Codes and Oaths

Marcus carried the limp, blood covered figure into St. Mungos emergency room. She was unrecognizable at first glance. Her left shoulder was crushed, and her throat looked like someone had tried to rip it from her. She was covered in blood. Belby, her bodyguard, had taken a deep, nasty flesh wound to his left upper arm in his efforts to protect her. The last he'd checked her, she was still alive, but he didn't know by how much. Or if she had passed away in his efforts to get her away from the beast and get her here.

"Need some help here!" he bellowed. He found an empty gurney in the hallway and laid her on it. He checked her for a pulse. It was still there--sketchy, but it was there. He saw some signs that she was come semi conscious again. He tapped her cheek softly. He saw her open her eyes for a moment before they flickered shut again, and she tried to speak to him again. It was a whisper.

He bent close to hear her. It was that word again. That one word. She was desperate for him to hear it. It made no more sense now than it had in the alley. He knew the word, but it appeared to be completely out of context here.

"I've got it, Khaat," he told her. "I swear. But I'm not going to need it. You're not going anywhere. I promise."

Sophia was in her office doing the last bit of paperwork to release Bertie Nogard and send him back to Hogwarts. About to finish the last bit of it, Hannah busted into her office with terror in her eyes. "Hannah what's going?"Sophia asked her softly as she stood up from her desk. "I-it's Khaat, she's here and she's badly injured!" "What?!?"Sophia asked in a shock voice as she followed Hannah downstairs to the emergency room.

"Oh my god, what the hell happened to her?"Sophia asked. "Someone get me a strecher now please?"Sophia asked as Hannah nodded and ran to get one. Sophia was trying to remain calm, but on the inside she was freaking out. Pointing her wand at Khaat she muttered. "Scourgify." cleaning her off to see what damage was on her body.

As Hannah came back with a strecher Sophia looked at Marcus. "Can you place her on the strecher please?"Sophia asked him softly.

Marcus was glad to see a healer coming. He complied with her request. He felt Khaat wrap her fingers around his wrist. She was still conscious somehow and still trying to keep a tight hold on Marcus. He looked back down at her.

"Marcus, no..." she said, barely audible. He got her drift. She was still trying to keep this under control, trying to keep it quiet about the monster that, up til now, had appeared to only be after Lupins. The beast's plan had clearly shifted, and it was beyond her now to keep it secret anymore.

"I've got this," he told her, still calm, still all business. "Let me deal with this." He looked up at the healer. "She was attacked by a werewolf. I don't know if there will be any more victims or not. He's still on the loose."

The woman called Hannah looked at the healer. "I just saw Brian Quinn in the security office a few minutes ago. If you need another healer to help you, I can get him for you, Sophia."

Marcus figured Khaat's husband would want to be here, but he wasn't sure if seeing Khaat like this was exactly Brian's cup of tea or not.

Sophia looked at Marcus and nodded. "Yes Marcus that would be nice, I don't think I can do this by myself!"said Sophia honestly. She quite honestly refused to do this by herself, it was just to terrible to look at. Sophia dealt with healing people all the time, but when it came to healing a friend she always tend to lose it. "We might need Brian in here, although I don't think he's going to be happy when he sees this!"said Sophia honestly. "That's if he doesn't already know."Sophia added.

"We might need to get other healers in this as well, I think I seen Andrew down the hall I think he can help out as well."said Sophia. She was trying to get as much healers as possible to help Khaat out. It looked like a major operation that they had to do, and Sophia was skilled but not as skilled as Brian was. "Marcus get Brian please and quick please!"said Sophia looking down at Khaat.

"Your going to be ok Khaat, just hang in there we got you!"said Sophia softly. Getting out her wand she flicked it at Khaat mumbling "Subsisto Crudus." stopping any bleeding she was having. Sophia was going to help Khaat as much as she could before Brian came.

Hannah saw that Khaat was trying to cling to Marcus.  She looked at Soph.  

