Reliving what you once had

"Not good."

Jake hurried down to the Creature Containment and Research Center. There had been some sort of accident where a couple of unicorns had gotten hurt. Jake bit his lip, there was one that was very hurt and in critical condition and one that was out of harm's way. He wasn't sure what had happened, but it all seemed to be an accident caused by unsteady surroundings.

There seemed to be some kind of landslide in the area where the unicorns were located and they were basically buried underneath everything that had fallen. There were some minor bruises and scratches on them, as the report he received stated, but one of them seemed to have a sprained or broken hoof. That's why he was headed down there now.

There were many others who could've gotten this assignment, but he went down since he was one of the two specialists who was studying unicorn patterns right now. The other was Veronica Marybel, he remembered her from Hogwarts, they'd been friends and graduated at the same time - he still wasn't all that happy about being held back a year with Callin and Mary - but after that they sort of lost contact.

It wasn't much help with Jake changing jobs as often as he had. She had joined the department recently, as when he had first become a Beast Specialist, she wasn't there. Of course he had changed careers twice before he came back to the Department. From being a professor at Hogwarts to becoming an Auror.

But he was glad to be back at the Department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. That was where he felt at home. He entered the Creature Containment and Research Center and was led to the paddock where the two unicorns were. He asked the intern who had come with him to get Veronica, as he felt she would be needed in this case right now, and he got to work with healing the unicorn in worst condition.

Veronica had been reading a book that had some information on unicorns and brushing up on a few things when an intern urgently appered. It wasn't long before the girl was rushing din to the paddock where they had kept the unicorns and where jake Collins was working to save them. "What's going on?" She asked out of breath and her hair falling out of the meet bun she had put it in before comeing to work that morning. The nineteen yearold hadn't let the intern explain why she was needed but had hurried down to see was the matter. "What do you need me to do?" She had come ready to help and prepared to work.

Jake was working on tending to the injuries of the more severely injured unicorn when Veronica walked in asking what was going on. The intern he had sent to get her walked in behind the girl and Jake nodded toward him. The intern nodded back and allowed Jake to continue working on the unicorn's injuries.

"There was a landslide in the area where these unicorns are believed to reside and they were injured." the intern began to explain. "The one that Mr. Collins -" Jake cleared his throat - he hated when people called him Mr. Collins - "I mean Jake, is working on healing is the one that was more severely injured."

The intern indicated to the other unicorn that stood about a foot and a half away from the one Jake was tending to. It was older and female, meaning that it must be the mother of the younger one. It stomped its hoof on the floor and threw its head back, watching Jake gently take care of her foal.

"You might want to start treating the injuries of this one. If it is left untreated for too long, the scratches and cuts might get infected and it'll be that much harder to heal it." Jake spoke softly, never taking his eyes off of the young foal he was tending to. The twenty year old was wrapping the foal's leg up, trying to clot the bleeding from the large gash on the leg.

"Go get one of our Healers for this. I can't do much else, they're going to have to heal the broken leg themselves." he told the intern. The younger boy nodded and rushed out of the paddock to look for one of the Magical Creature Healers.

Veronica glared at the Inter, She hadn't asked him to answer her, she had inquired answered from Jake. "Okay," She said moving slowly towards the mother. "Hey," She spoke quietly holding out her hand not wanting to startle the creature. "let me look at you while my friend cares for your foal." She said in almost a whisper. She moved over to the creature and looked over its cuts. "It's going to be okay, My friend is going to take good care of your child while i tend to you." she said stroking the unicorns neck and looked her over. "shhh," she said soothingly tending to the cuts she saw being careful not to hurt her anymore than she already was.

Jake looked up just in time to see Veronica glaring at the intern. He smirked, stifling his laughter. Most people didn't like having to hear interns giving them directions. It made it seem like the interns knew more than they did. That was one of the reasons Jake always had his interns doing things like that for him. But also because it helped them get used talking to people in the department.

