voice. Perhaps she was just cranky her solitude was broken, but she did not feel about being sensitive right now either. "You can also start by telling me what the hell is going on." She glanced around, saying, "Hello? Anyone?" What did you have to do to get a Healer around here?

Sadie had a particular way of walking and he couldn’t hear her. She walked like a fatter, slobbier version of her daughter and the mental mention of Camille made Elijah wonder where she and Cassidy had got to. The girls usually sniffed him out when he got himself in trouble but they’d been a bit lax lately. Where was Robert, though? Elijah kept his eyes closed an effort to combat the pain coursing through him.

His body was working overtime to not only keep himself warm but to do something about the broken bones. No one was coming to help. People were passing and glancing but they didn’t care. They were going outside, braving the snow. Elijah wanted a cigarette. No, he needed one, even if his lungs were collapsing.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a ...” Elijah trailed off and mimed a cigarette with his good arm. He dropped it back down onto the armrest and a short gust of air left his mouth.

Elijah hummed and slowly began to drift into unconsciousness. He woke when Jack spoke and he opened an eye. “Hmm..” he said distractedly. “You should start calling me Eli then...” He sighed. His speech was slurred with fatigue. “I really did love...that ... Chase...she was...I did...she didn’t trust me ... now see...an’ Dom’nic...”

Then, Elijah’s world went black.

[Cue Khaat to save the day!]

Khaat had been alterted that her ward, Elijah, had been brought in to the ER and was somehow wounded. The little paper bird had been sent from the ER to her office and it landed on her shoulder as all of the little paper birds did. The message unfolded, revealing its foreboding tidings and then disapparated it a little flick of baby blue sparks.

Khaat went downstairs to the ER without delay and fairly dragged her father from some rather tedious potion formation and made him come with her. She watched her father set an immediate "fire" under the staff to mobilize them to help the two young students who needed help and who were being neglected. Other healers were being summoned for Dominic, and both boys were taken now into treatment rooms on gurneys.

Khaat followed her father into the room where Eli had been taken. They both fell into familiar rhythms with this. Some things were just well coordinated because they needed to be. Certain things in healling needed to happen in certain orders, and it created a rhythm they had each repeated hundreds and hundreds of times. Assessments being made, vital signs and consciousness being checked,bleeding being sought, injuries or illnesses looked for. Then decisions were made, and treatment was begun.

Khaat had learned over the years to swallow her emotions when it came to treating those she loved, but Robert was still better at it than she was. Well, he had had decades more experience than she had, hadn't he? And she was Eli's guardian, and she couldn't have loved Eli more if she had given birth to him.

Her father found broken ribs, a broken leg and a broken arm. There were countless bruises--both external and internal, some mild and moderate internal injuries. Eli was going to live, but she knew that for awhile, Eli would either be stoned out of his brains on pain potions or pain spells. Or he would wish he would be. They set the fractures while he was unconscious and immobilized them. They set healing spells in place for his many injuries and then double checked them so that they were sure they didn't miss anything.

She had no idea what on earth had happened to him, but when he came conscious, she would find out. She fired off an owl to Hogwarts to notify Doyle of Eli's injuries and his necessity to be unavoidably excused from school. It would be awhile before he came back. Khaat also worried for the other boy. Once she got Eli taken care of, she had every intention of checking to be sure that the other boy who had come in with him was well tended and family notified.

Beyond that, she had every intention of planting herself with Eli until he was able to be more himself again. She made sure he was admitted and taken upstairs to the trauma wing and admitted. She was not a big fan of using spells to force someone to come conscious. She was a bigger advocate of setting healing spells inplace and letting consciousness be a gauge to tell her how her patients' healing was progressing. That meant waiting, much as she hated it. She would wait.

Jack watched as the Healers went about their business, taking Eli and then the other boy, leaving her unchecked and unnoticed. For all they knew, she could have been thrown into a terrible, hormone-driven rage and tried to murder them and then had had the conscious to bring them to the hospital. Obviously, that was not how it had happened, but still...

She sighed and wondered what she was supposed to do. She did not have an obligation to the other boy and not really to Elijah. He had muttered something about Chase though and she figured she should stay for Chase's sake, seeing as Elijah was dating her, last Jack had checked. Chase had assured Jack it was true love, aided by pregnancy of course, but still. Jack only had partial obligations to her "friend" who wasn't really a friend and to her ex-best friend who had basically killed the self confidence Jack had always been so sure of. Somehow that added to something almost substantial.

She sat at a chair, realizing she was going to have to stay whether or not she wanted to. The Healers would want to know what she knew; basically, they would wanted to know that she knew pretty much nothing. They had been at the Shrieking Shack and Elijah had been tied to a sort of gurney. There was all of her expertise on the subject. She rested her elbow on the chair, and then her chin in her hand, falling in and out of sleep, not letting herself be worried for the two boys who really had never tried to mean anything in her life. Not that she had tried any harder...

Certain people in Michael's life were just damned hard to surprise. And Robert Lupin was one of them. Michael always found Robert to be one of the more formidible gift buying challenges at Christmas. He had managed to find a couple of really unique items, but he was hoping to get Khaat's opinion on them before he had the packages wrap themselves. And he utterly refused to do wrapping. Hated it.

He walked through St. Mungos, a black leather messenger bag slung on his shoulder, having one of the staff members tell im she thought she had seen Director Lupin heading for the ER a short while back. He saw the ER lobby was mostly empty today, but his eyes fell on a familiar face there. He frowned. She seemed to be dozing. From what he could see, she didn't appear to be obviously hurt, but that didn't mean much

"Jack," Michael called gently. "What are you doing here?"

Jack heard her name and immediately jerked awake. "They were at the Shrieking Shack." She blinked multiple times and shook her head, trying to focus. Finally she found that she was looking at Michael Tremaine, her pranking master of sorts. She rubbed her eyes, realizing how deep her stupor must have been to not recognize Michael.

She sighed and shook her head, looking up. "Oh nothing. I just have a knack for being an the right place at the right time just in time to be the hero." She grimaced and shook her head, feeling very unfortunate about this. Others may think it was great to be the go to person. Try living that life, though. She said, "I stumbled upon two classmates in a sticky situation. They're getting fixed up now."

He sat with her. "Well, then, Khaat is most likely tied up as well. I might as well wait with you. Were you hurt?" He didn't see anything blatantly obvious, but that didn't mean a thing. "You do seem to have an uncanny talent at timing, don't you? Well, that's certainly a double edged sword. I know how that feels. That seems to happen to more than I like, so I can sympathize. I hope your friends are going to be alright. I have found, though, that the quality of the services here has drastically improved. Not that I'm biased or anything." He repressed the impulse to smile. He trusted his goddaughter and his friend. He didn't trust easily, but he did trust them.

"You in the mood for a cup of tea or a cup of coffee? I know where Khaat and Robert keep the good stuff," he smiled at her warmly. She looked like she needed a friend right now.

Jack listened to his words and shook her head saying, "Nope, I was just a witness so I'm not hurt." She knew how dreadful it would be fr her to get injured. What with Potter's Army to teach, the Quidditch team to lead, and the Triwizard Tournament... She was not sure that she would be able to survive any major injuries at this juncture of her life.

Without being able to help herself, she said, "They are not my friends." It may have seemed rude or harsh, but she had determined it to be the truth. She said it as though this did not bother her- which it did not, much- and nodded her head slightly, drumming her fists against her knees. Michael asked if she wanted to go get coffee. Jack was not a coffee person, but she was a distraction person. She said, "Yes, please."