"I'll go," Hannah said. "I'll get him."  She left in a hurry and took a couple of short cuts to Brian's office.

"Brian," Hannah said. "You...need to come.  Right now."

Brian looked up as she spoke and heard the hesitance in her voice. He saw the look on her face. This was news about someone he loved, and it wasn't good.

"Who is it, Hannah?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know, getting up from his desk.

"It's Khaat.  Brian--she...well,...she might bleed out.  Its...not pretty."

"I'm used to all kinds of not pretty," he said calmly, partly to steady himself. His first couple steps were an even, calm stride but his own fear of losing her took over and he soon found himself running.  

He spun the corner and his running shoes slid.  He grabbed hold of the doorway of the treatment room where he laid eyes on her.

"Oh, God," he said softly.  He saw her still trying to clutch to Marcus and saw Soph there trying to stabilize her.  "Marcus, report," he ordered.  "Soph, I want to help."

"It was James," Marcus said.

"James," Brian frowned, going to Khaat and starting to check her vital signs. "That's not possible. Are you sure?"

"Completely," Marcus said. "He's flipped his plan. He's not just after your family.  He's broadened his scope. I...suggest you seek the Deputy Minister, Sir, immediately."

"Elijah Krum will find out when I get time to send for him," Brian  said.  "Throat...shoulder...heavy blood loss, tissue damage, bone damage...cartilage, ligaments...This is going to need surgery. Life support...We need more healers. Hannah, get a surgery suite ready and a full team.. This is going to take time."  Brian didn't know if Khaat even had any time left for surgery. It was a judgement call. Did he try to save her, or did he keep her comfortable and have a few moments to talk to her--to say a whole lifetime of things to her in a moment or two?

"Daddy..." Khaat tried to call for Robert, and Brian knew why. Robert had the skills to deal with this. Brian wasn't sure he himself did.  But Robert wasn't coming.  They'd have to do this without Robert.  He nodded to Marcus, hoping Marcus would just comfort her. Brian needed his hands and couldn't do any hand holding at the moment, as much as he wanted to.  Then he noticed Marcus's own bleeding wound that was in Marcus's upper left arm.

"Somebody patch him up," Brian said. "I need him."

"I'll survive, Sir," Marcus said.

"You will, but I can't have you buggering up my sterile field in the operating room. You can't be 'leaking' in there," Brian said.  "Soph, I need you. I can't do this without you. She'll die if we don't have a full team."

He was sure he was going to need a healer to provide a life support spell for her so the rest of them could finish the surgery.  He looked at Khaat. He knew that she was well aware her time might be running out, and he needed her to have hope, to fight, to try.  

He leaned over her and brushed her blood soaked hair from her face. He kissed her forehead slowly, lovingly. "I'm here," he said to her softly.  He saw her try to shake her head, not wanting him to try.  His words to her now were slow and deliberate so she could not miss them. "Trust. Me," he said with all the love and affection he could muster, looking straight into her eyes. Her fingers tightened around Marcus's. She knew Brian was taking the choice from her. He was deciding to fight.  He wasn't going to let her go that easily.  Her eyes fluttered shut as she weakened.

Brian looked at Soph.  "We're going on this," he told her. He wasn't going to just let his wife lay there and die. He was going to try whatever surgery he knew to keep her alive.  "Soph, you find whoever else you can. We're going to need them." He looked at Marcus. "I need you there. You better not faint."

"Yes, Sir," Marcus said.

"Hannah," Brian said. "Send back to my house. Her mother...needs to know. And then find Elijah Krum. Tell him there's been a second assassination attempt in less than a month. Tell him someone's tried to kill the Chief Warlock. I'll have more information for him after the surgery. Let's prep her and then go."