As the girl went over to the mother unicorn, he was still knelt down beside the foal and he watched Veronica for a few moments before the foal seemed to become uncomfortable for some reason and started to become restless. As a result the mother began to stomp her hooves on the floor and the foal neighed softly.

The twenty year old glanced at the foal and knew it wanted to be closer to its mother. The mother wanted her baby near her as well; Jake carefully and gently moved the foal slowly closer to its mother and the two of them settled down. Even with its injuries, the mother lowered her head to her foal and gently licked its cheek. Jake smiled and looked at the hurt hoof of the foal.

It had started bleeding again and he swore under his breath quietly, before kneeling down and trying to clot the bleeding once more. He took his wand out and used a few minor healing spells he'd learned - Jake babbled in Magical Creature Healing - and he managed to stop the bleeding again.

Veronica hadn't done much with the actual healing part of her job yet and could only do what she would have done for her siblings when they had fallen down and scraped their knee or something. Ronny had been watching Jake out of the corner of her eye as she worked on cleaning up the cuts, "There we go, that's better isn't it?" she spoke to the mother unicorn and smiled warmly at it. It was unusual to see this girl smile but there she was her hand running across it's back and over the cuts on her legs.
Veronica looked down at Jake, "There isn't much more i can do to tend to these cuts besides bandage them." She said quietly, "I was never good with charms or Transfiguration, so healing does not come easy."

"Yeah, there isn't much I can do either." he finally spoke to the girl, in response to her statement. As much as he hated having to leave something half way done\, he couldn't do anything else for the unicorns. One of the healers in the department would have to heal them.

"We'll just have to wait until the intern comes back with the healer I sent him to get." he added, still kneeling down, carefully observing the large gash on the foal's leg. Something sharp must've been in the landslide that caused that. Jake became a bit skeptical of where the unicorns had been found and he sighed.

Getting back up, the ex-Gryffindor made a mental note of sending someone to check the are out - if he couldn't go himself that is. Glancing at Veronica, Jake grinned slightly to see how she was reacting with the mother unicorn and how it was reacting to her. The man cleared his throat and tried to make conversation with her, he figured he'd basically ignored her enough, "So... How's life been outside of Hogwarts for you, Ronny?" he asked.

"It's been good I guess," Veronica answered Jake her hand idly moving across the unicorns coat. She hadn't done anything different for the past two years that she had done when she was in Hogwarts so she didn't really know how to answer his question. "How has it been to you?" She asked pushing a loose strand of hair out of her face and looking up at Jake. It had been a while since she had seen him, but he hadn't seemed to have changed to much since that time. She looked down at the foul and wished there was something more she could do something more for the little unicorn and knelt next to the animal to pet it like she had been doing its mother.

The foal seemed to be a lot more comfortable than it had been before, thanks to the spells he'd used to somewhat heal its injuries. Running his hand gently over the foal's neck, he thought about his decision to come back to the Department. Seeing how much better the foal felt, Jake knew he'd made the right choice. The other two jobs he'd had were fun, he would admit they were very... interesting, but he wouldn't change this job for either of them again.

"Pretty good I suppose." he answered her question, before pondering lightly on it. After graduating Hogwarts, he lost most contact with his best friends, but he'd been able to get a career. Yeah, it'd been pretty good. He wished he could meet up with Calin and Mary though. The last thing he'd hear from the two of them was that they were going out now. Jake always knew they had a thing for each other, he chuckled softly to himself at the thought and looked at Veronica. "I've had a few career changes, but ended up back here." he finished his previous sentence.

"Sounds way more interesting than mine," Veronica said, "After I graduated I stayed home to care for my two younger siblings on the summers. Then I came here just a while back." she explained quietly stroking the foul. "I was starting to regret it but today has made me sure that i want to stay here for a while." She looked back up at Jake and tilted her head to the side. "What were your other two jobs?" she asked. Normally she wouldn't be so kind or open to people but she had known Jake for a while. If she remember correctly they were once friends. Or she had at least been closer to him than she had been to anyone outside of her family. "Is there anything else we can do for them?" there was a bit of concern in her tone the same concern she would have had if one of her siblings were hurt.