Breaking Silence

Khaat had done what she could in the meantime to help her father be a bit more comfortable, using cushions and pillows off his office sofa. At his request, she had poured him a glass of firewhiskey and put it next to his hand. She was quiet, all business, working--and avoiding trying to be angry with him now that her fear was wearing off.

"You are being a trifle protective, my dear," he told her, noticing her mood. "Well done, Atticus. I take it you were not seen. Good."

"Shut it," she snapped at him. He cracked an amused smile. She was an odd blend of him, her mother, and of Remus--and at the moment, she reminded him of her mother. He wanted to laugh, but he decided to try to stifle it.

She opened the kit and found the standard disinfectant potion. She managed to pour some on a clean cloth and began to clean the wounds. She was carefully inspecting each and every one. They were deep. She knew he wasn't going to be easily walking on that leg for awhile, but--on the positive site--he had managed to somehow avoid one of her worst fears. She sighed with relief, as serious as this was, it could have been so much worse.

"Shall I say I told you?" he asked her.

"You're still bleeding, and my magic is still questionable."

"I'd rather keep my leg, thank you," he said. "Atticus, your wand. If you do precisely as I tell you, I think you can do this. We will first try to mend the blood vessels to stop the bleeding and restore the blood supply. If you want this to be effective, you may find it helpful to visualize vessels mending, much like electrical wires being restored. Concentrate. The spell is 'Subsisto', with a flick of the wrist like Wingardium Leviosa. Now--you try. The worst that can happen is that it simply might not work, so don't be afraid of it. And don't be afraid to have to cast it more than once, under the circumstance. You should see the vessels mend and the bleeding slowing, if it works."

Atticus listened to the exchange between father and daughter, still knelt down beside the two of them. Khaat seemed to be extremely upset with her father and even though he didn't know what exactly happened to Robert, he would've been too if he'd seen his father in the same condition. He waited until his name was said again to even talk, knowing that if he was needed they would tell him.

He nodded to Robert and took his wand out of his robe pocket and listened to the instructions given to him. He held his wand above Robert's leg and visualized his vessels mending before he did anything. He exhaled softly and looked down at Robert's bloody leg.

Okay, I hope this works. he thought. Flicking his want the way he would if he was performing Wingardium Leviosa, he said, "Subsisto." It was his first time using the spell so it didn't work well the first time. Nothing seemed to happen. Atticus sighed and tried again. Flicking his wand once more, he said "Subsisto." This time the spell worked and his vessels began to mend and the bleeding ceased.

"Oh, well done," Khaat said, watching the blood vessels start to close. She poured a dose of pain potion in the glass of firewhiskey and handed it to her father. "Drink."

"I chose to remain alert for a bit," he said, thinking of business first.

"I didn't tell you to drink the whole thing," she said. "Take the edge off, at least."

"Oh, very well," he surrendered to her, taking a drink. He enjoyed the occasional good firewhiskey anyway. He felt the blood starting to pound through his veins in his leg again, and as painful as it was at first, it was a welcome sign. "Circulation is good?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, "It's pinking up again." His skin was returning to its normal color as the spell stopped the bleeding. "Now, Atticus, we need one more spell to start to mend the damaged tissue from the inside out. Its the same motion, but the spell this time is 'Renovo.' Once we do that, if it goes well, we're going to clean it again and dress and bandage it. Its the next bit that is going to be the hard part--getting him to stay off it."

"You know very well I can't do that," he said firmly. "There is a walking stick that was given to me several months ago in my office closet. That will simply have to do for now. There is no other choice."

Atticus's mind had wandered off a bit to other things that were occupying his mind as Khaat and Robert spoke to each other. He wasn't exactly sure of what they were talking about now that he was thinking about other things but he quickly remembered that he needed to focus on what was going on in the room right now. He could focus on whatever other matters he had afterwards, right now what mattered was getting Robert fixed up.

He shook his head slightly and cleared his throat as Khaat started explaining what else he had to do to put the finishing touches on what he was doing. Atticus thought that this time things would a be a little bit since he'd already gotten one spell done and the second one was normally a bit easier for him. He waved his wand over Robert's leg again and said, "Renovo." He lowered his wand shortly after and looked at Khaat.

"Okay, I think that should work." he told them, sighing a bit. At least that had gone well. He'd been a little scared that the spells wouldn't work. If they hadn't he wasn't sure what he would've done.

"Very good," Khaat said. "It should heal nicely now. Thank you Atticus." She managed to dress and wrap her father's leg securely. She got up and went over to the closet and got the walking stick and brought it to her father. She offered him her good hand.

"No thank you," Robert said. "I'll do it." She watched him pull himself up, knowing that it had to hurt. He snapped his fingers at the equipment on the floor to set it to cleaning itself up. He looked at her and then at Atticus. "You do know we need to talk about this. Right?"

"What is there to talk about?" Khaat asked, all business again.

Her father ignored her, looking at Atticus. "The protection spells on Khaat's estate were breeched tonight. We were attacked, Atticus. Its the second we've had. Khaat was wounded in the last attack. Its why I ran out of what medical supplies I had there.

"I'm presuming I'm not the only casualty, most likely. I don't know if this is random or if they're targeting my family for some reason. There is always a risk to someone in my position. I really need to keep this very quiet for awhile.

"It's easy enough to hide this when only one of us is hurt, but in my family's position, its almost impossible to hide when its both of us. I hate to bring you into this, but I definitely need your help. I can't have a mass panic happening if it isn't necessary."