Jess appeared  out in the corridor her face like thunder and meaning business with her sleeves of the  scrubs were pulled back and as she washed and walked in. Jess nodded to the other healer as she placed her hands on Khaat slowing the bleeding as she noted Sophie had done. “Nice work Sophia, keep your hands here and maintain the flow of energy it helps the healing you can let go once they come for her.” she said on hearing Brian she called out. “O.R 3 Dammit !!” she said “ its free and their waiting for her.” She motioned for two other healers to take her down while she looked at Sophia. She then moved to Marcus looking at his gashed arm, she sent a light sleep spell to him so she could work on him. “ we need to close the wound” Jess turned all her knowledge on him making sure the flesh began to close and continued once she was happy she placed a dressing on it then gently moved his arm to across his shoulder and placed it in a sling “ it'll need you to redress it ever  hour until its fully healed.

Jess moved to Brian “ right I have to check on Khaat stay here and for god sake don't tell Jack what happened” she looked at him “ I know wear strikes when I see it, I hope to god he didn't do too much damage” she said and headed down to the O.R. Jack and Jim walked in not long after. Jack sniffed a faint trace lingered he recognised that sent his blood boiling but he just shook it off.

“God Marcus, what did we tell you about going into a fight with out us” he said moving over to him and sighing as he glanced at Brian he knew who had done it but choose not to do anything yet. “ hows Khaat?” he asked concern sitting in his voice as he looked at him.

Hallie had been in a world of her own lately. She'd arrived late to work, although it seemed barely anyone was in the auror office when she'd arrived, which wasn't unusual. The aurors were usually out and about on some sort of case.

Walking to her cubicle, Hallie dropped into her desk. Yet again there was a stack of files up to her eyes about the marriage law. People who didn't seem oblidged to follow the law, more forms needing to be distributed. There was the odd interesting case about a leaky cauldron that had been sold illegally and injured someone - that was her main case. To investigate the matters. It was a very basic, simply case, not the kind of case Hallie wanted. Hallie had visioned the auror role to be fun, outgoing, adventerous, out in the world catching dark wizards. Of course, she kept having to remind herself she was still in training.

Although she had declined the promotion that Elijah Krum offered in according with her compliance to the marriage law Hallie was secretly regretting taking it. In the meeting she'd been noble, flat out refused to jump the ladder without her displaying talent. She had wanted to earn the hit wizard position. Now? Perhaps she would have rejected the bribe again, that was the kind of person she was.

Hallie looked up. She was alone in the office. Right now all she wanted to do was sleep, she hadn't slept much lately. Most of her nights involved the trainee auror thinking about her future, contemplating whether Theodore would ever change a napy, whether her children would be able to attend Hogwarts if he was headmaster. Well, she certainly wouldn't be sending them to Durmstrang. The dark arts rumours never faded.

Flicking through her heavy file on cauldron laws a sudden wailing alarmed her. It was a distress alarm. Wait. IT WAS THE DISTRESS ALARM! Hallie's heart began to beat like a rampaging rhinoceres trapped inside her rib cage. Something terrible must have happened that requiring auror attention, immediatly!

Pulling her wand from her robes Hallie sprang from her desk, knocking a cup of tea over as she did so, and hurtled towards the fireplace. Grabbing a handful of floo powder she dropped it into the flames. Hallie knew she wouldn't have to say a location the alarm would know where to send her, it was one of the many magical mysteries.

CRASH. Hallie had fallen out of one of the St Mungo fire places, ash covering her robes and clinging to the end strands of her ponytail. St Mungo's? What was going on here? Then her eyes caught sight of Khaat Lupin. Bleeding, bleeding to death.

The way the blood escaped her body was like the way the blood had escaped Maura's. Nothing good ever came out of St Mungo's, the only times she'd ever been there was when someone was bleeding out and dying and here she was again, with someone bleeding out and dying.

'The alarm was raised?' Hallie asked, not knowing what had happened and hoping someone could inform her. 'What's happened?' She asked anyone who would listen to her as she swept across the room to the nearest person she could see. Hallie wasn't sure exactly what to do, it was a new situation for the auror who'd only been in training just over a month and a half. She'd have to rely on instinct. Instinct and raw, natural talent.

