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Carter stayed on the ground, never moving his eyes from the sky above him, even as he heard the brief exchanging of words between Keith and Ace. He listened intently, and had to stop himself from openly cursing at Keith; he'd given her a hint which, in a way, was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Carter felt his eyelids close and the darkness that came with it was almost comforting, were it not for the raw burns on his back. He'd probably gotten stones stuck in them by now, but he scarcely noticed. Louie would probably wash them out when he came out to fetch them. He would've gotten up by himself, but that last technique had sapped whatever little strength he held onto after his fight with Ace. He wasn't one for his stamina, to say the least. It came as no surprise to him, even after his power boost.
His eyes only reopened when he heard a familiar voice directly next to him. "Hey um..." Henrietta spoke, and Carter met her gaze without hesitation. It was in that moment that the pain vanished, and all his attention was focused on the familiar person hovering slightly over him. She quickly looked away and he frowned in embarrassment, feeling the heat of a blush on his cheeks. "I miss you," she continued, and Carter nodded. He didn't attempt a smile, as he was already putting immense effort into not looking surprised. He'd have thought that she'd hate him after all this time and after what happened between them all, but he'd been wrong about that. He didn't even have time to respond before she limped off, and Carter took that moment to try to lift himself up.
Carter started by heaving a sigh and rolling onto his front, his face mushed into the concrete, before he brought his arms to his head and pushed his weight with all his strength. With a pained grunt, he tucked his knees in and used both ends to push himself to a standing position. He stood on shaky legs, but stayed upright regardless. Then came the awkward task of taking the steps towards Louie's home, which he seemed to handle adequately well.
~
Louie looked up from his desk when he heard his front door opening, and his eyes finally dragged themselves towards the teenager stood in his living room. "Thank you," he spoke in a smooth voice, "You are dismissed." At this, the teen awkwardly bowed his head and scuffled out of the room, then down the hall and past the girl leaning against the doorframe.
With a heavy sigh, he stood and shifted his chair backwards in the same second, then quietly walked around the desk as he heard his name being called. "Yes, yes," he called, "I'm coming." He walked without urgency, despite having been informed of the fight between the four disciples some time before they even arrived. His eyes followed them wherever they went; such was his responsibility, to make sure they stayed relatively safe. It helped him, in a way, to prepare treatment for their arrival, which is precisely what he'd just spent the last half an hour trying to do. By his record, there were several injuries requiring his attention. A broken nose, serious back burns and then there was Henrietta, who had more injuries than he could count on both hands.
As Louie moved silently into the hall, he settled his gaze on Ace's bloodied noise and shook his head disapprovingly, but smiled reassuringly afterwards. "Make your way into the living room, I'll be with you in a second or two." He then turned his attention to Henrietta, who was leaning against the doorframe. Saying nothing, he moved closer and wrapped two strong arms around her, lifting her like a man would lift a woman on their wedding night, then walked smoothly towards the door at the very end of his hallway. It lead to his study, where he did most of his work. Having walked in, he set Henrietta in a comfortable chair and stepped back, analysing her with an emotionless gaze. Then, suddenly and without warning, he snapped his fingers and made a sound resembling, "Ah-HAH." A friendly smile had settled onto his features, but he turned and walked away before he could elaborate.
"Several lacerations, the worst of which being located on the abdomen, major bruising and, I'm guessing, possibly some broken bones," he mumbled to himself as he worked, trying to ignore the blood that hung thick in the air. He moved over to his shelves and appeared to be sorting though the organised bottles, until he came across a large bowl filled with dried leaves. He lifted it into one hand and grabbed a bottle that seemed to bubble with a deep purple liquid, before making his way back to Henrietta. Having laid the bottle on top of the leaves, he pulled over a stool and sat in front of the girl. He plucked two leaves from the bowl and said, "Open." He waited for her to comply before he popped them both into her mouth. "Chew them, they'll help with the pain. They're like the strongest painkillers in the world. You won't feel a thing." He placed the bowl down on the floor and took the bottle from on top of it. He stared at it for a moment, then sighed to himself, standing up again to grab a cloth from elsewhere in the room.
Opening the lid of the bottle, he wet a small section of the cloth with the liquid inside and dabbed each individual laceration; the smaller ones healed almost instantly, but the deeper cuts were taking their time. Once he'd covered her arms, legs and some other areas, he turning his attention on her abdomen. He hadn't even spoken a word to Henrietta during his work as he didn't feel the need to, but every so often he would glance up at her and flash her one of his signature smiles. At one point, Carter had stumbled in and had complained so much that Louie sent him to bathe in the healing mud he'd set up in the bathroom, just to get rid of him. "Uh," he started awkwardly, "I'm going to have to lift up your shirt to see the cut. Just a warning." Hesitantly, he reached for the shirt and lifted it up, placing the soaked cloth against her cut. With his free hand, he took hold of her arm and positioned her hand against the cloth. "Hold it there for ten minutes, and it'll heal itself." Louie stood then, and turned before his cheeks could heat up.
"Ace," he beckoned, motioning for her to sit on another of his armchairs. While he waited, her grabbed another cloth but this time he simply walked into the bathroom and wet it with water, before he came back in. He walked over to her, but not before grabbing a few more leaves to feed her while he tended to her nose. "Open," he repeated, leaves at the ready. He then began to dab carefully at the almost dried blood with the wet cloth, clearing the blood from the nose. When it was clear, he quietly analysed her. "Luckily for you, Carter wasn't using all of his strength when he did that," Louie began, setting the bloodied cloth to one side as his other hand reached for her jaw to tilt her head in different direction. He fought against the urge to roll his eyes when he heard Carter yell "You're welcome," from another room. Louie moved past it pretty quickly. "It is broken, yes, and it will bruise and swell over the next few days, but there's no disfigurement, so everything should be fine... But that bullet wound, that's another story. You're lucky because it went all the way through, but that's going to take a while to heal properly." He carefully applied the same potion to Ace's wound that he applied to Henrietta's, and then sat at his desk once more, sighing as he leaned back in his tall chair.
"And Keith? He has suffered substantial injuries, I hear. Why is he not here right now?"