She looked at her father. It wasn't that she didn't trust Atticus. It was merely that they normally didn't take outsiders that deep into their inner circle because of the very high risk that it typically eventually caused to anyone who came that close. He was giving up a lot to Atticus. But he was asking a lot of him as well.

Two attacks in which the two of them were hurt probably wasn't a coincidence. As he listened, something told Atticus that it wasn't an accident that the two of them were hurt. Something told him that they were the targets and by the look of Robert's wound, this attack was meant to possibly kill. He wasn't sure about Khaat's wound, but it was most likely the same case.

Now that Robert was asking for his help, Atticus felt a bit of worry rush over him. If these attacks kept happening, and now that he knew about what was going on, maybe because of that he would be more likely to be attacked as well. He figured it was a long shot though and he cleared his throat.

"I'll help with whatever I can." he said. "Just tell me whatever it is that you need." he added.

Even if he were to be attacked, it wouldn't change that he was going to help them with whatever they needed. Besides the fact that it was his job to help, Atticus just didn't want anyone else to figure out what was happening who shouldn't and causing some kind of panic.

Her father took his place at his desk, and Khaat put the potion glass in front of him. Khaat didn't like the risk to Atticus even knowing, but now her father had spilled it.

"We must not let this get out that she and I are both wounded," Robert said. "We're going to have to work different shifts for awhile to try to avoid both of us being seen. If we're both so obviously inconvenienced, people will be speculating quickly."

"And their guess might well be right," she said to her father. "They're going to presume we're in some sort of trouble, and we are."

"Yes. We are," he agreed. "But, we don't know if anyone else is or not. Now, Atticus--you need to become a rather accomplished liar when it comes to our whereabouts. Be prepared to cover for us whether we're here or whether we're not. We will have to try to isolate ourselves in our offices.

"The fact is," Robert continued. "Khaat's shoulder was badly broken and a lot of tissue was damaged there. Its going to be a long time before she can move it again. Presumably my leg will heal a great deal faster. We'll have to wait and see. However, I need to know abut any injuries involving any magical creatures from here on out. I want copies of the reports immediately--whether it is a human who is injured or the creature. I need to see if there is a pattern.

"We need a reason why you're injured," Khaat said. "Perhaps normal clumsiness for a man your age?"

He immediately shot her a dirty look. "No one in their right mind would believe that," he said. "No matter how much little bit of evil pleasure that might give you. Any more than your broken shoulder was due to hormones."

"Do you have any sort of ideas that you think might work, Atticus?" Khaat asked. "You're going to have to be comfortable with whatever we use."

"That won't be a problem." Atticus assured Robert. "I'll be able to come up with some kind of lie for both of your whereabouts." he added.

Lying came easy to Atticus, though he never really liked to or wanted to lie about much. There were times when he needed to, and other times when he just did it to get out of something. But that was still not something he liked to do.

Robert said he wanted reports on all cases with a magical creature involved. Atticus nodded, "I'll gather any I can find and I'll give them to you immediately." he assured the man.

"Well, the only reasons I can think of are some type of fall, a sport injury of some sort or stress fractures?" he suggested. Some might not be of much use but he gave whatever suggestions came to mind.

They both paused when Atticus made his suggestion and then without much more thinking, they both said simultaneously, "Sports."

"That works very well," Robert said. "Her husband is a trainer for aurors. He is a relentless physical trainer. They work out together every morning from 5 til 6 am. He pushes his staff for all they're worth. Minor injuries are pretty common. So, my dear," he looked at her, "I would suggest either horseback riding or perhaps climbing."

"Climbing. I'm not very good at it," she said. "And you? Not the old man excuse?"

"No," he said dryly.

"Then how about your hippogriff kicked you? He can be a buggar."

"If you get in his way, yes. He can be."

"He's a lot like you," she teased, patting his cheek. He laughed at her sarcasm. He made a list of medical supplies that he wanted for the house. He didn't know how many more people were injured but he wasn't going to go home without more supplies. He tore the list off the scratchpad.

"Can you gather these without entrusting this list to anyone else?" Robert asked. "Its liable to look like I'm starting my own infirmary if it gets out. I'd send Khaat but her injury has somehow short circuited her magic somewhat. If she tries to shrink this stuff to fit in my bag, I'm liable to find my bag full of all sort of tacky looking hats or something. When her magic goes wonky, you never know what you're going to get."

"I can gather it up, but he's right. I probably shouldnt' shrink it," she said to Atticus. "That might be bad."

"One more thing you should know," Robert told Atticus, "Brian and Khaat have almost the same levels of protection spells that we have around the secured units of this hospital. And we were definitely breeched. We cannot trust that if they want Khaat or me badly enough, they might well come here looking for us. I'm well aware that your house was Slytherin, and I have no issue with that. But I don't want you hurt because they'd be looking for us. Is there any reason whatsoever why I should not draw a dark arts practitioner spell around our work area up here so that it keeps anyone with dark arts intentions away from you?"

With the security seeming to be breached everywhere, Atticus knew that he would be a target soon enough. Even if he didn't know anything he might as well be a target for anyone who wanted to get to Khaat or Robert.

Even if he did though, he would be able to fend for himself. He'd excelled quite a bit at Defense Against the Dark Arts. That didn't mean he wasn't exposed though, it was obvious that the classes weren't enough though but it would help him if he were to be attacked.

Atticus took the paper from Robert and nodded. "I can gather these. It shouldn't be a problem." he told them both.

"If you think it's the best option you can do it." he said. "I should be able to hold anyone off for a bit, but I think it would be better to prevent anything before it happens."