(ooc: wasn't sure what the distress alarm would be like so I kind of just used my imagination, hope it's okay haha)

(ooc note: sorry for the weird looking post, but I had a choice of a bezillion posts that were under word count to have all my folks reply...or one really weird looking one. So, for all my poor writing, my apologies, All.)

"I'm not telling Jack anything," Brian said to Jess, as he worked swiftly. "But it would be best if he didn't see this, I'm guessing. I'll drape those wounds before we go upstairs so we don't have people fainting or hurling in the hallways. But, Jess, I need Belby up and functioning. He's going with us into surgery. This is an attempted murder. I want him to kill anyone who doesn't have a right to be there. So, you do whatever you need to do. But get him up and moving right now.

"And I am going to need one of you to keep a constant watch on her vital signs and provide life support as necessary. I will deal with the damage to her throat. I'm going to need a second team to work on her shoulder. Stop the bleeding. Remove all the crushed bone. Remove irrepairable muscles and tissues. We'll have to regenerate as much as we can. Set what broken bones you can, and we're going to pray that Robert eventually heals enough to go back in and re-operate to fix what we can't do. You all know the plan? We're going to have to do as best we can in as short a time as we can. If we take too long, the stress of surgery could kill her unless we compensate with a great deal of spells and potions work."

Marcus saw Jack and Jim come in. "This is nothing," Marcus said, worried for Khaat. "You do know we didn't go to fight. She was only picking up paperwork to do at home. We were only a couple of steps to the back kitchen door at Sparks. James has changed his plans. He's not after just the Lupins anymore. He and his pack are out to turn every human being to a werewolf or kill them. He told us that flat out."

Marcus was quiet for a moment and looked at them both before speaking. "You both need to know. She's critical. I've seen a lot of wounds in my time. Unless the healers are on their best efforts tonight, she doesn't stand much of a chance. We owe it to her mother to tell her and give her a chance to be here--just in case."

In the other room, Khaat wasn't hearing much of anything unless they worked to get her attention. The traumatic shock was making her dazed. She caught a glimpse of something out of her right eye and she looked to see nothing but white walls. She blinked and was sure she was the faint image of Remus. No one else seemed to see him, not that she could tell, because they seemed to keep walking through him.

Rude of them, she thought. She looked into Remus's face, and he seemed to give her his funny little smile with the half twist. He seemed to be calm and at ease. He gave her a very slight nod. It felt reassuring to her, as if he were saying he had not come to take her 'home.' Did he mean that she might survive? She blinked again and the thin, faded vision of Remus was gone. Had he ever been there at all? Or was it some function of being so badly hurt? She wasn't sure.

Marcus glanced out the open door of his treatment room. He saw a young woman arrive, looking rattled and a more than a bit flustered. He'd seen the look entirely too many times to not recognize it.

"Newbie auror," Marcus said to Jack and Jim. "I remember feeling that lost, back in the day." From his place, sitting on the treatment table in the room next to Khaat's, Marcus gave a whistle to her.

"Oi," he called her. "New kid! I activated the alarm. I'm probably the one you want to talk to right now. Me-- and these other two blokes here. Come in."

Hallie turned at the sound of a whistle and someone calling her, a middle aged to elderly man. Why would he have called the alarm? Clearly something bad had happened but what exactly Hallie was clueless too, unless it was another attack? She remembered reading about the one in the daily prophet. If that was the case then it would certainly up the exceitment in her life. This was the sort of cases Hallie had been looking forward to ever since she knew being an auror is what she wanted to do.

'Hi, My names Hallie. Hallie Cooper.' Hallie greeted them, holding back a smile. Would it appear rude to smile? Given that something traumatic had happened? Or Hallie believed had happened, knowing her luck it would be something a dull as the dishwater used to rinse out the leaking cauldron.